Jade_Dragon

You may enjoy the roller coaster ride, but Stalkers don't really have the HP to handle Regen well. I would not necessarily agree with Test Rat, but IMHO Regen is a better choice to play as a Scrapper.

And that having played both a Regen Scrapper and Stalker.

Stalkers are all about the playing style, and if you don't like it, then there's no sense forcing yourself to endure it. There's a fine balance between doing nothing but Assassin Strike over and over, waiting ten seconds between one shot kills, and scrapping so much you might as well be a Scrapper, but some people enjoy treading that line. There are things I can do as a Stalker that I can't do as a Scrapper, like stealth through an entire mission. (Well, I could, but it would take IOs)

I've found that you can usually tell where a set is going by the 20s. Past that point, there really are no suprises or sudden "oh, now this works!" moments. (Exception: for Warshades it's the 30s) I would try another Stalker, Ninjitsu if it sounds like it appeals to you, but if you reach the same point and still feel the same, don't worry about it. Stalkers are an acquired taste.

Oh, and on the topic, my Stalker isn't SR, but he's an alternate of my SR Scrapper, so I tried to follow the exact same patterns with his build. So both builds were tight because I was trying to synchronize them.

I have found that my SoA's don't appear "tight", but I'm definately getting more out of the pre-20 portion of their builds. As three of them are still racing to the magic 24 level, this has been helpful. Kheldians as well.

Basically if a "tight" build is one where I don't pick up "filler" powers (or they already didn't have Stamina) then that I think covers it. I can't remember any other examples.

BTW, my LEAST tight build? Joe Everyman, my "MAN" build. I was picking up powers I DIDN'T want. But the concept of a MAN build is that you don't take powers from your Primary and Secondary. That obviously is a lot harder now that Fitness is no longer an alternative choice. (Although opening up a Pool meant I could add Leadership to his build)

Actually, I don't understand why we have to get a power at 49. Change the level you gain the final 4 powers to 41, 43, 46 and 48. That gives you 5 slots at level 50 to put in your 48 power, and an extra you can put somewhere else.

Heck, make it 40, 42, 45 and 48. Then the progression is exactly the same as the 30's. 2 - 3 - 3 - 2.

Keep in mind that if we set the precedent now that whenever the devs add a new Inherent power, they MUST add more available slots, that makes it highly unlikely we will ever GET new Inherent powers. Previous additions like Walk and the Swap Ammo toggles have not taken slots, but that's because of the way they work. It also precludes the possiblity that Walk may someday become a combat power that could have slots added to it.

It could also be argued that if we get extra slots for Inherent Fitness, then all Vets who select the Prestige Sprints should be awarded slots for them, too.

Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes. This was brought up in the beta, but might as well keep bringing it to the attention of the devs.

My idea is a mission to steal or "borrow" the power of the Patrons. This isn't explained Villain side, maybe it could be said that a device is the mechanism behind the transfer of the Patron Powers. Then when it is, um, borrowed, either the power can be stored in the device for the character's use, or one of the heroes can "recharge" it.

This could lead to future Patrons being added as well, both some for the hero side, and even others for villain side. And of course the villains would gain these new Patrons at the same time the heroes do. (Maybe the final mission of the arc the villains steal it back after Longbow or Vanguard or whoever is done "tinkering" with it)

The idea here is that you don't exactly fight the Patrons for their powers, since some of them would be heroes, but you might fight the signature villains in the arc. I'd also like to see some pet choices that aren't Arachnos, since that's jarring to me.

Gah, yes. I always figured the reason the devs added that little tray for the Enhancements was so you could check them without going to the Enhancement screen. Being able to actually slot Enhancements or even respect from a window would be great.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who notices the moment you start doing a respec is when people start sending you tells.

The MA is a lot more recent technology, though. The Enhancement screen is probably one of the oldest things in the game. Updating it may be harder than just replacing it altogether.

I always post with the assumption that no one will ever want to reply to any of my suggestions, and I'll never get any responses at all. That way I'm always pleasantly surprised, even by the trolls.

I'd just give it time. Maybe even someday you will get a dev to reply to a post, and you can say "first post after a redname!"

BTW, anyone got any links to other threads discussing the common choices folks are making for these new one slot powers? Or is it just discussion in general over the last few weeks? Maybe I could start a new thread?

So far I haven't had any interest in making either of my two 50's an Incarnate. If any of the members of my SG start to express an interest in it, I may think about it. But at this time I'm too busy with side switching, getting some of my new SoAs to 24, and respec'ing into the new Inherent Fitness.

