Gulbasaur

I once tried to walk from somewhere to somewhere using only roads and crossing and Skyway City's roads just don't connect in any logical way. I think it's actually impossible to get from one side to the other without running through traffic. Crey's is such an underused zone. That shanty town had serious story potential, but it's somewhere that you skip through briefly one one or two task forces and never think about again.

Yeah, I vote this. Personally, I'd answer "neither, grab a support set with heavy debuffs and transcend" but that's because I enjoy hybrid builds... I do need to roll a tanktroller again... I think something /time but I don't know what the something is yet. The reality is, as you say, you can proc or bonus your way to glory with either. I've never found blasters' damage worth the fuss, but the same is true of sentinels and scrappers. Tankers are rather relaxing to play and stalkers have the constant crit-stealth minigame going on which means you can hit for 1k damage and choose when you do it. I'm still trying to find something as awesome as my fortunata. I'd love to see blasters get a damage buff as they have the same issue that many of the Hero ATs have that they're balanced around a game with a different meta and their inherent powers are generally a bit wetter. If damage is their whole shtick, they shouldn't be in the middle for damage numbers in actual play as they lose their "ranged advantage" in group play as so many heals and buffs are AoE focused. I'd like to see Defiance scale in in a similar way to Fury, which is the closest mechanically with increasing damage buffs with increasing activity... only Defiance rarely gets you more than about 30% extra base damage whereas Brutes can sit at +100% without trying.

I rank Blasters quite low on the "ATs I think are well designed" list. Like Peacebringers (IOs largely took away what made them unique and they can't self-buff to the same level that Warshades can) and Scrappers (Stalkers are basically Scrapper 2.0), I find it quite hard to justify playing them in a post-IO, post-Going Rogue game.* I've always felt that Blasters just don't do enough extra damage to counteract the squishiness and lack of team utility (although sets like time, devices and tactical arrow do add some), particularly as team play is mostly a melee/mid-range affair. Yes, you can one-shot someone from across a room, but how useful is that more than once per fight if your team is playing with a pre-CoV mentality where the Blaster pulls and the Tanker grabs aggro and it's not just a Brute running from mob to mob like a hyperactive spaniel. They're not the highest for single target or AoE damage. They're barely even the highest at range. They only do 12.5% higher damage than the VEATs, only they don't get the AoE debuffs that SoAs get and they don't get the control that Widows get (or the tankiness or the passive team buffs, including a 15% base damage buff although this does diminish in usefulness in among enhancements). Dominators aren't really that far behind blasters in terms of ranged damage, but they can also lock down elite bosses like 'twere nothing. I mean, Controllers get criticals which can put them at a pretty reasonable damage scale when they get going... Corruptors get Scourge, plus a lot of them have -res... You could argue that they have a higher damage cap than the other ranged AT's but to get to that cap you'll have to be playing in melee range because of how Fulcrum Shift works so the point is, as they say, moo. Yes, Blasters get Defiance, but lets not pretend Defiance is winning Inherent of the Year. The give up a hell of a lot for a modest damage buff and they're still not even the best at damage. Considering they're meant to be glass cannons, they're just not canon-y enough. Grab a sentinel (or a VEAT or a Kheldian if you're feeling spicy), slap on a couple of procs and you'll barely notice the difference in damage. * I mean, unless you just think they're fun, in which case blast on, you crazy diamond. This isn't exactly the hardest game in the world and "I just think it's fun" is a 100% valid reason to play the way you play and don't let anyone tell you differently. I'm not anti-blaster and will happily team with you, I just think they pay a high utility/survivability cost for relatively meagre gains.

I ran it on a defender and it's lots of fun. I'd actually recommend using the defender version, though. Storm has poor synergy with Scourge and Lightning Storm does more damage on a Defender. It also has much better low level synergy as you'll have Freezing Rain much earlier and it pairs very well with Whirlpool. You've got strong AoE damage and debuff and both sets use knockup/down mechanics (Tornado is basically a knockup and Lightning Storm is basically a knockdown - you don't need to slot for KB>KD). Storm has a number of powers that are, frankly, very skippable, so you can indulge in the power pools a bit. Gale, O2 Boost, Snow Storm, Hurricane and Thunderclap are all "take it or leave it" powers, in my opinion. Obviously, you need to pick up one of the first two, but my only heal is Vengeance and I don't have to use it very often. Use lots of Force Feedback recharge procs and put +endurance procs into anything that will take them or you'll burn out extremely quickly. Water Blast has an attack that can heal you, which you can also use to recharge endurance with the proc.

