Cutter

Seconding the shout-out for Terra Volta. It features so much variety, unlike every other "oh look a disaster happened here" hazard zone. Not to mention rivaling (and in some ways exceeding) OG Faultline for the challenge for superspeedsters to get around. Finding my way around as much of TV as possible on foot is still on my to-do list. Also, Striga Isle. I remember when that first came online. Again, a great variety of terrain unlike the average city zone, and the self-contained story arc chain was a nice treat. (Special mention for the Wolf's Throat underground tunnel - I would love to see that piece of map used for something!)

I am 4/5 (no Pacify) into the pool on a Dark/Elec tank, who's built around stacking all the fear effects and stun procs.

Nice. So far I've got: (Excelsior) Cattleclysm (Indomitable) BEEF CANNON (Everlasting - home of "The Herd" SG) Armoogeddon, Mooclear Winter, Grass Fed, Mootant, Boycow, BEEF CANNON, Methanephetamine Seems my brain is always noodling beef-based puns.

There needs to be a cross-server supergroup for all the cows. My herd on Everlasting are happy to support their bovine brethren!

Well done! I love finding the one-word names.

(yeah, I'm in a Contacts mode today...) Could there be a way to dismiss (or perma-hide?) more contacts than just detectives? Especially the optional ones. I don't need to see all the First/Night Ward faces clogging my window when I'm looking for someone.

We already have the ability to sort contacts by Name, Zone and Relation. Would be a nice QoL to also be able to see them by Level Range (or even the lowest level they unlock).

I was pretty shocked to get Tank and Spank on Torchbearer last week. (Doubly funny because I've been running Tamk amd Spamk (he filled in his superhero registration using cursive) on the same server, having just assumed the "original" would have been taken).

Got myself a sidekick at work so I'm slowly churning time on my Mentor badge. Recently updated our personal base to a larger plot (with fewer too-steep stairs and weird build hacks). And my long-time teammate and I picked up our 15th Anniversary badge today - this one's called "hey honey we've officially lasted longer than your parents did" 🙂

Go right ahead! I sure wish there was a power customization option to enable backpack firing.

BEEF CANNON

Some of these will be easy, others not so much. I'm limiting myself to combinations I actually have, so no theory-crafting. And full disclosure, this list is more like an Excellent Eight, as there are some ATs I just can't get into. Blaster: Seismic/Devices - I'm not much of a blaster player, and find myself challenged to get one out of the 20's. But I've managed mid-30's so far with this guy, and he... doesn't suck I guess? There's really no thematic pairing here, just me looking to be as ranged as possible. Defender: Electric/Rad - Electric Affinity has surprised me in terms of both how much it brings to a team, and how much I find myself enjoying the active playstyle. Cycling through all the buffs on a pretty regular basis but I still get time for some pew pew. Good all the way through but really shines in the low levels (when everybody's build has holes!). Controller: Earth/Storm - My controllers are few and far between, but I'd have to go with the controlled chaos this pairing brings. The massive and varied debuffs always have some use, and make it easier to get there with the secondary. Scrapper: Stone/EnA - I've hardly scrapper'd at all on Homecoming, where on live they were my most played AT. I've found this combination particularly satisfying - EnA hardly gets hit when properly kitted out, and has tools to help the blue bar which Stone Melee eats like nobody's business. The knockdowns and stuns provide plenty of mitigation to recover when the bad guys roll well. Tanker: Dark/Elec - On the other hand, I have more tanks than anything else. Picking just one is tough. So I'm going with my reimagined main from live, simply for the nostalgia value. He's not the best at anything, but fills that special place in my heart. Aww... (Honourable mention: Fire/Ice) Brute: Savage/Rad - Hands down the most fun hero I have right now. If I could only play 1 character forever, she'd be it. (Honourable mention: Ice/Rad) Corruptor: Gonna have to take a mulligan on this one. I've got a Pistols/Pain languishing in the 40s, but that's more to do with sheer bloody-mindedness than anything else. Dominator: And another mulligan. Tried a couple, don't like them at all. I guess if someone put a gun to my head I'd prolly go with Plant/X, but I don't know what X is. Mastermind: And here's the third non-response. I tried Beasts/Cold, gave Zombies/?? a try, and Thugs/Nature too. In the end the management style just doesn't connect in my brain. Stalker: Dual Blades/EnA - Made it to 50 on the back of 5 attacks, no idea how it would run under the recent DB changes. I poached the build off the forums and it was an enjoyable ride. Sentinel: Water/Regen - Another "just plain fun" combination. Water is great on Sentinels (what target caps?), and Sentinel Regen is remarkable. (Honourable mention: Elec/Invul)

