Grey Pilgrim

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Actually, I've found that you have to get the enemy to move; once the ally is in a given range of the enemy, it tends not to move, even if you change your own range to the ally. Getting the enemy to move is sometimes fairly easy, but it does make spamming immobilization a losing proposition.

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That seems equivalent to what I have seen. When I get the enemy and ally to move, the ally starts to attack. I guess we're getting a taste of the dev's position with this... Castle has been vocal about how wonky Lady Jane, the Bruiser, etc. can be. Not that that makes me feel much better.

Well, this is weird. I put my ally on single, and I had a bunch of issues with it. First off, his greeting text fired off when I entered the mission, but he was nowhere near the entrance (even though I have front selected for his location). I'm not sure, but I think he was not spawning in for a the first few times I reset the mission and tweaked things.

He seems to be showing up consistently now, but a ways from the entrance (probably because I also have a patrol set to front in this particular mission), so I have no idea why his greeting text is playing when he is so far away.

Anyway, he seems to do better with attacking when I put his offensive set on "Easy." Not sure if I quite like that, but he seemed to attack more than when he was on "Medium." Not sure if that's unique to the Dual Blades set or not.

itsMu, with this ally, he is usually in melee range (about the same distance from the mob as me). He just sits there. Other times he attacks. Other times it looks like he's continually activating Heightened Senses (it's power activation emote is the character looking around, or the "lookout" animation, I believe)... he'll sometimes even do it mid-attack.

Sometimes the trick seems to be moving a bit so the ally has to move with you and the target, and that pushes him into action. *sighs* I think I'm going to have to learn to be satisfied with at least a little action on my ally's part, due to the shortcomings of the AI. I wonder if adjusting sets for custom enemy's/ally's toggles to be auto would help with some of this behavior. I recall Castle saying the AI has difficulty with toggles.

Well, shoot. I hope they fiddle with the AI for them some, as it is rather annoying. I'm not even sure what sets him off for fighting, either. Sometimes he'll stand right next to me when I'm fighting something, other times he start slicing and dicing right away. The other ally I've seen in an MA mission has SS, and he did better, so I wonder if it's partially a problem with Dual Blades or something.

As for how he spawns in, single is the setting, eh? I'm remembering that was in there now, but I didn't seem to think it would do that (thought it would spawn a single enemy, but just spawning the ally makes sense).

Thanks for the help, all. If anyone else has some info about melee characters as allies and/or Dual Blades with them, toss it out. I really would like to make this ally work decently.

I'm having a few difficulties with a custom ally I have made that I could really use help with. He's a DB/WP Tanker (one of my own heroes) and... he doesn't really attack. I tried changing him from fight defensive to fight aggressive, and he attacked a little more on aggressive (but not much, and it was completely random).

I haven't noticed allies doing this much in other missions I have played. They'll do some odd things, but not attacking isn't one of them. Is there any way to figure this out? Do I need to tweak some settings? I had him as an EB with "hard" settings for offense and defense (tweaking him down to a boss, as the EB was way too strong) when he wasn't attacking much.

Also, does an ally HAVE to spawn in with a surrounding mob? I would like my ally to join somewhere at the start like Statesman/Imperious does at the start of the last ITF mission, but it seems like there HAS to be a surrounding mob. At least from the settings I can see. Let me know if this is inaccurate.

Any help you could give would be much appreciated, thanks!

I second that. Especially since I don't have the time or inclination to start up a lowbie tanker on whatever server the event happens to be on... that's a time investment I can't match, unfortunately (I think it will go the same for many... I've seen more than a few post and say they can't do TTs because they don't want to start a lowbie on Champion). I'll join in when I can, but really, Victory and Champion are the only servers I have much of a presence on heroside.

How long are we looking at for a start date? In two weeks (not sure where everyone is at with V)? That's what I figured, but I wanted to know so I could keep that SGmate apprised.

Okay, that other SGmate definitely wants in whenever we start (heh, he was ready to go for tomorrow and I had to remind him that the current run needs to wrap up first). He's has a Rad/Kin Corrupter ready to go, the name is Horn Head (think that's his global).

Well, Electricity's secondary effects probably aren't going to be too much help (seems like it only works well for blasters when paired with elec or energy for a secondary), since the end drain only can do so much just from the Primary. Probably won't be that bad either, though.

Might have another SGmate that wants to get in on this. I'll try to track down if he's up for it for sure and what he wants to play... either get him to post here or do it for him.

You are warning all these folks that they'll be playing with Voo, right?

The COV archetypes are pretty different... I know you like Peacebringers a lot, but there really isn't an equivalent to them, I think.

Masterminds are good fun if you like the idea of ordering around a lot of minions, heh. Stalkers do have to scrap a bit, but they aren't as sturdy as scrappers, that's for sure (and play differently by a fair margin). Guess it kind of depends on if you want something pretty different or similar to what you've played before!

Meh, it's aesthetics. I like DB, but can understand how the flair can be too much for some.

Still, I have a WP/DB tanker, and while it IS tight, you can get a solid build together grabbing Tough and all the attacks.

I have a Nin/Nin at 22 now, Bunny. It works pretty good, and Nin is a solid secondary. I think most of the primaries work, from what I've been reading in the Stalker forums.

Sure, Ninja Blade has to deal with lethal resists, but it's not the end of the world. /Nin works well for scrapping (as does SR), and you can slot damage or Achilles -resist procs to make up for the resists you run into. I have a Katana and MA scrapper, both with heavily resisted damage types, and you can do fine. My Katana scrapper made it most of the way through the 40s by fighting Rikti, and the procs made it easier, and it wouldn't have been that bad no matter what.

