Olly

I was running around with Invisibility with my fire blaster healing aura. This kind of sucks -- it's not really explicit in the patch notes that you now have to turn every power off; and that your teammate's group powers can lower your stealth radius. (see: random teammate stealthing the same path as you with leadership toggles on). Anyways.. moving on with a workaround but I'd rather this behaviour is reverted.

Ok thanks. Good to know I'm not the only one.. now 2 of several thousand users... It seems to be a similar issue. I play on windowed version, and I just get the spinning circle with the screen faded out. Like you, it lasts 30-60 seconds.

Has this been resolved? I just ran Manti and even with Invisibility, adds that didnt used to see me now see me. Not sure if this is WAI or not.

I pretty much only play CoH in my spare time, so I'm not sure if it's my PC or the game. After the last patch, I've gotten freezes in the game. It is pretty often with my corr when too many sounds are triggered at once, but now also at random times like when loading or just fighting 1-2 adds on other alts like my blaster. The freeze will last 30-60 seconds, after which everything goes back to normal. The other complication is that I installed a new SSD, so I'm not sure if that affects anything. Note that my CoH folder is *not* on the new SSD which is purely for data.

I run two builds on my fire/fire main. One build is optimized for aoe damage, grouping for lower level task forces, and Ouro content. Another is more survivable and aimed at speed run TF's and/or soloing.

My fire/fire has two builds, one with ~235% dmg in Mids and the other with ~30% ranged def and 50% S/L resists. The defensive build relies a bit on incarnates for +defense while the damage build is meant to team at lower levels.

If you clear a path beforehand, you can separate the Countess from Hopkins by running away from Hopkins prior to her arrival. Iirc one of my toons took her on solo at the entrance, then I made my way back to Hopkins.

Solo'd every TF and trial on hero-side, and Tinpex. The biggest "buff" you can have is to max out AV -regen for most TF's. Bring out Posi, and load up on envenomed daggers. Buy the P2W buffs. Get your four accolades. Use diamagnetic and Longbow incarnates when you can. Note: You can visit the P2W vendor @ PocketD in the middle of a TF. PS It's not soloing if you're dual or triple boxing...

I'm trying a cold/sonic with cold's sleet (knockdown), snow storm (slow/ -fly), and arctic fog (+def). I'd think sonic might be a little squishy here, so maybe you'd want to take a different secondary. Maybe water, ice, or elec? And possibly pay a mind to which pri/sec combos will make it easier to get IO's for capping S/L def %

My point is, there are Reasons why other people would use an AOE vs. ST for the crit strike proc. You just pointed out another one -- powers available.

What I understood from the previous discussions is that you put the IO in an attack that is *not* the one you want the crit on. Further to Bopper's point, an AOE so that you get a slightly larger chance for it to crit when you have 2+ critters in front of you. I guess the decision depends on whether you spend more time solo'ing AV's or teaming up. For example, mine is in Arc of Destruction (AoE) so that when it hits and the IO procs, the big red "Critical Strike!" sign pops up. I then hit Rend Armor (ST) + Follow Through (ST) if I'm looking to crit a specific ST target, or Whirling Smash (AoE) + Defensive Sweep (AoE) if I'm looking for the crit to clear out more mobs. I "can't" put it on either of those ST attacks because I want both of those attacks to crit. My other option would be to put it on Crushing Blow (ST), but that is such an ugly attack chain if I'm not soloing an AV. Having said that, it's probably worth a closer look for people to consider solo vs. team attack chain considerations when deciding where to put the proc. I'm fairly certain I like it on the AoE just so I can see the awesome "critical" mass of pop-ups (twice!) when I hit a whole bunch of adds. Possibly not optimal, but personally satisfying.

I too miss my 30-yr old eyeballs. Last 5 years or so I've been prone to eye strain and light sensitivity. I've tried both tinted blue-blockers and a software called Iris. Both have noticeably helped my eye strain issues. Just.. don't use both at the same time. Second the advise on being aware of your room's general lighting. My eyeballs were bleeding when I was sitting next to a window during sunny days.

