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Infrequently. I prefer making progress on a lower level character, if I'm going to play lower level content. Always. One never knows when someone will ask for help, or new content will include a badge which requires another badge which requires exemplaring. Attune anything with a set bonus you want to keep (or sell the unattuned IOs and buy attuned versions). Attune Luck of the Gambler +Recharge IOs so you gain the benefit of their Defense enhancement value, as well as Steadfast Resistance +3% Defense IOs, as they also enhance Resistance, and Synapse's Shock EndMod/+RunSpeed. Generally speaking, most other procs don't benefit from being attuned or boosted. If it offers a static value (25% Regen, for example) and no enhancement value, just take the lowest level of the proc available and use it. +5 anything frankenslotted (individual IOs from sets which have been slotted not for bonuses, but for maximal efficiency in a power). +5 common level 50 IOs. You can save several slots by slipping a 50+5 IO, set or common, into a power here and there, and they provide a much larger enhancement value than they would at +0, which makes them more effective when exemplared. EITHER +5 purples, if you're placing them in lower level powers, so you can gain the most benefit from them when exemplared; OR slot them in higher level powers, because the set bonuses are still applied even if you lose access to the power when you exemplar, and just boost the Dam/Rchg or Dam/End to push them over the edge in those powers. The same applies to PvP IOs if you're slotting them for set bonuses. For exemplaring, it's better to place purples and PvP IO sets in higher level powers, to garner the most set bonuses possible, but it's not a hard and fast rule. Sometimes, lower level powers benefit from these sets more. Attune ATOs. Always. You can slot them at level 10, they "grow" with you, and when you get to 50, attune them to turn them into the superior versions. And, being level variable, they offer the best bang for buck in lower level powers. That'll prepare you for everything at every level range. You'll be nearly optimally slotted at 50+, and well above the game's curve when exemplared.

Go in and find out. 🙂

Nothing, really. Well, the lack of defensible positions, the wide open approach from all sides, the enormous maps with widely scattered objective locations, not having queues to ensure that there are actually combatants, no teaming requirement to ensure that there you're not trying to guard an objective alone, the constant intrusion of PvE critters cluttering up the targeting system, not having a reward to offer for successful defense of an objective, the way the PvP system discourages players from continuing to participate (heal decay, diminishing returns on status effects, etc.) for more than a couple of minutes at a time... Nothing at all.

You know those portable medical assistance toilets that people with injuries, disabilities or infirmity use? And that old phrase, "Hip deep in it"? Yeah. That's what I see. And now, that's what you see, too. You're welcome!

If they'd had a vision of how PvP should or could work, we might've followed it. They didn't. You can't follow someone's lead if they aren't leading.

Last week, I started a sentinel. I was really excited, because the archetype is giving me the opportunity to create the one character I never could on the original servers, a classic Amazonian fitting with mythology. Not just a punchy-punchy or stabby-stabby Amazon, but a ferocious warrior woman armed with a bow and a sword and not hesitant to use either. I was especially keen to get this one moving, too, because my first 50 since the original servers were shut down is a Staff/Willpower brute (yes, i know, but it's the bladed staff, so it's still a sharp, pointy stick!) who I'd envisioned as an easily frightened, comparatively weak, small young woman trying to prove that she was as tough as anyone. This new character was to be a member of her tribe, scouring the world in search of her to bring her home. For some reason, this fired me up and drove me to really push forward with the idea, instead of starting the character and sticking it on the "when I get around to it" list. I couldn't do this with a blaster. The survivability was too low. As a defender or corruptor, it would've meant only TA/A or A/TA, which I'd already done, and it still would've lacked that last, perfect touch, a sword to whip out and start hacking on anything moving. And not one of the mastermind primaries works with the concept. But the sentinel? Yeah, that checks all of the boxes. A bow, damage mitigation, and (in an APP) a sword. And when I was combing through the sentinel secondaries, I noticed that Shinobi-Iri (Ninjitsu) had +Jump. Everything I wanted, plus more bouncy boingy happiness? I couldn't put my name on the dotted line fast enough, even with Hurdle double-slotted with 50+5 Jump IOs! The problems didn't really become apparent until much later. First was the Stealth component of Shinobi-Iri. All of the time I spent in the costume creator, perfecting a look which was similar to my precious, perfect Legionette (my brute), but not identical, and I couldn't see it. I even made this character just a hair under 6' tall, which is highly abnormal for me (i've always settled somewhere in the range of 5'1"-5'5"), and found just the right balance on the sliders so she looked toned without being bulky and awkward. But, hey, I could always turn off the power to see the character, right? No big deal, just push on and get her to 50. Then the irritation really set in, at 17. I had one of the sentinel ATO sets fully slotted, half of the other, and Shinobi-Iri with a level 20 Recharge Reduction IO. At first, it was just what I called it in the first sentence in this paragraph, an irritation. I'd be launching arrows en masse, and suddenly find my attack sequence disrupted. By Shinobi-Iri. And instead of finishing off a last-sliver-of-health critter with Aimed or Fistful (lined up to pincushion everything else within range), I'd fire off Blazing or Explosive, because the attack chain I can perform by muscle memory, asleep, was thrown off by a 2-3s animation. Now I'm burning through endurance twice as rapidly as I would be if I were in control of my attack chain, I've wasted my hard hitter or my AoE finisher, and I've still got 2-5 critters trying to give me a make-over with baseball bats (clearly not fashion conscious foes). I tried taking Shinobi-Iri off of auto and working around it by using it when I needed it. I tried to ignore it when I put it back on auto. I tried to live with it. And I've tolerated some seriously frustrating crap for some of the characters I created, because the concept I had in mind was so urgent, it felt worth the hassle. But I hit my limit last night with this one. Having that interruption in my attack chain was where I found my line in the sand. She's at level 26, and I'm in the middle of working up an Archery/Invulnerability build to start over with. At 2 a.m. EST, when I can finally log in, I'll transfer all of her IOs and inf* to e-mail, save the costume and power customization, and go back to level 1 with another build. I just can't go through one more mission like this. I won't. So what did it for you? What one thing pushed you past your limit and forced you to redesign a character with the same concept, but different powers? What's your breaking point?

