TheStarscreamer

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I'd hit that.

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What wouldnt you hit rooksie boy :P

Edit: I forgot, it was of course obligatory - Giggety!

Liking the reviews so I am gonna throw my head into the noose and put all 3 of my creations up here. Not all are meant to be soloable so will require a team to do without 'chronic death syndrome'. A couple of mishes include an ally in order to improve the plot and ease certain mishes becoming a grind. Generally, the foes have good AI so do play on their strategic factors (although none are set to run, they will fight you). With that in mind here they are.

GHOSTS OF PIRACY
Arc ID: 6982
Length: Very Long (not all maps are very large though)
Morality: Villainous (it could be legitamised Neutral if you really take a leap)
Level: 10-15 Arc (high rep and large team runs like a real TF)
Enemy factions: Custom group - The Sea Fiends, Arachnos, RIP, Coralax, Spectral Pirates.

Further info: Spectral Pirates have been running amok and Arbiter Sands has been assigned, but, has higher duties. He needs a group of powerful, and expendable, villains to eradicate modern day pirates trying to steal a piece of history. Contains 3 EBs and 1 AV at correct team size/difficulty. Can be soloed though on villainous rep.


DEMANUFACTURE
Arc ID: 6992
Length: Very Long
Morality: Villainous
Level: 46-50 Arc
Enemy factions: Custom group - The Predatars, Rikti, Arachnos, PPD.

Further info: This is an arc to introduce The Predatars. They have begun producing some new weapons that have serious potential to make our villainous lives much, much worse. Will some group of Destined One's come to fight? High-threat arc, with powerful EBs & AV. Note: This is an intro-arc for Predatar and Prey. This arc contains many EBs that are reasonably tough as well as a Hero (custom AV) thats a real 'shocker' at the end.


PREDATAR AND PREY
Arc ID: 7004
Length: Long
Morality: Villainous
Level: 1-54 TF (this was designed to be a very high threat challenge for high-lvl chars so low lvls will struggle)
Enemy factions: Custom group - The Predatars.

Further info: The global heroes known as The Predatars have begun a plot to cleanup the Rogue Isles and are hatching a plan to hinder the powers of The Destined Ones permanently. Surely there is a team of villains that can tackle this threat? This is an extreme-threat TF designed for team play with obscure AVs.

My 'Demanufacture' arc (ID 6992) experiences the same issue as described. Tonight it was suddenly invalid even though nothing has at all been changed and still well under on filesize.

Kind of annoying when this arc is intended as a lead in to another published arc to tell a longer story.

Republished, and back in the search. My other arcs (7004, 6982) remain unaffected atm.

Vanguard Sword Wizard - ace powers beyond style alone, green lightning, get to kill things daily without being called a criminal, could resume life of crime after - doesn't get any better than that. Plus Vanguard Sword have ace cossies in black and purple.

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Anyone seeing me running my char Fr34K T4nG1eR can probably take a fair stab at my preference. Though there's a delicious cookie in it for those who can tell me specifically what kind of mob.

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Would that be a Meat Doctor per chance?

Just a bit of an update as we've been on the quiet lately. The madness has been flowing so news coming a shade late. On our forums are the startings of a UD Player Meet in April sometime probably the end of april (possibly easter). Freeda has confirmed already as have 2 guests from our coalition friends the Ghost Shadow Clan due to being local to me here in Cambridge. Stay tuned to our forums for info.

Also our main site is temporarily offline due to moving hosting (and I can't afford the costs atm - damn recession). But it will return with new things very very shortly. Including the return of some long thought lost UD PvP video footage......

Theres all manner of things going down currently like a little impromptu superteam. But also more to come in i14 as I know I am one of a few who have begun planning SG MA arcs and mine is going to be a fun TF where there is going to be something truly evil to do. Get ready to battle "The Predatars"...

And finally we've coaligned with The Callous Crew recently so a big happy welcome to them from all of us. Remember to horrify them via coalition chat like everyone else

I managed to miss this 1st time around and am very much of /signed on this one - I would looooooooooove to have this on a few chars cossies!!!

