Dr Harmony

Has anyone tried the ATO proc in Whirling Hands? It seems pretty ideal in terms of recharge, and not needing a target to activate.

If so, does it work if you don't have any targets in range, and just trigger the power before combat?

The Hollows!

My first character ever was a Fire/Fire Blaster. After terrorising the criminals of Atlas Park I got directed to the Hollows, and nearly quit the game. It suddenly seemed to jump from manageable encounters to taking on groups of ten trolls (including bosses) at once, and thus dying repeatedly.
I was so relieved to discover Kings Row.

It is one of those cool arcs, along with Striga, Croatoa and Faultline, that tend to get forgotten about. It's always cool to run one of these after a long break. But I do miss the old ultra-hard Hollows, in a kind of perverse way.

In terms of damage output it's completely middle of the pack.

Tier 1, Tier 2, shorter range Tier 3 Blast and two area attacks with damage scalars of around 1. Standard Snipe and Nuke damage.

Animation times are pretty standard, with Energy Torrent the nice and fast outlier for the set.

The good news is that all atacks can do knockback, so you have some very nice built-in damage mitigation for free in terms of animation time and end cost. This can be disruptive on teams if you play badly, but if you know what you're doing it helps the team. If you're lucky, they appreciate it too.

The bad news is that there's no dedicated hard mez, like Tesla Cage, Cosmic Burst or Freeze Ray. You'll really feel this in that you can't fully shut down a Tsoo Sorceror with his hurricane up, for example.

Since IO sets, you get a few options that other blast sets dont. Boost your damage using the Explosive Strike damage procs, or add the Force Feedback recharge proc into your AoEs for a fairly common recharge boost as you fight, thus boosting your damage via more frequent Build Up.

I find it pairs best with sets that don't provide much personal damage mitigation of their own. Energy Blast/Force Field is definitely overkill. Energy Blast/Sonic Resonance was much nicer, since you sometimes need the knockback to protect yourself.
If you lay down patches (eg Sleet, Liquefy) then Energy Blast can be good if you're capable enought ot push enemies on to them, bad if you arent as you'll knock them off the patch.

A practical tip for making a more muscular looking women's arms:

Use the Witch gloves set to black and the Barbarian Leather shoulder piece also set to black. The end result looks like a woman with solid biceps wearing black opera gloves.

Lighter colours tend to reveal the trick you're using, which limits your costume options, but this can work if you really dont wan't the default skinny girl arms.

Detonation has it covered in terms of the actual enhancement values.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Detonation

Positron's (like Decimation and Touch of Death/Makos) is the expensive set with the proc and some very good set bonuses.

Detonation is the cheap set with no proc but very nice frankenslotting values, like Thunderstrike and Crushing Impact. The difference is, Thunderstrike and CI have good set bonuses too, and Detonation doesn't.

Detonation gets a Debt Protection (lol!) and sleep reduction (equally worthless), two minor resistance bonuses (1 star out of 5) and the least popular positional defence: AoE (2 stars maybe?)

If Detonation had something like:

2 +1.65% Sleep resistance (as is)
3 +1.88% Energy Resistance (as is)
4 +2% Damage (anything but debt protection!)
5 + 2.5% AoE Def (Two nice final bonuses, copied from Razzle Dazzle)
6 + 2.5% Melee Def

it would be popular. Against Posi's, it then offers the usuaal recharge vs defence option, and would balance nicely against Thunderstrikes in your single target attacks in terms of covering positional defences.

I'll often drop one of the Arachnos or Carnie missions if I've just done the other one. I thinK i may have dropped the Council/Maelstrom one with the poorly marked objectives once or twice.

I'll run One Good Spider if Ive assembled a good team - its epic and fun and really well put together, and its always fun guiding a team through it in character.

Solo, I'll often go for The Usual Suspects just to get it over with.

The search function can tell you if there are still midlevel characters on your server at your regular playtime.

I play on Virtue during the offpeak hours (Aussie evenings) and there's plenty of teaming and mid-level characters around.

On my own IO'd out super-incarnate I tend to run level 50 hero tips fairly regularly, and often do blanket invites on broadcast or global channel for anyone to join me - I dont mind having people along for a quick powerlevel. I've also had others do the same for me on more than one occasion.
Either doing this or running an XP-earner, I can usually whip up a decent sized team within ten minutes, even at maintenance time.

So teaming is as healthy as ever from what I've seen. Joining a global channel helped a lot - that makes it much easier to find teammates.

