Beta also sort of has the new Mastermind set, Beast Mastery. Almost none of the animations are ready (lots of placeholders), and it crashes the game if you try to launch a character with the set, but you can at least see the names and short descriptions. The tier 1 attack power involves shooting bees at your opponent (sadly not animated yet, it has a darkness blast placeholder).

---Dave

...weeeeell, I'm sold. A deadly BEE weapon.

The list of Preatorian Big Bads is dwindling, as this one adds Diabolique to the mix. I'm expecting Preatorian Infernal to be in that same trial.

I think only Black Swan, Chimera and Dominatrix are left, and then Tyrant himself (Shadowhunter doesn't count as he's already been killed off a few issues ago) will be left.

A Deadly Bee Weapon?

That was the reference! I love that bit.

I'm old school. To me, bee weapons will always call to mind the Martian Chronicles.

---Dave

A few years ago, right after a new issue release or bug fix, the Dark Astoria map was published without the "fog bit." For a few days, you could run around DA in clear daylight, and it looked scarier that way! All the overturned cars and zombies everywhere. Unfortunately, it was corrected a few days later.

Hey... What times/servers are you guys generall on at/in anyways?

I'm on either Victory (Moritori) or Justice (Geiger Girl)...

Days I work I'm generall on in the morning, could be as earlier as 6:00am CST up until 1:30pm CST

Nights I'm off... I'm generally on sometime around 2:00am.... but depending on if my chat freinds aren't around it could be as early as midnight CST.

I generally don't hop on in the evening, especially if I'm working. If I do, it'd be around 7:00cst.

I'm on Virture, usually in the morning because of my work hours.

Lately I've mostly been on Exalted because Pony. But I have characters on every server except some Defiant and Vigilance (yeah, I even have one on the German-language server).

BTW, if you mostly play mornings, you might consider getting a toon on Union, the UK server. The overall population is low, but your morning is their evening.

---Dave

I'm on Pinacle with most of my characters, myself.

Also the New Dark Astoria content, does this overwrite old Dark Astoria missions or anything? I had a mission outstanding there, and I'm hesitant to go rushing in to the zone now (if I even can).

Well, it's not been released yet, so you've got some time to finish your current stuff there!

And, wow. Putting endurance reducer enhancements on all the powers REALLY helps Titan Weapons with its endurance cost issues.

Edit: Good idea, Dave! I might do that!

Shoot... so nobody on either.

Been trying to make teams to get through Oroboros and the respec to no avail. I got one guy to help earlier... and for some reason we experiance technical difficulties in the 2nd to last mission.

I really only have a couple of placeholders on Victory (Adam Savage as a Spikes Scrapper, and my very first really crappy villain moved there during a free transfers period). I have plenty of mid-range toons on Justice, though, and I moved a 48 Peacebringer from Virtue to Justice the other week.

I expect that any unfinished missions in DA will be Abandoned, and when you re-contact the mission-giver it'll spawn somewhere else. A lot of Galaxy City stuff got re-aimed like that.

---Dave

Man, Enemies sure don't drop as many enhancements as they used to. And even when they do, it's still the same as before... stuff I can't or don't want to use.

Probly going to have to run the next few (and mind you, these are FEW) Talos/Oroboros/Respec missions with XP turned off... as to not overshoot anything and to earn more monies (that IS how that works right?)

SO... somebody said something about a mystical-style mission in Croatoa? Where that be at? This the one envolving the orgin of the thorn I read about? I would like to run that one.

Dinged 35. I get to go to Rooooome.

Going through Chapter 5 of the SSA. One thing made me chuckle: Darrin Wade's letter to me at the end of the 2nd mission.

" The beautiful part will be taking both Statesman's powers and your own."

I'm playing on Zoot-Suit Riot (who technically is a power-armored hero). My reaction: "erm... This guy knows I don't REALLY gave powers of my own, right? Boy he IS in for a disappointment when he "steals" my "powers" and realizes he got nothing"

Still, enjoyable so far I ran the 1st mission set at 8 (forgot to lower my diff! O_O) but lowered it for the rest. Lots of Arachnos AVs so far, can't wait to see the villain equivalent later on Pinstripe.


EDIT: And ended it. Nice cutscene to end it, but I felt the final fight to be a bit anticlimactic. Still, there's 2 chapters left before this ends.

I ran it blueside with a team, and there was a weird bug at the end...Schrodinger's Statesman. He was simultaneously living and dead.

