_Doc_

I WAS going to say that 18-20th would be better, as the following weekend is a bank holiday and the traffic down to Cornwall will be manic. Unfortunately, I'm helping my best mate move house in Yorkshire on the 18th. So I can make the bank holiday weekend, but not the previous one

Anyway, fingers crossed that I'll be there ready to party on...

Heh, I remember the first time we did this TF. I can't _swear_ that we were the first people in-game to do it (I'm going back to the beginning of May last year), but it took us 12 1/2 hours of grinding to get through it. All in one session, and it completed with a spawn inside a wall so we had to petition a GM to get the damn' thing finished properly...ahhh, those were the days

Only took 7 1/2 hours last time I did it - experience can make a heck of a difference

Welcome to the game, amigo! As has already been said, take things steady and enjoy the game - it is full of stuff from beginning to end, but once you hit 50...well, it's either collect more badges or start another alt

The community here is friendly and welcoming, and I hope that you enjoy your time with us!

Ack! I'll see if I can get Longbow Colonel from 39 to 40 tonight/tomorrow morning. If you are around, send me a tell so that I can team. Ill/Kin controller might be handy for you

No promises, as I'm not very far into 39, but I'll try...

My point, Pee Wee, related to the thread subject - _soloing_ as a dominator (although I did throw in the bit about teaming with a couple of other alts). If you don't have the ability to damage things, it makes soloing a whole lot harder...

P.S. And, just FYI, I have a 41 dom, a 41 MM, a 32 Brute, a 30 Brute, a 27 MM, a 26 corrupter, a 19 MM and a 10 corrupter. As you can see, I'm not short of alts...that was just the villains *grin*

P.P.S. And I do have a 'test' stalker at L6, but don't like it much

I have:
Strangler slotted 2 Hold, 2 Acc, 2 Recharge
Seeds of Confusion is 2 Confuse, 2 Acc, 2 Recharge
Creepers is 3 Recharge, 2 Acc, 1 Slow

And those are, indeed, your 3 main domination powers without question. I respecced out of Spore Burst early on, and just recently dumped Spirit Tree as I almost never used it. That, along with dropping Thorn Burst, allowed me to take Heal Self and Aid Other(?) from the Medicine Pool.

Hope this helps...

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Soloing is very easy now....even lvl minions are falling like flies.


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Hm. With my Plant/Thorns at L41, set on Vicious, I am taking on yellows, oranges and reds without undue problems. Teamed with 1 or 2 others (notably a brute and/or corrupter), we just eat our way through anything and everything up to and including Elite Bosses.

While I confess that Plant/Fire may be better for damage, following my respec (where I dropped Thorn Burst and Spirit Tree in exchange for the Medicine pool) I am extremely happy with my powersets

Back to the original topic, I have a L40 Necro/Dark MM, a L27 Robot/FF MM and I had a Ninja/Poison MM in beta. I like both Necro and Robots as primary power sets, although they are very different to play.

Certainly, there's nothing wrong with necro but I suspect that a lot of the MMs with that powerset (and there were quite a number when CoV first went live) are sitting at 40, waiting for i7...

The balls soared up to within inches of the cell ceiling. Then down again, only to rise once more as the prisoner practiced his juggling with single-minded obsessiveness. His thoughts raced around and around like mice on a wheel, never straying far from the picture of that witch of a Ring Mistress as she laughed and cast him out of the Carnival tents.

He giggled as he caught one ball behind his back before launching it upwards again. "Soon. Soon, I will have my revenge on them all. The boys and I, well we're just gonna have to show those B*TCH*S that their way isn't the only way to make a name in the Rogue Isles." He giggled again, a trickle of drool smearing the makeup around his mouth. "Oh yes. Show me a way out of here, and me'n'the guys are gonna give some people a wake up call they won't like...Mr Jingles' circus is comin' to town!"

There was a bang on the door. "Quiet down in there!!"

