TheOtherTed

"Doctor Denton" was taken?

I recently learned that you don't have to travel to Wentworth's anymore - you can just type /ah in chat. For some reason, I still find myself going to Wentworth's, though.

I have two characters whom I would consider "tricksters," although neither is really a shapeshifter. One is a Staff/Dark Armor stalker, the other an Trick Arrow/Archery defender. That said, it's not so much the power sets that make them tricksters, but their backstories and how I envision their tactics (surprise, confuse, harrass, and divide instead of confront and subdue). In a broad sense, I suppose my Illusion/Empathy controller and my Dark/Dark corruptor are trickstery as well - but my brain just doesn't fit them into that role. In my head, they are forces of nature, ripples in reality that disrupt the bad guys by their very presence. Whereas my tricksters ride that fine line between victory and defeat, constantly weaving through and around the battle, the other two, confident in their own invulnerability, just plant themselves on the line and unleash holy (or not so holy) terror on their foes. The latter command the field of battle from a position of safety, while the tricksters disrupt the battle to save their own hides. ...anyway, that probably doesn't answer the OP's question at all. Just figured I'd throw out my own in-game interpretation of tricksters to say that ATs and powersets might not be the way to define them.

I guess I'm nearly the opposite of the OP. I've tried to run power-themed characters, and with few exceptions, I just lose interest in them very quickly. Had great character concepts (at least in my head brain mind thing) for a fire/fire scrapper, a martial arts/super reflexes stalker, an energy/energy blaster, and a few others, and while I had no real complaints about their effectiveness, I just lost interest pretty quickly. Thus, most of my characters have had mixed powers. That said, I've always had a soft spot for TA/archery defenders, and I'm currently running a dark/dark corruptor that I'm completely obsessed with. But those are the only two lasting exceptions.

Almost the perfect intro song for my mellow but not-quite-sane extradimensional space genie from the future...

Kuricorder Quartet - Imperial March

My first Praetorian on Live was a Mind/Psionic Dominator who was "all in" with the Loyalist/Power faction. Had a lot of fun until the game died. Ironically, my two current Praetorians are a controller (Mind/Time) and a defender (TA/Archery). The former is trying to be a good Loyalist/Responsibility, but somehow fell in with the Warden side of the Resistance and is running both in parallel. The latter was full-on Resistance/Warden who went blue-side just a couple of weeks ago. Weird thing is, I (the player) wanted out of Praetoria badly, but I'll admit I felt a little choked up when it came time to leave... Finally, I'll second (or fourth, or fifth, or whatever we're up to now) the Poison set. I have a character blue-side, AR/Poison Corruptor, who would be a natural Crusader on the Resistance side. So many tasty debuffs - and I kind of mean that literally; you get to spit on your enemies.

Dark/Dark Corruptor with Moonbeam, Shadowfall, and Fearsome Stare. Done.

My two most memorable tabletop RPG moments are both from the game I played the least - Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I only played when I was tapped to "substitute" for someone, or when we were bored and someone offered to run a one-off adventure. I subbed in once to play a paladin - a class I knew next to nothing about, and, honestly, didn't particularly like. The B-plot culminated in the character fighting another knight in a "trial by combat" situation - the knight was a favored hero of the people, but known to be a bad guy by the party. He tried to kill my character with a dagger that had some sort of spring-loaded needle or small blade coated with contact poison (don't ask how my paladin recognized that), but I managed to put him down. Trying to play the honorable Dudley Do-Right, I picked up the dagger, retracted the needle, and dropped it, then made a show of thanking whatever god the paladin worshipped for my victory, reaffirming the paladin's fealty to the king, and offering to pay weregild to the knight's family. One of the other players, usually pretty passive and sedate, gave me an uncharacteristic look of revulsion and said, "That was so honorable it was disgusting!" In the other story, I was more in my element. I played a chaotic neutral halfling thief, and for some reason my character and the party's fighter just did not get along at all. At some point, we were tasked with exploring some tower in a keep. The fighter told me to scout ahead for traps while we climbed the tower's steps, but I made a big show of saying, "oh, sure, let the little guy go first. Can't risk the big, brave, handsome warrior coming to any harm, now, can we?" I went on like that until the fighter said "Fine," and stomped ahead. We got about halfway up when the top and bottom doors slammed shut, and something - can't remember if it was water or poisonous gas - started filling the tower. The fighter whirled on me in anger and said, "Why weren't you checking for traps?!" To which I replied, "You were in front..."

