Gulbasaur

Current situation: three newspaper missions, a meyhem mission, then a story arc contact introduction. If you want to meet another, it's three more radios, the same mayhem mission again... repeat for each contact. Seeing as they're all accessible anyway through Ouroboros after they've been outlevelled, would it be possible to have all normal zone contacts opened after one broker loop? Perhaps switch them to a badge unlock for completing the relevant mayhem mission once? Part of the problem for me with redside content is that you're locked out of a lot of it by default, so you end up having to grind before you can even pick up any meaningful missions.

You're very welcome! That's a satisfying little arc with some interesting flourishes and it definitely stood out as one of the more memorable ones. I'm currently working on a redside version (it's growing on me now I've got enough to find a narrative I can start stitching together for the guide - it felt a bit scattershot up until now), and then I'll do an at-50 version (where there is a lot of good content).

I've just levelled a dark/dark tanker and the corruptor feels positively spry by comparison. My tanker could float into pretty much any battle and take no damage, but the problem was neither did anything else. Kiting enemies through tar patch with Darkest Night and then spewing cones at them makes most fights pretty straightforward. The only time things got really hard was when we pulled three bosses plus a few minions and lieutenants at once, which I think is pretty decent as we were probably L20 at the time. Tar patch is what brings it all together as you can kite enemies through it, coning away at them, then jump over them and kite them back across if anyone's still moving. The two sets work really well together. It's actually nice to not have to be as ATTACKATTACKATTACK as with my fortunado and play at a more sedate pace. Fortunatas are absurdly powerful, but they need to be applying constant pressure to really succeed. My dark/dark corruptor does well enough at a fairly gentle pace and that's fine. My next decision is really which epic pool to take. I might take Dark just for thematic reasons, but also Soul Drain is a really good power and you can proc it pretty heavily as a pauper's nuke.

Thanks! My dark/dark corruptor is only level 23 as I'm running him slowly through story arcs to write a redside levelling guide (and boy howdy is it an unveven experience, but I think I've stumbled into some good arcs)... no fluffies yet. I was thinking 4-slotted Cloud Senses as more defence is the last thing a dark/dark corruptor needs as most enemies are have ~22.5% ToHit debuff on them before I even toggle on Darkest Night due to the three cones I've got going on (and that's without tenebrous tentacles which would bring it to a ridiculous ~30%) and that fear effect lasts for days so half the time enemies aren't even trying to attack. Seriously, the debuff game is so strong that it's among the safest I've every played. This isn't my AV solo artist (my fortunado has that nailed down) and I'd rather be a good levelling all-rounder than go for super meta with this character as it's basically just a story arc plunderer.

Any advice on slotting? I was thinking I'd slot 3 or 4 of some sort of Accurate ToHit debuff set and then move on with my life. Is there some magical combination that makes him/her/them super mega ultra?

I completely agree with you. It being perma-able completely shoots holes in a lot of game balance. Even the original devs had problems with it - MAtt Miller directly called it abusive. From the Lore AMA thing on Paragon wiki: Hasten is not a good power because it is too good a power. I with they made it inherent, and unenhanceable, when they made the Fitness changes. Speaking of which, I remember a couple of times being a kinetics defender and being the only person on a team not to get the fitness pool. Someone even mentioned it once - like the solo-friendly defender inherent, Fitness had zero value to a mid-level teaming kinetics defender.

I'm duoing with my brother, who's got a nature/water defender, with my dark/dark corruptor and we really are chewing through everything. I really didn't know dark miasma was this good. Anything that hits us (it happens occasionally), we just heal through. He does a bit of gardening. I plop down my spooky patch. He plants his mushrooms. I pull out the floof aura. Then, I walk back a bit and bark cones at them until there's not much left. I'm actually looking forward to the pet. Normally, I hate them, but a support pet actually sounds useful.

I slapped in the reactive defences set - it has 8.75% as the 6-slot bonus and the 3-13% sliding damage resistance IO is good value for one slot, particularly as almost all widow resistances are sliding anyway. It also has a fairly meaty endurance raise in it. You've got lots of room for the LOTG IO in there and Reactive Defences is a good all-rounder. Off the top of my head, I think I've got 30 seconds of down time on Mind Link, without hasten, which is fine under pretty much every circumstance.

I actually really don't like that idea - it would pretty much wipe out vigilante and rogue activity, and I often team with people who play both sides.

