Knight Of Tomorrow

Ran Lambda a few times with a team of 8. If anything it was easier than with 16. Granted, we were all Lambda vets, each having probably 30 or more under our belts, and several of us are regulars in the TF circuit on Protector, so that probably has something to do with it.


Intrinsic: You might already know this, but you can just hold your cursor over Marauder's health bar for a few seconds (maybe doing this in the heat of battle isn't the best time) and it should give you his hit points. I was shocked to find several AV's in the trials have something like 105,000 HP. Imagine if we could get that many!

I have yet to see anyone become upset at the trial, or the developers. But I know of a few people (myself included) to express grief that even with def and res numbers through the roof, we can still watch our hit points drop in an instant. I was initially a bit upset with this as I was spending so much time going to the hospital, and so little time actually fighting. This happened even after I took 3 large purples and 3 large oranges. But no one acted like the OP describes. In fact, I've never seen that behavior on Protector at all. Different attitudes on different servers I guess?

I have run enough of each trial to have tier 2 on all 4 slots on 2 toons so far. The first day or two were the most stressful (for lack of a better word), since we were used to being able to plow through any content relatively easy. The new trials definitely knocked out egos down a notch.

Now, after a week, I find that I die less, and it is rare to fail a trial. The combination of leaders who have a bit of experience using newly established tactics and most participants having opened and slotted at least a few powers has turned the tide from wondering-if-we-will-beat-it to expecting-to-beat-it.

So other than the fact I am neglecting most of my toons to give i20 power candy to a select few, no complaints here.

Ok, a few of these gave me a few chuckles. After reading far enough down, the humor had a cumulative effect, and then I got to these two back-to-back:

We did the Lambda Trial, got almost to Marauder, and the server went down!

We were doing quite well for a first effort, so about 10 minutes later when the server came back up we tried again, with most of the same people in our 2 team league.

And we beat it!

Still kind of amazed, we must have had a great team because it wasn't nearly as hard as I expected.

Still, I expect to fail a few times so I can have a few slices of 'humble pie'.

With all the toons I'm doing incarnate stuff for, I expect to become quite familiar with Lambda and BAF.

Hope to see you there!

Capa_Devans: That's not what I had in mind, but I like it so much that I might use that in another part. I am always amazed at the creativity that can be seen with ideas like that.Thanks!

TheUnnamedOne: I am fairly certain that the cage I saw was one piece, and if I recall it was hanging from the ceiling. It was just big enough for a single person to get in, with the top open so one can jump in.

Meantime I will experiment with Capa's idea, and see if I can get it to produce similar results.

Thanks!

I have taken tours of several large and impressive bases, which gave me many ideas for my own. One thing I saw was goldish colored cages, the type that might hold a large animal.

I have looked through every list in the Base Editor, and have yet to find it. This leads me to suspect that the cage is a personal item, but I don't know how to check on that. Does anybody know how I can get/create these cages?

Thanks in advance!

I don't consider Hasten to be a panic button. In fact I consider it to be a damage multiplier. If all my attacks regenerate xx% faster, I get to fire more attacks in the same amount of time. The whole point is to do as much damage in the least amount of time possible, so why rely on it only for emergencies? It seems that if you take down the mobs quickly enough, you don't have a need to panic.

There ARE panic button type powers, but using hasten only as such would seem to be ingoring the opportunity to get more kills (and XP, inf, prestige, shards, drops, etc) in the same amount of time.

These go for 2 billion at WentWorths because that's the highest number allowed.

It would probably sell for more if the system were to allow it.

I have one of these on my Elec/Shield Scrapper, as do a few others I know.

Probably not truly worth it unless you like the uber-l334-ness of it. But if there are times when you think "Gee, if I only had 3% more def, I'd be capped at Melee, Ranged, and AoE", and you've done everything you can already... this is the beast for you

I'm stuck at the California DMV when there's an incarnate slot begging to be unlocked on so many of my toons!

I can't stands it no more!

(activates Shield Charge then Lightning Rod and moves up 20 places in line. Looks around innocently.)

Only 72 people ahead of me now...

Sorry to hear it didn't draw the crowds the way you had hoped.

As one of the judges of the Protector Costume Contest event on Friday and Sat, I can tell you that if we hadn't been able to use the Dev's Costume Contest on Friday to promote ours, our turnout would have been far less. As it was, we didn't have a full zone, which has happened before for much less promoted contests in the past.

My thinking is that for the next one you do, make sure to have people in attendance to promote your event at any Dev event, Costume Contest, etc. Having someone announce your event at the Dev Costume Contest in Pocket D might have gotten a few more to show up.

Trying to reach new/recent players is a challenge. Maybe working with some new player-friendly SG's might help. The leaders can announce your event to their members, and then they can assist other new players. Might get a few new players into SG's that will be there to help them learn the game. That could be a win-win for all involved.

