_Echo_

Looking forward to tomorrow night!

We'll be taking things easy, lower the difficulty and finish off Lunata's arc. Also I have the Plague Carrier badge mission available which is always excellent XP on a large team. Hopefully we'll get a Mayhem too, who knows?

Personally I'd stick with Fire. It is an aggro-drawer in the early levels, but once the MMs get more pets and the other Corrs get more AoEs, you'll probably not be taking the lion's share of things.

Also bear in mind that in 4 levels time you and I both will have 8 FFGs to protect us if we decide to keep doing those suicidal pulls.

Due to a blip on my schedule I'm not going to be able to make it tonight.

Not to worry.

Personally I prefer playing at lower difficulties because it usually equates to faster XP-over-time (and less debt), but last night I wanted to gauge our capabilities.

Next week we'll lower the level and relax a bit. Fun is what this is all about anyway.

Agreed on the Vicious difficulty.

I do enjoy using choke points. As a team we end up thinking about and using the scenery more than I've ever done before.

The next mission we have queued up for Lunata is "Defeat Phil & his friends", so that will be our starting point next week.

Hehe, pirate ghost busting was fun! Though Arachnos ghost busting was... not so fun.

Still, I had a great time last night, despite the difficulty we'd imposed on ourselves. (From now on I think things will go smoother on a lower diff setting, at least until we have Force Field Generators).

I propose that at level 16 (post-FFG), we give the Tarikoss SF a whirl. Or, level 18, after the FFG's been slotted a bit (not to mention that fun things like Flamethrower, Blaze, Cosmic Burst and 3rd 1st tier MM pets happen at 18 as well).

Thanks for coming along gang. Level 12 and rising!

Good question.

We'll be meeting by Arbiter Unger in Port Oakes again, with the aim to start missions (or whatever) at 7pm.

So who else has been thinking about Caltrops and Acid Mortars all weekend?

See you all tomorrow night, I hope!

Here's a rundown of how Defence works from this guide on the US boards:

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The enemy has a percent chance of hitting you, your defense is a number that's subtracted from that percent chance.

So, if a hellion that is your level has a 50% chance of hitting you with that baseball bat, and your defense against smashing is 30%, then 50-30 = 20, leaving the hellion with a 20% chance of striking you.

Now, the base chances of a minion of an equal level striking you is 50%, LT's 57.5%, snipers and bosses 65%, AV's, Giant Monsters, Monsters, Pets 75%.

Now for every level the baddie has over you, it gains a bonus on it's base accuracy. While there is no precise number, Arcana cites it as being around 9% which seems about right from my experience.

At +3 levels over you, that red hellion is going to be swinging his at at a base accuracy of roughly 63.5% that defense of 30 will only cut it down to 33.5% for you.

Now, in I7, there's going to be a change to that. Come I7, that accuracy buff is going to be applied as a multiplier AFTER the defense is applied. In that instance, you get the 50% of a hellion minion subtract 30, for an accuracy of 20%, add in a 27% bonus and all that red +3 level hellion is going to be swinging with now is 25.5% since 27% of 20 is far less then 27% of 50. Of course the I7 system makes it harder to calculate in your head how often you'll be whacked, but I'm more then willing to live with that since it's going to make you tougher.

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Also, this guide is very good and goes into defence in more detail.

To be honest, I think you will really have your work cut out for you with this build.

Any Defender will find a melee role challenging, but you're picked Force Field as your primary, which lends almost nothing to melee.

I would seriously consider Radiation Emission, Dark Miasma or Kinetics (especially Kinetics) for a primary instead.

Heh, well I guess there were other things going on on Test last night.

Folks took over Pocket D for the International event. I hung out there for a little while, but there was such a crowd that I couldn't spot any lowbie PvPers in the mosh.

My apologies to anyone who did show up, but let's try again next week, eh?

Bridger says it's fine.

Though I guess there may have been confusion over this. If folks weren't anticipating the event running tonight because of bugs and maybe made other plans, I don't mind putting it off for another time.

Okay, since the Arena bug that's afflicting the Live servers does not appear to be affecting Test, we can still go through with this tonight

Level 5 and 10 battles tonight, starting at 8pm!

