Max Firepower

I have to admit I found out yesterday... you can enter missions through the crystal. I had been leaving Oro, and making my way to PP for Spelunker and so on... guessing that’s a ‘yes’ for your query.

Tell me Homelander doesn’t really belong in the Rogue Isles... and who can say if others in our pantheon don’t have a ‘red side’ that makes for a good storyline twist?

I am game. Johnny Snow 2004 - Ice/Dev - L33 Huscarl 2004 - Inv/SS - L29

The Lore pet, even the untouchable buffers, are ‘nice’ to have, but I haven’t found them to be game changers. However, I only have these on a few tanks, so... not sure that is totally fair. With the loooong recharge, the Lore pets are more like a long term inspiration than a new power being unleashed, imho. Taking Musculature likely WILL leave you happy with your damage. I am not a MM guru, I think it is the only AT I never reached 50 on, but I think looking at different Alphas is likely your key to being less squishy.

I had wondered about the high schools for each zone, and their mascots. I started from the name, like Kings Row, so it could be the tie in, or tried a reference to iconic statues like the Minotaur in Talos Island. I didn’t want ‘the Heroes’ as that seemed ubiquitous. Kings Row - Knights Atlas Park - Titans Galaxy City - Astros Talos Island - Bulls I will see if I still have my list of others somewhere.

Trap/Fire or Trap/Sonic are great solo, and good in teams, though you may have a solo vs team build. Storm/Dark is pretty strong in using the Tentacles to lock down a group (I often use Extended range on my cones), then rain or storm them to bits.

I will aim for 7:30 to 7:45 pm start - and negotiate for a 'flexible' end time as it's a 3 day weekend. L30... considering Recall Friend (since I be fast and stealthy and all) or... I could take the Frosty Breath power, but L32 is coming right after that. Hrm... Still another 3-4 bubbles to find out, so that may take awhile. 😉 FWIW - renamed C0ld Snap 2004 over to "Johnny Snow 2004" - there are several references to Johnny Snow in different milieus, but I'm listening to Dr. Horrible a bit lately... just wish I could make Bad Horse as a Villain. Don't you dare say neigh, or I'll make you my mare.... See y'all soon, and 15+ years ago, simultaneously.

Start about page 10 of the Tank Gods... Look for @Werner and several others who share some tips on really amazing builds for tankers not just capable of an AV or a GM, but soloing an ITF, at max difficulty, with enemies buffed extra, players debuffed, etc.

Look up Heraclea 2.0, I think the second page. I followed 95% of it, and am amazed at how durable the build is.

I am game! Having a plan in advance makes me more likely to make it. Friday night through Sunday are flexible. It’s not like we are going out...

An hourglass?

Likely Bonesmasher and Energy Transfer? Look over the issue 27 patch notes. Energy melee is strong again, but different.

No joke! I picked up my L20 at 22, my L10 at 24, and then had to decide on Aim or Bitter Freeze Ray at 26. Delayed choices aren’t any easier.

I will admit I was chatting with my friends more than reading the script. there did seem to be moments of.... “Huh.... I don’t quite get that...” but we moved on. I expect I will run it again, but I will pay attention.

We spanked it earlier today. I was sidekicked up on a low teens toon, only one or two of our six members were on level with no exemped 50’s and so on. I believe we ran at +2/x8. Yeah, challenging, but not horrid for us. was this at a high difficulty level, running solo?

I have received orders that I will not be on tonight.

Some TFs seem to give crazy fast merits. I did one of the Shards TFs... most of team was Incarnates, not ratcheted up crazy. We had ATT, did great communication and finished in a little over 2 hours. I think we received 20 merits. I have zero interest in the $hart missions other than playing with friends. I would help a friend, if I really needed to. Past that, too much fed ex, waaaay too many 1.0 to 2.0+ mile flights for no discernible purpose other than ‘this zone is big, yo... respect!’ Add in missions that are bugged (AV won’t appear), and I think that I would flush Shard and fight to bring back GC as an upgrade.

