Six-Six

hardcore mode rules dictate that I raise difficulty a notch every 10 levels starting at 20, ending at +4 for 50 onwards. mob sizes differs on AT, but most permadeath toons stay at x1. on non-hardcore toons, I've found that +4x2, +3x5/6, or +2x8 (depending on the AT/powers) are my sweet spots for gaining the best XP for effort put in. anything higher eats up too much time. However, the recent extra XP gain has screwed that formula up and I end up out-levelling a lot of contacts or favourite arcs.

I load it with procs to give it more utility. I've found that Overwhelming's KD procs a lot. two fear procs (+disorient and Neg Psi Dmg), Cloud Sense's Neg Dmg, and Trap of the hunter's Lethal Dmg to give it more of a bite. I mule the pet def and res on Haunt. The Umbra Doggy's res is sufficient enough to be survivable in most tangles. Sometimes I coat it with Spirit Ward for extra absorb and a bit of regen. I like the theme of it, yes even the howling. the way it reacts to the colour palate can be challenging, but it does fit most of my character bios. It's not an integral part of the build as I can run missions without it, but it adds a fun factor and staves off a bit of loneliness since I tend to solo most of the time. I do wish the devs would implement pass-through like MM pets as I get blocked by my own pet sometimes. That plus superjump like MM pets. it tends to have trouble following me when I bounce off as it has to find a walkable path towards me, unless I'm far enough then it just ports to my side. maybe a bit of better leashing would be nice. It tends to get trapped specially in stairs. Some toons, I can't pick tp friend/foe which would solve that. I do find that it's a little less rando than 'lings and spider blasters which go all over the place. The doggo tends to be more obedient... sometimes a little too obedient as it sits behind you not attacking what you're attacking if it's a considerable distance away (70ft???).

I only played when HC went public (2019???). Also old only in body, not balding, not overweight, and all (not mostly) male.

I experienced a minor glitch just now. Running Kristoff's final mission, Rescue Prof Vines, I was leading him out of the ship to the extraction point. Out on the deck, I lost leashing for a second, triggering his NPC dialogue, which also alerted me to go back for him a few steps. However, he sank to his knees and refused to budge even after his name had turned back to green (prompting leashing is back). I've run this arc countless times and this was the first time something like this has happened. I don't know if it helps but sometimes I clear all the longbow on the ship, and sometimes I don't--just getting rid of certain ones on the path to the exit. This time it was the latter. Other than that, I don't think I did anything different. He did get back on his feet after a few minutes.

I have the exact opposite reaction. After 3 years or so, I decide to play blue again. Couldn't stand it. everything was too bright: the atmosphere, the lighting, the attitude of the players and even some NPCs. Anyone who regained consciousness in a red side hospital should understand the importance of atmosphere. Gold side, I don't mind as much. It's just as bright, but there's a hint of tyranny oppression and fascism to even things out. Red side is still the best side for me. And until they release an Oranbega expansion with all the zones as endless Circle of Thorns temples (stoopid torches!!!) that's where I'll live out my days.

is it too late to request for Troller and Dom pets be pass-through like MMs?

I have an opposite experience. After the forced shutdown, I found 5 duplicate IOs in my AH Stored window. these were the 5 IOs that I removed from the AH Stored space right before the emergency maintenance. I suppose I'll just leave them there until the Devs resolve them.

Ninja is one of my favourite secondaries on a blaster. I like to compliment the blade attacks with combat teleport... so pew pew with primaries, then blink to your target and slash. the wasp and butterfly have a satisfying crunch to them... the lotus, not so much so sometimes I skip it. The others Nin powers do come in handy and I take most of them depending on the toon's bio. Nin on Sents does have stealth... the same value as Blasters. And yes, sentinels lack the Sniper power most blasters have. but it's not a deal breaker for me. you just have do adjust your mindset that you're NOT a blaster.

Do a search for @Solarverse. He's got one as well as other cool sound mods.

I just noticed a slight bug with weapons. On an Arch/Nin blaster, choosing Knives of Artemis Blade for katana overlaps with any bow so when you use an archery power, you're holding both the bow and blade at the same time. Using a /Nin power doesn't show the bow, though.

All of them, including my current toon. I just happen to live in a very dusty corner of this flat earth.

After 3 years of playing, I have still yet to feel any semblance of slowing down or deteriorating interest. One factor is how I treat missions. I like to be anal with mission directives. "Steal" missions means stealthing and trying to avoid enemy contact... being detected even if I need to get rid of a guard to access an object, I feel the mission wasn't a perfect success. Defeat "_____" means minimal contact, usually just the target and his boo or the immediate ones in the room. Kidnap so-and-so, you need to carve out an escape route, preferably through as few guards as possible. So unless it states defeat all, I try to strictly follow this rule. stick to the mission objectives, no more no less. The only downside of this is less drops; I don't mind the less XP from not killing foes as I try to control the levelling up speed anyway as to not out-level certain contacts. Speaking of contacts, I try to get through every contact within a zone for a particular level. In Mercy for example, I do Kuzmin, Burke, Firewire, Creed, Kalinda, Harris, Mongoose, Graves and Marino, (leaving just Weber as a Pillar mission... for the Agent of Chaos badge) in a certain order since half of the buggers are level-locked. Other than that, I also believe concept is king. After the first few toons to learn the ropes, I too tried the meta build (aka Winter-PvP-Purple-soft cap), but I found it boring. I instead preferred D-list villains who would shake in their boots if they bumped into a red-conned Lt.. Costume, power sets/power picks and play style are dictated by the toon's concept. Just because a certain power is open doesn't mean you should take it if it doesn't jive with the overall character concept (i.e. an AssRifle toon that takes only submachine gun powers and not buck or flamethrower). Similar to @Glacier Peak's blue bar, I have a /dark miasma toon whose concept is blood (yes, red+maroon power colours with red slime aura) so using his own blood for his powers is taxing on him. As such, I didn't go meta with his recovery and purposefully left it a notch below comfortable. This means he has to choose/plan his altercations because he can't handle a prolonged tangle. Toons that don't have a Magic origin have no right to take the Sorcery pool; similarly toons with no business flying don't and those with no rationale to be able to use super speed or super jump just have to foot it. So I treat getting to a mission in one piece part of the fun. Navigating through Oakes' Family-friendly streets as a lowbie or infliltrating Agincourt's purple-conning guards and turrets is fun in and of itself. Finally, I've realised the what gives me the most fun is the fear of death. For well over 2 years now, all my toons have been hard core hobo: you pay your own way up and you die you delete. The current toon I'm playing has been "regressed" back to breaking out of the Zig more than half a dozen times already over the last few months.

Yes. just have a build that has a crab power. i.e. Build 1 is your actual Bane build. so either Build 2 (or Build 3) can have a crab power that you don't even have to slot if all you're after is the legs. Doing so is purely for aesthetics as the crab pack won't have any useable powers in the bane build. You can select and modify your build with the trainer or type: /selectbuild 1.

Also note that the crab legs will show up on any build as long as one of your 3 builds has chosen a crab power.

Hi. This happened on the first mission for Dr. Graves' first arc (level 5). Everything was normal until I reached Crosscut and the two longbow personnel. the only thing I remember doing differently from countless other times running the arc was dashing off to crosscut right after talking with Dollface. The dialogue box conversation with her had just ended as I attacked the longbow. The rest of the group showed up, but this time, there were two Dr. Graves. Only one of them was clickable for the ending dialogue.