TheMoncrief

Seeker Drones, at least for MM, can mule some of the essential pet-boosting globals. Specifically, the Pet Damage sets. That frees up slots in your primary Henchman powers, which are in incredibly short supply on any MM primary that does not have an extra pet power. I'm pretty sure Mercs fits the bill for that category. They're still pretty useless for actual use, but 2 extra slots in your main Henchman powers is quite useful given how tight MM builds can be for slots.

Agreed. Having raids ruined by what is almost certainly malicious griefing just sucks.

We're talking about Diantane. Trolling the forums *IS* how they play the game.

I mean, I team mostly too. But I still tend to prefer proc opportunities if I'm aiming to do any real damage with my blasts. I'm more likely to choose something with good debuffs, though. Ice or Rad or Sonic, generally. Mostly Sonic, although the holds in Ice are quite useful.

Is Fire Blast actually good on a Defender? I generally care about two things with Defender blast sets - useful debuffs or proc opportunities. Defenders have poor damage, so if you're blasting (which you should be unless you have an exceptionally busy primary) you either want procs which deal damage without respecting the AT damage scale or you want to apply a debuff to weaken the enemy in some way to. Fire has, honestly, neither. There are a few proc opportunities in the AoE attacks, but the single targets are ranged damage and that's all - no Knock, no Def Debuff, no Slow, nothing to allow you to slot more procs. And Ranged Damage sets have incredibly bad proc opportunities. As for useful debuffs... yeah, no. Fire has none. I much prefer Rad Blast or Dual Pistols if I plan to actually be blasting regularly for damage output, or Sonic Blast to apply the exceptionally useful Resistance Debuff. I like Ice Blast's single target attacks, since they include a couple of holds and lots of slows, which are both useful debuffs *AND* proc opportunities, but since the bulk of Ice's AoE is from two rain powers which don't take procs well, I'm not totally enthusiastic about the set on a Defender. Nothing against Fire Blast in general, it's my favorite Blast set for a Blaster, and in my top 3 for a Corruptor, but I feel like it's not the best fit for a Defender. Am I wrong?

OK, I appear to have lit a fire. Would it be possible to have it default to player immunity instead? So you can go to Null to be able to have Group Fly work on you, but by default it will only work with the user's pets? I do have a few characters where I would situationally like Group Fly to work for me - such as non-flying melee DPS in the aforementioned mito runs in a Hamidon raid, but those situations are very much the exception. Even that's pretty rare, usually I'll just buy a jet pack from START. I'll be truly shocked if the response to this modified suggestion is a torrent of people strenuously objecting to such a change because Group Fly is perfect in its current state and the change would ruin it. I do get how it would feel weird to have a power that by default doesn't actually do anything, but Group Fly is a very exceptional power already in terms of its unpopularity.

I don't think there is a power that is more hated than Group Fly. It is rarely taken, and when it is taken, the person who took it is often chastised by his entire team because it makes life materially worse for them all unless they remembered to go to Null the Gull to become immune to it, and it is so rarely taken that few players remember to do so. But at the same time, there are players who legitimately need, or at least strongly benefit from Group Fly in outdoor missions where they have to move around a lot. I'm talking about Masterminds. Mastermind pets have trouble keeping up with their summoner over long distances, and often get stuck on obstacles. And while there seems to be some kind of leashing teleport to resummon them automatically if they get too far away, it is incredibly inconsistent and unreliable. So I wonder, why is Group Fly immunity not an option? The Team Teleport prompt is in the options menu. Why not a Group Fly immunity option as well? Why do people have to go to Pocket D and talk to Null the Gull to change this option, which is inconvenient in an instanced MSR, and risks losing the ability to even re-enter the zone entirely in a Hamidon raid?

Considering that the problem was just recently *CREATED* by the world changing to be unsuited to the OP, I don't think asking to have the world change reverted in one particular case is particularly unreasonable. Not that I think the solution is really needed, but the relentless mockery and abuse of the idea seems bizarre. If the name release policy had been in place for years, yes, asking for special exceptions for your account namesake would be too much. But for a policy that was literally just put in place in the last patch? Yeah, this is the time when feedback about the name release potentially being flawed should be expected and considered on its own merits, rather than roundly mocked out of hand for asking to change something that has been working since forever. Still likely not worth the dev resources it would take to change things, but not deserving of the level of mockery and derision it's been receiving. And if it turns out it's super simple to change, probably not a bad idea. Not that anything in a code base like CoH is super simple.

