Peacemoon

The Hollows is always a bit empty, but that’s mainly because of double xp and DFB. It’s disadvantageous to play the game the old style way. Still I always do! Because it’s a game.. and it’s more fun that way! There isn’t a lot you can do and this problem occurs in lots of MMOs. Arguably it’s better in CoH as high levels are rewarded for doing content of any level. People still run every TF in the game for badges and merits. The base portal command is where in my head things go a little too far. The way your character disappears in an instant with no animation. It doesn’t feel like a ‘proper skill’. Well we all know it’s not, it’s basically an admin command. Of course as individuals we can refrain from using it but it’s the environment it creates, and hell I use whatever is most convenient, it’s up to the devs to set the playground rules! The best way of combating what you said about empty zones would be to make content like the Hollows more rewarding. More merits, and extra xp on storyarc completion. Or more special IO rewards that will carry you through to higher levels with special advantages pre 30 or 40. Or replicate some of the hydra passive rewards for when you complete a zone. I.e if you do the whole of the hollows you get a passive temporary power up till level 30 (Like +end rec). That would make me think “yes, I’ll do the Hollows this time round as, it might not be as fast, but it’s fun and there are some interesting perks I wouldn’t mind”. Basically if you imagine it as a set of some scales, you’re trying to put a bit of extra weight behind different routes to leveling, which in turn gives more viable options and in turn more variety which in turn makes the game more enjoyable! The only negative part of this, is if you keep adding stuff to the scales and never take anything off, you just end up with power creep. But I don’t think my suggestion above would hurt too much in that regard.

I did that once with my main on live. Kept turning off so to do all the content level appropriate. I decided not to do it again on HC!

There are quite a few powers where it would be nice to do this too. Like ‘advanced power customisation’. The medicine pool is definitely a top contender!

Well it’s a lot easier to become infamous than famous. I think it’s a great idea, providing you can somehow reduce the farmer bait. Although pro farmers moving to the rogue isle wouldn’t be a bad thing, and perhaps even quite apt!

I don’t have a problem with the base teleporting command, it’s just it feels a bit like a ‘cheat code’, and I’m always aware commands like this are used extensively by ‘people in the know’ (like myself) and average joe is sort of left behind, wondering why and how everyone is bunny hopping through zones while they travel slowly to the station... Not everyone will care, but I feel compassionate that I do. I’d rather it was just a level 1 power we all had access to than some / command that feels like something that only GMs should have. I’m less bothered about /AH, although it makes all the WW buildings pointless and empty. It sort of hollows out the game.

TBH this can be annoying. I’ve only seen it once, as tankers are quite rare and people don’t realise all the mobs will run into melee. Also most teams are pretty much all ranged or heavy ranged and aren’t that bothered. Melee can be quite vocal about this sort of thing but usually no one else cares. As for Grav, as long as you don’t do what my husband decided is a fun strategy, which is to wormhole all the mobs together and then cast singularity into them as they’re standing up, then I think you’ll be fine! (Words were exchanged!!)

I had a merc/TA on live. He didn’t get very high. He had the tech bow with the laser sight, I always thought it was pretty cool...

The problem with MMs is somewhere along the way the original devs got so focused on pets that they forgot about the player character. I think this why MMs are the worst AT for reaching level 50 - the pets become the player character and have all the cool attacks, and the player becomes their buff slave. There will always be an element of that in a ‘pet class’, but really all these endurance taxes on powers etc are really unnecessary and counter productive. MMs should be ENCOURAGED to actively take part and fight alongside their pets, if for nothing else than stimulating gameplay - not an afk character. They should absolutely be able to personally contribute to damage. Bar a few extreme concepts, I’ve always seen the player character as a potent character and not some helpless civilian. Yes they get people to do the dirty hard work for them, but they are still involved in the dirty work, they aren’t a mission contact. So ideas: MMs rely on henchmen. When solo, this is a focus on your pets, but when on teams OTHER PLAYERS should/could be considered your henchmen. Supremacy should effect teammates. They’re your minions. Your mere presence inspires them to be better (numbers could be adjusted). Equip pets level 6 and 32 should also be able to be used on teammates! This could be as boring (standard +damage buff) or interesting (temporary action bar with a new themed power) as you fancy. This doesn’t mean your pets aren’t useful on teams - I really support the idea of making all pets same level. But I really think MMs need a focus shift back to the PLAYER and not the PETS. Anyway this is what I would do. I think the characters would be far more interesting and the gameplay much more interactive.

