Seldom

I always thought the 'Natural' pack would give either 'soldier' or ninja costume bits. (or even both) Looks like it may be the latter.

Let's see...tech was cyborg. Obvious.

Science had scientist stuff. Wow, imagine that.

Magic had robes, cowls, and witchy stuff. Seems fair.

Natural...ninjas? They train themselves, all their abilities come from personal discipline and practice. I can see that.

If the bonus power is to be able to level one'self up or change builds remotely, respec anywhere, color me happy. (Though if it instead gave an auto +15% recovery, you KNOW what I'd go for. )

Makes me wonder about mutation. Perhaps more monstrous options? (As in mutated freak kind of thing?)

Hm.

Both Villain and hero "epic" archetypes were designed for the team experience. It's kind of obvious that many lessons were taken from khelds in how to make a multi-functional team archetype viable, but there is still an obvious difference in HOW the two work on teams.

Arachnos' team bonus comes from what they give other team members, knowing that with their leadership buffs the team will be stronger, and capable of doing more than elsewise. The buffs are their direct contribution.

Kheldians' team bonus comes from what the team gives them, upping their performance. This leads many to look sideways at the archetype and say "really? a team AT that takes but doesn't give?" This is a misnomer, as the team bonus is actually there to boost the real 'team bonus' khelds are supposed to bring: their performance. The more team members a kheld has, the more beneficial it is to have a kheldian around due to how much better they become. It's an indirect value.

Part of the issue peace bringers have that warshades do not is the way their performance scale. Warshades, due to their AoE self-buff abilities, become stronger and stronger with more mobs around, something directly associated with bigger teams. Thus, in bigger teams with more buffs and more targets, they shine brighter and brighter performance-wise. Peace bringers don't have the scaling buffs from enemy groups to stack with the scaling ally buffs, as such they do not increase their performance to the same degree on a big team.

I do not think the question should be as much about extra direct contribution to team members, but about making peace bringers' performance contribution better.

Sad to say, but for me at least there's little point to it- for me at least. I play mainly villainside on Champ, and have since I could. As such, The base is chock full of event salvage, (120 of 30. ) and the badges are had by all to whom they are relevant. I suspect this is not wholly limited to redsides, either. Compared to when ToT'ing was introduced, the number participating has seemed lower and lower as years go on.

...And honestly, it's easy to see why. The only reason to trick or treat is for badges and salvage. The enemies are none too new, and the experience of clicking, fighting, clicking, has little variety. The temp costumes are fun, though.

Having a lowered number of folks around simply exasperates the issue.

But yes, masterminds can be fun. My robotics/forcefield mastermind was on invincible permanently after level 18. For the heck of it, I tried an 8 man mission setting now...not one scratch, my distractedness lost me two bots in the whole mission. For the fun of it, I did a secondary tankermind build with taunt...people snigger at first when the mastermind jumps ahead of the brute using provoke, but then watch as I lose NO health. (Funny how forcefields+the fighting pool+patron armor+leadership+robotics shields+bodyguard stack up.)

Hm... My Main, Dreameater, is a Mind/Psy dom. She no longer feeds like a normal human, but drains the dreams and desires from victims' souls to sustain her own life, and psychic energy. With no cause for continuance, the victims wither to mindless, soulless husks. There is no malevolence to this, but it certainly doesn't side on 'good.' Her personality is split between a scared young girl and a protective over-psyche that fancies itself capable of manipulating all of reality; any attack on the character is seen as against the child, and is defended viciously. The second personality often goes on adventures out of sheer boredom, but the child side wishes vehemently to assist the helpless. (As she was once.) It's tricky, but I'm thinking Rogue.

Mr. Plutonium: My oldest character, a rad/rad defender. Helpful man saved by re-assembly of his dying body, with a plutonium heart giving him the energy to stay alive. He only wants to help, despite the deadly radiation that permeates his very presence. Hero, straight up.

The Watchman: Hero who once protected his city with strength, toughness, and long-range x-ray sight: his ability to see into the city's dark corners and secret spots was problematic to the city's crime outfits, so villains captured him and removed his eyes. He has retrained, and used his memory of the city to function, but has anger issue under honorable (but stubborn) persistence. Still a hero.

