Paladin

I'm taking a break from leading runs on Virtue to report in as promised. Tyrant IS noticeably more difficult during the home stretch, but not too much for a grande finale of a trial. The best way I can articulate the difference between this run and beta is that in Beta, it took a few people who knew what they were doing to succeed. Now it's a full league effort on live.

Tyrant's regeneration stalls leagues even with the Light of the Wells down; previously the only stalling happened when leagues were going after The Really Hard Way runs. The amped up regeneration wasn't even a speed bump, and the only time his health yo-yoed was on a Really Hard Way run.

I personally like the changes, but people should be aware that when they finish this trial they're doing it at nearly the same difficulty as "The Really Hard Way" was on Beta. That may just be because leagues aren't used to the content yet and are making simple mistakes, they're bringing non-T4 Destinies, etc. Rads are a good help as you'd think.

Like The Really Hard Way runs on beta, I can offer some advice on running this trial to hopefully make the Tyrant fight a little more bearable.

1) Save your Lore Pets until you can no longer overcome Tyrant's regeneration. This way you don't waste them getting to as point you could have reached without the lore pets, and instead use them to make a final push. If everyone uses them together, it can make the trial wrap up quickly.

2) Move as soon as "The Air Crackles Around Tyrant" message appears. This isn't a test of character survivability - some melee can survive multiple patches, but half of the league won't be able to. And if there are patches all around Tyrant then the damage those people could have contributed to offset his regeneration is lost.

3) Don't camp Light of the wells. Instead, people should be fighting Tyrant until the lights are about to spawn, and then have a select few people putting the lights out. This is to keep your team from losing out on the damage they can contribute versus Tyrant's regeneration.

4) Let people know that the hit point bar lies. Folks have been conditioned to think "50% health means 50% of the battle is over." That's not the case on this trial, and that misunderstanding can lead to some morale failures if folks don't know what to expect. 30% is about the halfway point of the trial, if that. Warn people not to be discouraged by the hit point tug of war going on.

I hope this helps, and that you have a lot more success over the weekend.

The only thing I can think of is that you had someone on the league who didn't have Lore or Destiny unlocked and the league leader didn't have league error messages enabled. Otherwise, yeah, sounds like a launch day bug.

Interesting! I'll be sure to pick up plenty of Super Inspirations for tonight's attempts, then. Thanks for the perspective, Damz. I'll be posting my thoughts on the beta to live experiences as well.

I'll let you know if his difficulty was changed when I do my Virtue run tonight at 6:30 Pacific. If the mechanics and difficulty haven't changed from how it was on Beta, then it's going to be a problem with the players in your runs.

At any rate, most of the complaints about Tyrant revolved around the fight being anti-climactic and unengaging compared to previous high end trials. If you have an eligible character on Virtue you're welcome to join my run.

It's official! I23 is going live tomorrow. With the release of the issue we can finally engage Tyrant himself in battle and begin to bring the saga to a close.

I'd like to run this trial a few times in order to both unlock the Hybrid slot for those interested and get people comfortable participating and leading this trial. Compared to Post-Keyes trials, completing this trial and earning its badges isn't complicated.

We'll be forming in Dark Astoria at 6:30pm Pacific. Please make sure your character has up to Lore and Destiny unlocked - otherwise you won't be able to queue with us.

There's going to be a lot of Magisterium trials being run throughout the day/week, so if you can't make tomorrow's scheduled run just keep an eye out in trial channels and Dark Astoria.

Which means this week is likely to be the last time to run Statesman's Task Force before the mantle goes to someone else. Hurray for I23, but it's sad to see the fellow go.

I tell you, it's just in time. I finally managed to craft the last T4 two weeks ago, so I'm all set for some new ways to grow my main. Still a little lonely without primal clockwork to go with the name - maybe it's time for another optional Lore update they can slap together?

Or rather than implementing new salvage, maybe they could add T5s to each option?

Edit: All attempts to be pelted with rotten tomatoes aside, the Hybrid slot is unique enough that I'd hope people would expand to slot multiple versions on a single character. If they get the courage to bump up the Support slot some more then each option will be worth getting on a single character. It's even more versatile than Destiny, which is saying something.

I have a feeling we won't be seeing trials stop just because someone reaches one level of T4 Hybrid. That'd be denying your character a vast array of power - the slot that most embodies the "grow sideways" power of the incarnate system to date.

I don't care what anyone says, Valkyrie and Paladin are the OTP. Maybe someday I'll write a silly RP story about it or turn it into an AE arc - I held onto the valentine from Valkyrie under his tips tab.

Outside of the valentines event, I'd say most of the CoH universe exists outside of healthy relationships. I can think of one couple that's got it together, and that's Matthew Habashy and his wife Diana. Everyone else has either no mention of relationships, interests, etc., or their relationships are messed up. The game really focuses on the heroic aspect of super-life rather than the mundane - something which the creators got right, IMO.

To have the game zone come alive, I'd add a few more buildings that are in zone which you can enter. And then use those buildings in real-time safeguard missions. Have a pawn shop that can get held up, a bank that can get robbed, science experiment breaking out, etc.. Then provide temporary powers, boosts, and other lasting tokens as a reward - something besides influence and experience.

Give something more to do in city zones, inside buildings. Make it a living, dynamic city. And lower the penalty for street sweeping.

Haven't encountered that specifically. But yesterday I did have to reset my passwords through NCSoft to be able to log into the forums again.

My favorite forum bug is still having everyone log in as me, though. Hilarious even though it only lasted a few hours.

They'd have to figure out how it affects things like Incarnate powers and set bonuses. It's not something that's been said flat-out "We will never do this" - that's AT respecing. But there's a lot to consider, it may not be feasible, and if it was possible, it might not even be worth it.

All of that said? I know a lot of people who'd shell out money for their mains/alts to be rerolled without losing their badges.

I will take this opportunity that the Devs have accomplished previously stated impossible goals before (Patron Respecs), so it's not completely hopeless. We've got a team worthy of a game full of superheroes after all.

It's MSNBC. Really, what did you expect?

I use everything I can get my hands on, usually for character flavor. I flashback to get the Rune of Warding, Bow and Arrow, Holy Shotgun Shells, Vitalize, and frequently run Safeguards just for temporary powers. It helps the character transcend the limits imposed by the chosen archetype and flesh out abilities that would make sense on a concept.

Other people have alt-itis. Me? I have temppower-itis. I might as well have based Paladin off of Batman when it comes to temp powers.

I'd still love to see Circlets ported towards male models, along with the crown items you see on female characters. Black Knight armor is a must, too, please!