Legree

You're not alone in that. I love Samuraiko's videos but I couldn't bring myself to watch that one until April '19. It's great, but even now, with the game back, somehow it's still REALLY hard to watch.

Today I've tidied up my roster and let go of a few I'll never get around to playing: Affray Bright Eyes Seven Sinners Thumper Wireframe

II'm not averse to using a quick Energy Torrent to clear my field of fire inside a bank... but overall this is a no for me. It's actually safer to be a civilian in the Rogue Isles than in Paragon City. Sure you might get infected with toxic waste and become a green eyed zombie, but that's for SCIENCE. There's only a few groups in the Isles that actively target civilians in the street - like the Vahzilok in Cap Au Diable - and I like that. It suggests a certain code of honor among villains that they only take on those that have signed up for the life by putting on a costume. "No women, no kids" - Leon. It's one of the reasons why Westin Phipps evokes such strong reactions - he absolutely crosses that line and drags our characters along with him. On a less meta level it's easier to switch back and forth between targets with tab when I'm only able to target hostiles.

I love how much character this game gives to even minor NPC factions, and as such I've had a lot of this type of character over the years. A couple of my favourites: For Longbow, Agent Wray - Beam Rifle/Devices Blaster - "We want you to test this new prototype weapon. Just don't call it a disintegrator rifle - we get enough bad press as it is about the flamethrowers." For Hellions/CoT - Tempter - a Girlfriend from Hell possessed by a demon of the Circle of Thorns during a fight in the Hollows. Since they can't decide which kind of villainy to do - snatch purses or destroy the world - they'll be a hero instead since that way they can fight both Hellions and the Circle. (Broadsword/Fire Armor Scrapper with a flamberge.)

Whilst looking around Aeon City for a civilian whose name began with an M I ended up fighting two Goldbrickers, three Luddites and at least half a dozen Arachnos goons. All this to answer my idle curiosity about how long I'd been on that character. The lack of a /played command is filling the streets of the Rogue Isles (and Paragon City) with incidents of unintentional violence. Please implement a /played command to tell us how long we've been on a character, and so keep the streets clear for incidents of intentional violence.

Reporting the same issue with Energy Blast/ on my Blaster. As described in the previous posts it appears to be triggered by using Sniper Blast. This is the only power in the set I have set to the alternate animation. After using it my other abilities use the alt animations for the next few attacks. Or don't - it doesn't happen every time. Seems to only happen after a fast snipe, but I couldn't swear to that. Edit: After doing some testing it definitely appears that the animation swaps only happen after a fast snipe. Not every time, but nothing else triggers it, including slow snipes.

It's been quite a while since I last played a Warshade and I'm noticing a couple of inconsistencies. I can't find anything related to them in patch notes so was hoping that someone familiar with the AT could clear a couple of things up for me. The text descriptions for Shadow Blast and Dark Detonation both say "may knock down", but when I click on the power icons the info still shows knockback. I know that KB is a contentious subject so I'm wondering is this just a typo in the description or is it an intended change? When I've hit a mob with Shadow Blast it still does KB (when it triggers.) I haven't tried Dark Detonation yet. Also the green rings that signify the -Rech, -Spd debuff effect from some attacks aren't showing on the mobs I'm hitting with those attacks. Is this intentional? Is the debuff still taking effect? The absence of any visual is slightly disconcerting.

I think a couple of interesting points have come out in this discussion. Firstly, that those "Earth For Humans!" billboards are arguably more jarring to see now than they were pre-shutdown due to them mirroring a rhetoric that's become more prevalent in the USA, and elsewhere, in the intervening 7 years. I say arguably because Vanguard has never been a clearcut 'good' organisation, and given what we discover about the Rikti their "Earth for Humans!" rhetoric is decidedly ironic. If CoH had launched today those billboards would have been taken as a none too subtle jab at modern politics, but it's really a comment on Vanguard and the post-Rikti War mindset they represent. Secondly, if there's one group in Paragon City that would be singled out in this way it is Warshades. That they are distrusted and isolated even within the hero community is a major theme of their story - as early as the level 5-9 arc an enemy group straight out confirms that the reason they target Warshades is because Warshades have no friends or allies. Of course whether or not Dan Petro's posts are in good taste remains a matter of individual preference. Me? I'd say of course they're not, but then he is a PVPer :)

Assign a secret number to Ms. Liberty and calculate it as follows: +1 for each player in her vicinity. +2 for each MM pet. +1 for each aura. +3 for each player making tailor changes. (She's trying to train up and coming heroes, stop asking her if that colour of cape clashes with your costume/hair/power blasts) +10 for each spines/fire Brute. When the number is reached Ms. Liberty aggros and attacks all players in range. One they've been crane kicked halfway to Prometheus Park a few times they'll learn to keep their distance.

