Ultimo

I have a character that uses it, and the animations take too long (a lot of waving and swinging of arms). As I say, he's a hit and run kind of character, kind of a speedster, so the slow animations don't work. As I say, I'm more or less settled on either Martial Arts of Street Justice, I just can't quite decide which. I'm LEANING toward Street Justice. The animations seem quicker, the attacks hit harder, and he gets a couple of AOEs while Martial Arts only gets one. On the other hand, Martial Arts is a little more kicky, which suits a character who flies, because his feet would be closer to the enemy when he's above them. More, it does get a Defense bonus from Storm Kick. However, the attacks seem to be a bit slower, and do less damage. So, I'm a bit torn.

Honestly, I solo most of the time, if I actually had to do any real tanking, he'd likely stay in melee range. I'm speaking conceptually when I say he'd stay at range (though, if it's an outdoor map, I might use a hit and run strategy, flying by with an attack (slotted for taunt), then getting out of reach, using a ranged taunt, then doing another move by, and so on). I did look at claws, but there wasn't a version of the claws themselves that I liked, so I decided to pass on the set. I tried Savage Melee too, but the animations don't work well with the wings.

So, many years ago, I made my own comics. One of the characters was called the Condore (not sure why I spelled it with the e on the end...), and I'm trying to recreate him for the game. His combat style was similar to the Angel, since he's based on him. Winged, he would fly by, get the attention of the enemy, then avoid their attacks from a distance while his teammates took them out. To me, that's a TANKER. I've created him with Super Reflexes (ie. avoiding attacks), but I'm having trouble deciding on an offensive set. I've kind of narrowed it down to Street Justice or Martial Arts, but I can't quite decide which to use, and I thought I'd seek opinions here (as I often do). Which is better for a flying character? The animations can look wierd on Martial Arts, but Street Justice also has some wierd animations with the wings and everything... Does one synergize with the Super Reflexes better than the other? What advantages are there between them? Any thoughts are welcome.

I looked into that, but couldn't find any actual NAME for the Thunderbird. I'll consider these, there are some cool choices there.

Possibly. As I think of it, there might be a hyphen.

Many of my characters use Brawl, usually because they have a weapon in their other hand (eg. Shield, Mace, Sword, etc.) and Brawl doesn't put it away to attack.

Actually, I have a character named Storm Eagle on Excelsior. I'd be willing to give it up for you, but I'd need to figure out a new name for the character. The name he really SHOULD have is Thunderbird, named for the native American mythological bird, but of course, I can't get that name. If you have an alternative suggestion, let me know, and I'll free up Storm Eagle for you.

Ya, that's why I'm making this suggestion. If it's going to drop enemy AVs to make them EBs, etc., then it should also drop ALLIED AVs so they're EBs as well. Having groups of one more serious type hasn't had them appear as anything lower than they would appear on their own. For example, I have a group of enemies for a WW2 story in which they're all created as EBs. Whether they appear alone or as a patrol (for example), they appear as Bosses (since I have AVs and EBs turned off in my difficulty settings). But again, that's my custom characters. I haven't tried it with the game's own groups (I'm not sure there are any groups that are all AVs or EBs... perhaps the Freedom Phalanx? I'll have to check that).

Hm. In that case, what is going on with my custom characters? As I said, they're all created as Elite Bosses, but they're appearing in missions as Bosses... unless they're cast as allies, in which case they appear as Elite Bosses.

But wait... Last night I played my WW2 story on the AE, and the enemy bosses (all custom characters) appeared as Bosses, even though I had created them as Elite Bosses... meanwhile the allied custom characters all appeared as Elite Bosses...

So there's a whole separate version of the AV? I thought it just scaled down their abilities. That would certainly explain why all my custom characters don't scale. In that case, perhaps the best suggestion is to just scale the AVs and EBs back? I don't relish the idea of making duplicates of all the characters I've made for AE... and they wouldn't appear in the missions properly in any case.

So, I've had issues in the past trying to make missions with enemies that are balanced, so I often add allies to missions to help the players if they're being overwhelmed. However, a problem has emerged, and I have a suggestion to correct it. If I put an enemy in a mission of EB or AV rank, the game will 'downsize' them by one rank, depending on the player's difficulty settings (ie. if the player has so chosen, AVs would appear as AVs, but otherwise they would appear as EBs). The problem is that the same does not happen with ALLIES. So, suppose I make a mission with a custom AV, and I add Citadel to the mission. The AV will spawn as an EB, but Citadel would remain an AV, meaning he'd stomp the supposed AV boss villain with no difficulty (trivializing the presence of the hero). My suggestion is simply that the coding that reduces the power of AVs and EBs be applied to both Enemies and Allies.

