[Proc frequency]

On 11/29/2023 at 5:52 PM, cohRock said:

Thanks for feedback, everyone.  It didn't occur to me that multi-target attacks would have a LOWER chance of proccing than singe-target attacks.  Guess I'll respec soon, drop Gust, replace it with Cloudburst, and put the defender set in there.

Hold up, lets clarify since you don't have that quite right.

 

First, you're talking about a power that is focused on triggering off you as a caster base (PBAoE + Absorb), that proc is designed to initiate and spread off the caster, when you place a power like that into things that have something like a chain effect, the next potential trigger is no longer tied to you, but the following thing in the chain. This works great of continuation of debuff and damage effects, but not for self-promoting buffs as they're no longer tied to you.

 

Throw a few damage procs in Chain Lightning and you'll actually get some pretty solid feedback.

 

The rule of thumb when it comes to AoE/TAoE/Cones is actually pretty simple as there are two thresholds where you'll visibly notice a difference in return on proc effects. The common target cap on the aforementioned abilities is usually between 10-12, with some being up to 16. If you fire off the power and there are less than five enemies in the field of effect you'll see little return. In a field effect closer to 10+ however, you'll almost always see a trigger, if not multiples. A power with three damage procs hitting a spawn of ten targets is likely to see 2/3rds to 7/8ths of the enemies hit with at least one proc, or potentially a scenario of 4-5 the enemies getting hit with two, maybe a case of 2-3 in total, but one or all of that smaller batch will get hit with all three. Keep in mind this is all tied to whether or not the power itself actually even hits the appropriate number of enemies. Just because a spawn has ten targets doesn't mean it's a free pass if a few of them miss, your odds will drop accordingly.

 

Given the above, the other half of the scenario is really going to come down to the consistency of application; basically how often you're using the power. Sometimes a rarely used power may not be worth the extra procs whereas a power getting fired off every 8-10 seconds is going to be far more worth the investment in total returns.

 

Edit: I wanted to add, if you want the practical application of procs, and how to grasp their understanding, check out of a few of the links in my signature. If you want a crash-course "lets break stuff" approach to understanding, click on the "Mad King" link 😉

[Leprechaun Vanity pet not giving influence boost?]

On 10/26/2023 at 9:42 AM, brian9824 said:

The wiki says he gives a 10% boost to influence gains, but not seeing any difference when I use him in game.  Is the wiki wrong?

To provide you with an actual serious answer, that may have been disabled. The original archived Wiki does state the 10%, but if you look at the unofficial wiki, its been removed which leads me to believe that feature was--at some point--likely taken off. There's a chance it probably conflicted with the bonus XP granting abilities and how they impact Influence, I'm not sure, it's been four years since then.

[MutantsRUs and Preferred Origins]

Magic. Always Magic.

 

Want to know why? I'll tell you why.

 

Because the Magic Origin SO's are the only ones I can bloody read without needing a cryptographer to tell me which ones are which in an inventory slot since you can clearly see their colors without a ridiculous graphic overlay. I hated the idea of trying to sort through drops to find keeps versus trash, the Magic Origins were just so much easier to identify that I started rolling everything that origin just to make life easier.

 

Yes, eventually Issue 9 came around and introduced Inventions and changed the fact I never looked at another SO again, but habits die hard in my life, so Magic they still get rolled!

 

 

[The Old Days]

Taxibots.

[Modernizing Regeneration]

4 hours ago, Solarverse said:

Using the best possible class and using the best possible build while ignoring the fact that there are a LOT of NPC types that would rip that to shreds paints a pretty little picture of a power set that is absolute garbage.

 

1 hour ago, Solarverse said:

I am completely shocked I am even having to defend the fact that the set is shit, yet back in 2019 everyone was pretty much in agreeance that the set needed help, now all of a sudden it's just fantastic! I'm not buying it one single bit.