What we refer to as PvP maps, aren't. They're PvE maps, with PvE content and objectives, populated by PvE enemies, and the occasional concern/hope that an "enemy" player (or team) might amble by. There's no PvP content. There are no choke points to defend or take. There are no objectives which send us into enemy bases. There are no flags to capture. It needs smaller, more focused maps, and objectives which require PvP interaction to succeed. Having more to do with powers would also be a massive step in the right direction. Using our characters to build defenses or tear them down. Repairing or disabling a mobile transit to deliver an objective to a location. Having to power up something. Preventing a helicopter or flyer from taking off, or ensuring that it does. None of this exists. It's all been possible from the beginning, but all we really have is dueling and ganking. And teaming shouldn't be optional to engage in PvP content. I say that as someone with social anxiety disorder, and someone who can only play when nearly everyone else is asleep (thanks again, Verizon). Interacting with people in any game makes my hands shake, and I still believe this, firmly. Multi-player PvP allows for more complex and compelling objectives, more interesting and varied map design and a better overall experience for the participants. Finally, there aren't actually any reasons, beyond a few badges, to engage in PvP, especially now that PvP recipes are widely available. The rewards are participation trophies, the exploration badges easily obtained even if there are players standing right on them, ready to slaughter anyone who approaches, and the temp powers aren't impressive enough to warrant fighting to acquire them. As it stands, right now, PvP in Co* is less advanced and sophisticated than what can be had from games a decade older than CoH was when it went live. It barely exists at all here, and what does pass for PvP is neither attractive nor enjoyable to me. When, or if, it's improved, I'll be in line to check it out. Until then, I'll pass.

It never existed for me. Just one of the benefits of using Hurdle as a travel power.

Yes. No, that would be movement suppression, buff/debuff restrictions and limitations, gutting mez across the board so no control lasted longer than 4 seconds (while simultaneously replacing all status protection with status resistance, and adding a scaling reduction to mez time based on prior mez status (any one of which would have been effective, and any one of which obviates the other two)), reduced caps for the ATs with the lowest caps already, etc. Essentially, everything else they did to further shoehorn PvP into the game. Especially the movement suppression. That alone raised enough ruckus to rival ED.

I'd standardize damage output in respect to animation time. X damage per Y animation time, with all other aspects of powers balanced around those stats. That would bring a lot of under-performing powers up to par, and normalize other things, like endurance costs and recharge times. Barring that, I'd standardize mez. I'd restrict Holds (single-target and AoE) and all AoE control to controllers and dominators (total lockdown), and single-target Stuns to defenders, corruptors and masterminds (partial lockdown). Single-target Sleeps and Immobilizes would be available in place of other status effects in other archetypes. Giving every archetype access to every status effect and every vector was terrible design from the start. And barring either of those, I'd add damage to collision physics so Knockback could be more than soft control. Knocking an enemy into a wall should hurt, not merely provide a brief pause in incoming damage.

The only situation when that can occur is when the player is using AoEs and there's more than one target. The streak breaker doesn't check to verify that X number of targets were missed in an AoE, thus forcing Y number of additional targets to be hit, nor does it count AoE targets when determining whether to force a hit on the subsequent roll. So this is possible. However, it's also highly unlikely, simply because using only a single AoE three times in a row would entail an incredibly slow pace (even using Brawl and the inherent origin power would drastically speed things up), and be ridiculously boring. Additionally, as each target in an AoE is checked individually, the likelihood of missing that one target, at 95% chance to hit and with multiple targets in the radius, three times a row would be tiny. You're much more likely to miss a specific critter if you're mixing single-target and AoE in your attack chain, but it's still infrequent.

