Expeditor

I'll try to make it on Sunday - got various characters around that level range, but will probably bring a brute or widow.

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Expression: Frustration. Subject: these oedipally-conflicted Snakes. Location: This oedipally-conflicted spaceplane.

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You sir are awesome. That is all.

Indeed, the strike force is lvls 15-20, but anything above that works too what with all this newfangled auto-exemplaring that goes on these days

Hi folks n folkettes, who's up for a lowbie Strike Force? My lvl 17 Wolf Spider, Hakeswell, will be leading this expedition this evening at 8pm, attendance permitting.

Who's with me?

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A so-called Wolf/Bane hybrid isn't, it's a Bane.

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Actually I'd maintain the assertion that it's a hybrid, as it makes extensive use of the Wolf Spider attacks - without stealth it would actually be closer to a NPC Wolf, as they do use a mace whereas NPC Banes don't use a rifle.

That said, you would technically be a Bane in the eye of the game in that only Banes wouldn't have access to the Crab line of powers, whereas a Wolf would (consequently becoming a Crab) - it's all just semantics.

You could similarly build a Wolf/Crab hybrid, taking WAWG, Venom Grenade and Heavy Burst from the Wolf line (to be used in that order, thereby reducing redraw issues) and Suppression and Frag Grenade from the Crab line (which would immediately follow the above) - if you were fast enough, you might even be able to squeeze them all in within an Aim buff

I've not really seen any Wolf-only builds, although they should be pretty easy to construct - just take everything!

As for my wolf/bane hybrid, I was thinking something along the lines of:
> 1 Bane Spider Armor
> 1 Bash
> 2 Combat Training: Defensive
> 4 Wolf Spider Armor
> 6 Build Up
> 8 Heavy Burst
> 10 Tactical Training: Maneuvers
> 12 Venom Grenade
> 14 Poisonous Ray
> 16 Pulverise
> 18 Shatter
> 20 Frag Grenade
> 22 Mental Training
> 24 Cloaking Device
> 26 Placate
> 28 Surveillance
> 30 Tactical Training: Leadership
> 32 Crowd Control
> 35 Swift
> 38 Call Reinforcements
> 41 Health
> 44 Stamina
> 47 Tactical Training: Assault
> 49 Leadership: Assault

At range you will be using the Wolf Spider rifle before pulling out your mace for Poisonous Ray and your melee attacks.

Solo and in large groups you would probably concentrate on single targets to avoid drawing too much aggro. In small to medium groups (or large groups that can bolster your mediocre defences) using your AoE attacks will be very satisfying, and you would still have your melee attacks for mopping up the leftovers.

I know there has been a lot of discussion on this on the US forums - one thing to note of course is that any dipping into the Crab line will give you the backpack, whereas a sly dip into the Bane line (such as for the superb lvl 1 passive armor) would not be visually obvious.

A real pure wolf spider is of course possible, but you would be missing out on some very useful and thematically unimposing powers (build up, bane armor, surveillance etc) - it would pretty much just be for bragging rights so to speak (and lots of space for pool powers!)

One thing I've been thinking about is a Bane with some of the Wolf ranged AoEs - between Venom Grenade, Heavy Burst and Frag Grenade, you have a good opener on groups, especially preceded by Surveillance (for a boss or some such) and build up, then you have the stealth and Bane melee attacks for decimating single targets - it's a very tight build of course, and the Bane's lesser defences makes the AoE opener risky in some situations, but it looks like it could offer some good versatility based on who you're fighting and who you're fighting with.

The Spiders version of Maneuvers gives 10% defence to all, the Widow version gives 5% defence to all. As noted, both are higher than the pool Maneuvers which, with the highest mod (Defenders - now shared with Spiders and Widows), gives 3.5%.

For Spiders, the 10% to all is worth the endurance cost even if you're soloing - it's one of their primary forms of mitigation.

For Widows, the 5% stacks nicely with all their other defence powers - you might not want to run it all the time solo, but in groups it's still very valuable. Widows can also access theirs 6 levels before Spiders.

Combat Training: Offensive just doesn't look all that appealing to me - I know it has to-hit debuff resistance, but all in all it looks like too small a benefit in a very tight build, especially with the prevalence of accuracy and accuracy bonuses in invention sets. Personally I'd *ahem* aim to get Aim earlier in place of it - I'd certainly get Aim in before the pool Leadership toggles.

Other than that, get Crab Armor in place of Wolf Armor - they're identical apart from Crab Armor having higher status protection (4 instead if Wolf's 2).

Wait a second - where the hell is Venom Grenade??

My semi-humble contribution:

Level 50 Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Robotics
Secondary Power Set: Traps
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Presence
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Battle Drones
Level 1: Web Grenade
Level 2: Pulse Rifle Burst
Level 4: Caltrops
Level 6: Equip Robot
Level 8: Aid Other
Level 10: Acid Mortar
Level 12: Protector Bots
Level 14: Hasten
Level 16: Force Field Generator
Level 18: Assault/Maneuvers
Level 20: Poison Trap
Level 22: Tactics
Level 24: Aid Self
Level 26: Assault Bot
Level 28: Seeker Drones
Level 30: Super Speed
Level 32: Upgrade Robot
Level 35: Trip Mine
Level 38: Triage Beacon
Level 41: Charged Armor
Level 44: Electrifying Fences
Level 47: Electric Shackles
Level 49: Challenge/Provoke

Web Grenade:
I actually have three slots in this, to increase accuracy and reduce endurance cost - it is very useful for keeping EBs/AVs in place, especially useful in at least one fight where you have to stop the AV from escaping.

