Dr Harmony

The best times I have on my Tanker (Electric/MA) are where I can ignore my own health bar, despite being surrounded by +3 enemies, and focus on the team's health bars.

I take it for granted that I'm in no danger, and play Melee Controller, peeling enemies off anyone in danger so they can do the bulk of the damage. Once a group is mainly down, I jump off to the next and keep up a good fast pace.

The worse times I have are when my own survivability comes into question via Psi or Toxic damage, or my taunting gets saturated. (Imagine a Controller who could only hold 17 enemies, and once they were held further mezzes had no effect. Thats what Tankers get currently.)

I'd join the suggestion to boost a Tanker's survivability and taunting ability. If I want good defences and good damage, I can roll a Brute or Scrapper.

My advice would be to make sure its obviously in character, and not too nuanced or ambiguous.
If you're referring to other people as "organic weaklings" or "fleshies" or whatever its fairly obvious you're not talking out of character.

Personally, I find it much more annoying when someone keeps breaking character to say "((im a nice guy really, im just rping a jerk))". If you have to do that, I'd suggest putting a line in your bio saying that any egotistical behaviour is in character and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

And Rodion, I really wouldn't advocate letting another player get defeated just because they were roleplaying in a way you didn't like. That is actually being a jerk in my opinion. As a player, I value just about anyone who'll talk to me in character during missions. As a superhero, I'm not going to let someone get hurt because I dont agree with them, when I'm perfectly capable of arguing back to them whilst still protecting them.

I'd boost single target damage.

I'd up the base damage of single target attacks, probably on a set-by-set basis, giving bigger bonuses to sets without any area damage.
I was going to say I'd up the brawl index, but my experience is mostly with Martial Arts and Energy Melee, so I dont have a feel for what Stalker area attacks can do.

BU + Assassin's Strike should be able to take out any reasonable leiutenant (say up to +2), and reduce a reasonable boss's health below half.

I'd probably lower the interrupt time and animation time fo Assassin's Strike too.

I played my 50 MA/SR Stalker on a tips team the other day, and felt very useless. Getting into position and taking down the worse threat with AS was not fast enough, the team were blasting everything by then. I didn't feel like I was taking down bosses much faster than anyone else, despite devoting everything in my build to single target damage.

I fele the developers are overly cautious about single target damage.
Soloing through a mission consisting mostly of single lieutenants without risk is already possible for anyone with a control power. Assassin's Strike level of damage is still negligible against real hard targets like AVs. Taking down a single boss quickly is equivalent to ten minions in XP< which area effect characters can do effortlessly.

The cocky speedster?
The sarcastic lady's man archer?
Either of the women, who are both psychics with healing powers?

I couldn't care less really. None of them have ever engaged my imagination in the slightest.

Another vote for Blasters here.

Neutrino Bolt and X-Ray Eyes have the same animation times for all archetypes, but hit harder (after AT modifiers even) on Blasters.
The secondary effect isn't much to write home about - Defenders and Corrupters would get much more mileage out of Dark or Sonic Blast.

I've got a high level Rad/Energy Blaster who turned out very successfully, due to the combination of good area damage and the ability to stack stuns on problem targets while dishing out a single-target beating.

I'd definitely recommend this combo.

1. I've played both and gone Tri-Form in each case, but found that as I levelled I spent more and more time just in human form.

2, 3. The main thing wrong with both types is the lack of fluid shapechanging. The animations to change are needlessly long, meaning you often respond too late.

"Theres a bunch of enemies grouped together! NOVA!"
Grrrnnnn! Shiiiift...
"Nuts! Theyve moved!"

This, plus the way your shields and damage aura and so on detoggle, means a shift back to human takes even longer.

I found that levelling, the forms got left behind. Desgining the class from scratch, I'd have additional powers that could be unlocked by the forms as you level up rather than getting everything at levels 6 and 20. At level 6, Nova is matchless in terms of firepower, by the 40s it's distinctly average.
Peacebringer's new Light Form will make this even worse I imagine, in that it very much obsoletes Dwarf Form.

4. The human forms work pretty well as is I find.

5. VEATS are much easier to play. Toggle on buffs and armour and go in guns blazing. They're a straightforwards reqwarding play experience of being stacking mini-tankmages.
Kheldians have the potential to be exciting and very unique, but are let down by the animation times of the shapechanging.

The realistic changes I'd suggest at this point:

1) Shorten the animation times for shifting
2) Allow toggles to keep running in forms (costing no end and having no effect, but still on)
3) Allow the forms to tie to different costume slots as an alternate animation of some other option. Let us design our own brick and artillery forms.

I think a properly balanced Ranged/Armor archetype would be a great idea.

As people have pointed out, you can already have them via epic archetypes or Force Field or Traps Defenders, and they don't over-balance the game.

The power sets for both primary and secondary already exist, so balancing would not require set-by-set fine tuning, but more a case of getting the archetype scalars for damage and defence right.

