Heraclea

If I were in charge I'd fill the place full of giant monster dinosaurs.

This is a good idea, should I choose to spend that kind of money on the character. Her whole purpose is to work Synapse, Ouro Sister Psyche, Old Positron, and Citadel, mostly, for the merits. Most of those go to buy stuff wanted for other characters. This may also be an occasion to use some of the Catalysts that are collecting in the base. They don't improve the bonuses of ordinary set IOs but they make them available level wide. I must say that I do enjoy the character given her limitations. I've been running Synapses all week on her. She is a delight to play on Synapse. The endurance drain does not faze her because she is Regen. She is mostly indifferent to the type or position of incoming damage. Being fire/, she has all her AoEs by level 20. By contrast, my heavy duty scrapper (TW/WP), who is currently working through Dark Astoria arcs (because she can) is total agony to play on Synapse. Her attack chain is shite at level 20. Her set bonuses do not help her. As a scrapper she couldn't take Heightened Senses before 28 even if she wanted to. Not helping here. She is building conventionally towards defense sets. Again, no help on Synapse. I utterly understand that nerfs leave bad memories. I never had a Regen scrapper during their glory days, and rolled my i23 version of this character relatively late. It was more of an experiment to see what Fire Melee was like on a scrapper. To my surprise, the character found a niche and made herself useful as a merit farmer, even if she is subprime at endgame content. Fun, even, when you play knowing her limitations. So I remade her here.

I play tankers often. I view my role as providing an umbrella of protection for the team. If you decide you don't need it, no skin off my nose. I figure that players know their characters and what they can handle.

FWIW I made a wish list build for the character. I focused on regeneration first, then hit points, healing, recharge, and damage resistance last. Focusing on the set IOs my defense slotting characters don't really want --- Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Maiden Heaven: Level 50 Magic Scrapper Primary Power Set: Fiery Melee Secondary Power Set: Regeneration Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Concealment Power Pool: Teleportation Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Weapon Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Fire Sword (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (3) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance (3) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge (13) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (25) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (36) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 1: Fast Healing (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance (45) Preventive Medicine - Heal (45) Preventive Medicine - Chance for +Absorb Level 2: Reconstruction (A) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance (9) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Recharge (9) Doctored Wounds - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (45) Doctored Wounds - Recharge Level 4: Quick Recovery (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod (5) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge (5) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Accuracy (50) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance Level 6: Cremate (A) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage (7) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance (7) Touch of Death - Damage/Recharge (25) Touch of Death - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (36) Touch of Death - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (37) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 8: Fly (A) Flight Speed IO Level 10: Breath of Fire (A) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage (11) Annihilation - Damage/RechargeTime (11) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (40) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (42) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (42) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff Level 12: Build Up (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge (13) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance (43) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance (46) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 14: Dull Pain (A) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime (15) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime (15) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance (43) Preventive Medicine - Heal (46) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance Level 16: Integration (A) Miracle - Heal/Endurance (17) Miracle - Heal/Recharge (17) Miracle - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (43) Miracle - Heal Level 18: Fire Sword Circle (A) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage (19) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Endurance (19) Scirocco's Dervish - Damage/Recharge (21) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Recharge (21) Scirocco's Dervish - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (31) Scirocco's Dervish - Chance of Damage(Lethal) Level 20: Stealth (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 22: Air Superiority (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (23) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance (23) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge (40) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (40) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (42) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 24: Recall Friend (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 26: Incinerate (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (27) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance (27) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge (34) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (37) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (37) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 28: Instant Healing (A) Preventive Medicine - Heal (29) Preventive Medicine - Heal/Endurance (29) Preventive Medicine - Endurance/RechargeTime (39) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime (46) Preventive Medicine - Heal/RechargeTime/Endurance Level 30: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (31) Recharge Reduction IO (31) Recharge Reduction IO Level 32: Greater Fire Sword (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage (33) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance (33) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge (33) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (34) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (34) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 35: Caltrops (A) Pacing of the Turtle - Chance of -Recharge (36) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Slow (48) Pacing of the Turtle - Accuracy/Endurance (50) Pacing of the Turtle - Endurance/Recharge/Slow Level 38: Moment of Glory (A) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance (39) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP (39) Unbreakable Guard - RechargeTime/Resistance Level 41: Web Grenade (A) Accuracy IO Level 44: Resilience (A) Impervium Armor - Psionic Resistance Level 47: Exploding Shuriken (A) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage (48) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (48) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (50) Annihilation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime Level 49: Revive (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 1: Brawl (A) Accuracy IO Level 1: Critical Hit Level 1: Prestige Power Dash

