Tahliah

It was so wonderful to have you join us, @Shadowfane! I have to say that you ran Chaos Orchid like a pro! I had plenty of time to watch as I was lying dead beneath you as you worked your awesome planty magic! Heh Maybe if you work in naps to compensate for our Troll Nights occurring in the dead of night your time. . . . ah, she dreams.

Our eleventh plant troll night (no doms last night) alternated between super fun and downright frustrating. We had six planters, and happily everyone was great fun and often hilarious even as we unanimously decided that we hate Croatoa . . . at least on all plant trolls. We kicked off the night by picking up and finishing Kelly Nemmers' arc. Then we moved on to Buck Salinger's arc, and that's where things got messy. So messy, in fact, that we decided to autocomplete his "Escort the hostages to safety" mish and just move on. That was fine and all was fun and planty wrecky awesomeness again . . . until we got to the mission where we had to save Walter. The ambushes were overwhelming, often occurring both in front of and behind our team at the same time. It got so bad that at one point one of our planters made the excellent suggestion that we just kill him ourselves and blame it on the Red Caps. Hee! Here we are contemplating Walter's untimely demise: Happily for Walter, we couldn't kill him, and no one else could, either. We were stuck with him. After many of us earned damage badges in this nightmare mish, we decided to all exit and reset it to a lower, 'just get 'er done' setting ("cough" -1/x1 "cough"). Yes, it was sad, but the map was huge, the ambushes many, and our patience thin. We got him out finally by clearing a path to him and then escorting him out after locking down the ambushes, leaving them there, and running forward with him. I don't think any of us want to see Walter again for a very long time. Heh. By this time, it was getting late, and we were fed up with Croatoa, so I suggested that a couple of us complete it later, before next Tuesday (with them on their mains for good measure). This was agreed upon so we could put Croatoa in our rearview and get on with our exciting Task Force Commander tf plans next week. Everyone took off for some much needed sleep except me and our ever-fabulous Parks and Wreck sg leader Irresponsible Creeper. We needed to unwind, so we got our dance on at our sg's beach party: This was immensely cheering, and I felt refreshed enough to venture back to Croatoa after Creeper logged for the night. The next mish was Broadkin, and I figured I could knock that out easily enough on my own. So I did. Yes, still on baby settings, but in my defense, I just wanted out of there. 😛 Then I thought, why not take a stab at the final mish in Salinger's arc? That's the one where you save a few civilians, lead them out, and then defend the portal for 15 mins. So I did that, too. Woots! Now we have Katie unlocked, and we are done with Croatoa! Joy!!! I see you dancing a happy jig @Gregg247! AND I finally got my Flytrap!! I started on a totally different planter (Over Thyme), but as the team needed SB and heals, I rolled Power Plant. and got her zoomed to SB in a week. So I was doubly happy to finally get my flytrap. Now I just have to think of a great name for him ("Audrey" is already taken, heh). Happily, too, while in Croatoa, we all got a lot of the kill badges for the Geas of the Kind Ones accolade! Woots! So next week we will start our TFC badge fest with a two-parter all-plant Posi-palooza starting at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior. We will likely start closer to 9:15ish, though, to ensure everyone who wants to has time to log on and can get the first badge towards their TFC accolade. NOTE: Both Christmas Eve and New Years Eve fall on Tuesday this year, so we will just break for those. We can always pick an alternate night during these two weeks if everyone wants to, though. So here's the TFC Troll Night schedule (as of now): December 17th: Posi 1 and 2, level 8+ December 24th: Break for Christmas December 31st: Break for New Years January 7th: Synapse, level 15+ January 14th: Penelope Yin, level 20+ (this is a short one, so we will likely also do some missions/radios/etc.) January 21st: Citadel, level 25+ January 28th: Manticore, level 30+ February 4th: Numina, level 35+ As many of us are already 30 / 35, we may want to run these out of order and run Manti and Numina first (starting on the 7th). Just tossing that out there, let us know here or in-game what you think/want in that regard. We'll go with the majority as long as everyone is at least level 30, so we don't leave anyone behind/out. All plant trolls (and doms) are welcome! Since we will be doing TFs, your toon will need to be at least the minimum level to join. Next week, we will be doing both Posi tfs, so the minimum level is 8. A quick DFB or two on a new roll will get you there in no time (as will pretty much anything, including mish arcs and even street sweeping, at that level, hehe). So if an all-plant troll (and dom!) team sounds fun to you, and you want to run Posi 1 and 2 with us, join in! We will be meeting in Steel Canyon next Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior. You can join our Parks and Wreck chat channel and shout out at any time between now and then, and one of us will get you in the sg, or you can send a tell to me @Tahliah.

