Hallucinogen_NA

With no Phantasm to guard him, the blast of fire hit Hal head on. He got to his feet, smoking even more than usual. Hal began using his radiation to heal himself of the worst of the damage; meanwhile, he backed away, summoning an army of phantoms to make it difficult to see which was him.

Hal's Phantasm grabbed hold of him and pulled him toward Burning Brawler, taking the blasts for him. It managed to send one blast of light at Burning before it took too much damage and evaporated. Jumping from behind it, Hal fired a blast of his own.

Hal's Phantasm swept him out of the way just in time, only marginally slowed by Burning's earlier fire blast. Hal flapped his now flaming hand frantically until it went out, panting. He and his Phantasm disappeared again; evidently he needed to devise a better strategy.

Hal had been waiting for this. Just as Burning let down his guard by attacking, Hal loosed a blast of light at him, hurtling towards him to follow up with a physical strike.

Hal gestured silently with his hand. As his Phantasm appeared, he disappeared.

Hal's Phantasm sent two thugs flying with a blast. Hal finished giving himself invulnerability, and just to amuse himself, ran after one of the thugs and sent him flying again with a well-placed kick. He was not very good at that; he rubbed his foot afterwards, regardless of the invulnerability.

Hallucinogen materialized out of nowhere, his Phantasm blasting the thugs alongside him. Meanwhile, Hal was concentrating on giving himself invulnerability. . .

Hallucinogen snapped his fingers. "Phantasm, come!" A being composed of pure light appeared beside him. Hallucinogen sent a pulse of radiation through the arena, causing everything it hit to be unable to register his presence. To anything with a mind, he was completely invisible.

Hal then sat down and began concentrating, using his radiation on himself. Soon he would be convinced he could fire beams of light just like his Phantasm. . . and due to his strange powers, it would become true. He had done this many times before, of course. He dare not try anything new this way anymore, not after what had happened last time.

((Hope I'm not too late. . .))

"Hello," Enrique said as he materialized behind Hallucinogen. "It is time to begin the first round. . . and you are up. There are limiters placed on lethal force. . . should be no problem for you, given that you are virtually incapable of using lethal force."

Hal spun around to glare at Enrique. "Who are you? Why are we even here? Tell me!"

But Enrique was already gone. Sighing, Hal walked towards the arena gate.

Okay, I have no experience with Unyielding and minimal experience with Invulnerability, so perhaps I don't know what I am talking about. But I can't resist butting in.

Stop assigning blame and asking for fixes that will never happen (i.e. the debuff being removed entirely with no alternate drawback). All that really needs to be done is to think of a solution the Devs will actually implement.

The problem here is that post-GDN, the defense debuff is such that it negates the effect of the Resistance buff with Unyielding, correct? Except on Smashing and Lethal damage, because of TI and RPD. . . so why not alter the debuff to only lower Smashing and Lethal defense? That way, Unyielding would best protect against everything except Smash/Lethal (and Psionics), as well as offering Mez protection. Sometimes you would want Unyielding; sometimes you would want Temporary Invulnerability. You might have to choose between them. (I believe this was always the intent. . . I seem to recall they were once not stackable.)

And having said that, I shall stop being a smartaleck and leave you to squabble in peace.

((I am hopelessly creative and cannot help but come up with at least SOME story for my characters. Besides, I too would like to be a writer, although it comes in second to composing music for me.))

Okay, I'll give this a shot. . .

((OOC: Hal and Schizo were created entirely as characters for City of Heroes, as were most of my characters. I was originally going to play a mind/FF controller based on myself, but then changed my mind and invented Hal, figuring that no one would play illusion/radiation as a power combination. . . HAHAHAHAHA.))

Hallucinogen awoke one day to discover that he existed. It was strange, because he was sure he hadn't before. He was confused for a while, but then he discovered his powers.

Apparently he was a mutant, or at least that was what the other heroes told him. He could release radiation that caused hallucinations, and he could control the hallucinations, allowing him to create illusions.

Hal quickly mastered this power, working on his training alone in secret. He was nervous of the other heroes, since he was not really sure who or what he was. They all had a story, and he had nothing. He summoned illusions, and talked to them in solitude.

Eventually, Hal discovered something strange. Whenever he believed something was true, it seemed to happen. Hal began using this strange ability to give himself more powers; he would make himself hallucinate so that he thought he had the powers he wanted.

This was a mistake. Towards the peak of his career, Hallucinogen began to go mad. He had dreams about thorns bursting from his body, and maniacal laughter. Finally, the madness took him when he confronted a Malta Gunslinger.

Instead of incapacitating the Gunslinger with illusions as usual, Hal impaled him with a huge thorn. Realizing what he had done, Hal managed to keep the Gunslinger alive long enough for him to get medical attention, but it was no use. The Gunslinger died in the hospital.

