Techbot Alpha

Saving Triggerhappy and General Grandpa from Nemesis in the Rikti Warzone.

What....simpleton thought of making them non rescuable? Pets you have to keep alive are the devil in pixel form, I tell you. Not to mention one of them is an old man with a pistol who will run up and punch Warhulks in the face! Not to mention Nemesis ambushes are large if anything but solo, and deal an ungoldy ammount of accurate AoE attacks.
I hate this mission. I hate it with a passion.

"ETA?"
"Damn quick, Inspector."
"Maybe they'll listen next time we suggest a PPD prescence," Jen Kerringer said quietly, motioning for the driver of the cop car to pull over. "I'll walk it from here. No point in getting whoever is inside all riled up with an obvious prescence. As long as he thinks he's in control, he'll make mistakes."

The Chief Inspector of the PPD Special Response Unit, or SRU, stepped out, double checking her equipment. She was bareheaded, as she normally was in all but the heaviest of firefights. Her body was covered in middle-weight, sleek armour, white and dark blue to show her colours as a PPD officer. The only exposed areas were her forearms and lower legs, and that was only because her cybernetic limbs were tougher than all but the heaviest armour in the PPD armoury.
One last time she checked the twin arclite pistols she had holstered by her hips; the moddable pistols were equipped with silencers and what looked like scopes, although they were actually remote optics, which she could connect to via neural uplink. It was the same as having an eye in each gun, allowing her to aim via her built in HuD.

Entering, Jen noticed two women stood by the doors, as if waiting. They didn't seem hostile, but she opened her holsters just in case she needed a quick draw.
"SRU Inspector Kerringer, PPD," she said, keeping her voice quiet as she headed towards them. "Whats the situation?"

Well that proves just how messed up the PvP IOs are, in my opinion.
If it gives you something to aim for and be happy with, power to you. But the majority of players will never see a billion inf, let alone 2 billion.

Why do you need stay?
Steamroller them all!

But yeah, AI can choose any random moment to spaz out, sadly. Thats life (and electronics)

"Bro, Chief. I'm in the rafters. What've you got for me on the bombs?" Wolf murmured, looking around.
Without moving, the Chief shut off his external speakers, switching to internal coms. Given the time they had spent fighting alongside Vanguard agaisnt the Rikti, the SABRE teams comm link was pretty much impenatrable by man or alien.
"Unsure. We won't get much use out of infra-red. And the ammount of tech around will probably stop the tech filter. Cycle through, see what you can find."

Wolf nodded, an affirmative beep being sent to the Chief, as he began looking around, cycling through the multi-spectral filters in his helm, searching to see if anything showed up...

You say that like 2 billion is pocket money.
"Then players cannot sell for more than 2 billion"; GOOD! 2 billion inf would be a stupid price to put anything up for. And you can bet your bottom dollar it would go unbought for a long time.
/unsigned

The Chief didn't move, the pulse riding over him like water trying to break down a damn. He'd weathered worse assaults than this, but he knew well enough not to do anything rash.
"Everyone alright?" he murmured, glancing at Fox and Vix as they hauled themselves upright.
"Just...effin' peachy," Fox grumbled, smacking himself in the head twice as his suit twitched and sparked a little. "Oh, that creep...if he's busted anything I'm roasting his a$$..."
"Get in line..." Vix growled, sounding genuinely annoyed as she massaged her head. Her ears were ringing, and she felt a headache coming on. She didn't like headaches. Her eyes flashed crimson for a moment, entertaining the (somewhat rash) idea of telepathically ordering all the shocktroopers to turn on their master...but best not to.

***

Across the hall, Wolf dragged himself up the pillar, cursing quietly under his breath. He glanced around; no one seemed to have spotted him yet.
Silently, he powered up the pulse jets in his boots, gliding up into the rafters and getting an arial view of the hall.
This was going to be...interesting.

/Signed. They give badges, ones that are needed for accolades no less. Ergo, they should show up in Ouro.

