Justaris

Access to both sides of the game is the main advantage that Rogues and Vigilantes have over full Heroes or full Villains, who are confined to their respective sides.

A Rogue/Vigilante can team with anyone on either side of the game and can do (almost)* any Task Force that happens to be forming.

By contrast, the advantage to remaining a 'pure' Hero or Villain is the ability to accrue Alignment Merits and having what most players agree are superior Alignment powers (though personally I like Duplicity, the Rogue power, very much).




*the exception being the Ouroboros pseudo-Task Forces, technically story arcs run in TF mode, which are based out of Ouroboros itself. As there are two distinct versions of Ouroboros (one heroic, one villainous), a Rogue cannot participate in a heroic Ouroboros TF since he/she can't get to that Ouroboros. Using an O-Portal will instead transport the Rogue to the villainous Ouroboros. Still, the Ouroboros pseudo-TFs aren't run all that often and only one takes place at 50, so for all intents and purposes being a Rogue/Vigilante gives you a huge flexibility in terms of the TFs, Trials and regular teams you can join.

Simple answer: yes. There is no timer on respec rewards - you can run all three trials back to back if you wish and still get the rewards if you are eligible for them.

Slightly more complex answer: Respecs are gated by the level of the character, [b]not]/b] by the specific Respec Trial that you do. So, a character who is level 24 or higher is eligible to earn one respec. A character who is level 34 or higher is eligible to earn another respec. A level 44+ character can get yet another respec. Put another way, a level 50 character who has never previously run a respec trial can earn three respecs by doing any of the respec trials three times. Whether you do the first-tier respec trial three times, do each trial once, or some combination, it doesn't matter in the least. You can even do a respec trial or two, change alignments, and do a respec trial on the opposing side to earn your other respecs (up to a sum total of three respecs earned from Respec Trials per character).

You can earn up to six respec badges (one for each of the three hero-side respec trials and one for each of the three villain-side respec trials), but you can only earn three respecs on each character (from doing Trials, anyway - there are numerous other ways to earn respecs).

No, you cannot get into either Fort Trident (hero) or The Crucible (villain) as a rogue and that is where the vendors are who sell the A-Merits. You also lose any A-Merits you already have when you change alignments.

The static team will be starting back this Thursday night - sign up now if you're interested, still several spots available.

Personally I think the best thematic and visual pairing is with Energy Aura (my KM/EA Brute isn't the toughest out there, but he looks mighty fine and is a blast to play), but Tankers don't have access to that powerset, so I'd probably go with Dark Armor or Willpower (though really anything can work well). The prospect of a Dark/Kin tank is tempting, that's probably going to be my next Dark Armor character once I figure out whether I want it to be a Tank, Brute or Scrapper.

Well since I wasn't planning on bidding anyway it seems petty to move it up just for me. That time does work better for me, but I think the old time can stand unless you get a lot of other people who'd like it earlier.

Sweet, in that case I'll put in an appearence and then leave for my static team. I'll forego bidding this go-round.

8pm EST? Sorry, I have a regular Saturday static team that runs from 9pm to 11:30pm EST so I don't think I can make that time as I very much doubt we'll be finished in just an hour.

Looks like I'll have to bow out of this, unless I can be auctioned in absentia.

It's the number of Alignment Merits. You can earn 1 A-Merits every 2 days and you can exchange regular merits and inf for a single A-Merits once daily. So amassing over 30 of the things takes what to many players is a prohibitive amount of time

No, you read that right. Those IOs are highly sought-after and have a very low PVP only drop rate, hence the high price tag. As for how they go for more than two billion, they get sold off-market with people using multiple characters to transfer that much inf.

Not starting until next Thursday, so that works out well.

Either that or he's implying he's using words without understanding what they mean. Just throwing that out there.

