Luminara

And so will you. Which really blows your entire argument out of the water, doesn't it, because you're basing your complaint on exclusivity or lack of availability, which doesn't exist.

Better question, why isn't there an all female unit named (and colored) like Argiope aurantia?

So lovely. *sigh*

Here here! I was just invited to a team of five other players running a test on an AE story arc, at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time, and had fun. That cut 30 minutes off of the time I was attempting to accrue on the Shadow Shard day job badge.

OUTRAGEOUS!

Split the servers now, before more people have fun! We can't have these "teams" running around like this, it's disruptive, especially at such an early hour in the morning!

Consistently and without hesitation.

But they did make that money from other players who kept their accounts active and earned those rewards. That sets the precedent and ground rules, that veteran rewards are purchasable with exactly one currency-- time accrued on an active account. As such, NCSoft is not obligated to sell veteran rewards for any other form of currency. Nor is anyone entitled to purchase those rewards with any other form of currency.

We have players who keep their accounts active just to chat on the forums. They don't log into the game for months, but they keep paying just so they can talk here.

But that's neither here nor there. Whether or not some players pay their subscription fees regularly strictly to accumulate veteran rewards is irrelevant. What is relevant is that we have many, many players who maintain their accounts not only to play but also to build time toward veteran rewards. They, we (i include myself in this group), keep accounts active for that month here and there when interest has waned, time has not permitted play or real life has intruded, and that is why veteran rewards were implemented, what they were designed to accomplish.

You're offering 1/10th, or less, the cash value (based on subscription fees) for those veteran rewards and they're likely to lose your subscription sooner because you no longer have that carrot on a stick to coax you into renewing your subscription if/when you get bored. Additionally, since you would presumably have everything you wanted, you'd have nothing to retain your interest once you got bored with the things you purchased.

No, they don't make more money.

Yes. Vehemently. If you want those rewards, you pay for them with the same currency that everyone else has had to pay for them. Accrued time on an active account. No-one is entitled to getting them sooner or for less than anyone else, including you, or me, for any reason.

Which then leads to complaints about "all" of the veteran rewards being "crap" by the players who picked what they wanted early. It can also be argued that more customers would cancel their accounts sooner, since they "got what they wanted" and saw nothing to encourage them to continue to subscribe. Or people who only kept their accounts active for one quarter of every year, just so they could get whatever new rewards were released, thus depriving the company of three fourths of their potential revenue.

Veteran rewards serve two purposes-- little gestures of appreciation to people who keep their accounts active, and enticement for players to continue to keep their accounts active.

Those are the reasons veteran rewards exist. That is their purpose, reward and enticement. Change how they're awarded and you change that purpose, and they no longer have meaning or value as veteran rewards, nor as incentive to maintain an account.

I work a low wage job, washing dishes and scrubbing floors. I was forced to let my account lapse for a year due to HDD failure and unemployment. No-one knows better than I do how frustrating it can be to look at upcoming rewards and know that it'll be months or years before I can have them, but I still don't, and never will, support any change to the veteran rewards system because it doesn't need to be changed. It's fair, it's reasonable and it works. Changing them in any way is a lose-lose situation for NCSoft and the developers, and most of the players.

Translation matrix engaged.

"Dear NCSoft and development team,

Despite my failure to keep my subscription active in order to qualify for veteran rewards, and thereby depriving you of between $30 and $45 for each three month period, I believe you should sell me those same rewards for $3, a discount of 90% or more, and allow me to access them immediately. The fact that everyone else has had to pay that $30-45 and wait for up to five and a half years for their veteran rewards should not, in any way, sway your decision.

In short, gimme stuff, and thanks for being stupid, gullible and terrible at math and finances. Suckers.

Love,
BB"

Translation matrix disengaged.

No.

No. Activation checks are made each time the power is activated if it's a click. Doesn't matter if the time between checks is less than 10s. Only toggles are subject to that limitation.

Every target is checked individually. If a proc rolls a successful hit on a target, it activates on that target. It will not activate on adjacent targets. It can activate on more than one target at a time, if it has successful hit rolls on other targets. It's exactly like hit rolls for AoEs/cones, it's just locked at a lower chance to hit.

