Ravenswing

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And for those who give a damn, during that 'Blip' ... Destiny probably just smiled and said "Thats better" :P

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An accurate summation; as you'll discover when we get the fiction out. First draft is written, btw. Needs to be fiddled with. Probable release sometime this week.

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would they do the same?

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Don't know about the other zones, but in Union's Warburg they almost certainly would. Most of the people there doing missions are there to farm the fast, high xp missions, not for PvP. (Then again, not so many people seem to PvP there anymore.)

For those interested, background for the 'new' versions of War Crow and Stargazer:


War Crow and Stargazer got together not long after she appeared in the
city. Neither is particularly secretive about their heroic activities, but
neither goes out of their way to have their private life displayed on the
front pages either. Most people who have known them for a while know both
their heroic and real identities.

War Crow made a bit of a name for himself after rescuing some local garage
mechanic and his family from the Clockwork. By the time he got his face on
TV after rescuing the staff of a TV station, Stargazer was working
extensively with him. Some newspapers consider the couple photogenic, and
their exploits aren't difficult to follow in the newspapers and nightly
HeroNews reports on TV.

Having been one of the first heroes to heed The Prize's call to arms, War
Crow was quite well known around those who meet at Galaxy Girl. Something
of a loner, he helps where he can, being particularly known for his
extensive knowledge of magic. He and Nevermore have been friends since
those early days and various people have wondered why he never joined the
Vigil. In his mundane life, Dafydd Cerwys is a courier, taking valuable,
secure, or dangerous packages to places around Paragon City.

Stargazer did first appear as Crow's sidekick, but her talent for healing
and her physical presence brought her quickly out from under his shadow.
Her private life is rather better hidden than Crow's. It is known that she
works at the hospital in King's Row, but she probably has another job she
keeps quieter. She's known to work closely with the Vigil on occasion, but
still maintains a hero-licence. This seems more something that has come
from the friendship between War Crow and Nevermore then being officially
tied to them. Those who are her close friends, such as the Rolando family,
know she is still working part time as an exotic dancer in a club in
Kings's Row, where Amelia Careros started when arriving in the city early
2005.

Neither Crow, nor Star have been around GG much for months. Apparently
their work, both heroic and mundane, has kept them away. There will surely
be a few new faces who haven't met them before.

But you had a specific meaning in mind, yes? You want it to be a combat arena. Sometimes you don't get to pick where you have your battles. I'm sure every military commander in the world would love to be able to select his battleground for his best effect, but they can't.

That siad, I don't find Warburg particularly bad, at least for navigation to PvP missions. And all the little alleys make it easier to hide from PvPers.

Okay... so you're saying that all the buff/debuff missions in Sirens and Warburg scare off the PvPers because the people running the missions are affecting how their damage/accuracy works?

I want to understand this. I've pretty much out-levelled Warburg now, so I don't go there much. When I do, it's pretty empty. Sirens I've been to a couple of times recently, and found it largely unpopulated, though better than Warburg.

I haven't been attacked in Warburg in ages. I did get hit by a Stalker (it's so interesting that Stalkers are always the most wanted when I go in there) last time I was in Siren's. Hardly surprising, he was camping the street outside the hero base, but wasn't using Hide very effectively. I'm sure I looked like a nice target, I just wasn't that easy to kill.

So have all the PvPers been scared off by the PvE missions?
Or was it actually not a very popular addition in the first place?

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Miss Ellie ate Up n Away salad. Catch ate Up n Away salad.

Miss Ellie went insane and evil. Catch mutated, then went insane and evil.

Up n Away Salad makes you insane and evil!!! The salad dressing mutates you as well!!!

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Should be as above.

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its too dark for a decent arena

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Probably because it isn't an arena.

But that's not how these buffs work. There is a single buff/debuff, which has a variable value according to what missions are run. At least I assume that's the case, as it's how it works in Warburg.

Doesn't Siren's Call get the little messages telling you that "Dumb Hero has completed a mission and the villains now have a 10% damage debuff". That's what you get in Warburg.


To the OP: Basically what you seem to be saying is that the PvP zones are for regular PvPers, and everyone else can just get lost, because we mess up your calculations. Is that correct?

There are still rumours of what the chiken (not a spelling mistake) does to you...

Anything electric based does endurance drain as a secondary effect. My DM scrapper has an end drain power, IIRC. There are a few about.

I'd imagine if you slotted up an electric blaster for the secondary effect you could get a reasonable drain.

My favoured for katana is Golden Dragonfly, Soaring Dragon. Even if they survive it, they're too busy getting back up to survive the follow-ups.

Nah. Come Sunday Nevermore and Crow will be back on the case. What they can't solve between them probably already ate the world.

Quite true. I could counter that that extra couple of percent DEF may mean you don't get hit by the power, so no drain.

I don't have the PvP experience, but from a PvE stand-point, endurance drain powers fall into two categories:

1. Big ones (Sappers, Ringmistresses). The drain from your powers makes no difference since you're on zero END after 203 hits.

2. Small ones (electric freaks, clockwork). The drain from your powers makes little or no difference, as long as you have 3-slotted Stamina.

As I say though, that's based on PvE experience, not PvP. No one's ever tried an END drain on me in my 5 PvP fights.

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nooooooooooo!!!

making them LT's would mean giving them more hitpoints thus prolonging the pain

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Massively agree with Gonk here. Promoting them pushes them up toward the level of Ringmistresses, which are real pains in the bottom.

Sappers aren;t difficult solo, in fact I find them quite easy because they are minions. A single sapper is only dangerous if you get caught unawares. If you have MoG, they aren't dangerous then either. If I have warning that the little zapper is there, they die first, and before they can do much damage.

