Grey Pilgrim

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  1. I did the minute after I posted this. Mod 8/Ocho has not yet done it. I'll pester him again in a day or so if it doesn't happen, as this really would help. If he doesn't respond to that, we can bombard his inbox with PMs from us... that'll do the trick.

    If I don't post for awhile after the attempt, he may have banned me... or I'm just on vacation. Hehe.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by MadamePistacio View Post
    If I run this contest again, I will take that into consideration. My (grad) school was over, so I guess I assumed others were over hehe.

    I am thinking I may do another writing thingy for Going Rogue. Look for it
    I wouldn't worry about it, MP. You have to set a date sometime, and it's not ever going to be good for someone. I was joking.

    You gave us plenty of heads up, too. I just didn't have an idea for a long time, and when I finally did, I was really busy and had a hard time writing it. A Going Rogue contest definitely sounds like fun, though!

    And thanks for the mystery prizes! Good added benefit for the event!
  3. Good additions, Ham. Does hitting the up arrow basically paste in your previous message? If so, I didn't know about that, and that's even easier than using ctrl + c and ctrl + v.
  4. Grey Pilgrim

    Master of LGTF?

    When did they add a Master badge for this? I thought it was only in their for the Reichsman SF/TF, ITF, and States/Recluse TF/SF. I didn't see patch notes for this either, unless it was in last week's or something.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by The_Masque View Post
    There was a BLIND tank from Kings Row,
    under his kilt he went COMMANDO.
    Instead of a bed
    He would SLEEP on a WARHEAD.
    One night he went up in an INFERNO.
    *snerk*

    Let's hope he doesn't have Super Jump or Fly for a travel power, or he may be scarring half of Paragon for life! (and I think the commando portion is more dangerous than the warhead, hehe)

    You need to make this contest happen like a week later, MP. I was hard-pressed to work on mine much around finals and such. I still rather wonder if it's too sentimental or not, but it seems to work fairly well.
  6. A Hero’s Memory
    by Grey Pilgrim

    When his grandfather died, Jonas had not spoken to him for over a year. True, for part of that time his grandfather had been IMPRISONED in a coma, but not for the whole year—much of it, really. This wasted time had weighed on Jonas as he saw the unconscious form of his grandfather in the hospital bed—shrunken, the sheets on the bed covering and creating a shape almost inhuman, and certainly not grandfatherly.

    As if that wasn’t bad enough, Jonas hated the smell of the hospital as well. The hospital stink was anesthetized and scrubbed, somehow reeking of death and not life.

    But Jonas and his mind tried to avoid these things. He had spaced out in the car ride to the hospital, his mother and the rest of his family silent as well. He watched the passing houses and natural spaces with a keen eye, secretly admiring and wanting to be in the rampant new green growth. Then his mind had passed even further, imagination flashing heroics through his mind of superhumans and JUSTICE AVENGERS battling villains. PUNCHES and KNOCKOUT BLOWS were thrown, rubble hurled, bodies knocked back—the frenetic pace of COMBAT, JUMPING and running, ENERGY BLASTS thrown about.

    His mind sketched this all out, revising and tantalizing. None of this showed on his face in the car, and indeed the other parts of the hospital, for he turned to it as often as he could. But not in that hospital room, where his family stood watching that warm corpse—for wasn’t that what it was—and knowing what was coming.
    His mother and family seemed determined not to discuss it or anything, maintaining a STOIC façade, seeming INVULNERABLE to pain. Jonas had nowhere else to go, no one to speak to, so he had to ask himself: why hadn’t he spoken to his grandfather more?

    True, even before the cancer had set in, the Parkinson’s and its palsied hands and speech had presented a barrier. And before that, he had been too young and intimidated by his grandfather’s VENERABLE presence. Yes, that was why he had not spoken to his grandfather. They had been real barriers, right? Right? Jonas frowned and looked at his mother.

    His mother must have known grandfather. He could see it when he looked at her, for her face was at WAR, its WALL of stoicism collapsing to tears and struggling back to impassiveness. She had been the STEADFAST one dealing with all the difficulties his grandfather had presented over the years. Grandfather had said things he shouldn’t, chasing his other children away—no matter that it may have been the potent medicines or Parkinson’s talking, more than the man. Grandfather had also wasted needed savings by gambling—again, perhaps induced by the Parkinson’s or the medicine. Or perhaps it was a lashing out against being CONFINED to a deteriorating body, a hope for something to go right? However and whatever it was, his mother had dealt with it all. She must have known who grandfather was to do all that.

    Despite her example, Jonas had stayed away as much as he could, and now he did not know who his grandfather was, and he wondered. He had heard that his grandfather had been in combat, had been in the Pacific against the Japanese. What could it have been like? What had his grandfather been like then? His mother had never said, nor his grandfather. And Jonas had never asked.

