Coyote

CoH doesn't have a block action, but it does have something else that accomplishes a similar role in combat mechanics: guaranteed or high-% knockdowns/back. The purpose of a block is to interrupt the effect of an attack. The purpose of Air Superiority is to interrupt the launch of an attack. Using either at the right time on the right foe IS a matter of skill... block is more "pure skill" since you can't fail to activate a block (though you may time it poorly), while you could activate AS at the right time and miss. But that doesn't mean that there is no skill in using interrupts in CoH. They're just called "mez" powers rather than "block" actions. Replace AS with any short-term mez in your preferred powerset. Look at Ki Push for a perfect example of it... if you time things right, you can fight a Warwulf or Totem and they only get to make one ranged attack at you. Push them when they are animation locked into their low-damage ranged attack, and from then on until they're defeated (unless you roll a miss), all they do is get up, get Held for 2 seconds to bypass the immunity to Knockback, then knocked back again when the Hold ends. Repeat until wiped. Granted, it's simplistic, but doing it at the right time is still a skill. That's just the most extreme example of using attack interrupts in CoH.

I'm at +2/x6 at 50 without a level shift, and they're kinda okay. Definitely on the low damage side, but not so much that it's a chore playing them. But I did get some powers to try to keep mobs in the burning patches... Immobilize, Stun effects, and Provoke are all used to keep the mobs together. Once mobs spread out, OMG, killing them is painfully slow. They ARE strong defensively so it's not like you'll feel overwhelmed, but killing IS usually slow, and can range from slow to painfully slow. Both sets are primarily oriented towards defense, after all.

I solo a lot on Everlasting, but I do have the LFG channel up... and it's pretty busy. Not sure about 3am East Coast, but when I'm on there is plenty of activity. And if I care to start a team, for sure it will have enough players to start missions within 5 minutes.

Lotsa hyperbole. Many new missions like the fights against the two Colonel Durays and Director 11 are pretty interesting and challenging. Older fights aren't as challenging, but just having SOME interesting fights shows that the system can handle it. Save item missions, and save the NPC missions where the NPC is aggressive are also a challenge even for good builds. The Night Ward arc has several challenging missions. Also, a pass to balance set bonuses so that +Defense and +Recharge are less obviously the supreme choices, and other choices become more palatable... is a balance pass, not nerf herding.

Exactly, yes. Soulbound Allegiance's Build-Up multiplies the damage done by a pet by some factor which depends on how fast it attacks... but if the pet is pretty low damage, then getting a 33% increase from the proc may not be as much as adding +X damage to each attack. If the attacks are low damage, then the proc damage may be a more significant increase. This is to damage, though, and Soulbound will add +ToHit also. But usually that's not very relevant to an equal-level pet boosted by Farsight. It's more useful for Tier 1 MM henchmen.

So... we meet again, for the first time and for the last time?

Of course not, it's the Zombies who you'll be setting on fire 😛 Also, if attacking with personal attacks for a Necro MM, always get the Theft of Essence +End proc into Life Drain. Running that as part of a regular attack cycle is like having a second slotted Stamina in terms of endurance recovery.

Rather than Build-Up, you could consider the damage% proc from the knockback set. All of Phantasm's attacks do knockback, and damage procs do better on users with lower base damage on their attacks, like pets.

Forget single-target damage from Ice, you get as much from slotting up the Immobilize from Plant (albeit as DoT). Ice's real strength is AoE with Frost Breath. Because of its size, shape, and recharge, if you don't slot it up for Recharge you can get about 400 damage out of it, and do it at a good range for Plant (mid-range cone like Seeds of Confusion). While Stone is great, its AoE and ST damage are melee range, while otherwise with Plant/Storm you don't really have to go into melee range. Note, if you use Thunderclap a lot, then stacking Stuns from it with Stuns from Fissure IS nice. And, getting +Recharge from a Force Feedback proc in Fissure is great for a Stormy. My slotting for Frost Breath (empty slot is for Bombardment, since Mids doesn't calculate the damage from that proc properly): Resulting stats (add another 64 damage from Bombardment): IMO, that's way better for damage than Fire, and that's without Ice Storm even added in. So if you're looking for damage, the way to go is Ice, not Fire. The real question is: more direct damage from Ice, or more +Recharge from Stone? If you're planning to be in melee range all the time anyway (which usually means NOT using Hurricane, but using Thunderclap), then Stone fits that playstyle. If you're planning to stay a bit out of melee range (which means NOT using Thunderclap but maybe using Hurricane), then Ice fits that range better, IMO.

