Scorpion Shield and Hero Merits

If nothing else you should just buy miracle: recoverys instead of lotg globals and at least make the 2.5ish billion you'd need to simply buy the dang io. At least, I always seem to sell those for a lot more than lotg globals lately!

On the subject of switching sides as a ruse, it doesn't seem like you'd even have to be all that subtle about it given the intellect that Black Scorpion is implied to have. You could probably get away with just jingling your car keys in front of him while you reached into his pocket and grabbed the shield were he not standing in the same room as all of his coworkers.

My latest project has been to revisit all the 50's I don't play on my home server, and either delete them, or figure out what isn't fun about playing them any more, and fix whatever that is. Turns out, most of the problem with each of them has been a lack of defense. So, I have had this peculiar conga-line of characters going red side to get their nifty villain armors. Since you are considering this trek, thought I would share some of my experiences so you can avoid my mistakes, and maybe get an idea of what to expect.

1. I found the vigilante to villain missions really vile, so be prepared. Apparently, one does not just think "hmm, a life of larceny sounds good." No, one is forced to murder people repeatedly, often only because the victim said something to bruise one's ego. I believe (in my own head, if nowhere else) that one can be a dedicated bad guy, without being any sort of murderer, much less a sociopathic serial-killer. A white collar criminal is not an option here, unless you exercise a lot of denial and imagination, but luckily, since I am pretending to be a super hero in a made up game, I feel I have those qualities in excess! MENTAL HEALTH TIP: Don't read anything in the missions at all if you have an alternate idea of why and how your hero turned evil. If that is "cheating", too bad. I feel it is just as "cheat-worthy" of the writers to insist all villains must enjoy torture, murder, and the pain and suffering of others, so there! (Defensive? Moi?)

2. I discovered that it's really pretty easy to solo the tips and the patron pool arc. In fact, you don't need to complete the PP arc, you just do the first 5 (I think?) missions. To my delight, I discovered that you also get a free respec. when you unlock the patron pool! The time it takes to do these missions is about the same amount of time to get the tip missions (go to sharkhead) and complete them, which isn't too long, especially if you do some stealthing.
The downside is that this arc was written eons ago when it was MMO fashion to make you do any number of pointless things, all at the furthest possible location. I've only done GW's arc, but TWICE Ghost Widow makes you go from some far-flung island back to Grandville to talk to Scirocco... WHO IS STANDING ACROSS THE TABLE FROM HER! The only tough mission in her arc before you unlock the PP is the last one, when you have to kill Numina (an EB), and stupid Longbow keep spawning to try to protect her. My dark defender died a lot before figuring out how to survive it. TIP: LOTS of big green and purple insp,, including extras in your e-mail.

3. This same dark defender decided to pick up the Incarnate arc over there while trying to pick up a few villainside badges. Found that they had changed the 1st Trapdoor mission since I'd last done it, and I couldn't figure out how to defeat him (have since figured it out and soloed it on other defenders, so it is doable). Couldn't find a team to assist, so went hero side to get some help. SURPRISE! It's a different Ouroboro! (??!) And it's a different Mender! (!!??) You CAN'T do it heroside! Nor can you drop the mission unless standing next to alternate, evil-side mender. No, you have to go back to full villain! (!!!!) Aarrgh! TIP: you can open the alpha slot doing BAF and Lambda, but you will carry that stupid Trapdoor mission forever, unless you go evil again.

4. The Scorpion Shield armor is really quite attractive. In fact, I can think of several toons who would use that effect as an aura, were it available at the tailor. It's a ripply glow - purple till they let you color pool powers - that is far enough outside your costume to not hamper your look. The downside is that the other powers are not so hot. The immob is a good one, but it's only single target, so not all that useful for AoE's like Rain of Fire, or Hot Feet. On the other hand, it was that very immob which allowed me to survive the Honoree in the incarnate arc on a solo defender! Still, I really, really miss my fire epic powers on each toon who has lost them - they are just that good. But alas, I can't use any epic powers at all if I'm dead.

5. It doesn't matter which patron arc you take - when you unlock one patron pool, you unlock them all. Also, of course, they do not disappear when you return blueside - all the patron pools and epic ones will continue to be available to you.

6. I don't RP with others much, but I do RP the essence of the toons I'm playing (if that makes sense), and there are many of my heroes who just would not go villain for any reason. Gotta honor the spirit of the toon, is my feeling. So some of these would (and did) use the gawd-awful ugly armor available to heroes. For controllers anyway, both earth and ice armors are available. Both, butt-ugly. However, none of my blasters has the need for armor. The melee fighting blaster is ice primary with lots of holds. Another has the energy secondary with perma-boost range, and almost never dies because she's too far away. The fire blaster has devices secondary, which offers a lot of mitigation, and also rarely dies. She also took the Cardiac alpha for the extra range, though it's really not all that much range. However, in a long fight, you can maneuver to find the position where you can hit them, but most of them can't quite reach you.
My point being, are you sure you need the defense armor? Are there other means available to you, if you don't really want to take the trip to the dark side? For squishy toons who have to be in melee range (kins, hot feet users, heavy AoE users, blappers) then getting defense armor might be your best bet.
Another alternative is to figure out what TYPE of damage you're dying from, and use set bonuses to defend against that particular type. If you are a range-only blaster, then perhaps just a lot of ranged defense might be enough for you? My fire/rad troller was constantly getting mezzed. To the extent that it was really not fun playing her at all. I read in the forums that most mez attacks have a ranged component, so I tried that before taking her villianside, even though I was pretty sure it wasn't going to work - I was in melee range all the time, after all. To my HUGE (and delighted!) surprise, my 36% ranged defense worked beautifully! I have no idea why, since I also read how little you actually defend against by having that much under the soft-cap.

That's all I can think of, though likely will remember something else as soon as I post this. Hope something in this might help, but regardless, I certainly wish you the best of luck with whatever you choose. Happy hunting!

I've had two threads necro'd in the last two days. Weird.