Carcinos

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i had a DM/ stalker attack me while i was fighting a Zeus Titan in WB. i still kept trying to kill him WHILE the stalker was trying to kill me on my scrapper. after i killed the Zeus Titan, i proceeded to kill the stalker. how did this happen? well, against a BS/WP scrapper, its quite easy.
easily hit the soft defense cap with parry so the DM/ could do anything. and his defense? how can he stack -acc on me when he cant even hit me. it was funny to say the least

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Well, fighting morons is a good "easy" button- after a couple whiffs, he should've cut and run.

Okay, Arcana, I have an idea. I don't know if you've already addressed this, but here it is.

Give any self +ToHit an equal an opposite -Dmg effect to caster. This would still allow for superteaming- after all, 8 players running Tactics would be buffed 8 times and debuffed once. This also means that people would have to use ToHit buffs strategically- running fully-slotted FA would strip an SO off your damage, and the utterly cracked "LOLdefense" combo of PB+BU+AIM would absolutely fry your damage output.

What do you think?

Okay, I realize this is a really broad problem, but there's some specific examples I have in mind.

We need the same standards applied everywhere in the game.

I know this looks obvious at first, but when you look at it, it's actually very clear how many PvP problems stem from simple double standards in design. For example:

1) APP v PPP. This is transparently biased. The PPPs are held to a standard (no "best" pool) that appears nowhere else in the game, and are utterly worthless in PvP as a result. In fact, despite the promise of being stronger, they are actually weaker than the APPs in every measurable way. For example:

1A) Defenders and Corrupters both have access to Soul Drain as an epic power. They're virtually indistinguishable- except that the Corrupter version takes twice as long to recharge.

2) General borked villain power values.

2A) Mastermind PFF has four times the recharge of the Controller or Defender versions, or even the Blaster Epic. There used to be a reason for this, but MMs havn't been able to command their pets from inside PFF since i7 went live.

2B) Dominator Powerboost. It appears in a secondary powerset, just like the blaster version, but has twice the recharge, that is to say, the same recharge as the Controller Epic.

2C) BuildUp and Aim. These are totally absurd. The Brute and Stalker BuildUps, despite appearing in primary powersets, give only an 80% damage buff, the same as the Tanker secondary buildup. Meanwhile the Scrapper Primary and Blaster secondary give +100%. Corrupter and Dominator Aim give +42.5% Damage/ +42.5% ToHit, while the Blaster primary gives +62.5 Dmg/ 37.5% ToHit. Secondary Defender Aim gives +50%/+50%.

Honestly, if the devs simply stopped designing the game to penalize villain players, they might actually do better in PvP.

To answer the question in the topic thread: in an alcoholic haze in front of my computer. For some reason, I play a lot of my characters better when I'm half lit up- it's one of those things that really stops you from overthinking problems.

*Looks at the mushroom cloud forming over the crater where the house used to be.* Five kilotons. . . okay. . . that's one way ta get rid of the roaches.

And, OF COURSE, this hits villains harder than heroes. Since the Villain heavy deals it's best damage in melee, it has to A) go into melee and get chopped apart by four turrets at once or B) get whittled down by one or two turrets while it chips away at them. I keep hoping, hoping, HOPING that the devs'll make a change or do something that doesn't rake villains over the coals. . . recently, I'm wondering more and more why I bother.

This is only the teaser. I know everyone's going "no new powersets, no villian EATs, no PPP fixes, wutuf" but seriously- I'm hoping that there's more to this issue that they're holding out on. Hope springs eternal and I, for one, am stoked- this will be the most significant issue for Villains since the mixed blessing that was i7.

Although Shiva, Devouring Earth, and Coralax would all make sense in this zone (maybe even a Coralax contact- Barracuda's Strike Force, anyone?) simply because all three of those factions have their own plans for the earth.
Also, I hope the Circle of Thorns plays a role- according to the offical bio, they formed the impromptu fifth column against the initial Rikti invasion. Whatever the "dark secret" that the teaser hints at, I bet you dollars to doughnuts in involves them.

You know what would be awesome? If one mission in the combined Striketask Force had the classic "misunderstanding between allies" and went PvP for a minute there. (Who won or lost wouldn't affect the outcome, but it would be a fun twist.)

