FupDup

Aged like milk.

For the test, would we just log in and derp around with random missions and stuff on our own during the time frame, or is there highly specific content that would be done?

I don't know how that dog has enough self-control to not just jump on top of that table and start devouring everything immediately. Is it a realistic plushie?

I don't know what ATs/sets the thread creator has been using, but maybe a solution here could be to try to find an AT that is good enough to stand on its own but not quite strong enough to be "godly." Sentinels might be an idea for this, being something of a jack of all trades with moderate ranged damage and moderate armor. Maybe do an offshoot build like a Huntsman VEAT. Could do a Corruptor or Defender that isn't using the best meta sets, I dunno. It would help to know what the OP has used so far.

Join the closed beta and you'll find out. (See signature link)

I just thought up another change overnight...the +5 Steadfast Protection resist/endurance piece can be replaced with Unbreakable Guard res/end. The result is that gain 2.25% more en/neg resists in set bonuses and a tiny bit more S/L resist because it would give stronger enhancement to Tough. Another change could be replacing Thunderstrike in Lightning Bolt with 5 slots of Winter's Bite. This would give you a bit more energy/negative defenses and save 1 slot, and would bring your slow resist up to 95%. For that free slot, you could choose to slot something for survival like more a regen or psi resistance proc, complete the Synapse set in Short Circuit for 4.5% en/neg resistances, or add a damage proc to Tesla Cage for a little more offense, or maybe something else.

I was wrong about Position - The 6 slot bonus is actually just toxic/psi resists, not recharge. I must've been thinking of a different set. I deleted that line from my previous post to avoid further confusion. It can stay at 5 slots. I chose Lightning over Voltaic Sent because your first build didn't have VS, so I presumed that you didn't want it. I guess Lightning does also have some benefits in that it does AOE damage (and also helps a little bit with ST in close range) while Voltaic is purely single target. Also, depending on the clearing speed of your team, the VS might or might not be able to keep up all of the time. You can go either way with it really.

Here is a revised variant, swapping some stuffs around and boosting whatever didn't benefit from staying attuned. I reordered some of the powers, but you can probably swap the positions of Boxing and Stealth (I didn't notice that until after posting this). Sentinel - Helmut Spargle v2.mbd

The first thing that sticks out is that it looks like Mids is giving you your defense values out of combat...Stealth's defense buff is heavily reduced in battle. Evasive Manuevers doesn't give you any defense in battle (but it does help with mobility). You can go into your options/configuration go to the Effects & Math tab, under the Suppression area you can click the checkboxes for attacked, ActivateAttackClick, and MissionObjectClick. This will display your true defenses. Tesla Cage should be slotted as an attack power, because unlike other ATs, the Sentinel variant of this power does real damage. Charge Up should hold the Gaussian Build Up proc. Hasten should be 2-slotted with boosted 50+5 recharge IO's. Power Armor should be slotted for both Healing and Resistance, because it boosts your max HP as well as resists. I'm not sure if Chain Fences is really necessary here, and it might be getting smashed by the nerf hammer in the future so maybe consider swapping it for something else. I'll post a revised version of the build in a while, still running some missions in-game.

Wouldn't this kind of thing piss off our NCSoft overlords, and possibly get this place shut down? Let's not risk that.

You're allowed to be a member of those groups, you're just not allowed to claim that your character is the supreme ruler of them.

Here is the build. The main thing to be aware of is that my building style is a bit different than a lot of other peoples'. Many prefer to load up several attack powers with damage procs rather than filling out sets like I do. I tried to make it fairly durable but those resists aren't gonna get much higher without finding a way to fit Rune of Protection. I actually made the very unusual decision to not slot the Ragnarok ranged AOE set in order to push the resists slightly higher using Bombardment (Hasten is already permanent without it). I kept the Elec epic pool for now but that could be changed if you desire. I didn't fill out the incarnate abilities on it. Another note is that Evasive Manuevers will only buff your defenses outside of combat. The moment you shoot somebody, the defense is removed. It does still give you extra mobility and anti-fly protection though so it still has a bit of value. And it can act as a mule for Luck of the Gambler (not that Super Reflexes is lacking in that department). Water SR Elec - Sentinel (Water Blast - Super Reflexes).mbd

Unfortunately, Super Reflexes is not really designed to get high resistances because that's just not what it does. It's almost a pure defense set. The best you could do on that front is picking up Rune of Protection from the Sorcery pool, but that would require you to drop a few other powers to fit it in. I'm working on a build right now and I'll post it in a little while.

