Lhanis

I don't much agree with what's in the Widow subclass section in regards to Fortuna (or the poor treatment of my dear, sweet Heavy Burst), but it's nice to see the VEATs getting some attention from folks again. The note about the inherent just about killed me, thanks for that.

Warshade and Dark Armor VFX options for Aether?! Customization for Widows?! You spoil me, HC! 🎉

Ya'll have always been awesome, but now it's official! LONG LIVE CITY OF HEROES! 🎉

My biggest issue with HM content was always that I missed the initial rush when they arrived, and after that point when the meta had become Corruptors... nobody wanted anything else. The HC community has generally been a wonderful place the past 5-ish years we've been about, but @arcane is right - the people who still regularly run the 4* content are largely some of the worst people I've had the displeasure to run a TF with. I feel like the addition of 'difficult' content is good, but a lot of folks in the community very quickly decided there was only one way to run it, and it hasn't exactly been an enjoyable experience. I'm sure that toxicity isn't universal, there are a lot of good people here. And the fact that I never settled in with one of the big SGs means I do only ever see that kind of content in PuGs or when a friend's group has an open slot. But I do feel like the HM TFs have already proven that no matter what the devs try to give us in regards to stuff like this, people will just min-max the enjoyment out of it and complain it isn't enough, or burn out and drop it altogether. It's important to remember that not everyone is here for that kind of content.

Stumbled across this one too, and appears to be tied to weapon-draw? Same issue both with the Beast Stance inherent option and the actual Beast Run travel power. Tested with Widow, Axe Brute, Katana Scrapper, Claws stalker, Savage Brute, and Dark Melee Scrapper. Hitting an attack power and then jumping from idle position triggers a male 'grunt' sound for female body types. Notably, Dark Melee and Savage didn't cause the male jumping grunt sfx, which made me think it was specific to having weapons drawn. However, Axe didn't seem to trigger it either. So it may be an issue on a set-by-set basis rather than just weapons, but Widow/Claws and Katana definitely do when the weapon is drawn. Very strange.

This! Thank you! I'd forgotten I can just grab gloom from /soul. And that is a significantly better option than the alternatives I was looking at. It comes late, but it will do just fine. I have tried a few sfx mods for psychic powers and found them either generally more intrusive or just to loud, and unfortunately I don't know enough about that kind of modding to make a file myself. I did find the guide posted here in the forums about editing said files, though, and I may look into it. There are a few other outliers I'd love to find silent options for.

I've got a ranged Fort setup for when I dont feel like being scrappy, and it's got a seamless ST rotation with procced out TK Blast/Subdue/Dominate. It's fairly solid overall, and I'm happy with it's output. But... Subdue's sfx are nails on chalkboard, and the rotation goes so quickly that it's never not playing. I was looking at maybe replacing it with Arcane Bolt since I'm dipping heavily into Sorcery anyway, and it seems to fit similar enough that I shouldn't feel a loss. Bolt has slightly less damage and slighter longer anim time, but Arcane Power procs should theoretically make it a dps increase depending on how often it does come up. It also provides a non-psychic attack (even if Energy is resisted fairly often) to help soften how much robots and rikti suck. Thoughts? Opinions? Alternative solutions? For the most part I actually like the game's sound, and don't want to be driven to muting it over the endless PEWEWEWEW q.q

Theres a few ways, but the cheaper option is the 6th piece of "Sudden Acceleration" Knockback set. It adds a massive negative multiplier to knock, so that it becomes KD instead. Though you'll notice on some enemies that are weak to Knock like clockwork will still get thrown.

