Manowar

First off -- I thought the original version you posted was great with only some small tweaks, then I see your second revision and you had some of them already in it (Pounding Slugfests).

These suggestions are just my opinions, I have been known to be wrong.

Combustion – I would move the last 2 slots somewhere else. Combustion while it is an AoE is not great damage.
Or change them to something else – maybe 2 Superior Tanker ATIO’s (+4% damage), or the last 2 Eradication (3.13% AoE Defense, 1.56% Fire & Cold Defense)

If you move the slots – 1 to Brawl (making it 2 slots)
Move the other to Boxing (making it 2 slots)
Then make them Pounding Slugfests for 2 more 8% Regen bonuses.

Rise to the Challenge
4th/5th Slots
2 Enzyme Exposure (End/ToHitDebuff/DefDebuff)
Or 1 slot Lysosome & Panacea Proc

Super Leap
Change the Jump IO to: Winter’s Gift: Slow Resistance (20%) Level 10

Build Up
3 slots of Adjusted Targeting (2% Dmg Buff & 1.26 Resist(Eng/Neg)
Recharge
ToHitBuff/Rech
ToHitBuff/End/Rech

Or << NOTE: I'm changing the second Hami-Os in the PBAoEs to Acc/Dam/End from Scirocco's for better end reduction.>>

Or just put an End Redux IO in Fire Sword Circle / Combustion
Use the 6th slot by moving them to Taunt – Figure out a way for 1 more slot and get your 4 slot Taunt with Mocking Beratement back for the (1.8% Max End / MezResist(Held) 2.75% / 2.5 % Defense (Smashing/Lethal) & 1.25% Defense (Melee)

Although 3 slotting Perfect Zinger would not be bad with Taunt/Recharge, Taunt/Range & Psi Proc is not bad either, although you may exceed the set bonus for 10% Regen by doing this too. I still love giving mobs a psionic headache when I say -- "pay attention to me."

[ QUOTE ]
Powers that reduce Threat modifier by 1: (According to latest edition of City of Data)

Super Speed
Invisibility
Phase Shift
Superior Invisibility
Group Invisibility
Quantum Flight
Nebulous Form

Powers that do not effect Threat modifier:

Stealth
Grant Invisibility
Cloak of Darkness
Energy Cloak
Arctic Fog
Shadow Fall
Steamy Mist
Cloaking Device (both Blaster and SoA versions)
Mask Presence
Shadow Cloak
All forms of Hide

[/ QUOTE ]

Thank you for clarifying exactly what powers modify Threat Rating.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Stealth or Invisibility makes a tanker unable to get or hold aggro.

[/ QUOTE ]

This one drives me nutters.

[/ QUOTE ]

Does it make you unable, no. This will lower your threat rating by 1 for each application on you from different sources. Thus your Threat modifier when calculating your Aggro is lessened.

To confirm this, open your combat attributes.
On a Tank with Super Speed that is active, their Threat rating will be 3 and not 4.

Now on a Tank who has Stealth, Invisi or has Grant Invis cast on them, check out their Threat rating, is it still a 4? If not then they will make it harder for you maintain aggro as you will have to do more to equal a Tank who does not have those powers active or cast on them.

Are there benefits to their use, yes. The increased Defense you get from their casting/use before you attack is a benefit. Although the stealth component will be lost once you do so. I have not tested to see if the added Defense is suppressed from those powers once you attack. If someone can comment and confirm or disprove this would be helpful.

So there is some truth and some fiction to that Myth.

[ QUOTE ]
We are Brutes- Smash First, Sort out the Bodies later

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't you mean sort out the broken and severed limbs later?

There is nothing like one-shotting an Orange Minion.

It does take a special kind of crazy, the same kind that looked at the old Praetorian Infernal altar room and charged it, giggling at all the choas.

Nice Guide Bill -- a good description of PvP for the common player, and good description of the zone games.

[ QUOTE ]
SailorET's I9 guide to successful and courteous Task Force preparation
...
One great key to completing a task force efficiently is preparation. The lack of inspiration shopping can stall a task force team, possibly even end it altogether. Where can you possibly get vital inspirations like Catch a Breath, Respite, Break Free or Awaken (and their stronger variants)? If you have a SG base with an inspiration storage rack, you can make sure it's stocked beforehand with all of these. Otherwise, you can always make use of the storage space in Wentworth's (if you drag something to a "sale" slot but do not apply a price, it will simply be stored).



[/ QUOTE ]

You didn't mention that you can run to the Arena and buy inspirations there too.

Positron can can take a LOT longer as can the Shard TF's, but generally most are about 3 to 4 hours. If you can ghost through them and don't want to kill everything -- which is the problem with Positron -- a lot of the missions are kill all.

I have been on a Positron TF that was into its 7th hour on the second mission (go figure -- we broke up there). Also on a Manitcore TF (different team) we were killing everything -- it was hour 7 and we were in mission 4. It was getting late -- so we decided to stealth the rest as we could. We completed the TF in about an hour.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I admit I am more of a Tank and Blaster player at heart, and mostly a solo'er, thus my experience with Controllers is limited.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a fairly team reliant build, at least until the 20's. Just be aware.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for the heads up. I play the game with 6 real life friends when I team, and few that login on other servers (Triumph and Liberty) mostly and some online friends, so I should be able to team with someone for those first few levels.

