WhatRoughBeast

Hey Lazarus,

So I've seen some of your arcs advertised, and I've been wanting to try them out for a while, so I finally logged on my villain this morning to give McGuffin Delivery Service a go. It was a blast! I tried to send you an email with some minor typo issues, but I'm pretty sure I sent it to a random "Lazarus" on Virtue instead. I have no idea how to send emails to a global handle rather than a character name, so I figured I'd send them to you here.

First off, I like the way the story is structured. You've managed to make the "contact" not a real contact, so there isn't the sense that I'm being made to run around like an errand boy. The flashback style of writing worked well, I thought, and was refreshing.

One thing I'd like to have seen is random amusing writeups for the junk you pick up in the pawn shop in the first mission. You clearly can write funny clues that are tangential to the central plot, as you did in the Oranbega mission glowies, so it would be good reading if you put some here as well. Not crucial, but it couldn't hurt.

In the clue "An Ornate Box", there should be a dash instead of a comma. That is, it should read "Inside was a small statue - a bird of some kind"... I think both ways of writing are grammatically acceptable, but the dash is more strictly correct.

Part 1 subtitle: Maybe the A in "Just A Simple Late Night Robbery" should be in lower-case, to keep it consistent with the way you do the subtitles for the other parts.

Part 1 : There should be commas inserted, thus: "Of course, in a city of villains, you weren't..." in the first line. Also, there should be a comma after "Hopefully" in that last line.

In the clue "Amanita explains", you might want to replace the comma in "Security didn't even hear it apparently since they never came, that bunch is fired today for sure!" with a period or a dash, maybe even a semicolon.

In the clue "The Wolfe talks", I think you want "discreet", not "discrete".

Part 2 mission complete text: comma after "Well" in first line. Also, that last line sounds a little strange to my ear. Maybe, instead of "With little option left", replace that with "With few choices left"? It might just be me.

Part 3 contact dialogue: In the last line, should it be "You had picked up..." instead of "You picked up"?

Part 3 mission entry popup: Replace comma with period, and add a comma after "Hopefully". Or, since you've already used "Hopefully" not so long ago in the mission text, replace it with "You hope that this is one of the less twisty parts."

In the clue "A Book on Unloseable Items", there should be a comma after "Apparently".

Part 4 contact sendoff text: "descend", not "descended".

Part 4 mission complete popup text: "other villains to fight over it" instead of "other villains fight over it".

Part 4 mission success contact dialogue: There should be a comma in, and period after ""Well, that did it." Also, comma after "Probably".

All said, these are minor points, and the bulk of them are tweaks to make the sentences parse better rather than egregious errors. I hope it helps!

Sounds like a fun idea. Here's one for your consideration, should you have the time. It's a shorter, more action-packed arc than the one I've been working on, and I think it meets your criteria.

Arc name: The Second Coming
Arc ID: #40333
Number of missions: 3
Faction: Heroic
Diffficulty: Some EB's (AV's at higher settings) in the last mission, but ample help is available. Suitable for both solo and team-play, though large teams are warned to beware the ambushes in the second mission.
Synopsis: The secret Vatican vaults have been broken into, and you have been asked to help! Slay demons, rescue priceless relics, fight alongside the forces of good, and save the world!

Ever wonder how dragonflies fly? Their wings are sheer, fragile things, and would collapse under the strain of the number of wingbeats per second needed to keep the dragonfly aloft.

The answer is hard to believe, as most truth is. Packed into the tiny space of each dragonfly's head is a complex quantum brain, processing countless permutations of aerodynamic information, calculating molecular Brownian motion and atmospheric composition and elemental viscosity. A dragonfly has to move just right, or it falls from the skies.

Under the direction of Black Scorpion, a minor branch of Arachnos scientists have recently made just such a startling discovery, and genetically engineered their first test subject. Armed with a hybrid dragonfly quantum brain as well as more standard human intellect, this new super-soldier also has reinforced wing structures, so that he can not just see and react to infinitesimal thermo-kinetic variations, but exert some measure of control over them.