It's not a good idea. Thats pretty much all I can say for it. It defeat the point of the game, is all

Having finally gotten into a Warshade, I admit that VEATs get heavily shortchanged on story content, now.
What'd be better than having to stick to the whole damn 'Destined' shctick is to actually be a loyalist. Y'know, beating the snot out of street thugs and rogues, before moving up to taking on the actual big boys in the Isles, right the way up to laying the smack down on his Lordships 'wonderboy' Destined rats. Maybe even all the way up to Commander, or Arbiter. That'd be cool.

I still love the AT. While not the morphable doomball that my WS is, my Crab is still a walking warmachine, and doesn't rely quite as much on a team. When he does have a team, though, he's a solid part of it. If that team happens to be nearly all VEATs...bwuahaha..

D=
Good luck, Niv! Take care, and may life be kind t'ya!

So, it's not often I make rambling posts (Liar - Inner Ed.) but I felt this topic deserved it.
I've long had a lot of problems with Hero Epic ATs. Peacebringers and Warshades just eluded my grasp of understanding of how to make them tick. But, recently, I tried again...and this time suceeded.

Low Levels; Hmm....Idea!

Being the sort of player who cannot play a character unless it has a concept behind it, one that I can RP, I had to get that nailed down first. But after that, the next most important question;
Human, Twin or Triform?

I have to say, the one thing that always grabbed me was the Kheldian shapeshifting ability. It was the reason I slugged my way to 50 on my first character, simply to get my hands on the shiny, morphing aliens that I had seen on teams yet did not have. The flexibility of being able to adapt to the situation as it changed drew me to triform.
Why Warshade, you might ask? Well, two reasons; 1) I'd heard better things about WS's than I had PB's and, while I had recently tried a PB again, I had not tried a Purple One for a long time. And 2? Well, the PB sound effects give me a headache. Its that simple. I like the chime sound but, every attack? Does my head in. Heh.

The first couple of levels go much the same as any other AT... Until level 6. Why? Nova form, my friends. This equates to having two travel powers by level 6, which gives you some flexibility and, more importantly, what equates to a gunship mode. Two ST attacks, two AoE attacks, all with +hit and +damage from your form? Very tasty.

The next step was to get Hasten. Now, I'd never tried hasten combined with a WS or PB before, being very much a stickler for 'One travel power, if that'. Even from the pools.
More fool me. The instant difference was impressive, to say the least. Spitting antimatter goop on mobs is one thing; rapid fire wiping out said mobs with mass AoE damage? The feeling of sheer power is fantastic.

And then comes the Mire. Get down on your mortal knees and bow before the Sunless Mire, the nastiest weapon of destruction known to man or Kheldian. Plain and simple now; if I ever see a Warshade without this, I will laugh in their face. Of course, I will then attempt to rectify their naive error, because I'm nice like that (Run! He's lying! -Inner Ed.) QUiet you!

Levelling up: Consuuuummee...

The journey beings in earnest from here. The one bit of advice for anyone reading this (that hasn't run away yet...) is this; team. If its offered, take it. Even duoing is healthier at this stage. The most impressive team I have had in a long, long time consisted of myself and two Peacebringers, both with Nova form, and five other Heroes. I didint even bother to remember the AT's; the sheer carnage we gave the Outcasts and Frostfire was incredible. I don't think I've ever seen Frosty go down so fast, and this was at the level where he gets cheaty and uses a hold and two sets of pets.

Some people skip shadow cloak. Why? Well, on the outset, it doesnt look that good. I was of the same frame of mind for a long time. But, coupled with Super Speed (You should have taken Hasten. If not, go back, put on your D cap, and do it again ) it makes you invisible. It's a multi purpose tool, now. You can ghost maps if the need arises, you can travel safely through dangerous areas (although Nova lets you do that too, but slower) and you can run up into a mobs face without reprecussion and Mire the ever loving snot outta them. *Chitter, Krrrk*

Gravity Well is the next bit of kit to come my way. I'm still torn on how to slot this little beauty; Damage? Damage is goood. But Hold duration...its great at that too. Argh! Decisions! Either way, this thing is the bane of any vermin that dares point a Void Rifle in your direction ever again, unless its Boss con, in which case you (should) have team mates to hurl in its face.
It also does great against regular annoyances, like CoT Demon Lts, just fine. You like mez? I'll give you mez!