Depends on whether or not you're giving up a "crucial" enhancement to fit the proc in. If a proc would average out to less damage, or force you to sacrifice recharge time or endurance reduction that you can't afford to sacrifice, then it's not worth it. If the average damage with proc(s) is higher and you're not giving anything up to use it (them), it's worth it.

I have three damage procs slotted in Tenebrous Tentacles on my TA/Dark defender. It's extremely worthwhile in that power because it has low base damage and takes a comparatively long time to deal that damage. However, I only have two procs in Night Fall on that same character, and have the other four slots dedicated to damage, accuracy, endurance and recharge, because adding one more proc would not compensate for the increased recharge time/endurance usage or reduced damage output.

This is all irrelevant, though, because the powers you're asking about are all subject to the 10s rule. They will only check for proc activation once every 10s while active. But targeted AoEs, PBAoEs and cones with immediate effects, such as Neutron Bomb, Irradiate or Tenebrous Tentacles work as I describe above, procs can check as often as you can get the power to activate again.

They did something similar twice in the past, found that fewer names than they expected were freed up.

I'd prefer that they didn't. I like having unique character names.

I started a TA/Rad defender a couple of weeks ago, colored the blasts whitish-yellow and picked up the name Ultrasolar on the first attempt.

A month before that, I decided to make a TA/Sonic defender and wanted to "be prepared" with a list of names, so I thought of three, Ultrasonia, Ultrasonja and Ultrasonya. Turned out all three were available. All three on two different servers, so there were actually six available. I took the Ultrasonias and left the rest for other players.

Frostglow, Infinity Effect, Dazzle Girl, Jewel of the Empire, Lady Nemesis, Eisensoldat (German for Iron Soldier), all names I've picked up within the last year.

My experiences lead me to disagree.

Practically all of the English language is based on, or stolen from, other languages. We have very few words which are unique to our tongue. Why not use Latin, or Egyptian, or German, or Greek, or Mayan, or any other language, considering that most of the words you're going to use have their roots in those other languages anyway?

Contrast this with my previously posted build. In this case, I not only have no purples planned, I'm specifically avoiding purples because none of the purple sets meet the goals I set for this build (primarily +Melee Defense). Even if I did acquire purples with this character, I wouldn't use them.

Whether purples are worth it is entirely different from player to player, and even from build to build.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Parthenia: Level 50 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Trick Arrow
Secondary Power Set: Dark Blast
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Flash Arrow -- Cloud-ToHitDeb:30(A), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb:30(3), Cloud-Acc/Rchg:30(3), Cloud-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg:30(5), Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(5)
Level 1: Dark Blast -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:30(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:31(7), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:32(7), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:31(9), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:31(9)
Level 2: Gloom -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:32(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:31(11), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:31(11), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:32(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:30(13)
Level 4: Glue Arrow -- TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow:49(A)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A), Jump-I:50(15), Jump-I:50(15)
Level 8: Poison Gas Arrow -- FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg:50(A), FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg:50(17), FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg:50(17), FtnHyp-Sleep/EndRdx:50(19), FtnHyp-Plct%:50(19)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB:10(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+:25(50)
Level 12: Acid Arrow -- Achilles-ResDeb%:18(A)
Level 14: Swift -- Run-I:50(A)
Level 16: Tenebrous Tentacles -- DampS-Rchg/EndRdx:50(A), Range-I:50(21), Range-I:50(23), TotHntr-Dam%:34(25), Posi-Dam%:34(25), Cloud-%Dam:16(27)
Level 18: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(21), RechRdx-I:50(23)
Level 20: Night Fall -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:49(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:49(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:49(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:49(31), Posi-Dam%:41(33), Cloud-%Dam:16(33)
Level 22: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:29(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:29(33)
Level 24: Disruption Arrow -- RechRdx-I:50(A)
Level 26: Oil Slick Arrow -- Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg:50(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(27), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), Ragnrk-Dmg:50(34), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(34)
Level 28: Ice Arrow -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold:15(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:27(29), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:27(29), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:11(36)
Level 30: Dark Pit -- Amaze-Acc/Rchg:50(A), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(37), Amaze-Stun/Rchg:50(37), Amaze-Stun:50(39), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun:50(39)
Level 32: EMP Arrow -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold:24(A), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:24(39), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:27(40), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(40)
Level 35: Life Drain -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:38(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:38(36), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:38(36), Dct'dW-Heal:38(37), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:38(40)
Level 38: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx:41(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg:41(42), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:41(42), RedFtn-Def:41(43), RedFtn-EndRdx:41(43), LkGmblr-Rchg+:25(43)
Level 41: Oppressive Gloom -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:44(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:44(42), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx:44(45), Stpfy-Stun/Rng:44(45), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:44(45)
Level 44: Soul Transfer -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg:47(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:47(46), Stpfy-Stun/Rng:47(46), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:47(46), Stpfy-KB%:47(48)
Level 47: Moonbeam -- Mantic-Acc/Dmg:49(A), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx:49(48), Mantic-Dmg/ActRdx/Rchg:49(48), Mantic-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:49(50), Mantic-Dam%:49(50)
Level 49: Dark Embrace -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:15(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth:43(A)
Level 2: Rest -- EndMod-I:50(A)
Level 1: Vigilance



