OhGodtheRats

Is there any group out there regularly doing the Cap Task force? I've focused on a couple of sets and, thanks to someone posting the drop pools, I now know that I NEED to do some TF recipe hunting. I'm wondering, is there a gang of folks interested in Inventions that churning through the TF? I've done it a couple times and it's always a breeze...but finding a group has always been the more difficult thing.
I think this is me saying "holy [censored], bug me if you're doing a TF, I'll give you a dollar" only, well, more eloquent than that.
-jared

(My dom "Billy Horrorshow"...which is also my global...is currently level 23, so only the Cap TF is an option)

For what its worth, I knew what you meant Jamie. I've got a Pure Plant dominator myself (as well as Pure Mind one). Don't have Flytrap yet though. Looking forward to it.
-jared

As my private dancer has implied (sort of), I have very little PVP experience. I've been through Bloody Bay a couple of times and I think I'll be hitting Siren's for the first time later this week (with my Mind/Psi Dominator who is bringing me far too much pleasure).
From my experience with traps in PVP, it's awesome when you have someone who needs to get into close quarters...because all your tricks work great. But whenever a blaster showed up, it was time to hit and run. By the way, I know people say teleport is too unreliable in PVP, but with the one-click bind attached to it, it's really really easy. Being able to teleport away the moment your voodoo stops working has been awesome as I haven't met an opponent that could keep up.
I think I'm just saying this so you don't JUST get teleport for teleport foe.
-jared

PS: There's a regular traps team on union that's awesome. I can't do it usually, but if you want to see 8 characters using traps at the same time, check out the Union Villains forum.

PPS: Private Dancer, send me a tell whenever.

PPSS: From the US forum by ErlKoenig in his Teleporation FaQ:
[ QUOTE ]

"7. Q: What's that infamous keybind I've heard rumors about that will change my teleport experience entirely?

A: /bind lshift+lbutton "powexec_name Teleport"

-------------------------------------------------------

8. Q: Oookayy!? And what does it do exactly?

A: Hold down your qualifier key for Teleport (left shift in this case) and just left-click with your mouse at the spot you want to go. This makes Teleporting around as easy as point and click as it gets rid of the additional targeting with the ground target cursor after activating your teleport power.
I find this bind invaluable if you plan on taking Teleport without taking Hover, too.
While you can chose another qualifier (like alt or control) in your bind if you want it is mandatory to bind to your left mouse button as this bind exploits the 'select' feature of this button.

Likewise you could create a bind like [/bind lcontrol+lbutton "powexec_name Teleport Foe"] to use the same feature with your Teleport Foe (or Friend) power."


[/ QUOTE ]
Sorry if you already knew this...I recently got shown this and, well, its made my traps character much more fun. Even if you don't travel, the TP Foe bind isn't half bad either.

I saw the Mime tonight.

Dear God, it filled me with terror. And laughter.
-jared

Not to beat a dead horse, but I think the solution is just getting more friends to help smack him down something brutal.

That said, I'd LOVE to have an in-game nemesis. There would just be something awesome to KNOWING there was another human being out there out to get just me.
-jared

As a player with a Radiation/Traps corrupter, I can only agree with you that it's ace. : )

As for teams, I've found random people are split. A lot of folks do the happy dance when you show up, while others will laugh and ask why you don't have a real secondary. That doesn't happen so much once you get acid mortar and the force field generators (or Poison trap if my fellow trappers are to be believed) though.
-jared

Wait, you have meatshields? Blasphemer! You betray the noble cause of Blasterminds.

Seriously though, I couldn't imagine making a Mastermind and leaving all my damage-dealing to pets either. I think I'd just get bored yelling at the AI to be smarter and do what I want.
-jared

@NineClaws
Considering how during valentine's day I couldn't give an awaken to a fallen hero who was on my team, I have a sneaking suspicion that direct infamy transfers aren't going to work either.

My point's already been said, but here it is from the flip side since I just can't bring myself to make a dwarf:
I made a corrupter that's a big as possible. The only way I could make him bigger would be to put a top hat on him. When people say size doesn't matter, they haven't teamed with a giant toon on a board that gets narrow, like the Tsoo tunnels or something. "Big brutes" are usually fine since they're rushing right into the enemy, but my corrupter literaly blocks line of sight for half the team if he doesn't stay in the back. That was my first and last giant character.
So it's like reality: If you're a big & tall guy, you have to be mindful of the little people all around you. You know, because they can't aim their attacks THROUGH you.

