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#71

Character Bios / Re: The Dead End Butcher

Last post by EDekar - Mar 04, 2025, 04:43 PM

The Dead End Butcher was inspired primarily by Jason Voorhees, of Friday the 13th.  While an obvious inspiration, a totally silent character isn't much fun to roleplay with in a social game, so I've learned through some casual roleplay interactions that while he tends towards simple, monosyllabic responses or quiet grunts, there is a sharper mind than you'd expect behind that mask.

His motivations remain inscrutable.  Yes, I personally know what's going on there, but I'm not inclined to share (save through roleplay if it happens)!

Ironically, he fits in well with my redside personal supergroup, Housekeeping Services Agency (HSA), whose theme is that of maids and butlers of a monstrous stripe.  Yes, he does have a 'butler' outfit in keeping with his theme!  Alas, attachment size limitations mean I can share only so much.

#72

Character Bios / The Dead End Butcher

Last post by EDekar - Mar 04, 2025, 04:40 PM

The Dead End Butcher

-Build Link-

Content warning: the following story is bloody and dark, and those squeamish with horror should consider other stories.  The content herein would be considered on par with a slasher horror movie.

The murky sun dips low over the horizon, casting dim rays over a gloomy, urban sprawl.  A man wrinkles his nose above a recently lit rusty barrel, collected burnables catching fire and releasing acrid smoke along with life sustaining warmth.

He sighs, huddling closer while holding leathery, rag wrapped hands towards the flame.  "Another long night..." he mumbles to himself.

Glancing to one side, he notes a disturbance some distance away; shouting and the sounds of fighting echoing strangely throughout the alleyways.  Shaking his head, he merely eases himself into a more comfortable position while making himself as small and unworthy a target as he can.  Energy blasts ricochet off the dilapidated buildings nearby as orders are crisply delivered, and before long the fight is over.  "Spiders at it again.  Hmph."

Faint warmth begins to fill the area around him as the fire burns through its fuel.  A pop sounds out as the fire consumes something particularly combustible, causing the man to jump back instinctively and protect his hands.  He carefully eases closer again when it fails to repeat the noise, trying to stay warm against the coming Autumn evening.

Minutes later, the footfalls of heavy boots tromp on past the alleyway... save for one pair entering behind the man.  "You shouldn't be out here, scum.  It's past curfew." the Arachnos Soldier announces as he approaches the man at the barrel fire.  The soldier doesn't bother waiting for a reply of course; he just wants an excuse to bully and push others around.  True to form, rough hands shove the vagrant before he can sputter a single word, pushing him into and toward the flame.  Stumbling, he crashes into the barrel clumsily, spraying burning trash over the ground as he falls to rag wrapped hands.

Laughing, the soldier turns and saunters out of the alley, leaving the vagrant to struggle with the flames as best he can.  Unbeknownst to both, a watching pair of eyes follows the scene carefully, tracking the soldier as he departs.

Later that night...

Two men gather at a local bar, drinking their wages away after a hard day's work.  "Hellions, can you believe 'em?  Again?  You'd think they would take the hint and get out of Port Oakes, but no..."  The man laughs, largely finished with a pint.
"What, you think they learn?  We keep putting them in body bags but they keep coming back!  Bet it's all that oil by the crashed tanker."  Shaking his head in reply, he shrugs and drains his pint.
"Eh, we had our fun knocking heads together.  's a great gig, the life of a soldier!"  The first man finishes up and leans back.  "Ugh... speaking of the life of a soldier, we should probably get back to barracks before tomorrow..."
"You go on ahead, I won't be long.  Just gotta use the pisser..."  His companion carefully works his way to the back, intent on his goal.

Shrugging, the first man gets to his feet after leaving some change on the table and winds his way to the front doors, stepping out into the darkness of another ocean-cold night.  "Shoulda brought a coat..." he mutters, slipping his hands into his pockets.  Moving quickly, he starts walking his way back to the closest Arachnos base, a solid ten minute walk away.  Nothing challenging for a military trained man with the fitness that accompanies such training, of course.  Sure, supers could be running around, but they don't usually bother civilians going about their business, and he wasn't wearing anything that would give away his employment.  Anybody dumb enough to try him would find themselves disappeared before long when word got back to base.

Moving from the flickering pools of street light back into the darkness, he finds himself uneasy.  "Is it colder...?" he wonders silently, before shrugging. "Just the dark..." he assures himself.

