Memphis_Bill

Looks like a victim of editing.

Or sharks.

Heh. Went looking for "jaws" for a shark for the panda, saw that, had to do it

Well, part of this depends on just what the guide is on, too.

That said, I would never, never, *never* do what I did with AE's release again. I loved doing it, and was glad I could put all that information out there, but it was a LOT of work and AE's changed a bit (power combinations, getting various amounts of XP, etc.) - and I haven't updated. I haven't actually *kept* up to date - and writing that pile of guides ended up being more stress at the end and burned me out on writing anything for a good while.

(Want to see what I mean, go to guides, search for "Threads started by" and my forum handle. MA Tutorial ### series.)

On the other hand, stuff like the Combat Attributes monitor mini-guide or the "Raising a Peacebringer" one won't need a lot of updating, and the PVE'ers Guide to PVP, while it *could* use some tweaks, will probably be able to stand as-is until the devs actually revisit PVP... which I'm not holding my breath for.

I'd still agree with the meat of what Local_Man said, though - the guides are by players, for players, and other than some satisfaction in doing it and helping out (much the reason for hanging out in the Help channel, too,) there's not a lot of reward for what can be a lot of work. That's offputting for some people.

Isn't that a sandwich?

/thread

Though there's not even the need for a "/disagree" post.

OK, we take points.

Thanks to gleemail, and assuming I can't just transfer a character to this server (more coding to consider, by the way,) I can get a character PL'd up to 50 and send the PVP IOs, INf, whatever I need over to the new character.

It doesn't even have to be purpled out or use PVP IOs. All *I'm* doing is newbie/lowbie hunting. Sure, if you kill me you get (say) 50 points, but I'll put up a fight. Those lowbies? They take a few seconds to stop and kill and give me 5 points a piece. Assuming there are enough of them - and this sort of behaviour would probably discourage anyone from playing normally, so that population would dwindle - I can probably start outfitting myself with that rather fast.

Now, I know one of the usual solutions is a "police force" - playing Aion, for instance, we had rifting. A higher level would zip into the level 20 area (lowest level you could PVP) and just start taking out people. Eventually the 40-50s (level cap, IIRC, was 50 then) would get together and try to hunt them down, but they'd either take the death and swap to another character, or log out - it didn't stop them, just put a pause in their plans. (I was often *in* one of these hunting parties trying to find the ones attacking lowbies. Got probably 1/3 of my kills as assists that way.)

Once those lowbies become scarce (everyone goes to AE and Pls to 50, barring the occasional newbie,) or even if I decide not to do that - well, as I said, the PVP-interested population is low, a smaller percentage would go there. What's to keep me from farming a second account? We've got a LOT of empty space, after all (what are the 50s going to do? Get exemped down and have powers taken away to run a TF, leaving them vulnerable?) so it's probably very easy for me to set up a farm with some buddies and "earn" kills that way.

Which brings up another point - how is this points system going to deal with exemplaring? Is it going to see your level 47 as a level 20 when running Posi, or SSK'd down? SSKing could turn into "reverse griefing," too - sucker someone into attacking your "lowbie," gaining nothing from the attack - only to swap leaders and have everyone at 49-50. Or decide "You're about to kill them, we're going to make sure you don't get anything" and swap from a "point" level to a lowbie in "non-point" level when you go for the kill.

You can't, here, treat a low level as "no threat," either (and thus not worth those points.) They may not be able to fight you directly with any effectiveness, but with buffs and debuffs they can make a *big* difference (many don't scale percentage-wise with level.) And some get those buffs or debuffs very early.

Last, the rules *are* relaxed in a PVP zone, officially. Several acts that would be worthy of action (training mobs onto others, "kill stealing" and other forms of interference) are seen as perfectly OK in PVP. (Even the devs have taken part in it.) So the complaints, other than abuse of game geometry (which is frowned on, or was,) would mostly fall on deaf ears. Unfortunately, many people who might try out the server ("passing interest" in PVP, "casual" PVP) would likely be turned off by these allowed acts of "griefing."

Right. Because you've seen the code and know exactly what it would take, versus, oh, a "help" dialog and/or help system listing with the info.

/agrees.

After all, *I* can be a miserable sod at times. I can recognize it. And that definitely looks like someone being one.

Taser, we've talked (and played together) in game. You're normally much more fun than that. Have the Shadows planted a Keeper on you? You're on pinnacle, you know how to counter that! Drink, man, drink! Reclaim yourself!

(And really, I lean more towards Silver's post.)

Well, since everyone needs a "so patriotic it'll make you allergic to Apple Pie for life (if you're in the US, otherwise, change for regional patriotic-ness)" character, here's mine:



Enough bright, obnoxious red?

(I need to get regular capes unlocked on her, actually - this looks incomplete without one.)

Er...

Few minor quibbles here.
1. Thermal doesn't add to your defense. You mention "not getting hit in the first place is better," which is true, but Thermal is a *resist* set. Even Forge, it's analog to Fortitude (sort of) is just +Dmg +Tohit, no +Def. So you're still getting hit - just not as hard.

2. Pain gives up that +res, of course, outside of World of Pain - no argument there - but it does also have some nice features of its own (+Regen, a few powers with a bit of +Dmg, +speed/+recharge and the like,) as well as deuffs (well, one, Anguishing Cry - which does affect both the enemy's defense *and* resistance.)

If anything, the choice is going to hinge on playstyle and henchmen - if you're running into combat with your Ninjas or hanging back with ranged pets, Pain is going to be more useful (with all the PBAOEs) than Thermal. If the pets are going to run away from you (or you from them,) or it's a "split" melee/range set like, oh, Thugs, Thermal provides some longer-lasting protection in the form of the applied shields. Picking the "wrong" set to pair with your minions and playstyle is going to make the experience worse.