Frozen Burn

Mids has their own sub-forum under Tools and Utilities: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/forum/74-forum/ Check it out and you can download the program and ask your questions there.

Moscato Rose Science Defender - Force Field/Wine A college science lab. A drunken party. Several bottles of Moscoto Rosé. An accident. Rose Parker was at the epicenter causing her genes to mutate with the Moscato Rosé in her blood stream. It altered her body's appearance. And she can now create the bubbly-beverage at will to use the bubbles as shields or weapons.

Victorious Star Mutant Blaster - Energy/Martial Combat Growing up, Victoria Star was never wanting for activities and was into just about everything a young girl could get into: dance lessons, gymnastics, piano lessons, and sports. She even loved helping her dad tinker with the car. However, her favorite activity was martial arts. She became quite good and from wining competitions, she earned the nicknames "Victorious Vicki" or “Vicki Victorious.” Despite her family affluence, Vicki had friends from all walks of life. Freshman year of high school, she was walking a friend home through a gritty area of Kings Row when they were jumped by Skulls. It was during that encounter Vicki discovered her mutant abilities and being able to produce extreme bursts of energy. Her parents wanted her to hide her powers until she was much older, but Vicki immediately registered with Hero Corps vowing she would do whatever she could to make sure no one ever felt scared to walk down a street like she and her friend did.

I've posted some of these bios elsewhere, but I guess they should be put here too.... Techno-Bunny Technology Blaster - Archery/Devices/Body Kelly Kane, former Paragon Playmate of the Year, was hired to model in several photo shoots for well-known photographer, Lamont Bannon. Unbeknownst to Kelly, Lamont was a super-villain mastermind who turned the models he hired into his minions to infiltrate Paragon’s elite society and rob, black-mail, and even murder them. However, with Kelly, it was different for Lamont. He was in love. When Kelly showed up at the various photo shoots, instead of using his normal mind control powers, he tried to seduce her. He used every trick in the book that a “normal” and un-super-powered person would use to get her to go out with him. However, Kelly was not attracted to him; he was creepy, smarmy, and rude for some reason (go figure) – she just had no idea of the real reason why. Refusing advance after advance, Kelly finally told Lamont off and quit the photo shoots refusing to ever work with him again. Furious, Lamont tracked her; stalked her; chased her; and finally, he sent his other minion models after her to “convince” her to come back. This is how Kelly found out Lamont Bannon, infamous photographer of the most beautiful people in Paragon City and the world, was nothing but a petty criminal. And Kelly was determined to take him down and free all the models under his control – plus, she knew he would never stop stalking her and with the Paragon Police Department not giving any help either, she had to do something on her own. Having amassed a vast fortune from being Playmate of the Year and investing wisely in a new store in Paragon City, named Wentworth’s, and using her multiple advanced degrees in engineering, physics, and ancient literature (a girl’s gotta have hobbies) – Kelly is able to afford and develop the latest in technology and weapon systems. However, Kelly’s favorite weapon is the bow and arrow – it's silent, deadly, and just plain sexy. So, with weapon in hand and many technological gadgets at her disposal, Kelly was ready to go after Lamont. She now just needed a costume and an identity. Opening her closet, all she saw were bunny costumes from being a Playmate. Since she was in a hurry to get out there and track down Lamont, she didn’t want to waste any time picking an outfit or name – nor did she. Kelly grabbed a random costume out of her closet, put on her gear, and headed to City Hall in Atlas Park to register as a hero with the city. She quickly chose the name: Techno-Bunny, and now she is out somewhere in Paragon City, trying to save its citizens and the beautiful people from Lamont Bannon’s evil control and schemes. Techno-Bunny is the proud founder of the Save A Model Foundation (SAMF), a charitable organization that proudly works to eliminate the abusive treatment of models everywhere. Beautiful people and models are a precious gift and resource to everyone everywhere. Help stop the abuse and mistreatment of Paragon's most beautiful people by donating today. SAMF is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization and all donations of money, equipment, or other items (as well as discounted sales and/or trades) are all greatly appreciated and 100% tax deductible. Thank you for your support “For the Beautiful People!”

