BellaStrega

Forum Cartel
  • Posts

    2397
  • Joined

  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Stunrunner View Post
    All the rest of your information is on point, but I disagree with this one. True, it is easy to bounce back in and get another weapon, but it does you no good. At that point, you only have skills in one weapon anyway, and you don't get more points until you hit the Kingsmouth Sheriff's office.
    You have two skill points and two APs, which you can spend on the second weapon.

    If you get the initiate pack, you can get some blue weapons from the online store as soon as you reach the first mission hub as well, so it really only helps with the zombies on the road. Still, there is no reason not to do it.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by BlackSun17 View Post
    Purchased and downloaded it today - will be logging into it after my exam on Tuesday.

    Any info / advice I should know before I start playing?
    After you choose your first weapon, exit the training area and re-enter, and then pick up a second weapon. You can have two weapons and use the active skills from both. One effect this has is you can use one builder followed by two finishers.

    You can buy more clothing in London - someone gave very good instructions upthread. The bank is also right next to Pangea, and that's where you handle mail, storage, and auctions.

    This is a pretty thorough crafting guide. You don't need to craft anything, but sometimes it's really nice to be able to make exactly what you need.
  3. City of the Sun God is nowhere near as bad as Faultline. Of course, I did find myself setting waypoints along routes so I knew I was going in the right direction. Even so, getting around hasn't been too bad. There's always a path, it just sometimes takes a bit of work to find it.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Forbin_Project View Post
    I don't know. I just bought it but I didn't get the combat pet or the ingame t-shirt as far as I can tell.
    I believe that these were preorder bonuses, as I don't have those benefits either.
  5. If there is a discount, it's ~10%.

    Here's what the membership levels get you:

    The basic game


    • 3 Character slots
    • Access to beta weekends
    • early access to the game
    • Name reservation
    • xp boost
    • In-game t-shirt
    • Combat pet
    Initiate Pack

    • Factional clothing
    • Weaponry
    • a non combat pet
    The Master Pack


    • 30 days of game time
    • an additional character slot
    • 1 name reservation
    • high end beginner items (7)
    • Experience boosting potions
    • 10% lifetime discount on full priced items from the clothing store
    The Grand Master Pack


    • Contents of Master Pack
    • Lifetime Sub
    • Exclusive Snake-skin Jacket
    So you get the snakeskin outfit - not just a jacket.

    This is the male snakeskin outfit:

    http://www.mmorpg.com/photo/d4557efe...0-f3ad36b18e5e

    And the female snakeskin outfit:

    http://www.mmorpg.com/photo/9af6f668...2-1d3670d1c9ef

    It's decent enough, but I mostly wear stuff that I bought at Pangea and one reward for unlocking blood magic's inner tier. Before I fully understood how the wardrobe worked, I put on the snakeskin outfit but could not figure out how to take it back off for a day or so. It was okay, but I liked what I had more. I also spent a lot of time wearing the initiate jacket.

    I've had far more use out of the starter weaponry and talismans, which are not lifetime perks.

    The big perk for me is, however, being able to play whenever I want without having to worry about sub fees. Which isn't a perk so much as the point of a lifetime sub, but you know.
  6. Lifetime subs get four slots.
  7. So, regarding Marcian wanting to know why someone would want to use resources that build up on your target instead of you:

    Right now I have a build with single target and chains+AoE. It's not really super powerful, but the premise works fairly well against clusters of weak enemies:

    I use Open Vein (blood resource builder, chain) which builds up blood resources for myself and puts assault rifle resources on every target I hit. I use it from 3-5 times (the more the better), use Infection, which is another blood chain, which - in addition to doing damage, also causes an inflicted (DoT) state on everything it hits. Then I use High Explosive Grenade, which does more damage with more AR resources on any target it hits. In addition, it does extra damage on afflicted targets. The numbers in my ability screen say 233 damage, 280 if the target is afflicted - but that is what you get from a single AR resource. With five it's more like 450-700 or so, with additional damage (not sure how much) on inflicted targets. Also, after four seconds you can tab and grenade again because the next target will have AR resources as well, and so on.

