Machariel

oops double post

Well... none of the other T9s have power prerequisites. But the point is well taken. I would dispute this - indeed if after you use the power you're still fighting the same enemies as you were when you started, then yeah. But presumably you were defeating enemies or beat the AV or whatever during that time, so once the power wears off you should be in a safer situation than you were when you started?

Broadly speaking, I like the idea of Tier9 Armor Powers having drawbacks, including the possibility of endurance crashes. I like that they force the player to make choices about when and how to use the power, as opposed to being something that you can account for in mids as part of the given 'stat block' of your character. Or, in other words, they're situational powers like Dimension Shift and Black Hole, and about as popular. And that's cool, I like having situational powers in the game that might be more or less useful based on what I'm doing. When I have powers like Rise of the Phoenix, I know I have the option to play more aggressively in a way that I wouldn't be able to do if I relied purely on Awakens. Or if I'm speedrunning missions and spending most of my time outside of combat, the crash from something like Power Surge might not matter to me. etc. Like all situational powers it's a question of 'how many use cases are there' and 'are those use cases frequent enough for the cost', because all powers have a cost / drawback, even if it's just the minimum opportunity cost of what those slots/powers could have been. I also kind of like the variety in the tier9s and find them fun and flavorful. I like having that variety in the game and I think it's part of what makes Electric "feel" electric. "Meltdown" from Rad Armor is a good example of what I mean - it provides a small but steady res/rec/damage bonus, at the end of which there's a small endurance crash. Normally a small end crash is no big deal, but if you've mismanaged your end during the fight then it turns off all your radiation shields (aka toggles) in a critical failure, which IMO is super flavorful. I think I'd like to see the self-revive powers get some modest utility that you can use while you're alive, which would put the power on cooldown. I guess we could remove "hard crashes" if by that we mean powers that just set your endurance to 0 as opposed to cause you to lose a fixed (and thereby manageable) amount.

My order-of-operations for the Gaussian Proc is to slot it in Build Up over Aim and in Aim over Tactics. I found myself not really enjoying pressing both build up keys before attacking (I'm impatient!), and usually accuracy isn't an issue, so I stick the proc in the one that makes me do more damage. If I really want to nuke stuff hard then I go Aim + Build Up to maximize the amount of attacking time with the peak damage buff. So on my Blaster it's in Build Up, on my Fortunata it's in Aim (though you could make a good case that it should be in Follow Up, probably?), and on my /Fire Dominator it's in Tactics, where she has no other options. I wonder where the best place for it is on a Warshade... in Nova or in one of the Mires?

I have played approximately one bajillion hours of Plant/Fire/Fire - Blightfire was my main back on live and is up to vet level 160 on homecoming. Here's the build I currently have slotted: I've chosen not to worry too much about defense (hitting exactly 32.5 ranged defense) or resistance (running almost the bare minimum) in favor of recharge and damage procs. My philosophy on surviveability on this character is to rely on Seeds of Confusion, which is enough 99% of the time. Seeds + Roots + Strangler [for any dangerous enemies that got super lucky] is pretty much all I use, but if it all goes sideways then I just use Rise of the Phoenix and try again. I did a few Fire Farms though and kill speed + insp drops was enough to keep me alive 😮 My thoughts on some specific powers: Fire Blast - For a very long time I took Incinerate over Fire Blast so that I could slot Hecatomb into it, but I'm much happier having swapped it out for Fire Blast so that I can be pure ranged. Definitely recommend. I'm not 100% sure about my slotting for Fire Blast here since I'm not getting the most value out of the Build Up proc and for a long time that proc was in Blazing Bolt, where it went off a LOT. Roots - I hear people say that they use this power for damage, but, it's a pretty long DoT and does significantly less DPA than Fire Breath, a power that people routinely skip. For me, I just use Roots as the only place where I can slot the full Ascendancy set since the bonuses are too good to pass up and there's no other place I would possibly want to put it. Not putting it in either Hold powers because 4pc Basilisk's gaze is just too efficient, definitely not putting it in Seeds because the Coercive Persuasion set is also amazing, so, Roots it is. Fire Breath - related, a lot of people skip this, but I actually like it. It has a cool animation and even at 50 I still use it once in a while. I'm very glad I have it when I'm exemplared down below 30ish, when I lose access to Fireball and Rain of Fire. Consume - Even with Ageless and Domination on a 70 second cooldown, once in a while I'll use Consume. This character really goes through endurance fast. Opening a fight with Carrion Creepers (26 End) + Rain of Fire (26 End) + Fire Ball (12 End) is more than half your blue bar in like 4 seconds. Also it's a lifesaver if I'm using a different Destiny power as I sometimes do (sometimes I'm on Barrier or Incandescence) Fly Trap - waaaaay back on Live, I skipped Fly Trap because I RP'd this character heavily and Fly Trap didn't fit the concept. I'm sure it's a good pet but I've never felt like I was missing something, but I have to admit I've never tried it out.

