MrSlowburn

I had more fun in PvP with an elec/elec brute than with anything else. Being a PvE person 95% of the time I did my best to optimize my defense and still put out some decent offense. I had no trouble soloing 4 turrets at the pillboxes but my damage was just horrible when fighting scrappers and tankers. The set needs a damage boost to be useful in PvP. My PvE brute on test was barely about level 10 and I had problems in PvE at that point but I could relaibly build Fury since the AI doesn't use maneuvers like leaping in and out with an attack queued.

I really enjoyed using Lightning Rod. A few controllers tried using forcefields or bonfire to keep me away but using Lightning rod to port right next to them solved that problem. I'm looking forward to using this set when it goes live.

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SG size issues, such as basing membership on account rather then character -They looking into it, but its not a high priority because relatively few supergroups are running out of space.

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Um, what the heck are they smoking? With alts in a SG, it only takes 20-25 people to max out SG (or be close to this.)

Just because you only have 72 or so, doesn't mean you didn't want more people in the SG.

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QFT

Much of my SG consists of altoholics like me or people with multiple 50s and too much free time on their hands. We've got coalitioned splinter groups to handle the larger numbers but none of the prestige those alts earn can go to supporting the main SG base.

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Wow, I have a mind/psy dominator. And while the New mayhem missions made me feel really weak and pathetic, and PVP always makes me feel like i picked the worse too ever. I solo on relentless, and I have, basically since I managed to do my respec and got rid of TD and that lovely attack Mental Blast.

I die a bit when i duo/trio but that's because I tend to play a bit too much like a Brute.

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Fishw0rk said Mayhem Missions were gonna suck for /Psi's lol. I'm just glad I went /Energy. Everything seems to be weak to Energy in mayhem missions.

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Only the doors suck for /psi in mayhem missions. Don't get defeated or you'll spend 5 minutes brawling down the door to get out. I was 2 shotted by an EB Statesman with about 6 minutes till the timer ran out. I had a minute left by the time I got free from the jail.

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I don't know if dominator pets will attack the door if you have died and summon them from inside the jail cell.

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Mine didn't help at all, it just stood there collecting flies. I had a brute friend with me on my mission and it helped to have him open the doors for me.

A few things about the mayhem missions I was on last night.

1. Targetable citizens means distracted pets. My plant would stand around trying to immobilize a citizen just inside the door to the jail instead of help me fight the dangerous targets inside. Making citizens targetable is one thing but when a cowering citizen keeps all of my pet's aggro that just isn't fun.

2. Was running a friend's mayhem mission with him and ran in to a red con EB named Statesman. He almost one shot me but I survived only to get 2 shotted by him a few short seconds after I was back at full health. I couldn't hold him despite Domination being active. I've held every AV in the game, at least temporarily when the triangles allow it, only to be shown I can't hold an EB despite stacking multiple holds on him with their magnitude doubled from Domination.

3. Love the temp powers given out at the end of the mission. I got Life Insurance for my first one.

4. Side objectives are fun. I got a 4 minute bonus for setting a building on fire. Aside from rescuing a villain, that is all I was able to find last night.

Good effort on this one, I truly felt like a villain on these missions.

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Pos, any word on any changes for Dominators?

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There is a positive change for Dominators in Issue 7.

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Any kind of hint as to what that might be and did the change come from datamining, observation, or combing through the flames on the dom boards?

Fungal picked herself up and looked squarely at the glowing creature in front of her. The attack had hurt. Without warning, waves of energy began to flow from the heroes around her. Quickly her health began to get better.

"You need to pay more attention to me!" shouted Fungal as her eyes began to shimmer with a pink glow. In an instant a flash of light was let loose and Fungal was awash in various colors of the rainbow. Waves of psychic energy started to emanate from the dominator, followed by a barrage of seeds and vines. Cabin Girl and Ratchet were now engulfed in a patch of thorn covered vines and were now moving at a much slower pace. Fungal caught a glimpse of fear in the eyes of Cabin Girl as she was rooted in place by vines that had wrapped themselves around her.

