Gerswin

Spoken like a noob mish-door pvper.

This idea is based on an AE arc I wrote but couldn't really bring to life with those tools. In the game, I would put a shady looking contact in Cimerora who asks the character if they want to test their mettle. When the trial starts (limited to 4 toons like SBB, or even 3 if you want to shake it up) the team is transported to the gladiator arena from SBB. Then they start getting waves of opponents (just like Time Gladiator) except there are 10 waves, and the last few waves are harder and more nuanced. Also, the opponents should be randomized and unique. In my AE arc I went crazy with the costume editor and made a bunch of Mad-Max looking aliens and robots wielding Roman-era weaponry like the 'Planet Hulk' comic. Some of the enemies could be alternate dimension versions of known characters from CoH lore. My AE arc had a Robotic clone of Back ally Brawler, mace-wielding Valkyries, and a bunch of other toons inspired by reading 35+ years of sci-fi and fantasy literature. Also, any experimental combat mechanics could be tested out with specific opponents, so that if they are no good, it doesn't mess up the trial but if they are popular then they could show up in future content. I am not sure if this is possible, but ideally the pool of opponents would update every week, or at least rotate to keep things fresh. It could be fun to run at level 50+, but I think it would be easier to balance at level 35. I don't know what the rewards would look like, but I think they should be modest and given every 2 rounds rather than a lump sum at the end.

Here is my question: Who designs office buildings where the elevator shafts are not lined up and each elevator only goes up or down a single story?

Fire/Dark is super fun, from speeding 4* to PUG Atta. Slow slotted tar + darkest night + proc'd howling twilight cripples the return fire and you can just tee off with fire. Plenty of viable incarnate options as well. I slightly prefer ice/dark to stack more slows and kd, but that build is much less open and relies a lot on procs. You can make quite a tanky corr with cardiac alpha but so many options. it is hard to shield your teammates with shadow fall if you are a hoverer, but you are pretty much unkillable. Raining fire on helpless victims is what superhero right is all about IMO.

I usually slot enhancements in my toon when they hit level 50. Levels 1-49 I rely on my teammates. Saves a lot of inf.

I think it would be much less susceptible to manipulation and undesirable farming practices(shadow accounts, etc) if the winter ATOs were just made into very rare drops when doing winter content, similar to that of purple recipes.

I made an ice/fire pure AOE damage build for farming the april fool's day mapserver event. It also works well for nemesis, rikti, ToT, and zombie invasions. It is pretty much just spamming blizzard, ice storm, FSC and Burn while using consume to regain end and letting the damage auras tic. I find little use for frost breath. The damage optimization comes from the balance of -res and damage procs. You can also fire farm with it, but not afk. It is surprisingly survivable with slows and the ragnarok proc in ice storm and blizzards natural KD. It was also easy to level using artillery , thunderstrike, obliteration, and other cheap sets. I focused all on AOE, and only took ice blast, BiB, and procced freeze ray for single target, and I don't feel like I missed out on anything. Everyone plays different, but I would feel very clumsy and slow playing your build for regular content because of the long animating powers like bitter freeze ray and frost breath and the lack of ss and CJ. Trying to line up cones for frost breath would just be tedious. Unslotted hover is painful. Even with SB, trying to maneuver without CJ is awkward. and very few kins take and use IR. Ice/fire is a great combo, and if that build fits for the way you like to play, go for it.

A completely different approach is to tank the AV and outdamage the regen. This is easily done with a specialized single target stalker or scrapper using temps (envenomed dagger, etc) and/or insps for the+3 or +4 AVs. My favorite combo for this is a em/bio scrapper, but multiple combos are viable. EM/bio can completely overpower even con AVs in the 'unkillable' portion of a barrier cycle. without temps or insps. I have done the slow kill process of using PA and confuse to whittle down AV hp, but I have very minimal patience so I find myself using a more violent blitz approach more often than not. My benchmark for AVs is the 'a Hero's Epic' story arc in Ouro. I usually multibox with unbuilt door sitter toons that need the accolade and solo all of the AVs with the scrap or stalker. If I am fast, I can usually finish the arc in about 45 minutes, or less if I abuse super insps and sub incan for barrier to make travel faster. Obviously there are different metrics of AV soloing that appeal to different players. I tend to prefer the brainless 'Smash!!' approach.

Time buffs, collisions, delayed DoT, and other effects often interrupt TT, yet the user just stands there waiting for the power to activate. There is an interrupt animation but it is usually missed due to the cluttered screen common when TT is being used in a huddle of teammates and pets. Another option would be to make the animation time match the interrupt period, but I know animations can be problematic. I propose a that a dramatic interrupt animation and a discordant 'beep' audio cue could be used so that the TT user knows to re-click the power. I usually seize this lull in the task force to make anatomical jokes about TT's, but I am sure my teammates would rather get on with the next mission..

