Psoma

Dex, that's a good point. It's a shame /ac isn't a global channel (that magically included Test too). Of course, we're only attracting Live players from Freedom if we do this there. Does that publicity outweigh Test's ability to even builds? I agree that attracting more players is the main concern, so I'm fine with whatever achieves that best. (And maybe 90% of league blasters have GJ procs, but people just thinking about getting into PvP?) I just read Philly's post about Test maybe being closed atm anyway, so this discussion may be pointless right now.

Masque asked me to write up something about PvP emping, so here it goes:

(I think I'll break this up into build/slotting and then playstyle in a second post.)

The Build:

If you want to maximize your potential, then you're going to want to have a solid build. I still prefer controller emps over defender ones, mainly because of Power Boost, but that doesn't mean defender emp builds are bad. I've played a mind/emp since around the game's launch, but ill/emp has been the emp build of choice in arena PvP for the biggest part of the game's history (because of pets for disruption and Superior Invis for evasion). The primary can be debated these days for a few reasons, but the key PvP powers remain the same for all emps:

• Healing Aura
• Heal Other
• Absorb Pain
• Clear Mind
• Fortitude
• Adrenalin Boost
• Regeneration Aura + Recovery Aura (to a lesser extent, but I don't skip these)

You'll be skipping Resurrect as a PvP emp. If you need to know why: the arena respawn will rez for you, organized teams will kill both you and your rez target because of the animation time for you and the lack of unaffect time for your taget, and you'll need the power choice to select a truly useful power instead.

Slotting:

• You should slot for HP to increase your survivability. As a general rule of thumb, I'd set 1500 HP as a minimum, trying to get as much over that as possible without sacrificing too much regarding other slotting needs. Getting accolades obviously makes this easier, so get that Freedom Phalanx, Portal Jockey, and TF Commander asap. (Get the Atlas Medallion while you're at it, because you can never have too much End.)

• Great emp builds aren't cheap, but I'm sure you can find relatively inexpensive, viable builds if you look around enough. I suggest downloading and installing Mids Hero Designer to plan your build out before actually slotting it. If you can't find a decent build here to start from when making you own, look at some of the PvP GP sites or just ask here on the boards for either a cheap build or one where money is no object...take a look at both if you really want to plan out both starter and future respec builds. Remember to keep turn PvP mode on in Mids, and keep an eye on bonus caps, etc.

• Apart from HP, you need Super Jump and Super Speed if you want to live. Also, you'll need the speed and mobility from that travel combo in order to keep your teammates alive and buffed. I started out in PvP with Fly (in Issue 4) and then quickly realized a respec was in order. (That's a good side point: PvP'rs are min-maxers in general, so it's usually a good assumption that they've tried anything you've thought of when it comes to role positions like emping.) I try to max out my travels (HO Micros are helpful), because speed is everything in PvP.

• Keeping with survivability and evasion: take Concealment pool powers, slot them for set bonuses/LotG Global recharges, and get your primary evasion power, Phase Shift (and I suggest just dropping a single Recharge IO in it). You'll need to practice to figure out when you need to phase. Phasing too late gets you killed, and phasing when you don't need to can get your teammates killed.

• As far as heals go, increased range is a huge help. Obviously, you want your heals to have good numbers, but I personally think that 2 Range IOs in Heal Other is a must, since it's your main healing power. Opinions vary, but at the very least, I'd slot Absorb Pain with at least 1 Range IO. Set bonuses for range can really come in helpful here, but cost can be an issue. Get familiar with Healing set bonuses. Again, don't sacrifice too much when it comes to range. A split-second of travel time to get in range can end up in dead teammates more often than you'd think in fast-paced PvP.

• As a controller emp, you'll want to choose Primal Forces powers. Conserve Power can help with End issues, and Temp Invulnerability is good for some resistances, set bonuse slotting, and KB protection. Power Boost will be big when throwing heals...and it used to mean a big difference in buffs, but not so much any more (stupid i13).

