Harlequin565

I did a guide here: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,3394.0.html It has almost capped ranged defence as well as S&L. That's my only survivability. I don't bother looking for health or resistance. They miss or I die. I didn't want to spend slots and enhancement money on increasing my survivability for a few more nanoseconds. Some notes... As said already - Total Focus is a "dead while animating" power. Looks cool, but ultimately undoes all your hard work building for defence - Energise. I have a single recharge IO in it. That's enough to keep it perma - Hasten - essential for me and that's with a ton of global recharge on top! (see build in my link) I forgo Powerbolt mainly because I have enough recharge to chain blast, burst and snipe. And my build is a "50" build which means I have Clarion for mez protection so don't need anything else. I rely on speed and mobility, which Stealth would kill (I use SS+Stealth proc in Sprint for invis). THat said - there are more than a dozen ways to skin a cat, so feel free to take what you like & leave the rest :)

I did an Emp/Psi guide back in the "Olden days" which is still pretty relevant. I was going to update it but it's quite long and I have no interest in playing it any more, so it felt a bit daft going to the trouble of writing a guide for something I don't enjoy. https://web.archive.org/web/20120904011100/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=123106 Basically, Empathy relies on long cooldown powers so recharge is the key. With enough recharge, you can maintain Fortitude on lots of people, thus resulting in far less time spent "healing". This was my build at shutdown. It was massively overly expensive but played really well. My issue with Empathy was that it took massive investment to make it decent - unlike some of the other sets. With the state of the market today, it's nowhere near as bad. Hasten is perma with just 1 slot of recharge. Recovery Aura is back 25 seconds after it exhausts and Fortitude recharges in just 13 seconds allowing you to cover an entire team in it. That's not including the Force Feedback proc. It relies on team play and rarely pulling agro for defence which isn't great. Defender blasts are pretty insipid compared to other ATs so as long as you're careful with your AoEs (Scream), you'll do OK. With the silly recharge, TK blast is your bread & butter as a fast activating attack chained with Will Domination, dropping Scream in when it recharges. I tend to apply Fort to Blasters, Cors, Scrappers, Khelds/Villain epics, & Brutes, and Clear Mind to other Defenders, Blasters, Cors, Controllers, Khelds and Doms. That generally keeps you fairly busy. On teams light in these ATs, you can blast a bit more. Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Mellenta: Level 50 Magic Defender Primary Power Set: Empathy Secondary Power Set: Psychic Blast Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Flight Ancillary Pool: Psychic Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Healing Aura (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (3) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (3) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge (5) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (5) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance (31) Panacea - Heal Level 1: Mental Blast (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage (37) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance (39) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge (39) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage Level 2: Heal Other (A) Panacea - Heal (11) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (13) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge (13) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (15) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge Level 4: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (9) Karma - Knockback Protection (11) Kismet - Accuracy +6% Level 6: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (7) Red Fortune - Defense/Recharge (7) Red Fortune - Endurance (9) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance/Recharge (15) Red Fortune - Defense (34) Red Fortune - Defense/Endurance Level 8: Psionic Lance (A) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (42) Devastation - Damage/Recharge (43) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (45) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge (45) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Level 10: Psychic Scream (A) Ragnarok - Damage (17) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown (17) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance (19) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Recharge (19) Ragnarok - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Level 12: Fortitude (A) Adjusted Targeting - Endurance/Recharge (21) Adjusted Targeting - Recharge (23) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff (23) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance/Recharge (25) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Recharge (25) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 14: Super Speed (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 16: Telekinetic Blast (A) Apocalypse - Damage (27) Apocalypse - Damage/Recharge (29) Apocalypse - Damage/Endurance (29) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Recharge (31) Apocalypse - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (31) Force Feedback - Chance for +Recharge Level 18: Recovery Aura (A) Recharge Reduction IO (21) Recharge Reduction IO Level 20: Will Domination (A) Defender's Bastion - Accuracy/Damage (33) Defender's Bastion - Damage/Recharge (33) Defender's Bastion - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (33) Defender's Bastion - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (34) Defender's Bastion - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (34) Defender's Bastion - Recharge/Chance for Minor PBAoE Heal Level 22: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 24: Resurrect (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 26: Regeneration Aura (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (27) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge (36) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (36) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (36) Panacea - Heal Level 28: Tactics (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance (37) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff/Endurance (39) Rectified Reticle - Increased Perception (50) Adjusted Targeting - To Hit Buff (50) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 30: Clear Mind (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 32: Adrenalin Boost (A) Panacea - Heal/Endurance (40) Panacea - Endurance/Recharge (40) Panacea - Hea/Recharge (40) Panacea - Heal/Endurance/Recharge (42) Panacea - Heal Level 35: Scramble Thoughts (A) Absolute Amazement - Chance for ToHit Debuff (37) Absolute Amazement - Stun (42) Absolute Amazement - Endurance/Stun (43) Absolute Amazement - Accuracy/Stun/Recharge (43) Absolute Amazement - Stun/Recharge Level 38: Vengeance (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 41: Assault (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 44: Mass Hypnosis (A) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep (45) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Sleep/Recharge (46) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Recharge (46) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Endurance (46) Fortunata Hypnosis - Accuracy/Recharge Level 47: Psychic Wail (A) Armageddon - Damage (48) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge (48) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (48) Armageddon - Accuracy/Recharge (50) Armageddon - Damage/Endurance Level 49: Hover (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 1: Sprint (A) Unbounded Leap - +Stealth Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 2: Swift (A) Run Speed IO Level 2: Hurdle (A) Jumping IO Level 2: Health (A) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery Level 2: Stamina (A) Endurance Modification IO Level 1: Prestige Power Slide (A) Empty Level 1: Vigilance Level 4: Ninja Run Level 50: Spiritual Core Paragon ------------

