NightshadeLegree

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I hate that mission. Every single spawn has a boss in it. Even when soloing. Every. Single. Mob.

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Yup, and frequently more than 1 if you're running on difficulty 4.

I usually run on 2 or 4 because I like bigger groups of enemies - *takes a moment to say Yay! for I16 Enhanced Difficulty - and I've seen some very unusual spawning patterns recently. I did the Mercy Bank last night, on diff 2, at level 6... and there were no less than 4 bosses in the bank.

Thankfully both my inspirations tray and my fury bar were full, so... good times

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Screw the farmers - they'll just do what they've always done, only now they'll do it quietly.

Now I'll be able to populate standard missions with hazard zone sized spawns while soloing, and I'm hugely looking forward to that

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So who else already has placeholder characters set up to reserve the names they want for their demon summoners and dual pistols wielders?

Darrin Wade is an exception. He'll talk to you as soon as you arrive in Sharkhead, and will introduce you to another contact later on - no broker needed.

The GR site has a little bit more detail today than it had yesterday.

link

Cue renewed wild speculation about release dates?

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Either way she is still the worst npc in the game to ever have as a hostage/ally.

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Fusionette is worse, with her tendency to try and solo Chief Soldiers in a completely different group from the one you're attacking.

The most powerful ally I've encountered so far is Arbiter Sands in Faultline, who gave the impression he could have finished the mission himself, but even he couldn't keep Fusionette alive...

I did Ashley McKnight's mission the other night, where you have to retrieve the 4 amulets.

Solo at diff 4, level 33 - the prison room contained a Succubus, a Hellfrost, a Ruin Mage, 3 Behemoth Overlords and a Rikti Chief Soldier. Thanfully I was able to fight 'only' two of them at a time (!) but I have never seen such a concentration of bosses when soloing as I did in that mission.

I don't mind the guards, but the doors themselves take a very very long time to break down, or at least did with my SS/ Brute.

Edit: Is there something about the layout of that room's spawn points that causes it to have a very dense population of enemies?

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Honestly, a mission filled with nothing but sappers would be a pretty easy farm. I remember one mission like that redside, and it was one of the easiest things I've ever done in game.

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Oops...

If I'm inadvertantly responsible for suggesting the new Farm of the Month I'll never forgive myself

Has anyone considered using deception and misinformation to sow discord and confusion in the ranks of the AE babies?

Let's say someone creates an AE mission with lots and lots of Malta (I don't think they'd even need to do anything tricksy to customise them and make them even deadlier than they already are) Then all it takes is a few people to start talking in Broadcast...

Player 1: Wow, have you tried the Malta farm? Great XP!!!
Player 2: Yup, much better than Hami!
Player 3: I went from 1 to 50 in an hour!
Player 1: Malta Farm LFM!
Noob: can u invite me plz?!

After an hour or so of being perma-stunned, sapped into complete impotency and blown to bits by Gunslingers and Zeus Titans they'll be begging to get out there and do some real missions

If I want to get in the mood to fight the Rikti I just watch this

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Oh, honorable mention: Mastermind's Poison. Yes, yes, yes I know it has two SPECIAL SINGLE TARGET debuffs in the game. I don't need to be reminded 1000x times. I have a lvl 50 Merc/Poison (my very first 50 MM)!!! Comparing to Merc/Storm, Merc/Poison truly sucks. I didn't list it as the "most" under-performing only because the special debuff has its place in the game and that is about it. /Poison sucks in pretty much every other area (minus soloing but which MM can't solo??).

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I'm inclined to agree with this. /Poison works brilliantly with Thugs due to the Noxious Gas + Bruiser combo, but I'd imagine it's less impressive with any of the other primaries, and most of the other powers go unnoticed when teamed. It's also quite easy to get overwhelmed against even moderate numbers of opponents.

As for /SR being underpowered... my 46 Claws/SR has thus far defeated every single Elite Boss she's encountered on the first attempt (well alright, Chimera defeated me, but I popped a wakie, a break free and Elude and then finished him off without even taking the time to put my toggles back on) and the only enemies that have really give me trouble in the last 10 levels or so have been Rularuu with their insane accuracy. Besides no set that includes Practiced Brawler can be considered underpowered.

The only risk with /SR is occassionally, very occassionally, an opponent will get lucky and you get two shotted by a Freak Tank or similar, but that's very rare.

Not a place, but a very subtle detail I noticed. There's a Freedom Corp poster next to the RV recruiter in Peregrine. Where the others, that you see in police stations, have slogans like "Fight The Good Fight" this one reads "Might For Right."

I was doing Indigo's arc when I noticed it, and given what "Might For Right" refers to in that story I was quite disconcerted to see it being used as a Freedom Corp slogan.

Interesting change. I've been noticing a lot more bosses in the missions I've been running with my lvl 32 brute today, and I definitely won't complain, since I've been wanting a change to the 1 lt + 1 minion or 3 minions set up.

This could be pretty challenging on a mission that already spawned a disproportionate number of bosses. Anyone done Darrin Wade's arc recently?

Edit: Ashley McKnight mission - 2 Behemoth Overlords and an Agony Mage, all lvl 34, in a single room. Solo, diff 4. Um...

Yesterday afternoon on Freedom there were at least 2 teams of low level villains running Kalinda's and Mongoose's missions. The team I was on even completed the bank mission on the first run

Of course later you get to Cap au Diable... but by that time hopefully newbies will be hooked on getting out there and doing some villainy!

