Neiska

Hello Spock, Here's a breakdown - Necro - is regarded as one of the strongest, if not the strongest. It boasts a lot of -tohit from the pets, who can also heal themselves a bit, they can be loaded with damage procs, and also have a unique advantage over pet sets in that you can equip them with health proc effects. Also your grave knights eventually have a damage aura. And as a neat bonus, your personal attacks can summon bonus specters. The specters don't do much damage by themselves, but are great to tie things up. I am currently leveling a new Necro/Nature MM myself. Demons - Demons advantage is its sort of a "shotgun" style of attacks - lots of different elements, a few different attack types. They have res buffs, one pet has a damage aura, and the other t2 can heal. Its perk is it has a power that can act as a mule for the pet auras. Thugs - thugs can hit hard for a MM. Arsonist and your pocket Bruser in particular. It also has Gangwar, which if you take burnout from speed, you can use "twice." It also has a mule power. The downside to thugs is that the enforcers buff the thug pets... but not you. So you are more or less left to your own defenses. Ninjas - I have heard ninjas are quite offensive, but a bit fragile. I have never leveled one myself but have heard good things. Your personal attacks give your pets a chance to crit. Mercs - Mercs are well balanced. They are an all-ranged pet set, that can get very good resists from serum. And since they are ranged you can abuse group fly to have an all-flying strike team. Flying makes quite a bit of difference in pets surviving, as not many enemies have full ranged attack chains, and even fewer have -fly abilities. Which means fewer attacks are even attempted against your pets to begin with, before all other considerations come into play. This isn't foolproof or a fix-all, it varies from map to map and enemy to enemy. Some enemies like Arachnos have a lot of ranged attacks, and maps with ceilings means you cant hover out of melee range. But it makes a difference in most situations. Secondaries - For raw DPS, storm is the go-to. But it takes a bit of getting used to, and is a bit chaotic. You effectively make AOEs and more quasi pets that do their own attacks. Not many buffs or defenses to speak of specifically. It has a heal, and steamy mist for defense, but thats essentially it. Kinetics is also a good option to boost damage. The issue with Kinetics is that's essentially all it is - speed, recharge, damage, recovery, etc. No defenses, no resists. It does have a heal but that is all. So your pets may hit hard, but won't have much defenses. Pain, Heat, and Nature all have +damage buffs. Though damage is not their specialty. So any of those pet sets mentioned, with any of these, will have damage boosts. An important note though, is even an MM made to focus on Damage, is only sort of middle-ground compared to other ATs. They can put up decent enough numbers, but the problem arises later down the road on higher difficulties, particularly with pets being susceptible to AoE's. But if raw damage output is all you are concerned with, then any of these pets with /Storm or /Kinetics will have good damage, at least for a MM. Hope this helps narrow it down a bit for you. Mastermind well and prosper!

Chip can refer to electrical or stone, so electrical or stone armor can fit. But it can also be manipulation as well, Electrical or Earth manipulation. Shot can be any of the ranged powers - beam rifle, archery, dual pistols, etc. Alternately, you could combine both and make a Seismic Blast based character, as in "shooting stones."

I respectfully disagree. They listened, "to some." And often, those "some" are the same people listened to, on other various changes. I respect your opinion. I just disagree with it.

I agree with the point that critiques and feedback should be clear, and should not only criticize, but also offer possible solutions. I am not against change, I am simply against change for the sake of change, or "favoritism change" - IE the changes that certain (or the same) groups of people want. And I did not insinuate that a change was rushed, or even malicious. I only remarked on my single experience and found it so unprofessional and distasteful that I have yet to partake in another more than 2 years later. If it was up to me, there would be a signup process involved, or some control measure. So the developers would not keep hearing the same opinions from the same people each time there is a beta, but that's just me musing. I don't feel that the dev team is malicious at all, or even the change in question in my example was malicious at all. Only the tone and how the discussion/disagreement about that change itself went, was. Hope that clears things a little.

