FupDup

I know it's fast and easy. My complaint is not time or difficulty, it's immersion. I don't like changing from a paragon of virtue to a genocidal maniac as casually as changing my socks in the morning even though the game allows and encourages it. My complaint could be solved by adding a few snake spawns to Paragon. Since the tip mission mentioned earlier was a Crey experiment, perhaps some of those experiments could have escaped the lab and found their way into Crey's Folly. Alternatively, since villains are now going to be coming to Striga Isle, it makes sense that some snakes from the Rogue Isles could sneak into a boat and start breeding in Striga.

A bigger issue is that as far as I know, Snakes don't really spawn in Paragon City at all except for a single vigilante tip mission in the level 20-29 range. This can make the pieces annoying to get for "pure" heroes since it's so easy to miss that tip (and the tips are given randomly). I know there's the mission computer SG base item for this but that's an annoying hoop to jump through.

Something to be aware of is that most Sentinel primaries and secondaries have some differences that are unique to the AT, which means even "familiar" sets might be different (like Elec blast for example having some good changes on Sents).

For some added clarity on the damage thing, let's do some random samples. Lightning Bolt Blaster: 102.6009 Sentinel: 100.3208 Fire Ball Blaster: 43.7931 + 12.5123 (higher target cap, admittedly) Sentinel: 42.8198 + 12.2342 You can see a similar trend for most attacks, with the main discrepancies being from sniper attacks and nukes. Some Sentinel primaries have very good snipe replacements (like Elec) while some others not so much (like Ice). Direct damage comparisons between them are harder because it depends on whether the snipe is long cast or quick cast, and what the user's to-hit buffs are. For nukes, they are normalize to all share the same base recharge of 90 seconds and have reduced damage compared to Blaster versions. Depending on what the exact damage and recharge were on Blasters, this could either be an arguable gain (Thunderous Blast, Overcharge), a net loss (Rain of Arrows lol), or a wash. The main edge that Blasters get in the damage department is a larger array of melee attacks to choose from, which tend to be more powerful than ranged. Sentinels do get some melee in their epic pools but only one ST attack and one PBAOE at most. But if the Blaster is choosing to play at range, most of the time they're not living up to their full potential unless they're using either Devices or Tac Arrow. If they're using any other secondary at full range, they're really not gaining much over a similar Sentinel. Another wrench in the comparison is the inherents these two get. Blasters get a scaling damage buff when they use attacks, with that amount varying based on the attacks used. Sents can cast a -15% resist debuff on a single target and it ignores the effects of purple patch (normally, debuffs are weaker against enemies above your level, but Vulnerability is immune to this). Also consider that there are several armors available that directly enhance the user's damage output (Bio, Stone, Rad, Fire), which can help shrink the gap between the two ATs. The TL;DR is that your damage will be more than fine. As for survival...you get things like debuff protection (like DDR), mezz protection, burst healing, more comprehensive protection (against "exotic" damage types), and/or absorption depending on the armor you chose. A blaster with 32-45% ranged defense and 0% DDR is not going to facetank more damage than a Sentinel that is built even remotely well.

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Problem: In the mission "Stop Scientist Rescue" from Ghost Widow, an enemy NPC will often spawn in an area outside the walls that is impossible for the player to reach, making the mission impossible to complete. I've reloaded the mission twice and there was a mob in this exact same corner every time (Northeast corner of the prison cell room, bottom floor). Map: Server: Excelsior Zone/Mission: V_Arachnos_45_Layout_02_02p Position: [-552.5 0.3 -757.6] Screenshot: EDIT: It just happened a third time! This time it looks like what happens is that after killing one of the enemies, a copy of him spawned inside the cage area pictured to my left. He then tried to run into the corner where you see the Nullifier pictured above. I was able to hit him in a small area by walking back to trick him into coming forward a bit. However, eventually he ended up running entirely out of bounds into the void. I can't do another auto-complete for 3 more days. 😡 Here is a screenshot of an enemy spawning into the area. I actually managed to kill her before she ran off this time: Location: Server: Excelsior Zone/Mission: V_Arachnos_45_Layout_02_02p Position: [-550.7 0.3 -762.0]

My hot take is that the different origin enhancements probably should not have existed in the first place. They add flavor but they also add bloat and make things muddier. I'd rather TO's (or whatever we want to call it) have the same values as SO's currently have and then have those be the main non-crafted enhancements. So basically it would be a cosmetic/convenience thing but your character wouldn't get any weaker or stronger from it.

Bio has lower defense and DDR than SR, but it offers better resists, HP, regeneration, click heals, and absorb than SR, especially if Defensive Adaptation is active. So basically it can be more durable overall vs SR despite the lower def values. Tough and Weave are strongly recommended for almost all Sentinels, and almost every AT in general really. As for close quarters, I don't think it's that going to be that big of a worry most of the time given the combo you've chosen. You'll be pretty durable. Parasitic Leech is almost a godmode button if it hits 5 targets. If you're really worried about it still, you could try to grab one of the epic pool immobilize powers or Tashibishi from Ninja Tool Mastery (makes enemies want to run out of the area). With enough investment you could also pick up a hold power like Netherworld Grasp, Dominate, etc., which you could combine with Abysmal Gaze from Dark Blast to lock down higher ranked enemies.

Dark is a good Sentinel primary specifically because of having Dark Obliteration baseline. It'll help your AOE a bit. Still won't be as much AOE as something like Assault Rifle, but it helps. If that's not enough, you could try picking up one of the PBAOE attacks from an epic pool (like Engulfing Darkness from Dark Mastery). Bio Armor is very good too. Sents have slightly lower base modifiers than Scrappers and Stalkers do, but Bio is strong enough of an armor set to just chug right through that limitation. It can be pretty tanky with all of the absorbs and regen up, and Dark's to-hit debuffs will augment it further. For power picks you really should grab the full set of 9 in Bio. Maybe you could skip Athletic Regulation, but even that one is still useful for a bit of DDR and mobility. The other 8 powers are mandatory for sure.

