Canine

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Have we already missed the Freaklympics? I've only ever done that arc once and found it a lot of fun.

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Yes, we missed them. It's 25-30.

Still, I may be persuaded to run a Flashback version at some point, if there's enough interest...

Unfortunately, due to doing zone arcs, we've missed a lot of what I consider is the charm on CoH, which is the 'story' arcs, where you pick up a lot of the history and background to the various groups in Paragon, like the Warriors, Tsoo, Clockwork, etc.

Next Blueside toon I take through, I'm ignoring Faultline, Striga, Croatoa, Midnighters and the RWZ entirely. I personally *like* the old arcs. Yes, they're long, and the writing is a little ropey in places, but a) it's what I played when I started 41 months ago, so there's some minor nostalgia, and b) their length, especially in the late game makes it feel like you *are* actually investigating and picking up the pieces of the puzzle as you go, unlike CoV and later arcs, which are shorter, but you're being told explicitly what to do, and to me feel like you're acting as a drone.

Hurrah, Watchwoman.

Unfortunately, the invasion in Talos I got the Heavies from was a big 'un. So I'm now about 650xp from level 34. And that was after going into the invasions debtcapped...

By the way, for those wondering about the rules for Rikti invasions, and how and when Heavy Assault Suits 'port in, there's a post from the Dark Watcher here that explains a lot.

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Those rikti invasions slowed us down last night.

There good for the badge (which i got ) but not amazing xp. Plus for us stormers we kept lagging the group.

Yes it was my fault we were major lagging with my creeper vine attack, it dosen't help that my char only has AoE attacks apart from the temp rune we got 2 weeks ago for Croatoa

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I wouldn't worry about it too much. Freezing Rain/Spectral Terror/Steamy Mist/Phantasm (and friend)/Phantom Army/Flash/Thunderclap won't have been helping the situation much from Aerial, and the lag was much reduced in Galaxy anyway.

I'm going to take Aerial out Heavy Hunting with a debt cap on before the event ends, personally. Mainly because I get the Heavies and that's the accolade.

Progress report.

My lot are two mission off finishing Buck Salinger.

We'd probably be done, except for the break to bash Rikti, which happened when we were 3.4 of the way through the rescue hostages mission, and by the time we got back, it had reset.

Got the Talos Safeguard done, too. And got Bomb Specialist and 'Smash 100 invading Rikti' badges. Just need Heavies now for the accolade.

As far as level goes, Aerial's 33.77ish. Don't know about the other teams, but I think most of my team got to 32 at the very least.

I'm going to pick up another Talos SG for next Monday, so if you missed out on either the temp or badge from it this week, there'll be another chance.

This Sunday, a TF or trial. Possibly Respec 1, if not, it'll be Moonfire.

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EM is still good on stalkers but SR sucks, so just go em/wp or em/regen

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So, just how exactly does SR 'suck'?

Are you talking about PvP only? PvE? Mixed PvP/PvE?

SR does NOT 'suck' in PvE. PvP? Well, since I couldn't care a pile of foetid dingos kidneys about PvP, then I have no right to comment on it.

This sort of generalisation gets right on my pectorals. If you're in the game for PvE, then take whatever damn combination of powersets you want to for character concept reasons or even just 'ooh, that looks shiny' reasons. All of them will work. Some will work better than others, and some will require some serious dedication (and possibly mild insanity) on the players behalf to make them work.

Received wisdom in this game is very rarely right.

(BTW, I've got my DM/SR Stalker to 48, heading on 49 and have the grand total of one debt badge. I really REALLY don't consider SR to 'suck' in PvE gameplay.)

<end minor rant>

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Abysal I swear your giving me funny looks again mate.

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Why do you think I picked that particular screenshot? :P

Task Force Charade

No GM this week, mainly because there isn't one on Striga. Boo.

Moonfire next week, and by the week after, people should be into the range to exemp down to Respec #1.

Sunday evening reminder time. Tomorrow evening, 7pm, Croatoa University Courtyard.

There's Buck Salinger's arc to do, the Talos Safeguard, and any Rikti invasions that occur to be repulsed with extreme prejudice.

