ZemX

This. Probably Level 18 or 19. It does not show on the combat monitor. Here is a Level 7 I have:

15. When someone asks for 10 rules, definitely go all the way to 15 at least. Probably more.

Neither Safeguards or Mayhems are run very often so it's more of a red vs. blue thing if you're having more trouble forming a Mayhem. Most radio/paper teams will skip them whenever they come up so they can keep processing random missions.

I've only run mine with the group so far, so I was assuming the plan is still Talos bank + Synapse... but I can do whatever.

It is not terribly important unless you are interested in really accurately calculating how much damage per second you are doing with a sequence of attack powers and making sure this is an "optimal" sequence. Min/Maxers who want to be sure they are doing the most damage possible care greatly about this but most can ignore it. This is otherwise a pretty relaxed game and game community. If you just want to run around using whatever powers seem cool to you whenever they are available... you'll do just fine.

Been awhile since I played a NB stalker but I recall having a similar problem with Assassin Staff before the redraw changes. It would happen whenever I used AS without first drawing the weapon some other way. e.g. Build-Up + AS would always work because BU would draw and AS would animate correctly. But just AS from Hide would get messed up. Wonder if that's crept back in. Haven't noticed it and I've definitely played my Staff Stalker since the redraw changes.

The VTM video games were good for this sort of thing. You had all sorts of vampire powers and claws and stuff... but also automatic weapons, grenade launchers, swords, baseball bats... really anything.

Vampires are easy. Just go with a... *checks notes*... ah yes, Savage Melee Dark SS Mind Psy Necromancy Invuln Dark Armor Dark Miasma Dark Affinity TankerBruteStalkerControllerDomMM. Oh yeah.. with Sorcery pool... duh!

Sure seems like a bug. If you open the tailor on any costume and it's already showing a cost... that's a bug. It should only cost you to change something and if you've touched nothing yet, there should be no cost. If an option is removed, like No Redraw, and you had that selected, then it should have already been changed offline by the patch. It should not show up as a change in the costume creator. If you try to import a saved costume that has No Redraw selected, I'd expect to get that message "some options not available, do you want to try importing anyway?" If you do see a cost immediately upon entering the tailor screen, try going to the individual costume parts that show a cost and hit "revert" arrow next to it to see if the cost goes away. I've seen that before and it's worked for me. But it might not on a costume piece that no longer CAN be customized. Might have to file a ticket.

Not sure I've tried soloing it to be honest. I suppose it's possible it scales down the number of New Praetorians you face based on the team size but I can't think of any other mission that does that with named NPC enemies like that. On a full team, it's a heck of a challenge compared to its blue counterpart.

You're kidding, right? Mr. G's second mission has you fight five EBs/AVs from the New Praetorians at once while being ambushed by PPD after robbing the Brickstown bank. The similar mission from Provost Marchand gives you four B-List villain EBs (same losers you fight in Safeguard missions) you can fight one at a time with their associated goons while working your way through the bank, It's a total joke by comparison. I'll give you Calvin Scott is a problem for anyone who can't handle his mines but he's nothing close to fighting ALL the New Praetorians at once while being ambushed repeatedly.

None of the rank-and-file Arachnos I'm aware of do any -RES at all and I've never noticed any res debuffing myself. I most often play Rad Armor Tankers, so I'd notice. Arachnos does defense, endurance, recovery, and perception debuffing that I'm aware of. The AVs might do more, but ordinary adds? No. Serafina also does not debuff Resistance. The red con EB is a clue something is wrong there. Like I said, should have been yellow or orange at -1 notoriety. Unless this arc has some special exception for the level of the EB here. Are you entirely sure you didn't have AVs turned on and were actually trying to solo her as an AV? Not sure what else would explain it. Even as an AV, she'd have to be level 50 at least to be reaching numbers like 1400 damage for Psychic Wail.

Not overtuned. Broken. Nothing you said in your post should be possible for a mid-upper-30s EB (or even a level 50 EB) at -1 notoriety vs. your at-least 26% psi res. There is absolutely no way short of a bug she can be hitting you for 1400.

At first I was confused by this because Rad's T2 and KM's T3 are almost identical in cast, recharge, and damage dealt. Then I noticed this total weirdness about Smashing Blow: The "Animation Time Before Effect" is actually slightly LONGER than the animation time of the power. Not longer than the ArcanaTime, that is, but ArcanaTime just governs when the next attack can begin. The actual animation you SEE ends after 1.2 seconds. Then the attack effects are applied which is when the target actually takes the damage. I looked around at a few different sets looking for a power that did the same sort of thing and didn't find any. They might exist, but this seems particularly weird. Several other KM attacks have similarly late effect landing times compared to the animation window but none actually land AFTER the animation like this one.

