AncientSpirit_NA

Looking forward to joining you!

The heading kind of says it all.

Yesterday's patch brought blessed relief from this noise. Hope it lasts! : )

Thanks, Grey. You were spot on.

That could easily be it since both toons I was using were brutes with invincibility turned on.

But did this just happen with the last patch, because I don't remember this noise happening before?

Since the last patch, every time one of my toons begins a battle, I hear the weirdest sound effects -- like I'm in the middle of a giant factory, and all the gears are churning at once, incredibly loud.

It continues until the last mob is down for the count. Sound goes away. Swells up as soon as I fight someone else.

I changed toons. I changed mobs. I changed in-game sound settings. No avail.

I petitioned, and was told they'd get back to me. But they haven't yet.

Anyone else hearing this? And if you did, did you figure out a workaround?

LOL. yes, 4 gigs of ram. Thanks for the link. : )

I have an old Dell Optiplex GX270 machine with 4 megs of ram and currently running an ATI Radeon 9200 series video card with 128 of memory. The game runs fine on it, except for creating AE arcs, where the preview characters all are displayed Ant Man size.

The Dell will take a 2.0 or 3.0 AGP card. No PCI-express capabiity.

I was shown an ATI Radeon 9550 card, and found that drivers were all current. (My 9200 series last driver update was nov. 2006)

Any experience with that card? Any thoughts about others? ATI or GeForce? Given that my machine is AGP, I figure my options are as limited as my budget for this.

Any and all advice appreciated (except buy a new machine). : )

Thanks, guys. I needed that. ; )

I'm looking for advise. Or absolution. I'm not sure which.

I have a energy melee/Invul Brute that's a (very loose) tribute toon to Bizarro ... and none of the epic power sets seem to fit the concept.

Basically, now that its time to choose one I think I'm just going to add one things like Resist Energies and Resist Elements.

While I know that one of the epics will make him more uber, he just wouldn't be Bizarro to me.

Unless I'm missing an epic set that would work for him? Any ideas out there? Or should I just make him as invulnerable as I can working with his Secondaries?

I don't expect anyone to play my arc, either. Like OP, I worked hard to make Wicked, Wicked Wonderland a fun, story-based arc - with lots of interesting custom characters (and puns). I created what I WANTED to create - even though some people told me that having multiple debuffers in a game was too hard. Yet these were all STANDARD power sets, mixed and matched, and I don't think anyone who plays it should get LESS than full experience because of the I16 changes.

I am proud that this arc, despite its difficulty, managed to attrack over 220 players and earned a respectable 4-star rating. But I won't artifically inflate its difficulty to accommodate new rule changes that don't make sense. Standard should equal standard, should equal 100%. Hard should equal more than standard, should equal over 100%. And extreme should warrant EXTREME rewards.

While I still love this game and have no intention of quitting it for other pastures, I AM DISAPPOINTED with it right now.

I hope that, with time, the Devs will revist their decision as they have on other matters in the past and rebalance these experience levels.

... that are affordable?

Even better, "earnable" by using AE tickets and cheap 'Bronze" random rolls? (I'm 42 now, but usually roll in the 35-39 category because I hear that has some of the best recipes.)

I just turned 41, too. I haven't been putting any endurance reducers or recharge in any of my attack powers ... but I've been doubling up on Accuracy in just about everything, especially in Transference, Transfusion and Syphon Speed. (attacks, normally 2 ac 3 dam 1 debuff)

With Syphon Speed constantly hitting coupled with Haste, which you have, my Transfusion and Transference seem to be up whenever I want or need them, not just for myself but when watching the health and endurance bars of all my teammates.

I didn't go with the Leadership pool, which may be a mistake. But since I'm always fighting up close, I went with Combat Jumping to give me some defense. Just added Electric Armor from the Mu epic pool for resistance.

None of this is advice, of course. Different players, different builds. : )

Thanks for all the great feedback. When I played as my kin last night, I teamed with a brute who was EM/Dark and he was using Whirling hands and the Mu epic power set and seemed to do tremendous damage.