Here is LivingHellfire's guide:

A Fire Blaster's Guide to Fire/Rad Controllers

I admit I am more of a Tank and Blaster player at heart, and mostly a solo'er, thus my experience with Controllers is limited.

But this actually looks to be a good build that I might even be able to play and enjoy.

[ QUOTE ]
Me and a couple of buds are planning to hit the double xp weekend strong with a nice 3 man team. Does anyone have any suggestions on which AT's work best for 3 players?

thanks

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't say for PVP

I started a 3 man team a while ago with 2 real life friends.

Ice/Super Strength Tank
Dark Melee/Regen Scrapper
Illusion/Kinetics Controller

We tend to blow through stuff -- especially safeguard missions with like 10 to 12 minutes left on the clock and nothing is left on the map.

Question -- is the double XP going to happen on the test server before they turn it on for the Live servers?

I bet there are more than a few people with Test Server only characters that would love that.

The press release about the COH RPG indicated it would be a modified system version of the Eden Studios Unisystem. It was also meant to be as direct a translation as you could get for the Online game. Besides Eden is currently working on a generic Super Hero game called Beyond Human, so I don't think they would mix the 2 games.

Other than convention details, we won't know much else until the game is released. Anyone who was accepted into the Playtesting for Eden Stuidos would have most likely had to sign some form of Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA).

Now that all of that has been said ... so you got to play the trainers at level 2. Infernal at Level 2 ... just doesn't seem to be the same.

Wait you guys got a car ... Ok darn it, I want a car or scooter or something. Jumping all over this city is killing my legs and costs a fortune in replacement boots.

---------------------
Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. - Tellania

Part 5 of 5

Name: Stone Thunder
Powers: Stone/Stone (Mutant)
Server: Guardian
Origin: He was born – Michael Sinclair, son of a rural couple living in Mississippi.

Growing up on a farm in a rural area is different than in a city. You learn responsibility early in life, such as getting up early, and doing chores all before breakfast and school. And when it is near times for crops to be harvested you are let off of school for a few days to help with them. Everyone helps, and it isn’t easy work, but it installs in you a good work ethic.

Most people on farms have a green thumb, or can fake it pretty well with all the people around you helping. Then there was Michael. He had a connection, an uncanny sense and ability to deal with the earth and growing.

He was fine up until his teen years, no one noticed the trend at first, but when the land was in bad shape – due to weather or chemical dumping, so was Michael. But when it was lush and green he was a bastion of health, even when seemingly everyone in the community had the flu. It wasn’t until he was in college studying agricultural sciences that someone figured it out, and it wasn’t a doctor or a scientist, or a PhD at the school, but a classmate and cheerleader. It wasn’t one incident as much, just a series of things, and when playing in a football game against a rival college, whose field was being poisoned by a nearby toxic waste dump that it came together. No one else smelled the pollution, no one else could feel the pain, but each step on that field was agony to him, and the doctors could not figure out why. At the Emergency Room he was fine, but when they brought him back to the field for the final minutes of the game, he got sick again.

Michael knew he was different but not how so until that night. When he got sick on the field and fell to his knees, as his hands touched the ground, he felt the pain, felt the poison below him in the earth. Anonymously he reported this to the local health officials, who despite protests by the college and the athletic department, dug a hole in the field and tested the ground water beneath and discovered the toxic leak. This was the beginning of his anonymous crusade, to help the environment and the Earth. But it wasn’t enough. Big Business was always around and ever growing, having vast capitol and influence, it did not care what it destroyed, lives, homes or the earth in the quest for profit.

Outraged that no matter how many letters, petitions or calls he made to the city, county or state officials, nothing was being done, the earth was being eaten up and poisoned by modern businesses. Late one night walking home from a local bar, he walked past one of the new power plants that was recently built – "to better the lives of the community". Rage over took him, he climbed the fence and avoided the minimal security intent on stopping the corruption all by his self. He got into the facility, at first not realizing what was happening. The poisons inside almost killed him, but he was resolute, and fought back the feelings of sickness ... and somehow that sickening feeling - faded. Moving forward he swung his fists at electrical boxes or anything in his way. He managed to get to the main controls of the facility - with klaxons going off everywhere, he wanted to smash the controls and wished he had a sledgehammer with him ... and suddenly the weight in his hands was there. Smiling he swung the hammer over head and crashing down on the consol. Everything sparked and power surged and then died down. Looking around the hammer was there, but not of wood and metal, but impossibly huge and made of stone, as were his hands, encased in what could be called gloves of stone and earth. Coming out of him was some jagged and smooth edge of rock, not painful, just a natural part of him. He felt the earth sigh, and its pain ease at that moment, as the machines stopped and the pollution stopped flowing out of the machines.

