Psylenz

DP/traps, /dark, and /kinetic are all winning combos. Give those a try. Dark starts out much more 'safe' than /traps, but traps grows quickly.

I completely agree with Stryker. I would add: it seems to me when the endurance on the ember demon gets down toward 33% or so, it seems the heals taper off first. Feed your ember demon blues if you have to in order to keep him fully functional.

I love my Rad/rad defender, and my rad/dark blast defender, too. I play very aggressive with Rad defender's six slotting choking cloud with lockdown proc, dmg procs from other hold sets. If it's ready EM Pulse is a terrific tool to soften up a spawn, along with the choking cloud follow-up, so very many targets are held. Then it's toggle time and whittle them down as endurance allows. Maximum recharge on accelerated metabolism is coupled with this strategy and having a back up source of end recovery in conserve power or power sink are very helpful.

It's a mezz or be mezzed world, so pouncing with combat tp or superspeed or alternative corner pulls so that choking cloud is a factor ASAP are much to be desired.

Most of my defenders I play thrive in the middle of battle. My first 50 was a Storm/Rad defender.

Other aggressive builds are:

Storm/DP
Dark/DP works well, too. The crashless DP mininuke with 2 other good AoEs is top drawer.
Dark/Ice (Ice storm and blizzard on a tar patch leaves VERY FEW survivors)
Storm/Ice, rain rain rain them away.
Cold/sonic - this guy is super flexible. You have great shields for the team, but the debuffs are staggering.
Traps/Dark - surprisingly deadly. The dark helps debuff what little aspect is not completely dominated by traps.

It's been repeated to the point of cliche, but nothing plays like a mastermind.

My first 50 was on Triumph a Storm/Rad defender, not the ideal solo toon, but I had 3 or 4 key friends that made a 50 or bust pact including a Invul/SS tank, an Illusion/kinetic controller and other folks just joined in off the server interested in getting 40s to 50. It was a lot of fun together. We just got in broadcast and announced 50 or bust and worked on whoever had good missions at the time. (This was before supersidekick.) No AV or big outdoor map was safe from us!

I certainly agree, it's an effective robot combo, knock them into a wall, drop the tarpatch, and when you add Assault Bot he lays the fire on them as they struggle in the patch.

For robots the critical level is level 24. Your mastermind gets the second tier two protector bot. Your minions will have double bubbles, and an extra robot healer. When you get to level 20, don't even think about it, you NEED fearsome stare like your mastermind needs oxygen. The to-hit debuff is critical.

I recommend that robots play the range game, your first tier guys can shoot most targets before they can shoot them. Stack up some knockback, and you can literally roll your foes to walls. By the way, I DON'T recommend that on boss spawns.

If the character was born with mutated human DNA so that his body produces poison, it's mutant.

If the character was caught in an accident in the lab, a la spiderman, and changed so that the character exudes/produces poison, it's science.

If the character uses his knowledge to produce weapons, chemicals, apparatus to utilize poison, then it's tech.

Natural is a tough one for me. If you are an alien or new creature that uses poison as part of the normal physiology, then it works as natural for me. The kitana illustration could still be technology to me since the character is using technology of a past age that is more advanced than say technology from the stone age.

I want to add my support to the development team for:

A) Acknowledging and announcing the existence of the showstopping bugs.

B) Giving a time frame of when we can at least NOT EXPECT it to go live (waiting until after Thanksgiving)

C) Working so darn hard to give us a new release with as few inconveniences (ongoing bugs and such) as possible

D) Providing our playerbase with the best MMORPG available BAR NONE!

I don't start using IOs until level 27 at the earliest, usually in the 30-35 range. It's not the cost, it's the time. I don't like slotting up 10s, then 15s, then 20s, ... shoot I can level unslotted through those (and I don't) in a matter of hours as it is. I use DOs at 12, 17; SOs at 22, and then start thinking about the good stuff. If I get a good proc or global of course, I use it as it comes.

I use hover. I optimally slot it 3 slots: 2 flight and a flight/end (or special), or just 3 flights at level 25+ IOs. The description that flight speed in fly suppresses to hover speed means hover UNSLOTTED, it's darn slow. I can't stand movement suppression, it bugs me to no end.

I use hover when I want to get an aerial view of battle for masterminds and defenders. My stormies use it for positioning lightning storm higher to produce more knockdown, not knock back. Also, I couple hover with teleport (the fastest travel power) so that I don't lag drop into nasties on the ground.

