Dustnite

SG/VG Name:
Crisis Patrol
Public relations:
Crisis Patrol Forums
Global Channel:
Crisis Hotline
Peak teaming hours:
Evenings EST. Busier on Weekends.
Amount of PvP:
When anyone feels like it. We would run regular raids if they ever fixed them. :\ Base is raid-ready however.
Amount of Powerleveling:
We're anti-PL. No XP Leechers allowed. Will Sidekick lowbies but they have to pull their weight.
Amount of Drama:
Zero Drama. People have enough problems. Honestly, I can't stand primadonnas and this game has more than its fair share.
Size of Base:
Currently on the 8x12 plot, and moving up to a new plot soon.
Requirements:
Each applicant is required to go through a few missions to see if their right for the SG. Once approved they have access to base teleporters and medbay.

The ability to apply diplomacy in any situation is wanted. No need to get upset when things go bad, just get back up and try again. Will allow base storage access after a preliminary period until the applicant is deemed trustworthy by one of the senior officers. Must play in SGmode at all times until level 25. After level 25, members can turn SGmode on or off as they dictate necessary.
Other:
We're a group of regulars who like to play Heroes or Villians depending on what everyone is doing. We like to do steamroller teams instead of the standard Herd Team, so don't expect to sit around and wait when your playing with us. We have a good Coalition with Legion of Order listed above as well as some others. We get together to run TFs from time to time and usually schedule it or do it on a whim time permitting. We try to run cool contests as well for influence, enhancers, IO recipes, or real world prizes. Come and join the fun!
Guild Motto:
To handle each crisis with style and courage. Carrying ourselves through hardship with nerves of steel and hearts of gold. Remember the fallen and summon up the blood fellow heroes of the Crisis Patrol!
Leader or Recruiting Officers:
Astral Avatar (@Dustnite) or Acupuncturist(@Keitaro)
Voice chat:
Have TS or Vent, but haven't found a need for it really.
Preferred Method of contact:
Ingame is preferable, but the Forums is an excellent place to try as well. I'm usually on more than Acupuncturist so giving me a holler will increase your chances of getting in.

Nice guide, Drogos.

But I have to admit that your slotting is pretty weird, although Thug/Dark can be slotted pretty weird anyways. Placing that 4th enchancement on the same type doesn't make sense to me when your only eeking out another 2% points of buff to the power when that slot could be better used enhancing your accuracy or your debuff powers.

Here's how I would slot for optimum effect:

Call Thugs: 1acc,3dmg
(Your going to have so much accuracy from the enforcers that slotting these guys for accuracy is pretty much redundant. Throw in the defense debuff there throwing around 1 accuracy is just fine. Stick the slots in your Dark Powers.

Dual Wield: 1acc or 2acc
(I personally use this pistol attack for the same reason you listed; for the knockback. However, enhancing knockback DOES NOT increase your chance to do knockback, but enhances the distance that the knockback does. So.....worthless to slot for knockback. Again slots spent better elsewhere)

Equip Thugs: 1endrdx
(Let's save as many slots as possible here, heh.)

Empty Clips: 1acc or 2acc, (dmg if you fit it in)
(I didn't take this attack because it generated too much aggro, but a good attack nevertheless. Again slotting knockback does nothing)

Call Enforcers: 3tohitbuff,3dmg or 1acc,2tohitbuff,3dmg
(Now this one is a little wierd. Here's the thing. Enforcers throw A LOT OF BUFFS! I mean their tactics manuevers and assault are ridiculous versions of the ones we get. I mean theyre throwing out incredible numbers to the rest of your guys. Stack your own leadership and watch you jaw drop. Needless to say, enhancing their buffs will yield tremendous results.)

Gang War: 3rchg or 3rchg,2-3acc
(Gang War definitely helps when your in a bind and its usually in a boss fight. Against AVs or GMs they are slightly less useful whenever there is an AoE stomp involved. Still, they buy a couple seconds and that can save lives. Enhancing accuracy is important also, since these spawn a much lower level than your fighting.)

