Ironblade

I had someone mention an idea for this exact situation, though probably not practical since you're using 'off the shelf' forum software. I was at PAX East, talking with a friend who is a professional forum moderator on a big-name game and he was talking about ways to address this exact issue - ways to have the community feel more engaged without costing additional developer time. His thought (which he suggested to management - no idea if it can/will be implemented) was to have the forum software show that an individual post was read by a particular dev. Even if the dev doesn't have time to reply, the person who posted has the positive feedback that one of the developers actually read their post.

I originally wanted to name him 'Hand to Hand Wombat' but that was too long. Even Hand2Hand Wombat was too long. And he wasn't actually a wombat. He was lost in the wilderness as a child and RAISED by wombats - in the Pacific Northwest, but that's a whole 'nother story.

You say that the viable support sets are limited and that only two are common in endgame content, yet the recent stats post shows that Empathy is BY FAR the most popular defender primary. Radiation is 3rd and Cold Domination is TENTH. I think the community disagrees with your analysis. Yes, I recognize that those stats are not specifically level 50 or incarnate builds, but I still think those numbers are very telling. I strongly oppose this idea. Management by committee is generally an absolute train wreck in any context, game development included. We have suggestions threads - sometimes initiated by the devs to get our input. Also, we have the beta server to evaluate new content and provide feedback. These things work. Letting the inmates run the asylum is a horrible idea.

Well, there's annoying annoying and funny annoying. I think my sonic defender, named Mr. Shouty, was funny annoying BECAUSE HE ONLY SPOKE IN ALL CAPS!

I don't recall ever deleting a character because it wasn't fun to play. The only one I can recall deleting was because his powers didn't quite match his name. I made a claws/SR scrapper named Unarmed Wombat. He was in the early 20's when someone said, "Well, he's not really 'Unarmed', is he?" Had to delete him and remake him as martial arts/SR.

When I first downloaded the game (in 2005), my connection was very slow so I had time to read the manual while the game downloaded. I concluded that a scrapper with Regeneration secondary would be good to keep me alive while I learned how to play. I made a Broadsword/Regen scrapper named Ironblade and he became my favorite character. The only complaint I sometimes hear about Regen is that's it's a bit 'clicky'. If you don't want to be clicking powers to stay alive, I would recommend Willpower. It's a great set for 'cruise control survival'. I have not played it on a scrapper, but it's fantastic on a tank. I think if you start with a scrapper or brute, you should be satisfied. You can go with a tank for even better survivability, but significantly reduced damage output. Not necessarily a bad thing - I took every tank defense set to level 50 (and Invulnerability to 50 three times).

But what if regen is *THE* element of the build? I reference my invuln tank with +360% regen. It was amazing. Personally, I'll put the Performance Shifter proc in most builds. If I'm doing a build where I use all or most of each IO set, that typically puts in a decent amount of END reduction. The problems occur with some sets that really use END because they run a lot of toggles (e.g. Dark Armor) or their powers just recharge fast (my Fire corrupter uses a lot of END). Another issue is if I'm building for a lot of +recharge like on my stone/stone tank or my earth/rad controller (perma Hasten and perma AM). The tank's END is fine when he's running Granite but that's less than 5% of the time. The rest of the time he's running a ton of toggles and his powers recharge really fast. For these guys, I had to do serious recovery boosting. They have EVERY proc to boost recovery plus whatever set bonuses I could squeeze in without compromising other things too much. Also worth noting: the Perf Shifter proc is NOT a unique. Everyone has the Stamina power. If you also have Quick Recovery, Physical Perfection, etc, you can slot more than one proc (my stone tank has two). The Numina, Miracle, etc, procs *ARE* uniques.

For me, there is no 'next'. I enjoy playing the game and teaming with other players. That's what I'm here for. My play style now is pretty much identical to years past on live. I have a favorite character (Ironblade) who gets played about as much as all others combined. Then I have a handful of other characters that I am leveling up toward 50. When one hits 50, I'll usually play them a bit less and create a new character to level up. Eventually, I end up with a whole stable of high level characters that I can use whenever a need arises for a particular AT or powerset.

No, I would not like to see Statesman return. I have two reasons. 1) He died. I simply HATE it when a book/movie/comic/whatever kills a character and then decides to rewrite the past. I hate that. 2) He feels to me like a symbol of the game when it was run by a company we don't like.

Well, no one should feel guilty about playing a PL'ed character. It's a matter of personal preference. Personally, I don't see the point. I'm here to play. Back when the game was live, I took 37 characters to level 50 with no PL'ing or farming. Not because those things are wrong or bad, but because they simply don't appeal to *ME*.

