Capa_Devans

I had a similar problem with my first blaster (currently 43). She's a fire/electric and have picked up force mastery.

Early on she was a really good killer but somewhere in the early/mid twenties it all went horribly wrong. I spent more time on the floor or at the hosptial or on my knees resting than killing.

I confess I used to lead off with three melee AoE's. Stop snickering at the back there. Which when it worked was *VERY* impressive and there was a lot of bodies. When it didn't work (which was getting increasingly frequent), there was less bodies. One in fact. It was mine. I quit one night with 47k debt and that was *after* paying off a load of debt accumulated earlier that night.

I was incredibly frustrated. Hated the character but wouldn't give up because I was half way through doing my memorization badges on her.

Then the Winter event came.

No don't groan, it's not a Winter Lord story. No. I was playing a pre-travel power kinetics defender and a I wound up paired with a 35-40 blaster. (He liked SB, I liked XP and frankly I wanted to nose how he played. I snoop. I find it a way to pick up play tips.)

It was a revalation.

He had a reasonably good speed but made sure he was safe and so he rarely died. I think we may have faceplanted once but hey; Snaptooth can be pretty mean. So after watching the playstyle for a while, I started asking questions. He was an absolute gentleman and took the time to teach me about the playstyle that works for him.

Most of it has been mentioned above. Use ranged attacks; you aren't a stone/stone tank (I need that on a Post It on my screeen). Stuff fire sword circle, yes it's pretty but Tesla Cage is more likely to save your rear (or any HOLD; immob is nice but lots of things have ranged attacks). Either kill something, hold it or move. If you can't kill it, then don't aggro it. And for crying out loud let a tank or something else take the alpha and get the aggro before getting creative (EG large AoEs).

I like her a lot more and I die a lot less since I adopted his playstyle.

Things did change a huge amount when she got her nuke at 32. Now we do the "Benny Hill" option with mobs that herd nicely. (Basically tank herds a nice chunk of mobs, brings them back to me. I nuke them, hit a small blue and consume and THEN wail on the survivors with the rest of my arsenal.) Play as mentioned above while waiting for the nuke to return. Rinse and repeat.

It's a lot of fun. I owe a great debt to that gentleman. It'd be great to team again one day. Thank you.

To the OP, just try the great suggestions in this thread. I'm not a great blaster player (I'm probably not even a good one) but the advice is sound. Good luck.

I'd definitely love to join this.

I normally use skype (because it's free and there's less than five of us) but I'm pretty sure I have Vent on my computer somewhere.

Really good idea. Thanks for taking the time to offer your knowledge to others.

I'm just so used to seeing Central US time so I always just add six. Being Pacific totally threw me.

OT: Best Play for Imperfect Player/xxx xxx?

I would like to be there but I cannot say I *will*. I didn't register the PST initially and that puts the kick off at 2am my time. My insomnia may mean I'm awake but I cannot say I will be.

My apologies but I would suggest that if anyone can take a spot on the roster as a definite then that would be better. Leave me on the alt list and if I'm awake and you have a dropout then I'd be delighted to grab one of the alts I'm breeding and join you.

I will now go to learn how to read and kick the people responsible for timezones.

I have no information on power, DPS, or anything technical. Although I do know the Stalker combos are different to the other AT's.

All I can say is my first character, my first 50 and still one of my favourite characters is a DB/WP stalker.

I tried a DB scrapper and a DB brute and neither made it past their teens. I just ... didn't like them.

I like the power combo's on the stalker, the way I can keep a wide arc of enemies on their backs so they aren't hitting me. I like being able to one shot stuff.

She's fun. Nothing more. Nothing less.

I can't comment on /Nin. I have it on another stalker and hated it. Nothing more rational than not getting on with the names. Yes I know that's silly when I've grasped Build Up, Strength of Will and Ablating Strike but the /Nin stuff just won't stick.

Best of luck with your choice.

Alien, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to TRY to organize an event and you deserve kudos for that effort.

So you couldn't make it. Yeah that's unfortunate but in this climate no-one with any sense of priorities is going to throw a hissy fit at you for WORKING and earning money instead of playing a video game.

Maybe a postponement might have been in order but who knows what is going to happen tomorrow or next week.

I know that I shouldn't post because I wasn't involved in the actual event (I don't have a controller or dominator high enough) and normally that would be enough to ensure I keep my mouth firmly shut. However, I do know from experience the effort it takes to coordinate people for one event and that deserves some recognition.

I wish you better luck next time and hopefully I might even be able to join it.

Pretty suprised the servers went down on a holiday; you know, when most people aren't working and have time to actually play.

Also less than impressed because I've just re-subbed because for some totally unexplained reason the "pay for 10months sub and get 12months playtime" which I subbed to during the offer period wasn't honoured. Classy guys, really classy. (No problem with my card or bank, I've already checked.)

EDIT:
It's also a holiday in the UK today.

I'd like to be a definite maybe there. I have a brute I'm working on it'll be somewhere in the 15+ range.

EDIT:
Umm just found a level 16 Dom too. I really need to keep a list of my chars ...

Kick whoever updates the website. The server status page is talking rubbish and the online store is out of date. I hope someone mucks with their salary because they certainly aren't doing what they're paid for.

Well I'm in England and it's 16.49 here. I want the pack now, now now I tell you. Never mind this time zone nonsense. I know about the pack, I want the pack, I deserve the pack, the pack is mine mine mine I tell you, give it to me now.

