Ukase

Looks fine to me. I took my badger there from copying it about a year or so ago, or whenever the lab came out. Currently third. I saw the badges I was missing, so that was nice - and of particular worth was the category.

You're not wrong. Depression, the kind that comes not from the results of bad decisions, but from out of whack hormones in the body - that can lead to so many illnesses, some debilitating.

I spent 30 minutes giving a lecture at my 35th high school reunion on things we can do to keep our parents healthier longer. So many of us, even as we cross over 50 years, we tend to be super efficient in real life, minimizing our movement. And most of us think 30 minutes on a treadmill is exercise. It's better than nothing, of course, but it's not nearly as good as resistance training. Short version: look for ways to install safety bars in their showers, and hand rails on any steps in and out of your house. When older people fall and are left in bed for a week, they can lose 6-10 pounds of muscle. And if you're a little old lady who only weighs 110 pounds, you need all the muscle you can get! And for those of you approaching old age - work on your core strength and balance. It's those falls that break hips that often lead to massive muscle loss and eventual death.

Edit: Please take this feedback with a grain of salt or three. It's been a long time since I played a dominator. I made two yesterday on Excelsior - one to reserve a name for the pending update, and the other just to relearn how to play one so I could give a better sense of what's good and what's not. Given what I've seen my earth/psionic dom do on excelsior, I might have to rethink the dom's abilities to dish out dps. I was convinced they were just short of trash for a long time. Clearly, that was me, not the AT. In fact, I think my inexperience with the AT should probably make null any observations I might have other than "this is cool" or "This was not". So, trying to get a feel for this as an inexperienced player. And that's fair, because I might have 2 dominators among my over 300 characters. I made a pyro/psionic assault dom. At level 10, this thing is just bananas on the very limited "pop into perez park and tackle a mob of level 10 hellions" test. The glittering column is good as an opener, but better as an "oh crap, I'm in over my head" power. The duration of the taunt could be a couple of seconds longer to suit me, but given the damage portion, it's quite acceptable to me. Just a tohit debuff, recharge and damage SO in it now, will be interesting to see how it fares in 30+, if it has much utility at all. I suspect on higher level teams the utility will decrease. Brilliant Barrage - minor typo: Should be "bombarded". Hypnotizing Lights: There needs to be more information here. I'm not a genuine noob, and I'm not the least bit clear what this "deep sleep" is. Some clarity on this would be helpful. Also, from all my experiences, npcs that are slept wake up when damaged. Definitely need more detailed info. Like - how is "deep sleep" applied, and what's the difference between deep sleep and normal sleep? Does deep sleep let them sleep through damage? So, bumped up to level 20. This combo is going to be a LOT of fun, and likely OP. Is a dom supposed to get drain psyche? I didn't see any other sustains in the the secondary options, which is why I went with Psionic. With just the one slot, I hop into a group of about 8 +2's, and a boss...and whittle them down like level 4 hellions. It wasn't easy..I did need to use a green and a purple insp, but it was managed easily enough. I don't think many of my blasters at level 20 would have the ability to do that as easily. If/when I get drain psych recharge lower, this is going to be a ton of fun - I think. I don't have time to try the level 30 range yet. Will edit this post when I finish.

Well, as they say, I'm going to have to get used to disappointment. I don't have it in me to make a build around a power that I'm only going to use in the latter portion of the labyrinth. I thought about a second build, but after reflection and hearing various opinions, the pay-off just isn't there for me. As for speed running, I like zipping through as fast as I can - but fold space doesn't save enough time there. ATT? Team Teleport? Sure. Fold space just brings mobs a little closer to you, maybe saves a few seconds here and there that certainly add up. But a 15 minute ITF is just as nice as a 9 minute ITF for me. I just don't want the 40 minute ITF, ya know? I grasp the delight and joy you must feel using it - but the tradeoff for me is just too high. In about 6 months, I'll probably be up to speed on the new changes. I'm just not going to make a point to learn all these new changes for a character, even if I want to - it's too much on top of real life stuff. There's only so much time in a day. I appreciate your thoughts and insights, though.

That explains that mystery. Thanks!

I would echo this. Not that I have any issue with anyone farming. I've done it. I still do it - but it's usually to get a character over some hurdle that I'm too impatient to wait for. I would also echo this.

This is the build I anticipate respec-ing into when I reach 50. I initially wanted to work the teleport pool into it - but the tradeoffs are too steep in my opinion to make it worth it. This is probably the first character I've made that doesn't have the fight pool, and well..probably one that could benefit from it. But nature has many must have powers, I'd say. Rebirth is questionable; I often wonder if a controller's time is best spent using vengeance, then rebirth - because that's about 5 seconds one could be doing something else. And particularly in the labyrinth - the range of both rebirth and vengeance is often too short to use because of the distance between the mythic fog and the center where those not anchored got sucked into and lay defeated. I thought about adding some range, either through set bonuses, but ultimately opted to go for Intuition Radial for Alpha. Now, my mind isn't made up, it's just my best guess for what's best for the character at this time. I thought about going with scorpion shield and that would allow me to get the fight pool. The survivability would certainly be higher, I'd think. But...how does one pass up Seismic Smash? I don't know that the heal with the absorb, Earth's Embrace is really that important for a natty. But it certainly can't hurt, unless it's at the cost of something like tough and weave. I'm sure there are better approaches to this. And to be fair, once I get the three temp pets out of the labyrinth, I probably won't play it that much. Anyway, just figured I'd ask for some different insights to give me some other things to think about. Like Earth Quake and Spore Cloud. I don't have them slotted terribly well, because I needed/wanted the slots somewhere else. As for the animate stone - I might get rid of it. It's useful in msrs and such to target through. It helps with the dps when solo, sure. But post 50, I don't think it's worth 6 slots. Maybe when the changes in the new patch come? Or should I just table it and wait for the new patch? Mother Mojo - Controller (Earth Control - Nature Affinity).mbd

I have been beating my head into a wall trying to incorporate fold space and earth mastery into an earth/natty build. It can be done...but not by keeping my usual duo power pools of speed for hasten and superspeed, and leaping for combat jumping. I don't enjoy tp as a travel power. It's fine for wide open zones like the shard, or nerva or IP, but for zones like grandville, it's trash. (for me) Also, I can't find a way to get fight or leadership into the build with Earth Mastery requiring fissure. I just don't think it's worth the effort to incorporate Fold Space into a build, particularly if you're going to be soloing. If you're teaming, you'd be relying heavily on team buffs to keep you upright, I think, depending on the difficulty of the content. Not saying it can't be done, but I don't think it's worth the tradeoffs. Fold space really wastes about as much time as it saves on some teams, because the blaster that was going to nuke loses the targets to the scrapper who used fold space. Circumstances vary, of course.

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