RedwoodTheElf

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So, if we are to have the possibility of a defeat each mission and a handful at invincible, why don't they just reward us with automatic debt each time we complete a mision? It would be simpler and STATESMAN WOULD GET HIS "VISION" of a GREAT GAME DESIGN!?!
I am sorry, but there is no balance in Statesman's balanced vision. I mission that will cause a single death for a scrapper or a tank results in nearly constant death for a controller or a defender! And don't give me the same crap that they are suppose to team up... no hero should have to team up for EVERY DARN MISSION! Plus, because of the number of poeple that left to play villains ( not to mention those that left because of VERY POOR PLANNING on COH), there are very few people online when I play in the mornings.
At heroic level, every toon should be am to complete their own missions by themselves- assuming there is no AV or multiple bombs to defuse (that you are NEVER WARNED ABOUT WHEN YOU TAKE THE MISSION!) and it SHOULD NOT PUT YOU FURTHER INTO DEBT THAN WHEN YOU STARTED!

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I don't know what characters YOU'RE playing (I have played multiples of every AT in the game, including Khelds and all villain ATs, up to at least level 14 (Being a severe altoholic) and I have YET to play a character that can't solo missions at the lowest setting (including the Mind controller) and they can ALL (with patience) Solo the highest setting with, at most, a 50/50 chance of dying against particularly mean bosses.

Maybe the PCs and missions aren't your problem?

...If you think anyone's going to be impressed by a Stalker's PVP kill count, no matter HOW high it is.

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This could be solved easily. "Do you want Speed Boost?"

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I've got a kin defender, and quite frankly, I usually have better things to do than to ask everyone individually about who wants SB. If someone wants me to play by their rules, they should state them before I join the team. If I don't get an "I don't want SB", I SB you. I don't mind not SBing people after they've told me when I SB them (since I usually SB the group on arrival due to "Why haven't you SBed yet!?" irate comments from many other groups), but not telling me that they don't want SB and expecting that I ask them is kind of... well, jackassish.

Anyway :

DO NOT -

Invite a toon 5 levels lower just because he's LFT if you have no intention of sidekicking. I may hate blind invites, but I still accept them when I've been standing around with nothing to do (that usually means I've been calling LFT for a while, so I kinda have to accept them).

be a jackass back to those that are a jackass to you. (I've had people join a team, ask for the star, and kick the guy that blind invited them. That was funny, but it made for stupid troubles)

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And THAT is why I am immediately suspicious of someone who keeps demanding the star, instead of just telling the team leader who they would like to invite.

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1) Do not assume that, when I have "not looking for team" indicated in my search screen, that I "forgot" or that I might want a team anyway. If it's turned off, I don't want a team.

I might be waiting for my SG, or for a friend, or for my wife who also plays CoX, or I may be logging on to run a few errands and will be logging off again in five minutes - or I may just be feeling cranky and wanting to just solo for a while.

But "not looking for team" generally means "not looking for team." Polite tells are answered politely, of course, but still.

2) If I have "looking for X team" on, and as always "please send tell first," for crying out loud, send a tell a teeny bit more informative than "Party?" followed instantly be a team invite. It only takes a few seconds to type "lvl 36 team, want in?" or something like that.

3) I can't speak for anyone but myself on this one, but I don't respond to tells in l33t or stupid internet slang like "do u wan 2 do mish?" Maybe I'm prejudiced, but I think it's lazy and stupid, and not worth my time to reply.

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On the flip side, if I have "Looking for any team" turned on and DON'T say "Please send tell" in the comment...just invite me, unless I'm in a mission.

When someone sends me a tell asking me if I want to team up, when I CLEARLY have myself on the "Looking for team" list, I have the urge to reply: "Gee, do you think THAT might be why I have "Looking for team" turned on?"

If you think it's a good idea to throw out Fire Rain/Icy Rain/Fireball/Ball Lightning just after the controller does an AOE sleep.

...If you think that it's impressive to take down a PC from the opposing faction by getting 4 other guys to help you gang up on a soloing opponent.

...If you're using normal flight, and someone using group flight outruns you to...well, anywhere.

...if you jump around like a moron, spamming something over and over about 100 times, thinking this is "funny"

Sheesh...A bunch of Liberal idiots pretending to be conservative idiots. Anyway, you're right, that has zero to do with this topic.

This topic is about things similar to Jeff Foxworthy's "you might be a redneck if..." for COX.

