Louneigru

enneiviN yadhtriB yppaH

Now, I am not 100% satisfied with the coloring so I am probably going to do some more work on it, hehe, but had to flip the original image anyways.

But here it is Terra Silverspar

This is the original image from Scarf
Original Terra Silverspar

Hehe, don't shoot me too badly, DB keeps insisiting I color it hehe DB forgot to flip the image so I can to myself, for those curious.

[ QUOTE ]
What are the PATRON powers available for each VEAT? I was looking for this info, but didn't really see anything.

I did see some posts that made it appear that Crabs have the Brute powers... what do Widows and Fortunatas get? Power wise (not GW, Mako, etc).

Thanks,
-r0y

[/ QUOTE ]You mean this line in the FAQ?

[ QUOTE ]
Can Soldiers of Arachnos learn Patron Powers?
Yes, they can. They both get access to the brute Patron Power Pools.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mayhem Dos and Don’ts
Mayhems and Safeguards are completely different animals. In a lot of cases, I’ve noted people always try to do one thing like how a Safeguard or standard mission works, instead of realizing that Mayhems are their own animal and follow vastly different rules to your standard mission. So basically, this is a list of Dos and Don’ts that I feel work best for a Mayhem.

Do take your time on a mayhem and destroy what you can, when you can
This is probably the simplest part. Break things, destroy, cause chaos, mayhem and destruction. This get’s you time bonuses and gives you more time to get to the end and complete the mayhem. Furthermore, destroying certain items and such net you badges for towards your accolades, and furthermore, you will most likely want all the exploration badges for the health accolade.

Don’t Super Jump, Fly, or Teleport to the Bank or anywhere else
This is probably the number one heartache of people that I see complain about mayhems. They try to play it like a Safeguard or a normal mission and try to fly, jump, or teleport to the end through the air. This is a bad maneuver, and will net you multiple silent ambushes that will follow you till you are dead. So stick to the ground unless you think you can handle the results of what you get.

Do take care of the ambushes as they happen
Don’t just keep running. If you see an ambush alert, stop and take care of it. You can get overwhelmed quickly if you just try to ignore it, as most ambushes in a mayhem do not stop and wait for you to go to the bathroom.

Don’t run straight to the bank
Running straight to the bank, even if you are a stalker, will end up causing several longbow ambushes that you and your team may find impossible to take care of. These ambushes can see you even as a stalker.

Do stick together and work as a team
I know many think that villains are anti-team members, but this is far from the case. It is a good idea to always stick together and handle everything as a team and support your teammates.

Don’t try to be a lone wolf
Don’t think you can run off and leave the rest of your team and survive. You can totally screw over a mayhem doing this especially if you are lackeyed up and end up going to jail.

Do try and rescue teammates from jail
Telling your teammate to get out of jail himself will cause heartache and anguish. Not only will it cause more ambushes as he tries to escape, he could very well die several times before escaping. This could cause problems especially when confronting the hero ambush as the hero themselves could very well go after the team member in jail.

Don’t try to trigger the hero ambush till all members are in the bank
The hero ambush is the most fickle part of a Mayhem. If the team is in several different places, the ambush will break up and go to those several different places to chase down those team members.

Strategies for Mayhem Level Bracekts
One of the issues with Mayhems, at least for younger teams, is that they aren’t friendly to low level characters. In this instance, it becomes difficult for low level players to accrue time bonuses because objects take a lot longer to destroy, so for the low levels it’s actually better to just solo mayhems instead of actually trying to do a large team of them. What I will attempt to answer is the best way to tackle a Mayhem starting at the lower levels first then working my way up towards the higher levels.

Threat Level 5 to 10
In this level bracket, a villain is better off going it alone or with one or two people they know very well and are good buddies with. Always stick together and don’t try to do your own thing. You can easily trigger multiple ambushes easily. Destroy as many low level items as you can, and avoid the big stuff for now. Attempting to destroy some of those items will end up costing you more time than you will earn for it in the long run. In this instance, avoid cars and trucks for the most part, as well as large cargo containers. Try to get everyone to focus on the same objects at the same time, and take each ambush together and don’t try to separate or you could end up in trouble.

Threat Level 10 to 19
In this level range, you are starting to get into travel powers, and get a little more bang for your buck in your attacks. Some objects you can start to one shot even. At this point you can think of inviting a few more people along for your mayhems. Again, stick together, do not try to run off, and above all else, do not try to use any of your travel powers to get to the bank quickly. This has destroyed mayhems faster than anything else. Try to destroy and wreck as much as possible, but avoid trucks for the most part till about level 14.

