Tigraine

I'm not above adding a little accent or dialect to my characters at times, but the trick is to keep it a light touch. If players have to mentally sound out what they're reading to parse it and translate it, that's too much, especially when they're trying to catch what's being said during a mission where players are focused on not dying. They can't just briefly glance at the chat window and capture what was said; they have to put their attention on it long enough to process it, and during combat that's not always easy. The actor Brian Blessed commented on this idea in reference to his playing Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace: "If you're playing a character like that... I always make sure that my noises didn't interfere with dialog," and he continued to explain that he felt at times Jar Jar would make "noises" over his lines, which made it difficult for the audience to follow the character's plot exposition. This is the same sort of issue; if you deliberately make it harder to read your RP, you lose your audience.

I'm revisiting the above build. First off, the two recharge IOs in Heat Exhaustion are unnecessary. I don't find myself using the single-target debuff that often, and the base recharge in the build is enough to keep it well below the 40s duration even without those. So I'll move the slots somewhere more useful; probably either put them on Crack Whip and swap the Bombardments for a set of 5 Ragnaroks, or throw them on Fire Shield to slot a complete set of Unbreakable Guard. Secondly, with all the toggles the build really hurts for Endurance, especially if it has to fire off a lot of heals in a short time. I'm not really sure what to do about that yet, short of relying on Incarnates.

This "misspelling" was clearly done intentionally to mimic how the character was supposed to speak; it had nothing to do with the player being a native English speaker or not, or any other grammatical deficiencies. Here are a few choice phrases pulled from the chat log: Lazee humies pikun nozes Dem sturt et !! uu freekz er sew week !! gu bak tuu sturt

The other day I ran into two pet peeves in one bio, and an a third from chat, all from the same character. First, the bio stated that the character came from the world of another MMO, and that it was from a particular culture within that world. This 1) made no effort to adapt the character to the world and lore of CoH (which frankly doesn't take too much effort to do, so avoiding it is colossally lazy), and 2) put the onus on others to know the history and culture of another game in order to know anything about the character. Second, the bio stated (within (( )) tags) that they are "100% RP" and would not respond to any (( )) messages because they "take away from the rp". I don't appreciate dictating how others communicate, and refusing to accept OOC messages that are flagged as OOC messages is just ridiculous; if you can't handle separating those from IC conversations, that's your problem, don't put it on others by refusing to acknowledge OOC communication. Some OOC communication is often critical to ensuring smooth and cohesive RP. Add on top of that the hypocrisy of refusing to acknowledge communication tagged with (( )) while using (( )) tags. On top of the bio, the character only spoke in intentionally and horrendously misspelled and barely legible chat that appeared loosely based on phonetics (with frequent mispronunciations). Since the character was "100% RP" and wouldn't allow OOC clarifications of their chat, communication was hopeless and there was just no incentive to interact with the character. So if I could sum up all of this as a single pet peeve: don't make it too difficult to interact with you or your character! A little bit of "flavor" is fine, but there is such a thing as going overboard to the point you chase people away. If it's not worth the effort, I'll just ignore you and move on to RP with someone easier to talk to.

No currency has any "actual value;" their only value is whatever people agree to accept it in trade for. In fact, it could be argued that (within the game's economy) Inf has more inherent actual value than real-world currency because within the game it is impossible to pay for many things with anything other than Inf (and some with fixed costs), so there is no option for barter or any other exchange. But the point is that you're operating on a series of false premises, the first being the divesting of normal currency characteristics from those of Inf. These false premises have been repeatedly pointed out, yet you refuse to acknowledge them. At this point, your thought experiment has become a troll.

The ability to place Cosmetic Surgeons in base instead of just basic Tailors.

As I understand, some of the other servers out there have incorporated new player-made costume pieces and skins. It would be nice to get some of those here, and for the most part I'd think that would be a low risk addition in terms of game stability.

