cohRock

... except, egos being what they are, he/she/it would want to be called "Mapmaster"!

Heh, I've been ignorant, and did not know there even was movement suppression (MS). Because of endurance concerns, my characters never use full travel powers during missions. (Well, I will occasionally Sprint to catch up to team if they are ahead of me for some reason.) So Fly, Super Speed, or Super Jump are used between missions, while Combat Jumping or Hover are used within them. So the effect MS has had on me has been nil, and it would not matter to me if it were kept or removed.

Thanks, Bopper. I forgot to say that my run speed numbers included Swift but not Sprint, which adds another 14.32 mph to run speed (69.91 mph total). It also adds 0.40 feet to jump height. These are base values because I have Sprint slotted with a Celerity:Stealth. You're right about a Blessings of the Zephyr IO. Why just buff jump height when I could buff Run Speed as well?

Thank you for the feedback, folks. I have Infiltration three-slotted now: Attuned Winter's Gift: <travel>, endurance Attuned Winter's Gift: <travel> Jump: lvl 30 generic IO I bought the two Winter's Gift IOs at Wentworths for a little over 2 Mil apiece, but it pays off. The set bonus is 3.75% resist to fire/cold. My Ice/Ice guy doesn't really need any more Cold resistance, but the fire resist is welcome. The movement increases are: Run Spd: 34.52 mph (55.59 mph total) Jump Spd: 40.75 mph (78.18 mph total, capped) Jump Hgt: 57.78 feet (70.77 feet total) End Cost: 0.37 end/sec Also, the unbuffed defense is 1.75%. He is currently level 30, and these attuned values will go up slightly as he levels. It is still no Super Jump, but he may end up skipping SJ. I will likely end up replacing the Jump IO with LotG:Recharge, but I'm tempted not to.

I finally got around to giving a character the Concealment:Infiltration power. While it is not as powerful or quick as Fly or Super Jump, it is, unslotted, 10% better than the free prestige run+highHurdle powers (Beast, Ninja, and Athletic). It can be slotted with run, jump, and defense enhancements, and of course end reduction. So when run and jump enhancements are added, it performs significantly better than the mentioned prestige run powers. Note that the endurance cost of Infiltration is slightly less as well, 0.46 end/sec vs 0.57 end/sec. After respeccing my Ice/Ice Sentinel to give him Infiltration and adding slots for run and jump, I found it fairly useful. Later in the build I plan to give him Super Jump as well, but the defense and stealth from Infiltration are a very nice bonus. He also placed a celerity:stealth enhancement in Sprint, which increases the 35 ft radius of Infiltration to 65 feet while Sprint is on. Since he also took the Concealment:Stealth power, he can have a 55+30 foot radius during missions. Note that Stealth and Infiltration are mutually exclusive. When one is toggled on, the other goes off. Since both have very fast recharge, and one is for outside missions and one inside, the mutual exclusion poses no problem. Now that I've had some time to think about it, he'll eventually 3-slot Infiltration. One slot will be "defense" with an LotG 7.5% recharge proc. The other two will be one of the universal travel sets, Winter's Gift or Blessings of the Zephyr. He only would slot two of the three; an Ice Armor Sentinel needs neither additional slow resistance nor knockback protection. One of the enhancements would be full-power buff of both run and jump, while the second would further buff those as, well as add some end reduction.

@Bopper That would be workable, but the link might be more obvious.

I've been using the forums for two years, and I just realized the other day there are general posts below the long Sub Forums section of the Archetype forum. (I can be an idiot, I know.) There might be other people who don't realize there are cross-archetype posts below that section. I suggest adding a link just prior to the Sub Forums section pointing to just below it, so it will be obvious to my fellow knuckleheads that they can post more general archetype questions there. You might need to add a title just above the first post, so that the link has a steady target. It could be something like, Cross-Archetype Posts.

