Nexros

With enforcer's aoe +def and the -tohit combination, this is very a tanky MM. I would try putting your efforts into DPS since the primary and secondary on this build is going to naturally bring you to a softcapped defense (def and tohit combined) with even moderate enhances or SOs, as @StrikerFox pointed out. You will have no problem surviving +4/8 content in end game, so you should have lots of room to focus on damage. Personally, I wouldn't take leadership maneuvers with this as you will already be hitting 5-10% chance to be hit,... Perhaps go for +damage like in the experimentation pool, or go for (dare I say it?) direct damage from a patron/ancillary pool. I prefer the magic origin power. It has a decent -res making it helpful early on, but also useful at 50+.

haha SUPER over powered, but really great ideas. The Lich has never really been a DPS pet to begin with. Most of his abilities are -tohit like the fear stare, immobilize, hold, etc. I think the only damage they do is dark blast and gloom, really. They do have one AoE cone blast but it very low damage.

Having played Zombie/* MM as my main since forever, I feel I should speak up here. I just want to make sure these points are thought about, having a lot of experience with the set. Please also keep in mind that the theme is Necromancy (dark magic, etc?), not Zombie apocolypse (though you could totally pull that). I would be very sad if the set moved away from a magic feel toward a mutation zombie apocolypse feel, if that makes sense. (see bold points to skip the extra) 1. Pet Resistances / Survivability Everyone that's played MMs know that between lvl 16 to about 24 ish is rough, depending on the set. This is simply because the game is scaling against you and your DPS is completely reliant on having all your pets and you simply don't at this stage. This problem is especially bad for Necromancy simply because there are no specialty pets. For example, Mercs get the medic, demons second lieutenant does HUGE AoE dps as soon as you get it, no arsonist, no healing/shielding bots, etc etc. However, all of these weaknesses are shored up at lvl 32 with the final upgrade because ALL of the zombies can independently heal themselves and gain strong -to hit. Zombies are very tanky after lvl 32, especially if you toss a heal enhance in there (depending on your secondary). The reason the minions die so much is simply because they're melee. Because of this, Zombies don't need a survivability buff in my opinion. One last point on these dudes: they do more damage than you may realize with the cone DoT puke power. It's a slow DoT but does a lot of damage and doesn't keep the minion busy (like the merc's full auto, for example) 2. Grave Knights Personally, I think they're perfect! Though the logic used to balance the ranged and melee attacks could always be improved. With the recent minion logic changes, these guys do a WHOLE lot better than they used to. They used to run up to someone, THEN throw their ranged attacks. Now they *pew pew* and follow up with melee within a reasonable distance. No more running half-way across the mission, aggroing everything in the process (because these dude can MOVE). No complaints with the improvements already done here! 3. Lich Your Haunt idea sounds really fun! With how much damage the Grave Knights do, I know the Lich is normally thought of as a cc pet, but something like haunt would be cool! 4. Soul Extraction This skill is KILLER when used regularly. But as most of pointed out, it can be hard to use regularly. We want our pets to survive, but we also want to be able to use it on the Lich for maximum effect... I think it would be super cool to be able to use it on both your minions and dead enemies! Then set the recharge speed based on what you used it on up to a Boss level enemy (or your own Lich). That would be awesome and feel very thematic.

Well! I'm very sad to announce that this contest is cancelled. We've had a total of 4 contestants. During our first competition we had over 50 submissions within 1 week. I'm not sure if the servers population has declined or if this kind of event is simply no longer interesting, but it's pretty clear that this will be our last backstory competition. Thanks for those that participated!

My apologies! In the past few years Discord has become a sort of one-stop-shop for gaming communication almost universally. I made the assumption that most users would already be familiar with and have an account on discord. There's nothing wrong with posting here on the forums, but I was hoping to encourage more live communication about the entries in the general channel (#general)

No, it is open to all! That is why the global handle is important.