After taking the feedback here into consideration (thanks everyone!), and fiddling around with things, I've come up with the build below. I prioritized pet accuracy and damage as suggested, and I think managed to keep def and res at decent levels. Global recharge is at 155% without considering the FF procs in Lash and Crack Whip. One thought: Heat Exhaustion is perma, and remains close enough (0.35s) even if I were to remove one of the recharge reduction IOs. Is it worth keeping it on such a low recharge to be able to apply to multiple targets, or could I use that slot better elsewhere? Maybe add a Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection somewhere, or build out another set bonus? This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.0.2.19 https://github.com/Reborn-Team/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! HexAngel: Level 49 Magic Mastermind Primary Power Set: Demon Summoning Secondary Power Set: Thermal Radiation Power Pool: Flight Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Summon Demonlings -- SprCmmoft-Acc/Dmg:50(A), SprCmmoft-Dmg/EndRdx:50(3), SprCmmoft-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(3), SprCmmoft-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(5), OvrFrc-Dam/KB:50(7) Level 1: Warmth -- NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx:50(A), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(7), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg:50(9), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(9), NmnCnv-Heal:50(11), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+:50(11) Level 2: Lash -- Hct-Dmg:50(A), Hct-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(13), Hct-Acc/Rchg:50(13), Hct-Dmg/EndRdx:50(15), Hct-Dam%:50(15), FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(17) Level 4: Fire Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(19), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(21), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(21) Level 6: Enchant Demon -- EndRdx-I:50(A) Level 8: Cauterize -- Prv-Heal:50(A), Prv-Heal/EndRdx:50(23), Prv-EndRdx/Rchg:50(23), Prv-Heal/Rchg:50(25), Prv-Heal/Rchg/EndRdx:50(25), Prv-Absorb%:50(27) Level 10: Hover -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), Ksm-ToHit+:30(27), BlsoftheZ-ResKB:50(29), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx:50(29) Level 12: Summon Demons -- SprMarofS-Dmg:50(A), SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg:50(31), SprMarofS-Acc/EndRdx:50(31), SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(33), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets):50(33) Level 14: Plasma Shield -- UnbGrd-ResDam:50(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx:50(33), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam:50(34), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(34) Level 16: Crack Whip -- FrcFdb-Rechg%:50(A), Bmbdmt-Acc/Rech/End:50(34), Bmbdmt-Acc/Dam/Rech/End:50(36), Bmbdmt-+FireDmg:50(36) Level 18: Hell on Earth -- CaltoArm-+Def(Pets):30(A), SprCmmoft-Rchg/PetAoEDef:50(36), SvrRgh-PetResDam:50(37), EdcoftheM-PetDef:40(37), SprMarofS-Dmg/EndRdx:50(37), SprMarofS-EndRdx/+Resist/+Regen:50(39) Level 20: Fly -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB:50(A) Level 22: Kick -- Acc-I:50(A) Level 24: Tough -- GldArm-3defTpProc:50(A), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(39), Ags-ResDam/EndRdx:50(39), Ags-ResDam:50(40), Ags-Psi/Status:50(40) Level 26: Summon Demon Prince -- ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg:50(A), ExpRnf-Dmg/EndRdx:50(40), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(42), ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg:50(42), SvrRgh-Acc/Dmg:30(42), SlbAll-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(43) Level 28: Forge -- RechRdx-I:50(A) Level 30: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), ShlWal-Def/EndRdx:50(43), ShlWal-Def:50(43), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP:50(45) Level 32: Abyssal Empowerment -- EndRdx-I:50(A) Level 35: Heat Exhaustion -- Acc-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(45), RechRdx-I:50(45) Level 38: Melt Armor -- AchHee-ResDeb%:20(A), ShlBrk-Acc/Rchg:30(46), ShlBrk-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:30(46) Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), Rct-Def:50(46), Rct-Def/EndRdx:50(47), Rct-ResDam%:50(47) Level 44: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(48) Level 47: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+:50(A), LucoftheG-Def:50(48), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx:50(48) Level 49: Tactics -- AdjTrg-ToHit:50(A), AdjTrg-ToHit/EndRdx:50(49) Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I:50(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I:50(A) Level 1: Supremacy Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I:50(A) Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I:50(A) Level 2: Health -- Mrc-Rcvry+:40(A), Pnc-Heal/+End:50(17) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%:50(A), PrfShf-EndMod:50(19) Level 1: Cold Demonling Level 1: Fiery Demonling Level 1: Hellfire Demonling Level 12: Ember Demon Level 12: Hellfire Gargoyle Level 26: Demon Prince ------------ | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1449;695;1390;HEX;| |78DA5593594F135114C7673A53594AA550905D284B292D1DAA01972737448334413| |6F5894CE85026292DA190E0A30F7E015F8C1B1A3F80CFC62511A3463F83BEE893A8| |2C2A445F140FF3FF878E24E577EFB967F99F33F72697FACB1E9DBB7642510367326| |63E3F9934F30BD6FCAC9D4D799366DA9ED21445293E6F2D9DCAA6AD4C916C42058F| |C9D1C5D9D95CD6E8B7E43F377636EDF638BD383D6D8CCDC8CECC4C8E9829DB5CB07| 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Well, it's not just the 6% s/l; between the three incomplete sets you're missing out on 30% mez resist, which would bump most of the status res from 50% to 80%. But I don't know how critical that is compared to the damage output; stuff can't mez you if it's dead. Good point on Gaussian's; for some reason I was thinking of it only applying to the first attack; not the full 5 seconds. Leadership is a possibility; I would just worry about the toggles being too END heavy.

I've seen a lot of Demon builds that use Hell on Earth as a mule for the unique pet bonuses. What's the advantage/disadvantage to that approach versus what this build does in spreading the procs around the pet summons and putting partial sets in HoE?

I've had a little time to look over the build in detail, and overall it looks pretty solid. I admit I'm curious about the decision to break up the Scrapper's Strike set and lose out on the nice Res bonus. I understand that the Gaussian's proc can give a decent damage boost, but with Blinding Feint being one of the lower damage attacks in the chain to begin with, is it worth the tradeoff? Similarly, I can look at the missed Tox/Psi Res from Hecatomb and Armageddon, though given the infrequency of those damage types I can better understand this (though the mez resistance is still decent). I filled some of the empty slots in the build, mostly with basic IOs. I did drop a Zephyr knockback reduction into Super Jump; figured it couldn't hurt. Also, Celerity's +Stealth into Sprint because why not? The Sorcery pool doesn't really fit with the theme of the character I'm building (science-based), but there aren't really any better options I can find, and RoP is a great Res boost, so I may just handwave it.

Thanks! I'll definitely try this out.

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll definitely try this out. It looks to be pretty solid in terms of Def and Res. I notice there seems to be a lot of focus on boosting recharge; I assume that's for Hell on Earth? On that note, I've been trying to work up my own build and I hit on a very similar list of powers, the one exception being that I took Tactics instead of Afterburner. Is having that extra LotG mule better than the team bonuses from Tactics?

Does anyone have a Demon/Thermal build to share, preferably one that uses at least two of the whip attacks?

I'm working on a Dual Blades Scrapper, and I've heard good things about DB/EA, but can't seem to find any builds for ideas. Does anyone have one they can share?

I've found a Fire/Martial Combat blaster rather fun to play at lower levels, but I've often found what works well at the low end doesn't always hold up at the high end. Is Fire/MA a viable combination for late game, and if so, does anyone have any builds to share?