Quantumizer

Thanks. That's good news. Now if I can only dig up 100 mil or so...

What is the effect if I put a proc IO... say, Numina's +regen/+recovery (yep... savin' my pennies) into the slot of an automatic power like Fast Healing or Health? I believe the description says the IO has a 20% chance of giving +20% regen/ +10% recovery for 90 seconds when a power goes off. But... what if the power is automatic and NEVER goes off? Or what if it's a toggle power?

Heck, what does it do in ANY power, I guess is what I'm asking :-)

[QUOTE=Shred_Monkey;2069239]... you'll probably regret using the 'cheat' and seeing the name on the screen will remind you of it every time you play.[QUOTE]

Yes.

My first character was -Torment. Played him. Bonded to him. Could never get over that darn hyphen. Delete.

Really, some of my most satisfying names have come out of trying to work my character concept against the seemingly impossible wall of already taken names. But you can do it! It can take hours. It can take days. But something will come to you!

Don't do the period... it will "-Torment" you!

That makes total sense. Thanks.

And why is it better is some situations (PVP and AV soloing?) than ... what?... "other" damage?

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For a Hero, I'd like to heal and buff team mates, but I worry about solo capability.

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Looks like you already got started on some great characters, but let me share some of my experiences with the "buff, but solo" idea.

First, upon reaching level 10, you have the ability to have TWO builds. You can access them both at any trainer, and once you switch to one build you can't switch to the other for 15 minutes. But both builds stay at the same level. If you level one build, then switch to the other build, you can level that one as well. What this allows you to do is to create one build for soloing and one build for teaming. So, that's something to keep in mind.

In terms of buffing AT's (Hero-side... I don't do Villains much), Defenders and Controllers are the AT's of choice.

A great powerset for soloing is Kinetics. It's also very welcome on teams. The reason it's good for solo is because it allows you to greatly increase your damage-dealing capability. Damage is not a strength of Defenders or Controllers, and generally makes them slow to solo. Sonic is also more offensive in nature, since it lowers foes' damage resistance. Empathy is not good at all for a soloer. Force Fields is heavy on powers that are ally-only, but plenty of people make it work. The other sets are more defensive in nature than Kinetics and Sonic, or a mix... so they offer more safety at the cost of some experience-earning potential. (But if your Kinetic is faceplanting all the time, that's obviously a killer on leveling, so defensive is good in that case).

Secondaries for defenders have their pros and cons. In terms of soloing, I think Rad stands out for its offensive capability (its attack lowers opponent defense), as do Sonic (lowers damage resistance) and Archery (high accuracy). The other sets are a more defensive in nature, which again is not a bad thing, depending on play style.

Controllers are also fun. Earth is slow to solo because of its low damage output, but all the primary powersets (except mental control) get pets, which really help you solo at level 32+. (a pet is effectively your own personal tank or blaster). Controllers also do double damage to any held, disoriented, sleeping, or immobilized opponent, so they can actually do a fair bit of damage. I'd give Illusion the nod for soloing potential due to its high damage Spectral Wounds. Blind a foe, then lay spectral wounds on him... you're talking blaster-level damage (well... maybe not... but it's a lot).

I'd say Fire/Kinetics controllers and Kinetics/Radiation Defenders are considered by a lot of people to be excellent choices for a solo supporter, though of course a good player can make anything work (though I'd be really interested to hear about anyone who has had a fulfilling experience soloing an Empath).

Which one do you enjoy playing most? I'd go with that one.

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The funny thing about the damage badges is that any damage that you take that doesn't bring you below your base max hp doesn't count. This pretty much means that Dull Pain is a rather large inhibitor for getting the damage badges.


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Dull Pain? Foo! I love pain! More pain, I say! Respec! Another power slot opens!

Seriously, that sucks if that's true. Still, I do find my /regen scrappers hitting their damage badges a lot sooner than anyone else, even the "damage sponge" tankers and other scrappers. Could be I'm not hitting the button enough, though.

A key /regen benefit that hasn't been mentioned... fast track to damage badges! Folks are maxing and capping their defenses and resistances... not me! I eat damage for breakfast! And then I ask for more! More! MORE! And who's laughing when I hit Immortal and everyone else is struggling up the hill toward a mere Invulnerable? Me! (Umm... not that I have an Immortal toon yet... but it sounds good).

