Ukase

I read that article. I thought their perspective was not aligned with mine very much. I like "speed". I just wish I were better at it! I still have issues moving through a map as fast as folks like Raze and Bloodom, and so many other folks who are in my opinion some of the more competent players. I'm probably a 3rd tier speeder at best - mainly because most of my characters are generally self-sustaining and not relying on team buffs - so I tend to leave a lot of dps on the table. I have an earth/natty controller. It needs an Aeon SF to get the Sheer Will accolade. I see a lot of "speed" runs being recruited for, but just don't feel confident trying to speed with a character that has a dumb pet that spends more time tackling psionic crystals than the AV. (I know, that's not Aeon, that's another SF). I think most team leads for these speed runs are okay carrying a few slower folks, just not too many. I don't think most players give a crap whether it's 10 minutes or 20 minutes. They just don't want it to be an hour when it doesn't have to be. I have been hanging out with the Justice Superteamers on Friday nights. (shameless plug for them) They have this odd bloodlust thing where they like to kill all or most. 90 minutes to do a Renault. It's what I signed up for, so not complaining. But I tell you, you go broke quick doing kill most. Your merit intake is lower, everything is lower. And the xp gains aren't that much better, really. Is it more fun? For some folks who are just getting off work and don't want to sit on the edge of their keyboard and push their character to the limits - yeah, it is more fun. And that's great. They're not forcing you to join them, nor are the speeders forcing the kill all/most crowd to join them. There's room for all of us here. Now, I think the game has plenty of incentives to speed, but even though the pay is reduced by kill all/most, it's still enough to keep playing. And really, that's what marketing is for, to eke out a little extra to fund your alt-itis. Lord only know how deep the pockets are of people who play one solitary character. I am continuing to try and liquidate my many characters that are 50 that I haven't played in over a year. It's damned tedious getting those enhancements out. And selling them cheaply is killing my soul. 5M for a pvp IO? Heresy. But that's another topic. The people who are making changes to the game are doing what they think is best. I don't think they want to play in a ghost town anymore than the rest of us. They'll figure things out. Or they won't. It's that simple. No use getting upset about things beyond our control. Just try things out, keep an open mind, take notes, and report back. That's all we can really do.

I remember when I joined CoH in issue 3. A couple of weeks later, issue 4 dropped, and there were some changes. It seemed kind of bait and switch to me, as I'd never played any MMO before. Folks see a game in the store. They buy it. They keep playing. And then *poof*, for whatever reason, they change the way things work. Is it still the same game? That's a question better answered by a couple of lawyers and a judge in a court of law. It'll never be answered there, because it's too expensive to answer such a silly question. It's probably covered in the terms of service somewhere that the game's publisher can make any changes they like with little or no notice. So, yeah, I can see where "it's not the same game" disappointment comes from. But, so far, there's enough to keep me playing rather then sending me elsewhere in bitter rage or sadness. Now, certainly there have been some people who have demonstrated clearly some real behavioral issues that have often persuaded me to just log off because I can't slap them in real life. But - wait - that says more about me than them, right? So yeah. Leave if you need to or aren't enjoying yourself. You can always come back. But if you're sure you're never coming back, have your characters quit every sg they're in, and delete all your characters, and then quit. That way you're not taking up names that other folks might like to use.

Just anecdotally, my brutes get to about 90% fury when they're in the midst of a large group. But - to be transparent, it often takes a while to get there, and when the npcs are dying off, it drops. I suppose there's room for exaggeration as far as "staying there" goes. It drops to about 70% as I move to the next group. A lot depends on the map, and how much time/distance there is between groups/mobs. In AE, with some of the maps having the ambushes and patrols, it can be fairly simple to sustain it for a while, but even those maps have their limits. In the rest of CoH, except maybe in the monster mash of the labyrinth portion, I can't imagine too many scenarios where a player could sustain over 90%, but I certainly haven't tried everything there is to try with a brute. But that's just my experience with brutes. Certainly others would have different perspectives.