If I do put sets into her, I will look for recharge, +HP, and healing for her. She also has Air Superiority for a bit of active control. Rather bored with building for defense, and again, as a regen, she starts from so low a base that the defense path would be very expensive.

I don't see an urgent need to remove them, though I don't pay much attention to them myself. I will run DFB on a new character, but that's just to get them to 12 and the invention tutorial for the free accuracy IO. They will slot level 15 IOs at that time, mostly accuracy for attacks and endurance reduction for toggles, with 3 endurance mods for Stamina, and leave the rest of the holes to be filled with any TO or DO drops they can use. My mains have most of the recipes memorized by now. What I don't do is to use anything that withers and dies for anything important.

I have two 50 tankers. Both of them slotted alpha for damage. They had no reason to slot it for anything else; they're both at the resist softcap for S/L and fairly good against other types, so the resistance alpha is not all that useful. Now, both of them do have Barrier, to serve as an extra trouble-bubble, and to give a further umbrella of protection to the team.

Regen doesn't have an aura, so I do have Stealth and Recall Friend. I probably can drop Invisibility since I have the Celebrity Stealth IO for Sprint. The character concept is committed to Fly. Again, I knew what I was in for when I made a Regen. This is not an endgame scrapper; my TW/WP heavy scrapper is for that. This character was made specifically for farming lower level TFs, Numina and below, for merits. She doesn't have any significant set bonuses; she buys them for my other characters. If she takes Tough and Weave now she won't have them for her chief purpose anyways. This is why I question their value specifically for her.

My fire/regen scrapper is nearing 50 without a plan or a real desire to get there. Once she hit 35 and could run all of the Freedom Phalanx TFs, she was 'done'. I had no real desire to turn her into an armored scrapper. No desire to trick her out with set bonuses: she makes merits that my other characters use, and slots their castoffs for their general effects rather than for bonuses. This week she's been farming the bejesus out of Synapse, because that's the sort of thing she's made for. And there's a metric shedload of XP there. So she's rounding the corner to 50 now without a plan. I usually consider Fighting pool a given for my melees, even though I dislike taking a useless and redundant attack to get into it. For this character, it seems to me that Tough and Weave would be lipstick on a pig. She's starting from a ground so low that the little bit of resistance and defense from them would not justify their endurance costs, and low endurance costs is one of the character's few advantages. I also have a heavy duty TW/WP scrapper who took and uses Tough and Weave, because they do her much more good. Convince me one way or another that I ought to use Fighting pool for her final power selections.

It is likely that I will take Tough and Weave on my second sentinel, who is pistols/rad and lives much closer to the action than my water/WP, who is completely ranged and has many tools to keep mobs at bay. For her I felt no need for it, except occasionally with War Wolves. I rather dislike Fighting pool, because it forces you to waste a power on a useless melee attack. I take it on melees but don't like it.

I have to do five hours of medical treatments several times a week. I got a notepad laptop so that I can play while that's running. Doesn't get fancy frame rates or graphics, but I can log in and solo a bit. I use my phone's net connection because the clinic WiFi has out of bounds and inappropriate opinions about what websites I shouldn't be reading and what games I shouldn't be playing.

I would not try to build a Sentinel like a tanker or even a heavy scrapper or brute. Doing so seems to be missing the point. You're still a ranged or AoE DPS and debuffing character. Building up defenses at the expense of your core functions isn't part of the plan. I consider my water/WP sentinel adequately tough; tough enough to work the Roman wall at any rate. But to make her so, I took an idea from a spines/WP scrapper I had back in i23 and frankenslotted everything that would take it with Pacing of the Turtle Recharge Slow procs, starting with Whirlpool. Everything that takes a tick of damage from it is subject to potential recharge penalties. These come fairly reliably, especially since I am boosting the movement slow of my powers by using another one or two from the set in some attacks. Anyone wanting to come at me will take some time. I'll see them coming, and cast Ninja Caltrops at my feet, persuading them to move away, and subjecting them to still more ticks from a -recharge proc. This works quite well, well enough that I was never tempted to take Tough or Weave on the character like I would with a heavy scrapper or tanker. I run Leadership toggles instead, which help me find teams.

