Crasical

Tanking is only half the battle. The other half...

Most of my characters are at 40, and I can't think of any of them that can punch ten levels above their weight class to touch my 50s. So it's down to my five level 50s: Cosmic Cow, Beam Rifle/Energy Manip Blaster Tomb Spider, Bane Spider Kilauea, Earth/Fire Dominator Colmilla, Street Justice/Super Reflexes scrapper Peyote Patrol, Spines/Fire Farm Brute. Now, order starts to really matter for two particular reasons: 1) Peyote isn't really designed to exist outside of a fire farm. Like a deep-sea organism living in a volcanic vent on the seabed, she's too specialized for a general brawl like this. By sheer coincidence, there actually is one opponent spewing fire that she's got a winnable matchup with, Kilauea. 2) Cosmic Cow is a hoverblaster with very good ranged defense. Tomb Spider has a long shot at using Web Cocoon to bring her down into mace range (and Peyote has an even longer shot with Impale), but Colmilla simply doesn't have a good counter to jetpack. Being mez vulnerable and susceptible to -fly, though, she's got real reason to be worried about Kilauea. If Kilauea goes down, Cosmic Cow has a really good chance of running away with a victory, since she can focus Tomb/Peyote/Colmilla down from the skies. So, the question becomes, what if that *doesn't* happen? If Kilauea realizes she needs to burn down Cosmic Cow, and either can get someone to screen for her or if someone senses weakness and targets Peyote all on their own, then CC and Peyote Patrol probably drop first. From there, Kilauea is fighting a pair of hard-to-hit, mez-resistant enemies that get up in melee range, and drops. It turns into basically a coinflip as to whether Tomb Spider or Colmilla prevail at this point; and I might give the edge to Tomb Spider due to having the stealth strike mechanics and placate on his side. So, probably Cosmic Cow or Tomb Spider, but with some interesting kingmakers in the mix.

These look really great. I really hope one day that getting 3D print ready models becomes layman-accessible; I would love to have some physical copies of some of my characters as desk ornaments.

Okay.

'I throw fireballs' has more aesthetic appeal than 'I touch people with burning hot fingies' And the set being split between sword attacks and touch attacks is awkward.

I don't strictly adhere to it (Some of my characters are one-costume wonders) but I try to reserve slots for certain zones or organizations; like a Vanguard variant for RWZ stuff and a set of Cimeroran Armor for ITFs. Then some get Midnighter librarian-wear or labcoats for University, or police uniforms for the PPD, or whatever else I feel like showingn their alignment to a particular organization. I think one even has a Mender outfit with brass and leather.

This, honestly.

Oh heck, I didn't know that was an option. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Please give Dominator/Savage Assault/Call Swarm an alternate animation using that of Shriek from Sonic Attack so that I can vomit bees at people. Shooting bees from your mouth is much more terrifying than just manifesting them at people.

Definitely more melee. I don't mind starting an engagement at range with Fearsome Stare and Unkindness, but I want to be Feral Charging and dropping Heart of Darkness, Rending Flurry, and so on in the middle of packs.

