America's Angel

In my real life I'm a professional comic book writer. And I actually spoke to a few publishers I work with last year about the viability of licensing the City of Heroes IP from NCSoft (back when it seemed like Homecoming had 35,000 active accounts.) The conclusion we came to was that the IP probably isn't popular enough with the general public to release in single issues in the direct market (i.e. comic shops), but it does have enough of a cult following for someone to run a Kickstarter for a graphic novel (which a publisher could then distribute at a later date). If Homecoming wanted to, I imagine they make this happen pretty easily. The hard part isn't licensing the IP, the hard part is financing the comic's production. You'd probably be looking at up front costs of $15,000-$20,000 (writing/art/editing/lettering/graphic design/printing/etc). You'd obviously make that back, with plenty to spare, but I doubt a publisher in 2021 is going to penny it up for you.

In PVP, my Invuln brute has this much resistance: Once DR is applied this is the s/l resist I'm left with And this is the exotic damage types: Here's what it looks like with Unstoppable up: Once DR is applied this is the s/l resist I'm left with And this is the exotic damage types: This is what my invuln tank looks like in PvE without Unstoppable (Cardiac Alpha, no other incarnates/accolades/etc active) Observations on the above data: Unstoppable is a necessary power in PvP Unstoppable is not a necessary power in PvE Invuln does not need buffing in PvE Conclusion: No changes to Unstoppable in PvE are required.

-recharge debuffs haven't been changed. You just weren't using the right IOs to counter /colds. Your dominator should still be able to get: 5 x 15% (Winter IOs) 5 x 10% (Winter IOs) 1 x 20% (Winters Gift) For a total of 145%. Well above the pre-DR 125% you need to cap slow res. Obviously no-one slots that much as it would be a huge slot investment. But using unslotters vs colds (or even a separate build) you should be able to effectively negate/massively reduce the impact of slows by using SOME of the above IOs in your build. If you're choosing not to do this, that's on you, but it's not accurate to say that slows are currently over-performing in PvP. Not when players have the option to completely negate them with IOs. If anything, slows are underperforming. /cold is a pretty poor set for 1v1s right now. It was much better on live when the winter IOs were less common in builds.

Reducing blaster HP is one thing the PvP community has expressed some interest in testing. Blasters are exceptionally tanky considering the damage they do. It's possible to get very high slow resists in PvP. Especially on a TA. 20% from the Winter's gift proc. 5x15% from Winter IOs 40% from Eagle Eye This would put you on 135%. To get 100% slow resist you need 125% pre-DR. So I think this is more a case of you slotting your character incorrectly. I know on my ill/cold I wasn't able to slow any of the other /TA blasters I fought. Controllers/Dominators still have the longest holds. And as the meta for 1v1 is for players to skip acrobatics, those holds are essentially even longer, now. I think the issue with Controllers is much simpler - they don't do a lot of damage, and they are squishy. Dwindling numbers are due to the game's population decreasing. CoH is an old game, and the novelty of it being back has worn off for many. We're seeing player dropoff in PvE, too. In general, though, what keeps new players from trying out PvP is the PvE timesink attached to it. Specifically - levelling & earning influence to slot out characters. The best way to somewhat resolve this would be to add PvP-only versions of every IO that can be bought for free.

Great topic. In terms of players, I'd like to give thanks to @Bopper for all he does organising the Golden Standard Testing discord. ❤️ Plus, I'd like to thank all the RPers who run nightclubs on Everlasting. Places like Infernos, Joker's Wild, Black Friday, Femme Fatales, Oasis, Impulse, Stormcage, Xs and Os, Black Cat, and Afterhours. Too many people to name individually, but thanks to all of them, there's always somewhere new and exciting to have fun and meet new RPers on any given night on Everlasting.

