Justaris

Actually, it looks like he listened and then poked holes in a flimsy counter argument. Yes, if you know activation times well enough and don't have content with an X factor of lag, then you could time heals so that you hit the button before the damage actually hits but the heal itself takes place just after.

This, however, is in no way "preemptive". If it were truly preemptive then you could use the heal and it would protect against damage at a later time. This is just gaming the combat system to give the illusion of a preemptive heal. As previosly stated, healing is 100% reactive and healing before damage mitigates nothing. The fact that you can heal in such a way as to give the impression of a preemptive heal doesn't mean the heal is actually preempting damage. It isn't.

I'm sorry, but you are in fact wrong.

At a wild guess, someone had their arcs full and assumed that because they couldn't pick up the arc, it no longer existed. Looks like someone needs to apply Occam's Razor before jumping to unlikely conclusions.

I have no problem with someone who's honestly ignorant no matter how long they've played. But let's say you'd led with "I've been here 58 months and I know how things work" based on something you'd heard once in chat three years ago and insisted you were right because you're you. That's the people that threads like this get made about. And there are plenty of PL'd n00blets that tend to adopt just such an attitude. I'm seeing it often now with the mewbs. At least it makes them easy to spot.

Yeah, what Z_I said. We generally are happy to help a newcomer with questions about the game, it's newcomers coming in, looking around for thirty seconds and then saying "you need to change this, this and this so it's just like the last game I played" that tend to attract flames.

I believe the phrase, in the vernacular, is "pwned".

People still do Task Forces. I've done four in the last few days. "Nobody does Task Forces anymore" is grossly incorrect.

That said, I don't see a terribly compelling reason why these shouldn't be available for tickets, so I support this.

1) I find your assertion that "almost nobody engages in Task Forces anymore" to be grossly incorrect.

2) Allowing the TFs to scale down to smaller group sizes somewhat defeats the purpose of the TFs as team content. This combined with the fact that people are already doing them on small teams without it scaling down and reaping larger rewards for successfully doing so in terms of xp and inf tells me that this change would in essence be a nerf in many respects.

3) There's nothing preventing story-minded folks from engaging in a TF at their leisure since you can start and stop TFs at any point in the chain of missions thanks to TF Mode. Unless you're attempting to do a TF with everyone at the bottom of the range, there's really no reason a team should be reasonably unable to complete the TF. Might be a little harder, take a little longer, but doable, especially for players who are more interested in content than advancement.

Overall, no to this. The solution causes problems and the 'problem' is dubious.

Just to be clear, while I understand that this hypothetical AE Broadcast channel would be heard in all the AE houses in every zone, the regular Broadcast is zone-specific.

This is probably a fairly good idea. The only things I can really say against it is that we already have a lot of different types of chat to keep track of and that we as players don't know how hard it would be to implement a chat that only works when in the AE (as there's nothing similar in the game currently).

1) The point is that your changes don't address purples. It's apples and oranges. Purples were never TF drops, so a change from Merits to drops for TF/SFs doesn't have anything to do with it, making your reasoning flawed there. As for the "people don't do them anymore", also flawed. People do lots of TFs. In fact, I probably see more Cap SFs being run for Merits than any other SF except the ITF, so don't try to tell me people never run SFs anymore.

2) The "my way or the highway" line. They're the Devs. Every game's Devs have the right to set the rules. It's their game. Besides, there are warning all over the place not to farm/abuse the AE (in the announcement, in the in-game tutorial, in the in-game FAQ from the MA contact, in interviews, on these forums... freaking everywhere). They said over and over that while they've taken a hands-off approach to much of the PL/farming in the regular game that this wouldn't be okay in the MA. People chose to ignore it, and then choose to act all suprised when there's consequences. If people want to get huffy, take their ball and go home because they broke the rules and there were penalties, well, do we really need those people? Probably not.

3) Big no to forced server transfers - and if you really think that the Devs enforcing their own rules on the AE is going to drive more people away than that would, you really don't know the game or the community very well. Server transfers like the kind you describe would drive people away by the thousands. Probably the tens of thousands.

Obviously you're going to want Dark Extraction slotted up, but I'd add that the real beauty comes in multiples. Unlike many pets, you can have more than one Extracted Essence out at one time, probably because you need fallen enemies to fuel the power. With some good slotting and +recharge you can have two out pretty much all the time, three some of the time. They add a lot of extra blasting power.

As for the team concern, yes, Warshades can be a pain to solo. They can do it decently enough, even fairly well if you gear your second build for it, but at the end of the day you're built for teaming and that's where you're going to shine.

I wouldn't count the Warshade out solely because of your fears about teaming though, especially on Freedom. Once the after-effects of the exploit craze fully dissipate I expect it'll go back to being the easiest server to get a team for just about anything.

The trouble you have with Kheldians is that not everyone can make them. Of those that can, not all choose to do so. Of those that do, not all enjoy them. You combine that with the tremendous variety in Kheldian builds and it makes Khelds difficult to pigeonhole into roles like 'damage' or 'tank'. Which of course is the point to begin with, but it sometimes leads to team leads passing Khelds over because they don't understand what Khelds bring or they don't want an unknown quantity.

