The_Terrorizer

I have been playing since around June of 2005 (haven't checked the actual date in a while). When the boosters first started coming out, I was excited, especially for the magic and cyborg packs, those were costume pieces I really wanted to use. For me, those boosters were well worth the 10 dollars each I paid for them. The science pack I bought becuase of the super tailor, I have several toons that like to change from a basic size to a large robot or wicked looking magic form. The Valkyrie pack really added some nice costume pieces, which even furthered a ton of toons, irregardless of origins (Most people think those valk wings look awesome on my robot toon Hypernaut). The ninja pack, well, Ninja costumes were cool looking, but arguably the best thing about it was the sweetness that was Ninja Run.

Now, there are certainly people out there and who did not like or felt they could do without the boosters. That's fine, that is certainly your right. If you perceive their value as less than what they're offered, I certainly won't force you to waste money on them. But don't come into the forums confused, upset or questioning as to why someone would keep spending money on a game YOU think has died, is dying or will die because the boosters and the content doesn't suit you. We still play for the fun and excitement we feel the game still has, and we shouldn't have to explain ourselves to you and others like you.

The devs have done a lot in the last year to 2 years to bring us what they felt we wanted the most. We got shields, we got dual blades, we got weapon customization AND power customization (which the devs already said more is on the way). That idea in and of itself was a huge leap for this game.

Bottom line, If you feel the game has nothing left to offer you even with the new content being brought out for next year, then adios, mi amigo. But don't come in here expecting people to rally to your cause, Braveheart. Seems to me, most disagree with you.

SS, while i do wish scrappers would get it so i could roll a SS/Regen scrapper and own Guardian's pvp...Does suffer one slight flaw due to the scrapper/tanker team roll debate started long ago...

Why should a Hulk-like character, who is defined as an unstoppable and massive force of destruction (and by definition is a "tanker" AT) be out damaged by, oh lets say Captain America?

I mean, Captain America would essentially be a SS scrapper (although technically he wasn't Super Strong, just pushed to the limit of the human body via the super serum). I guess you could even argue he is actually martial arts...but i digress.

Thematically, it doesn't make sense. A while ago, I suggested a low-key version of super strength be ported over (similar theme different execution) and rename this ported version to the coveted Street Fighting set people have wanted for so long. Keep your Jab, keep your haymaker, keep your basic punch. Change knockout blow to more of an upper cut type power, make it your tier 9 final attack, erase foot stomp and bring in more of a "fists of fury" type power that uses a the familiar "Flurry" animation and make it a shadow maul level damage cone. Take out Rage, replace it with a modified hybrid version of rage and build up (see below). I got flamed pretty heavily for this idea, back a few months ago during the last round of proliferations, but hey, its an idea.

Focused Damage - Your fighting spirit gives you the ability to focus your assault for 1 minute. During this time, you deal a larger amount of damage than normal, but are left drained afterwards with a minor damage debuff and the loss of 15% of your endurance.
Rech: 360 seconds
Endurance: 5 to activate, -15% crash
Damage Boost - 100% Damage for 1 minute
Damage debuff - -35% damage for 15 seconds

Of course, these numbers would need a true mathematician to be accurate and balanced, but those are just placeholders for the time being.

Stepping in to defend myself a bit, I did mention that my first shield toon was a Broad Sword/Shield scrapper. I had parry to help carry me while I was working on him, plus I used cheap-o IO sets like smashing haymakers, sciroccos and makos (which are fairly easy to obtain) to help boost my defense up. I am not saying shields NEED Ios to be effective, but I am saying that if you took an SOd Shield Scrapper and an SOd Willpower, no IOs OR Inspirations, there is a drastic difference. I played my Shield Scrapper to 50 on pretty much JUST 30-35% defense, only softcapped to melee when parry was up, which was all the time in a battle. What I did say was if you want to soft cap a Shield toon, the best IOs cost quite a bit. Since soft cap is 45% and not 35%, I rest my case.

Second, Willpower is a very good all-around set, sporting resistance and/or defense to all attacks, alongside very good regen and recovery. Combined with Dark Melee, it would allow the OP a little breathing room while he adjusted to the Dark Melee powerset. Dark Melee can be quite endurance heavy in its own right due to the nature of it's high damage attacks. Note...I said CAN BE, not ALWAYS IS. Now, personally I personally think Shields is the stronger set once its beefed up with sets and combined with Siphon Life, Willpower is stronger out of the gate however hands down.

To the OP, If you start off with Shields, it can be a fun set, and one advantage you will have is your -tohit debuff from your attacks. Try it out, use Sant's build, it's a decent low end build, no doubt. And when you get the cashmoney, try outfitting with some ToD Sets and such.

I would go Willpower or shields. Let me list some pros and cons.