Nightshade dinged 50 sometime in January. I still haven't levelled a VEAT past level 5 or so. Too much else to try

And, on topic, Nightshade, having been played daily for a month or so from level 1 onwards, stalled in the early 40s for several weeks - a combination of the missions being too easy and the levelling too slow.

Since coming back after the last free weekend I've let my altitis run riot... now no character gets more than a day at a time, and usually, at best, only a few hours. One day I will get a hero to 50...

AE won't be removed, or given the nerfing it so richly deserves (removing the auto-sk and/or reducing/removing Xp)because way too much time and effort has been put into it for the Devs to be ready to declare it a failure. That, and people are now buying extra story slots, with real money.

That said, I'm absolutely certain that AE will be nerfed into oblivion before Going Rogue is released. Perhaps Tyrant will tap into Dr. Aeon's power sources and open up his invasion portals inside the AE buildings - leaving nothing but smouldering craters surrounded by bemused noobs who don't know where to go next

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Starting a new alt in Atlas last night, I saw several newbie heroes (no vet badges) out on the streets battling Hellions and Vahzilok. They're not all being sucked into the AE building

The only thing those of us who dislike AE can do right now is, when we do find a newbie venturing onto a regular team, try to make sure that they enjoy it and see that it is actually more fun when the enemies put up a fight. It's no good to anyone if they immediatly get chased back to the AE by the lrn2play crowd.

So go on, vets - round up 7 AE babies and take them on an ITF today!

Necro/Dark, Necro/Dark, Thugs/Traps, Thugs/Poison

That was enough to beat Reichsman on Test a few weeks ago

For maximum carnage please please please deactivate the police drones, and allow the Rikti to appear inside the AE buildings.

Thugs/Poison, inevitably I suppose, since Nightshade was my first, and to date only, 50. I don't like to stand around a lot leaving the pets to do all the work, so the very active /Poison powers are great (plus dual pistols for added coolness)

Also, Thugs is a very visual set , with a lot of stylish, clever or just plan funny touches - the sideways aiming of the punks, the arsonist's zippo-fuelled fire breath, the bruiser riding in on his harley, the enforcers just looking utterly bad-[censored] once they get the second upgrade... and I sometimes miss the slapstick of the bruiser charging into a crowd of Longbow and unleashing handclap like a big mean bowling ball. If I didn't have a full IO set in there I'd be tempted to slot a KB enhancer, just for the lulz

I've played a couple of other sets, and have a Mercs/Dark in the mid-teens who seems very powerful (so much so I can't help feeling it must get really bad later on) but Thugs/Poison is probably the most out and out entertaining powersets I've played, on any AT.

Favourites: Malta, because they have so many different ways to run your day you can't ever take them for granted. Easily my favourite opponents for my scrapper now she's in the mid 40s.

Honourable mention: Rikti, because the TPing Headmen and the crazy knockback from the swords makes for very dynamic fights, and I love the sound effects they get.

Least Favourite: Devouring Earth. They all look the same, and either die in seconds or last forever (hello, Sentries) Plus they don't talk, which makes running through missions against them a lot less interesting.

Dishonourable mention: Scrapyarders. The Mastermind's worst nightmare. Just when you think you're becoming invincible you reach level 20 and oh look, here comes a demolitionist to blow your pets to kingdom come... Plus their EB is the Sea Witch - one of the most frustrating opponents I've fought.

I'm deeply reluctant to ever drop BG mode, though I usually issue an attack command to the bruiser to make sure he goes for the boss rather than a minion.

I use Provoke. The pets retaliate as soon as I get attacked, and since I'm still in BG mode I can take whatever attack was aimed at me.

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As I said, the Thugs/Poison already feels much more like a nuclear powered steamroller with death rays and rockets. I wish playing my bot/ff had been this much fun.

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Just wait until you get Noxious Gas. Then you'll be a nuclear powered steamroller with death rays and rockets and poison gas

Now, having played the single target slaughterhouse that is Thugs/Poison, you can imagine what a shock it was for me to go from that to Bots/FF.

After seeing many comments about "too many Longbow" on redside I decided to see if I could go 1 to 50 without fighting any of Freedom Corps' finest.

So now I have a heroic MM - a Thugs/Traps who is a Longbow agent with an entourage of reformed gang members fighting the good fight. She won't fight her own people, though I'm still undecided on whether or not those shady Wyvern types are fair game.

I'm definitely not sure about Detonator. I might have to skip that... though when I was creating this character and read the description of that power I admit I lol'd.

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My Bots/FF has been sitting at level 25 for a couple of weeks now. I know the Assault Bot is only half a level away, but I'm used to Thugs/Poison, where if any target lasts more than 10 seconds you know it's an EB.

By comparison the time it takes my Bots to kill anything is just mind numbing.

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When you get the assault bot, the speed at which you kill things quadruples, and when you get the final upgrade, it multiplies that by ten.

So you'll be able to kill a minion or two per minute!

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Wow. I don't know if I could stand the excitement

I think I lost faith in my Bots/FF while doing a mission against scrapyarders. The demolitionists weren't blowing my pets to bits with the ease that had sent Nightshade and her thugs fleeing to Nerva at level 26 (who cares if everything is purple - no scrapyarders!), but seeing the health bar of a Foreman actually go back up because my Bots were taking so long to take him down... that was just demoralising.