Seldom

Hey, I've needed this for some time, but haven't been able to find much interest. I'd love to join, life cooperating. (The weekend promises to be very busy)

If there's any way I can make it, I will, on my Mind/Psi dominator "Dreameater."

I'll try my best to make it. (life not interfering) I've never done a Hammidon raid, so I'd be interested in contributing. I would bring a Mind/Psi dom, so this would be for the green team.

To the OP: I play on Champion but have had reduced game time due to reality's intrusion on its virtual cousin. Most people are on higher characters now, as a lot of people who've stuck with the game have leveled even on alternate characters.

Champion's BMT channel is good for getting in on badge/task force/strike force teams, which still go here and there. Pick up groups, unfortunately, are very difficult to be picked up on. Most people play with folks they know: but you can still see who isn't teamed, and see if they'd play, or politely inquire of teamed folks if they wouldn't mind a tag along.

Oh, by and by: with the new leveling system, you won't see many stay in early zones for long. You can get up to, and even pass Kings Row's level in an evening. After a couple weeks, people are all over the place, from Striga to peregrine. If you need help, I've found a lot of Champion's players are vets/know-it-alls of the game, so they'll lend a hand should you be polite. Oh, and Champion's redside seems to have dwindled, so it's better for hero teaming if that's what you're after. (I still dig the red)

Huh. 723 on my 'main' dominator. I thought it would be higher. Teamed to 50, pre-xp boost.

389 on my brute...level 50, made within weeks of CoV's launch. Solo'd to 50 pre-xp boost.
637 on my oldest corruptor...level 50, made within weeks of CoV's launch. Teamed most of the time.
181 on the mastermind...level 50, made within weeks of CoV's launch. solo/team mix.

293 on my controller, re-made at CoV's launch.

I'm assuming this is time spent in-zone, yes? Because the numbers seem to make little sense else wise to my recollections. Is there a way to know time spent on a character everywhere?

Rounding the corner, he thought he'd taken a wrong turn.

When the third one winked and smiled, he knew.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

As the character name input distinctly disallows you to type "The" at the start of your name, rather relegating it to a title, the answer is no. My guess is they wanted to avoid confusion, i.e. "Invite THE Captain Courage, or Captain Courage?"

Was this change documented?

If they did slow things down, then go them. With the earlier iteration, you'd be hard pressed to find a team that could eliminate the ambush waves before the new ones arrived. Yes, it had that 'epic battle' feel, but on a regular team, it was very common to have deaths or even team wipes, followed by a hard fought battle back to the boss through the waves and waves of mobs, with little heads up that this was going to be what the team faced. This doesn't really follow the way all the rest of the game goes, with the exception of some AE content.

Hopefully this theoretical pre-release of ultra-mode would not predate the release of GR by much.

Aeon, your proposition is intriguing. An in-depth report on the specific necessities/requirements of this 'Ultra-Mode' you speak of would be beneficial in making such a decision.

*edited to clean up post-my naturally negative vibes got smeared all over it*

To me, complaints of repetition are inevitable for a game that is meant to keep the same players entertained through multiple play session a week for years on end. The way to counteract this is with variety.

If a player plays 5 different characters from 1-50 with the same archetype/powersets, and with players of the same, you KNOW it will feel repetitive. Changing to new archetypes/powers will change this, as will teaming with different characters with new abilities.

If a player plays the same story arc 5 times in a row, you KNOW it will feel repetitive. Changing to doing 3 different arcs in 5 play sessions seems less so.

If a player has the same objective 5 times in a row, it feels repetitive. But if the game gives them different things they need to do,the play session feels varied enough to pass over the few times that objectives are similar.

If a player gets 5 different missions in a row on the exact same map, you KNOW it will feel repetitive. If they play 3 maps of different sets, it feels less so.

While the devs have addressed powers/archetypes/and stories, it does bring up a valid point. The developers have made very little effort to varry map tilesets: since launch, the number of archetypes has nearly tripled. Around 40 something new power sets have been made, not counting ancillary/patron pools. New stories are added, from single contacts to entire new zone's worth of content here and there. Way back when, they added new mission objectives./functionality. (defend/escort, etc.)

But new map tilesets? (Not unique maps) You know, the places to go to do things we do? Not much on this front. CoV gave 'new' sets, but the offices and such were simple color changes. Arachnos tilesets were new, and regularly used. Cimeroran tilesets were added, but were only used in a few new arcs outside of that zone. I do hope that devs make some new environments to be used game wide in old arcs and generic missions as well. Most everything in this game is done in a cave /sewer /office /warehouse /CoT /Council /Ship /Arachnos map. (Less so on the latter, blueside) It would actually freshen up the game play experience if everything happened on a cave/ sewer /office /warehouse /CoT /Ship /Council /Arachnos /mansion /museum /steampunk /apartment building /military bunker /skyscraper /factory map. Variety= less burn out. And I hate to say, it's a package thing. If you add new powers, new stories, but use old/similar objectives and environments, the text on top of it can't hide that to the player, and they can get bored of it.

