Peacemoon

I got my bf's Fire/Thermal controller from 33 to 42, fun times

Also with his newly founded Heat Exhaustion and Melt Armour, we've been duoing Archvillains, fun fun!

Personally I don't like how when you first arrive at the forum everything is locked away under subtitles. I prefer it all to just be on show.

I'm a gay player and haven't felt the need to find a gay SG, though I tend to play in my own SG of just me and my BF, so I guess you could consider it a gay SG. >_>

Anyway, I'm always conscious that people could be using this game to 'come out' in before they do in real life. I don't agree with it though as in general, people in real life are far more accepting and people who are online behind anonymity can be far ruder. I hope these people, if they do exist, are aware of this.

I'd love to have the regions merged, I miss playing with EU people. Unfortunately I wasn't playing when they offered the one way boat from the U.S servers to the EU ones. Probably wont happen though

As a mind controller, I love how cheap Sleep and Confuse Epics are ;-)

Come on guys, obvious flame bait is obvious :P

P.S I'm really enjoying the new surge of Brit posters, I don't feel so alone here now

To be honest, I wonder if most players who only use AE and spam Atlas Park have even realised they are getting double exp

Hello my EU friends, welcome to the forums. I did try to migrate over to the EU servers but alas, missed the boat. So I am very happy to see us merge forums Hopefully it is the first step, and soon we will have mixed servers

So what did you think Largo?

As for which powers to skip for power pools, consider these 4:

1)Snow Storm - you wont be needing this except at low levels or the occasional AV fight. However at low levels you don't have stamina and thus drains you of end fast. Also only used in teams, pointless solo with the amount of single target stuff at your disposal.

2) Telekinesis - Toggle end and repel which while nice, is not necessary. Hurricane does a better job with repel plus brings a good debuff for EB fights. Stacking hold magnitude is great but again, Mind has many ways to control a single boss you don't really need another.

3) o2 Boost - A good heal but cannot be used solo and has a very limited effect. It is nice for keeping the team topped up however if you focus too much on healing, you wont be controlling and as a result, will doom the team you are meant to be protecting.

4) Tornado - I like this power, however I left it till 49 to claim it. It's great for EB's for extra damage which I felt would help me the most. However in most fights as a Mind/Storm you wont find Tornado particularly helpful, EB fights are only a small portion of the game and Tornado only helps if you are trying to solo them really, unless the group is struggling.

I spent 45 mins writing a mini guide but the forum ate it :'(

I'm the forums resident Mind/Storm and in the process of writing a guide, here some useful tidbits that should help however.

Short Version: Yes they are very compatiable.

Mind Control Strengths:
i) Powerful single target attack chain straight out of the box (Mesmerize, Levitate, Dominate)
ii) Powerful AoE control, Mass Hypnosis, Mass Confusion, Total Domination, Terrify.
iii) No knockback protection for when using freezing rain = more soft control.
iv) Good AoE damage before EPP's with Terrify
v) Aggro free controls which don't give away your presence.

Weaknesses:
i) No reliable containment outside of Total Domination. Mass hypnosis can set up initial containment, but it breaks early.
ii) No knockback protection (Means Tornado has to be reserved for groups or elite bosses)

Storm has great synergy here though. Mind Control is one of the few Control sets which gets such a huge benefit from Thunderclap, a fast recharge, long duration, large radius Mag 2 stun. This allows you to put containment on all minions and then AoE them down with Terrify + EPP AoE.

Storm's steamy mist allows you to really reap the benefits from the no aggro control as well. In a team, you can always be 1 step ahead of the group, prepering the mobs before the team even arrives.

Storm also brings 2 great pets, just incase you missed them. Lightning Storm and Tornado. Lightning Storm to me, is the perfect Controller pet. Summon it when needed, it doesn't run off chasing mobs, its reliable and if you stack recharge, you can have 2 or 3 of them up at once. Just be clever how you position it, each bold causes knockback which you cannot prevent. Tornado isn't as useful for a Mind/, however it is awesome against Elite bosses and AV's who are immune to knockback, so it just sits next to them dealing lovely smashing damage.


