MY SOd Dark Blast/Energy Manipulation just hit 47 today.
Breakdown:
- Pre-SOs was a bear, using Gloom/Bone Smasher and a few other attacks did ine but the lack of AoE was tedious.
- Tenebrous Tentacles opened things up considerably. Lining up mobs then hitting Build-Up + TT, cleaning up with a few blasts and Bone Smasher was a net improvement.
- Not a lot of death/debt accumulation until late 30/mid 40 levels. Doing Maxwell Christopher's arc has been interesting. The Jaeger burn patches have ended me more than anything, even using superspeed to evade them.
- Boost Range has been super awesome with a little chocolate sauce and marshmallows. It has allowed me to pull apart tight groups, finish them with some melee and short blasts, as well as using the heal to finish off foes and top off my health.
- Status effects a lot more prevalent now, so bringing a few Break Free inspirations. Sometimes get the "chain of doom" where I get KBd, then something stuns me and I need to insp pop in a hurry and find a safe spot to recover.
- Damage output is great. Most bosses I fight are +0 to +2 and die fairly quickly. Minions and LTs are a non-issue for the most part. Now, groups of multiple bosses are tricker but still feasible with nice pulls.
So far, the Dark/EM is doing great. I do wonder how much less survivable I would be with a "ZOMG AGGRO ALL!!!!!" secondary like /Fire, for example...but /EM being chosen for zone/occasional Arena has given some nice survival and utility tools...
Also, to be fair to the project I do have Task Force Commander, Freedom Phalanx Reserve and Atlas Medallion for extra health.
Questions about the game, either side? /t @Neuronia or @Neuronium, with your queries!
168760: A Death in the Gish. 3 missions, 1-14. Easy to solo.
Infinity Villains
Champion, Pinnacle, Virtue Heroes
Picked up the Staff/Invuln scrapper. Mostly teamed from level 26 to 31. Mega-disaster Posi part 1 to end a night. This will forever haunt my debt stats.
Ran Moonfire. Solid run, balanced team, I had a death or two when we split up, we split up a lot without death though. Dinged 27 at the end of the TF.
Picked up and slotted Innocuous Strikes (1 Acc, 2 Dam). Ran Sister Psyche. Hey look, endurance issues! Now I have a good number of attacks and even with Form of the Soul blue bar go down (it doesn't help that Freaks drain end). I guess I'll have to look into slotting some end reductions. Hit level 29 on the 2nd to last mission, yay Invincibility. This TF was set at +2, so we fought a good number of purple bosses, very smooth run.
Started the midnighter arc with a level 1 in tow, set to +1 / x4. Rikti are harder for an Invuln than other enemies. With my inspire drops greatly reduced and a lowbie who was little help, I had a lot of trouble. There were a few deaths and eventually the lowbie bailed. At that point it became somewhat easier. I was still challenged, but now I had enough resources to handle it. Hit level 30 and picked up Resist Elements.
At this point I decided to finally start crafting those common IOs. Part way through crafting I saw a Posi 1 being formed and that is the last of the lower TFs I needed. I joined. Some high level members on the team were not really adept at figuring out how to function EXd. Still, we were doing OK as a team. On the 2nd to last mission the leader DCd and the star passed to someone who was set to +4. Level 19 CoT. And it was 1:30 AM my time.
Reset. Everyone please log out and stay logged out for at least a minute. Apparently we couldn't figure how to accomplish this feat of engineering. We couldn't get the mission to reset. So let's try it anyway. Those same people who couldn't figure out how to handle EXing, were not better at it here. They kept charging spawns alone. But slowly and with lots of death we rescue the heroes, then team wipe on the 2nd wave of ambushers. It is 2 AM, so tired.
After 15 minutes of dealing with the ambush and dozens of inspires and one guy who was using team inspires for us (bless his craziness and skill) we finished the ambushes, but the next objective did not trigger. Started killing, after another 20 minutes and dozens of inspires and lots more death, finally we can beat Tarses. Move into City Hall; Bam! Giant ghost ambush right inside door. Team wipe. After 6 minutes cycling back and forth from Ouro and dozens more inspires we kill that ambush. By this time, there are people not really playing much.
Couldn't get Tarses, some people quit. TF is called. I have decided I am going to wait until everyone quits, reset and finish it on my own. I am in Steel crafting. Apparently Tarses gets killed by someone who has stealthed to the end and is all like, "hey, only these shadow bosses left, we can do it." There are 4 of us and 7 bosses. The bosses are inexplicably level 20. +5s. Before we are ready one of our people who still thinks they are level 50 charge. They die in 1.2 seconds. Drop inspires, 80%+ defense, in 2 seconds debuffed to 20%, 2 more seconds, one last team wipe. They all finally give up. I go back to crafting. Eventually they all log. I log out and wait 1 minute. Log-in, mish is reset, (my diff is set to 0 / x1), finish TF. 3 hours 9 minutes 46 seconds. Posi part 1.
And at some point, still during the nightmare, I dinged level 31.
After a good night's rest and some housework, I log into the Unyielding badge (yay for working off debt while logged out). I finish the little bit of crafting I had left. Fully level 30 common IOd. 4 of my 5 attacks have 1 end reduction. All five have 1 Acc, 3 Dam. No end reduction slotted in any of my toggles, just resist or defense as appropriate (Dull Pain has 3 recharge).
Ran a Citadel. Great team. Moshed the enemies. End use much, much better. I will have to get my explore and history badges, the Moonfire got me the defeat badges I needed so I can get the Atlas Medallion. Close to level 32, but didn't quite make it (I forgot to click my "give me patrol XP" button or else I'd be 32).
These stats are from before Citadel, Level 31, 1 bubble in.
Damage taken - 234,022
Debt - 112,160
Inf - 977,568
Mez - 154
Why Blasters? Empathy Sucks.
So, you want to be Mental?
What the hell? Let's buff defenders.
Tactics are for those who do not have a big enough hammer. Wisdom is knowing how big your hammer is.
Just had a brief period of time that was officially Very Different- one mission each on "nearly the same" team.
Team was one Mastermind, all blasters scrappers and brutes other than that. L40 mission owner.
First mission, we're up against a big batch of CoT (with my Scrapper).
Second mission, we lost a couple of players and we're up against a big batch of CoT PLUS THE ENVOY OF SHADOWS.
So three rolling teamwipes later, I embezzle a big chunk of inf from myself and start passing out large red and purple insps like they're lifejackets.
At least I got some practice in playing like it was 2004 again.
Mini-guides: Force Field Defenders, Blasters, Market Self-Defense, Frankenslotting.
So you think you're a hero, huh.
@Boltcutter in game.