_Echo_

It would give you the first 3 bonuses again.

Okay since the last weekend wasn't good for everyone to make it, how about Saturday August 23rd?

Badgrats!

Last night was a lot of fun. The combined Team 3/Team Alpha DAWG WOOF managed to finish off Croatoa altogether, and were sitting more or less 30-33 at the end of the night.

What's on the cards for next week, once Croatoa is finished? Midnighter Club or Ouroborous intiation perhaps?

Just a reminder, trapping this weekend, Saturday from 2pm, BYOFFG!

Yup please do come along! We've averaged a pretty solid 3 teams of 6-7 memebrs each the past couple of weeks, so there's a little bit of room there for people who want to join in.

Maybe the Hess TF (25-30) is a better choice for this weekend, Canine?

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My team all ended up lvl 30-31, I believe, aside from our sidekick Repentant. We finished Skipper and are up to Nemmer's final mission, the Eternal (Crab) Battle.

The meeting point for next week will be Croatoa university courtyard. That probably won't take all night, so we may need other things to occupy us. Ouroboros intro arc perhaps?

If we finish Croatoa before lvl 35 (and more new contents), perhaps the respec trial will be on the cards for the week after?

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The blasters get their big hitters (Piranha gets what is, IMO, the best nuke in the game).

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Not a nuke, since it doesn't kill the end bar. It is probably the best targetted AoE attack in the game tho...

Consider Domination. It is essentially two buffs: a damage buff and a control/mez protection buff.

The Dominator AT is currently balanced between being underpowered when out of Domination and overpowered while inside it, to create a class with a dichotomoy or a split personality.

The problem with this set up is Perma-dom upsets the balance by ignoring the weaker peronsality altogether and remaining in the overpowered form.

Castle is trying to keep the dichotomy that so characterises the AT, while at the same time removing the potential for abuse from having one overpowered and one underpowered form - instead making the AT balanced over both forms.

He has suggested doing this by moving the damage from one state to the other, sharing the two buffs between two forms.

Currently being within Domination is enirely preferable to being in the other state in every way. With the change, either state could be preferable depending on the situation.

This change could certainly help the common Dom contribute to AV encounters, where the control boost is not always helpful. It would also expand the Dominator's role in teams and turn the Dominator into a dual-class AT.

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I think if this domination change went ahead, the power domination should be changed to a toggle, with a moderate recharge. That way you're not stuck in one mode, but can't constantly swap for uber damage and control.

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I think this can be safely assumed. It fits so well and the alternative is so obviously stupid and awkward, I believe Castle assumed it didn't need mentioning. Either that, or Castle has something else in mind - but I just don't see dom building and duration playing out like it does currently.

Also consider this: whether or not you have Perma-dom now, you would get the ability to go into Domination whenever you choose under the new system. So you get excellent mez protection and better controls than a Controller on tap.

I think that's pretty damn cool, playing from the perspective of my lowbie, non-Perma-dom Dom alts. I don't feel put out by my Perma-dom Mind/Psi either. I'll just sell the IOs I now longer need when I respec into a more rounded build. +rech sets are coveted by more than Dominators.

TFgrats!

The meeting place tonight will be Striga. Meet on the deck of the ferry to form teams and we'll finish off the Lars Hansen arc this week.

This is long overdue, seriously. I quite like Castle's idea for splitting the damage bonus and control bonus between the two states of a Dominator - essentially making a stance system.

If the damage bonus is at least as strong out of Domination in the future as it is inside Domination currently, this will be a net buff and make the dominator class even more interesting to play.

Gah!

I mean, grats!!

You're most welcome, Phantasmagog.

Last night was decent fun, we nearly got to the end of Skipper's arc and by the end of the night we were mainly lvl 27-29.5 (excepting those of us who have been absent in recent weeks).

Next week, I'm open to either Striga or more Croatoa. Striga might be best just to finish things off there.

Saturday August 2nd, 2pm til late.

Let's go trapping!

Those who feel they may be falling behind the curve, before you decide to hang up your hurricanes I'd like to draw your attention to _Noir_'s generous offer of a weekend catch-up session (see the previous forum page for more info).

If you manage to play twice a week, it shouldn't take long to catch up to us one-timers!

