Gulbasaur

Honestly, there is so much wrong with that sheet that I'm surprised people are using it. It has methodological issues everywhere and presents a very unrealistic view of things. For example, the peacebringer attack chain seems to be based on repeatedly toggling on and off Bright Nova for zero damage while you spam your weakest attack and consequently peacebringers come dead last in DPS - because two thirds of the powers listed in the attack chain past the first few step are switching on and off a toggle with a timed transformation. It's not finished and there is so much about it that looks like someone filled it in randomly. ATOs are applied whether or not the creator liked them or not (scrapper and stalker, no one else, even where they provide a flat or statistically predictable damage boost), which is, again, bad methodology. The spreadsheet looks like a noble attempt, but enough of it is unfinished or placeholder information that I really don't trust the rest of it.

Rogues get a mass confuse power (after a little wait, I think - vigilantes get a fear power) and my first thought entering that room was well, now is the time to use it.That's the only way I made it out of that room in one piece.

I accidentally left a sale amount starting with a comma - I deleted the first digit of a 7-digit number and it did not update to move/remove the comma. When I tried to amend it by clicking to move the input to the beginning of the number, it caused a CTD. Basically, where | is the little blinky text input thing: 1,234,567|-> 1|,234,567 -> -> |,234,567 -> (clicked somewhere else like enhancement conversion or something) -> ,234,567 -> |,234,567 -> Crash to desktop.

For realsies. Kheldians are complete powerhouses in teams due to their inherents, but solo they need some building, especially if you avoid forms (nova until you're nearly dead then pop into dwarf to heal up and rest a bit). Fortunatas are pretty much the same in and out of groups. High control and decent melee options. I tend to confuse a lieutenant, hold someone else and then start stabbing away, throwing AoEs and stuff about when I can.

Boiled-down, simple version: Fortunata is basically a dominator/controller with high defence and scaling resistances - the more you beat them up, the harder they are to beat up, which people often forget as it doesn't show up in build planners. They give defence, ToHit and damage buffs to teams, which mean that every team you'll ever be on is better for you being there. Other than that, they mostly play like controllers or dominators doing psi damage, mezzing and throwing out mind link when it comes up for a big defence whoosh. Note that up until level 24, you're basically a scrapper with Leadership so early game doesn't represent late game *at all* due to the branching powersets. They can also do melee damage quite capably, but you don't want that and you can build around it. Warshades are basically a blaster with a sideline in mezzes with really high resistances and a bit of defence. They get buffs from teaming and from enemies so how powerful and protected they are shoots up and down and feels different solo and in groups. I would argue that if you're going human-only, peacebringer may be a better option as warshade builds tend to form swap a lot to stack buffs (look up MF warshade - top tier spec with higher difficulty), while peacebringers' buffs are almost all human-form. Warshades are harder work for higher results, while peacebringers can just rocket through things hoping Light Form doesn't crash at the wrong time but never quite hit the epic highs of a warshade. I'm sure it can be done well, though and aesthetic is 90% of the law in City of Heroes so I get it if you want dark and spoopy.

What sort of base resistance do you get? Widow scaling resistance is a tricky thing to measure, but I got to 40% with a suicide drop in Founders Falls without much by way of IOs (the defence +res one and the scaling resistance one) on about 50% health. As long as you don't take any alpha strikes, they're pretty sturdy,

Her roguish counterpart's mission doles out 20 merits and is pretty good. I did it in about 40 minute not stealthing, but a stalker with super speed could probably do it in 15. It felt well-designed and had no ambushes or kill-alls.

Just completed Bobby's arc. A few thoughts: I really liked the variety of missions and of settings. Nothing felt cookie-cutter. The ending was very strong. I liked how the clues were handled. It felt like an RPG, which was great as a lot of the dialogue in CoH feels inconsequential. Good use of NPCs in storytelling. Good use of speech bubbles. The ending was clear - I knew I had to make a choice and that was well done. The badge is well-named (little thing, but it shows attention to detail). No kill-all missions ❤️ No named female characters until the very end, but the one that's there is important. Well done to the writers, level designers and everyone involved. It was a great little experience and I look forward to more!

Honestly, there isn't much of one. Parry when it comes up, AS when it pops, Build Up when it refreshes and otherwise I just bash at things as they come off timer, saving my T9 for my guaranteed crits. If that's not up, I use the knockdown attack or fireball from the ancillary pool because if you can't crit hard, you might at well crit wide. I have my lower damage stuff on 123 and my higher stuff on 45 with the arc on 6. 7 is shield charge, 8 is fireball (ctrl+8 is pyronic judgment aka big fireball). 9 and 0 are utility stuff like mystic ward, because I like having quick access to them. Ctrl+number uses your second tray, so I bound crtl+1 to Build Up as that's pretty handy. I have my toggles in a separate tray as a sidebar so I don't unclick them by accident - I use keys for most attacks but click on some powers because life is short and the game is slow enough that you can do that.