Oh boy...

My En/En is softcapped to S/L and Ranged. It feels like this covers a significant amount of incoming fire whether I'm in melee or not. The majority of the def bonusses come from 6 slotting, so you're not gimping yourself as suggested in posts above. Thunderstrike (ranged), Mako's Bite (ranged), etc etc. There's lots of ranged def to be found. In terms of S&L, I went for Scorpion Shield epic. 1 slot that you can get at 35. Add in Manoevers, Weave & CJ and you're doing pretty good. Top it off with the +def uniques and you'll be doing ok. Blasters kill stuff so 6 slot your attacks and kill stuff. Fancy holds, stuns and (lol) sleeps are for other ATs. Not getting hit means getting stunned/held/slept far less. I'd never go resistance on a blaster. Late game enemies have a ton of other effects tagged onto their attacks, so having them just plain miss is best all round. Ranged defence is my top priority. Building for S&L was just for fun. The great thing about Blasters is damage, so if the enemy misses once, they're probably dead. That's why I went Musculature with my alpha - killing them first can be very good mitigation.

Wait... MIDS has the sudden acceleration proc as unique... you mean it isn't?

I have yet to find anyone who can explain to me how to control the KB from Explosive Blast or Nova. There is no surgery to it - that's the whole point. If I have a blaster on my team who is using Torrent as his main AoE and bolt/blast to "precision" strike enemies, he's more likely to get the boot because he's not bringing damage to the table. I'd rather have a defender whose piffling damage will at least come with the benefit of a force multiplying primary. If there's an enemy that needs keeping away from the team because it's dangerous, then it probably has significant resistance to KB. If it's a minion/LT, and the team is scared of it, well... Nova is up in 40 seconds on my build, which is every 3rd mob, or every other mob with a +recharge buff. Nova + Ex Blast = most stuff dead. Anyway, the "KB Bureau" has been created. I'm on Excelsior. Perhaps we can get some En/En teams going and get some love for the Knockback. Stormies are welcome too!

Strangely still 3 for sale. Coincidence?

More info and screenies on this thread: https://forums.homecomingservers.com/index.php/topic,3069.0.html Gravitational Anchor is a purple recipe that sells for between 100 & 10 million. Day 1, I saw it selling for 700, so I put a load of 25,250 bids in. Went to bed. Day 2, No bids fulfilled, but the history was now showing sales for 100. Day 3, No bids fulfilled, but the history was now showing different numbers with sales less than my 25k offers. So either the history window is borked, or someone is finding a way to get their lowball bids through (jerk hackers), or the game isn't fulfilling my bids when it should.

