Grey Pilgrim

Yup, that's why it's a spendier set to put together. The Rech/End recipe seems to have gotten quite rare lately, too. Didn't use to have an issue picking it up off of the market, but now they only show up rarely.

This thread's tag is quite right. It's gone to the Americans! Too much elitist, small-minded spewing going on! Auggggh!

Eh, VEATs aren't all that great in the 1-20 range, so I don't think anyone is going to go for one or the other solely on that range.

I do have to wonder about the change though... it's faster to get to 50 than ever now, and a LOT of players have 50s. It'll be nice for new people to the game, but that's about it. One things for sure, though, the devs can no longer say that Khelds can be put on the backburner as less people can play them... level 20 is an early entrypoint. Heck most ATs don't pick up until the 20s anyway, so it is rather interesting.

Kind of ties in with my thoughts in the other thread.

To add a helpful post for Caverous, here are a few teaming suggestions.

1. Form your own teams. When you search, you will see others.
2. Join your server's chat channels. For one reason or another, these have developed as the way to find teams. Go to the Champion server to ask about these, but there are a few like "Champion BMT" that you can join. Then you'll see that plenty of people are around at all hours, forming teams... though you will have quiet spots late at night in the US, of course.

I'm mostly on Victory, but I know I see plenty of people running around on Champion, and as I have joined their channels, I know there are plenty of people on them making teams. You may just have been in a quieter area (or on at a quiet time)... hanging around in AP, or the market in Steel or Talos will show more than a few people running around. Paragon City has its hot spots, as well as the instanced missions brought up earlier.

Why were you calling him out? That's how the Television contact works in game, and pretty much all his posts mimic that... little confused about the annoyance there.

I thought his use of it made sense, as it was drawing things out, a la a space opera, which is what Battlestar was.

I'm probably not, as my account had to lapse a bit during that loyalty program thing. You know, for like two weeks. Never mind that I was in for about 10 months straight before that, or seven months after. *rolls eyes* Whatevah.

It'll just keep Dual Pistols shinier for me, I'm sure. I hate having to redo things.

And Flux, all we knew for sure was that with GR, you could side switch, get two new powersets, and run 1-20 in Praetoria before we had to make a choice of some sort that sent us to either Paragon or the Rogue Isles. We haven't known anything else since Herocon, and still know diddly squat.

I am a little unsure of how this all affects GR, though... if I17 isn't until April, that's the same time they were going to be doing beta for GR, supposedly. Not sure that that bodes well. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt that it will have a lot of stuff we don't know about, as that fits our developers MO pretty well. Still wondering how it all is going to work, though.

*added*

War Witch has stated that I17 will not have a nemesis system, so I'm not sure what the system will be that the article mentioned. Wonder if that means a nemesis system is in the works? For GR, perhaps? See, I can wildly predict things to counteract doom and gloom! Heh.

Fridays are a no go for me, or I'd join up with my Nin/Nin Stalker. Have fun, good luck!

Yeah, I know about picking battles... I would rather we could formshift better or have a bit more customization in our forms. I think I was just feeling a bit more exasperated about how much making do goes on in the game.

And again, I know that's a necessity with so many things in life and for the game, but you can get fed up with hearing it all the time. I also don't like hearing that Khelds are unlockables and are therefore must justifiable in putting on the backburner. Tons of people have 50s now, and they really should be treated like any other AT in that respect.

It is better that they're around and people know how to deal with them, at least. I don't think I would want them removed entirely, either.

Eh, part of any primary set selection is thinking about what secondary to pair it with. On my Elec/Elec Blaster, I found that I kept forgetting to summon the Voltaic Sentinel, so I respec'd into another ST attack. It was a good way to go.

Its two first tier attacks are decent and on par with other Blast sets, and pack a good punch. It also has a good hold in the set, and the Nuke is fun, and ranged (ie, don't have to announce your presence before using it).

I do feel like making the end drain a primary feature does limit how many secondaries it's a good idea to pair with. You don't necessarily have that issue with most of the other primaries (though they do have synergies, of course), which is something of a drawback. Still, it is a fairly fun set that can do well if you work with what it can do.

No matter what, it's still weird. I guess they want to save the big announcement for a little later and just keep us forumites happier until they're ready to say what all is coming.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all the humor in the posts, it's made me chuckle. It's only struck me as odd when I thought about how this matches up with "official" releases.

You're going to have to rewrite that one, Tal, as I have no idea what "that thing when i dropped down i swear i blicked and it happend" means. Are you saying he got some lucky hits in and you weren't paying enough attention? I'm assuming so... I know how that works.

I like your Stalker's look, too... Tal looked like quite the vicious opponent!

