Scarlet Shocker

Please... try a Dark/Poison controller. No self-rez but those are less than necessary these days with P2W and bonus stuff. You will be very pleasantly surprised, it can be made to fit with your theme and is surprisingly robust. Don't eschew the T8 Poison hold - it's a good mule and stacks with your other abilities. You will kill stuff you find surprisingly difficult to kill on other ATs. You can also PVP exceptionally well. (Not sure if that's a USP that grabs you but it does mean you can adventure in PVP zones with confidence and do things like getting nukes & shivans without fear)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Well that makes me feel good and bad insofar that I obviously haven't missed a thing over a period of years but I also feel bad that I haven't missed a thing over a period of years

great find!

It's possible I guess but it fits seamlessly into the lore's narrative so doesn't "feel" like it's a new addition.

Ok I just blew my mind. I'm soloing in the Hollows on Spandex Ballet and I saw in the distance a zone entrance not shown on the map. I went to investigate, because... well why not and I came across the entrance to Rivera Heights, which was sealed shut and a plaque plinth (easy for you to say) there gave us a bit of history about it; clearly it is the Outbreak zone. There's no sign of it on the map (see the screenshot) and a brief, unexhaustive search showed almost nothing about the name Rivera Heights (best I could come up with it's a holiday cottage in Devon you can rent for a week or two.) What's really got me buzzing about this is how many hours I've spent in the city and never seen this before. I love that there's still stuff to "stumble across" in our home. Just amazing!

There is no substitute for playing the game and enjoying the story as you go. There's no reason to aim for 50 unless you actually feel that's what you need to do. End Game content is ok and it's got some quirks but it's not fundamentally different from the journey from 1-50. Go at your own pace, play when you can, spend some time on your guy and get there when you get there. Don't fret about it. As Greycat says, it's not a race. Personally I would advise you against rushing those last levels because if you do, you will miss a lot of content that you might otherwise enjoy. Your mileage may be different which is ok but have fun whatever you do.

Isn't Blood Thorn one of the villains you get to defeat in bank raid missions?

you might be overthinking it. We have a contiguous history but it's hard to take our enforced hiatus into account. Is it 2012 or 2024? Stan Lee said it best: "Marvel time isn't like regular time." I think that's a pretty good yard stick we can apply to this game, given the way the game works. There is a coherent, long story that your character goes through but it isn't often done in a purely linear way, and you find yourself darting back and forth between stories and even sometimes knowingly travelling in time. Accept that the latest stories; the whole "Who will die?" arcs and latest content are roughly "now" and you first stood on the steps of Atlas Park (or elsewhere) when you came to the city as a Rookie. Batman, Spiderman, Daredevil, the X-Men, JLA et al have been doing the same shit for decade after decade after decade and still live in the "now", unaged, adapting and understanding technologies that simply didn't exist when they first appeared (computers, mobile phones, internets for example) and yet we still gladly accept that they do what they do without much question even when they fundamentally change persona and history. Every time you dive into this game you pick up the latest metaphorical issue of your character's story - which isn't very different from all the stories that went before. Enjoy it for what it is, in the moment and stop fretting!

Foresight Forward planning Innovation

Well I won't dispute the numbers, but I will challenge the feels. That is definitely not how it feels to me, and I think that is certainly an important factor

Sappers are great because they are one of the few things that can make even the toughest hero weep like a child. Sadly heroes don't get anything like that level of sap - even the best build end-drainging enddrainiest sappy* build is utterly meh in comparison The issue is not that end drain is poor overall, is that as a player your actual contribution to the game is at best less than fuck all** in any given situation. As a player End Drain is a waste of time and the only reason you would take something like electric powers is becuse a) you're new and don't understand how the game works (ie Scarlet Shocker) or b) you choose something to be thematic and end up running to 50 with a heart full of disappoint*** Pretty well every other power with a secondary effect performs better than end drain which is pretty poor if you think about it. I don't think anyone would expect somebody to go through a map on an electric blaster or controller and drain all mobs of their powers, but there should be some effect of end drain to give the set some actual feels and to have a reason to play those powers. A practical solution would be to "stack" end drain as some other powers have effects - so each time you hit a mob with a power you gain a stack of drain and once you've hit so many points of drain you can hit your foe with it. Their resistance would be dependent on their level; minion, lt, boss, AV etc and to be effective against an AV you'd need to maybe hit it with a high number of points and a very damaging power. *actual technical term **also a technical term ***non-technical term

Let's see... I was in Cimerora, around 200 BCE I was in Crash Site around 2003 CE I was in RWZ right after a revamp and Praetoria before Cole blew it up and after he blew it up. Then I went back and spoke to Tina Mac who sent me after some geezer she referred to as Tyrant Finally I went to Ouroboros at the end of the known universe and all of time and spoke to the last Kheldian and Mender Silos. and all of this took me just a couple of hours. What year do you want it to be?

imagine his surprise when he realised it wasn't a burrito either!

I think it's lovely that so many original devs play the game for their own enjoyment. Says a lot about the quality of the game overall and the love everyone involved with it has

to be serious for a moment, in my experience, the usual reason for failure is lack of communication/coordination. Even small, underpowered groups can mash almost all the content in this game, provided they actually <talk> to each other and know their roles.

<--- Redundant End drain effectiveness has always been an issue but now it's far worse than it's ever been

Well of course, this last Saturday was 420 day so I know many people indulged, simply because. What some of you may not realise is that today 22nd April is Surprise Drug Test Day at Work, so that's something else for people to get excited about too 😎

Snarky the Vancorn or is that Snarky the Unipire?

No need to bring things down to your level!

I find the elevators in this game to be quite uplifting

Snarky has absorbed all the darkness leaving only bright rainbow colours in his wake

I'm level 28 currently and not burning XP so I expect to stay that way for a shortish while. We play on Saturdays so I'm anticipating maybe 4 weeks at that level(ish) while we go through FW and NW and then back to Redside. I don't know if there's a comparison, but when I had a Spider on live, I deliberately went the Huntstman route at the respec - ie continued on that path and I was very glad that I did. He became one of my deadliest toons, delivering a sea of orange numerals with big AoEs and cones and was highly survivable. I am surprised more people haven't chosen that option honestly.