Black Zot

There's no such thing as "going out on a happy note".

"Going out" and "happy" are mutually exclusive.

"Hard" is not the problem. The problem is, it's an extremely tedious string of kill-all missions against an annoying faction (seriously, end drain and/or mez effects baked into every single enemy attack is NEVER enjoyable). If the constant aggravation of fighting clockwork doesn't render you catatonic, the sheer length and lack of variety of the TF will knock you right out.

I'm dead serious. I can count on one hand the number of times I've come close to falling asleep while playing any console or computer game. My last Synapse run was one of those times.

I hate social media because it's Big Brother's younger sibling, and people are waving it around as a good thing.

I hate social media because I'm sick of everybody and his dog tying their login systems and miscellaneous functions into sites that have been proven over and over to have all the security of a rice-paper hut.

I hate social media because I can't go ANYWHERE without someone trying to shove it in my face. (Also one of the reasons I hate religion, but that's an entirely different topic.)

I hate social media because I find it morally repugnant to cash in on the details of someone's personal life. Like reality TV wasn't bad enough in that regard?

I hate social media because it does a lot of things that anywhere but the internet would land you in prison for voyeurism/stalking/harassment/etc.

I hate social media because it hands a microphone to a lot of people who really should have their tongues cut out instead of giving them an audience.

Maybe because we don't feel like handing over the details of our personal lives to some company that's just gonna sell all that data to advertisers so they can spam us more?

Maybe because they promote sharing information that has no business ending up on the internet at all?

Maybe because every time you turn around, there's another story in the news about some social media site (usually Putzbook) mishandling personal data?

Is it becoming any clearer?

If your forces ever end up in pitched battle against an opponent's full strength, you have utterly failed as their commander.

No-one who wants to win fights fair. If you're not seeking to notch the "W" column by any means necessary, you're not trying hard enough.

It gets a bad name because:

1. Very few games besides CoX have effective controls that aren't single-target/situational/a pain in the patoot to operate.

2. Most people really, really, REALLY suck at anything more complicated than "point and shoot".

Let's put it this way: out of the 7 classes in D2, only one (the Paladin) had the ability to actively heal its teammates, and that was by way of a horribly inefficient aura ability, and a highly situational single-target spell. Neither power kept up with incoming damage or player HP pools as you leveled up.

1. I hate consumables of all kinds. Right after you empty your supply, you slam into yet another situation where you need them. Only now you're all out - sucks to be you. Game designers that expect players to be packing stacks of consumables for every fight should find themselves a new line of work.

2. If it gives me something worthwhile, like a travel temp or the self-rez, I may make use of it. But I'm not going out of my way for them.

3. Safeguards are annoying as-is; zigzagging all over the map to track down optional objectives for minimal reward is a poor use of my time.

4. I'll use them if I have them. But these buffs are so marginal you don't notice not having them.

5. Don't touch PvP with a 500-foot pole. Not happening.

6. Fun to screw around with, but I'm rarely in a situation my character's native powers couldn't do a better job of handling.

7. Get these in the process of leveling up anyway - free power. Use 'em till they go away.

8. If I have a sub-50 character that has access to redside (rare, since all the action is blue), and there's a group running it (rarer still, same reason), I'll take it. After cursing out whoever designed the Positron fight.

9. See #1. I'm not dumping thousands of inf for a boost that gets me through less than one tough fight.

10. Had it up to my eyeballs with SG drama. Not joining another one.

11. Accolade powers are, for the most part, hours of work for a marginal stat boost or a buff on a crazy-long cooldown. Waste. Of. Time.

More like "flood it and toss in some banana boats because that makes more sense than what's there right now".

So wait, you want to give SGs more options for spamming people? As if getting peppered with random tells and blind invites wasn't bad enough?

Problem with this viewpoint is, it's mechanically impossible to achieve with the current game engine, for reasons Samuel's been explaining for several pages. What the game "should be" is irrelevant to what the game IS. If power rooting were done away with, the "safety dance" style of gameplay might become viable. Until then, this line of thinking has no merit.

That is the most childish, fantastical, Mary Sueish tripe I've seen yet in this game. None of those three distinctions say anything good about the story or the writer.

Takes a little getting used to, but totally worth it.

As a bonus, I don't often have to wait in line at McDonalds.

I wear spiked armor as part of my dayjob, so no big deal for me.

You'd be right either way.

That's a lampshade-hanging if I ever saw one.

Sorry, I'm too jaded to buy that just on someone's say-so. There's nothing "optional" about putting a PC-crushing EB at the end of a low-level solo story arc (I'm looking at you, Frostfire). If you can start a mission chain solo, you should be able to finish it solo, regardless of AT or character level. You're lying through your teeth if you suggest that's what we have now.

Don't. Even. Suggest. That. LUNACY.

There's already way too many factions in the game with the ability to basically "switch off" a player character, be it via mez spam sufficient to overwhelm a tanker's protection, end drain, mass debuff, or caltop spam making a MM's pets utterly worthless.

I seem to be in the minority based on the general content of this thread, but I log into the game to PLAY THE GAME, not have my character arbitrarily crippled and curbstomped because some guy who manages to be better/more powerful than I could ever hope to be whined the game was "too easy".

There's nothing remotely enjoyable about sitting helplessly at my keyboard watching my toon get dismantled while unable to fight back. Nor is there any "fun" in getting to the end of a solo story arc only to run into a pumped-up EB+ that I can't even DENT without a team.

You top-tier players want extra challenge to stroke your epeens with, fine - but make it OPTIONAL. Frankly, there needs to be an option to force EBs down to "boss" level so us mere mortals can stand a chance.