RaikenX

I don't really mind the tray, personally, though i can see how it might be less than stellar for others. Like a lot of other tri-formers, i used binds to hop forms...but for power activations, i've always used the mouse. I've never really used the numbers to use powers as it's pretty awkward for me. So for me...it works. Others...maybe not so much. I'll still use my binds, but i can probably now reduce the number of trays on my screen since i won't have one that constantly switches as i change forms.

I'm not sure if it's the taunt that's not supressing or the -rech that's not...or both.

Case in point. I can be level 30+ and stand in a lvl 1 group in Atlas and mobs will get those pretty little "you've been recharge debuffed" rings and aggro.

Pretty sure, either way...this is borked.

Beyond that, last i remember, the stealth component of EC does NOT suppress when in combat, only the visual aspect of it does (you're not see through). I could be wrong. I just seem to remember this being brought up some time ago when EA got it's little revamp.

Hmm...judging by the weeky strike targets list for june, seems that i23 will be published sometime within the next 2 weeks or so. The Penelope Yin TF is on schedule for the 11th-18th.

Though..this might not be news to some. I'm pretty terrible with keeping up with current events...as it were.

This past saturday...on the weekly Moonfire TF.

For the most part, i'd been playing my 'shade Steve Shadow pretty much like I normally would. Hop into mob, mire, hop out, nova form, blast away.

Then in one of the missions, me and one of the scrappers had drifted away from the rest of the team (read: we went completely off on our own). Got to the council "jail" room...which as usual...was pretty loaded with stuff to hit (we had a full 8-man team going). Popped a few skittles...went rhino, and charged the middle of the room with the scrapper hot on my heels. I'm smashing stuff upside the head with whatever is charged at the moment, hitting mire everytime it's up, and taunting my big purple tookis off. A couple of times, my blue bar got a little too low for my liking, and thanks to the scrapper (a MA/something scrapper...never actually checked out his secondary) i had a few bodies to feed off of so i dropped dwarf, and stygian circled. I ALMOST got wasted when i accidentally hit the wrong keybind and went into nova form. It took me a few seconds to realize my mistake, thankfully before i hit the floor, and hit Dwarf. By the time the rest of the team got to the room, we were mopping up stragglers.

It was...beeeaaaautiful!

BTW...my shade's build is a mixture of common IO's and SO's...so i didn't have any of those wonderful set bonuses working for me. This was au natural, peoplez. HOO-HAH!

Well...he's already in midnighters...not sure if i've done an itf with him but...i totally forgot about the astral merit thing. That did the trick...yayz! Thx

With i23 on the horizon and the instant form shifting change for kheldians that comes with it, i decided to bring my warshade out of mothballs and finally start him down the road of incarnate-hood. So...I log in...head over to Oro and chat up Mender Rami...and this is where things get a little hinky.

I'm not sure if perhaps i'd already started his little arc or not. I didn't check beforehand to see. But...as i clicked on Rami, and pretty much intending to just click through the answers and not bother reading anything, i could swear that i saw a "you have abbanded your current mission" flash across my screen somewhere. Um...whoops? Now...whenever i try to talk to rami, i just get that long list of Q&A stuff on incarnates, but no option to ask about missions. He's got no floaty arrow over his head...nothin. Basically...it seems like i'm locked out or something.

Any ideas?

I seem to have found an interesting little bug involving Panther Stealth. For those that know (or even those that don't)...when you toggle on the Panther Stealth Power...you'll get another power tray that has the stealth toggle in it.

Now the bug. Ran to a mission all panthery and stealthy-like. Clicked on the door to enter the mission...which took me out of panther form. HOWEVER...the tray didn't go away...and the Stealth power was still toggled on...fully functioning...at no end cost.

Also...it seems that as long as you don't go back to panther form...this pretty much stays indefinitely.

I've tried toggling on Rocket Board and Coyote Run...and the toggle remains on and active. It even persists through zoning.

UPDATE:

Also discovered that after initiating the bug, the stealth toggle can be turned on and off at will as if you were still in panther form. Found this one out after i got faceplanted. Bar still stayed up...and was able to re-toggle the stealth.

Bill nailed most of the major points of panther stealth. It's like many of the new "travel power alternatives" that have been popping up on the market as of late. I actually got it cuz it sounded pretty cool (i know...i'm such a sucker).

It has the same run speed as coyote run...~58 mph on the toons i messed with it on...but doesn't jump quite as high. Jump is something like 22 ft high...which isn't bad...but gets whomped big time by ninja run, beast run, and even coyote run. All of those are like 40+ feet vertical.