I was playing with one on Beta for the last 2-3 weeks. Massive debuff machine. Suggest procs on Dreadful Wail, grab a hold power (again for procs) from an epic, and procs on Scream. I split one of the Defender ATOs to get 20% recharge rdxn, and got to capped ranged defense. I hover blast and keep enemies at bay using snow storm and spirit shark jaws. The biggest single target dps comes from the hold (mid's says 460 dps with procs); so this may not be a good build to exemplar; but should be a sturdy build to solo AV's with.

Thanks for that. What is clear to you may not be clear to everyone else. So the clarification is useful. Getting back to solving the OP's ask, again, I state there are specific decision criteria which I have found to be useful: thematic vs. damage, ranged vs. blapper, and "smooth playstyle" which includes such things such as avoiding combos like Archery/Devices. If you or others have your own criteria for "bad" or "good", to me that is the more valuable contribution.

What exactly are you saying, @Erratic?

Yes, it would be, if your interpretation of "miserable" makes it so. Which for some people, including myself, might be close to the mark. Saying 'that's not miserable' is negating that person's interpretation of what is miserable for them. Just because you don't find it a problem for yourself, doesn't mean it's not a bad experience for them. Again, "bad build" or "no bad build" is by definition, subjective. Which is why on my post above, I suggest to the OP to be more specific about priorities that imply what they find "fun" and "not fun" and their priorities thereof. Not all builds play exactly the same. What I suggest is better defining what the OP wants in terms of useful decision criteria specific to this problem.

I skipped Beam on account of wanting the -res on sonic vs. the -def on beam; and the redundant -recharge with Cold. Mostly because I am building specifically for the Khan TF.

I main a fire/fire blaster that I've come back to after trying other builds and ATs. I find myself cheating on my main because I want to find more builds that can solo the Khan TF. I might be at the end of that obsession, though.

Damn. Beta testing doesn't take very long, and you can break it up into 2 segments: one for the build, one for the test. In any case, best of luck to ya. On other Khan news: I tried a cold/sonic and thermal/sonic defender. Cold performed great, but my damage was anemic. Even with the -res from Sonic, I couldn't make a significant dent on Khan. My build is likely not optimal, but it doesn't seem the damage is sufficient for defenders. On the bright side, the debuffs are ridiculous and cold (or therm)/sonic would make one heck of a team player.

Going against the grain here a bit... - If you care for damage (since, you're, hey, a blaster) then look at the previously referenced Blaster Primary comparison thread for some clues. This also breaks down a bit based on playstyle preferences: ranged vs. blapper; and single-target (ST) vs. AOE, with some thought to available ranged and ST powers in secondaries. That should set you up deciding your Primaries if strictly looking at damage, and help you winnow your secondaries choice. - If you care about "I wanna play like a kick-ass [insert theme here]", then you again will limit your choice, and depending on whether you care more about thematics than damage, you might to make some alternate choices. (Although keep in mind you can somewhat change power colours to try to keep within theme. - If you care about "playstyle speed", there are a few that tend to stand out. AR I've never tried (I'm damage oriented so I avoid it), Archery has slower draws (though iirc this might be solved at the tailor, not sure); which might not pair well with certain secondaries (you really chose a clumsy combo with Archery/Dev, my sympathies), and DP also feels "slow" and "weak" to me. Devices I found kind of slow due to all the setup time for the main powers. Plant might also be slower, but not sure. The remaining primary and secondary powers generally "feel" about the same level of animation draw speed. Sonic has somewhat annoying sound effects. - Going back to ranged vs. blapper. All the secondaries seem to have sufficient melee powers that would be useful for blapping. *But* some are actually higher damage than others, while other secondaries offer useful buff/debuff options. If you rather be ranged, and don't care so much about theme, they you're looking for secondaries which have powers that nicely complement your chosen primary, either buff/debuffs that will stack effects on your damage, or effects that keep your enemies at bay. - Some people will make a note of whether you plan to level up through normal gameplay, and/or intend to play past level 50. And/or if you plan to team or solo. Generally speaking from my experience, it doesn't seem to matter. You just need to keep your enhs in healthy shape, change the slotting mix as needed, and respec at some point (def at level 50). Aoe vs. single-target damage, I don't really think matters for teaming or solo. If you really want to push it, then create a second build (or third) build. So in summary, you probably at first need to decide whether you will prioritise theme or damage first. Then if you care about playstyle speed. Then lastly, whether you care about ranged or blappering. Once you decide, maybe come back and post your preferences in the forums; I'm sure lots of ppl would be willing to give their opinions and suggestions.

