Cybercel

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Hell yes, last night was great, evenly matched sides, wonderful people playing, and no complaining at all.

Shame about today then... At the most 5 heroes in the zone, i counted 12 villains not including MM pets camped outside the hero hospital. And we were getting moaned at? I couldn't be bothered to argue, so i left. Hopefully later on we can even the playing field in regards to team sizes and bring it back to what we had yesterday

(By the way, any villain who was there this afternoon, anyone who knows me, knows i love pvp and employ all tactics to win. But i don't camp places that have no defence. Comprendé )

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Not wanting to start any argument, but I feel I have to set the record straight.

There were six of us on the villain team at the high point - and one of us had left by the time we battled you back that far. One of our teammates headed off elsewhere, leaving me and three masterminds near the hospital. There was one brute who wouldn't join the team but had been hanging around us - I think trying to killsteal, a couple of stalkers who kept bouncing around nearby, and another mastermind who was there some of the time. At the height of the battles a little further down the street, we may have all looked like we were fighting together, but it wasn't an organised attack. I guess the others just followed the battles or their Most Wanted icons up that way.

It does seem a little odd that the hero base has so few defenses compared to the villain base... but on the other hand, most of the map around that area is filled with Longbow, as we kept finding out. Regardless, when I'm fighting on either side, it doesn't bother me if people want to sit near the base. There's always more than one way out, and people will always take the fight where people go - the Most Wanted system makes sure of that. If I want the battle to move elsewhere, I go wherever that is, and let people follow. If you move as a group (as you were, from what I saw) it works. We actually did the same by heading to a hotspot when we decided you really weren't all going to head out, but I guess it must have been just after you'd left.

In all honesty though, if you'd come out in force at the point we were chatting over broadcast and dancing around hoping to get you to all attack, you'd have completely overpowered us, as very few of us were left there. Some of the later heroes who came in quickly figured that out and took two of us down in no time.

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A couple of moments that made me smile where against the stormy (eir I think it was), first time I thought right I need to get a bit more accuracy so popped a yellow, did build up and miss, miss, miss with the punches in the hurricane. Short and swift retreat followed (or death can't remember which) :P

Next time I ended up stood next to them I just thought ah well and took a single swing with stun, no accuracy boost at all. *hit* stormy stunned...woooo! Don't think I killed them but still made me smile the randomness of it sometimes heh.

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If there was a stormy around, it certainly wasn't me. You did get me the second time though - I ran the first time after you took Doctor Gonzo out, to back off and rez him. Second time, I stayed to the bitter end, sacrificing myself so he could carry on.

Was certainly a good evening though. I wasn't expecting to have such a good run as an empath/blapper duo, honestly... and more importantly, people really seemed to be having fun, rather than having a go at each other.

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Clear Mind with a recharge reducer? The animation is so short as it is that its up the moment its done, so I'd swap it with an endurance reduction.

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This was always my thinking, as well... until after I respecced the other day, and played through some missions. When Hasten isn't running, the recharge on Clear Mind is longer than the animation - that was never really the case when I had perma-Hasten. I was actually finding I was waiting for the power to recharge, rather than just waiting for that annoying animation to get done. I may well switch to a recharge enhancement myself, now I've seen that.

Somewhat influenced by the fact that I really prefer teaming, but I'd go O2 Boost - sure, it's a crap heal, but that's because it's not just a heal. It's also a minute long sleep/disorient/endurance drain resist. Not the most useful thing ever, but it's handy to be able to get people who've used an awaken back up and running immediately. I've also used it to good effect to stop teammates from having their endurance drained quite so easily. It's also nice against enemies who can do AoE sleeps - like Lost bosses; sleeps aren't the worst thing, since you get woken back up by heals or attacks, but it's really annoying if you have a lot of toggles running and it happens repeatedly. The rest of the team staying awake the whole time can make all the difference in a tough fight. And in really dire situations, you can keep someone alive with it.

If you do pick up Gale, be careful with it. When I'm playing as my Storm Defender, I find there's one powerset I really can't stand playing with: other Stormies. Playing as a Stormy, you want to bunch things together, so you can throw down Snow Storm and slow the whole lot, or hit them all with Freezing Rain (which is a lovely, lovely power as long as you know when not to use it). Gale will spread everything out if you use it poorly. It will blow them out of your rain, it will split them up from your anchor mob. It will also annoy people you're teaming with if you randomly gale things around and split them all up, or gale their sleeping mobs and wake them up for no reason. It can certainly be handy though - galing mobs into a wall to keep them down so they can't attack is great, especially in a bad situation. I'm really quite fond of knockback, just not when it's used poorly.

A lot of Stormies (especially those with is as a Controller secondary from what I've noticed - probably because they have to take it) seem to just use Gale indescriminately. It's almost as if people have this mentality that since they have a power, they have to use it. As long as you don't fall into that, take whichever you like more.

