Burnt Umber

I enjoyed going through the missions on my characters so far. I love the new maps as I went on through; I appreciate that there is enough room to hover/fly. I didn't notice any bugs, but I have a couple of minor criticisms: In the second mission, there are a bit too many elite bosses. They didn't add challenge, and, as a poster above mentioned, they made that mission a bit of a slog. The minotaurs and cyclopes could be their boss versions. In the third mission, it's a bit much to suddenly drop from the disguise and have to toggle on my defenses. Might the disguise be a temp. power that causes toggle suspension (the new tech), operating like the Midnight Club raid mission redside? Throughout, my villain character didn't really get to be villainous and the dialogue felt neutral/heroic. I wish that there was a tad of motivation for my villains to be help Sister Valeria. Those minor criticisms aside, the arc is great addition and tells succinct and interesting story.

After playing around with the set on Beta, I would say that Symphony Control is a fun powerset overall. I tried it out with a Controller pairing it with Empathy and Thermal and on a Dominator pairing it with Fiery Assault. I ran various radio missions to get a low stakes and broad spectrum of enemy types. Observations: Because of the damage component of the powers - especially that of Confounding Chant (the stun cone) - and the soft control of many of the powers, the set sort of leans into the powers being slotted for damage rather than the control. And as a result, the set feels very "blast-like" with me being able to clear even level minions by the end of my attack chain. For both archetypes, I ran the attack chain of Sleep Cone -> Immob. Cone -> Stun Cone -> Fear Cone -> Ranged AoE Attack (Fire Breath on the Dom. and Fireball on the Controller) with the cone controls all 5-slotted with "Annihilation" for damage. The damage was nice on the the Dom. and, by pairing it with fire, I was able to stay at range rather than having to jump back and forth from range to melee. But, at the same time, Domination mode was noticeably less helpful because many of my controls broke from the damage and the longer duration/higher magnitude made little difference. Although I was able to get good AoE damage on the Controller, the set interacts oddly with Containment. All of the damaging powers benefited greatly from the extra damage, but Containment itself was tricky to maintain because it breaks from the softer controls (i.e., the sleep) or the controls themselves are lower priority (i.e., the immob.). I personally was having difficulty with Confounding Chant (the stun cone) the most of all the powers because it deals good damage so I want to have it benefit from Containment (thereby preventing me from using it as an opener or immediate followup to the sleep), yet it provided the best control outside the hold and had a long-ish recharge (thereby penalizing me the longer I delayed it in my attack chain). Chords of Despair (the targeted AoE Hold) was sort of lackluster for a hold delayed past level 18. Unlike either Earth Control or Dark Control, it doesn't create a patch or reapply itself. It ends up being sort of similar to Ice Control's (imo) lackluster AoE hold that appears at level 26. Given my prior two points, I wish that Chords of Despair and Confounding Chant were switched in their order, and that Confounding Chant were spiced-up in someway (e.g., it also had a chance for a mag. 2 confusion). Alternatively, if the order is kept as is, I wish that Chords of Despair were spiced-up in someway (e.g. it had a useful debuff like -Res. or -Def. ). Reverb, is a cool, new pet and I found it pretty helpful and hardy once I summoned it, but I found that he seemed to get stuck or to cease following me more often than other pets seem to. I look forward to playing the set more once it gets published to Homecoming.

He's running the non-Granite toggles as well as tough and weave. Against Carnies, Council, Longbow, and Arachnos, he got through it all. I have not played around with my MM, so I can't yet be certain of the impact on him. However, to your question, no, he doesn't have those sets slotted nor is he built for resists. I built him and his pets to have at least 30% (more when barrier is up) defense to all so he does okay for himself. I feel that the changes were not noticeable on my defense-based characters, but they are either built for positionals or all the elements. I think my strategy for slotting may differ a fair bit from the common min-max wisdom of the forums here though. And in that respect I think that's what this change was targeting: people who tried to make a character that trivialized most content by sort of cheezing the way the defense mechanics work in this game.

