Irish Fury

For me, it was the challenge of the arc that made it so much fun. So much of the content, while interesting, is just too easy. After my duo took down Castillo and we didn't immediately get the "Mission Complete" message, I was a bit surprised. We turned around to look up at a giant Zeus Class Titan, and I remember thinking, "Now, THIS is more like it." There's nothing like thinking the battle is over and before that sigh of relief is out, you realize the real challenge just arrived. Our duo was blaster/defender so obviously we were going to have to work fast to survive. Took one team wipe to work out a strategy of alternating agro to finally bring the big guy down. The ending to our particular battle was epic as I was killed a split second after I unleased the killing blast. Seemed fitting that my last action on the arc was to use a medi porter after sacrificing myself in the last battle. Totaly epic and ridiculous fun. I've run it thrice with three different ATs, and the fun never stops. This is by far my favorite arc in the game (so far). Glad to see other people seem to be enjoying it.

For those that find it too difficult, try tuning down the diff a bit, no shame in that as long as you're still having fun.

I am math deficient, so I don't know if the numbers support this, but from my experience lightning rod does slightly more damage than SC on my brute. I currently have a full set of oblits in each. It's when you string them together that you see why elec/shield is the best melee/def combo in the game

I know you seem to have settled on SD/Fire, but allow me to say one more thing for elec melee. My main toon is a lvl 50 elec/shield brute and is the most fun I have ever had in a video game. Elec melee is admittedly weak on single target attacks, but after lightning rod---->shield charge----->thunderstrike there are rarely any single targets left. It is aoealicious (?) One of my SG mates plays a SD/elec tank and loves it to pieces. Ultimately, play what ever you think will be the most fun.

My AR/fire blaster is a "blast" (ahem) to play, however, the close range nature of the attacks in my secondary obviously require that I step fairly often into harm's way. Unfortunately, I am at work and can not post my current build to be critiqued, but I was wondering if softcapping my melee defense is possible. If someone could post a build or offer any pointers, that would be most helpful. Cost is not an issue as I have a pretty healthy stockpile at the moment.

To give you an idea of how I play the toon, he is my main solo toon, so teaming is rare and usually with close friends only. My attack chain goes something like rain of arrows--->exposive arrow---> run in and bust out burn or fire sword circle FTW.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

My friend and I duo'd our way through the new Roy Cooling arc last night, and may I say it is amazing. From the first mission, to the story, to the final epic battle, this arc is full of win. A final battle on the roof top of a burning building facing off against a Zeus Class Titan felt like something right out of the pages of a great comic. Our duo of elec blaster and Kin defender faceplanted a few times in that final face off, but anything worth doing isn't easy. Better than many TFs in the game. This is one I will be repeating many times over. Bravo devs, bravo.

Again, welcome to the game and the forums! As a fairly new player myself (less than 6 months), let me say that I wouldn't shy away from an expensive build. Aim high. I cut a lot of corners on my first toon's build and was constantly wondering what could have been.

If you are running your 5 tip missions every day, you can pick up enough alignment merits to get those high end IOs well before you ding 50 (provided you aren't PLing in between). Once you get a feel for how to play the market, the influence starts flowing pretty nicely. Within 4 months, I was able to get my Elec/shield brute to 50 and dropped about 3 billion on his build. I don't have to wonder if he is at full potential with a build like that . Also, I would highly recommend joining an active and friendly super group, as mine has been extemely helpful to me. May I ask, on which server do you play?

I know I didn't answer your original question, and for that I apologize. Just a little advice from one newbie to another. Take it for what it's worth.

I am getting sick and tired of the nerfs getting nerfed. Personally, I like Nerf. It allows me to play basketball inside my home, and to shoot people I don't like without fear of pesky prison time.

Lot's of great input, thanks a lot guys. I have decided to roll up a elec/nin stalker. SR looks nice, but I can't pass up the shiny ninja toys. I like Micro's advice regarding defense based, so I will invest enough to soft cap. I like regen well enough, I just don't think I am skilled enough to pull it off on a stalker. Perhaps I will take my broadswrod/regen concept, and make it a scrapper. I've heard that it can be godly in PvP. As a newbie to the game (approaching 6 month vet badge ) and also to the forums, it is nice to see so many helpful replies. Thank you all.

Also, if anyone has a good build for an elec/nin, I would love to take a look at it.

Alrighty then, question answered...thank you kindly.

I attempted to respec my level 50 fortunata widow into inherent fitness, and when I reached the power selection for level 41...no epic power pools. I have not unlocked the patron powers, so I understand those not being there, but I was under the assumption hero epics were now available to all characters regardless of alignment. I had not selected an epic or patron power pool on the toon when i leveled up initially so I didn't notice if they were available at that time or not. Do I need to change my alignment to hero before I can respec in to hero epics?

Thanks Jade. Since two out of three respondents have suggested ninjitsu, I might reroll my stalker and give it another go. I like the concept of the AT, and I feel like it has a lot of potential to be a blast. I just feel like my current incarnation is not reaching that porential. Perhaps a dfferent secondary will breathe a little life into it for me. Luckily, I'm one of those sadistic types who really enjoys the early game, (especially since inherent fitness ) so starting over at level 1 isn't much of a deterrent.

Any thoughts on electric melee for stalkers? Does lightning rod crit on all affected enemies if used from hide?

Generally, I agree, but I thought I would try a new AT. Looks like I'll be losing a stalker and adding yet another scrapper to my roster. I like regen a lot, kind of a rush to come within an inch of death and come back to life.

So I have a level 28 Broadsword/Regen staker. I have grinded through 28 levels waiting to hit the sweet spot in the power set and came to the realization that stalkers are just no fun at all. I usually run him as a duo with another stalker buddy of mine, and when we first got our assassin's strike, we were super excited about the characters, but sense then, it's been kind of blah.

Then, I remembered from my brief foray in RV on my main, that a lot of people zone PvP with stalkers. So I ran over to Siren's Call to see what fun could be had there. After ganking a couple people from the shadows, I just felt cheap and dirty. Maybe this isn't the AT for me.

I write this post with one hand on the "delete" button for this toon. Can anyone give me a reason to keep grinding it out? Is there anything on the horizon that I should keep working toward? Or have I seen everything I need to see?

My buddy and I run a fire/ice duo and they are a lot of fun. He has a fire/fire scrapper and I run a Ice/FF controller for support. The shields in FF do a great job of filling the holes in firey aura. This team is a blast to play, have fun!

I had the same question about my brute. With a high base recharge such as yours, the effect is hardlly noticeable. My base recharge without hasten was 62.5% and I only saw a 1 second improvement in hasten's recharge time. If you pull up your enhancement screen and look at a power that you have not slotted for any recharge, you will see the 33% extra rechare from the alpha boost. The alpha abilities act as enhancements to you powers, they do not fuction as set bonuses.

I will say that once I slotted the 2nd tier, it was more noticeable, as more of the boost ignores ED. It cut my downtime on hasten by about 5 seconds.

Hope this helps.