Ukaserex

First, let me say that if I'm going to have a problem with the game, this is probably one of the better ones to have. Since I upgraded to 8 gigs of Ram and an i5-2500, any disconnections I've had have been ISP related and there has been virtually no lag and only a slight bit of rubberbanding from the mapserver getting a little confused about where my toon is supposed to be.

Since I've upgraded, I am usually the first to zone in. And, on my 50+3 toons, it's like I've no alpha or tier 4 Lore/Destiny for about 15-30 seconds until everyone else zones in.

I've grown used to that, but today, I was on a Manticore, and even though the level of the mob didn't change, the con color went from red to orange. I was on a level 31 toon, ssk'd to 35. So, I've no idea why this would happen, other than the game server needs time to figure out what level I really am. Now, I'm okay with that - but I'd like to know if this is a common thing for folks with better than average systems. The error makes sense (sort of) on incarnate trials, but it puzzles me that it happened on the task force.
It sort of made me mad because I had just done my incandescant Strike and left him with just a tiny sliver of hp, when I saw it change from red to orange. If he'd started as orange - as a level 35 boss should have been, in all likelihood, he'd have been defeated instead of making me hit him again.

I'm afraid I've gotten so accustomed to the color conning, I've gotten out of the habit of looking at what level they were, until this happened.

This ever happen to anyone else?

At about 2 minutes left, when I saw that we were highly unlikely to complete the trial, I'd asked our des keeper to bring her in - -and was told that they didn't have a clue where des was, as they couldn't target her. I don't know if this was a bug, or whether Des got lost in the tunnel somehow. I'd read that Des sometimes just vanishes for no apparent reason - but when I was coming back from the hospital with 15 seconds left, I saw some dialogue of hers- but never saw her.

As you mentioned, she was untargetable via her health bar pane.

We failed at the Avatar.

We started strong - we had him down to 3/4. Despite my warnings for the player to remove themselves to a far corner if they got "infected" with the Will of the Earth - described as a yellow disc like appearance - which may vary depending on graphic settings - someone had it cast on them - and his hp regen'd back to full health. I didn't see who it was (I'm kind of glad I didn't -no telling what I might have said or done in the heat of things - but I made sure to let them know -- "See that - that's what happens when you don't move away when you get the WotE cast upon you." or words to that effect. It could have been through no fault of their own - a stun, a hold, I just don't know.

If nothing else, I wanted them to learn from it. I really felt worse for Laser, Energy, Star, and Klown. They worked on their own for a good bit of the bomb badge attempt - and those two bombs that were close together got them. I know it had to be like a punch in the gut - but @ill conceived reported, "well, we "blew" it. It softened the "blow", if you will - as the whole league was in good humor - or at least they seemed to be enjoying themselves.

In retrospect, I think our team was a little light on the heals/buffs - but I really thought we'd get it done - but when the avatar regen'd - that seemed to be when everyone's initial buffs started to fade and things went downhill from there. We'd chiseled him down to about 80%, but there was a large wipe from "something" - I couldn't tell what. At that point, the rest was an exercise in futility. Our Desdemona keeper said she couldn't find Des - and none of us could target Des either. I suspect that means she was way back in the tunnels. At full health, but useless to us.

I'm hoping to try again either this Thursday night or Friday sometime. But, with the holiday, I won't be certain. But, despite Tanker Tuesday, I'm going to try another run.

Well, it took far longer to run through the four incarnate trials than I would have imagined.

The BAF went great, even snagged an extra merit on the escape phase.

The Keyes went well - we almost dodged all the green stuff, and I never saw anything other than pets in it, but I've never been the most observant.

I can't express how well this "PUG" performed. There were several first timers that seemed to follow directions well.

Even on the UGT, even though we ultimately failed it - I think most of them learned a great deal - and more importantly had fun.

Special thanks in no special order to
@Ill Conceived (aka Energy Abyss)
@Laser Acid (as himself)
@Obsidian Ram (aka Star Matter)
@Shadow Klown (as himself)
@Cinder Frost (aka Moroso)

There were a lot of other folks on this trial that of course contributed in large ways, but these guys made my job a lot easier.

Thanks, Liberty

I was really sweating my ability to connect to CoH and stay connected after zoning today. I still am. From 4pm to 7:30pm Central - No internet at all. A darn shame if I can't get online and stay online.

After 2 seperate 20 minute phone calls to my ISP, I was able to get an appointment for a tech to come by tomorrow to check everything out.


But, here goes nothing, as mysteriously, my internet is back up. And, just in time. : )

Actually, I'm in this for the Emp merits. All of these trials can be played by level 50s. In my mind, everyone should have already level shifted with the alpha slot before even going on any trial - but that's just the way I play. If I'm level 50, am I going to quibble about a level 48 or 49 tagging along? No.

