MTeague

Londo: "I have no choice!" Lady Morella: "There is always choice. We say that there is no choice only to comfort ourselves with a decision we have already made."

I guess my first reaction is "shield defense without a shield? isn't that Super Reflexes and just not being hit?" But, fair point with Diana using the bracers. "Deflection / Blocking" as opposed to just not even being there when the enemy strikes. I dunno though. If I want Broadsword attacks with an invisible Broadsword, are you gonna get behind that too? Not just an energy blade, but a blade that ISNT THERE?

Yellow Salvage has definitely gone up. Once upon a time, a bid of 1,250 would buy yellow salvage within minutes if not instantly. Last night, I bid 25,009 on many pieces of yellow salvage and 3 hours later, not a single one was purchased. (I haven't had a chance to log in a check if any purchased overnight, I'm skimming the forums while waiting on code translations while working from hime.)\ That said, both things are well below the seeded cost, so we're still talking player-to-player transactions. Could be some farmers decided too many people were lowballing the hell out of yellow salvage and they just delete it to make room for more rare salvage. Could be just a big spike in people playing converter roulette and now lots more are trying to buy the exact same supply that's been coming in most nights, so we get into bidding wars with each other.

Snare translates to me because of many many years spent in EverQuest. But yea. It should be slow. Stun / Disorient has a similar issue.

I would not be opposed to this. I guess I was more reacting to the original post on a level of "how many OTHER animations that have been in the game since 2004 will be questioned?". And I can't lie, I'm still somewhat reacting to it on that level, still kneejerk wanting to look at it as a user issue vs a developer issue. But power customization options are always to the good. So letting people choose alternate animations, sure. And I know I've seen requested many times the ability to have graphics of OTHER players powers be suppressed as an option. Not limiting what anyone else sees, just limiting what your PC chooses to render vs not on your screen. I'd prefer that kind of approach to this, to be honest. It would still meet the same goal of the OP not having to see it.

I'm still having some trouble grokking that this is a big deal, but i mean.... come on... even I know it's impractical to be 100% in motion 100% of the time you're logged in.

Well, consider every week, a LOT of people will be running the weekly, one group after another after another. So if it's level-locked by Strike Force, that is pretty much going to resutl in a chain of invasions for those zones, not unlike the Lady Gray TF / Rikti Invasions. (side note: Lady Gray should not count, it's co-op, not strictly villainous, and includes it's own invasions already). But if it's Silver Mantis Week, you can bet which zone(s) would be particularly hammered that week. That wouldn't be griefing per se by a group of players actively selecting a particular zone, but, how different would it really be from the viewpoint of a disinterested Blue Player. If anything I think letting players choose opens up the possibilty they might spread it out across different zones.

Still. Okay. I can see that I might prefer an animation which didn't look like I'm jolting my allies with electricity to leave them writhing in pain. I mean, *most* of the time, I like my allies. Mostly. 😉 However. Electrical Blast powers still do this to enemies. And to YOU, when used against you by a Lead Shocker, or other foe. Does this cause concern? Fire Blast lights your enemies ON FIRE. And light YOU on fire when Circle Demons attack. Does this cause concern? Broad Sword, Katana, Ninja Blade, Battle Axe, and the like show the target (friend or foe) assaulted with giant weapons in animations that should be fatal. Does this cause concern? Earth Control leaves people encased in stone unable to twitch in any manner. Does this cause any concern? Mind Control violates the targets very thoughts, causing them to betray and harm their allies unwillingly. Does this cause concern? I just think.... especially given that the jolting animation of the target of an electrical blast has been in the game since day 1 of Live, it's not that big of a deal. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps I simply cannot make the mental leap why the same animantion is fine if it comes at you via a Stunner Chief, or a Malta Operative tazing you, but the very same jolting animation is not fine if it comes at you from an ally buffing you. But I can't.

I admit DFB has zero appeal to me, so I'm probably part of the problem there, an Excelsior redside player who would rather do low level arcs to level than DFB. But a general mission team, I'm there.

you mean weren't immediately hit by feellings of worry and concern to make sure that Blue Spectrum would be okay? /sarc seriously if I could just SHUT UP the voice acting in galaxy city tutorial it would be 80% less annoying.

