Six-Six

Here's a round of Conga Rats for your first 50! Yay, you. 😃 You're in good hands with Sensei Oldskool. And my two infs (which seems less next to Plainguy's and the rest of the advise up there, but anyhoo). If you're not into the numbers like me (maths and I are also not that close of friends), then focus on your particular play style. While there's a very good reason why people throw the words def soft cap around, The Sentinel in general is a very forgiving AT. I have some toons with barely anything slotted in their secondaries and they can still walk away after a tussle. Is it their "be the best your can be"? not by a long shot. But one advantage of levelling up your toon the long way is that you develop a certain way to handle their strengths and weaknesses. so take the advise up there (as dang good as they are) and put your own spin to it. mess around a bit -- respec recipes are cheap -- until you fine tune it to be a build that works for you. Enjoy your spanking new 50 😃

I rarely have respec fails. I've done it in SG bases I've done in RWZ while an MSR was going on outside (I think, I'm pretty sure there was) I've done it in the middle of the street. And yes, I've done it with untrained levels I had one fail the other day (first one in maybe half a year), and I kinda remember having AH window open. So @tidge may be on to something.

Haha! priceless stuff from our childhood that shape us into the gallant men we are today.

This is your fault for picking an antiquated weapon in the age of laser guns and atomic hands. ...just kidding. I like Bows and Arrows to the point that I play them realistically (only ST attacks and Fire Arrow at the most -- only the Green Arrow can do justice to the boxer glove arrowhead). So I say AYE to your suggestion to put a slow in ALL attacks.

At the tailor, there should be an option for No Crab Back Pack, especially if you went either Bane or Huntsman or hybrid Gun-Bane. If it's still there, it won't show when you exit the tailor. The only time it shows is if you took any powers from the Crab Tree. If you have a build that that did, then your other two builds will have Crab legs. As for redraw, Spider's don't have the no-redraw option yet. One way around it is to use your AR powers consecutively and then your Mace powers and not alternate between them. Personally, I think ranged Mace is kinda meh. Melee Mace on the other hand hits like a freight train... from orbit... fired from a rail gun. So it would be better to take the Wolf Web Nade and Toxic Nade (fired from the gun) vs the mace... which leaves just the mace blast and beam volley, which aren't that great.

Right-O. Got Mean Green Demon to level 20. Build's coming along fine as he can hold his own as long as I watch the blue bar and he doesn't get ganged up on. Hardly have anything slotted because drops have been slim. Connection to Torchbearer seems to be stable enough, though I did die twice from being mapserved, but I don't count those (I swear I had 'em). I still have a handful of level 19 missions (because Cap Du Diable's got a bunch of good contacts). I'll park it there and wait for SG runs. As such, do we have a chat channel or discord so I can monitor if the Long Riders are mounting up? I'll be mostly in Reunion playing my solo alts. I'm global friends with Black Talon (Omega Fury), I wasn't quick enough to add Dona, and I can't believe we're not global friends, Crane. Anyhoo, I'll remedy that when we saddle up.

speaking of Ninjas, am I the only one secretly wishing there was an alternative animation for caltrops where you spit it from your mouth? Also, anyone else notice that Katana in all ATs is held by lefties?

If you're talking thematic-wise I suggest the following because the animation and over all concept goes well with /Fire: Electric (Zuko's twisted sister in Avatar), Dark (you can colour the Noir alt to bring it closer to a burning thing) if you prefer the slower energy projectile, if not Energy Blast works as well, and Rad (probably the closest to Fire visually plus you get eye-beams). Ice could also work (that guy from My Hero Academia... forget his name... No.2's son). If it was me, I'd go with AR and just use Flamethrower and Incenerator. 😃 Meta-wise, I'm not a bean counter myself, so I can't really say which primaries will benefit from the /Fire's talents.

Alrighty then. I coughed one up JUST for SG runs. 😃 Chatted with Omega Fury earlier, but I was on my last mish for the night as he stepped in. I hope I can catch all of yous at the right time. Internet gods seem to be chill so far. Quick question on crafting. I get the rules about crafting only drops and without handouts from Uncle Morebucks. How goes it with salvage components? If we've got the recipe be it whites or pvp, can we buy salvage from AH provided we can afford them? Hobo-style (which is how I play most toons) is strict even with salvage in that they have to come from drops.

