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Character Bios / Re: Beast of a Thousand Torments
« on: November 28, 2023, 03:56:49 pm »
Amusing Fiends

Bellindra face lit up as the ice cream sundae arrived.  Her face though was a pale flesh tone, wings were missing, hair and general facial structure was the same but to all observers she looked like a somewhat goth girl with torn fishnet leggings, round rim glasses, and a leather jacket.  To her left sat the large and burly warrior who called himself Varlon, wild brown locks framing his face as he looked at the sundae with casual interest.  He had declined to get ice cream, but he did receive a hotdog.  His axe was resting on the back of his chair.  To her left sat Simon of Legacy Chain.  The arcanist was glancing at her sundae with a faint level of disdain.  He had stated this wasn't the time for ice cream.  And then, across from her sat a man named Devon, also of Legacy Chain, he patiently eyed the sundae, he appreciated the offer but he had already eaten, his brown hair and neatly trimmed beard were half way towards gray.  Past the only slightly dingy storefront and an expanse of water the Golden Giza of Saint Martial caught the light of a low hanging sun, shinning with brilliance.

Bellindra savored the first spoonful of ice cream.  The first bite was always the best, the explosion of fudgey creamy vanillay flavor delivering a spike of bliss, "The first bite is always the most divine" she said a beat later, "Thank you for letting me chose the venue.  I had read the reviews on the place and it lives up to them.  It's unfortunate they suffer on the business front because of..."  She gestured past the window, a few rough looking men with improvised cybernetics were loitering between the shop and the water's edge. "...not the best neighborhood.  Hoodlums and spiders."

Devon gave a slightly bemused smile, "I thank you for agreeing to see us.  Varlon has spoken well of you."

Bellindra glanced towards the burly man as he shifted in the seat that barely contained him, "I can't imagine why.  Though the way he's been following me since Mercy Island I suppose he sees something."  The warrior only responded with a grin as he munched on a mouthful of hotdog. 

Devon nodded, "I was unaware you could assume a mortal guise."

Bellindra shrugged casually, "I wasn't aware I could either until recently.  Makes sampling the local flavor much easier."

Devon cocked his head to the side, seemingly measuring her response, "Where do you get the budget for that if you don't mind me asking."

Bellindra idly swallowed yet another spoonful before answering, "Odd jobs.  No shortage of people paying to rough up someone else.  Whole island is at each other's throats.  And then there's people like Sgt. Schorr."  She wasn't sure if name dropping the Wyvern operative was the best choice or not.  She heard Chain and Wyvern worked together now and then.  Half the time when she was doing brute work though she'd wait until Varlon was off on one of his little side crusades, she wasn't sure how he felt about merc work, and she didn't feel like dragging him into the mud.

"Interesting." Devon responded, "Interesting indeed, to find an old fiend content with sundae's."

"That's exactly the point."  She said, pointing with her spoon, "Do you know what eternity is like?  The years blend together.  The past is a blur.  I just simply was.  I existed the beast of a thousand torments in some ruined ramparts where at one time I had a legion before I stopped caring about much of anything.  This though."  She pointed at the ice cream with her spoon, "This life of momentary pleasures.  The now-ness I am experiencing."  She gestured in a circular fashion with her spoon.  "I was wrong about things.  These simple pleasures, living day by day.  The charm of it grows on me."

"Very interesting."  Devon said as he leaned back in his chair.  He stared right through Bellindra pondering. 

It was clear to the demon he was measuring her worth.  She was honestly surprised he wasn't more defensive around her.  "You are aware demons are rather good at lying and manipulating people yes?"

"Yes."  Devon responded with a smirk.  She could feel Simon eying her with a bit more suspicious intent, but Devon remained relaxed, "Your actions speak quite loudly for you though."

"You never went out of your way to cause needless anguish."  Varlon offered, having long finished his hotdog.

Devon nodded, "Your actions can be rather, capricious."  He added, she got the feeling he was more aware of all her activities then Varlon, "But you aren't very maliceful."

She shrugged, "What's the point of it?  Where does it get me?"

"You tell me 'Lament of Tyrone.'"  Devon shot a sly smile at her.

Bellindra shifted uncomfortably.  She remembered that one through the fog of her past.  It was her best coup on corrupting and seizing a soul, turning a crusader from a warrior of god to a malice filled man by playing on and encouraging his sadistic and vengeful qualities.   Though in time that which that soul earned her in hell passed, like all things did, and her actions felt hollow in retrospect, "My how low the mighty have fallen."  She offered with a smile, "I have wondered if I am me or simply the concept of me as imagined by someone summoning me.  I appear to be me though... how else would I remember things like that."

"You are most definitely Bellindra."  Simon shot back with some vitriol in his voice.

She shrugged, "Surely you didn't request this meeting simply to probe my worth?"

Devon nodded, "Are you familiar with the Wheel of Fortune?"

She looked up from the sundae she was picking apart, "That green with the boardwalk and the circus?" 

"Yes" Said Devon, "Are you familiar with that circus, the Carnival of Shadows."

"Not deeply.  I saw some masks that reminded me of Venice."

"Venice?" Varlon asked.

"Yes Venice." Bellindra responded, "Venetian carnivals have been an occurrence for centuries.  The Italians have much prettier costumes though.  Actually, it's a little jarring how much flesh they expose compared to how little Venetian carnival costumes do."

Devon looked thoughtful, "You sound familiar."

"An Italian magician had called upon me... I forget how long ago, the past is a blur.  I do remember his name 'Uriel di Inferno'.  I wasn't the only one mind you.  Got bored with demons when he found this woman, I forget her name.."  She shook her head, "Probably unimportant.  They are all long dead.  What of this Carnival?"

Devon, "They sprang up in Paragon city and spread to other places, like the Isles.  At first it seemed like some ribald Carnival that catered to the rich.  That's when people started dying.  After various mystics and heroes of Paragon probed into the matter it became apparently the life force of people was being supped upon.  Tried stamping them out, but they moved to the shadows.  Various powerful and rich people answer to the Carnival.  We're pretty sure they're up to the same here.  We're more interested in getting a better reckoning of what they have there and what they are doing.  Legacy Chain is a known rabble rouser in these parts.  You, less so."

