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"The mind wanders, and that's never a good idea for someone like me." -- Psi-Clone
Also regarding PC's journal entries, Syn and Hype (well, their players) are having great fun trying to figure out what the hell Psi-Clone's "project" is, who the bad guys and good guys are... veddy interesting).
Her: Did I just miss something, or has he not explained this?
Me: He hasn't explained this -- we need to tie him down and get some answers.
Powers
F/X for all Sonic Resonance and Sonic Blast buffs and debuffs toned down. Many players complained of discomfort caused by these F/X. These will be further toned down in a future patch based on customer feedback.
Tasks
Fixed a bug that could cause a Contact to start a player on a Story Arc without giving them a mission.
Stores
The new Damage Resistance Inspirations can now be purchased in stores.
Game
Fixed a bug that caused sound to loop repeatedly and eventually crashed the game client.
City of Heroes - Online Badge Tracker
Very cool.
As noted here (RandomWiki | CityOfHeroes / Home Page), Hype dinged 45 in the last week and Strat dinged both 31 and 32.
I pretty much didn't play anyone else, and of those two characters, Strat certainly got the lion's share of the play time, due to (1) his partner getting an incredibly cool 'three-days only!' temp power in Croatoa [Rune of Warding] (2) Strat getting a different 3-days-only Croatoa power [cold-iron sword] (3) Strat getting the Nemesis Lollipop (another 3-days-only-power). 32's a big level, since it means you get the 'biggest' power in your main power set (the horribly mis-named Eagle Claw), and you can upgrade to level 35 enhancements for all your powers.
Strat dinged 32 about 15 minutes after wrapping up the Croatoa Task Force on Saturday which I think I like a whole bunch -- it's short, it's to the point, and if you've played through all the OTHER Croatoa content, there's a REAL sense of closure and finally getting to see behind the scenes a bit. Much fun. One bitch: the badge-mission in the TF is buggy, so getting "Ten Times the Victor" doesn't always happen. Upside: that's the first mission in the TF, and it's good XP, so... not like you can just start over and try it again.
Croatoa in general is a very cool and well-done zone -- a couple of the missions are REAL ball-busters, which I really respect.
I mean... REAL ball-busters -- there's one where...
Oy.
Suffice it to say that there are two missions in the Croatoa arc that I, personally, think you should get frigging BADGES for, if you complete them successfully. They are HARD. The first one (defend the gate) is easily as challenging as the Terra Volta Trial. Eaaaasily.
Badges: Only badge from Croatoa Strat doesn't have yet is the Ghost badge -- mostly because there aren't many Ghost missions... the other badges you'll probably get just in the process of running the Zone's content, which I highly recommend in any case.
Speaking of Badges, Hype and Syn got the Unveilder badge Sunday night, realized we'd missed a History plaque for the "Authority" badge and, with that, finally got the "Freedom Phalanx Reserve" Accolade power... which brought Hype over the 2000 hit point mark. (2009) Syn's up over a thousand.
Probably won't reroll Strat -- I got to thinking about it this week and he's just to tactile and physical of a character not to keep as a scrapper.
Looking forward to some interesting character stuff with him this weekend when he finds out he can't finagle the security clearance to get where he needs to go to help rescue Sabrina.
When are folks going to be on CoH this weekend?
We should do something.
Forums are down (brought down by ip spammers that seem to follow the same 'work' schedule as wiki-spammers), and suddenly I'm terrified that I'll loose all the stuff I posted in the last couple days.
Damn. Need to start saving backups here or in the wiki.
Vigilance is not about being a good or bad Defender. Its about giving you that extra help when your teammates need it most. It is there for those low to mid level Defenders who have to defend a large team on their own. Vigilance should also reduce the need for powers like Stamina. It should also reduce the need for Endurance Discount Enhancements, allowing the Defender more slotting options. It will help you resurrect that defeated teammate, or use that mega power and not have to wait until you have enough Endurance. Its about ensuring you can cast your Twilight Grasp when your team is surrounded and you have used all your Endurance casting Tenebrous Tentacles. Its about ensuring that your Dispersion Bubble wont fall because you left Sprint on.
It's all Well-said. Damn near poignant
Dunno if I agree with him, but it helps me not dislike the power. I only hate that it does nothing when you're not teamed up.
Ironically, it seems as though Syn's had more endurance issues in the last couple days than before, but I think that's a combination of (a) dinging and having all our enhancements go white and (b) Hype never really letting his health get low.