    For single target, I use Anima Shot x 5, followed by Transfuse Anima, and if it is available, Red Haze. Red Haze always does ~1k damage. Transfuse Anima with five AR resources on the target hits for about 700-1300, depending on penetration, criticals, etc. If you're fighting one target, that it puts resources on that one target isn't a big deal - you get the benefits if you want to make use of them.

    I am not going to say this is an uber amazing build, I'm mostly experimenting with various things to see how well they work out, and most combat is easy enough that I'm not in any real danger, and the fact that all of my single-target attacks heal me means I end most fights at full health.
  8. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lord_Nightblade View Post
    So I ended up going with Twilight-Blade. He's an Illuminati, but I don't really consider him my main. That would be Lithium-Lotus, even though I screwed up her build and haven't been playing her as much lately.
    You can always branch out into other weapon trees.

    What do you mean by screwed up her build? I didn't like my pistols/blood build so I went back and filled out the assault rifle tree instead, which has worked significantly better.
  9. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Snow Globe View Post
    Door missions are mostly solo instances (with a few exceptions). The dungeons are team-oriented. The rest of the missions can be taken/shared among the team. Most missions are outdoorish and lead to the next mission and so on.

    The door missions like CoH seem to be closest to the dungeons (possibly Lairs, but I haven't tried those).

    Note that almost all missions can be repeated by a single character (seems Investigation missions and the main story can't though).
    Also, some outdoor missions allow multiple people in the area to progress without being teamed. For example, last night I was in an underground chamber with two other people, and all three of us needed to take out a particular spirit thing. None of us were in a team, but we all completed the objective in a single fight.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slaunyeh View Post
    My fingers remember that better than my brain does. I think you toggle it on by holding shift-ctrl, then release ctrl first. I think that's the right order, but I'd have to be in-game to be sure.

    Then, when you use a GTAoE power while having an offensive target, it will place the AoE directly under their feet (or give you an out-of-range error if you're too far away). It has made a tremendous difference for me.

    Just be aware that it can toggle off on it's own at random. I've had it persist through area transitions, death, and even different game sessions, but sometimes it has just turned itself off just as I need it.
    I have a lot of practice at kiting while placing GTAoEs, but I find often that the click doesn't register, or it's too easy to mouse over a part of the UI and cause it to not register in an explicable fashion. Doing it that way sounds much better.

    As far as outfits go: I'm aiming for the Pandemonist on my Dragon, at least at first. And since I am very close to done on it, the Assassin as well. I just need four more skills, and since I am at the point where the game is inundating me in APs, it shouldn't take long.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Slaunyeh View Post
    I switched to blood/pistols a while back, and have enjoyed eeking out as much functionality as possible, from them. Granted, it could probably work just as well, or better, with assault rifle or shotgun, but I wanted to use pistols dangit. Seems to work nicely so far.

    Especially when you figure out how to turn ground-target AoEs into targeted AoEs.
    How do you turn ground-target AoEs into targeted AoEs?

    Quote:
    I think it's more an issue that, this boss is probably the first instance where you have a really tough fight on your hands, and a lot of builds that have been cruising along so far, really have to stop and actually look at what they are doing.

    There are a number of instances in the game, that kind of forces you to actually study your builds, and that guy is probably the first such fight. While I'm not a big fan of the solo-instance concept, they can force you to re-evaluate the quality of your build. Which can be healthy (or frustrating, depending on your mindset).

    Unless you just happen to accidentally stumble on a build that breezes through everything.
    That fight isn't really very hard, and I think it's more about where you are relative to the boss at particular times than anything else. I don't see what would make shotgun and elementalism less viable.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Voidstalker View Post
    I must say I've hardly touched my rifle. Mostly using Blood Magic because it fits the character theme I'm going for, but I want to get the necromancer deck (though I don't quite fully understand decks yet) and I saw that you needed some AR stuff for it
    How about life-stealing assault rifle attacks? Does that fit your theme?

    Quote:
    I'm still quite early on in the game, running around splatting zombies, but so far loving it. I particularly like the investigative/deductive aspect of some of the missions. Plus, luring zombies onto landmines will never get old.
    Yeah, that's one of the best missions.

