Fuzzlewhumper

Well, seems like the roll back maintenance is occurring right during our first two hours tonight. I don't think I'm going to attend, probably going to watch something on the tube. See yall thursdaynight

Very good and very complicated question.

Just a little list of the things I think this power does.

1. Creates a patch on the ground that slows foes within it - causes aggro to the user.
2. Summons an invisible pet at the center of the patch.

Pet:
1. Has a power "Summon Vines" and uses it every 10 or so seconds. This is an area of effect power and if it hits, summons a vine for each enemy it hits.
2. Has a slowing aura around it.
3. Follows the user around and acts like any pet would.

Vines:
1. These have hit points and last about 10-15 seconds.
2. Flings thorns at the foe they appeared nearest to.
3. May have similar characteristics to the vines in the respec trial in that they slow their enemies down.

Now, the procs may trigger off the aura of the pet and or the patch on the ground where you activated the power.

Anyone else know better?

Good thorn run last night. I thought it went very well. I've never been on a respec without people dying repeatedly - it's just that hard.

It seemed to me like it took about two hours or less.

Anyhow, looking forward to thursday's agenda.

When I solo, I always have PvE stealth (Super Speed + conceal or an IO if get lucky). Typically I try for kill boss missions and or steal missions. Stealth to the end and mop it up. All the while I'm making nin-nin-nin noises and talking smack to those that get the short end of the energy blasts.

I played like that before the changes and now I play like that but feel even more at home in this element.

So where you feel like a God, i feel more like a ninja. ;P

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I like the changes. I always needed stamina and take it on most of my characters. The endurance usage on the doms is high, but it's just still a matter of slotting and precaution with occasional blues.

I will say this though - all it takes is rounding a corner out of stealth into a boss to end my adventure in face planting. Or maybe an unexpected and untimely ambush to put me out. I'm quite squishy and it isn't all easy button. A lot of it is picking battles and executing them flawlessly. That's still called strategy and not over buffage. I'd be wary of saying you're like a god now...you're just begging for a nerf.

I'm happy with my build...

But I'm even happier to kill trees. Put me down.

Here's a stupid power set trick.

Power Push + Total Focus ... hit them while they're down and half way cross the room to boot.

They should transport the mobs to the AE for people there to fight random enemies that 'just show up'.

My ISP is having fits,repairman tomorrrow... I may be a no show thursday.

I saw it used last night.

To me, the only clue I had was "Unaffected" popping up above the enemies heads. They seemed to be able to move and attack and had no visible signs of their special status.

THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED!

For one thing this can be abused and used for griefing purposes.

Another poblem is players in first person view don't see the damage numbers and messages above enemies heads when they are up close and personal.

SOLUTION:

REMOVE the enemies from view and / or selection. Perhaps appear as though they are stealthed or with a glowing aura. They shouldn't be selected via target next enemy/target closest enemy/etc...

Gravity deserves some love, demand your love today!

It's in todays patch notes.

Only dev choice or guest author arcs still work with them.

Hami farms died today too.

Personally I always thought the in game cut scenes in the first Kalinda and Burke arcs were wonderful and would make a great addition to the MA.

Do it on the Oranbega map too, the big one. People will love you for it and send you chocolates.

I'm like ugly on an ape with this.

I was going to chime in with an observation about the differences between regular content players and AE players and how content can shape how a character is built.

But I kept shooting my own observations down when I took into consideration the Alternate Built feature the game has. You could make a one dimensional character for AE Farming and such, then switch over to your regular play character that has travel powers, defenses, contingincies and such.

The short of it is, the game is made so you can have two different play styles and still enjoy yourself.

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As for how AE keeps players from experiencing regular content ...

It does. But those are possibly players that simply don't want to play this game and experience that content. Forcing them to play content they either hate or have done so many times as to be boring - they have such a valid point.

Only issue I ever have with AE is risk vs reward issues that I'm sure will be fixed - and hopefully not upset players too much in the process.

One of those SF's always gave me fits and it seemed to me that none of the PUG's I was in could beat it. The one where you're in the big cave room and the AV is just this big eye in the wall that shoots PSI bolts at you, all the while there are these water spouts tossing people all around. Heck, that one was such a nightmare. I figure a team of skilled players can do it but PUG's just always seemed to fail.

I wonder what would happen if this approach were tried instead...

Newspaper missions earn 15% more experience.
Contact Missions earn 25% more experience (and possibly better chance of drops).
SF/TF earn 40% more and still better odds of drops.

Leaving AE missions alone aside from fixing exploits. Low Risk environment just earns what it earns now.

In this way there is no nerfage, just added incentive to play content produced by the professionals (that and they have access to more advanced design tools than we do in the AE).

Would fit more into line with their Risk vs Reward ideals.

P.S.- Developer Choice AE would earn more experience and would be assigned a Risk vs Reward appropriate experience multiplier by the developers.

I loaded up on 10-15ns from the base, mostly damage a one acccuracy on each attack. frankly, the faster we kill the faster we get to higher level content.

But I ran across a rare recipe that netted me 3mil so I went and outfitted him at 20 with a few of the more special io's - nothing extravagant, but just nifty for the most part.

It doesn't make a world of difference, but I do notice I'm able to crank out some serious damage.

I took stamina at 20 last night and my need for blues went away completely. I've not even slotted my stamina - just base did that for me. What a big difference. Makes me wanna get more powers to start taking advantage of my stockpile of blue.

Later!

Sounds fun. I'll be there.

I think I have to agree, shoulder mounted blasters on werewolves comes damn close to lasers on sharks Dr. Evil.

Heck, during the testing of a mission like that I might just modify my story a bit to explain that feature away as some twisted experiment by the Evil Doctor Messwithstuff.

Anyhow, OP, see ya tonight. Gunna bash some heads.

Crashes...

Since I15, i've crashed and can re-create the crash by exiting an AE mission (After it is over) and run up to spend my tickets. The menu will open up for it and my sound will loop and the game will lock forcing me to alt-tab out.

if I wait a minute or so before trying the vendor though, no crash. It's like the game can't catch up with all the lag and stuff and the information sent to my client isn't processed properly and crashes.

Reported it already. I suspect it's the same on the black market vendor. Maybe you're zoning in, super speeding over to the vendor and opening him up before things are set up zone-wise for your client.

I've not played mucch Mission Architect stuff.

One thing to note as DC pointed out in SG chat last night. The mission owner gets to read the text of the mission and the other people in the team don't get to see the story. That's something someone should bring to the developer attention for some kind of fix.

May just be me, but movement powers seem less needed anymore due to those jetpacks. That and most of the people in this group have vetran team-teleport anyhow. I guess I'll pay for skipping my travel power eventually though.

I figured this topic was in respect to going rogue.

As in...

What makes a dominator more preferable to a controller when you can pick?

I took a two year break from this game.
Came back.
People were like, AE lft?

I thought they were asking me "Are you looking for a team but didn't spell too well."

Anyhow, checked it out, tried it a bit, then got back to doing regular missions and arcs.

Used my 2500 or so tickets to buy a badge, and the rest went to buying content for the AE builder should I ever want to do that myself.

--- New issue today, all new stuff to be unhappy about now.

Most of my characters were dominators. And I get the impression I'm not going to like this change one darn bit.