NEW DOMINATOR/CONTROLLER/BLASTER SETS

I got a bit bored and largely inspired lately while chatting with mates and thinking about my new MA arcs to come. But, I have had some ideas to fill in the thematic gaps, plus a long requested one I gave a lot of thought to (so sorry for covering old ground a shade). That said I had a look at the sets existing and have come up with the following: Dark Control (Dominator and Controller primary), Dark Assault (Dominator and possibly Blaster Secondary with a few minor tweaks to ranged attacks), Stone Assault (Dominator Secondary, likely Blaster Secondary) and Lightning Control (Dominator and Controller Primary). Each are highly based on the existing sets in place in the game as well as taking many powers from other sets and recobbling. Naturally being these are being moved to a different AT, in this case I will use them in the case of the Dominator in which they were initially planned. So given the retooling augment the powers recharges, damage scale and debuff minutely reduced in the case of dark in order to make the dom not too survivable. Where I felt it neccessary I've spelt out certain retools and created abilities (nearly all using existing animations) to show that the sets generally are balanced and would add unique elements of play.

DARK CONTROL
You can tap into the powers of the netherworld to grip you foes in dark grasps and make them tremble in fear. Your attacks do negative damage and have a small debuff to foe accuracy. While a strong set the Dark Servant is not a permanent pet and must be resummoned.

Horrify - Single Target short range fear, -2.0% tohit
Petrifying Gaze - Single Target long range hold, mod neg dmg, -1.5% tohit
Tenebrous Tentacles - Cone ranged immobilise, mod neg DoT, -2.5% tohit
Torrent - Cone ranged knockback, minor neg dmg
Fearsome Stare - Cone ranged fear, -6.0% tohit
Dark Pit - Targeted aoe stun, minor neg dmg, -8.0% tohit (real long rech)
Cloak of Night - Toggle pbaoe fear, 0.48/s end cost, radius 8, minor fear, -3.5% tohit (only 50% acc too to inhibit being grossly OP even with IO megabuilds same animation as Cloak of Darkness)
Blackhole - Targeted aoe phase
Dark Servant - Summon Dark Servant

DARK ASSAULT
You channel the dark powers of the netherworld to assault your foes with nightmarish attacks. Dark assault is mix of strong range and melee but lacks any form of self empowerment like other sets, but it has the only attack-based heal of any dominator.
(NOTE: Removed any form of +acc or +dmg due to the -tohit and the heal ability as to not make it overperform. Even with soul drain from GW it will not be too overkill.)

Dark Blast - Single Target ranged, minor neg dmg, -3% tohit
Smite - Melee, mod neg dmg, -4% tohit
Nightfall - Cone ranged, mod neg dmg, -3% tohit
Shadow Maul - Melee, high DoT, -4% tohit
Moonbeam - Sniper, superior neg dmg, -6% tohit
Gloom - Single target ranged, mod neg DoT, -6% tohit
Death Shroud - Toggle pbaoe minor neg dmg, -1% tohit, 0.3/s end cost
Soul Regeneration - Pbaoe mod dmg neg & minor dmg smash, radius 10, 13% heal per target, 45 sec rech, 19ish end cost (same animation as dark regeneration)
Midnight Grasp Melee, superior neg DoT, immobilise mag 2, -7% tohit

STONE ASSAULT
Your mastery of the very earth itself allows you to craft it and strike your enemies down. You have a strong mix of powers to knock your foes down along with consistent damage, however your strongest powers are slightly slower than other sets.

Stone Fist - Melee, minor smash dmg, minor stun
Boulder Smash - Single target ranged, mod smash dmg, -fly (same animation as propel but a lot faster playing with a boulder like legacy chain)
Lavapit - Toggle pbaoe minor fire DoT, -spd, -jump (animation as mudpots but more lava - think the igneous - colouring)
Stone Thrust - Melee, minor smash dmg, very high knockback (same animation as power thrust but with a stoned fist)
Aim - same as all others
Hurl Boulder - Single target ranged, high smash dmg, -fly
Volcanic Breath - Short targeted aoe, 35% arc, minor fire DoT, -10% def (highish end cost and recharge with animation like bile spray but with the igneous lava look over the bile instead)
Heavy Mallet - Melee, superior smash dmg, high knockup
Stone Fissure - Close targeted aoe, mod smash dmg, knockup, 25% chance for mag 2 stun

LIGHTNING CONTROL
Control of the very forces of lightning allow you to shock and stun you foes while slowly sapping them of their strength. Some of this drained endurance may be returned to you. You can also summon a being of pure electricity to attack your foes.

