Grey Pilgrim

Eh, like I said earlier, the costume change emotes all require animation and graphics work. The flying disc isn't really out of whack with that, and it's certainly not out of whack with the work that had to go into the New Year's Pack powers. I hate to keep going back to that, but it, costume emotes, and the costume packs are base line that are easy to compare to. They're also the points players seem to go with more easily. Things like this frisbee power, the vanity pets, and even that Party Pack that came out around Going Rogue are all getting hit on as being over-priced for what they are.

I really don't know what to make of it. Sure, the system is new and the devs are still kind of seeing what people will roll with, but it really is like they are throwing a dart at a dart board for some of these, rather than comparing to the stuff they already have in place.

MG, you're one of those "gotta have it now" people, which means you are going to pay more. I actually feel like I'm getting more out of this new system than I was before, and I'm not paying anymore. I'd love to have the money to maybe get a few more things or not have the frisbee be in the "probably not" territory, but I have to justify paying for a sub every month with my finances and what makes sense for me to pay for a gaming hobby (and supporting this game for about 5-6 years is a big investment). Anyway, the new system does make for an interesting look at economics and psychology!

Ran the new trial, Drowning in Blood, last night. It was okay, but I would have liked a little more depth to it than the DFB trial. It's building off the Shivan stuff in Galaxy Park, but it doesn't really go anywhere with it. I read all the text from the Commander, and I still wasn't able to get much out of it, or even why that Shivan at the end splits. It's good fun other than that, and another good source for a buff into your 30s. Also good for working on your Tank defeat badge.

If anyone runs it, you get one badge for completing, but if you want the badge for collecting four meteor shards, you MUST talk to the scientist right at the start (he's standing somewhat near the commander and uses the tech aura thing that is used for heal self and aid other). We couldn't find him anywhere after that.

Once you talk to him, anyone in your group can click on a meteor to get a fragment. Each phase of the trial has one, for four in total, and they are marked on your map (the last is not noticeable and way off to the side from the big Shivan).

Hopefully they'll have a fix for the "defeat both big shivans within 30 seconds of each other" bug soon. Masque and I petitioned last night, but I don't know if we'll get it.

Zwill came on at one point and was having a throwing disc party in Atlas on the Victory server. I felt bad talking about how it was over-priced then, since it was just a fun "whee, let's have fun!" event that he was doing, but it really does bug me that this was over-priced by so much. It's a GREAT idea, great animation, and the temp power pass on is a great execution on and already great idea. It's a shame that the price is ruining what is otherwise a good (great? did I say that enough? ) thing.

It's still goofy. I didn't even get my transfer on the 1st like I used to... not sure what that even means. Reward token is late in the month, but I forgot to keep track of the date I got it last month, so I'm not sure if it's about the same or not.

The continuing rewards issues are my biggest pet peeves.

Lesser on my list is the almost complete focus on new stuff! the devs have, rather than adding or tweaking old things that this game has. So many systems have been sitting around in need of some attention, and the same could go for alternate animations, etc. Heck, I found out that the Celestial set had a a bow and actual mace planned for it (rather than the weird axe/mace combo weapon), but somehow there wasn't time for those. The art for them looks amazing and they should have found time. I'd rather that than a pilgrim and firefighter hat, any day (or having those or similar items delayed more).

I'd love them to go back and add them, but pfft, like that's going to happen with the above pet peeve of mine in place.

Oh, last but not least, the habit of overpricing things in the market. I've fully adjusted to the 400 points for costume sets, 800 points for a powerset, but some of their "just for fun!" things are ridiculous. I love Ultimate Frisbee and got a kick out of them adding that power, but 250 points for a purely fluff power (even if it's animated amazingly well) is just silly. You can still see comments where people thought 100 points was too much when I suggested that (or 120, which I think is even with a costume change emote), and they went and doubled that. Seriously, they'd get people buying this stuff more if it made any sense at the price they put it at. And considering how many dog and other four-legged rigs we have in game, the pets and travel powers that use these are pushing it, too.

Just as an FYI, a poster in the open beta process for Dual Pistols broke down the animation for Executioner's Shot, and there's really not anything that can be sped up or trimmed out that doesn't drastically affect the look of the animation. And if you start taking out parts of the animation (a pistol spin, etc.) you WILL get into the territory of ticking off people that like that part of the animation. Like me, for instance.

