Disruptor

This was likely me. I've run a Pistols/Traps MM on Excelsior from lvl1 through 50+. I prefer the Pistol animations in Thugs than the Gun Fu-like animations in Duel Pistols. As my character is more Mad Scientist than gun expert. Traps is my favorite powerset and I did briefly run Gang War solely for Detonator but ended up not liking it as I was taking a power I didn't like just so another could function. Ended up dropping both. I have Pistols, Dual Wield and Empty Clips along w/ Toxic Dart & Corrosive Vial as my attacks. I attempted petless MM numerous times even on Live but never got very far usually stopped at lvl20. I'm enjoying it right now. I love the thugs pistol animations and the experimental pool animations specifically Corrosive Vial, Experimental Injection and Adrenal Boost. Additionally I've never actually been a fan of the MM pet gameplay. I believe I've had over 30+ lvl50s and only once did I get an MM to 50 and I barely played it once it reached max lvl. I don't enjoy the play style or the nature of the henchmen gameplay. I certainly thought they were cooler the less I knew about them like when they launched with CoV but that goes for other classes too. When I first started playing CoH in 2004 I really liked Tanks and Melee classes which I dislike now. Another thing which has led me to Petless MM is I try to find different ways to enjoy the game. Also optimization or min/maxing in the traditional sense isnt fun to me, I often have fun going form (theme) over function and finding unique ways to play the game.

Yea, to make a power faster they need to lower the activation time which is essentially the animation time. LRM activation time is 5.87s which is very long. Interrupt time is 4.00s

I used to take this for thematic reasons and I really like the idea of Body Armor and LRM conceptually. I'm almost positive Surveillance was added when they did the Epic pool revamp so this pool used to be even worse.

I take everything in experiment pool on my petless MM. Corrosive Vial is one of my favorite moves, I load it up with procs, very fun using it to nuke things. W/ all my recharge stuff I can get it down to 20ish seconds. I got Experimental Injection recovery to 50% and regen to 100% I try to hand it out often.

