Gulbasaur

I've started slow-mo levelling redside and I'd forgotten how different it was. Brokers for contacts can, I fear, suck a fart. I really don't enjoy that mechanic. Interestingly, the levelling is pretty much perfect. Two or three story arcs per level band and you're done! Time to move on. Admittedly, I'm only at level 14 so far, but there's nothing like the need to mess about with not out-levelling a zone. I do miss the zone story arcs, though. Mercy Island had a neat little one. The plan is to work my way up the "obvious" story arcs then go back in Ouroboros and do a second pass.

My tanker and my brute feel safe while my fortunata feels powerful. I can kite AVs with all five of my hit points and look good doing it. I really like the idea of sonic/sonic and it's pretty fun to play - there's something about it that feels very smooth. I've never entirely stuck with it beyond about level 30 - I think the fact that -res (and -dmg) can't be enhanced takes a bit of fun out of it. I can see how it'd dominate the meta if it did take enhancements and the base effect is already pretty powerful... but I feel like it took an layer of what I enjoy out of building a character. Have fun!

I'm working through redside story arcs too after doing most of the blueside ones, and it's interesting to see the difference . Redside arcs are better on average, but I haven't found anything I loved. Blueside suffers by having a mixture of really early grindy, repetitive missions but having to grind missions to open contacts or look for badges a bit tedious.

Think of it the other way round: brutes and scrappers can only do the same thing with massive hit point pools and damage boost mechanics. Controllers aren't the weakest, they just get their safety from making enemies less effective rather than making themselves more effective. The game was designed so that you could play it in different ways. Buffs and control have much higher status than they do in the average MMO. Just because tank-and-spank is what the average group PUG does, doesn't mean it's the strongest or best way, it's just the least effort. Some time, try playing with a team of all "support" sets - they can get to really absurd levels of power with overlapping and interlocking buffs and debuffs. One of the best ITF runs I ever did had my fortunata tanking - the rest were controllers, defenders, masterminds or blasters. It was quick. It was safe. It was fun.

It's one of the few powers I'd say wants frankenslotting as early as possible as it has very good return on investment being such a good buff, but otherwise just go for three defence enhancements.

I starter playing with a dark/dark corruptor for my redside levelling guide and I have a few questions about power choices. I picked the set because the soul noir effects are cool and the -ToHit is pretty awesome. I am currently only at level 10 (levelling the slow way to explore story arcs). I've got enough inf to kit it out semi-decently while levelling, which notably makes endurance much less of a pain in the arse and gives you an early defence boost. I'll be mostly soloing or duoing with a nature-water defender and so far we've been rocking along very well. I'd like a levelling/exemplar-friendly build in the end. I don't really need any advice about IOs unless there are any unusual interactions, so please correct me if I'm wrong: Dark Blast + Gloom = bread and butter attacks. The recharge on gloom is stupid, but it's still pretty decent. Moonbeam snipe/filler attack. Dark Pit - either skip or take very late - the stun duration isn't long enough to really be any good? Tenebrous Tentacles - eventually going to go half -ToHit and half damage with my sets to use as a defensive power. So far, this is a very good investment. Night Fall - will definitely pick up as it's a cone to follow up on the above. Torrent - will probably skip Life Drain - looks decent as a latter-stage attack chain power. Blackstar - run-of-the-mill nuke? Take and proc out. Twilight Grasp - had to take this, but it's such an excellent power with the debuffs and the giant-sized heal that it'd be stupid not to. Tar Patch - -res is always a win and the slow keeps them where you want them. Darkest Night - I will take this, but getting at attack chain was higher priority. Presumably slot for endurance and -ToHit? Howling Twilight - I'll take this eventually. It looks like an interesting power as it's a very powerful debuff as well as an AoE rez... but it's a "when I have room" power. Shadow Fall - Obvious choice with good defence bonus and room to slot IOs. Fearsome Stare - Mag 3 fear with 17 second base duration? Absolutely taking this one as Fear is possibly my favourite status effect as it's very powerful but also isn't an instant-win buttonProbably will go for Glimpse of the Abyss in the long run. Petrifying Gaze - skip? Black Hole- skip. Dark Servant - I generally dislike pets but this one is zero-maintenance and farts out status effects so I'm thinking it's an easy win. For IO sets, I'm going to do the typical focus on defence and recharge then damage and a bit of semi-random resistance. Most of the attacks do -7.5% ToHit, so that's certainly worth playing around with as that's very powerful. I think I'll go all-in on -ToHit on one of the cones and scatter a few in here and there. Power Pools I'm looking at are sorcery (mystic ward, enflame, mystic flight) mostly for flavour. I'm not too concerned about being super meta as this game really does have a low difficulty cap with IOs in play. I'll probably take Maneuvers if my endurance is holding up and might get Recall Friend because it's an absurdly useful power if you team a lot. I'll probably go Dark for the ancillary as well for the endurance boost power (I have a dark/dark tank, so I'm familiar with the powers). Anything I've missed? Are my instincts on point?