Thank you kindly, and sorry for the long delay, the forum didn't pop up anything to say this had gotten any views, so I missed your analysis. Thanks also for the kind words on it. Now, as to your suggestions: You're correct about Call Hawk, and probably correct about the immobs and Obliteration. The problem is that the build's pretty tight at the moment, so we're definitely operating on one-in-one-out system. I'd *LIKE* to grab those powers, but what would I drop to replace them? I do actually quite like Rending Flurry, and Maiming Slash is in there for leveling purposes. It's sorta the same deal as my blaster, I have both Single Shot and charged Shot and while I don't *use* them much at 50, they get niche use as being fired off during mezzes due to Defiance, and they helped me have an attack chain from low levels, and they'll be important if I ever need to exemplar back down. You've got an excellent call on Weave instead of Grant Invis. I had thought that it would be good to let allies sneak around with me, but more defense for my fragile self is probably not unwise. Which leads to further jiggery: I can move a slot out of Tough to Weave, and turn Tough into a mule for the defense uniques and end up with +12% global defense for a loss of about 6% resistance to smashing/lethal, which is a pretty good trade. as for the dominator ATO: Yeah, could do. I'd have to buy one extra ATO but putting it in Fearsome Stare is not a bad call. I don't have Feral Charge yet, Hain is about 36, but at present I open (From stealth) with possess on any NPC or target I think is going to be trouble, followed by fearsome stare. Optionally, drop Haunt or Unkindness at this point to either mitigate aggro or start dealing damage, then jump in and fire off Heart of Darkness or Shadow Field if it's on cooldown, and then start meleeing with Maiming, Vicious, and Rending Flurry. Repositioning from within the mob to drop more Unkindness if the density is thick enough. Once I have Feral Charge, it's going to replace manually running into the mob packs. This is also why I convinced myself that I'll be fine even dropping Call Hawk, which I have on the live version of the character, I'm really more about zooming into the heart of the pack to Heart of Darkness, Rending Flurry, and then lay about with melee attacks than stand back and use the admittedly excellent heavy ranged attack. Force Feedback in Feral Charge and -Resist in unkindness? Certainly, but where will I get the slots? Everything is slotted *precisely* to where I get the recharge set bonus, OR frankenslotted fo whatever I wanted it to do: The only places I can pull slots are Possess, Fearsome Stare, Dark Consumption and Soul Drain. Pulling slots from the soul mastery aura sucks is certainly *an option*, but I'd have to weight that against having those powers get good enhancement values. I've never really played around with those expensive, high-end procs, so I don't know how to properly measure the benefits versus 25% more accuracy and recharge in Dark Consumption and Sould Drain. All in all, thank you for your time and critiques for the build. I'm very grateful.

Yeah, Praetoria finding Primal Earth and it kicking off the invasion is kind of awkward because both Battle Maiden and PraetInfernal are from other dimensions already.

I've been staring at this for hours and I don't even know if it makes sense anymore. Idea is to approach in stealth, hit with Fearsome Stare/possibly Unkindness, then Feral Charge in, drop Heart of Darkness, and then get to work in melee, dropping Shadowy Field if necessary. Dark Consumption and Soul Drain in the middle of the pack, stacked Dark Embrace and Toughness (I couldn't get any real meaningful defense with all the +rech). Possess is just really handy for corner cases and early leveling tool. Infiltration really slotted because it's got my def mules for +rech and -KB and and extra resistance and stuff. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1375;645;1290;HEX;| |78DA7593DB6E12511486F730432967B1C5821C4AA185022D962730A6F4142569C20| |3E048273891320DD0462E7D821A13E3E909BCF1468D55E35B584DD407F0426D6DD4| |DE20E392F50389C409E4CB5E7BFF6BAFF5AF99E2CD82EBC9DAAD8B42F22ED7D466B| |35C30B6F5BADA321AD6A25AD52BB21062BCA46EC7D655BD6EA3457C70A0BC6CD45B| |0DA3962BA88D1B758DB408C486472E359BEA6EAD952BA97B6A55EB2F856FD320DD4| |67D4F6FEAD7F49ADE6ABB7B9155BD7ABDA5D7AB8EDEAAB4A3695B4EDEA8FDDD09AD| |ECE895DC307BC9D8AD958B6AB3A535DA01AA2D46FFCE94C063CAE2AD45888822C60| |E998177CCF07B66273D38AB887B8494221CF799E71E800F998147CC2E692468A4AB| |84BC222C2AA831531566668B293242C8D0C8D028D028FFD174A90F2B6B2CD613A91| |71BFBC58C7E619A74C68633B68F1C1BB7CBCC435E7BE9801D77DB2FF39EC3CF7B33| |1F2CCC20C7673EF15A90994E689C07BCE77A09BE62465F33336F9812DDE386C68D1| |E3DE8D1F34F8F17D0A34C1AAFC4F57B7F709E333FC153E4A55A7C98A7EF88EB3B7B| |0C7E672E9E302DE4F304E7532604EB273BBC37F99BB9D085C664BAA9063FE7177EF| |822531E7E8D4C692ACBB5CE3EC61D544F107D063738767E055C6526D699B36BCC38| |DD11429F21E40BF7F38212DD1941ED91A71C8B3E632E3E876F2FC003F847B54CC39| |B69781383373178138337B7C98E386A88C3EB04BC4EC06B93DEED39F43687192631| |C3246698C40CD398E13E49E77B5F846999DFE7BBD277C153A5C7CF2E21B2784FB30| |6EB16DA20E6E3218F7298430E73B843B997D0DF12FACBA3BF3CFACBA3BFB032F896| |E9478F880F23E69591DD4D65F01D0BA917F9EA1008F5CF1C8D44BE8D448E47225A6| |A1031FF00C9FCEC60| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

