Memphis_Bill

I've gone since Issue 3 seeing costumes that would have been improved by mashing the "Random" button. Through all the waves of, as mentioned, "Onoes, it's going to be City of nero/archers/anime/this/that/theother."

Know what? Better to just worry about yourself. If you "see the stupid things," as you put it, you won't see them for long. They'll keep passing by, or you can leave the team (or they can,) and it's not likely you'll see them all so frequently that it'll make one whit of difference.

Leave it as a molehill.

My only response is - "Then don't make one."

It's MORE options for people to come out with their concepts. And given the whole Freedoom announcement, the more people playing, the more people getting nickel-and-dimed and giving money to PS.

I doubt I'd use them either (aside from the railroad crossing sign - I think I'll make a companion character to Louisville Slaughter,) but I'm not going to complain they're in game. You'll note we don't have "City of Anime" already, or "City of Nero" from adding trenchcoats or any of the other rather silly complaints about costume/weapons. (I wasn't fond of "Overly large compensating for somethign sword/polearm" in Aion, either, where they were far more common - but I didn't complain. And I might just remake, and actually level, this guy.)

In summary - don't like it, don't make it. Nobody's forcing you to.

Eh... It doesn't really say specifically. The BP (and the whole banishing war) took place over in Africa, after all. There's no telling when the Sleeper was bound (and/or put to sleep.) The old Prima guide actually names him as Mot, but where they got that information, I don't recall. People keep confusing it with Adamastor, as well, but that's a completely different creature.

It's quite possible that the Sleeper was totally separate, and just (relatively) recently discovered by the BP. It is an *old* creature, though.

Dark Astoria dialog shows COT having *very* good knowledge of the Sleeper being bound and being aware of those bindings being affected - and working to reinforce them to counter the BP rituals. To me, at least, it's strongly inferred.

Fairly certain I used an in-game contact, Kong Bao - who gives Tsoo missions anyway - for the contact, since he's tied with them in game. Never checked to see that the in-game bio transferred, I suppose. I'll have to snag it - he is supposed to be the same guy from Skyway, after all.

Thanks for the input - like I said, working on a laundry list to freshen this up.

Last word was "No."

Given this "If you're not subscribed, you drop down to Free or Premium," I can see why, I suppose - but I have no idea what, if anything, they can do like that script at this point.

"Everyone" isn't. VIP - yes. Premium or Free - no. And before that? People sitll have to buy it... but it's the *only* edition I've seen on the shelves in most places anyway. So new folks? They're not "buying GR." They're buying COH.

Does it suck it's happening this soon after release? Sure. There was a longer period of time before the people who bought COV separately saw everyone get it - and I *guarantee* I paid more for COV than you did for GR, since I got the collectors edition at release. But "Everyone" isn't getting it. People who are *paying* are. And if we looked at the numbers, I'd *suspect* a good chunk of subscribers have already BOUGHT GR anyway.

Is it a surprise it's happening? Nope. It was expected by many here that GR would be "rolled into" the main COH/COV "package" eventually.

It doesn't matter. It's listed in case you're planning (or respeccing) a character, so you know at level (say) 43, you're putting slots in certain locations.

Or, if you're respeccing a high enough character... well, you can ignore them.

Slot level really doesn't matter, game-wise. They don't go away if you exemplar below the level you put them in, for instance - once placed, they're always there even if you ex down.

Text to speech.

Of course, you can always use the speech recognition software built into windows seven if you want, though it can be slow and given some interesting results. (I'm actually using its four this part of this post, and rather surprised the results aren't worse.)

Yep, because nobody in THIS game is an altaholic!

Sums it up nicely. The people making the farms don't care about your one one-star of their farm. They just care that they'll have something to farm for tickets or XP or whatever they're aiming for (or just "a map to beat stuff up as stress relief" - I'll admit to doing that, but I don't leave them published... and I don't think anyone would really, seriously see "I feel like beating on a mound of Carnies" as a realistic farm!)

I'd still say at least go into it and see if your assumption of what it is is correct, though (though with description of "farm," well, that can be a moot point.)

Simple answer: Consider them two separate characters.

Slightly more complex answer:
Say I have an Emp/Psi. (Which I do.) I have a "Team" build and a "Solo" build.

On the team build, I'm more concerned with heals and buffs, with only a few blasts. I set tray 1 up as:
Heal aura - Heal other - Absorb Pain - Clear Mind - Fort - Blast.

When I create the second build, I skip a lot of the team powers (it's a solo build.) I'll find my trays are clear (well, cluttered) but can set up Tray 1 as:
Heal aura - Blast - Blast - Blast - Snipe (for instance.)

As I switch builds, it switches whatever is in the trays - you do *not* need to set "Trays 1-2-3 as build 1, trays 4-5-6 as build 2," for instance. The appropriate powers will be filled in.

As much as I don't tend to like this... at least this isn't the case.

VIP - you're paying your sub. You basically get everything, and get 400 points a month (think that's what they threw) - which you can use in the store. Booster packs are going away for an item store.

(*vomits a little at that.*)

Premium, you're not paying but you've "bought something in the past" so you get a few more perks, but will have to buy access to other stuff.

