Neiska

Sure, but my point is that not everyone cares to know where the tram is, some might spend their entire time in the pocket D, or the AE, or in their base roleplaying, or whatever. Why the obsession about people not knowing where the tram is, or not teaming, or doing any particular activity in question. What activities people like will generally dictate what knowledge they have in a game. So people don't know where the Tram or Ship is? So what? I imagine there will always be people who don't know where something is.

Fair! Far as that game goes what I loathed was the months of dailies for reputation, and then they considered that "content." 😑

Feel your pain @Snarky, kind of how I am feeling on the MMs that I adore. Did a few of the new 3 star content and so on, and there was purple stuff everywhere, which is more or less insta-death to most pets. Especially during big boss fights, where you can't be spamming resummon pets every 10 seconds. The aggro change didn't affect us much, we had extended aggro already. But the harder difficulties aren't very friendly to MMs, at least the one's I have seen so far.

I have to respectfully disagree. It might not be "your" focus, and that is fine. But please consider the following - 1. First the game is old. It came out in April 2004. That's 18 years old. If the game was a person, it would be old enough to join the military, buy a firearm, or vote. With point that in mind, I think it would be a fair assumption to agree that most people have played the game before, and are not first time new players. Some players have alts. Many, many alts. My self included. I have more than ten level 50s on 3 different accounts, and I intend to make even more. I would argue that "making alts" is just as part of the focus of this game as much as any other part of the game, for which other MMO game offers you 1000 character slots per account? But the main point is, is that most people have played the content before. Some people have played it many times. I mean who goes "Oh WOW it was Dollface the entire time?" on their 30th time playing through the Dr. Graves story arc? For such persons, they are more likely to speed onto whatever activity they enjoy, be it endgame content, or farming, or whatever act is their personal focus, which may or may not include "max level stuff." 2. I would also say that it is a fair guess to say that to people who fully level their character to 50, get it fully kitted out and incarnated, has likely spent more time at 50, than time not at 50. 3. People are able to go back and play other content they missed, either by side-kicking or through Ouro. It isn't a "get it now or miss it forever" proposition. 4. I believe there is more content at 50, than at any other 1-10 benchmark. I could be wrong there, but it certainly feels that way. And this isn't even considering things like accolades and so on. I suppose my point is, that endgame content perhaps isn't "your" focus. And I can respect that. If you want to stop, look around, enjoy the moment and the view, then I wish you all the best in a hobby you enjoy. But others have endgame as their focus, or roleplaying as their focus, or playing the market as their focus, or making alts and trying out new ATs/power combinations as their focus, and so on. And their focus is just as valid as your own. The "real game" begins when you click "create character" and whatever you do after that is entirely up to personal likes and dislikes. There is no "focus" in the game, aside from what players themselves choose. Food for thought.

Here we go again!

Hope I don't loose my fight club membership for this but, from what I gather from the "channels that don't exist", there have been things that are, well, rediscovered, or adapted. And those that know aren't giving details, because then those too will end up here as a "Nerf X thing" topic. I am sure things will get out eventually, but the things I am referring to people are being rather tight lipped on right now. First rule of fight club and all that.

Build looks unfinished, and I wince imagining having to sidekick that one down. 😆But impressive numbers nontheless.

Masterminds sort of already can. Each pet has its own aggro table, plus the original mobs for the MM themselves. Thats kind of how MM farming works, "en masse." Your dps per mob isn't anywhere near a brutes but you fight so much more at a time that it's a moot point. The trick is surviving so many mobs, which not every MM is capable of doing.

Oh, sorry. I never played Mercs. Main MMs are Robots and Demons. I can't speak on Mercs. 😆

Im not sure if I understand your question correctly. For my 3 box robot team I use both upgrades. My farming style is different from most. The only time I use the 2nd upgrade is if I am fighting with group fly on. Most times I don't, but it's an option. Hope that helps?

Huh.. that is interesting as well. I knew you could boost like, the t2 demons resist buffs, or robots def bubbles, but didn't think you could put more unique into them and have them benefit further. Now that has me wondering.

