biostem

Truly incredible creativity! Cheers!

So I mainly solo, and have been trying out many different ATs and builds. I've never really played controllers extensively, but wanted to try one out. I was thinking of something like Ill/Poi or Ill/FF, since both seem to have some good survivability tools. For /FF, I was considering taking the fighting pool as well, but wasn't sure. Any input from you more experienced folks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

So I was reading through the various dominator secondary (assault) sets, and noticed the martial assault one. That got me thinking - could you create a similar set but with modern weaponry. The things is, I'm kind of on the fence regarding whether using various rifle butt or bayonet-like stabbing attacks would be preferable to either regular melee, (think street justice), or something like broadsword attacks. With the control set already causing you to sheath then redraw your weapon, this set would already be fighting an uphill battle. Your thoughts? 1. Burst 2. Rifle butt (ST melee, chance to stun) 3. Slug 4. Rifle rake (basically a cone version rifle butt) 5. At the Ready (minor +dmg, +tohit +rech buff) 6. Danger close (basically a PBAoE flashbang launched from your AR, which disorients targets and applies -tohit and -defense to them) 7. Ignite 8. Sniper rifle 9. WP buckshot (similar to regular buckshot, but also causes fire damage and applies a minor -tohit to affected targets)

Those are all great binds to exit missions or to quit the character. However, the player just wants to exit the Enhancement Slottting screen, and none of those commands will do that. In fact, it appears that no keypress work on that screen, so nome of the binds you mentined would even work at all on that screen Very much this! I can press M to open the map, then press it again to close said map. I can press T to bring up the target menu, and close it again with the same key. I can bind /manage to a key in order to quickly bring up the enhancement management screen, but there is no way to quickly exit that same menu. That is what I'm trying to figure out...

Thanks for breaking things down. The only thing is that I would scale it so the "horrendous" result is basically "normal" damage but no status effects, and things just go up from there.

So the basic concept is that your character, lacking sufficient funds or due to some other reason, basically uses whatever they have on hand to assail their enemies. The set's gimmick is that there's a random chance that you'll find/use an unusual or otherwise unexpected item. Here's a very basic outline of the set: 1. Throw small item - light, possibly mixed damage types, fast recharge, (basically use the various origin power animations and effects, only scaled appropriate for a blast set). 2. Fire 1-handed weapon - light, possibly mixed damage types - just use the various 1-handed firearm attacks, but you can spawn a simple revolver, a small crossbow, or possibly some high tech alien weapon. 3. Throw handful of small items - this power would basically use something like the blinding powder or caltrops animation, except what you're throwing out could be anything from sand to blind enemies, the aforementioned caltrops that slow enemies, or possibly even marbles, that could trip enemies. 4. Mystery "squirt gun" - You pull out a random water gun-like weapon, which could hose down nearby enemies in a cone with anything from acid (-dmg res) to liquid nitrogen (slow), to plasma of an unknown origin (DoT) 5. Fortune favors the bold - grants a moderate dmg & to-hit buff, but also greatly increases the chance that your attacks will trigger a "better" result. 6. Rocket full 'o fun - you fire off a rocket with an unknown ordinance - it could be high explosive (kb), armor piercing (high dmg, -res), or possibly even containing a rikti monkey that temporarily fights for you. 7. Mystery grenade - You lob a grenade of unknown origin at your enemies - it could just be explosive (kb), plasma (energy, -res), cryogenic (slow), or maybe even a flashbang (stun). 8. Laser designator - You use a laser designator, (though it could just be a fancy laser pointer), to highlight your target. Anything from a couple stray cats to a guided missile from out of nowhere may strike your target, causing anything from a hold effect to heavy damage. 9. Rod from God - Using a high tech communications device that you found somewhere, you input the coordinates of your target. You may get effects varying from temporary superpowered backup to a giant steel rod dropping on your target from orbit, to a portal to hell opening under your target and drawing them in. Now, my thoughts behind this set is that it can be comical or just reflect an extremely lucky character. I was debating having one of the powers grant you two toggles - one that increases the odds of getting the more serious effects, and one that makes you more likely to get the less serious/more comical ones. I would like to have the set stick to using existing animations for ease of construction. Your thoughts? Thanks for reading!

Great to hear! Thanks. Forgot to mention, skip the toggle stun, it's not very good. Oh, ok. Thanks again.

Great to hear! Thanks.

So in my efforts to try out many of the powersets that came out after I stopped playing CoX during its original run, I would like to give Street Justice a go. I want to pair it with something interesting and different, so I'm leaning toward energy aura. In looking at the list of powers that each AT gets, I noticed that stalkers only lose the 2 auto/passive powers, and gain hide + a toggle stun instead. Can anybody give me some insight into this combo? Thanks!