Call Bruiser: 1acc,3dmg,(disorients if you want)
(Same reason as Thugs, enforcers are throwing out a lot of accuracy anyways, so focus on his mezzing abilties. Personally, I use the Equip Thugs upgrade on him because I like Hand Clap. It's KB and disorient are useful for stopping return fire even if it tends to scatter mobs. If your more in micromanaging like me, you can usually aim the Brusier when he does give someone the Clap!)

Upgrade Equipment: 1endrdx,1rchg
(Again keeping slots to a minimum)

Twilight Grasp: 2acc,3heal,1rchg or 2acc,2heal,2rchg

Tar Patch: 3rchg
(The slows have a negligible effect and this makes Tar come up just 10 seconds short of perma. Btw, it can't light on fire, your thinking Oil Slick)

Darkest Night: 3tohitdebuff,1endrdx
(Defense debuff is negligible considering your Thugs are going to be throwing that out anyways. Focus on the accuracy debuff for maximum effect. Also, you shouldn't be having end problems with this on unless your not going with fitness)

Howling Twilight: 3rchg,3disorient or 1rchg
(Sometimes I use this for debuff purposes, sometimes I skip. It's right at that point where it takes too long to recharge to be a truly great debuff but never hurts having it around. My current build doesnt include it until the early 40s but I do miss having it sometimes)

Shadowfall: 2dmgres,1endrx or 1endrx
(Team Stealth is more useful than you think. It not only keeps your aggro footprint lower but helps in positioning your thugs where they need to be for a good alpha strike. I take this everytime if I'm a /Dark MM. Also, slotting for defense or damage resist is to the player's disgretion only because the things that it resists don't really occur until the early 30s. Slotting can wait on this power if your going to slot at all.)

Fearsome Stare: 2acc,2fear,2rchg
(Really, this power is awesome. A fear/accuracy debuff tool that has a really wide cone effect that can affect lts and minions in one application. Seriously, every Dark should have this power. Not only is it not resisted by a lot of villian types, its not highly resisted in PvP. Get it. Slot it. Love it. Make babies with it...)

Petrifying Gaze: 2acc,2hold,2rchg or 2acc,3hold,2rchg
(Nice power, too bad you don't have anything that it can stack with. I'm personally not a huge fan of this power but if you can fit it in, use it.)

Black Hole: Who put this power in here?

Dark Servant: 3tohitdebuff,1acc,2(whatever)
(Dark Servant already has some pretty high accuracy so the best thing to do is focus again on the accuracy debuff to ensure nothing ever hits you. Fluffy likes to throw around the debuff so it's what is best to slot for first.)

Hope you don't mind but your slotting was bugging the hell out me. If you follow what I've listed you'll find your Thugs even more formidable.

[ QUOTE ]
I have bound the numpad0 key as "powexec_name Reform Essence$$powexec_name Essence Boost" Thus when in human form I can hit 0 and get Essence Boost, or if it's recharging get Restore Essence.

Here's my question: can I add $$powexec_name Sublimation to this bind without screwing it up? My thought is that if I'm in dwarf form the only choice that's valid in the string is Sublimation, so it shouldn't even look at the others. But will adding this stop the bind from working if I'm in Human form?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, the way you have it set up it's not going to activate anything besides the power you put at the end. Powexecname isn't the command you should be using. Set it up like this:

powexectoggleon Reform Essence$$powexectoggleon Essence Boost$$powexectoggleon White Dwarf Sublimination

That will get your desired effect. The only trick is it takes multiple keypresses to activate everything and you can't press it too fast or you'll skip over your powers. Also, if all powers aren't ready to activate it's going to get stuck trying to activate one that isn't ready. Also, having it in toggles actually puts the command cycle into search mode so if your human powers cant activate it will go to dwarf. But remember, powers are activated from right to left in a command string.

