Jade_Dragon

What that probably means is that the other animations are old Legacy animations, but as Hellfire is a brand new option is it colorizable by default. Putting it another way, you can't NOT have a color set for Hellfire, although the devs could have hardcoded one.

Hopefully this means the other attacks can eventually be replaced as with the player attacks, but this will take time. And you'll be stuck with the same color for all the attacks, unless the UI is upgraded.

If your Scrapper went from Hero to Villain, he was a Vigilante. Not a Rogue.

Vigilantes cannot do the Patron Arcs. Rogues (we think) can.

Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Also, the Ghost Slaying Axe is probably most powerful against lower level, common types of spirits, and not the unique, demon-like types. Ghost Widow would definately count as one of the more powerful types.

Mind you, if you could go back in time to the day she died the axe might have a bigger effect on her. Of course, you'd also have to watch out for Wretch.

There are also hints that she is, in some way, "special". When she tries to return to life in her Patron arc, she says that she ends up with an "ectoplasmic body". This may be why she appears solid, and not ghostly like War Witch. (And I'm pretty sure any version of War Witch that can be attacked by the Ghost Slaying Axe wouldn't be effected by it, either. There are perks to having the lead developer as your player. )

To be precise, 75 Fury is +150% damage. That's essentially having both Aim and Build Up running all the time. Of course, a Brute's damage is naturally low, it's probably easier to think of it as full Fury being the standard, and the damage dropping from there. 85 Fury is also pretty rare these days. (It's probably only achievable against an AV, if that, although it can also depend on the build)

Short version is that a Brute's damage starts at about a Tanker's level and builds up to just under a Scrapper's. Previously it peaked just over Scrapper damage, but also tended to rise and fall more, and depended more on build.

Brutes also depend more on Fury than anything else. They're the one AT where you can get away with not 3-slotting for damage, and don't benefit as much from team buffs or their own Build Up.

Not to be facetious, here, but that's a little like saying, "Other than the cool things like air conditioning and leather seats and expensive wood interiors, what's the point of getting a luxury sports car when you can just get a regular sports car?" Um, that's kind of the point.

I'm an old school Super Reflexes player who played it back when it didn't have scaling resistances in the passives, didn't have Defense Debuff Resistance, and didn't stack with Force Fields, Manuevers, or even Weave and Combat Jumping. I've struggled through the 28 levels to get some semblance of AoE defenses. I've resisted the impulse to get Aid Self, since I insisted on making the set survivable as designed. In fact, what I ended up doing is going to Stealth and Intimidate and making it play very much like Ninjitsu.

I see Super Reflexes as the Power Set for the super speedsters and agile hero archetypes, like Flash and Spiderman. But in the absense of Ninjitsu it was kind of a split concept, because it seemed to cover all the trained gadget-using heroes as well, like Batman. As such, it seemed to lack identity, it was all about Defense and nothing else, healing didn't fit the speedsters, and resistance didn't fit the gadget users.

When Ninjitsu came out, I immediately recognized it as the split off of the "wonderful toys" from Super Reflexes. Ninjisitu centralized the Defenses, bringing in AoE defense earlier, while giving less Defense overall. But, it added a self heal, which greatly improved the early survivability of the set, and cut down dramatically on downtime. Meanwhile, SR gained the scaling resistances, which made it easier to survive when you WERE low on hit points.

And the "gadgets" really come late in the set. Smoke Flash is really just a toy, it's useful to escape or to get another critical, but it's not game changing. Blinding Powder, though, it's as good as everyone says it is. Since I realized it doesn't break Hide, I've been throwing it out before every fight, and even before, it was usually my first move after an AS. It's not just a Confuse, AND a Sleep, but a -ToHit as well. There's nothing like that in Super Reflexes, not even Quickness.

Caltrops I haven't really found much use for, although I do use it to keep a Boss losing HP, and slow him down, when I'm fighting him. I also took it rather late, I didn't want to get it too much sooner than my Scrapper could, and he has to wait for Weapon Mastery.

