As much as I hate what THG (Tom's Hardware Guide) has become (it's absolute trash; I can't even think about it long enough to come up with an adequate metaphor because my brain starts to hurt), they gave a fairly solid, albeit scathing, review of Hellgate: London.

As much as I had high hopes for this game, my patience and my common sense forced me on to greener pastures. For now, this game has been shelved to be re-examined further down the road, when it's had more time to mature. I'm thinking... June? July maybe? We shall see. In any case, the gist of the review is this:

- Epic potential for the story. $0.05 comic-book quality to the delivery.
- Bland settings, gameplay, progression make for a boring game, while the "random" elements that should be its savoir serve virtually no benefit.
- Complete lack of product maturity, especially in the Single Player client.
- Great vision, poor sight. Game has great potential, but falters heavily on delivery.
- Cannot recommend game in its current state, despite some enjoyment being possible.

I don't know if anyone actually cares about reviews, especially if you're still actively playing it, but I thought it summed up the game nicely. It certainly echoed my feelings a great deal (although I can't comment on SP, having never tried it). As much as I want to love the game (deja vu for GW, much?), there is just too little to tie me to it right now, especially with so many other great games out there to enjoy. I hope those who are still actively playing continue to get enjoyment. Myself, I'm going to give the game another solid look in about 6 months, I wager. I think it will take AT LEAST that long for the game to begin to mature, and even then I'm not convinced it will be all that it has been touted to be.

Having eventually figured out what I liked and what works, I've been slowly (due to time played, not difficulty) advancing my (like, 8th iteration) MM through NM difficulty (I've tried Elite Norm and found it a lot more *tedious* than hard, but I abandoned it early and reserve the right to change my mind at a later date).

Anyway, I was really enjoying NM, and found it a lot more fun (and substantially easier, *most* of the time) than Norm. I was just playing through doing all quests and each zone once. Then I hit Monument Station, and all the mobs were about 10 clvls over my head. And then I got Flagshipped .

I can still handle the mobs, if I watch myself, but I'm getting almost no exp due to some oddball game mechanic where (according to what people on the forum are reporting) you are penalized by killing things over your clvl. WTF?

So now I'm doomed to either grinding for exp in zones where the mlvl is roughly equal to my clvl, or, well, abandoning this character. I was trying to push her through to finishing NM (if possible, I know about the act 5 mlvls) before the 1.0 patch killed the minigame (which I find more fun the the regular game, frankly), but it is not to be.

The biggest problem is that, well, mobs at my clvl are no fun. I just shred most of them. I can run the entire zone pretty quickly and use no health. The fun area for this character is when the mobs are 5-10 lvls over her--but then I get almost no exp, and the situation soon veers out of control as the mobs grow up but I don't.

Grrr.

Why do they penalize you for being able to kill things *above* your clvl? This is a fact, right, and not just a rumor? It seems to hold up for me in-game.

Grrr.

Anyway, just to add to the RBD group experience pool, a little about my current MM SlipShod who is about a clvl 37 in NM Monument Station. I went a bit against the conventional wisdom with her (CW=push stamina as a stat to equip +AA equip to cover up for the fact you are pushing all stamina, and use Rapid Fire and Multi Shot). SlipSHod pushed a lot of accuracy early, then concentrated on armor. She only uses Tact Stance, Beacon, the obligatory 1 pt in Escape, and the passive procs Ricochet and Reflect and Deadeye. The weapon of choice is the arclight auto rifle, with 600 rpm, 100% shield penetration through gear and as much +ignite as can be achieved. Crit chance is about 25% with crits going for about 300% damage. Damage mitigation from all the armor is somewhere near the max in the mid-60% range, but the health is only about 500, and the shields are crappy. At least through NM Monument Station, this actually works

A key, of course, is not actually getting hit (*and* learning to dodge those gutgore sweet-gum-balls 'o stun)...

--Cy

Following these steps will equalize the sound levels in Ventrillo for everybody in the channel



It works for me on another server when there are sometimes as many as 15 people in the channel.

Respec Myths and Facts

It's a double edged sword but all things considering
I voted "yes, respec for all" on the other poll ;p

KoP

If you would like to participate in this Epic, please (preferably) [email="MSoracoe@hotmail.com"]email Sulla[/email] or send him a private message. DO NOT reply here with your choice of civ!

We're starting on a Wednesday, because Sullla will need to be back in the country before he can mail out saves.

Grimborn of the AB has written a detailed summary of the main story line quests for HG:L.

Hey Guys!

Im Hiru, from Archons Ascendant.

As an event to celebrate our new allies, alliance and all this new stuff, I have decided to get an event where we will be sending different parties, with mixed people from all guilds and get them to farm the Fissure of Woe.

When?: Saturday January 19th.
What Time?: 8PM EST.

What Build?

8-man=

Obsidian Tank -- (Arcane Dark C.)
Nuker ---(Hiru)
Nuker
Barrage Ranger--(Jolenar)
BR Necro
SS Necro
Healer-- (Obsidian)
Bonder

6-Man

Obsidian Tank
Nuker
Nuker
BR Necro
Healer
Bonder

5-Man

Obsidian Tank
Nuker-(Hiru)
Br Necro
Healer
Bonder

Please post here and let me know what you wanna run. I've done all 3 builds in Normal and Hardmode, so we could do either.


Hiru

Check out this site for the answers

So, we've been having a nice bit of success in TA lately, and given our ability to gather 4 but not 8, we should start a regular TA team. I'd like to meet on more than a weekly basis though, but daily might be pushing it, especially with some people starting new school semesters. So, what's good? Three days a week or so?

We've got a pretty decent build going that can be adapted to suit the meta as needed, so I think the only thing keeping us from a 200 win streak is our comfort with and ability to work with each other, which will get better the more we play.

Anyways, I just thought I'd throw the idea out there while it was still fresh in the mind and while we still had a bit of momentum going.

Well I actually have tuesday nights free this semester, so I'm volunteering to get us started. (Assuming this time still works for others... please reply if interested but it's not.)

So, then the question is what to run. There's a ton of ideas (mostly from wyrm, a few from me) on the forum already.

We could re-re-revive Nudists again. See how many originals we can get back, though I suspect at least one will not be able to come and we'll need a replacement. If only for "closure" we could work up to Ascension and then take a break from it, which would be about a month I estimate.

A revised/simplified "BAR" variant would fit well with the northern climes of EotN. Could be a fun way to work on maxing Eye of the North mastery track.

We could also run "Variety night" for a while- each week, pick an EotN dungeon or Elite mission, pick a simple variant that seems approrpiate, and go for it. Wyrm's got a ton of KISS ones on the forum, or my "Monster Madness" idea of copying monster skill bars lends itself to quick plug-n-play teams. If people really like one of the variants we try, we could then settle on that one for a future team.

So lets hear your thoughts and vote of interest, variant scum.