Warkupo

I don't know if I would entirely write off Trip Mine. The most effective way I found to use them is the process called 'toe bombing'. Basically, you run up to an enemies feet, plant the mine, and watch the fireworks. If you're solo you just run up to the enemy running cloaking device and some other form of stealth, like super speed or the stealth IO, place it at the enemies feet, jump back, and start shooting like a psychopath.

Trickier in a group setting, and really requires you to know what you're doing. If you got some good team buffs going you can probably just waltz right up to enemy faces and drop the thing. Otherwise you need to know where the tank is, figure out the direction the enemies are attacking in, and plan accordingly. If you screw up, you'll probably miss out on some good DPS, and you might even wind up dead. The damage potential of this AOE is worth trying, however.

The other way I use this in a group is to simply run ahead of my group and place it at the next spawn of enemies we'd be fighting. If you've ever played or partied with a stalker it's pretty much a similar ideal, except that your 'assassin strike' explodes. This is probably the easiest way to use this power, but you do need to make sure your team knows what you're doing and actually follows you to the next group instead of say, going down corridor B and leaving you with a half-exploded angry mob to fight with.

I would never use trip mine as a preventive measure against incoming enemy attacks. Most of the time enemies simply don't run up to you and just happen to step on the thing, and times when it does it's usually just one enemy and you're better off just shooting him in the face than having spent the agonizing 5+ seconds it takes to lay the mine down. You're much better off using the thing aggressively.

All of this said, I can't recommend it on a high-end build anymore. At some point you have so much recharge that it's easier and more effective to just spam Flamethrower, Buckshot, and Full Auto than to plan around using the trip mine in some effective manner. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself if you really want to be bothered to learn how to use such a difficult power when you are eventually going to wind up shelfing it anyway.


A note about Full Auto, since I'm mentioning it; The arc length on this attack is a very small 20 degrees. In order to get the most out of this power you're going to want to be pretty far back from your target in order to open the arc as much as possible. It can be *extreamly* useful to have travel power like super speed or ninja run so you can quickly hop back and use the power in mid-air, rather than slowly running backwards and lining up your shot.

Your absolutely most devastating power, however, is not Full Auto, but Ignite. Enemies don't like burning alive so they'll usually hop out of it, and the radius is pretty small so it's hard to roast many people alive in it. Where this power is really going to shine is against Arch Villains and monsters like them who foolishly ignore their sense of fear. Set these gods ablaze and watch them melt. For everyone else, toss out a web grenade.

Don't write off Smoke Grenade. Smoke Grenade can lower enemies To-Hit by about 8% and lasts a full minute before needing to be reapplied. This isn't much by itself, but is pretty huge when you're going for a soft-capped build. Just keep in mind that it's not going to do much against an Arch Villain due to the way they handle debuffs.

Finally, pets are awesome. Maybe not for the damage they can do, but their ability to help mitigate damage can be really helpful, especially on a team where they are more likely to survive. If you're already keen on taking the Gun Drone, I might encourage you to check out Mace Mastery and its' Spider-lings. The more pets you have the longer all of you are going to live. It doesn't hurt that Mace Mastery has scorpion shield to help boost your defense, either.

I'll buy it, but first I need you to post the name of your main character on this forum so that we can properly exchange currencies.

yeah.

I'm iffy on Dark Blast. It trades AOE power for utility abilities in line with the traditional layout of Darkness based power-sets. Thing is, Blasters sort of rely on being able to take out a group of minions quickly and efficiently so that they aren't overwhelmed by them. I know it has the two cones, but the arc length is kind of small on both of them when considering they are your only good AOE options. The set will probably need to stay at ranged in order to use it's cones effectively, meaning it won't mesh well with a blapper oriented secondary. I would probably pair it with /Ice, /Devices, or /Mental in order to give it some more ranged AOE options, as well as an ancillary pool that offers some survivability or AOE or both. Oddly enough, I don't think Dark Blast and Dark Manipulation work very well together, at least not when I consider other options you could pair it with.

Dark Manipulation, on the other hand, seems like a premier blapper set. It has a quick and powerful single target attack chain that also debuffs enemies in a meaningful way, with Dark Consumption and Soul Drain turning you into an absolute monster. Dark Pit will probably take some time to set up properly, but it will offer great mitigation against surrounding minions while you chew through the boss. Better yet, combine it with Oppressive Gloom from the Soul Mastery pool and just stun the whole spawn indefinitely. I would probably pair up Dark Manipulation with Fire Blast or something equally AOE heavy to melt the crowd of stunned minions so that you can better focus on the boss.

While I am looking forward to the upcoming Titanic Weapons set, I believe it's introduction means that any reasonable fix for broadsword probably isn't going to happen. Judging by the powers as they are described in the game right now, Titanic Weapons is supposed to be everything I always envisioned broadsword *should* have been: big, smashy, and angry. With it's introduction any balancing done to broadsword is going to have to simultaneously avoid stepping on both Katana and Titanic Weapon's toes. I think it's more logical to assume that broadsword will remain as some sort of 'grand fathered' option so as not to upset whatever player base enjoys the set as it is, while Titanic Weapons is meant to replace it.