Kin/Dp, Kin/Rad, Kin/Sonic, and Kin/elec are all solid and very clicky type heroes. I can attest especially on a Kin/elec you get to a point with recharge and fast play where you are waiting for a power to finish activating before you can fire another power off. It's intense. Some talk about endurance being a limit, recharge limitations, damage cap, but when you just don't have time to get it all to fire at once, you have achieved a new summit.

Bots/traps is also very clicky, your mastermind is always active. In the same vein, not min/maxing a Robots/poison has very much a feel for a mad scientist expert at both robotics and chemistry. */poison will keep you busy to be sure.

To reinforce what others have said: dual pistols goes very well with kinetics, dark miasma, or storm. Some of the storm and dark powers do not force redraw. The damage buffs also are help with any sentiment of not enough damage from other corruptor or defender blast sets.

Bots/Storm is flashy and crazy busy.
Dual Pistols/Storm (corruptor or defender version) is flashy, too.
Demon Summoning/Thermal is very busy and effective.
Earth Storm/Controller is the KING of "stop right there", with lots of effects.
Electric Control/electric assault is a bit flavor of the month, but has a lot of flexibility in build and play style. I like the super sapper build myself.

I recommend you at least try Demon Summoning/Thermal. It's solid and very team friendly. It's also completely different from /dark.

There are two things that bug the bejeebers out of me. When I enter a door and proceed to bubble/buff/interact with a teammate or pet and the damn reticle of whatever is behind me is so big I click on that first instead.

Second thing I hate is how target next cycles. If I target something in a group and it ends up being the farthest thing from me in that group, the next target is something 0.75 miles away in the next map. Now, reassure me dear devs, is that how the word 'next' operates when the mechanics of the game apply taunt, or any other Targetted AoE function in applying the 15/16 max spawn count for GDF/ED nerf AoEs that gimped controllers and tamed tankers?

The biggest issues seemed to me to be the Kheldians couldn't respec and the Dominators' bug, If they have that fixed, then I can see it going LIVE tomorrow. Some of us remember the weekend of hell when Issue 2 was released on Thursday, with just one more day before the weekend, and all door missions were broken. That said, if not tomorrow, then the earliest day would be Tuesday after Turkey day, Nov 30, IMHO.

Seebs, you crack me up. Let's party some time.

I suggest /thermal. It makes the most of the auras of your big three pets hitting you and the foes. Your ember demon shield and heal overlap the hellfire gargoyle debuff and the demon prince debuffs/slows and also your own PbAoE heal. Your MM and pets will move as a group, you want them in close. Keep the little buggers from chasing to far from the main group.

I must echo that Fire/Dark corruptors are great stuff out of the box. You can take a nice dark heal, a single target fire attack, tar patch (elegant, simple speed and resistance debuff), a targetted AoE that only gets better with slotting and rain of fire by level 6. That's deadly, that's effective and it's good support. You never look back from that core of an attack sequence. (I like to pull with twilight grasp, the dark heal, because it also debuffs targets ) Color customization can give it whatever theme you are looking for.

I am a bit of a Luddite I guess. I didn't get my own computer until 1996. I played Populous, Rise of Nations, and Freedom Force. I dearly loved Freedom Force and found an online community that spent time customizing powers, avatars, and such, but still not an MMO. The Freedom Force community had an early interest in CoH while in development. Many of the people on the Freedom Force boards played in beta and jumped in when the game went live. I lasted only a short time before I joined up in May of 2004.

The monthly fee didn't seem that much especially when there were so many free upgrades that other MMOs would charge for. $15 a month is $0.50 a day to play? I used to burn through that much easily just playing pinball. It's a lot cheaper than movies, drinking, or cigarettes to name a few 'entertainment' outlets.

The travel powers, the maps, the costume creator, the power selection flexibility all are seductive. Global names and channels made communication a whole lot easier than supergroup chat. Villains, proliferation, new powersets kept me coming. Ouroboros made me literally squeal being able to flashback. I actually embraced Architect Entertainment for what it was intended; I never leveled a 50 within a couple hours. AE means more content that rewards xp to players plain and simple. The inventions mean more individual customization and prioritization of power enhancement. Much to do about PvP, I was never a twitch Lara Croft uber player, and my system has never been cutting edge. I was always glad PvP existed and always glad it wasn't thrust upon those not wanting to participate. Recluse Victory is still a good place to dabble and get baubles from NPCs of opposing alignments.

The new taskforces, the new inventions, the Alpha slot all have my continued interest. I hope I am here for another 6 years.