warlock1972

It's good to hear this all stacks. As I understand it, your "To Hit" is based off a function of Base To Hit (based on lvl difference of attacker and target) and Accuracy and the target's Defense. Also noting that MM pets are lower level, it just seems that all this -DEF is a good thing and reinforces the notion Earth + Thorny Assault are just going to help my buddies and their pets mow down all the bad guys.

Here's the amount of -DEF I can easily stack according to RedTomax.com (handy website). I believe the "does not stack" remark just means the power can't stack on itself, but they should all stack together.

Quicksand
Defense -0.25 for 0.45s
Effect does not stack from same caster

Stone Cages
Defense -0.2 for 12s
Effect does not stack from same caster

Fossilize
Defense -0.2 for 12s
Effect does not stack from same caster

Stalagmites
Defense -0.2 for 12s
Effect does not stack from same caster

Thorny Darts
Defense -0.15 for 5s

Fling Thorns
Defense -0.15 for 8s

A lot of great suggestions in this thread. I ended up picking earth/thorny assault, and so Green Thumbelina was born. I zoomed to 10 in a short time being lacky with my 2 MM buds. The AOE immobilize helps keep the mobs together, so my friends' can smash their faces. My only issue so far is that those baddies who aren't immediately engaged by MM pets do NOT like me when I root them .

I do like it so far, but I have a few questions...

1. Does the -DEF from earth and thorns stack? For example, if I put up Stone Cages and then Fling Thorns.

2. Does the -DEF from powers in the same primary stack? For example, if I put up Stone Cages and then Quicksand the group and then Fossilize a guy?

3. I notice it takes multiple applications for my ST hold to take effect on bosses. Is there a way to stack quicker? Or do the other abilities (immobilize) make it easier for the hold to stick?

I posted this recently on the MM forum. I didn't get a lot of responses, so I thought I'd try tossing it here. Recently picked up this game again, and two friends and I are playing villains on Virtue. My friends play Thugs/Pain and Necro/Dark MMs, and I'd like to find an AT that would allow us to just tear it up. So far, I'm experimenting with a Fire/Storm Corruptor with mixed results. Damage good. I do get a lot of aggro though. However, I could see where a dominator might be effective. I guess I'm trying to weigh if I should give up the DPS and awesomeness of storm for more control or not. However, I do have snowstorm and will have freezing rain soon--that may be all the control I'd need. Or maybe I should make a x/Storm MM instead. It's not clear to me what kinds of control are needed, when another dps could come and have some control built in.

I'd like some advice from those who have been around for awhile . I've got only a few weeks, so I'd appreciate the input. Please note we're all doing it "on the cheap". We do not have lvl 50 "mains", so we're using store bought enhancements, etc. (if that matters--some forum posts lead me to believe some builds are more "gear dependent"). I'm still trying to learn, so it would be very helpful for those posting, I'd appreciate it if you could examples of what powers to use during the fight--how the fight would go (for example, sleep seems pointless, immobilize?, confusion?--causes xp loss, etc.). Thanks!

It's kind of silly to argue against flexibility. If I want to see 62 health bars, I should be able to! I really don't, but sheesh, there's nothing wrong in certain circumstances to toss a heal to keep a player OR A PET up. After all, the game allows heals/forcefields/buffs to work on pets.

Wow. You'd think by 2009 they could've added that to the UI. As if being a healer isn't already enough of a pain. I hope Aion is in better shape UI wise .

I'd like to be able to see this...so I can toss a heal when needed. I only see a Pet Bar toggle that seems to only show my own pets (if I had any). Thanks.

We're noobs (not sure I broke 20 when I played years ago), so none of us have access to the special ATs. Dominator sounds like a good idea. Hmmm. I typically favor ATs that get some of their goodies earlier--I'm a slow leveler (haven't really gotten into the whole AE PL thing--I'm still playing for content), and I don't want to quit because the early levels are boring (from a playstyle perspective).

Right now, I am recently back in the game and having a good time. I'm leveling up a few heroes, but we want to do switch and play some villains as well.

My friends have made a Thugs/Pain Domination and Necro/Dark. I'm trying to figure out what role I should play that would provide some great synergy in the mix. I am thinking Dominator or Corruptor, but I'm open to suggestions. Note, I think the Thugs/Pain might prefer Thugs/Storm; he's still up in the air. Can I get some ideas? Thanks all!

Thanks for the replies, everybody . I'm going to stick with this guy and see how it goes!

How is DB? Any secondary suggestions?

Just having paged through 10 pages of the scrapper forum, I've not seen real topics on it, and I'm not sure if that is because it is unpopular or because people are busy playing it. I'm still pretty new and trying to find a scrapper to play with 2 friends (Archery/MM Blaster and Ill/Kin troller). I like cutting through the LTs while the blaster does more AOE.

