Jade_Dragon

I typically use ratings to identify the globals of players I tend to team with, so I recognize them if they create a new character or I team with a character I hadn't seen before. I don't know that I've ever used it to rate someone on a PUG. (Although if I did it would likely be to one star them)

My first and only Hero 50, an FF/Rad Defender:

Jade Dragon
Never farmed, soloed to about 35-40, teamed with an SG for most of the 40s
Created at release (April 28, 2004)
Hit 50 on Christmas 2008
777 hours (probably around 750 to get to 50)


My only other 50, a villain, Thugs/Dark Mastermind

Hitwoman Mandy
Never farmed, rarely teamed
Created 07/03/2006
Hit 50 08/03/2009, during a Double XP weekend
330 hours


JD is by far my character with the highest number of hours logged on him, but he has been levelled since the start, while levelling got markedly easier after CoV, particularly for Defenders and Controllers. It's also entirely possible many of those hours were spent flying around clearing "fog" off the map, or managing and shuffling around items in his personal base. He's not a crafter, though, so very little time has been spent on that. My second most played character, Blue Diamond, only had 383 hours at last count. Still, I wouldn't say that 700+ hours is that far off.

I am a serious altoholic, though, so I have dozens of characters in the 30s-40s.

I actually had not realized that it's been two years since JD hit 50. I even forgot it was on Christmas.

I find figuring out the costume file format and figuring out how to "tweak" it to be one of the best ways to accomplish the "impossible".

In fact, that was how I copied over character height back when height didn't seem to be being loaded from the file. (Not sure if that was a bug or not, but it's fixed now, so I don't care ) I would adjust the slider, save the file, then open it and see if the number matched the costume file I was trying to copy.

If you're having trouble loading a particular slider, there could be another bug.

I have to admit, my first thought was, "Ah, Megatron's decided to be a semi-truck too. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, eh?"

I find I like single target more than AoE for soloing, because it makes it easier to deal with foes quickly and whittle them down so I'm not overwhelmed. This is particularly important for Blasters and Dominators, and even some Controllers. AoE is nice, but to me it's the choice between fighting for 10 seconds and then having everything drop dead at once, and fighting for 10 seconds and having something drop every second.

Is AoE more useful for teaming? Yeah, since you can usually avoid the consequences of using those AoEs. And if you're bumping up against the limit of +4/x8, you can't get any more performance by going single target. But I regularly go higher level with my single target characters and larger spawns with my AoE characters, and it balances out in terms of levelling speed.

120 seconds. That's really enough time for about three fights, I have found, they'll usually follow me around and vanish on the third spawn. (Assuming I summon them in the middle of the first, which is always good)

It's interesting to not that although they're cannon fodder in the extreme (they can't even take a hit from a standard Boss, really) they have build in Taunt in their attacks. It can take a while for a Boss to wade through them. Of course, that means you have fewer to last the remainder of the 120 seconds, but I find Boss fights are where I use them most often.

Yep, it only Placates, you cannot Crit from a Smoke Flash. But that appears to be WAI.

Not really a huge price to pay for an AoE Placate that can stop a good portion of the foes fighting you to just stop. And you can always follow it up with a Placate on a foe that IS still fighting you and Crit.

Blinding Powder, Kuji-In Sha (the self heal) and that you don't have to wait until 35 to get your AoE Defense, are the big differences between SR and Ninjitsu. Caltrops and Smoke Flash are nice, but not really as good as those other differences.

SR gets Quickness and the scaling resistances in the passives.

Placate is only 1.5 seconds cast time. Only Ninja Blade, really, has a large selection of high damage attacks that are less than 1.5 seconds cast time. So you should be able to at least maintain your DPS, at least for single target damage, by picking your highest or one of the highest damage single target attacks to follow the Placate with. (For Electric, at least you can maintain the same DPA with Havoc Punch, although Thunder Strike would probably still be best for more than two targets)

Placate's primary advantage is that it prevents the target hit by it from attacking you. That means that if you Placate ONE target, and then select another target during the animation time and Crit on IT, you will double your damage and prevent the still standing target from dealing any damage to you until you either attack it again, or the Placate wears off.

Placate can also be useful for opening up an Assassin Strike. However, this is only really useful against Bosses or AVs, as a standard attack is usually enough to one shot anything else. An AS against something you are already fighting is typically overkill.

Certainly you don't ever want to follow Placate up with something fast and low damage, like Thunder Kick. Although, I often find myself using the combo anyway, just because I'm not thinking about it.

Another thing to remember is that while Build Up lasts for ten seconds (enough to get off about 3-6 attacks, depending on their animation times) Placate is true double damage. So even if you have a +400% damage bonus, you will be doing double that +400% damage bonus, for that one attack. Build Up typically averages only about +51% damage overall for a three slotted attack, less if you have other +dmg.