I'm still confused as to what all was going on. I'm assuming War Witch was joking around and all, but carrying these things on via forum jokes is just... odd. Not sure why they didn't do any official posting on the main page if this was done with consent.

And I'm not at all sure what the heck is going on if it was not approved.

I'm probably taking it all too seriously, but you have to admit it's all kind of weird, and only noticeable to those of us on the forums, not the other players. Most curious.

I also have to wonder how it works with the actual stuff they're wanting to put in GR, too. *shakes head at all this Tookish foolishness*

Ugh, seriously, just play where you want to play. Both side have good things.

Humility, if some marketeer is nailing a particular bit of salvage, just put in a decent asking price for what it usually goes for. There is no need to buy anything "RIGHT NAO!" Just be patient, and it always comes back down. Play your villains and put salvage on for normal prices and help everyone else out as well. You may even get some extra cash from someone being nice or paying over the top, too.

Redside market is smaller, but it's hardly the end of the world, either.

Heh, I assumed it was rhetorical.

Still room in my SG on Champion if anyone needs to make room on Victory.

Peter, I'll need your help inviting again (unless someone else here wants in)... I made a Fire/Fire Scrapper that I want to get into the SG.

Uh, okay. I'll just keep playing on both sides when I feel like it. Good stuff on both sides.

Me, I enjoy the first twenty levels. I did have a stretch where I was starting a lot of new characters and it started getting kind of "meh." But now I have a lot of people in the 35+ range, and that was getting a bit too much until I just focused on one character at a time (this is all heroside, by the way, I only have two villains, and the first is still working up to 50).

So now, I enjoy the 1-20 range. There's something iconic about coming in to Atlas Park and seeing that huge statue in front of you (Galaxy has its appeal as well, but Atlas Park is just... Atlas Park). The Hollows and Faultline are quite fun to me, and there are other arcs that are fun to run and plumb to remind yourself how those different villain groups work.

Yeah, I kept the Multistrikes in Blazing Aura as it needs the reduced end use, and you're not getting any mileage out of the large amounts of Recharge that Obliteration offers.

As for the Obliteration recipes, it depends on how impatient you are. I got most of them without too much wait, and got the proc after laying out a good amount of influence (which didn't hurt me too much, since I had just sold the second Purple I've ever had drop for me).

20% recharge will be pretty decent. I realized Grey Pilgrim has been sitting at 10% for awhile (until I got another 5% from slotting Obliteration into Fire Sword Circle), and Healing Flames is up plenty fast (though a big stack of Cimerorans occasionally makes me wish it would come back sooner... 20 seconds is pretty darn good for it, though, and Hasten would only get it back up five seconds sooner). Consume, well, I tanked Reichsman for 45 minutes straight on my first Dr. Kahn, and Consume recharged fast enough throughout that encounter to keep my endurance bar happy with 10% recharge on top of the 90% I have in Consume.

I'm not taking any Tanks to villainy, or even going halfway in-between. Backstory is a big thing for all of my characters, and none of my Tankers have the backstory to do it. I do have a few characters that I may play around with it, though.

Yes, it is perma out of the box (recharges in 60 seconds, lasts for 60 seconds). What bugs me about it is having to resummon it every minute. I know it's personal preference, but I really hate having to buff constantly, resummon things constantly, etc. It's one thing if my Controller's pet died and I have to resummon it, it's another if I had to resummon it every 60 seconds no matter what.

I didn't really mind that you have no ability to direct the damage, it was just having to resummon it all the time, and then my constantly forgetting to summon the thing. I realized I wasn't getting much mileage out of the power and that a different setup would probably be better for me.

I would have kept Sparky if I could, but it just wasn't working well for me and my approach. I've pretty much learned I should stay away from Masterminds and buffing sets now. I like them on paper, but in practice, I get annoyed when I have to summon or buff all the time.

I apparently like to "arrest enemies," be it from doing damage or debuffing them. If I'm not in their face, I start to find things tedious. Voltaic Sentinal just doesn't work with that. I do have Gun Drone still on my Arch/Dev blaster, but I still find it hard to summon it very much, as it takes awhile to do the animation, and I have to be on the ground for that one.

Combat Jumping is also a great way to joust. I use it with Hurdle to leap in and out of melee range quickly (right now I can't hold a boss on my Elec/Elec, so I'll leap by a boss and activate Thunderstrike, doing good damage and knocking him down, all while not really being in melee range). Also, you can build to mez or kb mobs easily, making it easy to dash in an quickly take out a mob with your hard hitting melee.