A series of raids by do-gooder heroes, however, forced the project to shut down before the psychological conditioning could begin, and the new creation, crazed from pain, now wanders the Rogue Isles, torn between a desire to serve his creators and a maddening anger at those who abandoned him. He calls himself the Dragonfly Burn, and wields fire and power with cold insectile cunning.

Macrofracture looked down at the figure crouched before him, for a moment clearer-headed than he had been in a long while. The voices that screamed muttered whispered promised were muffled, though an echo of them seemed to come from somewhere.

Just there. Mister Hysteria was a miserable sight, seemingly held fast, but the barest echo of some distant sound rose from him. Some entity, born of dimensions outside human dreaming, babbled and choked and chittered as it tried to worm its way into the mind of the psychic who had so generously opened his head to it.

Macrofracture reached down for the psychic's face, hands spasming, dancing with maggot-white lightning, but then jerked back before contact, as if burned. Turning his back on the unmoving man, Macrofracture continues down the hallway, towards the bright scent of minds so full and so singular.

Thanks for the reply, Transmitter. I'll give some thought to that, but I should clarify - I'm not thinking of a character with radiation powers AND water powers. He'll just have ocean/water powers. Some of the powers will be called Radiationy type stuff according to the game engine, but it'll actually be water-based.

So, Lingering Radiation is actually Riptide, for instance.

So I figured this was probably the best place to post this, and ask for assistance.

I'm working on a character whose powers are water-related. I have in mind that he'll be a Defender, and his powersets will be radiation emission/energy blast. Energy blast is easy to work into the concept - Energy Torrent even looks kinda like a wave, and the knockback makes sense.

It's the Radiation Emission part I'm having trouble with. The coloration is about right, with the green of the sea and all that, and some of the powers fit in smoothly - Lingering Radiation as some kind of flood or undercurrent, and Choking Cloud effects even look a little like drowning.

What I need help with is two things - refining the concept so that it can allow for powers like the anchored debuffs and Mutation, Fallout and Radiant Aura (life energy type stuff), and a name.

With respect to the first, I've been considering some spirit ocean type thing, where what he summons is not physical H2O water, but some kind of spiritual analog. I'd rather not go that route, but it's an option.

With respect to the second, I'm stumped for a good name. Some of the good ones I've thought of (Gull, Riptide, Fisher, Undertow) are all taken, unsurprisingly. So, please, help?

Thanks in advance!

but I need some way of making sense of

Colors. There had been colors in the sky that day.

Andrew (or Andy - he liked it when people called him Andy) had the day off. He was planning on making some lasagna with fresh mushrooms and tomatoes, and then visiting his mother where she lived near the Gish. She always did like lasagna, even if she claimed that mushrooms gave her gas. Maybe she'd even forget to nag at him to find a nice girl and get married.

She didn't know. In her eyes, Andy was still her perfect little boy, clever and handsome, not some loser who worked as a lowly lab-tech at some Crey subsidiary and whose only romantic encounters involved monetary transactions and hairless boys barely out of high-school. But he will not think of that today. Today would be perfect.

Today, there were colors in the sky.

Magenta and green and crimson and gold had unfurled like banners across the east-side, throwing strange shadows across the old brick and boarded-up windows, across the hanging, grey laundry and the nervous laughter of children. It was Malaise, his power amplified by a device of brass and crystal, his tenuous hold on sanity broken by some psychic backlash from Sister Psyche. There was no doubt it was an important problem - the Freedom Phalanx was probably saving the world, or something like that, and Sister Psyche's powers were probably required for a far greater good.

But none of that mattered to the people of Eastside, King's Row. The colors entranced, and bewildered, and frightened, and worked their way into minds, ripping free their fears and their desires and their dreams. Malaise's nightmares galloped, trailing gossamer terror, paralyzing the neighborhood in a chromatic vice.