Sappers are defeatable solo using planning, a bit of luck, and tactics.

Ringmistresses are defeatable solo by clicking IH and hoping you can flatten the silly woman before it runs out. I hate Ringmistresses so much more than sappers, and that's partially because they do psi damage, but mostly because they are bosses and take a long time to kill. Making sappers lieutenants would just make them worse.

I'd slot it for +DEF as well. Yeah, the boost won't be exactly huge, but by the same token, the -ENC will shave a tiny fraction off the drain. You probably get a better boost to DEF than you do a drop in END.

See... ya try to make a character nicer, and all you end up with is trouble. Better to just kill everyone, and then there are no character interaction problems.

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Skip that defense + small damage thingy that's in the primary set

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You mean Divine Avalanch, one of the most powerful +DEF Buffs in the game? I'll be taking it. But then I am more concerned about PvE.

However, since not getting hit is what ninjutsu is mostly about, I'd like to have my 50%+ DEF boost, if it's all the same.

Actually, you can conceal your aura, if you know what you're doing. Ages ago, Crow offered to make Nevermore a device to do it, but then Nevermore knicked Crow's girlfirned...

The effect is not so much to conceal the aura as to obscure it. We've used it on a few villains, and Crow was set up to use the same trick when in costume prior to becoming just Dafydd.

Since Nevermore didn't know the trick with the auras until Crow pointed it out, and he probably wouldn't twig the scent trick until Ellie pointed it out, we can assume that both Crow and Ellie know the 'secret'. Crow made it patently clear that he didn't give a monkey's who Nevermore was when he first met Alan Drake. I think that might have cememnted their friendship a little; "I know, but it's safe with me."

Since Crow would know who Nevermore is, Chill could still have captured him for that information, and I guess we just need to say they worked on a case together, it just won't be Amelia's kidnapping.

Hey, you know, we actually need a reason for Crow and Nevermore to be friends. The weird thing is that, until Amelia was kidnapped by her father, they didn't really know each other. Crow asked Nevermore for help, and so they became friends... until Nevermore knicked his girl.

They need to be friends before Chill comes into play. And can anyone remember why she grabbed Crow anyway?

Fair enough, but Focussed Accuracy isn't available to scrappers until 41, AFAIK. Pretty sure they were still slotting for 6dam.

PS. I do find it useful for sappers, obviously. However, since I solo a lot, it's mostly of use if I get caught by surprise. If I can see them, they're dead before I have to worry about it; they're only minions.

Now what I could really use it for is Ringmistresses, but there it's useless.

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that QR was a 35% end recovery, and Stamina was 25%, but together they were only 45%

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Horses for courses, mate. I'll take the extra 10%.

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Actually MoG is pretty good in PvE. Malta Sappers hate it, actually anything that isn't Psi hates it.

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I'll let you know. I've got it slotted better since last night, though I've yet to actually run into a mission where I needed it.

However, no matter how much I have it slotted for DEF, 5% of attacks are going to hit me. 60% of their damage is going to get through and hit my 10% hit points (I think those figures are about right). If, as is the case, I use MoG in emergencies, often when surrounded, I'm going to get hit more and I'm going to be eating into my diminished damage. Even with DP running, 20 points of damage getting through is 10% of my remaining hits...

And it's useless against an alarming number of higher-level mobs.

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And I don't get what you say about 'Now that ED's in'... since the best way to keep DPS as it was is to slot 1 acc 3 dam and 2 recharge.

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Pardon me if I go with 2acc/3dam/1rec. The extra recharge is more or less useless on katana. The extra accuracy makes sure I can handle mobs with higher DEF, and means I make up for some of that drop in base accuracy you mention should I ever actually get into a PvP fight.

I said, 'now that ED is in' because more people are probably slotting accs now. In I5, a lot of people had 6dam in their attacks, and you know it.

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And your accuracy is lowered by 25% in PvP, RW.

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I know JH.

And it's probably 20% for me, katana has a 5% accuracy boost inherent.

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Unless you gear them properly and know how to play one

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And there-in lies the issue, for Cryptic wish to nerf skill. If you play well, you must be brought down to the level of those who can't. So sayeth the L... Statesman.

Bit of experimentation last night with new build.

Get Stamina.

I changed from 3-slotted Stamina to 1-slotted and there's a noticeable difference in endurance recovery. I'll probably be putting back the two slots next level.

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Don't try and justify the fact that there nerfing the stalker assisin strike. The main reason stalkers exist. I don't wanna hear "but tanks get more mobility" "AV'S wont be able to one shot you". If they make something they should [censored] keep it that way. COH is not the same game i bought a few years ago and it looks like COV won't be either. the devs just clapse under complaints. If they though the stalker was overpowerd why didn't they sort that out before they released the game????

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Beg pardon. I'm not justifying anything. Not my job. If you are that long serving, presumably you saw the posts I made on the CoV beta board concerning this.

As you (more or less) state, the only thing Stalkers are any good for is AS. After that they are a blaster with melee range attacks, i.e. a big, fat target. I don't agree with the Stalker nerf, I simply list the potential side-effects.

So, kindly keep your temper to yourself, or stop posting what sounds like angry vitriol.

And as for the "if they make something they shouldn't change it" remark, that's just plain silly. By the same argument, they shouldn't fix bugs!

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Instant healing recharge is stupidly long. IH being the main power from regen and we can barely use it every 3 or fights

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Let me guess, 8-man teams set on invincible?

I need IH once a mission.