The meeting place will change from zone to zone as we level up, but currently it's alongside Arbiter Unger in Port Oakes.

We reached level 11 last night (partially due to the two smaller teams) so it's unlikely that we'll catch up to your level 18 next week anyhow.

We do have an SG and a chat channel now though and you're welcome to join either, both or neither, as you prefer. Neither are a requirement to join in on the fun.

Last night was much fun.

My favourite part of the evening was on that last Mayhem in the vault, when we laid Caltrops and Acid Mortars by the lift doors and just waited for the hero to spring our trap. True trapping action.

Thanks to everyone for showing. At one point we had 11-12 trappers I think!

If we have those kind of numbers next week, we may well be able to storm Fort Hades en masse and get the Pirate badge, with a minimum of debt.

Hope to see you guys online tonight!

I'm excited.

Not to worry. We'll see you a little later down the line then.

Just to clarify, Kinetics' Repel power is pure Knockback, there is no Repel portion to it. Yeah, I know it's silly.

Force Bubble has a minor Knockback component, but relies mainly on Repel. Foes in its large AoE will gradually be pushed away from you, not flung away at speed.

As such, only powers which resist Repel effects will be able to move freely through Force Bubble, and Repel resistance is a lot rarer than Knockback resistance.

I'm always up for Eden if you guys need a hand (or some crack).

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Then why didn't you object last night when I suggested the all tank team, hmm? (I've not seen herd sizes like that since Eden in Issue 3 )

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Was that the start of a regular thing?! I didn't realise what I was getting myself into! Though that idea does appeal.

You have made me want to start tanking again though. Maybe an Axe/Stone Melee one, I've not tried either of those sets before.

Hey, it's only 2 or 3 nights a week! You make it sound like it's 4 or 5! I'm not crazy, you know.

Sure, come along if you can make it.

The next meet-up is tomorrow night at 7pm. As I don't know how many fiolks will be showing up, we should all meet by the Arbiter in Port Oakes. Try and be prompt (or get there a little early!), so we can see whether we need one team or two this week.

The team level is currently 8, but we'll try and accomodate as best we can if there are newer folks (or if you're like Napalm Poet, who I know has reinvented himself). Rememeber that we can't LK anyone until we're level 10 ourselves!

The plan is to get the Atlas Mayhem mission as soon as possible so we don't miss out on that lovely Raptor Pack temp power. After that, we can do more paper missions or we could coordinate our contacts and do their missions.

Personally I prefer Mr Bocor as my first contact, for the fun zombie temp power he gives you, the Bone Collector badge, and a mission featuring the Sea Witch that will count towards the Seaweed badge.

Alternatively, if you're feeling particularly brave we could go to Fort Hades and hunt ghost pirates for the Pirate badge, to open up the hidden contact. That could get messy though!

Finally, by the end of the night we should also have an SG! Please bring your favourite name suggestions with you and we'll vote on them in-game. If we can't reach a consensus, well there is an arena in Port Oakes...

Seems there might be a bug. I'll check my globals later when I get home. It's easy enough to fix, since there're only 8 of us on that channel at the mo.

As for the SG name, I understand that traps is more than blowing stuff up (and for the first 34 levels it'll have to be!), but the explosion theme is the most dynamic of all the themes a trap set could provide, which is why I think folks have focussed on it. A more general "trapper" theme is more widely suitable, of course.

One of the reasons I like TNT as a name is it can fulfill both. Plus any SG-leader-person can change the meaning (by posting their version in the SG's motto and/or description) whenever they feel like it. Something I'm sure we could have a lot of fun with.

As for SG rank names, I was thinking something like this could work nicely:

1. Bait (Lowest rank)
2. Trigger
3. Fuse
4. Powderkeg/Chamber
5. Trapper/Bullet/Master/Trapmaster/Winner/Victor/Something (Highest rank)

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It will still be level 5, though might try out a level 10 match just to compare.

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Thank jebus. I'm bored with lvl 5 now :P

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Well if level 10 seems balanced, we'll stay there.

However it does mean the introduction of Mez Protection, Assassin Strikes, Nova Forms... and even more evil anchor toggles!

Yep, Wednesday the 21st, on Test at 8pm.

It will still be level 5, though might try out a level 10 match just to compare.