Sir Myshkin

I'd point the answer to this query towards a form of misconception. Here on the forums there will be a lot of discussion on value of Leadership, but in the game proper there's still a lot of people who don't follow the forums, and a lot of people who play character who A) Don't know/use Mid's and/or B) Don't build plan in the first place. In a case where Leadership toggles get tossed into a lot of builds here on the forums (as I have seen) it is to patch holes in a build and not to serve as a group endeavor. I'd dare say there's very rarely a build ever posted where the idea of the Leadership Pool being used for a group-use-exclusivity is ever the purpose of its inclusion into a build. Leadership is almost always a selfish choice of "fix me first, it's just a side benefit for everyone else."

I kept forgetting to post this the other day but this isn't the first time a Force User build has come up and I've always had this one back logged. It work either way (Jedi/Sith) just swap the Epic out for Electric.

Just because I don't get a chance to post it for relevant reasons since I made it:

I get the sentiment but no, that’s a bit too on the nose of “goodbye”. I’m more looking at time spent being held/slept/immobile/etc being equivalent to damage (in concept). A minion has ~450 max HP, then maybe it has a Mez bar of 225 and every second it spends mezzed it counts as one “hp” off that pool until it depletes and then the minion is defeated no different than if it had been clobbered with a Katana.

I'm still waiting for the day when Bases can be turned into active live "zones" with enemy mobs wandering around and linkable mission doors to AE content. #offtopicthreadjack

This posed an interesting thought in my mind about the ideology of necessitating damage to complete combat in this game. While maybe not necessarily something they could have managed back then, the potential to code a design work around this following idea could be done: Slot for control or damage, and for every power that is completely slotted for control your core pet's strength is increased to compensate. It definitely becomes an "eggs in one basket" scenario though. Then I thought about the ideology of the game being built on arresting/capturing and physical combat is not always a key component of those circumstances in a "real world" (comic) scenario. It would be interesting if [Time Spent Mez] could be an included attribute to defeating an enemy target.

Gonna piggy-back on what Shred said a bit in the regards of looking at the reverse of the status ailments problem. We have Protection and we have Resistance in this game, but status resistance in this game is worth the same as a box of crayons in a furnace. Currently resistance just alters the duration of a status ailment, but the variance from say 50% to 150% is so benign and it's laughable. As Shred pointed out in a classic D&D/Pathfinder kind of sense if you have rolls/saves against effects and innate protections and resistances then there should be options to completely avoid getting hit by an effect, and then incredible scaling resistances if an effect lands. It has always been my prospective that status protection should have acted like a defense mechanism that gets a "to-hit" roll, and then a duration check against resistance that scales more appropriately (as in if someone has 100% Resistance, 0% duration, true immunity). A more balanced status system like this would truly change combat and create a greater value for protective powers and give more thought to how melee characters behave in the game. I also do not believe that altering the function of this system would require a game-breaking upheaval because it would be using the existing mechanics and simply altering their function tags. Yes that would entail time on that end of course, but not nearly the same as presenting an entirely new premise.

I will often spend two or three hours pondering over a build and coming up with a completed solution before a character is ever rolled. Even in the case of new sets I would tinker in Mid's with it to get a path of expectation before playing the character so I knew where it could/was going. Once a character his Atlas Park I snag the Inspiration Temp and roll for a Tier 3 and then knock around couple of Hellions until they drop two more inspirations but make sure I do not gain enough XP to hit level two. I vendor the two drops so that I can list the Tier 3(s) in order to purchase a full stack of the Offense, Support, and Defense buffs at level one while they're only 1,000 INF each (cheapest they'll ever be, and the only time I'll purchase them). If I was lucky enough to get three Tier 3's, I'll even pick up 30 minutes of a flight pack too. Then I grab 2XP and DFB until I have each of the Hydra buffs. I used to run DiB as well but that one is a bit more tedious and I find less folks are willing to do that one. I will start collecting XP and officially train to level two while trying to join my first DFB and I will continue to train until 20 where I will stop until I hit 28. The reason I wait until this level is because it is commonly about the point where I've played my eight hour point and the original P2W buffs are wearing off and I'll no longer be able to limp along between their support and the Hydra temps and I'll have to commit to actual enhancement slotting at this point. Ideally I'll have flipped some recipes around and have a bit of a fund to begin enhancing the character, and between 28-32 have the first 10-15% of the build slotted. So in total the average character from Concept to Trained 2 is anywhere from 2-4 hours, and from 2 to 32 is usually about 8 hours. After 32 it's kind of a mill-about and do what I feel like kinda thing.