[Good humored rant follows]:

Who likes toggles better than clicks? I hate toggles. Toggles go down. AND toggles suck up endurance. I HATE the blue bar. Regen = forget about blue bar = more slots, more powers. That's right, I don't slot for end red. I don't take stamina. I HATE stamina (I still usually take Health, though, so that I can improve my regen rate, which allows me to do what?... take more damage! Damage... yum!).

Do I IO for def or res? No! I IO for regen! Focus! I'm a regen. What do I need def for?

As for RttC... you know what? We fight tough battles. When we're done, our green bars are usually on the low side... even the WPs with their super awesome I'm-better-than-the-regen-when-I'm-surrounded-by-eight-guys numbers. But you know what I do next? I run to the next spawn! And on my way - POOF! - back to a full tank of green. So while the /WP's are down on their knees catching their breath, I'm crackin' some more heads, getting more ex, and taking more what?... damage! Immortal, here I come!

Ok, ok... I agree with what a lotta guys here said... you play WP or regen based on your play style and what's fun for you. It helps if you don't understand the first thing about all the math floating around on this post (I was an English literature major, for gosh sakes). But three things in parting:

1. Regens don't suck, whatever the numbers, and whatever their past history was.
2. Regens bloom late, so don't judge them too early. Especially before 16, you're going to be leaving your butt marks all over Paragon City, and running like a rabbit from white con minions, before you get Integration, when the whole game changes for you.
3. I'm getting to Immortal first! :P

Regen. Only way to go. Your whole raison d'etre is to take damage, heal it back, and take more. Everyone else is busy avoiding damage. Wusses! Turning off your awesome defenses isn't going to do any good because you'll get slowed down trying to heal the damage back. (Unless you've always got a healer backing you up - as someone else has already pointed out).

Point for the regens on this one, my friend.

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Scrappers and Brutes tend to be the best soloists in the game.

After that, Blasters, Tankers, Masterminds and Stalkers are good for soloing.

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Tankers? A mere fourth place? Criminal!

If you like knockback, Sartol my friend, there's nothing like a super strength Tanker! Also, the "Levitate" of a mental Controller is quite fun as well... after a hard day at the office, it can be quite satisfying smashing bad guys up and down like rag dolls.

And while I'm on mind control... I highly recommend trying out "Confuse"... VERY fun to watch a boss beating up his minions whilst you stand on the sidelines munching popcorn (not a lot of experience in that, though )

But, as everyone has mentioned, you can have a lot of success and fun with any AT... except blasters (just kidding).

That's perfect... very helpful. Thanks, all!

You can rest easy knowing that many additional criminals will languish in jail now that I have this information (and that my drain on the health care resources of Paragon City will -- hopefully -- abate slightly).

I'm trying to figure out how to slot accuracy for powers with a to-hit base that is different from 75%. Looking at ParagonWiki and Arcanaville's guide regarding to-hit numbers for fighting higher level mobs, I see that if a hero has a base to-hit of 75%, then fighting a mob conning at +3 will have a 48% chance to hit.

Now... how does that scale for a power like Kinetics Transfusion that has a 90% base chance to hit?

I can imagine three ways of calculating this number. Using the formula (1 + (accuracy modifier)) * ((to-hit) - (mob defense)):

Method 1: -27% on your to-hit: 1+(0)*((.75 - .27) - 0) = .48
Method 2: 64% of your base to-hit: 1+(0)*(.75 * .64) - 0) = .48)
Method 3: -36% accuracy penalty: (1 + (-.36)) * (75 - 0) = .48
Method 4: 27% defense against you: (1+0)*((.75) - (.27)) = .48.

Substituting 90% would have a different effect based on the calculation method:
Method 1: (1+0)*((.9 - .27)-0) = .63
Method 2: (1+0)*((.9 * .64)-0) = .576
Method 3: (1-.36)*(.9-0) = .576
Method 4: (1+0)*((.9) - (.27)) = .63

Slotting accuracy causes the numbers to diverge even more. Slotting .25% accuracy (a level 20 IO):
Method 1: (1+.25)*((.9 - .27)-0) = .79
Method 2: (1+.25)*((.9*.64)-0) = .72
Method 3: (1-.11)*(.9-0) = .80
Method 4: (1+.25)*((.9) - (.27)) = .72

Any idea what method is correct? Or is there some entirely different formula?

