Ravenswing

Believe me, SW, her pyrophiliac does both.
And a real world pyrophiliac probably wouldn't live very long.

Okay. I'll have another look after my second coffee. One was just a missing word though, IIRC.

I did mean to write something for this week's paper... and then there was the whole 'not actually logging in until 7pm Sunday' thing.

I'm wondering if you might want to move your deadlines a little to give you time to proofread the articles. I noticed a couple of errors this week.

Interesting article about missing royal artifacts there.

This one does if he thinks it'll make a difference.

Practically, with regen, I usually don't get to run because I usually am either in no danger, or I'm dead.

I did, however, manage to save a TF by virtue of MoG and hyperphase, and having decided to take Recall Friend to be nice in teams.

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Yep. Nevermore was originally a complete contradiction to the setting because I had no idea what it was like.

Info on the CoH setting is notoriously sparse, vague, and sometimes contradictory.

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Yeah... but... Nevermore is still a complete contradiction to the setting, and the information on the background is less sparse than you care to admit. You didn't know there was a full timeline until I pointed it out.

Slightly more seriously, the background for CoH is dire. I heavily doubt it's internally consistent itself. In fact, I'm pretty sure it isn't. If Cryptic can't keep it straight, why should you?

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In other news, may I just say I loathe IE and it's utterly fubarred implementation of CSS?

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Leaving aside the usual "ZOMG!!11 U can't use IE, it is the suxxorz!!11one!" comments...

What was wrong with it? I use IE all the time and the paper displayed fine on my PC.

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however I prefer to have the options to leave DA out entirely in certain situations

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That would be why I have five attacks I can use aside from DA. If I'm dropping my usual attack chain, then I switch to jabbing whichever attack is available at the time. I put one recharge in all my attacks (except Lotus Drops, I think, which I don't bother using unless it happens to be ready), it means that they come back in reasonable time. Sting and Flashing don't recover fast enough for me without a single recred in.

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Who knows how the defense changes are really going to work out yet, anyway

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Um, people who read Dev's Corner. The maths change is actually pretty simple and moderately easy to predict what will happen.

Ok, how it will 'feel' is a different matter, but the actual numbers are quite predictable.

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If you're activating MoG around mobs which have ToHit buffs (which equate to -def debuffs) then you're asking to be killed anyway.

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Not really, that's why you put 3 SO Def Buf encs in it.

You're a regen scrapper, you have next to no defense or resistance. If you're already getting pasted, hitting MoG gives you big defense and resistance. Even if they are debuffing your defense, you're still probably going to give yourself time to RUN.

(Someone once said to me that PPs don't know how to use MoG. When they've activated MoG they stick around to fight instead of running away real fast.

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Your Sniper point is true, but off the top of my head the only sniper mob you'll meet when doing missions is the nemesis one - and if you're using MoG against mobs with Vengeance you're not being very clever.

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Other things have increased accuracy than snipers. Snipers were just used as an example. Come I7, Lieutenants, Bosses, Elit Bosses and AVs will all have enhanced accuracy.

Not sure they've ever been auto-hit, just very accurate. Certainly, they miss Crow sometimes even without any def buffs.

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Um... the defense 'cap' for scrappers is about 500%. They used to say there was no defense cap, but apparently there is, it's just very high.

Might be 400% for scrappers and 500% for tanks. it's something stupid.

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Heh, I meant 'cap' in that it will cap your defence against mobs, or floor their tohit. Probably not the best way to describe it

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Then you were assuming that none of the mobs you might face have any accuracy boosts of any kind. ToHit = BaseToHit + ACC - DEF. All the I7 Def changes do is to change the way BaseToHit and ACC are calculated for non-minions. If you're facing a sniper with +50% ACC (or something), you still need good +DEF to floor his ToHit score.

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And remember, at the time the war kicked off humans weren't very worried about the cyclons anymore.


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The humans weren't, but Adama was, same with more or less everyone on the Galacttica. If that was the kind of equipment they still had aboard ship, that's what they're stuck with. How old is the Galacttica supposed to be at the time the show starts?

I also think what you're forgetting is that a lot of the people on that ship are techno-phobes in one way or another. It seemed to me like the general populace would think nothing of a PDA or similar device. However, aboard Galacttica it's different, it's stuck in a time warp to a time when technology, especially computerised technology, is dangerous.
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that during the scene they WEREN'T on the the Galactica

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Um... the defense 'cap' for scrappers is about 500%. They used to say there was no defense cap, but apparently there is, it's just very high.

Might be 400% for scrappers and 500% for tanks. it's something stupid.

No, we do hate you, we just hide it well.

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A reasonable desire for a GSV is not going to be the same as a reasonable desire of a 6' man.

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True, but I always feel the Minds have more sense than to want more than they can have.

(GSVs, for those who don't know the stories, are space ships the size of small moons which act as the 'mobile homes' for the robotic Minds. A GSV is quite capable of demolishing a planet.)

