Nalrok_AthZim

The complaints are about how hard it is. When people spend all their time slotting purples and softcapping defense and overall making a 'god' character, they get really really pissy when a mission hands them their buttcheeks on a plate.

This mission was cake for me, and I'm not even some uber-slotted guy. I ran it on my Ill/Kin 'Troller, my Pistol/Kin 'Corr, and my Fire/Fire Brute earlier this morning with no issues, all set to +0/x8 with Bosses+AV's enabled.

Do not complain about difficulty when the entire purpose of these arcs is to be challenging and quite literally test your mettle. I bet I could take any powerset through this mission and, with the right approach, stomp both Holtz and the Honoree flat.

One word:


BONFIRE.

My Dark Melee/Dark Armor/Soul Mastery Brute disagrees with you. I purposely let those Rikti beef up in number JUST so I had fuel for Dark Regeneration, Dark Consumption, Soul Drain and Soul Transfer.

My GOD it was glorious.

I have a 50 SS/Elec. I also have a 50 SS/Fire.

When I went to make a SS/Fire, I asked several level 50 friends to run tips and newsies and have me along. They graciously did so and, in turn, PL'ed my face off. I did this all while RPing with them, building my character's backstory. I only have... roughly 22 hours of solid playtime on him, but thanks to his powersets he's level 39 already and I have a pretty tight emotional investment in him. He can solo +1/x8 like a god, can kill entire spawns with ease (usually less than 10 seconds per bunch, depending on Fiery Embrace being available) and I also really enjoy his look and backstory.

So you CAN PL a toon and still love them. It's dependent on the person. Your assumptions do not apply to all.

I also asked that same group of friends to do the same thing to a Mind/Psi Dominator I named 'The Exec.' I've never played either set before, and again, I RPed Exec the whole time. In about 8 hours I learned where Mind/ sat on the Control table, and where /Psi's key powers were.

It's not hard to grasp the game, and while I have met my fair share of AE-farmed idiots I do not think your generalization is as broad as you believe it to be.

One of the biggest snark topics in the beta thread was how the announcement page was very misleading when it came to Alt Animations. And it was. And for that matter, still is.

This was the general response in the beta forums.

All in all the new power animations got a resounding 'meh.'

For some insight, Paragon let lead animator Christopher "Back Alley Brawler" Bruce go, and it really shows in this new batch of animations.

It freaking shows.

No it's not.

You need a different strategy or a few friends. I was able to solo it on my Pistol/Kin Corr.

Whoops D:

Redside population is not a problem on Virtue. What times do you play?

Bring this up to the people who had the Alpha Slot held back in I18.

Also bring it up to them about 2 months ago. Thanks.

Honestly, just go save their costumes/powers and reroll. I guarantee with the new Fitness you'll be back at 4 in no time.

This is the most painful thing I've ever read.

Your team leader was an absolute idiot, and probably an AE-farmed noob. Any experienced player will know that debuff powers are always helpful regardless of how effective they are on AV's. I'll bet he gets pissed off when Rad Emission characters put down their anchors on bosses.

Sounds about right, for both the first and second parts.

Would you mind explaining how that works? Conventional wisdom also dictates that slotting a Heal IO has nothing at all to do with the recharge of a specific power.

((Cyrsei, I'm constantly present here on the forums despite being rather quiet, but if you're willing to consider me I can get the prompts up every Wednesday at 7:30 AM PST, guaranteed!))

For just over four hours he'd been standing there. Standing atop the Grandville Radio Tower, one hand on one of the four giant spires that surrounded the scalding red beam that ripped into the clouds. He was, and always would be known by many titles. The Behemoth, the Overlord, the Prince of the Black Kingdom, and most interestingly 'Plague of the Six Winds.' Admittedly, he'd never quite figured out why man had given him that last one, but he enjoyed it's sinister, mysterious feel. Nalrok Ath'Zim, son of Zaerus, ruler of the Black Kingdom reached up quietly and adjusted his nethersteel mask. Somewhere below him, Recluse and his four Lieutenants were mulling and worrying over 'the coming storm.' He briefly wondered to himself if he could find humor in that; the weather forecasts that played throughout the Isles had mentioned a 'cold, icy storm' moving in from the West.

As he always had, he stood at an imposing ten feet tall. He looked quite traditional, given the way demons had been portrayed in the past: massively tall, large and sharp-looking horns that began at his hairline and curled backward into vicious spikes, glowing white eyes, scaled and reddish-black skin, enormous wings bearing holes that showed his age and lust for combat, clothing made of a rough and durable leather that was capped here and there by thick steel-like metals, accentuated by a belt that bore a shining horned skull on it's buckle. His deep burgundy hair whipped about him in the cold winds, and he took a moment to reach back and tuck it under the chains holding his shoulderplates up.

