TheBruteSquad

May your fury bars always be full, no matter where you end up.

Here and the brute forum probably contain 75% of my posts: I spent almost as much time in this forum as I did in game, for all the reasons mentioned.

The forum rekindled my interest in comics (not enough to start collecting again, but enough to read around and find out what's going on), introduced me to a few web shows that I watch to this day, and always provided a link or two I could bookmark under 'silly' and show my girlfriend (to varying degrees of risking bodily harm).

It's been fun, heroes. In the spirit of a noble and ancient culture, "So long, and thanks for all the links."

1 - The Force was always described as in part hereditary - Luke was strong it it, like his father. Leia would to paraphrase Luke 'do what I can do' in time because she was his sister. Yoda and Vader took it as a given that she could be trained/turned for the same reason.

This is actually what I'm most annoyed with when it comes to making the Jedi order monks who don't have families in canon. If the Force runs in family lines and you are recruiting less and less Jedi per year - it's because you're (lack of) breeding the sensitivity out of the population, *********.

2 - The midichlorian thing could haved used a better explanation. It's implied that they're responsible for power in the Force, but not clearly stated. Perhaps they simply flourish in people who are Force sensitive... and that the more sensitive you are the more they flourish (not so much causing Force potential as being nourished by it). An effect, not a cause.

Then again being Lucas probably not. Still, I like my explanation better so it's canon to me (and my SW RPG group, who loved the idea - leaving the Force mysterious yet giving a biological marker for Jedi science to recognize potentials).

3 - There has only ever always been two Sith in Star Wars. It's never even hinted at that there are more kicking around in the background in the original trilogy. Why not? Palpatine's ruled uncontested for almost 20 years by this point - enough time to track down other force sensitives and turn them to the dark side and make a Sith secret police to cement his power.

Oh. Right. Because twisted by the dark side 'dominating their destiny' they'd probably try to overthrow him. Just like Vader was planning.

The 'two' thing I completely agree with. Plus, as The Old Republic games show, the more Sith you add the less menacing and interesting they become. Less 'oh my god, a Sith!' and more 'faceless minion 433443, with a lightsaber'.

I've been supporting it in a work environment for a few days now - came on a laptop bought for a new manager - and it's ok. It took a minute to get used to, but I felt comfortable training the new employee how to use it immediately - and she picked it up easily too

"Press the windows key and then go to any program you want."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"Oh."

Only trouble I've had so far is I made the terrible mistake of leaving automatic updates running on a MS product that hasn't been out for two years: The first autoupdate bricked the HP laptop. Booted to safe mode, removed the failing update, and fixed that little oversight.

Not running it at home, though, so can't say how well it's playing with programs that aren't the traditional business applications used in an office.

I'll be very surprised if TOR hits a 3rd anniversary.

Then again, I *was* very surprised CO did.

I like surprises.

More Star Wars?

Yes, please.

Some of the best (and some of the worst) stories have been told by those who use Lucas' world and vision as a setting. While I can only hope that the 'good' outweighs the 'bad', at least the potential is there.

Disney does have a little experience with family oriented action-adventures with goofy sidekicks and fantastic magical powers, after all.

I'm partial to spiked clubs.

Honestly, after a near flawless run of absolute tanking invincibility - - getting torn to bits in two attacks from a pissed off Bobcat.

That character hadn't been defeated since level 23 or so. I literally laughed out loud. I almost missed the rez prompt from a team mate, and to this day I can't think of it without a grin.

I'm not going to be able to believe this is anything but bad comedy until the lights go out, I think.

It was more than just *A* game to me - it was *THE* game. If I find myself with an hour in the morning before work, this is what I do. If I find myself with an hour in the evening before bed ... this is what I do. I don't watch TV. I SMASH! things in City.

I've been reveling in the smash since before my forum join date. There isn't going to be a day between now and the shutdown where I won't be indulging my favorite past-time - plowing my sm/wp into x8 council spawn with a near full bar of fury and against the screen shake of missiles slamming off my character.

No other superhero game has come close to that feeling of raw power.

That's been my take as well - more faithful, but dull.

Dredd is hard to do. It's filled with over the top situations and characters that visually the first movie captured well. At the same time, it's certainly not a buddy-cop action comedy and never should have been played as such.

We need a Dredd movie with the art direction of the first attempt, the serious tone of this second pass, punctuated with an underlying dark comedy/wit/social commentary all of its own.

Indeed. The recharge change on wail is pretty hefty. So much so that I'm thinking of respecing out of my other AoEs and switching from ranged fort (Dom, Gloom, Sub chain) to the harder hitting melee attacks to clean up the leftovers faster.

In my ramble I also forgot to mention that you can't use a click when dead. Hence, binary. That was my personal issue leveling it, and it was partially me. I'm a terrible judge of when to hit the magic clicky. I'm better at it now (especially with the god mode breathing room), but still on occassion I'll find myself on the receiving end of a salvo of APU hits faceplanting me from full before I know they're there, let alone before I can hit a button. The set demands more skill to play than other secondaries but doesn't reward you better than they for needing to have that skill.

But yes, regen is king of handling unresistable damage. Unless I'm in a burn patch, I usually don't even bother leaping away from Marauder's nova fist if instant healing is running.

I just find Regen, especially on SOs, too damn binary.

You're awesome, or you're faceplanted. There's little in between, especially against late game groups.

I have a bs/regen scrapper. Until a week ago he was my SOLE level 50 scrapper. I played the hell out of him - hundreds of hours logged. He's the closest I've ever come to deleting a 50 (I've stopped myself halfway through typing his name three times now).

He has Barrier, he has Shadow Meld, he has Moment of Glory. Dull pain isn't permanent, but it's up far more than its down. His IO defenses aren't bad - and of course with access to parry nothing in melee can threaten him. He should be one of the most survivable things going ... but he's... not. x8 Carnies, Malta, and Arachnos obliterate him. So do most of the DA mobs at x8.

Their gimmicks (nuking defense, high base hit, -recharge, -regen, energy drain) ALL hit him harder than they hit my similar defense leveled /Elec or /Dark or /WP.

Whether they actually do or not is fluke as much as anything. I run plenty of missions without having to hit a heal. I run plenty of missions were I wish instant healing was up every spawn. I run plenty of missions where it doesn't matter if it is (hello, multiple dark ring mistresses). The maddening part is how often these two things are against the same enemy group - (ignoring the carnie complaint. They're pretty easy to dodge in play).

Also you can use any teleport to get out (Wentworths, pocket D, Ouroborous, base teleport, etc).

This is a total non-issue. Know what happens to a mob that dares knock one of my electric armors from the sky?

They get a face full of broken teeth if I'm annoyed, or leapt away from if I'm not. Usually, a face full of broken teeth.

You're a tanker. Nothing can stop you. They can only slow you down.