Pulse Rifle Burst:
At low levels damage output is mediocre and largely single target, so having a single attack of your own does add a decent amount to your overall damage. Also good for pulling, causing your bots to attack without leaving bodyguard mode. You can safely respec this out later to shuffle powers around a little - by this time you should have a sufficient feel for the sets to make up your own mind what you want.

Aid Other:
Infinitely more valuable than Triage at low levels and just outright more useful than Repair. A couple of Interrupt Reduction enhancements and it can even be used through DoTs without too much trouble.

Assault/Maneuvers:
Whichever suits your preference - a minor boost to offence or some additional defence to stack with FFG. Alongside Tactics and without Stamina you will probably find it too expensive to run all three however.

Aid Self:
You might be able to get by with just an occasional green inspiration so you could bring Super Speed in here instead, but it is useful just for topping up between fights for the sake of expediency. Alternatively you could take Triage here instead, as you are going to see AVs/EBs occasionally by this point in your career.

Super Speed:
If you take it early enough the various temp travel powers (3xfly, 1xsuper jump) can be made to last you your entire career - I still have 10-15 minutes left of flight and super jump on my lvl50.

Charged Armor:
On top of your respectable defences, the resistance adds a great deal to your survivability and seems to be largely recommended over the Scorpion Shield on the US boards.

Electrifying Fences:
The only patron AoE immobilise to prevent knockback, which your Assault Bot causes a lot of - the Scorpion Web Envelope does nothing to prevent knockback sadly.

Challenge/Provoke:
Again something I've seen suggested on the US boards for AV tanking - stay away from your bots and attract all the AoE attacks to you to save them all from being wiped out by AoE-heavy foes. You might want this earlier.

Each time your pet attacks the proc has a chance to go off, the same as the build up proc for ranged attacks, and lasts for a few seconds. As such it would be best in a pet with a decent attack chain, which the zombies sadly lack - the Grave Knights on the other hand should make good use of it.

Superb idea FE

6 is a little early but I'll see if I can get in on these as and when schedules allow.

As you correctly surmised it's just the powers that would accept the proc.

In the case of the Commando this would be: Slug, Buckshot, M30 Grenade and LRM Rocket - looks like it might be well worth it There's also the chance for smashing damage knockback set proc - should work nicely with all those AoE powers, and it's a good bit cheaper than the FF proc Depending on slotting you might even be able to fit both in.

Traps is an excellent secondary and, with the exception of forcefield, the only one to provide you with mezz protection (as well as your minions of course). Some great utility and prospects for tactical play too.

For primaries, I do love my bots, but I'm also finding thugs really fun to play - it has better attacks than most other primaries, with the cone in particular being better than most, if not all, the rest (although the endurance cost for it is obscene) allowing you to get more involved in the action.

But like others have said, none are terribly difficult to solo - it's one of the easiest solo-play ATs in the game, so pick whatever takes your fancy

I would like to do all the villain SFs and trials soon - I wanted to get my MM to 45 (44 presently) before making a start with him, although I have a brute just short of 15 atm who might be able to make the first one or two before falling behind.

If you make a post for each one you do I'd readily attend as and when I can

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I seem to be getting the impression from your previous post's on this post and on the Fire/Kin post that you have a problem with controllers and there ability to solo or farm, and now this post about changing Containment! To stop this or prevent the ability altogether..

I notice from your signature you have a Lvl50 troller, so you have experience of playing a controller at all lvls, what I don't understand is this;

Because you don't like something or think it is wrong, you want to have it changed! Ok everyone is entitled to there opinions...But this is were I get upset, your calling for a change that will spoil things for people who have no problems with the present state of the troller or how they play the game..Solo/Team

So please if you don't like it as is don't play it and leave the rest of us alone to enjoy something WE also pay for each month.

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I remember everyone being happy with their unkillable /regen scrappers, but the devs still cut down the regen available to the set across the board and, just as people were getting used to that, took away Instant Healing as a toggle and made it a clicky on a long recharge.

Just because the players are happy with something doesn't mean the devs aren't going to change it. Similarly just because players are unhappy with something doesn't mean the devs will change it.

As far as I'm aware, these recent threads have been about "IF the devs change ..., how would you suggest they change it?" If they don't change these things it's a non-issue, but if they do then wouldn't you rather see a change that came about through a reasoned debate rather than the devs just applying a change they saw fit and saying "suck it up"? (I'm certainly not saying the devs don't listen to the players - recent events have shown they do - but it's not unheard of for them to implement an unpopular change)

Containment was introduced to help controllers solo if they choose to - as such I can see the merit in keeping the full damage bonus for single target controls/attacks but giving a smaller bonus for powers that affect multiple targets. There may even be some room for some compensation for this "nerf".

