MallardDuck

Duck Melee would be a fabulous idea!

I have been using the Achilles Proc plus a second Achilles -Def/Recharge plus the Rag Proc, Posi Proc, basic recharge enhancement & basic knockup enhancement. It is a wonderful power as it keeps all foes within melee range, reduces defense and resistance and keeps everybody flying up unable to attack.

I've always thought that selling (for a hefty price) a 4th "mutant" build that allows a character to keep badges and accolade powers and such while choosing new powersets within the chosen AT might be a reasonable compromise. I would think the build would require a total releveling to 50 to keep the game active at the lower levels. But maybe the incarnate unlocks could carry forward. There would be no loss of enhancements as a build add-on. The cooldown period between switching back and forth from the 4th build would need to be crazy long. And adding a build might be technically easier than other proposals.

From a "choice" standpoint - the developers already allow us to rename, re-costume, change genders, change body size, change from hero to villain and back again, add wings and tails, add & subtract all sorts of side powers like invisibility, flight, healing, etc and so on. It appears the devs would like to offer as much flexibility and choice as possible. So allowing a swap from say, Willpower to Bio Armor doesn't seem like a huge deal to me game-wise. If it is technically challenging or impossible then that is another matter entirely.

I'm not sure there are many, if any characters, that I would spend the money to change in such a manner. But I don't think the idea is terribly inconsistent with all the other options given to us as players.

As a person who makes nothing but bird toons - webbed feet, a bird tail, couple more beak choices (a really long beak for example) and feathered arms would be wonderful! Those 4 items are difficult to replicate at present.

This is a brilliant idea!!

I don't think the developers are envisioning a person popping over to Freedom for a costume contest and then popping back to the "Nebula" server. I honestly think it will only apply to events like incarnate trials and the new sewer trial and such. It will simply pull participants from across all servers to fill out a particular trial team.

My thought was that cross-server teaming would apply to all the trials and task forces that you currently queue up for. So that folks in less populated servers could run trials more easily. Basically you would enter the queue and the queue would pull from all servers. But who knows.

Certain level 10 PVP Enhancements are still selling fairly high - simply because there isn't any level 10 stuff to convert into the desired enhancements. So there is another option that isn't too labor intensive.

I've always felt the problem with Blasters wasn't that they needed either more survivability or more damage. The problem to me seems to be how easy it is to put together a really bad combination of primary and secondary powers. With scrappers, for example, you have an offensive set and a defensive set no matter what you pick. So it is hard to ever go wrong. But with Blasters you can make a Radiation Blast / Energy Manipulation combo (like I did - because it sounded so cool) and end up with 12 attack powers, multiple power boosts and one fairly lame single target stun. I can't possibly even use 12 attack powers. This is the one toon I have on which I skipped hasten because why would I need hasten. At any given moment I have 7 or 8 powers ready to fire off. But I have nothing that helps keep me alive. On top of that my one really powerful attack drains all my endurance - making the toon even more vulnerable. It is just a spectacularly bad pairing. Being in possession of a dozen wonderful attacks adds no value. All a toon really needs is 3-5 good attack powers. I have way too much frosting and barely any cake.

I do enjoy my Archery / Devices Blaster. Not because Devices is all that spectacular. But I have a few very good attacks in Blazing Arrow, Aimed Shot and Rain of Arrows. Which is all I really need on the offensive side of the equation. And then I have some powers that I can use to stay alive (caltrops, web grenade, explosive arrow, cloaking device, taser, etc.) So the pairing works.

To me the issue then is how easy it is to bungle a blaster compared to how hard it is to bungle most other AT's. Which is why people have such wildly different experiences with Blasters. Some Blaster combinations work great. Other combinations seem impossibly flawed. And those flawed combinations are bound to skew Blaster numbers below the average. I think offering more secondaries like Devices would mitigate this a bit. But no way to really prevent the problem at this stage of the game.

Just my two cents......

I would agree that Martial Arts and Shield Defense is a terrific combination. My son put together such a character for me and in the Mids program it looked like it would be okay but nothing great. But the two sets work really well together. I also added in Fire Ball from the epic pool. So I have very good single target attacks and then cycle through Dragon's Tail, Fire Ball and Shield Charge for AOE. What makes it work so well is that Dragon's Tail recharges fast and keeps everyone knocked down and close. The extra critical chance from Eagle's Claw is also an occasional bonus. It is probably one of my best all-around damage-producing scrappers. With great defense on top of it all.