I plan on eventually getting both sentinel-specific sets in their full form (6 enhancements, brought superior). Currently just have 5 of Opportunity Strikes and 4 Catalysts, so I'll upgrade that one when I have 6 of each. My first Sentinel's Ward enhancement will be the proc, like you say, free absorb sure won't hurt. His Willpower is very effective and is buffed by two 3% global defense procs, the 5% resist proc,and the 3% plus (up to 13%, I think) scaling resist proc. So he has less worries about the RNG declaring him dead at random points. But still, free is free. 🙂 And it will go in Psychic Wail, his tier 9 PBAoE, so the proc will affect a lot of foes at once, at the exact point when he has drawn max attention to himself. Yeah, I think I'll like that.

Thank you everyone for the info. I had thought that Opportunity Strikes! would be more direct. It's more of an "opportunity available soon, maybe now." It is curious that the whole team is informed that this fired. Would I care if I saw a teammate received it? I don't think so.

My psi/will Sentinel is slotting the Opportunity Strikes archetype-specific set in his cone attack, Psychic Scream. He'll eventually have the set 6-slotted and every element upgraded to its superior version. The first element he slotted was the set's proc. When it goes off, big red text scrolls up from the center of the screen, "Opportunity Strikes!" I'm pretty sure that one of the things causing it to trigger is how many foes have been hit by that attack, because when he's hitting lots of foes at once, it can trigger consecutively. For one or two foes at a time, I might fire the attack 5 or 6 times before it triggers again. So being in a cone (or some sort of AoE) is advantageous. Now that's great and all, but now I must profess my ignorance. I don't really know what it does when it triggers, nor to how many foes at once. When normal Opportunity is triggered from the first or second attacks of the primary set, a targeting circle appears beneath the affected foe. But with the proc, there is (are) no red circle(s), even when just one foe was hit by the attack. Was everyone damaged by the cone on that triggering event affected? Which effect(s) is/are applied, -def, -res, or +dmg? How long does the effect last? Can it stack on itself? Is the effect consistent or affecting each foe randomly? Will the effect be enhanced when the proc becomes superior?

I'm playing a level 47 psi/will sentinel named Headroom. (His brain is visible in a big jar above his shoulders.) He's in a mission fighting Crey. He approaches Security Chief Owen, who says to his men: His desire was not met, but it's nice to be wanted. 🙂

We pretty much all know that Enhancement Diversification (ED) begins limiting the effectiveness of enhancements beyond two of the same type in a single slot. For the most part, this means putting more than three damage enhancements, say, in a single power is a waste. One case of global enhancements is via the Incarnate Alpha Slot. Since this is effectively like sticking a level 50 SO in every power the alpha buffs, I'm pretty sure that its effectiveness is also limited by ED. More general global boosts exist, such as toHit from Tactics and damage from Assault. Enhancement Set bonuses offer many global boosts as well. My guess is that these buffs are not limited by ED. Is this correct? A related case concerns prestige attacks such as Sands of Mu. If your character has global accuracy, toHit, recharge, and/or damage, I believe the effectiveness of Sands is boosted, right?

None of my characters ever soloed a task force before today. I did Positron 1. It took about 100 minutes, and he died twice. The blaster is seismic/plant. I'm posting here rather than the blaster forum because most archetypes may be able to do this. It's not as hard as you might think. I'll note that Posi 1 does not have an AV, however. Here are some of the things I learned: Since the TF started at level 11, it remained 11 to the end, although my guy was able to buy level 15 DOs once he reached level 12. Throughout the first mission, he was unslotted. He could train and slot normally, and effectively reached level 14 by the end. He was at +25% extra xp. He ran the TF at 0 difficulty. The first two missions were +2 foes, but he went to +1 after that, mainly to speed things up. At level 11 and low difficulty, there were no Circle of Thorns spirits, neither the small nor big ones. I hate those because they really mess with one's ability to hit foes. There were a few madness mages throughout, as well as eidelons and the big boss clockwork. At +1 foes, there were never more than 3 foes in a group. Running a TF by yourself gives you time to read clues and understand fully what is going on. With big teams, things move so fast, one cannot absorb the underlying story. This is not something I plan to do a lot. I'm not sure if a mid-teens blaster could take down the AV at the end of most TFs. But now I've done something I never did before.

