Blueeyed

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Who said it has to be small chance from a TF/trial? Why can't it be small chance from anything (killing mobs/mission complete/etc)?

Why the need to have any item linked to specific events like this?

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Because the Evil Doctor says that they want four pools to work through. Currently, that's enemy defeats, task forces, trials, and story arcs. They aren't willing to get rid of a pool at this point.

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The way i understand it, is that a lvl 20ish story arc, will drop a formula for a 20ish IO set.If you a 50, why do you even care about a 20ish IO? Shouldnt you be more concerned with trying to find one of the story arcs running on PI(theres a ton) and finishing one of those so you can get the 40+ formula??

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Because the level 20 IO might have a particularly useful attribute? Say, +knockback protection? Something that isn't found in the higher level recipes?

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And, it dosent seem the story arcs are the only place to get a random rare component, or formula, its ONE of FOUR places to get it, so if your not able to do a story arc for one, run a tf, everybody can do a tf, most specifically 50's, we've access to ALL of em.

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From the UK boards, just in case the post at the start of the thread confuses you :

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There are some rare recipes that can only be earned by completing story arcs - it doesn't matter which story arc, they all share the same table. Likewise, there are some rare recipes that can only be received by completing Task/Strike Forces (again, you can earn these from any TF/SF), and some that are only available from Trials (again, any Trial will give you a chance to get one of these).

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An 8 man 50 team can do 5 scanners in PI and run 8 Safeguards in a row. Does that sound hard to get to?

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Given that they'd have done 15 missions for 8 chances to a Story Arc pool rare recipe (probably 3-4 of said recipe, 4-5 of pool A recipe) spread across 8 people? I think it sounds a little low of a rate -- less than one reward per player in thirty missions. Thankfully, they could complete all of their safeguards at the same time, and have a number closer to one reward per player in twelve missions, not particularly far from what a lower story arc could provite.

We're talking more a connection to the completion text at the contact, not as a reward to every player at the bank.

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. My only concern about adding drops to MM/SFG completes is that, since completing them or paper/radio missions count as broker credit for everyone on the team, people would abandon Story Arcs in order to farm 8+ MM/SFG missions in a row. Reducing the chance of Story Arc Pool drop would probably lessen that, but it still would likely be an unintended consequence of the change. Maybe lowering the Story Arc Drop rate on MM/SFG missions even more, to something like a 10% chance?

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To a degree, it may be necessary. I think story arcs would remain preferred by soloers (most story arcs are shorter than twelve missions, and in any case are more reliable for recipe rewards in addition to normal story arc bonuses).

For teams, anything they can work on together would be preferable even if there was a very low chance. The problem there says more about Story Arcs than anything else -- a way to allow multiple team mates to align them would be the elegant fix here, but probably wouldn't be reasonable until mid-i9.

If the potential problem is content no team can reasonably work together toward, or a tendency toward newspaper missions, I know which one I'll take.

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Tying Arc drops to Safeguards sounds like a bad idea, as Story Arcs take a long string of missions to complete (especially hero side).

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Yeah, but if it's only tied to Safeguard completion you end up needing to do six missions for each result. Excluding the 40+ Hero arcs, most story arcs are seldom more than ten or twelve missions (and the 40+ hero arcs have their own reasons to go for them). Just give Safeguard's a 50% chance for a Pool A rare (drop from enemies) and a 50% chance for a Story Arc Pool recipe.

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Inventions has been touted as something that shelved level 50's can partake in. Level 50's that have completed all their story arcs already. Please, how can both of those occur? Level 50's can not experience IO's if they are locked out of acheiving specific rewards because they happened to hit the level cap before I9.

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Doctor Brainstorm wrote:
It's like I said, we are looking into other options that keeps the mechanic of the four pool system. Our intention is to not make people feel "gimped" for previously completing all their story arcs.

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Please keep this in mind when posting. No need to get too worked up folks! We appreciate the feedback, thanks!

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As a simpler (hopefully) solution, could the Story Arc rewards pool be tied to Mayhem mission/Safeguard mission completion, just for the mission owner? It'll still keep the four pools, and shouldn't require too many changes, but it'll at least make it easier for teams to work together to earn recipes from that Pool B if they so choose, and level 50s can continue to access Mayhem/Safeguard missions.