• I just touched on KB protection, but you'll want to take Acrobatics (I put a single KB IO in it), and then a combination of Karmas, Steadfast Prot, and Zephyrs, and set bonuses to achieve at least a total of 41 points of KB protection. I'm not a fan of the KB changes that made us start having to slot this way, but if you're knocked back as an emp, you'll likely be dead in organized, team PvP. I don't risk it, and I don't suggest you do either.

• As for other powers/slotting: primary attack powers are a great way to get HP set bonuses; you should be too busy (usually) to be throwing attacks in between buffs and heals, so don't worry about things like acc, dam, rech, etc. like you would if you weren't an emp. I suggest just dropping a single Range IO in Clear Mind. I suggest 3-slotting Hasten and Power Boost with Recharge IOs.

I don't have time to review this atm, but that's probably a decent first draft.

I know there were a couple of threads a few weeks back where people were tossing around ideas, but I've had a few people recently ask me about what happens next. We know anything that stands a chance is going to require numbers, and it's hard to judge where those numbers are atm (imo, anyway). I know a number of us are in need of an organized PvP break, others are really anxious for another league or ladder, others say they are just done, and others are simply seeing what else develops.

Personally, I'm ready for a break from league stuff, but I'd like to see organized, team arena PvP keep going. But if we're going to talk about a ladder, I'd like to get a feel for what people are thinking.

Let's assume an 8v8 ladder. I know there are probably mixed opinions about roster size limitations, but:

1. If there were no roster size limitations, how many teams would we realistically be expecting?
2. How many people do you think would be willing to captain (because placing roster limits doesn't translate into ladder growth if people aren't willing to step up to start and captain new teams)?
3. Would you be willing to captain?
4. How many teams do most people consider to be the minimum before even attempting a ladder?

Personally, I'd answer:
1. 4...with basically teams of U2BG, SMD, and then a couple of teams made up of a mix of dUmb, CIGAL, EP, and INOANN.
2. I'm guessing about 4 again, unfortunately.
3. I'd probably be willing to captain/help captain a team.
4. I think less than 6 would get old really fast.

I'm not very optimistic about this atm, but I might be wrong (Peril should like that).

What is a blinking awesome button? I may have tried harder.

Things I'll remember:

The initial draft:
*Peril made a spreadsheet for U2BG's draft purposes that was good for like the first 10 picks...and then he just labeled everyone else as bad, etc.
*Several people getting picked multiple times because Peril is mentally challenged.
*My spreadsheet (for dUmb) taking me several hours to do, and basically being next to useless because of the way we called picks vs the way I listed them (because I'm mentally challenged as well)...and because we basically just picked friends and friends of friends...until we got toward the end where we actually made some great late-round picks. *Slax getting cracked up over my draft spreadsheet comments about potential picks.

Slax ragequitting about a dozen times...several because he/we hadn't actually read over the rules.

Rei begging for a trade over being picked by Peril to go to EP...then Slax trading for her and then us taking an overall loss (I think) to EP the first time we played them.

Going nearly comatose while Rei, mac, doyler, Slax...etc. discussed/argued over line-ups/strats for the first few weeks of the league and trying to make sure everyone on our team(s) wasn't about to quit because of it.

Rolling a blaster to help with spike team survivability and to get other emps more play time...and then ending up playing it for over half the time in matches after that.

Getting our first storm team win(s). We had debated viable storm teams for a while before settling on the MM storm team, and it still went through several variations before we came up with the best options for Lab and open/random maps.

Slax admitting to raging on me while I rebooted after my epic lag death against CIGAL that 1 round that totally messed up our turtle strat that round. (I still feel pretty stupid for not rebooting when I was lagging like crazy in PD beforehand.)

The supplemental draft where my eyes glazed over until h0j played the darth vader music to tease Slax. We ended up with Max, except that we didn't...and Ghost got mad. I made a post somewhere that summarized that mess.