Bellindra nodded, "I see, before you get offering payment I got something in mind already."

The older mage raised a brow, "Oh?"

The demon nodded, "Can you arrange the paperwork that would let me enter the United States without having to duck legal scrutiny."

Devon smirked at that answer mulling the thought in his head, "I'll see what I can do."

She nodded, "Then I'll see what I can do."



It was well into evening when she arrived.  Masked entertainers were offering fliers, promising an evening of entertainment.  It was hard to miss the circus tents.  In any other city a Carnival with this rep wouldn't operate so openly.  Then again St. Martial wasn't most cities.  Bellindra wasted no time acquiring a funnel cake.  She feasted upon the sweet treat as she drifted from tents to shows.  As a demon who dealt with souls she had a feel for such things.  All the performers were gnawed upon in some fashion, at least spiritually.  All of them had souls weakened as if something had been nibbling away at them.  A few of them were little more then hollow shells acting out someone else's will. 

The tent Bellindra was currently in had a mesmer in a lovely dress making audience members behave like barnyard animals and other tricks.  As she sat there taking in the show she couldn't help but feel like she was in some vast spider's web.  All the soul-worn entertainers were like flies stuck in that web.  Even the audience members caught up in the show.  The heightened emotion, the link of control, something was taking a nibble right in front of her.  She didn't know what though, but she could feel that presence permeating the air, hanging about the masks acting like tethers for its web, feel it's idle gaze passing across her and the rest of the audience. 

She left the show taking a breath of the cool evening air as she tried poking more towards the back tents.  Burly men were guarding them.  Their bodies bore wounds and bruises, what took her aback though was she sensed no spirit within those men.  They were little more then meat puppets.  Bellindra turned to leave back towards the more crowded areas of the event, a woman in a mask dressed in a licentious jester's motley blocked her way.  The woman cocked her head, "Nosy little devil huh?"

Bellindra wasn't sure if she was digging at her nature of just using an expression, she flashed a disarming smile. "I don't suppose you know where a woman can relieve herself?"

The woman drew a rapier, it glint with more light then what the evening lights were casting upon it, she held it with the grace of an olympic fencer, "If you are looking to relieve yourself of some of that demon blood, I think I can arrange that."

Bellindra put her arms up disarmingly, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves.  I'm not looking for a fight."

"I am though!"  Cried out the fencer as she lunged at Bellindra, it was a graceful jab that would have found purchase in Bellindra if she hadn't stepped aside at the last moment.  Catching the woman's arm with a hand wreathed in hellfire.  The woman pulled free with surprising strength.  He arm was singed but she scarcely paid the injury any heed as she came in for another strike.  Bellindra knew this behavior, it's just like when she'd suppress pain and empower her allies to power through their injuries.  Except this woman was naturally in this state.  Bellindra let out a shrill cry, the sound jostled her assailant to her core, forcing her to recoil as her body recalled what pain was, a barrage of hellfire from the fiend later and the girl's bravado melted to an anguished cry as she dropped to the ground, rolling out the flames.  The soulless hulks were starting to move her way, she noticed a shift in the entertainers to her other side, they were beginning to throng her way.  Bellindra snatched the fencer's dropped blade, removed her jacket, and leapt the railing, wings sprung from her back as her skin took on a violet tone, horns rose from her head as she stopped suppressing her fiendish nature and flew off.



The second meeting with Devon was far less involved.  Meeting at a street corner.  Bellindra was back in her goth human disguise, "The whole lot of them is like a spider web writhing with flies all partially drained.  From my experience, passion makes the soul burn bright and flare up, makes it easier to sup from the essence.  That's why the Carnival, the fear and passion both work to make the crowd susceptible to a sip.  I tried getting towards some of the back tents but they started coming at me.  Had me pegged as a demon through my disguise.

Devon mulled it over, "I suppose if someone is dealing with souls they'd learn to feel out a demon."

Bellindra nodded, holding out the blade, wrapped in canvas.  She handed it over, "Swords of this craftsmanship are not easily made.  Even in this day and age, you might find something tracking the source of this down."

Devon took it but shrugged, "Probably another addled craftsman who doesn't remember why they are making these blades or who they are sending them to."

Bellindra cocked her head, "That common?"

Devon nodded, "Not the first time tracing their supplies ended like that."

Bellindra, "The brutes are soulless."

"Tracks with what we've heard."

Bellindra nodded, folding her arms thoughtfully, "And the servants are... hard to described, they are cranked up, pain suppression, adrenaline, these are things I do to comrades in arms in short bursts to help them power through combat.  If this is done constantly however, this will greatly shorten their life spans..."

"Their own do tend to turn up dead.  It would explain their prowess while they live."

She nodded again, "Honestly the whole thing infuriates me."

Devon glanced at Bellindra a moment, "Not the sort of reaction I expect from a demon."

"Yeah, my recent time on earth has been a whirlwind of new experiences.  I don't think I expected to be in this position."

"How do you feel about it though Bellindra?"

"You can't improve if you don't change.  I'm happy with where I'm going.  I'm not aiming to be anything grand, I'm just living life one step at a time."

Devon smiled faintly, "Not a lot of information, but I think I can get you enough papers to enter the States.  Be aware though, if you play loose with the law there you'll regret it in short order."

She nodded, "I'm aware."

2
Character Bios / Re: Beast of a Thousand Torments
« on: September 25, 2023, 12:16:20 am »
Dial-A-Fiend

The name of Mercy Island was so ironic that it amused Bellindra.  The island was anything but.  She heard originally Arachnos would dump off abducted ne'er do wells in Darwin's landing and force them to fight through snakes Hellions and Skulls to make it up to the upper areas.  Darwin's Landing was an apt name for it, for the social Darwinism Arachnos engaged it.  Bellindra was sipping on a bloody Mary from Larry's Tiki Bar, an establishment in the upper areas of Mercy.  It was a run down looking place, but at least it wasn't the ruins down below.  Despite the run down appearance she rather liked the Tiki Ambience.  But her concentration was more on the lad before her.  Mid-tone skin, short cut hair, wearing a T-Shirt with some game emblem she didn't recognize.  The locals simply called him J and he was good at hooking people up with electronics.  "So this phone should be clean.  Using this won't get traced like some of the standard fare you'd buy around here.  No tracking software.  This is the cellphone number.  Do you want me to show you how to dial again?"