If you're just looking for a description of the power, here's the one from the CoV Planner:

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You create a Creeper patch at a targeted location. THe Carrion Creeper vines thrive on the flech of the dead. Any foes that are defeated in the creaper patch will produce a growth of entangling roots that will Immobilize any enemies near the defeated foe. Additionally, a giant Carrion Creeper Vine will burst from the defeated foe, and start attacking your enemies. The Creeper vine does minimal damage, but it can knock down your enemies and venom from its thorns can also slow your foes. Recharge: Very Long.

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From that description, I'm not sure about slotting any damage in it, as it's described as minimal - I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who has it whether it does any real damage. An accuracy and recharges do sound like good ideas, though.

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You have 6 recharges on recovery aura - try 3 recharges/3 end mods - you'll be amazed how fast your end recharges after a RA cast, and you're not gaining much recharge time with those last 3 rechargers. I use AB with this slotting too - I use it really to catch someone who was missed by the RA, or someone who really eats the end to get them to the next RA cast.

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I'm still thinking on my rebuild for Eir, and this is one of the issues I've been thinking about. She doesn't have Stamina, and relies on RA and Conserve Power - those few extra seconds could mean a lot in a tough fight, and I'm thinking I'll keep them both six-slotted with recharges. Obviously, that might be quite different if you aren't relying on those powers to keep you up and running.

When I was considering putting end mods in RA and AB though, it occurred to me that I've only once seen someone eat through so much endurance that one application of RA was not enough to pretty much keep their bar full whilst fighting - and that was a Dark/Dark Scrapper in I4. I do question how useful those end mods are for any build, as a result. Sure, it means you can get yourself (and your team) from empty to full very quickly, but after that, is it really much use?

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maybe its just the shadow shards then... really felt i wasnt contributing to the team at all.

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Actually, one of my favourite memories on Eir is doing the third Shadow Shard TF! At high levels, I felt I'd just turned into a buff bot, until running through that - I really felt necessary, throwing out heals left and right. It probably helps that I was teaming with a number of people I regularly team with though... including my own boyfriend, who I can simply shout at to come help if anything comes near me.

As far as Absorb Pain... I've been a devout user of it for many levels as well, but I'm a little worried about it in I6. There was another thread where it was suggested that since we now have to use it more, the length of time where we can't heal ourselves should be reduced. It's a fair point. I never found I had to repeatedly use it to the point of stacking the effect on myself in the past. I can imagine that on a large team - especially in a tough mission like something in the Shadow Shards - it could get some really heavy usage now. The period where you couldn't heal yourself was fine when it was just an emergency heal, but it doesn't work for regular use.

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PS. I NEVER managed to land the Tentacles on ANYONE in Bloody Bay.

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Apparently, the base to hit chance has been lowered to 50% in PvP zones, to help def-based powersets. It's not surprising you weren't hitting as much. If you're planning on using the character in PvP a lot, you might want to plan on slotting two accuracy enhancements in vital powers, or picking up the Leadership pool and getting Tactics - the benefit there is that you'll get +Perception to help you see invisible people.

Also, keep in mind that at this point, a lot of the heros you're fighting in Bloody Bay are actually higher levels exemped down, and so they're working with much better enhancements. If they have any defensive powers running, enhanced with SOs, it might explain why you're having a tougher time against them. The playing field will level out as people level up and buy SOs, though.

I tried to bypass it on both my Ice/Dark and my Rad/Thermal:

The Ice/Dark is crippled due to lack of endurance - she's the first in a team to run out by a long way - and there's no way I can run any toggles. Bit of a pain when Dark has a nice toggle debuff, and dangerous when she's often the only one on a team with a heal. So, I'm giving in and getting Stamina for her.

The Rad/Thermal has faired a little better, but the moment a team she's in gets into a bad spot, and she has to pump out the heals, sheilds, and attacks? Her endurance plumets, and she's left unable to act right when she, and her team, most need her up and running. Even if I back away from attacks I have a rough time at those points... so, she's getting Stamina too.

Okay, or not tonight. And this is where last-minute planning gets us.

However, Sunday looks like it should still work. Syn just spoke to Filth and 8 PM tomorrow looks fine. That should mean that we have me, Syn, Filth, and Atreides from Freaks. Just need to confirm that with At.

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Thing is since ED I just have to many slots so they gotta go somewhere

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You'd be better off putting another recharge or confuse in to help stack it (or confuse multiple mobs), though. I'd go with the recharge, myself - I have it slotted up on my Controller, too.

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what abt sonics?

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I'm not any kind of expert, but I find Sonic to be really, really fun. Only blaster I've stuck with (although I'm quite enjoying my new ice Corruptor, which may say something). Damage output seems decent, the res debuff is nice (especially if you're playing with other sonics, to stack it), and there are several different secondary effects to play around with. You can really make an interesting build out of it, slotting things for sleep, or disorients so you can stack them.

