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capricorpse

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Everything posted by capricorpse

  1. Time's FX being sort of vague also means they can be re-tuned to many different concepts. The easiest one would be a mage or wizard, and use either a new color scheme or several color schemes to tweak the FX and match your primary. They could be reworked to look more like smoke and flames, or cold mist, etc. Gravity/Time is a great combo. Recently I teamed with a Mind/Time controller who locked absolutely everything down. It was pretty impressive, I'm considering rolling one of them myself.
  2. i agree that auto-shutoff toggles are bad. but please, please, please, do not just turn telekinesis into a clone of the basic AoE immobilize. i never understand why people want all of the powersets to be exactly the same?? telekinesis definitely needed the attention, not sure this fix is exactly the answer, but it's such a cool core of a power. it rewards careful use by the player so some shred of its original design needs to stay in place! however i definitely like this direction, because it narrows the margin for unskilled use dramatically hindering the team, and also sets up containment which has been an issue for Mind. I liked the idea someone else had above for a hold on the main target, and immobilize/reverse repel on the remaining targets. Maybe the hold effect has a set duration, and the repel remains for the duration of the toggle? So you target the lieutenant, hit TK, and he floats, held, and the other guys drift toward him. After 12s or whatever is standard, he is no longer held, but the repel field is still on while you have endurance and anyone left alive at that point is still drawing in and being immobilized. I like the idea of gating the repel at a distance range, so you can still pin an enemy in a corner if you are close to them but they won't go floating off the map like they used to. mob repositioning and actual battlefield control is one of the cool things about this game for a lot of people. superhero characters with telekinesis are moving their enemies around in comics! AoE mob melting is not the only combat experience we should cater to.
  3. i know right! the way i gasped when i saw that haha
  4. haha ok i'm sorry but tbh this would annoy me even more. for a lot of people, a big part of the game is making costumes and seeing your character do cool stuff. i appreciate stealth powers, and i use them when i want to be stealthy, but i really don't like the ones that make you a little amorphous cloud. if the necessary sustain power was merged with one like that i would probably never play my /dark blaster again. i kind of get what you're going for but i also don't totally understand what the original issue is with it. i'm pretty sure the regen and recovery is auto hit, the recharge allows you to have it up all the time, and there's tons of dark powers that require enemies to use so it's on theme.
  5. personally i do not like having my sustain power baked into an AoE DoT power. i usually skip those, or use them in certain situations but not others, but now I can't on the sets that have everything stacked on it. so i think the touch of beyond is refreshing in that it's not part of death shroud.
  6. I ended up taking it and swapping out Scream in a respec, so far I like the choice. If I exemplar down I'll have one less single target attack, but with slotting it won't feel the way it would if you were actually lower level and missing an attack. I opted for Shout instead of Scream because it hits harder and has the highest-tier resistance debuff. I'll also mention I'm running the set with Gravity Control so I have more single-target attack options than some other doms who may not want to trade one out.
  7. I came here to say this - it may not be optimal but it's a great combo with strong enemy repositioning and stuns. Lift will never stop being funny to me. Plus it does great damage and is the only good use for Knockback enhancements imo. However now with the new update, I'm loving my Gravity/Sonic dominator! The effects animations are really nice together, it looks almost like a gravity blast set. I'm running him as a magnetism character and it's one of my favorites for evoking that.
  8. I've been running a Gravity/Sonic dominator and so far I love it. The FX animations go very well together. I actually love having the generally-unpopular Shockwave while I'm leveling; Dominators often need some breathing room and it's nice to be able to sweep them away from me every once in a while. At higher levels I expect I'll either convert to knockdown or respec out, but in my teens it's been saving my life! I also think Wormhole will be a good way to use the disruption aura safely, dropping them within range in a pile and hitting that PBAoE before locking them down some more.