Electric Fence - Single target ranged, minor DoT energy, -end
Tesla Cage - Single target ranged, minor energy dmg, hold, -end
Electrifying Fences - Targeted aoe immobilise, minor energy DoT, -end
Shocker Bolts - Cone aoe sleep, -end (can be same animation as static discharge)
Electrofield - Toggle pbaoe minor stun, -end, -recovery (animation similar to static shield for not too over effect), 0.31 end/sec cost
EM Pulse - Pbaoe high stun, very minor dmg energy, special dmg vs robots, 95 sec rech)
Tesla Field - Cone ranged hold, -end (240sec rech) (like tesla cage animation but instead of bolts have a large electric flash then all the foes in cages)
Kinetic Shackle - Ranged single target phase (more excessive animation of electric shackles, recharge on this would be immense to inhibit OP in pvp or pve)
Electro Entity - Summon Electro Entity (graphically think a slighlty larger and more red cap au diable electric demon), powers approximately Charged Bolts; Lightning Bolt; Shocking Grasp; Short Circuit; Electric Fence; Resistant to energy, smash, lethal, neg, confuse, fear

And that's all from the dominator fanatic that is The Starscreamer. Naturally I'm sure there will be some who like and dislike these suggestions but thanks for having a read and feel free to support this and throw in your ideas. Naturally each set has a little quirk lacking traditionally in dom sets, whilst keeping their core elements to the same. Stone assault here has some solid aoes but has a slighlty worse recharge than other dom sets overall to offset its high offense. Dark control/assault has had its debuff reduced in order to prevent the dom being too survivable, the heal is also there solely as its only aoe and to make up for the total absence of any form of +dmg/+tohit.

Thanks again for having a nose at my ideas for new unique dom sets and of course 2 new controller primaries (as both dark and lightning can be used), and possibly with a little retool a couple of new blaster secondaries! All that the assault sets need are the ranged powers from Dark Blast removed and replaced possibly with more from dark melee and dark armour and hey presto full on blaster secondary for dark/dark blasters.

I wonder if The Great Face is looking for a villain SG lol

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Male widows are only disturbing because up till the release of SoA widows were female only if there had been female and male widows from the start it wouldn't have been as weird.

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Actually it would. Men should not wear something that tight and shiny imo!

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I love my male Night Widow Starsixshot, I love his widow costume so much ever since I rolled him he has never worn any other cossie more than a few mins as it sums him up in one. Plus his cossie is just such awesome colours like all my veats (like my neon green chrome crab Starscorponok).

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Just want to say thanks for the descriptions Starscreamer. I haven't bothered to take my MM to 50 yet as the VEATS haven't excited me so far. Now they do. The way you describe them makes them sound terribly fab. Thanks!

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No worries, in time you will know their greatness as they are all more than capable in any scenario. And if anyone wants I'll gladly demo mine anytime (and drag a few of my mates in to demo comparitive designs hehe). When I team with coalition friends even a single veat will normally bring passive ally buffs, either spike dmg or dps, a balance of offensive methods as well as at the very least some form of passive debuff ontop of their own surivivability, and as we all have some truly epic veats its like a beautiful ballet given life in the medium of destruction.

V E A T = F T W

Well what you are asking for is not neccessarily defineable. The veats are highly scalable and speccable in a horrendously diverse series of manners. I've done all 4 to 50 and love each of them incredibly. Given veats highly flexible design and customisation below I will define them as I see them and how I approached them overall. Please also note the below are gross-oversimplifications as I could rant at length but I actually wanna do something else today lol

BANE
The bane spider is an unusual hybrid of stalker spike dmg with consistent corruptor style blasts. Most try to play them like stalkers/scrappers which is an immense mistake. The bane while has very considerable shielding and some nice +HP along with the most damaging ST attack with Executioner Strike means they are best semi-kited. Swooping in stealthed to wham ya AS clone and maybe CC for good measure before kiting out to play on the excellent ranged defence. With careful design a highly PvPable char, my own one is even if i13 kinda screwed up his old glory.

