America's Angel
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Posts posted by America's Angel
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"Look ma, I'm famous!"
Thanks for all the tickets, folks. 😅
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On 3/25/2024 at 4:39 PM, Ukase said:
It's been quite some time since I've even thought about farming. The only reason I'm going revisit it is my inability to stomach the same iTrials over and over again for the incarnate bits. It seems I like repeating the lower level stuff more than the higher level stuff. Lord only knows why.
Since we can transfer emp merits (transcendent merits are actually the goal), it makes sense to me to have a character PLing another character while I actively play on my third account. And, then, if all works well, I rotate which account is actively playing, where the account that got PL'd will have enough emp merits to send to the next alt where iTrials will be something I might choose to do or choose not to do, rather then repeat the same heather townsend or iTrial trains ad nauseum.
My question is simple in form, but likely not so simple in answer: what do you mean by "best".
Inf and vet level XP correlates, and pretty sure my goals are not aligned with most of the goals of your typical farmer. By best are you referring to inf or xp gain per some metric of time?
Or are you measuring something else?
I have an afk rad/fire brute that does fairly well, but something is happening behind the combat log that's not mentioned. Combat attributes that are monitored like fire defense and fire resistance never waver, yet there seems to be some sort of failure. I never know why because I'm afk - (Well, tabbed out is probably more precise). Occasionally, I tab back in and see things are fine. And sometimes, I'll see defeat is imminent. I check the combat logs and there's no explanation as to why. If there's any -defense happening, this isn't shown on my combat log, and my combat attributes don't indicate anything amiss. It doesn't happen often; I can accept it as the cost of doing business.
Still, I would be interested in seeing this elec/rad tank, as I already have one that's probably never been in AE. Might be interesting for me to use a second build and put it to work.
The afk farm build that's in the edited initial post is for a rad/fire brute that didn't even take burn - which kind of boggles my old-fashioned mindset.
I looked through a few pages, and it's possible I missed it. Can you share that build? NVM, it just slapped me in the face. I found it. Still - what did you mean by best?Makes the most inf/minute.
5 hours ago, Fireburn said:Hello guys, i have a little question. I'm not looking for best farmer there is, just a character that is efficient enough, mainly to powerlevel my other account. I wanted him to have some kind of powerset that i rarely play and i ended up thinking about battle axe or war mace, with damage procs slotted of course. The plan is to make an active fire farmer, would it be better as a tank or brute?
Tank.
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10 hours ago, A.I.D.A. said:
PvP in this game is bad, even by the standards of people who enjoy PvP. Lack of exclusive rewards is certainly not the reason people don't do much PvP in City of Heroes.
Nah it's good.
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Looks good, Ston.
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The OP and builds it contains/links to, all still work the same in Page 7.
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On 2/12/2024 at 6:32 PM, Lightslinger said:
Getting back into farming, it's been a while. As I understand it influence was nerfed in AE, anything else? Sorry there's been a lot of patch notes since I last farmed seriously.
Are story missions the place to go for farming influence now? If so, does anyone have a recommendation of a good mission I could build a farmer around?
Read the first post in this thread and the ones it links to.
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5 hours ago, WyldeMoone said:
Couple questions after looking over the AFK build:
a) What map to use with this
b) I noticed a lot of "odd" power choices, i.e. most of the Fighting Pool, Sorcery, Taunt & other active-type skills that would just sit dormant during an AFK run - all of these are heavy slotted while more applicable powers like Assault, Maneuvers, Fire Shield, Temp Prot, Phys Prot seem underslotted
c) with Quills and Spine Burst specifically, is it worth it / necessary to single slot for essentially all damage types vs additional set bonuses?A)
For 5 min AFK farming use map #51289
For 10 Min AFK farming use map #38973
B)
For the bonuses. The only powers you use are the toggles, Spineburst on auto, and the three click incarnates every time you load in to the map.
C)
Procs do more damage than traditional slotting for this specific build. The fact they provide different types of damage (energy, cold, etc) is just happenstance and was not a factor in putting the build together. If the procs all did smashing damage, I would still 6-slot them in this build.
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1 hour ago, Derek Icelord said:
Much obliged, thank you.
