Lazarillo

IIRC, pretty much every Issue or Issue.5 hitting beta since i18 has accompanied, or near-accompanied and double XP weekend. So since we're about a week and a half away from one at this point, and since we've been getting so many announcements lately...I'd guess within the next two weeks is actually a pretty darned safe bet.

Staff needs a regular, non-techy lance. Especially since the model is already in the game.

I almost always take it these days. I didn't on non-Tanks in the pre-Inherent Fitness days, but now that I need a few extra powers that don't require slotting, I've found it useful both as filler and as a situational utility power. It's nice at low levels for the occasional pull that I need (in this case, especially Confront), and at high levels I've found even my Scrappers occasionally saving some squishier teammate from a random boss on occasion. And through the entire leveling experience, it's a great power for cancelling the utterly annoying utterly stupid tendency of the AI to run like mad for parts unknown. Granted, it shouldn't happen in the first place, but since it does, Taunt and Confront are a pretty good makeshift solution.

Neat ideas, Adeon. The one thing I'd suggest would be that the original Dr. Q ends with an explanation of why illegal Shadow Shard portals are a bad idea when a bunch of Soldiers of Rularuu break out. I feel like that should be tied into it somehow. But otherwise, let's start a campaign to get you on the writing team!

A neat idea, but not big on the trial approach, for a variety of reasons. Make it an Incarnate-style Shadow Shard revamp, along the lines of Dark Astoria with a solo/small team approach? That'd be much more intriguing...

Isn't "carrying a baby" on the list of things that power-up Jackie Chan? Perhaps they should just make this an alternate animation for Focus Chi?

More than anything else, I'm amazed how...amazingly on-the-spot that Hamill impression is. If it hadn't said so, I totally would've believed it was the man himself.

Null disables getting moved by the actual "Team Teleport" power, but he doesn't, as far as I know, let you ignore the teleports and/or prompts caused by an Incandescent Destiny, which is, I think the issue here. At the very least it's Incandescent, rather than Team Teleport, that I tend to see spammed during TPNs.

Numina's TF needs to be revamped not just because it's gameplay is awful, but because its story is awful, and the gameplay is awful because of the awful story.

"Go rescue kidnapped guy!...No, wait, not that kidnapped guy...no, not that one either...no, wait, which one? I dunno. Go rescue that kidnapped guy so we can figure out which kidnapped guy we're supposed to rescue...Okay, it's that kidnapped guy but I have no freaking clue where who kidnapped him, so go beat people up until we figure out who actually kidnapped kidnapped guy...oh, but he was dead all along, not kidnapped, silly me, uh, go fight an AV, I guess."

I would love to see this. Not just because it makes the mark less of a tedious slog, but also because it lets me feel like my characters come into their prime sooner. In the current game, I buy my last set of SOs at 27 and then start converting them to IOs as I level (to the point where, by the time I would replace the SOs at 32, I'm using nothing but IOs). However, that's started making the 20s pretty brutal on some of my characters. I have one who I broke down and got a bunch of store bought Attuneds so I wouldn't have to wait, and what a difference it makes!

I'll also note that for all the complaints about it, too, I liked the way they did Bane's voice. It had an eeriness to it, that, coupled with Hardy's delivery of the lines, really made him stand out. It put him into the uncanny valley, as it were, set him apart from the "normal humans" without violating Nolan's "normal world".

I have been counting down the days to this movie. Hell, I took off work tomorrow so I could go see the midnight showing without having to worry about getting up in the morning. I knew there was no way it could meet my expectations, let alone exceed them.

But it did. IT TOTALLY DID. It was on the whole a great film from start to finish. Not perfect, but still great. I loved Bruce, and I'm glad Bale toned down the growling for this one. I think a lot of people will be disappointed with the "happy ending", but I thought it really fit.

The twist with Miranda? Totally saw it coming. I'd been expecting Nolan to hit us with that ever since The Dark Knight pulled "Surprise! It's Two-Face!" and then didn't announce a certain villain for this film. But just because I realized what was going to happen, and the fakeout with the kid, doesn't mean I didn't really enjoy it.

My one gripe, I'll admit, was that the way Bane was dealt with was kind of an anticlimax. There's the big revelation, and then suddenly he's this twisted-love teddy bear? Bah, I had a hard time with that scene. I didn't much care for him getting casually killed off there either. I suppose it's not a whole lot different compared to what happened with Ra's, but still. You-know-who could've been handled a little better at the end, too, but I was mostly content with Bane being the "main villain and her just sort of being the mastermind. I just wish Bane hadn't been so dependent on her for that last bit of characterization.

These mafs make me kinda tingly.

Matt Smith wears a bowler now?
Those are cool.

I am posting from my phone and so I have no special access to witty image macros. But please take my word for it when I say: I am wearing my happy Laz face.