A good guide is very helpful. I have found several on this forum, and each is very helpful, albeit in different ways. What I gathered from all my research is that it will take time to know the AT, and get an idea of what you want to get from it.

My previous level 50 AT's before the WS were a Controller, a Blaster, and 2 Scrappers - so imagine my surprise that a WS can do all of that to some degree. I tried to team with some higher level WS's so I could see them in action, and found that there are at least a few ways to play one.

You can do the all human form, which means you can choose 2 more powers, and concentrate your slots in the human powers without fear of gimping your other forms. After over a year with my Shade at 50, I can tell you I have learned to spend a lot more time in human than I thought I would, so I can see how the 'human-only' idea certainly has merit.

But I still like the Tri-form. This is to me the most challenging AT to play, but gives you a rollercoaster ride of excitement. I have a Elec/Shield scrapper that seems to do more damage to more mobs faster... but the it's almost point and shoot compared to the WS. Played incorrectly, the WS can die pretty fast, but when played to the strengths, the WS is almost like having all toons rolled into one.

This is my usual pattern: Hit Haste. Jump into a large mob, hit Eclipse, then Quasar, then Sunless Mire. After this, I fire a few Shadow Blasts or Ebon Eyes until at least one is down. Hit that defeated foe with Unchain Essence for more AOE goodness, pull a Dark Extraction (gotta get your furry pet!) on that same defeated foe, then shift over to Black Dwarf, where I use Mire and Antagonize (to help round up the stragglers). I throw a few Strikes and Smites here and there and maybe a Drain if my health budges (not too often). When I see that my Eclipse and/or Quasar is back up I shift back to human to hit those again, and maybe the Haste.

I switch to Nova more when there's already a lot of melee. I probably use it the least, but I do use it often enough to justify it. Detonation is especially nice for for hitting several foes.

The powers I mentioned are my 'must-haves', I choose the others based on what their dps seems to be. I'm not a hard core number cruncher, usually if a power description uses the words "superior" or "extreme", it's on my list.

You do need resistance and defensive powers, but it's up to you the order you get them. The only problem with those powers is they drop when in another form, so when you go back to human, you have to re-toggle them. It's not a pain, but as much as I switch back and forth, it becomes time consuming.

It is possible to slot your Warshade to have effective perma-haste, which can allow for 3 pets at any one time, if you keep moving and don't linger between combat areas. Remember, downtime = less damage and resistance, so if you are following a tank that rests after each battle, you will not feel as uber as possible.

But fret not, after you've got your WS down pat, you don't really NEED a tank. Not to say you should ignore the tank, or run solo and forget about the team play. But after people team with you they won't be so quick to replace a departing tank when they know you are around.

I would suggest reading the power description for each power, then deciding if that power sounds adequate for what you want to do. It is likely that you will want to respec at least a few times as you tweak your character more towards how YOU play. Some people spend a lot of time in Dwarf mode as a Tank-ish AT, others love to play up the Nova's blaster qualities. These preferences will most likely affect your desire to use/not use a specific power. Experimentation is the key.

Although I can tell you that Eclipse is almost like god-mode on maps with large spawns. I recommend choosing that power as soon as you can. It is most certainly worth it, for any form you are in.

And Stygian Return is a welcome power when you get in over your head, which you are likely to do a lot as you are mastering your toon.

Good luck!

I am experiencing deja-vu all over again after reading this. I can tell you from my experience, that research and experience are the keys to rocking a WS.

I live on Protector, where I saw many WS's (this was a while back). I thought they were pretty cool looking, and seemed to be effective. So, when my first 50 hit, I immediately made my WS - Obsidia NIH. She was a cool looking toon, but the low level powers were less than impressive. I kinda shelved her for a while, leveling up 2 scrappers and a blaster to 50, while Obsidia languished in relative obscurity.

Then one day, I was invited to AE mission by a level 50 WS named AIB, who absolutely made me and the other 6 people on the team feel unnecessary. We tried and died, he was like a weed-eater to monkey-grass. I started seeking him out, and pulling out Obsidia to see how he did it.

I learned a lot; and although I don't have his raw talent/instinct for the WS, I finally (after 10 respecs) have a killer, death dealing monster toon that is farm capable, even managing +2 +8 Rikti missions solo with no stress at all. This does take a good deal of form-changing, but the rewards are PILES of dead Rikti (or other nefarious no-gooders) and a ton of inf/exp/tickets/salvage/recipes for myself and anyone that happens to be around.

And when AIB and Obsidia NIH run the same mission? WOW.

The single most memorable mission has to be my first Frostfire mish.

We started out as a team of 8, but most were several levels below us, and by the halfway point we were down to me and 2 others (those two went on to become my first in-game friends, having shared this experience). We continued on, just the three of us, tank, blaster, controller, none of us were over level 10. My blaster had died a few times, the tank once, the troller about 3 times or so. Then came the Frostfire room.