Out of curiosity I just did a few runs of that map (only two as it was late). The first time I died once and took about 7m30s (and ignored the buffer), the second one zero deaths and about 6min. Definitely not speedrun times but I think not bad considering these are my defensive stats... there was a lot of insp eating and a little bit of mob kiting. Definitely at the start of the run it's tougher since you can only confuse/hold so many enemies at once but the mobs thin out very quickly to where it's just confused bosses beating up on each other. Probably if I had capped fire def/resist that's what I'd do - run to each mob and quickly nuke minions and LTs and then gather all the bosses together as much as possible. Still, that I was able to do it at all relatively smoothly is really a testament to the strength of Plant Control since I have almost zero damage mitgation from my secondary, ancillary, and incarnate powers. Seeds of Confusion and Carrion Creepers absolutely do not screw around. Edit: I also got 2 purple recipes out of the deal! 😆

??? i just use a snipe or sweeping cross if the AS proc goes off and CU isn't up yet, it's not worth waiting around for. although with the discussion on another thread about 'lockout' on the AS proc going off it does seem like it goes off every other time I use AS which lines up very nicely with CU, since CU has about twice the recharge.

My understanding and I could be wrong: 1) PVP drops can drop from any content, I would say at a rate in between rare recipes and purple recipes. I have no idea if they drop more frequently in PVP content. 2) PVP IOs have a second set of bonuses that is only active in PVP content (their first set of bonuses always applies) 3) PVP IO set bonuses are like that of purples or attuned enhancements and are always active regardless of level 4) The PVP procs do more damage / fire more often (?) against other players, but are on par with the standard 3.5ppm damage procs in PVE.

I 'farm' on my Plant/Fire/Fire, but its on battle maiden-style maps (specifically, the battle maiden mission). Definitely not slow in terms of clear speed but can't handle sitting at the aggro cap, so no asteroid farms for me.

>Is there a quiet suburb? Croatoa?

I'd really like to see one based on the whip attacks from Demon Summoning. I think Thunderspy has it under Psychokinetic Assault.

I leave Hasten on auto and manually click the Domination power. My build has a lot of leeway in Domination (like 20+ seconds) and frequently I want to delay Domination by a little bit so that I can make good usage of the endurance bar refill. Once in a very long time I'll miss it, but usually I'm looking for the power because I need more endurance anyway!

I would recommend that you slot Ball Lightning with a few damage procs (my personal choice is 5pc positron's blast, skipping the one with a recharge component, and the bombardment proc) rather than for mitigation as it is a great attack and you have spinning strike if you need AoE knockdown, but overall StJ/EA/Mu sounds very strong and your build looks good. I have two xxx/EA/Mu stalkers and endurance definitely isn't a problem as long as you're vigilant with energize (i frequently forget to use it if i'm not taking damage though, haha).

The CoH character generator is great, but even with all the sliders turned down it's tough to get a male character to look sufficiently fe- oh, you meant the power set! my bad. I have not been impressed with Traps. IMO it only has a few powers that are conventionally 'good' - Caltrops, Acid Mortar, Force Field Generator, and Poison Trap. And even these, which are the best of Traps, don't strike me as being that good. Their modifiers aren't significantly different from debuff powers in other sets and they come with significant drawbacks like the setup time and the fact that your powers can be destroyed. People say that it solos well, but I think that's just a polite way of saying that when you're solo you get to play at the slower (in my opinion, glacial) pace that Traps really works at. Maybe I just don't like the set.

