Grindingsucks

That does sound annoying. It seems like the most efficient way to use the power on a team would be to hover directly over the tank and then fire the power. Mobs should then drop down around the tanker, who can easily taunt them to his/her hearts content.

@Haijinx Ah, I think we're thinking of two different things here and that I may have misunderstood your initial comments. If I understand you correctly, you mean players that make literal groups called the justice league and X-men (with a direct cyclops, wolverine, storm, gambit clone, and so on). I don't know of any SG's that actually do that. Global Defense Force, for example, is a JLA-like team with a space station base like the Leagues Watchtower, just as the Freedom Phalanx is a JLA-like team with a ground based HQ, like the Leagues Hall of Justice. Evolution X is a school for mutants and other super-powered students and their instructors as an analog to Xaviers school for gifted youngsters. Just as The Shining Stars are a group of fresh, young heroes, much like DC's teen titans or Young Justice. And of course many players play lone vigilantes- analogs to DC's Batman or Green Arrow, just as Manticore and Blue Steel are analogs to the same. The members of those teams are mostly very different from the teams that inspired them, though (yes, I am sure there are also some that are analogs- it's a bit hard to come up with truly unique concepts, where super heroes are concerned). I didn't mean to imply that your opinion was wrong, in any case. It's certainly as relevant as mine or anyone else, of course.

Trying out a Mind/Force Field controller, presently. Only have him up to lvl 25, at the present, so not sure how he'll perform once I hit higher levels. I'll add my 2 bit's to this thread once I've gotten his T8's & 9's and had some solid experience using them.

There are a lot of player SG's that are DC/Marvel inspired homages to X-men, JLA/JSA, and Avengers, yes. You could also create a group that's a Freedom Phalanx Reserve, as you suggested. Either one is applicable and fitting to the game genre and setting and both could be very fun, IMO. Of course, Freedom Phalanx (and all the other super teams inherent to the setting) are also simply homages to the JLA, Teen Titans, etc. So, there really is no appreciable difference.

I would say I have too many things I would like to have just "one wish". I see everyone cramming multiple things into one wish, though, so what the heck. 😛 In no particular order of preference... 1) Character creation and levelling identical to the Beta server. 2) Animations (not animation TIMES, just the look of the animation, itself) able to be chosen from a dropdown menu for any power (where it makes sense, at least. Firing sonic beams from dual pistols, shooting disentegration beams from gauntlets, and so on. Also, the ablity to turn an animation off, if desired (again, where it makes logical sense). 3) All models/buildings/items/npc's in the game available for use in bases. On the other hand, I can live without all of that stuff I listed, too, so whateves. 😁🤷‍♂️

Thibbledorf Pwent! THE Battlerager! 😁 I loved those guys. 👍 P.S. They have to be Brutes, of course.

Well, it may depend on the build (or, more specifically, how good you are at builds), yes. I have both Radiation and Invulnerability armor tankers. I enjoy both sets, but find Invulnerability easier to slot for general survivability. I think, for the casual player, Invulnerability is probably the set that will get you the most survivability with the least amount of fuss, although endurance management can be a pain in the rear. @parabola wrote: Yeah, there's a strong element of dick waving in this game. Which is a little amusing, since the game is easy enough that often you really don't need a super optimized build, even when running at +4/8.

These are both very good points. I think the reason I don't typically worry about taunting on Scrappers is because I generally let the mobs glob onto the tanker, then cut in from the side to pummel them while their attention is focused on the bruiser. When soloing, I seem to get by okay without it, so I don't feel like I'm missing anything, I suppose. Granted, I don't try to solo AV's, so that would be a significant difference for me, personally.

I tried the easiest one (801.0 I think it was?) at +0/1 with my tier 3 incarnate. Very challenging. Soloing this with a tier 3 incarnate felt equivalent in difficulty to doing regular content at about +3/8 or +4/6, IMO. It was timed and have you around an hour and a half to complete it. I think it took me around 45 minutes to an hour to clean the map, iirc. Fights were very close. I came within a hairsbreadth of eating the floor, several times. Regrouping and retreating was periodically necessary to win the day. This is superbly designed high level content. The challenge level is right where it needs to be for incarnate level characters. I wish there was more regular mission/story content with this kind of challenge.

Not sure. Blapping is surprisingly straightforward, though. I got into it just by trying it once, and was instantly converted to that style of play and found I could perform extremely well, with no particular expertise on the play style. My recommendations: 1). Take combat teleport and hover. Make sure you macro/keybind CT to let you swiftly close and withdraw from combat (both horizontally and vertically). 2). Pick a blaster secondary with lots of melee attacks (atomic, electric, energy, fire- whatever you like the most) 3) Concentrate on making s/l and ranged defense good (honestly, none of mine are super great and my blappers still do really well). Open with snipe. CT to close range. Blap. CT away. Use inspirations as needed. Rinse and Repeat. I'm sure more experienced blappers can give you more specific advice, but this has worked wonderfully for me. Have fun blapping! 😁👍

No. They are an abomination. Fill them all with quick-dry cement, drill holes in the cement and place explosive charges in them, then blast them into dust. 😁 I'll give you your #2, though. For gods sake, I wish groups would designate a leader (a good one, who pays attention to whether or not the team is getting lost in the tunnels) and then follow that leader, instead of running around like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off.

