Obscure Blade

Bloodletter, Thugs/Pain Vigilante: A former Destroyer whose use of Fixadine awoke her own latent powers. She found that she could produce much the same effect as Fixadine without the drug, and gathered together her own pack of Destroyers who soon found that they no longer needed the drug, but in turn were now dependent on her power instead. Unlike Fixadine however her power doesn't drive her or her followers to outright irrational rage; they can still think and control themselves. Eventually, she and her followers drifted away from the original Destroyer goal of vengeance upon Praetor White and the Empire, and more towards a general crusade against all those who exploited the "common people" that they saw themselves as.


Street-Justice, Thugs/Traps; a scavenger of abandoned technology and people, he gathers them together and uses them in his quest to make the world a better place.


Henrietta Hellfire, Thugs/Thermal; presently a villain, heading towards hero: A Hellion Girlfriend who snuck into a shipment of artifacts and found one with genuine power, enough to summon a demon and bargain with it. She was delighted with the Hellborn powers she gained and gathered together her own gang; delighted, until she discovered exactly how bad a bargain she has made. She turns to heroism out of a desperate desire to earn herself an escape from the fiery afterlife she sold herself to.


Winds of War Mercs/Storm: A mutant mercenary, he simply looked over the information on Paragon and the Rogue Isles and decided that Paragon sounded like a much better place to work. Good pay, less backstabbing.


Hellbubbles, Demons/Force Field, her bio:

Here's mine:

1 : Fossilize, Flares
2 : Incinerate
4 : Fire Breath
6 : Hasten
8 : Combat Jumping
10 : Fire Blast
12 : Stalagmites
14 : Superjump or Quicksand
16 : Embrace of Fire
18 : Earthquake
20 : Aid Other
22 : Aid Self
24 : Superjump or Quicksand
26 : Volcanic Gases
28 : Combustion
30 : Consume
32 : Animate Stone
35 : Stone Cages
38 : Blaze

Stone Cages is useful for keeping the enemy from wandering off, but isn't a vital thing to take like with Controllers.

And now, the Lady Venture, an inventor and heroine recently revived after having been frozen for over a century by her archnemesis the Arctic Duke:



Armed with her personally designed Polyfunction Rifle and Tempest Engine she goes forth once more to seek out adventure and heroism!

I think it's inadvertent. You get the unlock by Shard related accomplishments like getting a badge or completing a mission arc. As it happens, a mission arc only counts as having been done by you when you personally have the mission; you don't get the unlock from someone else's story arc any more than you get the Souvenir for the arc. But a kill badge just requires you be on the team doing the killing. Before they removed the zone level limits that meant it was actually easier for villains to get the unlock; an inadvertent side effect of the unlock is that low level heroes can join a badge team in the Shard and get the weapons early.

The Clunker Trail aura is pretty cool. I've used it on three characters; admittedly I did have some of the above thoughts when it came to my Miss Skinless but it was pretty easy to get over it because of the whole no-skin thing. The Contaminated Man leaves a trail of purple...stuff behind him; where it comes from is probably best left a mystery. The Clockwork Rebel uses the Clunker aura as well as the trail; he's actually a collection of parts telekinetically held together by a personality fragment of the Clockwork King. The aura actually inspired him; I found myself wondering what could emit so many broken parts and still function, and immediately thought of the "mechanically impossible" Clockwork.

I've several times wanted 'skirts' for men, for tribal/barbaric style outfits. Basically, kilts that don't scream 'Scottish'. I end up using the Valkyrie 'skirt' instead, which isn't really the same thing.

I'm considering making an Electric Melee/Fire character. I know that Brutes have better hit points and resist caps and more aura damage, while Scrappers get better damage from Lightning Rod. What are the pros/cons for an Elec/Fire that isn't made for farming, no fancy expensive IO builds; just a frankenslotted character meant for general play. If I go scrapper for the better out-of-the-box damage will the lower survivability be noticeable? If I go Brute will the lower damage be a big deal?

I present the diabolical Professor Infernal, whose battle cry is "FOOLS! I'll show you ALL!" Recently decanted from decades in his Presevator Chamber, he's quite angry with the fact that no one remembers him at all. Well, he's going to make them remember him, yes he will...

Bought!

An important thing about Bots; don't be surprised at low damage in the lower levels. Much of their damage is concentrated in the Assault Bot which you don't get until 26. Until then, they're pretty tough henchmen but kill slowly.