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(Now, in my opinion, the really fun thing about Culture is how all its high ideals and pure ethicts are only made possible by the buffer of concentrated hypocrisy that is Special Circumstances.)


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True, but then you can think of The Culture is being like pure science. Pure science is great, unfortunately it rarely ever actually works without a buffer of practical science between it and the real world. With The Culture, the 'real world' is everywhere outside of The Culture.

PS. When I said humans earlier, btw, I didn't mean it. The 'common' race in The Culture are not human and don't come from Earth. They do look humanoid and can be sergically altered to look like humans quite easily. There's a short story where The Culture discovers 20th Century (-ish) Earth.

Shall we got this back on topic now?

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I'll give an example. There's a scene in the new series of Battlestar Galactica where you see Lee Adama using a tape recorder. This jarred quite badly considering we'll see them relegated to the museum within a few years and yet we can't build gaint spaceships that can travel faster than light.

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That would be you not paying attention to the setting, Inny.

There's a very solid reason why the systems in the new BG are... archaic, it means the Cylons can't remotely take control of them and turn them against the humans. it's actually fully explained in the (very good) pilot episode.

It might jar with your expectations, but it's supposed to, and it is logical.

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Nope, but then nobody else in Starfleet was either -- as the confederation was a money-free utopia. (No, that never made much sense to me either.)


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Leif, if you haven't, I suggest you read Iain M Banks' sci-fi novels. There you will find a society run by hyper-intelligent computers. There is no money, everyone does what they like within the confines of rules designed to stop people hurting each other. Humans are actually pretty much there because the robots like them as a distraction. They do, however, prove useful because humans can do some things that robots can't, and interact with other societies better than the robots do (especially societies that don't like robot brains).

It's all very well worked out, and I agree with Inny on this, there wouldn't be any need for money in any reasonably well structured, "highly advanced" society.

Of course, I'm reminded of Mars Attacks! "They are, clearly, highly intelligent and, therefore, peaceful." Yeah, right.


Beet! I think I know what your problem is, you lack patience. This is definately better than your first piece, but I think the problem is that you want to get it written down and out there when you should be taking your time.

What I'd suggest is the following:
* Read more. Get books, read them. Don't just read the story, examine how the author has crafted their text. The secret of good creative writing is figuring out how good creative writers actually write and doing the same in your own style.

* Take more time at writing. Use adjectives, adverbs, longer sentences, pointless description. Tell us the robots "swarmed over the hills like a horde of angry bees". Describe how "the General's sword cut swathes through the massed, metallic ranks."

So, read more, take your time. You'll get better. I did.

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I definitely feel 2 recharges are worth it for SD and GD

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I have one in my main attacks and I use the following attack chain:

GD-DA-SD-SotW-DA-repeat

There's no gap that's worth bothering with. I will swap Lotus Drops for Sting if Lotus Drops is up and I have multiple targets. The repeat rate on DA is enough to get overlap, so you can expect pretty good +Def.

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In I7 it might not be worth it to slot for defense anymore.

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Why? If anything, I'd rather have more defense than less.

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Well, for that choice I took into consideration idris' post stating about 25% Lethal/Smash Resistance would be possible.

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Bit of maths later, yes, that's correct. OTOH, that would be 23% with single-slotted Resilience. I think you could make better use of the two slots than giving you the extra 2% resistance to Smashing and Lethal. Your choice, however.

BTW, running Tough as well as Focussed Accuracy is a really good reason for 3-slotting Stamina. At a rough guess, when you really need them (say, against an AV) you'll be running out of endurance before the target falls over, but it's not like I've done a test on that.

Word back from my partner, she is still having some fun with endurance management when running FA, so the extra slots in Stamina might be good. It probably isn't that important until the late-game, however.

For reference and not to recommend this as a great build, below is War Crow's current state, he just hit level 44.

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Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder
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Name: War Crow
Level: 44
Archetype: Scrapper
Primary: Katana
Secondary: Regeneration
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01) --> Sting of the Wasp==> Acc(1)Acc(3)Rechg(11)Dmg(19)Dmg(43)Dmg(43)
01) --> Fast Healing==> Heal(1)Heal(5)Heal(7)
02) --> Flashing Steel==> Acc(2)Acc(3)Rechg(11)Dmg(19)
04) --> Quick Recovery==> EndMod(4)EndMod(5)EndMod(7)
06) --> Reconstruction==> Rechg(6)Rechg(15)Heal(17)Heal(23)Heal(25)
08) --> Divine Avalanche==> Acc(8)Acc(9)Rechg(9)DefBuf(13)DefBuf(13)DefBuf(15)
10) --> Dull Pain==> Rechg(10)Rechg(17)Rechg(21)Heal(25)Heal(37)Heal(37)
12) --> Recall Friend==> Rechg(12)
14) --> Teleport==> Range(14)Range(37)Range(40)
16) --> Integration==> Heal(16)Heal(21)Heal(23)
18) --> Swift==> Run(18)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22)
24) --> Resilience==> DmgRes(24)
26) --> Soaring Dragon==> Acc(26)Acc(27)Rechg(27)Dmg(29)Dmg(29)Dmg(31)
28) --> Instant Healing==> Rechg(28)Rechg(31)Rechg(31)Heal(36)Heal(36)Heal(36)
30) --> The Lotus Drops==> Acc(30)Acc(34)Dmg(42)Dmg(43)
32) --> Golden Dragonfly==> Acc(32)Acc(33)Rechg(33)Dmg(33)Dmg(34)Dmg(34)
35) --> Hover==> EndRdx(35)
38) --> Moment Of Glory==> DefBuf(38)DefBuf(39)DefBuf(39)Rechg(39)Rechg(40)Rechg(40)
41) --> Torrent==> Acc(41)Acc(42)Rechg(42)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Jump(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> Empty(2)
01) --> Critical Hit==> Empty(1)
---------------------------------------------