You might be a Noob...

If You pull densely packed orange-red cons with a fireball.
If your idea of a good team is 7 guys 5 levels higher than you.
If you haven't done a single one of your missions since your character was created, and you're level 40.
If you put all your early enhancement slots in Brawl and Rest.

An Example of Leetspeak from an Everquest cartoon

Leetspeek is real real old.

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How about:

Don't dismiss a power out of hand because it carries some small negative side effect...case and point, Group Flight. My Mercinary mastermind skipped normal fight completely and got ONLY Hover, Air Superiority, and group Flight. The reasoning being, she wanted to hover above most battles in large rooms and rain bullets down on the near-helpless meele type mobs below. To counteract the -ACC that comes with GF, she got Tactics and tripple slotted it for accuracy, which MORE than reverses GF's minor accuracy penalty.

So it annoys me to no end when some clown who does NOT have Footstomp, or some OTHER "must be used while standing on the ground' power whines at me to turn it off. My usual response is to turn off Tactics AND GF, and let em notice how much less often they're hitting.

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what about the team that has one of those, ready ,and he runs in and agros 2-4 groups then says noobs why didnt you heal me.

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My usual retort: Because I'm a (FF Defender, blaster, or other non-healer type) you Dip.

Doncha also love the guy who pulls with a fireball/grenade/rooting DOT or other large AOE effect, and then acts surprised when all the mobs shoot him and kill him DESPITE any healing that may be tossed his way...or the guy who, KNOWING that the current main healer is KINETICS, runs around, getting as far from the mobs as he can, shouting "HEAL ME! HEAL ME! HEAL MEEEEEEEEEE!"

How about:

Don't dismiss a power out of hand because it carries some small negative side effect...case and point, Group Flight. My Mercinary mastermind skipped normal fight completely and got ONLY Hover, Air Superiority, and group Flight. The reasoning being, she wanted to hover above most battles in large rooms and rain bullets down on the near-helpless meele type mobs below. To counteract the -ACC that comes with GF, she got Tactics and tripple slotted it for accuracy, which MORE than reverses GF's minor accuracy penalty.

So it annoys me to no end when some clown who does NOT have Footstomp, or some OTHER "must be used while standing on the ground' power whines at me to turn it off. My usual response is to turn off Tactics AND GF, and let em notice how much less often they're hitting.

I should probably add, Lycan, that I ALWAYS filter the search tool with "Looking for any" and "Looking for missions" selected. Anyone who SAYS that they're "looking for any group" with the pick down list, but nitpicks in their comment, is a bit too schitzo IMNSHO...not worth the effort of sending a tell to.

Just me:

Never invite someone who says "no blind invites", "My level or higher", "PL me Please" or "Send tell first" in their comment. They're more interested in XP than in having fun, and are usually group spoilers.

Kick anyone from the group whose first, kneejerk question is "what level are you guys." particularly if he's below the group's average level. he's assuming that the team leader is an idiot inviting people 5 or more levels higher than he is.

Try to tell the level 30 warshade in the group, who is the highest level toon in the group and is doing most of the fighting, that he's a noob and doesn't know how to play the game. (That actually HAPPENED to me...the entire group except me and him laughed their [censored] off at that one.)

(For those who don't know, having a warshade at all means that you've played a character to level 50...and the fact that you're actively participating in the group (and are the highest level character, to boot) demonstrates that you probably WEREN'T Powerlevelled to 50 just to unlock warshades...)

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You think Stone is bad NOW? At least you're no longer a walking poo.

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I remember that too...



**shudder**

Fair enough.

Would still like to be able to personalize my power effects though

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This change actually ruined a Hero of mine.

The "Flaming Excremental" was a Stone/Fire Tank that had a bind list a mile long. I miss him.

"THIS POO BURNS FOR JUSTICE!" is still the best battle cry I've ever come up with.

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I can see it now:

(Talkin to a stone-brute): Ya, I've heard of the Birdman Of Alcatraz, but I don't think Recluse is gonna be impressed by "the Turdman of the Zig", even if you DO escape through the sewer system...

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The only thing consistent about Emmert's "balance vision" of this game is to keep suppressing this power and that power until all the fun is completely suppressed out of it.

And yet people applaud the AV changes while powers continue to diminish? What a god-awful shame to see this game circling the rim.

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What's so fun about having a FOTM?

