Eisenzahn

The lovely Lunaticia is an absolute temporary power nut. If it's a renewable power, I make sure to have it available somewhere I can get to easily just in case, even if it duplicates something I can already do anyway. If it's any kind of gun or weapon, I make sure to keep at least one charge left in it so I can go through the animation sequence of her pulling out a dozen different rifles, lasers, uzis, weird mojo cannons, bows, crossbows and pistols.

Currently the only temporary powers she doesn't have villainside are things with ownership timers (rather than use timers), a couple day job badges she hasn't finished, and a Heavy from RV (some day... but an Elec/Elec Brute isn't exactly a PvP powerhouse, no matter how I slot it, and I don't want to cheat my way to the reward by farming with a friend).

By careful accumulation of debt (back before you could shut off EXP), I managed to take her through every single temporary power awarding mission in the game, and then repeated dozens of Mayhem Missions hoping to get lucky picking up several more temp powers that are only available in Hero story arcs, but appear randomly in the raid mini-mission redside. When I put them all in my power trays, I have tons of leftovers that just don't fit.

This is part of why I love the Test Server so much, because I can use an infinite quantity of these powers. When I help with Open Beta, I consider that kind of my specialty, seeing how assorted temp powers may screw with new content.

It depends an awful lot on how the prerequisite power is fitting into my build, but usually as early as possible. The temporary powers are nice, but they're not enhanceable, and feel kind of slow compared to a fully-slotted permanent version. And I'm the kind of player who likes to do a lot of side stuff, run TFs, visit events and see strange corners of the game, so the only-when-needed nature of the temp powers just doesn't cut it for me.

Like most folks here, I don't currently have it on my main Elec/Elec Build. While the animation isn't all that slow, it's the extra second or two it takes to line up the cone in order to catch more than one foe in it that bugs me. It's certainly useable as a single target attack, but for that purpose there are better things in the set. Depending on the build and the AT, I favor either Jacob's Ladder or Chain Induction, but never both in one build yet. My Brutes all have CI, my Stalker JL. My planned Tanker is contemplating both, though, as he'll have the greatest ability to leverage AoE... but also the greatest need.

As a language nerd who believes that the information age is simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever happen to communication, I object to Twitter in the same way that some people object to flouride in the drinking water and the government spying on their thoughts with rays. I am aware that it's a mostly irrational response, but awareness of its absurdity doesn't mitigate my loathing. Anything at all that can be done to reduce my current reliance on Twitter for updates on the game would be hugely appreciated.

I would rename my forthcoming Earth/Earth Dom's dumpy little poo man Sizemore, in honor of the great Dirtamancer.

That's what I found with my Nin/Nin, yup. Too much vital stuff too early. On most Melee builds, by 20 I have four attacks from my primary, my two main shields or whatever and my mez protection from my secondary, a travel power and prerequisite, and Swift/Hurdle, Health and finally Stamina. Taunts get skipped entirely, except on my Tankers (where they're pushed off into the 20s), and Build Up or its equivalent generally enters my build at 22-24 (so it'll be available for speedy firebase takedowns in Bloody Bay). On a Stalker? Three of those four attacks are replaced with Build Up, AS and Placate as soon as they become available. AS is a great attack of course, but it doesn't exactly contribute to an attack chain once you're already engaged. And my defenses take a hit for Hide, making me push back the second defense toggle or whatever.

Personally, as a veteran of other MMOs where travel times often exceeded an hour, pushing back a travel power on a character I'm mostly going to solo isn't that painful. Pushing back Stamina would hurt too, but the Stalker playstyle does let you limp by without it fairly easily. All of that falls apart on teams though... next Stalker I make, the team build will probably push AS/Placate/BU back, actually, and focus on playing like a Scrapper in earlier levels. Which, of course, will get me laughed right off of teams despite AS having very limited utility in the pace most teams tend to play...

