TheBruteSquad

In movies (especially fan-made), cool rules.

I'm not american. But I did serve in the armed forces. Even at a squad level (not fair to compare an in game MM to a general, after all - the MM has to be with his troops) in a training exercise it was not the section commander, nor the section 2IC, that were first into a room.

It was that way in GI Joe, though, so I could get behind a defense/minions setup. You'd have to be really careful with the numbers, though, lest it completely outclass Defenders.

Curiosity question (as I agree with most of what's been said): Considering the steampunk pack is live for people who won one at the post-freedom invasion party (I've seen a few people using the new wings, etc) which means all the assets are already patched into the game and the June 1st date is a formality... have they ever changed a pack after it's been released?

Also

That was an awesome way to condense a brutally overlong series of episodes. The Ginyu-bodyswitch crap was always my least favorite sub-arc.

WP and Dark are both tough. They both subscribe to the school of thought 'If you haven't killed me in X amount of seconds, you *can't* kill me.'

Dark has better resistances. WP has better defense. As a result WP is easier to get high defense slotted in, making it much more user friendly. HOWEVER, with a lot of effort you can get your defenses pretty high on Dark armor as well.

Once you do the superior base numbers on the resistance sets (not just dark, elec as well, and invulnerability to an extent) begin to favor them.

That gets into expensive and complex builds, though. For going from level 1 to 50, zero to hero, getting all the badges on the way - I'd give the nod to WP. It's a smoother ride. And has knockback protection built in.

I think the reasoning would be it's better for Rain of Fire to apply a DoT to one guy every 10 seconds than continue to let caltrops or freezing rain do more damage than a blaster's T9 nuke.

Because fear itself is shadowy. Things that can be fully seen are never as frightening as things that are only hinted at, half seen. In movies, for instance, there is not a single monster movie out there that became more scary once you fully understood the monster.

That might be what they're getting at.

Or maybe they just think that Galactus from that FF movie was the most bad-*** enemy ever.

I'm hoping for my first line of reasoning, and expecting my second.

My friends and I paused our D&D game long enough to play REM's "End of the World As We Know It"... you know, to pass a few minutes in case our watches were fast. Then I went back to continuing my incredible streak of rolling '1' on initiative (7 encounters - five 1s, a 3, and an 18).

I think Family Guy in the Stone Age is what we're going to get. Maybe once upon a time he had more talent than that, and maybe he still does, but all his shows (Family Guy, American Dad, Cleveland) have been successful because of their formula. If he changes that formula the millions who follow him from show to show may not approve... and those millions are what Fox bank on every time they greenlight a show from him.

It's more than possible to 'typecast' a writer, and I believe none currently are moreso than Seth McFarlane.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Great Gazoo was a regular, and he sounded an awful lot like a sarcastic baby or alien.

Not surprised, but still it's too bad.

Here's to a super-show that wasn't afraid to have their main character stop a train with his bare hands and get into fights that lasted more than 10 seconds.

I'm assuming you're planning on T4 Barrier to actually hit the incarnate softcap on several defenses. Neat, but with the PvP defense IO in play it's really pricey for an end result similar to a conventional softcapped EA running the same Barrier and using a small luck.

Not a fan of the some of the sacrifices you made to get there. Two of your hardest hitting attacks - Gloom and Total Focus - are underslotted. Also with just the four kinetic combats in Energy Punch and Bonesmasher your accuracy is really low, even with the +6% to hit buff.

Something with decently fast recharging and ok AoE, such as Fire Melee or Superstrength, would be good. I have a fire/stone myself. Mind you, she doesn't get played anymore, pretty much ever, because the other secondaries are close enough in durability once IO'd to make losing the ability to jump really unappealing. That's personal taste, though - it's still a really tough brute from the moment you step into granite form. You can even build a solid brute that doesn't ever shift into Granite with IO sets - though in my opinion if you're not rocking the granite you really might as well be an Invulnerability brute with similar inf invested.

Link isn't working but it doesn't really need to. I'll just assume it's got 125% defense to everything in the universe and is absolutely invincible.

Remove inventions from the game. Look at the numbers on basic SOs. Play it that way for a few years. Compare it to every other brute secondary also just using SOs. There's the root of 'energy aura sucks' - nothing more, nothing less. The game has changed, the memory of years spent dropping dead the instant an Arachnos spawn was aggroed hasn't.

There are blasters, corrupters, defenders... you name it... that these days rival the durability of melee classes. NOTHING sucks if you throw money at it. Lots of things suck until you do. Energy Aura is one of them.

I *AM* playing my low levels. Someone has to gobble up those IOs at SO prices. *cue pacman sound effects*

Perhaps it's a demonstration that our uniqueness transcends commonalities. I have a common first name. I'm caucasian. I have red hair. I'm short. There are probably hundreds of thousands of 'me' in the world by those exact criteria, yet not a single one sees the world exactly as I do because not a single one has lived my life to the last detail.

It's our perceptions of the world that makes us unique more than even our DNA.

So I'll take your 'supposed uniqueness' and raise you a 'more unique than even we realize'.

Being unique, however, doesn't guarantee any of us any kind of special privilege or rights or higher destiny. That's where the 'you are not a unique and delicate snowflake' comes in.

Rikti Technian 1: Pylon reconstruction levels: Past few weeks: Unacceptable!
RT2: Your point: Well taken. Whimsical inquiry: Warranty: still valid?

The raptor packs used to be slower than fly. Now they're not.

After flight speed got a boost (much appreciated for hover!) the Fly power caps flight speed unslotted, as do any of the fly temp powers.

But they give you that ugly *** pack so screw 'em. Most of my characters fly, melee or not, and more have hover than air superiority.

As for your power picks I leveled a SS character to 50 using only pool attacks (boxing, air sup, jump kick, and kick) and he did just fine. It's a combo you literally can't screw up so long as you take everything from the secondary (self rez excluded, unless you really want it for concept).

If you're duoing (or even soloing) I'd recommend stone melee/wp.

Fault and Rise to the Challenge have great synergy, and it does double duty in that it protects your team mate as well.