Lolblaws

elec/x/mu dominator where x = earth, energy, or ice assault is very good at quickly draining 8 foes. However, it has no appreciable -recovery; it is there, but not reliable. Great -end though.

elec/psi/mu doesn't drain as quickly, but the massive -recovery ensures that once they are bottomed out they stay there for the duration.

I terms of supporting the team and delivering direct damage I'd nominate those combos.

Elec/x/primal, or Elec/x/mu where x = kin, therm, or storm can also result in a pretty potent sapper.

The controllers contribute less direct damage than the doms, but all 3 secondaries can do a good to amazing job of making the team kill faster.

I wouldn't recommend cold domination. Heatloss is on way too long of a recharge to make an effective end drain tool and mobs with floored recharge use less endurance because they attack so infrequently, so -recovery is less potent (ie cold/elec def).

pb boosts lots of 'psuedo pets'. Elec control isn't unique that it boost its ones too.

pb does boost -end, but does NOT affect recovery. If it affected -recovery, it would affect +recovery, ie. our own.

Phantasm is actually way worse at surviving than imps now against tough single foes.

With imps the fire controller is usually standing back from them and the actual pc draws the agro because they outdamage each imp. The result is that the AV may never even take notice of the imps and attack them.

With phantasm the AV is agro'd onto your melee range PA and melee range decoy so phantasm ends up biting it nearly immediately due to aoe's.

It's persistent bugs like this that make me wish it had been one of the other lead devs on the layoff list as opposed to BaB's.

Of course post gr layoffs were expected. Bab's as part of that group? not in the least.

You don't usually get laid off when you leave under your own volition and/or on your time schedule. It isn't unheard of, just not that common of a practice. That in no way means that the parting was not amicable. I would sincerely hope that after the great work he did that PS made him aware of the value he carried.

On a personal level I'm sad, BaBs was by far my favorite dev, he listened well and delivered well, which is not something that I can say for many of the other team members on a consistent basis.

Big shoes to fill and I'd be a lot more confident with pretty much any other dev being on that list and needing someone to fill the role.

I could easily see some of the incarnate powers having overly long and exaggerated animations to purvey their 'epicness' in pve. The result could well be them doing crazy pvp damage due to cast time being such a huge factor in determining how much a power does in pvp.

Diet and excercise. It really is that simple.

In your case the diet is by far the easiest one to alter. One big meal per day is just about the worst way to eat possible.

Exercise is harder for you due to your ailments. The pool recommendation is ideal, but will require a large commitment and lifestyle change that may or may not be feasible for you at this time. I see the pool as something you would do down the road once you have made some life alterations and you are ready and able to devote more of your life to achieving your health and fitness goals.

In the interim I suggest either a bowflex or a total gym. Both are low/no impact and both scale very well as your strength increases. Both work with limited range of motion and expand on it as your mobility and strength improves. You can get both for ridiculously cheap intro offers and once you try them for a month or two you'll be more than willing to shell out the full price. Comparatively a recumbent bike is not only expensive it is very single purpose which can lead to boredom and early plateauing. Additionally, you will likely find that as your strength/fitness improves you will need to invest more and more time on the bike to continue progressing. This also contributes to exercise boredom and premature peaking. The latter is something that bowflex/total gym tend to encounter a lot less due to the numerous exercises and how well they scale up with increased fitness without additional time investment.

Aside from that weight loss is actually very simple science. At the end of the day if what you put in is less than what you put out you will lose weight. Spacing meals properly so that your body does not go into survival mode and retain maximum fat aids and accelerates what is essentially a simple equation.

Other than that you have to want it for yourself enough to make the sacrifices and alter your lifestyle in meaningful ways. It doesn't have to happen overnight (and is less likely to succeed if you do jump in with both feet and drastically alter your life all in one shot), but over time it does need to happen.

Lastly, the best advice I can give for dieting is to have a cheat day (usually recommend 2 when you first start) per week. You need to reward yourself for your commitment the other 5-6 days of the week and this is tremendously powerful in preventing diet stagnation, or worse yet abandonment. Trust me when I say that eating better 5-6 days of the week and then going nuts on the 7th is still leagues better than eating crappy all the time and you'll actually have a hope in hell of succeeding with it.

That last little bit I learned from working with bodybuilders who frequently gain 50-100lbs in the offseason and are among the most disciplined dieters in the world. Numerous of them have confided in me that rewarding your commitment with a cheat day is as important as the healthy diet itself.

edit: a nice easy first step to changing your eating habits is to pick up a tub of protein. For you I'd suggest a meal replacement one because you suck at eating and this is a really easy way to get in to the habit of intaking food more frequently. DON'T do the protein bars though, most of them are just chocolate bars in disguise. The actual process of preparing a shake (which only takes a min or so) will start to get you into the habit of taking the time to prepare quick and easy meals. Soon enough stretching that to 10 mins (which is all it takes to prepare a healthy snack/light meal) will seem like nothing. Once you've graduated past this phase you can start using just a pure protein powder (ie not a meal replacement) because you'll already be eating better and they can be very helpful at keeping your metabolism up as well as keeping you satiated so you feel less need to glutton when you do eat. For reference the meal replacements are generally 250-400 calories per serving and have a nice combination of carbs/fats/and protein, whereas the pure protein powder usually has ~100 calories, next to no carbs and next to no fat.

So basically use the meal replacement to get your body into the habit of intaking food more regularily. Once you learn to do that and learn how easy it is to quickly prepare healthy snacks/light meals you can switch to a pure protein as that will help take you to the next stage of further cutting total calories per day.

Essentially, do it in small, manageable and realistic steps. And be sure to manage your expectations.

Most grocery stores and even walmart carry protein powder/protein meal replacements, as a result they really aren't that expensive and you don't need to go to a specialty store like GNC (which can be intimidating) to acquire them. I consider them an absolute must in altering your intake and eating habits. Some of them even taste pretty darn good to the point you might soon thinking of them as a treat. Some of the designer whey's (bit more expensive) you'd have a hard time telling the difference between them and a glass of chocolate milk in terms of taste, aside from the slight whey aftertaste.

45% will lower a mobs chance to hit to the floor up to and including +5. Additional defense is useful in the face of debuffs, or against mobs that have tohit buffs of their own.

Very few toons have any kind of (or at least significant) defense debuff resistance, which means given the obscene amount of defense debuffs that enemies throw around it is often a good idea to have excess protection.

At the same time, few teams rely soley upon defense as mitigation. In your case as an emp you have regen aura and direct heals, so pushing beyond softcap may be unnecessary for the majority of your playtime. ymmv.

Is singly currently plagued by the pet bug that makes him prefer melee range despite having no melee attacks (see phantasm)?

Ideally this bug will eventually be sorted out...hopefully. In the mean time it plays a factor in my pet centric preferences.