Mr_Grey
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Posts
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Joined
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Overall? Titan Weapons. There's something just plain satisfying about whalloping an entire group for some pretty massive damage. My current Titan Weapon character is a Brute, leaving me with a diesel engine of war.
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I haven't done it yet. I'm constantly retooling and tweaking my 50s, so I'm still not bored with them. Then there's the fact that they all still need work on their Incarnate paths.
In the rare instance that I feel I won't play the character again, I transfer it to another server. -
Judging from how the voting is going, we're going to make ourselves the Rocketeer Army soon enough...
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Quote:I saw this earlier and have to comment...
Lets have someone YOU care about brutally murdered and see how well YOU function over the next couple days.
I've BEEN in this scenario. I was a Marine in Japan when I got word that my oldest brother, one of the people I looked up to all of my life, had died.
I'll tell you what that did to me. It humbled me. I also realized something as I was enlightened prematurely. Nobody is prepared for it.
Nobody.
Everybody deals with this kind of loss differently. You can't be sure how anybody is going to react. I came to find out that I was placed on a "Shadow Watch." Basically, your unit quietly makes sure somebody is always present to keep an eye on you to keep you from doing something drastic. They do that because they don't know how you're going to react.
The military. Dealing with death since the dawn of civilization. They still have no idea how you're going to react when you deal with personal loss.
I'm not saying this excuses what Statesman did... But what he did is still understandable. -
Blue, I love your work, but check your math.
The eighties were thirty-ish years ago. Manticore is either 50 or in his mid-to-late 40s.
Oddly enough, that's still fighting age. He's probably going to go out like Lord William Marshal (in a time when most people were lucky to live to 30, he lived to 72 [SEVENTY-FREAKING-TWO!] and was STILL participating in battles up until three months before he died.
And in true "I am a Great Man" fashion, he died after telling his family his life story.
Otherwise, I like your post. You make some very decent arguments.
Mercedes? Yeah, even in the Who Will Die arc, we see that Percy is a scholar, not a warrior. There IS a slight problem with her being a member of the Midnight Squad and their "separatist" behavior (they're not blue, red, gold or silver; I would classify their morality as green, knowledge hoarders).
-To avoid conflict, they might be better off bringing in War Witch. She has popular support and has been working regularly as a heroine, even after death.
Fusionette, Faultline and Penny Yin? Definitely. They would make a mighty fine supergroup. Heh, you could probably throw C'Kelkah into their crew, too.
I'd also like to see Seraphina, Mark IV, Agent 6 and Overdrive fill some of the roles, too. Why Mark IV? I like the look of the guy :P -
I'll tell you what the SSA Arc: Who Will Die? reminds me of.
It reminds me of every self-centered, vitriolic rant against the Freedom Phalanx made by a player on this forum. All the behavior you indicated, Sam? It's the same behavior as all the hardcore "The Freedom Phalanx sux! My character, Uuber Guy is SOOOOOO much better!" that we'd been seeing from all sorts of players up to this point.
On top of that, the Phalanx is acting exactly as those posters would depict them as acting. Psyche is inexplicably jealous of Swan (thank you, all of you players who kept saying "How can she trust him when he stands next to that stripper all day?"). Statesman is an insensitive ******* (naturally). Manticore is the master of playing Xanatos Russian Roulette (except he keeps shooting EVERYBODY else in the head).
Really, the only one who acts like a proper hero is...
Back Alley Brawler.
...
Just about the only character who's NEVER been maligned by the playerbase, really.
This entire arc looks and feels like it's been one huge cliche of the playerbase. This is EXACTLY what players have been demanding over the years and it is living up EXACTLY to our expectations. There are even a few times when the characters quote our opinions, to really hammer the nail home.
How awful. I say that without irony or sarcasm. This arc is a clear-cut example of how truly terrible we view the City of Heroes world.
How awful. -
Willpower has become the staple of my melee characters.
Still, my Main Scrapper (who is pretty much my Main Character now) and my Main Tanker (whom Willpower would actually suit better than Stone Armor) maintain their original powersets.
In fact, Street Justice/Willpower would have suited my Main Scrapper better than it would have the Brute I made instead. But then I wouldn't have the Brute...
I have rerolled only one character. My Claws/Regen Scrapper. Why? I wanted him to have two knives instead. Dual Blades came out and BAM! Delete-Reroll-and-RUN!
But that's not my Main. That's my Mary Sue. -
Happy belated birthday, Ny.
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Happy birthday, Ace.
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I'll miss Statesman.
