Gulbasaur

I loved my peacebringer on live and I love my fortuna now, however they have ruined me for other archetypes. They all seem weirdly limited after my "too many good powers to choose from" Epic Archetype days. Defenders, corruptors and controllers have variety. Tankers are secretly a control archetype so they keep me happy (dark/dark is secretly a controller). Stalkers have the crit rate minigame to keep me busy, at least (you can engineer three crits in a row quite easily). Blasters? Blah-sters more like. Masterminds? Fine, but I don't like pets. Brutes and scrappers? Discount tanks and easy mode stalkers. Sentinels? Corruptors without the bag of tricks. That leaves me with dominators... should I? Dare I? I'm looking for something with melee, controls and some ranged damage. I want it all, baby. Thematically linked powers sets preferred (e.g. dark/dark, fire/fire). I'd rather avoid mind/psi because I've played both sets to death on other archetypes. What would you recommend? Help a fortunado out.

Thank you for this! It'd be interested in seeing a secondaries version, but I realise that's a whole lot of work!

I like devices. Beam Rifle is quite busy and benefits from not swapping out too much, and devices is focused on setting up then attacking. It also has a lot of very optional abilities that you can take or leave.

Inherents are wildly inconsistent. Stalkers have a crit rate higher that stalkers, with a secondary crit mechanic on top of that. Dominators have better controls than controllers and mez protection and free endurance. Brutes have an enormous inherent damage boosting mechanism that passively rewards poor tanking (although it has been improved). Controllers have a crit effect that doesn't trigger on several different control effects (fears and confuses are excluded for some reason but are included in the incarnate equivalent). Defenders have a small conditional damage buff or endurance buff (not having endurance just isn't an issue for some Defenders). Blasters get a fairly small damage buff. Kheldians can get some respectable (but not amazing) bonuses from teaming. VEATs have... 5% more endurance. I'd like if VEAT and Controller inherents were given a second look.

I'd agree that stalkers don't need buffing. I would like to see the Build Up powers changed to be more like the other ATs' versions, like Follow Up and the Radiation one that makes you more likely to spread contamination .

Both Kick and Cross Punch are secretly quite decent as filler attacks, not least because they take a lot of procs. The Force Feedback one is one to maximize if you're chasing recharge.

What's the difference between Peacebringer and Warshade? PB's are flashy. WS's are smokey. PB's have flight, an ally heal and more melee options. WS's have teleports and more control options. PB's are quite self-sufficient and therefore more consistent. WS's use enemies to buff up, which means they're less consistent but have higher highs and lower lows (more enemies = better). What are the three forms? Human, which is roughly speaking a sentinel with some extra tricks. Nova, which is a flying blasty squid. Dwarf, which is a giant tank lobster. Can you go with just one or do you need all three? You can pick one, two or three. A bit of an issue is that the forms start out strong but don't really grow any stronger. Peacebringer slightly lends itself better to being human-only if you're worried about min-maxing, but it's certainly possible (and quite enjoyable) to play tri-form... triform PB's often flip between Nova and Human for damage and drop into Dwarf to wait out control effects. Warshade can stack buffs in Dwarf and Human form then flip into nova for extra damage. With so many powers how do you go about slotting? With difficulty... it's certainly not an easy ride.

Force Fields used to be one of the more appreciated powersets - the game has grown in such a way that has made it redundant. I'd be a bit concerned about it turning into too much of something totally different. Force Fields is a victim of the wider game balance issue that IO sets allow you to build for levels of defence and resistance that would only have been seen on a tank previously. I would strongly argue that it's the enhancement set system that needs a rework, not a core powerset. Dominators and blasters just shouldn't be able to build up 40% defence from set bonuses alone! Compared to a pre-IO state of play, that's bananas. I'd be in favour of the "rule of five" being tuned down to a "rule of three" - the current state of set bonuses is at the heart of so many game balance problems. Anyway... Force bolt: Probably what I'd do most with. Up the damage. Still does ST knockback, does KD to things around the target. Damage is buffed further if you have Repulsion field or force bubble running. Part of FF's whole schtick is knockback and I know there's a vocal minority of the game that hates it, but I'd be disappointed to see it turn into knockdown. Bad tanking and poor positioning is just as bad as knockback and knockback can remedy the first two. I also disagree with turning it into basically a blast attack. Maybe a stun or something? Personal FF: Can attack through it, with damage reduced from 1/2 to 1/3 and defense from PFF severely reduced for several seconds. Don't attack? You're still practically untouchable, with current restrictions. I think if this change would happen it would have to happen much later than a low tier power. This would risk basically turning it into a tanking set if you could level enough damage from other sources, procs, pets etc. Detention field: Since people hate waiting, make it a toggle (with the current timeout, as well - you can just cancel it early.) This is actually pretty nice. It's a situational power and this would make it less situational. Force bubble: Reduce the size to the same as DIspersion bubble. Enemies entering (or knocked into, or with the new AOE teleport, drawn into) it take damage over time, similar to the sonic repulsion fields in Praetoria, until they're out of the field. This changes the core of what it is too much, though I agree about reducing the size. Dispersion bubble - Popular suggestion seems to be adding absorb. Absorb will layer if someone with individual bubbles is in the big bubble. It already confers a lot of mez protection - is it needed? Is survivability so much a problem that absorb is needed? The bubble+bubble=absorb idea is interesting. Repulsion field - it's pulsing a knockback. Add damage to it as it "hits" enemies. Or chance to stun. Touch of -def, maybe. Getting smacked around by an energy (or whatever) field should have some effect. It needs something, definitely.

