khy

That's quite disappointing. Most of my Masterminds barely do any damage as-is, since I skip the personal attacks more often than not (They're almost all crap anyway, Demons being the exception). I would definitely support a change to the power that gave MM pets the +damage, and happily sacrifice the +recharge for it - but that's just me.

IMO half of Serum's effects - the resist and status protection - are fine but lackluster on their own. The parts that need to be adjusted are the tohit, the damage, and the crash. 7.5% damage and tohit were 'OK' back in Issue 5 when the set came out but with the amount of power creep in the game it's fallen far, far behind. And the crash is just kicking us when we're down. I'd like to see one of two things happen : Either Option 1 : Increase the ToHit bonus to 20%, increase the damage bonus to 50%, and reduce the cooldown to 360s. Eliminate the crash, but still only affects 1 pet. Or Option 2 : Increase the ToHit bonus to 15%, Increase the damage bonus to 25%, reduce the cooldown to 360s, reduce the duration to 30s, and reduce the Resists from 52% to 35%. Keep all status protection as is. Then eliminate the crash and apply to all pets. That seems like it'd put the serum in line with other powers in terms of usefulness, and definitely wouldn't violate the cottage rule.

It's just a relic from the olden days of 2004, and such a low priority that nobody wants to spend the time to replace it. When CoH came out, the Hazard Zones were deliberately placed behind a 'click' barrier because they were dangerous. Travel powers were gated behind level 14 instead of level 4, which meant you couldn't speed around and avoid packs. The packs were huge and dangerous, and the newbies who wandered in would all too easily become smears on the ground. Forcing players to actually acknowledge that they wanted in by clicking was meant to be a sort of 'Are you sure?' check. These days we get travel powers early on, we know how to navigate zones, and we're all quite knowledgeable about the game so the Hazard Zones are just not hazardous like they used to be. But even with that being the case, why ask the team to spend time and effort in fixing such a tiny, minor non-issue?

Just to clarify, does the Frenzy buff's 60% bonus damage not affect MM minions?

Thugs win out over Mercs in a ton of ways. Yes, the Mercs do have 25% smashing and lethal resist but their HP pools are still so small that they'll still get 1-shotted by AoE effects all the time. At least the Enforcer's Leadership Auras make Thugs 20% harder to hit, and boost Damage/Accuracy. Gang War might not feel like a super strong power, but it's really VERY good. Especially compared to Serum which is lackluster, has a ridiculous cooldown, and the bonuses really aren't that great. And while the Bruiser and Commando are relatively close to each other in terms of tankiness, the Commando's always at range which means he never draws aggro to put that tankiness to use - your other pets will die first. The bruiser does a great job of getting up in enemy's faces and tanks really well. Healing is not really as necessary in CoH as it is in other games. Most melee ATs get self heals to survive in melee, healing insps drop like candy on Halloween, and pets low HP pools mean that oftentimes if they're taking hits they're dead before you can get a heal off. If you want a good support set with lots of utility, I suggest you try FF/Mace. IMO it's the best support set I've played, and I definitely feel it's better than Empathy/Pain in terms of survivability for teammates and pets alike. Don't take Detention Cell, Repulsion Field, or Repulsion Bomb and instead take all 3 leadership AoEs, Medicine AO/AS/FM/Res, and Teleport Friend. You can port dead players out of a group and rez them, AO is a great single target heal once enhanced, and if you pop Power Boost right before you buff your team with FF's bubbles then each bubble can easily give them 25% or higher defense. Add in your big bubble (+12% defense) and Maneuvers (3% defense) and you alone are making your teammates 40% harder to hit. If someone DOES get hit, Aid Other can heal up a hefty chunk of their HP. If you get hit yourself you've got a good self-heal that also restores end (Thanks to FM). Do this with Thugs, and your Enforcers will be giving an extra 20% leadership to the whole pack, putting their avoidance at a whopping 60%. IMO preventing damage by giving teammates avoidance is better than trying to catch up with healing, but YMMV. I mean, no amount of healing is going to help your Thugs or Soldiers survive a 1-shot AoE, but giving them 40-60% avoidance gives them a MUCH, MUCH better chance of not instantly falling over in combat.

Just wondering about this. Let's say I put Preventative Medicine : Chance for +Absorb into Suppress Pain, a PBAoE Healing Toggle power. Does this mean every tick of the power has a chance to grant +absorb? What would happen if I put that same IO into Health, instead? Or if I put Performance Shifter : Chance for +End into Stamina, does this grant a permanent +End boost or does it mean that whenever the recovery ticks happen I get a chance to get +End for however long?

