Peacemoon

I recently ran the Crimson story arc with the Malta over several nights, and loved the story. There were some really cool parts to the story, e.g. the shapeshifter impersonating powerful people, lots of political/espionage vibes to the missions which made them feel quite serious and which I enjoyed. The way Crimson and Indigo treat you as your handlers I really liked - enough respect that you felt you knew what you were doing, did it willingly and could trust them, but also an air of mystique to keep you knowing there was a bit more going on. It felt like mutual respect. Spoiler alert: There aren’t many negatives, but I guess I would say that the merit rewards felt a little low for the time invested. Large outdoor missions which are defeat all should be avoided if poss. Have enough objectives that you only need to take out 20% of the map with the rest as optional. Director 17 and Moment should have been an AV/EB for sure. Maybe a little too much Malta? Ha! The Freakshow got a hearing, but always nice to have a diversion where you have to deal with some of the more thug-like gangs who have been allowed to go in a rampage due to the main villain group’s shenanigans. Otherwise more unique maps are always fun. There are a lot of labs in Paragon City that look the same... Anyway if you haven’t already, try Crimson’s World War Red arc, and watch out for sappers! 😉

Yes if TK was to be used more regularly the end reduction would have to be seriously considered, its balanced around being a toggle hold rather than a facilitator to adapt other powers. I’d be weary of too much comparison to Plant as they have very different styles, but you’re right that terrify does stop the confused mobs from defeating themselves. I don’t know how to fix that. I always used it with freezing rain which kept them ‘triggered’ and attacking...

Yeah you had some really good ideas in that post you linked. These days there’s are so many more advanced ways that powers can interact with each other. A lot of that happened after I stopped playing on Live so takes me a while to get my head around. I really like the idea of TK turning levitate into an AoE power. I was always very jealous of Tanker’s mass levitate power! If Mass confuse got moved to 12, then TK could go to 32 and coupled with this sort of power synergy, would be a great damage boost at 32, sort of akin to pets for other sets. Levitate being AoE and Dominate/Mesmerise doing enhanced damage on a TK target could be really fun. Especially if the repel got removed and the end/recharge adjusted.

Most controllers skip the ST immobilise, but I think everyone usually takes the AoE one. The ST immobilise is good for damage at low levels though. I agree with a lot of what Obitus says. In my Mind/Storm example, I used thunderclap to give my character aoe containment, and it made the set a lot better. That alone would improve Mind a lot.

That’s pretty sweet of you. I hope it appreciates your time and effort!

You could duo TFs but if he doesn’t want anything hard maybe vest to avoid. Ouro arcs are a good place to duo fun story arcs. You can also add extra challenge settings and each challenge option for every level range does reward a badge. You can also set the AVs to EBs in Ouro arcs. I would run Ouro arcs based on zones. E.g. there are four arcs in Hollows, and some in Faultline. You could do them sequentially. I can’t remember if First Ward/Night Ward is accessible vis Ouro, but they’re good too. The stories are pretty entertaining.

If you can’t find anyone to do it with I should be online tonight (UK time) and happy to run the arc again with an alt to help you out!

I don’t think you can, but you can definitely hop into someone else’s mission and help them. The final mission is a shiva raid on atlas park which also gives a defeat badge. I got some help and got it one sweep with the mission set to x8. Shivans use radiation, which is rare for mobs, and super deadly.

I think I’ve seen some contaminated spawn in Atlas Park near the southern wall by Back Alley Brawler, but now I can’t be too sure they weren’t infected now that you mention it?

It’s the introduction to Ouroboros arc. In order to demonstrate what was then a shiny new feature called ‘temporal scaling’, one of the Menders send you back to Outbreak as a level one to give you an extreme example. The map counts as an outdoor mission and is sort of effected by notoriety. Only the kidnapped NPCs and the final area in the office are effected by bigger team size notoriety setting. However there are no bosses or lieutenants in that villain group, so it’s just a load of minions.

Cheers, I’ll take a look later when I’m obsessing about all things CoH working from home! Mind Control is pretty dear to me, as my main on Live was a Mind/Storm controller who I did all the badges with and generally spent too much time on. It was an unorthodox but effective combo. Thunderclap to create containment on minions, followed by freezing rain and nuked down with terrify and APP aoe. Mind’s good ST attack chain combined with /Storm then used to focus down bosses. Its amazing what you can accomplish when you persist with sets and get creative in their use! My current main, dark/dark, is unquestionably more powerful, but there’s something about Mind that I like, and sometimes Dark/Dark reminds me of the joy of being a lone controller without any pets to babysit and herd. Anyway...

