tidge

Black Whip v. Cool Whip

Incandescence for reaping fast rewards during Trick-or-Treating.

I'm going to force myself to try these out... combined with not having to take Web Grenade at level 1, my 'Bots/Traps/Mace is going to have to make some hard choices. that character currently has several ranged attacks for soft control (%knockdown), %debuff (-Res), and are used for drawing aggro. Photon Grenade, Pulse Rifle Blast and Mace Beam Volley all serve this role for me (currently), each is 6-slotted. I don't really spam these attacks, they are basically to allow the henchmen to stay in Bodyguard mode. Going in, I have two things to look for: I have many enhancement set choices to boost MaxEnd and Endurance Discounts already... I will want to keep those. It's crazy but I've leveraged a LOT of set bonuses for Endurance help already. At first glance, my peculiar(?) slotting choices (including 6-slots in Triage Beacon) may already be 'optimal' for the revamp. I have a pathological need to see how a "one big robot" build plays. I hate how the Assault Bot-only plays. More than any other casual test, I feel like that build drives home how poor the DPS is. I felt it was ironic since I had the luxury to slot the henchmen/pet mules in the other henchmen powers but the big guy could not be made that fearsome. (I did a lot of testing on the Blue-side Midnighter Club introduction arc... shudder) I'm curious if that (odd) choice does any better. Aside from the changes to the robots, I think the change to making power choices available earlier will have a bigger effect on all my builds, including this one. Because of available slots during leveling, those changes will primarily keep me having alternate power picks while leveling versus at level 50.

I've been thinking about this question. I'm going to answer it by thinking about a level 50 (exemplared) AT that can switch roles in a PUG, and not simply survive/complete challenges in the game. My answer is also motivated by primary and secondary options within the AT, with no regards to Incarnate powers. (non-Epic) Power pools are open to just about every AT, yet mileage does vary. My answer is: straight-up Fortunata, although for maximum flexibility having a second build (Night Widow) as well as a third build (specialty) will get you even more mileage. Defensively: Widows can be built for extreme positional defenses, and can rely on scaling resistances and other tricks (I'm a fan of Unrelenting, but there are others)... and much of what a Widow can do for itself it can also do for teammates. Offensively: Widows have IIRC a flat damage scale of 1.00 (melee and range), which is completely respectable and means not having to worry about fractional trade-offs when considering attack chains, enhancement set options (including %procs, especially debuff/control %procs for enemies without purple triangles). Control/Debuff: Fortunata are not going to out-control Dominators or Controllers, and they won't debuff at the level of specialist ATs, yet for content that requires more than just brute force to complete I found that my PUGs have been helped more by using Confuses and Fears than strictly attacking.

A million years ago I read something about the difference between ancient and modern tragedies, it is approximately this: ancient tragedies are motivated by external, typically divine, forces, but modern tragedies arise from the manifestation of an individual's self-destructive passions. And some modern literary advice I think I can attribute correctly (to Kurt Vonnegut): "Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water."

Ain't no vision like tunnel vision.

Weird dude also left me a thumbs-down on a followup post of a Crabbermind build I use where I explained I didn't include a MIDS link, partially because I don't use MIDS and also FFS how lazy are Destined One candidates these days!

(T)Rolling down-thumb on every post: Is it more like Farming or PVP sniping?

It takes about a week; I like to pickup the Caregiver badge in Outbreak before hitting level 2.

Please tell the RL Devs I didn't ask for RL hard-mode.

It appears to me that the true value of AFK farming is the allowance it makes for simultaneous full-time forum PVP.

Brute ATO rework can get in line behind other ATOs.

FWIW, prior to this patch it was possible to purchase (temporary) costume powers via Halloween salvage drops. Don't let me get in the way of a good rant, of course.

These sorts of Lore/Continuity are always what bother me most... I don't enjoy the game for the NPC narrative, no matter how much effort devs put into it. I realize that it is easier to tell a story with a beginning/middle/end, but a new level 1 that finds themselves dealing with the "end" of some arc they haven't played... just feels wrong to me. This is essentially what always turned me off from Incarnate/end-game Praetoria/Dark Astoria content. I will single out the cycle of First Ward for telling a developing story that basically resets things for your next character. There are a also significant number of red-side contact arcs that let players learn a LOT about the world (and despite what many players say, offer the feeling of some agency to the players) but essentially leave it unchanged for the next batch of PCs.

Toggles are so that Stalkers can complete "Kidnap" missions, of course.

I use multiple builds, after level 50. Each and every one of my VEATs has three builds. (Curse you Crab pack!) My MMs will have 2 builds: One has all three Henchmen, the other will have only one. If I ever considered going petless, that would be a third. My Tankers will sometimes have a slightly "tankier" second build, usually tuned for 50+ content. The "default" build is usually more for solo play and will scale to level. I have at least two characters (Defender, Corruptor) where I wanted to try some subtle differences; I simply splurged on a second build for them.

A Level 50 character, in Cimerora (via LFG queue) calls Montague Castanella, and got a "Hello there, PlayerName". This was to launch the introduction to Imperious.