1681

I think PFF is fine how it is, it’s a flavor thing as well as a playstyle choice. It just means that at the beginning of a fight when you know PFF is up, don’t waste time blocking, just lay the hurt on while you can. Once it’s down, you use block as needed until it’s up.

This is similar to how LR works since blocking doesn’t help as much on big hits as just ignoring them and letting Dodge do it.

Also I think people who have been using PFF for a form of invulnerability are in trouble because that’s not how the power works best. It is an amazing power when used either in a group or with pets since the PFF means that when you get aggro you take zero damage while your pets and or teammates grab the aggro for you.

It’s not a defense that should be used by someone who anticipates continued aggro. Different powers have different strengths and PFF’s is that you take no damage on short engagements.

1682

Cool! I didn’t realize they’d do that. After breezing through missions with 2 people, I didn’t bother to try any more, figuring it’d only get easier. Doubling group size doesn’t sound so deadly though when you have 3 times the people, but perhaps the extra chaos makes up for it?

As much as I love the knockback effects of the force powers, the density of enemies is such that it is more often a hindrance than a benefit. I often can’t position my character in a way to make the knockback useful without drawing more aggro. Kind of frustrating. I’m close to switching over to another character as my main.

If you fly overhead and angle your shots down, do they still fly back as far?

Alternately, get Sonic Device and then extra henchmen adding in is akin to extra ammunition. I combines very nicely with a tapped Force Eruption.

1683

Yeah it was fun. Thanks Ned and Robotpants. :) If you will allow me yet another indulgence some carefully cropped screenshots from the tail end of the night.

As you can see I ruined ruined their carefully coordinated color choices with brash warm gold and maroonish red. The back up mechanics while overworld questing was equal parts kind of cool and annoying. It was odd considering that instanced content didn’t seem to scale at all. It’d be interesting to see how a 5 person group would do, or if it’s only divided between parties under 3 and 3+. Also sometimes they went back to grab a nearby group but other times it seemed like we got spawns (I’m unsure).

There were a few deaths in the resulting chaos but death is mostly harmless in modern MMOs. So it didn’t annoy me too much. Most of the time, it was my own fault for me.

As for your force powers, I’d hate to see you abandon Bitesy. When I was using a bit of force during beta I usually saved the knockback stuff for closers if mob packs were fairly close. I’m looking at picking up some crowd control so (as a psychic fox), so I’m sure that’ll help a bit too.

Edit:Oh, that bow came from mysticism, but it’s decidedly unmystic like. It’s even called a laser bow in the costume options. The only thing I can think of is they, at a last minute, tried to cross pollinate costume parts so people would have a reason to trade. That’s kind of weak if you ask me, but whatever.

1684

It is tragic that you cannot put hats and monocles on beasts! TRAGIC! I want my money back!

1685

That power armoured toad looks great.

Makes me think of Bucky O’Hare.

1686

Yeah, shadow form is the template from which all other ‘-form’ graphical effects should be inspired. Instead of overwriting your costume with some huge noisy effect, it just instantly darkens you, as if you’re standing in the blackest of shadows, and shrouds you in ghostly flames. By, the flames are purplish, but you can color them however you want. It’s a really great effect, and has lead to me playing my shadow character, Pixie Styx, a lot more than I otherwise would have.

1687

Is anyone else at an appropriate level for the Monster Island Crisis? It seems like it’d be fun to do with a group of QT3’rs, but it’s level 27, minimum.

1688

The problem is that PFF is just plain worse than the other defenses, even LR which is arguably the next worse defense. The only reason people even use PFF is that sometimes the stats they want for other things fit with it and many times people get regen instead anyway. In the situation you listed someone would be better served with invuln and chii heal or LR & chii heal.

I also don’t believe it is ever a good idea to take special attacks instead of blocking, even with LR. Even assuming you do dodge it, which is not assured by any means, i think Block mitigates more damage and it generates more energy.

At the risk of saying something semi political, PFF is like paying double what other people pay for insurance (because PFF takes more power choices and advantages than any other defensive power to be effective) and then the second you get sick (damaged), they drop you anyway.

1689

Love the all-animal superteam! Aesop’s Avengers or something.

1690

Your hero kind of reminds me of a gadroon (HATE HATE HATE) even though they aren’t super similar i guess.

1691

Jasper, I’m not a big fan of hover-blasting but yeah, I was doing it a few times and it’s much easier to direct knockback that way. I really dislike travel power suppression, though. At least in CoH a hover blaster can take the actual power Hover and slot it up, making it feel like a pseudo-Fly, even in combat. In Champions you just move in slow motion all the time once an enemy is engaged. I can’t help it, I gotta move. Yes, I’m one of those players who sometimes jumps for no reason, too. :)

If the “I’m goin’ for backup!” scales with team size, I’d be really curious to see what would happy on a six player team. I picture an NPC backing up (they literally do this most of the time) in an arc that collects every spawned villain in the zone and coming back with the equivalent of tactical nukes.

Also, still no one volunteering to create a supergroup? I have no desire to lead one but I’m willing to at least put it together and then promote someone else to leadership once it’s started. We just need five other people to agree to meet in the same zone.

Er, and figure out where it’s actually done.

1692

The “I’m calling for backup!” thing would be cool if it didn’t happen every time right as you start attacking a group. It’s a neat feature and most of the groups the three of us were fighting were of little challenge until reinforcements were called, but the way it’s handled just looks dumb. Some enemies would even say it twice in one word bubble. When we started playing last night, the very first group we attacked contained level 20 villains. At the start of the fight, one of them went for back up…to a group of level 26-27 villains. So yeah, we died just a little that time.

1693

I’m happy to create and run one, that is, the next time I see five qt3’rs on - but we need a name, because ‘Quarter to Three’ is just a terrible name for a super hero group.

1694

Here’s a shot of a practice dummy in the Power House, looking fairly calm as Smarmy murders his buddies.

1695

May I not be so humble as to put forward, “Quarter to Super” again.

1696

I will submit to quatoria’s tyrannical rule.

My suggestion for a name would be Super Tasters.

1697

I like Quarter to super.

1698

There is only one answer.

MOTEL ARTISTS.

1699

My wife suggested Quartermasters. I have to admit, it’s hard not to be fond of Motel Artists, however. I’m thinking of mandating that everyone wear a beret in one of their costumes.

1700

I do have to say both Super Tasters and Motel Artists are definitely very good choices. :) I’d be cool with either.