_Shadowstone_

What EvilGeko has to say pretty much said what I wanted too, only better.


[ QUOTE ]
# The 24 hour timer on TF, Trial, etc. - I understand the reason for it. You obviously don't want people doing the same thing every day, farmer or no. You apparently want people to vary up their content. Understandable, but if this is what you're going to do, then I would suggest a UI improvement. Other games (which have even more draconian lockout timers) give you an indication that you're locked out of a particular instance and for how long. We need that here. Just some UI indication of what's going on.

# Pool C and D - There is no longer anything other than an artificial differentiation among these pools. Trials and TFs both give merits. It is confusing for people who were not frequent market watchers to even know what is in each pool. To correct this I would suggest that you:

1) Create one random drop pool that cost 20 merits to roll. Yes, this screws people on Pool D, see below.

2) Add information to the Merit vendors about what recipes are in the random pool.

# SOs and Common IOs - I really don't see why you're charging so much for SOs., but 8/12 merits is literally criminal. That's not subjective. The in game value of these recipes is very low compared to the value of merits.

It appears that you are pricing these to be consistent with the old ability to get a SO from a TF or Trial, but that was never a good deal.

# Supply issues - It's already starting, but even though more people that I would have expected are taking the random roll, the supply is starting to dry up. To correct this I would suggest adding Pool C and D to the enemy drop tables as a separate pool (like the costume drops). Since costumes only drop off minions, you might consider having these recipes only drop from Lts. or above. This would increase supply and insure that the market remains an alternative for those who don't want to have to use merits for everything.

[/ QUOTE ]


Steele_Magnolia pretty much said how I feel, I just tweaked it to my personal feelings:

[ QUOTE ]
Subjective:

Merits feel like a grind.

Let me emphasize that, A GRIND.


Under the old system: Finish Task Force: Oooh, I get a shiny! Maybe it would be something good or useful to that character or that could be shared, or maybe it wouldn’t, but there was instant gratification to this.

Under the new system: Finish Task Force: Oh, gee, um, merits...Yay!? Um, so, how many more TFs do I have to do to get my shiny? No instant gratification. Even if the task force was long enough to meet the 20 merit goal of being ‘worthy’ of a random roll, the player still has to make a trip to turn them in. There’s no excitement to this.

I understand the goals, both stated and unstated, behind the Merit System. I like the OPTION to save merits to purchase a desired item, to no longer be reliant on market flippers.

The excitement of a reward at the end is gone. Comparing and trading rewards with your teammates is gone. I think you have underestimated the importance of this.

[/ QUOTE ]

The system is also skewed heavily in favor of Heroes.

I realize this system is in it's infancy yet, but I have noticed a drop off of Villian side teaming, and this is on one of the heavier populated servers. I play Villians 90% of the time and hop onto my Heroes when friends want to play theirs.

I would love it if we had the option to choose from the appropriate IO pool or Merits at the end of a Strike Force/ Task Force. Granted, we may not get what we wanted or could use, but that's the chance we take with lady luck.

Great post!

You hit all of the points and more on why I don't enter PvP zones anymore. I've been chatting with friends, off and on for awhile now, about what could be done to possibly get more use out of those zones and/or the PvP / PvE issue with them.
I'm glad you posted this because you're way more eloquent with how it's laid out and worded than I could have been.

It was a decent run, but the 'problem child' and his buddies are gong to ruin it for everyone.
It's too bad you had to experience the B.S. you did tonight, Grey, because when done right it only takes one tank to pull the GM and hold aggro. He goes down fast, but that's when every one is ready....unlike tonight.

Storm runs a smooth, fun event that is well organized. But, in the last 4 or 5 weeks the 'problem child' has been taking pleasure in ruining it for a lot of people.

Tonight, the 'problem child's' so called 'herding' got my scrapper killed 6 times due to pulling spawns full of Magi on top of her, taking a few attacks then running off to get another so called 'herd' and leaving me with more aggro and incoming damage than I could ever handle.

Sadly, the 'problem child' and his buddies are being immature (as by tonights broadcast b.s.) and are jealous of how well this event is run.

Great guide.
It should help shed some light on the huge possibilities IO's and set IO's have on characters for those who may be undecided about how effective they can be.

I have a Brute that I was experimenting with (the Em/Elec in my sig, currently 35 on Test) that I was using CI in Brawl (only 4 slotted yet) and ToD in Energy Transfer and Air Superiority. I can say that for a Brute, slotted Brawl is nothing to turn your nose up at in PvE or PvP.
I was using Rope a Dope in the stun attacks, but that's probably for another guide.

Crushing Impact - Dam/End - pool A.

I got it off of a Carnival of Shadows Attendant minion in a mission.

[ QUOTE ]
Now that there's some people who have played this powerset for awhile on test server-- how does it measure up?

It seems like it's nowhere near "martial arts"... What is it comparable to?

