LadyAndreca

Plaques always get me. And there's a Brick Township a bit south of here. Plus anytime we wind up driving on the Pulaski Skyway...

I once got laughed off the scrapper boards for posting my build for my main, a BS/SR scrapper. Something about "corrupting newbies" with impossible builds. A SR build without pool defenses was apparently inconceivable. That was actually the point of me posting an alternate build.

See, I was serious. Anyone who teamed with me back then was well aware that they could take me into missions un-sked, and I would live. I once tanked a huge Rikti spawn, at least 3 groups for an 8-man team, at the bottom of the old Sewer Trial because a team wipe got everyone except one controller who could only safely rez me. I dove in assuming I'd die and was just trying to live long enough for the team to chain-rez itself. And then I realized that not only was I surviving, I was WINNING. The tank was PISSED. Even more pissed when after the team was all alive and all the mobs were defeated I said "Uh...I forgot to turn on Elude. Oops."

I did not use IOs on that character until...I think when I respecced her because of inherent fitness. I never used Hamis on her. Her sets are focused on endurance reduction and +stamina, not defense.

I had Parry on auto, not Practiced Brawler. Apparently this blew people's minds.

I was never able to get into any resistance power set because I knew how to rock SR. The closest I ever got was EA, and even then I tweaked her IO sets for max regen because of its holes.

Good times. Good memories.

Well, I won't get home until 10:30 PM Eastern on the Thursday, but that won't stop me from rounding up or joining others for a late run.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! This here is the bare minimum I was wishing for - just some way to have a save file of my characters so they still existed SOMEWHERE.

I'm in. I can't provide a grand like some people, but I'll do what I can.

I've been hooked on this game since one of my friends in the beta let me try out the character creator. It's got me through rough times, gotten me friends so close they came to my wedding. I have half a gig of stories about my alts sitting in my hard drive - and safely backed up in multiple places because I never, ever want to lose those stories.

I don't want this game to ever die.

I'm finding that all my characters, or at least any I play for any length of time, fit the "wake up go to school save the world" trope. (I'd link TVtropes but then I think I'd be the recipient of many curses for many hours lost wandering those pages.) It's just utterly fascinating for me to explore different personalities trying to balance their powers with the expectations for them to use their powers and their own wants and dreams.

I managed to catch the very end of everything. Enough to have Hope explain the concept of 'truth or dare' to Nec, anyways. And for Hope to get the last question. It still amuses me that after five and a half years, whether or not Hope and the Necrodragon are sleeping together is still the first thing anyone wants to ask her.

I'll have to think about whether I want to bring Quest, Cayt, Hope, or a new face to the next one.

I won't be able to make it...that's the day my RL gaming group is getting together, and knowing us we won't even think about finishing until midnight. Ah well. I'll catch the next one.

Congrats!!

Happy birthday!

The first time I saw 'SyFy' I gagged, turned to my husband, and begged him to tell me I hadn't just read that. He glumly assured me that I had, and we mourned the loss of a good channel to whatever 'cutesy' phenomenon makes companies intentionally misspell their products.

I'm sorry, but I'm going to be stubborn and watch my Sci-Fi movies, not this weird 'siffy' crap.

People don’t know a lot about me other than ‘she’s the healer’, and I tend to try to keep it that way. It’s frustrating sometimes, because I want to scream at them that I don’t need to be guarded as close as everyone thinks I do. But it’s my own fault for keeping it all set up that way, right? If I get TOO frustrated, I can get Cayt’n’Caytlin, Jer and Ames, or Clint to come out with me and get it all out of my system.

Thing most people don’t know about me number one: I’m a precog. Not constantly like Jer, but enough. I’m trying to learn to use it right, but it’s hard. It’s hard to come up with reasons to ask people to go to the right place when I know something bad is going to happen. Sometimes I just don’t have enough warning and I have to go do it myself. That’s half the reason I’m in a Council base right now. Of course, the other half is that it’s my boyfriend and his ‘sidekick’ that’s in trouble.

The fact that I’m here alone would be enough to make a lot of people I know freak out, but you know, that’s number two: I’m fully capable of taking care of myself. Mike got me enrolled in Aikido classes a couple years ago, so basic self-defense is covered. And if I get in over my head, I just run away a little bit, then duck somewhere where there’s no cameras and start thinking “I’m not here” and people run right past me. It lets me catch my breath and regen a bit. Hope taught me how to fight with my electricity, too. I’m not strong with it, but all I’m trying to do is stun people. Electricity is really good for that.

Fact number three? I can read Russian. Why does that have anything to do with anything? Mostly because the KGB has all kinds of old USSR training manuals lying around in the library. There’s lots of really interesting and useful info in there if you’re willing to learn. Like…oh…how to mix explosive pastes to blow apart doors. And which ones should be used if you’re in a hurry, which ones shouldn’t be used around people or fragile objects, and which ones can. This one I’m using is really fun because you can use an electric current to start it. The manual recommends a 9-volt or stronger battery, but I think I have that covered on my own.

Fact number four? We Eagles looooooove dramatic entrances. Eyes and ears!

If I had to guess? Poking around the boards, I came across the Dropship Server Challenge. But I don't know if that's it.

Without more details, I won't be able to say whether I can participate.

*hops in line for more Virtue slots*

Too bad I can't consolidate my two accounts and REALLY take advantage of this...

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[ QUOTE ]
CTab: Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking.
LadyA: What if you don't have one of those?
CTab: Then you better hope that you have money.

*snicker*

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That's sig-worthy, right there. May I?

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Go for it.

CTab: Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody is looking.
LadyA: What if you don't have one of those?
CTab: Then you better hope that you have money.