I think Voo just likes easy mode too much.

Oh, and I totally made my Thugs/Pain MM before Kong- he's just copying me.

Got my Thugs/Pain MM all lined up. "The Gunnerist" has been working on his day job badges for a few weeks now, so he's more than ready for this to start. Not sure if I'll be able to make the whole run or not, but I'll try.

Gang War for the win!

Yeah, what were we planning on doing? I thought you wanted to run some strike force, Viv, so I was out. I'm sick, too, and in no mood to play. Blech.

If you're doing some TF (or an SF that a 22 Stalker can join in on), I might be able to play tomorrow night, depending on how I'm feeling.

QR

Well, my two cents on this are that I hope pet powers are reviewed to see if they're doing as well as they should after this.

As a user of Gun Turret, I find it... surprising that it was even mentioned with this recharge stuff. It takes SO long to recharge and so long to set up, that I have a hard time justifying it as a part of my Arch/Dev Blaster's build. That's at least one pet power that needs some tweaking to be more viable.

The good thing about this is that it normalizes recharge for pets, so those powers can be adjusted accordingly in an effective manner (as well as their AI). That's a good thing... I just hope that it's done, and in a timely manner.

*added*

I'm with DJ on that one. Enforced Morale has a TON of things it helps with, and that recharge will help any teammates you have as well. A bit silly to want a change to that power because of this recharge change.

I'll vote for Lousy Day... liked the colors and ambience. Was subtle and fit with the theme nicely.

Yeah, I knew that. I don't mind them debuffing defense, either, I'm not one of those that thinks a tank should be invincible no matter what. I just don't like that it can be so extreme with them, either... seems like Shields needs more resist to the def debuffs (and all my defense and defense debuff powers are slotted up as much as they can, except for Grant Cover, which just has a def/end IO) or something. It seems like every other tank set has a way of handling them, be it resists, heal, regen, what have you. Blech.

Still, they're a fun challenge, and I'll try to be on my toes more and withdraw a bit to let the def debuffs wear off (I was having no trouble with mobs following me that I had been taunting and attacking). Interestingly, the Romans are more trouble than all the Nictus, which is the inverse for Fire/Fire (darn slows... still get hit/affected by them with some defense and resist to them).

I don't know that even getting to the def cap will be enough with the Romans, though. With Tulkyas, I have 41% def to Melee, 42% to ranged, and 46% to AOE already, and I dropped fairly quickly if I strayed away from any of the def buffs others on the team were giving (either from Phalanx, Grant Cover, etc.). Some on the tanker forums have said you need to keep an eye on your def and jump out of their range if you get hit too much, but the two times I died from defense failure, I didn't really have much time to react... it was a bit ridiculous how much I was even getting hit at 41% on my own, let alone when I was at 70-110% when around the rest of the team.

I know what you mean about the def buff sets... I'm working on a Touch of Death set, and it's a long wait for a recipe, not to mention expensive.

Gosh darnitall. Internet shut me out there for awhile, and you all were done when I came back. Masque told me how you managed to swing it, so I'm glad my internet woes didn't hold you back from finishing. Though I'm mad that I don't get the Roman costumes, merits, or badges, though.

I'm hoping Tough will round things out for Tulkyas and make him survivable on the ITF at least. I still wish he could get a heal of some sort, but it's clear he needs more resists to be able to tank against AVs and such. After playing up to 47 here, I think Shields is okay all around, but a heal or regen of some sort is really needed, I think. The +HP is great, but there's no way to get that health back quick when you lose it (and I still think Tough is going to be better than Aid Self).

This is reminding me of my I13 idea to give Shields a "Shield Wall" or some such that is similar to Hibernate (the Council's elite troops use a power like this). I dunno, something would be good. Grey Pilgrim has no issues at all with the ITF or other AVs, and he's not too much more IO'd out than Tulkyas- the heal and resists make that much of a difference.

I'll bring Tulkyas- we'll see how he does against all that defense debuff the Romans do. Definitely going to use Shield Charge before going in to the mob, so I can knock at least some of them down.

QR

I may be able to jump in on Friday, and while I wouldn't mind doing an ITF, I can understand people wanting to do something different. I'll come along for the ride if I can make it (I have a villain at 19 now, so I could do a lowbie SF if that was decided on as well).

Doh! I want to run the ITF with Tulkyas, my Isos guy, but I'm out of town from Friday night to Sunday afternoon. Hopefully next week!

The themes of the story sound interesting to me, but I'm more ambivalent about the characters, as well as not caring too much for how many of the themes are explored. I'm thinking there are other stories and movies that pursue such themes in a better way, but that's just my opinion, and an opinion that hasn't read the book, either.

Go and have fun if you go! I'm out tonight anyway because I'm going to a concert. Woo for hopefully good music. If not, I'll come home nursing my ears.

Ah, excellent timing! I know I won't be able to this week, so it makes me feel better that it's a SF that I couldn't play anyway (though I did make a Stalker last night so I at least have some villainside presence on Victory). Have fun all- don't die too much because I'm not there with a tank to cover your butts!

Oh, and thanks for the Numina on Friday. That was good fun and quite smooth, though I'm still wondering how to handle Nems and DE reliably on a big team as a Shield Tanker. No worries with any other enemies but them, so far (though I suppose untyped Carnie damage will be annoying as well).