DougGraves

There are no sets that I notice being very common in low level PUGs. So I can't say that any set is particularly rare.

I play a different character every time I log in. Not necessarily a new character. I have 50 or so I rotate through.

I almost always team. And I like to play a character that really makes the team work - for the most part that means controller. Control plus support (which means a lot of healing at low levels) makes teams work. The problem is low level controllers are terrible at doing damage. So if there are other support characters I can end up doing very little. I like dominators as a solo playstyle but they do not support low level teams as well. But with the addition of the medicine power pool for healing, my dominator can heal when needed. I have settled on two basic builds I can switch between - one with aid ally, aid self, combat medic and the other with assault, tactics, and stealth. Playing with several teams I have found that they lacked other healing and I played the medic each time. So now I can solo a dominator and then switch to a healing build if needed. Or just stick with my leadership build. And if we have a lot of support I can just focus on doing damage. I have also added arcane bolt to my controllers which dramatically increases the damage they do, but I think I'll mostly stick to dominators for now.

I like cones because they rely on player skill. I tend to prefer a playstyle that requires me to be skilled rather than one that uses character power to make up for my lack of skill.

Congratulations!

One thing I find amusing about this game is that I sometimes have to ask "is the fire on our side or an enemy"?

And I never said I was going to stay for the whole TF

I assume a TF will not be speed unless it is advertised as such. But sadly I do expect they will be at +0 and be ridiculously easy unless advertised differently.

That may be the case for you with a planned built. But I had a kinetic build that was terrible about running out of END. I respec'd with a ton of END reduction. Then I got to level 28 and discovered I got Transference which restores my END. It is not uncommon for powersets to have holes that get filled with powers later on. For those of us who do not plan our builds in advance, it makes sense to see how things turn out before respec'ing.

I was going to say I don't use any mods but I must be using vidiotmaps. And I want to make the sound louder for glowies but I can't be bothered to spend the time learning how to do it. And I have an excel spreadsheet for tracking my characters.

I slot with all SO's at 19. I have tried using the AT specific sets from merits but I just don't have enough slots at 19 to make 6 slotting something worth doing. My lvl 29 characters do usually have an AT IO set. I rarely use any other IOs. My fire/fire tanker does have the KB resistance IO. My AR corruptor and maybe one or two others use KB>KD IOs. And I have one character with with two IO's to give more END (miracle and something else).

I turn off xp at 19 so these characters will never get any higher. I find the game in the mid-30's to be trivially easy and boring.

For instance do you have just the END that you need, or do you slot the max you can for END and just make sure you have enough? Do you check to see if 1 Recharge enhancement is good enough or if you want 2? I'm making lvl 19 builds so enhancements are tight. I'm trying to play the builds to see where I can scrimp on them, but playtesting then doing a respec and then starting over is time consuming. So do you playtest and refine your builds repeatedly or do you just make sure it is good enough and not worry about making it perfect?

Let me explain. Healing is the ability to restore health to a character when it is below its maximum level. And it is doing it at once, rather than by buffing regeneration. A build is a set of powers and enhancements. Characters can have 1-3 builds. Aid Other, Aid Self, and Combat Medic are healing powers. Combat Medic does not heal on its own, but it improves the healing of the others. So a build which differs from another only by having 3 healing powers is a healing build.

I love controllers for support, but I like soloing dominators more. Now I've discovered I can make a dominator with the medicine pool as a healer as an alt build. So I am going to make them with a damage build and a healing build. I'd like to make more builds for them - a soloing build with stealth maybe. So how many build slots do characters get and do you have to unlock them? Also - are respecs by build or total. If I do a respec TF do I get one respec to use with any build, one for the build I was using, or one for each build? Is there a guide to using multiple builds? I bet Snarky didn't read this far.

Arcane Bolt makes a world of difference for low level controllers. Or the toxic attack from Experimentation that has a 4 second recharge. But you can only get one. My main on live for a long time was an invuln/mace tanker. But now the big thing for tankers is aoe and maces does not get aoe in the levels that I play. So I want to recreate my tanker but haven't.

And I now have a build with the medicine pool to be a healer and one with the experimental pool to do more damage. And it is great. I did a posi 1 and when I discovered our one defender was enough to keep everyone alive, I switched to my damage build. I am definitely going to look at doing more dual builds.

They might have all been on reset then. I only checked a few minutes later. Thanks Edit: checked and they are there. It was the cooldown.

I just respec'd an earth/earth dominator. Dropped assault and tactics - I have quicksand for hitting, so I figured I didn't need tactics as well. Picked up aid other, aid self, and combat medic. Ran a Posi 1 and was very happy with the result. With those 3 powers I was able to heal others and myself conveniently in combat. Although healing myself sometimes said interrupted if I was moving. So it seems to still have some interrupt time even with combat medic. I plan on having 2 builds - one with healing and one with experimentation for increased damage. I want to try corrosive vial with quicksand holding them in it. One downside - I didn't realize that Team Transport and such were by build. So it looks like I need to shell out another 15 million or so for P2W powers for my alternate build.

I did respec the dominator. It's ice/MA. The theme is Tsoo. And I discovered that I didn't have stealth - so it wasn't a proper ninja. I did a posi with her and I was much happier with her performance. I have started slotting the single target hold for dominators and controllers with 1 recharge and 1 hold. I am very happy with the additional holding ability.

I've found some level 19s that are using them. I have or had a character with the electric chain loaded up with procs. And a brute with claws spin loaded with procs. Are they useful, or are you just past when they are useful too fast to care?

The bees are from Savage Assault. Plants/savage is very good. Engangle and roots give you immobilize but not hold. What use do you get out of the immobilize? How does it help you to have them not moving?

Do they not know about the Cosmic base portal macro?

I only play lower levels and prefer the teens as being the most fun. I have characters at level 13, 19, 23, 29, and 34 with the XP turned off. With the changes in power pools and just learning from playing the characters, I have been reviewing my existing builds to adjust the powers and slotting. Adding Arcane Blast to controllers makes a huge difference in being able to do damage. Stealth is great for any character I solo with at all. I don't put accuracy into powers below level 20. I have the dfb buff and you get a small bonus. But I found a lvl 19 dominator with accuracy slotted in all attacks and one that had 2 accuracy and only 2 damage. I expect it will be much more effective with some reslotting. I'm also giving up on level 23. I find I almost never use those characters. I use lvl 19s for Positron, KR and Steel arcs. I use 29s for Yin, Striga and Talos arcs. It just doesn't make sense to keep characters at 23, so I'm leveling those up to 29. I'm also looking at adding a second build for my characters but have not done that yet except for one controller. I have a solo build that drops the ally buffs and heals and instead takes attacks from Fighting. It works better for soloing but I'm not finding it that fun.

I've never been good with teleport. I've never used it enough to get used to it and think of using it in a fight. It seems like I should try combat teleport and see what I think of it. I do like fold space when I see people use it. I've never taken it but should try that too. I'm not sure if I've ever tried any experimentation. I'll have to try that out as well.