Sort of. Widows (and spiders) get cheap versions of the Leadership buffs, but in reality they're basically toggles you leave on and forget. They're not support in nearly the same sense as Defenders, Corrupters and Controllers.

Simple way is to do two keybinds. The following will put you into flight when you press K, activate your zero-slot costume (the default) and play the Inner Will emote (which is fairly simple). Pressing L will drop flight, equip your slot-1 costume and play the same emote. You can change the emote using this list. Copy each one and paste it into chat separately. /macro k "powexec_toggle_on Fly$$cce 0 CCInnerWill" /macro l "powexec_toggle_off Fly$$cce 1 CCInnerWill" If you want to have these as power icons: /macro_image "Flight_JumpJet" "Spread Your Wings" "powexec_toggle_on Fly$$cce 0 CCInnerWill" /macro_image "Flight_ArialAssault" "Hide Your Wings" "powexec_toggle_off Fly$$cce 1 CCInnerWill" I picked the flight icon with wings one and the Aerial Assault one because it looks like someone falling out of the sky. Here is a list of the icons if you want to change it. For both of them, put your winged costume in the first slot, and your no-wings costume in the second slot. You could also use a rotating keybind with a guide here but that involves setting up files on your computer and knowing the paths and not something I can do remotely. It's fairly easy, but you don't get the sexy icons. Edit: Use "cc 1" or cc 0" and leave off the last bit to avoid the transformation emote. There's a cooldown of 15 seconds for costume swaps.

Yup! There are also icons for things like Wind Control in the game that some other servers have built upon.

Check the chat channels for ones called things like "<server> TFs" or "<server> Raids" - they often have a schedule up in the server default message.

Right click on a power icon and you get an option to see more detailed info.

I get that... I've been there... but in reality, how much time do you spend in the Shadow Shard?

Edit: Corrected Atlas Park storyline contacts error. Added in a couple of story arcs that give context to Hero One and the Tsoo. Still trying to find a Banished Pantheon and a Orebanga plotline that has actually fun missions and isn't a grindfest as they're pretty relevant. Added some more context to Ouroboros.

I find the Praetorian/Gold stuff a bit tedious if I'm completely honest, mostly because I start a character, get to about level 10 and realise I don't like it then go back and restart, treading through very similar missions again and again. The story is also much better telegraphed - I think that Redlynne wrote a guide here about getting all the alignment switchy badges, which I think covers most of it. One day, I'll get there!

Honestly, I was really surprised with how good the Atlas Park story arcs were when I pushed through to the last one. It's a sweet little story that unfolds. Edit: Also, I'm working on a redside guide but it won't be ready for a few weeks,

Will do. The while L40-L50 range is a bit of a mess with a strange gap in the number of contacts available outside of Cimerora and RWZ, and some of the low level contacts are almost designed for you to outlevel them... but then you remember that in the early years XP was lower and Debt was higher so you levelled a bit slower. And thanks!