This was the last straw. Thinking that asking others for help would only put them in danger, Hallucinogen retreated into hiding and spent days working on the problem himself.

He first tried to use his power to remove the madness, making himself believe he was sane. It was no use, his powers had caused the problem in the first place, they could not remove it.

But Hal was desperate. So he instead displaced his power, believing it was somewhere else.
Two weeks and five days later, Hal was returning to his normal self. He was fighting Malta again, and came to the room where the leader of the operation should be.

He was lying on the ground, impaled by a giant thorn.

"I'm baaaaack. . ." said a voice behind him. Hal might have been able to hold his own against the being which subsequently attacked him, but he barely tried. He had lost all hope; his madness had returned, and his efforts had been worthless.

With Hal in the hospital, the being continued its assault. It called itself Schizophrenias, and claimed it was a physical manifestation of Hallucinogen's madness. Its power was ridiculous. Within a few minutes, it had managed to render every hero in Atlas Park helpless.

The Freedom Phalanx was nowhere to be found, as they were off on a mission against Arachnos, and no one was even sure they would be able to defeat Schizophrenias. One hero named Frost Drake, however, found out what was going on and decided it would be foolish not to try. Frost Drake hurried to Atlas Park.

He flew as silently as he could towards Schizo, who was
floating in the air above City Hall. As he drew near, Schizo laughed, and began to turn. "I see you. . ." he said.

For a second, Frost Drake was terrified like everyone else, but then he had said, "Shut the hell up," and frozen Schizo in a block of ice before he could react.

Schizo escaped within seconds, but it changed little. In the short time he was frozen, Atlas Park had broken free of his control and the PPD swarmed around him. Schizo was overwhelmed and taken into custody.

In the Zig, the guards were forced to perform untested techniques to drain Schizo's powers, reducing him to the level of a common thug. But Arachnos remembered his potential, and at their next jailbreak, dubbed him a Chosen One and recovered him. They began working with him to restore his lost powers. It was not long before the Rogue Isles feared the name of Schizophrenias. Soon he would find Hallucinogen, and finish what he started.

((Sheesh, that went on long. . . This would be when the Superhero 101 version of Hal begins, incidentally. So I better not say any more for fear of spoilers, haha.))

((Haha, I also like Super Roby))

What the heck, I'm game.

Master: Enrique--No one has any idea who this, um, being is or where he comes from. He appears as a young man wearing glasses, but he appears to know everything. In fact, Enrique merely knows everything about Hallucinogen and Schizophrenias, as they are his creations and he watches their every move. He has entered them and some of their allies in the Arena to amuse himself. He can read minds, and teleport to any place he has previously been, but has no other relevant powers.

1) Hallucinogen
Powers: Illusion Control, Radiation Emission, Primal Forces Mastery; also flight, super jump, and super speed. These are the same as the CoH powersets. Hal's powers come from hallucinations caused by his radiation which he controls freely. Most of his powers have no effect on anything without a mind, or incapable of hallucinating for whatever reason. His Phantasm and energy blasts, however, are real and affect anything.

2) Schizophrenias
Powers: Mind Control, Thorny Assault, Leviathan Mastery; also invisibility and flight.
Again, same as the powersets. Schizo is a physical manifestation of pure insanity, and cannot actually be killed as long as Hallucinogen is alive. He was created from the madness in Hallucinogen's mind. His favorite tactic is to shut down the opponent's mind, then attack while they are helpless. He generally favors cheap tactics.

3) Super Roby
Powers: Claws, Invulnerability, Body Mastery; also flight.
Super Roby is a cat who became a superhero. He is a complete idiot and never uses any sort of strategy. He has super strength, invulnerability, paws of steel, and many other, useless powers, like the ability to talk to stones. Some of his ridiculous powers may be worth watching for, though. . . his Fur Missiles are devastating, as is his Tail Lasso Of Stupidity. And his Fur Vision causes fur to grow all over the victim, which can be very distracting.

4) Moonscribe
Powers: Gravity Control, Storm Summoning, Fire Mastery; also flight.
Moonscribe possesses the powers of the Ancient Egyptian god Thoth. He is able to manipulate the laws of physics using mathematical formulae.

5) Saint Gabriel
Powers: Peacebringer powerset
Gabriel is a Peacebringer who is skilled in using his transformations strategically in combat. He is not really very interesting.

I have to say. I feel this is simply the wrong sort of badge to require for an accolade.

A badge you have to do a specific mission to get? Yes, yes, yes. First of all, any level 50 character ought to have done that mission anyway. If they failed it, then that's their penalty for failure (auto-fail bugs aside, don't bring bugs into game balance; it doesn't make sense.) If they didn't do it then they can find someone who has it. Most importantly, actually getting the badge will take a short time. And if you play the game thoroughly you probably already have it.