Well, I'd be fine with Strike Force Leader's name being announced. I mean, as a side benefit, that might be more people step up to the plate and lead a TF, too. At least give them that little nudge that, it's okay, it's just a Virgil Tarikoss Strike Force, it's really not that bad to lead.... 🙂

I admit, I would love to see a Hellion invasion of Founders Falls. If the Hellions could you know, actually win, and not die in 2.5 milliseconds. A Crey invasion could be interesting, too. Crey is one of those groups you just love to hate. Allllllmost as good as 5th Column in that regard.

I'm continually perplexed by how many people don't enjoy redside at all. But in the end, I don't really *need* to understand it. Not their cup of tea, okay. Nothing I can really do to change that. Bribing people to play redside is either not going to work (not big enough bribe) or will be resented / percieved as unfair (too big a bribe). I will say the many things that I enjoy about redside, and why I think people should give it more of a try than maybe they have in the past. Far more interesting architecture. less glass-and-steel, more twisty-turney neighborhoods, tunnels where you might not expect them, etc. Different and equally amusing billboards around town. NO "Filler" missions. That's right folks. Everything's a story arc. No "the Security Chief in Perez Park asked for you by name". or random "kill 50 carnies in peregrine island" yes, it starts out City of Lackeys, but it doesn't STAY that way. As you level, the tone of the missions changes more and your character is treated with much more respect in the dialogue. Mayhem missions. ZOMG so much fun. Really lets you /flex and feel your villain come into their own. You are just Big Mean Stompy and all shall fall before you. Tip missions. Much better villain / rogue flavoring. but people are gonna try it, or they won't. I don't think it merits developer action. This isn't something where loot drops are at stake or the whole game is designed around an equal number of red vs blue. And heck, what about GOLDSIDE?

Am I the only one who read this thread title and immediately thought "aaaaaaaaaaaah, Mr. Morden!"

If you mean a primary tree where virtually every attack is ranged damage, I have to say hard no. Otherwise, reconcile it with the Sentinel. If you're even better at doing ranged damage from even further away AND have the stalker secondary powesets to use? No.

Same with Doc Graves on the Redside counterpoint. About half my characters run it each go round. But I really don't see it as a good tutorial series. Case in point, a efw missions you're up against a few bosses in a row, or multiple bosses at once. If you know what you're doing and you have a strong set or a bunch of inspirations that you saved just for it, you can probably overpower it. But if you're a low-level dominator? fighitng multiple bosses in a row? can't kill fast enough to maintain domination for all of them, and there's no trash between them to build up Domination between them... it can be nasty. Or on Twinshot, the final confrontation mission, I wouldn't want to try that on certain AT / Powerset combo's, let's say. I wiped completely on my Controller (Mind/Kin), but good news was I'd run far enough away before they killed me that I could safely use an Awaken... and then I just chain-confused Riptide and had him maul down the others.... and then could take down Riptide solo by keeping him Confused as I gradually nibbled him to death with Mezmerize and Dominate. I do like the mission arcs, but I do not consider them good ideas for actual new folks.

I rarely buy rare salvage anyway. Every few weeks I'll shazam out 60 rare salvage from Brain Storm Ideas, along with those that dropped and got stuffed in my SG base. And I'm only crafting the rare recipes that drop, I never buy a rare recipe.... I'm all about the Attuned enhancements anyway. I do sometimes buy Purples recipes and craft them, but not that often. I've only got two lvl 50 characters right now, after most of a year of playing. But I enjoy levelling slow and levelling up many characters a few levels at a time instead of rushing any one of them to 50. (yes, OCD man, for every hero I make, I have a villian to mirror them, and I have a whole headcanon of "okay, in the inevitable confrontation, this is how it'll all play out, who beats who by teaming up with who....")

I solo'd that flashback just last night on my Mind/Kin. I got only 1-3 DE when the crystals got low. What were your notoriety settings at?

I've had an idea like this for an AE Story Mission, I've been loosely planning to name "The Good of the Many..." Where there is simply not going to be a "and everyone lives happily every after" possibility. However...um.... yea, I don't really know how to use AE and it's more of an "I should do this someday" than sitting down and really figuring it out.

Anyone who's ever stepped on legos barefoot in the middle of the night can attest that they are a viable alternative to caltrops. Also, a d4 for all you past-and-maybe-present tabletop gamers out there. @Williwaw beat me to it on the dice.

