[Ice/ice, ice/ice or ice/ice?]

I enjoy both my Ice Ice Tanker and my Ice Ice Blaster. 

I do have an Ice Controller, but I was using Cold on two other characters, so I made him Ice/Poison and named him Venomice (to be pronouced Venomous)

[Right Click > Challenge to Duel]

I'm never going to like PvP as a general rule.

 

Too many early scarring experiences with it in Diablo 2 Hardcore.  In that game, someone could declare hostility and attack you unexpectedly, and in hardcore mode for Diablo 2,  if your character died, even once, for any reason, even internet lag, they STAYED DEAD. Forever.  Permadeath. No getting back up.  Your Deeds of Valor will be Long Remembered on your gravestone, that's all.  D2 had a pack of folks who got their jollies running around being Player-Killers and TRYING to murder the characters you'd invested so much effort in.  You very rapidly learned to ONLY play password-protected games, ONLY with people you knew well, and it was a round table discussion among the group if we wanted to admit someone new / hand out the passwords we used.  That left a lifetimes worth of "F That" in my reaction to any PvP.

 

That said.  A consensual duel?  Both parties choosing to accept duel invites, both parties choosing to accept the fight? Sure. Go nuts. I don't care if you duke it out in the Arena, or under the Atlas Statue, or in a Hazard Zone, or the Top of the Talos Hill, or some wierd remote nook in Eden. I

 

But it probably DOES make sense to restrict it to "Not within X many yards of a Trainer or other NPC Contact".  Gotta let folks who are entirely uninterested level up, adjust costumes, get their next missions, etc. 

[Right Click > Challenge to Duel]

22 hours ago, Menelruin said:

Because everyone knows, Superheroes are mature and logical and always get along, and NEVER suddenly lose patience and start duking it out with eachother in the middle of a city......

Super espectially ones name Stark or Rogers.

[New chat channel: Self or Silent or Whisper]

I mean is this just while you're  trying to debug something?  Or would you want this going Alllll the darn time, months on end, long after you got your binds and macros the way you want them?  

[Merits: How to drum up redside activity]

29 minutes ago, Apparition said:

That is currently what Thunderspy is proposing as their solution towards the huge player base disparity between sides on all CoH servers, but IMO that is both misguided and unnecessary.  What I suggested would work.  I mean, there will always be those blue side die hards, but the red side population would still undoubtedly substantially increase.

Perhaps. The cure might be worse than than the poison though. 

[Reskin options for the Fighting pool]

6 hours ago, Menelruin said:

I forget what type of damage TW does, but it has both blunt and sharp skins for weapons.

Fair point. I've never used TW (even before the nerf), so I tend to forget it.  But, precedent for not caring so much about exact weapon type.

[Reskin options for the Fighting pool]

3 hours ago, Menelruin said:

Just a thought, I know that some folks (including myself) dream of a "paladin" type melee-support.  Would it be possible to reskin the Fighting pool powers so that instead of punches and kicks, you're whacking someone with a sword?

A sword would traditionally be Lethal damage, somewhat in conflict with the actuality of the powers doing Smashing damage.

If a weapon look were to be added, it should probably be a Hammer or Mace to go with the Smashing.

They'd also want to keep the rest of the numbers... animation time, etc, pretty darn close to that of the vanilla attacks, but there may be some that are in the right range.

[Staff mastery stances?]

Levelling in early to mid 20's I used Form of the Soul almost exclusively to handle Endurance issues. In Form of the Soul, I could do an attack chain FOR DAYYYYYSS. Never ever stop, just Naginata-Storm-Of-Doom. Any other form, I'd find I'd need to pause and kneel after every fight.  Even WITH Quick Recovery (though QR was default slot only and had Power Transfer proc)

 

Once I hit the early 30's and got enough slots to start getting decent Endurance Reduction / More Recovery, then I started foolish around with Mind and Body.  Haveven't been super impressed with Mind. +Recharge never SUCKS of course, but I almost never need to pause in my attacks at all anyway.  Form of the Body can be nice for some +Resist (since I'm Staff / WP, any +Resist is more layered types of sustain for me). The -Res in Eye of the Storm, doesn't suck? But I didn't really feel that I lacked for kill speed to begin with. 

[Empathy: A New Vision for a Classic Powerset]

44 minutes ago, Razor Cure said:

If I see an emp with more than a few attacks, I assume they are a shitty emp (they might be ok at blasting, but honestly, how hard is that?). MY own experience has shown..this to be correct in almost all cases. Of course, that is MY definition of a 'good emp.' But anyway..the powerset could use some love.

 

Level matters.

• If you're doing a Posi 1 and the Empath doesn't even have Fortitude? They're a Bad Emp. As in "Bad Emp! Baaaaad Emp! No treat for you!" <spray water in face>
• If they're in their mid-20's and they have the important available powers and a mix of attacks, I'm far happier with that than an Empath who takes ALL the attacks or ALL the Empathy powers. 
• Late 30's and beyond, I expect them to be able to toss around a mix of attacks along with their empathy powers
• And while I don't see them often, I expect any MM Empath to be able to compentently control their pets between buffing and any personal attacks they may have. I don't care if they have precision control over every pet, but know when to be in bodyguard mode, know when to be "'sic 'em, boys!!!", and know when and how to quickly banish them if they're about to draw extra aggro by chasing a runner. 