Yoink! (my bovine supergroup thanks you)

Funnily enough, I just started a Poison/Water def yesterday in response to seeing this thread. Dumpster Juice is only L13, but it seems fun enough. Think I'm going to push for ridiculous amounts of procs everywhere.

And to kinda make up for the Juicer, I've restarted and revamped an older hero of mine, Last Man Standing (Inv/Dark Tank), with a new base look as well as some additional appearance options. He never gives up, tho he sometimes gets a little deader looking if he's ever knocked down...

OK, so it's not the most exciting or original look, but I felt inspired after reading the Defender "where are the poison defs" thread. So here we are. (Poison/Water Def)

Babbage has some interesting spawn behaviour. In addition to the ideas presented so far, I would also add "look up". One of the Synapse runs I did yesterday found Babs spawned on a fire escape halfway up a building, running in tiny circles and unable to get down.

Looking at your numbers you definitely have room to push some of them up - depending on build goals it's entirely possible to get F/C def over 45. Not sure what you'd sacrifice tho or if it's worthwhile to you. I'm no expert, and my build-in-progress is a good year+ out of date because altitis, but maybe something in this mess that helps you out: Stats without EA, MotT proc or incarnates:

Obligatory "it's a Nemesis plot".

Canadian North (Stone/Rad Tanker) just dinged 40. Generic IOs save for a couple uniques in Health, because this combo is quite end-hungry. It's doing well enough that I'm curious to see how he fares with some set slotting.

The fear effect is the "stand and tremble" version, not the "run away pooping their pants" version, so you may see some stragglers coming to you if you've jumped in to establish aggro and then moved to break LOS. It's a playstyle I've had to break with my guy, in that I'm more likely to find my environmental tool first & then taunt/provoke the mobs to me. Of course if they are standing around already decently clumped it's not really a concern. You will likely have to move a bit more to get at the spawn edges tho. Do note that your damage aura will break fear and let the mobs take a shot at you, but those attacks are with the -tohit. And typically after one attack they'll go right back to trembling for a bit. So you should definitely see a reduced amount of return fire than you might otherwise be used to. For my own part, because I'm also layering stun effects, I get more wanderers, which I somewhat mitigate with the immob procs. All told it's a patchwork of controls: some mobs shaking, some drunken stumbling, some just standing around.

I've done this with Dark/ElecMelee, and find it to be decent -- I leaned into the control elements pretty far (Control Radial Hybrid + Spectral Core Interface) so I find it perhaps a bit better than some. It's never going to win clear time awards, but it does a good job of sticking the controllery effects. I went with Vigor alpha to address the accuracy concerns as well as manage endurance. Slotting is far more conventional for the most part, with next to no procs in place. Build (note that I'm on an old version of Mids so it may not import nicely): Totals:

Cool beans, nice to know I'm not crazy (at least not in this one regard!). Related: how does one delete the 2x booster?

Hmmm I'm not seeing it. Totally unscientific, and of course variables such as team comp affecting xp & such, but... Yesterday I ran a fresh level 1 with 2x boost through one event. That one ended at L27 with 0 Inf. After posting this question tonight, I rolled up a new guy with no xp boost, and ran him through one event. That one ended just a hair shy of L16 with about 70k Inf. That suggests that the 2x boost actually doubles from 10x event to 20x event. Obviously needs corroboration. But sure seems like running without the boost is a poor choice. EDIT Ran another newb with 2xp through an event-in-progress (it was starting just as the last one I was in ended before I made this original comment, so I got in maybe 4-5 minutes after start -- post-GM at any rate). Ended a couple bubs shy of L27. 10x event and 2x P2W reeeaaallly looks to multiply to 20x.

Anyone know if the 10x xp stacks with p2w xp boosts? Or does it override? Or (hopefully not) is it in effect only if no p2w boosts are?