I've posted about this before and my position on it hasn't changed. I'll continue to report blatant violations because they're blatant violations. They're obnoxious and the players who deliberately and defiantly create them need to be generic'd. It's not that difficult to use a litlte creativity and the people who claim that all the good names are taken are full of it. If the only name you can think of is XxX-Wolverine-XxX, then think some more. Or at all.

Now, that isn't to say that everyone who reports people to the GMs is in the right either. People should be reported because they are blatant and obvious violations of the EULA. Not because they kicked you from a team or because they wouldn't give you that million influence you wanted or whatever. If you're reporting someone "to get back at them", then you need to log off and get a life. These kinds of reports are usually borderline at best if not entirely specious and they just waste the time of the GMs. Personally I think people who demonstarte a pattern of this kind of behavior should themselves face punitive action. It's these folks that lead to the responsible players getting a bad name.

Well, that and the unrepentant rule-breakers who are so quick to cry "fanboi" and attack anyone who (*gasp*) can follow simple common-sense rules like "don't rip stuff off", but no one really cares what those people think, nor should they.

It's unlikely that a change like this would happen since it would involve a fundamental change to the way the form powers work. You'd be more likely to see something like a "White Dwarf Build Up" power added than a change like this. Personally I don't really think this is a needed change, but the change as you're suggesting it be implemented is extremely unlikely just by virtue of the way Kheldian forms work. Accolade clicks have always worked in the forms but that's because of the way Accolades were coded (and I'm fairly certain this is actually a benign bug that the Devs just decided to label a feature).

My perspective on the matter of 'bringing PBs up a notch' is that Group Energy Flight should be replaced with an entirely new power. A shiny version of Air Superiority would be nice.

Yeah, sounds like you're just expecting the build to mature a bit faster than it does. Stick with it - the first major leap upward in effectiveness is just one level away. At level 22 you get SOs and you get Stygian Circle. Gravitic Emanation / Inky Aspect represents another step up as having one or both of these powers greatly increases the amount of control you bring to the table. There's another big jump at 32 when you get Dark Extraction and your Essences give your DPS a significant increase. Finally, there's Eclipse at 38 which once slotted (so really around 39 or 40) caps eveything off by making you a juggernaut.

We're never quick to turn away new people, especilaly those with as much enthusiasm as you obviously have. Your proposal with Merciless should be workable - I don't see any problem with it and we're pretty flexible about things like this in any event.

We'd be happy to have you as part of the group, however things shake out. If you haven't already done so, I'd encourage you to get a look at the other team members and read the backstories available to get a sense of the team. Intertwining your backstory with ours certainly isn't required, just to be clear, but that level of enthusiasm and interest is more than welcome.

I'll volunteer for this.

I am part of a small group of players who run regular static teams. For those not familiar with the term, a static team is a group of characters who play exclusively with one another and level up together as a team. This structure allows for interdependency and group planning since you always know what the team makeup will be and can depend on certain elements being in play when you design your character.

This particular static team is Old West-themed and is already in progress. Two members of our regular group have left the game on an indefinite basis (a husband and wife duo. You'd think giving birth to your first child was a big deal or something, honestly...) and this has left us with openings in several of our ongoing static teams.

To that end, we're looking for new people to join us in order to help play these teams to completion and ideally to join future teams. This particular team is set to play on Thursdays from 9 to 11:30pm Eastern Standard Time, beginning on Thursday, March 17th. The team is currently at level 27. We intend to offer leveling assistance as we are able to help new people to catch up to the level of the team - thereafter, the character on the team would be played only on Thursdays with us unless a session is missed and catch-up is required.

This is a villain team and there are currently three members, meaning that we have up to five spots to fill. Anyone wanting to join should make a new Old West-themed character for the group. There are no limitations on powersets and generally anything that can be reasonably interpreted as 'Western' is acceptable - if you can creatively justify your choices, we'll probably be fine with them.

