biostem

There are other ways to generate or maintain energy in CO, (called "secondary energy unlocks"), but the game does woefully little to inform you of that fact, and if you are freeform, they open up even more possibilities. While there are some very good powers and a lot more flexibility in builds, (if you have access to the aforementioned freeform slots), by using those powers, it basically becomes a waiting game until you can access those heavy-hitting powers, since many many powers have no cooldowns at all - if you have sufficient energy, you can just keep spamming them. The biggest turnoffs about CO for me are the plasticky look to all the character models, the goofier hyper-exaggerated animations, having to worry about gear, and a dearth of content to get to max level, (40), unless you grind alerts or go to the Apocalypse zone, which hasn't received any meaningful updates since it was added. Trying to make Star Trek ship combat more dogfight-like was a big mistake, and I have almost no interest in leading squad-battles on the ground. I, admittedly, never played STO for very long, but it just felt like everything was clunky and un-fun.

Regardless of the difficulty you plan on running at, there are really 3 things I think make any character's life easier. Those are: 1. Status protection so a stray mez effect doesn't ruin your day. 2. Some sort of bonus recovery or +end power so you aren't constantly gasping for air and unable to use any of your powers. 3. Some sort of self-heal, (preferably uninterruptable). There are many power sets and combinations, across multiple ATs, that fit the bill, but some that stand out to me are: Dark/SR Sentinel Water/Bio Sentinel War Mace/Ninjitsu Scrapper Energy/Energy Stalker Shield/Radiation Melee Tanker

I keep trying to create spooky or scary costumes, but just can't seem to hit the mark. Regardless, this is one I came up with for a Mind/Elec Dominator, "The Shocking Reveller":

I've had tremendous results with both a dark blast/super reflexes sentinel and a soldier of arachnos crab spider. Both can solo excellently, with the sentinel being basically untouchable, and the crab spider playing kind of like a blaster and mastermind all in one. If you want something more straightforward to play, a radiation armor/savage melee tanker is nearly unstoppable and quite fun as well.

If you look at this page on the Wiki, enemies higher level than you will have a greater chance to hit, so that "50% chance to be hit" will actually be higher, vs a +4, and even more so if they are of LT, Boss, or any higher rank...

Got mine in this month. Keep up the great work!

That sounds like a very interesting combo. I may have to give it a try sometime. Did you also suggest that combo in my "horror-themed character" thread? I've been meaning to give it a try...

TBH, I liked all the secondary characters more than the main one. Were there extensive reshoots with that one, because I feel like they could have played up the horror elements a bit more, especially involving Magik's backstory...

IMO, he was like one of those GMs that did all sorts of dice rolling behind the GM screen, never really revealing what or why he was rolling them in the first place, and just expected the players to go along with it...

For me, the key is that it's a mag 4 immob, meaning you can stop a boss in-place with only 1 casting, AND set them up to take containment damage. I don't have the exact numbers, but IIRC, they do decent damage, but generally it's over time. In other words, use it to keep enemies away from you and to setup that yummy 2x damage!

Hmm... DP/Nin seems like a natural fit, then. I find AR to be too "gimmicky", even taking into account DP's flashy animations. Have you considered a bane spider leaning heavily into the AR attacks? You could dip into the mace attacks if you wanted and leverage the rifle butt and bayonet attacks.

I've been toying around with a few characters, but really haven't settled on anything definitive yet. Right now, I've got: Elec/Poison controller, who's also dipping into the experimentation pool for that mad scientist vibe. Dark/Psi dominator with an "evokes nightmares" angle to her. I have a couple of necromancy MMs already, but was thinking of giving /nature a try, since I haven't done that combo yet, (colored black/dark green/browns to give a graveyard or swamp/bog kind of feel).

How strongly are you set on this character being a blaster? I have a 50 DP and a 50 AR sentinel, (dp/nin & ar/invuln, respectively). Further, I have a 50 "Crabbermind" SoA which also uses his AR, and it's a very formidable character. Could you elaborate upon what you are looking to get out of this character? Cheers!

IOs, IMO, have an ironic sort of dual-effect; They close the gap between what different ATs can accomplish, while at the same time widening the gap between someone using SOs or generic IOs, and set-IOs. The latter definitely give you a leg up in content that was designed before IOs were introduced, but any content that came out afterward still was under-tuned for how players ended up using the set bonuses and procs.

My replies below IN ORANGE:

The thing is, the power bars are "standardized" - they all have 10 spots, the indicator for which tray number they are, and a previous/next button. The notion of having non-standard trays came much later, AFAIK. Heck, many modern games offer far less customization than this. Either way, you can simply bind the keys directly, with no power bar necessary...

Yes. Get on a team with everyone's powers colored white, (that permit it).

The "let's limit clutter" argument went right out the airlock when power customization allowed you to make your powers as obnoxious and non-uniform as can be. Some sort of simple indicator around an enemy's feet a la the sentinel AT ability, perhaps with a simple triangle pointing to whom they are aggro'd against, would suffice...

What would be great is if all KM attacks had a passive chance at siphoning strength and/or speed from the target at all times, and power siphon simply bumped that up to 100% for its duration, instead.

Does this just make those little slivers flesh colored? I mean, people have done something similar since like launch, by using other skin tones that are easier to match with the colors available...

I don't think raising the aggro cap is needed. Rather, I'd settle for a clearer indication of which enemies are actually aggroed to which team member and which the tank/brute/other person has taunted.

Some of my thoughts:

I've encountered a few players who seem to think that if a power isn't available multiple times a fight, then it isn't worth taking. Trying to judge when best to use that power with a base 4 min recharge can be a bit too much sometimes...

If it is clearly communicated ahead of time, and I agree to that by requesting to join the team, then I only have myself to blame if I do not like that it is a speed run. If it isn't communicated AND I don't ask, then it's kinda 50-50. If it isn't advertised, but I do ask, and I stay, that's entirely on me. I must say, though, that a "speed run" is no less playing than any other form - just because I don't want to sped an hour or more on a single TF doesn't mean I'm not still playing for an equal amount of time or in any less legitimate way...

This would give you guns and a sword. Alternatively, if you wanted to be a little tougher, you could go with a dual pistols/something/ninja tool mastery sentinel to also get guns and a sword.