[4k walking tours of exotic places]

Being stuck at home I can visit exotic places on youtube with 4k walking tours.  Somebody walks around at a normal pace and films what they see in 4k.  It's smooth so no seasickness and it gives you a real feeling for being there.  I put them on while I'm working as background.

 

Two I really like are from different channels.

 

The Pyramids of Giza

 

Venice

 

 

["The Game is not Balanced around IO's"..... should it be?]

So if I understand this correctly:

 

You want the game balanced around IOs.  Which is a meaningless statement given the flexibility of IOs.  Presumably you mean you want the game balanced based around the best possible build using IOs.

 

Then, to make it fair, you want the prices of IOs lowered so that everyone has access to them and can make characters with the best possible IO builds.

 

Which means you want everyone to have the same builds with little effort.

 

The easy solution is to eliminate enhancements entirely.  Just give the powers the effects you want them to have with the IOs.  Then everyone has the best build at no effort.  Save all of the steps.

[How many alts do you have?]

Not that many.  I make characters for a certain level than turn off XP.   When I join a team I pick an appropriate level character.

 

I have 6 lvl 13s, 7 lvl 19s, 4 lvl 23s, 2 lvl 29s, 2 lvl 34s.

[Ignoring IO sets - what ATs and powersets have a different playstyle?]

I'm soloing with a stalker.  It plays totally different than my dominator. 

 

With my stalker I can skip most of the spawns and a fight is very quick - with some downtime between fights waiting for recharge.

 

With my dominator (plant) I can confuse a spawn and then take them out one by one.  Fights can be slow because I am safe.  But I don't skip spawns.

 

I know traps normally has a different playstyle, brute is all about maintaining momentum.  What are the various playstyles that ATs and powersets inherently have?

[what to solo at level 25?]

I have Colin Larson as a contact I know, I'll start with him.  Thanks

[what to solo at level 25?]

I'm half done with Striga but it doesn't excite me.  I haven't done it post-snap but I did it a lot live.  And I don't want to do Croatoa or First Ward with this character - it doesn't fit the theme.

 

I want to do old school contacts.  There are a lot of contacts opening up, but I don't know which ones have good story arcs or missions.  Any recommendations at the level 25-30 level?

[Stalkers suck precisely at level 24]

Or that is when all of your enhancements suddenly turn red.

 

That upgrade button on enhancements is a fantastic improvement in the game.  I just upgraded and continued my mission.

[Travel times are embarrassingly short]

I've always been annoyed by travel times in game.  Especially in Talos and IP.  When I had a character exit a mission and have to fly to the train halfway across IP, I noticed that the temporary flight pack had a countdown timer of its duration.  So I timed how long it took - under 30 seconds.

 

I couldn't believe that I'd been so bothered by 30 seconds of travel time.  Just knowing how little time it takes has made me accept it.

[You budding photographers - can we get better pics on the homecoming wiki?]

Looking at Nemesis, some pictures are okay but they really vary in quality. 

 

And the skulls are missing a lot of pictures.

 

Someone must like sneaking around in game taking pictures.

[Are ranged snipes supposed to be instant?]

I am trying out Assault Rifle.  I just got the snipe.  In combat it gets the circle around it, but it is not instant.  It does not take full snipe time to fire but it is slow.

 

On stalkers the assassin's strike seems instant when you are in combat.  Are ranged snipes supposed to be slower to fire?

[Just found an arachnos room I've never seen before]

Faultline arc, Agent G.  I am infiltrating an arachnos base and there is a huge room with ramps up and down and a ledge around the sides.  Took me forever to figure out there was an elevator in there.

 

Cool room.  Makes me wonder what other rooms I have never seen.

[Powers with "Crunch"... and those without]

I have just tried Beam Rifle vs Assault Rifle.  Everyone says the numbers for Beam are better.  But in play, assault rifle feels so much better.  The sound, the knockdown/back. 

[Quantums are not dead in KR]

Doing KR arc.  The mission where everyone is dead and you get ambushed by the Family at the end.  But we had a kheld.  And in the dead spawns, the Q bosses were alive.  The rest of the spawn would stand up but was inactive.  The Q's were fully functional.

[Expectations]

All ATs should  be able to solo.  Some will solo better than others.

 

No ATs should be able to solo +4/x8. 

 

There should be a change above level 50.  Incarnate powers and IO sets should not work below level 50. 

 

Players should never use IOs.  Players who want to use IOs should have their own server.

 

Characters who can solo +4/x8 ruin the game for others and they should not exist or be on their own server.