The Good Missions Guide or A heroic journey to 50 without powerleveling The Story is Actually Good Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s easier to powerlevel up to 50, buy IOs and go back through Ouroboros in Flashback missions, but this creates a jumbled storytelling mess. Also, it creates a feeling of character development and your "oh, it's X again" moments become "hey, I remember this! I helped X do Y in Z!" as characters appear and reappear later, giving the whole story a sense of continuity and progression. If you want to experience a version of the story organically and fluidly, here’s a guide to levelling. I’ve tried to cherry pick story arcs that meet the following criteria: Interesting missions (variety of objectives). Missions with unique maps or mechanics. Story flow - introducing characters and ideas that’ll show up again later. Rewards and unlocks, missions with temporary powers (you'll unlock three summons and a very useful resistance buff if you follow along). Things I just think are cool. I do plan on adding to this a bit as there are some points I want to go back to but as it is this will get you to 50 and show you a good time while you get there. Notable omissions are several of the really old story arcs that lack the flair of later arrivals and some "not a story arc BUT" missions (the origin contacts) - I couldn't realistically fit everything in. Also not touched upon are tip or radio missions, although I would say it's worth working through them to unlock your character as a vigilante for a bit more variety (you can cheat with Null the Gull, but the tip missions are all fairly good and so are the alignment shift ones and remember that this is a story guide). I fully admit I've gone for Rule of Cool in a few places, rather than exploring deep lore told only by easily missed contacts. You can still explore that yourself - I encourage it! But that's not what this guide is about. Included below are the names of the contacts, in order, with level bands taken from Paragon Wiki. Suggested Path Tutorial > Atlas Park > The Hollows > Kings Row > Faultline > First Ward & Striga > Night Ward & Croatoa > Peregrine Island > Cimerora & Ritki War Zone There are a few story arcs and task forces along the way that I also suggest, either because they contribute to the overall story or just because I think they're good. A Warning about XP It is very easy to outlevel certain zones and for that reason I recommend you do not use any exp boosts. Other times, you'll get halfway through a zone and not be able to speak to the next contact. Over the course of the game, there was a (near) global XP buff and a reduction in experience debt, so the levelling process is now noticeably quicker than a couple of the early zones were designed for. You’re deliberately taking the scenic route here. The following macro will create a button that will pause and unpause XP gain, allowing you to more easily control your levelling pace. I've indicated in this guide the points at which you should pause your experience gain to get the most from the story - a general rule of thumb is at levels ending in 4 or 9. /macro_image "DayJob_XPBoost" "XP Toggle" "option_toggle noxp" A Note for Kheldian Archetypes Both Peacebringers and Warshades have their own contacts in Sunstorm and Shadowstar respectively, each giving you a unique archetype storyline every five levels, starting at level 5. Each storyline is pretty decent, although they suffer from the slightly monotonous missions that many early game story arcs do. If you pick a Kheldian archetype, follow the story along when it comes up, but be really careful about not outlevelling other contacts while you do it. While Peacebringers and Warshades technically have different sets of story arcs, they're telling the same story just with you working with a different group - they don't differ hugely from one another. The missions aren't anything special, but I think the story is well done and having one story run all the way from level 5 to level 50 is pretty neat. Levels 1-2: The Tutorials Okay, there really isn’t much here but you do get a couple of enhancements and inspirations for free and a run through of the basics of mission objectives. Outbreak runs you through the basics of your standard door missions. Galaxy City is, in my opinion, less good as a tutorial but more connected to the early story arcs. Your call, really. When you’re finished, you’ll end up in... Atlas Park The temptation here is to skip the early levels by running Death From Below. Do not do this! Believe it or not, the zone actually has a nice little story arc that foreshadows later zones and comes to a decent conclusion. You'll get your levels. Don't fret. There is a good variety to the missions and it really does show you a little bit of everything. All contacts are L1-7. Matthew Habershy > Officer Fields or Sondra Castel > Aaron Thiery Thanks to Roderick and PatientZero for pointing out you can only do one of the middle contacts - both arcs are actually pretty decent, so pick either. They both introduce Aaron Thiery. Next, talk to Twinshot for an *ahem* endearing and light-hearted introduction to some of the further aspects of the game. It’s basically a glorified tour of the introductory areas, but it's not done enormously well. Don't worry - it gets better. The game suggests you go to Kings Row next, and but first I suggest you stop over in a hazard zone. The Hollows A hazard zone is an area that generally has larger spawns, and they generally reflects the game in its very early state where the missions were a bit less distinct and there was a bit more of a focus on the grind, but I think it’d be a shame to miss the Hollows as it has a decent story and unlocks the Cavern of Transcendence