CRAB
The crab spider as we've all seen is the aoeing, pet freak option for veats. Its a fusion of blaster/MM with a mix of low-grade brute survivability. Many when making them will go for the full 6 pet option (including patron pet) which I personally think is a mistake and the aoes should be the focus. The crab can almost single handedly clear entire rooms, especially if tailored for hard aoeing. Its also got very respectable survivability and my own one is even capable at beta tanking. Comparitively its melees are poorer but Arm Lash is too good to not enjoy. Suppression and Omega Bomb are so fun its unreal.

NIGHT WIDOW
This is without a doubt my favourite of all the veats, the 1st I rolled and was a true dream to lvl. The NW is a mix of stalker/scrapper/defender in my eyes. It has great dps as well as criticals from hide, has some limited ranged ability and some minor buff/debuff. A well made NW in PvE is extremely hard to kill due to a very strong balance of utility abilities that work generally passively (like Foresight). You also gain Elude being the only veat with a stable godmode and ontop of that you get 2 true jewels - Mind Link (one of the best pbaoe buffs around imo) and Smoke Grenade. Many will say you dont need smoke, THEY ARE IDIOTS. The smoke grenade coupled with mask presence is the equivalent of true stalker hide and its debuffing of accuracy means you can stand there and watch your foes hit nothing but thin air basically forever. It is PvPable but requires skill and thought being a melee focused AT.

FORTUNATA
Another unusual fusion of a dominator/corruptor, with shielding on par to the NW nearly. Its own powers are akin to a Mind dom and a /psi defender but it feels so much more epic. It brings serious hard control as well as serious psionic spike dmg. Again they have access to the wonderous power that is Mind Link as well as a nice series of aoes including their own version of PSW and a pbaoe confuse. The nuke also has no end crash and does a huge stun. This again is a highly PvPable AT but must be thoroughly planned to get the most from it due to the mez nerf. Its also worth noting my fortunata was my very 1st char ever to attain MoLRSF on his 2nd LRSF ever so they have great use in any scenario.

The truth of all the above is the veats are infinetly more than the small pigeon holes I tried to define them as just as the kheldians are. They are complex, highly scalable and can be customised to any style. Like crabs can be very melee oriented if desired, banes can be ranged and debuffing, NWs can have more range and aoes and forts can even have melee powers if desired. Its this highly unique near self-made AT tht is what is most fun about all of them.

Theres also a number of ways to do concept builds for Blood Widows and Huntsman but imo I wouldnt worry about it as theres fundamentally 4 new ATs to play, with a hugely diverse number of ways of specification.

The real question you have to ask when musing them is "what do I want from THIS char?" And I hope the above has helped.

Fair thee well prax mate. Been some fun times tearing up the redside of the fence in the past and a shame to see a mate leave always. On behalf of all your UD friends I'd like to wish you fortune in your future endeavours.

Take it easy forever man.

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So long as the changes don't mess up perma-doms too much, then people will be fine. Personally, if they made a toon i've spent a massive amount of inf and time on worthless, i'de probs be looking for another game.

One thing I do have about buffing doms though, is that i LIKE the fact they are hard to get into and play. It takes a certain type of player to play them well and get the most out of them, and I'm quite happy with having an AT that doesn't appeal to all cos its and easy farming toon.

That said, they do need buffing so that being perma isn't the only way to make Domies good.

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Doms should be left well alone. I have 2 dominators at 50 both fully IOd and long finished. Starscreamer is gravity/thorns/soul and Starsunstorm is plant/elec/mu who is also a permadom.

I spent probably a lot more on sunstorm and to this day screamer is the more powerful dom. screamer has a total of 5% global rech and no hasten and he can quite happily solo hold a GM - I know it sounds fantastical but I have done it. I have also soloed hero/av foes on screamer - Numina even lvl, Silver Mantis +2, Ms Liberty (twice) both even lvl, and Mallaise at 51 (although mallaise technically dont count cos i was in a duo at the time and my tag partner was keeping ms lib busy at the time).

So lets see, my lovely permadom sunstorm can near hit dmg cap and cause boundless rapid chaos, but my simple hard slot pure numerics VERY-NON permadom is the one who can walk over things and this isn't because he's OP - hes actually unbelievably squishy (no heal or godmode either - sunstorm has both). So I'm afraid to say the dominator needs no change whatsoever. Domination as an inherent works perfectly fine even when epicly far from permadom implementation - its balanced and adds a truly one of a kind nature to this distinct villain AT. Seriously how would people react if suddenly scrappers had their ability to crit messed with? Its NOT broken! Don't fix it.

