Six-Six

I will second @Sovera's assertion on how forgiving Sentinels are. I myself learned the game on that AT, and if it wasn't for the Sentinel, I wouldn't be enjoying this game as much. Depending on you how comfortable you are in playing solo and the difficulty settings, you can opt to balance his armour with damage and possibly pick up a few utility powers on the way (elec mastery has an ally heal for Sents). Hover is another line of defense, not just in the percentage having it on gives, but the physical sense that melee can't reach you if you're even 10 feet in the air. Soloing, you're literally "on your own." and I think this is requires two things to be enjoyable: One is survivability... this means being able to take an enemy's attacks because some of their attacks WILL statistically hit you. You may also want either an outright mez protection in a form of a toggle or clicky, or a way to shorten the duration of status effects at least. A self heal clicky or some form of "enhanced" HP regeneration. and of course having enough stamina/endurance to live through all of it. There are many different ways to do this, and there is no one correct answer. But take my word for it, running from the hospital table back to the mission door IS NOT fun. defeating your foes is fun, completing mission objectives is fun and not dying to keep on doing them makes more sense. The second is strategy. (You thought I was going to say damage). When you solo, you have to size up the enemy if you can take him or bypass him. mobs, even small ones, can easily overwhelm little ole you. so be smart. Crowd control becomes very useful (blasters have a good enough selection of these). Some attacks have an extra effect baked into them like holds, immobilise, -to hit. Those become more pronounced when you're on your own. I know I vouched for corruptors earlier, but take into consideration that a lot of their powers are allies-only and cannot be used on yourself, which is a waste of power pick if you're solo. A quick word on damage. most enemies save for AVs and some EBs can be handled with "vanilla" damage. damage alone won't guarantee smooth sailing. Yes, a dead foe is not a threat, but you just used up your 2 highest payloads, and there are 2 more blokes that were hiding behind a crate. brains will triumph over brawn no matter how much damage you have or don't have. Finally, the choice really falls on how you play and what you find fun. After you've made your choice of AT and power set, it can still be radically different from the next guy even if that guy picked the exact same AT and power sets. one last thing: we're all mostly ancient here. chances you're probably one of the younger ones.

I have a favourite macro: /macroimage Flight_JumpJet Fly "powexec_name Hover$$powexec_name Sprint" /macroimage Flight_JumpJet creates a neat little "Fly" icon for my tray that can't be confused with Flight, Hover, Afterburner, or Evasive Maneuvres. "Fly" is the macro tag which you can replace with any other keyword like run or jet or leviosa. I put this macro button in slot 6, and when I click it, it switches from Hover to Sprint. one, because I find no need for sprint to be on while hover is on; and secondly, some maps force me out of hover. clicking the button will switch from hover or sprint any time. I also have Flight on slot 6, so when I'm hovering and I need to go faster or when I'm running and I need to take off, I can simply press 7 Note that Evasive Maneuvres can still be on and will still provide benefits if you're not flying or hovering. If you need a key that is closer to your fingertips and not take up space on the power tray(s), then you can use Chemist's suggestion. Here is the basic syntax if you want to create your own: /bind [key] powexec_name [power] "key" is the keyboard button you wish to elect. use capital letters. I tend to use C, V, B, G, and T (and sometimes repurpose R) for most of my keybinds since they are closest to my WASD hand. "power" is the official syntax a specific power has. If you don't know what it is, just drag the icon of the power to your chat box and it will display the long version. you can just use the last part for your bind. Some examples are Combat Teleport, Flight, Hover, Mystic Flight, Translocation, Speed of Sound, Jaunt. quotation marks are not as important as underscores. quotes just helps you visually identify which part of the syntax is the actual command, but underscores can sometimes be crucial to making the keybind work. another version similar to above is /bind [key] powexec_location [place] [power] this will activate your power at a specific location, which is sometimes useful for TP powers or ranged AoEs "place" can be specific points like Front:10 (10 feet in front of you), or Back:40 (40 feet behind you)... I use the latter one for TP to fire off short range cones it can also be "Target" which will select your current target as the location, or Cursor (max distance at the direction wherever your pointer is at), or Self which will activate the power on your location (useful for pets or pseudo pets like Lightning Storm)

Also do a search for Solarverse, Philoticknight or Sound FX Mods here in the forums. They have a nifty mod tool as well as a library of other SFX for other powers.

One workaround I use is: Use Sleeveless Jackets Pick Cybertech Long, keep it Leather (it looks close enough to a trench coat if you squint) Pick a chest that will work well (subjective) with the Cybertech... keep in mind that the chest is more visible than Trench coat (sometimes it's a trick with colours) Now you're free to choose any glove you want.

