Redlynne

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That includes a new animation for assassin's strike (Assassin's Blow?).

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For shame BABs ... that you do not think to implement the Quivering Palm.

Or if you prefer to watch Kill Bill part 2 again ... watch The Bride kill her husband at the end of the movie ... after he walks 5 steps.

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Hey how do you guys slot this nifty little joygasm of a power on your triforms?

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6-slot Efficacy Adapter ... the set bonuses are everything a growing warshade needs.

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Something like this is what Shield Charge was meant to be. Alas, despite a LOT of work from Sunstorm, BABs and myself, there ended up not being a way to get this functionality to work.

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Just to eliminate the possibility Castle ... what about a combo teleport to target+EC kick effect in order to achieve the necessary range+animation effect? I'm presuming that such a combination was considered and would just like verification that there's no way it could work (the way you'd want it to) for the 20-30' distance proposed above.

I'm sure BABs could work up a 0.5 second "launch" animation that would work for with that without breaking a sweat, but the real question is whether or not the game engine that controls what is "allowed" to happen would be able to stretch that far without some serious kludging/hacking.

Ninja / TA + Teleport Foe = Flash Arrow + Abduction

If you're soloing, it's an extremely powerful (if slow) combo. It lets you "single out" minions so as to Thin The Herd without drawing aggro in a lot of situations. I call it "feeding 'em to the ninjas" ... because you have numbers, and they don't ... and you have friends/pets all around you ... and they don't.

What could possibly be more "ninja" than simply making your enemies ... disappear ... without anyone else noticing their (former) friends are gone?

Requires patient play, since it's not a steamroller tactic, but delivers steady, reliable performance from level 8 onwards ... and sets you up for your travel power (teleport) at 14.

It's going to be a while EnnVee before the Spring Knights base is ready for a revisit. Still gathering up prestige and building out at this point.

Level 20: Black Dwarf Mire -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg: 25 (A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg: 25 (19)

[u]Eradication[u]
(Black Dwarf Mire)<ul type="square">[*] 1.8% Max End[/list]


Only had room in my build for 2 slots on Mire, but these do quite well for such a minimal investment. With all the other global recharge bonuses in my build, the recharge on Dwarf Mire is only 10.3 seconds ... and the endurance cost is 13.7 ... which is not bad. And the set bonus buff to max END operates in all forms, not just in Dwarf form.

Makes for a very nice compromise (and yes, I know this *is* a compromise slotting).

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They'd been dying on the next spawn without killing anything.

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We shall now quote the great and mighty Lady Sadoko for effect:

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Heal0rs are like Depends only for the incompetent.

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Game
<ul type="square">[*]Addressed several bugs that were causing stability issues.[/list]
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Ghost Falcon.
ANY word at all about the client stability bug that causes the client to crash after playing for a while? This happens most often when zoning, but can also happen when needing to load new graphics (including UI elements for the auction house listings as well as SG settings screens). It's also a hazard when editing a base for an extended period of time, probably due to the multiple refreshes that happen while editing.

Bare minimum, it "feels" like some sort of memory leak, and has a nasty habit of disconnecting (through crashing) players, not just myself, at extremely inopportune moments.

So ... any word on THAT stability issue(s)?

Considering that the difference between a slotted up Maneuvers + Tactics/Gaussian and Weave is like ... what ... 2%? ... it's not THAT hard of a choice to make. The bigger question is if you've got the slots to spare for going the Leadership route rather than the Fighting route.

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Here it goes:

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Castle creates a new Mastermind called the Mind Controller.

Rather than summoning the pets, you apply a target AoE confuse toggle to the appropriate ranking of critters you find yourself faced with. END costs are based on the number of targets affected (max: 3/2/1, to match other masterminds). You won't be able to equip/upgrade your "pets" while they're confused, and you won't have the ability to "command" your confused "pets" like other masterminds can ... but your attacks will have a "Taunt Confused Foes" component to them similar to Gauntlet for Tankers, which will give you (some) ability to "direct traffic by 'designating' targets" via your attack powers.

Your confused "pets" are of course damaged by player allies, just like normal ... so expect to be recasting your toggles often on fresh victims a lot as you move through hostile territory.

Replace Taunt with Ice Sword Circle when Ice Melee is a Primary Powerset.

DONE.

Spotted one of the Virtue Taxi-bots hanging out at the green tram in north Steel last week as I was leaving the station. Turned right around and read their fortune, right there on the spot ... because everyone should support their local Taxi-bot service.

Personally, I recommend Maneuvers (*gasp!* *shock!* *horrors!*) rather than Weave ... especially if you can slot up Maneuvers. That's because Maneuvers offers ~1/2 the defensive protection of Weave ... which means if there's two players on a team with Maneuvers, then you're effectively giving everyone on the team a "weave-ish" level of defense. And if you've got Maneuvers yourself, that means you only need one teammate with Maneuvers to "complete the link" on this little bonus for everyone.