The dom is more a specialist AT that has a higher learning curve than most - a friend of mine recently made a gravity/elec dom and I've made a new ice/energy recently myself and I've been showing him how to use it and giving him a bootcamp and he is one of the best fortunata players I know. And now he's seen how it really works he is loving it. Another friend of mine at my encouragement has made a fire/fire dom and shes raving at how fun it is and being a "living gas station going up" - and shes been playing not even 3 months and its only her 3rd ever char and very 1st squishy.

The dom even by its description in game suggests its NOT meant to uber solo and is supposed to be very team focused so I'm afraid to say all the little tweaks they have made to domi, like altering how it works in teams building, would ruin this now greatly balanced AT.

Of course doms are generally ruined in pvp but what aint right now lol If they start messing with the dominator AT I will be phenomenally disheartened as they ruin the thing that made me fall in love with the game and make me a dom obsessive in the first place.

Long live Dr Jekyll and Mr DOMINATION

Best method then - base it on the attack type of primary and 2nd and make 1% res for each. This adds serious parity for all and wouldnt make defensive/res based chars too powerful at all.

Example:

gravity/thorns dom - gravity being smash gives 1% smash res, and thorns being lethal gives 1% lethal

but say a brute now
fire/wp - he would get 1% fire res but as his secondary set is not dmg oriented being a shield set he would not get a bonus (and no /fire and /shield would not give a buff either before some knowall pipes up lol)

and something like an energy/energy blaster would naturally get 2% energy res.

Its far simpler for balancing imo to make it based on their own primary. However, certain chars and ATs are incredibly squishy and certain foes would be overkill. So I would say rather than make the paired debuff -res, maybe make it -def of say 0.5%.

This way it wouldnt be crippling to the squishies and shielded chars maintain their edge that they should have. Remember they change invun recently due to its underperformance at certain levels due to its own -def component. By making it a small amount like I suggest it creates serious balance and adds a unique aspect to a char.

An additional extension is sets with multiple dmg types overall could say do 0.5% res to each instead so /thorns could do 0.5% lethal and toxic res - but imo to be a best benefit all round to all ATs it'd be better to make it 1% res and -0.5% def to that attack type as then its a beneficial thing. Plus the only set this -def doesnt apply to is pure toxic and as it stands there are no true toxic ATs. Its arguable a necro MM should give toxic prot but ofc there is no def to toxic, so that would give dark +res/-def as thats its other key attack type.

Yes I have thought about this before lol

The other one would be psionic offensive chars as the thematic opposite is technically toxic. But thematically this could easily be smash as its opposite given that a punch to the face is kinda the opposite of using your thoughts to kill someone so we got:

energy 1%res, -0.5 def neg
psi 1%res, -0.5% def smash
pair fire-cold, smash-lethal, etc and it could really work

Plus this also keeps toxic as something that is very unique and to be feared as it is now meaning those sets remain all good. And should they ever add toxic based attack sets they could make it:

toxic res 1%, -psi def 0.5% - nice and easy

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I never once said I *wasn't* elitist, at least at times. I just think it's hilarious that you're accusing people of such, when you're absolutely NO better at all.

Judge not, lest ye be judged.

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Ya know what ya could do - just let it go - an alien concept on these forums, but theres always a 1st for everything.

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Starscreamer:

The amount of TF's may well be greater hero side but for most of the population the Shadow Shard never gets touched, so thats -4 right there. Katie has been nerfed to pointlessness, so has Eden and now we start to look a bit more even.

Then consider that the villain respec's are nice and quick when compared to the tedious final mission of the hero respecs. So if you are on about merits thats I think 45 merits villains can get every night in just over an hour.

Then consider that all the villain SF's were created with new maps, ambushes and generally better design than the hero ones and I don't think it is THAT far out of whack.

Not to mention that especially high level the villain arcs are so much better than the Praetorian arcs heroes get. You could even call the parton arcs mini-SF's since they are thought out in a similar way.

Yes a 10-15 and a 30-35 SF is probably needed, but because those are levelling gaps, not because there are less TF's villain side.

I think you are making the right arguement for the wrong reasons. "Heroes have more than us WAAAH" isn't cool.

