Jade_Dragon

I recently saw a post in which a End Draining Kin/Elec Defender had used Invoke Panic to keep foes busy while he used his non-attack powers to drain their End. It was supposedly quite successful.

My MA/SR Scrapper built his concept around the use of Fear, although had I been going for uberness I would have gone Dark. As a concept, though, it works, and now with the Vigilante version the two can stack, plus I have a -Acc on top of that. It's also been great for slotting Fear IOs, which are usually pretty cheap.

Aett_Thorn is absolutely right when he says that if you want performance out of it similar to other Fear powers you need to slot it. OTOH, I feel the same is true of the rest of Presense as well, if you wish to use Provoke to be a Scrapper or Mastermind tank, IMHO it needs to be six slotted to get similar results to Taunt. That's the price you pay for going to the Pool for a power that's so integral to your concept.

I would guess it isn't worth slotting before Fast Healing if you've got it, but it seems to me if that power is already slotted, then there's no reason not to put 6 more slots in Health if you've got the Set IOs for it.

For any character that doesn't have any regeneration powers, much less one that has no healing at all, it can certainly cut your down time between spawns. By comparison, Health is a +40% boost to regeneration, while Fast Healing is +75%.

I'll also add that Rise to the Challenge requires foes around you to operate, and it gives you nothing while you are between spawns. So there's a definate advantage to slotting the passive. (Whether it be Health or Fast Healing) It's not like the Invulnerability or Super Reflexes passives, that are not gaining you anything when you are not being attacked. Passive regeneration is always healing you, unless you are already at full HP.

Personally, I don't know why Ouroboros simply doesn't send you back to the Zone that you came from. This is the way base portals work, so the mechanic exists. The only thing I can think of is that in some way the Task Forces or the Flashbacks overwrite the info about where you entered Ouroboros from, and thus the devs had to provide multiple exits. But bases can have a Pillar of Ice and Fire for Flashbacks, and AFAIK that doesn't effect anything. So I don't really know.

When the Hero and Villain Lounges came out, I thought it would be a good idea to replace Ouroboros's travel capability with that. Then add a Rogue/Vigilante Lounge that didn't have a Merit Vendor or anything, but would exit to the same basic zones as Ouroboros. The Lounges would definately be more useful if you could teleport to them as with Ouroboros.

Domination takes a very long time to build, you might build it as few as two or three times during a short mission. It's not like Fury which goes up and down constantly.

Perma-domination essentially cuts out the time needed to build it back up again, allowing you to just go on the first time you build it when you enter the mission and then keep it up until you complete it. It does take a lot of recharge, Hasten is really necessary, and from there you need IO Sets that give recharge. AFAIK, it is not really possible to achieve perma-dom until your 30s, and it only really comes into its own (with double or triple Dom) at 50 with purple Sets.

Also, this may be self evident, but make sure you have been doing the Vigilante tips. If you have 10/10 Alignment Points in the Hero bar, you will not be able to switch to Vigilante. You will get a Hero Morality Mission which will reaffirm your Alignment as Hero.

The lower bar of the two, with the vigilante symbol next to it, is the one that should be at 10/10.

What could be happening is that the time is recorded as actual time, but only checked as Arcanatime. So by the time the check happens for the recharge time to begin, a fraction of the cycle time has elapsed. But if the actual time of the activation is recorded, then the code know that cast time has ended, and the fraction of the time in the past that it expired.

It may STILL be a factor of Arcanatime when the power recharges, though, because it may still need to poll to find that out. But it rounds off the cast time plus the recharge time to Arcanatime, not the cast time to Arcanatime, and THEN the recharge time to Arcanatime again.

I expect 90% of the time the result would be the same. But it might offset the recharge by a cycle in some cases.

I created my Night Widow as an evil version of my Claws/Inv Scrapper. There are already some major differences, I've switched to Dart Burst instead of Spin as my major AoE attack because it's advantageous to dart in and out of melee. She certainly doesn't have the defense, although I'm expecting with Foresight and Mind Link it will get a lot better. I already rely mostly on Invincibility with my Scrapper, not the resistances, so I'm already used to that.

I definately feel it's more like a Claws/SR Stalker, though, with less damage from Assassination, and more buffs for the team. I'm definately planning on playing her with a team, although I've had to take her Rogue for that. (my SG on that server isn't really interested in villains...)

Fortunatas I can't comment on, although I'm guessing they're somewhat similar to Psi Defenders or Corruptors with some melee attacks. I would kind of guess that unless you intended to go with a conceptual thing, you'd probably want to respec out of the melee and just go with ranged.

Well, this was guaranteed to stir up a debate. There are obviously those who believe that a Defender's job is to support the team, and anything he does that distracts from that, like soloing, using his blasts, or picking any powers but those in his Primary, Leadership, and Recall Friend, is a waste of slots. There are also those who are insulted by such talk, and insist that a Defender as a whole should take advantage of all his capabilities, from buff and debuff powers to blasts and controls.

To me, an Offender is a Defender that takes and slots his blasts AND ALSO CHOOSES A PRIMARY AND POWERS TO SUPPORT THAT. The latter is important, because the Defender's Primary is just as important to his damage dealing capability as his Secondary. It's also an answer to those who say a Defender who specializes with damage dealing is weaker than one who doesn't. That's not true, particularly when you can demonstrate that the Resistance debuffing and Damage buffing powers in the Rad/Sonic combination can actually deal more damage than the Corruptor version under certain circumstances.

