_Norton_

Best use for Ice Patch on a blaster? Drop it on a corner near a spawn. Shoot at spawn. Run around corner. Spawn follows you. They all fall down. Kill helpless baddies. Repeat.

This works like a charm solo and on all-squishy teams. And you soon get to learn which mobs are resitant to knockdown [img]/uk/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Glacial armour is a great power for the mid-late game, it helps when herding freaks, robots, ghosts etc, and stops all your other defences being debuffed so quickly by the many defence debuffs in the later game. Also it makes CoT much less unpleasant. If you don’t have it you are taking both the fire and neg attacks that the CoT dish out and you can get in a lot of trouble. With it you only take the fire attacks and can get around that by killing the fire casters first. GA also protects you against Sappers, which is almost worth the price of admission on it’s own.

I took it early on my ice/ice tank and loved it, but skipped it until 28 on my ice/nrg and didn’t miss it too badly. I wouldn’t fancy going without it past 30 though.

One drawback of the power is the visual effect, it is yet another layer of ice on your character, it’s brighter than the other armours and leaves a trail behind you. When all your armours are turned on it can be a bit painful to actually look at your toon. I have taken to wearing an old pair of glasses with a black dot painted in the centre of each lens. That way I can play my ice tanks without searing my retinas.

I have to say, ocular problems aside, I love ice tanks (Not that you asked). They give you so many cool toys to play with, and there is nothing quite like standing in the middle of 20 mobs and hearing complete silence as they all swing wildly at the air around you. Yet even when you are at your most slippery and unhitable, there is always a chance you could get unlucky and it could all go horribly wrong. The frisson created by this tension between power and vulnerability stimulates the parts other tanks cannot reach.

Thanks for setting this up Chaplain, I'll register as soon as I get home. I can't register while at work because the colour scheme is not very work-friendly. (An option for black text on a white background would mean I could get away with viewing it at work)

There's a 'help the sucky underpowered Doms' campaign? And you never told me? Blastards.

Oh, and grats Filth.

Hi. I would like to offer the services of my lvl50 Ice/Storm controller, Jill Frost. She's already got one Hami-o and wants another one!

If anyone wants to give Jill Frost a match, send me a tell or in-game email to @norton and we can go over to the test server. I'm on Union most nights after about 8PM UK time.

It seems that there is no way to do this that everyone will be able to agree on. Since the consensus seems to be that you can't get open 1v1 matches even close to balanced, how about if you made 5 single AT leagues instead? Or six if you include Kheldians?

Having each AT only fight others of the same AT would be inherently more fair, and give some idea who the top players in each AT were. With this set-up it wouldn't matter what the arena rules were set to, as everyone would be in the same boat.

I dunno, maybe the winners of the AT leagues could then have a playoff against each other, just as a demonstration match perhaps? Or to show why (insert AT here) is overpowered in the arena?

It's just a suggestion, but the unified league idea seems to have degenerated into bad feeling quite quickly and this might give everyone a chance to play on a level-ish playing field.

I would like to register tentative interest in joining this league depending on the details.

Toon Name: Jill Frost (controller, Union)

Glaobal Chat: @Norton

Once you have decided the timing and rules, I'll let you know for sure.

Congratulations Tundra.

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So, just how bad is it?

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Not as bad as the (new, new, new, new, new, new, new) new Smoking Demon.

Level 1 - Pistols, Twilight Grasp
Level 2 - Dual Wield
Level 4 - Tar Patch
Level 6 - Hasten
Level 8 - Empty Clips
Level 10 - Swift
Level 12 - Kick
Level 14 - Super Speed
Level 16 - Assault
Level 18 - Health
Level 20 - Stamina
Level 22 - Fearsome Stare
Level 24 - Flurry
Level 26 - Tactics
Level 28 - Petrifying Gaze
Level 30 - Boxing
Level 32 - Tough
Level 35 - Vengence
Level 38 - Weave
Level 41 - Night Fall
Level 44 - Maneuvers
Level 47 - Hurdle
Level 49 - Whirlwind

I pay for my art don't ya know

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Yeah that's a stinker alright! I know it's for concept, and I applaud your bravery, but not getting any pets at all?

Might you be better off with unslotted pets in perma-bodyguard mode than you would with tough and weave (concept notwithstanding)? and you could then drop the fighting pool and get Air Superiority instead of kick, which is a better attack imo, and then you could get fly so you can more easily escape the total pounding you're going to take

Wolfmother: Cell Block H: Ziggursky Penitentiary

The sound of several Arachnos fliers penetrates Lupa’s cell. The time has come, but she’s too wasted to even recognise her opportunity, let alone make it out to the landing zone.

Her pulse is getting weaker. This time, she’s really blown it.