    My only problem with a lot of the investigation is that many things are implied or obfuscated and I tend to think very literally, and this leads to a lot of frustration while dealing with more obscure hints.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Another_Fan View Post
    I get the feeling people here think they have some magical ability to extract performance from their characters by doing exactly the same things everyone else does.
    Now I am seriously questioning whether you've actually played the game or if you're just trying to be contrary. Or if, despite game experience, you really believe this.

    I've personally had moments where I've done things that people would probably think are highly unlikely if not mathematically impossible, such as soloing an 8-person Malta spawn on my DM/DA scrapper after the rest of the team wiped, and this was before stacking armor and end drain resists were added, so /DA was fairly weak. Again, as I mentioned earlier in the thread, my Peacebringer rarely died to void hunters or quantum gunners, and this was in 2005, when they were new and both mobs were literal kryptonite to them. And this was when people were saying on the Kheldian forum that it was impossible to get through a mission without being killed, but players came up with strategies to survive and kill the kryptonite mobs first.

    There was also that time I managed to rez myself with howling twilight.

    I am not claiming to be uniquely awesome. If anything, I consider my performance with some ATs to be about average. I remember one night I could not defeat two Malta sappers on my DM/DA (again, pre-stacking, etc) no matter how hard I tried. The next day, in the same mission, with two Malta Sappers, I was able to stun and kill them both before they sapped me. Strategy was the same, my reflexes and perception were impaired the night before due to fatigue, due to playing too long, and due to sensory issues because of playing too long. I made a point of Malta hunting, something which was not actually all that difficult even with two sapper spawns and ridiculously long mezzing. I knew other people who simply refused to solo against Malta with characters who were better suited for it than mine was. Or at least people who would just die over and over again because they didn't know how to deal with the problems that Malta presented. Or, yes, because their characters lacked tools that would make the whole thing fairly easy.

    But you're making decisions every moment when playing that impact your success or failure. These decisions can be based on any number of factors, and can dramatically impact how well you perform. You can tell the difference between a good and a mediocre Fire/Kin controller pretty easily, for example. Yes, it is a powerful build, but it requires keeping track of a lot of buttons, and if you lose track of some of them it can have a rather detrimental impact on your performance.

    And that's because everyone does not do the same thing when they play. They do a lot of similar things, but some people have faster reaction time, perceive potential problems more quickly and thus before they become actual problems, are able to manage situations so they remain under control. Others do not. Everyone isn't performing on the same level if all else is equal.
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay View Post
    It's one of the only choices in the game that's permanent, and yes, you do.

    It's funny, these three factions seem more personality-accurate than any other MMO I've ever played. That is to say, when I find people that are Templars, I expect them to be driven and sure-footed. When I find Dragons, they are open-minded and often neutral. Illuminati players tend to be effective and ambitious.

    Before the game launched, there was a personality quiz that was very thorough in guiding you to the right faction. As a result, everyone that pre-ordered is someone you can sort by their personality. I can be talking to someone and just be like "Oh, you immediately took lead of the party. Nice to meet you, Templar."

    I love it.
    That test can be found here.

    And it tells me that Dragon fits me best.

    And this was the most visually entertaining personality test I've ever taken.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Voidstalker View Post
    I just started up on Arcadia server. Running an Illuminatus called MrFlax, with Blood Magic and Assault Rifle. There are a few glitches and bugs, but so far really enjoying it.
    Assault Rifle has the potential to be dangerously cheesy.

    It has good AoE, but against single targets it can be really good. Leech is hax.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay View Post
    But we DID plan for that! :P

    Nah, the Dragons can take losing on the chin. In fact, losing is information. When something unexpected happens, that helps us to add more nuance to "The Model", our master program that, theoretically, contains all known information on the elements within the world. If something went perfectly to plan, we'd be done and bored with it.

    Once in a great while, however, we do, in fact, plan to intense degrees. It's entertaining and power-feeling, but it's not always the norm.

