Call Me Awesome

It depends entirely on what you want to do with the character. For example, my Invuln soft cap guide focuses on using set bonuses in addition to power selection to build defensive bonuses... thus for that type of build the set bonuses are critical.

If all you're looking for is raw enhancement values in minimum slots of a power and aren't interested in set bonuses then yes, frankenslotting is your best bang for the buck.

Look over your character and ask yourself what would be most beneficial; saving slots and maximizing the enhancement of a power or adding set bonuses to fill holes in your abilities. As a general rule frankenslotting is cheaper since it doesn't matter what set IO's you use so you can use the ones that are dirt cheap on the market.

It's a part of Windows; what Mid's is doing when it "copies to clipboard" is the exact same thing as if you highlight text in a word processor (such as Word) and hit control+c. It's copy/paste. The clipboard is a portion of Windows memory that stores the text you just copied.

So when you export a build from Mid's it copies the build to clipboard. Then when you make a post you just hit control+v (hold the control key and press the v key) and the build is pasted into your post where your cursor is at that moment.

This is copy/paste behavior that's been a basic part of computing in general for longer than I've been using one.

The first respec is in Independence Port and runs from level 24-33; the contact is at the end of the bridge just about level with the train station. I believe it requires 4 players to start.

If you haven't already you can always go to a trainer and switch to a second build, that build will be level 1 and can be trained up to your current level. I strongly suggest working out your build in Mid's Hero Designer before you do this; it's amazingly easy to gimp yourself by forgetting a critical power if you don't have a roadmap to work from.

It's highly likely we'll get a freespec (free respec) when issue 16 goes live in a month or so; we've gotten one with every new issue I can remember going back to issue 5.

Arch/EM is a great combination; and one of the few I know of that can drop an entire 8 man spawn from 100' away. Mine hit 50 last year and was a lot of fun on the way up; I still bring him out from time to time for TF's. I built it as a ranged blaster using Boost Range and avoiding most of the melee attacks. One of the best things is just how end friendly the combination is; I've never taken Stamina and at 50 I'm good for about 4 minutes of maximum effort attacking before I need Conserve Power. By the time CP drops I'm back to full and good for another 4 minutes or so.

So if you want to play a long range killer there aren't a lot of better choices than Arch/EM.

There's no way I'd want to tackle Positron with more than 4 people; with that TF more is most assuredly not better; ideally you'd want a team of 3, that being the minimum size to keep the spawn count down otherwise it can take forever to complete. Positron done with a team of 3 good players at or above the level 15 cap can do it in about 2.5 hours. A team of 8 good players at level 15+ takes upwards of 4-5 hours, and a team of 8 at level 10, the TF minimum, will get their heads handed them in the first mission facing huge groups of level 15-16 baddies.

Posi has no AV at the end so it's best done as a small team.

And "Healers"? Give me a Rad, Dark, Sonic, Kinetic or Forcefield any day over a "healer" empath. Buffs and debuffs rule the game and are far more effective than healing. The fastest steamroller teams won't have any of them along and typically are composed of multiple debuffers. Virtually every character I've ever teamed with who described himself as a healer was a waste of time. I'd take anyone else over a self-described healer.

Getting back to the OP's question, assuming you're referring to the Respec trials then yes, you certainly can do them with a team of 4 good players; I've done them many times. Notice I said good players though; you need people who know their characters and can work together.

To expand on that a little, things like the Numina Regen/Recovery unique IO may technically be a proc, but it has a 100% chance to fire. If you put it into a click or toggle power it will boost your regen/recovery for 2 minutes. If you put it into a passive power like Health then it's a permanent boost. The Stealth IO's are another example of this; they function while you have your travel power on (or sprint if you've slotted one there instead) and for 120 seconds after you shut it off.

But outside of oddballs like the Numina, Miracle and a few others set bonuses are independent of the power they're slotted in and don't care if the power's active or not.

Let's take a power like Maneuvers for example and say you've slotted 4 Gift of the Ancients into it. For set bonuses you'll have 2% recovery, 2.5% Fire resistance and 1.8% bonus endurance. Those bonuses will always be a part of your character no matter if you have the toggle running or not... so long as you don't exemplar more than three levels below the level of the IO's themselves.