For Super Reflexes, you'll want the first 8 powers for sure but you can ignore the final power (Elude) because of its very harsh crash and it's kind of redundant with the rest of your kit. There is a choice between Practiced Brawler and Master Brawler - You should definitely take Master because it's a clicky absorb power that also gives you toggle mezz protection in your earlier defense toggles. For Water, you can choose to skip either the first or second basic attack. Hydro Blast has a higher DPA so you should probably skip Aqua Bolt there. For AOE attacks, some people choose to skip Water Burst. If you intend to take one of the melee AOE attacks from an epic pool, you could skip it, but if you don't then I'd probably keep it. Dehydrate does have a self-heal effect but it's kind of weak so it's probably best to just treat it as a normal attack power. Besides one or maybe two skips you'll want to pick the rest. Since you mentioned getting up close, you will likely want to invest into one of the epic pools for a single target melee attack at least (they hit pretty hard and Water Blast could really use the extra single target damage). While you're there you could also pick up a melee AOE attack, which would allow you to skip one of the AOE's from Water Blast (like Water Burst) while still having plenty of AOE damage options. "Alpha" power refers to the incarnate system that you unlock after level 50. The Alpha slot is basically a global enhancement that applies to all applicable powers. For example, the Agility alpha power would boost the defense, recharge, and endurance modification of every eligible power you have equipped. "Mules" refer to powers that you take for their ability to carry certain enhancements, rather than the actual power's abilities. For example, you might take Tough from the Fighting pool to slot Gladiator's Armor +Defense and Steadfast Protection +Defense. Any power that offers defense can be used as a mule to carry Luck of the Gambler Global Recharge, etc. "Soft cap" refers to the amount of defense you need to make enemies miss 95% of their attacks - They always have a minimum 5% chance to hit no matter what happens. In most content this number is 45%, which Super Reflexes can hit very easily. For incarnate content, the NPCs have a to-hit buff so this raises the softcap for that content to 58.75% (we call it 59% for sanity). Because Super Reflexes is entirely reliant on defenses, and because of how high its defense values are, I think it's worthwhile to push over the 45% number here (I would shoot for low to mid 50's here but your mileage and goals may vary). Even when playing non-incarnate content, going a little over 45% can give you a buffer against enemies with defense debuffs. Just remember that the enemies will ALWAYS have at least a 5% hit chance. Going over the softcap is for life insurance against debuffs and/or incarnate content. For slotting, I usually allocate 5-6 slots for proper attack powers and 3-4 for most armor stuff. Some sets offer strong enough enhancements that you could get away with just 4 slots on an attack power if you didn't want the 5-slot set bonus. If you want more specific guidance I could throw together a build...I'd just need to know your travel power preferences and which epic pool you'd want to pick (you'll probably want one if you like to get up close and personal).

On Excelsior, there's a mid evening run in The Abyss (5:00 PM central time) and a late night run in The Hive (9:00 PM central time). As for the suggestion, I don't see much point in it because The Abyss is already fully co-op enabled. I wouldn't be upset it The Hive got similar treatment but I just don't feel any urgency in it.

Some of the stuff like Mecha Armor and Black Knight have a shiny texture that can make them hard to use with many of the older, flatter-colored pieces so sometimes it feels like "all or nothing" with them. I wish that either the shiny stuff had options for matte/flat textures, or the older stuff had shiny options, similar to how some stuff like chains and skulls have metallic or basic options. I wish that the Cosmic Corsair backpack's armored color had an alternate version that was lowered a bit, because if you try to use it with tights or such it will be just floating way above your collar area and it looks wonky. I wish armored chests in general had more chest detail and shoulder pieces because sometimes it feels like tight chests can create a bulkier feel by using certain pieces like Black Knight that aren't available when you're "armored." The Mechanical Claw feet should have an in-between medium option. The small version looks like a robotic goat or something, while the large version looks too goofy.

Minimal FX gets rid of most of the stuff. Ablative Carapace and Parasitic Aura don't get min fx options, unfortunately.

So I just rolled a Staff/Ice Brute. The issue is that whenever my weapon is drawn, and I try to strafe using W + D or W + A, then most of the time the usual strafing animation generally won't play like it does with most other sets. Sometimes it strafes normally but most of the time it looks like I'm sliding sideways. If I move purely sideways with just A or D, then the animations work as they normally should. The weapon is currently set to not holster, if that influences the situation. If I have Ninja Run active, this issue goes away, so I think it's just the default stance where this happens.

The idea of a "universal enhancement" category that can go into almost anything has come up a few times before. I even took a stab at it myself using Vanden's IO set designer: One issue is that besides trying to get the devs on board with it, we've got to deal with market scalpers who don't want any kind of competition or price reduction. The D-Sync Provocation would still offer slightly stronger values, but a +5 boosted acc/rech piece from this set or any other would be "close enough" that a lot of people wouldn't care and would rather just deal with a few % lower values than paying like 800 million inf per slot. It'd be nice if there were at least a few measures taken to deal with the prices, like for example removing "duplicate" D-Syncs from the drop pool so only the unique ones remain (increasing their chances and thus supply) and/or allowing multiple to be combined together to get a random new one (makes the currently trash ones actually useful for something).

There's already the D-Sync Provocation for this, but they're hella expensive.

Spines Blast could be a fun concept, being the only ranged set with a damage aura in it and having some toxic damage in it.

It's open to anybody who signs up, no invitation needed. Just need links to get there, which I've got right here: https://discord.gg/DptUBzh

Once I've started leveling a toon I've always stuck with them until the "end" (T4 incarnates). After that I kinda feel like there's not much to do, and since T4 can be a bit of a slog, I tend to take a break for a while until the next alt. I rarely revisit "completed" toons. I do have a lot of level 1 alts collecting dust in the character list (to reserve names), some unused costumes, and builds in Mids that might not ever get used.

Willpower also doesn't have a good rep on Sents, mainly due to the scaling regen power being made static...but it actually comes out ahead of the melee version when you have only 0-3 enemies nearby (8ft radius). With 4 they're equal and with 5+ baddies the melee version wins. However, the Sent variant doesn't have any kind of replacement for the -tohit effect given by the same power and the same low DDR that others get. So it's still a net loss, but not the reason that most people say it is. Regen at least gets passive absorb on Sents and a clicky burst heal, while WP doesn't have much in the way of "crisis management" buttons. If nothing else the Sent Regen is at least a unique experience while Sent WP is only slightly adjusted with an overall net loss due to the lack of to-hit debuff or replacement for it (the scaling to static regen thing actually has a trade-off to it).