Greycat

Went into this back on live: http://web.archive.org/web/20120904082455/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=194712 As far as "Do I use them?" The answer is solidly... sometimes. And what changes... depends completely on why I'm using them. I used to suggest PVP builds. Some people may still do this, I tend not to, since purples drop more frequently through AFKing in Pocket D than PVP fights being found... but you may want different things in your PVP build than your PVE build. I have a farmer with a farm and non-farm build. Yes, the farm build can do well, I just want different things during non-farming activity. Kheldians - Might have a triform and human form on one for various reasons. Support sets - If I find myself soloing on an Empathy character, or FF on a non-MM, for instance, I'll throw a "Solo" build on and go heavier on attacks and such. RP - I may *want* some things for reasons in RP ("This character isn't actually this powerful," or "is more XYZ" or just want an effect) that I don't necessarily want as a part of a real build. Kind of rare, but it happens. VEATs - sadly, you don't get away from the forced respec at 24 on a second or third build.

Honestly, when I ran my DB characters, I just ended up ignoring combos. *shrug*

You fight Rikti beforehand because that's where the storyline goes. VMs were a later "grind for this and keep the sub" thing. As far as what to do with them: - Before running Gaussian's arc (think it's his,) and/or the Mender's unlock arc, grab Nectembo's Curse Breaker, in case you get hit with the Curse of Weariness, because getting cut to 50% END for 5 minutes sucks. - get an HVAS. - Get the storage sack. - you can get a psi shield and psi bomb as temp powers, but... eh. - convert to merits.

About the only thing I'd disagree with on this is having them deleteable from the tray - at least while the trial is in progress. Just to avoid "What's this thing? I don't need it *delete* oh, crap, I needed that...." At least going to powers means you have to take an extra deliberate action.

The only real barrier to incarnates in the original game was "must be paying." When the game went "freemium," Incarnates were one of the things locked behind a paywall. As a result, it was also more grindy - you'll notice, as you earn iXP, it talks about "physical" and "psychic" iXP... if I'm remembering the messages correctly. You got one from one trial, one from the other. It was designed specifically to keep people paying by being an artificial grind. (Add to that starting the system with JUST BAF/LAM- no solo path at all - and, ugh. It was the first time I took a break from the game since i3 on live.)

This was a problem with a few things, honestly. Crey has this problem, too. It's apparently supposed to be some big surprise they're evil, but before you run into them, you have ... no interaction. You see someone poking at Rikti drone parts in the original tutorial, you see a billboard or two, but... eh? Never had them offer to help you, never tried to help them, it's just "Hey! Megacorp! And they're EEEVIL!"

Weeeeeelllllllll.... um. 11/13/2004: http://web.archive.org/web/20120904105240/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showpost.php?p=31866&postcount=16 See also: http://web.archive.org/web/20120907022352/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=239822 :)

The Council are tied in with the Nictus. That should give at least a reason for more differentiation... and more power boosts (figuring by the time they're a threat to 40-50+ they've "proven themselves" enough to have more of a kick to them.)

Being honest, Incarnate powers were a weird fit into the game - and likely there specifically to keep Premium subs going, as the vet rewards/microtransactions couldn't really keep going. COH was, and is, an odd MMO. It grew wider, not taller - that is, 50 was the top level, period, and we just kept adding expansions to the sides. There's also no real "gear" to get, unlike other games where you can just add an expansion, say "Well, and now you need 10 more levels on top, and the raids are here which you need to get the Uber Leet Sword of Slashy Slashy +6 and Armor of WowShininess." *Some* of the Incarnate stuff, I don't mind - Alpha, for instance, shows you just getting overall a bit more powerful, Interface isn't bad, etc. Others, like Judgement, were a bit much ("Everyone's got a Blaster-Plus level Nuke.") I think it was basically trying to force COH into Bog-Standard-Grindy-MMO molds and it didn't really work.

Resurrect: No. Replace: Meh. I mean, technically Positron seems to have taken his place as far as leading the Phreedom Phalanx, so he's been "replaced" there. Hero 1... eh. Tyrant... meh. Honestly, outside of "Lore says everyone looked up to him," there's not really a *need* for him. Originally we went through 1-50 with only an occasional mention of him, to find he's been locked up in Praetoria (since Tyrant couldn't hurt him,) so it's not really like he had any impact on the world we played through. Leave him dead. We don't need a Statesman Mk II.

So, while I was browsing through the AH trying to decide what I wanted to slot in to my Seismic/Earth blaster, I took a peek at the stuns (for stalagmites.) All the stun sets are pretty much just stun duration. Now, yes, the power can take ranged damage, but if I'm wanting to enhance both stun and damage, I need to frankenslot. Looking at holds and immobs (both of which are also on this character) reveal pretty much the same thing - if there's a damage increase, it's in the form of a proc, not a (say) damage/acc, hold/damage/acc, etc. IO. While not a huge deal for this blaster (who is, after all, fairly loaded on damage,) I think it'd be nice to get a couple sets created for these control powers (and... looking a bit farther, in Fears, too) that had more of a damage component mixed in. Same sort of setup, one lower level, one higher (30/35-50.) While it'd be a "nice to have" for some (and, granted, probably irrelevant in some powers... but that's why we have other sets,) I know some of my controllers especially would *love* to be able to boost damage and get a full set of set bonuses directly in the powers that need it.

