Shred_Monkey

what I've seen from the videos, the set looks cool enough visually to get me to at least roll up a toon.... given the changes to stalkers, I'll probably do it as a stalker as well... and when talking about stalker secondaries, there's ninjitsu, and then sets that you pick only because you don't want ninjitsu. So staff/nin is probably my choice.

I'd like to see a devices control set someday... it wouldn't give us martial arts/devices... but already dominators have some play style similar to a blapper with really good controls.

I try to build without hasten because gives me burning hands. Take that away and I'd probably include it in every build. There's very few builds and sets out there that don't benifit somehow from more recharge... and rarely are my builds tight on fitting in all the powers I want. Usually I'm tight on slots, not powers.

Usually I have 1 maxed out "main" toon who I play 3-4 nights a week, and 1 alt who gets the rest of the playtime. The alt changes every few months. The main has only changed once.

I'd drop something else... but since that's not the question you asked... FE is better for damage output... BU is better if for things like hitting that dark servent that's making the whole team miss and possibly wipe when fighting a +3 carnie master illusionist spawn.... Since you're not really the damage dealer for the team, you might prefer the +tohit boost.

Throw spines (spines), shockwave (claws), repulsing torrent (Kinetic), and Breath of Fire (fire) all take targeted AoE as their set. So it's not exactly an unusual thing among the melee primaries. I do agree that it seems like this power has relatively less range then those other examples, though.

For endgame build I took Crane Kick over Cobra Strike. Initially it was because I wanted my toon to just do kicks only (and burn stuff, since he's ma/fire). But after making the move I realized that crane kick is really better mitigation then cobra strike in most situations where it mattered to me. Minions and Lts die so fast, I really don't much care about mitigating their damage. And Cobra Strike doesn't stun a boss by itself. Crane Kick, however does knock down a boss and remove it from melee for a brief period of time. While that's not a complete lockdown type of mitigation... knockdown is still more mitigation then NOT stunning something.

Synergywise... nothing stands out during the level up period, in my mind... But I personally find MA to be one of, if not THE most powerful incarnate primary. It has very quick animating powers so you get more applications of your reactive proc then many alternativies. Also, unlike DB and Claws (which also have fast animating powers) it doesn't rely on a self buff to output high DPS chains. Where this helps, is that if you go with musculature alpha, you get a higher % boost to your overall DPS. This means, with MA, the more +dam you add your build, the more you'll catch up to, and surpass the top DPS chains of other sets.

Because of this, of the options you listed... I recommend /SR. My reasoning being this. You can easily boost recharge with quickness and set bonuses. You can easily soft cap defenses for survivability... thus leaving lots of room to use incarnate powers to focus on damage output, instead of trying to fill in other holes, which you might have in other sets. However, this is a very end-game look. If your focusing on leveling up, and won't play much after 50, then I don't see anything particularly strong, or weak in those 4 options.

This happens in all games... If it wasn't DFB it'd be something else. Personally, I never find it annoying. I make my toons to be self sufficient enough that even though I play 100% pick-up groups I really couldn't care less what powers the other 7 people have, much less if they know how to use them. The game is easy enough as it is, and it's just a game anyway. If the team starts to wipe too much, usually the idiots who can't play and blame everyone else, quit first anyway. Replace them and move on.

Just go with Freedom.

Levels 1-10 look in AP... levels 10-20 Steel Canyon (also, sewer trials forming regularly are still good for xp) ... Levels 20-30 look in Talos Island. Levels 40+ look in Parigrine Island.

I didn't list level 30-40 because, things slow up a bit there. Brickstown and Founder's Falls both sometimes have teams running Radio missions... and sometimes I'll go back to Talos Island and pick up teams there. Luckily in that range you're starting to complete your build and can generally fly though solo missions for good xp rate with nearly any well built toon.

I don't like the mechanic of real time cooldowns for anything that happens within the game world. I understand the logic behind it... but I don't agree with it.

It appears you really like fireball... but if you're able to give that up... I find that clicking Shadow Meld (stalker epic pool) allows my /fire toon to jump into almost any spawn and survive until the danger is over. It also fits with the strategy of building for recharge to get my heal, AoE attacks, and damage buff powers up as fast as possible. It has a really long animation, but I just click in on the way into the spawn and then cut loose with the AoE goodness once I'm in the middle of the pile.

AFK farming is pretty obviously abusive.... but it doesn't keep us non AFK farmers from being able to afford our new shinies. Quite the opposite. It's the only reason we can hope to ever afford to buy PVP IOs on the market.

Which actually means there's 2 things that need fixed.... PVP IOs need to drop more frequently and AFK farming should be made impossible.

7:30... eastern?

If not getting your rare/very rare on one run makes you leave the game... then you need to find a new hobby. If running an end game trial and getting a common is that upsetting to you, then those "other" games will probably make you suicidal.

Given the backstory of Statesmen the Dev... I'd say this day has been a long time coming... I know when I first saw the whole "who will die" storyline advertised, my first thought was, "I wonder if they're going to finally kill Statesmen off."

To make him actually gone, there really is a lot of work to do in various story arcs throughout the game if they choose to go that route.

When I was reading through your concepts, EA is what came to my mind right away. It's even stealthy for more ninja feel.

What really makes me disappointed about EM isn't just that it's got meh stats. It's also a very cool looking set... the energy "pom poms" that burst outward with the big 2-hand smash attacks just look awsome IMHO. It's one of my favorite sets to use for color/customizing purposes. It's probably the set I've *started* more then any other. But even if I get the toon to 50, I end up going back to a better performing alt.

IMHO, the best thing about dual blades (statwise) is sweeping strikes. It's a 90 degree cone and does very good DPA. Using it as often as possible while fueled by blinding feint's buffs can turn you into a slaughter machine, competing very well with any other set. (fill in the gaps witih your other attack of choice)

However, I really don't think the dev's intended us to ignore combo's completely. I think it was just by accident that the set ended up this way.

If IOs hadn't come a long... I'm sure I'd be playing another game by now.

Let's go for the whole thing... we need a mech body type... female/male/huge/mech

(not holding breath)

I'm not sure adding AoE stun to the stun power will make it any more useful. Most ATs using this set survive without control pretty well, so it'd still be a throw away power.

Increasing the radius of Whirling Hands would certainly be a welcome change.

Psi using enemies tend to be weak vs damage and status effects... I find the best way to fight Arachnos, for example, is to use binds to pick out the fortunas and just take them out as fast as possible.

Also, shadow meld, has psi defense... I highly recommend it for /fire builds with a heavy focus on recharge.