Sailboat

..aaaand they're back to normal. Weird, huh?

Apologies for taking up forumspace.

Suddenly this morning my health and endurance bars are blacked out/empty on my display. Have others run intro this? I searched on "health bar" and got nothing recent. Is this something easily fixable?

Well, the power customization database records appear to have been lost or corrupted; the market is offline, and I have some video lag despite not using the new settings (at least, that I am aware of), and there are a few other issues noted so far. So I'd say it's a fairly buggy issue, but maybe not the worst.

Last night was not quite the best night the Iron Eagles ever experienced. (I apologize in advance for not noting the names of all participants).

While we were discussing forming a team, the highest-level Eagle playing at the moment (a 15 Scrapper) got Issue 17 lag and disconnected while in a crowd of enemies.

Undeterred by this death, the remaining three of us formed a theoretically tough three-Tanker team and set out to cleanse the city -- or die trying!

You will note, when next you log on, that the city is still unclean.

I was on Djinni, my 13 Fire/Dark Tanker, and was joined by TuDiGong the 12 Stone/Elec Tanker and a level 2 Stone/SS Tanker whose name I unfortunately forget. After a prolonged struggle involving FOUR Fedex missions (despite using the new “abandon mission” option AND my once-every-three-days “drop mission” option) we finally did get a door mission to play.

After a few of these, I had reached 14 -- Siphon Life lay tantalizingly just beyond my grasp at 16 -- and the level 2 guy had dinged numerous times. Things were going pretty well; I was kitted out in green DOs, and my lovely Healing Flames was now recharging every 25 seconds or so.

Contact Trevor Seaborn informed me that a local fortuneteller had been kidnapped by the dreaded Circle of Thorns (presumably she was expecting it?), so we headed off to right this wrong. When we finally got to the heart of the cavern and saw the poor girl surrounded by Madness Mages and Spectral Lords, we hesitated -- not out of (justified) fear, but because we learned we might be joined by a fourth Iron Eagle! Reinforcements!

But we then learned it would be a few minutes longer. I suggested we proceed to rescue the fortuneteller. And so we proceeded into the fray.

In retrospect, perhaps we should have been a bit more tactical, as they say. Immediately a large mass of COT began kicking our Iron assets.

Once I got thoroughly debuffed by Spectral Lords and couldn’t hit, I got the bright idea of backing up to get outside the debuff radius and then using my ranged Veteran attack on them -- at least it had a good chance of hitting. As I ran back, the two Stone Tankers went yellow and then red. “RUN!” one of them shouted.

My vet attack missed (of course) and several of the nasties were already entrained in my wake. I fought them for a moment after one of the other Tankers perished, but when the second also went down, I just fled.

Around the corner and down the hall. Oops, stuck on a post sticking out of the wall. Adjust my angle. Still stuck. Back up….COT behind me. Excuse me! Coming through! Shuffle sideways -- free! Hit Healing Flames again. Run to daylight…oops, stuck on a post. Wiggle free. Oops, stuck on a post. Pry myself off and start running again. Take the corner too tightly, stuck on the wall. Hit my last 2 greens. Use the Ghost Slaying Axe on a vulnerable gost…miss. Swing wide, start down the straightaway. Oops, stuck on a post. Healing Flames is recharged! Heal up, break loose, run to…the next damned post.

Eventually I too died -- mostly because of getting hung up on the furniture. I never did like all the stray flanges and projections sticking out on most maps to hook imprecise moving characters.

Ah well. We made them work for it -- I used my Healing Flames at least 5 times during the fight and attempted escape, and it recharged on a 25-second timer, so at least we drew out the agony. :P

Total teamwipe -- all Tankers. Haven’t seen so many wrecked tanks since the battle of Kursk! We’re gonna have to find a new fortuneteller, too.

I remade the same character name because I like it too much to change, and after painfully setting up chat tabs and claiming vet rewards and so on, was back in the game. Got up a few levels but not far; we were helped by that fourth Eagle who joined us just a hair too late to die gloriously for the cause.

Thanks guys, it was still fun, I’m just cranky about being killed by a post.

Late that night, after the others left, I brought out my highest-level Iron Eagle, the 29 Scrapper Zulu Time. Contrary to what you might have come to expect in this tale, he successfully soloed one mission and then teamed with random PUG strangers for another, without coming into danger worth mentioning, and squeezed out about 2/3 of a level. Of course, he’s substantially better-slotted. It was actually a funny group; two Broadsword Scrappers, a Dual Blades Scrapper and Tanker, and a Fire/Kin -- six swords between five characters.

It’ll only take another two sessions or so to get right back where we were. But it was a hard night for the hard corps.

Frankly, Shields is so strong that if they completely removed Shield Charge and left nothing in its place -- so that the set had only 8 powers -- people woould still be happy with the buff AAO gives.

They'd scream bloody murder, of course; but the point is that AOO alone makes shields already awesome. Having both AAO and Shield Charge and IO-boostable defense and more hit points than most other sets is...well, it's just killer. So much so that you have to wonder who thought the set was roughly on par with most of the older sets.

The new badges don't seem to be appearing on the vidiotmaps online site (i.e., if one doesn't download them). I assume they will be posted eventually, for those of us not downloading the map pack?

Thanks for all the work you guys do.

They have always been there. They do not have voices, but you will know what they want you to do.

For purple drops it's bodies per hour. So +0 or -1 (and x8) is best, unless you can handle +1/+2+3/+4 at the same speed.

For other recipe drops it's bodies per hour also.

For tickets and exp and influence for defeats, the +level matters, but I don't have the calculations for that. Slower defeating is still bad though. :P

Don't get me wrong -- building for regen will work, and it has a certain fun value all its own. I don't want people to think defense set bonuses are the only way to build. I was just opining that if the goal is extreme ruggedness in and of itself, defense is a better bet for WP.

And it's passive -- no end cost, can't be turned off.

It doesn't look well-thought-out. In addition to the comments already posted, the Titanium Coatings aren't doing much for you at all, and the extra slotting in Hurdle and Super Speed seems extraneous -- doesn't SS cap with one lvl 50 IO?

And that's assuming you even need/want two and a half travel powers (SJ, SS, slotted Hurdle).