Added a CoH category to the Blog entry posts so as to break it out from the more generic 'supers' category.
Said CoH category already had more entries in it than any other category besides Game Design and Links (not even close) -- even a few more than Actual Play.
Hmm.
Last night: Hype and Syn team up with a bunch of Storm Knights, including the Baron.
This morning: The Baron posts a comment in the forum saying "damn, we need to get us some tanks."
That... felt good. :) ((So good, in fact, I couldn't resist ruining the thread by posting to it. :P))
How to go about getting the Knight Errant badge.
To get the badge, you have to stop the Paladin *before* the Clockworks build him.
First, you need to park and watch the spawn points. They're marked accurately on the Vidiotmaps map, but there's a rough approximation here.
Hang around the spawn points as much as possible. Sooner or later (probably later -- watch the area in pairs with folks or a team you like to RP with, and be prepared to chat while you wait), you will see a mass migration of Clockwork toward one of these points.
Follow the clocks to their construction site. You'll see them building a giant robot. That's the Paladin. Now then, you either:
1: Keep blasting the Paladin and hope you live.
2: Thin out the Clocks so they can't finish the job.
You don't have to do it yourself. Just do your part with team, and if the Clocks give up trying to build it with you around to wreck things, you get the badge. It usually takes about 10 minutes of solid clock-punching.
I can, incidentally, think of any number of characters of mine who'd like this badge.
Got Shade Dancer to 14, got a new power, promptly got her killed twice, messing around with it (two Quantum gunners in one mission? Oy).
Got kinda close to 31 with Strat and decided to push through and ding -- got into an outdoor mission in Croatoa that redlined deadlined him twice within seconds -- like, "too fast to react" fast. Against only five yellow minions, and I had backup. Frustrating. Especially since Strat really doesn't get leveled (or level) very often.
Game, interfering with story -- I like the mortality of Strat -- I like that he's a 'normal' guy with nothing but a good mind and training on his side: it makes the inherent squishiness of Super Reflexes and the annoying Endurance problems of Martial Arts... bearable.
Barely. Only Barely.
I like the idea of a bomb-defusing mission going wrong and nearly killing him, making it impossible for him to continue in a frontline, scrapper role. Remaking him as an TA/Archery Defender would be fun and interesting. (I suggested something similar to Patriot One awhile ago -- since P1 as a tank is frustrating, having Gideon rebuild the armor to accomplish different Tasks and rerolling him as whatever.)
But the game's in the way. I'd want to get strat up to a point where he could still team with the same folks, which means seriously intensive play as Strat until he got up into the 20's again. The intensive RP I can deal with -- the intensively compressed gameplay... eh.
Could I do it? Sure. Do I want to take that kind of time away from other characters and RP? No. Could I get some folks to PL him up there in about one day? Sure. Would I be willing to give that kind of example to the rest of the Phalanx? No.
Which means I probably won't do it, which kinda sucks.
I've tried to email this to folks, but it's not working so... if you want an updated file for CoH Planner that actually shows you the I5 numbers for their Shields and for Dwarf Form...
1. Right-click on this link: Kheldian Hack
2. Save-file-as kheldian.txt into your coh_planner_normal\at_data directory, wherever that is.
3. Start up the Planner. That's it. You might need to delete an enhancement off of a power and then add it back in to get the numbers to change, but they will.
Positron TF, Cavern of Transcendance Trial, and (most recently) a night of kicking the asses of a number of the Praetorian Arch-Villains. Most of those three things took place with a number of the same participants.
It's been a good week. :)
You know those test-server changes I mentioned yesterday?
Looks like some of them are already in on Live, TODAY. (Vigilance for Defenders (a power Syn will probably NEVER use and Scorp will use all the time :) ), and the new (orange) Resistance Inspirations).
Wow.
I mean... WOW that's fast.
Blizzard recently added the Zul'Gurub instance to the game, where Hakkar, the god of blood, uses a devastating disease attack on anyone who dares fight him. Seeing as how it's a disease and most diseases are contagious, it shouldn't be shocking when some players come back and haven't been cured.And that's exactly what's happened. Players are returning from this instance to towns with the diseases, spreading it, and Blizzard's in a panic to keep things under control. GM's have started to quarantine players in an effort to control the spreading, but players keep leaving the quarantine areas. Unless you're above level 50, you more or less immediately fall over dead from the disease.
There hasn't been a patch to stop the plague, but here's to hoping Blizzard doesn't actually cop out and simply eliminate the virus from the world; this is one of the reasons massively multiplayer online videogames are so cool!
