tidge

I don't like the OP idea, but I want to chime in as a player with many VEAT, most with multiple builds. It has annoyed me when working on the second (and third) build and I have to go through the mandatory respec the first time (for each build slot) I am bring that build to a level greater than 24. Even though I find this highly annoying, it only occurs with a very tiny fraction of the game experience I can't advocate pushing for a change. I'd be giving up much more than I get in return. My advice is to NOT have any enhancements in your inventory when making a second (or third) build the FIRST time. Otherwise you will have to deal with moving all of them as part of the mandatory respec.

One of the few Day Job/Accolade powers that I try to accumulate is Physician: The power allows you to resurrect fallen allies. The utility of the Day Job Accolades varies, but this is one that is handy to have without worrying about burning up the charges.

This is my approach as well. I definitely keep an eye on the Number for Sale vs. Outstanding Bids as well... there are several "good sets" (mostly rares, some uncommons) that look as if people dropped lots of pieces expecting to make bank, but the pieces aren't moving. Nobody is helping themselves by adding to a piece which has 700+ on the market but less than 100 bids.

This feels like a solution in search of a problem.

It isn't 'Lackey to one of Recluse's LTs'.

I always look at it this way: In the initial arc, I'm temporarily humbling myself to get access to greater (villan-themed) power. If this bothers me at all, I finish all of a Patron's arcs and show the Patron what a mistake they made by granting me access to the power. For good measure I'll do Arbiter Daos' arcs to reinforce his subservience, and do the LRSF to get maximum NPC respect. NPC dialogue is affected!

I still hold a grudge that the initial Invulnerability set had Unyielding Stance, which immobilized the user. I maintain that no developer ever tried to street sweep with their character while using that particular power. I was also non-plussed that Statesman had a ranged attack, and never understood why that final click of the original HeroClix figure had Pulse Wave on the final click.

I don't mind going redside to unlock the Patron pools. When I am considering roleplay implications for why *I* want such powers on a toon, I pause and think about it. For non-RP I don't sweat it. In general, I think the Patron pools are well-balanced: It is rare that I am choosing (Patron pool) powers for an AT and find the options to be bad ones, especially when the other Epic pools are considered to be available. The only toon where I felt that I didn't like what the patron pools offered was my Crab Spider Soldier build (a Crabbermind). I opted for Mace Mastery (for theme) to get the Arachnobot Blaster Patron Pet. As a Crab Spider, I eschewed the Mace... but the Patron pool is 'all Mace'. Aside from the activation (and redraw) times I have no real complaint about the powers themselves, although at the level you can take the Patron powers, the ranged attacks (of all Patron pools) aren't really necessary for 'balancing' either Bane Spiders or Crab Spiders. I can live with my (tiny) issue, but it narrows the area that I'm willing to read other player's opinions on: Are the VEAT Patron pool power choices (overlapping Tanks/Brutes, but with no option for 'Ancillary' pools) really the best options for those ATs? Generally I think they are fine, it's just that some of the build options for my VEAT are narrow (and duplicative) of powers I've already taken on my VEATs.

The main difference in utility at low levels (for me) is that you have to make ToHit checks to use the Web Grenade. At high levels, why should I waste attacks on single flying anything that isn't a boss or greater.

My opinion: Setting aside 'moar freedom', it is only a few problematic secondaries that have bothered me with the forced choice of the (current) T1 power. My personal bugbear is the Traps secondary: Caltrops (the T2) is much more useful than Web Grenade (the T1) at all levels of play, especially the lowest levels. No amount of tinkering with the power itself will make me appreciate that power; I would much rather see them swapped.

Not a joke, I didn't consider the map and the image were one-and-the-same. In St. Martial, there is one area that is very prone to have multiple missions very close. (I usually outlevel Port Oakes... so no joke.)

I agree with Heraclea; the only thing I think a Tanker can really bring to PvP is to be a target... you likely won't be defeating any other player in PvP. Possibly the best thing a Tanker brings to (team) PvP is the Taunt. That being said, any good Tanker build should be able to keep the toggles up... at least long enough to realize you may be in over your head.

If you're level 30, you are ready for the Night Ward. Feel free to crank up the number of mobs you'll be facing.

The last directed compliment I recall was on a 3-man MoITF with two level 50's and a 40-ish (Scrapper?) at the sucessful conclusion I got a compliment from the leader for helping keep 3rd player alive (I was Blastin') and for knowing not to get myself in over my head. On the flip side, I try to drop compliments. It can be hard to notice buffs when playing a full-kit toon... but they are appreciated. I also tend to thank proper tanking. The rest of you are also doing fine... I'll try to be more appreciative.

