Lazarillo

Out of curiosity, can RoP be popped like a Break Free or does it have to be hit preemptively?

It could probably be seen as a little of both. Because of the ridiculous difference between Perma-Dom and not Perma-Dom, any Dominator build that's not slotted for a massive recharge bonus will always be inherently inferior to any Dominator build that is.

1. Completely feasible, though it might not be a bad idea to take it if/when you have an empty space in your build. Taunt is nicer than a lot of people give it credit for, and is helpful "out of the box" without needing any enhancements. 2. Not really. There are certain ATs, and certain powersets, and certain builds, that will definitely get a lot of mileage out of it. There are some that will get almost none at all. 3. It's less about what you use, and more about how much you recover while using it. It also depends a lot on how much Endurance Reduction you put in your attacks, as those tend to be the true biggest hog on your Endurance bar. My "gold standard" is always to shoot for 2 end/sec Recovery, and at least 30% Endurance reduction in all powers, if not more. 4. Well, erm, I kinda hit that in #3. Guess I should've read all the questions before I started to answer? 5. Either is fine, though bear in mind as a new player, the Enhancements may be a little pricey at first (this will quickly change as you play more, though). I use Acrobatics and 1 enhancement on my /Dark Brute...no matter what, you're going to get knocked back sometimes because of the way the mechanics work, but if you have 8-12-ish for KB protection, it'll be fairly rare. 6. Not sure on that one, sorry. I haven't checked; Mids incorporates some "stance" sets accurately, some not so much. I'm not tech savvy enough to provide workarounds but I'm sure someone can.

Nope, on my Brute, at least, I've seen zero of that with EM, and I'm usually pretty sensitive to that sort of thing (it's why I won't play /Plant blasters, for example).

I noticed on the new set when I go to customize the powers, on Sound Barrier, there's no option for a "bright" version of the power that can be colored without the Absorb tick floaters. There's the default, Show Floaters, Dark, and Dark/Show Floaters. I assume this was an oversight but I don't see any sort of other topics bringing it up, so just a little heads-up on it.

It's not quite what I wanted but it's generally pretty neat and still gives an excuse to take every power in the set (something that more sets should aspire to). I've done some missions with my Energy/Dark Brute and it's done well enough. The Energy Foci generally don't make too terribly much different in my experience, but honestly, it was probably by intention that they not do much anyway.

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?

The RWZ is teeming with "failable" escorts and useless combat support NPCs, but those two issues are related but ultimately sorta different problems just in general, I feel like.

Yep, made a Hovering Sentinel and running into this same problem. Very annoying. 😕

In the 5-9 range, Mr. Bocor's arc, and standalone missions in general, which, while nothing special in terms of story, are a sort of nice "let's be classy, but still be unapologetically evil" atmosphere that works for a low-leveled villain. A few levels beyond that in the 15-19 range, you have The Aeon Conspiracy, and Echo Down the Aeons from Marshal Brass, and Oh, Wretched Man from Seer Marino, which are all really good lore-building/foreshadowing-type arcs. In the 20-30 range, Dean MacArthur is just one of the flat-out best contacts in the game on either side, and is not to be missed. The contact who follows off from him, Leonard, should also be done (as you mostly continue to work with Dean during Leonard's arc, too). Also in the 20-30 is Vincent Ross, who has a pretty good arc for villains who seek UNLIMITEDDDDDDDD POWAAAAAHHH. I find his final mission to be a sort of "lesson" on how absolute power is also absolutely boring, but some people really dig the finale. 25-29, specifically has Diviner Maros who has a cool arc, remarkably snappy dialogue for a 25,000-year-old mage, and his standalone missions are all sorts of cool Butterfly Effect-type preludes to several hero arcs, so if you did a lot of story there, you'll probably enjoy him. Note that if you want to do Vincent Ross' arc, too, do Maros *first*, as if you finished Maros' main arc, he'll get involved in the plot of Ross' arc as well. Also if you have the first Infamy badge in time, Doc Buzzsaw is in the 25-29 range, and her mission dialogue is remarkably fun and and hilarious. Level 30-34 range is the Slot Machine. Like Doc Buzzsaw, it requires a badge, though. It's the one you get on HC for defeating 200 Family Minions/LTs, which you also need for an Accolade, so worth picking up regardless. Its second arc is not very villainous, let's just say, but it's just got some darned good writing. You probably want to avoid Vivacious Verandi, as her arc involves you getting bossed around and just sort of taking it, and that bugs a lot of people playing villains. Level 35-39, I'm a fan of Basse Croupier. He's a pretty cool cat, as they say. You also should start your Patron arcs. You can only get the first one before level 40, but they're all pretty generally well-written. Level 40-44, you can get your second Patron arc. The most "notable" contact in this range is also the most divisive: Westin Phipps, the absolute most colossal scumbag, make-you-feel-sick, "shouldn't I have some standards?" kind of evil there is. In some ways, I feel like he's worth experiencing just so you can understand why so many players hate his arcs, but...just know you've gotta have some stomach for them (the only bit of redemption to be found is that you can betray him at the very, very end by allowing a mission to fail...in a lot of ways it feels really cathartic to let that failure happen but you have to do a lot of really bad crap to get to that in the first place). For 45-50, there's two more Patron arcs, and beyond that, Television, which is offbeat and fun, and Vernon Von Grun, who's similarly offbeat, and fun, and full of mad science, and has the best single-mission NPC ally ever, Becky the Tarantula Mistress. Also Viridian, though the hoops you have to jump through to unlock him are insane, his arc is honestly kinda worth it.

Recently made a shapeshifter character and my sorta "working name" when conceptualizing the costume/build/etc was "Identity". I was shocked when I said "eh, screw it, let's see if the name will work"...and sure enough, it did!