That's not to say that Super Reflexes doesn't have its strength as well. They are different sets now, starting from the different base, and going in two different directions. You can pick up Aid Self and Invoke Panic from the Pool and get about the same results from SR. Or, you can pick up CJ and Weave if you want that extra 5.625% Defense in Ninjitsu. It's the same 5 Pool picks either way.

Yes, the cottage rule only applies to existing sets. When a set is Proliferated to another AT, they can nerf it or buff it or change around the powers any way they want if they want to.

Of course, if they do come up with a good change, they may need to try to work that into the existing versions as well. Like with Energize. Energize didn't change Conserve Power, though, it just added a new effect on top of it.

Well, Cloak of Shadows has a graphic effect other than your character becoming transparent. You are also wrapped in a shadowy, vaporous darkness. That effect, AFAIK, does not exist with Energy Cloak.

However, this doesn't mean that, in keeping with the Force Field theme, that a bubble effect couldn't be created that distorts your appearance inside the bubble, instead of rendering you invisible. Or, the transparency could be partial instead of total. (Say, as with Stealth) You could also become more visible when the effect suppressed, as with Hide. (But without the benefits of Hide, obviously)

You could even become reflective, with the new Ultra Mode technology, so you look like you are reflecting your environment to become invisible. Of course, that would probably be even more complex the implementing the new "shadow form" for Shadowy Presense. Which is something else I'd like to see as an alternative for stealth animations.
I keep forgetting that, but as I have mentioned in the past, that might have been the bigger problem, but it WAS a serious problem because of the additional lack of Fury. Lack of Fury with a low damage set might not have been a problem, and a low damage set with plenty of Fury would be a problem. But lack of Fury AND a lack of AoE and single target damage combined made for a much bigger problem.

With the changes to Fury and to Ice Melee it is likely that both Proliferation of Ice to Brutes and Energy to Tankers is now possible.

Way back in the day, before Dark Armor was ported to Tankers, I would have said Energy Cloak should be replaced with Repulse, with the knockback changed to knockDOWN. That's likely to be incredibly powerful, but the chance of knockdown could be reduced to compensate. Having the equivalent of an Ice Patch following you around everywhere is likely to be handy for tanking, though. (And unlike a Brute, the Tanker wouldn't have to worry about it reducing his Fury)

After seeing how well Dark Armor's stealth works with Tankers, though, I'm no longer sure Energy Cloak wouldn't work just as well. Brutes also get Dampening Field, which Stalkers do not, Energy Cloak is the counterpart to Hide. And there is Conserve Power to deal with. Electric Armor got Conserve Power changed to Energize, which adds a heal, but since EA has its heal in Energy Drain, I'm not sure it can get the same power. Perhaps a version of Energize with a lesser heal magnitude, or perhaps some other effect altogether. (Say a recovery or regeneration buff)

Perhaps the best idea is to ignore Conserve Power altogether and give Tankers both Energy Cloak and Damping Field, and a revamped Repulse. Actually, if its Taunt effect was strong enough to force knocked back foes to run back at the Tanker, that would no longer be an issue. And as you said, the idea of a Tanker rolling through a crowd like a bowling ball, sending the foes flying only to have them run at him to be flung back again would be hilarious. And probably mitigate the need for a more powerful heal.

I suppose there's no reason Energy Cloak's effect couldn't be extended to be a Taunt aura, though. Instead of rendering the Tanker invisible, it can distort his image as above, and confuse the foes and disorient them into attacking the Tanker and each other. So it might have an effect like World of Confusion. You could literally make it a disco ball effect instead of invisibility, instead of lowering the Tanker's aggro, it has the opposite effect, it uses a light show to draw attention to him. Still part of the concept, just in reverse.

Note that for my own purposes I have recorded this in percent, but it can be converted to our standard values easily enough just by dividing by 100.