    So he imagined how it must have been for his grandfather—and for himself. He mulled it over on the car ride home, and in the days waiting for the inevitable to come. His grandfather was one of the quiet ones, so he must have been VALOROUS, the LEADER and unbelievable fighter of his squad, like the quiet ones always were in the movies. They disappear in the night, SUREFOOTED, and return with the swords or heads of the ruffians, much to the awe and amazement of the young, new soldier or beautiful maiden—depending on what kind of movie Hollywood was aiming for it to be.

    Yes, here’s how it must have been. His grandfather crept through the benighted jungles of Guadalcanal, Thompson submachine gun held at the ready. His face was blackened, and he moved with the STEALTH of a tiger—no rustling vegetation to reveal his presence, oh no. He saw a sentry, and another, before they saw him. He eliminated both by THROWING two KNIVES perfectly into their throats.

    He came in behind the company as it prepared to attack his fellow Marines—probably that very night. They were so certain of success—if only they knew. He timed FLARES to detonate off to one side, and picked off two enemy soldiers with a quick BURST while the company was distracted. He moved stealthily to a new position and heard them shout, wondering where “they” were. He threw more knives—invisible in the dark—adding to the death toll and the panic.

    Three men ran into the TRIP MINES he had planted, shouting as the explosions engulfed them. He shot several more with a HEAVY BURST from his Thompson, while the bright light of the explosions drew the eyes of the company elsewhere. He heard the Japanese words for “GHOST!” shouted by a panicked solider. He smiled grimly, but remained quiet—as always.

    He continued to pick them off with ease, until they shouted for peace. TRIUMPHANT, he had them throw down their weapons and took them back to camp, the Marines cheering him on—for one man had left, yet he came back with fifteen prisoners. He marched them up to the SCARRED colonel who looked at him and asked, “How?” He shrugged.

    Jonas thought so, anyway. He was still working on that part, uncertain of what his grandfather should say. He hadn’t heard him speak enough to know. He kept working on the details until his grandfather died—and after. It was in his mind as he reluctantly helped with the funeral arrangements. His mother reminded him, “This will be good for us and him, you’ll see.” But Jonas wasn’t so sure.

    His mind dodged and escaped, teasing over the story strands of the one grandfather army in Guadalcanal he had created. But he stopped tinkering with it as he contemplated his grandfather’s urn—he was just ash and char now—and saw it interred in Fort Snelling National Cemetery. FREEZING RAIN was falling and impacting with too much force on the temporary pavilion over the proceedings. The reminders were everywhere, the small service before him, the long lines of neat white graves stretching beyond sight.

    From there his family ate—it seemed strange to eat, but Jonas was hungry—then moved on to the church and talked of other things while they waited for the service to start. There were a lot of people Jonas did not know, and he daydreamed sporadically as he waited, though not much—he was faintly bothered that some of these people knew his grandfather better than he did.

    His irritation lessened as the service started. People started to speak of who his grandfather was, what he had done. Jonas listened carefully, OBSERVANT as he had never been before. His grandfather had been with the medical corps in the Pacific. He was not a MEDIC, but he had driven a jeep, carrying the wounded back from the lines. And Jonas’s grandfather had received a commendation for risking his life, driving through heavy enemy fire to save the wounded.

    Afterwards, his grandfather had started a family, had provided for them by driving a taxi, studying to be an accountant between driving customers. He had made a good life for them. Jonas been to his house, had been cared for by him. There had been an orchard on a tiered hill in the back, with juicy fruit to collect each fall. His grandfather had a daughter who had loved for Jonas as a mother should.

    Jonas heard many things, some that he had known, some that he hadn’t. They mixed the good and the bad together and he saw his grandfather for who he was—a human. No UNSTOPPABLE demigod from myth or HERO fabrication of Hollywood.

    When the service was over, he stood near his mother. She looked over at him and smiled. The smile felt right, despite all the other things they were feeling. “That was good, wasn’t it?”

    He smiled back. “Better than good.”
  7. The AVs are supposed to be harder targets, and they are. The Four Horseman present different challenges than the other AVs, and Dra'gon isn't always the pushover you describe him (Fiery Aura can basically ignore him, but most of the other Tank sets aren't as resilient when it comes to Fire only attacks). Hro'Dhotz should feel weaker than the Honoree, as things are supposed to scale upward at that point. He still has a lot of resists, etc. They're not as easy as regular bosses, and they're unique. That's enough.

    And Honoree does hit US when his hitpoints get low... I think he has capped resists to ALL damage but either Psychic or Toxic. That isn't a pushover. If your team is missing out on some key debuffs, he can actually take a long time to take down.