"Still laughing now shorty?" asked Fungal with a sneer. "I'm going to enjoy finishing you off after I take care of this pirat*urk*".

Fungal had forgotten completely about the fire controller she was fighting before Ratchet had gotten involved.

"I think someone needs to take their own advice and pay more attention to the man she was already fighting." said Mr Slowburn, now free of the imps that had been confused. "Now face the wrath of living fire!"

The new batch of fire imps were still outside visual range to see the choking plant creature. Mr Slowburn jumped over top to the edge of the vine patch and increased the density of Cabin Girl and Ratchet, breaking the strangle hold the vines had on them. The fire imps, notorious for being as smart as a sack of hammers with half the attention span, bypassed the dominator and went straight for the vines in the patch.

"Oh well, you can lead an imp to combat but you can't make it fight the right target." said Slowburn with a half-hearted chuckle. "I've got this situation under control, you two go help take down those two brutes."

"Can we keep the chatter to a minimum, there's plenty of time to monolgue after the fight when we're wiping these heroes off our boots." shouted Fungal as she laid down a patch of Carrion Creepers. Vines sprouted up from underneath Mr Slowburn's fire imps. The controller reacted by firing off some kinetic buffs to get the imps back in to the fight.

"So that's how you want to play huh... Thanks for buffing my new pets!" said Fungal as she blanketed the heroes with her confusion seeds. It wasn't as effective as she had hoped since the imps just started attacking each other. "Oh well, at least they are occupied." she thought as she released various psychic attacks.

"Hey Teen Tar, mind if we switch dance partners?" yelled Mr Slowburn, unaware that Teen Tar Heel was unable to respond, as he powered up and started letting loose kinetic siphons on the screaming zombie one of the brutes. Taking on two brutes and a corruptor could be difficult.

Overhead, Headace Healer was doing his best to heal the wounded heroes. If he could just avoid being attacked he should be able to keep the EN going until they could simply outlast the villains. Noticing Teen Tar Heel fall he flew down and locked Screech in a telekinetic attack. He could maintain this hold for a while, hopefully long enough to revive Teen Tar Heel. HH felt a boost in speed thanks to Mr Slowburn. "Perhaps the right angle would allow me to push some of these villains together." thought HH as he turned towards the fight. He managed to catch Fungal in the hold and could see her slowly floating away. Rube was right in the middle of HH's telekinetic arc but still holding his ground. HH fired off a quick mez but Rube was still holding his ground and moving closer.

HH didn't have much time. He concentrated for a few seconds and slowly Teen Tar Heel stood up.

"Time for you to get back into this fight. I believe you need to serve one of your favorite dishes... Payback."

HH could only marvel at the devastation PharmaHawk had wrought. Friend and foe alike had been lying motionless until Neut-trino had somehow summoned the strength to effectively drain every ones endurance. Everyone but me thought HH. The familiar blue ripples of Recovery Aura emanated from the defender.

"Time to move in my friends. We may have arrived a little late to fight but it looks like we can mop things up. Everyone on me as we move in."

The extraction team moved towards the fallen EN. As they got close, HH could see Tar Heel and Mr Slowburn still lying motionless on the ground. Slow was unconscious but by the way he looked he must have managed to phase before PH had fully finished, saving him from what would have been a much worse fate. Tar Heel was a different story. His body was twisted and almost unrecognizable.

"There are two empaths here and neither of you can do anything to help Tar. I know he's been a bad boy lately but he's still our friend." shouted HH as he stood before PH and Neut-trino.

"We've been altered in some way. Neither of us have the healing powers we once used to." replied PH.

HH looked down at Tar Heel and attempted to heal the fallen tanker. No good. Something deeper was wrong. Something seemed to have penetrated his very soul. There was a spark of life still there but it was weak and tainted by some unknown force.

"What did you do PH, I don't know if I can bring him back. We need to get him to a medical facility right away. Slow will be okay after some rest but Tar needs serious help." said HH, not even looking at the other EN.