So looks like its a lot of return in terms of new concepts that players can make, for relatively little developer time.

[EDIT] Rangle - Eldagore mentions Tankmages in his original post. He points out that he's not asking for something overpowered, but balanced, so as not to tread on Blaster's or Scrapper's, or anyone else's toes.

Cool. I like the use of Knockdown procs. Was the Pounding Slugfest stun proc the one that used to have ridiculously low stats (2% chance of Mag 1 stun or something?) and has it been fixed now?
An odd alternative is the Supefy Knockback proc in there, just for fun, although you'd lose a smidgin of Regeneration that way.

I would replace the Kinetic Combat D/E/R's with D/R's.
You're underslotted for damage in most attacks, including Assassins' Strike.
You probably won't need the extra endurance reduction with Energy Drain.
The D/R's are considerably cheaper.

I agree.

The animations for those early attacks have put me off making a Superstrength character several times recently. Brawl and Smite are excellent alternatives.

My first level 50 Tanker was Dark/Energy Melee after the nerf to Energy Transfer and Total Focus.

I'd picked Energy Melee for stacking stuns and for the visuals (along with a sparkly aura I had a very space-y look.) and wasn't really disappointed with either. The damage wasn't great, particularly the area damage, but I was survivable, could keep two or three bosses stuns at times, and generally got the job done, either solo or on teams.

If I'd played Energy Melee with a 1 second Energy Transfer and Mag 4 Total Focus I'd probably have felt that all the time, but never having experienced them I didn't miss them too badly.

Stone Melee is probably much more effective, and if I'd played that I might have felt sub-par.

If I didn't have a damage aura I might have got frustrated at my poor area damage even more.

So I guess it can be worth it, depending on your expectations. It certainly allows you to tank and to dish out damage at an acceptable pace for a low damage archetype.

I'd say it is a weak set.
Its the only blast set without a Tier 3 blast. Voltaic Sentinel is nice enough, but doesn't contribute for the lack of burst damage you lose by not having Cosmic Burst/Power Burst etc. On a Blaster, this is a bit of a detriment, because burst damage is one of your survival tools.

The end drain works well if you have both Power Sink and Short Circuit, ie you've gone double electric and hit level 36. (My first 50 was a double elec in fact.) But if you just have the Electric primary you're unlikely to drain anything before you kill it, which will take slightly longer than on other sets due to the lack of a Tier 3 blast.
Electric/Energy falls just short of sapping most enemies using Power Boost and Short Circuit. I found that a very dissappointing combination.

Having two non-cone area attacks is a plus if you dont like lining up cones.

Its not unplayable by any means, just a bit weaker than average with almost all combinations.

I'd go with magic.

A God who's allowing his devoutest followers to create flames out of nowhere and bend the flow of time is magic. He's obviously not a direct translation of the deity that real life Christians believe in, but a superhero universe translation of the same being.

Yeah. When it was first announced it got a bit of mockery on the forums for being a "Rocking the Aura" power, and I have to admit I was a bit dubious about it.
After playing it, I realised that the beauty of it is that it takes zero animation time. You're constantly healing yourself at a low-ish rate while fighting, running away, moving to the next group or whatever, and breaking sleep on any allies nearby with the Corrupter version. You don't cause redraw by using it, as my latest Beam Rifle/pain character can attest. I think its one of the gems of the Pain set.

I did this ages ago on my Mind/Radiation Controller:

/bind 1 "powexecslot 1$$powexecauto Hasten"
/bind 2 "powexecslot 2$$powexecauto Accelerate Metabolism"

Which meant that as I fought (using the 1 and 2 keys as some of my main single target powers) my auto power would change, and probably fire off both of them as they recharged, as long as I didn't button mash too wildly. Between combats, quickly pres 1 or 2 to set the one you think will come up next as auto.

In Wentworths or social situations, pressing either key twice makes the auto power deactivate.

Its not perfect, but it works quite well.

Cool build.

If I may make a few suggestions:

1) I like the use of Kinetic Crash for the big recharge bonus. But wouldn't it be better off in Power Bolt, since it reduces the damage of the power its slotted in? Then again, maybe with the big two (TF +ET) you're not relying on Power Burst for damage like I do.

2) Volcanic Gasses could give you an extra +7.5% recharge if you slot it 4 Basilisks and the Lockdown proc. I cant quite remember what you'd be losing (+3% Damage?, some AoE defence?) but youre missing the big ranged defence bonus from Lockdown anyway, so I'd switch if it was me.

3) The Build Up proc in Decimation works kind of nicely as a replacement for the A/E/R piece in a blast you regularly use. You'll probably have enough end, recharge and accuracy anyway to skip it. I imagine it's even better if you have the big two (TF + ET) to fire off during the build up when it activates. I have my damage bonus on the combat attributes monitor and often notice it going off.

Yeah, Primal Forces complements this combo really well due to the low AoE in the actual sets. I feel this every time I exemplar.

