Blood Spectre

I'll step up and take ownership of "25 characters isn't enoug"

Now we're cooking with yellow cake weapons grade highly enriched uranium!

And there is the heart of the matter. The Freakshow are NOT any weaker than any other faction. If you rely on a lot of Smashing/Lethal damage in your build, they die much slower than comparably leveled alternatives. This is important, I think because we have more sets that so Smashing/Lethal than any other damage type in this game, and what's more, a lot of dev hours have been spent making thos sets more attractive. From Weapon Customization, to new animations in MA and SS, the devs have worked hard to make these sets just that much cooler. So you really do have to consider what the leveling up experience is like playing that set.

I know for me, with characters in those sets, I tended to avoid Freakshow. A rezzing tank is a serious concern on the climb up. I'd go ahead and take that risk before, because the reward was worth the risk. That's no longer true, so now I will tend to avoid them if I deal smashing or lethal on a character.

And I'm not asking for a rollback. It's clear they were giving too much. But I think we've erred too far on the side of worthless.

Which is sort of my point. We shouldn't lose that message behind a lot of quibbling over numbers entirely unrelated to the debate. If we can all agree that, woops, we bonked the nerf bat down too hard this time, then a more balanced interpretation is far more likely to pop up than it is if we get sidetracked on what the sub numbers are.

Accurate information can still be absurd. I just think it's silly to get worked up over the sub numbers. We're all still here playing the same game we ever were. Like Goat said, as long as the doors are open, it will take a lot more serious nerf than this to drive us out.

Oh for christ's sake, what kind of arrogant position is that to take? Let's see if I follow. I know what a purple is, have identified what steps I need to take to aquire them, and don't mind doing those steps when I want one. I am therefor some kind of twitching, number crunching spaz who's game play experience is totally irregular (read, inferior) to that of the mythical "average" player. That about sum it up Prof?

inorite! it took me for gawdamned ever!

I thought it might be fun to toss my evil farmers perspective on these mobs in, just in the interest of having a complete point of view, especially since Yuri was nice enought to list them all.

I like The Lost, especially at low level. They spawn a lot of bosses, even on low difficulty settings, and have an iconic distinctive look. I seek them out on characters with early Status protection, and avoid them on squishies, except for Dominators, who can use Dominatiom to break Mez effects. Number 1 reason I would avoid this faction is if my character has no mez protection other than Break Frees. Number 2 reason is that Lost like Caves, and I don't. Number one reason I would seek them out, high boss concentration makes them a fun challenge for characters that dont get mezzed every time one of them sneezes.

Rikti on the other hand are different. They dont tend to hang out in those annoying winding caves I hate so much, which is a huge plus. Also, by this level I have knockaround effects under control. Almost all of my characters enjoy fighting Rikti, which makes the RWZ one of my favorite zones. Plus, Vanguard Merits make my evil farming heart scream for joy, doubling up my potential rewards. Number 1 reason I would avoid Rikti is if I am playing a Stalker. Damn drones. If I wanted to be detected by every mob I'd play a Scrapper and cut my health in half! Number 1 reason I would seek out missions with Rikti is that they are awesome.

I don't really mind The Tsoo. I know lots of people hate them, but they're cool! Mystic tatoo ninjas with real ancient sorcery in their hands. Yes the Sorcerers were annoying, until I got my Nemesis Staff that is! Now I just back up and brain them, then finish them as they're sprawled across the floor. Easy Peasey! Plus, they drop Arcane Salvage! Their slows are a bother, but everyone has to have some tricks they can do, and these really aren't any worse than anything else. Even so, I tend to avoid them more than my praise of them would indicate. Why? Tsoo love caves, and Blood Spectre hates caves. It's a Shakespearean tragedy all right. Number 1 reason I would avoid this faction; the caves. Eph Yew Caves! Number 1 reason I would seek this faction out; Darrin Wade. His missions are awesome, even though they're infested with bosses and Tsoo. But only the good Caves!

I hate these guys. Not to put too fine a point on it, but they're dull as dirt, no pun intended. Every encounter it's the same damn thing, kill the boof pet, swing away at the big dumb rocks until they die. Everything looks the same, and most times after I get a kill I have to deal with 2 or 3 little senseless pissants that slow me down but give *** rewards. Number 1 reason to avoid this faction; BOOOOOOOORING. Number 1 reason to seek them out; uh... I got nothing. Sorry, I'm not the big fan of Vernon Von Grun that everyone else seems to be. Well, I guess the Devoured are kind of cool looking. Or maybe they just seem that way next to how dull everything else in that faction is.