CoX themed Story competition, hosted by the Order of Thorns! 1st place is 80 MILLION 👍 We're running this competition a little differently this time. We're going to allow everyone to see the other entries before being judged. Please be respectful of the other contestants or risk attracting the wrath of Nex 😱 Rules: 1. One entry per person (not per character, not per account...) Please play fair 2. Must fit in the in-game bio section. 3. It must include your character's name and account handle. These do not count toward you character limit. 4. Competition ends October 14th. How to enter: Join the Order discord and paste your story into the #story-competition channel. https://discord.gg/JXvxz2K You will only be able to post in the channel once every 6 hours. But you may edit your post any number of times you'd like until the competition closes. Past Competitions:

CoX themed Story competition, hosted by the Order of Thorns! 1st place is 80 MILLION 👍 We're running this competition a little differently this time. We're going to allow everyone to see the other entries before being judged. Please be respectful of the other contestants or risk attracting the wrath of Nex 😱 Rules: 1. One entry per person (not per character, not per account...) Please play fair 2. Must fit in the in-game bio section. 3. It must include your character's name and account handle. These do not count toward you character limit. 4. Competition ends October 14th. How to enter: Join the Order discord and paste your story into the #story-competition channel. https://discord.gg/JXvxz2K You will only be able to post in the channel once every 6 hours. But you may edit your post any number of times you'd like until the competition closes. Past Competitions:

Oh no! I hope more don't feel that way. There were so many good entries and the judges really enjoyed it! So I'm certain this will happen again in the near future. Looking forward to reading more Zolgar!