1) Before the Invention System, there was no such thing as "Loot". With the Invention System, all loot is handed directly from the game to each individual player's inventory. There are no "loot rolls", no instances where the players themselves need to decide "who gets what" with 1-99 rolls, no loot council, no need-before-greed, nothing. And there are not specific places you have to go to get certain pieces of loot. It's not "oh, you want Kinetic Combat Acc/DAm? it only drops from this one boss at the end of the third mission on this taskforce and it's only a 20% chance to drop at all, and if one drops, you're competing against 18+ other people who also want it." In CoH, anything can drop anywhere. Only real exception is purple recipes and they can drop from any 47+ content. One of the biggest sources of drama / epeen conflicts in any MMO has been who "Deserves" what loot. City of Heroes bypasses all of that. It's highly improbable you'll even NOTICE what drops your teammates get, and if you covet a piece of it, too bad, it's assigned, ain't nothing you can do. 2) "Guilds" are not needed. This goes right up there with #1, as one of the biggest sources of drama in guilds is the perception (be it accurate or not) of favoritism when it comes to loot drops, or in choices of what instances the guild would focus on for progression. Super Groups exist, sure. They can be fun, sure. But because nobody absolutely NEEDS a constant pre-set group of 25 raiders to do any endgame content with, week after week, month after month, year after year, you don't have the same seeds of resentment forming over time like you might in WoW guidls or EverQuest guilds. 3) There is no Holy Trinity. Meaning no disrespect to anyone's religious beliefs lol. Here I'm talking about Tank/Healer/DPS concepts. Sure, archtypes exist. But you're not funnelled into pre-set configs of "This Raid requires 2 tanks, 6 healers, and 17 DPS, and at least 8 DPS better be Ranged DPS". You can slap together ANY combination and get damn near ANY content done in this game. The ONLY possible exception is some Incarnate Trials, and I'm not 100% sure of even those, really. 8 Controllers? Sure, go to town on ANY TF. Lockdown City, and you'll all be buffed out the wazoo from the each other's secondary support trees, and there's gonna be so much containment damage going around it ain't funny. 8 Blasters? Some of you may take a dirt-nap at some point on the TF, but the Kills to Faceplant ratio will be verrrrrry high. And if it's a high level TF, probably no one will even die if people are rocking enough set bonuses and making a passing effort to watch each others backs. 8 Defenders? Try it sometime. No, seriously. Put together an All-Defender-Task-Force sometime. Lulz as the "low DPS" class, banded together with force multipliers, steamroll over absolutely everything. 8 Tankers? Sure. It might be a bit of a slog as damage output isn't the best but ain't no one gonna die except the enemy. Nobody NEEDS anybody. This keeps people from feeling chains of obligation or "I have to put up with Bob's crap because he's our main tank / best DPS / best heals" and if he de-guilds we won't make it through the instances and then I'll never get those shiny pieces of loot I want. Instead, people can focus on what's FUN. A good character concept. A stylin' costume. A good backstory. Finding people you like teaming with. Rolling in and overpowering the enemy Biff Bam POW style.

I admit, part of me wants the Haley Starshine battlecry for my stalker. https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0396.html

