TwilightPhoenix

Are you checking XP after exiting the mission? There used to be a bug that'd prevent XP from being calculated properly in pacts until exiting a mission. You would "stop" earning XP in a mission until you exited, at which point all the XP you were have supposed to have gotten was given in one lump sum, which could lead to leveling one or more times upon leaving a mission. You didn't actually miss out on any XP though, the game just withheld it from you for awhile. It could be possible that this bug, in whole or in part, could be rearing its head again.

1. Carnival of Shadows pieces. Specifically those used by the Ring Mistresses and minions. I don't care too much for the masks though.

2. Sybil costumes! Even if we get them without cap physics loin cloths, static loin cloths, or blocks access to capes/wings.

3. Candy Lebeuax's (sp?) costume if somehow we're allowed it.

4. Banished Pantheon shamans have some nice parts, particularly the static loin cloths. Though I'd be very disappointed if we didn't get those for male and female costumes.

5. Even if we can't get the robes, the Circle of Thorns mages have some other really nice parts. Besides, we need big funny hats to show how evil our toons are!

6. Civilian costume parts from the civvie NPCs wandering around. I would certainly love to put some of my characters in some normal clothing from time to time.

No, don't nerf them! They work so well with Confuse!

From an RP stand-point, an "unfit" character would simply not slot or enhance their fitness inherent while a "fit" character would. The difference between this and a fitnessless character will be negligible.

There's a few cases I can see where someone is justified in wanting specific power combos, though these are largely far from normal play Such as when I duoed the ITF, I decided that, since I couldn't stand up to auto-hit AoEs on a /SR Scrapper, I needed a complementary toon to support him. Hence, I wanted a Sonic, Thermal, or Empath (I don't think Pain Dom was around yet). Got an Empath Defender and we were quite successful. Had I grabbed, say, a Blaster, I'm not sure it would have worked.

But, outside of corner cases like that, I generally just invite whoever. Sometimes I may mention I'd prefer a certain type of character, usually buffs/debuffs, but I won't turn anyone away. Sure, I might ask the Stalker that wants to join if he has a buff/debuff toon he wouldn't mind using, but if he wants to use the Stalker still, he gets to use the Stalker.

I can see how this could easily be done. All forms of Flight, sans Group Flight and Group Energy Flight, can grant a Flight magnitude of 2.2 or higher. Group Flights only grant mag 1 flight. Sprint and its prestige variants grant magnitude 1.1 flight protection. This way, you can shut off Group Flying by sprinting but you won't cancel your own flight powers if you toggle Sprint by accident.

The problem with IOs/toggles/what have you that would make knockback into knockdown is the fact that knockdown is simply knockback with a magnitude of <1. For it to work, you'd have to make whatever it is reduce your knockback magnitude accordingly. Consequently, turning your powers from knockback to knockdown would make it harder to knockdown any mob that has resistance or protection. Also, any mobs who are few levels below you or more would still get knockbacked.

Now, if you changed it to knockup, you wouldn't have as much issue. Yes the enemy would still travel. Yes, it'd look silly on many powers. But enemies who are knocked up don't travel much horizontal distance, even if you have enough magnitude to send a mob on the street high enough to wave at people on the AE balcony.

My BS/SR has near infinite endurance with Stamina, End proc in that, and uniques in Health. He currently has enough recovery that he can sit still and spam attacks for 5-10 minutes (never timed it precisely) before getting low. He then hits Conserve Power and will start getting all his endurance back and be full for a good while before CP ends. By the time end gets low again, CP is recharged. I've never been hit enough times in a row by a Sapper to get drained due to my defenses, though it is possible. But it's not something I'm worried about.

When I19 hits, I'm probably going to get much more end heavy due to dropping CP for Pyre Mastery and picking up more AoE attacks. But I suspect I'll still have more than enough blue bar.

But what if we stick the maximum number of damage procs possible in those powers while at the damage cap and resistance floor? Assuming it all goes off, now what wins?

