Frosticus

I have perma PA and still care what Phantasm is up to. Though I care more that he is rushing into melee and dying so frequently than I care about the propensity for decoy to despawn shortly after it has been cast.

I'm curious why the decoy has to be linked to the foe in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense for phatasm to just cast a static decoy (ie a totem) that lasts the full duration as opposed to linking it to the life of whatever he is currently targeting?

Personally that's the change I'd make to the decoy summon as opposed to it performing foe status checks prior to casting.

Search Castle's posts in the scrapper forum. He makes mention of how the power is supposed to work. Whether that is how the power will end up working or not remains to be seen, but it is a safe bet that when changed it will be significantly less powerful than it is now. Though in fairness, the power could be reduced considerably and still be very good.

Infiltration and derision marketing only works if you drive those people somewhere else.

Directionless ranting about GR or any other of the devs actions is likely just what it sounds like - directionless ranting.

haha, too true

that's the fun of it isn't it? This entire discussion consists of all of us claiming truths that we have no way of proving and brow beating anyone that doesn't see it our way until they submit or leave. Welcome to almost every internet discussion. There isn't a single post in the entire thread that matters even a tiny little bit. I'm sorry if anyone that enters into these kind of discussions thinks what they have to say matters.

This might be difficult to grasp but several different sub topics are being discussed in this thread. Like I said though, it might be difficult to grasp and to such a person it might appear confusing and hard to follow.
This game has been "dying" for 6 years. Are you suggesting that news spreading to the few hundred people outside of this game that might care to learn that the servers are merging now means it is for realzy dying?
Well of course, we covered all the expenses and discussed that it has to make financial and logistical sense dozens of pages ago. Both sides and everyone in-between already established that was a given and the criteria that we don't have access to would have to be met before the implementation or moral integrity of a merge could proceed.

Just like getting anywhere near an accurate population/subscription number is unlikely for us we can't tackle that side of the discussion beyond acknowledging the fact that it supersedes the entire discussion. Which we already did some time ago.

Ya the word I was looking for was absopositivilutely. When I used spell checker it switched it. Or at least that is my story...

So do I. If it helps diffuse the situation I'm just sitting here drinking my coffee and actually chuckling about the stuff in this thread. There is just so much swiss cheese being posted that I can't resist making a sandwich.

I'm almost thinking of flipping sides though because in this thread and in the Aion merge thread the anti-merge side is just getting destroyed. In discussions like these where none of what we say matters in the least it is more fun to have a good battle than to continually beat one side down. This thread is pretty much a write off seeing as the anti-merge side hasn't made a good point in pages now. The Aion thread is a bit more exciting in a raving lunatic sort of way. It is still managing to draw out large colored font in some posts and you have to respect that kind of passion. Regardless of how blind it may be.

So you aren't saying the population has significantly changed within the last 3 weeks now? yes or no, you are all over the map.

The things is that I do have legs to stand on. Playing the victim now doesn't negate your last post and what you said in it. I'm sorry if it hurt your feelings that I pointed out how contradictory you are being. Maybe don't base your position on something that you can't even consistently present in a single post and stuff like that won't happen.

So the population has changed in 3 weeks? What if I told you I just logged in, what would that do to your newest approach that you obviously thought would be some sort of silver bullet? Would me logging in more recently than you subsequently render your position null? Maybe you can elaborate what was going through your mind when you thought that appealing to the authority of recent population would somehow discredit me.

Like getting my point through to most of you guys throughout this conversation it has little to do with intelligence, but rather repeatedly driving the point home.

If the option to start in Rogue Isles is available some people will inevitably pick it even with the box art showing a bronze statue of Emperor Cole. Almost all of "us" will be playing low level toons in Praetoria, or on lvl 20+ toons. Would you say that a new player that picks to start in one of the old starting zones will be getting the best experience possible?

If you can honestly say "yes" to that question then you may be exactly what you depicted as the type of person that makes cheese toast in a vertical toaster.

Maybe they pick the Rogue Isles and then realize it is empty and decide to try again in Nova. Or maybe they just keep trucking along thinking that they are in some extended multi-level tutorial. Or they just figure that soon enough other people will have to show up, it's an MMO after all. Maybe they say screw this wasteland.

I don't think PS wants to bank on "maybe" with this expansion. I can't think of many business models that leave it up to "maybe". But on the theme of maybe; maybe they should think about making it absolutely clear in no uncertain terms that Nova is where you should be starting if you are a new player when GR goes live. Maybe.