Some hero, or heroes, put a stop to that. Probably got himself a medal for it, or a badge, or some kind of tacky souvenir. Treats for dogs, to keep them doing what they do. The effects of the attack were temporary, the newspapers said. Within the week, the incident was next to forgotten.

When they found Andrew, he was already broken. They found him with his hands stuck deep into a casserole dish of week-old lasagna, the pasta reeking and already starting to crawl with maggots. They tried for a while to treat him, but when his health insurance ran out, so did their interest. They never found out why he reacted so strongly to Malaise's attack, nor did they connect him to the old lady who was killed in a botched mugging attempt twelve blocks away. Nobody came to claim him, and it was never clear why he was put into the psychiatric rehabilitation ward in the Zig, but no one questioned it.

Somewhere during this time, Macrofracture was born.



All this was history, ancient and irrelevant, but preserved in Macrofracture's mind pefectly like an insect in glass. Everything after was a wash of unthinkable foulness, where memory and thought lost cohesion beneath the caress of lightning pink as open flesh. Gaping orifices, slick and quivering, invited the intruding mind to forgetfulness and bliss, offering both perverse lusts and their satiation. The incomprehensible beings that lived beneath Macrofracture's dimensional surface laid traps even as they reasserted themselves through the axle of his memories, splitting deeper fissures in his mind, so the least mental misstep would spell horror and envelopment.

Quietly, his hands began once again to bleed organic light.

The psychic energy slammed into Macrofracture's mind in a frenzy of froth and foam, with all the stunning power of a tsunami.

With all the cleansing power of a tsunami.

Alien voices were swept away beneath that onslaught, the psionic wave thundering down every pathway of the brute's mind. Tears leading to dimensions of organic horror slammed shut, orifices clamping moist lips against the invading energies. But where tangled lightning and splintered air was sufficient defense against bullets and steel, these very fractures could not hold against a purely psychic attack. Ancient hunger and tumescent need and ravenous desire and the frail voice of a man were all reduced to weak, mewling things, scrabbling for continued purchase on the world.

Macrofracture gazed at Mister Hysteria blankly, eyes the grey of dead fish. His hands still spasmed, open, close, open, close.

Macrofracture paused, twisting his head to gaze at Mister Hysteria. For a moment, there was just the sound of the air ducts rasping over head, and the background twitch-flicker of florescent lights. Then, Macrofracture began to answer, a flow of nonsense syllables rolling off his tongue, a polyglottal concatenation of sing-song babel.

He reached out languidly towards the psychic, hand still opening and closing like the dead toothless maw of a fish. At his passage, dimensions splintered, then splintered again, and that strange, organically pink light leapt to dance at his fingertips, the waving, welcoming fronds of an anemone.

Tongue lolling obscenely, Macrofracture walked down the corridors, hands still opening and closing, grasping for something unseen, hungering for something untasted.

He turned a corner, paused for a moment, and then stepped softly, almost daintily, over the stirring body of a Longbow officer, her cloak torn and fire-scorched, spittle corroding her helmet. Macrofracture turned to gaze down the corridor, tasting the air like some blind worm, quivering with yearning and need. He turned back to the uniformed Longbow agent and reached out.

Even through the mask, through the haze of agony and fear, those hands were mesmerizing. The fleshy pink light that leaked from the air in bursts around it drew the eye into whirlpools of dreaming, and the fingers, baby-soft and wriggling like pillows or maggots, they entranced. To be touched by those hands, surely, is to know unimaginable bliss. The Longbow agent leaned her cheek into the palm, to be cupped and held as by a lover.

From those hands, those lovely hands, lightning sparked, tracing lines of pale fire beneath the face and skin of the uniformed officer. With a final spasm, she fell back onto the ground, eyes wide and unseeing, an idiot smile upon her face.

Macrofracture stands, the voices in his head temporarily silenced, the taste of the women overwhelming, the oneness of her mind giving reprieve from the multitude of his. But a moment is all it lasts, and the sanity bleeds away in a hemorrhage of mental effluvia, the energies briefly splintering the air around him. He looks down the corridor once more, smelling tasting a trio of minds. Drool pooling, he sets off once more, yearning, yearning.