I think it would be fine if it worked like a controller pet. It would be a nice QoL change, and quite simple.

Just a quick reply with some thoughts, sorry. With Rad Infection slot for -hit not -def. The -def just helps everyone’s accuracy and the base is usually enough. You can never get enough -hit though! Dark Watcher x4 (leaning towards ones with /end redux) would be my suggestion. You skipped a lot of Rad, which is fine, but I’d recommend EMP Pulse as is a great AoE hold, and does good damage on robots and freakshow. Just watch the endurance crash when used. Speaking of endurance, I can’t see your numbers from my phone but beware the end costs when Rad Toggles are on. I usually slot AM for a mix of recharge and end mod. Don’t rely on level 50 numbers solely to manage end costs or you will have a difficult ride to 50!

Bigger question is can we make more than 1 power autocast without weird and eccentric binds? Dominators everywhere would thank you!

I think psionic dart from psionic assault? Something like 0.83 activation? I tend to think of it as psychic poke...

I play Mind Control as a primary so maybe can add a bit; although the others have pretty much summed it up well! There are quite a few things sleep does well, but particularly Mass Hypnosis (MH) and Mesmerise (M) from Mind Control. For MH: *It causes no aggro so use it to press pause on groups ahead of where you’re fighting so they won’t join in. Especially on lowbie team which could wipe. *If you’re leading the group, and I often do as an experienced player with Mind Control, you can “pre-sleep” a group to stagger their alpha strike. This way they might all wake up, but not all at the same time and the damage is more manageable. Especially if you lack anyone who is tough. *As above, you’ll find people have more confidence attacking a +4/8 mob spawn when you’re starting with them all sleep. We did a +4 Manticore yesterday and sleeping made it smoother than it could have been. *Layer it over the top of mesmerise for extra magnitude *If you’re solo or in a tiny team fighting big dangerous groups, can be used to stagger the numbers you fight all at once. *As above great at holding off that ambush until you’re ready, and reverses the direction of opportunity (you’re ambushing the ambush, not being ambushed yourself!) *I often duo with my husband who is Grav/ and if mobs are in a difficult spot, sleep helps him work with Wormhole without aggroing (we don’t have any stealth). For M: *It has high enough magnitude to sleep bosses, EBs, AVs and Monsters with one hit. *Use it to detoggle their auras. E.g. dispersion bubble. *Or sleep the hardest mob and lure all their friends away to kill them stealthily; then return to fight the difficult mob solo. M can last over a minute and east to reapply. *Snipe sleep the boss of an ambush while it’s on its way, so you deal with him later. -Me and my husband just duod Numina’s TF at 35 today, him a Grav controller me a Mind Dom. How did we deal with Jurassik? Turns out he likes a little nap. So he slept right through the rest of his crew getting annihilated. Well, all except the Lesser Devoured boss, who I turned into my pet and convinced it to help us defeat the Monster. This would have been much harder without those devious skills of sleep and confuse. But with sleep it let us put Jurassik on PAUSE, while we created an environment that favoured us. So I hope these are some useful ideas for how to use sleep. It is one of those tools that quietly can make life easier for a group, sometimes isn’t always needed, and sometimes allows for some very clever plays. As a strategist, I love Mind’s no aggro sleeps and confuses, and I never force a group to slow down to use them. I think that’s the key way to use sleeps, use them with the natural flow of the team. Don’t expect people to not wake up mobs. Indeed, sometimes a sleep only needs to function for a few seconds just to stagger the alpha damage. I find it a very useful tool in my kit!

I felt the same!

Thanks guys, that’s what I expected, but a shame!

Just wondering if anyone has tried this, and can the energy font from Singularity’s attacks?

You’ve written a lot, and the problem you have is there has been plenty of corrupter vs defender analysis on these forums, you only have to look. I have recent posts on the defender forum about a FF/BR build, I just didn’t want to report it all here. Like I said, I would choose defender because I prefer higher support numbers, the leadership pool is great for defenders, and with power boost available at 35, a defender can give out shields that are worth 38% defence, which are numbers a corrupter simply can’t reach. The counter argument is that you simply don’t always need numbers that high, which is a fair point, but I still like it. With FF you only need to take 4 powers and you can focus on your blasting skills, that is its beauty. As I said before, the lines between Defender and Corrupter damage only become blurred when you play a set that debuffs enemies, as the better debuffs for Defenders will make their damage higher. But this is quite rare and a bit of a grey area and not applicable to FF. So in the end it does become a subjective decision, because it’s up to you as a player to decide whether you want more damage, and your blasts as a primary so unlocked earlier, or more support. If you want hard numbers and percentages differences between the two, check the Mids Reborn app. Not all posters are going to give you scientific numeric answers to these type of questions, myself included.

