DrMike2000

I completely agree.

Not only does it look wrong on a typical close range modern day flame-weilding mutant type, but it also detracts from actual sword wielders because you cant tell if they're meant to be carrying a flaming sword or if they just do because the powerset has one.

I felt the same when I made a martial artist who was meant in concept to use all kick attacks. It didn't quite work because all martial artists do that in the game, whether they mean to or not.

I also completely agree there's not much that can be done about it really at this stage of the game.

I never pay any attention to theme songs.

I cant help but wonder how relevant they are to the character as opposed to how much its just a song that the player really likes at the moment.

For some reason I find the mention of a theme song a turn off. I fully acknowledge that I'm being grumpy and unreasonable in doing so though. Its a great way to encapsulate a set of feelings, moods, information etc into the small amount of space we're given in that little box.

Atlas was also favourable as it opened onto Perez Park in the middle of Hellion territory, whereas Galaxy opeend into Skull territory.

Hellions drop magic salvage, Skulls drop tech salvage. Magic salvage was an easy way to bankroll a new character back in I9.

In all seriousness, I would prefer a Force Fielder because they dont obscure everyone's costume.

The two occasions I've played with a Cold Domination ally (1 Corrupter and 1 Defender) I found the graphics for Cold strong enough to actually cause me some degree of tactical confusion.

I dont run task forces or fight AVs much though. I suspect that's where Cold comes into its strengths - it has mighty debuffs which aren't up for every group.

For rolling through PvE Invincible missions either in small or full teams, I don't miss the debuffs. Plus I'm usually bringing my own anyway.

Sounds like a 9am start for me on the weekend! >grunt!< The things we do to keep the world safe from aliens!

Thanks, Fernandes!

Cool!
What sort of time are they on?
And if I just turn up in the RWZ and listen to broadcast I should be OK?

How often are these run on Virtue? Any planned for this weekend, by any chance? Any channels I should join for this sort of thing?

I'm a bit out of the loop with these mass events since I play in Australian evenings mostly when the US is asleep.

I'm chasing the Unabashed badge to grab the RWZ beacon for my Supergroup and can offer up a number of high level heroes to help out if there is one.

I've played with one Cold Defender (and 1 Corrupter) ever in three years of playing. And most of this is on Virtue, where Defenders and Controllers are not hard to find. I don't team heaps, I often solo or duo by myself, but I have found Cold Defenders very rare.

I have no idea what Benumb or Heat Loss look like. That says something

So I'd say if you're trying to avoid FoTM, Cold is a very good place to start.

Confirming that you do need Unabashed for the beacon. Someone else in your SG could have collected it in SG Mode I guess, DJ?

Thats me pushed out of my comfort zone.

Thought as much. I had a glimmer of hope it might get excluded in the same way Egg-Hunter does for Faultline

Thanks for the quick answer.

Do you have to get the Unabashed badge (available only during ship raids because its under the ship Force Field) to unlock the beacon for the RWZ?

Or just collect all the other exploration badges?

Dark/Energy has worked really well for me - Oppressive Gloom turns all my punches into boss-level stuns.

Solos pretty well too.

I agree that Dark/Stone sounds absolutley sick though

A lot of what you're looking for comes in later.

Travel powers when they arrive at 14 are brilliant. Flight, Superspeed and Superjump are all heaps of fun the first time you get them. Teleport's a bit of an artform...
Level 14 may seem like a long way off at the beginning, but once you get the hang of the game its a blip in your characters career.

You'll be fighting streetgangs for a while, but they do get more interesting. The Tsoo (levels 15-30) are fun and use a bunch of trickier tactics like healing, teleporting, caltrops to slow you down and have a wide variety of bosses.

In the 40's you get to travel to other dimensions and cool stuff like that.

Older storylines are a bit basic and dull, newer ones are more fun. Stick throught o 15 and do the missions in Faultline for an example of the newer stuff.

Fair enough that you want to play with people you treat as real-life friends to some degree, Admiral. Different strokes and all.

From my point of view I've no idea what percentage of the playerbase is actually female. Say it was only 1 in 8. If there were no guys playing female characters, that would mean each full team had on average one female character, making the game more of a simulation of 1940's superheroes than modern teams like the X-Men, with even gender ratios.