Willpower
Pros - Great regen, moderate defense and resistance hybrid, -tohit from DM stacks well with your defense, provides extra recovery, does not need expensive IOs to be effective, and provides a useful tier nine, can use a varitey of IO sets in multiple powers and extra hitpoints.

Cons - Only two powers can really be skipped, the tier nine (although not reccomended) and the rez power, the defense is to elemental/energy attacks and only gives you mid-20% defense to those attacks (this is useful, but defense really doesn't take off until 35% and up). The set ALMOST forces you to take tough and weave in order to absorb alpha strikes.

Shields
Pros - Extra AoE attack (very high damage) that can be up at least once per mob, A useful tier nine to stack with your defense, a team buff power with self -rech resistance, good defense debuff resistance, AUTO +defense power that increases defense when others are close by, -tohit from Dark Melee stacks very well with your inherent defense powers and you get extra hit points. The self heal from DM also goes very well with Shields lack of healing. This set also provides a huge damage boost with a saturated AAO.

Cons - Shields provides only moderate defense despite it's defense based set up due to having low end resistance set up in two different powers. This is becuase Shields is a hybrid set just like Willpower. Shields requires a lot of IO slotting to become softcapped alongside using tough and weave in conjunction. This makes the set endurance heavy, almost forcing you into the Body mastery pool later on for the Physical PErfection power. The set only has one real skippable power, the Grant Cover power, assuming you can deal without the extra debuff resistance and rech resistance it provides. The IO's reccomended for this set get quite pricey, so be prepared. I suggest keeping OWtS as a tier nine becuase the extra resistance buff really shines with a softcapped build.

IMHO, I would go with shields if you got a good 500 million to a billion influence to sink into it once you start slotting IO's. My first shield toon was a BS/Shield scrapper that I levelled to 50 pretty fast (no powerleveling) and was pretty efficient (granted i had parry). With a Dark Melee/shields toon you will be doing mad damage pretty much all the time between Soul Drain and AAO, plus once you're softcapped, you're nearly unstoppable.

My wife made it for me. If you ask her nicely, she might make one for you too.

And some people will truly miss you, Kool.

Moving on, Pyber would make a good rep for this. He is one of the more calm and collected PvPers I have ever met, and very seldom gets wrapped up in what I like to call The "All my Guardians" Soap Opera Power Hour.

You have my condolences as well Capn. I lost my grandmother on my father's side night before thanksgiving and my grandfather on my mom's side this past june. Fortunately, many of us on Guardian are no strangers to loss and are here for you if you need anything.

Heroside - I would have to say that Founder's Falls seems to appeal to me quite a bit. The whole design reminds me of some pictures of Italy.

Villainside - I would obviously have to live in Cap, it's the cleanest of the zones, imho, and it has plenty of cheap power.

Happy Birthday! And a good birthday it will be!

You guys are all awesome and I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving. Thank you for all your continued support.

November 25th, 6:50 pm my grandmother on my father's side passed away after a long and difficult battle with renal failure and severe diabetes. You guys were there for me when my grandfather (mother's side) passed away in June from similar circumstances, and I appreciate everyone who did know the situation beforehand offering their condolences. Guardian is like a second family to me, and I appreciate all you guys have done for me both in game and during tough situations in real life.

This is not a post to bring anyone's thanksgiving down, I hope everyone has the best thanksgiving possible, and cherish each and every loved one, no matter how mad you are or distant you may have become. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Having played and respec'd my Dark Armor several timews over 4 years, I can tell you that nearly every build I have made (to include pre-IO era) was very survivable. Claws is actually a good partner for Dark Armor, given Dark Armor's expensive endurance costs. Opressive Gloom is a good power to choose, low endurance cost, however make sure you pay attention to the HP bar, that power takes some getting used to becuase it does about 6ish points of damage per second per enemy in range. Dark Regen does NOT take multiple foes in range to be effective with proper slotting, with one foe in range on a cheaply slotted Dark Regen, I heal for 50% of my HP, which is keeping up with any other healing power out there. Dark Armor provides no big "God" mode so to speak. Instead, you get a steady amount of resistance to EVERYTHING, including Psi and Toxic, though the latter is only around 25% (still, its always on). Dark Armor also provides very good mez/effect protection, namely against Fears and Endurance drains.

Keep in mind, Cloak of Darkness provides +immob protection and +perception, but can be costly to run. I suggest combat jumping for everyday fighting and only using CoD for unique situations. As someone else pointed out, Using Cloak of Fear and Oppressive Gloom can be very handy, however, given the expensive nature of Dark Armor, it is not a bad move to skip one or the other, your choice.

Also, Acrobatics is a good choice for Dark Armor, but I would make the first invention I buy for that toon a Knockback protection, a karma preferrably to go into Combat Jumping (or Cloak of Darkness).