The Burn power scattering everyone on my scrapper drives me crazy as well. But I've been thinking about trying the new Spectral interface power that adds a decent chance to immobilize (4-10%) on every attack power. Spectral might naturally lock foes in place enough to make Burn useful. Just a thought.....

For what it is worth - the original patch notes just said "confirmed" as a hero or villain. Which is pretty vague. The "reinforced" wording was added a day or two later after people complained. It's not that big of a deal but it certainly could have been handled and explained quite a bit better.

The patch notes on this change in rewards for the SSA also don't tell you much. Just says you have to have a "confirmed" hero or villain. I assumed that having the frenzy power and tip mission badge was confirmation enough that my level 50 toon was a villain - but that is actually not the case. So even reading the patch notes aren't much help with this.

The patch notes just say "confirm" your alignment. Seems like a little more detail about what that actually involves would have been really helpful. My villain has been a villain for quite a while, has the frenzy power and has earned the tip mission villain badge. But has obviously never "reinforced" his alignment with a second set of tip missions. Seems like he is a "confirmed" villain to me. But obviously not. Now I've lost 2 villain merits which kind of irks me. Not a huge deal - but still......

Support told me you have to run 10 tip missions + morality mission to become a hero/villain and then an additional 10 tip missions + morality mission to "reinforce" the alignment before you will be able to get an A-merit now from the SSA.

After getting denied 2 villain merits tonight on a level 50 villain with the frenzy power and badge for becoming a villain via the tip missions - I was told you can now only get a hero/villain merit from the SSA if you have completed a second set of 10 tip missions that reinforces the current alignment. So you'll need to run 20 hero or villain tip missions now before the SSA drops an A-merit. Which seems quite wrong to make this change with no warning or discussion.

Would also vote for DM/Invul. Add in Fire Ball, a Judgement attack and the Destiny heal/regen power and everything is just off the charts amazing. Almost unkillable.

Kangstor - how are you getting back to the contact so quickly then if not by the exit?

Nice time by the way!

My current best time on the Signature Story Arc is 7 minutes 35 seconds on a claws scrapper with invisibility.

I'm sure it can be beat. Curious to know other times!

Agree 100% with MajorTractor. Psi Defense isn't something to reach for. But did want to point out that the psi hole can be addressed on an Invulnerability toon.

I actually find Willpower's terror protection and the lack of terror protection with Invulnerability to be a more noticeable issue in common play. Longbow bosses can really make life hard for Invulnerability toons. That seems a bigger plus for Willpower to me than Psi protection. (And you're probably not going to take Clarion just for terror protection.)

And you can fill that psionic hole to a large degree on an Invulnerability toon. There are 5 powers you can fill with Impervium Armors which grant 1.88 psi defense with just 3 enhancements. And with enough cash you can get 5% psi defense from Apocalypse and 5% psi defense from Soulbound Allegiance (if you get a pet). Add in pool power defenses and you can get your psi defense above 30%. May not be worth it - but it is possible.

Lemur

I agree completely with your claim that Willpower is much easier and cheaper to make awesome. And I suspect for the majority of builds Willpower is a much better bang for the buck. But it seems that once you cross into the "super-awesome" realm you can throw money at Invulnerability more effectively than you can throw money at Willpower. You can buy regen and psy defense but you can't buy -def resistance for example. So I think the money spent on the build is a big factor in answering the OP's question. Willpower probably outperforms on "normal" builds while Invulnerability probably outperforms on the highest level builds. But that is just my gut feeling from playing the two sets.

Terror resistance is certainly one plus for Willpower!

Mallard

With perma-Dull Pain I can achieve regeneration totals on my Invulnerability scrapper in the mid 30's. And the Destiny heal adds an enormous amount of regeneration if you choose to go with that. Psy defense is also available in certain expensive sets. So it just seems slightly easier to shore up holes in Invulnerability than in Willpower. Increasing defense based on the size of mobs, capped hit points, capped S/L resistance, good -def resistance, good resistance to other more exotic damage - that stuff can be more challenging to get. So I would also give a slight edge to Invulnerability.