[Curious about your point of view, which would be the most "pacifist" archetypes and powerset combinations?]

I mean, you have your Kwai Chang Caine pacifist, from the old 1970's "Kung Fu" TV show.  He would fight of course, but it was never his first choice. 

And then you have your Robert Jordan / Wheel of Time / Tinkers, adherents to the "Way of the Leaf" who would run if they could, but if escape was impossible, would allow themselves and their entire families to be slaughtered rather than pick up a weapon or even swing a fist. 

 

One is vastly more practical in this game (and in real life) than the other. 

 

That said, you do you. Not realllly worth arguing too much back and forth what's a "true" pacifist.

[ITF is great, and possibly one of the best designs in MMO history]

I would vastly prefer the ITF if it was lvls 35-44.

But that's largely my own strong bias against Incarnates.

 

Leaving that rather large sticking point behind, there's a lot about the ITF to like.

I would see nothing wrong with the addition of enemies who used mez, however.

[Give all Tanker Primaries Knockback Resistance]

The only 'fix" I would want to see is better on-line documentation as you're choosing an armor set

 

"This powerset includes mtigation vs the following"

"This powerset has low-to-no mitigation vs"

[Give all Tanker Primaries Knockback Resistance]

8 hours ago, Mr Pierce said:

Is there a good reason for certain power sets to not get KB resist at this stage of the game? Dark, Fire, and Electric tanks can have a mag 20 KB protection and still get knocked on their butts against some of the harder AVs in the game. I understand some of the other ATs not getting the KB resistance for these power sets, but I don't see why that is true for any tank. There doesn't seem to be any trade-off for losing this resistance, so why not give it to them? Just a thought.

 

Every "armor" powerset was meant to have a weakness.

Every such powerset was meant to team up with a support class who could help mitigate that weakness. 

 

Now, in today's reality, quite a few people want to be 100% independant, "I can solo anything", and nothing is wrong with wanting that.

But the answer that exists today is "If your armor set doesn't include KB resistance, SLOT FOR IT with IO's".

I do not see this as a pressing need requiring changes.

[Curious about your point of view, which would be the most "pacifist" archetypes and powerset combinations?]

1 hour ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Super Heroes, as portrayed in the American four color comics, have always been about "beating up the bad guys."

 

This. With the caveat that you can also be a bad guy, and beat up the good guys. 

 

As has been said, Mind Control refrains from most direct acts of violence. But can you really say it's a pacifistic act to reach into someone's mind and warp their will until they try their very best to murder their friends? A case can be made that that's a mental violation far worse than just slugging them in the jaw. 

 

If you truly want to avoid taking any damaging action and being completely pacifistic, I do not think this is the game you want.

 

The whole idea of superheroes is you have enemies who will not just talk it over. Who can't be bargained with, or reasoned with. And who absolutely will not stop, EVER, until it is settled by superior force.

[MSR is stupid, and possibly one of the dumbest designs in MMORPG history]

The thing I don't like about MSR is I can have absolutely NO IDEA of most of the mechanics, and still be part of a successful team. 

Like, I can be entirely unware that there are such things as bombs, anywhere on the ship. Not even know where they are, how and when I'm supposed to interact with them, etc. 

As long as I scrapperlock damage out in the pit, roll some leadership toggles, then .... I did .... good(?)

 

It feels like more understanding of the objectives should be required. 

But I did do WoW progressions raids for.... too many years.... so that likely skews my expectations.

[Its hard to talk about Vigilence.]

6 hours ago, kelika2 said:

At first, I did not want to do this but then I remembered how many of my old characters from live were remade from Scrappers to Brutes/stalkers when Homecoming hit

Then I remembered how many of my old trollers are now Doms

Then I remembered how many of my old x into y

So I remade my kin/sonic into a sonic/kin, emp/water into water/emp, thermal/fire into fire/thermal, etc and so on.

 

Blaster is the last remaining hero AT worth a fuck.

 

 

What this says to me, is you are very focused on killspeed, and your ability to directly contribute to that by big damage numbers. 

And hey, that's cool.  Control powers don't need to be appreciated by everyone. Defensive buffs and team-reinforcement is not everyone's cup of tea. 

 

I do think Defenders are simply not an AT that you personally will be happy with. 

That does not, by itself, mean that the entire AT is due a rework.  It just means you will be happier rolling a Corruptor.

[Support characters in CoX Homecoming?]

It depends what you mean by "are they impactful?".

 

For the vast majority of content, Nobody is necessary to a team. Not the controller, not the defender, not the tank, not even the blaster. 

And nobody should be necessary to a team. 

