Koopak

I haven't cleared the khalisti arcs yet so cant make significant assessments yet, but i will say that this and some of the history plaques are very jarring compared to the rest of the homecoming writing iv experienced. While CoH has always had its stinkers, I think overall the standard of writing the retail team did was at worst serviceable, and while id say a lot of homecoming's writing is better than that and rivals some of the better retail stories, some of it has been a disappointment like this. What bugs me is these disappointments seem to focus around contentious political topics and that frustrates me more, as such topics I feel call for a more deft hand, as misfires hit harder.

Biggest worry i have with this is how hard it is to focus the discussion on the actual issue which is the quality and style of writing, not the political topics raised. Real easy to get lost in the debate, but thats not the problem the problem is this doesn't feel like City of Heroes, not that its to left or right, or upside down 6th dimensional.

Sorry to necro, haven't been active on the site for a bit due to IRL drama. If this is or has changed could someone let me know? I'll need to update records on that sheet accordingly.

So first blush testing against some awakened PPD. Overall changes are, expectedly, minor. The set was in a good spot to begin so glad to not see drastic changes. main notes: Psychokinetic Barrier: The new Maxhp buff doesn't stack so its minor, about the same as a single target Memento Mori or two large +maxhp set bonuses, little less than an unbreakable guard. Defonitly helps, doesn't hurt, no huge changes in performance on a kitted build. Momento Mori: Sad to see the dynamic recharge go, its pushing me to be much more reserved with when to use it, often preferring to just save it for death since i cant rely on it being up when i need it as much. This may change some if the first target gives more value or something but the risk of using it on anything other than an opener or a still big batch of mobs is to high and makes it arguably terrible in a main boss fight scenario. an aside: Here and a few other places iv seen questions about why some powers get small smatterings of damage that aren't enough to care about much. I feel there's some insight to be gleaned form another common complaint about this and sets like Regeneration, 'clicky' sets. Powers that do SOME damage, ANY damage, inherently mitigate the DPS loss from using them. Even tiny amounts of damage are significantly preferential to 1-1.6 seconds of down time on a rotation. Additionally having damage in the power justifies it accepting damage IO sets, allowing more build options as we seek set bonuses and procs. I'd be amazed if both of these aren't considerations somewhere in the development pipeline.

It holds up about as well as other armors on straight SOs. You aren't gonna be casually smashing +4x8 solo (+3 to the player with incarnates) with an SO only build, and that actually alleviates the slotting challenges of Aura of Insanity. The reason Aura in particular needs such aggressive mez slotting is because of purple patch, once you drop enemy levels down to +2 to the player or less, the required slotting gets pretty easy to do with just a few SOs, you could accomplish most of what you need with it with 1 SO for each mez type and 1 accuracy SO. Below +2 to the player you can just going without enhancements in AoI I only highlight AoI because the rest of the set is pretty normal, and performs, as I said, largely on par with any other armor set provided you are using AoI as well.

Did some testing in an ITF on scrapper. Set definitely struggles, ironically not because of resistance of defense, but because of mez protection. Phalanx Fighting gives mag 3 protection and Shout of command 10. So even layering Support Core, Carion Radial, and Vangaurd Medal isn't able to punch through. If people are mainly testing on ITF thats probably why Aura of Insanity is being see as terrible by some players. Personally i think the Cimeroran mobs being so over tuned vs mez is just an enemy group problem. They can literally tell Controllers and some Dominators to go reroll. edit: at time of writing, the fear portion of Aura of Insanity appears to have incorrect mez strength. I suspect its that the wrong portion is tagged to allow enhancemnts

Worth keeping in mind that the +max hp between Stalker and Scrapper is the same relativistic value. The same is true for Parasitic Aura absorb just due to how they are valued, so any prefrence of one over the other SPECIFIC to an AT is placebo. (Not to say that isn't a valid point, one can argue stalkers feel like they need bigger buffs due to a lower starting point.)

