biostem

Thank you! I'm probably going to roll a corruptor.

Yes, I recall seeing that happen to people. A key difference that I'm trying to acknowledge with my suggestion is that there really isn't a full time staff to sit around checking costumes against names and generic-ing players. A simple block-list *should* be easy to implement, and would require far less manpower, while giving the devs the protection of saying that they have measures in place to prevent base-level infringement.

Now I'm not a pro by any stretch of the imagination, and having dealt with a severe case of "altitis" since CoH's original launch, I've looked for ways on how to try out a build and see if I like it. When the game was live, character slots were in much shorter supply, so having so many available to us here is both a blessing and a curse. I'm not going to say that my approach is best, and I've definitely drawn from other guides posted to these forums. Anyway, here is a simple breakdown of what I've found to work *for me* with regard to quickly leveling up a character and building a lot of wealth with them: 1. Create any character you want. One important caveat is to look at what level various powers become available. Keep "level 6" in the back of your mind, (it'll come into play later). For controllers, I lean toward taking their single target immobilize and arcane bolt from the sorcery pool, if they don't have any other good ways of dealing damage against a contained target. Most other ATs don't have this issue, so just take whatever you like. 2. Talk to the respective "P2W" vendor in your starting zone. Get all of the prestige attack powers, one of ninja/beast run, and one of jump pack/steam jump. Also take the double XP buffs. You can also get the prestige starting enhancements, (just be aware that while you can claim multiple of the same type, you can only actually slot 1 of each). I suggest getting the "Inner Inspiration" prestige power, as it grants you 3 medium or large inspirations every 30 minutes, and selling at least 1 of these will give you some easy seed money for the auction house. 2a. Optional: Use the "Inner Inspiration" power (make sure you have room for 3 insps (inspirations)), then sell 1 to the nearby vendor and post the other 2 on the AH (Auction House). I find that lucks sell for the most, and insights/second wind type sell for less. Any tier 3 insps sell for a good amount. Just list them for 1 on the AH, as you'll still get "market value" for them. 3. Defeat a few low level enemies until you get to level 2. Go and train up, and I suggest grabbing another attack power if one is available. 3a. Optional: Defeat a few more until you hit level 4. You can immediately head to the AE building after step 3, but sometimes getting another power before you do so is quite helpful. 4. Head to the nearest AE building, (check your map). I recommend using the run and jump pack powers you selected from the P2W vendor to get up to the balcony on the upper floor, as it'll save you some time having to go into the lobby, then using the elevator. 5. Use one of the AE terminals and search for "tunnel". The current popular one is a Witch Tunnel mission. Select it, choose "Architect Rewards", talk to the contact, then enter the mission via the big portal in the middle of the room. If you've left your difficulty settings on their default levels, then you should just encounter individual witch bosses. Take your time, and initiate combat with the first one you see. They should yield good rewards, and a decent amount of AE tickets every so often. 6. After you complete a run, (during which you should have gained a good number of levels), go back to the trainer and level up. Now, here's where things get a bit tricky - the mission will auto-exemplar/malefactor you down to about level 1, but you'll retain access to all your powers up until level 6. In other words, powers you've selected AFTER level 6 will not be made available to you, while in the witch tunnel AE mission. Keep in mind that around level 10, you'll gain access to an entire new build, so keep your focus on a set of powers available to you from level 6 and under, for the time being. You can always create your "true" build later on. 7. Keep repeating the tunnel mission until you have over 540 AE tickets, (you can check them in your salvage menu). Go talk to the AE rewards vendor, who is up the spiral staircase above the teleporter you entered the mission from. Buy any piece of rare/orange invention salvage and sell it on the AH for 1 influence/infamy. You can list it higher if you're concerned about being undercut or losing money, but that will require about a 10% listing fee. You should be able to get 300-500K per piece of rare salvage. You'll also gain several levels as you progress. Keep in mind that while you won't gain access to powers above level 6, you will still be able to utilize enhancement slots for those early powers. If you keep that in mind, and intend to keep farming, then slot up those early powers to maximize your effectiveness. 8. After you've reached an amount of wealth that you feel comfortable with, and assuming you've reached level 12, (and later 22), then buy yourself some DOs (dual-origin enhancements), using AE tickets. Important note about buying DO or SO enh's from the Architect vendor - make sure to select the origin that matches your character, or you won't be able to slot said enhancements. Also be aware that said vendor doesn't have the full selection of DO enhs, (for instance, they don't sell endurance modification DOs). I also recommend buying a mix of the common tech and arcane salvage items from the AE reward vendor, as you'll need them eventually. The level 10-25 ones should be good for your initial foray into inventions down the line. You'll need about 2-3 million inf to fully outfit yourself with level 25 IOs, (invention-origin enhancements), but that doesn't include all the salvage you'll need, hence my earlier instruction to buy those too. That's basically all there is to it. Keep in mind that this doesn't give you a genuine experience regarding how your character will operate with their full suite of powers, and you're really only going to be fighting weak single bosses in the tunnel mission. You'll also be missing some very good story arc missions if you do this, (though there are ways of revisiting them later on via flashback). Regardless, for those that have played through all those story arcs or just want to quickly test out a build at low-mid levels, then this method is very good. The IOs that I mentioned will also never degrade, so you can use them until you get to 50, then respec to free them for sale or auction. I also want to be very clear that I do not think this is "the best" or the "the correct" way to level and outfit your character. Cheers!