It would make the play experience a less authentic simulation of the genre it's trying to recreate, even if the ratio was 1 in 4 female players, or anything less than half.

A virtual planet where people pretend to be magic elves, flame wielding mutants, superstrong armoured geniuses and aliens who turn into squids? And people of the opposite sex.

Its called Paragon City. Stop being so freaked out.

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I assume every superstrength tanker I meet is overweight in real life until they send me a photograph of them holding a current newspaper with their top off.

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LOL I completely agree. I assume everyone in game is a guy, but when someone is sending naughty whispers to you it makes you wonder who they really are. I get this in every mmo I've played. I doubt the ppl who do it are girls but you never know. I group with them and shrug it off. I'll let them think I believe they are a girl but I don't indulge their fantasy.

In fact someone told me to my face I was a Buzzkill last night because I refused to play into their little game.

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Actually, my point was that I dont care who someone is in real life.
I find it ridiculous that people want to verify what gender someone is on vent, for example, and so made up an example that was even sillier.
The whole game revolves around power fantasies and pretending you're someone you're not, whether its pretending you're a girl or a fearsome martial leader of a supergroup who beats up gangs of ten thugs with ease.

I assume every superstrength tanker I meet is overweight in real life until they send me a photograph of them holding a current newspaper with their top off.

I'm not a military buff by any means, and I do think a US Military presence can introduce political elements to a fantasy game, but I've got to say I loved their presence in the Shadow Shard.

I'd heard about it on the forums, how it was difficult to move around there with some travel powers, etc etc. The first time I got there on my first level 40 was just WOW! The giant force field on Firebase Zulu and the militarised presence just make it feel really serious for want of a better word, and juxtaposed nicely with the trippy Roger Dean painting nature of the zone.

It felt to me at that moment like the US/UN/World Military stay out of standard superhero business in Paragon like they stay out of police work in the real world. But, in a superhero universe, when the chips are really down, like the integrity of our dimension being threatened by an mad god, say, they've got the goods and equipment and know how to deal with it.
With a little bit of help from my character, of course

Having military presence in other zones, particularly lowbie ones, would detract from that impact.

Similarly, the military presence in the RWZ works, but Vanguard has that covered.

I certainly wouldn't mind the Shard getting a bit of a workover which would include the soldiers being upgraded to active combatants like Vanguard are in the RWZ.

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The nice thing about the defender dilemma is that there are multiple ways to fix it. We don't excel at damage, we don't excel at survivability, we don't even particularly excel at support -- but fix any one of the above, and the problem's fixed.

For my money, I'd like to see the AT modifiers tweaked to be the undisputed champions of buff/debuff. Defenders should blow controllers, corruptors, masterminds and VEATs away at everything from +recharge buffs to -recovery debuffs -- isn't buff/debuff the point of the defender archetype? Yet we don't.

Even the buff/debuff types Defenders do have a numeric advantage on, the advantage is marginal. -35% instead of -30% resistance on our Freezing Rain? Big whoop. Radiant Aura heals +134 base instead of +118? Big whoop. Fulcrum Shift on a spawn of 10 buffs damage +300% instead of +290%? Big whoop with extra bitter bitterness.

Though of course I won't let my opinion stand in the way to a change to Vigilance. My Defender inherent idea hasn't changed: recode basic inspirations to be 25' PBAoEs, affecting self if user is not a defender, or affecting self and allies if user is a defender. Voila, Defenders have a huge niche as the biggest healing/endrestoring/buffing/demezzing dynamos of the game, bar none.

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I agree.

Force Fields and Sonic works pretty well with the Defender/Controller disparity. Having either of these sets at 3/4 effectiveness is definitely noticeable without making the Controller version useless.
Even the -Res in Sonic is noticeably different: -45% on your hard target instead of -60%.

But other sets need looking at a bit more closely. Empathy, for example, gives godly buffs that are limited by recharge. If Regen Aura, Recovery Aura or Adrenalin Boost are 3/4 strength, who cares? You're still getting more endurance and health than you can use up for the duration.
But if the Recharge were increased for the Controller version, say 400 seconds for AB and 650 sec for Auras instead of 300/500, then you'd notice.

