Rathskeller

Also an outgrowth of post-surgery Codeine and black holes in my memory, I give you the very "should be in a parade" look of Rathskeller! He's a radiation, energy manipulation blaster, (thank you powerset proliferation for giving me something to try that Garthamatic may not have mastered yet) whom, much like The Thane of Wounds, I have no recollection of creating or playing. Judging by his level, he's newer, a major lowbie at this point. I've no backstory yet, but looking forward to the challenge of creating one after-the-fact. I also look forward to the challenge of NOT using the very obvious "yellow cake uranium" plot line his look screams for. Again, though I do not recall doing it, he's also my very first toon with changed colors on powers.

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Scintillus

The Dr. Manhattan-like Scintillus was created during uninterrupted mental health, pre-peritonsular abscess, as a new toon to play with Garthamatic whilst Orleans was on hiatus. While I think both Garthamatic and I are disappointed at his initial costume being my first cop, for time's sake, to a standard duds set, the backstory was fun, he is fun to play (my first squidy), and his leveling pact with Voyaguer (my first) has been real interesting. In the design page he skewed more green than the blue he shows in game, but that's neither here nor there. Garth's advice about "if choosing between a Warshade and a Peacebringer for the first time, go with the Warshade," has definitely held up as good advice now that I have two toons to compare, if for no other reason than the comparatively lesser marketing needs of the Warshade.

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The Thane of Wounds

There he is, The Thane of Wounds, Peacebringer. Wolvensense on medication is baaaaaddd!! I've no recollection of creating him or playing him, but somehow he's at level 11 and has the badge for teaming against and defeating Eochai. I like that the alien skull reflects light, how the Peacebringer powers give him those "Sunstorm" eyes on a skull that has no eyes, and the early flight power...all learned as I logged in to take these shots. Creating a backstory to justify him after-the-fact, has been fun. I'd like to write more.

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Double XP Is LIVE!

Hell YEAH!

Whoooooo!
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Another Great Tight Night

Yep, no surprise, but I found last night to be another great Tight Night with the Incredible Squad. It's exceedingly interesting to see our characters developing. As they do so, their powersets are overlapping quite a bit. ColdFusion is developing into a solid Tank with good aggro control. Cadabra is toughening up quite a bit and has some nice control elements and a single-target heal attack. Mr. Eclipse is really starting to show his potential with his holds and controls, with heals and debuffs to back them up. Even the Galvanic Guardian has a well-fleshed out attack chain that's dealing some significant damage. I can only imagine what kind of damage he'll be throwing down later on with Hasten near-perma and Aim + Build-Up to boost alpha strikes. On top of that, the electrical set(s) still have drains and holds that I haven't touched yet. Lots of potential there.

Overall, we are doing a lot better in missions now. Things are smoother and the amount of faceplants has significantly decreased.

One thing I'd like to work on with Troy is how to herd up a spawn. I'm normally not a big proponent of herding/gathering, but with the best Taunt aura in the game, he really can maximize his aggro control along with our AoEs by keeping the foes clumped and in close proximity. I'm not trying to say he's been doing anything wrong or poorly, but it took me a while to get the knack of herding, mostly from watching other Tanks do it. I was thinking he may need the same kind of visual cues to really get the hang of it. Just food for thought.

Oh, and the costumes are still one of the best parts of it. I see so many complex modern costumes that our Silver Age look is really (I think) distinctive. I'm looking forward to Level 20 since I'd like us to pick up matching costumes as a Super Group uniform. Something Fantastic-4 ish I think. Simple but allowing our character elements to come through. Anyway, give it some thought.

Thanks again, I had a great time.

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Double XP Weekend Feb 8th!

Villains, prepare to plot your take over of the world in double time! Heroes, clean the streets of scum twice as fast! The ever popular Double XP weekend returns! Starting on Friday, February 8th following our weekly maintenance period, all defeat rewards, including experience, prestige and influence or infamy will be doubled! This will continue through the weekend and conclude the night of Sunday, February 10th.To discuss this announcement, join us here.
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Great Tight Night!