I need the pack, I need to make new exciting cossies, I need to provide my characters with the best clothes available, I need a lie down.

Thanks for creating this. It was getting frustrating to see three new pages and no story.

*goes back to other thread to wait*

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

I had got quite frustrated with blue side because travelling around seemed so much more tricky than redside. I did make a list of connections in text which was useful but your flowchart is *exactly* what I needed but was too lazy/didn't have the skills to make.

Just ... thank you so much!

Don't scream at me via tells and broadcasts to use HT. I don't want to read the chat window in the middle of a firefight. There's a good reason I didn't use it - it had not recharged yet. The dead guy is still getting xp and can wait 30seconds.

While I'm distracted by you, I'm not healing. If I'm not healing then those players who aren't dead are losing health. Eventually they die.

Yeah one clown caused a team wipe by whining at me. I think he went down too and if so I'm delighted.

Randomly send tells to people telling them your 'new' VG is recruiting. Especially if you don't pay attention to whom you're contacting and contact the same person day after day.

For the record, I wouldn't want to join a SG whose method of recruitment was random tells.

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What if we need someone to fill and you can simply quit once we start?

Especially if we're doing the Cap SF, since we'd ask someone at the Black Market.

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"Happy to fill" is normally in my Search Bar. The 'gentleman' in question asked me to help play a TF and then went afk. That is rude IMO.

Can I put a plea out to those people who are ToTing; please please, if something comes out a door, kill it!

I'm ToTing in Grandville (solo) on a level 44 character (grouping isn't her thing). It is getting *very* annoying being chased by groups of level 53 purples who kill all my pets and try to kill me. She normally runs on ruthless, but I can't kill them solo, the level difference is just too much.

It means I have to resummon and stop what I'm doing because of your ill manners.

Please, if it comes out of a door, have the courtesy to kill it in consideration for players of a lower level than yourself.

Aside from that (major) gripe, and echoing the comments about the rarity of spirits and Jack, nice event. Thank you.

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As for another power set for MMs... most of the MM players in the forums want FEMALE choices more than another power set.

Unfortunately, the devs seem to think certain agencies outside the game (and even outside the 'net) won't abide by a female power set where men order women around.

[/ QUOTE ]

For those of us with FEMALE MM's, we'd love to do an all female group. Ladies on the prowl, it would be great.

OT: This will be my first Issue (just got my 3 month vet badge) and I'm really pleased. Yet's it's pay to play which I always said I wouldn't do but the techy support, the game info and the updated content is worth it.

My only gripe is that I'd like to see some more player written guides. A lot of them that I find are from much earlier issues and being new I don't yet have the understanding to know if that information is still current. I could be building a 1.07 character that just doesn't work in 1.12a (Diablo 2 reference).

Overall; good job.

Recently acquired pet peeve:
Don't
- ask me to help you form/do a task force
- leave me to get a load of people together and try and run it - despite the fact that I have never ran a TF before and don't have a 3 month vet badge until tomorrow or so
- not read one whit about the TF yourself
- then spend most of the time AFK
- ignore my advice (who did at least read the Wiki entry) and that of the two people who have done it before to take out mobs in a certain order
- then wonder why I ask if the team would like to bail at the end rather than 'finish this' despite you were asking how long it was going to take at the start of the last mission

Yes, I'm new, yes I will try and help, no I'm not all-seeing but you could at least pull your own weight.

On the upside, I learnt a lot about how (not) to run a team. My apologies to the poor souls I roped into that respec mission and my thanks for your patience.

I wanted to thank you for this, it made an unprepared and clueless newbie have a lot of fun and subscribe to the game.

I was recently introduced to CoV by a friend and found this while looking around for a guide for a first character. I liked the idea of being able to hide - hence the reason I liked the stalker - and decided to go for this guide because of the excellent presentation.

I hadn't done a lot of reading on the game and this guide covers everything I needed; powers, what they do, when to get them and slotting.

A special mention goes to the combinations; that's fantastic. I haven't seen them on any other guide (don't laugh if it's class specific, I'm a newbie remember) and they make a *lot* of difference to my stalker.

Overall this guide is really very very helpful and I recommend it to anyone who is trying to get a new bod involved in this game.

My stalker is now 39 and is an absolute BLAST. There is nothing so amusing as wandering into a group of enemies, shoving a knife in the side of the boss, fearing him and then slamming him and his cronies on their rears.

I will mention two things that I have found. First I do like the sweep combo. We were struggling against a huge group and after getting hit hard, we regrouped and tried again. The sweep combo allowed me to pop a *very large* group of monsters on their rears and gave us a bit of respite while my friend began attacking. I then rehit with 1000 cuts. We took down most of the nasties with that. The combo saved our bacon that time.

The other thing is fitness. It didn't bother me for a long long time ("you haven't WHAT?!" comments of my friend not with standing). It did start to become a tiny pain in the late 20's. The clunk of "too tired" was not a sound to make my stalker happy!

Overall an outstanding piece of work. Thank you.

This is truly outstanding.

Clear presentation, a great structure, excellent information with links that give further advanced reading and a lovely writing style.

I'm a great believer in good guides as major part of game enjoyment and this guide is an absolute STONKER.

Many many thanks for this. I can't praise it highly enough.