If you use inventions (and a lot of people do), slot for recharge, accuracy and endurance recovery. Performance shifters, theft of essence (as mentioned before) and crushing impacts are all good sets, crushing impacts being fairly inexpensive nowadays.

I, for one, am all for this particular event. Perhaps this would bring the villainside on Guardian a little more action. I've always thought that one of the biggest drags to the villainside on this game is lack of people trying to organize things compared to the heroside. I am not saying people don't try, but most of the ideas seem to fizzle out fairly quick.

Anyways, if this goes ahead, count me in, I have a 50 brute, 50 Bane, and a 50 Fortunata, with a stalker and another brute sitting in the shadows at 44 each.

I love me some katana, it would be awesome to see some newer sword models for the first primary powerset I ever got to 50.

Oh and by the way, My first post ever after a red name *squee*

Name your child after my uncle's cousin's nephew's best friend's ex-roomate!

Agnus Shagnasty

But congrats, I am currently convincing the wife to give me a child, but she keeps refusing to beleive it's painless.

Shadow can't help it, but he is my lil' buddy, so I'll let it pass...
















This time.

Don't know you, but good bye, have fun in WoW.

No this is my stick, there are others like it but this one is mine. *crazy eyes*

*start smacking random people with stick*

(>oo)0=====

=====0(oo<)

muahahahaha

*walk in* *grab timer* *kick it a few times*

Ok it werks nao!

*walk out with sore toez*

Look I haz a stick and I can point at things with it.
*point at Kool*
*point at Jade*
*point at southern*
*point at mekk*
*point at food*

FOOD! *nom nom nom* *get fat* *lick random things*

OMg a buff to shield charge for BOTH of my shield toons?! My tank and scrapper will now commence to pole dancing for the devs. Oh and thank god that sound bug with invincibilty is fixed.

I put Dark Armor ahead of Super Reflexes becuase Dark armor, as others have stated, have more than just enurance drain resistance built into their shields. They have cloak of darkness, which even without super speed will give you enough time to get right beside the booger and take him down in 1 - 2 shots. You also have those mez auras, you don't need both, just one, and those can help subdue him so he doesnt get a chance to fire off. I have played Dark Armor for over 4 years, I know all it's secrets. I chose oppressive gloom to save on endurance, and despite the health drain, it's very manageable becuase Dark Regen makes you nigh indestructible in a mob. Stack that set with tough and pick up physical perfection in your epics and you are solid gold. I have played electric armor to fifty and I am currently playing another one to 50 since I deleted my old one (lack of healing at the time). They are so immune to endurance drain that it is pathetic, and with powers like Energize and Power Sink, you never run out, even if you run tough, three shields and the damage aura. I have played super reflexes to 50, and yes they can avoid sapper attacks, but when they hit they hurt, and they have no other tools in their secondary to help deal with that kind of attack. I rated it higher than invuln becuase aside from resist elements, Invuln has no other tool to help it out aside from defense, which for a scrapper needs a little help from set bonuses to be worth anything, even with a saturated invincibility. Everything else is kind of lackluster against endurance drain, the sets just don't have anything to offer, aside from fiery aura, which only has a long recharge endurance recovery power that requires mobs to be in range before you can use it, and it has an accuracy check to boot.

I have played Invuln, fiery Aura, Dark armor, electric armor, super reflexes and shields to 50, playing against all manner of villainy. I know which mobs my toons blow through, and i know which ones they suffer against. The only jack of all trades I have that can do everything medium well is my Dark armor scrapper. He has a solid quick recharging heal (mine is down to 17 seconds and heals for over 50% with one mob in range), four resistance shields with resistance to everything, including psi, Fear protection, stealth, a mez aura and endurance resistance. Throw in one or two KB resistance IO's and grab physical perfection for some extra recovery and let him/her roll.

Look into Invuln and Dark Armor as well, both of those have Endurance Recovery Resistance. Shields is almost as good as SR for dodging the attacks as well, plus it has the same Click power for mezz protection, so even if you do get hit and detoggled, you can't get stunned/held/immob'd/KB'd by other mobs.

Regen and Willpower suffer the worst by far, followed by Invuln. Dark Armor, which was on the first toon i got to 50, has moderate protection, enough that sappers need multiple hits to fully drain you. If you want full mitigation, however, electric is the only way to go. Even if they manage to bring you down, you have an autohit endurance recovery power to bring you back. Fiery Aura has an endurance recovery power, but the long recharge is unfavorable.

So, from most powerful to least

electric armor - massive -end resist and endurance drain power and energize (-50% endurance costs)
dark armor - moderate
super reflexes - stable mezz protection/defense
shields - see above
invuln - minor -end resist
fire - endurance drain power
regen - nothing
willpower - nothing