Spade

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Sorry Posi, but Honda and Irem beat you to it. Honda does use it to denote their special performance line though, so maybe your Director thought he was being clever.

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Fix't. Let' s not confuse "special performance" with "high-powered"; Type R needs to have broader application if it's going to spread ...

Thanks, GF!

Not to mention the fact that we don't have patch notes. Once everyone is locked out of the servers, where's the harm in posting the patch notes?

Usually you can see what the notes are to the latest test server patch and have a pretty good run down of what is being patched, but I didn't see anything new in the training server forum.

I suspect this is the "other shoe" dropping with respect to MA abuse, as others have speculated above. Still, it would be nice to know for sure.

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... Which seems to be every flippin night at the moment since I14

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The courtesy of an announcement when they're going to bring the servers down outside of the usual Monday & Friday maintenance and the usual time 9-11 AM Eastern would ease some of the frustration (and I don't mean an in game announcement, 30, 10, and 5 min beforehand, because I'm assuming there were those).

Thanks! (And to IanTheM1 as well.) Easily done, looks like.

Oy! I have a war mace/shield group (minions & lieutenants) I'll definitely need to rework ... not to mention a plant/psi assault boss (among others).

Not to threadjack, but are we able to load local MA files to the test server MA? (The test server doesn't pick up arcs published on live does it?)

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We recognize that we have been performing more maintenance periods than usual, and due to the need of the additional Thursday (April 23rd) down-time, we have canceled the Friday, April 24th maintenance.

Thank you for your patience as we resolve the remaining base issues.

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Thanks, GF! I was about to say that Issue 14 should be renamed "Issue 14: Daily Server Maintenance," so it's nice to know tomorrow will be clear.

Fabulous guide -- I found the answer to a trivial question I had, and got lots of great advice in the bargain! Thanks for putting this together.

One thing I've noticed that I hope they change at some point: It's impossible to give your critter basic status protection (at least in the traditional defensive powersets I've played with) without setting it on extreme -- which then opens up the tier 9 power, or other powers that substantially increase the difficulty of the encounter. For example, I'd like to be able to get Unyielding on a custom mob without them having Unstoppable (Invulnerability). Likewise, we should be able to make a mob with Idominitable Will without them getting Resurgence and Strength of Will in the bargain (Willpower).

Without the status protection, my EB encounter becomes, say, a knockdown-fest and therefore too easy; with it, the EB gets a teir 9 (and in some cases a rez) which makes it a LOT harder.

I really appreciate the advice about how you can mix and match the powersets to good effect. I will definitely be using this as a key reference!

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Well, it's the second- counting the arms back pack for the crabs. But this one is gender specific.

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Fixed (just a friendly correction -- Banes don't have the crab spider backpack (or shouldn't; not sure if the alternate build thing still affects them)).

And I thought the term 'buttcape' originally referred to the trenchcoat tails -- that's when I first encountered the term.

Anyway, very happy to have the full widow look available!

Wow - can't believe I never noticed this thread before -- good idea. Guess it's what I get for neglecting my home server's forum.

Just had to chime and say "excellent guide!" Your info is spot on with what I've experienced (every shield power except One with the Shield, albiet primarily from a tanker perspective).

I also commend you for including basic and common IO slotting. I really appreciate this, as many recent guides have just discussed IO-set slotting, and, for me, anyway, my characters tend to spend more time slotted with other than IO sets.

Thanks.

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Of course now the rest of the Freedom Phalanx will be complaining that Positron is soloing his missions for merits rather than being a good team player

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LMAO!

EDIT:
JDouble ably expressed my thoughts on the contorting of this into the game lore. But apart from that, it's looking and sounding very good.

Despite my post count, I've been hanging around these forums for awhile. Before you, CuppaJo set a high standard for the work you followed her in doing; you then met, and in some ways, exceeded that high standard.

I'm very sorry to see you go; Godspeed.

EDIT: No 'E' in CuppaJo -- as the good Knight points out.

Outstanding work, Z_Man -- many thanks for doing this (heck, I was referring to it even before you were finished editing)!

Superb guide, thanks! You made my Mind/Sonic wish he was /Kinetics!

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Simple.