I don't have a build to share (haven't got into mids this time around. Yet.), but I do have a lvl 50 plant/emp troll, and she is a blast. I think that /nature is also a good option, though. It kind of depends on your wife's playstyle. For example, on a large team, plant/emp is a lot of work in terms of keeping each team member buffed with CM, deciding which two team members to keep Fort and/or AB on, then monitoring it to make sure they have it all the time (or swap out team members based on their bars), and when/where/how to drop the reg/rec auras. I'm not a "gather" caller, so I tend to get as many team members as possible by simply paying attention and dropping them when most of the team is in range. This works well, particularly pre-50 when teams tend to stick together, but if you're on a team that scatters (with two or three taking one path/floor/etc.) and others taking one or more other areas, it's not possible to get them all. But I can use AB on anyone I missed or on someone who is having clear probs with end (their blue bar is empty most of the time, or very low). All of this gets less important as other people's toons level and work out their own end issues, but it's very helpful leveling and on PUGs at any level. CM is still single-target, so has to be applied to each team member; it does stack, so if I have time between fights, I'll just pile it on so I can focus on control once the tank/brute/dwarf/tankermind/whatever has the mob where wanted. Obviously this is more important against some enemy groups than others, but if your team is fighting Carnies, Circle, Longbow, Council, etc., it's really key to keeping the team moving that they not be held, slept, etc. So it's a very hands-on set. Oh, and there are two heals, an area and a single-target, both are good and come in handy. My plant/nature is only lvl 2, so I can't speak to that combo, but /nature I do have on my MM, and it's a great set. A lot less work in terms of figuring out who needs what and when and keeping teammates buffed (i.e. with CM/Fort/AB as noted above). It's also a very gorgeous set, and I get a kick out of the mushrooms all over the place. The heal is a cone, so you have to be very aware of where you are and where your teammates are. Better powers are Wild Growth, the Lifegiving Spores drop, Wild Bastion, and Overgrowth. Both are lots of fun to play, but again, very different in terms of the workload. :P

Same here,, I hadn't tried Afterburner on live, so I thought I would give it a try now. I respec'd out of it almost immediately for the very reasons you state. It was ridiculous that it stayed on when I was no longer flying and that I couldn't use any powers while it was on (it took me a sec to realize that was the problem), and I really disliked the way it looked all "whooshy." I just wanted to fly faster, not have to deal with all that other stuff. Now I'm back to flying more slowly but much more happily. :)

LOL, so we just sit out the hunts? I'm down with that!

That would be fun . . . but they're still all grays, so the time limit is the only fun factor here, and what happens if the team fails? The whole tf is shot? The Numi hunts are last, so we all lose an hour (or so) for nothing? Probably not a workable solution. The best thing to do is to make the hunts level appropriate (and fewer in that case) or to just replace the hunts with another door mission or two.

All of my toons are magic origin because it's easier for me to remember which Nem staff / Blackwand to get and which store to go to. Back in the day, you had to unlock origin-specific contacts and complete their arcs, so I always chose magic, then, too, so I would remember where to go and what to do. Nowadays, you can just pop an enhancement guy or gal in your base, and you're set. I think that role players and people who put a lot of thought into their toons' backstory and bio care about this, but for practical purposes, I'm not sure origin matters all that much.

Me! I take fly on all my toons. All of them. Not only do I love the ability to fly (not really common in games, let's face it, at least not without some kind of craft like in SWTOR), but I also love hover and use it in my game play. My main is a blaster, and she frequently hovers over EBs, AVs, GMs, whatever. Not only do I get mad defense doing so, but I am out of melee range (and if the baddie can fly, I can quickly ground them with chilblain), but I also can slot def/res procs and LOTG recharge (which I am finding less meaningful with set bonuses, but ymmv). Lately, I've tried Mystic Flight on a few toons, but I'm not a fan and have respec'd out or will do so . . . for fly! One of the many many things I missed about COH was flying. So yes, I fly. And yes, I love it. And yes, I would be horrified if there were any thought of removing it.

