Local_Man

This is silly. I can't believe how many people complain about such a great change with NO DOWNSIDE.

Powers without slots can be used for situational powers or to provide small improvements. Most players currently skip a rez power that may be in your powerset -- now you can take it and slot it with a single recharge. Take Combat Jumping with a single Defense enhancement for a small buff on your Defense and greater mobility while jumping (and Immob protection if you need it). For Fire and Dark tanks, you can fit in Acrobatics without giving up another important power. Take Recall Friend, Stimulant, Aid Other or a number of other powers to help with teaming. Want to be able to stealth a mission every now and then? Take Super Speed and throw a stealth IO in it. Heck, take Teleport Foe just for the fun of it.

Each person has his or her own opinion, based mostly upon his or her own playstyle. Some people play more aggressively, while others like to focus more on survival. The term, "Blapper" (combo of Blaster and Scrapper) can really apply to the Energy/Energy Blaster because the energy secondary has a lot of powerful melee attacks.

Personally, I prefer survival over fast killing so I like to play most of my blasters at range, including my Energy/Energy. I take all or almost all powers from my Primary powerset, and only take a few from the secondary. I take Hover and Fly to mostly stay out of melee range, and I take all of the ranged attacks. I like to float on top and fire my energy blasts down . . . turning the knockback into knockDOWN. If there is no room to float overhead, I use the knockback powers to keep foes out of my face -- keep them at range so I can blast them with less danger. For a newer player, staying at range is probably a good idea until you get an understanding of how the game works.

The basic slotting that you need for your attacks is mainly some accuracy and lots of damage. Start with 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage. If you find yourself missing too much, you can add another Accuracy. If your accuracy is OK, then slot 1-2 Recharge. If you find yourself running out of endurance, then add an Endurance Reduction.

Planning your character: You probably want to plan for a travel power. Look at the travel power pools (Flying, Jumping, Super Speed, Teleport) to see which looks like fun. Flying is the best to start with, but pick any of them that you want. To get Fly, you need to take either Hover or Air Superiority by level 12, so you can take Fly at level 14. The soonest you can get a pool power is level 6, but don't be in a rush . . . take the most useful power, but keep in mind that you need Hover by or at level 12.

You also need to plan on getting Stamina from the Fitness Pool. To get this at level 20 (the earliest you can get it), you have to take two powers from the Fitness pool before level 20. Take Swift or Hurdle by or at level 16 (I like Swift with Fly, and Hurdle with everything else). Then take Health by or at level 18. Then take Stamina at 20. Stamina will help you greatly with your endurance problems. (In the next free issue, the Fitness Pool will become an inherent power so you won't have to select it any more.)

In terms of slotting, don't bother with buying Training Origin ("TOs") enhancements. Slot what drops, and sell the rest. Mostly focus on Accuracy. At level 12, you can buy Dual Origin ("DOs") Enhancements -- those are probably worth buying. You can buy level 15 DOs at level 12. Then at level 22, you get the big bump up. You can buy level 25 Single Origin ("SOs") enhancements. In terms of strength, 1 SO is twice the strength of a DO, which is twice the strength of a TO.

Don't worry about the later part of the game for a while. Don't worry much about Invention Origin ("IOs") enhancements until you get used to the other kinds. Do the tutorials, do the missions in the University to learn about IOs and read the stuff.

Most of all, have fun.

I haven't seen last night's show yet (it's on the DVR), but I agree about the lying. Enough already. In the previous seasons, the lies constantly resulted in problem after problem that could have been avoided by the truth. This whole "lying for their own protection" stuff has been abused in this show. The same tension could developed with a lesser lie . . . that Chuck is working for the CIA, but isn't going on dangerous missions. Better yet, tell her the truth and let the tension come from sister constantly trying to find out what Chuck is doing when the missions are secret.

Is it possible? Not sure. Is it likely -- I would say no, especially since when the proc hits for an AoE confuse, it is far more likely that the proc will stack on other foes who are also confused. For example, say you use Seeds of Confusion with the proc in it. Assume you hit 10 out of 15 with the cone. Maybe 3-4 of the hits will proc, and the proc will hit 1-5 extra foes nearest the hit that procced. Wouldn't you think is is likely that the proc is going to hit mostly foes who are already confused by the original cast? You will most likely stack the mag on foes who were hit by Seeds . . . which is nice if you hit a boss who would otherwise not be confused. You may get an extra 2-5 foes with a 10 sec confuse, also, if they are close enough.

Rather than posting a generalized and unsupported opinion, I pointed out a recent personal experience. I didn't go into more detail about how my tank did stuff that my softcapped BS/Shield or MA/SR Scrapper wouldn't be able to, like draw the aggro of a pretty large group of foes, all gathered around him -- it felt like real, honest to goodness tanking should be, even though it was on a red-side team.

Sure, a softcapped scrapper or brute can out-survive some tanks and do more damage. But there is something unique about being a REAL tank -- drawing a large group in, being completely surrounded and knowing that if it weren't for superior defenses and a few good tactics, I'd be faceplanting at that moment. Instead, I survived and the opponents were just fading bodies at my feet -- I was the classic "Last One Standing" due to determination rather than firepower. My post was expressing that from a personal perspective.