You found Inv/Fire end heavy? That surprises me since /Fire is about the lightest end secondary we have. My Stone/Fire tanker for example is vastly more end friendly than my Stone/EM and even at only 23 my Shield/Fire tank is quite easy on the blue bar. Relatively, of course... most tankers tend to use a bit of endurance due to our toggles. Actually the absolute worst endurance hog character I've played was my 50 Fire/Rad controller... now THERE's an end hog.

I haven't played an Inv/Fire, but playing both sets in isolation I'm not sure how you were finding it end heavy; particularly in comparison to the other secondaries.

It works quite well, I created a second build for CMA for that exact purpose that was designed to work from 20-30, it allowed me to focus ALL my slots into powers that were available before level 32. I designed it specifically for the TF's in the 20's although it also works well down to Posi levels... I do loose set bonuses there unfortunately

No problem; I don't know what Elec Melee will end up as a Tanker set but it's... ok as a brute; at least as far as I've leveled an Elec/Shield brute redside. Nothing extraordinary but it's decent at level 16 from what I can tell that early. According to Mid's it looks like it should mature fairly nicely.

Yep, Granite's an NPC change, not a costume unfortunately. Every Granite tanker is the exact same size, shape & color; my guess is making it editable would be a huge job; maybe even a complete rewrite of the power itself. Anyway, I don't expect to see it for awhile yet unfortunately.

Oops, I guess I must've missed that.

I've been playing CMA, my Inv/Stone the last couple of nights and I can categorically state that Tremor+Fault does NOT knock back even level or better mobs. Chaining both powers back to back with no delay (cuing up the second while the first animates) and I get knockdown, then knockdown again. Remembering this thread I tried everything I could think of and wasn't able to get anything to KB.

If you're seeing knockback on any Stone Melee powers then either you're fighting -2 or lower or facing clockwork or similar. The only other possibility is knockback slotting in your powers or as a set bonus.

Oh, I just had a thought, if you're teamed with an Earth or Ice controller that may explain it, if they put out Earthquake/Ice slick and you time it right your attack may hit at the same time one of the 'troller's knockdowns tics... that would cause knockback. A Storm 'troller/defender's Freezing Rain power would have the same effect.

There are, but most of them also come as lower level IO's as well... the Reactive Armor ranges from 15-40; the Smashing Haymaker ranges from 20-35; Mocking Beratement goes from 20-50... since you don't get any real benefit to slotting level 50, and they're actually worse since you loose the set bonus if you exemp down 3 levels below the enhancement level.

In case you're confused by that last sentence, let's give an example. Take the Smashing Haymaker set; it offers the following set bonuses:

• 2.2% mez resistance (worthless)
• 1.13% Hit Points
• 1.88% S/L defense

Let's say you've slotted 4 of these in an attack getting all of those bonuses. The IO's are all level 35. In this case you (obviously) have all the bonuses at your natural level. You can exemp down to level 35 and you still have all the bonuses. You can exemp down to 32 and still have the bonuses. If you exemp to 31 or below you loose the set bonus... but the IO's will still enhance your accuracy, damage and so on.

Now let's take a set you've slotted at 50; and the IO's are level 50. Again, everything works fine at 50... but if you exemp below level 47 you'll loose the set bonuses (but not the straight enhancement power of the IO's).

That's why in my opinion there's little point in holding out for higher level set IO's. There's nothing in my recommended IO's that isn't available as a level 30 IO; the critical ones actually stop at level 40.

Fire Melee has the most AOE of any set available to tankers; what it lacks is any secondary effect so it's only damage mitigation is killing mobs faster... something it's quite good at actually.

Shield is a decent set that with IO investment can become a very good one; and it offers one VERY nice AOE attack that does Scrapper level damage in Shield Charge. Shield's aggro aura, Against All Odds, also acts as a damage buff for every enemy in melee with you. At the time I'm writing this my Shield/Fire tanker is still very young; I think he just hit 23. At this point the set is a little lacking; but once it matures and I get it soft capped defensively it should really be good. I'm basing my thoughts about a mature build on my level 50 Broadsword/Shield scrapper; defensively that character pushes tanker levels of survivability.

Invuln is one of my favorite sets; it's a good set from the get go and it becomes great once IO's are factored in... it's second only to Granite in survivability. Early game the Invuln will be considerably tougher than the Shield and after both mature the Invuln will maintain it's lead. On the other hand the Shield will deal considerably more damage thanks to a damage boosting aura and Shield Charge.

