Ultimo

I'm thinking of things like Mutation (Radiation secondary), Vengeance (Leadership), etc. These powers are used when a teammate is defeated... but does that include the pets?

I've been trying to use it as a primary damage source on my Red Skull homage, but it's just not working for me. The character feels incapable of doing much of ANYTHING. His damage, and that of his mercs, is nearly nonexistent, and he seems to have little to debuff with, though the Radiation secondary does help some (though its heal is minimal and range is nonexistent, its debuffs are adequate).

Is there some way to transform an existing character to use new sets? I have a character based on Loki that I'd love to give this set as a Dominator; he's currently a Controller, but the Dominator secondaries suit him far better.

Brainstorm? Is that a test server? How do I access it?

Well, it's been a while (I decided to post in the original thread rather than starting a new one, since the point remains the same), and I'm still struggling with the character. Right now he's still Mercs/Radiation, but I'm still finding that underwhelming. I've added in the Experimentation pool, but I'm finding THAT underwhelming too. Really just struggling to get the character in a position where he's fun to play and seems capable. Poison has a really, REALLY weak single target heal with a moderate cooldown that the character can't use on himself. His debuffs seem really weak, and seem to be single target, with diminished effects on nearby targets. It doesn't seem to have anything that does any actual damage. Radiation has some reasonably debuffs that affect larger areas, and an area effect heal, but the character has to be next to the mercs, and the heal itself is also really weak. All this is exacerbated by the fact that the mercs are SO weak themselves. Almost any Warrior enemy will immediately oneshot them, and most other enemies will leave them nearly dead in one attack. If several foes attack at once, all the mercs could be instantly wiped out. I'm not sure what else to do with him. I've looked at Traps, but haven't really tried it much yet, because it lacks the conceptual connection, wherein the Skull uses poisons, toxins or corruptive effects.

Certainly Vigilance works on your Defender. When he's solo, he'll get a damage buff. Taunting enemies who can ONLY attack you isn't helping you. Increasing the size of an AOE you don't have isn't helping you. None of the other powers require you to take a specific power to get the benefit of the inherent (ie. the AOE). Honestly, I don't understand the resistance to this.

And again, that's highly situational. Which other class only gets a benefit from their inherent SOMETIMES? Does the Scrapper's critical hit ability only affect certain powers? Does the Defender's Vigilance only work after L20?

Only if you have AOE powers... which most Tankers don't get until MUCH later... and the benefit is very minor. It's a highly situational benefit at best.

So, I've always thought Tankers kind of get the short end of the stick with regard to their inherent power, Gauntlet. Every other class gets a benefit from their inherent skill both when grouped but ALSO when solo. Only Tankers don't. The ability to taunt enemies is pointless when solo. So, I've been brainstorming, trying to come up with something balanced that can tweak the power so it has some benefit for the solo Tanker. I thought I'd come here and see if anyone had any other ideas, or if they liked mine, which is: When Tankers attack enemies who have been taunted, they get a small endurance recovery boost. This would allow the Tanker to sustain his attacks more effectively, which would be beneficial in groups, but ALSO when solo, without greatly increasing damage output or survivability. What do you think? Is this good, or would you like to see something else?

I actually chose to dig into his history a bit, he's Herakles of Thebes.

I decided to go with Invulnerability, it's got to be concept over all.

I've recreated him using Radiation Melee and Bio Armour at the moment. I found Kinetic Melee a little too fancy, and Psi Melee was really static. I've kind of liked Rad Melee so far, but we'll see how it goes. The psi stuff can come from pools, I think.

So, as usual, I'm creating a character based on a mythological character, this time Herakles, the son of Zeus. In the myths, Herakles iconography is the club and the lion's skin, so I've decided to make him a Brute, War Mace and... I'm undecided what else. My first thought was to give him Regeneration, but that's more because I have no characters with Regen... and was interested to try it out. But it's not quite the right thing for the character. The skin of the Nemean Lion grants Invulnerability, so I could just give him that... but I have several characters WITH that already, and it feels a bit redundant. I may end up going with that anyway, but I thought I'd ask what the community thinks. Creating Herakles for the game, based on the MYTHS, not on any other source material, what power sets would you give him?

