Does pulse wave ignore the effects of defense powers like invul and tough and imp

Yes it does. It ignores ALL powers and TA's. Including Stealth, imperv, Invuln, Toughness, and any other power or team ability.

Yes, it ignores ALL powers of figs within range of the attack.

ok thanks guys

so the only diffrence from pulse wave and physcic blast is it only does one damage?

PB only ignores toughness, invulnerability and impervious. Pulse wave ignores everything: Super senses, stealth, batman team ability, skrull TA, etc. Pulse wave does 1 damage to every fig within half the printed range if there are multiple figs in range. If only 1 fig is in range it does the full damage to that fig.

thx

Can pulse wave be used if an opposing figure is adjacent to you? Or does it have to be a ranged attack?

PW is a Ranged Combat Action, so if the PWer is a non-flyer and is adjacent to an opposing non-flyer, he cannot use PW. Otherwise, he can.

I posted this in another Pulse Wave thread. I think this helps explain from a rules standpoint why you cannot use Pulse Wave in close combat:

The Rules state about taking a ranged combat action:

"If the range value is greater than 0 and your character is not in base contact with an opposing character, then you may give your character a ranged combat action."

However, Pulse Wave states:

"These lines of fire are not blocked by character bases"

You might think by reading this that Pulse Wave is exempt from the limitations of base contact.

However, reading more carefully, you'll see that Pulse Wave only makes reference to lines of fire being BLOCKED by bases. The Rules state you can't take a ranged combat action if you are in base contact. The wording of pulse wave does nothing to nullify that aspect of it. Therefore, according to how I read it anyway, you cannot use Pulse Wave when in base contact with an opposing figure.

(Flyers are never considered to be in base contact for the purposes of ranged combat actions.)