Erydanus

I really don't care that Arcane Bolt takes 2.7 seconds to cast. It would be nice if it was faster but it hits like a truck and both does better damage than any other attack I have and drops them with knockdown. I always have time for it while soloing. I only have so many direct moves I'm using and 2 of them are DOTs so recasting them before the dots do their full damage is just wasting endurance. And it does do 50% more damage than my dots and as direct damage. It's worth it. I'm not going to unload with every tool in my arsenal on every group of 3 dudes. Soloing as a controller with primarily single target moves is a bit slow but a high damage direct attack like Arcane Bolt is a net speed gain. If I'm in a situation where I do need to be stacking AoE controls and Debuffs I'm probably not going to use it, if I'm fighting 2-4 guys solo I'm just gonna lock them down with Fearsome Stare and pick them off and it's a great tool for that. Additionally the value of off-type damage cannot be understated. You know who resists dark? Lots and lots of magical enemies. Not so bad you can't fight them but it's so helpful.

What about Javelin's Volley the PVP set? If you skip its damage proc you get about 66% accuracy, 90% damage, 61% endurance reduction, 86% recharge (all rounded up). Set bonuses are 2% recovery, 10% regen, 2.5% damage buff, and 10% resistance to run & fly and recharge time being debuffed. At least that's what Pine's is telling me.

If I remember what people typically did it was something like: smoke some enemies Use flashfire to stun them, maybe?? run into the mob super fast - possibly superspeed but possibly just running on siphon speed. Super speed would have concealment built in though. Hot feet is running already. drop fire cages, by now pets should have caught up, drop fulcrum shift watch foes burn trapped in pillars of fire while literal imps tear into them at near damage cap. Apply Cinders to maintain safe control if necessary.

Quite a few people have gotten mobs stuck in walls during missions and TFs. Sometimes PBAOE or GTAOE powers can still hit them. A power like wormhole, in theory, should be the perfect extractor. Why not cook up temp power that's like a 10' radius wormhole effect that moves mobs 3' toward the caster. It will need to be high mag, to affect bosses, but with no stun of course and probably only with a couple charges (because people always seem to find a way to abuse powerful things). You could call it the Stuck Mob Extractor!

Customizeable NPCs would be nice... I've noticed that the Icon Tailor cycles through various models, one of the other NPCs I put in kept cycling as well and would change every time I moved or rotated it. I never did end up with the model I wanted in the spot I wanted.

Did you realize that the Tsoo have a version of one of the men's baggy tops except they are sleeveless? It would be so nice to get that, you'd think male costume options would be there for showing arms off but that's not the case. If you go with robes or jackets sleeveless you can. Pretty much nothing else. In tights you can pick a T-shirt or tanker style pattern but you can't do any kind of Yakuza style tattoos (like the Tsoo have) and then put a T-shirt or tanker over top of that. Or just do bare skin with a pattern of your choice (say, vines) and then put tanker or T-shirt over that.

Each buff machine subsumes the buffs from the previous tiers. (You used to have to make each one to craft the next one.) You only need one Tier 3 empowerment station to have all available buffs. The recipes, buffs, and durations are the same. Of course it's nice for decor but if someone wants to be efficient, you only need a Mystic Crucible or a Supercollider. I do like to keep 1 salvage rack next to it though with the items for the knockback protection buff: luck charm + inanimate carbon rod; or rune + scientific theory; or fortune + mathematic proof.

Sure, and changing the IO name and helptext would clear up the mislabeling.

It's completely your preference. On some characters I do generic IOs, on some I may do limited use of sets or just mix and match parts of sets. If you're in the position of not having a 50 yet and needing to build funds going with almost all generic IOs is probably best.

That looks really good. It's going to be hard to not immediately run this one myself but I have a Dark/Dark who just got his hound to play to 50 first. Oh at 30 instead of Recall friend you might want to take Rune of Protection for yourself if you're doing Night Ward. There's at least one hellish mission where having a click mez protection will be hugely helpful. You could just respec out of it later if Recall is a priority.

Just curious how good you all feel the proc in Assassin's Mark has been for you. Well, actually technically it's a global, it gives all your assassin attacks a 4% chance to proc, and if they do they instantly reset buildup. Thing is ... it works for me really really really well. Like I have the suspicion it's checking multiple times when I use Mass Levitate because I keep getting results like: FADE IN: EXTERIOR, RIKTI SHIP RADE Build Up from hide Mass Levitate Assassin's Mark! Build Up tab 5x trying to find something Assassin's Strike! Mass Levitate (hits something) Assassins' Mark! Build Up It's nuts. I've literally stacked multiple build ups on myself frequently. (I haven't even added the Gaussian proc which apparently fires off frequently in Build Ups as it is, much less RESET CHAINED BUILD UPS). I'm not saying it's triggering off every Mass Levitate but 1 out of 4 maybe? Of course in the Ship Raid setting I get external buffs and may be lifted to the damage cap by others but merely being able to get myself 160% damage before assassin striking a Rikti Magus is nothing to sneeze at. I had very similar results when I was trying to clean up all the Rikti Monkeys on a Vanguard mission map.