I thought perhaps I should also describe the character's origins. That is, he's based on Martian Manhunter, but he's not meant as a copy. His powers and look will be similar, but here's his backstory, in broad strokes. I have another character based on Green Lantern, called the Stellar Ranger. The Stellar Rangers were like the Jedi, a force for good in the universe, but they became corrupt under the rule of a new Chancellor. Some fled out into the galaxy, including one who came to Earth. Pursued by the Chosen, former Stellar Rangers dedicated to the Chancellor, they fought and killed the fleeing Ranger, but a human fighter pilot (whose plane was brought down during the fight), took up the fallen Ranger's gauntlets and defeated the Chosen. My new character is a bounty hunter from a race of bounty hunters. He's one of many out there searching for these fugitive Stellar Rangers, and his search brought him to Earth. Thinking that the human Stellar Ranger was actually the one he was hunting (when he was actually hunting the one who died), he comes into conflict with the new Ranger, causing a lot of damage, and leading the Chosen back to Earth. To make up for his mistake, he joins forces with Earth's heroes to drive back the Chosen and the Chancellor. So, he doesn't necessarily have to be natural origin, or Martian or anything like that... and his powers might be SLIGHTLY different, perhaps with an eye toward capturing enemies. Anyway, just thought that might be helpful.

Well, I tried him as a Peacebringer (I had one already at around L19), but it just didn't feel right. Manhunter is more physical, and a Peacebringer is very blasty. This led me to reconsider some of the other options. I think he needs to be some kind of melee class, but with some psychic leaning... perhaps a Brute or Tanker?

So, I'm back at it, trying to adapt a version of a DC character to the game. Martian Manhunter, with his MANY various abilities, is going to be really hard to do... so I'm hoping for some inspiration from the gallery. Some of his abilities I feel can be "simulated" using some of the pools (eg. invisibility, flight, and psychic stuff). His shapeshifting though, is probably not possible to do except with alternate costumes... and that doesn't need to relate to his AT or powers. Manhunter is known more for his durability and physical strength. Much of the time, these are his baseline powers... but I didn't want to just go blandly with invulnerability and super strength. Also, in recent years, he's become known for his psychic abilities, so perhaps I can simulate his strength with pools like Fighting. So... what do you all think? How would you suggest building a character to resemble the Martian Manhunter?

I can sympathize. I went almost 3 years unemployed (despite sending out THOUSANDS of resumes), and was actually kind of disappointed to have to go back to work. I even enjoyed the shutdown, because I could just lounge around, relax, read a book, etc... Well, that's it. As soon as I win the lottery, I'm quitting my job!

After evaluating a few builds in Mids, I've decided to make him a Tanker. Super Reflexes/Street Justice+Super Speed+Teleport (for Combat Teleport)+Power Mastery (I'm defining the Energy Torrent as a shockwave of air or perhaps a sonic boom, or some such).

Oh, I can rationalize almost anything, but I was hoping to make him behave more like the Flash, Quicksilver or other "traditional" speedsters. Too bad there's not a "Driveby" attack power in Super Speed, where you do damage in an area around yourself while moving, relative to your speed (that is, an AOE around the character, in a short line running behind him that would do damage relative to his movement speed).

I had thought about doing Kinetic Melee, but the animations are so SLOW... not a speedster set, if you ask me. I ended up doing Street Justice, its animations are fairly quick, and he throws lots of combos, which suits the speedster style. Super Reflexes as his secondary. However, I'd been considering the other option, SR primary, SJ secondary tanker. I just wasn't sure how well it fit the type.

So I'm creating a speedster character, insipred by the Flash or Quicksilver. My initial instinct is to make him a Scrapper... but I've been reconsidering. Upon reading some of the comics featuring such characters, I find that they don't spend their time doing damage to enemies very much, but instead distracting and hindering them. That might suggest the CONTROLLER class, but I was wondering about making him a Tanker. Any thoughts? What class would you make a pure speedster?

I actually have ALL of the Sorcery set (and I'm planning on Fire for my Ancillary pool). The question I'm wrestling with is whether to swap out Spirit Ward for Frostwork. I don't expect to get much use from it solo, but I wanted it for those times I'm in a group. I'm just not sure which is of more use.

So, I've created an Illusion/Frost Controller (Loki), and I'm at the point where I'm deciding whether to use Frostwork or Spirit Ward. Most of my time is spent solo, so neither one is going to be much use to ME, but I'd like to be able to use one as an "Oh CRAP" power, to save an ass in a pinch. Which one would you all suggest is a better choice?

Still hoping for some feedback...

I still say I'd like to see them revamp the naming system. There's an awful lot of names that are encumbered with weird characters and letters, punctuation and so on... evidence that people couldn't make a name they liked without trying to work around the current system. As I said before, linking the character's name to the @handle would do the trick, and has done so in other games. (ie. My character named Ultimo would appear as Ultimo in the game, but the server would identify him as Ultimo@Ultimo1... allowing other players to have a character named Ultimo, where the server would identify them as Ultimo@handle.)