@Coyote, suggest you have a go in Beta! As Frosticus mentioned in another thread, Khan is about a 15 min setup to get to the main boss. That and the freebies menu, one can test builds all day (or weeks) long.

Thanks. Something about Reichsman just makes me want to take him out back and beat the arrogance out of him. No srsly, I find it one of the toughest challenges, yet easy to test with.

A while back I tested +4/*8 ITF on ill/traps. Great damage, but I was constantly laying traps down (duh). Just wasn't my style. Prior to running Khan, I took the ill/therm through a+4/*8 ITF and it performed similar to the traps build I had made. But also because (a) I couldn't find enough -res and (b) I couldn't find info on how long the -regen lasted. I wanted something that was perma that wouldn't take up my a lot of time to set up.

+1 for fire/dark. If you're planning on leveling, I suggest expecting to have a leveling build that is different from your level 50 and beyond build. I've played fire/kin on live, and just had a go at ill/dark. Dark is plenty powerful and fun.

Crazy Controllers 2021: Ill/Therm: Solo Khan TF, no temps, no insps Here is my contribution to the crazy controllers genre. Inspired by @Frosticus, I sat down and looked for a build that wasn’t ill/cold that I thought could complete this. The primary constraint I was worried about was -regen, so that was my first requirement. */cold for controllers and defenders had benumb. Only 3 other powersets had similar powers: dark (Howling Twilight), rad (Lingering Rad) and thermal (Heat Exhaustion). Made some builds, then hopped on Beta for testing. (Yeah those of you who say “but.. it’s Beta, it doesn’t count – that’s cool. You can try it on Live if you feel the need.) I gave dark a shot, but soon realized that the standard cooldown of 180 sec. vs. cold’s and thermal’s 120 made it a non-starter for what I needed for Reichman. (fwiw, Benumb and Heat Exhaustion perma reduce his regen to ~0.2% when IO’d and applied). Also, Dark’s Tier 9 didn’t really help with Reichsman. So… on to thermal. The damage was horrendous. 3 builds later, I managed what I *thought* was sufficient damage output. Reichsman proceeds to cycle dull pain. Left me wondering if I needed more -recharge. Seems cold’s Sleet takes care of this handily, and baseline gave +15% more -recharge than therm’s comparable powers. Hunted through powersets. Found a pool power (Force of Will) that looked workable on paper. Tested build #4, and still the same problem. Hopped on to the ill/cold variant I created, and tested that. No dull pain cycles. Hmmmm. Or more like, #$@%! Thought hard. Thought about other Khan attempts on other builds. Had a theory. Hunted through epics and pool powers again. And… found the power I wanted in the ice mastery epics: snow storm. Build #5 works well. No dull pain or at the least, very much reduced. But god was it dicey. A second or two of no dps on Reichsman would trigger it. Learning this in hours of testing…. One final tweak did it. Build #6 syncs PA and Phantasm at the expense of a bit of defense. It ”works” at the cost of an insane amount of time. Best guess is 1.5 hours per boss (the 5 with Reichsman), and then I recorded it at 2 hours for the last fight. I died once fighting the bosses, and the rest of the deaths were when I was too tired to hit up Reichsman and did it anyways. Took a short break, then hopped back on and beat him without any more deaths. In any case, I wanted to add this build to the list of stupid controller tricks. I might have a go at other challenges. Curious how far I can take this fella. Definitely *not* gonna try Khan without lore pets though, I’ll leave that to ill/cold. Keys to soloing the Khan TF: A power like Benumb, i.e. -200% regen, and base ~120 seconds recharge Aim to maintain dps on Reichsman at all times (even if it’s 1 point) to avoid the dull pain cycle. Your best bet is a click power like whirlwind, sleet, snow storm, rain of fire, a support temp toon, etc. Enough dps to burn him down. “Enough” means when he inevitably hits his invuln power, you can still dps him enough so he has a non-positive hp gain. So either he is getting -recharge and -regen debuffs up the wazoo, or getting hit pretty hard, or a mix of both. The build*: For some reason I’m ~39% defense in Reichman’s room during the fight, ~42% outside. Incarnates: All T4: Assault Radial, Longbow Radial, Ageless Core, Cryonic Radial, Diamagnetic Radial, Musculature Core