Zippity

UPDATE (10/5/2020) AE Mission ID Updated to 33618 After receiving some feedback... Made some changes to Mission 1, to remove the glitchy faction fighting and opted for hostage rescuing in it's stead... Also, removed the GM from Mission 3 and opted for a custom AV/EB instead (depends on mission difficulty settings)... Also, changed the min/max levels to be more consistent across all 3 missions, instead of the roller coaster it was before... Made some slight adjustments to text here and there as well... Please, feel free to test it out and let me know if any more issues crop up... Please Note: This is story based, so The Contact for the mission at the AE Building has story text, both before and after doing each mission... There is also Clue Text and so forth... If you rush past the contacts text (which some folks are prone to do), you may have no clue what is really going on... Thanks, Zip

I actually find this Mission fun and different... It definitely works out better if you do it in a group... This mission has been like it is since it first came out with the zone, back in live... My best recommendation for completing it, especially if soloing it, is to rescue all the hostages one at a time, wait for ambushes as you rescue each hostage... (do not pump up the difficulty of the mission at all, in fact if soloing, I recommend lowering it to -1/0)... Once all three are rescued, conduct the escort of all 3 at one time, following the road to the fence behind the henge... Jump the fence, finish the escort and then return to the road from whence you hopped the fence... If you wait there, the ambushes will almost always come up that road, and you can create a choke point to take them out... If you have a controller to put down a slow field, it works even better... I still highly recommend getting a group together to do it... Yes, it seems annoying that you have to deal with ambushes for such a long period of time... But it's just the one time mission, and I can think of far more annoying missions then that one... Zip

Howdy, I made an AE Adventure consisting of 3 Missions for this Halloween... It just needs some Beta Testing and Feedback for improvements... Also be aware there is a lot of text in the form of Clues, Pop ups, and dialogue with the contact (be aware, only the leader can see the Contact text if you test it with friends)... There is a GM in the final mission, but if anyone thinks it's a bit too hard, then I can downgrade it to something else and make the appropriate text changes... Let me know what you think of it... The AE # is 33618... It is meant to be story driven, and uses a unique and fun method with most of the text... If you think the pacing of the text is off, let me know in a PM here and/or in game, so I know where to look, so I can fix it...Thanks... Happy upcoming Halloween All, and can't wait for Trick or Treating in-game... Thanks, Zip

I know some folks like the feel of knockback, especially when soloing. Watching everything get knocked on it's butts... But in groups, especially when AoE pools are placed on the ground, watching attacks knock everything back and out of those AoE zones (thereby voiding their beneficial effects) can be rather annoying for the folks placing them down (or for tanks that heard a group into one spot). I always recommend adding in Knockback to Knockdown IO's into powers prone to have lots of Knockback, if you plan to group a lot... Of course, play how you want to, but I like to throw that caveat out there, because it is annoying to watch all your powers get nullified by other players powers knocking everything out of your AoE's, especially for classes where those are your more useful abilities for debuffing and crowd control (such as the various rains and hold pools)... And I whole heartedly agree with changing out Power Blast with Power Bolt. Sure Power Blast does more damage, but Power Bolt has a faster cast time, comes back faster, and is a great mule for Decimation: Chance for Build Up and other procs, that will help make up for its slightly lower damage output. The first two powers in most attack sets, tend to become fillers mostly in the late game anyhow, depending on your build. Acting more as Proc mules or Set Bonus hosts, then anything else. Also, Sentinel's Ward works better in shorter cooldown AoE powers, so it has more chances to proc. You can still use it in your most used power as well, but if the power containing that set is used more as an occasional filler, then it's Proc benefit becomes sorta nullified. I also think that at end-game, you have way too many attacks in this build. Unless your just using them as Set IO Bonus Mules, you'll find that your more powerful attacks will come back fast enough that some powers will rarely need to be used, and might feel like wasted power choices as you do various end-game group activities. Also, focusing on a ton of various higher resistances while at the same time avoiding most defenses will feel a bit counter productive. Just because you take less damage when hit, the fact that your getting hit all the time because of low defenses, will just end up getting you killed regardless of taking less damage per hit. High Health Regen will not compensate for it either, as the health return doesn't come back fast enough if the damage is coming in too fast... More so if you plan to stick with knockback, because if you knock stuff away from members taunt auras or out of control fields, with high damaging attacks, you will end up drawing the agro from some, if not many, of those baddies effected, which means more incoming attacks towards you... And so on... When it comes to Sentinels, I find that if you plan to choose a Resistance Secondary set, then you need to work towards capping only the few most common damage types (such as L/S and a few others), and when selecting IO set bonuses, you also need to account for shoring up your lower defenses. Same goes for Defense Secondary sets, using IO bonuses to shore up common resistances once the more common defenses are shored up. It's a balancing act, to either try and avoid getting hit at all, but if you do get hit, the damage will be reduced. Or going with some moderate defenses so you get hit now and then, but take less damage for certain damage types... Problem is, if your getting hit all the time (compared to now and then), no manner of resistance or health regen will keep you alive for long, and this build has really low defenses across the board, other then Melee, which you should only have to worry about when you run in to Nova. Now all that being said, you can compensate for some of those defense holes, by selecting the right Incarnate abilities as well.. So take that into consideration before scrapping this whole build based off my comments, and trying to rebalance it all... 🙂 Zip

