Jade_Dragon

Um, yeah, an attack with no recharge and no End cost that builds Fury, I don't think the devs would do that.

Also not a bad idea. You can look at the map to find a "Fateweaver", (In Mercy there's one in the clock tower building in the middle of the upper portion of the map) and then you can adjust your level compared to your foes. For instance, you might select -1 level instead of +0 levels. That would be the same thing as levelling to do the mission. You will need to deselect the mission to cause it to reset, though, so you can either take a second mission if one is available, or log out and back in.

Later on this can be done to do the opposite, if you found you've outlevelled a mission by one or two levels, you can set your difficultly to +1 or +2 to compensate. Although discarding a mission and then reselecting it from the Contact will reset it to your current level as well.

I'll also add to the last post that doing the Mayhem Mission to get your Jet Pack before level 10 is a good idea. If you level to 10 before doing your first one you'll miss the Jet Pack and just get the Jump Pack. Plus, the other missions will be that much easier with more powers under your belt, even above and beyond the benefit of levelling with respect to the mission.

Also, if you're on Pinnacle I've got a level 11 SoA I will probably be levelling this evening, but I'm sure you'll get plenty of other offers if you just ask around.

Oh, and actually when it comes to Dominators, while you want to be cautious in melee, you shouldn't be AFRAID of it, either. A good 50% of your damage on a Dom comes from melee. You would logically expect that the idea is that before closing to melee to pound on a foe, you should make sure he can't do anything to fight back; i.e., you've hit him with a hold. That's good strategy, but it can't always be that way, so just be aware that sometimes you'll have to take hits to do your best damage. Definately don't just stand at range and try to pick away at the target. For that you should be a Corruptor or Mastermind. (Or go to the hero side for Blaster)

Actually, I suspect that that was what "Underlings" were intended for. It can actually be fun to take on a horde of Rikti Monkeys. Unfortunately, that's really the only example of Underlings that show up in those kind of numbers. (Gears are Underlings, but only show up when a Boss is defeated. And most villain groups don't have an Underling rank at all)

I was just thinking, it might be a nice feature to add a "I would like to have additional Underlings" option in the difficulty setting. This will cause Underlings to spawn, much like Void Hunters for Kheldians, as additional foes in the mission. (That is, they won't need to be set to spawn in the mission the difficulty level will throw them in) The devs will need to provide an Underling class for the villain groups that don't have them, but I think that'll satisfy those "I want to take on 100s of foes at once" folks, as long as they're not just saying that because they want the XP for 100s of foes at once.

I mean, even greys don't spawn in the numbers that I think are wanted here. There is always the option to go -1/x8 if you're solo, though.

I think I'll also have to check and see if the MA allows you to create an Underling class. (I don't think it does...)

It may not have been required, but you had to be EXTREMELY creative to solo certain ATs. Controllers, Defenders and Tankers all had problems back then. My own personal experience was that my Tankers had problems overcoming the regeneration of foes that were resistant to his attacks, like CoT Ghosts. I could count on a fight with a Spectral Demon Lord taking a full tray of Inspirations. FOR EACH ONE. Likewise, my meleeing Controller could mow down Minions like there was no tomorrow, but the only way I had to overcome Bosses was to Decieve his Minion and wait for HIM to kill him.

Defenders were probably the best option of the three, but Force Field was no better at damage dealing than it is now, and I often ran into the same problem I had with Tankers. That problem was actually never really solved until Inventions were introduced to the game, and I was able to slot IOs to add on about +15% damage. At least Tankers got a 14% damage boost with Gauntlet, and Controllers got Containment. My soloing problems pretty much ended with both ATs with that. (In fact, my Controller turned into a monster who could take down EBs with ease )

The problem as I see it is that we are thinking of "100%" as something that means "the maximum", but it's actually just a number. It goes from 1 to 100 and that's then multiplied by 2 to give the damage boost.

I think what most people want to see is the minimum at +0% to be 0%, and the maximum at +150% to be 100%, but that makes each point of % be like +1.5% to your damage. There's no reason that wouldn't work, but it would make the Fury to damage boost conversion that much more complicated.

I think another issue is that originally the devs envisioned situations in which perhaps Brutes WOULD have +200% damage. It might last only a few seconds, and the normal maximum was about +170%, but they didn't realize how hard it would be to fight uphill against that spike. +200% is a nice round number, though, +150%, not quite so much.

Pain Domination was intended to be the villain version of Empathy, so that suggests that Brutes could get something which is intended to be their version of Ice Melee/Ice Armor, but lacks the -recharge which supposedly causes trouble for Fury.

Personally, I think that just replacing Chilling Embrace with something like Artic Fog, which provides the Brute with Stealth (like Cloak of Shadows and Energy Cloak) and applies a -Dam debuff to all foes in range would solve the problem. It could be called Cold Armor. I actually suspect it could be left alone, with the new Fury, but I think the variation would still be, if you'll pardon the pun, cool.

