The_mini_gunman

Short version: Yes & no.

Long version: The answer is yes because, depending on the skill of the player & the build choices made, Scrappers can acheive more than enough staying power to leap into the heart of an 8-person spawn & stay there until the last unit drops. In fact, with a DM/WP, this is a great opener. In that situation, if you throw down Soul Drain, you'll be at maximum strength for the duration of the buff, and enemies will feel like they're made of tissue paper. Moreover, the more enemies around you, the better you regeneration buff works. So assuming that you've properly slotted out your damage resistance & defensive skills, you can hang in there slogging away with impunity.

In the case of DM/WP, as the spawn diminishes in size, you will begin to lose that edge. Your Acc/Dmg buff will drop, and as you lose enemies within your range of RttC, you will begin regenerating more slowly. It's a matter of luck, timing, and your own personal skill to see if you kill faster than you take damage in that situation.

Ultimately though, the REAL answer to your question is no. Scrapper are, put simply, badass. But by design, Scrappers will never achieve the same levels of tankdom that an actual tank will. Pound for pound, I'd prefer the heavier offensive punch & the faster pace of a Scrapper anyday - but ultimately a tanker will always win out in damage mitigation. Tankers pay for it in the form of lower damage.

There are players who will disagree with that. Tankers can still put out alot of damage, and Scrappers can certainly take punishment. The two AT's work well together & often compete against each other to see "who's a better killer?"

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry, but Targeting Drone dosen't fit Weapon Mastery. {snip}

Weapon Mastery is a Martial Arts/Ninja trickery styled powerset. Caltrops are very ancient, so are Nets, which Web Grenade fits into after a fashion. Shuriken and Exploding Shuriken, also martial arts/Ninja styled. Into this they add Targeting Drone simply because Devices has Caltrops and Web Grenade. And here I thought CoX was an RPG!

[/ QUOTE ]

Your first mistake is in thinking that weapon mastery is simply a ninja set. The idea behind the set is to provide tech/natural-based gadgets to supplement weapon-based scrapper sets. This comes not from the tradition of ninjas, but from the tradition of costumed heroes who utilize tools, skills, and gadgets to solve problems.

[ QUOTE ]
Bottom line, if you want to restore some 'roleplaying' value to Weapon Mastery, change Targeting Drone into Uncanny Senses or like that and remove the Drone, or let us pick an Effect at the Tailor/Character Creation screen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Although I disagree with almost everything you've posted here I have to say that I am in agreement with you about the customizable effect. Most powers in the game are supposed to defy specific description. This is so you the player can justify their presence though the use of magic, technology, natural ability, etc as best fits your origin & personal taste. Targeting Drone really doesn't allow this, because you are locked into a tech-based paradigm by it. But here again, we get into the practical limitations of the game engine that are at the heart of the controversy of "Power Customization."

Nevertheless, Weapon Mastery is at its heart a gadget-based set. The fact that the shurykens are not shaped like winged mammals doesn't altar the fact that they belong in a utility belt. From that standpoint, the targeting drone is just another gadget in another utility pocket.

Finally, and most importantly, you really can't use RPG immersion as a convincing justification. If you're that concerned about breaking immersion, you certainly have the option of not taking it. Although a useful power, it's not an ability that one can't live without. If Targeting Drone is stressing you out to the point that it's breaking your immersion merely from being present in the set, then you are more than likely suffering from some mental health issues, and probably shouldn't be playing a MMO without be closely supervised by a mental health professional.

[ QUOTE ]
DOes anybody have a WM/EA at 50 yet? Mine is at 43, really need to finish him.

[/ QUOTE ]

I took Jump Kick on mine at level 6. Then went to the RWZ. Normally they don't let in toons less than level 32, but since I had Jump Kick & was good to go. So I went in & kicked all the lvl 54 bosses into spess. Then I kicked all the pylons back onto the mother ship & Jump Kicked it into spess. Too bad for you if you haven't done a Pylon raid yet. You'll never get that shiny Vanguard outfit now.

In summary, my lvl 6 brute is finished. So strong. So pretty. Now even stronger with Jump Kick.

Correction: This thread used to be win until all the dooshbaggery involving transformers & Gobots ruined it all.

Now it's all about Jump Kick.

Give a man a car & he'll strap a rocket engine to it.

Teach a man to build a car, and he'll open a rocketcar factory.

Meditate on this.

[ QUOTE ]
Stopped reading after part of the first sentence, I played in nan arc with a fleeing villain. When he fled I 1 stared it and quit the arc, g'luck

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for letting us know you don't like things. Brilliantly illuminating. Feel free to posts your own arc numbers as well, so we can all benefit from your wisdom.

TL;DR version: QQ

Some people like kill-alls. Some ppl like surprise visits from AV's to spice things up. Some ppl like [insert thing you don't like].

