Ineffable_Bob

[ QUOTE ]
Zones are different than missions because they are broken down into 3 categories: city, hazard & trial. City zones spawn mobs designed for 1 to 3 heroes, hazard zones spawn things for 3 to 5 heroes, and trial zones spawns mobs designed for 5 to 8 heroes.

[/ QUOTE ]
So you should rarely, if ever, get more than 4 people in a group for zone hunting. Trial zones aren't accessible most of the time, at least in the game up to L34 (my highest toon).

[ QUOTE ]
Note - missions scale to the team size. There is sometimes a delay in when the mob sizes scale up to a new size team....

[/ QUOTE ]
Even with 8 people, I've never seen mission spawns that are tougher than what I can find in hazard zones. Usually an 8 person spawn is 2 bosses, 2-3 Lts, and 6-8 minions. That's a standard spawn in (for example) Terra Volta. This implies to me that mission spawns aren't balanced for 8 person groups. I'm basing my experience on Live servers - I haven't tried an 8 person group on Test lately, so its possible that things have changed there. I'll have to check it out.

I really hope it's at least 2 weeks out. Probably 3. After playing on test for a while, both with copied and new characters, I'd hate to see anything close to the current version go live. Even the Chat and Find Group windows are horrible, not to mention all the game play issues. Please don't rush this live, fix all the weirdness first.

Excellent post. Has it been copied onto the FAQ forum yet, to avoid eventual deletion?

Great guide! My Rad/Dark guy is L20 right now, built around the soloing theme (i.e. Gloom over Moonbeam). He still works great in groups, though - AM alone is enough to make everyone else happy, and the debuffs and immobilize is gravy. A few people were asking for builds so I figured I might as well post mine:

Archetype: Defender
Primary Powers - Buff/Debuff : Radiation Emission
Secondary Powers - Ranged : Dark Blast
Slot[01] Level 1 (Starting Primary) : Radiation Infection /HitDeb
Slot[02] Level 1 (Starting Secondary) : Dark Blast /Acc,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[03] Level 2 : Gloom /Acc,EndRdx,Rchg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[04] Level 4 : Accelerate Metabolism /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,EndRec,EndRec
Slot[05] Level 6 : Enervating Field /EndRdx,EndRdx
Slot[06] Level 8 : Combat Jumping /Jump
Slot[07] Level 10 : Hurdle /Jump
Slot[08] Level 12 : Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[09] Level 14 : Super Jump /Jump
Slot[10] Level 16 : Tenebrous Tentacles /Acc,Rng(Cone),Immob,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[11] Level 18 : Health /Heal
Slot[12] Level 20 : Stamina /EndRec
Slot[13] Level 22 : Night Fall /Acc,Rng(Cone),Dmg,Dmg,Dmg,Dmg
Slot[14] Level 24 : Lingering Radiation /EndRdx
Slot[15] Level 26 : Mutation /Rchg
Slot[16] Level 28 : Maneuvers /DefBuf
Slot[17] Level 30 : Tactics /HitBuf,HitBuf,HitBuf,HitBuf,HitBuf,HitBuf
Slot[18] Level 32 : EM Pulse /Acc,Acc,Hold,Hold,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[19] Level 35 : Life Drain /Acc
Slot[20] Level 38 : Blackstar /Empty

Took him out on the Synpase task force last weekend, at L19 with four L15-18 heroes. We owned 'em, the poor Empath was spending a lot of time looking for something to heal.

Just read the guide at the top of this thread, very well written. Too bad about all the crap attached to the rest of the thread, but at least it keeps the guide from being archived.

One minor suggestion - don't take Maneuvers, take Stealth instead. Stealth is a better defense buff for soloers (7.5% Stealth vs. 6.25% Manuevers, according to Hero Planner). If you're following the guide, you'll already have Super Speed so the movement penalty isn't a problem. The invisibility isn't important if you already have Cloaking Device and Super Speed.

[ QUOTE ]
Also, the cone range of psychic scream is out of this world. I think it might be bigger than tentacles.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're right. Scream has an awesome cone range. Of course, that means you get the aggro a lot of the time....

[ QUOTE ]
My other option at 35 is Scramble Thoughts. I would want this to disorient bosses, however the post above notes that it doesn't work on bosses. The question is: If I used thunderclap in near the boss to stun the minions, then applied scramble thoughts to the boss, won't that disorient the boss for the overlap time?

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't personally tried this combo, but it certainly seems like it should work. Typically hold/disorient/mez effects stack, so a disorient from Thunderclap and another from Scramble Thoughts should stop a boss. Of course, that's assuming you don't miss with one or the other....

Great summary of the Psy set, Soulhealer. One minor quibble - if you have this saved somewhere for reposting later, you might want to correct the spelling of Enhancement.

In playing up to L13, which is the highest I've gone in this set, I do notice a difference with the recharge time slowdown secondary effect. My toon is Kinetics/Psy, so Siphon Speed and the slow secondary effects make an effective boss/Lt. neutralizer. Usually I'd pull with Lance, hit Siphon Speed, and then do Mental Blast. With all three of those active, I could hit Lance with no fear of interruption - whereas if I only had Siphon Speed, sometimes I'd get hit while trying to use Lance. The slowdown effect may be minor, but it does stack with other effects and so can be useful.