Six-Six

I've been waiting for Illusions to be ported to doms for a while now. And since it did, I rolled an Illusions/Marital and is hands down one of my top ten favourite toons. Illusions' Superior Invisibility gives him stalker level stealth. So he goes around like a true ninja assassin. He's only level 27 atm, and with his handful of powers (2 utility and 3 damaging attacks) he's got no problem getting through any mission -- hardcore rules. He's opened up a new dimension in the otherwise formulaic steam rolling gameplay, which I find a great change of pace. A fairly tough boss resistant to holds and immobilise? deceive his minions to kill him for you. a foe notices your presence and comes racing to you? a flash of light and a kick to the gut to quiet his anxieties. things suddenly go sideways? pop your phantom army and a handful of floor spikes and silently slip out of the confusion then attack from left field. Highly enjoyable.

I love me some poison. But with that power, I tend to postpone some of my power picks. this means even though I can take the power, I take a look at the end cost and decide if my current level's recovery can sustain that in a fight. Another tip is slotting. I tend to start "building" around 35. until then, I just slot SOs to address accuracy first and foremost, end and recharge depending on what the power needs, and maybe a proc or two here and there. SO benefits far eclipse IOs--they only start to be comparative around 35-40--which is also a nice level when I have sufficient slots to take advantage of set bonuses. Sometimes this implicates a respec and a change of fighting style around 35-40.

It's just you. In fairness, Mace, Axe, and Broadsword tend to "feel" slow. But they do make up for it in oomph. If you want something more fluid, I suggest having a look at Katana, Claws, or Street Justice. That said, there are ways around the sluggishness of mace. I have the same feel with my Bane: I only have 5 attacks but they're built in such a way that there's always one up that I can swing at a foe. Hurts like a freight train dropped from orbit, so all's good. Also, as with your past posts try not to judge too hastily. the level 20s is a nice milestone for me. For one thing, it's when your beginner's luck runs out and you're out in the real world. When I try out a new toon, level 20 - 25 is when I decide if the toon's worth playing until 50. If it is, then it's just the start. Your powers are limited, your slots are limited, your hp/end isn't fully sorted out yet (meaning even if you have the power, you may not be strong enough to use it yet). But, again, it's all up to you. If it doesn't feel right, I'd switch to something that does.

That's my point. It would be helpful if you started the ball rolling with a suggestion or two. Incidentally, Trick and Tactical arrows fit what you're looking for. or maybe... just maybe... the charm of archery is its simplicity. I'm part of an all archer SG that does all archer runs, and none of us have had any major complaints. If a certain power set isn't working for you, maybe try another you'll be happier with.

in a world where players are going around with laser guns, mutated rock-like skin, firing mind bullets or burst of radiation from their hands, what exactly are you expecting from pointy sticks and twine?

I like pets. A few things that I wouldn't mind are: 1) the Force Field Generator pet from Traps. I wish it could be pass through like the MM pets are now. Sometimes I get trapped in a room because of it. 2) MM-level control --or at least some form of control-- for Patron Pool pets and Soldiers of Arachnos pets. Not sure how implementing that would impact the game, but since Crabberminds are quite popular, it would be a solid upgrade if those dang 'lings and blasters wouldn't go off doing their own thing. 3) I'd like to make a request for a dedicated "pet fly" button. I took group fly for my own benefit and fighting style only to be ordered to turn it off because some other bloke didn't visit the bird to have his option decline it. With such a button, my pets can still fly with me while the other team members can get their feet dirty. 4) customisable pets. or at least variable set looks (skins???) if full customisation is too hard to implement. Additionally, since page 5 and the upgrade of the MM personal attacks, I've re-rolled a few of my petless MMs. my last try stalled at 20+ since attacks were too feeble.

If you're blue-side, you can ignore Habashi and Twinshot and dive right into the Origin contacts. Follow those until you get to 15-ish (or is it 20???) when you can go to the Wards and midnighter-related stuff. those things give me the mage vibe through and through. Most of my toons are tech, so I tend to gloss over those. But I've ran some and they are quite good. Red-side, you don't get much choice in the beginner levels. You might be able to take Dr. Graves extended arc as magic if you squint because of the ending. But starting level 7, you can head over to Oakes and do Bocoor and the ghost chick until you can head over to the Wards again. Cap has Hammond and the Willie Wheeler which are both semi-magic. Sharkhead has Morty Kal and Tarixus that should fit your bill. Nerva has Psimon and the Mu that gives the treespec trial (forget his name) but he has regular missions. You can stay in the Wards until 40ish, though not all of the missions there will have magic flavour. 40+ redside has Mage Hunter Zucharia and Abyss that give out magic related missions. (Sorry, not a blue-sider).

I had a Dark/Martial which was fun. Also had an illusion/Dark controller... which was also good, but I'm not that into Controllers. Porting illusion to Doms was awesome. Illusion/Martial is it for me. 😃

Yes... but I don't use MIDs and I'm too lazy to type it out. I will go ahead and reassure you that expensive does not equate to good. A lot of yellow (uncommon) IOs have better set bonuses than their more expensive counterparts. I did take the ATO procs and the typical Panacea, Shield Wall and Gladiator's armour globals. Just to give you an idea, I have all pets (including the Mace Mastery one) down to a fairly decent recharge... and while I can't have them all out at the same time, I can have 3 lings or 3 Arachnoblasters up at any given time. Also, my def is almost soft-capped and I wasn't even trying to. That and double-dipped leadership. Definitely one of my sturdier, stronger, and funner toons that built itself on a budget. Final note: don't use your merits to buy off the P2W. she's a rip-off. convert your merits and sell them off; you'll get a way better bargain from the AH. If you're strapped for inf, quick unsolicited advice is to craft all your dropped recipes with dropped salvage, convert them to something of high demand (like def IOs) and sell. You can even buy salvage (even rare ones) as you'll more than make up for the purchase with your sale. You'll be rolling in inf before long.

