Redlynne

Mind Control/Energy Assault/Psionic Mastery ... for the Power Boost from Energy Assault (which combined with Perma-Dom nets you Perma-Lockdown!) along with Link Minds, Indomitable Will and Psionic Tornado. You have Psionic damage AND Smashing/Energy damage for dealing with stuff that is resistant to Psionic damage. Build for high recharge (for Perma-Domination) and proceed to faceroll your opposition.

And then someone typos it into being an underwar toggle ...

Banesterinel They even come with a dev approved BAN(e) HAMMER that they use to "remove $Targets from the community" in game with! You even get to pick your LART ... !!

This. Not this. Caster only.

The only Tanker that I've played with Incarnate slots was a Level 50 Ice/Ice/Arctic Tanker on Virtue ... who deprived 7 other Tankers of aggro on a Tanker Tuesday ITF run (and I did warn them ahead of starting that was going to happen). They simply couldn't believe me when I told them up front that my build "inhales aggro like a wind tunnel" and they were all like "yeah yeah, sure sure" ... and then when we started playing they discovered that NONE of them could pull ANY aggro off me. 8 Tankers on the team ... and ALL of the aggro, from start to finish, was entirely MINE ... on an Imperius Task Force. And when we finished ... they still couldn't believe the performance I'd gotten out of my Ice/Ice/Arctic Tanker, who I played more like a Brute than like a Tanker (meaning, VERY aggressively!).

I'd argue that part of the limitation(s) holding Banes back from increased build diversity is that they've got power mechanics that are advantaged ONLY by melee attacking. The whole "surprise attack" mechanic that Banes have from Hidden status only affects their melee attacks, not their ranged attacks. If the "when attacking from Hidden status" mechanic were broadened out to incorporate their ranged Mace attacks as well as their melee Mace attacks then you'd at least add a sort of Stalker/Sentinel hybrid kind of build style into the (sub)Archetype ... creating a ... Bane Blaster (a Banster??) that would be mildly unique.

Sounds like a job for ... HIJINX ... !!! Issue #1 cover was posted 11 Sep 2017 ...

Y'know, that sounds a lot like the reason why The Battalion NC$oft destroyed City of Heroes in the first place ... people were enjoying playing it ...

On second thought, you might want to go Dual Blades/Willpower instead of Katana/Willpower, so as to use the Dual Blades combo system for greater synergies than what you'd be able to get out of Katana alone. If memory serves, you'd be able to do a Katana/Wakazashi combo for the blades themselves (although the draw animation will almost certainly be a cross-draw instead of a 2 swords on one side like a "proper" Samurai). Under the circumstances of being a cyborg, I'm thinking that Dual Blades/Willpower would be the superior option for you.

I think you need to refer to what none other than Dechs Kaison said in 2011 about Dark Armor on a Tanker. He even provides video evidence of how powerful it is ... prior to alpha slots, prior to inherent stamina and prior to Bruising being added to Tankers. You may also want to read his Supermassive Black Hole guide on the same site posted in 2012. They were WRONG. And that's putting it "politely" ...

Right, which is why the IDEAL SOLUTION is to copy/paste Electrified Net Arrow from the Blaster Tactical Arrow into all of the Trick Arrow powersets to solve the problem of allowing Trick Arrow to natively ignite Oil Slick Arrow without requiring a power from outside the Trick Arrow powerset ... because Electrified Net Arrow natively does energy damage which would light the Oil Slick. Adding a "token" Fire DoT to Explosive Arrow in Archery would also seem to be warranted, so that Explosive Arrow can also reliably light up an Oil Slick with the "splash" of Fire DoT as well.

Put a Positron's Blast proc for energy damage into Acid Arrow and it CAN ignite Oil Slick ...

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot ...

I kinda figured you'd want to know all that, since it makes a BIG difference in how you want to slot (and play!) your Warshade build(s).

ALL Taunts are autohit versus $Targets that are not AVs and GMs. The only time you need accuracy on a Taunt power, regardless of Archetype, is when you're trying to use it on an Archvillain/Hero or Giant Monster (for what ought to be obvious reasons).