At least you aren't forced to cover your nipples on male characters. If you want to campaign for equality, campaign for equal nipple exposure.

Just stick a skirt on BAB. No-one will know the difference.

Presuming Dr. Vahzilok doesn't get to them first. Or the Banished Pantheon. And presuming that the teleportation grid is functioning. And that the individual beacons are as well. And even then, filled body bags scattered throughout missions, implying death by violent means, suggest that either there's a limit to the trauma the grid can handle, or the grid's response time is longer than a few minutes.

In that shirt? Maybe in the Dollar Store universe...

Hold down PageUp (or is it PageDown...) while panning. Press the other Page* key to revert the camera to default zoom level and position.

I wonder how many peoples' mental health I could ruin with /bind g "team Group hug in the buff!$$powexec_location self Disruption Arrow".

On tonight's episode of "Granny Tow"... @Mister Mass waves his cane at someone. @Lines says "Don't worry". And I do a math!

You saved the placenta? Ew. Also, ew, again.

You should inform your team if you're playing in the buff. It always helps teams coalesce and focus.

Range and Radius are different mechanics, though. And Range buffs don't increase Radii. Equipping Intuition Core Paragon (Alpha slot), Intuition Radial Paragon(Alpha slot) or Clarion Radial Epiphany (Destiny slot) would be the easiest and fastest way to test whether there's a bug allowing Range buffs to affect Radii. And this would make it easy to test on a number of archetypes. If it affects one global proc, it should affect others. That said, 100' is a 66.67% increase over the base Radius, a figure which, to the best of my ability to discern, is only possible with Incarnate abilities, or specific buffs like Boost Range (plus something else buffing Range, as Boost Range tops out at 59.6%), neither of which is available to a level 33 tanker (that i know of). What's the value for the Range buff from Gauntlet?

If you have sufficient buffs, debuffs and/or controls in your primary and secondary, you don't need either. A Radiation Emission defender has access to a massive ToHit debuff, for example. Defenders who use Dark Blast powers also debuff ToHit. Force Field and Traps defenders already have access to impressive +Defense powers which apply their effects to them. Stacked Holds, Stuns and Sleeps also provide significant damage mitigation, thereby reducing any reliance on Resistance or Defense. Enemies who can't land a hit (-ToHit), hit like kittens if they do (-Damage), or simply can't do anything (Hold/Stun/Sleep) don't warrant taking Tough or Weave. If your combination of primary and secondary are lacking in mitigation, and you primarily play solo, yes, both can be beneficial. A defender can achieve just short of 15% Defense (All) with Tough (slotted with both unique +3% Defense (All) IOs and maximal Defense slotting in Weave. Coupled with other buffs, debuffs and/or controls, this can shift weak mitigation to strong, safe play. If your character concept supports it, yes. The game is extremely forgiving of power selection and slotting, there are always ways to build around "holes" in a character's efficiency, so sticking to concept should always be first priority. I played a defender with no +Defense, no +Resistance, no -ToHit and only one single-target control all the way to 50, relying only on -Damage and a targeted AoE heal for mitigation. I tanked AVs with that character. I attended Hamidon raids. I even soloed a Giant Monster to 50% health (i didn't die, i gave up and left because it took 20 minutes to get that far and i didn't relish the idea of finishing the job). I did all of that before IOs, before set bonuses, and after a couple of massive nerfs (GDN and ED). There really is no such thing as "incapable" or "too inefficient to play" in this game, and no reason not to let character concept be the overriding factor in decisions.

Tanker attacks have an integrated Taunt. By design, they generate aggro by attacking. The more you attack as a tank, and the more damage you deal, the more aggro you focus on yourself. Use. Your. Attacks. Additionally, there are no "defenseless" archetypes. None. Not a single archetype in this game lacks some means of reducing or utterly removing incoming damage. Every archetype has access to a variety of controls, debuffs and buffs. Every archetype also, not by coincidence, deals damage, because the most effective defense, in this game, is offense. Defeated enemies deal 0 damage. Lastly, there is no optimal team composition. All archetypes are useful and usable in a team, and no one archetype is "needed" for a team to function. A completely random group of 8 players with totally different archetypes, power sets and play styles can utterly decimate the toughest content in this game, simply by using BOTH OF THEIR POWER SETS AND COMMUNICATING. This game is not WoW. It was designed so a team didn't "need" any specific archetype or archetypes, but instead, so every player could approach the team content from the perspective of "Solo plus X". As long as you continue to try to shoehorn Co* into a WoW model, you'll continue to struggle, and that's on you.

I was a bit shocked no-one else picked up on that. Dunno, maybe we're just wired differently.