I'm not going to say you're right or wrong here. I'm just going to say that maybe I've been doing it wrong. Survivability? Sure. That's to be expected, having higher base hp than other ATs. But disgustingly high damage? You haven't seen my tanks. Most don't use damage procs, except maybe in one or two attacks. Usually just one. DPS isn't the goal of a tank. The goal is to take a beating for the team/league and keep them as safe as practical. Damage is the role of a scrapper or brute if you're preferring melee play. At least, that's the way it's been forever. This idea that greater target caps allowed for faster clear times on certain tanks with certain powersets might be true for some of the smarter players who can eke out more dps without sacrificing other attributes, but not every tank powerset has burn or foot stomp. (or whatever). And certainly not every player has experienced playing a tank with "disgustingly high damage output". I certainly haven't.

So, with no other mobs around, my animate stone just stands there and won't help me damage/defeat the Eye of Leviathan. Neither will the back up radio or the Lord Recluse Summons. They just walk around and do nothing. That can't be working as intended. EDIT: So, I went to my base, stacked up on super reds and an ultimate, and tried again - and when I used a jet pack to fly in front of the eye, instead of attacking from the side - then they started attacking. So maybe it was a perception issue? Either way, probably not worth looking into.

Okay...now, asking for a friend..well, no, I'm asking for me. How did you discover there were 6 geysers? Did City of Data have that kind of detail? I suppose I could look, but most of those icons might as well be in another language. Either way, that's good information to know and I appreciate your posting it. Crazy how there's always something else to learn in this game for folks like me who are prone to be obtuse.

So, I'm one of the few that enjoy the sounds of Earth Control. I don't relish the very weak dps the AT gives off, particularly in early levels. But, it's got some nice tools in the kit. I've got an earth/rad controller that I haven't played in ...well, years. Since HC first opened the doors. So, I guess I forgot, or never realized how colossally stupid the pet is. I was 4k from reaching level 30. Figured I'd just hunt a +2 or +3 boss. I found a Streng and a Witch, both bosses, both +3. I've got the debuffs, even have some team inspirations for this pet. I lay down earthquake, then quicksand, then fossilize and stone cages. It's all good, if they're hitting anything, they're hitting the pet. It's just a pet, no big deal. I'm on an earth/natty, so I've got Wild Growth, Wild Bastion to buff the pet and myself. And the pet proceeds to run away. And, it drags mobs that were over 100 feet away into this current fray. Now, I managed it okay, got my level by simply ignoring everything but the witch boss, and then dismissed the pet and tp'd to base to train up. After all these years, is the player base to assume this is working as intended? It doesn't make sense to me. Help me see this as what I should hope for and expect. In the missions, I have to literally get closer than 40 feet before the pet will engage in a battle, despite my already engaging. Yet - during this scenario, the pet runs literally 93 yards away to pull more mobs in? Is there a fear factor in the Fir Bolg or Cabalist? Maybe the fire from the Fir Bolg just scared my pet and it found some mobs as it "bravely ran away"? Is there a solution, besides rolling an MM? Seems to me, despite the pending patch, controllers are left without a niche that another AT doesn't do better. MMs have better pets and directions for their pets. Dominators have better holds once they attain domination. What's the point of the controller right now?

I'm not sure I understand the "why". I haven't tried it yet, so it's not really fair for me to complain about how it works...but I really don't want to have to think about how many mobs are in the group to determine quickly in my head if the power will be up for the next group. With practice I'll learn to not use it on a group of more than 4 or something. It just seems like a strange thing to do, but there's way too much for me to test every change proposed so you just get my "why" comment - which is probably answered somewhere, but again - this is a lot to process.

You're speaking of Psionic Armor on the tank? The screenshots of the power took up a bit of room, but there is a power that does provide some ddr. At least, that's the way I read it. Lord knows I've misread things before.