Theat Level 20 to 29
These mayhems are going to be a sore spot for your villains because the PPD have some of the most annoying attacks at this level. Glue grenades, flash bangs and several other powers that are going to be the bane of your existence. Gathering time should be almost a snap at this point though, but continue to stick together and do not use any travel powers to try and instantly zip to the end. It will just end in tears. Teams can start considering to break up a little bit to go and complete multiple objectives or cause even more destruction for faster time bonuses at this point, but everyone should be hitting the bank at the same time, unless you want to end up suffering the results of trying to find a hero or his lost escorts. It should be noted, at this level range signature heroes can start appearing in mayhems if your team is large enough. So if you take a large team, be prepared.

Threat Level 30+
At this point, the mayhems will start getting easy. Most, if not all, objects will be one shottable by practically everyone at this point, you will most likely have a plethora of AE type powers at your disposal, and the annoying hump of PPD annoying powers is over with. You are now off to face things like armored PPD, psychics and the kheldian devision. Time bonuses should start flowing like water, and your team is more than capable of breaking up into two groups to destroy and complete sides. Again, no jumping or flying or trying to cheat and get to the bank instantly, and when everyone is ready, everyone should meet at the bank. Large teams will almost always get a signature hero at this point so always be prepared.

Ambushes and How to Cope with Them
Throughout Mayhem Missions there are several points and events that will happen that will cause an ambush, some of which are unavoidable, others you can avoid or control to your favor.

The first type of ambush that you will contend with almost immediately is the Longbow Ambush. This is almost always broadcast by the NPCs telling you to ‘Stop in the name of Longbow!’ followed by a 30 second time grant for resisting arrest. For these ambushes it’s best to wait for them and defeat them as they come. They will always follow you, until you are defeated, so there is no method to actually escaping them. The trigger points for these ambushes are about half random and the other half being set locations. They are triggered by moving over their trigger points, but only trigger one ambush.

The second type of ambush that many teams tend to encounter is the Silent Longbow Ambush. This one tends to cause a lot of problems for PuGs because a lot of people either try to rush to the bank or fly, jump or teleport there. How this one is triggered is by going higher than the second story of a building, and the exact ambush will depend on the level range of the Mayhem itself. If the mayhem is from level 5 to 19 the ambush will be comprised of a Nullifier and several additional Longbow, or even a warden if the team is large. From levels 20 to 50, though, the ambush will be comprised of a Squadron of Longbow Eagles. This ambush, again, will not let up and follow your character till defeated, so it’s best to take them out ASAP.

The next type of ambushes your team will encounter comes from the various side missions. How those are handled depends on the side mission in general.

Jail break will get an ambush as soon as any of your team enters the Jail House of Longbow. This ambush will give you a 30 second resisting arrest time bonus.

Arson will spawn three ambushes as soon as you enter the building. The first will come immediately and is Longbow. The next two will be PPD that will announce their arrival with a 30 second resisting arrest bonus.

Raid ambush will spawn as soon as you enter the warehouse. It is a Longbow ambush that only announces itself by telling you to stop where you are.

Kidnap Ambushes will spawn like a normal ambush. After you capture the NPC and start leading them out, a spawn of PPD will spawn telling you to halt, but unlike the normal Mayhem ambushes, this ambush will stop at the last place you were when they told you to halt instead of making a bee line straight for you. This one is easy to ignore if you don’t want to fight it.

Smash & Grab ambushes are easy to ignore completely. Just do not enter any of the red security beams. If you do, however, you will trigger an alarm and each one tripped will bring in a Longbow squad. Some like to trip all the alarms at once for a big fight. The alarm beams guarding the vault door, however, are special. If you trip those, not only will you get the Longbow Ambush, you will also get two more ambushes of PPD each with an Lt. This is announced by a 30 second resisting arrest time bonus.

There are three final ambushes that players will have to be on alert for in the Mayhem Mission. One of them is unavoidable and must be handled to complete it. The other can be ignored to prevent the spawning of the third ambush.

When you enter the bank, you can go all the way to the back of the bank and start pounding on the vault. When you approach the door, this will trigger a security guard ambush that announces itself by saying ‘We’ve got trouble!’ This ambush can be basically ignored completely. However, if you do defeat the security guards, this will trigger a second ambush about 60 seconds later of PPD officers, which announces themselves with a 30 second resisting arrest time bonus.

Once the vault door is broken, you can go in and click the glowie money, and this will instantly trigger another ambush. This ambush you have to fight, as it’s the hero ambush. Most of the time it’s a generic hero, however on large teams, this can turn into a signature hero like Back Alley Brawler. You have to defeat this hero and his/her escort to succeed at the mayhem.

Now, one of the tricks about ambushes are, if you are on a team, the ambush will actually be divided up to go after individuals on the team. Thus if your team is all over creation in a mayhem and you are trying to defeat the entirety of the hero ambushes group, this could prolong things or even make the mayhem fail if you can’t find the one Longbow that was with the heroes group.

