Crater Kate

This happens to me as well, the names appear blank. Sometimes I'll get an at sign, as if I'm messaging someone's global, but the name will never appear. DM shortcuts like "Chat" still work. But these 3 are busted.

Just spun up the character creator to take a look, and without knowing which horns exactly you're looking for, it's under Head -> Detail 1 -> and then probably either Demon Horns, Abomination Horns, or War Horns. Does that seem right?

"Hey, big guy. Sure could use some advice right about now." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another gushing review for Rad Armor! I've played it specifically as Rad/Rad and that combo works so well together, /Rad is slow to spin up b/c Proton Sweep is bad, but Rad/ gives you two mininukes that are crazy good. You have great durability, chonky absorb, +recharge, end management, you debuff the hell out of everything... the only thing Rad/ doesn't do by itself is have a damage aura, and /Rad comes in and is like "Oh hi how about a double ticking damage aura? You interested?" So great at taking damage, great end, recharge, ridiculous AOE, plentiful debuffs, legitimately NONSENSE proc opportunities... even an armor T9 with +Dam attached... It just... it does everything? HOW DOES IT DO EVERYTHING OH GOD IS THIS WHAT CHEATING FEELS LIKE?!

Hey @TheGentlemanGhostronaut, I saw your DM as well but I'll just reply publically for the sake of visibilty/clarification: - First of all, that SR/MA build wasn't really meant as an endorsed build! It was meant to demonstrate that Tanker Super Reflexes is such a flexible set that you can do some very silly things with it while still staying very sturdy. Blindly chasing +Dam to the detriment of many other parts of the build qualifies as very silly to me, if I were building an SR/MA for real I would immediately look at the 3x2 Might of the Tanker slotting and the three powers devoted to getting Adrenal Booster and ask myself if those things were worth it, for a start. I don't want to stop you, if you feel like it's working then by all means go ahead, but just warning that it's not something I've rigorously tested or endorsed. - To your question, the short version is that Taunt was skipped because it doesn't fit. The long version is that that particular build doesn't take Taunt because it was very specifically trying to hit as much of the +Dam modifier as physically possible while also keeping a level of durability that meets my standards on a quick pass. 8 powers in SR are mandatory, Tough and Weave are hard to compensate for (11 powers so far). Assault was mandatory for +Dam, and Adrenal Booster for the same reason (15 powers). Hasten (16) is another important one, and from my experience SR gets a ton out of Body/Energy, so that makes 18 mandatory powers for my goals. That means you have 6 powers to build an acceptable attack chain from. One of those powers must be Focus Chi (because we're chasing literally every point of +Dam we can), and the other 5 are either powers I must take (Thunder Kick), or are defining powers of the set. So to do what I set out to do, I needed all 24 slots. If you're not building mindlessly for +Dam, there's a lot of room that opens up. You can skip Assault, Focus Chi, Adrenal Booster and Toxic Dart, etc. But it didn't fit the exercise so it wasn't there 🙂 - That being said, I play a lot of tankers and I rarely take Taunt. A lot of it comes down to space like I mentioned (If I had 25 powers, ALL my Tankers would have Taunt), but it's also down to playstyle and power selection. The way I play tanks is probably a little on the aggressive side. I value actually be able to kill things at a good rate, which means my power selection priority is a little different. Because I'm actively dealing damage a bit faster than other Tanks, I'm naturally drawing more aggro and I don't need Taunt as much. Don't get me wrong, Taunt is incredible! I definitely find myself in places where I wish I had it. But for what I value in play pattern and pace, Taunt often ends up being power number 25, which means I don't play with it. Tanks work without it!

Tankers are also the AT that keep themselves alive the best, so not only is their Leadership pool better, but they're gonna be more capable of focusing on Medicine pool things than the others. They get my vote!

Wait, what is the question here? When I first read it, I thought you were asking if Build-Up was required in the sense that was it skippable. In which case, the answer is that it is definitely not skippable and IS required. But that's not what you're asking. So what you are asking is - and correct me if I'm wrong! - but I think it's along the lines of this : "Is Build-Up a necessary part of Stalker primary design philosophy, to the point where it cannot be replaced by a reasonably similar power with relevant ATO adjustments?" Is that right? If so, then the answer is no, Build-up isn't necessary. But if those are the qualifications for the question, then I would say that applies to literally every single power in the game. I can't think of a single power across any archetype where, if replaced by a reasonable substitute, the accompanying powerset would simply cease to function. Maaayyyybe if I squinted really hard I could say Rage, but even then SS wouldn't be *unusable*, and I don't think any others come close. Okay, Hide from Stalker secondaries. Sure. But outside that, if you're making reasonable changes to those spots in powersets, then there's really nothing that is *so* crucial to a set where if substituted with something reasonable, things break. Build Up is no exception to that. COH just isn't the sort of game that HAS necessary powers. It's not the kind of game where powersets can be rendered unusably broken. So, could you replace Build Up and not have its surrounding powers fall to pieces? Sure. But you can say the same about any power if you really wanted to.

Oh man. I don't know if this is trolling or not, but I am 100% taking the bait. I haven't laughed this hard in a while.