 

 

[Is there a good single target secondary to pair with electric?]

With electric I want to stay in melee, so they stay standing in the static field.  I have a brain in a jar robot costume looking for a character, so electric/psi sounds good.

[Is there a good single target secondary to pair with electric?]

Electric puts them to sleep with static field.  I want to then pick them off one by one.  What are the good secondaries for single target damage?

[Stalker ambush and the best thing about CoH (besides the costume editor)]

I am playing a stalker and soloing.  I do the KR arcs a lot on teams.  Doing them on a solo stalker is so different. 

 

In the Hollows there are a lot of defeat alls.  In KR the missions are usually defeat one boss.  I ran through the entire mission and fought Chernobog and that was the mission.

 

In another mission you get 3 skull ambushes.  Then you go fight Misery.  After the ambushes, I snuck up on Misery. She had 3 additional spawns standing around her facing out - watching for someone to approach.  I took out Misery while her guards were looking the other direction.

 

Which brings me to the second best thing about CoH - it lets you use your powers.  If a map has a guarded bridge, you can just fly past it.  You can sneak past foes.  You can use your power to skip the encounter and complete the mission.

[The annoyance of leveling on mission completion]

When you level you heal and get buffs.  Sometimes that happens at just the right time.  But often, especially at low levels, that happens when you complete your mission and get the mission bonus.

 

Then you stand around an empty warehouse feeling super tough and wishing there was someone to fight.

[Is Level 50 your start, your end, or a foreign land?]

I do not have characters above level 34.  I find the game higher than that to be boring.  It is too easy.  The character power replaces player skill.  I only join a Bricks team if there is nothing else going on - it's just too easy to really be fun.

 

I have characters parked at levels 13, 19, 23, 29, and 34.  Most at 13-23.  When a low level team appears I choose an appropriately level character and join them.

 

I join a Frostfire team about once a week.  Run the KR story arcs with teams several times a week.

 

Every couple of months I'll join a PI team.  We get to the first spawn and it melts in a second.  The second does as well.  I realize there is no challenge or fun to be had at those levels and I quit the team and go back to the low levels.

[WandaVision]

On 2/1/2021 at 5:12 PM, TemporalVileTerror said:

 . . . you may want to brace yourself for more grimness and darkness then, Doug.

 

I am not opposed to grimdark.  I was playing warhammer 40k when it came out.  I still have the original blue book and a massive collection of 40k epic armies.  And Eisenhorna and Ravenor are two of my favorite series.

 

But Marvel didn't do anything with grimdark.  It just seemed to put grimdark on the screen as if grimdark=good.  Grimdark does not replace characters, action, and plot. 

[The 20 movies]

On 1/31/2021 at 3:25 PM, The_Warpact said:

I thoroughly enjoyed the 13th Warrior, his foray into a historic telling of Beowulf and the big bad is the last of the Neanderthals.

 

I was sad the movie was not more successful and did not spawn similar movies.  We have Vikings and such as tv shows now, but historic/fantasy just does not seem to do well at the movies.  LotR was huge, but no one else made fantasy movies afterwards, they made GoT on tv.

[Guide to Leveling Rad/Dark Tanker Solo and Teaming]

Guide to Leveling Rad/Dark Tanker Solo and Teaming

 

This guide covers the power for an rad/dark tanker while leveling solo and with teams. How to use them, how useful they are, and how to slot them. Slotting is recommended while leveling so they are lean - once you get extra slots at levels 33+ go wild. This completely ignores end game and IO sets.

 

Why Rad/Dark? Radiation gets its coverage and healing quickly, so you can tank for teams without holes in your protections. Radiation is mostly resistance with some -to hit and dark melee gives -to hit for additional protection. And radiation and dark give a number of aoe attacks. This makes it good for soloing as well as teaming.

 

Why Not Rad/Dark? Radiation is not as tough as you might like. You can take a lot of damage from an alpha on a full team. If your heal is not up you can be in trouble. This pairing focuses more on damage than survival.

 

Overall: Rad/Dark is great for doing aoe damage and healing yourself without END issues. It gets +recharge per foe around you but is not great at taking alphas, so you want balance the number of foes you are fighting.

 

Basic Tactics: Always have Particle Shielding on. Start fight with Soul Drain for +damage. Use Touch of Fear for an aoe of slight damage and control/debuff. Use Ground Zero for aoe damage. Use Shadow Maul for aoe damage. Then use Radiation Therapy for aoe damage and to refill your health.

 

Radiation Armor

 

Alpha Barrier: Your substantial smashing, lethal, and toxic Res toggle. Get this first. Slot 3 Resistance.