I literally had someone say "whoa" in response to my fortunata. That felt good.

It goes in and out and in and out... Who even knows any more? I've been enjoying tankers a lot recently actually, and my dark/dark corruptor is fun. No secret hidden builds, just forgetfulness.

My brother came to the conclusion that the only way to guarantee compatibility on his mac with a few things he uses regularly for work (and games, as a side effect) was to stop updating the OS. It's a shame how they actively shun backwards compatibility. Back in the day, they dropped the Classic layer, which was an entirely separate install, on PowerPC machines that could run it comfortably because other machines ran Intel processors and they wanted feature parity. Despite Windows being a complete mess in terms of the UI and how you access anything in the settings, the backwards compatibility on it is pretty remarkable. It looks like Wine installed via Homebrew might work for 64-bit programs according to this user on StackExchange. I think it depends on how much work you're willing to do for it to maybe work, sadly.

Oh, I tweak and tweak and tweak. I also go through phases. I have been umming and ahhing about maybe taking Total Domination on my fortunata for funsies, despite knowing that I am very comfortable with the build I use. On not enjoying it... widows can completely afford to drop the fighting pool if you move some stuff around, which opens up some more power slots for control if that's what you might enjoy more. My current thing in builds is "not really worrying about defence" and it's going fine, but other people think leaving Atlas Park with anything less than 45% is a suicide mission. I'm levelling a dark/dark corruptor at the moment and it's very sturdy for its level.

Nooo... confuse them! Confusing support enemies is basically a hobby of mine at this point.

Water blast is an excellent pairing - lots of opportunities for +recharge proc, self-heal which you can proc to recharge endurance and very good synergy between freezing rain and whirlpool. The defender version has strong synergy at very low levels.

The old forums had a guide to guides abou the VEATS, one of which sounds like what you want. You can access them on the Internet Archive. I know the widows ones are quite good, but I have no idea about the soldiers. Link here.

I've noticed a dip in Everlasting in the last few months actually. Not in numbers, just people using the LFG channel. Could be wrong, though.

Honestly, give the VEATs a try. I'd rank them as the most capable solo archetypes in the game because there is so little they can't do. They're never the best at anything, but being second best at everything is pretty useful. My fortunata is my "solo multiple AVs at once" character and I think one of the arachnos soldier builds ranks highest for sustained AoE damage and is in the upper percentiles for pylon tests because of the pets (and recharge breaks everything). They're both really proc-friendly, which makes things even better. The only real issue is that they are very mediocre until level 24 - when they get a forced respec with extra power pools.

If you want an overpowered knockdown defender build, have a look at storm/water. Storm benefits hugely from recharge and has a lot of knockback/down. Storm and water both take the knockback +recharge proc in several powers so you end up with +100 recharge pretty much permanently. Water also has a self-heal, which can take a +endurance proc, making it very self-sufficient. Freezing rain keeps enemies knocked down and lowers resistance so whirlpool obliterates them. Later, you get tornado (more damage, more knockdown) and lightning storm (more damage, more knockdown).

Hah, those are the four archetypes I really don't get on with. Blasters feel underwhelming, sentinels are just safety-locked blasters, scrappers are stalkers without the interesting parts and brutes are just scrappers with a damage bonus for scrapperlocking. That said, I only really play tankers, corruptors or defenders beside my fortunata main. I specifically like tanker sets that come with status effects - cloak of fear is a thing of beauty.

FWIW, some of the level 50 only content is very good, so it's worth getting at least one into incarnate territory. The raids aren't particularly hard, but they are mostly pretty fun.

I don't have to challenge him, he does it anyway. He had started asking about pets recently, but also doesn't really like masterminds. He did get on very well with a gravity controller because throwing washing machines at people is always entertaining.

The game occasionally cocks up references. I've ended up in other people's missions once or twice... Wrong team, wrong zone... Just there I was. It was probably some server error somewhere and nothing nefarious.

