Kevin_Schultz

Note that I've got a WP/DM toon, fairly IO'd up. So with that in mind...

1. The wedding ring from the Strygia Isle story arc (which grants...40% resistances to everything, I think) is a fantastic supplement to the build. So much so, that, if used sparingly, can replace the Tier 9 as an "oh, crap!" button.

2. As is implied, the self-rez (Resugance) and the tier-9 (Strength of Will) are the two most skippable parts of the build, unless you need them for concept purposes. They're OK to have if for some reason a Sapper gets through all your layers, but other than that they're meh.

2. Yes, Tough and Weave are very nice to have, and go extremely well with the build.

3. As stated before: typed +def is probably the way to go, as opposed to positional; it stacks well with the powers in the set. I used Kinetic Combats (4-slotted for the S/L defense), and then a triple (Acc/Damage/Endurance, I think) from Touch of Death to shore up the limitations of that set. This will work fine for a levling or first-run at a softcapped IO build. Once I slotted a Gladiator's Proc, that freed up other slots, so that I could put a 6th slot in all of my ST attacks, which I then filled with procs. Currently I'm running something like 50% S/L - I'm saving up to put purples in some of my attacks.

4. I used Maneuvers and Tactics (Gaussian) to get those last few typed defensive points. You're a WP tanker - you've got the endurance to run it. But also, I tend to team a lot, so it helps there as well.

So, over DoubleXP weekend, I managed to PL myself up a Fire/Fire tanker to lvl 50. Whee! ~18 hours of play over the coruse of 2 days, the last six of which was in a Fire ambush farm. The rest of the time was actually spent playing the game normally, until I realized how freakin' easy it was to solo once I got the AoE's slotted.)

ANYWAY - now I'm kitting her out with IO's, and I'm wondering what the best mix is. One build has all positional defenses equal, at just over 32%; the other has melee up to 37%, with ranged down to 30%. (Basically the difference between slotting Touch of Death or Mako's bite.) Includig a gladiator's proc in there adds another 3%, of course.

So, my quesiton is: which one is better? I know that the closer you get to the defense cap, the better it gets in a sort-of doubling fashion. (ie, the last 5% is worth as much as the first 40%). However, 32% seems to be the magic number for dealing with Luck insps - pop one,and you're capped. Anything between 32% (for normal play) and 45% (with a luck) is essentially wasted - but only if we assume I have a luck to pop when things get dicey.

So it seems that the two builds are probably going to represent a 7% difference between Melee and Ranged; is that a big enough difference to justify concern? My experience in farming tells me that a lot of damage come in ranged form, but that's really just a freakin' farm mission. Should I be optimizing more on melee, or does the balanced approach work more in realistic teaming scenarios, if we assume the occasional Luck pop for emergencies?

In testing out the SO build I leveled up with in the farm, I can solo +2/x8 in regular missions, although dealing with bosses is a little dicey; basically, the insps drop faster than the damage and endurance does, but it's a bit of a roller coaster. Without bosses, it's a lot easier. I'd be hesitant to team with anyone, though - simply because I rely on insp drops to fill in, well, everything.

Another benefit you may need to think about is the benefit of the wedding ring (ie, the "temp" power from the Strygia Isle story arc) as an alternative to a tier-9 crash. Assuming you use it in only 30 second bursts or so (or else to tank AV's in a pinch), it works just fine for months, if not years, on end. I've used this as a functional replacement on my DM/WP scrapper and WP/DM tanker for all of I-19, and it works WAAAYYY better than the power it replaces.

This is one of the reasons why I like WP - because it has good s/l resists for everyday use, but its other mitigation strategies are NOT resistance-based, you can use the wedding ring to full effect for those difficult situations. and because you've got endurance to burn, the additional toggle isn't an issue. (that being said: for a high-end tanker build, it's not all that great a match with DM - the ability to softcap defense doesn't stack all that well with -ToHit from DM. If I had to do it again, I'd probably go with kinetic melee, for its kb/stun/-dmg mitigation instead. But that's tanker-talk, right there.)