[ QUOTE ]
Is it possible to add a command to activate a heal inspiration to this key as well? So the bind would look like:
Inspiration$$Sublimation$$Reform$$Essence Boost and it will check:
Essence Boost
Reform Essence
Sublimation
And THEN Inspiration use
Then (presuming I have any greens) I hit numpad0 in ANY form for a heal.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is also possible but I don't remember the command for using the inspiration slot of the top of my head. You can check the command for it by typing /cmdlist in your chat window.

By the way, whatever you try to do is going to work ugly. Click powers are designed so you can't use just one key for everything so it'll be haphazard at best if it even works. I think I tried a similar bind to what you tried to do and I remember having to do the powexecname$$powexecauto trick. The best way to do it would be to use toggle TEXT binds instead of straight binds. Setting up multiple .txt so a power activates then switches to a new .txt file.

Check this site out for more info on doing that:

Black Specter's Advanced Bind Guide

Nice advice Luminous, but you don't need to be fully buffed to survive a nuke retaliation. Really, you just need to find cover and find it fast.

Typically if I'm expecting a lot of retaliation from my nuke, I'll do the run and hop trick using Hurdle or Super Speed. Just run toward the mob, just before hitting you jump and hit nuke at the same time and you'll fly to the other side of the map and the nuke will go off where you activated it at. Takes practice.

Nice guide Peg, glad to see some updated information on the Thug/Dark set. I did want to add my few cents from what I've learned of the combo.

As will probably be said later in this thread, Howling Twilight is not so much used as a Rez power but more as another control. A control that in fact is autohit, does some -regen, and autohits minion magnitude stun. This is especially useful when your hitting groups with a boss in the middle surrounded by a ton of minions. Properly slotted its a good emergency power or a regular mez power.

Also, as for pistol attacks I would suggest if your going to take one take Dual Wield for the knockback. Even if the damage isnt great its nice having a personal attack in an emergency (and pistols look so damn cool ).

Now, I don't know if anyone else has heard this but I tried some strange slotting on Call Enforcer and tried slotting for defense debuff and I heard that also buffs tohit as well due to the unsual nature of the enforcers. I've tested it and I've seen no difference between slotting Defense Debuff vs Tohit Buffs but I'm just not sure. Might be something to look into if you want to kill 2 birds with one stone.

Other than that, I might suggest you put at least one accuracy in enforcer and bruiser just due to the nature of how tohit buff is calculated. When it comes to GMs and such youll see Tohit Buffs tank even if your running enforcers and tactics.

Two last things:

Manuevers?

Not only is the defense buff pathetic its really a waste of endurance. Assault, Tactics, Vengeance (useful if you team) is all anyone should use.

Health:

This isnt so much a healing attribute as it is an extra amount of damage resistance that affects all types. It increases your regen and does so with either the default slot or more if you wish. Always infinitely more useful then taking both travel slots. Also, TG is a tohit thing so lowering your downtime is always useful.

Thanks, Peg.

As a player with an actual historical reference to Ar/Dev -- My character Flack Freak was started in Issue 2 -- I have to agree with the majority of the players on the forums. The point everyone is trying to make is that this set has been hit hard and has been so underpowered compared to the other secondaries that you'll hardly ever see it on someone except for those with the masochistic streak.

Let's take some long-time Dev players like Fury Flechette (sorry to bring ya in this Fury ) who were the utmost authority on the operation of Devices. Double Toe Bomb, Aggro Control, Using Caltrops Right, Dev Blasters could become engines of destruction if they were good.

Then ED hit and we lost our biggest advantage being able to slot maximum damage to even out our damage output loss of not having BU or Aim. With that, the set got progressively worse and became really a shadow of its former self. Fury Flechette retired as AR/Dev and a lot of us with old toons just let them shelve (Like my lvl 45 Ar/Dev Flack Freak).

