perwira

Just musing here...

From the Ninja set: I would skip the three attacks in this power set in favor of focusing your attention to casting powers from the pain domination set. Even solo, I wouldn't take one. Let the ninja (and your teammates, if any) do the real fighting.

From the PD set: I'd take every one of these, with the possible exception of Share Pain. A solo build would skip the Conduit of Pain rez, but it's all but expected of you to have one if you team. Every one of these buffs/heals your ninjas except for Anguishing Cry which seriously debuffs the enemy (the -resistance especially is a real boon for your ninja). If I had to pick one to skip, it'd be the Share Pain because you will not benefit from the +damage +tohit bestowed on you (assuming you don't take any attacks out of the Ninja set) and you probably won't benefit much from the rest of it if you're not in active combat.

From the power pools...

Leadership: Every MM I have has this. The bonuses aren't huge, but they stack and they're on 6 fighting ninjas. I'd take all three less the vengeance.

Speed: Haste, superspeed: Unlike some MM primary/secondary pairs that can get away without haste, a pain dominator really shouldn't be without haste. Given the large number of PD powers and situational necessity of having any given power up quickly, I see haste as a must. I'd also take superspeed. It's a travel power, both in moving between zones and on the battle field, that has a nice bonus of providing with some stealth and a place to slot defense sets (and a +stealth proc on top of all that, if you're so inclined).

Fitness: Hurdle, health and stamina, all three. My experience with PD is stamina can often be an issue, and if you have to resummon any of your ninja during battle you need the endurance for that too.

Fourth power: Take your pick, as the template you asked for is pretty much complete as it is. You can gain yet another layer of stealth (making all but invisible nose-to-nose to any but the larger/est bosses) and another place to have a defense set, but as above you already have superspeed plus a future +stealth proc. Maybe you'd rather be able to hover or fly with the way you intend to fight. Maybe you'd rather have combat jumping to move around the battlefield better, along with yet another possibility for a defense set. Teleport (and team teleport with the ninjas) or Presence provide for some interesting tactical possibilities you might like. I'm not sure what I'd pick here except to say that I'd probably pick a fourth pool power after seeing how this build plays with the template above.

Anyway, just to get you thinking. I'm sure others will have other suggestions which as just as good if not better. This build would suit my style of play, but perhaps others would prefer a different build for a different play style.

Good luck!

The ones I haven't played yet.

New experiences.

Another way to rephrase that question is, 'Are there any benefits of playing with the camera zoomed out?'.

For any archetype that needs to have a full view of the battle, seeing friend and foe alike, (an empath defender is a simple example), an elevated zoom out is essential to battlefield awareness and making the right decisions accordingly.

Being fully zoomed in at ground level is like being half blind, or worse.

I've been watching this thread with interest. I don't know if we're operating in any of the same niches or not (probably not as there are a very large number of potential niches), but I've noticed some significant market movements and increased competition in the niches I moved into late last week just before the weekend.

Out of curiosity (speaking as a relative newcomer to the game), do you think other marketers caught on to the niches you entered into over the weekend and, if so, is this the source of your slots being tied up? In short, in reaching the goals for your investment scheme, is competition a factor you need to be constantly on the eye out for?

I let the inspirations drop and use them while they drop. Buying and crafting is another matter entirely, as I drive my inf and set bonuses accordingly.

With my first character as a 50th level empath, I totally agree.

An empath does not have an 'attack cycle' or 'heal cycle'; rather, as much as possible, the whole board lit up for whatever needs to be done next to support the team.

Recharge, recharge and recharge. And endurance power.

Yeah.

For this reason alone (there is always that rogue bot who wants to run into melee or chase a fleeing enemy into the next mob), I often use the 'come to me' command. But not for long... after the rouge bot(s) get this command, it breaks the chase, and immediately afterwards I'll have it (or them) 'attack my target'.

I agree. It'd be nice to have a 'all stay put and attack range from here' command. As it is, the MM has to stay on top of where the bots are running off to.

Nope, I'm only trying to kill critters in the game, for which the citizenry of Paragon City are more than happy to reward me.

Today, I picked up $2 worth of lemonade powder, sugar and ice cubes for my efforts and then I mixed it and sold $10 worth of lemonade on the sidewalk. Now I can buy a big purple Barney at the Goodwill store.

This is my favorite part of CoX, exploring the many different ways we can empower our characters - and then playing them!

Here are some more specific IO slotting suggestions, if nothing else just to get you to thinking. The emphasis here is to load up with IO doublets and triplets which combined give far better values than single or generic IO's.

For single traget ranged attack, Thunderstrike starts at level 30 when you reach level 27, recommended in order:
Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
Accuracy/Damage/Endurance
Damage/Endurance/Recharge
Damage/Recharge or Damage/Endurance (deciding between endurance reduction or speeding up the attack chain)

Combined, this gives hefty damage bonuses, very fast recharge, good accuracy and some endurance reduction. The numbers add up much higher than using generic IO's.

