Titan_III

Trina the Seamstress was proof enough of that.

The reason to stick with Hurdle is for the vertical movement. With single-slotted Hurdle you can get from the floor of one of the portal rooms to elevator exit in a single bound, while without it you can only make the lower tier.

In addition, hurdle provides more of a speed boost than sprint so that while making leaps you'll easily outdistance your swift+sprint (it'll actually be faster than speed-capped flight in most cases).

So much THIS. If you're experiencing them for the first time, even the oldest story arcs are awesome for the story alone. READ the text of the "earn your cape" mission. While the new version has much improved game-play, the simple message of the original was still powerful and humbling.

I highly recommend picking up the Zone story arcs as they're a lot of fun and usually build off each other. They are, in my opinion, the current "best foot forward" for the game (until Going Rogue arrives in a couple of weeks). You can also get the bulk of your leveling done just by doing them and a few other story arcs on the side.

The Hollows has several missions (Frostfire most notably) that can earn you an entire level all on your own. These arcs are available from levels 5-14.

At the high end of this range you should also try out the revamped Positron Task Forces.

Faultline has a great overall story-arc where each arc builds on the previous one and introduces you to characters that will show up again later. They also give you a couple of interesting temporary powers and unlock a special shop where you can pick up a few SO enhancements earlier than you normally can. The first two contacts are 15-19 and the second two are 20-24.

Also during this range I'd recommend running the Midnight Squad arc to unlock access to Cimerora and Mercedes Sheldon, who has a number of story arcs in the 20-25 range.

At level 20 you can head to Striga Isle, which has a series of connected Story arcs that also provide you with a number of useful temp powers and unlock one of the more fun task forces in the game. The first set of contacts is from 20-24, the second from 25-29.

If you've run the Faultline or Sheldon arcs then at level 25 you'll unlock Oroboros and be able to use a special "temp" power (its in the temp category but doesn't expire) to run the introductory Oroboros arc. The Midnight Son and Mender Lazarus story arcs also provide you some interesting bits of backstory on the Circle of Thorns and 5th Column respectively.

Also during this range, the newest story arcs from issue 17 are unlocked and make use of some of the new mission tech that will be coming with Going Rogue.

Also starting at level 25 are the story arcs in Croatoa. These also provide you with a number of fun temp powers and unlock the Katie Hannon task force. These arcs run in two stages from 25-29 and 30-35.

Starting at level 35 you can start running missions for contacts in the Rikti War Zone. These missions don't expire so you can start them whenever you wish, but the first set can be taken as early as 35, the second set at 40, and the third and fourth sets at 45+. The final missions literally have you saving the world in epic fashion and unlocks the Lady Grey Task Force as well. It also unlocks Vanguard merits which can be used to pick up special costume pieces and powers for those so inclined.

If you've unlocked Cimerora, then at level 40+ you'll have access to Prometheus who has some fun story arcs to run and at this point you should be well and truly ready to run the Imperius Task Force, which has a really fun plot twist and unlocks Roman armor costume pieces and weapons for your character.

Also worth doing at least once are the Statesman Task Force, a Mothership Raid (in the Rikti War Zone), and a Hamidion Raid (in the Hive). Check out the various server channels and boards to find out when some of these are scheduled.

And this is just ONE method of getting through the game (and even then only on the Hero side... villain side is a whole different path). After that there are still a ton of other story arcs that can be done... not to mention a whole new slew of content coming with Going Rogue.

My thinking is that they should do something akin to the final Croatoa story-arc mission. Once you reach the reactor a timer begins and you have to hold off endless waves of attackers until the countdown ends.

Those with poor builds can slow or stall the waves by leaving one of the minions alive for a bit after defeating the bulk of the wave... trading safety for a lack of xp/inf and drops.

By contrast, those with the ability to steamroll can take on wave after wave after wave of enemies for the entire duration of the countdown, earning far more xp/inf and far more chances for rare or even purple drops (if doing the trial at level 50).

It was one of Recluse's early eugenics experiments to root out the uncoordinated and clumsy from his ranks. Those who did not impale themselves after a year were given real suits of armor.

Your numbers are a bit misleading. I just got done visiting the servers and doing a quick search on both hero and villain side during the 12:00pm EST hour on a Tuesday... just about the antithesis of prime time. Kids are all in school, most adults are at work or out to lunch.