Within minutes all of the rock and stone crumbled away from Michael's body, leaving behind some dust and dirt, but nothing more. The facilities guards found him in the ruined control room, but no evidence of a weapon. He was arrested by local police and served some jail time for B&amp;E and property damage. But they could not prove anything else.

Michael now sensed the connection to the earth, to stone, to the living will of ... for lack of a better description, Mother Nature. Though his roots were on the farm and a rural life, his calling was much greater. But he didn’t understand what he was or could do. This search led him to an organization in a place called Paragon City. They helped with classifying super-humans and could teach him about his "super-powers". While he would miss his home in Mississippi, you have to take the first steps, and that step was learning about what you are and what you can do.

For Michael, it all comes down to helping the Earth and helping all those not as gifted as he is.

---------------------
Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. - Tellania

Part 4 of 5

Name: Frozen Guardian
Powers: Ice/Ice (Science)
Server: Champion
Origin: David Harvey was a solider who believed in his country, so when he was of age, he enlisted in the Army. Brought up by his parents to understand and believe in the concepts of right and wrong. At first all was good – in training – but after he graduated from boot camp he started to notice things that we not as black and white as he thought. Special interests and big business as well as political maneuvering dictated more of what the Army was doing than the rightful government. The Army was attacking or defending something per those self-interests and not what was good for the country. This began the disillusionment of David. At first he read up on regulations and began to do the proper thing as per official channels. But the corruption was already in place and most of those channels were closed. He did the best he could, but eventually his outrage got the best of him, his emotions boiling over. This began a series of brawls and other infractions. Any chance of him ever advancing in rank ended one night when on guard duty some unauthorized civilians came into a secure facility and demanded to be let in. It might have been ok, until someone drew a pistol. David opened fire. The stand off ended with the civilians and 2 other guards dead, and David in the hospital for a gunshot wound. Apparently one of the civilians was considered important by somweone andhad some political connections. Private David Harvey was made to look like he committed cold blooded murder. Everyone knew it was a setup, but were powerless to stop it.

At his cout-martial, an opportunity came up, and a plea-bargain was reached, instead of spending time in military prison, David “volunteered” unconditionally to help test a new military research project. The research facility was in a remote location, outside of US National borders, somewhere in the Artic Circle.

They shipped him out immediately. Over a period of months he was tested and probed to determine his physical limits and status before the experiment began. The test involved a series of chemical injections, with some kind of radiation stimulation of the chemicals once it had “gestated” in the test subject after a few days.

As the scientist prepared for the final stages and David was placed in the irradiation chamber and the process begun, an attack occurred. Agents of a private corporation swarmed the facility and killed everyone there. Since David was locked in the irradiation chamber they cruelly left him there, alone and unable to stop the bombardment by the radiation. The process worked, but it was left unchecked and went far beyond the original parameters. No one knows how long David was in there, minutes or hours.

All the military knows is that a jagged hole was made from the inside, bursting out of the chamber, and that water was everywhere. As far as they are concerned the matter is closed and never happened. No one has taken credit for the attack, and the matter was officially erased. Since Private David Harvey 's where about were unknown, and had not come forward to the media they have not persued the issue or said anything.

For a long time David wandered out in the cold of the Artic away from the place of pain and heat. He remembers little other than when still in the irradiation cell his body cooled and the heat stopped, and then he encased in an outer prison of steel and one closer to him of ice, he began fighting anyway he could. Knowing Ice can crack he beat on the walls of the irradiation chamber. But the Ice around him did not crack, but the steel and cement of the wall did. He was free of one prison. Stepping through the wall he was now outside in the artic weather, winds, sleet and snow whipping by, but it wasn’t uncomfortable or cold. It could be hypothermia originally thought. He had a choice he could stay in the not-so uncomfortable cold, or go back into the metal prison and its unnatural heat.

His steps took him away from the now dead facility. This was the beginning of his new life, one that would begin with a long journey. Each step he took was stronger than the last, the farther he was from that facility and the heat of radiation, the stronger he became, not physically as much as in his stamina. Thus he kept walking – until he guesses he fell into the snow exhausted.

David was found 3 months later by explorers, as a man frozen in Ice. Not a cave man and he didn’t have the look of someone of someone afraid of the cold froze them, but sort of a silent man simply asleep. They tried to chip the ice away from him, hoping he may still be alive, but their picks broke under the effort, and the one attempt to blast some of the ice away did nothing ... except awaken him. He eyes opened and he moved as if was in the open air, not encased in ice. Within moments all the ice fell away. Moments of stunned silence passed, before someone rushed up to see if he was ok. You can guess that they weren’t sure – here was a modern day man, encased in ice that could not be broken, who could move in the ice like any other man does in air ... and who no longer had irises or pupils but were all one color, a sort of energy style of glow that came from them.

The explorers were uneasy about this "Frozen Man", and it took some time to establish communication. David’s memory of recent events was spotty at best, and the only description that the explorers could give of what he went through was a sort of Glacial Hibernation. He did help them out for a time in their journey back to civilization. He saved them from more than a few artic disasters, so they gave him the nick-name of Frozen Guardian.