Entirely solo. I have soloed missions and TFs before, but it was entirely all me where I could control the flow. I have never multiboxed MMs in a pug/other player environment that was not an AE situation. Other people have jumped in and helped, but honestly its just one giant ball of enemies taking damage that who actually has aggro on which mob is largely irrelevant, so long as everyone involved (enemies and allies alike) are clustered togeather in range of buffs/debuffs/heals. And pets have the same caps as tankers do - can still softcap defenses, and get 90% resistance. So the question of if a pet has the aggro, or the tanker does, really doesn't matter anyway. I do wish to add that I would consider multiboxing MMs in a pug environment a bit of a Faux Pas. Even when controlling the flow by myself, it's difficult and challenging to do, without other people also doing their thing. Not to mention it would likely frighten most pulling so many at a time. Most people simply do not play that way. But I play on Everlasting if you wish to see it in action sometime.

I am surprised I have not seen any mention of a different answer. For those unaware, pets also have their own aggro tables. So if you are referring to who can actively engage the most enemies at a time, its a Mastermind, or other pet class. I even made an entire post about MM "en masse" style of farming. The TLDR is that each pet can aggro "around" 6 mobs each. This is in addition to the 12 mobs the mastermind themselves can engage. So, 6 pets at 6 enemies each, that's 36 mobs. Plus the 12 for the mastermind, is 48 mobs. In theory. I 3 box Masterminds and farm using this principle. And what actually happens is I engage all the enemies capable of being rendered at the time. And I know this because I see different groups of mobs being rendered on my different MMs. (One MM will see a pack where the other two will not, and they will both see other packs the first will not, and so on.) Essentially, 3 masterminds can fight more mobs than the game can place in front of you at a time. When some die off, more suddenly appear where there were not any before. But hey, self-pulling mobs I consider a pleasant surprise. Now, my damage per mob is nowhere near a brutes, but I engage so much more of the map at once that its still a fast farm. Simply because where the brute is fighting 12, I am fighting 40+. I quite regularly pull nearly the entire moon map at once, save for 3-4 straggler groups. It takes me longer to hunt down stragglers and chip away at running EB's than it does to bulldoze the map. So, even if I am doing only 1/4th of the damage the brute is, I am "still" ahead, when considering the map as a whole. So, you want to fight the most mobs at a time? Try a Mastermind. The question then becomes, how do you and the pets survive it?

Quite a bit to mentally digest in this thread. And after some reflection, two thoughts to add - 1. The first, is that most voices here I believe have played if not this game for a long time, than many games for a long time. And perhaps with the passage of time, that we ourselves have changed just as much as those games have. It's okay to have changes in what you like, enjoy, or find interesting. Thats how we grow as people. Tastes change. It can be argued that not all change is good, but at the same time, more than 1 thing can change as well. 2. Regarding the brief point regarding feedback - given the past few years of changes, I steadfastly am convinced that not all voices are equal here. Either intentionally or unintentionally, the game seems to be heading a certain direction despite what we say. Farming gets reduced. Enemies change to be harder, more difficult. Combat mechanics change, to make it harder for certain setups while boosting and propping up others, and more. Now, if these changes are good or bad, that depends entirely on whom you ask and what you use as a measuring stick, so to speak. But one thing I have noticed is that where beta/testing/feedback is concerned, is that it does seem that the powers that be play "favorites" with feedback and changes. And even if it's to the contrary and untrue, it certainly appears otherwise. Taking myself as an example, I only ever took part in one testing period, and found it to be so toxic and unpleasant that I doubt I will ever do so again. It wasn't the change itself that I found so distasteful, rather the discussion that took place. If you were "against" the change, it got quite personal and even insulting in nature. So personal in fact, that a staff member also took part. But not here, but in the Discord. And which I have never received an apology for. So to be blunt, I find the notion that all voices and critiques are considered equal, to be a little insulting. Because they most certainly are not. And for at least a portion of the community, it doesn't matter what we say, (for or against) any particular issue. I believe the majority of feedback is read, by someone, sure. But if it's the right someone or passed onto someone who can actually make a difference one way or another, or if it immediately goes into the trash, we shall never know.

