Carnifax

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Well let me guess, you never started a new alt on Union, Atlas? We are doing it all the time and many runs include Atlas Bank mission. I mostly leave that core team around level 12-14 if they decide to continue Midnighters arc in Steel too.

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I've several on Union, all of which I street ran 1-6 in Atlas on and didn't see any (or little) sewer runs being called out.

In fact I started a new character on Union last night. There was one person calling to join a sewer run but nothing else. Certainly nothing like the amount of sewer runs going on on the two (admittedly highest pop) servers.

Really I should have started my own last night but I was tired and they would have expected me to Tank for them (what with me being a tank and all )

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The Servers slightly less so, mainly due to the time difference (you get a fair few After School Special teams which can be... odd). But if there was an (un)official EU server it'd mitigate that more.

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The (un) part will be very unlikely, NC keeps the serverstuff pretty secured (ok, LA2 excluded, but they activly hunt for em).

Ok, forums are bitty weird (due timezone too), the servers itself are ok, they have few more stuff then we have such as the sewer hunts. You just need to blend in a bit

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Yep, US Sewer hunts are the most fun I've ever had starting a character. By the time you emerge (either by fighting your way through to the Kings entrance or by Death Taxi) you've gained 7 levels in under an hour.

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I think the US players would just like to have us on thier servers/forums.

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I agree. I found the US forums quite nice really.

The Servers slightly less so, mainly due to the time difference (you get a fair few After School Special teams which can be... odd). But if there was an (un)official EU server it'd mitigate that more.

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How many people would jump servers to one of the US ones though if ours did get transfered?
I would defo be taking it into consideration.

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It depends. If we get Vet rewards and our characters transferred then sure, no problem. If we lose names I can deal with that to some degree too.

If it was "start from scratch" not a hope in hell.

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you mean combustion right?

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"PBAOE fiery thing which takes ages to animate"

That one

(yes, you're right indeed, I mean Combustion)

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Only reason i would be picking up flash would be as set mule for 4 basilisks gaze.
Its [censored]. Cant use it as a panic button either since it takes an half hour to animate.

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Imagine my horror when my lowbie Shield/Fire tank picked up Cremate last night and realised it uses the same animation.

Nooooooooo!

Flash is well droppable alright but Carni still has it, 4-slotted with the 3 way IOs. Part of that is simply because I remember its former glory. The other reason is because of damn Nemises. It is nice combined with Freezing Rain and Ice Storm (plus now Frost Breath ) since it's the only AOE power in Illusion which sets up Containment. But that is purely a personal preference for a combo, it's not amazing or anything.

That's one thing I like about Khelds above the "pure" sets. They tend to do better with support than the pures. For example on my Kheld I welcome any sort of Defender on the team because they'll bring something I'll find very useful, whether it be extra shields, which a Tank may not need too much since they're already fairly self sufficent (I almost wee myself with joy if a shielding Defender joins my team), nice buffs (Empathy buffs are great on a Kheld) or Debuffs & Control (a Dark Defender / Warshade combo is lovely altogether, lets you mix up your playstyle in combat wonderfully).

If I'm playing my Grav/TA controller I'd prefer a Kheld over a Tank simply because it makes me more useful to the team (Tanks + Controllers AOE control is frequently overkill, for a Kheld once they see most of the spawn is mezzed they can shift to Human or Nova form to kick out some extra damage). Plenty of times I've been on a Team as a Controller and felt a bit useless since my Primary set simply isn't really needed (especially later in the game).

Ditto if there is already a good Tank on a Team a Kheld is still a great addition (over another Tank) since you can focus on doing damage and let them take the aggro. If, after the mish, the Tank logs or goes AFK, or if a second or third spawn aggros in a room of death, you can simply focus on Dwarfing instead to take the alphas and focus on taking all the aggro off the squishies. ATs like Scrappers can join you in melee knowing they are fairly survivable anyway and the Dwarf can taunt aggro off them if they get into a jam.

