Progenesis

For a solo build I would recommend dominate instead of mass hypnosis. Personally, I find life a lot easier with the hold protection of acrobatics, minute as it is. Also, I'm a big fan of tactics and, to a lesser degree, maneuvers. I once had my kin/psy "Psyonara
with fighting/speed/leadership/jumping ... but it was a bit much on end - even with transference. Maybe more doable now with IOs.

BTW, I really like this combo - fun toon.

Yeah, at first I thought game balance might be a reason this option hasn't occurred yet. However, as I though further I realized that it would mean that the dev's intentionally built in certain powers into some sets you would have to take and rarely use in the overall scheme of set balance. Other sets with suck powers occurring post level 6, however, would have the option of not taking that power. After thinking more I had a hard time buying into that logic.

Well how about just allowing the earned respec to serve as an unlocking mechanism. After that, freespecs, vetspecs and the like would follow suit - but not before.

C'mon now - there are plenty of ways to gimp yourself in this game if you are uneducated -even given the current methodology. Your position limits that perhaps, but it does not prevent it. Conversely, especially with respect to PvP builds and certain others, builds can be very very tight. Any inclusion of a primary or secondary power that will not be used but is currently required at the expense of including a pool (or epic) power that would be useful is a waste.

Such malice in your post. You may think this idea has no merit and you might be right. I suspect, however, that you are not necessarily in the high majority of the people, if you are there at all. Therefore, I will retrieve my crumpled up idea from the trash and recirculate it some.

Ooh ... PvP smack ..... Like your good what?

Thanks, all!

Might be a pipe dream but I was wondering how unbalancing, if at all, it would be to allow kinetics defenders/corrupters (at least those) to change target aoe effects to caster aoe effects in PvP. For instance, both transference and transfusion could be used to recoup end and health without being too close to an opponent.

I floated this idea a long time ago with mixed feed back. I thought I'd try it again to see if the climate has changed. I think there are certain builds where the forced selection of beginning powers is detrimental or results in powers that essentially will be lightly or never used. While I understand that there may be concerns about new players gimping themselves in the beginning of the game if pool powers were opened at character creation, I think by the time an earned respec can be had, they should know enough to avoid that pitfall. So, what do you people think about opening up power pools at level 0/1 upon an earned character respec?

Thanks in advance for the education. I know many of you would rather educate me via continual in-game deaths and that's probably the only way to really learn, but I need some advice first on my build. I've read enough to know that a Fire/SS tank is a decent toon for PvP right now. I've also read that the stone epic is favored over fire but I don't really know why. Is it the animation time vs. damage issue? It all seems backwards from what I remember a year or so ago where logically you would think the fire epic with short animation times and coupled with fiery embrace would be the way to go. In any case, I was wondering if someone could post a good starter build with IOs so that I can get a jump start on outfitting a character. The PvE side of City has pretty much collapsed into boredom and repitition for me and I see PvP as a never ending challenge with plenty of adrenaline (much as people sometimes bash PvP, my personal experience from the days where it was forced upon me in UO was that it, by far, provided the most exciting and memorable experiences -even though 95% of the time I died). That said, it is a bit of an arms race that, in general, casual players cannot generally compete on a level playing field. In any case, it has an allure and I may try it, especially in a lull between new games that I may be tempted to try.

Thanks. Looks like my planned effect might be better served combining oppressive gloom with the stuns of electric melee in I16.

Thanks, mainly for teams I guess. Perhaps when I get conserve power and some end IOs, things will get easier.

Thanks for responses in advance. I was wondering if the fear effects of these two would stack to effectively produce mag 4 fear.

Unrelated but I read some that people might drop lunge in favor of barbed swipe. When I look at the data, I have a hard time understanding that. Is it because of the recharge times?

I'm sure there is a good reason for this but since I don't have any experience with spines/fire or the presence pool, I thought I'd ask. I understand fire armour is pretty squishy short of major IO enhancement. I was wondering if the last two powers in the presence pool, which apparently induce fear, might help with two things. First, I was wondering if they would help with damage mitigation and second I was wondering if they would help retain mobs in a burn patch. Anyone?

Cool enough. Thanks for the explanation.

What I wish the devs would do is open up the target based AoEs such as transfusion and transference to flip flop to caster based AoEs with the placement of a certain enhancement in an enhancement slot. This would cost something (a slot) but would allow people the option to make the powers caster based AoEs. Something similar was done for axe tankers at one time (changed knockback to knockdown), so perhaps it could be done for these powers as well.

I'm surprised at some of the things you have on your list. Are you calling for nerfs for some of these things? Because, if so, I can't agree. For instance, I'd be pissed if someone touched will domination. I built a kin/psy character for that power alone.

I don't want to discourage such effort, openess and candor but I've got a question and a suggestion. Bear in mind though, I appreciate your efforts on these matters. You did a good thing for us.

When I take a power such as domination (a controller power) from the epic power pools, should I expect to do more damage with that power than a controller would? If your logic is consistent, then it seems I should.

I guess it is the fate of defenders (by design) that we should be the whipping boys of controllers. All of this could change and the defender community might even accept some of the things you have said if you just gave us a halfway decent inherent power. Here, I have a suggestion. Much like corrupters have a power that increases their attack damage when a foe is low in health points, defenders should receive a power that increases their own health points when they attack a mob (sort of a weak self heal on every attack). That would seem fair.