Ok let's organize the no list. No Primaries: Fire (/kin) Illusion (/rad) Plant (maybe not?) Electric No Secondaries /Time Ok so you sound wishy-washy on Plant. It wasn't working for you as a Dom but you sound interested in doing a plant controller. If you want a team friendly build you could go /nature affinity which is one of those secondaries that insists its a primary even when its a secondary. It's pretty healy but it has buffs. You get to skip the weaksauce Spirit Tree for a healing beacon that's like 20x better (Lifegiving Spores). If you want a weird combination that will probably be terrifyingly effective, consider Plant/Traps. You get to confuse the crowd, run in andd drop trip mines and timebombs then run out and watch explosions happen. You could make the theme around being a booby-trapped jungle tbh. Earth control is considered very low damage and it has kind of a passive feel to it. Usually people counter that by going very active with secondaries like rad. But I've been thinking it would also stack pretty nicely with Dark Affinity. You get to slap Tar Patch down on top of Quicksand to lower both defense and resistance and if you can drop earthquake or volcanic gasses on top too well, that's just evil. You can then run in with your team and fire off Soul Absorption. You'd also get a Dark Servant so you'd have both a tanky stone controller pet and a mini dark defender pet.

Again I modeled the cost and if you spent 15,000 on salvage and bought every recipe from the table instead of using drops or buying from the AH by placing lower bids, the cost to craft is almost exactly 2.1 mil so don't spend 4 mil. Just don't. If you have 1 character memorize all the level 25-30 recipes - which will require about 4 million actually and produce enough level 30 IOs for one character - that character will be able to produce IOs for 1/2 the normal crafting cost, no recipe cost (use "memorized" section on the table not the regular one), and just the salvage. That means future characters will only need less than 1 million to outfit. You're going to be spitting out IOs that cost you 10-25k each to make depending on if you had to buy salvage. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Memorization_Badges

Fire/Kin is only an OMG solo machine when you can combine Hot Feet + Fire Imps with Fulcrum Shift. It is ONLY at that point it gets insane.

I agree with the suggestions. I found getting Arcane Bolt was a really good thing for my Dark/Dark controller and a good source of damage. I'm not sure how the DPA or DPS of it compares to other powers but the direct damage it deals is higher than the damage Shadowy Binds/Dark Grasp or the epic Power Blast do. If you look in Pines those all do 30.x damage base and Arcane bolt does 45 so why wait for an epic to get a bonus attack? Get Arcane Bolt today! I would skip Heart of Darkness or Haste to get Bolt and juggle things around later. I find Heart a little shaky because it's PBAOE and that's just not my style. But more importantly when you are at low levels soloing, you're probably fighting just 3 guys at a distance, you'll never use it. Literally you'll never use it. All your attacks are at range and you have all the control necessary for total lockdown already: You'll possess one guy, hold the second guy, immobilize the third guy (who will be the only one to shoot at you when he notices you holding his friend) and by then your hold or confuse will be up so you can hit him with one of them which will cut off attacks too. You can literally just walk your attack sequence backwards so that all 3 mobs will be held, confused, immobilized, and dying from the dots in Binds and Grasp. Where does Arcane Bolt come in? About level 12 their hit points go up and they need another attack to finish them - that and Blackwand are it. If you do get something you can't quite lock down (Cernobog, Veles, random orange-conning Vahzilok, etc) the knockdown in Arcane Bolt will still be helpful; additionally as its Energy damage it provides you with vital non-dark damage option in case you get stuck fighting a lot of dark resistant mobs. Speaking as someone who solos controllers a lot just slot Shadowy Binds and Dark Grasp for damage. Seriously. Just shove 3 damage SOEs in there [sO Equivalents ie level 25 or higher IOs] and then if you really need it you can add some hold. They're 90% accurate out of the box I would slot them for some damage before I even put accuracy in there. Coupled with the DFB accuracy boost power you literally do not need to do anything but shove damage DOs in there at low levels. Be sure to use the 5 prestige enhancements that the P2W vendor gives you as well as they're 16% recharge 16% damage and a damage proc. I would literally stick 2 damage procs in each of Binds and Grasp when you first come out of chargen, and then as you get powers that can also take them maybe delete the second enhancements, claim replacements and put them elsewhere. ... I think I had the chance to knockdown damage proc in Living Shadows originally, so the cone had a fairly good chance of knocking foes down as well as pinning them in place. Heck put a damage proc in Gale if you're feeling sassy. And now I'm wondering if anyone ever put the chance of knockdown one in Haunt? The proc stops working after level 21 but giving the Haunts a knockdown proc sounds hilarious. Another option for leveling rather than going up in difficulty is to go down in difficulty and up in size i.e. -1/x2 because that tends to spawn more lieutenants which count as like 5 mobs for xp purposes and lowering the difficulty means they're easy kills for a net gain. (Just don't do it in Faultline once you encounter Sky Raiders because you're asking for more Engineers that way.)