This is not necessarily true... and I know /Rad very well as an Empath Offender. But even with other blast sets, it's still not true. I continually use AP while in the middle of a mob and attacking, and without dying. Is it risky, sure, but it is completely doable and you can be successful at it. I do it all the time with mine - even my pure support Empath will be in the middle to use what few attacks she has and still survive using AP. The debuff is just f'ing with your mind... concentrate and overcome your fears young padawan... fear leads to the dark side... 😄 My point / meaning of "when you're in the sh*t" is that your teammates are taking a crap ton of damage and you have to switch from offending to defending. There is a point where you can either keep using your damage powers (which are lower on the scale from other ATs) vs. keeping your aggro magnets, damage dealers, and even other support teammates up and alive. If you keep on "offending" while your teammates are dying - that's a pretty dumb move. And it is these times when you do make that switch, when AP comes in handy. And yes, your teammates don't have to be at full health all the time, as long as they are up and you are healing more than the incoming damage - you're good. And yes, you can throw in attacks here and there as long as you are maintaining. But you also have to be situationally aware and ready to stop attacking completely and let the damage dealers do their job while you do yours of keeping them alive. I have no doubt we are on the same page here on tactics and how we keep people alive in fights and I am certain you do really well at healing without AP. 👍 I am only suggesting techniques and methods of using AP without having to worry about the debuff it gives. Again, if it's not for you - that's okay. 🙂

That does seem a bug. The blue should always be permanent on the window as it is what is used to undock the window from your chat window and allow you to move it around your screen. I do this with my map window... click the blue dot to separate it from my Nav window so that I can keep my map in the lower right corner of my screen for a mini-map that is open all the time. If enabling/disabling the pets window in your options only affects the blue dot and does not put the word "Pets" by that blue dot (and being a link to open the pets window) - then that is definitely a bug that should be reported. But glad you got it resolved! 🙂

The challenge options are mostly for Ouroboros - you can get a lot of badges using different settings at all the different levels and running arcs. Because Ouroboros arcs are set up as "TFs/SFs," the challenge settings occur in actual TFs/SFs too, like Posi 1&2, Synapse, Tarikoss, etc - however, they do not reward extra badges or other rewards for completing these normal TFs/SFs with challenges. However, there are some TFs/SFs like Ms. Liberty, Lord Recluse or trials like Eden and Abandoned Sewer Network that you DO use challenge settings for the "Master of" badges. Also, Imperious TF and Aeon SF can accept challenge settings (1-4 stars) and you DO get extra rewards (like aethers and more reward merits) for completing them on these increased difficulties. But most normal TFs/SFs, the setting do not yield any reward.

This problem is not unique to MMs... Controllers and Doms have this issue too with their pets - at least i do.

I run with all sorts. Yes, I do gravitate towards harder content and that is where AP really does help out. But I will also run my Emps through casual gameplay and I never need to touch AP. But it's great for the times when I do need it. I too like playing Offenders. 🙂 I have 2 Emps that I play frequently. One is pure support with very few attacks and half are unslotted (teaming only). The other is an Offender and I attack regularly with it and sometimes pull aggro. But I still have and use AP when needed - again, it's situational but priceless for when you need it. And I even use this Emp on harder content as well (I tend to end up Emp'ing often for those 4-star Aeons. lol).

It's about the volume of incoming damage - and yes, your teammates reaction to using inspires, to some degree. AP is situational... you certainly don't go replacing HO with it. But there are many times teams over aggro and HA & HO just aren't gonna cut it. Most people do not get max recharge on their builds, so there will be a 1-2s wait for HO to recharge - a LOT can happen in that time and having AP there can make the difference between team wipe and not. It's a Godsend and priceless, in my book. But I alos like running very difficult and challenging content. And if you're only keeping teammates at 50% health - and then you get ambushed again - or that crazy blaster throws a fireball into a neighboring mob (whether on purpose or accidentally - we've all seen it! 😄)... your two heals alone aren't gonna be enough. I've experienced that WAY too often, and that's why I will always put AP in my build. Regarding teammates and inspires... I have found most people refuse to use inspires - mostly, people think it's a sign of weakness. Which it is not. And then when an Emp is on the team - they think even less of using inspires because "my Empath will save me!" This is horrible thinking, we all know it, but yet it still happens. So, as an Empath, to rely on your teammates to use inspires to allow you to heal less than your potential... doesn't seem to fit into a "Badass Empath" guide. Yes, it's a viable way to go about things, but that is until the incoming damage is too much for you to heal with only your two heals. Giving up something to give something - it's not "Old School" - it's classic, historical, found in mythology, and is all over our comic books. It's also a perfect ability to for an "Empath" to absorb ones pain to greatly heal someone else while at personal risk. And yes, you are right... at upper levels and when incarnate, most have enough defenses to get through the 20s debuff period. ...Plus, you have purple and orange inspires too! 🙂 ...all reasons why AP and the debuff is not an issue. So, why not take it and use it? Also, generally, if you're in the sh*t, you're not attacking... you should be healing and should have little to no aggro. But yes, if you do have lots of aggro, then something is amiss and you better inspire up anyway. So again, AP debuff doesn't affect you that much. If it's not your thing, no worries. If it's something you do not need with your gameplay, that's great. But again, for a "Badass Empath Guide," I think some love on how AP can work is valuable. 🙂