Ask a dev sometime about pleasing all the people all the time.

When you play user-created content you have to be prepared to be both awed & disgusted - but above all you have to be prepared for another person's point of view on how the game should be played. Often it won't match your expectations.

Some arcs created to date are pure win & desserve every accolade they can get. Some are so funny & enjoyable that although not a quality work, are replayable & totally worth the effort.

Others are train wrecks. You don't want to keep playing them, but it's so incredible bad that you can't help but continue because you need to see what they're going to do next.

Bottom line: There's a "get me out of this arc rite nao!" button. Use it at your convenience. There is a whole Developer-created world out there that is all too happy to occupy your free time if you decide that your fellow players just don't have what it takes to entertain you.

Or...in the words of Spazz: "Make it your own damn self."

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
OK, then, my next arc will be all about the ninja zombie pirate lesbian catgirls. From Mars.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now coming to a theatre near you, starring Uma Thurman, Charlize Theron, and Russell Crowe. If you enjoy this movie, please check out these other fine titles:

Graverobbers From Outer Space

and

Cannibal Pygmies and the Jungle of Doom

[/ QUOTE ]

On a related note...where is that one player from Virtue? PanzerKatze or something like that... He/she/it still around?

[ QUOTE ]
OK, then, my next arc will be all about the ninja zombie pirate lesbian catgirls. From Mars.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now coming to a theatre near you, starring Uma Thurman, Charlize Theron, and Russell Crowe. If you enjoy this movie, please check out these other fine titles:

Graverobbers From Outer Space

and

Cannibal Pygmies and the Jungle of Doom

[ QUOTE ]
BadStorm will be a sad puppy that you didn't try searching by "Nipple".

[/ QUOTE ]

Chesticles. lrn2research, n00b...

In my experience, clickable debuff power sets tend to be more effective on NPC's that the buff sets. If you're looking to have NPC's that buff each other, never select any set that has renewable shields. Empathy seems to work pretty well..but only because any time the NPC use any of the available powers, it's helping.

[ QUOTE ]
On what's been my most-run Arc to date (Rum Runners of Bloody Bay) I'd inserted an Ally (Wittypirate) to help out against the tough-as-nail EB Gaspar the Pirate King. And I kept the Ally in there even after nerfing Gaspar down three or four times due to complaints about Gaspar's original uber-unstoppableness.

Problem was, I started getting complaints about Wittypirate. See, he's a Storm Summoner Defender and... well yeah people complained about his Hurricane. How it didn't turn off and how the KB effect was ruining their mood.

Problem with THAT was if I got rid of Wittypirate's Hurricane at Boss level or higher, I also got rid of Freezing Rain, which was useful (esp. against Gaspar). I couldn't get rid of one without the other and thus ruining the purpose of the Ally to begin with.

And no, I wasn't switching Wittypirate's powers around to something else: He's a Storm Summoner, dammit. It's just in the real game I don't have him running around with Hurricane on 26/7.

My only other option was to drop Wittypirate from Boss Level to Lieutenant level. It got rid of Hurricane while keeping Rain. But in the process it nerfed Wittypirate down to an easy target who gets wiped out against the first mob you come across. I need to bump Wittypirate back up to Boss level to live long enough to face Gaspar like he's supposed to.

Is there a way to de-activate a particular power without affecting the rest of the powerset(s)?

[/ QUOTE ]

TD;LR version: How do I please all the people all the time?

Answer: Free ponies for everyone!!!

In all seriousness, you have a limited ability to select what powers are available to an NPC, much less what powers they actually use. If the NPC in question actually performs in any way whatsoever as intended, it's a huge win.

Just bought it...I'm such a tool.

But then again we already knew that.

Also...anything from Croatoa is a good choice.

The Cabal are all witches.

Redcaps......are redcaps......

The Fir Bolg are pumpkinhead guys.

The Tuatha de Dannan are basically bipedal moose...meh.

[ QUOTE ]
Do any of the "standard" groups include just things you would expect to find in a haunted graveyard (skellies, zombies, ghosts, vamps etc)? I have a thought for part of an arc and was wondering. I know you can make custom zombies but not sure about the others.

[/ QUOTE ]

Short answer: Yes

Long Answer: Here is an incomplete list of places to look.

1) Banished Pantheon - Zombies & Witchdoctors
2) Circle of Thorns - Anything with the word "Spectral" in it.
3) Council - Werewolves & Vampyres.

There are other ghosts that are available from the ghost pirate ship, as well as custom arc ghosts - I'm not sure if those are available as content.

Several Praetorian groups feature werewolves & ghosties.

