cohRock

I wanted to get a feel for the difference is various armor sets and how they varied by archetype. So I did what any self-respecting nerd would do, and made a spreadsheet: Notes Table is a simplified overview, with most values taken from Mids Reborn. Most armor magnitudes are of the first toggle power, generally provide smash/lethal or melee protection. You cannot judge a full set by the one value displayed. For example, Ice Armor may look weak, but it offers other damage mitigation, such as slowing the recharge of nearby foes, reducing incoming damage. The Regeneration line shows the value reported by Mids for Fast Healing. Hit Point values for each archetype were gathered from within the Galaxy City tutorial. Stalker protection set has to fit in Hide, so adjustments are made to values of other powers. The primary difference between Brute, Scrapper, and Stalker protection values appears to be max hit points. Epic archetypes are not included because their protections are outside the main power sets shown. I understand why tanks do not have Ninjitsu and Regeneration. But is Energy Aura so awesome it would become unbalanced if a tank had it? If you want a copy of the spreadsheet, you can get one at * https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a7EnxZKAx2X4R6kxEOVedfDOSU_ElukuPcSNL810Ahs/edit?usp=sharing

some recent ones: * Botany Boy, Plants/Nature controller * Hydroelectric Dan, Water/Electric blaster * Oddtistic, Mastermind (beast, the autistic kid gets along well with animals) * Water Bubbles, FF/Water defender * Wet Water, Storm/Water defender live classics: * http://r0k.us/rock/games/CoH/HallsOfHeroes/alphaIndex.html

I've started a Robotics/Thermal mastermind. My theory is that they get defensive shielding from their Lts, so I'd complement that with resistive shields. And unlike Sonic, Thermal offers healing (in exchange for no native shielding of yourself, which is offered by both FF and Sonic). Also, Thermal seems to offer a nice set of both buffs and debuffs. I don't plan on soloing missions at +4 difficulty, so hopefully they will prove to be pretty robust. I'll be augmenting the Lt's defensive shielding with Maneuvers. I know it is not a lot of defense, but it's something. What do you-all think of my reasoning and bots/Thermal in general? I am tentatively planning on slotting the Protector Bots with accuracy, heal, defense, and 3 damage. Would you reduce the damage and add more buff-type enhancements?

Am I just blind? I don't see a link to the site, and a search for "COH Directory" has been unproductive.

This wiki has an oversight. When mentioning the taunt aspect, it limits it to "(Brute only)". Weird that they thought tanks would be excluded.

Oh, there it is. I seldom click over from Info to Effects, so I didn't see it. It's strange that Info doesn't mention it, though.

Do you think the in-game description is wrong, or that the goal design was not met (bugged)? You mention CP recharge at 10%. Did you mean 100% (as documented)? Also, with CP's 6-second +recharge window, how do you have time to stack 4 of them?

I don't think they are useless, just very situational. And if you are teamed, especially large team, your allies are likely going to waste a lot of effort on the intangible foe -- even if you tell them. But solo or with one teammate, these powers can be life-savers.

I gathered statistics from Pool Power, who has all elements involved in Fighting Synergy. Level 36 Dark/Willpower Brute Brawl (Acc) 12.72 smashing damage on target +100.00% strength to recharge for 10.00s on target. Ignores buffs and enhancements Special to hit for 10.00s on target. Ignores buffs and enhancements -10.00% regeneration rate for 10.00s on target. Ignores buffs and enhancements -10.00% recovery rate for 10.00s on target. Ignores buffs and enhancements Boxing (Acc/Dmg/Stun) Specialsmashing damage on target (+15% from Kick, +15% from Cross Punch) 10.00% chance for 2.00 magnitude stun for 5.82s(4.32s) on target 35.00% chance for 3.00 magnitude stun for 5.82s(4.32s) on target -2.00% endurance on target. Ignores buffs and enhancements -5.00% recovery rate for 4.00s on target. Ignores buffs and enhancements Kick (Acc/Dmg/Dmg) Special smashing damage on target (+15% from Boxing, +15% from Cross Punch) 15.00% chance for 0.67 magnitude knock on target 40.00% chance for 0.67 magnitude knock on target -3.00% endurance on target. Ignores buffs and enhancements -5.00% recovery rate for 4.00s on target. Ignores buffs and enhancements Cross Punch (Acc/Stun/Dmg/Dmg Effect Area: Cone -- 7.00 ft. radius, 50.00 degree arc (5 targets max) Special smashing damage on target (+15% from Boxing, +15% from Kick) +100.00% strength to recharge for 6.00s on self. Ignores buffs and enhancements, unresistable Special to hit for 6.00s on self. Ignores buffs and enhancements, unresistable 40.00% chance for 0.67 magnitude knock on target 20.00% chance for 3.00 magnitude stun for 8.20s(6.00s) on target after 0.50s delay Sands of Mu (included for cone comparison; not part of Fighting Synergy) Effect Area: Cone -- 7.00 ft. radius, 45.00 degree arc (5 targets max) For some reason, damage does not seem to be documented for any of the Fighting Pool attacks. I don't plan to add more than one damage enhancement to Boxing though, since it's damage is described as "Light" (which is presumably greater than Brawl's "Minor" damage of 12.72). But don't ignore Brawl! It includes 100% recharge for 10 seconds! If you are seeking a route to perma-Hasten, adding a fully synergized Brawl to your attack chain might be what gets you there. Heck, add the 100% recharge for 6 seconds from Cross Punch, and you might not even want Hasten. 🙂