When two players have Weave ... only they get Weave level defense ... and you have to spend 3 power picks in order to get Weave.

When two players on a team both have Maneuvers ... the entire team benefits from Weave level defense ... and you only have to spend 1 power pick (and have a teammate with Maneuvers also) to get the equivalent to a Weave for everyone.

Plus Maneuvers gives you the Leadership Pool, which allows you to access Assault, Tactics, and for the Necromantically Powerful ... Vengeance. ALL of these powers are "useful" whether you're soloing or in a team (except for Vengeance, which is team useful only).

And if you take Maneuvers (and slot it for Defense) and take Tactics (and 6-slot it for Gaussian's) then you've got a substantial portion of Weave level defense for only TWO power picks (and a bunch of enhancement slots) that do a heck of a lot more for you than just merely adding to your defense.

And as an Ice/Ice Tanker, you aren't going to be getting mezzed all that often ... which means your toggles will tend to stay up at all time ... unlike certain squishies of the Defender/Controller variety ... except while Hibernating (when the suppress, rather than shut off).

I'm going to have to go with Warshade myself. The secondary effect on the attacks (slow vs defense debuff) means that simply by spamming attacks I can "destroy" the recharge speed of a targeted foe ... especially when slotting Pacing of the Turtle procs into almost every single power, for massive -Recharge stacking. It also means that weaklings don't "go far" when they try to run away, simply because of all the slows stacked on them. Makes for a nice bonus on teams where keeping the tanker alive helps everyone.

I definitely prefer the human form teleport to flight modes, since I can use Nova for flying without a problem, so again ... Warshade preference.

I also feel that the Warshade's combination of utility powers is "more useful" in being able to stealth+teleport through hazardous areas (both indoors and outdoors) so that I don't have to fight my way through everything if I don't want to. The Warshade also offers more "controller-y" powers in its arsenal, which also skews towards my preferences as well.

I use an incredibly high tech tool for offline base layouts.

It's called Notepad.
Comes free with Windoze.

Seriously, all you need is a text editor that keeps the spacing of the text characters uniform regardless of actual character width.

The basic problem you're asking about is whether or not teams have time to "slow down and read the story."

In my experience, the more people there are on a team, the greater the impetus to FIGHTFIGHTFIGHT!!! and skip over anything as fast as possible that doesn't involve fighting something. That's why, if you're going for a Story themed arc, you really need to skew it towards soloists ... because only soloists (might) slow down long enough to use their literacy skills (let alone their literature appreciation skills). Teams don't slow down for story, since that takes away time from "killing everything" they run across.

So to answer your question ... you're writing a story based arc, that means you should be designing it for soloists, meaning you should avoid EBs and AVs if you feel you can get away with doing so.

Bubblegum Warshade

Everything is Hubba Bubba pink ...

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[u]Propel[u]
i) Make this power a cone power

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You know what? I think I'd actually be happier with Propel as a Snipe attack. Something really long ranged, with an Interrupt. That, at the very least, would "excuse" its absurdly long animation time (and would let BaBs increase the projectile velocity to "Ludicrous Speed!"). As is, Propel is decidedly SHORT ranged compared to the rest of the set ... which is odd, since you'd think that thematically Gravity would prefer to function at longer ranges since that would allow more time/distance for more acceleration (ie. greater kinetic and momentum impacts).

Too bad the CoX game engine doesn't have any sort of damage enhance/decay with range mechanism built into it, where your attacks can become more/less effective depending on how far away the target is when the power is activated. I can think of all sorts of powers in different power sets where a range enhance/decay to damage would thematically be very appropriate. And you'd want to be able to write/program the mechanic to work "in both directions" so that damage can be reduced or increased as range to target increases.

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[u]Dimension Shift[u]
i) Turn this power into a toggle.
ii) Make the power single target and give Gravity an alternative AoE control power.
iii) Turn this into a self toggle, so the player becomes intangible.

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iv) Turn this into a PBAoE toggle that affects teammates, allowing the power to be used both proactively and reactively, with the timing for usage and dispelling of the effect directly under player control.

"Hey, cool costume! How'd you manage to build the squid look?"

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You can wait for the NPCs to stop being intangible

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Obviously, you've not been on any of the PuGs I've been saddled with. You know it's bad when even the scrappers can't abide by the 6 second rule (known to all scrappers as, "if I haven't defeated something within the last 6 seconds, I'm clear to attack!").

And to be fair, I personally prefer the Reverse Gravity idea better myself anyway.

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http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Invention_Salvage_Tiers

Has it in the auction house listing order

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I know, which is why I honestly have to wonder why the left window of the auction house organizes things the way it does ... since that ordering doesn't happen anywhere else.

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Very bad idea in the making. Making NPCs unable to be defeated is bad enough, but making it so, as an Ally, I can't defeat ANY NPC or enemy? That's a bad, bad idea right there.