    Another thing to think about is what you are asking for removes the possibility of goofy attempts like "all Scrapper" or "all Tanker" or "all swords" TFs. Encounters should be unique, not requiring a select few powersets on the team. What you are suggesting would take the game into a less than fun direction. You seem to like Reichsman, but he's a fairly bland AV as far as encounters go... he's just a big sack of hitpoints that can throw out an annoying stun from time to time.
  8. True, but the most likely people to ask questions in "Player Questions" are people new to the game, and probably not as comfortable with search features (and most certainly not aware of the Wiki). I know a lot of the same questions do get asked with regularity, but it is good to remember that they're often being asked to people that are still feeling their way around. Questions should be welcomed and answered as courteously as possible.

    And the OP might have been tricked by others before, heh. Still, I know how it goes. A little part of me cries whenever someone asks why they can't find people in game, as it has been answered so much. I just asked Mod 8 to get a sticky up in the Victory section on the subject, so hopefully more people will not have to ask the question that has been answered so often. Teams are out there, here's how to look!
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Shades_McSpikey View Post
    I stay away from eagles claw and cobra strike because with all set enchancments theres nothing I can't kill faster than it take to stun them. Typically those attacks are ineffective against EBs and AVs. Eagles Claw might seem awesome, and sure it looks good, but honestly for the animation time, its a pretty crappy attack. Thunder kick is nearly worthless.
    I run with Regen as my secondary, I have no problem with EBs and can take many AVs solo. I reccommend Storm Kick, Crippling axe kick, and crane kick as attacks, as well as dragon's tail. You don't really need anything more than that.
    Yeah, I noted that DPS numbers are better elsewhere. I'm goofy (for the Scrapper forum) in caring more about taking powers that I like and using them, rather than dialing everything to eleven and using a chain. At least I feel like I'm goofy, heh.

    Still, there are plenty of bosses in the +40 game that I liked taking out of the equation for awhile. Gunslingers resist smashing like crazy, and do a lot of ranged damage (with high accuracy, if I'm not mistaken... it seems like they hit more often than other mobs, at least). I noticed a big different fighting them when I kept stunning them or knocking them down. And they're not the only bosses like that.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ice_Ember View Post
    FSC is up more than twice as fast as Lightning Rod. I guess it makes sense for it to do half of the damage... but I dunno.
    The comparison was between defensive sets, not the offensive ones. Fiery Melee on its own had better outdo Shields in offense, or something is seriously wrong with the game, heh.

    Shields really does outdo Fiery Aura in offense, however. AAO doesn't discriminate between attack sets (as Fiery Embrace does for ten of its twenty seconds), and Shield Charge is extremely good mitigation. I only hope that Shield Charge does get its numbers corrected (and it will still be VERY good then), and Burn gets adjusted to be worthwhile again. I'll have to redo my Fire/Fire build to fit it in, but it will still be nice.
  11. Yes, one would never want an extra slot for another IO like +recharge, etc. Depending on the build and what you can do, it might be nice. Or not. Really depends.
  12. So... if you're sitting on all of this and aren't interested in IOs, why aren't you selling it? Were you meaning to get to this point to make a post about hoarding, or what?

    But it sounds like you understand your behavior is problematic... so do something about it. Use it or sell it. I sell as much as I can on the auction (unless there is a lot being sold already for next to nothing prices) to help other people out and keep up supply. It makes sense.

    I would agree that we don't need recipe storage, but I do have to wonder about you hoarding all this. It's your stuff to keep, of course, but if you have the mentality you do, it really doesn't make much sense.
  13. System and game changing updates are my biggies. So the Striga and Croatoa zones were great for this, as was SSK and Power Customization. Inventions and Issue 9 was also huge, though. The game was much more layered and interesting to me with the ability to customize our powers and abilities so much.
  14. You can certainly take on EBs just fine with MA, and if you build it right, you could take on AVs (though it sounds like you don't care about that... nor do I, heh). My MA Scrapper soloed through all the EBs in the game, though of course the ones with Tier 9s are more annoying.

    I personally love my MA/Regen. I grabbed Air Superiority, and that with the Stuns in MA are nice mitigation if I need it (no redraw to worry about, either). But it'd work fine with other powersets, too.

    For damage, a lot of high level mobs have resists to a lot of damage, including Smashing, so you will run into that. Current Praetorian robots are a little weak to Smashing, I think (or they don't resist it), so it's not all stacked against you. Anyway, I picked up procs while slotting my attacks well and that helps, so I would recommend doing it (though it's a good idea for most characters when you can do it as well).