So overnight... No bids fulfilled, but things being bought for less than my offers stand at.

There was something on the old Market forums about drinking other people's tears. This (and remarks like it) make me think of those quotes. SS/SJ gives me speed and manoeverability. Don't get me wrong - if Homecoming ever decides to mod in more power picks, Hover will be the first one I pick up (actually, it'll be the 2nd, after flight). But I can stealth into the middle of a pack. Aim, BU, Nova (which draws agro on click) then Ex Blast or Judgement depending on circumstance. I was on a DA team today as +3 when they were all +0 and it was a huge grinfest of booming. I was tanking better than the Brute (bless him!) I think this is a "mentality" in the game that I identify with strongly. However I'm aware that there are lots that don't. I shall prepare a goblet for their tears.

I wonder if perhaps something similar to RO, or Green Machine is needed. We need a cool name for "we like chaos, flying bodies and giggling inanely". My main is En/En, my 2nd main is Fire/Storm (hoping Eldandil pitches up somewhere eventually to do a fresh guide for them, and TMS' Storm Defender guide was pure gold). I want to pair something nice with Force Field that's fun and lets me use Force Bolt. A. Lot. If I'm on my (boring) Brute or (boring) Tank and I see Storm or Energy in the team, I tell 'em to cut loose. Xp/sec is really not what this game is about. For me. :)

Something definitely weird going on. Gravitational Anchor, Rech/Acc, purple recipe. Lucked across it and noticed that it was selling for 700. Put some silly 25k bids in. Today, I log in, bids unfulfilled, and the screen shows the following. What's weird is the number of unfilled bids (800!!) It would be nice to confirm it's a glitch and not some jerk hacker who's gone to the Americans whilst dupin' his rares.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.962 http://www.cohplanner.com/ Click this DataLink to open the build! Powerbolt: Level 50 Magic Blaster Primary Power Set: Energy Blast Secondary Power Set: Energy Manipulation Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Power Blast (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage (3) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance (3) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge (5) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (5) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (7) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge Level 1: Power Thrust (A) Kinetic Combat - Accuracy/Damage (46) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Endurance (46) Kinetic Combat - Damage/Recharge (46) Kinetic Combat - Knockdown Bonus Level 2: Energy Torrent (A) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage (7) Superior Defiant Barrage - Damage/RechargeTime (11) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/RechargeTime (11) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (13) Superior Defiant Barrage - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/RechargeTime (13) Superior Defiant Barrage - RechargeTime/+Status Level 4: Energy Punch (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage (15) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance (17) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge (17) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (19) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (19) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal) Level 6: Build Up (A) Rectified Reticle - To Hit Buff (9) Rectified Reticle - To Hit Buff/Recharge (9) Recharge Reduction IO (50) Recharge Reduction IO Level 8: Power Burst (A) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage (15) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Damage/Recharge (23) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (23) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (25) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (25) Superior Blaster's Wrath - Recharge/Chance for Fire Damage Level 10: Bone Smasher (A) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage (21) Mako's Bite - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (21) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (27) Mako's Bite - Damage/Endurance (29) Mako's Bite - Damage/Recharge (29) Mako's Bite - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge Level 12: Sniper Blast (A) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Damage (27) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance (31) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (31) Sting of the Manticore - Accuracy/Interrupt/Range (31) Sting of the Manticore - Damage/Interrupt/Recharge (43) Devastation - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge Level 14: Aim (A) Rectified Reticle - To Hit Buff (34) Rectified Reticle - To Hit Buff/Recharge (34) Recharge Reduction IO Level 16: Energize (A) Recharge Reduction IO Level 18: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (34) Recharge Reduction IO (48) Recharge Reduction IO Level 20: Super Speed (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 22: Combat Jumping (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed Level 24: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (33) Luck of the Gambler - Defense (33) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 26: Explosive Blast (A) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage (36) Overwhelming Force - Endurance/Recharge (37) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (37) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (37) Overwhelming Force - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (39) Overwhelming Force - Damage/Chance for Knockdown/Knockback to Knockdown Level 28: Kick (A) Accuracy IO Level 30: Tough (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (33) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (36) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance (39) Unbreakable Guard - Endurance/RechargeTime (45) Unbreakable Guard - Resistance/Endurance/RechargeTime (45) Unbreakable Guard - +Max HP Level 32: Nova (A) Eradication - Damage (39) Eradication - Accuracy/Recharge (40) Eradication - Damage/Recharge (40) Armageddon - Damage/Recharge (40) Armageddon - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (42) Sudden Acceleration - Knockback to Knockdown Level 35: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (42) Luck of the Gambler - Defense Level 38: Scorpion Shield (A) Luck of the Gambler - Recharge Speed (43) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (43) Luck of the Gambler - Defense Level 41: Tactics (A) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff (45) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge/Endurance (48) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Recharge (48) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Recharge/Endurance (50) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - To Hit Buff/Endurance (50) Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control - Chance for Build Up Level 44: Assault (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 47: Victory Rush (A) Range IO Level 49: Super Jump (A) Jumping IO Level 1: Sprint (A) Celerity - +Stealth Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift (A) Run Speed IO Level 2: Health (A) Miracle - +Recovery Level 2: Hurdle (A) Jumping IO Level 2: Stamina (A) Endurance Modification IO (36) Endurance Modification IO ------------

