Blood Red Arachnid

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  1. There is, of course, the third option where you fight AVs solo. Yes, AVs are not mutually exclusive with soloing. So, lets recap what we could have here:

    EBs for soloists.
    AVs for soloists.
    EBs for teams.
    AVs for teams.

    All under the control of the notoriety contacts. I really see no reason why we wouldn't do this.
  2. Blood Red Arachnid

    Your NPCs

    It occurred to me one day that plenty of the characters that make my character lore aren't actually ones that I play. Some are enemies that appear in AE arcs only, while others are just NPCs or extra people that have positions in lore that are not other heroes/villains.

    Sometimes you just need to have that extra person to add more depth to the character, or a nemesis so evil (/good?) that you can't play them and just have to make them a character that your antagonist has to fight. Maybe it's a regular contact that you have for AE arcs.

    So, what are your guys' NPCs? I'll post up mine later.
  3. I know how to do the trial well enough that I regularly host it. The problem was that for some reason the tactic that worked a dozen times in the past wasn't anymore... for three trial runs in a row.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Steelclaw View Post
    * Sexual Psychic Overload!: The bedroom antics of the most powerful psychic in Paragon and her husband got a little out of hand yesterday as Psyche's apparent enjoyment of the procedings affected everyone in the city! "I don't know what happened... all of a sudden I was on my knees... felt Sister Psyche's presence in my mind... then I'm screaming 'do it Justin! do it now!' over and over again... .... lucky girl..."

    This made me laugh. Also it reminded me about how one of the best parts about superpowers is how they'll accidentally go off at the worst time when you never expect it.
  5. Blood Red Arachnid

    Bath Time

    I don't get it.


    EDIT: Oh... I see. They're in the water.
  6. I made a new blaster very recently. Level 13 Beam Rifle / Darkness Manipulation Blaster. Running him through the Warden Arc of Praetoria, and so far it is all soloing.


    My initial thought can be summarized as the following: conflicting. Picked to be thematic and not to be any particular build, his power sets have more than just "no synergy" in them. That, I could handle, and have done so in the past. No, the problem is that his primary wants to do one thing, his secondary wants to do another, and both of their abilities are mutually exclusive to each other. Because of the inherent effectiveness of dealing with enemies using Beam Rifle, so far I have been choosing those powers over Darkness Manipulation, who's only role so far in my playthrough has been to use melee attacks when beam rifle is recharging and the enemy is in short range. Since this problem is fading fast as I level up, I plan to skip around half of the darkness manipulation powers.


    Running solo through Praetoria at lower levels I have not encountered any problem with the AT itself. This run doesn't feel harder than my previous praetoria runs (stalker - guarding and mastermind - power). In fact, I think it is currently outpreforming both of those ATs in this playthrough. I do not expect this to last forever, however, because I have seen areas that are rare now but will become much more common in the future. Worst event was when I was knockdown-locked by several Seers.
  7. That is... unfortunate. With recent incarnate powers and better slotting most of my toons can solo an AV, and I think it would be really epic if, while running these arcs, they could do try to do so.
  8. Alright, a bit of an update. I've been in a couple more trials, and there has been instances where the GMs are working correctly. It may, indeed, be that I just have been getting teams that are incredibly precise in their ineptitude, and cannot comprehend or perform instructions requiring more than two steps and/or initiative on the part of the players to be able to gauge when something is in Shalice's path.
  9. This is something that I have seen happen 3 times... in a row... and that counts as enemy action.

    During the fourth phase of the MoM trial, the normal strategy of dragging Giant Monsters into Shalice's path and killing them just isn't working for the first statue. This strategy works for the second and the third, but for some reason the first statue is being buggy as hell.

    I think it might have just been the incompetence of the team, but after personally doing it myself... twice... I am now starting to think that the MoM trial is bugged.

    Has anyone else had this issue?
  10. I think I heard in the blaster thread that it was intended that certain enemy spawns be too tough to just steamroll through them. It is still a good idea, so I wouldn't mind having randomly larger spawns and higher level spawns.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Northman View Post
    What secondary are you running with your Kinetic Melee toon? I am intrigued to roll up a Stalker. Never really gave one a serious look.
    Elec Armor. It works pretty well with Kin Melee, since the -damage from the primary and the damage resist of the secondary stack with each other to make it more durable. Also it can easily be IOed out for soft-capped defenses (though I haven't done so, due to the expensiveness of doing so). Probably the bigger thing to set it apart from other sets is Lightning Reflexes, which I believe the only set that has an equivalent is Super Reflexes. A +20% global recharge is nice.
  12. Blood Red Arachnid

    The One?