Now remember, we started with 8, and the mission still thought we should have 8. I am positive we died enough for a team of 8. I learned much about the scenery from the Hollows hospital to the mish site, probably spent more time sprinting to the mish than I did in the mish.

We died a lot. And then we died some more. I actually started to have a sense of dread when I would see Jack Frost start my way... We finally tried some strategy, coming up with things like "pulling" - yes we were SO green! One by one they'd go down. Eventually the controller had to leave, so the tank and I slogged through, when we died, we'd get more inspirations. Finally, after over an hour, we finally cleared the room, and ended the mish. We did the toon equivalent of falling down, totally exhausted, and laughed about how INSANELY hard that was.

I avoided that mission on my controller, and when I finally played it again, I was a MA scrapper. It seemed so easy when you had the right sized team!

Another strong memory for me was the first time I saw the Crystal Titan surrounded by all those DE in that large room.

And the Kronos Class Titan ambush. We were all sitting around chatting after the mission, when our squishies all suddenly died. Talk about an introduction!

And my first Anniversary Celebration with what must have been 50 or more Kronos Class Titans in Atlas Park. I leveled that toon a few times during the onslaught.

Hmmm the first Rikti Raid, the first Zombie Apocalypse, yeah, nothing like your first time!

Oh, AIB is new to the boards, but not new to the game. He's been kicking names and taking tail... wait! That's not right...

There was some kicking... and some taking... and he was there...

Yeah, anyways he's a longtime vet.

He's a great player and a class act all around.

And he didn't pay me very much to say that.

Not interested. We don't need any of you planet to planet salesmen coming 'round here.




Welcome!

Ok. After I did the RtR last night, I did the ITF again with the group I usually run it with, and we ripped through it fast. Not positive, but I think it was 24 minutes and change. Definitely under the 30 min mark by far.

So I guess we just had a bad run before.

Still confused by the random END loss we all encountered. But hey, what's life without mysteries?

There's a mega mega uber Costume Contest happening on Protector!

Link: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=241603

Get your costumes ready!

We had some attrition, eventually down to 5 by the time we got to the last mish. We could hurt Rommie, but we couldn't take him down with what we had left. Still, other than the previously mentioned issues, I still had a good time. anybody have some spare merits they don't need?

I've been joining ITF teams whenever I can for the past 3 months. I have run over 20 (a couple as leader). My scrapper Juicy'Fruit (50 with very tasty IO's) is the toon of choice due to her Elec/Shield combo, which as most know is a great way to plow through tons of minions and Lt's (TF fodder).

In all those 20 or more Tf's, all were successfull. Granted, teamwork is the biggest part of this - but it became so easy that most teams were able to run the whole TF in under 30 minutes. Great leadership played a huge part (I'm looking at you, Ionic/Obisis!).

Last night I played an impromptu ITF, after having not run one in a week or more. It wasn't the usual crew, but all of us were seasoned ITF players. We WERE a bit light on buffs/debuffs, but having been on similarly constructed teams before, I though nothing of it.

We got off to a false start, as the leader hadn't set the diff to +0 (for the sake of speed). After a quick death resulting from my not noticing that half the mob I jumped into was conned purple to me, we decided to reset.

Even though the mobs no longer conned purple to us (in fact they were now the as intended level 50's), our ability to move through the mobs was not as I had expected. I could not last in a mob of 15 or more angry Cim Traitors as I has so easily done on missions before. I don't think it was a lack of buffs, since I usually run this same section solo without anyone providing buffs anywhere in range.

Thinking I was somehow having a bad night, I resigned to just deal with my inadequacies, and follow the tank. But then the leader/tank commented that he had never had so much difficulty with this TF before. He was using a well built, very tough Invuln/SS tanker, with strong set bonuses. I have seen him in action many times, and he's one of those that seldom has a dip in health through an entire TF. In other words, the kind of tank we all want at our side.

He spent at least 50% of the time at 50% health. I haven't seen a tank spend so much time so far from full health except for side-kicked tanks without IO's. The rest of the team seemed to suffer the same fate, and we took over an hour on the first 2 missions. I think that's a personal record, but not in a good way.

Another thing that we noticed - each member of the team reported a complete (100%) endurance drop on several occasions. I think we all had individually noticed this before, and in fact might be the reason for our many deaths. You're on a roll, taking out the baddies, and - at the worst possible moment - you lose all endurance and your toggles drop. When you've got 7 or 8 bosses around you, a few EB's, and many many minions, a loss of toggles equals doom.

None of us recall this happening on the ITF before, although I seem to recall a couple of random occurrences of this same phenomenon on another TF in the past week.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences, or did we just have a "+8 chance for negative luck" cast on our TF?