Part of the issue is simply expectations. If you believe that any tank or brute should be able to solo a +4*8 mission or farm, then yeah, regen is weak. If you believe such a concept it sort of silly on its face, then other protection sets are over-powered. I'm sort of in the middle. A sweet spot for a well developed brute or tank to solo might be better thought of as +2*5. Or maybe +2*7 for a tank -- it would just take him forever. Note that a 50+3 brute or tank doing incarnate content is running +4 missions that are actually just +1 to themself. So Dark Astoria missions, for example, might be a place where we are already at a sweet spot.

Verified correct. At level 32, he achieved full access to all 200 feet of his stealth radius.

I can't say it is one of the worst, but it fails in the "bang for the buck" rating -- Acrobatics. For 0.26 end/sec, it offers: 7 points of knockback protection 2 points of hold protection 48.44% hold resistance Armor sets offer significantly more types of mez protection at a cheaper end cost. I don't expect a pool power to be so thorough, but either the end cost should be lowered or it should offer minor other buffs as well. Historically, Acrobatics had a larger purpose. Prior to the introduction of sets, it was the only general way to protect someone from knockback if their native power sets did not offer the protection. For example, without Acrobatics, Fiery Aura tanks and scrappers would often be blown off their own Burn patches, and the foes followed them out. I.e., without Acrobatics, Burn was awkward to use at best. That all said, in the present time, we have sets. These offer knockback protection via set bonuses, and now Acrobatics is one of the least chosen powers because it was not modified to match the new reality.

Is ill/time so unpopular that no one is interested? Have I mastered a perfect build, and everyone is too awed to respond? 😉 Or is my post too odd to bother with? BTW, I didn't mention Superior Invisibility before. It is awesome. He took it at level 8, and his nominal 200-foot stealth radius was capped at 80 feet. The cap has been growing by 5 feet/level, and at level 22, it is now 150 feet. I haven't tested it yet, but I've been told that's enough that even snipers won't see him.

The 5 ft/level adds have continued apace. He is level 22 now, with an active 150-foot stealth radius. He's ahead of those lame snipers now, with their puny 149 feet. 🙂