There are definitely are some adjustments that could be made to Mind Control to ‘modernise’ it, if you like. For example switching Mass Confuse and TK’s place in the set, and altering the recharge of Mass Confuse so it is available more often. TK would then be the ultimate power, and there is a lot of potential to make it something really fun whilst keeping with the Telekinetic theme. I was just thinking about sleep powers whilst walking my dogs (I’m crazy I know!). I think the control set sleep powers could really have secondary effects tagged into them. So if mobs remained asleep, then it’s business as usual. But if they wake up prematurely they are still affected by the secondary effects. Mass hypnosis could also immobilise, without damage to preserve the no-aggro, and would help with containment. Flash freeze could add a stun (ice control could use this I think). Salt crystals could have its -def persist for longer (Earth Control already has so much good control, but this wound be nice)

Mind control definitely doesn’t suck, it has great controls and a nice attack chain of dominate, mesmerise, levitate - which when slotted for damage can be very effective. You’re right that it does lack a reliable way to set up containment, and Plant did sort of steal Mind’s ultimate power and turned into a lower power level, faster recharging version. Personally I felt it was always a mistake for them to do that with Plant (for both Mind and Plant), but that ship has sailed so far it’s hardly worth discussing. There were a few ideas on how to improve Mind Control discussed recently. From adding a no-damage immobilise to mass hypnosis, so if they did wake up they were still rooted. Or making some change to TK, and reducing the cooldown or Mass Confusion. TK isn’t auto skip, but pool powers are good too so vets will always look for something skippable and TK is a bit niche. Really the main issue is just containment. If fears provided containment damage it would also help Mind a lot too. I did main Mind Control on live and always enjoyed the set a lot. It’s not for everyone though.

Must be, they definitely conned red to me as level 4s. The tutorial zone provably isn’t effected by notoriety

I’m pretty sure it’s 40. When they raised the cap from 40 to 50 they also added PI as high end content, which is 40-50.

Are standard IOs pooled? As in, if player x is selling a level 25 recharge enhancement, can player y buy it as a level 50?

Maybe for standard level 50 IOs as sometimes a level 50 recharge simply is the best enhance you can get. However because of the way the market pools enhancements, it really makes crafting level 50 set enhancements quite punitive, to the point its hardly worth bothering. You might as well craft the level 20-30 version for a fraction of the price, and someone can simply buy that as a level 50 enhancement, or attuned enhancement. Basically low levels can craft the same items for much cheaper, so they become our 'cheap workers' who drive down costs, that higher levels can't compete with. Other than to supply the recipes - but even they often sell on the AH for lower than the price you get from a vendor (no idea why?). Maybe this all works well in a roundabout way? But took me a while to get my head around it.

It depends on whether it is obvious to the uninitiated that they are paying more or not. At least with the AH you are generally fully aware of what route you're choosing.

Soul is pretty good at AoE because of Soul Drain and Soul Obliteration. Maybe not the best, but definitely worth a mention. Soul Drain is PBAoE so you have to be amongst the mobs, but if you have them locked down that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Soul Drain also gives you +6.4% damage for 30 seconds, per mob hit (up to 10), so I often use it as a set up before unleashing my other attacks. Just to add, the main negative to Soul Drain is the tight radius. It really benefits to having mobs all clumped up together. If they are spread about, like in some indoor missions, then it can be a pain. But on nice outdoor farms where everyone is huddled together...!

