Khiva

Bah, female characters get two new hairstyles, one of which kicks ***, and all male characters get is another mohawk? Figures <_<
This game desperately needs new hairstyles. Even the CoV stuff is pretty mediocre and dated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFQPqPwayfI
A little disappointing in that you never seem to actually hit people, and instead throw energy at melee range. The VFXs are awesome though, and the animations look very smooth and flashy.

Yeah, I just spent like 20 minutes trying to log in, thinking I got redirected to a phishing site without noticing it, rushing to change my password, then trying to figure out how to reach the actual forums

Ok, I've redone the enhancements. I tried focusing mostly on +Endurance (increases recovery and has great synergy with Consume), a lot of +Recharge, some +Recovery, and some defense/health.

I've also switched out Hurdle for Swap Ammo. Aside from your suggestion to take the sword powers (which I decided against), I couldn't think of how else to rearrange the powers.
I've decided though that I'm going to take Soul Mastery instead of Munitions (which Going Rogue will allow. Blasters get the same set as Masterminds. I've also found an awesome color combination for Soul Fire to match it), and instead of sprint I'd like to keep Ninja Run + Swift active during fights (with 0 recharge or activation I can flip it on and off as necessary as well). With that in mind I have to really re-think the build.
For example, with Dark Embrace I'm considering ditching Weave (3 seperate 0.33 toggles plus Ninja Run is just too much), and I can't really use Combat Jumping along side Ninja Run.
In Soul Mastery I'm considering taking Dark Embrace, Soul Tentacles and Soul Storm. Those last two make Ring of Fire feel a little redundant, but I have no choice in that. AoE immobilization and a full-on hold are too valuable, and look bad*** as well. Suppressive Fire may also be redundant though, and that I can replace.

I can easily ditch Combat Jumping in favor of the third PPP power, but I don't know what I might replace Weave or Suppressive Fire with.
Maybe I should take some Concealment powers?

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Khiva: Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Dual Pistols
Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dual Wield -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(37), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39)
Level 1: Ring of Fire -- TotHntr-EndRdx/Immob(A), TotHntr-Immob/Acc(40), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(42)
Level 2: Empty Clips -- Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(3), Posi-Dmg/Rng(5), Posi-Acc/Dmg(40), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 4: Combustion -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(5), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Armgdn-Dam%(7), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(36)
Level 6: Swap Ammo -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Bullet Rain -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(9), Posi-Dmg/Rng(11), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), EndRdx-I(46)
Level 10: Kick -- ExStrk-Dmg/KB(A), ExStrk-Acc/KB(43), ExStrk-Dam%(46)
Level 12: Suppressive Fire -- Stpfy-Stun/Rng(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(13), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(13)
Level 14: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam(15), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(27), S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(34), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(45)
Level 16: Build Up -- AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(17), AdjTgt-ToHit(17), AdjTgt-Rchg(23), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(48)
Level 18: Executioner's Shot -- Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(19), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(21), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(21), EndRdx-I(23)
Level 20: Aid Other -- Heal-I(A)
Level 22: Aid Self -- Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(A), Mrcl-Heal(25), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(25), IntRdx-I(27)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- Ksmt-ToHit+(A), Ksmt-Def/EndRdx(34), Ksmt-Def/Rchg(36)
Level 26: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 28: Piercing Rounds -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(29), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(31), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(31), EndRdx-I(31)
Level 30: Consume -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(34), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(45)
Level 32: Hail of Bullets -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Oblit-%Dam(50)
Level 35: Burn -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(36), Erad-Dmg(40)
Level 38: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(39), Heal-I(39)
Level 41: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(42), EndMod-I(42), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(43)
Level 44: Body Armor -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(45)
Level 47: Surveillance -- UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(A), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg(48), UndDef-Rchg(48)
Level 49: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 6: Ninja Run
Level 6: Chemical Ammunition
Level 6: Cryo Ammunition
Level 6: Incendiary Ammunition

Maybe they're planning it a year in advance.

It all looks so empty
I also actually thought you had Ultra Mode off, 'till I saw a stray shadow coming off the side of a building...
I'm hoping Praetoria is still a work in progress.

I think this event was ruined, providing nothing but disappointment for people, by having only a single code per costume.

I've caught each code posting so far within an hour at least, I have the exceptional ability to perfectly read things that are backwards or upside down, I have a very fast internet connection, and I have a Firefox app that lets me zoom in on an image freely. I've yet to win a single code, and I've missed the only one I cared about today.

What kind of people actually win these. Are they just standing in front of their monitor for 12 hours straight constantly refreshing?
This was a terrible way to run it... random drawings would be better than this. Maybe they just had some motivation to artificially inflate activity on those pages?

Thanks for the advice. I'll look over the build you gave.

