Seldom

You aren't alone in wondering, but the warzone is a handy place to host AE runs. Since redside activity can be hit or miss on many servers, a co-op MA run will indeed get more attendance.

*edit* Hm. They may have kept it out of pocket D to avoid letting Praetorians out too early...golden land is all to easy to outlevel as-is. But this is speculation, and I'm unsure how long in advance they had Praetoria planned.

Good luck with the AE in Grandville.

I'd suggest Cap, the 'hub' of Rogue isles and the most common AE locale.

I skipped psy scream on my mind/psy for the longest time for the positional cast reason...but when /psi got re-jiggered I couldn't let it go anymore. It's contribution to damage is about on par with psi shockwave, though is target caps is lower. I find it good fired off just before I enter the spawn, controls fired ahead of it.

I've tried just about every archetype, and try to play them to a conceptual strength, then do my best to make them as powerful as possible while staying true to that core concept.

The only one I've really been disappointed with was my human only peacebringer. Granted he didn't get all the way up, but he was just...meh. Not bad persay. You actually have to try to ruin a character to come up with something that doesn't have a strength around here...but as a human-only PB I came away loving the look, but not really doing as much for the team as I could by switching to one of my other characters. It was like playing a character that won a bronze in every category while another could win bronzes and a gold here and there.

I know they're a generalist, but that felt like less a strength when my specialists are also good in general too.

One thing I noticed recently with my old scrapper that I dusted off, after playing my brute, that often goes unnoticed: runners. I hate runners. Playing my scrapper I wondered why an enemy would take off so often...then I realized- the taunt in brute attacks makes enemies more 'sticky.' They just won't leave a brute half as easily while the gauntlet/taunt thing is going on. Of course, this is comparing a /regen scrapper (no taunt aura) to a /dark brute. (crazy numbers of auras)

The level shift basically makes all your enemies con one lower than they usually would. So while you would stay at level 50, the level 51 minion would be white, not yellow. It's a purely 'conning mechanic,' not level-based.

This is probably similar to how rikti-raid enemies, praetorian event foes, and giant monsters operate: they have a level, but their threat level compared to that is independently determined. I do not know if this effect carries over to summoned pets. Good question.

For dealing with masses of mobs: Mind/Psy dom. 4 mass mez powers with 3 quickish ST ones to boot. Fully saturated drain psyche will give you 1,750%regen. If you get enough recharge, the AoE mezzes are up every 10-30 seconds and can lock down bosses instantly, while drain psyche never goes down. (If given targets)

For destroying mobs: Crab spider, using rifle and crab ranged AoE, particularly with the fighting pool as backup. Even on SO's it can get close to being softcapped, it has armor to just about all damage types, its own dull pain, and up to 7 AoE's. The max targets will not ding you much, and you can go through them like butter. Seriously, it can have an AoE attack chain. Did I mention you can also have a bunch of pets out as well, and one of your AoE's is also a mass -res debuff? And double stacked assault for +30% damage at all times, besides the +50% from aim?

Dominators hit-for hit will do more damage than controllers...but controller can catch up via buffs/debuffs. Specific controllers can outdamage dominators, but averaging all options dominators would probably be higher. Not by much, bbut there it is.

The most damaging secondary for dominators is /fire, electric and thorns secondaries have damage boosts too.

Dominators have the more straightforward play style: kill things, control things you don't want to kill you (or your team) You have few tricks to cheat to get the killing done, it's all there at the start. Controllers need setup often, but catch up. Ironically, dominators can become the better controllers while controllers can become more damaging.

Peacebringers, in my mind, got hit hardest by issue 6. They were the jack of all trades, but the villain archetypes bring much of the kheldian hybrid approach then kick it up a notch by having a powerful specialty besides. Peacebringers are still highly flexible, especially triforms, but are often if not always overshadowed by someone who can do that thing they are currently doing but better.

Warshades have the siphon powers to be a mob-based force multiplier on their behalf- peacebringers are more self-sufficient, but this can work against them. They are where they start off, outside of the team buffs they receive. With Io's, Hero AT upgrades, villain AT's, Veats and experienced players the flexibility and contribution of a peacebringer is rivaled by many other equally flexible characters that can also be more powerful.

From my perspective, it's a matter of value, based around rarity/strength of the effects you get for your endurance/power choice.

