Wicked_Wendy

Originally Posted by Thermal_Velocity

I agree that the first 24 levels are HARD! The VEATs are extremely and incredibly underpowered compared to the normal archetypes. The damage is low and their protection is horrible. However once you get in the mid 20s, giving you SOs and the Bane/Crap/Night Widow/Fortunata build, things change. And in the end levels the VEATs are very strong, possibly the strongest archetype, since they combine a lot of goodness from various archetypes.
This is not to say that the AT is insta win, more that they got a very good toolbox and in the hands of a good player the VEATs can do a lot of awesome feats of power. But because of their versatility they aren't as good as the specialists at their particular role. The VEATs may be durable, but a tanker tanks better. They deal damage, yet can't reach a blaster. They buff the team greatly, yet not fully as much as designated buffers.

Originally Posted by Biowraith

Used surveillance on hami while pylons were up, no negative modifiers to any of his stats at all (including perception and range).

Originally Posted by Noxilicious

In a team of seven Tankers and one Blaster, the Blaster will steal all the aggro. All of it. If the Blaster doesn't, he's not doing his job right.

Originally Posted by CapnGeist

Whatever the current WST should be available somewhere in game. I suggest one of the following methods...

-Message of the Day! That popup that sometimes happens when you log in? Have one every tuesday saying what the new WST is.

-Add to your contacts tab the WST contact if you're high enough level to use that contact, and have unlocked them for the TFs where that's necesarry.

-Put someone in Ouroboros that explains WSTs and tells players which the weekly WST is


Plenty of implementation options, and it doesn't have to be special, it just has to be /there./

Originally Posted by BrandX

It happens. It sucks when it does, but I wouldn't worry about it to much.

This is why when I run Master of Taskforces, I always say "Attempting a MoTF" so people know it's an attempt not a promise, and hopefully have them not feel as bad if they do die.

As for the stealing aggro. You're a Brute, you generate aggro as well, not to mention, don't believe the hype.

Aggro can be ripped off any tank with the right factors.

My Ice/Ice/Arctic Tanker couldn't keep aggro on Romi, with 2 aggro auras, taunt and attacking before anyone else did anything, once the Shield Scrapper got into range of Romi, who immediately said "Haha Ice Tanker pffft. I want the Shield Scrapper"

I've also seen Blasters just pull off aggro on my ice tanker.

My main was Confronting/Range Blasting Recluse for a good 3 minutes, a shield scrapper just ran by Recluse on the way to the next tower, didn't attack him, Recluse was just hit with the Shielder's AAO, aggro was ripped that easily.

Originally Posted by Lothic

I'm not necessarily against the idea of having ranked (i.e. gold, silver, bronze) versions of defeat badges. But there are currently so many enemy groups out there that don't even have ONE badge right now that I'd prefer to see a bunch of those added before I'd worry about giving older ones multiple versions.

Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill

I was working on a post (since discarded - it didn't look like the point I was trying to make would get across, regarding rewards, time, teaming vs interest and the like.) But one of the illustrations I was going to use was the Lusca encounter.

"Back in the day," people used to swarm over to attack Lusca on a regular basis. I remember multiple teams joining to do so - then attacking the OTHER luscas while they were up. They weren't really interested in the XP or badge, it was a fun, social encounter (I base that on repeated "Hey, I got a badge!" and mid to late fight "How's the XP on this anyway?" type statements.)

It was at a point where the experience of the encounter was a reason to do it, and the rewards really DID balance out the risks (including the social rewards. No real pre-organizing needed, just get together and beat on future sushi.)

Now... XP's been nerfed, the merits aren't really worth it, and Lusca's treated like a piece of scenery. Which she is - she doesn't move, doesn't really "threaten" anything or the like.

Other GMs are much the same - they stand around, wander a bit, but really don't stand *out* much. I go after Scrapyard, for instance, because I need him and his followers badges to unlock a contact. The fight itself isn't too interesting (and is, frankly, more irritating than anything with his running everywhere and self-droning, not to mention timing out in the middle of a fight and "expiring," robbing people of the rewards they'd otherwise get regardless of damage.)

GMs should be more interesting, and the centerpiece of events. There should also be things that soloists and non-optimal teams can do to contribute to the event end, or "in" the event.

