Tahliah

Our fourth all plant troller/dom team night was . . . a challenge. We had eight planters last night, plus three more who will hopefully join us next week. We got started welcoming two new planters to our team and to the Parks and Wreck sg: Cyber and Raine. Yay! Then we did the Agent G task force in Faultline. Wait, you may be thinking, that's not a TF. And you're right, but last night it sure felt like one. A grindy annoying one. It's funny, I soloed this arc a while back on my main (an ice/ice blaster) and had a marvelous time breezing on through it. Of course, she's fully-slotted and incarnate, so . . . . Anyway, our plant troll/dom team is still in our 20's and with not much support for Arachnos, so it was a slog. It took us about (over?) two hours to do that one arc. We were blinded pretty much the whole time for a couple of the middle to near-end mishes, and with no Clear Mind or O2 Boost on the team, we quickly ran out of yellows and were hard pressed to keep making them since it's hard to get insp drops when nothing is dying because we can't see anything to "interrogate." Sigh. But we soldiered on, and finally finished it up. Ironically, and happily, the AVs (and in this arc there are many) were a breeze for an 8-man (and woman) team of plant dom and trolls. Those of us who did all the Faultline arcs were happy to get the 25 merits for the Agent G arc plus the 20 more for completing Faultline. It made it feel worth it and made me smile happily (hopefully others were smiling, as well). Here's a screenie of us wearily exiting the twenty-eleventh mish in this slogfest TF arc: Though some of us were more focused on trying to get the freaking arc finished, the team had some pun fun with the plant theme, and the one that stands out to me is the new cry for help: "Kelp!" Okay, I'm still giggling over that one. So, while we had hoped to breeze through this and get started on Striga last night, that didn't happen. However, we are now finished with Faultline and ready to get started on Striga next week. I've already moved my /kin to start earning the Mortician Day Job badge in Striga since it's a convenient time to get that one. If we have the same great turnout we had last night (or even more planters!), we will start out on two teams of at least four. That way, it will be very easy to add to teams new people who might want to jump in after we get started. If we do start running multiple teams, it's probably a good idea to mix them up each week so that we all get to meet and run with everyone at some point. This will prove helpful in later content, particularly trials and TFs, where it will be easier to gel as a wrecking unit if we all know everyone's playstyle. New Monthly (non-troll/dom) Plant Team Our sg leader Irresponsible Creeper asked last night if there were interest in our sg running non-troll/dom plant-based ATs once a month, and many people seemed interested, so we are going to start doing that on the third Thursday of the month starting tomorrow! I've already got my rad/plant blaster added to the sg and ready to go. She is super fun to play, so I am very much looking forward to this. If you missed the discussion, the idea is any AT with plant as a primary or secondary.* So blasters with /plant, etc. No level requirements. Just add whatever toon you want to run to the sg using the /altinvite command or hang out and catch us this Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior. If you would like to join the sg and Thursday team but have no interest in our plant troll/dom team, you are more than welcome! This is Irresponsible Creeper's baby, though, and not really on topic for this Controller forum, so I won't be writing it up each month, etc. *[Edit to add: Okay, the ever-vigilant Irresponsible Creeper just pointed out something I missed. It doesn't have to be actually plant for primary or secondary, the idea is simply plant-related. Here's the example he sent: Heh.] So, next week on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior, the all plant troll (and dom) team will start the four Striga arcs with Stephanie Peebles. The plan is to finish all the arcs there, that way we not only get the bonus merits and the goodies (wedding band and warwolf whistle among them), but we also unlock Hess. And have a planty, creepery fun time along the way! Anyone wishing to join us can do so, regardless of level. Just send a tell to me @Tahliah or to @StridingWindor just show up in Striga next Tuesday and send a tell to any planter you see in-zone. We'll be happy to see you, and you will be very welcome. 🙂

What @StridingWindsaid! We'd love to have you join us next week (and all the weeks after that, too!).

Great name! Can't wait to see her/him.