Both +damage leadership powers come at full strength, and since +damage helps move things at a faster pace, boosts team survival, and are not that common, two of them seems a good idea.

Since the soldier Maneuvers gives a very sizable defense that can and will help you and any allies live longer by a large enough margin, don't skip them.

Tactics? It's handy. It boosts tohit, so it even enhances accuracy enhancements' effects. That said, a simple SO accuracy will be enough to hit even con foes most often, so it's less a necessity. The perception buff is nice, and it does counter -tohit debuffs too. Plus it's good for hitting high-con foes or those with a +defense powers. I took the soldier version, as it's helpful for AoE's, with their lower accuracy.

One should do it. Two tactics? There are probably better power choices, unless you routinely fight +4's. The one layer with slotting is enough to hit stuff for almost all of this game.

Extra maneuvers from the leadership pool? If you can afford it, but it's not that strong. In fact, it's the reason some new to soldiers skip the excellent soldier maneuvers. Defense is exponential in how its works, so the more the better...but it doesn't give you that much, and needs several slots at that. If you're the only one giving out much defense, it's a hard sell. If you play often enough with folks that also give defense, or aim for a lot of personal defense, it's more worthwhile...it's best when stacked.

Yes, for a normal run's standards it was actually pretty smooth. For a master run, it was not that bad of a failure. Some extra support, especially shields for the squishables would've been nice, but you make due with what you have.

We weren't coordinated on the fourth mission, so that should be easily prevented, and the final mission deaths...well, a bit more candy on states, keep the breakables unaggroed and clear of some of the nasty AoE and we're gold.

I skipped the pets for the longest time on my crab, but when the inherent stamina came around, I re-looked at the powers, and picked up the pets. Call reinforcements pets are indeed helpful...they bring AoE and control, and are quite hardy. The spiderlings? They're okay.

They add little ticks of damage, over and over. I'm sure in the long run it's good, but it always seems...little. They have no boom. They do, however, act as nice distractions when you need that. But as a crab, that's rare. the big upside is that I've gone almost allAoE, they are single target. So they finish things off allowing me to expend less endurance. And the fewer enemies left, the more noticeable their damage is as they converge on the last living things.

Forgive me for the bump, but I was just wondering...is this run still in play?

My rogue villain can get on teams any time there's a TF/Sf forming, which lets her save up those merits. Once I get all the bluseside badges and merits I wish I can skip on back to the redside, flush with more than enough to purchase A-merits as I run tips to handily by the ultra-rares I want.

Alignments certainly aren't stagnant, you can go back and forth, so long as you don't hoard A-merits. (then bouncing back and forth is a bad idea, obviously.)

The ability to do any SF/TF anytime on a favorite character? To gain a bunch of new badges? To get the tons of easy exploration merits bluseside? It works for me, so the grey alignment is not so big a deal. I have alts that can get those 'easy' A-merit things, then e-mail them around.

This is a personal preference, but I usually aim for the 30-ish range permanently for any set but purple/PvP Ios, or 'filler' single enhancements. (No bonuses on singles, so going for high levels works enhancing-wise.) This just because I hate the feeling of letting go of awesome bonuses that I've come to rely on.

By the 30 range a full (or close to full) set will be giving you equal to or greater than most SO enhancement, so you take no hit on the slotting power of the ability. This has been a boon to me on many a SF/TF on my rogue. I like level 30-32, just because then I have the bonuses @level 29 for the "x-29" flashbacks and onward.

But this is from a frequent exemplar/sf/flashback player. Your play may diverge on this point.

1st Character:

Mr. plutonium, Rad/rad defender. He made it to level 5...then when I wanted to change his costume, I had to delete him. (This was before the tailor)
He then made it to level 4, when I realized he was the wrong color.

Deleted, remade. level 3.
Too short.

Level 5. Needed a new helmet. remade.

level 7, remade for new tweaks.

level 24: decided to let him be..they added the tailor, much rejoicing was had by all.

By this time, I got a better computer of my own, and my brother whose account I shared moved to college. He kept the account, but I wanted all my characters on Champion. So all character were deleted and remade.

Mr. Plutonium now sits at level 35. I remade him a few to many times, so I seem to have lost the enthusiasm I once had for the guy.