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Normally I hate the Ice and Stone SFX. Why make a nice costume and end up looking like a Devouring Earth or an Ice Cube? Ick

[/ QUOTE ]Preach it!!

<.<
>.>

ahem... sorry about that, just had to agree. I have a Stone Tank, and wish there was a way I could personalize that to just look like the original stone armor you get (concept toon of an ex-outcast brick turned into a werewolf-thing and became a hero)

Please return to your regularly scheduled thread, thank you.

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You think Stone is bad NOW? At least you're no longer a walking poo.

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Here's an example of one of my toons on Protector, currently level 20. I had a concept of a Hero that was really, really fast... but didn't have a "super-speed" power. This Hero would have a cybernetic body, which would be tough, but not "tank"-level, and have no glowing power effects , other than Quick (which looks neat) and possibly glowing attacks.

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Redwood read his post and his take on this character. Pay particular attention to the bold italics part. I think the word your looking for is, read.

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Well he also said he was making a tanker INTO a scrapper...which is a real tough row to hoe anyways...an interesting idea, but Tankers just can't get the DPS that high. Now, a Regen based scrapper wouldn't have all that many glow effects (and note that he at least took the self heal, so it's long duration toggles he objects to...and he took COmbat Jumping, which has that ring-effect...)

He could always turn his power graphics off and just pretend he doesn't glow like a neon sign, of course

If I was trying something like this I would make it on a scrapper base (at least there, you get crits and a high DPS), probably Inv/Dark or regen/dark (Dark's attacks are at least punchlike, and Darkness isn't (exactly) a glow effect.

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You want to talk Overdone? Taking 3 tankers with the same powersets is overdone. There are SO many options to play with, why are you shackelling yourself to the exact same build for 3 out of your 5 tankers?

lemme guess...the other two are Ice/Ice and Fire/Fire?

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See, why do you even CARE what his motivations are behind what is obviously one his favorite powersets? What possible relevance could that have to the discussion? If anything, it means that he has a LOT of experience in that AT, and even more in that powerset, and might have SOME idea what he's doing. As opposed to YOU, who are just trying to denigrate him ON THE BASIS OF WHAT KIND OF SUPERHERO HE WANTS TO PRETEND TO BE.

Good CHRIST. I haven't seen that since, like, 2nd grade,

"Why would you want to be BATMAN?? He SUCKS!!"

C'mon, you've GOT to be able to do better than that!

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Man, if only Conclusion Jumping were an olympic sport, you'd be a gold-medaller.


What I'm saying is, he's been playing in that particular kiddie pool quite a bit. I myself have a minimum of one tanker on every single server, and NO TWO of them have the same powersets, and every single one of them will, by level 22, be able to solo invincible missions. So, by your own argument, I have far MORE experience than he does with that particular AT (His 5 tanks versus my 11+, my 11+ different powerset combos versus his 2 or 3)

And I said no such thing about Batman...if he's going for a specific character feel, thats just fine by me...but with respecs, and the tons and tons of options out there, plus the ability to copy a character to the test server over and over again to try out different respec options, I just don't see the attraction of having 3 tankers whose only difference is what power pools they get and whether or not they got their defensive toggles, with perhaps the sole possibility that they are the SAME character on three different servers.

Being a severe Altoholic, I've found that mixing and matching powersets to see what you can do with different combinations is half the fun of the game.

Nice attempt at troll bait, tho.

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heres an interesting question.. instead of complaining about ED, and getting nothing done, why
not accept that ED is in the past, and will likely NEVER be removed as a whole. instead of using
your time, effort, and resoruces to complain about what has happened to you, and why your
min/max toons have seen this GIANT hit in recent days, why not Look to the future, and tell the
devs what you would like to see them add...

Quit fighting the past. if you want to complain about somthing, so it while the patch/update is
still on test, and the decision hasn't been set in stone. giving up on something has no purpose,
but accepting change, and offering suggestions to make the game AS IT IS NOW better would likely
get far better results.


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Cool. Let's do that. I've got a Concept Hero that was great in Issues 1, 2, 3, and 4, but lost solo-ability in Issue 5 and the reason to exist in Issue 6.

While Issue 5 isn't going away (although it should), the ED changes that affect Sprint, Swift, Hurdle, and Hover shold be looked at.

Here's an example of one of my toons on Protector, currently level 20. I had a concept of a Hero that was really, really fast... but didn't have a "super-speed" power. This Hero would have a cybernetic body, which would be tough, but not "tank"-level, and have no glowing power effects, other than Quick (which looks neat) and possibly glowing attacks.