---Dave

I soloed the first... two parts, I think, but got totally shut down on the third. Need to run it with a team sometime.

I soloed it on Server Wench, my L47 Mace/SR Brute. Took my time, so that I could use my tier 9 and summoned epic pool helper as much as possible. I hit tier 9 crash when I had the final elite boss down to about 10%, and then alternated hitting attacks and inspirations for the rest of the fight, barely succeeded.

---Dave

Hey, is there any way to get out of a Task Force temporarily to, y'know, form a team? I tried the Oroboros Task Force again, this time with Moritori. She fared better... but still only got him halfway down the dial before dieing. Now the first time I did that, GG just logged off, then when I got back on that wasn't the only gig in town... but with Mor it's sticking with me (though I was only offline for like an hour).

No, if you want to leave you have to start from scratch. Taskforces lock you in for the duration, and there's no getting back in once you leave without starting over from the beginning.

---Dave

A thought occcured to me:

Technically, Sister Psyche is ALSO a creation of Jack Emert's, just as much as Statesman (as opposed to say, Positron who was created my Matt Miller). Are we 100% certain that States will be the ONLY one who will die? I mean we still have 2 chapters to go, SP already have troubles of her own, and Wade says at the end of chapter 5 that he'll be gunning for her next.

It DOES say the "Fall of the Freedom Phalanx"...

As far as I can tell, the other big names of the Phalanx were created by other developpers (Manticore for instance was Sean Michael Fish's, Posi as I said is Matt Miller's). Only SP and States were Emert's. Wouldn't surprise me if SP gets it in the next SSA, and Manticore goes "rogue" as a result. (not in the sense of the character alignment, but as a rogue hero). With 3 big names out, the Phalanx would effectively be crushed.

Of course we'll see in 2 months time when the last 2 chapters are done.

My Invulnerability/Super-Strength L50(+1) Tanker as a pony.



---Dave

I am aware. Though it'd be the only option to go get some backup.

Though the point is moot... as I tried it again and, after stockpiling health and rage insp rather than the standard 3 rows of Res combo (Res, break, health) 3 rage and 3 rest, I was able to just barely beat him and his thorny pope-hat down.

But I notice I'm not getting any non-oro-mission related time travel yet...

Did misses for an hour or two with a great 8 man team. Had a ton of fun, got a level and a half of exp. All around win. Alyssa's level 37 now. Almost to her last archetype power!

Strangely, in (big) teams, I can turn on all five of my toggles (three from invincibility, two from leadership) and have very few endurance issues, while I have issues with just two on soloing.

Well a couple things can factor in this. First of all is a defender/controller/corruptor who can buff you. For instance, when playing Free-Fall, I'm periodically firing off my Regen Aura or my Recovery Aura, thus buffing teammates (and mine also) HP regeneration or End recuperation. Speed Boost can also factor in this.

Also, when teaming yes you got more enemies but you got more on your side two. A couple blasters shooting off AoEs will eliminate foes faster, thus making fights less long, so your end has less opportunity to drain off.

I think, yeah, it's a combination there. I know we had a Kinetics defender (which almost killed us when she speed buffed me and I accidentally ran into the next group of mobs ) buffing, at least. I wasn't running through my powers quite as fast as soling, I though, but still...

In any case, it was a ton of fun. I need to group more.

Yeah, on any melee character I go see Null the Gull in Pocket D and turn off speed increases, so I don't leeroy all over the map. Lets you keep the recharge and other bonuses from powers like Speed Boost, without actually moving faster. I have an Elec/Elec tanker that already moves so fast with no movement toggles on that I have to be careful about overshooting, getting the Fool can really mess him up.

---Dave

Didn't know that was possible! Huh.

Null the Gull is on top of the truck on the red side bar, by the kitty corner. It's something of a kludge, since messing with the options screen apparently introduces all sorts of headaches, so they made an NPC that can set your flags. Null also lets you pick auto-accept or auto-deny on Mystic Fortune, and refuse team travel powers.

Also, if you ever get a buff you don't want, you can right-click on the little icon for it under the control bar and dismiss it (you can't dismiss debuffs or mystic fortunes/secondary mutations). So if some Ice Defender rudely covers you in ice armor when you're just standing around roleplaying, you can turn it off.

---Dave

I've seen him, I just didn't know he was more than a (in)joke. I looked him up and'll hit him up.