Don’t have a problem with that of course but some of the graphics are pretty obnoxious! Something more subtle would be nice.

Some of the armour sets are quite obnoxious at covering your costume. I would be lying if I said I didn’t factor this in when choosing power sets. Certainly puts me off ice and Earth APPs...!

Should be possible, might be one for the support/bug forum

In order to best realise this concept, I would recommend Soul Extraction on defeated enemies. 2 minute cooldown. Pets raised last 7 minutes. Pets have a weak leadership style toggles which buffs your henchman, so they become more powerful (damage, defence, resistances) the bigger the ‘herd’ ... Profit!

This just came up again in another thread and so thought I’d post it here. Being able to self cast buffs to aid in soloing for some of the support sets. I.E fortitude, force fields, forge, etc. - All characters should be able to solo, a lot of these sets will never be the greatest solo characters even with self buffing, so why not throw them a bone? - A lot of support sets can be bent towards helping solo already, so why not help out the others? -conceptually it’s a shame when you have a character who, for example, specialises in force fields but can’t shield themselves. -a lot of the ‘newer sets’ have had their powers added in a more ‘clever’ way, by making them PBAoE, so they effect the caster. I imagine this was a deliberate design decision. Fade and Farsight spring to mind. -Power choices can now grant multiple powers. If it has to, ally only buffs could also grant a second self only version with reduced numbers?! I know this is very pie in the sky, but we can dream. I don’t see Empathy and FF defenders suddenly becoming OP gods (like melee ATs can be...) if they can self cast some buffs, and might actually make them a bit more fun when not in a team. Anyway just some ideas, in my mind there is a way of doing this without it being stupid, so that these heroes/villains can be more fun when solo. Disclaimer: my main characters are Dark/Dark controller, Mind/Psy dominator, and Rad/AR defender. So this doesn’t effect me directly! I’m very glad I can AM myself when solo...

I solo sometimes with all my characters, even my Defender fully geared to teaming! Yes it’s a pain killing an EB when you’ve invested in the entire leadership pool and have barely any attacks, but I enjoy the challenge repurposing my character and trying to overcome that obstacle, and also my own play style I sometimes like a slow and quiet ride. So I have no qualms soloing as a defender or a controller. It’s more fun if your buff/debuff set is useful solo and you can bend it to your needs. An ‘ally only’ set is the worst, really. All characters should be able to solo. There are no buffs ingame that would be overpowered if you could cast them on yourself when solo, even Empathy. Anyway I digress... I just want to give a shout out for AR. It gets such a bad rep on the forums yet in game I find it really fun, effective, and I love the gritty style for concepts. My Rad/AR guy is built for teams and just spams flamethrower on everything suffering from radiation debuffs, and it is simply awesome to watch. The changes to snipes gives ARs snipe real purpose, and it does great damage and also sounds lovely with the proper snipe gunshot sound! And to top it all off, Full Auto, on a 15/20 second recharge, just adds so much AoE damage on a fast recharge. I slot it with artilleryx6 for the extra range and the ranged defence, and it works a treat. Also ignite might have its problems in terms of causing fear, but if you hold a boss down with Char (of course he picked Char, he is a flamethrower specialist!), you can then light them up with ignite and they can can’t move. They helplessly sit in the fire patch, effected by his Rad debuff toggles, while you incinerate them and it is pure joy. And it’s fire damage, which we all know is great! I did skip all the AR powers before Snipe while I loaded up on leadership, but it’s a fun set. Of course in the above example he would probably be better as Rad/Fire, but then you don’t get the joys of flamethrowers, snipes and full auto 🤣

I would go Defender for the higher defence numbers and also go full leadership for the amazing numbers they bring to a team too. I’d use power boost APP to amplify the shield numbers to the extreme, which is much more effective on a Defender. And looking at the above answer herein lies the problem.. very subjective! 🤣 Generally defenders give better support numbers with buffs/debuffs and corrupters do better damage. Sometimes the lines get blurred when a Defender’s support numbers will amplify their damage so it matches a corrupter, but that won’t be the case with FF.

Well you could go Storm/Electric Blast or Storm/Broad Sword. Didn’t mean anything more than that to be honest. Not sure what you’d do with the taunt skill, but otherwise as long as they had defender modifiers...!