@Hyperstrike thank you. It is not documented in Mids Reborn or the power's general Description. However I see it now in its Detailed Description. Guess I should be careful with Evasion between missions.

As I was playing my level 14 SR/Axe tank, I wondered what power gave him his taunt aura. There appears to be none. Am I just missing it? Are there other tank primaries which lack a taunt aura? If it lacks one, I'm not really complaining, just surprised. I had assumed all tanks had Taunt, gauntlet, and a taunt aura to work together in holding aggro. And my main on live was SR/SS, so I know I'll like this guy.

"He's not bad. He's just drawn that way." -- apologies to Jessica Rabbit 😸

@Chris24601 thank you for info. I already created him, but I'll make the change to his costume at level 10. @Hardship Yes, the head was no problem with spectrum. It is not a mask, but the normal head with a spectrum texture I believe. I do remember that I could use Hooded and spectrum, so it seemed pretty flexible.

Thank you, Dragotect. I found Spectrum for all the main body except Boots. So he's going to do what any Other Dimensioanal Entity would do, and wear cowboy boots.

Actually, I tend to agree with the OP about the current game being too generous. That said, I accept it and don't see it changing unless CoX becomes commercial again. Then many of what we quickly become used to as "freebies" will have to be earned again, or paid for. And I hope some go away, like the ability to instantly change your alignment. With a low population of players, I understand it, but if the playbase grows to the 10s of thousands again, there really should be some sort of barrier between being a hero or villain or whatever. The alignment system still works fine, and during the weekend, I used it to convert a villain to rogue. Sure it takes a little work and time, but now I feel the character earned his roguehood.

Darn it! I know I've seen an option, thought it was a Costume Set, that made your character appear in a single-color silhouette, almost a bright, saturated, standing shadow. Now I cannot find it when wanting to create a character with that look. How do I access it? I love the flexibility of our costume creator. Conversely, though, the sheer number of options makes one feel like they are drowning at times.

My guy is a 35 psy/willpower sentinel. Was running Unity Plague Arc with a team of 6. Diff set to +3 because arc capped at 34. We had a great mix of powers. This allowed my guy to feel really powerful. Scenario large group of devouring earth all my armors up tank runs in and others start attacking I activate Aim and run in PBAoE Psychic Wail TargAoE Psionic Tornado back up and use cone Psychic Scream Result most foes dead (with significant contribution from others, yes) my guy barely damaged I'm sure a psychic blaster would have done more damage, but it felt pretty darn powerful to me. And I could run into the center of crowds with little to no concern of damage, mez, or knockback. The one negative in the arc is the series of go-talk-tos just before finale mission. Team leader has to speak with the signature heroes in zones Atlas thru Founders Falls (I think there were 8 ) while rest of team has to wait.

Realizing that both Staff Fighting and Bio Armor have 3 forms each, I am probably going to make such an alt. So now I have to decide do I want to make him a tank, scrapper, or brute. (He won't be Stalker, because Stalkers don't get the 3 staff forms. It could be a great character overall, but I want the 9 form combos.) I already have a rad/bio brute, thus he will probably be tank or scrapper. Any opinions on which? If you have experience with these 2 power sets together, did you see particular pairs of forms which seemed superior? Pairs you would never use together? Bio Efficient: additional regeneration and recover, no cost in damage nor protection Defensive: focus on protection with minor cost to damage Offensive: focus on damage with minor cost to protection Staff (all forms build Perfection, and all uses of Perfection will add extra damage of one type or another) Form of Body: slightly greater damage; Perfection's use either lowers foe damage or increases your resistance Form of Mind: boosts recharge slightly; Perfection's use either slows target or provides a toHit buff Form of Soul: endurance discount; Perfection's use either reduces defense to foe or grants short buff to regen and recovery I can see either doubling down on one form of boost or another, or choosing a complementary pairing. It should be interesting to experiment and see if he can really notice the difference. I've experienced that on large teams, very little of what you do can be analyzed -- too much is going on during battle. But solo or small team, you can better judge what is working best.