Yes. You can duplicate sets all you want, but there are caveats to be aware of.... Some sets, Like Numina's, have a Unique IO in it - that particular IO can only be used once in your entire build. So you can 6 slot numina's in one power, but then only use the other 5 in other powers. Some sets, like Purples, ATOs, and Event IOs are unique and you can only slot the set once. Another Caveat - Winter Event IOs can be catalyzed to "Superior grade" you CAN slot an duplicates of a Winter Event set IF one is upgraded/catalyzed to Superior and the other is not. Additionally, you can only benefit from the same set bonus up to 5x. So, If you slot 3 Numina's in 6 powers - you'll get set bonuses for 5 of them and 0 for the 6th one. You also need to be careful because other sets may have the same set bonus value as what you are slotting and those also counts toward your 5 max allotment. For instance for a defender slotting up heals: 3 Numina's give you +12% Regen and +19.08 HPs. You also put in 3 Preventative Medicine into the power, you additionally get +2.5% S/L & +3.75% mez Resists and +19.08 HPs. You also 3 slot Stamina with Performance Shifters which gives you +7.5% movement speed and +19.08 HPs. So your count is: 1 bonus to +12% Regen 1 bonus to +2.5% S/L & +3.75% mez Resists 3 bonuses to +19.08 HPs 1 bonus to +7.5% movement speed This means you can only benefit slotting up to 2 more of the +19.08 HP bonus (and 4 of the others) - all other additional slotting of this bonus, you will not get - the IOs will work for the power, but the additional bonus will not happen. You can add in additional bonuses like +10% Regen and +15.28 HPs and they will be separate from the above and you can stack up to 5 each of these as well. Also, to note - to get the bonus for for the set - all IOs need to be in the same power. So, you can't get the bonus for 6 by slotting 3 in one power and 3 in another - that just doubles up on the 2 & 3 slot bonuses.

I completely disagree with you all here. I respect your opinions, and how you play your empaths - it's your choice. But for other readers/players out there, I offer a different side to using Absorb Pain.... Absorb Pain can be a life changer at times for your allies. Generally, if you're healing and not attacking much, you have little to no aggro - so the cannot self-heal debuff is moot. There have been MANY times a team has been in the sh*t and the tanker/brute (or both) is/are getting low on HPs - Heal Other hardly moves the bar, but Absorb Pain will generally restore them to near full, buying you one less teammate to worry about while you take care of others. Additionally, there are times when you need HO to be recharged immediately to heal another, but waiting those few extra extra seconds for it to recharge or for you to move into range for Healing Aura is too long. Having a 2nd single target ranged heal can be the difference between life or death for your teammate. Typically, I am hanging back with other squishies and they get Healing Aura, while I use Heal Other on those in melee range. When it it gets too much for HO to cover all the players needing assistance in melee, having AP to fill in saves them and you. Additionally, sometimes that controller that you're hanging with who is in your Healing Aura has drawn extra aggro and needs HO as well as those who are in melee range - having AP to rotate in again, saves lives. Following someone who is dying into melee range to heal them with Healing Aura is risky itself - you could be putting yourself into the splash damage of many AOEs and while your Healing Aura and Heal Other may help your ally, but HA alone may not be enough to save you. And then, you've also abandoned others that may benefit better from your HA, when rotating in Absorb Pain from a safe distance would have been better for your teammate and you. However, sometimes I will hover a group of melee toons and use Healing Aura for them and toss the occasional HO or AP to the squishie ranged toons. I've rotated using AP in my healing chain many times and I have yet to die from it - whether it taking my HPs, or from taking damage. Your own defenses (sets and pool/epic powers) can also protect you in case you draw aggro while not able to heal yourself and of course, you have a tray of inspirations to take purples and oranges as needed. Another bonus to AP is that it only needs 1 slot - a Heal or Rech in it - or use it for a mule. I still 4 slot it with a heal set and make it uber. I can fill an almost dead tank's HP bar - and all I have to do is make sure I don't pull aggro eat a couple inspirations make sure I'm safe?? DONE! So, if this guide "is a guide for badass Empaths" - then taking and using AP and being successful with it despite the "no-heal" debuff - is the difference from being an average Empath and being a GREAT Empath. To me, AP should be a 5/5 for a badass Empath, a 4/5 at minimum.

