InvaderStych

All also very correct. 😉 There are also a handful of other types of triggers (mostly cut-scenes) that ignore Stealth/Hidden as well throughout the Cities. That said, there were many Praetorian missions where breaking LoS to regain Hidden simply didn't work for me . It might have been Ghoul swarms, or it might have been ambush triggers, it might have just been a series of flukes but I do remember the frustration of some of them outweighed (for me personally, and I understand this to be subjective) the advantages of being able to stealth through the occasional mission or while gathering badges/plaques/posters. Thus, not my first recommendation for an "Easier Mode" Goldside Run. Not that it wasn't fun, it just wasn't the easiest way to do it. 🙂 Rescue/Kidnap Escorting is a Pain Always. Some of the Praetorian ones seemed to be particularly stubborn, even with all stealth turned off. But there's a quirk with Combat Teleport that makes Escorting a lot easier. If they're next you when you port, the distance is usually short enough that they'll sprint to your new location instead of following you at walking pace. Not fool-proof to be sure, but with a macro to port forward (or backwards if you want to keep an eye on them) it, anecdotally as I've not convinced anyone to try to replicate it, seems much quicker and more reliable than trying to just walk them out. This can also be used to get them to move vertically to a mezzanine or up the layers of one of the Cave Cake rooms. Stealth/Hidden still need to be off for this to work though, as far as I have been able to tell. In fairness, I haven't tried this in Praetorian missions, but I don't see why they would be any different than the Red/Blue with respect to CT. 🤷‍♂️

A while back I ran team through Dark Astoria, and when Mot's interstitial whispers started aPeaRRing my character would rEplyinKINd with stuff like "iaM comING fOr yOU mOt!" or "yOu caNNot esCApE mE!!!" - stuff like that. SG mate spontaneously joined in and started cracking wise about the "Crazy Drow Chick Losing her Mind." Good Times. Love me some Dark Astoria.

Well, first off, start here: Best Way to Goldside, imo, and a decent quantity of Merits to be had along the way as you end up with the "Every Arc In _____" bonuses by following the side-switching. When I found this guide I ran through on a Stalker. It can be done, but I don't recommend it. I had forgotten about the way Goldside ambushes ignore Hidden. Though if you're inclined towards the AT and have a budget, it's a fun way to go despite the tougher fights. Even if you don't do the "Level Lock & Side Switch" method, definitely start from the tutorial so you get all of the Undercover options for the side chosen during the tutorial. It's not so much that there are exotic damage types to worry about, more that the mission designs and some of the zone events can be tough to solo, like the ambush mechanics previously mentioned. Some form of Mez protection is also valuable. Groups on that side do pack debuffs; Resistance is heavy on Energy and iirc general debuffs, Seers are Psi and pack -rech, Ghouls are mostly Smashing, but they swarm like crazy and heal others when they drop - stuff like that. First Ward and Night Ward are where things get more .... exotic, lol. If I were going to do another Goldside run and wanted to simplify I'd probably stick to melee: /Elec /Dark /Rad for armor choices; AT and Primary to taste. Kat, DM, RM, SVG, many good choices at that point. Doubtless there are good Dom/Troller or Corr/Def combos that would absolutely own Goldside, but I am not familiar enough to suggest which ones. If I was going to do another of these runs, for the fun of it I'd probably roll another /Martial Blaster. 😉 Not particularly suited to the task, but it would be a fun challenge. Hmm, now that I mention it, Praetoria would be a great place to roll DP/Martial - the zone and storyline gel nicely with the Equilibrium Vibe of that combo. 😄 EDIT: Note that the above was written over coffee, while forgetting that one has to take the level limitations into account. That last bit about the fun blaster might have to be scratched depending on what's available before 20. So, I'mma go finish my coffee now. 😛

Which side did you decide on for Melee? My Psi/SD scrapper is at the point of picking which T4 to build, mentioned above that the +res seemed, on the surface, more durable than the +def with only a few comparison runs on Cim and DA missions.

