Wobegone

I think Claws compares favorably to any Scrapper Primary personally. I leveled a Claws/Energy Aura and a Claws/Bio, mostly solo, and they were both fantastic. Claws is second only to War Mace for me. I also really like Energy and Katana. I prefer Dark Melee on Tanks, Street Justice on Stalkers, Savage on Brutes. Titan Weapon is great at 50 but 'twas a pain to level. I've never tried Kinetic Melee or Broadsword, they're next on my list. Beyond that....do yourself a favor and try these out yourself. You have tons of character slots, and money is trivially easy to make in this game. I suggest soloing a Scrapper to the early twenties slotting as you go with SOs to get an idea if you like something. Then worry about spending a bunch on IOs. Check out the Market Forum and Guide Forum for ideas on easy ways to make money.

I was gonna suggest either War Mace/Bio or War Mace/Shield, but I think this is correct. I just really dig War Mace solo.

My Scrappers were much happier when I decided - if my target gets knocked out of range, I'd just tab to the next closest and start swingin'. I don't let it bother me anymore. Besides, it's rarely a problem. Most folks either hover above the crowd and knock them into the ground or use knockback strategically and knock strays toward the spawn. Knockback and Knockdown are terrific mitigation as well. In the very rare occasion when my Scrappers are running around like headless chickens, I either take a detour away from the group if it's steamrolling or leave the team. I also don't have a problem using a slot for Knockback to Knockdown. My characters who do are still super. It's not a big deal (for me).

I love the idea of a melee hybrid tank like the DnD Paladin. I could see a long recharge single target heal, an AoE protection aura against fear, Cure Disease could perhaps be something like Clear Mind, and for spells at higher levels a self buff and team buffs. I dunno, I'll give it some thought for something more specific, but I really dig the idea.

This is probably a hot mess. I've seen and done several iterations of both Bio and Staff, and they vary quite a bit. Sometimes I want to proc out DNA Siphon, sometimes use it as another emergency button(as I did here). Hope this at least gives you an idea.

Are you talking about a (few) particular mission(s) or the game in general? Travel time between missions and zones has largely been eliminated with all of the different teleport options. There are travel options from the P2W vendor from the getgo, and it takes perhaps 10 minutes looking up and finding the Exploration Badges in Atlas for the first time, opening up a zone Teleportation power. From there, a bit of street sweeping in each zone for one Exploration Badge opens up that zone for teleportation. Add to that Mission Teleport, Team Teleport, Base Teleport, and Ouroboros and travel times between zones is really fast. I can't think of another MMO where travel is faster. Even before the options we have now, CoH probably had the fastest travel times between zones.

I rather like the Sentinel APPs and PPS. Lots of useful things: Immobilizes, Melee attacks, Buffs, Debuffs, Holds, Pets, PBAoEs, even a couple Heals. This not only gives utility to the Sentinel, it gives some great slotting opportunities for IO set bonuses. At higher levels I play my Sentinels more like Blappers to utilize those tools, and really enjoy it. Although I think Sentinels could probably use a tweak or two, I don't think the APPs and PPS are the problem.

This will only be a partial answer, but I documented a character leveling to the mid 30s and recorded the following: At level 12 upgraded SOs for 192k At level 17 upgraded SOs for 560k. At level 22 upgrade SOs for 737k. Obviously this doesn't include the cost of the initial SOs(I think I bought them at level 7) nor does it include SOs I bought while leveling. If I had to make a guess, I spent around 500k influence buying SOs. The cost for upgrading will continue to increaese beyond level level 22, but at level 27 I switched to IOs. I wish I had more data for you, but hope this gives you a good idea.

The Dev team is openly working on new difficulty settings for some content. My advice is have some patience and see how that plays out. I agree that most of the TFs are ridiculously easy nowadays, including the ITF, even at max difficulty. For myself, I'll issue a thumbs up or down depending on the new settings.

What level content are you doing? Cuz on some fast moving high level teams, by the time Total Focus lands, the spawn has been obliterated, often including the moke I'm trying to punch. Yea, Energy Melee is way better now, but it, War Mace, Titan Weapons, and Radiation Melee can sometimes be frustrating to play on steamrollers. SO much AoE endgame....