 

I may in fact be one of the only voices who have routinely stood up for Regen as being a perfectly capable set. I have seen what it can do both pre and post IO world, and the post IO world just allows it to do more solo by contrast. Regen is by and far the most advantageous set available in the nature of its uniqueness. Unlike other sets which build up a lot of their own shielding, regen builds up its HP and ability to restore it, leaving the shielding to outside sources (when excluding IO's from the picture) meaning it has the ability to gain the most impact from a diverse buff group compared to any other set.

 

"Far too often people look at the sets in a vacuum of isolated play and forget that this is an MMO."

 

Yes solo play is possible, and I have a dear friend who still to this day is die-hard on regen being their go-to for solo play, but it is the team dynamic where it truly has an opportunity to shine. When you add IO's into the mix Regen is an unstoppable force like no other. Would I turn down a beneficial buff to the set? No, but the core of my sentiments towards this set have always, always been that it is not a fault of the set, but a fault of the player's for being unable to meld with it. It is not a set for everyone.

 

The reason I (partly in jest) posted that snippet shot of a Brute build is because what Regen can achieve is incredible, and I've done the same thing on a Scrapper as well. Back in 2019 I ran the challenge of taking a Scrapper through many of the current challenges in the game with rather broad success, and more recently I did it with a Brute focusing on a different tactic (Resistance building) and took it into the newer challenges like the modified ITF and Aeon and proved that it is capable of tanking those starred runs. Is it all incredibly easy mode? No, it does take a mind of consideration, of pre-planning, and of skilled judgement to pull off, but it can be done.

 

My Regen Brute is by far one of my most powerful alts in my stable hands down, and it shares that house with a SS/Rad/Soul Brute and a Full-Def/Res Granite Tank. When that build starts its cycle of clicks (IH, Melee, Rune, Barrier) it is incredibly hard for most enemy groups in the game to shut it down faster than it can kill them. Has it died? Of course it has, but that was often my error, not Regen.

[Modernizing Regeneration]

On 9/4/2023 at 1:48 AM, Troo said:

What could be achieved by level 25:

Don't forget level 50 (w/o Incarnates or other clicks active) 😁

[Still take a travel power?]

99% of the time, yes, the remaining 1% was exclusively for concept to not have a travel power. The bigger problem I have is not taking the same thing on every toon, but trying to keep some theme in play that makes sense to the character. I found over time Super Speed was a common grab for me because it makes navigation and movement inside missions faster since I can just reveal the map and watch my icon on the 2D versus trying to pay attention to the environment itself when moving to find objectives. This transitioned into getting Speed of Sound when it became available because it includes that short-burst teleport. I use Jaunt constantly in combat now to zip around and close-in on targets, jump floors without having to actually look for ramps, or just generally evade enemy groups by popping past them.

[New Computer - Any pitfalls to worry about?]

As someone who actively sold PC's and is still in IT, I'm going to have to somewhat disagree with all the comments about CoH and Integrated graphics. At the time of the game's closure the "top of the line" necessities were AMD FX 280's and nVidia upper 900's or anything 10 series that was coming out, those cards barely had 2-3GBs of dedicated RAM and even in their heyday CoH would have drop points of FPS in the 20's during events like Mothership Raids. Any laptop that is purchased off the shelf that has integrated graphics from 2020 onward (and certain processors from 2018 up) can run CoH in Ultra Mode because the onboard graphics at this point in tech time line are comparable in graphics support, so on a budget it could be done to get one of those with at least a Ryzen 5 (3k+) or i5 (10k+) will function fine (AMD will be better as they have superior integrated graphics performance on their chips).

 

The only issue with getting a device using integrated performance is they are not designed for heat dissipation in the same way that a true gaming laptop would be. They lack fans and support to offset heat and create proper cooling which can (likely will) result in the laptop having a much shorter lifespan comparatively. When approaching this from a desktop scenario, it is still a similar issue of heat/airflow, but also a lack in power; most desktop units that are using integrated graphics often have a PSU that's minimum spec'd to 180w or less, and a full exhaust processor burning 45-60W in those builds can be taxing because they prefer to idle in the 90's, not up into their "peak" ratings.

