Six-Six

I disagree, @Carnifax. I think Leadership and other pool powers should not be allowed to run while shifted. to me, the pool powers are human traits, which should only affect the human form (may just be my interpretation of the lore and such). the squid is devastating enough even without assault and tactics, while the lobster is tanky enough without maneuvers or tough + weave, for instance. making them active while in alien form would make give the PB an unfair advantage... and this is me from the pov of the PB. the squid has a nice trade off between blaster level damage in exchange for def/res, and the lobster vice versa. again, just my humble opinion and position. I do however would like the human toggles (whatever secondary and tertiary toggles were on at the time of the switch) to automatically turn back on when switched to human form. and if anyone has a macro or keybind to do that, I would greatly appreciate it.

Ah, @cranebump and @Grindingsucks... why am I not surprised to find you two here. Anyhow, I have a hardcore toon on Everlasting, currently level 19. he's my third hardcore toon attempt, corruptor. he's a duplicate of a toon I have in Reunion, 50 but no incarns yet. the first one (arachnos soldier) never made it past 22 in the span of several months, must've re-rolled him a dozen or so times from dying stupid deaths (like being too close to a bomb, standing outside during an invasion, etc.) the second one (defender) was made for duo-ing with a friend, but he lost interest before L15 and when he left, so did I (with the concept). My personal rules are: permadeath. dying = rerolling and losing everything the previous "incarnation" had. no XP boost, AE, TFs no purchases (except hand grenades from p2w lady... only because it fits my thematic concept) enemy level increases every 10 levels after 20. I play mostly solo since being on TF with non-hardcore toons is very risky to my well being. anyway, @Whataguy, if you're interested in working together, to experience content as the priority (rather than to accumulate power and XP), and to have an immersive experience, have a look at Everlasting's .38 Specials care of the two blokes I mentioned above.

@tavmminqat or another option would be: see your toon to it's full potential (to 50, with sets and incarns). then roll a duplicate for the purpose of .38's then just PL him/her. slot it according to house rules. I've done this with a few toons (that I really enjoy but have had the challenge sucked out of them by power creep). and it's nice to compare what an OP toon can do and what a .38-er can't. personally, I like the limitation. it makes the hero feel a little more relatable and somewhat realistic (in a purely fantastic setting, that is). 😃

Awesome work as always. Thank you HC peeps, gms and devs. you guys rock!

Hey hey. got the discord. Will be working on my bio for the dossier section. Dibs on room #6 please 😃

sorry, that's my bad. no official upcoming changes to Poison Trap. I read or recalled it wrong. sorry. I was following a thread under Suggestions and Feedback and confused it with the Release Candidate post.

I love Traps. My BR/Traps Corr is my most favouritest (and strongest) of my corruptors. I'm playing a Merc/Traps and Traps/DP Fender atm. Web nades are chosen for you, so I just stick in a chance to disorient proc in it. it's there, so may as well make use of it from time to time. I don't rely on it, but I've found the proc to fire quite often. the immob itself hits like just half the time or less. I didn't bother with Time Bomb as well. too much trouble to set up and coax the buggers to get to it. I have more use for Acid Mortar and Trip Mine than Time Bomb. I'm rather excited for the changes they're bringing to Poison Trap. The rest are awesome. On paper it doesn't seem strong, but in practise, it performs quite well.

on all of my toons, I make it a point to pick up Tactics and six slot it with Gaussian. awesome 6-piece set bonus. On blasters, I try to build for ranged res/def even when I'm blapping, just to minimise mez on me. some of them are good enough that I don't need to pick up Rune of Protection. ya, I get mezzed, but it only lasts a second or two and I can still attack with T1 and T2 so it's no big. Numi's 6 piece is also a nice one (if not that, I usually 6 slot Prev Med). speaking of blapping, picking up those melee powers open up slotting choices even if you dont use them. Mako's or Touch of Death are good ones.