Oh, also: Ninja Run - it's the power that easily can replace a travel power, unless you seriously need one of them for thematic reasons.

I ended up raising this question to myself in a previous thread, so I thought I'd pull it out and ask it separately: has anyone done this, and if so how has it worked as a supplementary damage mitigator?

I ask because I'm currently rebuilding my WP/DM tank, and looking for a bit more mitigation: his defense is capped, there's not a whole lot more I can do with +Regen, and his resists are as high as they reasonably can go. However, RttC can be slotted with -end and -rec procs. My thought was "hey, cool" - but then I realized that their actual effects aren't all that great. But hey, maybe I'm missing something in there.

So, I've finally ponied up for a Gladiator's Armor +3% proc, which has enabled me to reslot my softcapped WP/DM tanker for a bit more damage. I've managed to slip in an Armageddon and a Hetacomb, as well as some additional damage procs and a few LotG recharges, as well as putting some damage into my Soul Drain.


Design Decisions:

1. Keeping the Defense softcap - it's not quite as good as I originally thought (mainly 'cuz I can't use Lucks anymore for anything but debuffing resistance), but it's still quite nice. Currently I'm a bit over on E/NE, but I can't quite get everything to line up on that exactally. If anyone could, I'd apprectiate it.

2. Trying to add in damage - that was the main goal here. Hence the two purple sets; note that I put the Hetacomb proc on my tier 1 attack, as I don't really need the +5% toxic resistance that it would grant over with the rest of the set. Soul Drain has OK damage, but it's slotted mainly with Taunt for the S/L defense. That's kind of a kludge IMO, but I couldn't qiute get it to fit otherwise. I currently run with it 6-slotted with Taunt, so at this point it's an improvement.

3. High on +heath and +recharge, but not capped: the build assumes a Spiritual Alpha slot.

4. Concerned about end issues, actually.

EDIT - additional thought: I'm trying to get additional damage mitigation in here by adding procs to RttC, but the two available (-Recharge, -end recovery) don't look to be particularly effective as far as procs go. Anyone have any experience with either of them?

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.91
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Lion Argent V: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Willpower
Secondary Power Set: Dark Melee
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: High Pain Tolerance -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam(15), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(21), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(23), Heal-I(27), GA-3defTpProc(33)
Level 1: Shadow Punch -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Hectmb-Dam%(19)
Level 2: Mind Over Body -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(21), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40), RctvArm-ResDam(40), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(46)
Level 4: Fast Healing -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(23)
Level 6: Shadow Maul -- Armgdn-Dmg(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(7), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(9), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(15), Armgdn-Dam%(17)
Level 8: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(9), LkGmblr-Def(17)
Level 10: Rise to the Challenge -- H'zdH-Heal(A), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx(11), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(11)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13), RechRdx-I(13)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(33), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(37)
Level 16: Taunt -- Zinger-Dam%(A)
Level 18: Quick Recovery -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(19)
Level 20: Heightened Senses -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(25), LkGmblr-Def(25), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 22: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 24: Siphon Life -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(33), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(45), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Heal-I(46)
Level 26: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam(27), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(31), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(48)
Level 28: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def(29), LkGmblr-Rchg+(29), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 30: Touch of Fear -- SipInsght-ToHitDeb(A), SipInsght-Acc/ToHitDeb(31), SipInsght-Acc/Rchg(31), SipInsght-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(34), SipInsght-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(37), SipInsght-%ToHit(50)
Level 32: Soul Drain -- Mocking-Rchg(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(37), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(48), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(48), Dmg-I(50), Dmg-I(50)
Level 35: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(36), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(36), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 38: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(A), GSFC-Build%(39), GSFC-ToHit(39), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(39), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(40), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(43)
Level 41: Midnight Grasp -- Hectmb-Dmg(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(42), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(42), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Cloud-%Dam(43)
Level 44: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 47: Physical Perfection -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 49: Strength of Will -- ResDam-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 6: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(45)
------------

Back in the day, I'd cycle Unstoppable with Conserve Energy (from the APP) to keep the endurance of my Invun/Stone tanker at a reasonable level - that's right: I'd use it for it's +end, rather than +Res. (And tha twas with two endurance IO's slotted. yeah, stone was a mite sucky on the endurance side.) But now with stuff like the +end procs, and inherent stamina, and Physical Perfection, that's probably not nearly so much an issue anymore.