Also, a short answer to the OP's question, many of the tables can be narrowed down to the following:

A couple of interesting things can be noticed here. First of all, a Controller/Corruptor's debuff modifiers and offensive buffs are not 75% of a Defender's, they are more like 80%. Second, a Mastermind has 75% of the offensive buffs and debuffs of a Corruptor, (so about 60% of a Defender) but has the same defensive buffs. Healing is even closer, a Controller's heals are 88% of a Defender's.

When it comes to self defense buffs, though, Defenders, Controllers and Masterminds are really tough, as good as Tankers. If they had the defenses of a Tanker, they would be the same strength. All hero ATs have really good damage buffs, but most of the villains are dismal with either Aim or Build Up. This is likely because their Inherents are intended to have more impact on their damage.

Tankers and Brutes are the best at knockback, even better than Controllers. Controllers aren't even that special with it, pretty much everyone has about the same knockback. Meleers also tend to be slightly better at Fear, although I didn't list it. (It's otherwise the same as all other mezzes)

Not to mention the 3% damage. Devastations (and Red Fortune) are how I got the damage on my FF Defender up.

Definately not needed for a Blaster, though. Thunderstrike seems the better all around. (And coincidentally, two of my Blasters are Electric, so Thunderstrike fits them conceptually)

This is the reason why it was changed. Blasters' first two attacks are all more uniform than the Defender and Corruptor versions, so that they are all equally useful in combination with the mez protection portion of Defiance.

The damage and recharge times of all incompatible attacks were changed when Defiance 2.0 was introduced.

Amusingly, I have never respec'ed any of my Blasters to take advantage of the ability to fire both basic attacks while mezzed. I kept them all skipping one of the two. So far it has not been a major liability. (For all but Devices the Secondary attack deals damage as well, so I still have two attacks to use. Also, I ALWAYS slot that immobilize for damage, since that's what I use it as, my second attack) I'm not recommending following my lead, though, it is a useful feature.

I like that.

I don't consider my Blaster a Blapper, but I would never consider skipping her Secondary. She has Fire Sword to finish off foes locked down with a Tesla Cage, Fire Sword Circle to deal additional AoE damage, Ring of Fire as a foundational basic attack with immobilize, Consume to recharge her Endurance, and Hot Feet to keep meleers off of her, and torture Bosses. Not to mention Build Up. I don't have Combustion, Blazing Aura or Burn, but I wouldn't even consider playing her without her Secondary.

As far as I'm concerned, the only reason you should not be using melee attacks as a Blaster is if you're /Devices. And even then, if you're not using Trip Mine and Gun Drone you're making just as big a mistake. I consider Trip Mine the damage my Devices Blaster deals to foes stupid enough to get in melee with him anyway. He just has to take a little time to prepare the melee attack so it goes off automatically.

To me, a Blapper is someone who goes BEYOND that, who prefers melee (when it's rational to do so) to ranged. Then it's not saving the melee attacks for the foes that get too close to you for comfort, then it's getting too close to the foes for THEIR comfort. (And I have an Electric Blaster I'm developing like this, which makes sense since he's based on my Electric Dom)

Well, therein lies the difference between us, because I LOVE changing forms constantly. I'll admit it could be faster, but then dropping to human form to fire something off is pretty fast, and then you can change back to Dwarf before anything hits you, if you time it right. I've gotten good at watching for the knockdown on one of my Dwarf punches, and shifting at that moment.

To each his own, though. It's my guess that the Nova/Human build is more attractive to those who don't like form shifting, because I personally don't really see the point in it. If you're going to stay in human form any considerably length of time, though, that gives you good reason to put up all your shields.

Another point in regards to mezzing is that if you are in Nova form, you cannot be detoggled if you are mezzed any more, which means that you don't lose Flying. Assuming there is a high enough ceiling, you can stay high enough that meleers can't get to you while you're mezzed. This is also an advantage to the Human Peacebringer form, which Warshades don't share.