Ooh. Speaking as a likely contender for Most Total Combined Levels of Electric Armor, this gets me more excited than anything since the announcement of City of Villains. Even if the final version doesn't resemble that at all, just the fact that they're willing to make such a change makes me want to find Castle and kiss him right on the mouth.

I'm not going to, don't worry Castle, but I want to.

So it seems likely that Conserve Power has found its way to Mu Mastery, yeah? And is this change the case for Stalker Electric Armor as well? I wish I'd taken them more seriously about I15 open beta participation getting you consideration for this one...

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Just in case no one else suggested it... find out the global name of whoever is using the name on Virtue and send them a message. A global tell is a better idea than an email, since most people only bother to check their email to mash the Spam Button until it's empty these days. Mention that you're interested in the name, and check if the character they've got is a currently played alt. This has worked for me a couple times now, where the players in question had made the character and then quickly gotten bored with the idea or the powers, and were all too willing to delete them and free up the name.

On the other hand, it still hasn't worked for getting the original Eisenzahn off of his server of origin and over to Virtue with all my other alts, but 2 out of 3 still isn't bad (even if the 3rd is the only one I really care about).

Y'know, I'd honestly be happy if they'd just release Rularuu for us to fight, whether or not it had anything to do with the CoP. And I'd kill for the CoP map in AE, if it's anything like what I've imagined from descriptions. Let the CoP itself die, I say, but salvage the working bits for something else.

It seems frankly irrelevant to me. There are three states of Poster Worthiness that I recognize. Subscribed To, Neutral, and Ignored. I've never subscribed to anyone who wasn't a developer. And to me, if someone's worth the effort to send whiny anonymous complaints to in the hopes of making a little red box light up by their name, they're worth just adding to my ignore list.

The main place I could see something like this being valuable is in the Guides forum, and that function is already better covered by rating the actual threads.

The new forum reset my ignore list.

It irritates me, but I've decided to use the opportunity as a general amnesty, sort of like how I use RMT Spammers pushing people off of my in-game ignore list as a second chance for all but the most painfully unpleasant people. Still, I really wish it had been handled more carefully... two posters are already back on the list, and I've been on the new forum for only a couple hours. Having apparently judged these individuals accurately the first time, I really would have preferred to never encounter their words again at all.

Beyond that, eh... a forum is a forum. I'd gotten used to the old ones, eventually I'll get used to these.

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The moral of the story: Sometimes the best antidote for poison is more poison.

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What are "Things that the Boy Scouts didn't teach me, but Ninja Scroll did", Alex?

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(Specific to Mod 8, Niviene and others) Laugh. Looooooong and hard.

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I've got a number of projects to work on, although this might be a good time to see if I can finagle a half day off or so. Plus we actually have work to do regarding the migration, it's not a hands off process.

I still might get a chuckle, and post something objectionable on my personal forum so I can keep in moderation practice.

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Tell us where it is, and we'll help! I've got all kinds of objectionable stuff to post!

YOU WANT MILLION DOLLAR FORUM-BUCKS? GO TO EISENZAHNEXCHANGE.COM TO TRADE FOR CASH, HOLY CRAP SO FAST!!!1!!

I'll agree to anything that has a chance of letting me fight Rularuu, or beings of similar enormity, both in terms of threat and physical stature.

I want to fight something like Sin from FFX, where the battle involves disabling individual body parts and then climbing down its throat to sucker-punch it straight in the forcefully-incarnated soul. I want to fight things that take the same energies that were at play in the earliest incriments of the Big Bang, and use them as a melee attack. I want to fight things that, just by looking at them, make me think "Hey, maybe paying out for all these purple sets wasn't ridiculous overkill!"

My computer does not want to fight these things. So, uh, signed, but give me a couple months to scrape up cash for some upgrades...

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I am with you. I'll be making an archery/trick arrow corrupter on day 1 of issue 16. Can't wait.