 

Now, are many players focused on kill speed? Yes. Do some contribute more directly to that in more observable ways? Yes.

 

There are entire sections of content (lvl 45+ Radio Missions, a few task forces) where I generally don't join on my controller, because i don't want to feel like a 5th wheel, or be like "woo, I helped!!" by casting a few immobilizes right before everything got nuked.  But there's also quite a bit of content where it can be verrrry handy to have a controller on the team. Particularly in the Wards and any other Going-Rogue-And-Later content. 

[Proposed Changes for Mind Control]

9 minutes ago, FrauleinMental said:

I have to use my primary for damage.  My secondary doesn't do damage.

 

There's power pools too.  Boxing/Kick/Crosspunch, all three taken together, can be quite nice on a controller, when you have Containment going. 

Arcane Bolt is also a fairly solid option. 

 

Would those make flavor-sense for your character? Maybe, maybe not. 

 

There is also the damage Proc option.  Holds that do damage (like Dominate) can take a LOT of procs.  Now, I'd be leery to add too many, because I wouldn't want to savage my hold duration too badly in the name of slotting damage procs. But they're an option to sprinkle into various powers.  A non-damaging secondary like Poison can benefit quite a bit from procs. Others like Empathy or FF, not so much. 

[My ears!!]

I suspect "Why the game is so loud" may often come down to individual hardware that people have on the machines. 

Generally I'm running at 25% volume, and it's not bad.

 

Whatever the cause though, there are cleary issues for a number of players. 

I think more controls being provided for players to tweak how sounds work / don't work on their own personal devices, is all to the good. 

No one should have "a god-given-right-to-commit-ear-rape" on other players. 

But I also don't want sounds that a player truly enjoys to be yanked away from him. 

 

Options. That's all we need. You hear what you want, I'll hear what I want. We can both think the other guy is a nut (And hey, we might both be right). But we don't need a back-and-forth about who's a jerk and who is being unreasonable because of what they like. We just need to identify the kinds of control options we'd need to let players do it their way.

[Why do people say Poison needs help?]

40 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

 

I think that advice is wrong. I find both holds and the cone slow handy. The heal, antimez, and rez are the more situational, but fine at what they do.

Antidote can be interesting purely for slotting purposes. It comes with +RES (Toxic), and because of that, takes Resistance IO sets.

You can use it to slot your +3% defense uniques, if for other reasons you chose not to take Tough.

 

And hey, I've never hated it when a teammate breaks me out of mez. I'm sometimes shocked to my toenails 😄, but it's nice when it happens.

[Its hard to talk about Vigilence.]

Solo, I don't think I'd change anything. The flat 30% boost is quite nice. Not required to get the job done, but nice. 

 

Teaming.... Vigilance to me says your're watchful over your teammates, ready to act.

 

• If Global Recharge wasn't as stupidly OP as it already is with IO's, I'd consider that. 
• If the buffs weren't already so strong, I'd consider something like having the defender BE a low-grade Leadership toggle. Maybe +1.5% defense all, +3% res all to all teammates within range.  Small yea, but mass defenders together and it could grow large.  Except, a cluster of defenders are already crazy good. 
• I guess I'd probably go with some +Perception Range. Something that's nice, make stealthed enemies a bit less annoying, and still mindful of the theme of being watchful.

[Rebuild Galaxy City]

In terms of lore, I'd like to see them finish reconstructing Boomtown, or at LEAST have Boomtown advance to something like present-day Faultline. 

 

Original Faultline was just a complete wasteland of destruction.

Now, the northern end has been rebuilt, and there's donut shops, apartment complexes, parking garages, offices, etc.

The middle area is still being rebuilt. Some areas more than others, but signs of progress.

 

I'd really like to see Boomtown get more of that. I mean, sure the devatation was pretty bad, but they've had Decades now. 

 

That said, I get that a Boomtown revamp is quite a project. 

 

By contrast Galaxy City, is already *there* in the Echo zone. It could, in theory, be plopped back into regular existence at any time. Some minor work to re-establish the connecting highways / open the War Doors, etc. It would probably be vastly simpler to put Galaxy City back in, and maybe transplant a few contacts / trainers here and there.  And there's a great deal more nostalgia for it, I would guess, among most players vs Boomtown. So from a practicality / reward for effort, maybe Galaxy City wins.

[Its hard to talk about Vigilence.]

4 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

I was thinking again about Vigilance, and didn't want to post a new suggestion about it when this one is only a few months old...

 

But, what if we got Vigilance wrong from the start. What if Vigilance caused defenders to have a chance to roll a critical heal, buff, or debuff similar to how a scrapper gets critical damage? Defenders are so vigilant to their cause that whether through sheer will, luck, desperation, or divine/diabolical intervention occasionally their buffs, debuffs, heals, etc. will proc an extra 20% modifier to boost that effect being used.