You log in to find your Stalker Snipe now builds a small cottage.

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LMAO!

Which is why the xp reward will be greater, yes (as it is now IIRC)?

Any chance the 30 minute time limit on getting the PvP extra xp bonuses for mission completion will be eliminated?

EDIT: Gah, I've been surrounded by Castle!

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...
Somehow, I remember Howling Twilight being slightly more potent in practice than on paper, but that might just be because of how I always immediately follow my Howling Twilights with a Dark Pit chaser. That'll be fixed in the next version, thanks.

...

One thing I omitted that really irks me about Oppressive Gloom is the self-damage. I don't like them. At all. The amount dealt is minuscule, to be sure, but when you play a set that's all about abusing large numbers of critters and ensuring that none of them ever connect with you, to suddenly see a metric crapload of ticks of damage causes me to flip out and go into Full Defense mode, thinking that I caught aggro from outside my control zone, in the form of a Nemmy Cuirasseur or Hussar or Dragoon, or something. (It depends on what I'm fighting.) And then I would remember that I was running Oppressive Gloom.

So in the end, I respecced out of it post-haste, mostly for that reason.

The other thing about the power that irks me is the bug that the self-damage ticks are massive against critters a lot lower level than you, but deal -1s against higher level enemies.

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Regrettably, it took me a long, long time to discover the magic of stacking stuns (after I reached 50 really), but Howling Twilight + Dark Pit is wonderful. Totally aggree with you about Oppressive Gloom: While I had no problem moving in and out of melee range, I kept thinking "I'm a D3, combat should be more dignified for me than this!"

And to Mr. Q: Yeah, I'd trade Petrifying Gaze for a dark version of Cosmic Burst in a heartbeat if I could ...

My first, and only, blue-side level 50, a Dark/Dark/Power Mastery Defender (who has burned every respec he's ever had available playing around with these great sets) wholeheartedly endorses this guide! Very nice, and nice shout out to Blackest Night, whose D3 guide is still one of the best.

Thanks for this guide. Not only is the build advice helpful, but also the tactics advice. I have a Ninja/Poison at lvl15, and I am having a blast.

I did want to ask about the Leadership pool -- you don't mention it, is it not as useful for Ninja/ MMs? (I have some experience with the MM AT, but not a lot). The Leadership pool seems to be a common theme among MMs.

If a Ninja/ MM does take the leadership pool, would Maneuvers be worth opening the pool with (to stack +DEF on the henchmen) rather than Assault?

Thanks!

Just wanted to post up and say a big THANK YOU -- this info has saved me lots of time over the last few months. Your posts are almost always useful or funny, and I defintely appreciate that!

Quick scan didn't show anyone else talking about this, and I apologize if its a known issue, but the Dr. Huxley "Get Kora Fruit" mission (Shadow Shard) that I've had in my tray now has the mission door in an office building in Steel Canyon (where I logged into today). I can enter the mission and its the real deal: Cave map and Rularuu. I /bugged it, but wondered if anyone else had encountered this?

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It's pretty convenient.

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I'd like to thank all the people who take time from their real lives to compile these guides for us. You guys are one of the main reasons that City of Heroes is the best game I've ever had the pleasure to play.

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Amen!

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If those were mook sharpshooters (or whatever their snipers are called), they've done this for a while. They do it in missions as well. It's annoying, but firs with the flavor of the mob. However, getting a warehouse full of these guys is a PITA though, as they don't stop running forever.

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You're right -- Mook Hitmen (LTs) -- must just be the intended AI (along with a lot of them on the map) that had me wondering. Was playing my brute again today (again, no taunt or taunt aura (yet)), Council LTs, Wyvern LTs, Legacy LTs, all behaved as usual, but ran a Mook mission, and the Mook LTs (hitmen) display the behavior I described. Fun stuff, but nothing broken I guess.

Was running a mission in Port Oakes with my lvl 15 Inv/SS Brute (i.e., NO Invincibility). It didn't take much more than one or two hits to have +1 LT Mooks with at least 2/3rds health REMAINING from running all over the place! It was like it was nearing supper time, they were a chicken, and I was some guy with an appetite and an axe.

I thought it was bizarre behavior for Mooks, but I'm sure its related.