trial. Pause your XP gain at level 9 until you have started Flux's arc. David Wincott (5-9) > Flux (5-9) > (see note) >Julius the Troll (10-14) > Talshak the Mystik (12-14) Meg Mason has repeatable non-story missions if you feel like running those. Be careful with the Frostfire mission - you might want help with this one. The level bands are fairly slim, so be very careful about out-levelling them, particularly at the end. Use the no-XP clicky with style and panache. Note: Due to the non-overlapping levels, if you find yourself finished with Flux but not ready for Julius the Troll, now would be a time to go for the Death from Below trial in the sewers with a full team or head over to Kings Row (and come back again). Pause your XP gain at 14 until you have started Talshak the Mystik's arc and Twinshot's arc. Kings Row Start off with the next part of Twinshot’s next Shining Stars story arc as it introduces a few characters and concepts you’ll see again later as well as having a nice little crossover to a the City of Villains equivalent tutorial. It introduces more than a few characters you see later in tip missions and other content, so it's worth doing for the story element - the final chapter is surprisingly good. You won’t stay here long, but it’s certainly worth paying it a visit. Sadly, it looks like this story chain was cut short on a cliffhanger when the game went under, but it’s still well done and worth doing. Shauna Stockwell > Eagle Eye (both 7-20) It’s a short pair of neat arcs ending in a solo mission. Before You Move On Now would be a good time to do Positron 1 and Positron 2, as well as Death From Below, Drowning in Blood and The Cavern of Transcendence if you haven’t already done them. Your goal is to get to to about level 17 or 18 and have a good time doing it. The Positron task forces are very good storytelling and set up the next zone you’ll go to. The trials are all pretty short and sweet with experienced teammates. If you’re still not there, try out the Synapse Task Force. Save your jetpack from the Positron task force if you can - you'll need it much later in the Shadow Shard. Montague Castanella (10-50) in the university in Steel Canyon can provide you access to the exclusive Midnighter Club, which you'll need to be part of much later on. When you're ready, it's time to go to one of my favourite zones. Pause your XP at level 19 until you've started Penelope Yin's Faultline arc. Faultline This zone is, in my opinion, where the "modern" game really begins and we see a clear move from "old" style content. It introduces a number of very important characters to the game's plot, has an interesting and unique map and has a huge variety in the missions it gives you. They are almost all stealthable, which is worth noting. A couple of them are defeat-all missions, but when I did it there were only a handful of enemies so it really won't take long. This zone is excellent. Jim Temblor (15-19) > Penelope Yin (15-19) > Doc Delilah (20-24) > Agent G (20-24) The last mission of this chain will grant you the Ouroboros Portal, which is a handy tool for time-travel and avoiding public transport. Pause your XP at level 24. Before you move on or if you want a break from Fautline, go and speak to Laura Lockheart and then Graham Easton (both 15-24) in Steel Canyon for a couple of memorable story arcs. Graham's arc introduces some enemies who you'll see in L50 content and Laura's arc is just very well written with some unusual moments. The University Now would be a good time to learn to craft some IOs. If you've been careful, you should have a bit of influence saved up by now. Head to the university in the southern end of Steel Canyon and do the short tutorial there by speaking to Admissions Officer Lenk. Now would also be a good time to do the Admiral Sutter Task Force that starts in Independence Port. It's a very story-focussed task force, linking Faultline, Praetoria, RWZ and Incarnate content. Keep your XP paused - 20-24 is busy. Next, there are actually several very good, slightly overlapping zones that I suggest you kind of do in tandem if you're careful. Striga has a storyline that starts off a little slow and ends in one of the cooler early game task forces and is definitely worth doing. First Ward has a very strong story that links to a lot of the later Praetorian content. Because of the contact level ranges, I'd start in Striga, do the first two contacts then head over to First Ward and work through there before finishing off in Striga. Keep your XP gain paused at 24 until you've completed the first two Striga arcs, then pause your XP gain again at level 29 until you've started Skipper LeGrange's arc in Croatoa - levels 20-29 have a lot of good content. First Ward Striga First Ward is a continuation of the Praetorian Going Rogue storyline to some extent, but it's so well done that I genuinely think it would be a shame to miss out. It has memorable characters, cool story interactions and an element of choice that hasn't really been seen up to this point. All contacts for this zone are 20-29 and it starts off by talking to Mistress Eva in Talos. Mistress Eva > The Doorman > Nadia > Palatine > Noble Savage > Katie Douglas > Blind Makwa > Cerulean > Master Midnight > Vanessa DeVore There's the Seed of Hamidon raid boss pootling about in the middle of the zone - you can take it down with eight capable heroes quite easily and it's worth doing. It's done so rarely that getting a team together on the LFG isn't hard. It's a somewhat anticlimactic battle, but you get some badges from it. I think this zone is often overlooked, which is a shame because it ends in a very cool sequence of missions and unlocks a pretty fun task force, as well as giving you a couple of very good temporary