biostem

This could be interesting, but I kind of feel like the whole random recipe mechanism was put in place to somewhat stem the flow of the aforementioned "frankenslotting"...

Love this one! Great use of the slime aura! Cheers!

I love me some trick-or-treating! AFAIK, only 1 of the servers is in Europe....

I appreciate the reply, but AFAIK, there is no command to specifically dismiss ONLY 1 pet. There is release_pets that dismisses all of them, but not just one. I can work through the other commands - it's just this key part that I'm missing. Thanks!

Gameplay has always trumped graphics, for me. I just can't understand why people won't look past polygon counts or such...

The phrasing here confuses me; How would "user content" ever be canon? Are you proposing the devs either continue the storyline, and have their content be considered "canon", are you proposing they hold some sort of contest to have players submit content will will be made official? Are you suggesting they seek out former devs/writers to continue the storyline(s)? Given that the HC devs are supposedly in talks with NCSoft to legitimize the game, how would that affect this proposal? Can you elaborate?

You can withstand multiple gunshots at point blank range, right from the start, and that's even the squishiest ATs. That armor Stark used to escape the terrorist camp was, in fact, Iron Man mk1. He even has to revisit this armor in a few comics. I'm not sure what your reasoning is to say that "The Kitty Pryde in X-Men who ran through the wall was not Shadowcat" - it absolutely was. Yet at the same time, a single gunshot would kill her, if she didn't time her phasing perfectly. "Superman" was just the moniker Clark Kent adopted in order to protect himself and those he loved, while he was superheroing. Now, you could argue that "Clark Kent" was always the moniker, and "Superman" is his true identity, but my point still holds - Clark Kent *is* Superman, (not including one of those alternate realities or "what if's" where they are actually separate people in some literal way). If you don't want to defend your position anymore, that your prerogative, but don't pretend to think that only you have the correct perspective...

So I've been leveling up a necromancy MM, and was wondering if there was a way to create a keybind that would allow me to dismiss an individual pet, target it, then cast soul extraction. I know I can release the individual pet via a right-click on it from the pet window, then use something like "target_custom_next defeated mypet" to target that released pet, and I'm of course familiar with the powexecname soul extraction command... I'm just looking for a way to put it all together. Thank you for your help!

Inspirations are there to be used - they'll give you that little edge you may need, until you get your footing. Are you slotting endurance reductions in your defensive toggles and attacks? Without those, and only just relying on stamina, you'll be sucking wind in no time. It's also a good idea to get into the habit of *not* firing off those AoE attacks if there's only 1 or 2 enemies. As an /invuln, you also have a bit of a hole with regard to psychic enemies - so if you;re facing those, that could also explain why you're not fairing so well. Additionally, without a good amount of defense, you're going to be hit a lot - even if you have high resists, enemy attacks that carry debuffs can really pile up and ruin your day. Keep at it, or alternatively, give this character some time off, and try something different... maybe you just need a change of perspective for a little bit.

Even without bodyguard, a MM could easily send in 1 or more pets to absorb the alpha strike, and while those pets would probably die, they are easily replaced. With proper slotting on certain secondaries, even before IOs were introduced, you could withstand a pummeling for at least a little while, too. Yes, bodyguard mode absolutely helps, but it's not necessary in all circumstances...

Because you don't start out as fully-realized superman. It's more like we start as infant/young child superman, who was unusually strong for a kid his age, and perhaps could lift the dog over his head at age 5. Supes wasn't the way he is now until years, maybe even decades, after his landing on Earth. Dash would likely have died from a single gunshot, yet he has his superspeed from the get-go. Our characters have likely survived dozens of gunshots to face by the time we can get superspeed. Many X-Men characters went until their early teens before having any powers, then spontaneously gained them through some traumatic effect, (or just puberty) - that kind of experience would be more like you using just brawl and sprint until level 12 or so, without leveling up, then suddenly unlocking all those earned powers at once. And guess what - you can play that way if you want - just play your normal/unempowered self until you've gained enough levels to "start" your superheroic career.

Hmmm.... I'd go like this: Brutes - Tankers/Scrappers Stalkers - Scrappers Corruptors - Blasters/Defenders Dominators - Controllers/Blasters Masterminds - Defenders/Tankers/Blasters

Well, I was actually thinking it'd be available about as often as a stalker's AS. My idea was that you could distract a group then basically get the jump on them. Of course, they wouldn't get a placate-like effect to immediately fire off a 2nd one. Basically, they'd be a sort of AoE-alpha-strike master, where stalkers are about single targets.

Not to sound too cynical, but I wonder how much of the "spaghetti code" was due to them rushing and how much was due to them wanting to keep a degree of job security - the ones who programmed the code probably know how it works, but those unfamiliar, (and with the lack of commenting), have an uphill battle to fight, in order to add stuff to it...

Well, not too "stalkery", but I'm not a fan of "chance to" type effects that would probably be vital to this AT's survival. What do you think of the "distraction" idea?