With that in mind, I'd actually agree with the poster who recommended that you take it and not use any additional slots; the wedding band works better as an "oh, crap!" toggle, but it's sometimes good to have Unstoppable as a backup (if only for the +end issues.)

but if you specifically have something better to take? Yeah, take that instead.

EDIT - oh, yeah. I'd use it against Malta (Sappers) for that reason, although the soft-cap would probably protect you fairly well vs. that.

Thanks for the responses, folks! Sounds like my general intuition was correct - if I can get at least one other in the cone without jostling around much, it's a win. Three or more? Gravy. There are still some quick breaks in my attack chain (which I'm hoping to address once I can slot more LotG IO's), but for now it looks like those are more of an issue than my jumping around.

re: the the animation and rooting - eh, I've been using Sands of Mu as a low-level filler attack on pretty much every single toon since it came out, so the rooting issue doesn't bother me much. And while I personally think the animation looks like spooky TaeBo, I've learned to ignore it.

So, I just plunked down my own 2 billion influence to stand in line to get the next Gladiator's Armor +3% defense IO for my WP/DM tank, after realizing that the last 3% to the softcap was costing me something like 6 slots that could otherwise be doing useful stuff, like damage and healing.

As an aside: yeah, I'm something like #186 in line. It may be faster for me simply to get Hero Merits for it - which I'm starting on now, as well. I'm also looking into getting int PvP to try and earn one the 'normal' way, but that's a topic for another thread.

Anyway, I've been looking into optimizing my build with OTHER expensive IO's - after all: I've already spent THAT much. What's a copule of purples in comparison? And with that, I've been looking at the so-called "buzzsaw builds": fast, quick ST damage with procs. Currently, my build doesn't have any procs - it's a bit tight.

However, in looking at this, I realized that I've been using Shadow Maul and Sands of Mu as part of my attack chain the entire time - mainly because I've almost always been herding large groups into corners, where I COULD get 3-5 targets per application of the power. However, I also noticed that I spent a good amount of time adjusting myself to try to get the right position, and sometimes I'd simply mess it up and only get one anyway. But my build doesn't have Shadow Punch, and in reading up on it I thought that maybe I'd been missing out.

So, my question is this: on average, how many times do I have to hit multiple targets with Shadow Maul before it becomes a more effective part of an attack chain than the traditional DM chain? My thought is that the "normal" buzzsaw chain has the advantage that you don't need to hop around and try to get it lined up: just click/click/click/click. Shadow Maul can potentially hit multiple opponents, but you need to be moderately clever with it, and even if you are you can still waste a second or two repositioning, which certianly brings the DPS down if you aren't doing it during a lul between attacks.

My intuition tells me the answer is probably "if you can hit two targets consistently without having to waste time repositioning, you're above water, but wasting time repositioning is a HUGE hit on your DPS". I've found that I can do the setup fine if I'm on my own or in small groups, but in large-group situations it seems I rarely if ever get the chance to herd in such a fashion - it just "jump over the mob, taunt, and start throwing Gauntlets" - and Shadow Maul rarely lines up well in that scenario. So it seems like an odd circumstance, but the AoE doesn't seem to help all that much in large team situations. And because TF teams seem to be the wave of the future (or else soloing Merit missions), it seems that maybe I should be optimizing on my ST buzzsaw damage instead.

The way I usually do this with my soft-capped WP/DM tanker is the judicious (read: turn it on immediately) use of the Wedding Ring temp power. It's one of my emergency buttons, and I think I've used a total of 15 minutes of it so far.