Sure I can still do some damage, although nowhere near the speed that my other blasters can go. I also know how to play the set pretty well and I can live through the worst situations imaginable.

The point really to the complaints about Devices is that it hasn't been looked at in the slightest. We get the feeling that the Developers are trying to put the last nail in the coffin for this set and we aren't going to see it returned to some usuable point.

Stuff like Smoke Grenade not autohitting in PvE when everything else does. Stuff like Trip Mine not targetting and exploding right. Now, Auto Turret being extremely unreliable and costly to use and is no longer mobile.

The point is to get this stuff fixed so we can get back up to spec with the other secondaries. Because I can match my Sonic/Energy to my Ar/Dev and I know who would be faster at clearing groups.

If your replying to mine, it's not. The combo hasn't worked on any of my toons since Issue 7 was in place.

Well, I noticed that after Issue 7 I couldn't put the Reaper Cowl under the following conditions:

Female
Half Helmets
No Reaper Cowl Option under Detail 2 Anymore!
Tights Chest
Tights Bottoms

I still have my original costume from before the latest patches, but now I won't be able to ever get my original look again. Can we get this added back in please?

Ya, but you said anyone who doesn't take Stamina is a gimped Kheldian.

That is really going to depend on your build and how much emphasis you put on your human form and your other forms. Every form has it's own inherent bonuses and human gets some pretty good ones. However Cosmic Balance is not going to be the same everytime because you'll always have different team makeups.

I think it would be better to tell people that depending on their build, Stamina is or is not needed. After all, you don't always want to chug away three powers for Stamina when you don't necessarily have to.

Kheldians are just so varied in builds I don't like seeing someone blanket statement that Stamina is always needed.

SupaTroll might be correct if Stamina actuall happened to transfer to forms, which it doesnt. You just can't stay human very long, which is fine for Triformers.

I know that I am better at what I do then most PBs I see taking Stamina. That's because I use my forms for their abilities and I don't rely on my human form for more then boosting my powers, healing, finishing a boss.

Some people just take Stamina because it's habit and they don't know any better. If you want to see gimped, go look at some of these newbs running around PI with Super Speed and Invisibility running and their not even built for PvP.

Twighlight Grasp: Definitely want to do a 2acc/2heal/2rchg if your not running hasten and what not. Plus if you get Tactics then you can drop an accuracy for another heal. Third recharge is not needed.

Tar Patch - 3 slot Rchg Big Time, That will at the very least make it perma for those long fights w/o Hasten. Slows are completely optional.

Darkest Night - On Darkest Night, I'm a little torn. On my Dark MMs I've always had the experience of ending my fights rather quickly. The only time DN would actually be useful would be toward the end of a villians career. I usually suggest people take it post 30 and not earlier. You got enough end drain as it is.

Howling Twilight - The rez is just a side effect. You really want this power for the autohit disorient AoE that it supplys. Its not going to mez any bosses, but Lts. and Minions will be happily dazed for a good while. 6 Slot this Power: 3 Rchg, 3 Disorient Duration. Also, it's one of the best rez powers in the game.

Shadowfall - For Thugs, this should be a no brainer. It's going to stop a lot of energy attacks and its providing a lower aggro footprint. Even if you just 1 slot End Rdx in there it helps out. I suggest 2 End Rdx, 2 Resist, 2 DefBuff (Optional)

Fearsome Stare - Awesome, Awesome Power. Six slot this baby too. Not to mention the fact that mostly everything in the game has little to no fear protection, you can also use it in PvP to own as well. Slot 2 Acc, 2 Fear, 2 Rchg

Dark Servant - Of course you want Fluffy, he'll add to everything. You can pretty much slot whatever you want after 2 Acc tho. I usually do a mixed slotting of heals, holds, and tohit Debuff.

And please please please take Upgrade Equipment. I can't even comment on not taking it lol.

Guys....

Just type /afk <message> to set up autoreply.