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As matters exist on live, you have ONE OPTION ... WAIT for the duration to expire, since Dimension Shift is a click power.

As proposed here, you'd have (at least) THREE OPTIONS to choose from ... tell the Gravity Controller to detoggle (also known as "Ready!" emote) and they obligingly detoggle ... or /kick. Either way, the power effects are removed from the team in very short order and you can resume engaging Foes. Third option, of course, is to wait for the (griefer) Gravity Controller to drain themselves of END ... at which point they can't maintain the toggle anyway due to rapidly rising cost, the intangibility drops, and they get /kick from team for being "unhelpful" to the team effort.

The point being, that instead of having only ONE way to deal with the intangibility (wait it out), the ability to cancel the effect (at any time) is in the hands of the player(s) ... giving you multiple ways of leveraging the power to the team's advantage.

Such as being able to Dimension Shift the whole team, wade into the middle of a big pile, and let the mobs all waste their alpha strikes on things they can't hit (ie. The Team). THEN you (the Gravity Controller) drop the Dimension Shift once the alpha threat is "disposed of" and your team responds with a retaliatory alpha strike of its own.

And that's before even including such things as making the Dimension Shift effect suppress for 10 seconds when you attack out of it ... kind of like how Travel Powers suppress their effects on target (ie. yourself) when you attack.

Using Dimension Shift offensively to help your team "get the drop" on mobs in PvE, rather than (merely) defensively as an "OH [censored]!!" power?

Bet you didn't think of that one, now did you?

Man, I wish the Salvage list in Wentworths/Black Market/Merit Vendors were arranged even approximately close to something like this chart. Would make things so much easier to find.

<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>Arcane Salvage

1-25 25-40 40-50

C Ancient Artifact Alchemical Silver Demonic Threat Report
o Clockwork Winder Ancient Bone Fortune
m Luck Charm Demonic Blood Sample Nevermelting Ice
m Runebound Armor Masterwork Weapon Regenerating Flesh
o Spell Scroll Rune Ruby
n Spiritual Essence Spell Ink Spirit Thorn

U
n Clockwork Gear Alchemical Gold Bleeding Stone
c Psionic Ectoplasm Blood of the Incarnate Destiny
o Soulbound Armor Carnival of Shadows Mask Psionic Threat Report
m Temporal Sands Ensorcelled Weapon Sapphire
m Unearthed Relic Living Tattoo Thorn Tree Vine
o Volume of the Obsidian Librum Symbol Unquenchable Flame
n

Lament Box Black Blood of the Earth Diamond
R Page from the Malleus Mundi Deific Weapon Essence of the Furies
a Psionically Charged Brass Empowered Sigil Hamidon Goo
r Psionic Manifestation Enchanted Impervium Magical Conspiracy
e Strand of Fate Mu Vestment Pangean Soil
Symbiotic Armor Soul Trapped Gem Prophecy



Tech Salvage

1-25 25-40 40-50

C Boresight Circuit Board Ceramic Armor Plate
o Brass Improvised Cybernetic Hydraulic Piston
m Computer Virus Inert Gas Kinetic Weapon
m Human Blood Sample Iron Mathematic Proof
o Inanimate Carbon Rod Scientific Theory Silver
n Simple Computer Virus Stabilized Mutant Genome Temporal Analyzer

U
n Chemical Formula Commercial Cybernetic Chaos Theorem
c Daemon Program Corrosive Gas Energy Weapon
o Heavy Water Data Drive Gold
m Mutant Blood Sample Mutant DNA Pneumatic Piston
m Polycarbon Scientific Law Temporal Tracer
o Scope Steel Titanium Shard
n

Alien Blood Sample Conspiratorial Evidence Chronal Skip
R Complex Chemical Formula Holographic Memory Photonic Weapon
a Enriched Plutonium Impervium Platinum
r Heads Up Display Military Cybernetic Positronic Matrix
e Plasma Capacitor Mutating Genome Rikti Alloy
Source Code Reactive Gas Synthetic Intelligence Unit</pre><hr />

Alternative Dimension Shift proposal

Rather than Dimension Shift being a Foe Intangible power ... make it an Ally Intangible toggle power with a LARGE PBAoE radius. This allows the Gravity Controller the necessary finesse to make this useful on teams. See Nebulous Form for Warshades for already extant mechanics to make this work. Use stealth-y "fade" aura effect for visual cue to players that they themselves are Intangible, along with "Intangible" word on screen above character when effect begins.

=====

Re-engineer Dimension Shift entirely

Redesign the Dimension Shift power to function like a "super knockUP" (as opposed to knockDOWN or knockBACK) version of Ice Slick (Ice Control). Rename the power Reverse Gravity and make it a Target Location click AoE, Mag 6.25 KnockUP. Power does damage on par with Crushing Field and simply "juggles" Foes in the AoE. Combine with Crushing Field (and Crush) to prevent Foes from escaping the Reverse Gravity AoE.