Neiska

The choice is Theme/Energy based attacks vs Quicker, More accurate physical attacks. Thats really about it. Personally I hate having to pull out a firearm when i got the crabby pack, but thats just me. To people who like to squeeze everything they can out of a build they may take the huntsman attacks entirely for mathematical reasons. Neither way is wrong.

I don't think anyone would argue that Crabby or SoA is overpowered, it's more of a theme/setting class. But just to point out that as a stand-alone it doesn't really shine, where it shines is team support/buffs. There mere presence is their main attraction with their super-buffed leadership toggles. Despite their failings, I still love them. The best build I found that works for me is to focus on flying and resistance/durability, with 85% resists, flying, a full cycle of ranged attacks, it feels like a I'm playing a flying fortress. Now its numbers isn't huge or impressive by any means, but often enough I was the most durable one on the team, more than most scrappers and some brutes. Just no aggro tools to capitalize on, sadly. And provoke only gets you so far. The AT itself has been largely untouched since it was added, as far as I am aware. If any ATs need updates, its the Warshades/Peacebringers along with SoA's/Widows. I am not talking a total AT overhaul or anything, just some number tweaks would likely be enough. I am not certain that the staff can do this though, as they have updated pretty much everything else to some extent or another except the Epic ATs. SoA isn't "bad", but solo or damage isn't really its niche. I am not implying they are all TERRIBLE dps, I am sure some can put up decent numbers. (I have seen some Widows that could rip a battleship apart.) I only say that isn't really their focus in their design. As far as the Crabber vs Huntsman? Well, with Crabby you get more pets, and crabby armor, personally I enjoy the animations enough that I can overlook the fact that the base attacks are better. Nothing wrong with taking things just for fun or because you like them. That, and I really like their energy based attacks and the visuals. They may be a bit slower, or lower DPA, but are energy type and thematic. Which is more important to you? Well, only each person can answer that for themselves. If it were up to me, I would really want their T9 changed, or at least that absurd cooldown reduced. It is honestly one of the worst T9's, and I'll be danged why they designed it that way. I would be fine with if it did zero damage at all, and was just a taunting drone you could drop every 2 minutes or something. At least you can find a use for something like that. My two cents.

It isn't the Power that people had issue with, its the slotting. If you take a secondary that doesn't have a heal in it, such as Cold, then the Maintenance Drone is a good thing. But for secondaries with their own heals, such as Electric, Time, Nature, Dark, and so on you don't gain much. So its a better option for those builds that didn't have a staple heal, for those with one its kind of "meh." There are certainly better as well as worse T7's. Personally my objections to the robot update was never about the Drone. The drone is a good option for people who want to use other secondaries, and I usually support more options for people. But as a whole, the primary didn't encourage different builds, but made what is arguably the primary that has the least amount of available optional slotting (IE the tightest slotting) even more so. And that's what some people who didn't like the new Robots objected to - the tighter obligatory slotting, not the heals, damage, or math.

I don't want to re-ignite old arguments, so all I will say is that of all the MM changes, Robots was the most contested and debated one. Some liked it, others did not, for differing reasons. Their damage is improved and more evenly distributed, but there are also downsides that I will not elaborate about. It's an old debate, not worth digging up. And I wouldn't expect them to revert or change it. But no, you are not alone in your musings or preferences.

Personally, I care more about the people I am teamed with, more than their ATs, builds, powers, blah blah blah. If I am with a sub-optimal group, loose, and we still have a great time, I still consider that a win. We might not succeed at all, and spend the whole time goofing around and cracking jokes and I would still consider that a win. If I am with a kiss-your-elbow META group, best of the best, but some people are ranting/political/aggressive/combative/doesn't play well with others in the team chat, I'll likely leave before we are done, and consider it a waste of my time. Heck, I would even bring @Snarky along, on any team, regardless of his AT, level, or build. And he could do nothing but hang in back and provide commentary like an announcer at a sports event and it would be glorious. My goal isn't to Win at the utmost possible speed. My goal is to have fun. Your goals may be different, and that's okay.

I think I see one, in the picture on the left if you look between the leg and arm you will see a red drape that covers the background. I believe its just the angle of picture.

@GastlyGibus Congratulations hon, I am happy you achieved a goal you set for yourself. But if you would take some words from a stranger who shares an interest the same hobby, I think its foolish to let others tell you how successful or unsuccessful you are, or to compare yourself to others in order to measure yourself. Instead one can compare yourself to your past to gauge how far you have come. We all had different beginnings, choices, and obstacles in life. So matching yourself against someone else isn't really a true or fair comparison. So don't let others tell you if you are successful or not. And I don't mean in this game either, I mean in life. Best wishes.

