macskull

The only PvP spec'd melee I have on Justice is my Spines/Regin, and even that's specifically built for ranged combat (Webnades to keep 'em grounded and Shuriken, Impale, and Trow Spines for range), plus Spines just isn't all that good after I13. Generally my role in a team situation is webnade and tauntbot. Only other thing I have is a BS/WP at level 41 that I was working on for ladder matches but the ladder tanked before I finished it so I'm probably going to delete it. I've got an SS/Fire I use for farming but it's not worth the time, effort, or inf to accolade and dual-build just to prove someone is bad when I'm already 100% positive anyways.

No one knows for certain whether time moves faster or slower in different parts of the universe. We simply don't know enough about it to determine what's correct and what isn't. I'm talking about proven facts, not theorycrafting. This isn't a quantum physics debate. It never has been, it never will be. It's a numbers debate, simple as that. We're using numbers that have been backed up by twelve issues of PvP in a wide variety of situations including the ones you're bringing up. You're using numbers that you think apply to your limited and narrow view of the PvP world while you completely toss aside anything and anyone that might *gasp* prove you wrong. Congratulations, you're good at standing in melee range, clicking attacks, and occasionally clicking a heal if your health gets low. I could sit my little cousin (who has never played videogames, much less this game) down at the computer, tell her "these buttons are attacks, these are heals, use them when your health is low," and she'd be at the very least competitive against other fiteklubbers. I couldn't drop her into standard zone or arena PvP and have that same level of success. In short, standing in melee range bashing on each other until you die doesn't make either of you good players. A good player is able to play a variety of characters well in a variety of situations, and your experience playing only melee builds in a fiteklub environment kind of contradicts that.

Somewhere upthread you mentioned you don't share your builds with people. That's unfortunate because it means you will learn nothing from those with more experience than you, and you'll be shutting out players who want to learn? Is that really how you want to make a name for yourself? For example, I could probably rip your build a new one without even taking the Medicine pool out of the build, and as a result you'd be "stronger" in whatever it is you do, but your refusal to share builds means that will never happen. Also somewhere upthread you mention that a melee fiteklub duel should be a tie given equal build and "skill" and someone will only win if they're more offensive, but what if both players are equally offensive? Logic would dictate they'd kill each other at the same time, every time, but experience and the game mechanics say that will rarely, if ever, happen (it's only ever happened to me once the entire time I've been PvPing).

Yes, you're correct there.

"Almost like." The key word in that statement is "almost," even though in that content "almost" should be replaced by "nothing." Aid Self is "almost like" Healing Flames just as much as Dull Pain is "almost like" Healing Flames or Healing Aura (they're "almost like" each other because they give you health back!). You can reliably use Healing Flames in heavy combat, whereas Aid Self will probably get you killed if you don't run yourself out of endurance trying to get it to go off without being interrupted. It's exactly like saying Stamina is better than Quick Recovery because it gives less base endurance but is available to every AT (here's a hint: QR is better in every way).

Aside from Healing Flames, Fire has Fiery Embrace which stacks with Rage or Build Up for very high-damage spikes, it has Burn which is good Stalker repellant (and is the only player-available mez protection left in PvP as far as I'm aware), it has good slow resists, and it has high resistance to one of the most common types of damage found on Scrappers, Blasters, and Doms. I'd hardly call that "useless." However, your one-dimensional view of the game may well render it useless, and that's your loss.

Which tournies would those be? I recall Shin entering a grand total of one tourney on his Elec/Therm, and I'm pretty sure that was the lolfiteklub no inspires one (yeah, it takes lots of skill to win a no-inspires tourney on an Elec/Therm). Shin wasn't the first Elec/Therm on Justice either, I'm 90% sure Dream and Deth had them first (but I forgot, you have no idea who those people are because you have almost zero experience with the better players on the server).

I have no idea who "Dave" is. I also know that fighting against a squishy in a DR-off environment is doomed to fail (75% resistance to everything, mez, and high ranged damage? Come on.). No one's been dueling with DR off since they added the option to remove heal decay, and it's probably going to stay that way until we get an option to turn off base resistances.

The funny thing is, those MM huddles still wouldn't get many kills. However, it's completely expected for a group of people who can't coordinate damage spikes and play support characters well because they're all full of the "me me me!" mentality to get facerolled by a coordinated and balanced team. More often than not, the Balmont people would outnumber the heroes in the zone, but because they were either all on melee builds or were just really bad at playing the support characters they were on, it didn't make any difference at all.