/this.

If I want to get away, where do I put my 300+ characters? That's not even getting started on name conflicts for different versions of the same character.

/this.

Maybe not "more disturbing," but I *far* prefer starting in Galaxy as opposed to Atlas.

/bets on them "forgetting" and making Warshades not have a starting contact for at least the first week after.

If you want to ignore the data and the way it's considered by the *only* group that has access to ALL of it and just argue on perception, well, there's no point.

The only ones with access to how an AT is performing across the entire game would be the development staff. If they're satisfied, they're satisfied. If they say an AT is not performing -survivability wise - then it's not. Given that blasters were notorious "pavement inspectors," I'd say perception fit their actual data rather well.

Otherwise, its' just arguing "I like this!" "You like that!" and trying to convince each other we're wrong. In which case I'll just say, if you don't like how defenders solo, don't roll one. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

That's such a generic statement it's not worth arguing, as it leaves out - well, *everything.* What rewards? Am I comparing running my Emp/Rad to an IO'd out tank farming for purples?

The only definitive answer I can give you is this, really:
When I reach 50 on a character, I go and find someone with an "M" name to see how long it has taken to get there. My defenders have not been noticably slower than any other AT - and I play *every* AT, having at least one of each at 50 (and often more than one.)

My average 1-50 time has been about 125 hours in the last - eh, two years (barring characters that are very old and dusted off after some time to finish them, which tend to be in the 200 range.) My playstyle includes a mix of soloing and teaming, of course, but I don't tend to solo more or team more on any particular AT.

IF Defenders were so much worse at soloing, I'd expect to see them running *noticably* longer. (say, 160 hours versus 125 for everything else.)

This, of course, is completely subjective, as it's *my* experience with *my* characters. Yours may be different (and sounds like it is.)

(I will, as an aside, also point out that for an AT you're so disappointed with, it has been the source of some nasty PVP FOTMs - seem to recall Rad/Psy being one. But we're looking at individual sets again - and just in general, the sets can vary in performance drastically depending on how they're paired, and what you put them against, PVE or PVP.)

These days, *everyone* should be laughing at debt -though I'd like to see that reference for the latest datamining they've told us about (that led to defiance 2.0.)

Regardless, unless you can find some other independently verifiable metric, it's all the information we have to go by that isn't "I think" and "I feel."

You don't seem to have paid attention to what I was saying, then.
What's your definition of "worse?"

Most damage? I believe I mentioned earlier that, yes, they have low damage, though depending on sets they can adjust that themselves.

My Defenders can solo in greater safety than my Blasters, as a general rule. Does that mean the blasters are "worse" at soloing?

My Defenders tend to do more damage than many of my Controllers. Does that mean controllers are "worse" at soloing?

If you want them to solo at the speed of a scrapper, then duh, they solo "worse." Nobody makes a defender to be a damage powerhouse. I don't *believe* anyone really makes a "Farming Defender."

In my reply, I pointed out issues you brought up such as "survivability" are flawed, at least in the way you put them, where it seemed you were linking it (at least in my reading) directly to the fact they have low hit points. If I read that wrong in seeing that as what you were saying - well, it doesn't greatly detract from the rest of what I said.

It's called an example. You did see the "For instance" when I pointed out *a* combination, after providing examples of some of the effects available in defender sets, correct? Or, for instance, saying "some sets" offer mez protection, while other sets offer other tools earlier in the post. I did not say that specific combination was the entire AT. That is YOUR assumption. Do you NEED me to hold your hand and go through every single combination of Defender primary and secondary?

The fact you used the description of "Mutually exclusive" powers in what I pointed out strongly indicates you didn't comprehend what was being said.

Also, in your reply to Arcanavile:
while I'm not going to touch tanks, Blasters not having the desired survivability - "Underperforming" - is not *her* analysis. It was stated directly by the developers that they were - which is why we were given Defiance 2.0. By comparison, when Defenders are brought up, they're generally seen as the baseline (survivability and performance-wise) that others are measured against. They don't qualify that as solo vs teamed, just as overall performance.

You can, if you want, take that as being "the worst," though it's more "the average" or "the expected."

Edit:

"The worst performing," for me (as an example that comes to mind, and walking out of Defender territory) is low to mid level Illusion, especially with a secondary like FF or Sonic. It's so dependent on PA, but instead has a confuse (takes time,) a long-recharge AOE hold, a ST damage, a ST hold... soloing my Ill/Sonic was, for most of its life, painful. On a team, it brought quite a bit. Solo, it was a lot of waiting and a fair bit of running (or just being invisible.)

I haven't run across a Defender set or pairing like that, outside of specific *situations* (emp/psi against robots, for instance, is slow going.) But that's true of most ATs - some sets (or ATs in general, like 18-23 MMs vs Scrapyarders) are going to have things they struggle against. But I wont' characterize the entire AT as having problems JUST on that basis.

Have to agree with this. This is the first thing to answer. (That and "Are you happy with it now?)

Personally, I don't bother with softcaps. *shrug* If I need more def for a fight, I chew a purple. But I'm not everyone. I still generally suggest balance.