tremor3258

Nemesis has already been mentioned, so the runner-up has to be everything out of the Radio's ( or more accurately RADIOOOOO'S) mouth. Er, speaker. Er, villain's auditory hallucination. While Television has less ambiguity, Radio Free Opportunity easily plays as a concept, a pirate DJ, or the villain hearing voices telling them to blow up Wyvern bases, and Radio is, and has been, my absolute favorite under-20 contact for sheer charm ever since City of Villains launched.

I always liked how the Lost/Rikti was originally handled as a secret connection, though that's gotten muddled since for good reasons that became common knowledge to NPCs.

Warning if you aren't familiar with using stealth powers, hostage escorts are affected by perception and this can be a factor with wondering where that surgeon, nothing more, wandered off to.

MM patron pools are a little odd, given the theme typically of 'covering bases' there is a lack of consistent defenses or armors compared to some of the other ATs within all the pools. Was that ever discussed live? Just curious, it adds some flexibility. Given MM powers, would expect AOE damage, a shield, and some sort of control as standard.

Don't forget there was a devastating global war about a decade ago. It probably threw consumer electronics out of whack compared to our universe.

Pure low-level villain got offered 'be introduced to a new contact' who were all in Skyway City - I'll see if I can get a screenshot later. EDIT: Got a screenshot, the problem originally happened in Pocket D but is visible here in Port Oakes too:

On the interface incarnates, I really wish the 25 percent (core flawless) didnt roll each time it ticked, I appreciate the debuff effects but some extra DOT from the whole group would be nice.

Take a look at the specific description on those items, the 'for pets' resist and defense boosts count as global powers., they aren't procs. The power works by effectively give the mastermind a PBAOE always-on aura that gives pets extra defense, resistance, etc when they are within it. Hell on Earth specifically gives a henchmen a damage/to hit buff and summons little extra hellfires which act sort of like mini fire imps. The facts it can take pet-set IOs means it's a great power to load up on those global resist bonuses for pets and give more room in the active pets for items that buff them individually. Chance for damage procs work on henchmen abilities that match how those powers work normally; Lich, on necromancy has a bunch of powers with -tohit (as it's a tiny dark defender), so the cloud sense proc can fire off all of them. There's some good discussions on the forums for what each pet can take and which powers are affected. Other example, the Oni has Char, a copy of the ST hold power from fire control, but just one, so probably isn't the best use of a ghost widow's embrace since it boosts such a small ability subset. For other procs (like build up) - I haven't seen to many people try +absorb so this is more theoretical - given how build up affects an individual henchmen (as they're firing the power) assume +absorb would give a damage barrier to the henchmen, not the mastermind.

I have a demon/poison at 50. The ST heal isn't spectacular but can help keep everything running. Envenom and weaken are a pretty decent combo that cripples the primary target. The splash isn't very large though, and feels like it hits anything standing at melee range. Even through AV resistances to debuffs it can help drop their output. Part of Weaken's fun is while it drops to hit and damage, any secondary effect is dropped. Immobilize knockback, etc. Neurotoxic is basically an ice cone power, really strong slow and -recharge. I like to target the back of a group to try and make sure the most is in range. Paralytic poison is a solid single target hold and combos well with a epic power pool to hold boss grade enemies. Poison trap... seems to hold and it can take damage procs. Noxious gas similarly doesn't feel immediately noticeable but things seem to run smoother? A henchmen under gas definitely attracts attention at close range so it is doing something.

I'm running a demon/poison pretty heavily ( the bigger the boss the better it does, cool aesthetic, went through a lot of demons leveling, wouldn't call it top tier) and so the ember demon has a resist shield it throws on everything (not just pets if they're close) around 5-6, and as the owner specifically you get the second shield as well, which is nice.

There's some research on the forum on specific slotting to get the most out of things like bonus damage procs that I can't speak to very well but recommend a look (to look at this one it looks like Grave Knight can take the Lady Grey set damage proc and Lich Cloud Sense pretty effectively, for instance) ; I'm not the best invention system person. A couple notes: Necromancy is one of the Mastermind primary sets that has a secret invention set advantage - Soul Extraction takes pet damage and recharge pet damage sets. Not everything's level 18 power does There are four invention sets in those categories (plus the archetype sets Command of the Mastermind and Mark of Supremacy) that have an enhancement that effectively buffs supremacy to include bonuses to defense or resist to pets. Sovereign Right, Edict of the Master, Expedient Reinforcement, and Call to Arms This frees up slots in the pets themselves for more slots to power up the pets themselves. Luck of the Gambler should get highlighted if any other specific set is - it's proc is NOT unique, but can go into any defense boosting power, and gives a global 7.5 % recharge enhancement.