    I could give examples, but they're some of my favorite moments of the game.
    I think the Dragon version of the Rogue Agent mission as well as the conclusion of the Dawning of an Endless Night arc make it clear that the Dragons don't always plan for everything. I like how in the Rogue Agent mission, your handler goes from "We arranged all of this in advance, and it is going according to plan" to "everything has changed, we have to revise all of the models."

    Speaking of, I also dig the whole premise behind the Dragon version of the rank 10 special assignment (London Underground). Not the most exciting mission, but amusing.

    Two of my four characters are Dragons. One each of the other two.
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay View Post
    Shotgun's secondary abilities have a lot to do with buffing your group, like the Leadership pool here.

    And melee weapons build resources on YOU, so if you hit someone 5 times and kill them, you have those 5 resources to use on someone else. With ranged weapons, you build 5 resources on an enemy, so if that enemy dies, the unused Resources die with them. While it's true you can equip a skill or two that makes use of them at the last moment, I don't find that satisfying.

    My question, to remove the slang, was my asking how people find Shotgun a satisfying experience.
    Pistols and assault rifle also work like this (I have a character with both of those skills - although she's using AR/Blood at the moment - also, I wish the Chronicle would update more reliably). I honestly have not found the way firearms resources work to be a problem and I just got to the City of the Sun God. The problem I did run into with pistols was more that I couldn't make them work well with blood, which is why I switched to AR, and I'll be purchasing Elementalism next. The thing about firearms resource spenders is that most of them just spend "all of the resources" on your current target. So, every other shot can be a spender. And as Slaunyeh pointed out, AoE builds up resources on every target hit.

    Now, I wonder what about the boss in the amusement park makes elementalism and shotgun combined so terrible? If I could beat him with my rather weak pistols/blood build at the time, I am not sure what would make him intolerable to fight.
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Hopeling View Post
    I don't think anyone can honestly claim that IOs, Incarnate powers, and various other buffs and general power creep haven't raised high-end performance dramatically as well. Whether the gap between low and high has gotten wider or narrower... well, I'd say wider, but that's hard to actually measure. Still, when some characters/players struggle at very low difficulties and others can thrive at maximum difficulty (in a game where the difference between minimum and maximum difficulty is very wide), it's pretty clear that the gap has at least not narrowed excessively.
    Thank you.
  18. You can choose any two sets you want. No restrictions.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Another_Fan View Post
    Do you have any examples ?

    In ours it seemed the devs recently were trying to obfuscate what would constitute a good build.
    Examples such as WoW's early years, City of Heroes' original design, Champions Online after the day one patch, Star Wars: The Old Republic as it exists now - in this case, you can make choices for some characters at 10th level that will lock those characters out of endgame raiding, or at least make them extremely subpar for that purpose, or force a specific spec that may not fit your intended role (tanking or healing instead of DPS being a common one).

    Quote:
    I am an electronics engineer by training.
    You're arguing a theoretical position with little more than circumstantial data.

    Quote:
    I see endless streams of accidental master runs these days ( I have the habit of always setting challenges when possible). Matter of fact ever since inherent fitness I have seen a marked rise in low end performance.
    A marked rise in low end performance is not a bad thing. This doesn't mean that everyone can reach high end performance with little effort.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marcian Tobay View Post
    I cannot recommend this game hard enough.

    Going to see if I can influence the forum managers over there to make forums more friendly to the likes of us.
    As I asked in PM, what does this mean?
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mad Grim View Post
    Laptop.
    Damn, it sounds like you have some profound weirdness going on. Sorry.
  22. What kind of video card do you have?
  23. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tenzhi View Post
    Yes, I'm also familiar with katar, nekote, various instances of fighting claws in video games and classic kung fu movies, and esoteric fantasy weapons in a similar vein such as thikes. As bladed weapons which are held by the hand, I largely consider them no more a "fist weapon" than a dagger, really.
    Coming back to this: I gave chaos magic a go and I have to say it really does seem pretty punchy and a lot of fun. At least it does in the starting area.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mad Grim View Post
    I just have white text on a background. No scroll bars or actual buttons. Updating my video card to the latest version, hoping that will fix it.
    Yeah, that sounds way off. Hope the upgrade works.