Omega Force

Here's a MA/Fire/Fire brute I had lying around. Should be able to tweak it for EM.

She was trained in boxing by Wildcat, so I could see using Street Justice without Spinning Strike or Shin Breaker. (Rib Cracker looks a lot like a ram attack, which is common enough.) Your AOE damage would be weak like a pirate, though, and you'd miss out on Hurl and Foot Stomp animations.

Fire Armor is a resist set, use it with a brute or tanker. Either of those will be able to fire farm at max difficulty or run assorted group content at variable difficulty, you shouldn't feel squishy when the build is complete. Radiation Armor is another resist set; Beta Decay is your taunt aura, so I wouldn't recommend skipping it. EM/EA scrapper would be a dps monster.

First I'll talk about WP, I mained a Will scrapper on live. He had crazy regeneration backed by good smashing/lethal and psi resistance and okay defenses to the other damage types. Because it's a heal-armor and regeneration is a percentage of max HP, it's better on brutes and tanks, which can also push resistances to 90. While brutes were mathematically "better," I was still pretty tough as just a scrapper, once I plugged the energy defense hole. At low levels, brute Fury gives a bigger damage boost than any other character has the slots or enhancements for. At higher levels scrappers pull ahead except in survivability. Tanks can hit more targets, but do less damage per target than a brute, so they make a poor replacement when you need DPS instead of control.

End reduction only applies to the cost of the Nova toggle. End mod is pretty low, but if you're running out, try a Performance Shifter proc in the forms as well as in Stamina.

Good eye, that would bump it up 8%.

I shuffled a slot around here and there, to keep you from having wasted set bonuses. Swapped out the Tier 2 attack for Tier 1, recharges in 2.2 seconds instead of 1.2 but gives you more damage. Freed up your Incarnate powers for whichever. Traded some recovery to cap your SL resistance and give you regular bursts of healing and absorb.

That is the least effective way. In order: 1. Be a brute. 2. Take Confront, which appears to be AoE now in Mids. 3. Use Ice Patch or other controls to knock them down. 4. Take Provoke.

True, but Linea often mentions it in the same breath as Shield and SR. Who am I to argue with him?

Invulnerability is a Defense armor with great resistance but a Psi hole; Willpower is a Heal armor with good defense and resistance, except for Energy. Invuln wants an audience to buff defense, while Will uses the crowd to buff regeneration. Ultimately Invulnerability is tougher, but Willpower is a smoother ride. WP lets you just toggle up and go, while it handles your green and blue bars in the background. I mained a WP scrapper on live, got him to tier 4 incarnation. He was a breeze to play until fighting Praetorians, their energy beams cut through me and floored my regeneration. Then I learned to use IO sets to get energy defense to softcap, and taught them a lesson, too. As a brute it will be even easier, because the higher max hp will result in bigger regen ticks and your resistances cap higher, so the tier 9 power isn't wasted. I had an Invuln tanker, and it felt like I had to keep pausing during fights to maintain his blue bar. As a brute, losing Fury because your endurance is shot sounds even worse. But better players have run the numbers and the tests, and Invuln is still one of the top sets. Revamped Energy Melee is one of the best ST sets, which has an interesting interaction with your secondary. When you're in a mob, your secondary is happiest and you can burn them down one at a time, so it's a gentle slope.

We didn't have that on live, you wanted Elec3 you went blaster, like Jack intended. It looks like it buffs heals and resistance in Mids -- great for a Shield or SR tanker. The Dark/Staff build I have lying around has 90% SLNFCP resistance. +11 defense from a Cold corruptor would have a much larger impact on his survival, mathmatically. I'm not saying Elec is bad, just that it doesn't appear optimal for your original goal.

The eternal dilemma. At the end of the game, your allies will likely be tough enough that you'd be willing to trade the defender buffs for corruptor damage. Which Tier 1 power are you going to use? Cold's is okay as a proc bomb if you devote enough slots to it, but doesn't do much otherwise. Water's Tier 2 looks silly to me, so I'd always take the Tier 1 instead. I'd personally go Cold/Water to start with the T2 shield and the better looking T1 blast, but Water/Cold is a valid life choice for getting your best attacks early.

Yes, that would be the most aesthetically pleasing choice.

Cold. Early on you buff his defense and elemental resistance with Ice/Glacial Shield, later his stealth with Arctic Fog, and cap it off with an endurance boost from Heat Loss. Snow Storm will slow down their attacks early on, giving him time for his Dark Regeneration to recharge. Your blast set could be whatever. Fire, Ice, and Water are all good. Dark Blast is okay, I guess. You could also go with a Force Field corruptor. Take Deflection/Insulation Shield and Dispersion. Throw the two buffs on him and spend all the rest of the time blasting. If that's too boring, Time doesn't bring the defense as early, but your heals and slows should cover the gaps as you level. A better match to his theme would be a Dark/Cold controller. All the awesome of Cold a little slower, but your Dark and his will make it easier to stack fear, stun, and to miss with his battle auras. Another that might work is a Beast/Cold mastermind. If he's a semi-feral critter he'd fit right in with your bitie pack.

I'd like all the sets to top out at 50. It's very soothing to see matching numbers.

You can't go wrong with defender or corruptor. What kind depends on his primary powers and theme. For instance, if he's resistance-based, you want a defense focused support set like Cold or Time. If he's defense based, you want to increase his resistance with Sonic or Thermal. If he's a healtank (Bio, Regen, WP), look into recharge buffs and controls (like Ice and Water), to buy him time to regenerate. It's a nice touch if you pick a set that matches his theme, as well as mechanics. People might remember the Ice Brothers better than two randos.

Ugh, that sounds awful. My wife tried to play back in the day, but something about the camerawork made her sick, too. Inshallah someone can make a low vertigo mod for you, similiar to how you can replace certain costume pieces.

There's nothing to discuss: I will not engage in PVP. I don't begrudge the devs for working to improve PVP for those that enjoy it, so long as it stays opt-in.

I find nothing fun about contaminating a PVE zone with forced PVP. Hard no.

Here's another. Good resistances, okay defense, kept your powers except FA: with Tactics, Kismet, and Invincibility you have 95% or better with all the attacks you use.

Something to keep in mind regarding Vanguard is they are currently teaming up with Rikti and Praetorians who oppose the invasion of Earth, so the thought of them supporting the Found makes perfect sense. Another factor is heroes can only use the wand on hostile Lost, though if that hostility is natural or the results of mind control is debatable.

Force Field/Energy defender would be the most basic option, but I'd go controller. Dark (with soul noir), Gravity, or Illusion primary paired with Cold, Force Field, Sonic, or Time and capped with Primal Forces; everything tinted green. It wasn't called the most powerful weapon in the universe because it could fire concussive beams, but because Hal could use it to alter reality. Dimensional shifts, space warps, time travel, whatever BS the writer needed. Controllers have that breadth of effects in their toolbox.

The powers she demonstrated were a sort of clairvoyance (angles looked off for a stationary survellance system), reversible petrification, teleswapped a minion for a prisoner, and shot a paralyzing laser from the flower in her hand that got reflected. Earth/Dark technology controller? The image of her lair wasn't well lit, so there were plenty of shadows.... Alternately, Rad/Atomic blaster. She doesn't have access to the command console to turn rockers to stone, but she can still shoot red lasers with her flower.

Yes. Redside is dead side. (Not making a value judgement, just describing an inexorable law of the universe.)

Sonic is a resistance set, FF is strong but I've heard it's boring, so you should try Cold. T1 can be proced into a strong attack, you'll have nice defense shields, and at higher levels your debuffs will do a number on tough targets.