[[OOC: I realized it wasn't clear. This guy is, in game terms, an elec/elec Brute, not some mind-control person.]]

The air was thick, swollen like the ripe skin of some vast, decaying peach. Minute by minute it grew thicker, incomprehensible and terrifying, until the air was distended as the abdomen of a spider, or the slick skin of a pregnant mother. Mutely, the world tore with sick, carnal pleasure, an egregiously sexual intrusion. Something spilled from the breach, pale emanations of psychic detritus wafting after it like amniotic fluid.

For long moments, Macrofracture crouched panting, for the moment alone never alone in one of the vast corridors of the Portal Corps campus. Behind him, the rift that had transported birthed him closed wetly. Still, the air skittered, and buzzed, and droned, as Macrofracture's broken mind asserted itself upon the surroundings, gouging tears in the fabric of the world, letting a sickly pink light leak through.

Slowly, he stood, a figure barely five feet six, his slight frame of that sort that belonged behind a desk never again never again. Yet, he glowed with menacing, mad power, and vast, unthinkable things roiled beneath the surface of him, frantic and cruel as children, hungry as children. He was wrapped in a patchwork of cloth and tights and chains, not naked, but he nevertheless gave the strange impression of nakedness, of visceral violations too fleeting to rationalize.

He did not know why he was here we know we always know. Far off, there was the sound of pain, and the chatter of alone and singular people, and a promise of peace sustenance. He they set off at a trot, his hands opening and closing sporadically, like the needful face of some fleshly flower.

This is truly incredible. A rare gem. Thank you for writing this.

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Balance Issue: TA is the only defender who can't survive the agro their debuffs create. While it's not always true, just about any other debuffing defender's debuffs will actualy protect them from the retaliation volly. TA's debuffs can't do that. It can lesson the force, but taking 50 damage from 6 guys is still gonna hurt big time.

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No offence, Madam_Enigma, but I think this problem goes away once you have Oil Slick Arrow. It might just be about the best, if not the best, power for alpha damage mitigation available to Defenders.

Consider: You can fire it off from around a corner, or behind a wall, reducing alpha strike damage to nothing. ZERO. In addition, it slows and knocksdown, and can be lighted by a strategic shot as the enemies are all flopping around.

Even in the rare situation where a corner or tree or wall is unavailable, the flopping and the range puts it at least close to the level of Fearsome Stare. And remember, Fearsome Stare can't even affect the full 16-mob spawn in a large team.

This is before we even talk about EMP Arrow. Sure, it's only usuable every 2 to 3 spawns, but a ranged long duration critting hold? With a MASSIVE area of effect? That's complete protection from the reliation volley right there.



So, while I agree that TA defenders have problems pre-26, many of these problems are reduced dramatically come Oil Slick and EMP.

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If PGA was more like Poison Gas Trap from Traps (and IMO it really needs a longer duration), and Entangle was more like Web Grenade, I'd call it a day and be happy.

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If PGA was like poison gas trap from Traps, and ranged, I think I'd do more than call it a day and be happy. I think I'll have the devs's babies.

Of course, that means that it'll be a ridiculously powerful Controller set though, with lots of powers being better for a Controller than for a Defender.

I did take a look at TopDoc's numbers. I very much agree that Radiation Infection is very powerful. My point in the above post was only that, relative to Darkest Night, it is not as good of a defensive debuff. TopDoc's numbers with DN (modified for defender numbers) seem to agree with this. DN is 35% vs RI's 31%, and DN has the 37.5% damage debuff too.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

Castle said in passing Flash Arrow was similar to Smoke Grenade. We know that Smoke Grenade went from being a 100% debuff to a 10% debuff. I know there is some debate over what this means, but it seems clear to me that this number is multiplicative (in this instance).

