Shred Monkey

I don't know about you all, but I don't trust them. Nope. Not me. First you think, oh, this is just fun and games, nobody will get hurt... then, before you know it, you've given them all your money and you're sitting cross-legged listening to a Portuguese folk singer on a Himalayan goat commune. Well, I'm on to you Mr. Domingator, and I'm keeping my goats to myself.

It's the participation trophies. I knew this is what was going to happen. And now here we are.

Going to go way off normal for me and suggest maybe a dominator.... I'm thinking that lots of the primaries are sort of "tricky" and could be seen as "traps, snares, or potions." The martial combat secondary throws things and does lots of kicking which sounds gremlin like to me. Then for play style I would just constantly be running around to stay out of melee while I'm throwing out controls and ranged attacks. I'd focus my build on ranged defense and recharge.

"I Stand Alone" by Godsmak.

I like brute for low level stuff because your damage is so strong. I like MA mixed with Air superiority for a quick/easy attack chain and good mitigation. For secondary I like the defense options to layer with storm kick's buff and the +3 defense enhancements x2 for very solid survivability at low levels. I went with ma/shield on my gold sider.

Now that we're all interested, you must tell us the old and new names of SG. If you don't we'll all assume something sinister and/or embarrassing, anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if this thread didn't spit off into giant list of bizarre SG guesses. 🤔

That's two machines isn't it? Do you get as annoyed as I do that the mouse doesn't understand you're trying to drag the window/icon/file from one machine to the other?

I find the best solution to this type of problem is to log into the forums and complain about it. Do that and I'm sure it will go better next time.

I'd estimate I've done this mission 50+ times. I've only seen here on the land a few times. Going straight to the ball and assuming she'll be there is pretty standard.

Does the super reflexes tier 9 still do a backflip? I remember that being a thing, but my rememberer isn't what it used to be. I do think MA is your best bet. It does a spin kick and a leaping kick that turns into a backflip.

My name is Shred Monkey, and I have a laptop that runs Windows 8. Actually, true story. I'm probably one of those in the stats. Last month I pulled one of my old laptops out of storage to try to get my son interested in playing with me. I didn't bother to upgrade windows when I saw it wasn't going to be free (or easy, anyway). It ran the game just fine. Not as well as it runs on my machine, but.... <dad voice> Nobody touches Daddy's laptop.

My number one take away is that I need to take another look at heavy mallet.

Oh, you're probably right. I was making a tongue in cheek remark that was often used on forums back on live in reference to the fact that the gun has a design resembling the highly marketed (at the time) line of water guns produced by Nerf.

What does it mean that immediately after reading this, I pulled up mid's to see if there's any synergy there. (there's not on a synapse... but if you wait until everyone has nova... what? nova counts as melee, right?)

I believe "Super-Soaker" is the technical term.

Interestingly, the fact that many people see a thing as too much effort is the also the very reason it has such high value. Humans are weird, weird creatures.

I use barrier on my Blasters now, but the logic that arrives at that decision may not be obvious. I always build for soft cap defenses at level 50, so barrier actually does almost no benefit for most enemies to me. And Blasters don't have status protection, so Clarion may seem like a more obvious choice. But here's my thought process. By far, my biggest concern in any fight is defense debuffs. Enemies who can debuff my defenses have to be killed or hard controlled ASAP or they will stack up, quickly and turn every enemy into a dangerous foe. Now, actually, all of the Destiny Incarnate options can help combat this in some way... by giving regen, debuff resists, etc.... But Barrier, now, that power just completely negates the debuff by leaving me above 45% defenses most of the time, and shutting down the snowball effect completely. I've done a lot of testing against 4x8 Arachnos, Cimerorians, PPD, arachnids... and Barrier just gives me the best survivability. It also helps with my status protection by just helping me not get hit. I still target defense debuffers first, but at least with Barrier I have a time to take them out.

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.