I liked him. He wasn't a "I am the GREATEST!" type of superhero the way Superman or Captain America are (they aren't in a boastful way, mind you; they are just the epitome of what Marvel and DC picture as being "heroic"). He was human, just like us, and capable of making mistakes.
And the playerbase/general public were as harsh with him as if he were the President.
Ah well. Now it's time to look to the future.
Why are the future Who Will Die? Arc contacts members of Vanguard? -
Venture fancies himself a writer. Don't know what Eva's issue is.
Me, I'm more "Meh" on the whole story. Seems like a means to an end to me, regardless of how "epic" it's being portrayed.
One thing that bothers me about the whole deal, though, is wrapping Incarnates up with the Praetorians in the first place. The initial explanation is that the Well is drawn to power and the willingness to use it... But the Underground Trial shows that (SPOILER ALERT!) Emperor Cole WASN'T willing to use his power... And he had EVERY reason to want to rain some righteous, furious lightning on the rampaging Hamidon. But he didn't. So the story of "willingness to use..." is a little sketchy.
Unless, of course, the plan was always to invade Primal Earth and take over. Everybody else in Praetoria seems to think it's just an ideology conflict (them wanting to bring order to us, us wanting to bring freedom to them), but let's face it. Praetoria is a world that's soon to become FAR too chaotic for its human population. People's lives are in danger now, and they need somewhere to flee...
Oh look! A dimension that HASN'T been destroyed by a rampaging goo beast... -
I said this in a server thread on the same topic, but... Why are we fighting the Zerg?
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Why are we fighting Zerg?
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Quote:Obviously I had an effect, because you're under the erroneous assumption I was trying to belittle you.Originally Posted by Model 75
Remember, nobody can like something you don't. If they do, you must try to belittle them - and in your case, fail miserably. Gee, wonder why people say not to bother with the forums and their "wonderful" community.
Fortunately for you you already have an option if you don't like them. Skip the nuke and wait to get your judgement power.
Your arguments are nothing new, though. It's the same tired "I had to play it the hard way, all the newbies should, too!" argument. It was the same one trotted out when players suggested that we be able to e-mail stuff to each other and ourselves. Or have the full-blown travel powers available to us at earlier levels.
Do you know how RARE it is for me to see a Nuke power go off nowadays? I hadn't even SEEN Blizzard until I used it. I've been playing for almost six years now! In the early days, I'd seen plenty of Inferno and Nova, but now I only really see them used by enemy NPCs (and THEY get a fun version that doesn't leave them exhausted). Then the random newbie comes along, uses the Nuke to not-quite-clear a group of enemies, the team goes "WOAH!" and the newbie says "Yeah, it was cool, but I'm gonna respec out of it."
I feel there is something inherently wrong with that kind of reaction. These are supposed to be the powers that make players go "YES! This is why I ran a Blaster!" or "You think you could stop my Defender!? I will show you why WE are the DEFENDERS!" Instead, I keep seeing "Oh, I just keep it for emergencies." or "I had an extra power pick and nothing else really caught my attention." or "Yeah, whatever. I hardly ever use it."
But those players sure do love to toss a Judgement power around every other NPC group. -
Yeah, but you're not the only one. It's not the first time I've seen this opinion leveled against Habashy and crew. I can get the opinion on the Twinshot arc, though. It's a tutorial, and when you've played it once, being forced to run through the game mechanics again and again is a little trying...
Especially when the other contacts after level 5 still put you through the same trite missions, complete with the same trite introductions and same trite street hunts. -
Quote:Okay... um... Why?
To sum up, He becomes a normal lv 50 and becomes the first contact in either a revised tutorial, or a new set of arcs in Atlas that replace both Matthew and Twinshot.
What is with people's HATE for these characters?
I have no problem with them, I don't see what they're doing that is causing such rabid and adamant revulsion.
I like the idea of Statesman working with the heroes from level 1 and up, like a real mentor, but the vehement demand that he completely oust the other low-level contacts is a bit heavy-handed. Though that's probably a conversation for another thread... -
Quote:I see your arguments, but in my head they all sound like an old man shouting about how he had to walk uphill both ways to school, barefoot, through snow, in the middle of summer, the streets were made of broken glass, the fields were full of venomous snakes and the forests were full of hungry wolves.Originally Posted by Model 75
I happen to like, and take, nukes on all my blasters. And my defenders and corruptors. Thunderous Blast is great. And if you're getting shot at with Blizzard, you're doing it wrong. The enemies are slowed and trying to get out of the way - and dying.
