BrandX

Originally Posted by Durakken

I've been thinking about this all day for some reason, but I have to ask, in our world what is the meaning or and the value of being "published"

I personally view publishing houses, comic publishers, the music industry, hollywood, and the video game industry largely built on an antiquated system that emphasizes the value of a corporation making decisions about what is and isn't good.

Why do we recognize these authorities? Why would we in our age? Why is it laughed at when someone self publishes a book. Why are web comics not held in as much esteem as regular comics? Why should we care about a music label saying something is good when the music label is only there to fund the production of a hard medium such as a cd/tape/record? We no longer need these corporations because we have the internet and as such their purpose is, more or less, completely obliterated.

Why would artists ever want to be associated with these corporations? They take a majority of the money that is gained by the popularity of the artists and provide no service that the artists couldn't do on their own.

And in those mediums where the money is the big factor (due to hiring people or some such thing)...has having that much money to throw around helped to make great art/product? Or has it in truth harmed it?

So again why do we scoff at self published and laugh at the idea of indy development as not as good as big companies...

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow

Scrapper Pistol Mastery:
Single Shot
Snap Shot
Empty Clips
Suppressive Fire
Tracer Rounds: Short duration click buff which gives a large accuracy (or to-hit) bonus that only applies to Pistol Mastery powers. Standard 10 second duration to 90 second recharge. Possibly some small damage buff percentage.

Originally Posted by Syntax42

Post a build and you might get more help.

Originally Posted by docbuzzard

Originally Posted by Warp_Factor

No, people who like kickass superhero action enjoyed all the SMASH fighting scenes. And no one thinks X-Men 3 was the best movie of the trilogy. Anyone who claims to is messing with your head.

Originally Posted by TrainRobber

I agree about ranged defense and hover. Hover alone will keep you alive sometimes when things go south. I cant see using hover on a DP though, seems a very mobile, jumpy set when I play it, and I like hover.

I just think I would build for AOE first, recharge and defense second. Pistols relies on HOB, along with Rain and Empty, so I think the best approach is to fully leverage them, the best you can for maximum damage and recharge. I think its single target attach chain is just too weak to concentrate on. It lacks good mitigation or speed.

Pistols is oft compared to Nrg in its effectiveness I think it falls behind quite abit until HOB, so my theory, is build around its strength. I love its aoe potential. If you do stay the course with your defense, you might have to think about your playstyle, I dont like to melee with blasters like some do, but you may find that since you are up close and personnel anyway, that the melee attacks help you dispatch the mobs inbetween aoe's better than the pistols do, which is a pity.

Originally Posted by Psychic_Warlock

Perhaps it is just a bug in the description. You are right, global recharge does not seem to affect the power.

Originally Posted by Seldom

Every archetype could access powers in its class, and I think should. But with a caveat- there are a few side qualifiers for archetypes. Defender attacks all have a debuff/mitigative effect asosciated with them. Corruptors' secondaries all have debuffs.

Besides this, there are archetypal considerations. Brutes should benefit from being attacked, so their secondaries often play to this. Dominators are best with powers that give direct control. Controllers gain damage through control, so giving them control-heavy secondaries can be tricky, as it's also giving damage. Ally damage boosts on a mastermind are self damage boosts, given their pocket armies.

In the former, the rules are more cut and dry. If the devs keep to their rules, defenders don't get the existing fire blast because it brings no mitigation. Corruptors don't get forcefields/empathy as they exist, as they have no weakening ('corrupting') element.

In the latter, it's all grey. Ice armor for brutes? The slows/soft control are mitigation that reduce attacks, so on paper it can work against fury. But then throw in my /dark brute that survives via control, and I can tell you this point is moot. Deeper in the grey, you come across more problematic sets. Ninjitsu would suit brutes even less, as it doesn't just delay attacks, it redirects them from the brute. Fire aura is squishy but is balanced against burning nearby foes. How does that work on a stalker, who can't be setting fire to everyone around them at all times? How do you balance dark miasma for controllers, where it gives four new controls, along with a pet that also controls? In some of these cases, outright proliferation is a bad idea, and tweaks have to happen to suit the new archetype.

In my mind, illusion/ is actually one of the easier sets to balance. While dominators can compliment the temporary damage of the set by helping finish targets with attacks, they also are incapable of indirectly boosting the primary's damage/accuracy with resistance/defense debuffs. The difference between additive and multiplicative effects. The damage from illusion/ would be far more straightforward to balance than in the hands of their step-cousins, controllers.

To make it suit the archetype that doesn't bring much backup survivability in its secondary, I'd pull the group buff (group invisibility) and replace it with a sleep. (This suits the more villainous AT, as it means you only cloak yourself, not your allies) The powerset gets a bit more outright control the dominator can use, but not in a way that skews the character into a control juggernaut. Something like a cone, call it 'hypnotic gaze,' and call it a day.

Originally Posted by TrueGentleman

The Hollywood Reporter has also picked up this story, citing multiple (anonymous) sources, so add that industry paper to EW and Variety in the "no" camp. The key factor emerging is that the pilot's scores among test audiences were dismal. How bad does a show have to be to get rejected by NBC?

Originally Posted by Father Xmas

I watched the first episode today (yesterday, whatever). Found a stream source with subtitles off of Bing.

Pretty cool. Beast's face is a little odd but I can't say what's bothering me about it.

At least in this world the general population isn't totally freaked by mutants (pirate scene with Storm).


Except Halle Berry didn't get breast enlargement surgery or strapped a couple of large water balloons to her chest (TVTropes: Most Common Superpower). Other than that sure. I think even Logan is taller.

Originally Posted by Father Xmas

What GL doesn't have going for it, like Thor, is a chunk of the movie in CGI land with lots of CGI critters. If the weak part for Thor was Asgard, not sure how the Oa scenes will be received by the critics.

As for Ryan Reynolds, I think the Hollywood group think was;

A) Test pilots are cocky bastards.

B) Think of an actor who plays cocky bastards that looks like he can fit in a fighter jet and still looks good in spandex (which thankfully eliminated Seth Rogen).

C) Won't cost a lot if the movie does well enough for sequels.

Originally Posted by TrainRobber

What lvl are you now. I think blasters are all about build up, blast aoe's, kill whats left. YOu might want to use standard ammo for the KB. I dont think single target chains are all that important. If you are fighting single targets, knock em down with thrust and work them over from there, if you are fighting multiple enemies, then your aoe is your bread and butter. build up, hit em hard. If you cant significantly weaken or kill most the them, success starts to drop dramatically.

I know defense is all the rage, but mostly mez is what kills you. Without high ranged defense, you will get held and die. I play along some high defense blasters with my Nrg/Nrg that has no defense whatesoever, and dont die anymore, and less at times, because they simply dont kill quick enough.

I would add procs to your aoe powers. It helps alot in my opinion. You have great slotting in your single target atttacks, but I think the game has evolved to the point, where you have to tune your aoe's first and single targets second. Even on lower settings, I think AOE's are more important than the single target.

Gl with your build, maybe Im just not getting it myself with not building my blasters for defense. shruggs.

Originally Posted by Ultraamann

Network shows are a joke. They have zero balls to actually put something different on, and then give it a chance to find its legs. I can count on one hand the number of network shows left that I actually watch. I much prefer what the cable channels are doing. HBO, Showtime, A&E, FX, USA are all putting out better products than the networks.

I miss the days when they actually would give shows time to find their legs. Some of the best shows started out rather weakly, and were given the time to find their voice and their formula. Networks don't have the patience for that anymore, and the quality of programming in general suffers for it.