Mr. Twister Tank
Daily Ramble 51: Mr. Twister Tank
Mr. Twister turns out to be the big bad in Titans Hunt andas far as I’m aware, he’s a new character to me. I’ve not seen him nor many of these DC characters before but that’s a good thing. I want to learn more about the DC Universe and this is exactly the type of stuff I enjoy reading. As for enjoyment though, I am not having fun dealing with crappy tanks in Albion. Tanks are making things a lot less enjoyable in that game right now. Perhaps I’ll slow down my play time to the weekends to see how things go then. In any case, I had some good tanks and some bad ones recently and I at least think I should be able to heal them all.
Quality of Tanks
I’m becoming concerned with the quality of tanks in Albion lately. This morning I ran into a couple interesting situations that highlight my concerns.
First off was a run of the Three Sisters that was pretty much a straight forward fight for me. The only issue was that I was assigned to the expedition when the group had already gone through the entire dungeon. It was a quick kill and an easy way to make silver but for some reason, the previous healer was unable to keep the party alive and was kicked. I had no issue and I think the 872 tank in the group was good at keeping aggro and had no problem directing the bad guys and we took them down pretty easily.
The second expedition I ran today started from the beginning but we didn’t get all the way through. This time we were running the Eternal Battle and had a well armed tank with a 1059 item rank. He seemed to be pretty good and was from one of the larger or at least well known guilds in the game and I thought we’d have an easy time of it. The rest of the party was well equipped as well with the lowest item level of 926. Things proceeded well for the first half of the dungeon but then the tank decided to start running through hordes of skeletons – I didn’t count but there must have been at least 20 – and expected us all to keep up. I ran through and giving the tank the benefit of the doubt, I think he misclicked some of his taunts or something but as I ran through the gauntlet, I started pulling aggro and ended up with about 6 skeletons smacking me down. The rest of the group took out the baddies but I was knocked out and had to recover. The next battle was more tanks rushing through the bad guys but this time we survived…but then the tank kept going. Heedless of the low mana levels of the rest of the party this tank ran through 4 battles in a row without stopping – I couldn’t keep up, running outta mana, energy potion cool downs, and every option I had – we wiped this time.
I got up, ran back to where we died and popped another Goose Omelette waiting. And the tank did it again. No warning, but as soon as one battle was over he ran to the next and the next and we wiped again. I finally left the expedition. He wasn’t listening to the group, I couldn’t keep up with his pace, and I was tired of dying.
The final tank I got today again ran us through the Three Sisters. This time he hardly made the requirements for the dungeon with only a 756 item level. But this guy knew his limitations. He held back from over pulling and he focused on keeping aggro and mobs off everyone else. It was actually one of the easiest dungeon runs I’ve had as a healer.
So what’s up with the tanks in this game? I’m getting the feeling that as the population gets smaller people are becoming less patient to learn the dungeons or to care that party members are in low in mana or whatever. Or maybe I’m in the wrong…I’ll have to run a few games as a DPS again to see if perhaps other healers can all handle these types of tanks. Maybe it’s just my play style that’s unable to keep up with these new tanks.
I’m not sure but I’m getting annoyed by it. Maybe I’ll learn to tank so I can avoid these players.
Fleshing out Titans Hunt
A lot of this story arc is focused on the fact that the Teen Titans have purposely forgotten that they’re a team. They’ve even wiped their memories of being superheroes to prevent the bid bad in this series from causing some cataclysm.
In chapter 6 of Titans Hunt we learn that all the happenings that are effecting the various characters are being caused by a guy called Mr Twister who is some kind of demon. This baddie apparently faced off with the Titans before and the only way they could win was to forget everything. He’s back now and trying to restore everyone’s memories so he can use them to come back to our world from another plane of existence.
Just as Mr Twitser is trying to draw the Titans back together we’re starting to see the 4 different plot lines starting to come together and I think next issue may see everyone together and they’re starting to work more as a team in this issue. Dick Grayson, Donna, and Garth are finally working as a team and the others are starting to piece together the details of their associations with the help of Lilith who was the actual cause of the amnesia. She implemented the forgetting plan that put them in their current situation and as we start to find out more, a new group shows up to cause trouble – Diablo.
I’m finding these issues of Titans Hunt enjoyable but not quite as illuminating as some of the Superman or Justice League issues I’ve recently read mainly because I’m not as familiar with these characters. This is the first time I’ve heard of Mr Twister, the Diablo team and many of the Titans so I’m not really sure about their powers or personalities. I think this makes some of the reveals in this issue a bit less impactful to me but I’m still anticipating the next issue in any case. I want to see where this is leading and since it’s the last story arc before I start Rebirth I figure these events are tied into the changes that are coming soon.