Exploration badges are fine too. History badges, sure. Even kill-100-of-this-enemy badges. I mean, some of those are a pain but it isn't so bad.

NOT take 100,000,000 damage badges. Or ANY boring and pointless badge like that. Make players experience MORE content to get accolades, not less. Such badges should certainly exist. They simply should NEVER be a requirement for ANYTHING else.

$0.02

((Diana was defeated by Reishi. Frigyd is also out of the fight.))

[ QUOTE ]
Dominators have to be downright great to be as good as the average MM.

[/ QUOTE ]

Then I must be spectacular since I contribute much more to a team then all the MM's I have teamed with who send their pets into three different mobs at once and then are surprised whn they die.

Well I see a lot has been said already, but. . .

No. They don't suck.

If you want to play the most efficient class possible, and that is all you care about, then you are a mor--I, I mean you shouldn't play a dominator.

However, a dominator offers an interesting, challenging playstyle that no other AT comes close to. Controllers are not better, they're completely different (and I do have a 50 controller in case you were wondering). A controller focuses on having an answer every single possible threat it might face. It's the "toolbox" AT. Dominator? They are extremely focused. Hold this, hold that, slash burn bang to build Domination.

So the fact is that Dominators do something no one else really does. Unfortunately they are VERY hard to balance. Buff damage? Yeah, you just buffed about 10 fast, cheap, efficient attacks that recharge fast enough to flow endlessly for any high level dominator. You may well have rendered blasters defunct. More Domination is dangerous too. Add a better attack? No. They have bad secondary attacks for a reason! A dominator with, say, Nova would be way out of line, and a lot of other stuff would be dangerous too. Better holds? Maybe, but then what happens to Domination? You going to increase the magnitude of Domination holds (yikes)? Or you going to make it so that Domination has little effect on the magnitude (meh)?

So, what do you do to dominators to make them better. . . in the specific circumstances where they need it? Heck if I know!
If someone had figured it out they would have done it! Give the Devs time, it's a tough problem. In the meantime, doms are perfectly playable. Being slightly inferior is not being "gimped". Quit exaggerating.

"Oh," said Diana, and dropped to the ground, unconscious.

Even as it was beginning to freeze, Diana swung her shield behind her to block Reishi's attack. Reishi was already slowing down a little from blood loss and lack of oxygen, and the kick connected only with the shield, which subsequently shattered.

Her concentration broken, Diana formed a makeshift shield from the now frozen water on the ground. She floated at top speed away from Reishi. There was no way she could win while Frigyd was still in action.

Diana stopped. She held the shield ready in case Reishi attacked.

She had only one idea for what to do now. She felt vaguely nauseous at the idea of actually doing it to anyone, particularily a nice, if dangerous, girl like Reishi. She really had no other ideas though.

Diana slowly began to pull all the water out of Reishi's body. She shuddered as water from the girl's blood began trickling onto the floor.
"Sorry," she muttered, thinking how painful it must be. It would only be a few minutes before Reishi's blood was entirely turned to dust.

Diana screamed involuntarily as the water ball came at her. She remembered just in time that her concentration was the only thing keeping it together. She relaxed her mind, and the ball dissolved into water just in time. Diana, however was now soaking wet. She dried herself by forming a shield out of the water on her clothes.

This gave her an idea. She ran towards Reishi, swinging the water shield back and forth with her mind.

The arena was growing cold now, however. Diana realized what was going on. She could stop the water from freezing if she concentrated, but Reishi looked only too happy to break her concentration. . .

Having no better options now, Diana ran in an attempt to dodge the girders, hoping she would be fast enough. She was, but just barely.

Seeing Reishi already preparing her next move, Diana decided she had to attack. She would lose if she kept focusing on defense. She created a sphere of water in front of her, and then hurled it as hard as she could at Reishi. As usual, she tightened the surface tension to such an extent that it would hit more like a ball of concrete than water.

Diana was not at all pleased to see five girders plus Reishi coming after her at top speed. No way could she block all that. A change of tactics seemed in order.

Fortunately she was prepared. She was already standing in a pool of water and there was another where the ice around Reishi's head had melted. Diana closed her eyes and simply melted into the water. She reappeared in the second pool, trying to catch her breath.

Seeing the objects come hurtling towards her, Diana quickly conjured a wall of water much like the bubble she had used. She winced as the heavy objects hit. The third, though deflected, broke her concentration and she fell to the ground, gasping.

She had to recover. Diana pulled water from the air into her body and saturated her bloodstream with it. Instantly she felt better, having filled her blood with fresh oxygen.