I skip taunt on Scrappers, take it on tanks and, on Brutes, well... it just depends on build and concept. Seriously though, not really worth it on Scrappers IMO. There's always some other power that will serve me better for scrapping. YMMV, of course.

You have to have the Hammer, or it isn't really a "Thor" homage. So- war mace has got to be part of the package IMO. To be true to the character, I think a War mace/Invulnerability Brute would be the best choice. Inv/WM Tanker or WM/Inv Scrapper would also work. You're going to want to summon lightning too, so you need to take Mu Mastery once you hit the upper levels. Also, costume has to have a winged helmet, dangit! Beard is optional. Have fun. 😁👍

I haven't played many controllers but I do have an Earth controller and enjoyed it very much. It doesn't do a ton of damage but if you want to play the ultimate "lock them down and make them helpless" toon, this is a pretty good choice. I could render almost every group of mobs helpless with it, it's just that it takes forever to whittle them down to size until you get old rocky to help you out. I guess nickel and diming your enemies to death is pretty much standard for controllers, though, right? They aren't designed to dish out high ST or AOE dmg. If you have a whole team of 8 of them laying on stone cages, earthquake, and volcanic gasses at the same time, it could be pretty brutal, though. 😁

@MsSmart Hey, there. I do get what you're saying, and why you might feel that the mobs have unfair advantages, but I think that @EmperorSteele really hit it on the head; the game A.I. is incredibly stupid. Because of this, the mobs have to have considerable advantages to compensate. I think about all the times I've been running solo missions on +4/8. I encounter one large group of mobs that is about 25 to 20 feet away, and in full view, of another group of mobs. I engage the first group. After a protracted brawl, with the sound of breaking bones, screams, gunfire, and ground shaking explosions, I take a knee (still in full view of the other group) to recover from my exhaustion and injury. The other group of mobs ought to have joined the fray by now. If they had done so earlier, the tide might have been turned. Now, they just stand around watching me, with their thumb up their collective asses, while I heal up, let my powers recharge, and gobble a few inspirations. Without these advantages, combat would be without challenge and quickly grow stale and boring. As things stand, I feel it already does grow boring in high-level team combat. Having said that, I do despise gimmicky trash like the Apex and Tinmage TF. The blue goo is lame. The instant mine-laying is lame. Orbital lances- yes, also lame. I don't mind a mob that is powerful, deals high damage, and is hard to kill. I do hate ambient affects that can only be avoided with precise timing, as COH is an rpg/mmo, not a twitch game, and it's controls are not sufficiently responsive for this kind of play. In my opinion, this is a square peg/round hole solution to challenging the power creep introduced by incarnate abilities.

Agreed. I hate those cave maps. At the very least, I wish we could replace the narrow, twisting maps with the big, wide caves from the Rikti War zone (which I don't mind at all).

Also, they have decades of comic book storylines to draw from. Not bagging on the Marvel guys here- I love the stuff they make. But you have to admit, it's got to be very handy to have a resource like that, to draw upon, when writing screen plays.

Whut? Oh.... advertising spambot. Right.

While I'm not currently playing any characters from other comic book (or novel, move, or TV) universes, I don't agree at all. Comics have a long tradition of "crossover" events, so it's totally fitting to the genre, IMO. Everything that exists in CoH is based on well known tropes. Why shouldn't players leverage this particular trope, especially given Portal Corps and ready access to dimension travelling technology (as Artique points out)? Setting blenderizing and crossovers via comics examples have included Marvel vs DC, X-men , Superman v.s Aliens, Batman vs Predator, Star trek & G.I. Joe vs Transformers, for example (Many of these are a fun read, if you can lay hands on them). I'm sure there are tons of other examples. I don't see how it's immersion breaking. It may be ridiculous, yes- but that's a characteristic intrinsic to the genre as a whole, and we are somehow able to retain immersion, anyway. YMMV, of course. I'm just offering a different perspective.

Same. In fact, anyone that manages to buy their purple recipes for 8 to 10 million can probably thank my tendency to list everything at 1 inf, just so I can quickly get in and out of the AH with a minimum of fuss.

Yeah, m'kay. But, why don't you have any merits, tho? C'mon, man- get out there and play the game. 😛

I see. I must admit, your answer does make me a little sad. Ah, well. 😛

I love the idea, conceptually, but I would hazard to guess that it's probably something beyond the scope of what our small team of developers can manage, given the time and resources at their disposal. Also, there's a lot of bug squashing and balance issues that need to be addressed before they turn their efforts toward introducing new systems.

What do you use for balls? Items created by a Dominator referee with the propel power?

Do you mean cacophany?