Bellindra Nodded, the boy was hesitant to work for someone looking at devilish as her, but she could tell he had worked with a few freakish sorts before in Mercy and by keeping a pleasant demeanor she was able to keep him cooperative.  More flies with honey then vinegar and all that.  Sometimes being nice was the easiest way.  That's when the call came from behind her, back towards the door, "At last I found you!"  It was a rather beefy man hefting an axe, "Bellindra, the Beast of a Thousand Torments, I have come to send you back from whence you came." 

He purposefully strode down towards her Bellindra held up a hand, gesturing a stop, "Wait, can we do this outside please."

The man stopped, laying his axe over his armored shoulder his brow furrowed beneath his wild brown locks and his square jawed mouth turned to the side in thought, clearly taken aback at the lack of aggression in the reply, "Why?"

Bellindra gestured to the occupants, "There are people here, the staff are terrified.  And there is a lot of furniture that can be damaged.  I rather like the Bloody Marys here and I'd rather they continue serving me."

The man nodded, seeming to agree with the plea to limit collateral damage, "Fine, you shall face me in the street."  He walked back out.

Bellindra looked to the kid, "Sorry Jay I'm going to deal with this quick and then I'll get back to you."  She walked away from him and the table, towards the door.  She barely noticed the two men dressed in grey going by until one of them rudely bumped her in the shoulder, pushing right past her.  They had skull masks which clearly spoke of their gang affiliation.  They were both carrying baseball bats.

Bellindra glanced at the two men approaching Jay, she saw Jay's face go pale as the Skulls approached him, "Took us a while to find you, squirt, you think you could do business in our turf like that without paying the fee?" 

Bellindra scowled, "HEY!  That kid's my tech support.  Hands off if you want to keep them."

The Skulls turned about, glowering at Bellindra through their masks, "Stay out of this Hellion bitch!  We'll clip those wings later!"

Bellindra had no patience for this with a quick gesture she snapped a whip of hellfire that hadn't existed until this very moment at the left Skull's feet.  It snatched around his ankles and she gave a sharp tug, his arms flailed for balance as he was thrown on his back, his head connected with the heavy table Jay and Bellindra had been sitting at a moment earlier with a solid thud.  The man fell to the ground knocked unconscious.  The second man ran after Bellindra with his bat.  Bellindra ran for the door.  She burst out into the open, the axe-wielding man was watching the whole scuffle curiously from the street.  He didn't impede Bellindra as she spun around just in time to take a hit from a baseball bat.  The blow caught one of her horns, she rolled with it, there was a sharp pain where it her horn met her head but she had felt far worse.  She grasped on to the pain seeping through her mind and slung it back at her assailent in the form of a fiery punch.  He fell backwards to the ground, she was upon him in an instant, throwing him into a painful lock-hold.  She wasn't called the Beast of a Thousand Torments for nothing, this man was riff-raff, it was easy contorting his body into a highly painful hold leaving him crying out for mercy.  She hissed out, "I am no Hellion, I am Bellindra, the Beast of a Thousand Torments.  Harm that kid and you'll have an awful lot of cut-throats at your throat, including me, and I will kill you, and every instant of that death will be an agony you'll beg for me to hasten to the end."

She let him simmer in a couple beats of pain before she released him, tossing his bat aside.  The thug leapt to his feet and Bellindra made a start at him, bearing fangs.  The SKull lept back in a panic and sprinted off.  Bellindra laughed and rubbed her horn where she took the hit before turning towards the would-be Demon hunter.  "So you wanted to dance?"

The man considered her a moment more, axe still balanced on his shoulder.  She could tell this man was not going to be an easy fight, and the thought just left her more eager to fight him.  She knew it would be a good fight.  "You didn't have to protect the kid."

She stretched her arms and her wings, "Sometimes being nice is the most pragmatic choice.  Are you going to fight me?"

Her shook his head, "You aren't the destructive fiend I was lead to believe you are.  I shall see what you do here.  You may call me Rogan, the Hunter"

She smirked, "Suit yourself.  Fighting with or fighting against you look like fun."

3
Character Bios / Re: Beast of a Thousand Torments
« on: September 24, 2023, 05:21:36 pm »
Joy Ride

Unlike the boys these people really knew their wards.  From what she had gathered this place was known as The Zig.  The gentleman aiding the jailors in confining her to this room was some druid known as Simon.  While the situation was far from ideal Bellindra was somehow finding amusement at the confusion between the officials and the Simon.

"That's Bellindra; The Beast of a Thousand Torments, The Lament of Tyrone, The Mistress of Agony.  She relishes pain and destruction.  We can't be treating her lightly."

The officer shook his head, "She did surrender when the office approached her.  While it was just a fender bender, she was driving without a license."

"She's just biding her time.  Fiends can be insidious with their plots.  Don't trust her."

Bellindra spoke up, "That is generally good advice when dealing with demons though."

The ritualist glared at her, "Silence fiend!"  Bellindra responded with a fanged toothy grin.  He peeered at her, "How are you even here?"

She shrugged, "Some amateurs summoned me hoping to fight fire with fire against Hellions.  It would have been an awful good summoning if they hadn't forgotten their warding circle.  And so I decided I'd rather just stick around, stretch my wings, and take a vacation in Paragon.  The kids aren't bad, just foolish."

The mage harumphed, "I'll determine that fiend."

The officer though, spoke up, "Look, you can argue nature all you want, but without any actual crimes we can't just hold her.  Though the lack of paperwork for you."  He spoke, looking at Bellindra, "When things are sorted out I'm sure they're going to let you back out.  But we will be keeping an eye on you."

