Gorgar

I took it on both of my DM tanks, WP/DM and DA/DM. Both are low-damage, high-survivability builds, but nothing extreme or soft-capped. Thus, I took it as a control/debuff power. Neither one took Shadow Maul, so that probably tells you where my priorities lie with these two.

I've probably got about four slots in it on the DA, figuring I can stack fear all around. Slotted with Siphon Insight. Don't know if I'll go to six slots or not, but it's a part of the complete Rule By Fear breakfast that one is going for.

Probably have two acc/fear/recharge on the WP tank, who took the Presence taunt as well, and is busy trying to maintain aggro, rather than aggressively fearing stuff. If she makes it to higher levels, probably won't pursue the fear powers in that pool though, as it just gets used to make one problematic target settle down a bit.

And, both of these tanks are specifically for teams that are light on support. If the team needs damage and tanking, I'll grab the DM/DA scrapper (light tank) or the inv/axe medium heavy tank. So they're pretty specialized builds that aren't very mainstream. Hope this helps.

Definitely a WW TF. Horus and Apex a big plus.

Also, would prefer effort spent on upgrading/enhancing/expanding/randomizing existing mission art to just adding entirely new tilesets. Don't get me wrong; I'd love new tilesets, but I think the normal mission maps are really showing their age at this point. New development that can also be harnessed into making the old maps more varied, so that we don't just go "oh, this map again" every mission, would be a really, really good thing.

Stamina
Phantom Army
Freezing Rain
Fearsome Stare
Fortitude

Both Archery/Energy and Energy/Energy are good for this.

I think some people just enjoy the challenge of learning to tank well without a power that some consider mandatory, highly recommended, whatever.

Personally, I always take it, and I take it early. I often won't take a second single-target attack until way late in the build, but I want Taunt and the damage aura, if any, pretty much right away. It means that if we have any sort of defender, we can probably slog through some fairly ugly stuff even at low level, as I'm being the focal point for aggro and am getting help from the defender, leaving the blasters and scrappers relatively safe. Being able to do stuff like that is why tanking is fun for me, and the challenge I make out of it is to be able to protect the team at a low level. Besides, Taunt is actually a fun power to me. Watching mobs drop what they were doing to run to me hs never stopped being entertaining. It's a button labelled "make some guys waste their attacks on something they're unlikely to kill". That's pretty shiny to me, and I press it a lot.

That's just what's fun for me, though. The challenge of being effective without it doesn't appeal to me, but if it does to others, more power to them.

More textures, more generic patterns, please! I too want more basic LEGOs. I like the newer patterns (Arctic, Dagger, etc) that have a sort of a built-in gradient too. I'd love to see more of both.

Same with generic costume pieces. Thigh-high boots based on the smooth and flat models, not just the stilettos. Ankle boots. A couple of simple necklaces and bracelets in the shoulders and gloves options.

Really, pretty much everything the OP said. Those are good strengths.

I had thought that lacking AoE defense would be a big issue, but in practice, I am finding high-20s ranged defense only (5xThunderstrike, 2xZephyr, Hover, CJ and no muling other than Thunderstrike in Power Push) to be pretty decent.

I'm guessing the AoEs don't do as much damage and aren't as plentiful, so between knockback and power-boosted Aid Self (energy/energy/fire is a good powerset for this strategy), I can solo at +2/x2 and generally not be hit enough while mezzed that they can bring me down. Definitely did not happen before I retooled for ranged defense, even though I had four sets of Thunderstrike and Hover at the time. The extra defense makes all sorts of difference.

Not so much waiting as have already made all the characters that *needed* to be made, and the other concepts I kind of want to explore aren't that urgent. May as well see what's in GR first. No interest in demons or pistols, but if there are new ATs, some of my current characters that just never took off might get redone.

It is keeping me from playing my one corruptor or rolling any more until I see what the options are, as I don't really get into redside at all.

I'd love a Viking zone. Or maybe an ancient civilizations zone that covered other cultures too: Egypt, Greece, Celts, etc.

Congrats. Go get 'em, WW.

I remember looking at the numbers for blasters and finding that it seemed like snipes still did about the same amount of damage per endurance and per activation time as the regular attacks. Not exactly the same, but it was fairly close. So, I take them if I want another ranged single-target attack, and I am doing something with the rest of the build that makes either of these true:

1. its advantages (long range, essentially some free damage on one target at the start of the fight since it won't aggro them until it hits or misses) are particularly useful
2. its disadvantages (interruption, long enough activation time to have to worry about target not being there) are mitigated

So I take it on my energy range-boosted blaster. Even more range, another knockback power, and I often have time while the mobs are dealing with knockback to fire it off.

