laudwic

You know, maybe Santa and his elves appearing in the islands to deliver toys to all the good little girls and boys, and we get to defeat and rob them. . . There is already a Scrooge badge, maybe a 'Ruined Christmas' badge.

I have a 48 grav/storm controller and a 37 Ninja/TA Mastermind that I alternate between soloing to 50. I predominately solo, so the comments are from that perspective. Both characters are very effective, have not had problems with EBs or large groups. I don't do AVs, I play to zone/relax for for a challenge (and to see if I remembered to pick up Envenomed Daggers.) I don't think you need any slots in Gale. It can be fun, when foes are flying back they are not attacking you, and shoving them in a corner is always good, I just think you can get better use of the slots. I haven't added any slots in it for my controller, and rarely use it when I want to shove foes I wormholed in back into a corner and close to their friend I put Enflame on. You are building a very healing heavy build. Why? O2 Boost and Aid Other seem redundant. One thing to remember, if some of your minions go down, you can quickly summon more. With the recent change to masterminds, the summon powers recharge very quickly. Sure, you still have to put the two boost powers on again, but that isn't a big deal. If your looking to be a party healer, ok, I guess I get it. Otherwise, you really don't need it. With my mastermind, I'm soloing at +0/x3 at 37 comfortably. I've got the mastermind sets, but haven't fully IOed the build. The only healing I have is green inspirations for both me and the minions and Spirit Ward (others only) from the Sorcery Pool. I have been soloing the Zig Breakout Event in Brickstown for fun. Personally, I went Sorcery with Arcane Bolt (its nice to be able to shoot something and FAR better than any ninja set attacks) Spiritward, and Enflame. Enflame is fun to put on a boss, or on one of your minions as a damage aura. Great slotting in Tornado - gives you the minion defense bonuses, and solves one of the problems with Ninjas. You still may want to consider Knockback to Knockdown in Tornado and Hurricane. Scattering all over is fun, but it will upset some folks teaming, but it will also have your ninjas running all over the place to fight foes. Occasionally, they will run into new friends and bring them back when your not expecting them to. I know you are concerned about cost, but they aren't too bad, and you could always buy one from the set that is far cheaper and try Enhancement Converter roulette. I'm a believer that minions exist to get attacked so the main character doesn't, so I don't see the need for Provoke. Its easier to resummon minions than run back from the hospital. If you are going to go into the Fighting pool, you should get both Tough and Weave. I prefer Kick to Boxing for the knockdown chance, not like you are going to use it often anyways. You can slot a Force Feedback Chance for Recharge proc if you want to throw a kick in occasionally. I don't use Vengeance, I guess it could be good if you have teammates that fall constantly, but I don't think it works on pets (The HCwiki says it doesn't). Your better off getting combat Jumping if your looking to mule in a luck of the gambler. I would look at better slotting for your stamina as well like Performance Shifter. Anything /damage in there really isn't doing you any good.

I've got it on my Ninja/Trick Arrow Mastermind (The combo is a lot better than it is given credit for after the revisions to TA) Arcane Bolt is a decent attack. Spirit Ward is great to put on a damaged minion. Great for a combo that doesn't have healing. Enflame is great to add extra damage. Highly recommend the Sorcery Power Pool!

I can just see it now: Poster: What will be in it? I'll even take 1/2 page....a paragraph! A Sentence! Give me a word....just a word! GM: One Word? Stuff TM

I generally solo a character up rather than farming so earlier characters fund later characters. Also, I generally avoid purples as I generally move on to other characters once all the incarnates are unlocked. I do IO set everything. That being said, the most expensive are either Dominators due to the need to get certain IO sets to chase permadom. Otherwise, any of the characters with a lot of defense or resistance sets as those IOs always seem to be more expensive.

You may wish to read the prior posts as my objections was because one of the Lead Game Masters said: "However, every situation is different, and we unfortunately cannot discuss any outcomes, including what actions were taken." Third post in, please feel free to confirm the quote. My post is directly after, the forth post in this thread, where I take issue at the quoted statement that the GMS are able to make a statement but are choosing not to. The same Lead Game Master later clarified that they are making a conscious decision not to share anything with anyone rather than some impediment, legal or otherwise. Your ALL CAPS came after the GM clarified. I thumbed it and then left it alone. Your entitled to your opinion, as I am to mine.