What's the icon for the Ice Mistral set supposed to be? a frozen-over blue broken heart? An arm and clenched fist?

you DO get a temp power for taking the bracers, or at least I got one from doing the arc

I mean, that's a shame, but still.

Man, having Munitions Sleep Grenade be, like, *useful* is gonna be weird.

Dang, that's a big new issue.

The motel in PI that's the unofficial halloween TOT neverending combat fiesta should have a badge or plaque added to it to mark it as officially Haunted as Heck, in commemoration to the ten million zombies and vampires slain at that location.

Here's the deal with Croatoa: Wayback in the Wayback, (Somewhere between Prehistory and the 1st century, we'll say) in ancient mythic Ireland the ancient tribes of the Fir Bolg, the natives of the island, did battle with the invading Tuatha de Dannan. This battle was long, vicious, and bloody, which absolutely delighted the native Irish fey, the Redcaps. The Fir Bolg eventually lost, and fled across the ocean. The Redcaps, annoyed that the fun was over, decided to kidnap a contingent of the Tuatha to chase down the Fir Bolg. Fast forward to 1588, America, Roanoke Colony. The Fir Bolg stumble out of the woods, exhausted and hungry. (Questions about the distance traveled and the many years intervening can be answered with 'The Redcaps did it'. Malicious fey are malicious.) The colonists, of course, happily provide the strangers with food and rest. Cue the redcaps showing up with their attack dogs, the Tuatha. They rip the whole Roanoke colony into 'The Spirit World', the fey realms, whatever you wanna call it, and proceed to massacre the colony. All the males killed, the women and Firbolgs sent running through the spirit world. They spend the next 400 years torturing and tormenting the firbolg and the women of Roanoke, The Roanoke women eventually take up spellcasting, learning magic to help them survive in the spirit realm (arcadia, fey realms). It's not clear if the Firbolg and Tuatha were transformed into monsters by the redcaps during this period, or later? I'd assumed that the Firbolg at least had human forms up until the Roanoke colony is disappeared, it kind of stretches my suspension of disbelief that the colonists would have taken pity on a tribe of giant pumpkin scarecrows. 400+ years pass, setting to modern time. Paragon City is a nexus for powerful magic, and it attracts the Redcap's attention. They nab some Fir Bolgs (possibly transforming them now, this is the last point this could happen, chronologically) and shove them through doorways into Paragon city, and delight as the heroes hunt them down as monsters. This makes them so happy they decide they want to have some more fun: Dragging Salamanca into the spirit realm where they can have more carnage and suffering. This sets up the zone as we see it: The Fir Bolg and Cabal are conspiring together to try and put together a genocide spell to delete the Redcaps entirely, the Tuatha are being tormented and used as attack dogs by the Redcaps, the spirits are just confused and terrified ghosts of Salamanca humans, and heroes are caught up in it.

How come?

Rogue. Most of my villains are bad folks, but they've got lines they won't cross.

Seconded. Good use for that 'shirts' costume option for male characters that only has one option right now.

I've been curious about this for a while, honestly: Fighting's got two single target smacks and a cone. How feasible would a fighting clone that uses the whip animations be? Or a clone of Willpower that uses a shotgun for its ranged blast and cone? The cons are myriad: getting the animation time to sync up, making sure the damage numbers are comparable, and the only real 'prop' I can support is 'it'd be cool to let a character use a weapon a little even if they aren't a 'weapon archetype'. Too much work to be viable, probably. But the idea keeps tugging at me!

In a future issue, would it maybe be possible to get the changes to stances proliferated to path auras? IE, making it so that they only appear when you have a travel power toggled on?