Well, whatever they changed shaved about 30 seconds off my 3 box mm farming team. They come to me more now, so I don't have to waste time chasing them down. Not a terrible amount of time, but it is easier to get big, massive groups now. Have seen a few dead outside the AE though, I mean, moreso than usual.

I run two builds on my SoA. Build 1 - Typical Crabbermind, used for teaming. Full double set of toggles, ranged debuffer/AoE damage. Build 2 - Resistance/Def focused crabber. Has pets but they aren't perma, and aren't focused for pet survivability. This is the build I use for solo +4/8 content, as pets can't survive on that setting. Defense capped, with several resists are at 85%, her lowest being psi which is 60 or so. Quite tanky, especially for a hover character. Awesome to solo with. I swap between the builds as needed, solo or teaming. I can play as a normal crabber with pets and all the toggle buffs, or I can go supercrab mode and be extra tough when I am running my own missions.

Thank you for that. I am not sure what Bopper's formula is. But if I am understanding correctly, this means the Performance Shifter has a 1.4% chance, the Energy Manipulator has a 1.9% chance, the Power Transfer heal and Panacea both have a 2.9% chance? Because I have the Panacea actually slotted now, and it seems to fire pretty regularly, at least once per spawn encounter.

Hello Forums, Recently I had rolled a Demons/Nature alt, and had asked how to best slot Living Spores, for healing or for END since it looks a little wonky in MIDS. Someone in discord pointed out that Panacea + hp/end while having a lower proc chance (18% vs 50%) does give it an area effect, meaning it can then proc on pets and teammates. So I started to tinker with it and wondered what else was possible. You can slot it for a few other proc effects, Preventative Medicine +Aborb, Performance Shifter + END, and Power Transfer + heal self. But I don't know how to calculate the proc chances and all that. So, has anyone tried "proc bombing" Living Spores like this? And do they all affect pets/teammates, or just Panacea? Something like this? It's hard to tell if that will work in MIDS, this is what I get from it - Was just wondering, it's something new I haven't tried before or seen much discussion about. But if it works, it might end up being quite good, especially if it can proc END and more Absorbs on pets. Thoughts? Or does anyone know how to figure out the % to proc on a power like this?

It's a low proc chance, like 15% or something, not sure how to calculate that. But as a bonus it does seem to benefit from the Bloom effect from nature as well. Nothing build-breaking by any means, but still something neat to keep in mind.

Actually @The_Warpact I just found something neat out, that /Nature can slot Living Spores with Panacea +hp/end proc and it will carry over to Pets and Teammates. I do agree that this is likely an exception to the rule, but it does make me wonder if there are others.