A set of four helps with the accuracy and endurance issues (as well as some ranged defense), giving:
* 2: Increases Recovery by 2%.
* 3: Increases Energy and Negative Energy Defense by 2.5%.
* 3: Increases Ranged Defense by 1.25%.
* 4: Improves the Accuracy of all your powers by 7%.

If you have a 5th slot you might consider frankenslotting the Efficacy Adapter triplet End Mod/Recharge/Accuracy or (to address endurance issues) End Mod/End Red.

For the Short Circuit and maybe the Lightning Bolt, you can already slot in Efficacy Adaptors, recommended in order:

Endurance Modification/Recharge/Accuracy
Endurance Modification/Endurance Reduction (this attack does use up a lot of endurance)
Endurance Modification/Recharge
Endurance Modification/Accuracy
Recharge/Accuracy or Endurance Modification/Recharge (deciding whether you are going for faster recharge or perhaps additional accuracy)

A set of four will make you a lot more robust and again address endurance issues:
* 2: Increases maximum Health by 1.13%.
* 3: Increases Recovery by 1.5%.
* 4: Improves your Regeneration by 10%.

Eventually getting all 6 will give you a global 5% recharge speed as well.

Both of these sets run to 50, so you can upgrade their levels as and when you can afford it when you rise levels.

You can get the Efficacy Adaptors now and pick up Thunderstrikes when you get to 27.

Ballpark cost figure: If you are willing to bid low across a few levels (like 27-30 or 30-32) and be patient (allow a few days), you can probably purchase the recipes and salvage and craft a set of 4 Efficacy Adaptors for roughly 1m inf per set, and a set of 4 Thunderstrike (starting at level 30) for roughly 2m inf per set. For four nearly complete sets (two sets of Efficacy Adaptor and two sets of Thunderstrike), that'd be about 6m inf grand total. Double or triple that if you want ready-made IO's (a poor man crafts!). They will hold their value for at least 5-10 levels, and by the time you get to level 37 or so, you might want to upgrade them one time to roughly 40's before maxing to 50's at level 47.

This. There is a controller-like subduing aspect to a constant barrage of electric attacks that seems to be overlooked, and it is this that has to be taken most advantage of as an emp/elec defender going solo.

I found that the slotting of the targeted AoE and PBAoE (e.g., lightning bolt and short circuit in particular) changed over the levels. The question is the balance between endurance modification and damage, while maintaining just enough accuracy to hit reliably. Also early on, recharge speed to produce a non-stop attack cycle that incorporates as much area effect as frequently as possible is a must. These bonuses eventually work their way into the set bonuses, which can be all electric (i.e., efficacy adapter), damage (Targeted AoE or single target range sets) or a frankenslotting of both.

In general, I would suggest that single target attacks be slotted for damage, leaving any endurance modification to some or all of the area effect attacks, particularly short circuit. My experience has been that I often tweaked the balance for these over the levels until arriving at the final 4-6 slot IO sets in the between the mid 20's and early 40's. If you can afford them (and to upgrade them periodically), having IO set doublets/triplets early as possible (beginning at no later than level 22 with level 25 IO's available) helps tremendously.

Thanks for the quick reply. The important part of my question is whether groups might spawn in the water and if not then I'll go with another concept. As far as 'water powers' go, I was looking more at melee-type Mako-like sharks in the water rather than any controller-type effects. I don't like the idea of shark-like creatures on the land, so it looks like back to the drawing board on this one.

Good point there, actually, about the drones level penalty and the need to maximize their accuracy in particular. Given that, I agree on the 6-slot BM here.

This is why I was pondering it. In most situations, they seem to hit pretty often even without the enhancements (possibly due to the -def bebuffs by the acid mortar in /traps), but with three attacks (laser blast, laser burst and grenades) along with the seeker drones, it seems worthwhile to maximize the accuracy and damage of those attacks. Good observation, too, that they're the only bots that seem to have an endurance problem in a protracted fight.

Completely agree on keeping the defense at least double slotted (at the higher levels, anyway, maybe triple-slotted at the lower levels until reaching the 90%-95% defense mark with three). With your suggestion, the protector bots could have 4 BM of acc, dam, acc/dam, and acc/dam/end (or a frankenslot of 4 mixed set IO's to get the desired mix of set bonues) to go with the 2 generic defs, maximizing their attacks.

You may have just sold me on your suggestion to slot the uniques in the assault bot and gear the prot bot for attacks. I haven't tried bots in the Mid's builder yet, but if Mid's works for pets/henchmen, I'll try out some of the numbers. Compared to what I already have, your suggestion leaves the drones the same at max acc/dam, slightly reduces the assault bot numbers but not significantly in holding the 2 uniques, and converts the prot bots into mini-assault bots with the def shields still present. The only downside is the loss of the 2nd set of BM set bonuses (with a full set already in the drones) for the 5th and 6th IO's in the assault bot's set.

