brophog02

Whether it is defensive shields or resistance shields it doesn't matter. Putting 14 shields on every 4 minutes is a pain, and many people won't play such sets just for that reason.

That's the biggest issue you're feeling between empathy and thermal. Added to that, two of the biggest buffs in empathy are area buffs........the RAs. The thermal set is comprised of single target buffs and debuffs. Trying to keep all of those up, even without another primary/secondary is difficult.

You need to prioritize what you need at that time, and that changes based on circumstance. Depending on how you play empathy (and a lot of people just play empathy and ignore their other set) you may be accustomed to putting everything out all of the time, regardless of if it is really needed at that time. If you try that with Thermal, particularly at the speed many villains teams move, that will be all you ever accomplish.

This shields: There are times you may not need Plasma Shield, depending on enemies. You may have a team where survivability isn't a problem, depending on makeup. In that case, the shields may not be necessary at all and damage buffing/debuffing may be more necessary.

Thaw: Much like CM for empathy, you only really need to worry about this if there is problems with mezzers.

Forge: There are times in this game where damage is indeed superflous. If every spawn is melting, no need to bother with forging everyone.

Melt Armor: Similar to Forge, just the debuff version. Is the damage output good and the team seems to be having little trouble with accuracy? Then you probably don't need it. With difficult enemies, Forge, Melt Armor, and your own damage may take top priority.

That template also works well with sets other than Rad/MM. Just about any set with several melee attacks and the ice epic can be fitted with that template for S/L defense.

And we've hit our monthly quota for knockback suggestions in this forum. Please come back next month where someone else suggests how we should eliminate knockback in a superhero game.


(Which is about like playing a fantasy game and banning swords.)

Good farmer.

You don't need hover for teleport. It takes some serious lag to be much of a problem, and if it is that bad then there are res-stockable jetpacks galore in this game.

SS has no vertical movement, but (again) jetpacks are easily available. With hurdle, you clear most obstacles anyhow, and even better with CJ. SS is easily my favorite in large part because I'm likely to get hasten, anyhow.

With jetpacks, SS is the only power you need. There is nothing "ghetto" about it.

Completing the mission is the expected behavior of this game. This isn't a matter of ettiquette. 99.999999999% of the time you will complete the mission. It is only that one farming mission that you wouldn't click the glowies.


And in that case, it is clearly the responsibility of the holder to state that anomoly. No one is going to play every mission in this game without taking the steps to complete it just because of a few farmers like to hoard their 'soon to be added timed' missions.

Actual etiquette examples that come up constantly:

Letting the tank do his job. Don't throw immobs until he grabs aggro. Don't throw AOEs til he has aggro. It takes him 2 seconds to grab all of the aggro in a nice neat pile, so give him that courtesy.

Tanks letting their teammates do their jobs. Don't take a nicely placed mob and string them out 50 feet just because you feel like taunting. It is OK to jump in that pack. You have an entire team supporting you. Get in there and grab aggro and it will all be over soon.

When did the Archetype and Powers board fully lay its claim as the whine board? Every thread anymore is whining about something.

Especially with things like S/L whining. Do you have any idea how many sets in this game are dominated by one or both?

The things that change are usually animation times and damage modifiers, both of which have already been addressed with AR and therefore unlikely to see anything more than minor tweaks.

Most of this thread is just whining because AR isn't the big dog. Its not that it is grossly underperforming, but whining because it isn't grossly dominating. If you're not doing the most damage, on +4/8 then the set is the sucks. That mentality has never gotten anyone anywhere with the devs, and for good reason.

Most of this whining is inaccurate, too. M30 Grenade and Buckshot are still well in line with the AOE and cone powers of other sets where outside a handful of clear outliers, there isn't a lot of difference. The cone and AOE powers in the Blaster sets are all very similar across the board. Many of the AOE powers in blaster sets also have knock effect (M30, Explosive Blast, Explosive Arrow, Psionic Tornado).

The animation times of AR were reduced from exceedingly long to just kinda long, but with the appropriate defiance modifiers on them. Ignite is still a ridiculous ST power that is easily leveraged due to the fact most of the Blaster secondaries have a mandatory Immob who themselves do very underrated damage. It is simply a matter of playing AR to its strengths rather than whining that you don't play it quite like you do the other sets.

The "problems" in the end game aren't with AR, it is with the other sets in the game and with IOs (a set like Archery who has its damage loaded primarily into one power is better off with the high recharge IOs/teams bring even though the set is in line balancewise with similar sets). AR isn't too slow, teams are too fast. Once you hit the 30s, particularly with the rampant overusage of Emps and Kins, the game becomes an absolute joke because teams move through content too fast. And if teams aren't blitzing through content like it is irrelevant then they whine. I've lost count how many perfectly good teams were advertising or breaking up because it they didn't have what they "need". They're whiners.

And so is this thread.

Spend your time showcasing how AR is grossly underperforming the bulk of blaster sets, and not just Archery post ROA slotting or Fire. That'll be a difficult task because most of ARs powers are shared throughout the various blaster sets. The blaster sets are well balanced around its metrics, but the game is in some sense fundamentally flawed in terms of min-max IO builds and lazy players who want trivial content they can steamroll.

Never.

Anything with a 6 slotted Whirlwind gets my stamp of approval!

Congrats on your first 50!

To really enjoy this game, you have to stop playing for XP and start playing because you enjoy the game itself. If you play just to grind out XP, then your going to find yourself burnt out sooner or later. There is a lot in this game to enjoy. Personally, I exemplar all of the time because I like playing those toons even without that carrot being dangled in front of me.

To your questions:

1)When you go to make a new character, you'll have the options now present for a Peacebringer or Warshade. Just select them like you did your original archetype.

2) Nothing happens to your 50. It remains in your list like it always has. The only change is that it is now 50 and level capped.

There are lots of things to do with 50s. You could go back and play missed content, either exemplaring on a team at that level or through Orobourus. TFs are always being run with 50s. Most servers have regular Hami and Mothership raids. There are badges to collect. There's PVP if that is your thing. Then there is always influece and drops and IOing to be done. A lot of people spend a lot of time and take a great amount of pride in making their final build as cool as it can be.

Or, you can just reroll another character. For some, the game is seeing how many 50s they can collect.

3)A second build is just like a respec. You select your second build at the trainer and go through picking your powers again and slotting them. The advantage of a 2nd build is to get more usage out of that singular character. Popular options are to make one build for PVE and another for PVP or one for teaming and one for solo play.