In the general casual PvE game where your PuG make-up can frequently change almost every mission it's nice to be an AT that can change along with the team make-up.

*Likes PRAFs*

Naked Mole Rat

Simply so you'll google it and have a look at some images. Possibly the ugliest animal on the planet

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Well he is the big daddy - when we break the rules, he punishes us, like a parent And we are all the little children just growing up under his care...and he is gone now...that means we are orphans

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You might like referring to strangers on the internet as Big Daddy but leave me out of it please. I've heard there are plenty of sites out there where men would be happy for you to refer to them as big daddy if that's what you really want to do.

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GR's job no longer exists in Brighton.

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NO!!!

It is like my...child has been taken away from me! A precious, precious child that I held on so dearly! IT WAS GR!

OK...overreacting there...but this is really sad. I hate to see GR go...the Germans lost their big daddy...the French did too...and now us...it looks like a sad day for CoX EU.

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That's one of the creepiest things I think I've ever read.

Not only did GR lose his job but he's got virtual stalkers who refer to him as "Big Daddy"

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No GR posts today either not since 6:11 last night, only redname to have posted at all yesterday was the mysterious Administrator in the US......erm.....

Quick recap of the tthread so far

1. Speculation
2 . Inuuendo and jokey Doom
3. Fact creeps in
4. Doom solifies
5. Facts confirmed
6. Specualtion
7. Wild speculation
8. Panic at the disco
9. Blame
10. Arm waving
11. Conjecture
12. Sleep

How many more stages are there?


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It depends. Sometimes we forget which one we're on and repeat ourselves.

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What? This?

Is anyone actually surprised by such a move?

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Looks to me like that link is now 404...

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It got superceded by this one

Initially they said 70 people were laid off, now it seems like 55 are with some remaining which is why I started wittering on about the forums probably merging but the servers staying unchanged.

If you go to the homepage it's the top story (maybe why it isn't coming up on Search, it mightn't be added to the search index yet for some reason).

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I think it's important to remember that although Kelds may be able to fill in for Tankers in a pinch, they aren't supposed to equal or replace them in their role.
"Jack of all trades, master of none" and all that.

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If this is the case, why bring one along? Why have any khelds in any team when a "pure" class can do the job/role far better?

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Because it's oversimplifying.

Sure my Dwarf can't hold aggro & survive as well as a well built tank. But he can certainly outdamage it. Plus he can decide to just nuke the spawn if he gets bored. A Black Dwarf is more like a scrappy Fire Tank or a Brute than anything.

Similerly a Nova can't blast as well as a Blaster if they stick in the form. But I don't know any blasters who run around, either with a hefty HP boost or capped resistences, with 2 pets with AOEs, a Cone AOE Mez and can become something very close to a Tank within 4 seconds if needed.

Any CoV player will tell you that the straightjacketed roles Heroes tend to fall into aren't exactly necessary in the game.

Personally I'm guessing at a forum closure and merge, with the servers probably staying up for the short to medium term, followed by some sort of server transfer after the summer (no idea what form that'd take)

Where's PRAF? He's from the future. Why didn't he tell us about all of this?

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I thought the free-to-play was very time limited, that they'd close the game totally pretty soon. Am I wrong?

Rather tired of everything at the moment, so would be fun to give it a go, unless it's about to shut down totally pretty soon.

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End of the month I think. And given the massively overpowered boosts they're giving to everyone now I'd assume its for good. Can't see anyone taking over the reins where every char is level 40 and kitted out to the max.

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Step up NCWest.

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GR's down the pub, and it's 8am at NCWest HQ. Give it time.

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LOL. Nice to know you heeded Stasis's advice on the other thread

Bit of an update :

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NCsoft has made 55 staff redundant at the Brighton office of NC West, as four internal departments are axed, following a similar cull last year when in-house development was halted.

