Diellan_

[ QUOTE ]
Seconded. Especially to the longbow diversification.

[/ QUOTE ]
You mean Legacy Chain Proliferation? Wait... They're being added to the Hollows, aren't they. So even enemy groups are being proliferated? It'd be rather amusing to see a mission in the late 30s heroside where you have to clean up all those Wailers who just got lured over there (just like how one of my favorite bits in CoV is where you cause the Outbreak plague).

I'll totally agree on the villain enemy group issues. It's especially nasty for my Electric Armor Brute who turns into a Papercraft Armor Brute the moment more than one Nullifier looks in his direction (why oh why is their debuff unresistable?)... I would love to see Longbow get a different Lieutenant to spice it up, and for the sheer number of Longbow missions to drop, proportionally. We barely see any Malta and Carnies (pity, my Electric Armor Brute has all kinds of payback waiting for them on behalf of my heroside toons), the Devouring Earth are pretty much nonexistant, and even if we can't go to the Shadow Shard, it'd be great to be able to go back to Technician Naylor again for 45-50 Rularuu stuff.

I also wouldn't mind something analogous to the Portal Corp missions. These are, in my mind, some of the most ideal team missions in the game: you've got a ton of missions, most of them with an AV, and they're all in safe and convenient place for a team with lowbies on it. Yes, I know this makes it ideal for farming and powerleveling, but god it's frustrating trying to bring my wife's lowbie Corruptor with my level 50 on his missions, since most of these are in Grandville and she's bound to die three or four times just getting there (I try to escort her, but with the lag and constant "oh noes I moved 5' too far to the right and now I'm in the Gutter", that becomes more hassle than it's worth).

I actually rather like Hardcase. He adds depth to what is otherwise a rather one-dimensional view of the Rogue Isles ("hey, look, there're actual people in the Rogue Isles and not just caricatures of Snidely Whiplash"). You've got the crazies psychopaths and the people who are out for themselves, but I find it hard to believe that there isn't a single person in the lot who doesn't think "you know what, rampaging demons all over the city might not be a good idea", or, you know, somebody who actually thinks killing folks might be a bad idea. My main villain is one of those crazy idealist types who is trying to be the defender of humanity, but thinks the best way to do it is to go the Rikti route and destroy all magic users and anybody who worships a god... He's going to go out of his way to help Hardcase out, but in the end, he's pretty darn evil.

I completely agree with the other end, though, in that you spend 50 levels being someone else's lackey. Villains are supposed to be proactive, we've been told this from the beginning, but outside of the newspaper/mayhem missions, we don't see that.

For the record, my Level 50 Energy/Energy Blaster has come -this- close (had her down to about 20% life) to successfully beating Black Swan using inspirations (but no Shivan or temp powers). If I had been something disgustingly overpowered like Ice/EM or Fire/EM, I'd've done it. I stopped trying when I got into I11 closed beta and then got distracted by the Crazy Blaster Challenge... With the buffs to Blasters (ha! you think I'd dare risk old Defiance against an AV?), the introduction of purple sets, and the fact that I just got my hands on the Archmage Accolade, I think I could finally do it.

Just saying that, yes, it is possible for a Blaster to solo an AV. Just really, really damn hard without a Shivan.

I'd have to agree with Arcanaville on this (big surprise) and say that Energy/Energy works great. My primary character for the last two and a half years is just such a blaster, and he is crazily versatile for the reasons listed. While Energy/ has a constant mez ability in Knockdown, it is unreliable against bosses due to the low magnitude of any given attack (except Power Push, but... ew), so it helps to have a secondary that can disable a boss as /Energy. And not even just Total Focus or the stacking disorients, but also the oft neglected and under-appreciated Power Thrust.

/Electric doesn't cut it nowadays, because Power Sink by itself isn't enough; /Fire has no mez; /Ice, while good controlling, isn't so hot when you have to worry about knockback; and with /Devices the web grenade nullifies knockback entirely and you can knock things out of the caltrop patch.

Then again, there aren't any primaries for which /Energy is a bad choice. Insane single target damage, good single target control, and a host of great utility powers...

A good blaster is a smart blaster.

Well, my Randomite, Null Kelvin on Pinnacle, is a really weird build. I've decided not to roll in advance, so that I can't prepare for what's coming, but here's what he's got so far:

Level 1: Lift, Ice Bolt
Level 2: Ice Sword
Level 4: Ice Sword Circle
Level 6: Challenge, from Presence

Yes, that's right, a dominator without any control. And a taunt.

I like to call him my blapper.

Just wanted to chime and say that I've taken up the call, and have a Grav/Ice Dominator (named Null Kelvin) as a result. And he doesn't have his hold power yet. It's like playing a blapper!