Likewise, Dark Miasma could be adapted into something with less control powers, while those powers could be ported to their own Dark Control set. The dividing line is really whether you consider that "Proliferation", or if it's the development of a new set.

My favorite suggestion back in Beta was for the bar to go to 75%, but if it exceeds that, it begins flashing. Every time you hit someone during this period, the word "SMASH!" appears over the target's head.

I also suggested an Inspiration that does the same thing as that Frenzy power, so other Alignments than Villains would have access to its effect.

And the truth is, since I don't ever think I heard tell of old Fury exceeding 90% (I'm not sure it ever exceeded 85%) there has always been that empty space on the bar. It's just a lot bigger, now.

I'm actually guessing that will not be part of the merger. While you will be able to move between zones in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles freely, I suspect that there will still be limited "portals" for Vigilantes and Rogues moving between the two.

You still have to lock Heroes from being able to go to the Rogue Isles, and warn Vigilantes and Rogues of the side effects of passing through the portal. You couldn't do that from a single all-inclusive menu.

Then again, maybe that's a technical issue the devs have resolved.

I'm actually hoping that if the zones that have two trams/ferries get to keep them, a second tram will be added at the north end of IP.

That would be another way around it.

Of course, there are some "buffs" the devs would not want you to be able to discard, like the Vahzilok Wasting Disease, or the negative "cards" from Mystic Fortune.

Besides, just discarding a buff would not help with Group Fly, as it is a toggle, that "pulses" with every tick. You would discard the buff, only to have it immediately renewed. A better way to do it would be to "suppress" a buff. You could, say, right click on it and suppress it, and a red circle and slash would appear around it. Then, as long as the buff keeps being renewed, the system will know to suppress it.

This could even help with current travel power suppression, since the same symbol could appear to indicate when suppression is active. Maybe you could even manually suppress those powers on top of the automatic suppression. (So for instance if you wanted to use Super Speed or Flying in combat you could manually suppress it so it would at least be consistent)

Now, that, I think is a little excessive. Yeah, you're providing +20% Def and +30% damage, but 16% of that Defense is from TT:M. You're paying three times as much Endurance for that extra 4% (and that's assuming you don't slot it, or just 1 slot it for Def in that default slot) and need to come up with two more power pics for the second Assault and TT:Leadership. And you'll certainly need Stamina to support all those toggles.

That, personally, is what I would consider a Huntsman build. You'll have to make some sacrifices in offensive and defensive power choices in order to fit in all those support powers. Not that there's anything wrong with support, but the SoA is not a Defender unless you choose to build him that way. I think the team that is a combination of support SoA and a few more standard AoE Crab builds will do way damage than just straight support.

Of course, with Stamina becoming Inherent, I admit this will become more of an option in the future. I can certainly see myself picking up TT:Assault as I did previously prior to Stamina, since I won't need to be making other power picks to get Stamina at 20. And I should have room for TT:Leadership as well. And I can see even Crabs going for the Pool Leadership instead of that just being a Huntsman thing. Doesn't mean that I will be likely to do that with my Crab, though, or my Widow. (I'm not sure if Mind Link applies to the whole team or just the +Acc is applied to the team. If it does, you're talking about around +28% Def, but if it doesn't, the 3.5% from Manuevers is less significant)

While I understand where you're coming from, it's easy enough to make alts in this game that I wouldn't worry about that. First of all, if you're going to be a Crab Spider AT ALL, you're going to be a Crab Spider. There is no switching builds and becoming a Bane or Huntsman. You may pick those powers, but you'll still be stuck with the crab legs, and now they'll sit on your back and be dead weight.

It's far easier to go with a Crab concept, and then start a different character for your Wolf or Bane concept. If you like one, or the other, you can discard the one you don't like, and don't have to worry about respecs or whatever to get rid of your crab legs. And a Huntsman is a Huntsman, if you're planning on creating a character based on that concept, you've probably already tried out the Crab and Bane alternatives.

It's a lot easier to switch between Fortunata and Night Widow, and you might choose a name that's more neutral in that case. My Night Widow is staying a Night Widow, though, it wouldn't fit her concept to have Fortunata as a secondary build. (She will probably go for a with stealth/without stealth combo instead)

Yeah, as I said before, it's not than an FF cannot be built to an Offender strategy. It's just it's more of a defensive balance as a Power Set, and thus is more defensive overall.

Personally, I feel it is a mistake for a Buff/Debuff set to have NO offensive buffing or debuffing capability at all. Empathy at least has Fortitude, which is a damage boost to a single ally. Cold and Thermal also have to wait for their Tier 9 to get a Res debuff. Still, either Empathy or FF could stand to get more offensive boosting capabilities.

(Also, I find the argument "I have nothing to do so I can blast more!" to be a little silly. If you had something to do, especially offensively, you wouldn't need to be blasting more. And besides, that implies using your knockback powers is more problematic than "doing nothing", which is a whole other can of worms)

You're making me want to find someone with Group Fly just so I can see my Dwarf flying.