1: The main benefit of Spectral Terror is the -ToHit (which stacks nicely with the -ToHit from Time's Juncture, so you don't have to worry too much about the defense caps)... so it's generally better to slot it with Cloud Senses (and which gives a Recharge bonus at 4 slots instead of 5). 2: Put that slot into PA with a Soulbound Damage/Recharge. 3: Sup Invis and Group Invis DO stack their defense values (they will both suppress to a lower value in combat, of course). 4: Some exemplaring/leveling suggestions: take the SAME IOs in earlier slots where you can. For example, the +Def IO in Mind over Body costs you the same slots if you take it in Tough instead, but you get the Defense a lot earlier The LotG from Indomitable Will is an extra slot since you're 2-slotting the power, so you could move it to Group Invisibility and get the bonus at a lower levels, costs you the same slots. Swap Deceive and Flash... Flash isn't that useful at low levels with low accuracy, while Deceive is great as soon as you get it. I usually take Flash later when I have more global set bonuses and the IOs are higher level so they get higher Accuracy enhancement, so I'm not going into melee range with a 65% chance to hit higher level opponents. Deceive, on the other hand, has an Accuracy bonus so it's usable immediately.

Demons are a good set in general, and will do great with: Thermal and Cold (both are thematic) Time and Pain (Time is stronger) Dark and Storm (both are more finicky to play effectively)

Thugs MMs do benefit from standing back and firing Empty Clips and Dual Wield for FF procs to try to bring Gang War up faster. But they would be a candidate for the Fighting Pool, since Cross Punch also helps there, and the End cost is a lot more reasonable. As for secondary, I strongly vote for Rad... it gets all of its powers early, it has a good amount of skippables, and it plays well by running into its toggles alongside the Bruiser.

Yes, but it's 3 slots plus one for Coercive Persuasion's proc which is great. So it's a question of whether wasting the last two slots is worth the set bonuses (and, unfortunately, lowering the Endurance Reduction). I'm planning on it, for my Ice/Dark, because Dark has good End Recovery management. With some other secondaries, I might not. But getting the set bonuses for Coercive on a character who has a great +Recovery power was worth the last 2 slots. For some other characters, it may not be worth it.

My Mids shows a change in duration UNSLOTTED: 6x CONCUSSIVE PERSUASION The Confuse duration goes from 3.7 to 7.7 seconds. Also, you DO want to enhance it, because it only has a 30% chance to confuse on each 2-second tick, so you want to push the duration to where even after level adjustment it lasts for 6+ seconds. The reason is that you want a mob to be confused through 3 ticks so that you have about a 2/3 chance that they've been confused by one of the last 3 ticks. With only 2 ticks, the chance drops to 49%, and of course it's only 30% if it only lasts through one tick.

I like how one power opens up the use of other powers... it would be interesting to have a flame armor where you turn on an offensive flame aura that gives you some burning attacks, or a defensive flame aura that gives you an absorb and a heal clickie. Basically, a version of the WS/PB shapeshifting that doesn't lock out your other powers 😞

Came close on a Demons/Time (9 and 8)... and it's down to Temporal Selection against CJ... so I may end up taking Temporal after all.

If someone has an Earth/Storm, it would be possible to stack EQ, LS, Tornado for three rolls at 90%, and check the combat logs to see if they all fire. Then the difference between 15 and 10 seconds of buffing should be obvious (and they all should be able to be cast within the first proc's duration if you start with EQ).

If going Earth against AVs, I think I would suggest Cold as a secondary more than Storm. Storm in general, for going through other missions, since it helps kill faster... but Cold really makes Stoney a tough tank against AVs. Between Benumb's -Damage and the +Defense shields, he can tank a lot more than with Storm, and you get enough -Resist and -Regen to solo AVs even if it's not as fast. You trade off some killing speed against the easy AVs for the ability to handle more of the tough ones. Storm's better overall, IMO, with a strong defensive set like Earth... but for tanking AVs, Cold really makes Stoney shine. Same argument, BTW, with regards to Thermal... getting over 80% resist to Smashing damage as the weakest armor for Stoney, and everything else capped, is nuts and turns Stoney into an excellent single-target Tanker.

That's true for DPS characters. Debuffers also are hurt, but in practice even a weaker Freezing Rain is still good for a team. However, buffing powersets do fine when exemplared up as their main contributing is to improve the effectiveness of the other characters. For example, Transfusion may not be very reliable against +5s, but Fulcrum Shift is still likely to cap the team's damage. Fortitude and Adrenaline Boost still work just as well. I can really see buffing powersets with low damage piggybacking effectively on higher level teams... it's the damage-oriented characters who really don't contribute much.