As I'm 40 now and about to start my own quest for an epic power set, do you think Mu is the best to compliment Energy Melee or is there another that would be even better?

(Also, after my kin chose Ghost Widow for Dark Mastery and got his epic, he was given the choice of ANY epic power pool set. I thought that you could only get the one you selected? With this in mind, does anyone know how the different epic quests vary in terms of difficulty, from easiest to hardest?)

Thanks. : )

It will take some playing time for me to figure out how I feel about these changes. On one hand I've never been a big fan of regular farms but enjoyed some of the AE farms because of the fun mob types. But I would enjoy those mobs even if they're were minions, Lts. and Bosses in the mix. Frankly, I was a little tired of the same Freaks and CoTs, and sewer teams.

On the other hand, I worry about regular arcs like my "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" (#1224) getting any more play with these changes. It has minions and Lts and maybe one or two boss battles -- but no bosses just in the regular mobs. This arc was constructed this way because initial feedback was that bosses were too hard - especially since the arc mobs contain multiple debuffers.

I was pleasantly surprised when "Wicked" went surpassed my fondest hope of getting 50 people to play it. And now well over 200 people have played it.

Seems to me that the new rules that penalize custom critters will have the exact opposite affect on AE creation as was intended. While I'm sure that there are a LOT of players who didn't use AE just for an unfair experience advantage, I'm concerned that a LOT of players won't want to use it for an unfair experience DISadvantage, as well.

I know I won't throw in more bosses into "Wicked, Wicked Wonderland" just for the added experience. My story only warrants TWO bosses.

Not sure the devs had a viable choice here, though. Seems to me that fixing it vs. not fixting was a real Catch-22.

Threw together a quick arc for testing. Simple map. 5 types of custom minions, 5 types of custom Lts. 5 types of custom bosses.

Made the mission auto SK to 46 with a cap of 50 or 51, I forget which.

Took a tune into it and saw all the minions and Lt. But no bosses.

What am I doing wrong?

You may already have de facto "dedicated" AE zones: Blueside, it is in AP. Redside, it appears to be in Cap. (I can only speak from experience blueside on Freedom and redside on Pinnacle.)

What makes AP so desirable is that so many new toons don't want to do the same old missions or sewer teams to level up in the beginning. Cap appears desirable because the arbitor is so closeby, as is the Black Market.

As for farms: I used to complain about them but I was seriously ignorant about what they have to offer. Lately, I have played on several farm teams. The level of challenge and the fast paced action is incredible! And some of the mobs are tremendous fun both in concept and in execution. (I never thought that I would say this!)

The biggest problem I see with farms is that I'm not really into powerleveling - either for myself or others, and sometimes I level up too fast. Also, it does irritate me when I learn that a team "leader" who I think is level 47 is actually level 1 or 2 and has little power to help in a fight regardless of what he's been bumped up to. On the other hand, I'm often able to team up with folks who are basically my level - and when that happens its really great fun!

Also, while AE teams do the most inviting to groups (I'm not much of a recruiter) ... the other day, I was invited to a regular team on Pinnacle and was more than happy to leave AE to join it. I will be happier still when issue 16 hits and I won't have to worry anymore about being out of the sight of the person sk-ing me. I get killed SO many times that way!

I have an Energy Melee/Invul Brute who is almost 39 now and it seems he can survive most anything. But I haven't taken Whirling Hands yet and when I go into a big mob - even though I can survive it -- it takes forever killing them all with single target attacks.

I figured I should just have taken Whirling Hands earlier. But then, the only two posts I see in these threads with builds for EM/Inv. Brutes have chosen to take Whirling Hands at level 47.

I wish I could check the online guides here but the links aren't working yet (though I hope they will be soon).

So what's the deal with Whirling Hands anyway? Is it worth picking up earlier? Or do I just team with better damage dealers and let them do the kills?