capricorpse

So I've noticed a couple of times recently that I've been randomly demoted from the leader of my SG. The group is 85% my own characters, I created the group, and other than me there's a handful of friends who have limited levels of consistency with the game. But sometimes I'll log onto my main character (who should be the leader of the SG) and she's demoted and someone random has been given the red star. Usually it's fine but then sometimes it's been a character whose player isn't on very often. I'm not sure what's causing it, the longest I've gone without playing recently is maybe 2-3 weeks so I don't think it's from inactivity. Sometimes I'm even demoted multiple levels. It's annoying because then I can't promote certain members or change permissions on storage.

I'm running it with Time and I love the mix of control powers. The Shockwaves are nice for using Time's area damage power with a little less risk, plus I am thinking I might try to layer the Temporal AoE disorient with Seismic's single target one, but haven't leveled enough yet. If you've never leveled a Martial Combat blaster, I highly recommend, it's pretty fun. Ki Push alone is the reason I love the set, but Burst of speed is fun and Reaction Time is a pretty good toggle. Eagle's Claw animation never gets old. Energy would be good, but usually leaves your primary doing most of the work (not a bad thing). It could be great, Seismic is a surprisingly long ranged set with some debuffs and control, and Energy complements that well. Fire would be fun, the knockdowns on Seismic Blast would be helpful for a Blapper style which Fire is good at. Either way, with heavy melee you will be inside the targeted AoE effects (Upthrust) which could be annoying, and the other AoE is a cone which would be hard to line up if you are in melee a lot. Both of those minor things that could easily be solved with a good combat (or Burst of Speed) teleport setup.

I think the set is really cool!! I think that while, yes, the geometry of the bigger moves like Upthrust is rather large, but it goes away so fast that it doesn't really matter. Reading the comments here I expected some Propel-style clutter all over the place, but it's just gone immediately. The moves are super cool. I especially love Shatter, that looks awesome. I do think Upthrust should do more damage. It's so spectacular visually, and needs a bit more punch. I was running around with no enhancements, but fighting against grey names (10 levels down in some groups) and it was barely taking the chunk of their HP I'd expect to see on white names right out of the box. The meteor is great. I hear what people are saying about the wait time, and it is pretty long, but maybe only shorten it by a second or half second. I think the shadow growing is great! I really don't want every set to have the exact same animation times between powers that are similar, otherwise they just feel like re-skins. Seismic forces should feel like they take longer to use than blasting pure energy straight out of your hands. However, the tradeoff should be massive damage. It's an inertia thing. I also love the animations on Tombstone when long-casting. Props to the FX artists.

ah cool! and this will enable/disable the UI in screenshots? or in gameplay? (i'm not in-game for another couple of days i think)

Sort of unrelated, but how did you get these screenshots with no names and numbers? I've been dying for a way to turn off damage and healing numbers and see what the hell is going on haha

I generally like the Force of Will pool, especially containment on the Wall of Force power. (if it's fitting your character thematically then maybe disregard the following...) I've recently been playing a Magneto-inspired character, Gravity/Force Fields. I know Gravity has strong single target attacks already, but I took Toxic Dart from the Experimentation pool and it's really nice to have! Super quick animation time and recharge, and does a chunk of toxic damage follwed by more damage over a time, all doubled with Containment. I don't think many enemies resist toxic damage. Plus, if the enemy is moving, the dart flies in an arc with classic Magneto style. The attack does more damage than the rest of the ranged pool attacks, and is just so much faster. Plus, the Speed of Sound/Jaunt power is really fun, that's what I was using before Combat Teleport was released.

just gotta grab Fold Space to yank the nova'd enemies back to you! Rubberband their asses! Also, I would love to join the KB supergroup lol

this ! at the very least, wormhole and the warshade version of fold space should work on all bosses.

I'm a fan of Fire Breath, especially with Combat Teleport for lining it up. ALso, I'm literally going to roll this exact build because it seems really fun! I am also a big fan of Azula!

There seems to be no sound effects on Sonic Thrust, though maybe it is just a quiet one? Also, I am absolutely loving Combat Teleport and Fold Space. Real gamechangers for me, but they still feel totally part of the CoH world.

thanks for the tips, i'm very excited to roll up a Psychic/Sonic blaster tonight after work! tick tock, tick tock... I'll probably also play with the new teleport pool changes, I can see that Fold Space power being great setup for the PBAoE attack and debuff in Sonic.