Master Perusalist is currently a level 12 illusion/time controller. This is the first of 90 characters to take powers from the Experimentation Pool. Let's just say he won't be "damage forward". Be that as it may, perhaps he could eventually become a powerful asset to most teams. What do you think? I'll post a preliminary build below for anyone wanting to examine the down&dirty, but here is a summary of some of my design decisions. bypass Spectral Wounds and take Toxic Dart instead. It does 25% more damage, and its damage doesn't vanish after 10 seconds. bypass Maneuvers and Tactics, instead depending on Farsight to buff our defense, toHit, and perception. An upside is that its defense is significantly stronger than Maneuvers. This choice also removes the end load of those two toggles. Downside is that not allies will always be buffed; just those within 25 feet of me when it goes off every two minutes. bypass Time's Juncture. This is an expensive debuff aura toggle, but between Phantom Army and Spectral Terror, my hope is that it won't matter that foes have their normal recharge, toHit, and damage. They'll be too busy either shaking in their boots or shooting at foes they can't hurt. buffing an ally with Temporal Selection and Experimental Injection should make even a squishy into a frontline power-house buff self recharge with Hasten, Adrenal Booster, and Chrono Shift, as well as various procs and set bonuses buff ally recharge with Temporal Selection and Chrono Shift minimize end load by only having the battle toggles of Hover, Superior Invisibility, and Mind Over Body self protection via Mind Over Body, Indomitable Will, Farsight, and Superior Invisibility, as well as the procs for extra global defense (6% extra) and global resistance (8-18% extra, depending on current health) Any suggestions and contrary ideas welcome. | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1424;611;1222;HEX;| |78DA5D535B6EDA40141D83290192865702219837856030211BA8D434ADA2961629F| |947169D24965C1BD9464A3EBB91BE9BFE75115D41BB903EA42E80DE30C7BC2CD0B1| |EF9C73EE9D7B67FAD78F37BF3D7DF39049F1635377DDE1B16D798E6D9ADC09F5F54| |B63C4E849F475D7E34E69C09D89AB9B86EB85295A5D507D95766A9A13D7B02D3F50| |5EE23C9A5C5C68E7C66B3EECEB96319E98BA47CCC4A975C51D6E799AFF121BD8E4F| |4C4342EAFBCE4ECFD9C9B7C6C3BDE4C909E854EAEC7DC212F4B04A3B3E0D998F357| |E993B131D206775518A3A1A8FC264BF596E9FF5E6278A632CB1128320BD405DE530| |436802DE0DBF45C23F91AB92BF01DAD49F093CAF053C1A9C117980546A87941A109| |04A1A95605F60A02EBC4092167083937E0FB8912862591330CFD06740D60EB1F654| |8C9ACF34CE007AA3302BF087CBAA8E7458BB198580BC6B0B6E96369B5F697C4DD02| |770B75DD5756B106FC4839B7B1CF6DD49944DFBAE8F917DA47027E09F825D5D5FE7| |7FC7D935F0A7E2970D3584BC3AF427DDB0167076BBB6B18234E467058067DBFA53A| |F6A0DB83770E35E7A0FB4CF9F70527B48FB53CD6F2E87B01DF657CD78E049E51DF1| |4F82BEA2AB700CE57AAA108FF226A28214F09DC127A525EC31F34E60AFA58F1CF94| |BA8A35D4744BFBA8E3CCD6C17DA0AE21E6DDC0FC7F927F1367AE09CD417B0D8F881| |4A1796524315BCAA3A22615FB6943DB469E76116785241AB81AB85D600FDC1E66FC| |9D7A7988F91DC28F7EFE1D9DE617EF6C765FB3327BBE1CEB08CD409EDF5D26619FB| |FA20CC105EFF772AC29627F16B10043AFA2C038F0EF3207FE51601C38BD7BD8EEFC| |404EFF03815FB566| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

I enjoy playing CoH a lot. The advantages of it being a well-run commercial game is updates on a regular schedule, and a focused blueprint of where the game could go in the future. I would also feel like I am actively supporting something I like a lot.

While you asked for something "totally different", there is a ranged choice I haven't seen mentioned. You could try a Sentinel. This would give you armor and mez protection like you have been playing (but not as strong), and, like blasters, the secondary power sets all include some form of significant endurance boost, which is something you aren't necessarily used to as a melee player.

I checked on a new controller who had just turned level 8 and chose Superior Invisibility. So the cap might get higher as he levels up; I don't know. The cap can be seen in the Base tab of the Combat Attributes window. It is my understanding that the numbers shown here are "real" for the current time viewed. I don't think they get out of date as a set of numbers stored in a separate text file might do. ADD: He's 10 now, and the cap is at 90 feet. So it does scale as the character levels up.

I didn't realize that about Dominators. Thinking a bit deeper, this might not be a matter of stupidity. Some powers, such as Ice Control's Arctic Air, have a -Stealth effect, which Mids documents at -35 feet. So in the case of Superior Invisibility, the Illusionist can laugh at this effect, because 200 minus 35 is still way above 80.

I just noticed that the Superior Invisibility power of an Illusionist has a 200-foot radius. However, for controllers, anyway, the radius is capped at 80 feet. Is the cap larger for a dominator? I'm trying to figure out why they give it such a large radius, only to cap it at less than half that value.

My VEAT went the Bane Spider route. When this level 30 guy visits the tailor shop, the facemaker insists he wear a Crab Backpack, even though he has only Bane powers. Well, not exactly true -- he also has two Arachnos Soldier powers, and almost all the Training and Gadgets powers, but both seem to be subsets of the general "Bane" classification. Why would a Bane Spider need the Crab Backpack? I actually like his costume. My goal is to get rid of the constant redraws between his rifle and mace powers. Since he is mainly a ranged character, I needed to augment the mace powers. (Originally posted to a Wolf Spider thread, which are Crabs by definition.)