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Please actually read my whole post - heroes did the same whining and got another tf - STF. We aren't whining, I'm backlashing at the useless comments made by others here to justify why the devs should focus not on one sided content when they have done just that previously and never addressed the longstanding issues villain side.

You see you've clearly proven my point right there - you at least have the option to complain they nerfed YOUR trials/TFs - we do not. You at least have the content levels in which if they nerf something it still doesn't actually matter. Even though we villains have had ours nerfed by the cack merit rewards of ours due the skewed datamining of having half the TFs to balance the numbers. 10 Merits for a Binder TF is a joke imo as if you do it on a casual team its actually a fair challenge regardless (trying doin it in a fast time if noone has SS!). iirc the eden trial was only nerfed due to the fact it can be done in what 10 minutes?

I'd also like to point out that the respec trials while fast are not even comparable as they are a whopping 3 mishes. I don't really even class that as a TF, besides I am largely not talking about reward here. I am talking about equality and scaling to make the community actually have more content. Hell I suggested 2 Tfs back there that are not that hard to create, and the new Tfs dont NEED new tilesets or even new maps really - just ANYTHING to address the gratuitous gaps of content.

And the whole praetorian vs project destiny comment isn't remotely relevant to the argument of TFs. Just because something is a minute amount better doesn't make it relevant. Heroes have more content globally - compare number of Tfs and GMs alone and you see theres a vast hole. How about contacts and zones too. Pound for pound no game is better, but one sure as hell has a lot less equivalent content when directly compared and that is villains.

I've enjoyed looking over many of the opinions in this thread and I notice some very key arguments as ever being totally ignored as it would disprove their arguements.

As I stated on page 1 - heroes have an abundance of zones and a massively disproportionally high amount of content, particularly TF/SF/trial compared to villains. Heroes - 19, Villains - 10. Thats nearly DOUBLE!!!

The LRSF was one of the original defining things about villains and was our only big TF. Then when that came out wasn't there an awful lot of cries of "waaaahhh vills got LRSF, we want our own one wahhhh" and low and behold in no time at all the heroes got STF taking them to the new total of 19 TFs. Now is it me, or did the devs waste time to do one sided faction specific content to address that "gap" (that never even existed) of hero players wanting equal and fair amounts of content. And yes it was one sided as this was pre-merging of the games.

YET, when we villain players who have been here since that time ask for a simple addition of one or two to at least cover the gaping holes in our ranges - 10-15 and 40-45 being the key areas - we get a large number of posters here with highly useful comments like "use the MA", "oh villains have x, y and z instead" when neither of these points actually detract from the original hard facts that when there was a miniscule gap for heroes the devs plugged it, and we villains merely want something to fill our TF void.

Maybe, just maybe the reason none of you ever venture out of paragon is because you have all the more zones, all the more contacts, twice the TF/trials, far more GMs, and a substantial of additional stuff you can do AS WELL AS the coop content they keep adding.

Now I call this point - if there was an actual equal level of content that would drive more people to play the redside in order to try all this new stuff out!!!! And has been pointed out new villain only content IS AVAILABLE to everyone as the game is a joint universe and open to all, therefore I want to swerve this back on topic and re-iterate an idea I had below for 2 new TFs.

10-15 TF "Smugglers Bounty"
Contact in PO, maybe a decendant of one of the pirate lords crew?
Foes: Snakes, Corallax, Pirate Ghosts (maybe Arachnos in 1 mish too)
Locations: All Mercy and PO so doable with no raptor
5 mishes plus one defeat say 15 ghosts on the pirate fort on PO
Rough Story: Where you go off to learn of some pirate lord of old and work along learning his history and leading to the info of his secret treasure's location. Final mish have a groovy cave map (not unlike the last mish of say leviathan) where you battle all the denizens and things hidden under PO guarding the cave where this pirate lords ghost shows up after you take the glowie of his treasure - defeat for shiny badge, merits and maybe even a small temp (pirate musket temp rifle sounds like an idea).