GamesIndustry.biz understands that 30 staff will remain at the Brighton office to cover off sales, marketing and customer support functions, while localisation, creative services, IT QA and community roles have been cut.


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At a guess I'd say it might mean merged Forums but continuing the EU servers.

That's guessing though.

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If I lose everything on the EU servers, I'm off. No regrets. I will buy DCUO and be happy.

What really hurts is that Ghostraptor was quite literally giddy about the future of this game, teasing us about what's to come. Now his job, or at least the jobs of his co-workers, are in peril.

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From now on I'm calling that the Kerensky Effect, after its first victim.

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Why does everthing seem determined to go to hell in handbasket on Wednesdays?

I pray you're wrong FFM, I really do.

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No one more than me wishes that I *am* wrong, trust me on that.

But if this IS all true, and it's looking like it is, I don't see how I will be, except maybe in the fine detail.

It could be worse... When they closed the Korean servers, they just gave them all US accounts; no character transfers at all.

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Yeah transfering characters will be too much trouble because of the names. Giving a fresh account seems a better idea.


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Only if you're a deranged business man who wants to haemorrage subscriptions and profits.

The Korean servers were only up for a short while and had little take-up. I doubt the number of accounts was anywhere near that in the EU.

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On the bright side, if this is true we are a step nearer a server merge with any luck.

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I still think a server merge is unlikely. However, a server TRANSFER; that's likely after all this. They really cannot run 4 EU servers with just a couple of people left in the office. People who, lets be honest here, are likely only going to have short term jobs as they wind the office down.

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Was going to comment on the merger thing but FFM said it best and anyway the US have much better server hosting.

We know our current servers are old and well past their sell-by date...

No more lag and mapserver DC's would be one benefit

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The UK servers are newer than the US servers.

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No they aren't. The US ones got upgraded, last year I think. The EU (not UK) ones are the same they've always been.

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What? This?

Is anyone actually surprised by such a move?

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I guess its just me then who thinks this is a move for the better

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I'm not that concerned either way. I quite like the US boards,

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Just noticed Kerensky's made comment about it on his Facebook too...

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Bizarrely during the week when GR made his "I'm going to look back at this thread at the end of the year and laugh" post Ks devious references and what ended up happening there was the first thing that popped into my mind. It's like its tempting Fate or something.

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<blows coffee all over monitor in shock>

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Why are you all so surprised by such a move? It was fairly obvious it was going to happen at some point this year.

What? This?

Is anyone actually surprised by such a move?

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A Dark Dwarf with sufficient slots has always been a very capable tank against AV's and small groups. It is the larger groups that I sometimes have a problem with because you need at least 3 taunts to get full aggro and that is going to take 10seconds even on a fully pimped build. Teams just don't give you that kind of time.

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The problem I had was that our support toon died almost straight away so I was absorbing the AV & his spawns damage (along with a "captive" group that was close) at the start which almost overwhelmed me and from there I was mostly playing catch-up health-wise. My teammates made it a lot easier by clearing out those spawns while I held their attention (or tried to).

But yep, it was End which was the killer since there were only 3 of us plinking away on the AV for the most part until the Scrapper TPed the Kinetics out of harms way for a Rez.

I actually welcomed the breaks when Nemises Rex threw up his PFF for a quick breather. I was actually considering suicide at one point simply to use my Self Rez as I'd end up with more Health and End than I currently had, but figured that could get very messy (and I only had the AV to bounce Stygian Return off)

Once the Kin was back up it was fairly trivial as we were sorted for Health and End again.

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If I got a load of aggro from just running in it might see me getting killed the second dwarf drops and before Eclipse fires.


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This is still the thing that gets me killed the most. Dropping defenses to try and pull some off some snazzy human form combo instead. Those Mired nukes & mini-nukes are just too tempting, especially when you know if you manage it your going to outright kill most of the spawn shooting at you (and thus have a lot of bodies to feed off after it)