powers. The first story arc is arguably a bit boring and generic, but it builds up into something much better. Be very careful with your levels, as always. Stephenie Peebles (20-24) > Long Jack (20-24) > Tobias Hansen (25-29) > Lars Hansen (25-29) You can then do the Ernesto Hess task force as a bit of a glory lap. It's nothing super special, but it has unique maps and is well-paced and enjoyable. There is also the Moonfire task force here, which is part of the Kheldian storyline. Before You Move On If you're a vigilante you should speak to Shauna Braun in Independence Port to check out her new i26 story arc - it really helps progress the idea of your character as operating in shades of grey. Martin Weintraub in Talos Island has the Freaklympics early game story arc, which is pretty neat. It's also worth heading over to Ouroboros and speaking to Twilight's Son for his Smoke and Mirrors arc, which was formerly a short task force. It's worth doing just to see the unique scenery, but the story isn't bad either. Then, we can continue on in Praetoria's otherworldly Night Ward and visit the nightmarish magical land of Croatoa. Because of level restrictions, I suggest you start in Croatoa being careful of the level bands, then head over to Night Ward. Pause your XP gain at 34 until you've started Buck Salinger's arc, then pause it at 39. Night Ward Croatoa Carrying on the story from First Ward, we've got the fairly unique zone of Night Ward, full of gaslamp fantasy world-of-the-dead mystery, knights and magic. Start off by talking to Mistress Maria in First Ward for the introduction. All contacts are 30-39. Mistress Maria > Montague Castanella > Ward > Sir Bedwyr > The Magician My only real complaint with Night Ward is that it just sort of stops. A few characters do turn up in later story arcs, though. This somewhat unique zone is, in many ways, similar to Striga. It has a few clunky missions at the start and then when it gets going becomes something fairly memorable with a decent task force unlock and some neat temporary powers. The storyline is good enough and there are some unique maps along the way. Gordon Bower (25-29) > Skipper LeGrange (25-29) > Kelly Nemmers (30>34) > Buck Salinger (30-34). At the end, you'll unlock the Katie Hannon task force, which was historically the quickest task force in the game and has a unique, if slightly unrelenting, first mission. It also has a few giant monsters around, two of which go into battle, which is worth seeing. Before You Move On Now would be an excellent time to stop by Ouroboros and speak to The Pilgrim (25-50) and then Mender Lazarus (30-39) for your introduction to the joys of time-travel and then a short mission chain that has thematic links to Striga and Cimerora. If you're a vigilante you could speak to The Major (30-40) in Brickstown. This mission is unique because it's one of the very, very few where you explicitly don't just "arrest" your enemies. It has some unusual steps and is worth doing, even if I think the whole thing is slightly bad taste. Peregrine Island This is very much the centre of the "old" end game and I consider it something of a right of passage to do the following, as it introduces a lot of archvillains that you'll see again later. Most of this was designed as team content, so now would be a good time to open things up on the LFG if you haven't already been doing so. You can relax on the levelling here, as apart from Tina Macintyre, there's nothing in this guide that you can outlevel any more. Tina Macintyre (40-44) The Anti-Matter Collision / The Instant Army Unai Kemen (45-50) To Save a Thousand Worlds Maria Jenkins (45-50) A Hero's Epic They'll help you get closer to the Portal Jockey accolade, which gives you a very nice permanent boost to health and endurance. Before You Move On Quickly head back to Croatoa and speak to Percy Winkley (30-50) at the University there for a small series of missions that give you some background lore about the world you're in. Now would also be a good time to head over to Atlas Park and talk to the City Representative (20/30-50) in city hall. She has two story arcs that were originally tied to costume unlocks, but they also have some background to later storylines. The Last Stretch Still with me? Glad to hear it. Next up, I'm sending you to two more very well-crafted zones, both with the very relaxed level range. Cimerora is accessed by going through the back door of the Midnighter Mansion accessed through Steel Canyon, Croatoa, or Founders' Falls and touching the crystal in the centre of the hallway. The Ritki War Zone can be accessed by going into one of the Vanguard bases and taking the portal. At this point, you can safely remove the XP pause button entirely; it has served its purpose and we thank it for its service. Most lower level content can still be accessed through the Flashback system in Ouroboros, and the small amount that can't can be got at through teaming with a lowbie. Cimerora Ritki War Zone This zone is notable for just being so stylistically unique and making good use of time travel as a plot device, as well as harking back to some Kheldian lore. As you go in, talk to the Midnighter standing in front of you for further instruction. Personally, I think the story progression is a bit messy, but it's still worth doing if only because the task force is so good. All contacts are L35-50. Midnighter > Senator Decimus Aquila > Marcus Valerius Additionally, there is a Hero-specific contact named Daedelus (40-50) with some missions that send you back to Paragon City and this zone ends with the glorious Imperius task force. I really like the storytelling in this zone. There's a good sense of progression and you meet up with a few characters we met earlier. Levantera (35-50) > Serpent