So I picked Tank AT, Invuln/EM, and tried to make a "Scrapper" out of it.

Weird? Sure. Downright bizarre build. Who roleplays a "6-million-dollar Elf"? I did... until I6.

The only reason that this Hero is still on the server is that I haven't gotten around to deleting her yet. Beating base SuperSpeed with Sprint was great fun, however - as was finding Tech Run-Speed DO's without a tech contact.

This was a viable "Scrank" build, circa issue 4 - able to aid a team and solo a bit:

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: Traffic
Level: 50
Archetype: Tanker
Primary: Invulnerability
Secondary: Energy Melee
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01) --> Resist Physical Damage==> DmgRes(1)DmgRes(3)DmgRes(3)DmgRes(11)
01) --> Barrage==> Acc(1)
02) --> Energy Punch==> Acc(2)Dmg(46)Dmg(46)
04) --> Dull Pain==> Heal(4)
06) --> Resist Elements==> DmgRes(6)DmgRes(7)DmgRes(7)DmgRes(19)
08) --> Flurry==> Acc(8)Dmg(37)Dmg(37)Dmg(37)Dmg(43)Dmg(43)
10) --> Combat Jumping==> Jump(10)
12) --> Resist Energies==> DmgRes(12)DmgRes(13)DmgRes(13)DmgRes(23)
14) --> Swift==> Run(14)Run(15)Run(15)Run(17)Run(17)Run(19)
16) --> Hurdle==> Jump(16)
18) --> Health==> Heal(18)Heal(23)Heal(25)Heal(25)Heal(27)Heal(27)
20) --> Stamina==> EndMod(20)EndMod(21)EndMod(21)EndMod(29)EndMod(29)EndMod(31)
22) --> Jump Kick==> Acc(22)Dmg(45)Dmg(46)
24) --> Acrobatics==> EndRdx(24)
26) --> Bone Smasher==> Acc(26)Dmg(45)Dmg(45)
28) --> Aid Other==> IntRdx(28)Rechg(31)Heal(33)Heal(33)Heal(34)Heal(34)
30) --> Aid Self==> IntRdx(30)Rechg(31)Heal(34)Heal(36)Heal(36)Heal(36)
32) --> Resuscitate==> IntRdx(32)Rechg(33)
35) --> Energy Transfer==> Acc(35)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Dmg(39)Dmg(40)Dmg(40)
38) --> Total Focus==> Acc(38)Dmg(40)Dmg(42)Dmg(42)Dmg(42)Dmg(43)
41) --> Build Up==> Rechg(41)
44) --> Whirling Hands==> Acc(44)
47) --> Hasten==> Rechg(47)Rechg(48)Rechg(48)Rechg(48)Rechg(50)Rechg(50)
49) --> Whirlwind==> EndRdx(49)EndRdx(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Power Quick==> Run(1)Run(5)Run(5)Run(9)Run(9)Run(11)
01) --> Sprint==> Jump(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
02) --> Rest==> Rechg(2)
01) --> Gauntlet==> Empty(1)
---------------------------------------------


Now it can't solo on Heroic... at least, not in the early 20's against Tsoo.

What would fix this situation?


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One word: Invincibility.


This character reminds me of the old joke from the early beta-days of COH, concerning what-if-the-superfriends-were-in-COH:

(Wonder-Woman (Inv/SS), to hawk-girl (Inv/Mace)): Listen, miss "I didn't take any toggles so I could swing my mace more", the only reason we bring you along is so the one hit that takes you out isn't swinging at one of us.


In other words, drop Swift (basically useless to your build, Superspeed caps out at 3 SOs anyway) lose the jumping pool ( you're a speedster, not a jumper) and get Unyeilding, Invincibility, Super Running and Temp Invulnerability instead.

I have a VERY similar build (with the exception that I went with jumping instead of superspeed, and actually GOT my defense toggles) and I have no difficulty whatever soloing Invincible DE missions. You would lose ONE attack power (Jump kick, which is slow animation and lowish damage anyway) and be LOTS more durable.

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I'm not sure. The passive +Resists in Invulnerability are too low, for starters, and Health can't be 6-slotted any more. 6-slot damage, and play like a "Scrapper"?

No longer possible, and I'm missing the slots to do a lot of single-target damage at my level anyway.

