Expeditor

Curious, I've been on since shortly before 7 and didn't see you (or anyone else for that matter).

That said any group like this is going to have no-shows from one week to the next, especially for something like Easter weekend when people go away and such. We'll see how things look next Thursday.

So who's along this evening? Could give some architect missions a go as yet another alternative with i14 here.

All good fun, as ever - so any particular plan for next week?

I think most of us are a suitable level for the Synapse TF, although that would require the couple of people lagging behind to get up to lvl 15.

Alternatively we could head to Faultline - I get the impression some of the team might not have seen it since its refurbishment, and the new story arcs there are pretty good.

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as well as not having anything available as early as the heroes 10-15 Positron task force

[/ QUOTE ]And this would be a good thing????

Seriously, IMO early (below lvl 15) taskforces are pointless as the powers available to you are very limited, especially if you took a travel power at 14. I can safely say that I have only done Positron TF for a) the badge or b) A solo challenge. Wouldn't consider doing it for merits alone, as it's pretty painful... what with all the travelling, not too mention overpowered Vahzilok. A villain one to mirror this, would be pointless IMO.

I do agree that a villain SF is needed in the 30-35 lvl range though.

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My thought here, if it was to be a co-op task force, is that it would a) give villains access to task forces from the same level as heroes and b) give heroes access to a less painful task force at that same level - everyone wins! In times gone by it would also have given villains access to the lower level TF recipe rewards, but that isn't so much an issue with merits.

Of course as an alternative to co-op task forces, there could simply be 'mirrored' task forces, allowing the same assets and basic story elements to be used (cutting down on dev time) but each tailored to the appropriate faction.

(Edit for typo)

Well it would help if the Silver Mantis strike force was made available without the need for one of the participants to have access to a SG mission computer, making it as readily available as other regular task forces (perhaps as a means of repurposing the mission computer it could allow access to any task force without needing to visit the contact, instead communicating with them through the computer).

Villains also have a gap in the 30-35 range, as well as not having anything available as early as the heroes 10-15 Positron task force, so if it is only co-op task forces from here on out, one each for those two ranges should probably be covered first.

Captain Caustic is similarly ready in Atlas. This evening works for me if we're good to go?

Sounds good - I'm sure I could free a Union slot for such a venture. Tuesdays or Thursdays work best for me but Mondays may be doable.

Highly unlikely but I'd just really like to see Power Sink pushed forward to level 20 in place of Lightning Reflexes and then Lightning Reflexes in place of Conserve Power - notionally endurance drain is Electric Armour's secondary survival mechanism but the only real source of this comes ridiculously late at lvl 35. This also makes it more viable as a replacement for Stamina much like Willpower getting Quick Recovery at 20 (or earlier for Tankers).

If we could get a replacement for Conserve Power as well then all the better of course, although having something similar to Super Reflexes' scaling resistance except tied to how high your endurance is instead of how low your health is would be interesting and make Conserve Power rather more useful for maintaining that bonus.

Recalling an "if you could have a 10th power" thread some time back, having a Healing Flames clone would be pretty damn amazing for Electric Armour - it would plug the toxic hole as well as providing one of the best self-heals going, available all the more often thanks to Lightning Reflexes. Would be a mote overpowered most likely sadly, but a nice thought

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*shrug* Most people just take Boxing and don't use it...

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Which is precisely why changes should be considered no?

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I cannot see devs changing a power called Boxing to (in some cases) kick the bad guys, sorry.

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So change it to something else - "Better Brawl" or "Generic Attack" maybe?

I have a few characters that could make use of Tough/Weave from the Fighting pool but few of them have any real use for either of the pre-requisites, especially as some of them are weapon sets that would have to redraw after using either of them.

To make them more useful could Boxing be changed to use exactly the same animations as Brawl? It's little more than a fast recharge filler attack anyway, and would at best be a slightly higher damage replacement for brawl for Brutes in particular - it would allow it to be used by weapon sets without causing redraw, and occasionally use the kick/shield bash animations where appropriate.