Bellindra tried to avoid making her grin look too malicious as she drank in the rancor that was bubbling up from Simon.  She was a patient fiend.  She had all the time in the world.

When night time came though, all hell broke loose, and none of it was Bellindra's fault.

Simon returned, with friends, all dressed in similar color coded uniforms.  She later learned they were a secret order known as Legacy Chain.  They tried to attack her while she was still contained, and she fought back like a fury.  She actually relished the struggle, a good fight would set her blood ablaze.  The jail security eventually mobilized through all of that and they targeted both Bellindra and Legacy Chain in a chaotic three way Melee.  As she was weighing surrending to them or going down with cathartic ferocity the additional explosions came.  Blackened ships descended on The Zig as Arachnos had chosen this hour to stage a jailbreak.  As the men in fearsome black armor swept through suppressing guard and Chain alike Bellindra decided that was the one option that wouldn't result in further incarceration for her and that is how she ended up in the Isles.


4
Character Bios / Beast of a Thousand Torments
« on: September 24, 2023, 04:56:44 pm »
The Call

Bellindra stretched and breathed the air her wings stretching as a spade tail swished.  There was a tangy quality to it.  Being summoned to the material world in ways was like awakening from the dream that was the drawn out existence of eternity.  It had been a while so the moment felt particularly real to the purple skinned woman of a fiend.  She tucked some black hair behind a curled red horn as she got ready to give her usual proclamation of who dares summon the beast of a thousand torments when the voice of one of her summoners spoke up, "Dude!  It worked!  Holy shit!"

Bellindra cocked a brow as she took in her surroundings more.  Television playing a random video.  Beat up couch.  An herbal smell in the air as well as that tangy odor from before, a trio of stunned young men staring at her.  "Dude it's purple babe!"  One of them called out. 

Bellindra was torn between being disappointed or just amused.  This was hardly the sort of welcome she expected from a summoning.  She stooped down and inspected the circle she was standing in.  Expertly drawn in a red fluid, Ketchup.  Only the summoning circle, no binding circle.  The juxtaposition of skill and ignorance was refreshingly jarring.  Bellindra stepped out of the circle.  The trio gasped, shrinking away from her. She smirked as she explained, "If you do not include a binding circle around the summoning circle, the demon can walk right out and do whatever she pleases to you."  The color drained from the men's faces as they shrunk against the corner.  Bellindra relished the looks of abject terror on their faces, another Rookie mistake, not having the exit behind you.  The thought crossed her mind about how easy it would be to do anything she darn well pleased to them, live up to that moniker of hers.  But her heart just wasn't in it.  Kill them, go back to lurk in hellish ruins?  Maybe some simple pleasures were in order.  Bellindra flicked the nose of the central man, presumed leader, pale, black hair.  He yelped in surprise more then pain. "There's your torment.  Now get me something to eat."  She said.

"That's it?"  Said the leader.

"I mean I could kill you and make you feel agony every step of the way if you prefer." She responded wryly.

The man backpedaled quickly on his statement, "No no no!  This is alright!"

"Excellent," She said, striding over to the beat up couch and throwing herself into it.  Despite appearances it was precisely the right levels of soft and comfortable.  Bellindra stretched again with an indulgent grunt, letting herself sink in, "I need a change of scenery, and his couch is rather comfortable.  How about in return for me not visiting unspeakable horror to you, you provide me with room and board."

The men were starting to step out of the corner, still breathing a little quickly from the earlier scare.  She could see the wheels turning in their head as they were coming to grips with their capricious fortune in all this, "S-So you'll help us against those creepy Helion cultists ganger people?"  This was one of the others speaking, red headed lad with freckles.

Bellindra turned her head to glance at him, "Don't press your luck."  The three suddenly started back as if struck.  Bellindra smirked with an amused internal heh at the reaction and softened a bit, "You can discuss things around here with me and if anything sounds fun I might get involved."

5
Guardian / Rabbit Reviews Guardian
« on: September 20, 2023, 06:40:25 pm »
I have tried a WHOLE lot of guardian.  So I decided to put my thoughts down on paper about it.  Well digital paper, this.  Have a look!

Guardians Review

Guardians are a class unique to the Rebirth server.   They are a jack of all trades class that combines a mixture of melee and ranged attacks like a dominator with a unique secondary that fuses self-protecting powers with supportive powers.  This archetype allows for playstyles one couldn’t get previously.  Closest option would have been the VEATs though this is quite unique in its own ways.

Guardians by the Numbers
Guardians are aggressively average with their attributes.  Nothing really stands out as exceptional, but nothing is excessively weak either.

Damage wise Guardians are roughly in the same band as VEAT and dominators.  VEAT have a multiplier of 1.0 for melee and ranged.  Guardians have a multiplier of 0.95.  Stalkers got a 1.0 too, but they can also make something cease to exist in a blink of an eye when stealthed.  Your secondary powersets might have moves that leverage more damage out of you (♥ Anguishing cry), but leaving that off the table you’re swinging at a notch behind scrappers and blasters, and the rest of the table is behind you (And brutes are either behind or ahead of you depending on their mood).

Defensively your toggles will give you about as much mitigation as a scrapper or stalker.  But your HP will be more corruptor/VEAT tier, you can buff your HP higher then a corruptor, but anything offensive will have more hp then you, that includes blasters.  Though the fact you have damage mitigation does let you take a hit better than a blaster.  Also you got access to heals in a lot of your sets which does stretch out your survivability.

You’d think with support powers you’d have some multipliers for such things that make them solid.  Generally though, you’re bottom rung compared against any other support class.  So while you won’t make maneuvers or heal other rock especially hard, the fact that you got secondary pool powers that heal puts you above tankers and scrappers though.

While we are talking about healing, we need to be aware of one thing.  While guardians tend to get the PBAoE heal out of whatever support set they riff off of, like healing aura.  It’s a special version of the power with TWICE the recharge time as the version every other AT gets.  You are not going to support a squishy team with that power alone, spot heal a tank who is in a rough patch, sure, expect to save a team that’s getting creamed, not happening, though if you combine it with your other powers and some offensive you got a chance.

