Seldom

Well. They are fast...that was 5 minutes. Thanks, tech peoples!

Oh, and just sayin', yes, this is a question to exemplaring as a whole.

I know the mechanic proposed is as it has been; I just meant it seems to be something that will happen more often, (such as doing a member's level 33 mission with your 34) so talking about what could be done to improve it whilst the sidekicking is being improved seemed relevant.

>edit< and yes, I did see they were looking at changing exemplaring. His words were "we're looking into some sort of change" on the subject. I just wanted see a discussion from the player's perspective, especially with the upcoming changes in mind.

Hello. With the changes to teaming in issue 16, all team members are sk'd/exemplared to the active mission level. (Read here)

I see a significant upside, that I can play with all my friends regardless of level aptitude, and they can tag along...but the downside is exemplaring. I like the fact that I can go with my buds, but losing all those powers is a bummer. Currently the only 'advantage' higher leveled characters have when exemplared is extra inspirations...which actually is a big thing.

What, though, would be the result if exemplaring (Which will now be far more widespread) if higher level character kept some of their higher powers? or all of them? What could be a way to allow full power access without too much impact, or would this impact be nothing to worry about? We know that the enemies we fight are balanced by the foreseen abilities of the players, so that hellions have only a couple attacks but later foes have many tricks, as players then have more tricks to counter.

My initial reaction was that it would be cool if all powers were available, with scaling debuffs to those powers by how far removed they were from the present exemplared level- so that a level 26 power would work well (but sans enhancements) when exemplared to 25, but your level 41 would be barely functional. (I envision scaling -power boost kind of effect, along with a scaling -recharge on powers) Problem is,would this make high level characters too useful? How would you see this affect Strike forces? I would assume PvP zones, as they retain their level restrictions, such a exemplaring mechanic might be best left out of PvP. (They have their own rules anyway.)

What do you think? With exemplaring becoming automatic, what would you do, if anything, to improve it?

I duo with my brother;

the best combos so far we've tried are:

Sonic/sonic corr with a sonic/dark corr. The first /sonic provides excellent resistance and status protection, the dark adds to this with some psychic armor and healing. The /dark gives -tohit that creates defense to go with the resistance, and controls to keep unruly foes under. Did I mention the double sonic blast? The -resistance stacks with the -resistance form both secondaries, and by the time a couple blasts have landed, their damage taken is much higher- add on scourge, and bosses fall like minions.

Bots/ff with bots/traps masterminds: dual big bubbles, with huge defenses, and excellent offense. The range of the bots keeps them from needing to jostle each other much. There are no drawbacks.

Spines/regen and rad/rad defender: The AoE debuffs stack very well with the AoE damage, the regen's healing helps make up for rad/'s lower healing abilities. The rad -tohit and -dam help lessen regen's alpha weakness.

Oh, and dual elec/pain corrs. The double buffs are great, the dual short circuits shut down most mobs.

Character bios, huh? Waaaay too many alts on champion, and everything has a story. I'll choose my faves:

Dreameater: Mind/psi dominator:

We had a pretty good run of it, all told. I'm still adjusting myself to the new dom feel, and this was really a good way to grasp the new dom experience. It was like a bunch of blapper/blasters running around with holds and AoE controls.

In hindsight, I realize this goes at the same time as MA mondays. That may have cut into the turnout...a bit of a bummer, as the team did just fine, but we did fine on our own.

Doh! I was playing on the dom superteam startup, and was wondering why so few were about. It slipped my mind these two coincided.

I'd be down for this, if there is space on any teams I have a 50 mind/psi dom, 50 EM/dark brute, 50 rad/kin corr, or 46 robotics/FF mm that could contribute. Not sure which would help more, but they are ready to roll.

-Seldom.

I'm ready to go since you first asked.

mind/energy and earth/thorns, ready to go. I'll bring whichever is more needed.

Whilst being crazy, you guys can make as mad a suggestion as you want for what you might want to do.

If we have enough, I was leaning toward doing a strike force of some sort- strike forces go quickly enough, with a nice reward, and make odd level distributions less of an issue.
This be just me...crazier minds than mine can confer on other possible goings on.

