Techbot Alpha

Paragon, Astoria Catacombs

The young hunter had aspirations. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of Heroes he admired, fighting the fight against the Unholy and Demons and the like.
Aspirations and a bit of blind faith, however, were no protection against some of the evils that lurked in the night.
"Get back!" he shouted, small silver crucifix in one hand, a burning torch in the other.
The three figures in front of him laughed, two cracked and haunting the other deep and snarling.
"Foolish little mortal...your trinkets don't phase the likes of us," one Vampire, a creature with elongated teeth, a bald head and stretched, papery skin leered, lunging and lashing out with one incredibly long-taloned hand. The young man was fast enough not to lose his fingers, but the crucifix was sliced in half like paper, the pieces clinking away into the darkness.
"Let me break him...I get the marrow, you get the blood," the hulking werewolf growled, a deep bass rumble showing he was chuckling.
"Yes, why not," the other vampire, a pale but more humanoid figure with unnaturally dark eyes drawled, motioning at the hunter, who had drawn an ornate pistol. "This one isn't going to make much of a h-"

The man shot him, straight between the eyes. The other two glanced around, as the third figure sighed, digging two long nails into his own face with a sickening fleshy sound, before prying the bullet out.
"Not even enscorscled. How pa-schk!"

The other two almost jumped back as the vampire looked down, a surprised expression on his face as he stared at the blade growing from his chest.
"Credit where credits due though, right chaps?" it's wielder, a tall man with black hair, red glasses and a red blazer said, stepping out of the shadows. "Three on one..most unsporting."

The air blurred and stretched, and suddenly the figure was stood behind the young hunter with his back to all of them, arm horizontal across his chest holding the katana blade facing down.
There was a choking sound, before the previously impaled vampire slid in half with a sound like bleeding silk, collapsing into ash even as his body hit the floor. The werewolf snarled while the other vampire brought up its claws.
"You! Who are you?"
Leon smirked, looking over his glasses at them.
"I'm complicated. And you are both discraces to the bloodlines. Begone," he gestured dissmissively at them. The Vampire screeched at him, even as the giant werewolf loped forward. The young hunter shot it twice in the chest, before being shouldered aside, his pistol clattering to the floor.
Leon lunged, the katana blade humming as it blurred through the air. The two passed each other, the werewolf slowing to a stop, looking down at itself, then turning slowly.
Its companions face became a rictus of fear. The man in red hadn't even taken a scratch, while the hulking wolf looked like it had been used as a naughts and crosses board. Leon spun like lightning, ending in a crouch with the blade held out to his right. The wolfs head hit the floor a second later, followed by the body.

Terror and instinct overtook the final vampire as it lunged madly, giant claws scything. Amazingly, its adversary just seemed to stand and take it as the claws raked crosswise across his face, before the creature rammed both pairs of talons through his chest with a triumphant snarl. The hunter, who had by now found his pistol, looked up in horror, only for his eyes to widen in amazement as the man in red simply smiled.
The other two watched as the cuts began to heal rapidly, before the katana sang out again and the vampire shrieked as its hands were severed at the wrist, before the still imbedded talons crumbled to ash.
"You...how...what are you?!" the thing gasped as it tried to backpedal on all fours.
"A right royal pain in the @ss," the man laughed, kicking it visciously in the face, before hacking it clean in half with one clean sweep. With an echoing wail, the thing turned to ash.

"Sir...w-who are you?" the hunter asked, re-lighting his torch.
The man in red turned, looking over his ruby glasses with equally red-pupiled eyes, smiling wide enough to show fangs. The young man took a step back in shock.
"You...you're a vampire?"
"Lord Leon DeFeurard, at your service. Although next time it will probably cost you," Leon chuckled, the katana in his hand vanishing like mist. "Tell your hunters that, so long as they don't decide to take potshots at me, I won't pick sides. Or...we might even be able to do business. Their choice."

And with that, he dissapeared into the darkness.

Pretty simple really, right now the Sewer Trial is capped at level 40, right? Simple enough, you'd think. Minimum team is 4. No problem...

The mobs on a level 40 team spawn at level 42.
They are incredibly Boss heavy. Like, 3-4 bosses per mob. And these are Rikti; they hit hard. Really damn hard.

Now, that in itself wouldnt be a problem either. We on a team of four, with a scrapper, blaster, defender and a controller. We'd managed to do fairly well so far. While it wasnt fast, it also wasnt by any means a struggle.

Except the 'Defeat Hydra Head' mission is timed. Oh, and its a defeat all. And did I mention? There are multiple Hatched Krakens in the level, 4 alone in the Hydra Head basin. All monster class, all at +2, all capable of wiping the team in a very short ammount of time. The only reason we were able to defeat them was because my blaster was AR/Ice and the controller was Gravity. We managed to spam enough holds to keep the things locked down solid while we whittled away their health.

So, I'm rambling now. What is the suggestion?
-Get rid of the +2 lock. That in itself makes the trial less fun and much more of a chore.
-Cut down the Krakens to about 2. They dont give Merits or anything, their just a massive roadbump.

If none of that is 'possible', then;
-Increase the time limit.

Or, even;
-Raise the minimum level of people. Because it says 4+ people should be able to do it. And thats simply not true. Certainly not at a +2 setting no one asked for.

tl;dr

Make the Sewer Trial work like every other TF/Trial and obey the level settings or the Team Leader. Stop the Rikti and Hydra being cheating little [Bleep]s

The character I posted about in the IC thread? I'd link you to the Handbook...but I dont even know if I did a page for him, come to think of it...

Either way, he was 'bound' by MAGI, until recently, by which point he had got ticked off by all their rules and regulations and flipped them the bird, breaking the bonds and deciding to go his own way. Wether that is Heroside or Villainside remains to be seen, although he's undoutably a shades of grey kinda guy.

(Katana/Regen scrapper, power wise )

*Wonders how best to fit Leon into the whole proceedings*

Roger roger

Handbooks still down. Any intel on why and when it might be up again?

((Damnit, P, now I just have a mental image of Pious going to take a step forward and slowly falling over backwards due to weight of weaponary ))

Ooo, we've got to the level up stage and nee another one!

/Signed
A Mids like layout would be a perfect Upgrade to the Respec screen, IMO. Becuase swipe me if the current one isnt clunky as all hell... (Sorry Satan )