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Same here. As proliferation carries on, and with the promise of Side Switching in the near future, entire Hero ATs keep dropping off of my list of things to ever create again. Corruptors getting Archery and Trick Arrow spells the end of my interest in both Defenders and Blasters. All that's left is Ice Armor/Ice Melee and Illusion Control, and I'll be done with basic Hero ATs for good.

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You seem to think that brutes are the most important team member, everyone should kowtow to them, and doubly so when you are the brute. I've no idea why you've gotten such a negative response

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Every team member has their role, I have no idea where you get that I think brutes are the most important. I'd be nothing without the buffs from others or sharing aggro with other brutes/MMs on the team. Brutes do provide some serious damage (more than scrappers at full fury if I remember correctly?), so please tell me you agree that not being able to hit most of the mob with an AoE attack is very inefficient? Keeping the group together is good for corruptors and doms as well (well if there were doms on the team I guess I wouldn't be complaining) NOT JUST ME THE SUPER EGOTISTIC AWESOME BRUTE.

And in regards to how I presented the topic, I have to agree it did start out as a rant. I had just teamed with 5 MMs, 3 of which were bots, so I wanted to kill myself from the lag and the enormous amount of scattering that took place. I suppose this should be my time to leave the topic (I promise I will this time) as it has certainly turned into an ugly mess. I'm going to roll a bots MM now, so have fun picking through this post to find more stuff to ream Mr. Ego Brute about.

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The thing is. You dont need a brute to keep the team together. at all.

Give a trick arrow mastermind or a Dark Blast Corruptor or a well played stormy some room and they'll easily handle that job without you.

Aggro control is also pointless if you have enough buffs to hardcap everyone.

Damage? Doms, masterminds, and Corrs can all do that too quite well.

All brutes bring to a team is a specific playstyle that involves CLUMPCLUMPCLUMPGOGOGOHITHITHIT.

Besides, not being able to hit everything with an AoE is going to happen no matter what you do, theoretical max dps is just that, its theoretical, it doesnt happen in 9/10 cases.

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... Hopefully I'm not playing into a specific attempt to pick a stupid internet fight (or derail an already stupid internet fight into your own personal new one), but it seems to me you're being just as full of crap about Brutes as he's being about Masterminds.

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There are times that I really believe that CoV was designed to cause friction between some of the ATs to preserve the mindset that you are evil and only working with these others to further your own plans.

Or to put it another way, balance by conflict.

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I have thought this as well, going so far as to have it as a basic assumption that the initial development was thinking along these lines.

Hero ATs fit their niches, and thus have a high level of synergy when teamed. The cost of this is that some find it either difficult or slow to solo.

Villain ATs tend to solo well across the board, but their are some inherent conflicts when teamed which are fueled by their inherent powers. The Brute's Fury mechanic encourages reckless speed on one end while stalker's generally want more time to set up and approach a new spawn. Dom's ending up somewhere in the middle, Mastermind's there as well as they are sometimes limited by the speed of their minions.

Some of the game changes and buffs have altered this original pattern (the stalker buffs being a prime example). But I clearly remember that the first few issues after CoV opened, the big teams were all Brutes and Corruptors. The general attitude being that any other AT just slowed down the team.

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Yeah, this sounds about right to me. Brutes and Corruptors fit together very naturally. I don't think anyone doesn't get along well with a typical Corruptor, but Brutes offer the best foundation for buffs and the best built-in aggro control to allow Corruptors to go wild with damage abilities. Stalkers and Dominators used to fit together similarly (back when Stalkers got extra crits on mezzed targets), but still play to eccentricities of positioning and recharge respectively that put them both on a schedule that may not be as friendly to the Brute's fury bar. Masterminds either step all over everyone's toes (if they're clumsy) or make everyone else irrelevant (if they're skilled). If MMs didn't apparently have such a steep learning curve for many, I believe they'd be major candidates for nerfs.

MA/Elec Stalker. No IOs. Good luck :-D