Okay - first, welcome to the game! Second - Homecoming isn't quite the same in all areas as the version of the game referenced, but paragonwiki.com (from the last version of the live game) is a good starting point especially for getting basics of classes, or reading through what task force contacts are saying to the leader for issues like WHY you are beating up the Clockwork King. There's an in-game help channel that can seem like it's just global chat but questions to it are usually answered pretty quickly and accurately.

Those are pretty solid - one with a heal. especially an area heal, will make the masterminding faster at medium levels. There comes a point where the tier 1 goes from major damage component to 'cannon fodder'. Getting something with a -regen capability will help against archvillains later in your careers. Having FF to go with covers a lot extra defense and helps save on break frees so there's a lot to build on. Thugs and Demons are both pretty strong - I've been hearing good things from Mercs players after the AI changes; they're much less suicidal then they used to be. Demons get the added feature the Hellfire-powered ones will use the summoning colors for the hellfire; so it's a more flexible set display-wise.

Honestly - before inherent powers - I tried grav controlling and I was really, really terrible at it. This was around issue 3 or 4 I think, so trying against after containment; more knowledge of the mechanics and playing a defender a bit really helped me have a better feel for the AT and appreciation of control powers.

I ignored IO sets until 50 on my first char but did use the suggested 'convert reward merits to items like converters' for the AH and a few Summer Blockbuster runs (well, probably 10+ because I enjoy it) and was able to probably overpay on a moderate build northwards of 200 million inf with cash left over for other expenses thanks to a moderate mix of TFs, solo story arcs, and group play. Now this certainly wasn't the fastest way to fifty, or the most powerful along the way, but the other chars should be set because the inf rate at 50 is pretty good.

So on the first picture - I apparently need to look at hats more since I had no idea there was such a great retro serial hat. Which one is that?

Cole performing 'witch hunts' is given as why the Midnighters retreated to a 'pocket dimension' where Master Midnight was able to deal with the Club all at once. The Circle of Thorns not being present on Praetoria always seemed conspicuous by their absence, given their sheer ubiquity on Paragon City. Possibly they went to ground. It took Rikti portal tech to crack Oranbega's wards, and it is much less secure than it was in the 20th century

I just got to IO sets on a demon/pain (any mitigation from powers is after the first combat exchange, basically) and there is a significant change to the resilience of pets with those resist and defense auras in place.

Kallisti Wharf is, from looking at the old AMAs - was intended to be an area recovered ala Faultline for the city outside the previous War Walls, timeline wise after Statesman's death and Tyrant's fall. With Praetoria inactive and the Rikti Traditionalists working more and more closely with Vanguard, the biggest threats of large troop movements the War Walls help stop receded as well. Naturally the Battalion were going to choose it as Ground Zero for their invasion because Paragon City is one Task Force away from destruction every day of the week and twice on Saturdays. 🙂 Based on the NCSoft MOBA and some other comments, the plan was for Statesman to help rally the fight against the Oncoming Storm, as things looked darkness but not the Marcus Cole who'd spent eight decades tirelessly fighting for justice, but the weakened Tyrant showing the power of symbols - and if Earth could do that while thinking they were fighting with Statesman but instead merely a powered-down Tyrant, Earth's defenders had the strength all along and everyone just needed to step up - which I guess shows at least that Praetorian Marcus Cole did learn his lesson. This would probably end in in his death.