I could, of course, respec into a regular Invuln/EM Tank. This would be completely pointless, as I have five other Tanks that are higher level, two of which are also Invuln/EM.


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You have five Inv/Em tankers ABOVE level 50? ...er suuuuuure you do. Or are the stats quoted for your Final Planned Build of a lower level tanker?

If your tanker is only level 20, then you're not much above the usual Takeoff Point for Inv tankers.

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As far as "Balance" concerns go, I have an observation, and a question.

My observation is: The reason that sets like "Invulnerability" can't be played in different ways, is that there is no reason NOT to take every power. If /Invuln offered decent +Resists and decent +Defenses, then a player taking every power would be too strong, according to people who care about such things.

My Question: How can power-sets be played differently without becoming overpowered if every power is taken? If that question could be answered, then a lot of powers would be allowed to be better, and a lot of "build creativity" would return.

Of course, my personal opinion, as always, is that recent balance changes are akin to killing your pet gerbil with a flamethrower... senseless, yet overdone.

Thanks for reading.
-> Scott.

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You want to talk Overdone? Taking 3 tankers with the same powersets is overdone. There are SO many options to play with, why are you shackelling yourself to the exact same build for 3 out of your 5 tankers?

lemme guess...the other two are Ice/Ice and Fire/Fire?

Remember, Scion: The alternative to supression is bringing back the across-the-board -ACC for all travel powers, the whining about which was what brought about Supression in the first place. (Per your Sig)

As for ED, a number of adjustment suggestions are floating out there, Including my own... so how about coming up with a creative solution to the problem instead of moaning and pining for "the good old days" of 6-mono-slotting?

Do you REALLY want to find out what a stalker's AS would be like with DOUBLE the damage it does now? (Say hello, one-shot Tanker kills)

I had My own suggestion for fixing ED - Did anyone ever ge around to playing with the numbers on this idea?

How about this...leave the rest of the set as-is, but replace two of the Controller-main type powers (Ice Arrow and EMP arrow, for example) with some buff beacon arrows? This would help bring the set back from the "Controller Mainline set" the controllers have been complaining about, so the other powers could be strengthened a bit again.

Mechanics: Defender aims at a spot on the ground (Targetted area) and fires the power. The arrow flies to the target point and sticks upright in the ground and starts glowing. The one replacing Ice Arrow would have the same effect as the COT Green-Beacon-Gem, but only about half as strong unenhanced (Enhancable of course) = +regen, Interrupts constantly

The one replacing EMP arrow would have the same Targetted Ground AOE, but with +recovery, Interrupts constantly (Just like the blue COT beacons, but half as strong, enhanceable)

Both would have a VERY LONG recharge (6 minutes) and a duration of 3 minutes.

These would fulfil a longtime dream of mine...to grab one of those dang COT crystals and carry it around with me!

And to those who insist that "arrows can't heal"...so what, this is a game about comic book superheroes, not an archery class.

Spinx queen, resplindent in 24 carat gold and lapis lasuli

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Last night while playing my level 22 Rad/Rad Defender and hunting with a 23 Scrapper I died and while laying there 20 feet away from the fight waiting a safe opportunity to use an awaken I got NO thats NADA ZILCH NONE and ZERO XP. I hadnt delt any damage but I had debuffed the mobs and been useing my heal.

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Let me see if I'm clear here... you were running into melee range to heal the scrapper, but couldn't take half a second to toss a brawl (or Neutrino Bolt). That's all it takes. One little attack. Is that asking too much? Or just don't die... that works too.

As for the 300' thing... just so we're all clear, that's substantially more than visual range. If you can SEE the enemy, you'll get XP for the enemy. Simple. If you're too far away to see the enemy... then you're obviously not fighting that enemy. Tell me again why you should get XP for it.

Though I really DO like the idea of sending wasted XP to debt. If debt is fully paid off, well then you've been dead WAY too long anyway.. get up and contribute.

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Actually I've sniped a few mobs that wandered out of visual range before the snipe hit.

How about this: give the entire team mission completion bonuses for "Defeat X" missions, and have kills in any zone count towards mission completion if it's not "Defeat X in Y", and having kills the rest of the team does COUNT if the person whose mission it is ducks into another zone to hunt more or train? And, of course, have the mission completion bonus for Defeat X missions apply anywhere, regardless of zone or leash, as long as the character was "in zone" for at least 50% of the kills, or killed at least 10% of the mobs himself (even if in another zone from the rest of the kills)