Well, what kind of acc does one have to have to be "in the dirt"? I'm sure a LOT of teams can do +4/x8 even with half the team having "only" 70% chance to hit as a base. I mean, everyone generally slots up to hit +1 with about 100% accuracy or more, at least, so fighting +4s should still be hitting 2/3 of the time. Add in some Tactics or an AoE -Defense debuff, and even lower levels should hit consistently. I get it that if you're not at 95% you're feeling gimped, but it's not really true. You can still contribute damage, debuffing, and mezzing, not to mention that buffs for the team won't be affected. It's quite possible to be lower level, with worse-than-capped Accuracy and still be a contributing member of the team. Nobody is really going to expect the sidekicked Level 22 without many slots and set bonuses to be putting out the effectiveness of a Level 50 on the team, so if they're both running that difficulty level and inviting lower levels, they're okay with the lower levels contributing some but not being one of the major supers on the team. And that's fine, and if it's not... then why is the Level 22 accepting an invite to a Level 50 team? You should expect that you're not going to contribute as much when you're sidekicking up 20+ levels. In short: lower level characters on high-difficulty higher-level teams aren't really a problem. They're Robins tagging along on Batman's missions, but that's fine if you're prepared for it. And if you're not, then team near the level of your character and you'll contribute more.

Like @greycat and @MTeague, I think that a melee-oriented MM will get the most use out of it. I'm using it on a NinKin, I can see Beasts and Necros also having good use for it (though both Beasts and Necros do have decent attacks while Ninja primary attacks are horribad). And a secondary that pushes you into melee range like Poison or Kinetics or Time would work. Time would probably be best for it while also helping keep the fragile henchmen alive.

Energy is generally great, and the +Recharge that you get from being able to slot FF procs into its attacks help you cycle Total Domination / Mass Confuse faster. It does have a few issues with Mind: 1) Mind is all ranged and uses a cone, so... it wants to stay all at range. Energy's only AoE is melee range. 2) Energy's AoE puts out a weak Stun, which would do better if paired with a primary that also has a Stun effect. Overall, I like the pairing, but I'm not sure that it fits better than Mind/Fire or Mind/Dark, both of which are more suited to an all-ranged style, which would play to Mind's ranged strength. Fire is higher damage, while Dark is higher durability.

Yes, that was a good idea you had in the thread where I asked for secondary suggestions, and I'm going to try it. I posted my planned build there, I think it takes Group Fly around 16. I do recall how Mercs really didn't seem at all underperforming for me on Live, and I'm pretty sure that it was due to one power that's normally considered nice but not a game-changer: Caltrops. Keeping mobs away so that Mercs stay safe and can get more targets in their narrow cones is a huge offensive advantage... live Mercs at longer ranges do more damage than dead Mercs at shorter ranges. Come to think of it, though, that may be true at all ranges 😄

Seems so, check the timestamps on my post above. The FF proc from Tornado starts a full 5 seconds after the FF proc from LS even though Tornado is only fired about a second after LS, so it's queued... but the buff icon and recharge boost in power statistics only drop about 5 full seconds after the Tornado FF proc started. If it didn't last a full 5 seconds after its delayed start, the total duration would only have been about 6 seconds.

Welcome to the Heresy 😄 Redlynne said it great as a summary. I'll add two things to it: 1) The only reason I'm liking a NinKin MM is because I pull aggro to me with Provoke and attacks, and then the damage is distributed via Bodyguard so I'm not getting Genin constantly one-shot. And then I throw an AoE Heal to heal all the chunks of damage that got Bodyguarded out in one cast. If I had to try to wrangle crazy Ninjas while keeping them alive with very little buffing, well, I'd quit the character cold. Sometimes you have to know how to be active rather than reactive, with MMs. 2) I am planning a Mercs/FF MM. Sounds boring and weak, but the DPS of Burst-Slug-Burst-paus is almost 70 DPS... that's more than any tier of henchmen for Mercs. Heck, it's probably a 50% improvement in single-target damage compared to just letting the henchmen shoot the Boss... and it's more interesting and active. Instead of standing there telling them "shoot that guy for me and then get me a beer", I'm showing them how to do it. Probably only the Commando gets it, the others subscribe to the "spray and pray" theory of accuracy. But, being active with personal attacks will increase my DPS tremendously, and it will keep me interested in a fight instead of "shield everyone, give orders, take a bite from a sandwich, yawn".