I have to agree: this is pretty cool. :) I love it when semi-smart programs hand you something you built that turns into something you didn't. It's awesome.
So I've got this thing that one of my newer characters does... a little 'emote' that establishes the character -- the cat-petting thing, for those of you who've seen it.
Yeah. Did it in a group with some alliance folks, including someone with a very similar powerset to my character.
About a week later, did it with a friend of mine who said "did you make that up?"
I said yeah, they said "Oh, so and so (the person with the same powerset) is doing that... I was wondering where they got the idea."
Me, apparently.
So, today... I notice a new character application that...
Well, let's say there's a lot similarities to another character background of mine -- which, to put it lightly, has happened before.
I mean...
... feh. Nevermind. Just bitching, I guess.
Now Testing in the Training Room
Link has the full list as of 9/16. Below, stuff I actually care about:
* Acrobatics had a bug in which for 1/4 of a second it offered no knockback resistance. This has been corrected.
I was wondering about that.
Added Damage Resistance Inspirations (Reduces the damage you take from an attack). 50% of defensive Inspirations that drop will be the old Defense (avoid getting hit) Inspirations, and 50% will be the new Damage Resistance Inspiration.
Huh. Very cool. I like that.
Now if there was only an attack rate inspiration... :)
Made several changes to the Force Field powersets for Defenders and Controllers:
Deflection Field now has Defense to Melee attacks, in addition to its old effects.
Insulation Field now has Defense to Ranged attacks, in addition to its old effects
Dispersion Bubble now has Defense to Area of Effect attacks, in addition to its old effects
... which means it stacks up properly with SuperReflexes (it didn't really do it right before).
Added new inherent power to Defenders: Vigilance. As a Defenders teammates lose Health, the Defender gains an Endurance Discount.
Which, as Jackie and Scorp both commented, means you get a benefit from doing your job sloppy. Meh.
Reduced duration of XP Debt protection in Resurrect Powers.
Huh.
Peacebringer Quantum Flight will now impose a growing Endurance Penalty after 45 seconds of use.
Yeah... they already killed off Phase Shift, and this was super-phase-shift, so... yeah.
And this pisses me off... The Kheldian's got a much more elegant "solution" than the stupid 'toggle that only works for 30 seconds' thing they did with Phase shift.
Grrrrr...
Warshade Nebulous Form will disable after 60 seconds.
I spoke too soon. I wonder if one team fixed the PBR code, and the same moron that 'fixed' Phase Shift worked on the Warshade power. :P
Reduced recharge time of Rest.
My Pre-20 characters will be happy.
Psychic Blast/Subdue: Increased Damage, Decreased its Recharge and Endurance Cost.
Huh. A much-maligned power, getting some love. Cool.
Crotoa: fixed holes in geometry
See, now... that one just sounds interesting.
As noted in the week summary, I ran Positron with a total of six folks this weekend. Here's a few notes:
* Length & Content: Positron's TF is often listed as one of those early-on "this takes forever" task forces. Well... maybe. Yeah, it's 16 missions. Yes, a lot of the 'core 6' TF's are closer to 12...
But come on. Four of the 'missions' are Fed-ex runs with only one ambush between the lot of em. Another mission is a three-point patrol that takes about five minutes, tops.
That leaves eleven actual missions, and of those 11, SIX of them can be largely bypassed with a sneaky character with recall friend. It's honestly one of my favorite TF's: You need only three people to get the thing going, the storyline is actually really great, captures the feeling of Paragon City really well, and is at times very funny, and the lack of an Arch Villian at the end (seen by some as a downside), just makes the whole thing more user-friendly to me.
* Difficulty: I recommend keeping the size of the group at five or under: once you get to six, the size of groups in the missions can get pretty damn diffulcult to manage. Our group this weekend had six, and we hit a couple points where Intuition (Illusion Controller) had to spend quite a bit of time Deceiving the group to thin stuff out to a bearable level before we could proceed with anything decent odds.
Of course, on top of that, the first two missions (ESPECIALLY the SECOND ONE) are ball-busters designed to test your resolve, and they've made the second one even harder with the change to missions in I5 (more on that in a sec), and the last four missions are all defeat-alls... so it's rough at times. I think that's good.
* Changes:
First one: This TF is now max-level-15, not 16. As soon as you ding up to 16, you switch to auto-exemp mode and stay at 15, the same as what happens in all of the TFs now. People thought it was a bug in Posi, cuz the level limit on Posi used to be 16, but that's not the case.
