[Regen and an epic'ed out build]

This is a large thread that I haven’t read through yet.  Let’s see what’s going… on…

 

 

[Bios]

1 hour ago, Krimson said:

I wouldn't be surprised to see this on Everlasting. The other Shards, not so much. My bios are all OOC stuff. No one cares about my backstories. 

 

Yeah.  I can safely say that I have never seen that on either Excelsior or Torchbearer.

[The worst thing you can do?]

32 minutes ago, Plasmic Rage said:

The worst thing to do in this game is for experienced players to hope for new players to join the game, proceed to fail to share important information with new players in advance, and then unload a bunch of crap on new players who did things because they don't know what they don't know. Experienced players do all the complaining, but it is their fault for not properly sharing.

 

It's poor leadership and poor teaming. You ever see a speed run with a few lost players who don't know where anyone is? That's a great example of poor play by the experienced players leaving the first timers in a state of confusion. Good team leaders going after big game leave nothing to chance and prepare as though there are first timers in the group that need complete explanations for "Master of" runs or MSRs (The Oklahoman is probably the best example of this).

 

I have found that far too many CoH veterans assume that everyone else is as well, and think that there aren’t any new or newer players to the game.

[KB to KD toggle]

37 minutes ago, Oklahoman said:

 

Yeah, but not since, like, a year ago, right? That horse might be moving again.

 

Plus, we now have numeric evidence that shows that knockback is detrimental to DPS.  Just slotting a KB to KD IO enhancement in powers that do KB removes a minute or more of mission completion time.  People can no longer say that knockback doesn’t actively harm teams.

 

 

Using SOs on Blasters at 0x8:

 

 

 

Using SOs and KB to KD IO enhancements on Blasters at 0x8:

 

[Super Packs & Email Issues]

4 hours ago, Tenebrose said:

Are there any updates on this issue? I haven't been on in a while but had about 15 minutes to log in at lunchtime. I was able to grab some items out of email, put things on the AH, but became frustrated and logged out when I couldn't claim more than a handful few convertors over the course a minute. So I can't tell if the original locking issues persists, but the timer to claim items is nearly as bad when you're trying to claim a few hundred convertors or brainstorm ideas.

 

[You are about to do something hard and can only pick one defender...]

9 minutes ago, Voltak said:

There is not so much resistance and defense buff that you can net out in extreme challenges because debuffs are coming.   Any thing over the cap will be used as a buffer to face the debuffs coming at you. 

Then you have damage heading your way, and IT WILL come your way.  That's when the buffs and burst healing and even stronger still -- THE ABSORBS, that's when those will leave the other stuff down below in lower tiers. 

Again, debuffing is great and it is applauded and super important.   But as greater degrees of difficulty come by, Elec Affinity and Nature will inevitable show why they are top tier to keep any team alive and enable them to keep debuffing or dishing out dmg. 

 

 

Yeah.  I think you and Mezmera are talking about different levels of difficulty.  The Vanguard heroes fight in Relentless ASF is difficult, no doubt about it.  But there are missions in AE that put that fight to shame.  Any team that doesn’t have an Electrical Affinity, Nature, or Thermal support character will be obliterated.  Trick Arrow character on the team or otherwise.

[Native Praetorian Doing All Gold Side Content]

5 hours ago, ChzBoi said:

....just adding for completeness sake....(I use this guide from time-to-time as the character requires) Redlynnes Guide

 

That is a great guide, and what I used as the foundation for my own.  Just be very careful following it, as the level ranges are wrong and doesn’t account for a couple of long-standing gold side bugs that I encountered trying to follow that guide, (see earlier posts in the thread).

 

Redlynne left Homecoming two years ago and is never coming back, so there’s no way to correct her guide.  That’s why I wrote my own.

[Native Praetorian Doing All Gold Side Content]

57 minutes ago, Treadstone said:

Hi, Apparition! Thanks for the amazing guide, I recently started a character with this goal and it's already been mega helpful.

 

Question - being a newbie, I'm a bit fuzzy on this and I don't want to mess anything up. Would there be a point at the end of the 1-20 content where my Praetorian can leave Praetoria for Primal Earth, do stuff in Paragon and the Rogue Isles, and then come back to Praetoria to do First Ward and Night Ward at an appropriate level? Or would dipping out and then coming back from the 'real world' mess something up, maybe make me ineligible for some badges or contacts? 