I assume on the AFK build Spine Burst is the power to leave on auto-fire?
Yup!
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@WyldeMoone @Derek Icelord Spines/Fire brutes are still viable. Especially for AFK farming. Have attached the latest builds.
For the AFK build I usually advise picking up either the +HP accolades or P2W Regen buff. (Not 100% required, but helps reduce the frequency of bad RNG killing your farmer. Which can happen sometimes).
AFK build is designed for 10 minute asteroid resets. If you're leaving them for AFK longer (i.e. in a cave map for 40+ minutes), then switch one of the procs in Spine Burst for an Armageddon Dam/End +5.
On 2/6/2024 at 11:22 PM, DarkRevelation said:I am returning to CoH, not having played since retail. I have only been back about three weeks or so, but I do love looking at builds. I took a look at yours, and I don't believe I have seen a fire defense so high, 67.62%. I looked and saw how you did it, by boosting most everything to +5. I don't know if you did that intentionally, but that is above the soft cap, by a lot.
There was a post earlier on in this thread that I don't know if it received the attention it should have. Everyone works to hit the defensive cap and fire resistance, and most get there, but the key to doing this IMO is the ability to regen your health or heal for the stuff that gets through, especially AFK. Active is not too bad with having a lower regen, as you can use incarnates/heals to stay afloat. Doing it AFK is a no-go.
This post below covers what looks to be a proper regen number to stay alive AFK.
I would play around in Mids and see if you can't hit that number, or wait on someone who may be able to point you in the right direction. I'm getting back up to speed, and I wish I could help more, but I wanted to at least throw that out to you as a place where I would start if it were me.
The AFK builds in the first post of this thread (and in my other posts following it) can AFK farm fine.
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14 hours ago, Coyotedancer said:
The consensus may be that the outsized impact that has on Masterminds doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things... They're not the most popular or most common AT out there, so the impact on the general player population may be seen as an acceptable trade off for having the Council as the City's new Danger Dudes.... But that does need to be an intentional trade-off made with full awareness.
Same with the CoT revamp, sadly.
Have decided to retire my Mastermind. If they're not being taken into account when balancing enemy groups, then there's no point playing them. I'll stick with the ATs the dev team are balancing around.
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28 minutes ago, Ruin Mage said:
Quick correction. As of Dark Astoria (which is the last time we see him + Requiem before shutdown) he's now considerably depowered and Requiem (A Fascist who was notably a Mussolini lapdog) is back in charge. Requiem, in this cutscene, is even stronger than before I believe.
This happens in Max's arc when you're retrieving members of Malta from sticky situations.I know too much about this game, help me.
Good catch! Edited. -
While it's true that the Fifth Column wasn't directly founded by the German National Socialist party, I'm not entirely sure that discounts them as being Nazis (or at the very least, Neo-Nazis). Mainly because Nazism is also a political ideology, as well as the name of a group. The lore document seems to support this theory, it has Requiem meeting with Hitler, carrying out his orders, and even frequently refers to the Fifth Column directly as Nazis. (It uses phrases like "The Nazi attack on..." instead of "The Axis attack on..." or "The Fifth Column attack on..." when refering to the Fifth Column's actions.) Also, in the "Beliefs" section of the lore document, it specifically states that the Fifth Column preaches that the US Government is "[...]morally bankrupt because it recognizes the rights of women, gays, and non-whites". This is Nazism, verbatim.
From the background section of th Fifth Column page of the Homecoming Wiki. (Emphasis mine):Before they were taken over by the Council, The Fifth Column stood as the last remaining threat from World War II, a group of super powered fascists still fighting a war the rest of the world left behind fifty years ago. The Fifth Column has the nefarious distinction of actually triggering the United States' involvement in the war against Nazi Germany. Hitler first sent the covert super team to Paragon City in 1939, tasked with spying on and sabotaging US shipping and naval development.