Top 10 Ranked 6/20/2021: 1 Madvillain 2 Alouu 3 America’s Angel (+1) 4 Ridicc 5 Magecow 6 Kencian (+5) 7 T Mart 8 Blackhearted 9 mjb 10 Mushroom Ranks are calculated by Elo Score. Source: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZetLGnWhKXeE9o_5KG3ZI-rpdhde5YigzQlorIsOR4k/edit?usp=sharing Reasons for movement: We ran another Fight Club night last night. Kencian brought his new Kat/Rad scrapper (Sanzuken) and dropped damn near everyone he went up against. (Only Madvillain was able to force a tie out of him!) If you find yourself in Recluse's Victory on Indomitable, watch out for this guy... As always, if you're interested in seeing your name in the top 10, taking part in our weekly Sunday Fightclub events, or learning more about 1v1 melee fights, then feel free to join up to our discord, here: https://discord.gg/knq839NUM4

There's a lot I'd change here. But, if DPS is your concern, then I'd suggest ditching Hurl, picking up Cross Punch (plus boxing to make Cross Punch hit harder), pick up Laser Beam Eyes (or switch to Soul epic for Gloom, or Mu Epic for Ball Lightning). Switch your alpha to Vigor (or possibly musculature w/the +recovery Ageless) and proc out your attacks. Put the Gaussian proc in Invincibility. Focus on more recharge bonuses. Etc.

The chart I posted above shows the split of characters at level 50. What this means is that not only is Super Strength the most popular tanker melee set, it's also extremely playable. Because a huge number of players stick with it all the way to level 50. I imagine it's likely the same case for Brutes, but as you can see, the two best farming melee attack sets skew the numbers a bit: (Here's the Brute secondaries, just to give an idea of how much farmer characters are skewing the stats): So, looking at these charts, it isn't accurate to say super strength is unplayable or unpopular. However, none of this proves that people like rage. For all we know, every single one of those players might hate rage. Unless we poll the playerbase, we cannot say for sure. Because of this, it's important to only speak on our own behalf. Sentences that start with "everyone agrees that..." or "we all know that..." are useless without proof. (Especially on this forum, which has a tendency to be an echo chamber that rarely reflects how things are in-game.) So with that said, here's my personal thoughts on super strength. As someone who mains an ss/inv brute, I think Super Strength is mostly fine. I levelled 1-50 on SOs just fine. And now, at level 50 with IOs and Incarnates, I can drop a Pylon in under 2 minutes and can solo the ITF on +4/8. One of the great things about Super Strength is that Rage boosts the pool/epic attacks, too. I take full advantage of this. Crosspunch is a great attack, and with Laser Beam eyes from the epic I'm putting out -40% res. (Admittedly Gloom is probably better for DPS, or Ball Lightning for the AoE, but Laser Beam Eyes suits my character's theme better.) If I was going to change anything in Super Strength: I'd turn Hurl into a large cone to make up for Super Strength's lack of AoE. I'd also possibly change Rage to have two "stances" similar to how Bio Armour functions. Stance 1 would be the current crash, Stance 2 would have the -20% def switched out for -20% res. (So that defense-based characters didn't pair poorly with Super Strength.) Note: nothing else about the power would change, it would still be a clicky, still buff the same, etc.

These last few weeks I've been flooding the market with T4 inspirations. It lowered the price for them considerably. I wonder if that has led to a dropoff in demand for T3 inspirations?

SR is objectively inferior to EA and Ninjitsu in PvP due to having: No heal/+HP power Worse resists No +end power to combat the -recovery debuff from the T9 crash. These first two bullet points means that SR has lower HPS than EA or Ninjitsu in PvP. (I.e. it dies quicker.) This is why you don't see players using SR in PvP. We're looking to fix that. Now, the first two bullet points in my list (heals and resist) are to do with damage mitigation. As we cannot add a heal or resists to SR, we are exploring increasing elusivity and improving scaling resistance. The hope is that the extra elusivity/better scaling resistance will help add enough HPS to SR, so that the mitigation gap between SR and EA/Ninjitsu no longer exists. I don't think we're there yet. But it's a step in the right direction. If anyone is interested in testing this on Brainstorm, please feel free to send me a DM.

Then there is no problem, which means there's no need for a solution and this thread can be closed. Worth mentioning - if anyone believes the crash penalties make rage quantitatively worse than the alternatives (Build Up, Soul Drain, Focus, etc) when comparing super strength to other attack sets (taking into account that rageless SS has a lower DPS baseline than other sets), then that would demonstrate rage as underperforming. (I don't believe this to be the case.)