And then we come to the big daddy; Dwarf Form. Affectionately know as 'The Lobster', 'What is that?!' and 'Argharhgh it trod on my foot!', the Black Dwarf comes with a very, very nasty tool in its arsenal; the second Mire. Yup. You get two of these things. Whats better then an ungodly, lifeforce suckung tool of destruction? Two tools of destruction! And, while the Dwarf form might need some slots in its attacks to reach full potential, it does reach it; and man does it hit like a ton of rectangular building things. The added bonus is that its a mez shield you can activate while mezzed, and is then immune to it (For the most part. Be very, very wary of Tsoo Green ink men, though, and their mass stacking stuns. They are nasty. Yes, nastier than you. Its not a nice concept, I know.)

One other word of caution; switching forms and then getting mezzed will cause the shift to cancel. If you are mezzed and shifting to dwarf form, and get another mez stacked on you, it will cancel. Be mindful, its a pain in the neg energy mass.

Stygian Circle: Let the Reaping begin!

There are very few powers that make me cackle right out the box. I love things like Omega Maneuver and Full Auto once they have slots in them, and things like Build Up and whatnot usually help out a lot from the get go. But they dont feel that...super, y'know?

Not so the Stygian Circle, the allfather of doom and destruction, the- *ahem* yeah, sorry.
Seriously, this thing needs two extra slots, tops. And, even without them, its godly. Kill two minions, and suck the recently departed life force out of them. Even unslotted, that heals a huge chunk of health a good load of endurance. If you and your team just wiped out a whole mob, you'll be back to running on full.
Stamina? Stamina is for the weak! Slot Stygian Circle for two end mod and one end red and you'll be sorted for the rest of your purplingly purple days. This is the beginning of the end...for anyone that gets in your way, that is.


So...that's it for now. As my little purple nightmare makes her way up the levels, I'll drop back and update her progress. If I remember, while busy consuming all those in my path.
Tor'kar o' nah, prey things!

So long as it's being worked on, that's good. Going Rogue (Not Rouge, dahling, it clashes ) takes priority for now. Im sure once thats out and they get that mass of man (and woman) power freed up, they can start rocking out on the stuff we are yammering for.

T'be honest, pick whichever you prefer.
Flight: Morphs wings
Teleportation: Ability to shift across large distances thanks to his nature
Super Jump: Changes his legs to be incredibly strong
Super Speed: see above, with a focus on run speed

Duly noted. Thanks SO =]

Yeah, I picked a number of powers for being automatic and not needing many slots, to allow more room for the Form powers and things like Mire and Gravity well.

Starless step is good for hauling out Voids and Quantums, before smacking them in the face with a Gravity well and all manner of negative based death. That and its slot cheap. However it is perfectly skippable too.

Ok, loving the Trishade utterly. Now that I know she's a keeper, I've turned the attention to future IO slotting.

Question: Do set bonuses in forms carry over to human form, and other forms? If so, all good, if not; damn.

This is the build I've worked up so far, based on the build thats currently on live, with a few minor alterations;

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.621
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Umbral Nightwalker: Level 50 Science Warshade
Primary Power Set: Umbral Blast
Secondary Power Set: Umbral Aura
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Shadow Bolt

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 1: Absorption

• (A) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3%

Level 2: Gravimetric Snare

• (A) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure
• (5) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure

Level 4: Ebon Eye

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 6: Dark Nova

• (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod
• (46) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance

Level 8: Hasten

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (9) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 10: Gravity Shield

• (A) HamiO:Ribosome Exposure
• (17) HamiO:Ribosome Exposure

Level 12: Sunless Mire

• (A) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (13) HamiO:Nucleolus Exposure
• (13) Recharge Reduction IO
• (15) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 14: Shadow Cloak

• (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense
• (15) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed

Level 16: Super Speed

• (A) Celerity - +Stealth

Level 18: Gravity Well

• (A) Unbreakable Constraint - Hold
• (19) Unbreakable Constraint - Hold/Recharge
• (19) Unbreakable Constraint - Accuracy/Hold/Recharge
• (50) Unbreakable Constraint - Accuracy/Recharge
• (50) Unbreakable Constraint - Endurance/Hold

