Dante

With the blistering noise and the earmuffs, Amber could barely make out a word that Jay was saying. She wiggled her fingers to indicate that she couldn't hear him. She then pointed at the van, throwing her hands forward to indicate that she was going to sing followed by a big gesture that suggested a big explosion. She hoped he could understand her.

Underground, deep under Kings Row, the curtain to the showers in the Dugout flew open and Saffron Mackenzie emerged. She had her hands clasped to her ears as the white noise eradicated any other sound. She had about enough time to grab her bathrobe and pull it on before she had to return her hands to her ears.

"What in blazes is that!?" she shouted but no sound returned.

She stumbled into the Operations Room of the Dugout and attempted to operate the console without taking her hands away from her ears. Realising that she was being an idiot, she stopped and concentrated. The frequency of the sound was intense and pervading, hard to locate. Dashing into the Hangar, she rifled through some of the supply racks until she came across a pair of ear muffs used for when the jet was being launched. They reduced the sound to less painful levels but it was still intense.

Minutes later, she returned from her office, dressed in her usual outfit, her father's battered leather jacket almost falling apart as usual. Sweeping her ginger hair from her face, she affixed the small mask.

"Right," said The Amber Banshee, returning to the computer console. "Let's see who's so desperate to get our attention."

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I'm changing my comment to "a tell is nice" and on the alts I've changed this seems to have worked I get less blinds and more tells now

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Most of my alts have a comment in their search box that reads 'A tell first is polite'.

Then if I get blinded I have a fair idea of what kind of person is sending the invite and whether they share the same attitude as the OP. In which case they'd be getting a 'No' response.

If I'm flying the green flag (and I think I must be one of the few that use it) I'm fair game but most blind invites I've responded to end in disaster.

Hi there, I've only just seen this thread. Yep, I'm still around but what with a new family and my workplace deciding to ban access to these forums, I don't get to check here as often as I would like. Feel free to PM me here. Crimson Archer is still active as well, I'll give him a poke.

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However, this set strikes me as really, really boring.

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Agreed. Plus if you play any set that is forced to take Gale, blasting enemies with wind gets dull real quick.

However, should this set be added to the game, I would be only too pleased to see Atlas Park crawling with flatulence based characters.

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Sheesh. I mean, you can solo or duo the things easilly, but they're sheer PUG kryptonite. Especially with Mastermind-heavy teams. Sometimes I wish the VEATs has special enemies that shoot you in the head fifteen times for every teammate of yours that's in melee range of it, just for the giggle factor...

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Thank you, I needed that laugh. Yes, this is one of the reasons why I still love them.

One other way to deal with them if they're not part of the mission objective and you're on a Warshade is to take Superspeed and Shadow Cloak and stealth past them. Job done.

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And IMNSHO, /Sonic defenders >> Sonic blasters - the blaster only does 13% res debuff to the defender's 20%.

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In terms of debuffs this is true, but the duo needs up front damage. The -res is just a nice added effect to go with the other debuffs that will being hurled around. Plus it will make the Defender's blasts do more damage as well. Still YMMV.

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So, some sort of single-target blaster? I think I'd go for Ice and a secondary of your choice; maybe elec to add a theme? In fact, Ice/Elec would probably fit well both thematically and synergistically.

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If you want some -res to go with your Storm debuffs, you could always roll a Sonic Blaster to go with her. Solid single target damage and you could also add your single target stun to her Thunderclap.

I played a Necro/FF MM up to 20 and then deleted him because it was so boring. Summon, Buff, Summon, Buff, Summon, Buff, whip out Aid Other occasionally... Arrrgghh!

In theory, they do have some synergy as some Necro attacks do -ToHit but if you'll need more patience than I had to enjoy it.

Perhaps a Controller with Bubbles as secondary would work instead?

Yes, they are hard but then they're meant to be. Personally, I like them. It keeps me on my toes and stops me from just plowing into every mob I see. Firstly, your best bet is to get a bind sorted that checks for a Void in each mob you come across. I've never needed one but I hear they help a lot in making sure you're not surprised by one. Should be some in this forum.

The next is to carry Inspirations and be ready for a fight. Buff yourself up and blast them into oblivion in Nova form. I find Warshades have an easier time as they get Starless Step and Gravity Well (which deals with Lietenants easily) whereas Peacebringers have to rely on knockdown/knockback.

If all else fails, maximise your damage output and blast the hell out of them. Yes they'll hit you with a crud load of damage back but if you've got some Respites, it's endurable. The only other alternative is to enhance your negative energy resistance through the shields and Incandescence/Absorbtion. I believe that their damage was altered to be Negative rather than Untyped so can now be resisted more. Good luck to you.

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Dark Secondary on a defender just seems so useless. Stuns that only affects minions, an immob, altohuhg pbAoE that doesn;t seem all that great and relatively low power attacks seem to mean that it's not much cop.

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The main reason I see FF/ paired with /Dark is that -ToHit goes very nicely with the +Def from Force Fields. Certainly I've run a few TFs with one and found that I only got hit very rarely. /Dark is a nice Defender Secondary but it benefits more from sets that capitalise on its Immobilize and Stun so Storm/ and of course /Dark go very well with it as they have Stun powers and the immobilize keeps things in their debuff range.

I'd suggest teaming with Debuffers or AoE Damage dealers to see the maximum benefit from it. I've never had the patience to play FF/ myself but it could be worse, you could have picked /Elec as a secondary.

