Cutter

Inspired by recent events, I got to thinking that I want to build a hero specifically to run the lowbie TFs, and more specifically to be effective as a support geared toward newer players (with the navigation and build challenges that sometimes arise) as well as those with late bloomer builds. With that in mind, what class/combo would be "most complete" by the low 20s, such that most of the core powers are available for Posi1, and (almost) all are available for Posi2 and Synapse? I want to make room for SS+Recall, and if possible Maneuvers and Tactics.

So I'm discovering (as I expect pretty much every builder has) that starting from small and building out causes a whole shwack of its own issues. I've upsized my plot - too large - and changed the overhead water style - too small for the plot. Plus having to add rooms piecemeal makes things really choppy and broken. It's a good learning experience tho. I'm placing lots of island pieces to cover some of the gaps, and will look at adding flat land to the rest. Once that's done, I want to work on actually building to outside, even if it's just a doorway to allow folks to fly around and see it from the top. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I've been looking through the other tips threads too. And again, if you're on Excelsior, feel free to stop in and have a look.

Far too much time later, and this is by far the most interesting base I've built, in terms of actually attempting to decorate 🙂 I know it's small potatoes compared to some of what's out there, but hey, baby steps right? Anyone interested in checking out a reclaimed abandoned underwater Circle of Thorns lair on Excelsior? Plug HOOTS-10096 into your favourite base TP macro. I'd love to hear some critique and suggestions on what I've done so far. My two burning questions: 1) What sky effect best shows off that there's water above the glass, and 2) Is there a way to make the base plot bigger??

I'll give that a check and see if there's something interfering. (And yeah I know about the doorway trim lackage - drives me nuts cause I hate that interrupted flow!)

OK, so far so good. I had to rotate the water as well to get the reflections showing up. New glitch (or oddity, whatever): I have some of my high wall sections with trim, and some without, and I don't understand the hows and whys. Help? Near a corner (the glass "floor" is in the corner)" In the middle of the room: Edit: I figured the simple workaround of just setting Ceiling Trim to "None". I'd still like to find a way to set a trim style and have it apply uniformly through the room. It's a single 5x8(?) room so there shouldn't be any connectors causing the issues.

That's going to involve clipping outside the geometry, right?

Likely a known thing, but for me who rarely goes beyond the basics of a box with NPCs and teleporters, I was pretty impressed with myself for figuring out how to place water beneath a glass floor in my base!

I'll add my echo to Rad as having a similar "feel" to Elec. Mine is /Fire for plenty of AoE goodness. I don't know that there's a "must-have/must-avoid" secondary to pair it with. Depends on what you're looking for there.

This! Personally, I'd like to see that one reverted to "the way it was"(tm). Story time. I remember back on live as a wee noob, doinking around KR on a my second or third hero ever, a fresh MA/SR scrapper, when I came across a build site. No idea what was going on but it was fascinating. Jumped in because I was full of overconfidence; hospital trip in 1.2 seconds. Came back because WTH was that. Couple other folks were there at this point. Get invited to a time. Slug it out for a while, reading messages about the paladin being built. So many reinforcements. Finally we stopped it, and that shiny Knight Errant badge text popped up. I wore the heck out of that one. More importantly, most times that I logged in on any character after that event, if I had a couple spare minutes I would always hop the train to KR and take a quick spin round the zone, just in case another build site popped up. So I guess short answer, more random events that encourage activity across all the zones, especially what I would consider the underused ones, would be nice. The Hollows could sure use something like that; Faultline too (but there's a fair amount of TF traffic there since the rework so maybe it's OK). PP and Boom at least have random GMs show up, but still not much reason to go to either.

What's the reasoning behind proc-out of Savage Leap? Does it not have enough base damage that's worth enhancing? Is it to let you use it from any distance (instead of max range) better? Something else?

Sentinel version of Regen is amazing. The absorb shield does wonders, to the point that my experience has been that I rarely have to use my click heals. (This is helped by Water Blast primary providing all sorts of soft control which gives the regen breathing room to work.) You might find similar performance pairing it with Energy Blast, as the kb there (tho unreliable) should fire often enough to give you the extra ticks you'll need.

