Redlynne

Btw, just in case anyone really cares ... here's the latest Mids' v1.92 data chunk for both of my builds, which includes Alpha Slot decision:

Ms Terry: Tri-form Warshade

Wow ... really? 99 deaths? I think I only dropped for debt about 5 times or so ... so someone must have been taking up my slack.

And once again, my full medicine pool got a good workout on this run. It always amuses me to read people post here in the forums how the medicine pool "is a waste" on a Warshade ... and then I go and use it a dozen (or more) times to Resuscitate my teammates during a TF. ^_^"

Love to see some of the screenshots other people took.

/em popcorn

The only two keyboard controls that I know of are ESC (to deselect) and R (to rotate). The fact that R is hard coded to function as a 90 degree rotation is extremely annoying to me ... because that's the key I normally use to Strafe Right.

I'm logging in to Ms Terry now and heading on over to the peanut gallery by Impy Brain.

The Well of the Furies appears to be favoring Emperor Cole over the other Incarnates.

Why?



Well ... let's analyze what we know ...



Statesman
It is explicitly stated in context that Statesman, although not rejecting the power of the Well outright, does not trust the Well. So although he is the modern incarnation of Zeus, he isn't reaching for yet more power ... from the Well or anywhere else. Furthermore, Statesman has chosen a path for himself where he doesn't want anyone else to fall for the Well's temptations of power. Statesman's position vis-a-vis the Well is essentially one of maintenance ... of maintaining the status quo. He's not willing to risk the balance that has been achieved. For this reason, Statesman is a less than satisfactory vessel for the Well's power(s).



Lord Recluse
It is explicitly stated in context that Lord Recluse wants to be free of the Well's influence(s) ... without losing the power(s) he's gained from it. He wants to keep his power, and/or increase it ... but not through the Well. It could be speculated that Recluse actually FEARS the Well of the Furies, and as such fights against its claim on his destiny. This is why Lord Recluse had the Web built which players encounter in the Statesman Task Force, since it is a means and a way for Lord Recluse to increase his powers without relying on the Well. So although Lord Recluse hungers for power, he refuses to surrender himself to the Well completely. For this reason, Lord Recluse is probably the greatest "failure" as a vessel for the Well's power(s) ... which is ironic when considering that Lord Recluse, as a villain, desires FREEDOM more than he craves POWER.



Reichsman
It is explicitly stated in context that Reichsman has been draining other dimensions of power so as to increase his own. One would think that this would draw the "favor" of the Well to Reichsman, since he is very much following the Path To POWER. Except ... Reichsman isn't following the Path to Power through the Well. Instead, like Lord Recluse, he is seeking a way to augment his powers outside of the Well ... in this case, by draining it from other dimensions. It is therefore almost as if Reichsman is a curious combination of Statesman and Lord Recluse, as far as motivations go. He does not "reject" the Well, but he also does not seek to draw ever more power from it. Instead, he seeks other sources of power outside the Well ... perhaps to limit the "claim" the Well can make on his destiny. It is this motivation, where Reichsman turns away from the Well in his quest for ever more power, that makes him a less than ideal "vessel" for the Well of the Furies power. Yes, he seeks power, and yes, he's good at accumulating it ... but he does so not through the Well itself.



Emperor Cole
In Emperor Cole, we find a "vessel" for the Well's power which is perhaps most closely aligned with the Well's purpose ... someone who will draw ever more power from the Well itself, *and* ... as we see in Issue 20 ... infuse that power into others, and in so doing, bind them to the Well also. Near as I can tell from what we've seen so far, the Well of the Furies cares nothing for Good or Evil ... as those are Human Concepts. Instead, it appears that the Well seeks only to release power to be used by whomever it deems worthy. That "worthy" clause is looking an awful lot like it means those who are not only willing and able to accumulate power ... but are also motivated to use it. And among those favored by the Well, the Well is seeking "vessels" who will seek to draw more and more power from the Well itself, not from outside sources. In a manner of speaking, the Well seeks those who can not only get drunk on power, but who will also become addicted to its use ... specifically the use of the Well's power. In this, of all the Incarnates that we know about, Emperor Cole most closely fits the bill of the Well's "ideal" ... which is why, it appears, that the Well of the Furies favors Emperor Cole over the other major Incarnates (that we know of). Because it all comes down, ultimately, to what drives a man, to seek ... and use ... POWER.



The power to create, the power to destroy ... the power to liberate, the power to enslave ... the power of good, the power of evil ... it's all the same to the Well of the Furies. What matters is that that power be USED ... and it is simply not possible to USE power, and not be changed by it ...

Power corrupts, and absolute power ... well ...

With great power comes great responsibility.
But with absolute power ... responsibility, can be ... dispensed with ... along with morals, and even life itself.



Thank you Stan Lee. You're an inspiration to us all.