I believe there's a hoop skirt-like costume piece available with the set... yes, yes there is. And the belt is intended for outside coats: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Gunslinger_Costume_Set

Rikti invasion mobs have an internal level of 30. The scaling happens between the player and the mob up and down. If a low level character ran into difficulty with zombie or Rikti invasion mobs, I don't think it's an issue of the internal level being so high as much as they're fairly strong foes. If your character is not set up to solo and you get jumped by a couple it can be quite hard. But to me that's more of the same thing you encounter any day you're running through a zone like King's Row to your door mission having clockwork taking pot shots at you. At least with invasions, if you have sprint on and are moving; or you're under cover of a building overhang; you shouldn't be targeted so it's quite easy to ignore them. I think with the free former veteran reward attacks and the self buff powers and the prestige jumping powers it shouldn't be a problem dealing with attracting a couple. I did actually post in the suggestion thread to revert this change but someone came in with incorrect information and I got a little irate so I'm going to not re-engage over there. But it's over in the suggestion subforum if anyone wants to chime in.

Sure. You're certainly free to skip the pet and 6 slot tar pit ... well if you're playing a Dark/Dark defender or corrupter. Controllers get Heart of Darkness instead. That quibble aside I used to run a themed supergroup primarily composed of Dark/Dark defenders and you know it's quite something to see an army of 8 fluffies storming into battle with 8 defenders firing moonbeams off behind them. My experience is that the pet cycles through his powers. You're correct in saying this one or that one will only be used a % of the time but the power will be used. You've got a mini agent off to the side cycling through its abilities and if you just don't value that then that's fine. Someday you might get held and the thing that keeps you alive is the pet casting fear or its heal - or its -tohit powers. In my current build I'm looking at not really investing as many slots in Twilight Grasp as I'd like. It's a worthy power but I just expect to be doing other things. As a defender I might put that power on auto and if an autofire stops one of my blasts no big deal. As a controller I'm more busy locking down this and that mob or confusing a debuff casting lieutenant, I'm not as open to having a heal interrupt me even if things have gone dicey. Maybe I will jam some level 50 heal IOs into fluffy so when he uses Twilight Grasp it'll make up for me not being able to throw out as many as I'd like. Maybe I'll get a Lysosome for his accuracy and to buff his -tohit. I am really a lot less worried about spending slots for Fluffy. I'm very good at Frankenslotting and wringing out every last bit of enhancement in the minimum slots. With extra power choices freed up by inherent stamina and the changes to travel powers it's easy to buy more slot-hungry powers but it also means your build is generally less tight and you can also choose powers that don't need a lot of slots. It's just your personal preference. As long as you are having fun it's all good.

I've definitely seen people asking for requirements that aren't necessary. Like, arbitrary minimum levels to do routine content like story missions or even just papers/radios. Like, WHY? There's level synching with the sidekick system. Maybe you don't want to drag a newbie from Atlas Park along but this was never "10+" it was like "We want people in our actual range and won't take anyone lower." I think some of it is just people's behaviors from other games carrying over. Just like you see people saying "Doing X, need Healer."

There was an adjustment on the original servers somewhere in the high teen numbers of issues where the XP curve was adjusted. It was around the time rested xp (Patrol XP) and day jobs went in. So yes it is a faster leveling experience form launch. They particularly flattened the hump between 35 and about 45 or 50.

Also asked in help; numbers in that thread! https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,1269.0.html

Well, I've gone through all 12 pages of the install & troubleshooting guide three times and read the first several pages where specific problems are listed twice more, and I don't see anything about adjusting scrollbars after doing a general scaling change. Zep would you care to directly link to the fix?

Yeah you have to do an 11th mission to cement your alignment and get the Countdown power. It's nice the tip limit has been removed - it would have required 3 days to change alignments before (5+5+1).

I think it's pretty telling that I went to the test server and with no characters on the server logged in and went immediately to character creation. I then logged off, installed popmenus, logged back on. I was about 55 seconds waiting with ONE character on the server in the middle of the night with all of 20 people logged on. @Cipher did you send out info gathering instructions yet?

I noticed this myself recently (also for Stalkers). It must be an outright error - in the defender and blaster sets, Zapp deals exactly the same damage as Moonbeam. There's no "tax" on the damage due to the end drain; the end drain is the flavor perk just like moonbeam has some -tohit. I tried to check if this was a problem on the original servers but there's an outage with the Internet Archive right now. I'm going to drop a note in beta as well since they're doing things with Snipes currently.