You might have to have a mixed rate (such as a 50% chance of getting lower level Pool B recipe, or a 50% chance of a Pool A recipe and a 50% recipe of Pool B) to make up for the tendency for hero story arcs to require more missions, but I think even that would be preferable.

I'm just concerned that one of the very few Pool B recipes will end up being something that would really make my character more enjoyable (knockback protection for many blasters, for example, would be one), and I don't want to end up having to leech or beg or flood the auction house for a chance for such a reward.

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1. Is there something in place keeping me from binding to the non-numerical numpad buttons (such as the + or the / on the numpad)? I've tried this and they don't seem to do anything.

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Use /bind "add" or /bind "divide". It works for me.

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Eh? What's wrong with consume?

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Perhaps it recharges a bit slowly? Castle probably hasnt got round to it because I've been hammering them with my Imps + Oil Slick requests.

Lewis

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Consume recharges at 180 seconds, compared to the ~60 of Power Sink. It returns only 20 endurance per target rather than Power Sink's 25. Where Power Sink does a respectable amount of endurance drain (the Blaster version drains 35% of a critter's endo), Consume does a very meager AoE damage effect of 0.4 damage scalar.

It's a bit sad that there's no change coming down the line soon, but then again, that means that there might be an Invention that makes Consume valuable.

Thank you _Castle_ for providing this information to the community.

A few things.

Shard refers to the dimension, and all dimensions. Servers are called Shards on the global friend list for this reason; they are alternate dimensions with different individuals coming into place after the two-year Rikti War. It's quite possible that the Shadow Shard was 'normal' before Rularuu got in, and retained some normality up til the Madness broke the world and ended up leaving little of the Earth but dust and some suspended rocks.

We know whatever event occured to allow Rularuu to exist did so more than ~30 years ago (otherwise Old Fred would know more about a time without Rularuu) and probably more recently than ~180 years ago (otherwise there wouldn't be a Paragon or Paragon City to talk about). We can't really cut down further than that : Nemesis was around since before WWI, even the recent Zoria-'led' Circle of Thorns have been around since the late 1890s, and Crey and the Rikti aren't mentioned as legends.

The Circle of Thorn seem to have a massive power over the Rularuu - even Nemesis troops are often attacked by them while CoT are avoided. The reason for this is fairly simple : the CoT are in a dimension with lots of magic around, and it's quite possible that the names provided by the Rularuu are their true names. That they could even contemplate binding a dimensional entity might not be too farfetched.

We don't, however, know whether the Prince of Brass or the Circle of Thorns mentioned in legend are that universe's, or our own. I don't think the latter is likely -- while the CoT could have been bumbling with Portal magic back before Ongabonga went underground, Nemesis's portal tech was based on his Superdine research during the mid 80s, which would have dumped him in when the Madness Broke the World, far too recent to be a legend.

Rularuu may not be a sentient dimension. Among other things, we know that the Shadow Shard had something approaching normality before the Madness Broke the World, and Rularuu probably wasn't around when that world's original Prince of Brass played tag with it.

Right now, I'm edging between mad deity and someone that popped open Pandora's Box and looked deep, deep inside. The former would be fairly easy if cliched to explain. The latter would work physically (since it wouldn't need to be Statesman or Recluse or anyone we know, or to have happened when Statesman or Recluse opened it; Rularuu may have very well found Pandora's Box long after that, or long before). Either case would explain the avatars and lack of an actual Rularuu: each race or being is something Rularuu makes of himself, and applies his will against.

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It's duration is slightly less than it's natural recharge time, which makes it kind of silly as a travel power.

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Its duration is 60 seconds, as is the base recharge. There is a 2.03 second animation that gets in the way, though.

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2) a larger End cost over that same time than SJ

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IR costs 23.4 endurance every ~60 seconds, or 0.39 end/sec.
SJ costs 0.23 endurance every 0.5 seconds, or 0.46 end/sec. If you're jumping more than 50 seconds but less than 60, it'll save you endurance.