Conveniently, my scrapper is my only 50 so far so that's who I would be bringing at first. I'm also bringing up a tank, controller and corrupter. Thank you very much for the information.

Questions to Veracor or Elmyder. (Posting publicly rather than via DM since the response might be helpful to others). I have never done the current format of the raid (old format, I had an ill/kin and also did lead tank). I have started stockpiling EoE's by buying them cheap off the market and have read two Hami guides on the forums (also I have done the Lady Grey TF version numerous times). Currently, I have only one 50 but have several AT's getting close to 50 that I picked based on what's useful in iTrials. So...... 1. How many EoE's should I have? 2. What AT (if any) are you typically short of? 3. Have either of you written a guide or is there a guide you particularly recommend?

If you're high enough level and in a hurry, just go to Ouroboros and run the 4th Striga arc - Lars Hansen's arc.

Rather than using that site, which exists simply by ripping off other sites and servers up sketchy ads, I would suggest you go to the ORIGINAL SOURCE which was created by players of the game. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/The_Incomplete_and_Unofficial_Guide_to_/bind

Damn right it is. My empathy defender has 'soloed' many difficult enemies. A Shivan or Vanguard Heavy with Fortitude and infinite hit points is terrifying. 🙂

Absolutely it should be in your regular attack chain because, like most Dark Melee attacks, it debuffs enemy accuracy. Regarding Sands of Mu, I can't support buffing it. I think it's already a fantastic power. At low levels, it does a hell of a lot of damage for a free power. At higher levels, some of my characters will continue to use it on tightly packed groups if, and only if, their build includes a lot of overall accuracy buff. Since it can't be enhanced, Sands of Mu misses too often unless you have Tactics or something else to help it hit.

I haven't been down there in ages, but ParagonWiki says: "In Grandville deep in the tunnels under the zone at coordinates 2420, -672, -1200, can be found a Developer's Dungeon, with cubes for most of the design team. The nearest entry to the tunnels is at 3335, -545, 1046. "

I've played Civ IV, V and VI but really never played them solo very much. I usually play on the weekends with my brother and his family.

I hear you. Back when the game was live, I had a job that was 8AM to 4PM never needing overtime. I had a short commute, so was typically home by 4:15. I track my gaming time and found I sometimes spent more time in a week playing CoH than I did at work (40 hours). Of course, back then, this was the only game I played. I was in several high-profile SG's, ran a coalition of SG's of my own and ran task forces and trials on Saturdays with open sign-up on the forums. Now, I'm retired and my girlfriend is typically at the office until 7PM. I have a lot of free time. I haven't jumped back into CoH too much since I'm waiting to see if the game either gets shut down or becomes legit. I tend to get asked, "How come you hardly watch tv or movies any more?" "Um, because I find it very passive and boring compared to gaming."

If brute force doesn't work, you're not using enough of it.

Firstly, I've only been recreating characters I had on live so I already know what kind of +recovery or type of defense they might need. I had 37 50's so it's probably going to be a while before I create any 'new' characters. For a powerset I'm not familiar with, there will be some experimentation and respec'ing as they level up. If a character is going to need +recovery, stealth, -KNB, +3% defense unique or something like those, I'll slot it as early as possible. After that, I start slotting sets around level 32 (level 35 IO's). For the overwhelming majority of my characters, these will never get replaced. I think I only ever had 2 characters that I respec'ed at 50 to fully optimize their builds - my main, Ironblade, and a dominator. By the time I get to around level 40, I have *ALL* the IO's I will need for the final build sitting in my trays waiting to be slotted as I level up. In my experience, this gives me pretty good builds and really doesn't involve much effort or investment. I only worry about absolutely mix/maxing my main (who is currently vet level 29 - he gets played a lot). As for what IO's to slot, don't overlook frankenslotting. Sometimes it's super effective and super cheap. For example, +regen is generally the first bonus in a set that offers it. I had an invuln tank with +360% regen. That amount of regen on tank hit points with Dull Pain is just brutal. And it was dirt cheap. I'm pretty sure that build only cost me 80-100 million back on live - it would be much less now. My average build back then was 200-300 million. Ironblade's build cost me around a billion but was worth more like 4 billion at the high point of the market. My opinion is that you can get about 3/4 of optimum character performance for a pittance and that's really all you need unless it's going to be one of your main characters.

Yep. I've been on teams that did it with zero holds and it's a pain. Even worse than the Kahn TF that was all DPS with no tanks or brutes.

Sorry for not doing my part. Back on live, I had 4 catgirls. So far, I have recreated only one.

I'm pretty sure there is no limit on shards or threads. There are definitely limits on incarnate merits as noted in the iTrial summary here: https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Incarnate_Trial