Frozen Burn

I've played triple-fire.... but I still prefer my Ice/Fire/Fire.... You get bonfire (converted to KD), stand in the middle so Hot Feet gets them too, Fire Sword Circle, Burn, Ice Storm - I even slot Consume for Damage as an extra PBAOE... and then you have Blizzard to KD and Nuke an entirely different group AWAY from you + you have 3 holds that you can chain hold 2 bosses or an EB between all your attacks. Survivability is much higher and Damage can be more widespread - or highly focused, if wanted. ....some thoughts to consider. 🙂

Stalkers get this because they are Stalkers - it's their schtick and they are "experts" at assassinations. I do not think the ability to be able to attack and assassinate (even without the increased damage buffs for the initial strike like Stalkers get - should be ported to anyone who has a certain level of invisibility. And the majority of my toons have invis level stealth and I rarely play Stalkers. Just like the Op is okay with stealth breaking when clicking a glowie... which that happens because you're "doing something," the same can be said for us "non-assassins / stalkers" in that you're winding up your punch, slash, stab, blast, shot, whatever - and that movement does alert foes. Also, having pretty much all my characters with invis level stealth and across all ATs, and doing exactly as the Op says in trying to "assassinate" a critical foe first... it is a split second of animation before the hit lands, damage is done, and you generally succeed killing / mezzing / eliminating the target anyway. So, again, I don't see this request as needed, and it takes a bit away from what makes Stalkers so great. It also takes a bit away from the /Ninja sets (blasters, scrappers, and sentinels) that get critical hit damage when striking from stealth. Pool power Stealth, or stealth garnered from means of stacking non-stalker / Ninjitsu powers and Stealth IOs, and through other means - should not have access to buffed "assassination" attempts - imo (even if it's just buffing the timing of the hit with the stealth break - again splitting hairs over a split second of animation). That ability should stay with Stalkers and /Ninjas. ...That being said... I wouldn't argue or cry if it was implemented anyway. 😄

@Epistasis Sorry I missed your ask for builds earlier - just now saw this thread. Here's my build, for what it's worth.... Cobalt Fox - Scrapper (Kinetic Melee).mbd

Sorry, I meant //Mace. There is no Psy epic for blasters, unfortunately. But there should be!! Here is my build.... Librarian Archivist - Blaster (Psychic Blast - Temporal Manipulation).mbd

Additional blasters, which I didn't mention earlier as i was rushing to a work meeting 😄 ..... Energy / Martial / Mace DP / Mental / Mace DP / Ninja / Mace Psy / Temporal / Mace Archery / Tactical Arrow / Force Rad / Atomic / Mace All of these I will solo +4x8, and have a BLAST doing it. 🤣

I've solo'd for decades and farm with my Ice/Fire/Fire Blaster. I'm not even defense capped. But do use inspires, like all good blasters should. Target selection, kiting, 3 holds, heavy AOEs, all make it very survivable.

Base Code: STA-8822 Base Name: Steel Transit Authority Builder: @Frozen Burn Base Leader: @Frozen Burn Shard: Torchbearer Theme: Nature / Roman / Other Special Considerations: Don't have to have fly, but it can be useful. Honestly, it's more fun to run everywhere exploring, but it's also handy to fly to see the magnitude of the whole base - or if you get lost in the hedge maze. 🙂 Basic quick travel functionality with large city and nature areas. Many floating islands with an airport, shipyard with locks, natural parks, hedge maze, temple, casino, dance club, mystical energy, and more. There are hidden areas: 1 under the stairs above the ICON store in the SW corner of main island, 1 below that store, and go ahead and fall down the well in the SE corner of the main island. Base not entirely finished - still working on the "guts" of the base (most can't even find how to access it anyway).

All sets will have other attributes to it other than the main one, like: end reduction and recharge. Damage sets will also have accuracy mixed in as well. When slotting set IOs, you're after the set bonuses as well as the attributes they enhance the power. So, in the case of your Stalker with defensive powers, those powers mostly are toggles, which cost endurance. So, slotting LotG with 4 slots: Def, Def/End, Def/End/Rech, and Def/+global recharge will get your power to the cap of Defense for the power + some end reduction + a little recharge for the power (not really needed, but handy if you get de-toggled) + 7.5% global recharge. Additionally, those 4 LotGs provide +regen, +max HPs, and +Acc. ....or you could slot 3 generic Defense IOs and 1 Endredux (or using SOs) in those 4 slots and get way less over all, even though they enhance the power the for the same Def and End redux. Even in auto Defense powers, it good to slot sets, even though the endredux and recharge are not needed because the set bonuses are what you want. I hope this helps.