Now before anyone says "waaaah choices". If you recommended this game to a friend and they picked it up for GR launch and they were rolling up a new toon, upon which they turn and ask "Should I start in Nova or Mercy?" What would you say?

That may seem like another tinfoil dish in the microwave scenario, but I'm starting to wonder just what is going on in some of your minds.

So your position is that the population has changed significantly within the last 3 weeks. Thanks for opening your mouth and removing all doubt...

I do however agree that my view of healthy population is shared by the majority like you just said.

Double fail in one post. Not a record for you, but definitely one of your better efforts in looking the fool.

Honestly is this the best you guys have to represent you? Someone who makes the claim that the population has changed significantly enough in the last 3 weeks that I can't possibly know the state of it. If that were true take a guess in which direction said population has gone as more and more people enter into the beta? Ya you fail. Not to mention such a powerful command of the English language that he inadvertently states that my view is shared by the majority. I guess it can get more embarrassing for the anti-merge heretics than the "list" that gets quoted. Who'da thunk it?

Yes she is.

I chuckled when Posi talked about the forecasting he/they did. I was reminded of that scene in Family Guy:
Peter: "I'll handle this. I read a book about this sort of thing once"
Brian" "Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't nothing?"

And you are going to level it starting in Atlas/Galaxy?

So you would invite them just because they are a stalker?

The issue is that if we compare them to scrappers the scrapper can put out roughly the same st dps, less st burst, and lots more aoe burst/dps. Scrappers also tend to help keep heat off of teammates via their agro generation.

Stalkers doing more st burst probably doesn't offset their loss of aoe damage and they tend to shed agro onto teammates rather than attract it.

There usually isn't a compelling reason to pick a stalker over a scrapper unless your team is already strong enough that it can make do with someone deflecting agro onto the other people AND you have less use for aoe damage.

If I had my way I'd increase stalker base damage again. There isn't really a lot else that can easily be done for them. If they are going to excel at single target stuff them let them excel at it. It's not like their st burst is all that amazing either. At least not once you tie in the conditions. I'd move them up to 1.3 and then debates like this would cease to exist and the AT could sink or swim based on having obvious advantages and disadvantages relative to other AT's in the most important metric the game carries - enemy defeats (aka damage delivery)

I didn't realize we were engaged in a real time discussion of the population. I thought we were talking about the general state of the population over the last while.

Or are you taking the position that the population has undergone a significant change in the last few weeks? That would be interesting.

Seeing as how I'm right about that, you can be sure to collect your foot from your mouth at your earliest convenience.

I haven't logged in for a few weeks. It isn't possible to see less than that

edit: I speak in absolutes when absolutely certain. I can say with absolution that the sun will rise tomorrow, just as I can say that there will be very few existing players that purchase GR rolling new toons outside of Praetoria. That means any new player that decides to take that path will be very lonely.

ya same. Any and all new characters I create during the blitz will start in Praetoria.
Ya I only brought up the creation and faction selection because I doubt a brute will have a different starting experience than a scrapper in Praetoria. So in that sense already assigning them to a faction seems a bit off. I got the feeling that in Praetoria we just "are" and you shape your own path.

I'm not the type to stick my head in the sand and hope the world is ok when I emerge. I'm identifying what I see as a legitimate potential issue.

I do indeed have a lvl 6 blaster that I eventually plan to level, but lets be honest; when GR hits that toon will either be deleted and rerolled in Praetoria to enjoy the new experiences or will remain on the back burner until I have satisfied myself with the new content. I don't think it is wise to think many existing players would behave differently.

"Most new players will probably start there". You are probably right.
-Most
-Probably
Those aren't decisive words of power that inspire confidence.

I'm absolutely sure that the 1-20 experience is going to be extremely lonely regardless of server choice if you aren't doing it in Praetoria during the first few weeks or even months.

I guess that's ok. It will probably be fine and the game will probably give most new players a great first impression.

You plan on leveling many new toons from 1-20 in the rogue isle/paragon city when GR first hits?

The box they are picking up is called Going Rogue, not "Praetoria".

I see two possible ways a new character will choose their starting world.

You either select the world you want to start in: Rogue Isle, Paragon City, or Praetoria. And then it takes you to character creation where the available ones are open to pick from.
or
You build your new character and when you hit create after naming it is prompts you as to which world you'd like to start in. Based on whether you have selected a scrapper for instance or a brute it will prompt you to start in Paragon/Praetoria, or Rogue Isles/Praetoria.