Converters In a Nutshell: can be bought for merits at a rate of 3 converters per merit. can only buy 3 for 1 merit, or 30 for 10 merits. no higher quantities available. though you can just click "Buy" more times. if you have piles of influence, often worth buying converters from influence instead of merits. Your milage may vary. Converters only work on Enhancements, NOT on Recipes. Craft, THEN convert. There are several types of Conversions. NOTE: If you are converting a levelled (Non-Attuned) IO, the result will be an IO of the same level. This means if you're converting a level 15 IO, it can never ever ever ever become a Luck of the Gambler, because LotG has a minimum level of 25. Know the high / low ranges of your sets. If you have no patience to DO the converting and selling of converted results, you can always post the Converters for sale directly. Someone will always buy them. Conversion Types: IN SET CONVERSIONS: what it says. the thing you convert will become a different IO in the same set. Costs 3 Converters per In Set Conversion, the most expensive mode. But if you get a Luck of the Gambler Endurance/Recharge, you can use this mode until you get the shiny +7.5% Global Recharge that you really want. Same with Steadfast Protection Resistance/Endurance to shazam it into the Res/+3% Defense piece. OUT-OF-SET CONVERSIONS: also what it says. the thing you convert will become an IO from a completely different set. Exact cost here can vary. Once you choose the "Out of Set Conversions" radio button, there is a dropdown next to it that gives the sub-type of conversion. Some methods you can choose, some are locked in. OUT-OF-SET (BY RARITY): The result will be an IO of any set of the same rarity. Rares stay Rares, Uncommons stay Uncommons. But HIbernation (Uncommon Sleep) could become Steadfast Protection (Uncommon Resistance), and Ghost Widow's Embrace (Rare Hold) could become Kinetic Combat (Rare Melee). These cost 1 converter per roll. OUT-OF-SET (BY TYPE): the result will be an IO of the same TYPE, but not necessarily the same rarity. Defense will stay Defense, but Serendipity (End/Res) could become Reactive Defenses Scaling Damage Resistance. Immobilize will remain Immobilize but Enfeebled Operations (uncommon) could become Trap of the Hunter (rare). This costs 2 converters per roll. to the best of my knowledge it is impossible to turn a yellow or an orange into a purple by this conversion type. to the best of my knowledge it is impossible to turn a non-pvp into a pvp by this conversion type. to the best of my knowledge it is impossible to turn a non-ATO into an ATO by this type. to the best of my knowledge it is impossible to turn a non-Winter-O into a Winter-O by this type. PVP: can convert any PvP IO into another PvP IO. MUST start with a PvP IO. But Gladiator's Net could become Panacea, or Javelin Volley could become Gladiator's Armor, etc. ATO: can convert any ATO into another ATO. MUST start with an ATO. Call of the Mastermind could become Critical Strikes. Will of the Dominator could become Kheldian's Grace. Winter: can convert atny Winter-O inst another Winter-O. MUST start with a Winter-O. But Avalanche could become Entomb, etc. Purple: can convert a Purple to a Purple. I believe only "classic" purples count for this. Not "Superior" versions of ATO's, etc. But Fortunata Hypnosis can become Ragnarok or Hecatomb, etc. Most commonly, I buy lots of uncommon recipes, craft them, convert by Type into rare, then convert by rarity to valuable rares, then post the rares for sale. I spend a fair amount of up-front influence for this... I have to get the recipes, get the salvage, pay the crafting cost, buy the converters, etc.... but I typically earn far more than I spend when all is said and done. Just keep in mind it's not instant money. You may post your converted results and maybe they'll sell instantly, or maybe they'll take 4 days to sell. Depends how much you price to move and how much you say "there's not many for sale, SOMEONE will pay large for this...". I find this works best if you bounce around on lots of alts. If I post things for sale on my scrapper, but then spend the next three days on different alts, it's fire-and-forget sales and I just collect the proceeds next time I log the character that posted them.

I'm also levelling a Human-Dwarf Peacebringer. I get that Nova is strong. Really. I do. I do not dispute the numbers or efficaciousness. But I **hate** the look of it, and will not use it. This is a self-imposed limitation, and does restrict my options somewhat, esp at lower levels. (Currently lvl 12). I also do missions that are at *least* +1/x1 with bosses and possibilty of EB's, no exceptions. And I don't use Nemesis Staff or Blackwand, unless my characters backstory can reasonably make them make sense. Which, neither one does for my PB. (yes, apparently I like making things unnecessarily difficult for myself. It would seem something in the back of my head believes that whole "it builds character" crud) Quants do suck. And one of Sunstorm's missions had no less than EIGHT of the fool things in it. How I've managed it so far. Never charge blindly into a group when soloing. Stop, tab through every mob. If you don't have excellent line of sight, try to get another angle. Even if it means leaving a door as-is and exploring he the rest of the map and only coming back when you have exhausted everything else that you DO have good sight on. Keep your shields up. Be prepared to run. Evaluate terrain. Very often, I LOS pull. tag the Quantum with my fastest animating distannce attack and go around a corner, through a door, at least behind a pillar. Keep him targetted. When he gets close, unload. Inner Light / Radiant Strike is likely to put him on his butt. Charge forward and use everything else you have until he's dead. Nothign wrong with popping reds if you have them to spare. Depending, if the Quantum is next to a pillar, you may be able to charge him keeping the pillar between him and you. Then open up with Radiant Strike. I wouldn't use Incandescent Strike as an opener, because of the animation time. Radiant Strike is quick, drops him on his butt. THEN hit him with Incandescent. The PB is my least favorite character to level because of this. Even my Earth / Poison Controller finishes solo missions faster. But I tell myself this should be a passing thing, and once I have better slotting and Dwarf I won't have to be so paranoid soloing on him. That may be simply a comforting lie. But it's what I tell myself.

Obscure 1987 movie, John Ritter, Jim Belushi. "Real Men"