ketch
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Quote:No, it's still gambling. There exists a chance, though insanely small, that you could open hundreds of packs and never get the item you want. It's the uncertain outcome that makes it a gamble and not a purchase.Originally Posted by Agent White
Mm, no, pretty sure you get items regardless. It's just whether it's the item you want. But you always get 5 different items. -
Quote:So you're saying exactly what I said:Originally Posted by NinjaPirate
That they didn't explain it, doesn't mean he just randomly stumbled across it. It just means they didn't explain it.
For all we know the guy was a descendant or relative of Hama. We just don't know.
It was Xzero that suggested he stumbled across the ability. My mind makes the leap to this: Yakone spent time in prison, met Hama there, and learned it from her. To me that's a simple and satisfying resolution to the question, one which would have required a few lines of exposition in the telling of the Yakone/Tarrlok/Amon connection.Quote:Originally Posted by ketch
Yakone, on the other hand, can do it because... practice? We don't know. We aren't given anything that suggests where he picked up the ability, how he honed the skill, or even that he was naturally gifted water bender.
It's a matter of conservation of detail. You give your audience details that matter before they matter so it doesn't seem like you're pulling it out of your rear. They did a poor job of that by flooding the first few episodes with the details of pro-bending, which certainly had less impact on the overall scheme than blood bending. Certainly, if nothing else, Korra's inner conflict that prevented her from air bending should have gotten more development.Quote:And really, ultimately it doesn't matter. It's background detail that has no direct impact on the story.
Could they have fleshed it out? Sure. But they had a fraction of the episodes in a season as the last series, they had to pick and choose what to show.
-np
Again, this was a minor point, but one of many that indicated a greater problem. Far greater offenders were its poor pacing and unsatisfying conflict resolution. I've seen people toss out the defense that they had far fewer episodes to work with, but that is no defense at all. It's part of the problem. Remember those writing assessments we all had to do in school? Fourty-five minutes and one sheet of paper. When you know you don't have the time and narrative space to write a full length epic, why would you try? Even in that case, you have to be lean and mean with the details; instead, it felt like they really squandered the first 3-4 episodes. -
Quote:It was established to be a very rare, virtually unknown technique. So yes, stumbling into it is a problem for the story. And while an old technique to the viewers, Yakone uses it in a means that contradicts established canon (that water benders can only blood bend during a full moon), which requires some explanation as to why he can do so. At best, the whole thing is lampshaded by Sokka's speech at the trial. I really do think they could have done better though.Originally Posted by Xzero45
What's wrong with practice? He stumbles upon a skill, finds out how powerful it is, practices with it, abuses it. Just like any other bender, or really anyone ever with any kind of skill ever. They had to explain with Hama because they introduced an entirely new skill. Bloodbending isn't new anymore, though, so why explain it again?
Welcome to internet fandoms.Quote:You're looking way to into this and expecting far too much.
But seriously... world building is an important part of creating fiction. These guys did a pretty nice job with the first series. Sadly, I think they weakened that by contradicting or ignoring some of the ideas that they had presented in A:TLA.
At any rate, I don't intend to belabor the point about the blood bending, but you keep responding to it. There are plenty of other things that I felt made this a weaker show if you want to discuss those. (Pabu certainly was no Momo.) -
Quote:Except Hama explained it to Katara, and by extension the viewer, how she realized water was a part of the body when denied access to it and the idea was foreshadowed by the swamp benders. Her discovery was laid out in a manner that made sense in the story. Yakone, on the other hand, can do it because... practice? We don't know. We aren't given anything that suggests where he picked up the ability, how he honed the skill, or even that he was naturally gifted water bender. They built up a little mystery but provided possibly the least satisfying answer. More importantly, they tied that mystery to the antagonist. It's a far larger problem than things that were largely played for Rule of Cool.Originally Posted by Xzero45
How did Hama learn it? Oh yeah, she randomly discovered it, which is something any other waterbender can do. How would it be deus ex machina to also discover a technique when he has just as much ability to do so as her? And how is it a stretch for Yakone to not only be a naturally gifted water bender, but also work hard to specialize in bloodbending the very same way Toph specialized in metalbending and grew stronger in it? He discovered a technique and practiced it. Not that hard to figure out. Did you nitpick this hard when Azula bent blue fire without explanation, or every time Combustion Man created explosions with his mind?