Primary Powersets
Guardian primary powersets are generally the same as the dominator secondaries.  There’s some changes between them.  All dominator secondaries have some sort of move that boosts damage and the effectiveness of controls.  Guardians lack controls so they get buildup, or a buildup-like move instead.  Some powersets are shuffled up a bit, guardian electric assault trades off havoc punch and voltaic sentinel for chain induction and lightning rod.  Generally speaking a standard assault array for guardians is: 3 ranged attacks, 2 melee attacks, 1 cone, 1 PBAoE, buildup (or something similar), and one flex power (usually a sniper but might be a hard hitting melee move or a control or something else unique to make the set stand out).  There are exceptions, like with electricity, it keeps its sniper, has only two regular ranged attacks.  If we count lightning rod as it’s PBAoE then chain induction (Technically a melee move)  would be eating up one of its ranged slots.

Dark Assault
If you played this on a dominator you are familiar with it.  Only change is swapping gather shadows for buildup.  It has a sniper move, one of the three ranged attacks is life drain.  No it does not have shadow maul, now weep.  The -acc on the attacks means if you are stacking defense or have a defense based secondary you’ll have far better suviveability.  I generally slot that life drain for extra damage since I already have damage mitigation from my secondary, though you could slot it for healing if you prefer that.

Earth Assault
I haven’t used this one yet.  It has more melee moves then average at four and no sniper.  Instead of the usual cone it has a targeted AoE an a PBAoE.  One of those melee moves comes at the cost of mud pots which the dominator version has.

Electricity Assault
Already mentioned this one.  Its PBAoE doubles as a teleport (which is neat), and has chain induction on top of a cone attack.  This translates into more AoE options at the cost of melee.  It does have a sniper.

Energy Assault
Almost all in on single target attacks.  Only AOE at your disposal is whirling hands.  Almost the same powers as dominator except total focus and power burst swapped order.  I haven’t tried this one to verify but in general single target attacks are substantially more efficient then AoEs, so it should be less taxing on your energy then other sets when you go all out.
Fiery Assault
Trades in dominator’s consume for an extra melee attack.  If fire is your secondary you’ll have consume there.  Stacks up like a pretty standard assault attack set under guardian with the secondary effect being moar damage as things catch aflame.

Gun-Fu
A guardian only set that is absolute pain and misery in some ways for something that looks so cool.  It has an array of kicks and gunshots.  The kicks can be swapped for satisfying animations of thwacking your foe with your guns.  This set uses a weapon that must be drawn, which is where the pain and misery comes in.  Any time you use a melee attack, even though you keep your pistols out, using a pistol will force you to go through that pistol twirl animation again and again.  You’ll constantly be hitched up briefly on pistol draw animations, and while it’s faster then a lot of other weapon draw animations, the fact that it’s constantly happening makes it glaringly present in your mind.  And then there’s spinning kick, how I loathe thee.  Spinning kick is a melee cone attack.  So you would presume it takes a target, you presume wrong.  If you click it and there’s nothing in front of you, you just wasted endurance, which you’ll do often, when you misgauge enemy positions or have enemies move out of range when you use it or forget for the 100th time that it’s not targeted and click it assuming your character will turn and face the foe before sweeping the air like a derp.  That particular aspect is only useful in edge cases where you’re blind and you are flailing an AOE in front of you in hope of hitting a foe.  That said, crippling axe kick something and then crane kick it away and load it full of lead as it tries to get back into melee range, slowly.  That should lighten your mood.

Hellfire Assault
Ever look at the demon mastermind’s whip and think “I want to use that without the pets.”?  Now is your day.  There’s some whip moves, some fiery melee moves and some fiery ranged moves.  It almost shakes out to a standard array of guardian assault moves.  Instead of a sniper it has “Wrath of Hell”.  Using wrath of hell locks you into a rather long animation, if you hit with the attack the enemy will be held for the duration of that rather long animation and take heavy DOT.  If you miss your attack, you’ll still be locked into that animation and look like a fool while you leave yourself wide open.  Using this thing on foes agro to you and immune to holds, like bosses, is a dicey proposition, but a thing I will do on my hellfire/pain dom because she’s a bit crunchy.  Instead of buildup this set gets “soul searing”.  Soul searing instead of being a straight damage boost adds some toxic damage to all your attacks.  It lasts significantly longer then buildup and it still boosts your to-hit.  Given how fast it recharges I find myself using it a whole lot.

Icy Assault
While dominators get chilling embrace, guardians get bitter freeze ray.  This gives you a control option that can be flexed as an attack depending on your preference.  You get chilling embrace as part of your secondary powers if you choose ice for that, combined with the slowing aspects of this sets attacks and you can drive the enemy’s attack rate through the floor.  More or less a standard attack array for an assault set except the sniper attack is traded out for the hold that hits like a truck and leaves you wondering if you want to slot it for damage or control.

Kinetic Assault
I have not toyed with this one.  It looks much like a standard array for an assault set.  On top of various debuffs, these attacks generate stacks of impulse which you can cash in with whammy attacks to make them extra-whammy.  Without some hands on I can’t comment on how well that plays in practice.

Luminous Assault
Now you can attack with blasts of light without having space alien magic.  It’s more or less peace bringer attacks with the serial numbers filed off.  This takes the standard assault array and trades in the sniper for a melee hit.  It has -def and it has knock.  The knock might be more useful for keeping the foe from hammering into you, though the -def has some edge uses for those occasional foes that are evasive.

Mace Assault
Arachnos soldier mace fun without the arachnos soldier.  I haven’t toyed with this personally so I only know what’s on paper.  And what’s on paper is 3 melee strikes, a melee cone, a ranged cone, and a ranged AoE, two ranged shots, and your standard buildup with a whole lot of knock.