Once his resistance to debufs is down, I can keep the to-hit/defense floored in my favor. It's a bit of a bumpy ride until that point, though - and yeah, until that point, I need either a dedicated healer of some sort (I've actually BEEN that healer, with First Aid on my team-oriented blaster), or else a careful use of insps, as discussed here.

for the -end power, yeah - I noticed that last time I tanked LR - I ended up actually having to use Conserve Energy for the first time ever with that build (originally I took it simply as a requirement to get Physical Perfection). I also had to use Strength of Will for the +end ability. But with those powers, I was able to manage the end drain.... I think I may have popped a blue once, as well.

Went back and looked at the power - the base duration is actually 1.5 seconds, rather than two. So, with a 6-slotted CP, you'll be looking at a 3 second duration. As it pulses every 5 seconds, that part of it simply isn't worth it.

It appears that I was confusing the proc with the actual ability of the power - which, as discussed above, simply means that yes the proc is better than the power, to the point where you really can't tell that the power is working.

So, I've been playing around with my blaster and WoC + CP - and to get the most out of it, I found I actually needed to change my style slightly. It works well if you have some sort of hard point - Tank/Brute/Scrapper - that takes agro that you can follow in on. Then, you can sit right behind them, and use WoC as a mitigator for the melee aggro that THEY have.

Solo? Well, it seems to work fairly well. I've got 35% Ranged defense (or will, once I slot the final purple), so I really don't get hit much at range. I've taken to just leaping into melee and blasting around, just to see if I can get CP to proc. It does, actually, enough to keep me alive on a regular basis. Of course, I've only been testing it on 0/x1; I should probably open up an AE farming map (+1/x6 no bosses, for my blaster), and find out if it helps in there as well.

And yeah - it tends to go down a LOT - makes me realize just how annoying toggle-dropping was, just a few issues ago.

The issue with WoC isn't that its base confuse duration is only 2.5 seconds (which is what the Alpha slot would affect, if you went that route) - it's that it has too small a radius (8 feet) with too long a recharge between pulses (5 seconds) to consistently provide much in the way of melee mitigation. If a mob is charging at your toon, unless the timing is just right, they're probably going to get at least 1 melee shot off before they're affected. And if there's a lot of them, then it doesn't matter if they're affected after they hit - the first strike is going to take you out, anyway.

However, this can be partially dealt with by slotting the Coersive Persuasion purple proc. This gives you a 25%(?) chance of hitting EVERY mob within 20 feet with a 10 second Confuse duration. So, this means that it affects targets ouside the 8 ft. PbAoE zone, which in turn increases the melee damage mitigation. And, because the code checks for the proc on every target available, it's a lot more likely to happen when you really need it to happen (ie, when you get rushed by a bunch of targets.)

It also means that the confuse will last for at least one of the mob's attack cycles, which in turn means that they probably will attack each other at least once (with a 10 second duration), rather than just stand there and glare at each other before turning back to strike at you.

So - with that in mind, WoC also acts as a really good mule for damage procs or Coercive Persuasion IO's. There are 6 or so procs you could use, so arguably you could slot a whole bunch of procs if you cared to. But If you don't mind dropping 300 million on a set of 6 purples, you can get some nice bonuses. (the final, for example, is a 5% ranged defense bonus.)

Cool. Thanks!

I'm also one that didn't really have any problem with Trapdoor - my melee toons just walked up an walloped him (WP/DM tanker and DM/WP scrapper), while my squishies (Psi/MM blaster, FF/Nrg defender, Earth/Rad controller, Kin/sonic defender) pulled him out.

I'll give not pulling a try, to see what I have to do to win those fights. I did get all these toons through the 2 EB mission, although on most of 'em I was under the effects of 4 lucks + a Break Free the entire fight.

So, based on the discussion in this thread, I decided to head on out to Test to see what the hubub was about. I used a lvl 50 WP/DM tank, IO'd out to soft-cap defense (except for Psi), with a rank II Spiritual Alpha slot. So - a good primary, a not-so-common secondary, and a useful Alpha. The actual Alpha slot only caps three of my powers: Hasten on Recharge, and Rise to the Challenge + Fast Healing on Healing - all others are barely pushed into ED-land. Nothing in the IO's are rare, although I do have some expensvie ones in there (simply due to the popularity of Kinetic combat).