Storm comes out very badly for Defenders. Freezing Rain, as Rigel says, has little difference in the debuff, and still does Knockdown. Steamy Mist still stealths, and does have lower defensive values for Controllers, but its not the be all and end all of the set like FF/Sonic.
Thunderclap is actually better for Controllers. The damage from Lightning Storm and Tornado are the same for both.
Once again, upping the recharge on the Controller versions could be a suitable penalty for having these powers as a secondary.
Lowering the pet damage for Controller versions could also work.

Kinetics - the set's gems, Speed Boost and Fulcrum Shift, can hit the cap (on End use and +Damage) on both Defenders and Controllers. For Controllers lowering the Recharge buff to half on Speed Boost, for Fulcrum Shift, keep the 80% buff/debuff but make it come up less often again.

Radiation Emission - maybe up the end cost of the toggles for Controllers? And make AM come up less often?

BTW, I love Controllers. I've played at least ten of them to the 30s. I'm just coming up with theoretical ideas on how the gap could be closed.

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Worse, I get the feeling that a lot of the general population have forgotten that controls and debuffs are among best defenses in the game. Architect farm teams rarely, if ever, look for controllers. They just want tankers and healers. It's like the gamebase has forgotten all but those two forms of defense in this game.

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I often hear Architect teams advertising for Controllers in Atlas Broadcast on Virtue.

"Level 50 Boss AE team lfm Tanker and Controller" - that sort of thing.

Virtue always seems to have a heavier Controller/Defender playerbase than other servers Ive been on, though.

On the original topic. Ive got an Earth/Kinetics Controller on the go at the moment. He's brilliant, one of the few characters I've made a dual build with (for Ice and Fire epics just for fun). Level 42 now.

Ive just never really had any questions to ask about Earth Control though, it just seems like a really solid set. Volcanic Gasses is awesome, I dont always take AoE holds but this one is good enough for me to consider it mandatory.

I'd agree. Try a blaster. My first characters were a Fire/Fire and Elec/Elec. Energy Blast is a very good choice for starters. Knockback's fun, it looks cool and you get some good single target powers by level 6.

Blasters peak pretty early on, and give you a fast fun playstyle with good visual fx. Scrappers take longer to get into their groove somewhere in the 20s, which can be a long time for a first character.

Plus, you'll appreciate the extra surviviability if you make a scrapper second after playing a blaster.

I just have to say that Venus Fly Trap looks hilarious when used with Group Fly, toddling through the air on its little legs.

Its OK in a fight, I guess, but I still find its usefulness very much overshadowed by Carrion Creepers.

I made a speedster once (Kin/Ice) with Siphon Speed as her only travel power. It was always a problem when you hit a new zone. eg get to 20 and go to Talos and suddenly every potential target is hard to hit and dangerous if you miss.

And you will miss 1 time out of 20 no matter what, and remember those misses much better than the other 19 times the power hit. So it can seem to miss a lot.

Its worth trying out for fun, as long as you're preapred to put up with the minigame of getting from A to B sometimes.

My current Earth/Kin gets by with Inertial Reduction very well though, because its not situational.

Ive always liked Siphon Speed for its other pro - it doesnt suppress. You can pinball around in combat like a real speedster with it.

I think Stare Down is a very intriguing idea, probably because it isnt supported by the game engine currently. It makes the set more than just a clone of Energy Blast with different graphics.

How would you fire off other attacks while using it? I'm guessing the animations here are pretty minimal, just visor touching and looking rather than full body or arm swings.

So the Stare Down beam continues and the other power you trigger fires off inside that beam?

It could make for some pretty dull fights though - point, aim, watch health bars and energy bars move and make sure the right ones crash first or disengage.

Reflection is a cool idea too. I like the idea of a modifier toggle that changes other powers as they are used.

If you're not flipping or making generic IOs or anything it makes sense.

At that level you'll have a pocketful of fairly nice salvage eg Luck Charms that are worth dropping at the market, and you can either:

1) delete the recipes
2) put them up for sale and get something
3) make a detour to the store

If you're running at a fast pace through the teens and want to keep your shopping stops brief, I guess 2) makes most sense.