We expect that anyone who joins the static team makes a reasonable good-faith effort to attend every Thursday at the scheduled time. If you're interested but that time does not work for you, I encourage you to contact me or visit our website - you may find that one of our other static teams better fits your schedule. Please do not sign up for this team if you cannot make this scheduled weekly time with reasonable regularity. Obviously real-life events occur and we understand and excuse the occasional missed session, late arrival or early departure. We just ask that you don't make a habit of it.

For reference, I've listed the three current characters on the team as well as the team's specific page on our group's website. This website is also our primary scheduling and communication tool.

Graves' Posse - Old West themed villain static team, playing on Thursday nights from 9-11:30 EST.

Shallow Graves - Thugs/Dark Miasma Mastermind
Cold Stare - Mind Control/Icy Assault Dominator
Widow Song - Sonic/Sonic Corruptor


Any questions can be asked as replies to this post or sent to me by PM. I will update this thread periodically as people commit to the static team. If you are interested in joining, I can be contacted by PM or in-game at @Justaris

Yeah, if Voids and Quantums are 'overpowerd' then bring on the impossible and I'll eat it for lunch. At worst, they're annoyances. Mostly they're extra padding for my Warshade's spawns and therefore extra XP/Inf/chance for drops.

I won't be off work until 10pm EST so I can't make that practice. Should be able to come early Friday and I'll see if you guys are still on when I get home (sending from my phone)

Fulmens makes some good points. Ironically, your friend's taking one of the game's real strengths (its variety and replay value) and making it into a liability. It sounds like you've already tried to strategize and get him invested into a character and that hasn't really worked. At this point I can think of a few possible course of action you might take...

• Try to get him to commit to a single character. You know this person better than we do and it sound like you've already attempted this, but this is how most people with tons of characters eventually make it through to 50. Take it beyond 'toons' to characters and see if you can get him psyched about one particular character. For some people this means backstory, costume, and/or RP elements. For others it might mean designing the character's build out to the Nth degree and working out all the powers and slotting to have something on the horizon to build towards. If he's played other MMOs before, the concept of a "main" might be familiar to him.
• Regular playtime. I think Fulmens has a good point about exemplared characters - if at all possible, try to play something his level that complements his choice. This may involve some sacrifice for you or you playing powersets and roles you mighrt not otherwise choose for yourself. If you do end up in a support role I recommend playing a buffer. Debuffers participate in combat and have direct effects on the enemy but as a buffer you work through your teammates. This may make him feel like the star and the 'real hero'. A bit childish, but may be effective.
• Consider making low-level IOs for your friend's usage - especially if you happen to have a character with Field Crafter. Store them in the base for him. If he's the metagamer/OCD type and wants to work with you on Mids, you could get him a low-level build complete with low-level Sets and fund it yourself. A new player probably won't have the investment or the patience to research, buy up and craft Sets himself even if you provided the inf, but if you do it for him it may have an impact.

Naturally, the danger in all of this is that you may hook your friend on the game only to have him entirely dependent on you and your enabling to have fun. It's up to your discretion how much behind-the-scenes work is acceptable to ensure your friend enjoys himself and how much is just him taking advantage of you.

In any event, best of luck to you both.

Just to add my own two cents to the mix, I have a Dark Armor/Elec tanker who's become probably my favorite tanker to play and among the most powerful (if not the single best) in my library. This may be a bit of a long post. You've been warned.

While Je_Saist makes some good points, I have to categorically disagree with the assessment of Dark Armor in a tanking role. As Dechs_Kaison humorously demonstrated in his satirically titled "Dark Armor Sucks" thread, suck it most certainly does not. In all the traditional measures of the tanking role - survivability, aggro management, manipulation and control of mobs (be it herding or simple grouping up of enemies) - Dark Armor performs nicely.

I certainly wouldn't categorize its weaknesses as "everything". In fact, I'll give you a brief rundown of specifically what they are as I see them. Incidentally, the link provided by Je_Saist is not one I would recommend taking at face value. Many of the statements in that guide are poor choices or outdated information. When any player writes a guide it is important to present what the choices are and why the choices were made as they were and in this case several key elements (most notably the Theft of Essence proc) were overlooked entirely while in other cases the power descriptions were actually just wrong. I recommend reading Dechs_Kaison's posts for a better treatment of the strengths of the powerset.

