Jiro Ito

This can be blazed through pretty quickly, you don't even need to stop for Ambrosia if you bring the right powersets. I feel like the merits are right, considering. Pick the enhancement roll, it can be pretty valuable if you sell it or use to combine with other HOs and Dysncs. If you run as WST, you get the enhancement and the bonus merits.

Are there plans for Blood of the Black Stream/Gadzul Oil/ancient Egypt stuff?

I've run hard mode content stuff with all-tank teams, all-blaster, all-corrupter, and all-defender. Tank is funny, safe, slow. Blasters are a capital-G-Grind. Corrupters and Defenders tied for the best as they are fast, safe, and fun. Soloing, I usually choose a blaster or scrapper, but in hard team content, corrupters and defenders are always the best because they make everyone else on the team better. Best makeups are 1 of everything. I love my fire/kin corrupter and dark/ice defender the most, but stay flexible to fill whatever need the team has. Deaths? A defender's power boosted Vengeance gives 65% boost to all defense. Last longer than Barrier!

I like reading posts about "combine the shards so there will be more players," and then reading these posts about the goings-on on the more-player shards.

I guess we interpreted the thread title "Hard" differently; I know controllers are safe, but at some point you have to defeat an enemy or two =P

You mentioned Sirocco, does this mean the Live plans to have Manticore fall to true vigilante are also going to be scrapped? The AMA info sounded interesting, with him hooking up with Countess Crey after Psyche's death.

I would think it would be something like an ice/sonic controller. At least defenders get a blast set.

There is lots of PvE content but the world you're in is always PvP and any other player can attack you. It heightens the risk of everything you do, which is interesting, but it is a world of pirates after all. Plays much better with friends 🙂

Yes blue side has more giant monsters, but most of them don't spawn in the "regular" city zones, it's mostly in the hazard zones. Lusca is the only one I can think of, aside from spawning Kronos or Babbage during a TF, and depending on if you consider Croatoa a hazard zone or a regular zone. Anyway, point being, not all Rogue Isles cities make sense for a giant monster. But maybe there are some other opportunities? What about the Jade Spider in Siren's Call? Could be defeated by either side (or coop, except for the splash damage *evil laugh*). Maybe Jurassik could show up in The Abyss, or Monster Island?

The best way I've found to get around this is to use the Boss Attack (I think that's what it's called) text, so they don't start ranting until the fight actually starts. At least then I know the player is close.

I always thought the game needed a taunt set that also did damage, with substantial end reduction for taunt toggles. Bonus points if the proc doubled the agro cap!

Hero 1 got a faaaabulousss sword update in the new release with lots of rainbows and shiny (although it also graphically disappears sometimes during the fight), but isn't Ms. Liberty also holding "Excalibur?" Is prime dimension Excalibur just a tiny tanto-sized sword? Does it magically transform in the right hands? Does she need an update? She'll probably have to wear it on her back, as Hero 1's version would drag on the ground if she wears it on her belt.

The "player note" feature is super helpful. +4 Mo run is lolz. I would have left as well. I once joined what was advertised as an all-archery speed ITF, only for leader to surprise us all with +4, 1-star settings as well. The team was all corrupters and defenders with either archery, trick arrow, or both, and I believe 1 archery blaster. We gave up on the 2nd mission. If you're running with your usual group of friendly hooligans, you can get by without detailing every step, but PuGs need some communication to work. Communication not being the same as micromanagement.

Favorites! Mighty Judgement Ghost Widow's Patron Soul Storm Least Favorite? Fire blast's snipe animation

I use the base crafted buffs all the time, and jetpacks all the time. Whenever I get temporary ally summoning powers, I use them vs AVs (rarely are they actually useful but they increase the drama for me), but I usually don't seek them out. Shivans are my favorite but I don't often make time to go get them. My favorite temp powers are the Warburg rockets, but getting those scientists to follow you is such a nightmare. A lot of the weapons are fun to have, busting out a bow and arrow or a minigun at random, etc. They all add lots of fun flavor to the game, and let one feel a little less boxed in by their powersets. They were all a nice breath of fresh air on my badge toon, since I spend a lot of time playing that one. Now I have a machine gun! Ho! Ho! Ho!

I don't run the game sound at all. I just can't listen to Hasten spinning up anymore. I have music playing on another app. The only exception is if I need to find a blinky.

Incarnates don't cost any inf at all. You can only craft them from drops your character gets. At most, you can email Emp Merits to alts on the same account. Inf does nothing for incarnates. I can't imagine spending billions of inf on a character; I never spend any inf at all. Just playing the game gets me so many recipe drops and merits than I can turn into converters to turn those recipes into ones I can use; I never spend anything. It sounds like maybe you should look through the many guides to marketing and crafting to see how you might improve your game experience. They were very helpful to me when I came back to the game!

The closest I can think of is a water/stone/fire Sentinel, and pretend my travel pool (jump/speed/fly) was air-powered. If you allow ice to substitute for water, it opens up something for just about every AT. Earth/storm/fire/air travel controller is actually something I've played before, and was quite fun. Bonus for using Sorcery's Enflame on Rocky.

That's kind of what I was thinking, defense will only get you so far as even the most cross-eyed enemy is going to have 5% chance to hit, plus the streakbreaker (right?), plus hard mode enemies with tactics, so in lieu of superfluous defense, have some regen/res/absorb or, ya know, good ol fashioned healing. I still get the shakes when I think about Rom's auto hit, unresistable special damage. I was thinking specific to the hard mode content, I apologize for not being more clear.

Ha this is crazy enough to be intriguing! Mobs will always have at least a 5% chance to hit, and all the stacked tactics from hardmode enemies will improve their chance to hit, and also improves as they approval level 54+1. Romulus has several auto-hit attacks of unresistable special damage. All that is to say, even if your defense was always 200%, you'll still be taking hits on a hardmode TF, especially at 4 star, and should bring friends with buffs and debuffs. Question - what enemies have slow debuffs, that you're adding them into your build? I don't recall seeing them in Aeon or ITF. The only place I can remember getting into trouble with those is the winter event.

The Terminator badge is for 1000 civilians in Mayhem missions, might as well work on both at the same time. I did the level 50 one set to -1/8 and used Ion Judgement to my heart's content.

Support, good sir.

The villain equivalent is Force of Nature, earned through getting all the badges for Mayhem Mission side quests. While we're here, for more monstrous Croatoan content, may I suggest AE arc "The Headless Huntsman of Salamanca" #43870? 😉

I don't feel like there's just one right answer, because the variety in the ones I enjoy is what makes them enjoyable. Love Aeon LRSF (personal preference is to run the original version with Malaise and Statesman through Ouro) MsLTF Eden ITF Tempe of the Waters Market Crash CoP Drowning in Blood Summer Blockbuster Like TinPex Sutter (the bugs on the last fight that have caused my teams to have to abandon this from time to time drop it down here) KHTF (give us a Red Cap AV to fight at the end!) Yin Kahn Lady Grey Do not enjoy, only did them once to get the badge Poor Synapse Poor Citadel The Shadow Shard TFs. I really want to love the Shadow Shard (even wrote an AE arc about the challenges they're facing there) but the TFs are just too long We've gotten so much content since some of these older ones were written, I feel like they could be updated for today's game, with the original versions available in Ouro.

Not weird, throw water on hot oil and see what happens! ...just kidding, don't do that...