Shadows gather silently nearby, a miasma of malicious intent coalescing into solid, towering form, unseen by his chosen victim.  The furthest street lamp sputters and dies with a pop, causing the soldier to startle momentarily.  "Shit!... friggin' lights need to be replaced..." he mutters to himself.  The next nearest light flickers one last time, then it too fades, only to leave one last pool of light ahead of him.  He moves more quickly towards it, spooked and grateful for at least that little bit of respite.

The presence intensifies, muted and hidden from its prey, yet nevertheless gathering strength as it begins to stalk into the shadows ahead of the street light, moving between two buildings and waiting just as the soldier screws up his courage enough to leave his oasis of safety.

A large, rough hand darts from the darkness and grabs the soldier, pulling him into the shadows suddenly and violently before pinning him against a wall around the corner, the soldier struggling against the sudden assault.  "Hel-!" he manages to gasp before a large cleaver is shoved into his guts, forcefully thrust hard enough that the blade is buried partially into the brick and mortar wall.  The rest of his words are cut off as he gurgles and bleeds profusely.

Wild eyes fight to focus as they struggle to take in their attacker: a towering brute of a figure wrapped in bandages, a mask over its face, and a corroded cleaver still held in one hand watches him impassively, a dull red glow lighting up where its eyes should be.  It holds up its free hand, showing the bandages wrapped around it, then slowly points to a nearby trash bin, never breaking its gaze from the soldier.

Life dripping away, the terrified soldier grasps the cleaver piercing him to the wall, trying to escape.  Callous and uncaring, the brute hefts his free cleaver and begins to dismember the soldier limb by limb.  All the while the soldier remains in agony, yet horribly alive through the entire process, as though being sustained to endure the agony.  Each limb finds its way to the trash bin, trails of blood and viscera marking their sailing arc through the air as they're tossed one by one into it.

The soldier can no longer scream, even if he wanted to.  His lifeblood has long since drowned his lungs, even with naught left but his head and torso.  The hulking figure tilts its head slightly, as though listening to something, yet the soldier hears nothing at all.  It slowly brings the dripping, pitted blade up, holding it parallel to its arm for a moment before pulling back and swinging towards the soldier's neck, roughly hewing it like an axe to a log.

The remaining pieces are thrown to the bin as well as the killer pulls his cleaver from the brick, letting his victim's torso fall bloodily to the pooled viscera beneath, then lifting it and slowly walking to the bin to deposit this last grisly trophy.  The red glow fades from its eyes as it returns and walks around the corner, fading back into the shadows before disappearing completely.

The next morning...

Groaning and limping, the vagrant shuffles on his route, collecting trash and anything else he can find of value, rummaging through bins and the like.  A macabre scent begins to fill the air as he nears the buildings, and he wrinkles his nose as he pauses.  Is it worth it to even check?  After last night he hardly needs a beating, but if he misses something valuable he might not last the night anyway.  He sighs quietly, then starts to make his way nearer, huddling into himself as though to make himself a lesser target.

The scene of carnage that greets him is a new one.  While he has seen a lot in the Isles over the years, most murders are either very quiet or very loud.  This... this is something else.  The wall bears the scars of multiple hacking slashes, and a deep gouge caps the scene.  Crows caw as they flee the scene of carrion feast, flapping to the roofs to watch and wait for him to leave.

Moving slowly and quietly, the vagabond takes in the sight with eyes wide before realizing the blood leaves a trail, leading nearby...

[Dead End Butcher - Villain Brute]

#73

Brute / Dual Blades / Energy Aura (The...

Last post by EDekar - Mar 04, 2025, 03:26 PM

The Dead End Butcher

-Short Story-

More a concept build than a power one, I've been surprised at how much fun I've been having with it (for all that Dual Blades is kind of a mess of a powerset).  This character would likely work well as a Stalker too, but given the inspiration for the character, Brute felt like a better fit to me.

I've gotten him up to threat level 22 so far, and he'll only get better over time as you'll soon see from the build text below.  A few notes on set IO levels, however:

• The vast majority of my set IOs are at level 27 for malefactor purposes.
• Reactive Defenses has its IOs set to level 21.
• Most procs are taken either at minimum level, or a level that will malefactor to the availability of the power's availability (depending on market stocks).

Dual Blades, as a set, was the first of its kind and the precursor to the more modern combo systems we see today in sets like Street Justice.  Like any prototype, it suffers comparatively, but it isn't a bad set.  When I built Dead End Butcher, I paid close attention to the DPA (Damage Per Animation) of its attacks, and only secondarily to any combos I might be able to complete as part of my chain.  To that end, Power Slice, Vengeful Slice, and One Thousand Cuts were discarded as being poor value if I have sufficient recharge to otherwise manage an attack chain.  This is fortunate since I needed power pool picks to support concept!

