Blue_Yin_EU

Finally, after a year and a half of chronic altitis, got my trusty old main to 50. Thanks to Stormin' Kormin for organising the team I was in when it happened

Got lots of high lvl heroes, but a low lvl (13) villainess who's desperate for a set of DOs (I know, I know, I'm spoilt).

Could I please arrange a transfer with someone who's got high level villain but a low level hero who needs inf?

Will be on tomorrow evening (Fri Aug 16) from about 5:30 onwards,on and off.

Thx!

Ok, completed in fine style! Thanks to:

Toxic Terror (Def)
Divine Singh MC (PB)
Eye Fire Genie (Ctr)
Roxieo (Bl)
Stigmata (Scr)
Shades of Green (WS)

and last but not least Sheep-Man (Tnk) who kindly agreed to help out, even though he didn't need the respec.

Lowest levels (24 and 25) were sk-ed to highest (30s), so spread was from 27-30. A few deaths, but no wipes.

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Votes and Opinions Please. Im seeing so many tauntless tanks since taunt was moved to lvl 10 (not that anybody seems to take it anyway) I wondered what people think?

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I don't see how a Tank can do their job properly without taunt. Given that the Tank's main(not only but main) job is to take and hold aggro so the rest of the team can do their thing relatively more safely, taunt is a ranged way of grabbing aggro - and why would you want to miss that out? If the idea is that it's more fun to get a damage power, that's fair enough, but it would be also fair for you to let the team know that you're playing that way.

If I'm playing in a team with you with my Blaster, I will feel a bit less safe, but it's no problem to adjust tactics - I will just be a bit more cautious. However, that does mean my DPS will go down a bit from what it would have been if you had Taunt. (Of course this is in the abstract, all sorts of other variables might make a difference.)

There are ALWAYS going to be stray mobs going for squishies, and if you don't have taunt you don't have a means of doing your job in that situation - i.e. the standard situation is that you have the aggro of the main body of mobs, with your taunt aura and punchvoke from your attacks, and you need to keep them in place for AoEs. So you need the ranged aggro-grabbing of Taunt for this kind of situation.

Having said all that, I do think a Tank should put some effort into their damage-dealing as well. It's neither efficient nor fun to have 1 or 2 attacks till your late 20s.

Incidentally, I think this illustrates a general principle: to really know an AT, you have to have played other ATs in teams with that AT, so you know how you would like people to play that AT, so you can play it that way yourself. The Golden Rule again

Bumpety bump. OK I'll be by Jane Hallady on Valour bridge at 10:00 am tomorrow morning, if anybody's interested come along. Or if a bunch of people want to do it later please let me know.

Cancelled - managed to respec her this evening [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Great that's 3 so far, we need about 5 or 6, and there's a call for morning time if poss.

Come on all you gimps, don't be shy! [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Trickslide (Ice/TA Controller, will be 24 soon) would like to do her first respec mission on Sun 20th August.

She's free all day, so if some people put down their names and times when they are free we can firm up the time as we go.

Lvl 24 minimum, should take 2-3 hours.

Trying this again, hopefully with a bit more notice there will be some interest this time (I asked last Saturday for that Sunday, but I guess it was a bit short notice [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] )

Absolutely Mental (lvl 24 mind/storm controller) would like to do her first respec on Sunday 19th.

Anybody interested please respond. Say times you will be available and we'll firm up the time as we go. (AM's free all day.)

Lvl 24 minimum, should take 2-3 hours.

OK, cancelled for lack of interest [img]/uk/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Bump

Second the Ice/TA thing, I rolled one recently and have been playing the heck out of her (now lvl 20). I'm also finding that I'm taking more TA powers than Ice atm - Ice Slick and Block of Ice (both with lots of recharges) are my Ice bread and butter, and I've been using Flash, Glue and Poison from TA a lot, and have just added Acid. Not taken Stamina prerequisites yet, as this set seems to be end light - will see how I get on, can always respec.

Absolutely Mental (lvl 24 mind/storm controller) would like to do her first respec on Sunday 13th.

Anybody interested please respond. Say times you will be available and we'll firm up the time as we go. (AM's free all day.)

Lvl 24 minimum, should take 2-3 hours.

I might come along at that time (Absolutely Mental - Mind/Storm controller); if there are enough spare folk around, we might be able to have another team

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This is why I'm seriously considering getting into the Presence Power Pool with my Stone/Fire. Seeing as I'm rooted a lot of the time, I figure that some extra means of taunting at a distance would compensate for the difficulty of moving around. Does this make sense to any of the vets here?

(I appreciate the teleport thing, but - maybe I'm just a klutz - while teleporting around in-battle is ok in outdoor maps where I can zoom out, I find it difficult to use in enclosed indoor maps.)

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1st question; Why are you spending most of your time rooted?