By no means a detailed look - I typically try a powerset as if I'm inexperienced. EDITED: I don't believe I mentioned this was a Psionic/Mace tank. I set my level to 10, and did Shauna Stockwell's arc. I thought.. +1/3 ought to be okay. Not okay. But hey, level 10, only a few slots in the armors. That's kind of on me. Then, I set to level 20, and did the next mission, but buffed the difficulty to +2/3 because the arc caps at 19. Consume Psyche certainly doesn't seem as uber as Drain Psyche does on my blaster, but then again...I'm not looking at numbers for an apple/apple comparison. But still, I think the way it is, simply slotted with the Preventative Medicine Absorb Proc and an origin end mod...it was enough to keep me from needing to use inspirations to stay upright. Just enough. Mind you, I was solo, without the benefit of teammate buffs. So, I think this is probably good to go at these lower levels. Then I set to level 30, opted for a DE mission. Stats that I monitored are: With the difficulty at +2/2, solo, it's fairly simple to tab out and type this with no concerns. To me, normally when I'm solo on a tank, unless it's a fire tank, I'm usually set to 0/4, or even 0/1, just for the sake of speed because a tanker's dps compared to a blaster isn't quite there. But, I would think 2/2 at level 30 should be a fair gauge. Maybe not. So, I set it to +4/4. I quickly got stomped in the ground after a few attack cycles. Take that for what it's worth. Upped my level to 40. New enhancements, so stats are a bit different: Figured I'd try the Pandora's Box 5/5, the jaeger contact. Set to +3/4, and fairly simple. Still had to pay attention to stats because of some of the debuffs, but manageable. Memento Mori - I'm not sure what I think of this power yet. It's really tough (for me) to tell what it's doing or how well/poorly it's doing it. Not helpful, I know. Right now I just have a token end mod slot in it, so I'm not expecting much until I slot it with more. Overall, this is to me, a fine set to play. Is it better than Shield? I don't think so. Is it better than fire? If it had burn, certainly. But I would put it on par with other armors as far as playability goes. None of the armors are the same; each has their differences. I think this is a well-thought out powerset. I'm sure if I spent more time playing it, I could come up with more things to adjust this way or that. And when I do, I'll revisit. So, level 50. Here's the stats just slapping a build together. The only enhancement in Psionic Shield is the steadfast protection 3% def/resist. So, clearly, this could hit the psionic 90% easy, I just didn't see the need. For end game, assuming MSRs and such, I'd probably slap an unbreakable guard set in there and call it a day. From an impromptu, play and slot what comes to mind, I think this set is pretty good. Of particular note are the adaptive recharge additions. I like that feature. I have no idea if this is helpful, but I figured why not? Folks that don't do brainstorm will certainly try it out, and I would think their experiences would only be better, as they're likely teamed up with buffs. Unless they join Snarky on a Posi 1 pug, then who knows.

For me, quicksand is a power to use sub-level 35. Once you get enough other powers, there's a case to be made for dropping it. Anecdotally, let's say I'm level 10, doing a kings row story arc - and stone cages misses on one, but I've already used fossilize on the boss. The quicksand slows them down just enough for the powers to recharge and re-apply. Mind you, there's always the option to just back up and buy time, but that's for scaredy-cats and weak blasters. A controller uses the various tools to control the chaos, or cause it. If I'm just going to pl to 50, I'll likely skip it, unless I want to use the set bonus from Ice Mistral's set. It's a nice set of bonuses. I don't know that's always nice enough for the slots in this specific power, but it depends on the secondary, and how slot heavy it is. Just like every other answer in this game - "it depends".

These two questions are relevant. Particularly the last question. Disappointment tends to stem from two factors: unreasonable expectations, or unrealized expectations. Just my own anecdotal experience, but for most folks, their disappointment stems from unreasonable expectations. People have free will. They tend to have stress from many areas in their lives, and that's under the best of circumstances. For some folks, a trip to the grocery store is enough to bring on stress-induced tinnitus. And we're going to quibble about imaginary loot? A very nice first world problem. Be a part of the solution if you can. You see items that are selling at too high a price? Make some and list them at a cheaper price. I noticed that Eradication: Chance for energy damage enhancements were out of stock on the AH. So, I made about 30 of them and listed them.

I just want to say, although it's likely been said before...there's a lot of good stuff in the labyrinth. I just ran into a malevolent fog that had some odd name like "Fog that gives surprisingly good buffs". I have no idea what kind of buff it gave, I just know we killed it. I'm hesitant to look at my combat attributes to see what kind of buff it gave, lest some minotaur gore me while I'm not looking. My point is - while some may not fully grasp what to do, how to do, or any of the rest of that stuff without some leadership or a fair amount of reading, for the most part I've enjoyed the labyrinth more than any part of the game, except what I call dodge ball, when Battle Maiden is dropping those psionic damage patches from the sky. Going in a door from room X, then going out that same door and not returning to room X - I love that. I don't always want to look in a cave for fog. So, I turn around until I find a better room. And candidly, the juice is worth the squeeze to me.

