TygerDarkstorm

While I mentioned my Ninja/Nature MM initially, I actually copied my Ninja/Cold MM over to the beta. This character was only level 26 upon port, and slotted with a mix of IO's and SO's. That character had been idling on Dean MacArthur's chain in Sharkhead, so I decided to continue it on beta. The Good: Watching the crits fly is great; it wasn't widely known, but ninjas are technically have the highest single target damage, the crits will only add to that. Smoke Flash is fun to use now. I had it anyway for shiggles I think, but now I can actually see it truly being effective, especially now that it affects all of the henchmen. Train Ninja now puts the genin and jounin into the ninja run stance and gives them stealth, which looks super cool to go with the changes mentioned in the OP. The Bad: Maybe this is just player error, or because I am lacking the second upgrade, but they are still quite squishy in this level range (26-27). I am only playing at +0/x2 and I think I will have to turn the diff back down to +0/x1. I even added freebie IO's to try and help out things like Arctic Fog, Maneuvers and the shields to provide more def/res and I'm still faceplanting on even level content. They only seem to be able to handle one target at a time, so if you as the MM aggro anything more than that, you're the one taking damage, and even in bodyguard mode, I don't have enough ways to shake the mobs, and using Attack my Target breaks bodyguard mode. I will be interested to see what kind of a difference the final upgrade power makes (currently says Kuji-in Zen on powers tab in beta instead of the new Kuji-in Sha; haven't tried a respec yet, or hit level 28, to see if that name will change on its own to the new one). I also hope that those with better skill than myself will test these changes and report what kinds of results they get with them.

Okay, so far, I am in *love* with these mercs changes. I copied a bunch of my live characters over to beta as I had some that I wanted to specifically test. Now, with my Mercs/Traps MM, I have been trying to solo the Black Scorpion patron arc and have been failing miserably. I'm playing at +0/x4 and no matter how carefully I tried to set up all my tricks and traps and haul the crey to their doom, I failed miserably. My mercs couldn't do enough damage, I couldn't do enough to keep them alive... It was a mess. So, my first test was to test the toon exactly as she is in Live. So even without a respec into things like Serum or loading her up with some freebie enhancements (she's underslotted atm on live), I made it through the first wave that's right at the door entrance in the Attack Crey Lab mish. I'm not even sure I can put into the right words how much more improved the experience was that I wasn't running out the mish door nearly dead because I couldn't summon and buff fast enough to stay alive. I left them at these settings for a few spawns to keep getting a feel for it, started losing some mercs, but no catastrophic failures. After clearing the first floor I decided to respec the toon and provide it with enhancements. No sets or anything, just basic IO's like I do for my toons on live. Again, another marked improvement. Wow... I now properly feel as if mercenaries can properly contend with the other front runners of MM henchmen. Granted, I cannot tell just yet how much my personal attacks are aiding, but I went from feeling like I was going to delete this toon to now being very excited to play her and feel almost as powerful as my Ill/Traps controller does. Now when I leave shellcasings everywhere, they come with a side of actually arresting enemies. 😛

You must have posted right before I edited my post. 😉

Was this an intended side effect of the new power pick changes? I went to respec my Mercs/Traps MM on beta and now I don't even have the option to pick anything from my primary as my first pick? o_O Edit: It helps if I actually go through the respec process: The first pick at level "0" is from the secondary, and my second pick was also at level "0" where I chose my desired primary. Then it continued as normal.

Well now, this ought to make the Ninja/Nature MM I have running through Praetoria a whole heck of a lot more interesting to play. I have so many things I want to try out for this new page! 🤣

Fire Melee was actually pretty bottom of the barrel; despite being a fire power, it didn't have the oomph that things like Fire Blast do.

Think you might be in the wrong thread, mate. This is for Illusion Doms, lol Edit: Nope, it's me in the wrong thread. Ignore me. >_>

I pretty much only play on Everlasting, but thank you. 🙂 I love terrible and cheesy puns of all types, so I'm sure you'll see Mad Cow Disease and Bull Pucky around as my terribly-named bovine contributions. 😛

omg this is brilliant and I'm jealous I didn't think of it. 🤣

I am not the OP of the thread, so not the one asking, but thank you for having a much more kind, and level headed reply. You say FUBARczar means well, but his responses have been nothing but condescending for people with different viewpoints. And before he decides to snipe me again and call me a clown: I completely respect and am in awe of what you bring to this game and its players. There are always going to be folks who want to play at the level you do, and it's great that you're here to help people out for that. I had written off /Dark as a good secondary for dominators because that had been the previous consensus until you came through and showed us that it can be quite good. I just happen to be a different type of player--I'm more interested in concept, not optimization and FOTM when it comes to having fun (for me, not saying that applies for everyone). All I meant in my comment is that it is good to have options and multiple viewpoints in these kinds of threads because, unless they specifically mention they're looking for like a 4* HM character, we don't know what their skill level is, or what they desire to achieve with their toon. Even a blaster on a casual player like me can solo to 50 if they're careful about content selection and don't push their difficulty settings way up.