40-45 TF "Demons Wrath"
Contact: Tsoo renegade of some sort in St Martial
Foes: Wailers, Freaks, Tsoo, Crey
Mishes: 7 plus 1 defeat 30 wailers mish
Locations: martial, shark, grandville for the crey mish
Rough Story: The demon wailers of st martial are spreading out now to other parts of the rogue isles and we must know why! The Tsoo renegade has learnt of an unholy alliance that will cause demons to run amok as the incantations used in martial to keep them at bay are no longer working and the wailers are making a push. The tsoo and freaks are there as they are under attack on martial and shark after the wailers have battled them for so long on martial. You have to whoop some crey later on and could have it that the new Super-Wailer leading the demons could be called like "Sha'reik" and be a product of crey science messing around with things it dont know about once more and they made it so this wailer is not affected by normal means. Cue freak/tsoo whoppings to combine tech and magic parts to defeat Sha'reik in his final mish as he has now amassed his army to begin waging war on the mortals that have been causing his kind so much trouble. Theres a badge, merits and a really hard TF from the combo of foes right there!

There we go I just in about 14 minutes came up with how to fill the 2 TF voids of villains, please please please please listen to this devs as theres a tremendous need to fill the content gap villain side and this would do it.

Yes we get hamidon, yet another thing thats both sides and doesn't actually count to this rant whatsoever.

And people moan about the length of the trials etc they hate blueside but at least you have the option. We got 9 TFs less content to not do and thus the reason vill TFs take 60% less time is because we got nowt else to do and know them like the back of our hands as we lack 9 others to mix it up!

It would be nice to get some actual significant content just for villains. Most we've seen in an age is the VEAT arcs which you can glaze through with your eyes shut because its so short.

As it stands villains have no 10-15 TF what so ever, it would be nice to have another mid range and higher TF as well as you can burn out the content fairly fast. Ages ago I suggested something of a lowbie TF in another thread where there could be one on mercy or PO where you go off to learn more of the piracy in the Rogue Isles of old, heres a nice simple one then.

Smugglers Caves
Mishes all on mercy and PO, use the dead pirates, corallax and the snakes with ease. If ya want defeats can use corallax or pirates for that and maybe have some old pirate lord as the end AV and hey presto how long did that content take to theorise and work into the existing pathenon of vill continuity - minutes!

Yet we still lack 9 TFs worth of content along with all the zone conent. Maybe this would be a good place to get those villain players not happy with being ignored rather epicly with our greatly reduced content and fob-off coop content to try and get something for us for once. Interesting isn't it when the heroes didnt have STF and vills had LRSF they added one for them but low and behold 18 TFs obviously wasnt enough hero content. While we villains are left to suffer 10.... hmmm....

Right not a bad 1st iteration but you've skipped Skewer and ruined your dmg immediately. The dmg buff from domination gives the highest +dmg buff to melees. And you say you dont wanna be in melee yet have taken Thorn Burst which is pbaoe and more aggroing than skewer could ever hope to be Oo....

Also get rid of water spout as it inhibits your offense by chucking things in the air over and over. It may also be worth taking out CJ/SJ for SS as that then frees another power slot. As this seems more concept oriented I would swap to SS which fits in skewer, and bin water spout for thorntrops. They may seem rubbish until you seen a plan/thorns throw them down as something tries to escape a creeper patch and they grind to a halt with DoT raining on them Oh and you can legitamise SS concept wise (he's so in touch with nature he can channel it through the ground hurtling himself great speeds or some such gubbinz).

Depending on how you play this really would depend on patron powers I would get oersonally but the mako ones are pretty good plus the pet is a psi brute so not all bad eh.

Theres also the question of IOs and even permadom but if this is ya 1st proper villain I wouldnt worry tbh - enjoy it as the dominator is possibly the most fun of all ATs and later game theres very little a dom or 2 cannot, with a simple flick of the hand, suppress and laugh at as they pick the targets bones clean.

If ya want more build ideas of dominator help feel free to holler at me anytime (on Union) @Starscreamer.

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You fight like a dairy farmer.

[/ QUOTE ]How appropriate. You fight like a cow.

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Theres trouble ahoof - to the Cow-MOObile

Hope all you creative fans had a good xmas and this is the first issue of the new year! This issue marks almost a year of development and I have to say I've loved it.

Usurper 5 "Attack" available for download via www.udsg.co.uk
"They are already here..." War has been declared...

With the coming of this tales great destroyer the threads of time now spiral into one as those in the present move their final plans into position. We also get to see more of Starscreamer's 'diplomacy' with an old enemy in the mysterious Ghost Shadow Clan, along with some of the top tier of Arachnos throwing their cards on the table as well. Not to mention the exploits of the UD faithful.