It is. The problem is that the forms add powers that NEED slots ... to the tune of some 11 slots minimum for Nova and some 16 slots minimum for Dwarf ... which adds up to a minimum of 27 out of 67 additional slots available ... and that number of slots for forms can easily increase beyond that towards 30 out of 67. That's a MINIMUM demand for 40% of the slots you get (27/67=0.403)! That's a HUGE chunk to take out of anyone! Now, I'm willing to negotiate on whether a 1 per 1 gain of slots in the form powers ought to add slots to every single form power granted (since 1:1 would probably create knock on side effects like you're suggesting here as being "too good not to take advantage of") ... but the flipside to that is that a 0 per 1 ratio is simply too low. As to where that Goldilocks Point would be is something that would need to be tested and verified ... but I'm (now) thinking that maybe a 1 "free" slot in form powers for the 3rd slot and 6th slot (so +2 and +5 additional slots) might be close to that Goldilocks Point for how many slots to grant to form powers for investing in the form itself. The limit of 6 slots per power would still remain in place (obviously). Nova Form: 1-2 Slot Nova Bolt: +0 "free" slots Nova Blast: +0 "free" slots Nova Scatter: +0 "free" slots Nova Detonation: +0 "free" slots Nova Form: 3-5 Slots Nova Bolt: +1 "free" slots Nova Blast: +1 "free" slots Nova Scatter: +1 "free" slots Nova Detonation: +1 "free" slots Nova Form: 6 Slots Nova Bolt: +2 "free" slots Nova Blast: +2 "free" slots Nova Scatter: +2 "free" slots Nova Detonation: +2 "free" slots Right now, currently, if you put +0 slots into Nova Form and then 6-slot all four of the form attack powers, that costs you +20 additional slots (out of +67 total). With the above ratios, if you put +5 slots into Nova form, in order to 6-slot all four of the form attack powers would cost an addition +12 slots (since they would have 3 slots courtesy of Nova Form slotting) ... for a total cost of +17 slots for 5 powers (Nova plus 4 form attack powers) instead of +20 slots for only the 4 attack powers and no slotting in Nova form. And just to lay cards on the table for this, purely for cross-comparison purposes with known build factors, my own personal Peacebringer build would benefit from this structural change like so: Nova Form: 1 Slot (current build for reference) Nova Bolt: +0 slots added Nova Blast: +4 slots added Nova Scatter: +3 slots added Nova Detonation: +5 slots added = +12 slots added = 17 total slots available (average 3.4 slots per power) Nova Form: 3 Slots (using this proposal for reference) ... +2 slots added Nova Bolt: +1 "free" slot ... +0 slots added Nova Blast: +1 "free" slot ... +3 slots added Nova Scatter: +1 "free" slot ... +2 slots added Nova Detonation: +1 "free" slot ... +4 slots added = +11 slots added ... gaining 2 slots (total) on Nova Form and 1 slot (free) on Nova Bolt = 20 total slots available (average 4 slots per power) Nova Form: 6 Slots (using this proposal for reference) ... +5 slots added Nova Bolt: +2 "free" slot ... +0 slots added Nova Blast: +2 "free" slot ... +2 slots added Nova Scatter: +2 "free" slot ... +1 slots added Nova Detonation: +2 "free" slot ... +3 slots added = +11 slots added (still) ... gaining 5 slots (total) on Nova Form and 2 slots (free) on Nova Bolt = 24 total slots available (average 4.8 slots per power) So in terms of investment expenditure ... and return on investment ... my own personal build for a Tri-form Peacebringer would net gain +1 additional slot to invest outside of Nova Form (so not much change there), whether I put 3 slots or 6 slots into Nova Form itself, relative to the baseline current formulation of not granting ANY additional slots to form powers for investment into the power for that form itself ... which sounds like it won't change all THAT much on the demand for slots overall at level ups, but which makes it possible for Nova form to be markedly more "useful" overall thanks to the added slots for the form powers. Doing the exact same thing for the Dwarf Form powers from my own personal build for a Tri-form Peacebringer yields these results: Dwarf Form: 2 Slot (current build for reference) ... +1 slot added Dwarf Strike: +4 slots added Dwarf Smite: +4 slots added Dwarf Flare: +4 slots added Dwarf Sublimation: +5 slots added Dwarf Antagonize: +0 slots added Dwarf Step: + 0 slots added = +18 slots added = 25 total slots available (average 3.57 per power) Dwarf Form: 3 Slot (using this proposal for reference) ... +2 slots added Dwarf Strike: +1 "free" slot ... +3 slots added Dwarf Smite: +1 "free" slot ... +3 slots added Dwarf Flare: +1 "free" slot ... +3 slots added Dwarf Sublimation: +1 "free" slot ... +4 slots added Dwarf Antagonize: +1 "free" slot ... +0 slots added Dwarf Step: +1 "free" slot ... + 0 slots added = +15 slots added = 28 total slots available (average 4 per power) Dwarf Form: 6 Slot (using this proposal for reference) ... +5 slots added Dwarf Strike: +2 "free" slot ... +2 slots added Dwarf Smite: +2 "free" slot ... +2 slots added Dwarf Flare: +2 "free" slot ... +2 slots added Dwarf Sublimation: +2 "free" slot ... +3 slots added Dwarf Antagonize: +2 "free" slot ... +0 slots added Dwarf Step: +2 "free" slot ... + 0 slots added = +14 slots added = 33 total slots available (average 4.71 per power) So in terms of investment expenditure ... and return on investment ... my own personal build for a Tri-form Peacebringer would net gain +3 to +4 additional slots to invest outside of Dwarf Form, whether I put 3 slots or 6 slots into Dwarf Form itself, relative to the baseline current formulation of not granting ANY additional slots to form powers for investment into the power for that form itself ... which is starting to sound a bit more useful for relieving the slot crunch faced by Tri-Form builds. Take the proposed changes for Nova and Dwarf forms and you wind up with as much as a potential +5 additional slots that can be spent anywhere on the build (which would definitely be helpful!) ... which is basically enough to 6-slot one more power that under current game circumstances would need to remain a One Slot Wonder™ power due to lack of available slots for investment. So a marginal improvement on slot crunch pressure, rather than an overwhelming improvement (that then needs to be nerfed into oblivion because it's just TOO GOOD). Thoughts?

