Lockpick

Curious why Katana is so high. I recently hit 50 on a Katana / Ninjitsu build and wasn't that impressed. My WM/EA in the mid-30s seems to hit harder. Am I missing something?

Anyone have the best DB attack chain based on the changes that took place last year? I'm just getting back to my DB/EA, so wanted to check.

Any updates on this combo? Not sure /Stone is my cup of tea from the way it looks, but still interested in learning more...

Strong AND Pretty!

My take is that procs are fine and choice is good.

Completely agree. I am betting that the vast majority of players will continue to run base content. I could be wrong, but the crowd wanting hard mode content had options to do hard mode before these changes and would not do it, so I am skeptical that they will do hard mode here. I would be happy to be wrong. I'll probably do the advanced mode a few times, but I would guess I mainly stick to baseline. It is awesome to have options though, so thanks HC team!

Wow, a ton of work has gone into this release and it seems like the HC team were listening and acting on the community concerns around hard mode content. Very nice and very appreciated!

That BAF takes 15 minutes to do and another 15 to 30 to get a team assembled. You can likely get 2 Townshend arcs done by the time you can assemble a team and do the BAF. The Townshend arc also give you 1 Emp, 1 common Incarnate component, and 1 roll. And, of course, you mentioned the solo aspect of it, but this is critical. You can do it whenever you want with no dependencies. I find this to be the most effective way to grind incarnates. If a trial is forming or a TinPex comes up I will try to join, but if nothing is forming this seems to be the best bet.

The most optimal secondary for almost all primaries is probably Bio with Energy Aura up there pretty close. Honestly, you really can't go wrong with any of the secondaries. I also like SR and Inv.

Some great points from both of you. I will likely do a second build and try a more offensive build. My general nature though is to build for defense and S/L resist, so that is what I went for. Also, this build leveled really fast. I don't even feel like I have the play time needed to really understand how to better leverage its strengths. Now at 50 and working on the incarnates. Once that is done I'll be trying +4/8 DA missions and then maybe push a second build. I'm actually finding it interesting the number of ways Bio can be slotted, which is a nice change. If only the look could be fixed...

I decided to post my EM/Bio build. This is my first /Bio to 50 and I have to say I am surprised by it's performance. I now know why everyone has been singing the praises of Bio. I was not a fan of Bio previously because: I didn't like the look I didn't think it was sturdy Still not a fan of the look, but I was wrong about it being sturdy. I tend to build stalkers with a goal towards soft-capping defense and getting near cap on S/L resists. I was pretty happy for getting soft-cap positionals with 75% S/L on a /SD. I was also happy to get a /Inv to soft-cap typed defenses to all (except Psy) and with 75% S/L. I thought this would be impossible with /Bio, unless I used Shadow Meld. Nope! This build is just as sturdy as some of my others with additional tools and great endurance. Now I understand the /Bio love. In the past I was using a lot of slots on Ablative Carapace, DNA Siphon, and Parasitic Aura, but with this build the focus is on defense and S/L resist and using those powers as tools. Thanks to a build that @Croax had posted I was shocked to find I could soft-cap typed defenses to all (except Psy) and with ~75% S/L in Offensive mode. Not only that, but with Shadow Meld, Ablative Carapace, DNA Siphon, and Parasitic Aura I could easily get extra defense, healing, regeneration, and endurance pretty much on demand. I also tend to like builds where the secondary isn't very active. I thought I would dislike Bio because of its active nature. I did not find that the case at all. There are 3 click powers, but I only fire them when needed. I tend to use Shadow Meld while running towards a a crowd, jump into said crowd, use DNA Siphon if my Health is getting low, and use Ablative Carapace if my health is getting low and DNA Siphon has not recharged. I rarely use Parasitic Aura, although I should use it more for the end recovery boost. Anyway, on to the build.

It's an interesting point. For me, leveling and getting the components I need for my build are the fun. Once I get to 50 and my build is complete there is really no incentive / goal for me to keep playing that character.