Mind/Storm is an awesome combination. It soloes well right from level 1, adds lots to a team and is fun to level up because it is always increasing in power. Once you hit 50, there are lots of oppertunities for some massive IO slotting also.

Let me ask a question, if you are solo and play on difficulty 5, do elite bosses spawn as archvillains? Is this how people solo AV's?

I ask because I play on difficulty 4 and they always spawn as elite bosses. I never really have any problems with them, just curious as to how people are facing them.

At a glance, I can't really say I agree with your build plan.

Everyone has done a good job describing the powers, so I'll say which powers I think are MOST skippable.

1st) Snow Storm - Endurance hogging toggle which shouldn't do much if you have things locked down. This may be more useful for Gravity then it is for my Mind Controller.

2nd) o2 Boost - Its a good heal and gives some nice status protection from stun and sleep. Having said that, you can only use it in teams and Singularity cannot be healed. I only recently included it and while I enjoy being able to heal my partner, its not necessary.

3rd) Tornado - Fun and great power which causes chaos, but usually reserved for tough fights and when soloing archvillains. Their resistance to knockback means it sticks in melee range and does good damage. Having said that, AV fights are only a tiny portion of the game.

If you need to drop some /storm powers, those 3 are the ones to begin with in my opinion. Personally, the only /storm power I skip is Snow Storm.

Critics need to learn to give MA authors the benefit of the doubt, like they would with dev created stuff. (Or at the very least, are more likely too)

Some of the reviews I've read are very quick to make assumptions that the author is incorrect. If they didn't make these assumptions, they would then go on to think about the situation more logically and in a lot of cases, discover the author was actually right. This is my biggest gripe really.

If there is a small hole in the story and you insist on driving a train through it to destroy your own fun, then one could argue that is a fault of the player and not the author. Of course it depends on the hole, but people seem to get preoccupied by little things despite the fact that overall, it is most often a good well written story and a lot of fun. Shame.

Wow.

I am feeling very sorry for the author at the moment. All I can say, if you are still reading Witch, is that people are very over-critical about AE arcs and it is just something you will have to deal with.

The other interesting point about AE arcs is wheras in normal arcs, players begin by questioning themselves: 'I wonder if I misunderstood this?' in AE arcs, they begin by questioning the author and the mission 'This isn't right, the author has done this wrong.'

This is a fundemental problem but nothing that can be changed. In my mind, it is due to the fact that players are aware that the mission is created not by a dev, but another player - a peer. They know it is created by someone who probably has less knowledge then themselves, and this fuels the over-critical nature. An analogy would be schools. Dev made missions are ones made by tutors, player made missions are made by other students.

Or in other words, instead of filling the blanks with something that will justify the story(as they would in a dev made mission), they fill in the blanks with something that contradicts the story.

I look forward to playing this arc when the servers come online Witch, and would like to thank you for taking the time to create such a thought provoking story.

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Arc 275741, Peacemoon's All-Star Challenge,
@Peacemoon

Two large maps and three unique maps - sounds enormous! The weirdest part, the levels for each of the 5 missions have no overlap. 6-9/17-19/27-29/36-39/50-54. Understanding that the premise is to face increasingly tough villains, it is difficult to pick a toon for this. Only a character from 6-9 will gain XP throughout the arc. Will such a character survive the 50-54 level mission? Even in a group?

I'll take a level 50 toon through this, since they don't get XP anyway. But I do wonder what audience you're expecting to play this.

