Doomguide2005

I personally don't think you need to do all that much to the notoriety difficulties to test folks mettle. Making mobs larger is not going to do much without other changes. And I'm not convinced making the mobs +5, +6 or +7 really is the ticket either. There are mobs out there now that are wickedly nasty. Folks by and large avoid them. I'd totally forgotten about Vanguard Sword until a recent thread, for example. When folks start easily tackling these missions solo at +4/×8 let me know.

Okay roll up an Electric/Fire. I can respect not caring for it, looking at concept first, theme and all but if that pairing was designed from the ground up for ranged combat someone's elevator not only didn't reach the roof it barely left the ground floor. Afterthought: And as I said in another thread characters do not at any point exist as a single power set but as two until level 35 when another is added. Yes the primaries are vastly set up with ranged powers but that's one half a character.

Balance I'd like you to meet your arch nemesis Perception. As Luminara pointed out a while back basic IO's are largely already balanced by ED. The values of ED don't care how they're reached whether it's IOs, SOs, TOs or some combination. The problem ("Oh!, Hi there Perception what's up?") is more about set bonuses and judging from the thread procs. Balance in a system this complex and variable strikes me as a worthy goal but essentially impossible and very subject to Perception (see Bill Z's response to Tidge above). For one I don't think any of us expect (and that's probably not true, but they have a server doing that already I believe) a static game which is probably the only place and time any Dev team has even a remote chance of achieving anything considered balanced by anything close to a 100% of the playerbase. What we want I'm thinking is to be close enough (whatever the hell that means), close enough to be considered fair and equitable. But again Perception and as Troo put it Expectations poke their heads in and Consesus tends to start dancing between the exit door and a spot at the table.

Fire/Storm, uncontrolled chaos incarnate. Flaming Monkey's chasing Tornado and Lightning Storm victims every which way.

LOL I remember that. Think there was a similar thread on Live.

Yup, recall doing it on my first Tanker a Fire/Axe. Started with 8. Slogged for 'hours' till needing sleep took its toll on the team and we all agreed to meet up the next night. Well 3 of us showed up and we pressed on. We had a better outcome at least as several painful hours later we managed to finish. Yay. It was a while before doing it again. But a lot like Numina you needed it if you wanted the badges and accolade.

I hear you, I run lots of Emps and the stress from having to buff like mad at times becomes unfun in the extreme and I'll drag out one of my scrappers, blasters, huntsman etc. and just mindlessly kill stuff. But as I point out in one of those "I want a healer, not some blaster" those blasts even if never touched are a great place to chase set bonuses that will help you do the fun stuff safer and/or better. Those Shields can similarly take both defense +3% uniques (among other things). That's 6% defense (all) to replace a couple of ranged only 6 slotted Pacing set bonuses. Or if looking for recharge 5 Red Fortune + LotG increased recharge is 12.5% in set bonuses for recharge. Then just put them on tray 6 and forget about ever buffing with them (if you must and if asked tell them you got tired of people complaining you ruined their costumes 😜)

Hehehe, agreed but for one thing. For quite a while I ran this almost daily with an SG mate. Both of us IO'd out level 50's speed running it via Ouro for merits. Regen scrapper ftw at that level while exemping. Obviously need to NERF REGEN

My first thought was Numina and all those damn hunts Then I read and was reminded why I've done those particular TF's so seldom that they did get filed away under U for ugggly and forgotten. I love the Shards for the scenery but sheesh do the mission content and those TFs need some love.

Amen to that. I said in another thread asking if you had to choose 1 character to play what would it be. Not happening ... this not so computer savvy player would figure out how to launch their own server. An endless sea of alts awaits!!

Oh my. Two thoughts here. That whole circumstance has to be really rare, I'd think. No breakfrees available on a whole lot of raiders, very large numbers of support (so inherent status protection characters rare), no AoE healing powers occurring (often see the 'green' occurring myself on raids) including Rebirth would all pretty much have to happen. At the same time I get what Apparition is getting at with the last part. If lots of folks are skipping it for the sole reason of expecting to find it being used (and then also not carrying breakfree or other protection as a back up) it will increase the chance of that rare circumstance actually coming to pass.

Team or solo? My build goals would differ between the two. For teaming I'd place recharge over defenses. Solo (or 1 perhaps 2 teammates) defense over recharge. Infridgidate -> I wouldn't look to slots here to achieve +def. This is either a base slot or proc power. Especially at level 50. Generally when creating a build (any build) slots tend to be the tightest resource. Glacial Shield and Ice Shield -> don't see either in the build. A few thoughts on why this might not be the way to go. First is the obvious not everyone even at 50 is running tricked out soft capped builds (especially against the I-cap). Given they buff allies around the target (as well as the target ally) you don't even need to try that hard to find the teammates that aren't capped. Next is defense debuffs. Certain foes, like the ones in the often run ITF, can easily induce cascade failure. Even the base unenhanced value can offer substantial buffer against this. And last they take defense and resist sets. In other words all those nice special IOs like LotG +def/increased rech, the two 3% +def uniques, scaling resistance, +max health, +5% resist (all), etc.. Benumb -> because all I have is this phone for internet atm I can't tell how far off perma this power is (can't load and look at your build in Mids) or how accurate but this is a key power of Cold when it comes to combat against AVs, GMs, EBs and other tough major foes. Ideally this power is perma or as close as you can get and doesn't miss the target. It turns them into kittens debuffing their damage, regen, defense, mez effects, movement etc.. PBU + Benumb should really be your go to alpha strike when ever possible. Heat Loss and Sleet -> Sleet is a Freezing Rain clone. As such you're basically looking for recharge anything else is gravy including using slots for set bonuses. In a lot of ways Heat Loss is the same. Both powers you want up as often as you can, but their base buff and debuffs are solid out of the box. Arctic Fog -> In addition to the stealth, damage resistance and defense there's a lot of recharge and movement debuff resistance in the power. More than, for example, found in /SR's Quickness. Winter's Gift somewhere would put you at 80% resistance. Frostwork -> didn't take this power on my Cold. But it's not a lemon and can take Heal Sets, substantially boosting an allies max health. With high recharge could give 3+ teammates an extra 500+ health.

