Siolfir

The fastest I had heard prior to this thread was 3 hrs; now it's 1.

But under 10 is a fairly "normal" time for PL farms, MA or no (for reference, most of the meow farm claims were around 8-9 hrs).

For me personally the fastest would likely be my Cold/Ice Defender, who levelled from 23->50 solely on TFs, but I never bother to check. I'd say under 50.

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Howling Twilight is -500% regen, not -3000%. Also, the end drain on elec is not nearly good enough on its own to be much of a detriment to anything (chances are the mob's hps will be going down at least as fast as the end).

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When talking about dueling (the OP mentioned that was the plan and possibly AVs), it's -3000%; PvP numbers. But yes, in PvE it's only -500%.

I'd actually recommend (the FotM) Thermal if you're planning on sapping, though. Heat Exhaustion is crippling.

Mine would likely be Argentum; Siolfir is an old english spelling of silver (one of many). I just liked it when I saw it in the entymology and keep using it.

If anyone wants to make a list for me, here are some characters (in addition to Siolfir, above):
Kelly Marrey (50 WS)
Snow Bored (50 Cold/Ice Def)
Scorching Hot (38 Fire/Fire Bla)
Niao (32 Claws/WP Scr)
Cloudy Thoughts (35 Mind/Storm Con)
Miss Givings (27 PB)
Loose Morals (24 Kin/Dark Def)
Tempting Bait (33 Sd/SS Tan)
Polar Energy (20 Ice/EM Bla)
Dicey Prospect (13 DB/WP Scr)
Flame Dancer (12 Fire/Fire Bla)
A Warning to Others (4 Ill/Rad Con)

Small Dose (42 Rad/Kin Cor)
Best Intentions (35 Son/Pain Cor)
Bad Cliche (39 DM/EA Bru)
Clooless Noobie (25 Energy/Storm Cor)
Carmen Aburana (50 Wid)
Polar Abyss (50 Dark/Cold Cor)
Hapless Schoolgirl (50 SM/WP Brute)
Frigid Waste (50 Ice/Rad Cor)
Pyrrhic Victory (50 Fire/Kin Cor)
Mall Rat (28 DB/WP Sta)
Little Bunny Pew Pew (12 Mind/EA Dom)
Cinnamon Drop (22 EM/WP Sta)

...that's probably enough for now.

You could name your builds before - I forget when that was added, but I already had mine named a month ago for my Widow.

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When I zone, I now replay my power activation animations for my toggles when I hit the destination zone. I am not sure how it chooses what to play - it only plays one if you have multiple toggles running.

I can't say I'm real fond of it.

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I can say I actively dislike it - I hate the animation for Integration and interrupt it if at all possible. Now I get to see it every time I zone.

And the issue about mayhem ambushes seems to extend further; I ran the Tarikoss SF last night and there were no ambushes in the Longbow mission after getting the scientist.

My guess is something in the patch broke a lot of ambushes, as opposed to an undocumented feature.

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from what ive tested so far it seems both powers rech very close to eachother.

Iv'e questioned the global recharge in error, i think what might be happening is certain attacks from critters might be affecting it. Ive been in several instances when ive used the buildup/ lightning rod combo and while being attacked <by fire damage> the lightning rod charged much slower.

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I haven't done any testing on my Elec/Elec/Mu Brute to try to duplicate any of your results, but I did have a couple of questions that may help steer your thinking.

a. I tend to use LR several seconds after Build Up anyway - there are usually a few patron attacks (Fences, Ball Lightning) and Chain Induction first, then I use LR so that it hits while the DoTs are ticking away. Obviously they'll still be close to each other with similar recharge slotting since they have the same base, but any animation times you add between BU and LR will add up and could cause a perception issue since one is up and not the other - they tend to be ~5-7 seconds apart in my case, depending on what all I slip in during the BU window and at the long end of that you're looking at close to 1/4 of the total recharge of the power.

b. You're being hit with fire damage, but the groups I can think of that use fire damage once you get LR are Longbow, Circle of Thorns, Crey (Paragon Protectors) and Carnies. I'm throwing out Malta and Council since they don't have pure fire attacks. Are you positive it was only fire damage, since each of those groups have methods of slowing recharge (via Web Grenades/Psi attacks/Ice attacks)?