A Guide to Sides and Time Bonuses
One thing you will instantly notice when you first enter a Mayhem Mission is that you have a count-down going. The initial time will read 15 minutes counting down to zero. This is the amount of time you have before support and help arrives in a major way and you have to evacuate (RP-wise) otherwise this is the amount of time you have before you get force booted. Don’t let this clock intimidate you, otherwise you are going to end up making mistakes.

The entire point of a Mayhem Mission is to cause as much damage, destruction and chaos as possible, to force the authorities and wannabe heroes to focus their attentions elsewhere instead of directly on you. Basically each group of PPD you take down, every item you destroy, and every side mission you do increases the time on the clock for you, representing from an RP perspective the destruction you are causing forcing the authorities to send their support elsewhere to calm citizens, put out fires, or give medical support.

Basically put, the bank is labeled as your primary objective, but in a Mayhem Mission, unless you really are just trying to get it over quickly, the bank is the last thing you should really ever think about. You should be destroying everything and causing as much mayhem and harm as possible.

Now note, for objects destroyed, you only get the time bonus once, so you will only ever get a one time, time bonus for cars, trucks, crates and so forth. However, each group of PPD will always give you a time bonus. As more people are added to the team, the amount that needs to be destroyed and defeated goes up. This is a gradual scaling, as a two person team will notice very little change between time awarding versus a 5 person team.

The time bonuses are as follows;
<ul type="square">[*]Each Longbow Ambush = 30 seconds[*]Each PPD group defeated = 30 seconds[*]Cars = 3 minutes[*]Barrels = 1 minute 30 seconds[*]Bus Stops = 1 minute[*]Fire Hydrants = 1 minute[*]Newsstands = 1 minute[*]Telephones = 1 minute[*]Parking Meters = 1 minute[*]Crates = 1 minute 30 seconds[*]Cardboard Boxes = 1 minute[*]Dumpsters = 1 minute[*]PPD Car = 1 minute[*]PPD Van = 1 minute[*]Van = 1 minute[/list]
Now, besides the above methods of wanton destruction, you also have side missions to gain even more time. These special sides are noted in each specific instance by special NPCs such as clockwork, Skulls, Family and so forth. When you get close to the group, they will actually announce what type of key they hold for the side they do, for instance, if they say they say that some villain was captured then it’s a Jail break side. If they say that they are setting bombs, then it is an arson side. The number of these sides depend on the Mayhem Mission you are in as follows;
<ul type="square">[*]Atlas Park = 1[*]King’s Row = 2[*]Skyway City = 2[*]Steel Canyon = 3[*]Independence Port = 3[*]Talos Island = 4[*]Brickstown = 4[*]Founders’ Falls = 5[*]Peregrine Isle = 5[/list]
To get access to these sides, you must defeat the group, which holds the key to the specific door you need. The only exception to this is the Jail Break side, which you can enter without the key. Once you have defeated all the minions, you will get a message saying Key Found and your map will highlight with the side mission marker, except for Jail Break.

To complete the side and get the time bonus you must complete the objective, which varies from side to side. Jail Break you must defeat the guards guarding the cell. Smash &amp; Grab you actually have two objectives for two bonuses by getting all the glowies in the front room and back vault. Kidnap you must get the kidnapee and take them to the Mayhem entrance. Arson you must set all the fire bombs. And Raid you must get the glowie, which also nets you a temporary power.

The time bonuses for these sides are as follows;
<ul type="square">[*]Jail Break = 3 minutes[*]Smash &amp; Grab (front) = 5 minutes[*]Smash &amp; Grab (vault) = 6 minutes[*]Kidnap = 8 minutes[*]Arson = 4 minutes[*]Raid = 6 minutes[/list]
It should be noted that if you complete the Mayhem, only the sides and PPD officer defeats will award time bonuses. If you didn’t get a time bonus for cars, crates or any other destructible, you won’t get it after you complete the Mayhem.

This is a guide to doing villain Mayhem Missions post Issue 12. I’ve been telling myself and spouting it out occasionally, that I was going to re-write the guide I wrote a while back ago, but I kept putting it off. So here it is, the more up-to-date Mayhem Guide for all the new villains appearing with Issue 12.

The basics that will be covered in this new Mayhem Guide will be the following
How to get a Mayhem Mission and Why You Should Do Them
A Guide to Sides and Time Bonuses
Ambushes and How to Cope with Them
Strategies for Mayhem Level Brackets
The Dos and Don’ts of Mayhems for Single Play or Teams

How to get a Mayhem Mission and Why You Should Do Them
Of course, the fundamental way to get a Mayhem Mission is to first get a Broker. In the Rogue Isles, starting as early as Threat Level 5, villains will be introduced to a Broker in any of the zones after Mercy Isle. Most likely your first Broker will be in Port Oakes since that is a natural progression. When you visit your broker, they will actually teach you how to read a special code they imbed into the Rogue Isle Protector (the local newspaper for the Rogue Isles) that actually a heads up on things that can lead to some action for your would be villain.