Meanwhile, the defender is DEFINITELY a big part of the end stuff. I was working with a team without one and boy howdy did I hurt for end.

But I dinged 38, so now I have Unstoppable. It's... pretty sweet.

And a few minutes later, you become Stoppable. One of the few places I really regret playing on a Mac, since the third party program that does countdowns for you automatically is PC-only. I suppose I could get an egg timer of the right length and remember to tip it whenever I punch tier 9, though.

---Dave

That... would be a useful program to have.

Check out http://www.herostats.org for the code.

---Dave

I would highly recommend having a couple of buffers or debuffers on any big team. Defenders, Corrupters, Controllers, Masterminds, whatever. As long as there's someone doing team-wide buffs or debuffs, things tend to go a lot smoother.

Yeah, I've noticed.

It's really cool when a big team is going well. You just scythe through hordes and hordes of enemies. So badass.

Working through the Devouring Earth arc after winning the OH so useful stealth suit and 2 days of jump enhancements from sucessfully stopping a bank raid (the Thistle chick... less of a pain than the ninja)

First part of the mission ran me for a loop with their 'need to disarm bombs simutaneously' bit.... Ran through the bulk of the Dark Astoria map after the last mission I played one before bed.... man that place is creepy.

The contacts are supposed to warn you that the mission REQUIRES multiple participants. There are a few that have been missed, though. If you run across it again, /BUG it, including the contact name, and the mission name.

Woo, I've made it to 41 on my scrapper. Double endurance reduction in all the attacks basically solved Titan Weapons' endurance issues. I still occasionally run out, but a bit of a careful use of powers and the occasional blue inspiration keeps me going. I'm actually running at +1 level enemies, now, with very rare trouble--and the occasional difficult fight is usually solved by the application of Unstoppable, which I save for those situations, like when multiple groups spawn too close to each other to separate.

I've been fighting a lot of Nemesis and, man, I hate Snipers. They totally break the grouping system with their ridiculously long aggro range. But, I can generally handle them, so it works out alright.

Seriously, TW does so much damage. It's not just my inexperience causing me to overestimate. Was playing with some friends who've been around for years and they were commenting on it. I love this powerset. Reminds me, the Build Up equivalent power sure is more useful than I thought at first. Especially since the TW one gives me Momentum. It goes "Build Momentum, slam with every or almost every power, group/boss/whatever is dead". I've got it slotted with two recharge reducers, so I can use it fairly often very handy.

In conclusion, I love this character and I love this game.

Titan Weapons has two modes. "Wait for it" and "My endurance bar is gone, but so is the enemy."

---Dave

She said I "might need backup". I've had other missions tell me that before, and just punched my way through.

Guh, I'm a death machine until I get to elite bosses. I just can't solo them at all. Gonna have to get some help taking down Nemesis.

Well, took down the devouring earth... ended up in Croatoa (Finally!) and click on the Earn XP so I can level up.

True, now I have to top off all my enhancements (after filling them all to 30), but I'm Loving Crane Kick.

And... I'm at the impasse now... on my tips I got 9 hero and 9 vigilante tokens...

Now this might be a stupid question I may have asked before, but what ALL goes down if I go vigilante? Will the peeps on the hero side treat me different?

If you go Vigilante, you still get hero-side contacts as before. If you join a supergroup, you won't be able to add personal items to the base, but I doubt you care about that. NPCs passing by will, instead of praising your deeds, be openly suspicious of you and spread nasty rumors. The main mechanical effects are a different alignment power (fear-based rather than enhancing your damage and that of your teammates), the ability to enter all zones that your level allows, and the fact that going Hero will let you earn Hero Merits (which might become pretty damned useful soon, and already can be used to buy various rare stuff) while Vigilantes can't.

The oldest and slowest way to earn Hero Merits is to do another ten hero tip missions and another hero alignment mission. Doing the Signature Story Arc missions will also let you earn Hero Merits, one per week per arc (part 1 can be done in under 15 minutes if you're in it for the merits rather than the XP) on each eligible character.

---Dave, needs to get around to farming a few more WWD1 Hero Merits now that Pinkie is L50.

You haven't had endurance issues until you've played a Broadsword/Dark Armor scrapper. Gath is finally at level 50, though.

Hero merits? Now how do thoes things work? I had thought she could just be a vigilante for a little bit, then change back to hero... the whole 'walking the edge' thing

And what's this about fear-based alignment powers?

Well... I guess it's kind of moot as I don't have the expansion...