"I see something large approaching. Looks like one of our helicopters." said Super Swamp. "That should be able to airlift Tar back to the base."

"I hope you are right SS. I don't know if we'll be able to save him even if we do get him back. He's got a faint pulse but I'm not picking up any neural activity from him." said HH. "This just doesn't look good."

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The mag 100 Stun is being replaced with a more standard stun (duration based, normal magnitude.)

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Thank you very much.

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Yeah, great for the melees, worse for those without status protection.

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Yup. I don't run any toggles on my dominator so this just gives me another reason to avoid Longbow missions when I solo. I have seen first hand the insta-debt the current version causes so I can understand the need for a change but now you need to find a way to balance it for the squishies.

"You've made an interesting proposition. Stay within an organization with nearly limitless resources or branch off with a renegade arbiter." Slowburn stepped back slightly. The fire in his eyes intensified slightly. A flick of his wrist threw three small balls of flame on the ground near his feet. The flames quickly grew to become fire imps.

"You two should know by now that Arachnos has spies everywhere. They knew about the EN rescue parties that were organized, they knew where we would be, and they knew how to get to each of us." Slowburn turned his back on Tar Heal and Neuttrino, slowly walking back towards a shadowed doorway. The flames from his eyes flickered in the darkness revealing one of Ghost Widow's enforcers, a Night Widow. "She can reach us no matter where we go and if we betray her she will stop at nothing until we are all lying dead at her feet. I've felt the power she has. She can chill you right to your soul."

"Slow, you better turn to face me. No one turns their back to me unless they are running away." snapped Tar Heel. "This monologue is starting to sound a lot like you are going to throw away a good offer."

"On the contrary Tar. I'm just getting warmed up." Slowburn instantly became englufed in flames. The light intensified and Tar Heel and Neuttrino backed up slightly to get away from the bright light. The light quickly died down to it's normal orange glow revealing 3 imps swatting at a dead Night Widow. "These things are best discussed without any of the eyes and ears of Arachnos around. We'll never find Ghost Widow if she can see us coming."

"HH, we just got the call to move in on Bloody Bay. Apparently Neut and Tar are there and the rest of the EN have been given the order to converge and capture."

"Thanks Swamp. The 4 of us will have a difficult time getting there without transportation but we have to give it a shot. Garg, get ready to port us as close to the ferry as you can. We're going to have to take the scenic route to Bloody Bay but we've got to be there for our friends." said HH. Thoughts slowly began to creep into his mind. They were going to have to actively engage one of the strongest EN on the team. Tar Heel had been instrumental in the capture of so many Arch-Villains and had stood strong while so many had fallen. This was going to be rough.

Headache healer was slowly regaining conciousness. This crash was going to leave a mark. The Warshade Gargantua had dropped to Nebulous form in time for the crash, Alberta Beef the tanker had brought his shields up and absorbed much of the fire created at impact, and Super Swamp the controller had enough oresence of mind to create a shield with his stone cage. HH was the only one who had felt the full force of the impact. Luckily a quick use of Regeneration aura would bring the team back up to full strength momentarily.

"Swamp, can you carve us a hole here and cover us over with enough rocks to hide us from those drones? Just leave us some air holes, our WS can port us out when the drones have left." HH looked around. There wasn't much room left to move in the cabin and the portable medical bay was destroyed. "We can change our costumes and leave our main outfits in this wreckage. Hopefully there will be enough residual DNA on those outfits to confuse the drones. Alberta Beef can torch them with his fire shield. I'm hoping we can make it look like we were burned up in the crash. "

"Good Idea HH." replied Super Swamp. "There's enough of crevice here where we should be comfortable while we wait the drones out."

The 4 heroes quickly set up the scene they were hoping to portray. 4 damaged costumes mixed in with burnt equipment should fool any video transmitted by the drones and some drops of blood on the costumes would fool any medical scanners. The only thing left to do was wait out the drones and then get back to the mission.