A lot of this is Paragon Wiki to make sure I got this right: So the big starting point for all this is Tina MacIntyre and Maria Jenkins; these versions of the arcs are updated from Issue 18 and reflect to some degree the earlier version of the arc (Statesman was held prisoner in the past verison of the arc, and it's referenced in the current version where Positron gets the honor) as having taken place in the past. At this point in history, Praetorian Earth is something Portal Corps AND the Vanguard are aware of but dealing with the occasional raid - Anti-Matter's first attack and the revelation of a universe with apparently evil versions of the Freedom Phalanx was the old version of Tina's arc, and seems to be from what I can find the first incursion by Praetoria. Anti-Matter was previously trying to improve his standing - but a big issue was getting enough information on Primal Earth to adequately pinpoint an invasion (Portal Corps is apparently the multiverse's leader in cross-dimensional technology. Go home team) He lost, Neuron tried to copy, and he lost too. Both got snatched out of the Zig, by portals. Maria Jenkins then gets involved when a more involved plot involves capturing the Statesman to weaken Primal Earth's defenses. Statesman hadn't been very forthcoming on how he got his powers, and some items how Tyrant restrained him got noted as being incorrect in later versions of the arc. Tyrant also appeared, but was defeated. There are several side missions fighting various Praetorians. Sometime in the middle, some individuals from Praetoria defect to Primal Earth to be heroes or villains, and pass on more information on what Praetoria is like, showing it isn't just 'evil Freedom Phalanx' (Going Rogue happens, in other words). Some time previously, Maelstrom defects. The current version is a bit later - Portal Corps is aware Praetoria is a threat and the Vanguard, the primary Earth defense organization, is assisting - besides dealing with Anti-Matter trying to get his position back and get Dominatrix to like him, Neuron steals Anti-matters' plan (as usual), and the heroes stop both Praetorian scientists. Positron then gets kidnapped in an arc run by Maria Jenkins that runs similarly, except Tyrant himself doesn't show up - but the Praetorians DO steal a page from Nemesis and start building a duplicate Positron to leave Paragon City's defenses completely shut down, and Tyrant doesn't show up in person - arguably, full scale war would have followed if the plot succeeded. A bit later, as Incarnates start to power up, it looks like Tyrant says 'what the hell' and starts the invasion in the Apex and Tin Mage Task Forces - Vanguard successfully counterstrikes both on Primal Earth and Praetoria to basically stop the invasion before it can really start, but Tyrant then apparently somehow REALLY digs deep of the Well of the Furies and starts powering his forces up - the Incarnate Trials begin as Incarnates work with Resistance to dismantle Praetoria piece by piece. Except for a bit where a God of death wakes up, but even then some of the Praetorians are involved in the action. By the end, Praetoria is nearly dead - Tyrant's treaty with the Hamidon is null and most of the surviving Praetorians are refugees on Primal Earth; Tyrant's actions certainly killed hundreds of thousands, if not millions of his own people in his mad bid to retain power. On the timeline question of who invaded who - it's not clear - I don't think Portal Corps was looking for trouble (the Shadow Shard was already an existent threat taking their attention) but the dimension name is cataloged - it's possible a research team was THOUGHT to be an invasion. Or Anti-Matter found Primal Earth, attacked, and Primal Earth's retaliation was thought to be an invasion because Anti-Matter kept his mouth shut. I'm not sure WHY Tyrant was sure the existence of Primal Earth was such a threat - Praetoria has some contact with some of the dimensions Portal Corps does (such as Warrior Earth; where Battle Maiden and Valkyrie's powers originated) or he was simply afraid news of such an 'underregulated' Earth would damage his regime. I personally lean to the latter just because of the First Ward/Night Ward storylines - Cole had gone out of his way to remove as much as one of the traditional origins (magic) as he could - it's the hardest to track and regulate, compared to technology or genetic powers. Arguably by the time of the defectors the Praetorians had made so much noise many of the more organized groups (Longbow, Arachnos, Malta, Crey, Nemesis as the big contenders) had started infiltrating and boosting the Resistance but the support given before Apex/Tin Mage is a lot less than Primal Earth throwing literally its most powerful heroes to the task of destroying the Cole regime. Feel free if anyone wants to chime in, I think I got most everything through the last Trial in here, which isn't quite the end of the story.

One thing that is an early secret the Undeground Incarbate Trial uncovers.. Cole didn't beat Hamidon. He cut a deal to try and prove humanity could be controlled and non destructive. This appears to be post First Ward construction. Cole either decided or was informed as Primal Earth discovered Praetorian Earth, the 'uncontrolled' humanity still organized into nation states and hero/villain fights on Primal Earth risked breaking the deal. Tyrant having a plan to conquer makes me personally suspect his real plan was more around moving somewhere away from Hamidon, or knowing Praetoria was inherently unstable. He may not have admitted to himself. Or the Well pushed the situation somehow. Praetoria was originally evil Freedom Phalanx but got richer with Going Rogue. Some is mentioned in universe as Portal Corps getting more information. Also there is a sewer exploration badge, where the Enriche plant draws water from the same source as the Praetoria mains. It is quite possibly drugged.

At least one point versus blasters, at 20 something they have AOE for groups. Demons has one cone breath at this point so you just don't have the relative tools to drop minions fast. Though as the bad guys get more hold capacity that blaster will need to be more careful and have some less room to maneuver. The archetype to some degree is built around ablative damage. Pre IOs as CoV opened, MMs were more the Rogue Isles tanking class than brutes were. The good news? At 23 you are near the end of the harshest period for all MM sets. 24 brings the second tier 2 pet, the Gargoyle is tough and has some contact auras to help focus attention. Probably the most damage focused pet in the powerset. And 26 has the tier 3 which comes with holds and slows which will alleviate pressure. 32 is a ways off but I usually feel the big divide. The second powerup tends to be a massive upswing for MM.

Just to check you did mean melee for the ninjas too here? They've some wonderful up-close attacks. I wish the genin's disorient was a little more frequent - if it could stack enough it would help with the Boss Problem.

I see 'you had a 95 percent accuracy and rolled a 99' with the sort of frequency of 99s I would love in 'roll for loot' games.

As far as I can tell, absolutely huge for the ranged pets. and may stop ninjas from trying to roundhouse kick the map.