I wasn't sure I was going to add to this thread. But after some thought I thought it might help posting why I "don't." These are my own personal reasons, and don't reflect on anyone else. 1. First off, I mainly solo, or play with friends. I do very few random teams, and when I do it's usually something like DFB's. But I never "start" them in any case. 2. I often have to go AFK. I am not 16 any more. I have to respond to emails, chores, or step away for a few minutes for any one of the 1000 of reasons required of an adult. When I am solo I can pause whatever I am doing and take those few moments, and continue on when I can. I prefer to think of this as doing others a favor actually, as someone who has to afk often is more of a detriment on teams than a help. And I would sooner avoid having a "leech" reputation and so on. 3. I am actually deaf IRL. I do have a cochlear implant, but I don't wear it all the time. In fact I prefer not to. This means that I miss a lot of the sounds like glowies or even story narrative during cutscenes. Unless I have time to read then I won't fully understand what is going on. I have done story missions with others that I didn't even know what the plot was, or who even the big bad guy is. When I do team with friends, they understand the situation and most times they explain things or the story before we go in, or someone will tell me if there is info I need to know as we go. But expecting this on random teams I think is unrealistic. I also hasten to add that this is nobody's fault, it's just how it is. 4. Not all teams have been positive experiences. I would say it's been about 50/50. Some teams have been fantastic, but others have been terrible. Again, nobody's fault, it's just how it goes sometimes. I have been called names for not noticing a glowie behind me, or suggested that I am unskilled in rather colorful terms. And while I think that is part of the MMO experience these days, I do want to highlight that teaming isn't all sunshine and rainbows either. People can be offensive, or get political, or bring up any number of other hot topics of discussion. Or for me its how most teams assume everyone has done this 1000 times before, so just speed through as fast as possible. I might get lost, or not understand what the changes in mission are. If I even stop to just admire a map, I might get yelled at. Again, not blaming anyone, or even saying this is normal, only that it happens. And it happens often enough that unless there is a badge or something I want, rolling those dice are a dim prospect for me. I would just sooner wait for my friends or SG to do it, than join a random team, much less try to host something that I have little knowledge or experience doing. And yes, some of the forceful/negative attitude here on the forums does bleed over into the game sometimes. The whole "We do it this way, my way, and no other way. Now GOGOGOGOGO." Again, not always, but it is certainly felt. The basic TLDR on "why not?" for me personally is - either it is cumbersome to do with random strangers, or the risk of it actually being more "unfun" than "fun" makes me rather just do my own thing where I am sure I will enjoy myself. So at least for me, it doesn't matter what carrot you try. The stars pretty much have to align for me to join a random team to begin with. To lead one? You might want to buy a lottery ticket. To put that into perspective, I have quite a few characters over vet level 100. A few over 200. One over 400. And I have never done a spaceship raid, or a Hami, or any of those giant teams that others do. I wouldn't even know what the Spaceship looked like if I was standing in front of it. That's now little I do random teaming. Pretty much the only random teaming I do, is as I said before, random DFBs on a new alt for the badges. That's really just about it, aside from opening my AE farm to other random people, should they choose to join me. And I am not trying to derail the conversation here. I only hope that me explaining the "why not" might illuminate things. But yes it is a case of "lead a horse to water" as mentioned before. To put it simply, I would rather spend an hour in the costume editor, or hanging at the pocket D roleplaying, or going down the ski slope, or tinkering in MIDs, actively farming, passively farming, soloing story content, or any other kind of action possible before doing team-only content. Even more so if its with random people. If I was "forced" to join a team, as in that was the only activity I was allowed to do, and I "had" to do it in order to advance fully on my character, incarnate powers and the like, then I would find another game. Not everyone likes or even enjoys teaming. No matter what the reward might be. For any number of reasons. It's really just that simple.

So going by your logic ITFs are over tuned because people are ostracized or strongly encouraged into playing them. Not that I actually believe this is true, just pointing out the fallacy here. And I have yet to see anything that encourages AE. If anything, this thread and others like it discourages its use by the "nerf it" crowd at large. Energy Melee is good for ST, and ST only. The rest? middle of the pack I would say, not so good that they are OP. VS things like, oh I don't know, the RoP, TW, sentinel max target reduction, loss of the teleport code, and so on. Meanwhile, there are sets like Dark Armor that are almost unplayable without Incarnates. Doable? Yes. But it requires popping blue inspirations like candy. And I wouldn't call having to rely on outside tools or measures a good way to "balance" a set. This is doubly true when you assume someone is "old world leveling" their way up entirely through story arc's and contact missions. I would call many sets quite difficult to level in that circumstance. And I hope you and I would both agree that many sets are subpar, only until the very end of character development. I mean, how many builds here on the forums are "once you have Ageless you will be fine"? And yet I have never heard calls to nerf, oh I don't know, Fire Blast, Time Manipulation, Invulnerability, Illusion, Domination, or even the before mentioned Energy Melee. Funny that. Seems to me that some things are perfectly fine to be permitted to be overturned to the point where other builds are (achm) discouraged, by your definition. Lastly, what precisely do you mean by "overtuned?" I mean there are many, many powersets that are capable of things that sets like TW never could do, yet they remain untouched. I mean if we are going by "anyone who can solo an AV/GM" as the goalpost here, TW was hardly unique in that capability and only doable in certain situations. And I am sorry, but I had to laugh when you highlighted TW and said "this deserves commendation" when very few play it now. In your mind, that is a noteworthy feat? To make a set undesirable to play? That's the goal here? Call me skeptical.

