DreamWeaver

I'm loving my newly Upgraded bots - whereas before they were only devastating to one target at a time, they can now tackle big mobs as effectively as a small player team.

The Assault Bot's rockets are simply awe-inspiring - and the burn patches are quite useful, but given that every other bot attack carries KB you really need to have someone cornered before it's deadly.

Prot Bot stun grenades are also hugely useful, although the little whirly drones don't do much except give mobs another target to shoot at - and very occasionally blind a minion.

Would say Fly, personally, because...
- Hover lets you keep out of the way of melee traffic that your pets can deal with
- TP eats END... and since MMs can generally get away without stamina, END conservation becomes a factor.

Recall Friend is still hugely useful though - works on all your normal pets and Acid Mortar for Traps.

We *just* managed to do this for our Tiny Hidden Spot base, by:

- using the 1x4 Control Room plan along one edge of the map
- using the 4x4 Arcane raid teleporter

We now have 6 rooms + entrance + vault, 6 anchors, Raid teleporter, medical bay, Oracle and all the other required bits of kit...we think.

However, in the desc the next size up from Tiny Hidden Spot, it says "This is the smallest raidable base" - so the hours of Tetris-like rearranging may come to naught if the devs limit it to this one or bigger..?

I got 'em for free now (randomly) with Upgraded Prot Bot, and they're nothing special but a nice little bonus. Wouldn't have wanted to waste a power on them though, so thanks to ppl who advised me of this at the time.

Roll on 35 and Trip Mine...

HOLD EVERYTHING! STOP THE NERFS! HOLD THAT BAT BACK, I SAY!

The MM is already quite a difficult class to play for several reasons:
- insane pet behaviours ("NO! NO! Bad bot! Leave the nice Malta Titan alone! He's just being friendly really.. *gulp*)"
- the ability to take on lots of minions at one time before being promptly one-shotted by anything marked "Boss"
- Being overwhelmed if you're not very careful about pet management (see #1)

...and therefore does not need nerfage.

At the VERY MOST, you could switch the sets around - with your pets becoming your secondaries and the final upgrade power at 38.

BUT NO NERFING! BAN THE NERFS! BAN THE NERFS!

FYI, the 1st respec demon can be found in Nerva Archipelago's Crimson Cove at /loc -1258, 11, 6411.

For those of you who don't like fiddling with numbers, clicky here.

This has been a public information broadcast from the Arachnos Ministry Of The Bleeding Obvious. Move along. Nothing else to see here. Move along, citizens. Enjoy the rule of Arachnos along with your daily NutriPaste and bouncy bubble beverage.

Not a pvp moment as such, but had to share this with you...

Just spent hour and a half getting hold of the Nuke Blast(really EMP blast) power with Dentada. She decided to test it out on a pair of L42 Malta titans, which formed into one. I tried it out on the resulting L43 Zeus titan, with the following result...

Lots of pretty lights... (clicky)

... and precisely 10% damage to the Malta titan.

It did seem to make it mad though.

Remember, kids, we do these experiments so you don't have to.

This is Agent Flux for WSPDR, signing off from Black Heart Hospital, Warburg...

Not a creative post as such, but if you wondered what the warburg Nuke Blast temp power does..

BANG. (clicky)

Pretty. However, blowing it on a +6 Malta Titan will knock a whole 10% off its hit points. And make it really, really mad.

Remember, kids, we do these experiments so you don't have to.

Am enjoying playing with my bots... and slightly "anxious" that I'm on 9 bubs to the magic ding at 32...

I run Assault, Tactics and FF Generator (from Traps - 3 slotted SO Def). Battle Drones can withstand one direct hit from red Tank before yelling for help. But the magic buttons from Traps are Poison Trap and Acid Mortar - fantastic pieces of kit, although you will frequently have to duck out of the way of barfing Longbow...yeuch. Messy.