St. Martial?

I agree with everything Croax wrote. I have both a Scrapper and Stalker that chose Soul Mastery. I can try to explain my reasoning, but the choice is personal. Each of my builds was only going to take (at most) one more power from the pool. Each build wanted a ranged attack, and Sniper attacks are simply 'too good' to pass up. This meant 'no Patron pet'. With these damage-dealing ATs, I also wasn't going to take any 'control' powers, nor was I looking for another power that I could add 'control' effects on top of. Each build already had enough attacks for a good chain; I wouldn't have the extra slots to make a targeted AoE like Ball Lightning do that much for me, without seriously gimping one of my other attacks. Read this as also meaning that I wouldn't have the slots to get 'awesome' set bonuses from any of the other powers in either Mu or Soul. Shadow Meld is a perfectly good Mule for LotG Def/Global Recharge with just the initial slot, a second slot of Recharge @ 50+5 (on my high-recharge builds) has it available (but mostly unused) in under 30 seconds on both of my toons. I'm normally not an advocate of 'panic button' powers, but that is generally what I use Shadow Meld for. I think it's ok to 'panic' before taking the Alpha! Contrasted with how I would use Ball Lightning: It would almost certainly be an attempt to get some -Resistance on groups of (nearby) opponents, possibly as a tool to draw aggro to me... maybe even as a(nother) Knockdown mechanism. Notice I'm not considering it as a source of damage! My bad, perhaps... but both my Stalker and Scrapper had 6 attacks from the primaries already.

Is it possible to get a complete list of the arguments for the windowscale slash command? For example, on some of my toons, despite using the "all" argument things like assorted salvage storage racks have not been resized. Also noticed, on some scale settings, the "convert enhancement" window no longer sits adjacent to the powers tray, despite it actually being 'connected'. Any guidance would be appreciated.

Please just swap the T1 and T2 powers. All the discussion about how some players can find corner cases where the mandatory choice of Web Grenade in the secondary is useful can still opt to take it at level 2... and can still take it at level 1 in the primary. I realize it can be fun to spitball new power effects, but I want to be rid of this power NAO.

Bio is more active than other sets. It is a strong set, but to me it wouldn't necessarily fit the classic Predator YMMV. You can minimize a lot of the effects, but for some of them there is no working around (Ablative Carapace, DNA Siphon). In my experience, /Bio is a rather smooth leveling experience because of Adaptation (@ lvl 16), and to some extent Boundless Energy (@ lvl 4). These powers can significantly help with Endurance issues without investing slots; Endurance problems are the number one fun-killer for me. Adaptation allows you to get a little more offense or defense as needed.

@Redlynne 's post on the utility of Damage enhancement over other should be required reading. I was able to appreciate it without the name-drops/appeal to authority, but whatevs. While it might come as a shock to not be able to buzzsaw through content with AoE attacks, I tend to agree that lowering the 'damage schedule' of enhancing AoE attacks ought to slow the game down which ought to allow for (larger spawns of) enemies to utilize the powers they've already been given to provide a challenge to players. I don't really think that just adding Health (or Defense, or Resistance) to enemies is the correct approach. I'm well aware of how players react to 'nerfs', but writing only for myself it feels WEIRD that I have toons capable of soloing content that would normally take some level of teaming up.

Thanks. I am annoyed that Fear and Taunt don't have a fifth 'awesome' set. I decided to focus on Fear because (for me) the single-target status powers lose a lot of utility in the endgame, so I want a set that (a) scales down with level and (2) offers a reason to slot at least one, preferably two, Fear powers. I'm holding off on Taunt suggestions because (like Placate) I'm not sure what is viable to ask for in terms of mechanics. I feel like it is important to include Accuracy and Range as key pieces. I want some sort of proc, but it has to be balanced for Attacks and Auras as well as AutoHits and ToHit checks. %Damage procs are an obvious choice, but I'd like something a little different that synergizes better with Taunt... something like a +Def(all) 2% (4.5 PPM) maybe?

This assumes that the Henchmen are not within range of the AV's attacks.

I thought the Purple triangles DID protect against immobilize, but a quick check of the paragonwiki shows I was wrong. It is still a status effect, so I still can't imagine spamming Web Grenade just to try to optimize the drop of a Poison Trap... just drop the trap! Recharge in the Trap is going to be a better investment than Accuracy/Immobilize/Recharge in Web Grenade.

Don't discount that Psychic Wail is all Psi damage, and things that resist Psi resist it HARD. It is a great nuke; quite frankly for me it is the primary reason to ever consider Hasten on a Fortunata (with Mind Link as the other reason).