 

The scaling bonus damage based on team size can stay, but this would give defenders a little extra flourish to help them cement their place as the best buffer/debuffer in the game.

 

Is 20% too much, too little, just right, or am I being completely outlandish with this idea?

 

I respectfully dislike / disagree with this plan, too

My rationale: 

1. Defenders are already factually the best buffers/debuffers in the game. Flourish is not required to make this so. 
2. Their buffs/debuffs are already Crazy Strong. Letting them proc a 20% even stronger buff / debuff would make them even more overpowering vs Corruptors.
3. You'd also have to figure out when that extra 20% buff/debuff/heal kicks in for things like Toggles.  Dispersion Bubble?  Snow Storm?  Radiation Infection?
4. I have trouble getting past your use of the phrase "scaling bonus damage based on team size".  Defender damage levels in teams, is in fact, intentional. Vigilance as it eixsts now, gave them a flat 30% damage boost to help them solo. Damage is not nerfed when you join a team. It is boosted when you solo. I never saw any opinions from the Devs saying that defenders needed the ability to contribute more damage while teamed. Nor do I personally feel this is true. (And yes, I have several defenders). 
5. Is Vigilance the most amazing Inherent? No. Not by long shots. I rarely even notice when endurance discounts happen. Honestly the "meh" factor is right up there with Opportunity. But part of that is I don't think the devs felt that Defenders particularly needed anything more. 

All of that said, you have every right to argue for your desired changes, and who knows? Maybe the HC devs will agree with you and not the naysayers. 

[Adaptation: An Idea for the Sentinel Inherent]

I actually prefer clicky status protection, because it can STACK. Toggle on a status protection and that's your status protection, for the duration the toggle is on. Click protection and if it comes back fast enough you can have double the status protection for a significant period of time. Can be very nice against a massed group of mobs that like to use Holds / Sleeps / etc.

 

Is there a slight DPS loss because of Practiced Brawler firing? Yea, maybe. Have I ever noticed or cared? Nope.

But, your mileage may vary. 

 

To the original idea.  Debuffing them to only your primary method of attack... makes Sentinels less team-friendly. Right now everyone who shoots it benefits from the -RES a Sent applies. Now if you want to do a large debuff to a damage type ON TOP OF what teams already benefit from, sure. Still. I do like the idea of not having it married to the T1 or T2 power, I do like the idea of triggering it when is tactically best for me. 

[Why do people say Poison needs help?]

When City of Villains first launched, I tried a Ninja/Poison mastermind. 

 

This experiment ended.... badly. The character got deleted around lvl 15. It was just too painful. This was before IO's even existed (pretty sure, anyway, if not it was before I could afford to think about them much), and at that time, Poison was truly single-target only.  Lowbie ninjas had no noteworthy defense and no good way to buff it, and groups kept expecting my pets to tank purple mobs (spoiler: they couldn't) while all the corruptors who focused on their primary and had no support skills to speak of tried to act like blasters. 

 

At that point, I was willing to say Poison needed help. 

 

Today, with IO's, with the splash-area on poison effects, and with the ability to STACK the primary target / splash target effects, I'm quite content with Poison as-is. My Earth/Poison controller does quite well for herself.  Is it a roving-murderball-friendly set?  Yes and no.  It won't help tons on trash fights.  But when you're up to the AV, you kittenize it completely. Can other players TELL that? Not necessarily. Do I care? No.  It's enough that I know I kittenized it and that's why it died so fast and whiffed vs everyone it attacked. 

 

Also, Rad Emission your debuffs are tied to the anchor mob.... and if things move away, you have to decide whether to de-anchor/re-anchor.  For Poison, they were debuffed at the moment of the impact / splash, and they STAY debuffed for it's duration, no matter who moves where. I think that makes up the difference plenty well. 

[Why do people say Poison needs help?]

Just now, Marshal_General said:

I've had sone venomous gas I have tried to stealth.

what, look over at the golden retriever, and say "Bad Dog!" 😄

[Combo Mechanics Thread]

I vehemently dislike Combo systems, and have NEVER created a Dual Blades character for that reason. 

 

In particular, my objections are: 

• sets become balanced around assumed use of the Combos
• That would mean I would have to take every power involved in a Combo to be most effective. Maybe I don't LIKE every power, or completely loathe the animations on a few of them.  "Just don't take the powers" is fine, so long as balance of the set doesn't assume use of the combos. But we both know it will. 
• I prefer making my own combos by experimenting for myself what powers can synergize with what, not having the game invent an arbitrary synergy because I mashed button X and then Y and then Z. 

