ThePhlebotomist

Thank you for everything!

Sadly, the way I envision the negotiations going is that NCSoft's management in a face-saving maneuver to say that they tried but failed, stood on unreasonable terms.

Personally, I'd be willing to invest in efforts to purchase the studio back from them.

If anyone knows who to contact to continue to pursue purchasing the game -- who's actually gotten a response from NCSoft corporate -- please PM me!

Hi,

I'm starting to archive my characters and record missions, and I'm using demorecord for the first time.

Is there a way to have it play back the audio, too?

(Forgive me if this is a silly question, but I didn't see info about the audio anywhere...)

Hi,

While I still plan to write letters and hope and wish that NCSoft will sell the franchise to a community-owned group (well, maybe that I win the lottery and they sell it to me), I'd like to spend the time I have left preserving my characters and some in-game fun as best as I can.

What's the best way to record full video in-game? Is Fraps still the tool? (I'd love to record some full team play!)

Also, do you have any secrets for changing and fixing camera position?

I've started working towards a build like Rangle's second one with a couple of Kinetic Combat bonuses and the Theft of the Essence +End proc for Dark Regeneration. I can already tell a difference!

That proc is AMAZING in Dark Regeneration.

Thanks for the help, everyone!

Thanks for the suggestions! I was going for those Melee defense bonuses at the 5-6 enh level, hoping it might help, but will look at the typed ones you mentioned. I didn't even know about that end proc, too, so will look for it!

I had Siphon Life when I was running Cloak of Fear, but seemed like I wasn't getting much bang from it for the end. I agree it SHOULD be useful, though.

Do you guys slot Siphon Life for healing, then, or damage? Or both?

Hi!

Way back when Dark Armor was added as a Tanker primary, I created a Dark/Dark tank and eventually got her to 50. Sadly, I never really had great success with her compared to my main tank, who's Ice/Ice.

The play style I find myself with is

1. Jump into mob and use Soul Drain or Taunt to get aggro.
2. Start pounding stuff while my team starts to work.
3. Watch my health plummet quickly and hit Dark Regeneration to completely refill (assuming no ToHit debuffs are on me).
4. Keep watching health plummet and hope everything is dead before I am.

She was initially fear-based, but I've tried to convert her to using Oppressive Gloom to save endurance... neither way seems very sturdy.

On paper, it seems like she has good resists (68% S/L, 62% Psi) and decent defense (24.9% S/L, 34.2% Melee), too... so I'm not sure what's wrong.

Maybe Dark/Dark just lacks the mitigation tools or damage to really survive?

I almost always team and play PvE, FWIW. Please let me know if you've got suggestions and thanks in advance!

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.96
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Shadow of the Valley: Level 50 Magic Tanker
Primary Power Set: Dark Armor
Secondary Power Set: Dark Melee
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Energy Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(3), ResDam-I(3), EndRdx-I(7)
Level 1: Shadow Punch -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(34), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(37), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), T'Death-Dam%(48)
Level 2: Murky Cloud -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(5), ResDam-I(5), EndRdx-I(15)
Level 4: Shadow Maul -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(33), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(33), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Oblit-%Dam(50)
Level 6: Obsidian Shield -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(7), ResDam-I(43)
Level 8: Dark Regeneration -- Acc-I(A), Nictus-Acc/Heal(9), Nictus-Heal/HP/Regen/Rchg(9), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(13), Nictus-Acc/EndRdx/Heal/HP/Regen(13), EndRdx-I(15)
Level 10: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11), RechRdx-I(11)
Level 12: Taunt -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(21)
Level 14: Super Jump -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 16: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Winter-ResSlow(33), Zephyr-ResKB(50)
Level 18: Death Shroud -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(19), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(19), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(27), Oblit-%Dam(46)
Level 20: Boxing -- Acc-I(A)
Level 22: Tough -- ResDam-I(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(23), EndRdx-I(23), EndRdx-I(25)
Level 24: Cloak of Darkness -- EndRdx-I(A), DefBuff-I(25), DefBuff-I(45), EndRdx-I(46)
Level 26: Oppressive Gloom -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(27), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(40), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(48), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(48)
Level 28: Soul Drain -- Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(29), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(29), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Oblit-%Dam(31)
Level 30: Smite -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(42), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(42), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), T'Death-Dam%(46)
Level 32: Acrobatics -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Dark Consumption -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(36), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(36), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(37), P'Shift-End%(50)
Level 38: Midnight Grasp -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(39), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(39), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(39), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), T'Death-Dam%(40)
Level 41: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 44: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(45), Heal-I(45)
Level 47: Soul Transfer -- Heal-I(A)
Level 49: Weave -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Gauntlet
Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(17), EndMod-I(17)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
------------

Hi,

I've never understood the benefit of the 3rd level incarnate pathway options. I know that to get to the 4th level, you must climb both left and right sides of the Alpha tree, for example, but on each side, when going from the 2nd to 3rd level, you have an option to take a longer route to the spot you need to be in to get to the 4th level.

What benefit is taking that longer route?

Thanks for the great responses, everyone! I'm looking forward to Tremor and will be more proactive on my taunting, too.

(Starflier and Infini -- I hope the labs are going well! 'Love your phlebotomist!')