One of the downsides of Dual Blades is that any miss in your chain will more than likely force a failed combo (meaning you will get no additional effects).  Furthermore, the combo system doesn't reset immediately; I often open combat with the Nimble Slash -> Ablating Strike -> Blinding Feint combo which provides an empowerment buff.  However, if I immediately return to Nimble Slash I won't activate a new combo (say, Nimble Slash -> Ablating Strike -> Typhoon's Edge (Weaken Combo)).  It's possible this is because there's a secondary combo finisher hanging on to the end of my Blinding Feint combo that activates off of a power I don't have.

The upside is that the actual combo effects are meager anyways; you'll get the highest damage per second ignoring them and focusing on keeping your Empower combo up while using Sweeping Strike as often as possible.

All in all, I'm having fun playing my movie slasher villain and exploring what kind of campy nonsense I can get up to with him.  May my experiences potentially help others!

As a final note, I always turn off T9 armor powers and incarnate defensives that add to resist/defense in my totals.  What is shown in the attachments is effectively my 'second by second' performance, with additional potential from the powers I have excluded.  I like to establish a solid baseline where I can!  Also, there are definitely places where you could squeeze out more power if you have the economy (purples, event sets, lots of HOs).  My own economy is fairly limited these days, so I build within the budget I can manage!

Dead End Butcher - Villain Brute
Build plan made with Mids' Reborn v3.7.5 rev. 21
──────────────────────────────

• Primary powerset: Dual Blades
  
• Secondary powerset: Energy Aura
  
• Pool powerset (#1): Leaping
  
• Pool powerset (#2): Presence
  
• Pool powerset (#3): Fighting
  
• Pool powerset (#4): Speed
  
• Ancillary powerset: Martial_Prowess
  

──────────────────────────────

Powers taken:

Level 1: Nimble Slash

• A: Superior Brute's Fury: Accuracy/Damage
  
• 3: Superior Brute's Fury: Damage/Recharge
  
• 5: Superior Brute's Fury: Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
  
• 19: Superior Brute's Fury: Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• 39: Superior Brute's Fury: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge
  
• 40: Superior Brute's Fury: Recharge/Fury Bonus
  

Level 1: Kinetic Shield

• A: Reactive Defenses: Defense
  
• 7: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance
  
• 11: Reactive Defenses: Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• 25: Reactive Defenses: Defense/RechargeTime
  
• 25: Reactive Defenses: Defense/Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• 36: Reactive Defenses: Scaling Resist Damage
  

Level 2: Ablating Strike

• A: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Accuracy/Damage
  
• 3: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Damage/RechargeTime
  
• 5: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime
  
• 15: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• 19: Superior Unrelenting Fury: Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• 39: Superior Unrelenting Fury: RechargeTime/+Regen/+End
  

Level 4: Dampening Field

• A: Invention: Resist Damage
  
• 45: Invention: Resist Damage
  

Level 6: Power Shield

• A: Kismet: Defense/Endurance
  
• 7: Kismet: Defense/Recharge
  
• 11: Kismet: Endurance/Recharge
  
• 36: Kismet: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  
• 37: Kismet: Accuracy +6%
  
• 40: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 8: Blinding Feint

• A: Nucleolus Exposure
  
• 9: Nucleolus Exposure
  
• 9: Touch of Death: Chance of Damage(Negative)
  
• 21: Mako's Bite: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  
• 37: Superior Vampire's Bite: Recharge/Chance to Heal
  
• 37: Hecatomb: Chance of Damage(Negative)
  

Level 10: Entropic Aura

• A: Invention: Endurance Reduction
  

Level 12: Typhoon's Edge

• A: Nucleolus Exposure
  
• 13: Nucleolus Exposure
  
• 13: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage
  
• 17: Scirocco's Dervish: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  
• 17: Obliteration: Chance for Smashing Damage
  
• 40: Overwhelming Force: Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown
  

Level 14: Super Jump

• A: Superior Winter's Gift: Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range
  
• 15: Superior Winter's Gift: Run Speed, Jump, Flight Speed, Range/Endurance
  
• 46: Superior Winter's Gift: Slow Resistance (25%)
  

Level 16: Energy Protection

• A: Steadfast Protection: Resistance/+Def 3%
  
• 45: Invention: Resist Damage
  

Level 18: Combat Jumping

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  

Level 20: Energy Cloak

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  
• 21: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance
  