Thanks again!

 

 

I'm glad to hear that the guide has been helpful.

 

Yes, you can leave Praetoria at level 20, no earlier.  You will get a mission from either Steven Sheridan (Resistance), or Provost Merchand (Loyalist), that will send you to Primal Earth.  Once on Primal Earth, talk with Mistress Eva (blue side), or Carter Mordesen (red side), and they'll send you to First Ward.  Just be sure to start First Ward by level 28, and don't go past level 28.  Then at level 29, you'll automatically get a new contact that will start the Night Ward story arc.

[Map Servered.. How many until calling it a day?]

7 hours ago, Troo said:

Saturday could be the test

 

Thursday night was the test.  Excelsior went boom.

[How to play on from iPhone?]

There actually is a way, although it isn't free, and I don't recommend it.  I have played Homecoming on my iPad using this method though.

 

It's called Shadow.  You basically rent a Windows 10 computer on the cloud for $30 per month, and you can do anything with it like an actual Windows computer (within the company's agreement), including play Homecoming.  There's a Shadow app for iPhone, iPad, and even AppleTV, along with Android devices.  Shadow is partially owned by the same company that owns the data centers Homecoming uses, so it has a fast connection to Homecoming's servers, (barring your own connection to Shadow).

[Ghoul King from Helix arc issue]

I encountered this issue tonight.  With @GM Impervium 's help, the mission was auto-completed.  However, my character had not stepped foot in First Ward yet.

 

I've been playing gold side a lot the past year or so, trying different ways of running through all of the story arcs.  See what works, see what doesn't.  Here was my latest go around:  Do all of the Nova Praetoria story arcs naturally, turning XP off at level 7.  Do all of the Imperial City Loyalist Responsibility, Loyalist Power, and Resistance Warden story arcs naturally, turning XP off at level 14.  Do all of the Neutropolis Loyalist Responsibility, Loyalist Power, and Resistance Warden story arcs naturally, turning XP off at level 18.  That left the Imperial City and Neutropolis Resistance Crusader story arcs remaining.  I dinged level 20 running missions from Clockwork A87952, and then used a Pillar of Ice & Flame crystal in a SG base to Flashback to the various Resistance Crusader story arcs in Imperial City and Neutropolis.  My plan was to do all of that, and then leave Neutropolis and go red side to Sharkhead Isle.  I got through all of the Imperial City Resistance Crusader story arcs.  No problem so far.  Got through Crow's story arc no problem.

 

Helix's story arc though, I ran into a brickwall called the Ghoul King.  All of the Ghouls in the mission "Negotiate with Ghouls" were blue/friendly.  I ran to the Ghoul King, and tried talking with him... however, he thanked me for saving him, when I hadn't done so yet.  He should take the serum, then the Manslayers around him should become hostile... but that never happened.  I tried resetting the mission, same thing.  I tried abandoning the mission and reobtaining it, same thing.  I sent in a petition, which GM Impervium responded to very quickly.  He asked if I had done any missions in First Ward but, as I said, my character had never been to First Ward.  The only zones he had been in were Precinct 5, Nova Praetoria, Underground Nova Praetoria, Imperial City, Underground Imperial City, Neutropolis, Underground Neutropolis, and Pocket D.

 

So, this issue seems to extend beyond First Ward.  FWIW, my character is a Loyalist.

 

 

 

 

For reference, other threads I've found discussing this issue are:

 

 

 

[Kronos Titan Question]

40 minutes ago, Krimson said:

I seriously doubt that somehow 10 players could all coordinate getting to the right point in the Crimson arc simultaneously, and then have all their groups exit in Talos. This is definitely the doing of someone with a spawn button. The same kind of thing that drops Kronos on you after fighting another GM in a different zone. I've had one drop on us after fighting Goliath War Walker, Babbage, Kraken, Jurassik. If this is a player doing this... They are stalking the zone with the mission ready to finish on a second account, so they know which zone to go to? How does Kronos know how to find the group fighting the giant monster?

 

Seriously, if you are in Talos and see Kronos after Kronos after Kronos, you think players are doing this?

