EmperorSteele

This question is hard for me to answer because I'm so USED to the Signature Character's designs by now. Though I'll agree with the basic gist that some other posters mentioned, and that characters with their own signature pieces stand out more and are more visually exciting.

Citadel, Infernal, Aura Borealis and Sister Psyche can be created almost 100% in the character creator. Synapse and Positron... sorta but not completely. You can get close to Swan but you're missing the wings... you get the idea.

But Statesman has the faceplate, double-patterned suit, custom belt, custom cape... it WORKS! Pretty much anything we can't re-create is instantly more interesting. Ditto for the Patrons and pretty much every major NPC created after issue 5 or so. Can't really explain why, though. I also can't narrow it down to who's look I like best.

This isn't to say that all the character designs are fantastic... but they still stand out and are intrinsically more recognizable. Like I think Captain Costello's (That goofy sky raider, i think that's his name) appearance is gawdy and terrible, but it suits his character, and I'd be able to pick him out of a crowd... so it WORKS even though that's an outfit i'd never put on one of my characters.

I think the important thing to focus on is recognizability and individuality. Looking good is important too, but if the character has the same pieces as we do, and the same color scheme and silhouette as other characters, I don't think people will respond as well to that character as one who may technically look worse but has a unique appearance. Just my 2 inf.

EDIT: And my first FPARN! yay!

Well, here's the thing: your buffs are all PBAoE, right? So you want your guys to stay near you, probably at range from the enemy so you can dish out heals if you need to. If they go running off into melee without you, you'll have to run into melee to make sure they stay alive, which puts you in direct danger... though hopefully you'll have PA to draw agro.

Either way, each pet has both melee AND ranged attacks, and it's a bit of a chore to keep them at range. Also, the damage ought to be normalized between groups, so that's not much of a consideration. (Cimmies might do more s/l damage, but almost everything in the late game resists S/L, which means they end up doing less damage anyway)

I summon... Beefcake!

Beefcake: "What, you want me to fight THOSE guys? No thanks, I already have the badge for them. Can we do something else?"

I summon... Malaise!

Malaise: "Nope, sorry, I'm a villain today!" *Turns on you*

grr, fine, I summon... A RIKTI DROPSHIP!

Dropship: Pew pew pew!

Hmm...

I'd say go for T4 Boss and LT attackers. You already have a good amount of buffs and debuffs in */Rad and Ice mastery. And the difference between T3 and T4 Attackers is significant. I have T4 Phantoms on my Mind/Kin and I am literally melting everything. AVs, Pylons, and I'm thinking of going after a few Giant Monsters and soloing some TFs next.

Hahaha, That's disgusting, Xe!

The reason we were given for the omission was... potato. =/

Conga-rats on 4 years, D_R! I recall with fondness the video you did of us on Virtue taking down Dropships. Especially awesome was that a Dev HAD to have known what was going on and triggered a second invasion. Good times all around!

I always enjoy your videos, and believe that you are just as valuable an asset to this Community as Arcanaville, Zombie_man, or anyone else you can name! ...Though you're going to hafta tell me which TFs you haven't done, we'll have to do something about that!

If you're */DP, I'd suggest putting the proc in Supressive fire so that it's hold stacks and you can one-shot-hold a boss.

As for Lightning Storm, it SHOULD work as normal and have a chance to hold with each blast. I have a Chance to Stun in Voltaic Sentinel (Another psuedo-pet) and it seems to stun foes just fine.

... You say you have both at 50, yet you don't know which one's better?

Yeah, uhm, how about you actually play your toons instead of door-sitting/PLing? Anyway...

Each armor set has its weaknesses. These can be shored up somewhat by IOs. If you're willing/able to spend like 3 or 4 billion inf, the WP can be slotted to be better than any Invuln. However, it's a little cheaper/easier to get Invuln to the defense softcap and give it a bit of Psi resistance and extra regen.

*shrug*

I think you have to check something off for the "data link" to actually work. I tried clicking it and got nothing.

Good point about Confuse. Now that I -really- think about it, I'm in the same camp. By the time I'm using it, agro isn't a problem. Hmm...