• 43: Red Fortune: Defense/Recharge
  
• 43: Red Fortune: Endurance/Recharge
  
• 43: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  
• 45: Red Fortune: Endurance
  

Level 22: Acrobatics

• A: Luck of the Gambler: Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed
  
• 23: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance
  
• 23: Red Fortune: Defense/Recharge
  
• 42: Red Fortune: Endurance/Recharge
  
• 42: Red Fortune: Defense/Endurance/Recharge
  
• 46: Red Fortune: Endurance
  

Level 24: Pacify

• A: Invention: Accuracy
  

Level 26: Sweeping Strike

• A: Nucleolus Exposure
  
• 27: Nucleolus Exposure
  
• 27: Eradication: Chance for Energy Damage
  
• 31: Scirocco's Dervish: Chance of Damage(Lethal)
  
• 31: Obliteration: Chance for Smashing Damage
  
• 31: Armageddon: Chance for Fire Damage
  

Level 28: Energy Drain

• A: Membrane Exposure
  
• 29: Membrane Exposure
  
• 29: Invention: Endurance Modification
  
• 34: Invention: Endurance Modification
  

Level 30: Intimidate

• A: Invention: Accuracy
  

Level 32: Invoke Panic

• A: Superior Haunting: Accuracy/Fear
  
• 33: Superior Haunting: Fear/Recharge
  
• 33: Superior Haunting: Recharge/Endurance
  
• 33: Superior Haunting: Accuracy/Fear/Endurance
  
• 34: Superior Haunting: Accuracy/Fear/Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• 34: Superior Haunting: Recharge/Chance to Summon Ghosts
  

Level 35: Energize

• A: Doctored Wounds: Heal/Endurance/Recharge
  
• 36: Golgi Exposure
  
• 46: Invention: Recharge Reduction
  

Level 38: Overload

• A: Membrane Exposure
  
• 39: Membrane Exposure
  

Level 41: Unrelenting

• A: Doctored Wounds: Heal/Recharge
  
• 42: Efficacy Adaptor: EndMod/Recharge
  

Level 44: Boxing

• A: Nucleolus Exposure
  

Level 47: Tough

• A: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance
  
• 48: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance
  
• 48: Unbreakable Guard: Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• 48: Unbreakable Guard: RechargeTime/Resistance
  
• 50: Unbreakable Guard: Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime
  
• 50: Unbreakable Guard: +Max HP
  

Level 49: Hasten

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
  
• 50: Invention: Recharge Reduction
  

──────────────────────────────

Inherents:

Level 1: Fury


Level 1: Brawl

• A: Nucleolus Exposure
  

Level 1: Sprint

• A: Celerity: +Stealth
  

Level 2: Rest

• A: Invention: Recharge Reduction
  

Level 2: Swift

• A: Invention: Run Speed
  

Level 2: Hurdle

• A: Invention: Jumping
  

Level 2: Health

• A: Regenerative Tissue: +Regeneration
  
• 8: Miracle: +Recovery
  
• 16: Numina's Convalesence: +Regeneration/+Recovery
  

Level 2: Stamina

• A: Performance Shifter: Chance for +End
  
• 12: Performance Shifter: EndMod
  
• 22: Performance Shifter: EndMod/Accuracy
  

──────────────────────────────
Incarnates:

Musculature Core Paragon
Mighty Radial Final Judgement
Spectral Radial Flawless Interface
Rularuu Core Superior Ally
Barrier Core Epiphany

[WST SCHEDULE (3/02/2025 - 03/31/2025)]

#74

Looking for Group / Re: WST Schedule 2025 - Curren...

Last post by FarmTank - Mar 02, 2025, 08:07 PM

WST SCHEDULE (3/02/2025 - 03/31/2025)

3/02: Dr. Quarterfield (40-44), Penelope Yin (20-25), Tree of Thorns (34-43), Ms. Liberty (45-50)

3/09: Apex (50 w/ Alpha), Citadel (25-30), Virgil Tarikoss (15-20), Barracuda (45-50)

3/16: Eden (39-41), Manticore (30-35), Tin Mage (50 w/ Alpha), ITF (35-50)

3/23: Terra Volta (34-43), Numina (35-40), Ice Mistral (35-40), Dr. Kahn (45-50)

3/31: Moonfire (23-28), Positron (10-15/11-16), Mortimer Kal (20-40), LGTF (45-50)

#75

In Search Of... / Re: Captain Shock's PVP build ...