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And I don't know, but MoG seems in my eyes to be the opposite of the Regen concept.

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It is, but what it makes sense for is a 'berserk' celtic warrior, which makes it perfect for War Crow, Champion of The Morrigan!

Sheer utility-wise, it may break concept, but I think if you don't take it by the time you hit the Malta missions, you might as well not bother at all. So either get it when it's available, slot it out in time for 40, and forget about it IC, or don't bother taking it at all.

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I still left Stamina with 3 slots as it has been mentioned here that endurance might be an issue with Focused Accuracy, Tough and Integration running at a time.


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I'll ask my partner about Focussed Accuracy, she has it on her main.

Why are you bothering with Tough? As I remember it's even less worth having than Resilience. (Quite happy for someone to disagree, I haven't looked at the statistics recently.)

You only need one recharge reduction in your attacks to get a perfectly good attack chain, and beyond that, the recharge time of most katana attacks means there isn't much reason to put two recreds in. You're shaving fractions of a second off the time. Better to slot a second acc enhancement, or slot for the attack's secondary effect.

Swap Build-Up and Dull Pain. Disclaimer: I'm not a big fan of Build-Up at all and have never taken it on anything. I find the duration too short to be worth the bother. I think even Build-Up fans would admit Dull PAin is more use though.

Late-game power choices tend to be a matter of what suits you, but I'd have to say I wouldn't have picked any of the ones you did.

Resilience 3-slotted gets you all of about 7% resistance, compared to 5% with 1 SO. I wouldn't bother, put the slots into MoG as recreds and make it available more often.

You may wish to make more use of your character builder. The one you're using can give you loads of statistics on attacks, defenses, endurance consumption, you name it. Just sit and play with the slotting on powers and see how that affects your attack chain. You have an attack chain planner on the Tools menu (little buggy, but it seems ok most of the time), play with that, it'll tell you how long you can expect to keep fighting without running out of juice.

Okay, your day was worse than mine.

Yes, the difference between War Crow and Nevermore back in the beginning was that Crow would do anything it takes to get the job done, but Nevermore wouldn't. Exactly who's the stronger character is open to question.

We did experiment with it quite a lot a while back, I thought in quite an interesting way. Crow lost his girlfriend to Nevermore and couldn't cope. (I'm simplifying this to save time.) Crow 'coped' by using magic to wipe his mind of all emotion except a sense of duty to 'justice'. No compassion, no pity, no love, no hatred, no anger.

Of course, he had to be brought down because he was far too dangerous to let loose in the city. This is someone who might kill a handbag snatcher to stop them doing something worse. There was fiction about it. It was a rather cool plotline if I do say so myself. (And there were a lot of people a bit alarmed at how well I could play someone with no emotions. )

"see something to pity" be better? Whatever. I've had a long day, okay?

Excellent! Very good discussion.

What I'd like to say is that, from the start, I felt there was a distinction to be made here between the 'fallen hero' and the 'anti-hero in CoV'.

I have no problem with a fallen hero running around the Isles thinking he's trying to do good, slowly getting more villainous (or even finding redemption when the side-swapping system is available). It's an interesting concept, and it does have some nice stories to tell in CoV. The thing is, the only thing another villain is going to see if they find out that Black Tom 'thinks' he's doing it all for good is pity.

The anti-hero is a different matter. That is someone playing directly against the game's themes. Now, if you can have fun doing that, and it doesn't interfere with the fun of others, then more power to your elbow. But if my toon gets to hear about it, we'll be discussing your assassination. (Won't come to that, I don't RP in CoV worth a damn. )

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In PvP MoG is useless against controllers, though I dont often PvP..

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Surely the extra mez protection MoG gives you is an advantage when fighting controllers?

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And surely controllers have to hit you with their attacks, so having a baseline 71% def boost would be good...

I don't PvP much either, so I'll admit I haven't a clue if this works in practice.