Seldom

Ah, thanks all. I guess I was misinformed.

Hello.

Admitedly, this may be just me being daft, but I cannot seem to find how to purchase costume slots 6-10 for just one character.

I'd mentioned in another thread how the global costume slot purchases for #6-#10 were too highly priced for my uses, and that single character purchases would be more valuable to me. People pointed out they were indeed available, but everywhere I look in the stores I only see the global unlocks.

Am I just oblivious? Where do I find the single character (NOT global) costume unlocks for #6-#10?

Forgive me for saying so, but despite its name, I find the regeneration secondary in many cases to well timed healing powers. As such, -recharge can be far deadlier in many combat situations. As regeneration relies on click-based powers more than any other armor set, I have no idea why it doesn't have higher -recharge resistance.

As to the points versus dollars thing, there's a reason for it and it's related to the reason the points in such systems are rarely one-to-one with dollars/cents: it's to hide from the consumer the actual price.

If 1000 points equaled $10.00, the average consumer would be able to realize easily the level of spending they would have- a discrepancy in the conversation requires extra thought in evaluating real world dollars to pretendyfuntime points, a conversion many are not going to take the time to make.

This practice is intellectually predatory, but hardly uncommon.

Even as a hopeless cynic, I had hopes the prices would drop more. The enhancement slots are hopelessly overpriced. FOUR months' subscription points for more enhancements? Two months for a a couple more salvage/recipe slots? To state it kindly, it's a bit befuddling.

There are two ways to make a buck: charge high, go for the few high spenders, or charge low and get money from almost everybody. Of course, the low assumes that there will be a constant stream of items to consume the 400 point stipend. These are not equal, however. The small transactions regularly earned are far more preferable, giving the company more goodwill as the offering are viewed as more generous. The high prices from the few that can afford it seem like the company is willing to use a double charge approach, asking as much for extras and conveniences as they do for the game experience itself.

Excellent guides. I was thinking of doing something along these lines, but you've done it in a far superior way. Excellent rundowns on all the archetypes!

Only a few additional tweaks/clarifications I might add:

Brute Inherents: Fury, Gauntlet. Fury You went over. The Brute guantlet is a taunt power built into all their primary attacks. Every punch/slice/whatever will taunt ONLY those the power hits. (Unlike the tanker version) The duration of this effect is enhanceable.

Tanker Inherents: Guantlet, Bruising. Guantlet is an AoE taunt generated from any attack, either single target or AoE, from the tanker's secondary. Anytime you attack from your secondary, any nearby enemies will be taunted. The duration of this effect is enhanceable.
Bruising is an unstackable -resistance power all tankers have from their first secondary power.

Stalker Inherents: Assasination, Critical Hit, Demoralize
Assasination is the critical chance from hide. This greatly boosts the assassin strike power, giving it an automatic critical from hide. Single target attacks gain a high critical chance, and most AoE attacks have a 50% critical chance.
Outside of Hide, Stalkers have a 10% chance for critical hits, with a bonus +3% chance per nearby teammate.
Demoralize is an unresistable -tohit/+fear that has a chance to trigger every time a stalker lands a critical assassin strike that does not kill its target.

I snagged the names for my main characters...though I'm not planning on moving any of them at this time, I might later. Or just restart then from level one for old times' sake.

That said, I've heard quite a few mention it as a place to move incarnate 50's...since incarnate stuff is VIP, and this server has the requirement, it makes sense.

*Makes a mental note to get as many heroes galaxy city door missions as possible tonight.*

Whee! Mish Teleport to a dead zone!

I thought I'd drop in my controller build here. I went Illusion/Empathy. That combo has a definite playstyle strength, but also limitations.

Illusion/empathy covers for empathy's lack of personal mitigation with distracting pets and invisibility. As much of Illusion's work is spot control with pets doing lots of the heavy lifting, it frees up empathy to be more ready to react. Both sets benefit substantially from increased recharge.

The weakness is that the pet AI is not always as reliable as some hard control, which is scarce in illusion. Without this, the mitigation to layer with empathy's more reactive style makes awareness more a priority. (You can't just lock things down, and buff/heal according to the little that get through.) Likewise, you have no debuffs to increase the effectiveness of your untouchable pets.

I call illusion/empathy the 'maker of awesome,' as the fantastic buffs and invulnerable pets mean in the right hands the combo can be surrounded by many awesome forces that don't die- but the controller themselves is not getting much of that. 'Tis a trade off, but not a bad one at all.

Anywise, the build:

The VIP server offers the ability to claim names you've never had access to. It offers a server without an an already established community. It offers a server without its own cliques, except those that move there. It offers a server where all players will have the same access level for all content, with all means of communication available to them. It means you get names you may have wanted, and don't have to worry that some of your team can't do such and such.

I do not think even the devs think these are enough to make people game exclusively there. I DO think the server stands as an extra hook: if you make a new character there, you MUST continue to pay to play there. Lose your subscription, lose your access there. Even if you play on various servers, this stuff is guaranteed to go when you stop paying. It's no wonder they're doing low level opening stuff there. They don't necessarily want people to MOVE there, as they want to START there. They have to incentivize people playing there to get things established. Having a server you lose with your subscription is not the easiest of sells, so getting people started there means helps get things established, so that people have that much more reason to keep the sub up. Certainly there are other reasons, but from the business side, that's what I see driving the VIP server. (Yeh, I can be cynical, but tell me it doesn't make sense.)

It is identical, but shrunken. Same head, just smaller. (Not sure why it uses a smaller scale.)