I would first like to say normally I agree with you on a lot of things Bill, but I think the active population thing isn't so simple and clear cut as that. 1. First off, COVID. For a year most of the planet was locked indoors, which I suspect led to a lot of people playing computer games more than normal. Now that life has returned to normal, at least in some parts of the world, that might be easing up and people doing other things. 2. The "omg its back!" factor has worn off. HC has been around for a little bit now and the zerg rush to enjoy nolstalga has worn off for most I suspect. Some came back, played, had a good time, and moved on. Some might return, some may be gone for good. Normal activity I'd say. 3. More games have come out, such as Elden Ring that had something like 12 million copies sold in its initial quarter or something like that. I would wager that a good chunk of the players who were here are now moving onto other things, whatever new game attracts them. 4. I do agree with what I believe your general point has been, more nerfs than buffs. And it would be disingenuous for someone to claim that won't affect player population. Some can go "it's for balance purposes" which to me the "why" is irrelevant, when you speak about people leaving. I do hasten to add we can't prove this, it's just a hunch or theory. But I would bet that over-correction has played a part, even if a smaller (or larger) role than some might think. I mean, look at titan weapons - once the most popular set. Now? I rarely see one at all. I have not the head to claim if it is balanced now or not, but I do think it's pretty telling when a set goes from the most popular, to one of the least played with a single change. So, it's kind of a multi-sided issue to my mind. But from where I sit, we have lost more than we have gained. True, we did get a new electrical set, and several updates and changes. But I think we lost more than we gained overall. And these tests of further removing inf gain, or tweaking the merit system, certainly doesn't help matters. Personally, I go by "if it's not broke, don't fix it." So what if some things are over-tuned? Game balance? In CoH? Kind of a moot point to my mind. And we have far more things that "underperform" than "overperform." And we aren't playing for money, titles, championships, so on. For good or bad, changes for the sake of change rarely has a positive effect on a community. And I for one wish they would do their "balancing" in the other direction, as in propping up the weaker sets/ats/powers, instead of bringing down the top things. That doesn't balance anything, that just changes what the next OP thing is. I mean, I can't recall where they took a set that was bad, like mercs, and turned them into something not necessarily the new top pick, but at least viable or competitive. My thoughts about it.

Funny, I find the same handful of people going "Nerf X thing!" Except I don't just casually consider those whose stance I happen to disagree with as trolls, even though some of them have yet to post any actual data, citation, or sources to support their points. I am not saying you, just some among the Nerf crowd are just as likely to make claims without proof. At least I post examples and sources.

The most important bits are the Pet Aura enhancements, which makes your pets tougher. And the Knockback to Knockdown Sudden Acceleration, without it your robot will be pushing things out of your own AoE, which is your primary damaging attack.

