EvilGeko

If someone asked me, "How do I get better at tennis?" I would say, "you should practice to become a better player."

If someone asked me, "How do I get better at chess?" I would say, "you should practice to become a better player."

Shubbie asked what people who are average skilled and (in his estimation) are not able to complete this mission should do. I said I think they should practice and become a better player. If you think that makes me an elitist, then you're entitled to that opinion. But there is no hobby, no game, no vocation, no nothing worth doing where this advice doesn't hold. If you want to accomplish things, you might need to learn about them. Saying that's elitist is so inane, that I think you must just be reacting emotionally to the mission and not to what I said. Because what I said is so completely non-controversial in any other context.

TRUE STORY: My little boys, like most kids used to watch Sesame Street. One episode, Elmo was playing bowling and he got frustrated because he wasn't very good at it. He had just started playing. The other kids and the adults explained to Elmo that he needed to practice to get better. Elmo was ready to give up and quit because it was too hard he thought. But he took their advice and kept practicing. He eventually knocked down some pins.

So based on your statement, I assume you believe that the advice they give preschoolers on Sesame Street is elitist?

I believe an average skilled player should practice and learn to be a better player.

Again if you pay attention to what's going on, you will not have to deal with many Rikti at all. You're free not to believe me, but this mission isn't cheap. It presents you with a challenge, the Rikti portals. There are at least three ways I've found to deal with them on different characters.

Or they gave up when the game pushed back a little instead of trying harder. Fun does not equal easymode.

That's exactly how it should be weighed. None of those crappy arguments that got the devs to make the respec trial, cape mission, et. al. easier work here. This mission gives you access to the power level of the games signature hero and villain. It's quite literally a path to godhood. It should be harder. It should require you to do every mission instead of being able to auto-complete.

But in any event, it shouldn't see any changes to make it even slightly easier or as you would call it "less cheap." It's doable by any build with SOs. If the determinant beyond that is skill, then there is no problem.

/macro Honor "targetcustomnext Honoree"
/macro Holtz "targetcustomnext Holtz"
/macro Portal "targetcustomnext Portal"

I've done it with a Empathy/Rad and Gravity/Empathy SO enhancers only, no temp powers.

There is no combination that cannot do this arc solo. Just because it didn't immediately roll over like 99% of the rest of the content in the game doesn't make it cheap.

I like the Ramiel arc. However, in my complete a-hole moments (i.e. 92.45% of the time) I do wish the devs had made every mission in that arc non-droppable. I wouldn't even let you abandon it. You either get a team, succeed or be reminded of your failure until you do it.

*cackle* BWA HA HA HA HA!!!! *snort*

This is proof that the OPs concerns are bat-poop crazy.

No catchy phrase like "Gone to the Americans." You can just describe that phrase and people will understand the insanity.

The OP's comment approaches the level of fail of Justice's long beloved prophet. I now give you his words which live on long after he has left us:

That's your choice, of course, but it's fun when you can take that mission down on your own.

OK, since you put Trick Arrow first I'm going to assume this was a Defender. Please let me know if that's not correct.

My suggestion, if you're interested in soloing this arc, is to make sure you use enough lucks to get to soft-cap, then before you even think about damage, get the Honoree good and immobilized. Entangling Arrow should be able to accomplish this on its own. Make sure you keep him immobilized and stay a good distance away from him since Entangling has such a long range anyway.

Then keep your lucks up, apply the debuffs (especially -res) and go to town.

If this is a Corruptor, the strategy is the same, but ironically, you might have an easier time with the damage buff of the Defender. I'm not sure you'll get much use out of Scourge with the Honoree giving up before he's defeated.

Do you mind sharing with us what your Primary/Secondary/APP-PPP was? Also, have you had any problems defeating Holtz?

I'm speechless. Seriously, I don't even know what to say to this. This is the craziest complaint I've seen in a long time. I almost can't believe that the OP is serious.

Don't misunderstand. I wasn't arguing with you. I just didn't understand the concern.

In what way?

Note, that is not a rhetorical "I disagree with you" question. I play on the U.S. servers and so don't see it from your side. How has this impacted you?

Naw, it still would have sucked. But you get at the reason that many think so. When ED was around many, many people suggested something like the following.

The first enhancer gives a bigger bonus than before (e.g. First SO would be worth 50% instead of 33%), but subsequent SOs would be worth less. The total enhancement at 3 enhancers would have still been around 100%, but you would have been able to mix and match better. You would have a BONUS for diversifying your enhancers.

Had they done it that way, they likely would have seen better diversity and more interesting builds. In some powers it would be better to have two recharge and two damage rather than three damage and one recharge. Inventions wouldn't be so ridiculously better than SOs/IOs in such a system either because they could award flat bonuses v. the scaling.

That's my beef with ED. Not the power level it enforced, but the ham-fisted way they went about it.

No it didn't. ED is wholly irrelevant to Inventions. This game is not balanced on difficulty. It's balanced on time. They have stated this expressly. It's also consistent with merits (another example of poor implementation). It is revisionist history based on Statesman's lies about ED being needed to open up more power.

That it was two years later shows that they had no plan in place at the time and purely put ED in to cover their behinds with CoV.

No, I'm upset about ED, because it's a stupid system. I don't mind being capped at around 100% enhancement from enhancers. I hate the way ED does it. I hate that ED is so obtuse. I hate that ED enforces Statesman's stupid punishment of min-maxers.

ED was about the worst way to fix a non-problem. Inventions only cover up the stupid.

Pre-ED we did not operate in an "unchecked" system. There was a check: 200% enhancement to a Pool A attribute. ED added a secondary check on top of the original check of six slots. It hurt Blasters in ways that later had to be corrected via the Defiance changes. It all but crippled defense sets who didn't have the benefit of the critter accuracy changes then.

We all forget now, but the game sucked pretty bad in the early post-ED days. It took a number of buffs to various ATs to get us near to a good place again. ED was put in because the devs wanted to avoid having to nerf the CoV ATs as mercilessly as they did the CoH ATs. It was an overcorrection on top of the Global Defense changes in Issue 5. Were it not for my long-standing personal rule never to /ragequit, I would have been gone.

ED accomplished nothing other than breaking the game. And it took about three years for the worst of the damage to be corrected.