Has anyone tried MMs with the Mini body type (from Prismatic Aethers)? If you're a mini, are your pets also scaled down? or they remain normal size?

Or... just hang out RWZ and do MSR all the time. Doesn't matter what AT/powers you got. you'll be seeing a lot of floaters of all colours. 😃

I don't think the crafting system can be any simpler--I've played other games with more complex and a less forgiving RNG system. You get a recipe, you get salvage, click the craft button and bob's your auntie. The game even gives you three choices on how to do this: 1) buy recipes from AH. check salvage requirements. buy required salvage. craft 2) wait for recipe and salvage drops. check your recipe inventory which recipes are highlighted. click and craft. 3) sell recipes. sell salvage. buy crafted IOs.

There's a few of those missions Redside. I always make it a point to pay attention to the NPC chatter to get a heads up when the bloke is about to make a run for it. Then I position myself in an intersection near the entrance so no matter where the guy is coming from, he'll have to go through me (with my hold or immob ready). Guy still got past me without me seeing him. Another frustrating one is the protect an object... which blows up after one hit from NPCs.

Believe it or not, I've had this happen before. Felt like an allied spy being tortured by Nazis (yes, with the thick German accent and steampunk tools) As for the respec trial, don't beat yourself up about it. those ambushes can really confuse a team to lose cohesion and make you forget about renewing the bubble. The only other run that I had which could be on the same level of frustration as this was an old (pre hard mode) ITF PUG. We got to the last bit with Romy, but didn't have enough damage to bring him down. We had to quit without completing.

Short answer is nope. If you go looking for advice, you'll get a tonne of really helpful ones and then some that sound good but end up not doing you any good or not living up to the hype. You can even get opinions on how others slot a specific power. But keep in mind that what works for other players may or may not work for you. My point is builds are quite intimate between you and your toon, and should be tailor fit to their needs as well as your play style. Ultra and Nyght have pointed out several good pointers. You can stack up damage or recharge or both.You can soft cap def and res, but those come at a cost... and that cost is slots. you only get a limited number of slots so making a build is making those slots work for your needs. So get to know your powers and how you want to use them; see what holes you have in your chain or your armour and either min-max or shore them up equally... totally up to you. there are no wrong builds as long as those builds work for you. When I was learning the game, I would look for shared builds and use them as a guide. As I learned more, I'd swap this for that, move those over here. I preferred the ones that came with a lengthy explanation regarding why they slotted a certain way, that way I'll know how to tinker with them.

whoopsy, dropped the soap there. be a good lad and pick it up, wills ya.

One hero's trash is another villain's treasure. Wouldn't this be the perfect opportunity for some vile villains to go rogue and just run around Paragon opening boxes leaving the populace to deal with the snow beasts. Candy Canes for me, mayhem for everyone else. Mwahahahahahaha-cough-cough-haha.

Let me stop you right there. There are no "beginner" and non-beginner ATs and power sets. You can learn the game depending on what floats your goat. If you're attracted to Brutes, go with a Brute. Controllers more your style, roll one and learn how to control your enemies. Fight at range or melee or both. I think what makes the melee types more attractive is that they're simpler. Just toss on a tonne of armour and button mash your attacks. Of course, the more you learn, the more complex it becomes which isn't a bad thing, rather it opens up new stuff for you. I personally learned the game through a Sentinel (ranged + armour). The only reason behind that is I mostly play solo and I didn't like dying too often. But after learning the basics (which includes everything else from AE content to getting rich off the AH), I still had to learn each AT for what they were. Brutes play differently than Stalkers, Blasters from Dominators, even Defenders differ from Corruptors. Someone wiser did warn me about HEATs (Peacebringers and Warshades) and VEATs (Soldiers and Widows) on how it would be better to have a good grasp of the game before trying them out, they're just as different as other ATs with their own strengths and weaknesses. Now to get to what's really important: your costume. 😃

It tends to be choosy on who it agrees with on my toons. Same with the Ninja... works with some, not with others. I'm guessing it has to do with the toon's concept and all. Also, I've noticed Blitz stance tend to favour my Huge-bodied toons and has yet to work with a female one. I dunno, female on Blitz probably hits a deep-seated childhood trauma of my mother charging at me when I done did some goof.

I've seen some boxes in Cap (Reunion). And the Father Christmas invite when I logged in.

My Forts put a Lockdown +mag 3 hold in Dominate which should be strong enough for AVs plus it comes with a decent punch. Other than that, a fairly decent movement speed to shadow them with. My Widows prefer Combat Teleport to target (/bind [key] powexec_location Target Combat Teleport)

Yes and no. You have the option to select a specific rifle for your Munitions power. If the choice is available (haven't checked since the last flurry of updates) you can very well have the same weapon for your AR powers and Munitiions powers.

If I were you, I'd break up with her and get one that digs knives and brawling. ;-)

I won't mind if they just directly ported the pistols and rifle powers to wands and staves, provided they remove the muzzle flare -- I can already imagine beam rifle and flame thrower animations going smoothly. The projectiles like grenades and bullets would take a teeny bit more suspension of disbelief, but only an itsy bitsy bit... definitely not beyond the capability of most people who play this game. I suppose this kind of thinking is "it's better to have it and complain about it than not have it at all." Like back holstered blades and weapons. Not perfect, but workable. 😃