Yet Freedom had 444 unhidden heroes and villains on the server. Virtue had 332 unhidden heroes and villains on the server. Even the least populated server at that time (Triumph) had 55 unhidden heroes and villains on the server. Again, this was during a weekday morning/afternoon (depending on time zone) and far from peak useage.

If the numbers were down when you checked might I also suggest looking outside. We've had a long winter and, at least around here, its finally bright and sunny out. The lawn needed mowed and yardwork needed to be done and my family was helping my mom with spring cleaning most of last weekend.

Just like TV ratings tank in the spring I suspect server populations for ALL MMO's have a seasonal downturn this time of year as well.

caveat; the following is based off my experiences with a 50 Tri-Form PB. Your mileage may vary.

1) Yes, light-form is worth getting. My build treats Nova form as the ideal for blasting large groups, Dwarf for dealing with mez-heavy foes and general "oh crap" button, and human form for general purpose soloing. To that end, human form is armed with all three single target ranged attacks, RS, IS, and Solar Flare. All of these are six-slotted with IO sets. Light-form comes into play whenever I solo EB's... letting me keep my massive single target damage while giving me capped to nearly capped resistances.

If I had to only pick ONE of the ranged blasts, hands down it would be Gleaming Bolt. Its an excellent filler and the rapid fire gives all three of the three damage procs I've got slotted in it the maximum opportunities to go off... and because each of those procs does significantly more damage than the base attack (even with 3 damage SO's slotted) you want to give them every chance possible.

An attack with 162% accuracy, a 1 second activation, a 0.84 second recharge time, and costing only 2.63 endurance, while doing an average of 109.4 damage per hit* is DPS . All the procs going off at once for nearly 300 damage? Priceless.

*numbers are coming from Mids using my current build.

2) I personally wouldn't. To be useful they generally need to be slotted, and you're better off making sure that as many of your attacks are properly slotted as possible. A dead foe is a 100% locked down foe (barring the occassional Freakshow).

By the same token a LOT of the PB support powers work fine with no additional slotting, which frees up slots for those attacks. One 50 Resistance IO in Light Form coupled with single-slotted human form shields will more than cap your damage resistance. The base nova form doesn't need more than it's base slot and your dwarf can be running smooth on just 4 with the right slotting.

3) I have, but it's only running on it's basic slot. I've gotten the most use of it in Role-Playing where I need to indicate that I'm using a Kheld power on someone. Other than it's occassionally useful when duoing with some of my friends whose toons lack a self-heal so I can quickly patch them up between spawns. PB's simply do not have the tools to rank as a pocket-defender of any sort, so its best to treat Glowing touch as the gimmick it is.

By the same token, the only reason to take medicine would be to rez others and, without access to a reliable teleport, you're not going to be doing that any more often that carrying a wakie around wouldn't be the same level of usefulness only without wasting three power picks. You're far more useful as a pocket tank to hold the line if the main tank is dropped while the real support rezzes the main tank.

Agreed. And I think the devs learned their lesson on this when they tried to overhaul the epic pools. Instead of taking away the "subpar" powers they ended up adding a fifth power instead (which I like a LOT because it means no toon will ever have all the powers of their epic set).

That's why I think any significant change we get to the Khelds will likely be additive (adding more available powers) rather transformational (replacing or severely changing the way existing powers work). Photon seekers will always be a pseudo-pet power that blows up on impact. If they wanted to give us something more akin to the WS "fluffy" it will likely be a brand NEW power that could be taken instead of (or alongside) photon seekers.

You really are just speaking for yourself here. I had no problems with my slotting on my tri-form. The trick I've found is learning to seperate my needs from my wants.

My big objections to this are...

1) I rely on my six-slotted human, nova, and dwarf attacks with thunderstrikes and mako's bites to get my obscene defense, accuracy, and recovery set bonuses. You'd be eliminating two Thunderstrike and Two Mako's from my build and the other Kheld powers that would give me said bonuses (pulsar and photon seekers primarily) are rather lack-luster.

2) I would need to drop other powers I like to get effective replacements to powers I already get for free with the forms. If I wanted to use AoE blasts in nova-form under your proposal I'd need to spend two power selections on them that I'd much rather spend elsewhere (such as stealth, hasten, super-speed, or some of the Kheld utility powers). All those powers I just mentioned run FINE on just one slot so not only am I losing set bonuses... I'm now losing power picks just so you can slot more carelessly.