I also want to take this opportunity to jump back on my soapbox and say that if the devs expand villain Epic power choices in this issue to include the good stuff (Powerboost for buffers, Focused Accuracy for meleers, etc) consider my undying loyalty won. In fact, this might be a perfect juncture for such an addition because it now allows a villain character to "grow up" away from Grandville and the entire Patrons/Arachnos storyline contained therein- in addition to the technical problems Grandville inflicts on many players, many people simply want to RP their characters away from the Arachnos storyline- giving villains more Epics in line with the powersets already available for each AT seems perfect for the new mid-to-high level zone.

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I think max To-Hit vs max Defense should be equal to max Damage vs max Resistance. Lets say you do 100 damage before buffing and that you have a +100% damage boost from enhancements, so 200 damage. If you are up against a Tanker who is at the damage Resistance cap (90%), you can hit for 20 damage. If you go to 400% damage, the cap for many ATs, you can now do 20 damage. If you have a 500% cap, then 25 damage. Going from your normal attack to cap increases your damage 2-2.5 times as much. Even if you are going up against with a 75% cap, you are still doing the same result, 2-2.5 times as much damage at cap than at the standard. So, if you are going max To-Hit vs max Defense, you should hit 2-2.5 times as often as you would at max Defense vs normal.

So, here is how I would answer the questions:

1. Hit 50% of the time, be missed 50% of the time.

2. Hit 90% of the time, be missed 10% of the time.

3. Hit 10% of the time, be missed 10% of the time.

4. I'd say hit 20-25% of the time (if possible to have different numbers for like Tankers and Scrappers and others), be missed 75-80% of the time.

This seems rather fair, although it still favors resistance unless the attacker has the To Hit cap and the defender doesn't have any Defense bonus. Perhaps those numbers at the end should just be 20% and 80%.

Yes, I realize that you can increase your damage by Resistance Debuffs, but there are also many more Defense Debuffs and such and this question doesn't concern those issues.

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'Nuff said.

I like the concept, but I think they'd be better tied into origins than backstories- some (like those of my own character, I admit a bias here) can become incredibly complicated, and not fit well into anything aside from my own twisted mind. Meanwhile, Origins are already a component of the game and yet recieve almost no consideration except in a few exceptional cases.

For instace- my Stalker, an ex-USMC who studied under a murderous Ninja and the fused his soul with that of a demon in order to become more powerful- would he be a Rogue, a Lone Wolf, or a Student?

/unsigned, but on a technical dispute only- it's still a really good idea.

Name: Rogue Isles Marine Corps

Motto: Semper Fi (did you expect something else?)

Leaders: Alpha-One and It Outta Be Botley

Player type: All

RP: Mild.

Membership Levels: All. The only requirement is to play in SG mode before level 30.

Colors: Black and White

Playtime: Erratic. Several of the most active player are RL military, so their presence tends to be hit-and-miss. Weekends tend to be pretty active.

Other Information: We have a well-equipped base (salvage storage, insp storage, enh storage, all teleporters, medbay, autodoc) and a very large coalition.

Recruiting: Always, though we're not pushy about it.

http://rimarinecorps.proboards76.com/

OOC: Gonna have to extract, I'm afraid- work is scheduled to be extra-special-double-insane, so I'm not confident in my ability to keep up with this, unfortunatly. As it is, my toons'll exit to perhaps reappear when my RL workload is less.

IC:
"Oww. . ."
Ninjitsu is about being stealthy and elusive. Ignore that, and you'll find yourself wholloped but good. Gai was spreadeagled on the floor, wondering vaguely about the herd of elephants that was clearly tapdancing on his skull, when Nox dropped back in. He had used his speed to buy himself a few instants, and was back, fully rejuvinated. The mystic being in black grabbed something out of the fallen ninja's pocket, toyed with it for a second, and replaced it.

A second later, Gai-Jin teleported away. "Finally- a USE for that VIP pass. He shelled out enough for it." Nox hissed. "Those funny costume pieces just weren't worth the money."

"Jesus, Nox, you have to inflate your body count, don't you." A voice said from next to his elbow. "Okay, on three, punch off a Proton Volley. Three."

Nox obeyed, sending out the huge cone-shaped wave of rapidly decaying photons. The speaker appeared next to him, his Shadow Fall being slightly disrupted as a massive spectral skull appeared in front of his face, unleashing waves of primal terror into the crowd.

"My thanks for the save, Yuryou."