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Quote:And just where did Yakone learn the technique? Oh yeah... he knew it because he knew it. After all, the only two individuals with knowledge of the technique were an old woman who was incarcerated and the water bending master that outlawed it. Even if he learned if from Hama in prison (the only reasonable scenario I can conceive, outside of him discovering it which is the same deus ex machina), it was still a stretch to master it without movement and without the moon... and, of course, without explanation. It would have only taken a few lines of exposition to sort out an answer. They stretched the canon of what could be done which is fine provided they reason it out; however, they didn't.Originally Posted by Xzero45
More like they dedicated their entire childhood to overcoming a weakness and training specifically in bloodbending. Bloodbending was invented by weak prisoner who only had practice on rats. The only other person that could do it did it twice and hated it, outlawing it. I'm pretty sure if non-blind earthbenders could learn metal bending, regular waterbenders could train to not need to rely on the moon to bloodbend.
Overall, it was minor nitpick, but the nits added up over the course of the series. The ridiculous romantic conflict, the incompetent earth bender police (who seemingly forgot their earth bending basics), and OMG SO PURE Titanium. There were, to me, far more weak plot points in this series and too many pulls. Maybe that's because A:TLA was laying down how things worked so we had to take it at face value while Korra was left to build on already established canon. Overall, Korra was just less enjoyable than its predecessor. -
Quote:I was aware of that though I have no understanding of Nick's logic for only signing one season initially. Regardless, it doesn't excuse the problems the series had. There just wasn't enough time for some of the world building stuff they chose to explore. A lot of the pro-bending stuff could have been cut to make way for plot development; I say that even though I found it pretty entertaining, but it felt like time ill-spent.Originally Posted by Tater Todd
You guys do know that it was only signed for only one season right? I think it was exceptionally well done for one season. The old Avatar had time for more build up, story and character development.
It's somewhat akin to giving someone a sheet of paper and asking them to draw a portrait. They hand it back after drawing an eye, a nose, and a bit of the mouth that fills the page. When asked why they didn't draw the whole thing, their reason is that the paper was too small. Korra's story was just too grand in scale for what could have been a 13 episode run. They either should have scaled it back or risked only telling the first act in hopes that Nick would re-up for the rest. -
Quote:I agree. They pulled out some twist that really lacked any build up (Tenzin and the kids were captured, we just didn't tell you! Ahahaha!) and went with one twist that was so painfully obvious that I didn't think they would do it. I was also hoping for a better explanation of why they could bloodbend without the moon other than they can because they're so good they can. I was also disappointed with Korra's airbending break through; it seemed like it should have been tied to some deep character development.Originally Posted by Tenzhi
I thought it kind of rushed to a lame back-to-status-quo conclusion.
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Quote:You can also set those powers for minimal effects so you just get the hazy, particle effects without the geometry.Originally Posted by PrincessDarkstar
So you spend most of your time looking like a giant tree root?
I know Ablative shatters but if you aren't getting hit then it sucks, I thought they would have learned their lesson from Granite. -
Man, I am really digging the look of the bio armor.
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Quote:As Leo points out, the orange ring is a visual indicator that something is different. Coupled that with a line in the long description of the power and Brain's objection is averted. Sure, it remains a binary difference, but far less arcane than the amount of recharge needed for perma-Domination or how they jump from 40% def to 45% is more effective than the jump from 10% to 15%Originally Posted by Leo_G
Just to point out, a casual player who just so happens to have picked up their snipe power could be moving through a mission and decides to tackle a hard spawn but notices some odd sized yellow inspirations are clogging his tray so pops them to make room and *surprise* their snipe power gets this orange ring around it ! They notice this happens on teams sometimes or when they use aim. After witnessing the phenomenon a few times, they eventually try pressing it while it's lit up...
Looking at some of my builds, it wouldn't be difficult to alternate Build Up and Aim to keep the fast snipe for more than 50% of the time. -
This has secured my decision to reroll a claws/energy brute to claws/bio when it comes around.