Hi guys, this is my build I'm currently using which I'm really happy with. It gives soft capped ranged defence, good resists, accuaracy, perma hasten, a sprinkling of procs, capped regen and very high recovery (with Soul Absorption - even 1 enemy is a good buff for endurance, but you want 7 for capped regen). Its a pretty balanced all round set. Most of the sets I have as attuned for exemplering, but the epics, the Dark Servent's Cloud Senses, and anything without a set bonus is boosted to +5. You don't get the Dark Servant till 38(33), and Cloud Senses is capped at 30 anyway, so no reason to have it attuned. Boost it for a few extra %. I chose Soul APP for theme, but Dark Aura, Dark Obliteration, and Soul Drain are all amazing powers. Dark Aura helps with negative and toxic damage, Obliteration is good damage and brings another -hit, and Soul Drain is a great +damage buff, which is amazing to fire before your other AoEs. For incarnates I run: Alpha: Agility Radial Paragon for the +recovery, +recharge, and the +defence above and beyond the caps. Judgement: Void Radial Final Judgement - mainly for theme but also I am usually in and amongst enemy spawns due to Soul Absorption and Soul Drain powers, so fits nicely. Interface: Reactive Core Flawless Interface - mainly for the -res. The fact that all your pets have this buff as well means when they are all focusing a single target it can help your damage a little. High ST damage is the main weakness of this character so every little helps. Destiny - I went with Clarion because when a mezz power does get through your defences, it can be death as so much is shut down. Use Clarion and Break Frees to protect against your main vulnerability. You can fire Clarion while mezzed, so I tend to use it more reactively when something sneaks through. Lore - I went Demons because it suited the theme. Hybrid - I went with Support Core Embodiment. The -10% end cost on all powers is useful, as your recovery is a little too reliant on Soul Absorption, so this just helps with that. The toggle itself is a nice all-round +def and +damage, which has double the effect on all your pets. I do love this character, he has great lockdown, great damage, and thematically its all very sound. The amount of -hit that is thrown around means mobs rarely hit anything, especially with all the +defence you also bring. There are a few things I would consider tweaking, like I might put the absorb proc in health rather than a miracle +rec. The main negatives is ST damage, but once your pets all focus on one target it greatly improves. Its just that against groups of enemies they are prone to doing-their-own-thing. I find myself using Howling Twilight on a lot of tough targets for the -regen, not just AVs. Even a +3 EB has enough regen that its worth debuffing. While leveling I used Dark Grasp and Shadowy Binds slotted for damage, but as I got higher and got procs and other sources of damage, I dropped Shadowy Binds entirely and slotted Dark Grasp for long duration hold + procs. Pet reliance can be a negative. Personally I like having a small army that I don't need to micromanage, but as above it does mean you can't focus fire their damage on a priority target unless they're minded to, and can often get pre-occupied in unhelpful situations. Wolfie is prone to running off to fetch a straggler, whereas Servant quite enjoys hanging around far away fighting a random minion, which is why he sometimes gets resummoned into the middle of a group. Haunts can bug out quite often but luckily they get resummoned every minute which fixes them. Pets do tend to be a bit too squishy, no matter how much I buff them. Plus they're pretty aggressive so often like to open fire milliseconds before I've locked down a mob. But they keep it interesting! There are enhancements which can buff their toughness, but the trade offs are too great for me. Anyway, they're just minions..! You're quite reliant on Fade, and if you forget to cast it you're quickly reminded you need it (usually not fatal though). Unfortunately only one power can be made autofire! The immobalize power being a cone really messes up my rotation, as everything else is AoE or PBAoE and I tend to fight in the middle of spawns. So occasionally I have to hop out just for that power, and so it doesn't get used as much as I would like. Still it is effective at keeping mobs still, layering -hit, and setting up containment. At some point I will write a proper guide. There are more procs I could put in my build, but personally I like set bonuses too much, but I've tried my best to drop a few good procs in where its really beneficial to get the best of both where I can.

I usually buy procs as attuned just to remove the hassle of factoring that in. The rest of the set as attuned or normal depending on what works best. Cloud Senses is a great set for my Dark Servant, but caps at level 30. Since I don't get the servant till 38(33), there's no reason to have the set attuned, so I boosted them all to 30+5 just to squeeze out as much stats as possible. I also do the same for epic sets since they auto-attune (unless i accidentally buy them as attuned epics...ugh hassle!), but I tend to focus on enhancements that do -end cost, as a lot of the other stats are already capped by epics. Also merits do have a value, in theory you can buy an epic enhancement for every 100 and sell it for 20 million. So each merit is worth just under 200k if you were only interested in monetizing them...

Good tips everyone, I will try use the converters for this, I hadn't really thought of that much. I've been using them to change epic drops into epic sets I'd use. Once that is done that would be a good use for them! The only problem I had at low level, was I didn't have enough influence really to pay the AH charge, in order to list expensive items in the first place. Or it felt very high risk, because if the item didn't sell, that was all my influence on one item. I'm not really much of a gambler so I shied away from it. Now I'm high level, not many of the recipes are worth crafting over just selling the level 50 mats and recipes individually. There are a few level 50 recipes which don't require rare salvage that have been worth it, or something like LotG, but otherwise the time I spend crafting and selling would usually be better just mass killing. The way the AH works does seem really good to me, because it allows enhancements to be much more available for less influence. But if I could make a change, I might reduce the fee amount for low level players (although exploitable I guess), and reduce the crafting cost at level 50. With the way the AH works, the 450k crafting fee for a level 50 enhancement feels a bit regressive. Maybe cap it at 100k which is around level 40? Economics isn't my specialty, so just going on my own experience, but does explain why people sell the recipes.

I love stories like this; strength through adversity is exactly what being a hero is about! Well done everyone involved 🤗

Question, if you form a group and do an Ouroboros story arc, does everyone get the merits? I’ve thought about organising a ‘Frostfire TF’ at +3/8 just for fun, but would like everyone to get the merits.

I’m not a huge role player myself, but I like coming up with concepts and stories for my characters, and like playing with others who have done similar. So I always played on Virtue on live and now Everlasting here. I did flirt with Reunion, because I’m from the UK and that is the unofficial European server, but I didn’t like the thought of not playing on the RP server. I might give Reunion another go if I decide I want to join a SG or community.