kubwulf

It isn't an issue of the damage per se, rather I was questioning the design. The bar has a 100 max top end. But I've never been able to achieve that. It is an odd design choice to cap at 85.

1) Stop trying to move the goal posts. Either debate in good faith or just stop. YOU specifically said xxx/Dark for a defender are attack powers. These are the powers that allow the defender to do damage if they want to solo. According to you, these attacks were "almost always slotted 5 or 6 damage". Well, yes. ALMOST always. However, there were defenders that opted to slot for the -to hit and relied on the team to do the damage. These were attacks slotted for the secondary. 2) I never said these builds were routine. I have stated, multiple times, that these builds were niche. They were fun alts trying something different. They were not the norm. Attempting to redirect my argument as these builds being the standard is a logical fallacy as I've never said anything to that effect. Now, I've quoted myself here supporting that I've said these were niche and that those of us that engaged in this practice were deviants. So please stop debating as if I've said this was normal and routine. 3) The OP was asking about fire tanks and was led down a rabbit hole about ED. You think ED saved the game. You might be right. You might be wrong. Either way, the niche builds that relied on 6-slotting to make them viable were lost. You can continue to claim they never existed, or you can acknowledge that there was a small population of players that opted to do something different and the implementation of ED killed many of those options.

I use regen as an example because I'm intimately familiar with how ED affected it. YOUR comment, "Nobody slotted secondary effects before ED." is ridiculous. Many of us played since launch. We were max level and bored. Maybe not on your server, maybe not that you saw, but there were plenty of people slotting for secondary effects. Until ED. Simply because YOU think it is ridiculous because you never witnessed it (or never realized it), doesn't mean it didn't happen. The original forums had a section for us deviants specifically to discuss builds with secondary slotting and how to use them in groups. Defenders slotting for -Accuracy, or -Defense were quite popular. Controllers slotting for hold time were equally common. My SG had a weekly thing where we all played xxx/Rad controllers and we all slotted Accelerated Metabolism for a different effect. One of us did run speed, another was damage, another was resist, another was end recovery... It was awesome. Because you never saw it or never did it, doesn't mean that it didn't happen, nor does it mean that the builds weren't viable; because they were. ED killed those types of builds whether you believe they existed or not is immaterial.

I admit, I'm lazy. I did not perform a thorough search of the forums so I apologize if this is covered somewhere, but the terms I did search did not give me what I was looking for. I've been playing my brute for several weeks now, he's my main since returning. My question: Is it possible to get the fury bar past 85%? No matter how many mobs I have on me, no matter how often I'm hitting the mobs, 85 seems to be the max. If it is possible to exceed that point, how?

I, too, played pre-ED. I was that regen scrapper. No Moment of Glory, 6 slots of healing in every power that would take it, and even after I4 and Fast Healing being made clicky, I could still tank most AVs and not die. I can't do that now; even with a 50 regen and all the healing I could get. The difference is, because of ED, it is pointless to put the extra slots in healing powers. So those slots end up in my offense. Most mobs die before I actually need to rely on the regen in combat. From many perspectives, this makes me "more powerful." From the other perspective, niche builds were lost. Perma-Hasten + MoG was the go-to for Regen scrappers and folks like me were looked at with awe when we just wouldn't die even though we didn't have MoG. I didn't do the damage I can do now, but that wasn't what I wanted to build at the time. This is the difference, Wavicle: I can't achieve what I had before ED with certain niche builds that focused on a singular aspect of the character's powerset. I am forced to deal with the diminishing returns and slot powers I wouldn't have prior to ED, simply because the ED makes it not worth 6 slotting. Even with IOs, I can't get 200% regen capability each out of Fast Healing and Integration. The IOs don't provide that much regen, even with set bonuses. When I say that ED killed builds, I'm not denying that there was a shift in "power". ED forced people to go towards damage, and accuracy, and the secondary effects were largely ignored. "Power" is great, but it results in steamrolling of content. No matter how I slot, I can't make an electric blaster that will eat 90% of your endurance with one snipe attack. Before ED, I could. Your definition of "power" ignores the secondary effect builds that added a layer of complexity and nuance to the game and the encounters and allowed two people within the same AT, and same powersets to still feel different and unique. I think ED took that away. Whether it is a good thing or a bad thing depends entirely on your individual playstyle.

But you don't have to go elsewhere. This is what I don't get. You go to the vendor, type /ah see what the vendor is offering, and post for a little higher. Even posting at the same price costs you influence due to the AH cut. I suppose if you've been playing since Homecoming launched and you're sitting on billions of influence it isn't a big deal to you. Also, I come from the WoW market where greed is key. I mean, I know that common salvage is on AH for 100 influence vice the 250 of the vendor, but I understand that because of the vast amounts of it. Selling to the vendor gives you seed money at low levels but I just don't get the recipes going for below the vendor price.