Let's see YOU try to parkour with a shield or two blades in hand. JK. carry on. 😃

I would go with a corruptor, but not for the reason(s) you might expect. But just to be clear, "best" in anything is a rather sweeping generalisation that will surely cause some controversy. Anyhoo... With regards to @Sovera's vote for Sentinels... sure, Sentinels have the armour to withstand most attacks. but the caveat to that is they tend to lack damage to earn the title "best" range killer. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Sentinels. I have some that can do comparable damage to blasters (and some that even surpass SOME of MY blasters), but at the cost of their sturdiness. It's fairly difficult to have it both ways. I doubt that it's impossible, but certainly challenging. Blasters, while bringing the pain, can -thanks to set bonuses, epics, and tertiary pools- can also be built tough enough. In fact, I have 2 blasters that have completed the Ironman challenge. I also have 3 other blasters that came very close, only dying at 49 for some stupid reason like lag or falling off the edge... hardly a worthy death, but a death is a death. However, the reason why I don't consider blasters to be the king of range killers is because most of them want to blap, which is melee and not range. Blasters bring the pain from a far or up close. Which brings me to the Corruptor (the Fender's evil brother). Corruptors can bring it as much as blasters because of their Scourge mechanic. They have other tools aside from armour to help them be survivable, and it makes for some interesting game play, even when some of the tricks in their arsenal are for allies only. The main reason why I think Corrs should take the title is that they are primarily limited to range. So in a way, Corrs win by default because of this limitation. They just edged a nose hair or two above Defenders who prioritise utility over damage in much the same way Sentinels make you prioritise taking a punch over giving one,; and Doms and Blasters are "disqualified" because they do damage in melee as well. This of course does not take into consideration VEATs and HEATs... which are called "Epic" ATs for a reason. @Voltak's Fortunatas, for instance, are things to be feared (think Sentinels... on steriods... with anger issues... on their period) 😃

a future tip for this mission is to prioritise the other objectives (chambers, big boss, lesser boss(es), beacon) making sure to draw the ambush to the hallway entrance. then ignore the swarms and click the desk. run to talk to your 3 allies who show up again as they will help you get rid of the pesky bees. Also, I've never seen that desk destroyed before and I run that arc will all of my toons. then again, I don't use a lot of aoes or nukes that may damage anything other than what I'm targeting.

1) you invaded earth. 2) you lost. 3) you don't get to ask for things that will make you feel better 4) saying that you'll pay for it yourself is rather audacious, don't you think.

two words: caltrops and ouch. 😃

My toons are created with these ingredients: power sets, costume, name and back story. Power set combinations lead to which powers he'll actually pick which leads to how he'll be using them. I call this the Petless MM mentality: just because the powers are there doesn't mean you have to pick them. 😃 For me, costume and name go hand in hand. I'm not a stickler for names, but their names and costumes have to make sense to THEM and ME. I have been known to give in to puns and copyright-skirting. A couple of examples are my GoT-inspired Zombies/ice MM, Dwight Walker and a Green Lantern knock off Gardener Guy. Costume-wise, I have a toon named Gorilla Girl that utilises the Huge Body Type with one of the young faces that can pass of as an Estrogen deprived lady (and yes, the large robotic tech gloves). As for back story, I don't write up all of them, but they do exist in my head. Even though I try not to go the classic tropes of genius money bags or military experiment gone rogue or any of the popular ones in the comics, they still somehow end up being those... just worse haha. A lot of my toons evolve into their own after a few levels. This is why I have 3 DP/Ninja Blasters and a handful of other duplicate toons. I enjoyed the AT/powers so much that I wanted to go through the levelling process all over again. but the next one (subconsciously) takes a different route, plays differently, has a different personality, and provides a slightly varied version of entertainment than the others. Builds don't even factor in my concepts and toons, primarily because I suck at them. As long as the toon can hold its own with whatever means necessary, he's good to go. Then again, there are days that the Wifi gods won't let me play and I'm stuck in the character creation screen. I just throw odd things together and occasionally I stumble upon a Eureka! end product that's worth keeping. So I cough up a name and figure out what powers he might most likely have (among the ones I haven't paired before). That or one of my multiple personalities is hit with divine purpose and given a rapturous name while I was taking a dump.

I suspect a big factor in your complaint is the lag. I get what you're describing and I don't think it's an accurate account. Most attack powers only pin you down for a brief moment, but as soon as the attack leaves your hands (or rifle barrel) you're free to move. I can attest to this because I usually fire off a snipe (with it's long animation) then queue Combat Teleport to target. As soon as the shot fires, I TP... and funny enough, I sometimes arrive at my target before my shot. I have however also experienced what you described (having to watch the attack hit and the enemy's reaction), but only on really bad connection days. And yes, I have also been pummelled shortly after. As the others above have chimed in, executing an attack while in motion (jumping/flying/running) is possible, and the rooting is barely noticeable, depending on the power and its animation time. Some powers have excruciatingly looooong animations, and sometimes those are deal breakers for me. In the meantime, I would suggest you take a quick look at your internet upload + download speed AND ping. I won't go full geek on you, but this is a fairly old game, so upload and download speed requirements are not that high. However a really high ping (anything above 400) can really ruin a good gaming experience. There are a lot of free speed testers out there (I use testmy.net). you can also monitor your speeds in-game. Just type /netgraph 1 in your chat box. This will show you your throughput and stuff in the lower right corner of your screen. What you want to see is an even green bar, the lower (closer to the bottom) the better. If you're seeing yellow or red spikes or even all green but really jagged, then the wifi gods are not happy with you. (just type /netgraph 0 to get rid of it). try recreating the situation you mentioned above, but with netgraph visible to see if lag is really the culprit.

