Psylenz

I think masterminds are very much like defenders, with pets earlier and more of them.

I realized today that many posters here are very informed about defender powers or genuinely come seeking player-based experience in defender powers. There is a lot, even in people who have played 10 levels with a powers, of disinformation that somehow infects the play and playstyles of inexperienced or uninformed players.

Case in point, today in a team that was forming for the Sister Psyche taskforce. I remarked that I should be sidekicked up to level 24 so that my heal would hit. Not five minutes later another teammate remarks we have two defenders neither of which heal, and that my character was a pure dark with no heal. (So I pulled using twilight grasp a level 25 Council lieutenant and proceeded to AoE heal the team.)

The next thing I suggested that if the squishies played close to the sonic defender and dark defender, they would have plenty of support with the twilight grasp heal and the mez protection in sonic dispersion, which the sonic was running already. The sonic then informs me he doesn't have his mez power yet, which I assumed he meant clarity. So I copied the attributes of sonic dispersion from red tomax website. It then occurred to me the information was in the sonic dispersion icon information, too.

Defenders, I don't suggest we question every tactic difference or strategy, but we as defender players should could consider ourselves on a mission to inform teammates in game of the fallacies in our beloved defender powers. Pure dark? No mez protection in sonic dispersion? From where do such ideas spring?

I also had one blaster complain I wasn't healing him when he was hightailing it back to the mission door. I am sure he could see where the green numbers were flying, but its hard to convince folks to hug their defenders sometimes.

Dark/Ice is a lot of fun. The ice set seems more powerful. The extra slows on top of tar patch are yummy. Freeze Ray, Petrifying Gaze and a Dark Servant gives you three sources of hold.

Dark/Sonic: Sonic goes well with everything with the stacked -resistance debuffs.

Don't count out Dark/Electric. It's a very potent combo in proficient hands.

That happens with particular AVs, such as Black Scorpion. I won't spoil too much, but the ole boy can surprise you at the end of the second arc. He owned me like twice in a row on two characters. Then I go for him again and he falls like a sack of taters. The defense rolls and if you are mezzed really factor into these little encounters. Stock up on inspies, if you survive the first five seconds, most likely you will win with your usual tactics.

I like Forcefields/Psy for the psychic scream/psi tornado/repulsion bomb trifecta. All AoE, two knockdowns, they hardly have a chance to fire back if their powers ever recharge.

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Hit capping is easier on necro/dark. Necro/dark also provides more control. Necro/Storm applies it's -tohit buffs faster, worries less about scatter and provides more overall damage.

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First let me state, as a whole, I wouldn't rate storm or dark as more powerful. They both have their own flair and playstyle and can be extremely effective in experienced hands. Storm has lot of control, just not the control some would say is conventional in that repel and knockback are both effective at controlling the battlefield. Storm also has a lot of status effects in its bag off goodies: stuns in particular.

Gale - AoE KB, dark doesn't have a comparable primary power

O2 - minor heal, good status protection for select list, Twilight Grasp is a better heal and debuff.

Snowstorm - Tarpatch, one is constant and an end drain, the other is temporal and stationary.

Freezing Rain - Fearsome Stare, two very different but effective debuffs

Hurricane - positional soft control and big AoE ToHit debuff; Darkest Night - Targetted AoE debuff, completely uncontrollable.

Thunderclap and Howling Twilight; HT is a better stun and debuff with the rez , Thunderclap recharges faster.

Steamy Mist and Shadow Fall are about a wash in use and buffs.

Tornado - roving AoE kb/stun/def debuff pet
Lightning Storm - stationary damage dealing KB pet which can be focused with flight/jump to knock down and have less lateral range.

Petrifying Gaze and Fluffy. No question the Dark Servant is a better pet. It lives long, has a bigger bag of tricks, and can be teleported if need be. When Dark Servant is slotted for ToHit Debuff, you have a nice melee zone around the pet that has a soft-capped effective defense.

I left out Black Hole, but even gale is better than Black Hole.

More ideas? Sonic blast, cut down the resistance, or run with resistance debuffers.

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Towering Inferno is a villain... or should be.

http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Towering_Inferno

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OMG! He's gone Rogue early!

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GAWD I must have misremembered it, very much UNLIKE that Dallas fiasco. Looking at the Rogue Isles villains, I do admit I haven't seen much more than half of them. Bad Penny? Are you kidding me? Give me Mangle any day.

Different. I have played 6 villains to level 50, scads of alts, and today in a skyway mission we encountered Towering Inferno... who?