Yea, that's quite a bit of difference. But on the positive side, pretty sure PBs and WS have never had any hard changes or tweaks, just the toggle thing, so maybe they will be next to be looked at?

It's not really a question of complexity, I actually enjoy complex ATs and builds, different ways to engage a group, and thinking outside the box. As an example, sometimes I 3 box masterminds and even farm with them because I find brute and tanker farming to be so mind-numbingly dull. I just dislike the whole "turn into something else, attack, and change back" aspect. If there was a way to disable the model change so you look the same, I might be able to get into it. But if shifting is optimal for PB/WS then I will likely dislike it.

Mhm, I've read your guides, so thanks for that. I understand the gist of most of it, but I think its one of those things where you really have to play them to get the full impression. I did watch your PB farming vid, and while I like the results, it was all the constant form-hopping that I didn't like. I presumed PBs/WSs normally picked 1 or 2 forms to focus on, just to have options on team makeup. But making maros to auto-change to cast a power and auto-change back seems a bit, I dunno, difficult to put a word to it. A lot of work for questionable (to me) gain? (compaired to other ATs) It just looked like you were going human-human-dwarf-human-human-dwarf-human-squid-human-human-dwarf-human etc. Basically changing form to use whatever attack you wanted to. Personally I don't think i would mind that, if there was an option to turn the graphics for them off. Just the constantly changing sizes/appearance every few attacks isn't something I think I would enjoy. Hence why I asked if that was necessary. And if someone who doesn't do that is only 1/3rd as good as someone who does, and it takes macros to do all that, seems a bit broken to me. Not to hate on the AT at all, especially when I have never played one. It just seems... clunky? And if that is how it was "supposed" to work, shouldn't it be baked in without having to make macros and such? Correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't the whole toggle vs shape thing a new feature too? Before toggles would toggle off when you shifted, but they stay on now form to form, with only correct ones applying, correct? I was mostly wondering how good it could be, if someone "didn't" do that. But only 1/3rd as strong/good seems like... well, quite a lot to lose. I could see losing some, sure. But 70%? Thats kind of crazy and makes me wonder how things were before the quick-shift-toggle-feature was added. But thanks for your time, do appreciate it.

Hi forums, I have a few HEAT questions. I have read many of the topics here but have never played Peacebringer or Warshade. 1. What is the current state of the Aliens? How far can you go or push with them? I rarely see them in teams, so I am wondering if people just don't like them, or if they are one of the weaker ATs or what exactly? Or they just never been popular? 2. Is it "necessary" to do the whole quick-shift macro dancing? I'm guessing there are likely many ways to build and play a HEAT, but for those of us who don't want to be constantly changing shapes every few attacks, how far could we go without it? 3. I doubt they can, but are HEATS among those that can solo avs/gms? I don't see any -regen anywhere, but I'm uncertain how good their end DPS looks and not sure if they would need it. Being able to solo av/gms isn't make or break for me either, mostly I've never heard of someone doing it with a Kheldian. 4. I tend to solo more than team, but sort of unsure which one is better for soloing. PB seems to be more consistent, WS seems to be able to push ahead in bursts. I am sort of leaning 2-form WS at the moment (Human and Dwarf) because I like being durable, with ways to power-up. That and WS gets damage aura and their own fold space which seems awesome. Thanks bunches in advance

