MTeague

Just a couple days ago, I was doing the Vanessa DeVore arc in First Ward, where you defend the cemetary against an incursion of Talons of Vengeance. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Vanessa_DeVore_(Contact)#Part_Three:_The_Darkest_Hour We were all lvl 29 (high as you can be without outlevelling the arc). I think a 6 man team, +2 with bosses. We had a Brute, Blaster, Corruptor, Dominator, Controller, MM. Might have been one other. It's a hot door. At least it was this time. We weren't expecting it. We wiped. So okay, we form back up, get psyched, pop a bunch of inspirations and hop in. We wipe. FAST. in under 2 seconds per person as we zone in. They just ganked the bejeesus out of us as we materialized. Even with 4 lucks, there were so MANY talons right there, and some of their bosses and lieut's have brutal debuffs. I decide okay, we need to reset this mission. Only, I can't. No one else has missions in the Ward, and it's a mixed Hero/Villain team. It wouldn't let me select a Sharkhead mission with heroes, or a Talos mission with Villains. That's when the MM says, "do you mind if I switch characters?". Sure, just send me a tell. He brings his Stone tank. Now, he was probably a 50 exemplared down. Probably kitted out the wazoo. But of course, even exemplared down to 29, as a TANKER, he still had access to Granite. Best goddam advertisment for Granite Tank that I ever saw, ladies and gentlemen. The rest of us zoned in and tried to get some damage off before we died. Barely any. Granite tank is just getting smacked around and taking it like a champ. Gradually trying to move them away from the door so the rest of us can zone in. Then once one set was lead away, he'd taunt another set over to him. I think the rest of us still died like 4-5 times EACH just breaking the door (so many more than 16 mobs at the door, was not mechanically possible for Granite to take them all). But the Granite tank? Just kept going. Never died once. I'm SURE my Inv tank could not possibly take a sustained beating like that. He was in awe once though. Either that mission, or the one after (stop sorceress serene), something managed to KD him. Though granite and all his IO bonuses, somehow enough Knock effects were piled on him all at once to successfully ragdoll him even so. I rolled a Stone tank after that group broke up lol.

Not sure why Ouro is a deterrent. If I feel like joining a team for, say, the Ghost Widow arc.... I really don't care if it's someone's chosen patron at 35+, or if they're doing it via Ouro flashback. Ouro would stop people from joining halfway through.... but if I'm joining for a patron arc, I probably *Want* to do the whole arc.

I never knew I wanted a travel power where my character is being repeatedly ragdolled for hellion golf distance in any direction I choose until I read this sentence.

I mean, I sort of do this now on a limited time basis on my blaster. P2W Jump Pack plus Speed of Sound. Zoom at full speed jump for height then kind of "tap" "tap" "tap" for the jumpjets as I move along. Does have the max duration of the Jumpjets though before they forcibly detoggle and go to cooldown. But I can make it over half the distance from the top of the Westerman building to Mercyview Graveyard in First Ward before it runs out!

For truly 100% brand new MM types..... it's always fun thinking what could be plausible for EVERY Origin. Elementals I suppose are every bit as fungible as the elemental control sets. "Gardener" MM's with plant based pets could be amusing. (Carrion Creepers instead of Gang War?) Snakes. Why did it have to be Snakes? Will Smith style Men In Black, if we could make them sufficiently distinguishable from Crey Agents.

Illusion Control / Phantom Armor / Mirror shows that custom pets CAN, in principle, be done. They'd have to decide how much they want to let you finesse it. Could you choose a different look for your first T1 pet than your second T1 pet? etc. They'd have to decide if they want "custom henchmen" to be a thing for all existing humanoid groups (Ninjas, Mercs, Thugs), and whether to include the non-humans (Beasts, Bots, Demons, Undead). They'd have to decide if the wailing and gnashing of teeth is worth it if any can't do it. "If they can have custom ninjas why can't I have custom wolves!", etc. The visual upgrades for pet buffs is a thing too. Maybe they just say, hey, if you want custom pets, you forsake that, it's on you to keep track of your buffs. I think that would be a more than fair trade. I'm hopeful they will decide to allow it. But it wouldn't surprise me if they decide it's too much time and aggravation. But if they DON'T want to do true custom pets, then I'd like a few different choices for each pet type. ex Thugs. Vanilla look. Or a more Family-style gangsters. Maybe a Syndicate look (only no swords, just guns). Mercs: Vanilla look. Or something higher tech like Sky Raiders-ish. Maybe even D.U.S.T.-like. Beasts: Vanilla look. Or Beastman look (humanoids, but with digitigrade legs, wolf head, big cat head, etc), or not sure what else. Necros: Vanilla look. Or something more like Banished Pantheon dead. Or something along the lines of Apparitions for a more disembodied spirit / soulbinder take. you get the idea. (note: I say "style" or "like" or "along the lines of" etc, because yea, I'm guessing they would not want them to look EXACTLY like any NPC's. Maybe I'm wrong? But that's my guess.)

