Psylenz

I started on a FF/psy defender, quickly branched into a Grav/Kin troller. I have some blasters. Defenders differ ranging from empathy to cold to traps as much as blaster is different from scrapper and controller. What woo'ed me to the dark side of melee was weapon customization and shields. I love my shovel/willpower tank, my manhole cover/pipe wrench tank.

Warshades took me awhile to adjust to. You can't judge a kheld until you at least try the option of tri-form, not saying thats the only way to play. Masterminds were my first villain. Corruptors I fell into quickly. Dominators had a big big learning curve for me, plus they changed domination halfway through my beginner phases - and I stopped trying Ice/ice and jumped on the electric control bandwagon for dominating. I love the super sapper mode, current projects include an EC/kin controller for extra sapping.

Scrappers bore me. I won't play a stalker. I have a very hard time with stalker teammates, cant ever seem to buff or debuff in a manner consistent to their playstyle which is counterintuitive from corruptors and masterminds. The run away and hide crap drives me crazy. Brutes are growing on me, but I am trying to get a brute with shield charge and lightning rod both - call me mr. kb.

It burns us!!

It has come to my attention this week that after 7 years of fairly involved play experience on City of Heroes, I still can learn something new.

Case in point, I was on a trio of heroes in Talos Island, we had 2 40+ heroes, and a third player who was level 27. We were running the level 27s missions so that she didn't have to deal with grinding on carnies, and malta, and uber Arachnos - oh my.

After two or three successful fun romps in level 27 hero tip missions, I suggested that the level 27 up the difficulty to +0/X5. In my rotten brain, I thought this meant we would get spawns of X5 minions and lieutenants running around her tip missions. I was on my namesake bubbler, we had an illusion kin and a DP/fire blaster was the 27. X5 to me would be cake. I was informed by another coalition member when they joined that our spawn size of x5 calculated out to x8 experience because the base number of heroes (3) added to the X5. I had always thought when I looked at a mission status in the navigation bar, if it said +0/X5 that's what was in the mission.

By the way, our 3 man team annihilated the +0/X5 so we were good however it calculated out. DP + kin buffs + soft cap D for the win.

Ok, I havent seen the movie, but I wanted to ask... is there any mention of an almost god-like member of the Justice Society yet is unknown to the other JSA members of his existence within the movie's plot?

After looking through the build on a cursory basis, it looks pretty good really. I would quibble on two defense enhancements in hover, but if you do an alignment arc and get a LotG +recharge in there, it would be fine. You are probably going to want some end reduction in weave if you are going to use it. Pet sets are fine in tornado, but I would prefer recharge intensive pet sets, and in practice I usually frankenslot to get some stun in there, too.

At level 37, you would definitely want to take advantage of alignment merits. Set bonuses would generally lean to increasing recharge, total hit points and regeneration. I believe that endurance is an issue with all stormies, but you can fix that first with an endurance recovery power from conserve power, power sink (I do prefer electric mastery for thematic reasons), or dark mastery. Augmenting your aggro management powers with ranged defense would be another good feature.

Fix the targeting so that when I target a guy in the next group and when I hit tab it doesn't shoot clear across the map to an NPC I can't even see yet.

I will echo again, level 21-23 is the rough patch for most masterminds. Level 22, you can get your SO's, and the IOs are starting to get stronger, too. Fearsome stare is a must for level 20 on your dark masterminds. Level 24 is another leap forward with the 2nd lieutenant pet. Level 26 is the Lich, and you have more bodyguard protection. Your effectiveness skyrockets at level 32 when your grave knights become l33t killerz and the Lich picks up his best control powers.

Try to team up to help cover your weak spots. Leverage your dark power; you should have shadow fall, darkest night, howling twilight, and shadow fall by level 22. Don't be afraid to use the auto-hit stun power in Howling Twilight even with no defeated teammates.

Silas makes a good point about the tier one attacks. It is a good suggestion for blasters, dominators, and defenders as well. The character needs those low endurance, fast recharge, but low damage attacks to SAVE endurance. If I am in the right range, especially on melee-style defenders/corruptors/dominators I use brawl and throwing knives trying to finish off a target rather than spend a chunk of end on something like thunderstrike, bitter ice blast or cosmic burst.

OP, Did you remember to run the Mender Ramiel arc in Ouroboros?

There are a number of pool powers you can take to help teammates that don't require a conflict with the primary and secondary powers taken -- for instance: aid other, stimulant. Many folks don't mind grant invisibility ( I never met a blaster that didn't mind some stealth ability), hasten, or combat jump. A lot of folks like the fighting pool since it doesn't contrast with your motif either. Jump kick, flurry, and air superiority fit into many fighting builds.

And as stated, if you HAVE to take a power, doesn't mean you have to use it.

I quickly got a new electric control/electric assault dominator to level 50 after the set was introduced. It has great control. It's a sapper build. It's new and has some subtle tricks like static field, which I rate right up there with unstoppable, fulcrum shift, speed boost, howling twilight, freezing rain, shield charge, and other set defining powers.

I would at least suggest trying EC/elec out.

so true Vel, see my signature.

I think fire/dark corruptors are as stoked as any early builds.

1) I totally agree a lot of emphasis is on the incarnate level builds. More level-up options is a good thing for pre-level 50 game.

2) I really like photon grenades on a robot mastermind, no so much for damage, but for the extra stacking stuns to layer on top of the proto-bots stuns.

3) I am not so keen on the robot mastermind pulse rifle. Plasmatic taser isn't a nuke, but it does leverage more knockback with the robots' kb powers.

This is a good informative thread.

I really like my fire/cold controller. Smoke > Flashfire > sleet just crushes any incoming alpha attacks.

Clockwork King - Bucket Head
Babbage - Rusty Britches
Kracken - ole Baggy Eyes
Council - space nazies
Rikti - Space Monkeys
Hellions - Heckions (does anyone take them seriously?)
Orenbaga - Orange bagel
Rularuu observers - eye balls
Black Swan's Master Shadow - evil fluffies
Carnival of Shadows Illusionists - cheating B****** (I wish I could phase and attack at the same time)
Malta - Malt-o-meal

One of the really nice features is the global friends. If you team with or get help from some nice characters, ask them if you can add them as a global friends. To me the global friends list is more important than the supergroup.

You have a Hami O in fly that you could replace with Blessing of the zephyr kb protection. Fly is at max speed without enhancement due to a recent boost.