Peacemoon

I love AR for my Rad Defender and definitely not rubbish. Full Auto procced out and with a 16~ second recharge is awesome. Probably my favourite character to play. But this isn’t what this thread is about! 😉

I’ve been doing some more testing and I think this only happens if you are in the passive stance when hasten activates. If you are in the passive stance hasten seems to lock your character into the passive stance, so they keep reverting back to it between every animation, unless you press ESC. If you are in the combat stance when it fires, things appear to play as normal. No idea why this happens or why hasten has this power over the character. I’ve tried googling this and the only thing that came up is a change to the power in February to stop it from animating whilst still recharging. Could this bug be linked to that? I shall take my detective hat off for now...

The only other snipe I have experience with is the one from psychic blast, and AR’s instant snipe is not much slower than that to fire. It also doesn't have a projectile you need to wait for.

Okay all, I’ve been having some problems with hasten and my character’s in combat stance. I’ve done my best to investigate it, and could use some help. The more I’ve investigated it myself, the more I’ve realised it’s the game itself and not me or my setup. I got my husband to trial it out on his computer with his character (separate account),and he was having the same problem. I’ll try my best to explain: After I use hasten, my character will not stay in the combat stance - straight after activating a power they will return to a passive stand stance. It’s like there is a hidden aura on my character keeping them in the passive stance. Even if you chain attacks together, and you’re surrounded by enemies attacking you, they will keep returning to the passive stance rather than the combat stance at every opportunity, resulting in some pretty odd movements. This will persist until I press ESC; somehow ESC must clear something off my character that has been applied by hasten. This doesn’t seem to effect my characters with weapons, as having a weapon sheathed seems to override whatever is happening. My AR defender has never noticed this, but other characters have. Its hard to take a photo of this happening, as a video would be better. But below is a photo I’ve just taken. I just created a new build for this old alt, took hasten at 4, and went and tested it for the first time in with him and it happened straight away. Here is him in combat with 2 hellions, he has used hasten, and then attacked with stone cages and returned straight to the passive stance. He then used fossilise and again returned to the passive stance. He returned so fast to passive you can still see the damage numbers coming off the hellion: Has anyone else experienced this?

I’m pretty sure it is faster, just not by much. If you use snipe outside of combat, your character will hold the rifle for much longer waiting to shoot. In combat they still do the same animation, but there is no extra delay. I think the ‘instant snipe’ doesn’t mean they’ll fire it like slug, it just means there is no additional wait; it’s ‘instant’.

The new end mod set has a ranged defence bonus on its 6th slot set bonus. Use the whole set on AM, I find it works really well and has nice bonuses. Don't forget to do 50+5 recharge IOs in hasten. The epic confuse set has +5% ranged def and recharge, so 6 slot Seeds. You should be able to get some nice set bonuses form EMP Pulse too. 5 slot entomb (use the proc elsewhere) works quite well. Depending on your epic power pool there is artillery set for the AoE, which has no procs. It gives 4% ranged def. Rad Infection - try 5 slots of dampening spirits.. 2 slots of zephyr in your travel. Hope these random suggestions help!

That is amazing, thank you @Greycat! I love the fact that they reckon you’d need 50 level 17s in order to stand a chance! Also seems like the blank area around the hydroelectric plant was earmarked as the place for the trial to take place. It seems like it would have worked similar to the Terra Volta respec trial, except outdoors and with more objects to defend. Its a shame it never got finished because a trial like that at that level range would have been immensely fun! As well as a Faultline trial enhancements 😉

You’re right, but just shows that the question of villain population is also one of “why don’t players like playing in Rogue Isle”. I’d argue it has more to do with the Rogue Isle than being a villain conceptually. I’ve seen a lot of ‘hero’ character who conceptually might have been better suited to being a villain, but they probably want to team with others and play in Paragon City. I think it would be cool if we could tell people’s alignment easier. Maybe more people are Rogues and Vigilantes than we think?

I’ve mentioned this in the thread quite a bit. Granted it’s quite a long thread now! But splitting the community into two and fixing the ‘villain problem’ won’t necessarily make the game better. It would be better if all characters had access to all zones really.

It’s been reported a lot but as of yet, no fix has been announced.

Hah I remember doing a Posi 2 once where we were badmouthing villain tactics and one guy popped up and said “Is now a bad time to mention I’m actually a Rogue?” Made us laugh! Well I suppose the issue with alignment is if everyone can go everywhere and team with everyone and do all content, there is no actual alignment system anymore. It’s quite a radical discussion about whether you’d still want it and if you did, what was it’s purpose. At the moment alignment’s main purpose from a gameplay perspective is segregate the community. Maybe opening up all the zones and doing something clever with the alignment system is the way forward. Although I think being able to say “I’m a villain” and having it visible is important to the game. I wish alignment was viewable rather than origin when you ID someone.