The arc is explained as a simulation.
Mission 1 intro: bare -> bear
The description implies I'm high level when I begin. Perhaps suggest this to players in the Arc Description.
The sendoff says "won't have access to hardly any of your powers" - double-negative. Perhaps "won't have access to many of your powers".
Peacemoon's description: as nurse -> as a nurse

There's not really any story here. I can't imagine a storyline making sense if it was to try to tie the bosses together. But perhaps there could be a story about why the simulation was created - to prepare you for [something], to test your capabilities for the Menders to target you at your weakest time in history, whenever that might be [providing a different reason to trick you into being there] or some other story.
Mission 1 return: lets -> let's

I only did mission 1 since I'm really looking for story arcs. I didn't vote.

Cheers, airhead

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Hey Airhead, you are right this is not really an arc for xp per say. It is an arc designed to challenge and test players. Some characters will get xp towards the end, however in a sense the reward is the tickets and the sense of accomplishment. For this reason it is assumed people will choose higher level characters.

As for story, the arc is written as a story in the sense that you are offered the chance to take up 5 trials in the virtual reality matrix. Where as most stories try to make the virtual reality into a real world, this arc states you are entering virtual reality and that should explain why you meet old faces like Marrowsnap, Hellspawn and Patient Zero in the first mission. It is not the real them, but a virtual reality version crafted by the creator of the trials to make it challenging. I did go to some lengths to put in backstory and text and not just have faceless enemies and "trial 1, begin". This should also explain the variety of enemies you face.

I hope that clears some things up. Nevertheless, thank you very much for the feedback.

ID: 275741
Style: Challenge
Group Size: Solo or small teams
Level: The missions cover all level ranges, which include the 40-50 range. As a result I advise participants to be over secutiry level 30 if they want to go all the way.
Morality: Hero

I thought I'd throw my latest arc out there just incase there were people on this forum who might enjoy it. It is a challenge arc which takes the most difficult canon enemies for you to fight against to test your characters strength across all level ranges.

It has no custom enemies and no obnoxious elite bosses or arch villains. It is designed for solo players or small teams. The idea of each mission is to hunt down a number of named bosses who are taken from canon missions (and their text will be constantly included as I find it)

It is actually very fun, if you like challenging content. I've taken over 10 people through this story arc, not all have rated it however everyone has really really enjoyed it.

As for feedback, any feedback on the difficulty of the missions would be appreciated. As well as any enemies you think I have missed which should be included, or perhaps enemies that I included that you feel are actually too easy to be present.

If you do play it, I hope you find it very enjoyable.

-Peace

Empathy/Psi is another bad combo then as you've done FF. Just you will be pulling your hair out when it comes to robot missions, and stacking insps when it comes to nasty bosses.

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So then you're all basically saying the IS no weak combo, just slow ones? That's not what I wanted to hear. I wanted WEAK.

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Hey I told you, Defenders are weak, vulnerable and slow. Especially FF or Empathy solo.

Controllers are slow and tedious, but their control means they aren't vulnerable.

Go with FF/Archery for a weak combo. /Energy is bad, but the knockback would make things a bit easier solo :P

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EDIT: if you want a challenge, go ice/emp solo.

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I'm not sure about challenge. Controllers aren't really challenging since the control can easily eliminate the worst enemies have to offer. Definitely slow and tedious though, especially if you slot your powers for hold duration and not damage.

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Mind Bubbler Controller

Do It... Solo...

-or-

Earth Trick Arrow Controller

Do It... Solo...

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Hey, Mind Control is a very powerful solo set actually. Slot Dominate, Mesmerize and Levitate for damage and you will be suprised at just how effective it is, irregardless of secondary.

The weakest combo solo would probably have to be either an empath or forcefield defender with a not so good secondary.

On this line of thought, you are welcome to try out my arc - I'm sure with this kind of outlook you will find it really fun.

The only thing I hate is the cess pool that Atlas Park has turned into and the spam.

The fact that according to search around 40-50% of the server is in that one zone doesn't help either.

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As someone who knows how hard it can be to lead

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Wait, wut? Hard? Huh?

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Sorry, that should be "As someone who knows how hard it can be to lead well" :P

As opposed to how easy it is to just join someone elses team and not really have to do anything, of course.