Sailboat

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Well, I've decided to use Leon Blitzangriff. Which leads to the fact that he's German, which would make sense. He could've been a fan of Hitler.

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If it's not too late, I humbly suggest The Veteran Aryan. :P He works with pets, right?

Sailboat

Here's a few.

Grieving at one of those tacky roadside memorials

Okay, it was left behind by a Grav Controller during a Rikti raid.

He knocked my block off!

Looks like the skull flew out! Actually, I was in the middle of animating Fearsome Stare when I was knocked back.

Speaking of skulls...

[bad Elton John imitation]The ciiiiircle....the circle of deeeeeeeeath![/bad Elton John imitation]

Sailboat

Hey, we have individual FINGERS!

Thanks again, this looks great! Although...just imagine how long it would take to settle an actual fight between a Mastermind using only her ranged attacks and an Ice Controller...heh.

I was able to get the larger version to display, finally, in case you were wondering.

Sailboat

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We have a tie! So, congratulations to both Rose Bandit and Queen of Knives. I'm going to stick you both into one piece, so now the question is: what should you be doing?

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Thanks! I'm flattered to have been selected, considering the competition.

As to what we should be doing...it looks like Rose Bandit is a Mastermind...Thugs/Traps, if I understand correctly.

I was once ambushed in Warburg by a Mastermind (and I think some other villains, but I think they were far away, I'm only sure of the Mastermind). The one in question was Bots/Dark, I believe.

I should mention that I'm inexperienced in PVP and was caught completely by surprise.

I was teleported right into the MM's minions and held, probably with Petrifying Gaze. All my toggles dropped and I was taking tons of damage.

I frantically popped a Breakfree and hit Glacier, freezing all the MM pets and the MM. He in turn hit a BF and started to drop back, while I threw out Lightning Storm, Tornado, and Hurricane, then turned on Hover (I don't have true Flight) and rose with majestic slowness straight up through my own stormcloud.

At that point both parties disengaged and the encounter, like this contest, was a tie.

I didn't have time to turn on a bunch of other toggles (like Snowstorm, Mind Over Body, etc.), which would have graphically muddied up the tableau, so it's relatively clean and should show the costumes pretty well.

Warburg is also a handy place for neutralizing any level imbalance (as much as can be neutralized, anyway); I see Rose Bandit is listed as level 10 on the image provided, although that may be old.

So, if you're looking for ideas, I suggest substituting Rose Bandit and her thugs for the MM I fought.

I picture Rose and the thugs surrounding the Queen of Knives, thugs encased in ice or not, according to taste, and the Queen rising through the top of her Lightning Storm, surrounded by Hurricane's spinning disk, while Rose blasts away at her with both pistols.

Seems dramatic and does not imply either character is superior.

Sailboat

When January's chill stabs deep
when winter wind cuts like a blade,
when snow is drifting down like sleep,
if you've done evil, be afraid.

An innocent once questioned why
some people sin. Alas, she learned.
Abandoned in a storm to die,
she touched the edge -- but has returned.

Her heart is ice, her spirit cruel,
her bitterness is razor-keen.
Your fate pares down to one cold rule:
"Too late to run if you've been seen."

In peril of your very lives
You're hunted by the Queen of Knives.

----

They say you feel sleepy when you're freezing to death, but Jan Sturm felt only wild anger at the thugs who had slashed her legs and left her, crippled, to perish in te rising blizzard. It wasn't fair!

She didn't notice as the whitenss above her took on huge form. Thought boomed in her mind.

HUMAN, YOUR WANTING IS . . . FIERCE. NEVER HAVE WE BEHELD SUCH. EXPLAIN.

"Vengeance," Jan thought.

IT SHALL BE.

The Winter Lord faded away. The storm ended . . . but not for Jan.



Full frontal

Back view

Larger view...her aura is clear sparkles on lowest frequency, representing glistening frost

Casting aside an Outcast

The Queen of Knives is an Ice/Storm/Psi Controller who was granted powers telepathically by the Winter Lord so that she could seek vengeance. Her hero name comes from the metaphor of cold wind biting or cutting. Her best-known battle cry (usually as she lays Ice Slick) is: "Down goes the mercury, and you!"

Sailboat

Just saw this thread. Looks like it's been going close to the "week" you originally proposed...if this contest is still open tonight, when I get home to the computer with my screenshots on it, I'll submit an entry.

Sailboat

Good to hear. Now, lay off the gamma rays for a while!

Sailboat

Note that Suckerpunch is currently working on an update to take IOs into account.

Sailboat

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Scorch isn't as useless as you make it out to be I'm running an Invul/Fire and I have Scorch 5 slotted, 2 Acc 3 Dmg and it does decent enough damage for the end spent. Consequently, I don't have Fire Sword, but Scorch shouldn't be deemed as worthless in my opinion.