Tested. No, Radial cannot be used as a self-rez

Even after you enable the pet window option in the Options Menu, you still have to open your team window and at the top, click "Pets" to open the window. Did you do that? I've never had the pets window disappear on any of controllers (including Illusion) or other ATs. But typically, on ANY character, I have to first enable the option in the Option menu (I don't know why this doesn't save from character to character like other settings). Then, "Pets" appears at the top of my team window, and then once I open the pets window from there, it never goes away (unless I accidentally manually close it, at which i can just open Teams window again and re-open the Pets window).

And to further add on, in case you did not know - or anyone new reading this thread did not know... you can access Echo: Faultline and Echo: RWZ (and the other Echo zones) through Ouroboros. The portal in the back by the hospital porters will take you to them. They'll each have their own 8 explore badges for an additional 5 Reward Merits each as well.

You are not supposed to be able to earn two day jobs at once. That's the way it was on live, anyway. This is also like in Striga or DA with the base portal inside the grave yard - you have to move away from the portal to allow the Mortician day job to kick in. Otherwise, you only earn Monitor Duty. @Oubliette_Red, this got me thinking about RWZ and the hospital in the base - wondered if it did it there too. In RWZ, standing in the hospital both icons for Caregiver and Vanguard Recruit appear and you lose Caregiver when moving out of the hospital area. However, logging out in the hospital area ONLY awards credit to Caregiver - Vanguard Recruit did not even start the progress bar, despite having the icon next to my toon's name. Standing by the base portal in RWZ, you only get the Monitor Duty icon. Moving away from the portal, and it switches to the Vanguard Recruit icon. So your situation seems to be only in PvP zones where the icon will not return. And it seems RWZ might have a bit of screwiness too.

Yes, I have read it and If you bothered to read elsewhere in my post, I state multiple times, there is freedom of speech provided it doesn't go against the EULA... the opening statement was the set up to all that as a basic principle. 😛

Hi. I understand your frustration and there are times I too can't stand what is being stated in General Chat. However.... 1. Freedom of speech - we all have a right to say our opinions and feelings, even if they are contrary to yours. Even you state this in your final sentence. So, you acknowledge this basic human right that everyone has - even if they are saying things contrary to your beliefs. Given that... You did not have to engage in the conversation about things you did not like. You had a choice to ignore or engage - and you chose to engage. Choices have consequences - whether good or bad - action has a reaction. You received reactions that you are not happy with... but they are the consequences of your choice to engage. I am not defending their actions as they also had a choice to politely listen to your comments and be open to your view points to engage in polite discourse... but apparently, they did not. **IF they stated anything contrary to the EULA (harassment, threatening remarks, etc) - then report the individual(s). Some may report you, if you made such comments as well. 2. People will chat about all topics no matter what - even topics, ideologies, and state things you may not agree with. It's part of life no matter where you go, even in a game like this where there is open forums / chat channels. The General Chat channel is a place for that - otherwise, you WILL get that crap in the LFG channel (still do to some degree), or the Help Channel, Broadcast Channel, Request Channel, etc. It still happens in those channels occasionally but it would be even more so without the General Chat channel. So, this channel needs to stay. 3. "Policing" chat channels - No. It may be a normal thing where you are from, but the game is hosted and operated in areas that allow freedom of speech, as long as it doesn't violate the EULA. Additionally, it would also be a waste of Dev time and resources - and then who is to say one political/religious belief is okay and another isn't. Again, if someone says something that violates the EULA, then you can report them and the Devs will investigate and take appropriate action if need be. But otherwise people can chat about topics you may not like and say things that might offend you and they not be considered against the EULA. 4. You can easily remove the channel from your tab, as you have stated. Yes, you will have to do this for all your characters. But typically, one does this anyway as you add in global chat channels, so it's nothing to remove a channel upon character creation. Everyone else should not have to opt-in to something because you specifically had a bad encounter in Gen Chat. When things like this happen and I can't stand what's being spouted in a chat channel... I turn it off so it doesn't impact my gaming experience. I'll turn it back on later when those people are gone. so I can listen to or engage in the more pleasant conversations. When you watch TV and come across a show you do not like... you switch channels or turn off the TV and watch/do something else for a while. Same concept here. 5. You can also easily "Ignore" the person(s) and you will never see chat from them again. click on their name in chat and select "ignore." Simple.