Well, there is Photon Seekers, although I do wish they has a "blind" effect like the Seeker Drones in Traps. They do considerably more damage, though, so they couldn't have a very strong debuff effect.

Gravity Well is a great power. As I said above, it's integral to the Starless Step/Gravity Well combo that's so useful against Voids, not to mention a good portion of your Human form melee damage. Let's be honest here, though. Gravity Well and Incandescent Strike both have exactly the same hold effect. Gravity Well's looks cooler, but the mitigation is the same. Gravity Well takes 1.3 seconds less to cast. However, Gravity Well takes 2.75 seconds to deal all of its damage, while Incandescent Strike takes place immediately. Plus, Radiant Strike does about twice the damage of Essence Drain and you have to wait until 18 (20 if you choose to take Gravity Well, 22 or 24 if you intend to take Dwarf) to get it.

This is one reason why I say that the Human form is the melee damage dealing form for PBs, but Dwarf form is for WSs. With double Mire, the Dwarf will be sustaining a lot more DPS than the Human. The human form's attacks are really more about supporting the Dwarf and healing it or holding down foes. Although the WS does seem to have more AoE damage capability. (And that makes sense, since it would be taking on larger groups )

Thanks. What makes Rachel so fun is that her backstory is so tied to the "good" Rachel and her partner. Basically, my character's name is Alan Midnight, and he's a old school film noir type detective, but from the 26th century. So he's like Sam Spade meets Johnny Mnemonic. Rachel is like Mike Hammer's Velda or Hunter's Dee Dee McCall, crossed with Battle Angel Alita. The two are a duo, they're intended to always be together, and complement each other. (He's a Devices Blaster, she's a tanking Scrapper)

They came to the 21st century to find out what was apparently changing their past, only to find that THEY were. An alternate Alan from an alternate 26th century went back to the past to investigate changes, and is trying to make HIS history happen. So they're the same, only the "evil" Alan is a Bots/Traps Mastermind, and Rachel is just the strongest of his six robot henchmen.

What makes it fun is that the good Rachel would be horrified by using a corpse as some sort of puppet. She also has this very flirtatious, good natured personality. (A sharp contrast to her claws and aggresive fighting style) The evil Rachel tries to flirt, but she's so robotic that it comes off as really, really creepy. She says things like, "Do you not like my body, <villain name>? I am calling you by name in order to entice you." I play her with an SG, so the reactions to her chat macros are always funny.

Getting back on the original subject, I've finally gone Rogue with my main Arachnophelia character, on Virtue. I'm still working on the Pinnacle version, who hasn't hit 20 yet, but I've definately decided to take her to Hero. For one thing, it'll give me an excuse to stick with her Wolf Spider uniform, she wants the Crab legs, really bad, she has this spider fetish, and joined Arachnos just to get the legs. But she'll leave Arachnos right after that and thus won't get the uniform, just sticking with her old one. Then I'll take her hero so she can be with my SG.

Also, someone else in the thread mentioned Kheldians, and I have DEFINATELY shifted both my Warshades to Nictus. It's somehow more fun to play them that way. You can revel in sucking the souls out of the dead bodies of your victims. I intentionally changed the name, costume and backstory of my Warshades, who were originally two different characters, to prepare them to go Nictus when GR came out. In short, he's a Nictus who was trying the Warshade path, but accidently bonded with a Skulls gangster he thought he was a hero. Corrupted by his new host, he's decided that the idea of bonding with willing hosts is a good one, but the other beings of the universe are still scum, and he should keep looking out for number one.

Yeah, again, I think that's where most people who DON'T take the power simply misunderstand the intent of the power.

They think: "It's Manuevers. Expensive in End cost, low Defense, intended to support the team, when stacked with other Manuevers."

The truth: "It's a personal defense shield offering 10% Defense to All. End cost balanced to that intent. Oh, and as a bonus, it extends to the team as well."

Heck, even on a Widow it's still better than Weave, because it costs less End.