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Quote:I agree Local that defense carries a little less weight for a dark controller though it is still possible to build for lots of defense, significant resistance, and effectively slot your powers. It may not fit everyone's play style, but I found the mixture of high defense and powerful debuffs has makes dark/dark one very sturdy controller.Originally Posted by Local_Man
Past those things, we are getting into "Personal opinion and choice" territory rather than "everybody knows" territory. You have slotted for Defense and Resistance at the expense of various powers. That's a choice, but I prefer to be an effective controller over an invulnerable lump. Dark/Dark has tons of ToHit Debuff, so you really don't need nearly that much Defense or Resistance if you play smart. Plus you have a very powerful heal and a Regen/Recovery buff. Plus, if you control foes before they hit you . . . they can't hit you. Plus, you can use Stealth from Shadowfall (with a Stealth IO or Super Speed for full invisibility) to avoid taking aggro. Plus, debt means almost nothing in this game (other than a few badges), so it's not so bad if you faceplant once in a while. But not everyone agrees with me on that -- lots of folks like to build for Defense, so it is a viable choice.
Since I don't focus so much on Defense, I'm not a fan of using the Fighting Pool on Controllers. I prefer to have more control or even situational powers.
{snip!}
I would choose a different APP set. I picked Fire for mine because I wanted the damage, but I'm considering going for the Mace PPP.
Dark Affinity is a good starting point when building for defenses because it provides a very nice boost to defense and resistances. Jumping straight into the fighting pool may not give you great returns on your goals. To hit debuff sets provide some interesting options for defense slotting that can easily provide more benefit without giving up three power picks. For example, my dark/dark/soul controller has capped ranged, smashing, lethal, energy, and negative without investing in that pool; hover, maneuvers, and combat jumping make up the difference and provide a bit more utility for myself and the team.
As for APPs/PPPs, a lot of them can work. I considered going with Psi as well for the mez protection, but opted for Soul because of theme. This is one of the things I really like about Dark Affinity; you can stack it with a defense armor or a resistance armor and still get some viable protection. Mace or any of the other defense armors will quickly help you cap smashing/lethal and leave plenty of leeway to cap other defenses, shore up recharge, or other build goals. -
That's a lot of busy visuals. For the most part I like it, but I wonder if there will be any options to tone it down a little bit.
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Quote:Is this anything other than a huge strawman? Where are you seeing people asking for a nerf to doms (other than specific changes to Plant due to its performance for doms and controllers)? The closest thing I can even recall is maybe in blaster discussions when someone suggests playing a dom for more safety and similar damage. However, those threads are focused on buffing Blasters far more than asking for nerfs for doms. If anything I've seen the idea of nerfing melee ATs floated out far more often. Here on the dom boards, where are you seeing these call for nerfs? There have been far more threads focused on buffing sets like Ice and very few calls for nerfs (again with the exception of a few of us calling for changes to Plant).Originally Posted by Commando
I should correct some statements or suggestions made by others --
If any of the posters here thought or said I did not play Doms before IOs, they are wrong. I did. I tried Doms a very very long time ago, since I got CoV. I posted earlier when I started playing the game.
When I tried Doms, Dominators had poor damage, and outside of domination, the controls were just OK, no chance to crit like controllers had, and no secondaries to help control the situation(s). Before IOs, Controllers were my favorite ATs to play. Dominators had to wait for Domination for the damage to be good, and for the controls to be better. Dominators were among the least played ATs, if not the least. Kheldians were played more than Dominators did. Then again, Blue side always was played more than red. I just mention Kheldians because pre IOs, to me, Kheldians were just another way to play at yet another increase in difficulty level (slot starvation anyone??). Oh, VEATS, how I love you !
My first Dom to 50 was my Ice/Fire, pre IOs, and when Dominator dmg was good only when Domination was up. I loved Ice on my controllers, and I loved Fire blast. I combined them. Fiery Embrace... it could not come soon enough pre IOs. I used to feel I was excited when I got it because when it recharged for me to use, then I could more than dent something, woot !!
I won't go on with all my history on the Doms I played or tried pre IOs. I will tell you this. NO ONE I KNEW WHO PLAYED DOMS EVER WANTED ANYTHING NERFED FROM DOMINATORS BEFORE IO's EXISTED. Never was anything posted on the forums about "please nerf this or that Dom" -- That's a fact.