Drummer (40-50) > Gaussian (45-50) > The Dark Watcher (45-50) There are a few task forces here, but for now give the Lady Grey task force a try as it most closely follows the storyline. Your glory lap here is unquestionably the Ritki Mothership Raid. Look for it on the LFG, head on over and join a league. Range and AoE attacks will help you, but if you don't know what you're doing then watch for instructions, follow the crowd and keep spamming those AoE attacks. Nearly there Either the Imperious task force or the Mothership raid should help you get the last few levels out as you approach 50 and they basically hold you down and breathe XP in your face, and are both absolutely worth doing at least once. Now would be a good time to revisit missed task forces and trials and follow up any contacts you might have missed. The Signature Story Arc Who Will Die? is worth doing now, if you want some story-centric content. It happens chronologically before some of the in-game stuff we've covered, so I've sort of left it out for that reason until now. Use Paragon Wiki to help you do them in the right order as it's not very obvious in-game if you're not using the Flashback system, but it's run like a series of solo-friendly story task forces so you might as well do it through Ouroboros as it requires time-travel to make sense if you're being a purist. Task Forces and Trials At this stage, you can access all non-incarnate task forces and trials. Most are pretty popular, although one or two are avoided for being too much of a slog. They're all worth doing, though. The Freedom Phalanx Task Forces Completing these will give you the Task Force Commander accolade. They vary between old-skool grindfests and newly refurbished storytelling episodes. Positron 1 & 2 (10/11-15/16) Rule of Three & Dam Hero - good storytelling with a free jetpack Synapse (15-20) Fall of the Clockwork King - a bit repetitive with a stronger ending Penelope Yin (20-25) A Clamor for the People - short and sweet Citadel (25-30) Citadel's Children - a bit grindy and repetitive Manticore (30-35) Following Countess Crey - a bit travel-heavy but there's a memorable battle at the end Numina (35-40) Soul of the Woodsman - use a guide for this one as there are 16 (fairly easy) hunt missions in a row that work best when your whole team is spread out over the relevant zones The Shadow Shard The four Shadow Shard task forces are, to put it mildly, a thankless grind through repetitive missions with enemies that debuff defence hard and often resist control effects, ending in a moderately cool final battle after hours and hours and hours and I think they're great. For crying out loud, don't do them more that once, but they're a true rite of passage for any high level character. They involve a huge amount of travel, which is nightmarish for non-fliers or teleporters. If you can, grab the mission teleporters from the P2W vendor and coordinate who uses them, as well as the Ouroborous portal and maybe a jetpack temporary power. The scenery, however, is amazing. They sort of form one giant task force, and they suffer "a little bit" from pacing issues. Find a friendly group you can have a laugh with, put on some music and just surrender yourself to the grind. Dr. Quarterfield (40-44) > Sara Moore (40-50) > Justin Augustine (44-50) > Faathim the Kind (44-50) The Best of the Rest I'm not going to list all of them - use Paragon Wiki or the LFG for that, but here are the ones I think are especially worth doing: Moonfire (23-28) The Kheldian War - nothing too special about this one, but it links to later content in Dark Astoria, Ouroboros and Cimerora meaning the lore in those areas won't entirely drop on you out of nowhere. Katie Hannon (30-24) A Tangled Plot - Croatoa is a strange zone with unique enemies and a unique task force. The first mission is a bossfight marathon and the rest are a short tour of unique and unusual maps. Imperius (35-50) Time's Arrow - excellently paced and fairly varied in its objectives, this task force is a cathartic end to the Cimerora arc with some awesome set pieces and basically the best task force for hitting 50 quickly. Dr Khan (45-50) Return of the Reichsman - a decent task force with an interesting final battle with unique mechanics. Lady Grey (45-50) - the final chapter of the excellent Ritki War Zone arcs and worth doing for the lore and the gameplay. Ms Liberty (45-50) - often considered the most difficult task force in the game due to the final mission - started in Independence Port, not Atlas Park! Trials Trials are kind of short task forces and all are worth doing at least once. They vary between "that was it?" and genuine challenge, even for end-game built players. Death From Below is infamous for helping new characters get a few levels done nice and quickly at the start and therefore not realising that Atlas Park even has story arcs. Drowning in Blood is mechanically a bit more interesting and has a nice change of scenery if you're used to Paragon City. The three Terra Volta trials are the old blueside respec trials and are worth doing. The Abandoned Sewers Trial is surprisingly difficult with a unique vertical map, requiring more team coordination than you might expect at first glance. Eden is unique in its layout and the Cavern of Transcendence was, in my opinion, slightly ruined by the decision to make it soloable meaning one of the most challenging elements has been trivialised. What's next? Well, it's time for some incarnate-level content, but that's outside of the remit of this guide. Any comments, let me know! I'm a big fan of missions and story arcs and think there's a lot of really great content there that goes almost unplayed due to the "must get moar levelz" mentality, which is fine but not for me. Thanks!