(The thought of all stalker lrsf's popped into mind...perhaps something saner. )

Levels/AT's are a non-issue for me, I have three 50's, three 1's, and 16 betwixt them of many a level and build; chances are whatever you folks can bring, I'll have something to go with it.

I said 6:45 CST as that would give 15 minutes for people to show, and get things going, so missions and such could begin at seven. That's just me; I've found these kind of things can take time.
...And again, I didn't want to step on any other designated event's toes, I'm just saying when I'll be around to team, with the invitation for others to drop by if they could.

Sounds great! I'd just like to keep this as open as possible, so that any newcomer is welcome, a way that players can know there will be a time and place they can find somebody to team with, and a way to have things ready to go when they do show. (Other than the Cap AE farm gathering, as that does get repetitive, and teams fall apart fast)

Kewl...I just wanted to start something for the folks not involved in that who would still like to find folks to play alongside redside.

I be one of them, and I know there were a few others wondering about evil activity. I wanted something a bit relaxed, but with just enough organization to get things going. Something where people can just show up and know there will be people to play with.

Enough people have mentioned the lack of activity redside on Champion- as a red resident, I have to agree. People just aren't around- and getting a team gets tougher because of it, folks don't come by to team, making even fewer team members! I'm not here to rag, I'm here to say this: I play a villain, I'd like to play with as many players as would like to as well! If you have time Wednesday late afternoons/evenings, come out for Wicked Wednesdays!

Where and When:
<ul type="square">[*]Cap Au Diable, Champion, every Wednesday night at the university plaza, around the central sculpture, beginning July 29th. I'll be there at each week @6:45 CST, (real life cooperating) and I can participate up until 12:00 CST at latest. Others can gather earlier or later, but remember, the point is to team up. If you're gone too soon, or come on too late to find a spot, that's how things will go.[*]Alternatively, if enough of you wish to, we can start with new villains at the same time in Mercy Island around the VG portal platform. (The one across from the beginning arbiter) Please post if this would be your preferrence.[/list]
What We'll be Up To:
<ul type="square">[*]Short answer: EVIL. [*]Long answer: Story arcs, strike forces, mission architect missions, (ONLY story driven ones, not farms) and so on. Though I've posted this, I won't be there to shout orders: I'll have suggestions, but I'm more than open to any you and participants might have. This is naught but a half-organized teaming opportunity: every player has a say. Posting suggestions here will get things running faster.

My only caveat is no farms, for badges or xp within this event. This is a time to have fun with folks, doing and redoing the same content is a bit repetitive, and leads (in my experience at least) to players blithely going through motions with a little less interaction with the company they are keeping. If you wish to farm, go right ahead, but I'll be stepping away from it.[/list]
Expectations:
<ul type="square">[*]Have fun being bad, but treat other players with respect. They'll help you that way, and a good time will be had by all. If someone needs a VG, you can suggest yours if you're recruiting, but please don't use this as a recruiting event. If you have a MArc you wish to get attention, you can suggest it as a possible activity, but please don't use this as an advertising opportunity. And please, no drama™.[/list]
I look forward to seeing you next week! Come if you can!
I can be contacted @ChicagoDoodler.

Anyone else willing to help with organizational details, please let me know. If you have suggested activities for a Wicked Wednesday please post it in this thread!
Also, posting what level character you can participate with can help determine what team levels to have ready, and posts can help determine what team sizes to expect.

Hmm...

2 Blasters
1 Controller
1 Warshade
1 Peacebringer
5 Corruptors
4 Dominators
3 Defenders
1 Stalker
4 Brutes
2 Tankers
3 Scrappers
2 Soldiers
2 Widows

Funny thing is, in terms of what I PLAY, it's like this:
1st: Dominator(s)
2nd: Controller/defender(s)
3rd: One Brute
4th: Others, as the mood goes.

[ QUOTE ]
.....wow. I honestly didn't expect this amount of replies.