Martial Assault
This is a mix of shuriken and kicks.  It’s so odd it’ll throw you for a loop.  Of non-sniper single target attacks you have shuriken throw and thunder kick.  Exploding shuriken is sort of a single target attack, sort of, in a “the AOE is a side effect” sort of way.  Instead of buildup it has a longer lasting envenomed blades which adds toxic damage to your attacks.  You may think trick shot is a single target move, but it has endurance use and overall damage more like the AOE it is.  And then you have spinning kick, which if you came out of gun-fu would have you glancing at it suspiciously, but it actually behaves like a proper targeted cone when you use it, which leaves you looking at gun-fu spinning kick and going “Dammit!  Why can’t you be normal like martial spinning kick!”  And then there’s caltrops because you totally needed a slow movement over a darn single target attack.  Thing is AoE attacks are expensive to use.  So this powerset will leave you gasping for endurance, especially in the midgame.  It’s real hard to use without a team tossing you something to help keep your endurance topped.  In a team with large crowds though, you won’t have want for ways to mess up a crowd.  It’s more or less the exact same set as dominators get though, so if you played with that you know what to expect.

Military Asssault
I haven’t toyed with this one, but if it has the same weapon draw issues as gun-fu, we may have a problem.  It looks similar to a standard assault power array, except one of the ranged attacks has splash-as-a-side-effect.  Lot of lethal with -def as you’d expect from a blam blam.

Ninja Assault
The two ranged powers are thrown daggers.  Everything else is sword with a side order of caltrops.  I haven’t tried this one personally.  This means your AoEs consist of a cone slash, a PBAoE slash and caltrops.  No, you don’t get the +def attack, though a lot of the attacks have toxic DoT stapled to them.  It’s buildup is another non-standard one that converts some of your lethal damage into energy damage, which is handy against things like spooks.
Psionic Assault
I tried the dominator set for this a while back, so I had impressions based on that.  Glancing over this powerset though tells me that it’s greatly changed from the Dominator set and my experience with the dominator setup does not apply here.  Psionic dart hits harder and recharges slower.  Telekinetic thrust becomes the harder hitting telekinetic blow.  It boils down to the standard array of melee attacks and ranged attacks for guardian with the cone nad PBAoE.  One of the ranged attacks has a side effect of immobilize but its damage is heavy enough to use for offense.
Thorny Assault
Pretty much the same as the guardian version.  Right down to having aim instead of buildup.  Pretty standard array with the sniper power traded in for “thorntrops”.  It has been a while since I tinkered with thorn assault on a dominator, but I recall it being rather satisfying.

Secondary Powersets
This is where the unique flavor kicks in.  Guardian secondaries are a hybridization of tanker/scraper/brute/stalker defense powers with powers with support.  Almost every guardian support power is designed in a way to be beneficial to the guardian, this means you aren’t sacrificing solo utility for your ability to support.  Anything you do to benefit you teammates you benefit yourself.  There are exceptions, like some resurrect powers.  Generally speaking you are about as tanky as a VEAT really, though by combining your support powers and defense powers the right way some really potent combos can happen.

Atmospheric Composition
So what you are looking at is a bad time endurance wise until level 35, and then you are unstoppable.  It’s a mix of electric armor and storm support moves.  You lack the traditional electric fire/cold toggle, only having some resistance from grounding.  Steamy mist will have to be used to cover the rest if you want full blanket.  This set gives broad range status protection, including confusion.  Your immobilization and knock protection are stapled to grounding, which means interesting things may happen in the brief moments your feet ever leave the ground.  You want to favor super speed on this.  Mass energize gives you some endurance discount, it’s not much, but until you get power sink it lets you fill the gap.  Once you get power sink that combined with mass energize will cover your endurance nicely.  Pay attention to gale winds, it isn’t just a knockback, the guardian version stuns sub-lt enemies, great thing to hammer enemies with to keep the riffraff from fighting.  Aim for a wall to keep them off balance.  Save snow storm for real rough fights until you get your endurance situation sorted.  Freezing rain is god.  It makes the damage go up, especially in a team, it not only makes the enemy sprawl all over, it debuffs their resistance which means more damage.  Use it early and often.   Since this set isn’t strong on self healing (mass energize has a hella cooldown) you get to play with more damage resistance then any other guardian set.  THis is pretty rock solid if you can keep the endurance situation under control.

Dark Composition
Anyone who is familiar with darkness sets knows where this will likely go.  You got the main defensive toggles from dark’s defensive set combined with the excellent shadow heal: Twilight Grasp.  It has a long windup and might miss, but it heals harder.  Anticipate missed heals, always start healing yourself (and yourself) early enough that you can suffer a missed heal, because if you miss as a guardian you got a hell of a wait.  You get tarpatch at level 4.  That debuffs resistance which is always a good time.  You want that thing firing off early and often.  You do NOT have knock resistance, but you do have fear resistance.  You’ll be gasping for endurance until level 35 when you get soul absorption, at which point it’s going to be your new favorite power.  You do get the ever-so-versatile howling twilight at level 38 which is a mass disorient that hits hard that also raises anyone around you.  In combat you’re going to be largely debuffing enemy resistances, which occasionally harrying them with cloak of fear and twilight as necessary.  You lack knockback resistance.  Have fun with that.

Energy Composition
On the surface this is a energy armor combined up with kinetics.  I haven’t tinkered with this so I cannot comment on it strongly.  There’s no speed boost power, but you get an endurance boosting move at level 35.  Also you get mass energize at level 20 much like storm composition.  I imagine the endurance situation is going to be rather similar to Storms.  You get siphon power and fulcrum flip, which means if the enemy rolls a nat 20 when hitting you, at least they won’t hit has hard.  Status resistances does include knockback, which is always nice.  Weird stuff like fear and confusion aren’t covered but that’s situational.  You do get slow resistance, so those artemis mercs can suck a lemon.