The one thing that I find I miss with the old Fitness is the capability to add more Auto powers to my build. I like to have a more limited selection of powers, and more attacks in particular are a problem, especially without slots. Fortunately, very few powers in the Pool are attacks, and many of them are usable with only a single slot.

I would have liked to see a Pool added to the selection to replace Fitness, with either more Auto powers, or as once suggested, the option to take more Enhancement slots. (So in other words you would get the option to place the "free" slot you get with that power somewhere else) It seems unlikely that will happen, though, or if it ever does it will likely be after several more issues.

As it is, I would point out that most people considered either Swift or Hurdle to be a wasted power choice to get Stamina, and in some cases Health was as well. So in a sense you are not getting three more power choices, you are getting one power choice and two to allow you to earn that third Pool choice. So if you look at it that way, you are no more wasting those two power picks than you were before. If you want to pick up Boxing or Kick to open up the Fighting pool, then take one of them, pull it out of your tray, and never use it again.

Another way of looking at it is that now you have the choice to slot Fitness the way you used to, or to pull slots out of them to use in your new powers. Stamina is still as useful as it used to be, but you can pick up powers like Combat Jumping or Aid Self which are just as useful to you as Hurdle or Health, and which can get those slots. They can even get those IOs if you have a set in there.

The way I see it, I'm not getting three more powers for free. I'm finally getting Fitness for free on my characters that never had it, with one slot each. If I HAD Fitness, then I now have the choice to pick up three other powers. But again, I get one slot each, because that's all my non-Fitness characters get with THEIR new powers. And that's all I really want. I don't want them to be slotted like a truly fit character would be, that's where the differences in the builds come in.

I will say that I have seen some standard choices coming up in all my respecs, Hasten, Teleport Foe/Recall Friend, and Leadership have all been fairly common additions to my more "complete" builds. For my lower level characters, they've been able to pick up choices that they were having to put off until after 20, before. And in some cases that has led to some redistribution of slots, but they're still all the better for it.

If you have not played a Dominator since the rebalance, you should give even the sets you tried previously another look. They do a lot more damage now, even outside of Domination. You may find that combos you had problems with before are a lot easier now.

The one exception is Psi Assault, which was formerly the most popular Secondary. It had a lot of AoE power with PSW, and that has been nerfed, with a greater emphasis on the single target attacks. If you are used to being a rolling AoE damage dealer, it may take a while to adjust to the new Dominator as a single target Blapper. Psionic Assault, as mentioned, is still good for Drain Psyche, and still has an AoE emphasis.

Earth Assault can also be interesting for its melee emphasis. It was introduced quite recently. Also, I can't remember when Domination got mez protection added to its effects, but you might have played a Dom prior to that, and will find it a big help.

Dominators are single target specialists, while you can't put out the kind of damage a Corruptor can for a team, you are well able to stand toe to toe with single foes and beat the stuffing out of them. The Dominator's combat style is similar to what the Blasters call the "Blapper". If you do not use your Dom's melee attacks (unless you are /Fire, which has some other options) you will not be able to deal your intended amount of damage.

Within their element, Dominators are firmly between Corruptors and Blasters in their damage output. (And they'll easily beat out most Defenders) You won't do as much damage as a Blaster, but you'll come awfully close. It's also important to note that Dominator Sniper attacks have a higher damage base, so they do as much damage as a Blaster Sniper even with the Dom's lower damage. (Although they take longer to recharge)

The rebalance of Dominators recently removed the damage bonus from Domination and gave it to Doms all the time. This really improved their damage capability dramatically. You are not huffing and puffing along as a gimped AT trying to "earn" Domination, and on a team your higher damage base means you do even MORE damage when buffed.

Domination still recharges your End bar, doubles the magnitude of your control powers, and protects you from mezzes yourself. You should really use Domination to take on a Boss, to keep his holds from effecting you, but you can use it any time you want during a mission as long as you make sure you'll have it when you really need it. I'm pretty sure you CAN use Domination to break a mez, so that's an option if it is up.

I'll add, on the topic of Dominator strategy, that while previous posters have mentioned that you don't have Containment, and thus trying to use immobilizes and such AoE mezzes do not help and in fact can hurt you, that in fact the strategy is the exact OPPOSITE of a Controller. A Controller wants to hit the target that he has held, in order to get the Containment bonus. For a Dominator, the target that is held is NOT hurting him, and so he does NOT want to hit him, he wants to hit the foes that are not held and are hitting him. For that reason, a Dom will often mez the strongest foe in the group, and then pick off the minions one by one until the Lt or Boss is left. He can then wipe the floor with that foe at his leisure.

