nihilii

If you see a Pylon build you think is bad for general gameplay, chances are you could manage to reach 90% of the Pylon DPS it does with all the key powers it'd need for general gameplay. Personally, I feel the "super Pylon build sucking at general gameplay" has always been sort of an urban legend. It's technically possible but not really practical. The large overlap with frequent Pylon posters and solo +4/x8 challenges hints very few people bother to wreck their builds for the sake of slightly more Pylon DPS.

The ambrosia should blink before it expires. But I remember seeing it not do that sometimes. I think it's tied to a setting you have to change in options.

I'm giving you a like and a thumbs up for this idea. Less friction in little acts of kindness always add huge value. While keybinds are also a good solution, I think the OP's suggestion has an extra dimension in that people who like a costume but are reluctant to contact the person for whatever reason (don't want to disturb them, shy, or just doesn't feel like talking) could get a way to express their approval too.

This may be because you're asking too much rather than too little. I'd try /maxinactivefps 5, just to see. With that setting, I run 3 accounts on a laptop with a GTX 660M and 6 gigs of ram, without adjusting my graphic settings (which are roughly around "High"). I'm doing that on a mobile phone hotspot. The main window is reliably at 60 FPS, the other two follow without struggle. Another thing to try... Are you running in windowed mode? Or fullscreen? If on fullscreen, perhaps your computer is reserving most of the resources for the fullscreen window? I'm running with windowed mode personally (makes it much faster to tab between accounts).

I actually went full geek at the very launch of Homecoming, playing easily 8-10 hours a day. With an underdeveloped market where you could hardly sell stuff, and I had no problem being slotted with SOs. I'm honestly unsure what it is people do that makes them unable to afford SOs. Perhaps an expectation that you should fill up every slot, including Rest, Brawl and all Prestige Sprints, with a shiny level 25 SO as soon as level 22, and keep them ++ with each level up? I slot the good stuff first, fill up the misc slots later, and let SOs go yellow before I upgrade them. This was with me not understanding converters or merits, too. So I would spend 100 merits to get a LotG +recharge speed for example. And after 50, I traded my empyreans for reward merits. Just about the most inefficient way you could go about things. Still got me fully IOed out in the first two weeks. Honestly... That was a great time, and I sort of miss it. Earning each IO slot one by one is a lot more fun than buying it in bulk on the market, if you're invested in the character. Obviously novelty wanes, and at the 10th alt mark (or the 100th...) you wouldn't want to go through all that. But whenever there's any allusion to bad times with first characters, I can't help but be all "whaaat".

Clobber. Clobber is what makes War Mace, an extreme damage attack on a 1.5s animation. It outdamages every Battle Axe attack. It used to be the WM:BA dynamic was exactly as you described. Mace was mechanically inferior in every way, with Clobber doing no damage at the time. Those were sad days.

I go with 5 FPS, it has never failed me even running 7 accounts at once (which I did before the multibox rules, obv). 1 FPS is definitely too low.

Pylon DPS. With the caveat that I tend to favor characters where DPS is nonsituational (i.e. not from pets, static patches/debuffs, ideal buff conditions). The more situational your DPS is, the more extra DPS you'll want.

I have literally never seen a single instance of someone requesting "no tells" for hunting a Giant Monster. Like... not even *rarely*. Just plain *never*. For hunting a Giant Monster, or for going on an Incarnate trial, or any ingame activity, for that matter... This forum topic is literally the first instance of that rule for me. And I have clocked way too many hours in this game. On the other hand, it is the most common sight to watch someone say... "Kraken is up in Perez Park, pst if you want to join". "Magi Trial about to start. Come to PD and send a tell for invite". I could totally believe a subset of the playerbase has developed such a rule. To the point it is common sense to them. But... if you believe that rule is an universal standard, a rule that stipulates "use this specific tool for communication and not that specific tool for communication", a rule that not only differs but goes DIRECTLY OPPOSITE to the normal standard of communication established in the rest of the game... I think you're out of touch with both the reality of the game, and of human nature itself. People as a group are loosely herded cats at best, because we all have widely varied levels of interest and involvement. The more stipulations and requirements you invent for participation, the more likely you are to meet frustration. By the way... Personally, I have absolutely no problem with a "no tells" rule,. I just think it's obtuse to expect everyone will obey it, and to let the inevitable transgression ruin your experience. One can shake his fist all day about how the world ought to be, but it's so much easier for the nerves to just work with the way the world is.