So I finally got my Blaster back to where it was pre-shutdown. Still got plenty of Incarnate stuff to be getting on with, but everything is T3, so I can handle all the content. Blasters require a philosophy. More so than any other AT. People are envious of you. A whole new class has appeared that is trying desperately to be you, but... well... isn't. You will die. You will get complaints. You will get people who can't comprehend how fast you're killing stuff and think it's them. And if you build it right, you'll be dusting yourself off at the end of a fight whilst they're all wheezing and resting and popping greens and slapping their backs at how good they were. Damage or Die. Energy/Energy is even worse. The amount of moaning I had to endure from melee ATs that were incapable of using WASD to chase down what was flopping on the floor with a sliver of health left. Tells from people telling me that there are "KB to KD procs you know". Moaning from Defenders who complained about anchors getting knocked about, or minions getting bumped out of AoE debuffs. Blasters kill stuff quick. We'd be waiting a long time for freezing rain or some green rad debuff to actually kill anything. Find a good Storm defender. Duo the game. That said, the journey to 50 requires teaming. It's a sad and lonely life to 50 solo, so in the interests of team happiness, I eased up on Nova & Explosive blast, hopping over mobs and KB'ing them *back* into the rest of the team with Torrent, serving them up to the fatty tanks on a platter. Energy Primary Everything here is awesome. But you can't have all the powers and some have to go. I dropped the T1 blast (Power bolt) and Power Push (already have Power Thrust) and took everything else. Blast/Burst & Sniper make a great single target rotation, and if you pop yellows your snipe is insta-cast. The build below isn't quite there (even if I added a Kismet) but it only takes one team member to also have Tactics and I'm insta on the snipe. AoE is amazing, which also means that the agro is too. Torrent is an early game lifesaver, taking mobs out of the fight for several seconds, often allowing a (non-instant) snipe to kill nasty Lts. The KB is directional too so it's much easier to throw mobs in the direction you want. Explosive Blast is also very nice but alongside Nova will scatter mobs. That's the reason these 2 powers get the unique KB - KD procs (One overwhelming force, one sudden acceleration). However it may be a while before they are available to you, so be wary of annoying team leaders. Don't worry about the minions, they can't kick you 8) Energy Secondary I took the 1st 5 here and didn't bother with any others. Here's why. The premise behind the build is "death on 2 legs". No farting about with stuns, or mitigation - just damage. Energy Punch and Bone Smasher are quick, high damage melee attacks for anything that gets in your face. You might get lucky with a stun proc, allowing you to back up and use your ranged artillery to deal with them. Melee (for En/En) is not your home. You go there occasionally to visit, but when you're there, you're doing Nova, then GTFO again. Total Focus has great damage, and looks pretty, but it's death with that slow animation. Stun is an utter waste of time as it doesn't kill anything and still leaves you with work to do. Maybe if you're predominantly solo it would work, but in a team situation it's no good. let the controllers do that bit. Power Boost and Boost Range are also total waste of space, but there's space in this build to pick one or both up if you fancy it. I tried Power Boost with Power Thrust for some Hellion pinball in Atlas, but it wasn't as good as a power boosted force bolt. The bubblers win at that game... Energize is amazing. Just a single recharge IO (in this build) is enough to make it perma. Massively better than the old Conserve Power. Fab. Ancilliary Powers Hasten: You need speed. 