I posted this to see what people would say about what I thougth was a "good" strategy. I don't ALWAYS want to play like this, its just what I do when I play the ATs


[/ QUOTE ]

Understood, but I'd say again that the diversity between powersets means that it's MUCH more apt to assign roles by powers than by AT. How can you tell a trick archer to stay back and watch the tank? They are much better equipped to watch the overall mob placement. While a granite tank can fill the classic tank role with ease, a fire/ tank will be far "scrappier." A mind controller can fill the classic lockdown role easily; Illusion controllers do not, and are best at mitigating through distraction, ('tanking' for all intended purposes) controlling specific problematic targets. Available abilities change team dynamic almost more than AT's. If your team has 3 empathy users, it will play very differently than one with 3 radiation emission users, or kinetics users. This is where the 'general role rule' thing falls down, and people's disagreement with some of the stated opinions comes in- some players using the same archetypes will be incapable of things others can do, and capable of doing something VERY different.

Hehe. I play champion, but prefer redside. Let's see...

@Chicago Doodler
Dreameater: mind/psi dom, lvl 50
Deathsman: EM/dark brute, lvl 50
Mr. Kanker: rad/kin corruptor, lvl 50
Lady Vasilisa, Bots/ff mastermind, lvl 46
Benjiman Pyre: fire/fire brute, lvl 45
Gauldreg: Ninja blade/dark stalker, lvl 38
Silent Seth: necro/poison mm, lvl 36
Nesticus: crab soldier, lvl 35
Dr. Scourge: rad/rad corruptor, lvl 32
Cremator: fire/fire dom, lvl 28
Nenia: sonic/sonic corruptor, lvl 28
Viduate: night widow, lvl 25
Sam Harrow: pain/elec Corruptor, lvl 19
Frankenfrieda: elec/will brute, lvl 16
Apostate Widow: blood widow, lvl 15
Leslie Froth: mace/will brute, lvl 12
Ustula Frost: Fire/cold Corruptor, lvl 12
Sentria: soldier, lvl 8
Malicient: Mind/Energy dom, lvl 1
Tigella: Earth/Thorn Dom, lvl 1

I hop from alt to alt, and play with regulars I know, but they seem off with summer things. I seem to gravitate back to dreameater, but keep enough of a spread to team in most any range.

My favorites for kinetics are radiation and electric. Radiation, especially with irradiate's heavy -def help the kinetic targeted attack hit. It's a support set for the kinetic primary.

Electric, however, is complimentary. Endurance drain is all or nothing: kinetics puts electric's drain in the "all" category. Transfusion does an endurance drain, useful for helping your health as your attacks sap energy. Transference saps quite a bit of energy, but does nothing to keep it from coming back...short circuit's -recovery does more than enough of this. Electric has a tough time getting a good attack chain, but that's no problem with kinetics, with its +rech and extra clickey powers. (Siphon power and transfusion come back pretty quick, so you can throw those between blasts. The extra hold from electric is also nice against tricky foes, giving just a touch of mitigation to the purely reactive/proactive kinetics. All the +damage keeps electric's lower damage more than respectable.
Did I mention short circuit? This is a thing of beauty with kinetics...fully loaded with end mods with defender level -end values, this is a monster. In the katie hannon task force, short circuit and transfusion kept the witch gasping helplessly. With another kin/elec, a quick mission in DA ended up a fight against a helpless Adamastor, who didn't have the energy to wheeze.

My two bits.

For the natural pack, I'd love costumes to, as mentioned, include more "natural" option for travel powers: boots that use the power slide with rockets for superspeed, jet/ant-gravity backpacks for fly/super jump- along with this I could see some extra military-ish and street-fighterish options. Military back pack, arms with pouches, legs with pouches, bullet proof vests, battle-worn street clothes.

For the natural pack, the power I would put in an auto power that gives a small +regen/+recovery that would take normal heroes/villains up to arachnos archetype levels for both values, to reflect the natural training of the character.

For the mutant pack, I'd put in more "monstrous" options...faces and body options with bulbous growths, nasty jaws, and so on. Perhaps include weapon options that have a bio-mechanical look that could be growths. Also included could be different back options, including spider-legged ones similar to crab soldiers, tentacles, and large prehensile tales.

For the mutant power, a couple ideas come to mind.

One would be a brief adrenaline boost, with effects exactly similar to the empathy power, but with a crash and long cool-down, another would be a lycanthropy vile, that would transform the user into a werewolf. This would use the kheldian transformation mechanic, and the warwolf skeleton/animations, granting good hp and new powers, with the exclusion of normal powers. Unlike the kheldian "lobster" form, however, this would be a timed toggle, so it would deactivate either when manually detoggled, or when the time ran out.