Each zone has a specific level range that you can do Paper Missions in, such as Port Oakes range is Threat Level 5 to 15. If you are below that range you will be told that everything looks too hard for you. If you are above that range, you will be told that everything looks to be beneath you. So if you want a Mayhem Mission the first thing you need to do is go to a zone that is level appropriate for your character.

Next, you will have to prove to your Broker, for that zone, that you are worth his/her time and effort by pulling off a couple of jobs. The number of jobs you will have to pull off depends on the level range of the zone. Port Oakes (5 to 15) and Cap au Diable (10 to 20) require that you only pull off three jobs before your Broker will give you a Mayhem Mission and let you go after the big time. Sharkhead (20 to 30), Nerva Archipelago (25 to 40), St. Martial (30 to 40) and Grandville (40 to 50); the Brokers are a bit more serious about screening and weeding out the riff raff and consider themselves more of the big leagues. They will want you to pull of five jobs before they let you in on the big action. Once you’ve pulled enough jobs, they will send you a message through the paper telling you to come see them, as they have something big for you to handle.

The type of Mayhem Mission you get is dependant on the Threat Level of your character. Each Mayhem Mission is handed out in 5 level brackets and deals with a separate section of Paragon City. Each of the Mayhems are as follows;
<ul type="square">[*]Atlas Park (5 to 9)[*]King’s Row (10 to 14)[*]Skyway City (15 to 19)[*]Steel Canyon (20 to 24)[*]Independence Port (25 to 29)[*]Talos Island (30 to 34)[*]Brickstown (35 to 39)[*]Founders’ Falls (40 to 44)[*]Peregrine Isle (45 to 50)[/list]
Now, you might be asking yourself why you should do these Mayhem Missions. Well there are actually several reasons why. First reason; it’s actually a ton of experience to do a Mayhem and in the early levels, it would not even be unimaginable to gain a full level just clearing off a map. Second reason; completing each mayhem nets you a special temporary power that either grants you a special effect for a duration or helps your character with a passive effect for a duration. These durations are measured in days of playtime. Third reason; all the badges from a Mayhem Mission are connected to an accolade.

Each Mayhem Mission, upon successful completion, will grant a one-time, temporary power that anyone within the appropriate level range of the Mayhem Mission will receive. If the individual is lackeyed up to anyone, and below the level bracket of the Mayhem Mission, they will not receive the temporary power. If the individual is Malefactored down, however, they will receive the Mayhem Mission reward, as long as they have never received it before in the past.

Each of the rewards for the various Mayhem Missions are as follows;
<ul type="square">[*]Atlas Park = Flight Pack[*]King’s Row = Jump Pack[*]Skyway City = Self Res[*]Steel Canyon = Summon Team[*]Independence Port = Movement Increase[*]Talos Island = Endurance Increase[*]Brickstown = Health Increase[*]Founders’ Falls = Debt Protection[*]Peregrine Isle = Regeneration Increase[/list]
The two Accolades for Mayhems are Force of Nature and Invader. Force of Nature is received by getting all the destruction based badges throughout Mayhem missions, such as destroying cars, various pieces of property, defeating the Paragon Police, Longbow, vault doors, just a lot of random destruction and mayhem basically. When you receive this accolade, you get a power that decreases your recharge time, increases your recovery and tohit values, but will cost you some of your defense.

The other badge, Invader, is gotten by finding all the exploration badges in the Mayhem Missions. There is one badge per Mayhem Mission, so in total there are nine exploration badges for you to find. Once you find them, you get a permanent 5% health increase added to your character.

[ QUOTE ]
Not sure if this counts as an FAQ, but here it is:

What mez protection does each VEAT branch get? I'm looking for a one-stop answer in the form of:

AT/Branch -
Mag X against effect A/B/C/D via power P
Mag Y against effect E/F via power Q

etc.

Thank you in advance!

[/ QUOTE ]Widows can get mag 10.4 mez protection from Indomitable Will at level 50.

Banes can get up to mag 6 mez protection from both armors.

Crabs can get up to mag 14.3 mez protection with both armors and fortification.

[ QUOTE ]
If it makes you feel better your banner(s) are by far better than mine.

Hell most pages are better than mine. I can toss in facts and story bits till the cows come home but still lack ability to create the ooo pretty! factor.

*checks his watch* Damn cows are late again!

[/ QUOTE ]Hehe, I am not exactly good at that either, all I really do is take pictures of what I want and add them in, put captions wher eneeded and go from there. I've revised my page so many times I am sure the database groans everytime I log in.

[ QUOTE ]
the question is why did he have to have 2 hits to kill someone? LOL

[/ QUOTE ]Because of the one hit code.

That's the PvP stealth base, it's 50 feet in PvE at base I dunno the cap.

I did the ISF the other day, the healing nictus wasn't healing itself at all, or any of the other Nicti. Considering we saw spams of over 1000 points healed per heal cycle on it, that would of easily meant any damage we did would of been nullified.