3 powers for single target ranged, 3 powers for ranged AoE. Having them back faster is awesome and gives you felxibility. Also, getting Energize back fast is really useful. With Hasten on auto though, you need to remember to click it. Combat Jumping: Mobility, a bit of defence and a LoTG holder for more recharge. Essential Travel Power: I have both SS & SJ. It's not possible to fit flight into the build which is all I regret (for theme reasons), but SS & SJ together give you great travel speed and also invisibility (with SS & a stealth IO) in missions. I've done several missions where I've got to the boss and been able to nuke the group (aim+bu+nova+ex blast = death. Add judgement for seasoning) without needing to waste time with team members who can't keep up (are you seeing a picture here?) Leadership: Assault because more damage, Tactics because closer to insta-snipe, and Manoevers for defence and another LoTG unique. Fighting: Trying to eke as much def in the build as I can meant Fighting was important. I'm standing on 43% def to S&L and Ranged which was my goal (I'll talk about why in a bit) Tough is a great proc holder and Weave gives the def and the LoTG slot. Mace Mastery: I had to flip villain side for this (much easier on Homecoming!!) because it gets you a +def shield for 1 power pick, and the Ice shield wasn't a thematic fit anyway. I think it took me 20 minutes to do the arc. Slotting & IOs This is a cheap build compared to my controller which is why it was finished first. The overall goal is recharge and defence. My primary defence is killing everything before it can return fire, but with almost soft capped defence to smashing & lethal (very common elements to most attacks and a *lot* of melee attacks) as well as ranged (fire bolts and ice things hurled at me will use the highest def which would be range) I have great resilience. A single purple puts me over the soft cap, and one team member with manoevers does it too. It makes a huge difference to survivability. Mez protection, which is the obvious hole, is provided by Clarion (Incarnate power) and break frees. Overwhelming Force gives me KB protection which is really nice. That may not be your cuppa. Currently, I'm sitting at 43% def to S&L and Ranged, 50% def to energy and also have a little S&L & Toxic resistance. The expense, is the 2 (catalyzed) blaster sets (12 x 100 merits), the 2x3%def IOs, and the 2 purples (2 x 100 merits). The LoTGs, & Kinetic Combats weren't so bad. The rest was chump change which I was surprsed about because Mako used to be quite expensive. Overwhelming Force was just a lot of Summer Event runs, which also left me with dupes which I sold (which funded the rest). Don't be tempted with Enhancement Converters to try and fill out your set if you only need 1. Just keep running the event and selling the crap. I'm really enjoying this build now, and can ride along on Apex/Tin Mage runs and really make a difference. iTrials are (so far) a breeze and with the KB-KD procs, I haven't had a complaint since hitting 50. The only downside is the number of toggles (I think it's 7!) which means an in-battle rez may not get you back in the fight that quick (unless you go "naked") Those Leadership toggles are SLOW. Hope this was useful! Build below. [Edit to add, there's a 2022 build on page 2 with updated info from the game updates since launch]