  9. Here are some sketchbook drawings I've done here and there while designing my many CoH versions of Topaz, the main character from the fantasy comic I write and illustrate (there is one official panel included below). She's an energy mage and has iterations as nearly every AT, trying different powersets to get a feel for different sides of her character and powers. My primary version, Topaz Far-Strider, is an Energy/Martial/Fire Blaster and leader of my SG, the Hot Lances. However she's been many Gravity controllers and Dominators through the years, and a fair few Scrappers as well. Grav/Kinetic, Grav/Energy, Grav/Psi, Kinetic Melee/Energy Aura.... Definitely looking forward to making her as a Gravity/Sonic Dom when the new stuff drops. If you're curious, you can check out the source material, Tales from the Sixth Sun - - - Webtoon Books Instagram I actually can't believe it's taken me three years to find out there was an art section of this forum! Everything looks great, I love seeing everyone's drawings and commissions of their characters. I used to do character commissions when the game was first live (and I was ...15? drawing with 100 prismacolor markers), mostly for people through GameAmp forums if anyone else remembers that one! I mostly did them for in-game items lol Enjoy!
  10. I use both powers constantly on my Gravity/Kinetics, because the groupings sometimes favor one over the other. However I have to cast Gravity Distortion Field immediately on the folded-space group if I want to survive. The stun and knockdown of Wormhole is fantastic. I agree that the magnitude issue needs to be solved. However I don't think there is a difference between the two at the moment. and IIRC the boss issue only happens above level 50. If you hit with Wormhole at level 35 you should still be moving +4 bosses. I do think they should make Wormhole stronger and not Fold Space, because as stated above it's absolutely a signature power of the Gravity Set. Pool powers shouldn't outstrip their near neighbors in AT set.
  11. yes! This is a great combo IMO. I was going for a classic Jean Grey type character and wanted multiple damage types. It has a lot of controls, especially holds and stuns. Also the sound barrier is great and has nice FX animation. Psychic Blast has some great powers, I usually rotate through Dart, TK Blast, and Lance without needing Mental Blast or Will Domination at all. I also just like the little lance FX more. Psy Tornado costs a lot of energy but it's fantastic for keeping enemies on their asses. Plus, since it's a targeted AoE and not a cone, you can use it while in melee range and help your survivability. I highly recommend putting a Chance for +2 Mag Hold into the PBAoE power in Sonic Manipulation. It becomes a very reliable way to hold a bunch of enemies while doing decent damage, especially if you pop the Sonic Build Up power first. Add a couple of Sonic Cages as needed. And since you're already in melee range, you can hit the boss with Earsplitter for another layer of hold. If it all times right, you can hold an entire group, pick them apart one by one, and knock em all down once they start to emerge from the hold. There's a similar stun-layering that's possible, but it uses two powers that many would skip. The tradeoff for the low damage is that you can do it from range - Sound Cannon followed by Scramble Thoughts on one of the tougher baddies. I will note - as a huge fan and devoted user of Martial Combat's infinitely useful Ki Push ability... there's something set up differently with Sonic Thrust. I don't know if it's the scaling, or the ratio of knockback to repel, but above level 15 or so that power will send enemies to the fucking moon. This can be helpful or not helpful depending what map you're on and how you feel about knockback. But I think Ki Push has the perfect balance of repositioning power, fun factor, and usefulness, whereas Sonic Thrust needs a little more consideration on teams. It is, however, hilarious. I went for Fire Mastery and have another hold, and of course Rise of the Phoenix, but there are plenty of good options for this build. Soul Mastery is also a great set that has one of my favorite FX animations in the game on Soul Storm.
  12. SJ + Combat Teleport is my favorite combo! I have shift + WASD set to combat-TP me a short distance in that direction, so I use it in combat all the time and it feels super nightcrawler. the only difference is the forward one (shift+W) goes max distance, so if I'm running or superjumping forward, I can just hit shift without taking my finger off the W and skip over a gap, conserving momentum. Then I replace F with combat TP to target, it's great and works on allies, and without line of sight, so you can jump over and heal or get the runners real quick. I keep the power itself on my mouse's side button so i can just point and click. Combat teleport changed the game for me!!
  13. I run a lot of mission arc teams with some IRL friends, but not everyone has tricked-out level 50s. Do you think it's better to do these as an Incarnate with fragile lowbies tagging along, or as a lower-level team? i'm excited to try it! we love doing full story arcs and strategizing how to tackle different problems with whatever power combos are at hand.
