Six-Six

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.

I rolled a Dark/MA some time back. played it until mid 20s, but couldn't get into the groove. Everything was just janky. Some time before the holidays, I went back to it. Decided to take all of the secondaries, which gave me 3 kicks and 4 shuriken throws, caltrops and a power up (envenomed blades). Now as a dom, I had to invest some picks for fighting armour (plus Kick became my 4th kick power, which goes with the theme sort of), Dark Embrace from Soul Mastery, and worked in Unrelenting as a self heal. I like to play my doms like blappers... or brutinators. Also decided to go deep into Experimentation to take Speed of Sound as my my main travel power (snipe + jaunt tps me into melee at the same time the snipe hits, then AoE kick) so I can take Adrenal Booster. However, all of that set up to make the secondary work and make sure I survived the encounter left me with very little primaries. Thematically I didn't mind, but I would have wanted to take more to be honest. However, it also freed me from the need to be permadom. But it works for me. It's fun, different and quite strong. she's able to handle +2x4 easily (which is my personal benchmark for a decent toon) and can go slightly higher, but maybe not 4x8 without incarnates. She has a bit of trouble with AVs, but doable with a bit of strategy and planning. I'm tempted to say /MA is a late bloomer, but it's more realistically attributed to my skill and build and the fact that I had to feel my way in the 20s and 30s to get a good handle on her attack chain. I'd like to point out that I prefer cheap builds, almost no Gladiator IOs save for the Panacea proc, and definitely no purples. She's 50 now working on incarnates, but I enjoyed her so much and am now a bit more confident on how to build /MA that I rolled another one: ice/MA-- Mortal Kombat's Sub-Zero rip off. haven't played him yet as I'm busy with other projects, but definitely looking forward to it. I find /MA most similar to how Savage/ plays on a Brute. I do so love the shuriken thows and the kicks. My main issue with it in practice is the range on Spinning Kick feels confusing - perhaps the cone is overly narrow, but it feels very prone to missing if I twitch even a little while lining it up. I wish it functioned like a targeted ability rather than a freefire cone. I too had some trouble with this. I found the work around to use it as a second kick, as it ensures I'm facing at least one enemy right.

The way I look at is: Def prevents you from getting hit, %Res is how good you deal with it when you do get hit, HP lets you get hit more. If I had softcapped defences, I would concentrate on beefing up my HP rather than Res. Having said that, the both are usually in the form of set bonuses. So they become gravy on a cake (something like that). Then I would look at the primary benefit of the IO and take whatever secondary benefit (set bonuses) with a smile.

While I agree that there are enough travel options currently in game either as a power pick or P2W purchase or Day Job benefit (hence rendering the request for additional travel options unnecessary... at this point at least), I do so want a motorcycle or [insert hero name here]-mobile and/or -jet/copter. Fully customisable in the character creation, and with some degree of utility other than just travel. I realise this pipe dream will require copious amount of work, probably not commensurate to the value it will add, and most likely present a butt-load of problems to seamlessly accommodate it (parking system: parking lot, parking fees, parking attendants, valet, etc.), I still think my guy in a leather jacket and bike helmet will look THAT much cooler with an actual bike. 😃

empathy. even the undead need a little love and understanding

I see your bots to the face, and raise you burning demon butts to the face. If you've ever run a team with demons MM in caves, you know what I mean. Oh, were we talking about enemies or allies?

As a non-primal praetorian (like some of us Loyalists) you won't have access to RWZ nor Cimerora. And as Darmian said, AE is filled with great (though not strictly Praetorian) content that is not farm-related. I've ran several of them, but I can't recall the numbers. You can check the Dev's Choice thread. that's usually where I get my reference for worthwhile AE arcs. Incidentally, If you're on Reunion, Darmian and I are part of a fairly active Goldside SG. We can all chip in to level each other up. 😃 All Hail Emperor Cole!

There are contacts and missions in NW and FW that can go up to 45. Fire Ball, I think is one of them. I usually save him for last, then crank up the notoriety settings to make the most out of them. But yes, getting to 50 on a gold toon is tough, possible, but tough especially the last few levels. If you're not particular about the mission levels, you can also play the crystal/pillar. it will give you scaled XP. I usually do that as well just to play/replay missions I've out-levelled earlier in the game.