This I did not know. Appreciate the info. To be fair, I did say I was looking for a 2nd build to be of more utility in the labyrinth, so I think most of Glacier's tips are good. The kismet..I am in the habit of putting it in Combat Jumping, so that's pretty much where I always put it. I've read certain arguments in tight builds not really needing a kismet if you're using tactics. And certainly in the fog today, there were at least a few running. Granted, the npcs are tough critters, and who the heck knows the math for to hit for a 50+3, with a Draught of Fog insp, and 10-12 level shifts on top of that, against the nasty critters in the fog. Not this guy. I've always liked the preventative medicine set. And the Absorb proc is one of those procs that you know works without having to check your combat logs. It's got nice bonuses. Appreciate all the tips and advice, folks. Thanks!

I appreciate you taking a look. And sadly, you were right on the extra lotg, but the better news is, it saves me a slot. I can take the Scaling Damage proc out of Arctic Fog and slap it in vengeance, replacing the extra lotg. I looked at your suggestions and it certainly looks doable. I'll head to Brainstorm and investigate this weekend.

I posted somewhere that I was going to make both ice/natty and a fire/cold corruptors. They are obviously not too far from the very popular fire/natty or ice/cold. Just different enough to make them interesting enough to play. But fire/cold, it's missing something in my attack chain. I think about forgoing Mace patron pool, and going Ice Mastery for the build up and the armor, but then that means giving up a power somewhere else. The main focus of this character is primarily doing the labyrinth of fog, the occasional msr and GM kills. (possibly solo, but typically in a pug league/team) It's already 50. I intend to keep the current build for exemplared stuff, but was wanting a build specifically for the level 50 content that would fill out the attack chain. Just from my playing perspective, the easiest thing to give up is Rain of Fire. There's not much damage to it, unless you count scourge, and even then it's not that much. So, I toyed around with the idea of using Psionic Mastery, as that would give Dominate, a hold that I could proc out. I'm sure there are better ways to build this, but I didn't want the build to be drastically different. Mainly just looking at dropping rain of fire for something that might give more bang for the buck. It still doesn't really solve the problem I'm having though. What I'd like is to keep rain of fire, add Dominate or some other single target attack, and still keep everything else. But I can't drop tactics and still get Vengeance. The only real solution for me is to drop Combat Jumping, and add Flares. I think I'm stuck, but maybe some of you can interpret my dilemma and come up with a suggestion or an inspiration. Element Shift is the current build I have now; it's gotten me to 50 without any fuss. It's certainly not the best build. Element Shift2 is what I'm thinking of making the 2nd build into, essentially changing out Mace for Psionic, and dropping rain of fire for Dominate. I'm not sold on 6 slotting heat loss with the set that's in there, Power Transfer. I thought about using HOs to save slots, and squeeze more of a bonus into somewhere else. To me, in end game, heatloss is more for the debuff than the end recovery, because most folks, as far as I see, don't have end issues in end game, given all the other buffs that are about. But, better to have it than not need it. And maybe the reason they aren't having them is because I use it when it's recharged. Still, the set has nice bonuses, but it enhances the wrong stuff - because end loss isn't a damage dealing power. I'm open to suggestions. Element Shift - Corruptor (Fire Blast - Cold Domination).mbd Element Shift2 - Corruptor (Fire Blast - Cold Domination).mbd

So, maybe 5 years ago or so, I made a Fire/plant blaster. For whatever reason, I sat this guy in day job after day job. Still doesn't have them all, because it's so far back in my pages of blasters. I have a ton of his IOs and ATOs all in the trays, waiting for me to play the character and level it. Here is a post where someone took a poll of what the more popular primary and secondary were for a blaster. I found it interesting that plant was at 0%. That's not to say nobody ever plays them. I'm sure someone does. But they're not popular. As the blaster I made is level 11, I'm curious as to why they didn't get one vote. Granted, the math doesn't support them - although I haven't done the math on Plant, and have never played a plant secondary blaster yet, other than the aforementioned one. What are the pitfalls? Should I just trash this character, or keep giving it day jobs until the secondary gets some fine-tuning in the future? Any prevailing wisdom besides just recommending fire, ice, devices or time secondary?

