Frozen Burn

So, the new Mini Mode option to purchase with Aethers... Does it keep your character's body aspect ratio when it shrinks? Or does it distort features, like Baby New Year - large body, stubby legs and arms, and large head? I have fairy/pixie toons that I made as small as possible, and before spending 250 Aethers on what i HOPE would just shrink them smaller and keep them looking the same, I want to make sure they won't look like a toy bobble-head.

Everyone should stop feeding the troll... the OP is notorious for making ill-informed statements like here, and then never returning to the thread.

If i recall correctly during live, there was an XP-curve adjustments across all of CoX for the lower levels sometime after Going Rogue came out. So that adjustment not only made all the CoH and CoV lower level content go quicker, but also the Praetorian content too, which then made us all need to turn off XP every now and then so we don't out-level contacts. And you can level to 10, 15, and then turn off XP as needed. You can also lvl to 20, turn off xp, and finish up, if you wanted. But I would suggest turning off again at lvl 19 instead so you don't get the mish to Primal mixed in with your other contacts/content - just makes it easier, imo.

Energy primary can be used well for a Ranged blaster or a melee Blapper. My Energy/Martial loves being in the thick of it and Blapping away. Really, any blaster primary is good for Ranged or Blapper. ....it's your secondary that will lean you to either side. /Energy is a secondary that is great for a Ranged blaster with all the boosts you get. But the heavy hitting melee attacks also makes it good for a Blapper. The only problem is the lack of melee AOE powers to REALLY make a great full-on Blapper. So for that reason, to me, /Energy leans more to the "ranged" blaster side. However, there are those make successful /Energy Blappers - they just are all single target hitters with their melee attacks and only AOEs coming from their primary. Even as a ranged blaster, you WILL get swarmed by mobs rushing you and that's when having those heavy hitting melee attacks really comes in handy. I see you skipped all the melee attacks, however. That is fine. You will just have to constantly be on the move, kite, and jump around to get away from those mobs rushing you. Your build is fine as is. Maybe consider swapping Stun for Bone Smasher? Bone Smasher has a high chance to stun but does high damage. I'm a Blapper at heart and prefer to play all my blasters in melee, if possible - so personally, I'd work in at least 1 more melee attack: either Total Focus for the extreme damage and guaranteed stun to stack with Bone Smasher, or if you just hate the animation time of TF, then at least Energy Punch for the fast 1-2 combo with Bone Smasher. 🙂 ...but that's just me. Whatever you do, you'll have fun with it. 🙂

You can use pretty much any primary. They all have a mix of single target and AoE. But I would be more partial to Ice Blast. It has 2 single target holds (can hold a boss and with good recharge, can hold an EB). The one hold has a long animation, but it's not that bad especially if you use it as an opener on that boss. Cold damage is also not heavily resisted by foes (like lethal and some others). The cone (Frost Breath) and Ice Storm are easily skippable - but do take Blizzard (your Nuke - too good to pass up). As for secondaries, I would say /Energy is the best for single target with all the boosts and single target melee powers.

In addition to Dark Astoria and Echo Dark Astoria, you can also find BP mask at: Sharkhead graveyard at night (Villains & Rogues) Talos Island at night in front of the DA gate and around the buildings there and down the road towards the FF gate (Heroes & Vigilantes).

You need to have some Accuracy and Confuse duration slotted in it. The downfall of WoC is that it will get only minions and they all have to be in melee range too. So you have to be fine with having your blaster in melee range (i do!) and slotting the purple Contagious Confusion proc will help you get LTs - maybe Bosses too (can't remember) - but that proc can't be slotted until you're lvl 50. World of Confusion can be good but generally best left for taking in mid to late levels when you can devote slots to it. I think most people skip the power altogether. But since I like to play my blasters in melee range, Any little bit of damage mitigation that I can get is great!

Typically, if a group wants to reserve a public space, they have to go to City Hall, the Parks Dept, or etc and get a permit to reserve that public space for their private function. ....so.... ask those players if they've secured the necessary permits to reserve that public space and have them email you a copy! I bet there is no one inside City Hall that would issue their permit. 😄

No changes. RNG is being good to you! The first week after release, I had 4 drop from rando missions. ....2 in the 2nd week. ...none since, though. 🙂

Yeah, they made those improvements for Blaster /Devices with the Aug 27, 2019 patch after the page 2 release, but unfortunately, these updates didn't carry over for Traps: It would be great if they did make those changes for Traps too (not sure why they didn't). And as for multiple Gun Drones - it's certainly doable.... The base Rech is 180s and it lasts 90s. You can easily have 2 out for a little bit with only max Rech in the power and Hasten (~170% total Haste) which gives Gun Drone roughly a 67s Rech. If you can get to ~295% Haste, it will get down to ~45s Rech and you can have 2 out perma. At about 370% Haste, you'll be down to max bottom Rech of 36s (capped at 1/5 or 20% of base Rech) and you can have 3 out, but the first one will self-destruct soon after spawning the third. To get 3 perma Gunnies out (30s Rech), you have to have outside help from another player like with Speed Boost, Accelerate Metabolism, Ageless, etc.