The guide linked by Je_Saist (I believe I read it was Jordan Yen's guide?) seems to have attempted to take a high-recharge or perhaps a hybrid soft-cap/recharge approach to the Dark Armor build rather than building to directly address the set's shortcomings. Also, as I noted above, the guide author does not use the Theft of Essence proc at all and actually advises against the set in favor of Touch of the Nictus. While some +recharge is certainly advantageous for a Dark Armor player - I have Hasten for just this reason - it should be a tertiary goal well behind the more pressing matters of plugging KB holes, addressing the high cost of Dark Regeneration and building for soft-capped Defense. While some elements of that soft-capped Defense may be expensive on the market (Kinetic Combats especially), relatively speaking they are not in the same range as purple IOs or PVP IOs and should be within the grasp of most players with a bit of effort. Pricey, yes, but not as unobtainable as one might surmise from reading that guide.

Nevertheless, on to the specific weak points: out of the box, there are several obvious weaknesses of Dark Armor. This is without a doubt a set that dovetails nicely with Inventions since its shortcomings are all addressed in some way by Set Bonuses. But what are the weaknesses? First and foremost, the lack of knockback protection. Dark Armor is not the only Tanker powerset that has this lack, but it is significant and potentially incapacitating and should be addressed with IOs as soon as possible. Second, Dark Armor lacks any significant amounts of Defense and its levels of Resistance while significant are not comparable with those possible with other powersets such as Invlunerability or Stone Armor's Granite. This means you get hit a lot and you take a lot of damage, forcing you to rely on Dark Regeneration to keep you standing. This brings us to the third problem - Dark Regeneration is a monster on endurance. Again, this can be largely remedied with the Theft of Essence proc and obtaining one should be top priority for any Dark Armor player.

Another supposed weak point I've seen brought up (both in the linked guide and elsewhere) is the concern that some of Dark Armor's powers may interfere with a Tanker's role in gaining and maintaining aggro or in keeping enemies tightly grouped for AOE destruction purposes. The usual powers singled out in this way are Cloak of Darkness (stealth), Oppressive Gloom (aura stun) and Cloak of Fear (aura fear). Firstly, the stealth. This is also your immobilize protection, so unless you're running Combat Jumping you'll want to have this on. It provides a little extra Defense which helps you with softcap. It does not significantly hinder your ability to attract and hold aggro. It just doesn't. I've never had a problem with it personally nor seen it cause an issue in-game, ever. On a more general note, stealth on Tankers has never really been the problem it's been made out to be. Unless you're foregoing Taunt for some reason, there's no reason the small reduction should make any amount of difference given the immense increase you get when you use Taunt.

Then there's the auras. Cloak of Fear's fear effect isn't really a problem. Mobs cower in place and get off an attack or two when they take damage - which, given that you're running or should be running Death Shroud, is all the time. So the fear effect effectively is a recharge debuff on them for all intents and purposes, limiting how often they can attack you. It doesn't disperse the enemies or interfere with aggro unless you are trying to relocate mobs (as the cowering ones may stand in place cowering rather than follow). But that's about it. The real problem with Cloak of Fear is the high endurance cost, but you don't have to run it all the time - some Dark Armor tanks don't run it at all. It's a nice extra layer of mitigation but it's not essential. Then we come to Oppressive Gloom, the stun aura. Stunned mobs will stagger about drunkenly and this may cause them to wander away from the Tanker. Very slowly. If anyone on the team has an AOE immobilize, this is a complete nonissue. If not, the power can easily be turned off and used situationally if the Tanker or the team has a concern about it interfering with tight aggro control. Personally, I do not think this is a major issue but I can see how it might appear to be one on paper. Many Tankers take either Cloak of Fear or Oppressive Gloom anyway, so if this is a concern one might simply opt for Cloak of Fear instead.