I'm really confused on whether or not this is going to be a worthwhile powerset when its released.

[/ QUOTE ]

It still has a few quirks to work out of it yet, and could use a minor damage boost to the single target attacks.

With that said, my lvl 20 can rival DM/ in fury building (with Boxing, Charged Brawl, Brawl, and a Havoc Punch thrown in now and then), just not it's DPS. But I'm two lvl's away from Lightning Reflexes, so we'll see.

[ QUOTE ]
Nah, they have an "I'm being electrocuted!!" animation, they probably just have a number wrong and the effect is invoking the wrong animation.

[/ QUOTE ]

It was just a wild guess on my part. I've seen them do the animation when they are well out of range of my lightning field.
Maybe they drug their feet on the carpet and got a shock when they touched thier gun.

[ QUOTE ]
Just noticed this little bug:

I was fighting some Hellions with my level 5 elec/elec brute and found that when they were in melee range and I had lightning field on, they would seem to keep repeating an animation similar to the one for siphon life.

[/ QUOTE ]

It's possible that animation is the closest thing the Dev's could find that resembles someone recieving a shock while trying to melee. I know there are the two other full body animations that resemble getting shocked, so it's a wild guess on my part.

[ QUOTE ]
Ok, level 40 bank mission everything going smooth get to bank job and INFERNAL was the Hero. GIVE ME A BREAK. A timed mission set at Ruthless with a MM and Scrapper and we get a Hero = to a Arch-Villain per posts earlier. It is bad enought getting a group to take down Infernal but, would a bank let that Fire Deamon spawning character even in bank vault. 5 secs after he sends us to Jail the Bank burns from the inside out. Would I get points for Arson? Get real please Infernal would never respond to a bank Robbery it is below him. Give me Mynx, Swan, or any other SK of the Phalanx.

If you gonna set hero level in Mayhem Missions give small groups a Weapon to weaken them in the mission like a water hose for Infernal. Hell Lex Luthor would not rob a bank without Kriptnite on a leash to stop Superman.

[/ QUOTE ]

Obviiously you haven't encountered Swan in a Mayhem mission yet. She's a pain in the butt Psi/Kin and did a 6 person team wipe the first encounter. We regrouped, with 16 min. left, (the MM was far enough out of aggro and sight to awaken, tp and help rez) and took her down with 2 min to spare.
We weren't slacking on the mayhem part before meeting her, and that's the only thing that saved us.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

I did both missions twice. Once I saw Dr. Aeon vanish I just went back out and reset and it worked the second time around.


[/ QUOTE ]

I did that mission twice and the same disappearing trick happened both times. Guess it's intermittent.

[ QUOTE ]

The Strangest part is, the clues still exist in my queue. There was no souvenir. (not even one to tell me I failed). And Black Scorpion now just tells me to come back at 45. That entire second arc was never even available to some people.

[/ QUOTE ]

I succeeded (because a GM cleared the mission) and I got a souvenir. I guess the failed mission case is bugged.

[/ QUOTE ]

I did the first arc with my Dominator, failed no missions, got no souvenir and was told to come back at lvl 45. I still think this is a random bug and we're supposed to get the second arc at 45.

[ QUOTE ]
This arc is one of the best ive seen so far. The story arc is amazing and alot of EBs/AVs in it. Theres one mish where you have to rescue Ice Mistral and get GWs remains that is bugged and needs the help of a GM. Overall Scirocco is a tough punk to take down even as an EB. The map that he is in is incredible and a wide open outside orenbega map. You all will totally enjoy this arc.

[/ QUOTE ]

He won't give me the second story arc until I'm lvl 45. The same thing goes for my Dominator and Black Scorpion.

I'm curious as to whether this is intended by the Dev's, for it to be random whether you get the second story arc right away (so we can test out the missions ), or have to wait. I bet we're supposed to wait until lvl 45 to get the second story arc.

[ QUOTE ]
As I feared, 40-50 in CoV is gonna be a EB/AV fest. I'm stuck in the Scirroco arc because he wants me to fight Silver Mantis, then Baracuda, etc. Silver Mantis is a [censored] at 40, shredding my DM/FA to bit even with 4 lucks running.

I was hoping I could get to 50 without tripping over a unsoloable foe every other mission.

[/ QUOTE ]

I got as far as silver mantis tonight, with my em/ fa and gave up after 3 defeats in a row ( set on Vicious).
I loaded up on purple and green pills knowing it wouldn't be easy. I got her down to 1/3 health all three times, but she just tore thru me. (I even had a /kin corr with me the last time and it made no difference)

I rolled an DM/EA in beta and liked it, but haven't made the live version yet. I will get around to him once my Dominator's lvling slows down to a crawl in the late 20's .
But I did make an EM/FA brute to run with a friend, who also made the same type, and we were burning through missions once he got the hang of SMASH!