Winterminal

I've said it before, but I'm just going to keep saying it:

No, thank YOU! You all rock.

YAY! PINNACLE RED NAME!

And no sir, thank YOU!

Zwill! You all rock. I've said it tens of times today. And I know I speak for at least a chunk of 11,000 players JUST ON THE BOARDS RIGHT NOW when I say: we're not letting you all go down without a fight.

I say the simpler, the better. I still think one of your most powerful and best videos was your tribute to Statesman. Something like that could be really wonderful.

I don't remember if I posted in this thread yet, but let me extend my thanks to you all as well. This game brought so many of my ideas to life, mere words cannot express my gratitude.

So I'll just ask this: Did any of y'all play on Pinnacle incognito? With BABs and Castle showing up here, I'm DYING to know!

Indeed sir.

First server. First 50. And I never had any reason to go anywhere else. I hear ya, it's the people here.

Ye who hath so many times filled my body with mirth and laughter now hath wrung a tear from my eye.

Well said, Steelclaw.

I, too, am left homeless. This was the only MMO, no, only VIDEO GAME I played regularly.

I guess I can try DCUO and/or CO to get my superhero fix, except that I play on a Mac! Neither of those games are compatible for Macs as far as I know.

So yeah, I have no idea where I am going.

Signed.

Plus... if NCSoft is indeed being as big of a idiotic company as they seem to be, I'm not sure I want any other dev team in charge of the City. In my opinion, I would rather they shut down the servers on a high note rather than have it morph into something different of which I am not fan.

That said...

DON'T SHUT DOWN THE SERVERS!!!

Unless you announce CoX2 tomorrow <_< >_>....

I am VISIBLY UPSET!

Let's buy a bunch of Vodka, half of it we'll drink, and the other half for Molotovs!

Oh yes. Quantum Acceleration/Afterburner definitely gives you the feeling of "MACH ONE!!!"

On that note, I think I missed this when these powers were first released, and my experiments have been inconclusive: which is better to slot, Flight or Afterburner? And how much enhancement is needed to reach the "new" top flight speed?

I don't know what the Talon Huntress is, but I nabbed the first code on the list! (So don't go for that one )

HAHA! Well-done, sir, as always.

I have never had a Blaster without Hover or Combat Jumping. Not only do they help you with quick repositioning for attacks, but the defensive benefits quickly add up. (Hover is my preference, but it is not always conceptually sound.)

"Pulling" and "line-of-sight" are your friends, especially with /Devices. Set a couple trip mines around a corner, throw a couple of smoke grenades, and then shoot one in the face and make him follow you to your trap. It may take a bit longer, but I promise it will be shorter than face planting and hiking it back from the hospital.

As a long time Brute/Scrapper, I understand your annoyance to mez, but it is part of being a Blaster. Taking a second to analyze the mob in front of you and creating a plan of attack can nearly eliminate it. Use your mez attacks on the mezzers first, and take them out of the fight quickly.

I am a big fan of the Thunderstrike IO set. It has gotten more expensive as its popularity has increased, but it can be a boon for blasters since most sets have at least 3 attacks in which it can be slotted. If memory serves, you get a total of 3.75% Ranged Defense for the whole set, and once you have the set slotted multiple times that can add up, particularly with whatever other defense powers you have.

Specifically for the DP/Dark:

Personally, I hate /Darkness, but I took it as a personal challenge to learn how to play it. If you want to use Soul Drain as your Alpha Strike, slot it up for damage and I would take Stealth. The enemies won't be alerted to your presence until you are pretty much in the mob, plus it is just a bit more defense for you.

Another way to go about it would be to open with Bullet Rain. This may knock down a few of your foes, making the alpha strike on you less intense. Or equip Cryo Ammo and slow them down before jumping into the fray for Soul Drain.

Hope you see some improvement!

[EDIT]
After looking at your build, I have to say that unless you really need the bonuses from Dark Pit's Stupify set, ditch the power and take something more useful. .8 initial To-Hit, abysmally short duration, and only a high enough magnitude to stun minions. It just is not worth taking.

