Triumphant

OMG! That's perfect. I can totally envision that scenario! 🤣

I like beam rifle. It looks and sounds just like what I would expect a beam rifle to look and sound like. Also, it's highly effective. Having said that, there are probably plenty of people that share your veiwpoint. Neither of us are wrong. Both of us are right, because that is our actual experience in using the powerset. I have a similar dislike (well, my reasons for disliking it are different than your reasons for disliking beam rifle, but still) for bio armor. Bio armor is widely (and correctly) touted as being a great armor set. But I don't like the look of it (though that is much improved with minimal effect settings) and I find it even more fiddly and clicky to use than rad armor, which is sort of at the outside limits of what I can handle with an armor set (though I'm levelling a regen armor character now, and trying to overcome this deficiency, because I really love the idea of the set). Point is, it's totally okay for people to hate the things I like or vise-versa. This game has a little something for all tastes. Keep trying AT's and powersets, eventually you're bound to find something that's perfect (or near perfect) for you play style and preferences (probably, you have your favorties already. Some of these might be sets that are not thought of as being more popular power sets. I know that I love Street Justice with a passion that is proportionately disparate from it's actual level of combat performance, for example. But the reason I love it is not because it's the highest DPS combat set, but because the look and feel of the animations perfectly emulate the thing that it is trying to emulate. Any and all of the above is okay, of course. This game caters to all comic-booky tastes. That's part of what's so great about it. 😎

My favorite is Arachnos in terms of both visual appeal and as challenging foes throughout the levelling process. After that, probably IDF.

This is actually interesting to me: Not so much as a challenge, but because I never considered trying to build a character and ignoring most of the attacks from your main powerset. It could be an interesting, challenging, and (who knows?) even fun way to approach the game by trying to make a viable character that relies more on pool powers and epics. LOL. Okay, I see what you did there. 🤭 What are you, some kind of sadist? 😝

I think the ones that I find most irritating are the illusionists and master illusionists. You have to hit them before they phase out or else wait until they phase back in to dmg them. Also, they're summoning those stupid, irritating phantom dudes that are basically unhittable and also (hatefully) stick around well after you've killed the illusionist. Extremely annoying. Those are probably my most hated enemy so far as mobs are concerned.

I am no build expert, by any means, but I do play a lot of Brutes (among my favorite AT's). Brutes can get very good resistance, but you aren't going to get as high as a Tank. Being the immovable object is the Tanks signature feature. But Brutes can be quite tough, yes. My own EM/INV brute looks like this before activating T4 Barrier: Smashing/Lethal: 90% Fire/Cold: 69.87% energy/negative energy: 53.37% Psionic: 31.72% Toxic: 37.62% When I fire my T4, this shoots up to 90% in everything for a few seconds, before gradually falling to just about 10% above the usual resistance values, until the power triggers again (I have it set to auto-fire) after the 2 minutes expire. I imagine there are others (hyperstrike among them- sorry to hear they are feeling unwell these days, btw) who can do a much better job of building than I do, but the point is you can make a Brute easily tough enough to run a PUG (or even solo, for the most part) +4/8 content.