Mr Jingles eyed the inside of the cell door, his hands still flickering as they continued to make patterns in the air with his juggling balls. He could feel the darkness inside him, pushing to be released in a glorious orgy of violence and death. "Soon," he whispered to himself. "Very soon..."

As the sound of sirens and gunshots penetrated his fractured thought patterns, he began to chuckle again. The sound of cell doors unlocking was the stimulus for him to gather up the balls, and he hefted them carefully, judging their flight characteristics now that they were stuffed with chunks of lead.

Jingles popped his head out of the cell in time to see the guard jogging towards the exit. The first ball thumped into the back of his head with a satisfying crack, and the guard collapsed bonelessly. Dead or just unconscious, who cared? Placing his bright yellow derby back onto his head, Jingles headed for the block exit and the freedom that lay out there somewhere...

Gratz on another one, Lifeline

We're gonna have an awful lot of these threads for villains once i7 goes live, ain't we? I can see everyone dinging 50 within a week of each other

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Because of the times and duration I usually play (because of Real Life, home and kids!) I find that most of my playing time is spent solo.

I have a very nice plant/thorn dominator who has reached lvl 19 and she is very successful in teams but I would be interested in people's views about whether one can have a successful solo dom at the 19-30 level (I can see that solo is easier post level 32 after big pets appear)

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Yes. Plant/Thorns is, like most dominators, not _easy_ to solo, but between Seeds of Confusion and (at 26) Carrion Creepers, you can do it. Just ensure that your Impale and Skewer attacks are slotted as well as possible. Oh, and you may possibly run into difficulties with any Elite Bosses, but then most ATs do when soloing

Yeah, but we were talking about you, Sab. Reminiscing about the classic occasion when you tried soloing the Kronos Titan while yelling for help. Damn' funny to watch...

"I can hold his attention for a while, but I can't take him down on my own...GET SOME HELP!" *WHAAAAMMMMM* (Sabriel flies 50yds across the map) "Chaaarge!" *slice hack stab* *WHAAAAAAMMMMM*

You may very well be correct, as I'm at work and can't check. I think mine is actually 2 acc, 1 dam, 1 recharge, 2 hold duration...

Further to my earlier post, I have to say that Death Rose felt very squishy early on, and I considered her to be 'unsuitable' (not the same as impossible) to solo until she got to 32. However, as a part of a team, she has consistently been excellent, especially with fully-slotted Seeds of Confusion (which remains my primary 'attack').

So my advice would be to take pretty much all of your primary and secondaries (except for Spirit Tree, which is poor), but ensure that you heavily slot Strangler, Seeds of Confusion, Impale and Skewer. I personally would also recommend 2 or 3 hold duration in Strangler, along with 2 or 3 accuracy, and damage for any left over slots. Seeds should have a couple of confuse duration in it.

Hope this helps, but I certainly recommend continuing with the character, as Plant/Thorns is one of the most enjoyable powerset combos that I have come across in the game

Skewer and Impale are your major attacks - as such, it is true that you don't do a whole lot of damage. However, once you get to 32 (Fly Trap), things improve dramatically since the pet, plus your 35 and 38 secondary powers, all do lots and lots of damage. Plus, of course, Carrion Creepers at 26 changes your entire combat strategy and will refresh your interest and enjoyment of the powerset.

Trust me on this

I agree with you, Doc (well, I'm bound to with a handle like that ), in that the combat side of the game revolves around button-bashing. However, if you can find an AT/powerset that you actively _enjoy_ playing, you don't notice the button pushing anywhere near as much because you are more focused on what is happening on-screen, and the power activations should be happening without too much conscious thought.

You may well find that a controller suits you better, since that is probably the archetype where you have to think most about what power to activate next. Do you want to hold a mob? Send out a damaging attack? Summon a pet? Activate an AoE attack and aggro everything on you? Move into Hover mode (for example) to avoid damage?

Of all of the different alts I have played, my controller is probably the most varied in terms of power activations. Although being a /kinetics means that much of my time in teams is taken up with re-buffing everyone else with Speed Boost...