By using specific IOs (-KB and ToE proc) and by using Defense bonuses from Sets, it is possible to address all of Dark Armor's shortcomings. If you add softcapped Defense to the set's moderate levels of Resistance, with a powerful heal in Dark Regeneration that is now affordable in terms of endurance, you have the makings of a juggernaut. This only improves once you become an Incarnate and gain access to the Cardiac tree which further streamlines your endurance usage and provides additional Resistance. It is this triple-protection that has earned Dark Armor the "stupid-hard to kill" label from many posters. Given the abundance of Defense bonuses available and the IOs which exactly address Dark Armor's shortcomings, the set has the potential to be among the strongest of the Tanker sets despite its numerous problems at baseline. I would encourage the OP and anyone else to look at Dark Armor carefully before accepting the judgment that it 'sucks'.

A Dark Armor Tanker improves by leaps and bounds as you put work into the build - with just a few relatively inexpensive IOs (a few Knockback Protection IOs and a Theft of Essence proc is where I would begin) you see a huge leap in effectiveness. With the addition of significant amounts of Defense set bonuses, the build again improves dramatically. My final build now routinely serves as main Tanker for task forces and Master runs. It is indeed stupid-hard to kill.

In terms of soloing, your secondary is probably going to matter more, since the more AOE you have the faster you're likely to move solo. My Dark/Elec does very well in this regard. Of course, Dark Armor isn't as aggressively designed as, say, Fiery Aura or Shields, so those might be better picks with an eye towards soloing speed, but personally I think the Dark is the best of both worlds. I may be biased, however. YMMV.

Dechs has a build or two in his "Dark Armor Sucks" thread, I believe, since DA/Fire is what he plays.

There are many effective ways to play a Peacebringer, but due to the relative complexity of the AT and the number of powers avaiable, it's also easy to make a subpar build especially if your'e going into it blind.

I strongly suggest the OP post his PB build for us to examine, and it's likely we can make some suggestions to greatly improve his play experience. While Peacebringers as an AT do have some issues, they are (at least, in my estimation) a fun and versatile AT to play. I've never had a problem with the damage, so I'm not sure what people are talking about there unless they just had unreasonable expectations to begin with (it's not going to outdamage a Blaster, for instance, nor should it).

Probably the best summation I've seen of the various Tanker powersets. Oversimplification, of course, but any summation is going to be.

As I said upthread, Granite's bonuses give you the most survivable out-of-the-box tank (with some steep penalties as well). Of course, you can also enhance that with IOs just as you can with the other sets, and there's little than can match a well-built Stone tanker in Granite aside from psy damage (which savvy Stone tankers can use Minerals and IO Sets to do well against also, though for some reason I'm seeing many players who just play in Granite all the time lately and are confused when they die against psychic opponents).

As AnElfCalledMack summed up beautifully above, all the Tanker sets have their own fortes and drawbacks. There's no wrong choice, just which best suits the way you want to play.

Also, you've been away a long time and the game has shifted even more towards being instance-based than it already was (and it was that way to start with). Basically that means that most people are in missions on teams most of the team and therefore you don't see them. An increase in methods of fast travel (Mission Teleport, Supergroup Telepads, Pocket D Teleport, merged trams/ferries, Ouroboros Portals, etc) means that players can now very quickly travel from one mission to the next.

Aside from 'hub' regions where players use the market and buy/sell enhancements, there isn't much reasion to be 'outdoors' any more and so you often won't see a lot of other players moving around overland. For the same reasons, using broadcast chat is a poor method of finding people because most will be in a mission and won't see it.

The game has moved to primarily using global chat channels, team search commands and/or Supergroup or Friend lists for purposes of forming teams. If you make use of some of these tools, you may be suprirsed as to how many people there are that you didn't know were there.