DrInfernus

Personally, I go with ranged defence primarily on my blasters. There are two real reasons for that: 1) My playstyle is to stay at range as much as possible 2) The vast majority of mez powers are ranged and need to hit you, so ranged defence cap means only 5% of them will. It’s a good way to plug the mez hole. However, it’s pretty much impossible to be a DP/Martial ranged blaster, so on that build I’d go Mace Mastery and try to get S/L/E/R defence cap. Don’t think I’d worry about resistance too much.

I’ve got no rants about the latest patch. I see nothing to get upset about and plenty of stuff to like. I do want to have a rant and rave, though. I get to play my favourite game again - for free - within a thriving community of like-minded people and skilful players, the vast majority of which enhance my experience of the game. I am able to do that because of the efforts and dedication of the Homecoming team who gave me back my online home. Yes, there are other private servers, but it’s here where the community is. What they have built here, or rebuilt, is special. So if I want to rant and rave about anything, it’s the fact that their work is subjected to rants and raves. A few years ago, we had cause to rant and rave. We were ranting and raving about the actual death of our game; about the total abandonment by NCSoft of not only City of Heroes, but the CoH community, and long before its time. Compared to that, who cares if your scrapper snipes don’t have as much range as they once did, your rune of protection is available a little less, or you have to do a few respecs? I haven’t liked everything the devs have done - and haven’t done (Sentinels being left out on a limb and seemingly abandoned, for example) - but I won’t be ranting or raving about any of it. I’ll just continue to play the game I love with nothing but absolute gratitude to those who have resurrected it and continue to try to improve it.

I’ve got one of these too. Great fun. I went with Energy secondary so boost range could increase the arc of the cones.

It depends really on what you’re going to want to be doing Solo. If you’re wanting to do >x4, then primaries with solid AoE soft controls would likely be best, such as Dark Blast or Water Blast. Then pair that with one of the more survivable secondaries such as /Ice or /Temp. If you’re wanting to just run through content at <x4 you’re probably better off with the stronger single target damage sets like Fire Blast or Ice Blast, and pair it with a good self buffing set like /Energy. From my own personal experience, my Fire/NRG is great solo. He can handle x8, but it’s just a bit messy without any soft controls at all. On the other hand, he can Solo any AV in the game in about 3 mins or less, so he’s got that powerful feel to him. But ultimately, any blaster built well these days can solo better than fine.

I always respec at level 50. Always a big difference for me between the ‘levelling’ build and the end-game build. My 3-4 ‘mains’ sometimes get a respec or two after that too. Customarily I’ll look at their build again in Mids with fresh eyes every few months (even if I’m happy with it) and alway - always - find ways to improve it. It’s just the benefit of experience I suppose.

May well drop by. Got a red side Tank on Everlasting who is quite lonely.

It’s easier to make a survivable blaster than a damage-dealing Sentinel. I like Sentinels. They get the best versions of Beam Rifle, Electric Blast, Regen, and Super Reflexes. They get quicker recharge nukes than other ATs. They solo great, they feel tough. For me personally, though, there are just too many compromises. Their damage is too lacklustre, and the AoE cap just too low. They might feel tough, but they don’t feel strong.

I hope it wasn’t anything too serious 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤒

I absolutely love defenders but I find expectations on you from teams can vary massively. There seems no consensus on what defenders are specifically for and what they should be. For the most of the rest it’s generally simple: Tanks/Brutes: Take alpha Scrapper/Blaster/Stalker: Deal damage Controller/Dom: Lock them down But what about defenders? Heal? Buff? Debuff? Damage multiplication? Take full responsibility for a team’s green bars? I’ve had expectations of them all depending on which character I’m actually playing, sometimes by any of compliments for what I can do and sometimes criticism for what I can’t do. I’ve always considered defending to be all about simply making a team greater than the sum of its parts, in any way you can depending on your power set. So my questions are: 1) Do you agree with that, or is there something more specific to it? and 2) Based on your experiences in-game, do you think the wider CoX community share a common definition and expectation of defenders?

My Altitis is a mere audition process. I want one top performing character for three roles: A damage dealer, support, and a meat shield. Currently they are: Damage Dealer: Fire/EM blaster Support: Cold/water defender Meat Shield: SS/Invul brute My time in game is split between playing those three and levelling other combos and characters. If I find one I like more, they knock one off the above roster and take their place. I do try to give a new 50 that I THINK I love, or could love, a 1000-merit road test though. I’ll know for sure after 1000 merits of content.