This is my main character.

Everything. I spend most of my time solo, but when I do play with a team, I want to be absolutely certain I'm contributing as well and much as possible. I hunt GMs on occasion (haven't successfully defeated one yet, but i keep trying). I play at +0 or -1/x6 or x8/+Bosses/-AVs (AV fights don't interest me, at all). I meander into Bloody Bay, Warburg or RV once in a while. Any time I'm thinking about playing this game, this is the character I'm most likely to be considering. I have other characters with purples (including an Ill/Rad with perma-Hasten/AM and almost perma-PA), but I don't play this character for or because of the purples, I just end up getting purples because I play her so much. I logged out last night with ~200,000,000 more influence than I had when I logged in that evening. What else am I going to do with it, other than buy purples?

But that may not answer your question, so I'll explain why I'm using purples in this build.

I had leveled my Bots/TA up to the 40s and started playing around with Soul Tentacles and Night Fall, and I was really enjoying having those two cones. I experimented with them and found that I could match the ranges and slot them both with procs and they worked very well together. So I decided that a TA/Dark defender would be an interesting project.

Originally, this build only had one purple set planned, the Fortunata Hypnosis set in PGA, and that was only because it's dirt cheap. I neither planned nor expected to get any other purples for this character. I didn't even have Hasten in the first few versions of this build.

Over time, I accumulated a nice sum of influence, new IO sets were released and I re-evaluated my build, and found that I could improve the character's performance across the board if I made a few changes, such as picking up Hasten to help alleviate the nasty recharge times in TA, and I realized that I could afford the Absolute Amazement set in Dark Pit. Adding that set helped because it allowed me to change the way I had other powers slotted, such as Tenebrous Tentacles, which I could then slot the way you see above, rather than trying to fit in Accuracy and Damage in addition to the Range, Recharge, Endurance Reduction and procs. It was a cascade effect, adding that one purple set, that changed the build in a way that filtered down through all of my other powers.

More time passed and I had again built up more influence than I knew what to do with. Not through farming, or running TFs during double XP weekends, but simply by playing, almost entirely solo. I actually had enough to buy my first truly expensive purple set, the Ragnaroks in OSA. Once again, that one change (it was previously slotted with three Dam/Rchg, one Dam/End and one Rchg/End) had an impact on the entire build, allowing me to shift more slots around and change the slotting on other powers again.

For this build, purples offer two bonuses which make the way I want to play it more viable. +Accuracy, which allows me to forgo slotting that in other powers, and +Recharge, which allows me to cycle TT and NF more quickly (i really, really enjoy many versus one (critters versus me) fights, rather than one on one or eight on one (team versus single foe)). Those were goals I had before I started acquiring purples, but purples do achieve those goals, so I started using them.

Now I'm sitting on another pile of influence and considering another purple set. I have a new goal, to get Hasten down under 119.27s recharge, so it will be permanent. The character has evolved and previous goals (enough Accuracy to allow me to slot TT in this way, for example) have been met, so I've set new goals. Perma-Hasten is one of those new goals, and another purple set will put me one step closer to that goal.

It's worth it if they enhance the enjoyment you get from playing a character, if you have specific goals for a character's build and can meet some or all of those goals with purples, or if they allow you to change a character in such a way that it improves the entire build even if you didn't have that in mind as a goal.

It's not worth it if all you want them for is to wave your set bonus list in other peoples' faces, if you haven't figured out exactly what you're trying to accomplish with a build, or if they don't help you reach the goals you do have.