However I did notice that while the healing nictus was up, the other Nicti seemed to have an increased regen. I was too busy spamming debuffs with my Spider or else I would of actually opened up my combat window to look at this.

[ QUOTE ]
Much better than Cats! I'm going to read it again and again!

P.S. What say you to the debate about Bane burst damage vs. Night Widow burst damage Silverspar? IMO Bane burst outdoes NW burst due to Surveillance, and they can bring that burst more often thanks to the faster recharge. What's your view on this?

[/ QUOTE ]My opinion, banes are more offensively minded, while widows are defensively minded. Widows have more defensive capabilities to add to a team, while a bane provides more offensive powers, and has offensive controls, such as Knockback and stuns. In this regard, I feel banes are more offensively midned, and because of faster recharge than widow attacks are capable of more damage output than widows.

And every observation I have done and tactic speaks otherwise, otherwise the nictus would heal itself.

This guide will contain spoilers. If you want to learn everything for the first time, I suggest you stop here and click the index button at the top of the forum, otherwise you were warned about spoilers

The Imperious Strike/Task Force is the latest addition with the release of Issue 12: Midnight Hour. This Strike/Task Force can be found in the zone of Cimerora. You need a minimum of 6 team members from levels 35 to 50 to be able to start it, and everyone has to be in the same zone. Once your team is assembled you are ready to start.

Mission 1: Consult the Oracle
This one is a pretty straight forward mission, or so it would seem. You head down to the docks and board a boat to go consult the Oracle to ordain your destiny. Once you exit the boat inside the Oracle caverns you will be greeted by one of the Sybil who says her sisters have been captured. She will give you a key to enter into the caverns to rescue them.

Note: Before you can proceed, you must rescue all ten of the Sybil.

This cave is pretty straight forward and it never changed no matter how many times you do the S/TF. It is full of Cimeroran Traitors and almost every group has a Surgeon with them. It should be the goal of one of your DPS members to take out the Surgeon quickly or the fight could end up getting prolonged.

Once you reach the first ‘T’ section in the cave you will want to go left. At the end you will find a big room with several Cimeroran Traitor groups and three to four of the Sybil being held captive. I do not suggest trying to fight all of the Traitors at once, they do some pretty nasty damage and can take down all but the toughest built characters in short order.

Once you’ve cleared out that section, head north, and eventually you will come to another ‘T’ section, and two more Sybil being held captive. Go right, and follow that path going past the cross-road section till you reach another big room. Here another three or four of the Sybil are being held captive. Rescue them, then head back to the cross section and head north. Follow that along till you come to a big room with a door in it and you will find another Sybil in front of the door. If you have rescued her sisters, she will give you a key to open the door and proceed. If you haven’t, she will tell you to rescue her sisters first.

Once you are outside, proceed up the side of the mountain. You will run into two more groups of Traitors on your way up. At the top you will see several groups and Sister Solaris guarded by a Minotaur. Defeat these groups to rescue Solaris and she will ask you to take her to the altar, after a bit of a conversation. Once you take her to the altar, she will get a divine light, and after a few seconds the mission will complete.

Mission 2: Destroy the Shadow Cysts
This mission sends you to a catacomb, where you go in and have to destroy 10 shadow cysts. It’s a pretty straight forward mission, with one catch; There is an ambush after each and every shadow cyst destroyed either led by a Minotaur or a Cyclops. Be careful when destroying the cysts their explosion can do some hefty damage to your team.

The cave itself tends to be in a random layout, so there is no best way to describe how to handle it.

Mission 3: Stop Romulus
This mission will feel like a long, uphill battle. Your objectives here are to defeat 100 Traitors, 5 generals, Romulus, and Romulus Phalanx. The 100 Traitors will be the east part. In fact, it wouldn’t be unusual to have all 100 defeated by the time you cross the first bridge. However, there are special events triggered at certain points. Each General defeated spawns an ambush, and several other ambushes are spawned by defeated the group of beasts, as well as the group of surgeons.

Once your group slogs its way through all the fighting, you will reach the valley and the 5th Column Giant Meks. Here you have two options. One; you can hack the turret control computers. You have to hack both of them otherwise if you don’t they will still be aggressive to your team. If you hack both computers before proceeding the turrets will turn friendly and start attacking the 5th Column. Two; You can just run in and start killing everything, whichever is your fancy.

Here, in this valley you will find Romulus, Requiem (the 5th general) and the computer control for Romulus Phalanx. The best way to usually tackle this is to destroy the Phalanx control panel first. This sounds pretty straight forward, but it has a ton of health and every 25% of health it loses it awakens the 5th Column Meks surrounding it. These Meks are boss class, so are not push overs, however, if you destroy the control panel, all the Meks will instantly be defeated.

