UnicyclePeon

I thought the same myself, but it isn't always easy to make a perfectly precise post. It is natural to want to give some context to the query, rather than only the bare minimum. Trying to avoid leaving yourself open merely *creates* the opening, for those opponents with the right Prestige Class.

Lewis

Never take the bait. Never.

Anyway, I do often skip powers I dont like in sets, but Freezing Rain is one of those that really is essential to the set. It isnt like taking Shiver instead of Arctic Air, or skipping Hot Feet. No, skipping Freezing Rain is like skipping Char or Flashfires.

As Enan said, though, you may well be able to color mod the Freezing Rain to make it look like Rain of Fire. That's what I came onto this thread to suggest.

Otherwise, you could try Fire/Trick Arrow. Lots of control, even from the secondary, and there is zero ability to buff others. Not sure if someone else suggested Fire/TA yet or not, I haven't finished reading the thread.

Lewis

I agree with these, for largely the same reasons. I have a Plant/Fire on live and the killing is good. I had an Earth/Psi in beta, and it was a monster, though it did have the overpowered AoE at the time. I also have an Earth/Fire on live and its very nice also for aoe control and killing.

I would just pick whichever of those seems most interesting to you.

Lewis

I don't have anything intelligent to contribute to this thread, really. However, this comment did make me wonder how many extra-dimensional characters I have. I also wonder how many characters I have from another time? How many are aliens?

(numbers include the ones I'll make for I16, their backgrounds are already known in my head)

Total Number of Villains: 45
Extra-Dimensional Villains: 0
Future/Past Villains: 1
Alien Villains: 2
Notes: One of the Alien villains is also the one from the Future.

Total Number of Heroes: 56
Extra-Dimensional Heroes: 2
Future/Past Heroes: 2
Alien Heroes: 5

I do have a few beings of magic or non-human races from earth (Witches, Elves), as well as some sentient constructs (magical or technological) but I'm too lazy to list them separately.

Of course, it is a bit blurry. Do characters from other planes, that are somewhat attached to the "main" dimension, count as extradimensional? For example: Does a fey creature, from a dimension that exists alongside a magic wood in the Rogue Isles, count as truly extra-dimensional? I decided to not count them that way, since those are almost like sub-planes or "genre planes" or whatever.. I limited extra-dimensional to things that are entire universes (though the Fey plane could be a whole universe, maybe I'm thinking small). I didn't count my one or two pixie/fey creatures as extra-dimensional. I have a couple that might bump up my extra-dimensional numbers if they count.

Anyway, of my 2 extra-dimensional characters, one is simply an old D&D sorceress I wanted to port over. The other is from a parallel Tom Strong / Retro Future / Golden Age kind of superhero universe, and she popped over to this universe after her husband died in an epic battle saving their world.

Mostly, though, all my characters are snuggled in bed nicely with the COH/V lore. However, most of them are simple enough that they could fit in any universe. Some of them may have got their powers in a Portal Corporation accident, or may have been affiliated with some COH universe group like the Circle of Thorns. However, these characters could easily be transplanted. I dont think I have ANY heroes or villains that are inseparably linked to or strongly bonded with any COX lore.

I guess you could say I wallow in the mundane, at least from Sam's perspective.

Let me think about characters I have that I consider non-mundane. Is someone with an unusual existence considered mundane? In other words, is it only normal 9-to-5ers that you'd consider mundane? I saw someone else mention that Batman was mundane, but in a way I dont consider him mundane because the events that happened in the life made even his pre-Batman stages of his life non-mundane. Or do you have to be Fire Queen of the Universe to qualify? What about artificially created beings whose lives aren't otherwise exciting?

Anyway, being conservative/cautious about it, I'd say I could count all my non-mundane characters on one hand.

I'm not sure what that says about me.

Lewis

Awesome. I am planning to take both of them. I am also taking School of Sharks, just because I "have" to (want to/get to) for the theme. I guess it may not be great on damage, but I'm hoping it has that cool cheesy wiggling sharks effect that the Corruptor version gets.

