Heraclea

I am reluctant to go to either zone. Asking for more difficult content is one thing. That stuff surely counts. My problem with it is that it is very unsociable content. If you run it, it's solo only. The 'difficulty' added there consists of massive debuff and unresistable mez like Confuse and Fear. Goldside has the same kinds of issue, with missions full of Seers and such. The problem with this specific brand of 'difficulty' is that it discourages teaming. It's especially unpleasant if you are trying to collect aggro and take point. That stuff is solo only because it scales badly; more mobs mean less playability. I'm not opposed to more difficult content in theory. It needs not to disadvantage melee defense sets so badly.

Devo - Gut Feeling

The Rularuu are not quite as terrible to a Willpower, Bio, or Rad scrapper or tanker. But we all tend to agree that the Vanguard are villains who fight without honor, and the Rikti seem honorable foes by comparison.

I do use the tips and morality arc stuff. I enjoy them; most are from the period when the writing staff was exploring the possibilities of their engines. Arachnos and Longbow are used relatively sparingly, thank the gods, and IDF do not appear at all AFAIK. I do have a character I'm grooming as a vigilante using tips. Yes, I know, I could get it done in one by going to Null the Gull, but that way doesn't get me XP and 40 merits.

I dabble in pinup art. I study classical languages, which is why one of my tankers has banter binds all in Nahuatl. And I create conlangs.

Heraclea Furia, legata cos. Paragonensis, Iuliam Calusaridem cos. salutat: Scio quod Vanguardia sibi tela Rictorum approprinquat. De pragmate in Rictis Vanguardiaque consilium peto. Nunc modo, quaesita Vanguardiarum et receptus præmiarum Vanguardiæ Amazonibus licita sunt. Licita autem est pugna contra Rictis, quia hostiles rei publicæ, pro tutelam sui. Sed quaesita supernumeraria praeter primum dehortor, etiamsi hoc modo corruptio Vanguardiæ nota est nobiscum. An licet adiuvare quopiam cum Vanguardiâ? Indagatrix Cælia 'Maiden Heaven' nuntiam in Rictis reliquiis misi, ut pacem petere fore possimus. Hæc sperenda maxime. Datum a.d. ter. dec. kal. Octobris, in urbe Paragonense. Heraclea Furia, consular legate to Paragon City, greets Julia Calusarides, consul: I know that Vanguard has been stockpiling Rikti weapons. I am writing to ask for advice concerning our policy towards the Rikti and Vanguard. For the moment, performing tasks for the Vanguard and getting Vanguard merits are allowed for Amazons. Fighting against the Rikti is also allowed, since they remain enemies of the local government, and for self defense. But I have discouraged performance of tasks for Vanguard beyond the bare minimum, even though this is how we came to learn of the Vanguard's corrupt nature ourself. Should any cooperation with Vanguard be allowed? I have also sent secret agent Celia, a/k/a 'Maiden Heaven', as an emissary to the Rikti remnants to see if any proposal for peace is possible. This is what I am hoping for. Given on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of October, in Paragon City.

All rare salvage goes into the SG kitty right now. I regularly run exemping TFs as well, so there's a steady input of lower level tier rares. If by some misfortune there's something I don't have, I turn to an AE ticket earner.

On a squishy I am a bit more nervous if the tank or brute is fire/spines. They may not know what they're up against outside their tailored content. They may also be quite good - that's an excellent combo for holding aggro - and by the first couple spawns you will know. So, anything other than that.

I am often on a tanker. It's my AT of choice for soloing new and unknown content. Whatever it's going to throw at me, a tanker is likelier than anything else to survive it. It's also a good indication of how team-unfriendly that content is. Alas, a whole lot of the newer material is something you want to experience solo only; more mobs will always be a liability even if you're running it effectively at -2 due to incarnate shifts. But on a team, I tank. I will take point if you let me and try to ball up the mobs as best as I am able, with a taunt to the plinkers and standing in the middle of the rest. If you don't need me for that, or if you want to go solo the team spawns on your own, fine with that too. You know how to work your characters and what they're capable of better than I am. Same thing with the controller who wants to immobilize all the mobs first; I figure they have a plan, and how controllers work is a mystery to the gods themselves. Masterminds want to clog the choke point with pets, that's fine. MM pets' hit points are even more expendable than mine.

Karen Dalton - Katie Cruel

Molly Tuttle - Won't You Come and Sing For Me

Pentangle - Trees Do Grow High

Blue Oyster Cult - Dancing in the Ruins

The Street People - Jennifer Tomkins

Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam

My characters tend to be merit rich and inf poor. Run fun level 50 content where you actually do defeat hundreds of mobs; the ITF (not the speed way) and Market Crash tend to be pretty good for this. So are Rikti raids. If you have characters that can safely work the Cimerora fort walls, that was a traditional lucky spot. Purple recipes eventually will drop. I craft them and, if they're not immediately useful, one merit buys three converters, each of which buys you an equal rarity, out of set conversion, These also drop plentifully in game at most levels. I have one storage bin in my base dedicated to catalysts, converters, and unslotters. AAR I use the converters until I land on an enhancement that one character or another will be able to use. If by some mischance I get two of a kind I use the three-converter gamble to make it into a different enhancement from the same set. I currently have nine lvl50 characters, so they can all support each other this way.

Bio/Spines is a good tankfender combo. Two damage auras, both can be slotted for various kinds of debuffage, as can most of your Spines attacks. I have almost all of them frankenslotted with Pacing of the Turtle recharge slow procs, and use incarnates to stack more recharge slow. This works surprisingly well. Holding aggro is easy on this combination.

That, and I still am getting random zoning crashes. Adding a base portal to Ouroboros is the obvious fix, but even that requires one more rezoning and one more opportunity for the bug to strike.

I really hope Homecoming runs the Halloween event. Trip mines make it much more fun.

ROMANÆ ERUNT ROMANÆ (Romans will be Romans. COT Flag Cross + Skeleton. I had to place the skeleton old school with desks because attaching it as Surface made it stick out from the pole. )

The chief uses I make of the power are to move to base from zones that lack a portal (spend a lot of time in Cimerora) or where the portal isn't all that convenient (Kings Row, Skyway).

Cael. Iamnæa Iuliam ter consulem sal. -- Tres sunt sacra: sacri sunt ludi puellis confecti sine visu genetricium maiorumve; sacrum est carmen os ad os transmissum; sacra sunt colloquia amatorum. N.P. Yamnaya greets Julia, thrice consul. There are three things that are sacred: the games made by children out of sight of their parents or elders are sacred; the song handed down mouth to mouth is sacred, the small talk of lovers is sacred. End of report.

If nothing else, put the Dark Watcher's Despair proc in it. Having something like that in your aura improves your 'defense' by getting you attacked less often, and it is ticking constantly.

Ramsey Lewis - The In Crowd

My experience is the other way around. Regen is great during the levelling game and falls way behind at 40+. It has way more sustainability early on, but its lack of either defense or resistance makes it a poor choice for later on. I remade my fire/regen scrapper here for the specific purpose of farming stuff like Synapse. She makes merits that buy stuff for other characters. I did not take Fighting pool on the character; it struck me as lipstick on a pig. She Frankenslots random stuff that drops.