CriticalKat

Lol, I wish. I think on the farming I was speaking more in regards to the kins with no SB. I understand why builds like that are done.

In response to some of the other posts.... I don't think its fair to judge peoples builds because of things like what attacks they choose. Hey if you like lolfirebreath or loljumpkick then go for it. My namesake has loljumpkick on her as a kicking concept MA build.

I think my personal pet peeves are sort of more along these lines.

Me in Bmt -- ItF forming, need a emp and a kin
Someone else -- I have a kin Kat, switching.
Me on vent a few mins later -- **** they don't have speedboost. Sigh

I think its not so much about specific powers someone chooses, but are the powers they are choosing fulfilling the expectations of their AT to the team. Sorry if I invite an emp to the team I do not think its fair that I should have to invite another emp to the team too because the first emp has all attacks and no buffs. Or if I invite a tank to the team with no toggles and they can't stand up to an av for 2 seconds without faceplanting. What attacks they take are irrelevant, but it would be just dandy if they are a debuffer, they have debuffs, if they are a buffer they have the buffs, if they are supposed to hold aggro they can do so without faceplanting every single mob.

As an example. Couple months ago we were putting together an STF. Ended out with one debuffer on the team, a rad. I don't remember if it was a fender or troller. Our team build was already a little light on damage so we were depending on those debuffs. Throughout the entire TF we were on vent commenting on how freaking long it was taking to take down all the AV's. Finally we get to GW and we pounded on that heifer forever and she just wouldn't die. At this point though we were about 1.5 hours in on the STF which is already more than it usually takes to complete the entire thing. We keep pounding and pounding. All of a sudden its mentioned on vent that our rad doesnt have their -regen debuff. I politely asked them why and they said they never noticed it being of much use so they respected it out. We are talking a 36 month vet here. Were the other 7 members wrong to be upset it took 3+ hours to finally complete this tf?

While I might laugh my *** off at a tank with no KB protection getting flopped around like a fish, if they are doing their job of holding aggro I am not going to feel like the team is carrying dead wait. If the rad defender wants to have every pool power in the book, who cares, as long as they have and use those 3 debuff powers its all good. Etc etc.

But actually I wouldnt even care about any of that if people were just polite enough to mention their weird builds when asking for a spot on your team. 99% of the time I would still love to have them, but atleast I then have the opportunity to compensate for what they are lacking within the rest of the open team spots.

I agree, and got your point. My point was that screwed up builds typically seem to have screwed up players behind them. No that is not the case 100%. Just like good builds do not always equal good players. However if I had to put a number on it off the top of my head from gaming experiences I would say 75% of the people in game I have seen that have seemingly screwed up builds, don't know how to play them either. Out of that 75% I would say over half of them are not open to taking any advice and any attempt to give any results in awkward moments.

This.
Seriously. This.

I can't tell you how many times since they allowed the dual builds that I have wondered why more people do not use the option. I personally don't have any myself, but I also refuse to play my gimped toons on teams. For example my emp has a duo pvp build. I don't play her for pve teams. I will jump on my therm instead. If I didn't have a therm then I would give my emp a second build for teaming. Why kins with no SB and emps with no CM because they solo or farm a lot don't do the same thing I don't know. I am sure the inconvenience to them isn't nearly as big as the inconvenience to the teams they keep wanting to run tf's with.

Kk, my reading comprehension FTL today then. Sorry :-)

While I don't think its overly cool to just publicly berate people for being noobs and having screwed up builds, saying builds do not make the player to atleast some extent is ********. There is a reason why so many people choose very similar optimal builds. Because its been tried and tested and proven that certain powers are needed to make a build the best it can be. You can argue all day long that a tank not having its defense/resistance toggles doesn't make them suck as a player all you want, but a dead tank doesn't hold aggro which is their primary responsibility. A blaster with no stamina that never has any end isn't killing a damn thing half the time. An empathy without clear mind isn't fulfilling their purpose to the team either.

Now if a toon has the primary powers needed to do their job and then wants to get flurry and whirlwind and any other power that is deemed useless by most, more power to them.

Personally I am one who has gotten extremely tired of messed up builds on teams I form. I literally have to look at every build as I am making a team anymore because there is a good chance the people joining cannot fulfill their duties their build is typically expected to fulfill. There has always been issues with a newer player or an RP'r with a concept toon with less than optimal builds, but lately its been 10 times as bad. While people should have the right to build their toons the way they want, in my personal experience the majority with the messed up builds also play those toons messed up and seldom contribute much to the team. The cases of them being good players are far and in between. I mean I have seen a concept build of a scrapper with no travel power. Who cares, that doesn't prohit them from surviving and putting out DPS. In fact I seen a concept build of a blaster who didn't take any of the buildups, aims, etc. They were an RP'r. Ok so they put out less DPS, it was ok, they still faught their little heart out and contributed to the team and wasn't a burden. However those type of gimped builds with decent players behind them is not the norm. Usually its someone who doesn't do their fair share, is aggo'n half the map all the time, wandering off in to mobs themself when they can't hold their own. Or spending the entire mish begging people for inspirations because they are missing everything, have no endurance or can't survive because they don't have their defenses. Or yelling at the emp because they didn't get healed quick enough. etc etc.