I think problems with game balance should be demonstrated with numbers. And that any proposed solutions to these problems should also be demonstrated with numbers. So, in the context of this thread, what is needed: Numerical evidence of rage underperforming vs build up relative to the baseline damage/+tohit of SS vs other melee sets. (Suggest using War Mace for the comparison, as that's the set that Powerhouse has said is the most balanced.) The numbers for the proposed solution, demonstrating clearly how they will close this performance gap.

Regen, Rad Armour, Energy Aura, and Ninjitsu all balance pretty well relative to each other in PvP. Super Reflexes is inferior to Energy Aura and Ninjitsu due to its lack of heal and inferior resists. This is why we're testing out buffs to SR on the test server. To try and address this balance concern, and have another top tier set.

Hi @Ridicc.! Good news - there are some buffs to Super Reflexes already being tested on the beta server. You can read about them in this thread: These are the SR changes we are currently testing: This means that an SR player will have 40% elusivity when Elude is active, compared to an EA or Nijitsu player who will only have 30%.

I've been using the Razer Death Adder 2 since last year. Fits nicely in the hand. Allows me to create macros. So far so good! The RGB/macros on the mouse don't work if you don't install their "synapse" software, though. And that software tries to connect to the internet, constantly. (lol telemetry.) And also activates on startup even if you disable it. Obviously I block it with Simplewall. But...what a world to live in where your mouse is trying to spy on you.

This is due to the tanker DR curves. For comparison's sake - in PvP, My IO'd stone Brute went from 52.23% (live) to 58.38% (brainstorm) after the changes. Vs a 300 DPS opponent that's an extra 18.45HPS. That's huge. The changes to granite on brutes puts the psy res closer to negative energy resistance, which is the ballpark we usually want an exotic damage type to be. More testing needed. So nothing conclusive just yet. But definitely a step in the right direction. (Still not sure if it's a step too far, or not far enough. Testing will tell.)

Yeah tanker DR curves are a bit of a mess. The original idea was that tankers higher HP made up for these lower resistance. But if you look at the mitigation numbers in longer fights, the extra HP that an Invuln tanker has does not make up for the extra res an Invuln brute has. This leads to a weird situation where an invuln tank is both squishier, and does less damage, than an invuln brute. And it's not like we can just change tanker DR curves to match Brutes/Scrappers. Rad armour, bio armour, and the tanker absorb ATO exist, now. How those things work with Tanker HP makes them the tankiest non-click-T9 thing in PvP by far. If the DR curves were changed to improve invuln/elec/granite/etc on tanks...Rad Armour and Bio Armour would become even more unkillable. (As they would also have their res buffed.) It's a tricky one.

Haha like Faultline said, if you want the PvP tweaks in PvE...you have to take PvP Diminishing Returns alongside them! Here's what your resistance would look like after DR is applied: Here's your defense: Here's your recharge: So...goodbye capped res, capped def, perma hasten, perma dom, squishies having higher than ~20% defense (even with inspiration stacking!), etc... Oh! And your mez attacks will only last 3-5s! After that, your mez attacks will suppress for 15s. Oh! And everyone gets held. Even melee classes. And getting held drops your offensive toggles. (Rise to the Challenge, Chilling Embrace, Blazing Aura, etc.) Any takers? -- Slightly more on topic - hoping to test some of the melee changes today sometime. Has been a busy week for me IRL so haven't had a chance to properly jump in. If any PvPer has a psy melee scrapper, hit me up! I want to make sure we're not overtuning/undertuning the Inv/Elec/Granite psy res tweaks vs other exotic damage types (Negative & Energy, mostly).

Hey GP! Glad you've been enjoying the writeups! Feel free to bring a meleer along sometime 😁

RV on Indom is the only PvP zone that sees any action. (And even that's pretty quiet these days.) Arena matches (1v1s, etc) are always at level 50. So I'd suggest just +5ing everything. That's what everyone else does.

For PvP builds just use boosters.

Some players have been entered without providing their lineup.

We do. Most of our feedback comes via the discord, though.