Reptilor on Triumph

Well, as a change of pace I generated a new "teaming" character to fool around with on Triumph. I re-used the name Reptilor from Freedom, but with a decidely different twist.

The "new" Reptilor is a Kinetics/Electrical Blast Defender. He's all duded up in a tuxedo with a scarlet vest and matching bow tie. His body is slim for a neat tailored effect, but his skin is green reptilian with a matching smooth reptilian face with dull red eyes. He also sports a small beard to accent his mouthless face. Capping it all off is a black and gold Youjin headband with matching gold crystal crown and vampire ears. Overall, the effect is exotically formal and yet arcane at the same time. Which was exactly what I was going for with his Magic origin. The little light RP I throw in has him as a bit formal with an extensive vocabulary and some dry humor.



This is my first exposure to Kinetics, and frankly, I'm impressed and underwhelmed at the same time. Some of the base powers are absolutely great for teams. Transfusion is a targeted AoE heal centered around the enemy you hit. You need to hit to use it, but it's a STRONG heal. Siphon Power is also great, as it debuffs target damage by 25% and raises team damage (for everyone) by the same 25%. Coupled with Assault that I have running (18.75% damage buff), the team is routinely running with just shy of a 44% damage boost. It's significant and turns Tanks into damage dealers and Scrappers and Blasters just go nuts. Aside from those and the coming "big powers", SpeedBoost, Transference, and Fulcrum Shift... Well, I'm a little underwhelmed.

The set has two powers that are basically ghetto travel power replacement: Siphon Speed (aka SuperSpeed Lite) and Inertial Reduction (aka SuperJump Lite). Increase Density is a nice buff, but is really short so you have to constantly re-apply it. And Repel... Well, Repel is just crap, IMHO. That means out of your 9 powers, 3 are gimp, 1 is "meh", and 5 are good. The flip side of this is that since the "big 5" are so good, it gives some room to dip into the leadership pool without gimping your attacks completely.

Reptilor is now Level 9 and a potent force on the teams he invariably forms. Being a weak soloer, forming a team is the easiest way for him to get that XP bar moving. At Level 9, he's got Transfusion and Siphon Power slotted up. Attacks are Charged Bolt and Lightning Bolt for a 1-2 single target attack chain. I've held off on getting Ball Lightning since I don't want the aggro it generates until I get a bit higher. Pool powers are Combat Jumping and Assault so far. CJ provides some extra mobility and immobilization protection, which is good because I need to keep moving to keep my heals in-range of the team. Future power selections under consideration are Hasten at Level 1o, Speed Boost at Level 12, SuperSpeed (or SuperJump) at Level 14, Swift at Level 16, Health at Level 18, Stamina at Level 20, Ball Lightning at Level 22, Tactics at Level 24, Transference at Level 26, and Tesla Cage at Level 28... And so on.

I decided to go with Electrical Blast as a secondary because of the nice range and 30% chance for endurance return on the attacks. Currently I can spam both attacks and buffs non-stop without completely draining my Endurance bar. Once I grab Stamina and have Hasten running on auto, the secondary should give me margin to really go nuts with the primary. I'm designing the build to be essentially an offense magnifier for the team with stacking damage buffs, enemy debuffs, and better to-hits (Tactics).

The build is still developing, and I'm sure it will change as I get deeper into the power combination. That said, the character hook and the offensive nature of the Defender (a bit of an Oxymoron there, I know) make for a very interesting experience. We'll have to see how he develops. Oh, and Troy was able to invite him into the SG, so he's out racking up Prestige as well. Good times...