Last post by Joshex - Mar 01, 2025, 03:38 PM

Bids at the rates listed are posted on the L 28 recipies in WW. keep em coming.

#76

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: Canary in the mine

Last post by Joshex - Feb 25, 2025, 05:10 PM

Less spyware... what happens is Mozilla uses and is funded by Google Ads. Google in turn does actively go against them, as noted they deliberately fucked up Youtube for firefox (this was found a while back, a specific browser check)... it's possibly to encourage people to move to chrome, almost certainly because of manifest2 and advanced adblockers like ublock origin which bypass ads and aren't detectable by most means.

As for the IP... it's google cloud. That's like saying a company is allied with Jeff Bezos because they use AWS.

a fair argument, but one must remember google had planned to create an internet hosting and ISP service called "googlefiber", they decided against it because it'd add argument to injury for any government to come after them with monopoly charges for owning too many varied aspects of the internet. So google fiber was torched and dropped. Google does not officially offer hosting nor ISP services, and legally they cannot (without an antitrust lawsuit for monopolization and proprietization of the internet, they are toing that line really hard but they wont dare cross it, some argue they've already crossed it by proprietizing the way the internet is written and gatekeeping things like googlejavascript to demand other browser developers include spyware to be able to even program their browser to see things like webp images in example).

but the fact is, you cannot host a website on google's servers as they are not allowed to branch into that business.

so mozilla.com being hosted on google's servers? it makes them a subsidiary at the least. now a subsidiary can bypass corporate directive for specifics that are allowed under their contract, so this is where things like manifest versions are not mandated in the subsidiary contract, so mozilla teams can make that call to not include manifestV3, but google can just "advise" their agents who have infiltrated various website teams to write in a block at website level blocking noncompliant browsers just by not being able to know the difference between "devicewidth" and "________webkitdevicewidth" causing display of objects or location formatting to fail. and every time mozilla programs a workaround to understand it with the underscores and naming convention google will change it adding another _ to the front and changing the wording and advising their spies in various websites to apply such unnecessary changes immediately to the websites they maintain.

it's a vicious cycle, and while mozilla has some autonomy, they are a subsidiary of google, and all it'll take is a new contract which mandates they follow all google advice and bam, firefox will be no different than chrome.

also we have no way of knowing how many google agents secretly actually work at mozilla and at what levels. it really has gotten that bad. but the fact they host themselves on googles servers puts them under google's ToS for subsidiaries.

essentially mozilla made a bad partnership, and now they are being eaten alive by a silent invisible hostile takeover. it's only a matter of time till google eats their hands and they can no longer modify google web browser code to deviate from google demands. seeing that? I just don't play their games, I understand it's just a slow and painful death left for mozilla, and theres no hope of them freeing themselves from google any more. So I just use an outdated browser, and what sites don't work in it, I ignore. if more people did the same, websites would be forcced to accommodate older browsers and all this proprietization by google would have to be undone or they'd lose their market share. but sadly most people don't care. some even defend the spying. "they need to know my bank login details to keep them secure"

security is the next target for google, they are planning and have already begun taking over all the data excryption key and certificate providers. they have already voiced that they plan to eventually not supply these certificates to non-compliant browsers and foricng the new certificates for all https websites and removing non-https variants resulting in a "SSL no Cypher overlap error" for browsers which do not conform.

This is a real error you can encounter, it looks like a page where the certificate has expired or is for a different domain name, normally you can "add an exception" but in this case no option is given because the site merely doesn't share any SSL encryption cyphers with you, and if you don't share at least ONE cypher then you and the website in question cannot exchange any SSL encrypted information, resulting in permanent failure to load the site if it's SSL ONLY. it's true it'd be as simple as asking them to use some older cypher certificates, but likely they'll tell you "those are no longer secure, google said so, so no, we wont." or "we lost those in the last update and are unable to restore them as they cannot be loaded into the newly updated SSL certificate store as they are in an incompatible format, the new certificate store only accepts .cypher15(madeup as an example of how they plan to implement this block) formats."

google is evil.. and any company associated with them is forced to toe the line. a corrupt bloated corporation that has lost all morals and ethics towards people. we are just data to sell.

well they don't get my data. I live under a very secure rock against their advances.

here, want more information from another more intelligent person than me who has looked into this at a sourcecode level and also sees that mozilla is a slave to google if not part of the same company just from sourcecode?: https://digdeeper.neocities.org/articles/browsers

#77

In Search Of... / Re: Captain Shock's PVP build ...