The defense you provide does slowly trickle out the higher up you go, but don't forget that even if everyone does build for Defcap, not everyone has a meaningful amount of DDR to prevent it from being stripped. Your bubbles will always be useful, even if it doesn't always feel like it. Especially for your squishier comrades. For procs, I don't generally bother in Repulsion Bolt. I treat it as just the 30s of -20% res personally, as outside of Mastermind or Controller you have better options for slotting up an attack. You can theoretically get a FFB proc in there, but at 4s base recharge... it won't be happening often. Bomb on the other hand is an excellent home for Annihilation: Chance for -res, and FFB. I'm sure there are more optimal setups for it, but I like 2piece Ragnarok for Dam/End + Knock, 2piece Annihil for Acc/Damage + Chance for -res, FFB proc. Can throw more Acc in it via a 6th slot but there are usually better places to spend that. Damping honostly does so much out of the box that you cant enhance, that it's honostly just best to slot for recharge. It can mule a LotG if you need it, as well... but I wouldn't worry to much about proper slotting here. It's biggest contribution is the team debuff resistances and enemy debuffs, and you can't do anything for them.

There's a lot you can do with Plant/Storm, depending on what you want to focus on. In general a lot of Storm can actually be skipped to make room for more Pool and Epic options, as the big components of it are just Steamy Mist/Freezing Rain/Tornado/Lightning Storm. Plant has wiggle room too, as you don't usually need both immobilizes and Spirit Tree is a fairly niche pick. Spore Burst too can be skipped, but I find it a decent one-slot wonder for solo play, with the Heal Self proc in it from that one sleep set. I don't have a build to throw your way, but things I'd point out are that Creepers and Seeds of Confusion are definitely your centerpiece in Plant, and Roots actually puts out significantly more AoE damage than most of the other control set variants of AoE immob. As Doom mentioned, Rune from the sorcery pool is also a fantastic defensive option, and I usually take Sorcery instead of Fighting pool because of it. Especially when paired with Storm, as your endurance is going to be a precious resource. Sorcery also provides Arcane Bolt to help with your ST damage, which controller usually lacks. One thing to be aware of, though. Hurricane is both a blessing and a curse. Like Gust, when it is used poorly you will end up being more of a hinderance to most fast or late-game teams than a help. With Storm it is very important to learn how and when to use KB and Repel to your advantage - nobody likes the enemy being scattered to the winds when they are trying to AoE a mob down, but slotting KB to KD removes the utility of having those herding tools as an option, and Storm very much benefits from smart use of them to lock enemies into a corner for your Tornado and Lightning to mulch through.

It's a bit sad, because I really like the aesthetic of Beasts. But they really need some love from the Devs before I would ever recommend them to someone. New Ninjas are actually a lot of fun, and lot less likely to ragdoll from a strong breeze like they used to be. While I'm not generally one to point at 'tier lists' because I don't feel like it's really possible to sort powersets like that in CoH, there is a reason everyone collectively agrees Beasts are at the bottom when one comes up. /Pain might be able to keep them upright and going, but it'll be far from a satisfying MM experience imo.

...I'm'a just tuck that away for later >.>; good lord look at all that Def

Your post way back about yer conesconescones Blasting is what actually inspired me to give the AT another go! I'm... maybe sorta kinda stuck in a rut and probably enjoy the Dark themed sets a bit to much. After all this testing though, I think I'm mostly coming to the same conclusion... I find myself missing my support kit and all the utility and control Miasma brings. If nothing else, all of this work on Blaster setups has made me appreciate Def and Corr more than I may have before.

Plant/Dark should be a lot of fun! Creepers are absolutely phenomenal loaded up with procs, due to the weird way the game is coded to trigger the Vines effect off of them. They and Tarpatch together can clear entire spawns with two clicks! Hilarious to watch, too 😁

Atomic is a very cool set, and was definitely on my list. It only really got trimmed out because the remaining three either felt they meshed better or would just be a more fun secondary to play with. Plant and Temporal are missing from my lineup for similar reasons. Beta Decay looks so bloody useful, I may have to reconsider it's removal... There's something so strangely heartwarming about the idea that this 20 year old game still might have youngsters running about and enjoying smashing badguys in the face with superpowers. ☺️