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Scorch has been claimed to have the best dps of all the Tanker secondary starting attacks (the ones you have to take anyway).

Sailboat

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What would really help would be the ability to edit your guide, regardless of age, instead of just posting replies to it. If that could be made possible for that forum only it would be very cool.

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Yeah, I wonder if the setting can be changed for that specific forum.

Sailboat

Never mind. I can't believe I forgot to check if I was in supergroup mode. Please ignore.

Sailboat

The female top pattern "Fat Stripe 2" (I accessed it under "tights", but it probably appears on other tops) displays correctly in Icon screen, but on-character it is a single solid color (the inner, stripe, color is the same as the outer color), there is no visible no pattern.

Tried several colors.

Sailboat

Costume: Female, Fat Stripe 2, color not working correctly.

see here.

Sailboat

Perhaps it's too fine a distinction, but I originally understood "character" to refer to the complete package of concept, power, math, costume, personality that formed the little alter-ego I play, and "toon" to refer more narrowly to the visual representation onscreen.

Thus if I was missing a lot, or didn't like my concept, I might say "There's something wrong with my character"; if the graphics got messed up like Citadel's face, I'd say "there's something wrong with this toon."

It seems like a useful distinction.

But I doubt anyone else understands it quite that way, so it's not very useful as a term that communicates distinction from "character".

Sailboat

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I'll disagree about running GA all the time on a team. I do it AND without TP and my team loves me. When you are on a team of 8 and tanking +2 and +3s, you aren't gonna survive without it.

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Permit me to channel Inigo Montoya:

"I wonder if he is using the same +2s and +3s my Fire/Fire Tanker is using?"

Sailboat

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Your faq is good but it is lacking something. I know alot of you will not want to hear this but you do need to put in the faq the situations where having a healer is ok. Alot of the Empathy/Thermals hate I have been seeing is that alot of people will not give credit where credit is due when it comes to those powersets. There are just as many situations where those 2 powersets will out do the others. And there are a few situations where based on your team make up those debuffing powersets would actually slow your team down quite a bit.

For example, this past weekend I joined a team with a rad corrupter, this team had 3 electric melee brutes. I had asked the corrupter to invite another corrupters that can buff or heal but he said no, that the group was fine with just his powers. I had to explain to him that electric melee's single target damage is very very anemic when it compares to the other brutes and having 3 of us would make it even more slow. He still did not want to add another corrupter. After about 2 missions this leader left and someone else got the star and invited another corrupter to replace this guy. It was like night and day. By having a thermal corrupter to heal and buff, I was able to herd up some enemies which allowed all 3 electric melee brutes to use alot of aoe smash. We went thru missions about 4 times as fast. Had we had just rad or dark there is no way we could have done as well on clearing speed. If we had both thermals and rad or dark it would have helped on clearing speed much more.

Lastly I want to say this, you should be allowed to ask the powerset prior to the invite, especially if it is the last spot on a team. If I am going up against some mez heavy mobs a dark defender is not going to do us much good unless it is like fear or something. In these cases all the buffs/debuffs in the world is not going to save the team when everyone is perma held. So why waste your time and theirs by letting them on the team anyways? Sure their are sonic players with clarity but look how rare it is to see someone with that powerset. My post is not to take away from what the non-healing powersets can do but to help curve some of the empath/thermal hate that is out there where people dont give them the credit they deserve.

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It sounds like you're talking about buffs after all. You say "In these cases all the buffs/debuffs in the world is not going to save the team when everyone is perma held. " But Clear Mind is a buff, and it prevents that.

You're right that Empathy and Thermal in total are useful. I think the OP is aimed at the "healing" and "healer" aspects being inordinately worshipped...as opposed to just dissing Empaths. An Empath who puts Fort and Clear Mind on me isn't necessarily performing as a "healer".

Sailboat

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The problem with healing is that a team can take on challenges with it that they never could without. So "healers" are specifically sought out, and Defenders/Corruptors etc. of all types are asked if they can heal (becuase of this expectation). It is not necessarily the result of having come from a different game.

Yes, non-heal buffs help, but healing trumps them because it's the only buff that prevents faceplants. Non-heal buffs delay faceplants, and make them less likely overall, but healing outright does away with them for the most part. This is at the heart of the reason why "healers" are specifically sought out.

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Uh...this isn't right.

Non-heal buffs and debuffs absolutely prevent faceplants. Generally, they are BETTER than healing, provably so. They certainly allow you to take on bigger fish better than healing does -- although they're comparable for normal situations.

Example: Archvillain does 2500 damage beyond tanker's defense. Exceeds tanker's life in one shot. instantly follows up with one point of DOT to overcome stupid one-shot rule.

Healer says: Too bad you died. Couldn't heal you because the damage was too big.