You also need to be able to pass the mental hurdle of "but if I frankenproc, that's a power with IO's from four different sets! the set bonuses! won't someone think of the poor abandoned set bonuses!". That's the hurdle I'm still stuck on. I can proc out a couple powers per character (ie, Infrigidate on a /Cold), but I start to agonize over lost set bonuses if I go too wild.

The advantage for Scrapper to me? Nobody really expects me to tank. They all expect me to scrapperlock.

Most fun for me? Beast/Empath. Note that I say "Most Fun". I do NOT say "most effective." but concept wise, my Beast/Empath is a Crazy Pet Lady who treats her spirit animal guardians like housepets, and is all "AAAAAAAH YOU SHOT DAISY!" when mobs shoot at the T1 wolves. They're all named like normal housepets. I took Boxing and Kick and Crosspunch to get right in there and melee alongside the pets (also helping keep them in range of pet aura IO's and Supremacy, and making it each to catch them all in healing aura, and because the Fighting pool attacks are DIRT CHEAP compared to most MM attacks. I made the character 100% as a joke idea, but it proved to be very fun and the character grew on me.

I wouldnt' object to that. But keep in Mind, Fearstome Stare does zero damage. Terrify is a primary AE nuke for Mind. Get containment, Terrify. I would not want to lose that damage output. If I have to keep the damage OR get -ToHit, I'll keep the damage.

Math is super important! Without math Google Maps couldn't tell me where to go, and I couldn't order dinner online! We neeeed math!

Single Target Sleep is how Mind parks EB/AV's. Don't yank that away without giving Mind something else in it's place. Although I do agree, don't be messin' with Confusion. Loooooves me some Confusion.

Which is just begging for the "It's not how you say it, but it is how I say it." Although there's something to be said for the wisdom to pick your battles.

Clearly, Ms Liberty is NOT two places at once. One or both of them is a Nemesis Automaton.

I mean, Blaster Primaries are better at Ranged Damage than....pretty much anyone else. So in that sense, they're King of Ranged. But I agree, they're not JUST ranged. Quite a bit of their secondary trees are chock full of melee powers, and degrees of control (some soft control, some short-term hard control). And heck the primaries are worthy of discussion of debuffing or soft controls that some bring. Where you solo and say "Get Outta My Face!" with Power Thrust / Ki Push, or whether a tanker is holding aggro for your Fire Blapper as they Fire Sword Circle down a crowd of mobs, or whether the Controller is locking mobs down helpless for your Martial Kombat blaster to bamph in with Burst of Speed / Dragon Tail, they have solid melee options as well. Some players may 100% ignore those, but doesn't mean they're not there.

100% leaving AT behind, and focusing Strictly on Powersets, can we come up with something? sure. Storm Summoning: is chaotic ragdolly goodness. It offers a solid mix of debuffs, Knockbacks,, and damage output. When soloing, Hurricane almost entirely prevents death because it savages enemy to-hit so severely. is that a complete description? NO. O2 boost deserves mention as a low level protector against some status protection and against Energy Drain. No discussion of Storm is really complete without pros/cons of KB-to-KD and FF +Rchg procs. Steamy Mist deserves mention as a source of stealth / team stealth, Defense, and a slotting option for several very nice unique IO's. Kinetics: is the Team SuperSerum. At least at high levels. Fulcrum Shift spikes the damage output of the entire team in glorious ways, and Speed Boost, between the movement speed and the giant +Recharge and +Recovery, is always good to have around. is that a complete description? NO. No discussion of Kinetics is complete without discussion of how it tends to lure you into melee. Fulcrum, Siphon Speed, Siphon Power, Transfusion, Transference... all want you in melee. As much as many players hate KB, Repel is worthy of mention as a tool to potenitally play goalie with, running around sending enemies flying away from your squishies. Increase Density should always be mentioned as a source of Clear Mind, and equally, should be mentioned that while all friendlies nearby get the +Energy/Smashing resists, only hte DIRECT TARGET gets the Clear Mind effect. Where I'm going with this? At some point any such guide is either going to be incomplete by nature, OR, is going to have to start with a TLDR: Just Read The Damn Powers, and a link to the wiki.

I know Focus is a flat out better power. But I just don't like the idea of projecting out waves of force from claws. I skip both Focus and Shockwave (yes, yes, I'm Doing It Wrong(tm)....) and rely on Spin and Eviscerate for AE damage. Evisc also tends to join my single target attack chain because of enhanced crit chance.

I dunno. The title just doesn't work for me per se. It's not like games have "honor" that requires humans to "defend" it. It's a game we love, sure. we boggle in disbelief at the quoted opinion, sure. but I see "defending the honor" all too often wrapped up with "them's fightin' words" kind of outlooks. If someone is really raining scorn down on CoH, best thing is keep the Big Lebowski in mind. "Yea, well, that's just like, your opinion, man".

