Doomguide2005

I've not experiencing the scatter issue on mine at least not to the point where it stood out over my other Empaths so mine is currently working towards being slotted for both damage and endmod with the aim of experimenting with Musculature and anything else to up the end drain and recovery debuff. +3 and +4 (or higher) are increasingly hard to drain effectively as a sole endmod debuffer. In turn this not only leaves them with end to use but the reduction by Purple Patch damage on top of if it starts to effect your bonus through the "Shocked" mechanic. That not scatter is the number on problem I'm running into. On the flip side I'm finding it far less rare to end up on a team with another Electric user and multiple Electric end debuffers can be a sight to behold. Not sure what state my Mids build is in but @MonteCarla's advice is exactly where mine in general would lie. Edit: looks like i went Agility rather than Musculature. Likely ill try both in the long run

What @MonteCarlasaid. You gain almost no benefit for either you or your teammate over target ally > hit follow > use HO > zip over to ally and hit HA. If that isn't enough your there to add your blasts targeting through them and HO is ready to go again (or drop Fort or CM). The number of times an ally survives with AP and wouldn't with HO/HA are almost non existent. Usually it's they survive with either or die with either process. And with the second you stand an excellent chance of following them to face plant. I'm also in @Nemu's court when it comes to CM. I think it's under used and under rated even in endgame. That said it is easier to find yourself on a team where it is considerably less useful while dealing with incarnates between Clarion, Barrier and general high defense and resists of teammates vs your typical PuG running Synapse,Yin or Citadel where mez can really be a dps dampner before characters and builds mature. But even with Incarnates I find reason enough to take this one slot wonder. There are teams who are fighting enough mez users to stop a late game armored user at times (like 3 +4 Master Illusionists and friends all hitting Flash and or Blind in overlap).

Also wasn't too long ago that electric blast got its buffs upping damage in addition to what Carni has mentioned

Believe, going off memory, it starts with 801.0 and runs up to 801.F. The ones beyond roughly 801.4 (again iirc) are intended for teams and are all but guaranteed to hand you your ass (increasingly rapidly at that).

Have you tried the 801 series in AE. If not do so. It'll likely be eye opening the first time you exit the mission door going oouuuccchhy!!. I'd love a relatively straightforward optional means of upping the difficulty via notoriety but a lot of simple solutions like simply upping defense and health of foes is well a boring solution in the long-term. It's why i don't really solo AVs and GMs. A bigger dumb sac of hit points meh. Better solutions like adding powers, new foe types within a group require a lot more time and effort to develop

Don't make Light of her situation!

My god where did you see that npc? They have hands!!! Fort Trident? Nobody goes there.

I'd not move around when I've decided on a location. Sitting in one spot is your best bet. Personally though I've no idea if it matters I'd turn off any stealth just in case (though Drones normally ignore it anyway. And stay away from any police drones. I've done some busy raids on both Indomitable and Everlasting last couple nights including getting the accolade last night in PI's portal corp in the parking lot. Both of those were advertised in chat as well. Edit: not as sure about a gather point in KR but I'd hazard a guess as near Blue Steel. The large street heading away from Blue Steel or maybe parking lot/ open area on the opposite side from WW. Though again keep your distance from police drones and watch chat.

Looks like a Brute or Scrapper from the order it was written. Still quite tough with any of the three. Consider using Fold Space to pull them in for both of your AoEs (you and your brother).

Wonder how many Fire/Sonic Controllers there are now. Only 12 back then. Only Ice and Darkness appeared further down the ***/Sonic pairing lists as a choice. Mine is currently 39th lvl on Excelsior.

