Heraclea

I tried to solo Trapdoor after the patch today on a rad/archery defender. I had the mission before the patch, but got killed the first time I ran it, and so waited until later.

I was still able to pull Trapdoor out of the line of sight of his clones. However, his regeneration was beyond the ability of my rad to overcome with his damage and debuffs, even though he was in the hall and no clones were in sight.

I tried the kill the clones as they appear strategy, but one was enough to put him back up to full health. The radiation powers seemed to have no effect. Killing the clones was not getting anywhere either. As soon as one died another would spawn, so I didn't get to damage him enough to make a difference that way. Line of sight on the clones was not having any effect either.

I was not able to make him stay in the lava on the character I was playing, either. Eventually I ran out of purples and got two shotted.

This may be a bug from having the mission from before the patch. I will abandon the arc and try again this evening. One way or another, the mission I have is not doable on that character now.

Emergency management <> management emergency

There really aren't any strong synergies between Stone Armor and the attack sets pro or con. The slows from Mud Pots may work together with Ice Melee.

The primary criterion would be that the low level attacks recharge quickly, which puts Energy Melee at a strong disadvantage, but then Energy Melee has no advantages, synergies, or purpose now. Almost any of the other sets would not be that bad with Stone.

I think it's safe to assume that the player who is willing to put up with Stone Armor wants to be a main tank for a team running difficult content. As such the power sets that make you even tougher (Dark Melee) or contain team friendly AoE powers to help with aggro and keep your team safe (Stone, Ice, Fire, Electricity) are worth a look.

It was the age of fire/kin controllers. I grew curious as to what all the fuss was about.

I came up with what I thought was pretty good name and concept for a fire/kin controller. "Laird of Kinfyre" was the name. His banter binds almost wrote themselves; there's a rich tradition of curt, dismissive Scots proverbs. (Bound to Speed Boost: "Go rin yiself into a wall, $target!") The look was obvious: kilt, jacket and bow tie, beard, beret. Second costume: Braveheart.

I got the character to the mid 30s. I learned that I simply could not stand playing Kinetics on a team, and since I had it as a secondary I hardly ever got to use my primary. After taking the character on some TFs and being assigned the role of "the kin", I realized I never wanted to play this character again, much less get him to 50. Character was stripped and moved to a seldom visited server while the free transfers were out. I may want to reuse the costume sometime.

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Vote # 554Tankers +
Dominators -
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Tankers 127
Dominators 13

"Man, I could use a shower...."

FELICEM DIEM NATALEM TIBl SPERO.

In my base, for a freespec.

I used to go into the mutant store in Skyway to respec. That has to be the loneliest store in the game. The tech store in IP probably is a close second.

I plan on going Musculature for more damage, at least initially. On any of my tanker mains, I'm already fairly happy with where I am in terms of endurance and defense, because those have always been my longstanding priorities.

I may take the accuracy boost on my Fire/DB tanker, though. The thing about Accuracy is that it makes builds focused around Kinetic Combat / Smashing Haymaker more attractive, since accuracy is one of those sets' weaknesses. This would free up frankenslots for elsewhere. But since that tanker is my specialized build for running low level task forces, reslotting for alpha slots may not be effective.

In the first and most fun of Mender Ramiel's missions, alongside the Rularuu high pockets guy, hanging out with Honoree, you find Glacia.

Nothing in the Lady Grey strike force suggests that she turns evil. If I expected either of those two rescued heroes to go off the deep end, it would be Infernia.

Is there something I missed?

Stuff Heraclea says:

• Men are squishy, and tend to run out of endurance.
• There's nothing wrong with Reichsman that couldn't be fixed with a small loop of piano wire.
• The trick with a Shadowhunter is to know which part to crush first.
• Do you know that's annoying, Crystal Titan?
• So you're Nictus now. I bet your momma's so proud.
• Surrender peacefully, or gentle persuasion will be applied.
• This mission calls for my typical subtlety and finesse.
• This mission calls for my diplomatic skills.

Batman.

Really.

I think that in so far as team play style goes, it all boils down to one question. How much tanking do these guys need?

This is something that teams will differ on. Is this a master run of some kind? Do I mind if one of the scrappers gets in over their head? We have three controllers / three defenders / three blasters: this makes a difference. Are we fighting stuff that my defensive set does not work well on? Malta? Devouring Earth? Rogue Vanguards?

If your team needs tanking, you set the pace, and you set a cautious pace. You con mobs and look for hidden mobs. You pull and you corner pull. You expect buffs. You are ready to die.

If your team does not need tanking, you hang back with the low hit point people and make sure nothing annoys them, and then go DPS as you are able. This too is a worthwhile job, even if you aren't leading the charge.