With permadom levels of Recharge, I find that whenever Power Bolt is recharged, so too is something better like Power Push or Power Blast, or in your case Lift.

I'd also stick with Bone Smasher.

I think Time's Juncture could easily be skipped on a Controller.

Ive taken it on my Mind/Time but rarely turn it one, since anything that isn't moving doesn't need the defensive debuffs which this applies, and I'm playing mostly from range.

By all means do it.

Its not hard to come up with an alternative idea for a character who (possibly) changes shape and uses light as a weapon.

If you enjoy it, play it. Roleplaying is not about telling other people they are wrong, so my advice is to ignore those who tell you that you shouldn't play a (conceptually) non-Khelidan Warshade or PeaceBringer (game mechanic archetype).

Thanks for that second opinion, Dr.

I've decided to go with a Corrupter for the heavier scourging Rain of Fire, and will just have to tolerate the wait for Sleet until 35. Should be an interesting ride - like a Blaster who can boost team survivability, but not my own so much.

I'm not a fan of the iTrials, and found the Weekly Task Force system as it is pretty good as an alternative. I did the trials for a while, but ended up unlocking my Destiny slot by turning shards and Notices into threads to purchase iXP, and then crafted the tier 2 power so far using the same method. I havent even used the SSA's to get threads, although I could have done that too as a top-up.

But, I'm sticking to the one incarnated character, and dont mind taking my time.

Shards and Threads could be merged now, I agree. Give 50's occasional thread drops from normal content instead of the current occasional shard drops. Currently, notices are useful because they break down to either shards or threads, but merge those two currencies and you could replace them with just 40 threads for 50's on the Weekly task force. A none iTrial incarnate then uses to build their components and powers from.

I've never found another character knowing my name (particularly my public superhero name) to be that immersion-breaking, and certainly not worthy of number one on a list like this.

What I find much worse is for someone's first act towards me to be to tell me off for this, either in character or out of character.

I can understand if I've just walked up to a stranger in Atlas Park and adressed them by name that something's a bit out. I don't do that (unless it says in their bio that they endorse a range of breakfast cereal on TV, or are a famous pop-star, or whatever).

But, I've had this happen to me over supergroup comm-link, or when meeting turning up with someone to meet a friend of theirs, and other situations where it's quite reasonable and innocuous to say "Hello, Dan" or whatever their name is. When this happens I've moved on and its often been all good afterwards, but inside it makes me wish I hadn't bothered.

So, if this is a pet peeve of yours, count to ten and do a mental check on how you're talking to this other character before smacking someone down for it if they've made the effort to engage you.

Meanwhile, in the world in which our characters live, the Council and Sky Raiders mass produce autonomous robots that can walk or fly around by themselves and fight independently. They also speak and respond to verbal commands. WHile both groups have access to good hardware and research, neither could be considered field-leaders.
Nemesis, who is a one-off genius, has been doing this since the early 20th century, and seems to have perfected some kind of machine/human interface.

All of these are mass produced AIs that we casually destroy in their 100s. Stands to reason that a special unique AI like a player character could be more advanced.

Folding@home isn't really a relevant point of reference, is it?

It was Energy Blast, until I discovered Dominator Energy Assault, which combines cosmic blasting with cosmic punching all in one set.

I'm a stickler for having the right badge, just for the name.

My latest character is a magician's assistant - I ran the Terra Volta respec twice to get "Assistant".

An old Force Field Defender of mine had a permanent force field 10cm from her skin, so arresting 100 family bosses was a priority to get "Untouchable".

I did the "Enterprenuer" day job for another character, and so on.

Yeah, 10-12 is probably not bad. I know that pretty much anyone can get to 20 in an evening now via Death from Below, but some characters will still take a week or more to get there.

It used to be that if you made a speedster (which is often a defining attribute of a character) you had to wait till 14 to get the key power, now its level 4.

Are there any primaries or secondaries where the defining ability doesn't really kick in until the 20s? I can't really think of any. Some late bloomer sets like Kinetics or Trick Arrow have the best powers later on, but with both you're doing Kinetic or Trick Arrow-y things right from level 1.

OK, Im sold on unlocking Tier 1 epics at level 12. That way a melee-er can at least throw fire or sonic scream, even if its not hugely effective and just tags runners. Maybe put later Tiers in the 20s?