And as the numbers earlier on this thread showed, Executioner's is not really that dramatically different in animation time from the other tier 3 heavy ST blasts. As with other things in the set, it's not the best, but on par... something that people always seem to ignore.

At most, I'd agree that Swap Ammo could use more viability. The debuffs of cryo and toxic aren't enough to be worth it to a Blaster player, though it seems/sounds like they are closer for a Defender/Corr. Not sure if adding a DoT to them is the best solution, or upping the debuff amounts, or even making particular adjustments for each AT (if that's even possible). No matter what, I just want each ammo type to have a viable time to use it. Fire and lethal are about it for Blasters, which is kind of a shame.

I guess I can see what people are saying, but I personally feel like our heroes are being made more important. It's been a trend with Apex and Tin Mage (and kind of the trials, though there, you're needing to work with so many people it's diluted a bit), but it really comes out strong here. You're the bulwark that is needed against something devastating. It's going to be a big showdown in mission 7, I would say.

I'm also wondering where the story goes from here. Given this story arc, I can see it being a prelude to the Shadow Shard going co-op and being revamped (I haven't really played any of the new DA content so I can learn the story when it goes live, so maybe I can say more after that). They've also brought up the idea of Paragon getting "more" chaotic after Statesman's passing. They may play with that and try to continue upping the importance of our heroes, which would be nice. So would a better use of the Shadow Shard, to be honest.

I bought a card for my nephew that had sound... I don't remember the card's setup, but it had a cow bungie-jumping, and it said "Cowabungie!" inside. The sound played was a loud "Moooo!" and the sound of the cow falling away. Apparently he opened the card a lot and said "Cowabungie!" a lot as well. We didn't have to hear any of the racket, though. It's good to be an uncle from afar.

Gratz, Chad! Have fun with the kids and then have fun giving 'em back to their parents, while you get to relax at home!

Staff Weapons pairs pretty nicely with SR. Been running it on test... Guarded Spin + CJ + your melee defense toggle will get you in the 30s to melee defense early on! Hehe. The auto power (forget the name) gets you up to the low 40s. The RNG can still hate you, but he's doing well so far.

If you have Fiery Aura questions, feel free to always check out my guide, too. It's Fire/Fire, but it discusses Fiery Aura quite a bit and you can easily adapt to other secondaries. I kind of have more of a budget build approach in there, but my main is quite solid with that and Cardiac. He does great on the Trials and really only hates the uber mez stuff in them now. I prefer running him with Barrier, but he has Clarion as well to help with those annoying trial bits.

Going to technically go more expensive with him and put that ATIO proc in Scorch, but you can pick it up for four hundred reward merits. All that resistance on top of Cardiac, your shields, and tough, should make that more than worth it... and that's a good bit more cheap than the PVP +3% resist enhancement.

Not sure when I'll ever be able to have the points for these. Been saving for the Valkyrie set and Staff Fighting when that goes live, and Cupid's Bow looks pretty good, too. That's probably all I can afford for the next couple months with my stipend, and I don't have the money that some *cough*crazymentalgiants*cough* seem to have for this stuff.

Think I got all the pieces in about five packs when I tested it on beta. Think I'd only want the robe option, anyway. Sorry about the spending spree, MG.

Welcome, Honey Badger! As someone who has had a few nicknames I did not entirely care for (though my favorite unintentional one is still "Big Fricking Swede"), I can feel for your plight.

Let me put out a request for new FX/animation for the Kheldian shapeshift. Arbiter Hawk wanted to shorten this back in I21, but it looked weird when it was shortened. It was apparently put on the list of things to work on the future and still needs doing.

Making this improvement would be a HUGE help in how well Kheldians perform, and Kheldian players all over would love it if you and Tunnel Rat or whoever could do this sooner rather than later. We've been wanting a faster form change for years, not just since I21! Seriously, I will make a thread dedicated to your awesomeness in the Kheldian forums if you can do this.

I dunno... my Beam Blaster seems to be evening out for end use now that he has two thunderstrike sets and a Posi slotted, though he does have 2 end mods in Stamina and a Performance Shifter +end as well. He's still in the late 20s, though.

Still, I would agree that it seems like a more end intensive blast set than others.

I'd be up for one more run with this round of Isos. Wouldn't mind doing at least one of the incarnate TFs to get more shards and a component... wouldn't think Dr. K or ITF would be too hard to fit in, even if we waited a bit to start and only teamed up those that wanted to do it/had time.