That's awesome! I was hoping someone from that team would be on here. Your inspiration struck!

So I got myself on to a patron arc team with my redside tank, Dudebro. Fighting Longbow, as one does in the Rogue Isles. As we ranted about how much we all generally hated Longbow, someone on the team, in conversation, said "Longbro". Thus an idea was born. The evil douchenozzle and his good (but still very nozzle-y) heroic incarnation.

I just reimagined my old main as a Dark/Savage! Only in the teens but so far so good. OP: In terms of faster animations and a faster attack rotation in general, in addition to Savage you should have a look at Claws and Street Justice.

On the "lunging Confront" thang: would Burst of Speed (from blaster Martial Combat) be a reasonable place to start in looking for the appropriate effect, timing, etc.? I like this idea too.

That's certainly tempting! I haven't given Stone/ serious consideration since coming back - I 50'd a Stone/Fire back on live - but that's definitely another option to consider. Now I just need to see if I can get the name on any other servers so I can run both!

Hmmm a backstory out of nowhere! 🙂

Great idea. Swap for the Burst of Speed animation?

I completely agree with the "get in there an earn" idea. The idea of scrappers getting "scrappier" over time. As far as crits go, trust me I know that's always been the scrapper domain. But with stalkers ALSO getting crits, AND being better able to control them (plus they get a larger % chance from being on teams), I thought I'd explore an alternative. I have nothing against scrappers getting a better crit mechanic! As far as a sustain goes, I think +absorb and +recovery is strong and different enough from the others that are out there. It's be cool to see something that allows the resist sets to temporarily break the 75% limit, but that's not equally applicable.

Will/SJ it is. Don't underestimate the skinny dude with the crazed look in his eye!

That would also work. I was just spitballing something totally new, given the premise of "leave the crits to Stalkers". Any way you look at it tho, I think it's generally agreed that Scrappers need something to make them unique.

I mained a Spines/Dark scrapper from i3 to shutdown. Tried recreating him here, and it just felt... off? I'm building tankers more than anything these days; my old main just got recreated as a Dark/Savage tank and it feels a lot better than my first attempt at recreating the scrapper version. To echo some of the other points made, it seems to me that Scrappers' identity has been diluted. Brutes have all the damage plus better caps for resist armours, while Stalkers get better crits now, and their new melee sets still retain most of the AOE potential. My first "this is outrageous and will never happen" thought was to separate the melee damage ATs by sets: Give tanks and brutes the slow melee sets and resist armours, and have scrappers & stalkers share the faster melee sets and defense armours. Overlap the hybrids. From there, on the scrapper/stalker divide, I'd rework the sets, including new powers where needed, to push scrappers more firmly into an AOE blender role, and stalkers more firmly into single target death dealers. In the real world, since I can't see that happening (nobody wants their sets taken away from them), I'd like to see better role differentiation. It might be heresy but I think a new inherent could be a real possibility. Leave crits to stalkers, since they get better % as well as better control of timing. Brutes obviously keep fury. Scrappers? I dunno, maybe... SCRAPPERLOCK! The longer a scrapper fights, the more frenzied his attacks become as he gives in to the true nature of scrappering. All scrapper single-target attacks have a chance to splash damage to nearby enemies; as the fight goes on, the chance increases. In addition, the scrapper loses himself in single minded focus and can shrug off conditions that might fell a lesser combatant. For every 10(?) seconds the scrapper is in combat, he gains a small absorb shield and endurance recovery buff, increasing in strength as the fight goes on. Aside from being much more reliable than crits, this would give even the single-target heavy sets an AOE presence, and "feed the beast" that is the scrapper's relentless need to attack. I loved my scrappers back on live, but so far here on HC I find it hard to justify rolling one up when another AT does what I want it to do, but better.

Thanks for the props! I didn't try Hootsman. But my one-man SG on Excelsior IS called Hootsforce...

Just have one so far. Zero guesses for the inspiration here:

Hmm, Will/x is the early leader! For what it's worth, inspiration comes from here.