Shred Monkey

I played a lot of MMO's during the time CoH was gone. In all of them, I always thought, "this is ok... but it's not CoH." I honestly thought CoH was probably not as good as I remember, either. And then it came back! And, incredibly, it is BETTER then I remember. There's so much I forgot about this game and really appreciate. It's still hard to believe it is real.

Geography is not important. One can even get elected president with no concept of where states are located.

I find +acc makes the low levels go faster and smoother than anything else. After that I add recharge based on a calculated attack chain so that at least 1 attack is always up. Note, for pre-level 22 almost all my melee toons have air superiority from the flight pool with 3 prestige IOs in it so that I can keep 1 target perma-knocked. Usually there's 1 short recharge quick attack that I use after every AirSup and then 2 other longer recharge attacks that I alternate on between each AS. The set attacks may or may not need +recharge to run the chain. Again, this sequence <AirSup-atk1-atk2-AirSup-atk1-atk3-repeat> works for nearly every melee set in the game. Some sets, I'll keep running this chain until I'm into my 30s and can graduate to a higher recharge attack chain. After +acc and +rech I slot for +end so I don't have to rest as often. Then if there's any room left, I add +dam. Note that using the prestige enhancements means those attacks have +dam and a proc, so there's some added damage in my attacks even before I add the dedicated slots.

This issue is more specifically related to debuffs. Buffs persist from spawn to spawn since they're used on teammates. Debuffs are used on enemies that keep dieing before the debuffs matter. It's similar to "corpse blasting" except it's "corpse debuffing." The solution is obvious to me.... and it's... Oh wow, look at that bird up there in the sky! .... *runs ahead and attacks the next spawn before anyone else gets there*

Quick thanks for posting this. I like yellow side content, but I never really figured out how to navigate the whole alignment thing on live. This project is going to the top of my ToDo list.

I think SR is the "easiest" once you have all you powers because it takes the least in set bonuses to get to 45%. But, because you don't get the AoE toggle until the 30s, I agree that Ninjitsu is probably the "earliest" in that you can get there at a lower level.

You know... rethinking this question I remembered that at one point during live I transferred from Infinity to Freedom because I wanted a larger population. I was tired of not being able to get a team together for TFs and having to solo all the time. In fact, I essentially left the game before sunset was even announced, seeking a more team-friendly option. Funny thing about that.... I've found that since coming back, it's actually FAR easier to find teams and TFs then I ever found it to be on live. I really feel like the population is bigger and friendlier here now than before. The player base is one of my favorite things about this game now. It's certainly bigger and better some of those other games I played in the interim.

As I read through the lists of things people hate, I keep thinking to myself... "what's wrong with you people? That's the good stuff! Do you want, a room filled with enemies who are specifically built to not hurt you and spew an enormous amount of rewards for almost no risk?" And then I remember what A.E. turned into and I realize that yes... that's what many of you people want. Give me extremely hard content and the tools to just barely beat it if I do everything perfectly. That's what great gaming looks like.

For some reason I expected that thread to talk about using a Beam/Temp blaster to crush GMs solo. I'm a little disappointed.

Um... dudes... Your arguments aren't mutually exclusive. You're both right. High prices were caused by more than 1 thing.

I agree that Story Arcs are where I'd like to see the next focus be given. I'm not a big fan of the zone wide or league iTrial content. It seems like it's just a zerg fest that you can simply stand there semi-afk and get the same rewards as if you're participating. Games should focus on what they do well. The single team Task Forces and Story Arcs are a solid game feature that CoX has always done better than other games. And the later content with great writing and the new objective tracking tech really makes it shine.

During the time of darkness and dispair, it was my DM/Shield toon that I often remembered fondly and longed to return to. That soul drain -> Shield Charge to drop a full spawn every 30 seconds was so satisfying, and my insane single target DPS for soloing AVs was also just glorious. DM/Shield It was the first toon I created upon returning. Ironically, that toon still sits at level 29. Now I'm really into my StJ/Bio stalker (You get 1-shot! You get 1-shot! You all get 1-shot killed!). And also my soft-capped to S/L/E & Range DP blaster who just jumps straight into any fight and flips around the room laying down a non-stop stream of AoE chaotic bliss until my face hurts. Technically, neither of these two are scrappers. But, lets be honest. If I'm at the keyboard, it's a scrapper.

I guess that really was a "pick-up" group. and Grats! (It's pretty cool you remember the zone where you two met.)

The original Shred Monkey (DB/SR Scrapper) will always be the REAL Shred Monkey to me. I did create a toon named Shred Monkey here, mostly because it's a name a few people may recognize and I was hoping to reconnect in game. But, similar to you, I started playing with the new shinies and I haven't played this version of Shred since the first few weeks after I came back.