Just had to say it. I had a great time on Thursday. Having Troy playing as ColdFusion made a big difference in the team dynamic. It's also nice to see our characters rounding out as they go up in level. We are getting a nice mix of control and damage going, too. Mr. Eclipse is dealing some nice holds now and Radiation Infection is a noticeable debuff. Cadabra is doing some nice damage now and that Touch of Fear power is proving very useful. Having a Tank is also a nice touch, as ColdFusion is adding some aggro control that's going to be useful and keep Cadabra out of the hot-seat for a portion of the fight. Watching Cadabra and ColdFusion go to work was great.

On top of that, the post-respec Galvanic Guardian is a damage machine now. I'm seeing a side-effect of the Electrical attacks is that they have a chance of returning about 1/2 the endurance cost for the power when it hits. This helps his blue bar a lot in sustained fights. It also is useful because when Hasten is up (which it is a fair amount of the time), he has a non-stop attack chain between Charged Bolts, Lightning Bolt, and Ball Lightning. Zapp is nice for pulling and as a filler when other stuff is recharging, but the long animation time and fact it can be interrupted makes it used a bit less than other attacks once we get rolling. The new Defiance really favors a fast attack chain, and being able to 2-shot minions with a fast 1-2 attack chain is great. It's a BIG change of pace to sit back and just plink away, but the ability to watch the fight unfold and select targets accordingly is really neat.

I'm really looking forward to us hitting Level 15 on the characters, as that will open up Faultline and it's mission arcs to us. Lots of neat missions there with AVs and some great story-lines. Also, it has a selection of enemies that will be easier for us to handle. Vahz (that we fought a lot of early on) just utterly and completely suck. They do a lot of toxic damage that just about nobody resists, and the Reapers and Mortifactors have that dart attack with a big -Recharge effect to it. And that cleaver HURTS when it connects. And the Eildolon are plain nasty as well with the debuffs and stuns. Easy to see why people dislike them. We actually did very well considering the hordes we faced. In Fauline, you fight some Vhaz, but mostly Lost (who deal a lot of Smashing/Lethal that Ice Tanks have strong defense against) and some Arachnos (again, Ice Tanks do pretty well). As long as we don't get overwhelmed with too many opponents, we should be good there.

That brings me to another assessment of the team's development. We are going to be most effective vs fewer but stronger opponents. Cadabra has some great attacks, but the one AoE is only a short cone with Shadow Maul (discounting Death Shroud). ColdFusion will pick up Whirling Hands and Icicles (maybe), but neither are "knock your socks off" AoEs. Mr. Eclipse has some nice control elements and group effects, but AoEs aren't his thing either really. And Galvanic Guardian has Ball Lightning and Short Circuit (melee PbAoE), but again, neither are "uber" AoEs. What our foursome does have is some great single-target capability. That means that we'll do much better against say 6 +1 con enemies than we will 9 even-con ones. I was pulling missions one up from Heroic to get more enemies. Next time I'll bump it up one more for less enemies, but harder ones. Should suit our group much better and make missions smoother.

Anyway, all said, Thursday was a hoot. We are all finding our groove and it's going to be nice to watch our prowess grow as we level and our characters flesh out more. Good stuff. Really good stuff.

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Plan for 01/17/08 Tight Night...?

OK gang, what's the plan? I'd like to get on the Incredible Squad for Thursday if at all possible.

The Galvanic Guardian is all respec'd now and his ranged-heavy build appears to be working well. I tested it on a few spawns in Steel Canyon, and it seems effective. The addition of the high-damage sniper attack Zapp! is showing some real merit. It has a crazy range, so I think I will be able to snipe at range now with much greater effect. I still want to pick up more of the melee attacks, but I pushed the ranged stuff forward in the build to complement our new tactical evolution that we are developing.

Let me know who's in and what (if any) issues folks have. Cheers!
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Plan for 11/29/07 Tight Night...?

OK, so what's the plan for this coming Thursday? I'm jones'n to get back to our Silver Age heroes on Triumph.

Oh, and what's the Scoop with Matt? Is he still out of the loop here (i.e. we should count him out)?
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