That's my wishlist.

Here's how I play on my kin/elec defender: hit aim as the tank runs in, run right behind, hit fulcrum shift, short circuit, transference, ball lightning, siphon speed, short circuit in quick succession. The entire group has no endurance, and is helpless as they die with the shifted lightning.

Alternately, when I play with another kin/elec defender and elec/ blaster: all three run in, I lead the charge. Double fulcrum shifted and short circuitsx3 with a follow up ball lightning kills everything, as it all watches drained of energy. Add another /elec defender with transfusions/transferences used liberally, and this works on giant monsters as well.

Here's how I play on my rad/rad defender: lay on the debuffs as I do a quick jump to cover, to mitigate aggro before the effects take hold. Jump into the mob, as the gather close, along with the toggle debuff targets, weakening them all. Blap till they all die, choking on my radiation, and hitting like sissies.

Here's how I play on my Dark/Dark defender: throw down controls/debuffs, kill everything. Control again as they become available.

Here's how I play on my storm/ice defender: open with gale, knock everything against a wall. Keep it there with hurricane, and snow storm. throw down the rains, and keep going until they all die.

Here's how I play on my EM/Dark brute: with oprressive gloom/cloak of fear running, hit stun on boss 1. He's controlled. Hit build up, hit boss 2 with Total focus. he's controlled, and in pain. Hit boss 3 with energy transfer, perhaps controlling him, definitely hurting him. Kill the weak as the strong stagger, turning back to bosses with the 3 controls. Once the minions/lieuts are dead, finish the bosses off. Nothing can counter attack, much less bother the team.

Here's how I play on my arch/em blaster:hit boost range, build up, then aim before a tank interferes. Hit rain of arrow on the mob before any team mates disturb their placement. Fire explosive arrow before the arrows hit. Fire fistfull of arrows as the leftover run forward, killing them all. If a boss survives, hit blazing arrow and any single target attacks to finish him off.

Here's how my ill/emp controller plays: send in the phantom army, then summon the scary ghost, controlling as the army tanks. Use buffs intermitently as controls/spectral wounds recharge.

Here's how my Bots/ff mastermind plays:

Bubble everything, then run at mobs, using force bubble to keep them plastered against walls so the team/pets can kill them.
OR, in a secondary build,
Make sure all my bots are bubbled in bodyguard mode. Taunt/challenge mobs as the bots clear those that attack me, keeping an eye on any foes that dare top attacking me to attack squishies or brutes, and taking that aggro back. &gt; Heal/bubble teammates and bots as needed throughout this.

That's just a few examples.

The problem with 'roles' is with the power sets: many power sets play so very differently that they cannot reach full potential without playing a different role than another power in the same AT. Throw in the way secondaries work with primaries, and sometimes you come up with very unique roles, within the AT and even the game. (I've not found another brute, for instance, that works like the EM/dark)

Drat it all, I cannot attend this week. These events are really worth the time: they show what's best about the mission architect. If any great arcs come to light, I'd love to hear about them.

To the villain experience:

Redside champion was big at one point, but I noticed more and more going towards farming, or after some drama, there was some burnout, and/or exodus. Not to mention that after the heroes got bored with heroes, went through the villain side content, they eventually went back to the blue. The other problem is several prominent VG leaders/organizers have gone on to other things-without them, their groups broke up.

I play as oft as I can, preferring redside champion, but as somebody who loves to play with friends, when other friends aren't playing here, I go where the friends play. (Blueside, or on another server.) I still try to pull them back over, or just solo, but that only goes so far. I'm stubborn, though, so I'm stickin' to my villain guns.

Thanks to all for the feedback on my arc. Glad some of you enjoyed it.

The team I was on did some different arcs, (only the first from the list, but some other new ones) but they were fun too. With as much firepower as we had, we breezed through 4 or so arcs in no time flat. Between bugs and switching, somehow the team didn't get the review window a couple times, so we didn't know what arcs we were playing or how to go back to give feedback.

Ah, well. good times, nonetheless.

Just for us slow typists, it might be nice to get some time between arc swaps to complete the review forms. If the active arc changes, the feedback/ratings go to the new arc, even if it ain't done. Sorry, Celestial_Lord. I think I stole some of your stars thatta-way.