Ok, lets unpack this one. The main developer comes on and says the following: I take issue at the idea they they cannot say anything. I find those two statements contradictory as I do not believe any restrictions exist for revealing player disciple, especially if the information is revealed only to an aggrieved party. If that kind of information is not revealed to the aggrieved party, it is very easy for them to perceive, rightly or wrongly, that the GMs do not, in fact, take these situations very seriously and that they do not act on them. Another poster says there were all kinds of consumer protection laws that prevent disclosure. I've asked what those were, just give me the citations. To date, there has been no posting. You can certainly take the GM's refusal to provide any transparency on player discipline as a 'higher path' and I can still certainly believe that such secrecy is harmful in the long run. While your certainly correct that I know little about the role playing community here as I am not part of it. The remainder of your suggestion that I do not know much of this game is inaccurate as you clearly read the part of the post that you seem to be attacking. Lets look at it again: Hum, your post above does not know how to change global names (after a little research check the menu for Global Handle) but the part you seek to discredit me on is character name and server. You seem to have misread my earlier post. I certainly agree that the Devs are tech savvy, ethics is another question. I can't say the Devs are great, good, bad or terrible when it comes to ethics. The Devs can certainly deal with issues when they arise, unfortunately we will not know if they actually dealt with an issue or if they did so in a savvy manner as they have chosen silence. Without information as to how they have dealt with issues, no one can say with the slightest bit of certainty that the Devs have behaved in a savvy or even minimally acceptable way. Their choice, their game. We'll see if it is helpful to the long term community. What would have been helpful is if the GMs clarified their statement by saying why they can't (IF those laws exist this would be a great time to point to them) or simply say we believe it is in the best interest of Homecoming going forward to keep player issues confidential in all cases.

This is not my normal area, so can you give me examples from the United States Code of the Code of Federal Regulations that you are referring to? The cite alone is fine. It is my experience that businesses say that they can't do something when the simply do not want to. If there are, as you say, numerous laws that restrict such disclosure, I would be curious to see them. I'm especially curious as to confidentiality requirements that also extend to prevent notification to the person that lodged the complaint/victim. I am well aware of some that exist in the education sphere that would not apply here.

I do not understand this last statement. You certainly can discuss what occurred, what actions were taken and what the outcomes where, you are choosing not to. There is no right to confidentiality here, we are not dealing with a school or other protected area. I do not understand the hesitancy to inform the victim that, for example, someone has been banned for a week or for life or nothing has happened. To me, there is a difference to informing a victim than posting the results in a forum. I think a victim should get to know. If there are reasons otherwise, I am curious as to what they are. Also, it may make sense, and I'm sorry I don't know the technical side of this, to assist a victim in changing a global name or character names to facilitate avoiding an individual. A CoH Witness Protection Program if you will. Players can migrate characters to other servers and do name or costume changes on their own. It may make sense to suggest to people that want to do in character roleplaying that they go to Paragon Dance Party, a holiday event zone in the off season (or even the new event area), or the Kalisti (sp) Warf until it is completed. Think of Role Players park on Virtue in the days of live. You can role play, just stay out of everyone elses way. While I don't recommend it, you could differentiate from a PG-13 Area versus R. You know it is going to happen, this is a way to keep it contained. With that being said, I sympathize with the GMs as, no matter what, when people gather there are going to be a small subset of people that engage in greatly inappropriate behavior that diminishes the game for others. There is no good way to deal with this, or to fix inappropriate conduct. Its even worse when you consider that the individuals providing the game and additional contact are not being compensated for this headache.

For role playing purposes, my Thugs are all ex-boyfriends. Ann and the Boys

Wind Control, while not implemented, is in the code and HC wiki. It was mentioned as it was being made at the demise of the game as an indication of what the direction the designers of the game were taking the game to. Interestingly though, the posts have gone from "Mind is special" {emphasis in original} to 'Mind Control is fine as it is just about". 'Just about' isn't fine. The limitation realizes that there are problems with the set. I've given my thoughts on both a minimum fix and what I would like to see happen. No argument has been presented as to how my suggested changes would be over powered, inappropriate or unwelcome. This thread comes up repeatedly, I'd rather ideas and solutions be fleshed out and discussed rather than the forum equivalent of posting a picture of a dog wearing a hat sitting in a chair telling you he is fine while the room is on fire. Personally, I'd make implementing Wind Control a higher priority than fixing Mind Control, it would have been a higher priority to me than fixing overperforming Titan Weapons too, but the Devs do what they want to do and we appreciate them for what they do and making this game available to us.