    I definitely make characters as part of a broader universe. For each one it is about finding their place in the world, whether it is by serving the people or ruling the people.
  13. Congrats-tacular! And very lucky if I must say, since now you know you can dress up as superheroes and it won't be weird for each other.
  14. Statesman has always been a tall pillar of justice for paragon city.
  15. I think the OP's problem is quite rare. I have seen an occasions where people would ask for specific ATs to fill certain roles, but this is so rare that I take special note of it when it occurs.

    I have done it myself on rare occasion, too. As a hobby I've taken to forming the WST at +4, and sometimes you just need an AT to fill a certain role. My policy usually is just to take anyone for the first half of the team, and then use the remaining spots to try and fill with what is necessary. If I already get a good mix on the open, I'll just take anyone.

    Though "specific AT" is more or less a misnomer. I usually look for roles to fill, and am not too concerned with who fills it.
  16. I do kind of feel the sting of the inferiority of single target DPS while I'm in a large group myself. One of my earliest complaints about AS mid-fight was how any team with sufficient AoE wouldn't need it because the single enemy that would be taken out quicker wouldn't have survived long enough, done enough damage, or generally posed as enough of a threat to warrant sacrificing AoE to kill this single critter.

    I found a very elegant solution to this problem, though: crank the difficulty. At around +3, the ability to just blow through spawns with AoEs disappears, and likewise enemies pose enough of a threat that you do want to take out individual ones before you focus on the rest of the group. Though the problem is that the harder the enemies become, the harder it is for you to take them out quickly, too. It is a tradeoff.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    This is precisely what I like about the change, myself. I've never been a fan of "attack chains" because they make the game hugely monotonous for me. Dual Blades is easily the worst. Once I realised my DB Scrapper could go Empower -> Sweep -> Attack Vitals -> filler attack -> Repeat I was essentially playing Guitar Hero, because every fight was exactly the same as every other fight, and all of them were just a repeat of the same exact sequence of button presses. Right now, even with Dual Blades for my Stalker, I never feel pressured into combos. A lot of the time, I need to choose between completing combos OR going for attacks that build Assassin's Focus, as well as judging whether I want to wait for three stacks of focus and potentially have nothing to use it on, or use it with two stacks or even one and chance the critical.

    To me, this kind of system requires me to actually fight a fight in real time, and my degree of success depends almost entirely on what I actually do and how I react to each situation as it comes up. It takes a LOT of importance away from "preparation" and I've never been a fan of fighting fights before they even begin through stats and build. One big reason Stalkers became so much more interesting to me (in addition to their becoming much stronger) is that they've become a LOT more involving. And that, really, is what makes the actual gameplay that much better.
    I am definitely not a fan of scrapper lock, but on my melee toons I usually try to have a default combo(s) to go for because that can take my attention away from staring at my powers icons and put it on to my environment and the people within it. When it becomes about leading trials and I have to monitor more stuff than when I'm driving, those intricate mechanics become hard to maintain. I get a headache sometimes.


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Leo_G View Post
    I'm not sure if I find these statements extremely hilarious because of how hypocritical they are or just really annoyed because I had been saying similar before the changes happened but probably the same people would say the exact opposite. Using AS from hide hasn't changed...and yet, it's somehow no longer a waste of endurance to try to use it despite the seemingly impossible feat of not being interrupted? Or when trying to point out the reason to use the tactic, only *NOW* is demoralize worth considering despite it not being changed either? Wow, you guys must be conveniently hand waving all those old arguments away now because nothing has come about to make those arguments any different.

    I wouldn't go suggesting to new/returning Stalkers to use hidden AS anymore unless they just want to...only in the low lvls when it's your highest fastest hitting ST attack and/or if you wanted to make *sure* the target is hit. To tell someone to use outdated tactics to preserve some unanimously unfavorable aberration is just spreading more false information.
    Because everything must be an argument... Look, the pros of AS from hide have always been present, whether or not the information was readily available (for example, I had no idea that the to-hit debuff was un-resisted until I played around with Power Analyzer on AVs very recently). For the longest time, the problem with stalkers was that they were dependent on this situational power which was itself dependent on the effectiveness of placate, and this made the whole Stalker AT too situational. The cons of AS from hide become the cons of the AT.

    Things change as time goes on. The ATO proc was a big one, since it allowed some great combos. Prior to I22 I had a setup that let me fire off AS from hide every time AS was charged without needing placate, and this brought with it a whole lot more versatility to the table. That was the first time that it ever truly felt like the stalker was the single-target king. The new assassin focus system shifted stalkers away from needing AS from hide at all. Without being dependent on the gimmick, the stalker becomes less situational and thus the cons of AS from hide quit being nearly as pivotal as they once were.