Given what has been talked about with this AT, I kind of feel like they should have a "distraction" or "misdirection" inherent, instead of stealth & crits. What if they had something that kind of acted like a confuse, but when enemies were so "enchanted", it would then trigger a form of domination/containment. Basically, you trick/distract/deceive your opponents, and now you can land your attacks & abilities for more damage and with a greater impact, (read: bonus magnitude to mez & debuff effects). I'd almost treat this like a sleep effect, (i.e. you can land non-damaging effects without disturbing them), only with a different animation... EDIT: I was kind of thinking - imagine if there was a location-based click power, (let's call it "distract"), which is kind of like the stereotypical scene in a movie where you throw a stone and all the villain mooks go and see what that noise was. It'd have a decently sized AoE, and all affected enemies would go to the target location, have their perception debuffed, and be susceptible to your (or your team's) negative status/mez effects...

Well, I always kind of thought of brutes as the unholy, (but quite effective), offspring of tankers + scrappers, but your point is taken. Dominators are, IMO, a whole 'nother animal - kind of a controlling blapper-thing. 😰

I really like this one! Great play on names, too!

So, there are a few factors here that aren't known, and need clarification before we can properly address your predicament: 1. What difficulty and team size is your notoriety set to? If you're having trouble soloing on like +4/x8, then that's not too concerning. If you, however, are having problems with -1/x1, then we'll need to dig into your build and playstyle. 2. How are you slotted? Do you have, for instance, yellow and red SOs? Are your defensive toggles slotted with 3 DEF or RES enhancements and 1 endurance reduction? How about stamina? Do you have it 3-slotted with endurance modification enh's? 3. Are you actively using your inspirations? Even a little purple luck can save your butt, and a few blue "catch a breath" insp's can make or break a fight. That being said, I'm going to go against the trend here a bit, but please hear me out: Try this combo - claws/bio armor. I know it sounds weird, but I've found it quite effective. For claws, your key powers will be follow up and eventually focus/shockwave. Follow up grants you a nice tohit and damage buff, which can be made to be permanent with minimal effort. For bio armor, you'll want your basic toggles, (Hardened Carapace, Environmental Modification, and Evolving Armor), plus Inexhaustible and Adaptation. Now, the key thing with bio armor is that inexhaustible will keep your endurance full and health topped off. while adaptation will give you 3 mutually exclusive toggles. These toggles, (in simple terms), boost your damage, increase your survivability, or help with end issues. Claws, besides the nice self-buff and some ranged attacks, is also fast-recharging and light on end use itself. All I can say is to give this combo a try!

Before I even knew about power pools, I recall being jealous of a friend who had taken hover, while I was genuinely nervous that I wouldn't be able to make it out of Perez Park alive...

I'm not able to log in ATM; Does anybody have pics of these characters? I'm only familiar with Coyote... Thanks!

I'll let this *steep* for a few minutes. Or should I just *leaf* it alone?

Here's a process I've tried a few times, and it's worked rather well; Since CoH is a fairly old game at this point, and if you either have a powerful computer or a second computer that can run the game at all, then create a "farming" account. Basically, just create something like a brute or scrapper, with some fast-recharging low level powers, (I find a claws/bio brute works great for this), athen have them team up with a character from your main account, and run tunnel missions in the AE. That'll allow you to get some quick levels, to get out of those "pre-key-powers" time in your character's career, so you can focus on the higher levels or those periods of your character's career that you find more enjoyable.

So, there are a few powersets in most ATs that allow you to reach ever so slightly beyond what that AT's typical role/gimmick is. We've all heard the stories or experienced it first hand where this approach doesn't work, but for this thread, I'd love to hear your stories about where it actually worked very well. For instance, I've seen some amazing gravity controllers who practically play like blasters. I've seen at least 1 claws stalker who managed to really take advantage of the ranged attacks in that set. What sort of "outliers" have you seen? Which unexpected combinations that extend/break the boundaries of, an AT's typical role, have you witnessed or uncovered? Thanks!

I think the first mistake the OP made was thinking that playing the AH/farming/focusing so heavily on IO sets was "the game". They're undoubtedly part of CoH, but to focus so much on them, seemingly to the detriment of everything else, is, well, self-destructive. If there's an aspect of the game you don't like, then don't play it, (or minimize it as much as possible). For instance, I dislike having to worry about my enhancements turning red, so I'll generally not bother slotting anything until I can craft level 25 IOs, then just stick with them until 50 or so. It may not be ideal, but it's a big headache that I no longer have to deal with. I dislike running out of end while playing, so I'll either take sets that have additional ways of recovering end, or I'll slot a few red redux enhs. My DPS may suffer, but to me it's more fun to have no downtime than to top the charts. Similarly, while I, as a general rule, won't abandon a team mid-mission, I will excuse myself from said team after it is complete, if one or more members is "toxic" or otherwise diminishing my play experience. If you insist on participating in a system that makes you miserable, (and let's keep this to games for this thread), then whose fault is it if you come away from the experience, miserable?