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The Mission Teleporter now has a "proper" icon, instead of the red X

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I liked the Big Red X. You can never miss it on the icon tray. Now the new button looks like the temp phase shift power.

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I miss the red X also - I always looked at the icon as a sort of "X marks the spot" thing on a map... c'est la vie.

One of the things that I noticed yesterday but didn't see in the patch notes - location-based ambushes appear to be gone in mayhem missions. I ran all over the map in the King's Row mayhem on my baby Dominator yesterday and the only ambush that showed up was the hero (and subsequent PPD) ambush after getting the loot.

Feature, or bug? You decide!

By the numbers I think Spines works out the best due to Ripper and Throw Spines being the best DPA attacks in the set, but that's with the assumption that there's no travel time between spawns and everything is in the cones. In practice, Electric Melee does as well with a faster AoE burst since you'll end up picking off single targets from the survivors and it has better/faster-animating single target damage.

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Stone Melee's attacks have higher endurance costs so be sure to slot end redux heavily if you choose to go with Stone Melee.

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Stone melee has a higher Endurance per second usage than any other set.

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SM - Mostly KB with some Stun, rock hammer, has a ranged attack, longer animations.

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SM takes good advantage of the fury bar with some slow, bursty and LOUD attacks.

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Stone Melee has the same DPE as War Mace. If it uses more endurance per second, then it's either doing a the same percentage more damage or the attacks have to be animating faster to get more in the same amount of time. Make up your minds. 1.63 seconds is not a "slow" attack - and that's the longest animation in SM's single target chain. Yes, it's much longer than the 1.13 seconds that both mallets used to be, but look at the animation times in other sets and you'll find that SM is one of the faster animating sets.

Stone Melee - if you take the best DPS chain from the set - uses a great deal more endurance than War Mace, but it's also doing quite a bit more damage. Seismic Smash is the best DPA attack that Brutes have available to them, and for the same damage scale Stone Melee has faster animations. It also has great AoE mitigation, but is competing with Energy Melee for dead last in AoE damage and only the larger radius of Tremor even makes it arguable about which is worse - Whirling Hands is more AoE DPS if they both hit the same number of targets.

War Mace is a fairly balanced set that's good at single-target damage (but not the best), good at AoE damage (but not the best), and has fair AoE mitigation using knockdowns. Weapon redraw keeps it from being higher-rated for single target DPS, since the "best" chains include Gloom, but it will be in the running until patron powers are considered.

So the question is do you want to be marginally untouchable but only kill one thing at a time, or do you want to do good damage to everything around you but get hit more often?

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My brutes... well, i don't think they can hold a candle to a well built Stone brute. (Fire/Invlun, and Elec/SR)

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You didn't soft-cap your SR? It's more expensive to softcap Inv, but can be done with enough things in Invincibility, and when done either should tank just as well as a Granite Brute; my SM/WP can survive as much as my FM/SA could while putting out more damage with no movement penalties - that's why I ended up deleting the Granite and moving the LotGs to my Widow - but since RttC's taunt is rather weak people can still pull mobs off of her if I haven't used Fault or Dark Obliteration (the only two AoEs) recently.

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pve wise elec has no equal, seriously yo try a hidden thunderstrike and AS and entire group of ppl all at once, its sick.

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Then you try and kill a boss, and just stand there spamming AS because you don't have any REAL single target damage...

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Im an elec nin, and am loving it because I dont have that problem quite as bad thanks to sands of mu and nemi staff.

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I just tend to use AS+LR+TS and scrap out the rest with Mu Bolts, Chain Induction and Havoc Punch until AS recharges again; usually the boss dies during the second AS, Placate or not, unless they're highly resistant (Malta are annoying).

Sure, it's mildly slower than some of the other sets but it's not cripplingly so, the damage type being energy helps when compared to the lethal sets, and your AoE splash damage taking out smaller mobs while you're killing the boss will generally make up for the difference in time killing them. I rarely use the vet reward powers past level 26 since by then I have everything in a normal attack chain.