I've tried kin/ea, db/ea, stj/rad, and bs/shield. I wound up not enjoying bs/shield, but the other three each have something that stood out. Kin/EA was definitely the most fun overall and exemplars down the nicest, but the other two are definitely stronger characters. Currently putting together a savage/ice!

Parry does stack with EA; generally speaking everything in this game stacks with everything else. I wouldn't say there's a 'clash' with Parry and EA, but I would say that Parry should be pretty much redundant with /EA's defenses, which are excellent, and anyway any time you're casting parry is time that you're not doing damage. Energy Aura plus tough and weave and set bonuses can definitely be 'incredibly tough' or as far as any Stalker can be. A brute will be tougher no matter what (higher resist caps, more HP) but 🤷‍♂️ Stalkers are plenty sturdy. I was gonna recommend Ninja Blade over Broad Sword, but I won't, not because it's not better (it is) but because I see what you're going for with the Broad Sword animations which I do think fit Vader's character better (assuming you're going off of the Ep IV-V-VI lightsaber fights more than the flashier prequels). I assume you'll go Mu mastery for the lightning which is excellent because Mu is very good. 👍

My main, Blightfire, is a Plant/Fire/Fire dominator. Now, a big part of her character concept is that she has exactly one core skillset: indiscriminate, fiery, vine-based destruction. RP-wise she is pretty useless or counterproductive in all other situations and is accordingly misanthropic. And, I love my main, so my favorite CoX memory is the one where I felt most like my main. I remember one Lambda Sector Trial where the rest of the league wanted the XP so they decided to clear all the IDF on the streets, but I was cheeky and jumped the walls and started working on the mobs inside. Confused IDF do tons of damage to each other especially when tightly grouped up and there's no other teammates to interfere with things like holds or debuffs 😳 so Blight's just absolutely giving them hell, and as I'm jumping from mob to mob I'm watching the rest of the team steadily circle around the map. I don't know if everything just clicked for me or if the rest of the team just had relatively slower composition, but I finished clearing the last group inside just as the outer ring was cleared. This story stands out for 2 reasons for me: 1) The sliding doors opening to reveal an empty courtyard and my character there just /e waiting, just tapping her feet 😎 2) someone chiming in chat, "Well, looks like SOMEONE ate their Wheaties today!" 😆 And just for a second I felt like my character had the spotlight 🙂

in general chat ”stalkers are bad, placate slow” they must learn focus

I remembered hearing that in bind files it'll execute the commands back-to-front, which as far as I can tell is completely false and maybe I had made it up, but at least it (and your post) gave me a concept for a kind of zen beat poet that rapped backwards. 😂

Cool find! I wonder if there's any speed strats that would be improved by this finding. 💡 Also I wonder why the S/L defense caps out but the heal mod keeps increasing 🤔

try /bind z "local you suck, $target!" edit: useful resource: https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/The_Incomplete_and_Unofficial_Guide_to_/bind

Cool idea! The first thing that comes to mind is an awakened, freed, "next generation", or otherwise independent Paragon Protector. You could play this a lot of ways conceptually - you could lean into the horror and the identity crisis aspect which is probably what I'd do, or you could play it up for laughs. Also while in theory Paragon Protectors could have any powersets, in-game you have 3 patterns - Claw, Power, and Quill. Name: Paragon Protector MD Powers: Illusion/Empathy Controller Bio: 🎶 knockback and heals out the wazoo, that's just what the protectors do 🎶 My pick for the next badge: Seeker of Monsters

Donations open up on the end of the month for as long as it takes for donors to cover the monthly bills. I've only been able to donate once because the donation system shuts down as soon as the monthly goal is met which happens very fast! I think the longest it's taken was like four days. June's bills were covered within 30 minutes of the donation window opening 😮

He did his time, was released on parole, volunteered in his community, and was a free man at the time of his death. What is your point? How is his history even remotely relevant? You're right that I don't care what his life was like. Because it doesn't matter. Literally a single tiny bit. What matters is that an unarmed man posing no threat was killed by four police officers in broad daylight and it took days and riots to even START getting justice - arresting all four officers. We'll see if justice winds up being served. Wanna bet?

Might be a stupid question but are you 100% positive it's not the "patrol XP" that accrues automatically when you log out? It was added I think relatively late in the game's life and kind of looks like debt in the UI.