Crysis

Just wanted to say, coming from someone who ran BillZ's build for some time.... This is an outstanding build. Really shines!

Literally under 10 mins to get any character to 20 using AE PL method. I have acres of toons with names (generic costumes) parked at unleveled 20 or so just so I have a library of alts ready to go.

It’s a game. Send a couple of private tells. If no response, debt is meaningless. Leave team whenever you want, your presence or departure is of no to little consequence beyond the moment. Someone else will show up to tab-click just as well as you or anyone else can. Its a meaningless pastime. Don’t take it so seriously. Have fun until you don’t....then go find your fun elsewhere.

I've done it a couple of times on my Staff/Elec brute. First time I had similar experience to you. He wiped the floor with me and I couldn't aggro him to stay on me. But second time...I just used temp fly rocket pack and hovered just above his head. I'd spin when he'd hit me but I wouldn't end up on my back and dead. Made it easy to pull him over to a corner where he stuck to me like glue. I just kept poking at him repeatedly. He did beat me up pretty bad but I never died and he only peeled off me once or twice when I think I hovered a bit too high. Could be a fluke but I think I'll try that again if given the chance.

Every time I see someone petitioning for a difficulty slider higher than +4/x8 I ask them if they’ve ever run all the Night Ward content on that setting. *crickets*

Other than MSR’s and maybe a couple of other league based trials I don’t think damage output factors into the rewards. But to your main point, yeah...defensive only toons in this game are not worth much. All that matters is Zerg rush and DPS. Debuffs are certainly useful, but that’s offensive in nature. Purely defense? Past lvl 25 or so, just excess baggage.

VIctory Rush is definitely a pre-50 power. I found it highly useful from 40-50, but it’s definitely inferior to Ageless and you won’t need it after you get that. Obviously works much better with high recharge builds given its timer.

According to my friends in my SG they can’t see my blade on my Katana scrapper or my Ninja Sentinel except at the beginning of the animation sequence. It appears fully visible to me at all times however. Its an acknowledged bug per the Devs and they’ve tried to fix but it hasn’t been addressed yet.

Have many /Storm MM’s, although not a Ninja/ one. Hurricane is pretty much a worthless choice for a Stormy MM. You’ll mainly use Freezing Rain, Tornado and Lightning Storm. With enough +Recharge, you’ll be dropping that stuff 2-3X per battle. Hurricane tactics are better left for all the other AT’s.

If you can see yourself flying but all anyone else see’s is you running along the ground with your hands out going “Wheeeeee!” AND be OK with that...then I see your point.

I lol’d

Just adding....Devs thought they addressed this several months ago for Katana animations, but mine remains totally borked for Katana scrapper as well as Ninja Tools on a Sent. I don’t think we should expect to see this fixed any time soon, if at all.

This entire thread is sooooooo 2006 for “LOL PVP” grins and giggles. Thanks all. Also explains why all the fancy people were running around PVE doing /macro Lame “em liedown$$em score7” or whatever while delivering PBAoE nukes from range.

I’d wondered about that....seems the whole EA set is following different rules?

Nah y’all don’t understand. FX mod or no, Katanas are invisible to all but the wielder....briefly visible during attack animation. Literally invisible to all other players. It’s been bugged like this since last summer.

Became very depressed when I realized that to everyone else watching my bad-assed sounding and looking lightsaber swinging saw me dancing around with an invisible katana. Maybe someday all these bugs will get fixed. And, I’m sure, replaced with similar annoying ones.

I now have three different /Electric Armor brutes. I see a lot of people abandoning them in the upper 30’s and low to mid 40’s because they are rather weak to Arachnos and Toxic ranged damage. But once you power through those levels, they are literally almost unkillable in the late game with capped S/L/E and Melee defense and very high resists.

Never got a peep. One guy sent me a note saying it was his but didn’t have the exact number anywhere near where it should be (actually had a string of ones in it, indicative someone fat fingered it). I still have it in case someone else comes along. Nothing left to spend money on anyways.

I’d argue you are almost better off just resummoning your Bots than you would be taking and using Repair. Almost.

According to the beta bugs forum, Elec Affinity for MM’s may actually be using LESS Endurance than intended. It sounds like that may be true on Beta as well as on Live currently. CaptPowerhouse acknowledged it, meaning I’d not get too comfortable that /EA MM’s are by any means going to be fine after this gets corrected.

