Ukase

So, I appreciate your suggestions. The thing is - if I put TB on auto, then I have to manually click hasten (although, fair enough, not as frequently) I have already changed my posted build maybe 4 times in the past 24 hours. As I'm leveling up, I'm noticing how the value of the ATOs and IOs are now getting stronger, making the 4 slots in (really only 3 that actually boost end) in stamina are too many. I should probably wait until 30 or 40 or even 50 to use ATOs, but some of those bonuses seem very nice to me. So, I tend to use them when I can. (and my base is crammed full, and I'm still trying to clear out older characters that I'm confident I'll never play again) Look for some pretty good IOs to go on sale CHEAP in the weeks ahead. Well, cheap compared to prices 18 months ago, lol. Whitecap should have 6 slots, but not with sets, but with damage procs. Or at least 3 of a set and 3 damage procs. Or at least, that's where my mind is at. This is actually one of the more interesting parts of the game right now, finding that balance between dps and res/def. It's going to be different for everyone because of differences in playstyles and skill and content. And other factors. At least, that's my opinion so far. Again, thanks for the suggestions and taking the time to put things together. So, looking at the build you shared, thanks again - I am confused about something. Brine, you have a couple of HO-s for acc/heal. This is a debuff. Not sure how slotting for a heal is going to reduce HP on an npc. Doesn't seem like it would do much good. I mean, it's takes only those kinds of sets, so I guess it works in ...reverse? Weird, but not your creation, lol. Numbers wise, your build looks very compelling, a lot better than the trash I put up.

Why? Do the damage procs not work the same whether they're level 25 or 40 or 50? Or is that just something you like to do?

For those that don't know, this is a pun. It may not have been intended, but it is a pun. See, I was just typing up about the rng dice and all that...dunno how Maelwys knew that...but he nailed it!

I want to echo this. I also want to say that no matter how much accuracy/toHit you may have, you're going to miss. And sometimes, it's going to seem like you put the wrong kismet in, or the wrong kind of enhancement in. While it's in an odd way true that perception is reality, this game and it's rng "dice" will have you swearing off gambling for sure. And then it'll have you getting a 2nd mortgage to head to Vegas and put it all on snake eyes. In this fashion, procs are strange. We slot them, and even at 90% chance to fire, sometimes they don't. I'll ask myself STUPID questions like, "is the fact that I converted this from something else making it fire less often than it should?" or "This damn thing is attuned. Should I take it out and put the level 7 in?" Or maybe that's just me. I'm hyper-sensitive to the whiffs.

I was just about to post that very link, because I find that page invaluable. There was only one thing I wanted to add, and that was my answer to this first question: 1. What % chance is too low to make it not worth slotting (not talking for set bonus reasons)? For me, if the odds of firing in a single target attack are less than 80%, I don't slot it, unless slapping a nucleolus or damage enhancement takes it beyond ED limits. Then I might. The only time procs are really valuable is on difficult single targets. Otherwise, they're going to melt pretty fast anyway. So, for things like AVs, GMs and Pylons, procs are darned useful. But for run of the mill play, I don't think they make any noticeable difference, unless they're in a power that typically does low or no damage. Those are the best ones to proc, imo. For AoE, a lot depends on the character. If I anticipate large groups, then I'll settle for a lower %, like 20%. If I don't, I'll settle for 50%.

This is clever, even if it hasn't paid off for you yet. I was thinking about character names earlier today. And, apparently I still am! We have the implementation of this naming policy taking effect fairly soon - a couple of weeks, if my memory serves. I hope it frees up a fair number of names that will mean more to someone who's actually going to play. But, I am wondering...we've had the discussions ad nauseum, but if there were a way to tell how many days (hours) a player on an account played in total across all characters, in addition to the last time they played...that would be super interesting to me. I mean consider this, someone pops in May of 2019, and then pops out a couple of days later and hasn't come back. They've played a total of 2 hours in that time. Is it really reasonable to hold their name in perpetuity, even if they reached level 50? Again, the discussion has been had, probably to the point of beating a dead horse. But I would weigh in with not only wanting to know the last day they played, but what was the first day they played as well. Because if they only ever played one day, and they haven't come back in 5 years, odds are pretty good they never will. Now, the odds of someone like that getting someone's fantastic or sentimental favorite name are probably low. Very low. Still, it's something I'd be curious about, though they'd certainly never share the info with me, even if they knew a quick and easy way to find out. I hope everyone gets the name they want! Unless it's mine!

