Shred Monkey

This is in Page 5? How does this nerf farming?

Seismic is all ranged. It also does two AoE knockdowns (boosted Rock Shards and Upthrust) so you can not only stay at range, you can keep groups of enemies knocked down as well. The downside is you need to stay on the ground to get all the seismic bonuses and even use some attacks, so hover blasting is not an option. Personally, I enjoy moving around/kiting from the ground and lining up my AoE hits for max effect so it fits my playstyle very well. It's a great option for both solo and teaming.

I used to buy cheap glasses because what kind of stuck-up arrogant nose-in-the-air jerk spends $500 on glasses? Then a few years ago, it occurred to me, there's literally no one purchase I can think of that I use more then my glasses. I now go straight for the good frames, pick out the ones I like best, and then add all the extras. I don't regret it at all. Glasses problem 100% solved.

It's a very rare build for me to not have 5 LoTGs slotted. In fact at level 50 I usually have vengeance and invis friend as mule powers and never even put in my tray. Their purpose to the build is to hold a LotG in the initial slot and nothing else.

I don't see myself changing anything I currently have... although I might make a sentinel and then never feel the need to play anything else ever again.

I've done the full suite of arcs on 1 toon for both sides by turning off xp. As far as other options, I guess you could die a bunch of times so you're getting 1/2 xp. but that seems silly when there's a way to just turn of xp.

Go to a public place. Now look around you and count people staring at their phones.

I disagree with the OP. It's far more difficult then your typical non-incarnate content to run solo at +4x8. I'd personally rate this as slightly harder then the DA arcs, on par with the Praetoria based incarnate arcs. If you're looking for challenging 8-man team play you need to run the new TFs, not mission content. No story arcs are difficult for a full built 8-man team.

If you're looking at fighting in melee you only need a few filler attacks from your primary. Blaze and Blazing Bolt (from fire) is such a high DPS attack that it causes fire to beat all other primaries to use between your hard hitting melee attacks. For pure damage this is your best option. However, if you're looking staying at range, cold can match fire for sustained single-target damage. This is because cold has access to more damage proc options and better mid-tier attacks.

I know, right? I've been asking for this across multiple games for about 25 years now. Finally got it, and it's in my favorite game.

I like teams that aren't filled. Team size of 3-4 is ideal. Similar to the OP, I don't mind the respec process... furthermore I respec a lot... like every few levels. The moment I can see that a respec will make me better, I do it. I don't wait to gain a few levels. I usually have a build plan around level 11-12 that I aim for from the bigging.. then another one around level 20-22... then again after I get the level 26 power... and 32 power... and it just keeps going. It's also not odd for me to respec to test something while in my 20s and respec back if I don't like it. I like street sweeping solo. I like using infiltration as my only travel power (previously used ninja run on everything before alternate options came along). I also like using the train and zone connections. I never play with sound. This is true for me for all gaming, not just CoX. I usually listen to music or an audio book while gaming.

Nightwidow is an interesting option. Lots of team buffs that are either a toggles or a long cast/long duration sort. I pair it with leadership pool to double up on the toggle buffs. And then during fights I just deal out huge single target damage. Despite the fact that it has really high defense and buffs everyone around it, it's drawback is that it's not very tanky. It has low hp and not much for resists, so when it does get hit, it's not good. Harder content needs to be done with great care. I also really like the way my seismic/martial blaster plays. I have an AoE toggle slow movement that I've fully enhanced for slows. This means that not only is it easy to stay out of melee, but everything trying to move to melee gets ghetto-controlled out of the fight because they're going into this full slow motion run instead of attacking. I can apply this simply by moving near concentrated areas of enemies to get them in range. In addition I do constant targeted ranged AoE knockdowns with upthrust and rock shards. This just adds even more mitigation all while dealing blaster level damage. What really makes this strong is that it's a layer of mitigation that isn't overlapping with my teammate's buffs and debuffs. Instead of adding *more* defense that's already way over cap, I'm reducing incoming damage above and beyond everything else my team is doing.

I sometimes find myself slipping down a slope of frustration and disappointment with the world in general... politically, socially, economically... I wonder if we (as in the whole human race) are heading in the right direction. I look at reddit, YouTube, Twitter, and I ponder whether or not the internet was even a good idea. The thing that brings me back and gives me hope? It's the good communities. Two of my favorite communities are the fans of Critical Role and Shirtaloon. Both are both hugely nerd-centric communities that just couldn't have existed 20 years ago. I think Homecoming is another great community. We may fight among ourselves about nerfs and farming etc... But in the end, we're all really really happy to be here.