Another consideration is that Dark's variant of Darkest Night has slightly stronger values. IMO I would base the decision on if you need/want the extra PBAOE attack. Go Dark for AOE, go Soul to save slots.

One thing I've noticed is that my redside toons seem to have a slightly harder time earning cash than their blueside equivalents, or at least it feels that way. That could be due to shorter story arcs giving fewer merits, or it could be due to less team content like SF's being run, which also translates to fewer merits/inf. Boosting the inf/merits redside wouldn't break progression like an XP boost would, so it's a somewhat more viable option. I haven't kept a spreadsheet log of it or anything so I can't back it up with maths, so "trust me bro." I'll admit though that my choice of blue/red/gold is primarily dependent on concept/theme rather than incentives, so it's not like I would just create a bunch of villains for farming extra merits/inf doing redside stuff. I try to keep a ratio of 1 villain for every 2 heroes to keep blueside from getting too stale and because I find it easier to make hero/vigilante concepts than villains/rogues. I'm overdue for some more goldsiders...

The utility of those would change quite a bit depending on the AT/build in question. The 5% endurance would probably be the most universally valuable of the bunch. Making stuff like this equally good in different ways is gonna be too hard. I could maybe see an upgraded version of the origin attack power but that's about as far as it could go I think. Better to just let it be a badge thing for collecting/fun purposes and having cool badge titles.

Definitely can't go over level 5 for that limit, because some early missions like Twinshot and Dr. Graves require you to visit other zones as part of their tutorials.

For new content, there will gradually be stuff like story arcs and powersets added. For an endgame, probably not, at least as far as we've seen/heard up to this point. As it stands, the true endgame is still just Altitis...and I'm kind of okay with that, seeing what other games like Diablo 4 call an "endgame."

Well, somebody just downloading the game for the first time isn't going to know that certain choices like picking a Peacebringer or Going Rogue are mistakes. It's a lack of guard rails, and I think that the epic ATs should have the option to play tutorials since they can now be created without having a level 50 first.

I think a part of the issue is that when many of us were starting out, the game was a fair bit simpler (didn't have stuff like Going Rogue), and the epic AT's required a level 50 toon to unlock. A lot of the streamlining that helps experienced players with quality of life makes it easier for somebody like that streamer to accidentally step into the shark tank. Some of those guardrails had a purpose.

If the enemy mezzing you is something high ranked (as opposed to a minion or such), it might take a little while to whittle them down with just a basic T1/T2. Especially since many blast sets often skip either the T1 or T2, so that just leaves one of them depending on how the user built it. And you might be in the middle of a mob when you get mezzed (not always a 1v1), especially since Blasters are a melee AT. What's more useful than the damage is that you could choose to slot the mezz protection ATO proc in the T1 or T2 to try to use it as a "break free" button in these cases, but I don't like to rely on RNG.

I feel like Energy Aura already fulfills the role of a "forcefield" armor set that can also be used in other themes as well. Just look at the power names...Dampening Field. Kinetic Shield. Power Shield. All we need is a graphics option for bubbles and it's perfect.

I'm not so sure that Willpower would be a good starter armor. Mechanically speaking it's very simple, but it doesn't have much in the way of crisis-management tools or oh-shit buttons. It can be sort of like Blasters or Doms where you'd have to rely on killing/mezzing enemies faster than they can kill you (proactive approach), rather than being legit "armor" that can take it on the chin without thinking too much (passive approach). I'd recommend something like Energy Aura as probably the best "noob armor" because it's very mechanically simple and it covers just about everything you could want (regen, click heal, endurance management, global recharge boost, good defenses, decent resists, modest defense debuff protection). Depending on the AT you also get stealth (melee) or passively capped HP (Sentinel). For melee characters, I'm not sure Super Strength is the best choice here because a newer player might not know how to deal with the massive crash from Rage.

I saw a forum post of somebody using recolored Psychic Blast as an eye-beam substitute, because most of its attacks have an option to shoot from the forehead, which is close enough to the eyes that it can pass the smell test. That's pretty much the only option at this point.

Kind of...the fluff behind it is that you're more or less using your "mental power" to push your body beyond its normal limits. You could work a character concept around that as being either a normal human who is highly disciplined, or using psychic power to enhance it. It only has middling protection against psi damage though, and it doesn't have offensive powers like psionic characters normally demonstrate (psychics like Jean Gray tend to be known for being glass cannons). A proper "Psi Armor" would have the strongest psi protection of any armor and some offensive tools like a damage aura and/or an AOE attack of some sort (like what Rad Armor gets).

Shouldn't it be Beam Rifle because Guardsmen use Lasguns?

Psi Armor would be dope actually, as another offensive set preferably.

I try to use a thesaurus and/or character name generator to try to find things that are close enough to what I originally wanted. In one case I actually came up with a better name than my first idea because of trying to find an unreserved substitute. I definitely won't tolerate stuff like a 1 in place of an l or such anymore, though I admit I did use such tricks with two of my earliest characters here.

I just wanna point out here that the HP caps on Sents are in fact lower than Scrappers: 2000ish vs 2400ish. Also, the base values given by armor powers are slightly weaker. For example, Temp Invulnerability gives 22.5% resists on Scrappers but only 21% on Sentinels. A similar trend exists for all directly equal resist/defense powers between the two ATs. Sents have a work slightly harder with set bonuses to make up that gap. I'm on "Team Sentinel" for sure in this debate, I've got over a half dozen of them at level 50 so I'm no hater by any stretch, I just want to keep the facts straight here.