"Arbitrary" can also mean "based on personal whim". Even if you think you have reasons, if your reasons differ significantly from the social norm, they are arbitrary to the consensus. And in a sense, arbitrary does mean "rules I don't agree with", provided you are part of a sizeable enough group disagreeing with a single person...

No matter how sound your logic sounds to you, when you go out of your way to do things different than most people, it's reasonable to expect some people won't play nice with these arbitrary rules. Given that it's easier to change your actions than the actions of everyone else, if *I* were to insist on a "no tell" policy, I'd just make a separate chat tab without tells, and use that one exclusively. So people could send me tells all they want, I just wouldn't be notified nor read them.

The proposed Gravity Distortion -> Lift -> Power Blast -> Propel deals about 130 DPS in the Mids attack chain calculator. Power Blast seems to be the weak link in that chain. Going with just Lift -> Gravity Distortion -> Lift -> Propel would bump up DPS to 160+.

Nothing to add to the topic, but I love your combo choice and hope you keep us updated on your AV soloing feats! 😄

I have, but on a Tanker. The Scrapper version should be decent enough. SR is all passive, Staff hungers for all the animation time you can give it. It's a good match. I have some pet peeves with Staff in general. There's still no redraw option, compared to every other set. As mentioned, the animation times are long. The damage is roughly medium. The Stalker version is also arguably the best version of Staff. - you lose the stances, but you get the best stance as a passive, AND Build Up on top - you still have your 10 feet PBAoE (Eye of the Storm) - you lose Innocuous Strikes, but it's hardly a good power - you get Assassin's Strike in exchange! Given all of that, it's hard to justify a Staff/SR Scrapper over a Staff/SR Stalker. Brutes and Tankers at least get the aggro control part. It's not like the Scrapper will be bad, just something to consider.

Also less base defense on /nin. /nin needs set bonuses to softcap whereas /SR can get there with just Weave/CJ/Maneuvers + the 2 3% def uniques.

I do it somewhat frequently at level 1. Or whatever level you end up at when you face that first AV, anyway. No specific AT required. For low level AV soloing, it's worth noting: - the "enemy health" vs "player damage" equations are extremely favorable to players, the lower level you go. This is why bosses drop very fast. - AT modifiers aren't in effect yet, so even low damage ATs deal near full damage. The best level 1 AV soloer is likely a Brute. Origin attacks do great damage at low level, and they get a full boost from Fury. You can outpace AV regen with ease at level 1 by spamming Brawl and Throwing Knives.

Without glitches/tricks, I find 300+ DPS as a flier is enough for the final fight on +4/x8, and 400-600 DPS in melee (the lower your defense the more DPS needed, due to Nictus and Romulus heals). Flying is the most accessible option, because you can also easily add ranged Lore pets to your DPS here. Provided you attack frequently enough aggro doesn't peel off you! On +0, you can probably slash these numbers by a third if not more.

Rad/Inv and Rad/Elec are both excellent picks in their own right. I'll also third the suggestion to look at Tankers. Elec/Rad and Inv/Rad Tankers are probably stronger overall than their Brute counterparts.

A fairly silent majority, then, or I must be blind (which is entirely possible). Over the years I've seen many, many people praise Scrappers for, say, being crazy blenders of murderfest who can go off on their own in who-needs-a-team, I'm-the-team fashion, or "you guys take that one group, and I'll take the other group". I've seen people express their love for the damage, coupled with decent sturdiness. And occasionally, I've even seen people name a cool Scrapper moment as landing a Critical on Eagle's Claw, for example. But I have never seen (before you) someone claim Criticals as their favorite part of Scrappers. I think that's distinct and unrelated to slotting IOs, too. I slot the Critical Strikes ATO because more criticals = more damage. I also slot Musculature Alpha because Musculature Alpha makes me do more damage. Is Musculature Alpha my favorite part of Incarnates? Nah. It's like, a mechanic. Part of the whole. Criticals are part of what makes Scrappers Scrappers, but the sum of Scrapperdom is so much more than just Criticals. At least to me! (I won't hold my breath for a Scourge-lover to show up. 🙂 )