How's this? 😃

Let me see if I can reconcile a western theme on my Ninja Demon. 😃

Incense let me in the door. Ha! I pity you poor polks, letting a trouble maker like me in. thanks and hope to run with you guys soon (just gotta get some chores done for the wife rn). wait... I just noticed all the cowboy references. Is there a thematic going on? I can cough up a new costume.

@cranebump If you're on, I'd appreciate an invite. I'll be on for the next hour or so depending on how long I can hide from the wife.

I blame PUGs... (aww... could you really, though??? look at those faces) On a PUG where hardly anyone knows everyone else, there's usually: that guy who'll try to run ahead or the other direction for some unknown reason as if the rest of the team is just there to boost mob spawns that guy who'll insist you stay in a tight group... for buffs (while he cops a feel) that guy who's got no idea what's going on and just stays with touchy-feely guy for security that guy who hasn't come to terms with his powers yet... like firing a PBAoE 5 yards from effective range (I dunno, maybe he likes watching the cool down timer) that guy who complains that you're using your powers the way you're supposed to, but not to his liking that guy who... oh hell, I could go on all day! the team members are hardly on the same page from the get-go... like getting to the mission door. members jump off in different directions only to see TT a few seconds too late. everyone's in it for their own personal agenda or fetish. that's why I rarely play with PUGs and prefer friends. On bigger SG runs, we wouldn't know who brought what, but there would still be a quick briefing and coordination (communication at the very least). I also enjoy all Spider runs, all archer runs, all storm runs, etc. (I can never catch MM Mondays and the saturday Tanker Tuesdays). In each run, roles are often defined, a common goal is understood and some sort of strategy is applied. There's one particular group that I enjoy where we don't slot IO sets and the reliance on your AT/power sets' comparative advantage is more pronounced. It's not a perma-death group, but we still make an effort not to die. I don't think IOs are completely to blame nor are they guiltless: they do help shore up my toons shortcomings but at the cost of power creep. Some of my friends are purists and stick with SOs. I'm just not as skilled as they are, so let me have my procs and set bonuses. In a similar light, the buggers I mentioned above are what I see. they probably see me in a similar way. they/we all have owr own sense of fun or fulfilment, so I don't rain on their parade, they don't piss on my cereal.

with awesome dental plan

you can also try /powexec_location Self Battle Drones

I play a lot of Dual Pistols. and Yes, I do toggle ammo type depending on the enemy and the situation. Though my default is Incendiary rounds, sometimes I toggle between all three on a tough boss as Toxic rounds debuffs damage, Cryo slows, and then back to Fire for damage dot. the Toxic and Cryo lasts about 10 seconds, and it does help. It's a bit tedious, but fun in its own way (animation is cool too). For Bio armour, I tend to prefer a certain adaptation depending on the level (defensive in the lower levels when I prioritise attacks, efficient in the mid levels when I still need to sort through my end recovery and consumption and offensive towards the latter levels when most things are in place and I just want MOAR dmg. Staff, I just stick to one form (I'm still learning the primary, though). Regarding the suggestions, I like them. 1) I do feel sentinels have the least contribution when teaming. A few Epic and Patron powers have a team buff/heal, but nothing to write home about. Having such versatility and utility as the need arises sounds awesome. It sounds like more work as Luminara pointed out, but I see potential in it. 2) And as per Aurora Girl's query, the toggled effects would be on top of your primary. So if your primary is Fire Blast, your attacks now become Fire dmg + to hit debuff, or Fire dmg + slow, or Fire dmg with -recovery, etc. Similarly, Sonic (which already has def debuff) gets + to hit debuff or + slow or -recovery, and so on and so forth. A sentinel with any primary can now switch attacks depending on the enemy or team composition. 3) I would also suggest that the toggles are enhanceable according to their category: the -to hit will accept to hit debuff IOs, +slow will take slow IOs, etc. On the surface this may sound overkill and unfair, but we still get the same number of slots. So allocating slots to the toggles becomes a challenge akin to distributing slots to a tri-form PB or WS. Of course, I have no clue whatsoever how feasible this idea is in terms of coding. But I hope the powers that be give it some consideration.

Right... I couldn't help myself. I rolled Mean Green Demon on Torch, red of course. I'll probably visit the bird when I get the chance so I can step on blue soil. Currently level 6, should be 10 in a few hours. So far, the internet gods have been good. could be better, but I'll take what I can get. I'll try to be on when you cowpokes are on (Thursday nights to Friday mornings EST?). I can make it around 9am to 3pm (that's 10pm to 4am my time) almost everyday, unless something out of the ordinary comes up. Hope I bump into yous.