Nurse Grace: Nurse who was sick of the turnover rate at a psychiatric ward for the criminally insane, she 'put down' all the patients she considered problematic with her advanced assault rifle. To escape prosecution, she opted for public service...and Paragon had opening for crime-fighting. Vigilante, easily.

The Cremator: fire/fire dom: Once-iconic villain, he was crafty enough to escape all criminal prosecution, as he covered his tracks too well. An angered vigilante used his wife to lure him out, she died in the process. Distraught with his loss, he surrendered, and rotted in the zig until recently. He was a villain, but because of what happened to his wife, it's unlikely he's re-start his life of evil. In fact, he may use his powers for good, as his wife once asked him to...but given his history, I doubt he'd be an angel about it. Ironically, I think he'll be a vigilante.

Nesticus: Arachnos soldier trusted with an advanced crab armor suit, he realized he didn't want to be hero cannon fodder, and could do better for himself solo. As such, he went rogue. And so he shall.

The Viduate: Widow(er) who lost his wife to the obsessive attentions of his superior fortunata. 'Course he didn't know it was her until after they developed a relationship. The fact that those who knew in Arachnos stayed hush-hush made him not only leave, but be angry enough to put many a future Arachnos mook on the business end of his claws. He's angry at bad people, but that doesn't make him good. Rogue, as he's not all about evil, but isn't a good man.

Dr. Scourge. rad/rad corruptor: (Mad scientist) Dreams of a day he can annihilate all innocence in the world, bring nuclear holocaust, kill all puppies, mutate all cute animals in the world into still cute but secretly ravenous mutants with a taste for baby flesh, and discover a way to develop an incurable zombie plague. Hero, right?

Malicient: Mind/Energy Dom: A sentient droid capable of re-wiring human synapses to his whim, a distinct interest in the way the human system works under severe trauma, and a fear of being controlled that leads him to wish to control the world around him much as he can. He doesn't understand evil, but his nack for curiosly killing/torturing puts him in the villain camp.

The Deathsman: Energy/Dark Brute: A hero captured and put through scientific experiments, he was taken back and forth over the threshhold of death. He became convinced it was life that caused suffering, and that true peace only comes from death. As such, he used his life energy to kill things, and death's energy to survive those that resist his efforts. He wants to bring world 'peace.' Villain, despite his 'good' intentions.

Silent Seth: Necro/poison mastermind: A child tortured in his youth, he fled home and found a cursed book with dark magic. His abbusive father tried to keep him from using the spells, for fear of vengeance, by sealing the boy's eye's lips manually with his sowing skills. Thing is, the spells didn't need to be spoken, so Seth turned those around him into undead slaves. Seth is an angry child using evil magic. Villain.

Lady Vasilisa: Bots/FF mastermind: Lone lasting ruler from a failed fascist state, which was brought down through international military efforts. She survives with the last of her mechanized army, and shielding technology. She wishes to bring vengeance against the states the felled her great nation and commander. Villain!

Nenia: Sonic/Sonic Corruptor: An ageless siren from the time of myth, she awoke to the new world, alone. She's angry, confused, and wants to destroy all of this new technology that has taken her world from her. Too bad to be anything but red.

Benjamin Pyre: Fire/fire brute: Born with the innate reflex/ability to cover himself with fire, he has burnt many a thing without meaning to. He grew accustomed to this, eventually embracing it as what he was meant to do. Not particularly sadistic, he still burns people for cash. Rogue!

Gauldreg: Ninja Blade/Dark stalker: Ghoul whose existence is threatened by the unbelief that permeates the world, quashing out the fear that feeds the dark mystical creatures of the world. He strives to bring back fear, to become stronger, as he once was. Villain!

Sam Harrow: elec/pain corruptor: He , with his brother, can control and influence bio-synaptic energies. He can see how the electrical reactions in al life works, and finds the display of energy that pain produces to be beautiful. Villain, once more. Hm.

Sir Bastion: Broadsword/regen scrapper: Knight bespelled to protect his king's lineage and country, the spell to bring him back took too long to stick, he came back in present day to the adopted land of the final heir, too late to save the man. As such, he is doomed to forever protect all that is left to his charge: the country of the fallen, Paragon. Hero, though he really just wants to die.

Ustula Frost: Fire/Cold corruptor: mischievous Fae prince who's peaved at the blatant disregard for the magical creatures and things as of late, who wishes nothing more than to smash, burn, cut things back that have destroyed the unheeded magical things of the world. He's malevolent enough to be bad, not gray.