I'd be wary of giving access to epics straightaway, like letting a Blaster have Scorpion Shield/Ice Armour as their first pick.
Black Canary could easily go a couple of issues of Birds of Prey without screaming, that's what level 12 unlock would represent.
In the context of the JLA, she may rely on her scream more and be a comparatively less powerful fighter, so make her a Sonic/Energy Blaster and she's screaming and punching from day 1, but more vulnerable to the sort of threats the JLA face and less likely to stand toe to toe?


Either way, this is nitpicking about the first couple of hours of a characters career while agreeing on what happens in the next 50 hours.
Wider range of epics, and earlier unlocks would be very cool.

Fire/Dark sounds like a really good idea.
Dark Miasma was my first support set, and I really liked it for the solo and team usefulness. It may get a bit end heavy, but for a new player who isnt racing through everything at breakneck speed, that doesnt matter.

I like this idea a lot.

I think the best way to do it would be to lower the entry level for epic power pools again, and to add more epic power pools to cover the concept bases.

Eg add Sonic Mastery as a clone of Blaze Mastery for Melee-ers - a couple of single target attacks, Screech, Howl and a low damage Sirens Song, with maybe -7% res debuff at most per attack. Now you can have your Black Canary.

The pros to this approach:

You're only picking up one "tertiary" powerset, making balancing easier.
You're restricting conflicts between primary secondaries and tertiaries, eg Blasters, Corrs and Defenders dont get the Sonic Mastery above.

You're not picking up a tertiary pool and an epic power set, eg we dont need to consider Blasters picking the Lesser Invulnerability pool AND an epic shield.

The question is, which level to open these pools?
24 seems a good choice, you dont unlock anything else then and players are still picking through their primary and secondary. Let the Tier 2 and 3 unlock at 30 and 35 maybe?

The patron arcs present a problem still. But add enough epics (not patrons) that people dont have to go redside to get Scorpion Shield, or villains dont need to do an arc to get the powersets they wnat unless they want to.

[QUOTE=plainguy;4096164]@Ohmyn

The one issue I have is dreadful wail because it drains you of endurance and prevents you from recovery for a short period of time. I don't think FS or popping a blue will give you endurance during this time period. Its not that long but I can see you popping DW and then dropping dead.

[\QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure that Dreadful Wail just applies a large -Recovery, and not some special inability to regain endurance from any source. Popping a blue and Transference will both give you energy back immediately. It used to, way back when I played a Kinetics defender, and I dont believe that's changed.

I highly recommend Defender nukes with Kinetics for a number of reasons:
- You can boost your own damage making it much more worthwhile.
- You can recover a full bar of endurance immediately afterwards with one blue and Transference.
- You dont have any toggles that are keeping your team alive, like say Force Field or Sonic, where you risk stunning/holding allies by dropping your Dispersion.

If the nuke has a stun attached, like Dreadful Wail, all the more reason to take it. If any Defender should take their nuke, this is it.

If you are solo-ing, and a pesky Elite Boss defeats you, you can use the single target Confuse to rebuild Domination before alerting them.

Never skip this power anyway, but this is just one more reason not to skip it.

I'd skip Telekinesis and Mass Hypnosis if anything. On a Dominator with a different secondary from Psi, Levitate is less useful.

I enjoyed my Rad/EM Blaster for this reason - stacking the stuns in the melee attacks with Cosmic Burst.

Between that and Power Thrust I was usually able to take on bosses without them ever getting a shot off.

Run in, Power Thrust to send them flying, Cosmic Burst as they fly away, then punch them again before they got up. Then just keep punching until they go down.

Ooh, I hadnt thought of that! Does Heat loss potentially provide enough recovery to overcome the post-nuke penalty? I'd been planning to skip Inferno, maybe not...

I've been looking at the numbers for rain powers in Red Tomax and they seem a bit odd.

Ice Storm does the same damage for Blasters, Corrupters and Defenders.
Rain fo Fire does the same damage for Blasters and Corrupters, but about 65% for Defenders.

Did the devs give Defenders a special Defender-scale pet for Rain of Fire? If so, its abit odd that Defender Ice Sotrm now does more damage than Defender Rain of Fire.
And if this is right, it may be enough to make me roll this character as a Corrupter instead. But then I have to wait till 35 for Sleet, and the shields are poorer. Decisions, decisions...

Can anyone confirm this about Defender Rain of Fire?

I'd imagine that most characters would have a hard time between 19 and 21 if you didn't slot any enhancements in their powers. Not just Dominators.

It costs around 200,000 inf at most, and takes all of five minutes. I'm pretty sure that you'd gain those five minutes back several times over in the speed you'd gain in making those levels.

Why are you not doing this, dug?