In 1941, as the navy's Atlantic Fleet mustered in Paragon Harbor with a convoy of supply vessels destined for England, the Fifth Column struck. The attack force destroyed dozens of ships and injured thousands before they withdrew into hiding. The Nazi spies spent the rest of the war wreaking havoc up and down the Eastern seaboard, fighting countless skirmishes with America's own heroes. Under the leadership of the ruthless and deadly Requiem, the Fifth Column killed hundreds and cost the US millions in war materials. In the closing months of the war they became desperate and careless, and heroes like The Statesman brought most of the covert cadre to justice.
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Reichsmann, the group's former leader, is from Axis America. From his bio on the Homecoming wiki:
The Reichsman, an alternate version of Statesman, led the Amerika Korps, an elite super powered hero organization that helped preserve Nazi rule over the former United States in a dimension explored by Brian Webb. Intrigued by these other-worldly interlopers, The Reichsman captured Dr. Webb and his explorers, tortured them to death, and ended up extracting a great deal of data about Webb's home dimension. Data is all well and good, but the Reichsman decided he wanted to see for himself, and so he led Amerika Korps through the portal and back to Paragon City.Based on the above, I wouldn't want to say that the Fifth Column were just fascists who were aligned with the Nazis and did their bidding. Much like modern-day Neo-Nazis, they believed in the ideology of Nazism, even if they weren't members of a German Political party formed in the 1920s. This belief in Nazism typically is what defines someone as a Nazi. At least post-WW2.
That's just my interpretation on it, though. I imagine others may differ.
In terms of actual Focused Feedback, though - perhaps use this new contact as a chance to clear this all up? Maybe change the modern-day story slightly, saying that the modern-day Fifth Column has moved on from "putting up with" or "giving lip service to" the beliefs of their "former allies" in Germany? You could even riff on Homelander, here. In The Boys comic, there's a line where Homelander reveals he's not racist...but only because he views all of humanity as equally beneath him. So, the idea of placing humans on a hierarchy based on race is absurd to him. I imagine Requiem and the other Nictus types would view humanity the same way. If you took this approach, then the idea that the Fifth Column never really believed in Nazism (because they saw it as beneath them) could make a lot of sense, story-wise. That the Fifth Column used the Nazis to get what they wanted, but ultimately didn't share their White Supremecist views, would make them a great deal more palatable as contacts to do missions for.
Just a thought. This could be a chance to "turn a bug into a feature" as they say.
**EDITED TO ADD**
For those interested, see attached for the CoH lore bible. It has lots of detail on the Fifth Column's Nazi ties.-
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Not a huge fan of the shortened animations for Bile Spray and Arctic Breath.
They feel too short/snippy. The theme of the powers is getting lost.
To compare:
Live:
Beta:
The new, snippier, attacks just don't have that same OOMPH, you know? Some of the gravitas is lost.
When I think of frost breath attacks, I think of Superman and Supergirl, who have always used these powers slowly as a signature move with great impact. (Which makes sense, breathing is a slow process.)
Some examples:
I get that balance changes tend to be more numbers-focused than art-focused, but I think these changes go against the "Rule of Cool" and should be reverted. Leviathan isn't an optimal pick, so I think it can afford to keep some slower animations for style points.
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Laser Beam Eyes objectively did get a buff. My pylon times with it are better on beta vs live.
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100% agreed. Excelsior is the unofficial PvP server now.
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22 hours ago, Sepherion said:
So, I was thinking about coming back but I did want to ask, is there any sort of ladder aspect to pvp? An even minimal one? PvP Tiers or something? The other question I have is, what is the endgame like? Would I be just grinding for power upgrades? Thanks in advance!
There's an active Excelsior PvP Fightclub community here. Have about 300 ish members:
https://discord.gg/6cGRXvu2sW
We have a leaderboard here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1b8D4JdPM9xv9srHPgcyeK6jK5Bdz2kRDtvs6tIQW9IU/edit#gid=2069633451
One of our admins also runs regular RPvP events over on Everlasting.-
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Let people make their replies and speak.
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4 hours ago, Meknomancer said:
@America's Angel I'm curious about your slotting on IG and atom smasher on a few of the posted builds. Even after page 5 updates i've yet to see IG miss and i've never slotted it with any acc pieces. It appears to act like a pseudopet rain of fire/ice storm and just auto hit everything. Atom smasher doesn't and yet you didn't slot any acc. I could be (and probably am) wrong because i don't do math or study combat logs beyond seeing why i got 1 shotted in an itrial and mids math and in game math seem to be on different planets.
