Fleeting Whisper

I don't think it's a question of whether a petless Mastermind is capable of soloing. It's a question of the number crunchers squeezing every last bit of effectiveness from a build. For Masterminds, that means pets.

Assuming the target can be KBed (well, KU, since AS does low-mag KU, not KB), they will flip due to AS. Unlike many in-set powers and Jump Kick, AS doesn't have a chance attacked to the KU effect.

Of course, Noxious Gas requires a pet

This is exactly my point. Sure, you can go through all of the attack from the various critters and find the percentage of each damage type that is dealt... but critters do not appear throughout the game dispersed evenly.

For an easy example, a villain is going to encounter a LOT more Longbow Guardians than they will encounter Squall Elementals. For a useful statistic, you would have to weight the number of encounters with Longbow Guardians compared to the number of Squall Elementals when calculating their contributions to the damage totals.

But what if the player solos through most of the game on +0/x1, and then runs through Dr. Forrester's "Shut down experiment" mission with an 8-man team? This would change the numbers. What if the villain switches sides after Going Rogue and hangs out in The Storm Palace? Again, the numbers change.

And that's only considering encounters with a given enemy. If you really want to be accurate, you've got to incorporate how often the various powers are used, too. From above, you're probably going to get shot by the Longbow Guardian's pistol more often than you're going to get punched in the face. That would bump up lethal a bit higher with respect to smashing. Then consider recharge (some critters have powers on long timers, or timers so long they'll only be used once per encounter), post-death specials, and DoT patches (which would depend on how long you stand in the patch).

It's a good guess that, for example, smashing and lethal will pop up a considerable amount more than toxic will. But trying to get accurate numbers is like trying to demonstrate that funny bears don't wear pope hats when they're Catholic in the forest.

Agreed. On the other hand, I can see an argument for the opposite: display the highest list price, and display the lowest bid price. A potential buyer see that ABCD is the highest list price, and knows that bidding higher than that will guarantee a purchase right now (of course, you'll actually purchase from the lowest listed seller, not the displayed one). A potential seller see the lowest bid price, and knows that listing lower than that will guarantee a sale right now (of course, you'll actuall sell to the highest bidder, not the displayed one).

I'm not convinced that would be a good idea, but I think it's a better idea than what the OP is proposing.

And I'm telling you no character will ever see the whole forest, so why bother asking?

Poison's actually fairly strong against single targets. It just doesn't really have so much to use against groups.

Also: What Silverado said. That build with pets should easily be able to take on x8 spawns, and probably with their levels buffed, too (depending on what powers you drop to add in the pets and upgrades)

Poison Trap is the worst power in /Poison. It's one of the best powers in /Traps, but that's because Poison.Poison Trap and Traps.Poison Trap are VERY different powers.

Not true. You have to enter SG mode yourself. While it's true some SGs may kick you for not generating prestige, you are never forced into SG more.

The prestige/inf ratio was modified in I12, but it is 50% inf earning power at level 29+. You get 100% prestige earning power at lv25+ (ranking up from 52% prestige at lv1).

However, as others have said, I have no problem being in SG Mode. Inf flows freely, and you're generally going to fund the multi-billion inf builds with market sales rather than inf earning, anyway. And since neither drops nor market/trading is affected by SG mode, I'm not really seeing an issue that needs solving.

Well, we know they're going to be using the new character models. They've said as much. Hopefully, that means they'll be looking at the arcs, too.

I understood your question perfectly. I'm telling you that you can't get an answer more accurate than "ish", which you already have. Even for the game as a whole. Someone who runs through every single story arc to level up is going to run into a different set of damage types compared to someone who just doest the arcs offered necessary to reach the next level, compared to someone who only uses radio missions, compared to someone who only uses the AE, compared to someone who just teams with their friends in the RWZ. There is simply no remotely accurate answer that you can get. Ever. From anyone. For any character. Period.

Biologically, this is only relevant with regard to how likely the recessive genes are to surface. Over several generations, the incestuous line is more likely to produce such offspring, with the probability approaching 1 as the length of the line extends incestuously. With a single generation, however, whether the incestuous couple or the non-incestuous couple is more likely to produce the recessive gene in the offspring entirely depends on the genetic predisposition of the parents in both couples.