It's also a bit of a challenge to maintain aggro on a stalker. It can be done, but it's something you have to actively maintain. That said, I've had times where I've had to actively try and pull aggro off "tanks" because they were precious little fire farm babies out in the real world and were getting whomped.

I've tanked incarnate stuff on my widow. The bar is quite a lot lower than you might think.

I tend to take CJ on melee characters because being able to jump over enemies quickly and save a teammate is never not fun. No ranged attacks? Fire yourself at your enemies! I do tend to take Hover, Flight and Afterburner if I can fit it in, though. I just like them. VEATs and Kheldians tend to be quite busy, though, so I get not feeling like you have space.

1) If I remember correctly my Warshade build used Combat Jumping, are there any other options worth considering? CJ or Hover are easy wins, in my opinion. They add mobility and defence and they have a number of very good IO options. I slightly prefer hover because there are definitely times when being able to fly is useful. 2) You have two different Luck of the Gamblers slotted into Weave. If I need 5, and there's one in TT:Maneuvers, Maneuvers, CT:D, and Stealth, couldn't one of those be dropped if two can fit in Weave? Or more if we just put multiple in the one's I'm already getting? You can up to five of the same bonus before it stops working - here, the LOTG recharge bonus. LOTG is a set so it also has defence IOs, endurance reduction etc. It's not five LOTG, it's five of that specific bonus (effectively that one specific LOTG enhancement) that you get diminishing returns on. Having two in Weave gives you a 10% regeneration boost for the two matching ones. For example, if you have six LOTG enhancements all in the same power that's fine because you can't have the exact same IO slotted in one power multiple times, but if you had the LOTG "increase recharge speed" IO slotted in six different powers, the bonus from the sixth wouldn't count. Is there a golden ratio for damage to accuracy to endurance to secondary effect Enhancements when it comes to attacks? You get diminishing returns on having too much of the same thing, so you don't really want to go over +95 for damage, accuracy and end redux, +55% for defence and resist just from enhancements in a power. Bonuses from sets, global bonuses, power bonuses etc don't count towards this limit - it's just the six enhancement slots in each power and how you use them. "Normal" enhancements: 3 damage, 1 acc, 1 end redux, 1 secondary (or a proc). IO sets: Focus on everything but recharge except for mega slow powers. As a rule of thumb, you'll be hitting the limits on about five enhancements with the last one being a proc or taken for the set bonus. A very dense description of it is available here.

Do I want attacks from the base Soldier list? Redraw is an issue on VEATs that you'll either find annoying or not care about at all. I'd be inclined to say you think about your character "concept" first and then build to that. Note that if you take ONE crab power, you'll get the backpack. Do I want to stack Crab and Wolf Armours (I read somewhere that their resistance bonus is negligible?)? The resist bonus is 3% smashing and lethal, 2% psi. They both offer mez protection that stacks. I'd take Crab and only take Wolf if you really don't know what else to get. Is Combat Training: Defensive worth it? It's a respectably high ranged defence boost. How do the Grenades, Suppression, and Heavy Burst compare? There are so many abilities I want and nowhere near enough slots. Because of the slots and the redraw, I'd recommend either leaning into Crab or Wolf attacks or setting up a minimalist attack chain for both "modes". You can always play around on Beta if you want to get a feel for what combat is like. What I know I'm after is stacking AS Tactics with the Tactics pool (is Vengeance good?) I like Vengeance - it's an "oh shit" power that you don't need until you really need it. The Leadership powers are quite endurance-intensive so don't rush into getting them until you get your endurance under control. I really like the last Leadership one as well because the endurance boost it gives you is good for keeping a team ticking along, but it's one I only ever pick up really late in levelling. I've been using the Sorcery pool for Flight/Teleportation, and used the Knockdown spell before the level 24 Respec, but I honestly don't know if there's space for a travel power. If not I can get by on Ninja Run but I would like it. There are a few flight powers in the P2W vendor, but note that they knock your toggles off. I personally made room for a travel power - it was that or a one-slot wonder power. When my Warshade got AE Powerleveled into the 40s I started reading guides so I understand the basics, but I don't know what I need outside of "I will need so many End Reduction Enhancements for my toggles" and I really don't know about set bonuses. Any advice in that regard would be very much appreciated. VEAT toggles are cheap, so you'll get more bang for your buck if you slot your main attack chain for end reduction. Also, don't feel like you have to take all the toggles straight away - get your endurance under control first. TT:Assault is a 15% unenhanceable base damage boost, which is less than popping a red inspiration, so that really can wait until after you're up and running.