IG isn't autohit. It's hit rolls are shown in the "Pet Hit Rolls" channel.
IG is a pseudopet, and I think they don't inherit global accuracy bonuses the same way as other powers. (Might be wrong on this.)
Regardless, I needed to slot it up a bit to get a higher hit rate, kill rate, and earning potential.
2 hours ago, Meknomancer said:Thats also the first time i've seen a fire farmer skip burn 🙂
Atom Smasher is better on auto for AFK farming now. 😎
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1 hour ago, Sanguinesun said:
1. Cyclone is a different mechanic and different utility in the axe set than your attempt to compare it with foot stomp. Most that use axe these days know this. Though not an exact analogy, better for you to think on it as sets that have combo building and look at it as a combo builder in that it does a bit of damage whilst pulling in mobs to be in better range for pendulum/cleave. Cyclone is thus not meant to be an equivalency for foot stomp and its rather disingenuous to consider it to be so.
2. Almost all of the powers in the axe set can take FF procs. Getting 400% cap in a typical rotation is pretty easy.
3. Can you provide evidence supporting that FF's proc for only cyclone is less than that say that of cleave or pendulum? All 3 are aoes in their own rights now. This feeds into why infinitum was saying that axe does have compelling evidence to be a good set because almost all the powers can take the proc and its 3 aoes in essence now with the pull in range utility power and 2 decent damage powers to follow it up with.
Really end then becomes the challenge to juggle since one can fire the abilities more for more damage at the expense of such end and then whether one can get all 3 axe aoe fitting within their build choice for optimization.
4. You have said in multiple threads now that you believe certain combinations(mainly your inclination towards certain tanker ones) are better for farming yet when asked to provide more clear data to support that conclusion, including your main thread in the guide's section on these things, that information has yet to be made wholly manifest. Until all data sets, builds used, attack chain, map, testing controls and more are accounted for in detail, the evidence from your conclusions don't seem as compelling.
5. While I know you have seeming access to foreknowledge due to your testing rep status and communication with things to this point, should you be hinting/foreboding "until page 6" in such a manner? You're essentially implying, yet again, that people who have invested time and effort in farming are yet again going to have to endure changes and adjustments against it.
Only SS attack I use on the Rad/SS is footstomp. Hence the like-for-like comparison. That said, if I was to look deeper into a Rad/Axe Tank, I imagine I'd go Pyre for Fireball, and then switch out Elec Fences + Cross Punch for Cleave & Pendulum.
So the question becomes, which of the following is better:
Ground Zero + Radiation Therapy + Footstomp + Spring Attack + Cross Punch + Elec Fences + Ball Lightning
orGround Zero + Radiation Therapy + Axe Cyclone + Cleave + Pendulum + Spring Attack + Fireball
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Ground Zero + Radiation Therapy + Axe Cyclone + Cleave + Pendulum + Elec Fences + Ball Lightning
That'll be the test to see for sure IMO.
As for evidence, I'll put it all in my farming thread once I'm finished testing to be sure I've found the most optimal setups. (Like I did for Rad/Fire fire farming with Brutes in Page 4.) Rad/SS Tank is the best I've found so far for active. And Elec/Rad Tank is the best I've found so far for AFK. But I've still got more stuff to test. (Including Axe, thanks to this thread.)Also - other than some possible PvP stuff I have no idea what's coming in Page 6. My comment was more to the fact that both Page 4 and 5 changed the farming landscape and necessitated respecs/switching to a different character. I imagine Page 6 might too. (Apologies for the fright, @Troo.)
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5 hours ago, Rahabina said:
Yeah I noticed my farmers are a bit squishier lol and I admit it made me very sad but i ventured on.
How is fire spines now? I have a few I decommisioned but coud easily swap out my Rad fires
A Rad/Fire Brute is still better than a Spines/Fire Brute.
That said, in Page 5 a Rad/SS tank is better for active farming, and an Elec/Rad tank is better for AFK farming. But the difference isn't that big. (See here for the numbers.)3 hours ago, Rahabina said:What map number?
