Agent White

Yeah that sounds pretty wicked.

It really is a shame all these really cool monsters are in the game and most aren't given the time of day. I've seen Scrapyard running around unmolested pretty often.

I mean, *I* could probably try to pull a team together but again, it's something I could do *once* and have no reason to do again except on alt characters. And that's assuming I'd get a lot of takers. Whereas I could advertise doing an SSA and snatch up a team very quick.

So yeah, if they're going to keep the monsters in and keep adding more (The Seed), especially ones that *require* a coordinated team effort (again, the Seed), the rewards ought to match the effort a lil better and be varied so there's incentive to do it more than once. We've already got several trials that seem to be intended to run more than once (Sewer, any incarnate, the new halloween trial), so it's a design plan to create events for players to repeat for multiple rewards, why are Giant Monsters being excluded from this sort of design?

Spawned from a discussion about the Seed of Hamidon.

So, part of this is a question to others, part is just a straight up suggestion.

Basically, is it time for the developers to revisit rewards for slaying Giant Monsters?

I've only been playing a couple months but in that time I've seen a few Giant Monsters and they largely go ignored, just wandering around their zones pretty much unmolested. I did actually partake in a beatdown on Deathsurge the other night, he spawned and I just wanted to see him, ended up joining a team that took him down.

It was a kind of satisfying experience, but the reward was.. not lackluster persay but it did seem a bit underwhelming considering it did take the team to take him down. A couple merits, a badge, and a chunk of exp/inf. Not all that bad, but now that I've done it, I have no reason to ever bother with Deathsurge again on that character, except maybe to join a team to help out some newbies that haven't done it before.

Compare this to say, the new Signature arcs with some pretty quality rewards, and your choice of them, or even the Praetorian zone events. Pretty much all that can be done solo and are easily repeatable. And in fact, kind of encourage you to repeat them.

If the problem is a worry of farming for XP/Inf, it seems like the simplest solution would be to attach the biggest chunk of XP/Inf for beating them to the badge for killing them, something you can only earn once. And of course offering other goodies, different merits, costume parts, temp powers, etc. Though even then, there seem to be much better ways to get XP/Inf now anyway >>

It just seems to me that Giant Monsters should be something that players want to take on for more than just the fact of saying "yeah, I did it". When one spawns in a zone, more players should be willing to want to jump the thing or even be actively hunting them or trying to make them spawn, regularly.

Anyway, that's it really. It just seems like the devs could offer even slightly better carrots for the effort involved in taking a monster down. Honestly, I'm kind of curious what the metrics look like for how often any given GM is taken down. It seems like a shame to create something as scary cool as the Seed of Hamidon and it mostly just gets to wander freely (Though, I am aware First Ward has issues with team search too, so that might be *a* part of it).

Or I'm just crazy and the reward is worth the effort. What do you all think? What would make Giant Monsters more appealing to want to tackle?

Yes. Beast Summoning. Fantastic idea for a pet set

Depending on your AT too it's not a bad idea to start it later than earlier. My ill/rad controller had a rough time at 14. Once I hit 18 (and phantom army) I steamrolled through it.

here's a question:

Did the villain side intro change? A few weeks ago I brought my praetorian turned villain blaster into First Ward to go poke about (Already run through it with a Resistance Mastermind) and I got the standard 'There is something troubling in first ward'.

However, I just took a redside dominator through and the Doorman gave me a pretty long little discussion that I don't recall getting with the Blaster that basically summed up as "Yeah you're a villain and evil, but this is bigger than you and if you don't do something, you'll probably get killed in the fallout if things go nuke".

While not perfect, it seemed a better dovetailing for a villain into the First Ward story than just ignoring that I was a villain, which I think was the case the first time in.

Yeah you cannot access them from Praetoria until you hit Level 20 and move to 'Primal Earth', ie the main game.

However, it should be noted that the levels for the SSAs right now are 10-20 for SSA1.1 and 20-30 for SSA1.2, so you won't miss much taking a character through praetoria, when you hit primal earth you can go do both in one go.

melee/pets with support based pets. :3

Grym I'm okay with, but Dillo really bugs the hell out of me because it's obvious the writers were trying to make his speech cute/silly becuase "oh ho ho, he's an ALIEN". The weird sounds, the butchered syntax, it's all... very head banging a wall inducing.

Grym is a dork, but I'm into fantasy more than sci fi so it's obvious they kind of intended him as a parody of a fantasy hero in another world. But it felt more like Dillo was something made to make kids giggle. He's CoX's Jar Jar Binks with super powers.

yeah all the time I've played I've never seen anyone attempt to take down the Seed.

I think part of it is because it *requires* a coordinated effort, as big and out in the open it is, you won't see people just trying to dog pile it because you need to take out the Seedlings and then nail it.

And the relatively low population helps it too.

And ya, the reward doesn't seem stellar >> You get 5 merits, a badge, and a temporary +15 XP/InF boost for 30 minutes.

I mean, not bad, but it seems like a much bigger effort is required compared to some of the other GMs. Then again, I've never taken part in taking down a GM (Though I've only been in the game about 2 1/2 months. I've at least seen Kraken and Scrapyard >>)

Well the basic answer seems to be pretty much, Masterminds are the only AT period that have permanent summonables you only summon once and don't have to bother with again, everything else is a recharge intensive pet that to be permanent requires enhancement set ups for constant resummong. The closest runners up to pet ranching are Illusionists and Crab Spiders.

Funny, since I've got a Mastermind and an Illusionist and probably plan to pick up a Crab Spider

Thanks for the inputs folks

probaby something like,

Pistol - same as DP
Barrage - multi-shot DoP
Covering Fire - Cone
Aimed Shot - Sniper

they're all the same as far as anyone knows or has been told, it's simply an alternate way for players to get it.

just for the sake of curiosity, I was wondering which ATs/power sets get the most summonable pets. (outside of MMs, because, they're obviously the kings of pets)

And by perma-pets I mean things you summon and they will stick around until you dismiss them or they die. I know there are a few power sets with temp pets that hang around briefly then poof (like Illusion with Spectral Terror/Phantom Army) and sets with 'faux pets' like Traps with Acid Grenade Launcher or Poison trap, etc.

It's Babydoll mind controlling Scirocco

Yeah, the one in Talos is by the Vault reserve.

The villainside for Parts 1 and 2, Alastor is in Diable, bottom of the map near the middle, pretty easy to spot he stands by himself on a pier. The 2nd one is in Sharkhead, right around the Ferry

Yeah, traps on a corruptor is fairly decent. Not the fastest or the most damaging, but traps complements DP well, once you start getting some of the key toys like caltrops (it's a *lot* better than it sounds) the shield generator and acid grenade.

Its not complex, but you do kind of want to play set up before going up against a hard enemy, making sure you deploy things you'll need.