Honestly I find that Red-Side content is more engaging, entertaining, and enjoyable than blue-side stuff as it is. Because of that I already play a ton of red side, and so I don't need to be incentivized. That said, I think that what would really be great would be to make villain side more villainous. Make more hero groups to fight against (I have some great ideas here, I want to experiment with AE and see if I can put some of those into play), especially for high-level villains. Way too much of the time villains are fighting other villains and feel like there's no real difference between them and the heroes. Grant more rewards after missions. When pulling off big arcs and doing crazy plots, have them pay off with temp powers. Mayhem, vaults, and stuff like that should reward a 'briefcase' temp power that grants some bonus infamy. Have steal-tech missions grant a few charges of a raygun that does bonus damage, or summon a clone to fight alongside you for a few minutes, or things like that. Grant small bonuses (5% recharge for 2 hours or so) from various missions. Villains are in it for the rewards, unlike heroes who do it for the good of the city. So for Villains, giving them the tangible rewards makes a lot more sense. If I'm assaulting a Circle Hideout to steal their powerful artifacts, showing that as a 5% bonus damage for 60 minutes in-game is going to make me feel like I accomplished something. I'd also like to see Mayhem missions become more chaotic for large teams, with reasons for teams to want to destroy everything on the map. As it is with the amount of stuff you have to destroy scaling up way too much, there's no point in blowing up cars or parking meters or crates or whatever; an 8-person team will almost never get any of the time bonuses because you have to destroy too many. So instead have repeatable smaller time bonuses, or maybe an 'insurance adjuster' granting you bonuses after the mission the more you destroy (As thanks for letting them boost premiums) or other things like that. Something to encourage Villains to go nuts on the town instead of just rushing the bank and ending it there. Just a few thoughts I had is all.

I've seen so many posts about comparing the different primaries/secondaries for the low game, but I'm curious - How useful are Masterminds with Incarnate content? I heard that the pets were nigh useless so they received a buff that levels them up to the same level as the MM, but is that enough to really put them on at least the same stage as most other ATs? What are the pros and cons of the different primaries for incarnate content? Also i've heard that some secondaries (such as FF) severely suffer in endgame because everyone ends up with capped out def/res. Which Secondaries drop to the bottom of the barrel when you hit 50? I imagine that enemy debuffs tend to retain their usefulness when buffs fall down in theirs?

Back on live, my main MM was a Bots/FF from CoV release till the day the servers went down. Unfortunately towards the end I had moved on to other games, so I had never really done much with the Incarnate system - until now. Now I've got my level 40 Bots/FF back and I'm thinking of how I want to spec him out. In the past I always took the personal attacks and Repair, which now feels like a mistake. Instead I drop those attacks for Medicine, and skip Repair because the cooldown is crap. I take AO, AS, FM, and Rez from Medicine - FM mainly to make AO less obnoxious to use, and Rez to be more useful in my teams. With my current build, I still end up with 4 slots at the end of the build I'm not sure what to do with. In the past, I went with Mace Mastery since the +def from the shield synergizes well with the rest of the build, and it feels like it fits more thematically. Also I could use Power Boost to make my bubbles that much better, and my bots that much sturdier against tougher enemies with more +tohit. The downside of course is that of all the abilities in the Mace set, only 1 does damage and it's pretty mediocre. While the hold is a strong slow as well, it just feels lacking for a villain to be using so many non-lethal attacks. On the flip side there's the Leviathan mastery which has tons of very, very villainously lethal attacks with great damage. The tradeoff of course is the armor is much less impressive, and sharks don't really fit with the rest of the character's theme. For a technology Bots/FF Villain, which do you guys think you'd go with and why?

It's quite easy to get to Pocket D from Mercy at level 1. Skip the tutorial, go to the P2W vendor and buy Ninja Run (I swear it jumps higher than Beast). Run/Jump to the Ferry to Port Oakes. There are a few mob packs in between, but between your speed and jumping most won't aggro. Go to Port Oakes EAST and run up the stairs. Pocket D is the building right at the top of the stairs, zero mobs between the ferry and Pocket D. I have literally NEVER died doing this run, even at fresh level 1. Honestly Kings Row is more dangerous - it's a very short run between Pocket D and the Tram, but there tends to be groups of clockwork and Skulls that could possibly kill you in a single alpha. I've died 2 or 3 times when I was just in a rush and not avoiding packs; then there's the obnoxiousness of having to run from the hospital to the tram. Still very, very doable but a longer run.

