Without_Pause

Have it where level 50s can lose their names after a number of years. Give the players the ability to select one or more characters as an 'Icon' so that name stays. Maybe even do it to where people can pay for it, and use the money as a way to pay for the monthly cost of running the game. There's very few names I would be disappointed to lose, and even fewer of them would I even think others would want.

I've recently thought about a Symphony/dark Dom, but for 'generally useful,' a Def is going to win out.

If you have the money, you will never slot anything TO, DO, SO or ever again. Common IOs can be crafted/had for cheap. I can slot out a build of level 25 IOs at around 2-3 mill. If you feel the need to slot out level 30-35s, I don't think it is going to be that much more. You can be level 50 with those common IOs and be fine for general content. That's what I did until I finally broke down and learned how to do builds on Homecoming. In all of my time on Live despite having billions of influ I rocked out level 25 common IOs. SOs are a god awful terrible money sink of yesteryear. I literally don't understand the slotting of one. If you are new and thus poor, don't forget you can grab uncommon IOs versus the in demand ones. I have grabbed uncommons for 100k where the more popular ones sell in the millions. A number of the crappy IO sets have all of 3-4 IOs. Early on a number of powers will have all of 3-4 slots put into them until later. The devs understood this. Frankenslot if need be. An Acc/End from one set and a Acc/End from another is better than a common Acc and End. You get a free respec every ten levels. Use them. In terms of currency, I make a new character. Solo Matthew Habashy's arc. Do a DFB. Complete the first two contacts of Hollows with grabbing a team for Frostfire because that's an easy fill. You should have enough Merits to convert those over to 84 Enhancement Converts. While there are far better uses for those than selling them on the Market, selling all of them at 70k generates 5.88 million - fees. So yes, you can instantly afford a level 50 build of level 25 common IOs while being all of level 13, or so. I recently did that on a controller. Generate enough seed money so you use the converters for actual converting and that near six mill can be done in a few clicks. Getting seed money is more annoying than hard and you only really need less than 2 mill. Do the above and get your initial currency, and then do Posi 1 & 2, to get more Merits. You are off and running. Said controller is 16, has yet to do either Posi, and is sitting at roughly 40 mill. I've become hellbent on doing Posi 1 at level 17. That's where the good stuff starts with End Mod. You also get a chance to slot up a level 16 power which odds are is important. If you have the influ for PVP and ATOs, then great. It's perfectly fine to slot in some level 15 commons or attuned uncommons. The cheap stuff is great to have on hand until you can hit level 27 and hopefully start to respec into some of the better sets. Strip out the lesser stuff, and store it in your base for the next characters. Since you are using IOs, you won't care about the new character's origin. Synapse and Citadel are slogs and most in need to being redone. New TFs are nice, but those do need to be revisited.

Uncommon salvage is silly now. I saw multiple buys at 50k-100K. I spent the weekend adding storage for uncommons and dumping what I had in there and using it to fuel my recipes to convert. I rarely dual box these days, but at this point I can grab a couple 50s and blow through some content while working on their incarnate abilities. So congrats evil marketers, you've made me 'farm' again. 😉

I've seen a few 'Not really Hulks' running around as of late. What I don't get is Hulk's look isn't really all that great. I can make a Hulk type character and make them look far better, but here we go 'green skinned guy in pants #over 9000!'

Empathy for Defenders is due to 'We need a healer" trope and Kin on the others simply due to Fire's damage in both cases. But still, TA would instantly drop to under 1% played if Defenders could self buff themselves. Traps which gets played even less would also not benefit from this. Yes, Traps is at least middle ground for MMs. It's the only AT which gets even remotely decent play out of it.

If a Kin can SB themselves than the need for Transference becomes incredibly low. If you can't see the issue with Thermal and Sonic getting shields themselves, then we are agreeing to disagree. FF and Cold is less of an issue since capping Def in the needed places isn't that difficult.

I recently made a Savage/rad Brute using the black and blue color scheme. I used the thorn pattern, and wile I do like it, this is pure, "Son of a...That's even better."

A Kin is going to get numerous attempts at pulling off Siphon Speed. It would be incredibly abnormal for that to not hit consistently. Kins don't lack endurance due to Transference. Yes, it needs to hit, but as someone who has taken Kin to 50 more than once and one of them was my main, End really isn't an issue. Based on March 2020 data, Emps were more than double Kins as the most played Defender in terms of ones at 50. TA and Traps combined weren't even 10% of Emps. Now imagine Emps being able to self buff. FYI, TA was 1.6% of Defenders at 50. That's outright unicorn status even before a huge change to the AT in which they benefit nothing from it.

Kins essentially already are buffed. You are really only looking at ID as something they don't currently benefit from. People are also missing the fact that TA would completely miss out on self-buffing the caster.

Kins don't really need to be Speed Boosted. They are that by default.

Dumbest in what regard? I was thinking for overpowered and while Sonic is in the running as capping Resist is harder, Thermal is right there, but with heals as well. Cold and FF are basically soft capping Def which can be done easily enough in the needed areas so in the realm of self buffing,

For the Storm side of things, FR isn't worth slotting for damage. You do want to slot a -Res proc in it. Hurricane you slot for ToHit Debuffs. Steamy Mist is where you can load up on one slot wonders for Def and Res IOs. O2 Boost as well. Steamy Mist should never be 1 slotted. Take slots from FR.