Good grief. People are relitigating stuff that was already covered multiple times in this thread. Either you haven't taken the time to read all the responses, or you're so intent on your opinion being 'right' you feel the need to chime in(redundently). 1. There are certainly players who want to show off. Are they the majority of those who go off on their own? 2. There are certainly players who obliviously go left when others go right. Are they the majority? 3. There are certainly players who get bored with corpse blasting and decide their damage potential is being wasted. Are they the majority? 4. There are certainly times when the team stays together. Is this the majority? My money is on 4,3,2,1 in that order.

Stamina has a base of 25%, so Numina's 10% recovery is equivalent to a 40% enhancement. For that reason, you should say Numina > Standard SO. One way to treat these is to look at their equivalent added recovery and calculate their equivalent enhancement value: Panacea = +22.5% recovery (equivalent to 90% enhancement in stamina) Performance Shifter proc = +15% recovery (eq. 60% enhancement) Miracle = +15% recovery (eq. 60%) +5 Level 50 IO = +13.25% recovery (53% before E.D.) Level 50 IO = +10.6% recovery (42.4% before E.D.) Numina = +10% recovery (eq. 40%) Standard SO = +8.33% recovery (33.3% before E.D.) The above is from @Bopper from a previous discussion. You're right that the procs are random, but over time the math is still in favor of a Performance Shifter Proc over IO, though as you say, the difference between a Level 50+5 generic IO and the Performance Shifter proc is pretty small. Edit to add: Also, the Performance Shifter will give you Endurance even if you've been drained and have your recovery floored.

This is my preferred method of giving. I also hand out Performance Shifter and Miracle procs. The train station in Talos is the perfect spot. Level 20 somethings passing through, or standing by the Merit Vendor or SG base or Citadel. A quick look at their powers lets you know if they have IOs. It takes a couple seconds to throw a couple IOs their way. Some don't even notice, which is fine by me.

It's lying. Definately not Single Origin. I'm gonna go with recharge plus recovery.

This is all so very strange. I thought my post was innocuous, perhaps not? Based on my own feelings, I felt Dark Assault seemed fine, but was a bit behind Fire, Energy, and maybe even Psi for single target damage(the only ones I've ever played). I didn't test these things, it was just my feeling while leveling. So when I saw how vociferous the pushback against mediocrity was I looked up Pylon times. It was the only reference point I had(none of my Dominators are level 50) I never meant to make you upset Voltak. Yea, I understand now that your own time didn't include the primary. Sorry for any misunderstandings. But I'm a bit confused why you only tested the secondary. Why post a Pylon time at all if you're not using your ATs full potential? Now, I agree with you that the burden is on everyone when claims are made concerning Pylon times. Which is why I didn't respond when you resplied to my post. I haven't done any Pylon times. Your own Pylon time isn't useful either because the only other reference points available used all their powers. There was only one poster here who I thought had any hints of hostility. The rest were simply asking questions. I don't know anyone who has ever posted a Pylon time using only the Primary or Secondary. So that confused me a bit, and seemed to confuse others as well. I think you're taking things way too personally Voltak. I don't see anyone discriminating against you. No one is doubting Dark Assault's viability. Heck, at this point I'm no longer sure that Dark Assault isn't a top tier set for single target damage, maybe it is. You've already proven that Dark/Dark is extraordinarily potent in the right hands so I won't ask you to do further testing yourself. You've no obligation to do so. I just wanted to explain why there was some pushback is all.

Right. How does that compare to other Dominator Pylon tests? There is a Dark/Fire/Cold that has 1:27 and a Plant/Energy at 1:28. *Shrug* Your Dominator certainly has enough DPS to defeat +4 AVs, and you've shown that in the right hands a Dark/Dark is a formidable character. But it isn't inaccurate to say Dark Assault is middle of the pack in single target damage. I'm just happy that middle of the pack is more than sufficient for some of the most difficult content! As an aside, at least one other person has done a Master ITF with a Dominator-A Mind/Psionic. And after playing on several TFs and Itrials with them, I have no reason to doubt it. They just don't bother posting on the forums. When I asked them to post their build on the forums their reply was "%$#@ no! Besides, it's the player not the build". I can neither confirm nor deny they used the 'f'' word, but I suspect so. It was hilarious but also true.