Frankenfrieda: Elec/will brute: A living corpse cobbled together to be the girlfriend for her maker. She would have none of it, and set out to make a way in the world. She's fastidious about her manners, and has a gentle heart, but tick her off and she flies into an uncontrolled fury. Because she means well, she'll overcome her circumstances and become a hero.

Phantast: Claws/Dark Scrapper: A hero who strikes from the shadows, he still believes he can make the world the best it can be, despite the terrible things done to him by politicians he trusted. Hero, nothing darkens his idealism.

Leslie Froth: Pipe Wrench/will brute: A party girl who's a mean drunk, woke up from a party with half a block of Paragon decimated, and a full squad of cops in the hospital. Needless to say, she woke up in the zig. Unless she can overcome her nasty drinking habit, she may be stuck in her villainous outcomes, despite the fact that all she wants is a good time.

Supremia: energy/energy blaster: a heroine who's darned sure she is quit certainly the best thing to happen to the world. As such, you need not thank her, her own supremacy is all the thanks she needs. Hero.

Tigella: Earth/Thorn dom: plant creature spurned by the mistreatment of chemically corrupted plant life in the rogue isles, She's determined to destroy all fauna she finds. She'll be keeping to her destructive, villainous ways.

Captain Nimbus: elec/SR scrapper: a pilot who was struck with lightning mid-flight, granting him electric manipulation abilities, lightning fast reflexses, and permanent brain damage. The latter caused an inexplicable and single-minded fixation on bringing justice to the world. Justice. He can't stop saying it. Justice. Justice!! He's VERY hard on evildoers sometimes, but means too well to be evil in the slightest. Hero.

Mr. Kanker: rad/kin corruptor: a mob test Guinea pig, he used the abilities he gained to sap living energy and weaponize it as a sickening, destructive force against his tormentors in a mob war. He lost. He now lives only for the best he can do for himself in this moment. Not sure if this puts him in the rogue camp, or if his penchant for stealing life energy to destroy things (and enjoyment therof) puts him all the way red.

And that's not even all I have on Champion.

Off the cuff, I'd drob acrobatics. Rolling AE tickets in the bronze 10-14 bronze recipe range gives KB resistance recipes easily if you need -kb, but domination does that anyway.

And as much as I despise saying it, but if you put in hasten, you will have enough recharge to make domination permanent. (I dislike that a power has such an effect to make it an almost 'must' for high-tier dom build performance, but there it is.)

Hello.

I come with something of a conundrum...I've built a Ninja Blade/dark armor stalker, and am finding it's usage a bit...lacking. It was leveled up mostly via teaming, so progress was fast and frantic against many mobs. Having played literaly for years on a /DA brute, I did give the mez auras a shot, but the usage was hit and miss. They helped in situation where sneaking was less likely, so scrapping vs. stunned/shuddering foes was a nice perk. (And with the recent +crit for nearby allies, I lost little from lack of hide.) However, I've tried soloing more with the build as of late, and found the toggle/untoggle of mez auras to allow for better stealth strikes cumbersome.

Which brings me to a question: Is it a viable option to build with set bonuses/power picks toward defense? (And ditching the mez auras in the process?) With divine avalanche's lethal/melee defense, and a lesser extent shadow dweller, getting decent lethal/melee seems rather doable. However, getting some ranged defense would help a lot for enemies that stand back or scatter, or just against the other 'half' of most attack types. I don't know. I've had great experience with my /dark brute, but am disappointed by the stalker iteration. What's the best way to get this running better? Current level is 39.

(I ask all of this with the caveat that as I started the character, my first and only stalker until recently, on a whim. As such, I am a amateur at all but the most basics of the archetype.)

The changes do focus the "perma-dom" building, though. My +recharge build (though it lacks the hasten to be perma-yellow sparkles? No thanks!) has a significant edge on my single origin enhanced doms. That said, doing gimpy builds that sacrifice performance for extra recharge are bound to be less popular. Domination has a great many percs, but it's not a one-trick any longer.

The new plus to +recharge is with the higher base damage, especially on a team with +damage, Your AoE's can get up to some snazzy numbers...and since doms only get a limited gamut of AoE in their attacks, getting those back fast makes taking out groups far faster. My mob attacks chain is Psy Scream, dark obliteration, Psychic Shockwave, utility power and control, repeat. If you happen to snag a fulcrum shift, wave hello to those funny blasters as you mez then decimate spawns in complete safety.