It took me a while to get my head around what Absorption is. I view it now as temporary but absolute defense to all damage types. E.g., you are granted 1000 points of Absorption (temporary hit points). You are hit for 100 damage. Damage is then subtracted from the Absorption layer instead of your real hit points. This protection lasts until it either times out or is used up. This differs from having your max hit points raised. If you suffer damage, you can re-heal back to the higher cap. With Absorption, the points are gone. Assuming I understand Absorption correctly, I still have a question. Is Absorption acting as underwear (beneath your armor) or coveralls (above it)? If above, then all 100 points of that attack get subtracted from your Absorption count. If beneath, your Resistance to that damage type kicks in first. If you have 30% Resist, then only 70 points get subtracted. If you lack damage resistance to that damage type, the point is moot, and all 100 points get subtracted no matter the layer.

Storm Illusionists have three stealth powers available -- Steamy Mist, Superior Invisibility, and Group Invisibility. I know my character will be taking Steamy Mist, which Mids indicates is mutually exclusive with Superior Invisibility. Only one can be running at a time. It will be a tight build, so I am considering skipping both invisibility powers. The extra benefits of Steamy Mist seem too useful to be substituted out. Would you skip Superior and Group Invisibility?

There is one change I have very mixed feelings about -- insta-change alignment. The positive side of that is that with a much smaller population than when the game was live, players can team anywhere. Hero/Villain/etc. doesn't matter. But the not mattering is the negative -- Why bother with alignments at all when they literally do not matter any more? So if CoH ever becomes legit and the population grows, my opinion is that this feature should be removed. And yes, my tanks and butes take Taunt. Not taking it is like a stalker not taking their signature assassin move. It is who you are!

In a now-closed thread, @Crashen wrote: So far, even without Cross Punch yet, I agree. You failed to mention one element of the Fighting Synergy, though -- Brawl. It apparently is not additive to the Fighting Pool attacks, but they are additive to it. While its damage is not improved, consider: with Boxing or Kick, reduces the targets attack speed and chance to hit for 10 seconds with both Boxing and Kick, these effects increase with Cross Punch, it will reduce the targets regeneration and recovery for 10 seconds I first learned about this Synergy two days ago, and built a brute to test it out. So far I'm surprised, and expect to be even more impressed with her next power, Cross Punch. I sort of wish I had made a Sentinel instead, since the Brute already focuses on melee attacks. My logic at the time was I'd be trading out melee attacks for melee attacks, and I didn't want to trade out the ranged attacks of a Sentinel. But when the brute build is done, she'll have all the Dark Melee attacks except Shadow Punch and Shadow Maul. I could have traded-out two attacks of a Sentinel instead.

Most of you probably already know this, but sometimes I'm slow. It occurred to me over the weekend, wondering if I should choose Natural Origin for a new Character. Superman is a natural hero! He's not magic, he's not science, he's not a mutant, and his powers don't derive from technology. He just happens to not be from around here, and as a consequence gets a lot more out of the Sun than the rest of us. Conclusion: I made an inner-Earther with "powers" a Natural hero.

@Frosticus, It appears you are telling me that I'm focused on the wrong thing. Instead of the debuff aspect of Smoke Flash (emphasized in its description), consider the buff aspect, which is the 12 seconds or so a ninja gains of critical hits. It is certainly an aspect worth thinking about. I know the Cold Armor set allows essentially unlimited endurance via Energy Absorption (60 sec base recharge), but the closest I see in Cold Domination is Heat Loss (360 sec base recharge). I'm wondering if you were confused, or Cold Dom. offers some other method of +Recovery or lowering of endurance cost. @kelika2, Yes, granting a short term temporary ability, and having the ninja use it at max effectiveness, are two different things. As I understand the placate mechanic, foes would only stop attacking the one ninja and still have free rein to attack everyone else. I may have to play with it, though, to see if the +crit bonus works out as Frosticus points out.

Thank you for pointing out that Repair has a function not covered by healing. Still, with a 120s base recharge and its single-target effect, I'm not sure the +end is worth it.