Recently, I've been playing with my brother a lot. It's a nice way to hang out and we're ploughing through story arcs at a leisurely pace. The reward merits are rolling in nicely. What's really nice, however, is that he is just there to have fun. No pressure for rewards, characters are dropped as soon as they hit a point of indifference, costumes and names as sublime as they are ridiculous. His power choices reflect this. Knockback was his first love and he's gone all in on it with Tornado. I'm sorta-tanking (although on a widow so I drop aggro like he drops alts), and he's just there having fun. Doesn't really care if he's defeated (I have TT: Vengeance, so he's being useful), doesn't pick up contacts, doesn't care about the meta... he just has fun. And it's great. I mostly team with people with lower levels than me (keeping your baby tanker alive is a nice little minigame) and spend a lot of my time exemplared. The game is so much more fun for me when I know I can't steamroll everything and combat moves from "drop the AoEs on the tank and wait" to genuinely interesting and occasionally even tactical. So, if you've ever complained the game is too easy, or that it's just a farm, or the you can solo +4x8 in your sleep, I urge you to put to bed your AoE tank'n'spank, perma-Hasten, IO'd to within a nanometre builds and roll something self-indulgent. 3-slot your knockbacks. Take all the teleport powers. Herd enemies with repel. If you're honest in the LFG (the words "chilled out" are a magic summoning spell for like-minded players) and you don't pretend to be a speedrunner, you'll enjoy it so much. The thing is, it's not even particularly ineffective. Remember, efficient isn't the same as fun and gathering material rewards isn't the same as enjoying yourself. So, roll the gimmicky, inefficient but entertaining and off-meta monstrosity you've always wanted to and go and get stuff done.

Super Reflexes has damage resistance that scales with your health that doesn't show up in planners, making it look weaker than it is. It's a solid set that picks up very early and continues to improve. Hybrid sets with defence and resistance are generally a bit better than pure defence or resistance sets, in my opinion. It's also much easier to add defence than resistance through pool powers and IOs, so that might be worth considering. Invulnerability on Stalkers remains very good, although it doesn't have an endurance management power. I took a stalker to 50 and beyond with Shield Defence and found it good fun and very sturdy. Don't fall into the trap of trying to build it like a tank - 75% damage resistance is still very significant and stalkers really don't have any way to hold onto aggro in a group so you'll rarely be the focus of attention for long.

Performance shifter is technically a proc, so the +end would only trigger when you used Rest. The reason it works so well in Stamina is that Stamina is power that's always on, so it just quietly does its thing in the background. I don't even think Rest can take any IOs other than the standard ones... For the prestige sprints, there's just nothing that great you could put in them other than the +stealth enhancement. The +2.25% resistance bonus you can get from adding in another enhancement isn't terrible, but it's really the best of a mediocre selection.

Yeah, same... I played a mind controller back before Containment was added to the game and it was quite enjoyable. Whoever decided that Fear was exempt from Containment damage was a very silly person indeed.

Ah nice. Peacebringers were my first love (after getting a defender to 50 in like issue 4 or something). I think my dark/dark tanker with cloak of fear and my fortunata really fulfil my control-tank needs, but it's nice to theorycraft. Fear is my favourite control effect because I like watching my enemies cower and it's not too powerful that it trivialises combat (which, let's face it, is an issue with the game). Kick and crosspunch are satisfying crunchy and each take a decent selection of procs (including+recharge), making them quite handy on a ranged archetype. Coupled with a "take half, skip the rest" support they're reasonably good. I actually think it pairs very well with rad as you pretty much set everything up and then wade into combat. I'd really like it if they gave a similar 15% bonus to the pool powers like jump kick and air superiority, but alas.

Yeah, outside of novelty builds I don't bother with Hasten. My storm/water defender was built to see how much I could abuse recharge from Hasten and knockdown procs to make Storm into something even sillier than it already is (turns out, a lot, but it's very repetitive). "You need Hasten" is up there alongside "anything less than 45% defence is pointless" (watch me solo AVs with 35% on a low HP AT, bucko). There's a lot of Generic Forum Wisdom in the game that I think needs to be debunked and people often read "X is helpful" as "if you don't have X, it will be literally impossible". At the back of my mind, I'm brewing up a build that has fun with the presence and fighting pools but I haven't decided on the AT yet.

Yeah, it's too similar, though. If I wanted a mind/psi dominator, I'd play my fortunata which has most of that plus half a scrapper. I'll give savage a look, though. I'm not wild about the throwing birds at people aspect, though.