Absorb Pain I do not personally take or use, because generally I can do the job right fine without it, and it's rarely worth it to me to have the personal debuff it applies. 

Ressurect is touch and go. I often take it because I figure the team will expect me to have it.  But I always sort of begrudge it the power selection. 

 

Blasts, I tend to look for decent secondary effects worth stacking. 

Dark Blast is *quite* nice to make them miss more, kind of back-door-even-more-defense for whoever you Fort'd.

Psi Blast, is a classicly thematic pairing, but -Recharge is harder to feel an observable difference, etc.

[What do you think changing P2W Field Agent to]

Ideally, I would change the P2W and T4V vendors to Sir (Or Madam) Not Appearing In This Game. 

But this is highly unlikely to occur. 

 

 

[Tanker- Super Reflexes/Martial Arts - interesting ability to add some pool powers]

It's always fun to experiment with Pool powers you don't usually use, so for that alone, I approve. 

 

Darn near every power in Super Reflexes is pure gold, though.  Elude is really the most skippable of them, and i still like having Elude.  (in case a sapper gets lucky and drains me... the +Recovery on Elude is Quite nice, and it basically softcaps you EVEN IF you get detoggled. Elude makes for a great "NOPE!" button.). But, lots of people DO skip Elude, and most do just fine. 

 

For sustain, I'd (of course) toss a Panacea proc into health, and then look for 1-3 other powers where I could toss a Power Transfer Chance to Heal Self proc.  That should be plenty good maintenence heals for a character who's almost never going to get hit at all. 

 

 

 

 

 

[And old memory made me chuckle...]

4 hours ago, Glacier Peak said:

I remember when I picked up Hover to fly over the Hollows.

Tradition demanded that you not pick up hover until after 8 or so wipes to the Pumice / Igneous trying to get back to the mission though. Often chain-reaction wipes of two or three groups each trying to get back and running headfirst into the other guys trainwreck. 🙂

 

[Thugs/Illusion]

18 hours ago, RageusQuitus2 said:

Im thinking like a mini deck.  Lots of disposable pets.

Are we talking a Goblin Deck or a Squirrel Deck here?

I gotta know if I should load up with Protection from Red or Protection from Green.

 

[Merits: How to drum up redside activity]

9 hours ago, Naraka said:

 Just making missions heroside failable if you indiscriminately toss around AoEs when trying to rescue hostages would help but I guarantee there would be pushback.

Personally, I would love this, though you are correct, there would be much wailing and gnashing of teeth that it kills "playability", and "nerfs fun".

 

But, in the spirit of Balance, some Villain missions would also need to be failable if you toss mass amounts of AoE damage and destroy the computers instead of download the files, kill your kidnappee instead of preserve them, or blow up the Prototype Widget that you're trying to steal.

[Multiple paths to Accolade Badge Powers]

I am sort of hoping plaques get their own Tour Guide Mission Tips.  I mean, sure, I could download a map mod, etc, but I generally don't.  I do stop to read them when I notice them, but I woudln't be surprised if i commonly breeze past several without even realizing it.

 

(though to be fair, that's a choice I make, too....perfectly good solutions out there I dont' make use of)

[Help me like Dominators]

While levelling, Dominators can feel weak, particularly in difficult missions when you're not Perma Dom yet, and you're trying to save Domination for a boss fight, but die before you get there, and now your domination bar is back to empty, and you might not have enough trash left to build it back up before the boss. 

 

I definitely experiencd that a few times in Praetoria, 1-20.  Missions with several waves of laser guided ambushes can be rough when you have very limited amounts of self-maintence (Panacea proc), and when you're afflicted by pride hubris causing you to crank the difficulty slider up a bit higher than you probably should at low levels.

 

But once you get to mid-20's, early 30's, that's when Dom's really start to shine. At least, in my experience. 

[Psi/Empathy Corruptor]

Many kinds of mobs, do not resist Psi, so vs many things, you will do good damage. 

Those that DO resist Psi though, often resist it REALLY hard.

So I would recommend either sprinkling misc damage Procs for other damage types where you can, OR, figuring out other damage dealing powers you can squeeze in on the side. 

 

Later on, you should find healing far less needed.  I mean, no one ever says "Oh darn, this Empath has my back, I HATE it when that happens...."  But your buffs will largely remove the need to focus healing so much.  Always use Fortitude and Adrenalin Boost on cooldown. I don't care on who. If Regeneration Aura is up, you just covered all Maintenance heals the team might need. Beyond that, blast away. Go nuts.  You'll NEVER have endurance issues once you get Recovery Aura, since you're always in range of it. So spend the end on blasts like it's going out of style. 

 

Recharge Debuffs are a subtle effect. You will reduce incoming damage by a fair amount, by increasing the delay between enemy attacks. But it's hard to FEEL that as viserally as Dark Blast stacking massive -ToHit and watching enemies just whiff.  I think you'll be fine. It should morph into something like you're looking for as time goes by. Keeping a couple buffs rolling isn't hard once you create a bind for them.