That leaves us with Kick - assuming it can't be replaced with something else entirely (a passive +HP and/or +max Endurance maybe) it could at least be made more useful giving it a significantly higher recharge and, consequently, damage than Boxing - say 6 or 8 second recharge - I'd see this as more useful for a non-melee character looking for respectable pool attacks, as currently Air Superiority is probably the only one I would consider.

What do you think?

I don't see how it's low damage? It has the same damage for a given recharge as any other non-fire melee set. It lacks a very high damage, very slow recharge power like Seismic Smash or Knockout Blow but has more mid-range attacks with 10-15 second recharge and has a lot of mitigation available from knockdown.

I was very close to picking it for my Tanker but ended up going for War Mace largely because it has more/better weapon models available to it.

How do you feel it's lacking exactly?

Take Crab Spider Armor at lvl 1 in place of Wolf Spider Armor - they're identical except the Crab Armor has mag4 protection compared to the Wolf Armor's mag2 protection, and Fortification provides mag8 protection, so Wolf Armor has very little to offer.

Take Combat Trainingefensive at the newly opened slot at lvl 4 - it provides a passive 7.5% defence to range, which is where you're going to be most of the time as a Crab.

Finally, find more slots for Fortification - it provides a base 15% resistance to smashing and lethal and 25% resistance to everything else except psi, it's well worth slotting that resistance up (to give an idea of how good this is, it's essentially Unyielding from Invulnerability, for Tankers no less, except slightly lower endurance consumption and the resistances from the three Invulnerability passives rolled in for free - all it's missing is the knockback protection)

Ah yes, and speaking of knockback protection, squeezing a Steadfast, Karma or Blessing of the Zephyr knockback protection IO will keep you safe from the vast majority of knockback out there - I have the Steadfast knockback and defence IOs in my Crab Armor.

Most important of all, enjoy yourself - Crabs are jolly good fun

Looking over the list of revised merit rewards I noticed the Quaterfield TF (Explorers and Exploiters) rewards a rather hefty 111 merits and as far as I'm aware doesn't even feature a single AV - I'm wondering how well a pack of blasters and defenders piggy-backing nukes might fair at tackling the extensive list of hunts and kill-alls.

I would be looking to run this on a Sunday afternoon, with time not being so much of an issue - we *might* be able to run it in a reasonable amount of time but I certainly wouldn't assume it.
The level range is 40-44, although higher levels will automatically be exemp'd down of course.
The TF requires an 8-man team to start.

Would anyone be interested in running this TF?
Any thoughts/advise on tactics etcetera?

I've been thinking of starting a similar such thread myself - been mostly playing villain-side (which Defiant is used for) for the last couple of years but just recently started up a shield/mace tanker that is jolly good fun to play - a lowly level 9 so far but climbing steadily.

So yeah, best of luck in finding a good home and if anyone's after a mighty mace-wielding angel, I happen to know one that's looking for a good home too

A few comments:
Wolf Spider Armor: Personally I haven't bothered with this - the status protection in Bane Armor has proved sufficient alongside the defence to avoid a lot of status effects in the first place. If you do really want to keep it and you're feeling a little flush I'd put another knockback protection IO in the default slot and free up the extra two - slotting for the absolutely trivial resistance is just a waste.

Hurdle: Personally I went Health - between the +HP in Bane Armor and the Arachnos inherent it's just handy for keeping pace. Between the various temp travel powers available, especially villain-side, vertical movement is never an issue.

Other than that my biggest concern would be the lack of endurance reduction in your various toggles - the simplest change would be, as Darkbane suggests, replacing the lotg Def/Rchg with the lotg triple pretty much everywhere you've used it. Weave in particular is going to be difficult to keep running during an extended fight - perhaps if you swapped the levels with Combat Training:Offensive you could get a couple more slots in it for endurance reduction?

Vive le Bane!

I'm still playing my Bane/Huntsman and I have to say he's my favourite character to play right now. I just find the design of the soldier and its two off-shoots to be genius and full of tough decisions - I'm still not certain whether to siphon the Huntsman and Bane parts into separate builds come i13.