Empathy Defenders do fine in endgame. The majority of characters are not t4'd to hell and back and PuGs aren't renowned for being tailor designed to function as a cohesive unit. Stuff happens from getting swarmed by foes on an ITF where one lucky hit by a +4 foe triggers cascade defense failure to the auto hit Nictus AV decides the Tanker needs spanking and we haven't even got to the new Hard Mode TF's. Now an Empath certainly isn't the only character capable of restoring that health but ... . So yes you'll spend a lot of time buffing and blasting rather than healing but the whole package is needed at times. But that Cold or FF is going to love your Power Boosted Fortitude as while they can cover the team with shields well they also can't cover themselves leaving them always a bit behind in the defense race. And when not if several teammates get simultaneously hammered by an AoE again only a few builds have the tools to repair all at once especially without needing a foe to target off of to do so. I personally would not choose a Controller to pair with Empathy (been there done that). And here's why. With my Controllers I'm focused heavily on the Foes and battlefield and less so my teammates. With my Defender when (not if) things start going south well my focus is heavily on my teammates. Who's getting hammered (and why). Who needs what heal or buff NAO! I've gone for minutes barely seeing the greater battlefield and foes trying to keep everyone upright. A Controller in the same situation my attention is exactly the opposite I'm far too busy trying to bring control to the situation. Laying patches and trying to mez the the ambush or adds or whatever is causing the issue. That extra second or so on my heal or buff/debuff on my old reflexes might be a second too late. The only Controller I might pair up with Empathy these days would be Illusion. PA and Phantasm's duplicate can't be buffed and are very fire and forget relatively. So when things go sideways I can swap to focus on the team window while they largely do their thing with minimal issues created. Bottom line a well played character trumps pretty much anything else regardless of AT (and regardless of level). Reyna Morningdew of Green Machine and the RO Network (and a whole bunch more)

One thing to note and I have no idea if it's still true but follow while Hovering tended to leave you just out of striking distance so my Claws/SR would end up 'R' (target nearest), 'F' (Follow) then have to tap my W to move forward just enough to activate her melee attack. Annoying but worked well for things like 5-layer cave rooms.

Time enough for torpor later

Hell I have a scrapper that can do that (well stand indefinitely amongst) for sure against Cimerorans at +4/×8 and probably several other foe groups as well. And no unless you were lvl 32 (or perhaps lower) you were not rounding up maps worth of foes that were 20 lvls over you as the game capped at Invincible notoriety which would yield +2 and +3 mobs. Mathematically the statement is obvious hyperbole as there have never been level 60 or 70+ foes for an endgame Tanker to take on. Only level 54s that appeared consistently that I know of were Rikti (and brought about what became known as the RWZ challenge). What ED and the global defense nerfs took away has long since been equalled and surpassed by IO sets, Incarnates and many quality of life changes occurring after i6 or so.

MoonSheep beat me to it. Be interesting to see how the market handles the spike in lvl 50s as the front edge of a whole lot of new accounts comes into existence. But as Moonshine has said what influence you do have will be earned as quick as before but last a whole lot longer buying IOs off said market.

Personally like both and ran mirrors of Ice and Dark Miasma but don't forget (folks in general) any theoretical edge Corruptors have solo has to account for the +30% damage bonus Defenders get while solo. And as I recall last I heard that basically wiped out any difference in damage output Corruptors may have had.

And hello! Welcome back to the City.