One thing I found was that I had no endurance worries at all until I picked up Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast, at which point I was very glad to have Conserve Power as a precursor.

I havent tried Energy Transfer because I didn't have enough slots to dedicate to it. How did you find the endurance cost, DarkCurrent, and also how did you cope with the self-damage? Was that significant or did natural regeneration heal it back easily enough?

It is personal preference, for sure.

I find a Archery/Energy Blaster played as a bow-wielding martial artist like Connor Hawke much more believable than a Willpower tanker who's just a tough normal guy but can stand in the middle of a pack of 20 nazis with machine guns and grenades and somehow survive.
The fact that one powerset name suggests energy powers and the other just suggests sheer guts doesnt tie in with what the two characters actually do in game.

For the circus hypnotist type character - Mind Control would work pretty well, right? Its not too flashy and even has the "you are getting sleepy" hand movements for Confuse. I guess, as you say, the problem is finding a secondary.
( I made a Mind/Sonic natural telepath once who "numbs" or amplifies other peoples sensory input to do the -res/+res powers, but she was very science-fictiony. )

I guess what I'm asking is, what do you imagine these secondaries doing, and what archetypes are they secondaries for? Do you have any examples of the kind of sets you'd like to see?
We've already got a few flavours each of guns, bow, gadgets and martial arts. What else could a natural human do to compete in a superhuman world?

Energy Melee for mele-ers and Energy Manipulation for Blasters both work for me for non-powered characters.

The visual FX are no more "real" than than the green numbers over people's heads when I hit them, or the way my head glows different colours when I dig deep into my reserves. (ie Inspirations) And they can probably be toned down a lot.

Tsoo Ink Men use it, and they can be considered to be primarily martial artists with a bit of magic.

Buff/debuff sets are pretty thin on the ground, I agree. Arachnos Soldiers work well for that though - one of my favourite non-powered characters was a gun-toting leader played as a Huntsman build.

I remember the earning/cost of enhancement curve from when I first played in issue 5. I had some trouble buying DO's and had to modify my behaviour to sell regularly and monitor my drops, deleting any TOs that dropped so I could hold the DOs. Between level 22 and 32 I had a very hard time not letting my enhancements expire. After that point I suddenly had more influence than I could spend.

Its a very discouraging curve.

What happens if you log on with an existing level 50 and play with your wife? Does she get level 50 recipe drops? Because the generic IO ones are worth about 100,000 each, or 3 SOs. If you cant directly trade her money, you could do that, even if it means logging her in when she isnt there and letting her doorsit with XP turned off.

Heres what I ended up with:

1 Power Bolt 9 17 17 23 25 Thunderstrike
1 Fossilise 3 7 15 Basilisk's Gaze
2 Bonesmasher 3 7 15 19 Crushing Impact/Hecatomb
4 Power Push 5 5 9 19 Decimation
6 Hover LotG +Rech
8 Stone Cages 43 43 46 46 Grav Anchor
10 Hasten 11 11 Rech
12 Stalagmites 13 13 25 27 27 Stupefy
14 Fly Zephyr -KB
16 Salt Crystals 37 37 37 40 Call of Sandman/Fortunata Hypnosis
18 Earthquake Achilles -Res
20 Whirling Hands 21 21 23 Eradication
22 Boxing Stupefy KB?
24 Tough 31 42 42 42 43 5 Imp Skin + Glad Armour Def IO
26 Volcanic Gasses 29 29 31 Basilisks Gaze
28 Combat Jumping LotG 7.5
30 Weave 31 34 36 36 36 RF + LotG
32 Stone Golem 33 33 33 34 34 Expedient Reinforcement
35 Conserve Power Rech IO
38 Power Burst 39 39 39 40 40 Thunderstrike
41 Energy Torrent 45 45 45 46 Positron's
44 Explosive Blast 48 48 48 50 Positron's
47 Temp Invuln 50 50 +Res IO x2, Steadfast Res/+Def IO
49 Power Boost +Rech

This nets me +108.75% global recharge (very comfortable perma Dom with Hasten) and over 30% ranged defence in the air.

If you take Teleport I guess you could still take Hover, or Combat Jumping. I find I tend not to fight with Hover on these days, because it stops Stalagmites from working quickloy and properly, even with a bind to drop to the ground first, but Hover is very useful with teleport.

I never took Total Focus. The damage, activation time and endurance cost are all double that of Bonesmasher, so I figured I gained very little from it. I don't need the Stun like I do on my Blaster.

Power Push is brilliant. If you havent got Domination up and need space to deal with a boss, its 100% knockback with a 1 second animation time. I use it often in my attack chain, which is why it gets Decimation, for the Build Up proc.

Whirling Hands is underslotted for damage. But Musculature makes up for that. While levelling, you can replace the Acc/Rech with a damage IO if you like for better damage, as it will be your only AoE until epics.

I'll leave you to figure out what to do with the Psi epic pool, and what to replace Fighting with if you're not after personal defence.