Nosferatu is a vamyre AV. Adamaster is a zombies AV/GM. I'm not currently aware of a way to access the Nerva Spectral GM (Caleb), or any type of Werewolf AV.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Heh...I had an odd thought yesterday. You know those old school comics where the hero faces his "dark side"? I thought it would be cool if the mission could just copy the whole player character over as the final boss, and you'd have to face yourself.

Not that they'd probably put a lot of work (which it would likely be) in to make that possible, but it struck me as a cute bit.

[/ QUOTE ]

Whoa! You get Lincoln Logs and then you immediately start daydreaming about Robotix?

One step at a time, hoss. Let's get it so the logs don't splinter before we move on to plastic!

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent point, although I prefer LEGO's myself.

Right now I'd rate the current system at "Duplo", but I'm hoping someday we get to "Technix"

[ QUOTE ]
Make mission architect missions available on SG mission computers. and large SG "raid" teleporters can be used to enter the missions.

I think this would be a simple way to add a practical layer to bases, considering how popular MA is.

[/ QUOTE ]

How about they just offer AE computers & mission portals inside bases? That'd be my suggestion, seeing as what a huge waste of time raids are - and by extension, raid portals.

My other idea was to utilize the base editing engine that we currently have as a map editor, so that we might also customize our own mission maps. They could add a tab for "My Maps" alongside npc's, groups, and stories.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
20,000 searchable arcs?

that's a lot of content.

[/ QUOTE ]

75% of which have bikini-clad custom enemies.

[/ QUOTE ]

Fix't.

To Amperella: Last I checked, this is a bug. Dev's Choice don't seem to be giving any type of completion bonus. So basically a player is penalized for playing a Dev's Choice mission as opposed to a 1-star arc. Ironic? Just a bit.

To TheLucas: Pay more attention.

Based on what I'm hearing both the tanker & blaster NPC's seem to be doing exactly what the Dev-created NPC's generally do in Dev-Created content: not much.

So based on that, I'd say "Working as intended."

NPC's are basically for comic relief anyway, or to absorb the alpha strike. The only problem comes from the success of the mission being linked to the survival of the NPC.

I rated this 5 stars...but then I accidentally hit the report button, so more than likely this thread will get yanked for being a farm thread.

Sorry.

Oh...and your post didn't mention the words "frankenslot" "FotM" or include enough 1337-speak to satisfy my slaker, gamer-slug tendencies. My level 3 earth/storm controller couldn't solo your AV. And your costume is the wrong shade of blue.

Better luck in future posts.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So adding in a single custom enemy ruins it since they spawn 1-54.

[/ QUOTE ]
Or, looking at it as "glass half-full", makes it possible for players of all levels to play your arc without being forced to exemp and giving up xp. Back when I was putting my arcs together, I believed that this would be a fairly major consideration for many players; do you not agree?

[/ QUOTE ]

This would be fine if all you ever wanted to use was custom NPC's. Try creating a mix of units, and you're generally [censored]. Every time I say, "Gee...wouldn't it be cool to use that rarely seen non-standard npc unit?" it's inevitably in a level range that somehow doesn't fit in with everything else. It's frustrating.

Play the arc "Emo Knife Fight"

I Lawl'ed at that one for a good several minutes.

My favorite part of the whole mission is that you have to take out "the intarwebs" as a destructible object.

[ QUOTE ]
I'll state this upfront.

I HATE THE FEEDBACK SYSTEM.

Last night, I played an arc that was frankly terrible. The author did attempt to try and make something proper, so I left some feedback.

And what happens? He starts a real massive argument with me trying to justify what he made.

And after the argument, my own published story arc gets a couple of 1 star ratings right away.

Right now, I'm still sort of mad. The 1 stars, I don't care. The argument on the other hand, it's like this really. You go to a store, get poor service, then you fill up a customer service feedback form and give it to the store. Then 1 day later, a service manager from the store calls you to give you a verbal tongue lashing. This is just not right!

The feedback system just has to change. Make the feedback anonymous, please.

[/ QUOTE ]

[u]Consider this:[u]

Scenario 1: We all have to submit comments to justify our ratings.

Expected Outcome: Everyone chickens out of giving bad ratings, because they don't want their own missions to get ganked and/or your mailbox gets filled with hate spam and/or you get into a bunch of pointless arguments with ignorant players.

Scenario 2: You can submit comments anonymously.

Expected Outcome: There is now no check & balance in place to discourage players from being [censored]-bags, and so they go on a mission ganking spree with impudence every time a girl they like rejects them.


Conclusion: People are jerks...and we can't ever have nice things, because somebody ruins it.

Solution: Only the smart & talented people can give feedback. The rest of you GTFO my interwebs.

Also..last I checked, if you have a team, and you set the AE mission as the current mission, the red waypoint does not appear on the nav map, in the nav bar, or in the live world.