    I personally enjoy Eagle's Claw a lot (it's hard for me to not like leaping into the air and kicking a guy's face in, hehe), but believe CAK now has better DPS. However, Cobra Strike + Eagle's Claw can nicely stun bosses with annoying auras and/or damage (or on their own for lts or minions). EC also has a 15% chance to crit, which is higher than most attacks, including CAK (if I'm looking at the numbers right). So there are pros and cons to both.
  15. Only limitation I've heard is that the EATs won't be able to start in Praetoria, since they have required story reasons for starting in their respective zones. No implication that they won't be able to sideswitch, though.
  16. Fixed. Not sure what happened there, since I just typed in the rest. Meh.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Satanic_Hamster View Post
    I'm a helper!
    That you are, Ham, that you are.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by psycheout View Post
    How about an SD/Fire tank? huh? and even then /fire's biggest AoE in damage ends up at about 1/2 Shield charges damage making it fall behind say an SD/Elec in damage.
    Yeah, Shield Charge is a bit out of whack. From a recent thread, it was revealed that Shield Charge's numbers are higher than they should be (but no word on what will happen with that... even if they were lowered, the power would still be very good). In the same thread, Castle said he would look at Fiery Aura again when he had time, which is great.

    Still, Fire/Fire is an AOE powerhouse. Shield/Fire is as well, but it does offer a very different playstyle and setup. I would say both are plenty viable for good damage for a Tank.

    Ice has pros and cons like all the other sets. It has heals and +HP that Shield can't match, with lower resists. Fire's fast heal and resists offer a different variety of pros and cons. The point still stands that any Tank set can tank.
  19. ...

    Way to keep up that community spirit, Ham. Sheesh.
  20. Greetings! This thread is a little welcome to playing on Victory. It will give you an idea of what the forum community is like, and how to find teams in game.

    The Forums:

    Feel free to post things and respond to threads in this forum. We're all a little grumpy and sarcastic, but we can still be fun despite that. We usually form up teams in game, but you'll often see people posting for task forces forming, PVP events, PERC events (the Player Event Resource Committee regularly runs events in game and on the forums). Join in as much as you feel comfortable.

    Finding Teams:

    Throughout every server in City of Heroes/City of Villains, teams are forming all the time and running story arcs, Task Forces/Strike Forces, etc. However, you need to know how to get in on all of this action. The first and best choice on every server is to join its channels. These channels are hosted by various player groups. Some are private, some are public. The best ones to join first off are the large ones for forming teams. The channels on Victory that you should use are:

    -Victory Badges (if you were here when we had Victory Badges 2009, that channel has been discontinued, only use Victory Badges now)
    -Victory Forum
    -Victory Limitless


    There are people that use all three of those channels, just one, or two of them. Each of them has its own personality, but feel free to ask questions and form teams in any of them. Just for a little background, Victory Badges was formed mainly to create teams for badges and TFs and focuses mainly on that. Victory Forum has much the same function, but also features a lot of our forumites, who can be a chatty bunch from time to time on game matters, among other topics. Victory Limitless was created with a mind to chatter about creating better builds, forming teams for tougher tasks, etc.

    As noted, however, each channel can and should be used for creating and finding teams. Feel free to join them and join teams.

    To join any channel, simply type "/chanjoin " and then the name of the server. Spelling is important, so get it right! Once you're on the channel, make sure that you enable that channel in your communications tabs (just right click on the tab to modify the channel's settings). If you don't do that, you won't be able to see people talking in those channels.

    Forming Teams:

    Just as important as finding teams is forming teams. Don't be shy! Use the channels mentioned before, use the game's search function, and broadcast when you are forming teams. People are out there wanting to team (oftentimes just not willing to form a team themselves), and you forming teams creates a better and more active community. So don't sit on your duff! It's quite easy to announce that you are forming teams, and copy and paste your message across channels or to various tells. As a frequent team leader, I can attest to the ease of doing this.

    In the end, Victory is only as great as the people playing here, and their willingness to form and join teams. So help out as much as you can!
  21. ...

    Yup, one of these again. We need to get a thread stickied at the top of our forum for this, as we have to answer it a lot, even if such threads are stickied in other parts of the forums.

    As Madame Pistachio said, join those channels to find teams, because they are running all the time. It's the same on any server, too, even the most populated ones: you need to use the server's channels. Keep in mind that there are quieter parts of the day everywhere, too.

    Better yet, start your own teams, and look for people via broadcast, search, and channels. There are a lot of people looking for teams, but fewer actually leading them.
  22. Oh. Well, nevermind. That's one decision I'll still disagree with him over, then. Trust Sarrate to remember, though.
  23. Ah, interesting... I figured there was something I was missing. Sadly, I have never opened the effects tab... and I use Mid's all the time. Kind of humorous, as I usually look for those things on City of Data.

    Even funnier, I had probably noticed these effects when I made the build and was fine with it, too. Anyway, thanks for the help everyone.
  24. Interesting angle to your story, DC.

    Still working on my story... it's a bit more difficult than I thought it would be. Hopefully I'll get it in, though. Hard writing a bunch around all my grading, too.
  25. No, that's been there before. I'm guessing since the start, as I remember them saying that for a long time now, and I do those arcs fairly frequently. Darn me and my need for Vanguard merits!