terrycloth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
terrycloth) wrote2005-04-15 10:51 am
terrycloth) wrote2005-04-15 10:51 am
...okay, I figured it out.
I went back in there last night and solo'd the same mission with no problem. Apparently, the 'Anathema' have a ridiculously powerful melee attack, so if I just immobilized them first I had no problem (because their ranged attacks are weak -- 40ish damage instead of 250). I got so used to fighting Tsoo and council and vaz and the weaker Lost (who have powerful ranged attacks and 'eh' melee) that I got out of the habit of using Chillblain (my immobilize) -- the DOs in it were *red* because I'd never replaced them.
Then I got into a pickup group which sucked. They were fighting 22 enemies, and at 20 I was the highest in a group... not necessarily a danger sign. The group mix was decent -- a bubble controller, a rad defender, a bunch of scrappers and blasters, a tanker... but wow, we sucked some major ass. I don't think the controller had holds -- he certainly never used them. The tanker might have had taunt, but he always died really quickly -- the enemies were all using psi, might have been it, plus he was 17th.
Plus, the group leader was of the opinion that no one should run away ever, and engaged in protracted verbal abuse when the last person standing ran for her life. After the second wave of deaths, when half the group quit, the leader insisted that we continue the mission with four, even though we'd been getting our butts kicked with eight. "Let the cowards run while the rest of us press on!" So, being a coward, I quit the group.
I went to Talos Island and did some soloing, hovering over groups of melee-focused enemies. The 'Warriors' are basically Hellions, they have to pull out weak little pistols if they can't get into melee with you. Easy prey.
Eventually, a mission took me to Striga (it was the 'go talk to the contact in our new spiffy zone' mission, like the one that sends you to the Hollows), where I was invited by a rad/rad defender to duo basically the entire Striga plotline. We brought in a Scrapper for a couple missions, and then Tom's illusion controller for the last few, and finally a fire/ice tanker for the archvillain.
Illusion controllers are designed to make Earth controllers jealous. They get their mass hold at 6th (compared to 26th for Earth) and their first pet at 18th (compared to 32nd for every other controller). Everything they do is on an ungodly long timer, though... I think that's the balancing factor. Earth can keep everything it does going continuously. Well, with hasten and AM. Illusion would need hasten and AM and a bunch of recharge reducers. }:)
But man, Phantom Army is unfair. You get a handful (1d4+1) of pets roughly equivalent to characters your level in damage output, who automatically taunt enemies and can't be killed. While the PA was up I had trouble finding an enemy to target that wasn't already dead, so that I could maybe blast some fire at it. v.v Although that was helped by Tom being 24 and the enemies being 21ish.
Then I got into a pickup group which sucked. They were fighting 22 enemies, and at 20 I was the highest in a group... not necessarily a danger sign. The group mix was decent -- a bubble controller, a rad defender, a bunch of scrappers and blasters, a tanker... but wow, we sucked some major ass. I don't think the controller had holds -- he certainly never used them. The tanker might have had taunt, but he always died really quickly -- the enemies were all using psi, might have been it, plus he was 17th.
Plus, the group leader was of the opinion that no one should run away ever, and engaged in protracted verbal abuse when the last person standing ran for her life. After the second wave of deaths, when half the group quit, the leader insisted that we continue the mission with four, even though we'd been getting our butts kicked with eight. "Let the cowards run while the rest of us press on!" So, being a coward, I quit the group.
I went to Talos Island and did some soloing, hovering over groups of melee-focused enemies. The 'Warriors' are basically Hellions, they have to pull out weak little pistols if they can't get into melee with you. Easy prey.
Eventually, a mission took me to Striga (it was the 'go talk to the contact in our new spiffy zone' mission, like the one that sends you to the Hollows), where I was invited by a rad/rad defender to duo basically the entire Striga plotline. We brought in a Scrapper for a couple missions, and then Tom's illusion controller for the last few, and finally a fire/ice tanker for the archvillain.
Illusion controllers are designed to make Earth controllers jealous. They get their mass hold at 6th (compared to 26th for Earth) and their first pet at 18th (compared to 32nd for every other controller). Everything they do is on an ungodly long timer, though... I think that's the balancing factor. Earth can keep everything it does going continuously. Well, with hasten and AM. Illusion would need hasten and AM and a bunch of recharge reducers. }:)
But man, Phantom Army is unfair. You get a handful (1d4+1) of pets roughly equivalent to characters your level in damage output, who automatically taunt enemies and can't be killed. While the PA was up I had trouble finding an enemy to target that wasn't already dead, so that I could maybe blast some fire at it. v.v Although that was helped by Tom being 24 and the enemies being 21ish.