  14. this may be extremely basic advice but it hasn't been mentioned in the thread yet. Just in case you aren't aware - Controllers have an inherent ability called Containment, which makes their powers always do double damage to enemies that have been locked down with some kind of control effect. Unfortunately not all of them apply (i think Confuse and Fear are the exceptions to Containment) but anyone Immobilized, Held, Disoriented/Stunned, or Asleep will take double damage. For instance, using Spectral Wounds after the target has been Blinded can often take a huge chunk off their health compared to the reverse. Even more so with Gravity - you will not only get Containment damage but also trigger the special Impact damage bonus if you use Lift or Propel on a target that is affected by Gravity Distortion. Impact triggers even if they are not fully held, like a Boss that would need two or more casts for the Hold to take... hold. Mind Controllers get a lot of mileage when soloing by casting Mass Hypnosis on a group, and then picking them off one by one with their 3 strong single target damage attacks while everyone else is asleep. So a big part of damage as a Controller is the order you are using your powers. in my experience it usually looks like this : Buff self > hard controls (if non damage) > AoE Immobilize (DoT) > AoE damage > Single Target damage anything leftover, repeat. Obviously throw your heals and other buffs in wherever they are relevant. In the Mind Control case, it's different because anyone asleep will wake up if they get hit with something like Fireball. I believe damage procs hit containment as well? someone correct me if that's not the case. If they do, then use your proc-monster AoE hold after the Immobilize to double any damage procs. However, I definitely recommend getting the real lockdowns done before you start throwing AoE damage at them because it can get you a lot of uhhhh sudden bullet implants. As said above, Arcane Bolt is a really good power now, with high damage and a chance to instantly recharge. However, I want to also point out that Wall of Force is an amazing AoE that you can take from the Force of Will pool, though unfortunately you can't have both that and Sorcery. The single-target blast in Force of Will pool is ...not good. If you are using a set with few damaging powers, maybe take it and give it some procs, but TBH the single-target debuff Weaken Resolve is decent and would be better as a pool-opener since it debuffs Def, Res, and To-Hit. But Wall of Force is awesome. It might not seem like much when you check it out in the Powers info, but don't let it fool you. It is light on your endurance, has quick recharge, a surprisingly wide range, and can take several damage procs. Plus it usually knocks down a bunch of the enemies which is helpful. I have it on my Gravity/Kinetics controller and it really slams! especially if you throw some range enh in the mix. It's one of the widest cone attacks I can think of. ***Edited to add: Wall of Force is also great because if you have a couple of skippable powers in the early game, you can have it at level 14. it makes a big difference for early controller damage, just doing the AoE immobilize and Wall of Force on loop, while Holding the harder targets.
  15. wow I didn't realize group invisibility was such a good stand-in for the toggle! I haven't tried some of the famous combos (ill/storm and ill/dark) because of the stealth redundancy. i will note also that besides the stealth distance (which was news to me) I think the "Superior" part of Superior Invisibility refers to the fact that for most of the game's lifetime, it was the only true invisibility toggle that allowed you to attack with it on. The old version of Invisibility from the Concealment pool had an "only affect self" status pinned to it. extremely inferior invisibility lol
  16. the answer to Energy Blast and Knockback is to have enemies get damaged by surfaces and objects and have it scale off of how fast they were going when they hit!
  17. as someone who plays a lot of Gravity Control, the best use I've ever gotten out of Dimension Shift is in fairly early game, casting it on the back half of a group or an accidental secondary aggro. I often will only have this power so I can put the Frostfire mission at a super high difficulty, use it on the far half of the first few groups as we engage, and then respec out of it later. I like setting FF to +3x8 or +4 if the team is tight, so the first hallway can be rough haha The helpful part of DS imo is the auto-hit immobilize. It's really just expensive, niche aggro portioning.
  18. The Gravity one is the best IMO, because it's now a toggle you can control. Anyone who enters the phase field will be phased and able to affect the phased enemies, anyone outside isn't and can't. The Stealth pool also has a Phase Shift ability which is handy in a pinch, lets you run through enemies and they can't affect you. If you went Gravity, you could get Force Field? Personal FF is essentially a phase, you can't affect anyone and they can't affect you. And later that set has a single-target phase power, though it is on a timer and not a toggle.