I don't see AE as a problem at all. Back on live, I had a lot of fun writing strange and fun arcs (though the only one I remember clearly was Hemingway's Suitcase in which the intrepid hero got to defeat Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other literary greats of Modern American lit.), and I thoroughly enjoyed happening across truly great arcs by our fellow COXers. I'm not big on PL, buuuuut, since coming back, I have to admit that I was borderline obsessed with rebuilding my main and a couple of other favorites from live. Yes, yes, I did the deed and went to AE farms, though not on my main (for obvious reason). And I don't regret it for one second. These are characters and powersets I know and love, and if I needed to scarf a few levels from a farm to get them back, I was willing to do it. I'm not a big door sitter, so I rarely stayed for more than a few levels (to get THAT power), but it was worth it. As of now, I have exactly one 50 (my main, who was my main on live, too, but now she's better than ever--to me). My other faves are lined up and ready to get to 50, and if I decide that I want to help them along by partaking in the kindness of farmers, I happily and gratefully will do so. In another instance, I needed to get a plant/kin troll to lvl 20 because I needed SB for a group I run with. I've run a bazillion plant trolls (love love love them!) and half a bazillion /kins. I don't feel that I need to slog through the first 20 lvls when I know exactly what I want and how the sets work, including together, not my first rodeo on a plant/kin, either. A helpful farmer, who was also hilarious fun, helped me along the way, and I had fun door sitting (and face-planting, my joke was that my toon, Power Plant should have been called Power Face Plant). Anyway, mission accomplished, my toon is at 20, and I am happy. She won't see the inside of AE again except to get the Day Job or run a friend's arc for the Eight badge, etc. You don't have to blast to 50 in AE, you can go in with a certain goal and then leave when that goal is achieved. That said, I have zero problem with people farming or being farmed. New players learn soon enough that a near instant 50 on a toon you don't know how to play or how to slot is not fun. Hopefully, rather than give up, they will give the actual game a shot, but if not, they weren't really going to stick around anyway. And there are people who take great pride in having "x" number of 50s, that's okay, too. Needless to say, the PI farms on live before AE were a nightmare and the bridging stuff was stupid, and I'm glad all that's gone. Door sit in a PI Maria Jenkins arc or in an AE farm? My vote's for AE farms all day every day . . . even if I never choose to PL again (which I probably will, within limits I set for myself that reflect a current toon's needs).

Absolutely you can join us at any level, so transfer on over! We'll get you added to the SG and ready to roll with us in no time at all. We roll tonight at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior, and we are currently in Faultline. Hope to see you there!

Just a quick update: Power Plant. is now level 19, so she's not quite at SB yet. BUT we do have someone who plans to join us on a plant/kin tomorrow night. I'm not sure if it's a new roll, though, so I am going to get her (Power Plant.) up to lvl 20 (and SB)--hopefully--before we meet up tomorrow night. If our new /kin already has SB, yay!, I'll happily run Over Thyme from here on out. If not, I'll run Power Plant. until he takes over the /kin duties. 😎 Also, I changed the title of the thread to reflect the fact that we are an actual group now, and hopefully more people will see it and join us! [Update: Power Plant. got to lvl 20 and has SB, so she's good to go for tonight. Yay! I started the Faultline arcs to try to catch up to everyone and get Agent G, but it was sloooow going on only one planter, so I gave up when I dinged the magic level. I'll start getting contacts again in Striga, so it's not a big deal (I just secretly wanted the merits and badge for completing all the Faultline arcs, but I decided I can live without it.).]

We aren't at Creepers, but I can't wait! We already have such beautiful greenery everywhere, and it's fantastic. So with all of us running Creepers . . . sigh! It will be amazing. Hope to see you tomorrow night! We're still in Faultline but will head to Striga when we finish up there.

/this

You don't need a server for this. There are clearly a lot of people who wish things were as they were before. Why not start an sg and get together with like-minded people and do your thing? Skip whatever "easy" you all want, run regular sewers (have to admit, we did that when we first got back! Nostalgia!), use only old school transport, slowly build your sg base based on whatever criteria you all decide, run the content you want the way you want. What's stopping you? Heck, I'd run a toon in that sg just for nostalgia's sake. Build it and they will come. 🙂 Back on live, there was a Hard Core sg that required its members to delete their toons when they died. @Sailboatwas pretty kind about letting us quietly remove favorites from the SG, but the idea was that once you died, you were dead. You had to think and play differently. You couldn't zerg rush purple Arachnos on a whim and then regroup after a team wipe, you had to think and you had to use the available resources (teammates, inspirations, careful power choices, builds, etc.) to ensure you did. not. die. Nothing in the game forced this, it was a choice that a lot of people made to have fun and push the limits. You can do that now. Don't like [insert whatever]? Great, there are probably others who don't like it, either. Instead of trying to force your preferences on others, why not just all get together and do your own thing? It's very doable -- as I said, I was in a Hard Core sg and sadly deleted many a toon, not because I "had" to or the game sucked the toon away but because those were the rules of the group. Another example, back on live I thoroughly enjoyed being a part of an all plant troll group. I posted a question about whether or not there was such a group now. When the answer came back negative but with clear interest in such a group, I said to myself, hey, you want this, go for it. So I took that ball and ran with it. And now we have a fun plant troll/dom group that runs every Tuesday night. We even have an sg for the group! It can be done. Find others who want what you want and just go for it. Like I said, I'd join your throwback sg with a toon (or two) for sure.