I would not want a combo system proliferated willy nilly across powersets. 

Granted, I do not have veto power here. It may happen regardless. 

But I would loathe it greatly.

 

[Rebuild Galaxy City]

20 minutes ago, Rudra said:

....

I'm not against booting Longbow out of the Isles, but since Longbow is supposed to be the active deterrent force of Freedom Corps and the Rogue Isles are still technically US territory or unclaimed territory adjacent to the US in the eyes of the world nations in the game from my understanding, it kind of makes sense for them to engage in expeditionary actions against Arachnos. (Now, the missions in the Isles where the PPD invade? That makes no damn sense.) How they managed to take Mercy for you to have to give back to Arachnos or maintain such an open presence in Nerva though, I have no idea beyond plot armored mobs for the PCs to fight.

 

Rogue Isles are not US Territory.  The HCWiki has quite a bit of material from original City of Villains sources.

 

https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Rogue_Isles

 

Points of note:  (bolding is mine)

• The main cluster of the group, home to Spider City, is at the 50 mile marker, outside US. jurisdiction. From there the smaller islands string toward the US coast.
  • MTeague note:  Nerva is at the far northwest of the Rogue Isles and clearly outside any such official jurisdiction
• When Statesman appeared in Paragon City, many of the villains there decided they needed a new home. The Rogue Isles was an obvious choice. Many already had connections there and the little nation’s “friendly” attitude made it a perfect choice. President Oakes was no fool. He knew that if he resisted these newcomers with their gangs and occasional superpowers things would not turn out well. But at the same time, he had bargaining chips – citizenship, diplomatic immunity, and other protections from American justice. And he had friends in the high places of America who were happy with the Rogue Isles just as they were. Deals were struck – in exchange for “playing nice” and taxes, the government turned a blind eye – and the Rogue Isles became a haven for the super-powered and evil.

 

[Proposed Changes for Mind Control]

I do agree with some of the thread's general frustration that many of Mind Control's powers are less useful to mass roaming murderblast teams. 

But honestly?  ALL CONTROLLER POWERS are near-useless for mass roaming murderblast teams. 

If everything dies in 5 seconds or less, your immob's don't make you great for team play, either. Nor does your pet. 

Your proc-bomb stuns, maybe. 

 

There's a lot of things I would change about the game. and most would be hated. 

 

I do kind of question what the point even is for purple triangles anymore. All they seem to do now is make AV's even more annoying when soloing a controller, while not presenting any problems for blast-heavy teams anyway.

[Proposed Changes for Mind Control]

On 12/13/2021 at 7:47 PM, Mezmera said:

Mind Control has no pet.  Mind Control needs no pet.  

 

This needs to be said more often, in Boromir voice. 

[AR Ignite peak anyones interest?]

Ignite can still be decently useful on an AR / Martial blaster.  Bosses can get shoved into a corner with Ki Push, and Ignited. A couple kicks to knock them down some, maybe a 2nd Ki Push.  Admittedly, there's often better / safer ways to handle a boss for a blaster. But something about shoving them into a corner, setting them on fire, and keeping them there.

 

I do of course, have the Winter chance for immob proc in it, though.

[Rebuild Galaxy City]

I'm all for pushing Arachnos out of Galaxy City and Faultline and anywhere else, SO LONG AS, we also round up Longbow and kick their white-and-red suited butts out of Mercy and Nerva.  At LEAST move them to a base at the fringe of each zone, so anyone who wants to go hunting can still do so.  But it's long past time they got squashed like a BUG from having giant bases setup without being smacked silly. 

[Do you give unsolicited advice?]

Personally,, never.  If someone has things I consider sub-optimal, I assume it's for theme / character concept and it's entirely not my place to tell them that they're doing it wrong. (even if, maybe they are). 

 

That said, if they give me an opening ("Why am I so squishy!?", "Why am I running out of END so fast?", etc), I may chime in on a few suggestions.  I try not to overdue it though. I can be overly verbose on a good day, and no one wants to read six paragraphs of tells to a random perhaps-rhetorical question.

[What should we do with Psychic Blast?]

Never had a problem with Psi Blast. I mean, I try to pick up one or two non-Psi damaging powers along the way, whether Air Superioity or Boxing / Crosspunch, or whatever, for sake of dealing with Robots. Because though most things have low Psi resistance, the ones that do, have a LOT of Psi Resistance.  But the set has always had good range, a snipe, mix of single target and AE options, an Immob, even back when it was Defender-Only. 

 

The recharge debuffs are meaningless on trash that dies fast enough, but can stack nicely on some targets.