Frozen Burn

You can only have 3 tips, iirc. (Valentine delivery/tips do not go towards this count.) So, you may need to abandon your normal tips until you get your whispered rumor. **Be sure to be in a dropped Halloween Costume while ToT'ing - NOT one of the purchased costumes with Aether Particle doohickies.

My Ice/EM Tank. He used to be a refrigerator repairman and used spare parts to create a Halloween Costume to trick or treat with his kids. Long story short: after many refinements over the years, eventually the parts worked protecting him in ice and being able to punch hard with energized fists. He registered as a hero with the name... Frigid-Dare

I keep telling her to go to the Icon tailor standing near her, but she's too busy triaging people, I guess.

One of my Favorite melee toons is a tiny pixie Titan Weapon/WP Brute that hovers all the time (yes, i know, that means no T9 primary unless I'm grounded, but I don't really miss the power). It cracks me up to be so small with a giant sword and to beat up large baddies. My SG (when we were around) would run "Tiny-Toon Tuesdays" to show BIG deeds can be done with small toons. Nothing like seeing a full team a large league of nothing but smallest toons possible running around doing TFs and Trials! 😄 (I was excited about mini-mode until I saw it turned us into an ugly bobble-head doll.) 😞

For me, it's all on the toon concept. For Dark/TA... I'd go with Soul (more Dark Blast powers), Mace (for the Scorpion Shield), Force (for PFF, Temp Invuln, & Force of Nature), or even Munitions (yes, I said it!) even though it's probably the worst of the blaster epics - LRM is just fun! (but you have to devote power picks to get it - Body Armor can be a mule for IO specials, though). The other sets are great and some of my favs, but again, for concept reasons... I'd go with any of the 4 I mentioned above.

Yes, procs in glue arrow is great (as @Onlyasandwich mentions too. And yes, there are more efficient AOE damage powers for blasters, but.... the primary benefit is the control to help keep mobs away from you and also keep them in your burning oil slick. Oil slick provides control (knocking down), but once ignited, mobs, can flee - glue arrow on top of it holds them into the fire so it is more efficient, and the extra damage from glue certainly helps too. That's fine if you think it's skippable. I find it extremely useful and not skippable. Most abilities in Tactical Arrow can be skippable for one reason or another, but it's the stacking of all/most of them together that make the set shine, imo.

Many doors for story arcs and task forces are always the same door no matter what - this is intended. Sometimes, if you read the story, it talks about that specific building or zone area in the mission dialogue, so it has to always be that door. Others are random - this is also intended - also fitting the story. Knowing the door where a mission will be can be handy when trying to get through a task force quickly (like the Shard TFs)! But there is still many missions out there in in TFs and story arcs that have random doors to keep things interesting.

In addition to igniting oil slick, it has -fly and slow to it. So it can be handy to get those pesky fliers on the ground into your glue arrow and oil slick. And unlike Uun, I like Glue Arrow and slot it up for damage now that it does toxic damage. It also helps keep foes in your burning oil patch and adds on extra damage.

@Scarlet Shocker, Since Blaster (my first go-to) is off the table... Here are some options to consider (you could make a whole Mesmerpeople city!).... Controller: Primaries: Symphony Mind Control Ice Secondaries: Cold Pain Sonic Storm Dominator: Primaries: Symphony Mind Control Ice Secondaries: Icy Assault Psionic Assault Sonic Assault Defender (inverse for Corruptor): Primaries: Cold Pain Sonic Storm Secondaries: Ice Blast Psy Blast Sonic Blast Storm Blast Water Blast There are mods available for sonic blast banshee screams, which might fit.

Please share.... i never knew there was a way to do this.

Ever been to New York City which is basically at sea level? Underneath Manhattan Island is a subway, and under that are 800-1000 feet deep of other tunnels for water, sewage, electrical, and more. Pump stations are few as they use gravity (sloped pipes to bring in water and expel sewage) and what few pump stations there are, they are masked and mostly hidden. There is one big sewage pump/treatment plant in Central Park Reservoir that hidden/unknown to most people. So, Praetoria is completely plausible the way it is. 🙂

My issues with hats is that most (especially for females), you are bald underneath. Even if it's just a little, all hats need a hair option. 🙂

Most armor sets don't have a lot of clicks and are simple. Generally, you don't want many as that is less time clicking your attacks. Will Power is a very solid set and will meet your needs once you get up in levels. Bio can be very clickie and is a solid set, if you want to feel like you're "doing something." Regen also can be very clickie and presents a unique playstyle, but WP is far better, especially for someone new to the game. Ninja has some cool utilities and Rad can be fun too.

Depending on the map, you could potentially have a boss spawn on/near the glowie that you collect. They'll stand still until aggro'd, but if in a small room, they'll auto-aggro upon spawning as if it were an ambush. THEN, you could set up more ambushes at boss' 3/4, 1/2, and 1/4 health - maybe at defeat too.

Yes, the number crunchers in the community have done all this as shown in Luminara's post. As to answer your question in the Thread title: How much does damage type affect MY decision in power choices? ....not one damn bit. I play to play the character, the concept, and for the fun of it. While I will min/max my build and whatever power choices I made, I do not pick or choose powers to min/max the gameplay.