I tried this tonight. Normally I’d log in and entertain myself until I saw something forming on the LFG channel and try to join it. Tonight, I logged in, decided what I wanted to do, then formed it myself. Ended up doing the three TFs I needed to get TF Commander, all of which I’d formed, undoubtedly helped others get stuff they needed too, and had a blast with some really fun people as I did. Highly recommended.

You keep on claiming you’re talking ‘for the overwhelming majority’ but it’s important you accept you’re only talking for yourself. That’s all any of us can do and, to be honest, it’s enough. Your opinion is you don’t like the combat system. Absolutely fair enough. My opinion is the combat system is really good and I enjoy it immensely. Neither of our opinions are worth any more than each other’s, and no matter how much you try to amplify yours and undermine any alternative view, that won’t change. Please stop talking down to us like you’re some kind of singular truth-seeing guru and voice of the masses. You’re not. Period.

I’m currently playing Beam/Dev (lvl 28 atm) and this is exactly what I’ve done. Targeting Drone and the sustain/stealth power is all I’ve taken from Dev, and I plan on taking the tier nine too. I’m loving it, I have to say. I did the same with Doc Infernus, who’s a Fire/Em blaster. Just took the many self buffs from EM and left the melee attacks so I could stay at range. All powers are options, ultimately. No more, no less.

I definitely don’t team as much as I used to but that’s just me. Back on live I had a huge global friends list and great SG who were all very close. On HC I have none of those things tbh. In fact I’m a literal Billy-no-mates when it comes to my global friends list now. That said, it’s probably more down to how much I’ve changed in the last 12 years than how CoH has. I was a young man back then, confident, brash, single, loud, loved attention. Now I’m a mild-mannered middle-aged divorced English bloke with kids, and I’m just not as outgoing as I used to be. Think it’s quite easy to blame the game and/or community for changing, but it’s been such a long time since CoH started and finished that it’s an unavoidable fact that we have probably changed as people far more than it has.

In the past, yes. However, since attuned enhancements you tend to keep enough global recharge bonuses to keep yourself going no matter what.

Never have, don’t think I ever will. I build for recharge more often than not so find you can only use so many powers before others become completely obsolete and better filled by concept/utility/mules etc.

Think fully IO’d incarnates who can solo 54/x8 like to show off and <50s like the xp, so everyone is happy I guess. I’ve been in both camps so not going to judge.

I’ve found joy in all ATs except two: Masterminds: I want to play the game. I don’t just want to manage AI bots while they play it. So so dull. Scrappers: They just bore me with their wholly unsophisticated playstyle. There’s no skill to scrapping that I’ve ever been able to identify so it’s tough to gain any real pride from it. Just a whole AT completely devoid of any finesse.

Think it’d be nice if, instead of taking an epic power pool, you could choose to take a fifth standard one.

I teamed with these guys on a Faathim TF last night and got to say they were great. Really fun and absolutely welcoming. Not in their SG myself but can’t recommend them highly enough. Some of the absolutely most enjoyable teaming I’ve had on CoX, whether it was Live or Homecoming.

I have a fire/SR Sentinel. Love him. Well, LOVED him. Then I took Psi Mastery epic for the much needed procced damage boost from Dominate. It ruined him for me. Can’t go back to lower damage as the Sentinel REALLY needs the boost, and can’t remake him as a Psi/SR/Psi (I tried) because Psi blast animations just felt glacial to me. Honestly, it’s maddening!!

I don’t know if it’s an OCD thing or what, but I have always found myself a complete slave to the thematic in CoX. Fire/Fire, ice/cold, elec/storm, archery/TA, ss/invul, that kind of thing. That very much extends to epic power pools too. I just couldn’t even fathom playing a non-thematic build, and I know because I’ve tried! Is anyone else like that or am I just one lonely loon in a prison of self-restraint?

But no one would be forced to GO to both sides, would they? If you wanted to stay in the Rogue Isles as a villain, no one would force you to go to Paragon City. If you’re a hero happy in Paragon, you can stay there too. What you’re talking about isn’t forcing people ti do anything, you’re talking about denying people something. And as for roles... Joker and Batman share Gotham. Lex Luthor and Superman share Metropolis. Spider-man and Green Goblin share New York. There are AVs in Paragon City already and there are Heroes in the RI. So if AI-controlled Heroes can go to the Rogue Isles, why can’t player controlled ones go too? I just don’t get the argument FOR continued segregation. I really don’t.

Good lord, I certainly wouldn’t want to start one of those! Merely feel it important to challenge a conclusion based on any premise that comic book culture is binary. A huge part of CoX has always been the potential for true individuality. That should extend, as much as possible, to a character’s motivations as much as it does their look and powers. In my opinion at least.