...

I'd completely forgotten that we have that functionality now. Thank you. That saves me two respecs and quite a bit of time running to and from one of the special arbiters.

The Swan Device is armed, Operation Redwing Sioux is go. I repeat, Operation Redwing Sioux is go, payload release is approved.

I go boom now.

The arcs that I prefer to run through Ouroboros are in the 1-14 and 15-19 ranges. The ToHit bonus from Beginner's Luck makes it easier to get by with less than optimal slotting, attacks deal slightly more damage proportionate to critter HP and critter attacks deal less damage proportionate to player character hit points, so the whole process is smoother.

I'm thinking of using this build to do the Ouroboros stuff, then respecing into the preferred build when I finish and go back to leveling.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 25 Technology Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Secondary Power Set: Traps
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Medicine

Villain Profile:
Level 1: X-Ray Beam -- Mael'Fry-Dmg/Rchg:28(A), Mael'Fry-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:28(3), Ruin-Dmg/EndRdx:28(5), Ruin-Dmg/Rchg:28(9), Ruin-Acc/Dmg:28(13)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx:28(A)
Level 2: Irradiate -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:28(A), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:28(3), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:28(5), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:28(9), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg:25(13), UndDef-Rchg/EndRdx:28(15)
Level 4: Neutrino Bolt -- Mael'Fry-Acc/Dmg:28(A), Dmg-I:25(15), Dmg-I:25(21), Ruin-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:28(23)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I:25(A), Jump-I:25(7), Jump-I:25(7)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I:25(A)
Level 10: Acid Mortar -- Acc-I:25(A), UndDef-Rchg/EndRdx:28(11), UndDef-Rchg:28(11)
Level 12: Aid Other -- Empty(A)
Level 14: Swift -- Run-I:25(A)
Level 16: Force Field Generator -- DefBuff-I:25(A), DefBuff-I:25(17), DefBuff-I:25(17)
Level 18: Cosmic Burst -- Mael'Fry-Dmg/Rchg:28(A), Mael'Fry-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:28(19), Ruin-Acc/Dmg:28(19), Ruin-Dmg/EndRdx:28(21), Ruin-Dmg/Rchg:28(23)
Level 20: Stamina -- Efficacy-EndMod:28(A)
Level 22: Caltrops -- TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow:28(A)
Level 24: Aid Self -- Heal-I:25(A), Heal-I:25(25), Heal-I:25(25)
Level 26: [Empty]
Level 28: [Empty]
Level 30: [Empty]
Level 32: [Empty]
Level 35: [Empty]
Level 38: [Empty]
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge



I'll have to respec twice, once into this build (i already started The Swan Device and have her at level 5, then back to the planned build, but I have four veteran reward respecs that I'd likely never use for any other reason, so it won't be a hardship to use a couple of them for this.

Masterminds use 1.0 Slow mod, Ranged and Melee. Defenders and controllers use 1.25 Ranged and Melee. Every other AT uses either 1.0 or 0.8.

Defenders have 0.125 mods across the board, Ranged and Melee, for -Dam, -Res, -Def and -ToHit. Controllers use 0.100 mods for all of those. Masterminds only share controller values for Melee -ToHit, -Dam and -Def, the rest of the listed debuffs sit at 0.075.

In no case is a mastermind's debuff potential comparable to that of a defender, and in only a few cases is it even as high as that of controllers.

No you!

And that's precisely the reason TA needs to be improved. Players should not be tied to specific pool powers, secondaries, temp powers or inspirations in order to use this powerset to effectively mitigate alphas or provide sufficient extended combat mitigation to allow slower teams or solo players to progress without counting down the seconds to defeat.

"You need Hasten" is not an acceptable answer to TA's problems.

"You need Maneuvers" is not an acceptable answer to TA's problems.

"You need Medicine" is not an acceptable answer to TA's problems.

"You need Lucks" is not an acceptable answer to TA's problems.

"You need Dark Blast" is not an acceptable answer to TA's problems.

No other primary is reliant on these types of specific build patterns in order to be used to defend a team. Not a single other one. Only TA. And that, sir or ma'am, is why TA needs to be improved.

"You need the right teammates" or "You need teammates with the right builds" is not an acceptable answer to TA's problems.