2.1.1 No Mind
2.1.2 Polar Shift
2.1.3 Blast Furnace
2.1.4 Cacophony
2.1.5 Arc Flash
2.1.6 Doc Quantum
2.1.7 Holo Man
2.1.8 Ms. Shock
2.1.9 Overdrive
2.1.10 Rosethorn
2.1.11 Sky Dragon
2.1.12 Stalwart
2.1.13 Flambeaux

These are the usual heroes I have encountered, and that's straight from the paragonwiki.

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Best with endurance is Kin/Elec Defender, by far. Transference >> just about any +rec or +end power in the game.

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I can't believe it took this long to get the correct post. I would also offer that a Cold corruptor/defender with Heat loss is a close second.

There used to be a guy long ago that probably got nerfed: Captain Underpants.

I may have missed this, but I have noticed different AV/EBs in the villain mayhem missions lately. Is that new with I14?

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How about making 2 shirts available?

Shirt 1 would have 1st Place on the front with 3rd place on the back.

Shirt 2 would have 2nd Place on the front with 3rd place on the back.

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Not a bad idea... assuming they fix the typo on Third place that is (it says: "Summon it it" toward the bottom).

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I am totally in agreement on this. All three are excellent, my nod to #2.

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Add me to the list of people who likes to click the power buttons. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one either. Maybe it isn't the most optimal way to do it, but it's what I'm comfortable with and I seem to do just fine, so why change? Don't feel you have to force yourself to change.

I have a friend who was suprised to find I click the buttons and said I should use the number keys. But I watched him playing once and it didn't seem like he fired off his powers any faster or easier than I do. I never noticed a difference when teaming with him, either.

The only real problem I have with it is that sometimes I'm too frantic and I'll click a button while the mouse is still moving. Instead of activating a power, it'll move the button to another place in the tray. Seems very sensitive about that. But with practice I'm getting better at avoiding that.

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In the options menu, you can lock the powers in your tray.

QR

I can transfer wealth quickly by putting a hot little item in the SG storage base, let the poor one pick it up and sell it for cash or use it if needed.

The SG base is the short and easy method.

I support Storm/Ice with a hearty HEAR HEAR. The storm set brings a mixed bag of debuffs: speed, recharge, accuracy, defense. The ice blast has a slow component in each attack. The ice storm and blizzard bring big attack numbers; combined with freezing rain, it's a true death zone of triple rain goodness.

Storm is a set that needs more attention to position and terrain. It's also very rewarding. Balancing the possibility of knocking everything hither and thither to your team's dismay with being effective in every situation with your stormy goodness is a fine balance. With experience you will recognize when and where to drop your lightning storm, your tornado, where to use herdicane, and when to just smack an unsuspecting group with freezing rain.

Oh, and coming from an altaholic like myself: try them all, you will find one you like.

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Actually I'm going to disagree with most here and say there is such a thing, involving the empath heals (or therm or any other with a targeted heal). I quite often used to do this on my emp. If I saw a teammate jump into a situation where I was positive they would be taking a lot of damage, I would activate a heal before they actually took the damage. That way, they would be healed immediately after taking the damage.

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I would agree that this player tactic is possible and used often by skilled players, but it in no way shows to me that the power itself is pre-emptive.

Frostworks from the cold set could be construed as a pre-emptive heal, but even Turbo Ski, the official cold proponent, doesn't recommend that power except in certain situations.

A very old one, but I have heard it nonetheless: forcefields decrease the shielded player's accuracy. I think that might have been true in beta 2004

QR Ice blast is bad for PvP?

You could double up the darkity darkness and go ranged to complement his melee pets. Robots or thugs /dark comes to mind. A fire/dark corruptor would be really stoking up the damage, so to speak. A */Trick Arrow would work well, too.

Now if they would only unlock dispersion bubble in the protector bots as originally designed.

I vote for Ice/Mental Manipulation

I have a new love. It's a Dark/Ice defender on Virtue. I have been teaming as a duo and with others with a Rad/sonic. What we are doing at level 14 is sick and wrong.

My build plan has been a little (a lot?) seat of the pants, but so far, I am going with the "take all the clicks before stamina" "take all the toggles after stamina" route. Twilight grasp, tar patch, howling twilight, and fearsome stare take a bite out of most alphas.

I look forward to freeze ray, darkest night, shadow fall, and the Dark Servant, along with more ice blasts of course.

If you like Bots/FF, you will do fine and squeeze all you can out of the forcefields in support of your bots and your team.