Shred Monkey

My attack chain is 4 "building" attacks (must be from seismic primary) to build pressure then my fifth attack is either Rock Shards or Stalagmite depending on if I need AoE w/knockdown or ST. All of the attacks are short animations, so this makes for a very quick, and strong attack chain. Also great for procs. The real gem of Seismic is that you have 2 AoE knockdowns... Upthrust and Rock Shards. And they're both 100% knockdown... so you can juggle full spawns in a similar way to what Air Superiority does for single targets. And you can start doing this in your teens so it's a really really strong build to use with full teams. Sure you can't fly, but you don't need to. Over time I just built up a habbit of shuffling backward to line up my cone and always staying out of melee. This technique is extremely powerful. My default is to use rockshards and I really only use stalagmite for bosses and runners. Another trick involves using build-up. If you have Seismic force up with the ring around build-up... you may think to yourself that you wish to click build up without burning the boost so you can combine buildup with the damage boost. And there's a trick that allows you to do this. JUMP!. You can jump and click build up while you're in the air, then when you land you can hit your attack and do a boosted stalagmite or or boosted rock shards with the +damage from build-up as well. It takes a little practice... there's a little delay... I find it helps if I think of clicking buildup on the way down instead of on the way up.

I see a lot of great suggestions on AT... but I'm going to add a playstyle suggestion. Be a hover blaster. Get hover, choose sets and powers that do damage from range (not melee or PBAoE... in particular look at the nuke, because you don't want to skip that). Then fight from above and out of melee. This will reduce the incoming damage dramatically simply because the majority of enemy attacks can't be used against you. Enemies will also spend time moving and trying to get to you, which further reduces incoming damage because they're not attacking. You can also add in some other soft controls like slows, and knock downs, etc to further augment this strategy. Layer on some defenses, particularly to lethal since a high amount of enemy ranged attacks are bullets, and you'll be extremely tanky. Also, every blaster secondary has a "sustain" power, which boosts Health (regen or absorb) and endurance recovery. These powers are very strong. Slot them up when you can. A well slotted blaster has more hp/sec regen then any other AT unless it is specifically a regen-type set. 35+hp/sec or the equivalent absorb component is very doable.

bite me. better?

All you people who get off on attacking honest, well meaning people by calling them white knights need to crawl back into the refuse pit you call home and rethink your priorities. ...something like that?

I do this, too. I keep a stock of level 25 IOs in my base. From level 22 on, I slot out all my powers from bins in my base. I don't usually use an unslotter to save a level 25 IO but during a respec I'll keep any spares and throw them back in the bin. If my base runs out of something, I just buy 10 off the AH, keep what I need and throw the rest into inventory. Level 25s are pretty cheap anyway. The point here is that I save a lot of influence and headache skipping the 30-45 upgrades completely. Level 25 IOs are basically equal to SO's but without the maintenance headache. That's plenty sufficient to get me to 50 comfortably. Also this strategy saves on base storage space, too, since the only standard IO's I'm keeping are level 25, and not a mix of 30s, 35s, etc.

*considers flooding the market with boosters selling for 999,999 inf to maximize my profits by undercutting my biggest competitor who just divulged his price point in a forum post* Nah. Actually, I have the opposite problem of the OP. I never find myself short of inf because I always play my 50s enough that there's more then enough for a new toon just sitting unused on various alts. Come to think of it, that's not actually a problem is it? There's probably a lesson there somewhere.

Bobcat. Just the thought of her arc makes me want to vomit in real life. I don't know if that makes the game designer who built her a sick demented psycho or a true genius who can evoke a physical response in real life with their virtual creation. I actually think it's more of the first part because the big reason I hate her is because there's too much "Godmode"-ing in the arc. I don't have an option punch her in the face instead of doing her missions, which is what I want to do. I consider this poor game design. But still, they managed to make a villian who I really hate, IRL on personality alone. None of the other contacts even have enough personality for me to remember what it is, much less feel anything. I hate her so much that even though I have intentionally run "all the gold side arcs" on several toons, locking xp at 9 and 14 so I complete all 4 arcs at each level, I actually cheat and skip her arc when doing this.

