Lazarillo

My intent was, not knowing what I could do with the build, to sort of just "fill in" things for an all-'round sort of approach. Unfortunately, while I appreciate your suggestions, they're not...exactly what I'm seeking the answer to. I can achieve high defense and electric punches with, say, an Elec/Ice Scrapper, too. What I'm trying to figure out is what I can do with Rad/Elec that could make me think "yes, this is why it was worth sacrificing innate defenses/mez protection". As noted, the answer might be that there's nothing, and that's fine, too, I play for the fun of it first and foremost, but if there's an advantage I can play to with this choice of specs on a Blaster, that I can't get from another AT, that's what I'd like to know about it.

So, long story short, with the changes to /Electric Manipulation, I'm trying to do a melee-focused Rad/Elec that I've been interested in trying for a while. However, possibly because I'm having kind of an awful time with the build, I'm struggling to figure out what, if anything, such a build could do that a Scrapper couldn't do better. Here is my awful build: The inclusion of the TP pool was mostly for test-server stuff, so I'm hardly attached to it (or most of the other pools), but I'm also kinda outta Enhancement slots, compared to ones for powers. This is kinda new territory for me, so if anyone has some tips to make it better (or just insights on how to play the build to its strengths while still focusing on the punchy stuff from the secondary), I'd definitely appreciate it. Can I salvage this concept to do something really neat, or should I resign myself to "fun but mediocre"?

That's a pretty...extreme definition of "easy". Perma-Phantom Army requires, like, what, double what you need already for Perma-Dom, or so, as far as I recall, doesn't it?

World Wide Red shows how much difference good writing can make. Mechanically, the final two missions are just "defeat all Malta", but just knowing the context makes it always feel like one of the most epic experiences in the game.

My main is a Claws/WP Scrapper and I actually took the t9 there. It's basically like an extra Orange inspiration to pop every now and again, and his recovery is enough that I almost never even notice the crash unless it comes simultaneous to getting hit by a Sapper or something. The thing is, I also rarely notice that the power's doing anything while it's on either. It's an extra drop of survivability on a character that's already got a mountain of it, more or less, to the point that I question whether the "crash" is really even needed. I also tend to take the self-rez t9s. Kind of a "might as well" thing since they don't need any extra enhancement slots, and I take a very "if you ain't dyin' you ain't tryin" approach to melee characters. Still, they're kinda situational at best, and ironically, when I'm, say, playing my Pain/ Defender, I hate people self rezzing 'cause I wanna come at 'em with a Vengeance and a Conduit of Pain for buffs all around. The "hard crash" t9s on the other hand, are always just hard skips. They don't make enough difference to be worth the fact that you're either dead or dead weight at the end of 'em. Ideally, I'd say give smaller crashes to the big t9s, remove the crashes from the little ones.

For future reference, you can do this on any character by click the "pets" button at the top of the team tab window. You don't need Lore pets out for it.

Oh geez, I read this topic title and thought something horrible had happened. 😞

Aren't Arachnos already the Arachnos of the late game? *makes shifty-eyed looks at Tarantula Mistresses*

The main problem I have with Martial Assault is just how unreliable Spinning Kick is. The "window" for the facing cone is really, really, really small, so in addition to be no good while on the move, it's very easy to "miss" with it entirely even against single targets. It was a little better when the numbers at least weren't balanced under the assumption that it was always hitting a whole bunch of enemies, but as it is now, it's kind of a trap, sadly. With that nerf, plus the way snipes were buffed, it's best used purely ranged, more or less, with control sets that are suited to that, like Mind or Gravity, IMO. Which is fine I guess, but it makes it not feel very "martial".

In fact, both of these were true at one point. When CoV first released, there were a lot of villain-only costume pieces, and many that weren't "proliferated" from hero pieces as well. What's now male face 1 was the original default face for villains. IIRC, it then became "villain face 1" (or something similar) when costume parts were merged, but then ended up being the default when costume parts got re-re-standardized around the time of Freedom and the introduction of pay-for costumes. ...how I remember that, when there are so many more useful things I could remember, I have no idea.

I made an Ice/Martial Dominator and it was even one of my first 50s on HC, but I think I've seen another maybe...once? If that. Not that I play mine much anymore, either. It's not bad by any means, it's just...not quite what I want from the combo, either.

Yeah, I hear ya. Normally I try to be a little more sporting too. Protean I feel not-so-guilty about cheating on because by the time you're warned he's basically already hitting you, and I play a lot of melee characters.

For future reference, the trick is to pull him to the elevators. Click the door to activate the elevator the moment the warning comes up, and it will override any animations or timing or anything else and just immediately put you in the new spot, as far as the game is concerned, causing his siphon to miss.

This is why I will never not insist that Pitstop be her hero codename, until such time as Pitstop is formally made her hero codename.

So random thought I had last night regarding Domination, the use thereof, and the tendency of Dominators to have to over-rely on Recharge and perma-Hasten and other such bits. What if the power was changed to work like this: 1. The Domination bar builds and empties just the same as it does currently. 2. Rather than a click activation, the benefits of Domination automatically apply whenever the bar is at 90% or higher. 3. The click-Domination instead now auto-fills the bar to 100%, and can be used any time. The thought here is that rather than having to constantly babysit the click powers, Dominators could maintain their empowered state simply by continuing to fight. With the Domination bar emptying more slowly than, say, Fury, this even gives a little time to move between mobs without the ability falling off. The click-on ability from Domination itself would mean Dominators didn't have to work up to the power, but this would likely have to be compensated for in some way, perhaps by making it so that the click power no longer benefited from Recharge buffs? Too strong? Not strong enough? Finicky in ways that would make it unfeasabile?