I love these guys! Wish there were more of them redside, but it's still just the one mission from Diviner Maros, plus Bloody Bay and Potter's Field for them. Maybe I only love them because they're underexposed. Number 1 reason to avoid them; I outleveled Maros without thinking about it. Number 1 reason to seek them out; awesomeness.

Oy, these guys. I love their background, I really do. And they look awesome. Except for the little Behemoths. Those look stupid. Anyway, these guys are more trouble than they are worth all the way through the game, until level 40, when all of a sudden they become weak sauce nerds for the herding. Number One reason I'd avoid these guys, I'm level 39 or lower. Also Caves. Number One reason I would seek them out, I'm level 40 or higher.

I was pretty excited when they added these guys to the redside paper missions, but I'm over it now. They're just really boring. They shoot you with a bow. Sometimes. Then they run up and wait for their slow charging smashing or lethal damage to land. They can hit kind of hard, but they are just so dull to fight. You know, now that I think about it, they're not much different than Maniac Slammers. Number One reason I'd avoid these guys; boredom. Number One reason I'd seek them out; self loathing maybe?

Big fan of the 300 knock offs. They have their own strengths, excellent mez protection and stacking defence buffs that can make them challenging. I love them though because they are one of the only factions that will actually melee with me at high level. Number One reason I'd seek these guys out, I'm playing a Brute. Number One reason I'd avoid them, I'm playing a Dominator without any Confuse abilities.

The baseline of all factions I think. A nice mix of melee and ranged mobs, lots of variety in powers, nothing too over the top, nothing too weak. Also, back when I cared about badges, they give out a couple of good ones. Number One reason I would avoid this faction; gawdamned Marskmen. Number One reason I would seek them out, Council Bases are slightly less annoying to navigate than caves.

Boring, boring, boring. And the Paragon Protectors dont spawn often enough. On the other hand, do they all need a tier 9 power? I actually enjoy Crey in the pre 40 range a lot more, when they have a nice variety of minions in the spawns, rather than just having everything be a cryo tank of a voltaic tank. 4 layer maps with only 2 enemy models is bad design geniuses. Number One reason to avoid these guys; tedium after level 40. Number One reason to seek them out; some day I'll unlock Viridian. Some day.


Ah the much maligned Longbow. Bane of dedicated villains everywhere. The complaints against the candy stripers are numerous, and I wont repeat them here. I'll just say that I actually like fighting them. A pro active army of heroes with a superiority complex is quite satisfying to bring ruin too. Here's the big design flaw in the faction though. Outside of a few Warden builds, there is no dedicated melee specialist in the faction. Which means every fight against Longbow consists of them backing up, shooting/ lobbing grenades, and you chasing them down. That gets tedious in a rush, and combined with their over exposure as a faction, I think leads to players getting frustrated with them. Number One reason to seek out Longbow from my perspective (aside from the fact that they are all but unavoidable in redside content), I'm playing a natural character between level 22 and 46 and could use some free SOs. Number One reason to avoid them; sick of looking at them.


Yeah Longbow and Arachnos are the keystones of villain content really. There's no way to avoid fighting a lot of these guys throughout your career. Which doesnt bother me much, except between levels 16-19 when endurance issues are reaching critical mass, and the mutherephing Mu are everywhere in Arachnos missions. Arachnos at least has a wide variety of tactics they use against you. Exotic damage types, stealth, end drain, highly durable mobs, ect. They're a decent challenge that doesn't really bother me, but because they're so omni present, I dont feel a great need to seek them out either. Number One reason to avoid this faction, overexposure to them. Number One reason to seek them out, free SOs at the levels you might want them.

It does kick some ***. You should see the full version

I assure you, it has not been fixed. Nor, I suspect, will it ever be.

Not because this Dev team has done anything to lower my expectations mind you. Far from it.

I'm just an eternal pessimist.

baddum-chish

When I am doing newspapers, I tend to want them over as fast as possible, so I can get a contact, get an ispiration source in the zone, and get into some content that is worth merits. So speed is an issue.

And also, like I said, many of my favorite arcs feature a large number of Tanks, even solo.

very little. but I needed to say it and it clearly couldnt be said to her.