Greyhawke

Is 35-39 right for that Nictus arc? I have tried from the moment I hit 35 (now 4 bars in or so) and shadowstar continues to tell me I am not of a high enough security level.

Of course I have only tried calling her rather than dropping by in person. If you are certain that it is 35-39 I will fly by.

Cool contest !

My entry is Boo on the Virtue Server

And just because I wanted to try, here's the animated version Boo Animated

My best guess for the sith build would be buried in this thread

Since others have already asked for your stuff let me just say

Good luck Vyv ! We will miss you, especially in the arena

Thanks Pos !

And thanks to you and all of Cryptic and NCSoft for bringing us such a great game. Yes we have complaints at times, but its all driven by the love we have for the game. Keep up the great work. And hurry up with Archery.

[ QUOTE ]
"what is the Blaster's role?"

Answer - Ranged damage. Now, the issue is more specifically - what does a Blaster do that a Scrapper can't already do?

[/ QUOTE ]Maybe the PMs did not ask the question correctly, or maybe you missed a key element of the question Statesman. (Or maybe I have a problem in how I perceive the question). I thought the question was/should have been 'What is a blaster's role in a group

When I ask 'what is a blasters role, or the role of any archetype for that matter, I really don't care what their perceived role in a solo environment might be. What I want to know is what is their role in a group. Why would a group make a distinction between a blaster and a scrapper.

Range is not the answer to that question. A group, unless it is all blasters, really doesn't care much about range beyond the initial attack, because everything comes rushing in anyway. Is that the blaster's role? To snipe and pull? The best snipe in the game is a defender secondary, so that's not likely.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a single blaster build that I feel is gimped or anything, but I do often have to hold back when I am in a group, simply because I can't handle all of the aggro. Something I rarely have to worry about with my scrappers.

[ QUOTE ]
Well, what happens to the game if everyoen is as self-sufficient as scrappers?

[/ QUOTE ]Everyone enjoys the game as much as scrappers do?

Seriously though, for a blaster, it doesn't seem to matter how good the tanker is. As an electric blaster, the weakest from a damage standpoint, using my weakest AoE (Ball Lightning, only 3 slotted for damage), I can pull mobs right off the tank with regularity. Its not too much to ask that I hold that AoE with my elec blaster, and what the heck he's 50 so how much do I really play him now? But for my fire blaster there's almost nothing I can do that won't turn me into the glass tank. So much so that I have almost quit playing him in a group, and consequntly aalmost quit playing him altogether. My Warshade in Nova form is somewhere in between these extremes, but I have to admit he feels a ton more effective solo. In groups I feel I have to constantly hold back.. Where's the fun (or the heroics) in that?

Blasters are fragile throughout their career. The MAIN reason 35+ feels so fragile is because blasters have zero status protection and 35+ is full of status effects. We spend 35 levels learning when to run, only to not be able to run when it hits the fan way more than half the time after 35.

The secondary reason that blasters feel so fragile after 35 is because grouping becomes an absolute necessity, and the groups are bigger. Why does this matter? Two wors. Aggro Management. Solo, or in small groups, aggro management isn't too difficult. But the larger number of mobs post 35 mean a blaster has two choices. Only do between 1/3 and 2/3 of normal damage (depending on powerset) by sticking to single target attacks, or take the risk of the aggro and hope the tank is REALLY amazing. It doesn't seem to matter how long you let the tank build aggro, one AoE and they all head for the blaster

So add some type of mez protection, and decrease aggro from secondary AoE targets. That's my suggestions.

[ QUOTE ]
If you are a [censored] and attempt to nova the main group or spam trip mines around hammy expect 400 petitions with your name on it.

[/ QUOTE ]
No argument here, but saying that CuppaJo has said trip mines are griefing paints the wrong picture and only adds fuel to the fire. Trip mining your own bud, or trip mining around your team, these are not griefing, but people are seeing a trip mine now and calling 'greifer' and broadcasting to the entire zone to petition the person, regardless of how they are being used. This just makes the true griefing get lost in a sea of petty arguments.

Or worse, people are taking vigilante action and training monsters on groups that cast imps or lay mines well away from other players. And these people are justifying their own actions by quoting CuppaJo (well misquoting).

[ QUOTE ]
Also if you see trip mines being placed or novering report them, as Cuppajo has just requested.

[/ QUOTE ]
I keep seeing this statement attributed to CuppaJo but nowhere do I actually see it.

What CuppaJo actually said (as far as I can find)

[ QUOTE ]
If a group of "Heroes" are using tactics to collect large numbers of Hamidon Enhancements and thus keeping others who should rightfully be receiving the enhancements from doing so - this is considered griefing.

[/ QUOTE ] (Emphasis was mine)

I don't see the words 'trip mine' here.

Sure spamming the entire crater with trip mines so that you grab everyone else's hami-Os I think we would all agree that's griefing. Dropping one at your feet to make sure you get your own bud when it spawns, however, that's not keeping others from what is rightfully theirs, and therefore is not griefing. Also, laying a dozen mines in a small circle in which your nearby controller pal is going to drop his imps is also not taking anyone else's, its making sure you keep the ones that your team is rightfully entitiled to.