Also, TAKE BOTH PISTOLS AND DUAL WIELD. On a blaster, you can use both those powers (and Penumbral Grasp) while mezzed. Having both my T1 and T2 attacks available while mezzed has saved my health bar more times than I can count.

* HBO - (Black screen. A grim, elderly female voice speaks:) "What do you know about fear?" (CUT TO: A slow forward shot sweeping over a snow-covered wilderness. We hear the sounds of a harsh, cold wind blowing with mournful instrumentation in the background. Back to black:) "Fear is for the winter, when the snows fall a hundred feet deep." (CUT TO: The same, but we see white wisps darting in and out of the trees, traveling with the camera. CUT back to black) "Fear is for the Long Night, when the White Walkers move through the woods." (CUT TO: Same, except the number of wisps has increased. The camera starts to pan up as we travel. Voiceover:) "When the sun hides for years, and children are born and live and die all in darkness." (With the following, the Lord Winter rises from a clearing ahead, with its back to us and turns toward the camera as we approach:) "That is the time for fear." (CUT TO BLACK, fade up "City of Heroes: The Winter Event is Coming")

A very smooth run last night, Pinnacle. Sorry about my one DC, but considering my computer was trying to render a league of 48 characters and more than 40 pets across the league, can you really hold it against me? Yes, that's right, we had NINE Masterminds in the league last night. I've never seen that many, even after Beast Mastery's release. If they all had been 50, we would have had more pets than actual characters

On the plus side, the first 5 bombs all were set within a 5 second time span. That was a neat accidental coordination, so well done there. And we managed to get the sixth set and detonated despite an premature taunt of U'kon Gr'ai. All in all, a very good run Pinnacle!

Updated for next week.

Most forum-goers have a desire to interpret the game, to stay up on the latest information, to figure out the paths of least resistances or the best build possible, etc. (Note, I said "most.") This game is also likely our main video game that we play. For us, the concept of a tankmage is very appealing because we wouldn't get bored with it. We would play it just as much, if not more so, than any of our other characters.

The Devs, however, have to appeal to a much wider player base. The reason most people play games, of any kind, is for the mental (and sometimes physical) stimulation: there is a puzzle to be solved, a challenge to be overcome, and usually a reward to be had for surpassing the obstacles. Each of the archetypes brings with it a certain challenge that has to be overcome, at least out-of-the-box (i.e. early-to-mid levels, no IOs, no Incarnate powers, etc.). I'm not going to go into those challenges; odds are, as I alluded to above, most people here reading these forums, and this topic in particular, know to what I am referring. Hell, I'd wager we've figured most of them out. Our challenge is now finding new ways to do things, the best ways to do things, or figuring out something completely new when it gets added to the game.

For other players, for whom this is a game that they do not necessarily feel any strong attachment to, their interest is harder to maintain. Sure, they may get frustrated as all hell when they log in and cannot create their "Uber-Man" exactly to their liking. However, that frustration soon gives way to a desire to figure out how to get as close to their "Uber-Man" as possible, using the tools available in the game. The obstacle becomes stimulating, and the experience enthralling, as the player tries to "figure it out."

Tankmages require far less "figuring-out". It is a simple playstyle: stand there, shoot stuff, and you probably don't have to worry about much else unless you bite off more than you can chew. While that is immediately gratifying for the player, it does not offer an obstacle that provides sufficient mental stimulation to maintain interest. If such a thing was possible, there would be far fewer players maintaining a high level of activity, because odds are some other game would have presented more of an obstacle that begged to be solved.




For my part, I love that Blasters are getting the Sustain mechanic. It is my favorite archetype, and lord knows I have gotten frustrated at the number of times I have found myself eating dirt in certain missions. That said, figuring out how to avoid eating dirt (via strategic firing positions, moving around with Combat Jumping/Hover, knowing which moves to use when, etc.) was what kept me interested in the archetype. If the sustain mechanic makes it so that my character can just stand there shooting and punching stuff, I may make use of it on one character (the one I designate as my personal "Uber-Man" if you will), but I'll skip it on the others! I am all for self-imposed challenges, but I feel I can say that because I have been playing this game long enough that somehow that is the only way I remain challenged. For new or less experienced players, I think having such options available to them could be detrimental.

For the record, this is a very stimulating and enthralling discussion