Hi there. It looks like a solid build for Dark/Elec to me too. The only advice I would give is consider dropping Aim for Petrifying Gaze earlier on in the build. Two Mag3 holds means you can keep a couple of Lietenants out of the battle or stack them on a Boss.

Also, you will be team reliant with Dark/Elec. I got mine into the 30s and it is possible to solo, especially when you have Fluffy and Sparky working together but it can be slow going. Good luck.

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And <applauds Artic Princess>

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Ditto.

Plus, as has been said, characters who act obnoxious, overbearing and arrogant all the time tend to either end up with their own kind (Yay!) or ignored by everyone else (also Yay!). Point is, if you were in a bar and someone kept on shouting "I'm a god! I'm mightier than you puny mortal!" would you really want to strike up a conversation with them?

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So it's not Gods in themselves that are bad (Unless my characters suck, in which case discount all that), it's going overboard with the power a character has.

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A very good point. Feel free to substitute 'god' with 'overly powerful' in my post, most of the same points apply. I blame little sleep so apologies if I've inadvertantly annoyed anyone.

Against my better judgement, I’m going to try and answer the OP’s question. Why are ‘Godly’ characters frowned upon?

1) They’re boring.

A character who is a god will likely have been everywhere and seen everything. There’s nothing left to learn for them, no experience to be gained. There’s no situation which they struggle with or need to call on the aid of other heroes for.

2) Nothing is a challenge for them.

Nothing in game should be able to touch them, therefore no situation is a threat. One definition of a hero is someone who tries to do the right thing against insurmountable odds. With a god, nothing is insurmountable, nothing can beat them. Therefore they are never in trouble, therefore there is no drama. To care about a character (particularly a hero who is risking their life for innocents) there has to be some threat. Being divine kind of negates a lot of that risk.

3) They have no motivation.

Following on from the above, and to paraphrase other posters: why is this divine being here on earth mingling with mortals? What are they attempting to gain? More followers? Friends? What does Pocket D or GG have that their divine realm doesn’t? (Actually, Ravenswing has already answered this: lots of scantily clad warrior women looking for divine love! Don't let Zeus catch wind of that place! )

4) It can ride roughshod over other people’s characters.

A god meets a blind superhero. Poof! You can see! = Character ruined.
A god meets a character who lost their family. Poof! Your family are alive again! = Character ruined.
A god meets a character who is trapped in our timeline. Poof! Your back in your own time zone again! = Character ruined.

Simple examples I know but probably the best way of showing how easy it is for a divine being to break a character concept.

5) It belittles other people’s characters.

As has been stated, it’s far too easy for the god to start lording it over others, making these puny mortals seem like worms beneath their feet. Just the ego-boost you needed. Great. In fact, having a character even refer to another as 'mortal' tends to send my RP Ego-Alarm off. Only $9.99 from Wal-Mart.

In short, they break a lot of unseen courtesies in RP. They’re just too damned powerful and end up breaking plots. Most times that gods have mixed with mortals in comics, they are reduced in power in some way or serving some sort of punishment. In short, something in the mortal realm is a threat to them. If you do insist on playing a god, try keeping them to one aspect and leave them vulnerable to others. Hercules is superstrong and invulnerable but Galactus turned him into a pile of protoplasm. Splat! Give them a weakness, a real weakness otherwise they just turn into god-modding, boring caricatures.

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DA without fog is Boomtown without ruins.

Fog stays. Please let them put flying mobs in there. Spectres or something, you shouldn't ever feel safe in the fog.....

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This please! Not enough high flying mobs in the game. I'd love to see spectres lurching out of the mist at you. Hell yeah!

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And for the love of god get rid of the bloody fog!!!

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Nooooo! I love the fog! It's atmospheric and it's great to wander around the mist filled place, random spawns of Banished Pantheon suddenly looming out of the smoke. Aaargh! Nice and creepy and ten times more spooky than Croatoa. Even after three years, the feel of the area still creeps me out. I love my fog!

I always park mine up in the Atlas Park station. You can find it by going slightly south of the plaza and then right. There's a kind of overpass on your right and the station should be ahead of you on the left. The main problem is that the signs don't display until you're right on top of them.

The other option of course is to go to King's Row as both detectives are by the station and should show up on your contacts list the moment you enter the zone. I hope that helps.

I found that Cain Royce in Talos Island will send you into DA a lot but no actual contacts exist within the zone.

And yes, I'd love to see all that gothic architecture and gloom used for something as well.

Point 4

A backstory definitely helps me to stick with a character. The very few characters I have without backstories barely see double figures, even if I like the sets.

If you're struggling to find a good story, Mutation can be a good cop-out as it requires very little explanation, the powers 'just happened' and the person decided to use them for good/evil. Not very refined admittedly, and could look a little lazy but it can avoid lengthy explanations and get you out of a corner if you're struggling.

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IMO Power customisation & Addon pack (as in paid for expansion) due next year, Power customisation will be added at same time as addon but be free.

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I agree with this but would add in going rogue as well for good measure.

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For the sake of Ull, Morgaine and Vishnu would people just give it a rest already! It's getting more annoying than the ED complaints.

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QFT

Read one of the many, many threads already in existence. This is beyond tiresome now.

And the same to you too.

I wish everyone a happy Yule or if that's not your bag, general Season's Greetings all round.