Also, it doesn't work on Temp Powers, although it can be used in combo with another attack after using a temp power. Or, before Sands of Mu to keep a second foe from hitting you while it's animating.

I use Thunderous Blast every time it is up. Not so much the PBAoE nukes, but the range on Thunderous Blast makes it quite powerful. Since my Electrics tend to be End light anyway, it never really takes me more than a couple of seconds to recover from the crash. Plus, if by chance I end up missing them all, there's no crash, so it's rare that I'll be stuck with a bunch of now angry foes and no End. (I think that's universal to all nukes that crash)

The whole point of the weaker nukes is that they ARE weaker. Yes, they're of more use solo, but they're of less use on a team, where you've got plenty of backup to buy you time while you recover. Every set is not the same, they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

That doesn't mean you have to take a set with a crashless nuke to solo. But making every set the same would just penalize those who would like to have the nukes with a crash when teaming.

Well, we're starting to see Dopplegangers in the game, and that's based on the custom "critter" technology. So I'm guessing the possibility exists to have custom groups in the future.

The MA technology isn't just old technology the devs have had around for years and they're giving it to us, though. Some of it is, yes, but more like the foundation of it. A lot was developed specifically for the MA.

Essentially what Rock_Crag said. Although there have been a lot of claims from players that devs have refused to make Patron Pools or EAT Power Sets customizable because "they are part of the game lore and thus must be fixed to that in-game source", I don't believe I've ever actually seen any post from a REDNAME stating that specifically. There have been posts that that is ONE reason. But not the only reason or even the most important reason.

The simple truth is, EATs are only a small majority of the player base, they used to be only a subset of those players who had reached 50, now they are only a subset of those players who have reached 20. Not everyone who gets to 20 tries an EAT, and not everyone who tries them stays with them. So it's a great deal of work for a proportionally smaller group of the players.

Where SoA are concerned, the biggest problem is that you can't have Weapon Customization AND Power Customization. Claws does not allow you to alter the color of the blasts you fire with Shockwave and Focus. War Mace does not allow you to alter the color of the flashes when your mace hits someone. Assault Rifle does not allow you to alter the color of the bullets that are fired, or the color of the flames from your Flamethrower.

This actually came up when Spines was not originally included with Weapon Customization, while you are able to alter the appearance and color of the spines that appear on you when you attack, you cannot change the color of the EFFECTS. They still still spray green goo, even if the spines are not yellow bananas, but silver spikes instead. (And I'm not sure the spines actually change when they LEAVE YOUR BODY, they may still be the bananas)

So in short, if you were to gain the ability to color your Fortunata blasts, you would have to give up the ability to color your claws. Yes, there is only one style of Widow claws, and I think that's a shame, really. But you can tint them, and if you could tint your blasts you would not be able to tint your claws. You can choose to customize one or the other, but not both.

Now, one thing that I haven't heard mention is that you can customize your Primary and Secondary separately. It should be possible to have the Widow Claws or Soldier Rifle be customizable, but the glow from Fortification or Mind Link have a customizable color as well. Also, I'm hoping that this restriction isn't permanent, in time I'd like to see both the ability to customize a weapon AND the animation that goes with it. Since Spines IS customizable now, when it WASN'T with Weapon Customization, this might suggest a way to reach a compromise.

The limited number of weapons customization options is a different issue. As I said, I think one set of Claws is too limited, and Widows should be given the complete selection from the Claws set, especially since Claws ATs get Widow Claws. Soldiers should get standard selections for machine guns and maces IN ADDITION to their unique options, so they can use those choices for their "civilian" costumes. At least, I don't think it's possible to make it so only the unique options are available for the first costume, and the others for the rest of the costumes, so I would rather have the more options even if that is out of concept for the first costume slot.

The Crab Backpack is yet another complication, as it is not a weapon or effect, but a costume piece which is added to your character. It would be nice if the backpack didn't appear if you didn't take any Crab powers on that build, but apparently the engine doesn't support it. Still, if you have Crab powers, the backpack is the emination point for the attacks, and saying that you don't want the backpack while being a Crab is a little like saying you don't want the mace while being a Bane.

More choices for the backpack wouldn't be bad, though. Perhaps a smaller option for civilian outfits, I think I heard that being talked during testing for the SoAs, although they could have been talking about using a different backpack for females. One without all the Arachnos ornamentation might be appropriate for a Crab "Gone Rogue", though. Or, even an organic option, like Lord Recluse's own arms.

One interesting thing is that since the backpack isn't a "weapon", it should be possible to customize its blasts, although Crab Soldiers still have to have Weapon Customization for the gun.

To me, as long as you still have the Endurance to keep it up, you can use AoE attacks against single targets if you want. Same thing using ranged attacks in melee.

Wow, how did I miss this? For a whole day?

Sorry to hear you're going, man. Hope you've still got great plans for Christmas, and you move on to something great in the next year.