Well that is the problem. Even if you solve the issue with villain population I’m not sure the game would necessarily be better for it. Arguably the game is more fun with 90% of the players in one faction, playing in the same selection of zones, as it gives us more people to play and team with, and makes Paragon City more vibrant and populated. Even though it’s a shame for villains and the rogue isle, it’s probably healthier for the game. That’s why I end up thinking it would probably be better for the game (and simpler) if we removed the faction barrier to zones and just made all PvE zones accessible to all, and people could just play where they want. Keep restrictions on Villains and Heroes teaming up so it’s only possible in co-op zones. Villain players could just look like unattackable hostile players, if you bumped into one in Steel Canyon as a hero, for instance. I don’t know - it’s an idea that could do with fleshing out.

That’s one of the reasons I think having villains able to start in paragon city would change the dynamic about how we feel about them a lot. To me the practical implications are secondary - the primary benefit would be to bring villain players into the community more. It probably wouldn’t work as well in practice, but I would argue the biggest issue with villains is more the isolation from the community, you don’t get to team up so easily, people don’t get to see your cool outfits and concepts as much. I think with COVID people are appreciating how important that often overlooked sense of community is. If everyone played red side and blue side was barren, it would feel exactly the same in reverse, being that lonely hero with no one to play with.

This is a good idea and the sort of thing the HC devs might be able to do relatively easy compared to other suggestions. It works pretty well by with weekly TFs; encouraging people to do different TFs they wouldn’t usually do. Maybe a 2 week bonus that rotates. Although blue side doesn’t really need it, and I’m not sure what the bonus reward would be.

What do you mean by pigeon holed? Because you know we’re talking about hypothetical ideas. You can run resistance arcs as a loyalist, I sort of imagined in my head you could do anarchy themed villain story arcs/activities and switch to doing other types at any point if you so decided. I like the going rogue options for like this. The only negative is it does tend to push you into wanting to solo your own personal story more, rather than team up with others. Not helped by the strict level restrictions. If this was ever done for villains it would have to be much looser, so you can switch it up as you like and invite others to join in your plot.

Maybe I’m just used to low damage, but I don’t find Defenders and Controllers too bad. Especially Defenders if they use Assault from an early level which is +18.5% damage for them! Although I recently soloed an Empathy/Psychic Blast defender through Praetoria, so my tolerance levels might be pretty high! He only died once though 😜

You're really right about villain motivation being much more specific than hero motivation. If we were starting from the start again and creating City of Villains today, you could create different ‘paths’ for the Villain like they have with Going Rogue. So in Going Rogue you have Responsibility, Power, Warden and Crusader. As villains you could have things like Destruction, Manipulator, Money, Infamy- I.e choose a general motivation or path for your villain that then unlocks a story route which focuses on your selection. Or have a situation where you can decide how best to handle the situation - blow up the building, charm/manipulate the owner, etc. This all goes out of the scope of what the HC could probably do, but the question on what is wrong with CoV goes pretty deep! I would still vote for starting my villains in Kings Row and just being allowed to do villainous stuff in Paragon City 😉

Well just to be clear, Achilles Heel is an enhancement set that debuffs defence. So any power that takes -defence debuff enhancements can slot achilles, and proc the -res debuff. Some powers get really good mileage from this proc, others not so much. It depends how the power operates as that detemines how much the proc will fire. I think whether Achilles Heel -res proc or a straight up extra damage proc is superior is pretty subjective and depends a lot on what you do. -Res debuff empowers everyones damage rather than adding a lump of extra damage yourself, and sometimes (but not always) that is superior. Not to be vague, sorry! Buffs are great and important. There is a ceiling to how much people can be buffed though, so if you're with a lot of people really kitted out, debuffing the enemies can be more effective, even with the reduced numbers.

If I'm understanding your question properly then you can have more than one proc in a particular power, it just depends how many slots you want to devote to procs, because they rarely help with acc/dmg/end/rech and since you're picking procs from different sets, they reduce the amount of set bonuses you can get too. As for the -20% res from Achilles Heel (a -def set proc, so only -def powers can slot it; like Rad Blasts), its effectiveness is reduced, just like all debuffs are reduced, by mobs being higher level, and by archvillains who are inherently resistant to debuffs. So the true number against a +4 archvillain is not -20%, not even close. Small numbers can add up to something that makes a big difference though. Try this link for info about how debuffs scale based on enemy level. Basically multiply the value of the debuff, the duration of CC, or the amount of damage, by 0.90 for +1s, 0.80 for +2s, 0.65 for +3s, 0.48 for +4s, for the true value. E.g. -20% res is -9.6% on a +4. 100 damage is 48 damage on a +4. Archvillains also have inherent resistances to some debuffs and control, more info on that here.