There was something like that when I started playing when HC came back online. While you can double your XP from P2W lady and earn no inf in return, you could also turn of XP in Options. Doing so meant you instead get 2x the inf. It was revoked a few months ago and caused a huge stir among the farmers. These days, I still turn of XP as to not to out-level contacts; I never really checked if you still get 2x inf when you're below 50. in any case, for content and door missions, 2x the inf is just twice the chump change in your pocket. But for farmers, it was half their earnings! I don't know if I'm remember the next bit right, but I also had a chat with a GM once. And as you raise the difficulty on enemies, the more XP they potentially drop (defeating whites < purples), but the time you take to defeat them is also a factor. It takes you one shot to kill a blue boss, but 3 minutes to kill a purple boss; then the XP difference is negated. That's why on most of my toons, my personal sweet spot for optimum XP gain is +2x4 or +4x2 depending on the toon. Now going back to the OP and the implications of the proposal, while in theory you SHOULD get more rewards for more difficult tasks, in practise it becomes subjective and quite hard to balance: more difficult tasks has to standardised as being hard for everyone. Just because one guy puts in more effort to kill something that takes me two seconds doesn't mean he should deserves a bigger reward. What about me? I showed awesome skill and strategy and took the bugger in two shots--don't I deserve some special treatment? I personally think the XP reward system in the game is rather lenient. I've been on teams where a brute would wipe out the entire mob while I was desperately trying to put a dent on one. Yet the entire team gets rewarded for his efforts. Solo, it becomes more pronounced. But what's easy for one can be difficult for another; what's good for one player/AT may not be for another. You have to take a look from the wider perspective and not just your personal experience (may they be negative or positive) before you ask for something that affects ALL of us. I think the current HC team is doing a fantastic job handling this difficult task--and with no rewards for them at that.

The AH is a strange and mysterious place. Pay no attention to the "recent prices" listing. After a while you'll get familiar with how much a certain thing costs.

I feel the exact same way with kids these days... LOL, ROFLMAO, WTF (which incidentally is not Wow! That's Fantastic). But I suppose after a while, you do get used to them. MoXXX means Master of XXXX, where XXXX is a particular task force or trial. MAG is Magisterium Trial [https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Magisterium_Trial] ITF is Imperius Task Force or properly known as Times Arrow task force in the LFG Queue LGTF is Lady Grey Task Force LRTF is Lord Recluse Task Force MC is Market Crash APEMAGE or TINPEX is a back to back run of Tin Mage TF and Apex TF MSR is MotherShip Raid in RWZ, Rikti War Zone (also sometimes known as Lag Fest, though not to be confused with the Hami Lag Fest or Eden Lag Fest) There's more but I need to go IRL

Animation-wise, MA has alternatives that replace 3 powers with punches instead of kicks. The animation itself is a bit lack-luster and feels somewhat slower, but you do get a nice mix of kicks and (just) right hooks--which might work for you since he'll have his shield on his left arm. I have an MA/Shield and it's a fun toon to watch. Street Justice, on the other hand, feels more organic and gritty (also have one with a shield... as well as super strength... so I guess those anecdotes don't help at all). between the 3 shield brawlers, though, I personally prefer MA... then again, I was consciously trying not to get too close to Captain America... my toon feels more like Task Master or Widow when she used the shield. While I can't be sure of your intent, I think Street Justice would be more of what you're looking for. So TLDR: MA can be a mix of kicks and punches, but looks like he's had some formal training in some form of martial arts SS gives a feeling of more brawn, less brains St.J seems to be the sweet spot for a nice and gritty with just enough finesse Meta-wise, I'm afraid I don't have the authority to give any semblance of advise on which is better and why.

This most definitely smells like a Nemesis Plot:

On Reunion where I frequent, they have a weekly "casual" run of the list you had. On such runs, the league leaders are quite helpful in explaining what the goal is, what the plan is, and what to expect. This is to get players comfortable in the respective trials. I'm sure other shards have something similar. As for task forces, running around like a headless chicken on your first run is... normal I suppose. I don't there's any other way to get your feet wet but to jump in head first. You'd be lucky if your PUG walks you through it (which does happen), otherwise you just get familiarity from repetitive runs. Or you can try them solo. Most of the sub-50 TFs are soloable, depending, of course, on your AT/powers, difficulty and skill.