We have 40% -Res without even putting any effort into it, in addition to the 1000% -Regen in EMP. In my experience, in teams ranging from 8 to 2 (me and one other player), with my TA/A as the only debuffer, that 40% is sufficient. I've defeated AVs and GMs in duos with my TA/A, without using EMP Arrow at all, and see no reason why we need more -Regen, other than simply to make AV/GM fights so mind-numbingly fast and easy that players are napping through them with Brawl on auto.

It was, originally. It was changed to a foe-targeted power because the developers felt that having to constantly switch between types of placement was awkward. I agree with that assessment and decision. Especially considering Glue's sticky property (no pun intended (okay, maybe a little pun intended)), which makes it possible to pull an almost unlimited number of foes through it and have it affect every single one of them for the full 30s.

Functionally, it serves little purpose to make it a location-targeted debuff, as there's little need to pull in this game.

Defenders and controllers share the same Slow modifiers.

Used to be, was changed for the same reason Glue was.

It would also make it potentially less useful and more difficult to use, because the PGA effect isn't lingering, it's a one shot deal. At least with foe-targeting, you're assured of hitting something, as opposed to location-targeting which can result in critters leaving the AoE before it even spawns and thus avoiding the effect entirely.

Overkill if Placate is added to Flash, and it would be horribly exploitable in conjunction with that Placate. PGA to Sleep everything, deal some damage, Flash to Placate everything, deal some damage, PGA, damage, Flash, damage, etc.

I suspect that it's a holdover from when Acid dealt much more damage, which should have been addressed when the damage was reduced.

Resistance isn't a global buff, it doesn't affect all damage types simultaneously and equally. Every damage type has a corresponding resistance, and one damage type's resistance does not increase or affect any other damage type's resistance. As a result of that, there aren't actually that many critters in the game which have both a specific damage type and resistance to that specific damage type, and of those which do, they are intentionally designed to be more difficult for everyone.

Additionally, I strongly disagree with the concept of reducing TA's -Res, especially for the purpose of making it slightly more effective (when taking into account the totals you recommend) against the hardest targets in the game, because it effectively cuts TA's -Res contribution in half for the 90%+ remainder of the game.

We don't need more -Regen (1000% already in EMP Arrow). Empathy, FF, Sonic and Storm all get by just fine without -Regen. Kinetics only has 50% -Regen and it's not suffering. -Regen's contribution has continued to be grossly overrated over the past couple of years, despite the reversal of the decision to increase AV and GM regeneration rates not long after they bumped them.

And the power becomes drastically worse for low level players who can only use it on one out of every two to four spawns. We need to fix that problem, not compound it by increasing recharge times across the board.

And then you've blown through nearly half your endurance bar just putting Acid, Disruption and Glue on the spawn (and you do need to use Glue, or OSA, otherwise the spawn just walks (or runs, thanks to the AI bug) out of the AoE) for a measly 20% -Res.

That's not an improvement.

As I've stated twice already, the majority of what we fight in this game are weak, easily defeated foes with no or minor resistances. Gutting TA's -Res in order to make it slightly more effective against the toughest foes in the game just destroys it for the entire rest of the game, and it's just not worth it. Not for the endurance it costs and the requirement of using one or more other applications of powers to ensure that it even affects the foes (Entangling, Glue, Ice, OSA, EMP).

I've been staring at this build in Mids' now for several days, and... I like it. Capped Melee/Smashing/Lethal Defense after taking Seeker Drones into account, nearly capped on Energy/Negative, good AoE/Ranged/Fire/Cold and even pretty respectable Psi Defense. Endurance usage is very manageable, since I only have one toggle (CJ), good travel speed... and it's a cheap build. Recharge times are satisfactory, despite having spoiled myself by having a TA/Dark with Hasten only one second away from perma.

I can get those two LotG +Recharge IOs by locking the character at 25 and running Flashbacks for merits to do random rolls until I get them, and that should also provide me with enough infamy to purchase whatever I don't get as drops or random rolls.

I'm envisioning this character as a living embodiment of a nuclear projectile. She'll drop right into the middle of a spawn and obliterate it with AoEs and Trip Mines. Leveling up to 18 will be rough, since I'll only have four attacks (X-Ray and Irradiate, plus Sands of Mu and Nemesis Staff), but once I get Cosmic Burst, it should go more smoothly. Locking XP at 25 will be a little frustrating, being denied the second AoE that I could get at 26, but I want the LotG IOs to be the lowest level possible so I still have the benefit for as far down as I can when I have to exemplar.

