Frostfire and other ramblings

Wow, they've really buffed Frostfire. I used to be able to handle him solo with no problem. This time, the battle started out pretty well. About half-way through the battle, tho, he dropped my recharge rate to zilch. Once that happened, it was over, even if it still took a minute or so to play out.

I've run three versions of Incendiary Lass through the first 8 levels now. The version on Champion has, by far, done the best with salvage. Halfway through level 9, she has 44 pieces of salvage, including two reds and five yellows and one recipe!

My two main Incendiary Lass builds are pretty similar with one key difference. Each build includes TI, DP, Scorch, Unyielding, and Swift. The Virtue incarnation has Combustion and the Champion incarnation has Resist Physical Damage.

I'm trying to decide if there's been any noticable survivability difference with RPD in these early levels. For the most part, performance has been pretty similar, although without the Veteran attacks, the RPD build would be mind-numbingly slow. As it is, that may be the biggest difference: the Virtue Incendiary Lass has more damage output with Combustion. Most of the big threats have been heavy non-S/L damage foes, so I have not noticed a major difference with the inclusion of RPD.

Incendiary Lass (Champion): Level 7

Early in level 7, I took the Negotiator mission from Paula Dempsey. This is the 60-minute timed mission to deal with the Clockwork and Skulls fighting in a warehouse. During the course of the mission, I used Rest enough times I actually needed to wait for it to recharge at one point so I could use it again. All in all, the mission took me twenty minutes.

This mission is a good opportunity to show Inv against significant low-level non-S/L damage. A yellow Cannon Knight (even-level) can take me down about a third health and the same amount of Endurance. An orange Cannon Knight (+1 level) along with one +1 minion is a serious threat. Even swallowing a couple of inspirations, these battles typically end in my being in the red for health.

Compare this to the Hollows missions I started up afterwards. At level 7, it was fairly easy to take out enough large groups of -1 Outcasts and Trolls to satisfy the early street-sweeping requirements. Once in the first First Outcast Base mission, fighting +1 lieutenants could still be tough, but it wasn't as life-threatening, depending on how readily the lieutenants were to melee. A good trick for low level Inv Tankers against Outcast lieutenants is to keep them at range as long as possible. While at range, they'll use their sub machine guns, allowing Temp Invuln to do its work for you. Once in melee range, some types, like Chillers and Blocks, tend to change to close attacks, while Matches and Volts will continue to attack with their guns for a while.

It was in the Outcast Base missions I also noticed status effects were starting to appear with regularity. While I had been held once or twice by a boss already, I was now seeing lietenants and even minions catch me with knockdown.

I hit level 8 at the end of the Second Outcast Base mission in the first Hollows arc and made my way on to Flux's Rescue the Policemen mission. This was this character's first exposure to fleeing foes. Interestingly enough, it was mostly +1 minions who fled from me. Two +1 minions guarding a policeman fled after I attacked the first one. At least two other +1 minions fled from me in that mission. Not a single even-level minion fled from me. I was starting to think this effect was coded into minions starting at level 9, until I finally saw a level 8 minion flee from me in Flux's Defuse the Bombs mission.

Tanker Tuesday

Incendiary Lass (well, one of her many incarnations) joined Tanker Tuesday this week. It was a lot of fun, although it took some getting used to being on a team of all tankers. Especially since I was a bit low level and was far from the top of the aggro list!

Lass did manage to snap a few photos.

Here's one of everybody gathered on the wall in King's Row near the IP entrance at the beginning of Tanker Tuesday:

and here's one of my team:



I know I'm going to forget somebody, but thanks to Commander Frost, Lady Chill, Cinder, Pown, and 8th Wonder for a fun evening!