Also made me laugh:
[ QUOTE ]


[Broadcast]Bud: Where are all these evil villains I keep hearing about?
[Broadcast]Bud: Where are all these evil villains I keep hearing about?
[Broadcast]Bud: Where are all these evil villains I keep hearing about?
[Broadcast]Bud: Where are all these evil villains I keep hearing about?
[Broadcast]Bud: Where are all these evil villains I keep hearing about?
You have gained 1.00 reputation.
You have received 680 bounty for defeating Bud!
[Broadcast]Bud: Rez please?


[/ QUOTE ]

Quick note - since we've got well over 1m prestige saved up, as soon as it touches 1.6m should we go for next base size up?

That'll let us put in teleporters to all 6 zones amongst other things...

BTW, if people would rather build stuff instead, I have a tonne of tech material, components, and one prototype stored up

Any other MMs for a pet-on-pet battle?

Rules:
- pets should not target opposing MMs and should be retargetted immediately if so

- MMs may not aid pets at any time

- any MM using Pokemon jokes will be disqualified into the nearest lava pit.

...do you get these every time you successfully complete a PVP zone mish or just the first?

Hehe... good to see you around that day, TG, and just remember you didn't have it all your own way...

...though I think this dirty, dirty boy likes the bat a bit too much...

Thanks for all the advice Decisions, decisions...
Robots/Traps is a very tight build power wise - definitely want all the available powers at 32 (UPGRADE- yay!)/ 35 (Trip Mine) / 38 (Detonator), so if I'm not going for Group Fly I've got a straight choice:

RECALL FRIEND (good for precision pet movement, retrieving wandering pets and wandering teammates)

STEALTH (good for sneaking about and placing traps, and fits Flux's sneaky nature as former pro thief)

Suggestions?

Heh. Most Longbow that try that get lightly flamegrilled by my Assault Bot, but Poison Trap works well when you can pull them on to it - or, if all enemies are tied up in melee, planting one right in the middle is hugely satisfying too...

POINT: for Stealth purposes, does planting a trap count as an offensive action?

Couple of questions:
SEEKER DRONES: worth getting at 28 or wait till 32 when any Upgraded Prot Bots should be able to create them... if they feel like it?

POISON TRAP: worth getting?

Finally... is it worth getting Group Fly to move minions around with or would Recall Friend be more efficient (albeit with no nifty jet animations?)

[ QUOTE ]
Any news on what's happening after 40 - or is it a black, black void ....

[/ QUOTE ]

Nothing as yet, as the current limit is L40. But there will be:
- post-40 adventures on the island of Grandville confirmed
- evil dimension-hopping stuff a la Peregrine Island confirmed
- a 40+ only PvP dimension (all SK'd to 50) confirmed
- Patron Powers (like Epic powers but specific to one Arachnos faction) confirmed
- Corolax Hybrids as Epic Archetype under development, may be changed/dropped
- Care Bears with lasers as Epic MM archetype well, we can ask...

...soooooooon. Suggest in the meantime you work on alts and building up

I keep ending up on MM-heavy teams: which is fun watching your enemies get swamped by droids, zombies, ninjas and carebears (epic MM archetype. Shhh).

Not fun for your graphics card though, particularly if everyone's bubbled...

Hehe.. just levelled to 26 and now have my assault bot. I can't call her War Witch for some reason, but she definitely rocks... and yes, can't wait till 32 either :P

BTW, levels 24 and 25 will be horrible for you. Not only are your two white-con Prot Bots not quite effective as your one yellow-con one(aside from the fact they can heal and bubble each other) but your enhances probably aren't fully slotted due to lack of funds and...

forget all that.

The first time you see your mighty metal mountain scream down out of the sky, you'll smile. When you see it overhead smash one pesky Longbow into the ground and then double plasma blast another into next week before lightly flamegrilling the survivors, it's worth it

I've not gone nuts on the small stuff, but you can do some cool effects with lighting...
Welcome to the Hellmouth

Yup. There is now no spare space for any more rooms on our starter plot. If we want a bigger base, we have to pay for the bigger plot - and bigger rent.

I say stick to the one IoP for now... considering that:
(a) this trial will only be intermittently available
(b) it's not a cakewalk by any means (see US board post here)...

...we'll not be staggering under a stack of them for a whiles...

