Timeshadow

Throwing in my opinion:

"What? ...Oh, I see. Hell no. Goodbye."

I've done this mission a few times on my Khelds and SoAs. It's difficult but nothing like what some people have been reporting.

If I recall correctly the ambushes aren't on such short timers that they frequently end up stacking on top of one another. Then again it may have been that I was just killing things fast enough to not encounter a problem (I usually play on +1/x2).

As far as spawn composition, Malta's Malta. Sappers and Engineers are just facts of life. Of course they're much easier to deal with if you've got some form of control (Holds and Confuse are particularly useful). But even lacking these tools I didn't find the mission's level of challenge to overreach into frustratingly difficult territory.

I went Rogue with both my Widow and Soldier.

The Widow (Who I play primarily as a Fortunata) was born in the isles but left for Paragon City as an adolescent. Though she's been influenced by the city's higher morality she loves the Rogue Isles for what they are, a place where the ambitious and resourceful can make their way without all the restrictions of a more ordered society. But she's always disagreed with Lord Recluse. In her eyes his megalomania and total unscrupulousness is destroying the Isles. So she's gone Rogue and is now leading a loose confederation of resistance groups.

My Soldier (A Bane Spider) joined Arachnos because she wanted to bring some order to the isles after her wealthy parents were killed in a botched robbery (The similarity with Batman's origin is purely coincidental ). When she was assigned to be my Widow's personal bodyguard things changed. Unwilling to accept a mental slave, my Widow freed her from the Bane's network and recruited her as second in command of an elite counterintelligence unit. She's served dutifully ever since, even becoming a rogue and fighting against Lord Recluse.

Hey there Masterminds. I plan to make my first foray into the world of MMs with a Ninja/Storm but I need a lot of help.

First of all, what are the strengths of this combo? Off the bat I can see some synergies. The little bit of added Defense from Steamy Mist should help with the Ninjas reputed squishiness and the -Resistance from Freezing Rain will help to offset any pesky issues with Smashing/Lethal damage.

Storm Summoning seems to be best suited for work in melee range, especially alongside the Ninjas. Will the -toHit and knockback from Hurricane be enough to keep me from getting smacked around if I'm busy moving through and around the spawn?

My ultimate goal with this build is to create a high Defense Tankermind. I'm planning on Cold Mastery as my APP for the shield and running it in conjunction with Steamy Mist and Hurricane. Will that be enough to accomplish what I wanna do?

Any other general advice is greatly appreciated.

Apples to oranges my friend. A Mastermind is an entirely different AT and plays in a completely different style. You can't make any sort of qualitative comparison between the two.

Took a look at your build and I've gotta say, it's terrible. The power selection, placement and slotting are all bad. I'm gonna break this down into sections to make it more digestible.

Powers
First off, Banes are like Stalkers in that they're designed around Hidden status. They get crits when attacking from Hide and can even perform an "Executioner's Strike" when you use Shatter while Hidden. You've got Cloaking Device, arguably a Bane's single most important power, at 35. It should be at level 24 as the first thing you take from the Bane Spider secondary.

Secondly, you're missing Placate and have Surveillance in too late. You sacrificed them for Tough and Weave, powers that are doing you almost no good. Get rid of them, take Placate as soon as you can, and get Surveillance in earlier.

Finally, consider taking Poisonous Ray and Call Reinforcements. Poisonous Ray is really the only good ranged attack Banes get. Not only does it do some nice Toxic damage over time it also provides a hefty Defense debuff that stacks with Surveillance. Some people slot it for damage, others for -Defense. I went for the latter because three pieces of Exploited Vulnerability grants a small bonus to Melee Defense.

Call Reinforcements is from the base Wolf Spider Training and Gadgets pool. It summons two Arachnobot Disruptors at a targeted location. They're great pets and come equipped with the same powers as their NPC counterparts, including Web Grenade and Distruptor Tesla (A renamed version of the single target Hold from Electric Blast). When working in tandem they can easily Immobilize a spawn or incapacitate a single tough enemy. They'll make a nice addition to your DPS and help keep the aggro off you so you can strike from Hide.

Slotting:
Your powers are really slotted incorrectly. You can't take down any Elite Bosses because your attacks aren't slotted for enough damage. If you're using commons it should be one Accuracy, three Damage and then EndRedux and Recharge to taste.