Now I'm imagining an entire team of mimes just waving their hands at the enemy. Dual Finger Pistols. Invisible Wall Armor.

Yeah, not saying it was the same situation but point is: that thinking exists that a Tanker on a team should just be a wall. Might be they had attacks for soloing or farming but believed on a team their role should be all defensive. I dunno. Could even be an attitude that comes from more rigorously Tank/Heal/DPS games than this one. Funny part is, a Tanker taunts whatever they hit so laying about you with all your attacks on TOP of taunting and taunt aura is the best way to get and keep aggro for a team. If you have a big epic AoE for example, that sucker is a ranged AoE taunt on a Tanker. There are Tankers who even don't take Taunt (the power) because of all those other ways to taunt. I am not one of them, but it's a way... and it certainly makes a lot more sense than just standing around tossing out that one Taunt power.

Ordinarily, I am suspicious that at least some of the train wreck stuff that happens on streams like this is somewhat staged but the bit about the tank, I have actually seen. Once ran into an Ice/Ice Tanker that called himself a "pure" tank because the only attack he took, because he was forced to, he didn't use. Dude would just hover in the middle of a fight with all his toggles on, occasionally throwing out a taunt but often enough just... being. It looked quite relaxing. The other part I believe is that many farms are specifically designed to avoid "troublesome" debuffs like defense and endurance, so farm builds don't even need to worry about them. Wouldn't be a bit surprised if those tankers were being detoggled by endurance loss vs. Freaks in some of those missions.

The best thing about PuGs is the worst thing about PuGs.

"Kraken here $loc" works without the copy/paste step needed. As for the rest, yeah, someone always starts in eventually. If someone is very loud about forming a team and telling people to message them for a spot on it, you might have a bit more order, but the longer that goes on, the greater the chance someone won't be able to keep a cork in it. Or someone will just accidentally aggro the Kraken because they aren't careful arriving in the area. And once Kraken tags someone, it's on...

I can honestly say that's never happened to me. Not the "constantly" part at least. Also, one couldn't just float in front of my character. I am in 3P camera so they'd have to be some distance behind me and always moving with me. It just never happens more than coincidentally and in a blue cave or Oranbega map having camera obscured is a constant and random occurrence throughout the map. Not just with players but with geometry and with enemies. That's to say nothing of all the particle effects from everything. I deal with it by moving. Sometimes in an absolutely choked Oranbega hallway I will just TP my tanker into the middle of a pack blind and just start rattling off attacks on whatever target is nearest in front of me. Often I can't even see them. Ultimately, if someone in the team is somehow annoying me with something they are doing, I am more likely to move on politely after a mission than bother attempting to get them to do things more to my liking. I wouldn't want someone else thinking they know better how I should play so I don't "do unto others" in that respect either. Even when I'm right. 😈

You perhaps haven't read the whole thread. They've already said they could have turned off particle effects but believe they shouldn't have to because somehow it's "selfish" when other people don't agree to accommodate their needs. The purpose of this thread is presumably to poll the rest of us about whether we think that's reasonable or not. And I don't. If I'm the only one having a problem and I have a way to resolve it that affects nobody but me... yes, I should do that. It is clearly the best solution for everybody. Demanding someone else change their gameplay to accommodate me when I clearly have another solution would be selfish on MY part. But it's also just a good idea to have a VFX macro handy. This is hardly the only situation where VFX can be overwhelming. It is a common occurrence. Having a macro or two to deal with it is good sense. Like turning off screen shake in the bowl at an MSR. The tools are there. Use em. You will find more than a few scenarios where they come in handy.

*turns off the police scanner* "Okay gang, we gotta rescue this next hostage from a gunpowder factory!"

Agree with @Sovera though I'd lean towards Rad/Rad rather than Spines. It will be more visually "plaguey" (if I can use that word) with Rad Armor's glowy/smoky aura layered on top with Rad Melee's Irradiated Ground patches being dropped every 5 seconds and your AoEs spreading "Contamination" effects as well. Normally, I think Rad Armor's VFX are kind of over the top and try to minimize their visibility with color choices, but in your case you'll want to showcase them. You might find Dark Radiation color customizations more suggestive of your plague concept. Best would be to spin up a 50 on test server and play with it to see what it looks like with all its powers turned on.

Counterpoint: Sky Splitter does both the knock up and slam down and then Innocuous Strikes stabs them repeatedly in the nethers while they are on the ground. Just sayin'