The reason I bypassed Cold was because it only produced the one shield (no dispersion bubble), and I was looking at max opportunity. I had to back peddle last night though after I started looking at an Ill/FF build. My mind completely slipped the fact that FF wouldn't be able to effect itself on Deflection and Insulation meaning the caster would miss out on that key piece. Time is actually where this might need to go, three Ill/Time instead of any FF use, with each of the Time users leveraging Power Boost since it is AoE defense. And I excluded Rad on purpose because its two prime debuffs are anchors and I did not want to cause any form of aggro to leech back. The other half of the design process on this team make up are powers that are dropped and done so that aggro can stay linked to the Phantom Armies with hopefully no bleed over. Plus yeah it doesn't have any real contributions to the buff category when it comes to mass +def or +res which didn't help its case, but I had pretty much thrown it out right away.

When it comes to earning Vanguard Merits on the MSR, the key is all about max targets damaged. Not killed, damaged, this is important. Melee characters typically have the smallest radi on their attacks (compared to say Blasters), or otherwise are ST focused which means they're spending more time individualized on one Mob than many. For those that AFK, or otherwise just cycle a fast and large AoE on repeat, they will see far greater VM returns because they're constantly, and consistently impacting at least one point of damage on a mass amount of enemies, and that's all that is key to earning a VM off that enemy when it dies. Interestingly in this process once you have that many players in such a confined area all spamming AoEs, it almost really doesn't matter if 40 players are AFK if they all cycle spam 20 points, everything in the bowl will die just as quickly anyway. BUT! This brings us back to Tanks/Brutes bringing adds into the bowl from outside. The only way to increase opportunity of additional net VM for the group as a whole is to bring in my enemies from outside the bowl, otherwise the bowl stagnates and empties quickly making Taunters a necessity. Even being teamed, the team that the Taunter is attached to has to be successfully arresting a large amount to pass VM sharing credit over to the Taunter. The best course of action for the taunter to ensure they get a piece of the VM pie (so to speak) would be to taunt through force, use an AoE, damage toggles, whatever to round out the adds and drag them across versus just a hard taunt.

I haven’t captured all the hard math like I intended to last night, but I was gracefully giving FF 40% each, 10% to Storm, 20% to Time, and 5% to the others (20% so yes accounting Maneuvers for this) for a grand total of 130% Defense while together. Barrier I was expecting 80% consistency (which is… again not quite right I know, napkin). Each Illusion will also have Superior Invisibility with a trail of defense, likely thinking Weave as well, couple of procs will shake out another 16-18%. There will be meandering thoughts on this, because shared defense will be key so needing personal base defense won’t have to be committed necessarily. I also looked at TA for unresistable components in Flash Arrow as another step around the added ToHit, and then there’s also -ToHit in NA as well, including -Dam to have four active sources of -ToHit and -Dam going. Actually five with Time. Then every set sans FF will have -Res AoE meaning six active fields producing up to something like -180%. Also targeted aspects of -Heal in Nature and TA being baked into AoEs too to help neuter things like Surgeons.

I’ve been napkin matching numbers in my head since I went to bed last night about team comp and what it’s going to take to keep the Phantasm standing during overflow aggro. Right now I’m averaging a Force Fielder to be worth about 40% or a Cold about 28% Defense, same for Sonic v. Thermal although I think I’d scratch both those choices in favor of AoE +Res from Pain or Nature along with their more significant buff/debuff respectively. So what I’m thinking right now: Illusion/FF Illusion/FF Illusion/Nature Illusion/Nature Illusion/Trick Arrow Illusion/Trick Arrow Illusion/Storm Illusion/Storm Illusion/Time* I’m really on the fence about Time, I think there needs to be a bit more supplement in defense but I would much rather see another Storm in there. This puts things in just the right range to have just four players cycle Barrier on 30/s cycles to make up the capping gap.