I think Defenders are in a good spot. And yes, I play a lot of Defenders...my main is a Dark Defender. Adding a 51% buff to Defender damage on a team would make Corrupters practically useless(I already prefer Defenders to Corrupters). This isn't a change I support.

It's not about the statistics for me. There are obvious links between poverty and crime, including violent crime, which have been studied extensively for decades. It was the "same mindset that keeps them poor in the first place". Perhaps I misunderstood, but this seemed to place the blame solely on the criminals. It's far more complicated than that. For example, my grandfather was a construction worker who did well in North Dakota and his sons followed him into construction, while his daughters went to college. My other grandfather was a diesel mechanic and welder. His sons became mechanics and welders, while my mom went to college and became an adolescent psychologist. What happens when kids are brought up in a family of drug dealers? Say the dad is killed or jailed and the mom is a crack user. What is the statistical likelihood of those kids becoming drug dealers and violent offenders? Where does the blame start and where does it end? To be clear, I'm not saying the criminals are blameless. People are responsible for their own actions. But generational exposure to violence, alcohol, drugs, and crime are most certainly statistically linked.

Ah, gotcha.

Eh, sure, there's little risk with the zombie raid, but I think you're overstating risk in a MSR. And as you say, you also get Vanguard Merits. I think it's more appropriate to compare xp vs. time spent rather than risk in this case.

Edited: I don't wanna start a fight. Like any community there are various and disparate opinions on this forum. It should be the goal for everyone to welcome those opinions. For the most part, I've found this forum community to be welcome and knowledgeable. There are disagreements, and even outright fights, but most of us are working toward the same goal: The perpuation and success of this game we all love.

Edit, Sorry for double post.

Hi, welcome to the forums! I'd swap the Shield Wall Unique to Combat jumping and dedicate more slots for defense and end reduction to Weave and Maneuvers. You could also 4(or 5 if you want the LotG) slot Weave with Shield Wall for some Regen, Hps, and Energy/Negative resist. Replace the Numina Unique for a Panacea in Health. I usually just slot Stamina with a Performance Shifter:Chance for Endurance, especially if i'm looking for slots. I'm not sure Gladiator's Javelin is the best choice for Blazing Arrow. Maybe Apocalypse I guess if you don't try for some more Ranged defense here. Add a Slot to Future Pain for 10% recharge. I usually prefer Scorpion Shield rather than Resist armors, but if that's part of your theme, I'd try to grab some more Smashing/Lethal and/or Ranged Defense.....You only have one PBAoE and one melee attack. Unfortunately I have little experience with Temporal Manipulation. Does Time Wall need 5 slots? Is Time Stop worth proccing out? Is Future Pain worth slotting and using? Hopefully someone with more experience can give you a bit more clarity.

As far as pace goes, this is definately a challenge for new players joining Task Forces. It's a whirlwind of teleporting and Ouroboros gating to get to the mission doors as quickly as possible, and can leave newer players behind. The good thing is, if you explain you're new, folks are usually patient and generous. Stay away from 'speed' Task Forces for awhile and let folks know you're new when joining. As for the LFG asking for build requirements, you probably saw someone advertising for Incarnate Trials or a Master Task Force. I can't remember a regular Task Force team ever asking for build requirements(although I'm sure it happens on occasion).

With the debuff staying for a time even if your anchor is defeated, there's no reason to tell people not to attack the anchor. If it really bothers you how fast your anchor is being defeated, try using it on an edge minion rather than a boss or Lt. Besides, I rarely had to use my anchor debuffs on average spawns. I tended to concentrate more on Lingering Radiation first followed by using my attacks followed by healing if needed on average spawns. With some teams and spawns the anchor powers would be priorities of course, it depended on my judgement. I'd dole out Accelerate Metabolism when and where it was needed, although it was almost always on cooldown. This idea that 'if I play a defender' nonsense was covered extensively in your other thread. This isn't WoW. Slot your attacks. Use your attacks.