*sigh* I still wish they allowed character transfers between accounts, but I see why they don't.

I'd love to help/participate, as I've needed both for some time. I can contribute a Mind/Psi perma-dom to lock stuff up.

1. Dreameater

2. When I and a team of friends jumped into the ice mistral SF as soon as we could...the way things were at that point, the rest of the SF was against +5 enemies. It was the first time we'd done it, the final boss pulled his final big ambush as both he and the team were about to bite it..and just as the last nasty ambush showed, my mass confuse and domination recharged simultaneously. They changed their minds, we finished off the boss then the new recruits, and I got my random SF recipe reward. (This was before merits) A luck of the gambler +recharge. I was happy.

3. I don't believe we've met...life has kept me from all but casual play as of late, mostly solo.

I like my 'epic' in all different flavors.

Control: perma-mind/psi dom. Mwahahhahaa! It feels good to be able to hold even Lord Recluse. Or just about any other enemy group you come across.

Mass AoE: Crab spider, soldier/crab aoe's+pets/leadership. This character has only two single target attacks. the rest? Pure, concentrated flunky destruction. Tough enough to wade through waves of enemies, damaging enough to make then die very quickly.

Range: Archery/Em blaster, 3 damage/range HO's and boost range up at all times/munitions ancillary. When your shortest range attack is sniper length, things have trouble hitting you. When you can destroy entire spans With rain of arrows and/or a LRM attack? all the better. when your snipe can hit from 380 feet? Good times.

Toughness: Inv/SS tank, with crazy defense set bonuses, +fighting/energy mastery pool. 90% smashing resists, capable of reaching the hard cap of defense with buffs and enemies in range, he can go on endlessly against most anything, do fair damage, and barely take a scratch. No debufffs to complain about. Psi can be annoying, but with one purple that misses too.

SMASHtroller: EM/dark brute, with +recovery bonuses and COF/OG at all times. Smacks stuff silly as they tremble and stumble at his presence. can keep up to three bosses stunned while simultaneously killing them. Can come back from the brink of death, and when that fails, from death.

Sapper: Kin/elec defender. Can sap a boss in two hits, or a mob in two hits. Can turn any enemy harmless. (minus hamidon) It's just a matter of time. Usually, not much. Has the side effect of boosting recharge, capping damage, healing, restoring endurance, buffing recharge, debuffing regen,damage,speed, and recharge as well. can one shot mobs with fulcrum shift up, and be ready to roll again with a blue and a target.

Maker of epicness: Ill/emp controller with perma phantom army/AB. Capable of keeping allies alive through just about anything, assisted by undying phantoms,with ridiculous ammounts of damage/defense/recharge/regen/recovery to those you wish when you wish. You will be weak, but surrounded by strength.

There are many more, but those are the standouts for me.

I would love for some new enemies to pop up. While there are indeed enemies that aren't used as much, I consider that a good thing. Overused is overused, and in a game that's about combat at its core, having mission after mission of the same enemies we've faced for 6+ years is a bit...blasé.

Council again. Yay.
CoT.
Feakshow.
Etc.

*sigh*

For starters, I'd personally like to see:

"criminals" Yep, just random thugs. Lone guys pulling heists, little squads doing a smash and grab, because not all crime is organized.

For heroes: "Super" villainous factions. You know with tights, and superpowers all around. Comic style, not the oh-so common paramilitary/fantasy stuff.

For villains: vigilantes. Random assortment of poorly trained civs that want to fight villains, and heroes who want blood.

Aliens: from other worlds, not dimensions. All we seem to have for the most part are khelds and dimensionally altered humans from alternate earths.

I'd agree that it depends on powerset.

The REAL wrench is the corruptor secondary. A /Kin corruptor can meet or exceed even blaster damage while making an entire team reach the damage cap. They are also far more fragile than even the squishiest dominator: kinetics trades survivability for damage. Also, to operate at max damage you have to constantly be spamming powers just as they recharge, and taking chances. Other support secondaries like /dark give a well rounded set of offensive debuff, controls, and team support. /Dark corrs are more safe, yet their tar patch helps them sneak up to dominatorish damage. Corruptors all have debuffs in their secondary as a rule...it's all a matter of how strong/dependable those are.