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"Communications are down with some of your friends. I need you to locate and capture Tar Heel and Neuttrino. They need to be brought back for a little more... re-education. The lateste intelligence indicates they are heading for Bloody Bay." said Ghost Widow as she began to glide around the room. "You know them best Slowburn. Your group was chosen by Lord Recluse for your ability to work together without communication. Your team fights as one under even the most extreme circumstances. That's what Lord Recluse wanted to instill in his latest batch of 'chosen ones'. Villains rarely work well together for long periods of time. Your group will change that or face the wrath of Arachnos".

"I fully understand why we are here and have committed myself to your goal but this complicates things. Tar Heel was not scheduled to be released from your tower for another 2 days. Now I find out that not only did I miss him joining the ranks I’ve now missed him going AWOL too? No wonder Arachnos has problems, they can’t organize their way out of a paper bag.”

Mr Slowburn was instantly locked in some sort of spirit trap. Ghost Widow was using some kind of hold on him. This was nothing like any hold he had felt previously. Ghost Widow’s hold was hot but somehow chilled him to the bone. Slow doubted a breakfree would get him out of this situation.

“You will listen to me and get this straight. Tar Heel’s release to his Arbiter position was a calculated risk. Some of your friends have proven to be a little more resistant to my persuasion than others and that empath assigned to capture you was all but immune. I needed as many EN out in the field as possible to draw the remaining strike teams out in the open. Each strike team we could identify and capture meant more of your group returning to the field to work with the new recruits. With the influx of all those refugees from the Paragon City prison system we need as many instructors as we can get. You will never question my decisions again.”

The hold had been released but the chill still remained. Slow created a small ball of fire in his hands to warm himself up. The chill stuck around for a few seconds and finally started to dissipate.

“I spoke out of frustration and without thinking. Forgive me, it will not happen again. I will do as you ask and track the EN down. I will need assistance in their capture though. I can lock down Tar Heel but it will take all of my efforts, leaving Neuttrino open to attack me and free her friend. Someone will need to occupy her while I’m locking down that tanker. That dominator I picked up portal hopping hasn’t returned yet.”

“My dear Mr Slowburn, whatever gave you the idea you’d be going alone? You will have a Night Widow accompany you. That will be more than enough to keep a weak empath off your back. She will meet you at the entrance to Bloody Bay. An Arachnos operative will have more information on Tar Heel and Neuttrino’s locations at that time. I’ve fed them some intel indicating I will be overseeing a new phalanx of Longfangs. The trap is set and the operative will make sure you are there in time to spring it.”

“I will do as you ask.”

Mr Slowburn raced off from Ghost Widow’s tower towards Bloody Bay. He had never been in the arena against Tar Heel before. Maybe he could convince him to come back to the tower but that was unlikely with Neuttrino now influencing his judgement. This was going to be an interesting night.

Headache Healer readied the teleporter for one final test. The previous test had been a resounding success but it never hurt to make sure you could duplicate the results. Gargantua had set up a remote monitoring station near the Cap Au Diable beacon so the team got a good view of the last test landing safely on the ground.

“I think we’ve done it my friends. With this teleport pad working both here and back in Paragon, we have what should be the safest way of rescuing our target. Gargantua, is Slowburn still working as an enhancements broker?”

“That’s a negative. Following our standard mission objectives, I managed to find a nice perch above him when I collected the results of our last teleport test. He was speaking with one of those Fateweavers stationed near him. He was vague but it sounded like he was going on leave for a few days before he had to choose a faction. I’m not sure what he meant but it looks like he’ll be spending some time in his apartment.”

“Thank you for the update. If he is spending time off the streets then that will be our opportunity to strike at him without attracting attention. Super Swamp, I need you to release the cover from our craft while we move to a safe distance and re-open communications. We’ve got to let the other teams know about our functioning teleporter.”

Super Swamp was already on the job. In under a minute, the stone cover for the craft was gone and they were starting to lift off. Soon they’d be just outside the Rogue Isles and could safely send out a message on the EN channel.

Suddenly the ship started to slow in its ascent. The slowdown was barely noticeable at first but it got stronger until the ship began to descend back to the beach. Thrust was at maximum but they were still going down. Something or someone had found them and whatever it was had a strong gravitational pull.

