Darkest

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

On this fine Sunday evening, I’ve found myself with little to do, and so I’ve decided to start this thread.

The idea of this thread is to spark friendly debate on a specific subject. I do not wish to; start a flame war; open up old wounds; support any rivalries between people who happen to dislike each others’ point of view, or to get flamed myself.

I wish to make that perfectly clear – FRIENDLY debate.

Now, with the necessary dull judicial stuff out of the way, on to the topic of debate, which, this time, is to be this: “Are Defenders in general made redundant by character progression, and if so, what improvements could be made to adress this?”

You can take either side you wish. Your post should be clear, concise, and have an obvious point. No sitting on the fence, please.

I shall start us of with this:

Yes, Defenders do become less and less important as characters progress through the game, due to Melee characters gaining greater and greater survivability as they pick up new armours and Blasters gain more mitigation via stuns/KB. Add to this the fact that Controllers can, if played well, limit incoming damage an awful lot just via their Primary and heal/buff the majority of the remainder away with their Secondary, and they seem to be a somewhat sorry AT that is only really required for certain events such as the STF, and even these can be done without them.

With their damage being low, and another AT able to cover their main role in a team, the Defender becomes obsolete.

Can anything be done to address it? In my own opinion, no, not a lot. At least, not without making the Defender into an overpowered AT. You could up the damage, sure, but you couldn't make it too high, becuase then Blasters become obsolete. Of course, you could make the heals/buffs better...but then, if a Controller or two can handle it anyway, still why bother with a Defender?

I feel that the Defender has it rather hard off...but nothing in particular can be done about it.

Responses, agreements, etc...Go!

I do believe that the term is "Sod's Law", or alternatively "bloody typical"

A fantasy build? Let's see...How about a Devouring Eath MM? Pets with Pets with Pets

That or a Rikti MM, perhaps - Monkey Madness

Hmm, let me see...

I must admit that this isn't exactly my "favourite" newbie moment, but it's true nonetheless; Playing on a small teaming including myself, a tanker, a couple others I can't remember and an empath. We're all a fairly high level - 45 ish.

I notice at some point that the empath isn't dishing out any buffs. I check his build and he has in fact got every single one included. Eventually, I send a tell; "Err...you should really give the tank fortitude, you know."

A couple of moments later and I get the reply; "How do I do that?" ... Even if he were an actual "newbie" by level 45, he should have grasped the basic concepts ... Unfortunately upon further investigation, he had the Six Months Veteran Badge. Kind of saddening really I guess...woops.

Hmmm...nope, all appears well, surprisingly.

Hooray?

Is that so, bluedarky? Hmm, well, you learn something new every day i suppose.

And yes, perhaps editing should be left alone as a topic for now...

I'ts not often that I stray from the realms of artistry and write a story, however I had a little inspiration for a storyline and thought I'd give it a shot.

Comments are, of course, very much welcome.

Faithe Kain - An Explosion

It was 6:30AM on Friday 13th February, and in Paragon City, Rhode Island, events were proceeding as normal. In Steel Canyon, the ever-restless, ever-fragile economy of Paragon was being overseen by hundreds of everyday people. Several thousand night-shift workers were headed home, shattered after a long night’s work, their body clocks going haywire due to their irregular sleeping pattern. And of course, In Atlas Park, on the 13th floor flat of 13 Terrace Street, Faithe Cain was being slowly dragged into consciousness by the irritating buzzing of her alarm clock...

*****

“What?” Faithe moaned at her alarm clock. She flung her arm out at the wretched machine, hoping that if she flailed at it for long enough she might actually hit the snooze button. After about a minute of smacking the top of her own Horseman of the Apocalypse, Faithe sat up, and quite deliberately pressed the Snooze button. The alarm kept on buzzing. She hit the Snooze button again, harder, to much the same effect and then, out of pure stubbornness, continued to press the button over and over, determined to have her little victory. Still nothing, so she ripped the plug out of the wall, feeling for a moment the pure bliss of victory, and then the alarm started buzzing again. “What the hell?” Putting down the plug, Faith picked up the machine to examine it, it stopped buzzing. Faithe shook her head, thinking her mind must be playing tricks on her, got up, and went to have a shower.