 

If you decide to go for a laptop, and given the average person is looking at budge and bang-for-buck, I'd point to something like this:

You can almost always find some variant of MSI and or the ASUS (gaming line) laptop with certain baseline parts on sale for somewhere in the $650-750 range. If you go with one that only has 8GB of RAM make sure (like this one) it has a second slot and can be upgraded, some units the RAM is soldered in and can't be upgraded, but RAM is relatively cheap by comparison for another 8-16GBs and can make CoH run like a cool breeze on one of these.

 

If you're looking at a desktop a similar price threshold can be met:

Now this is just one example, but I don't know that I'd personally run an Intel Processor with an AMD GPU as better performance comes out of AMD+AMD, or stick to Intel+nVidia, or if you want AMD+nVidia since they've gotten over most of their awkward interactions of the past.

If you're willing to put up into the $1,000-$1,200 range, this will assuredly get into the 7's and minimum 3060's which is a more viable "long term" choice for the next 4-5 years:

 

I would recommend staying away from Lenovo, Alienware, and HP for both desktops and laptops. Lenovo "gaming" anything tends to have very poor life expectancy. Alienware is always overpriced for its contents, and often far bulkier/wasted components for the build (as in physical construction). HP makes a lot of stuff in-house and while it may say "Hey, I've got this great SSD or GPU" they're almost always sub-par parts, and they are notorious for undercutting the wattage of their PSU's be a significant margin to cut costs; I've seen far too many builds that have a 650-700W peak get sold with a 550-600W max supply, meaning the unit will burn out incredibly fast. All three of these brands also tend to stick a lot of bloatware on their devices, and anything Dell has software you can't remove because it's baked into the BIOS of the motherboard, not cool.

[Mercs/Cold Questions]

On 8/16/2023 at 4:03 AM, Raikao said:

Can you tell me what you put in Equip Mercenary and Tactical Upgrade? It doesn't import those properly. Just shows two empty slots on each.

 

At the time there existed a bug in Mids that didn't have the correct slotting options, that's why it's never been there. Equip is the Steadfast 3% and a 50 Res IO, Tactical is LotG 7.5% and LotG Def IO.

 

On 8/16/2023 at 4:03 AM, Raikao said:

I think Stamina could use another EndMod but I'm just addicted to endurance maybe.

 

Not all of the uniques and procs get accounted for in the totals compared to what you'll net experience in-game. This setup is always higher than it appears; you also don't have to worry with Heat Loss available too, that'll be an easy bar-fill on each cycle.

 

On 8/16/2023 at 4:03 AM, Raikao said:

I will say there a "upgrades" one can make, like Cytoskeletons in Tactics, but those are basically just "invest more inf if you want"

 

Spot on. Personally I tend not to waste the Inf for a smidgen of grace in most cases, but two level 50 ToHit/End IO's boosted to +5 are going to be pretty close to the same as just a pair of base 50 Cyto's, the only benefit of going the Cyto route is to +3, and that's just excessive Inf sinking to chase .5%

[Yomo's New and Improved Bang-Up Salmagundi Spectacular!!!]

1 hour ago, honoroit said:

Oh man, I miss the era when everyone making anime AMVs was a thing. I'm going to be stuck in that rabbit hole for hours now.

[Sigh Barbie]

On 7/23/2023 at 6:23 PM, Snarky said:

I will not be doing so, as I never run fem toons.

Now now, nobody said you couldn't do a Vampire Ken character Snarky. You'll just have to accept he... *shudders* probably glitters in the sunlight.

[Four Billion Influence]

Liquid or net worth here? I'm more of a property investment banker than a raw-funds inflation-sucks kind of banker. Either way, just like a traditional broker I stole my money 😉

[Things that make you say "Hmmm..."]

