Sailboat

Make sure you have the sound on. The Slammer makes a very nice "BOOONT!" sound when it makes skull contact.

The temp attacks are also handy when exemped down if you don't have a full attack chain any more.

I subscribed on the 1st of a month, and never unsubscribed or failed to pay up. I get the rewards on the 4th of the month the last few times. Maybe you'll get yours three days late too.

...and go fill the slots in your team build for next time.

Well, I've always thought of Scrappers as playing on the defensive side of the ball -- because the offense is trying to shield something (the ball) and avoid contact (being tackled), whereas the defense is running toward the ball trying to smash the ball carrier, knock the ball loose, break up the formation and wreck the play. Running backs and receivers are running away from contact; that feels less Scrappery. My Scrapper isn't trying to run over a chalk line; he's trying to destroy someone. Usually the key someone on the other side.

I generally perceive Scrappers as linebackers. Linebackers are the most versatile defenders -- they are expected to wait in position to tackle runners, run to the ball, line up on the line and rush the QB, or fall back and pass-cover. They're big enough to tackle anyone without being broken, but they're faster and more agile than the heavier linemen. Also, they are not locked into line play nor burdened with the responsibility of at-all-costs preventing deep passes toward the end zone -- they're usually more free to pursue the ballcarrier and wreak havok on the opposing offense.

I'm still strangely partial to Fire/Fire/Pyre Tankers.

Balorn, what I see missing from your build is not the IOs per se but, most prominently, any single-target damage capability. You don't have Greater Fire Sword, Incinerate, or even Fire Sword.

Minions should be toast (literally) if you are using Fire Sword Circle, Combustion, and Blazing Aura properly (Consume can help a bit too). The big damage chewing you up is probably LTs and bosses. For those to go down before your green bar, you'll want to take advantage of Fire's hard-hitting single-target capability.

My own Fire Tanker is in the process of being rebuilt, but has fought in this most recent issue with only yellow SOs and done acceptably when soloing spawns set for multiple foes (although I did not note hard numbers, as I am planning to rebuild her with IOs anyway). So I think it can be done.

If I were you, I would consider taking and slotting GFS and Incinerate for sure and either Fire Sword (more effective) or Scorch (saves a power pick). Tactically, you leap into the group, use one of your three melee attacks on some threat while they clump around you tightly (I usually open with the weaker one so the strong ones get the bonus you're about to unleash from BU and FE), then hit Fiery Embrace, Buildup, FSC, Combustion, and your hard-hitter ST attacks on the biggest threat boss or LT. Then cycle as needed.

I also find I can use Burn (at least when soloing) even without immobilizes, and still get some damage and mitigation out of it. They just run in and out and take some of the damage, then come back around me when it ends, to discover Fire Sword Circle has recharged.

That should very quickly get the situation under control in most fights. Waiting for the AoEs alone to take out bosses is costing you too much end and time, and allowing them to do too much damage for Healing Flames to fix.

Some players swear by Consume and some by Taunt. I believe both powers are useful, but I dropped them (Taunt was easier to live without than Consume) for more offense and survival. While it is better than nothing, I am not an advocate of Weave on a Fire Tanker unless you are making a dedicated effort to pump up defense with IOs.

IMHO you should also take (and slot) Build Up and Fiery Embrace earlier. Get that damage output roaring.

Once you're killing fast enough that Healing Flames can keep up with the damage you're taking, you're in great shape.

Frankenslotting attacks is always nice, but for a Fire/Fire Tanker, who relies on kill speed for an important part of his mitigation, it's even more advantageous. You're used to your attacks at ED-capped damage, buit once you also get them to ED-capped recharge (with decent acc and end reduction too) you'll find them a lot more effective at winning battles than back when you only had one level 30 recharge enhancement in them. You'll be surrounded by rolling sheets of fire and the smell of victory.

This appears to be fixed in the build currently on Test:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=194230

Might have gone live in this morning's maintenance time.

I'm contemplating ditching Hover on my Fire/Fire Tanker when I get the 60 month vet reward and just fighting on the ground, using flight for occasionally retrieving flying foes. Does that seem feasible? The two additional slots I've been carrying in Hover could be used elsewhere.

I'm used to hover-fighting with her, but haven't played the character recently -- does Hover stillstop juuuuust outside melee range when you're on follow? I'm used to nudging forward a hair so I can attack.

Does Fly do that? I know it suppresses.

I don't mind stuff to do, but I kind of dread new slots or any serious character progression. The character is finished, that's the point of being 50. And I spent month deciding on precise slot use for each one of my 50s (at least the IOed ones) specifically because slots are limited. Adding "new slots" invalidates a lot of the compromises and decisions I made so carefully just as much as nerfing my best powers would, and sends me back to Wentworth misery.

So I respectfully request to limit the impact of any new content for 50s.

I'm not even sure it's that rational. I've been able to bid on a block of ten salvage items at 1 inf and place a block of ten of the same item up for sale at 10,000 inf at the same time. Then I sat back and watched as every few minutes I bought one for 1 and every few minutes or tens of minutes someone bought one of mine for 50,000 or 100,000 -- five to ten times the inflated price I'd set for myself (which was itself marked up ten thousand times the price I'd paid).

Any one of my sales could have been had for 1/5 to 1/10 the price just by bidding carefully, and anyone willing to let a bid sit could have trumped my 1-bids by bidding, well, two inf. Instead they pay fifty thousand times what they have to.

Man, I wish real life worked like that.

Isn't this more of the "give everyone every form of mezz protection" homogenization movement?

Well, why shouldn't my WP character get the damage aura Fire gets? It's not fair that in the farming mission, Fire has an advantage, just like it's not fair that on the ITF, WP has (according to the OP) a presumed advantage.

Let's just make one AT, with one primary powerset and one secondary powerset. Sweet, sweet balance!

Yeah -- a lottery as an ADDITIONAL source of inf drain, particularly one that paid off badly so that it took much more money out of circulation than it put back in, would exert badly-needed anti-inflationary pressure. Something that costs us MORE money than we are now losing. But not one that recycles the market fees back into purchasing power, unless you want to pay 50 million for a yellow TO.

edit: wait a minute -- you spent half a billion on one enhancement, and you're looking for free money? Enhancements cost half a billion because of you.

My take on character descriptions remains this: brevity is a virtue.

When trimming down to fit into the bio space, I find myself removing redundancies and paring out unnecessary words. It keeps me sharply on-topic.

Yes, it's hard to express a lot in the bio space. That's probably for the best. I'll be honest -- I write, I like writing and reading, I've written fan fics about some of my own characters, I read every in-game bio I see; but neither I nor most other people want to read that 20-page dramatic history of a beloved character's origin. When I go to the fan fic section or to Virtueverse and see what people have put together, it's great, but the audience for it is, sad to say, pretty narrow.

If the (proposed) expanded bio space took up bytes it would further impact performance, too.

The short-form bio space we now have enables us to convey key points and a sense of the character, a flavor, if you will. That doesn't slow down the action, either with reading tons of stuff or with transmitting packets in bulk to everyone in the zone.

I would support adding a hotlink to the current bio space (preferably outside the current space and not compressing it even further) that would both allow readers to peruse longer written accounts outside the game (opening a browser to a wiki page for example) and encourage authors to keep the original bio space self-contained (i.e., not use it as spillover for their 27-page novella, but as a stand-alone "hook" to make the in-game character interesting.)