I do consider it control, but I also think it's rather weak - AoE and cones are still an issue and the aggro cap means that it's easy to use very badly. In a few teams, I've seen "boss blindness" where a tank (usually a brute*) just rushed off leaving their sidekicked-up corruptor to deal with the two bosses they ignored because the aggro cap causes it to roll over to the teammates with the next highest threat, which is usually anyone with debuffs. As a control mechanism, I'd rate it somewhere between immobilising and sleep as it can work well when it works well but is totally useless if the person behind the keyboard doesn't care about what they're doing. * I think people roll tankers because they want to tank and brutes because they want to DPS but don't mind holding aggro, so it's a mindset thing.

The smoothest teams I've been on have been tankless, DPS-less all support groups. Controls and debuffs in this game do not mess around.

And while you're at it, having to manually select a mission to have teammates able to see it. It's a pain in the bum while going through story arcs with other players. If it's the same person and they get a new mission, it's probably that one we're going to. There are a few enemy powers that don't have effect icons - the energy attack with a lingering debuff that goldside PDP use is a noticeable one as you've got a small white rectangle in among the effect icons. A WAY TO LOCK WHICH NUMBER POWER TRAY WE'RE ON WOULD BE GREAT - Being able to lock powers in place is handy, but being able to not accidentally cycle through the power trays because of a mis-click would be really nifty too.

That's worth remembering, hmm. I did know you couldn't get Vengeance off the nemnems but you can confuse them. Anything with forcefields is useful. It's a good preventative measure against mobs that explode on Death. Ritki guardians either bubble you up or give a decent buff. Tsoo sorcerors, Cimeroran surgeons and Longbow wardens can all be decent healers.

You can overwhelm it. It can be done!

Yes, and I'll fight you (or make your friends fight you) if you say otherwise. A lot of confuse's value comes from knowing who and what to use it on - support enemies are solid gold because they start buffing you, and if you stack it on enemies with hard or soft control it becomes very powerful. The real fun is anything with pets. Longbow wardens can be a real pain, but not when they're being punted into a corner by their own singularity.

I'm just not very good at remembering to use it...

Regen, unfortunately, needs to be massive in order to really be worthwhile. That said, it does help and if it's an easy slot that won't detract from anything else then go for it.

That's my current activity. I think you probably can, be the narrative will begin to fall apart as levelling order isn't the same as chronogical order - I think First Ward happens after a couple of the incarnate trials, for example. Night Ward ends at 39/40 and has repeatable contacts if you get stuck. The New Praetorians is 40, IIRC, and then you've got Tina and Maria's arcs and missions. I think you could easily get up to the mid 40s. Several tip missions have Praetorian story bits in them. The Sutter task force is quite focussed on Praetorian stuff. Basically, I'm trying to do it now.

It'll be a bit different, just because the way Praetorian content is arranged. First Ward and Night Ward are an indirect continuation of the early goldside missions with many of the same characters, so if you're gonna do it you'll get more out of it as a Praetorian. The goldside stuff has probably the best writing in the game, although it's a slow burn.

Thanks, but I actually wanted in character answers and thought it would be a fun roleplay exercise! I'm going to go rogue (or more likely vigilante for that fear power) but I'm trying to make this character as story-driven as possible.

I'd give my name, but I wouldn't want to brag. I've been called something of an "up and comer" in Imperial City lately. I've been moonlighting in some official PDD business and also helping the Resistance from time to time... in these uncertain times, you have to take the work you can get. Frankly, both sides are as bad as each other. For every "defuse the bombs" there's a "kill this informant" or a "start an interdimensional war" and frankly neither of them paint themselves in a positive light. I'm not wild about Cole, but at the same time half of the Resistance are so incoherent and hypocritical that I'm surprised they haven't imploded. Then again, half of Cole's Loyalists are "just following orders" to such an extent that I wonder if they're even paying attention. I've met some fairly friendly Arachnos agents recently, as well as some lumbering morons who tried to kill me, but I guess that survival of the fittest is their mantra and several of them were frankly operating above their pay grade. By comparison, my experiences of Longbow have been short and businesslike. A little corporate, if you ask me. I've heard about some sort of Phalanx - are they as uptight as the Longbow? So, those who made the leap: where should I settle down? Head for the shining blue skyscrapers of Paragon City or the deep red sunsets of the Rogue Isles?