Do you literally have two KB to KD slotted in the same power? I didn't even think that was possible. The build is a mess. You slot controls for damage. You are a controller. Slot as if you are one. The ATOs are going to be giving you the best benefits for your controls and you. There are all sorts of questionable power picks, or the lack of picking something like Hot Feet. I haven't IOed out the Storm side of things, but I would at least try to figure out the Fire side and go from there. I figure if I can do one half of the two sets, that gives me an idea of what I have left for room for the other side, and I can go from there. Char gets Overpowering Presence. Flashfire get Will of the Controller. Cinders gets Lockdown. Hot Feet gets a PBAoE set of your choosing although one which has ample End Redux would be ideal. 5 slot it with the PBAoE set and then one slot for Fury of the Gladiator -Res proc. I did Bonfire with Annihilation 5 slotted skipping on the D/E and putting in a KB to KD IO for the 6th slot. I did 4 slots of Expedient Reinforcement on the pets, but if you have slots for 6-slotting it, go for it. If you want to take the immobilization powers, by all means slot those for damage. See, it is like you are almost half way there. 😛 You will want to indirectly gain at least +4KB protection. That can be done via a shield and a ranged attack. You will also want to monitor your End Recovery versus End Drain in the Totals tab. You easily want more than a point difference in the favor of end recovery. You can factor in the stat boosting accolades and going Incarnate, but get it fixed before that if you want to enjoy leveling. FYI, you want Stamina three slotted with Power Transfer: End Mod, Power Transfer: Chance to Heal Self, and Performance Shifter: Chance for +End. That Power Transfer: D/R is doing nothing for you outside of a set bonus. Bah, I forgot. Hasten only needs two slots. Two level 50 IOs is more than enough. More so if you get them both with +5 added on.

Facts. I was on a team with my TA/ice and so much of my attacking was the rain and nuke with some token ST attacks.

It has a long history of a less than desirable animation time. It has gotten better, but it still isn't great. I'm aware the damage fits for the animation time, and the size of the cone was improved. The closest thing I use to it is Spin, but Spin is known for being overly good and more so on a Scrapper. It is also a PBAoE and requires no lining up.

The problem with the Blasters listing is it merely taking into account personal ST damage. Case in point, they are using Dehydrate as part of its ST attack chain. Meanwhile the set has ample amounts of AoE, KD, the ability to proc a lot, and the previously mentioned Dehydrate as a way to heal. Sonic for the team factor in terms of damage should rank higher.

After making a Symphony controller today, Symphony/dark was one of the options I looked at for a Dom. I would like to at least get my Dark/dark Dom to 50 before I made another Dom.

Water is outright fantastic.

Considering the Wind control thread got rezzed, I'm not so sure talking about other servers is that big of a no no. Numbers would need to be looked at because if it is just a straight self buff, then yeah, that's an incredibly unbalanced way to do it. It also doesn't mean Homecoming is or should do it as well. The game is so incredibly weighted towards characters these days I can't imagine adding in more ways to buff characters. Do we really want 4-star content to be equivalent to +4/x8 PI radios?

Being in melee is trickier for TA though. I have a Fire/time, and I'm still trying to smooth out the experience on that build.

RE: /ta I hadn't done Symphony yet, I went back and forth with making characters and taking them to level 3 only to switch, but I ended up back at /ta. Why? Symphony plays at range with the cones and /ta loves being at range. Symphony has some soft controls which do damage. /ta offers more control so those softer controls gain more chances at containment. Play it like a Dominator. Slot for damage on the soft controls. I have planned out Dreadful Discord to have a Fire proc and -Res. Enfeebling Lullaby has an Energy proc and a Fire proc. Those procs can light OSA for me so I don't need to grab something like Arcane Bolt. Confounding Chant, Chords of Despair, and EMP Arrow for AoE containment, and then Dreadful Discord, Enfeebling Lullaby and OSA for the AoE damage. I only have a first pass at slotting done. I'm most of the way there with IOs. I just need to look at numbers and go from there. I'm not sure how happy I am with using a damage proc in Flash Arrow in order to get the Def bonus. If I can skip on it, I will. The build itself is level 13.

It would be nice to pair Wind/kin due to the stacking -dmg.

I didn't get into making builds until Homecoming. Grab Mids and start hacking away at it. The ATOs are easy enough to place. The AoE Hold to a default gets Lockdown. Look at other builds and see what tends to get taken. I find there is a lot of similarities between what gets slotted for various powersets. Its fine if the build sucks. I have been known to do a walkthrough of a build 3-4 times before I am happy. At that point post it online and let people look at it. The biggest thing about Fire/storm is you want to make sure you cover End because that thing is going to suck your End bar dry without much effort. I would three slot it with Performance Shifter: +End, Power Transfer: End Mod and Power Transfer: Chance to Heal Self. Stick whatever you can into Health with giving you +End.

I've never seen someone try so hard to not show a powerset in a video about the new powerset. Literally 15 minutes in and he's still running around just using the attacks from the other powerset. The sound is cranked so high at times I can't hear him.