Tanking loses out to damage in the game because almost all of the rewards come from doing damage. But sometimes, real tanking is fun. We get to play the ole, "Is that all you got?" attitude of being able to take everything the other side has to give; of the extreme tough guy. At times, that is more fun than a simple-minded Brute or Scrapper, who is only thinking "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Funny . . . I took my Invuln/Axe tank Vigilante, was invited to a red-side team with several ATs including a couple of Brutes. My tank walked into the biggest mess and did what he does while his green bar barely moved. The brutes ran off and tried to do what they do . . . and faceplanted.

I'll stick with my tank, thanks.

Hmm, interestingly, I never heard about that one. Sorry, but obviously they needed to do something to fix the exploit.

I'm pretty sure you are wrong. You could NOT stack Mystic Fortunes on people. Did you ever look at the numbers? Before this "fix," if you cast your Mystic Fortune on someone who already had one active, you wasted the cast and the recipient got no benefit. This "fix" makes it so you don't waste a Mystic Fortune on someone who already has one. (Imagine how overpowered it would be if you could stack 7 or more of these on one person!)

While I would have preferred a message that the target already has one, this is a pretty good fix. I much prefer this to wasting my slow-recharging buff on someone who already has one.

I would STRONGLY disagree with this. Putting the Contagious Confusion proc in a single target confuse (Illusion's Deceive or Mind's Confuse) is wonderful because it can hit anywhere from one extra to five or six. If you miss the target, the proc doesn't work.

However in an AoE confuse power, it allows you to stack mag for 10 seconds -- you have a chance to confuse a boss for 10 seconds. Plus, it can hit guys that you may have missed. (You can see that in something like Seeds of Confusion, because the 10 sec confuse from the proc is shorter than the confuse from Seeds.) Plus, in a short duration confuse power (like Arctic Air), the proc will last longer than the confuse from the power, making the power far, far more effective. When I slotted the Congious Confusion proc in Arctic Air, it seemed to substantially increase the effectiveness of the power.

I definitely plan to slot it in Synaptic Overload, the chaining confuse power in the Electric set.

I'm not sure what the target cap is. I don't recall seeing more than 6-8 hit by the proc -- and I use it a lot in all three of my level 50 Illusion Controllers as well as my Ice/Storm. Every now and then, a single Deceive will confuse an entire small group of foes, but it usually only gets 2-5.

Unless you want a mule for the purple Sleep set for 10% global recharge. It is the cheapest of the purple sets. Other than that, a single Recharge is fine.

But Yeah, I agree that the sleep is mostly worthless -- the 20% Damage debuff is most of the value of the power. The folks calling for a buff to Trick Arrow often request that some -Regen be added to PGA, which makes sense to me. Some -ToHit in there would make sense, too.

Not quite . . . lets see how fast you can run tip missions at 27 with an Ice/FF controller solo.

I don't know; haven't tried it. I'm already slotting Jolting Chain for Acc/Rech/Dam. I would guess that Range would only affect the distance for the power to hit the first foe, and that it would not affect the distance chains can jump. Similar to a Targetted AoE power -- Range does not make the AoE bigger.

One interesting aspect of Jolting Chain -- If you hit the first foe, then the knockdown chain on other nearby foes is almost automatic, but if you miss the first targetted foe, it never chains. Therefore, it is better to target minions and any foes who are easy to hit rather than the Boss.

There was a huge Geek-gasm when she was announced for the role. I read an interview with her. Apparently, an internet rumour started that she was being cast. Somebody asked her at a public appearance, and she denied that she had talked to the show's people. Then she asked her agent about it, and found out that it was a show she might be interested in. She contacted the producers, who were thinking about contacting her. She felt guilty about what she said to the person at the personal appearance, and wanted to set the record straight that at that time, she had not been cast, but that person helped to get the ball rolling.

Linda Hamilton also said that she is having a ton of fun doing "Chuck" and would like to be a long-term cast member. But she didn't really know what the writers had in mind for her character in the long run.

Of course, he played a bad guy, Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, before being a good guy.

I saw an interview with some of the "Chuck" cast talking about how much fun it was to work with Isiah Mustafa, the Old Spice Guy. That guy has a special gift of comic timing to go along with disgustingly good looks. I'd like to see him make it big as something other than "the Old Spice Guy." I could even see him in a super hero comedy some day.

Always consider Deceiving foes that give you a problem -- since they will usually give the same problem to their buddies. Of course, the nice thing about using Deceive is that it draws no aggro, so you can take them out of the fight and let them start to do stuff to their buddies before you show yourself with an attack. You can also handle several problem foes instead of being limited to one, or you can stack Deceive on bosses.

Sappers are one of my favorites to Deceive -- they are so widely hated, and for good reason. I love to turn them on the other Malta. It is so much fun to see a Zeus drained dry of endurance by his own Sapper -- and since that doesn't do damage, there is no effect on XP.

There are some exceptions: Many of the exceptions are foes who drop a pet or pseudopet -- it is usually better to hold them before they drop the pet rather than Deceive them. Deceiving the DE who drop those buff and debuffs does NOT turn them the other way, it only neutralizes them, and only as long as the guy who dropped them stays alive. (My understanding is that the DE buffs only affect DE, so you can't get the benefit.) When a Vahz Mortifier rezes a Cadaver, the Mort will then attack the Cadaver to kill it, and then rez it again. (It won't rez your teammates because the rez only works on Cadavers.) Deceiving a Sky Raider who drops the FF Generator will give your team defense, but only as long as that guy lives. When the pet caster dies, the pets usually turn on you.