@provoked Hello again, Here is a SO build as cheap as I could make, I kept only the "must haves" which is the KB to KD for your T3, and all the Pet Aura enhancements. Here are the highlights - You still hit the DEF numbers. You will have over 45% Def to everything, but this will take using Power Boost and then Foresight. Your Foresight will also have 100% uptime, which will leave you room to take Ageless for END issues you may have. But your resists will be low, but you have bodyguard to compensate. You will also have group fly which is fantastic for robots if you want to have your own team of hover-blasters. You will also have web grenade, in order to trap things in your t3 robots fire pools. Another upside is that you could use this build and just upgrade your slots as you go, no rebuild really required. As far as what difficulty this could do, it's hard to say. You have the defense certainly, but the resists I am not sure about. But I imagine it can do +3/8. But you will definitely need your first Level shift for your pets before you do +4/8 I hope this suits your needs. Again, this is "far" from optimized, but it's the best I could put together when on a very strict budget. Here is a snip of the values. Please note that it is missing 9% def from your T2 pets bubbles. This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.1.2.5 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 50 Technology Mastermind Primary Power Set: Robotics Secondary Power Set: Time Manipulation Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Battle Drones -- CaltoArm-+Def(Pets)(A), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(3), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Acc-I(5), SprCmmoft-Rchg/PetAoEDef(7) Level 1: Time Crawl -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(11) Level 2: Temporal Mending -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(11), EndRdx-I(43), EndRdx-I(46), RechRdx-I(48), RechRdx-I(48) Level 4: Time's Juncture -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(37), EndRdx-I(48), Slow-I(50), Slow-I(50) Level 6: Equip Robot -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 8: Hover -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(34), EndRdx-I(37), EndRdx-I(47) Level 10: Kick -- Empty(A) Level 12: Protector Bots -- DefBuff-I(A), EdcoftheM-PetDef(13), SuddAcc--KB/+KD(13), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(15), SvrRgh-PetResDam(15), SprMarofS-EndRdx/+Resist/+Regen(17) Level 14: Tough -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(23), ResDam-I(23), EndRdx-I(25), EndRdx-I(34) Level 16: Distortion Field -- Slow-I(A), Slow-I(17), Slow-I(19), EndRdx-I(19), EndRdx-I(21), EndRdx-I(21) Level 18: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(43) Level 20: Maneuvers -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(40), EndRdx-I(40), EndRdx-I(40) Level 22: Weave -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(34), EndRdx-I(39), EndRdx-I(39) Level 24: Fly -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A) Level 26: Assault Bot -- SuddAcc--KB/+KD(A), SlbAll-Build%(27), Acc-I(27), Dmg-I(29), Dmg-I(29), SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31) Level 28: Farsight -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(31), DefBuff-I(31), RechRdx-I(33), RechRdx-I(33), EndRdx-I(33) Level 30: Group Fly -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A) Level 32: Upgrade Robot -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 35: Web Envelope -- Immob-I(A), Immob-I(36), Immob-I(36), EndRdx-I(36), EndRdx-I(37) Level 38: Scorpion Shield -- DefBuff-I(A), EndRdx-I(39) Level 41: Chrono Shift -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(42), Heal-I(42), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(43) Level 44: Photon Grenade -- Dmg-I(A), Dmg-I(45), EndRdx-I(45), EndRdx-I(45), Acc-I(46), Acc-I(46) Level 47: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(47) Level 49: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 1: Supremacy Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(7), Heal-I(9) Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(9) Level 50: Musculature Total Core Revamp Level 50: Ion Total Core Judgement Level 50: Ageless Total Core Invocation Level 50: Support Total Core Graft Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface Level 1: Battle Drone Level 26: Assault Bot Level 12: Protector Bot Level 24: Afterburner ------------

Speak for yourself. I still had to shelve my hover blaster who relied on RoP and Barrier to survive. And my Widow. And my Stalker. The enflame update was nice for MMs though.

Funny, because I shown your comments to my co worker who has a masters in finance and he laughed too. Here, its actually pretty easy to prove you wrong - Lets say you and bill gates both are buying a hamburger. He has vastly more wealth than you do, yet pays the same price. How does your bank account balance affect the price? It doesn't. They are going to charge based on the market, which is supply and demand. We do agree that Supply chases demand, which determines the price, which has been my point this entire time. Glad to see we finally agree on something. But here, I will do you one even better. Show me one real life example where a government cut wages to stop inflation. Go ahead. Tell me a government that has done that. Oh, You can't? Want to know why? Because it's never been done before. Some governments have set fixed prices for things, but that is not the same as lowering peoples wages, which is what you are suggesting. Here, I will even cite a source for you. Here is a snip from the WEF (World Economic Forum) And that would be check and mate. Moreover, I find it funny you keep using ad hominem statements rather than addressing my points. Not once have you presented math, proof, or anything that supports your point aside from "trust me."