I only noticed one actual mission change, Issue Five stuff incorporated into the second mission of the TF. Now, the second mission is already a horrowshow -- a FEMA office building overrun (and I mean OVERRUN) with Circle of Thorns... mostly the damn ghosts that screw with your to-hits... Oy. It's nasty. Even Hype and Syn had a few problems with this one, and I don't say that often.
You have to get through the mission, hit the boss, and find the two hostages. It's theoretically (and practically) stealthable, in that you can just hit the boss, his cadre, and two sets of Hostage guards. There are FLOORS AND FLOORS of baddies, so stealth is even to be recommended. In any case, skip as much as you can (even an invis person with no Recall Friend can still scout and tell you what can be skipped).
Anyway... the new feature? Yeah... well...
They changed things so you have to escort the two hostages TO THE FRONT DOOR.
Past all the guys you skipped. Yeah.
In our case, what worked was giving Epitaph some Luck Inspirations, hulking him up with buffs and shields, flipping on his Negative Energy Resistance powers, and just making an end-run for the exit, hostage in tow. He got smacked pretty hard, but he made it both times - hostages dont' LIKE to run screaming past (or through) mobs of baddies, but if you stay close to them, they'll stick it out. Your mileage may vary.
* Conclusion: I like this TF. I respect this TF. The missions are varied with lots of different ways to beat them, they use lots of different maps, and the mix of three factions keeps things from getting boring.
Compare that to the often-praised Synapse TF, with 17 missions that are almost 100% defeat-all, with nothing but clockwork, usually in warehouses. Yawwwwwwn. If it weren't for Babbage and the Clockwork King... meh.
And, below the cut, a spoiler-riffic checklist of the tasks in the Task Force
1. Defeat Epidural and Guards (Door: Sewer - Vahzilok -- Stealthable)
2. Defeat Rollister and His Cadre, escort two Hostages to the Door (Door: Office - Circle of Thorns -- Stealthable)
3. Defeat All Clockwork in Office (Door: Office - Clockwork)
4. Stop Chief Mage and His Guards (Door: Cave - Circle of Thorns -- Stealthable)
5. Deliver Book to Azuria (Errand -- anyone can do it)
6. Stop Dr. Morben and His Minions (Door: Office - Vahzilok -- Stealthable)
7. Stop Robot Boss and His Guards (Door: Warehouse - Clockwork -- Stealthable)
8. See Paula Dempsey in Kings Row (Errand -- -- anyone can do it)
(You get the 'call' button about here)
9. See Azuria in Atlas Park (Errand -- anyone can do it)
10. Return to Positron (Errand -- you have a call button, but you have to go there)
11. Stop Zombie Boss and His Guards (Door: Office - Vahzilok -- Stealthable)
12. Patrol Perez Park (Patrol)
13. Defeat All Villains in Office (Door: Office – Clockwork & Vahzilok)
14. Defeat All Mystics in Base (Door: Cave – Circle of Thorns & Clockwork)
15. Defeat All Villains in Sewer (Door: Sewer – Vahzilok & Circle of Thorns)
16. Defeat All Villains in Substation (Door: Lab – All 3 Types)
Short version:
Lee (War Bones, Invul/Mace Tank, Freedom Phalanx -- formerly Hushman/Cap'n Carnage/etc) has the Cavern of Transcendance Trial and wants to run it. Forum's down, so I'm posting it here:
I cannot recommend this enough: with the people that we already have in this thing, we have the tools and player-skill necessary to own this thing, so what you're signing up for is two hours of fun. I learned literally every good (and bad :) trick I know about tanking from Lee, and he's also a funny bastard... I'm glad he's back in the game.
When: Weeknight. I want to be aggressive and say "Monday Night, 8pm EDT, 6pm CDT." If that doesn't work, then Tuesday, same time.
Who:
1. War Bones, Invul Tank (I get to point and laugh at all the fire damage he's taking! woo!)
2. Epitaph, Peacebringer Blapper
3. Intuition, Illusion/Kinetics Controller (Int has Superior Invis and Recall Friend, the one-two punch that will pwn this Trial.)
4. Either Fencing Muse (scrapper) or Midnite Tempest (dark/kin defender), depending on what we need.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Sign up in the comments, folks. (And lemme know if Monday or Tuesday works better.)
NOW! DO IT! :)
As noted on RandomWiki | CityOfHeroes, in the last seven days...