A few thoughts... 1. Not all ATs/Builds can solo +4/8 difficulty. I consider this a good thing. I try to see as +2/8 as "end difficulty" that's fair to most setups, and anything beyond that as "extra." 2. Not all can solo AVs/GMs. I consider this a good thing as well. I only wish they would mix it up a little bit, and not make "every" big baddie require -regen. Maybe make some require -damage, or -res, shake it up a little bit so not all AV/GM killers are the same handful of builds. 3. Turning down the difficulty "is" an option. And so far, every build I have slapped together and put actual thought and effort into can handle +2/8, which leads me to believe every build can handle that. Some builds can even go AFK on max difficulty. 4. Hardmodes are a relatively new thing and seem to focus on debuff protection. I do sort of wish the different hardmodes posed different obstacles or challenges too, just to shake things up a bit and make people think about new things. And perhaps not leave some ATs so undesired for such content. If someone is expecting every build able to do everything at max difficulty, I think most will agree this isn't the game for that. Some builds can do incredible things, but it takes practice, time and money investment, and game knowledge. But not all powersets/ATs will be able to do those things, regardless of time/money/practice. And let us not forget, this is also a team game as well. Soloing is fine of course, but also keep group dynamics in mind when critiquing. As an example, if they made an enemy that was truly a threat for a full team, it shouldn't surprise anyone that the same enemy will pose a threat for solo as well. And if they make things "too" easy, well, we get situations where some ATs who focus on things like Control or Debuffs feel unimportant. (which is ironic, as debuffs are often king at the endgame, despite not often being needed on speedy teams.) Just my musings on the whole enemy difficulty vs player thing. I think its a bit more complicated than it first appears.

Some secondaries have Status Protection of varying degrees- Forcefield, Sonic Resonance, Electrical Affinity, Empathy, Pain Domination, Thermal Radiation, and Traps. Most of these (Sonic, Electrical, Thermal)) are Resistance sets. Empathy is a Healing set, Pain Domination is kind of a hybrid of Healing and Resistance. Traps is a little of everything - (some buffs, some debuffs, some DEF.) This makes Forcefield the only DEF focused set that has Status Protection. Kinetics does have status protection, but it's single target (last I checked anyway.) So if you want both DEF buffs and Status protection, this really only leaves Forcefield and Traps. Now I will say, that Demons/Electric and Robots/Time can be "extremely" durable. But those don't fit your guidelines. But one single power does deserve a special mention. One power that by itself can drastically improve the life of (some) pets, at least where solo play is concerned. Group Fly. Many enemies don't have full ranged attack chains. A couple do, but most do not. Even fewer have -fly powers. This means right out of the box, flying pets face drastically reduced number of attacks. Now this does depend on the enemies in question - (example, Arachnos tends to have a lot of ranged attacks, between spiderbots, mace abilities, widows, etc) - but also the kind of map in question. Maps such as tunnels, caves, or some office maps have low ceilings, where group fly won't do much for you. But, for those maps where you and your pets can hover just out of reach, no other single power can really match just how effective it is at protecting your pets. This only works on ranged pets, meaning Robots and Mercs. So a Robot or Merc/FF MM with group fly can end up pretty dang tough. Between Robots and Mercs, I would recommend Mercs, as FF would be more effective with their new Serum, making your flying pets have both good DEF and RES, status protection, and all ranged attacks. I don't recommend Group Fly in groups, as most people dislike it. So I personally consider Group Fly a "solo only" tool. Hope this breakdown helps!

Hello SourceField, Looked over your build, and I have a few suggestions. 1. Looking at your level breakdown, at level 14 you only have 3 attacks, at 18 you have 4. Which will leave definite gaps in your attack chain. One power that you can add as early as level 4 and also is a pretty good ST attack is Arcane Bolt. You can add it very early, and when Arcane Power procs it can hit fairly hard. With Arcane Power it hits harder than Longfang, and you can even slot Force Feedback into it for a boost to recharge, so it kind of solves 2 of your issues at once. 2. As far as Slotting goes, overall you have a decent setup but it could be better slotted. For Frag Grenade, I would suggest slotting Superior Dominion, your AT set. That will add to damage and boost recharge further. 3. Since you are petless. you may think of changing to Leviathan Epic Pool, because Spirit Shark is better for Single Target than Gloom. How it works is each time you use a power, you can get a stacking buff called Hunger, which boosts Spirit Shark when used. I have cobbled a build together for you, using your own as a base so it would feel similar. It should have a much better ST rotation of Spirit Shark + Longfang + Arcane Bolt, and as a bonus it has both a build-up proc and FF proc in the rotation, making your recharge and damage even better. For AoE you will have Venom Grenade + Frag Grenade + Bile Spray + Artic Spray, which together has heavy Toxic Damage and built in Debuffs. And, as a bonus, it also has Rune of Protection for an additional emergency tool. When used as I have it slotted it will cap all your resists for a full minute. Anyway have a look and let me know if you have any questions. Included a snip as well. Build for Sourcefield.mbd