Burst of speed can do a decent amount of damage. I like to use a full Winter PBAOE set in it with the KD proc. It's a great opener to other PBAOEs you might have and follow up with your kicks and attack chain. @Ukase Being AR primary, you'll have little use for Burt of Speed since you will mostly want to be at range for your cones. As mentioned above, /MC is better suited to those primaries best for blapping. Earth/MC and Energy/MC are my two faves.

Hi. Mids being a 3rd party resource, no, there is no way - and probably never will be - a method of inserting / importing your Mids build to the game. For me, I make build before even making the character in game. And then as I level up, I allocate slots accordingly to the build and how the character plays - sometimes adjusting Mids to compensate for things I didn't expecrt from playing the character. If your character is already leveled up and and doing a large respec, then yes, you have to have a critical and scrutinous eye to make sure you allocate the right amount of slots to the right powers. I look at the Primary powers on screen, then one-by-one down the column find them in Mids to make sure they each have the right # of slots. Then repeat for the Secondary powers, then Repeat for the Pools / Epics / Inherents. This is what works for me. Another thing you could do is - enable in Mids the "Slot Placement Levels" by going to "View" and click "Show Slot Placement Levels." Then you can allocate slots in the same "level up" order, if you want. But I find the above method easier still. Good luck!

Quite frankly, Energy Mastery as it stands elsewhere is not needed on blasters. They do not need Conserver Power or Physical Perfection due the endurance sustain powers all blasters get. They don't need Focused Accuracy because blasters have access to Aim (other ATs do not). And they don't need Energy Torrent because that's already a power they can get in a blast set. Laser Beam Eyes would be cool to have, but Blaster Mastery sets generally don't give an extra ranged attack like this (albeit some do: Elec, Mu, & Mace - all others do not). If there was to be an Energy Mastery set for Blasters, it would have to have completely different powers. Typically, it would need to consist of: An armor / shield of some sort Sometimes an "unstoppable" type of power or a rez A cone or targeted AOE attack, or a melee attack 1 or 2 mezzes - one single target and/or an AOE A debuff / utility power of some sort Current Energy Mastery doesn't fit into this. Nor are there enough existing "energy" powers from other sets to fill in the mezzes, debuffs, or AOE power slots in the pool without repeating existing energy powers blasters already have access to in their primary and secondary. Certainly the armor and possible "unstoppable" power choices could be a version of Kinetic Field or Dampening Field, and Overload from Energy Armor set. But for the others, there isn't much else that goes thematically-wise without tapping into Kinetics (OP) or Electricity / Force Field which have already been done. New powers would have to be created, imo.

This request makes no sense to me. Slotting up walk would be like having Walk turned off and using inherent Swift without Sprint on... then slot up walk more and it's like turning on Sprint. I see no need for this.

Nope. Not accurate, The AM we defeat in Tina Mac's arc *IS* the Praetorian AM who came to Primal Earth which starts the "invasion." 🙂 And "Anti-Matter" doesn't exist on Primal Earth - the same person, Dr. Raymond Keyes, does and goes by "Positron" on Primal Earth - so any instance you find of "Anti-Matter" is the Praetorian Dr. Raymond Keyes. The Keyes Trial used to award credit for the Dim Warder badge. If it's not now, then it must be a bug.

Simple. Thugs are not gangsters. Thugs are hired hitters to do one's bidding for whatever random reason they want. Gangsters are a club / group / organization of like-minded individuals, who follow a leader in organized crime. Some gangsters can be thugs, but not all thugs can be gangsters. 🙂 But given all that, yeah, it would be cool to have your "thugs" be yakuza, mafia, triad, etc. Hopefully one day, we'll get MM minion alternate skins. But I think it will be a long while as it takes model and animation design to implement - and I've heard the HC devs doesn't have a volunteer animator. 😞

Hi. The ask for Resist and Defense Purple sets, along with a purple Healing set, goes all the way back to when the sets first came out. The Devs have always been adamant about not making these as they would be too overpowered, and I do not see the HC Devs giving in and making them either. We did get PVP versions, though, which help appease the masses. However, if purple resist and def sets were to be put in - I would be fine with it. I am sure they would enhance the same things the current sets enhance: Res/Def, EndRedux, Rech, and then have some sort of +HP, +Absorb, or other such defensive proc. But as @tidge stated, there is no NEED for these. Sure, there's want and desire, but there is no gap that these fill other than completion's sake for OCD people. 😄 However, there is GREAT need for Purple sets to boost Fear and Threat as Tidge stated. We have purples for practically every mez type: Hold, Sleep, Confuse, Immob, Stun - but nothing for Fear and Threat, and Slow too (not really a mez, but it is a status effect). Fear and Threat IO sets are sorely lacking as it is (4 each - 2 low lvl and 2 high) with not really good options. So, adding a Purple set to them is needed. There are already plenty of Resist and Defense sets - and they actually give bonuses better than Purple sets, imo. So - I am fine with these being asked for, and maybe the HC Devs will implement them. I certainly won't argue if they're put in for me to use once in a blue moon. But there is greater need for other purple sets besides Resist and Def.