Try as he might, he could not fully understand the explorers. His military training of following orders was at opposite of their curiosity, plus they did show fear him for what he might really be or what he could do.

On their return to Reykjavik, Iceland, David departed company with them. Here he was outside of the United States, in foreign land, mutated, penniless and without purpose. He could never return to the military, he knew that. They could still charge him with evading his sentence or dozen other crimes, there was also the “attackers” of the compound to think about.

So for a while he worked whatever he could find in Reykjavik – on ships, docks, in warehouses, or whatever. It was by chance what happened next, he barely spoke the language having picked up what he could. Most people could speak English, or a version of it, so he got by, but couldn’t read the local stuff. On the way home from a day job, he caught something out of the corner of his eye, something colorful, it was a magazine vendor who happen to have a few comic books laying about, and they were in English.

While it wasn’t the stuff he remembered from his youth it was something. Over the next few months he devoured them, reading any comics he could find, because it was his only source of English in this foreign land. This also got him to thinking about what he was …

Cold didn’t bother him anymore. The local Polar Bear club thought he was a strange American, but honestly those freezing waters had no feel to them, actually it was almost warming. He also knew a few things that he had not advertised to anyone. That trick of encasing himself in Ice was not just a fluke ... he could do it, with a bit of effort, but he could. Late night when working at a meat packing plant he was reminiscing about old movies, like Rocky, so started punching the hanging meat and doing bad Rocky voices. A few minutes into the excersize routine, the hanging meat went flying off its hook. Astonished he looked down at his hands which were incased in what seemed to be gauntlets of ice.

He hid these little secrets for a while. Until one day when out on a fishing trawler, someone went overboard into the freezing waters. David didn’t hesitate and jumped in, never hearing the other crew members screaming out. He swam to the drowning man and brought him back. The crew though stared at him in horror, and while his vision was a little blurry, he didn’t think of it until he realized he was encased in blocks of ice, like an armored suit. But all was not done, for the seas and its denizens were restless. No one can explain why one was so far north or in those cold waters, but a large shark attacked the ship. There had been rumors recently of such attacks but everyone dismissed them as mad ramblings of someone frost bitten. The shark though was huge, and with one bite it took out about 1/8th of the small fishing trawler. Still encased in his Ice Armor, David jumped on the shark. The battle began, it was a titanic fight that no one thought he could win, even with his strange appearance. After many long exhausting minutes, David now looking normal pulled himself on to the deck of what was left of the ship. He was exhausted, but apparently unharmed except for minor scratches, and one dislocated arm. From what he could recall later, the shark bit down on his Ice Gauntleted hand and trashed as hard as it could. David did have one thing though, in his good hand, a device ripped from the flesh of the shark. It had a symbol on it, one he recognized from the attackers on the military outpost he was sentenced to.

Odd coincidence maybe, but many things finally started coming together for him that week. He was a hero of the fisher men, he had fought an impossibly huge shark and survived almost unharmed, and saw an advert in the back of one of his comics, from a company called Crey, one whose symbol and colors matched the symbols on the device he pulled out of the sharks flesh and on the insignias of the attackers on the artic base. The advert was a recruitment page asking for all super powered heroes to come to Paragon City, Rhode Island and become a Hero of the People there and earn a good wage and benefits.

David then knew his purpose, no he wasn’t going to get a job, he was going to move there and study this company, Crey, to find out what they were willing to kill for, and why they are genetically modifying such brutal beasts such as sharks and leaving them in the open waters. Maybe on the way he might be able to help others as always wanted to do in the military, but this time using the strange abilities he now has. This day he knew he was the Frozen Guardian.

---------------------
Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. - Tellania

Part 3 of 5

Name: Roaring Thunder
Powers: Fire/EM (Magic)
Server: Champion
Origin: Sometimes you take for granted what you have. As a teenager you think you are invincible. Kids that are big and strong buy into this even more so. They can handle anything because of their strength. But not everything can be dealt with by strength.

Kellen Tanner was a high school and college football and weight lifting star. He wasn’t good enough to make it into professional sports though, not quick enough, not agile enough he was told. For some this may have dissuaded them. Kellen’s father always said, “the only thing you can do when you fall off a horse is get back up, or else it will trample on you.” So while not a pro-football player he focused on his other area, his strength. This led to him trying out for some body builder contests, which he did ok with. His goal though was in his mind something higher, a goal he nearly achieved. Kellen made it to the try outs for the World’s Strongest Man competition. But that is as far as he got. The try-outs were held that year in Germany, in a scenic but old locale. He made a few friends on the trip and beginning parts of the competition. The competition never happened though, a tragedy struck, or more like an attack. Groups of hooded men broke into the Inn the competitors were at and drugged everyone there, man, woman and beast.