That's worth knowing about. Thanks

I'm running a half-melee, half-ranged fortunado (Doctor Fortune on Everlasting, come and say hello) and he's just hit 41. I'm enjoying the hybrid master-of-none playstyle (I loved my Peacebringer but find it hard to pick back up). Information for widows is sparse as they're the least played archetype. I, coincidentally, ran a /psi defender and a mind/ controller back on Live and got a stalker to 50 on HC so the powers are all pretty familiar... but incarnate stuff is something else. My current plan is Musculature (because I'm a scrub) but beyond that I have no idea. Probably Ageless because endurance and recharge are always welcome, but Barrier is a great "Not Today, Satan!" power. I'm also torn between Assault and Control. What incarnates are people running, and what would they recommend?

I have Ball Lightning on my brute and Fireball on my stalker and Fireball is the heavier hitter, but unless it crits it's not going to wipe out a whole spawn of mobs (but when it does crit, it crits hard because of stalker double build-up tricks). Go with the one you like thematically. Personally, I think Fireball is more fun because sometimes you just really need everything to be on fire, but I certainly get a lot of mileage out of Mu Mastery as well.

Sadly, it's only slottable into sleep powers.

That is correct. You need to kit out two totally separate builds with enhancements.

Yeah, you just have to either slog it out or put end reduction in all your attacks, which usually works out much better than slotting your toggles.

Musculature allows you to take some of the more defensive or cheaper IO sets and still maintain a high amount of damage, which is a win-win for me. It's boring, but it works.

They seem to be based entirely off the i22 changes to stalker's assassin's strike, which is basically a melee snipe, so it's not like there is no precedent.

It fits the theme I was going for and plays well enough. The T8 and T9 powers both hit hard enough that you don't feel like you've wasted a crit as long as you hit one of those two. It's very focussed on single-target damage, which suits a stalker very well and Parry means that your normal attack chain raises your melee defence, which is just a nice additional feature.

Not hugely different, but try a stalker. It's like a scrapper with planned critical hits instead of random ones and the ATOs are absolutely broken. You basically get one or two guaranteed crits every four or so attacks and can use Build Up two or three times a minute. You actually have to work to get aggro but can take the fallout when you do get it so it plays more like a scrapper than a scrapper does. Really fun high DPS class but absolutely because of power creep late in the games development.

Ah, no. I haven't noticed that.