I was actually considering trying to organise a regular team come i13 for those that missed the boat so to speak with the early i12 teams - I fancy trying my hand at a crab spider.

Oddly I never quite got into the widow side of things - he's sitting at 22, making ever so occasional progress towards the magic 24 to see if that manages to spark some interest.

Thanks for mentioning the VEATs channel - I'll have to check that out

I'm pretty sure the end mod set stun proc has a 10% chance for mag 2 - the fear and disorient set stun procs are the ones with a crazy 2% chance. And then there is the taunt set stun proc which I seem to recall reading is just outright bugged and doesn't do anything. We shall see anyway - I've only just picked up lightning field so it'll be a couple more levels before the proc finds its way into her build, so I'll find out one way or another then.

EDIT: I'd also note that the Brute version of Thunder strike causes knockdown rather than knockback, making it an excellent haven for procs - I have the explosive strike chance for smashing damage in there currently (again with the cheap procs )

We already have something similar available courtesy of the VEATs (albeit mixed in among self-buffs etcetera) but just for kicks and grins I thought I'd put together something of an extension to that as a full Leadership-esque set:

1/1 Surveillance
As the Bane Spider power, you analyse your targets defensive capabilities and discover their weaknesses, reducing the targets defence and resistance to damage. Does not generate aggro.
1/2 Tactical Assault
As the Arachnos Soldier power, while this power is acive you and your nearby teammates deal more damage and are protected from taunt and placate.
2/4 Team Conditioning
Inspired by the VEAT inherent and Accelerate Metabolism, when activated you grant your teammates increased regeneration, recovery, run speed and attack speed, as well as minor resistance to controlling effects. Duration: 120s, recharge: 480s, regen: 75%, recovery: 30%, run/fly speed: 30%, recharge: 15%, status effect resistance: 50%
6/10 Tactical Maneuvers
Simlar to the Arachnos Soldier power, while this power is active you and your nearby teammates are more agile and resistant to movement impairing effects. Defence (all): 7.5%, immobilise resistance: 50%, slow resistance: 25%
8/16 Inspiration
Inspires a fallen ally to rejoin the fight - provides smaller buffs than Mutation/Elixir of Life but has a similarly smaller debuff at the end.
12/20 Tactical Focus
Similar to Tactical "Training: Leadership", the Arachnos Soldier power, while this power is active you and your nearby teammates have an improved chance to hit and perception, alongside resistance to fear and confuse effects.
18/28 Team Efficiency
Similar to Team Conditioning, when activated you grant your teammates improved endurance efficiency and recharge. Duration: 120s, recharge: 480s, endurance reduction: 30% (for reference, Conserve Power provides ~120%), recharge: 15%
26/35 Dragoon
I'm not certain this is technically possible, but I liked the idea behind Outnumber and Force Back - I'm thinking something along the lines of Fulcrum Shift, except as an ally-targeted AoE rather than enemy targeted. For every ally within the AoE, a mag 2 fear aura is generated (like the damage buff aura of fulcrum shift) as well as another mag 2 fear aura being generated by the caster. With a 10s duration and 120s recharge you shouldn't be able to achieve a permanent effect but with a tightly packed team you might even be able to intimidate archvillains!
32/38 Tactical Leadership
Similar to Manticore's super combined leadership aura, while this power is active you and your nearby teammates have increased accuracy, defence and damage and resistance to debuffing and controlling effects. Accuracy: 15%, to-hit debuff resistance: 33%, defence: 3.5%, defence debuff resistance: 20%, damage: 15%, status effect resistance: 50%. Endurance cost for this toggle would be quite high at ~3 times the cost of the earlier toggles (i.e. about the same as all 3 of the earlier toggles combined)

Obviously the numbers above are Defender values - corrupters, controllers and masterminds would have the appropriate AT modifiers applied.