Except ... for to get to south Steel Canyon from the base portal exit, all you need to do is take a short run/hop/flight/teleport to the Tram and pick South Steel. For south Independence Port, I often found the fastest way there was to actually use the base portal to Brickstown and then take the Tunnel to south Independence Port. It's not like we need to take 10-30 minutes of travel time to get around zones, not with Travel Powers available as early as Level 4 ...

I'm guessing that the reason why Seekers "fail to detonate on contact" is because they've missed their ToHit roll ... so they "can't detonate" and they just trail around vapor locked onto a $Target they can't hit and therefore can't self-destruct upon to do damage to them. Either that or they've got a "must be this close to detonate" trigger built into them and their Follow pathing to $Target runs into the same problem as doing a Follow on a $Target while Hovering does ... you automatically stop short of being within melee range and can't "reach" your $Target unless you move forward that last little fraction of inches ... and because Photon Seekers are DUMB and controlled by the NPC pathing AI they just never get into range to blow themselves up. Either one of those problems would be relatively simple enough to test for by changing parameters in the code (always hit, so no accuracy needed ... increase proximity range needed for detonation by 1-3 feet of radius). And best of all, it could potentially be both factors at the same time(!) leading to a non-trivial amount of QA testing needed to validate that all of the angles on the issue have been covered.

Something you might want to try as a further refinement would be combining Sleeves/Victorian Steampunk 01 with Gloves/Sleeves/Sleeves w/Skin for a slightly more "dressy" look with the jacket and corset look you've got going.

In my case, for my Huntsman (Crab) builds, I went for a full 6 slots of Call to Arms and Expedient Reinforcement because I wanted the 6-slot set bonuses to Defense for my Soldier, in addition to the 4-slot global recharge set bonuses. So that's a slightly different purpose/constraint than what you're working under here. If you're going to frankenslot like you have then the Overwhelming Force and Soulbound Allegiance Build Up procs slotted into Spiderlings is simply brilliant.