And quite frankly, I'm not sure why adding new general use map tilesets seems so avoided. It is a bid different then new costume bits, art-wise, but it isn't that crazy.

Totally random side fact for those new to traps: seeker drones apply a 40 second -damage effect. (It's -20% damage on corruptors, not sure how defender values are adjusted or not.) As archvillaians have 60-87% resistance to all debuffs but -damage, these little guys are a handy way to add to team survival vs. such foes.

*edited due to thinking this was in a different forum*

Sonic/Dark is fun: plenty of debuffs, and good damage besides. Sonic's -res paired with scourge=win. Toss in a cone sleep, a cone fear, a ST stun, a ST hold, and your'e off and running.

Sonic/Sonic is fun, but be prepared to dual build, as there are some powers you'll skip solo in /sonic. This gives mez protection which is huge later in the game, and some good -resistance in both sets.

Rad/Rad-an oldie but a goodie. Also works well with a 'blapper' mentality, as playing close and personal can be the safest with /rad, where enemies can flock to you to be debuffed by a close anchor, and start choking due to choking cloud.

Pssst....I'm not able to game at work, but it looks like it might be the door you come through after using the pocket D transporter.

I'm 99% villain on Champion, play wise. (And 30 of 33 characters are red.) I prefer villain archetypes, and play as often as I can. (Precluded by real life and occasional ventures to play with friends that rather blue)

I usually can be found playing my main villain, but do use the aforementioned plethora of villain alts. If you need more blood and I'm on, let me know @chicagodoodler. I play eveningish a couple times a week and then on weekends. I have just about anything you might be looking for, power/archetype-wise.

Yeah...I understand the notion of bringing these back, so new players/characters can get in on the missions to get badges and costume items, but it's a bit disappointing. Baby new year and the valentine snaptooth missions are the most explicit dev created 'farms.' Do the same mission, rinse, repeat. The text even makes light of this: "Do it once more, with feeling!"

It would be nice in the future if at least there were a pool of 3-4 different missions that came up to add variance. Doing the same mission over and over to milk it for all the things you won't be able to get for a year is not all that entertaining. Doing these multi-runs of the same missions for multiple new characters ≠ fun.

Eehhehhhehee...sorry, but somebody using the handle "PC Guy" using a mac struck me as funny.

EM/Dark (Once matured)
Great single target damage, stuns galore. One heal that can take you from 1 hp to full, one heal that can take you from 0 hp to full. Note: I play with 10 toggles running. Recover helps, as this is a juicy combo.

Fire/Fire
BBUUUURRRN! The Bu/Fiery embrace combo gives nice burst damage, fiery embrace gives bonus damage to fire melee.

War mace/Willpower.
A good 'natural' combo, this ones fun as you can play the 'angry person running around hitting people with a shovel/club/wrench/hammer/stick' role.

My usual is buildup>aim>RoA>Explosive>fistfull. The latter two finish off most once the rain weakens them, leaving the last tough ones to get a faceful of blazing arrow. If you don't have control or aggro wrangling, eat lucks first, though. This hits a lot of them, and they don't like being poked so very hard. (A few seconds of full aggro hurts)

Yeah, I have to say, the /dark armor side is a bit frustrating if you would like to use oppressive gloom and/or cloak of fear. The trick is not that the set is resistance: it's that it has these two powers that both protect you and completely reveal you. As the aura mitigation is actually intrinsic to the balance of the set, you have a couple tactics as a stalker:

Leave the auras off, assassinate, then re-toggle them once you are visible. The activations are a tad longish, so be ready to take damage.

Use the auras, and play as a scrapper. Hide then only functions as stealth, to keep stuff off of you before they're in punching/stabbing/kicking range. This actually works really well on teams, as the auras give the team mitigation as well as you. (And with the way teams share aggro, your invisibility means less once trouble has started anyways.) With this tactic you can pretty much forget about assassin strikes, though.

Ditch the auras and build with invention sets toward defense. I'm thinking of trying this on my ninja blade/dark armor stalker, but finding certain recipes is taking forever and a day. Theoretically, having okay defense on top of okay shields and excellent healing may prove handy.

I'm not able to see your build right now, but if you're looking for a good, tough AoE build I've had one on my crab and it's fun.

For AoE's:
Wide area web grenade (optional-soldier pool)
If you like stuff to stay clumped, this can be handy. Not necessary, as many AoE's have a good spread, but it can help.

Venom Grenade. (Must, available from Soldier or Crab.)
Primary opener,as all else will take damage more after it hits. It also has DoT, so slot for damage as well as recharge. Note: this does double damage resistance debuffs to toxic, so other soldiers' venom grenades become even more dangerous. Some people like using Mako's Bile spray for this reason.

Suppression. (Must, Crab)
The signature crab power, where you hunker down shooting lasers everywhere. Has good damage and range/spread.

Heavy Burst (must-soldier pool)
This is like a mini full auto. Good cone, but not as wide as suppression. This is a good follow-up to suppression, though.