One thing to look at is not just powers with knockdown/knockback... also look to see if it has a % chance to knock. For example if you look at the Battle Axe powerset, almost every power has does a form of knock. However they apply a chance to knock (40% chance, 30% chance, etc). While other powers such as Air Superiority apply a magnitude of knock to everything they hit.

My measurement metrics are more subjective, but possibly more relevant. Not enough players => I can't get a team when I want one. Just the right number of players => I can get a team when I want one. Too many players => Team's fill up faster then I can respond to the LFG request for players. Right now Excelsior bounces around between "Just the right number of players" and "Too many players." I've not seen it dip into the "Not enough players" range since it came back.

I'm more in the camp of changing playstyle instead of builds for hard mode. I'd recommend trying to work in Barrier and not rely on Clarion or Ageless. But other than that, I just play more carefully and intentionally with regards to my positioning and targeting. I also agree with the sentiment above that hard mode gives us blasters a chance to really lean into our role as damage dealers because others finally have a legitimate reason to focus on their roles of tank and support.

This. I have min-maxed toons because I really enjoy min-maxing and I know the speed run checkpoints pretty well on all the high level TFs. And still, I avoid speed runs most of the time. They're just not all that fun to me. Kahn is probably the worst example of how much you can skip over in a speed run. But at least it has a final boss fight that everyone can contribute.

I don't build for teaming specifically, but I also usually end up building with many leadership powers. Maneuvers is a staple for upping my defense, and to get to Vengeance as a LotG mule, I need 1 other, so either tactics or assault, depending on need. However, the real reason I'm responding to this thread is to point out I don't understand what's going on. Is this a problem? Are people choosing not to use the Leadership Pool? I can't say I ever look at my teammates' builds. Quite, literally never. Why would I? I see their ATs to know who has taunt, and that's pretty much the end of it. I mean, yeah... if you're not taking Leadership Pool, you should consider it... it's probably #2 behind fighting for it's benefits and you can take 4 pools, so I see no reason not to grab both. But again, is this a problem?

I don't think Yin is the best TF in the game, but it really deserves a lot of credit for standing out despite it not being level 50 content. It's newer, so the Dev's learned a lot from the original TFs... namely the length and number of missions.

I'm not sure your suggestion is the complete answer, but I like where it's going. I think status effects in this game are too binary. You're held, or you're not... and you stay that way for a really long time because all the durations are pretty long with no way out except an inspiration you may or may not have. I don't like it, primarily because status effects are too easy to defeat with status protection while simultaneously being too easy to be permanently locked down without status protection. One way to add a more gradient application of status effects is to borrow from turn based games a system of saving throws. For example, to be held you have to fail a saving die roll by rolling less then the magnitude of the spell. Furthermore, you get a chance to break free once per round (or once per second) with another saving roll. You stay held until the spell runs out or you roll a die higher then the magnitude of the spell. Protections against status effects are added to your saving roll, while stronger spells have higher saving rolls required. With this method you are tweaking your % chance of being held as well as the likelyhood of escaping early with the same attribute. All that said, I want to point out I'm just responding to the thought experiment proposed by the OP. I like the game as it is because it is a system I can abuse well to my own advantage.

Level 54 enemies drop influence way way WAY faster then anything lower level, so basically just playing your 50s on level 54 content is a solid way to earn. I recommend the incarnate arcs at +4x8 since you'll also be fighting at an effective level of 53 and can deal more damage. Bring friends as desired, but a full team may affect income rate if you're focusing on that.

I usually switch toons and zone in before sending the tell because I don't like my 2nd option... which is... I join the team and then explain I'm going to alt and give the name I'm coming back as. I wouldn't ever send a "save me a spot" tell because I would still have to wait for a response to find out if there's actually room for me... and they may not send a response assuming I'm alting... so I'm not sure if I should alt, or wait... . and oh my goodness, that kind of uncertainty makes me very uncomfortable.

It's not like they also do massive -tohit at a point in the game where you still don't have all your attacks slotted fully. Tsoo Sorcerers are far more annoying.

I immediately assumed that the purple-blackish nictus stuff shooting out the orifices of all the new Cimerora NPCs was meant to be a clue about where the new powers came from. But I'd imagine that if you bothered to read the text of all the new missions you'll get the more complete explanation.

By chance, is spinning attack actually a targeted AoE attack? As in... it hits in a sphere around your target... as opposed to a cone emanating from you? It's been a while since I played one of my street justice toons, but I remember this attack hits a crowd really well.