Well it's like Fedifensor said, you should always be doing SOMETHING. Either debuffing enemies, buffing allies, healing, or attacking. With many of my builds I find that early on I don't have enough to do, so I spec into some attacks to fill in the empty time during fights. Later on that becomes less of an issue as I get powers in my second set. I've tried a couple times taking personal attacks early on, and respeccing out of them at 25 to 30ish and it felt like it did make some of the fights quicker. What I did with my latest couple characters is avoid the Leadership pools until 25ish because earlier on they're less important and vital. Lower level enemies go down quickly and you won't see as much of an effect from your auras earlier on. Then when I hit 25, I respec and drop my direct attacks and put leadership back in, and I have enough to keep myself busy and active during fights.

My mastermind wishlist is mainly about pet AI, and the ways I'd like the Pet AI to be updated. So here's what I would like pet AI to be more like : 1) When pets are set to Defensive, they won't chase enemies unless you use the 'attack' command. When they do attack, they should always stick within a small area around you - say, they'd always stay within Supremacy range. 2) When pets are set to aggressive, they'll chase freely like they do now. 3) When pets are set to defensive, they should ONLY attack an enemy which has attacked you or them. All too often I've seen only 1 enemy actually attack, but my robots will retaliate against 3 different enemies (Sometimes they'd even be in different groups). 4) An update to pathing. There are some areas in certain maps that CONSISTENTLY get my pets stuck. Warehouse maps often have a corner with a ramp heading up to a sort of J-shaped catwalk that ALWAYS gets my pets stuck. 5) Pets 'teleporting' to you should occur at slightly shorter ranges for when you're travelling through a zone. Oftentimes I'll head to a specific spot and find that 2-3 of my pets will 'teleport' to me but the other 3 will be running slowly over to me, pulling shit as they go. I'd like to see them all just pop in when I get to my destination. Alternatively, if when I dismissed pets if I could resummon them already buffed with the Level 6/32 buffs that'd be nice.

With a couple newer characters I have I started using personal attacks early on while levelling, and specced out of them later when I can pick up APP/PPP powers instead.

So I'm just kind of curious, when I got my MMs to 50 back during live I did so before the IO system was really in full swing. These days I've been having problems sticking to one character, so I haven't yet gotten a MM past 40. Still looking for that perfect build that fits me, you know? That said, some of the various sets are a bit confusing to me - mainly in that Pine's doesn't really go into details about the effects of set IOs. So I figured I would ask here! 1) Soulbound Allegiance : The 6th IO in the set is a Chance for Build Up. Is that a chance for each of your pets to get it, or for the MM to get build-up? The latter would be rather useless for my particular playstyle. If it's for the pets, do they all get it at once or is it a chance for individual pets to get it? 2) Command of the Mastermind ATO : The 6th IO in the set is a Pet +AoE Defense aura. How much defense does it grant? Is the aura granted around the MM, or around the pets it's slotted in? If it's slotted in Tier 2 pets does this mean each pet gets the aura and if so does it stack? 3) Is there a general recommendation about always putting a specific set in a specific pet tier? Like, does one particular set produce better bonuses when granted to the tier 3 pet versus others? In terms of raw numbers, Level 50 Soulbound Allegiance Accuracy/Damage is the same 26.5/26.5% bonus as Sovereign Right's Accuracy/damage, but I don't know if any of the set effect apply specifically to the pet they're slotted in or not. 4) Which pets would work best with non-set IOs? I imagine that Protector Bots would work well with +Defense IOs considering they grant such huge defense bonuses to bots, but I'm not sure if there's others I should keep an eye out for. Healing on Merc Soldiers maybe? Def/Tohit on Thug Enforcers? How much should I focus on secondary effects versus accuracy/damage? I have a LOT of MMs as they're my favorite class, and while most of them probably won't end up reaching 50 the more I know the happier I am.

I made a gimmick character who uses a mace and shield, but I'm not very good with melee builds. I mainly play masterminds, controllers, and corruptors. I'm wondering if anyone can give me a quick build? What powers are worth taking and what should be avoided?

