Adeon Hawkwood

Well speaking for myself, I don't mind a bit of fixed colors as long as it isn't the main draw of the costume piece.

To use the Steampunk Backpack as an example, there are two bits that have special colors, the pipe and the pressure gauge. The Pressure Gauge I have no problem with, it's fixed as white but it looks ok no matter what colors I use. The Exhaust Pipe is the bit that is problematic, it's set to use a different pre-tininting from the rest of the backpack, this makes it stand out but also means I can't make it not stand out. Additionally, the backpack as a whole has a certain amount of pre-tinting which means that it doesn't match the Steampunk Armor pieces in color.

Well speaking for myself I think that Corruptors and Defenders are relatively well balanced compared to each other at the moment. Solo their base damage is about the same (the damage buff from Vigilance pretty much balances the higher base damage of Corruptors) but Corruptors get Scourge while Defenders get better buffs and debuffs.

Teaming is a similar dynamic, Corruptors do slightly better damage and get more benefit from any damage buffs floating around while Defenders provide a bit more team support.

The difference between Corruptors and Defenders is more an issue of focus than anything else and in that respect is like the difference between Brutes and Scrappers. The two ATs do very similar things with a very similar level of capability but the way in which they do them does differ.

Agreed. One thing I would add here is that some sets are better at this than others. Demon Summoning in particular gets hit hard with 4 second cast times on all pet powers. I know my Bots/Traps does a lot better on Lambda than my DS/Thermal simply because the pets have about have the cast time to summon (2 seconds compared to 4).

Well I ended up going for Radial Clarion so I get the benefits of Power Boost + Farsight without actually needing Power Boost .

I'll also add that going Electrical was not just for concept reasons, having Power Sink in my build is actually very useful. Time is a very endurance heavy set which is made worse when I'm spamming Ball Lightning + Short Circuit. It's not a big deal in short fights but in a long fight being able to refill my blue bar every 40 seconds is very handy. Additionally I use Power Sink to refill my endurance bar after using my nuke. Thunderous Blast is actually a pretty safe nuke to use since most fo the time anything that survives is completely drained anyway and an instant refill of my blue bar means I don't need to worry to much about nuking.

Well the utility of the extra hold is not really for bosses since as you say TC + TS produces an ok length hold on them. I mostly use it to allow me to hold troublesome Lts (Rikti Mentalists for example) as well as a boss.


For the curious, here's the final build I went with (Interface and Destiny are Preemptive and Clarion):

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.952
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Dr Alec von Chronite: Level 50 Technology Defender
Primary Power Set: Time Manipulation
Secondary Power Set: Electrical Blast
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Electricity Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Temporal Mending -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(5), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Dct'dW-Heal(7)
Level 1: Charged Bolts -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(9), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11)
Level 2: Time's Juncture -- HO:Enzym(A), HO:Enzym(13), HO:Enzym(13)
Level 4: Lightning Bolt -- Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(15), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Apoc-Dam%(17)
Level 6: Ball Lightning -- Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(19), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(21), Ragnrk-Knock%(21)
Level 8: Distortion Field -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(23), Lock-Rchg/Hold(23), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(25), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(25), Lock-%Hold(27)
Level 10: Short Circuit -- Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(A), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(29), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(29), Armgdn-Dam%(31), EndMod-I(31)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Ksmt-ToHit+(46)
Level 14: Fly -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 16: Temporal Selection -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 18: Farsight -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Membr(31), HO:Membr(33), HO:Membr(33)
Level 20: Time Stop -- UbrkCons-Hold/Rchg(A), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(33), UbrkCons-Acc/Rchg(34), UbrkCons-EndRdx/Hold(34), UbrkCons-Dam%(34)
Level 22: Time Crawl -- TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx(A)
Level 24: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Enzym(36)
Level 26: Slowed Response -- AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(A), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(36), RechRdx-I(36)
Level 28: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 30: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 32: Chrono Shift -- Numna-Heal/Rchg(A), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(45)
Level 35: Voltaic Sentinel -- BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg(A), BldM'dt-Dmg/EndRdx(37), BldM'dt-Acc/EndRdx(39), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), BldM'dt-Acc(39), BldM'dt-Dmg(40)
Level 38: Thunder Strike -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(40), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(40), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(43), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46)
Level 41: Shocking Bolt -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(42), Lock-Rchg/Hold(42), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(42), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(43), Lock-%Hold(43)
Level 44: Power Sink -- Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(45), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Thunderous Blast -- HO:Nucle(A), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg(48), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(48), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Charged Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GA-3defTpProc(50), HO:Ribo(50), HO:Ribo(50)
Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon
Level 50: Ion Total Core Judgement
Level 50: Phantom Total Core Improved Ally
------------
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(3)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(3)
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run

Technically they should be:
200 merits = 4 hero merits = 2 recipes - 80 million (conversion) = 120 million

I agree with the general sentiment though. The difference in market value between 50 Reward Merits and 1 Alignment merit has dropped since the introduction of alignment merits but it's still worth the 20 million to convert them.