[Repost of my old guide - not checked its relevance vs I25 but assuming it's still solid] This is not so much a guide as a help feature for those who don't understand regeneration. I understand Recharge. I understand Endurance recovery. But I could never get my head around Regeneration. Stamina, for example, is a good benchmark for Recovery. For thos of you that remember pre-innate Fitness, you knew how much of a difference Stamina made when you took it at 20. But I never really "felt" the difference Health made. Mainly I think that's because "tough" toons are tough. You expect them to be able to withstand damage and they can have a lot of mitigation as well (even Regen toons). Squishy toons are generally squishy. When they pull a group of mobs, that health bar can go down (mitigation aside) quite fast. Apart from on a /Regen toon, the speed your health comes back is only noticeable when you self-heal, or when you rest. When you're building a toon, those regeneration bonuses look quite hefty. But how much of a difference do they actually make? Thanks here to those that replied to my Regen questions thread [old boards] and also to Plasmic's Regeneration Guide [old boards] which set me off down this road. In some ways, this may seem a repost of Plasmic's thread, but I couldn't get my head round some of the things he said and had to work through it at my own pace. For the tl;dr crowd, download my spreadsheet and play. For the rest of you... Regeneration works by healing a portion of your health every x seconds. At its base level (numbers from City of Data) it's 25% of your health every minute. In-game this results in 5% of your Health every 12 seconds. And this is where it gets confusing. The "real numbers" quote hp/sec regeneration rates, but all this does is give you an idea of your regen rate, because what actually happens, is that (at base) you get NO health back for eleven seconds, then a huge tick of health on the 12th second. Also... So what does it mean to enhance Health? Is it worth plopping a Regen Tissue in Health, or a single Health IO? Those powers that increase your HP. Are they worth slotting with Healing IOs to increase the max HP of your toon? I built a spreadsheet. Dropbox Excel Download Link. It works in conjunction with Mids/Pines and you can play with it in several ways. To Use it... Change the AT in cell B4 to whatever your AT is. This will populate your base HP, capped HP and regen caps into the sheet. No data for Sentinels at the moment. It's easy to add though. You can then fill out columns f & k with your various bonuses - be they set bonuses from IO sets, or powers that increase HP. If you want to do it quickly, just take the summaries from Mids and plop them in. -You can change the "Number of" to 0 to remove them from the calculations. This quickly allows you to see the real effect of removing/adding something -The "Before" numbers assume a single 50 Healing IO in Health and nothing more, so don't forget to add Health back in. -You can also just add percentages to the column to watch the regen rates change if you had a goal (for example) of 1 tick every second. You then know how much regen you need to build for in order to get that rate. B16/17 and B22/23 then show you the output in terms of how often you get a regen tick, and how much HP is healed with each tick. I've also included what the game should say is your HP/sec rates for comparison. The spreadsheet also takes into account you hitting HP or Regen caps. If you chart this, it's not particularly scintillating, and is very basic maths, but you can see how the need for more regeneration is exponential to the time between ticks. This chart is irrespective of AT, as it only affects the time between ticks rather than the the amount you heal (which will differ depending on AT) and zoomed in a bit... Hopefully this will help understanding of Regeneration! Lastly, I apologise for the .xls format of the spreadsheet to those without Excel. I did try converting it to Google Docs but it broke my cell validation list. If someone else wants to convert it - feel free! The calculations aren't that hard. I'd be happy to repost a link in this guide (and give you credit!)