Hi,

I've got a 34 WP/Stone tank that I love, but she doesn't seem to hold aggro as well as I'd like.

Currently, I have Rise to the Challenge slotted with 2 end, 3 heal, 1 taunt (level 25 IOs) and I spam Fault slotted with 1 acc, 1 recharge, 1 taunt. (I have Hasten and Taunt, too, and use them.)

Maybe it's that I'm used to my 50 Ice/Ice tank who has amazing aggro control, but with my WP/Stone one, I find sometimes even one group of enemies on an 8 person team results in squishies stealing aggro.

Did they change the aggro cap again? Does the disorient from Fault reset a mob's tauntedness? Do people slot Rise with even more Taunt?

Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the great replies, everyone!

I can see that Kinetics is likely not the best point of comparison.

I'm also embarrassed to say that I've never played a Traps toon! It sounds encouraging, so I'll give a Traps Defender a go this weekend.

Hi,

I tend to enjoy playing support roles, and when the game started, my first toon was an Empathy Defender, which was incredibly fun, then. After enhancement diversification, I switched mostly to Kinetics for Defenders and started moving towards Controllers and a Tank or two.

Eventually, after villains were introduced, I made an Ice/Kin Corruptor to play with some evil-minded friends. At level 50, she blew away my Kin/Ice Defender. The increased damage made her more versatile and any difference in buff strength went unnoticed. (Also, Hibernate from Leviathan Mastery was very useful to escape aggro after FS+Ice Storm+Blizzard.... yum!)

These days, with it possible to switch sides and leveling being rather quick, making the period of time when Defenders get their powers earlier seem shorter, why do you like to make Defenders rather than Corruptors other than for theme? (I still don't feel quite right playing a Corruptor...)

I love my ice tank!

Of my two 50 tanks, ice and dark, I actually prefer ice.

Dark has high resists, so when you get hit, you take less damage per hit. However, ice is about defense, so you just don't get hit as often. Resistance tends to be more predictable, whereas sometimes with defense you can get some bad luck and get totally flattened. However, Ice comes with Hibernate to help out in that regard.

Ice is also great in the endurance department after the absorb power if there are 2+ mobs around.

If you go Ice Melee, Ice Patch is also great for tanking. (Though I think in terms of overall damage, Ice Melee is allegedly low... or was a while ago.)

Hi,

I've only teamed with Electric controllers and dominators through around level 26 so far, but even at early levels the set seems amazing. The AoE immobs + sleeps seem to be up almost all the time and I see few mobs left with endurance.

My former favorite for control was Earth, but Electric seems even better. The controls may be soft controls, but together they're quite a force.

Is Electric the new top set for control?

I'd like my generator back, too. The 3rd mission in my arc was 'destroy the storm generator' ...sigh.

I surrender my complaint and off-topic-wandering thread to the forum wipe.

Honestly, I think it's a limited reading of the do not "post or transmit advertisements or commercial solicitations" rule to say I can't write the name of one of the sites that's spamming me in a complaint message on a City Life thread.

But, whatever. I've changed the subject.

Changing power colors was once the in realm of things that were infeasible to do with the game engine and thus would never be done.

Surely we can get a spam filter? Even a keyword matching filter would work with the spam so far.

Maybe if it's in the title, the thread will get noticed and something will be done to save not just the children but the UNIVERSE?!

No, seriously, I get it -- you want to sell me influence.

You've got a business and somehow no one has implemented an in-game spam filter based on your host name... which is in every single message. You've gotten clever enough to make it cost effective to create and send spam from dozens of fly-by-night in-game names. (Someone please tell me that trial accounts can't do that.) You are truly a captain of your industry.

Yet, there's only so much my global ignore list can take.

How about we meet somewhere in the middle? How about you only send a maximum of one e-mail per month to any given character name + server name combination? Surely there's not so much name turnover that you'd miss any of us.

I'll send cookies?

sigh.

Most of the spam I get is about one site in particular... seems like it would be very easy to filter it, or plug in a normal Bayesian spam filter and have a spam folder we could look through if we really felt we lost something.

I've played the new version of the particular mission I liked, but as the stacked defendable objects bug/exploit was fixed, they're simply normal defendable objects spread out in the mission.

The means used to trigger the huge battles in I14 were certainly wrong, but it'd be nice to have a way to do it legitimately.

Hi,

It's been "corrected" in Issue 15, but I miss the huge battles that were possible in Issue 14.

One AE mission I loved in I14 was called something like "Freakz World" -- and yes it was totally meant to be a farm. While I usually find farms incredibly boring (looking at you, thousands of large outdoor all-Lt or all-Boss missions), this redeemed itself in the end.

It used a tech lab map that let you place more defendable objects than there were valid locations on the map, so the game stacked them together in the last big open room. The author had then attached large ambushes to them and made the guards not attack the objects.

The end result was that there were HUNDREDS of enemies, and that part was extremely fun! Very similar to the experience in the new Issue 15 villain-side TF.

I understand the farm abuse, but wish there were some way to still fight huge battles!

Hi,

Does unpublishing an arc save it locally for editing? I had an arc that was published as well as an old local copy. I unpublished to play around with the Issue 15 settings, but seems like my local copy is still the old one. Maybe I'm just imagining this though...