For instance - and I'm going to stay focused on Lusca here:

There are various ships in Independence Port doing their thing. Dockworkers working. Life is going on as usual. Suddenly, one of the ships puts out an SOS - it's being attacked! A hero going there will find a ship with a tentacle or three around it, the ship being rocked. If the creature isn't chased off in 10 minutes, the ship sinks and another ship is attacked. You have two options - you (or your team) can fight the creature if you do enough damage (and it will fight back!) or, if you can't overcome its regen/do enough damage/you're solo, you can enter the ship and rescue crew members (scaling if you have a team,) plus find the otherwise environmentally-hazardous cargo to put a mediport-type beacon on it and get it transported away. (Yes, the two can be done at the same time. Different badge/rewards, though.)

After that, regardless of result, another creature attacks the docks. You have to fight the creature and/or save the dockworkers (which could be an opportunity for a non-combat event, stabilizing badly injured dockworkers, either through healing powers or, if you don't have those, a med kit that the medics outside will give you, much like the steel canyon fires can be dealt with either by an extinguisher or ice powers.) Since the warehouse near the dockworkers is in flames, you can also work on your firefighter badges if you choose. (Great opportunity for teaming, as defeating the fires could extend the timer for rescuing the people inside.)

A third creature starts attacking one of the pumping stations near Terra Volta (center island.) This station helps refine cooling water for the reactor - this is critical! The creature's not just attacking pipework, but just its presence is blocking an intake. Again, either fight the creature, go inside to shut down overheating equipment/fight fires and/or fight off the Devouring Earth who have noticed and decided to attack as well.

If any or all of these have been completed in some form, Lusca appears (this time with a broken ship she destroyed when she surfaced.) A team can do the usual tentacle defeat, wait for resurface, etc. (with better XP/merit rewards than currently given - one merit per two tentacles, two at the end, and more worthwihle but not overpowering XP) or, if there aren't enough people interested, an individual can get into the broken ship to rescue the survivors before it sinks. Rescue all the survivors, get a temp power (missile strike) - the Navy won't attack with a civilian ship there, but it will if they're out of the way. (Like a warburg nuke, can take a tentacle or the head down to 1/3 health and reduce its regen - also usable elsewhere with somewhat lessened damage and -regen.)

Rewards depend on what you've done - you can keep the med pack (it works on teammates, too) if you have charges left over, or the fire fighting equipment (cold damage cone,) or the missile (described above,) etc - or all of them, if you've done them. Badges, of course, at multiple tiers (doing all the rescues/all the fires/all the fires plus steel canyon fires, though not part of the final event badge/got the missile) as well as the entire event (which doesn't all have to be done at the same time.)

Other examples:
Scrapyard - Is still a "mini GM" to me, really. Have his followers start causing mayhem - defeat the ones attacking cars/buildings, put out the fires they cause (or, alternately, add some of your own and let them take the blame!) Of course, reroute him so he doesn't kill himself on the BM's killfield, and if he's being (significantly) attacked (1/2 health or less) he doesn't despawn until he's either defeated, or regens more than 1/2 health and is left alone.

Kraken - I'm not 100% sure what to do with him. It's not a particularly interesting encounter. Beating on a GM that just stands around - eh. But it's another place to have him destroying something, or you can work on reestablishing a containment field (Vanguard learned where he came from and can send him back until the Rikti bring another - fight off attackers as you find/repair these and weaken him) or something similar. Little more challenge to come up with as it *is* a lower level zone.

The point, of course, is to make these *events.* Some (like defeating the monster construction) I think are fine, though the Paladin should be more interesting if he *does* get built.

In any case, these should have more "stuff" to get people interested and involved, even if they're not on a GM-defeat-capable team. Plus it would breathe new life into some of these zones by letting them have events (Perez/Boomtown, anyone?)

Originally Posted by Lothic

Reward versus Time, like everything else, is in the eye of the beholder.

In these last few weeks I was mostly interested in running WST TF/SFs as fast as possible. As someone who enjoys badging I wanted to finish 50 runs to get my Partner badge (the badge for running 50 assisted WST runs). Sure I was interested in other rewards like shards and merits, but my PRIMARY concern at the time was simply finishing the runs.