So, the nifty thing about this temp is it does 100% damage. Boss, lieut, minion, whatever. So, my typical procedure is to scout the mission, see how many higher level mobs there are. This past time I had 14 lieutenants (just running at +1, no bosses, still getting used to this marine affinity secondary) the other 15 or so were minions. First LT, I use Aim, then the temp....miss. It aggros the lt, so I have choices. I can run away - no real need to do that. I can munch a bunch of yellows, or I can debuff the lt myself with Shoal Rush - it reduces defense, so may as well return the favor. I check my buff bar - the debuffs are gone, and I miss again with the temp. Now, I completely get this can happen, and that this is probably an outlier. Overall, of the 20 charges, only 14 hit the target. So, why not give us 10 charges and make 'em autohit? Something. But this whiffing is inclined to make me start drinking again.

So, I'll start by saying I wouldn't expect or want ALL temps to be auto-hit. But this one, you get 20 shots. The ghosts in this mission already debuff the to-Hit, so once that happens a single miss can cascade into multiple misses, of both the temp and the rest. And it can take an awful lot of keen insights to get back into the positive numbers for accuracy/To-hit. Since it is just 20 charges, I think an auto-hit for this temp would be a nice thing.

I remember a couple of times when we had to deal with multi-blooms - and the solution is simple, though problematic in relaying to the rest of the league. Have an EoE, buff up as before, and only aim to take down 2-3 mitos before we head back to re-buff and redeploy until the mitos are gone. You may trust me when I say I remember how things were with Foxfyre and the rest of the gang wanting to stick with their method. Back then, their position was to not be more efficient because they felt the HC devs would either nerf things for the characters, or buff Hami. I kind of miss Foxfyre. For whatever reason, people would tease him relentlessly, and some of the jokes were pretty funny. I only asked because when I would go into the hive, I would never know who is leading. Because if I knew who was leading I could ask them why they are waiting until 45 past to invite when the zone is already full. It makes zero sense. We're all here, let's start!

May I just say that "Fright Club" is a clever name for it?

As for the OP suggestion, my only caveat would be to recognize in certain council cave maps, you can enter a hallway at the wrong angle and find yourself behind some pipe, and you have to back up and try again, or TP out. I once made a fire tank on retail that was a tall as I could make it, and that was always an issue.

Make a character called John Thomas. Probably from 1860's Europe. Legend has it he was rather gifted.

This is probably more of a destructible object issue than a Marine Affinity issue. This is a repeatable bug. I was doing a level 20-30 vigilante tip mission. The objectives are to destroy 2 psychic containers. I had one at a sliver of health left, and chose to whitecap to finish it off - and I got "target blocked", despite nothing being in the way. I did a 360 around this object, and could not hit it with white cap. Fine, used a blast, and went after the 2nd. Same story. Whitecap would not work on these objects, said they were blocked. It could be Whitecap and some method with how it works, or it could be the objects themselves. <shrug>

There can only be one big toe.

There's an art of sorts to teaming while side-kicked. Get some more practice!

I was kind of hoping someone would post something in here. And while it's way past the date you asked for it, today was the day I finally got around to making my own. I do have an issue with this build. The endurance management while leveling is going to be a problem. I just don't see a way around it, other than doing without certain fight pool toggles, which would leave me with a debt and completing defeats problem. I typically do not post a build without playing it to 50 outside of PL/Farming. But, why not - I've provided the disclaimer that I've no experience in game with this build yet. I'm ignorant of much of what MA does. But, it is a starting point. Not Potable - Corruptor (Ice Blast - Marine Affinity).mbd

Only 12 at a time, then finding 1 or 2 in that place isn't that bad. Thanks!

It's okay that my opinion is different. I just have a ton of characters, so while the selection to show it is easy, it's a lot of "easy" things to do. I suppose there are other folks where the reverse would also be a lot of "easy" things to do. I am also in the minority in not really grasping why other than people making silly judgements about your character, why keeping it a secret is a thing. But, again, why is showing it a thing for me? I guess because a lot of my characters are from when HC opened the doors. Other than that...not a thing. It's really not a big deal. There are so many other things that I'd change before this, I promise. Man...if I could be king for a day...I don't think anything in this game would get changed. I'd be busy working on our economic policies, and some social policies, too!

Interesting. I am thinking of how it would play out if a vendor were changed to increase the price of rare salvage to 500K. I wonder if the price on the AH would go up, or down. Now, that day-dreaming aside, I think I'd like to introduce a level of tedium as a suggestion to Okie and other players. /vault So, we have room for 100 salvage, in addition to what our characters can carry. I've used this in so many silly ways. Some characters of mine have stashed all the rares they receive in there, just to see if they can beat the personal record of 46 rare drops before they reach level 50. I have gotten in the habit of just dropping my rares in the vault, often to my detriment, as I'll end up wanting to craft something and forget to look in there. It's happened enough where I made an SG just for crafting, and my "crafting" characters now belong to it and use the salvage within if they need something. Very tedious at times, I assure you. And I am "flush" as Okie puts it. I do this kind of tedium to keep the inf out of the hands of other marketers who would like nothing more than my inf in their pockets! You cannot have it! Unless of course, I am in need of something you have..then, perhaps. If one can successfully make it routine to toss rare salvage in the vault, and check the vault before crafting, it's not terribly time consuming. The only thing I'm likely to ever vendor is common salvage and GM recipes. I'm still kicking myself for not listing the Hamidon pet recipe when it was going for 100M. And I am grateful that purple and pvp recipes don't show up on the vendor list to sell. Since I don't have an issue with ever selling rare salvage anywhere, as I use it all, (eventually) I'm good with Okie's suggestion.