Feiry Composition
Much like a fire tank your resistances aren’t so hot (pun not intended).  But like a fire tank you got a healy clicky, except yours is the AOE soothing flames, and it will heal everyone around you at the time.  You don’t have immolate so you can’t cancel immobilization, so yes, this is a powerset that lacks not only knockbacl resistance but also immobilize.  You get rooted your life sucks.  Do you get fringe resistances like fear or confusion?  Hell no.  Not even slow resistance.  Let’s face it Feiry composition’s status resistances ABJECTLY SUCK.  So you may be asking what this has that makes it worthwhile?  Well, it has a PBAoE Reforge (+damage +tohit), that’s nice.  Cooldown is much longer to make up for the fact that it’s not single target.  I find it’s much like having a second buildup… that buffs the whole team.  You get consume, which handles the endurance situation very nicely at the low low level of 16.  You can stack that with melt armor to debuff foe resistance and defense, heat exhaustion keeps their regeneration down.  This makes sure those big nasty bosses melt nicely.   The level 38 power is neat, it’s a PBAoE disorienting Rez, you can even use it when defeated to self-rez while simultaneously raising everyone around you.  You’d be practically unstoppable… until someone uses an immobilize on you.

Force Composition
What if invulnerability but force field too?  It’s an interesting concept. I haven't tried it but I am tempted to.  Actually the only real invuln power you get is Temp Invulnerability.  The rest are force-specific stuff that gives various damage resistances, and then dispersion bubble giving the status protection and some defense.  You got a max HP buff that’s team-wide and various shield shenanigans like repulsion bomb and suppresions feirce and a stunning force bolt.  WHile smashing lethal is resistance gets stacked up, pretty much everything else doesn’t get near as solid a boost.  Being as I haven’t tried this one yet I’m unsure how that pans out to taking non-physical abuse.  YOu do not get knofckback resistance or any esoteric status protections, but you do provide AOE status protection, which every squishy can appreciate.

Ice Composition
As you might expect it’s a lot of the cold domination powers mixed with ice armor.  Your only heal is a team-wide max HP buff, so you’ll be leaning heavily into the debuffs.  Like ice armor you got very solid status resistances including nice slow resistance and a perception buff allowing you to laugh off smoke grenades to the face.  You also have ice armor’s chilling embrace, which is a nice solid attack speed debuff coupled with a damage debuff.  You got a team-wide stealth/defense/resistance aura in the form of arctc fog (which I ended up slotting for resistance to keep my fire/ice resistance viable).  What really makes this set sing is sleet, which debuffs enemy resistance and defense while leaving them tripping all over themselves.   Big problem is this powerset is a SERIOUS energy hog and will be until level 38 when you get heat loss.  Heat loss is going to require you to be near the target (and the team too) to benefit from it the most.  In fact chilling embrace wants you in close to your target to hinder them the most.  As an ice guardian you pretty much want to be up close in melee range, smothering the enemy with your debuffing aura.  Except getting up in there carelessly can get you flattened.  It’s pretty fun and satisfying to pull off.

Infiltrator Training
I had so many endurance problems with this set.  I have caused an absolute amount of chaos, and also had a ton of infuriating deaths when the enemy rolled a nat20 with a hard hitting attack, obliterating me.  It’s a mix of ninjutsu powers and traps and web grenade… at least it has an attack speed debuff I suppose.  You lack knockback protection, but you do pick up confuse and fear protection in its place as well as a perception buff, so it’s a pretty fair trade.  Your stealth toggle is odd in that it gives an endurance discount and a pretty solid regen boost.  Traps take getting used to.  You waste so much time deploying them and leave yourself wide open.  Though some of them, like the poison trap, can be surprisingly incapacitating to things that resist most other controls.

Organic Composition
You know all that stuff I said about guardians having endurance problems?  That doesn’t apply here.  Inexhaustible has you covered, and if you get your endurance handled better you can shift some of those slots in it off to healing instead.  It’s a versatile little move with slow resistance and END DRAIN resistance.  Even then you get DNA siphon which can kick over more endurance at 28, which is lower then the level 35 most other secondaries get their succor at.  You can see why this powerset is a pretty easy one to work with… also it has knock resistance.  To top it off one of your toggles is a -res debuff.  The only real “drawback” is this powerset doesn’t debuff resistance as heavily as some of the other ones, though you get overgrowth at level 38 which you can use to boost damage for the team.  Your heal is a non-targeted cone, so get used to manually aiming your heals.  It’s a very solid and easy to work with set, one of the better guardian sets, especially if you want to lean more into defensive and do solo shenanigans.

Pain Focusing
Willpower meets pain domination and let me tell you it is Damn.  Glorious.  You get quick recovery at level 4 and you pretty much won’t have much in the way of endurance problems after that.  Suppress pain will generate more Heal per second then spamming your nullify pain, so once you get that aura just keep it up.  You got nice rock solid defense against a wide variety of things, toxic is your main defensive hole. You got knockback resist AND repel resist, AND confuse and fear resist.  Oh yeah, you have boosted perception too.  Oh yeah, you can ignore placates too with world of pain.  This powerset is unstoppable.  Want to do damage?  Anguishing cry has you covered.  Only real “drawback” and it’s a weak drawback is it’s raise isn’t useful in solo play, but with everything else you got going for you with this set you’ll scarcely notice the issue.  My level 50 pain focuser has world of pain up 24/7 without having to resort to haste, that extra resistance and damage stacked on top of anguishing cries (enhanced with the witchcraft debuff) means I can cause atrocious amounts of damage, and if I’m in a team, the entire team is doing that atrocious damage too.  This is one of the best secondaries, you’ll be hard pressed to find a downside.  Since your regen is rather high with this set, stacking max hp buffs when slotting can be awfully gainful.  Good recharge goes without saying.

Radiation Composition
Radiation armor meats radiation healing.  Since you ahve a PBAoE heal your defense is going to be a little soft, expecting you to use your healing and particle shielding to weather assaults.  This does have knock resistance as well as slow resistance.  Like the rad defenders you got accelerate metabolism, and like a rad defender you’re going to want to min-max as keeping this thing up as much as possible, likely snagging hasten in the process.  You have one of the rad defender debuff toggles, and fortunately it’s the -def -res one, so you can use that ot help make things fall over faster.  Play your cards right with that and ground-zero and you might actually leave things that become infuriatingly hard to hit like wounded paragon protectors, actually vulnerable. 