It does make a difference that I aimed for softcapping mine, though - I very rarely get interrupted on AS and can use it as an extra hitter. Even without a critical it's the hardest hitting attack in the set and better single-target DPA than Havoc Punch or Thunder Strike.

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I see ripoffs frequently, and I have yet to petition one of them. I'll petition things offensive (overtly sexual, racial or sexist names/descriptions) and let everybody else petition the clones. They don't really bother me and there are always plenty of people wanting to point out how someone else is breaking the rules so I don't particularly care when they get caught and just assume they will. If I'm feeling really nice I may mention that they should look into changing the desc/costume, though.

But I also see no point whatsoever in starting a thread about it on the forums, either - I find doing so no different than all of the purged posts and threads about the accidental bannings that happened due to the "MA abuse". It's not talking about specific GM interaction but merely speculating it and discussing such - which many of those threads were as well - and as such falls under the same forum rule.

In short, if you're going to petition do so and shut up about it. If you're not going to petition, don't and shut up about it. If you're going to be an attention [censored] saying "lookit me, I can point out a nasty ebil rule breaker" then I hold you as no better of a person than the one you're pointing out.

As such, reporting the thread.

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So...let me see if I got this straight.

You typed all this out to say you're reporting the thread.

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Actually, I typed it all out to point out my personal policy on these issues, as many other have, then to say why I'm reporting the thread after I thought about what I was writing.

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While saying in the post itself that you look down on people who go out of their way to point out that they're reporting something, considering them no better than the one who broke the rule in the first place.

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Feel free to ignore the last line if you like; it was only included so that people don't go " wth?!?!" if/when it disappears, as often happens any time a thread gets modded.

And if it seems hypocritical, that's nice. I certainly didn't start a new thread saying "look at this rule-breaking thread", and within this thread the post itself should get purged.

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I see ripoffs frequently, and I have yet to petition one of them. I'll petition things offensive (overtly sexual, racial or sexist names/descriptions) and let everybody else petition the clones. They don't really bother me and there are always plenty of people wanting to point out how someone else is breaking the rules so I don't particularly care when they get caught and just assume they will. If I'm feeling really nice I may mention that they should look into changing the desc/costume, though.

But I also see no point whatsoever in starting a thread about it on the forums, either - I find doing so no different than all of the purged posts and threads about the accidental bannings that happened due to the "MA abuse". It's not talking about specific GM interaction but merely speculating it and discussing such - which many of those threads were as well - and as such falls under the same forum rule.

In short, if you're going to petition do so and shut up about it. If you're not going to petition, don't and shut up about it. If you're going to be an attention [censored] saying "lookit me, I can point out a nasty ebil rule breaker" then I hold you as no better of a person than the one you're pointing out.

As such, reporting the thread.

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I have two catgirls, both done for concept reasons, and a ratgirl, made simply to be different from all the kitties and empaths during the Mac Open Beta.

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Heh. I have 4 catgirls that are parody characters of various types: one is a cat familiar who was magically turned human that complains about having to do more than sleep all day (Midnight's Eclipse, DM/Nin Stalker; attempt to poke fun of the furry crowd in desc due to the reason why she was changed), one was bitten by a radioactive catgirl and gained the powers and abilities of one (Bad Cliche, DM/EA Brute; she has multiple other origin cliches in her desc), one was born to a cat that had medical experiments done on it prior to escaping who only speaks in different cat noises (which I have macros for) based on mood or reaction and is only a hero because she followed a Plant/Thermal Controller to Hero Registration because she smelled like catnip (Niao, Claws/WP Scrapper; making fun of the "mewmewmew" catgirl crowd), and then there's Token Catgirl - my only one off of Infinity - who was mentioned above.

I've also got Mall Rat, a DB/WP Stalker (teen b)ratgirl, and Little Bunny Pew Pew, a bunnygirl Mind/Energy Dominator created to abuse the /Energy revamp making it a decent ranged set once i15 hits. I still can't believe that neither of those names was taken on Infinity.