The only Page 4 defeat badges are for the twin robots in the Advanced ITF (1-4 star) and for the 100 Ravenna Clan members which you get from running Sister Valeria's arc.

EBs are fine the way they are. Anything more and some ATs would struggle too much to defeat them. And... they are Elite BOSSES... so if anything, they should be closer to boss lvl than closer to AV/Hero lvl. I also recognize the need/want to have something between an EB and an AV/Hero, but I think that starts muddying up the rankings. Not opposed to it, but would have to see how it would implement / spawn. They would have to have their own toggle "solo sub-AVs" (or whatever they will be called) to be separate from "solo Bosses" and Solo AVs."

I love the idea of TFs for Praetoria! I love starting toons there and running through the content - and TFs there would be a great way to draw to others to those zones too. However, since it seems most people are concerned about any TFs messing up story progression... I think the the TFs should be lvl 20+. This would give more content in the main zones outside of First Ward and Night Ward - that I think most praetorian players skip since there is nothing content-wise in the main zones that draw them there (since First/Night Wards came in after the others). But maybe a TF can cover this content gap? Anyway, I would think any TFs would have to start at lvl 20. Perhaps, Praetor Duncan in Nova gives one lvl 20-25 (maybe it could be about her revenge regarding the Destroyer incident?). Then Sinclair in Imperial City can give us one lvl 25-30. And then maybe Anti-Matter can do one in Neutropolis at lvl 30-35 (something about how we do something nefarious in an attempt to show how much he loves Praetor Duncan)? There is SO much lore in Praetoria that could be tapped into for TFs there that we could have TFs all the way up to lvl 50. Ooo, and Emperor Cole lvl 45-50+ TF that is all about setting up the invasion of Primal Earth could be fun! Calvin Scott (primal) used to be in IP standing near Aurora / Sister Psyche and he had his own TF that is now in Ouro (last I heard). Perhaps he can have a new Resistance themed TF in the Tunnels (obviously he'd have to stand outside of the Resistance Base for any Loyalists/Vills/Rogues to talk to him. I really like this idea @KingCeddd03. 🙂

/Devices is great in that it pair with everything. So it's your choice! I have an Archery/Devices Blaster that is one of my all-time favs. I built for +Rech and +Acc/ToHit to leverage Archery's inherent accuracy and fast firing. /Devices is perfect for ambushing mobs.... this can be slow going while you set up, whether solo or on a team. Your team certainly won't slow down so you set up, so sometimes you have to think ahead of your team and stealth ahead to set up the ambush point. But when the mobs do run into your Trip Mines covered in your Caltrops - it is glorious! On a team, you may not use Trip Mines, or Time Bomb all that much. Improvements were made so that these are more team-friendly powers. You can toe-bomb enemies with Trip Mine now - you used to always get interrupted but now, not. Do not skip Gun Drone. That is your big source of damage outside of your primary and very team friendly. With decent recharge, you can have 2 out perma. With lots of Rech like my toon, you can get 3 out (and with speed boost from someone else, that 3 will be perma). Gun Drone also has a small taunt component to it so foes will attack it instead of you - and they also gave Gun Drone some decent armor to hold up a bit for taking that aggro. Also, do not skip Field Operative! That is your endurance sustain toggle. It also gives a bit of Def to all as well, which is nice. I've seen other people skip this power because they didn't want a stealthiness, but then they scream they have no endurance. Taser: even though it's a single target stun, it does high damage. Devs did that to all blaster single target mezzes... make them do really good damage. I slotted mine for damage too. It still works great for stacking with my Stunning Shot to take a pesky boss out of the fight. Caltrops seem "meh" but they are amazing for keeping those annoying melee mobs off you. It mitigates their damage while they try to flee. Web Grenade seems "meh" too, but it has its uses as well. It will do more damage than your T1 primary and has a -fly component which is always useful too. Good luck and have fun!!