I found that with not many in-zone, the issue was making sure all banners were being assaulted. (redside.) When teams came through, they were all on one banner....no progress happened until we had people attacking every banner's spawns. After that, taking the banners down was a matter of all zone teams coordinating to hit one banner with all fire at at time.

I humbly submit my arc..

DOOM for me, DOOM for you!
Arc ID: 88385
Faction: Neutral
Creator Global: @ChicagoDoodler
Difficulty Level: Hard
Mission Count: 4
Estimated Time to Play: Long (It has generally taken me around an hour and a half to two hours)

To the OP:

The point of this game, to the player, is to have fun. I know, slap me for saying the stupid, obvious thing, but there it is. 'Tis a game. Now the brands of fun it offers are in a couple different flavors: getting characters to be the most powerful they can be. This can be via reaching level 50, or by getting all the best inventions to make them more capable, or both. It can be by 'completing' the games content, by running all the missions, getting all the badges. It can be by trying an altogether new team role that you never experienced by making an alternate character.

But the biggest one?

Playing with fun people.

This is a massively multiplayer online role playing game, so even though you can solo, it won't be as engaging as when you find some players you really enjoy to play with, or team up with a friend and throw some superpowers around. Or heck, join a pick up group of total strangers and see what you can do. Honestly, in this aspect, your 50 is always useful. Playing with people is never repetitive as people always try new stuff, and a team with different people plays differently, guaranteed.

Sonic blast is very good on defenders. They have lower damage starting out, but superior debuff numbers bring it up again. It also has some nice controls to give space for setup, if need be.

As far as Dom team roll is concerned, you are dual-purpose. The main reason you will be invited will be by smart folks who hope you can make their life easier by locking down problematic enemies. As such, the first order of business is to know what enemies are a pain and stop them from doing so. This is partly selfish, as they can be a pain for you, too. (Think Tsoo sorcerers, end-sapping mu, sky porters and engineers, malta sappers, and so on.) Your domination button makes you the best controlling archetype in the game. Learn to gauge for big battles...if none are coming, use it freely. Learn the recharge,too, as it come back soon enough that waiting the full mission is counter-productive. You can use it several times with ease.

But don't think you're on a team just for control, you do almost blaster damage. Your damage goes between controls. Lock enemy down, damage/kill it. Lock enemy or mob down, start killing. Control up again? Use it, then kill more. It's simple as that. Both primary and secondary are your 'attack chain.'

Edit: The domination bar goes down FAR slower than fury. You can go a long time doing nothing and you will still have some decent buildup of dom ready. Keep in mind both primary and secondary build it, but the secondary more so.

Not sure if this is an okay place to mention this, or if Hero 1 is still following this, but while he's looking at frustrating mission he could look at this one:

Contact: Serpent Drummer
Rescue Captives from the Nemesis Army
Dreams of Peace and Acts of War
Part: Two

Problem: General Aarons NPC is a Noob.

Details: the mission, to be successful requires the general to be protected. Unfortunately, He has tiny hit points, an aggressive attitude, a gun attack, and a brawl attack. He uses the latter to run far ahead of the group into the middle of a mob, and punch them in the face.

Solution Suggestions:
A. Take his fists away. Er...tell the General he need not engage in fisticuffs when he has a perfectly good firearm. (Take away his brawl power)
B.Give the general some combat training, so he knows how to take a hit. (Toughen him up HP-wise.)
C. Teach the guy some strategic discretion. He need not risk his neck going it solo, he should wait for his team! (Put him on a defensive stance rather than aggressive)

Some quick questions I might ask:

Will there be streamlining of the respec process with going rogue, or is such a change even being considered? (i.e. rather than having to change powers from level one all the way up, could we simply replace powers, move slots, or remove enhancements? [With levels noted])

Can 'grey' characters go to both hero and villain zones? Can red and blue side enter each other's zones at any point? (Via disguise or invasion?)

Can neutral characters interact in a non-aggressive way with both sides?

Wil there be a neutral option, or is the grey permanently just 'not as evil' or 'bad boy hero?'

Will there be an effort to make more content to better define sides, should they stay on their present side? (That is, less mercenary, more ruthless villainy alongside more 'save the world,' less violent heroism)