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A really good tanker don't need taunt

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ur N O T a tanker if u dont have taunt

if ur a "tanker" without taunt ur just another choice for the foe to attack.

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Not true, Aurora. Tanks also have Gauntlet (auto-effect minor taunt) and (generally) AoE melee attacks that cause aggro to be directed at them. Thus tanks _can_ perform their task without taunt.

Having said that, I am of the opinion that taunt is so useful to a tank that it is, effectively, essential. Despite the aggro cap, it can be used both for the AV-kiting outlined above, and simply to gain and hold the attention of mobs who may be out of melee/Gauntlet range of the tank, but are still aggroed on the team.

@Doc with Death Rose (39 Plant/Thorns Dom) or Doc Havok (40 Necro/Dark MM).

(Please note, however, that I am out of the country from 18-29 May and will thus be unavailable)

Welcome back, Vetis

Having tried out most types of alt(ernate character), I would agree that */regen scrapper is among the easiest to play. You can solo most missions without undue difficulty, but they also fit well into teams.

Having said that, it's all about play style - my first character (empathy/energy defender) went to 50, whereas my PB (Peacebringer) is still languishing in the mid-30s, having been overtaken by my stone/fire tank (50), my Illusion/kinetics controller (35) and being approached by my claws/regen scrapper (30).

The 'secret' to the game (IMO), however, is to find a group of people whose company you enjoy, then team with them a lot. If you are in a good team, you will enjoy playing no matter what AT you have...

Good luck and welcome to CoX, amigo!

'Ugly pistol'? Looks like a .50 cal Desert Eagle to me...sure, it's not the prettiest of guns, but it kills things stone dead while making big holes in them in the process. Which is kinda what you want in a gun, no?

EDIT: Sorry, that's my MM's pistols. The Punks' pistols are not quite so good looking, and resemble perhaps a chromed Colt Python .357 with the 6" barrel. Of course, given the lack of detailing, they could just as easily be Colt Anaconda .44 Magnums, or some completely unrelated pistol. But they work, and still remind me of being in the middle of a John Woo film...

Plant/Thorns dominator. The powerset is excellent for teaming yet, later on, can also be used for soloing (damage is a bit weak at low levels). The main powers (Seeds of Confusion/Carrion Creepers) are superb, both in effect and useability. I _do_ still faceplant now and again but, in general, my dominator is a great addition to a team and eminently playable. Good fun, and noticeably different in feel to playing a controller...!!

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BS might be a little offputting early on - you don't have many attacks, and those you have take a while to recharge, but darn does it kick donkey later on. 3 AE powers (Whirling Sword, Slice and Head Splitter - yes, the extreme damage level 32 power is an AE attack, albiet one with a limit of 5 victims) as well as awsome single target killing ability, and Parry, which, come I7, will be able to put you over the effective cap of 45% defense.

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Um...my BS/Rgn scrapper has had a 4-attack chain (excluding brawl) going since L10 (might even have been L8, I forget). Hack/Slice/the melee cone AoE (I forget the name, can't be bothered to look it up) and Parry. In fact, the problem has been fitting in all of the available options early on (haven't had time to take Build Up or Dull Pain yet, as of L13, because of needing Hasten for SS at 14).

So I would hardly class BS as 'offputting early on'

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I'm fairly sure knockdown enhancers will increase the distance of KB, which might knock dudes *out* of the creepers which you probably don't want to do. Since I'm PvP oriented I went for Slow as well as ACC and Recharge. It is a great power although not as effective as Ice Slick for pure control.

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Best mobs to use this against? Rikti Monkeys

FLYING MONKEYS FTW!!!eleven!1!

Had me in stitches the first time it happened to me with my Dominator...

(And every time I see it, even now, I can't help thinking about making some kind of 'spank the monkey' reference. Although I _try_ to restrain myself from using my outside voice...)

Haven't seen anyone else post about it, but gratz to Enzyme who (finally) hit 50 with Cypher. last week. Well done, mate, and about time too!