StrykerX

Ah, you've met my usual gaming group...

Actually, we'd generally carry a "legit" generic PDA but only our decker and rigger would actually connect anything important to it (and their PDAs were very high end with lots of masking and security programs). Everyone else would just turn off their PDA once it was time for action (unless it was an undercover run) and use discrete comm gear and hardwired smartlinks if they were one of the two or three people who used smartlinks (or guns for that matter)..

Of course that team was also a bunch of psychos... nobody tended to hire us for stealth missions. This was a group who created a diversion by buying a dirt cheap piece of junk used car, putting a $5000 full rigger conversion into it, and then sent it at an enemy base with drums of gasoline and explosives piled in the back connected to a giant fuse and a blow-up doll in the driver's seat. (Our rigger was absolutely nuts.) We also had a mage built around maxing out Edge and using it to throw tac-nuke scale manaballs 3-4 times a day and a troll adept who specialized in cutting things in half. We did "smash and grab", "assassinate", and "create a really big diversion" exceptionally well, but "subtle" wasn't our strong suit.

And the thing that separates professional shadowrunners from the run of the mill crooks is the fact that a real shadowrunner isn't going to use unmodified off the shelf crap. It's kind of like driving a car with OnStar and a GPS tracker to a bank robbery... the run of the mill crooks might well do so but the real pros either disable the GPS or spoof the logs so it shows the car across town at the time of the robbery.

I would assume a shadowrunner would only have wireless on things like drones or comm gear that require it to operate, and everything else would have wireless access turned off during a run. Any competent tech can splice a small switch into the wireless antenna connection... touch a button and even remote activation codes fail to work because wireless is cut at the hardware level. Of course the more high tech toys a character uses the more things he may need to leave open, but unless you're a drone rigger or something why use standard PDA integration at all? Buy a helmet with an integrated display and low-light / IR vision, run a wired link from it through your jacket to glove-mounted smartlink induction pads and a tactical computer on your belt and you have all the high tech enhanced targeting capabilities with no PDA or wireless needed. It's a bit more of a hassle to set up and you'll need custom hardware, but it'll be a lot cheaper than an ultra-secure PDA with bleeding edge encryption and not only will you not get hacked, you'll be a heck of a lot harder to detect if someone is smart enough to set up signal scanners to detect if someone with an active PDA is walking around in an area no one is supposed to be in...

Well, when I said "hacking" I meant taking control and manipulationg, not just monitoring data. Reading monitors through walls is one thing... they give off a fair amount of EM radiation, especially CRTs (after all, that's their job). Reading data in a network cable at range (as opposed to clipping an inductive pickup onto it) would be a lot harder, and actually manipulating the data at range well enough to take operational control of the network? I don't see that happening. Just dumping a ton of EM radiation and jamming it? Sure. You can even do that with optical systems, since the endpoints have to change the light patterns into electrical signals and enough interference could jam those sensors. But at least then everyone's equal, since creating that strong a jamming signal is probably going to kill any smartlinks, comm gear, and combat computers on both sides of the fight unless it's so highly directional that you could just move to avoid the jamming beam. Actually screwing with enemy targeting data remotely ("Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex" style) would be, if not impossible, at least wildly improbable with a hardwired system. With the standard "everything's wireless" 4th ed gear a good decker could actually pull some of the goofy stunts that the Major does in that show, like overriding someone's cybereyes to make someone invisible to them or remotely triggering someone else's weapon.

Based on what was in beta the uncommon Alpha Incarnate items were similar to having a high level dual IO or Hami-O that applied to every power, and the really rare ones would likely be better than a purple set IO, enhancing 3-4 aspects of every power by at least a full SO or more and partially ignoring ED caps. If they keep something like that then by the time you get 10 rare Incarnate slot items you'd probably be a whole lot stronger than a fully purpled out level 50. And since some fully purpled out level 50s can solo Statesman / Recluse as full Heroes / AVs...

Of course that may all change before the system is actually launched, but I'd expect to be able to be effectively level 60 once fully Incarnated out, which means swatting normal AVs like flies. Of course I also expect major Heroes and AVs to get buffed to still be a challenge since they're supposed to be among the most experienced and dangerous enemies, and Statesman and Recluse to be effectively bumped to level 61 since they are supposed to be the absolute most powerful humans alive.

As for time investment, I'd expect a lot of raiding or TF / Trial grinding to be needed. It will probably be fairly quick to get the common Incarnate bonuses and very involved for the rare ones. Hopefully it'll be "fully purple out a toon" level involved, not "get the new 100 times Master of the Doc Q TF badge" level...