Anyway - for the base test, I played on 0x1, just to see what the base fight was like. After wandering around for 10 minutes, looking for the pilliars, I finally found all three and smashed 'em. Then, I found the Winter Lady, popped two red, hit her with Touch of Fear, and went to town. It took about a minute to defeat her, and I didn't bother to use my tier-9 or any other insps.

The strategy was completely basic: I just stood there and hit her. However, that includes
Touch of Fear (-20% to-hit) and Drain Life (+250 hit points every 7 or so seconds), as well as all the other -toHit secondary effects that come from Dark Melee. She was probably at or near -40% to-hit for most of the fight. However, she did hit me with massive, 1/2 of my health bar attacks on a fairly regular basis.

In looking back, it was actually pretty close at times; I think my health may have gotten down to 20%. at one point, before Drain Life kicked in again. Had I not popped those reds in the beginning, it would have been a lot closer.

However - at the end of the day, I beat her using a mindless technique. This probably tells me more about the utility of /DM as a single-target tanking set, than anything else.

For me? This was actually an interesting fight: although I beat it the conventional (ie, stupidly easy) way, it was actually more challenging than any other non-AV boss fight I've been in, except maybe that one time I agroed two x8 Longbox spawns, and got wailed on by their bosses.

(Just to confirm: I went and grabbed the Baby New Year mission, and tested out the EB in there - I think maybe he hit me once.)

And to chime in on "tankers and melee characters being targeted for difficulty" - I've leveled up two instances of each of the five core hero AT's. Scrappers and tankers were actually the last I went through - and when I did, I marvelled about how easy they made the game. As such, I have no problem with content like this: specifically designed to be more challenging for melee, and easier for ranged combat.

I want the default settings in a game to be challenging, but not overwhelming difficult, for me as a player. I only care about the play of others insomuch as it affects my ability to find someone to play with when I feel like teaming. Currently, the game doesn't actually provide that: it's too easy. Therefore, I'd like the default difficulty to be bumped up more in an interesting and creative way that requires I do more than just perform an attack pattern. Stuff like this is a good first step.

Another option, especially now that fitness is inherant (and thus potentially opening up another Power Pool) is Leadership->Tactics. fully-slotted, this will grant you probably around a 12% to-hit bonus, (base 7% for blasters, more for defender/controller-types), which will bring up your targeting nicely. It's also an added benefit of affecting all your teammates, thus making the entire team more effective.

Alternately, just go with IO bonuses. If you're a blaster, go with Thunderstrike - it's got good Acc to begin with (40%, I think), and it grants an additional 9% Accuracy bonus when you've got four of them slotted. So assuming you're got at least 3 Single target attacks, you end up with an additional +27% Accuracy.

Personally? I pretty much do what has been stated already in this thread:

1. don't bother slotting anything up through lvl 12.

2. dual-slot Acc DO's starting at lvl 12.

3. If I've got the cash (and I usually just e-mail it to myself from one of my other toons), get the low-level SO's from Penny's Dad just north of the dam.

4. At lvl 22, start crafting IO's - 1 Acc, 1 End, 1 End, 3 DMG. by this time I've probably got Tactics already, so I'm not really hurting for to-hit bonuses.

5. Start collecting the relevent IO set bonuses, as I go up in levels.

[ QUOTE ]

Exactly. Constructive criticism is awesome. "Too many commas" is for lols.


[/ QUOTE ]

No, it's not. That's an editorial comment regarding grammar and voice. I would have no problem downgrading someone who consistenly wrote run-on sentences, strung clauses together haphazardly, and in general made their dialog a chore to read.

The chief test of whether or not something 'works' in fiction is if it assists the reader in becoming immersed in the narrative. Inconsistent grammar and syntax is something that has been shown to break that immersion. So while the individual in question may not have had the skill to articulate what it is precicely they felt was wrong, "too many commas" is one of the things that can do that.