The Order of Thorns VG/SG out of Excelsior has been hosting a bio contest for the past week (https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,6902.0.html). And here are the winners! 1st Place La Petite Mort 50,000,000 Inf "One time, where you're hiding's when she met ya "Two times, she knows you won't forget her "Three times, you'd do anything to f--- her "Last time "Last time "Last time, ya dead before morning" As the DJ spins The Crystal Method's "Murder" you notice someone staring at you, a pretty little thing with the most striking eyes. Her gaze holds promises, and you feel yourself flushing with desire. She smiles and exits, knowing you'll follow. Elsewhere the police have found another body, naked in the victim's own bed. The only trace of evidence is a ring missing from the ring finger. No one knows why the perp collects them. At the moment you don't care about anything else. You're having the night of your life. At the end the last thing you hear is the woman leaning in to whisper, "Was it good for you, sweetheart?" A Few Comments from the Judges! I found myself wanting to know more. Much darker than I expected to see in this competition. Is this allowed? Is it ok that I like this? Reads like a horror flick synopsis. Intriguing. More please! 2nd Place Snapping Turtle 10,000,000 Inf Crane prances, Tiger postures, Snake slithers, Monkey swings. Observe in patience evergreen, Envy not Eagle's wings. For you are Snapping Turtle, Blades break against your skin. Your gaze carries epochs, Infinite power, from within. Glide through depthless ocean, As you do through endless foe. The currents rush around you, As you decide a battle's flow. As the rain erodes the mountain, So too does your Way. Within a vice of crushing jaws, Predators become prey. For all who live long in this world: Your duty is to defend it! Snapping Turtle never starts a fight, But will always rise to end it. A Few Comments from the Judges! A poem about a fighting turtle? I know this one! Just kidding. this was a real pleasure to read and stands on its own as a piece of art. Expertly written! It sounds like the turtle, or maybe his/her master wrote this as encouragement? I started to think we could make a trilogy out of expanding this. 2nd Place Yes, second place was tied. Lily Frankenstein I shall neither crawl nor bend a knee and for this I am braided a radical or a revolutionist. I am pure and bold, iron and sinew both. I will be no man's nor creature's bride. Thus the world calls me monster, but that is your crime not mine. I was created to rule. Mankind's blood will water my garden and sate my vengeance. I am eternal for I am the dead. Fleeing both her maker and her mate; found and freed from a slumber of over 200 years at the bottom of a sunken ship off the Rogue Isles. A Penny Dreadful from a time of Gods and Monsters. Incarnate and Unbound. Her journey through Paragon City has brought her full circle. Now, with allies Aurora Borealis/Tyrka, Vernon Von Grun, and the Dream Doctor, she seeks to end the bondage of her liberator from her watery tomb--Ghost Widow. Cry "HAVOC!" and let slip the dogs of war! A Few Comments from the Judges! I love how this incorporated the lore of the game. I didn't see that as much as I thought I would. The first bit gave me the chills. I just imagined it being read by Bill Nighy, haha! Honorable Mentions Lost Poet A royal maiden young and fair, her beauty far renowned; A minstrel he without a care, between them love they found; A wizard old and vain and cruel, the maiden he desired; Rejection made him feel the fool, and raised unholy ire; "Choose me or death," the wizard said, quoth she, "I'd rather die." The wizard cried, "You will be bled," and magic foul let fly; The minstrel jumped in front of her, to block the vile spell; The cantrip shattered where and when, and sent the bard to hell; A thousand years he fought and strove; this poet of the damned; Conjurings of his own he wove, to 'scape that nether land; Returned at last unto our world, he wept before the dawn; Ten centuries had come unfurled, his love was dead and gone. Liz Nasty "Longbow case file: Riot at The Cellar, Skyway City, August 23th, 2002. Abridged transcript of video used as evidence leading to the conviction and incarceration of Elizabeth Kain, aka ""Liz Nasty"". BEGIN TRANSCRIPT Kain and her band ""[expletive] Rippers"" are performing. The audience has turned violent. E.K.: ...[expletive] THE SYSTEM! SMASH THE SYSTEM! KILL THE WHITE HATS, TAKE THEIR CAPES! Rioters take swings at each other. Kain shouts at a light, smashing it and raining glass on the crowd. E.K.: [laughs] THAT'S IT, THIS IS WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT! TEAR IT UP, TEAR IT DOWN! Police sirens are heard. The band stops playing. E.K.: Stupid white hats, just when it was getting good! There are some verbal exchanges with the police, then a volley of tear gas followed by a SWAT team. In a last act of defiance, Kain screams into her previously unused microphone. The resulting feedback blows the speakers and knocks everyone out, including the camera operator and Kain herself. END TRANSCRIPT" Nexros Yeah, ok, I entered... so sue me. Ugh, wait. That's right, last thing I remember is Ahren. Then, by Satan, I remember. Ahren is dead! No no, that's not right. The last thing I remember is helping Isidore of Seville. But then he turned on me; that bastard! I'll destroy him and his little cult if it's the last... "My Lord... Nexros...," stuttered a terrified looking Circle of Thorns leader. "I.. uh.. we have summoned you, as so many have in years past." A wide array of strange faces, adorned in hoods, staring back at me. No! Am I in Oranbega? "We have succeeded! We have returned Lord Nexros from oblivion; to the glory of the Circle!" exclaimed another mage from the shadows. "Is that so?" Whomever these people are, they have made a grave mistake! Dark energy swirls around Nexros like a hateful maelstrom and all the mages crumple into death where they stand. "I made the Thorn, you fools! How dare you steal my brother's power!" The mages slowly begin to rise, the light extinguished from their eyes. "It is YOU, who will be joining ME!" Judas Lead guitarist and frontman of the death metal band V.E.C.K.T.O.R., Judas Rose's frantic music and violent sound garnered him quite a following within the Hellions. His lyrics were his sermons, and soon, he was a bonafide preacher, galvanizing the street gang with talk of 'releasing their demons' and 'burning those in power down to ashes.' A self-admitted nihilist and hedonist to his very core, Judas relished having an army at his beck and call causing chaos. His bandmates? Not so much. That's why he's a solo act now. The break-up was messy -- bloody, too. Judas sacrificed those closest to him to a mysterious demonic entity and wound up with much more to show for it than thirty pieces of silver.

Of course! I'm aware that the email limit is shorter than the bio limit :( Just do a subject line like "Competition part 1" and "part 2", or something similar. As long as it's coming from the same global name, it's very obvious and I'll paste them together for you.

It's all a Nemesis plot... obviously.

I've done fairly well on the purple front. Since early May, when I started, I've gotten at least 7, maybe 8? What is strange is that they're almost always Sleep or Hold purps... and I'm a MM... just my luck :P (thank god for converters!)

That's super cool! How'd you guys secure custom titles?

Good point. I am not one of the judges, but I am trying to limit it to one entry per account, preferably ONE ENTRY PER HUMAN. Honestly there's no way to stop someone from making dozens of accounts to submit dozens of times without me being the wiser... But I'm hoping the community isn't that obnoxious! :D

If this goes well, I'm hoping to gather more people for judging and dramatically increase the rewards!