So I've made and remade a natural blapper character repeatedly, and I'm having issues deciding on the "blapping" part. The concept is a superspy who was detained in the Zig "off the record," sort of like Sean Connery's character in "The Rock" (although for a few years, not decades). The character is all about style and finesse, and maybe more than a little showmanship. So far, I'm considering: /Energy Blaster (fun, but the animations are a little less "gun kata" and a little more "Hulk SMASH" than I'd like) /Martial Combat Blaster (current front runner, but was hoping to save MT for an Archery concept) /Ninja Training Blaster (I like the utility tricks, but the sword, the actual thing I'd blap with... not so much) /Devices Blaster (would dip heavily into the Fighting pool, which I've never really done anything with before) /Traps Corruptor (see above) /??? Sentinel (see above again. Also, I haven't played a sentinel I actually like yet) Keep in mind I'm one of those weirdos who isn't too concerned about optimality - I'm not looking for "the perfect" dual pistol blapping build. I'd like to get some feedback, though, about the playstyle or "feel" of the above powersets from folks who have some experience with them. Or, if there's an archetype or set that might be fun to at least try out as a blapper, that'd be cool as well.

On live, any "hot door" situation when I was playing a controller or a defender. For folks who haven't heard the term, a "hot door" refers to a mission entry or an elevator situation where you load right into the middle of a full spawn (or within instant aggro range). No time to assess, plan, or get ready - you just loaded into an instant combat situation with maximum chaos. Sadly, hot doors were "fixed" sometime during live. Can't remember when. My Ill/Emp controller and TA/Archery defender in particular lived for these situations. It was usually myself and one scrapper who didn't die in the alpha (that's why veterans to this day take the back elevator doors), and who refused to run. The rest of the team would be shouting at us to regroup, but we'd set to work with grim determination. Eventually, the team would timidly start popping back in, one by one, just about the time we were finishing up (and deep in the red). Other than that, I tended to keep an eye out for wandering patrols, or for spawns that were a little too close for comfort. If they showed signs of becoming alert to the main fight, I'd jump in and keep them at bay until the team finished up. Didn't matter what AT I was playing or whether I thought I'd survive - I just wanted to buy the team some time before they suddenly had to deal with two spawns. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes I'd get yelled at, and sometimes I'd get an on-the-spot SG invite. There seemed to be little correlation between effectiveness and team reaction...

I, uh... no, no it's not like that...

I started playing DDO again after a random conversation with a friend. It's one of the two MMOs that I recommend to people when they're looking for something different. My main problem with it, though, is that I can't seem to break away from rogues...

*throws a Bob Dylan at ArchVileTerror*

Marian McPartland Trio - All The Things You Are

I have this overwhelming urge to run along the top of walls and fences. I picked up the habit in another MMO where fence-running is actually a seasonal activity. When I suddenly discovered my tough-as-nails 40s era private eye skipping merrily along the top of a plank fence in King's Row, I realized I had a problem. I also just... don't... CARE about IOs, let alone set bonuses. Crazy, huh?

If I could have had a Kin/BS instead of Kin/Arch on Live, I would have been one happy camper. For a while, anyway, until the "SB plz" shakes kicked in. In other news, I'm digging PartyKake's idea of a "tankermind." That said, there are "hybrid" armor sets out there, even if they're not "armor/attack" hybrids (Ninjutsu, Dark Armor, and Fire Armor come to mind). No reason you couldn't sub in an attack here or there to supplement the attacks you get with your Pet set.

Long ago, I messed around with a bots/FF concept. He was a mad scientist type from an underground human(ish) civilization, but he'd been exiled for "reasons." He used the stout male body, very short height (maybe four feet tall), crazy hair, oversized goggles, unbuttoned labcoat, "tucked in" pants, and massive boots. Probably my first retro sci-fi character ever, but I wasn't exactly creative with the name - I called him "Moleman" as a placeholder. Loved the concept and the look, but didn't like MMs that much, so he didn't last long. If that interests you, I could try to recreate his costume and post it here.

I love that belt, but I had to give it up on Live. Got horribly addicted. I was putting it on every new character I made, and even tried to retrofit it onto old characters. It was bad, man.

Of course not, but the proposal is interesting nonetheless. Would you be satisfied with a pet/armor combo? If yes, what would be the appeal? If no, what would work better? For example, would Greycat's suggestion (a hybrid armor/melee secondary) be enough?

I gotta be honest - I couldn't think of a more boring combination, but then I never play MMs anyway. Is pet control dynamic enough to keep that interesting? If not, how would you spice that up?

With the recent release of Mount & Blade: Bannerlords, I rediscovered M&B Warband. I feel like a wimp, though, 'cause I always pick either the Sarranid Sultanate or the Rhodok Republic as my starting area. Someday, maybe, I'll be gamer enough to return to Swadia. Someday.

...wait - has no one posted this yet? Batman Theme - Danny Elfman

On live, while playing my kinetics defender, I had a terribly itchy ignore finger. Took me a good long while to realize that I, personally, could not handle the energy needed to play a kin - I'd get revved up throwing out buffs and fielding emergencies, and would just blow my top if someone dared to give any sort of "friendly advice" in the middle of a fight. Rage quits and ignores became a semi-regular thing for me, until I weaned myself off the role with a dark defender. Nowadays, I barely ignore anyone for anything. I may temporarily ignore people who are cluttering chat with never-ending, off-topic discussions, but they get un-ignored before I log off. There are only two people I've permanently ignored since I joined HC. They both said "Ok boomer."

Something a little more peppy...