Six-Six

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.

just had a thought regarding the importance or necessity of a certain ATs or roles... even if you mutated to a Rikti Monkey, you are still useful for a laugh or two. So nothing, NOTHING, and no one is utterly useless in this game. 😃

I don't mind it. I think it adds a bit of realism to certain missions where you don't know where you or your teammates are in third person omnipotent sense, so you have to take visual cues and markers and stick together. Of course, this is coming from a guy who rarely gets Reveal from P2W. I suppose you're right, though. having a map AND the option to use it or not should be up to the player. or at least have a map slowly be revealed so you can tell where you've been, where the borders are, etc.

Another caveat I've noticed is that the recent incarnation of the game has made it possible for any AT to play certain roles (i.e. a sentinel play the role of a tank, an MM play the role as a tank, a brute play the role as a tank, etc...) but none of them will ever be as tanky as a tank... in the same way a widow will never match the crits of a stalker, or a fortunata (as much as I love them) be as dominating as a... erm... dominator... or controller. 😃 from my limited newb wisdom, the one take away I've learned is that: play what makes you happy... each person will have something different that floats their goat.

Allow me to frame the scenario a little differently: If you're running iTrials, ITF, Market Crash, or Peregrine Missions with a full team of 8 (or 16 or 24), then it's a bit hard to see a tank or any ATs contribution. But run a team of 3 or 4, and the "roles" become more pronounced. I've been on teams where a timely taunt saved a teammates life--a skill I have still yet to get the hang of. Miss Lib or Recluse's SF are two good examples where a tank is particularly useful even on a full team. I blap a lot, and sometimes get cocky on how high my res and def are on top of how much damage I do. But on a team of 4 facing a mob full of purples, I will take a second to let the tank get the first hit... unless I want a free trip to the med bay. Moreover, whatever AT I'm playing, on smaller teams, I tend to appreciate the particular contribution other teammates' ATs bring to the fray. Edit: about that taunting skill I mentioned. I ran an all archer team yesterday. We were comprised of 2 blasters, 2 sentinels, a corruptor and a mastermind. MM and corr brought the heals, which was helpful, and I took the role of the tank (I even built my Sentinel like a tank: focus on def, res, and self heal vs damage output, also factored in Presence pool to get provoke and unrelenting). I am proud to say that I was able to take the aggro off a teammate or two just in the nick of tiime, thereby saving them from certain death... several times during the run, too. Thank you, thank you very much. I may make a good tank yet. 😃 Would the team have survived without me? probably, but I bet I saved some of them a few visits to the nurse or a handful of wakies.

storm on fenders and corrs are quite tricky. At lower levels, you get access to toggles that you can't afford to run because of their ridiculously high end consumption. I usually postpone taking these until I've somewhat managed my recovery for attacks. Aside from that, I tend to look into set bonuses that increase max end and slot those in as soon as I can. Those plus IOs in attacks that give recovery bonuses are my priority (like 2pc Thunderstrike in most st range, 2pc posi's blast in aoe's, etc.). That said, I usually just slot a perf shifter end mod and the proc in stamina (in all of my toons), and that pretty much takes care of it.

I would agree with the fire/bio. However, going off on a tangent here, but I think you're looking at a gift horse in the mouth. I believe that the power of sentinels isn't their (oft-discussed lacking) damage, but their various debuff talents. that said, fire/ then becomes one of the weakest primaries because all it has is damage and no secondary effect in its attacks. Ice has slows, rad has def debuff, dark has to-hit, pistols have all three, and so on. And the sentinel armour makes sure you can get up and personal to dish out your debuffs. that said, I often play my sents like tanks. a few of my stand out sentinels are Elec/elec, archery/nin, Sonic/Ea, pistols/Dark, and water/bio; I have an energy/rad that's fun to play, but not as strong since she's due for a respec--she's one of my earlier toons so her build is one made by a noobier me. I also have a fire/fire but I compare him too much to my fire/fire blaster.

Videos and Streaming As we requested a few months back, we would prefer if streams and videos of gameplay on Homecoming were not broadcast or uploaded whilst we are still working on legitimizing the server. I think the context is streaming and video uploads to public viewing sites. If AlienMafia wanted to send a video recording of the game as support for his bug claim, then only the devs will be privy to it.

where does it say this?