I took, and get quite a bit of mileage out of, the Ninja Caltrops clone (Tashibishi or some such). I made a target self macro that drops them at my feet. This creates a zone around me that melee mobs are unwilling to enter, and lets me work in peace. It isn't an awesome wowzer DPS!!KAPOW!!OVER9000 power but it is very useful nevertheless. None of the melee attacks or other powers in the Ninja set tempted me in the least. You should be aware that some of the powers listed in Pine's, like Mu and Mace Mastery, require a tour of duty redside to unlock the villain patrons. Doing one storyline gets them all, and everybody recommends Black Scorpion. But this would be concept breaking for most of my characters, so they aren't really an option for everyone, or for anyone not already a villain out of the box.

Actually, while I agree that EM is bad generally, it is less bad with a set-and-forget defense set like Willpower than it is with something like Bio, Regen, or Fire, things that rely on click powers for survival. Click heals should not have to wait on animations to play generally, nor should inspirations. Right now I don't have a SS character over level 8, and in the current environment I doubt I ever will. My investment in the set is purely historical, because I ran an Inv/SS from 2004 to 2012. But 'Super Strength' is perhaps the most iconic superhero power, and people will be drawn to the set for the concept. I know that I was back in 2004. Warning players against the 'obvious choice' is something of a necessity now. I just don't want people to invest time and effort into a gimped character that won't get the job done.

On Torchbearer, a group of five or six players who'd just demolished Babbage attacked it. Not only did we fail to take it down, I don't think we ever made its health move perceptibly.

I always turn off Mystic Fortune on my first visit to Pocket D. Do not like the popups.

And make Heal inspirations take effect immediately without waiting for animations to play.

Have to agree that this game does not need the MMO Trinity. That tends to erode communities and turns the tank and healer players into prim donnas. They no that nothing will get done without them. Making all tanker attacks do splash damage is an interesting idea, but it would make all sorts of content from DfB to the TV station incarnate raid more difficult.

Nick Cave

It's hard to recommend Super Strength in its current incarnation; rage -def crash is now unavoidable, and your reliance on it will be challenged already by Granite's recharge penalties. If you rolled a Super Strength anything, my advice is to level an alt. If all you want to do is hit things and be as tough as you can be, I'd recommend Dark Melee combined with Invuln, Willpower, or Shields. Dark Melee's -tohit debuffs, single target control, and fast charging self heal that's also a fairly good attack will enhance any defense set (including /Stone) and make other sets as tough as Granite without its esthetic or playstyle annoyances. You won't have to live in Granite as much if you go DM/Stone; the synergy between -tohit and defense is quite powerful. You'll be able to get there in time on those Council catwalk maps.

Fairly sure this is not the case. The current aggro cap of 16 came in in i5, because the devs didn't like the playstyle where the tanker herded whole floors of multiple spawns to be burst down by blaster or other AoE DPS. The same issue limited the effectiveness of blaster nukes and similar powers to the same number. There are many situations in 'ordinary' non-herding play where the aggro cap can be a problem. The multiple ambushes in the Imperious TF are a fairly ordinary example of a situation where protecting the team from all the mobs often isn't possible due to the cap. My point, though, is that the cap is not an inevitable feature. I remember when it wasn't there.

Cael. Iamnæa Iuliam ter consulem sal. -- Sicarias Vindictæ aggrediebar. In his bellum non gerendum, quia per pugnellis vincuntur. Per victoriellis multis, multas mortes parvas patientur, usque ad iræ lapsum. (Yamnaya to Julia, thrice consul - I have encountered Knives of Vengeance. I don't think open war against them is a good idea, because they can be defeated by smaller scale battles. By many small victories, they suffer many little deaths, until their anger is spent,)