Dollhouse

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ITT: a dbag behaves like a dbag, is despised for it, feigns incredulity when people are angered to the point of threatening responses, then reveals it's all a methodologically-laughable academic "study."

Tenure: he haz it...and that's a damned shame.

Most amusing aspect: the aforementioned dbag violates established social mores...then flips a hissyfit when others violate different social mores by threatening him.

I'm stunned and amazed that a person acting like a complete dbag became despised, that the intartubes are filled with people who make threats of physical violence from behind their monitors, and that a tenured academic would get paid for conducting a methodologically-dubious "study."

Stunned and amazed, I tell you...

Of the two, I've only played Ill/Rad, and she's my designated solo AV hunter. I solo'd her for a large part of her leveling career, too, on Invincible from about level 18 onward. Now, about a billion and a half in inf later, she's closing in on perma-PA and is quite possibly the single most effective character in my entire over-large (c. 125 alts...) stable. If Ill/Rad is comparable to her, then it's very good indeed...and I don't doubt that's the case!

Siphon Speed can stack, at least for a bit. I suggest overslotting it for accuracy (and doing the same for Transferrance, to banish End worries). Global recharge IO sets are also a big part of my Ill/Kin's build strategy, and the +10% purple ones are expensive. Near-perma Phantom Army (down to about 5 seconds, with one more purple set to go!) makes her Fulcrum Shifts of large spawns pretty safe, and DPS has only been an issue on particularly tough, fast-regen AVs.

A solo'ing monster...and teaming is actually a bit of a letdown in pure gameplay (I'm an RP'er, so that's not my main concern on a team...). She usually doesn't need the others, and the way Kins tend to turn into SB-bots gets old. I team for RP with her, but when it's time to drum up inf for more spectacularly overpriced purples, she invariably goes it alone.

I'll have to make an Ill/Rad... =)

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Forget soloing a defender against Malta. I could do it, I won't. The damage output isn't fast enough to take out a Sapper before he zeroes the Defender's end and *squip*. It would be a perpetual inspiration refill just to attempt it. I never do Malta arcs solo on my Defenders.

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I largely agree with the above...but have to point out that D3s are a very big exception. My D3s hunt Malta. Sappers are no threat when they're cowering in fear, can't hit the broad side of a barn, or are petrified (pick one or more...). Malta require a slight change in tactics (usually opening with Fearsome Stare rather than my usual "snaring" technique), but other than that, good to go. If Fearsome Snare misses the Sapper, it's often possible to get Petrifying Gaze off before he can work his evil. that means you're going to be a bit late with Tenny Tents and Darkest Night, so the un-Feared boss may be a painful problem (since he can actually hit you for a change), but one can usually cope, and it's nice to have some threat! =P

I have only two VEATS (odd, as I'm an altoholic and love the classes). One will switch, if allowed. One will not.

Lily "BloodLily" Preston is not an Arachnos loyalist, she's a patriot. She signed up for the arduous Night Widow program not out of any affection for Recluse and the Arachnos organization, but as a way to best train and equip herself to defend her beloved Iles d'Etoiles. If she sees Arachnos become a threat to her homelands, she will turn against it in a heartbeat.

Cassandra Fortune, on the other hand, is loyal to the core. Beneath the false front of a fumbling, distracted academic lies a powerful Fortunata Mistress, ready to destroy any threat to her Patron (Ghost Widow) and the organization itself. She not only would never even think of turning coat, she would relentlessly seek and destroy any who did.

I'm tellin' ya, GR is going to be epic for us RP'ers! =)

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Someone needs math work...

D2 - Dark/Dark Defender
D3 - Dark/Dark/Dark Defender
D4 - Mighty Ducks 4th Movie...(FLOP)

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Nope.

D3 = Dark/Dark Defender
D4 = Dark/Dark/Dark Defender

A Dark/Dark Defender was called a D3 before the Epic pools even existed.

Interesting thread...