On the topic of theme ill just share my 2 cents like i did during closed. There are already several armor sets that make sense for a pure defense psionic armor. Super Reflexes and Energy Aura being the prime examples, with both being quiet vague in their descriptions, thus able to comfortably fit the usual arguments for why this set needs to be defense. More importantly none of what Psionic Armor does is abnormal for City of Heroes psionics. Sure in other settings psionics are limited to mind reading a precog or at most deflecting attacks, but in the setting of City of Heroes, psionics often do a lot more. A casual perusal of enemy psychics and their capabilities should be more than enough to justify the approaches taken here. Which is all to say, that while a defense based version of this set is thematic, the resistance/regneration based version we have is equally thematic within the setting and helps to fill a gap that only Dark Armor realistically approached before it, and focusing on the unique elements of City of Heroes psychics. On a practical side, the likely hood of a complete top to bottom rework this late in the set's development is pretty unlikely, especially given the set has some very positive feedback.

Alright finally sorted the damn hook issue that was causing my drivers to crash when recording. Here's some footage of what the current build is capable of. Yes i used Ageless Radial but only because carni -tohit is annoying and i didn't wanna respect into focused accuracy. You'll notice I don't even use my beloved Recovery Serum and do manage a little end crash along the way I think. I'll see about doing some mobs in an ITF just to explore how rough -def, is, as that may encourage a different approach to my build. Some other notes not to let slide, while you'll only get one, maybe two bosses held depending on what Alpha you run and RNG on which mob counts are 'first' you have secondary options to temporarily push this even further. Control Hybrid doesn't work well because of how it behaves, but Support Hybrid gives a little bump, Clarion Radial is massive, as is Vanguard Medal/Megalomaniac Accolade. Granted none of that is perma, but thats some massive control for periods of time. Clarion or the Accolades basically just say "mez everything for 1 minute"

I mean sure it is a little and i think the set could do with a note in the description to clarify. I mainly dislike that the enhancement effects readout in the enhancement menu is unable to tell the difference, but that's a spaghetti code limitation. In the end its just gonna be a quirk people have to learn. The alternative is just not bothering with a power like this at all since there is no way to make this kind of power have meaningful value and not be busted OP when the magnitude is unchanging.

If i recall correctly, the same flag that makes a mez's duration ignore purple patch also makes the mez's magnitude now be effected by purple patch and by extension enhancements. That means either you make the mez not be effected by enhancements at all, and have a static mez that is reduced by purple patch, or you make it enhancable. Otherwise its duration is effected by purple patch and you don't get the clean switch over between mezes every 4 seconds. Edit: This is how Cloak of Fear works as well.

I'll be handling it today barring more issues, but in the interest of more eyes on things. You need both accuracy and general mez slotted into the power, its not auto hit, and you really aught to have a T3 alpha for the level shift. But that's all true for most sets. Even if you go musc core, you should be look are around mag 3.4 or so mez, which should stay over mag 3 for at least the first 2 probably first 3 targets, letting it effect bosses. I'd probably go Intuition Radial though for a dps AT, and Vigor Radial for a tank. D-Sync Binding is the easiest way to get your all mez slotting combined with accuracy, so I take 3 of them, and pump them to 53, the remaining 3 potential slots you can get creative with. Damage is a solid option due to the dot applied if the mez fails, in fact slotting the power as a pure damage aura is completely valid if you wont be holding aggro anyways. Damage procs and procs that roll and apply to enemies don't do well since its your usual aura toggle, but subsequently self buff procs do as they check per target, hence me calling outn Entomb and Call of the Sandman earlier. You can leave it 3 slotted with Bindings or go 4-5 slow and franken slot for mez and itll still perform very very well without the procs to be clear. I know some people like taking my explanations out of context.

Ran into tech issues so cant provide footage tonight but ill just highlight, if you enhance the power for what it does rather than what you want it to do, and take a complimenting Alpha it very reliably keeps +4 enemies in check.

I'll follow up when I can but if anyone hasn't, please try slotting general +mez into Aura of Insanity. D-Sync Binding is the optimal way, but there are alternatives, 3x 53s then use the other 3 slots for damage or procs, Sandman and Entomb especially. I also recommend trying the set with a controller or dominator friend.

This has been brought up a few times and really should be clarified. Its fine to call it a "critical strike" potentially if we also clarify that (due to the lack of the requesit tags) it is unaffected by crit boosting effects