I wish I knew what the rules were for ambush targets... If you've got sidekicks with you, it's hard to protect them and intercept the ambush if enemies literally run past you. I don't really mind the concept, especially as they usually announce themselves with a speech bubble appearing somewhere on the screen, but they're harder to tame than the average mob spawn.

I once went into a mission entrance and appeared in someone else's mission - I thought the enemies were a bit low and then I stumbled across another player, whose mission it was. This must have been in about issue 4 and I remember having to haul myself back out of the Hollows to Independence Port or wherever I should have been and try again.

Shield is an all-round strong set with good defences, a max HP buff, a damage buff and enemy debuff and some resistance. Energy is mainly defence, with some minor resistance and an endurance management power. Shield also has a teleport nuke power, which is just really fun. I'd pick Shield out of the two.

Nemesis are definitely on my "a bit hard" list due to their mezz protection and the damage-on-defeat issue. I almost never have trouble getting a team together in the LFG channel for story arc missions and the like. I think there is an audience there for more challenge variety than ±X levels and spawn sizes. The reward system would definitely have to be tweaked. My one real gripe with Homecoming is the ease of access to incarnate powers (aka rewards) without running incarnate content - it removes an incentive to try content that requires teaming (even if most of it is a faceroll if you're not worried about badges), leading to endless +4x8 tank'n'spank PUG missions.

I think someone did run the numbers and defenders come out slightly on top over corruptors as they easily end up with -20% or -40% res per enemy. Paired with something like rad for more -res, you can do very considerable damage. It's the most damaging defender set, out of the box, although it has limited proc capacity.

Thank you! If you have any feedback for the guide, I'd be really glad to hear it. I don't really see the point in power levelling for "normal" play... it's not like it's hard to level, and you are basically missing half the game if you skip ahead too much, even with flashbacks and exemplaring. People too often get to 50, unlock their incarnates and then just run the same few missions over and over again. I'm currently working my way up redside through story arcs... I have mixed feelings about redside content. The missions have more variety and character, but I have to say I have mixed feelings about the feeling of progression. I know I'm only level 20, but I feel like I'm just doing odd jobs around town a bit.

I did a minor respec and dropped tenebrous tentacles in favour of howling twilight, and I'm happy enough with that decision. I'm going to work on cranking my recharge up a bit without taking Hasten (which I refuse to take on principle, but double standards do permit me to use and abuse IO set bonuses). I grabbed torrent, which I'm putting a KB2KD modifier in and then the +recharge one. I might grab tenebrous tentacles again at some point - I'm mostly duoing with a nature/water defender so we're both quite patch and AoE focused and having enemies that don't run off is handy. Fearsome stare looks very good, though, so we'll see how that pans out. Thank you everyone. I'm really enjoying the corruptor so far.The damage is definitely on the low end, but I should be able to proc out a bit more in time. Between my -dmg and -ToHit and the defender's healing we are absurdly safe.

I mentioned in an another topic about an option of things like giving enemies global procs, defence auras, taunt resistance, speed boosts and the like. If there is a way to add one random power/effect from a list to enemies in a mission based on the leader having a certain status flagged, this could be a way to address it. I think more variety in combat mechanics would add better difficulty than flat buffs and reinstate the need for a varied team composition.

I don't wholly disagree with some of your points but if you're having to speed solo task forces and doing self-motivated challenges in order to make things feel difficult enough to feel like rewarding gameplay, I really do think you have every right to say that regular content is too easy.

People mistake "not optimal" with "utter trash". There really isn't that much in it mathematically, and lots of lethal sets are quick-animating, low endurance sets so you really do obliterate enemies very quickly and if you're focussing on AoE you end up taking down enemies almost by mistake. My fortunata wrecks enemies in melee range.

I quite often invite lowbies into incarnate story arcs to give myself a challenge - It becomes a fun escort mission as they level and I actually have to try in order to keep up with it all. I'd love a system like GW2's mistlock instabilities where you can add random effect modifiers to missions and get extra rewards because of it. There is already a system in place to debuff players for Ouro missions and task forces - I wonder how hard it would be to attach a "plus 1-3 random effects" mod to it. Things like enemy defence or resistance auras, taunt resistance, an enemy unresistable (but percentile so it's not too unfair) damage proc, enemies all healing over time, nictus crystals spawning, players all having a repel effect or players all getting debuffed if they're not tightly huddled, enemies having run speed boosts and the like... obviously, the framework would need to be set up but something comparable is already in place with the player debuff and enemy buff modifiers in the flashback system. Perhaps with a neat little into story arc and a need to have an incarnate power unlocked? Stick in an NPC who gives you a spiel about the Curse of Ms Fortune or something and say a witch has cursed your enemies with good luck as she felt you weren't pushing yourself and then add a little button next in the Notoriety menu so people can ignore the story arc. Slap on a giant reward roll every ten missions and track it like the alignment change missions are tracked or something and add extra merits per modifier used. Anyway, years of DMing have left me with a lot of ideas that I've never used, but this one is something I really think could work with existing tech to use as precedents.

