MTeague

I get a fair amount of winter packs every month, but I admit, I keep all of the Winter-O's I get for myself, and distribute them to my alts. I do converter roulette on a regular basis and at any given moment one of my characters is selling 20-50 regular rare IO pieces. I sometimes post ATO's for sale. I never post Winter-O's for sale. If I don't have an alt who can use the Winter-O I get, I convert it until it's one of the sets my alts need.

The To-Hit Debuff (and the Repel) both extend a few feet beyond the visible swirl of Hurricane. I don't think very far, but if the Repel moves them, they've been debuffed. As far as Herding, it may depends how you prefer to channel them. Usually on my defender, if I'm soloing, I either do not herd, or I corner pull and use Freezing Rain as soon as they're clumped up. When I'm teamed, it's almost never my defender doing any pulls / herding. Either the team is steamrolling eveyrthing and there is no pulling, just killing, OR, there's a Tanker who rounds things up, and I just play goalie with Hurricane, using the repel to push things back into melee range. I find I'm more surgically able to reposition things with the Repel effect, but i admit, I have not yet played a FF Defender or a Kin who made heavy use of the PBAE Knockback aura. It's possible I just haven't practiced the technique you outline enough. (/em add alts to backlog...) I also Gale KB-To-KD to just drop an entire squad of foes on their butts all at once, to interfere with an Alpha strike, and of course for the lulz. Maybe not the most practical power selection, but it's fun. And I have bought people needed time with it.

For every spawned zombie killed by a Judgement, 3 more zombies burst from the ground to takes it's place, and they ALL immediately cast Vengeance on the fallen zombies. Oh, and they all do the Super-Stunner auto-hit end-drain res if killed. And they all cast Snow Storm to savage your movement speed and recharge. Is that sufficiently offensive? 🙂 (This is of course A JOKE. I served my time in Hell during World of Warcraft Progression Raiding..... just trying to think of similar uberpunishing "okay guys, that's a wipe, just die" mechanics)

This I agree with completely. I've been in love with Hurricane since the first time I ever used it in 2006 or so. Hurricane is a monstrously large To-Hit Debuff. If you savage your enemies to hit by 30%, that's like giving yourself (and everyone else on your team) 30% defense. It's not exactly the same thing, but it's pretty darn close. This I have to disagree with though. My Storm Defender is at his absolute safest when things are in melee range, under the effect of Hurricane, consistently missing him again, and again, and again. If they're hurled back by KB, they might stand up and shoot from a distance and once the debuff wears off, they'd be able to hit me. If they're never thrown back, the to-hit debuff is consistently applied. Yes, there's still a slight Repel effect, but it's not toooo strong and mobs seem plenty able to foolishly run right back into the to-hit debuff. I seem to have far less END issues on my storm def than most people are saying, but, he's a defender, not a controller, and he's not constantly spamming any kind of AE immob. Those tend to be expensive. All I've got for my stormie is Perf Shifter +Chance For End, Perf Shifter EndMod, and a Miracle in Health. He does have 3 different set bonuses for "-% to endurance cost for all powers", though.

If you do not have very high defense, you won't be able to use Aid Self / Aid Other when things are attacking you. EDIT: that said, I use it on my Claws/SR scrapper and it's nice. But that is a tricked out /SR build.

MurderOfCrows can work as a nice dark magic, but I would absolutely love more options too!

LOL, nice thank you sir. Now I need to make sure no one ever upvotes me again 🙂

unlucky misses can happen of course, but i hear you.

My Ninja/Cold is doing well at lvl 28. Admittedly, I'm not trying to +4/x8 anything yet, just +1x3. But hey, he's lvl 28. Lots of slotting left to go, lots of powers still to get. I did sugar daddy him with the Pet Aura IO's and ATO's. And I mailed him several procs to toss into Infrigidate (hits pretty darn well....) But between inherent defense, two +5% defense Pet Aura IO's, Cold Shields, Arctic Air, and Manuvers, they're at 35% or so defense, and I have a lot more slotting to do. It works for me. I also run Snow Storm a fair bit to a) cut down on incoming attacks over the course of a fight, and b) keep runners more under control. I also have Sorcery / Spirit Ward and Frostwork to help prop some pets up longer. Do some die? Sure. I've rarely had them all die, even soloing +1x3 in late 20's. I think it's plenty viable, and enjoyable. It is "Best" / "Most Effective" / META? probably not. But it's fun.

Although if they were added, many people would be very happy.