What kills me is, one of the names is even spelled incorrectly. Condore was a character from my youth, when I made comics, but clearly didn't yet know how to spell. The one that continues to sting is the Canadian Shield, which was my main, more or less, back on the live servers.

Well, they've implemented the naming policy, 8 minutes ago now... and sadly NONE of the names I hoped to get are available... alas.

Try and stay on topic, please. Talk about the suggestion, not about ME. From the sticky, once again (my bold & italic for emphasis): You have the right to respond CONSTRUCTIVELY to an idea. If you don’t like it, no problem. Just say “I don’t like it”. You don't have to say why if you don’t want to. If you have a reason why you don’t like it, please tell us why. Focus your response on the idea, not the person.

I understand it's applied to the map. That doesn't mean the system can't be modified or adapted for other purposes. The enemies coming from the doors are not a normal zone spawn, they're spawning specifically for the character interacting with the door. I don't see why the game can't simply check the character's notoriety settings at that point and adjust the spawn appropriately. As I said, I'm no coder, so I don't know if it's even possible, but there's no harm in making the suggestion. If it IS possible, maybe they can make it work. As for the rest, I don't need to give reasons or explanations for any of that, it's not pertinent to the suggestion, and I'm not drifting off topic again.

My point is that during invasions, EBs don't spawn on solo players. If this is possible for the invasions, I don't see why it shouldn't be possible for the door knocking. I'm not suggesting taking away door knocking, just that the same rules should be applied to THOSE spawns as are applied to the invasions. I don't know if it's possible, but that's why I'm only suggesting it. As I said before, I think the best thing would be to tie all the spawns to one's notoriety. That way, everyone can have it how they like it. If I don't want Bosses, I can turn them off without preventing anyone else from getting them. As for your question, I don't believe I've had any EBs in any missions I didn't create myself in the AE, but most of my characters are in their 20s. I have one at 40, he's my highest level character (Bots/FF Mastermind, and he's a JUGGERNAUT, comparatively speaking). My AE enemies are created with my particular design philosophy in mind, that the bosses should he hard to kill, but shouldn't be obliterating people immediately. It's a tough balancing act, let me tell you.

Perhaps I should reiterate one of my earlier points, that if adjusting the EBs is not preferred, or is deemed inappropriate, then they should not appear to solo players unless they've specifically allowed for it. When there's a Rikti or Zombie invasion, the Power Suits and Nightmares don't spawn for solo players, only for groups. This is how it should be for the door knocking EBs. If this code exists for THESE EBs, surely it can be used for the Halloween ones?

I use hover on MANY of my characters. I find it VERY useful, because it doesn't cost much endurance, keeps you out of melee range, adds a bit of defense (paired with Combat Jumping, Weave and perhaps Maneuvers, it can add up), and with enhancement, gives you enough mobility to keep you where you need to be.

Tried the Defender, he didn't do too badly, really. Got a couple of generic vampires and zombies, then the EB Vampire. He came out of the door, and the first thing he did was cast Gloom (I think that's what it is, notably he did NOT summon anything). After that, Hurricane knocked him down, and I maneuvered to keep him in it while the Lightning Storm attacked him. He did eventually summon the Dark Servant, but did so while flying through the air... no animation required for that I guess. Might have been lag. Anyway, with Hurricane on him, he was hard pressed to hit the Defender. When he finally did, he only needed to hit him once, as it dropped him to around 1/3 health. DOT did around 84 damage per pulse, over several pulses. Meanwhile, the Defender had done almost no damage to him. Blasting him with everything I had, he took maybe 1% of his health. The fight lasted perhaps 5 minutes before I had to run away. At least I had a chance to fight back this time. Without Hurricane, it would have been over immediately.