I brought this up in another thread. I feel pretty much the same as the OP, but rather than detail the problem I just called it all power creep and proposed the following solution: smaller teams. I suggest you play the level 50 TFs on +4x8 but don't fill the team. Play on a team of 3-5 players. You might still steamroll some missions, but nobody is just standing there as a spectator. This way you don't have to artificially place limitations on your build and still face challenges where everyone's contribution matters. Of course, the only way to do this is to form your own teams. And then you need to find some like-minded people to agree to play on a short-handed slower moving team.

Places where I see you could gain a slot... Take a slot out of health and just put your numina's there (gaining 2 slots for stamina and reaction time.) You have 3 slots in superspeed. You can put the stealth IO in sprint's default and gain a slot. Just turn on sprint with superspeed when you need full invisibility. (Net gain of 1 slot.) Is eagles claw just a set mule or are you going to use it? If you can remove it, you can put those kinetic combats in kick. Then get Vengeance and put a LotG recharge there... and then 2-slot combat jumping with 50+5 defense IO x 2. (Net gain of 1 slot.)

I see people saying improved recharge time makes you do more damage. Either blood thirst reduces activation time (I don't think that's right) or the people saying this don't understand how to calculate and utilize attack chain mechanics. I started digging into Savage because it seemed very endurance friendly, which would allow me to run a lot of toggles. I was trying to figure out something to pair with /Dark running a bunch of toggles to make a damage dealer with more survivability than my stalkers and blaster. I thought Brute would be better than a scrapper because I could see that bleeds where getting increased by fury, but not by critical hits (I'm 90% sure of the critical thing, my sample size was small, but it the log was clearly not adding bleed damage to the critical part). Bleeds appear to be right at 40% of the damage from a given attack, so that difference should be pretty significant. I played up to about level 20, and got very underwhelmed. I've come to the conclusion that I don't like brutes. They're great for low levels when nobody has enhancements, but once you start comparing it to an enhanced scrapper, blaster, or stalker build on a fast moving team where fury is hard to build, brutes make me feel like "participant trophy" guy. I don't AE farm. I'm sure it plays differently there. I understand Stalker mechanics are different for the critical hit calculation, so that may be my answer, but the endurance burn is higher which takes away the advantage I was trying to leverage.

What is the base damage for fast snipe? Is it a set % of the base damage from normal snipe?

AV's (and monster Jurassik) is still there, but the spawns are scaled to team size. I've done several of my TF commander requirements solo. If you have a really good build, this is a viable option. Low level AV's are IMHO easier to solo then level 50 AVs if you exemplar well. But it would really stink to go through a whole Synapse TF only to discover you can't handle the Clockwork King.

mis-posted

I've never played Savage Melee, but I'm looking at it now and want to know how it works. I see almost no posts in the Brute section about Savage melee. Why is this? Does the bonus damage from Frenzy get boosted by fury and other +damage bonuses? ...or is it just a +damage bonus itself? Also, for those who play Savage melee... do you spend your stacks of Frenzy, or just run at 5 stacks and avoid the attacks that trigger exhaustion? In addition those specific questions, any other comments to convince me Savage melee on a brute is a good idea or bad idea are welcome. Thanks.

I was debating between StJ/Dark and StJ/Bio for my latest stalker. I really liked the /dark build I had... It was soft-capped to all on defense and 50%ish resists across the spectrum. But I didn't see a good way to meet the endurance requirements of all the toggles and a sustained StJ attack chain, so I went with /Bio. The /Dark build I had was much more survivable then the /Bio build I ended up making. And the /Bio has no problem with +2 AVs. Maybe Claws can do /Dark due to the light endurance usage... I might try that next.

Only 111 hours to go... So... next week sometime?

Are we +1 in DA or +3? I was thinking +3, but I never really looked. I also have decided the fastest leveling for solo-Vet levels is DA where I can use my level shift. I'm not doing 3 levels an hour, or really caring to try. I just go there when I want to bang out the remainder of a level quick. Are you doing Bosses on or off? I think depending on your AoE damage vs ST damage bias, you might actually level faster if you don't have to slow down to drop the bosses in each spawn ...but I was using my blaster on +4x8 no bosses.

This occurred to me when I first heard they released the code. I thought to myself, I wonder if people would use this game engine to build an essentially all new game using all new content but with same combat system and mission system. It seems feasible, but it would have to be done well before I would consider playing it. But I wouldn't just drop superheroes in a fantasy world zone. I mean, Thor coming to earth works (does it really?). But Ironman and Spiderman in Asgard? No ... I don't think so.