Wilfred

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Interestingly my first reaction to this was to complete the line of a Metallica song.. "Am I Evil? Yes I <expletive> am."

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Wasn't that Diamond Head? Maybe I'm getting old, losing my marbules.

Superb stuff. I've got no idea what I'll be up to that far in the future, so I'm tentative to volunteer; if I can support or help in any capacity, let me know. I'm immensely impressed.

Worryingly, I have all of those DVD's already - I've got a bit of a thing for post-apocalyptica.

I'd love to say that with inspirations, vigilance, AM, and careful slotting you can happily run a stamina-less build for Rad/Rad.

But... it'd be tricky. Your two toggles are quite endurance heavy, and you'll be using them a lot. I think I'd plan to include stamina if I made a rad/rad. If you ever intend to take choking cloud, you'll definitely need stamina.

I think it has to be said that Proton Volley and X-Ray eyes are two of the coolest looking and sounding powers in the game.

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that extra dmg stacks with assault and the + dmg you get from sets so it isn't useless .

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You're one of those people that still six-slot hasten because every bit helps?

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And Brawl. Can almost get that perma, with six recharge IO's at level 50, and set bonuses.

I couldn't work out what was going on either, then I thought maybe it might have something to do with this,this,this,this,this,this,this,this,this,this,this,this,or this. Maybe.

Depends on what you want from your epics! Each pool has highs (Force of Nature, Rise of the Phoenix, Snow Storm, EMP, LRM) and lows (Body Armour, Repulsion Field); but everything has utility. What do you want your blaster to do that he can't already? What does your blaster already do well at and want to improve further upon?

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so you like debt?.......i don't.

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'Like' is probably the wrong word. We... appreciate debt. We understand that there needs to be some punishment imposed for dying; zero jeopardy, for me, equals zero fun. Add to the low debt the temporary rez powers and the ability to combine insps to make wakeys, and dying just doesn't teach anything anymore. You get up within moments, and are debt-free within a mob's time. At launch, I used to think how easygoing the game was when you died; a bit of debt and a quick walk back from hospital is a far cry from losing experience/levels/equipment and having to traipse incorporeally halfway round the world. It's got a lot easier, even since then. Read into that what you will; I like that the lesser punishment encourages casual gaming, but I do feel the difficulty curve is a little on the gentle side. Actually, it's more or less flat.

You've got it absolutely spot-on - a blaster played with care isn't necessarily much more dangerous than playing a scrapper, especially with cunning use of pool powers like Aid Self and Acrobatics and IO's, since we're out of range of the most dangerous attacks. Of course, it's nice to play insanely every now and again, and it can pay off.

Also, of course, in most teams there's some support you can rely on too...

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I'm going down on the safety list. My only high level characters are tanks. I've 'downgraded' in safety to a scrapper, might go for a blaster then, but I really don't like faceplanting. Scrappers might be a middle ground in that, but I do tire of said running to mobs and always be in the thick of the enemy debuffs.

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/plug

Tried a defender? Not all the sets are as dry as Empathy and FF are; Dark defenders are a great mix of offence and staying safe, especially once Fearsome Stare's slotted up. Couple it with a fun secondary (like Ice, Archery or Energy) and, while your damage will never be great, it can be ludicrously fun to play.

/unplug

My level 50 AR/Dev's slug puts out 236 damage to an even-level minion with low resistance (possessed scientist). But AR is special - Full Auto puts out about three times that, hits everything in a wide cone (up to 10 or 16 targets, can't remember which) and is up every 30 seconds or so. So, pretty powerful.

Blaster damage can't be directly compared to scrapper damage; it's dealt in a completely different way. Blasters, at their peak, are tiny islands in the middle of a battle that radiate pain in all directions. We tend to giggle at scrappers as we defeat whatever he's running towards, so he has to turn around and run after something else, while we just carrying on firing out or most powerful attacks at whatever catches our eye. AoE's, cones, multiple build-up powers, plus plenty of control (especially in Ice) makes us strategically diverse enough to cope with most situations.

With Ice Blast, when soloing there isn't really any excuse for being hit more than once per enemy group, unless there's a Boss in it. With two holds and more slow debuffs than you can shake a stick at, Ice blasters are exceptional at taking small groups of enemies out of the fight entirely. Of course, you'll need to be higher than level 12 to get to this stage, so consider the early levels a crash course in aggro management which scrapping leads you to forget about.

Being mezzed isn't an excuse with Blasters anymore - defiance means that a good portion of your attack chain is working when you're held anyway. Our best defence really is a good offence; the faster you can defeat the foe,the longer you'll stay upright.

Blasters aren't as squishy as you've been led to believe; they just requie a more adaptive playstyle than the scrapper-standard 'run in > hit stuff > heal > hit more stuff > run in again'. This includes careful positioning to stay out of range; use of scenery to avoid return fire; strategic inspiration hoarding; and running away spamming the 'HELP!' button.

Damagewise, the Ice Blast attack chain from my level 42 Ice Blaster fighting a level 44 Roman puts out 100, 160, and 240 damage.

So, 500 compared to your scrapper's 680.

The Ice Blast attack chain takes 3.75 seconds, so that's a DPS of 133.33; The Fire attack chain detailed takes 5.5 seconds, for a DPS of 123.63.

The Ice Blasts can be fired from a range of 80ft (50 for BIB) as opposed to 5ft; this means less attack time wasted getting into range. We also have Aim as well as buildup, so extra damage regularly comes out there, and defiance means your damage is almost always higher than credited in the power descriptions; usually we run at a 20-50% damage bonus, I find.