The random round that ends in a roundabout amidst cliff walls in the far southeast of Founder's Falls for no apparent reason whatsoever. There's no shops along the path, no statue, just a road, and a roundabout.

[Homage to DBZ]

You can get away with so many options to bust out a Dragon Ball related character it's ridiculous, there's also plenty of ways to create varying degrees of outfits that fit into the concept of the Anime/Manga while not 100% being a direct clone (gotta be mindful of the copyright and all!)

 

Nearly every melee set has access to a handful of blasts, and there's even a few reasonable ones in the Power Pools if you wanted to mix it up a bit more. Obviously Blasters is where most folks would look to because of... well, the Blasts! Incidentally more of DB/Z is really focused on the actually melee combat above anything, so being mindful of that can really lead to some interesting choices like grabbing Martial for a Blaster secondary, or maybe Energy since both give more foot or fist work options. For me personally I absolutely have an homage character in the form of a Saiyajin with Electrical/Nrg as its sets. Short Circuit and Voltaic Sentinel give me a few showy aspects, and Thunderous Blast being a ranged attack is a very effective "final move". Electrical, Energy, Radiation all give different approaches that can have that thematic feel to them.

 

If you want to feel more fight-oriented, then I'd probably suggest Street Justice on a melee toon and grabbing something like electrical, dark, or energy blasts, and maybe pickup Arcane Bolt if you want a more complete ranged chain (gonna need fly too anyway right?).

 

For funsies:

[White Head]

4 hours ago, RikOz said:

Honestly, the exact same problem exists when choosing the pure white skin color. The whole body just looks like a an average white person rolled in flour.

 

... and thus Tempura Man was born!

[How come you can’t play it on your phone]

But... but I can play it on my phone?

 

opens SteamLink app

[Help me love City again]

14 hours ago, Hyperstrike said:

YOU?

You were born what?  About 10 seconds ago?

🤣😂😁

[Badges: puzzled why teams never seem to go for these ones]

1 hour ago, ZemX said:

I'm not forgetting that.  What I can't remember is ever being on a radio team that failed to complete a bank mission, AV or no AV.  I'm sure it's happened and if I was on an especially weak, heavily side-kicked team of lowbies, I might consider skipping it.  But most radio teams I've ever been on have been more than capable of handling one AV.

 

This is still only looking at one aspect of the whole. The AV piece is a potential slog that could see half or more of the team wipe in the effort of completion, or not, but also find that the majority of the work is performed by one or two of the characters who were actually strong enough/slotted to perform the task of taking on an AV in the first place. Don't get me wrong I'm not arguing for or against skipping the mission, I'm just stating that I get why they do.

 

The Mayhem missions were created for variance, but when it comes to net INF+XP/time, they're ultimately inferior to just running another Radio mission for most teams. 🤷‍♂️

[Badges: puzzled why teams never seem to go for these ones]

4 hours ago, ZemX said:

It's a quick mission complete and a shot at an EB/AV.

 

You're forgetting the part where most PI Radio teams are often a collection of rag-tag players from (literally) level 1 to 50+++ with a median somewhere between 30-35. Jumping into the Mayhem requires bypassing a map full of figurative nasty to get to a bank entrance that has a chance of spawning none-other than Lord Recluse himself. Combine these factors and this is why the average PI "team" passes on the Detective's request and scoots on to the next mission in the list.

 

5 hours ago, Psyonico said:

Unless it gives me an accolade power, I couldn't care less about badges most of the time.

 

As for the original topic, this is somewhat where I stand. I'll collect them out of convenience, but if there isn't a long-term net value out of the effort involved, I'm highly unlikely to delve into it, especially having a roster of 40+ characters I actively rotate through.

[Can you get fire armor capped to most resists?]