No problem with the naming policy. I can understand people jumping on names they want, but if you have so many that it's a problem for you to log on and rotate them, then as has been said by others, you're not playing the game the way it was intended. I have toons on Torchbearer that I will just let lapse (I jumped to Excelsior but am not deleting my Torchbearer toons!). I suspect people who have the same name reserved across multiple servers will find this a bigger inconvenience - and rightly so. As to the "just change playername to globalname@playername" crowd - nothing is stopping you downloading the code to get cracking with it yourself. Unless you don't have the skill to do it within the timescales you're expecting? Or maybe you don't have the free time because you have a paying job you need to focus on first? If it's outside your area of expertise, suggest it, but don't whine about it. I wonder how the playerbase would react if your name was only valid for 7 days, or 365 when at 50. Meaning you could really only "work" on one alt at once. The problem would be the same for everyone, so all cool names would get shared out. If you stopped playing, your names would all release after a year. It's probably a good job I'm not in charge :)

So I just paid 10M for a super pack and got an XP multiplier as a rare drop and an offence buff as a very rare. This was a lesson to just buy the ATIOs on the market for 10M each. Anyone else feel that the contents of the super packs can vary dramatically? Does it need looking at? Here's one person who won't buy one again.

Poor Empaths. My main (and unfortunately badge hunter) in 2004 was Emp/Psi and I'm glad I don't have to re-roll her. The amount of teams I got turned down from because "we don't need a healer tx" was just frustrating. Unfortunately there are about the same amount of people thinking that "Empathy is all about healing" as there are that think "all Empathy players know how to do is heal".

Low level is not a great time. You suck for End, and do terrible damage. Focus on Freezing rain and Char. Hold the bosses and drop FR to give everyone a 30% damage buff as well as a ton of mitigation. Smoke on mobs to stop accidental agro from team members and Snow Storm on minions at the back of the group. This will pretty much eat all your End. Fire cages & hot feet are just agro magnets and don't do appreciable damage until you reach later levels. Hurricane combined with Fire cages is a *huge* amount of fun. The immob reduces the flying KB to "pushing" them around which allows for full on herdicaning at later levels. It takes practise though and you need immob duration in FC to stay mobile while you're at it. On low level teams that get overwhelmed you can save a wipe by hurricaning and jumping into the fray. Don't do it if the team is ploughing though. It's also great on AVs as it debuffs their acc and they are resistant to the KB. Key pre-30 poewrs for me would be char, freezing rain and hurricane. Fire cages slotted for end redux & acc. The opening of patron pools at 35 is a godsend. I picked up Fireball immediately followed by Fireblast. Damage went up through the roof (containment FTW) but so did End use. Only now, at 50, with a rare cardiac alpha can I comfortably run at full power. And that's with the two Recovery uniques and quite a few 2.5% recovery bonusses. With Thunderclap & Flashfires I have a full on Diso-Queen (©TMS) build and Cinders is just gravy. AVs get all melty when you FR them and drop tornado and lightning storm and imps and hurricane their acc. 50 is the place to be for Fire/Storm. Only take O2 boost if you want to join "need a healer" teams for the giggles. I am far too busy destroying stuff to be healing. :)

Not sure if you want to edit the OP with posted info (to have a master list of useful stuff), but here's my tuppence Empathy Binds: Useful for targeting team members based on their team position using the numpad /bind numpad1 "team_select 1" /bind numpad2 "team_select 2" /bind numpad3 "team_select 3" /bind numpad4 "team_select 4" /bind numpad5 "team_select 5" /bind numpad6 "team_select 6" /bind numpad7 "team_select 7" /bind numpad8 "team_select 8" Powers bound to surrounding buttons... /bind add "powexec_name Healing Aura" /bind subtract "powexec_name Heal Other" /bind multiply "powexec_name Clear Mind" /bind divide "powexec_name Fortitude" And the ubiquitous teleport bind to left shift & click /bind lbutton+lshift "powexec_name Teleport"

Does this mean you could (theoretically) put your L30 Scirocco Dam/End recipe on for sale at 200k, then buy it as a level 50 recipe - effectively "Upgrading" the recipe/enhancement for the cost of the Wentworths fee?

My Fire/Storm will also be returning (currently 41) I have no clue how I'm going to IO her out though...

Depends on the character. My Empath had tons of it. Fortitude recharged in 13 seconds, which meant I could keep it on an entire team of 7 reliably. Perma Adrenalin Boost. The big auras ended up with a 15 second downtime. Long story short - she turned any team invincible on her own. And that's without using a single heal. Accolade powers like Geas also recharged duper fast. Because recharge was so fast, she could chain TK blast and Will Domination on her own. The other (lower damage) attack powers could be left out of the build. Hasten was perma with a single recharge IO. Link to old guide, notes and other rubbish: https://web.archive.org/web/20120904011100/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=123106

Awesome!

Thankyou from the heart of my bottom. Got pulled onto some portal corp missions in PI today as a "lowly" 26 controller working up to being my "main" again. 1st time in PI for 6 years. It was such a huge blast playing with people who are colourful on the screen and colourful in personality. The missed hello $target macros, the inevitable "oops" as someone autoruns into a bunch of mobs... But above all, the banter that's a little RP, a little RL, and a lot CoH. Thankyou.