Ill/Storm is a great combo - Controlled Chaos FTW! However, I went Psy epic instead for the mez protection and Psi Tornado. Teammates will hate you if you go all out with your powers and the KB. At least put a KB>KD proc in Tornado - it will make it more apt to grind on the target instead of knock it back and move onto the next target. Perma PA and good end management is possible with sets prior to incarnates. Incarnates - I went with: Alpha = Agility Core for +End, +Rech, and +Def Judgement = Ion Core (obvious choice) 🙂 Interface = Cognitive Radial (toon concept - he's a mentalist) and i'm surprised how often the confuse proc hits. But there are probably others you would want instead. Lore = Phantoms (another obvious choice) Destiny = Barrier mostly, but I have all (except Clarion since I have mez prot from epic) and I swap out depending on situation. Hybrid = Support Core, but Assault or Control could be useful too.

Hmmm.... tricky one. You can't have your NPC hang out there, interact with them, then have something else happen to them to interact with them again. But you can have them spawn, get rid of them, then have them spawn again. So, perhaps you can try something like this.... Set up your heroes in front and middle to meet them (essentially rescues without a mob around them) - these would have to be required objectives (meet hero 1, meet hero 2, meet hero 3, etc), but have them run to nearest door after greeting them. Then have objective to meet Citadel in back - base gets invaded and new spawns of captured heroes with mobs around them spawn in the front and middle that player and Citadel have to rescue. The rescued hero can then be set follow, run away, stay still, fight/not fight, etc. Hopefully, something like that will work? Thinking through this more.... You can also keep what you're doing by having the allies follow you to Citadel, but don't have any of the enemies spawn until you meet Citadel in the back. This can be set up by making each spawn a boss spawn, patrol, etc that you can then code to activate upon completion of Citadel - just look at the map specs to see how many of those spawn types are allowed in each area and put that # of boss spawns there. The base will be empty except for your allies and Citadel - and once you talk to Cit, all the enemies will spawn.

@Story Archer, if you, as a Tanker are at/near the defense soft cap - you're fine. You have other layers of defenses to compensate. Don't forget, you have inspirations you can take to fill in the occasional gap when needed. Just one small purple insp can carry you far for the time you need. So, I would opt for your other set bonuses and take the benefits you'd rather have.

This is not entirely true. I know for certain you do not have to do 3 things for the badge, at least if you are running the arcs through DA. Maybe it is if running them through Ouro - is that what you meant? I know that running through DA, you only have to 1) rescue the Detective at least once prior to Dream Doctor's arc, and 2) rescue him again in the Dream Doctor's arc. The same with Madame Bellerose for the Incarnate Rival badge. While Heather Townsend offers both NPCs once and then so does Praetor Duncan, only one rescue is needed prior to Dream Doc. And I'm not even sure if the rescues from Praetor Duncan count at all as I've always found them in Heather's arc, and sometimes not in Duncan's and I still get the badge from the Dream Doc. Plus, the Wiki says it must be Heather's arc first and doesn't even mention rescuing from Duncan's arc. But my badge tracker from Kitsune says to rescue them "at least once" prior to Dream Doc - so, perhaps it would be good to test skipping the rescue in Heather's arc, then rescue them in Duncan's arc, and see if they still show up in the Dream Doc arc. @Fireknight013, I know you can still get the badges (Buddy Cop and Incarnate Rival) through Ouro, even if you didn't rescue them during the "present" as I've done it before all through Ouro. I can't remember exactly how, but I do remember having issues and running the arcs multiple times - maybe I ended up running all of them to ensure I got it. But perhaps through Ouro, you have to do at least Heather's, Duncan's, and Dream Doc's arcs as @lemming might be suggesting.

I also love Dual Pistols. I have quite a few toons with it. I generally use Incendiary rounds, but will switch to Cryo for mobs weak to it. I rarely use Chem rounds. Suppressive Fire is situational for me but is really useful when you have another hold in your secondary or epic pool to stack with it. But sometimes, I outright skip it, depending on the build.

You will ALWAYS enter facing south. No way to change that.

Empathy is still viable and a strong set for any AT that uses it. And it pairs with anything. Even steamrolling teams can use an Emp's buffs. ...and it's "Fortitude" - not "Forge." Forge is Thermal's version of the power. 🙂 And yes, with enough global recharge, you could perma AB 1 pet and rotate 4 Fortitudes on others. With Maneuvers and the pet +Def procs, you could have some fairly untouchable pets. Pick whatever MM pet set you want and go for it!

AR lends itself to stay at range because of all the cones, while /Martial and /Ninja lend themselves to be better in melee range. DP also lends itself to function well in melee range and has better synergy with /Martial and /Ninja than AR.

Your secondary power pick is what determines your "blap-worthiness" or not. So, look for secondaries that have the melee powers you want. Most will have a non-nuke PBAOE... do not poo-poo them - they are generally quite good and worth taking and slotting. Don't shy away from your crowd control powers either - they help with survivability. Some of the better sets for blapping are: /EM, /Fire, /Martial, /Ninja, /Earth, /Atomic, /Temporal, /Elec. Avoid: /Tactical Arrow and /Devices.

The beauty of this game is that it broke the mold of the Holy Trinity. Every other game was, and most still are, based on the Holy Trinity. In the early days of COH, the Holy Trinity was king and while there were these other awesome ATs and powersets, they weren't as effective as the Trinity and people who wanted to play them, struggled - not just in being effective, but in getting teams unless they were just tacked onto a Trinity team. The changes made over time to balance the game, ATs, and powers was needed, and was useful, and is as it should have been, imo. Again, COH broke the mold that other games just can't seem to get away from - and that's why I love COH so much.