Getting the Storm/MM win vs SMD on Eden...and having Lib get emp-killed at the very end (while everyone else hibed/phased) to ruin the shut-out that round.

Jonas Brothers jokes at doyler's expense.

doyler and SIR making fun of each other over getting killed, etc.

Being really proud of several D6'rs, that I didn't know at all in the beginning, that proved to be quality PvP'rs. (I'd name names, but I'm sure I'd forget 1 or 2.)

Debating what to do for the last round of the playoffs:
*run a totally lolzy line-up since we couldn't improve our standing
*run a legit line-up that would either be a storm/jump or storm/stalker
*realizing during the debate that we held the outcome of the overall winner in our hands
*considering giving Silit payback on behalf of others in the league by throwing the round by either playing a lolzy line-up or playing to win and (should we be winning) having everyone throw out an O-portal at the end and saying "We FF! Gratz on the win, SMD!!!"
*realizing that we didn't want to go out that way because we always play to win, we'd be punishing innocent players on U2BG,..and we'd lose out on Glad Jav Procs offered to us by Peril if we won

Anyway, gratz to U2BG and GGs to everyone. Thanks for the memories! I've been debating what I want to do now that the league is over.

GGs to everyone. tyvm to everyone that participated...was a long season, but I had fun for the most part for sure. <3

Lib, you quitter. :/

Oh hey...guess I should log in sometime. <3

lol What was up with having the remote in his underwear? Gross.

How dare you insult my videogame team like that?

I'd say removing the ability to summon portals in an arena map should just be removed, but there's like a billion other things I'd rather see time spent on first...none of which I actually expect.

And GGs SMD-looking forward to Thursday night.

Yeah, GGs EP-was fun stuff.

Kat, I'm going to need to see screenshots of those scores.

I have a saturday morning cartoon songs CD (I don't know why) that has a theme song for a cartoon called Gigantor on it. I hear that song in my head when I see posts by that guy.

We have a coop, but the people there are kind of snooty sometimes, and I've found bugs in some things.

Anyway, the timing for this isn't great for the arena people because a lot of us have league games at that exact time. :/

You're seriously going to disrespect Galactor?

You ruined it. I was hoping no one would realize how futile it would be to even show up against that OP'd goodness.

Someone make an all-star list per original server, force everyone to resub, revert Test back to i12 rules, and then we'll replay the server vs server tournament with 20-minute, 16v16 matches.

lol I usually keep pretty focused on what I'm doing, myself, in matches to relay what I'm thinking on vent...and chatter was higher than usual anyway last night, but I do remember thinking to myself "Why don't you just jump up, look down, and find the target?" whenever someone said something about not being able to find targets that round in Perez. Then I remembered we were dUmb, so I shrugged it off.

I knew that the Pocket D thing had been brought up in that meeting, but I really just couldn't remember what all was said. Now that I see that copy/paste, I do remember some captains saying that they had people with lag issues, etc. that preferred not to go to PD, and everyone pretty much just said they didn't really care enough to make it an issue. Empire asked about this last night when looking for some of EP's players, and all I could think to say was that I was pretty sure it wasn't an enforceable rule for some reason-maybe lack of consequence or something. I fail at reading and listening, so sorry about that, Emp.

GGs EP

And unicornmagic is HP? If so, wb-been a while.

That looks right to me. For personal reminders, here are a few notes:

Swift's schedule didn't allow him to be available any more.

Proj has been MIA since like a few days after he joined us...maybe school/work conflict.

JK's schedule just changed, so he likely won't make any more matches.

dan is out for now because of a family emergency.

st0n3y's time is limited, but I think he's trying to get a toon ready soon.

Eran can't usually make it.

Basically, we are currently at maybe 7 regular D6'rs.

Also, Max decided against having us call for a vote to getting his own global added.