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Maybe the Hess TF (25-30) is a better choice for this weekend, Canine?

---

My team all ended up lvl 30-31, I believe, aside from our sidekick Repentant. We finished Skipper and are up to Nemmer's final mission, the Eternal (Crab) Battle.

The meeting point for next week will be Croatoa university courtyard. That probably won't take all night, so we may need other things to occupy us. Ouroboros intro arc perhaps?

If we finish Croatoa before lvl 35 (and more new contents), perhaps the respec trial will be on the cards for the week after?

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And I could have sworn I'd posted a reply mentioning all that.

Appears not to have taken.

Buck Salinger's arc can take a while. There are a few nasty missions in there.

Regarding Sunday. I realised after posting that the respec's 24-33, so some xp would be gained, so in the post that vanished I mentioned the options of either Moonfire to get people who are missing them Silver Bullet and Slayer, as well as the badge and recipe, or Hess.

We'll see how many people there are on Sunday.

Progress report.

Striga finished.

Kelly Nemmers arc done.

Most of my lot ended up somewhere about the lvl 31 area, apart from Majikman, who was being SK'd.

Aerial got to 32 and got the Idiot Lobotomised Knockback Happy Blaster Pet. A fact I'm not yet sure whether I'm happy about or not :P

A little slow starting, and my brain wasn't firing on all cylinders last night either, but still not a bad night.

This Sunday, Respec 1. Gather in IP for 7pm

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Canine, I think we had this discussion if it is for the power I imagine:
Nuke that leaves endo bar intact and recharge as fast as that, isn't the best of the game.
If you don't believe me, then just imagine why devs made it that way and you will remember what type of damage it does...

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It does a bucketload of lethal damage. (which frankly, is not a handicap)

It can be fired every 30 seconds.

It can be fired *without* you being stood in the midst of the enemies you're perforating, and come to that, it can be fired without you having direct line of sight to the target point.

It can be immediately followed up (without having to pop a blue pill) by Explosive arrow and Fistful of arrows, all of which are fired from range, once you get LoS to a target, assuming you fired the initial Rain from around a corner.

It doesn't root you in place while the damage is being applied, like Full Auto.

You don't stand there panting, looking for a blue pill, while the +3 Freak Tank that survived the blast rips your face off.

It's all personal opinion, but I'm not seeing any points to mitigate against it.

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The blasters get their big hitters (Piranha gets what is, IMO, the best nuke in the game).

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Not a nuke, since it doesn't kill the end bar. It is probably the best targetted AoE attack in the game tho...

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Semantics.

The only true 'nukes' if you're being picky, are the nuclear warheads from Warburg.

Blaster Tier 9 Primary Pool attacks are commonly referred to as 'Nukes', hence my use of the term :P

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It was late and I was tired

[/ QUOTE ]Stop that.. you... you copycat!
This is my slogan!

Hey ho!
1.3 level till Blizzard wootness!
(ok, a little longer if I want to slot it properly!)

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Well, the next few levels is when it becomes interesting...

Aerial gets the lobotomised Knockback blaster pet.

The blasters get their big hitters (Piranha gets what is, IMO, the best nuke in the game).

Lightning Storms start to appear, and Heat Loss means that endurance issues recede into the far distance.

And the tankers get their panic button.

And that's just at level 32....

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I am sure that it isn't February, but I'll check again my calendar just in case...
Umm...
Nope. It isn't...

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It was late and I was tired

Timestamp on the jpeg says 23:50. Probably not the best of times to be cranking up Potatoshop.

Hey ho.

Oh, and current plans for next Sunday are the first Respec. Shouldn't take too long.

Citadel done.

Task Force Platinum in all its, umm, glory.

See you loons tomorrow evening.

Oh, and we smacked Adamastor around, too, while we were in Dark Nasty

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Article by lighthouse

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<cough> Koschej </cough>

Who, annoyingly enough, like Niviene, doesn't yet show up in the US Dev/Community Tracker.

I was actually wondering about the reliability of the statement on the mission creator being in I13, myself, since there'd been absolutely zero official comment on the article, and I'd expect it if it was the case.