A snowflake fell. It twisted and pirouetted about in the high winds and Nalrok watched it intently. It itself was in turmoil, being tossed around by nature. He raised a gauntleted hand and idly lowered it only after the snowflake had landed on his metal-bound pointer finger. Raising the hand to his face, he waited patiently as the snowflake slowly melted. The coming season was one of great joy and celebration for mankind and it's allies, a time of giving and decoration. Everywhere he looked there were hints of the 'holiday season'; lights strung around buildings and stores, large and prickly pine trees adorned with tinsel, ribbons, and (in cases he thought to be quite bizarre) popcorn on a string. With a quick pinch and rub of his finger and thumb the moisture from the melted snowflake was gone. But, nature, as if sensing his dismissal of the icy speck, responded in kind with a sudden flurry of frigid snowflakes.

"Well then," he rumbled with a voice that spoke with wisdom and depth, "Let it snow if you must." And with that, he pitched forward off the side of the tower and exploded into billions of white, sinewy tendrils. The tendrils snaked down the tower with great speed, and quickly turned parallel to the earth and fired out over the horizon.

They appeared in Cap Au Diable, twisting and writhing into one semi-solid humanoid shape. In seconds, Nalrok had formed from them and was striding quietly up the cement ramp to Aeon City. He began to turn the pages of his mind, reading through the last five or six years with silent analysis. In the time he'd spent in the Isles, since returning this new and modern Earth, Nalrok had found a great many interests and a great many allies. 'Blackjack' Anderson, the young and rather ignorant human gang leader he'd met when he arrived flashed in his head. A grin creased his face. Leucothea, the strikingly beautiful crimson-haired stormweaver passed through his thoughts. She had run in to him in the Rikti War Zone, and in a stunning display of power had aided him in putting the War God Hro'Dtohz through a severe bout of injuries. Sharessa came to his thoughts, a small undead necromancer woman whom he'd had a brief, interesting 'fling' with, as it were. Immediately after came her would-be owner Solrac, a mutt of demons that he wished he could forget.

Alexander Schwertmann, he thought. Alexander Schwertmann was an officer in the Third Reich, and a figurehead in the research branch of the SS Paranormal Division. Schwertmann had taken one of Nalrok's six tomes in an attempt to imbue himself with the soul-draining power Nalrok himself possessed; the most impressive part--

A bullet ricocheted off of his left horn. He slowly turned left and locked eyes with an Arachnos Wolf Spider. The Spider began to run, only to fall to his knees and scream as his soul was ripped from his mouth. Nalrok caught the soul as if it were a butterfly and crushed it. Where was he agai-- oh yes.

The most impressive part was that Alexander had succeeded in granting himself Nalrok's ability. Nalrok himself was so impressed that he chose to infuse the officer with a portion of his own lifeforce. In two weeks time Schwertmann had singlehandedly committed numerous war crimes, and later joined Nalrok when the Third Reich fell. Years after, Schwertmann was ambushed by a group of hired hitmen and shot to death. With the aid of friends he'd made (and created pacts with) in Arachnos, Crey and numerous biotech companies, Nalrok was able o salvage Schwertmann's body, brain and soul. Rather than walking the world as human, Schwertmann was more cyborg than man and adopted the moniker 'Kybernetis Einheit.' It meant 'Cybernetic Unity,' he'd told Nalrok. Nalrok appreciated the name and to this day Schwertmann has aided him in battle and in planning.

His ominous presence in the streets of Cap Au did little to betray his true intentions of just going for a walk. People ran, villains backed up and aimed their various weapons and powers at him, but very few actually made a move. The Arbiter nodded to him once, and he nodded back. Several minutes of walking passed, and he found himself at the edge of Aeon City. Quietly, he surveyed the Black Market truck and it's many patrons. Snow lashed about him, and a gentle roll of thunder rippled across the sky.

He spread his wings and fell forward, flapping and propelling himself into the late afternoon's clouds, the memories of his past still churning about in his head.

As he broke through the ceiling of the storm, greeted by icy air and the dim light of the winter sun, Nalrok decided that perhaps the saying he'd heard from so many humans was accurate after all. The world was of experience, regardless of where and what you are. As that old saying went, life was not about destinations so much as it was about journeys. Despite his dreams of eventual planar conquest, of slaughter and pain, of worship and rule, there was much to be seen and felt in the world created by man. His desire to destroy all that was brought forth by humankind was indeed great; his desire to experience it all was equally so. He was making good progress on both the former and the latter, and was enjoying that. He folded his wings and let himself begin the long, high-speed journey back to the earth whereupon arriving he would flip just before landing and leave a nice impact crater wherever he came down. As the frozen clouds parted to allow his passing, he turned over the prospect of something(s) being under him when he landed.

He was eager to find out.