Fomsie

How will this affect your PvP builds? If you run staminaless currently, the benefits will be obvious, but if you already have the fitness pool, what will you replace it with?

I use Ninja Run on any characters with a really tight build. Really saves on slots/pool choices, plus it is usable at level 4! Actually, I now use it on any character that I don't have a concept/rationale for an actual travel superpower.

I would agree with the previous statement of "Best ten bucks I have spent on the game".

Hmm, used to be Stalkers, but with GR I am loving and actually leveling my KM/WP stalker.

Defenders, not that I dislike them so much, just that I started the game with villains and still prefer Corruptors.

Controllers, same as above but with Dominators.

I'd have to say MMs and HEATs. Just cannot get into them or the playstyle. I even got a PB to around level 34 ish but it was all labor, no love. She was dumped on Infinity to open up a character slot during the January free server transfers.

Well, so far my only Praetorian character has been a KM/WP Stalker and I have to say, aside from some of the ambushes, I have really liked it thus far for the most part.

The set is fun, though some of the attacks seem a bit weak, though that could just be the resists of certain mobs. On the whole though it works very well and I soloed all of the Resistance: Crusader story arcs with virtually no difficulty. Sitting at level 19.5 now and just collecting the exploration/history/defeat badges before hitting 20 and heading to Primal Earth.

Well, first, welcome to PvP and have fun.

Second, don't mind the short and sometimes terse responses, it's not that people don't want you to succeed with a certain AT/Powerset, it's just that since i13 PvP has been kinda borked so that there are very few "successful" choices these days.

Now, in most zone and team arena matches, your Brute is not going to seem very brutish. Your main role will not usually be smacking people around but it will instead be more of a disruption/controller type of role. That is why taunt and some form of -speed/-fly/-jump/immobilize power will be your main functions.

Things you will want to do: Slot set bonuses and get your accolades for the most HP you can eke out without gimping yourself otherwise. +recharge is helpful for your self heal and to speed up your taunt and immobilize. You will ideally want to get KB protection slotted up to around 41 points to prevent folks with dedicated KB attacks from keeping you on your keister. Even though everything gets hit with Diminishing Returns, you still want to keep your resists up.

For power pools you will want Speed and will live with SS on in most cases, as well as leaping for when you need vertical movement and for the KB bonus of acrobatics(Though you will obviously not want to be jumping around as much as an /Elec.). You will probably want the fitness pool if for nothing else but a place to slot some regen bonus IOs. After that a pool that gives some form of perception(Leadership) or a PPP that gives focused accuracy. Though also be sure that your APP/PPP also gives you one of the Immobs (Mace Mastery gives both Web Envelope and Focused accuracy).

Pick up a good attack chain of powers(remember to take taunt!) but be aware that AoE attacks are generally less effective in PvP than in PvE. Also, realize that PvP taunt DOES need accuracy.

Now, for 1 on 1 arena "Fiteklub" toe to toe style fighting, you can get away with being a lot more of a typical brute playstyle and you can make better use of the endurance sapping abilities of your powersets. But you will probably still want taunt(it cuts down range by 75%) and the immobilize attack.

I'm no expert by far, but that has been my experience with brutes/tanks in PvP. I am sure I forgot something, but that is the basic gist.

Good luck, have fun.

Best of my knowledge, you can only do one Patron's story arc. What was changed a while back was the ability to change patron pools when you respeced. It used to be that whichever patron you chose, that was the power pool you were stuck with.

I love the new Bruising ability, it seems to help a lot in my experience thus far.

I would not be opposed to a modification of the Tanker special though that would work kind of like the one the Defenders got. An increase in damage done while solo that diminishes into more agro control with a group... even explainable too, while alone or with just one or two, you can go all out on your opponents worrying only about defeating your foe, but when working with a larger group you tend to keep an eye on your less resilient allies, interposing your implacable form between them and harm.

All non weapon blast/ranged powers having a choice of origin points... eyes, chest, double arm, single arm, head, etc.

All device type powers (Medecine Pool, Traps, Devices) having non tech options/graphics... a mystical/mutant web spell, a floating eye(observer?) or energy sphere for targeting drones, a syringe or magic wand for aid self/other, etc.

A non gun fu pistol set...

The patch notes say we get them, but for the life of me I cannot find them anywhere on new or old characters, male or female models. Anyone know what the deal is with these?

Yes I have the complete collection so I should have all the goodies.

Great work over all this time, St0n3y! Thanks for helping me waste away many many hours tinkering with builds!

Only thing I would point out is the accolades tab, they still say "hero or villain" based on the AT. Any way to get them merged so that they read with a / so it would be hero accolade/villain accolade?

For ease of play with what you have, I would say use the spines/regen scrapper.

Get used to the game again with a toon that can kick a lot of butt without too much in the way of endurance issues. Then toy with other ideas.

Fortunately, we were able to steal a few of the Praetorian Clockwork to clean up all of the Geritol spills after the gathering of the oldsters...

I know it is an unloved set, but for solo work I love my Energy/Pain Corr. All the KB helps a ton.

Yeah, KM is making me want to actually play a stalker that I might stick with past the 20s...

Aww, all those oldsters at the "Shady Cape" Hero retirement home are so cute when they get together and remember to put their teeth back in argue about who had the bigger enemy... the Third Reich... the Redcoats... the Roman Empire... or in Jack's case, the city of Ur...

Well, maybe some of use younger folks who still have spandex that is form fitting and not dangling from our arms like patagia can show up and help push the wheelchairs around while they relive past glories and make "whooshing" sounds and pretend they are flying...

Yeah, they really screwed the pooch with the base/SG access when changing factions. Could have had a vast amount of base driven RP opened up... and psst, SWG is still around for JUST that reason.

Grr, I am just annoyed because honestly, almost all of GR is disappointing me, but the whole promised faction switching seems to have been totally ham handed.

Usually the worst PUGs I have been on are not bad because of players with odd builds or lack of experience, but instead with a "know-it-all" player who insists on trying to micromanage everyone elses characters and how they "should" play them. Aside from sucking the fun out of the experience, people like this almost always tend to "know" a hell of a lot less than they like to think.