Force Redux

Duly noted, and in retrospect I agree with you. I like your suggestion.

I find Repulsion Field is more fun to use, and with it's smaller size, generally more useful. If I had to choose... I'd go Repulsion Field. That said, I grabbed both. But I only have a proc'd out Force Bolt for personal attacks.

It's mostly a matter of building up funds again. I was down to 20 million at the time i created the character. Have to swap to play alts to earn some Inf.

Just hit 40, ran a Numina, Mortimer Kal and a some Tina McIntyre, felt really useful. With slots things are finally starting to come together, both in terms of recharge and durability. I'm very familiar with Time's teaming yumminess, but also pleasantly surprised by how well Rad meshes with the up close melee range of Time. I grabbed Soul Patron Pool, of course. Appreciate all the guidance both here and in game. 🙂 Becoming my favorite Defender! Damage is still a bit low, but I haven't done more with the attacks yet other than basic crafted IOs, no sets. So lots of room for improvement. That said, I was able to solo GWs arc at +1 just fine.

Of those listed, Thermal/Sonic would be my recommendation. Thermal has heals, rez, buffs and debuffs. Good ones. Sonic has stacking -resists, one of the best team secondaries you can take as Defender.

I like the idea of one less clicky. I would sign up for all of this. Like, right now. Nice suggestions.

I stopped just at the beginning of Capaldi's run. He just didn't grab me. Never made it to Jodie. As a fellow Gen X, let me tell you, it wasn't easy to nudge Tom over for David. Tom still has a special place. I grew up on 1970s BBC imports. I agree about Eccleston, I would have enjoyed another season from him if he had been willing to give it.

Pretty much this. Except on Illusion Controllers (for PA) or Dominators (for perma-Dom), I'm generally satisfied if I get Hasten down to 2 min 30 seconds recharge or less.

I was of the firm belief, until David Tennant. Now Tom is rank # 1.5, a hair behind. Heresy, I know, but hey...its DAVID F'N TENNANT!! 😛

TELEPORTATION POOL Suffers from being clunky. Let's try to change that. Recall Friend - functions just fine, and is useful and often requested on speed runs. Or for group wipe purposes. Leave as-is. Teleport - honestly, one of the few ways that Champions Online actually beat out CoH was in the implementation of their Teleport. The CoH version is clunky, difficult to use in small or confined maps, where you can't click, and it is anything but Nightcrawler-esque, with no finessse. The power should be overhauled: Teleport Cast 1.0 seconds Recharge: 12. 0 seconds Duration: 6.0 seconds Endurance: 13 seconds Effects: Grant Flight 6.0 seconds with high flight control., followed by 4 more seconds of no-control flight (when you reappear). Grant Phase Shift 6.0 seconds. Grant Invisibility 6.0 seconds. Affect Only Self 6.0 seconds. Invulnerability 6.0 seconds. What happens? You click and get six seconds to fly/move wherever you want, unseen, unaffected (because this simulates you being 'in between'), then you reappear and have another 4 more seconds of hover-ish flight so you can decide where to go next if in mid-air. Unlike current Teleport, you are not clicking every 3 seconds or so, so it reduces click fatigue on long distance map travel. You also can maneuver in tight spaces to without mouse clicking on targets, and thus can navigate things like Council caves. Teleport Foe - improve accuracy to 1.2 from 1.0; Reduce the cast time from 5.56 to 3.26 seconds. Team Teleport - this should function more like Assemble the Team. No one in all my years in CoH has ever asked to be teleported along as a travel power for regular travel purposes. Long Range Teleport - Teleporters should be masters of getting around. The cast time should be reduced to 3.0 seconds. In an age of many types of zone teleports (base teleports, wentworth's teleports, Pocket D teleports, Oro portals, etc), this power should be quicker and offer more versatility: Continue to allow porting to all existing zones. Add in ability to port to hazard zones. Add in ability to port to the current zone map's teleport location. If in a mission map, allow to teleport to the mission entrance. Perhaps allow for a second teleport location in each map only accessible to Long Range Teleport, although this may make the menu a bit larger, but with the reduced cast time, that should be okay).