Outside chance I will be on in a bit, but.... On the upside, I busted some tail today in the am and made some serious progress. I realized I was moving crazy and just let my son play C0ld for ‘a bit’ and he seems to remember how to play. Definitely ready for Synapse...

I was double and triple slotting my DO’s and it was still rough! I went from 12 to 18 without any extra XP, but I definitely want to get to 20 before Synapse.

Never underestimate Air Superiority for soft control. I have run two different Blappers to 50, one way back. Anytime I respec’d out of AS before the 40’s, I regretted it.

Isn’t that a Scrapper? Melee focused Assault primary, defensive secondary? I may be missing the nuance of your suggestion, and I would love to hear it.

More than 3 of any one generic SO or IO has significantly diminished returns. It is called Enhancement Diversification (ED), and it limits how much juice you can squeeze out of a power by just throwing more than 3 slots at it. This is where IO Enhancement Set bonuses begin to come in, and later where Incarnate powers can adjust the ED limits once you are L50 and beyond. L50 heroes get Veteran levels that help them create Incarnate powers or bonuses or ED recalculations.

Two things to consider, as mentioned: 1) The force multiplier aspect. When you look at the secondary effects of the Controller powers, consider how that makes a tanker, scrapper, or blaster more effective or safer, then leverage your choices to augment that number for recharge or effect. Dropping an AoE slow that is close to90% speed reduction is great, but adding in -def or -to hit? Make your friends (and you...) far less hittable, get hit less frequently, or make your attacks more powerful. As a controller, you are not bringing a lot of damage to the team until late 20’s or mid 30’s at the earliest, but the debuffs matter. 2) Mind and Ice (sorry, Ice) are not the go-to for Controller team buffs. Earth is amazing for lockdown, and a secondary like storm or Sonic (Storm is chaotic fun,Sonic is safely melting) augments the debuffage more than Mind. I played a Mind/FF troller ages ago, and loved it, but it wasn’t necessarily a regular lockdown troller style. while you might consider a different primary, but also knowing that controllers don’t mature, often until their 30’s, may give some perspective. Controller is the AT that I most often get stalled somewhere around L22-L27, where the good stuff feels so far away. Then, I somehow gut through to 32, or 35, and the path onwards is crazy easy/fun/powerful. I have trollers at 50, 50, 50, a 39 (next!), then 28, 25, 23, 22.... YMMV.

Re: Tanker ‘stealth’ I was running my incarnate SR/Claws Tanker with a mixed team on a TF, and we were hitting a time crunch on a TF. The general lamentation of ‘nobody can stealth to the end and assemble...’ I did a quick check and realized I had the ATT power, so I volunteered to go ahead and TP somewhere close. I also reminded our one Future Frostfire Story (FFS for short) member not to follow me and I forged ahead, using Reveal to pick a path to each level. I think I had to go up at least 4 levels, and several of the maps were huge. We were at +4/x8, and I was able to ATT the six standing members - and FFS’s body - about one room from the end. It saved us probably 20 minutes. I seldom use that technique, but I was a bit tickled to see how effective it was to just roll through everything to find a quiet elevator area to do my thing.

I was part of Bob’s team, rolled a Cold/Dev Blaster. Man, we were running the stop a gang fight mish with about 5 of us. It was a touch and go as I recall. The many ‘convenience buffs’ that I use normally, tbh, also reduce some of the excitement I remember having at low levels. I won’t be swearing off them all the time, but this exercise has reminded me just how much teamwork and knowing how to leverage both my powers, and my teammates, really mattered. I could drop Caltrops, and for small spawns they’d last almost twice as long as needed. The tank realized we still had access to the Caltrops for slow, fear, protection, so she would pull a second group into the ‘trops while it could help us, and it could help our corner pulls and AoE work. I won’t run this as my only toon, but with a similar team? MUCH fun!