Been back to COH for a little under a month as I write this. Something I've noticed and do not yet understand, is the penchant for people to post on the Marketplace for less than the sale price to the vendor. Often below 50%. The number of times I've seen the vendor offer 10k only to see the same recipe on the AH for 2k forces me to wonder why? If purples go for 10 to 20mil why are yellows and oranges going for below vendor prices? Apologies if this is a retread topic, my search-fu is weak and I write this without the benefit of coffee.

I really have to disagree with you on this. Mainly it comes down to how you define "powerful". I suppose, at this exact point in time, if you level a character to 50 and can take full advantage of the Incarnate system, maybe you can be all that you could be pre-ED, but I doubt it. Pure regen scrappers who just couldn't die because they 6-slotted heals in every power that would take them can not achieve the same level of healing as they had pre-ED. Tankers can't reach defense cap without set bonuses. Scrappers can't hit the same damage numbers they had pre-ED without gulping down reds and IO set bonuses. A lot of what I've seen since coming back is the IO system attempting to roll back earlier changes to make the characters as strong as they were before ED. There were niche builds that allowed an electric blaster to drain you dry with a single Build Up/Aim/Snipe, simply because snipe was 6-slotted End Modification. The damage was crap, but you could drain damn near anything except and AV or GM of end within a few shots. Those builds don't work anymore. At least not while leveling. Post Incarnates, maybe. If you define "powerful" as more well rounded and viable in more situations, yeah, you're right. But I said ED killed builds. There are plenty of builds out there that will not work without being able to 6-slot powers without the diminishing returns.

As many others mentioned, the largest impacts were the fear from Burn, the limitation on how many mobs would take damage from burn, and the aggro cap. The fear was annoying and birthed the wave of Fire/Ice tanks. Drop Ice Patch, drop Burn, mobs can't run away if they're falling over themselves. The aggro cap was hobbling to all tanks, but it really hurt Fire tanks because Burn was, and frankly still is, the primary damage dealing power of the Fire tank. When Fire tanks could no longer grab an entire map, you started to see more Scrankers. With Burn capped at 5 targets, and aggro cap at 15-16 mobs, Fire tanks dropped off the map. ED was a completely different story that killed so many builds.

Which blaster primary currently has the highest up-front damage before slotting? In a head-to-head comparison, which set will do the most damage on the initial hit? I know some powers like Fire have lingering dots that even out the overall damage of the class, but I'm looking for the set that has the highest up-front, I hit you and you're down, damage. Thoughts? Metrics? Addons to compare?

Even back in the day, there were only the core travel powers of Flight, Super Speed, Super Jump, and Teleport. It always amazed me that actual comic characters often had other modes of transportation. If COH were to implement some form of vehicular travel, what would you like to see? Cars, motorcycles, gliders, rope swings... Sky's the limit folks, what's the dream mode of travel that doesn't currently exist in COH that you would like to have?

Having rediscovered COH after years of playing WoW, I fear I am spoiled by the vast amount of addons WoW offered and the customization that came with them. I am having trouble tracking all the things I want to track because I am used to everything being closer to center. I had health and mana bars on either side of my character in WoW, and power trays below my character's feet that allowed me to see most everything I needed to. Yeah, I know, what N00B is bitching about moving his eyes a couple inches to look up in the corner, right? And this is a valid response. My rebuttal is that I've grown used to a certain way of playing MMOs and I wonder if COH has options I haven't found yet. I know I can drag things around the screen, and mess with sizing, but is there more I can do? If you are using a modified UI, post a screenshot if you would be so kind. If you use an addon, some advice on how to install them (I'm used to Overwolf/CurseForge). Cheers!

Hi! New poster here. Oi. Having played when COH first came out, I'm aware that people, like me, are just rediscovering the game. What I have seen in my brief forays into the forums, is that people will ask for a build, someone will post a MIDS or something similar, with no explanation. "Here ya go. Here's a build." As someone returning, some of the powers are new and different to me. Especially incarnates. If I were to ask for a build and copied it exactly, would I really learn anything? Would I know the why of a power or enhancement selection? I think there is a very wide gulf between providing a build, and providing a build with information. Someone else mentioned the lurkers. I think that if more people in the community were willing to post builds with reasoned responses and explanations, @Aurora_Girl would have less of an issue. I'm guessing here, of course. She may well have an issue either way; but it seems to me that the crux of the issue is build posts without knowledge gain.