Last post by Redlynne - Feb 25, 2025, 09:22 AM

so yeah lv28

Then that is an end user scenario that I was not previously aware of.
Good to know that there's always "more to learn" in this game! 

#78

General Suggestions and Feedback / Re: Canary in the mine

Last post by RagingCheney - Feb 25, 2025, 12:46 AM

Less spyware... what happens is Mozilla uses and is funded by Google Ads. Google in turn does actively go against them, as noted they deliberately fucked up Youtube for firefox (this was found a while back, a specific browser check)... it's possibly to encourage people to move to chrome, almost certainly because of manifest2 and advanced adblockers like ublock origin which bypass ads and aren't detectable by most means.

As for the IP... it's google cloud. That's like saying a company is allied with Jeff Bezos because they use AWS.

[FUNDING GOAL REACHED!!!]

#79

Financial Status / Re: SPRING/SUMMER 2025 - Fundi...

Last post by retched - Feb 24, 2025, 09:09 PM

FUNDING GOAL REACHED!!!

Attached below is proof of payment for the Rebirth servers' main server costs.

The next bill will be due on September 1, 2025, and generated on or around August 18, 2025. (I'll try to post the bill sooner rather than later.)

[I need them all at Lvl 28]

#80

In Search Of... / Re: Captain Shock's PVP build ...

Last post by Joshex - Feb 24, 2025, 01:40 AM

the catch: I need them all at Lvl 28

Why would you want them @ Level 28 ... instead of Level 27?

At Level 28, the set bonuses are "operative" down to Level 25 (-3 below the enhancement level) ... but in terms of flashback story arc content, the brackets are:

• 1-15
• 16-19
• 20-24
• 25-29
• 30-34
• 35-39
• 40-45
• 46-50

I suppose that if your only concern is about TF/SF exemplar limits, those tend to be "multiples of 5" Levels (15, 20, 25, 30, etc.), at which point Level 28 for enhancements to slot makes some sense ... but personally I would prefer (and use) Level 27 for enhancements (whenever practical) rather than Level 28. Being able to do flashback content and retain set bonuses @ Exemplar Level 24 tends to be beneficial in the long run (I'm thinking).

There are some sets I try to obtain as Level 22 (so the set bonus is "operative" in the Exemplar Level 16-19 flashback bracket), while others I try to obtain as Level 31 (so the set bonus is "operative" in the Moonfire Task Force at Exemplar Level 28).

the lowest level PVP zone is Bloody Bay and maxes out at Lv25

according to mids this specific build does not actually lose 0.1% def nor res unless I set the enhancement levels to Lv 27 and under. As I had to fight hard to get each 0.1% def when building with max level sets, I didn't want to lose anything when I downleveled to the lowest lv pvp zone+3.

one main challenge I've had is in my main PVE build I lose too many bonuses when I enter lower level pvp zones, that build is great for pve, and honestly it was a pvp winner on live, but now with all the new one-off tricks that people use in pvp I needed to get more clever as the pvp field has drastically started to tilt away from tanks being easily strong to ranged being a bit too strong. (one issue is the amount of def ranged users have available now, the original devs always refused to make a ranged +armor AT on live for that reason, and put in limits like the def from afterburner is lost in battle. and most sets which add Def bonuses are slotted mainly on armor. that has changed now. on live I'd struggle to get like 30% def to minimal things in pvp on a ranged at, but now it's kinda easy to get mid 30s and 40 and more generally accross the board too.)

Most tanks cannot use afterburner, most have some sort of reliance on touching the ground for powers (which I've long thought was silly, it's like the paragon devs hated the idea of flying tanks, I guess they hate superman, shazam, black adam and a whole bunch of flying powerhouses).

but yeah lv28 sets wont lose any major end result compared to 50 sets in this specific build. but Lv 27 and lower does start to lose potential in the end result department. "it's almost like the cryptic devs planned it that way"

in example on one power with sets at 50, I have about 51% enhancement of defense, but with level 28 sets it drops to like 48.9% enhancement. which oddly enough doesn't actually equal a difference of 0.1% def or more in PVP because of substantially nerfed def returns in pvp(because people complained they couldn't hit tanks enough to actually keep damage on them, same reason they nerfed regen "I can't hit the tank with my cranked out sniper attack! or if I do he regens it before my cranked out -regen beam recharges nerf them all!").

but if you slot a lv 27 or lower and it drops to like 44% and that does cause an 0.1% def loss.

so yeah lv28