I always preferred the Mace based Bane Spider over the more Ranged version, mostly because in Live the ranged one was highly over used due to it's more AoE focus. You may not get the same sort of Critical hits that a Stalker gets, but the Mace attacks of the Bane feel very powerful when they hit. When you add in the strength of the hits along with the toxic dot's with high defenses, I feel the Bane is very capable. Sure, it is more Single Target focused, but that was the whole idea in the first place. Couple in the fact that many of the attacks also have a KD/KB component for a bit of crowd control, I feel powerful when playing a Melee focused Bane. Sure, the more AoE focused ranged Spider will see more numbers appear on the screen, but there are more then enough AoE based players out there. Having the option for more single target boss killing AT's helps fill in the gaps. One caveat I always recommend though, if your gonna play a Melee Bane, stay away from the ranged attacks for the most part. They tend to have longer casting times and I feel they interrupt the flow of melee attacks, which come back fast enough that you don't need a whole bunch of additional attacks to throw into the fray, that might slow down your attack sequence. If you want something for the occasional runner, add in just one Ranged attack for those special occasions, but I would avoid it in your actual base attack rotation. Another recommendation, the cone arc of Crowd Control does take some getting used to, like most melee cone attacks. But when lined up right, it is glorious to see all those baddies fall on their butts with a huge crunch sound to boot. Some folks will feel as though the Mace attacks (like most big melee weapon sets) feel a bit slow. They may feel a bit slow, but the damage numbers are also typically higher, then the faster smaller weapon sets. Mace attacks may not appeal to everyone, and the same goes for Broadsword, Battleaxe, and the Warmace sets. They feel slower, but hit really hard, and sound like they hit hard as well. It takes a certain mind set to get around the slow feel of these types of weapons. In the end it is an illusion, that because they feel slower that they are inferior to the faster attack melee weapon sets. I don't play MMORPG's to compete with other players. The whole genre of MMORPG's was designed around Co-Operative game play... I do understand some folks have this macho desire to compete against one another, to see who can get the greatest amount of large numbers flying across the screen. But for the most part, this game works better when folks of varying builds come together to defeat the enemy NPC's. There is supposed to be a sense of comradery, teaming up with other players, to work together towards a common goal. Nothing bothers me more then seeing the occasional Soloist who thinks they're better then everyone else, running off on their own, with the goal of outdoing everyone else (feeling superior to others), more so then having fun working together with other players. Zip

I'm working out a SR/Spines Tank, is it possible for you to link your build with all the items you listed in this post? I was doing tweaking in Mids, and I could actually get my Melee Def to 79%, Ranged to 67%, and AOE to 75%... But the highest I could get for S/L Resist was around 72% without the +Res from the Tank AIO which even then shows at only 79% with the Res Proc... One issue I see with SR is Endurance, as it has no End Siphon, and with all the toggles needed I can see it becoming a bit hairy... Are you relying on Incarnates to pick up the slack? I've linked the Mids file for what I've worked out thus far (below)... Perhaps I'm just not selecting the right things? Thanks, Zip Tanker - Super Reflexes - Spines.mxd