Lol.. far from it. Amusing name though. But some names I have seen I cannot repeat here, and I suspect they are still ingame.

I stopped paying attention to people's names, as well as reporting the questionable ones. I won't elaborate why as that will open a whole can of worms.

I had a thought... I am glad that AVs/GMs don't have the option to "respec," as in change their abilities or mechanics each time you face them. That while interesting to encounter could turn into a damn nightmare fast. 🤣

My reaction to telemarketers really depends on their manner. If I decline whatever it is they are selling, hang up, and leave me alone then fine. But most often they keep talking on their script often for several minutes regardless of what I say, in a manner that could be considered borderline harassment. So my manners to them, really depends on them. I know they have to call hundreds of people a day, but if they press on after a "I am not interested, no thank you, please do not call again" then that's really on them. So it really depends on them, at least for myself personally. And not to start a discussion about it, but very often if you hang up or ask not to be contacted again they just call back the same day or a few days later.

I get those too, sometimes there is an error in the HTML and it says I sent it to myself. I get emails from banks and other organizations I have never done business with. And since tax season is around the corner I am already anticipating waves of claims from fake IRS agents.

I always play test my builds. But my concerns may differ from some - 1. Is it self-sufficient, or does it rely on temporary effects to work? I generally treat inspirations akin to potions. They should be there when you need them, not to make the build possible. (100% purely personal preference, and I have nothing against those whom play/build differently.) 2. Does it "flow" well? Is there a constant flow of actions and motions, or are there gaps and periods of too much or too little activity or effect? There can be such a thing as too much recharge in a powerset or build. 3. Is it enjoyable? Even if a build is ridiculously strong, if I don't like playing it, then I will shelve it. If I am not having a good time then what's the point? 4. Is it consistent/reliable, or are their high and low periods? I generally dislike brief windows of "OVER 9000 POWA" with the rest being subpar. Which means I tend to dislike "bursty" builds and AT's. Again, not insinuating bursty builds are bad by any means, they can often be the highest DPS setups, I just don't find them as enjoyable. There are other considerations as well. Theme, style, and so on. And sometimes, it can be a simple "I'm just not feeling it" or "Gosh I LOVE this" even if it might overcome other considerations.

Only a matter of time until someone makes a SG meme around this. "Completely legit airlines" or similar.

About once a week I get spam to the tune of "Your Facebook has been hacked!" or "You are about to delete all your contacts on such-and-such site!" When I have never had a Facebook account or anything of the sort. I generally avoid social media. But I still get their emails citing the contrary. Honestly its kind of funny.

I am beginning to wonder how profitable they believe this is. There are certainly better ways to make money. But it must work at least sometimes or else they wouldn't keep doing it, similar to those telephone scammers. "Yes, I am a foreign prince. I want to give you this pile of money but you have to pay the import fees. Send X to this account please. This is legitimate, I promise." PS - I just noticed that all these different supposed Airlines all somehow seem to have the exact same phone number. That's not suspicious at all whatsoever.

I think an AV with the player version of Stalker's Hide used by a good AI could lead to bad or interesting things.

Well, I know who I won't be buying tickets from, in any case.

I have found it sometimes helps to focus more on pet support if that's the style you are favoring. With robots specifically, it helps if you CC a bit, web grenades/bonfire/AoE time slow and so on. Another option with robots and mercs is flying. Group fly is fantastic for them as all your pets are ranged, and as a bonus they get little rocket boots when they hover around. But seriously, group fly on a robot MM can trivialize some content. If they don't have any -fly powers, they are more or less boned. And your healing more than makes up for what ranged powers they do have. Not in all cases mind you, but a surprising majority.

Not to come off as crass but, do you honestly believe you are the first to think of that precise power slotting in a game older than the vehicles most people drive? The game came out in 2005. It's 2023 now. The game is old enough to legally vote. I expect the originators who thought of such slotting (not that it isn't obvious to begin with) have likely left the game long ago. Just a bit of food for thought.

Depending on my setup, I may or may not have Chrono Shift fully slotted. It largely depends on what I am missing. But most often, I 5 slot it with Panaca for a boost in healing as well as recharge. But if I am tight on slots, I have dropped it down to 2 with just Recharge IOs before and it did just fine. Usually, I am more concerned with Farsight and Mending as far as slotting is concerned, as I almost always use those powers more often, and even when barely slotted Chrono can act just fine as a panic button for when things get hairy. It largely depends on what primary pet set I am running as well as what Epic slots I picked. Some pairings have more wiggle room than others. It also depends if I intend on Tankerminding/Being stuck in melee or if I plan on hanging back and letting Distortion field/Web Envelope slow things down and play it more of a ranged style. So ya, it can depend. The same with any other power be honest.