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But making TA suitable for blaster secondairy need a huge adjustment, at most they can only bring 3 powers (ice, intangle and flash), all others would be very unsuited (EMP arrow is only available in Elec epic). Same goes for sonic, as its a FF-style based set.

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Sonic would be troublesome to create a suitable blaster secondary for, but I don't see an archery-based secondary being too difficult:
Entangle arrow (equivalent to web grenade), glue arrow (equivalent to caltrops) and flash arrow (equivalent to flash grenade) are easy ones.

Perhaps have oil slick arrow as the final power, as something vaguely equivalent to ice slick from Ice Manipulation with burn from Fire Manipulation (it would be available later than either and with a longer recharge, providing a modicum of balance) and poison gas arrow with just the sleep effect. That's 5 out of 9.

Maybe a "targeting drone" style accuracy buffing toggle, which brings us up to 6. And then perhaps three attacks from Martial Arts (the immobilise, knockback and disorient kicks? - preferably with added animations to allow them to be used with the bow drawn).

So yeah, few if any new animations, only mild tweaking to existing powers - the bulk of the work would just be in testing for balance etcetera, which would need to happen even if a powerset was just ported direct to a new AT.

Well to be fair several of the Trick Arrow powers have nigh-identical equivalents in Devices, so putting together a new secondary for Blasters probably wouldn't take much effort, but then it would have very specific synergy with only one primary, so would it be worth the devs time? Besides, much the same effect could be achieved by giving Corrupters the Archery and Trick Arrow sets, which would probably take even less effort on the devs part.

Hi folks and folkettes,

I fancy taking down a Winter Lord giant monster this evening and thought, while I was at it, I might as well do for that Ghost of Scrapyard that's always strutting about Sharkhead, so who's up for grabbing presents in Sharkhead?

I gather the Winter Lord is more likely to spawn with larger teams, so the more the better of course, including having multiple teams involved if we have the numbers.

I'd be looking at starting at 7:30pm sharp, so if we start gathering at 7:15pm (I'll probably be loitering at the black market and send a broadcast every few minutes from 7:15) just send a /tell or some such to get in the/a team. No specific level requirements as long as you can hold your own in Sharkhead.

So who's with me?

-Expeditor-

Between the 2 mayhem temp travel powers and the goldbricker and skyraider jetpacks, alongside the jump pack if you have it, you could probably get by until lvl 35 (power sink) and then respec into a travel power if that'd work for you? Alternatively, being as you have Hasten anyway, if you pick up Superspeed early-ish, the temp powers will probably see you all the way through to lvl 50 for vertical travel when you need it.

I don't see why you'd get stimulant before Lightning Reflexes - I'd assume you're only getting it as a pre-requisite for aid self, which you get after LR.

I'm not sure if you'd be better off getting the Patron Pool single target blast in place of Hurl being as you're getting it so late - it'd have a much quicker animation and offer a less resisted damage type.

Other than that it looks pretty good to me - enjoy your new brute

I don't know if it'd work for you but I have all my defiant alts in one supergroup - this gives me the 20k prestige for each member (up to 15) plus the 20k prestige 'gift' for each member (up to the full 150, not that I have that many alts ). That should easily be enough to cover you for an Oversight Centre and kitted-out Workshop. Of course it works best for me because Defiant is my villain server and Union is my Hero server, so I can get 12 in each group.

I can offer an alt to invite all your characters into your group if you'd like, but for the December 10th gift obviously I have the same idea as you and so all my alts are otherwise engaged

Didn't the 1AT coalition have a Kheldian SG? "Cosmic Justice" or something to that effect. I'm not sure how active it is these days though, and I don't recall there ever being a regular team of Khelds specifically.

I'd still quite like to see claws for brutes, but failing that DB is the next best thing I guess. I quite like the idea of /dark - I gather DB attacks are relatively cheap like claws, but even so there'd still be a need for endurance management I'm sure. The AoE debuff combo and general leaning towards AoE attacks would work nicely with /dark's AoE powers.

Other than that I'm mostly considering the soon-to-be-super-prolific-combo of DB/Will as a reroll of my ninja-esque stalker (I just can't get on with playing stalkers for some reason).

I can't see any specific synergies with /elec beyond them both looking cool, but maybe that'd be enough for you?

I'm guessing right now isn't the best time for forming a team unrelated to city of dual blades and/or willpower.

That and perhaps a team that isn't necessarily going to steamroller through all contenders isn't of the greatest appeal to a wider audience, but I was more interested in seeing new story arcs.

I'll put this on the back-burner for now while I finish my mastermind's run to 50. Sorry all.

I'd like to run the 2nd respec trial on my lvl 38 mastermind, Expeditor. I'm looking at an 8pm start so try to get on for ~7:45 and send me a /tell on @Prime.

I confess I've never done any of the villain-side respec trials; although I know the basics I'm sure someone with prior experience will be very useful.

So yeah, 7 spots going free, who's with me?