Dechs Kaison

My two cents regarding DA and Hasten:

I've never thought I needed hasten from a survivability standpoint. My tank doesn't have hasten even. Of course, I build my DA characters pretty heavy on defense, so they rarely need Dark Regen in the first place.

I think of Hasten as an offensive tool only. My Claws/DA brute did take hasten, but that's just because I want more Spins, Eviscerates, and Shockwaves. Particularly Shockwave. That is an amazing power.

Who's to say they should get anything in "exchange"? If they don't get it, they simply don't. Why would you care anyway? It's not like stalkers are useful or will ever get the attention they need to become so. Just like peacebringers. Or pvp. Some things just don't warrant dev attention.

I would expect any Solo(ish) Path Incarnate Arcs to be set for a minimum of +4/x1 With Bosses, With AVs.

I would not expect incarnate shifts to apply in these arcs, similar to Apex and Tin Mage.

I thought I read there was a badge tied to paragon points, but it was simply a "I bought something" badge.

Whether you spend 1 or OVER NINE THOUSAND points, you have the badge. It's pretty much the difference between a freeper and a preeper.

I fully support this. I think the incarnate level shifts should NOT work here, though. We don't get those shifts in an Apex or Tin Mage, I see no reason to get them in soloable arcs.

Empathy is still plenty useful. Everyone loves more damage and recharge from your buffs. I'm curious as to why you haven't mentioned the best parts of the set in your quasi-rant?

In fact, the latest trial, Keyes Island, benefits greatly by having a heal-capable player on the team. Just don't forget to buff the blasters.

Almost all of you know how this trial runs. It's pretty chaotic. To me, the inherent chaos designed into it is nothing short of glorious. But even that's not enough for me. I love chaos. I live on distilled chaos. To give you an idea, let me explain the rules by which I run my TFs. I simply call them the rules of Dechs Kaison Task Force, or DKTF.

The first rule of DKTF is: You do not talk about DKTF.
The second rule of DKTF is: At all times, you must be having fun.
Third rule: If you think you can handle it, you're free to go for it.
Fourth rule: If you thought you could handle it but couldn't, get back up or hosp out.
Fifth rule: Any build, any budget, no exclusions.
The sixth and final rule of DKTF: If this is your first DKTF, you have to take an alpha strike.

Most of the rules are actually there to protect the team from the leader (me). They make sure I don't become overbearing and micromanage the team. The second rule is a sort of "catch all." Rule four is only there to prevent a scrapperlocker from turning into a leech because he's dead and waiting for someone to come save his hind end. Two of those rules are there for Fight Club references. Rule six is there to instill people with confidence.

You see, it's all about the chaos. This game isn't like the others where you need a tank and a healer and some DPS and a strategy and the right gear et cetera ad infinitum. All you need are a few teammates and the desire to have some fun. I love how this game can be won simply by getting a team of supers together, pouring enough awesome into their keyboards in all directions.

Anway, back to the point of the thread. I logged into my brute and joined my first Keyes last night, and it was one destined for chaos. First, it's a bloody Keyes trial. More than that, the league leader had never run a Keyes before. If anyone on the league had run this trial before, he or she would not speak up. We were going solely by patch notes, in game notifications, and the pure will of awesome. The league had no Empathy, Pain Domination, or even any Thermal Radiation, but I know I saw one person had Core Rebirth. There were no Tanks or Brutes with Taunt. We would be relying on Gauntlet (and damage) to move Anti-Matter around.

I thought we were doomed, but I gave it my all to have a blast anyway.

Holy $deity, there were so many things to attack! I picked a war walker to bring down and a few people showed up to help. The team was going in all directions, tearing robots into cogs. People were wailing "What keeps killing me?" "How do I destroy the terminals?" "What's going on?" I think I could look at the league interface at any point in time and see half the league dead or dying.

I picked up a few of the temporary powers. I got one of the terminals powered up and went back to killing things. Some people were chatting in league now, giving vague instructions. Somehow, we got the reactor under control. Then another. Then the third. I hadn't died once, but that's because Dark Regeneration > all things. I would not have guessed things were going to work out this well.

The fight against Anti-Matter himself went rather smoothly. I mean, we already had him at about 70% health when it started. There was a big green light that killed me when time stopped or something like that, but I got back up, shoved a few claws into Anti-Matter's face and felt better.

This was the most fun I've had in the City since the last LRSF where the plan was "kill one of the AVs. AoE will get the rest." That was last week.

I love this trial. I'm going to be running this a lot. At least until people get it figured out and it all falls into boring order again.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience.

Thanks for reading.

If you're going to take to tanking, I recommend reading through my new tanking guide.

As far as powerset selection, any powerset combination can perform well enough to tank for a team. I prefer Dark Armor to anything else, but I'm not about to argue that the other sets aren't adequate. Pick based on your style and concept. The rest will work itself out.

Instead of a solo incarnate path, I'd actually like to see a "small team trial" that's along the order of difficulty we have now. Something meant for "an elite team of superheroes" that can do the surgical strike. Perhaps it couldn't have an AV, though, I'm not sure.

One of my issues with the trials is that they're "mob of heroes" and no one gets the chance to really stand out.