For my Defenders, my Rad/Sonic/Dark will likely go for Leadership with Assault, Tactics, and Vengeance. Vengeance + Soul Drain + Aim + Fallout will be amazing. My FF/AR will likely pick up some primary and secondary, not sure which yet. My Dark/Rad will pick up some things, not entirely sure what aside from Proton Volley. Can't resist an attack that goes "Pew pew pew pew!" My Kin/Ice will be unaffected, as it's extreme lowbie and I'm skipping Fitness on it anyway.

Unlike the first couple of replies, who define what I'd refer to as either solo Defenders or Blastfender (depending on the context and situation, though I use the latter as more derogatory), I'm in more general agreement with the sentiment that Offenders are simply ones who maximize offensive output without neglecting their team support. Sure, they may skip some supportive powers, like leadership, more situational support powers (like rezzes), and so on, but a good Offender will at the very least have their core powers and usually good but not basic ones too.

There's a lot of good Offending sets. Kin, Rad, Cold, Dark, Traps, and Storm seem to be the big one, though any could work. Sonic, Archery, and Cold are big secondaries, but nobody says you can't kick butt with other sets.

I have a Rad/Sonic/Dark who I play like an Offender. Between her dropping debuffs everywhere, firing off EM Pulse every time it's up just about, popping a heal on the occasions it's needed, and corpse-nuking and then rezzing fallen allies (I'll admit I sometimes "accidentally" let someone drop just to one-shot the current/next spawn), the team is plenty safe and steam rolling ahead with her around. It especially helps that I'm not shy of using Aim > Soul Drain > Dreadful Wail of clear out a spawn myself, or at least most of it (sometimes the bosses survive, but my teammates usually make quick work of them). The build also solos pretty well. Could solo better if I had skipped several team-oriented powers, but it's by no means slow. Not as fast as a Scrapper for sure, but it moves at a decent pace and, with over 50% to-hit debuff in Radiation Infection and running Oppressive Gloom, it's very safe.

MA/SR, MA/WP, or MA/Invuln.

For a war hero, AR/Dev or Traps. Maybe use dual pistols instead.

For a fantasy hero, Broadsword, Axe, or Mace/Shield Defense.

For a feudal Japan hero, Katana/WP, SR, Invuln.

Scrapper.

Based on some previous comments, I suppose I'm an idiot for tanking Reichsman, Romulus, a number of other AVs, and every blue-side GM on my Scrapper. Awesome!

Anyway, Challenge, while by and large pointless, does have some theoretical advantages over Provoke. Namely, when you want to only taunt a single target. I've worked with Tanks and Brutes on ITF teams that couldn't just dogpile Rommy to split him from his Nictus by me using Confront on him and then them using Taunt to grab the three Nictus. The same could be done with Challenge and Provoke. However, situations like that where a single-target taunt is just as desirable or more so are ridiculously rare.

Some mobs on the street are programmed to always run away no matter what. Usually, in a group, it's the guy committing the crime, such as the drug dealer or the guy trying to grab the purse.

And also prevent said "purposely invincible but still able to fight back" enemies from fighting back.

The Devs will never give us a power that pierces Untouchable, simply because it'd no doubt break the mechanics of several battles, such as Lord Winter going Untouchable until you kill his pet GM ambush. You'd be able to, for example, Detention "phased" Illusionists, which isn't supposed to be possible.

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One overlooked advantage of FF in this topic: minimal slotting and power picks required to bring everything most teams want you to bring. Even if you take many of the other powers, they still require very minimal slotting, which saves tons of slots for your attacks/controls/pets/whatevers. Build flexibility is always a huge advantage. Of course, that can also be bad for the set, because it can be seen as a set of many "skippable" powers. Not having a Cold at a high level, I'm not entirely sure what the slotting is like. But, I'd suspect it'd need lots recharge enhancements in many key powers to use and abuse them as much as possible.

I see some sentiment that Cold is above and beyond the best teaming set ever. Is that people just really liking Cold or is the set just that out of line? Though, I do suspect eight Colds (or FFs) couldn't hold a candle to what eight Empaths, Rads, or Darks could do together. Especially the Empaths.