I think both Nemu and Zewks hit upon some important factors to consider. The only things I would add are even within the various Archtypes there can be quite a bit of variance. Running Willpower vs Dark Armor despite both being armor sets are very different experiences with very different levels of player experience 'required'. Required in quotes because while certainly specific ATs and sets require different levels of player skill it can easily come down to player preferences and tolerances making a large difference. Which foes do your contacts send you up against? How much dying or what pace of gaining experience and levels are tolerated? None of this game is so difficult that any of them can't succeed if the player is okay with a slower casual approach vs trying to push the envelope. I've solo'd nearly all levels of this game with a wide variety of characters and my number one recommendation is play a pairing you think you'll enjoy. Even with a character you find fun and easier you'll probably "mess up" something but do so knowing virtually anything can be corrected between respecs (or respecification) and using alternate builds. My own first was a Claws/SR scrapper and among the things which can make earlier levels painful for melee are Vahzilok who hit you with toxic damage DoT that reduce your movement and recharge speeds. Well one the things that makes Claws a good choice is Focus. It's a 40ft ranged attack that can help keep some distance between you and them. Claws can also put together a whole attack chain, the same one you would use at endgame, for single targets by the time you have Focus. It's a good example of why you can't really blanket say a whole set or AT is easy or hard. Combine Claws with SR and at 20th you can gain Quickness which makes you resistant to recharge and slow movement. Now those Vahz are even less of a danger as are things like Quicksand. And we haven't even brought teammates (or how many teammates) into the picture both of which make tougher larger numbers of foes even easier to handle generally and also ups your rate of experience gain. Look your choices over and rather than ask which is best ask what the strengths and weaknesses those pairings have and go from there. Sorry good lord I get wordy.

What the game has a few warts yet!!? Yes a warning to players (maybe with a 'okay I've read this message' opt out button) that the Epic ATs are more difficult. And yes rather clearly somethings off about his bumbling around as he talks about playing other games while at another moment I'm watching him back steadily away from his foes into an area of map he hasn't seen yet and I'm thinking 'you're about to aggro mobs behind you'. Hate to think how abominable that would make his FPS gaming experience 🙄 to have that kind of situational awareness.

Just as an aside: You do NOT need someone to open an Ouro portal for you. You can Enter City Hall and proceed to RV Enter RV. You do not need to go anywhere (like into the zone beyond the base and risk PvP) Congratulations you have interacted with the time stream, flow what when ever and have the necessary access to Ouroborous. An O-portal will have appeared in your powers. Enjoy. It's been quite few new characters since I learned this and only one has used someone else's O-portal as it got all but dropped on my new lvl 2's head.

I can imagine. Probably much the same as when I stun them all ... and of course watching for problematic mobs like War Wolves or Cimerorans post Shout of Command who are protected from some portion of CC tools. That's when you'll change to Holds and/or Hurricane. I can recall standing in the intersection while Cimeroran bosses were busy getting shoved about with Hurricane while I'd move a little this way and a little that way letting FR, Tornado, LS and Rocky work on them while hopefully avoid getting cleaved in half by a pissed off boss.

Mine don't typically employ Immobilize plus Hurricane then bunch. My usual usage for Immobilize is to lock down the wobbling and spread created by my stacking stuns on a mob. Stalagmites + Thunderclap + Fissure plus these days I may toss in a p2w Stun Grenade. I'll be right up in there finishing bosses with Rocky side by side crushing them with Seismic Smash and proc'd out Fossilize. Don't get me wrong I have and use Hurricane but it's a fairly rare and short. Mixed between stuns will be the other usual Storm powers to help shred foes

I'll second @Area Man's call out ro Earth/Storm. Very potent combo of Earth's many hard controls and Storm's damage potential. There's a reason the one on HC is my fourth joining 3 from Live at 50. Don't recall any others that I repeated on Live.

Sleep is probably the key word here. Neither Sleep or Immobilize are effected by PToD as mentioned to by @Uun. Not familiar enough with those AVs (any more) to know if maybe something detoggles or is otherwise suppressed by being slept even momentarily.

I've done multiple Earth/Storm (as well as other /Storm). A very potent combo of hard controls from Earth and the raw damage power of Storm. Great control from start thru endgame. Edit: Not a bad Defender either 🤪 ooopsy. What happens when you go from the Controller forums to Defender forums on a sleep deprived brain Edit 2: And I don't care what anyone says Storm/Storm is a great deal of fun even solo especially once Storm Summoning comes into its own and even if not the mostist meta pairing Edit 3: And as @Psyonicosays TA is a very nasty debuffer ... TA/Storm Blast is also a good deal of fun.