My general CoH thesis is that just about every character can have sufficient AoE damage with about 2 standard great AoEs, given that boss HP is so far and beyond minion and even lieutenant HP. Ideal attack chains end up with the 2 bosses per x8 group dying at the same time as minions/lieutenants, and generally having more AoEs is overkill than that. I'm betting this perspective is 99% responsible for our different opinions. 😉 In detail: - Thunderstrike has a slow animation even post buff, which gives it a medium DPA at best. - I don't use Rain of Fire, I don't find it a competitive power at all. - Lotus Drops is admittedly garbage. But that's not a problem, because of the above thesis. Fire Ball + Inferno is all the AoE needed. - I don't use FF procs. My Sting of the Wasp is basically 4 damage procs including Hecatomb + Hecatomb damage +5 + Achilles' Heel. My GD is 4 damage procs including Armageddon + Arma damage +5 + Fury. This makes my swords hit about twice as strong as yours, give or take. That's a significant boost - at the cost of defense, obviously. I run Blaze Sting GD Blaze Sting Blazing Bolt and get 700+ DPS out of it. For me, this is the highest ST damage I've managed on a Blaster. My Fire/Elec doesn't come close... and neither does my Fire/Fire for that matter, but I tuned out THAT opinion a little bit previously to not let my ST bias bring out hordes of Fire/Fire questioning the logic. 😄

This thread is from April 2020. Post rework, I'd say /ninja is the ideal glass cannon thanks to the buffed sword attacks (single target). Fire/Ninja in melee pushes more damage than just about anything except Fire/Fire. And it does that with 2 -RES procs, too, which is always nice for pets and teammates.

Is that Mids proc rate for Acid Arrow accurate ingame? I'm always confused by which things are pseudopets and which things aren't, when it comes to arrows. i.e. according to Mids, Glue Arrow from Blaster Tactical Arrow should be an absolute powerhouse taking 4 damage procs reliably proccing at 95% chance, and damage enhancements for a total of over 400 damage. However, ingame the proc rate is actually abysmal. I guess it would make sense for Acid Arrow to proc well because it's a regular Targeted AoE while Glue Arrow is a Location AoE, right? That's the relevant difference I assume.

Full tray of purple insps (even if your full tray is just 10 at level 15) + eating 1-2 purples at a time will tend to do the trick on any character, in my experience. Even with a strict no P2W rule. Brawl is your friend. It deals damage and costs no endurance. So by inserting Brawl between every attack, or spamming Brawl when you're low, you can keep going forever.

I have a Bio/SM Tanker and am very very very (very) happy with her performance. SM brings the mitigation Bio needs, through knockdowns and boss level hold. Plus ridiculous single target damage. Bio brings exceptional endurance tools to sustain SM. The auras and Offensive Adaptation shore up the otherwise lackluster Tremor to "acceptable" levels of AoE damage. It's a match made in heaven.

It is a little strange some arguments against procs are along the line of "but if I slot just this one power with procs then it becomes really good and I still have enough powers to make my bulid awesome with set bonuses". Like... yes? Do you want procs to suck so universally there's never ever a rational reason to deviate from slotting full IO sets in everything? And now that I write it out, I'm wondering if this is actually motivation for some people. Much like I've always struggled to understand "badge hunters" who gripped about some badges being a real challenge, perhaps there is an aspect of build making to some that is akin to collectionables, and 6 IOs of the same set are more satisfying psychologically than frankenslotting with procs? Needless to say, while I could understand their perspective, I'd have to disagree with changing the game to fit that. It's funny the discussion has now evolved to general overpoweredness. Because... I play Tankers these days. A lot. And my Tankers... die! A lot. Because I build them as proc monsters, and while this gives them fantastic damage, and their innate survivability still make them sturdy, they ARE softer than defensively-built characters filled with set bonuses. Tankers are overpowered, for sure. And yet my new baby Bio/Stone Tanker on full Incarnates dies much more often than my old(er) school MA/Shield Scrapper on just Alpha. Maybe I *will* get on the Brutal Justice train to nerf defense to 40%, after all... Let's think about it. If some people slot some procs and softcapped defense and feel procs are OP, and if I slot all procs and no softcapped defense and feel I die a lot, doesn't that imply it's softcapped defense and not procs, that is truly OP? 😉 It's just that flooring enemy tohit has been taken for granted for so long, hardly anybody even thinks about it anymore. Yet as far as the I6 rework of defense or whenever that came, defense started being silly good as the ability to reliably dodge most damage *coupled with* avoiding debuffs AND mezzes, just about any ill effect... cemented defense as the prime form of mitigation, especially with DDR or buffer values. Resist and regen folds like paper in comparison as they meet cascading failure just about anywhere, and the only reason the problem isn't as bad as it could be is thanks to the overpoweredness of luck insps themselves at +12.5% a pop, abundance of team defense buffs, +defense set bonuses. I'm being half tongue in cheek playing devil's advocate here. But only half! NERF DEFENSE! Destroy my builds (because, yes, the reason I die "a lot" and not "ALL THE TIME" on proc builds is because I abuse luck insps too...)! Bring on the Apocalypse!