Reconstructive Healing
Empathy meets regen.  This is by far the most unique set.  The regen gives you resilience and integration and a self-rez.  The empathy gives you recovery aura, regeneration aura, and a PBAoE version of fortitude, all 3 of which you’ll want to min-max to keep up as much as possible (yet another set that loves hasten).   Defensively it sort of plays like a regen powerset with one unique twist:  Pain absorption.  The first time you use pain absorption it eats up some endurance and gives you some damage absorption and a buff to regeneration and incoming healing.  It also is immediately reusable.  But using it a second time increases the endurance cost but increases the potency of the absorb shield and regen.  You can tap it up to 3 times at extreme endurance cost to give yourself an extremely strong absorb shield and enough regen tank an awful lot of things with only a couple small purples.  My recon guardian has pretty much gone toe to toe with a ton of preatorians in EB mode and flattened them rather handily thanks to that.  This powerset requires you to be very pro-active about your defenses.  You can’t just wade into a rough fight and survive like other sets, you need to anticipate when it’s going to get rough and tap pain absorption the right amount of times to match the inbound pain.  You may wish to just give it occasionally weak taps so it’s there when you need it, or just go all in 3 levels (putting it into proper cooldown) to weather a hard hitting assault.  Stack enough recharge buffs and you might be able to keep those auras up most of the time, and since one of those auras is a PBAoE fortitude, that’s a serious boon.

Stone Composition
One half of this is stone armor.  The other half is rather unique stone support moves.  I haven’t used this, but it’s got a few interesting things, such as a PBAoE absorb power instead of a heal, quicksand, earthquakes, and eruption.  There’s a lot of -def and eruption boasts some -res from eruption.  Leans heavier into debuffs.  I’d have to tinker with this more to see how it works.  I don’t see a lot of endurance management in it at a glance, it does have knock protection on top of some confuse protection with some +perc, making it almost as good as ice in the status effect resistance game.

Temporal Reaction
Another one I haven’t touched.  Mixes super reflexes with time shenanigans.  Chronoshift at level 38 is the endurance mitigation move, so prepare to suffer until late levels.  No healing, so it’s all on your defenses and damage mitigation.  Would need to try it to get a more solid opinion.

Gameplay
Expect to suffer on the endurance front, a lot.  At later levels you become feirce once you get your endurance under control.  It can be an awful fun archetype.  Almost every secondary has some sort of shenanigan that boosts damage, allowing you to do respectable damage.

You can fill multiple gaps in the team.  If the team's staying alive well, focus on attacking and using moves that amplify damage.  If the team is taking a beating stick near the squishier people and use whatever you can to mitigate damage.  If you want an easy first go, then go for organic or pain, they won't sucker-punch you for endurance and give solid resistances and buffs.  Pain focusing can be especially terrifying because it boosts damage and debuffs resistance for a one two punch of absolute pain.

6
At least you didn't roll a martial infiltrator.

I got a level 38 Rad/Rad Guard.  It's painful.  But I got it off the ground eventually.  6 slot accelerate metabolism for endurance mod and recharge.  Get haste, six slot that for recharge.  Now try to keep AM up as often as possible.  It'll keep your endurance.  Accelerate metabolism is the difference between me getting 2.47 end/sec vs 3.47 end a sec.  That's a 40% increase on my endurance recovery right there.  That an Enervating field isn't your friend, at .79 end/sec it drains more out of you then all your toggles combined.

It's an energy hungry set, .59 end/sec for me with some end reduction.  infiltrator is forty something with no endurance recoup option.  Fire by far is the best so far for endurance, only 2 toggles demanding .39 end/sec out of me AND I get an endurance recovery move EARLY.

I don't like when the answer given is "get it really high level and slot it with IO sets."  Not everyone wants to be carried to level 50 via a flame farm, nor does everyone has resources for that stuff off the bat.  New players are perpetually starved for resources, if they try a guardian first thing and the wrong set of powers they are just in for a punishing experience without knowing what they are getting into.

7
Having toyed around with warhsade some and a thought came to me.

So:  Gravitic Emanation, Gravimetric Snare, and Gravity well all share a feature insomuch that they are control powers in human form but damage powers in another form.

This can create a mild issue because stuff like Gravitic Emanation do atrocious damage in human form but great damage in nova form.

So now I need to choose between making the power useful to my nova or my human when previous I could slot two things independently (WHich was more of a curse then a blessing)

I really like where you went with the combining powers up but I think a single tweak can make this a lot more happier by allowing us the combined powers and allowing us to slot for control without nerfing other forms:

When calculating the enhanced damage of one of the 3 above powers in non-human form: take the higher of the control multiplier or the damage multiplier and use that.  Do not stack them.

Exmaple:  Let' say I got gravity well.  I got it slotted for 1.75x hold duration.  In human form the hold duration is 1.75x but when I swap to dwarf form it's damage gets a 1.75x multiplier.  If I franken slot it and get 1.4x damage and 1.3x hold, I'll only get 1.4x damage in dwarf form

8
AE/Mission Architect / Re: Want Dev's choice for your AE?
« on: October 17, 2021, 12:58:15 pm »
Oh!  I wish I had seen this topic sooner. 

894 The bone fiend.  Though this might have already been mentioned to El Bee.  I was aiming for a lowbie friendly arc.  I managed to bonk the EB at the end with a level 16 guardian. 

Map 3 still vaguely annoys me.  (I originally wanted it to be a "walk up to a NPC talk to them and then shit happens" mission but AE doesn't seem to have that as an option that I can see.")

9
Tech Issues / Re: Sunrise Launcher issue
« on: October 16, 2021, 12:02:04 pm »
I installed the Sunrise launcher last night, and it works fine. Until I shut down or restart my computer, that is. Every time I do that it clears everything out. Is there a way to make the manifest and everything STAY?

Where are you installing it?

10
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/579233316688101403/896221336257585152/unknown.png

Picture is worth a thousand words.  I wanted to make an IO stun duration enhancement and it took me a while to realize it was in "staggering burst"

11
Now, combat logs could be lying to me (which would in itself be a bug) but hellfire assault's "Wrath of Hell" is dealing energy damage by its claims.  The short and detailed description of the power, however, indicates it deals fire damage.

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