Level 20: Black Dwarf

• (A) HamiO:Ribosome Exposure
• (21) HamiO:Ribosome Exposure
• (21) HamiO:Ribosome Exposure
• (46) Endurance Modification IO

Level 22: Stygian Circle

• (A) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod
• (23) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Recharge
• (23) Efficacy Adaptor - EndMod/Endurance

Level 24: Starless Step

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 26: Gravitic Emanation

• (A) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure
• (27) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure
• (27) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure

Level 28: Inky Aspect

• (A) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure
• (29) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure
• (29) HamiO:Endoplasm Exposure

Level 30: Nebulous Form

• (A) Jumping IO

Level 32: Dark Extraction

• (A) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Recharge
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Damage/Endurance
• (33) Expedient Reinforcement - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (34) Expedient Reinforcement - Endurance/Damage/Recharge

Level 35: Quasar

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (36) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (36) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (37) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 38: Eclipse

• (A) Resist Damage IO
• (39) Resist Damage IO
• (39) Accuracy IO
• (39) Recharge Reduction IO
• (40) Recharge Reduction IO
• (40) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 41: Stygian Return

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO
• (42) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 44: Swift

• (A) Run Speed IO

Level 47: Health

• (A) Numina's Convalescence - +Regeneration/+Recovery

Level 49: Stamina

• (A) Endurance Modification IO

------------
Level 1: Brawl

• (A) Accuracy IO

Level 1: Sprint

• (A) Run Speed IO

Level 2: Rest

• (A) Recharge Reduction IO

Level 1: Dark Sustenance
Level 2: Ninja Run

• (A) Empty

Level 10: Shadow Recall

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

------------
Level 6: Dark Nova Bolt

• (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (25) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (42) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (43) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 6: Dark Nova Blast

• (A) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage
• (3) Decimation - Damage/Endurance
• (17) Decimation - Damage/Recharge
• (37) Decimation - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge
• (48) Decimation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge

Level 6: Dark Nova Emanation

• (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (7) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (9) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (11) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
• (31) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 6: Dark Nova Detonation

• (A) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage
• (5) Positron's Blast - Damage/Endurance
• (7) Positron's Blast - Damage/Recharge
• (11) Positron's Blast - Damage/Range
• (34) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 20: Black Dwarf Strike

• (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage
• (43) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance
• (48) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge
• (48) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (50) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 20: Black Dwarf Smite

• (A) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage
• (43) Crushing Impact - Damage/Endurance
• (45) Crushing Impact - Damage/Recharge
• (45) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (45) Crushing Impact - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance

Level 20: Black Dwarf Mire

• (A) Obliteration - Damage
• (25) Obliteration - Accuracy/Recharge
• (31) Obliteration - Damage/Recharge
• (34) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge
• (46) Obliteration - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge

Level 20: Black Dwarf Drain

• (A) Theft of Essence - Healing
• (31) Theft of Essence - Healing/Recharge
• (37) Theft of Essence - Accuracy/Healing
• (40) Theft of Essence - Accuracy/Endurance/Healing
• (42) Theft of Essence - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge

Level 20: Black Dwarf Step

• (A) Endurance Reduction IO

Level 20: Black Dwarf Antagonize

• (A) Taunt Duration IO

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I really hope the other tutorials get a revamp, but Im not holding my breath over it.
The Hero one is just dull. The Villain one needs to not have that cutscene. Seriously, it's not exactly well done.

But, yeah *shrug*

About 1.5 or 2 times what we have at the moment would be nice. Sometimes, even if its not a full biog, the sensory and suchnot descriptions can take up a lot of room.

And the text boxes still need fixing. Been borked since I14, so...yeah.

/Signed. I like it.
Maybe add special ones if you are on a team that are EB or AV fights.
Hell, maybe make the EB fight the normal one, to avoid standard Boss fight boredom.

Part of the 'Having Fun' equation for me equates to 'Not faceplanting all the damn time', because somebody or somebodies cant do their part for the team right.

/Signed

So long as someone fixes that attrocious bug in the in-game text editors, whereby clicking at all is next to impossible, without the selection going spaz on you. It's been that way since MA showed up, and its still lurking around.