*****

About half a block away, Norman Bruitt, still in costume as Alpha Ensiform, was walking home. Norman had been acting as bodyguard for Miss Liberty, an easy job, and it never hurt to help people in positions of power. That night though, something unusual had happened, he’d seen Malta operatives in Atlas Park. Malta. In Atlas. Malta, one of the most organised and dangerous groups of soldiers in Paragon, in Atlas Park, a place often seen as the safest part of the city. It didn’t bode well, not well at all. Norman was so lost in his thoughts about this, that if not for his Rularuu’s Bane sending a rather painful psychic spike of energy through his mind, he would have missed the rather large group of Malta operatives breaking into a block of flats on Terrace Street...

*****

Faithe stepped out of the shower, wrapped herself and her hair in towels, and sat down on her bed, just as usual. Then it seemed as though she was transported to hell. The door to her flat exploded, showering her with splinters.
Screaming, she backed away from the door. Through the huge cloud of dust generated by the explosion, she could see the outlines of several men. And the guns they were holding. And the grenades strapped to their hips. She screamed louder, backing away further still, until she hit the wall. One of the men came forward through the dust; he seemed to be dressed in some form of military uniform, with goggles, a gas mask and a helmet. The man pointed his gun directly at her and signalled her to walk towards him. Faithe shook her head vigorously. I’ll stay away from the scary military man who’s pointing a gun at me, thanks, she thought.
The man paused for a moment, then rushed forward and expertly pressed his index and middle finger into a pressure point on her neck. Faithe’s world melted and blackened, and, as she lost consciousness, a strange thought ran through her mind Why hasn’t anyone in the flat realised what’s going on? And then, and I only moved here yesterday, I thought Atlas Park was safe?

*****

Norman stood back and watched as the Malta operatives opened the door to the flat with a key, which was odd in itself, where had they gotten a key from? As he watched, crouched down, he wondered what on earth they wanted in a flat in Atlas Park; a celebrity? It must be someone in a position of power...

Snapping his attention back to the group of Malta, he watched them confer amongst themselves before walking slowly through the door. Norman left his cover and went to the door, which was now blowing about in the early morning breeze. Peering in through the door, Norman made sure the Malta hadn’t left someone on the bottom floor as a rear guard, they hadn’t, a bad sign, it meant that they were confident. Realising he needed to alert the inhabitants to the fact that the building had been invaded by Malta, he politely knocked on the door of the first flat. No answer. He knocked again. No Answer. He tried turning the handle, the door swung inward easily to reveal and empty room. They must have gone to work. Norman tried the next door, no answer again, and once again, the door was unlocked and the room empty. A cold feeling in the pit of his stomach, Norman tried all of the doors on the bottom floor, all 13 of them, nothing.

What was going on here? And then he heard the explosion, and he turned to the stairs and started to run up them 4 at a time.

*****

When Faithe regained consciousness, her hands and feet were tied and she was slung over the shoulder of one of the military men. She tried to shout for help, only to realise her mouth was taped over. So, of course, she started to squirm, if only to spite the man carrying her. The man ignored her struggles and continued to pound down the stairs...

*****

Norman climbed 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 floors. On the seventh floor of the building he could hear the Malta operatives climbing down the stairs. He took the Rularuu’s Bane from its sheath and stood ready to confront anything that came down those stairs...



And that's where I'll leave it for now...I'd like to see the response before I put everything I've got so far up. No point posting absolutely loads for people to read if it's actually terrible and no one's interested.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed reading, please do comment,

Thanks,

Darkest.

Love both the pics, very nice work.

Haha, love it.

Another pic drawn for a friend, quite happy with how this one turned out actually.
http://s487.photobucket.com/albums/r...rent=Shana.jpg
Comments, critique and ofc tips all welcome,

Thanks,

Darkest

Love the picture, love the story.

Well, thanks to both of you for comments, very comforting i'm sure Leigh.

Anyways, have spent a little time adding colours, again, nothing special...
http://s487.photobucket.com/albums/r...t=IMG_0004.jpg

Well, having played CoH for so long now I thought it was about time I got myself onto the forums.

So, here it is, my first post, it's just a quick drawing I did for friend. http://s487.photobucket.com/albums/r...urrent=IMG.jpg

While it's nothing special in comparison to some of the talent on these forums, i thought i'd share it anyways...I'll add some colours soon.