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*tosses spanner*

Surely, thematically, knockback is appropriate for Handclap, knockdown is appropriate for Fault. You might want them to be different, but that's the thematic idea of the power.

I'd like all knowckback chances removed from melee attacks, but I don't suppose I'll get it.

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I did actually think about this. For Lightning Clap in particular I liked the idea of changing it to a Lightning Strike - giving it the 20' range of Fault, the animation could have the user raising his/her hand and calling down a bolt of lightning, knocking down and disorienting foes in its area of effect. Rather like Fault.

Hand Clap is a little more awkward - my first thought was to make it a cone, justifying giving it range and knocking down foes much like Shield Charge but without having to teleport with it. The downside there is it becomes more specifically an alpha-strike mitigator and less useful in the middle of a fight (unless you want to jump out of melee and back up to get decent use out of it). Of course given the 15' radius, keeping it as a regular AoE with only a 20' range like Fault it's not likely that many enemies between you and the effect are going to be unaffected, giving much the same appearance as a cone but maintaining its usefulness in the middle of a fight.

If the idea of a hand clap knocking things down instead of away was really too much to get over it could of course become more of a foot stomp animation like Fault and, unsurprisingly, Foot Stomp, although that wouldn't really be my personal preference. Another option might be a two-handed slam into the ground, like a meatier Air Superiority.

All of this would of course be a good bit more work than just changing the magnitude variable, but hey, there's always a way!

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Signed. For the simple reason that I want the Thugs MM Bruiser to get the same. The knockback is a right pain (so much I don't bother upgrading him). With the new Upgrade powers on the way it'll get much trickier mid-battle to avoid applying it to him when resummoning.

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I concur.

For those wanting the shorthand version:
I'd like to see Hand Clap (from Super Strength) and Lightning Clap (from Electrical Melee) do knockdown like Fault (from Stone Melee).

Longer version:
Hand Clap and Lightning Clap have the same mag 2 stun and 50% chance for a mag 1 stun Fault has but cause a large (mag 5) knockback instead of knockdown. They have a slightly higher endurance cost compared to Fault, they have a longer recharge (30 seconds compared to Fault's 20), they have the same radius (15') but Fault has the added advantage of being ranged (20') where the two claps are PBAoE. And yet for every way that they are inferior to Fault simply changing the knockback to knockdown would make them desirable power picks (for me at least). Of course if the devs wanted to give them a 20' range and lower the endurance cost and recharge as well...

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On the news of the loss of Power Blast to a Grav Kin:

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Them: I can't say as how I have highly requested this for many years.
Me: You mean, you haven't wanted to get rid of your direct damage dealing power for a cone knockdown? :O
Them: More importanly, stop nerfing the [censored] out of my one acccess to decent damage potential as a controller. Cone knockdown. How stunningly not at all useful.
Me: Espeically when AoE Immobilizes and Holds have -Knockdown on.
Them: Bingo! So now I have a power that does nothing, to unaffect the held things I now can't damage!

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I thought that Dark Blast's 'Torrent' was the trivial damage one, every version of 'Energy Torrent' I'm aware of has damage... I took the reference to "the knockdown version of.." to mean it would be like the Scrapper and Tank APP versions of the power which do damage and knockdown instead of the blaster version which does damage and knockback.

I'm not quite that flush with cash, so I'm pretty much just looking at the regular set IOs for now anyway. Oh, and the disorient procs, just because they were going super cheap! Should be quite nice in Lightning Field and Jacobs Ladder (and Thunder Strike, except I'm pretty sure that doesn't take End Mod sets)

Cool, thanks - figured it might become pertinent as I level up my elec/elec brute.

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Short Circuit and Dull Pain or Healing Flames (Healing Jolts?) to my Elec/Elec Brute, to primary and secondary respectively.

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A Healing Flames clone for Elec Armour would be pretty damn sweet - even plugs the Toxic Res hole!

As for Short Circuit, why make it a 10th power when it could just replace the lousy Lightning Clap at 26? But yeah, Short Circuit would be nice, or Shocking Grasp for some extra ST damage with a little control.