The beauty of Leadership on a Scrapper is that when the Mez comes out, the Leadership stays up. Yeah, it's only half the buff value of a Defender ... but so what? It doesn't get interrupted by Mez, because you're a Scrapper ... unlike what happens with the Squishy ATs.

The cone does not have a knockback component to it. Check in-game to see if the power actually accepts knockback sets.

/em shrug

If you like the idea, tell a Red Name and ask them to bring it to the attention of the Lore Team. Who knows ... if enough people really like the idea, it might even become true ...

Personally, I'm of the opinion that the reason there's no Kheldians in Praetoria is because ... they've been consumed by the Devouring Earth.

It would be very interesting if the reason the Devouring Earth (et al.) rose up to "consume the Earth" was as some sort of Gaia Theory Immunity Response by the planet to the "invasion" of the Kheldians. Basically, the Kheldians might have been "more successful" in their plans on Praetoria than they were on Prime Earth in their plot to take over ... and Planet Earth "rejected" them by evolving the Devouring Earth into the form which ultimately became the Hamidon (as known in Praetoria) and was finally able to slay/disperse/devour the invading Kheldians.

Note that I'm not even using the terms Nictus, Peacebringer or Warshade here ... merely Kheldian. This leaves open alternative paths and life forms which the Kheldians might have taken in the Praetorian Dimension.

Consider ... we've already seen known enemy groups "merged" in Praetoria from Prime Earth, and re-invented. The Family + Tsoo = The Syndicate ... for example.

What if "The Hamidon" in Praetoria is really an amalgamation of the Devouring Earth and the "Kheldians" of Prime Earth ... in which the Devouring Earth *ATE* the Kheldians of Praetoria ... and became stronger ... strong enough to fight Emperor Cole to a draw ... and still conquer most of the planet out from under the Humans

Even after all these years, I still love the Dance Gun.

And even more importantly, even after all these years ... I still want one ... even if it has a Recharge Time of 20 hours ...

The fervor for attacking them is programming logic that says "attack lowest HP target available" ... which in the case of the Buff Pets is like ... 10 HP.

This was amusing enough in that it showed what happens with Power Boosted Force Fields when trying to reach NO GET HITSU! levels of Defense Softcapping.

Mind you, there's simply NO WAY that Buff Pet would be capable of holding aggro if you'd had any teammates (doing damage), and that flunky you kept Confusing wasn't going to do anywhere NEAR enough damage to bother Nightstar. So not exactly a "viable strategy" for accomplishing anything (for real) ... but it does make for a fun video showing what's possible to do in the game (and your choice of music is, of course, perfect).

Ever since this NCSoft Master Account business went live, I've had problems with the CoH Forums software here. Specifically, when I go to the QUICK LINKS button up at the top of the screen and select Mark Forums Read, I get the following error message *every time* ...

Ninja/TA/Soul

After going through about 5 respecs, in which I kept trying to buff (and debuff) sufficiently to bring my ninjas somewhere near the softcap (so they'd LIVE long enough to do at least SOME damage...), I simply gave up. I'd been going through build after build after build where I kept trying to dump aggro from myself onto my ninjas, while simultaneously trying to keep my ninjas strong enough to handle the aggro.

Ninjas, of course, fold like origami paper in the hands of an unexperienced 4 year old ... namely: rip, tear, shred, mangle, maim, bend, fold, spindle, mutilate ... resummon. These guys have all the staying power of wet rice paper in a typhoon (ie. none to speak of). No matter what I did, those damn ninjas were squishier than blasters against a mez heavy group. They were ... pathetic.

So then I threw in the towel, and went to a tankermind spec, where the whole point was to keep aggro on ME, rather than shunting it onto my ninjas, and sharing out the incoming damage through Bodyguard. Since I was able to build for +Defense with global set bonuses, which did absolutely NOTHING for my ninjas, it actually made a lot of sense to respec into a heavily defensive build for myself, which would Provoke (Presence Pool) hostiles into attacking me (with a pretty good chance of MISSing me) which would then draw the aggro of my ninjas. So long as the aggro was on ME, rather than on my ninjas, their weaksauce (as in, Low Grade Dishwater) defensive stats became irrelevant since they weren't being directly attacked ... *I* was. And because of Tankerminding, I could take several times the number of attacks (and hits) than they (individually) could, giving me time to deploy Aid Other to keep them in the fight, and often Aid Self so as to keep ME in the fight.

Once I stopped trying to boost my ninjas' survivability for its own sake, and instead "cut them loose" and simply worried about making everything attack ME, so as to draw retribution attacks from my ninjas without them drawing aggro ... everything fell into place. Now I run a very strong Tankermind build, in which I get to spend almost all of my time concentrating my attention downrange and deploying debuffs and controls.

The prosecution rests its case, your Honor.

I could be wrong, but I think that the endurance cost for using Moonbeam over its 7.33 sec animation time could be lower than the amount of endurance which gets recovered on my build during that same time span. That would mean that (effectively) Moonbeam is an attack power which "refunds" blue bar when used ...