Players had been pleading for some love to be given to Dominators. The dmg buff was given later, wooot! When IOs came out, most Dominator players wanted to deck them out, but IOs were way too expensive relative to how poor players were back then. They wanted to IO, and the number one reason for IO'ing a Dom was, and I think still is, for perma Domination. Outside of Domination performance was meh or less then meh. Dmg was not good, and the controls were not as good, and the endurance issues were ... not a good combo.
When do I start seeing some players ask for a nerf to this or that from Dominators ? AFTER IOs. After you see many Dominators rolling around decked out.
Like Arcana said earlier. The times the Devs have given attention to Dominators was to give them some love, and rightly so !!!
Want to nerf your Dom? Strip him or her from all IOs. Do it, play it, watch other players do the same, and come back and post that Dominators, any one of them, should be nerfed. No one, pre-IOs, campaigned for nerfs to Dominators. After IOs is when anyone or any group of players started thinking about nerf to Doms.
Yes, IOs make a HUGE difference to ANY AT. For example, if any player wants to nerf ss/fire Brutes, all right, very easy, strip them from the IOs. Play an ss/fire Brute with no IOs, then come back and tell me you still feel they should be nerfed. Strip ANY brute of all IOs, and then come back and talk about how different it is. The reason Brutes and MMs were the most popular BY FAR ATs to play when CoV came out?? Yep, they sucked the least to solo with or play in general in solo mode as well as team. MMs were the easiest to solo play.
Stop asking for any nerfs to Dominators. A huge chunk of the reason Dominators can perform really well is because of IOs and incarnates. Before IOs, Dominators had to be buffed, like the Devs did, so their decent damage was done even outside of domination.
I still think Dominators are among the least played ATs in the game. If they ever grew to a much larger pool of players, it was, in a significant proportion, thanks to IOs.
Can you point to any recent thread where the idea of nerfing doms as a whole or nerfing perma-domination is discussed for more than a single post? -
Some mobs are virtually immune to immobilize (warwolves, for instance). Run across one of those mobs and they'll pretty much ignore DS.
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Quote:Enemies have no protection from phase (with few exceptions, mostly trial AVs) so DS will affect all enemies regardless of rank. At the time of my lasting fiddling with DS that included GMs.Originally Posted by saviour123
Hi again,
I did also wonder how this works with Bosses? I notice that it has a 10mag Imobilize, but only a 3mag Intangible. So I assume a Boss would be stuck in the zone, but could fire out at you still? Does that mean if you went inside the phase, that he could not shoot you even tho he is rooted inside.... So complicated the mind boggles!
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Quote:How about no? I've advocated for nerfing Seeds of Confusion and it has absolutely nothing to do with either IOs or perma-dom. It has everything to do with the fact that the power is an outlier among all controls: longer base duration, faster recharge, and higher innate accuracy than its peers. I've promoted the idea of changing it for both controllers and dominators.Originally Posted by Commando
There is a vast performance and power difference between a fully decked out with IO dominator and one who is not. The difference between a fully decked out Dominator with IOs and one who uses SOs or generic IOs, is like a difference between two different ATs.
Why do you I state this? I have read suggestions by other posters about nerfing Seeds of Confusion for Plant Doms, or nerfing this or that for whatever Dom. STOP ! STOP it !
If you believe the call for changes to Seeds of Confusion hinges around perma-domination then you are grossly misinformed. -
Oh... I thought this was about that other mushroom story out of China.
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Quote:Pets share the phase state of their owner. If you're phased then Singularity will also be phased.Originally Posted by LAST_RONIN
PS: IDK is Singy can attack while I'm PS'd (attacking phased baddies)... I'll test it.
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A somewhat interesting question: on your deathbed will you regret the time you spent gaming?
Bonus points for a CoH avatar around 4:21 in the video. -
Quote:I agree Sam. Running smoothly is more important to me than having all the whistles and bells in a higher resolution. I can get about 25-30 fps with the 7900GS if I've turned nearly every option to its lowest setting and play in a reasonable resolution. Newer zones and large team content send me spiraling down into the teens though, but legacy content and small teams are okay if not a bit rough looking.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
Hmm... I guess that depends on what you expect out of the game. I've run a 7900GS, and this only works if I'm OK playing at 10-15 FPS in most places, around 8 in Grandville and around 1 in Atlas Park. It really wasn't until I got a GeForce 285 that I finally started seeing framerates in the 50s and 60s and I never looked back. I'd sooner have an uglier game that runs smoothly than a very pretty PowerPoint presentation masquerading as a game.