Between the 2 columns of light, there is a diamond of light floating about head-high... that is where you click. Clicking anywhere else (the base, the columns) and you do not get the blue hand for clicking. I just tested it and it works fine.

As stated above, it's around 59-60% for incarnate soft cap. And yes, some incarnate enemies have buffs, but by that time, you also may have some debuffs as well to counter them, depending on your build and incarnate power choices. And yes, incarnate enemies are found in iTrials, DA, and Cimerora. Resistance can't get any better than it already is.... Resist sets and bonuses are widely available just as Defense is. Generally, you want a combination of Resist, Defense, and Regen/Heal. Whether you take a Resist set and layer on Defense, Regen, and Heals... or take a Defense set and layer on Resists, Regen, and Heals - both routes make strong combos to play. This is why sets like: Willpower, Invuln, Stone, Bio, Rad are so successful. As well as Dark and Fire armors due to having strong heals (in place of regen) and being able to shore up resists and defenses with set bonuses. It is so easy to argue FOR resists sets. Your defense sets are similar and will provide resistance and/or heals to back up along with Defense Debuff Resistances (DDR). And it's really easy to reach incarnate levels of Defense with these sets, and layered resists and regens/heals underneath.... they can be unstoppable. That's the game... it'd be boring if there was no risk, so that is why devs have it that at a bare minimum, foes have a 5% chance to hit no matter what. You layer on your defenses and debuffs to enemies and you increase your odds. This is why Dark/SR (or any defense set) is such a strong combo - it adds a ToHit debuff to your opponent which makes your defense stronger. But do not let that limit your thinking either. My Ice/Energy melee Tank is a beast. So are my Shield/Street Justice Tank, Staff/Energy Aura Brute, Ninja/Ninjitsu Stalker, MA/SR scrapper, Kin/SR scrapper. And yes, back on live - just as it is now - Nemesis LTs give vengeance (+ToHit, +Dmg) to their allies when they die. So that is why you typically want to kill them last, but can be difficult to do as they always rush into melee range making easier targets and get caught in AOEs. (Brilliant strategy on their part and that's why I love Nemesis so much!) 😄

Any AT that has an armor powerset will have Defense Powerset options, so: Tanker, Brute, Scrapper, Stalker, and Sentinel. Even Arachnos Soldiers and Widows have their own brand of Defense sets. The thing about Defense though is... everyone has the same soft cap at 45% (for normal content - incarnate content is much higher). With resists and regen, Tankers get the the highest caps, then Brutes, then everyone else. But the Defense softcap is equal for all ATs across the board - including your squishie ATs (even blasters, defenders, controllers, etc can build for soft cap defenses using set bonuses, pool/epic powers, etc). Your defense armor sets are: Super Reflexes Ice Armor Ninjitsu Energy Aura Shield Defense Stone Armor Invulnerability is a mix of Defense and Resist. They all all good and all have their differences - so, pick what you like and go for it with whatever AT you want to play. There are plenty of choices to make plenty of toons!

Pretty much every contact blue and red side are snitching on a gang or faction in one way or another. There is some of this in Praetoria too... You can throw a dart at the contacts list and will hit many. It's pretty much how the story content is shaped.... we talk to a contact, and they send us to deal with/investigate whatever faction they're interested in. So, pretty much every contact would have an enemy group wanting revenge.

Ice/Energy is what I have and love it. Although, I need to update his build still from the recent changes to the levels that powers are available and the changes to Energy Melee. Otherwise, I'd post a build. Maybe someone else a current one to share. But Ice/Energy is a fun, great, and deadly combo.

Congrats!

Blaster forum! Get that filthy Sentinel talk outa here! lol 😄 Yeah, Sents are better now since the revamp, but I'd still take a Blaster over one any day. So, if we're talking "Best of".... I have many very survivable Blasters that I would call "Best of" and I Blap with all of them (except 1). I will solo +4x8 incarnate arcs with them.... Ice/Fire/Flame (I will also farm with this toon - when I need to) Energy/Martial/Mace Psi/Temporal/Mace DP/Mental/Mace DP/Ninja/Mace Rad/Atomic/Mace Dark/Dark/Soul Seismic/Martial/Mace Archery/TA/Force (non-Blapper)