 

It has been done before.  Two Kronos Titans vs. Babbage and Council Goliath War Walker.

[Need a low level solo build please]

I really don’t recommend Stalkers for gold side.  My gold side experience and intuition, not to mention many complaints back on the old blue boards, made me think that Stalker would be a poor choice of AT for gold side.  However, I have read many posts here over the past three years proclaiming Stalker as the best AT for gold side.  So I made a Staff/Stone Armor Stalker gold side two weeks ago.

 

I was right.  Many of the gold side ambushes completely ignore your hidden status and will start attacking you as soon as they are in range.  Plus, gold side has many escort missions where you need to disable the Hide power.  You’re essentially a slightly more squishy Scrapper with fewer AoE attacks.

 

From my years of experience playing gold side, the best ATs for it are Brute, Corruptor, and Scrapper IMO.

[Kronos Titan Question]

11 minutes ago, Turric said:

There are three methods of encountering the Kronos Titan. As I recall, I have only received the Master of Olympus badge when spawning him from the Stop Widlflower Agents mission from Crimson. I know I have fought him as an AV during another mission but I cannot remember getting the badge.

 

My question refers to getting the badge. Is it ONLY from the Stop Wildflower mission, so as a giant monster? Can you get the badge for doing it either of the other two ways (as an AV or as a normal monster)?

 

You can also get the badge from fighting the Kronos Titan in the second mission of the Lord Recluse SF.

[The worst thing you can do?]

Only play blue side.  Red and gold side content is much better written, and more challenging.  Sometimes substantially more challenging.  They help give you a better understanding of the game and its mechanics.

[AE missions worth doing?]

I highly recommend the AE arc #47119 by @TheZag .  It is hard though, and basically a Task Force, complete with a GM.  So I recommend either getting a team together for it, or play it on a character with both decent damage and decent debuffs.

 

The story is that you are invading the innards of the Rikti mothership in the RWZ, and trying to end the Rikti threat once and for all.  Being Rikti, if you do it on a team, some form of AoE mez protection is also recommended.

[PUGing less]

On 11/11/2021 at 1:01 PM, Without_Pause said:

A tale of two cities.

 

Lead a couple SFs(Virgil/Silver Mantis). We run through them quickly enough. Conversation was had. Globals were shared. Side bonus, we exited a mission no less to get the Ghost of Scrapyard badge. Fully T3ed with the four accolade stat boosters is within reach.

 

Saw someone advertising FF at +2. We did the door mission before it fine enough, and I saw the lead didn't have 2x XP. Well, that works for FF. Except, they flipped it to +4 for FF. Faceplant-O-Rama happens. Tells happened. I ask them if they are close to leveling. Nope. And yes, they knew what they were doing. "But don't worry, we'll level." Yeah, about that whole "we" part. If you are at +4 and someone is under you, they could be seeing +5s and their leveling does nothing to change that. It is your leveling which does, and you are leveling at the normal rate. Did sane people do FF at +4 back in the day? Well, no for this very reason! We had two support characters. A tank even asked about who was keeping them alive and thanked them. A Water/dark Corr spoke up. That Corr would eventually quit once they got sick of the faceplants. Spoiler alert, support characters aren't fond of being on faceplanting teams. More open dialog happened from said tank when the lead does level. Ultimately the lead quit although thankfully after they leveled twice. We finished although with various token faceplants in a very fitting way.

 

What I'm saying is, I'm about 1:1 ratio with adding global friends on red side as compared to adding global ignores on blue side. So, red side = best side.

 

(goes back to soloing)

 

As I have posted before, red side players tend to be better on average for a few reasons.  Quality versus quantity. 😛

[Blaster Tier 9 powers]

6 hours ago, Drow2100 said:

Sorry to necro this thread but I agree with the op's post from way back then. It seems to me that the people that were posting AGAINST the idea of a ranged nuke are the one's being selfish. Most people who play blasters want to play RANGED characters - I.E. not running up into combat. It makes ZERO sense to do so. Some of the "arguments" made against such a small change were some of the weakest excuses I have ever seen!

 

The op made many good points that were just blatantly ignored which tells me that those against the idea were just against the idea with no good reason other than SELFISH ones.