EDIT - and, speaking as a technical writer: short sentences work better to communicate content. So they may have simply had trouble following your writing style, which is ALSO a valid comment that someone may have not had the ability to articulate clearly.

I prefer the "Recommendations" style of voting, which I've seen on various fanfiction sites. It basically works this way:

You like a story arc? Click on the button that says "I recommend this story!" Other people can see how many recommendations a story has. They can also click on your toon (or type in your account name, or look at your global name), and see what's in your recommendation list. Don't like a story? Don't recommend it.

The catch is that you can have only 10 recommendations at any time. So - you have to decide which ones you actually like, and which ones you're just trying to pump up the vote count on.

With that, I'd also like to be able to see what comments others have left, as these tend to hold interesting bits that don't show up in a recommendation or star rating. Yeah, a good chunk of them will be trite, but those that aren't are usually pretty useful.

Also - I disagree vehemently on requiring people to explain why they liked or didn't like something. Because if such a system existed, the immediate run-around would be typing in "I didn't like it, so I one-starred it" into any and all required comment fields. Now: that is a completely valid reason to one-star something - if you didn't like it, then you didn't like it. It's just not helpful to you.

Finally - it's not the audience's job to help you write your story. If they want to leave constructive feedback? Good for them. That's not what the voting system is for. It's (in theory) to help other audience members find the kind of arcs they want to play. Yeah, it doesn't do a very good job of that. But even if it did do a good job of that, it still wouldn't be doing what you want it to do. Why? Because you want help writing your arc. And that's not fun for the person helping you - it's work. And that's not going to fly at ALL.

My preference would be recommendation lists, the ability to see all reviews posted on a mission.

<ul type="square">[*] recommendation lists - the ability to have a list that says "I like these missions" - the trick is that everyone is limited to, for example, 10. That is, they can have only ten recommendations at any given time. Essentially, you're allowed to give the eqivalent of a five star rating to ten missions. Don't like a mission? Don't give it a recommended rating. Other people can see how many recommendations a given mission has, or they can look at an individual player's personal recommendation list.[*]See all reviews - for those that actually get them, the ability to see WHY someone rated a review a certian way would certianly be helpful.[/list]
Thoes two are pretty much pulled directly from fanfiction sites that I've visited, and they seem to work really well. Other sites, such as fanfiction.net, also has a simple "favorites" list, which is like a recommendations list without the voting aspect. (And one I frequently use with authors I like.)

So - with all that in mind: what would I recommend?

<ul type="square">
1. Decide on your theme and stick with it - "Horrors of war" is a good one, although previous story arcs in the Rikti war zone have done that. "Compromises we make to win" is another potential one. "Wierd stuff happens on the battlefield" is a potential one, but that might be a bit difficult to work with, as doing random stuff on purpose looks a great deal like doing random stuff on accident. "War is like Chess" would even be OK, if you want to expand on the chess imagery. (You could even layer the chess imagery atop one of the other themes, if you wanted to, as long as it wasn't too heavy-handed.)

2. Get rid of some of the major NPC's - there are simply too many of them. Kul'bere is the most obvious, as she serves no purpose other than to act as an additional NPC in the 4th episode. Whisky Tango would be the other, as he is simply too quirky for his own good.

3. Deal with the loose ends - what did Naun'kom and Cher'tak know about Hro'Dtohz, and when did they know it; alternately, hang a lantern on the fact that you're not dealing with those ends, in order to foreshadow further missions.

4. Address the issue of allying yourself with the Malta - Of course, this may only be an issue if you're doing the "consequences of war" theme.

5. Related to #1: Determine whose story this is - which can be defined as "who has an internal realization and then acts on that realization". It's probably going to be either Lady Grey, or else the PC. Of the two, it's easier to control Lady Grey's thoughts and speech, so I'd personally recommend forming the story around her, with the PC being the PoV character.[/list]