Kellen awoke some time later – in the dead of night, bound up hanging from a large tree. There were hundreds of other captives there, some alive, some just mutilated corpses on the ground. They were on the outer edge of a very palpable evil place. In the center was a large bonfire, and dozens on dozens of robed figures chanting in a hideous tongue. They had an altar covered with blood and dissected body parts. The cultists as Kellen thought of them were sacrificing everyone they captured for some dark ritual. The little German he knew translated the one word they kept repeating, Nacht as Night, but that was about all. No matter how strong he thought he was, he could not break whatever held him there. For the first time in his life he knew despair and realized he was not invincible. The cultists ritually butchered the captives in a quick almost machine-like manner.

It must have been hours of chanting and blood letting later when a few of the dark robes came up and stabbed Kellen with a strange looking sword. While the wound hurt some, time seemed to move like molasses after this. His body would not respond and could not fight them as they unstrung him. The cut him down, carried him to the center of the ritual, strapping him to the bloody altar. Suddenly Kellen heard a sound like a Lion’s roar echo out across the clearing, drowning out of the other sounds, crackling fire, screaming victims or even the foul chanting of the cultists.

And then the chaos erupted. Although he could move his head to look around, hye was not sure he wanted to, already scared beyond thought or words – his mind dwelling on his own upcoming death. Somehow though he managed to move, and turn to see what looked like costumed super heroes rushing amongst the cultists. But the cultists wouldn’t be foiled so easily, they were too many, a few ran to the edges of his vision and began slitting the throats of all the still hanging victims. Kellen was emboldened although still scared, and drew on every ounce of will and strength and strained against his bonds. The cultists chants though began getting louder and louder, and the bonfire near by was growing higher and higher into the sky. Kellen managed to get a look at the ever rising flame and maybe have seen something he would later think was just his mind playing tricks on him, but thought he saw a great form in the fire, trying to take shape, something definitely demonic, maybe similar to the Dungeons and Dragons demons or devils images they had in those gaming sourcebooks he used to own years ago. His ever growing fright and his will to be free tapped something primal inside him and he managed to tear free the ropes holding him. The melee was chaotic; blood and fire were everywhere, with several heroes already down and unmoving. The lead cultist though was still up, and turning towards Kellen. He was a bit amused at a sacrifices’ defiance, but continued yelling out the words of the ritual incantation. There was no fear in the cultists eyes only rage and madness. There was no fear in the cultists eyes only rage and madness. He pulled a wicked looking blade out from his belt and raised it up to plunge it into Kellen’s chest. In an instance of clarity or maybe stupidity depending on how you look at it, Kellen moved into the swing, catching the leader with both hands on his throat and with all his fright and rage, wrenching it as hard as he could. The cultist leader though was fast as well and managed to plunge the blade into Kellen’s chest up to the hilt as Kellen’s powerful hands reached around his throat and crushed the windpipe and broke his neck.

Speculation has it that the ritual was nearing completion, as giant demonic foot was stepping out of the bonfire, but the death of the rituals leader caused it all to fail, and the amassed mystical energies which had built up were instead released. The blast flattened the area, the cultists were all burned to cinders in an instant, and the landscape was simply a smoking crater. The heroes had won the day, but not without some losses, as 2 of their number were dead as were dozens of the kidnapped victims. The one who had made the Roar as they heroes entered, Simba Rex was among the dead. He was but a step from the cult leader when he blast went off.

Kellen should have died though, as should have many, many others, but for some reason the fiery blast went out moments after it happened. One of the other victims who did saw the blast claimed all if fire was sucked back to the center into Kellen. Within moments Kellen sort of threw his arms wide and roared out as Simba Rex had done when the battle started, his form rising in the air as fire erupted from him, and then died away. And … and he stood there, alive.

The team of heroes took all the victims away from that horrific site. Most specifically they took in Kellen. It seems the mystical energies of the ceremony and exploding fire were absorbed into his being at the moment of the failure of the ritual. Maybe it was destiny to be there, to become what he did. The Lion was always his favorite animal, majestic, strong. His body was now infused with the energy and fire of the unfinished ritual. But he is not alone, for it seems the ultimate sacrifice of Simba Rex was to give life to Kellen, thus linking them together, not as a ghost, but somehow adding his own life to his. In tribute to the fallen hero, Kellen took on the name of Roaring Thunder.

The heroes returned to their home – but Kellen needed to find his own destiny. There was a place they told him about where Villainy gathered in large numbers but so did a great number of heroes, Paragon City. Thus began his journey and his slogan. “Beware all who would oppress those less than themselves, there is a champion for the common peoples and he will show you the power of Fire and Thunder.”

---------------------
Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. - Tellania

Part 2 of 5

Name: Avenging Fury
Powers: Fire/Fire (Technology)
Server: Champion
Origin: Dr. Kellen Kisecawchuck was a fortunate kid, growing up to a family that was not impoverished, some would say spoiled, others educated. His parents were not “wealthy”, but definitely would be considered higher middle class. His fathe, Bnjamin is of mixed parentage, Caucasian/Native American (Cree), and his mother, Nolita is also an ethic mix of Caucasian/Black. His father was a former High School/College Football and Track star, who when he didn’t get drafted into the NFL, went on to get his degree and eventually become a very successful architect. His mother, Nolita was always was a bit aggressive in what she did, sports, cheerleading or academics. She was in the top 1% of her high school and top 5% of her college class. Her family though was not affluent, and she had to work hard to get her college scholarship and spent some time as a dancer to help pay the college tuition bills. It was one night when Benjamin was going out with friends to a local strip club that they met, well not before Nolita (called “Ariel” on stage) had managed to get a few hundred dollars out of Ben and his friends. Although he didn’t like it, working at the club helped both of them get through college years. She went on to get her Law degree and a job in a local law firm after graduation.