Dave Chappelle uttered the line "Some people think cucumbers taste better pickled" in the Chappelle's Show - Celebrity Trial Jury Selection episode. I thought the Chappelle Show was funny when it was out and as a rap fan I appreciated the show for the hip hop guest stars like Mos Def. The show was a cultural phenom in the USA when it was out (2003 to 2006), so I somewhat expected more people to react to @Mopery's post especially since the show was out when the game launched. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappelle's_Show

Whut? Huh? Edit: I guess no one found @Mopery as funny as I did or just didn't catch the reference. Anyway, for those not aware:

There are several in this thread that think Null the Gull is not an optimal solution. All of them have provided suggestions that would make the the situation more optimal. I will say that I very rarely run into the Group Fly issue. However the few times it has happened it has been irritating. I believe is a poor design decision to make a power affect other players against their will and then make it incumbent upon the impacted player to address the issue. I get you don't think this is important enough for the HC team to fix. However, the purpose of the suggestions forum is to make suggestions, so suggestions have been made.

Interesting, I like it!

There is obviously an issue if this topic comes up a lot. The solution you twi are advocating is already in game and is not seen as optimal by many players, hence the suggestion. Not sure why you guys are opposed to a solution that would be more optimal. It's not like the people here are saying people with Group Fly are bad, they are just suggesting alternative solutions to going to Pocket D and Null the Gull. On another note, I'm sure a lot of people do not even know about Null the Gull. I was certainly late to knowing about it and it had to be explained to me. Now I know, but do I want to take all my characters to Null the Gull? Nope. Why not add it to the P2W vendor? I bet almost all new characters go to the P2W vendor, so this would be a good option. Pick your prestige powers, XP settings, and Null options all at the same time. Solves a lot of the problems, although as @Greycat pointed out it won't solve all the concerns.

Or maybe set the default to Group Fly not affecting others and let them opt in? I would also suggest putting tese types of settings in setting if possible. Why use Null the Gull at all?

This sounds like an indictment against balancing. Tanks were semi-okay before the HC balancing pass and now IMO they are OP. HC team changed Energy Melee and that power set went from being one of the worst to arguably the best. This is why I tend to not like balancing in general. Sure, some minor tweaks here and there are likely needed to balance, but the HC team has done massive amounts of unneeded (IMO) balancing. Replacing powers, shifting levels where powers are picked, etc. Balancing begets balancing and leads to picking winners and losers... At the end of the day, there will always be a performance stack rank of an AT / power set. All the balancing does is change the stack rank for a period of time until the next balancing pass. I've already stated my stance on the procs stuff, but will add one thing. If one AT / power set is able to perform a little better because of procs I really don't care. It doesn't affect me or my characters in the slightest. I enjoy the game for what it is and I am just as happy to play a semi-weak AT as I am to play a strong AT. I have played numerous versions of DP Blasters and had fun with all of them. I don't think anyone is calling DP OP. I was never able to play the TW/Bio scrapper that was supposed to be OP. Just wasn't fun for me. My point is that the team should focus on the fun factor as opposed to the balancing aspect. Procs are fine...

I didn't read the entire thread, so not sure what your point is. My take is simple. I don't see procs as being OP Characters that use procs may increase their damage, but lose other forms of mitigation from not having set bonuses Using procs gives more build choices and more choices are better than less choices I don't believe balancing procs should be a priority when compared to providing new content or functionality Balancing seems to work sometimes (TW) and not others (Tanks) and there will always be some ATs / Powers that are better than others and balancing just shifts the stack rank, so doesn't provide as much value as providing new shinies Just providing my opinion...

Procs are fine. IMO the devs should stop trying to "balance" the game and should focus on adding new features and content.

I do Bios for the majority of the characters that I think I will play to 50. Some characters I start with no Bio and just want to see how the characters plays and feels, so I don't take the time to make a Bio. Some characters I start with a concept and then I create a Bio early on. It just depends... I think leveling speed and character slots has a bit to do with it as well. On Live it took forever to get to 50, so I was invested deeply in the character and created a Bio and concept. There were also had limited slots, so I only played characters that I was invested in because I didn't want to waste a slot. Here I find that I have less investment in a character because I'm always creating new ones and leveling a bit.

I can't really disagree with this logic. I may actually have to go Pie > Cookies > Cake. Hmm, if you add Ice Cream to the mix though it is more like Ice Cream > Pie > Cookies > Cake.

Do you have a Psi/SD build you are willing to share?

Reminds me of the old days when the Simian Defense Force was running rampant on Infinity... Got my first 50 on Simian Stalker (who was actually a Katana / Regen scrapper. Took forever to hit 50. I was so relieved that I had finally made it. Then I was like, what do I do now?