Hello everyone, I am excited about the new changes for Blasters and considering some options. I'll note beforehand I've never really gotten into playing as a character using a weapon set, so it's very unlikely I'll do archery or guns. Maybe the beam rifle if the synergy is so extremely on point, i've never used it. But I'm fairly concept-driven and I'd rather have powers. First, I def want to try the new Sonic Manipulation set. I'm considering between Psychic or Sonic blasts, because I like crowd control (i am a dominator main) and they both have a stun that can stack with Sound Cannon. Also the FX animations would mesh nicely. However I'm not sure if the hold mechanic with migraines etc will be reliable enough to instead go for something with a hold in the primary set, ie Electric or Dark? I'm not as interested in Electric but I've not played it much so who knows. It does have a PBAoE which could be a good one-two with the one in sonic. I'm drawn to Psychic blast because I like knockdown, and psy tornado can be used from melee or range, unlike the cones in sonic blast. The other thing I'd like to try is Energy Manipulation, to play with the new variable Stun mechanic. Again, thinking about a primary set with a stun or other synergy, so probably Sonic/Energy. Does that seem like a good mix? Does Power Boost affect the debuff strength of the -resist in all of the sonic blasts? Does Boost Range affect the length of the cone attacks? Bust also, what are yall looking forward to building? I haven't done a lot with Blasters recently but I think I'm going to try a bunch of the sets that were tweaked, would love to see what other people are thinking.

I definitely agree you should get Frozen Armor. And there is a Minimal FX option if you don't want to see the big bulky ice. But I'd also recommend getting Total Focus in there somewhere, so you can activate Energy Focus mode more easily. it doubles the damage of whirling hands, i believe. I'd drop either Power Push or Power Blast, it's a little redundant. I personally like Push's FX animation better, and I like having a reliable knockback for special occasions (or knockdown, with the IO). Power Bolt, Burst, Sniper Blast, Mesmerize, and Dominate should be plenty to keep a ST attack chain going.

It could just use the classic -res effect, grab the melee attacks from this and the ranged attacks from sonic blast, balance em to match the other sets. i don't think it'd need the extra migraine dynamics the same way a blaster set might.

How we feeling about adapting this into a Sonic Assault set for dominators?? the way this matches gravity control's FX animation would be *chef's kiss*

i've been playing a gravity/earth dom that I love. The gravity feels really aligned with the earth assault, lots of heavy-impact power animations that are pretty satisfying, and a lot of knockup which I find to be an underrated mitigation tactic. For concept, it's just two aspects of manipulating magnetic and gravity fields. I went with Propel instead of Hurl for the Impact mechanic, but other than that it seems like there's a lot less redundancy than many Assault sets have with Gravity Control. Plus, using Stone SPears on an enemy right after Lifting them is great, the crystal spikes manifest in the air and wind up in some really cool sculptural forms. If gravity isn't your thing, Earth Control is a great set and I've done an earth/earth/mace dominator into high levels. but i personally love gravity control and I especially love being able to see through the bulk of the FX animations I'm creating. Earth can get very cluttered especially on larger targets. Crystal FX can lessen this a bit, but there's still a lot of geometry being summoned. Another option could be Plant/Earth, as part of a general power-over-earth character. Plant has a lot of neat tricks. also - i totally know what you mean about the mind control and psionic blast/assault animations being so different! I work as an effects animator and this always jumped out at me. there's no overlap in particles, color, or fx style. I'd love to somehow get a second set of psychic blasts styled after Dominate/Mesmerize, but somehow longer and narrower? could be cool.

If you really feel like you need a heal after you get to upper-levels, one of the Incarnate powers heals everyone in a large area. Though I would still go with Barrier. You have so few HP as a Dominator that you will probably die in the moment you realize your health is going down and go to hit your heal button. Better to avoid it altogether. Skipping Mesmerize is a good idea on a Dominator. I've found Levitate is more helpful mitigation especially early on. I usually skip Mass Hypnosis because I team a lot, but if you're soloing or running on smaller teams, it can be a great tool. Definitely take the last three powers in the set and get them recharged as often as you can. I personally enjoy using Telekinesis, but it is situational and some people get confused when it's happening. I have two personal favorite techniques. The first is to pin someone to a wall that they are already close to, but you have to be careful of your position if there are other targets near your primary target. You really want to pin everyone into a CORNER. Otherwise the other guys will be held and lifted as well, but if you are too close to the wall they are pinned to, the side guys will start to slide apart and along the wall, away from the primary target. This leads me to my second technique - use it in short bursts. Move a couple of enemies back onto someone's Tar Patch or Ice Slick. And then turn it off. It's nice when the wall or corner is there for pinning, but don't force it. That's when things get sloppy with TK. If it's not doing what you pictured it doing, just drop them. I use Speed of Sound on my mind/energy dom so that I can use Jaunt to move around the battle (easier once Combat Teleport drops on live!). If I spot some stragglers that aren't getting hit with the AoEs, I zap over and line it up so i lift them, nudge them over just enough, and drop them. The whole process takes just a few seconds seconds. More than that, and it might pick up other enemies and make the group spread out more. I second - Force of Will is good. I pop Unleash Potential before a big fight or when it looks like it'll get hairy. Dominators are usually building for recharge so it will be up plenty. Don't fall into my same trap where you "save it for later" so much that you end up dead. Use it ! Also yeah the debuff in Weaken Resolve is great. It's not the most competitive debuff numbers, but Doms don't have tons of access to that in general. Specifically Mind/Energy has none. Slap Weaken Resolve on the biggest targets so you can make sure your controls land, especially while leveling and still working toward having Domination up more of the time.