Wait... I can get rid of all my zone exploration tips instantly just by switching alignment?? BRB, gotta talk to a seagull... I do a lot of exploration, but I never do the exploration tips, so I end up with a bunch of them piling up and it's annoying to get rid of them. Being able to flush them in bulk is great.

Given the low commitment involved in having or changing an alignment on Homecoming (literally a couple of clicks on a seagull) being informed of opposing faction events should not be viewed as a bad thing. And given that most players now switch between Rogue and Vigilante if they get involved in alignment switching at all, rather than Hero and Villain, you would never be losing access to any zones even when you swap.

I'd like to be able to fix a minor error in my build without going through the full respec process. I don't actually care about taking up a respec, HC is quite generous with those anyway. But it's such a pain to go through a respec, and the chance for making a mistake is usually there - especially if you are changing a lot of the sets you use and can't hold all the new stuff in your trays before the respec. A great qol improvement that is probably too hard to implement to merit the investment of time and resources. But it would still be nice.

Yeah, something even with a cooldown to overcome pet pathing problems when traveling distances would be a huge benefit. And would relieve us of the "need" to take Group Fly. No, it's not technically a need, but it's really the only way to keep your pets with you in large outdoor maps when you're searching for the last few enemy groups or that final mission objective glowie. I also feel like the fix to make MM pets all even level in Incarnate content should really be applied to either all MMs or all content once the Alpha slot is unlocked. It plainly doesn't make the AT overpowered, or you'd see iTrial groups actively seeking out all the Mastaerminds they could find. Instead, MMs are still the red headed stepchildren even with the negative level shift removed.

Clearing mitos allows me to feel comfortable bringing a character with lower damage potential to the raid. It's no longer a DPS race, and can fall back on clearing 2 blooms if required. If I raided Hamidon on a Defender or Controller, I would feel super uncomfortable joining a Hamikaze raid. That said, I usually bring a Blaster anyway, because I'm most comfortable on Team Cannon. Although my Hamidon raiding Blaster is specialized for Hamidon raiding by having a full melee attack chain and 4 single target holds in addition to my ranged attack chain, so I'm free to help deal with any kind of mito. But unlike a hamikaze, I don't feel like I have to bring a damage dealing monster.

Given the number of my characters who have been active in Ouroboros at level 50 and without a SG without receiving an invite, I think that it's clear that he's not spamming SG invites. He also doesn't just blindly throw out invites - he introduces himself and his coalition in a tell to the person involved, and when I replied with a polite decline, he thanked me. This is an unsubtle difference from the folks who just randomly invite everybody in the /search list who doesn't already have a SG. To be clear: I have quite a few characters. Only two have received invitations. I accepted on one of them and declined on the other. I have found the coalition to be pretty friendly and helpful, for what it's worth.

I believe that Blaster mez protection is supposed to be the same as Blaster everything else protection - defeat your enemies, especially the most dangerous ones, very quickly, before they can do anything to you. That said, I am in the "slot Defiant Barrage in your T1/T2 that you can use while mezzed" camp. The proc rate isn't that bad, especially since you can't do anything else while mezzed so you'll be spamming that sucker. Assuming you use that as filler regularly in your rotation anyway, you are likely to have some mez protection up most of the time, and when something gets past it, you can at least do something to A) defeat the jerk who mezzed you, and B) potentially obtain some mez protection. Also carry some Break Frees and/or take Rune of Protection if you're particularly paranoid. Or even consider slotting Clarion if you're doing content where Clarion is relevant. I have rarely died from mez in Homecoming on my Blasters. Compared to live, when mez was so harsh and prevalent that I refused to even play Blasters at all, it is a night and day difference.

My favorite Scrapper that is currently possible is my Claws/Energy Aura. Claws is just smooth, and Energy Aura has pretty much all the tools you might need to keep you alive. I'd enjoy having my Katana/SR Scrapper from live, but last time I played that character, perma-Elude was a thing. Which is why I loved it so much. And is insanely broken. Yeah, that's never coming back. You're supposed to need incarnates to get that strong.