And no, it's not "just half or 2/3 of a group." I'm wiping out full spawns, typically, on my blaster. The only fix I'd make is making it ignore AT modifiers, so that it's guaranteed to be just as dangerous on a Defender. As far as END issues? Half the blaster secondaries have some sort of END recovery built into them. Not that hard to use. I'll typically have blues anyway (regardless of character) - use them.
Plus, if you "hate the glass cannon," why the heck are you playing a blaster? It's like someone complaining about playing a mastermind because they hate dealing with pets. *Play something else.*
If anything, I think the Judgement no-cost-but-recharge-and-give-them-to-everyone nukes are the ones broken. That's ridiculous.
The rest of the game is working steadily toward the ease of the playerbase. This heavy-handed drawback remains a relic of old thinking.
So... Hold on to your buggy whip in horror as we turn developer attention toward your last bastion of frustrating gameplay! -
Having been in the military, I wound up with a different interpretation of his "self-righteousness" and "arrogance." In the military, you usually have to deal with superiors who automatically see you as "worthless" until you prove your worth. This could take some time, or it might never happen. If it's the latter, you usually wind up with a very poor perception of the person... Until somebody points out to you the sorts of things that man or woman has done. It serves to alter your perceptions on how you judge a person's worth.
So, I saw Statesman as an experienced but increasingly jaded and depressed character who recognized his power, but also his own humanity. The realization that with every life he saved or every crisis he averted, SOMEBODY got hurt and held that personal tragedy against him, despite the multitudes of other people he helped, that had to wear on him over the years. Add in the fact that he has Zeus's personality traits trying to push through (the life of an avatar is not a good one) and you're going to wind up with a very damaged personality.
I probably wouldn't have written him any different if I'd ever come up with the concept, myself. Arrogant characters are easy to write... Characters that are SEEN as arrogant, despite their complex, convoluted and truly altruistic natures, are a bit more difficult to accomplish. -
Quote:I'll admit that I was never sure of the target limit of the Nuke. Still, that's what? Half an enemy group? Maybe two-thirds. Even if it's three quarters of the enemies, it's still a massive cost for much less "pop."Originally Posted by Leo_G
Lol you guys just want to cheapen the cost of the power. But then that'll come with a weakening of the damage (and the Defender version doesn't hit all that hard on teams anyway) and a lessening of the effects (such as the -ToHit or Endurance Drain).
Now if all you're concerned about is keeping your toggles going, maybe a DoT (drain over time) effect could be exchanged for the all-at-once cost of those nukes? Something like an 80 END cost up front + 3 tics of 15 EoT over 10sec (or 10 tics of 4.5 EoT over 10sec). That still leaves you some endurance to pop a few blues, or if you have an endurance refill power, it'd only drop you to 60 afterwards from a full bar.
But I'd much prefer the damage, the range, the debuffs, the mez, the target cap, etc to be ramped up to make these powers unique, not just another vanilla AoE.
And, Leo, I agree with you. If the cost should stay the same, I want these powers to do something in-freaking-credible. I want to see enemies running for the hills when they realize what just happened to their friends in the previous room (I know, I know, not possible; I was exaggerating for emphasis)!
I understand that Judgement powers are supposed to be "awesome." Frankly, though, for what they do, I will admit the drawbacks (a sizeable, yet nowhere NEAR unmitigatable endurance cost and a slow recharge) are next to nothing. Still, I don't want the costs on Judgement powers to go up, which I feel is justified because their utility is only in the last five levels of a character's "career" whereas a Nuke is useful for roughly half the character's active levels (except for Defenders). Since these powers are available to only three archetypes, too, you would think there would be some concept of "EPIC" in them, too, as opposed to a PBAOE that may or may not hit the targets (and usually requires close proximity, which most of the Judgements don't).
Basically, with the way the rest of the game is working, I think we're in agreement that the weaponless Nuke bangs aren't worth their bucks. -
With the advent of the behavior of powers like Hail of Bullets, Full Auto and the Incarnate Judgement powers, I think it's time the Nukes for the Blast sets got an overhaul.
I'm sick and tired of getting COMPLETELY shut down just because I used a power that exemplifies what a Blaster can do. Or, better yet, a power that finally puts a Defender into the offensive range.
I hate the Glass Cannon concept. My character shouldn't be getting wiped out with a power that isn't even killing the entire group of enemies. The Judgment powers do INSANE amounts of damage and don't drain the player nearly as much. Heck, the Judgement powers use less Endurance than most of the powers in the attack chain to begin with...
Here's the inspiration for this...