That whole comparison was very worthwhile, thanks. I am struggling a bit with the early attack chain (more than anything I've played in a while) and TT is there so at least I'm doing something. Being exemplar friendly is something I value so I'm not sure I'm quite ready to get rid of it. I might just 3-slot TT for -ToHit and use it as a debuff, bit it also has a bit of proc potential.

As someone who dislikes pets, I feel ya. I frequently skip them both. VEATs get access to the tanker/brute pools, for some reason, so they don't really add much value. The two ATO procs are both good. Put the Fear proc in an AoE and the other one anywhere as it's a global proc. The set bonuses aren't bad. Aegis has a lot of AoE defence. Reactive armour has is a generally decent, but not spectacular set. You've also got a lot of defence debuff, which can take Exploited Vulnerability. Gaussian's has a Build up proc (which you should take and put in TT:Tactics for random damage spikes) and the 6-slot bonus is 2.5% to all positionals. You've got the two +3% ones, obviously. The winter sets often have fairly decent defence bonuses on the 5th and 6th slots if you've got money to burn. 85% for all epic archetypes. Also, spiderlings will trigger the Gaussian's proc more often so you'll get Build Up pinging fairly frequently.

I know exactly what you're talking about - my reaction to both of those changes were "Have you ever actually played a Kheldian/Controller?". There was a patch to arachnos spiders too, a while ago, which I thought was a bit ridiculous as I believe historically that spiders could take down a ritki war zone pylon in under 30 seconds. Then again, there's nothing wrong with just wanting to feel like a superhero/villain for a bit.

I just wish there was some content that actively fought against tank and spank tactics - enemies that get more powerful huddled together would be amazing, like each one having a small +def +tohit aura or something so if you clump them all together they will tear you apart. Enemies that resist taunts would be great, if not for there being a secondary Threat mechanic that almost guarantees aggro (ice tankers do a lot of debuff and have a high threat modifier, which is why their aggro is so sticky). Give more enemies the mez-to-defeat protection that the hamidon mitochondria have to encourage teaming. Pandora's Box has a fight where you're encouraged to take down bosses before fighting the big bad boss to get bonuses by absorbing their power - I couldn't even get damage to register on the health bar until I took about five down - and I think that's great. It's a shame that enemies with varied mechanics were such a late arrival to the game (and, you know, that development got axed).

From this thread in one of the drop-down spoiler boxes, in a guide put together by Warlark. /macro_image "Inspiration_Damage_Lvl_4" "BOOM!" "insp_exec_name enrage$$insp_exec_name Focused_Rage$$insp_exec_name Righteous_Rage" /macro_image "Inspiration_science_breakthru_Lvl_1" "Combine 1" "inspcombine insight enrage$$inspcombine luck enrage$$inspcombine catch_a_breath enrage$$inspcombine respite enrage$$inspcombine sturdy enrage" /macro_image "Inspiration_science_breakthru_Lvl_2" "Combine 2" "inspcombine keen_insight focused_rage$$inspcombine good_luck focused_rage$$inspcombine take_a_breather focused_rage$$inspcombine dramatic_improvement focused_rage" /macro_image "Inspiration_science_breakthru_Lvl_3" "Combine 3" "inspcombine uncanny_insight righteous_rage$$inspcombine phenomenal_luck righteous_rage$$inspcombine second_wind righteous_rage$$inspcombine resurgence righteous_rage" /macro_image "Inspiration_Eden_Trial" "Combine 4" "$$inspcombine rugged focused_rage$$inspcombine robust righteous_rage" Copy each line, starting at /macro_image and paste it into your chat box then press enter. It'll make a new "power" appear. Repeat for all five. The first will use a red inspiration. The rest are all combination ones. Look for something like "/bind e" and change it to "/bind m" - macros are fairly straightforward when you get used to them, but completely bewildering while you get started.