This sort of thing happens all the time on theme teams, since real life is always there to interfere. If you want to catch up then I have nothing against you teaming with any old PuG to do so. Don't feel like you have to only play with guys from the theme team.

As a reminder, the meeting place for this week is the university courtyard in Croatoa.

Croatoa can only be accessed by the green line train stations. The university is marked on the map, directly east from the station at the opposite end of Salamanca town.

See you at 7!

Nah, Griz was a little way ahead of the rest of us XP-wise (he was the veteran of our group!! *groan*), so he's the frist and only, sof ar.

Commisar Jaeger is level 49 now and likely to be the next. Mea Culpa is 48, Fraser Phipps 47 (I think) and Ninja Noddy is 46.

Ultragrats to G!

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I'm guessing the news didn't make it to Hyboria

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Hyboria's a pretty dull place to be honest. It doesn't have any spectacle like CoH's ruined cityscapes and strange terrain. Even Toth-Amon's palace, under swirling dark clouds (which could've should've bern rendered better, bah) looks just as dingy as every other palace and dungeon in the game.

The pretty graphics and copious gore is only going to keep me interested for so long. Some of the classes are fnu but I never feel that heroic (or vilainous)a nd none of the quests I do have any importance. At lvl 30 I'm still asked to go out and kill X amount of mutant wolves/vultures/bug monsters for some guy, or deliver a love letter to another country. Is this really the best use of my sorcerous time??

I've already decided I'm going to cancel my sub at some point. Especially with WAR on the horizon. Just taking what enjoyment out of it I still can, seeing if I can get a toon to 40 or 50 before the dev's weekly-update-buff-nerf-revert-schedule-deseperation-spectacular finally exhausts my patience.

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Anyway, I respecced Mea Culpa again. I retook Stamina (because that is the SANE thing to do, MajikMan!) and dropped Leadership (it was a tough call) for the Medicine pool. She now has every Traps power except Time Bomb (obv) and Triage (which will probably be her 49, either that or Resuscitate). Also, TP Foe.

I'll be online on Sunday afternoon from about 2pm. If other Trappers can make it, cool! If not, I won't get Mea all th way to 50 anyway (I think she's still behind the Trapper curve so it's just about catching up).

We'll have another proper Trapper weekend soon anyway, maybe the beginning of August?

Cack, where'd this Double XP weekend spring up from??

Is it too late to organise a bit of Trapping on Saturday?

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With the success of Echo's famous superteams

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*blush*

An all-Corruptor team would seriously rock. There's no problem that can't be solved in this game by adding more Corruptors!

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Looks like there wont be any icy fun for me tonight

First day back at work after a week off and i'm going to be stuck here ages.

Have fun and let me know what lvl you get to so I can catch up.

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Let me see.

Tobias done. Shiny Warwolf Whistle put into storage for another day.

Gordon Bower about 2/3rds done.

I'm at 29 (just barely) and the rest of my team ended up at 28, I think.

I've still got the IP safeguard queued, and other than that, serious amounts of pain were dished out.

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My team all hit lvl 27/28. We finished Tobias Hansen (who, like The Peebles, kept giving missions in random order - most annoying) but have yet to begin any Croatoa.

Croatoa is our meeting spot next week. We'll meet on the university grounds, since Bower is there too and it's relatively safe.

(Just in case you're not familiar with Croatoa and don't know how to get there: It's only accessible by green line stations or base portals.)

Ah thanks for the reminder - Belle has the Fortune Teller mission on hold for people who need it. I believe Repentant also has it.

Of course Flashback makes things like this so much easier nowadays, so reserving a mish like this is not always required anymore. (Fighting -15 enemies is a laugh though!)

I will try and be there for Synapse this week but I'm not sure if I'll make it - if I'm not there by 7pm don't wait long for me please!

Last night was good fun, though extremely chaotic and somewhat flaky tanking from myself!

I tried many huge herds that were impossible to totally contain, but it was such fun gathering them all up only to see them vanish under a single Rain-assisted Fireball or Containment crunch.

As I said last night, "What's the point of herding if it's safe?"

You'll be missed Saxtus.

I'll be there at 7pm, as usual.