Nostromo21

And yet another queue, just wanted to have a quick bash (on Excelsior) before lunch, and all you swarming yanks are overloading the server in your Sat night prime-time, bleh. If I transfer my current main to Indomitable, can I then transfer it back once the devs get this under control, or the traffic dies down again??? Surely there's a better way to load-balance virtual servers via instances and whatnot, than having hard-coded server architecture with hard player limits in 2024...

LEGAL! LEGAL! LEGAL! We want stats, stats and more stats PLEASE!!! ;)

Cheers, but that's total server characters - did it have AT/primary/secondary breakdowns, do you remember by any chance...? --- Nm - found it! It's way back in 2020 so hopefully they update it soon with the new influx of players. No surprise - Arachnos and Kheldians are bottom of the list, with Widows right at the bottom. And my Dark/Ninja blaster is almost the least played blaster combo heh. Which boggles as it's so much damn fun, to solo anyway.

I wonder what the least played AT and primary/secondary combos would likely be...? I imagine every single combo of powersets on every AT has been played, but I'm sure there must be a lowest number that have been levelled to 50, whether due to being very weak, just a bad combo (too much crossover/redundancy, no synergy, painful gameplay, super-weak spots, etc). I couldn't even hazard a guess, as I just don't have enough play time and only 62 toons and counting, due to my rampant alt-o-holism, but I'm sure some of you vets and experts will have some idea! ;)

What are the most played/popular ATs (and powersets to a lesser extent) online overall? Would the HC guys have that info I assume...?

Wow! My first ever hero on live, Kelvin Ator - got him to mid 40s on live I think. Nice to finally find a kindred GoT soul, long before that even came out he he.

For therapy...?

I also had a love/hate r/ship with blasters in the past, so played other ATs. But recently I wanted to try one again (deferred Stockholm syndrome?), so after doing a bit of research and looking at various options, I went with Dark/Ninjitsu, mostly for the theme, it also has the 'free' stealth+buff power and some other nice utility from Ninj. Fairly certain that Dark/Dark or even Dark/Temp would pair better with Dark primary, plus I could have just gotten stealth from the concealment pool, but here we are, just dinged 24 and feeling much less squishier and confident than soloing any other blaster in a looooong time. This is more for the OP than yourself of course. ;) On Homecoming you get fast travel powers at 4th level and they are almost maxed out, so enjoy that! Don't forget to go to the P2W vendor left of the big statue in the starting area of Atlas City - she has all sorts of nice freebies :). Also, you can make a few mill influence trivially - there are a number of methods, yell out if you need a couple mill to kickstart you off, I'm @Nostromo online. Or drop your new hero's name here so I can email it to you in-game (I'm from down under so timezone cross-over with NA or EU is terrible).

Don't forget - the rent has come down, way down! ;)

I am really enjoying my Dark/Ninja blaster so far, least squishy blaster I've played. Are you still maining Dark/Dark Snarky, or did you eventually switch to Dark/Temp...? I really wanted stealth (HATE soloing without it!), so it was Devices or Ninjitsu, and Ninj fit the theme for my Darkfriend much better :). Of course, now I realise I could have gotten better stealth just from concealment, rather than Shinobi+Freebird stealth slotted in mystic flight, eh. But Shinobi brings other benefits, and perma-Kuji-In Toh is a really nice fire & forget perma-buff. Just don't see much other utility from Ninj, possibly Golden Dragonfly will pair well with Blackstar for a 1-2 massive PBAoE following Umbral Torrent/TT (with Sudden Acceleration:KB to KD slotted of course). Blinding Powder at Mag 3 sleep/confuse looks pretty sweet too, to add into the mix, albeit short-ranged. Umbral is prob the standout power in DB - with perma-hasten, some innate recharge and a bit of global recharge from the likes of LotG, I should be able to knock em down before they've even gotten up again!

Plugging away at my Dark/Ninja stealth killa!!! :) Just dinged 24 (slow-poke). Using your Mids build for the primary (mostly) Snarky. Now, given some of us can't afford a full set up Superior Defiant Barrage (even the normal version lol!), what would you suggest for Gloom instead? I really like stealth & mystic flight+hover for control & the fast teleport traversal of zones, so I made those a priority earlier on. I mostly solo, eh. I don't plan on taking any melee powers, so mainly using Ninja for what you see below (will grab Blinding Power and Golden Dragonfly later on, at least to give them a try). I have the full sets of Thunderstrike, Artillery & Bombardment for level 27 ready to go, but I could barely scrape together enough to afford those, so not sure how I will ever afford sets like Defiant Barrage, Winter's Bite & Blaster's Wrath, as they go for 10-15million+ *each*! I could scrape together maybe 200mill from all my heroes, but that would leave me destitute, he, he. (the only other similar-ish builds that have come close to being as enjoyable as this are my main, Ill/Dark troller parked at 40, my ranged Window (24) and my darkside Dark/Storm corruptor (<20), which I must play some more) Any/all advise much appreciated from this time-limited, casual power-gamer wannabe! ;)

I used these ones from Carnifax (well., mostly the cheap option ;): Carnifax_Ill-Dark_Controller_cheap_build.mxd Carnifax_Ill-Dark_Controller_full_build.mxd

I've been in IT for almost 40 years. Ask me what I don't know about OS and PD usage and rights ;).

Yes and no. If they floated it into the Public Domain (not just made it Open Source), a fine distinction as it is, it would then be completely leash-less for all to use and enjoy as they please, possibly just with the one caveat of 'not for commercial profit'.