I've been surprised how downright fun Praetorian content is when exemplared, this is in contrast to how painful it can be at its 'natural' levels. I maintain if all the content was bumped up ten levels, 10-30, it would be a blast. As it is the enemy/mission designs throw enemies at you with abilities that outrank the 1-20 range, at levels where the players have few inspirations, weak enhancements, and lack most of their defining powers. (In many cases.)

Goldside's difficulty curve challenges powergamers, and has some choices that are a bit iffy. (mez protection, mez effects, stacking ambush waves, heavier buffs/debuffs, etc.) Though I'll be honest, it depends on characters. High ST damage characters have an easier time with ghouls. Non-mez might not know why dominators and controllers wither when facing destroyers. It is easier if you know what content your character will be ill-equipped to handle, and avoid it. This is confusing when it was marketed as a new place for those fresh to the game to start. It is positively the hardest part of the game for someone new to try, and can leave undo frustrations with aforementioned difficulty.

The more dynamic interaction in praetoria are very welcome, but as most dialogue and exposition is limited to the mission-holder's interaction, there can be missing portions for a team experience. Add in the more restrictive conceptual lore that can interfere with a character's concept/backstory, and you have a lore that goes from being barely present to overbearing depending on your interactions.

To be honest, I will visit praetoria for badges/unlocks, and to help friends starting characters there, but given the option I will not start any new praetorians after Freedom launches.

As to the incarnate parts that came with GR: Having fully incarnated a few characters, and barely unlocked the options on others, I can appreciate the content a bit more, but am equally aware of the weaknesses. Incarnate powers are cool. And fun. The difference between rare and very rare incarnate parts is daunting, almost to a unwarranted degree in my opinion, but I've found I cope by deciding which incarnate slots I actually want to go tier 4 on. (destiny seems the winner here.) Unlocking them can be very fun with a good group, and disheartening with a bad group. Fortunately, most people know their way around the content to make the positives far more common, in my experience.
The content can only be run when people gather in a pre-determined time or in an established launching area, though, as the LFG system does not function without coordinating with an established league that is open. I have not been able to use the system since it was started, which is a shame as the main complaints, league team size, was supposedly addressed. The system NEEDS to tell how many are waiting, so you know if it's worth a shot. In absence of this, people just go to the aforementioned gathering spots to see if anyone is standing about.

On a side note, the Tin Mage and Apex TF's are a prime target for a single team/small group incarnate trial, but the devs seem unwilling to make them as such.

Hmmm...

Levels 50's:

Dreameater: 1169 (My 'Main')
The Deathsman: 420
Persephone Lee: 347
Lady Vasilisa: 1516 (!!????)
Sipheon: 654
Arachnon: 117
Ionaut: 153
Professor Klanke: 153
Artemis Young: 189
Pyrolator: 213

Across the other 39 alts? Not going there.

Of all the 50's, 5 were (re)created at issue 6. The more recent ones Have had a significant reduction in their leveling time. The mastermind, Lady Vasilisa, confuses me. I had no idea I played that character so much, it's not even in my top favorite characters list. Huh.

Heh. One thing not brought up in this whole scenario: Modern diseases. We carry them and are (largely) immune to them. Throw some marines carrying disease two millenia advanced from the environment, and Rome (if not the world) might be in trouble.

Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, and Charlton Heston are notably absent from that list. I would also add John Wayne over a number on there, as well as Orson Welles. The list could have been relabeled 'current actors' for the most part, but even at that...

*Edit:* Holy heck, they left Jimmy Stewart and Paul Giamatti off as well?

I totally forgot to post my build again. Sorry.

I will again say that perma-doms get far less mileage out of high defenses. Stun an entire mob, turning them into piñatas- not being able to be hit when nothing can hit you is far less of a problem.

As to the whole purple conundrum: a fire/fire/fire dominator pays in offense with control. You have only five control powers possible in your entire build, and four of those are duplicate control types. (2x immobilize, 2x hold) As such, the variety of sets you can use is limited. This limit in variety means inevitably to reach high bonuses, purples do come into play a lot faster, and not the cheap ones.

Sans a build, I will say this: hero/villain merits are your friend. Here are the best sets to look out for:

• Call to arms
• Crushing Impact
• Decimation
• Eye of the Basilisk-expensive: lean toward alignment merits here
• Of course, luck of the gambler +recharge (unique 7.5, so it DOES stack with eye of basilisk/sting of manticore)
• Obliteration-expensive: lean toward alignment merits here
• Positron's blast
• Sting of the Manticore
• Stupefy

The toughest of the above to find are basilisk, due to their limited/early range. Start working your tips for those, I've found, or put your bids in for the much less expensive 26-29 range on them, if you're willing to lose a tidbit of enhancement.
Do NOT get any of the above sets in their level 50 versions, as they will cost hugely more than @ 36-49. (Sting of the manticore being the odd man out, snipe sets being "junk" market-wise.) I go for an exemplar friendly build, where my sweet spots are 29 and 31. (Weirdly, these cost easily half what level 30/35's run at.)

I'm not sure if you are avoiding purples or not, but here are the ones that you'd want more:

Gravitational anchor: Immobilize sets rarely give recharge, so this gives a nice boost in their absence. The "Chance for hold" is extraordinarily good in fire cages, where it turns a 'stay put but shoot at me' into a 'stop it!' power.

Absolute amazement: this would replace stupefy, which bumps up against Call to arms/Decimation/positron, so this is a welcome reprieve. Also, it gives the maximum enhancement to your most important power. Avoid the chance for tohit debuff for now, as it is broken.

Past those, the purples I'd use, in order of priority (should you afford them,as these are the worst pocketbook killers: Ragnarok, (frees up more 6.25's) Apocalypse, Armageddon, Hecatomb, Unbreakable Constraint (upgrades/replaces a valuable Basilisk)