Even without the XP boost it's easy to outlevel these contacts now, due to the XP rate having increased over the years so that the lower levels go by faster. Exactly this. I particularly think it's a shame that people may be missing out on Mr. Bocor, since he has a good arc, and also gives you the first opportunity to fight the Sea Witch before she reappears as an EB in Sharkhead.

I'm going to use Port Oakes as an example - there's probably others but these are the contacts I'm most familiar with. As it stands at the moment it's really easy to outlevel 3 of the 5 contacts in Port Oakes - Mr. Bocor, Angelo Vendetti and Billie Heck only hand out their story arc missions if you're between level 5 and level 9... and the chances are you won't be by the time you're offered an introduction to them. If you do the new Mercy story arc - Kuzmin to Firewire/Weber to Harris you'll likely be level 8 by the time you hit Port Oakes. Since you need to do three papers and a mayhem to get your first introduction you'll very likely be level 10 by the time you do. Likewise if you do Kalinda and Mongoose, or Burke and Dr. Creed, you'll again be level 8 or so by the time you arrive in Port Oakes. Even moreso if you do Dr. Graves along the way. So there's only two ways to reliably get one of these contacts. a) Turn off XP for a bit, which I'd prefer not to do because... oh alright, because I love that level up ding too much. Or b) go to Oakes after Kalinda, or after Burke or after Firewire/Weber. The downside of that being that the street mobs in the zone will be mostly red or purple to you. That run to Drea the Hook through Dockside can be a bit rough at level 5 or 6. It just seems a waste of three contacts that they're so easy to outlevel, leaving Oakes with only Veluta Lunata and The Radio. Now I love Radio Free Opportunity - it's one of my favourite contacts in the entire game - but I don't want to tune in every time I run an alt through that level range, and the only other option is to go to Cap au Diable at level 10 and start dodging those red and purple mobs. I'm pretty sure that every enemy group in the three arcs I've mentioned goes up higher than level 10, so would it be possible to extend Mr. Bocor, Vendetti and Heck even just to level 15? My alts would thank you.

It's not entirely untrue. A mid-level Brute with SOs or basic IOs is going to be squishier than a similarly equipped Tanker, and there were times on live when my MM was more able to take point on teams than a Brute thanks to bodyguard mode. The reason this idea is so discredited now is, I think, twofold. Firstly, most of these discussions revolve around highly optimised 50+ builds with a ton of IO set bonuses and probably also Incarnate powers - and that's a whole different game from comparing the relative merits of ATs during levelling. Secondly, we have Brutes on blueside now, and the trinity - which places so much importance on someone being a designated tank - has always been more prevalent as a playstyle on blueside than it ever was on redside. The playstyle menu casts its net rather wide, I think. If it didn't MMs would be the only real choice under Pets.

+ 1 If I'm kicking off a new hero I try to do so during off-peak hours for this reason.

It's usually possible to predict the runners. If the group is talking about buying/selling something (weapons/superadine/whatever) then the seller will almost always take off as soon as the group is aggro'd. Purse snatchers do the same thing, and amusingly if you don't run after them and defeat them the NPC you just saved will just stand there and not give the usual thank you speech, since you didn't get her purse back!

If this is a joke post it's the funniest thing I've read all day. if it's not a joke post... it's still the funniest thing I've read all day. I do wonder though... how do you know your members don't have secret second accounts which they use to get their squid on under an assumed name? I suggest installing some kind of spyware to send out an alert if it registers excessive amounts of purple on their monitors. You can't be too careful...

True, but in the comment I was responding to it absolutely was. In other MMOs the group content often/usually revolves around the trinity, and the trinity revolves around the tank. The tank leads the team, the healer heals the tank, and the DPS are interchangeable damage dealers because there's always plenty more where they came from. It's strange to me that people are trying to import this heirarchy into a game that's basically, outside of a very few encounters, never needed it. Which is fine. I wouldn't want to be on that team anyway.

How nice of the Tank to invite us lesser mortals along for the ride. Honestly it's this kind of thinking that makes me dislike the tank 'n herd 'n AoE playstyle. On live I spent most of my time on redside and since we had no dedicated tanks and no /Empathy this holy trinity stuff never came up... and the teams were better for it. I did see it rear its ugly head from time to time on blueside, but we're not running dungeons in WoW here and there's very little content in this game that requires a tank. The problem for tanks isn't uncontrolled knockback. The problem with tanks is that they are not a must-have in 99% of the game. Personally I'd rather run solo or on a less optimal team than run with a tank who expects my warshade (or blaster) to behave as nothing more than a mobile gun turret to augment his XP per second.

Possibly, but there are other reasons why they might be doing this now. The code is out there and noone - least of all Homecoming - denies that the code belongs to NCSoft, but this may be to protect themselves in the event that said code is used by a third party for a knock-off. NCSoft might be less concerned about Homecoming than it is about the prospect of "Town of Superhumans" appearing as a commercial product. I'm no lawyer so that's pure speculation on my part - just a thought.