Meanwhile, dominator secondaries vary damage-wise as well. They all start pretty high, but only a few have means of boosting that damage. Others prefer powerboost, which is a mez buildup rather than damage buildup. (Or psi has a buff+debuff in drain psyche.) Then you get into whether they have a bunch of melee, range, AoE, it shifts a lot.

All in all dominators start high, can get a bit higher, but are dependably safe up until they meet an AV.

Corruptors can be safe, squishy, both at the same time, team centric, good for soloing, highish damage, medium damage, it varries quite a bit by power combos.

Admittedly, I've played less and less of late. But this thread makes me sad.

Is the server quiet? Yes.
Are many post here unwelcoming and abrupt? Well, yes.

My opinion strictly: basing a server community around global channels is unhealthy in many ways, as newcomers are not hooked up into them, and need to be in contact with somebody who takes the time to be inform them to get in. Even then, channels have limits. I still try to hit up the team search windows, but many bypass this for globals. A shortcoming of team forming functionality? Maybe. But the effort to use the plain search window can turn up new faces and introduce them to fun times. (This assumes civility and good communication during invites, of course.)

Hanging on to years old quarrels and not taking the time be be the best to people you come across (even when they act lousy) just makes things less palatable to newcomers. But I ain't a push or shove person, so that's probably my bias showing through.

My biased view just sees this place becoming very insular- it helps a lot when you talk to a passer-by you don't know and see if they want to team, invite a stranger looking for a group, or check politely with an unfilled team if they need a new member, then do your best to be useful. Being helpful in teaming (which is all about cooperative play anyways) just helps everybody involved have fun in a game that's all just about having fun anywise.

Lighten up folks, and please, please stop telling people go away. They may go, they may stay, but either way it makes their experience here just a bit worse.

*sigh* anywise. I'll be here. Soloing, grouping, being quiet. But helping random folks you come across can make a game that may be starting to feel old become fresh all over again.

Purple bonuses are by design redundant. The very rare sets are in high demand, the limit of 5 sets per build puts an artificial clamp on demand per character.

don't expect anthing other than the below, except in rare instantces:

• 2: Increases recovery by 4%.

• 3: Increases fire/cold res by 2.52%.

• 4: Improves the accuracy of all your powers by 15%.

• 5: Improves the recharge of all your powers by 10%.

• 6: Increases toxic resistance by 5%.

The rare instances are 'squishy' sets, sets uncommon to melee archetypes, which give 4% +damage at 4 slots and 5% psy defense at 6 slots. I'll go out on a limb and say the +5% psy defense would never go into a res/defense set. Why? too many res/defense sets have psy as a built in weakness. Puting a way to cover a weakness from 1-50 exemplared in a set that also maxes its enhancement seems unlikely.

Which brings me to a second point: devs and defense bonuses. I think the raised tohit and accuracy of some recent game additions make it clear the devs are uncomfortable with the whole crazy defense thing. The only one they seem to allow is the rare psy defense, and the placement of that's already been covered.

Past the bonuses, to the sets themselves:

The heal purple set would probably have some accuracy in it, just as the purple pet set carries recharge enhancement to make it useful in both minion and recharge intesive pet powers. As the sets carry an 'overenhancing' factor, the extra dilution of acuraccy would still make them useful to those who don't need it, and would not risk 'underenhancement' due to the high values purples sport. The set might have more triples or doubles than usual for this cause. Proposed heal set: (rough)

heal
heal/end/rech
heal/end/acc
rech/acc
heal/end
effect (I was thinking +7.5% hp/+10% res to -regen)

The enhancing thing with purples carries a very different problem for the def/res purple sets; while mose sets enhance 4 stats (acc/effect/end/rech) the defense/res sets can carry three at most, and one of those carries less value in most cases. (Recharge.) If made along the normal purple lines, the set might max its most valuable stats in just 3 enhancements, (or less.) making 6 slots be 3 useless purples just for bonuses.

To make the extra slots valuable, I'd further dilute the enhancements with equally useful effect enhancements. For instance, a very rough resistance set:

• res/effect (minor kb protection?)
• res/end/effect (minor resistance to -recovery?)
• res/rech/effect (minor resistance to -regen?)
• end/rech/res
• 10% resistance to toxic for 120 sec.
• +2 protection to holds

The defense set could be similar, but with different effects. No hold protection, though. (As defense sets already mitigate many holds.)