Gulbasaur

They can be a bit rough to start - at level 24 you get a mandatory respec with power pools that are locked out until then, meaning that you can take different low level powers than were originally available. 1-24 = somewhere between a crap scrapper and a pre-revamp stalker. post-24 (including exemplared down/ouro) = a controller with knives for hands, a teammate-improvement aura and nukes.

Doctor Fortune has been my main for a while now. Fortunatas are strong all-rounders and very team-friendly. Best at any one thing? Not by a long shot. Okay at everything? You betcha. They have armour, control, ranged damage, melee damage and ally buffs. I can just about maintain aggro well enough to tank through debuff stacking. Aggro gets thrown off when a basic bitch scrapper gets too slap-happy with the AoE, but that's what Provoke is for. I've definitely out-taunted safety-scrappers brutes before. My power pool choices are almost entirely utility powers and it's nice being able to hoick lowbies around with Teleport Target and be able to use Grant Invisibility to bypass mobs like nature intended. The cheap, strong Leadership buffs are great because they make teaming less hassle - you can just quietly carry people from a fairly low level for minimal endurance. Maybe the real Arachnos is the friends we buried along the way ❤️

It's my 30 year old knees I really miss.

Crey's Folly is one of the most interesting zones in terms of its layout - the grimy, industrial feel mixed with the shanty town was quite unique. Apart from beating up Jurassik, there's just not much reason to go there.

You may be blind but you ain't stupid - you asked the right people in the right place and that always wins points in my book.

TT:Leadership has a nice interaction with the Gaussians Chance for +BuildUp proc - It has a 6.5% chance to go off every 10 seconds per teammate in range (including yourself and any pets). On a team of eight, that's a 52% chance for it to go off every ten seconds. Throw in a Mastermind with a full bank of pets and you've got an 84% chance for it to go off. TT:Leadership is a good power anyway if you team as it allows sidekicked-up teammates to contribute more, but the interaction with the Gaussian's proc lets you skim the equivalent of an extra SO enhancement in each of your damage powers off a full team, albeit on a random basis. It's your bonus for doing such a good job leadershipping.

Should all archetypes be able to solo? Yes, I think so. Should all archetypes be able to solo at +4/8? I personally think no archetypes should be able to solo reliably at +4x8. This game has balance issues, I think it's fair to say. The IO bonus system is very stacked towards defence bonuses to the extent that even dominators and blasters can have defence values above what an early game tanker could expect. Is there a difference in performance expectations for content below level 50 versus level 50+? I'm not sure. Should players be using Invention Origin enhancements by a specific level or range? I use IOs from when I can use them, if I'm honest - I don't remind the level requirements as it sort of works like character milestones but think the bonuses are often much too strong. Do players who can solo +4/8 at level 50 have an outsized impact on teams or other players? Maybe this is as intended? I semi-frequently play +3x8s in Atlas Park with level 1s (who don't stay that level for long) tagging along - A tricked out L50 can carry hard. I personally suspect that the original plan was that most players would have a few bonuses, whereas in the current game half the population is builds that would once have been considered elite.

I mean, what's the difference in real terms? That sorta thing is literally the plot of comics like Super Sons and X-Men literally has a school for mutants (many of whom become superheroes) as the setting for a lot of it. Learning how to use your powers is also a common theme in superhero fiction. Dr Manhattan being unsure of the extent of his powers and becoming convinced he's a walking carcinogen is a major plotpoint in Watchmen. Liz in Hellboy's origin story is basically her being a walking bomb until she learns to control her abilities through experience. It's an incredibly common storyline for superheroes to either not be able to use the full extent of their power until they've got more experience or to discover new powers as they explore their own abilities.

I only build characters for levelling. Yes, I do sometimes use purple IOs, but the choice of powers and the order of powers is important. Builds that skip a basic attack chain for Tough and Weave and can't exemplar down past about level 30 are silly. I generally don't start filling out utility/bonus powers until level 40 or so.

It's a "when I get there" thing. I don't see the point in builds that only work at level 50 (a problem with planned builds IMO) or rely on incarnates to function... level scaling is a big part of the game and some of the earlier content is really good.

No... enjoy the sights! If you're playing the storyline, always take the scenic route.

Yes officer, this post right here.

Truth! "I'll deal with you in a minute" is a useful trick to have up your sleeve.

I'll third it - VEATs have high defence and decent resistances. I think people tend to go overkill on survivability a bit at the cost of damage in a lot of builds - unless you're exclusively running +4x8 content for personal challenge, you don't need that sort of armour (and even then it'd be a war of attrition).

I played Storm/Water to 50 and it always feels epic... one minor problem is that you can't really see the screen under all the sploosh.

Just imagine your legacy... people will be looking up those references in bewilderment for years to come!

I know that it didn't please everyone, but I was really impressed with your work - the "production values" was above what a lot of the core game's story arcs showed. Things like the police standing around the door at the end of the mission were a nice touch.

I was looking at spines/bio actually... in the end I just made a new costume on my fort and that was enough to keep me happy. If I make another stalker, I'll probably give it a go.

