Redlynne

Well, they are by mez effects (stun, hold, confuse, etc.).

Feels a lot like THIS ...

The real distinction between Time and Traps is that Traps will generally favor a more "static" engagement strategy (plant the flag and fight there) while Time is going to be a bit more amenable to a more "mobile" engagement strategy. You won't really notice this difference all that much while soloing, since you'll be able to moderate your movement speed from group to group and be able to take things at your own pace ... but in a team context you'll find that the location specific powers of Traps will limit their usefulness, while Time will tend to "go with the flow" and keep up with the steamroller a bit better. Both sets have their strengths and weaknesses, not to mention edge cases in which they'll excel relative to the alternative. But in general, Time "loses less" by being mobile than Traps does.

Great work! Don't tell anyone(!) ... just in case any of the Homecoming Devs peruse the forums ...! It's what I do ...

Stealth IOs do not "block" the use of Stealth powers. The sources (power + IO) stack.

People who SAY they want "challenge" merely mean that they want their IWIN! buttons (plural) to work MOST of the time, rather than ALL of the time. What they don't want is to lose ... ever ... The problem with the Save (bat)Manticore mission is that it involves Arachnos. Their Lieutenants have a measure of MAG protection against mez. This makes it hard for a mez based character (Controllers, Dominators and some Fortunata builds) to successfully do what they are built to do ... mez to win ... because your mez powers "don't work" on the Arachnos Lieutenants like they would on almost anyone else.

Had to do some updating to my master keybinds.txt file owing to the fact that after the 64-bit client release of Island Rum, use of Shift and Control keys with the up/down/left/right keys like I'd been doing started producing some decidedly unwanted extra effects (namely, switching active application windows!). So to prevent that from happening, I moved my Ninja Run/Power Surge/Sprint keybind "set" away from the UP key over to the A key (with modifiers) and did a little rejiggering with the other keybinds I'd had on the Q and A keys in order to make everything fit. The Jump Pack is now keyed to Control+Spacebar, for example. So far, this has meant that I no longer see weirdness such as using Alt+Tab to deliberately switch to other apps on my computer and come back to find that Sprint has turned itself on, when it wasn't toggled on when I left the CoH client application. Y'know ... little things.

Finally got back around to playing my Kheldians again, and noticed something that produced a ... "Well that's odd..." Currently my Kheldians are still (level locked) at Level 6, so I've got Nova (going Tri-Form of course) ... and ... sometimes I can use the T1 Human Form power in Nova Form ... and sometimes I can't. And even better yet, I think I've found out WHY ... So ... this is a "bug report" that about an "unintended feature" which is actually beneficial (overall) for how the Kheldian plays, but which is explicitly not supposed to work. When you shift to Nova Form and you have your Human Form powers still visible in your trays, you will see that the T1 Human Form power is indeed greyed out, as is intentional by the Homecoming team. This part "works" as intended. However, if you have USED the T1 Human Form power while in Human Form ... and then shift to Nova Form, causing the T1 Human Form power to grey out ... if you've got a keybind to access the T1 Human Form power while in Nova Form ... you CAN USE the T1 Human Form power (when you shouldn't be able to) while in Nova Form. So here's 2 screenshots demonstrating this. Peacebringer Screenshot Warshade Screenshot To be honest, this "bug" (when it can be exploited) makes it a lot easier to play a Kheldian, since it gives Nova Form "enough" power to cycle without any recharge boosting, that I'm honestly of a mind to think that "fixing" it would be something of a shame. Furthermore, although the screenshots do not show it, the T1 Human Form power animates an executes "just fine" while in Nova Form without any animation or game mechanical weirdness. I suspect that what's happening here is a matter of premature optimization involved in the underlying coding produced by Cryptic/Paragon Studios that opened a "hole" in the permissions set which the implementation of Homecoming's adjustment that then permits this specific exploit to operate functionally, as demonstrated. Remember, you need to USE the T1 Human Form power on a particular zone map load (shared world or instanced) before you can use that T1 Human Form power while in Nova Form (when you shouldn't be able to). Once that "permission" is set, apparently it doesn't get rechecked, due to how the permissions get checked (and when) as a result of Form Shifting. Unknown at this time if this specific "bug" in the coding will resolve itself once Dwarf Form is taken (since my Kheldians that I can do this on reliably are only Level 6 as of yet, as you can see in the screenshots).

For that situation you need to unclick the green dot in the top right of the power bar.

Either Fortunata or Controller/Dominator for the Mez.

That would also work.

Um ... I never claimed that. I'm just pointing out that if you're expecting Tankerminding to "solve all the problems" for you, you need to ride more than just that One Trick Pony™. In that context, relying on Leadership rather than relying on the Fighting pool, is a superior choice in my opinion because Leadership is more "broadly applicable" both in and out of Tankerminding than Fighting.

This.

/jranger

The Hollows. Talos Island. Independence Port.

And that works ... so long as NOTHING EVER GOES WRONG ... like having AoEs tossed at you and all your Pets clustered up around you get hit because you only bothered to protect your Mastermind instead of your Pets ... because ... Tankerminding. I'm just saying, be careful of putting all your eggs in one basket (and assuming that no one will ever steal your basket).

Except ... soloing as a Mastermind IS team play!

Hop 'n' Pop ...

Fighting is only good for your Mastermind. Leadership is good for your Mastermind and every Pet you've got (and every Teammate). In the context of a Mastermind, there's no contest here. LEADERSHIP. Because you can 6 slot Maneuvers with the Reactive Defenses set and lose barely any Defense and global recharge compared to 5 slot of Red Fortune plus a Luck of The Gambler global recharge IO.

/em facepalm

Level 30 is adequate for reaching Level 27 slotting which allows "SO strength" enhancement values to be in effect when Exemplared down to Level 24. Not at +3 SO strength, granted ... but I wasn't getting greedy with my request. ^_~

I'd counter that a SR/MA Tanker is superior to a MA/SR Scrapper when it comes to Incarnate Trials and the like, simply because Storm Kick adds Defense for 10 seconds on the Tanker, rather than having a slightly boosted crit chance on a Scrapper. Also, on a Tanker you get +Damage for 3 seconds out of Eagle's Claw, which can apply to up to 3 attacks following Eagle's Claw (Thunder Kick, Storm Kick and either Cobra Strike/Crippling Axe Kick/Dragon's Tail) for a "guaranteed crit" style of damage magnification following an Eagle's Claw, rather than just a chance to crit for the 1 attack that follows Eagle's Claw. My thoughts on the topic can be found HERE ... although I'm almost certainly going to need to update and repost after the Tanker Buffs from Pineapple are pushed onto the Live servers for Homecoming.

If the counterpart powers already feature the FX, I see no reason why the Soul Noir FX cannot be proliferated to Soul Mastery ...

/jranger

Isn't there a Hero/Villain button up at the top in the center already? When you pick a Hero AT it'll automatically default to the blue theme ... and a Villain AT will automatically default to the red theme ... but you can swap by clicking on the Hero/Villain button.