Kellen though he looked mostly normal, maybe his skin was a little darker than most; he got along pretty good with everyone. Athletically he was a strong jumper and fairly fast. He got into some sports like Soccer, which though he loved it was only mediocre at best, and Basketball. Football though fun was more his fathers sport of choice, not his. The one thing he did excel at was Track, where he was as good as his father and could possibly have done better.

But his greatest thing was his brain, and its creativity. He also loved reading especially comic books and all the things those great heroes did. He would dream or play for hours on end that he was a super hero. Since he really wasn’t one, he dressed up in a “makeshift” armor he cobbled together. His mother while concerned, since he was playing a law abiding crime fighter, encouraged him and taught him some about the law along the way. His favorite comic heroes were the fiery ones, the Red Blur and Heater.

Sometime in his childhood he became entranced with fire. This showed in most things, he got into a little “slight of hand magic – as long as it involved a lighter or some kind of fire.” He took a great liking to helping his dad grill things on the Bar-B-Que, so much so that he took over most of the grilling for the family by age 13.

This is best shown by his obsession with fire and his first gadget. He came up with a way to make a small flamethrower (more of a pilot light – but he imagined it to be a bigger flame). He hid this from his parents who wouldn’t have approved, but they found out in a very bad way. On his way home from school he saw some gangers robbing someone. He pulled the wrist mounted device out and locked it on and ran to help, hoping the flame would keep them away. It might have worked except for the one he never saw, who hit him from behind; Kellen awoke sometime later to pain beyond belief as the small “torch” was being used on him.

He spent months in the burn recovery unit, recovering from deep burns to most of his body. For some this may have caused a major phobia towards fire. Kellen reasoned that after it got to his nerve cells he could no longer feel the pain, and that was how the healing of fire begins. Fire has always had that dual nature, Healer &amp; Destroyer, but most people concentrate on the negative destructive aspects.

With nothing to do but lay in bed, his mind raced with ideas. While he couldn’t do anything about them, he could think and dream. When he got out of the hospital his body was a ruined mass of burn scars, and everyone thought of him as a freak or monster. But this did not discourage him, in fact it drove him on more.

In his recovery Kellen figured out a way to produce a constant source of flame that did not need a conventional fuel source like Gasoline, or other Fossil Fuels. But it was still big and bulky because he was working with household or scavenged parts. In the years to come he would refine this.

He did manage to get an academic scholarship to a prominent college, but almost dropped out due to the way he was treated over his ruined exterior. The college did recognize his brilliance and let him have private classes or tutoring instead of the traditional classroom learning. After two semesters a strange occurrence happened, Kellen was assigned a dorm mate. This person was an overly rich kid who apparently bought his way into college, but while not school minded, he had a very sharp business mind.

This roommate was also a burn survivor, although not to the level of Kellen’s injuries. There were tensions at first, but eventually things calmed as Kellen learned he could talk of his experiences and other technical matters. The roommate didn’t have Kellen’s capacity for science or technology, but was creative – they would talk for hours about concepts and ideas.

Two years later the two parted when the roommate was kicked out of school for not following the academic code. They did however keep in contact. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, he was hired on by his friends company. Kellen kept up with his studies and college education and as he gained more knowledge and degrees his job seemed to grow with him. He had earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering and was working on one in Microelectronics when he was named the youngest head of the research division for his company. During this time he filed and was given the patent rights for his non-fossil fuel flame generator.

His first pet project was initially called the FireMan™ suit, which would help firefighters in their times of need. But the costs were too high for public distribution. The project came crashing down when a group of organized thieves tried to break into the facility to steal this “Super Armored Suit” technology for their own criminal means. Kellen put on the suit and was able to stop the thieves and save the lives of his co-workers, although some were hospitalized with critical injuries.

The lab however was ruined, most of the stores of chips needed for the suits creation were destroyed, and the manufacturing portion almost burned to the ground when the smelting pots were turned over. The division as a whole was closed and further research was stopped, deemed unrecoverable profitability after the robbery attempt. Kellen went to his friend and begged not to be shut down, but that was not something he was willing to change. However behind the back of the board of directors, he did some financial magic and had a few lines of “accounting income” disappear, referenced as a line item budget expense in their Satellite program. Kellen and one other technician now had “silent” funding, but no connection to the company.

Overjoyed but cautious, they set up shop in a warehouse using the phony company name of “Support Services”, they recreated the FireMan™ lab and brought in new equipment. But Kellen wasn’t happy, he knew the FireMan™ Armor could never be a common thing, but it could still be of use. Using his own designs and knowledge of Micro-Electronics he added his fire creation tech and controls to the armor, making it into the weapon that the thieves had wanted, but the difference would be the intent, for he would use it to oppose such criminals.