ISO amazing backstories! Email your backstory to @Nexros on Excelsior for a chance to win 50mil inf. 2 runners up will also receive 10mil each. Entries must be short enough to fit within the in-game bio section and be sent IN GAME. Entry period is until 7/20. Announcement on 7/21. Your entry will be read and judged by professional writers from the Los Angeles Times, Sports Illustrated, and even a few authors of fantasy fiction! Sponsored by "The Order of Thorns" SG/VG of Excelsior! Before you ask, I have been asked to not reveal any names of actual individuals.

If the only concern is endurance, then you should definitely go dark if that's more thematic for you. Every problem in dark armor has very easy solutions. For the aoe heal, just slot the theft of essence +endurance proc. Send yourself some cash from an alt and always have that slotted. In a standard mob you'll go from eating up endurance to completely refilling it and your hp in a single move. Alpha slot is not needed to make dark armor viable for endurance heavy primaries.

Just my thoughts here, but reducing end cost on defensive powers for low levels (or resist, you know what I mean) would be great and all, but what about end-game? While I agree that reducing the end cost of sets like dark armor would make them more usable, it would also make it VERY VERY strong in late game. A big part of this game is endurance management, no matter what class you play, and slotting to solve those issues is a big part of planning a character. Removing the need to plan for endurance management on tankier archetypes would open a whole different can of worms like needing to drop the damage output of those archetypes to make up for the additional slots that are now available to stack damage onto. Not saying it's a bad idea, but do keep in mind that little things like this have large cascading effects that can be very difficult to predict. Also, enhancements get stronger at higher levels. IO enhancements as lvl 22 != IO enhancements at lvl 50.

I've mained necro/dark for a long time and it is a very strong combination. You'll find that dark is an aggressive set, more so than most supports. By aggressive, I mean focused on your enemies, not your minions (with the exception of twilight grasp). One of the hidden gems with necro/dark is the amount of cc and support that is possible: 3x aoe fear -to hit (you, lich, and servant), 2x twilight grasp (you and servant), 3x 2.0 magnitude hold (you, lich, and servant again. Yes you can perma hold elite bosses!). It is also one of the only combinations where every single minion has a strong, damaging self heal (life siphon) as opposed to a frequent, weak aoe heal like demons. Again, a more aggressive play style. Zombies do start off VERY squishy, but I don't even run with twilight grasp anymore because they're so insanely hard to kill once they're enhanced and have aoe resist/defense. Besides, the dark servant heals more than enough on it's own. If you want to go ranged DPS, zombies is a bad choice. The Lich is ranged but more focused on debuff and cc than damage. The real damage comes from the Grave Knights, but their big hits are melee. If you want to do a ranged MM I'd recommend something like bots or mercs. Hope that helps!

Honestly, with most MM combos there really isn't a bad option. I can't think of a combo that couldn't be spec'd in way that is complimentary. It's just the nature of pet/support. I like to think of it this way: For pets, pick melee (ninjas, animals,...), ranged (bots, mercs...), or hybrid (zombie, thugs....). For your secondary, pick buffs (thermal, ice,...) or debuffs (poison, dark...). All support sets will have some of both, but they're generally tailored to one or the other. I find the debuff supports tend to be a tad more offensive feeling, but require a lot more accuracy checks. It's nice that you don't need accuracy to effectively buff your team! From there, just go with a theme you like and you'll do great--this is the most important because you won't play a character you don't enjoy. Good luck!

Villain and Hero group (and anything in between). With the null gull, there's really no reason to not group together. Group: The Order of Thorns (originally existed on Virtue) Officers: @Nexros, and 3 others I can't remember their tags haha Theme: A (secret) order with one propose: gaining power through magic. Using it for good or evil is up to you and doesn't concern the Order. Our council is formed on the basis of magical power and talent, not your moral compass.

Perhaps I'm just really unlucky, but I have been watching the zone event logs for days and have yet to see a Ghost of Scrapyard event (miner strike in sharkhead). I know it exists because the badge to kill the Ghost of Scrapyard is around. But the event rates seem very low. I remember events like this were very common in i24. Is it just how that specific event is created? Either way, events happening a little more often, or even once a day, would be amazing!

Excelsior needs more Villains! Please post your Villain Group recruitment here. To get us started, recruiting for The Order of Thorns. Leader: Nexros (Global tag Nex) Type: RP Theme: Magic Description (from RP perspective): A secret organization of Villains and Rogues that work together to further their own power through the mystic arts.