I have to agree with this; it's busy work and does nothing for anyone to hunt a bunch of greys. The only conceivable reason to keep it is for teams to best assign their resources for each set of baddies. But . . . so what? We can all send blasters to a zone to get "x" baddies, and then brutes or whatever to the next and then hopscotch them. And even on pugs or newbie teams, what's the point in killing 10 of this here and 20 of that there? Just padding, really, and not necessary. I'd rather have another real mission or two with a purpose than a bunch of gray kills.

Wait, COH "sucked" because you were a low level and didn't have all your powers yet? Doesn't that mean all games suck? I'm being a bit facetious here, but you get my point. You don't start a game as the uber your toon; you have to build it. Using former vet, now P2W, powers into your 20s doesn't mean the game sucks, or even, as others imply, that your toon sucks. The game has changed across the board and for all ATs. I used to use Nem Staff and Blackwand as an assist on lowbies back on live, and I still do now on defenders and controllers in particular, but I do find it useful for KBing baddies back into the tank/brute/scrapper range if they are pestering me and my squishie pals. It's useful. I use it. Usefully. That said, what did we do before such mediocre helpers? We managed very well, and we did it without inherent fitness and without travel powers at lvl 3. That said, I already walked to school uphill both ways in the snow and barefoot. I'm kind of liking be able to walk to school uphill only one way these days. :P

Also, there is a an plant troll team that runs on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on Excelsior, and you are welcome to join that to gain some levels. We are currently running at level 30ish in Croatoa, so you'd get mad xp on the team. It is all plant trolls, though, so it won't be much good for figuring out how to troll on a more traditional team.

I saw this posted the other day in LFG and wondered what was up. Now that I know, I'll for sure join you next time. This sounds like something really different and a lot of fun.

Our tenth all-plant troll night was a mixed bag. We had four planters show up and finished up both Gordon Bowers' and Skipper's arcs in Croatoa. We had a blast going through the arcs . . . until we came to the dreaded "Stop 30 Fir Bolg entering door" mish. As there were only four of us, that mission was a bit of a challenge. I had redone this mission on my main (an ice/ice blaster) not too long ago, and I got frustrated in it because I hadn't remembered how the mission worked and thought I had to stop 30 from entering the door. After stopping what felt like hundreds and not seeing any progress on the bar, I resorted to Help chat for some insight. Happily, the Excelsior server is chock full of fabulous people who are always eager to help, and I quickly learned that it was a clear all and that the counter was for those who made it out the door (none did on that run). Well, that changed things for my blaster. Instead of just standing at the door twiddling my thumbs between waves, I went out and cleared the map (checking back to make sure none had made it to the door). It went super smoothly once I understood what was required. Recalling that experience and hating to just stand around when we can be all planty and wrecky, I--like a big dummy, as it turned out--proposed three of us clearing while someone held the door, but that was a bad strategy as we quickly discovered. Planters just can't kill as fast as blasters, alas, so we revised that strategy pretty quickly. In the end, we were a bit all over the place and couldn't wait for it to end. We had 13 Fir Bolg escape by the time the mission ended. Not bad, but a bit of a disappointment if you're competitive (like me! heh). By the time we finally got that mission filed away, it was getting late, so we decided to clear a mission in Striga for one of our planters. After that, it was time for him to head off to get some sleep for work the next day. The three of us who remained didn't want to call it a night just yet, though, so we headed off to the Ski Chalet for some Baby New Year saving. One of our planters even got the Silver medal for the ski run while waiting for us to train and zone! I have to say that I really (as in really really) missed the Winter Event for the years between sunset and the Homecoming miracle, and I just can't get enough of the winter stuff. We had a great time wrecking Tuatha and even went ahead and "interrogated" a bunch of Winter Lords after we "arrested" the Guard and got the key because . . . fun!! Of course, the ugly little BNY was at the end of the last of the three tunnels we checked. Snaptooth was quickly rendered toothless by our planty awesomeness, and BNY was saved. Again. Next week, we will pick up in Croatoa for Kelly Nemmers' arc and hopefully make good headway in finishing up that zone. After that, we will take on the Task Force Commander tfs and get that accolade under our belts. Our plant troll (and dom!) team runs on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior. If you would like to join us, please do! You can simply show up on Tuesdays (next week we'll meet in Croatoa) and send a tell to any planter in zone, join the Parks and Wreck chat channel and shout out, or send a tell to me @Tahliah. Any level and any secondary is welcome! If you are on a new roll, we will tp your toon to the missions, and you'll quickly gain levels while having a planty good time! If you're on a higher (than 30ish for Croatoa) toon, you can exemp down and enjoy the controlled chaos and creepery-flytrap goodness of an all-plant team. If we have a lot of planters show up (yay!), we can run two teams as we have before, with higher level planters doing higher level content.