I'd like to see temporary powers become more relevant. I'm not sure the best way to do that. On one hand, they have to allow you to do something you can't, so they need to be strong or you've no reason to use them. On the other hand they can't be game breaking or the game will break. The jetpacks are pretty good examples of a good temporary power. They're slower then full flight, but allow people without flight to fly when need to. Also, I like the use of temp powers as a game mechanic rather then a reward or enhancement. For example, the backpack water jets used to put out fires in steel canyon. Or that wand for converting lost. Using the temp power system as plot devices is a neat concept that should be used more.

+1 to the Shield/MA Tank comments. Mine is easily among my strongest solo toons. It's also a really good toon for leveling up. I've made an MA/Shield brute toon level locked at 25 for playing on low level groups and TFs as well.

I can see the value in skipping hide if you're tight on powers. But in most... well.. actually .. in all of my builds I have defense powers slapped in at the end as LoTG mules (or one of the other great 1-piece defense uniques) anyway, so I might as well take an endurance free defense boost that gives full stealth and lets me open with a crit. I can certainly see delaying hide until later levels though, especially in a resist based toon.

I would think farming Bank Missions would be equally efficient to finding another source. I know that the Morality mission for vigilantes where you break into the Brickstown prison has a ton of PPD, if those higher level subgroups count for the badge.

Looks like a good haul. The previous posters undersold how much the "much much More" really was. I'm happy to see the redraw thing getting fixed. I found it really annoying on my Arachnos Spider who's whole thing is teleport around and be quick with his fast animating attacks. The constant redraw was throwing off my flavor. This change may rocket that toon up to the top of my play list.

I like how the red side ones are triggered, which makes it feel more engaging as you're initiating the event as well as defeating the final boss. Boomtown GWW also achieves this. I think the fire in Steel Canyon deserves a special mention because they built something into the game that's not just slaughtering bad guys. While I think it would be neat to have a game that provided this kind of activity constantly throughout all levels and zones, I suspect that's a very complicated ask for something with low replay value. The Gold side events that I've stumbled on and done are all pretty cool. But I suspect most players don't even know they exist. I know I can't name them all, myself.

Tank to live forever. Stalker to do max ST damage. (Blaster to do both)

Here's my HOT TAKE in response to the article. The reason none of the Superhero MMO's succeeded is because with the exception of CoX, they've all been hot garbage. CoX didn't actually fail, the studio decided to shut it for non-disclosed reasons that don't seem to have a direct connection to the revenue potential of this property. Also, I think in general, big studios look at the gaming industry and think "we want some of that money!" But after they hop in, they discover that they're only able to get 1/1000th of the revenue generated by that industry. Those dollars just aren't enough for them to keep investing. On the other hand, an independent studio is happy to get that much from their game and they'll keep it alive until they get bored or bought off.

Yin TF I think should get honorable mention for being just the right difficulty and length for it's level. Also, while not being exactly the answer to the question, I would prefer to see more content like DFB and DIB added but for higher levels, as opposed to more TFs. Imagine a level 50 contact that gives your team one of 10 trials like this at random. Perhaps it's Maria Jenkins but done right.

Geez... everyone making recommendations about what's more powerful.... Maybe you should just make a fire/ma blaster, and then part your hair funny and do a lot of brooding and scowling.

thrown weapons... I know that martial dominator comes close, but I want it as a blast set.

DCUO did really cool shield melee animations, really smooth and intense looking in action.

Regardless of what happens on day 1, on day 2 somebody would post the farm strategy that they abused to get to max level.

Fire me boy!

Scones could use a day.

I've recently dropped infiltration for combat teleport on a toon (and just use athletic run for travel). This suggestion may covers that itch really well. Gonna give it a try.

I was going to say, I suspect 100 will be too much in that it'd constantly run into walls and other junk off screen. That said, how do you guys like this teleporting play style? I've only used combat teleport to TP to a target, which I love on my melee toons. I've not used it on any ranged toons.

I sometimes wonder if I'm the only player in the whole game that realizes how exploitable Disrupt is. I suspect most people don't even know where to look to find it in that list.