Your Defenses are also lacking. You definitely wanna slot three Defense IOs in Tactical Training: Maneuvers. Combat Training: Defensive can go without slots if necessary. Arachnos Soldiers' version of the power only increases Ranged Defense and you'll be in melee most of the time. Cloaking Device gives you Defense too, albeit a small amount. Toss a common Defense IO in it and call it a day. Also, you don't need EndRedux in your toggles. They're relatively cheap in terms of cost compared to attacks.

Surveillance is way overslotted. If you've got access to level 30 IOs all you need is one Accuracy. After that you should go for as much Recharge as suits you. Enhancing the Defense debuff isn't really necessary and certainly isn't worth two slots. Most critters in the game don't have any inherent Defense to speak of so -15% is plenty. Besides, what really makes Surveillance tasty is the unenhanceable -20% Resistance debuff.

Currently Praetorians don't unlock EATs of either side. However, if you take a Praetorian to either Paragon City or the Rogue Isles and then respec the EATs should unlock.

From what I can deduce it's because the game considers a respec as releveling so it checks for your alignment again. At this point if you're a traditional villain or hero AT then you meet the requirements and the EATs for your respective side will unlock. Unfortunately it seems the unlock requirements are still hard coded into the ATs from the pre-GR era.

Dechs already did a good job of breaking your idea down and countering your points.

I'll echo what he said. You seem to misunderstand the point of the Kheldian ATs. Their forms are meant to serve as miniature versions of the ATs they're modelled after; not full blown copies. That's the point of a jack of all trades class. They sacrifice top end performance in a particular field in order to gain versatility. Your purposed changes would allow Kheldians to effectively replace two or three other ATs in a team setting.

To use your comparison of Druids in WoW, they function the exact same way. Though they can be specced to use their forms very well they're still not capable of taking the same levels of punishment as a Warrior or bringing down targets like a Rogue.

Ideas like this tend to showcase a failure to understand both design principles and knowledge of how to play a Kheldian effectively. None of their powers, including forms, are meant to function as individual power houses. Using them in conjunction is what makes the ATs interesting and effective.

I'll definitely keep this in mind. Thanks Mike.

It goes beyond Praetoria.

Had the same issue on a Sister Psyche TF. It seems the bug affects all mixed alignment teams.

Eh...it's technically doable but I certainly wouldn't recommend it.

Human form is where a lot of your utility powers are. If you don't use it you won't have your heals, buffs, controls, or anything of that nature. And, since you just got it, I'm assuming you're probably still in the single digit levels. Nova can decimate just about anything at that point in your career but, just like the Blaster AT it's modeled after, it stops being a self-contained god of death in the mid levels when enemy difficulty increases pretty sharply.

Don't get me wrong, Nova's great but it just doesn't reach it's full potential without the other powers in your arsenal. That's especially true if you're playing a Warshade. Their various self-buffs combine with Nova to make it a truly devastating offensive force.

Hey guys. As the title says I'm trying to make a concept shapeshifter. I'd like to have costumes that look similar to NPCs but am having trouble finding anything that's doable. Has anyone made some successful imitations of NPC costumes? I so, could you please either describe what pieces you used or post screen shots?

Unfortunately it can't be done. A macro can deactivate multiple toggles simultaneously but can only turn one on at a time. It's an intentional bit of design that helps to prevent people from creating bots.

We've all seen it before. You're on a team and run across several Paragon Protectors or an EB/AV. You don't have sufficient control or can't kill 'em fast enough and they hit Unstoppable, Elude, MoG, etc. Now you're forced to spend extra time and Endurance swinging/blasting away until it drops.

There's nothing inherently wrong with giving NPCs these kinds of powers; they need something to give 'em an edge because, by design, their weaker than player characters. Problem is the NPC versions or Tier 9s aren't the same as the ones we get. They're crashless and have much lower Recharge times. That means Statesman can resist almost all of a team's damage just about all the time. Silent Blade can hit Kuji-in Retsu and simply outlast whatever's thrown against her. This isn't unfair but it can certainly be annoying. Especially since, depending on rank, such NPCs have greatly increased Regneration, self-heals or both. So not only are they nigh unkillable for most of a fight after a certain point, they can also effectively recover their Hit Points and make a team repeat the process of whittling them down all over again.

So I want other players' opinions on giving NPCs these drastically modified God Mode powers. Do you find it a nice change of pace; a rare and entertaining challenge? Or does it make you wanna bang your head against the keyboard and auto complete the mission? Should such powers be left as they are or should they be modified to come with a crash or longer Recharge timers?