“Welcome back to Mercy Island. I’ve been expecting you.” boomed a voice from a small helmet. The colors were different but the build and choice in attire was unmistakeable. It was Gargantua using gravity control. “Shocked to see me? You shouldn’t be surprised. With all of the portal hopping you EveryNighters have done you can’t honestly believe that none of your alternate selves haven’t come through to your dimension. In my case it was your own Mr Slowburn that sought me out. I was serving under Dominatrix as one of her lieutenants, keeping an eye on various aspects of her base of operations while she was raiding your dimension with the rest of the Praetorians. I don’t like sitting back much and missing all the action so when Slowburn offered me a position within Arachnos as an enforcer under him then I jumped at the chance.”

The small figure floated up slightly to face the larger members of the team eye to eye.

“Arachnos has quite the reliable network and information flows freely here for the right people. Lord Recluse has known of your plans all along and he will stop you. As I speak, a number of your friends are currently enrolled in the “recruitment” process. Soon he will have all of you under his control.”

“Enough with the monologing. This is the same sad speech we heard from all the Arch-Villains we’ve faced over the years. This is the end, you will meet your doom, take over the world, yada yada yada. It never changes with any of you. The EN have beaten every Arch-Villain they’ve faced and they will do the same to Lord Recluse when the time comes.” HH said, clutching the side of the ship. He could feel the strength of the gravity field increasing. If he could just push the right buttons, he thought, then just maybe they’ll have a chance to break free and take this new “Gargantua” down.

“You think I’m wrong? Prove it big man. Show me how you think you’ll defeat me. Not one of you are strong enough to beat me and I can have you immobilized indefinitely. You have no where to go but with me.”

HH could sense he had a little movement in his feet. This could be the chance he needed. A quick nod to Super Swamp was all it took. They both attacked, one with telekinesis, the other with volcanic gasses. The new “Gargantua” was taken back for a second. The gasses had missed but the telekinesis had him pinned against a rock wall. The gravitational hold on the ship had weakened enough to allow Alberta Beef to fire the thrusters. The ship started rising again.

“Quick you two, lock him down and then get back to the ship, we’ve got to warn the others they know we’re coming.” HH commanded.

Super Swamp and the warshade Gargantua attacked and locked down their target before jumping back into the ship. What they didn’t expect was this new “Gargantua” using a break free.

“You think you can get away?” he yelled, “I’m stronger than all of you put together.” It was that moment that he chose to open up a wormhole in front of the EN ship. Almost instantaneously, the ship was warped in a new direction, straight down. There was no time to stop. The ship crashed to the ground and erupted into flames as the thrusters fuel lines were compromised. The twisted hulk of metal was nothing more than scrap. Scrap with 4 heroes inside looking for a quick way out.

"Mr Slowburn, I'm afraid you might want to inform Ghost Widow there has been a change in plans." The team sent to extract you might be a little difficult to convert since I may have just killed them while they were attempting to flee."

"Don't bother looking for them. They may have had a lot of brains on that team but they certainly weren't the most combat ready of the EN. It would have been nice to convert the controller and empath to our cause but they were always expendable. Leave a few drones behind and have them start patrolling the shore and cliffs in the area. If the heroes survived, the drones will let us know. Right now I need you to come back to the tower. Ghost Widow wants us to view her recruitment of Tar Heel. Slowburn out."

Headache Healer looked up from his datapad. They'd been on silent over the EN channel for some time while searching for the various teleport beacons in the rogue Isles. Gargantua had already found the data needed for Mercy Island and Port Oakes but Cap Au Diable was proving to be a little harder to locate. The telepad he had brought from the base was fully repaired and operating near 100% efficiency. The new modifications seemed to be working well and while the first test of the Mercy Island beacon didn't exactly succeed, it gave them enough data to get it working on the second attempt. The beacons weren't much different than those in Paragon City thankfully.