I had originally sort of glossed over this bit of the topic and hadn't bothered with watching the posted video (which, to be fair, actually was pretty humorous). I assumed it would simply be more spiteful criticism of poor plot/writing in Star Wars. These sorts of complaints always make me groan, because frankly, Star Wars has never mainly been about top quality storytelling or peerless acting (Irving Kirshner, Alec Guiness and James Earl Jones not withstanding). Star Wars (granted, this is merely my opinion- feel free to disagree. Many do) is about a modern take on old pulp adventure sci-fi serials, which famously used over-the-top action, melodrama, and somewhat two-dimensional, black and white good guys and bad guys to awaken the spirit of adventure in 12 year old boys who were typically the target audience of such entertainment. Star Wars (to me, anyway), is a modern take on this old form of entertainment, and is meant to appeal to both the 12 year old boy (or girl, sure- why not? Women can enjoy tales of high adventure as much as any of us) and also to awaken the 12 year old boy (or girl) in all of us jaded old adults. To give us that sense of wonder, excitement, and fun that our own imaginations could conjure up when we were children, but which has (perhaps) atrophied a bit in our more mature years. If you want to REALLY dial in on things like writing and acting in Star Wars, then you can do that- sure. That's already been proven in real time by the Disney series Andor. But while I aknowledge that Andor is brilliant science fantasy, it doesn't really feel like Star Wars to me anymore. It departs from the formula to produce something that is a piece of artistic genius on all fronts, but that's not (again, IMO) what Star Wars is about, or what I'm looking for when I read a story or comic, or view a film or TV series set in the Star Wars universe. I want to awaken the 12 year old boy in this tired, cynical, jaded old 54 yrs-aged body and mind, living a very hard life (not trying to piss in anyones ear about it, but thems just plain facts, folks), in a very difficult time for citizens in these United States of America (and also, the planet Earth generally). These days, It's less about want and more about NEED to escape from that grim reality for a little while, to let the wonder of that 12 year old boy fly free and lose myself in another world, just so I don't completely lose what fragile portion of my sanity remains and succumb to a complete mental breakdown. 🤪

Loved the dude in Game of Thrones. A bit hard for me to imagine him as Baylan, just because the personalities of the two characters are so different. Going to be a hard sell for me, whoever plays the role, but I'll certainly give the man a fair shake, given the quality of his acting. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best. 👍

I think of melee ATs (excepting Tankers, perhaps) primarily as single target DPS with a bit of AOE tossed in there. If you REALLY want to get down and dirty with AOEs, I think you probably want a ranged character. Having said that, I love playing Brutes and I've had good results with Savage Melee and Titan Weapon. Also, remember some armor sets have "set and forget" damage toggles like fire and radiation armor. On melee toons, I tend to look at AOEs as tools for either softening up targets for single target DPS attacks or finishing off weakened foes. Maybe you can't find powers that really feel like the concept you're imagining? (damage/effects-wise, I mean). If you want like a super-powerful melee AOE, you're looking at waiting until incarnate to take Mighty judgement power and build it out up to T4. That thing really gives you the "HULK SMASH!" feel.

*Meh. Posted in wrong topic. I clearly need to go to bed* 🤪

You have to look at debuff resistance, too. I haven't tried ninjitsu, so I don't know what it maxes out at. SR maxes out at like 90 or 95% debuff resistance, I think. EDIT: Defense debuff resistance specifically, I mean.

This person needs @Hyperstrike. Help them, Hyperstrike Kenobi, you're their only hope. 🙏

Not against it. Having said that, I"m more interested in expanding the story with new villains/threats to paragon city and/or the planet Earth.

My feeling is that this is by design. It's what I want out of the AT (similar to what I want out of the Sentinel- my second favorite AT, after Brutes). So, for me, this is not a disadvantage. This is a subjective opinion. I don't find it any more (or less) boring than any other inherent. Brutes have become my most played (and favorite AT), even overtaking Sentinels, which used to be my #1. Both ATs have many detractors. I do feel there was once some justification for this, but the developer tweaks have really addressed those issues for me. I'm very happy with where both ATs are at this point and time. Just one Brute player's opinion. 🤷‍♂️

Don't play VEATS, so I have no useful advice there. I do play things like Controllers sometimes (very squishy), and it's just part and parcel of playing an AT designed to be part of a team in a game that was concieved as a team-oriented experience. If you want to play those kind of ATs solo, you suck it up (i.e. die a lot) until you get enough practice and figure out strategies to deal with the handicap. Eventually, you hit a high enough level and get enough enhancements that you can solo just fine, even with a squishy AT. Playing this way requires one essential quality: Patience. I don't think there is a way aroud this. Otherwise, you have to play on teams (which, is as intended). Again, the caveat here is that I don't play VEATS, so I don't know if any of the above even applies to your situation.