This is a really good example. Way back in the day (pre-Issue 6 and ED), I played a scrapper that was Spines/Regen. I didn't take the cookie cutter build with Hasten and perma-Moment of Glory. I slotted all my secondaries before my attacks whenever possible and as long as I survived the alpha strike, I would live through the encounter. I used to tank AVs for funsies. According to OP, this fun "I-can't-die-neener-neener" scrapper wasn't "dedicated" because I didn't focus on my primary set. The thing is, when other scrappers were dying to +2s, I was still standing and giving them time to rez. These types of builds are at the heart of CoH. There is no one set way to play, and being "dedicated" to a role is, as so many other have pointed out, highly subjective. Can a Fire Aura tank be effective without Acrobatics or some other form of knockdown protection? Not in my opinion. That doesn't make me correct. In the end, this reeks of "I don't like people playing in a way I don't approve of." from the OP. I think the OP has set themselves up for disappointment as they will run with teammates who aren't "dedicated" and playing the way the OP wants.

That's a bit defeatist, don't you think? Sure, pre-made builds can be an icebreaker, but what the OP is claiming is that people come in, use that icebreaker, and then do not understand how or why it works. They get bored. They are sub-optimal with the build. They are unable to maximize the potential of the build because they don't understand the mechanics behind it. It isn't being passive aggressive to express frustration and upset at people looking for the easy way while lacking the understanding to utilize the easy way. Blaster Defiance is a good example. When it first hit, new people didn't understand why blasters were willing to almost kill themselves and then get upset at healers for "taking away their damage". New players following a build, may not understand that it is meant to be played when you are down 75% of your HP. @Aurora_Girl has a valid complaint. You don't have to agree with it, but that doesn't mean it is passive aggressive.

So on the topic of IOs... Is anything crafted considered an IO? I've been selling the stuff that looks like the old Training enhancements, but it seems from these posts that those are common IOs I should be keeping?

We can discuss the viability of fire tanks elsewhere. Having one, albeit only level 45, and no IOs, allows me to hold the opinion that they suck. This game is great in that you may have found a way to make it viable and have no problem using temp powers to resist knockdown/back and that's great for you. I'm not saying fire is useless, I'm saying it sucks for me.

I guess that's the core of my problem. I don't know what to keep so I'm keeping everything. You mentioned the level 35 stuff. I have a couple recipes at 35, including a couple Kinetic Combat ones. But I don't know why I should keep 35s as opposed to holding out for 50s. I know that the bonus doesn't change, but is it really that effective to slot a 35 and level to 50 with it? Keep in mind, I don't recall salvage from back in the day, it is likely I had to stop playing before that came out.

Newly returned player reporting as ordered, Ma'am! (sir? Other?) I like to ask questions. "Does this still work the way I remember from 10+ years ago?" I'm finding that there are a lot more options in the various classes than I remember and I don't know how they all work. That being said, I've brought a friend with me and he has questions. "How does this work? What power should I take? What's best for X?" My answer is the same: "Read the power. See how it works. There are free respecs in the game, so if you don't like a power, you can change it later. You're under level 30, scrapping the toon and starting over won't kill you. Take a different origin, get different contacts, see more of the lowbie missions." In the end, you learn as you go. Conversely, as a (formerly) experienced player, I'm interested in the meta and whether or not I can look at a build and understand how and why it works for what I want to do. Fire/Spines Brute farmers, for example. Back in the day, Fire/Ice Tanker was the way to go. Gather the map, drop your Ice Patch, Drop burn, use Energy Torrent... After looking at the options and seeing the damage potential, I can see why the Spines/Fire Brute is the preferred build. But I like having the threads and players saying, "Build this." so I can examine it. Then again, looking at a pre-built character and assessing it for strengths and weaknesses is fun for me. Fire will always suck as a general tanker set because of the lack of knockdown/knockback protection. (I hate having to rely on temp powers for something I think should be in the base powersets.) Anyways, that's my 2 influence worth.

Back in the old days, after I got a couple of 50s (and before Incarnates), I enjoyed playing with the secondary aspects of powers. I made an Elec/Elec blaster that slotted end mods to sap opponent's endurance. I didn't do as much damage as I would have if I had slotted dmg, of course, but it was fun to use the Stealth Power Pool and go the PvP zones, snipe a player, follow up with a second attack and watch him drop to a walk because he didn't have enough endurance to use Sprint. It was a troll build, but it was amusing. Perhaps you'll find a powerset that you can enjoy using the secondary effect on.

What's that old adage? You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

I'm a newly returned player and while I made myself a base and have rack upon rack of salvage storage, I still have trouble keeping up with it all. I don't know what I should be keeping, what I should be selling, what other characters are going to need. So how do the experienced members of the community manage their salvage and recipe storage? Is there a way to increase the character storage? Is there a way to increase the personal vault space in the Base? Is the answer even more salvage racks?