Super Swamp had done an excellent job of hiding their jet. Coating it with a stone cage would provide excellent cover along the shores of Mercy Island. A few curious snake men had come by earlier but they didn't seem to see anything out of the ordinary.

This team was did not have the largest crew. Most of the high ranking EN had their teams set before HH and Super Swamp could discuss the makeup. They had picked up Gargantua for his warshade teleporting and stealth powers but they had also grabbed the tanker Alberta Beef. Not a lot of damage potential on the team but HH was used to not dealing much damage and taking a more strategic approach. The tanker would be there for backup if they needed it. If Gargantua could locate "Arbiter Slowburn" in Mercy Island or Port Oakes then they stood a good chance of getting out without having to fight. As a controller, Slowburn would be vulnerable to Gargantua's gravity holds and HH's psi holds. Once in EN headquarters he could be properly restrained and examined to determine the how to return Slow back to the EN fold.

HH saw a small flash of light as Gargantua ported back into the jet.

"I've found Mr Slowburn in Cap Au Diable working as some kind of enhancements broker. I think I've also gotten the last data we need to establish the beacon there too."

"Good work Gargantua. I'll start compiling the data and working on creating the beacon. Stay here and rest for a bit, you've earned it. Thanks to you, our phase of the mission should be over soon."

Headache Healer walked out of the assembly room and straight to his lab. Since he had started researching and building the tech for the base he had passed off his patrol duties to his Warshade sidekick Gargantua. Together they had uncovered many of the teleport beacons located in the city and HH hoped they could uncover more in the Rogue Isles. He knew the beacons would work on a slightly different frequency but Gargantua had picked up the Paragon City beacons while teleporting himself around the city so there was a good chance it would work in the Rogue Isles as well.

Bringing a sidekick along would be hard enough but a Kheldian just added a new element of danger with all of the Void Seekers around lately. If HH was to identify those beacons it would have to be risked. Success would mean an easier rescue of the captured EN, failure would not be an option.

The lab was a mess from the earlier fight but Gargantua had cleaned up much of the mess. One of the mobile transporters had been damaged but it was still functioning. Some of these would have to be moved to the jet for the mission but moving too many would cause a problem for the EN that still had to patrol Paragon. HH picked a couple, including the damaged one, and used his Telekenesis to move them to the hangar. He would have time to make the needed repairs on the way to the Rogue Isles.

HH knew Super Swamp, and would insist on Gargantua joining their team, but having been working away in his lab for so long he didn't know many of the newer EN. Who else could they grab from the roster. A defender, controller, and warshade wouldn't last long by themselves going up against Arachnos soldiers. They needed a damage dealer on their team to balance it out. Maybe Super Swamp had some ideas but it couldn't hurt to browse through the personnel files while he waited for Swampy to get to the jet.

"Thanks Serge, great work as usual." said Mr Slowburn as Serge finished his work. "I'll be back in next week to get my Task Force suit switched up a bit. States has a big assembly planned and I suspect I might need some repairs when everything is over with."

And with that, Mr Slowburn sped out and towards Atlas Park. It had been a while since Slow had see Ms. Liberty. Sure he had paid her a visit when he gained level 50 Security Clearance but that was over 6 months ago. He had grown stronger in the raw damage he was able to deal but his control abilities were starting to slip a bit. Following the last address from Statesman, Slow had decided that would be the last time he reconfigured his abilities. Constantly moving enhancements had gotten tiresome and retiring started looking better and better all the time. The new base Yarrrrr was working on had potential but a nice base costs a lot of prestige. He'd have to keep working to pay his share. There were enough EN around that he'd only have to work a few nights a week, but he was running out of contacts. He'd taken down almost all of the Praetorians and while he had attempted to arrest Dreck a few times, no one seemed to want to finish the job. Maybe it was time for a vacation instead.

Call it a premonition, a hunch, or just a weird feeling, Slow had one of those moments where he just knew he had to go to the assembly by taking the scenic route. It was a nice day and quite a few of the other EN still hadn't been contacted yet so there was still time to wander around a bit.