Traps is a very unique playstyle and I believe any change to the set should try to keep its core playstyle in tact while alleviating some issues mainly prep time, QoL and the games overall combat speed. The game speed is quite fast nowadays, clearing mobs can be insanely quick and Traps relies heavily on stationary abilities with long cooldown and long activation times. The main goal here is to keep the unique stationary immobile gameplay but speed up activation times and increasing QoL and utility. Please keep in mind activation time =/= recharge time. 1. Web Grenade. I believe this move is perfectly fine as of right now. 2. Caltrops. Solid CC ability especially w/ some slow enhancements. I would only suggest lowering the cooldown specifically for lower level play. Right now its 45 second recharge feel likes forever during low level content. I think you could take 10-15 seconds off and it would make 1-20 content feel much better as a Traps. Wouldn't really affect high level play, this ability's recharge is kind of an after thought at 50. 3. Triage Beacon. This is the first of many powers in Traps I would lower the activation time aka "prep time changes". Right now TB has a 2.77s activation time, These changes will keep the stationary aspect of Traps but allow the user to place them a bit faster in order to keep up with the speed of the game. I think 2.50s is an easy change but would contemplate as low as a flat 2s for Triage Beacon. Additionally I would like to see TB do something other than just Regeneration, maybe a small bit of Recovery when initially placed or a small initial Heal. The fact that its stationary means most of the time it will not contribute or be valuable unless the fight is long a small initial heal or recovery on placement would guarantee your team benefits even if you quickly move onto the next mob. 4. Acid Mortar. This power is very good but also has a 2.77s activation time. Similar to TB lower the activation time a bit somewhere between 2.50 - 2s flat. Nothing else is necessary for Acid Mortar although I personally would like to see Teleport Target & Team Teleport work on Acid Mortar. For reference, Teleport Target/Team Teleport works on Seeker Drones and Force Field Generator but not Acid Mortar which creates a weird inconsistency, essentially making this strategy not really useful. 5. Fore Field Generator. FFG is actually a great example as its activation time is only 2.03, still requires some prep but not nearly as painstakingly slow. The biggest issue with FFG is it lags behind and often there are gaps where you or your teammates do not benefit from the Defense or Status Protection. The best solution/QoL change is to make the FFG buff have a 2-3 second delay before dropping when out of range. An alternate solution would be to increase the radius of the FFG significantly. 6. Poison Trap. The best power in Traps, it also has a 2.77s activation time. Once again I will suggest to lower this below to 2.50s or below, no other changes are needed. 7. Seeker Drones. No clue if this change is even possible but I would love to break up the two Seeker Drones allowing the player to spawn the Drones individually instead of both spawning on top of another and kind of being wasted on the same target. This change would allow the user more flexibility and utility. Basically allow the player to separate SD, spawning them individually and allowing for better positioning. Right now SD activation time is 2.03s if this change were to go through I'd suggest lowering the activation time due to the fact spawning them separately would add up to over 4s. If separate spawn lower to 1.20ish activation time. I will say this power could potentially be reworked into a toggle where the Drones circle around you similar to Targeting Drone and Seek the nearest enemy but I realize thats too much work. 8. Trip Mine. Currently has an activation time of 5.00s, I would advocate for lowering this to 3.00s max if not closer to 2.77s which is what Acid Mortar, Triage Beacon and Poison Trap are right now. 5 seconds is so long in most scenarios and the interrupt timer is 4 seconds...I think honestly is you just made the activation and interrupt time both 3 seconds that would be fine. 9. Time Bomb. TBH this power is so bad I honestly think it should be replaced entirely but that may require too much work. One of the best suggestions I saw was this one by PoptartsNinja where its an AoE taunt and if the mobs destroy the bomb it deals half damage. I actually think this is amazing and could be spruced up if they replace the bomb w/ a praetorian clockwork as a tauntbot doing the self-destruct animation. Thats so much work though. Time Bomb is just so bad, it overlaps a ton w/ Trip Mine but is much harder to use and similarly to Trip Mine it really only offers damage which is not what a debuff set like Traps is about. Ideally this power should offer something that isnt already in the set like a Taunt, Terrorize, End Drain or AoE Immob, etc. There are no easy answers for this power. I personally would love a really strong Bear Trap style single target hold you place on the ground and the first enemy that runs over it initially getting stunned then they are slowed shortly after the stun ends, maybe they could take a bit of damage over time. 9. Detonator for Masterminds. This is actually much more functional than Time Bomb, one issue is it changes based on whether your henchmen are human or robots, creating an inconsistency in use. I don't actually think this needs to be reworked instead I would add more utility allowing Detonator to work on Acid Mortar, FFG and Seeker Drones. The biggest downside to current Detonator for MM is it both requires an active henchmen and you must sacrifice it which is a huge tradeoff. That said, I think you could create a less henchman reliant power, I dont think there are any other MM secondaries that require your primary to actually function. Could honestly just replace this with Bomb Toss. I may update this a bit later, I am quite tired and heading to bed soon. I appreciate anyone who read this, take care for now. I would be interested in seeing other players ideas on how to improve Traps.

Beware this guy and his lightning farts.

I haven't read the entire thread, maybe this was already suggested but instead of 2x xp or 2x inf what if it was increased purples/rares drop rate for enhancements/recipes? Once or twice a month do a "Rare" Weekend. Maybe, exclude AE from the increased drop rate so it forces people to do TF's and other content. IDK. Just a suggestion. I do agree, think we all miss that special weekend where its unrelated to a holiday or anything specific, its just a few days a month to look forward to playing w/ additional rewards. However due to the vendor I think XP isn't all that interesting but at this point its such a staple of this server taking it away would be more harmful than good.

Is anyone planning on doing these on Excelsior in the near future?

Can you post the differences please?