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Good question. I guess it's because my Stone/Fire is at 15, and atm I haven't got any other armours than Stone Skin and the passive one, so I rely on Rooted's regen (plus EE) to keep me alive. Plus, I absolutely hate knockback. I've actually gotten quite used to turning Rooted on and off quickly when it's necessary to move.

I've got 2 blasters I love and can highly recommend, both work great in PvE. Not sure about PvP because I haven't played them in that yet.

Fire/Eng. Simply awesome damage output, especially in AoE terms, but the big single target close-range attack, Blaze, is also huge, and has a surprisingly fast recharge. The /Eng secondary power Build Up boosts the damage output and Conserve Power lowers the end cost of the attacks (so you can keep pumping out a constant stream of damage, and put 2 recharges in all attacks to make them cycle even faster). The Eng secondary melee attacks also have disorients and toggle drops, which should work well in PvP.

Ice/Ice is like a sort of controllery blaster, which I should imagine would work quite well in PvP. It certainly works well in PvE. Bitter Ice Blast is second only to Blaze in terms of sheer damage output for a single target attack (it has a longer range too). There are 2 holds in Ice/ which stack (Freeze Ray and Bitter Freeze Ray), and /Ice's crowning glory is Ice Patch, which is great in PvE, almost making you a mini controller (at least in small maps with tight corridors).

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And thats precisely when you are up a certain creek without a certain barge pole in granite armour.

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This is why I'm seriously considering getting into the Presence Power Pool with my Stone/Fire. Seeing as I'm rooted a lot of the time, I figure that some extra means of taunting at a distance would compensate for the difficulty of moving around. Does this make sense to any of the vets here?

(I appreciate the teleport thing, but - maybe I'm just a klutz - while teleporting around in-battle is ok in outdoor maps where I can zoom out, I find it difficult to use in enclosed indoor maps.)

I've tremendously enjoyed my dark/dark, who's now at 37. One great synergy with dark/dark is the two AoE attacks in /dark (TT and NF), which when fully slotted, and with a Tar Patch or two from dark/ underneath, can put out some pretty respectable damage and melt away big groups.

Another great (but unsung) synergy of dark/dark is in disorientation - with HT and DP you have 2 disorients (Mag 2 + Mag 1) which, when stacked, can disorient an entire bunch of mobs, including bosses.

Fluffy is also a great boon - a very active pet, constantly pumping out heals, holds and TT, and with a good debuffing aura wherever he goes.

Dark/dark is really the most jack-of-all-trades power combination of all, IMHO. You can debuff, control, heal, put out damage, even tank to a small extent (by materialising Fluffy in the midst of some mobs). The one thing you can't do is buff, but my other Defender is Kin/Elec, so I can do the buffbot thing when I feel like it

Plus the animations and sounds are great - by the time you're in your mid 30s, you feel pretty mighty.

My dark/dark is partly built round disorientation, so she has HT 3 slotted with recharges, and 2 disorients so far, so it's up for every big fight, and in combination with Dark Pit disorients just about every mob in the group, including bosses. Mwahahahaha

Just to say a word for BFR, I find it works really well on bosses, because you can BFR from a distance, then as you close you FR, and the boss is held by the stacked hold.

As someone above said:

Controller = oriented more towards mobs, mostly keeping an eye on mobs

Defender = oriented more towards team, mostly keeping an eye on team

i.e., if you like helping your team be a more efficient killing machine, be a Defender, if you like shaping the battlefield, be a Controller.

There's some crossover, but these are the main themes, IMHO. IOW, as a Controller, I'm constantly zooming out and getting the big picture, trying to anticipate what the team/mobs are doing and either stopping mobs or buffing team/debuffing mobs to compensate for what the mobs or the team are doing (e.g. team mistakes).

As a Defender I'm constantly watching the team, making sure they're always buffed/healthy, or that troublesome mobs are debuffed, or helping a teammate who's got some mob on their back by blasting away; or finishing off wandering/stray mobs that are low on health (this is, I find, the main use of the Defender secondary).

Defenders are also able to solo a bit easier in the early game.

Yeah that sounds about right. Good to know some others feel the same about this. 3 Recharges is definitely the way to go for the single target holds.

But I guess this is actually more a team-oriented thing, for solo 3 holds might still be best - I don't solo a lot with my Controllers tho.

I've found the more I play controllers I don't actually need 3 holds, or even 2 sometimes - especially, the higher up you go in the game, the quicker the mobs fall anyway, and in fact it's more useful to have more recharges in there.

Any other Controllers find this?

AAARGH!!! Really sorry folks, I was fiddling about with my comp and had a bios crash. Recovered and running now at 21:15, but I couldn't make it for 20:00. Hope you guys had a great time!

That'll teach me to fiddle about with the comp before I've got a TF to do :-(

Bumpett. Am still keen to do this! Will be on CoX this evening Fri 23 June and most of weekend.