That means that, against an even level minion with 50% acc, smoke grenade will reduce their acc to 45%, reducing incoming damage by 10%.

If Flash Arrow works in a similar way, then, based on Castle's numbers (with Defender debuff modifier), we can expect the Acc Debuff to be 12.5%. Slotted up with SOs, that brings us to about 25%. Which means, an even leveled minion is going from 50% accuracy to 37.5% (or thereabouts), mitigating incoming damage by about 25%.

Based on Castle's post, we know that Darkest Night, slotted up with 3SOs, subtracts 37.5% from the base to hit. (I use Darkest Night instead of the Rad Debuffs because we have dev numbers for it). So, an even leveled minion is reduced to an accuracy of 12.5% with Darkest Night on, which is a mitigation of 75% damage, even without considering the damage debuff of DN.

Consider the damage mitigation a Dark defender can provide against the alpha strike with DN alone. The Acc debuff drops incoming damage to 25%, then reduces that by a further 37.5% with the damage debuff. DN can reduce an alpha strike from a group of even leveled minions 15% or so. That's pretty hefty.

Rad does even better. With Radiation Infection alone, they can drop even levels to the accuracy floor, effectively taking only 5% of incoming damage. (my numbers here might be off, because I'm not as familiar with Rad, and there have been no dev post on this. They are based on TopDoc's numbers, and based on his sample size, should be fairly accurate).

Now, TA. I don't think anyone denies that, because of the nature of Flash Arrow (no aggro, clicky, large area), it cannot be as powerful, numerically, as DN. But, based on the numbers, Flash Arrow alone only reduces damage by 25%. Drop a PGA to start the battle (for a further ~30% damage debuff), and you're taking about 52% of incoming damage from the alpha.

So, with DN, you're dropping damage to 15%. With Rad, it's about 5%. With TA, it's 52%, with two powers.

Of course, there's a host of things I'm not considering. Dark would probably do well with Fearsome Stare. Rad has AM, a reliable heal, offensive debuffs and so on. TA has the usuable-around-a-corner Oil Slick.

But, laying out these numbers, it seems TA's damage mitigation isn't negligible (25% from FA alone, non-aggroing, is hardly terrible). However, it does fall significantly behind Rad and Dark in sheer numbers. The benefits of toggle debuffs versus click/recharging ones isn't clear on either side, I think. Whether the lower numerical value of TA's debuffs balance out against the advantage gained by the nature of these debuffs... I have no idea. But TA is certainly fun to play.




Edited to take into account RI slotted, based on numbers by TopDoc. Thanks Blueeyed.

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EMP Arrow: Why the rippoff of the final Radiation power?

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Just to clarify, EMP Arrow is in fact NOT a ripoff from the Radiation Emission set's final power. The Rad version is PBAoE, drains your endurance like a blaster-nuke and has a high chance of a crit to hold bosses. The TA version is ranged, does NOT drain your endurance (though it stops recovery for a short while), and seems to have a much lower (if any) chance to critical hold. It seems essentially a modfied version of Gravity Distortion or Total Domination from the Controller sets, except with a seemingly longer duration. As such, it is actually very, very useful for dealing with the inevitable adds.

Only problem is, of course, that Controllers with TA as a secondary will have their version of EMP Arrow last much longer than ours.

I'm at level 34 right now, and have had Oil Slick since, what, 26? I've spent a good deal of those levels in debt and playing around in story arcs, so I've spent way too much time with Oil Slick.

I don't think your experience is out of the ordinary, Mieux. It -might- have something to do with teaming, I'm not certain, but Oil Slick lights for me about 90% of the time. And I'm not exaggerating. Not lighting up is definitely the exception rather than the norm.

That said, Archery must have one of the worst synergies with Trick Arrow, aside from Dark and Psy. Elec, Energy, Rad and Sonic (my secondary) all have AoEs that can light the slick.

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Trick Arrow has other tricks aside from Debuffing too.

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Not in comparision to other defender sets. A immoblize, a single target hold, and a AoE hold? Blah!