I love beast because the dogs are good dogs brent, but I have to admit that the fact that they're melee really makes it FAR more difficult to keep them wrangled compared to other pets. After playing three different beast/ MM's to level 32 (Thermal, Sonic, and Kin) I always had troubles where enemies would peel off and when I'd direct the wolves to a new target, they'd be slow to respond. It'd take 1-3 seconds for the wolves to break off their current target and charge towards the new one, which was often enough time for the wolves to aggro a new pack. I've caused a couple wipes because I wasn't able to predict when enemies would break off and flee, and was too slow to get my pets on a target that was still in melee. What I would REALLY love is a setting where my pets would stick to me like glue, and I would run in to melee and let them attack anything that's in melee range, but when enemies run OUT of melee range they wouldn't chase. I could just drag my pets around and let them hit EXACTLY what I want them to and if I want to draw an enemy back out of the pack, I could simply by running away and having my pets follow me. But that's not an option with MM Pet AI. If I set them to passive follow they'll stick to me, but won't attack enemies in melee range. If I change them to anything other than passive and let them attack they'll chase enemies. It's frustrating.

IMO the major point of Hurricane is the ridiculous amount of -tohit it has (a whopping -22.5%). The other effects are just 'nice but not the point'. But maybe I'm wrong about that...

That's frustrating. Much as I love hurricane for the havoc it wreaks with physics objects, the repel scatters enemies in a really, really obnoxious way.

Would KB to KD also eliminate the repel effect that Hurricane has? Right now when I jump into a big group with Hurricane in order to debuff them, they all scatter due to the repel. I'm wondering if there's any way to use Hurricane without pushing all the mobs around. I've tried sort of, running around the mob perimeter to push them towards a center point but they like to scatter and oftentimes I can't do that without aggroing an additional pack or whatever. If mobs are nice enough to rush me and my ranged pets, they get pushed away but if they're ranged pets that stay in place then they're annoying.

I'd like an update to the 'medicine' power pool to be more interesting, personally. Make Field Medic a passive, have it grant more interesting bonuses to the other powers in the set (IE : Aid Other can affect up to 3 targets at once, Injection gains some interesting benefit when used offensively, giving Resuscitate a small boost when you have FM, etc). Also remove the interrupt from Aid Other baseline.

We have all heard the jokes about Petless MMs, and I've seen a ton of people make Attackless MMs (Relying on pets for 100% of their damage), myself included. I've chatted with people about builds that forego T1 pets entirely, focusing solely on the stronger pets. I'm curious what you guys think about these various build ideas. Do you prefer having one or two (Or all 3) personal attacks? What do you think of not using T1 minions?

Is it possible? Yes. Will it be obnoxious? Probably! What she'll need to do is turn off XP gain (Under options) every time she hits a level BEFORE a level with a multiple of 5. So 14, 19, 24, 29, etc. Once it's off, do all the quests for all the contacts you can possibly do until they have nothing more for you. Then do radio/newspaper missions until the detective has no new contacts for you. THEN go to every zone in your level range, and check for any contacts and missions and repeat it all! Then turn XP back on, level up to the next 5-level milestone, and talk to your contacts again to see if they have new contacts or missions for you. Most of the time the breakthrough for outlevelling contacts is in powers of 5, so a contact will offer you level 20-25 missions, or 25-30, etc.

I heard /coxg/ was powered entirely by salt. If the /coxg/ server is the same population ratio of 4chan then it's comprised 25% of trolls, 25% of drama queens, and 50% of 12 years old pretending they're 18+ to post there.

I got off so lucky. I found out about the secret server right when Homecoming came up and became available. So my feelings of disappointment that I couldn't play were COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY drowned out by the feeling of excitement, nostalgia, and joy of being able to play again. If I had found out about the secret server before Homecoming spun up the servers, I might have been pissed or disappointed; but since I can play right now, I'm happy and thankful for that and don't really care about what happened in the past that I can't change.

You know what actually WOULD be kind of nice? A separate pop-up 'Team Effects' window that you could click on that would show relative defense, resist, damage, tohit, and speed buffs on your teammates in the form of bars going across. So you can see at a glance which of your teammates are being hit by slows because their speed bar has suddenly fallen into the negative, or if two teammates are low on health you can see if one of them has been debuffed and is therefor more likely to die, and prioritize heals on them. No actual numbers relating to damage/heal, so no judging your team, but something akin to the 'Totals' tab within Mids/Pines. Or so when you're in a group with FF, Ice, Thermal, AND sonic you can all look at the completely capped out defense and resists and feel a sense of pride and superiority as you completely massacre everything while hardly taking a scratch of damage. I think it'd be neat to see a bar where, say, when I'm buffed with bubbles I see a green bar that indicates the strength of my defense boosts and when I fight some enemies that debuff my defense I can see how far it's dropped, and judge whether or not I should pop a luck or something.