I'm still a little torn on Aid Self versus Triage Beacon. I could, with Health, TB and some set bonuses, build up enough +Regen to get my regeneration rate down to ~2.5s per tick, and that would certainly be preferable for fighting hard targets (when i may not have the luxury, or chance, to use Aid Self) and saving endurance, but at the same time, it would also mean tying myself to a specific location for up to 90s at a time, which is counter to the way I want to play this character (nuclear bombs do not wait, or pull!). So for now, I'll plan for Aid Self, as it seems to be the most flexible option.

Health is just a placeholder, I don't actually have anything else to squeeze in there, at least nothing that would be beneficial. Could pick up Teleport Foe, but as I said, I don't want to bring them to me, I want to drop in on them and blow them to bits. I could also save up for a level 10 Blessing of the Zephyr -KB, put Super Jump in that spot and slot the -KB IO in that, then move that extra slot out of CJ, drop Scorpion Shield, pick up Focused Accuracy and two-slot that for another 5% +Movement... but then you'd all look at me funny and wonder why I was still using Hurdle + CJ for travel when I had a perfectly good travel power, and I really don't want to get into that kind of debate.

But yeah, I think I'm happy with this build. No matter how many times I try to tweak it, I keep coming back to this one. I'm especially pleased with how inexpensive it's going to be. I don't normally plan for purples, but I do consider them and make alternate builds with them as possibilities. With this build, I actually don't want any purples because they'd compromise the capped Defenses.

I think this is going to be fun... if I can stomach the first 17 levels. *twitch*

Alpha and extended combat situations, and low level power availability.

Standard, every spawn alpha mitigation in TA is Flash Arrow and PGA. And it's not enough. If you choose to let someone else take the alpha, the only mitigation you can provide is the -ToHit from Flash. Your other option is to take the alpha yourself, for which you have only PGA to back up Flash, and that just is not sufficient for large team play.

To put it another way, you can either offer a teammate the equivalent of unslotted Dispersion Bubble (that's if you slot Flash up to 56% ToHit Debuff) and let him/her take the alpha, or you can try to take the alpha yourself with that same unslotted Dispersion Bubble and an unslotted APP shield (roughly equal to the mitigation PGA provides). Try it on a team of 8, see what happens.

Now, you can rely on EMP and OSA in the later levels, but those are poor solutions to TA's problems. The KD in OSA is only 5% chance per 0.2s, so there's not only no guarantee that any foes in a spawn will fall down before they can alpha, there's not even a guarantee that any foes will fall down during the entire duration of OSA. And both OSA and EMP have recharge times so long that it's impossible (short of having massive +Recharge buffs, which would obviously be coming from teammates, which in turn, due to the powersets which offer those +Recharge buffs, renders your use of EMP or OSA to mitigate the alpha completely unnecessary) to use them on every spawn, or even every other spawn. At best, an average player can expect to use one or the other every three to five spawns. The rest of the time, it's Flash and PGA, and a lot of pain for someone (you or whomever is tanking).

Secondary is practically irrelevant, because by the time you can use any of your attacks, the spawn has already done whatever damage it was going to do.

The second problem, extended combat mitigation, comes from the lack of stacking effects (-Dam, -ToHit) and almost nonexistent -Recharge. TA has no buffs and no heals, so incoming damage is a constant factor, with no way to reduce it further or alleviate it after it arrives. Sooner or later, the incoming damage will accumulate to the degree of critical failure. That means one or more teammates, or you, die. All of the other primaries either provide sufficient mitigation to permit base regeneration to compensate for the incoming damage, or provide buffs which remove the incoming damage. TA just slows it down and hopes that the team will defeat the spawn before the spawn defeats the team.

This can be partially resolved with "the right" secondary powerset or EMP Arrow, but even then, you're still working with much stricter limitations than any other type of defender. EMP Arrow, again, has a long recharge and won't be available for every spawn, and even the best mitigation you can provide via your secondary won't reduce or repair the incoming damage enough to allow normal regen to keep players alive because when you use your secondary to mitigate damage, you're limited by endurance.