  19. I won't try to critique the slotting because I don't know as much about IO slotting as some others. However I do have a lot of Dominator experience, and a TON of Gravity Control experience across both ATs that use it. For this combo, I recommend skipping Crushing Field until much, much later in the game. It's tempting to take, because most controllers take it ASAP to set up Containment. But it's actually a huge headache as a Dominator, especially at low levels. It costs a lot of your precious Endurance, it gets you a LOT of attention, and it doesn't actually stop anyone from attacking you, just getting close to you. It will get you shot full of bullets/fire/ice/etc SOOO fast. Focus on your single-target attacks and keeping the stronger enemies Held. The IMPACT mechanic is great, even with just Gravity Distortion and Lift. Propel is also a ton of fun, but I don't take it on every Gravity Control character for various reasons. Just don't get too attached to IMPACT, especially early on. It's much more effective to Hold one person, and Lift a different one, so that neither of them are attacking you. But if you're on a team and the aggro is managed, tossing the Held guy into the air will give a nice damage bonus. If you do take Propel, I'd also consider not giving it a Knockdown conversion IO. Usually I would, but for a Grav/Fire Dom specifically, Propel is one of the only powers you have to get someone out of your face. The Knockback can save your life if you time it right! I've played this combo as a telekinetic/pyrokinetic character and it's a lot of fun. It really is like a Blaster with control. Slot for tons of Accuracy and just melt each enemy down one by one until you get Wormhole. Then you can start to really let loose with the AoEs. I think the hover-blasting is a great direction to go for this, both the mechanics of the sets and the concept fit. But Hovering will just make my earlier point about the AoE immobilize even more important. You have very little cover when you're above the battle. If you use Crushing Field, you will be an incredibly enticing target. Plus, hovering will keep you out of melee range, which is your main personal benefit from the immobilize in the first place. Cool concept BTW! Consider playing around with the Spectrum texture of Tights on your character and add an aura overtop of it to get some cool sun-surface looks.
  20. exactly! while I totally agree that there is a masterful directional knockback technique, and I try my best to achieve that like I did on the live game, my main reaction to the energy blast complaints is that the knockback just ... doesnt happen that often? Yes, i now slot a KD enhancement into Explosive Blast and Nova. But for everything else, it really just doesnt happen as often as the forums would lead you to believe (unless you're fighting white name enemies). Anything that can't resist the Energy Burst KB is probably dead in another hit, and usually a Controller has immobilized them anyway. Mostly I see things get knocked down, or maybe a pace or two backward. People on here act like every breath an energy blaster takes is shooting enemies across the entire map and making missions literally impossible. ppl need to relax lol energy blast is awesome and players will keep using it until the end of time bc it is so iconic. I can't imagine being SO dramatic over the set.
  21. Personally I would recommend putting the +2 mag hold proc in any other power besides soul storm, because imo that has one of the coolest effects animations in the game and the +2 mag hold proc manifests as a tesla cage. it's just a shame to cover it up! BUT, it will be effective haha
  22. Another vote for minimal FX on Controller's Rock Armor!!! I think it should be more akin to the Earth's Embrace power, floating small stones around yourself.
  23. I love the different types of energy concept, but it just makes me think we should just have other powersets for blasting other types of energy. Plasmatic Blast being somewhere between Energy and Fire would be awesome. I'm picturing the blasts that the huge Banished Pantheon lore pet monster has, but hot and burning. There are a lot of enemy FX in the game that could be reworked, and I would LOVE to have more energy options. I don't like the FX animations of Radiation Blast, so I make do with recoloring the other sets to fit concepts when I don't use Energy Blast itself. I don't like the toggle replacing Power Push. It's the most reliable way to use the set's secondary effect most ... effectively. Moving the massive KB to Power Burst wouldn't be helpful, because that's one of the most-used powers in the chain, and it would exacerbate the issue by knocking anyone away that you want to hit with your best damage attack. As of now, I use KB>KD in my AoEs, but the single target attacks rarely throw anyone very far, if at all. Power Push is the best tool for capitalizing on tactical knockback, and I think it's most effective because the low damage removes the temptation for the player to spam it with the rest of the attack chain. Because there's no hold/disorient etc in the set, Power Push is a helpful tool for survival. This topic is a great brainstorm and a thoughtful idea, which I appreciate a lot since there is a small but loud contingent of players who seem to want to remove the unique dynamics of non-meta powersets. The best compromise here IMO is to just make Explosive Blast and Energy Torrent do knockdown instead of knockback right out of the box, and nudge the damage up a bit. At the end of the day, the set is too classic and too iconic to give it a very big overhaul - personally I'd rather just see more energy options.
  24. @GraspingVileTerror 😮 thanks so much! I bet that's the problem!
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