That being said, If I see too many toons that aren't level shifted, I'm gonna call it because I don't want to waste anybody's time. It's one thing to be level 49 and tackling +1 or +2's, but the defense softcap in iTrials is at 59% or somewhere very close to that. If you're not even at the softcap in regular content(playing a melee toon) then you're cruising for a bruising. Not saying you won't pay attention and do the best you can, just saying that the content can be percieved as challenging for those that are 50+2/+3. There's a reason why I don't bring level shifted toons (50+1) to an incarnate trial. It makes a huge difference, especially to my squishies that don't necessarily focus on defense. A kin defender (for example) that's not level shifted, even if his accuracy and toHit are maxed is going to have a rough time because the siphons and the heal require accuracy. The game mechanics make this harder for a kin than an Empath. That aside, if we have some granite tanks, I'm sure they'll be ok with speedboost and ID. I'm just gonna have to wait and see.

As for BAF , that's are now only challenging if we can't stay on top of the adds. So, I won't worry on that one.

Um...those IO sets ...lotg, numina's convalescence - are those account wide? or one to a character? And are they recipes or crafted IOs?


That being said, I'm bittersweet about this. I'm glad they are now "affordable", but I am also thinking about how much work I had to do to get my own sets of these via hero merits. Now, you guys are just making anyone with more dollars than sense able to pick these up without earning them. When I look at a characters power info and I see bonus sets, I feel a lot more comfortable teaming with them, because I know they've at least spent some time learning how their toon works best and have put the time in on one character or another to get those enhancement IOs. Now, a guy who just bought the game today can buy and slot that stuff without even knowing what they have. I'm sure it's just me, but that doesn't sit right.

How many people will buy these with points and then sell them on the market?

I think if you buy these on the market, they should be character specific and unsellable - somehow differentiated from the ones everyone else has traded in countless hero merits for.

But, that's just me.

I wish you could be there too.

I found this little picture in reviewing trial strategy.

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f3...p/1f09e1c3.jpg


While I hope to do this tonight - I forgot that Thursday is Thanksgiving. So, I'll postpone that for this week - might try it Friday after the MSR. I'd go earlier, but want to wait 20 hours for that stupid timer to finish counting down.

I think it's time that I tried to be a bit more efficient in my pursuit of Emp Merits.

Starting on Tuesday evening, 8pm Central/9 pm Eastern, 11/22/11, in RWZ if there's enough interest,

I'm going to lead first - a Lambda (unless there's too much interest, then I'll go BAF. )

Upon completion of that - If BAF, I'll do Lam, if Lam, Then BAF.

Following those two, Keyes.

Following Keyes, UGT.

I really don't like waiting around. That being said, I know some of you have long loading times, etc. If I have enough interest at 8pm, great.

If I don't have the numbers required by 8:10, I'll just go back to the grind of crafting and selling until Thursday, when I expect to repeat the process.

And, I expect to do this every Tues and Thurs until I get sick of it.

With the UGT, it can be a long trial. People can get distracted, tired, hungry, etc. If all goes as planned, I'd like to run it in less than an hour. However, things don't always go how we want them to. I don't know every single nuance of the UGT, but I do know that there are two things that seem to cause frustration amongst the leagues that end up failing the trial.

1. Not using the lichen temp powers often enough. Some grab as many as they can, get defeated - and other folks don't have enough and can't use them on the goliath av. So, he regens, prolonging the battle. We'll try to distribute these more evenly.
2. People get confused, despite the best efforts of those with Tactics and Clarion.
Some consider it bad form to ask people to "bring" anything on a trial/tf. I think if you want those emp merits, you'll bring at least 4 of the largest Break Frees you can. I believe they're called Escape. This large one can stop the confusion and allow you to re-target the Avatar. If 16 toons can't take down the avatar in 4 minutes, we probably wouldn't get to the avatar to see it. I say 16, even though I hope to run with 24, because I know some will not listen and possibly get defeated through no fault of their own.

Hope I see some of you there. I'd say all of ya, but there's only room for 23 more.

Glad to hear it went well. I purposely sat out so other folks could give it a shot. (I also had a rough head-ache)

Interesting to hear about your Aunt. Maybe you should refer her. :P

So, we've now established a fairly convenient time of 8pm EST on Saturdays.

That's one day a week. Is there enough demand to run anymore? After one of the MSRs perhaps...

I can assure you CoH will run with Windows 7 -- but be advised, you'll want at least 4 gigs of RAM - preferably more. CoH uses about 1.5-1.75 gigs of RAM as it runs, and Windows 7 uses quite a large chunk as well.

If you only had, say 2 gigs of RAM, CoH would run, but very poorly.

I think it's safe to say that Liberty can beat the UGT now on a consistent basis, providing these few conditions are met:

At least half of those participating should be level shifted. Not necessarily for incarnate trials, but I think it's a fair statement that people will miss less, and get hurt less facing foes that are +3, rather than +4.