Bots MMs' beam rile attacks don't interact with disintegration, do they? Either way, I'm somewhat interested. :-) @biostem

If the oil slick is actually a named object in-world, then you should be able to use something like "targetcustomnext oil slick".

Then the best route would be to go the "due diligence" route and implement a simple list of blocked names - keep said list fairly strict, though - so "Wolverine" would be blocked, but making "Trog the Rabid Wolverine" who is completely different, should be allowed.

Ooh! I shall try that. Thank you!

I foresee someone accidentally hitting this then getting upset that they just lost all their very expensive items, (since there's no buy-back option from vendors). Perhaps if there was a way of flagging certain items as "junk", (with a confirmation message), then adding a button to "sell items marked as junk" would work, but it still seems like it'd cause more problems than it would solve...

Thank you to all who replied. I still haven't fund a way to bind a command to a double-click, so I've taken to using either mousechord, (both buttons pressed simultaneously), or keys around WASD, (such as q, e, or `). I've used shift, ctrl, or alt + a key in other circumstances as well. If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears. Thanks!

I can only speak for myself, but what gets me to want to play a character is if I come up with a concept I want to try out; The actual effectiveness/capabilities are secondary. Sure, I don't want to faceplant all the time, but regular content is easy enough if you're willing to be patient & careful...

NP. Thanks again! :-)

I know about that. I was specifically looking for a way to bind double-clicks. I also mentioned the mousechord, which is both right & left mouse buttons pressed simultaneously. Thank you, though.

Just a note - AFAIK, if you go the Crab Spider route, (the one with the spider backpack), you pretty much can never get rid of it on that character, even if you respec and choose a Bane Spider instead, so just be aware of that.

Here ya go: Arachnos Soldiers Arachnos Widows

So I was doing some research online, while trying to figure out some ways of maximizing my QoL while playing. I was trying out a beam rifle/plant blaster, but one thing I wanted to be able to easily do was to toggle hover without having to hunt around for the key said power was associated with. I tried mbutton, but soon realized it replaced my ability to hold the middle mouse button down to pan around my character. I settled on mousechord for the time being, since I don't really use click to move. Is there a way to bind a power to a double-click? I've read up on some of the binds that allow you to have hover on while remaining still, and switch to flight when moving, but I'm not quite at that level yet. Also, how do I restore the ability to pan around while my middle mouse button (the mouse wheel) is held down? I tried "NoP" and that just cleared the previous bind, and mouselook wasn't it either. Thank you all in advance!

I wonder if they could implement a power that "collapses" your henchmen into/onto you. Maybe have it where unsummoning a henchman at full health instantly recharges the associated summoning power... Alternatively, how difficult would it be to offer a command, like "follow_close", that dramatically shortens the pet tethering distance?

Ah. I guess I'll have to stick to using " 'n " or "and", then... 😞

There are some pieces that have the metallic reflection on them. It's tough because, AFAIK, that sort of reflectivity/texture is baked into individual costume pieces, (unlike Champions Online, where they have different material options for the same piece).

There's the beginner's luck bonus that helps in the early levels, and most enemies in that range are rather easy. Yes, you don't have a lot of powers to pick from, but that's alleviated by the P2W vendor's "prestige powers" and XP boosters. Yes, for an experienced player, those early levels can be tedious, but there are ways to speed past them. There are also powers to boost your tohit or power sets that have inherently higher base accuracy. Personally, I don't even bother slotting TOs, since you spend relatively little time in the pre-DO range.

Dark armor has always been an odd animal - you have lots of tools to debuff enemies, but lack kb protection, (thus making you dip into leaping - acrobatics). You do gain fear protection, which is somewhat rare, and the self heal is nice. It's a very end-hungry set to run. Back on live, I used to toggle armor powers on and off a lot, and generally relied upon combat jumping and acro for most encounters, only toggling on the full suite if I really needed it.

No, what I'm saying is that if you get hit with a bunch of defense debuffs, you can just up your defense to kind of counter it, (i.e. eat some grapes). If you get hit with damage resist debuffs, up your damage resist to compensate, (oranges).

That still doesn't make sense - if you want to be better prepared for defense debuffs, eat more lucks. If you want to address damage resist debuffs, eat more oranges...

Well, I have a few thoughts on this matter: 1. I could see adding a set of inspirations that basically act like power boost, in that they boost the buff/debuff/control effects of your powers. 2. It seems to me that, for instance, granting extra defense is how a luck combats defense debuffs. Having it grant both extra defense AND protection from defense debuffs seems kind of redundant. 3. There does seem to be an odd delay, in some instances, between the time you click on an inspiration and when it actually takes effect. 4. I could see being able to downgrade an inspiration in exchange for being able to select one of a different type. Cheers!

I'm not at a computer where I can install the character planner ATM, but generally speaking, you can skip the 2 invisibility powers in illusion, and possibly fallout in radiation. Other than that, hasten really helps keep your phantom army up as often as possible. If you plan on doing a lot of soloing, then keep in mind that illusion may be a bit tougher to keep containment on enemies, (particularly bosses), since it lacks the mag 4 immobilize that many other control sets have. Still, you wouldn't need to tap into sorcery or another pool for a dedicated attack, since you have spectral wounds, (just slot your single target hold for acc & recharge, and spectral wounds for acc & damage so you kill enemies quickly and avoid the health recovery they eventually get from it).

As the thread title states, could we please be permitted to use the ampersand (& symbol) in our character's names? Thank you!