I'm not going to argue with anyone not wanting to take the power because they don't want to take the power. I'll point out the weaknesses in that choice, but I assume they made an informed decision on the basis of concept. But if they simply don't understand what the power does, it's easy enough to tell them.

Now, TT:Assault and TT:Leadership, they ARE the same thing as the Pool Powers, except for costing about half the End. Still a benefit, but not any better than another attack or Aim/Build Up.

Yeah, back on the WS subject, my own build is sort of split evenly between the forms, with a little bit heavier slotting on the forms in Tri-Form to make them more effective, and a little lighter on Dwarf on my Human/Dwarf build so I can maximize my blast potential.

I wish I could say precisely what my ratio is, but I'll need to check my notes on my build to answer that for sure. I will say that in general I try to put the same number of slots in Nova as in Dwarf (2 extra for Step and Antagonize but that's it) and around the same number in Human form, with maybe a half dozen or so extra. That's for my Tri-Form. For my Human/Dwarf I've been essentially matching the Dwarf build, so the Human gets all the slots that the Nova would normally get. (It's supposed to be a strong Human build, prior to 24 it was actually built as a Human Form only; at 20 I picked up Stamina instead of Dwarf and at 22 I got Stygian)

That might actually be TOO balanced a build, as I've said previously, the lack of strong slotting in any one power may be what caused me to have so much trouble until I reached 34. I actually really only have about 4 slots in any given attack power, I use IOs to get a full 5 slot benefit (Acc, End, 3 Dam) out of 4 slots.

You should not be "trying to improve your Squid form damage". It's the best in the game. Squids get a 1.2 base modifier for damage (a Blaster is 1.125) and a 45% damage boost ON TOP of that. If you are lacking damage in Squid form something is wrong. (Likely you're not slotted well enough)

Powers that are toggles do not carry over to your Squid Form, but powers that are click powers, with a duration, do. This means that there are a number of Powers from the Pool and otherwise which can be useful to your Squid:

Hasten - This will increase the recharge on your four attacks, allowing you to use them more often. Since you cannot get any more attacks, this is very useful.

Build Up - This will give you +72% damage and +18% to hit. It does carry into Nova form, for up to 10 seconds. (Given that it will take you about 2-3 seconds to form shift, that means you should have about 7.5 seconds left of damage boost if you shift right after Build Up)

Essense Boost - This will raise your HP cap, as well as heal damage that you've taken. The HP boost carries over into Nova form, so it not only helps your survivability, but increases the rate at which you regenerate HP.

There are more examples, like Conserve Power and Photon Seekers, and the Disorient protection in Aid Self will carry into the forms. There may also be some Temp Powers which are usable.

Unfortunately, even with all of that, the Nova form really becomes less useful at high levels. A lot of its problem is a lack of defense, which isn't really countered by the greater damage. Nova is great for mowing down crowds when you are in no danger, but there's really no way to make it tougher. (Not like Warshades and Eclipse) Then again, possibly the addition of Health as being accessible in the forms will help the survivability of the Nova.

Despite what I said above, for the Peacebringer the Human form is the majority of your damage. It is melee damage, not ranged, which is where the Nova excels. It sounds like what you want to go for is a Human/Nova build, you'll open up with Nova from a distance to lay out some AoEs, then go Human and go in scrapping. You need strong shields for that, and you'll need slots. In the early levels, you'll probably want to concentrate on blasting with the Nova at range, and retreat when you get in trouble.