I'm interested in whether they plan to keep the initial hero/villain selector. If you pick a brute and start it in Praetoria is it actually a villain, or is it just in limbo like the scrapper that has started in Praetoria too?

In all fairness if they had listened then almost all of i13 would have been scrapped and there would have been nothing to release considering AE was already delayed at that point.

Hopefully those new players all choose to start in praetoria.

PA gives you a leg up in the same sense that Fulcrum Shift gives you a leg up in dealing aoe damage.

I wouldn't presume that you could hand just anyone a fire/kin and have them cranking out ~400k/min. I would however conclude that it is a safe bet that most people could take a fire/kin and farm better with it than they could with a grav/ta.

I chose to do a master's run with insp off of a hero's hero for a specific reason. Primarily to show off the strength of the build. The AV's in the arc aren't there to highlight the ease of survivability (that was the x8 setting). They are there to show the offensive capability of the toon.
Chopping down Seige in 9 min against his 75% psy res and 50% res to my other damage (the toon deals largely psy). Diabolique and her constant phasing on top of 30% psy res. Mother mayhem and Mailaise each with 50% psy res. You need overwhelming offense to kill such things quickly.

I have little doubt that other people could do the same with the toon some likely better and some likely worse. I'm not making the claim of being an amazing player based on my ability to defeat AI. Though I am very comfortable with the build and I don't think there are many players that could pick it up and achieve similar feats in a short period of time. But given enough time I'm sure most could be just as proficient if they so desired.

But if your premise is that most anyone could just jump into the drivers seat and do as well I'll disagree. I have toons that are much easier to play than this one and I don't believe that is true of those ones either. If however your premise is that most anyone could jump into the build and achieve roughly the bare minimum of what the toon is capable of then I would agree. In the case of a perma PA toon the bare minimum is that you can survive indefinitely against a single target.

I think there are plenty of players out there that could achieve a no insp masters run of this arc. However, I don't think there are many toons.

I largely agree and it is why I run normal content at x8. Like any of the uber power combos/builds available in the game you need to go far beyond what a normal toon would view as difficult. PA isn't very good at holding more than a few baddies attention so x8 ensures I see plenty of action. I also picked hero's hero arc for the specific reason that many of the mobs deal non-s/l damage and many of the mobs mez. @x8 you will have to deal with that yourself at some point.

My new version of the build has 40% ranged def and perma IW, but gave up all aoe damage. So while it would make the difficulties presented much more surmountable I doubt the new build could actually clear the wolves map within the time limit. I have little doubt that you could take a toon of this power (same goes for bots/traps, dm/sheilds, crazy WP builds, etc) and roll your face on the keyboard and emerge victorious in many situations. It's why people with those builds do things like solo ITF's and such.

Anyway, 2 AV's is fairly easy unless they are very difficult AV's. Like taking out Statemsan+Honoree with no insp/temps/accolades was quite difficult and took a number of deaths before successfully pulling it off from start to finish. It required just about every trick I've learned about Illusion and Cold and movement. But on the other hand BaB's+Positron was quite easy and noname AV's in pairs like Citadel+Manticore present no real challenge at all.

3 AV's at once is difficult to nearly impossible depending on how hard they are. Like Chimera+Bobcat+Battle Maiden was fairly trivial for the most part, but BaB's+Positron+Statemsman or Honoree+The Dragon+ Hro Drohtz is extremely difficult. The Freedom Phalanx combo I haven't cracked yet without insp, but I did manage to crack the Rikti combo with no insp/temps/accos with my psy mastery build.

Actually the hardest thing about the Freedom Phalanx triple combo I'm working on right now is that you can't use them in a normal spawn. So you have to agro each on on to you and drag it to the next one and then agro that one on to you and so forth. So you have to withstand 3 very dangerous AV's long enough to gather them up and then have PA pull them off of you. Comparatively the Rikti Trio isn't really any less dangerous, but you engage them with PA so you don't need to worry about agro shifting to you until you have gotten the fight set up. Just that difference alone is huge.

I found a great AV to practice Phantasm casting and to clearly identify PA durations against was Synapse. He can run clear across a map in about 1 sec and attempt to one shot you with thunderstrike or electric flurry, so there is no confusion about when agro shifts on to you and hiding behind a box is of very limited use against him.

Most targets you just put an obstacle between you and cast PA in the line of their path over to you. PA will almost always grab agro before they reach you. Not with synapse though heh.

I was about to get up to get a drink, but instead drank upon the fountain of tears flowing down your face. It was refreshing and delicious. I hope you cry your eyes out again in the near future.