However... that post's not a flat out denial. I suspect they're trying to keep their powder dry until they start making their own official announcements on I13 content. Hell, we've not even had a solid teaser yet, apart from Positron's Haiku, and that's stretching 'solid' a little too far.

I'm also expecting I13 content info to be dribbled out a little at a time, as happened with I12.

Well, speaking of TF's, here's a reminder for those inclined toward the Sunday evening TF's that this week it's Citadel.

As per usual, 7pmish start.

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Saturday August 2nd, 2pm til late.

Let's go trapping!

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<em Dick Dale style double picking guitar instrumental>

Progress.

My team (I think) all got to 30, barring Majikman, who hit 20.

Gordon Bower and Skipper Legrange done and dusted. IP Safeguard temp power and badge got. Rune of warding for utterly destroying mobs stood on stacked Freezing Rain/Sleet - Check.

Not a bad night.

Aerial's sat at 30.93(ish)

This coming Sunday, it's the tedium of Citadel. Lots of Council. Lots of council.... <sigh> but it needs doing for the TF Commander accolade.

Ah well.

A good night, tonight.

And apologies to anyone on my team for whom Abyssal and I somewhat spoilered the 'Stop 30' mission in Skipper's arc. But we've done it a couple of times before

Gnight all.

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Ok echo dude, after a couple of weeks away due to my stupid job i will be there in croatoa 2nite.

Cap Snow Speed is lvl 24 and as i understand you guys are mostly 27/28??

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I think the spread is 26-29, with most people in the 27/28 region. I think I'm the only 29 atm, but I could be wrong.

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This... remember the debacle that was I7?

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For all the concern Destiny Manifest was Villain content heavy and the troubles with Grandville and Recluses Victory when they were new, I have to say I still maintain Issue 7 was somewhat underated as far as how much effort the Devs put into it, I mean lets not forget this was the issue all our mid-range slightly blurry textures were replaced with beautiful crisp High-res ones!. Fair bit of work that.

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I have no bones with the effort involved in I7. it had all the 40-50 villain content, patrons, etc. etc. etc.

What still makes me twitchy when I7 is mentioned was the sheer quantity of game breaking bugs (for me) that came with it, which made me give up on CoV for about 6 months after getting more and more frustrated while trying to play my Bots/Traps MM. There were a [u]LOT[u] of bugs that came with I7, a lot of which made the game all but unplayable. Random game Crash to Desktops when PPD Kheldians self rez, anyone? Items you need to destroy becoming untouchable whenever they got hit by the slightest amount of KB? 'Prevent X from escaping' missions auto failing when the named mob got hit by KB or immobilised? (not 100% sure on the Immob aspect of that bug any more, don't want it to reappear to find out, thank you very much) Pets running off into infinity through solid walls? etc. etc. etc.

A lot of the bugs I remember were ones that hit my aforementioned MM, so there will almost certainly have been others that didn't annoy me enough to consider logging off the game 5 minutes after logging in.

I7 *was* a debacle. I'll take my future issues when they're good and ready, thank you very much.

Tonight, 7pm start as per usual, Sister Psyche.

Meet at Psyche in IP.

Bucketloads of inf. Naff all recipes/salvage, if the usual pattern holds steady.

Congrats to Grizzled Veteran.

First 50 among the Trappers.

(and I have no idea if anyone else managed it, I was falling asleep by that point. This post is my last act of the evening before I kill the PC and go to bed.)

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Cack, where'd this Double XP weekend spring up from??

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You mean the one I mentioned a couple of times on Monday evening? I've no idea, I'm sure... <_< >_>...

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Looks like there wont be any icy fun for me tonight

First day back at work after a week off and i'm going to be stuck here ages.

Have fun and let me know what lvl you get to so I can catch up.

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Let me see.

Tobias done. Shiny Warwolf Whistle put into storage for another day.

Gordon Bower about 2/3rds done.

I'm at 29 (just barely) and the rest of my team ended up at 28, I think.

I've still got the IP safeguard queued, and other than that, serious amounts of pain were dished out.

This coming (double xp) Sunday, we're going Freak hunting, courtesy of Sister Psyche. There should be inf/prestige sloshing around by the bucketload.