Scarlet Shocker

In a white room situation, your curtains need to be black. The question isn't simply answered in binary. You didn't get the answer you sought because the true answer is "it depends"

Good point! I'm a big fan of poison. Back in the day a Thugs/Poison MM was considered the best AV killer on live but for some reason I've yet to fathom, Poison has fallen somewhat out of favour. Perhaps it's because it's mostly ST damage and is best used up close and personal which for many more squishy toons can be daunting. I've not considered it in a sapper context but as a debuffer it excels. I've got a couple of /poison characters that work very well despite not being completely slotted out. That said I doubt Poison trap has the utility of the electric secondaries that can do much better at sapping.

A lot of your questions will be resolved by learning the game, what your playstyle is, what ATs and power sets you prefer and where you want to Min/Max or simply enjoy the game for casual fun. As Statesman used to say back in the day; "Let experience guide you" which I thought was a pretty good strap line for a game based on XP gain. I find I usually have some staples across the board, Numinas (but almost always paired with a Heal to get the regen benefit for the cost of one slot) and Performance Shifter, maybe a couple of LotGs and the +3% procs if possible. But remember; nothing is essential. The game lore tells you that this game is built around SOs - which is almost true but I wouldn't want to try Incarnate level content with just SOs -- I think you need more for that. What is more important is to know your toon, it's strengths, weaknesses and how it actually works when you're at the keyboard. You have 1000 slots per shard. If you are struggling, go make something else and see how it compares then revisit. There is no wrong answer here but if you're not having fun, then you might want to think hard about why before you spend inf and merits on slots because in my experience that's not gonna fix a toon you hate.

the quest for balance always makes me inwardly groan. That quest, in itself can lead to bigger problems and ruin the game experience. It leads to homogeneity and reduces the features that make a particular AT feel unique and different to others. It satisfies one need only - the selfish need to make a toon that isn't necessarily powerful but interesting to play to be as powerful as a different one. Often that is based on perception only, which exacerbates the issue. I'd also argue it is a wider symptom of mistrust of the devs "they don't know what they're doing making X so UP/Y so OP" when clearly the devs know better than anyone the issues the game faces. The best advice I can give is don't worry about performance so much enjoyment you get from playing the game and characters you make

GReat info thank you!

can be hard to digest sometimes though I love quicksand. One of my fave toons on live was my earth/thermal controller. Great buffs, some really solid controls, a great, robust pet and some good debuffs

Yes that's the one by the SG Registrar. But the Plaque says nothing and there's an opportunity for some great game lore there

@Healix finally gets an enemy to safeword

I ended up choosing Fire because I don't have the PPPs unlocked and frankly on Indom that'll be a challenge. I'm also a big fan of Melt Armor so it's a bit of a gimme

I have a Razer Naga and Tarterus so I just bind the powers to keys there and zoom

I've never tried that. I'm not great with /commands with SoS I just point, click and I'm in their face giving them what for

I would tend to agree with this, the caveat being I've very limited experience of CT. I might have to go on the Test Server and give it a whirl. That said I don't really bother with travel powers now. SoS gives me a great run speed - plus the insta-TP and then I just buy rocket packs. I'll invariably take Combat Jumping. I used to be a big fan of Hover, but that's been seriously gimped now and even at 0ft you have to deactivate it to operate some powers which I find annoying and immersion breaking.