I actually think Detonator is much better than Time Bomb. Swapping Time Bomb out for Detonator for Controllers, Def and Corrs and allowing Detonator to work on FFG and/or Acid Mortar would actually be a huge improvement. In fact it would be really cool if you got a unique effect based on which Trap you chose to detonate. Example, you detonate FFG and it explodes dealing aoe dmg and -recovery cause like the exploding FFG causes a small electric sap pulse thingy. While detonating Acid Mortar would of course deal aoe dmg but instead of -recovery it could briefly either fear/terrorize or -tohit cause guys got acid and shrapnel in their eyes. I also think Detonator in general should work on FFG and Acid Mortar for MM.

I would advise against playing Traps defender unless for thematic purposes. If you want to play Traps go for Controller, Corr or MM. There is almost no benefit a Traps defender will get performance wise over the other 3 options. All of the Traps powers are nearly identical in strength besides some recharge slow on web nade. Especially now that every AT on Homecoming gets 2 options at lvl 1 from their secondary which means ou can skip web nade if you deem it useless at early levels and/or prefer caltrops. Controllers primary pairs amazingly well with Traps, also controllers can slot additional procs into Poison Trap. Corruptors will do more damage than a Defender and MM have pets plus a more useful tier 9 in detonator.

This is the best Time Bomb idea I've seen that doesn't require an entire rework of the power. That said a full "taunt bot" animation would be cool but require a lot of work. I can imagine a stationary decoy robot that initially taunts in an AOE before going into the delayed Self Destruct animation. Enemies panic/feared before it explodes. Currently Time Bomb and Trip Mine are too similar in overall function, the slight difference in application (time) between the two make one completely useless especially in a game where combat is already so fast. This Taunt idea would give it a unique function that the rest of Traps or Devices does not have. Time Bomb has so much overlap w/ Trip Mine and that makes it rather useless, its core function is just damage/knockback that of which Trip Mine already offers. A totally new power would be the best choice, either a buff or debuff that offers Traps/Devices something it does not already have. However that requires much more work/assets/resources. There are other servers that have just replaced Time Bomb in Traps w/ Gun Drone which is better but its kind of a band aid fix. Even in this AoE Taunt change I think it should do something other than damage when exploding.

A fun thing to do with any Traps character is 1. Slot a lot of recharge. LOTG, Hasten, etc all very important. You specifically want Acid Mortar and Poison Trap up as much as possible. You can put a LOTG+Recharge into FFG, Scorpion Shield which is also defense and stacks with FFG. Take Infiltration, Stealth and Grant Invis for 5 LOTG+Recharge. Other options for LOTG+Recharge slotting Hover, Combat Jumping, Manueavers, Vengeance but Concealment pool has 3 LOTG options so I pick that one. Put 1 or 2 Recharge enhancements in Poison Trap and Acid Mortar THEN put a bunch of Damage Procs. On controllers at lvl50 you can slot 5 Damage Procs into Poison Trap and its so fun. Poison Trap/Acid Mortar are auto hit abilities which mean they do not require accuracy enhancements. Running Stealth, Scorpion Shield, FFG and Super Speed you should be able to run into a mob set down Poison Trap and hold a bunch of guys while also proccing some decent damage. Along with your AOE holds as a controller. For additional fun you can go deep into Speed for Burnout and get 2 acid mortars and 2 poison traps for special occasions With enough recharge you can reliably get acid mortar and poison trap out quickly. On my current Trap char which is unfinished (107% recharge) I can get Poison Trap/Mortar up every 23-25ish seconds. I also have Adrenal Boost which I can get upwards of 135 recharge bonus w/o sets or incarnates. Basically Poison Trap and Acid Mortar are your bread and butter most important tools in Traps. I slot them with recharge and damage procs and spam them over and over as much as possible. With stealth, defense and movement options you can start off in the middle of a mob and lay your poison trap+ aoe holds and acid mortar at their feet. You can do this with Trip Mine too. Seeker Drones also add -tohitt and -perceptions which can help you lay mines and other traps at the feet of enemies. Triage Beacon is a nice place to slot miracle, numina, panecea, preventive measure procs. I added a picture of my currently unfinished Traps character. You can also put more defense procs into FFG. Running a lot of recharge and a ton of procs in Traps is my favorite build especially while leveling....once you hit 50 and start doing inmcarnate you can potentially move into set bonuses and less proc based but the proc stuff is really fun while leveling. Also a lot of slow in Caltrops makes it a great CC ability, enemies will spend so much time tring to run out of caltrops esp if you put 2 slow enhancements and combine that with your ice they wont be able to move.