Hero as a term is completely meaningless; that's why I always use AV to classify that rank.

Darrin Wade's arc has Kadabra Kill and Sigil both labelled as "Hero", but they're only bosses.

Malaise, in that arc, has boss hit points and is labelled "Hero".

In Mender Tesseract's arc, Miss and Ms. Liberty are EBs that are labelled "Hero" (no, they weren't scaled down - I was on Relentless).

And there are many arcs where "Hero" means "AV" (such as Positron and Valkyrie in Ambassador Kur'rekt's arc).

It certainly can be done. Stalkers are just sneaky about it.

Good point on the longer durations, I was simply looking at the shorter time for the mag 6.

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Without Drain Psyche, a Dom needs pretty massive damage to overcome a +3 AVs Regeneration. A Mind Dom probably couldn't do it, given that Dominate needs to be slotted for Hold.

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Hami-Os to the rescue.
Acc/Dam, Acc/Mez, 2 * Dam/Mez, 2 * level 50 Recharge IO; I don't know if that gives you enough recharge slotting at ~80% but it's 95% Dam, 95% Hold, and 66% Acc (without the recharge, that's how I slotted my Fortunata on my Fire/Kin/Soul; I picked it up at 49 and had limited slots available).

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re: Scaling AS
I enjoyed the 4% fully enhanceable/buffable scaling AS, but that may have had something to do with being able to eat a bunch of reds and down a GM in less than a minute...

But overall, the damage decrease against most of the game sucked and I'd rather not have scaling AS if it can't be rank-specific. There was also a fair bit of complaining about how unfair it made the different damage types, and I have a DB Stalker - I don't want any more lethal damage Assassin Strikes.

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The flight thing is just silly, though, and doesn't deserve much more consideration beyond that. :P

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Well, yeah. It was just supposed to be silly.

My only character with MLRSF (50 Fire/Kin/Soul) got it on a PuG. No Mind Dom, just 2 Brutes and 6 Corruptors. We set the MLRSF settings on a lark because of the 8 characters on the team, 5 had Vengeance and 2 had Recall Friend... we knew if someone died, we'd definately be able to finish, temp powers or no.

EM is also the leader in pinkness, but i16 should nerf that.

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Meh, don't let 'em get you down. You certainly wouldn't be the first person who PL'd to 50 solely to unlock VEATs - which is kindof sad IMO because a lot of the arcs picked as "best arcs" are 40+ content in Grandville but I'm certainly not going to criticize since I tend to hate the teens and PL through them.

My recommendation, assuming the build is decent, is to use your Brute. Not because the MM is inferior - if you're a good player it will provide a good bit more to a team - but because there's a perception of both Traps and MMs in general that they either don't do much (Traps) or hurt teams (MMs with bad pet control). And yes, I've run into enough MMs who had no idea how to control their pets that I fall into the second category, despite knowing that a well-played MM will accomplish more than anything else redside and probably through the entire game.

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-A team-friendly attitude: If you're going to be a snarky, whiny, controlling sod, go find someplace where that crap flies. Only things that fly here are birds, planes, bugs, and the morons I punt into the distance for disrupting the mood.

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Wait, so they can't have Flight for a travel power?

Is that so they're not constantly asking for teleports by being the slowest to any non-Shard mission door?

As for teams on various TFs... I want competency over anything else, although I will try to balance a team if I have the capability to do so - and I tend to avoid MMs more than any other AT simply due to the overall gross incompetence of the ones I've run into in anything other than standing around in bodyguard mode and walking through a map.

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What level are you? At some point, you will probably want to grab your assassin shock power. I usually get mine at level 6, which is the earliest you can unlock it. Assassin Shock is a great way to deliver a HUGE hit to a lieutenant or boss.

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Well, the OP said level 5, but they also said they rerolled; I'm guessing they still haven't hit 6 yet but that's just a guess.

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Well, after seeing this thread and realizing something was missing on Guardian I made Token Catgirl, who became an Arachnos Widow through working the system using the same affirmative action program that allowed males in.

So did you make the character, or just change the forum handle?