Hyperthermian hit 44 during (as predicted), the first Shadow Shard TF (which I've done up an updated checklist for). This *would* have wrapped up on Thursday, except for Kin-player's unexpected convalescence, so we took time time on Thursday night to work on the Unveiler badge (defeat 100 Fake Nemesis bots -- we're about 75% done) and finished up a key RP scene with them on Friday night that's been languishing for nigh on a month. All in all, lots fun stuff there. Time to get them back on their contacts and see what we do there... we owe Malcalypse a trip to visit Bobcat.
Strategist is still in Croatoa, mostly, barring a few trips to help folks out in other parts of the city. Finished up a scene with him last night that's been... REALLY hard to write, and we got it going a direction that worked a lot better for me.
Lightborne Epitaph dinged 13, 14, 15, and 16. The first two dings came from just doing groups with people in his SG (Phoenix Guard) and regular ol' missions... 15 and 16 came during the Positron TF that we ran with a good-sized group on Saturday night and Sunday morning, about which I've more to share in another post. Picked up the "Resist Energy & Negative Energy" shield at 14, which ended up being EXTREMELY helpful fighting the Clockwork and Circle of Thorns throughout the Task Force. Level 16 was boring old Health, but to make up for it, 18 will be Incandescent Strike (a melee-range, omg-the-damage! hit that's also a HOLD! Woo!). I'm enjoying both the gameplay of this character, and the plot stuff going on with him. Much fun. Only downside is I'm constantly forgetting his 'actual' Hero name, so I've just taken to calling him John. Anyway.
Shade Dancer dinged 13. Fun to RP, somewhat frustrating AT. Looking forward to running Positron with Her/Him, with a cool group -- would be a whole lot of fun.
And that's it: two TF completions, five level dings, and two important scenes completed, with some cool stuff coming on the RP horizon for a number of charactes. Really cool week.
Kaylee likes the Peacebringer sounds -- she doesn't like the Warshade sounds.
Hacked the CoH Planner Kheldian data file and got the resistances for all the human shields and dwarf form defenses correct. Seems to be working, and it's giving me much more accurate numbers. Lemme know if you want it.
Tried to fix the fugged-up way the FF Defender shields (don't) display the defensive numbers in the planner -- no joy in mudville.
From the CoH Forums:
[blockquote]Quartz crystals give a +to Hit (which is technically different than +ACC from enhancements) of around 300%. The Fungi make them resistant to statuses, the Cairns raise their damage resistance, and the Trees of Life regen their hit points.[/blockquote]
And there you have it.
I'm assuming that The Big Secret Fun Phalanx Leadership Thing is not going to happen today/tonight, since the forums are down and there's no way to coordinate it?
Postpone to next Monday?
Anyone know?
I know, you guys want some Actual Play reports from my face to face games...
Well, we've got a three-week old, and one of the players in our regular Friday night game has Friday night classes til, like... Thanksgiving or some damn thing -- CoH is pretty much all the roleplay gaming that we can manage right now.
Aside from Hype and Syn Task Force Ownage, what else was going on?
- Strat got to 30 last week, and he and Partner X have been running Croatoa. Love the zone -- definitely ranks up there with Striga (though Striga suits Strat a bit better :). The place makes good use of the new powersets and mission types, also -- sonic witch bosses are TeH Suck, and escorting an Archery Defender out of a mission yesterday got Strat a 75-shot bow and arrow Temp Power, which is just PERFECT for him, and for pulling mobs.
((Ironically, I'd already been joking about how I should drop a building on Strat, hospitalize him for awhile and break him really badly so I'd have to reroll him as an Trick Arrow/Archery Defender. So... tempting. If Strat wasn't working a lot with another character I'd then have to catch up to, I think I'd have already done it -- as it stands, between that and the fact I already have Centreshot to play with, I probably won't.))
Still, he looks pretty cool with the bow.
Also, had a pretty good scene with Strat this weekend -- he'll be visiting the opera soon -- catch one of the showings of Elena. Should be fun to write.
- Didn't get any Shade Dancer time this weekend. Maybe Tuesday. Tri-form is a bit of a slog to deal with, but it's worth it for The Funny, alone.
- Epitaph joined the Phoenix Guard this weekend (finally, we've played merry hell trying to set up the interview), and between that and Sunday (teamed up with Geo and Spark to ding 10 and Midnite Tempest to ding 11) I got a lot of good playtime on him and (most importantly) got a lot better sense of his character. Gameplay-wise I really like the human-form-only Peacebringer build, especially when there's a defender or two around to push my Resistances up and let me play at mini-tanking -- the mix of ranged blasts, melee smackdown, and decent defense means I've got something to do regardless of what mood I'm in. There aren't many level-ups in the foreseeable future that I'm *not* looking forward to for one reason or another.