((Who will save Lupa from her own folly? Can she come out of her drug-induced coma in time to make it out of the Zigg? Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode of THE GANG ))

Wolfmother: Cell Block H: Ziggursky Penitentiary

Lupa’s eyes flicker as she tries to stay conscious. She's dimly aware of a strange smell, like rotting metal, but she’s way past caring. A line of drool escapes from the corner of her mouth and pools on her pillow.

“Ohshiit” is the last thought that flickers across her mind. “I’ve taken too much”

Wolfmother: Cell Block H: Ziggursky Penitentiary

Lupa sits on the edge of her bunk and chews her nails. She can hear the sounds of fighting receding down the corridor, but there’s been no sound of an Arachnos flier overhead.

She weighs up her options: join the breakout now and risk getting rounded up by the heroes that are bound to show up (did she hear Positron’s energy blasts earlier?) or sit tight and risk being left behind?

No one seems to have noticed that the surveillance cameras in the ceiling are still working behind their bullet-proof glass panels, still transmitting images of all that’s going on to the control centre and the satellite hook up. If the escape attempt fails, there will be a reckoning.

“Damn them, why couldn’t they wait!” She wails.

In an agony of indecision, she turns the only friend that’s never let her down. Teasing out the lose brick under her bunk, she takes out her precious stash, and cooks herself up a hit…

Welcome, Blind Strike, to the shady-ish side.

You should be aware that Shin Apostrophe is dangerously unstable and is not to be trusted. Although it's true that Recluse is a nublet, everything else Shin says should be treated with extreme scepticism.

((out-of-character)) Hey ppl, let's not get carried away here! Try and remember the golden rule of roleplay: Don't write other people's stories for them, and don't force other's to conform to your idea of what they should do or how the story develops. It's ok to say "Angry Woman aims a blow at Defencless Man's head". It's not ok to say "Angry Woman cuts out Defenceless Man's heart and feeds it to his children" as it hijacks all future possibilities for Defenceless Man's Roleplay and is thus considered rude. You have to give Defenceless Man the chance to reply "Defencless Man ducks Angry Woman's swipe", after all! ok, back into character!))

Wolfmother sees Pistol glowering at her from the other side of her cell door, and wonders what violence she's imagining in her twisted little mind.

The Wolfmother: Ziggursky Penitentiary: Cell Block H

“Damn fools” Lupa growls to herself. “They just couldn’t wait. They might be able to get out of their cells, but there’s no way they can get past the outer defences or the dampening field without outside help.”

“Hey Pistol!” she yells “you got ADD or something? We were told to wait until the Arachnos breakout team got here. Even if you make it past the perimeter, which you won’t, how the hell do you think you’ll get out of Brickstown without the Arachnos fliers we were promised?”

“Frikkin amateurs” she mutters, and rolls over on her bunk, stuffing her head under her greasy pillow to shut out the noise.

Wolfmother: Cell Block H: The Zigg

“Yeah, yeah, Pistol, keep it coming" Lupa hisses between the bars. "Just remember, when you got somethin’, you got somethin’ to lose. Like your pretty lil nose, fr’instance. Me? I got nothin’ to lose, and I got sharp teeth. You know they wanna fry me for what I did, why should I be 'fraid of a skinny little [censored] like you?

"Listen, we all know somethin’ big’s comin'. You sure you want to be looking over your shoulder while it’s all kickin’ off?”

“Here’s the thing…let me in on the deal, and you’ll have one less thing to worry about. Yeah Yeah, 'What’s in it for me?' that's what I'd be askin too. She-it girl, you know I can get the best damn drugs known to woman kind, stuff that can turn a strong man to Jell-O, or clear your mind no matter how whacked out you are. Hell, what I got can raise the dead!

*cackles*

“Do the wise thing, and I’ll even put the wolfpack at your disposal once we’re on the outside. I reckon you’ll wanna run another gang when you get back to the Isles. C’mon, girl, we don’t have to like each other to use each other. Wise up. You know the score....keep your friends close... *whispers*...and your enemies closer.

Wolfmother: Cell Block H: The Zigg

Lupa knew something was going down, but no one would tell her what, much less when. Pistol seemed to have the whole damn Zigg buzzing around her like flies around a [censored]. Maybe she should swallow her hatred and call a truce.

If only she had something that whoreson Cruise wanted, she could get some answers. But Cruise was way too expensive. Lupa hadn’t had a visitor since she was banged up. Her Wolfpack had gone to ground, and there was no way to get a message to them, no way to get funds smuggled in.

The Judge had told her she’d die in prison for killing that pimp, but Lupa knew that was not going to happen. She’d get out. She just hoped that it was soooooon.

She hisses “Hey Pistol!” Just loud enough to be heard in the next cell. “ I know what you’re plannin’. I want in, or I’m squealin’.” It was a lousy bluff, but Lupa had no other leverage. That would all change once she got outside, but for now she’d just have to improvise.

Lupa the Wolfmother: The Cell next to Pistol: Zigg Cell Block H

Lupa groaned softly to herself.