The Ice Nuke. In Ice Blast's Nuke, you call down an ice storm that slowly eats the life out of your enemies. They can still shoot you. In fact, they will. What are Nukes good for? Wiping out large groups of enemies. What do large groups of enemies do? Shoot to death the Blaster that thinks he can take them down in one hit.
Now, there are a number of toggles that could help a character mitigate this issue. Unfortunately, none of them work anymore because this ice storm has completely and utterly drained the Blaster of his energy... And oh look! Some of the bad guys are STILL moving!
This is ludicrous. I've seen the same thing with the Fire Nuke and the Energy Nuke. It's gotten to the point that I don't even utilize the damn powers anymore. I used to just keep them as "Emergency Use Only."
Granted, I've seen some players do some amazing things with their Blasters. Buff up, charge up, run into the enemies and BOOM! Bodies are scattered...
Then the max target range was put on ten or so. Fantastic. Now one of the best things Blasters were good for has been eradicated. Judgement powers can exceed that range, but these powers that are supposed to be so phenomenally powerful in order to justify siphoning all the energy out of your body have a maximum of ten or so enemies. And most uses of the damn Nukes don't even wind up killing the enemies. You have to use Aim and Build Up for that, and good luck when the Boss survives that blast and starts coming after you.
With the drawbacks in the Nukes as they are, it makes using them simply ludicrous. Judgement powers are better, recharge faster and don't wind up leaving your character sucking wind and vulnerable to a mosquito. Full Auto, Hail of Bullets, Rain of Arrows, even Overcharge (which is a lot like the Thunderous Blast, only without the extra damage to robots and fired from a weapon) doesn't wind up debilitating you.
But for a fraction of the utility, powers like Inferno, Atomic Blast, Thunderous Blast, Blizzard, Dreadful Wail and Nova all cut you down. Heck, even the weaker-out-of-the-box Peacebringer and Warshade powers, Dawn Strike and Quasar do the same thing!
With these powers, I'm tired of feeling like I'm being punished for having them. These are the powers that are supposed to be the edge for the archetypes (because once you hit the mid-30s, it's obvious the rest of your powers aren't quick enough to kill the enemies before they're ticked off at you; triply so for Defenders).
Please get rid of the Endurance Drain tacked onto these powers. There is no reason for them to be doing this when they're not effective enough on their own to warrant the drawbacks.
P.S. While I'm at it, Electrical Blast needs more damage. I shouldn't have to cycle through my attack chain three or four times to kill any enemy lower than a boss. The Endurance Drain it's doing is not justification. The NPCs don't use Endurance the same way we do, so it doesn't shut them down and PvP is it's own little quagmire of opinions. -
His granddaughter is still alive and kicking, too. She isn't killed in the RSF, just hurt REAL bad.
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*shakes head in amusement*
Level pact...
Okay.
Congratulations, Kyo. -
Quote:If you're lucky, Sept, the next WWD arc won't be Live next week.Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
And for this one I totally apologize. I was online, but thought I scheduled this event for next weekend. I brought my main (rogue) full hero for this event to pick up alignment merits and help a friend with prestige- I was planning on making him a Vigilante this week, and I have no other Villains on Protector.
I guess I need to learn to read a calendar. I'll use my get out of jail free card (I still have one of those, right?) and try this next weekend as I thought I was all along. -
Happy New Year, everybody.
My current year is going out lousy. I hope it's just a final last kick in the head from a crappy one so I can get a warm, loving embrace from a nice one. -
Quote:You arrest the Petrovic brothers, many of their lieutenants and the bosses and lieutenants of the opposing Hellions in the midst of a gang war the two gangs have over a magic cloak. The contacts who give you the arc are Lorenzo DiCosta, Wes Schnabel and Willy Starbuck, all in the 10-14 range.
*The Skulls and the Petrovic brothers. I may be misremembering, but I understood that the Petrovic brothers are the founders of the Skulls. I don't know if they show up anywhere, but I haven't seen them. I don't know why they decided to start a gang, I don't know if they had black magic powers before they did, I don't know how they found them, I don't know what they want... And considering the Skulls just sort of "stop," it might be a good story to tell.
If you don't remember it it's because the arc really isn't all that memorable. No special dynamics, ambushes work as you would EXPECT the ambushes to work (I click this glowy, and they'll come get me...), not even enemies fighting each other (REALLY fighting each other; you get to see a couple posed battles which you've probably already seen plenty of times).
It's an arc that could definitely use some retooling (and maybe a dedicated contact who doesn't also send you on a bunch of "Learn the Mechanics of City of Heroes!" missions; we've got Twinshot for that now! Get rid of them!).