I may have understated just how little I know about building a blaster, since you suggested just abandoning it entirely XD I don't have much experience with IO building either.
I should mention that, while I want to make my character as strong as I can, I don't care about heavily min/maxing him to take out multi AVs or whatever. I care a lot about the concept/playstyle/aesthetics, and I'm fine with him being weaker than he could be because of it.
Having said that, I am willing to make sacrifices as well. I might, for example, be all right with taking Swap Ammo if it's really that important (my searching of the forums had said otherwise, so I didn't think it'd be much of a loss), and I may be willing to take an obscuring toggle as long as I won't have to keep it on really often.
I don't know how willing I am to take the fire swords though... I won't say no, but they are off-putting. Would I be all right not taking them if I simply sacrificed some of my "Blapper"ing? In fact, having looked around some more, I'm pretty sure I misused that term anyway. Blappering means you use a lot of the melee attacks offered by the secondary, right? I mostly just meant sticking closer to the group rather than trying to snipe them, jumping around and getting good use out of the AoEs (Combustion, Hail of Bullets, Burn, Consume, Empty Clips) and such. That may very well be how Blasters always play.

Finally, about the APP. I was under the impression that they were unnecessary and simply a nice bonus. I don't think they're any stronger than other powers you can take, they just add more variety. Am I wrong about that?

I'm really looking forward to playing a DP/Fire Blaster once Going Rogue is out (I really want the free invisibility and and extra month, so no pre-order for me), and I'm trying to work on the build I'll use. I usually play a Scrapper though, so I know very little about how this should be done.
I'll likely be playing "Blapper" style, mixing range/melee rather than staying as far away as possible, as well as soloing a lot, so I'm trying to make the character somewhat tough.
I don't want my character's appearance obscured by toggles, so I'm trying to avoid those in Fire. They also have a very high cost anyway and would hinder an active play-style.
I despise everything about Swap Ammo and don't believe it should have even been in the set, so I'm skipping that as well.
I plan on using Fitness for the combat mobility with Ninja Run for travel, so I don't need any travel powers.
Finally, for the sake of concept the only APP I could possibly take would be Munitions, and only those two powers I've taken. My character is supposed to use dark, occult magic along with the pistols, which is why I have fire (colored black).

Here's the build I've worked up so far.
Please, I would really appreciate any advice that can be given.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Khiva: Level 50 Magic Blaster
Primary Power Set: Dual Pistols
Secondary Power Set: Fire Manipulation
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Medicine
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dual Wield -- Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dev'n-Dmg/Rchg(37), Dev'n-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Dev'n-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), ExStrk-Dmg/KB(39), ExStrk-Acc/KB(50)
Level 1: Ring of Fire -- TotHntr-EndRdx/Immob(A), TotHntr-Immob/Acc(40), TotHntr-Acc/Immob/Rchg(42)
Level 2: Empty Clips -- Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(3), Posi-Dmg/Rng(5), LdyGrey-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(40), LdyGrey-Rchg/EndRdx(43)
Level 4: Combustion -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(7), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(40)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 8: Bullet Rain -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(9), Posi-Dmg/Rng(11), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 10: Kick -- ExStrk-Dmg/KB(A), ExStrk-Acc/KB(43), ExStrk-Dam%(46)
Level 12: Suppressive Fire -- Stpfy-Stun/Rng(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(13), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(13)
Level 14: Tough -- ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), ImpArm-ResDam(15), ImpArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(15), ImpArm-EndRdx/Rchg(27)
Level 16: Build Up -- Rec'dRet-ToHit(A), Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(17), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(17), AdjTgt-Rchg(23), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(48)
Level 18: Executioner's Shot -- Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(A), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(19), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(19), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(23)
Level 20: Aid Other -- Heal-I(A)
Level 22: Aid Self -- Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(A), Mrcl-Heal(25), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(25), IntRdx-I(27)
Level 24: Combat Jumping -- GftotA-Run+(A), GftotA-Def(34), Winter-ResSlow(36)
Level 26: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 28: Piercing Rounds -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(29), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(29), Posi-Dmg/Rng(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 30: Consume -- EnManip-EndMod(A), EnManip-EndMod/Rchg(34), EnManip-Stun%(34), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 32: Hail of Bullets -- Erad-Dmg(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(33), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 35: Burn -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Erad-Dmg/Rchg(36), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(36)
Level 38: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Numna-Heal(39), Heal-I(39)
Level 41: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), P'Shift-EndMod(42), EndMod-I(42), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(43)
Level 44: Body Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB(45), ResDam-I(45)
Level 47: Surveillance -- ExVuln-DefDeb(A), ExVuln-DefDeb/Rchg(48), ExVuln-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Dmg-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Defiance
Level 6: Ninja Run

I think it'd be more reasonable to just make Brawl a viable ability; I don't understand why it's so bad as is.
Besides, I play Katana and the Brawl animation for Katana is as lame as it gets, so I'd be left out

Are you sure they've actually gotta wire each animation individually to include the specific weapon, basically making a new one for each weapon?