Defeat badges never award retroactively. You'll have to run that content again to get those kills. That's what I had to do on my badger. ...just like I had to kill 50 of those 5th column soldiers that turn into a werewolf - i've defeated many over the years the game has been back, but badge credit starts at 0 when the badge was released. Posi 1&2 will be WSTs next week - so, if you can wait a couple days, perfect double-excuse to run them again. 🙂

Never Combustion. Too long of an animation and too low damage for that time wasted. Consume is best slotted for Damage and used as another AOE and those rare occurrences when your recovery and end is stolen away - even slotted for damage, it can get you enough end to sate you until your recovery returns from the debuff. Burn is situational depending on your playstyle and other powers you might take. if you take fire epic and take Bonfire with a KB>KD proc in it, it's great to drop the Bonfire and then a Burn patch while they flop in it. Burn has some use for releasing you from immobilization, if you don't have protection from elsewhere. My main is an Ice/Fire/Fire blaster and I drop a burn patch on things I hold and then go about killing other things while the DoT eats away at them. Blizzard, Ice Storm, Bonfire, Hotfeet, Burn, Fire Sword Circle, Consume - glorious AOE to devastate multiple mobs - you just have to be comfortable standing in the middle of an angry mob of enemies. 😄

HA! That is great! I hope you are also using the Ninja Run stance for the hunched-over look and the flip at the top of your jump like the Redcaps do. 😄

Welcome back to the game and glad you are finally getting IOs and Incarnate figured out. As others have stated above, "speed" runs are not for those that want to power through and feel "useful" or feel like you are doing something. Speed runs are all about getting the entire task over with ASAP and typically maxxed out toons on the lowest setting all them to easily burn through the objectives to quickly get the end reward. To continue growing your incarnates and feel "useful" on a team, look for teams that are "steamrolling" or just fighting through content - typically anything "non-speed." Every Saturday around 3PM ET, there is a group that runs through all the incarnate trials - try to get in if you can as some trials have a 24 member league cap and others have a 16 member league cap. iTrials can also be found ad hoc throughout the week as well, typically in the evenings (ET). These are the best way to build your incarnate powers as you can get component drops as rewards. Running the Dark Astoria content is a great way to get incarnate components for your toons as well. Speak to to Captain Nolan (he dropped into your contact list when you unlocked your Alpha). He'll intro duce you to Ephram Shaw that gives repeatable missions in DA and Heather Townsend that will take you through all the arcs. At the end of the arcs, you get a reward table where 1 option is a random incarnate component (common through very rare). Other than that, just running content and defeating enemies will get you incarnate thread drops and veteran levels, which will also grant additional threads and empryean merits for building incarnate powers. defeating enemies and running a WST TF/SF will also grant a Notice of the Well... these are used with Incarnate Shards to help build your Alpha (only). They drop at a lower rate, but they can help you build a tier in your Alpha and you can save your threads and Empyreans for other things. So use them in conjunction with your threads on your alpha - it can help you get your Alpha to Tier 4 pretty quick. Good luck!

Yes, I am aware they took away Emp/Astral conversion to Reward Merits, but that's not how your post read or alluded to. 😛

iTrials never rewarded Reward Merits before page 4. Not sure where you got that from. But all Reward Merits received for an iTrial now are ON TOP of normal existing rewards. I run all iTrials every weekend and all my rewards are the same, but now I get bonus Reward Merits and Aethers. And, like other Trials, TFs, SFs, Hami-raids - there are diminishing returns for Reward Merits for repeating content, which includes iTrials. This is normal. And sorry if you don't like all the iTrials or running all of them - but that's on you. I like every single one. And I team with a lot of people that also like to run every single one. But still... like anything else... if you run a BAF many times over and over again, you'll only get the reward merits for the one - BUT you still get all your Emp, Astrals, and components like normal. So you still get everything you got before page 4, but you get bonus Reward Merits for at least 1 BAF. Nothing is being lost with the iTrials in Page 4 and there is only gains.

The assumed stressed is perceived from all your lengthy posts and well, this thread in general. There is a lot of back-and-forth over something so minor like Aethers. That typically is a sign of stress - even if you don't think you are stressed, you may be. Stress is a silent and hidden killer. (Ooo... maybe a new Stalker name! "Stress" 😄 ) I don't think Page 4 was rushed at all, we had 6 weeks with it on Brainstorm. And that is certainly plenty of time for even a casual player like myself to get on and test it out. I'm sorry you missed your chance. And there is purpose to making these Aethers not as readily accessible and that is to give their worthless value some longevity. The Devs didn't want to drop something new and have everyone be able to get all their characters the new shiny at once - because then people would be bored with the new shiny sooner. It would be poor implementation to use a current currency (that most people have stockpiled and would instantly get all the goodies at once) and/or make the new currency SO easy to get that people have all they need within a week or so of the release. ...this is NOT poor planning on the Devs part. You just seem to be in a rush to get all the badges on all your alts... but embrace the journey. 🙂 I casually play. I am 13 Aethers away from getting the last badge on my main from running content (never purchase off market). I'm not pushing to get the remainder and I'm certainly not buying any of them... I'll get them as they drop. iTrials are not the only way to get them (Running TPN and UG first is best so you get 3). Running hardmode ITF or ASF is the best way to get them. That is how I got most of mine at 1-2 stars, ran couple 3 stars and one 4-star ASF) and since they are transferable, I can play whatever character I want and then give them to my badger. Running the WST with a lvl 50 is a good way to get them, while you may only get a couple at a time, they add up since typically one runs the WST multiple times a week on many different characters. Anyway, sorry you feel disappointed in the release. PS - thanks for the decently priced PVP IOs.... when they don't drop, they are the only special IOs I purchase off market and not with reward merits. 👍