At this point, you can get a puller to go up and pull Requiem and Romulus individually. Depending on how skilled your puller is, you can pull them alone, without their groups of friends. At this point it’s a pretty straight forward fight, and after their defeat, Requiem will drop a rather interesting clue.

Mission 4: Reclaim Cimerora
This is going to be a tough fight. Your task is to defeat 300 Traitors and Romulus and his guard. As you advance, you will find yourself getting ambushed at key points on your way to Romulus. Be sure to take this slow or your team could end up in over their heads when you are taking on a large group and an ambush spawns. Once you get to the center courtyard, there will be a short cut scene with Romulus talking to a Nictus, who will then force merge itself with Romulus converting Romulus himself into a Nictus.

At this point, carefully pull the Traitors off the center stage, to avoid the risk of aggroing Romulus and his three Nicti drones. Once you have defeated those, have someone with range grab aggro on the two groups on the columns to his left and right and take those groups out. Once those are down, you are ready to face Romulus, but this is not your typical, straight forward AV fight.

Behind Romulus you will notice 3 AV class Nicti. The one on the left is a healing Nictus. The one on the right spawns more, smaller Nicti like a shadow cyst. The middle Nictus does an auto hit AE damage attack out to about 10 feet from its center. When you defeat a Nicti, it’s death will hit everyone on your team with a magnitude 12 stun. This is basically strong enough to mez everyone, except tanks and possibly crab spiders that have all their armors. Everyone else will have to pre-pop a breakfree inspiration or use their god mode if it gives them increased mez protection.

Now, some may think the best, first target would be the left Nictus. In this case no it wouldn’t/ The Nictus doesn’t heal other Nicti, they only rely on their regen rate for healing. Your best, first target is actually the center Nictus. This guy can deliver a lot of pain and hurt in a very short time with its auto hit AE attack. It is best to range him and stay out of the AE effect, while a tank or brute tries to keep it taunted. Note: The Nicti are not prone to taunting as well as other enemies, they actually seem to have an AI different from normal critter AI and behave more like seekers and FFGs. So taunting them may not always work.

Once that Nictus is down and all your team are recovered, try to locate the healer then take it down then move onto the one that spawns other Nicti. It should be fairly easy after the damage dealer is down at that point. Trying to take Romulus down before the Nicti are down is not only difficult with the healer Nictus around, but each time you do, one of the Nicti will sacrifice themselves and res Romulus.

Romulus should be all that’s left, but be careful going after him. He might not have his Nicti, but he has some painful hits. He can literally one shot a squishy who is not careful. As Romulus health goes down, ambushes of Traitors will start to come out. It will be imperative that someone take out the surgeon quickly, otherwise you could end up watching Romulus health go up fast. Once Romulus is down, clean up any Traitors you need and collect your reward. You will get a choice window and unlock the Roman Costume Sets.

Also be sure to look around for the glowing box. One a new letter is in it. Enjoy

I dont recall having a trenchcoat option in my list, but then again, I typically don't put one on unless it fits the theme of my character.

[ QUOTE ]
Hey Silverspar,
Under Crab Spiders, do you think you could add this question and its answer?
Q: "If Crab Spiders can't access back details, can they wear trench coats?"
A: "Yes, Crab Spiders can wear trench coats."
Or is that covered under 'any' back options as well? I swear I've seen Crabs with trench coats though...
Thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]You might of saw my crab, which was wearing the tuxedo. That's a jacket and not a trenchcoat as trenchcoats typically fall under the back option.

[ QUOTE ]
This may be a glitch or exploit, but in this video I can see what appears to be a Crab in a Cape starting at 1:33 and again at 2:55, where a caped villain attacks with what seems to be the backpack.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdx4WM0jon8

If this is not an intended feature, then it must be a mistake or old beta.

[/ QUOTE ]That's an old beta build, as you can tell since hte Bane Spider still uses the peacebringer build up animation. There was a way to add a cape for a time with the backpack, but required being a crab spider, first. That bug should be fixed. So no you can't make the son of Recluse clone.

Soldiers of Arachnos F.A.Q. v1.1

[ QUOTE ]
They may be trying to get it work similar to Stalker in PvE but not PvP.

[/ QUOTE ]I doubt it, or else they would of just increased their PvE stealth radius instead. Stalkers have 150 feet of stealth radius in PvE.

As I said, it might be a bug in critter stealth. Best test example would be to take a stealth only character, and run up to a critter. If they don't aggro then I would definitely say there is a bug. Because critter perception is what it's listed right there and suppose to be how far they can aggro you at. I've been verifying that with surveillance, so I definitely think there is a bug.

[edit]

Now I know there is a bug with critter perception. I am standing not more than ten feet away from even conn longbow, without stealth and they still aren't aggroing.

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How well does the Bane Spider’s Cloaking Device work?
The Cloaking Device for Bane Spiders has a range of 50 feet on it. This gives the Bane Spider a greater ability to stealth through missions and avoid encounters if they so choose.