Another +1 for accessing /ebfp from anywhere in Pocket D, that would basically make any of my remaining concern evaporate. Speaking as someone who is currently spending the majority of her time RPing, the two obvious reasons to me are crowding and keeping Pocket D attractive as a central hub. Right now, most of my RP characters log out in scattered spots throughout Pocket D, which gives me easy access to the central RP space without getting crowded in one spot. My experience on EL has been that on nights where a particular club or event or something is channeling people through the Pocket D entrance, things can already get a little congested near the portal. If we're suddenly channeling ALL base-based (hah) roleplaying through the portals, then things could get a very noticeable amount more crowded. Because keep in mind it's not just the club scene or event spaces that'll take the hit, it's the RPing supers that maybe aren't making that much noise but are definitely active as well. So the obvious solution is to use other portals in the world as places to camp your characters while logged out... which solves the Pocket D crowding issue well enough, except then we've introduced another barrier between RPers and their central hub. Any way you slice it, this is going to be more of an inconvenience than just a "five to ten second jog." Totally agreed! If it's a change they have to upend everything they've done to make, then it's not at all worth it. But if it's easy, then I think a lot of people would really appreciate keeping somewhere with the convenient access. Please forgive me if I'm reading too much into this last thing, but... I mean, yes, sure, we'll be fine, but to my eyes it does look like the RP community is going to be hit the hardest by this change for the least gain, and being spoken for in an almost... dismissive way? It just makes me bristle a little. Again, if that's not your intention, apologies, but I'd appreciate just staying aware of the fact that this is legitimately going to be at least somewhat of an inhibition on our corner of the community, thanks.

Hellions in Atlas Park when they see @Luminara's characters:

I only ever truly 'give up' on a character, as in delete it and banish it from my sight, if I realize I'm not in love with my concept AND I'm not in love with mechanics. If my character concept just isn't fun, or I struggle to invest in playing them, they're gone. My rule of thumb is "would I have fun in a light RP team with this character?" I feel like if I can't even manage that, then it's just going to be too much of an unpleasant experience. If I like their character OR their mechanics but not both, they get shelved indefinitely. This is the state of most of my characters. If it's a character I love with mechanics I hate, I'll save some costume designs and start re-rolling a bunch to try and hit something that clicks. The most I've gotten is like... 8-9 different versions at once, I think. These are characters I try to reboot ASAP, but if I bounce off the character too many times I'll get frustrated and walk away from them until I get the spark I need. If it's mechanics I love but a character I don't like, then they just sit there until something comes along that'll fit. These are less urgent characters to flesh out and are more placeholders for "hey, you liked playing this" and so I don't have to rework any slotting I've done on them. These'll get iced for months at a time, but still not deleted. I also have no problem in taking time away from a character if I suddenly stop enjoying them. Characters who I used to dedicate most of my playtime to I haven't touched in weeks or months. Crater Kate herself is one of those, actually. She's there with the others whenever I get the hankering for them again, but I don't feel like I force myself to play anything if I'm not having fun. Life's too short for that. But even so, I rarely delete.

@Diantane - lots of other people have offered lots of great advice, all of which I'd second. Please understand, what follows is meant as constructive and helpful and in good faith, and isn't meant personally at all: I noticed that you're the person who started the thread about old-school playing a bit over a week ago. Between these two threads, the impression I'm getting is that you have a very particular way you feel like the game is meant to be played. And it's great that you have your preferences, I'm not trying to take those away from you! But IMO, the most important lesson you can learn about City of Heroes is this: there is no wrong way to play. Not everyone is going to share your preferences! The beauty of CoH is it's a very lenient system, which means you can play a casual leveling style... or you can play as hardcore as you want. You can have a character who never leaves Pocket D... or you can have a character who spends their life grinding AE. Similarly, you CAN play a tank that spams threat generation, and you CAN play a Defender that does nothing but heal... but you can ALSO play a tank that maximizes damage and sacrifices durability. You can do the same with a Defender. You can build a Tank for support, if that's your thing. You can even make a Defender built for durability! Anything can be successful if you want it to be 🙂 I advertise myself as a 'something of everything' player. This means I dabble in as many ways to play this game as possible (minus PVP). I've run with master of task forces, and I've run with teams on Matthew Habashy's arc. I spend time hardcore RPing, and I spend time grinding inf. I spend time base building, and I spend time hanging out in the general/help channels. I've built characters that are optimized on doing one particular thing, and I've built some that do a hodge podge of junk. My biggest takeaway from everything I've dabbled in is that ALL of these are deep and rich ways to engage in the game, and no one way is at all better than any other. They are ALL right. This isn't LOTRO or SWTOR or WOW. Welcome to City of Heroes, where a tank is not a tank is not a tank. And that's awesome.

Ahh, but just because every character can get the mission, doesn't mean it does happen to every character. Just don't accept the arc in the first place. Boom. Never happened. 😉

I mean... I get the sentiment, but when reverting this change is tantamount to rescinding support for solo'ers... it's not cool. I'd love more mechanics in missions as well! But not if me having access to more mechanics actively penalizes players who don't play the way I do. That goes directly against the spirit of what I like about this game.

I think as long as we're talking Grandville contacts, it would be criminal (Ha HA!) not to mention Westin Phipps (40-44). His storyline isn't so much related to anyone else's so much as it's some of the nastiest, ugliest, most horrifying, skin-crawling villainy in all the Rogue Isles. I haaaate Phipps! 🙂 ---- GREAT work on this guide @Gulbasaur, I know you've been agonizing over it for a long time now, so seeing it finally come to fruition means a lot. Thank you!