Depends on whether or not Accolades are considered. No accolades, the build hits 2409.519 (Cap is 2409.6). I tend to always build excluding the idea of accolades and badges in general since I don't often go through the effort to achieve them. With just one accolade tossed in, rolling Integration over to a trio of Doctored Wounds would be better because it would grant additional S/L F/C Resistances to the build. Also, this is purely a personal thing but I pretty much only slot attuned enhancements excluding the occasional things like Rech in Hasten that I'll +5. Since slots carry across all levels once their attached to a power, a build can carry a lot of its weight downward when exemplared if it gets stacked correctly (don't take my Mid's order of powers as the right order to level!). First: Titan Weapons is HUNGRY. Second: I haven't touched that build (or the character) in quite a while. The build's last update was Nov 2019 when those new sets weren't even in existence yet. You are correct the Heal proc is a worthy consideration, but I'd only put one in any build (and in fact I do tend to put the EndMod&+Heal in every build since). TL;DR #procmechanics anything past one is wasted slots.

This is really just making me want to start a team of Illusion Controllers to walk the 4* Content with indestructible Phantoms...

Titan/Regen: Aptly comes from my character named Deus Excalibur. Some notes: Shadow Meld > MoG > Shadow Meld is viable pretty much every 60/s and leads well into Instant Healing > Rebirth Radial for a very long stretch of nearly 180 HP/s Regen which is incredibly difficult for most things in the standard game to DPS down. If you keep the timing right and use Rebirth to fill the brief gap between IH down cycles (90 up, 80 down) the SM > MoG > SM falls in line 20/s after Rebirth activation. Defensive Sweep is (technically) in the build and can get a double stack for boosted Melee defense into iCap, but I'll be honest I don't even keep the power in my main tray [/em shrug]. There's just the right amount of passive levels for key Def/Res, and if they're at a level that when teamed the build easily hits the cap for several Resistance stats, and the 45/59% levels for S/L/M (if not at least 45% for everything) when there's things like Sonics/Thermals or FF/Colds around. As I said before though I solo'd a lot of content with this. It definitely isn't a "jump in a play" kind of build, it takes a bit to get used to its nuances.

Sigh. Alright. Challenge accepted.

/momentarythreadjack It has been posted in various places over the years in a couple different forms (Claws, Katana, Kinetic, TW); It’s not necessarily a specific build so much as a design principle that is obtainable with pretty much any primary and end up with nearly identical stat results each time. The last iteration I worked on was TW/Regen in response to a thread back in 2019 where it was claimed the worst Scrapper combo. I took that build onward to solo a ton of the game content, TFs, GMs, even some of the Linea 801 AE missions. The only thing that stops it is -Regen (which is sadistically a broken aspect of its design that doesn’t really exist in the majority of the standard game). Most of the time the build has so much passive nonsense going on that it never even uses half its tools. I consider it my “Unkillable.” I’m on mobile right now but I can drop you the build later if like (or here if others want it too)

You... you do know... I was joking, right? Implied by the attached Monty Python skit? About identifying a witch based on the weight of a duck? No?

Maybe it won't be today, maybe it won't be tomorrow, but one day you will be the reason for the first Kheldian Nerf.

I saw this topic go up seven days ago and I'm still upset there's no Regen in any of the trial builds. 😠

And I think that about sums up the last five pages!