As a fellow badger, I understand your desire to earn the badge. Since you aren't into multiple costumes, just pick a slot, random the costume, add colors to your powers (these can be expensive), make the colors apply across all powersets, pay. Rinse, repeat. It shouldn't take more than a minute or two for each new costume. This is what I am planning to do now that I have all the costumes I actually want and still have a couple slots left over. [edit to add: so I just logged on to check, and it turns out the "random" option is not available at the tailor. So, new plan, select one of the premade options and then add auras, capes, wings, anything available that doesn't show up on the generic. I'll probably just go down the whole generic list making each costume and adding whatever extras. Changing colors adds to the cost, so do that on all your powers, including travel, incarnate, etc. Ditto size, gender. Click, click. It's done. Since you won't be saving/using these costumes, just randomly click two colors and apply across all costume/powersets.] Your badge-earning 50 mil random costume will be great to keep for fun (they're often quite strange, amusing, and/or hideous 😉). We can all meet up at a badger summit and show off our badge-earning random creation! Hee!

I can see the OP's point, and to a degree, I've also been a bit resistant to SOME of the easy. For myself. So I've made it a point to work on the fieldcrafter the old-fashioned way (still don't have it, but when I finally get it, I'll be so happy!!), to run some of my toons through cape "unlocks" (yes, oddly, I missed that . . . but not enough to do it on every single toon), and I'll sometimes go to WW's just because I want to. There are usually people there, especially in AP, but it's not like WW's was jam-packed on live, either, and when it was, it was mostly annoying (auras, pets, auto-powers--including my own auto-hasten, and etc.). I even ran the Montague arc to get the MIdnighter badge. Once. It was enough. Choosing to do these things is fun and good. Forcing everyone to go back is neither fun nor good. I'm not building community by earning my fieldcrafter or by going to WW's. As others have noted, no one notices (in a good way) what's going on around them at WW's (or doing a respec when you can't see anyone, anyway). What's to be gained by taking these things away from people? I guess that's the part of these proposals I don't quite get. So everyone has to go to WW's and . . . what? You get to see people at WW's? What about that is good for you? Is it just seeing people? I see them all the time all over the City. If you're lonely, go sit in AP for a while, it's always crowded (quite often to the point of lag) or head over to Talos or PI, both zones are always hopping, esp. PI with the Halloween event going on. There are plenty of places you can go to see people, so rather than force the people to come to you, why not head over to where they are? As to the DFB taking people out of the Hollow and KR . . . doesn't that seem to by dying down a bit now that we've all been back a while (and presumably have rebuilt at least our mains) and with the xp nerf? I am always seeing LFG messages for Frostfire in particular and the Hollows in general. I don't see much call for KR, but I pretty much avoided KR on live, too, though I did go there to get my radio (for some reason). If you want to run KR arcs, just post to LFG, and I'm sure that people will join you. I think it was @Megajoulewho said it best. To paraphrase, the game has changed, and while we can go home again (thankfully), it's not going to be exactly the same. What ever is? That said, I've heard that there are servers out there that are running COX pretty close to how it was at shutdown. Maybe that's your bag? Me? I'm happy here at Homecoming and will continue to add slog for myself when I want it and not try to force everyone else to join me in my masochism. 😇 But yeah, I will secretly appreciate my fieldcrafter more for having earned it. Do I want to do that on every toon? Um, no. I'll be buying them after this first one. Heck, on live, I would log out and craft on my main rather than earn it on other toons. It was easier to switch, craft (usually in WWs so I could ignore every person there while I focused on buying what I needed to craft for my alts), drop off the enh at base or email them, then log back into the alt. You know, I am so very glad those days are over! I wonder sometimes if we remember things as they really were or if we might sometimes romanticize them? Was earning a fieldcrafter really something people did on numerous toons? Or just on their badger and/or main? And if they did and still want to, they still can! That's the good thing about HC, they've given us options. I like options. A lot.

