biostem

I, personally love gravity control. It is probably the most "blastery" of the control sets. Yes, it excels at soloing, but it is also excellent against single targets. In a team setting, it really shines once you get wormhole and if you have a secondary where you can setup a "killing field", (such as traps); Teleport a group of enemies onto your caltrop-laden mine field and let your team mop up the stragglers!

Quick question for you fine folks, if anyone can help: I have a character I'm currently playing called "The Brave Woodsman". He's a BA/WP brute. I've got a pretty good look going for him, (I'll post a screenie if I get the chance later), but I can't quite find a plaid shirt. I've been able to kind of simulate it by using a rough-leather top, which has vertical lines in it, along with a red & black horizontal pattern. Can anyone assist? Thanks in advance! Here's some pics:

City of Heroes takes place in a world where teleportation and inter-dimensional travel are commonplace; To imagine that ordering an item from a specialized auction house for heroes couldn't be sent to you instantly, from anywhere, is actually more of a break from the game's reality, than forcing them to go to a few select buildings. I also find it odd that one couldn't, with enough resources or reputation, simply buy a portable crafting table outright. I do agree that it'd be nice to bring more life to some of the lesser used/visited zones. See my first comment regarding Oroborous and time travel in general, and see my comment about the AH/crafting for respecs...

So I have a level 43-ish BA/WP brute called "The Brave Woodsman". He's pretty fun to play, but I wanted to make him very well rounded, so invested in leadership, (assault & tactics). I have tactics slotted with 1 end redux & 3 tohit buffs, 1-2 acc IOs in each attack, and several IO set bonuses granting me extra acc and recharge bonuses. I took energy mastery for some extra end, recovery, and regen, but skipped focused accuracy. Since I'm running tactics, is it still worth it to take focused accuracy? I have 3 power picks left, and I still haven't taken my taunt or self-rez. The only pool powers I've taken are mighty leap from force of will and assault/tactics. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Masterminds *don't* get PFF because it would be too advantagious for them, (or so it was though), for them to be able to basically have capped defense while still being able to deal damage, a la their pets.

The issue with the fly poses is, AFAIK, they only take affect once you are moving. If I bind the fly pose command to a separate key, then press it while I'm in motion, then it works fine. Perhaps try binding it to W or whatever key you're using to move forward.

Very classic! Nice!

I would narrow the scope a little bit: Gunmen, Guardians, & Mentalists. Gunmen would focus on direct damage via the various blades and energy weapons. (basically blasters) Guardians would focus on buffs/debuffs/heals and secondarily ranged damage (basically defenders) Mentalists would focus primarily on controlling the battlefield and secondarily on some ranged damage (similar to a dominator, maybe nixing the melee attacks) We could treat this like the Soldiers of Arachnos, where you start as a basic "soldier", and choose your path from there. The communications officer's portal ability would just be a higher tier power some paths gain access to, like how some SoA builds can call spiderlings/etc.

Can you use any rez on a living ally? Do you need said ally to be in a particular state of defeat, or does any sort of defeat work? Do they need to have been defeated by a particular type of attack or damage type?

Incorrect. "Ally only" is a very common requirement among support/buff sets. Can you name any other power that requires you deal a specific damage type to it, in order for it to work?

You are missing the point. And if you think that a group of all TA defenders can do things that a group of, say, rad ones can't do 10x better, then I don't think we're even playing the same game. A defenders' only "role" is support/buff/debuff/healing + ranged damage. Anything more than that is you projecting your thoughts or opinions of the AT onto them...

Those fall into the "ally only" category that is prominent in other sets. This isn't the same thing.