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The two best tanker attack powersets for the task are, in my opinion, fire melee and dark melee. The others don't seem to come close. Ideally, you also want damage boosts from your primary. Shield is your best bet if you keep foes around to increase your damage output with AaO. Note DM also benefits from fodder with Soul Drain, hence I believe Shield/DM is the ideal pairing for DM.

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Any opinions on Invul/SS? True... all smashing from SS, BUT SS has Rage, with a 2 minute, 80% dam boost (as opposed to 10 seconds for other secondaries). Couple that with 3 min of unstoppable (goodbye endurance worries, hello damage res caps in everything but psionic), Hasten (to keep your somewhat sup-par attack chain rockin'), and attacks slotted for big dam and maybe recharge (to keep that knockout blow coming back)...

No personal experience with it, but it SOUNDS nice, as long as you can drop the AV in 2 min

Whoa... cool. Thank you.

... in what situations is it appropriate, and what are its pros and cons? Thanks!

I suspect that a lot of those lone bidders are abandoned alts.

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Buy the phase temp power at the market and craft it. it gives you 5 charges of phase.

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Oh! That's a nice idea... it's not THAT often that my son is getting up when I'm in a crowd full of reds. The truth is that PS does fit my concept, but there are plenty of other thematically valid powers that would be more generally useful before level 20 (or 30, for that matter). I could certainly put it off for a while. Thanks!

I'm at work, so I can't check if any of these are open, but... I've found that "shade" is a word that has quite a few openings (I recently took Shade Boxer and Shade Sword on Virtue):

Shadeborn
Shadespell or Shade Spell
Shade Weaver or Shade Reaver
Shade Kin

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Play a Stalker. (And with Going Rogue, we should be getting heroic Stalkers [Batman!]).

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Heroic stalkers? Rock!

So I guess my kin/elec offender will have to make do with running like a rabbit after a short circuit/ball lightning ambush... at least until he gets phase shift, at which point he can fade out and stroll off at his leisure.

I hope.

Well, then I propose we put Invisibility in the dictionary right next to "that sucks."

Sigh.

Well, that's pools for you... sometimes you gotta eat a sucky power to get to the tasty ones.

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Purples are about a 1 in 1000 chance of dropping if your in the right level range for them. The only reason increasing difficulty would have a chance of more drops is that the 3rd and 5th difficulty increase the number of mobs spawned giving you more chances per mission of getting what you are looking for.

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I think you mean 2nd and 4th.

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And 5th... higher cons AND higher mob counts -- two great tastes that go great together

I have Stealth, I am on the road to Phase Shift, and I'm trying to decide between Grant Invisibility and Invisibility.

It would be really nice if I could run up to a mob, hit them with a couple PBAoE's, then fade into the shadows, leaving them looking over their shoulders, wondering when the next strike will come (and giving me a chance to reset).

Once when I fought Nocturne, she was ripping me up, and I retreated a bit to take a breather. And she started to fade on me! I lost targeting on her and *I* was looking over my shoulder, wondering when the next strike would come!

According to Wikia, Nocturne only has Stealth. I, however, (even though I have stealth) am not sure that any mob has ever lost its lock on me. Maybe some Vahz zombies... they sometimes just turn and start walking away for no apparent reason.

Would it be a different story with Invisibility? I mean, the fact that you *can't* attack while invisible kind of stinks. Also, I seem to sneak around most groups in missions just fine with Stealth. And Invis. costs twice as much end to run. What am I going to get that's worth those costs? If it makes it easier for me to fade from the mobs' view like Nocturne faded from mine, I'm all over it, but otherwise...

Does anyone have experience with the concealment pool that you can share?

(BTW, if you're wondering why I'm going for phase shift, it's because I have a 7-year-old who likes to get up at 6am, and I want to be able to quit the game the second I hear the pitter-patter of his little feet, whether I'm locked in the fight of my life or not )