I don't take it on a stormie, because there aren't any other long-range powers on a stormie, and I'd rather use an AoE, even though the storm tools would give me time for a snipe. Same goes for my fire/dark corruptor. Don't want to be committed to a snipe when something more interesting (to me) like Fireball or Twilight Grasp will likely recharge and sit unused. Of course, you could also look at the dark or storm powers as a trap for the mob that comes within range of them, and it's half dead from the snipe as it is.

I don't use Mids so I can't post my build, but my energy/energy also went the ranged defense route. I can tell you what I did in general, which may or may not be to your taste, but might give you some ideas. I have a bit less defense than the above posted build, but it's been working out well for me in PVE. No idea about PVP. I can generally handle getting mezzed by a +2 Rikti Mentalist and his pals, and they can't kill me before the mezz wears off.

Took the Fire epic for Bonfire, which makes a *huge* difference for keeping things at range, at least indoors.

Slotted every single-target blast, including the snipe and Power Push, with Thunderstrikes, which are great for ranged defense.

Put two Blessing of the Zephyr in each of Hover and Fly.

Three-slotted Boost Range for recharge and set it to auto-fire.

Skipped every optional melee attack. I'm hovering over a bonfire. Melee is not a thing I do.

Six-slotted Aid Self (two interrupt, frankenslotted heal/recharges) and three-slotted Power Boost. If they do hit, they can contend with the bonfire and my defense while I heal up.

I'd like some more info myself. My burning question is: new ATs? Don't really care that much about side-switching (though it's very cool, just probably means I get a couple corruptors), not really into dual pistols or demon summoning.

But, one thing: I've seen a lot of updates over the years around here, and while some have been right what I wanted (sonic powerset, weapon and power customization, power proliferation, quality of life stuff, costumes) and some have not (that one nerf, the other nerf, and that excruciatingly irritating nerf), overall it's been a pretty steady stream of mostly good stuff. Whatever's in GR, it's a big enough update to probably have something for most everyone, and it'll probably be pretty cool. It'll get here when it gets here. Why stress out over it? Play if you want to play. Do something else for a while if you don't. Maybe your room needs cleaning...

I really like Dark Armor. By running every power, you can definitely use up a mess of endurance, but it gives back quite a bit in return, I think. I've got a 30ish dark/dark tank, a 38ish dark/dark scrapper, and a DB/DA scrapper around 19. But I also have couple others that fight exclusively from hover, which the OP thinks is "dumb", so anything I say should be regarded as highly suspect.

Something to keep in mind, I think, is that it's a control-oriented set. How I select powers from it depends on which character I am using. Paired with Dark Melee, I'll want both fear powers. With any other powerset, I'll probably skip Cloak of Fear or put it off until the late 40s, because Oppressive Gloom seems to work just as well for fewer slots and less endurance. So it's not just "don't take all the powers". If you're not stacking fear effects (or just wanting it for concept), I really don't think CoF is worth the investment. Recommendation #1: Skip Cloak of Fear with Dual Blades.

But still, whichever (or both) you take, minions near you are pretty well nerfed. Recommendation #2: Don't bother with the Fighting pool. You've got the best heal in the game (boo to turning it into Healing Flames), albeit expensive, and good resists, plus the mitigation of one or both of the control toggles.

Recommendation #3: Skip the end reducers in the shields. Put them where they'll do the most good. Sure, shields use up end all the time, but it's just not as much over time as the attacks and particularly Dark Regen. Slot the shields for resist, the attacks for acc/damage/endurance, and the whole thing should turn out to be more manageable.

In the end, Dark Armor is one of the sets that can get great benefit from IOs (end/recharge in Dark Regen from heal sets, etc, the +end proc, etc), but I don't think it's unplayable with SOs. I wouldn't argue that it doesn't have the power to use more endurance than other sets, but to me it's a more powerful and flexible tool than some other sets, and is worth

I run my level 44 storm/energy defender solo most of the time. I don't know corruptors well enough to know how applicable defender experiences are, but maybe something here will help. Also I've got a couple storm controllers and a storm mastermind, as well as my main being an energy blaster. They're great powersets if you love knockback.

First thing: you haven't said what level you are, other than pre-SO. It gets better with SOs. Unless I flat out hate the powers, I try not to give up on anyone until they've gotten SOs. Later, you can get another effectiveness bump that's nearly as good just by slotting set IOs for increased bonuses to the powers (not the set bonuses, just the extra enhancement to the powers themselves over and above what you can do with single-effect IOs or SO), and in particular Thunderstrike is great in a stormie with energy blasts, as it boosts ranged defense, and you will have many powers to keep things at range. But that's later on, and before you even have SOs, survival is definitely tougher.