This one might be a little niche, but is useful if you're doing contacts in order and don't want to outlevel them. /macro_image "DayJob_XPBoost" "XP Toggle" "option_toggle noxp" It will create a button you can click on that toggles XP gain on and off. It is not compatible with the XP boost from the P2W vendor, though.

From City of Data, both CT: Defensive and Foresight do : minmax(75 - source.kHitPoints%, 0, 100) / 60 * 0.25 Res(Smashing, Lethal, Fire, Cold, Energy, Negative) for 0.75s Which means from 75% health, each power provides 0.4% resists to SLFCE&N per hit point percentage below 75%, meaning 0.8% from both together. At 50% health, you'll have an extra 20% resistance, for example. This scales up to 59.2% at 1% health. With the 3-13% Reactive Defence enhancement and the one that gives a flat 5%, this'll be nearer 30% before IO set bonuses at 50%. It's not stupendous, but it's not nothing. I find that if I'm not healing, my health drops to about 50%, then about 30%, then maybe 10% with long gaps in between due to the high positional defences. The Preventative Medicine proc is pretty useful as it fires off fairly reliably, giving you an extra 15% (?) in your health bar. Lots of powers add a bit of psi resistance and you should be at 70% when you get Mind Link. Tox resistance is the only thing that fortunatas really lack out of the box. Toxic attacks are an oddity as there's no toxic defence in the game, but your very high positionals should cover almost everything. The tooltip says knockback but it's actually knockup in the right-click information panel. Either way, it doesn't need the KB2KD converter.