I don't know about other weapons, but I know that with Katanas you can pull them out during any regular animation by pressing a katana attack power during it.
You can see me doing that here.
It even works during the Secondary power animations.

I don't know about how actually forcing redraw on animations works, but I'm pretty sure every weapon has a spot on the character it's bound to where it'll appear when it's out regardless of animations, and weapon specific animations simply alter the weapon directly or cause the character to move in a way that deliberately uses the visible weapon, and either animations or the powers themselves should basically just have something that says "weapon visible/not visible", and allowing it to be visible without changing up the animation would at worst just cause the hand to not be clasped around the handle, and in some cases move the hand in such a way that the weapon clips through the character for a moment.
That's why I thought using the DB Brawl animation would work; it's already used with a weapon, so the hand would be clasped around the handle and it wouldn't clip.

So, I was looking at these two powers today, and I realized something very disturbing; Jump Kick seems to be blatantly superior to Kick in almost every way. Since Kick is part of the Fighting power pool I would have assumed Kick to be the better all-round attack, but for some reason it's totally reversed.

One thing that I'm sure anyone would assume, because it seems so obvious, would be that Kick has a faster animation than Jump Kick, but it doesn't. Jump Kick has the character doing a crazy roll and a kick springing off your hands followed by a second, completely unnecessary, second roll, while Kick is just an ordinary straight kick.
Yet Jump Kick is actually faster by a whole 1/3rd of a second, because for some reason the character kicks like a turtle, taking what looks like an eternity to pull off a very straight-forward gesture.
Not only is the animation faster, but it even recharges 0.2 seconds faster.
If you use Brawl with Dual Blades your character performs nearly the same animation as Kick, but it has an entire second shaved off the animation time.

Another point is that Jump Kick does more damage; ~18%.
Kick does a base 55 damage at 50 while Jump Kick does a base 65 damage at 50. Combined with the faster animation and recharge, this means the attack inside the "Fighting" power pool does not only less damage, but significantly less DPS.

Both powers cause a knock effect, but Jump Kick has 2 and 2/3rds TIMES the magnitude of Kick, meaning it's WAY more likely to actually affect someone, and I think it disables them for longer when it does. On top of that, it has an extra 5% chance to occur.
It also uses Knock Up rather than Knockback, which is valuable to a larger range of characters (such as melees).

The only point worse in Jump Kick than Kick is that it costs roughly 0.5 more endurance to use, which is a pathetic difference.

This obviously isn't a big issue, but I'm curious why it's set up this way.
Has anything been said about this before, like whether or not it's going to be fixed?

On a side note, it makes no sense to me that the "Fighting" power pool attacks force redraw, especially Kick. But at the moment, as far as I know, every power that isn't from the same pool as your weapon forces redraw (except for Brawl and Origin attacks for some completely inexplicable reason), even heals and such from your secondary.

Since I've gone on this long, I may as well give my own suggestion to fix it
I think it should be given the DB Brawl animation. That way it'll look practically the same, but it'll have the animation duration reduced by a second and it should no longer force redraw.
Leave the damage the same, since it should do less than Jump Kick. Keep the knockback magnitude low (maybe up it to 2.0, that should allow it to affect Lieutenants, right?) but up the chance of knockback to like 25%.
And finally, shave another second off the reset time.

Heh, that's supposed to be Alucard from Castlevania, isn't it?

Here's a few more. I tried to get a clear shot from the tailor menu this time, but for some reason I couldn't take a screenshot there. How does everyone else do that? I'd really like to get just one shot where you can actually make out the details. The lighting keeps screwing me.
The first two give a closer look at it than my last ones, but it's still really dark.

1 2 3

Greatest costume EVER!
Flipping coin
Blade drawn
Blocked!
This collar's kinda tight
Nothing's there
Tired...

He looks kinda like Vergil or Nero from Devil May Cry, now
Wasn't on purpose. It's made even worse by the fact the he's supposed to be sort of like a "Devil Hunter".

Are you sure it's random? I've found that my regeneration toggles drop whenever I run out of endurance.

Does anyone have a teleport bind that'll make the marker appear as well as turn off most of the UI when I hold shift and teleport me once I left click, and also suppress the teleport sound effect?
I'd found a similar bind before, but it also caused the screen to zoom way out and might've been posted a little wrong.

[ QUOTE ]
Eliminate redraw on Fighting and other power pool attacks.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was going to say the same thing. I was really surprised and disappointed to find out Kick forced my Katana to sheathe, making it 100% useless for me.
And for the sake of balance, compared to other power pool attacks it seems to have too slow of an animation for it's strength and the knockback chance is way too low (Air superiority, which Kick seems to have no benefit over, has a 100% chance of knockup).
I think if they greatly improved the second-effect chances on the power pool attacks to be comparable to Air Superiority, they'd gain value with melees as well without potentially overpowering them like upping the damage could. The reset times would have to be upped to match as well.