 

1) As the op stated, by the time you get the nuke and slot it for effectiveness the targets are already going down in .05 secs ANYWAY from not just ranged attacks but MELEE NUKES that happen to be convenient because you are up there anyway by default! Why should a RANGED character have to close the distance to do the same and then run back out??? Retarded, The thing that you "fear" ranged nukes being able to do should already be possible with melee nukes. I think what you fear is that you won't have a chance to use YOURS.

 

2) The op pointed out that you can get that ranged nuke ANYWAY through incarnates powers! You don't have an issue with that as it is the same thing??? Where is your "argument" against that?

 

3) The numbers can be adjusted to be similar to incarnate recharge times if being "overpowered" LOL is the issue in a game where high tier characters already are...

 

In closing - stop being a wanker

 

Blasters aren’t ranged characters.  Never have been.

 

 

Next.

[Server Transfer: how do I know how many tokens I have?]

Welcome back!  Excelsior is having issues ATM and GMs on Discord have been advising people to play on other shards ATM.  That said, you get five shard transfers every three days.

[Do you PL in AE?]

16 minutes ago, Krimson said:

I have suggested level 50 tokens in the past. Make them like 50 million. I can dual box Troll Caves once. Boom done. Or if you don't want tokens, maybe sell a BIG BUNDLE O' XP for a million or so a pop, and then just buy them until you are where you want to be. Maybe I'll stop at level 35 and do my Patron arc...

 

I would be good with level 50 tokens… as long as they cost two billion INF per.

[Super Packs & Email Issues]

3 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

Over 175k Winter Packs have been bought *since they last reseeded*.  250k Hero packs and 200k Rogue packs (assuming they have not been reseeded at any point).  I left Live before they came on the scene, so I don't know how many packs were bought or opened during Live.

 

Just a thought.

 

 

I am quite sure nowhere near as many super packs were bought on live.  That would have been over $6.2 million in super packs, in 2012 dollars.

[Super Packs & Email Issues]

58 minutes ago, caveat emptor said:

I don't have the numbers, maybe someone else does, but I highly doubt with server populations now, compared to live, that there are more people using the market, and only within the last month or so.

I play on all the servers, but mainly torch for a minimum of 2 hrs a day, and buying, opening and claiming items from super packs took about 5 min a week (another 10 min or so to convert and post items)

over the last month it seemed to get much slower, taking about 20 minutes to open and claim the items, but the last few days to a week, I had been able to buy and open packs (slowly) but haven't been able to claim anything, even after restarting my computer and taking a full day before trying to claim items

 

Super packs used to cost real money.  Something like $10 per pack.  They were not bought and opened anywhere near as frequently as they have been on Homecoming, and it sounds to me like it’s hitting a database wall as a result.  Population has nothing to do with it.  It’s the number of super packs bought and opened.

[Need a low level solo build please]

21 hours ago, Rastenn said:

 

Interesting. I was planning on following one of the guides here on the forums. That guide seems to just have a different order for things, but it also recommends holding at levels 7, 14, 18, 28 while the forum guides say 9, 14, 19, 29. Do you know why? Is it just an abundance of caution?

 
 

Redlynne’s guide on the forums is great.  I used it as the foundation of my guide on the wiki.  However, the levels in Redlynne’s guide are wrong.

 

At level 8, some of the Nova Praetoria contacts will not talk with you if you haven’t started their story arcs already.  Level 15 for Imperial City.  Provost Marchand is bugged and will not talk with you when you are level 19, so if you haven’t at least already started both IVy’s and Dr. Hetzfeld’s story arcs by level 18, you will not be able to get the breadcrumb missions for either.  So I put the cap for Neutropolis at level 18 to be on the safe side.

[Fun, solo (missions) stalker recommendation]

I have been enjoying Staff Fighting/Stone Armor as of late.  For a Stalker, it’s an AoE machine.

[Keep getting booted off or it times out trying to get logged in.]

2 hours ago, Krimson said:

I tried to log into Excelsior a little while ago. 12 minutes and two tries to get in. Then I get DCed. Now I'm stuck at the character loading screen. I think Excelsior may finally be giving up the ghost. 

 

Time to roll up a new character on Torchbearer.