Thanks for your constructive suggestions which I'll definitely consider whether I respec or not.

Definitely, the EotM and SR uniques should be picked up. The CR taunt and placate resistance unique isn't necessary for bots, although it might be for the other MM henchmen types.

A fair question is where to slot it. For the one bots MM I do have, I slotted the EotM and SR uniques with the protector bots instead of the drones, preferring instead to fully slot the assault bot and drones with full Blood Mandate sets. I've noticed over time, though, that as you rise levels and increase the levels of your BM IO's, you're maxing out on damage and accuracy, so a 5th and 6th IO of the BM set may not be as necessary for the drones at the higher levels than as at the earlier levels. The 5th and 6th BM enhancements provide Area & Ranged Defense by 3.75%, plus 1.88% fire/cold & neg/energy defense, so there's a trade-off in dropping those 5th and 6th BMs on the drones. Even so, I'm still pondering about moving the EotM and SR uniques into the battle drones to free up two slots for the protector bot.

Which begs the other question, what do you load into the protector bots? So far, I've got the 2 uniques mentioned, plus 2 generic Def and 2 generic Heal slotted in the protector bots, with the idea that the protector bots are more for buffing the other bots and staying in defensive mode to provide my MM consistent bodyguard protection, although I will often have them shift to the attack by having them fire at the same target as the other bots. Moving the 2 uniques to the drones leaves open the possibility to load the protector bots with at least two offensive IO's such as a pair of BM doublets/triplets for accuracy and damage (acc/dam & acc/dam/end), while dropping the 2 generic Heals which don't seem to get used nearly as often as the generic Defs.

Deciding on these two questions, I think, depends a lot on the role(s) you expect the protectors bots to play.

(Edited to add: This thread probably belongs in the ATs/powers thread instead of the market thread.)

Like you, I'm a lot like Player A, but I'm gradually mixing in B along with it, with part of a tray for the generics and several slots for bid stacks & sells within the more lucrative low recipe / high enhancement markets. But knowing which niches are lucrative itself takes some effort, so this is what I meant by knowledge being continuous effort. It's partly research (looking at the recipe+salvage+crafting costs vs. the enhancement prices), it's partly trial and error (as the market moves around in daily/weekly cycles) and it's partly venturing into areas not looked at before. I found one niche purely by accident last night as I overbid the number of recipes to upgrade the levels one of my character's IO sets, discovering that the extra recipes I bought and crafted almost paid for the upgrade itself after I crafted all of them.

I tend to work in short cycles, typically 5 characters inside of half an hour (that's about 5 minutes each), maybe twice or three times a day, while playing one or two of them in an hour-long session or two. Thinking on your inf per hour figure, it sounds about right. One of my characters will pick up roughly 50m/week with about 1.5 hours of total (market, not play) login time, although that's with about 15-20 logins of 5 minutes each over the week. It's actually the number of spaced sessions, rather than total time, that determines the inf/hour rate, as a single hour-and-a-half market session per week won't earn much at all. This is one of several reasons why some of my characters have gone through the trouble to obtain the field crafting badge - simply to shorten the time logged in by doing the crafting at the market, effectively increasing the inf/hour rate.

Exactly. I see influence/infamy as a resource to improve the character to the fullest extent economically possible. Knowledge is very important because it means the difference between being able to get one IO set in a rush or three IO sets with some degree of research and patience. I plan my levels in advance, perhaps not all the way to 50, but I know which powers and slots are coming up for at least the next few levels and I prepare accordingly.

The market is a tool and a resource in and of itself. While the character is out on the field of battle earning inf/rewards through successful missions (or sitting idle logged off), his/her market slots can concurrently be earning inf through properly considered bids and sells. Inf can (and should, for best results) be earned both ways. By my estimate, each market slot is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 500k-1m inf a day or so (depending on how often and how long you log on). Inf applied within the market is inf earned through the profits of good market decisions.

At the same time, my primary goal is to improve my character to the fullest extent possible using this inf. This often means leveling a bit more slowly and taking my time (to research and bid low) to acquire what the character needs to fight a few levels above his/her actual level, even at the lower levels. Ahead of their level curve, they solo better and they play in teams (particularly higher level teams) better, being built for the task.

The categorizations in the original post make a nice initial framework, but few of those categories are mutually exclusive, and many players are a combination of them.

And high knowledge, by its nature, requires high effort with so much to learn and track.

Thank you (and the poster below you too)! That answers my question.

None of the characters have other gear that might conflict with a cape (like a trenchcoat) - their costumes are fairly simple, so I don't see a problem here. I have also not bought any supplementary Packs either. If it helps, I bought the combined Hero/Villain Good vs Evil edition about 8 months ago.

What should I see? A CAPES bar similar to the AURAS bar in the tailor/facemaker options? I even tried checking the body locations for the cape options, but I may have missed it (i.e., upper body).