I do wish the devs would turn an eye to some hardware optimization. The game looks nice at its highest settings, but I can't help to compare it to other games with lesser requirements. I understand some of these limitations are due to how little support OpenGL receives in comparison to DirectX, but I wish there was a little tightening of the belt. -
Quote:A meme requires creativity on the part of the creator, but barely a stitch from the thousands that will propagate it endlessly. Remember "The cake is a lie"? Funny and clever in its original context, not in its endless repetition a.k.a. when it became a meme.Originally Posted by Nethergoat
Repurposing pop culture junk in a new way *is* creativity.
But like anything else, it can be done well or poorly. -
Quote:Frankly, I'd rather see the results of several test from which I can forge an opinion than the simple heresay of various players. As evidenced in this very thread, it's not difficult or uncommon for misconceptions to arise and be propagated among the community. Heck, I've heard and repeated that Entangle does more damage even with the numbers sitting right in front of me. How many of these errors float around uncorrected?Originally Posted by Local_Man
The problem I see with most testing is that you will have to either come up with (a) one test that is equally fair to the wide range if diverse sets, or (b) you will have to do a bunch of different types of tests designed to show the strength and weakness of each set without regard to playstyle or secondary. The only way to make (a) work is large-scale data mining. So your only choice is (b), and then the problem is how do you analyze the results of diverse tests compared to actual game play?
The third way is pretty much what I did . . . rank the sets based upon the opinions of players who are experienced with the sets. While individual opinions may vary, when you combine a large enough sample of opinions, that can be a pretty good measure of real game performance.
With a multi-aspect test we can, at the very least, allow others to draw their own conclusions rather than supply them with preconceived notions. -
Quote:Huh. I'm running a 7900 GS too, but I've got things cracked way down. I only play in 1280 x 768. Turning on water effects was an absolute frame rate killer. Even with minimum graphic setting certain things, like the Dream Doctor's little dimension before the Magisterium trial, grind my frame rate to the teens.Originally Posted by Healix
I have an old putersaurus that still has an agp card. (Nvidia 7900GS.) My res is 1680 X 1050. I play in windowed mode. I have water set at medium, and it is beautiful. All in all my game looks awesome, considering the age of my old tower-of-power. Here is the mansion from Night Ward.
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Quote:First, I need to correct myself a bit. Entangle does not receive bonus damage, something I often forget.Originally Posted by Reppu
You do need to take in account Arcanatime for any of this. It's not hard to toggle on. But, you're right in that regard. Dark's are a bit faster than many. This is what I get for posting that on little to no sleep.
Either way, their DPAs (Arcanatime in mind) are not very impressive regardless, and Dark has no other secondary blast. As I said in the past on Haunt, it's simply "making up" for Dark's lack of a Personal Blast that a few other Control Primaries have. Which is why I strongly say it is NOT as deceptively high ST as people may think due to having MOAR PETS.
In the end, I also disagree that the cone-based AoE makes it any better AoE than any other primary. The cone itself does do fairly better damage than many of the AoE Immos, but it's still prone to Cone Targeting Shenanigans. A bit better built-in AoE, but definitely no where near Plant or Fire.
Moving on... As Arcanatime will affect all those activations in the same manner, it won't make a difference in their ranking. That is, however, just a ranking of the activations and not their actual DPA. A ranking of DPA for holds and immobilizes would secure Ring of Fire at the top and possibly bump Strangler up a notch among the holds, but mostly the list would remain untouched. Both Shadowy Binds and Dark Grasp sit close to the average for control sets which is probably not impressive in some people's eyes.
A more inclusive listing of controller attacks would prop up Gravity, Mind, and Illusion. I suspect, however, that would still leave Dark fairly well in the middle, at least ahead of Earth, Ice, Electric, and Plant before any pets come into account.
I agree that Living Shadows is difficult to quantify. Again playstyle and secondary become factors here. If one prefers a ranged playstyle they are likely to hit the target cap for Living Shadows; a melee preference favors the traditional immobilizes. It's also worth noting that Living Shadow has a smaller area (1884 sq. feet) compared to an immobilize with a 30 feet radius (2826 sq feet). As I prefer range, this hasn't been an issue for me yet.