Lazarillo

Mace Mastery does NOT cause re-draw with Bane powers, and as such, can be quite ideal. I added Shatter Armor to my Bane's attacks, and found it works fairly nicely. The ranged attacks in the patron set are also generally nicer than their equivalents on the regular Bane tree as well, for what it's worth.

I don't know much about running a Huntsman, so I'll let someone else handle that aspect.

As I understand it, yes, PvP IOs really are the way the devs want them to be. As I recall, they even made a few rather specific changes to adjust them to this point.

I've actually been trying, albeit a bit slowly, to put together a guide for this combo. Fire/Earth has some excellent synergy. A couple things I'll note:

-Castle, I think it was, mentioned early on that /Earth makes you feel like a Brute, and this is fairly true. There is very little concept of fighting-at-range in this set. You're going to be getting in close, hitting things hard, and making them fall down. What little gets back up will be hit again.

-Skip the immobilize powers. Ring of Fire and Fire Cages both prevent knockdown, which is a MAJOR part of your mitigation. Likewise, since you'll be in melee range anyway, immobilizes offer you no protection, and you have other ways of keeping enemies from trying to run away from you.

-Hot Feet and Mud Pots sounds like an awesome combo (it's the whole reason that I started a Fire/Earth, even!), but the range on Mud Pots is REALLY small, so it really doesn't work as well in execution as it sounds on paper. I'd definitely recommend Hot Feet, but Mud Pots less so.

I'd post a copy of my build for you to peruse, but I don't have access to it right now. I'll try to toss it up later on today.

Is the character male or female? I had a female character who wasn't getting credit listed for the "Ironman" badge because she had the "Ironwoman" badge. However, when I completed all the other requirements, it still awarded the accolade. It just didn't count for the progression bar.

It's unfortunate, I had wanted to see that animation used for a punch attack for a while now, and finally got it on an attack I like...and it's Eagle's Claw, which already has a super cool animation. That said, if you have some sort of philosophical opposition to the whole slow-jump-wuxia feel of the standard EC animation, and/or you're playing for more of a bruiser feel, the alternate animation looks pretty nice.

I already tend to do this a lot with Super Jump, but that almost makes it too easy. I like this idea, will have to try it!

I've been playing a Fire/Earth, recently hit 32, and have loved it the whole way up. Fire/ having a damage/slow aura and a quick-activating PBAoE hold/panic button seems to offer some great synergy with /Earth's heavy melee focus, and I'd imagine Ice/ would work well for similar reasons.

/Earth also offers a lot of soft control thanks to all its attacks having a very high chance for knockdown, so it'd probably go well with a more control-light set like Gravity/. For the same reason, regardless of what primary you pick, you want to avoid any immobilize powers that prevent knockdown. Since you'll be in melee a lot, immobilizing isn't going to do you a lot of good anyway, and you really don't want to negate all that great knockdown your attacks are doing.

As far as skippable powers, I've taken everything but Hurl Boulder. The definite focus in this set is on melee; Stone Spears isn't exactly the best bang for one's buck, but you have to take it regardless, and it's very cool looking, so your use of it really just depends on how willing you are to place style above substance. Tremor is a bit slow, but it's still a fairly nice power, and since it's your only AoE opportunity until 38, I'd at least start with it. You'll have to give me a couple weeks before I can say for sure if it's worth keeping with Fissure, or if the latter can serve as an effective replacement.

I haven't gotten to Mud Pots yet, but even though it was part of the reason I first thought of doing Fire/Earth, I don't particularly hear good things about it and its small range, so I'm currently planning to skip it, already having one damage/slow aura.

Currently moving along on my latest Dominator, into the mid-20s and regardless of anything else, I'm really loving the SMASH-y feel of Earth Assault. Based on hearsay, though, I've pretty much given up on trying to stack Mud Pots with Hot Feet, and that's left things open for me to include one more filler attack to use.

I'm trying to decide between Ring of Fire, Hurl Boulder, and Air Superiority. All of them are nice for keeping enemies on the ground, and I can see distinct advantages and disadvantages to each of them. RoF and Hurl Boulder will give me range, and be helpful with enemies trying to escape, but the former negates /Earth's knockdown while only doing its damage over time rather than up front, and the latter does knock BACK, unlike my other attacks, which is a bit of a pain, since I'm mostly melee focused. AS lacks these issues, but it's yet another melee attack, and it'd be nice to have something extra to use against enemies that try to run (Spears works fairly nicely, unless I'm fighting Longobow Eagles or Freak Juicers, since they prefer to FLY away).

I'm fairly torn about which to use. I don't really need a filler attack - perhaps that could be seen as Stone Spears offering a blessing in disguise with its general slowness - I'm looking for something I can use to finish of weak enemies and, again, keep fliers from causing me too much trouble. I'm curious what everyone else's experience would suggest.

The Blaster/Tank Ice Patch is much, much, much smaller than its Controller cousin. Pretty much, it appears right underneath your character and only covers a very small radius around you. Granted, you can then move off the patch, leaving it more exposed, and the power can still be quite useful, but definitely don't expect something on the level of Ice Slick.

Had to work last Saturday, so sorry I missed the initial run. Hoping to be there tonight but I have a little project I've been working on which has been rather engrossing, so if I'm not around, assume I'm hip-deep in translation and covered in paper cuts. I'm ahead of the pack anyway, but I'll totally meet up at least once before ya'll catch up to me!

Thornies can be fairly mean early on, especially compared to some of their low-levelled peers, so that's probably a fraction of it. Also, as I recall, several of their sword attacks have a Negative component, which Electric Armor doesn't resist as well. Actually, at low levels, Electric Armor doesn't resist much of anything well, that's just sort of the nature of the beast. Things will likely get better, though. For now, perhaps, look at going after Clockwork, maybe? The tools you have are going to be more effective there.

I find that, as a combination, the two powers actually work pretty well. They only cover small areas, so you'll generally need to pull your targets to a point where they'll bunch up on you, but as long as you can manage that, stuff will melt pretty fast. I'd imagine if you had room in your build for Fiery Embrace/Build Up (my Fire/Ice Tank didn't), it'd be an even greater combination.

Oooohhh, pet hell, is it? I'd be interested if something gets off the ground. Any specific theme ideas, or just focusing on a nice big zerg-rush?