That's not to say I would complain if it, say, got a couple seconds sliced off the recharge, and was turned to a much faster or instant activation (see PeaceBringer Quantum Flight for an example) and dropped in price. Just that it's more a quality of life issue than a balance one.

I mean, if I wanted to add 2 seconds to my escape time, pay lump sums for my travel powers, and plummet from the sky, I would have just picked up Teleport like I do with every other character.

Interruptable powers never root you - you can always move as soon as they begin activating. Such will, however, interrupt said power.

The two mechanics are completely separate.

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No you don't get it. The rez power will now root you according to both sets of notes. That means that you can't do anything until the animation is finished (and that's a really long animation).

The stun and invincibility of this power aren't a benefit, especially since the invulnerability starts when you hit the button, not when the power ends.

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You've never been able to cast other powers while the first power's animation is still going, whether it rooted or not.

Also, the invulnerability starts 0.25 seconds after you hit the button... not that this matters, much. It's still 10 seconds of invulnerability after a 1.17 seconds animation; you should still be able to pop a couple heal inspirations and retoggle, even if the animation pops up to 1.5 seconds.

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Extra credit if you can give us some idea about MoG.

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"It's a tier 9, and will still root for 1.5 seconds. Performing as expected."

What, you expect a fix?

Seriously, the power's designed to be situational, and actually mean it unlike the other seven powers in the set. It works well in those situations, particularly since most of us don't particularly enjoy wasting half a tray of lucks every six minutes, nevermind how many blues you'd have to pop to make up for that aspect of the power.

It does its job. You may not like what that job is, every /regen scrapper on earth known and unknown may not like what that job is, but it's not likely to change.

Although they really should buff the health level slightly to make up for the enemy acc changes.

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Does this base also get scaled against the target's level? IE, if you taunt something higher level, will your taunt duration be shorter?

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Yes, and it seems to follow the purple patch numbers.

Since no one answered these yet :
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How about Ice Patch from Ice Melee? Does it have a taunt effect?

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Ice Patch does not have a taunt effect, although it does provide a very high amount of threat due to the slow and knock.
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Also, someone said the other day that if you heal a tanker they lose some of their aggro. This isn't true is it? I have a feeling they are confusing us with WoW.

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Haven't seen his here or in WoW, although it's been a while since I played WoW. From what I've been able to observe, normal targetted heals (Aid Other, Healing Aura, et all) have no aggro component. Transfusion and Darkest Night does. None of these, however, override Taunt.

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Edit: Forgot. How about the lowbie attack you get which varies by origin? Does it have a taunt effect too?

[/ QUOTE ] I don't believe so. These powers don't even have a chance to critical, after all!

All characters have a couple of metrics assigned to them in regard to aggro. The most notable are archetype, distance, and 'threat'.

Archetype has a significant effect on how mobs react to you. Dwarf Peacebringers and Warshades can attract mobs with their very presence in many situations, while Defenders, non-Dwarf'd PBs and Warshades, Controllers, and Blasters have more middle-ground archetype threat ratings. Tankers have low base threat values, and scrappers are nearly ignored.

Enemies target heroes closer to them. No point running far.

Enemies also measure 'threat', a sum of damage, debuffage, and control done once you've entered the enemy's perception radius. Note that just because the enemies aren't chasing you, you may still be on that perception list.

Also, lower-level heroes are consider crunchy and go well with BBQ. Enemies aim for them first, all other attributes being equal.

Had you stealthed ahead through the mission? Or looked into that room? Did the group act like an ambush?

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One of the things I'm looking at is whether criticals end a fight quicker than a comparable defiance boost. It is not as simple as you might expect, because one odd coincidence I'm starting to see, and I cannot explain, is the "sliver of health" oddity. Alarmingly frequently, the damage numbers of the attacks blasters get combine to leave a target with a sliver of health, at unbuffed damage levels. Its happening at a higher frequency than can be explained by probability.

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So I'm not the only one to see this. I found this phenomena on my Warshade and Defender as well as Blaster. I think it gets worse after SOs, or at least don't remember seeing it often until Banished Pantheon and Freakshow. Every freaking fight with those guys had me desperately blasting off the last ~3-5% off before they'd summon more Husks or Dull Pain.