Base update:

Thanks to a huge haul of salvage from Troubler (/em praise), we now have two zone telepads in the base.

These will currently take you to Mercy, Port Oakes, Sharkhead and Cap Au Diable. Simply go close to the telepad (but not into it) and click on the back of the control terminal to be warped where you want to go.... although exactly where you land in the zone seems a little bit random.

We now also have all the Dimensional Anchors correctly installed and all the bits Zap says we need to start a raid or Cathedral Of Pain trial.

Unfortunately, since you can only have one anchor per room and anchors can't be placed in vaults or entranceways (took me a bit of swearing to work that out), we're down to one IoP chamber.

I don't want to go, Father.

It is destiny, my child. Destiny is not to be questioned. Your spirit, all spirits have a path. This is yours.

When can I come home again?

When you are ready to rejoin us. When your new destiny is fulfilled.

Father, I...

White light. Pain. Rushing air. The sensation of rising... rising... soaring into the sun...

Isn't this what it's like to die?

The rushing noise subsides, softens, becomes more regular. The light coalesces into blobs, objects, vague at first... one that moves. One that smiles.

"I'll go and tell the doctors you're awake. And..."

She looked away nervously... possibly in wonder... possibly in terror...

"...you have a visitor."

You blink in the light, eyes wide like a newborn, drinking in everything around you. Your fingers feel... not numb, but clumsy, untrained.
White light. White sheets. Charts. Numbers. Rushing sound... oxygen mask. Hospital.

This can't be good.

The woman reappears, and you take a second to study her. You remember nurses from the frontline hospitals, working feverishly on the troops who took those accursed isles. Iwo Jima. You snatched men from the jaws of death, bringing them home, and the nurses brought them back to life. Heroes all, and yet they called you Hero.
She doesn't look like those nurses. The starched white uniform that you remember fondly is gone, replaced by workaday green overalls like the surgeons wore. Strange. You told Jane they'd never go out of style as you held her...

Who's Jane?

Your mind feels like shattered ice on the great river... cold shards of knowledge that seem to provide a solid surface, but threatening to slip aside at any moment.
The incessant notes, repetitive, G sharp, keep harping on at you and you track them to their source. A cathode ray tube of some sort, but in many different colours, with numbers and patterns. You examine them, and on a thought take your pulse... the noise and the pattern match. Ingenious... a heart monitor.

You stumble to your feet and examine it... yes, blood pressure, body temperature, everything a doctor could need to know. You'd thought of something like that at PCU, but never... You shake your head. Where am I?

Your fascination with the blinking, beeping box distracted you from the soft click of the door. A polite cough makes you turn.

"Miss me? I missed you, young fox."

Nobody calls you that.

The man is huge. Towering, even. Kind eyes look out from under a helm, burnished bright like the sun, bright like the water where the paddles cut.

Nobody calls you that except...

"Marcus?"

The man breaks into a smile, which most would pass without notice. But for this man, you know that that smile means joy that few could ever comprehend. And his hand on your shoulder means you're a friend...

"I'm... not sure... I know you're Marcus, but..."

"They told me you were having trouble with your memory. I understand that. You've been through quite a bit, you know."

"Through what?"

You sit back on the bed heavily, lost amidst your memories.

"I had to pull a few strings at the Museum to take this out, but maybe it'll help."

The man hands you a package. It's a newspaper with yesterday's date on it, but it's been through the mill - aged and wrinkled and torn. There, in the second column, is your picture, and that of your visitor... Marcus. And the words:

CAPTAIN THUNDERBIRD MISSING IN ACTION
Word has come from Supreme Allied Command Pacific that Captain Floyd Thunderbird Westerman, USMC Hero Support Section, better known to Paragon citizens as Captain Thunderbird, has been reported missing in action.

Early reports suggest that Westerman was lost in an explosion during a daring raid on an Axis scientific facility...

You push the paper aside and look at the clock on the monitor.

10:30am. 11/17/2005.
Sixty years.

"How the HELL...?"

"Got time for a story? I think I need to fill you in."

To Be Continued

Point - could any friendly GMs help with the merger by transferring Prestige etc?