Noted without commentary.

INCONSISTENT Knockback is what I hate. Doing Knockback SOMETIMES but not ALL the time, consistently, is just annoying. When it's purely RNG based, with no way to influence or bias the RNG in any way so as to drag the odds towards consistency through build choices, that just becomes frustrating. Doing Knockback to some ... but not all ... of a group of $Targets is just annoying AND frustrating at the same time, because it increases the scatter factor in ways that are both unhelpful (random repositioning) and unhelpful (soft control on some but not all who are affected). The thing that I find most egregious about Knock effects, in all their forms, is that there's no way for the Player to "control" their Knock effects such that they can INTELLIGENTLY and DELIBERATELY use their Knock effects SELECTIVELY ... on demand ... during gameplay. That's because sometimes you want it and it's helpful to have it, but other times it's not and it's detrimental to the overall "flow" of combat. Being able to CHOOSE when to inflict full power Knock effects, and when to "pull your punches" so the Knock effects won't "rearrange the battlefield indiscriminately" then leads to an important DECISION POINT for the Player to control SKILLFULLY. Best way to achieve that in a City of Heroes context is a self affecting toggle (with no activation, animation or meaningful endurance cost) that automatically constrains all Knockback effects into being 0.67-0.75 MAG for KnockDOWN while the toggle is running ... so as to let Players CHOOSE ... on the fly ... as situations evolve and change in real time ... whether they want to be doing KnockBACK or merely KnockDOWN at any particular point in time with their powers. It would give Players the opportunity to CHOOSE how they want their Knock powers to perform/behave, and it wouldn't be an ALL OR NOTHING kind of affair like going to Null The Gull would be (as some people have suggested at other times on this topic).

Allow me to summarize what you just said. "I fell in the river and got wet! Fix it so I don't get wet when I fall in!" The obvious response to that is STOP FALLING IN THE RIVER!! ... but that doesn't occur to some people, so they keep falling in the river and blame the river for getting them wet, rather than doing something that prevents them from falling into the river all the time. Do you know WHY that is ... and I quote you ... "basically just a baseline expectation for any endgame build" ... ? The reason why is because endurance recovery/net usage is ONE OF THE FACTORS that you need to (and I know this is a difficult concept for you to grasp, so I'm pointing it out now) ... BALANCE AROUND ... in order to have a successful endgame build. You're trying to say that ... no ... you shouldn't HAVE TO balance around that factor (at all) as part of "any endgame build" ... while we're saying that not only YES YOU SHOULD but also that YES YOU CAN ... and that doing so is one of the reasons why endgame builds that are successful are successful in the way that they are successful. Or to put it another way, we're saying you need to learn how to twist your wrist to screw in a light bulb ... while you keep saying you shouldn't have to do that and that the world should just revolve around you so that the light bulb screws itself in for you so that you don't have to go to any effort of learning how to twist your wrist to screw in that light bulb (because it's not "fun" for you). And what's sad is that we shouldn't need to go to all this effort to point out that your assertions are founded upon a misunderstanding ... but so long as you desperately cling to that misunderstanding, thereby distorting your entire frame of reference and perspective, there's simply no getting through to you. GAME OVER.

For purposes of that specific comparison, Traps is FINE ... it's Trick Arrow that desperately (desperately!!) needs a balance pass to buff the powerset.

Yes ... but ... The point of synergy between the two powersets is the Parry-ish power in Katana (I forget the name of it offhand) that adds Defense (versus Smashing/Lethal if memory serves) and ... that's about it. It's better than nothing, granted, but it's not a whole lot. Super Reflexes is a LATE blooming powerset for Scrappers, where you basically need to be getting up into your 40s before you can start bringing it ALL together into a cohesive whole of powers and slots. Honestly? I'd say go Katana/Willpower for that, where you "get stronger/better" the more enemies you have around you. VERY Scrapperlock prone(!) without relying on a Rage/Fury mechanic to get the job done.