AmericanSpirit

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On the topic I just saw on the news a thing about kids stealing video games. They interviewed a six year old asking him the games that he was going to buy. He said Halo and doom. Im really wondering where these kids parents are.

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Well any kid who plays any kind of games know what those games are. Of course they want them. Doesn't mean the parents buy them or condone them.

Sometimes I saw a child beg for a game like Doom or Halo, and they refused to buy it for them. I remember one kid trying to convince his parents that "Grand Theft Auto III" was not a bad game. They were certainly wise enough to ask me about it. I lost a sale and pissed off a kid, but oh well

I saw the video and was pretty shocked to see Statesman being put on the same level of those other games.

Bottom line...it is parents responisblity to regulate their children's multimedia activites. Most of those games shown are NOT for children and were never intended for children in the first place. Those games are for the gamers of the NES generation which grew from there...and most of us are towards our 30's now. The rating system helps a lot with parent's choices...provided they bother to look at it.

I used to sell video games, and have sold TONS of M rated games to children with their parent's permission. I even note to them the level of violence a game like "Grand Theft Auto 3" has and my warnings go ignored must of the time.

Any inapporiate exsposure to video games is the fault of the parents because that is easily regulated. Don't buy the game, and don't allow children in the houses of parents who allow 7 year olds to play "Conker's Bad Fur Day". Why does the government have to be invloved?

Do games promote violence in children? Sure they could, but no more than TV, comics, or books could. No more than boxing could. Parents just need to do their jobs.

The Strike Force at least sounds more interesting then fighting Hammi at least. The should have a hero TF similiar like this, with the same awards....I rather not do the laggy kill Hami thing for the reward.

Best pics I have taken is during in-game by simply pressing print screen. I don't do anything complicated at all.

Nothing like playing a super tank! It is the build I most prefer my tank! Too bad I respeced him into something stupid but is WAY too sad to explain...(I feel stupid enough as it is)

A couple of things here....I aactually prefered to drop Punch and Keep Haymaker...simply because it hit harder...but your reasons for dropping punch where understandable.

So your build answers a good question for me....it IS possible to survive without RRD for awhile.

I took both the resists AND Tough Hide Like it that way.

AS rocks...but hover has had its uses for me to. And with the extra slots you get in this build...6 slotting it with 3 flight speeds and 3 defense may be impractical...but fun.

Didn't take Hand Clap...with AS combined with the rest of the Super Strength attacks a lot of foes just stay on the ground anyway.

Forget the fury bar....RAGE rules.

Taking Hasten is golden especially after using Dull Pain. Ok so it isn't perma anymore...so? It still rocks.

In PvP? It will take 2 stalkers and a dom to take you down You won't need perception bonus...after a stalker hits you...rage and KO...poor squishie stalker

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I don't know if buffing draws aggro in the game presently, although I can see the reasoning for why it should. But I will note that all else being equal, mobs will attack a Defender before a Tanker. The base AI for the mobs is to attack the "weakest" enemy (I think it defines "weakest" by HP, but I'm not sure). Of course, this is quickly overriden by damage, taunt, & the like, so the behavior isn't easy to observe.

But I can recall an instance that demonstrates it. I was duoing on my Tanker with a Blaster. I was leading & rounded a corner, where 2 mobs saw me & headed in my direction. Simultaneously the Blaster came up, rounding the corner. As soon as the mobs had LoS on the Blaster, they both switched aggro & made a beeline for my partner instead of me. Since neither of us had attacked them, the mobs were just following their base AI, but clearly chose to forgo the nearer original target (me) & go for the farther (but "weaker") target. Since I didn't have Taunt, I moved to intercept. Then apparently Invincibility pulsed & both mobs immediately switched back to aggro on me before I could even get a melee attack in. After the (short) battle, the Blaster (a much more experienced player than I) told me that this was typical AI behavior, but was pleased that Invincibility's base taunt was enough to override the AI.

Of course, this seems only to matter in the absence of any aggro-generating activity. Once the fight is on, a mob will almost always have someone generating aggro on it. But the base AI is to go after the weakest member of the party that a mob can see, so Defenders already do have something to worry about.

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I'm not really sure if the game works like that...but I have noticed on occasions where I was tanking after the taunt changes and i wondered, "why in the world is the empath defender dying? He isn't shooting at anyone."

That WOULD explain why but confirmation from the Devs would be nice I don't want to assume how the AI works.

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have an AV Experience thread floating around that highlights this really well. in particular, PorkchopXpress and AmericanSpirit both submitted reports about battles with a +2 Nightstar. both teams included one Inv/Axe tanker.

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AmericanSpirit is an Inv/SS tanker A small difference that didn't matter.

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i think it makes sense for us to have to apply different tactics in different situations, but it becomes frustrating when its not clear the particulars have changed.

i hate to bring up the over-used "never make an uninformed decision" argument, but to some degree it applies. if its hard to know you're going to be weaker in a particular situation, how will you know to change your tactics?

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Here is probably difference. I was teaming with a group which included some memebers I knew very well. Our tatics as a group handled Nightstar better.

Knowing your enemy helps too. I remember tanking Drake the first time with ED:

my thoughts: "What kind of damage does he give again...ah probably smashing/lethal with a few electric blasts like everyone else (right)".

So i went in charging at blazing speed with only 3 other teamates of different AT's...Thanks to Dull Pain and Unstoppable I barely made it out alive, but I beleive it would have gone better if we had some better tatics and perhaps more people.

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End result? Well, no one was that familiar with their builds. The Controller was defeated by getting too close to another spawn. The Peacebringer carelessly tossed off attacks and ended up aggroing too much. After those two defeats, we settled down and functioned fine.


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Funny I see this A LOT. People also need to be aware of what they can and cannot do. That would help US too.

Soloing is IN our future and I found that ED has actually made soloing easier for me.

We are however NOT out of place in a team. We still can take damage better than anyone AND hold off enemies. We just can't do it like we used to.

We can still alpha for the team. Example, I jump in and use footstomp for the first attack. That gets the mob's attention real quick. To manage the mob I pull my view screen back and watch which enemy goes where AND watch the HP of my teammates. I use taunt to pull in the stragglers that are pounding any teammates that are in trouble. I usually team with the same group of people so I know how much people they can fight at a time without dying.

If taunt is unavilable I run towards the group attacking my allies and get there attention with some sort of attack...which usually makes them follow me back to my original position.

We also need to understand that we are now at the same level of all the other AT's in that when we are teaming we will need their help as well. We CAN tank large groups but support maybe needed. One tatic my SG uses against AV's is for all support heroes keep my HP up...ignoring everyone elses...making it up to me to keep the AV's attention. So we need to learn that we just can't always do it alone which maybe the very reason we were "nerfed" or whatever in the first place.

I think we can still do our job...we just can't stand still and do it anymore though. In order to tank now we have to be more aware of what is going on in the battle than any other AT and act when we need to. With all the changes made to tanks we will need to be flexible to the point that our playing style for tanking MUST change, and so the other AT's won't see us as a burden, we have to be GREAT at handling our toons so people can see that we are STILL the best AT.

Take more support powers...I never had Dull Pain until I6, and it has saved me MANY times. Don't forget Tough, because I did.

Newbies at tanking need to understand that managing mobs is not as easy as the manual might portray it. You will have to be quite mobil to keep their attention...hmmm teleport could be helpful here now I think about it.

There is my take on it....it all boils down to change your mindset along with the game.