Keep at it; life as a Blaster is infinitely more satisfying than a Scrapper could ever understand.

Of course, it also takes a lot of the casual fun out of it; I'm a little old for twitch gaming, and kind of like that this game doesn't demand that I line up a headshot perfectly every time. The combat dynamics of the game as it stands leaves me able to concentrate on more strategic points; positioning, endurance usage, helping out teammates, and so forth.

The mere facts that the game engine would need to be reprogrammed and that all the AT's, powersets, powers, temp powers, enemies and probably some of the maps would need to be reworked to accommodate it barely deflect me from my conclusion that this would be rubbish for a large part of the playerbase and ludicrously time-intensive for the devs.

/as far from signed as it's possible to be

Having me on the team is probably the most irritating.

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I am not dismissing it out of hand, I'm dismissing it after some careful thought and experience of comparable behaviour in other games.

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Pay attention - there is wisdom in these words.

Only for those lucky enough to possess scratch'n'sniff TV's.

I can't see how getting to 50 slower and doing more story arcs is different to getting to 50 at the current rate and then doing them in Ouroboros. But then I never was the brightest sausage in the meat factory.

Wilfred lives in a flat with immmensely stylish lamps and soft furnishings, with several other menfolk variously dressed as a red indian, a cowboy, a sailor and a builder. They get into all sorts of japes and occasionally break into song-and-dance numbers.

Incorruptible lives inside a giant invisible robotic dinosaur in the middle of Perez park.

Stronghold lives in a small box with his pet kitten, Bobbles. He emerges when he needs to buy milk or save mankind from dangers from another world.

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Very interesting. I'm trying to work out, as it's taken from a secondary source, whether that stuff is likely, definitely, or possibly going to end up in the mission creator.


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As I said in the other thread, NCSoft confirmed they'd sent out the survey, so it's been put together by them. Even if it's just a mock up (which at this stage is doubtful), it's probably pretty close to how they'll do it when it's launched.

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Ah, cheers. First thing I looked for when I saw how awesome it looked was the date; wondered if April had come around again.

Very interesting. I'm trying to work out, as it's taken from a secondary source, whether that stuff is likely, definitely, or possibly going to end up in the mission creator.

I'd guess an offline version is out of the question, as it'd have to integrate a costume editor.

I said weeks back that the mission creator would be useless to me if you couldn't design the villain of the piece; I wonder if it'll be possible to design every mob on the map (if time-consuming) using items 3 and 4.

The one thing I feared most was that it'd work like radio missions; set the map type and the villain group and objective then write a briefing and some dialogue. That'd be near pointless. It looks like they're moving in a direction that'll take them around the outskirts of that village, staying on the bypass signposted for awesomeville.

The rewards system would be inherently abusable; get a couple of mates to rate your missions and you're away. Whether it's stifling creativity to not have all the content available to everyone immediately is tricky to say; It'll encourage more people to try their hand at a quality arc.

I'm going to be using it for a few arc concepts; I've quite a few more ideas bubbling around up there. I wonder how copyright infringement will be policed; I guess via the petition system again. Shame, I was looking forward to making a 'Defeat wl0vr1ne, s0perm4n and tarantulaman and get the kyrptoniet chnuk' mission.

I'm really looking forward to it; it's the one feature in the history of the game (at least, since I started in I3) that's got me truly excited about being able to make something meaningful. Between this and Spore, I rather suspect I'm going to be a hermit next year. Suits me.

The extra months are being spent developing an entire new engine for CoH. The engine looks and sounds exactly the same, with the important difference that players will be able to walk, as well as run. According to the US Dev Digest, this is something they have been...

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...working on for some time, although the technical challenge is immense. This update is obviously the most important direction we can take the game in at this time. In the future, we plan to implement other methods of 'civilian' transportation, such as moonwalking and hailing piggybacks from passing tourists.'

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Apologies to the Liberty Legion/Echelon/Mixed bag Moonfire TF I joined in last night; my internet connection threw a wobbler after the first mission and I was in DSL hell for the evening! I hope it all went well, anyway, and I'm really sorry I couldn't finish it!

Yes, it stays.

I stumbled on it completely by accident. A lot of people gathered around a Paladin and not attacking. Interesting, thought I, they cower like slugs from a chisel.

Then I saw them. A thousand, nay a gazillion Kronos Titans, red in tooth and claw and baying for our blood, or at least enough squishy bits to make an interesting necklace.

Then they started falling. One, two, three... five Titans fell, and everyone celebrated victory. Except there was one still hitting me. With a brief cry of "Havoc! Someone get this chuffing thing off me!", we re-engaged once more. The last titan falls, slowly, ponderously, trapping my foot under an arm and leaving me with a bugger of a bruise.

Then we head off for a nice seafood dinner to celebrate.

Next time, I'll bring my own Titan to the party; here's hoping I see the thread in time. Also I'll get a team; Corruptus gained no badge, but emerged richer in spirit and with the aforementioned bruised foot, which may put him a little behind when we head off golfing on Sunday.

Hussar!

Thankyou, crazy-headed organisers.

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Hey all.
... now I hear farmers like them sets also...

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Play what you like mate. Poeple said the same to me when I rolled my Pitchfork/Dungarees scrapper.

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Vegetable melee. I'm thinking stabbing enemies with carrots, spitting tomato seeds, clobbering them with a well-placed marrow to the face, that sort of thing.

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That works for me. I'd also like to see turnip-based build-up powers.