I would say it'd be best used on a toon that doesn't have some kind of stealth already (either by power selection or IO) that you don't plan on running a half a gajillion toggles on...or a concept toon. I've got a grav/nrg dommy who's second costume happened to be a were-panther....ish....deal. So...yeah. Kinda worked out for me (just a bit too bad that i'd already picked up invisiblity with him for LotG recharge mule).

Edit: Oh yeah...one other minor detail. When you toggle on panther stealth, the stealth itself isn't baked in. It pops up another power tray with the actual stealth toggle in it. I was such an idiot, that if not for the fact that the forums got temporarily borked and i couldn't log in...i woulda bugged the blasted thing cuz I'd totally missed the tray pop up on my screen the first couple times. DERP!

Brutes will get spines when Dominators get Illusion.

Let us not forget the recent revision (read: effing awesome upgrade) to stalkers. Stalkers can now use AS in mid combat. No wind-up, no interrupt. No fuss, no muss. But where this really shines is that now most stalker attacks, minus the AS itself, can accumulate "Assassin's Focus". For every stack you get, up to 3, gives the stalker a 33% chance to crit with AS...and at a stacking of 3...pretty much a garunteed critical strike. Not quite as much as the normal hidden AS...but still packs a serious punch, enough for some potential one-shots.

Masterminds got a new primary in the form of Beast Mastery. I haven't tried this one yet, myself, and reactions are rather varied. Pets are all melee all the time, except for the final pet. Some of the pets have long recharge, kinda short duration buffs that are subject to wonky pet AI...in other words...totally screwy...and the pets themselves are lacking in the number of attacks they actually have. Pretty good ST DPS tho...and not too shabby if paired with the right secondary...or so i've read.

Trollers and Dominators got a new primary in Dark Control while Trollers got Darkness affinity and Dommies got Dark Assault. Blasters got Dark Blast FINALLY...with some revisions...and a new secondary in the form of Dark Manipulation. While thematically these powers fit...not all do mechanically (looking at you, blasters).

Julius mentioned TW...but we also got Staff Fighting. Probably about a middle of the road set...but lots of aoe and interesting utility in the Staff Mastery power. Its kind of a "Choose Your Buff" power. And unlike Swap Ammo from Dual Pistols...this is actually GOOD!

So yeah...lotsa new shinies. Have fun! (i'm sure someone will come along and add more to this).

I don't suffer from Altitus. In fact...I rather enjoy it.

However, I do wanna say something else to this. Altitus (or at least as I see it)...isn't solely about "rolling up a new character every other day/week/whatever" as much as it is also not sticking to one toon from start to finish and beyond. Not all of us like to play the same thing over and over ad nauseum, and personally I'm one of those people. The most I might sometimes play one toon constantly is maybe for a week or 2. Rarely more than that. I like to mix things up a bit...maybe pick something back up again that I haven't messed with in a while.

If i happen to get a new idea...THEN I'll do a run through the character creator...possibly play that toon for a while...then flip back to a completely different one...and most likely one that i created a good while ago that I hadn't been in the mood to play.

Here's an example for ya. I created a TW/EnAura brute. Played him for about 2-3 weeks solid....-ish. Took a break from the game for a while...came back...played said toon a couple more days. Created a Staff/SR scrapper. Been playin him...oh...2 weeks or so...i guess. Broke out my lvl 50 Stone/WP brute that I'd created /years/ and FINALLY started him down the incarnate path. Day or 2 there. Of course...playing a stone melee toon got me thinking about my Earth/Earth dominator, also created /years/ ago, that's been stuck at lvl 42 for quite a while (read: months). Ran around yesterday with the dommy...got him up to level 43 and did a respec (he was still using a pre-inherent fitness build). Today? Who knows. Might run my Earth/Earth dommy a little more...or maybe pick up my lowbie Plant/Earth dommy...or something else entirely. So many toons...so many different forms of fun.

THAT...is Altitus. THAT...is LIBERATION!!! HOO-HAH!!

(When) I play my stalkers pretty much as I always have. I never subscribed, nor practiced, the hit and run tactics that so many early stalkers did. I've always, always, stuck around and fought to the bitter end.

I haven't messed around too much with stalkers since the lasted revision, though i did do a tad bit of running around in GV with my el/el stalker just to get a feel for the assassin's focus mechanic...and i gotta say i like it. My usual pattern is BU > LR>AS baddie of choice (since LR doesn't break hide)>TS...then continue to scrap as normal. Now though, being able to toss out another big whammie attack in the middle of combat is just too friggin sweet.

I've got one or two lowbie stalkers that i kinda veered away from for a while (alt-itus reared its ugly head again) and i'm thinking about rolling up a staffer stalker. I'm finding it a fun set to play on my scrapper, and i plan on giving it a run on other AT's too.