I, for one, appreciate these sorts of distinctions. While I respect Voltak's opinions, he plays at a level that is not necessarily obtainable and/or desirable for some of us players. Sometimes asking for an AT that can solo its way to 50 doesn't mean being able to run at +4/x8 and solo AV's/GM's or whatever. Sometimes it just means being able to get through the content from 1-50 without teaming, for which a Sentinel is capable of doing, and a decent option for average/casual players like myself. As Sovera said, it doesn't make Voltak's advice bad or anything, but his advice caters to a subset of players that must be considered when reading his posts. 🙂 He is absolutely the person I would turn to if I ever felt like optimizing a hard mode character and developing elite gaming skills. Part of what makes these threads interesting is the mix of response types it brings, making both Voltak's and Sovera's opinions valuable because they cover different things for different players who might be lurking here and reading out of curiosity. 🙂

Hopefully it might provide some of the answers you're looking for. I have a Thugs/Sonic MM myself, but she's still sitting at the low levels, but it should be a nifty combo. 🙂

Energy Harness v.1 - Gravity/Sonic Controller. Though my headcanon is that her sonic powers aren't from actually screeching at things so much as an extension of how her gravity powers come from harnessing the energy of the Earth. Forest Tree - Nature/Sonic Defender.

There's a thread about this combo here:

Pardon the tangent, but how do you go about this? My tanks are still pretty low level, but I take taunt on all my tankers and have wondered if I should be slotting it.

Honestly, I'm in the same boat on this one. And using this function is just stupid easy with the Sandolphan keybinds (I hit the Numpad's 0 (only have to do that one once), then hit 7 any time I want them to attack my target. Keep in mind though that the Attack my Target function takes henchmen out of bodyguard mode, which is why there are benefits to not using it as well. Edit: Sorry, this last statement was said to everyone in general and not directed at you specifically, Rudra.

I have not written creatively in years (I'm not really counting the little blurbs that make up some of my characters' bios), but you have such a captivating style that I about found myself running for my pen and paper hoping I could capture people in a similar manner. Though you may have inspired me to at least write some of the stories I've had in my head for my characters down finally, even if it is just for myself. I kind of love that you just write and develop the characters as it comes to you (I've let imposter syndrome and "advice" on the net overrun my desire to just write more than once because I wasn't writing the "right" way). I look forward to following along more with your characters as their stories move along both in game and you update them here. 🙂 And thank you for the inspiration.

Wish I could get people to stay dead long enough on my Rad's to let me use Fallout lol. Ended up dropping it on my plant/rad troller because I wanted to do other things with her build that still fit her thematically, and Mutation to follow up Fallout was not one of them. Along with not thinking about taking TP Target to port dead folks around so I can make them boom into a spawn. If I can get people to stay dead, I think you lot just gave me some new fun for a different Rad character lol.

I um, honestly don't know, lol.

I finally found a use for that aura! I have wanted to use it so bad and I ended up slapping a faint version of it on my Battle Axe/Nin Scrapper and have reasoned that she has it because she's working for my mad scientist Dr. Elaina Wrath, and Elaina used her science to enhance my scrapper's natural abilities, and thus, the faint aura of "science," lol. In regards to the actual topic: I generally go for concept or backstory before anything, and some of those just happen to coincide with "meta" type combos, but even so, I am not a min/max type of player. I left that type of community in WoW because I'm just not a fan of that type of playstyle, and because the reality is, I'm an average player at best, and I'm okay with that. I'm playing games to have my version of fun and escape reality for a bit. And like many others here, my most fun characters are often the ones where a solid concept has slid into place and I have headcanons for them as I play them. Like, I'ma end up rolling a Nature/Sonic defender, but only because I thought of a funny concept for it that I want to play around with, not because I'll ever use it in hardmode. Even my characters' epic pools and incarnates are catered as much as possible to their concepts. I'm grateful to have a game like this where things like character concept and fun can be "king."

The level of talent exhibited by the playerbase here is just amazing. Y'all are something special coming up with such inventive costume ideas I could never think of in a million years. 😄

Sorry, you are correct, I strayed away from the title/OG thread question. I just saw the PB post and wanted to be silly, lol. But yeah, a do it all AT? Oof, can't say I have any real good suggestions for that, though I think an MM could cover a large majority of stuff.

I hope you guys stay safe and your homes and such survive the hurricane. ❤️ Best wishes to you. Have a cousin stationed in Florida for the Air Force, so we've been checking in with them too to see if they're okay. Don't think they've had to evacuate yet.

@Mystic Fortune I have a Psy/Fire Sent that I got to 50 and agree with what Player 2 said. Granted, I didn't do much soloing with her as I tend to prefer doing team stuff. It's definitely a squishier armor set, but fun can certainly be had with it.

Sorry mate, I would but I am definitely not going to be able to run any TT's in October. School is just too crazy this semester, and I'm trying to make sure this is my final semester so I can graduate in December. Good luck to you all this next month!