The scenic route today would include a trip around the northern islands near Talos Island. Nobody goes out there much but today seemed like a good day to. The weather was nice and that odd feeling just seemed to compel Mr Slowburn to head out that way. Nothing could have prepared him for what would happen next.

Without thinking, Slow had used Inertial Reduction and jumped over one of the hills. What a surprise to land right in the middle of a group of strange soldiers he had never seen before. They had some kind of spider symbol that looked like something he had seen in the database a few days before. It looked like the Arachnos symbol. They were supposed to be held up in the Rogue Isles, not in Paragon City.

Slow fired off Cinders and followed it up by summoning his imps. A quick use of Fulcrum Shift and the imps were ready to get to work. It was nice to see that Flashfire and Firecages could still lock down groups just as well as they could earlier in his career. Out of the clouds came a jet and upon landing, more soldiers came out. The numbers would work against Slow but that never stopped him from putting up a fight. The hospital was a quick teleport away anyway.

Sure enough, there had to be close to 30 soldiers surrounding Mr Slowburn. The imps fell first and then the area effect damage just became too much to take. Slowburn fell and plunged in to darkness.

It seemed like an eternity before light shone again. The hospital never took this long before. Yarrrr hadn't installed the medical bay in the base yet so something had to be up. He opened his eyes and had to do a double take at his surroundings. He could see a few bars around him and what looked like clouds outside a window. As he looked to the right he noticed a figure standing over him.

"Good, you are finally waking up."

Still groggy from the awaken someone had given him, he strained to look at where that voice came from. It looked like it came from across the room. The figure moved back to a seat along the wall and the origin of the voice came in to view. It was a woman with pale features and flowing white hair. She was striking, with an ageless look that many people would die to have.

"I've been watching you for some time. You are quite skilled in controlling the foes you face in combat. I've seen you turn defeats in to victories by using some unothodox tactics. You are the kind of person we need in the Rogue Isles. That was why I compelled you to come to my ambush, that is why we blocked your hospital's teleporter, and that is why you are coming with me now. We need skilled people to train a stable of villains so we can strike at the heart of Paragon City."

"What if I refuse?" asked Mr Slowburn, "What if my friends come looking for me? I know they will, I'm supposed to be at an assembly later. They will know something is wrong."

"By the time I'm through with you, you'll be begging to start training my new recruits and you'll turn on your former friends without a thought. You now belong to Arachnos."

Ghost Widow used some unknown power on Mr Slowburn. The pain was intense, stronger than anything he had ever felt before. Darkness consumed him once again but as he was falling, he noticed his desire to hurt Ghost Widow was diminishing. What was she doing to him. Would he be strong enough to keep fighting.

Mr Slowburn slipped in and out of conciousness the entire trip to the Rogue Isles.

"Welcome Arbiter. You shall be a fine addition to Arachnos." said a strong and commanding voice. "Station him in Mercy Island. Once we attack the prison we will have plenty of new recruits our new Arbiter can train. If he proves himself there we can look at other stations and perhaps a higher place within your organization."

"Yes my lord." Ghost Widow said quietly. "Perhaps he will train the very one we seek in that prison..."

"And perhaps he will become strong enough to aid me in your downfall..." she thought.

The hero known as Mr Slowburn was now a former shell of what he once was. Standing on a podium training low level villains was not his idea of a retirement plan. What will his friends say when they see he is missing. It would be fun to take them down, perhaps I can start my own faction here and eventually rival Ghost Widow or Mako. Time will tell. For now, Mr Slowburn will bide his time as an arbiter until it is his turn to set a few traps.

My two inf:

Why bother halving the defense of stealth powers since it only comes in to play after you have been seen and/or attacked. You get the benefit of the full defense buff for the first attack and maybe the second. Snipers and Rikti Drones don't miss much from my experience so this makes suppressing the defense buff pointless. Just nerf it to half at all times and be done with it.