I think Ninjistu is Pretty Dang Good. But your defenseive toggles cover all three posistions as early as Level FOUR. SR has to wait a long long time for any AoE defense. Caltrops. Glorious, Wonderous, Stop-Attacking-Me-And-Give-Me-Free-Hits Caltrops. Which also makes a wonderful area denial to save a teammate from melees, too. Kuji-in-Sha gives you a baked-in heal self without having to take three powers in the Medicine Pool, and it's not interruptable. And it comes with +RES vs Toxic Kuji-in-RIn (your clicky status protection) includes Confuse and Fear, which Practiced Brawler does NOT. Oh, and it comes with some +RES vs Psionics.... The powers with +RES, I'm pretty sure let you slot the 3% defense uniques without needing to take Boxing/Tough. You might still take fighting anyway, but it's not like /SR where you HAVE to use pool powers to slot them 3% def uniques. Blinding Powder lets you whittle down part of a mob without having to tank it all at once, whereas /SR just better dodge everything or get walloped. Now, admittedly, it doesn't have quite as much DDR as Super Reflexes. It doens't have the baked in scaling damage resist that Super Reflexes gets. But I don't feel /Nin is hurting or otherwise in a bad place.

As long as a) I don't see anyone else's cones / AE's, and b) I can turn it off, then I don't mind.

Agreed. Particularly redside, I like the way the tip mechanics are used to put in some missions as if they were your own choices, your own decisions, your own plans. It's a nice break from some missions that come across only as if you are at best a mercenary for hire, and at worst a lackey to be ordered about. Yes, redside gets better later, and yes, it makes sense you have to EARN your "street cred" at the lower levels, but the tip missions are some of the earliest content that feels like you're acting on your own agency.

I would have tried to be all "I meant to do that." and said "SEE?? That's how fast we die if we pull too much at once!"

For combat teleport? Take Speed of Sound. Leave Speed of Sound on. Keybind Jaunt. Yes, I definitely would like regular plain old "Teleport" to be that fast animating and not sticking you in a hover for a few seconds. Or if there's a sizeable chunk of people who prefer the current teleport for long distance travelling, fine, take a page from Dual Pistols / Swap Ammo, and have Telelport be one power selection that unlocks both "Travel Teleport" (existing mode) and "Combat Teleport" (jaunt style). And I really really really want a Teleport Attack like "Burst of Speed" from Martial Combat available in the Teleport power pool.

I'm guessing a lot of it is that if you have to communicate what the projectile was to ALL observers, it becomes a lot more network traffic... particularly in outside zones. In a mission, it would matter less because you'd generally only have you and 7 others. But... say in Atlas Park? By the statue, propelling a hellion? Especially when the game came out and X many people still had Dial-Up.

For the pet.... I wouldn't want this to feel like it's stealing tooo much of the Necromancy MM's thunder. What I WOULD like though, is some kind of "Field of Bone", that's like Carrion Creepers, but bone-themed vs plant themed. #8 I would absolutely call Bone Shield, in honor of the Diablo 2 Necromancer. #4.... I dunno. Conceptually, throwing dirt feels more like a melee distraction tactic, not like a staple of a controller.

Well... Origin is your Origin... it's not necessarily the source of your powers TODAY, just the source of your powers when you got started. Still, I see no harm / anything unbalancing in allowing it to be changed. It wouldnt' be like allowing you a different AT or different primary/secondary powersets.

I think the Endurance cost of the pet buffs rises with each affected pet. Which is still a more than fair tradeoff to buff them all in one cast. Just do make sure to use both buffs if you have access to them both. Each one gives the pets different skills. The first buff is NOT obsoleted when you get the second buff.

Tip missions also often have other NPC heros / villains in them, which count toward Hero Slayer / Villain Disruptor badges, if I'm not mistaken. Either way, they're better written and more engaging (to me anyway) than "The Boomtown Security Chief asked for you by name. You should consider that a compliment. Go see what he wants."

I may have matching hubris, but, I am in fact a dfferent person 🙂

Fusionette, in RWZ misisons. HEY! EYES UP HERE, PAL! (though really, given her costume, one has to wonder a bit at just what she was expecting.....)

I think the ones run by the GM's tend to be in Khalisti Wharf, so both Heroes and Villains can participate. Sadly that still excludes the Goldside characters who aren't ready to hit Primal Earth yes, but, well, you can't have everything. Pocket D exists, but it doesn't have a good wide open area free from dance club lighting that's straightforward to get to. Khalisti is at least available off both blue and redside mass transit. Most CC's I've seen run by players are still blueside, at Atlas.

Of course, I also want GM to stop being interchangable between Giant Monster and Game Master.... unless perhaps they're actually one and the same.