Oh and Eddy, there are at least 2 "all midget" SG's on the villain side. I can't remember their names or servers, but one of them is also "all smurf" as well.
-jared

My only thought is that you're going to regret focusing on travel that early in the build. With a couple of bank missions (and the right contacts, like the ones that give you either of the free jetpacks either during or with completion), you can easily use temp travel powers into your 20's. That's just my two cents.

And good luck (if you do this) with Traps. That was my 2nd choice, mostly because it struck me as fun. Since you're going to need to hit and run, that secondary is just perfect for slowing down/debuffing/murdering enemy mobs that are in hot pursuit.
-jared

Wait...you can keep doing the tutorial over and over again for decent enhancements? Neat. Sounds broken, but neat. Now if only Endurance reduction was one of the cheapies they gave out.

And by the way, I never say no to infamy donations. Mostly because I seriously don't think Kaijukore would have made it this far if Dyre Consequences/FullmetalCore hadn't payed by way through DO school. (So yes, I'm on Union. ) Not that I need your donations, I just can't say no. : )
-jared
(global billy horrorshow)

So how's it going Hatesman? I'm finally getting over my addiction to Alts and dedicating the next couple weeks to getting this bad boy to level 26 (Still level 17...I've been neglecting this ever since I realized how much fun playing a Mind Control Dominator was).
One a side note, people have given Kaijukore enough infamy to do a serious shopping trip at the Black Market...the problem is I don't know if I should be saving that coin for when SO enhancements become available a little further down the road.
Anyone out there have some Invention-based suggestions for me?
-jared

Huzzah. My gaming vacation came to an end, AND I was able to run in with you guys by total stupid luck. Not sure where our mojo was...apparently ninjas with arrows are the kryptonite to an all-stalker team.

Also, though I know my stalker is a better character now, I already miss jump kick. Stupid but awesome free respec, making my character actually WORK.
-jared

Man. Sorry about this, but I'm out for this week. I'm currently suffering from the Flu of doom and, well, I think I'm going to be in a sleep-coma when the right time clicks by. Again, sorry about that.
-jared

That was awesome. And somehow I found it hilarious that we had more problems with Longbow & the Thorn folks than we did with infernal heroes and giant fire-breathing demons.

I was expecting to walk away with lots and lots of debt. Totally surprised we aced it.
-jared
"who was far too thrilled with confusing swarms of Fire Imps"

That's really, really weird. Because I'm still playing this character and doing it with fair regularity. I just checked it and it works pretty good on Arachnos troops, Goldbrickers, and those weird fleshy zombie guys in Cap of the Diablo.

I don't mean to bear false witness here, but it works for me. If you're ever on Union look me up as Kaijukore. Maybe I'm doing something else. I do know the key is only attacking once and then drawing the enemy AWAY from the mob before continuing to attack...
Maybe at higher levels the enemies get smarter? What level is your controller?

Again, this is really weird because if it didn't work as I've said then my petless mastermind would have died many many times by now.
-jared

Edit: I just played around with it to test the limits and here's what I learned:
If you try to pull from patrols that are "roleplaying" with one another (you know, using emotes or something) it will fail. If, however, you try to pull independent enemies just walking around you can pull safely even if they're right next to the "roleplaying" enemies and it works like the magic I described. Testing it on patrol was pretty educational, as finding non-emoting groups of enemies is pretty impossible outside of missions. I tried it on a quick paper mission and it worked splendidly. But whenever I tried to pull only one of a pair of goldbrickers that were "talking" it would alert both of them everytime, even though the "silent" goldbricker wandering right next to them could be pulled away no problem.

Also, to my shame, Flash arrow is slotted 6 times. I really don't remember doing that.

Ok. I'll accept that. I still say the pulling tool aspect of it balances out the fact that it's not as good an accuracy debuff as some other things out there. But you're right. It sucks on toast if you were looking for a pure debuff.
-jared

Edit: Looking at the Tomax, it seems that Defenders get a 6.25% to hit debuff while MM only get a 3.75%. Luckily both get that "enemy perception radius -90% thing, which I think is the selling point I was trying to make. And damn it, you defenders get a cheaper Flash Arrow that debuffs almost twice as much as mine. Damn it!

Where are these stats for Flash Arrow everyone keeps talking about? I'm just curious, because the Tomax guide makes it not look so bad. You know, since the Accuracy Debuff hits the entire mob automatically, without exception.