Most ATs with most powersets can solo most content. Inspirations can be used to power through any real problems and there's always -1/x1/no bosses for the notoriety settings. For an MMO of this era - back when grouping was still the norm rather than the exception - CoH is incredibly solo friendly. Very little of it is gated behind team requirements and if you really want to do a TF or SF it's not hard to just hop onto a PUG. No question the experience will vary. ATs without mez protection will have to rely on Break Frees more to avoid being chain held by some enemies (unless you hit them first - that CoT Mage isn't going to be holding anyone if you blow him away with a Snipe in your opening shot) and there is a few ATs and powersets I'd be reluctant to solo on, except as a self-imposed challenge. In the low level to mid level game most Controllers have very low damage, and there's some powersets where 2/3 of the powers don't work on yourself so you won't get much utility out of them - Thermal, Empathy and so on. But those are the exceptions. Assuming you don't expect a ranged AT to be as resilient as a melee AT (or a Mastermind) then you can have a rewarding and interesting solo experience with just about any character. As an aside I'd add that while I do mostly solo this is also the game in which I've most often teamed. It's easy to jump onto a PUG and run some missions, and it's fun too. Even a familiar story arc can be a whole new experience if you're running it as part of a full team.

I enjoy the low level game. Seeing a character gradually increase in capability, getting used to each new power before I get the next, seeing how different enemy groups become more or less dangerous at different levels, squeezing maximum utility out of secondary effects like disorient (and knockback) because I can't rely on pure damage, and adjusting my playstyle to take into account that I'm not (yet) an unstoppable DPS machine - all that is just great to me. It was the same on live. At some point around the mid-30s each of my eventual 50s became so honed that they could pretty much trash most missions with little effort. I'd go out of my way to run missions against Malta and KoA and Carnies because they made more interesting opponents than the Freakshow or Council had become by that point. That was before the notoriety settings were changed though. It's the same reason I tend not to slot IOs or do a lot of Orobouros content - I prefer the low to mid level game at its natural level rather than being significantly stronger because I'm exemp'd down. I imagine most people would no more do all of this than I would step into an AE farm, but so long as noone's forcing me to do what they like I won't try to force them to do what I like.

I really wish I could KB a mob again while they're still standing up. I find I actually pay more attention to exactly what a mob is doing when I'm on a KB-heavy character, so as to (hopefully) get the timing right and hit them again only after they're out of the recovery animation. This is probably why I find Snakes (of all things) one of the more troublesome groups to fight - they get up fast, and I can't read their body language like I can on a human(oid) enemy. I agree about the RNG. If possible I like to keep a power with 100% KB in reserve for moments when I really need it but that's not always possible. (then it misses, but at least I can slot for +accuracy) Solutions? My instinct is to say give every power 100% chance for KB but that would make sets like Energy Blast absurdly powerful since you could chain KB after KB after KB and nothing you were fighting would ever spend more than seconds on its feet. Perhaps more realistically I would like to see an IO that you could slot to increase the chance of KB - not the magnitude, but the chance. Those I would slot in a heartbeat.

Yup. Hide is the best travel power of all. I'd agree with most of what you say, with two exceptions. Most of your XP comes from combat rather than mission complete bonuses and if you ghost too much - especially early on - you run the risk of being severely underpowered for the fights you can't avoid. I've been running a Stalker through 1-20 Praetoria and once I realised this I started doing kill alls (or at least kill most) so I'd fill up on new powers for the essential fights. Likewise, and especially in Praetoria, ambushes that home in on you are not a Stalker's friend.

Upon calling Calvin Scott when I entered Neutropolis I was offered an introduction to Crow - the first Crusader contact in the zone, or a mission from Scott himself... which actually turns out to be the start of the final Crusader story arc, though it's not clear that it is until a couple of missions into it. Scott does introduce Aaron Walker at the end of his arc, and Walker does appear in the Find Contact menu, but the natural flow of the contact system that works throughout the rest of Praetoria is off the rails here, and is also very spoiler-heavy if you haven't done the Crusader arc on a different character before. Even more bizarrely, when you finish Scott's arc he then offers to introduce you to Crow again, despite Crow's story arc taking place before Scott's.

+1 I don't know how feasible this would actually be given the drag and drop nature of the enhancement screen, but I have been known to wince at a misaligned enhancement so I'd welcome this.

Absolutely NO. Knockdown/Knockup is not the same thing as Knockback. An Energy/Energy Blaster - for example - does not want a melee heavy Boss mob to be standing right next to them when they get back up, they want them halfway across the room, where they may well waste time using a weaker ranged attack before running back into melee range. If you make good use of the environment (e.g. by knocking a target off a balcony) you can take them out of the fight for even longer. Knockback - used with skill - is a very useful tool. There is absolutely no reason to change this and doing so would ruin some of the most dynamic powers in the game.