Actually, no, PVP's not coming into the equation here, as powers *already* can have separate effects, durations, etc. when in a PVP situation. If it's needed there, it can be tweaked there separately. If it's not, it can be ignored there. And NPCs already have (a) the advantage of numbers and (b) different versions of powers than players have (see: Energy pattern Paragon Protector MOG.) So changing it for players does not necessarily have to do anything to NPCs. NPCs are irrelevant to the discussion.

Even with those caveats, the question's still valid. Even if I'm using them selectively versus trying to do so every spawn, debuffs can take too long to apply. Even if we're looking (say) at Rad Emission in an AV fight (versus a 1-2 hit minion,) it takes a *while* for those debuffs to kick in. (And as an aside, with the "linger" debuffs do, sometimes that's reason to pick something that'll die quickly - you have a debuff patch that won't run off since the target's already dead.) That's time you're not doing anything else, just being rooted in place.

Nobody said you shouldn't have or that you couldn't suggest. However, you posted publicly. Expect public reaction. "Reaction" involves more than fawning praise and throwing confetti. Bad ideas garner negative reactions. Look at the reactions and decide if you didn't explain something fully, or the idea can be modified, or if there's just something you haven't considered that, yes, just makes it a bad idea or have much more negative impact than you may have thought.

No, they won't, from what we can tell. A whole new slew of content would be needed for it. (This was going to be tied into that godawful Battalion / "Traitor Lady Grey" content. There would then also be trees past these, while we were dealing with Ascended, then ... I forget the next group after that. Prometheus would have been an example of the Ascended, as I recall.) Yes, we have names of some (all?) of the next tier, but that's about it. Aside from Hybrid, we had Genesis, Mind, Vitae and Omega, but no information on them. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Incarnate_System

"All powers at all levels after acquisition" - no thanks. Early to mid-game missions are easy enough, even easier *as it is* when exemplaring (when you have more powers *anyway* - up to five levels, meaning a level 30 mission lets you have everything but your T9 secondary power.) They don't need even more cheese. And if all you're seeing is "race to objectives," find other folks to play with that don't play that way. Don't get on speed TFs. Find RP groups that run RP missions. It'll make it more fun than just "ridiculous number of ways to smash that this level of content wasn't designed for."

Nobody seems to read the VERY FIRST PART: No "handling" is needed.

Dark, I think is fine. Rad, or anything else with multiple toggle debuffs? That gets ... tedious, sure. (Unless I"m on an MSR> Then... debuff the grates, get nice constant flow of Rikti. as long as I'm not mezzed.)

Going with "situational," as well. Some groups, it doesn't really matter. Some groups, it depends on the character I'm on. Having a decent snipe (or DOT) can skew what I select, or if I'm dealing in range or melee, or if I'm on a team. Heck, sometimes "first" means "do I wait or charge in with the rest of the team?" (For instance, if I have someone with a sleep and - say - we're running Posi, I'll wait for Ruins to fire off their bubbles... just to be sure I can shut those down right away and make it easier. Same with the -tohit debuffs.) At times, yeah, it's also a matter of "what am I waiting for" (waiting for a Carnie to come OUT of phase so I can throw a hold on them,) or "what am I hitting last, and with what" (Super Stunner with something that does KB to get them out of range, for instance.)

(Nope. Deliberately chose that spelling.)

They're glowing through the dirt you're covering it with! 🙂

So with - well, some - fires, Ice and Water powers have an effect on them, "damaging" them to put them out (if it's set up to. Think there are some that are just visual effects.) Well, there's another way of putting out (some) fires that has no effect in game... throwing dirt on a fire. While not all powers would really make sense (where, say, Ice's frozen fists or swords could be seen as melting and helping douse a fire, it's a little harder to say why a mallet would,) having some powers able to affect fires would kind of be nice. Basically, anything that stays "on the ground" could affect a fire - Stone Cages, Stalagmites, Mud Pots, etc. - helping to extinguish fires. Kind of niche, admittedly, but since we have yet more earth-throwing and stone/dirt/mud-related powers now, I thought I'd throw the idea out.

So, two small suggestions: 1. Let any Icon offer any Tailor mission. Mostly inspired by trying to help people who can't figure out why they're missing a costume slot... The verbiage can be the same, but instead of running around three different zones (Croatoa/Nerva giving salvage stays as that - and yes, I know you can change sides and run a misssion there instead,) let (for instance) Serge in Steel tell you that "Laura in Independence Port has been having trouble with Crey. Can you take some pressure off of her?" without having to actually go there to *get* the mission. (Doesn't give missions for the other side, though.) 2. More costume missions! OK, yes, I'd like more slots too, but that's not what this is about. :) Let's take a page from newspaper missions and give a *little* randomness in who we're fighting - instead of Crey at 30, maybe the Freakshow are annoyed cyberwear (no, not a misspelling) isn't more popular, or the Circle are annoyed - just for variety's sake. Feed one of those in at the appropriate level range. (Heck, create an enemy tailor group... >.> )

Bit of a necro here, but I didn't think an update needed a whole new thread. Ran across this same behaviour in one other spawn - Brickstown, one of the Council spawns that has a few recruiters you can't attack with several regular enemies you can. Might be the makeup of the spawn, but it was just completely ignored by PA.

I don't permahasten anything. *shrug* I'll make an SR because it fits the concept I have for a character.