Notable moment: actually had a moment of regret not being able to keep playing Epitaph later into last evening when we first switched over to Hype and Syn.
- No time on Centershot and his pair-up with Timbre -- maybe soon.
- Played around with Gilly a bit, just testing the new build. Soloing with her is dog-slow at the level she's at and won't change until the mid-20's -- and there's isn't anything going on with the lowbie alts that I wouldn't rather be playing someone else most of the time -- I'd probably delete her if it she weren't such a hoot to roleplay.
- ... and Hangtime is still 50. :)
Lesse, since last update on the Wiki...
Hype and Syn have dinged 42 and 43. 43 came about four missions into running the first Shadow Shard Task Force: Explorers and Exploiters. We're basically doing it duo -- Kin and Shock are hopping online when we need 3 or 4 people for the simul-click missions (and so they can get the Badge -- they've both already DONE the TF back before the Badge was awarded, and they wants it, precious). Like the Positron TF, the thing runs you all over the place (both in the Shard and Paragon City), puts you up against three different faction groups, has no AV at the end, and is Gawd. Awful. Long. Posi's about 16 missions? E&E is 24. The Third Shadow Shard TF is 33. Oy.
Anyway, there's crap out there for a decent E&E TF Guide, so I built a Shadow Shard TaskForce 1 Checklist myself. I used this when HT ran it, and I'm updating this time through with notes on where the simul-click missions are, and how many people you need for each, because we waited around all day Sunday to get four people online only to find out that the mission only needed three folks. (The same stupid mistake I made LAST time. :P )
We've been running the thing with our mission slider set to Rugged, but it was getting boring, so we set it back up to Invincible last night and knocked out a few more missions. Everything's been running smoothly, and the only (2) hospital trips (we don't carry Awakens) came from Gravity Geyser jumps gone horribly awry.
We dinged about 3 or 4 missions in... we're 15 missions through now, out of 24, and we're halfway to 44 -- chances are very good we'll hit during the TF. Something tells me our 'regular' contacts are going to be pissed at us when we get back home. ("You've been hanging out with that whore Quarterfield in the Shard, haven't you? HAVEN'T YOU?!?")
That part actually kinda sucks -- I like the 40-45 contacts a lot -- cool story arcs, and we're going to be struggling to finish any of them up before we're once again too high for their missions. The annoying thing THERE is that we'll still be GETTING their missions, but they'll be maxed out at the level 45 ceiling (47, with the dial turned up) and thus kinda boring and easy. This is the same problem we've had at 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 -- leveling too fast for the content, even when we split up the contacts between the two of us.
Was really hoping to get the "Hyperthermian, Destroyer of Worlds" mission -- never got it on HT -- dunno if I will now.
Maybe we should turn the TF dial back down to 'yawn', just to get less XP?
Naaaaaah.
Joe Chott's got his numbers updated in Hero Planner, as well as adding the new Archetypes. A few notes:
* FF numbers are still the old numbers. Maxed out Defender's DB is 22% Def with white SO's. Little Bubbles max def is 33%. Controllers get 80% of that effectiveness.
* Invul tankers with +1 SO's can hit the Smash/Lethal resistance cap by simply six-slotting Temp Invul and Unyeilding with Resistance. Since I (a) have some endurance 'issues' at the moment (b), have Resist Physical Damage bought and 3-slotted and (c) used her free-spec already, this means I can slot Endurance Cost Reduction in those two toggles and still hit the cap. I'd probably just do one EndRdx in each, since anything more than that in Unyeilding makes my non-S/L resistances suck even more. I predict that minor change will give Gilly a lot more longevity, even pre-Stamina. Cool.
So, since updating the wiki page last, let's see:
Hyperthermian's dinged 39, 40, and 41... and run the Eden Trial twice... and gotten Omega Level Security clearance (which is cool, since HT never got that story arc).
Strategist dinged 30 and got a new set of clothes that includes a FULLY EXPOSED FACE (*gasp*). Spending a lot of time on Banished Pantheon stuff and Croatoa, so lots of 'magic' type storyarcs. I'm enjoying him a lot more in i5 than I thought I would.
Shade Dancer dinged up to 12 in order to take part in a Positron TF that never materialized. Did a bit of random hunting with her/him with varying degrees of success -- messed around in other people's missions -- really need to just get some solo mission time to see how the new build is working.