So, I was a bit curious about this. But not in a good way, I'm afraid. I find that during the "speedy labyrinth" runs, sometimes, I find fogs fairly easily, just by literally taking random doors. And sometimes, this comes up empty. I'll be on a league of roughly 28-32 folks, and we'll get the level shifts fairly quickly. But I'll feel like a free-loader, because at most I find 1 or 2. I've tried using these fog /locs you have, but most of the time, nothing is there. I get that their placement is random. But do we know how many fogs are present at one time? Do we know if it depends on the number of players in zone? You've done an incredible amount of work on this pop-menu, and rather than pester Cobalt, figured I'd just ask here. It would be nice to just zip around and have a good hunch where they'll be, as opposed to relying on RNG/luck.

I know it appears as if I've necro'd a thread. Didn't make sense to me to start a new thread with this question. I have an ice/MA corr on the test server now. Shoal Rush IS a strong debuff, granted. But how is it a heal for the team? (I was on test, and unteamed) I look at the detailed info tab, and there's nothing about it being a team heal. The team heal is Soothing Wave. And for whatever reason on the test server, I've skipped it. (Only level 25 or so, plenty of time to pick it up, but it's been completely unnecessary so far - but I haven't been pushing things either, nor have I teamed with anyone on test.) I'd also be curious after some time has gone by if anyone has changed their tune on MA, and if there are any pitfalls to avoid.

So, this has happened before (a couple of years ago on an ITF); still not real sure of the cause, though I do know the solution. Today, I had two accounts running, but only one on a map. The 2nd was on the character selection screen. I was in the labyrinth, fighting the minotaur, and when I zoned into the arena to attack, my target changed from the mino to a league mate. So, I targeted the mino again - same thing. (same league mate, too) I then targeted the mino again, and used my mouse to fire, instead of the number keys, and had to continue to use the mouse instead of my keyboard until the fight was over to implement the solution. And the solution is to close the 2nd account completely. I've had situations like this happen before, back when I was afk farming on 2 accounts, and actively playing on my first account. Shutting the other accounts down resolves the issue. I'm fairly certain this has nothing to do with the labyrinth, as it's happened before. But I can't reproduce it. I'm only putting it here because of the solution I've found for it, as it might be helpful to others.

I knew it wasn't the proper spelling of Whisper, but for the life of me, I couldn't remember the proper spelling of your handle. My apologies.

Sadly, I'm not a fan of the crash. If your end isn't up, bad things could happen. I've built a PB before, and it's possible to get the resists up to cap for several attributes, but without lightform, no status protection. It's odd. I don't have a problem with other end crashes on other ATs. Probably says more about me than the AT. I have my current PB on the back burner; with the new sheer willpower accolade, there may be a case to be made for bringing it out. Time will tell.

If you play on Excelsior in the afternoon/evenings, you'll eventually come across Goddess Laucianna or Queen Maya, or Whisper or any other number of what seems to me to be predominately Kheldian players. And you'll also be aware that everyone is encouraged to make one, play one and become a kheldian. I have never been a player to get too distracted about a costume for my characters. I often just use the RNG and adjust from there. Sometimes, I'll use the SG costume of Cosmic Council and change the colors and the disturbingly bad hairstyles they have. And since I have no shame, I will admit to going to the discord of other CoH servers, looking in their costume threads and trying to copy some of the more interesting looks. One of the things that's held me back from a kheldian was the appearance of the forms, and the lack of status protection if you wanted to go as a human only form. So, before I make the suggestion that's probably already been made, is there a reason why the dwarf form can't be colored red or something? And the nova form also take on a different shade than the default? It's also a 10 prismatic loss that led me to discover the form changes over-ride the costume toggle. The toggle remains on when you switch back, which is better than nothing, but sorry - the nova form is pretty gross. And the dwarf form isn't much better. I'm sure that's just me, though. I caught wind of something about a "Red Hulk", like the Incredible Hulk we all know of, but I've never come across a Red Hulk. Which is what led me to think of a Red Dwarf. (as opposed to White Dwarf and Black Dwarf) I'm sure someone up on the lore could come up with a reason why a dwarf form shouldn't be Red, or any other color than the default white or black. But aside from lore, do we know of a reason why the dwarf and nova forms can't be adjustable?