I'd be delighted to be wrong, of course.

Don't really care for it; would rather resources focused elsewhere, etc.

Playing on the Freedom server and turning off Broadcast and Help makes no sense to me. Why would you even *play* on Freedom if you don't like nonsensical banter?

The help channel might get more use as such if free players could communicate normally like the rest of us. If they had some other option I might get slightly irritated, but as it's their only outlet to communicate with the world I give them a pass.

I demand a beastmaster mastermind! D=<

Dual Blades/Willpower - Brute
Ninja Blade/Willpower - Stalker

/Storm is just generally a good set with a lot of methods for controlling your enemies while simultaneously possessing impressive damage outlets in Tornado and Lightning Storm and very good personal defense in the form of Hurricane. I don't think you can really go wrong pairing it with whatever you decide to pick.

I've been having a lot of fun with Illusion/Storm. It's a little slow to start off because you don't have many quick, single target attacks, and most of your good abilities are on long recharge timers. That said, it is an absolute monster when it starts gaining momentum. It offers a sort of unique gameplay in that you spend a lot of your time summoning pets to go fight your enemies and provide mitigation rather than directly attacking them. Between Deceive, Phantom Army, Spectral Terror, Freezing Rain, Tornado, Lightning Storm, and Phantasm you'll have plenty of apparitions of horror to summon forth and crush your enemies. Extra bonus points if you take Leviathan mastery and add Water Spout and Summon Corolax to that mix. Tornado and Water Spout is absolutely lulz worthy.

Ah yes, *this* thread. I was wondering what was taking it so long to appear, but I'm glad it's finally here.

If we wanna go full-on nerd, most 'greatswords' aren't actually very heavy. Usually somewhere around 5-8 pounds, since they have to be wielded by humans and everything. Now, it's a bit different to just hold 8 pounds vs swinging it around, but still.

How much confusion do you think we could avoid if we wrote: Q _ Q instead?

(although, to me, that just looks like two balloons near a stick, but whatever.)

Oddly enough, I *don't* like Blasters for most of the reasons you guys like them. Running all over the place irritates me. Getting obliterated when the enemy glances at me infuriates me. All my blasters have been retconned as corrupters for added survive ability (all my defenders have been retconned as corrupters for added damage ability.)

Different strokes and all that~

Specifically, I recall the most insurmountable issue being that the variable differences afforded to us through the use of body sliders would make it a coding nightmare to have our character realistically reach for an item on their back and pull it free from a scabbard. Characters whose body sliders were too far outside the intended animation would very obviously grab thin air, have their weapon 'teleport' from its' scabbard to their hand, and then resume fighting. The entire thing would look... Tacky.

Someone posted some of the expected attacks as they currently are in the game. I don't remember where they are, but memory informs me that the set apparently contains an ability that mimics parry/divine avalanche. So yeah, there's that.

Either way, I'll probably be remaking my veeery first character with this set. Should be all nostalgic and such.

A simple extra layer of immersion, but would probably create more problems. People getting named what they want is enough of a problem as it is without having everyone named two things at once. Can't support it because of that.

I really hope you're never lying on the floor while three dudes beat you mercilessly to an audience of people, all the while you are wondering why nobody from that crowd has stepped forward to stop these aggressors, where the cops are or if they're even coming, and if the people kicking your face in are going to stop just before you die or just keep going until your nothing but a memory smeared across the cement.

That's the grown up world, and it's only that way because people are too damn scared of getting hurt to stop those *three* metaphorical people from trying to execute one guy. Well within their power, but completely out of their mind. No, we'd much rather stand back and make up excuses why we shouldn't do anything to get involved. Still, I can't help but wonder if you keep the same rationale when it's you on the floor.

I hope to God that it's never you on the floor.

That he went looking for trouble doesn't defeat the fact that he tried to stop it in the most civilized fashion possible. Yes, he probably will get hurt, and maybe that alone scares you into submission, but that's the price of heroism. If we where all willing to stick our neck out for each other, we probably wouldn't need to do it as often as we don't.

I'm going to guess 'magic' as well, but origin is such a muddy classification anyway that it's probably not entirely accurate no matter which way you point the stick.

Iffy about HD, but TD needs to stay. It's annoying to be fighting a guy, be winning, and then he zips off into the atmosphere right before the killing blow. I'm not interested in chasing a guy around the city for another minute before I can kill him. I just want to kill him.

HD, on the other hand, seems like kind of a 'hammer' fix. You smashed in the piece you wanted, sure, but you broke a lot of stuff doing it. I would prefer if they took a look at what is over performing and balance that, rather than just applying this global nerf to everything.

I do so love to rage against the machine.

Personally I think it makes a lot more sense to have builds consolidated to one area rather than spread out between every archetype sub-forum. Our AT's are not so diverse that someone who typically likes to hang out in the Scrapper forum can't offer good advice on a Brute build. Someone who likes to play Corrupters probably has some good advice for a Defender.

If all your educated builders are in one place that means that they are more likely able to see people who need help. More than this, all our educated people being in one place means that they will be able to learn from each other as well, broadening their perspective, and be even better suited for helping people than they already were.

This is simply a good idea whichever way I look at it.