3 hours ago, ninja surprise said:

Or re-roll as a Brute Tanker in disgust 🤫

 

FTFY

[RIP John Romita]

I haven't drawn anything in quite a while, but for anyone who's ever been interested in doing comic work can never say that Romita Sr didn't have some kind of influence on them at some point. It is sad to see a legend go, but I respect the heck out of the career he left behind and the memories he'll leave lasting for generations to come.

 

This is a piece I did over a decade ago that strangely finds unfortunate relevance today. It's something that hangs on my wall for many different reasons, but I share it now as tribute to Romita for his influence on my work, in honor of one of his own.

 

[Can you get fire armor capped to most resists?]

Would require some exchange over to Fire Melee, but it can translate. Bit short on E/N, but there's a few spots that can quickly be rotated to get it, so it's not impossible, just wasn't part of this attached build's goal.

Scrapper - Dual Blades - Fiery Aura.mxd

[Storm Blast needs help, bad.]

3 hours ago, Hjarki said:

Not to interfere with the griping and fanboying, but does anyone have a clear idea how procs work in Storm Cell? From what I can see, procs in the baseline powers (Cloudburst, Gust, etc.) do not translate over to the Storm Cell nukes. Procs in Storm Cell should work, but it seems like the 25 yard radius would be punitive on the proc chance.

 

Procs technically work in Storm Cell, but they only fire off the lightning the occurs from the usage of powers within the Cell, not organically just because. Thus you get random ontop of random, making it super rare. When I checked for occurrence I spent... eh, about 45ish minutes in total trying various different things, I only saw two triggers of the proc I had placed in Storm Cell.

 

Now if you'll excuse me, it's Sharknado week in the War Zone, I'll be going back to fanboying 😄

[Stone Tankers are utterly ridiculous now]

On 6/12/2023 at 2:10 PM, Sovera said:

There is no such thing as 'compensating for Granite's debuffs'. Either Rage or IO bonuses the full strength would be exerted without Granite and with Granite we have less. Even if IO +damage could be stacked to 30% we're not compensating for Granite. If we don't have Granite toggled on we do 30% more damage.

 

The last time I built for Stone I remember that there was no great points in using Granite. If I recall correctly the resistances went up, including defense debuff, but losing all toggles dropped defense as a whole so it was a wash or slightly worse in defense even if resistances went up. With all the other debuffs attached to the form I could not see the point.

 

Compensation by definition is to counterbalance an unwanted effect, so yes it is literally the act of.

 

It would seem to me that you may not be fully aware of just how Stone Armor functions at this point. The stone toggles don't drop when going into Granite, they just go inactive/stasis. Granite has superior DDR by a small measure, which is a rather relevant need as well. Yes the movement debuff sucks and kind of pigeon holes a need for some kind of combat teleportation, but eh.

 

Taking a snapshot from my Tank:

 

That's in Granite with nothing else active but set bonuses. The build has Maneuvers to add in another 4% on top, if someone wanted to go the route of Weave that too would be possible (but realistically ends up with far too many excess power choices I felt).

 

If I turn off granite and just have the core toggles active w/ Maneuvers (which I have/can/do):

 

And that's with NO slotting beyond a LotG 7.5%, and Brimstone is just Psi IO's. Essentially an empty toggle with set bonus support.

[Stone Tankers are utterly ridiculous now]

Let’s be realistic, ya’ll would be busting into Granite in a heartbeat if it weren’t for the forced overlay rock look 😛 

 

On a serious note though, building for Granite specifically can be an incredibly prosperous turn out. I have my Stone/EM pumped for Hard Mode with the debuffs compensated in IO bonuses, fully Res capped, packed Defense. Do i need to constantly run that way? Not at all, but when I drop out of Granite I’m still soft capped to defense and sporting good midline resistances, and now pumped by 30% damage due to my compensation. I don’t even have any of those other toggles slotted for more than fillers like the LotG 7.5’s.

 

Stone can do a lot defensively now, but its money is in being able to grab both Res and Def in Granite. Don’t forget it has a hole in its DDR, rely too much on just the defense and it can haunt you.