The costumes themselves are a fun and neat addition to the game. That said, I feel like it's a bit of a grind (or influence expense) to accumulate the necessary new salvage to get the costumes. But I suppose that the variety of ways to get that salvage is expansive enough that I'm probably not going to be too hassled by it. There are two things that stick out to me about this addition: The new vendors' location in vaults feels a little intrusive/cluncky. They might be more appropriate inside Icon or Facemaker shops that have more space for such vendors and thematically are more in-line with the vendors' purpose? Besides wanting the accompanying badge, I don't really see the purpose of the accolade. It seems to award a pop-menu macro and that's it? Except for someone who fanatically wants all the costumes and to be able to sort through and use them all, the accolade is not really a power but a limited QoL feature? I'd wish that the accolade did a bit more, such as act as a personal/mobile version of the vendor like the Fieldcrafter accolade provides the mobile crafting table. Those thoughts aside, I really like being able to have access to some of these costumes. I look forward to what other ones get added for purchase.

For my Kheldians and my Stone Armor tank, the changes to toggles is very welcomed, if not ecstatically so. Similarly, my squishier characters who have offensive toggles like the change. It makes playing them a great deal more convenient and fun. And like a poster above, I'm probably taking more than 8 seconds to get back into the fight/toggled back on. That said, such characters are likely to be in the middle of melee and running only one or two offensive toggles so 8 seconds might be a tad long (maybe 6 seconds would be better?). Overall, I love this change. It's been really fun testing it out.

Honestly, I feel like this change to defense really doesn't amount to much: it scarcely affects any of my defense-based characters. My Stone Armor Tank doesn't have any Fire/Cold or Toxic Defense but soft-capped to everything else. My Necro/Traps MM is soft-capped to S/L and Energy but his pets are running at 30%+ defense to all so he'll probably get by. The rest of my defense-based characters didn't skimp on their defenses through slotting or otherwise, and I don't notice anything different about playing them on Beta. Re: Slotting/Building Opportunity Cost To be frank, I think if you were building only for S/L and Energy, then the only power that is taking a hit is Scorpion Shield: every other power pool was providing defense to everything. And if you were soft-capping through slotting, it was impossible not to pick-up other defenses to some degree through decent slotting. For example, if you were slotting, say, a ranged damage power, then Thunderstrike was a great set because it provided lots of Energy, N. Energy, and Ranged Defense by slotting it.

Oh, next week I'll bring Kataigis (Elec./Storm Controller) as a the Bride of Frankenstein

For me, I use Sonic Blast on a Corruptor, and my experience soloing on Beta has been mixed. On the one hand, my attack chain of Shockwave -> Howl -> Siren's Song feels more seamless now with the changes to recharge/cast times. Similarly, having a single target attack chain with Scream and Shout is not as draggy as it is on Homecoming due to their activation time changes. On the other hand, the change to damage on Howl (fixing the 1.0 scale damage to 0.66 scale damage) is sort of mitigated with the changes to damage on Siren's Song (bumping it's damage up to 1.0 scale damage). However, I use Siren's Song as an actual mez so having to re-slot it for damage is a bit annoying. Similarly, I normally skip Screech in favor of the hold I pick up in my Patron Power Pool, so the changes to Screech sort of necessitates that I drop the hold to get it and slot it for damage. Overall, the set on Beta feels feels more slick as I chain powers together; at the same time, I feel the set has shifted from blasting and mezzing to blasting with mezzing as a happy coincidence. I do wish that Siren's Song and Screech had their ranges extended to 50 feet and 80 feet, respectively, to make them more in line with their new roles as damage powers used in rotation. I like the direction of the changes and welcome more changes to the set to help it in relation to other blast sets.

I had never noticed how close I had colored my chrono-shift and destiny ageless to the death patches of Battle Maiden. Oops. Worse, her build kind of needs me to fire off ageless somewhat regularly so I couldn't exactly stop firing it off (though I stopped running time's juncture which made my need less frequent, for better or worse).

I'll be bringing Ultra Azure - Elec. Affinity/Rad. Blast Defender.

She's definitely blue rather than Indigo. She normally has a dark blue/powder blue costume that I plan on bringing. But if somebody has a lighter or more saturated blue costume they'd want to bring, I made an alt. costume that's only dark blue (not indigo). (Edit) To further clarify, this is the "dark blue" that I'm using: And she uses this "blue" normally for highlights/ancillary pieces:

Sorry that I had to leave a bit ahead of time. Did we continue with Radio after I logged?