Sounds good, go for it! Or anyone else can; it's all I can do to keep up with the one thread, so I won't be doing it. I do think it's a good idea, though. 👍

Recruit your friends for damage-spewing planters! 🙂 Generally speaking, though, damage is a problem for plants until creepers and pets (and beyond, we're plant trolls). I was slotting Over Thyme for damage on plant, and I think that would have been great later (like with the purple sets), but we're still kind of low, and damage won't be there as if we're running all brutes or all blasters (which would bring its own set of problems).

I'm currently running Blizzard with DWD, and I love it. The damage is insane with aim and build up (and incarnate damage boosts), and the debuff is amazing. Anything that manages to survive is easily one-shotted with Bitter Ice Blast (or even with Ice Bolt). I'm finding it fun, but I haven't run it through mids or anything.

I know! Let's do it next week for sure since we haven't had one since our first night.

Our third all plant troll/dom team night was another raging and super fun success! We started out with five planters and then @Shoulungjoined us for the last few missions (yay!). We picked up where we left off in Faultline and completed Tremblor's, Yin's, and Doc's* arcs. Along the way we came across some strange Tentacles that looked like they needed "arresting," so we obliged. We ran into some slight trouble (read: team wipe) with Arachnos when we were ambushed from behind by quite the sizable mob of reds and purples while we were dealing with an equally sizable mob of reds and purples in front of us. It was a super fun time; well, maybe not the team wipe part, but the part where we regrouped and showed those wily Arachnos who was truly boss. This time, we wrecked them in short order. It was grand. Perhaps the glory we experienced upon our regroup is best captured in this paraphrase from one intrepid planter: "Now I am beginning to see the potential of an all-plant team!" Indeed. And just wait, there are TFs and AV arcs and so much more to come! As people had to head out in preparation for work the next morning, we decided to do a bank run. It was a hot mess, but totally fun to see us all try to work out how everyone "did" bank runs. Unsurprisingly, everyone has their own way to do banks/sides/badges, and when chaos ensued, it was pretty . . . well, chaotic. But again, we prevailed. There was no doubt that we would. Not wanting to get ahead of the people who had to get going for work the next day, we called it a night after that. It was getting late, anyway, so it was a good time to call it. Although we are a range of levels (reminder: all levels are welcome!), the ones who started on Week 1, Day 1 are now at level 22ish . . . and are very excited and anxious to get our creepers at lvl 26. Next Tuesday, we will be picking up in Faultline where we left off (with Agent G's first mish). Then we will be heading to Striga for some amazing fun in that zone. Wedding bands and warwolf whistles, anyone? . . . yeah, yeah, you can buy them, but how much more fun is it to earn them the old-fashioned way in one of the best zones with some of the best arcs in the game? On an all-plant troll/dom team? Since our plea for a plant/kin has so far gone unanswered, I said that I would roll one and get caught up so that I can be, among other helpful goodies, the SB provider an all plant team needs to thrive when leveling. Since I'll be supplying the "power" (i.e. endurance and recharge speed), Irresponsible Creeper thought that Power Plant would be a great name for my new plant/kin. Alas, some genius COXer already had that name, so I "stole" it by simply adding a period at the end: Power Plant. Woots! Poor old Over Thyme will therefore be shelved for the time being, I guess, though you may see her out and about since I was really starting to dig plant/time. Besides, who knows, maybe some interested party will decide they want to be the plant/kin hero and jump in to join our Parks and Wreck Tuesday Troll (and Dom) crew. Anyone wishing to join us on any plant troll/dom is welcome! Again, we meet on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on Excelsior. Next week, we will start in Faultline, and you can contact us ingame by sending a tell to either me @Tahliah or to @StridingWind(or to anyone else you see posting or mentioned here). Not counting the planters who've joined us for only one night (so far), our plant troll/dom roster includes: Termite /nature, Spring Fury /elec, California Raisin /sonic, Passing Wind /dark, Irresponsible Creeper /poison, and Over Thyme /time (soon to be replaced with Power Plant. /kin). Alas, I haven't a screenie to share this week, as once again, we didn't grab one. Next week, though, we'll make a point of it so that everyone can see us all in our gorgeous green glory. Edited to add: *While in that Doc Delilah mission with the scaffolding outside, a bot got tossed over the side and Doc being Doc dived after him. She was promptly killed (i.e. before I could even get down there after her). I don't recall her ever dying in her arcs before, so I was surprised the mission didn't fail. I was also very interested in what she would have to say to us when we called her after that mish. She just said what she always says, no "gee, I'm all dead and can't talk to you right now" or anything. It was a fun side note that I thought I would add since it's the first time I recall her dying in those "save Doc" missions.