You can’t really “replace” Scorpion Shield with anything else. It’s that good. Closest you could come to achieving the posted builds’ stats and stay blue side entirely would be Cold Mastery/Ice Armor but even then it will only boost your +DEF to S/L. Attacks that contain Energy are quite plentiful in the 40+ game, inclusive of iTrials, and Scorpion Shield is just overall a fantastic +DEF buff to S/L/Energy. If you really are opposed to taking the single trip to Redside for role play or thematic purposes, why not just weave it into your bio as you undertook a secret undercover mission to infiltrate Black Scorpion’s organization and managed to “liberate” the armor for testing by blue-side superhero scientists or something. Seriously....it’s worth bending the narrative to get Scorpion Shield.

If you look at most /Storm MM builds, you’ll find that O2 boost isn’t in there. There is a play style mindset for MM’s that think keeping the henchman alive is the goal. For a damage-oriented mindset, It’s not. The goal is putting down the enemy and keeping them distracted so your henchmen just don’t take that much damage that requires healing. While this varies by type of henchmen (Demon/Storm is far sturdier than Thugs/Storm, and Bots/Storm is likely the most sturdy of all), it’s “common play style” to try and keep the henchmen alive via heals. The power of Storm is that stuff is all being occupied, ESPECIALLY if you build for high +Recharge. I routinely am running my /Storm MM’s at around 235-280% Recharge (150+ from slotting and then a ton of FF +Rech procs going off all the time). This is another “common knowledge” thing that most MM’s don’t understand. They don’t build for Recharge because it doesn’t work for the henchmen. It doesn’t, but it DOES work for the MM. And as for pylons....I’ve done them and have impressive kill times to show for it. But when I can get 3 Tornado’s and two Lightning Storms out at once, I don’t worry about the “stationary” impact of LS in regular PVE play. There’s two LS out all the time with a huge radius. I generally just stand under one and nothing gets to me at melee while it keeps stuff on their back. And with Burnout in the build PLUS natively high recharge, I’m double Gang War or double Hell on Earth about every third spawn and they continue into the 4th. And in the 40’s you’ll have a fully procc’d out Mace Volley for impressive MM self-damage along with a great AOE immobilize. O2 and Hurricane are just wasted power picks. You don’t need them. You need high Recharge and a LOT of +END for /Storm on a MM. And with both, you are the team and everyone else is just support. /Storm is most definitely top tier if the goal is DAMAGE. If the goal is longevity of henchmen....there are other secondaries that do that job better. But I don’t think that’s how a MM should be played. Your opinion certainly may differ and that’s fine because there’s lots of ways to play this game.

Well you can but.... On Thugs and Demons, you’ll likely be 6 slotting all henchmen and the bonus HOE or GW. On Storm, you’ll six slot Tornado and LS. And throw a couple/few slots into FR as well. Steamy Mist often gets at least for if not six slots also. On Mace Mastery most common is at least 14-18 slots between Envelope, Volley and Scorp Shield. Add in several more slots for Fitness, travel, Leadership, Fighting etc pool and ultimately Gale is going to be starved for more than two slots. For me it usually gets a Hami, KB to KD and a FF +Recharge if I can afford three slots. And that’s max. I just think there are better places to invest slots and procs.

First off, appreciate the OP sharing their opinions on ranking of secondary sets. However, I think it's important that anyone reading this understands that the secondary choices get stronger/weaker depending on the primary chosen. And, perhaps even more importantly, get stronger/weaker depending on playstyle preferences, experience playing MM's in general and what you are trying to accomplish. Simple example: If you really want to solo +4/x8 from about 41-42 onwards, your secondary choice will greatly permit/restrict you in/from doing this. Likewise, secondaries like Storm can be played in a number of ways. I never take the Heal/02 Boost, Hurricane, and barely slot Gale, on any of MM Stormies. /Storm MM's are primarily about maximizing DPS and damage output. Thus, the issue raised about Knockback annoying teams and the lackluster heal of 02 (both valid criticisms) really ONLY apply to someone trying to play /Storm MM's like a Defender Stormie. That's certainly viable to do so, and I'd likely put Storm Summoning in the same tier as the OP. But if you want to maximize your DPS as a MM, you aren't playing it that way, don't take most of the Storm powers and you focus instead on high recharge and a primary that works well with the -RES debuffs and high native DPS (Demon or Thugs). I think one of the biggest mistakes most MM players make is trying to play their secondary like an equivalent Defender, Controller, Corruptor, etc. If you view the secondaries through these kind of lenses, you'll end up with under-optimized MM builds.

Powerboost only affects powers you cast. For example, if you toggle off Scorpion Shield and then trigger PowerBoost before toggling on Scorp Shield again.....it will slightly boost your defense bonus from Scorp Shield. But that’s kinda worthless to do as you’ll have to toggle off/on Scorp Shield and boost only lasts 10 secs or so. PowerBoost does boost things like defense bonuses from your secondaries. It works very well with /Time MM’s.