Not that bad honestly, I still have to use a blue or serum now and then (mostly when doing Ouro content) but at top-end it isn't as bad. I was debating on dropping Maneuvers as well to see how good the END held up but decided on keeping it. But if you are on a Team, you can toggle just Maneuvers off and I don't have any END issues at all. Without incarnates I had to rely on pay2win powers, attacks and Serum mostly, but as a SoA that shouldn't surprise anyone IMO. But after 24 it gets worlds better as normal. Even without Incarnates it worked pretty well for me. It may sound silly, but not using Weave and changing out 1 AoE power for more ST made a lot of difference, as silly as that sounds. The rest was fine-tuning things.

Hey Forums, With the SoA tweaks, I have blew the dust off mine and started fiddling with it, and this is what I came up with and has worked wonderfully for me. Highlights - -Much better ST Damage, via Longfang, Arcane Power, and Shatter Armor. Especially with Arcane Power Procs, it isn't actually a half-bad ST power. Even the Buildup Proc in Channelgun can help. -A bit better END management - with no Weave toggle, the END use doesn't feel so crippling. - 41% Melee DEF, 48% Ranged DEF, 33% AOE DEF - Significant Resists - Smashing, Leathal, Fire, Cold, and Toxic are all 70% or higher. Energy, Negative and even Psionic is 57% or higher. Considering you are a flyer, this makes you "very" durable! On some Teams I was the most durable one which is kind of funny. - With Rune of Protection, all your resists will be capped at 85% as a Mini-Barrier when needed. - Pets - Pets are "near" Perma as a baseline. But with either a FF proc, or Ageless Radial up, they are perma. Baseline = No FF proc/Ageless - Spiderlings - 187s/200s, Call Reinforcements - 266s/200s, Summon Blaster - 257s/240s Pet Defense - 0% (Base), + 10% (Pet Auras), + 17.42% (Tactical Training Maneuvers) + 6% (Maneuvers) + 12% (Support Core) = 45.42% DEF for pets (During Support Core) Downsides - - Sadly no Frag grenade. This was removed due to number of slots available. I choose Suppression because it's my favorite crabby power, even though Frag Grenade is arguably better. But if so inclined you can freely swap these. - While your pets are durable, you will still loose them. But with a stronger ST presence, you aren't as reliant on them either. -While END is "better" it still isn't entirely free to spam all abilities, at least not without Ageless. - If so inclined, someone can drop RoP and take Mental Training, to have perma-pets. I however wanted another defensive power to use with Serum, to have another Panic Button. Q. Why Mace Pool and not Leviathan? A. Well, honestly I wasn't impressed with the new Spirit Shark. I just had better results with Shatter Armor, plus the Arachnobot fits the theme better. That and as a HoverCrab, I wanted an Immobilize, and you have to be near the ground to use the one from Leviathan. But you could freely swap this with Leviathan or even Soul pools and end up with nearly the same values. Incarnate Choices - Alpha - Agility Core. This is to improve Endurance Modification, Recharge Rate, and Defense Buffs. All things we focus on. Judgement - Many people like Ion, but for my Crabber I actually like Void Radial Final, because it still hits hard, but also gives a 50% Damage Debuff to enemies for 30 seconds, as another way to help your pets with low resistances. Interface - With my Crabber, I like Degenerative Radial Flawless. Because its Toxic damage which is boosted by Venom Grenade, but also does a -hitpoint debuff. So with that -40% Toxic resist, this ends being great on Crabbers because we are kind of "Double dipping" the Chip. Lore - Dealers Choice here. I have yet to find any lore pet that makes a huge impact, at least for the pets. Banished or Longbow for more ST damage though, but I wish the defensive pets were better. Destiny - I choose Ageless Radial Epiphany, for the +End, Recharge, and Debuff Resistance. Since +DEF is our big strength, its worth protecting it. Hybrid - Support Core - The double-effectiveness "does" work on the Crabber-pets, giving them +12% DEF, and other nice buffs. They do very well while it is up, but when it wears off is when your pets start to get beat up. As always comments and imput are welcome. Screenies are included, both with and without RoP on. Without RoP or any incarnates active - With RoP Active - Hope people enjoy! PS - Someone pointed out an Error in MIDS. I am unsure "how" it happened, but I actually somehow was able to select 5 Power Pools, and you can't actually do that ingame. No idea how that even happened, but it has been corrected. I had to drop Haste and added Weave as another mule for LoTG Global. So the pets are not perma baseline, but with a FF proc they are. Apologies for the inconvenience, I am not even sure how that happened, or that it was even possible to do. But this is the corrected build and correct Snips. DarkTech Hovercrab - Updated (fixed).mbd