Frag Grenade (Must, available from Soldier or Crab.)
You shoot a grenade that blows up. As it causes knockback, this one can be your closer. This is radial, so it can be used when cones don't line up well.

Omega Maneuver (meh-crab pool)
This does okay damage, but has a significant cool down period. It is not a nuke. It is a diversion. This power has a pretty strong taunt field, giving you breathing room as well as clumping foes nicely.

Frenzy (pass-crab pool)
I tried this...the damage and range isn't that great, and it doesn't go well with the cones/ranged AoE's.

I went with the ranged ST attacks to finish off harder targets, as they don't remove me from cone range.

Defensively:
Crab SpiderArmor Upgrade (Must-Crab)
Mez protection on auto. Gives a touch of resistance too. Bonus: As it is on auto, you can run immediately after using an awaken.

Fortification (Must-Crab)
Resistance to all but psi. This reistance with all your defenses are what make you tough.

Serum (Must-Crab)
A heal with +HP. A part of why you can become an invulnerability blaster.

Combat training: defensive armor (Must-training/gadgets)
This gives excellent defense to ranged attacks, for free.

Tactical Training: Manuevers (Must: training/gadgets)
This is defense to all, slottable to +15%. This is sneaking op on a lot of defensive sets' armor values, and can be shared with the team. Can you do without it? In the same way as a car can drive without tires. This protects from psychic damage, and gives such hefty defense that you're a good step toward to the ranged softcap. Using this means that getting to the softcap is waaay easier, letting you get bonuses instead for more recharge and recovery, so you can do non-stop AoE's.

Other powers to keep an eye on:

Stamina. Lots of AoE's can be juicy. This helps a lot.

Tough/Weave. If you're going for a tough crab, these allow you to out-tank brutes.

Mental training: (training/gadgets) extra recharge? for free? sure. Good movement boost as well. (Not to mention resistance to slowing effects)

Wolf spider armor: (training/gadgets) a bit of extra toughness, and even more status protection to avoid stacking mez downfalls. If you have a spare slot, it's a consideration.

assault/tactical training assault. (leadership/training/gadgets) These give your team members/pets/you an extra 30% damage together at all times. Not bad.

Manuevers (leadership) If you have crazy blue available, this helps you and the team even more. But you start with this thing's big brother, so it's far from necessary.

Call reinforcements (training/gadgets) Summons 2 disruptors. These are helpful, and benefit from your team buffs to be even tougher/more damaging. The shoot stuff, and have an AoE attack.

Summon Spiderlings: (crab pool)
These only do only single-target, but help is help. Not as good as disruptors, but if you want pets, here they are.

Combat training: Leadership (training/gadgets pool)
Extra tohit for you, your team, and/or your pets. Helps with the lower accuracy of your AoE's, and against higher defense foes.

Meh:
Combat training: offensive. (training/gadgets)
This gives accuracy, not tohit. As such, combat training: leadership will help you hit things more often. This does have a nice bit of resistance to -tohit, though. If you're hurting for blue, the auto nature of this could be good, I guess.

Anywise, that's my two bits. Or four, or ten. Crabs are extremely fun to play, but bear this in mind: they are best suited for crowds of mush, rather than hard targets. They can take out a couple spawns of minions set for a whole team in the time it takes to clear out a single boss.

Archery has a very simple, straightforward concept. You have a bow, and shoot arrows. Lots of them. Yes blazing/explosive/stunning arrows are a bit different, the theme is still just that, Once you have all the powers, though, that theme gets pretty cool. Rain of arrows is devastating, especially after build up/aim, and besides that archery is pretty endurance-light with fluid transitions, making it possible to be a deadly source of never ending pointy pain.

As noted earlier, however, use of secondaries/other powers can do a bit of awkward breakup of the action with redraw. I was going with the raw 'archer only' concept, so i went with Archery/energy manipulation. If you only use buildup/boost range, then the entire primary, you end up with a very fluid attack chain with some excellent damage and range. But that's me.

I'd get behind this if we could decide what level to craft set recipes at. I try to keep my sets in the 30-38 range, depending on the power. I almost NEVER use a set at 50, unless it's a purple set. If I HAD to use only 50's on my 50's, or had to have an alternate character make them, then this suggestion would fall apart.

Having Level-less recipes would help, though, in one major regard: it would simplify those long lists, making them less daunting to newbies.

Also: sets are built toward seperate levels. as such, a recipe for a set that caps at 40 could be crafted at 40, max. Never at level 50. Likewise, you would not be able to use a 35-50 set on your level 15, as the lowest it could be crafted at would be 35.

Note: I am separating sets from generic inventions here, what with the level-based invention badges and such. The game already does this to a degree, paying higher sums for inventions at higher levels, while sets tend to be at a lower asking price.

"Maybe I shouldn't have done that" Super Captain Ski Man pondered in those few seconds, as his foot bumped the trip mine. "Maybe I went too far when I humiliated the Mad Trapper in front of his girlfriend."

He would have 3 more months to reflect back at the Phoenix Medical Center.

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.