I love how the first big change the biggest private server does is nerf AE then proceed to nerf Vanguard Merits. Its a private server you can literally do anything and your first choice is to start nerfing things, haha. Yup, just keep nerfing stuff that'll definitely not make people leave the server. You know what made a lot of people quit CoH? Consistent nerfs. BTW incarnates are too easy right now, you should nerf that too! Reward merits are too easy to come by as well, don't forget to nerf them! You can flood the Auction House with salvage making it all worthless but somehow Vanguard Merits are too OP? Wheres the line? Seems a slippery slope. You guys deemed salvage too expensive, yet Glad Jav proc recipes are now selling for 1 million influence because Reward Merits are way too abundant.

How does one even go about setting up a Swiss Draw match? For example Arena Survivalist explains whats needed for that badge https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Arena_Survivalist_Badge Win a rated or unrated Swiss Draw match in the arena. https://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Tournament_Victor_Badge Could have sworn SCORE made this badge easier to obtain and it didnt require a legit 8-64 person swiss draw tournament

how many bananas do you eat a day, I expect a person named banana man to eat at minimum six bananas per day. one w/ each meal and then 2 additional nanners between meals and one bedtime nanner before sleepytime. if you do not eat at least 6 a day I deem you unworthy of the banana man namesake and you should be stripped of the pvp community rep because obviously you cannot be trusted.

SCORE had multiple new ATs in the works that all got cancelled, one was called Guardian and I believe it was a Melee Sets combined with Buff/Healing/Debuff sets.

ParagonWiki says all you need in 10, I've had players in game confirm it is 10 too, in game I've trapped 24 and yet to get the badge. EDIT: Ok so it appears ParagonWiki is wrong and there have been some changes. https://imgur.com/a/Ls9FFEc EDIT: I decided to kill 100 Spectral Pirates since that defeat badge was easier to obtain than trapping 100, I ending up getting the Pirate Badge and Night Haunt badge. As you can see I still have the Trap 100 Spectral Pirates progress bar. Im guessing somewhere along the line perhaps on SCORE they changed how to obtain this change from trapping to just defeating and renamed the trapping badge.

no

I made a suggestion for a CIT Homecoming site. https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,2080.0.html

Sounds good

For those unaware City Info Tracker was a site to track your characters on Live. It went inactive once game servers shutdown however Leandro's private server had their own CIT which means Homecoming coul have their own too if they so choose. This site was used to track badge progress, influence, salvage, recipes, auctions, enhancements, ae tickets, reward merits. The site would take a picture of your character and upload to your characters profile on CIT It can track which shards your characters are on. (Indomitable, Everlasting, Torchbearer, ect) In your account tt lists all your characters across all shards in an easy to order list, you could change it based on AT, Shard, Name in alphabetical order, ect. There were privacy options such as hiding Influence, Global Name as well as characters from your profile. It also tracked Server wide stats such as how many of each AT were created and existed, top 10 most played powersets, the ratio of heroes to villains, ect.

They actually added some new badges to regular Faultline that you can read about here: https://score.savecoh.com/index.php/topic,1395.0.html Thank you, I noticed they added some to Echo Faultline but was unaware of additional to normal Faultline. Anywho I got all of these now, thanks.

I did echo faultline first and now I can't complete normal Faultline because they share some of the same badges. https://imgur.com/a/0m1uZAo

I think that could work.