this would be great! and I'd be ok with it not stacking. I would just worry that having both buffs would make the devs want to alter the fundamental mechanics of the power, like activation time or recharge, to compensate. It needs to stay quick and light, even if the buffs aren't super competitive.

I do love Controllers as well! I think this is a good problem to weigh. The stacking Overpowerability is compelling, though I don't understand the numbers part enough to have a sense of how it would shake out in-game. An idea could be that instead, maybe landing their existing Overpower on an AV, it could break the purple triangle effect early? In this case, it wouldn't also affect them with the hold, but maybe stacking holds or having the up-mag from Overpower could shatter their defense against it in the first place, creating openings for control to be used. This sort of statistical tweaking isn't quite my wheelhouse but I'd welcome any way to get controls onto tougher foes! And I think that it's not going to step on a Dom's toes unless it becomes a click-buff magnitude increase like Domination (which I think should be tweaked anyway)

this! I usually play Dominators (or extremely mobile Blasters), and Jaunt has been an essential part of how I approach combat with a couple characters. Hit the ranged enemies with melee attacks, keep the melee enemies at a distance. I can't get over the QoL change that has the camera staying put when you blink backwards. that itself might be my favorite part of this patch. Beyond actually placing the teleport reticle, I find the main benefit of the disconnected mouse for teleporting is how quickly you can whip the camera around, up, down etc. I think there are keyboard buttons that do those individually, I'm not sure. But I realized that this might be a big part of why it feels integrated into my playstyle. I remember when I found out my good friend played CoH with his right hand on the arrow keys and his left hand on the numbers, which blew my mind. I'm sure a lot of people play that way, but I can't get used to ever taking my hand off the mouse because of how neurotically I rotate the camera and change zoom depending on what's happening. And I teleport all over the place. Up-thread I mentioned I have F as teleport to target, and C as teleport backward. idk if anyone will care, but I also set F1-F6, ~, R, T, Y to be my second power tray so they are all within reach of my left hand without looking (especially R, which is always my basic spam power. i auto-run by holding both mouse buttons down for a few seconds). Therefore I click inspirations (again, mouse in hand 24/7). So I try to remember that when someone is reading what I'm doing and what is straightforward for me, they might think I'm crazy and couldn't imagine being set up this way. I don't know anything about any forumgoers' playstyle beyond the person saying they use a trackpad (and may therefore have a different relationship to mouse/keyboard interaction with the game in general), so this is not specifically about any type of setup outside of my own. Just ... a reminder that someone may have started the game differently and then further evolved their setup to be totally alien to yours, which affects power usage. i highly recommend setting ~ and R/T to commonly-used powers!

XD this is great. now i have to try the new powers on a FF/Energy defender

this is great! I'm also excited for things like Nova -> Fold Space. Give those baddies whiplash

haha i'm not sure, other than binding button1 thru button6 to different powers and heading into a fight? Though buttons 1 and 2 might mess with some basic clicking/camera functions and break your game, for which I claim no responsibility! haha

Ah yes okay I see what you mean, and I agree. I guess I just don't see combat teleport as falling into that category. So replacing jaunt with combat teleport, I usually set up like this - /bind button4 powexec_name combat teleport (this makes the side button on my mouse bring up the target reticle for precision porting.) /bind f powexec_location target combat teleport (this replaces the Follow function and just brings me to my target) /bind c powexec_location back:35 combat teleport (this scoots me back about 15 feet. this is also ESPECIAlLY good in the new patch, which changes it so now your camera stays pointed the same direction instead of turning 180 degrees!) I'm interested to try the method I think I saw up-thread, using Shift+w/a/s/d to create a separate layer of movement keys that are all teleports. Probably something like /bind lshift+w powexec_location forward:35 combat teleport /bind lshift+d powexec_location right:35 combat teleport /bind lshift+a powexec_location left:35 combat teleport /bind lshift+s powexec_location back:35 combat teleport You can change your number values to whatever you want, but I find the mid-thirties to be a nice amount of actual distance while usually still in the same room. Maybe I'd set the forward to be the highest, and the side directions to be a bit lower, like 55/25/25/35 ? ***Edited for bind corrections, which may still be wrong lmao