MaestroMavius

Duo run netted me my first Rare!
My partner got a Common.

One of the very first robots I made in game, Kintetic Flux, was already level 18 before someone pointed out his origin was Natural.
I'd just been messing around in the creator and forgot to change it! /Doh.

I quickly came up with a background, since I was loving the character and name.
I decided he was a sentient robot from a dimension were machines were the dominant lifeforms. Natural origin robot!

Uncommon (resulting in my very first level shift!)

Yes please!

Indeed, I have no issue with basic IO's being used, to keep from having to re buy every few levels.

I'd be willing to say I was okay with sets being used, as long as they were the same for both, if it wasn't for the base levels being different that is.

Not only Dream Doc, but new Tsoo in DA have them as well, they're quite effective against players.

Yeah, just pointing out, for the record. Last night the curiosity over the Stalker buff got me and not having anything else I wanted to play...
I turned my Staff concept into a Stalker instead.

That's another lost or significantly delayed sale...

Just sayin'


(How sad is it that I'm hoping not to enjoy him so I do end up rerolling him as Staff. )

I thought the trials didn't get adjusted based on the difficulty slider, but rather team size though.

Good to know.

Indeed.

Hopefully a dedicated LF... Wait, I don't wanna get redacted, lets just say hopefully the next issue might solve some of these concerns.

Guys, I seriously doubt any of our Mods would outright Ban someone for posting a build in the wrong section.

In fact, I'm willing to bet money they wouldn't.

The most they would do is move it to the appropriate section and or delete it outright, if that isn't an option and send a warning PM to the poster.

What I'm getting at is, I don't think us vets are getting a true picture of the current teaming dynamic, due to our;
A)Knowledge of the game and systems.
B) Core group of friends/SG's to roll with.

Even taking Freedom into consideration, being the default top pop server, finding teams is nowhere near as easy as it used to be, if you don't already have that pre-built social connection in game.

Various reasons for this, none of which have to do with dwindling population numbers, rather things like I-trials and ouro portals etc spreading us out.

It's easy for us to assume that finding teams is a breeze, because for us it is, for new players though, the reality if much different.

If you aren't already established and active in a global channel you might as well not bother requesting a team there.
9/10 your request will be ignored entirely as the players that know each other continue conversations without missing a beat. So then you have the choice of spamming the request, or just joining in the conversation and hoping to get another chance to ask. This is relayed from a friend that was brand new, after giving him the advice to join some Globals.

So I taught him how to use the team window to search for members, he'd bought some points so he could send tells even... He could form teams for DfB in seconds flat, so I knew he wasn't having trouble. Forming teams for regular content though? Not so much. He ended up rage quitting over it, much to my shock.

It was that shock that made me realize how different it is now. Long gone are the days of rampant blind invites. We form teams with ease because we've been doing it for years and know all the ins and outs, not to mention having a good size group of global friends.

Just pointing out that it isn't that cut and dry. Telling new players to join Globals isn't the end all solution we want to think it is sadly. There is a distinct lack of teaming going on these days, outside of regular play groups, simply due to the fact that we have global lists to go to first, thereby taking us out of the equation.

So if you've got a tip for finding teams without relying on those pre-existing foundations, please share! I'd love to be able to help others with it. Issue 23 may bring some help for this though.

(Reminder: I'm in no way saying the population is down, just that the dynamics of teaming have changed.)

There is a reason it's against the law to yell Fire! in a public space...

Text mediums are even worse, as they leave very little method of sarcasm or impersonation detection. With the demographic of FB users... I can imagine a few grandmas that had never even heard of the Joker taking it seriously.

That remains the most confusing part for me. Everyone on Beta was screaming for them to be reversed in release order, even the ones that had no desire for Staff and only wanted BM.
They were willing to wait to get the kinks worked out.

For my own theory, I think the bad vibe surrounding BM, with the whole Bear ordeal et al, really soured the Dev's on it and at that point, they just wanted to be done with it. As they have altered the 'set in stone' releases in the past, notably Incarnates from GR, I don't see that being the issue. It not being ready for primetime but getting pushed live regardless while something that is ready goes into hiding, is a bit of a head scratcher.

*Shrugs*

The Tsoo in DA using Staff appear to still have the orignal updated sounds still.

That said, in the chaos of most battles, it's barely worth noting.

This was never intended to be a scientific study.
This, if I'm correct, was more intended to be a 'how do they compare in feeling and performance to me' kind of journal.
One we can continue to use as a catalyst for discussion.

I happen to find this experiment to be interesting and useful just for my own perceptions, YMMV.

Old habits die hard?

Back in 'tha day™' the area under Atlas' globe was the spot to hang out.
No matter what time you logged in, or server for that matter, you would never see less than 20 or so Heroes milling about. I still recall how amazed I was that very first time I zoned into Atlas and looked up at the Globe. There must've been a hundred or so Heroes on the platform, with numerous others flying and leaping about. Really made a great visual impact.

Over the years though, advents like easier access to travel powers/ more temp travels, Ouro portals and numerous new zones, the platform gradually started seeing less and less traffic.
AE, GR and Incarnate trials put the final nail in the 'glory day's coffin, finally spreading out the population enough.

These days, it's not uncommon to log into Virtue's Atlas at 4pm and only see 2 others in the area. Until the DfB teams reappear that is.

So, the lone 50 silent sentinels? Speaking for myself, it's a habit I haven't managed to fully break yet. When I get done for the day playing wise, I do what I used to and head over to Atlas. Finding nobody else just standing there... I usually pull up /ah and do some shopping.

My playtime has been significantly reduced, while awaiting Staff, as well.

I started to roll up a new Scrapper the other night when I hit the 20 hour wall in DA, then I realized I'd be making a new one a week later with Staff, so I held off. Having nothing else appealing... I logged.

So, what *did* hit the store today?

I would imagine some of it has to do with the ability to Hide, making stealthing such a viable option on the Stalker, bypassing some mobs more than the blaster.

The Blaster on the other hand, would have to approach each mob more carefully and in the end, that adds time that the Stalker doesn't have to take.

Correct me if I'm wrong but we can't actually be shocked by anything on 'Live' before the secret is known by virtue of the open Beta these days, right?

Anything that hits the market, would have to be on Beta first and therefor would be known well in advance, unless they have an internal Beta that they could...

Hmm...

Think you nailed it with the last half of your last sentence.

The WST was set-up to get the seldom played TFs more action. No need to have it be one that gets routinely run regardless.

That said, isn't Terra Volta a 'trial'? Bah, I haven't bothered with it since Vetspecs were introduced...