    The fact still remains that AS from hide is a situational power still. If it is being used for anything other than part of the alpha strike then it is risky, inefficient, ineffective, and the cons do not outweigh the pros. If you are facing against enemies that have various attacks that will break hide automatically or have increased perception, it is still not worth the use. It isn't a problem anymore because now the players aren't being shoehorned into the "AS from hide or an inferior scrapper" dichotomy.


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Leo_G View Post
    Because you have an AoE attack that can soften up a larger group. Or you have a faster animating high-tier power that will do quite a bit of damage while building up 1 shot of focus practically guaranteed...and AS will be sure to be recharged when you first get 3.
    The ATO proc makes this a non-issue. With auto re-hiding you can have your cake and eat it, too.
  18. Those kind of errors creep into my writing and speech all the time. It is one of those things where I have heard utmost a hundred times, but have never seen it written out. Same goes for when I see a word written out a hundred times, but have never heard it spoken.

    You do NOT want to know how I originally pronounced "epitome".
  19. The OP"s got a good idea. I've seen it work in other games quite well, and it would eliminate a lot of the guesswork that goes into my trial runs.


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Stormbird View Post
    Eh...

    I don't mind per character timers. I would, however, like to SEE them.
    This is also a good idea. Just as long as I am not shooting in the dark for when I'll get emp merits.
  20. Blood Red Arachnid

    Logout animation

    Seems kind of cool. /signed.
  21. Love it. I loved the original MIB, and I became a fan of the series once I saw the opening to the animated series.
  22. I could've sworn that I read on Yahoo news once that experiments regarding the matter-energy conversion in particle accelerators that indicated that there were a minimum of 5 different types of Higgs-boson particles.

    Regardless, I do wonder how mass works at the subatomic scale, so I am eagerly awaiting the results.
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hopeling View Post
    I find it odd that you've become so defensive over some people saying vaguely disrespectful things to you on a message board, yet have even entertained the idea that it's OK to drag modern mass murder into a game of escapist fantasy, as long as you have enough fun with it, and anybody who gets upset at you dredging up memories of their murdered relative, or vaguely implying their race/religion makes them a terrorist, is just too easily offended.

    By the way, you might try totally avoiding the issue by making your character part of a fictional terrorist group, rather than a real one? Crusader Resistance, maybe.
    Call it a curse of communication awareness, but when someone says something condescending or makes negative implications I pick it up immediately. Why it is so apparent is anyone's guess, but my assumption is that I learned to detect hostility as a survival instinct in dealing with a particular disability I have. The big problem wasn't that rudeness was present. It is expected on some level, being the internet and all. For the first part of the thread, it was just ignored. The big problem is when it is denied. One of the things I didn't quote was Forbin's second post in the disrespect argument since I was debating it, but it is by far the worst offender. It is a derogatory statement about my sanity, about my integrity, and about my intelligence, topped off with an air of supremacy that necessitates my inferiority with direct exclusion from the normal forum-goers in an attempt to inform others of my inferiority. Each of those categories has layers of overt implications upon them, and it is this that truly angered me. By that time, the thread had derailed and the subject of my whole was now on the tracks. This is quite a bit more serious than just going off the handle when someone makes a condescending implication, as a defense is warranted and justified when a person is the very subject at hand. I would love play the game where people's word's have no consequences to them and you can ignore people without repercussion, but this just isn't true.

    The whole "your being defensive" and "nitpicking" argument is completely dodging the issue. Imposing some character flaw does not change the validity of my arguments.

    I am assuming that by now everyone knows that Achmed the Dead Terrorist exists and is popular. This is an example of comedy in popular culture; taking issues relevant to the world and re-constructing them in a way as to provide comical perspective on them. This includes issues that are controversial, since the topics are often thought about and thus providing a constant topic for new insight and material. This is not a recent phenomena; comedy has been about relevant issues for as long as comedy has been around. It serves many functions, from making statements about the world (such as in political satire) to just being entertaining (such as physical comedy). Since comedy of this nature exists and is well received enough to be popular on a global scale, someone who is taking offense to that idea when it is not making some profound statement is being too easily offended. The mere mention of topical issues in a comedic state offending someone isn't about me and what I am doing at all: It is about that someone, and whether or not they are O.K. with comedy in general.