His first test run was against the thieves who tried to steal the armor. They had a few high tech stolen toys of their own. The fight was hard fought, but the self named "Sky Raiders" eventually were beaten. The armor took a pounding through, and a few holes in the design had been discovered, but such is the way of invention.

Now it is 3 years later, and Dr. Kellen now in his early 30's ... the FireMan™ suit has also advanced going through 5 upgrades or complete revisions, and a hero known as Avenging Fury is starting to gain some fame. A few may suspect who the hero is but only his assistant knows that PhD Engineer, lecturer and burn survivor Dr. Kellen Kisecawchuck is really the armored hero, Avenging Fury!

---------------------
Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. - Tellania

Ok ... I have been thinking about this for a while and finally wrote up the stories for all 5 of my Tanks, here they are. This is a bit long winded, so I will post one per message.

Name: Manowar
Powers: INV/SS (Natural)
Server: Virtue
Origin: How do I know what is right and wrong? That is a good question. Why am I qualified to make those judgments? Maybe that is a part of what is the story of my life.

I was a small baby, tiny actually compared to most. My father was never a religious man, my mother though did believe in a higher power. So for the first years of my life I was brought up to read “The Bible” and all the ethical teachings inside.

I was brought up to believe lying was bad. “When a man lies, he murders some part of the world”. A great quote from the movie Excalibur.

I was never an academic giant, but since I was physically scrawny, yeah hard to believe now. I did what I could and struggled through the rest. I did like playing in the outdoor games that children do during Phys Ed class., although was almost the last one picked for things like Dodgeball.

Then puberty came around. People say you change then, how right they were. I was always trying to work out and get bigger. Then the puberty growth spurts happened. I grew from like 5’4” to almost 7’ tall in 4 years. But it wasn’t just height; this was also weight and muscle mass. Although I nearly ate my parents out of house and home them, because with the changes were nutrition requirements.

Although I tried out for the football team, my problem is that I couldn’t be hurt, 1 was still growing, and my strength went so far off the chart that none of the weights were even a challenge. I guess I scared people.

I did go to college for a time, having to work my way through. I was able to get a job at a Fitness place helping others learn about weight lifting. The most fun was as volunteer firefighter. It was also then I found my calling and the extent of true abilities. Rushing into harms way is one thing to save someone. But in one case I couldn’t make it out, the building collapsed in a fiery conflagration as I was bringing someone out. That was tons of concrete and steel as well as an insane amount of burning material. I shielded them as it fell hoping for a miracle.

I never thought I would be that miracle. Moments after the collapse I pulled them close and no matter how heavy it felt, I heaved up and next thing I know I am a dozen yards skywards. I land (from a the jump) to see the complete slack jawed expressions of my fellow fire men. The lady was unharmed if scared out of her mind. My uniform was torn to shreds, and I had carbon marks on me, but the onsite Doc could find nothing wrong, no burns, no cuts, broken bones (from a few tons of stuff falling on me.)

While I did stay on a few more weeks and did a lot of good, there was a little resentment building up as the other guys felt they were not as useful.

So maybe it was a time for a change. I packed up my bags and took a bus and hitch-hiked to Paragon City. I heard they were in need of heroes and that were a pro-hero kind of town. Although I am from a big city in Florida, going to a truly big city is just amazing, but for a hero friendly place you almost have to be a lawyer or brain child to figure out all the paperwork. That took me a week to figure out, Super Hero name, Insurance, etc ... I had to go get a “normal” job to help pay for some expenses. The normal stuff like food, rent, and laundry isn’t that bad ... but the costume thing. The bills for replacements, cleaning or repairs to your costume when you first start though can be a killer. So in my off times I work as a weight trainer at a local gym. It is hardly a Secret Identity, since how many overly tall, impossibly muscled blue haired guys do you know of? The staff and some of the patrons who keep up with the news and have read of some of my exploits know who I am. They see me as their own little private hero, or secret or something. It has gotten me a few dates but those never work out well.

So how did I become to be known as Manowar. I wanted something really cool, and tough sounding, because well that is what I am. By the Paragon City Super Hero Registry, I am classified as a Natural origin and Tanker Archetype, with a primary ability of Invulnerability (or so they classified me), and a secondary ability of Super Strength.

Some of the other names I wanted or liked were already taken. Then I remembered a cheesy band I liked about 15 years ago, called Manowar. Well I was a Man and was going to be taking the war on crime back to the criminals, so at the time I thought it fit. Now like it or not that is who I am.

I really can’t explain what I have become since puberty. I do try to keep in shape and work out, of course nothing at any local Gym has anything close to testing my limits. I have heard there are Super Groups that have neat facilities for people to stay, train and of course keep information on old cases they have worked on.

I have to go out to local construction companies and bench press the dump trucks. My apartment is littered with files and photos of stuff I have worked on. I don’t even want to think of how many maps of Paragon City I have gone through in trying to track down patterns or making notes of where people/groups have dominion.