I doubt it's the best for PvP, and I'm very sure my little sonic/dev is never going to come near a lot of other builds for damage, but it's a lot of fun to play PvE.

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..........Artifice debuffing, confusing and bringing her cute pets, as well as being a totally buttkicking controller in general.......

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Edited for accuracy...

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Awww, thanks. To be honest, I always feel slightly out of my depth on Artifice (despite her being my second highest level), like I've just not quite got the hang of being an ill/rad. Especially when I've been spending so much time lately playing as a kineticist, or one of my CoV Corruptors. Switching from that, I seem to forget where half my powers are.

I was proud of myself for figuring out how to get my pets through the closed door though. (To clear that up... the pets went through, and managed to disturb the one we needed to get - that was when they started moving around so we could partially see them. In a stroke of utter luck, I managed to target the right one as it came halfway through the door, and killed it, getting the key.) My poor Phantasm got faceplanted in the process, so we should really be thanking him for his brave sacrifice.

It all went well aside from that though - possibly the smoothest respec I've been on!

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have Artifice, level 31 ill/rad, who needs it. Might try and get her to 32 beforehand so I have my Phantasm along.

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An ill/rad would be most welcome I did it recently with my own troller (Okton) and PA + Phantasm + debuffs + deceive (bubbles) made it a lot easier!

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Yeah, I'm aiming to get myself up to 32 before we set off. The Phantasm and new enhancements would obviously be handy.

I have Artifice, level 31 ill/rad, who needs it. Might try and get her to 32 beforehand so I have my Phantasm along.

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TG, you say your dropping stamina, do you have end reductions in your healing powers then or have you put any elsewhere? I tried it without and in teams it was ok but soloing was a mare.

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Just to add to TG's answer... I've never had Stamina, and I'm going to be going 3 heal/3 recharge in healing powers as well. I am going to put some end reductions in my toggles though, and I have Conserve Power from my epic. Having played around unrespecced a decent amount, I don't have trouble with endurance really, even before my respec.

Like TG though, I'm a team-oriented empath. I actually don't have any attacks. I can imagine things could be fairly different if I were wanting to really fight as well as heal and buff.

I have Leadership, six-slotted Hover, Conserve Power, Hasten, and RA to think about as well as my heals. I'm thinking 3-slot Tactics and Maneuvers with buffs, then stick another two slots of endreds in (and two in Assault). This rather large endurance use reduction should help make up for the loss of endurance from RA and Conserve Power. I may still six-slot them to squeeze out every last second I can though, since I don't have Stamina.

If I do that and it works out that my endurance is doing fine, I'm going to go with three heals/three recharge in Heal Aura and Heal Other, rather than the three heals/2 recharge/one endred that seems to be popular already.

I'm keeping Hasten, just not sure how to slot it yet - I'm going ot play around on test and see if I want those few extra seconds or not. Same with Hover. It seems fairly usable right now, still six-slotted, but I want to see if I can feel the different when it's only three-slotted. AB is in the same position for me right now.

Fort is staying six-slotted, probably three recharge/three def buffs. After chatting with the person I team with most, he said he can hit stuff just fine (especially with Tactics running), and he'd much rather have the def buffs - and after the def nerfs, it might well really help.

I've never slotted Regen Aura, so no change there... unless I end up having some free slots to shove into it. If I do, it'd be three recharges, with any extra going in as heals.

All in all, it's a case of playing around on the test server and doing a few missions to see what I think of things. I can see being an empath on a large team being even more hectic than ever. Duoing still seems easy to the point of boredom - just need to keep an eye on when the buffs are dropping since I'm not used to the new recharge times. I've been meaning to write up an empath guide for some time, but I'm going to wait until after I'm used to the ED changes now.

For the record, I already know the front page is screwed up in IE right now. I hate IE, I really do.

Working on fixing it, but I may go to bed before it gets finished, so I figured I'd just note it and save anyone telling me.

As promised, I have a quick site up and running to house the list of Union's level 50 toons, and plan on keeping it updated:

The Level 50 Toons of Union

There are full instructions on the site for submitting any info, but in case anyone's feeling particularly lazy:

If you want to submit any info about a level 50 toon to be included on the list, please either reply in this thread, PM me, or send an in-game email or tell to one of my toons. At time of writing, that means Eir, Artifice, Cybercel, Talexia, or Miss Jynx. Ideally, I want full info - Name, AT, and Primary/Secondary/Epic, but if you only have partial info, I'll still gladly take it.

Corrections and suggestions about the site are all very welcome, but I'm not likely to change the colour scheme, because I find the current one doesn't hurt my eyes whilst I'm staring at lists of text.