"No problem. Let's make tracks before they realize they're not being attacked by Bob Saget in drag, or whatever it is they're seeing." The gravity vectors in his cyborg enhancements activated, allowing him to lift off. Nox followed suit, rising into the air. A hail of bullets from his pistols turned the skylight into a rain of broken glass, and the two of them quickly exited. "Where's Gai?"

"Pocket D."

"Finally found a use for that pass."

"Finally."

"So- you two murder the lawyer and walk into that?"

"Yep."

"Damn lawyers."

"Oh, HELL." Gai jumped across the table- he could see Nox twisting in the radiation cloud, but he had a bad feeling about what was coming next. Nox had a tendency to go atomic when it hit the fan, and he had no particular inclination to have three-headed children.

"So, you like spectrals, huh?" A power as old as the earth surged through him and manifested. A massive Spirit Shark rose up from the floor beneath Hallucinogen, siezing him in it's jaws. "It's not safe to go back in the water."

He spun on the phantom, striking with his right hand and feeling the familiar stab of agony as he transferred some of his life-force away to feed his attack. Within him, he felt the demon surge, laughing at the pain and mayhem. *Strike. KILL! Pour out your lifeblood and grant me- ooh! Cinnabon!*

Nox had spun away down the hall, blasting windows and yelling something about laugh-tracks. Gai-Jin, suddenly alone, found himself looking at the Phantasm.

Which was looking through him. The Powder it had taken for it's boss took the edge off one's perceptions, allowing him to very easily conceal his presence. He channeled his inner demon, investing his fist with a chaotic energy aura. He wound up, and swatted the Phantom on the head. It wasn't too damaging- even a critical strike wasn't too harmful with that technique- but he had dumped all the energy in his hand into it's synapses, or whatever it used for motor control. It would be one hell of a feat for the thing to stay on it's feet, let alone get it's bearing.

"Damn heroes. Can't I murder one stupid lawyer in peace?"

"Back, family-oriented television. BACK!" A huge burst of raidiation exploded out of Nox, sending everything in the immediate area (Gai-Jin included) flying. "Your smarmy messages will not quench the hate that burns within all human souls!"

"Owww. . . memo to self: get some acrobatics training." Gai-Jin mumbled as he clambered to his feet. Grabbing one of the paper packets he kept in his gloves, he tore it open and slung the Blinding Powder at Hallucinogen. Unfortunatly, the cone was too large to encompass just him. . .

There was a dull smack, a flash of red light, and Chris Jenkins, Attorney-at-Law, abruptly breated his last. The cape-chaser ran a storefront in the Mall of Paragon, but someone- the ad had hinted at Crey, given the nature and location of the dropoff, but these deals were best no looked to deeply into- had wanted him off the case. Terminally. And so, it had been no great matter for this mysterious employer to enlist the services of the Rogue Isles Marine Corps, and their assassin Gai-Jin.
"I don't understand why Gabe couldn't have handled this. It's not like this was a surgical strike- just walk in and make him stop breathing."

"Gabriel di Inferno was not game- 'will not soil my hands with the blood of a creature as detestable as a litigator,' if I recall correctly." Imperium Nox had surpressed the glow of his eyes to a mere haze, and covered these with dark glasses.

"He was in full-on Carnie mode, I take it." Gai-Jin growled.

"Yes. It's actually quite fascinating, really, to observe him as the influence of the Carnival of Shadows wanes and waxes within his mind." Nox looked at the wall clock. "Wonderful. We still have two hours before we extract. What do we do until then?"

"Nox. We just murdered a man in cold blood and you want to know how to spend time in a mall? Does human life mean nothing to you?"

"Those would be harsh words, not coming from a man who just stole his victim's watch, wallet, and breath mints."

"I forgot to floss this morning." Gai-Jin buttoned his coat up, wishing that chains of cold iron were easier to hide. Sure, they stopped his demonic tattoos from devouring his soul, but they made the assassination bit tricker in places where it was hard to hide. How did the heroes do it? All they seemed to wear was spandex, with no visible weapons line of any kind.

He and Nox stepped through the double doors of the office- to have a blast of negative energy go sailing through the doors between them.

"This is why I hate Paragon City." Nox said with a sigh. "You step through the doors and arrive not in a mall, but in a cliche."

"Zombies in the mall- didn't they just make a game about this?"