Mentor Wanted

[Michael Hopcroft]

My hero is still getting beat up by the Qulaar, and I;m trying to figure out how to deal with it. Kaishaku is a Level 3 (untrained) Dual Blade user who's having trouble with Bugkeeprs in the Rescue the Vivilians quest (I think it has a different name, but that's what I recall).

 

Is there a way for a hero with no ranged attacks to deal with these problems?

[Cancer]

Re: Mentor Wanted

 

I miss Mentor too, but it's been a long time since he's been around.

[Arkham]

Re: Mentor Wanted

 

My hero is still getting beat up by the Qulaar, and I;m trying to figure out how to deal with it. Kaishaku is a Level 3 (untrained) Dual Blade user who's having trouble with Bugkeeprs in the Rescue the Vivilians quest (I think it has a different name, but that's what I recall).

 

Is there a way for a hero with no ranged attacks to deal with these problems?

 

Pick up a garbage can/bench/whatever you are strong enough to pick up, lead with that, then run up and beat them until they fall down.

 

And don't forget to block when they get one of those symbols above their head.

[Haerandir]

Re: Mentor Wanted

 

Your basic energy-builder attack (Rain of Steel for dual blades) has a built-in ranged Taunt feature, that should allow you to pull foes into melee range with you. One thing that took me a while to figure out in Beta was that the energy-builders are all set up to auto-attack, so you only have to hit that button once per opponent, and it'll fire that attack off whenever you aren't actively doing something else. So, as you approach a fight, your standard procedure should be to pick a target, tap the key for Rain of Steel once while you're still out of range, then run towards them. Depending on how close you are, they'll either come to meet you or wait for you to charge them. Then you just let Rain of Steel run, activating Blade Tempest whenever you have enough endurance. You should mow down the drones and firebugs very quickly this way, then just select your next target and repeat.

 

If you're having trouble with Bugkeepers in particular, make sure you zoom your camera POV out far enough that you can see the space above their heads. This is easier with most other opponents in the game, but Bugkeepers (and some other villains/master villains like Black Talon) are so tall that you can easily find yourself standing up close to them and have no idea whether they're just gonna jab at you or are winding up for a big smash. When they start with their big attacks, the yellow explosion icon will appear there (other types of attacks use different icons, but the yellow explosion is the most common, and the only one Bugkeepers use), and that's your cue to hold down the Block key (Shift if you're using keyboard + mouse). This will greatly reduce the damage you take and give you some Endurance to finish them off with. Also, be aware that one of the Bugkeeper's special attacks has an Entangle component. If you get wrapped up, you need to break out before they get a chance to wind up with their big haymaker punch or you'll end up going down.

 

Between Beta and all of my many currently-played characters, I've gone through the tutorial probably well over 30 times, so it's kinda routine for me now. I'm at work now, and have a game tonight, but if you're still having trouble tomorrow, feel free to look me up Friday evening (or during the day on Saturday, we're on opposite coasts so that might be more feasible). I'd be happy to roll up another alternate character and run through the tutorial with you.

 

PS: It's pretty well-acknowledged that all of the melee sets are underperforming. Personally, I like my Dual Blades character, but my first character started out with Munitions and the ranged sets really are better in a lot of ways. Cryptic is supposedly working on a big revamp of the melee powers for this summer. It might be worth your while to switch to an energy projector or an archer or something just so you can familiarize yourself with the game, and come back to the swordsman once you know the ropes.

[sobran]

Re: Mentor Wanted

 

I agree with everything that Haerandir said. I have two things to add:

 

1) The melee revamp should be out very shortly. It is currently up on the Test Server and is being gone over by playtesters with a fine toothed comb. I'm hearing mostly positive things so far, though some of the Martial Arts users are up in arms about the loss of Momentum (a mechanic that allowed a Martial Artist to attack nearly non-stop if they used the right combos). It is going to take a few versions to get the bugs worked out, but the Melee revamp should hit Live within a couple of weeks I would imagine.

 

2) You can change how your Energy Builder functions in the Options menu. This was a must for me, as it confused me to all hell. If you go into Options and then into Controls (not Keybinds), the very last option at the bottom will let you change it. I set mine to Maintain. With this setting, holding down the 1 key will continuously fire the Energy Builder, but it will stop as soon as you release the 1 key. This works well for the Xbox Controller, but the default setting may work better with the keyboard. I haven't used the keyboard much, so I'm not sure. This is worth noting though, because you can change a LOT of settings in there, such as how Tab Targeting behaves (target nearest enemy or target the enemy closest to the center of the screen?)