Plus as ever theres new characters, more battles and a fair 'cull' of... ah not giving it all away hehe. You'll have to look and see.

Also for reference this issue indireclty features scores of people making cameos in some shots. Have a look, you never know, your characters could easily have appeared and this is all a droplet of the tide thats coming in the next issue which will be the final conclusion to the whole series!!! And I guarantee, you will not be dissapointed.

As ever this is distributed as a ZIP with all the images inside and once downloaded can be extracted using anything to handle ZIP files. If you can't extract them once downloaded you can use a utility such as IZArc which is freely downloadable. That said Windows and OSX should both be able to do this natively.

Like always feel free to post any and all feedback - I need it now more than ever to make the finale the true wonder it deserves to be.

Usurper 6 "Death" coming soon...

Merry new yearmass to everyone!

Lots gone on as of late. Firstly a belated welcome to our many, many new members from all over the world as far as finland and australia now! Big things going down in the dark as of late like the biggest ever base overhaul that has ever been done. Big up to Grav and Agent for their hardwork thus far, the end result I weep for (and then I can start adding my bits hehe).

Katet we're all praying for ya given ya recent "misfortune". Lets hop its resolved fast eh.

The next comic is coming in the form of Usurper 5 "Attack". With the arrival of HIM in the last issue, who knows what horrors await. And what is going on with UD and GSC here? Coming soon... As is Usurper 6...

The RP section of our forums are now completed in their first iteration at least. The basic framework is there now its time to get the ball rolling. I will imminently be gathering people together to see if we can get our 1st series of events going. Plus the latest base renovations and assorted game and comic lore means theres now even more gigantic scope.

Few new bits for the site and forums too, nowt too fancy unless I find some mysterious time when I really cba to lvl my 5th veat or glorious pain corr.

http://uk.boards.cityofheroes.com/showfl...;gonew=1#UNREAD

We can think of this as the alt thread :P

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You're getting 2-3% benefit from that over SOs? In some cases, you'd get more benefit out of the SOs, in fact. Even at level 50, a straight 53 SO is just as good as a 50 IO.

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Level 30 Common IOs (34.8% sched A) are only fractionally inferior to +1 SOs (35%), and cost you less to buy recipes for from the vendor and pay the crafting fee than keeping your SOs at +1 from levels 29-31 would. Level 35 Common IOs (36.7% sched A) are fractionally better than +2 SOs (36.66%). Level 40 Common IOs (38.6% sched A) are fractionally better than +3 SOs (38.33%). Level 45 (40.5% sched A) and 50 (42.4% sched A) Common IOs are significantly better than +3 SOs.

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Thank you for supplying the statistical values required to prove my point.

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Errr is it me or does that statistical rambling only partially prove a tiny part of your mostly incorrect statement Ravenswing? As those stats prove a 53 SO is inferior on a direct comparison with a 50 IO (let alone a hypothetical 53 IO) - when factoring recurring costs of SOs rather than one time cost of SOs, they are supremely inferior.

Also back on the ACTUAL TOPIC. I believe theres some actually good ideas in this thread despite several pages of people whinging about the fairness to new players with making the game harder. Personally I think the new game mode ideas (like defeat x mobs in certain time or get big ambushes and so on), a particular increase and augmentation to AI along with a new 6th difficulty setting would really through a great deal of life back into the game. And all to the benefit of all as veterans get a challenge and new players have shiny new things to suck them in as well.

And to the comments of IOs, sets and new players - there IS a tutorial ya know!!! If ya actually read the info in it you learn everything. I had IOs worked out by doin that very tutorial the day it came out and low and behold I knew. But hey apparently my veterancy means I can read whats in front of me and use that knowledge seconds later. Or maybe, just maybe, I can see whats directly in front of me.

/endsarcymode

Ok I do agree that getting the very best out of sets is near impossible for the new player mostly due to inexperience with the game, powers and ATs. However, I seen plenty of new unplanned setted chars do brilliant, so lets not tar all new players as inexperienced, incapable morons - some could very well have more than a single braincell and can actually read a tutorial (yes the sarcymode switch wasn't turned all the way off lol).

And to the moaners yes you can calm down the Independent Thought Alarm my opinions have set off should die-down soon.