Even presuming that everyone else on the team has their own mitigation and are actively using it (essentially, eight solo players who happen to be communicating and working together perfectly), TA brings less to the table than any other primary, in terms of damage mitigation. Sure, we can boast that if we have enough +Recharge, we can provide the most -Res, and if we get lucky, we can roast a spawn with OSA, and if we chose the "right" secondary/APP, and if we manipulate the AI (using the delay when are supposed to switch between ranged and melee attacks to buy extra time), and if we engage in some minor exploitative behavior (firing OSA around a corner, or abusing the "run away from debuffs" bug), and if we're fortunate enough to be on a team of experienced players, and if we've taken the Medicine/Leadership pools... if we do a whole lot of compensating, we can make TA look good or better. But making it look good doesn't fix it.

The third issue, power availability at lower levels, is just as serious. The recharge times on Glue and PGA are ridiculous. You can pull some foes into Glue, but PGA is a one shot power, no lingering effects, and you're left with little to nothing, except Flash Arrow, if you want to continue before those powers recharge. PGA's recharge time is especially egregious because it's intended to be a key mitigation power, yet it's restricted to one use every other spawn (and that's if you're solo. on a team, you might not be able to use it until every third or fourth spawn) until you hit level 22 and have it slotted with plenty of +Recharge, or if you realized the deficiencies in TA and dipped into the Speed pool for Hasten to do some of that compensating I was talking about before. Glue's recharge time is even more prohibitive, and ridiculous considering how essential it is to low level progress and survival, and the almost nonexistent -Recharge it provides.

Those are TA's problems. It doesn't provide anyone with sufficient alpha mitigation, it doesn't provide enough mitigation to keep anyone alive in extended combat (AV fights, for example) and it's practically unusable at lower levels due to the recharge times on critical powers. And the fact that it can improve damage output doesn't compensate for these problems because even that aspect is restricted by Acid's craptastic radius, Disruption's 10 target limit/60s recharge time/frustratingly high endurance cost and OSA being bugged and broken for so long that it's become a freaking internet meme.

That said, I'm sure someone will be along shortly to counter everything I've just said, or simply say that I don't know what I'm talking about, or that I'm a fish, or... whatever. This is all pointless anyway. With I17, I18 and GR all in the works, it's unlikely that the developers will have any time to do a balance pass for any powersets right now, or even in the foreseeable future. Rather than let myself get frustrated and start picking fights or saying things I'll regret later, I'm going to go play the damn game.

Geas of the Kind Ones (in Hero Accolades) is 100% +Recharge. So is the Force Feedback proc. You can use either of those to simulate the effect of having AB active.

Alternatively, you could edit the DB, just remember to change it back when you're finished.

Yes. You'll have ~10s of overlapped effects on both powers. Hasten won't activate until the previous application expires. I don't know about AB, I don't have any Empathy characters.

No. You'll still be ~20s short of perma on both, even if you stagger them (you cast, then your friend casts after yours expire). Wait ~10s after each buff expires, then cast. You still end up with ~20s total down time, but splitting it reduces the effective down time to ~10s.

To recap, you should have ~10s overlap on AB (presuming you both recast immediately upon recharge, and that AB stacks with itself), perma-Hasten with ~10s overlap (you can remove two slots from Hasten and still have it perma) and ~10s down time between RAs (presuming staggering with ~10s wait after each buff expires).

Defenders and tanks can solo just as well as any other AT. Build, not AT, is what matters. I recently respeced my TA/Dark/Dark into Soul Transfer and have been trying to get myself killed just to use it, soloing at +0/x8, and I still haven't used it. Build, not AT.

Dark/TA/Mace corruptor. Dark blasts can be recolored to look somewhat like spider webs, Tenebrous Tentacles can be role played as spider legs; TA gives you Entangling, Glue, Acid and Poison, all of which can be role played as spider abilities; Mace Mastery gives you two web powers and a giant spider pet.

Alternately, Dark/Traps/Mace. Same reasons for Dark and the -Res/-Def powers in Traps, and the Mace powers, plus Web Grenade, and you can role play FFG as a silk barrier, Caltrops as little tiny spiders biting at enemies, Trip Mine as an exploding egg sack and Seeker Drones as more little spiders.

And getting that to 50 will unlock Soldiers of Arachnos, which will give you a Crab Spider to play with.