There is a huge difference between an "intentional" concept build, and a noob who just doesn't know any better. I love noobs, if they are open to learning, which also doesn't seem to be the case lately either.

Are we playing the same game? I am confused. Admittingly Io's do add an interesting twist to what you can do to builds, they are by far not necessary.

I have tons of level 50's that have nothing but SO's and/or hamis in them. I can honestly say they play just about as good as those with IO's. The only time I feel like IOs are really that noticibly a necessity is if you have a toon that you intend to put a lot of pressure on. Such as solo farming. Or if you are someone like myself who likes to play as if their toons are tanks no matter what their builds are. If you run in to mobs of +4's on invincible by yourself a lot, then a +HP build or soft capped resistance build might be good. Other than that though, for average gaming, SO's work just fine.

No, I have Windows XP professional.

fixt.

It wasn't that they had an all stalker team. It was the tactic of hiding the entire match, getting one very quick kill then hiding the rest of the match. Essentially almost every match was 9.5 minutes of jumping around doing nothing and then less than a half of a minute of attacking. I thought tank vs. tank fights were boring, doesn't even compare.

That being said it was a very legal and effective tactic.

As far as future events, yes some events will have limitations in place. Not so much as to restrict, but more so to offer some variety and skill challenges. In fact expect my very next event to be something crazy like all blasters, no inspirations, no travel powers, lvl 32 FFA and the office map or something equally crazy.

On a side note, being I don't pvp anymore maybe one of you guys can clarify something for me. Had one of the other teams, after seeing the tactic the stalker team was using stocked up on yellows and capped themselves on + perception...using ranged attacks they should have been able to get a kill or two yes? I was totally baffled why none of the teams did that, so am I totally out of tune with pvp anymore or were they just not doing what was needed to counter the tactic?

Some events do, some don't. It's all about variety :-).

I guess its an agree to disagree issue then. I have absolutely no problem keeping all buffs up on everyone, healing, debuffing and plenty of time left to fight as well. Including melee. In my own defense though it is a test pvp habit, everyone got cm, stacked. While I don't stack it on melee in pve, its still a habit to go up and down the team window for all buffs, regardless of AT. I will admit the average bear will not know how to time their buffing to the team, healing, and moving from mob to mob and be able to know when its safe to cm being the animation is so freaking long. So I will partially agree that long animation when its unnecessary can be a negative for some players.

As far as your guide I think I am looking at it kinda like if the player is swift enough to be able to figure out when mez protection is needed, with which npc's, and what builds need it or don't..chances are they don't necessarily need the guide. But if the guide is aimed at the newer player, or atleast to playing a buffer, then they still have to learn all of that and the safe way to go is keep buffs up on everyone, all the time. Or at bare minimum keep it up on all squishys, all the time. So they won't suck while they are learning the game mechanics. The whole give mez protection after people are already mezzed is a pet peeve of mine I suppose. Chances are multiple teammates and the person buffing will all get mezzed simutaneously, possibly causing people to die unnecessarily. That long animation is twice as long when you are scrounging to get it out on a bunch of people mezzed at once because they are all held and none had mez protection.

Which brings me to a question. Is there any guides around that breakdown all the NPC's in the game as to their damage types? That would be something interesting to have to direct new players to I think.

Personally I wouldn't agree with this. Sadly a very small percentage of people are good judges of when buffs are needed, and an even smaller percentage pay attention anyways. I say keep it up on everyone all the time, but thats just me. I am addicted to being buffed like no other.

I seriously have to reiterate this one. OMG people as an emp or therm stop screaming you are held all the time while people are crumbling around you. ALWAYS make having bf's a priority for yourself. Really. Not having them is just retarded in so many ways.

Also would like to reiterate that buffers should utilize the buff bar. Flashing icons letting you know your buffs are wearing off your team members is priceless. It also lets you see incoming damage on your teammates. If suddenly that crazy blaster has a bunch of incoming damage showing up it gives you a headsup that you might wanna throw a heal in their direction. I can assure you that buff bar usage seperates the great healers from the mediocre healers.

I actually expected it to be like that, intentionally. I assumed with the extra baddies for an entire team which equals extra influence, xp, prestige etc that they would penalize us by lowering the drop rate.

o.0

Well I had a conversation today that leads me to believe they are not going to do double xp again until some server stabilization issues are handled. Being that was the reason they are giving us an extra DXP weekend, that makes sense. I couldn't get a direct "no" to it being this weekend, but a pretty good hint that it wouldn't be. Sooo with that being said we will continue with the schedule until something official is announced. If it does happen to be this weekend then I will reschedule it again.

I would assume he is saying he is glad the farming/pl'n part of AE is dieing. People using it as it was intended will of course continue to do so.

Can you link me to the announcement Shin? Search is only bringing up them saying they were going to do one after new release but no specific date. :-(

Kool Beans! Can't wait to see what build combos you guys bring. :-)