I'm having a blast so far, about to ding 20 (I'm mostly a solo carebear, group sewers are too smelly for my liking! ;). I've pinched a couple set ideas from @Snarky's Dark/Temp build (thanks!) and will pad out the rest with 25 IOs at 23, then slowly replace with sets (as I can afford them) up to 50. I've stuck Executioner's Contract into Moonbeam, not sure if that's better longer term than some of the other options I've seen in various builds). Also have Thunderstrike set erady for Dark Blast and Artillery for TT and I see he has Bombardment for Umbral Torrent + Sudden Accel:KB to KD (I don't mind the KB so much while soloing) + Cloud Senses: Chance for Negative. I skipped Gloom but may add it back at some point, not sure if this is the best power to slot the blaster set (Superior) Defiant Barrage or somewhere else eh. This is the most non-squishy blaster I've played ever, really loving it, especially with fly/teleport AND stealth sorted. I stuck a Freebird Stealth set IO in my Fly power for added stealth, no idea how that stacks with Shinobi, but seems to allow me to get right in mobs' faces without them seeing me :D. I'll def look at adding Cold Mastery Epic when higher, for added tankiness, cheers.

You mean like taking screenshots in higher than 100 pixel rez...? ;-p

Don't even joke about that! Seems it was only temporary, most likely all those casual yanks piling onto the server during our daytime. :D

WoW will do that to you matey. City of Heroes is the only known cure! ;)

Grab the CoHModdingTool here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/21539-coh-modder/ You can then install any mods you like the look of. VidiotMaps is almost mandatory if you like exploration and want to get all the badges and achievements ;).

If you want to mix blasting with stealth, as ppl have said, there are many options among Blasters, Corruptors, Defenders, Stalkers, etc. I've currently having a blast with my Dark/Ninjitsu blaster, but you might try Archery/Devices, to keep it a bit more natural/real ;). Devices and Ninjitsu are the only blaster secondaries that provide stealth, the other ATs have a few more. Btw, in order to get a jump-start on the influence grind, it's really quick & easy to get a free jump pack from the P2W vendor (left side of Atlas City status where you start. Also, get all the other free stuff from the P2W vendor that looks good - in particular I would stack 8 hours of double XP, prestige movement skills, any pet you like the look of, all the free ranged and melee powers (like Nemesis Staff and Blackwand - these are invaluable early on). When you have some cash (see below), you can also stack the cheap offense/defense/survival buffs at only 1K Inf each. I usually go with Inner Inspiration for the prestige utility, as that tops up my Inspirations (temp buffs) when I run out of candy. Then go get the 8 exploration badges in a couple minutes: https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/CoH_Exploration_Badges#Atlas_Park You get 5 merits from them in no time (along with Fast Travel/Teleporter!), which you can convert to 15 Enhancement Converters inside City Hall, to the left at the merit terminal. Those sell on the auction house (just type /ah in chat) for 60-70K inf each, which will give you a very nice head start with a cool million, through to level 20 at least. At level 4 I would almost always get a super travel power: Fly (my favourite), Super Speed, Super Jump or Teleport. These days I mostly go for Mystic Flight in Sorcery, as that's a 2-in-1 flight and teleport which is really nice. Enjoy!!!

Here we go, queues, CTDs, DC errors, Lost Connection to DBServer, 2-3 mins to enter with a hero...glad we got officially licensed finally folks! 🙄

These are fair questions. As one of the devs/hosts I'd be very concerned about revealing my real identity to NCsoft, as that makes lawsuits (even retroactively for the past 3 years of 'semi-legal' hosting) so much easier for them and therefore more likely. Remember, they shut down CoH because they claimed it would impact on their other IPs' profitability, so it's not a huge stretch for them to try and claim damages in arears now. Trust no one. Incidentally, can we get a backup copy of the latest source code/server builds from Homecoming, along with all our character data...? Just asking...

Best news all year! ;) Huge congratz, I for one will continue to support the site and contribute in any way I can. Now, if only Marvel Heroes could end up the same way...but we are talking Di$ney in that game's case, so...

I can never stick with a blaster, although ranged (and pets, stealth) are my preferred play style. Ok, I'm giving this combo a serious go now! ;) The highest I've ever gotten was low 40s ice/fire way back in the live days (Kelvin Ator - my first toon actually :). I now have 60 toons on HC, with at least the 1st 2 pages played to the teens and a 39 + few 20s. Being a casual scrub, I must be doing something wrong with my blasters. I know they are generally best played a blappers, but I really don't like melee, except maybe on my stalkers. So, playing keepings off strictly at range, with the option to bypass trash/content I don't want to do, that leaves 2 secondaries - Devices or Ninjitsu for the stealth power - much prefer Ninj for the look/theme and powers from what I can see (but yet to try). Dark as primary is a no-brainer for me as part of the theme I'm going with (plus I just love it on all my other ATs :). It's got the lowest sniper power at lvl 8 (still can't beat my psychic corr at 2nd!), so I'll let you know how I go, especially as I get past 10th and get Shinobi - should change the entire approach to completing missions I hope. Hopefully the squishiness I always fall prey of with my blasters won't be as bad with this toon, given all the tricks dark and ninjitsu have up their sleeves! :)

Cool. You only have 1 single target confuse though, unlike most Dom primaries which come with a group one. But you do get 3 pets for 5 total AND Superior Invis (which I've always loved), so can't really complain! Electric Assault also gets the earliest sniper attack at 20 (most others are 28), so that might be worth considering as a secondary (plus another pet and some great melee/aoe powers).