/Kin might add the most damage to the team, but nothing racks up 'You have defeated x' in your combat tab like ice/storm and fire/storm. Ice/storm in particular can just rotate between ice storm, blizzard, tornado, and freezing rain to create a patch of carnage. With all of those scourging rains firing off at the same time, the AOE DPS is fantastic, especially once your teammates nuke them down to the point where scourge is high. Even more special with fold space. Lots of damage mitigation as well. Both ice and fire have very respectable single target damage with stacking freezing rain and their proc'd 3 or 4 single target rotation.

Kind of like the CoT crystals, certain areas in missions or even hazard zones could have permanent buffs or debuffs attached to them. These effects could effect players, mobs, or both. For instance, deep water could do -fire dam and +fire resist for everyone, and DA fog could do +NE damage for undead and -NE resist for players. Very bright light could debuff stealth radius. Mud could debuff run speed and jump height. It would be easy to overdo it , but used sparingly on big missions like arc finales and task forces, this could add depth and verisimilitude to the combat experience. I love the idea of tying these buffs to destructible objects. For instance, a very bright light granting -stealth to an area could get sniped, cutting out the lights and allowing stealthy toons to pass through a dangerous mob. Alternately, an occult altar that radiates -psi resist could be smashed, making the possessed psionic AV more manageable. I think these effects are already in the game to some extent, but I think they could be used more strategically and dynamically than they are currently. I know that players would come up with great innovative applications if given these types of tools in the AE.

The simple workaround that I use is putting their account on gignore. I only get inconvenienced once.

Every time I join a speedy ITF and I see their are 5 corruptors on the team with week heeling sets like /kinetic and /cold I know that DPS will be too low and most of the time will be spent at hospital instead of fiteing mobs.

100 Prismatic Aethers - Effect Suppression costume This "costume" suppresses all effects on the character, including stealth, ice shields, shadow fall, etc. The way the character looks is never changed, regardless of how they are buffed. Their hands never glow, and all of their animations are performed without any particle effects.

I do not understand how why people have a problem with fold space. It is a fantastic power. I just finished a Tin Mage with a great team this morning where 4 of the 7 players used Fold Space nearly constantly, and we completed the TF in 7 minutes. There is a tremendous synergy with fold space and AOE control powers, not just damage. Tide pool, bonfire, tar patch, freezing rain, quicksand... all top tier powers if the mobs are clumped together, and fold space is light years faster at getting grouped mobs than taunting. It is also great for pulling mobs off of mission objectives like shadow cysts or destructible objects. Lots of places where mobs not required for mission completion can be dumped off the side of a cliff. Overall, fold space and the teleport pool in general are more thought and reflex dependent than most of the other powers in the game, and user skill makes much more of a difference. I think this is a good thing, and I don't understand the hostility towards the power, except maybe a MM with fold space on auto 20 yards from a popular ToT door.

I think winter packs are excessive rewards, but a semi-random "drop" from the winter pack rewards table would be appropriate. Maybe a 5% chance of getting a winter IO and a much higher chance of getting one of the temp powers or salvage drops.

CoH sorts people based on personality rather than objective character effectiveness. Effective leading is a much higher premium than optimized stats. People that are good leaders, funny, flexible, and just the right amount of patient are in high demand as teammates. People that afk, ignore chat, start arguments. etc. usually aren't welcome on most teams no matter how skilled they are.

Love all of these options. I would add something to deal with stuck escortable NPCs as well. The force everyone on tf out of map without kicking would be the best. I am not sure how it would be coded, but a power that caused all ambush mobs to start pathing again would be great. Nothing worse than someone using incan after an ambush spawns and having dozens of lost mobs spread out over a 5 level map or something.

Often my teammates are my family members in the same room as me. I pay attention to what they are doing in case they try to steal my chips.

Group fly is a plague on the game. Group fly advocates get put on global ignore so I don't accidentally get put in the spot that the OP's team leader was in. The world is a better place without group fly users polluting it with their disgusting presence.

A fast person with range slotted teleport and incan works very well. Save TT for the zone-changes.

A minmaxxed stats build will still seem slow and weak on speed anything (regular up to 4*) compared to someone who knows how to use inspirations, fold space/teleport, incarnate powers and line-of-sight mechanics.

Good job! Now make that much every day for the next four years and you will get an invitation to the CoH country club.

Make First Ward or Imperial City accessible from Ouro. This would populate those zones a bit and speed up travel, especially since goldside story arcs are TT and mission transporter unfriendly. (talks and contacts rather than mission doors).

A minimal granite Stone/EM is a very potent combo. It can be expensive to make it really shine, but with all of the procs, purples, and careful use of ATOs it can rival Bio/ for damage along with top tier survivability. EM hits very hard single target, but proc'd up whirling hands with 180+ global recharge is respectable AOE as well. Lots of power pool choices depending on the flavor you want, but teleport, leaping, speed, fighting, leadership, and stealth are all good choices. Since the stone revamp I made a 50 of every secondary except KM, katana, and elec paired with stone. My favorites are /fire and /em by far. Everyone knows about stone/fire, but /em is just as good in its own way.