For comparisons, critters have these perception radii;
Minions: 45 feet
Lieutenants: 50 feet
Bosses: 54 feet


[/ QUOTE ]
This part you might want to check. Initially the bane spider/widow stealth was just sort of like regular stealth. Critter could see you if got close when to them. After a patch or 2 ago this changed. It is almost identical to stalker hide in pve except that they dont get the huge aoe defense bonus. I could stand there next to a boss and do /em boombox all day and they would never know the difference. Initially I had planned to buy a stealth IO for mine to make up the difference but after the stealth change I wont be needing it so it will go to another AT instead.

[/ QUOTE ]Checking that now actually. From what the detailed powers info is telling me the figures are the same, so either there is a bug with critter perception, or the detailed info window is bugged.

Right now the Bane Spider Cloaking Device says 5000.00 (50 feet) and the Night Widow Mask Presence is saying 4000.00 (40 feet). Maybe test with a normal stealth power to find out the truth instead as it might be a bug in critter perceptions.

Night Widow F.A.Q.
The following F.A.Q. contains information relating to the Night Widow branch for the Arachnos Widow Archetype.

<ul type="square">[*]How would a Night Widow best be described?
An aggressive assassin. Night Widows provide excellent burst damage, able to help clear out outlying spawn as well as further enhancing a team with their tactical powers and spawn controlling powers. They can deliver a staggering amount of burst damage in melee, as well as providing excellent support in the form of their smoke grenade, powers that slow and –regen attacks.
[*]What Archetype is the Night Widow most like?
Again, like all the other SoAs, there is no one Archetype the Night Widow can best be describe as. Many tend to try to compare the Night Widow to a scrapper, due to similarities in defensive number values of the Night Widow and SR stalkers, but that is a stretch in most cases. The Night Widow would better be as a burst damage specialist, providing extra support and team leadership, with capabilities to help direct attacks and take out pesky enemies.
[*]Do Night Widows get increased health?
No, they do not. They keep the same base health from 1 to 50.
[*]How does the Night Widows Mask Presence work?
Mask Presence gives the Night Widow 40 feet of PvE stealth. With this they can get closer to enemy groups for better use of their attacks for critical hits, but this does not allow them to easily stealth missions with this power alone.

For comparisons, critters have these perception radii;
Minions: 45 feet
Lieutenants: 50 feet
Bosses: 54 feet
[*]Can a Night Widow stack stealth powers?
No. Night Widow stealth is just like any other stealth power in the game, one or the other, although IO stealth and super speed stealth will stack as well as the granted stealth from the powers of others on your team.
[*]Can Night Widows perform critical hits?
Yes, they can. The Night Widow, like the Bane Spider, will get the tag of Hidden under their buff bar when they activate their Mask Presence power. When they attack from this position with a melee attack, they will deliver a 2/3rds damage critical hit to any opponent they hit. AE melee powers that they use have a 50% chance to crit from hide, and ranged powers have no chance to crit from hide.
[*]Why does the Night Widow have less choices in their primary to all the other branches?
Because the Night Widow is a natural extension of a Blood Widow, thus, in essence, if the devs chose to make the branch as large as the others, in the end it would just be repeating all the exact same powers you can already pick out of the Blood Widow branch. Since you can still keep and pick those powers that would make little sense.
[*]How are Night Widows offensively?
Night Widows emphasize the tactical assassination almost to a T, but quite capable of holding their own in any situation. Of all the SoAs, the Night Widow attacks are some of the most lethal, but they trade the lethality for longer recharge on their attacks. This would put more emphasis on figuring out the best ways to use one’s attacks instead of attacking haphazardly with little thought into one’s chain. Damage wise, they perform a staggering amount of burst damage.
[*]How are Night Widows defensively?
Night Widows are perhaps the most defensive of all the SoAs that one could possibly be. This due to their need to be in melee a lot to deliver some of the most devastating hits is also coupled by their ability to use things like Smoke Grenade to not only blind their enemies but also make it harder for them ot hit them. Coupled into that fact that Night Widow attacks also slow their enemies as well as reduce their enemies recharge dramatically. Night Widows also can get Elude, which stacked on top of their other defensive measures, can make a rather difficult opponent to land a hit on.
[*]How does Mind Link work?
Night Widow Mind Link buffs the teams tohit and defense for 90 seconds every 4 minutes. This power is unique in that it is fire and forget type power, much like Accelerate Metabolism, and best utilized in a gathered group.
[*]How does Smoke Grenade work?
Smoke Grenade can be used from a stealth position and does not drop the Night Widows hidden status. When it hits target, it reduces their perception radius as well as debuffs their tohit values, which coupled with the defense bonuses of a Night Widow make them even harder to hit. Night Widows using this in PvE could essentially stealth missions as the enemies debuffed perception would easily stack with the Night Widows stealth.
[*]How well do Night Widows solo?
Night Widows are excellent solo’rs, capable of taking down spawn fast due to the burst nature of their damage. They can also take a few AE based powers and increase their capabilities at soloing exponentially, but the Night Widow trades some of this offensive nature in the fact her attacks cost more endurance due to their higher damage and also have longer recharge than most other SoA attacks. Placing a bit more wisdom on when and where an attack would be best utilized would help take the Night Widow further.
[*]How good are Night Widows on teams?
Night Widows provide staggering debuffs in –regen, -recharge, and –speed. This coupled with their Mind Link and defensive capabilities make them ideal for handling single target enemies. Their burst damage nature, like the Bane Spider, makes it easy for them to go from one target to the next without losing stride, and can also provide some decent AE back up support if the situation calls for it. Night Widows can deliver some devastating hits, but as mentioned have some long recharges on their attacks, so do not fall under well for shock trooper like Bane Spiders would. However, with the defense they can provide, a Night Widow could potentially hold off a dangerous enemy from squishier targets with their confront power.[/list]