Lemme see if my vastly inferior wisdom can help at all. Doms are damage class. You don't get armour powers; instead, your primaries are controls and holds, which is another way to mitigate damage. They can't hit you if they're held or sleeping or confused or otherwise preoccupied. I have doms with just Kick and Weave as a place to slot res and def IOs that have useful set bonuses. In my opinion, doms have too many good powers, and you simply can't pick them all if you want to stick in something from the tertiary pool, like travel and Rune of Protection, etc. So I have learned to specialise and focus on a specific aspect of the primaries (i.e. choosing holds over immobs or aoes over st controls). Respec. as you level up, some powers you NEED from 1-20, you get better versions 20-40, and maybe something similar in the epic pools. I also tend to postpone primary powers that are toggles until my recovery can handle them. Ya, you're giving your enemy a -to hit aura, but at the cost of you crashing, your def/res toggles turning off, and being unable to attack is not a good trade. Toggles can wait. I have a Dark/Martial that was parked for the longest time. Finally got her to 50 before the holidays. I, too, enjoyed the shurikens and the kicks. so much so that I took all of them, which left me barely a handful of picks for the primary. I didn't mind since it all fit thematically in the end. (and because of this, I didn't need to worry about being permadom). I like playing my doms with a mix of melee as well, and I suppose that's where I had trouble. At first I only took the shurikens and most of the primaries. It didn't feel right, and I couldn't get the groove of her attack/play style. but once I factored in the kicks, things fell into place. (same case for my Grav/Energy, though Dark/Martial was more fun and seemed stronger). I wouldn't say /Martial is a late bloomer (it's probably how sucky I am at builds and playing) but mine didn't feel strong until 40. After 40, she was just a joy to play. she can handle +2x4 easily solo, which is my benchmark for a decent toon. Good luck on your endeavour.

what batteries does yours use. I think I got the cheap kind. always low-bat. haha 😃

I just did a bit of tweaking, simplifying some elements, adding others. She uses an energy bow projected by her glove--I suppose the cylindrical bit of the Resistance Glove is where you stick in 4 D batteries haha). (Edit: Sorry, I missed the part about the corset.) Murder1.costume I like how @Cutter coloured the top grey instead of my black, it gives it a bit more techy armour feels. I decided to bring the cloth element down to her torso and waist (and the belt helps with bringing it down to the lower body) with minimal touches of leather (shoulder and quiver). Here's MY Archer/Martial Combat, Lotus. She uses the same energy projected bow. (hers is the Lithium Ion rechargeable version, but batteries drain fast. I think the D batteries are better.) 😃 She's fun.

Where you are right now, the forums, scroll up and click "HOME" button: Then from there, scroll down a bit and click the "Follow this link to join our Discord server!" It's a hyperlink that I can't copy/paste here. It should bring you here: the just scroll down the left panel and you should see these: Each Shard (Reunion, Excelsior, Indomitable, Everlasting, Torchbearer) should have it's own 4 sub channels. what you want is the "# [shard name]-recruit"

From my experience, Spiders are quite efficient when it comes to end. I've reached mid 30s without any slots to stamina and with just a single DO enhancement in attacks and the Spider's Leadership. at that level, I can fight +2x2 without the fear of running out of end. It's when you start taking the tertiary pool that guzzles end.

I enjoy blapping. so far, the funnest ones are Rad/NRG and Elec/Elec. My /Ninja and /Martial are still lowbies so can't comment on those yet. I've even applied blapping to my dominators (scrappinators, brutinators???). Not as hard hitting as blappers, but have different tricks up their sleeves. 😃

long way is: 1) log in to discord 2) join HC (you can follow the link from the forum's home page, 4th category down) 3) in HC Discord, scroll down to where the shards are listed 4) each shard has subchannels, one of them is recruitment

totally depends on you as well as several factors. I usually cough up new toons like there's no tomorrow. but for every 10, only one or two make the cut. I usually test drive them to see if they "feel" right (complete package: powers, costume, concept, etc.). Anywhere from level 5-15, I can usually tell if a toon is worth it to go until 50. so if one of my toons makes it to 20, most likely they'll see end game stuff. Then again, I've "parked" toons at various levels. sometimes, an aspect feels off and the fix eludes me. so it just sits there until I have a solution. sometimes the solution is the same concept and costume, and powers but on a different AT. The elec/elec fender is my 2nd ever defender. my first one was FF/Energy and it blew me away on how strong and fun it was. elec/elec knocked the ballpark out of the state! I was surprised to see it perform solo and in teams. 😃

Here's the link for Reunion: https://discord.com/channels/572090223115239444/575462866304368640 if you scroll a bit more down, you'll see the ones for each shard

Some powers don't seem defensive on the surface, but they do translate to defence. Like Soul Mastery's Dark. Dark has -to hit, so if they don't hit you, you survive longer. Dark Embrace is also a very good resistance toggle. Chill Mastery has nice holds and a very good heal (Hoarfrost). Aside from actual powers, I would look into IO set bonuses. Those things add up if you build it right. If you're planning on a tankermind where you tank the damage so your pets can go about their business dealing damage, then the way to go is to build up your resistance and defences through the set bonuses. Presence Pool has Provoke so you can taunt your enemies, and it opens up Invoke Panic (fear/hold), and Unrelenting which is a +damage, recharge (IIRC), recovery and heal.