I Agree with @biostem and would also make an Energy/Energy Blaster. Energy punching and shooting right there. You can solo and be survivable as well.

Welcome back to the game!! 🙂

...and then a huge wall of text. 😄 I'd hate to see what "long" means to you. Your assumptions are wrong. It is very easy to get to lvl 50. There are tons of people who have many, many, many 50+ characters. And incarnate powers are not bland, but quite diverse - some people are myopic and only just stick to certain ones because they "think" they are the "best" and can't bring themselves to deviate from them, even though, they aren't necessarily the "best" for all toons - and they may spout being boring or bland in the chosen few they only opt for. But again, there is great diversity and it's great fun to experience them all across different toons. Also, it doesn't take months or years to get through the incarnate tiers - weeks / months maybe depending on how often you play. And yes, it is quite challenging during iTrials - it takes a great deal of coordination for the group to win. If the group is experienced, sure, it's an easier time. But many times, it only takes one misstep from a single person to make a situation go haywire and then you have to rally to overcome. That's the challenge and fun. But still... doing iTrials is NOT needed to get your T4 incarnate components. The way you wrote your OP leads me to believe you do none of the incarnate stuff - you even state you are not interested. You're bashing / poo-poo'ing something you have very little to no experience in. Perhaps give it an honest try on several characters before naysaying it. But ultimately, incarnates are here to stay. It's part of the Lore. And there will be more coming down the pipe testing our incarnate abilities further as well as advancing the incarnate story. I appreciate your idea of coming up with an alternative to the incarnate system that you are clearly adverse to trying for some reason. But as @Rudra stated above, tapping into other powersets is game-breaking and pushes the boundaries too far. There are already Epic Pools which simulate what you are asking for, but think about how many years it's taken to make them balanced so that they are not OP - and they're STILL being tweaked. The most you can hope for here is a choice of new pools to choose from when you ding certain vet levels - but they would still need to mimic the incarnate abilities so they are not OP comparatively. In which case, there is no need for this system as 1) you can get all your T4 incarnates in 5-10 vet levels depending on how you play, and 2) it's mimicking what's already in place. And your second option you propose to just ultimately rework your character to different powers, costumes, gender, whatever.... just make a new toon and pretend it's the same person and let them grow.

Thank you! It must be another game I am thinking of.

If I recall correctly, back on live, they had a PVP Server where the Co-op Zones (RWZ, Cim, DA) were PVP zones. I also seem to recall the long-time ask from the PVP community for all zones to be opened as PVP for that server, but it would have been a coding nightmare. I hate PVP and generally ignore whatever when it's mentioned, so I may be misremembering. But I think it would still hold true for now that it would be horrendous to code such a thing. And yeah, I don't see a huge request / need for this as the PVP community seems very tiny currently. I do see a value in the request only for Heroes and Villains finally being able to get those explore and history badges. But again the potential coding nightmare I think outweighs this.

That is a great area. 🙂 The easiest for most is to do the last arc in the "Pandora's Box" Signature Story Arc and farm the 1st mish (contact is the Yaeger in Steel Canyon). Whether teamed or solo, make sure you at x8 and you'll get 30-34 fakes in there. 3 runs of that first mish and you'll have the badge in about 30 mins of time. If you run it solo, set yourself to -1x8, no bosses, and the fakes will spawn as LTs and are easier to kill. Run around, just kill the fakes and move on. It can be tricky for some to survive, but it's doable on all ATs, some just may do it faster than others. Less sturdy characters, may find that area in the Cascades you mention easier, despite taking longer.

I get the concept and reasoning behind this idea, but a hard no from me. As already stated above in this thread, the great thing about this game is that the costume and body provide NO stats or benefit whatsoever, unlike so many other games out there. We are free to make and build whatever it is to our liking without being made to feel bad about sacrificing some extra stat bonuses for our look. And then on the other side, all the min/maxers would look the same - which is also annoying and counter what makes the game so great comparatively. I have a tiny fairy hover TW/WP Brute which is a really fun character to play. By these rules requested, I'd get screwed out of +HPs and +Resists which are sorely needed with WP. Why should someone lose out because of their concept? Additionally, the game is already balanced around power sets. This would require a total rebalancing of the game which would then make some power sets do less in the off chance a player decides to push that slider all the way to one side. Again, a hard "NO" from me.