First, your issues:

1) Health. The best early tools to help with this are Freezing Rain (six-slotted in every stormie I have) and Thunder Clap (great out of the box, better with slots). I don't know what the corruptor values are for TC, but even controllers get pretty good use out of it. What I do is learn the timing on Freezing Rain, and when it's about to run out, I'll charge in and use Thunder Clap. Later, when you have Hurricane, the trick to remember is that TC takes a while to animate, but it calculates who it applies to the instant you fire it off. Thus, you can charge in with Hurricane on, hit TC, and even though mobs go flying away from you, they'll still stun if TC hits. For best results, I cast a Tornado behind me first, and it comes in and stuns things *again* when it catches up to me. Stun-riffic.

2) Unreliable knockback. This is a problem until you have Hurricane and the end to run it. I tend to slot the cone attack, whatever that's called, out of Energy Blast for recharge and using it instead of Gale, which has terrible accuracy. Needs a couple of acc if you're going to use it. I don't slot any powers for knockback though; once you have Tornado and Lightning Storm going, and your full attack chain slotted up, you won't be hurting for knockback.

3) Endurance. Yup. It's harsh. I slot for end reduction instead of damage until at least DOs and sometimes until SOs, when Stamina is available and fully slotted. You don't mention Snow Storm, but I don't run that solo except on really nasty bosses or EBs.

Your proposed solutions:

a) Health. I did take this. Can't really speak to how much it helps, never 3-slotted it. For me, storm is about mitigation via stun and tossing things into the wall, not regen. I just carry greens, breakfrees, and the odd blue and it works.

b) Medicine Pool. I didn't bother. It's two powers and a lot of slots to make it work (needs interrupt reducers too), and unless you take Power Boost, it doesn't do *that* much. On the plus side, once you get more tools, you'll be able to use it while the mobs contend with your chaos.

c) Tactics. I didn't even take the snipe. All the rest of the powers are relatively close range. I may yet take it, but I get along fine without it. At low level, I figure out how much I can do with the two fairly reliable powers (Freezing Rain and Thunder Clap), and don't take on more than that. Also, you can use Freezing Rain from around a corner, and just take on whatever breaks free of it and charges you, then stun with TC the rest of the group when it comes for you. I'm pretty sure even at low level you can have the effects of FR or TC active all the time, between the two of them.

d) I slot Freezing Rain with three recharge right away. Later I do a complicated frankenslot to get max recharge/slow/defense debuff, but that's IOs, and that power has multiple effects I want. Thunder Clap is much simpler, and it's such a staple that even if you don't craft IOs, you can up its effectiveness greatly by buying premade IOs from the stun sets. I aim for plenty of accuracy and max recharge and stun. I don't recommend slotting knockback into the attacks at this point. I do try to work range into the energy blast cone, but it's not a game-changer.

And lastly, I don't bother with Hasten. Freezing Rain comes up often enough. Tornado, Thunder Clap, and Lightning Storm all recharge before they run out, once you slot them. Hasten won't perma any more without massive global recharge, so I really dislike depending on it. I don't think storm needs it, honestly.

Hope this helps.

I'm in the opposite camp from the original poster. I've played a couple of games where everyone can fight (AoC, CoV), and overall I find it dull. Too much self-sufficiency takes the fun out of teaming for me. CoV in particular often feels like a group of people soloing together.

I took Fire as an epic not because it would help with getting more ranged defense, but so I could keep them at range with Bonfire. Force Mastery works for that too if you're willing to slot Repulsion Field heavily for end reduction.

I'm not much of a fan of taking powers I don't intend to use and six-slotting them for set bonuses, so if you're not intending to be in melee, you might grab the ranged stun out of the primary and six-slot that. I'll be doing that on mine. Also, archery/energy is a great combo for Boost Range, I think. With that and Bonfire, you can keep stuff at range while soloing pretty well, making what ranged defense you do have count for more.

If I made another storm defender, it'd be /sonic for stacking Screech with Thunder Clap and Tornado.

Dark seems to be a great choice, especially if you want to immobilize things. If you want chaos, energy. It's lots of fun and can be workable on teams, and also is plenty fun solo.

As mentioned above, scads of new costume pieces. Some complete sets like Stealth, etc, but also a bunch more basic things, like new patterns. For every costume location. This would allow for things like colored streaks in hair, using patterns on the metallic belts.

Also, I'd like some more sparse, minimalist patterns. I use them a lot to add a bit of color to an area without being overwhelming. I'd love to have patterns like a simple pair of vertical chest stripes that angle towards the shoulders a bit, set wide apart, to kind of add some interesting accent lines to some of the armor pieces.