Personally, my Epic/Patron picks always jibe with the character concept, although I've had to do a fair bit of rationalization on occasion. Not infrequently, I've elected not to take an Epic or (more commonly) Patron pool at all, usually for concept reasons. Sometimes I don't pick one because I don't care for the choices from an effectiveness standpoint, too.

One thing I never do is take a pick that flagrantly clashes with concept. I'm an RP'er, and something like that would be immersion-breaking...and thus is simply off the table. I could care less about any small reduction in min/max efficiency, most all of which can be effectively built around with clever IO use.

Can't say that I care a great deal what other players decide to do. I very seldom run in PUGs any more, and most of the people I play with consider concept in these choices. Their picks aren't likely to create a "sour note" in my gameplay.

Dark Defenders can still take out a good few AVs. Elite Bosses? Doomed.

I also prefer the Dark/Dark/Power build, but basically it's hard to go wrong with the Epics available to you.

As I so often say, D3s are the best AT in the game. =)

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While there are a few characters on my stupidly long roster that I'd have to dial back the difficulty on, I'm pretty sure that any of them can solo any mission they're given (multi-glowies side). In a few rare cases, that might mean running on Heroic/Villainous, but those are specialty builds that are never intended to solo.

On the other side of the coin, I have a handful of characters that invariably solo on Invincible/Relentless. Most of them, in fact...although only a small handful can go after AVs by themselves (w/o Shivans and Nukes, that is). When the rest encounter a mission that will spawn an AV they can't deal with, I either get a team or scale back the difficulty a notch so it spawns as an EB or Boss.

Previous respondents have said all that really need be said, but I'll add a couple things anyway (being a wordy sort of person...):

* A great defender for players who don't care to spend a significant portion of their time renewing buffs. 'Coz there aren't any...

* The Swiss Army Knife of heroes. You can contribute on so many fronts that sometimes the greatest challenge in playing a D3 is prioritization.

*The combination of Darkest Night, Fearsome Stare, and Tenebrous Tentacles can put an entire spawn at the ToHit floor. Sprinkle with similarly debuffing blasts, and you can function in the tanker role. Seriously.

Learn "snaring." For dangerous spawns that your team can't just steamroll, snaring constitutes "team godmode." Let me know if you want a snaring primer here in this thread.

Make one. Trust me. Best AT in the game...

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*raises hand

Isn't the Illuminati bad??

>.>
<.<

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Depends upon your point of view. Me, I'm with Gallileo.

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Galileo?

Galileo.

Galileo Figaro...

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But... Miss Liberty is the only trainer in Atlas Park, so how could there be other trainers?

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I see what you did there.

I generally train with whoever's handy, although I've often gone back to Atlas and Ms. L for the 50 training, for old times' sake. That would make Luminary the most frequently trained-with, although my favorite in terms of story and such is War Witch. I'm not sure I've ever trained with Ravenstorm. =(

My best, I think, are:

Festival, founder and Ring Mistress Prima of the Carnival of Light
The Perilous Poppet, a medieval-era witch's manikin come to hideous life
Cassandra Fortune, a Fortunata
...and I always liked my namesake, Dollhouse (a Tanker, of course), at least until the TV show came out. =(

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That's too bad. As a support character, I'll put buffs out on everyone at all times whether they like it or not. If they don't, kick me.

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So fast it would make your head spin...

ibtl

+1

...and all that.

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Okay, I really, really, REALLY hate the Cold armor, and have since it was a redside-only thing. Whether I ask for it not to be put on my character is situational, though. If the team is actually being challenged (or at least my character in particular is), then I grit my teeth and say "lay it on me." The buff might well make the difference between victory and waking up in the hospital.

If the missions are pushovers, I'll ask not to be buffed with anything but Frostwork. As an RP'er, how much I'm able to get "into" the character matters to me, and the Cold armors just ruin immersion.

The Fire armors are not my faves, either, but I can't recall ever asking not to have them.

I'll never turn down a Bubble, though!

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I also concur that making email something you can opt out of would go a long way towards solving the spam problem. Not only would a very large portion of the player base have the problem disappear the moment they disabled email, I think the minority who left it on would suddenly become far too small a market to be worth bothering with.