In general Virtue PUGs don't seem to be hitting it as often. As a general observation, BAF trials seem to have a higher percentage of non-level shifted characters than the other trials, so I think a lot of the higher tier characters aren't running it as much (I know for me BAF is pretty much my last choice for trial, I do it if I've already done Lambda and Keyes and it's to late for Underground).

Honestly, the Honoree is the hardest part of that arc and I would expect all but the strongest characters to need inspirations against him. Heck, my heavily IO'd Time/Elec Defender can solo most EBs with ease and I still had to go and get a Backup Radio temp power to get past Honoree (I love my Defender but a single target damage machine he is not).

I suspect that the solo path will have some portions with Honoree-like difficulty but I'm also hoping for more bits with Trapdoor-like difficulty, that is to say bosses who require some thought to defeat but aren't a straight up stat-fight.

This is a common misconception. In order to craft a Tier 4 Ability you need any two Tier 3 abilities. There is a scroll bar to the right of the recipe, scrolling down will allow you to find the particular recipe for any combination of two Tier 3 abilities.

Additionally, for all Alpha slot abilities there are two sets of recipes. One set uses materials that are gathered from shards, level 50 TFs and the WST while the other set of recipes uses components from the Trials.

Not so much stupid as impatient. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that even impatience can make sense for the buyer. It's pretty easy to make at least 3 million per slot per day profit through crafting (and indeed even more on some IOs) at which point paying high amounts for salvage makes a lot of sense. If I have slots free I'll leave bids up for the more volatile salvage but a lot of the time I can make more profit selling an extra IO than leaving low ball bids in for salvage. Oh sure, if I'm going to be on the character for a bit anyway then waiting ten minutes to fill my order makes sense but if I'm planning on logging off to play another character I'll pay 100K easily, it's not worth my time having to log back on to the first character later in the evening.

The total auction fee is 10% of the final sale price. You pay 5% of the list price when you list the item and then 10% of the sale price - 5% of the list price when it sells.

So in your case you'd spend 45K when you listed the item and an additional 75K when it sold for 120K total.

Well, I'm hazarding a guess here but I suspect that the main decision was to remove Fearsome Stare with Petrifying Gaze being collateral damage. There is plenty of precedent for a Controller Secondary having a single target hold (Time Stop and Ice Arrow) so leaving in Petrifying Gaze would probably not be an issue but I can definitely see concerns about leaving in Fearsome Stare. Given that they were already changing one power the devs probably figured that it made sense to change Petrifying Gaze as well since it isn't that useful to a Controller.

In the case of the other "control" secondaries (Trick Arrow and Time) there was no need to change the other powers in the set which made a simple proliferation more attractive.

Maybe, although personally I think the problem with Trapdoor was mostly that the strategy required was unclear. The actual method of killing the clones to slow his regen and (possibly) dragging him into lava for more damage is a reasonably interesting fight but it is not really presented well in game. Once you know the trick Trapdoor is a pretty easy fight (for reference, I did it on an SO'd TA/A Defender using only my Secondary powers, Pool powers and inspirations, and no primary or temp powers).

The real challenge in designing this sort of content is communicating it to the player and to be honest the devs have not shown a lot of skill at that.

It was in the I21.5 patch. It's why knockback effects are so weak at the moment. (Unless you meant Gravity Control in which case it hasn't been changed).

I think that the AT issue is going to be the biggy. There's just so much variation that making something to challenge an IO'd Scrapper but that is also doable with an SO'd Defender. The general solution is to make things that challenge the player without increasing the numerical challenge but that is tricky to do without making it either gimmicky or trivial (the BM fight in Apex is a good example, the blue spots force you to move and think about positioning).

I definitely agree with you about the prevalence of mezzes on NPCs but I think your suggestion on duration is a bit to far. In general I agree that minions should not have mezzes (baring one or two special cases such as Malta Sappers). However for Lts and Bosses I think that it's not so much the duration that's an issue as the fact that they can stack their own mezzes. I'd probably look at 10 second or so mezzes for NPCs but give them long-ish recharges (i.e. 30 seconds) so they can mez you for long enough to make break frees useful but they can't stack their own mezzes.

Were you not able to join or able to join but couldn't speak? I know they have it set to auto-silence new members to prevent spamming and you need to ask a mod to un-silence you.

Personally that would drive me crazy, I find BAF the least interesting of the trials but to each their own.

And heck if you're just using it for travel purposes T1 works just fine.