*snicker*

((Finally had a chance to catch up on this...all I can say is "wow". I had a feeling there was something to do with The King In Yellow from the first post because some of the wording reminded me of a short story--More Light by James Blish--involving the play and the superstition that people could go mad reading it.

Anyway, VERY good story, and I wish I'd had a chance to catch up sooner. ))

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At 50 you can change your title at any time.


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Heh. I have a level 50 who never chose a title. Now he can be a veritable title-[censored]. And people say there's nothing to do at 50

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Hehe, ditto. I never picked one for Quest because I was afraid of her being locked into a title that stopped fitting her.

We tried an experiment on the AV Chimera with my BS/SR scrapper and a rad/rad defender...

With toggles, Elude, and a LOT of purples, we pushed Quest's defense to 187%. The defender then gave Chimera a -40% accuracy.

I think she died in 5 hits, even with the team healing her. He never missed.

Edit: *baps self* Oranges. I didn't think of oranges. We wound up calling in an inv tank because I was the only melee character on the team and we couldn't beat him.

The more I think about this, the thing that bothers me the most is that, though my characters have not changed at all, they will in the perception of the people looking for teammates.

I have a lowbie FF/Sonic, perfect level for the Hollows. Who would invite her over a different defender or a controller? I was already hearing things like "Well, I got a defender, but she can't heal. I guess we'll try it like this and kick her and get a healer if we have problems" when I joined teams. I know how good my FFer is; I ran her to 24 as FF/Energy before I got sick of all the KB and rerolled her, and I've played FF/dark and FF/Psy before. I know how large a group she can solo, and I know where and when to put blasts to help the team.

But selling myself to a team now is going to be harder than ever. Even if I'm no weaker, I'm going to be perceived as weaker, or at least as worse than other choices.

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So Defender Primary "controlling" powers being weaker than Controller's secondarys is by design?

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Quoting for emphasis. Telling defender force fielders and stormies that their powers don't work as well as controllers' BY DESIGN...it's very frustrating to be one today.

Force Field:
- Force Bolt: Defenders do more damage, unless containment is on. (But it barely does enough damage to speak of.)
- Detention Field: Better for controllers.
- Repulsion Field: Same for both.
- Force Bubble: Same for both.
- Repulsion Bomb: Defenders do more damage (I wasn't aware it DID damage...I haven't tested it, but the short help in-game doesn't say it does damage), controllers stun longer.
- DS, IS, DB: Better for defenders.

Storm Summoning:
- Snowstorm: The slow is better for controllers.
- Thunderclap: The disorient is better for controllers.
- Tornado: Defenders do more damage, controllers disorient longer.

Arguably a third of each set performs better for controllers simply because the powers have a control component? That's NOT something we wanted hear. Tankers/scrappers and blasters/defenders have a defined division in shared powers, but controllers can match defenders in their shared powers...in both utility and, once containment is applied, in damage.

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For the record, someone earlier said that flight was the only travel power that improves as you level - I'm sure that super jump does as well. My 50th level leaper can manage much longer jumps than she could at 27th (when she had SOs slotted in hurdle and superjump).

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Swift increases as you level, as well.

Yeah, flight is painfully slow without SO's. I have a level 48 scrapper with it 3-slotted, a level 24 defender with it 4-slotted, and a level 14 brute with just an endurance reducer in it. (Because, face it, I don't just want to fly, I want at least SOME ranged or smashing/lethal defense running at the same time. Stupid flying enemies/snipers.) The scrapper is fine, and the defender is fine now that she has SO's, but the brute might as well run because she's faster that way. And when I switch from the scrapper to the brute...yowch. It feels like I'm traveling with Hover.

1-slotted Swift + 3-slotted Sprint, with DO's, is faster than one-slotted flight in the teens, and keeps pace with 2-slotted flight. This is including time it takes to navigate obstacles like staircases and walls. (I'm in a duo and we use those respective powers.) Once we got to SO's, yes, I was slower, but not by much.

Endurance useage...it's just silly for a travel power to cost more than base endurance regen. My brute still runs most places and only uses Fly to clear walls because otherwise she'd reach missions with only half of her endurance--less, if I was running any defensive toggles.

My defender couldn't run fly and PFF (or Dispersion Bubble) together for very long until she picked up stamina. It's annoying for travel, and for missions when Hover just isn't fast enough to get Dispersion Bubble repositioned when a fight shifts.

To go to an extreme example, my scrapper (BS/SR) can fight almost indefinitely with all three SR toggles up as long as she doesn't use Whirling Sword too often. But it takes 4-slotted Stamina and an endurance reducer in both Fly and Evasion to just break even running all four while I'm NOT fighting. Toggle managing is one thing at level 14. Needing to do it at 46 was ridiculous.

Oh, and I do use Fly in combat with her, in short spurts or when I've got Elude or Conserve Power running. She doesn't have ranged attacks or Hover, so when enemies fly off (Freaks are notorious for it, as is Diabolique), I need to be able to catch them. Hover wouldn't be fast enough anyway; those enemies move at full flight speed for no endurance cost.

1. Michael W. Smith - First Light/Love In The Light
2. Smile.dk - Future Girls
3. Lee Greenwood - God Bless The USA
4. Gloria Estefan - Reach
5. Mulan - 98 Degrees - True To Your Heart
6. Whitney Houston - Greatest Love of All
7. Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
8. Final Fantasy III - Roaming Ship
9. Backstreet Boys - Color My World
10. Goo Goo Dolls - Name (live)

Hmm. I think that's actually the best cross-selection of my music I've ever gotten in a random selection of 10.