3) There's also the matter of form powers that the human form doesn't have access to. Such as the dwarf form's taunt and teleport.

4) Finally, I've got 24 IO's I paid a couple million influence a piece for that would be lost during such a change since I would have nowhere to slot them in a new build and would have only ten slots to actually save them in during a respec.

In short, I find your idea to be grossly impractical for a number of reasons and it would severely and negatively impact my Kheld. I'd suggest taking a look at your Khelds and figuring out just what slots you really NEED to be effective vs. what you just want. For example, due to the EndRdx in the sets I have in all my attacks and the +recovery from my sets I don't actually need to have my stamina three-slotted. With just one 50 IO in Stamina my END-bar never moves.

Likewise, nova-form gets on just fine with just the base-slot (where I put a +perception unique IO) and by frankenslotting my dwarf-form with a couple of Hami-O Resist/EndRdx, a 50 IO Resist, and a 50 EndMod I've got ED-capped resistance and an End Bar that never moves there either. Frankenslotting the heals with Heal/Recharge IO's from various sets got them ED-capped with just four slots each (their recharge is long enough that their Endurance cost didn't need to be reduced).

Likewise, many Kheld utility powers and many pools you'd want to take work just fine out of the box. Barring solo EB fights I don't need to pop light-form for survival reasons, so a single 50 Resist IO plus my single-slotted human form shields caps my resistance and it's base recharge (plus set bonuses) has it recharged long before I have to face another EB.

With the recent buffs to base flight speed and +movement set bonuses I have capped energy flight and a hover that can keep up with my walkspeed on just two-slots (and even then only because I wanted the +ranged defense from Zephyr) and energy flight is nearly capped with just the base slot as it is.

I have enough recharge in my powers and globally to have a full attack chain in all my forms that can flatten the typical spawn I face before I take any significant damage, so I mainly save hasten for the same god-mode situations where I use light-form (i.e. my high damage powers recharge more quickly). It like my "oh crap" quantum flight button are both single slotted as well because they don't actually NEED any more than that.

I think you overstate both the severity of the problem and the need for a fix to it.

I believe the term that needs to be used here is... "Standard Code Rant Applies."

You said nothing about this not being something you'd want in your initial post and I find nothing partiucularly appealing about your 'what-if' scenario.

Frankly, I think the synergy between primary and secondary would be horrible (melee attacks without even lightform for mez protection? No thanks). There's nothing in the WS sets that I can think of wanting for my PB (other than a real pet to replace the photon seekers) and nothing in the PB sets I'd want for my WS (other than maybe human form flight).

Which is why I proposed what I feel would be a much better idea... adding new powers to both AT's primaries and secondaries that fit the existing themes and have some synergy with them. New alternate forms (Scrapper-lite, Defender-lite, and/or Controller-lite) to make Khelds even more of a shape-shifter would probably be my preference.

For example... I could see the Scrapper-lite form being placed in the offensive set. It would look like a smaller, sleeker, and more predatory-looking dwarf (that could use the huge model as a base for it's emotes and movement). They'd have scrapper-level mez protection, a moderate hp boost (about half that of dwarf), and a base 20% or so resistance to all but psi. They'd have four melee attacks (light, medium, heavy, and a medium cone) that could be chained indefinitely using a light, medium, light, heavy, light, medium, light, medium cone pattern. Instead of a self-heal I'd give the form enough +regen to make give it decent survivability. For movement they'd have enhanced speed and leaping (think ninja run).

I could then see a Controller-lite form being placed in the defensive set. It would look rather spider-like and use the Arachnobot animations. It would have a single-target ranged immobilize, stun, and hold (with non-containment controller-level damage) as it's attacks and no defenses like the nova form. For movement it would have a great deal of ground speed.

The Defender-lite form would look rather wasp-like and could use the Nova-form animations. It would move by flying and have no special defenses (like Nova). It would have a rapid-fire light damage single target ranged attack, a single-target heal, a PBAoE heal, and a PBAOE buff to defense and endurance recovery (for the Bright variety) or to damage and resistance (for the Dark variety). This power too would probably go into the defensive set.

While this would, no doubt, require a LOT of work to bring about, but if the sky's the limit then I'd much rather see something like that.