I'm like Lumi. I tend to go off in the less trodden path of "weak" power pairings, and even sometimes gimping the already weak ones. the current one I'm enjoying is Psi/Bio... but I only took the 3 psi blade powers from the primary (because reasons and RP). It feels like playing a petless MM. I've also been known to skip Freezing Rain in Storm and a lot of nukes and aoe's on my blasters. I rarely go for the soft cap, nor do I min max. If this type of thing is looked down upon, I wouldn't know nor do I care as I'm in my own little world where I'm not THE bad guy, but just a lackey trying to get by with all these heroes and supervillains trying to one up each other... come to think of it, playing purely Redside is, from what I gather, already unpopular. Incidentally, I dread respecs because they take a huge toll on my thinking power. And not having MIDs doesn't help. So I try to keep a fairly good idea on what build I want to accomplish while I'm leveling up, when I need which powers and which slots (this is taking Pillar missions into consideration). But like you, sometimes my toons go through a revision of concept, so I must go through with it. I will say that respecs are very cathartic when I manage to complete one. And I'd like to add that I turn every mission into a kill all, exploring the entire map (sans Reveal), just to make sure there are no witnesses.

1) First, you have to register for the game (free). I mention this specifically because a few people in the past have confused registering for the forums as the same as the game. 2) download the launcher. You can play on Windows, mac, and some have even done so on Linux. 3) fire up the launcher. If it's your first time, the launcher may take a while to download what it needs. IIRC, it'll eat up about 4-6GB of disk space. If you meant RAM when you asked for memory, then bare minimum will still work. (I play on a "vintage"--as my local technicians refer to it-- computer with 4GB RAM) 4) once the login screen is up, enter your user name and password from #1 5) pick a shard (Homecoming's term for server) to play on 6) create your character and knock yourself out. I can't really go into "how" to actually play the character you created because that will be your own play style and idea of fun. But the basics are fairly standard. Use your keyboard and mouse to move around and interact with the environment, and click buttons to use your powers. The game itself loosely guides you through it in the early levels, but it's quite easy to pick up.

I suddenly had flashbacks of Ye Ole Newspaper... remember those, with the Headlines, editorials, business section, funnies, AND classified ads--sometimes a full page or even an entire section of small squares of different 3-4 liner ads... like Craigslist... but I digress now. Just a quick 'member berry of a bygone era.

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood the post. I'll add to my original answer later.

Still on my melee binge... a re-skin of an old toon, Gorilla Girl.

Short answer is nope. It's obviously thematic to have similar powers for your primary and secondary, plus having the same power in both usually proves complementary. But Elec/ works well with all the others. You might even go so far that it goes very well with /dark. /Dark is quite end hungry and elec/ has the option to end drain... isn't nicer if you're not just the only one sucking wind and instead share the end drain with everyone? On a slightly more serious note, you can definitely pick any secondary that fits your fancy and pair it with elec/. My personal favourites from sentinel secondaries are Ninjitsu, SR and Bio. Thematically they still work (a mystically powered Raiden devotee, a member of the Allens or Wests, or some bio engineering gone horribly wrong or horribly right).

One work around that I've found as I do a lot of paper missions for my broker is: If you don't see the choice that you like, you can do one of 2 things... 1) check again in a few minutes 2) choose one that you don't particularly like and abandon it right after. This will refresh the options and hopefully come up with one that suits your fancy. This also doesn't affect your mission count with the broker if you do it from the Missions tab.

If you're considering a Tanker, you should also consider a Sentinel. They're also very forgiving. Sentinel's are ranged attack + Armour. Some armours have minimal clicks, while others are toggle and forget. With regards to your impairment, at least you won't have to worry about running after your targets. You can just stay in place with Hover and fire away with minimal movement.

This is the thinking behind every great villain, real or fictional.

Notice the difference in their physique. Meat builds better bodies.

This is from a few months ago: So at the very least, we can expect to see new NPCs with new story arcs. Other than that, they didn't really give any details. Hopefully some will fall redside or (one can only hope) goldside.

Back in melee mode. My latest scrapper, The Vegan Hater BS/Regen Edit: My toons are Villains by default. But based on his concept, he sounds like he should be a Hero

That's true. In the Trials I've been on (in Reunion), the ones facilitating the entire mobilisation are almost always NOT the ones with the star--and in most cases it's a group of 4 or 5 rather than a single supreme commander. Rather, the "designated" leader seems to be under training from the shot-caller. But ya, good catch.

While some Trials take longer to put together than others, I think we need to give League Leaders a little more credit than just gathering peeps for a league run. Trials require ample knowledge of the task, certain strategies that minimise casualties... or ensure badges... and a certain level of coordination with Team Leaders and delegation. Why don't we make it automatic that the overall League Leader gets a certain percentage more than the members? Doing so would incentivise others to rise up and be League Leaders themselves one day.