(thinks) That [censored] Pistol is out of solitary already. She thinks she's sooo hot. [censored].

As she sits on her bunk she distractedly traces the lines of the scars on her face. The wardens don't like her. She's no looker: can't get away with a thing, not like that [censored] in the next cell.

(thinks) I'll wipe that smirk off your face, Pistol. Now you're back in circulation, your precious guards won't be able to watch you everywhere, even if you are blowing them for cigarettes. [censored].

A cold, wolfish smile spreads across her ruined face. She’s had an idea…

Hi Bewilderer, I'll be sure to read your story with interest.

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Good story, but would anyone with her background know so much about history?

I'm referring to Lupa, Enkidu, Romulus and Remus.

Not that it are bad names, quite the opposite considering the background.

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Thanks for taking the time to read all that, and for the feedback
It turns out that one of Lupa’s earliest regular clients was a professor of ancient history at Nerva University. He liked to make her wear Roman clothing and act in character as one of the priestess of the sacred fire, a Vestal Virgin. She was required to know enough to carry the role convincingly and is quite at home discussing the mores of ancient Roman society, as well as the older myths and legends that were themselves part of the Roman’s cultural heritage. She admired the energy and brutality of the Romans, and this is reflected in the names she chose for her foundlings.

I think the new Thugs MM powerset is going to offer some great opportunities for roleplaying come I7, and with that in mind I've written a back story for the character I will be creating. It's a bit long, but if you've got the time and the inclination I'd really appreciate some feedback, since this is my first attempt at this sort of thing. So here goes (to be read in a Film Noir type voiceover style):

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The Wolfmother

Lupa was brought up in the brothels and crack houses of St Martial: her mother was a wh0re and her father was a bad mistake. When she was sold to her mother’s pimp for a bag of crack she hadn’t yet seen her twelth summer, and from then on life just got tougher. She chose Lupa as her working name. To the Romans Lupa meant both she-wolf and prostitute. No one remembers the name her mother gave her, and she’s not telling.

A natural talent for her work could never disguise a quick temper, or blunt her claws when the Johns wanted more of her than she was prepared to sell. Her pimp threw her out on the street before she was 20. Her body was still good, but she’d taken one beating too many and the John’s had stopped calling. Sure, there were some who liked the scars, but they liked other things too, dark things, and Lupa wouldn’t play along.

On the streets she found her first real home, and the deadbeats made better company than the pimps and pushers that had owned her all her life. She made a place for herself in the cellar of an abandoned warehouse, and licked her wounds.

The first stray she took in was no more than nine years old. If he’d ever learned to speak, he’d forgotten how when Lupa found him shivering in a pile of garbage down by the docks. She knew the uses to which children could be put, and her future revealed itself to her there in the half light of a St Martial dawn. She would be the Wolfmother, and raise her own pack of vicious thugs to own the streets.

Her first she named Enkidu, taught him how to hold a gun. He learned well and grew fast. When the twins showed up and tried to rob her den, they were even wilder than Enkidu had been. But she could see their potential for violence, and they responded to her the way males always had. Romulus and Remus they became, and added their number to the wolfpack.

For 10 long years the juvenile wolfpack hunted small prey in the shadows. As Enkidu and the twins grew they became the terror of the night time streets. Lupa learned to use the drugs that had always been part of her life to strengthen her pack and weaken her prey. More wolflings came as her reputation spread, and were bound to the Wolfmother by the rites of the pack. They began to take on bigger prey.

It was then that Lupa learned her ex-pimp had retired, and was living the easy life in Grandville. What the wolfpack left of him was still breathing a week later, but no one could have called it alive. Yet the pimp had friends in high places, ex-clients who remembered the good times and owed him a favour. The pack escaped the vengeance of his associates, but the Wolfmother wound up in the Zigg, on death row.

Arachnos broke Lupa out six months later, but without the Wolfmother to hold them together the wolfpack had scattered. Only Enkidu was still waiting when Arachnos put her back on the street. Together they started to rebuild the pack.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

To be continued...

Thanks for all your replies. It looks like my tankermind idea using bodyguard mode and provoke will be feasable if a bit vulnerable to mez attacks. should be fun though!

No one? Has anyone tried either of the anti-mezz bubbles in PvP? Are they enough to stop a controller hold ? Do they stack with combat jumping and acrobatics? Do they stop holds altogether or just reduce the duration?

I read on the US boards that dispersion bubble is mag 2 or 3, but if anyone has practical experience using them, especially in PvP, I would really like to know what they're like to use in practice.

cheers

PS I gave the thread 5 stars just to try and get some answers, sorry if that's bad form...

Nice guide Filth. Having fought both against and with you, in PvP and PvE, I can testify that you know more about Doms than most. I've never seen a more effective Dominator in Siren's, that's for sure. You manged to tie my ice tank in knots!