I usually convert my cheap and cheerful enhancements and things like that turn up fairly frequently and if it sells for more than one million, I shove it on the auction house. While I believe the market is seeded, there are also players who convert enhancements for profit which churns out a lot of medium-tier enhancements. It's a fairly good way of turning reward merits into inf. While some players play the market a bit more carefully, I list almost everything for a million and see what turns up.

Grab the Preventative Medicine proc and the Reactive Defences scaling resist proc. Together, they give you an absorb shield and another 10% or so resists when you hit about 50% health. Fortunatas have inherently scaling resists, so this all works together really well for me. I dealt with this by dropping the pool Leadership powers - defence in high level teams is rarely a problem and assault is such a tepid power I don't think it's worth the endurance cost (plus, you're already providing bonuses). Beyond that, using IOs to reduce endurance costs. The struggle is real. Other than that, I think your build looks pretty decent! Welcome to the dark side.

Welcome to the dark side! You build looks solid, although one thing I'd recommend is taking Mystic Flight instead of Fly and Teleport. You'd lose Afterburner, but that would free up two more power choices at a cost of more leisurely travel. As you've gone for Sorcery, you could use of of the power choices to get an extra 35-40% all-round resistances up every couple of minutes as you've got for a lot of recharge? That's the only thing I can see that I'd maybe change.

Good to see a bit of love for the Fighting attacks. They have good animations, take a bunch of procs and do a couple of status effects as well as the synergy bonuses. If you don't take kick and use it to proc a +100 recharge boost as a filler attack, you're doing it wrong. Cross punch has my favourite melee animations, as a bonus.

Controllerblastertanktank or gtfo. Glad you're having a good time, though. I genuinely struggle to find an AT I like as much as my fortunata. It can do a bit of everything and the team buffs mean your average teaming experience is just slightly better. One of these days I'll give a warshade a proper go but I mained a peacebringer on live and started off on one here and I'm not sure I have the brainpower for a shapeshifter again. Anyway, I probably cut it very fine with defence on mine because, from experience, you don't actually need to be softcapped all the time and about 35% is fine for most content. Mind Link I tend to fire off for teammates as much as myself. Anyway... It's worth going Rogue for the second AoE confuse because they stack which helps if there are a lot of bosses. I use the resistance version of melee hybrid and it's pretty great for times when defence isn't enough, although assault would probably give you good bang for your buck too.

I have the same issue quite often - Recall Friend is usually my go to. It's handy for hauling teammates across maps, but also for things like moving people to places where they can rez while you kite an AV around or something. I quite often run missions with lowbies along as a way of adding a bit of challenge as full teams of incarnates trivialise a lot of combat and being able to yoink a L3 across a zone is really handy. Even though my build is the one you didn't like (which is fine - I deliberately tried to be a master of none that exemplars down very well, which isn't for everyone), I'd still suggest you grab another ST melee damage power or Mind Link. It's really useful if you've got sidekicks in tow because the defence boost is quite significant.