Savage should always take Double-Hit, imo, because of the unique mechanics of Savage Leap.** It's two separate powers. In combat logs you'll see it fire as "Your Savage Leap power" once, which is the targeted teleport portion (which does no actual damage of its own). Then you will see "Your Savage Leap AOE power" (or similar wording) for each mob in range, including the teleport target. The fun part is that Hybrid uses a single target equation for the damage calc on your teleport target (still only hitting once though), but all of the other targets receive damage based on the AoE (360deg) equation. The result is that the teleport target takes a whole bunch more damage (4x) from the Hybrid "proc" than the rest of the targets in range. More details, my combat logs, and Bopper's confirmation in his "What the Hell is Double-Hit" thread over in Guides. If one is inclined to play a toon well into Vet levels, there's more than enough iSalvage and EmpyMerits to build up two Hybrid trees. I usually run the added dmg for regular play, and switch into survival mode if I'm running something particularly dangerous or seeing at what point the toon breaks for S's & G's. My most played Scrapper is just about done with both, but I haven't decided if the extra +def or +res is a better fit for /SD. Last time I ran with the +res side it seemed quite good, but that's not a Savage toon, so apologies for the tangent, lol. ** - Edit: It might still be "better" in overall average damage over long units of time to stay Core on Scrappers, but I don't have the math skills to make that call. If my Savage/Invuln (scrapper) project sees iPowers I'll probably still go Radial though.

Let the accumulation commence forthwith ... ORGONE (feat. Ikebe Shakedown Horn Section) - Bulletproof I dunno how to add accent marks, so pretend the band name up there is accurate. 😛

Go /Martial. Flashy, Effective, Fun; Reaction Time is under-rated and Burst of Speed's range is massive. The 360 AoEs in Dark and Water would mesh quite well with BoS and DT. I play mine probably 50/50 range/melee, leveraging Combat Teleport against BoS bounce in/out. NRG/Martial might be interesting thematically, and I've not seen one around. Mine is Fire/ and I've seen several DP/Martial which is pretty cool to watch in action as well.

I went with Willpower, but that was one of my first toons after finding HC, and since /WP is "fire and forget" I figured it would be a good way to reacquaint myself with the game. /Rad would be interesting if I were to do a repeat on a Brute. Leap, Ground Zero, Rad Therapy, and Particle Shielding all love global recharge so there's some potential there. x2 on skipping Hemo, broken power is still broken. Okay, not "broken," just bad. 😞 Honestly, before anything else Hemo should get tuned into something useful. IMO: the cone can also be skipped as the build comes together in later levels (though one can absolutely level without it too...) since RF will be up often enough to cover anytime the cone would be useful. As far as scrapper vs. brute - Yes. Both good. Savage is great for building Fury on Brutes, and Scrappers can leverage the mechanics of Leap to trigger the Crit Strikes ATO Proc at the max 90% proc rate. Can't speak to the Stalker version though.

Hudson Taylor - Battles

That's a "Strategic" map view that gives a little extra zoom to the map and makes it easier to see hexes, resources, and units at scale. Should have switched back for the screen cap but I sort of forgot, lol. 🙂 Regular graphics are this (random img from google): There are some very nice touches to the graphics, it would be great if map rotation was more intuitive, zoom went out further, and you could see a flat view. That's all minor UX stuff though; the overall look is fantastic, especially once cities start to flesh out. And then there's the natural wonders ... (also not my img)

@TheOtherTed, @Yomo Kimyata, @Kyksie ... you are all clearly way beyond my level at the Civ series. Despite playing 1 through 4 (mostly 2 and 4), I've only managed to beat Immortal a couple of times - using ideal map/nation/leader combos in 4. 🤣 Recently made the jump to 6 as it and it's veritable litany of packs were bundled for half price. Still adjusting to the vast differences and finding all the new must-haves and various tricks. Still, love the way the series serves up little moments of perfection: Probably would have been easier to see that in regular view rather than strategic, lol.

Cubicles right next to the restroom? Yup. Definitely a torture chamber.

/Ninja might be interesting for this type of thing. If stealth is a plan, might as well take one that gives a little damage boost to that opening nuke. At least that's the theory behind the rad/nin I started. Maybe not the "strongest" combination for the task, but an interesting toolkit to fiddle with. Any blaster primary is going to be more than enough for the kill alls at low to moderate difficulties.

Is your secondary going to be Quills, Death Shroud, Blazing Aura, Irradiated Ground, Lightning Field, Icicles, Taunt, and Savage Leap?