Does it? That would rule for Sharkman! If it does have the swimming shark graphics, I'll take that before I take the damage powers, damage be da ... uh. "Allow myself to introduce ... myself."

Lewis

No lie. I find it hard to believe the devs dont want those sets to not suck. Oh, I suppose positron's blast is adequate for bonuses. But man, I always want acc/rech, acc/end and rech/end too. Sometimes, if a targ AOE has other properties, you can find end/rech in other sets (such as taunt sets, slow, knockback, etc).

Are the brute patron AOEs any good? My highest brute (SS/EAura) is level 40, and I also have a Super Strength/Elec who is level 39 (hence my interest in this thread, in part). So, I dont have any of them yet. I'm going Mako, only because it fits my concept (Sharkman is the name).

Lewis

What are some of your favorites? I wonder if there is a thread dedicated to finding the good arcs, or even better, reviewing them. I guess I'll go see if there is an appropriate forum somewhere. So far, I have stumbled through a bunch of AE content randomly.

Lewis

So, if I do the same mission over and over, but I'm doing it for the enjoyment, and drops and tickets are purely secondary, and I'm actually having fun, then its not farming?

Also, heaven forbid some farmers actually find getting rewards to be their largest fun. That was the entire basis of Diablo 2's longevity. "What'd I get this time?"

So, AE missions are never farms then, since you always complete them?

I agree, I just think you happen to be using a limited version of the definition. A situational subset. The term is more broad than whether the missions happen to be back to back.

Farming is repetition for results.

In fact, Farming is repetition for results, whether it is back to back or not, just like in the real world. Farmers usually alternate crops, and they alter the plots of land (the maps).

If running a specific mission 10 times is farming, what if I run that mission only 7 out of 10? What about only 2 out of 10? What about 2 in 100? What about 5 in 10? What about 2 in 10, where they happen to be back to back?

Farming is slang, when it comes to gaming. I think using the term for "any repetition of content for rewards" is valid. I also happen to think using the term to mean "any back-to-back repetition of contents for rewards" is a valid use of the term. Since the term was coined as slang for gaming, people have been all over the map on which one they mean. Therefore I view it as a term inappropriate for blanket condemnation.

I suggest a new term for the kind of farming which some find distasteful: Chicken Farming.

It fits on multiple levels, doesnt it? Evil + Cowardice?

Lewis

I dont agree. I view farming as doing anything you've done before on the same character, if a reward is generated.

Lets say W and X are 2 AE maps. Y and Z are 2 non-AE maps you like that you never complete. Lets say ITF is the Imperious task force.

If you do W, X, Y, Z, and the ITF one day, and the next day you do ITF, W, Z, ITF, then everything you did on the second day is farming. In fact everything you did on the first day was farming too, if you've done it before. That is if it is on the same character.

If you repeat any content you've done before on that character and get a reward, its farming. Whether you do ITF, A, A, A, A, A, A, B, B, B, B, B, B, C, C, C, C, C, C, ITF, ITF or whether you do A, B, C, ITF, A, B, C, C, B, A, ITF, A, B, C, ITF, A, A, ITF, C, B, Y, C, B ... there is farming involved.

Ever repeated a mission you liked in the AE, on the same character? Then 'dirty farmer' = you. How often you repeat and how soon you get sick of it or what percentage the repeats are is essentially irrelevant.

Also, if you do nothing but radio/news door missions, you are a farmer too, because you are doing the same few villains and goals in various permutations over and over. It doesnt take long for repeats to come up.

As for me, some says I repeat the same mission, and some days I never do that mission, but sometimes the other ones I do, I've done before. Some days I do all newspaper missions. Its all farming, really. Even flashing back to a repeatable mission is farming, if you repeat it, even if they are a month apart. The frequency and pattern of the repetition doesnt matter.

That's my view, anyway.

We may have to agree to disagree.

Lewis