Forcefielder says: *deflected*

Dark Defender says: Too bad he missed from the debuffs, I was hoping to show that my debuffs halved his damage output.

Ice/Storm Controller says: Wel, he missed this time due to Hurricane...watch out in ten minutes, he'll get to shoot again.

An argument can be made that healing rises up to reach the level of effectiveness of buffing/debuffing. I don't buy it, but it could be made. But claims that healing, or any other reactive repair, is significantly better than preemptive mitigation, show the kind of misunderstanding that prompted The Mighty Scourge to write this kind of guide.

Sailboat

There was a "mao cap" hat available at one time. I can't find it for female characters -- haven't tried male.

This is what I'm talking about: mao cap

Jay or Ian would look sexy in one. Female friends of Jay and Ian would look sexy in them.

Sailboat

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An easy way to consider it is:

Without any modifiers, you go from 0 endurance to full endurance in 60 seconds. So, Temp powers or Accolades which increase Max Endurance are also, effectively, increasing Recovery rate.

Stamina, 3 slotted with +3 SO's grants 149% Recovery, or roughly 2.5 End/second if you have the normal Endurance maximum.

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I 6-slot Stamina with every toon, save those with another was to gain it (Transferance) or Masterminds which actually don't need it. If 4 or 5 slot it, I run out of Endurance in every fight, and this is with an End reducer SO in every attack power and toggle.

149% looks good, but in practice is not nearly enough.

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Those extra three slots (above the standard three people use after ED) are only getting you a few endurance pips per minute -- like 3, maybe? There seems to be a lot of contradictory math floating around, so it's hard for me to say. But in essence, over the course of a full minute of combat, you're getting back less than the endurance activating one power once will use.

So any experiences you've had of it extending your ability to fight are most likely illusions. Sorry, but that seems to be the case.

While we would like to believe that we can improve our endurance situation by sacrificing three more slots, it's just not true.

Sailboat

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Darkest Night
While active, the Villain channels negative energy onto a targeted foe. Darkest Night decreases the damage potential of the target, and all foes near the target, as long as you keep the power active. If you have ever PVP'd alot like I have, base raids, pvp zones, arena, ect. You will know this is your most powerful secondary power you have. Select Target > Click. Your set. The target will rarely, if almost never get a single hit on you, or your pets. PVP zones, people will try to run away from you when this is cast on them because simply, they cannot hit you. Take it, slot it, enjoy it!

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The way you described it could be misleading. Granted, it does lower their "damage potential", but through an Accuracy Debuff. Just a little nitpick, because you worded it like it was "-Damage" like Siphon Power or Fulcrum. Just figuring, being a guide, you would want the most accurate information possible.

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Note that Darkest Night lowers accuracy AND has a damage debuff. I forget the number for Defenders and I expect it's lower for Masterminds, but it has always had -damage. Unless they changed it.

Sailboat

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I'd like the melee cones to be an untargeted attack like the AoE melee attacks e.g. Footstomp and Solar Flare.

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I dunno, I kind of like being able to click Ripper and hit follow and have it not go off until it's in range. Of course, Spines has other AoE options, inclueding some that do work as you describe, so I might feel differently with another set.

Sailboat

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Of course not. Dev ambiguity builds mystique.

Same reason why so many of them love to leave cryptic one-sentence comments and spontaneously vanish in a puff of smoke.

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"This Dev comment is tooooo long," Goldilocks said. She moved to the next comment.

"This Dev comment is tooooo short," she decided. She eyed the next Dev comment skeptically.

"Maybe it will be juuuuuuust right," she thought, hopefully.

Sailboat

Well done.

If I may offer a suggestion...is it worth discussing planning one's respec to take into account the pvp zone autoexemp cutoffs (25 for Bloody Bay and 30 for Siren's Call)? Even for those who only dabble in PvP, it's worth thinking of those cutoffs when assigning powers during a respec.

Sailboat

CommunistPenguin wrote:

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My suggestion is suppression of the repel effect if its on you for x amount of time. It is already in the game for some powers, so it might be easy to put in.

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I already asked _Castle_ about that in a PM. His reply:

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Suppression did not work. I spent 3 days working with various options to get it to the shape it is currently, and while it isn't exactly what I wanted, it is the only way I could get it to work.

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I'm very impressed with the speed of his reply; even though I don't like the Hurricane change, I'm personally inclined to cut him some slack, so please don't jump all over this just because I put it in the forums.

Sailboat

Malrathad wrote:

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I've never seen any real proof that Snipes DO have a second RANGE check, but they might.

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I'll second that -- I've sniped a LOT of stuff that was running far away and gotten hits on them well beyond the limits of targetability. I would be startled to learn that there's a *second* range check. Line-of-sight check, of course.

Sailboat