First, I decide HOW to live through incoming Psi attacks. Option #1: rely on positional defenses (ranged,melee,AoE). - some attacks have no position at all, but MOST things that lack positional tags are CC effects, not damage. - there are a FEW damaging Psi attacks that have no position at all but those are Extremely Rare. Option #2: If character is a Typed Defense character, you can *try* to build up Psi Defense - This is a lot harder than it sounds.. Very few set bonuses include dedicated Psi Defense at all. - https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Set_Bonus_Comparison_Tables - This probably isn't practical outside of Willpower or something that starts with a big chunk of Psi Defense. Psionic Defense Bonus Slots Set Name Levels CollapseSet Type 1.875% 3 Impervium Armor 15-40 Resist Damage 1.875% 6 Miracle 20-40 Healing 1.875% 6 Rope A Dope 20-50 Stuns 3.125% 6 Scirocco's Dervish 20-50 PBAoE Damage 3.75% 6 Devastation 30-50 Ranged Damage 5% 6 Apocalypse 50 Ranged Damage 5% 6 Soulbound Allegiance 50 Pet Damage Option #3: Stack lots of Psi Resistance - vastly more options to stack it - but typically does require an "all in" approach - five copies of Imperivium Armor +Psi Resist, the Aegis unique, 4 piece Gladiator's Armor, etc. - you may decide building up too much of it from set bonuses is simply not worth the hassle / opportunity cost of what you could have slotted instead. That said, for things like Leagues / iTrials / etc, you're generally not on your own. And if a few Support characters have your back, you may be getting healed up as fast as teh damage is coming in, or get some good buffs to save your hide / strong debuffs to make the Psi Attackers weaker/miss more, or your Friendly Neighborhood Controllers can lock them down while you paste them.

I mean, there's shades off gray going on here, too. Diablo III, sure they add some minor stuff each season, but the game is basically Done. Nothing reallllly fundamental is likely to change now. Or Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword, from Steam? It's essentially stagnant. Original Subnautica? Not likely to change much (though Subnautica:Below Zero, is still early release....) But like a brand new Bethesda game? Yea, no matter how badly I wanted to play Fallout 4 back when it first came out in 2015? I wait until May 2016 to buy it. Because like eveyrthing Bethesda releases, it was going to have a ton of game-breaking bugs / borked quests requiring console command fixes, and have lots of small bugs that they would NEVER willingly address. Only the Unofficial Patches made by the modding communities make Bethesda games worth playing. So it that's where @Outrider_01 is coming from on "don't waste money on unfinished games", I can see that. Sure, maybe it's more of a blanket statement, lacking in some nuance for exactly where he draws the line and says "This kind of stuff is okay, that kind of crap is just unfinished.". But I can get disgust with some gaming studios who consider the end-user to be their Alpha testers. At least for me, it boils down to: does it really feel like they're not even trying? CoH of course, passed that test with flying colors. NCSoft is still in the "Never Forgive" bucket, but that's for pulling the plug on it, not for their QC practices.

Etymology Man: https://xkcd.com/1010/ Yes, I dream of powersets like "Pedantic Assault, Pedantic Control, Pedantic Armor" being added to the game.

Two Words: Drain Psyche Although, I get /Psi is far from (and should not be) a universal choice for secondary. It really did help the levelling push, though. My Dom's probably do get sugar-daddied / spend time marketeering more than any other AT I play though. They're very powerful and until they can establish control over the battlefield, very fragile. So I try to rock the set bonuses and the unique IO's ASAP on Doms. Panacea, Power Transfer, Perf Shifter, Miracle, Steadfast/Glad Arm, ReactiveDef/Shield Wall, ATO's, Winter-O's, etc.

a) missing sucks b) set bonus / ranged defense was my main reason

That explains the difference in my experience then. I usually don't go completely nuts with Procs. My stormy has LS six-slotted with the full Thunderstrike set. I mean, intellectually, I know proc's are very powerful. I know I'm probably making some sub-optimal choices. But I can only ever Frankenproc like 1-2 powers per character. And even then I still hear the wailing of broken set bonuses haunting my dreams.

I took Thunderclap on my Storm/Sonic, largely because the animation and sound is just awesome lol. It does have lessened accuracy. I think only 0.8 default acc. But I tend to have lots of +acc from set bonuses, and a decent amount from the IO's slotted in the power itself. It tags things pretty reliably for me. Really though, on the Storm/Sonic, I can pair it with Screech to stun a boss for a decent long time. Usually not a major issue, Hurricane means they Whiff For Days anyway. Thunderclap is also sometimes handy to lock down a squad of minions. Some minions are more serious than others. /eye Sapper