    The whole idea that I plan to do this explicitly at other people's expense is absurd. One of the reasons why I wanted to go with it, stated in my second post of this thread (4th numerically) was that other people would enjoy the joke toon, and likewise I would enjoy their enjoyment. Happiness self-reinforces, and the joke is only as good as how much other people enjoy it. It is so much easier to offend people through other means that aren't readily interpreted and understood by the majority as nothing more than an attempt at comedy. So if the purpose is to offend, then it is assuming this whole ordeal is needlessly complicated and that necessitates the a priori assumption that I am a liar and/or a troll with no grounds to base it on from my demeanor in the first post of this topic. This applies to topical comedy as well; an assumption that a comedian is trolling as an attempt to entertain the very population that they are trolling is a ludacris set of mental gymnastics that instantly says "don't bother responding to this individual, since they lack the ability to listen".

    You can pick apart their feelings on the matter to show that they are being too sensitive (mass murder and suicide bombing are already present in the game), but that doesn't go anywhere since feelings are self evident and do not need logical justification to be held. To that point, changing the name to something that isn't topical humor robs impact of the joke, as well as the dynamic regarding another toon I had made.


    Now, as far as the rule of thumb goes, I can say that it does apply to this situation while the flaws in the rule of thumb prevent it from resolving the dilemma. Its ineffectiveness was my original intention, after all. Not sure exactly where applicability substituted helpfulness in this thread.


    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ideon View Post
    But I mean what I said. It's quite obvious that you're going to disregard what we say and create your possibly offensive character anyway. I'm just saying if it does get generic'd, don't complain about it since you knew what you were getting into when you go make it.
    Sincerity of the beast does not change its nature. To this, I thank you for affirming my claim. As for your position on this matter, it is contradictory to what should be self evident in the thread; I have already stated that the project is abandoned. If that is not satisfactory, then there is little we have left to discuss.
  24. AS from hide still has plenty of uses. On those rare occasions where my Stalker has to tank for the team, it is a blessing. The -7.5% unresisted BTH on the entire group works great with IO defenses, and the 25% chance for mag 5 terror fragments alpha so even the squishy stalkers can take it. The fight doesn't technically start until someone draws alpha, so the 2 second windup is negligible in those cases. With a lot of players slotting the ATO proc into AS, it recharges in, like, 7 seconds anyway, so by the time you would've built up enough focus to get a critical hit AS is there and waiting. The proc also works most of the time in AS, so you don't "lose" your hide to the attack, and the enemy response is long enough to allow you to use another power before their attacks break hidden status. Then there is the benefit to outright killing an LT (or boss if you have enough following AoE from the team) with one attack; enemies are fighting you the whole time you build up focus.


    My biggest gripe with the new system is that I constantly feel like I have to babysit assassin's focus to get the most out of it. I often find myself using attacks I shouldn't or delaying attacks just to build up focus. This causes my attack chain to shatter, and then my offense becomes a mishmash of different moves strung together in a random fashion, where any combinations I would have with the ATO proc and AS itself falls apart. The alternative seems to be to ignore the focus mechanic, but even though the math says it still has higher DPS than AS from hide, it seems highly inefficient and bugs my neurosis to no end. This is a hurdle that I'll have to climb over eventually.


    With that said, I currently am running a Kinetic Melee stalker, and AS in that set is wicked scary. Half the time I don't even see it. No exaggeration there; the action is so quick that I don't see it. Using AS in a chain is so fast it's like I didn't use a power at all, and I have to race to click another power. The damage from this output is Gary Busey insane: My current set up does 626 damage from critical (ignoring global +dmg), and with a 0.67 second activation time and 0.8 second w/ arcanatime this attack does 919 DPS and 770 DPS respectively!

    I don't turn off AVs when solo for my stalker anymore. He bulldozes right through them. The speed and subtlety in which AS fires off adds to the gaming experience. It's like "I'm going to go fight this lolstalker and why is there a gaping hole in my chest?". I also have the ATO proc + 4 set pieces in AS, so this lets me pull off some righteous combos since it procs most of the time. I can follow through with burst and have it auto-critical from hide, killing minions instantly. I can also follow through Concentrated Strike, which recharges Build Up instantly (NOTE: there was a hidden update that displays when build up recharges now). I probably had used Build up before AS, since it adds 111 damage 222 on critical, and thus pays for itself instantly in a DPS chain, leaving 9.2 seconds of "bonus time" in which I just increase my damage output. 19.2 seconds if I used concentrated strike and got another buildup.

    BTW there is a gaping hole in your chest.
  25. I might buy it. My first toon was roughly based on an idea I had for Bleach, and she was going to wear a partial skull mask. But, partial skull masks didn't exist. so instead I had to go with a blindfold+chains look.

    The chains are iconic now, but there are many instances where I would like to throw a mask on some heroes. One of my newest toons is a zombie, and I think that should a mask pack come out, I'd definitely abuse it for his costumes.