Of course, on a team the Dominator can rely on this teammates to pick off minions and draw aggro, but then he would be singling out foes that are a hassle, like mezzers or healer/debuffers. The Dom is really the best at picking his targets and switching targets as the situation calls for it, holding some foes and attacking others. This takes an active hand on the Tab key, and can be a lot of fun.

Yeah, it appears to be a sporadic bug to me. Sometimes it will work, but I have gotten the "This account is already logged in" message, as well as it dumping me back to the password screen with my username filled in, but no password, and a message telling me that I needed to enter a password.

As stated previously, it sounds like it's just logging out too quickly, and not correctly clearing the state before trying to log back in. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future patch. The whole point, really, was to speed up the relogin process, but maybe it may have to be made a tiny bit slower.

I don't know, but in general I would say experiment with color combinations you might not think of at first. For instance, you would probably assume fire is red, but in fact it turns out to be more of an orange color, perhaps with yellow as a secondary. Maybe even add some pink or purple. It may take choosing some of the dull or saturated colors in order to get that original look.

Just as an example, I wanted to match the original lightning colors on a villain (with red lightning) and came to realize that "good" lightning is not blue, as it seems to be, but purple. The blue is more of a highlight.

Since you're only changing one color out of a set, it might help to switch back and forth between the attack you are changing, and one of the others that still have the old legacy colors.

The nice thing about respecs is that if you have any Enhancements you want to just get rid of (not pull out and sell to the market or anything) you can turn any number of them into Influence. I don't think you get much more than selling them to the store, but there is no limit. So you can:

1) pull out up to 10 Enhancements that you can then store or put on the Market

2) rearrange your Enhancements in your powers however you wish (even changing the number of slots in powers)

3) sell any number of Enhancements for inf by just leaving them in the area where they are all stored until you decide where to put them

The bad thing about respecs, of course, is that this process is so tedious.

BTW, anyone wondering how the /macro "Slap" "e smack$$e slap" works, or something like it, basically in any given keybind or macro only ONE Power or emote may be activated at a time. (Anything with an animation) That activation, whatever it is, will be queued up to take place as soon as your current animation ends, just like if you clicked on a power. The LAST command in the string is the one that will take place, unless that power is already active, at which time the NEXT to last one will switch on, and so on.

In other words, if you have a macro "powexec_name Hover$$powexec_name Fly", this will activate Fly first, then toggle between Hover and Fly because the second activation will turn OFF Fly and ON Hover. Note than any number of powers may be turned OFF at one time, but only one can be toggled ON.

The powexec_toggleon/off commands can be used to refine this, for instance "powexec_toggleon Ninja Run$$powexec_toggleon Sprint" will turn ON first Sprint and then Ninja Run, with each press of the macro. Once both are on, the macro will have no more effect. "powexec_toggleoff Ninja Run$$powexec_toggleoff Sprint" will turn them BOTH off with ONE press.

Emotes seem to confuse the issue, and in fact, if you combine an emote with a power, you will get the power animation half the time, and the emote half the time. It can be quite wierd. I've found a costume change emote (cce) seems to always override the power activation. I use this to make my genie grow wings with a puff of smoke when she turns on Fly.

Using the command powexec_auto will let you activate TWO powers with one press. "powexec_name Air Superiority$$powexec_auto Brawl" will immediately activate Air Superiority, causing it to hit your target if you have one, and then queue up Brawl on autofire. This will then fire as soon as Air Superiority ends. The drawback is a) if you don't have a target, Air Superiority will select one, but then I think Brawl will hit it and b) Brawl will continue to autofire every time it recharges, unless you hit the Z key. (Or whatever is bound to "powexec_abort")

"powexec_unqueue" will unqueue whatever attack is currently in the system, WITHOUT removing whatever power is set to autofire. (Only one power can be set to autofire) This can be useful, especially for starting a command where you want to ensure there is no current power queued up. (For instance, if you want to ensure a particular power is executed first in a chain even if it is CURRENTLY set to execute)

And just to say it, the "bug" above will cause all of the commands executed in the bindfile described above to follow the same rules, so if you actually try to activate any powers with that bindfile, only one of them will execute. Any number of macroslot commands can be carried out, though, just like any other command that doesn't activate an animation.