Not just Scourge but if teamed, particularly with a Kin past Fulcrum Shift levels Corruptors also have a higher damage cap to take advantage of.

And I was stupid enough to open it up while really hungry and waiting for my take out order .... pure torture

They are global procs so slot them in any power that accepts them and they should effect all your pets and yes since they are all from different sets so whether they're all in one power or spread over 4 will make no difference unless or until you start slotting any of the rest of a given set.

Well I was speaking of Short Circuit on an Empathy/Electric blast/Soul defender but yeah not happening. Double stack the SC under Power Boost is only a little better than half that before any foe resistance. That value is roughly the inverse of unenhanced Adrenaline Boost.

And this is seriously weird. And totally unbelievable. My Emp/Elec using Power Boost on SC etc. couldn't achieve those numbers on a baddie.

Just to throw a comment out there concerning Smoke. One reason to keep and use it is not the To Hit debuff but the Perception debuff. Hate Rikti Drones messing with yours and your teammates stealth because the ignore stealth. Well guess what they don't ignore the Perception debuff and unless things have changed since I used it on Live it should allow you and your teammates to waltz right past them unobserved. They'll barely see beyond their toes. Just don't put any procs in it ... they proc and suddenly you have aggro (or at least on Live that's what happened)

CoH did that to me too. But that was with Hover across the Storm Palace before two buffs (that I recall) to Hover's base flight speed. My scrapper really, really wanted to see the 'death star' up close 😁.

The sets those are part of are Pet Damage and Recharge Intensive Pets and are Invention Origin Enhancements (i.e. IO set enhancements). As for putting them in your powers I unfortunately haven't run a Mastermind in a long long time. The HCwiki does say the Pet Damage ones should be able to slot into your Bots but doesn't mention the Recharge Intensive Pets. The Pet Damage ones are Edict of the Master and Sovereign Right sets (and the other two are from the Recharge Intensive Pets sets). I would think the other two could be slotted and the Wiki is in error (out of date) but given I've no functional computer atm I can't verify in game. So no they aren't "Damage Enhancements" per se. But the sets as a whole will enhance damage as well as accuracy and endurance reduction in the case of the Pet Damage sets and damage, accuracy, endurance reduction and recharge in the case of Recharge Intensive Pets sets.

1. A very vague and non-specific question requiring a lot of assumptions be made by anyone answering it. In an equally vague way the expectation I'd have is yes all power sets/ATs should be able to solo. At what level? Under what 'conditions'? It's kind of silly (or, at least, a far less useful question) if the assumption, for instance, is can they do so at level 50. Is the point (or underlying assumption) of the question "can the character (sets and/or AT) successfully reach level 50 (and perhaps beyond) starting from character creation by only running solo content of their choosing at a minimum notoriety setting?" To that I'd say yes. Some of those sets and/or ATs are going to have to 'cherry pick' their content far more, be far slower and much less 'safe' but yes I expect that should be possible. And even this response is making assumptions. 2. As above. No, or at least I have to start making a lot of assumptions to make that a yes. I'd be surprised if the answer was yes for significantly more than half the sets/ATs on SO only builds and in anything remotely resembling in a timely and typical manner (i.e.without lots of atypical tactics such as entering every mission with Shivans and Warburg nukes and 'abusing' the heck out of e-mailing inspires etc.). Using IO sets on high end builds the other hand, yes or at least those that can't would be the rare exceptions. 3. ? 4. Should they be. No, my expectation is many/most will be using some or at least planning to do so at some point. But given there are folks who wait till they're 50 before going to endgame IO builds and others who don't even play at 50 or ×× level or higher my expectation would not be 'all'. Too much variety in playstyles and preferences for this to be my expectation. Nor would I want it to be for just that reason. I vastly prefer to keep that variety intact as for me that's one of the clear strengths and beauties of this game. 5. They sure can but again assumptions. Is the rest of the team ~lvl 20 sidekicks or are they other Incarnates. Is the 50+ exemplaring down to run a Posi 1 and 2 or something 45+ while teaming with non-incarnates, etc., etc.? As for is this intended. Probably and equally likely, as with a lot of things, it's under review. Or if not intended it's a hell of an oversight by someone(s) along the development route. Pretty clearly some of what might be considered issues by some should have been quite obvious in any play testing.

Way too many heroes have spent time there? Now they're known as Vigilantes ... 😜

Well in a sense your Sonic blasts are team oriented powers. All that -resistance applies to any attacks hitting the target while the debuff is present including all your teammates attacks. Second once your Kin buffs folks to the damage cap that -resistance will further boost your/their damage. It's pretty much the only way to do even more damage to the target once the damage cap is reached.

Oh god yes. Three of us couldn't dent him. Wasn't till the 4th friend joined us with his Ice/Rad that we could take him down. Been too long but as I recall we were just damage characters and really needed that debuff. Pretty sure he was just an EB as well. I'll take a pack of Rularuu any day on my Claws/SR comparatively ... though no envenomed daggers existed when we took him on.

Ah, duh. Thanks.