Fortunata F.A.Q.
The following F.A.Q. contains information relating to the Fortunata branch of the Arachnos Widow Archetype.

<ul type="square">[*]How would a Fortunata best be described?
A Fortunata is a heavily ranged based AT with a lot of single target and AE based control attacks. Their primary damage type is also psi damage, which is powerful against a lot of enemies, but also weak against certain others. They are best utilized at range only going in for closer attacks when they are sure everything is under control.
[*]What Archetype is the Fortunata most like?
Again, comparing the Fortunata to other Archetypes tends to draw wrong conclusions, but in this instance, the Fortunata is closer in respect to a control and semi-blaster. They are best utilized at range, putting everything under control for a team, and blasting them for damage, then swooping in and hitting everything with their AE powers, like Psychic Wail, that also does not have an endurance crash.
[*]Do Fortunatas get increased health?
No, they do not. They keep the same base health even after branching.
[*]How strong is the Fortunata’s Mask Presence?
Mask Presence gives the Fortunata 40 feet of PvE stealth. With this they can get closer to enemy groups for better use of their AE powers, but this does not allow them to easily stealth missions with this power alone.

For comparisons, critters have these perception radii;
Minions: 45 feet
Lieutenants: 50 feet
Bosses: 54 feet
[*]Can a Fortunata stack stealth powers?
No. Fortunata stealth is just like any other stealth power in the game, one or the other, although IO stealth and super speed stealth will stack as well as the granted stealth from the powers of others on your team.
[*]Can a Fortunata perform a critical hit?
Only if they take a melee power from their Blood Widow pool. Otherwise no ranged power can perform a critical hit.
[*]How are Fortunatas offensively?
Fortunatas are a ranged fighter, they also have some of the faster recharging attacks. This allows them to provide more DPS regularly, but at a lower amount of damage. They can also put out a lot of control in their ability to KB, stun, hold, and confuse targets fast and effectively. Being that their damage is psi, this does not make them effective against psi resistant enemies, however it doesn’t mean they are completely useless either.
[*]How are Fortunatas defensively?
Fortunatas have a surprisingly high base defense after specific powers are taken. This is further enhanced by their ability to control and lock down spawn, or use the spawn to their advantage. Furthermore, with their ability to stealth, they can get in closer to help utilize their AE powers and effects to greater use, and thus provide them even more defense early on.
[*]How does Mind Link work?
For Fortunatas, this power increases defense and tohit for 90 seconds every 5 minutes at base. Basically a Fortunata would prefer the group to be together to fire the power off, as it acts much like Accelerate Metabolism, in that it is fire and forget.
[*]How does Psychic Wail work?
Psychic Wail for Fortunatas is unique from other nuke powers in that it does not come with an endurance crash. It basically does damage, and delivers a stun to enemies that are affected by it, but due to the no crash portion, this power does not have the natural increased accuracy that other nukes have.
[*]How does Aura of Confusion work?
This is another nuke like power that the Fortunata has. It’s an AE centered on the Fortunata that will affect anything caught by the blast and confuse them. It can be a great opener for large groups if the Fortunata can sneak in and fire it off before she get’s noticed.
[*]How well do Fortunatas solo?
Fortunatas capabilities to solo rely on their ability to control the spawn then move in for the kill. As their attacks are psi based they also have an inherent -recharge in most of them, with a few adding additional control through KB, immob, or stunning of opponents. The only weakness in soloing that a Fortunata would have is against psi resistant enemies.
[*]How good are Fortunatas on teams?
Like all the SoAs, the Fortunata excels on a team, especially when other SoAs are present. In this case providing heavy control support and ranged damage output. The stealth power allowing the Fortunata to get in as close as possible before firing off AE attacks for maximum potential as well as keeping targets stationary or within patches of other team members can help make this a valuable asset. Coupled with the power of a Fortunatas Mind Link, a team can become quite the defensive juggernaut.[/list]