So, there's pure damage, and there's optimal damage with a balance of survivability and DPS. @loc, who is fairly sharp had an ice/fire blaster build specifically for the 4*LGTF. In that build were some crazy things that I just simply would never do outside of that specific challenge. I know one player who skipped Frigid Protection in their ice secondary because they were always teaming, and fully expected to rely on team buffs to satisfy the endurance requirements. There's no "wrong" or "right" way to play or build a character. But murder machine...so much depends on the content and context of what you're going to be doing. I solo often enough where Assault tends to get the nod over Tactics. (from leadership pool) I also ensure I don't need buffs from teammates. They're nice to get, but if I'm out of position to get them, it's no big deal. I should make a solo build and a team build, and tried it once, but it was tough trying to relearn the character with slower recharge because of certain tradeoffs. So, I suggest making use of Brainstorm, see how you like a build you see before you spend the loot to make it.

So, in an attempt to do some marketing on a grander scale, without having to buy rare salvage, I set about trying to farm with a level 50 fire tank, but the mission would exemp to 24, so that I'd get the 1st tier salvage (10-24) because recipes are cheaper to craft at that level. Now, it can certainly be done. But, because the build just isn't rounded out as well as it is at 50, the killing speed is nowhere near as fast or as efficient. I thought about doing tickets, but because the ticket cap for a map is so low, that is really inefficient. And just going for drops, I'd get the drops I'd want, but the time it takes to get them all, I'd spend my time farming, and not marketing. If I enjoyed farming more, I'd just do it at 50, and not worry so much about marketing. But I much prefer the market to farming. So, there it is. So, yeah, I'm sure someone does farm at low levels, but I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze.

This should be a lesson to me to not be afraid to ask questions when I'm a new player. But back then, I was so ignorant, I didn't even know what I didn't know.

Good eye for detail on the wiki. Yeah, I always have a Celerity: stealth in most of my characters that aren't stalkers or other inherently stealthy types. That would explain why he didn't say anything.

So, I should have probably asked this question years ago. But I never did. As I monitor the help channel, people ask what's the quickest patron, or easiest. BS is usually the reply. And some will add on to auto-complete the kill all. Me, I normally auto-complete the "Assault Malta Base" mission because I never asked the following question. The wiki mentions the Zeus class titan and and the gunslinger as part of the objectives. When on 0/1 difficulty, it's simple to find the Zeus. But there are multiple gunslingers. Is there a trick to knowing which one? I should add, normally I look for the gunslinger that gives dialogue. But this morning, none of them did, only the Zeus. There's like 23-25 goons in the kill all, vs 6 or so gunslingers, and the pesky sappers with them. Seems like a wash to me, when the gunslinger isn't talking. Unless there's some trick?

Back when Cosmic Council was thriving, I had set out to try and find a truly efficient way to get all the badges as organically as possible. It was really just overwhelming. Perhaps Voltor, one of our more accomplished badge folks has a system he could share. There's so many badges...one thing is clear to me, there's a zillion different ways to get them. I like to grab explores as I level up and fill the patrol xp up. The problem is patrol xp per badge seems to be a lower percentage of xp required as you level up, so you can run out of zones to fill the patrol xp up if you play every day. I do think if you have a group, starting in outbreak would be ...inefficient, and here's why: Because Shivans are a defeat npc category, and because Contaminated give the Isolator badge, and because Breakout has that exploration badge, you can get all three of those in Pilgrim's Ouro introduction arc. Disclaimer: It's been over a couple of years since I've done this. I could have forgotten some crucial detail. Mea Culpa. Either way, a group like that would be fun, and I'm sure if you weren't sure about certain methods or tips and tricks on how to get certain badges, you'd learn!

The problem I've encountered is most npcs, even with 0 endurance still attack. And draining end doesn't give you any xp. Drain the Health, then you're doing something. It's probably interesting the first few times, but after that, you realize it's faster and more efficient to just defeat them.

If I'm remembering clearly, it's not the DOT that Blarf does that gets you, it's the -hp he does. Eventually, even a regen character's hp will drop low enough and you die.