Okay, I'm not sure if this is a bug or not, but I was just about to add it as a tip in a soloing thread and as I was typing it up, it occurred to me that it might not be intended. The hoverboard (and presumably the flying carpet and whatever that third big transporty thing is) works in ouro flashbacks set to No Travel Powers. Jetpacks and temps like jump packs/jingle jets/etc. are greyed out, unusable. I have to admit I was happy with this when I was doing the later level ouro flashbacks this time around (I did them long before the hoverboard came out on live, so I have no idea if it worked then and is therefore intended to). Anyway, I thought I'd mention it in case it's not intended or can be seen as an exploit. If it's intended, yay! It's very helpful, even having all my toggles dropped was fine since I didn't have to slog across maps on foot. Again.

I soloed all the ouro content on live and am working my way though it (sporadically) now. My toon is an ice/ice/ice blaster. I agree with all the tips above and wanted to add one: use the base empowerment buffs. These are especially helpful if you are working on your ouro badges but some are great for various particular enemies (get more resist/defense for particular baddies, etc.) or for just picking up extra recovery when exemped or whatever. I even get the travel speed one for more quickly traversing big maps on some flashbacks/tfs.

Awesome! Thanks for posting the screenies! I see me!! (and in one I'm disco dancing, my very favorite dance in COH).

Hey Gregg247, I actually couldn't remember if we did all the TFC task forces on the original plant troll team on Freedom or not. I know we did some of them, but obviously not all of them if you didn't. Heh. I think it will be exciting, too! I love having a purpose to our weekly plant festivities, not that having a complete blast with other plant trolls (and doms!) isn't amazing, it is! But it's also fun to work on our accolades and to get lots of shinies along the way. Anyone wishing to join us on their own plant troll (or dom) is more than welcome to do so! We will be meeting in Croatoa at 9 p.m. EST tomorrow night (Tuesday) on Excelsior. Just send any planter you see there a tell, join our Parks and Wreck chat channel and shout out, or send a tell to me @Tahliah

I know what you mean; it's fun to try out new things and doesn't seem to feel as painful to delete them if they don't work out. I am in the process of stripping a demon/pain MM that I just can't abide. It's the /pain I am not enjoying, so she's going in the bin. I also have a thugs mm that I don't like yet, but I'm going to wait until I get the Bruiser before I decide whether or not to keep her. Thugs just doesn't seem as damagey to me as other mm choices (at least up to the early 20s), but it could just be me. I must have deleted toons on live, but I can't recall any atm. I have a plant/time troll that I am just starting to enjoy at lvl 26; I'm not sold on /time, but I'll give it more levels to see how it plays out. She may be heading for the bin, too, though, if I didn't get a kick out of her name (heh) and the fact that we have so many toon slots now.

It's so interesting to learn of how everyone comes back! There was no way I would start again on anything but my old main. I just loved her so much and was so invested in her for so many reasons and had been dreaming of running her again that I had to reroll her first. But I totally get opting to ease in, too. Yeah, I am finding that my rerolls feel far superior to (i.e. more fun to play than) my originals, but I think that's because they were so old on live and I didn't keep up with all the options for new IO sets or for . . . pretty much most changes along the way. I just got sunk into feeling happy with my main, especially, as she was (and I loved her, don't get me wrong). But on HC, we have it all up front, so we can make better choices as we build, choices that we might not have considered on our originals because they came out after we had our builds "set." My main was still fun and awesome (to me), but I love my new main, her reroll, so much more!