Right on the first, not necessarily on the second. The PB powers aren't for control, they're for damage. The PB is a damage dealer, first and foremost, the Nova is a ranged damage dealer, the Human is a range/melee hybrid, and the Dwarf is a low damage tank. I'm not sure why Mids would be wrong, but Kheldians did get a boost to Human form damage recently. Radiant Strike is not a low damage attack (It is better than Bonesmasher, and does the same damage as Greater Ice Sword) and Incandescent Strike may take 3.3 seconds, but it does great burst damage. (It is essentially Total Focus)

The thing is, a PB isn't really a Dominator or a Blaster. You have the shields, and while it can be annoying to put them all up, and that there is no mez protection, if you're going to be in melee you don't really NEED much more than the physical shield. Most melee attacks do primarily physical damage. And don't forget that you get some Energy protection passively. (Even the Nova gets it) If you're using macros, then you should be turning on Shining Shield every time you form shift into Human anyway, unless you are just dropping to Human form for an instant to fire off some other power.

And I'm not going to dismiss Pulsar as a control power, either. While I never based my strategy around it, as I haven't picked it up, I can see how it would be useful to mitigate damage by stunning a good portion of the minions in melee with you. That's the way a Scrapper or Tanker uses his control powers, and it's good enough for a PB as well.

Now, this is not to say that a PB turns into a rolling engine of death like a WS does. On the other hand, neither really hit their stride until the 30s, and you're going to be doing essentially the same thing in the teens and 20s. You've got to play to the PB's strengths, which is steady, consistent healing, steady damage boosts with Build Up, and strong Human form melee. Heck, I've got a Human form PB at about level 15 who doesn't have any of the above, because I've concentrated on building a good foundation of attacks, and I know he has trouble. I'm not going to put off Essense Boost any longer, though, and I'm also pretty sure come I19 I'll be able to make his build better as I won't be trying to fit Stamina in.

Yep, that's it. Provoke is pretty important, I took it at 10, I think. Leadership might be nice to stack Manuevers with Dispersion Bubble, but probably not until later levels. Also, you want to slot Provoke pretty well to hold the aggro, you're want to slot some Taunt it in so you have enough duration. In the teens I was holding aggro for like a second or two, and then the foe would turn back on my Genin.

The basic idea is that you want to hold all the aggro, so you are essentially a Tanker. You'll either make the first attack, or get in range to get attacked. Your pets will fire as soon as you're attacked. Keep in mind if you are teaming, if neither you nor your pets take any damage, your henchmen WILL NOT attack. This can be a problem if your team is taking fire, your henchmen will ignore it because you're not the one being attacks. Too much Defense can be a problem too, because if you are never hit, your henchmen will never attack. (Although I think if you attack a target, your henchmen tend towards attacking that target too)

Provoke stacked with some damage stacked with some knockback should hold aggro pretty well. Just like a Tanker, you want to layer your aggro management tools for best effect. Just spamming Provoke isn't going to do as much, if you attack (no matter how little damage you do) it'll multiply the Taunt effect. The same with doing knockback or debuffing.

Also, Kiwi's advice about having your henchmen stand back and out of the AoEs that hit you is very important as well. This is another reason Bots is a better choice than meleers like Ninjas. While you can charge in first to take the alpha, or take on one foe while your Ninjas attack someone else a distance away, that takes some micromanagement and timing.

Yeah, just a correction, I meant to type -1/x4, not +1/x4. I'm not that crazy yet. But seriously, that's what I was doing, and it was KILLING me. I'd try taking on that many foes, even at -1, and they'd wipe the floor with me before I could get rolling. Even worse if I tried it in Human form, I pretty much had no choice but to stay Dwarf all the time. I had to actually go back to +1/x1 to complete missions with stealth teleport pulling.

Then, at about 33, it all changed. I really can't explain it. Maybe I hit a rhythm, or maybe, as I said, I suddenly hit a balance between powers and slots that enabled me drop a few more Enhancements into my defenses. I had been spreading slots pretty thin to support all three forms. But suddenly it started working. And I haven't looked back.

YMMV, obviously, but I think my point is, even if bumping up the difficulty doesn't help, just stick with it. At some point your build will "click", even if you have no idea what you're doing.

Oh, I'm definately looking forward to it.

And you know, it's SO much more fun to play them evil. Somehow I feel like Nictus should have been playable the whole time.