CBeet

I could understand changing the Hollows, it was frustrating at times no matter how much you could learn from it about the cogs of the game.

I could understand changing Faultline, I used to love going spelunking there when I was in the level range, but now it has some actual content and is easy to navigate.

But the fog and ghosts in DA are some of the most atmospheric effects in the game, no matter how annoying it may be (I used to have real issues navigating it just with a flyer, almost gave up on a super speeder, but I've learnt with time) or how much work it may cover up. Increase the distance you can see, update the fade/look of the ghosts, whatever needs to be done, just leave the almost survival horror effect of the zone in place, please.

I'm okay with it being co-op, I'm fine with it having a face-lift, but Dark Astoria without a fog effect may as well just be a whole other zone. What if you make it a user-generated aura (if the technology exists), only showing up to individual players like physics objects do? With that you can have the 'fog' removed once you've completed the main storyline in the zone, or at different parts of the zone so you can see the new art.

Without more information, I will honestly stand by that DA should have it's fog and ghosts. Unless there's something the Devs have implimented that they do not with to share to ease the nay-sayers, I highly believe Dark Astoria will lose it's charm as it's taken by the current Dev fad of injecting purest Incarnate into everything.

Karate Chop for Thunder Kick.

From my experience and from I've heard from other long-time players, if you're looking for good long term STDPS from a Mastermind then you're either after;

Ninjas, because a majority of their attacks are Single Target and are balanced for such on account of critical hits and having quite big hitting attacks, the main drawbacks being a lack of AoE damage for regular content and survivability.

Thugs, because they have sustained ranged DPS and the burn patch and Scourge. As they are, I don't think the damage is quite as much as a well played Ninjas MM, but due to the added survivability of stacked Leadership, they tend to have an easier job of getting that damage out there.

Robots, because of the exotic damage types (Energy, Fire) and the Assault Bot having built in -regen, making Robots possibly the best set for AV or GM soloing should you have taken a secondary without debuffs or just no -regen. The admirable damage and damage patches combined with inherant -regen in attacks and their forcefields and self heals would make them, IMO, the best for sustained DPS as they're less likely to die and less of the outgoing damage is mitigated by high regeneration of harder targets.

As for Necromancy, Mercenaries and Demons, I find they usually don't have the survivability or enough damage to make up for the lack of said survivability. Despite how long they've been out I've not had much experience with Demons so I can't really say much there, I think they're a runner up due to the stacked -resistance which is possible, but I've found that Demon summons die quite frequently, putting a dent in the potential DPS, but that's also fair to say about Ninjas.

Overall, if you want to go for raw unstoppable ST damage, I would say it's a fight between Robots and Ninjas because Thugs (Arsonist and Bruiser) AI is still a little silly, though I would think about what secondary you want and how you'll enhance. I've heard good things of Ninjas/Thermal and Ninjas/Sonic, or Bots/Dark (Solo GMs on SOs once you're 40+!) if you're so inclined.

Storm Assault
Strong Gust, minor smashing damage, knockback ranged small AoE attack
Lightning Bolt, moderate energy damage, knockdown, chance for stun ranged attack (a proper lightning bolt from the sky), marks enemy with a charge
High Bolt, high energy damage, knockup melee attack (pop enemy up with air, lightning strike in mid-air), marks enemy with a charge
Power Boost
Twister, moderate smashing damage, knockup PBAoE melee attack
Eye of the Storm, PBAoE -speed -recharge toggle, small chance to strike enemies with lightning for moderate energy damage, enemies struck by lightning ae marked with a charge
Direct Current, high energy damage, hold, chance for fire DoT melee attack (hold one arm up, hold other out at enemy, lightning bolt hits the raised arm and channels the energy into the other arm and into the enemy)
Thunderous Boom, minor energy damage, chance for stun PBAoE attack, enemies marked with a charge will be feared
Second Strike, all enemies within range who are marked with a charge will be struck by a moderate energy damage bolt of lightning and knocked down, the charge will be consumed

Illsuion Control - Edited with Domination in mind
Spectral Wounds
Blind
Deceive
Flash: Increase radius or base tohit to make up for it being PBAoE and not targetted
Superior Invisibility
Instill Fear: Cast on an ally, releases a large PBAoE fear and immobilize on enemies near them as you make your ally too scary for your foes to fight
Phantom Army
Instill Hate: Targetted AoE confuse and taunt. Cast on an enemy and they all become confused, all enemies around your target are taunted to attack the original target as they have been shown their own personal enemy.
Phantasm

Doubt whips/chains will be coming as a set, as apparently in the time it took to animate just the Demons whip attacks, they could have animated an entire other powerset.

Dark/Mental? So that's -tohit, cone immob, cone knockback, -regen, -recharge, hold, fear and a self heal all on a Blaster.

Grab Medicine and Leadership and proceed to be ripped apart by teams wanting you. I love Blasters and like to stand by they've enough damage that, when it comes to build planning, you can afford to be looking for other ways to support the team. Great hearing you've come to a similar conclusion ^^ May have to roll a Dark/Mental, it sounds near perfect a build playground as a Blaster can get.

Also like the idea above of /En powerboosting Vengeance, hadn't thought of that! May need to go respec my AR/En..