I've played this game for seven years so I've run all these TF/SFs in question dozens of times before the WST started both fast and slow. Now that I'm done with the Partner badge I'll probably eventually run those TF/SFs again fast OR slow depending on the situation.

So I don't think fast or slow is either always good or always bad. Just play the way you want and don't get "upset" when other people have different priorities than you do. *shrugs*

Originally Posted by Chaos Creator

Reward/Time

Originally Posted by Roderick

Go to any store in-game.
Buy an SO.
Sell the SO back to the store.
Did you break even?

Go kill enemies until one drops an SO.
Go to any store in the game.
Sell the SO to the store.
Did you get the full selling price of the SO?

It's been this way since Issue 0. Why would the new system be any different than the established ones?

Originally Posted by Golden Girl

Plus there are also all those beefy Spartans in their menacing leather battle-diapers.

Originally Posted by Rush_Bolt

Everything goes in cycles. Space Sci-fi enjoyed a renaissance, now it's on the decline again until the next upswing.

Space sci-fi is dead in the same way computer gaming is.

Originally Posted by Master-Blade

I think the idea is to be able to break down the Component rewards from TFs into regular shards so we can change them into something else that we needed. If the breakdown was an even trade for what it takes to make them, there would be no point for each of the TFs having a different reward at the end. They would have just given us a number of regular shards instead.

Hero 1 DNA Sample Breakdown
Breaks down a common Alpha Incarnate Component into an Incarnate Shard.

They are not supposed to be equal. There is a price for everything.


If you crafted a bunch of Components that you didn't need, you made a bad decision.
If you got the Hero 1 DNA Sample from running LGTF, then you didn't pay 4 Shards for it anyway.

Getting 1 Shard that you can use for anything is still better than having a Component that you don't have any use for.

Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood

I saw someone saying this on a LGTF last night as well so I'm going to ask, why spam immobilizes? AFAIK you need to Hold them to drop the shield, they are already immobilized. The only reason I know of to spam immobilizes is if you're got them slotted iwth the change to hold proc.

Originally Posted by NordBlast

But it is soooo much fun to pull Hro'Dtohz to Honoree's spawn point and have someone to spike generators. Incoming ambushes from destroyed generators and defeated Hro'Dtohz make this fight totally epic.

Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood

Five missions:

Mission 1: In this mission you run to the end of the mission, rescue Penny and fight your way out through clockwork. I believe that if Penny gets killed the mission fails so speed runs will often do that to save time.

Mission 2: In this mission you fight through the sewers and meet the 4 riders (Rikti Heavy Assault Suits with special powers). You fight them four times, first against one rider, then 2, then 3 and finally all four. I think that the optimal killing order is: Famine, Pestilence, War, Death although a good team can generally just zerg them.

Mission 3: This is the longest mission and the most popular to fail. You have to fight through the building and caverns to rescue 2 members of omega team, 6 psychics and kill Dra'Gon. Getting the first member of Omega team killed will fail the mission and as such is a popular strategy.

Mission 4: Hami Time! General strategy is to clear the Rikti and Towers first then do Hamidon as in a raid. Basid rules: Yellow Mitos are vulnerable to melee attacks. Blue Mitos are vulnerable to Single Target Ranged attacks, Green Mitos need to be held (a total of mag 10 holds are required) it is technically possible to do ti without holding them but the DPS required makes it generally infeasible on a PUG. Some people will use EoEs to make this easier but on non-masters runs people generally opt to zerg it.

Mission 5: Either TP or fight to the last room. The big bad guy (I forget his name) and Honoree are near the portal surrounded by Rikti. Most team opt to pull them back a bit to avoid fighting them together but a tough team can just zerg them. Afterward destroy the four generators. Watch out for respawning Rikti.

Team Composition: As with most high level content regen debuffs are always very nice to have along for the AVs since it decreases the total damage required form your team. Additionally having sufficient holds for the green mitos vastly increases your chance of getting past them. Controllers/Dominators are obviously the best source of these since almost all have one and they get much better base stats but a decent number of Blasters, Defenders, Corruptors and Masterminds will have one although it's a crapshoot as to how well it's slotted. Melee toons have some access to them in Epic pools but in my experience very rarely take them.