Deleted Lightborne, created Epitaph as a Peacebringer and got him back to about the same level. Very much enjoying this all-human build and I feel like I've got a lot to look forward to with the character and the AT.
Created Centreshot (it's a type of bow) Trick Arrow/Archery Defender. Love this set. LOVE it. Very enjoyable. Very much a 'best defense is a good offense' kind of AT. Fun fun fun. He's paired up with Jackie's new Sonic Defender "Timbre" -- we're the 'r and e are switched' team!
Recreated Pummelcite (Stone Tanker) on (I think) Liberty to go with with Jackie's Earth/Empathy Controller "Sphene" (it's a rare titanium-based gemstone). Had a lot of fun with them -- the Stone Armor set is a very very weird mix of Active Defenses and Passive Resistances.
HT is still level 50... and suffering amnesia at the moment. :)
And that's the last two weeks or so.
So... logged Strat in to see what there is to be seen with regard to a respec.
Here's my respec plan:
Nothing.
Right now, I have his (two) active SR toggles already maxed out with 6 Def. His ranged and melee passives each have one slot. He's got about a 32% defense vs. Melee and Ranged, and nothing against AoE's.
In addition, he's got four slots each in Storm Kick, Thunder Kick, and Crane Kick, three (all acc's) in Cobra strike (to shut off enemy toggles), and two in Dragon Tail.
Stamina is six-slotted. Everything else just has the default slot.
In all honesty, this is where I'd see him being slotted at this point ANYWAY.
There's is, frankly, nowhere I'm willing to pull slots from to six-slot my passive defensives right now, especially since that would require 10 more slots to get a net 6% defense increase. No thanks. I'll GET the passives... I'll slot them MUCH MUCH later.
So, just to see what's what, I took him into a BPantheon mission and:
1. The baddies go down quite a bit faster, becuase he hits harder now.
2. ((Shhhhh.)) I'm still not really getting hit much. I'm not flooring the Minions TH with a 32% defense, but 18% chance to hit isn't... you know.. good odds.
And sure... I was on Heroic, but I was only on Rugged before, and the increase in XP (120 to 135% of i4) means I'm getting the same XP. Maybe more.
He's not a mini-tanker. He never. ever. will be.
Play him like a blaster, though, and he's just fine.
So, when reworking Gilly, there were a couple 'rules' regarding the character that I had to adhere to:
1. If it isn't a punch, I can't have. Gilly has magic gloves -- no uber foot stomps, no jump kicks.
2. Gilly's happy: no Rage.
3. Gilly is the Gilly Jumping Bean. As much as Air Superiority might be nice, Gilly Jumps, and I don't have slots for another pool.
4. Gilly loves to taunt. Taunt cannot be put off to level 22 or whatever, just so I can get Stamina faster.
Here's how I'll probably respec Gilly (note: she's currently level 18):
Archetype: Tanker
Primary Powers - Ranged : Invulnerability
Secondary Powers - Support : Super Strength
01 : Jab acc(01) dam(3) dam(31) dam(36) dam(39) dam(40)
01 : Temp Invulnerability damres(01) damres(5) damres(5) damres(7) damres(7) damres(9)
02 : Punch acc(02) dam(3) dam(29) dam(36) dam(37) dam(40)
04 : Dull Pain recred(04) recred(11) recred(13) recred(17) recred(21) recred(21)
06 : Combat Jumping jmp(06)
08 : Unyielding damres(08) damres(9) damres(11) damres(13) damres(15) damres(19)
10 : Taunt tntdur(10)
12 : Resist Physical Damage damres(12) damres(15) damres(17) damres(19)
14 : Super Jump jmp(14)
16 : Swift rnspd(16)
18 : Invincibility thtbuf(18)
20 : Health hel(20) hel(27) hel(27) hel(33) hel(34) hel(39)
22 : Stamina endrec(22) endrec(23) endrec(23) endrec(25) endrec(25) endrec(29)
24 : Knockout Blow acc(24) dam(31) dam(33) dam(34) dam(37) dam(39)
26 : Haymaker acc(26) dam(31) dam(33) dam(34) dam(37) dam(40)
28 : Resist Energies damres(28)
30 : Resist Elements damres(30)
32 : Unstoppable recred(32)
35 : Hurl acc(35) dam(36)
38 : Hand Clap acc(38)
-------------------------------------------
01 : Brawl enhancement(01)
01 : Sprint enhancement(01)
02 : Rest enhancement(02)
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What it does:
1. Smash/Lethal is slotted to be capped by level 19 (though I don't *really* cap until SO's at 22).
2. Dull Pain has the slots to go perma by the time I can get SO's at 22.
3. Between the smash/lethal resistance and the Dull pain giving her 140% health, and fast Health, she should be pretty darn capable as a tank.