I gave up on Voltaic Sentinel with my Elec/Elec... partially for it not seeing things (even though they were fairly close), for the need to resummon it every minute, and the same reasons you mentioned... it's slow.

I also found myself always forgetting to summon it, too. I picked up another melee attack, which worked better, since my guy is a Blapper. I do want to like it (Gun Drone, too), but they're just so annoying to keep summoning. I'd like to see them stay out permanently or have a longer recharge. They're on par with how MM pets used to be annoying when you had to buff each individually.

*sighs*

Okay, I kind of figured. I do wish that the game had been designed better with customization in mind. I'm sure that the devs often wish they could simply click a few things and decide where they can spawn, that they could have done power customization easier, etc.

It does bug me when some things like this that just don't work persist in the game, due to time constraints. I don't think things like this need to get fixed in a week or anything, but I do wish something would happen after years.

Little things do make a difference. I did like the new IO system when I came back from an 18 month hiatus just after I9, but what I liked more was all the little things that had been improved and changed in the game that made it even more fun to play. And story is something that keeps bringing me back to the game, that's for sure.

Threw something together for you, working from your original. I think the biggest thing was that you were going for too many types of defense. If you want to specialize in those low to midrange TFs with this character, Smash/Lethal defense is probably going to work well (well, Smash/Lethal defense only can work well at any level). I managed to get a bit more recharge and up the Smashing/Lethal defense to about 30% (shy of it by .8% though you could get higher if you really want to invest in Kinetic Combats... which I hate to do, personally).

The two sets of Obliteration are going to cost, but I figured you could swing it, from what I know of your past purchases and how many TFs you run.

No Sweep Combo with my setup, but I think 1K Cuts will do well enough for KD on its own, and AV works nicely on its own for a combo. I did drop in Combat Jumping sooner... it's nice for defense, and you'd want it earlier for the low and midrange stuff, I would think.

I did forget that Moonfire caps out at 28 (Hess is 30, I think), but I think you could go up to 31 with your sets to still be good there. I assumed you were sticking with Ninja Run for a travel power from your original setup. If you find slows enough of an issue, you could add to Temperature Protection's help by adding a travel power instead of Burn.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 50 Mutation Tanker
Primary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Secondary Power Set: Dual Blades
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fire Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(13), RctvArm-ResDam(17), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(19)
Level 1: Nimble Slash -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(5), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(13), F'dSmite-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15)
Level 2: Healing Flames -- Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(3), Dct'dW-Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(23), Dct'dW-Heal(23), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(25)
Level 4: Ablating Strike -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(5), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(7), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), F'dSmite-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15)
Level 6: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB(A)
Level 8: Consume -- Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(A), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(9), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(27), Adrenal-EndMod/Rchg(50), Adrenal-EndMod(50), Adrenal-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(50)
Level 10: Taunt -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(11), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(11), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(33)
Level 12: Plasma Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(17), RctvArm-ResDam(25), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(29)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Typhoon's Edge -- Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(21), Oblit-Dmg(34), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(34), Oblit-%Dam(34)
Level 18: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(33)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), P'Shift-EndMod(27), P'Shift-End%(33)
Level 22: Blazing Aura -- M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(A), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(36), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(40), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(42), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42)
Level 24: Kick -- Acc-I(A)
Level 26: Blinding Feint -- S'ngH'mkr-Acc/Dmg(A), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx(36), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/Rchg(46), S'ngH'mkr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48), F'dSmite-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48)
Level 28: Vengeful Slice -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg(A), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(40), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(40)
Level 30: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam(31), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(31)
Level 32: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(42), LkGmblr-Def/Rchg(43), LkGmblr-Def(43)
Level 35: Sweeping Strike -- Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36), Oblit-Dmg(37), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(37), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(37), Oblit-%Dam(39)
Level 38: One Thousand Cuts -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(45), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(45), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(46), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A)
Level 47: Burn -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Temperature Protection -- ResDam-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet

Yup, that was great fun!

Heh, Tal and I both tried to scare people by going far down in the orange on our health bars at two different points. Though with mine, that's pretty normal when soloing a mob on the Cimerora wall (it just necessitates running a bit to shake off some def debuff and let Healing Flames recharge). Tal... went low when Rommy was on his last life. I was scared that he started to DC or something when we were 30 seconds from being done. Thankfully, he jumped back out in time.

Got it done in 1:51, which isn't a bad time for an ITF, let alone a Master run. I know it can be done faster (even a Master run), but it worked well to pull at certain junctions, not herd up the room, etc. I'm guessing Blitz's Stone Tank and Grey Pilgrim could have handled it, but I'd rather be safe than sorry on a Master run.

Let me know if you need anything else, Tal, it was fun.