So what do Khelds bring to the table? It really depends on the Kheld and the player behind it. But I'll tell you what the potential is. I'll talk specifically about tri-form Warshades here because that's what's relevant to you. A tri-form Warshade brings excellent AOE damage, good control, good tanking ability, fair aggro management, good survivability and excellent pets for yet more AOE damage. The tri-former is a juggernaut that just keeps rolling, drawing strength from large mobs, wiping them out, and then restoring itself to full health and endurance from their fallen bodies before moving on to the next.

They are absolutely team friendly and most experienced players will want them because they know that more enemies just means more power for a tri-form 'shade. You may have to do some educating, however, as not all players will understand what you can do.


As for the original question of which you should go all-out and IO, I think the best answer is eryq2's. Whichever you enjoy more. Neither would be a poor choice.

You don't have to hit info on them now, as their levels show up in the target window (unless of course they're too far away or in another zone - in which case you can't get the info either, just a /search on them).

I enjoy PvE far and away more than I enjoy PvP. As for what I do in PvE, it varies. I enjoy forming and leading mission teams. I enjoy helping out new players as they learn the game. I enjoy Task/Strike Forces. I enjoy the occasional Mothership or Hamidon Raid.

I also enjoy badgehunting, though that activity may not strictly fall under the heading of PvE in all cases.

Vengeance cannot be used on pets of any kind, if that's what the OP is getting at.
The target must be a defeated player.

One of the beauties of the Kheldian AT is that there is no one "right track". What you're describing is more or less a classic approach to a tri-form build, with perhaps a touch more emphasis on a "forms specialist" variant.

The powers are slottable. You gain four blast powers (two single-target, one cone and one AOE) with the Nova form. You gain six powers (two melee attacks, a taunt, a teleport, a self-heal or drain and a Flare or Mire) with the Dwarf form.

Slotting, far more than power selection, really determines a Kheldian's build. I'd recommend making use of a build planner such as Mids Hero Designer to help guide you as to what the powers do, what's possible and different ways you might approach your Khelds. Even if you don't use any of the builds you make in actual play, messing around with the planner may give you a better understanding of what these ATs are and what they can do. As for which is right for you, Peacebringer or Warshade, that's ultimately a question only you can answer.

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Going rogue. Gotta' pay...probably around the same price as this game goes for retail. Remember the days when the devs said there would -NEVER- be a paid for expansion? Gone like the pvp community. As for fresh and exciting...well more like a decent pass time, sure there's always going to be a few die hards that just can't get enough. Some of us need more than a farm tool that gets you banned or going back in time to play missions you've already played.

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You don't remember those times either... at least not correctly... because it never happened.

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At one point the Devs had a planned expansion but scrubbed it and turned it into Issues 9-12 instead, given for free (and presumably with some bells and whistles trimmed). Probably he is confusing this event with some kind of promise never to have expansions - which did not happen. They said they weren't going to release that expansion and gave it to us as four free issues instead. That's all.

Justin Augustine is particularly easy to solo as it doesn't even have an AV to fight (though there are EBs).

Sara Moore may give you a bit more trouble, as Ruladak can be a challenging AV, but still potentially soloable.

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Ah... now I understand.. basically more than 3 of any Single Origin enhancement is less effective than putting another type in it?

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It's a little more complex than that, since the diminishing returns of Enhancement Diversification (ED) kick in at a certain % of enhancement rather than a certain number of enhancements, but the "3 SO Rule" approximates close enough for most people.

If you decide to make use of high-level IOs, it's closer to a "2 IO Rule".

Obviously the build you've planned here is going to be quite expensive, but I'm assuming you know that already. The only thing I'd nitpick is the slotting on Stygian Circle.

With enough purple bonuses to recharge it probably wouldn't matter, but personally I'd probably have some Recharge Reduction in the power itself if for no other reason than for use when exemplared and not all of that lovely IO Set Recharge is available to you. Playing tri-form you should be using Stygian Circle at least every two minutes (I'd hope much more), so I don't think the placement of the 120 sec procs here is a problem. It's just that personally I like my Circle up very quickly and I like having that be independent of my Set Bonuses. YMMV.

Patch Notes

Yes, Set Bonuses carry over to all forms.

Always a good idea every time it comes up.

/signed to an LFM option

To be fair, Western culture has taught us you can survive nuclear explosions by hiding in a refrigerator.

Quite true, there's no need to feel trapped into the power you start out with. You can fly around all the time in Nova form if that's what you want (if you take Nova form). You can teleport around all the time in Dwarf form if you want (if you take Dwarf form). You can take Super Jump or Super Speed just as normal if you wish.

I wouldn't recommend basing your decision solely or even primarily on travel preference.

Just want to add my own cover of the same tune here. A big thanks to Mids for all the effort put in all this time on one of the most useful contributions to the game's community we've had. May you continue to enjoy the game that you've given so much to.

Also, kudos to Steiner for stepping into such large shoes. It's not a position I'd want to be in as the expectations on you will be many, but I respect both the task you've taken on and the way you've chosen to approach it. Kudos indeed.