Major_Decoy

RUNE OF PROTECTION. Ok, that make so much more sense. I had been parsing it as Rise of the Phoenix. But would be kind of interesting, a Rez that provides status protection and, as long as you die in a timely fashion, it's permanent.

Yeah, but a level 10 +5 and a level 15 +5 are both worse than a level 15 and 20 respectively. 20 +5 being just ever so slightly better than a level 25 is kind of the crossover point.

Okay, I logged on Bad Decisions Man to test this. I bought two common defense IOs, one level 20 and one level 25. This was a bad idea because the numbers are smaller so the difference will be less obvious. I boosted the level 20 by 5, so it went from 15.4% to 19.3%. I did not boost the level 25, it stayed at 19.2% Those two numbers are quite close, but I'd expect that, if it was just "A level 20 +5 enhancement behaves like a level 25 enhancement" that those numbers should be identical. Just for further example, I got a common level 30 recharge reduction enhancement, stuck it in confront, and boosted it to 30 +5, and it went from a 34.8% bonus to a 43.5% bonus. A level 35 recharge reduction enhancement, for comparison, provides a 36.7% bonus. If you divide this out, you'll see that 19.3% is about 125% of 15.4% and 43.5% is 125% of 34.8%. So I suspect that each +1 is actually a 5% multiplier to the efficacy of the enhancement. (Also, it turns out that +5 boosting a level 30 enhancement provides just slightly better performance than an unboosted level 50. So any enhancement with a minimum level of 30, if you don't care about cost, you're better off buying at level 30 and +5 boosting. You'll get the set bonuses over the same level range and ever so slightly better performance)

Whereas I just decided "forget the set bonus" and slotted two Heal/End/Rech, one from Doctored Wounds and one from Numina's Convolescence.

I kind of pretend that the trap is an icy construct on my character.

That is not what I learned from leveling my defender. I see how those lessons are possible, but soloing I learned to kite a bit, Noxious Breath made kiting easier and if they're running after you, they're more likely to be in that cone. Poison Trap, when I used it, I'd put it closer to the enemy and move away from it, so that the enemies would still be at range when it hit. I only today learned that it had a 100% chance for a mag 3 hold. When I read the text, all of it says "chance to hold" so I thought it was like choking cloud or entangling aura. Maybe I'll respec back into Paralyzing Poison.

Yes, whether or not the single target hold is handy depends on your other power sets. With Electricity or Ice, it can be helpful. Paired with Water Blast, I didn't find myself using it very often. Actually, my Poison/Water blast defender tends to stay at range where I can use neurotoxic breath and steam spray more effectively. (I also slot Annihilation: Chance for res debuff and Achilles' Heel: Chance for res debuff in every power that takes them). Edit: If I were going to change Venomous Gas to be more friendly to my playstyle, I'd make it give every damage power a proc with the debuff. It'd lose the auto-hit feature that way, but it'd be nice to use it at range. (You could combine the two, have it be both a PBAoE toggle and a proc that doesn't stack with the toggle)

Water doesn't get a sniper attack, but Seismic blast does, and that's got Seismic Pressure to deal with, so you can use that as your example instead. Honestly, when it comes to feeling like whack-a-mole and fast twitch gaming, I don't get that on water blast, but I do get that feeling on my Shield/Psionic Melee stalker because it seems like those stacks of assassin's focus are expiring just before I'm able to use my assassin's psi blade.

On defenders Poison Trap and Venomous Gas come at 26 and 32 respectively. Up to that, every power can be used at range. As a cone, neurotoxic breath works best at range. So you get accustomed to a certain approach, and then Venomous Gas hits and all of a sudden, you want to be right up in the middle of the action. If it was available at level 2 like Time's Juncture, it wouldn't be a massive shift in play style all of a sudden. It'd still be trouble, because Poison doesn't get Farsight like Time does... Maybe if they replaced the single target hold with a quick recharge self-rez.

You don't have a push broom or mop because the person in charge or procurement at your facility has a grudge against you. If you continue this line of inquiry, your broom will get replaced with a lint roller.

There are a number of "Self" oriented power pools. The fighting pool, is attack, attack, self only toggle, self only toggle with immobilization resistance, attack. The presence pool is foe targeted, foe targeted, foe targeted, foe targeted, Self only click. The leaping pool is attack, self only toggle with immobilization protection, travel power, self only toggle with knock protection, hold protection (only mag 1), and hold resistance. As a reminder, resistance shortens duration while protection is the "If the magnitude of the status effect is less than or equal to this number, the status effect is suppressed" The exception is Res(Knock and Repel) because there is no duration on those two, just magnitudes, so knockback and repel resistance reduce the distance you are thrown. These powers are not plugging holes in crowd control vulnerability, but they do make you recover faster. Stable Footing might be able to be slotted to improve knock and repel resistance. That said, Battle Hardened seems like it might not be worth taking. Perhaps if, instead of being a toggle that provided resistance, it was a click that could be used while asleep or disoriented.

I think I'd go Bio Armour/ Poison (one of the versions that gets venomous cloud) . It's a good thematic fit, all the debuffs are good for generating aggro, and it has a non-zero amount of damage.

Okay, this is just a lazy, lazy build I put together with the concept of "what can I get in the way of psionic resists"

It only provides the buff if it hits a target.

I think losing two performance shifter: chance for endurance procs and a Panacea: chance for health and endurance proc kind of negates the .16 Recovery from set bonuses.

So... build goals here are 1) No fighting pool 2) a self-rez and 3) Incarnate softcap without alpha slotting. I didn't quite get there

Now my ridiculous goal here was perma-hoarfrost without hasten. Actually, if I just boost the Pancea set to +5 and use a recharge IO, that'd probably get me there.

The text just as you get the mission "Defeat Swann & his men" gives you the message: I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be alter, not altar.

Rebinding r to sprint or one of the runs is the fourth thing I do on a new character.

So, someone had asked for help against Vanessa DeVore. They had cleared the map but couldn't solo her. I fly over on the rocket board, jump into melee, and immediately get mezzed because I hadn't turned my toggles back on after using the Rocket Board. Luckily, the team dropped Vanessa before I had time to get my toggles up. I might have been the only person that noticed.

It's something people do just to not have an empty slot in kick.

go swimming in the lake and have a friend teleport you into the pools.

He doesn't show up in anything until after level 40. He wouldn't have been in the game at launch as such.

I recall the Hasten crash being avoidable, but it being something they fixed on live.

He's the leader of a countryless militia. All of the titles and badges of his organization are as grounded in reality as the Salvation Army's. (The 5th Column should totally have people on the corner ringing bells by cauldrons during the winter event) He recognizes no power higher than his own. He does not report to anyone, he has no accountability to anyone. Honestly, the only badges he will have are the ones he decides to give himself.