What it doesn't do:
1. Damage. However, With just Jab, Punch, and Brawl until level 24, running 3 toggles, I should be able to manage the inevitable endurance problems.
2. Solo quickly. She'll solo slower than dirt, but look at the build, people: she is clearly designed to tank for a group, getting and holding aggro. If it's really frustrating, I'll swap the Acc's in my attacks for Damage, and rely on the ToHit buff in Invincibility to help her hit.
I'd *like* to have Haymaker sooner, sure. I'd like to be the king of all Londinium and wear a shiny hat, but that's not going to happen.
Gilly jumps, Gilly taunts, and Gilly is really tough (both by virtue of her resistances and her unusually high health). I play her STRICTLY to tank for teams, and I want to be able to do that well. I think this gets me what I want.
A few jot-thoughts from running Hype last night:
1. No resistance changes -- my best numbers without Tough (not counting Fire) are around 65% -- with 4 slots in Tough, which I already had, I'm at the Resistance Cap on Smash/Lethal. Density Increase from Syn caps my Energy Resistance. Negative at 65%. Cold and Toxic ~20%. No psi resistance. Nothing to see here, move along.
2. Saw some issues when (purposely, as a test) taking on large groups of mobs. ~10 guys or so, I started to see a guy or two who just wanted to straggle back and who wandered off easily. That was annoying, but not untenable -- more work for me, but it just means I have to actually pay attention a little more.
3. Burn: (certainly my 'big gun' for a long time, before Syn got Fulcrum Shift). Base Burn damage was cut by 25%. Recharge rate increased to 450%. AND any mobs in it (except for Rikti drones and the little Nem bots) try to run the instant you drop it. This is a little annoying.
Between the initial drop in damage, the two damage SO's I had to drop to put in Recharge SO's, and the fact that the thing is still about twice as slow to recharge as it was, the damage output from the power dropped to about 26% of i4 numbers.
And honestly? That would have been almost fair... it was overpowered... except the fear effect makes the whole thing more difficult to manage by a factor of about 100. I cannot FATHOM how any Fire/* tank other than */Ice, with Ice Patch, could even use the thing anymore.
4. PBAoE's. I kinda do a lot of em. Never thought about it before, but I do: As PBAoE Melee attacks, they SHOULD all be hitting 10 targets.
Except I'm not sure that's true. Ice Patch APPEARS to only be making 5 guys fall down at once. If true, that's pretty annoying, as one of the best defenses Hype has is keeping guys from attacking, controller-style, and I can't think why it wouldn't be rated as a PBAoE. I'm half-tempted to get the PBAoE sleep power that no one ever gets, just to take a bunch of guys out of the fight, but Blazing Aura (PBAoE Fire DoT) will just wake them back up, so there's no point, I think. Hmm. (I wanna be a 10-target Contranker, dammit!)
5. Weave sucks. Six-slotted weave dropped from 42% defense to 6.8%. Utter crap. Utter. Crap.
6. They're spreading out the groups of mobs more. We did a couple Nem missions and didn't see any "Class of '05" clumps you normally see. I'd like to get a six-person team into a Nem mission to see what the group sizes are. They're easily one of the 'big groups, tight clumps' types of baddies.
_________
All of these issues are kind of minor in the big picture: Syn and Hype ran six missions last night: Council, CoT, Crey, two Nemesis, and Carnies. We're still on Invincible. ((Which they say shouldn't even be entirely possible for a duo in i5. Whatever.))
The Council and CoT were Heroic, because we forgot to reset our dial. I noticed the CoT Earth guys aren't stacking Quicksand anymore. That's cool.
The Crey, Nem missions, and Carnies were all done on Invincible with no real problems: the second Nem mission caused the typical AoE problems for Syn one time and the Purple Fake Nem had no problem hitting her with his staff twice (OW!) while I was distracted.
The Dark Ring Mistress in the Carnie mission almost got Hype before I remembered to use a bunch of Lucks, but that isn't i5.
We had to work a little harder on the purples -- but everything still died. At level 40, we got close to three bars of xp with 2 heroic and 4 Invincible missions.