Here's another way of looking at it: I like taking Provoke over Pacify, then opening up the rest of Presence pool for the last three powers which are the most useful to me -- intimidate, invoke panic and Unrelenting. Since Provoke is there, I use it from time to time when one of my henchmen is getting overwhelmed and not the me overwhelming the enemy. Provoke can also take taunt IOs like Zinger and Beratement, which have some decent set bonuses. I just usually single slot intimidate with a fear proc, 2-slot Invoke panic also with a fear proc and end redux, and full set of healing IO in Unrelenting (Numi or Preventive depends on what the toon needs).

blue side's too dang bright... both in atmosphere and spirit. gimme a redside hospital (stuff of nightmares and ghost stories) any day of the week.

It's part of making sure you're not a walking arsenal, I suppose. 😃 Come to think of it, I've never tried using the Ghost Slaying Axe with my DP guys to see if it has the same vanishing effect. I know Gab's Hammer works fine. so there's hope.

I'd like to add another tactic I use to manage aggro. When the mobs come for you, just run towards the tank or brute and jump over them (not too high, though) or just run past them. tanks have a taunt aura that usually snags these buggers, leaving you free to wreak havoc without looking over your shoulder.

If it's any consolation, I also like playing Brutinators 😃

Here's a slightly different take from a noob: I like blapping because it gives me access to melee IOs and some really nice set bonuses.

This I can relate to. Fire/Fire was my first ever blaster after having learned the ropes with Sentinels. The difference in damage was unbelievable, and so was survivability. I packed a helluva punch...when I was on my feet. But half my playtime was running from the hospital back to the mission door. It was so bad, I think I now have a serious relationship with the Nurse at every city's med bay. Then I learned a few things: 1) the thing that would kill me was the mez. I get mezzed (a lot) and things went south faster than you can say "I'll see you in the Hospital". So I asked around how to slot for mez protect--which is ranged res/def, as it was how mez got to you. 2) manage aggro. mobs will target the biggest threat unless something else catches their attention... like a meaty cannon fodder... I mean tank. 3) blasters don't have inherent defence, so you have to use a power pick. invest in def and res powers. and then augment these with set bonuses to shore up weak points. With those in mind, and after a bajillion respecs, I finally fixed him. Now, my fire/fire/fire/pyro is such a beast that playing him feels like cheating. I rarely play him nowadays, though as he's so dang OP it's hardly a challenge anymore.

Ooh, right up my alley 😃 I've tried most of the combinations of soldiers: Huntsman + Mu, Crab + Mu, Crab + Mace, Bane + Mace, Huntsman-Crab + no patrons, and a Huntsman with no patron powers (SG purposes). My 7th one is still a lowbie, but he'll be a huntsman as well, not sure about patrons yet though... maybe soul, I dunno. Of my 7 spiders, my strongest would be my tankermind crab + Mace mastery and Pure Bane + Mace mastery. both of them have armour until next Tuesday and are quite tough. I think I'm a bit partial to Mace Mastery for the pet spider though. Both of them can solo and handle AVs in their own way. the crab is just a walking army of 8-legged freaks. he's got range + melee, ST + AoE and he can handle mobs like nobody's business. Bosses and AVs tend to give him trouble, but he's patient and crafty. the bane is the opposite: solos +4 AVs with ease, but tends to have trouble with large mobs, only because the mace attacks animate slow. She can one-hit +4 lieutenants from the hidden crit. I once went AFK in a hurry, leaving my bane in the middle of a mob. her health didn't budge one bit by the time I got back maybe half an hour later. Unfortunately, I don't have mids, so I can't easily share builds. and I'm too lazy to type everything down as a list (sorry). that said, you're welcome to ask specific questions on my build, though I would warn you, I'm not of the min-max camp and I have 101 toons, so inf and IOs are in short supply. I tend to prefer cheap builds and rarely have any purples. Even with my cheap builds, these spiders are very very enjoyable. hmm... pros and cons. I like spiders because they're so versatile. you can go ST, AoE, range, melee. but that could also be their downfall. the more types you pick, the more middle-of-the-road you are and will have a hard time maxing out damage or efficacy of your attacks. they don't have a no redraw option. a way around it is lining up similar weapon attacks (i.e. my huntsman crab or huntsman mu does all all rifle chain then all crabby legs or mu attacks to minimise redraw since the rifle doesn't redraw when you shot and use nades). I also prefer huntsman even though they're arguably weaker, but the attack chain seems more fluid for me. besides, the crabby legs are heavy to lug around on yer back. 😃 with spiders, I never seem to have enough slots (more so than any other AT). spider pets are not controllable unlike MM pets. they tend to do be on Aggressive and Attack Everything mode all the time. there are tricks to getting them to follow your lead, though. and for teaming, your double-dipped Leadership makes everyone happy just by you showing up. Any damage you do is just gravy on top. Hope that helps. feel free to ask anything. I'll try to oblige with my noob's wisdom. 😃