If I'm wrong and CuppaJo called for a specific Jihad on trip mines, please point me there. Someone's interpretation of the above quoted statement to mean trip mines doesn't get me there.

Training a monster onto a controller waiting to cast imps, now thats griefing. You may not agree with the controller standing there, but he's not taking anything from anyone else. That's /my/ opinion, not something CuppaJo said, just so we are clear.

I think the Devs need to take a firmer stand here. Filing this under an ambiguous definition of griefing just doesn't clear it up for anyone. The encounter itself is breaking every loot rule we have been taught in this game so far, every one that many of us have left other games because of. Now we are told that Hami-Os will be a must have. That's fine, make the Hami encounter function like every other encounter in the game and I can be happy with it. As it is at this current moment it is nothing but a monumental force for causing much infighting across the board. This is what causes people to leave a game faster than any other problem. Honestly I'd just as soon they lock the zone til they can fix it to work like other encounters (with instanced missions, lowering the zone caps on number of players, and numerous other solutions I have seen in the forums and know that have been PM'd to the devs, some even by me).

Would love to Positron, how about a when?

Yeah I know /soon/

Not sure if this has been reported: Zoning is causing the default channel to once again revert to local (thought this one had been licked )

[ QUOTE ]
Some questions:
I've just created a channel. Is that character the operator of the channel, or is my global handle the operator? My GC handle is what shows in the list, implying I could then log in on a different server and still be the operator.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes this is correct. Your chat handle is the moderator, not your character

[ QUOTE ]
I invite my SG to a channel. Am I inviting the individual characters or their global handles?

[/ QUOTE ]
The global handle is invited.

My list of Servers and global chat functionality

The following servers are currently functioning with global chat
Guardian
Champion
Protector

These servers are not functioning with global chat
Liberty
Triumph
Infinity
Freedom
Victory
Pinnacle

These servers have not been tested as they are not functioning at all
Justice
Virtue

I HATE the 5 channel limit. Will this be changed or is this a permanent "feature"?

Wait, we were allowed to make suggestions?

Ok I would also like the ability to 'undock' each power tray as well as the ability to display the tray vertically rather than horizontally (so I can put it on the right side of the screen, instead of along the bottom). Actually I would like to see this last with the enhancement tray as well, and maybe even the tray with HP, xp and end

I use Ctrl+Number quite a bit, but only for a couple of specialized items that could easily move to the 3rd tray, or be used with a keybind and /goto_tray. Defintiely make the change. Thanks for asking for input.

SG Adventures would be cool. This would be a series of missions that would pop up on the SG Mission Board that any member could sign up for. These would be (basically) story arcs for SGs. Any SG member should be able to read the clues from the story arc as it progresses. Admittedly this would work much better once Flashback mode is in place. Also, might need a mode to allow SG leaders to assign members to the missions, or choose mission level ranges, or both. Whatever the method, some kind of SG related missions would be great.

Along that line, SG related goals. This could be tied to badges you can only get if your SG reaches this goal. Just please do not tie it to levels, at least directly.

SG bonuses (perhaps along the leadership line) for a team of 8 that are all in the same SG.

True alliance chat, definitely.

Also, I really want to see an SG costume slot as well as a color selection. Even if this slot is only available to the SG once the SG has completed a specific SG adventure.

I also like the idea of being able to SK more than one person if they are in the same SG. This should not be tied to SG rank, however, or we will just see everyone promoted and there will not be anyone of the lower ranks.

Ability to pull up Info on any SG character, even offline

There was an idea above about using rank degredation for fixing the problem of SG leaders leaving the game, and it was a good one. To restate, basically a member loses one rank for each 30 days that he/she has not logged in. If this causes a team to be without a top rank, then promote someone from the second rank automatically.

Also, along the same line, the ability to demote yourself. We do a rotating leadership in our SG and it is irritating to have to quit the SG and be reinvited when you were the top rank just because you can't be demoted.

Vaults would be good.

A 'trophy room' where you could view souveniers of each member would be cool

An 'email all in SG' button

The ability to edit the motd without having to retype the entire thing when you mispell one word at the beginning.

The ability to change SG colors and the motto even after creation, as well as the SG costume, if it is implemented (please!)

The ability to set an audio prompt (beep) for SG messages like we have for team and tells (this is needed for all channels)

I am sure there are more, but how much of this are you actually going to read Statesman?

Statesman,

Kudos on so many levels for these changes to current settings, and more importantly the long term philosophy. Now a quick suggestion.

Please look at a mechanism for giving all players on a team that have the same mission in their tray credit for mission complete. I REALLY hate having to walk through the same storyarc mission over and over for each person in the group. The Countess can't frame us all, and we can't all capture her at the same super secret location on 5 separate occasions. It would be nice if everyone got the individual mission complete bonuses as well, but I can think of plenty of ways to abuse that so maybe not.

Grouping should be fun, but not repetitive. Generic missions are less troubling to the immersion factor. And there is also the problem that if you group constantly, you WILL miss out on half your arcs unless you purposefully stay in debt.

Thanks for listening.