You forgot masterminds pets. If the argument is pets are readily available, then the actual pet class should be cited. You also forgot the unimplemented Wind Control which was also planned to have a pet at level 32. It also looks like the proposed level 18 power would have been better than Mass Confusion as Seeds of Confusion was with Plant Control. Homecoming hasn't implemented this set, but some of the other servers have. I hope Homecoming is able to do so. Each of the go red to get a a pet is a limited duration pet with a high recharge. None of them is anywhere near comparable to any of the level 32 controller pets. I pointed out, directly, how mind 'no one set pet' idea that you put across is inaccurate and lacking. I even gave a suggestion of a possible, I do not know enough to say probable or feasible (Although I would imagine it would be considering we have a good number of powers that add an additional effect if used in conjunction with another power, see gravity control, psy melee, or beam rifle), fix that would not need to add additional powers that I think people would be excited about. Instead of actually approaching what I was suggesting, there is deflection. Because I do not agree with you does not mean either of us is 'doing it wrong' or even doing it right. There can be disagreement. Just because something is available with a pet, that is available to every other controller and many other ATs, does not correct, in my opinion, the problems with this power set. Now, Minds cap stone level 32 power is surpassed by a level 8 plant control power. Even if Seeds of Confusion did not exist, Mass Confusion in its current version still lacking and should be reevaluated. At a minimum, the recharge time is too long. As it stands now, Mind is special in a negative way as it is an original power set that has not been reexamined. reevaluated, and updated based upon how the game has changed since the start.

I disagree, I would greatly prefer if mind had a pet. I would especially like if I could confuse an enemy and take them around as a helper, with no xp loss for the damage they do like every other pet, until they are defeated or I use a confuse power on something else. Limit it to a minion or an LT. Heck, make it so you have to do Mass Confusion and then Confuse the target. Make it something that makes the set stand out and be unique. Make 'no fixed single pet' special not blah. Mind suffers from early design that was not reviewed as the game grew. Right now, 'no fixed single pet' is not special or set defining. By the 'no fixed single pet' logic, Illusion has Phantasm, Phantom Army, and Deceive (Mind's no fixed pet) Oh, but you say, deceive is single target, Mass Confusion is mass! Yeah, still Plant Control has Seeds of Confusion as a level 8 power that is superior in a whole bunch of ways. If you could keep one and it's damage counted as your damage for xp, that would be something special. Even if it was only a minion or LT. Mind could use a little something special. Especially since folks will still complain about lost xp due to a confuse power.

I'm currently working a Grav/Storm controller up and have a 50 Grav/Savage Dom I agree with roleki completely. I skipped Hurricane and do not miss it. Remember also that wormhole does not need line of sight, it also does not agro the ones it left behind. I took the sorcery pool. While gravity is GREAT for single target attacks, adding Arcane Bolt was helpful. Mystic Flight is useful, but then you can get Enflame and Rune of Protection. Enflame is great fun to put on an enemy that you just wormholed into a corner with all of its friends. Add in Freezing Rain, Tornado and, maybe, Lightning Storm if you want. Or put it on your Singularity. Rune of Protections is also nice to break holds. Gravity I skip Crush, Dimension Shift and Crushing Field. Arcane bolt is more fun and does more damage than crush. Lift and propel get bonus damage when used Gravity Distortion.

Ill/Trick Arrow to 50, you won't need a team, but you bring a whole lot of options if you choose to team.

It seems like every week or two we have a discussion about this powerset. It generally comes down to Mass Confusion vs. Seeds of Confusion and Lack of a Pet vs. Mass Confusion makes them all your pets - not really as they fight and I don't get all xp and so on.