Anyway, hopefully someone else comes in here and offers their two cents. it'd be nice to get a consensus before you dedicate yourself to a specific direction, right? =)

Fffffsssss... Y U NO MAKE DATA LINK WERK?!

I keed.

That's actually a damn good build... I made one very similar this morning when mulling over possibilities for soft-capping my Mind/Kin. I realize you're looking for Alpha advice and not build advice, but I feel the need to chime in on something.

The Chance for Damage proc in Confuse. I know you're going for the Def-Cap, and being as close as you are, drawing a bit of agro probably won't hurt... however, if you try to confuse an unaware enemy, and that proc goes off (regardless of whether or not the confuse actually hits), it might agro the ENTIRE SPAWN (much like any other attack)

If anything, take out that slot, 6-slot your immbo and use trap of The Hunter. You've got enough global accuracy and recharge that you can forgo a Purple set.

Now, regardless of whether you do that or not, let's see those Alpha choices again...

You don't seem to need Cardiac. You're regaining over 3 End per second and only using .75 in toggles. Pacing your attack chain will make sure you don't bottom-out.

Musculature is also out. You certainly don't need the damage. You'd get only a small boost from the ED-bypass portion for damage.

Nerve... I'm partial to it, but only for its secondary effects.

Spiritual... you mentioned it would let you reassign the slots in Hasten. That might be the best thing, as your arrows seem sadly underslotted. You definitely don't need more recharge, but alpha is all about letting us reassign slots and taking the pressure off, so that might be the best way to go.

So I've voting Spiritual.

PS: I'd put PosiBlast in terrorize. Recovery Bonus > terror bonus, plus, it would offset some of the recovery bonus you'd lose if you take my advice about switching Gravvy anchor for Trap of the Hunter (And getting rid of that damage proc in confuse).

I can kind of understand. I go from playing my maxed out Mind/Kin, then decide to play my level 10 Ma/Invuln.... and it just feels LAME.

"Okay, kick! Kick again!... wait.. gotta recharge... ok, KICK! ... waiting for recharge again... There we go, kick... boy, my mind/kin woulda been halfway through the map by now. Oh, my power's back. Kick... oh, FINALLY this guy's dead! Great, now I got two of his buddies to deal with. Sigh..."

When you're used to flash and explosions and stuff flying everywhere, a low-level toon with only ST attacks even looks boring. Some of the more recent powersets have tried to avoid this, but I'm sure you can get sick of looking at gun-fu spinning and flashy swirling fists all the time, too.

Anyway, to help solve your dilemma, I second what Dr. Harmony suggested, and will even expand on that idea. Select a character and build them within a self-imposed limit. Or maybe do something else to purposely gimp yourself just to see how you do. Can an Ice/Kin controller who skips most of his primary and fights in melee with Box, Kick, Jumpkick/Air superiority and Sands of Mu while self-buffing with his secondary survive and prosper?

...wow, i wanna make that in mids and see how viable it looks...

Yeah, that's a toughy.

I select my Alpha for a character based on the criteria that all or most of it's buffs should benefit my character. Obbviously, the primary buff helps any character. However, some characters have little need for -ToHit or Fly speed (Fly is capped simply by being level 50 with no enhancement, iirc)

TA however has a wide variety of debuffs and mezzes that compliment Mind Control's abilities. Hmm...

I went Nerve on my Mind controller, too. You neglected to mention that it also increases Hold duration, which I think is important, especially considering Total Dom's low starting duration. TA also has Ice Arrow and EMP arrow. Being able to stack lots of Hold mag before its timer runs out is very nice in certain situations.

I don't know what your build is currently, but being able to stack anywhere between 15-27 mag of hold in about 8 seconds (depending on Overpower and proc usage) is just sick enough to make me want to roll a Mind/TA. Nerve would definitely help you stack those holds and maybe, just maybe, hold an AV through the dreaded PToD.

Well, that's my take. Though if you DO have end issues, Cardiac would be a better all-around solution. It'll help you 100% of the time as opposed to helping you hold an AV once in a great while.

I think you have Containment confused with Overpower.