I can suggest that all "follow" directions and learn to read, but I am certain that those on the forums can and do.(read and follow direction)

Numbers. I honestly think that if you leave with less than 20, you're going to have a rougher time. The HP of the goliaths is the same - whether it's 2 or 200. The more players, the better the chances of success.

Leadership for this raid is really not that mission critical -- BUT
our server seems to be more likely to not run a tf in lieu of a trial if someone that's leading that trial is someone whose knowledge of the trial is known and respected - i.e. Xtreme Raze, Wulfrich, Tempest, E.Ion, to name a few.

Liberty does have enough people, of course, to do many different activities - but sometimes there just isn't enough to do the UGT with a decent degree of confidence, because the playerbase gets divided between an ITF, the weekly, and who knows what all else might be going on.

Myself, I've been superbusy with trying to respec my warshade and the recipes needed to do so. Blocking out the time necessary to do a UGT is not something I want to do, but will do anyway, because I need that bomb badge, and I'm hoping that I won't have to wait to get it like I did with Midnight Dodger.

Establishing a regular run time for UGT (and Keyes) is a good idea. Look how well the MSRs do! Not to take anything away from @noyjitat, but that success in attendance has more to do with people being familiar with when it will happen than anything else. (pure conjecture on my part)

I think Thursday and Saturdays at 9:30 pm eastern would be a good time - but that's just me.
Can we at least agree on a day?

I'm more inclined to think that this was an interface they were going to use for enhancement boosters, but for whatever reason decided not to.

From the number of requests I've gotten to assist lowbies in getting XP, I think farming has subsided a bit. Or, the REAL farmers are getting better at staying under the radar.

There are different ways to farm for different things. If you want specific salvage, I think AE is the best option. They have nerfed the second ambush, but on some maps, the first ambush along with the others in the room is enough to get you to ticket max, so in that regard, the nerf only impacted those that were trying to get xp at a faster rate than a mission outside of AE.

It all depends on what your objective is, and what type of AT/Powersets your farming toon is.
I assure you, that Infernal Demons is a fine farm - but not necessarily the best farm for fire damage dealers, as the demons may only dish out fire damage, but they also have a 20% fire damage resistance.

So, what would a fire tank farm? Find an NPC that has no fire damage resistance and doesn't deal psi damage, and that's a likely prospect.

So, the answer is, it depends.

Well, my home server was down this morning, so I logged on a lowbie on Exalted.

Has something changed? Or did I get stuck with a group of Freedom folks?

Since I was level 4 on this toon, the only show in town seems to be DFB, unless you want to try those new arcs with all that hoorb nonsense. (I find them catered to a much younger audience, so I'm gonna pass on those, every chance I get)

So, after we're done with the Hellion AV, the leader (in response to another player) responds that we're going for the badges.
Me, I'm on a brute with a fiery aura. I'm already irritated that my server is down, and now I have to turn my powers off so someone can get a badge? I don't think so. I feel like if you're going to go for badges (which calls for different tactics), you should announce this ahead of time. Not in the midst of the trial.

Is this the way you guys do things now ? Everything is a badge run by default?

I'm likely over-reacting- but there are still principles, aren't there?

A dog? You paid programmers money to come up with a dog? That does nothing but scratch itself?

If this is the direction you guys are going with this game, consider me finding another game.

We want powers that do incredible amounts of damage to multiple foes with short activation and animation times and quick recharges.

Nobody wants a dog that does nothing. It could at least bark when ambushes are coming. Or bite the leg of an NPC when I'm stunned. Something.

And 500 points? Whose crack habit are you guys trying to get us to support?

I'd like to find out if there's a tip, or some strategy -for handling the longbow bosses decoys, phantasms and decoy phantasms.

Obviously, as a kin, I try to get my siphon speed, etc off the npc. Generally, I don't use my mouse to target, I use the tab key. On occasion, I might have to, to target a specific baddy in a crowd, but for the most part, with all the action on the screen, I have to move my mouse around a good bit to find the cursor. By this time, with decoys beating on my, I'm defeated already.

Solo, I'd turn the diff down, but on a team, I'm a bit at a loss as to how to handle them.

A targeting macro sounds like it would be perfect - but it isn't, because a macro needs a specific name, and changing that name from mission to mission would be annoying. Is there a way to target npcs that aren't "unaffected" or "invalid" targets?
I'm sure I'm not the first kin to run into them - how do you guys handle them?

Some of the previous posters have hit the nail on the head.

To answer your question, no, it's not legit. It should tell you to speak to any analyst, whether it be the one in Atlas, Steel or wherever it's convenient for you. That being said, because of the glitch in the posi task force, and knowing the simple work around, I strongly believe that instead of going to croatoa, you could have spoken to the one in atlas, or the one in steel.

Not sure if it could be either one, but there was a time when one of my characters got sent to kings row to talk to an analyst. So, only a red name can say for sure. But me, I'd try talking to the closest one first.

I must be getting dyslexic in my old age.

Back to the drawing board.