 

[Rewards from Bank mishes]

3 hours ago, cranebump said:

Yup. Claymore. Although how I'm wielding it with one hand, I dunno. 

Clearly, you're just that badass. 😀

 

[We need No FX options everywhere.]

5 hours ago, Mahaf said:

I'm shamelessly bumping this because I just respecced my Brute and thought "Oh, Energy Cloak provides a pretty nice boost to my Def vs. all," then realized I would never be able to see my character again.☹️

Actually as long as you're IN COMBAT, you'll see your Brute just fine. 

Energy Cloak does suppress the visual cloaking effect while you punch things and a few seconds thereafter.

So one OPTION is, do use it!.... once you're in a fight.  And keep hopping from fight to fight to fight!  Never stop punching!

 

But I admit, on my energy/energy brute I did argue with myself if I should just skip it and take Leadership instead.

[Multiple paths to Accolade Badge Powers]

To be fair, it's very possible to simply skip these accolades. I've only got half of them on my main. 

"Having" to do them on your alts, again and again and again, is a choice.

 

That said, I don't object to the idea of alternate methods to acquire the badges.

[Question for Hot Feat...]

not that often I'm surrounded by mobs while airborne. oh it can happen sure, Sky Raiders, GoldBrickers, etc.

But most of the time I'm airborn I'm zipping from place to place not fighting.

[Is Empathy Dead?]

Also a general rule of thumb is any set that people talk about as being a "Bad Set" can still perform just fine and 95% of your PUG groups won't care or even notice.

 

Many will tell you Electric Blast is a "Bad" blast set. You can still wreck face with it. Maybe it takes you 25% longer to clear a map. Anyone care? I don't.

An empath is good solid team reinforcement that protects me if I decide to do dumb things in the name of fun. 

And maybe I don't need the buffs for Peregrine Radios, but they're mighty nice to have on hand during Night Ward / Number Six arcs.

[Merits: How to drum up redside activity]

1 hour ago, JJDrakken said:

 

I and others of the like minded, despise AE 🙂  Concept was great in theory, the execution was terrible(As in letting xp/rewards from anything in it). Should of stuck to their guns and kept that stuff for Dev selected content from the player base.

 

I will never enjoy AE farming, and I will never do an AE farm.

I see no challenge and no point in fighting mobs perfectly custom tailored to be weak to my strengths.

 

That said, it's a valid part of the game.  And has been.  Both during LIVE and here on HC, the devs are very well aware of it's capacties and have obviously not decided to remove the ability to create such missions. If has such a tacit stamp of developer approval, then I'm not going to rag on it any more than my first two sentences. I try to see it like "Okay, I loathe mushrooms on pizza, and see no idea why you'd want to ruin a pizza by putting fungus on it"...... but probably more than half the forums would say the same to me about the awesome wonderfulness that is Hawaiian Pizza.  Different tastes for all.

 

My only real regret with AE is that Homecoming did not and probably could not keep the vast library of Story-Focused Missions that AE had had in LIVE. 

• The Moonbase Laser villian mission where you ransomed Paragon for One Meeeeeelion Influence was just fantastic.
• There was a rogue-to-hero themed AE mission I loved too, "Tangled Vines" where you had to get everybody's favorite WSPDR reporter out of the isles to the safety of Paragon City. 
• And a very Matrix-y / TRON-y story arc I remmeber from Live where there was an NPC who had been a hero and had been.... trapped within the AE system.... and forces within wanted to try to get out to the "real" Paragon City.  

So many other really good ones I remember thoroughly enjoying that...  we couldn't get a copy of. 

Those are the breaks. But AE in principle CAN be used for great storytelling as well as mass farming.

[Merits: How to drum up redside activity]

36 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

One of the Civilization games had a similar bug.  Each NPC leader had a hostility rating.  Gandhi's was the lowest possible at 1.  If you had a Democratic government, all other leaders were slightly less hostile, with 2 being subtracted from their reaction rating.  This rolled Gandhi over to 255 and made him more hostile/violent than Genghis Khan.

Ah yes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Gandhi

 

[Merits: How to drum up redside activity]

26 minutes ago, ZemX said:

The problem, as stated, is that more people choose blueside than redside.  It's not a solution to simply say, "Well then, more people should choose to play redside! That would fix it!"

I do not recognize this as being a problem. 

 

Look, I prefer redside over blueside. Heck, I prefer goldside over redside, but that's a separate animal.  But other players are under absolutely no obligation to like what I like. The devs are under absolutely no obligation to try to make everyone like all content equally, or to play in a nice distributed manner across factions.

 

Yes, humans often make what I consider sub-optimal choices for reasons that I think are bad reasons.  That doesn't mean I get to redo their choices for them to what they "should have" chosen.  And it doesn't mean that a referee needs to put their thumb on the scales in a lopsided enough fashion until players change their minds. The devs may choose to do so, of course. But I don't recognize it as a problem, or a need. If redside isn't as populated as you might prefer, lure some fresh meat new blood over. Or mentally start treating it as a more exclusive area for those willing to make the leap.