But to be fair, you're probably right. I think I just threw the extra slot in there as Flash Arrow's reward for keeping me alive and impressing the team.
-jared

Ok. I plan on being there with my PLant/Thorn Dominator. I just noticed some of my enhancements have expired...I'll do what I can to replace them in time for the big dance.
Name: Misumena Vatia
Global: @Billy Horrorshow

As someone who's playing a petless mastermind with trick arrow, I can vouch that Flash arrow is one of the best pulling tools in the game. The short answer: If you only plink one guy in the mob you just flash arrowed, the others are usually blissfully unaware. Here's how it works:

You flash a mob. You can now attack any single enemy in that mob (only once...hitting them twice WILL alert the entire mob) and they will leave the pack to come get you. I've done this on a few teams to pull select targets out of giant mobs and it works most of the time. (The exception is longbow. For whatever reason their perception is just high enough that its tricky to use.)
The other thing to remember is an aggro'd enemy will also "awaken" any other enemies that he runs into...so if you choose to pull the guy in the back (actually a possibility with flash arrow), pray to God he doesn't RUN THROUGH THE MOB to get at you.
By the way, my experience with flash arrow is with it slotted 4x with Debuff ToHit, so not everyone might be experiencing the same joy as I am with it. I don't know. But I do know that my Petless Mastermind could not have survived to level 17 if he didn't live and die by the pull of flash arrow.
So yes. Flash Arrow is really good at pulling. Really good. Just remember to make sure you're team knows that Flash does not aggro a mob...because it sure as hell looks like it does with that crazy explosion it has attached to it. (There have been some misunderstandins.)
Other advice: Do not skip Glue Arrow. It's crazy awesome. Even if it looks nasty and implicative as hell.

By the way, my same petless MM (Kaijukore) is also without a travel power, using the jetpack as you said. The best combo: Combat Jumping (over-chosen I know) combined with Hurdle. Sure, you don't run fast but hurdle increases the SPEED of your jumping by 124% (according to Tomax) while Sprint only increases your run speed by 35%. Combined the 200% jump height increase with the 166% hurdle gives, and you have an archer who can always jump out of enemy range.
Kaijukore doesn't have a "real" travel power but I still regularly beat those with them to the mission location. Think lots of short lightning fast jumps from rooftop to rooftop rather than one slow long one.

Hopefully some of that helps.
-jared

Edit: Just to clarify...The magic pulling trick of Flash arrow works MOST of the time. Some enemies, like Snakes, Lost, Mafia, Trolls...it works almost all the time. With Longbow or any of the "more perceptive" enemies, it's a gamble. But it will never aggro the ENTIRE mob, even in the worst case scenario. Just remember to only attack once before letting the enemy put some distance between him and his friends.

Update: While me fixing my computer took me out of the game early (lag/load times of death---more so than normal), I still had fun.
Particularly when we had the Stalker Trio running at full speed. The game really changes when the whole team is made up of Cloaked killers.
And despite the low numbers, I'm still going to keep doing this.
-jared
"who is trying to resist droppping jump kick with that free respec that's coming up"

Curse you MoonDog!
:deep breath:
Seriously though, dropping jump kick IS smart. I like it for style reasons but the moment I get a chance to respec I'm most likely going to ditch it too. Well, its either plan on ditching it or buy Air Superiority so both me and my target do nothing but flip around during the middle of combat.

By the way, see you guys tonight. Not sure where to meet: Say in front of the arena at port oakes? I'll be on a little early so if you see me, drop me a line.
-jared
"who is slowly learning to deal with his addiction to Alts. Mostly because he just realized he doesn't HAVE a main character."

That feels right somehow...mostly because once the team (the later one all with AS) decloaked, all the bosses were dead and everything else was just easy mopping up. I guess the logic with solo-ghosting is that even though you get less XP because you didn't defeat all the enemies, you can do more missions in the same amount of time as it would have taken otherwise.
So I'm cool with Ghosting as necessary. There are a few missions (like the Goldbricker RocketPack one) that I'd love to be able to speed finish with glee.

By the way, would it be crazy to take something from the Leadership Pool for this? The only alure is that Stalkers give a 35% increase to damage when they use Vengeance. As a stalker meant for a team of stalkers, I figured the buffs couldn't hurt and Vengeance would be splendid for us to have further down the road.
-jared

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Also, I missed last time, actually I forgot it
So will have to get 5ish levels by monday

[/ QUOTE ]

You have my global, let me know if you want a hand.
-jared

Nevermind. I watched far too many cartoons when I was a kid. Synergy was the computer and the word used to activate magical powers in the show Gem, a cartoon seriously hyped in the late 80's and early 90's in the States. Lord knows if it ever made it to Europe.
I think the only memorable thing was the bad guy from the show was a British punk band called, get this, "The Misfits". No relation to some other REAL band you would have heard of.
:end cartoon trivia geekery:
-jared