Even if it wasn't made into a full-fledged ranged attack set, a power pool centered around some mundane ranged damage would be great - maybe make it sort of like the fighting pool, but for simple firearms, (personally, I'd stick to a single pistol): Single pistol power pool: 1. Supported shot - A simple shot from a single pistol, where you support your firing hand with your other one. Deals minor lethal damage and applies a minor defense debuff. 2. Pistol whip - A basic melee attack dealing minor smashing damage with a decent chance to stun the target. 3. Reinforced clothing - Auto power granting minor smashing & lethal damage resistance 4. Combat awareness - Auto power granting minor ranged, melee, and AoE defense 5. Double-tap - You fire 2 shots from your pistol in quick succession, dealing moderate lethal damage and applying a damage resist debuff. I was considering adding a synergy effect like fighting has, but I wasn't sure if that'd be too good or too similar. Your thoughts?

I fundamentally disagree. The only "intention" that we can discern is that the set involves you firing various specialized arrows at enemies that do things. Perhaps the devs originally envisioned TA as only being meant to work in conjunction with archery, (especially before the "no redraw" option). Every set should stand on its own. Sure, synergy or other beneficial interactions are nice, but not at the expense of the set as a whole. As Redlynne mentioned several times, the focus on oil slick arrow and the inability to fully utilize it within the set itself, is just the tip of the ice berg, regarding the various buffs/tweaks the set needs.

Solo, and especially once you get DOs or SOs, can fly by very quickly, even without stepping foot in AE; You can run whichever missions you want, with as much or as little downtime as you want, and with enemy group size and level tailored to you. It may not be as easy or as good XP/hr as running tunnel missions endlessly, but it's also a lot less tedious, and you'll likely earn a bunch of merits along the way. Maybe one solution would be to award more merits for running storyline missions, instead of just upon completing each one...

Those look amazing! How do you get such extreme, clean closeups of your characters?

It'd be kind of nice to take a lot of the older content, (that isn't the end of an arc), and basically scale back the "busy work" aspect of the missions - turn the 3-floor glowie hunts or "kill-alls" and consolidate them down to only 1 floor. Keep the end of mission XP the same. It'd give you a better XP/time ratio, while keeping the "meat" of the content there...

Think of the AE as a tool - just like the P2W vendor's temp powers and XP boosts. I can certainly sympathize with the rate of progression feeling slow when compared to what you can get out of the AE, but why is this an issue, when you do in fact have options available to you? Use the AE or don't; Play regular content or not. Run storyline content, or Newspaper/Radio missions to 50 if you like...

What makes "speedsters" different, storywise, than any other existing AT that could potentially utilize extreme speed to their advantage? Kheldians and SoAs have specific story-based reasons for their existence, and in the case of Kheldians, very different powers. I suppose this could work if they created a series of storylines to explain how such speedsters differ from any other characters, but we don't have ATs that focus so much on 1 particular aspect of their physicality. As a primary set, to go along with SR, sure, but a whole new AT isn't needed...

Or his rope-based clone: "Nemesis Knot".

Bit of a tangent here, but why not just make all IOs directly purchaseable via the invention desks, like basic ones are?

I'd say roll all of these related suggestions into 1 larger "Enhancement management overhaul"...

So to you, not being able to use 1 of your own powers is enough to give the entire set a "gimmick"? If you have fire, archery, electricity, or any of of various other blast sets, then you *can* take advantage of that so-called "gimmick", so if the intent was to restrict it to effects only other party members can trigger, then it fails. Perhaps it's not a gimmick at all - perhaps it's just an oversight and a sign that the set underperforms...

I understand that you "personally feel" this way, but beyond that, can you support this feeling in any way? Your character, solo, can take advantage of every other aspect of the set, so why this odd limitation? IMO, the set was meant to go with the archery primary on defenders or corruptors, who would have access to blazing and explosive arrow. The fact that it was seemingly never considered that someone might want to use a different primary, that doesn't deal energy or fire damage, seems like an oversight to me. Look at time manipulation, for instance - several powers take advantage of the delayed mechanic, which the set itself can apply. Now imagine if you needed some ability outside of the set in order to gain that additional effect...

Do any other sets have to dip outside of themselves in order to take advantage of one of the other powers in the set? As Redlynne stated: "Swapping Electrified Net Arrow in for Entangling Arrow is ONE ... I repeat for clarity ... ONE piece of the puzzle for what to do for Trick Arrow".