Well, I get what you're saying, but at the same time, a MM is more than just their secondary, while teamed. Not only are your pets completely expendable, but they're another source of damage and can even permit you to tank damage while in bodyguard mode. If you're worried about being useless on a team, then perhaps look into kinetics or dark, then. Even radiation has a lot more tools to bring to bear...

Honestly, if you're going with ninjas, I'd suggest taking a secondary that can provide other benefits besides just heals. Thermal, for instance, offers some shields and buffs. Dark has a heal, plenty of enemy debuffs, and some soft/hard control abilities. As for taking the MM attacks - I'm guilty of doing this sometimes, too, so don't sweat it. :-) Note: Yes, I am aware that empathy does do more than *just* heal, but you don't get fortitude until later, and recovery buffs won't really do much for your pets...

I can't seem to input any key-related commands from within the enhancement management window, if that's what you mean...

What do you mean by a "~30% non attack bug" - do you mean about 30% of the time the beasts don't attack, or do you mean they seem to stand there and do nothing for about 30% of the time? I have a baby beast MM, and the wolves and lioness seem to attack at about the expected rate...

You shouldn't be taking any single power and looking at it outside of the context of the entire power set, though; Some sets excel *because* of their T9s, others because of some other power(s) or combination of powers, while still others have some other built in mechanism/gimmick. Sure, some of the powers could stand a bit of tweaking, but I don't think looking at them in isolation is a good way to go about it...

So I rolled a staff/radiation scrapper last night, and boy is he fun! I was debating street justice, (and I'll probably still roll on of those), but for now this is my "flavor of the minute". Just a few questions: So I took the staff mastery power, and it seems that body is extra damage, mind is extra recharge, and spirit/soul is end discount. They also cause a slightly different effect when you use one of the finishers. It seems that it may be worth it to just keep the buff on yourself, though. I took the 'gamma boost' passive from rad armor. So the tooltip says it gives both an end recovery and regen boost, but the end part is better if your health is high, and the regen part is better when your health is low. My character is only about level 14 atm, so I just put 2 slots in it, (so 3 total), and was just going to eventually put 3 end mod enh's in that and 3 in stamina. Is it worth it to also slot 3 health enh's? I really like the 'guarded spin' power in staff - it seems to grant about 11% def to melee & lethal - should I slot it to grant even more defense? I left CoX shortly after they added the invention enh's, so my traditional SO slotting for attacks was 2 acc, 3 dmg, and either a rech, end, or so on - would something like 2 acc, 3 def, and 1 dmg or rech be a good choice for this power? Lastly, in reading over some of the newer power sets, I see that some, (like RA), had "+absorb" - does that just take a flat amount off of any incoming damage? Thanks again for all your help!

I would suggest willpower - Wolvie definitely has a stubborn, unstoppable personality...

Thanks for the input! I've watched some vids of both STJ and SF on youtube, and while staff does indeed look quite fluid, I think it's too flashy/break-dancey for what I'm going for. I think I'll roll a STJ/RA when I have time. Still, so many choices!!!

Great! Thank you.

LOL! So noted. Any thoughts on either regarding their in-game performance or gimmicks, though?

Hey gang! So I've been really enjoying my return to CoX after so many years, and while I've been playing several other ATs, I'm thinking of returning to the 2nd AT I ever played - namely Scrappers. I'm very much liking the look of radiation armor, but I'm torn between street justice or staff fighting for my primary set. Any insight or opinions? Thanks!

I don't know if fire attacks would be the best fit. Maybe bring in some attacks from broadsword or savage melee would be a better fit, (only typed fire/toxic).

Really, just a simple "stay put" command/stance would do it. It seems odd that there's a "goto" command, but not a "stop in your tracks and don't move" one. Another option would be to allow us to selectively enable to disable pet attacks/powers...

I'll try the /quit command, as that's the only one I found that matches what I'm after, but it also says ESC should do this as well, (which it does not, and I've tried on multiple machines with different characters). So the /quit command isn't it; it just brings up the logout menu, and even then, it doesn't work from within the enhancement management screen. Any other thoughts?

Heh, was thinking it was more thematic for Doms TBH :p This would probably be the best route to take. Maybe interplay the whip attacks with savage melee. and/or some of the beast mastery MM powers - like you do a generic whip gesture and a lion pounces the target for a quick attack, (then it runs off).

I'll try the /quit command, as that's the only one I found that matches what I'm after, but it also says ESC should do this as well, (which it does not, and I've tried on multiple machines with different characters).