Both Inv & Shield will pair nicely with Fire Melee; or for that matter any other secondary you may choose. You're the one to make the call; do you want better durability? Invulnerability. Do you want more damage with good durability? Shield.

If you decide to go with Invulnerability check out the guides in my signature; the first is a basic how-to for the first 20 levels to help you avoid the early pitfalls of selecting the best powers. The second is a more advanced guide on using set IO bonuses in order to make your invuln into the unkillable tanker you want it to be.

Actually I commented on that myself:
You're right, one hour per level in the 40's is really moving; I've done it with a few of my superteam characters but that's playing a stacked, steamrolling team of veteran players. Typical PuG play won't be anywhere near that.

If you manage to get from 40-45 in less than 10 hours you're doing very well. PL'ing is another story entirely of course.

My last trip to 50 took about 90 hours total, most spent playing with my SG as a dedicated team. Of course that was all after the last round of XP "smoothing"; XP flows almost twice as fast now as it did a couple of years ago.

I'll confess we did decide to build a level 50 Fire/Rad superteam and PL'd up a couple of our group who didn't have a Frad using AE... so I guess I'm guilty as well. It took about 8 hours altogether to level them up; we had 4 level 50 Frads and 2 lowbies at the start. In all fairness both of those lowbies were playing at least their 10'th level 50 and were 45 month+ vets.

Are you looking at Invincibility? It provides one defense bonus for the first mob in melee (5% unslotted) and a lower one (1%) for each additional one up to 10. It's a little unusual in how it figures defense; if you have no mobs in melee it provides no defense. The first mob is worth 6% (the 5% for the first mob and the 1% for each mob in range) which, slotted out, gives you just over 9% defense from the power with one mob in range.

Realistically you're highly unlikely to ever get more than 6-8 enemies in range at once time unless you're fighting Rikti Monkeys or something like that; normal size mobs simply won't fit in the 8' AOE. I always base my defense figures assuming only a single enemy in range; that way I know my defenses are maxed when I really need them fighting an AV or other single hard target.

There's no need to wait until 50 to get the sets you need; you can slot your armors with level 30 Reactive Armor and not loose any real value from them; you'd still be very close to the ED cap. Here's some numbers for you based on slotting level 25 Reactive Armor:

• S/L resist - 89.9%
• E/N resist - 30.2%

Verses slotting level 40 Reactive Armor:

• S/L resist - 90%
• E/N resist - 31.3%

As you can see, slotting the max level Reactive Armor IO's gains you 0.1% S/L resist and only 1.1% E/N resistance... in other words no real benefit. These numbers figure on 4 slotting TI, Uny, RPD, Tough and Res Energies with Reactive Armor. If you get Res Elements; and in my opinion it's quite skippable, the F/C resist will be the same as the E/N.

Slotting the Smashing Haymaker set in your attacks should be dirt cheap; and the Mocking Beratement for Taunt is the next best thing to free. Why not enjoy the benefits of a nearly unkillable tanker while you're still leveling?

Only to a degree; the early ones typically will send you after a particular villain group; Natural gets Council, Magic gets CoT, Tech gets Clockwork etc. You'll be offered new contacts as you develop or outlevel the old ones; frequently you'll be offered a choice of 2-4 contacts to choose from.

While there's overlap in the early levels with multiple contacts offering a given badge mission later on things change; with most contacts having unique arcs. There's really no way you're going to see everything in one time through the game but some arcs are really worth doing.

Once you hit 15 I'd suggest going to Faultline for Jim Trembor's (or whatever his name is) arc as that's a well written and fun series of contacts and arcs in the 15-25 range. For the 20's Striga Island is a good place to head, the arcs there will see you to 30.

Croatoa is another good series of arcs in the 25-35 range. Founder's Falls has contacts with nice arcs for the 30-40 range and of course there's Tina MacIntyre in Peregrine Island for the first part of the Praetorian War from 40-45 and Maria Jenkins for the second part from 45-50 (A Hero's Hero). Every one of my high level characters I've played the Tina & Maria arcs; they're some of my favorite arcs.

Here's a listing of most of the story arcs heroside.

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Oops, I forgot about the Freakolympics, a great mid-20's arc that starts in Independence Port with Marvin Weintraub; it's something everyone should do at least on one character.