Shred Monkey

Wakanda

Mine works like this. I get an idea for a character. I start a very exhaustive pre-work process of calculating attack chains then creating builds. Most ideas never get beyond this. But the ones that do, get rolled up in game. Then over the next 50 levels (always played out in content, not farmed) I basically focus on getting the costume right. Often changing names and concepts entirely if a costume looks good enough. At 50 I roll out my final build, and get all my T4 incarnate powers and I play it. Then... (and here's the answer to your question)... I hit a tipping point where I say to myself, "You know... that last Task Force would have been much better on toon X" and I go play toon X. OR... that tipping point never happens, and I end up with a new main. It's kind of like how boxing titles are kept. You're the champ until a challenger comes along and beats you. I had a fire/energy blaster as my main for over a year, that got replaced by an energy/energy stalker. Now that's been replaced by a seismic/martial blaster who's held the spot quite solidly against several challengers.

I use the Vanguard base for most of my hero administrative work. It has everything... merit vendor, quartermaster, crafting table, even a costume editor, and a base portal if i need to get something from storage. AND it has market access.

I'm not sure the cost is right. It should probably be higher then 5 merits. But I'd love this. And if you have this, you don't really need the 5 slot or all slot options you mentioned because you can do it multiple times.

You're not abusing your teammates properly. As a blaster, you should have learned by now that the only reason to have teammates in the first place is to pull enemies into tight formations so you can smack them with your balls.

I like this idea. I'd use it. I might even program one of the mouse keys i'm not using to give me the same function.

The defense it has is worthless... but the fact that it takes defense IOs is fantastic.

It is the travel power all my my toons take and use. Even the ones who don't run stealth but have it only as a LoTG mule. It's better then ninja run and can slot another LoTG. The latest update allows it to be on without turning off stealth.

I don't eat breakfast anymore, but if I did, this thread would have perfectly accented a morning bowl of Raisin Nut Bran. Well done, forum, well done.

I'm not a psychologist, but I am a human, so I have some experience with the subject of human psychology... at least enough to be able to say "oh.. hey.. that sounds right." I heard a discussion about "one event learning." The concept is that if we taste something that tastes bad, we remember that and our brain hard wires an aversion to that experience after one event. The same thing can happen with extreme fear events. This concept also comes up with training dogs. I think there's a connection as well when it comes to how long we remember a bad customer service versus a good customer experience. Also, specific to online communities, generally negative people appear to have more presence because positive people give up and walk away. It's not that the negative people are more right. It's that negative people are bigger jerks and don't know when to shut up. (this last one is my personal theory, and not something from psychology, but.. hey.. it sounds right.)

If you're getting exploration tips you're looking in the right place. You should be able to scroll down and see the alignment tips. You can only have 3 exploration tips at a time, and additionally only 3 alignment tips at a time. You should see the 3 from the side (red or blue) that you're currently located on.

This is in Page 5? How does this nerf farming?

Seismic is all ranged. It also does two AoE knockdowns (boosted Rock Shards and Upthrust) so you can not only stay at range, you can keep groups of enemies knocked down as well. The downside is you need to stay on the ground to get all the seismic bonuses and even use some attacks, so hover blasting is not an option. Personally, I enjoy moving around/kiting from the ground and lining up my AoE hits for max effect so it fits my playstyle very well. It's a great option for both solo and teaming.

I used to buy cheap glasses because what kind of stuck-up arrogant nose-in-the-air jerk spends $500 on glasses? Then a few years ago, it occurred to me, there's literally no one purchase I can think of that I use more then my glasses. I now go straight for the good frames, pick out the ones I like best, and then add all the extras. I don't regret it at all. Glasses problem 100% solved.

It's a very rare build for me to not have 5 LoTGs slotted. In fact at level 50 I usually have vengeance and invis friend as mule powers and never even put in my tray. Their purpose to the build is to hold a LotG in the initial slot and nothing else.

I don't see myself changing anything I currently have... although I might make a sentinel and then never feel the need to play anything else ever again.

I've done the full suite of arcs on 1 toon for both sides by turning off xp. As far as other options, I guess you could die a bunch of times so you're getting 1/2 xp. but that seems silly when there's a way to just turn of xp.

Go to a public place. Now look around you and count people staring at their phones.

I disagree with the OP. It's far more difficult then your typical non-incarnate content to run solo at +4x8. I'd personally rate this as slightly harder then the DA arcs, on par with the Praetoria based incarnate arcs. If you're looking for challenging 8-man team play you need to run the new TFs, not mission content. No story arcs are difficult for a full built 8-man team.

If you're looking at fighting in melee you only need a few filler attacks from your primary. Blaze and Blazing Bolt (from fire) is such a high DPS attack that it causes fire to beat all other primaries to use between your hard hitting melee attacks. For pure damage this is your best option. However, if you're looking staying at range, cold can match fire for sustained single-target damage. This is because cold has access to more damage proc options and better mid-tier attacks.

I know, right? I've been asking for this across multiple games for about 25 years now. Finally got it, and it's in my favorite game.

I like teams that aren't filled. Team size of 3-4 is ideal. Similar to the OP, I don't mind the respec process... furthermore I respec a lot... like every few levels. The moment I can see that a respec will make me better, I do it. I don't wait to gain a few levels. I usually have a build plan around level 11-12 that I aim for from the bigging.. then another one around level 20-22... then again after I get the level 26 power... and 32 power... and it just keeps going. It's also not odd for me to respec to test something while in my 20s and respec back if I don't like it. I like street sweeping solo. I like using infiltration as my only travel power (previously used ninja run on everything before alternate options came along). I also like using the train and zone connections. I never play with sound. This is true for me for all gaming, not just CoX. I usually listen to music or an audio book while gaming.

Nightwidow is an interesting option. Lots of team buffs that are either a toggles or a long cast/long duration sort. I pair it with leadership pool to double up on the toggle buffs. And then during fights I just deal out huge single target damage. Despite the fact that it has really high defense and buffs everyone around it, it's drawback is that it's not very tanky. It has low hp and not much for resists, so when it does get hit, it's not good. Harder content needs to be done with great care. I also really like the way my seismic/martial blaster plays. I have an AoE toggle slow movement that I've fully enhanced for slows. This means that not only is it easy to stay out of melee, but everything trying to move to melee gets ghetto-controlled out of the fight because they're going into this full slow motion run instead of attacking. I can apply this simply by moving near concentrated areas of enemies to get them in range. In addition I do constant targeted ranged AoE knockdowns with upthrust and rock shards. This just adds even more mitigation all while dealing blaster level damage. What really makes this strong is that it's a layer of mitigation that isn't overlapping with my teammate's buffs and debuffs. Instead of adding *more* defense that's already way over cap, I'm reducing incoming damage above and beyond everything else my team is doing.

I sometimes find myself slipping down a slope of frustration and disappointment with the world in general... politically, socially, economically... I wonder if we (as in the whole human race) are heading in the right direction. I look at reddit, YouTube, Twitter, and I ponder whether or not the internet was even a good idea. The thing that brings me back and gives me hope? It's the good communities. Two of my favorite communities are the fans of Critical Role and Shirtaloon. Both are both hugely nerd-centric communities that just couldn't have existed 20 years ago. I think Homecoming is another great community. We may fight among ourselves about nerfs and farming etc... But in the end, we're all really really happy to be here.

One thing to look at is not just powers with knockdown/knockback... also look to see if it has a % chance to knock. For example if you look at the Battle Axe powerset, almost every power has does a form of knock. However they apply a chance to knock (40% chance, 30% chance, etc). While other powers such as Air Superiority apply a magnitude of knock to everything they hit.