 

Gamma Boost: Gives you more +Rec when you have HP and more +Regen when you are down HP. You want more +Regen but this is not great, so take it only when there is not something better. Slot 1 Healing.

 

Proton Armor: Your substantial energy, fire, and negative Res and slight cold Res toggle. Get this second. Slot 3 Resistance.

 

Fallout Shelter: Your status resistance toggle plus some fire, energy, negative, psionic, and toxic Res. This is your only psi Res. Get this asap. Slot 3 Resistance.

 

Radiation Therapy: This heals you and gives you END based on number of enemies you hit, and does slight damage to enemies. It also gives -regen which might help slightly on AVs and GMs. The healing is not a lot, even surrounded by enemies you will not heal all of the way up. Slot 2 Recharge 1 Healing.

 

Beta Decay: Your taunt aura which gives -to hit and -Def to foes and it gives you +Recharge per foe. This makes your powers come back significantly faster if you can surround yourself with foes. Note that slotting +Recharge does not increase your recharge bonus, it just makes the toggle come back faster. Slot 1 End.

 

Particle Shielding: This boosts your regeneration for 30s and gives you absorption and +recovery for 100s. This is a major survival power, especially for the alpha strike.  The shielding can be critical for surviving long enough to heal.  With a recharge of 2 minutes, 2 recharges get this down to 1m 9s and some recharge from Beta Decay should make this permanent.  Then add as much healing to it as you can.  Once you have this you will not have END problems. Slot 3 Healing, 2 Recharge.

 

Ground Zero: A pbaoe that damages foes and heals allies (slightly). Can affect up to 30 total. It starts with 1.2 accuracy. Use this as often as you can. Slot 3 Recharge.

 

Meltdown: Gives you a large Res bonus to all damage, significant damage and recovery bonus for 1m. Afterwards you lose 10% of your END and all of your Recovery. With an 8 minute recharge this is a panic button. Slot 1 Recharge.

 

 

Dark Melee

 

Shadow Punch: Basic weak melee attack but gives -5.25% to hit so it provides protection. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage.

 

Smite: Basic moderate melee attack but gives -5.25% to hit. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage.

 

Shadow Maul: A short range cone AoE. It does fair damage and gives -5.25% to hit. Learn to target a foe then move to get a group in the AoE (can hit 10 targets). Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage.

 

Taunt: Taunt and -range. You want this to pull foes to you. Slot 1 Range.

 

Siphon Life: Melee attack. Better damage than smite and it heals you if it hits and gives -5.25% to hit, but twice the activation time. Use this whenever you need health but not just as an attack in your chain. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage.

 

Touch of Fear: Creates a small AoE around your target. Does magnitude 3 Fear for 7s with a 30% chance of +1 magnitude, does minor damage, and gives -10.5% to hit for 20s. This is a good debuff with a fast recharge. Keep the -to hit on your foes if you need the protection. Slot 1 Accuracy.

 

Soul Drain: This is a pbaoe that does low damage and gives you a large damage bonus for 30s based on how many foes you hit. This makes a huge damage difference, use this at the start of a fight before you use your other aoes. Starts with a good accuracy 1.2x. Slot 3 Recharge.

 

Dark Consumption: This is a pbaoe that does low damage and gives you END based on how many foes you hit. You should not have END problems so this is mostly an AoE for you. Probably not worth taking for the minor damage. Slot 1 Recharge.

 

Midnight Grasp: Melee attack doing high damage over time, immobilizes, and gives -5.25% to hit. Take to increase your single target damage. Slot 1 Accuracy, 3 Damage, 1 Recharge.

 

 

[If they cut character slots to 1 - what would be your 1 character?]

Not hard for some people who just have a main.  But if you could just have one character, what AT, powersets, name, etc would you use?

 

Controllers are my favorite.  I love ice and electricity but electricity a bit more.  And dark secondary.

 

Funny thing is I don't actually have an electric/dark controller right now.  I have plenty of electric/ and plenty of /dark but not the combo.

 

I guess that's my next alt.

[Penny Yin Week Wrap-Up]

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who have TT and know they are going to use TT, waiting until everyone exits the mission and half the people start heading to the next mission before they announce TT.

 

Say it during the mission "TT after this mission".  Then everyone knows.  It doesn't make it better to make it a surprise.

[DC Comics Bloodbath]

There is no way that the main characters will just go away.  They are too valuable as IP. 

 

But as someone who loathed the main DC characters and loved the fringe characters (from Blue Beetle to Blue Demon) I am sad if they go away.