Dude, you're getting butt hurt over something SO minor here. So what if a new currency was added in? It's mostly useless unless you want the new NPC costumes. You don't want the costumes - then why do you care so much that they didn't use an existing currency? And I for one, would NOT want reward merits to be chewed up to use for these. It's like Halloween Salvage and Candy Canes... would you really want Reward Merits to be used for those un-necessary / frivolous items you buy with them as well? I do NOT. Reward Merits are too precious for me as they are how I get all ATO/Event enhancements as a good number of purples, as I refuse to pay the stupid prices on market for these things and purples rarely drop for me. (I am a casual player who doesn't farm and doesn't have billions of influence lying around.) But nevertheless, at the end of the day... these Aethers impact you 0 (zero). They do nothing but give some people something to strive for and collect. And you can see by how they are traded on the market that those people are enjoying them and others are enjoying selling them. If you want no part of it, that's fine. The game still plays like it did before and you can continue to enjoy it. I feel like you're getting all stressed out over something that is SO minor and negligent. Plus, you're also treating the Dev team like they are paid employees of a company to build out and develop this game like it used to be. These are VOLUNTEER devs... give them a break. They ARE producing new content and new powersets as they can. They are also producing some new events, and yeah, new frivolous costume thingies that were requested by players and was a low-hanging fruit to implement because the system was ALREADY in place from a previous event. Give them a break, dude. And give yourself a break - I feel like you're giving yourself an ulcer over this and I don't want you ending up in the hospital - we need all the people in-game that we can get! 😄

So I don't get all the beef and gripes about the Aethers. It's pretty simple... Aethers are are worthless unless you want an NPC costume. They are just like Halloween Salvage (and even Candy Canes) that now drop from various things all year round. Yes, they started off be being worht a LTO onthe market because there are people out there that HAVE TO HAVE all the NPC costumes and badges NAOW! ... and they paid for them. I think most everyone saw the bottom dropping out on the market of these as more Aethers hit the market. And the price of them will continue to plummet - even with new additional NPC costume items being added later. Not everyone wants these and I am only collecting them (slowly as they happen to come) on my badger for the badges. Once I get my 4 shinies, I'm done. As I collect them after that, i might sell them on the market or save them for a goof costume an alt - maybe. But, they'll eventually sit in my inventory like all the Halloween salvage and candy canes I have. I have no problem with the Devs putting this in the game. It's something new, something different, and some people really like it. Just 'cuz it's not my jam doesn't mean i'm gonna hate on it. It does nothing to impact my game play or what i do other than give me 4 more badges to collect - which i enjoy doing. So again, not sure what the big issue is about Aethers. Collect them if you want - many paths to get them. Or don't collect them if you don't want them - and sell them or in a month or so, buy a rando NPC costume on a lark with all that you saved up.

If you're talking about character creation time included... it can take all day to several days. The concept, name, and costume all have to be something that I really like or i will never the the toon. Sometimes a bio is included in that creation. Sometimes, I have to do a Mids build ahead of time to see if i like the pairing of power sets - that can take hours too. Once the character is in game, then it's just a couple mins to see P2W vendor, fix the UI, and then running through the tutorial or running one of the initial contacts.

In the past week, I've experienced more Group Flyers than I have since the game has been back. Mostly MMs wanting their pets to fly - which is fine - they need this! I would love to have this ability with my MMs, but I refuse to take Group Fly or Team Teleport as these choices SHOULDN'T have to make me/everyone else take ALL my/our characters to see null the Gull to turn it off. What needs to happen... and I know this is HUGE ask... but Group fly (and Team Teleport) should automatically be OFF for other players and only on for the character and their pets. Everyone else should have to opt in. OR.... Give everyone the ability to turn on/off Group Fly (and Team Teleport) through our Options Menu. That way we can do it on the fly as we encounter people with these annoying team powers.