Some relevant parts: It’s the oldest rule on Wikipedia, and it does work: ASSUME GOOD WILL. What that means is that when someone makes a suggestion, assume that they do play the game, they enjoy it for the most part, and they want to help make it a better experience for everyone. Keep those things in mind when you write a reply, or ask clarifying questions if a suggestion or parts of it are unclear to you. You have the right to respond CONSTRUCTIVELY to an idea. If you don’t like it, no problem. Just say “I don’t like it”. You don't have to say why if you don’t want to. If you have a reason why you don’t like it, please tell us why. Focus your response on the idea, not the person. And yes, there are times where Assume Good Faith fails. If you suspect anyone who is in this camp after several attempts to ask questions to direct the conversation towards a productive discussion (e.g.: trolling, baiting, abusive posts, etc.) you don’t need to reply any further. In fact, the less people who respond to such posts, the faster it fades in the forum as active and recent discussion will overtake it. You can vote with silence, so to speak. (This also works for “dead horses”. Silence will make the thread fall in visibility.) Keep in mind... However, if you think an OP isn’t an idea worth discussing in the first place, you don’t need to reply. If you wrote the OP, please remember that it's not your job to moderate your topic: if replies are off on a tangent, talk on topic. -> I'll be doing this last thing from here on out. Talk about the topic, or not at all, I'm not going to respond further to personal comments.

The willpower guy wasn't, that's the Brute. It was the Dominator and the Masterminds that suffered that fate. The Masterminds (I have three) fared all right, because the bots took the brunt of the attacks until they could break free, but the Dominator was screwed. I expect my other Squishy types would fare equally badly. I have a Storm Defender who MIGHT do ok, if these guys are affected by Hurricane. However, I don't know if the Defender would have the dps to defeat them.

You brought up several other threads in THAT thread too. You can post all the numbers you like, I'm never going to believe you over my own eyes. The character is based on the Hulk, so he has all the defenses available and also has Rage. I tend to build defensively, so everything would have been slotted, most likely fully so by that level. And he was taken down in 2 hits. You're making assumptions again. As I just said, the character had ALL the powers you mentioned. You clearly missed the part where I mentioned that I DID try to move away, and was held, then dead. There was no chance to do anything. Again, because YOU were able to walk through this stuff with ease doesn't mean everyone can. Staying at range isn't possible if you can't move. Using controls isn't possible if you are held or terrorized, and won't work anyway, as these enemies are IMMUNE. I wasn't TRYING to facetank anything, I had no opportunity to do anything at all. It might be because not everyone comes to the forums to post. As I mentioned, I talked about it in chat and many people seemed to agree. The comment, "they need a balance pass," was made by SOMEONE ELSE, not me, in the chat. I said the same here, but only because it had been said there. I'm sure there are some players who, like you, have no trouble with these EBs. I'm equally sure there are many who DO. I've heard from them in the chat in the game. I suppose you'll tell me I didn't see that either, that the chat is a lie too, or something. Frankly, I weary of your antagonistic, unproductive posts. If you don't like what I post to discuss, don't read my threads. If your goal is to get a rise out of me, that won't happen anymore. I'm done responding to you. Enjoy the game.

Honestly, the mummies have been the easiest to handle (and they look pretty nifty too). The Vampire has been the biggest problem, and the Werewolf after that. The Crone I haven't seen often, and I've more or less just started running away from them all the time (kind of defeats the purpose of them being there, but that's kind of my point). The Mummy was most easily handled with some range, since he seems to lack any ranged powers of his own.

You seem to have some kind of obsession, you keep arguing about other threads. Let me give you a different example. I have a Brute, he's L39, Super Strength and Willpower. He knocked on a door and got the EB Vampire. So, how is HE supposed to fight the thing? The Vampire took him out in 2 hits, and the Brute did almost nothing with the one hit he did land. The first hit did about 2/3 of the Brute's health, and the second finished him off. A Dominator or Blaster or any other character would have been defeated just as fast, except that instead of 1/3 health, they'd have 1 health. It's functionally the same thing. Call it what you want. I think the thing you're missing is that you're not the only one playing this game. It's great for you if you're able to cakewalk through everything like it's not there, but not everyone can do that. There's an awful lot of players at lower level trying to enjoy this content, and when one of these EBs pops up, it's just OVER. There's no way to fight back, and often no way to escape. To me, that bespeaks a problem. If you're in a group, FINE. If you're not, they shouldn't appear. Either that, or they need to be toned down. Clearly, you wouldn't like the latter, so that leaves the former. All I'm saying is that something should be done. To reiterate, I see three options. 1. Tone them down. I don't know what would be involved with this, but they're currently just too strong for lower levels or squishy types. 2. Make it so they only spawn for groups. 3. Make it so they only spawn for characters at max level.