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An AoE hold isn't too shabby. It's a long recharge, yeah, but decent duration, doesn't drain your endurance like EM Pulse, and has other decent secondary effects as well.

Don't forget Oil Slick Arrow, which gives Trick Arrow the best damage in a Primary of any defender. Combined with Disruption and Acid Arrows, Trick Arrow Defenders should be doing the most damage of any defs, and boosting team damage by the largest amount.


Does anyone else wish that Poison Gas Arrow was a pulsing AoE stackable debuff instead of a Sleep? Like it's been mentioned, we don't need yet another power at which Controllers are better. And having a damage debuff that pulses and stacks to impressive levels might actually give us another signature power aside from the problematic Oil Slick Arrow.

Trick Arrow has other tricks aside from Debuffing too.

A Stormie with a TA def would be very nice indeed. Hurricane and Snowstorm/Glue Arrow to group them all together, then Freezing Rain and Disruption Arrow and Acid Arrow for a whopping 70% resistance debuff and like a ... 60% (?) defense debuff, then Lightning Storm and Oil Slick for the killiness. With a break free or two (or an Empath or Sonic), I bet that duo/trio could eat 8-person spawns for tea.

And there's always the option of a Tornado or an EMP Arrow for when things go wrong.

Thanks for collating this, guys. Blueeyed, just a few concerns with your version:

Darkest Night is in fact a 37.5% damage debuff rather than a 25%. A power that does a 100 base damage would do 265 with 5 damage SOs. With Darkest Night, the damage would be debuffed to 227.5, which is a reduction of only 14% instead of 37.5%. Twilight Grasp also suffers from a similar problem with regards to damage debuffing.

Enervating Field also has a higher damage debuff than 25%. I can't remember offhand what it is.

The problem with Fulcrum Shift and Siphon power debuffing damage differently based on enemy resistance also affects other damage debuff powers, such as Darkest Night, Twilight Grasp and Enervating Field. This looks like it was intentional, debuffs were deliberately made resistable back in.. Issue 2, if I remember right. I did test it in the Arena, and true to form, these powers aren't resistable when cast by a defender. I have not tested with Controllers, nor have I tested other powers (is Snow Storm resistable by an Ice Tank with slow resist?)

There is no secondary called Arrow. It's called Archery.

Under the third point for Arrow, 'Trick Arrow' should probably be replaced by 'Archery'.

((OOC: Bah... if it's necessary to the story that there be potentially offensive situations, feel free to target Jason. There's no need to tip-toe around, it's all in good fun hehe. Seriously, I don't mind.

Aaaaaand, how are we gonna keep this going without the gameshow host?))

Jason gets up with a start, as he does some mornings.

Sitting up in bed, he glares wildly around for a few moments, then collapses back into bed, burying his head in the pillows and muttering darkly,

"Stupid dragons."

((OOC: So yeah... our gameshow host has been eaten by space monkeys? I was holding off posting also because our terrible Trio were about to do some entertaining thing in the morning...or so I thought.))

((OOC: I could've sworn I posted a reply to this, but it either vanished into lalaland, or I was hallucinating.))

Jason enthusiastically tries to help with the cleaning up for a while, but coming close to breaking several dishes and stabbing himself in the eye with a spoon dampens his zest somewhat. After a while, he rather dejectedly says his goodnights and slinks off towards the bedroom, where he collapses onto the first empty bed he finds. In a matter of minutes, he's snoring lightly.

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"Uhm . . . Jason, do you think you would mind teaching Ash how to act more . . . well, civilized? Unless, that is," she said, grinning slyly, "You think Varon or Arden would be better role-models?"

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Giving a maddening grin to Micaela, Jason glances over to make sure Ash is watching, then solemnly, very solemnly, he lowers his face into his plate and take a bite of his pie and ice-cream.

Raising his head, he makes no effort to wipe the ice-cream off the tip of his nose. He turns to Varon, "Couldn't sleep, buddy?"