I have a Grav/Savage Dom that I've taken to 50 and unlocked all of his incarnates. Frankly, it depends on how you play. I almost exclusively soloed at level until early 40s (permadom) then +1 or +2. team size one doing red side content. That meant I was generally fighting groups of three enemies at range. If you group a lot, you can certainly play the dominator version of a blapper. I personally think your better off doing that as a brute. Melee hits harder and Dominators just don't have the defense. I five slot Lift with the Decimation set into it to add 6.25% recharge time. IMO, with a dominator, all your slotting should be going towards trying to get to permadom. It is very achievable before 50 and it makes a world of difference. At early levels I tried to stay at range which meant I didn't use the majority of savage much. My range attack sequence was generally: Gravity Distortion on the worst enemy, use propel, use lift, then call swarm. Gravity Distortion was generally recharged by then. I went with the idea that I would have one held, propel would generally knock others down. Lift and propel had decent damage when you consider the bonus for having used Gravity Distortion. I also went with the idea if they are flying through the air or getting up they aren't attacking me. I put Ascendency of the Dominator IO set in Gravity Distortion and would regularly stack two or three instances of the proc adding to my damage. You have to take Summon Swarm. I used that after I would do my ranged attack sequence since the activation time is minimal and it built blood. Building up Blood to gives a damage boost and an endurance benefit plus I two slotted it with Entropic Chaos with the Chance for heal proc to add a little more healing and 10% more regeneration at the cost of one slot. It has a minus speed and damage too. I like to use it when an enemy barely had any health left. Call Hawk is great damage especially when you have 5 blood, but even with all the recharge permadom gives you, it is still not recharging as fast as lift or propel. Its a fun take out a minion or a lt at range with one click. I have all powers in Savage except rending flurry as I found the AoE to be small and I think being in the middle of so many enemies is just a way to get into trouble when solo. Now if I'm not using wormhole or Gravity Distortion field I'll generally do the ranged hold on the first one, lift, propel, summons swarm, Feral Charge, then rending fury, Unkindness, maiming slash and vicious to finish off. Next group start with Call Hawk since I have full blood and do it again. In Gravity I skipped Crush, Crushing Field, and Dimension Shift. I played around with Dimension Shift, and it can be a neat power if you get good at targeting it, but considering you have Wormhole that grabs foes without agro, I didn't see needing Dimension Shift solo and I don't see it as that useful with how teams go. Get Spot Prey because blindness stinks. Remember, Blood Craze is not a great healing power, but it isn't bad if you understand to use it early to take advantage of the fact that it is more of a heal over time than one big chunk. Final note, Singularity is going to be your BFF.

Phantom Army

Well, it wasn't up in time. I cleaned the kitchen, got started on the laundry. My Wife was really happy with me. Now, I need to know. Is my wife conspiring with Nemesis? This was a Nemesis Plot to get me to clean the kitchen, right?

Ok folks, I'm going to be home in around 4 hours. The wife and the kids will be home in about 7 hours. My basic understanding of math tells me that gives me around 3 hours to play. No pressure. . . .

Huh? While Singularity is not a great damage dealer, it is an insanely good controller. I've soloed a Grav/Savage to 50 and currently have a 33 Grav/Storm and Sing has made my life much easier. Especially since I don't need to be concerned about ambushes or things coming at me from behind. I've seen Sing hold and control an Elite Boss I wasn't even aware of, and it would have defeated the boss on its own if I was willing to wait to let it whittle things down. If you are looking for damage, Sing is not the best choice, if your soloing and want to control a spawn, it is your best friend.

Thank you! Just hit 24 and went vigilante specifically to do this contact.

I remember reading that there was an only vigilante contact and mission arc. I can't seem to find where I read that. Is it true, and if so, who is the contact? Is that contact automatically awarded to all vigilantes or do you need to do something to find it?

Just leveled a Ill/TA to 50. I only skipped Ice Arrow in TA. Skipped Group Invis and Flash in Illusion. Acid Arrow is great for Procs. I use Disruption Arrow almost every fight. Oil Slick is fun and flammable, I use it for boss fights. I forget I have EMP Arrow generally, but It is useful. Big fights: PA - Oil Slick - Bind (on the boss) - Disruption Arrow - Fireball (or Apprentice Charm) to set off the Oil Slick - Acid Arrow - Bind to now hold the boss - help PA as needed. Spectral Terror is also fun to drop in the middle of enemies.

My understanding is that PA was originally not supposed to do damage and what damage they did was to help them taunt. PA was close to being nerfed, but they allowed the damage to stay in. You could remove damage entirely or make all of it heal instead of just a percentage like Spectral Wounds. Spectral Terror would be overpowered it it benefited from Domination. Personally, would put Wind Control as a higher priority.