Gotcha, @ShoulungWe're an all plant troll/dom team, so we don't have a melee toon. The question then becomes how do we get through mobs without a traditional tank/brute/scrapper but with mad holds, confuse, debuffs? Should we really approach mobs on an all plant troll /dom team as we might a pick up team with random abilities in which a tank or healer might be key? Something to think about.

On hover and blasters: get it. Keep it. Slot it. Love it. If you are soloing content, hover is your best friend in EB and AV fights. It's also pretty good to have when you are overwhelmed by baddies in melee range (and you will be). Stick an LOTG recharge in there along with whatever def IOs you want, and this is a golden power for blasters. You are ABOVE the fray both literally and figuratively), and you have juicy def / recharge bonuses. If you happen to be on an ice/ice blaster, you have the added bonus of a slow aura . . . just by being in the air. Additionally, drop your aoes, and the fliying baddies will sink to the ground (and if proc'd flop around in a funny funny way). If you want to be extra wily, drop your ice patch, hover above it, and then pick off the flopping baddies like fish in a barrel. There are a million uses for hover, and they are all good.

Irresponsible Creeper added empowerment stations, so have at it! As to the strategy, that all sounds fine, but recharge on things like confusion is pretty quick, so it's not the end of the world if we all drop confuse at once or in near proximity. We are a troll/dom team, and with plant, we don't need a "tank." That's kind of the point of the team, actually. We skip the "needed" melee, taunt, dps ATs and just deal with plant troll powers. This happens, forgive the pun, organically. That said, if you are into tanking and want to do that, yay! No one's stopping you. As we level and need more strategy than the none we need now in our teens, we will obviously adapt, so it's great to be thinking about this!

Not the OP, but . . . um, what? Your most fantastic of all-time costume won't be recognized as such by COX vets who've been rolling toons since beta? Duuuude??!! Chill out. If your costume is stand-out awesome, you can be standing in the darkest Mot cave and still win. Luckily, the CC is happening . . . where? What is the lighting there? Gee, let's think . . . . "I didn't win because it's too dark" = fail. You can call it OP fail if you like, I'm pretty sure they won't mind.

Okay, so there's a fun game where we all pretend that what was said wasn't and then ask questions based on that? The answer is, yes, they are conducting the CC across all shards AT THE SAME TIME (explicitly noted in the OP), wrap your mind around that one! How is that possible?! Is it magic?! I demand to know naow. Further, the best costume from each shard will win specific shinies (explicitly noted in the OP). What is expected from you? Well, let's not look at the OP or anything, that might give too much away.

YMMV, but the best blaster for soloing in my own experience is ice/ice. Superior dps, great holds/slows/mitigation. Pick your powers carefully, and there is no content you can't solo (excluding obvious stuff like GMs and trials). My ice/ice/ice blaster on live soloed every mish available via the Ouro ice crystal, and I'm working my way through them now on Homecoming. No problems so far.

Oh, and to answer the OP, if you're looking at a solo/badger, you have to go ice/ice. Its single-target focus makes it less optimal for teams, but OMG is it fun!

Interesting. Ice doesn't just slow, though that's a far more amazing power than many people seem to realize. I've been playing with amping blizzard's -tohit. In late game, our aoe damage isn't all the rocks it is in earlier game, but what about using the "nuke" as a debuff? It still does mad damage, esp with Aim and Build-up (plus IO set, incarnate, and even insp boosts), but slotted for -tohit, it's crazy more useful late game. Maybe. What do you think?

Amazing work, Dacy! I sent my sg mate here to learn how to build our base, and the results are stunning. Thank you for all the work you put into these vids. ❤️