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Except that if they make it something that can be turned off, they'll "helpfully" add a warning to the sender that the recipient has opted out of email. Then the next step is for the spammers to grab your global handle, and send you global tells at all hours of the day or night. What do you do then?

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Yeah, they'd definitely need to not send such a message to the sender, if the opt-out is intended primarily as an anti-RMT-spam measure. Not that's its a huge deal to /ignore tell spammers, but still...

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Last, but not least, I use the e-mail system. I know others who use the e-mail system. Global tells are not an acceptable substitute for several reasons, the biggest ones having to do with the lack of persistence and limited length. Just because you don't use a particular feature, just because you think that no one else does, is not a valid reason for getting rid of it or gimping it to the point of being useless, considering that doing so would not solve your particular problem.

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How is giving people the option to turn it off 'gimping' the system? You're not removing the function...only allowing it to be turned off for the people who don't use it.

Right now, whenever I see the email light up red...I know I got spam. No one on my Global or in my SG uses email to communicate. So what is the use of it to me except to get spam?

Removing inventions is a stupid idea. It's already too large a part of the game and there is no way to compensate someone for the work and influence they spent in obtaining the stuff they got for their characters. I proposed a simple solution where no one gets affected unless they want to...and you propose to remove and recode what has now become a central part of the core game. Smart...

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The only use I make of in-game email is to delete spam in order to make the annoying red text go away. That's it. No one I team with uses it...ever. But as Tony points out, there are people who make legit use of it, so removing it from the game makes no more sense than removing the Invention system.

I also concur that making email something you can opt out of would go a long way towards solving the spam problem. Not only would a very large portion of the player base have the problem disappear the moment they disabled email, I think the minority who left it on would suddenly become far too small a market to be worth bothering with. If a market currently consisting of about 250,000 people shrunk to 25,000, as I suspect would shortly be the case once opt-out was publicized, and that market converted at a monthly rate of 1% (which is probably high), then that's not a viable business plan. 250 conversions at an AOV (average order value) of I suspect around ten bucks isn't going to float an operation, even in China.

Er, yes...I am an online marketer. Why do you ask...?

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On Soviet Triumph, forums watch Mods!

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And it hardly needs to be added that the do it without pants...

LOL farming...

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my dark/dark is a beast

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Why /Dark over /sonic? I know the -to hit is nice, but what about the damage?

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/Sonic definitely has more damage, but /Dark isn't too bad in this regard, and the -to hit (especially when added to the primary) is crazy effective. The additional soft control of Tenny Tents is a plus, too...especially useful to keep spawns bogged down in your Tar Patch.

Pre-ED Dark/Darks used to so it almost routinely. My D3 main, Spookie, has quite a list of AVs to her credit.

That was then...this is now.

I'm leveling up a Rad/Sonic with the goal of creating a solo AV hunter Defender. Others have done this, so there is apparently some good build info out there. When I get her a bit further along, I'll start really planning her final set-up.

My current AV hunter is an Illusion/Kinetics Controller. Very, very effective...but she's turning into a 2 billion inf build. Yikes!

Along with some of the others previously mentioned, I love using my Nin/Nin Stalker's Patron Pool (GW) Soul Storm, especially when it's the modest DoT that finishes them. There they are, caught in pale, otherworldly tentacles and spinning in the air, while their killer is floating just above the ground, arms folded...just staring at them. And given that that particular character has empty sockets where her eyes should be, it's even creepier!

I also enjoy finishing with Power Thrust on my /EM Blasters. The two-part, percussive sound effect as they're sent flying is brilliant. Ka-BAM!

Exceptional in-game music, in my actually opinion (pretty serious, formerly professional musician here...FWIW). I don't always have it enabled, since I'd hear it over and over if it were on all the time, but I turn it on periodically, and really enjoy it. I make music on the same computer I play the game on, so I'm listening on pro-level studio monitors...sounds pretty damn good!

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But IC you wouldn't call em critters either would you?

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Nope. It would probably annoy my cat...