Ultramarine (Rogue SoA) is now at 34. last few powers and slots 😃 Just gathering the procs to slot. Renamed her to Six-Six Otto Volt (elec/elec brute) is at 15... to be capped at 20 for the teen/sidekick team suggested by @Steampunkette. I chose to cap at 20 so the Prestige Enh still work--need all the help I can get at that level... or is that not allowed? otherwise, he's running on raging hormones alone. Haven't had time to flesh out the bios. but Ultramarine def has a problem with authority.

Haha. that was me. no worries. kinda on the fence with Ultramarine (arachnos soldier). I do have an elec/elec brute that I'm playing now for the sole purpose of a teen team/side kick. He'll only go as high as level 20. he's just a kid, so not strong at all... which I love. While still trying to decide which one I'll level up for the .38 Specials, I figured I'd go ahead with the Issue 0 toons I had planned and leave them in the time eddy to be part of the .38's. 😃 BTW, renamed my Issue 0 Blastro to Black Atom. new costume, slightly different character write up (for RP). hoping to pump some fresh steam into his play time. 😃 I

Another awesome project idea. why am I not surprised that "the usual suspects" are in this thread 😃 . You guys got me hooked bait, line, and sinker. Already rolled a toon. But with my house being remodelled IRL, I'm afraid I can't commit to playing for the next month or so. (as some of you have noticed with the Issue 0/ 2004 group).

gods, I miss 2004. been busy IRL with house remodel. costing me an arm and a testicle and much needed play time. hopefully work on the house will be finished soon so I can go back and save/destroy the human race. 😃

I have both... plus an elec/elec/elec Fender. between the 3 of them, I can't decide which one is the most fun to play. they're all awesome and incredibly tough. The blaster tends to die more, only because I play him maniacally aggressive. I also have an elec/elec dom on the way 😃 Pro tip. if you customise the elec attacks to red, they become stronger. bright yellow is a very close second.

For the Emperor!

Wow. seems like I've missed a lot. Been having some major repair done to my house so I rarely get to play lately... too tired or too busy. On top of that, my keyboard's gone wonky. Had to plug in an auxiliary keyboard (old and also wonky) and switch between the two for certain keys. Haha. Wonky keyboards have left my higher level toons unavailable right now as some of their smoother chains are keybound for extra smoovness. Guess I'll have to go back to clicking UI buttons. We have a CoV version now? I hope I can catch you guys. and shout out to @Soyuz. nice to find you here with these folks. Soyuz and I are also doing the Pool Powers Only challenge... which I'm also a delinquent. 😃 Ok. rolled these buggers for CoV: Brute: Killwatt, Elec/Elec Dominator: Hypno-Sis, Mind/Psi

I heard you can. but being a total tool with those type of things, I would prefer a UI version... but I've done fine just eye-balling it. 😃 no complaints

You know you can save a) your costume specs b) your scales and c) your power customisation colours--even until incarnates and load them up through a surgeon. If we were going to request for a substantial change to costume management, I would recommend scale sliders with numeric values so you can remember/copy the exact scale changes to your toon.