This looks suspiciously like yet another nerf brought to us by PvP. In my experience, current mob AI locks on to stealthed heroes if the mob A) has a high enough perception, B) has been attacked, or C) was in the same area/spawn as a mob that has met either condition in A or B. (YMMV since range is a consideration) Since full stealth does not affect mob AI once the hero has been seen it looks like this change is so that a human opponent can spot someone attacking them, i.e. a PvE nerf from PvP concerns.

As with the other nerfs in I5, I doubt this nerf will change much based on the feedback in this thread. At best I expect we'll get overall lower defense from stealth powers but at least they won't get surpressed.

I hope this is the last of the nerfs for a long time. I'm finding the game less and less fun as each one of these nerfs come along. Insta-deaths and one-shots are not fun and my controller keeps getting pushed in that direction with each successive nerf.

I was looking forward to this set since it was announced. I like the animations and will probably use it to make a blaster when it hits live. My only complaint is that the first blasts all sound "male" so far. That didn't sound very good on the female hero I made, although the howl worked very well.

In discussions with my friends, they feel it might be a bit too powerful because of the resistance debuff. I personally like it and wouldn't change it, but I can see where they are coming from. That much debuff might be too powerful if in a group situation.

Name: EveryNighters

Leader(s): Pharmahawk, Tar Heel, Mr Slowburn

Player Type: Casual to Power Gamer

RolePlay?: Not really. Some members dabble in it but they have alts in SGs more focused on it.

Membership levels: 1-50

SuperGroup Colours: Grey and Green. We don't force you to use the colors, only request that you consider them as part of a dress uniform for "group photos" after taskforces.

Normal time of Gameplay: Evenings mainly. Most of us work but some could be on at any time.

Other information: We started out as a small group that stuck together right out of Outbreak. The SG has been active since July 15, 2004 and just as the name suggests, we have someone on every night. Some play more than others but all of the leaders and other high rank members have at least one level 50 hero in our Legends SG.

Recruiting?: Actively. No official method, just send us a tell and ask us to group for a while. We have alts in just about every level range and enjoy running missions.

Website: www.cohgeex.com

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this is ridiculous, it doen't curtail PL'ing in the least, yet it hurts legitimate teams, especially controllers. Were you not looking at "fixing" controller issues? This is adding to one to the list. Couldn't valuable dev time be used to fix the whole pets using elevators issue rather than something so trivial as this? All the nerfing and so called balancing is heading this once fabulous game into mediocrity. My SG and I have literally played every night since july of 04, because the game is just that good at keeping our attention. Changes like this are diverting that attention. Spend the time on content and fixing real issues. Give us long time players a reason to renew with every issue rather than give us more reasons not to. My SG alone has spent literally thousands of gaming dollars on CoH, and I am sure we'd all like to continue. make the decision to leave well enough alone.

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Is this my hint to stop complaining about the leash in SG chat?

Seriously, this is a major waste of development time that will merely impede some PLing to a degree but it does nothing to actually stop it. People don't PL at the tram or ferry so much as they do it in loaded up missions. Now with the leash being off in missions it does even less to impede PLing.

In all honesty I can live with the leash, it just means some tactical limitation but I can adjust. What really gets me is the short death timer. I didn't see any official word on but it should be disabled in missions like the leash. That's the only fair way to deal with defeats during AV fights.

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States, it has been the experience of a great many players (mentioned on other threads) that *multiple* unnamed bosses show up on missions that they entered alone.


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I'll check this!

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Last night on Guardian I had a Malta mission where the first enemy I encountered was a +1 Knives of Artemis boss. Later there were two +1 Zeus class Titans (not in the same room) and a +1 Malta boss (Gunslinger type). This wasn't the only mission in this arc where I had that problem. After this mission I grouped with other people from my SG and the number of bosses stayed about the same.

Fighting bosses is just not fun for me any more. I get two-shotted if I don't get the first hit to drain their endurance with transference and if I do manage to lock them it just takes too long to wear them down. I can still handle a single boss but it's just not worth the risk of being two-shotted.

The best way to take care of this is to roll back bosses to where they used to be and introduce more elite bosses in missions where many of the named ones used to be.