I quite like the chance for heal in the first 2 attacks on a Blaster. If I've been mezzed and I only have those then I don't mind the chance for some self healing, every little helps and it has saved my bacon a couple times (believe it or not). The way I figure it is they'll only really come into play when I need them most, and if I get lucky and have 2 or more proc of it in a short time frame (I generally have enough recharge that the first two attacks can be chained together as a full attack chain) then that's at least 10% of my health back, which isn't too shabby if I'm fighting for my life. I've even seen it go off 4 times in a row before, but that's just a random roll of the dice talking.

I guess the real answer is, do you feel lucky? Well do ya, punk?

Here's mine. It may be a little expensive but it has a habit of never dying and being really good in teams. It's definately not the best because it has two modes, Granite or Not Granite, but it's pretty darn survivable even against psi because of the sheer regen and self healing. If you're in Rock Armour, then you've also Perma Hasten. Definately not a leveling build.

It would be an interesting set to play, that's for sure! If ported to a Tanker though it'd need a Taunt aura of some kind, so perhaps Integration would be turned into a clone of Rise to the Challenge? Assuming so, a Tank with RTTC and Instant Healing would achieve personal regeneration of rediculous amounts, at a guess over 200hp/sec on SOs when surrounded and IHing and that's not including Dull Pain's +hp. Alpha Strikes could still be tricky, but that's what MoG's for surely?

Until 32+ you don't really fight anything which'd dent silly regen numbers and self heals and etc etc, so I think it'd be fine. Should it arise, you have inspirations to dig into, temp powers, team buffs (if you're solo why are you fighting something you can't reasonably take on?) and the already impressive Tanker HP pool to dig into. After 32, you have all the tools you need, and come 50 then there're IOs and Incarnate powers to help you along too *if* the set underperforms, which I doubt it would.

The only change I would like to see made to Dark Armour is if Dark Regeneration's tohit check was removed. I know it's just my own rotten luck, but I've lost count of how many 5% chance to miss rolls I've had which've cost my Katana/DA his life.

Maybe a slight radius increase to Oppressive Gloom too, but that'd be pushing it.

Kinetic Melee could quite easily be a Monk's chi. Combine with Willpower, Electric Armour, Dark Armour or Super Reflex/Ninjitsu and you've a solid character for the concept. I would suggest going Scrapper or Stalker for Kinetic Melee, if Stalker then Kin/Nin, Scrapper Kin/Elec.

Electric Control works with a multitude of things, my favourite combination being Electric/Earth Assault Dominator. No real reason, I just find it fun and can't really comment on other combos off the top of my head.

Dual Pistols is nice with Traps for a Defender/Corruptor thematically, Blasters can be great with almost any secondary. If you like to solo, Devices works nicely thematically though isn't generally the best number-wise in a team, or you can go back to the Monk concept and have Pistols/Energy saying it's chi and they're a modern Monk, or a modern Ranger with /Mental or /Devices, they all work.

Very nice write-up and agreed on the important parts. My personal gripe of a Stalker's potential underperformance is that, by the way Hide and the Hidden state works, defense is and can always be superior to resistance, because if the attacks miss you then you can re-enter Hide without worry while staying near-invulnerable.

I think a distraction-type power should be added to Willpower and Regeneration rather than Quick Recovery along with your ideas, or some kind of tool for re-entering Hidden like Placate. I would propose a click +endurance so you still do not lose the endurance recovery tool, but have it re-enter you into Hidden. No Placate effect, but if used fast enough in conjuncture with an attack it can effectively be another placate. Since neither set gets much inherantly in the way of Defense (Regeneration moreso; Willpower's being very low however) I feel it'd be a nice tool to make up for the fact defense-based sets can return to Hide in combat by waiting (unless they are unlucky) yet the two sets in question have no real CC potential thematically, that I can think of anyhow.

Dark/MA Tank, because great resistance, nice defense and an amazing self heal.

And then you slot it and you become unkillable.

To my mind, the Bane is primarily a ST damage dealer. I know I can down a boss in 4 quick hits from Hidden if I use everything (Surveillance - Build Up - Shatter - Shatter Armour - Poisonous Ray with -res proc - Placate - Shatter) and that attack chain can pretty much continue throughout a fight for pretty awesome consistant DPS.

With a Bane being primarily for ST damage though, most would argue "Why not go Night Widow and have Mind Link, perma-softcapped melee defense and higher DPS?" to which I can pretty much only say that Banes can have a lot of pets which add their own damage, CC and can tank an alpha since summoning them doesn't break hidden.

And of course the usual team buffs a VEAT brings to the table too. A Soldier's in-built Maneuvers has higher defense than a Widow's!

Balance wise, you have to consider also lack of mez protection, how more attacks can hit you in melee, plus what the damage/debuff/buff modifiers are (I can imagine Tanker damage, Controller debuffs).

I want one if only because a lot of my concepts would be perfect for it. Titan/Storm, Claws/FF, Kin/Kin, Elec/Traps..

It's real. If you don't believe me, try it in a second build.

GENTLEMEN, BEHOLD!



Double Gang War, 20 Posse. Click on image for full (slightly edited) picture.