There were several threads before I13, all of which were brought to the devs' attention (and some of which even had redname posts). There was lots of good feedback during I13 closed beta but PvPers were basically told most of the I13 changes were non-negotiable and just about the only things that've been fixed since then as a result of player request were NPC mezzes, knockback protection, and a few travel suppression-related issues, and we've got a few doggie treats thrown our way in the form of arena options and tweaks (sudden death being one of those odd ones that no one really likes). I think I was the only one to give them reliable reproduction steps to fix being able to attack someone during the 10-second phase period after respawn in arena as well. Since I16 went into closed beta, at least three trivial PvE "fluff" bugs I've reported (they were, as best I am aware, fixed because of bug reports I filed on live and test - one was the very tiny jump speed debuff on Shadow Fall and the other was the /e alakazam emote not working right when shapeshifted on a Kheld, can't remember the third). If I'd've known they'd put more effort into fixing cosmetic bugs with zero real impact on gameplay, I wouldn't've bothered to even bring up PvP bugs.

Since I13 I've started two PvP feedback threads, one of which was brought to the attention of the devs, and which began an exchange of PMs between myself and a developer. Unfortunately, while I think they've taken note of our concerns, I don't think there will be any meaningful changes to the way things work. That is why most players have just stopped trying. So please, don't tell us we're not trying hard enough, or we're not doing it right.

lol... getting a team of 5 MMs and camping one spot in the zone takes epic skill, yo.

The only halfway decent person from Balmont's group was Vince. The rest of them are actually really bad.

Bad and faulty logic is worse than no logic at all. Somehow you've managed to make yourself look worse and worse every time you've tried to apply "logic" to one of these discussions ("I was distracted by someone summoning a pet" or "Aid Self is better than Healing Flames because every powerset can take it" are lolworthy at best and downright sad at worst).

You can believe the world is flat, and that the universe revolves around the Earth, and argue those points 'til you're blue in the face, but experience and numbers prove otherwise and continuing to stubbornly maintain a position that's incorrect will get you nothing but laughter from those who know better.

And this is where you're wrong.

Mixed bag, I think. Ideally I'd want to be playing with a team I knew well and I could rely on to play their respective roles well in a team environment, but at the same time I understand how someone who doesn't have that might get frustrated when they try and form a random team and get facerolled.

Basically you have three options, since a server merger will never happen and cross-server zone/arena seems less and less likely as the days go by:

1. Transfer stuff to Freedom or start over there
2. Try and play against the two or three people left on Guardian
3. Unsub and go somewhere else

Option 1 is probably the best investment for your time if you're insistent on staying with this game, but in the long run I'm guessing option 3 is probably best.

Yeah, but most of the time your opponent will have at least a few blues.

Here's the funny thing: I've never lost a melee duel, even under your set of rules.

EDIT: To use some of the analogies from up-thread: once you learn to play real baseball, you don't forget how to play teeball. Once you learn how to swim, you don't suddenly forget how to stay above the water in the kiddie pool. Once you learn how to drive a stock car at Daytona, you don't forget how to drive on the street. Once you learn how to do integral calculus, you don't forget how to add or subtract. Same concept goes here - you're looking at different levels of PvP, and since moving up in ability level is simply building on what you've already learned, you don't just forget that.

Oh, I'm not debating that. A good melee will be able to work disruption via Taunt and webnades (if they have them, which many Brutes and Scrappers will) and occasionally contribute to damage spikes. I was only commenting on his insistence that a melee character is more interesting than a ranged character. I can understand that viewpoint, since a person who wants to rely only on themselves to stay alive and doesn't like moving or using inspirations will want a character that doesn't need either to compete against other characters meeting the same criteria.

Fire's probably top-tier for Scrapper primaries right now because it's got good damage, solid crit rate on the heavy hitters, and DoTs to keep Stalkers out of Hide longer. I think I'd rank Scrapper primaries as Fire -> BS -> MA -> Kat -> Spines (maybe reverse Kat and Spines, as Spines still has a little bit going for it with the range).

That's actually a very good comparison. To put it another way, if you're just learning to swim, you should probably be in the kiddie pool. There comes a point, though, where you've got to realize it's time to head to the deep pool. I mean, sure, you can stay in the kiddie pool if you want to, but then everyone looks at you funny and parents start to get concerned about their children. I started my PvP experiencing fiteklubbing in Siren's on a Kat/Regen, but eventually I got bored and started to tool around with different ways of playing and I was pleased with how much more dynamic and interesting things were. Sure, I died a lot more often, but I learned something every time I died.

Most of us don't define "alive" as "empty unless there are two or three Stalkers who can't even get an AS off on a grounded target."

There are very few good players on Justice who haven't already made the move to Freedom, and for the most part the Balmont crew is not in that group.