So they are secretly installed by Malta?

no he just got her cent

That there is enlightening, and I did not know it. Thanks

couldn't have said it better myself Heartfelt thanks to all concerned

I have discovered recently that I really like being able to burst into range of my enemies and do stuff to them when they least expect it. It's especially good for for squishies where an exit can be made very quickly too. I tried Combat Teleport just recently and didn't think it had the same feel and responsiveness. But that's one go... so I'm probably not giving it a fair shake. I did notice that SoS on Barbizilla my brute was very effective. The Jaunt component seems to be a handy "Oh Shit" button - a single keypress and you're out of sight and mind I don't find much else in Experimentation to write home about, but it certainly seems to have more than the Teleportation set so far as I'm concerned. Tell me I'm right, or tell me I'm wrong. I'm interested in seeing your PoV

I never ever believe what somebody else tells me about a power set. Not because I automatically assume they are lying but simply because they probably don't have the same tastes as I do and our playstyles are very different. One of the beauties of this game is that there are multiple ways to play it - so give it a whirl. Also, there is no cost to levelling at all. If you're being entertained then you're winning. If you're not being entertained, you're learning. Both outcomes are very good!

Thanks. That's helpful but it seems they affect one another. I understood that Voltaic was basically fire and forget in instance - but it kept disappearing. Similarly the other vanished and they were never in the same place once I started moving so hard to track. Pretty 1st World issues, but annoying, notwithstanding

Two Sentinels, Galvanic & Voltaic. They are not playing nice together and both seem to disappear but when I look at the pet window, then I only ever see Galvanic up. If that isn't a bug it's incredibly confusing.

@Snarky is undead, so technically he already met his End.

Damn you spoiled my fantasy conjecture with actual creditable facts and reasoned informations. I have nowhere to go from here!

I see this and I just want a Catslinger power set. I guess it'd probably pair well with Lesbomancy

I've thought about this a bit more seriously. I wouldn't mind seeing some different ATs in game, as a form of variety. One I think might have legs is what I call a Sentry - which takes a somewhat detuned Armour set, Willpower, Super Reflexes, Bio Armor etc, and pairs it with a Controller's secondary set, Cold Domination, Storm, Poison etc. Obviously there would need to be some additional attack powers to make the character at least vaguely soloable but it's the kind of AT that would appeal to me, so I'm thinking I'm not so unique nobody else would enjoy it. I'd like to radically overhaul the Pool Powers. Whilst it's great that we have new pools, some are strangely mutually exclusive - especially the newer sets. Instead I would probably rejig pool powers into trees, similar to Incarnate trees; in other words, you pick a particular tree and get access to more than the four pools already, but not the entire lot. I'd probably make Hasten inherent, since it's mostly ubiquitous these days - slightly less potent but with better opportunities for slotting, as a part of that process. (So you get the power for free but you don't get more slots, in the same way that the Fitness Pool became inherent on live.) I would vastly widen the APP/PPP and include GPP (Gold Patron Powers) to give a greater variety of powers and capabilities, whilst still retaining their overall "shape" as additional, non-essential powers. I'd make their unlocks FAR easier; I'd offer the same unlock content for Villains who are the only ones restricted in this way - but simply doing a Talkie mission would grant the pool from the requisite Patron. HOWEVER... I would enable certain "double cross" missions for the Patrons where the player is put in a position where he has a choice to either serve or betray his/her Patron. If he betrays the Patron his Patron powers no longer function until he either chooses a new patron or forgoes them completely. This would come with a Freespec to be used at a convenient time. With the Redside Patrons the player might be able to visit Arbiter Daos and do a "penance mission" to get his Patron to keep him on board. Loose Ends: There are a ton of these in the game - some because of circumstance - but also I'm pretty convinced that the Live Devs were focused on the newest shiny a lot of the time so would drop a story and move on to something new. Incarnates is a big part of that. But getting some of those loose ends put to bed would be very pleasing. TPN ITrial: that dogshit has to be seriously reworked. I would seriously (no this isn't a joke) nerf rock - because the entire premise behind the trial... well let's just say my dog leaves better packages in my garden of a morning. It wouldn't take much to rework in truth. I'd turn it into something along the lines of Praetorian Police rounding up innocent Praetorians and the players have to rescue them while HD (already horribly dated) reports on it - while the authorities attempt to shut him down. There are other things I could imagine doing - but that would require an even longer wall of test and I'm sure, dearest reader, that you don't have the patience for that.