Now, I have heard the term Offender used in regards to a Force Field Defender, and I've even used it myself. Then again, my FF is heavily IOed out for damage. In general, though, I use the term in reference to a Primary like Rad, Kinetics, Trick Arrow, or Storm, which have a strong offensive balance in contrast to a defensive one. You might use an Offender strategy to build a Dark for soloing, but if you wanted to build an Offender, I'd recommend the above. That's just me, though, others may disagree, on the argument that if you survive to do more damage you can do more damage.

The basic concept is simple, you figure out what boosts your offense (Enervating Field, Fulcrum Shift, Acid/Disruption Arrow, Freezing Rain) and pick it up as soon as you can and slot it so it's up all the time. Your attacks then take second priority. Third priority are the powers to keep yourself and your teammates alive. You still make a huge contribution to the team, as they benefit from your offensive buffs just like you do. In fact, it can be argued that it's impossible to make a Kinetic that isn't an Offender, since Speed Boost/Siphon Speed and Transference let you and your allies attack longer and more often, and even Transfusion speeds your kill rate by putting a -regen on the target. (Only Repel and Increase Density are purely defensive in nature)

As I said, all of the above is my own take on the matter, and in general the term is used very flexibly, sometimes even with a negative connotation.

Get a family member into the game.

(I still wish I could get my sister to stick with it more than a couple of days at a time. )

Overpower is actually a mechanic that Controllers always had, but it was "hidden", the random chance of extra magnitude was tacked on there, but you never knew when it activated. Except when a hold that normally wouldn't mez a Boss suddenly did.

The text floating above the target was added after "Domination" and other Inherents (such as Assassin Strike) were given floating text to indicate when they activated. It was pointed out that Controllers had an aspect to their Inherent that they had no way of knowing it had activated, and the devs gave it the name "Overpower".

There's been talk of, with the new Fury, having the word "Smash" appear above a foe's head if your Fury goes above 75%. (Since that is so unlikely now)

(Note that Criticals such as Scourge and Containment typically don't have a text float since the duplicate damage number float indicates the critical went off. Also, Bruising doesn't have a text since it has a 100% chance of occuring, but it occurs to me it might be a good idea to add it anyway so the Tanker's target can be picked out and targetted in a pitched battle)

Also, if you liked Defenders but felt the damage was too low, you can check out Corruptors since you have CoV. You'd probably want to start it in Praetoria once you get the expansion, but you can try it redside to get the feel for it. Scourge definately helps the damage once you get a foe down to low HP. Although ultimately the damage is not THAT much greater. (If you have lots of damage buffs/res debuffs, the Defender can end up doing the same damage)

The main advantage of a Corruptor is that it's a lot easier to build around its offense, concentrating on the attacks, and picking up the offense boosts when they open up, without feeling guilty about putting off the more team-oriented powers.

May I suggest a name somewhat along the lines of "Shock and Awe"?

Do keep in mind that back in Beta, Blaster Secondaries WERE Melee. That's essentially how we ended up with today's Manipulation sets, they are the old Melee sets with most of the melee attacks removed, and replaced with some control powers.

Trick Arrow looks very much like it was originally designed to be a Blaster set, based on Devices. The first three powers, Entangling Arrow, Flash Arrow, and Glue Arrow, are almost identical in purpose to Web Grenade, Smoke Grenade, and Caltrops. The only difference is Glue Arrow doesn't do damage, and Smoke Grenade actually has a BETTER to hit debuff, relative to a Blaster's AT modifier than Flash Arrow. Then again, it does come much sooner.

Blaster Secondaries are not meant to debuff, though, Smoke Grenade, Chilling Embrace (with its -Dam) and Drain Psyche (-recharge and recovery) are the only exceptions. (You could consider any of Ice's -speed and recharge to be a debuff as well, but I consider that more a Slow) As I said above, the other powers seem to be mostly control powers.

Ice Arrow and even Oil Slick Arrow seem right in there, but I think melee attacks mixing in the bow as a striking weapon, or even kicks with the bow out, would work perfectly. I would move the melee attacks down as je_saist suggested, but leave in Ice Arrow, possibly moving it up to Tier 8 or 9. Fire Arrow is already an attack in Archery anyway.

Axe - Lethal damage, most attacks do Knockback. Has a high damage control power with a high chance of Knockback. Tier 9 cone attack doing high damage.

Mace - Smashing damage, most attacks do Stun. Has a high damage control power with a high chance of Stun. Tier 9 cone attack doing high damage.

Broadsword - Lethal damage, most attacks do Def Debuff. Has a low damage buff power which raises the caster's Defense. Tier 3 cone attack doing moderate damage.

Katana/Ninja Blade - Lethal damage, most attacks do Def Debuff. Same basic attacks as Broadsword, but with lower damage and faster recharge and animation.

Dual Blades - Lethal damage, combo system. Has a moderate damage debuff attack with -Dam, and a "Feint" power that buffs +Dam. (Like Claws) Lacks a knockup attack. Has two cone attacks at Tier 8 and 9 with high damage.

That's my take on it.

(Also, Headsplitter, Golden Dragonfly, Cleave and Shatter are all fairly narrow cones which are really intended to "hit the target behind" your target. Shatter is wider, but shorter. Dual Blades' two cones seem to be a compromise between this and the wide cones of Pendulum and Crowd Control. It also gets Mace's 10 targets on One Thousand Cuts)

Being as the intention behind A-Merits was to balance the choice between switching alignments and staying true to an alignment, this does kind of make sense to me. I mean, you CAN'T switch alignment and gain the benefits of that without GR. But there is an incentive to remain your currently alignment, and you don't have to buy GR to stay at your current alignment.

Being as you have to invest 20 million in the Merit (40 million to be assured of the value of what you're going to be selling) I wouldn't say it's all that surprising. You can't earn the A-Merits directly without GR, which I think is what is intended.