For me personally, I have had the most success with Bio/Savage and Bio/Energy Melee. Both are fantastic, each for different reasons. Honestly the Savage was a surprise as that one began as a theme build.

All true, but I tend to put the Tanker AT proc enhancements in my damage auras, that way they auto-stack without me worrying about it. Its like 16% free resist that's automatic. For a single enhancement and a single slot, I am hard pressed to find a comparable effect on a build through a single slot.

@Unclemarty In my view, this is a multi-layered question. By "most damage" do you mean Single target? Vs Elite Bosses? AVs and Giant Monsters? Aoe? Are we taking damage types/resists/built in debuffs into account? I am by no means a big name in the Tanker community, but I have played several and I will add what insight that I can, as Tankers are my second favorite AT after Masterminds. I think everyone would agree that it goes without saying, pairing a primary set with a secondary set that boost damage would be the forerunner. So, off the top of my head, for armor sets that immediately puts Shield, Bio, and Fire as the primary Armor sets. With Radiation also being worthy of consideration. Here are their highlights, focusing primarily on damage since that is the focus. Shield has the fantastic Against All Odds, as well as Shield Charge for a hard hitting AOE that pairs very well with secondaries without a hard hitting AoE, but no damage aura. Damage auras do build up, particularly if you slot them with damage procs or other effects. Downside about shield is there is no heal in the set, but often it doesn't really need one either. Bio Armor has offensive stance, and a damage aura, and can be kitted out many ways. Personally, I find focusing on recharge best with Bio. And its built in -regen debuff shouldn't be neglected where hard targets are concerned. The downside about Bio is a bit clutch to level, until you make that breakpoint in recharge where you can juggle your defensive active abilities. Until that point it can feel more like a moped than a tank, but once you reach that point you can be godlike. Another downside about Bio is that much of its defensive power is dependent on how many targets are hit. So against single targets your buffs won't be stacked as much. Fire has build up and a damage aura, but personally I am not a fan of Fire Armor. (It's solid, I just dislike its flow. But that is entirely personal preference.) Radiation has Meltdown for a damage boost, it also has Ground Zero for an Aoe which can hit like a truck. It does have an aura, but its more for debuffing than damage. But it does have Radiation Therapy as well, making it an Armor set with offensive tools as well as defensive. Now for secondaries - For single target Energy Melee is the top pick bar none. For AoE, Dark and Fire Melee For a more "balanced" approach, I would say Radiation, Savage, and Super Strength are good or better in both aspects. Super Strength is strong if you don't mind the rage crash, but that can be mitigated with procs. To me it feels clunky though. Energy Melee is second to none in the single target category. It has a build up as well, and is also energy based. The Aoe isn't "that" bad either, whirling hands loaded with damage procs is plenty for trash. Dark Melee is fantastic, particularly on a tank with the increased area of effect with shadow punch and a tankers increased target capacity. It also has a few good AoE powers as well, but no real single target hard hitters either. But it does have Soul Drain which stacks very nicely with Against All Odds from Shield, as well as Meltdown. Fire - I can't really provide Indepth insight on this one, I haven't played it since it was updated. But by all accounts, its quite good. Radiation is pretty well balanced. It's energy based, with a build-up, and a mix of AoE and ST. It also has contaminated which isn't bad, but i would consider that more of a bonus than a feature. The downside of Radiation is it can feel slow, like Titan Weapons with long wind-up powers with long animations. But it does feel powerful though. Savage I think is deceptively good. It has a semi-build up, has a fluid playstyle, has a leap attack, a single target attack chain with AoE to spare. The downside is the numbers can be deceptive, as its a spam of dots and bleed damage. So you won't get a single big hit of 600 or anything, but you will see a steady spam of 30-40. The downside about Savage is Hemorrhage is kind of flaky, and it's also a physical set which is the most commonly resisted. But when you compare clear times with other sets, it stands right next to the other popular sets and even exceeds them in some cases. But any of these pairings would perform well. The bigger question is how they prefer to be built (set bonuses vs damage procs), what you are fighting (lots of targets vs fewer harder targets vs one BIG target) and their damage types vs your targets resistances. But here are some of my best pairings were Bio/Energy Melee, Bio/Radiation, Bio/Savage, Shield/Dark, Radiation/Radiation. If I had to narrow it down, I would suggest Bio/Savage or Bio/Energy. Hope this helps, happy tanking! PS - One combination I wanted to try but never got around to, was Radiation Armor and Energy Melee, as they would complement each other VERY well, at least on paper. EM has all the ST and build up, Rad Armor has even more damage with some AOE tools and even heals in the kit. It looked extremely promising in MIDS, but I never actually got around to making one in-game.