biostem

Man, this reminds me of trying to run to the appropriate origin store in Steel Canyon to buy DOs upon reaching level 12, back in the day...

Influential snacks or Infamous flatulence?

The biggest change was that the vulnerability effect was stripped from the 1st 2 attacks and made into a separate click power. In addition to that, they also get a passive always-on power that gives them a bit of extra perception and some debuff resistance.

Did you consider bribing them to play better?

This is only true if you don't properly leverage containment. Defenders are definitely a lot more direct in their ability to deal damage, thanks to their secondary, but if you have a primary you can leverage for more damage or -res, then the sky is very nearly the limit. With the proper binds, and once you get some slots in your powers, a tri-form does really well. It's getting over that hurdle that's the problem.

I have a couple of 50 MMs, but after playing mostly Sentinels and Tankers, I'm considering rolling another one. I'm not looking for a specific build, but general advice would be great. I'm currently considering a demons/ice or ninja/ice. What are your thoughts? I've already played necro, thugs, and bots to a high level, so I want to give other sets a try. Thanks for your input!

Some thoughts:

Petless mastermind.

Category Five is not just about what it does in the absence of your other powers - it has synergy with your other storm blast powers when they are used within its AoE; It's like complaining about mastermind pets underperforming, but neglecting to take any of the upgrades...

Honestly, I saw it more as the original villain ATs, (as they functioned when CoV launched), skewing their focus more toward damage and solo play, vs the hero ATs, with stalkers being more specialized scrappers, and brutes being berserker tanks.

Welcome back! If you're finding that you're lagging, try changing the option to always show player names to only showing them when selected or on mouse-over - the GUI can impose a hefty penalty on performance. Also slightly reduce your draw distance under the graphics options, and lower particles. Cheers!

And if you took maneuvers on your way to tactics and vengeance, you get 2 LotG mules!

Defenders get the greatest benefit out of tactics, which is tohit instead of just an acc buff, AND it benefits your entire team. It can be a costly toggle to run, but provides a huge benefit.

O2 isn't in storm blast, and very few blast sets actually have a self heal. I don't find the damage to be bad - you just need to fully exploit the extra lightning strikes that storm cell and category 5 utilize; It'd be like playing beam rifle and not utilizing disintegrate...

That's why I make liberal use of the "goto passive" bind I listed earlier - make all your pets ignore everything and go where you clicked - send them away if they have aggro you can't manage. If nothing else, it could buy you and your team some time...

2 macros and 1 bind address like 99% of your issues: /macro Atk "petcomall attack aggressive" /macro Flw "petcomall follow defensive" /bind lalt+lbutton "petcomall goto passive"

Demons/Pain is an option, though...

Water has a nice thematic match w/ poison, and offers a self heal, which poison also lacks...

Poor poor lil electric... PAIN DOMINATION will truly motivate your team in ways you could never conceive of!

You can kind of achieve this with a battle axe/ninjitsu scrapper, but a genuine stalker version would be great!

"Energy" is a very generic term. CoH treats it separately from psychic energy, dark/negative energy, and so on. Heck, fire is basically energy, as is blunt force, (I differentiate it from lethal damage, as that is more about cleaving/separating something's intact form). Even cold damage could be construed as forcibly removing energy from a target, thereby causing damage.

Stalkers get a very large bonus to crit chance based upon the number of other teammates. Hide is almost superfluous, except for opening a fight or sneaking past mobs. Heck, there's an ATO that can put you into stealth for a few seconds, without needing the power, (IIRC).

For all the gadgets stuffed into umbrellas in spy movies, it ought to be an option for assault rifle...

All this arguing about character origin is why I'm glad it is, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant with regard to how your character turns out/performs...

A defender's secondary isn't there just for show...