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Scrapper Class of 2006 2022... Save Respecs If I could offer you only one tip for the future, saving respecs would be it. The long term benefits of having banked respecs have been proved, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now. Enjoy the power and beauty of your build; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your build until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 months you'll look back at screencaps of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how powerful you really were. You are not as gimp as you imagine. Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to prevent nerfs by PMing Geko. The real nerfs in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you next Issue and were omitted in the patch notes. Fight one thing every day that scares you. /em sing Dont be reckless on other people's teams, don't put up with people who are reckless on yours. Kick their stupid [censored]. Follow Up. Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind, unless you're super reflexes, in which case you're screwed. Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults on broadcast; kill everyone and let God sort them out. Keep fighting no matter what, throw caution to the wind. If you want to play it safe, roll a FF defender. Stamina. Don't feel embarassed if you don't know what to do with your build when you're 50...the most interesting people I know didn't know at 28 whether to take Cloak of Fear or not, some of the most interesting 40's I know still don't. Get plenty of HOs. Screw ED. Savor your temp powers, you'll miss them when they're gone. Maybe you'll level to 50, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have dozens of scrapper alts, maybe you won't, maybe you'll switch to blasters, maybe you'll /em the funky chicken after receiving Task Force Commander...what ever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either - but at least you didn't go to WoW. Enjoy your scrapper, use it every way you can...don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, its the greatest character you'll ever play. /em dance....but don't go afk inside the mission door when you do, [censored]. Read the manual, even if you can't with a straight face. Do NOT read build guides, they will only make you feel stupid. And most date back to I3: if you follow them, you'll *really* feel stupid. Get to know your tier 9 power, you'll never know when it'll be gone for good. Be careful about relying on power pools; they've been nerfed in the past and are likely to be nerfed in the future. Understand that globalfriends come and go, but for the precious few that never log off ever and require therapy. Work hard to bridge the gaps in supergroups and timezones because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young to complain about the noobs to. Join a PL group once, but leave before it makes you lazy; join an RP group once, but leave before it makes you crazy. Travel power. Accept certain inalienable truths, damage mitigation won't rise, the devs won't balance the secondaries, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young damage mitigation was higher, the devs used to listen, and newbs weren't noobs. You'd probably be right on the damage mitigation part: everyone else has been so far. Don't respec unnecessarily. Don't expect anyone else to PL you. Maybe you have a hundred alts, maybe you have played every mission; but its still pointless. Don't mess too much with your costume, or by the time you're 40, it won't be the only thing with too much yellow and red. Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing previous issues from the disposal, wiping them off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it was worth. Look at MoG. But trust me on the respecs. Signed*, Arcanaville *

I kinda dodged this before, but I can be more direct on this specifically. The Incarnate system has only had logistical value to one of my characters in all the entirety of my experience with City of Heroes beyond just existing as another usable mechanic in the game. From a lore standpoint one of my earliest creations was something equivalent to a god and was role played that way, the idea of something like the Well of the Furies was a laughable thing to them. Of course we are bound to the limitations of the game so we have to play within that confine, but the Invention System does a lot to leverage unique capabilities and play styles when it comes to enhancing character far more than the Incarnate system ever will/has, and as such I see that as being the true system in this game that really defines whether a character is going to be blatantly powerful or not. All the Incarnate system tends to do is either band-aid broken characters, or top off a good drink for completed builds (from a solo perspective). As a side idiom there are things like the Incarnate Trials where specific things like Destiny and Lore Pets are more uniquely leveraged to the tasks within those trials, and the Destiny abilities give a group of players the chance to help patch and unify a large swathe of players abilities/defenses/resistances in quick burst AoE format. Look at this conceptually like a snow globe though and this kind of shows that this is an isolated concept. I put 16 players into a glass jar (does it matter which 16?), shake it up (trigger 16 Destiny effects), and now there's snow everywhere (Barrier, Clarion, Rebirth, etc). Who cares what their builds were, for the next two minutes they all have +200 everything so what difference did it make which 16 characters I put in the jar? Now, having said all of that, we technically only have a handful of what was intended to be the full Incarnate tree and only a few souls out there are privy to what the remainder of that future actually held, and how much of an impact it may have yet still had on the game, and our characters. That disclaimer aside, there is no one character I've personally designed (without explicit intent on certain projects) that can be bested by its Incarnate version outside of a level shift state. The only thing that the Incarnate system brought to the table for players like me is "harder content." Levels shifts, bigger HP bags, tougher defenses, higher To-Hit scales, but all of this is still capable of being confronted from within the IO world. This is why there are challenges out there to not use Inspirations, Lore Pets, Temp Powers, etc. How much of that excess can be stripped back? To confront the question what the differences between hitting 50, and the Incarnate world, the answer is purely subjective, personal, an experiential notion of the player. That's not really an opinion so much as it is a fact. Excluding the advent of level shifting, there is nothing so far that the inclusion of the Incarnate system has introduced that cannot be faced without its powers.

If ever there were a story that needed an AE mission, this is one! I haven’t played with any of the game sound(s) turned on at all since 2006 😁

.... >_>