Definitely Bows

Increased Supergroup functionality

Bows

Skip the new 'mez breaker' inspiration and add the functionality to disciplines

Bows (heck before Issue 4 would b just fine)

Another costume slot at 50

Did I mention bows?

And some of the really funky dance moves like they have in WoW

[ QUOTE ]
When it comes down to it, no one person is going to be prepared to deal with every scenario at all times. That's a key aspect of balance in PVP.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a great point. I hope Lord Recluse is reading this thread, as the PvP discussion going on here is just as relevant as the talk of inspirations.

Each archetype has weaknesses, and this should not change. When you come across another player, a one on one PvP scenario, it might be that you totally dominate the battle, or they may totally dominate you. Its kind of a luck of the draw thing. You should not expect a completely even chance against every other player, otherwise lets just stand there and flip a coin.

Instead I think we need to look at PvP as it would work for a group of specialized individuals. A friend and I were talking about the mobs that throw web grenades (Malta as I recall) and how their range and ability to hold was amazing. Well it wasn't really, when you think about it. If we bothered to six slot web grenade, say 3 range and 3 hold, we could acheive the same result. Of course something else would suffer and we would not be as effective an individual.

However, mob groups aren't built to be individuals. They are built to be a group. This web grenading machine does what it is designed to do very well. And its damage dealing companion performs its job as well. Individually, neither would be a threat. Its the way they are put together that makes them dangerous. PvP should be thought of in the same manner. Yes as a controller you may be unable to beat a blaster, but add a defender and a tanker, and blasters without support never worry you.

I think the specialist approach to PvP will be the hardest thing to overcome. A well thought out group will be near impossible to beat. But an individual? They all have a weakness.

[ QUOTE ]
Better than buying them, it would be neato (but I'm not sure if too powerful) if, when you get a drop, if your tray is full the drop boosts an existing inspiration of the same type instead (if you have one). So over time, if you don't use them, you will slowly get the bigger respites, breaths, lucks etc. Maybe disable this for awakens if that is too powerful. Kinda analogous to letting us ++ enhancements.

[/ QUOTE ]
I really like this idea. Or if combining two to get the next level is not enough, make it a manual combine where it takes 3 of the same level to make a higher level.

I have to agree that we need more inspiration slots, especially in the later levels. Even if they are in somed type of storage that we cannot access directly from the inspiration tray. Something we have to go into a rest type animation to retrieve. Maybe we are digging it out of a backpack, utility belt, or cape pouch. And I really like the idea above that these inpsirations above are just that, you become inpsired to fight harder, faster, and longer. In this consideration this extra storage would be akin to soul searching or pondering a problem a bit longer.

Of course I would also like a third visible power tray for my macros.

If Bows aren't coming til after issue 3 does that mean issue 4 or sometime between the two? Any chance I can respec my powerset from Electric to Bows? Are the different powers for bows based on different trick arrows, or more on an archery skillset similar to the katana set? Can you tell I am still drooling over bows after six months of waiting?

Also, Any comments on plans for enhancements to supergroup functionality? Just adding the information that is on the friends list (location) and the team seek (levels) would let me clear up half my friends list and make the SG window one of my most used. Are we still looking at an SG Vault? Any other tidbits you want to share about SGs or HQs?

Since Recluse picked CuppaJo as a running mate, I will have to throw my support behind this ticket. Good luck to you both

I really would like official clarification on whether the Acc Debuff of smoke grenade stacks from the same caster. I know at one time they had decided it should not stack, but maybe that was before they 'fixed' it.

First, a word of caution. Tankers wanting blaster AoE fixed need to be /very/ careful what they wish for. Controllers wanted Smoke Grenade fixed and they got it along with their own Smoke power getting the same treatment. Fire tankers especially will take a major hit if AoE gets 'fixed' with the same tool that hit SG.

I have to say that overall I lack an understanding of the problem. My main is a blaster, but elec, so no major AoE. I do have a level 10 fire blaster but playing a character to level 10 is not indicative of the game for those power sets.

Anyway I can't quite see what the problem is.

Is it that other archetypes feel they are left with nothing to do when an AoE blaster is in the group? If so I can see wanting to tone down blaster AoE damage when in a group, but that doesn't mean it has to be toned down for solo. They could lower damage based on the size of the player group, rationalizing that you would tone down your abilities to keep from harming your allies. Perhaps reduce the damage done by an AoE attack by 10% for each member in the group other than the AoE blaster, with a cap at a max 50% reduction. /IF/ they did something like this then a corresponding reduction in aggro would be essentual.

Or is the complaint (still) that blasters can solo and are therefore not grouping? Are people so desparate for someone to group with that they want to force someone to group who doesn't want to or isn't able to because of circumstance? How helpful is this resentful person going to be to your group anyway? Now that you have forced this person to group by reducing their damage output do you really want them in the group with an AoE that isn't at all effective?

Also, I want to make one thing clear. Forcing players to group will not get you more players to group with. The player who will /only/ play solo will not group if forced. He will leave the game. The player who groups when he is able and solos when he is not will not group more if forced he will just forego playing when he cannot group or he will also leave the game.

The key to encouraging grouping is not in making soloing less attractive but in making grouping more attractive.