Our next all plant (and dom) team will meet on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior. We will be in Croatoa and finish up Gordon Bower's arc before moving on to Skipper's. The goal is to finish all Croatoa arcs and unlock the Katie Hannon tf . . . and to have tons of planty, wrecky fun while we get in a lot kills for badges and future accolades. Once we finish up in Croatoa, we will focus on the Task Force Commander accolade. It's one of the BIG FOUR, after all, and as such, a must-have for all serious planters. In the earlier weeks, we completed Posi 1, but we have new planters on our crew now and will run it again (what planter of any level doesn't need some yummy merits/xp/infl to perfect his or her build?). Plus, plant team fun! As always, all level plant trolls (and doms) are welcome! If you would like to join us, join our Parks and Wreck chat or send a tell to me @Tahliah

/This. When we first got back, I was very much wanting my old toons and stuff just the way they were. I did have some screenies of costumes so was able to create "legacy" costumes on some of my faves, and that was satisfying. But as I've played and leveled/rebuilt my favorite toons from live, I've discovered that I am actually more happy with their "new and improved" versions than with them before. In fact, I suspect that it would have taken me a long time to respec my main, for instance, and her rebuild on HC feels so much more awesome and fun that I would have been missing out having her transferred over. It sounds crazy, but rebuilding was a good thing for me and didn't take that long on my main. I'm still working on rebuilding other favorites, but I find I am really enjoying the journey and discovering that I find different powers/IO sets/etc. more useful now than I did/knew then. At this point, I'd "take" them if they were on offer, but I doubt I would run them as often as I do my HC rerolls. I'd probably stick them on some far back pages of our 1000 available character slots, where they would gather dust until I felt nostalgia to run them for a mish or two.

I saw this last night and was glad I did since my toon is not yet 30. I hope you guys had a blast and wrecked the Manti TF! Maybe next week we can do something that everyone can participate in, regardless of level.

Great shots, @krj12! I hated to miss last night, but I have family in town, and family is important (family first!). It looks like everyone had a blast and enjoyed some planty fun and wreckage! That's what it's all about, after all. I'll be there next Tuesday, and from what our sg leader Irresponsible Creeper tells me, I need to finish up Gordon Bower's arc in Croatoa to be ready to go with our Croatoa fun. I will do that this weekend for sure. So next Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior we will have one content group in Croatoa and then another group, headed up (most likely) by @krj12, doing lvl 50 stuff! So exciting! If you are interested in joining the plant troll (and dom) fun, /chanjoin our chat channel Parks and Wreck and let whomever is there know you want to join our Parks and Wreck sg adventures or send a tell to me @Tahliah. We'll get you situated in no time. You can be any level to join us, so if you are just rolling a new plant troll (or dom) for the group, don't be shy! We'll be happy to have you join us for the awesome fun and wreckage of an all-plant troll/dom team. If we have enough new rolls, we can always have a team that is starting out, too. I know I have a lvl 2 plant/nature troll who is itching to get some planty wreckage on. Heh. And a quick reminder: tomorrow is the non-troll team run by Irresponsible Creeper. Any plant-related toon (via name or powers or theme/bio) of any level is welcome! This does include trolls/doms, of course, but we want to give our planters a chance to run other ATs with our sg. To join, just get on Parks and Wreck channel chat to let us know you are there and interested or send a tell to me @Tahliah The third Thursday plant-related team meets this Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior.

That sounds like a great plan, @Hellborn! We would love to have you join us in our plant troll (and dom) adventures. We are currently running two teams: one that is lvl 35ish to 50 and one that is around lvl 30 but has toons in their teens and twenties. So you don't need your best build to run with us; in fact, you can slap some IO's or even SO's in your toon and be ready to rumble. [Edit to add: the above is where we are now; however, we welcome all planters of any level. If you want to roll a new plant/ troll (or dom) and join us, you are more than welcome! Just last week, we had a planter join us fresh out of Outbreak and get from lvl 2 to lvl 16 simply by running with our team.] If you are seeing this thread and think you'd like to join in, do it! 🙂 We welcome all level planters.

Great advice, @Ironblade, thank you! If anyone has a kin willing to smack me with IR/IDfor my (then marginally less hopeless) attempts at ski badges, I'll . . . um, give you cookies. 😁 I have a kin (or three), so I am more than happy to help others who need ID/IR for the badges, too.