I'll stake out the "Blue" character option with Gelida Obscura - Ice/Time Corruptor. I can narrow it down further to "Dark Blue/Navy" if the need arises.

Put me down for next week with Commenticia - light and dark colored Illusions/FF Controller.

I'll be bringing C. Abyssus - Water/Sonic Corr. This week was a bit of toughie for me in the costume creator. Hopefully, he sort of fits? Also, if it isn't a problem, could we postpone that "clowns" theme for a bit? I think you might have put that one in for me. but I don't think my character will be the right level in time for that week.

Quick question on this one: does the color have to be monochrome (e.g., plain blue), or can we chose different shades of the same color (e.g., light blue and dark blue)?

I hope I don't sound too glib or flippant, but I'd like to be able to delete a certain group of temporary powers in the same way I am able to delete another group of temporary powers. For example, I have a brute who has gotten the smoke grenades in the "raid" portion of a mayhem mission, and as I so chose, I right-clicked and deleted those temp. powers. In contrast, that same brute has one charge of the Wentworth's TP power that he got because he logged of in the Resistance market in Praetoria. I have no desire to ever swap him from Redside to Blueside to burn the charges frivolously, so I'd like to delete it rather than letting it continue to rot infinitely in my powers tray. Also, this. It just sort of bugs me knowing I have a power in my powers tray that takes up space. Admittedly, it's a little odd, but so it goes.

On the contrary, I'd like the ability to delete such powers. Sometimes I don't really need or want the powers I get from particular day jobs but the log off location itself is useful so I have some day job powers that just sit there unused or I use up those with charges on trivial things. For example, I'd like to be able to log off in the Shadow Shard on a flier who (obviously) doesn't really need the jet-pack power for doing so. Similarly, I'd like to delete the charges of AE-only self-rez. after I've logged off in the uni. or AE building.

I wish that the temporary powers from day jobs and the related accolade powers could be deleted in the same way as other temporary powers can. Such a change would allow players to get rid of the powers they don't want, just as they can with other temp. powers. Further, even if anyone wanted to regain a power that they deleted, that power can be regained by logging off in the right location.

Thanks for the pictures! Super fun to see all the fun costumes. Next week I'll bring Veneficio - Crab Spider - in his finest.

I plan on bringing Pugil - Kin. Melee/Energy Aura Stalker - as a 80s (early 90s?) toyetic ninja.

I'll bring Saxum - Stone/Fire Tank.

I absolutely love my multi-build widow, Nox. On her, I have a Night Widow build, Fortunata build, and a widow/fortunata hybrid build. So I can share so of my thoughts which hopefully help. If you like being a stalker, Night Widows are very similar as a specialization. But they also get a few mental blast powers and play a bit more scrapper-y after the first strike from hide (Spin from hide is great fun). At the same time, Night Widows haven't been touched since their launch back in Issue 12, so they feel a little like Stalker 1.5 compared to the current Stalkers 2.0. Further, of the specializations, I find my Night Widow was a bit less AoE-centric and a bit more of an Endurance hog. If you like being a dominator, Fortunatas are very similar as a specialization. But they also get a great deal more survivability and ranged AoE. At the same time, you don't get many of the great controls until you are in your late 20s, and your single-target attacks can feel lacking with slightly longer than average animations. Further, psionic attacks can be a bit all-or-nothing: some enemies have a psionic-hole in their protection, if not a weakness; others, such as the various robot mobs, have a resistance to psionics. The Widow/Fortunata build uses the Fortunata specialization but, instead of using the mental blast powers exclusively, it mixes both the Blood Widow attacks and the Fortunata attacks/controls. It's a bit idiosyncratic because which powers you pick can effect how it plays. For example, on mine, I maintained the Blood Widow single-target attacks and mixed in the Fortunata controls and the psionic nuke. There are many builds to be found on the forums here.

It's great fun so far! I have few notes/habits for these lower levels:

I'll join the club this Saturday, bringing my Crab Spider/Bane Hybrid Veneficio.