Socially, as you've pointed out, is an entirely different matter. Even putting aside the taboo most cultures have for incest, there is the issue of abuse of power. When incest occurs between parent and child (or grandparent and grandchild, or whatever), the opportunity for abuse of power is extremely high. The "consensual" part of the "consensual relationship" may only be so because the inferior party is forced into consent. Considering the characters in question, however, with Tyrant and Dominatrix, I wouldn't be so quick to assume that Dominatrix is being pressured into the relationship by her grandfather.

As I said, I'm not really in favor of incest. However, assuming it's a relationship between two truly consenting adults, the relationship is really none of my business. It's not something I'd do, but it's not my place to interfere. Without evidence to the contrary, I think Tyrant/Dominatrix is entirely consensual, so the relationship doesn't bother me.

So, do you feel the same way about, say, people with astigmatism? It's similarly a genetic defect. What about blue eyes?

I'm not saying I approve of incest, but claiming "it's bad and you should feel bad!" for the reasons you give, while you approve other similar acts, is simply a double standard.

Based on what we know of the Dream Doctor, it seems more likely that Rularuu is an aspect of the Dream Doctor than that the Dream Doctor is an aspect of Rularuu.

Correct. I believe the issue with that was because the CoP was designed to be run by multiple teams simultaneously, and in concert.

I disagree, but I'll get to that.

He's not, and never was. The Cathedral of Pain Trial had "Aspect of Rularuu", which used Ruladak the Strong's model.

Rularuu the Ravager is, literally, too big to fight. The combat engine simply doesn't support him correctly. It even has trouble with the Jade Spider that heroes face in Mender Silos' TF, but Rularuu is even bigger. A while ago Castle was experimenting with large targets on the Test server (using the giant MekMan model), but we haven't seen anything come of that, and we don't know if he got any results.




Now, as for why I don't think the Shadow Shard should be co-op: I think we've got too much co-op already, and I find the trend of "make every new zone co-op!" annoying. I realize that making zones co-op makes them accessible to more players, but frankly that argument has held little water since CoV and CoH were merged (since any player can simply make a character on the other side of the game), and it will hold even less water once GR arrives.

On the other hand, we're missing a large portion of the Shadow Shard.

• Cascade Archipelago: Ruladak the Strong (Brutes)
• Factory Cubes: Chularn the Slave Lord (Wisps)
• The Repository: Kuularth the Scavenger (Natterlings)
• The Palace: Aloore the Watcher (Sentries)
• Garden of Memories: Uuralur the Mirror (Reflections)
• The Storm Palace: Lanaru the Mad (Storm Elementals)
• The Chantry: Faathim the Kind (None)
• Firebase Zulu: None (None)

There are four existing Shard zones. One (Firebase Zulu) has no associated aspect of Rularuu, and serves as a beachhead for Paragon City. There are seven aspects of Rularuu, each associated with or located in a region of the Shard. We're missing the Factory Cubes/Chularn, The Repository/Kuularth, The Palace/Aloore, Garden of Memories/Uuralur.

I'd say that villains need their own four Shard zones, all to themselves. One of them would need to be a beachhead, similar to FBZ. That would leave one remaining zone/aspect not assigned to either heroes or villains: this, I would make into a co-op or PvPvE zone (the latter being PvP via PvE action akin to capturing pillboxes in RV or PvP missions in the other PvP zones, rather than direct conflict)

Edit: If you look into the game's files (which is against the rules and you absolutely shouldn't do it), there are powers assigned to Chularn the Slave Lord (PFF and some Psy blast attacks), though he doesn't show up anywhere.

Of course, Caine was cast out to Nod before Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden. Presumably, Caine took his wife (/sister) with him to Nod, as she bore him a son, Enoch, and then Caine built a city and named it after his son. But unless Enoch (and Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, and Lamech) was bedding Caine's wife or their own sisters/nieces/aunts, the city had a population of three (plus any of Enoch's sisters) before Enoch had a child, then there were people in Nod before Caine got there.

Guild Wars 2 is also currently in development (of course, GW's payment model doesn't really lend itself to this discussion, since every GW account is a "lifetime subscription")

Incest does not cause genetic defect any more than a normal physical relationship does. What incest does do is increase the chances of a recessive gene asserting itself. If the two partners do not have any recessive genes (or, rather, no recessive genetic defects), the incestuous relationship cannot produce genetic defects, except for example random mutation that is just as likely to happen in a normal relationship.

The pharaohs didn't demand worship. The pharaohs were gods, in the eyes of their subjects.

Before the PPPs were expanded, the SoA had exactly the Brute PPPs.

No, starting over from scratch 3 or 4 times is what killed Tabula Rasa. =/