One thing I found that help my ranged ATs is flying/hover. Most things (especially at low level) don't have a full ranged attack chain, so even just hovering out of reach drastically reduces the number of attacks they get against you. Not all enemies mind you, but many.

I like characters that can solo and that "flow well". My favorite ATs are Tankers and Crabbers. I just started a new Crabber from level one, but I am leveling almost entirely through Ouros missions. Just hit level 25 last night. It's been fun, even if I had to use every p2w power available to me. But the higher I am getting the better it's getting.

I would say it also depends on if you have the Brute/Tanker/Scrapper version, the Sentinel Version, or the Stalker version. I have never tried the Sentinel or Stalker version of Bio Armor.

I can't really speak for axe as I never had one, but you shouldn't skip any powers in Bio because each power you have enhances the others, even if only passively. That's one of the downsides of Bio is you are pretty much locked into taking all of them. For Axe, I think it may depend on your attack chain. If you have excess attack powers you don't find yourself using often in your attack you can likely drop them. But also keep in mind, what powers are skippable and which are not may also depend on your Primary and Recharge levels too.

Very strongly tempted to try an Illusion/Dark/Soul Controller myself, focusing on recharge, pets, and debuffs. Will be very nice to have immortal pets for a change.

Deaf player here, and I never had any great difficulty. The friends closest to me know of my condition and make accommodations when necessary, but that's rare. The only time its posed a problem is trying to find the glowy to click, but that's hardly a deal breaker for me. Other games are far worse. At least this game has chat bubbles and the like for the dialogue scenes and so on. I don't claim to speak for all deaf players mind you, only sharing my personal experience. It's never posed a significant problem, and other games are far worse, such as mechanics-heavy fights which are kind of few in CoH, compared to other games where I might have to really research a boss mechanics before engaging. Here? Most fights are tank and spank, debuff, -regen if you can, and avoid the purples. Even Hardmodes are not terribly complicated, but of course YMMV.

Couldn't resist.

Honestly? I like what some people have made much more than official trademarked characters. One that always stuck with me, I'm remembering from a while ago, so details are fuzzy, but the character was named "Scotch Drinking Samauri." But the character wasn't the person at all, but the sword. The story goes is that the sword was a Greater Sky Demon from the 3rd heaven or something (reminded me of Monkey King style of story) and was upset at all the evil going on in the world. But it was forbidden from interfering in mankind "directly." So, instead it took the form of a sword, so that he still might help heroes, having different "wielders" from time to time. The current wielder of the sword, wasn't even Japanese at all, but was something else. (Can't recall precisely.) The current wielder was more or less some homeless guy - flip flops, cargo shorts, wife beater, Hawaiian shirt, and was willing to do what the sword asked of him, so long as he got Scotch in the process. The only reason why he called himself a Samauri, was because the sword was a Katana. So the TLDR is that his character was a Sky Demon in the form of a sword, wielded by different people. The current one was some scotch drinking homeless guy. I just thought it was just a funny and original story. And the character was pretty funny to interact with. And yes, the player did play both the sky demon, and the homeless guy.