Yay I won something! 😃 Oh I really needed something positive to happen this week - thanks! As for the discussion, something really radical maybe - allow villains and heroes to goto both paragon city and rogue isle and don’t make them faction specific. Just flag the content as whether it is villainous or heroIc. (I know we can already if we go vigilante or rogue - but I think even greater and freer access would help a lot.) Longer term maybe regular content outside of tips could count towards your moral alignment, so if you decide to go do villainous stuff you start becoming a villain for example. Trainers would ignore you and guards attack you if you’re in hostile territory. Potentially some way of bringing PvP into normal zones (if you opt in) Having your alignment visible by default rather than having to opt in might be good too. It’s a very rough idea and no means perfect, but I think this is one route for increasing the amount of villains. Theres a lot that could/should be done with Rogue Isle as it’s really inferior to Paragon City in many ways - but that sort of work would unfortunately take so much extra effort 🙁 - I wish Rogue Isle was simply more of a gothem city, like the opposite of paragon city, and it’s zones more connected and less ‘bitty’z It would be really cool to play in that sort of city - whereas Paragon City is quite pristine and bright and happy. My pet peeve about Rogue Isle is everything Arachnos. I’d feel the same way if everything in Paragon City was dominated by Longbow architecture. I guess the real question is - do we just want more player villains ingame, or do we want more people in the Rogue Isle, and are the two things completely linked or can they be unpicked? I just think if you could create a villain and start in Kings Row, they would be much more popular. Even if the only ‘villain content’ was paper missions and mayhem missions.

traps/assault rifle Defender or assault rifle/devices blaster. Some sort of secret service operative; loyalist of course. Poison: Plant/poison controller - some sort of venemous plant theme ??/poison MM - some sort of wierd psycho alchemist theme with experimentation pool. Poison works differently (better?) for MM's - noxious gas can be cast on your henchman rather than a self toggle - so would work well with a set with a strong melee henchman - maybe thugs and bruiser? Please dont pair with beasts!! 😄 I see it as a mad resistance crusader.

Oh the low level origin powers never cause redraw. You can use them with your weapons still in your hand, like brawl. I’ve always wondered why they do that but other powers can’t. It doesn’t make sense, because I’m sure most gun/sword/stick heroes would be able to do all their powers with their weapons in their hands. Luckily we have no redraw now (I wasn’t aware of issues with staff), but in a perfect world I’d go further and not have the weapons disappear at all when you activate your other powers (maybe with a few exceptions).

The best answer is always to ignore and move on. There are billions of people on this planet and it’s not worth wasting valuable time on getting het up about unfair comments. Even on these forums, people reading the threads are not stupid, and if someone is rude or insulting, chances are most people will come to the same conclusion anyway, whether you respond or not. End of the day holding onto anger is like grasping hot coal with the intent of throwing it, you are the one that gets burned. And no one is perfect, and sometimes we all lose our cool, but it is in these moments we should pause and try reflect on this wisdom.

Oh I missed this thread because I didn’t notice we were now talking about Dark Affinity not Dark Control 😆 So let me summarise real quick, because the last thread I mentioned I play Dark/Dark controller. Dark AFFINITY is a great set with an awesome toolkit or buffs, debuffs, controls and pets. Actually I would say it is close to being an over performer. As such it would probably be near the bottom of the list of buff/debuff sets to tweak imo. I won’t go threw the pros and cons of each power so I’ll just pick out a few I would have an opinion on: Howling Twilight is a great power. I’m going to be naughty here and say the power shouldn’t really be auto-hit, there should be an accuracy check on the stun and -regen. I compensation I think the stun on this power (and Thunderclap from /Storm) should be Mag 3 not Mag 2. Stunning Minions is not worth it. Luckily Howling Twilight brings a lot more to the table (with a longer recharge). Fade - I wish we could double the duration of this power and up the recharge to compensate. Having to recast it every 60 seconds is annoying, especially for a team buff. It should be 90 seconds at least. Its a very powerful buff (arguably too powerful) which I’m sure all Dark Miasma brothers and sisters are peeved that they can’t get. -Big thing with this power is it makes you look invisible even though you aren’t. I’d probably rename it ‘Soul Empower’ and just give everyone the glowie eyes, if I could. Soul Absorption - another dark affinity power I’d argue is too effective but.. meh. I love this power. The main drawback is the long activation time and short duration. It’s very easy to cap both regen and recovery with this power which does feel too good, and it also does -10% to hit. I wouldn’t clamor to nerf this power - rather id use it as an argument to buff Empathy’s recovery and regeneration aura. Probably to combine the 2 powers for Empathy in order to give space for something new. Black Hole - yeah it’s crummy, but every set needs a crummy power and tbh there are a lot of sets ahead of the queue in needing attention. Particularly of support sets! In fact if I were to balance Black Hole I’d probably only do it for Dark Miasma and not Dark Affinity. Ideally you could give them soul absorption rather than Black Hole... Dark Servant - would really like this pet to be made permanent like Controller primary pets. Otherwise tweaking his AI might be good, but likely to annoy some while pleasing others no matter what you do.

I would say a /devices blaster for the sneaky ranged. Especially with powers like field operative and targeting drone. Combine that with a blast set that has a strong snipe and I think you’re golden 😊 A different sneaky ranged route would be a corrupter/defender with either Dark Miasma, Cold Domination or Storm Summoning. All of those have stealth auras which would let you stealth the whole team, and also access to blasts and snipes from stealth. Also remember there is a stealth IO that you can put in sprint which you can layer on top for full invisibility.