The maps in the first post of this thread have been updated for Page 5.
For active farming use map #41794.For 10 Min AFK farming use map #38973
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13 hours ago, Infinitum said:
Has anyone tried this with Axe/Fire or Fire/Axe - the new Axe setup on either S/L or Fire Farms? New Axe combined with My looks impressive on paper.
Axe Cyclone can take FF, but the proc rate is lower. And it does less damage than Footstomp. Better off active farming with the Rad/SS tank until Page 6.
I haven't tested if Rad/Spines or Rad/Rad tanks are as viable. It might be the case that their AoE + Damage Aura might make up for Footstomp doing more damage. But I imagine without the FF proc firing, everything is recharging slower, which likely lowers your overall DPS, increases your cleartime, and decreases your influence/minute.
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You folks are doing it wrong. Nerfs never exist in isolation. They have to be multiple.
So, if the only thing wrong with an AoE attack was that it did too much damage, then you'd do one of the following.
- Reduce the damage AND the radius.
- Reduce the damage AND increase the recharge.
It's never just one thing.
So, with that said...
Page 6- Procs now fire less frequently, and for less damage.
- Achilles' Heel and Fury of the Gladiator have been changed to PPM of 1.5 and 7.5% -res value
- Annihilation has been changed to PPM of 1.5 and 5% -res value.
- Gaussian now gives a 50% damage buff and is now 0.33PPM
- Forced Feedback now gives 20% recharge buff and is 0.25PPM
- All epic attacks have a larger internal recharge value that they use to decrease their proc rate. Also their endurance cost has been increased across the board.
- Ground Zero has had its target cap reduced to 10 (16 on tankers) and now has a larger recharge.
- Spin has had its radius reduced, and recharge increased. (No change to proc rate.)
- The meteor farm map has had its spawn number reduced in size AND has been flagged to award 25% XP.
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24 minutes ago, Krimson said:
I only have two accounts. It's all I need. Farmers on both so I can make what I want when I want. Most of my activity is made for one active farmer doing the heavy lifting. On rare occasions, I can drag the alt along to help with aura spam. That's happened like twice on 27 toons. Triple boxing is never going to happen. But I do things like front load patrol farms, and then wipe out half the mobs at the first choke point, then reset the farm because running around from place to place is not DPS.
Yes, there are a lot of other logistics involved. Meanwhile, I'm getting my "Let's make a 50" time back closer to two hours with one farmer and one alt. I don't care about getting the best possible XP and INF returns because running two accounts is enough of a hassle let alone three. That's right, I'd rather farm a little longer than mess with multiple accounts. But it's not even a race unless your slotted 50s are just there for decoration.
Anyhow, this isn't even a serious thread to begin with. There is no Smashing/Lethal farm community the way there is a Fire Farm community. There's a hand full of individuals. We've been doing it for years, but people only notice the Meta.
Ah you only used two accounts?
With only two accounts active, fire farmers could earn 160.8mil an hour in Page 4. (Just influence, not drops/etc).
Were you making that?
Is there really a massive proc nerf just around the corner?
in General Discussion
Posted
Active farming might be slightly slower post proc nerf. But not significantly. Players will still be able to level 1-50 in a few hours, and earn hundreds of millions of influence in a few hours.
AFK farming might take a hit. Fewer procs means Atom Smasher/Spine Burst/etc do less damage each time they cycle, which means things die slower. Currently AFK builds clear the meteor map in around 7 mins. So that means there's a 3 min buffer. This 3 minutes might be enough to account for the extra time needed to clear the map due to lower proc-less damage. (Not entirely sure, will need to test.) However, things dying slower means the AFK farmer is taking more hits. Which mighy make some AFK setups no longer able to mitigate incoming damage. (Some, unlikely all.) Worst case scenario for AFK farmers - players will be able to just set the difficulty lower, and increase the number of accounts they AFK farm with to compensate. (3 per shard is the rule. So that's 15 total.)
Farming will survive any proc nerf is my point. The HC devs aren't dumb. They are aware of this. So I very much doubt nerfing farming is a motive of theirs when it comes to nerfing procs.