Good Guide Generic, these are binds that I made for myself but I didn't know there were guides out for it. I do have a minor suggestion however...

If you running low on your bind string length and it can get quite long you can actually take a lot of the underscores in the bind commands and they still work:

For Example:

/bind TAB "target_enemy_next$$target_custom_next void$$target_custom_next quant$$target_custom_next cyst

Can Turn into:

/bind tab "targetenemynext$$targetcustomnext void$$targetcustomnext quant$$targetcustomnext cyst"

Minor, but saves you a lot of space whenever you have to edit a bind. You should also be aware that you can bind stuff to your unbindable keys by adding a shift or alt modifier. Furthermore, you can also bind multiple toggles to just 1 key, but you have to press it multiple times to activate each one in order. This can be done with powexectoggleon

I appreciate the enthusiasm for such a great powerset Kinetics, and I'm glad people do enjoy it. I am a little wary of your power choices and suggested slotting though, so I would like to give you a couple tips.

I was first a little surprised that you never took Siren's Song, because every Kinetic power that you have (except Repel) won't disrupt the sleep at all. Even if you have a team thats constantly desleeping the enemy, it still adds an AoE -res. Regardless, its a critical power that can completey remove the need for armors,etc.

Also, I'm not sure how well just Stealth has been working for you in this build. You don't have real invisibility so, if your going to be ghosting missions with this build it's going to be painstakingly slow. I would of thought a better way to go was to go for Invisibility?

Again, I'm not sure how far you've gotten into this build, but I know that Stamina can definitely be replaced by Transference and your powers actually put you in melee a lot. I know all my Kinetics characters skip Stamina for Transference or respec into a Transference only system, but for your current build I think you could free yourself three powers for your usage.

The rest of your build is rather odd slotting at least for Kinetics. Even though Leadership won't be the greatest buff a Corruptor can provide, you could still do well by going for Tactics and moving some of those accuracies out of your powers. Even with Fulcrum Shift going, your damage is going to be otherworldly, so even missing wont matter in the long run. In your later game, you also won't need almost all of the end reductions you've slotted in your powers and you could definitely replace a lot of that with recharge enhancers. Health is generally considered good enough with 1 Health SO, so if you have other slotting needs, I would do those first. And no EndMod in Speed Boost? What about when the team splits and you can't feed their endurance with Transference? You should at least slot 1 in there if not a full 3.

I just forsee a lot of overkill with you self endurance and not being able to maximize your team's efficiency. You can free up a lot of powers and I definitely think you should go into the Leadership pool.

I also have an addition to your guide. Quantum Flight and Stealth does equal Invisibility because the general rule is that anything Phased and Stealth will be invisible. You can still be seen by Snipers and the like, but that will be few and far between. So, if you don't want to waste a bunch of powers, you can achieve invisibility with just stealth.

I've got a much better website for name generators HERE

I use it all the time to generate great names.

Bill, is it really necessary to tell people to open Regedit (something you really shouldn't tell people to open ever) when they could just open MSConfig and just turn the services off that way?

As for Themes, I would be aware that's going to make your Desktop go back to Classic Windows view.

* Supergroup Name: Crisis Patrol
* Website: Crisis Patrol Forums
* Leader or Recruiting Officers: Red Ratio (@Dustnite), Talon Darkstorm
* Preferred Method of contact: In-Game Tell or Email
* Guild Description: The Crisis Patrol is dedicated to making the most original and active SG on Pinnacle. We have many SG events and involve ourselves with other SGs frequently. We focus both on PvE and PvP and are currently gearing toward Base Raids. If you'd like to join on a trial basis and see what were all about or if you'd just like some more information, just send a tell to me, Red Ratio, or my lieutenant Talon Darkstorm. We handle each crisis.....one at a time!

Thank you for these changes. This satisfies my concerns and let's us enjoy our game more.

Thank you, States. I can live with an XP range as long as it doesn't go on mission maps.