A hardwired link with no wireless input is not hackable at range by anyone. That's why when I make a Shadowrun character who uses smartlinks I go with the palm implants that inductively connect to the gun via a sensor in the grip... those can only be hacked by someone who is within arm's reach, in which case the gun is of limited use anyway.

Wireless = bad in combat, unless you know beyond a shadow of a doubt your encryption is too strong for any conceivable hardware to break in the length of time you expect a run to last. And even then you have to worry about backdoors and unknown weaknesses in the encryption that can be exploited, so in general wireless = bad in combat. Sometimes it can't be helped, and then it's a game of who has the better gear, but if I just need to get a signal to and from something at arm's length I'm using a shielded wired connection, not Bluetooth.

But since all too many shadowrunners and corp goons don't seem to grasp that fact, especially in 4th edition, I guess the decker should go ahead and try to hack the enemy gear. If I make a 4th ed decker he'll have a special software agent just for that purpose named Darwin.

That's one of the silly things that always annoyed me about 4th ed Shadowrun... any moron stupid enough to be using a hackable wireless connection for a smartlink deserves whatever he gets. Hacking comlinks and enemy remote drones? Sure. But hacking smartlinks, PDAs, or cyberware in combat? Anyone with half a brain is using wired connections for combat-oriented gear and has the wireless receiver in his PDA turned off on during combat situations. There's a reason they make palm induction pads for smartlinks...

(At least they don't go as far as Ghost in the Shell were even cybereyes and headware are wireless enabled. )

It's possible but very difficult to softcap one single positional defense on a character with no defense in their primary or secondary, provided you build toward that. Set IOs alone won't do it, you'll need to take Weave, possibly both Hover and Combat Jumping (both fully slotted), and a 2+ billion inf PvP 3% defense IO really helps but isn't 100% required. It's far easier to softcap S/L defense since you can get a patron / epic shield that gives a fair chunk of that, but not until high levels. As for resistance, the rule is simple: IOs can't provide enough of that to anyone to notice.

They can be, but the strategy is less "be invulnerable" and more "everything dies before it can do too much damage". However, truly KickAss Blaster builds are usually late game builds.

That's why I suggested an Archery / Energy hover blaster. You avoid melee almost completely and once you get Rain of Arrows you can choose to not even move in to cone range. /Mental and /Fire need to get up close and personal to work to full effect, which is great on teams or with a late-game build but dangerous against large spawns for the first 43-45 levels. (You don't have to stay there long, but one mez removes that choice from your hands.)


That's entirely doable, but again, you won't be near the softcap until the 40s. You can go ahead and slot the IOs earlier and get a decent bit of S/L Defense, which should help keep you alive, but that's still a high risk playstyle so expect faceplants. On the other hand, it's also a high reward playstyle so expect to work off the debt fast.

Scrappers can solo larger mobs earlier on with less effort. Blasters can (eventually) solo them faster and with more sense of accomplishment, but can almost never match the upper limits of what a Scrapper can do. Doing so takes a phenomenally expensive, fully purpled out level 50 build and an extremely skilled player, but it's quite a sight to see if you meet someone who can pull it off. (For instance, at least one Blaster has soloed the ITF, but it was one of the best Blaster players around using pretty much the ultimate endgame build.)

Though if you really want to take on hordes and don't mind waiting to level 33 to really take off, I would like to point out that Bots/Traps Masterminds have soloed Giant Monsters without any IOs at all... and with a decent IO build you'll probably be able to solo anything short of the Lady Gray Task Force, StF, LRSF, and Hamidon. If you have GR you can take said MM blueside, and if he starts in Praetoria he never even has to be a villain if that matters to you. Just something to consider...

Then you'll need to be a Scrapper. Blasters can barely softcap Ranged defense by itself, at the expense of devoting nearly the entire build solely to that purpose. They might be able to softcap both Ranged and AoE since many sets offer both, but Ranged and Melee both? No way, at least not without selecting and slotting every single power solely to boost defense and ending up with the damage output of a solo Earth/Empathy Controller.

Blasters can get 30-35% Ranged defense or so and still have excellent damage output. That's around one small Luck away from softcapped so you can carry a few and pop one before a hard fight (or two if the enemy has defense debuffs). They can also choose to softcap S/L defense instead without losing too much performance, but not until the mid 40s. You can get Hover, 33% or so Ranged defense (plus 20-something AoE), and 40-50% recharge far earlier than that, which is enough for a good attack chain and you're one purple pill away from softcapping when you need it.