Quick rundown on some of the changes I would implement. These are not complete, nor exhaustive. Most of my proposed changes are not radical, aiming for modest tweaks that are geared for QoL and/or making the powers a bit more attractive. MEDICINE POOL Alternate animations for either magical runes and/or self-empowerment (such as regen/willpower). Right now the tricorder appearance is ruined for any of my magical characters. Aid Other - Reduce cast time by 0.5 seconds to 2.43 seconds, improve the range to 40'. Aid Self - Reduce cast time by 0.5 second to 2.83 seconds. Injection - Reduce End cost from 13 to 10. Reduce cast time by 1 second from 2.93 to 1.93. Resuscitate - Reduce cast time by 3.0 seconds to 4.33 seconds. Improve the range to 40'. Field Medic - Make this a passive power. Removes interrupt from Aid Other and Aid Self. Keep the 25% Endurance Recovery to Aid Self. Add 25% Endurance heal to Resuscitate. Reviving without Endurance is nearly worthless. Keep the 25% healing debuff resistance. FLIGHT POOL Air Superiority - actually a fairly decent power pool attack, but could use a small bump in damage. Its about 31 on controllers and 62 on scrappers. So perhaps 10% boost. Hover - for the Endurance cost of 0.2 vs Combat Jumping's 0.07 (thus, three times more expensive), it should have a slight boost to base speed. Otherwise, I consider this power to be a baseline good power for what it does. Some small defense, plus the number one combat mobility power. Flight - the safest travel power. Improve its base speed, so as one person suggested, +flight enhancers placed in it actually can do something. Group Fly - right now, I only find utility for this with my Masterminds, as some maps are terrible for pet AI and pathing (layer cake room, some large Oranbega rooms, anything with a lot of Z axis). To prevent minion aggro, I need them to fly. This is another tax on Masterminds, really. This power should have the following effect: Inherit Flight: pets of any sort (minions, controller pets, patron pets, incarnate pets) inherit any Hover or Flight speed (no defense) that the owner has. Same speed. Thus, pets can follow the owner without issues or lagging behind. Same as when they run. I can't recall outside of perhaps a Hamidon raid that ANYONE ever asked for Group Fly. This power needs to be useful for pet owners, not team mates. Perhaps Null the Gull could allow people to flag themselves as a 'pet' for purposes of receiving this buff. That way, you don't have to OPT OUT, you have to choose to OPT IN. Which is QoL for those who just don't want the buff. Afterburner - This should be a passive that buffs Flight (above). Reduce the Defense to 3.0% across all ATs, but now it is available at all times. No more only affect self. This also would make the -Fly resistance and additional air control available at all times (for those folks who did NOT take Hover, and perhaps went the Air Superiority/Flight route). You are in pretty deep into the flight pool, so you would have some protection to keep it instead of being easily grounded. The power would lose the ability to be turned on in-combat, but would also gain a QoL that avoids one more button to toggle on/off. I can't count the number of times I've entered a mission and forgot to turn this off and buffed everyone, only to realize I only just buffed myself. LEADERSHIP POOL All the toggles need their Endurance cost reduced to 0.23. They are great powers, but they are a bit END intensive.

Oh dear. Thanks for reminding me of my favorite former Doctor! #LemonInWounds 😄

That's a nifty idea. I like it.

I'll add that Electrical Affinity is a very busy/clicky set and IMO I think it works best on masterminds, since their primary needs very little attention overall, compared to say a Blast or Control set.

My first MM ever was Mercs/Traps. Traps definitely can fill a lot of the holes that Mercs have (extra AoE, some control, defense, etc). I took that character to 50. There were no incarnates at the time. I would still recommend Aid Other/Self, as Combat Medic is not reliable unless you set him to Passive/Follow (then he'll stim and heal). Because Mercs is all about the DAKKA, might as well grab one personal attack just for the hell of it - you did want bullet casings with your bullet casings, right? So add some more. Go Mace Mastery for the Scorpion Shield (you should be able to easily softcap S/L/E, which are the three most prevalent damage types you'll encounter end-game), and you can grab Web Envelope for the extra AoE immob. It has a long casting time, but it will help keep things in the narrow Merc cones and in the Acid Mortar death zone. Thankfully, with the new AI changes, at least Mercs will stay where they are supposed to in your fortified area and in FFG range. That was not an option when i played back on Live, the Mercs were just all over the place.

If you want to avoid /Dark again, I'm gonna second Dixa's recommendation of Thermal. Solid set. Very thematic.

I just got my Alpha on mine, but I'm either going Degenerative (for the -Hit Points to help with tougher targets, plus some toxic extra damage) or Spectral (for negative damage and some more immobilization overkill, ha ha!). Likely Degenerative, though everyone has it, so in large groups its not likely to stack much. But it makes the most sense for what the build needs (help with tough targets). Plus with all the pets (Creepers, Fly Trap, Water Spout) it should proc fairly often.

Demon/Dark will do everything you want to do. And goes well with any duoing partner. I'm not a fan of Storm, but there are folks here who report great success with Demon/Storm as well. More damage than with Dark, but Dark is a bit safer and more controllery. Dark is literally the Swiss knife of secondaries, with tools for many situations. Many of it's best powers come early (unlike Storm): Twilight Grasp Howling Twilight Tar Patch Darkest Night Shadowfall... Dark Servant arrives at 38, but it's worth the wait, he's an invaluable ally.

Also needs alternate animations that are suitable for non-tech characters.

There are times I'm interested in RP, particularly on redside (though I have a blueside PPD awakened character, too). Mostly I do this in PUG teams, and most folks go along, but something a bit more dedicated would be fun. Thanks also for the hand with the macro for the trap in my Numina arc, also. 🙂

For now I have my Creepers six slotted with Artillery for the Range Defense. I will consider proccing it out later.

Yes, I think these will be my final choices too.

Irradiate is a lovely AoE, and the character as a whole is starting to come to life at level 36. Slotting is starting to make the powers flourish, and I love the visuals. The Rad Blast debuff visuals are very helpful to track who has been hit. I start off with buffs for the team, lay in with debuffs on the mobs and then blast away. Proton Volley is a solid snipe, an Cosmic Burst is a pretty reliable stun. I'll definitely drop either X-ray Beam or Neutrino Bolt. So far, very pleased.

Welcome back, hero! 🙂

Thanks folks. Did some more reading up, as well, so appreciate the links. Slowly leveling this in my off-time. Just hit 22, so now putting in some IOs, which are helping to make the set feel 'beefier'.