If it were easy enough to implement, I wouldn't object to this change. But I don't see a sufficiently compelling reason for the devs to put in substantial effort implementing it. There is already a solution available - rename one of the 50's on your account to the name, or just level your account namesake.

Allowing duration enhancement would also make for *MUCH* better uptime of some long recharge buffs. Just consider if you could buff Hasten's duration - you can already cut its recharge in half (well, close) with 2 enhancement slots, being able to double its duration would make it close to permanent without any global recharge in your build at all. And a variety of other powers would be similarly effective. Heck, we might see the days of perma-Elude return. I mean, I loved my perma-Elude Scrapper back in issue 2, but the game is better off without it. This is not the buff to armor sets t9 ultimate powers that we need. They're still working on these things - it wasn't all *THAT* long ago that they took away recharge enhancements working in Rune of Protection. If the game had been balanced from the beginning around the concept of enhancing buff durations, it could have been made to work. But in its current state, it would kick off a massive wave of rebalancing just to compensate for this improved uptime. Just a lot of work for the devs for the payout of eventually having things return to more or less where they are now after who knows how much dev time and effort spent unbreaking all the things that got broken.

I took the build WuTang posted and (tried to) adapt it for Spines, which in spite of its structural similarities to Claws plays very differently. In the process, I'm sure I utterly butchered it, but here it is. I doubt it's a match for an actual competently made build, but it's something. The most major change is taking Soul Mastery for Gloom, because Spines *DESPERATELY* needs the single target damage. The endurance situation is... tolerable. Cockroachman - Brute (Spines - Bio Armor).mbd

I've been leveling a Spines/Bio Brute, and I'm wondering if I've made a horrible mistake. The AoE is OK, well mostly the double damage auras, but the single target seems particularly bad. Maybe I'm just spoiled having come recently from leveling a Claws/EA Scrapper, what with Claws being surprisingly strong, much faster animating, and having roughly similar AoE layout other than the lack of a damage aura. It's not unplayably bad by any stretch, just very underwhelming. Any advice on how to leverage Spines advantages to make a decent character?

I mean, there is a reason Brutes have access to Regeneration. Makes it easier to target the nerfs.

Willpower starts to run into performance issues in the late game, because of its near-complete lack of debuff resistance. Debuffs are everywhere in the late game, and Willpower can get totally shut down very quickly. EA will dramatically outperform it in challenging content like hard modes and even ordinary incarnate content. Willpower will have a much easier ride on the way, though. Another consideration is that War Mace benefits quite a lot from high global recharge, as you want to be using its best attacks like Clobber and Crowd Control as often as possible. Willpower benefits almost not at all from high recharge. EA, on the other hand, benefits quite a lot. So even where their performance is equivalent, EA should have better synergy with your primary.

If you have enough recharge to rely exclusively on Crowd Control and Shield Charge for your AoE moves - and it looks like you do - then go for it. I question your endurance situation, but you didn't ask about that, so not really my business. Whirling mace *IS* kind of lackluster, its saving grace is that it's really easy to use, being a PBAoE rather than a cone. With your recharge, I'd suggest taking something else in stead of Bash - possibly move some powers around to get Moonbeam form Soul Mastery. Bash is quite lackluster as well. Maybe even taking something other than attack, given your recharge and that you already have Pulverize, Jawbreaker, and Clobber as purely single target attacks, and Shatter as melee cone/single target hybrid attack.

I don't think this is a popular assertion, but I like Super Strength better on a Brute than a Tanker. Why? 1. Foot Stomp is not buffed by Gauntlet, so Brutes have the same AoE size and target cap as Tankers. 2. The lower Brute damage scale and high damage buff from Fury makes Rage less mandatory on Brutes, and I don't like dealing with the Rage crash. 3. Brutes deal superior single target damage with all the other attacks than Tankers, because that's what Brutes do. So higher damage across the board, and a lesser sacrifice to get the less-annoying play style from the set. To me, that's a win for Brutes. It might be a contest if Foot Stomp were not excluded from the Gauntlet buff, though.

Sentinels will have to wait until there is a Water Armor (or possibly Liquid Armor to allow for liquid metal concepts rather than only water). And Blasters will probably have to wait for a Water Melee set, which will hopefully come all together with a Water Assault set for Dominators. Honestly, there's a lot of water-adjacent power sets we really ought to get as soon as practical.