Containment is the damage bonus Controllers get versus any foes that are slept, held, Immbo'd or stunned.

Overpower is the 20-50% chance of getting an extra point of Magnitude and extra duration.

Perma-dom aside, a Controller will usually be able to control mobs better. They have a bit more mag and longer duration. A controller has a 20% chance of holding a boss in one hit. A Dominator CANNOT do that UNLESS they have Domination up.

And if a Dom has Domination up, then they can do things a Controller cannot.

So as far as pure control is concerned, its Dominators < Controllers < PermaDoms

What's not "okay" is exploiting loopholes. If it's something you can do in a normal mission, it's okay in AE. AE simply affords speed and convenience in exchange for actual drops.

Granted, if someone is a new player and they get their character to 50 with no idea how to play them or what enhancements to use or whatnot, neither they or anyone they team with is going to have a very fun time. Otherwise, go for it.

Aha, that works... thanks! And yeah, that's a pretty good build! Nothing TOO fancy but it obviously works!

Aaw... the data-chunk isn't working for me for some reason.. are you using a version besides 1.92?

Er, sorry, perhaps I should have specified what I meant...

I'm not talking Perma PA vs "no recharge at all PA", I mean Perma Vs having only like 10-15 seconds of downtime. I mean heck, RA, hasten, and 3 slots worth of recharge in PA brings its downtime to a paltry 20 seconds. Sure, that's a long time between spawns (And doesn't take into account that hasten itself isn't perma), but you're certainly not gonna solo an AV that way. Add some bonuses and you're down to only a few seconds, which isn't a bad wait time between spawns... of course, in those few seconds, an AV will kill you.

Though I see your point on everything else. I just sort of presumed that going after all recharge might have made him give up damage, though obviously that's not necessarily the case...

*low whistle* Wow, I am IMPRESSED! I'm usually the jerk who tells people "Empaths can't solo AVs, they haz no debuffs!" I guess with Interface Debuffs, recharge and some decent defense, anything's possible! Great job, care to share your build?

Now that you have a Perma Ill/Rad? You go solo the STF!

I'm serious. The only thing perma PA lets you do that you can't do otherwise is solo AVs. So to me, the only REASON to get perma PA is to solo those AVs.

If you want this to be even easier, make sure you get at least a Rare Alpha for the +1 level boost. I'd say go for +damage, as that's the one thing you're lacking as an Illu (Stupid heal-back illusionary damage!). For Interface, go for the -res/DoT combo., as your secondary will take care of debuffing your foes.

For Lore pets... can't go wrong with Phantoms!

Mind you, the thing -i- don't like about Lore pets is that they're transparent with ghostly tendrils around them. It's hard to justify having an actual follower when the game tries so hard to remind you that it's just a spirit, which is why i'd rather avoid IDF, Longbow, Arachnos, etc. But Wisps, storm elementals and Phantoms don't look bad with these effects, so... yeah. Min/Max wise, they're all pretty similar, so just go with what you think will look good!

At least we know the name of the Healing (and possibly +Regen) power in Time Manipulation now =)

Anyway, I think there's a third possibility which goes in line with #1. IOs in the lower range will go UP TO 50, but those that currently start at lvl 25 or 30 or 41 will maintain their "floor".

That is, IOs will go from 1-50, 10-50, 25-50, 30-50, etc. But you won't be seeing any lvl 1 LoTGs or Oblits. Does that make sense?

Also, I hope that those lower-ranged IOs will have better bonuses tacked onto them. Because a Level 50 really wants 1.1% XP debt reduction or 0.3% recharge, amirite?

So prices might go down a bit on some of the low/mid-range sets since they'll drop for level 50s now, buuut things that are all high level might go UP a bit since the random pool is gonna get expanded.

Well, you might not have to "buy" anything... with real money. However, you may have to use your stipend of Paragon points to "purchase" the new powersets. And depending on the point costs, you may have to "save up" your monthly stipend for a while. However, I do not foresee Powersets costing more than 400 points (ie, what a VIP gets in a month), though I may be incorrect.

Unless you absolutely positively canNOT wait, in which case you'll have to shell out real money to get the points NAO to get the shinnies when they're released.