A lot depends on what direction you go in your build. At moderate recharge levels both Fire and Archery are very good, though Fire hits a tad harder and is less resisted. However, at extreme levels of +recharge Fire is hands down the most damaging set in the game. Once you can use a single target attack chain of Blaze -> Fire Blast -> Flares you will be dishing out far more DPS than any archer, and you'll be able to throw Fire Balls so frequently that you'll melt minions with just those and the occasional Fire Breath. However, doing so requires massive recharge... roughly 230% in Blaze, which means around 140-150% global recharge or 70-80% plus Hasten. At those recharge levels, with ED capped slotting, a bit of +damage, Defiance and a proc or two factored in you are pushing 250 DPS sustained, while an archer is only hitting 175 DPS or so and is using a far more resisted damage type. On the other hand, the archer is doing it from twice the range since Blazing Arrow has a full 80 foot range. And of course getting that sort of recharge without purples leaves little room for +Defense. Of course for the ultimate in DPS, a Fire/Electric Blapper using Blaze -> Charged Brawl -> (alternate Havoc Punch and Shocking Grasp) can dish out a bit over 300 DPS counting Lightning Field. Doing so for more than a few seconds without getting pounded flat is another matter though...

As far as your secondary goes, with Archery I highly recommend Energy. Archery's main advantage is range, so Boost Range enhances that and you don't have to worry about redraw much. Mental can also work well and gives you more AoEs, but Rain of Arrows + Explosive Arrow should kill all or most of the minions (and they both basically hit at the same time from 100 feet away with Boost Range) so I'd rather stay at a distance than try to close to Psychic Shockwave / Drain Psyche distance.

Fire, on the other hand, goes great with Mental. You have to get closer to use Blaze and Fire Breath anyway so why not maximize your AoE punch? The drawback is that things will run up and smack you a lot more (that can be minimized by hovering 20 feet over the spawn) and short ranged attacks like shotguns and cones will nail you. Still, two cones and a targeted AoE by level 10 make for pretty much the most powerful early game AoE Blaster. Archery will be easier once you get RoA slotted, but Fire can mow down the minions almost as fast and can deal with bosses quicker... just not as safely.

As for Fire/Fire, you can clear a spawn of minions with Fire Breath -> Fire Ball-> Fire Sword Circle (or just Aim / BU -> Fire Ball -> FSC if they aren't too high level) and then quickly clear what's left, but you'll take a lot of return fire in the process so unless you have high defense expect to faceplant more often than most Blasters.

And speaking of defense, one key fact to remember: Blasters can not softcap positional defense without gimping themselves. You can get decent Ranged plus some AoE, but to actually softcap Ranged you have to give up a lot of damage. You can softcap Smashing / Lethal (if you can afford it) without giving up much damage, so as long as you don't mind avoiding foes with lots of exotic damage types and mez you can go with S/L defense and still get some recharge and such. However, you can't do so until the 40s since you need an epic / patron defense power... so for a toon that will retire at 50 I'd suggest just going for moderate ranged defense and lots of recharge and using the "kill it before it kills you" strategy. +Recharge can be a Blaster's best defensive bonus, because dead mobs do no damage.

Depends on what you want to solo. Scrappers tend to be more effective against multiple bosses and really extreme spawns (like +4/x8/bosses). A Blaster can only be made so tough, and if you have to frequently break line of sight and use terrain to break up enemy fire you may well lose so much DPS that a Scrapper who can just stand there and trade blows will hit harder. Plus the Scrapper is effectively immune to mez, while Blasters lose a ton of DPS when held or stunned.

Blasters can solo very well in "normal" situations, but they can't get enough mitigation to just stand still and slaughter tough spawns... especially spawns with mez. Scrappers can, so they get to apply 100% of their DPS all the time.

The Arsonist does the same thing, and his has (or at least had) no cap on the number of targets. 30 targets hit by the molotov cocktail = 30 stacked burn patches, which is why the Arsonist used to be potentially the highest damage MM pet in the game.

According to the Steam store, yes. The Complete Collection includes CoH and CoV.

I suspect that's why the prize is worded as:

"*Possible entry inclusion in the City of Heroes® game (No retail value)"

But... why would any self-respecting mad scientist go to the Rogue Isles? They'd be competing against the best and most ruthless evil geniuses around. Far better to go to Paragon, lure the trusting fools there into a false sense of security, and build up power without looking over their shoulder for the likes of Recluse or, well, you...

(Not that any blueside Masterminds I may or may not have are anything other than heroic individuals who sincerely regret their earlier evil ways. Nothing to see here, move along...)

PS: GREAT video!