While I do have some friends, and a connection or 2 to another Super Group, most of my friends joined together to form their own group, but soon after abandoned it for other groups with more experienced heroes or better resources. So I became the nominal leader if the Misfits of Nature. I am not going to give up on the group even though it is really only 2 of us now, I don’t give up on my friends. Sort of the way I do things, never leave a man behind.

This applies even when I pick up on a call form other heroes I am not familiar with, if they need a Tanker I apply the same ideals to them. I have faced many of the villain groups that reside in Paragon City, and some of the more powerful leaders that are dubbed Arch-Villains. Usually this has been at the side of heroes that before they sent out the call for help, I had never met.

But back on to what it means to be me. You can watch the TV or Movies and see the comic heroes do some amazing things, But I can tell you, yeah bullets do bounce off my chest. It hurts like hell, and there is usually a bruise for a few hours, but it is not the 100% Invulnerability like the comic S-Man, Statue or other depictions of “Tankers” I can however take a tremendous amounts of damage before I begin to feel the hurt. Have I had broken bones, torn muscles or what not, yes, and credit goes to the amazing doctors at the various Medical Centers in Paragon city for being able to get you back on your feet quickly.

I know I have already described my strength some. Could I lift and drop a building on a villain, probably, never tried and doubt I ever will. People live in buildings, innocents. That is where they make their lives and homes, where they keep their stuff and raise their children. I will always find some other way to beat down a villain.

---------------------
Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. - Tellania

[ QUOTE ]
21/21, plus a few "that's not quite right" nitpicks.

And I, for one, am at peace with my geek-ness.

[/ QUOTE ]

21/21 once I realized what they were showing. And yeah the Thing one was just WRONG!!!

"Hey Rocky, watch me pull a ....." oh never mind!

---------------------

Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. (credit to poster - Tellania for this wonderful quote)]

[ QUOTE ]
Ya i tried it with 6 recharge SO's last night and it did not work so i'll get on test and try it with +3's

[/ QUOTE ]

Has anyone tried to put Hammi's O's in both Hasten and Blizzard to see if that can make it Perma?

I have 3 Ice/Ice Blasters, but they are only 16, 10 and 4, so I can't test this idea yet.

---------------------

Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. (credit to poster - Tellania for this wonderful quote)

So now we can get the brand new Mime Control power set?

---------------------

Tankers - "The Hero of Heroes!"

If your tanker ever says "RUN!", please do. We are only slowly dying to give you a chance to run, before we make a break for it. (credit to poster - Tellania for this wonderful quote)

Thoughts from someone who has never used Rage until recently.

I have never used Unstoppable as Perma, and did not have Rage until the Holiday Respec when I added it in after hearing/reading all about it in the MB's.

Like Unstoppable I see Rage as a situational power. When you need that extra boost. Example, I was on a team last night fighting the Envoy of Shadows, I was the only melee in the group and no matter what couldn't seem to get him below 25% health for about 5 minutes (including him running from me at 4 different times). So I took the chance and popped both Unstoppable and Rage .. and a minute later with great help fom my team, we had the AV beaten and I was awaiting my Unstoppable Crash.

Should there be a downside, probably.
I have died more to high mag stuns turning off my toggles than anything else. Occassionally something or a mass-group would overwhelm me, but that was rare.

Now the suggested change of the 2 top powers of my primary/secondary sets 1) Give me a heart attack and do more damage than any villian (except for maybe a psionic) could and 2) Drain my endurance to nothing, for powers 8 and 9 in my own sets.

I already even with Endurance Reductions on my attacks and a 6 slotted Stamina regularly run out of Endurance all too often, and now something that will drian my endurance to nothing? Isn't that the job of the Malta Sappers, not my own abilities?

I can't protect my own group when I have nothing left (endurance), I can't punch-voke or Taunt to turn them away from the Defenders and Contollers.

Should there be a downside ... maybe.
Longer recharge so it can't be Perma'ed. Slight Endurance drop when the Rage wears off to simulate being tired? That depends is this because of game balance or because in comics when you use everything you are exhausted afterwards.

As with other games (online or trabletop), reality and game balance rarely have anything in common.

Maybe the power needs a name change. Adrenaline, Fury, Anger, or something.

The animations for Super Strength are slower than Blasters as a whole so making it like Buildup would need a longer time for it to be active. Stuns and Disorients are not good, but why does it need one?

Is Rage needed to make SS up to the other Tanker Secondaries, if it is then it should have no drawbacks.

Stone hits hard as hell,
Energy has high chance of stuns
Fire is DoT
Ice is Slows (ok .. this may be gimped too)
SS is just one time damage and knockdowns.
Maybe make SS have untyped damage as a secondary, to
simulate the extra "Super Strength" can hit for.

Knockdowns don't last all that long. I have a 35 ++ Hold SO on my Knockout Blow and it seems like little to nothing, what maybe 3 to 6 seconds? How about a real hold on it like 20 to 25, any controlller can do far longer holds.

So what is wrong with Rage?