My personal experience and opinion: Roughly what level should I start seriously looking to slot IOs? For "normal" IOs as soon as you you can afford them - level 25 enhancements are the point at which they are stronger than SO and DO enhancements, so many people kit out at level 22 and leave those in until they replace them with named enhancements with bonuses. You can kit yourself out for 2-4 million at level 22 and just do the rest as you go. For "named" IOs with set bonuses - pick up a few when you can afford them and leave the rest for later. The ATOs mostly have a unique-in-function one in each set and it's usually worth getting them as soon as you can afford them if they're worthwhile (I think 20 is the minimum). Some really add a lot to gameplay - the Stalker and Kheldian ones, for example, are flat upgrades. Get a few cheapy ones with good bonuses as you level but I'd say most people don't have full sets until they're well into Incarnate territory unless they have a lot of inf stored up and have worked their build out carefully in advance. I see some have set levels and some scale with you? Is there a difference in quality? The lower level ones give you a lower enhancement, so if you get one with a 20% enhancement to a stat, it will always be 20% as you level up. A higher level one might give you 25% all the way up, for example. The set bonuses don't vary by level so you can mix and match. How do I go about crafting these (keeping in mind I'm not part of a SG at the moment)? At a crafting station - the universities are the easiest ones to find and have a tutorial. Each one uses a recipe, some salvage and some inf. You collect recipes as you go, or buy them off the consignment house (type /ah to open it). Recipes are used up when you create an enhancement. You can also buy them from the consignment house - I just bought most of my set bonus ones rather than craft them but that's because I'm lazy and had enough inf over enough time to do that. I craft the "normal" IOs without set bonuses because you can just buy the recipes from the crafting menu. A much riskier method is to craft cheap enhancements and use enhancement converters to something more useful (even if you just sell it on the auction house to fund getting something you actually want), which can be quite profitable but carries an element of risk. Also, you can create a SG and create a base for free on Homecoming. It's worth doing even just as a giant teleport hub. Are there any "must have" sets overall or for each archetype? Not really, but lots of people go for Luck of the Gambler for the global recharge reduction one (goes in a Defence slot), Panacea (Healing slot) and Performance Shifter (Endurance slot) for extra endurance over time - these are all specific enhancements from each set, rather than a whole set bonus. The archetype-specific enhancements vary between amazing and kinda okay - most have one that does something unusual that I would get as early as is practical (Stalkers have a proc to hide and a proc to recharge Build Up, Kheldians have one that gives you a different bonus per form, for example). I see lots of builds being shared with various IO sets, at what point do you layer in those sets? When you can afford them? Level 50? Sometime before? When you can afford them, basically. Note that if you use the Ourobouros flashback system or task forces a lot and want to be extremely efficient, you might want to have a level 50 sparkly IO build and a levelling build (talk to a trainer to change builds) as some of them lose effectiveness below a certain level. If you're not too bothered about being mega-efficient, you can stick with one though (I stick with one as it's not like I'm speedrunning task forces solo or anything). What should I prioritize in your mind when choosing IO sets to pursue? It really depends on what you want to achieve. A bit more defence (smashing & lethal or melee/ranged/AoE), resistance (smashing and lethal are most common) and global recharge are usually things people want to go for and some of the accuracy and damage bonuses are pretty nice. Knockback-to-knockdown can transform annoying, chaotic knockback powers into incredibly useful ones that act like a hold. I'm currently building up tons of salvage across my dozen or so alts (I have a serious case of alt-itis since coming back). Should I stockpile, or just sell on the market and re-buy when I need? I would sell as I think the 15% (I think?) you lose to the auction house acts as a tax on me not having to remember where I keep what salvage but I am also really lazy. I always sell orange salvage and recipes I won't use. Anything about IO's that I'm not asking about, but I should be made aware of? Just in case it wasn't clear, a "proc" is a chance for an effect to trigger, like extra damage or a bonus on something. Most of them say how often or how likely they are to occur. Procs get less frequent on powers with short recharges to counteract that you're firing them off more often and AoEs have a lower rate per target. Global recharge doesn't effect proc rate, which is one reason why everyone loves Luck of the Gambler's special recharge reduction enhancement. You shouldn't have more than five of the same thing - if you get six LotG global recharge reductions, only five of the will have an effect. It's not unusual to see your damage dip slightly with a full enhancement set if they're lower level enhancements - the Musculature alpha incarnate is a pretty good way of counteracting this.

Yup. Crit on assassin's strike, then crit coming out of Hidden if AS triggers the Hide ATO. They've got a high base crit rate in groups, so you get three in a row from time to time.

It'll get you there. Ageless is a very useful addition - when you hit about 10% endurance, hit Ageless and it rockets back up. The usual performance shifter and panacea combo is also very helpful. I'm a real fan of blaze mastery's fireball for the epic choice... there's something about coming out of stealth with a large explosion that's just very satisfying, especially when you can Shield Charge in right after. For added fun, take pyronic judgement to continue the Very Stealthy Explosions theme (sadly, it doesn't crit but is obscenely powerful anyway). For the alpha I took Cardiac for a bit then changed my mind and went for Musculature, which covers a multitude of cheap IO sins.

From casual observation, they really don't know what to do with patches. Quite often they teleport away, teleport back, then teleport away again. People overlook the use of a power that gets a boss to just bugger off for a bit. If you've not got a tank to cast it on, it's a really handy way of bewildering the AI and making a group more manageable.

After getting my PB, I experimented with: Rad/Rad Brute: Because I liked tanking and it had nice graphics and I wanted something I could just bound in and start smashing with - it turned out rad/rad is one of the more powerful combinations so I sailed my way through pretty much everything non-psi. It's still fun to play with, but didn't exactly encourage what I'd call varied play, which after a PB was something I missed, so I rolled a... Fortunata/Night Widow: Using build-swap macros, it was two characters in one and that was sort of neat but I played a mind controller and a /psi defender back on like i6 or i7 when I played before, so it felt like more of the same and it was fine but not spectacular. I liked the stalker aspects of the Night Widow, so I rolled a... Broad Sword/Shield Defence Stalker: Think scrapper, but you never get any aggro in groups, you do double damage like every 4th hit and you can vanish mid-combat. Honestly, stalkers are ridiculously fun once they get going. The ATOs on a stalker legitimately change how they play as they go from "scrappers with one good hit at the beginning" to repeatedly vanishing mid-combat with spammable Build Up and regularly firing off two or three crits in a row.