I'm drawn to DB for a few reasons -- lots of attacks quickly (I have tried scrappers in the past, and I usually get 1-2 attacks and end up just standing there waiting for cooldowns or using brawl yuck). It also looks pretty cool. And finally, I like the idea of attack chians (although missing one attack and losing the chain sucks).

Last night, I rolled up one (DB/WP) and got to 8. I enjoyed the button mashing and animations. Dmg seemed not terrible not great, but it's still way early.

Final note, I'm a new, and I don't have millions and billions of inf, so it's going to be SOs for the foreseeable future--not that i'm looking to run around soloingi AVs any time soon either. I only mention this because from a lot of threads I've read, it seems some builds are really dependent on very expensive IOs to be effective. So if Katana or BS or something else would be a lot better for somebody who is broke, I'd take that in consideration.

Thanks everybody for taking the time to give me some helpful suggestions. It looks like I need to start using the Auction House.

I haven't done any AE missions yet. I wouldn't mind trying them out if they're a good source for the tickets mentioned. However, I do enjoy the regular story arc missions as well.

I don't really like asking for $, because I've come across beggars in other MMOs, and they can be very annoying. That's why I prefer the "teach a man to fish" approach. That said you'd probably not have to twist my arm to take a smidgen of starting capital. In any event, I like making new friends to group with. These are my lowbie toons:

Nova Jayne - Spines/Fire Scrapper - Freedom
Sonixia - Emp/Sonic Defender - Freedom
Heat Grinder - SS/Fire Brute - Virtue

Well, I am back after a long stint in WoW. I never got too high before leaving (mid teens). I'm starting to level again, and at first it seemed ok. As I'm pushing 10 on a few toons (spines/fire scrap, emp/sonic def, SS/fire brute), it seems I am getting progressively weaker. Mobs take a long time to die. I can't seem to keep my enhancement slots slotted and many are empty (I get them from leveling and they usually stay empty). For example, I try to buy damage and acc enahncements from the guys near the trainers--it's 1000 inf for lvl 10 dmg from the vendor by the trainer. I have nowhere enough inf to fill my slots much less upgrade my lvl 1,2,3 enhancements that are going red.

I'm curious if this is a game issue (not getting inf flowing in from mobs/missions to fund needed upgrades) or user error (am I doing something wrong). If it's the latter, any guidance would be appreciated. If it's the former, maybe I should try to level some kind of OP class and then fund what i want to play. Note I'm talking about the vendor enhancements, I don't understand the IOs yet, but I'm guessing those are even more expensive.

I also have had some salvage drops start to accumulate--can I do something with these.

Again, I'm a noob, so please be kind. I'd appreciate any tips or strategies on how I should proceed. I do read the forums and wiki, but it's hard to filter through all the topics to find what I'm looking for. Thanks again.

Thanks for the feedback! We flew pretty quickly to 9 last night and had a lot of fun. It would've gone even faster, but it took some time re-learning the basics. Our dmg seemed pretty good. I do wish Howl had a quicker recharge time--between 2 opening Howls, most whites would be almost dead but not quite. I am guessing in a few more levels with better enhancements and buffs it will be even better.

One followup question. Can anybody explain what AE is? In other MMOs, AE meant rounding up packs of bad guys and using Area of Effect abilities to get them. Here I see AE is Architect Entertainment (thanks ParagonWiki!). I've read some posts of people complaining about users doing these and not the old stuff. 1 - why are these better than the regular old missions? and 2 - if they are better, why do people complaining about them?

Hello, all! I played this game years ago. I'm taking a break/extended leave from WoW, and I thought I'd give this game a go again. My son and I are both looking for a great duo that will have synergy.

I saw a few threads on this, and the one that stood out to me was 2xEmp/Sonic defenders.

"Each Emp Fortitudes the other.
Each Emp Clear Minds the other.
Each Emp Adrenaline Boosts the other.
Alternate Regeneration and Recovery Auras.

No stamina is needed. You have Recovery Aura. You don't need to slot, take or even use the heals once you hit Fortitude. Sonic attacks from defenders stack minus resistances, recharge and fire very quickly. Enemies will melt before your eyes."

I think the Emp primary benefits are obvious. I'm trying to understand why you would want double sonic secondaries. Do the debuffs stack? My howl and his howl, would they both additively debuff our target? If yes, that does seem very strong.

Are there cases where it might be better for one or both to be Emp/Something else? And if so, what would that other secondary be? Years ago, I played a blaster, so I'm a bit wary of trying to dps with 2 defenders, but I guess it might work ok with the added survivability, buffs, and debuffed damage.

So far I've been talking about leveling/PVE. How would such a duo be in PVP?