Well, see, but you actually can. Cruising the forums here with folks posting builds with total price tags in the Billions makes it seem daunting, but unless you're trying to kit out dozens of 50s there's plenty of inf to be had to build up that first fully kitted, T4 IncarnateMonster. From there inf (and more importantly high value drops like converters/catalysts) falls like Rain on the Plain In Spain any time that Monster comes out to play. I also recently came to Blasters from the world of Melee, and I leveled my first blaster on SOs and key IO Globals + the ATO sets, then rounded him out at 50 with a couple respecs until I had him tuned to taste. Just adding the two +3%def pieces to an SO build can make a huge difference. Get yourself a Panacea and a Power Transfer and you're that much further ahead of the SO game as well. Run content that nets you Merits (some arcs give out surprisingly large quantities); there are many ways to reliably turn 100 merits into approximately 20-25Mil. No farming needed. Heck, are emails cross-server? If not, and you're on Excelsior PM me your in-game global, I'm no EbilMarketeer, but I bet I got ~50mil sitting around someplace you can have if you're in need of some Fake Money Units. Veles and Cherborg are pretty tough fights @ that level. I've run a few of my scrappers through those fights in-level and they're not easy. I wouldn't use that as a metric for how your blaster is doing at lvl20. I don't recall trying to solo this arc with anything but melee toons. It took a moment for me to adjust to the "No, you cannot FaceTank with this character" tactical change. Really there seem to be two approaches. Hover-Blast to maintain range at all (or most) times, or Constant Movement Is Life. Though I suppose the Hover strategy also involves lots of movement. The AI is easily confused by fast moving targets; sometimes when you're kiting they'll waste precious seconds trying to get into melee range, or you can move into melee after tricking them into using their (often less dangerous) ranged attacks. If you mentioned what sets we're talking about here, I can't seem to find it in the scroll. But coming from lots of melee, may I suggest giving Martial Combat a try? Inner Will and Reaction Time are excellent mitigation and it has a "Scrapper With Blasts" feel. Hmm... Now that I think about it Reaction Time is almost like Blaster Training Wheels. It slows down all of the mobs, effectively making kiting easier to learn. 🤣 That is not a diss, my Fire/MC is still the "fun factor" metric by which I measure anything I've rolled since it's creation. 😄

Casiopea - Domino Line

One can also do this by right-clicking a mob. I have no idea how accurate the displayed list may be, or if there are variances in drop rates beyond "Common, Uncommon, Rare" differences.

The Silent Comedy - Bartholomew

TIL Napoleon the Pig was really just an alternate version of the "Tyrant" side of Marcus Cole. Hmm.... Is that a theme team I smell, or just bacon?

They do not. Never did. Unless there is some exception in /Fire I am unaware of, which I am fairly confident there is not. But the blood-chilling wail of a thousand /SD Scrappers simultaneously rejoicing were that ever to change would be a sound to behold indeed.

IKR? I've been playing games to my own soundtracks since the PS1. 🤣

How much, if any, testing has been done to see if the Radial Support Pets are actually doing their job? Anecdotally, there seems to be a wide variance in their activity levels. For example, my scrapper with Radial Carnies has a Support pet that is so inactive, even other people on teams have commented that it was doing nothing. Longbow Support, by contrast, basically spams it's heals on cooldown. I have another toon where I tried out Robotic Drones for the +def aura. That pet is good about casting it on summoning, but then rather poor about refreshing it, and does not seem to cast their heal/buff very often either. The only other one I've tried for any length are BP, which are plenty active. Much like the Longbow pets. I haven't tried Cimmies on HC, but if memory of Live serves correctly, the Surgeon was similar to Longbow - just spamming away with those heals. 1. Am I completely nuts, or have others observed this variance in Support Pets? 2. Is this one of those "Yeah, we know, but you should see the size of that mountain..." sort of things?

Ki Push might just be the best mini-game in The Cities. Extra Bonus Points for sending them into Lava. Less useful, but still hilarious; knocking them off the hovering battleships in that SSA mission. IDK how to build a blaster for tanking, but /MC is definitely melee-centric. I could prattle on endlessly about how awesome /MC is, but I sort of already have done. Definitely take SK and DT; the knockdown is awesome, and SK has better DPA than Eagle's. Eagle's is a bit of a trap, it can drop a big number, but the DPA isn't great. However, it's a good place to grab big set bonuses, so you can decide it's value from there. I do use it, but conditionally. The stun can be good, but less reliable than the KD from the other two kicks. It helps to learn to love Combat Teleport as well, imo. Here's some of my TLDR rambling about /MC. Enjoy! 🤣