I also remember someone showing that enemy health bars were often multiples of damage scalar values. Could the combination of base regeneration and the ~5% difference from those damage scalars from ED create this difference?

Er, speaking as one of the last two people to update the Defender Forum's Guide to the Guides, don't you just ask for volunteers to write up the post and e-mail it in?

It's great to tell us you're getting around to that hefty task after several months, but "One of the initiatives the Community Team will be tackling" is a bit heavy-handed phrasing.

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I thought Fallout worked through a Quasi-pet nd was NOT containable.

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Unless it's changed since Pilcrow tested it, Fallout is still containable.

What's the recharge on the Pocket D card teleport power? Interruptable or anything else unusual?

Are the free trials for the other games included with online purchase, and what do they include?

From OP:
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I'll be reviewing Praetorian-themed stories until I get enough, so get 'em in early, but right now there is no official cut-off date.

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actually they dont have this ability.
its mentioned in a few of the mission story lines.

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On the capture of Anti-Matter and others, it's mentioned on mission completion text that they were 'portaled out' of the Zig. Antimatter's own description states that he's 'cracked Portal Tech.' They are not always accurate, and not all individuals can, but at least some of them seem quite capable of making portals.

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Praetorians?
Who or what are they?
Does anyone even know?

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Think evil dopplegangers from another universe. While they each have a backstory similar to the Paragon City characters (up to the Rikti Invasion), some small or not-so-small part of their history has changed. The "Heroes" are instead twisted, vile, and wierd (for example, "Neuron", the evil Synapse, gained his powers through self-experimentation, and only is into science to impress Tyrant, their Statesman), while well-known villians like the Carnival of Light and Crey are working to protect people and fight the Praetorian 'heroes' (as opposed to our world, where the Carnival of Shadows steals human souls to feed their mistress, and Crey is the quintessential evil corporation).

Praetorians have the ability to create portals into our dimension at will, and we have similar capabilities. Technology-wise, they are at the same or higher level.

It's not really clear what major event caused that universe to change in this fashion, unlike the Nemesis or Banished Pantheon universes, so I can't really help on that.

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Skills - Not coming. Ever. They tried 9 different systems and couldn't find a fun one.

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That's kinda impressive. I can understand why, since the redname quotes on the matter seemed like they are trying to make what's normally just a dice-roll in other systems (the 'crafting' role, or other 'skill-based' actions like lockpicking, disabling security) into something they considered universally 'fun'.

Pity they are just axing the system, though. Just having non-combat stats to pay attention to was a pretty big must-have from a few people, and given how much work the devs put into it, there must at least have been something viable in the meanwhile, if not perfect.

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Fighting an evil version of yourself - Its something they would like to do, but it would require quite a bit of programming. The biggest issue would be for masterminds, since there is currently no AI to handle NPC versions of them.

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That seems like a pointless thing to have. There are already existing mechanics for NPCs to summon and direct pets. Even if there weren't, just having the 'read' program (that looks at your character) treat Masterminds different and creating normal enemies that mimic a mastermind (through 3 caster AIs, 2 Support AIs, 1 Boss AI, and a Defender AI).

I can offer a 33 Warshade, a 50 /regen scrapper, or a 27 Stormer, if need be, although I'll only be available in the afternoons on Sunday (god, I hate my job). Most of my test server slots are occupied by villains or lowbie characters for powers testing. >.<

Oh, and also, as to the StreakBreaker, WeirdBeard says :

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Final to-hit : misses allowed
>.9 : 1
.8-.9 : 2
.6-.8 : 3
.4-.6 : 4
.3-.4 : 6
.2-.3 : 8
0 -.2 : 100

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The problem is, the streakbreaker doesn't reset on targets - if you miss anything first and don't break the streak with a hit, (for example, if you miss while trying to brawl a Devouring Earth Swarm), the StreakBreaker will 'lock' onto that lowest value and use it for the current miss series.

That doesn't explain how something at 95% nettohit (it can be nothing else, given that _Castle_ gave it a -1000% defense debuff, is being missed three times in a row by several different players within the same week. The chance of any one player having that happen are one in eight thousand.