I totally changed what I enjoy playing... I used to really enjoy ranged support so defenders and controllers were my thing. My current favourite now is fortunata (mostly melee), followed by tanker or stalker. I'll second fortunatas - mostly melee but with range and control when needed (Dominate ❤️) as well as lots of ToHit and Defence radiating out of you, meaning your teammates are generally upright longer. They're got a grab-bag of powers more than the other epic archetypes (peacebringers and warshades each have their own flavour, crab and bane spiders both have a tight concept to them... fortunatas are psychics with knife hands and defence buffs) but that makes them incredibly flexible. I had a nice moment with mine a few days ago in the LRSF where I confused Back Alley Brawler tanking Manticore with my knife hands and providing something like 20% defence for my allies. It's like they were airdropped in from another game.

Sequel, surely. A reboot would be blasphemy!

Psi blast has increased range. People like to go "yes, but robots" whenever anyone mentions psi but honestly it's fine - stay out of Striga and avoid Arachnos and it's barely a problem. Psi tornado is effectively knockup because it knocks them back from a point below them, so it won't push them away but it'll stop them from getting closer quite as quickly. The other one I'd look at is Ice; the -Speed will mean enemies take longer to get to you, giving you more bang for your buck with the range you do have. Ice Storm has a large AoE and a pretty strong speed debuff. Tactical arrow has Glue Arrow, which would further slow enemies down. Snow Storm in Cold Mastery would give you another layer of slowness... Repulsion Field in Force mastery would help keep enemies at bay. The knockback is fairly high magnitude and you can gear it up to mag 13 with some enhancements. I've tried it a bit on beta and it's... certainly one way to play.

Fire/Traps blaster with the teleport pool. Take the flame mastery pool for Bonfire with a knockback to knockdown converter in it. Make your mine pile, start your bonfire, use Fold Space to schwoomph everyone in then start rain of fire and light em up like a mobile disco. You can hang around in middle of it all, muttering about the cost of your gas bill.

I love my fortunata. Doctor Fortune is the most fun character I've ever played. He's the only character in game I've ever had compliments about. Fortunatas are resplendent. Melee, range, control, debuffs, buffs, enough aggro management to tank and look good doing it. Jack of all trades, master of none is what I like - flexibility and utility. I can solo AVs but I can also carry a load of level 1 babies out of Atlas Park through incarnate content. Peacebringers are neat but their melee attacks go in slow motion and been there, done that. Warshades are very powerful but I feel like I spend as much time applying buffs as I do actually attacking. Soldiers... wrong aesthetic and they trade out a fortunata's utility for a lot of AoE damage and everyone and their cow brings a lot of AoE to the table by mid-game. Tankers and stalkers are what I usually default to otherwise. Dominators look fun, but I've never really got too far with one. I don't love a lot of the control sets, which doesn't help. Sentinels look kind of interesting but they lack melee without leaning heavily on power pools (which is what they're for so that's not a huge issue). Masterminds don't work for me - I don't like pets, least of all pets you have to actually pay attention to. Blasters are interesting, but the only one I've taken to a significant level was a dual pistols one who apparently fired blanks because he wasn't "arresting" anything quickly enough. I do like defenders, corruptors and controllers, partly because the support sets are so varied. So, what would you recommend to a hapless idiot who wants it all?

I don't have an exact build as I'm on the wrong computer for it, but: You want Oppressive Gloom or Cloak of Fear. They offer a huge amount of teammate damage mitigation, which as a tanker is basically part of your job. Keep minions alive for as long as possible - the mezz layer basically makes them irrelevant apart from the fact that three of your buffs scale from the number of enemies around you. Soul Drain is one of the best self-applied buffs in the game, but if you nuke all the minions immediately is turns it into a crap version of Build Up. You can get away with high-30s in defence because the resists are solid and the mezz auras deal with minions nicely. Weave and Maneuvers will take you very high on a tanker and you can probably do it without too much hassle. Hover effectively mitigates the lack of knockback protection. Dark melee pisses ToHit debuffs all over everything. Your base attack chain will do two or three layers of -4.9% ToHit. Obviously this gets scaled down against some enemies, but it's still useful. Siphon Life can take a Theft of Essence endurance proc and you definitely want this because dark armour is an absolute endurance vacuum. Conserve Power from Energy Mastery mastery is an excellent pick because of the endurance vacuum issue. Both sets scale well with recharge: Soul Drain, Dark Endurance and Dark Consumption are all powers you want available as often as possible. Kick and Cross Punch are worth using as attack chain filler - they can take the +Recharge enhancement (see above) and your two melee cones will work well together. I love my dark/dark tanker, actually. He's a hard carry for lower level teammates due to the control aura and he can hammer through mobs slowly but surely. He's one of the few characters I can leave in a pile of mobs, answer the door, grab a drink, go to the loo, read War and Peace and come back to still be on 99% health (but 3% endurance).

Back in the day the two tram lines were completely unconnected and you had to run halfway across Steel to change lines... it's still easier than it was on (early) live! I'm old and horrible but I like having to travel sometimes.