Coyote

Are you perma haten this post? No that post I liked. The rest, though, I be haten.

Always remember one thing whenever you make a suggestion to IMPROVE a power or a powerset: The sets and ATs and powers have been undergoing balancing for years. Granted, this doesn't always mean that they're perfectly balanced, but it usually does mean that a major change in a power's statistics may need the power to have other statistics re-considered. You want the pets to be permanent? Especially without having to resummon them? That's not an unreasonable suggestion, actually. Where the problem comes from, is that since many builds with temporary pets play quite well and effectively, then increasing the pet up-time to 100% without a great investment in IO sets... will make these builds even more effective. So, in order to keep them balanced, something will have to be weakened in the power. For example, if the uptime of a pet power is increased from 75% to 100% (a 33% increase in the total duration of the pet), then: 1: the pet will make 33% more attacks before they disappear 2: the pet will be around 33% more of the time to pull aggro away from the character 3: the pet will take far less Endurance to maintain So, most likely, the pet's damage (and perhaps their defenses) will have to be lowered by some number in order to keep the power's overall strength where it is currently. This is also not unreasonable. But you do need to state that you're asking for a change in a power, where it lasts longer but does less damage, for example, rather than just asking for a pure buff to a power that is already considered quite strong. I can see how, for gameplay purposes, it is EASIER to not have to resummon... but we shouldn't just boost a power for gameplay reasons. If we change how it functions in a positive way, then we should change its statistics in a negative way, so that it ends up as strong as before. The DPS of a pet power is great. The DPA of a pet power is great. The DPE of a pet power is great. It is hard to argue that they need boosting because they're WEAK, and therefore an argument that they need changing because they're INCONVENIENT needs to acknowledge that they don't deserve buffing.

I like the idea. Except that it really should have a catchier name... something like... Victim Vacuum. Erydanius's Exalted Experience Extractor (available to Magic Origin characters only). Fetch My Next Target. Git Ovah Heah. You, Me, Here, Now. Come To Daddy. Mob, Meet Maker. Destuckificator (or Destuckifier) :p

Exactly. Saying that you're not on board with Devs using their limited time to support something that you don't use? A bit self-centered... after all, I don't play Scrappers, and I'd never think of suggesting that Scrapper improvements are a waste of Dev time. But, still, only self-centered. However, suggesting that you would like Devs to use their limited time in order to REMOVE something that you don't use? Completely mean. Suggesting that this is somehow comparable to someone wanting Devs to use their limited time on PvP? Completely blind. Someone in this thread is not getting something, that's for certain.

Nothing like a tall, cold glass of Hater-ade in the morning. It's the only way to start the day. I be haten this post. So... much... haten.

Isn't a "Crabmind" build one of the highest DPS builds in the game? While also being able to cap Melee/Ranged Defenses with Mez protection and some armor.

Characters suffer a sense of dread when powers are about to expire and they're not yet recharged? Dominators who don't have perma-Dom say Hello. So do Hasten users who don't have perma-Hasten. So do almost all Tier-9 self-buffs from armor sets. My Regen Stalker livers in dread of Instant Healing expiring before it recharges... oh, wait, it's not even possible to make that permanent. And the same for Moment of Glory. Yes, a lot of powers are balanced around the concept of "not always available, due to not being recharged", and many of them are even impossible to make permanent. What is the reasoning why pet powers (from Epic Pools, not even from a Primary or Secondary set) should be available permanently, while we keep Tier 9 powers, Instant Healing, Regeneration/Recovery Aura, and so on, from being permanent? Also, Epic Pool pets CAN be made permanent... and characters make an investment into making powers permanent when there is enough benefit (see perma-Dom, see Phantom Army). If there is such a huge benefit to having an Epic Pet available, and because of that we should make it permanent, then it follows by the same argument that Phantom Army should be made permanent.

/jranger

Is there a specific thread for reporting data problems in Pine's, or would this thread be it? The Containment feature for the Controller AT is completely off, and as I recall it worked fine in the latest version of Mids.

For Epic Pools, I suggest one with a good End management power. For this reason I like Power Mastery and Mu Mastery. Mu also adds a pet. Another good option is Dark Mastery... Thunderclap may not seem like a good power. Nor does Oppressive Gloom. Now, pair them together and you have perma-AoE mezzing at Mag 4. It also has a decent PBAoE End regain power. I agree with /Sonic as being far and away the best secondary for Storm. Multiplying Storm's damage by the approximately 100% -Resist that Sonic can maintain on a single target makes Storm/Sonic a good candidate for highest sustained ranged DPS in the game, while also adding a stacking Disorient that can again make Thunderclap useful.

Empathy can play well with Masterminds as long as you change the play pattern slightly from most MMs. Use Fortitude on the top 2 tiers, as you can maintain it on 3 targets. Keep the Tier1s by you, and send the Bruiser and Enforcers in to take the aggro. You may have to change Sandolphan's MM binds so that you're controlling the top 2 tiers at the same time, or you can do the work and send them in separately, like sending the Bruiser to attack a boss, while using GoTo for the Enforcers to have them support the Bruiser from a little behind him. Use Adrenaline Boost on the Bruiser to help keep him alive, and you can have a strong defensive focus by funneling the incoming attacks to the henchmen who are protected by Fortitude. It takes more micromanagement of pet movements and aggroing than other sets, but it gets you strong defenses and regeneration on the henchmen who are taking damage. It still won't be top tier because you have no -Resist/-Regen powers, but you knew that would be missing when you started Empathy.

I'll read any thread that has Arcanaville commenting ;)

Low levels aren't all that bad, frankly. Possess helps you clear mobs faster, at lower levels the damage scales are not yet very separated, and when they start to separate... you get Freezing Rain, which makes your Veteran Reward powers accurate and improves their damage. It is suprising how much damage the Blackwand does, and how accurate it is, when you shoot it at someone debuffed by Freezing Rain. At 18 you get Haunts, and you don't really suffer much of a period of low damage. You lack AoE damage, but when you're soloing, that's not such a big deal... increase the difficulty by raising the mob levels rather than by increasing "counts as" for party size, and you can focus on fewer targets. You also get more benefit from Possess that way, and you waste less DoT time since you focus on fewer mobs, but for longer periods on each mob. I love the idea of combining Thunderclap and Heart of Darkness, BTW. And Fearsome Stare plus Hurricane is just too much evil... you won't be able to depend on Fearsome Stare's Fear effect since all of you DoTs will break it, but slot it up for ToHit Debuff and it will be great.

General thoughts: Fire likes to be in melee range due to Hot Feet, and this makes Choking Cloud more useful... but I'm not sure if the End drain is sustainable. There will be a LOT of high-cost toggles between HF, CC, RI, and EF. But if you go that route, then you're depending more on rapid-recharge toggles, and less on slow-recharge control powers, and you want to build for End recovery. This would probably be the cheapest route, though you say this isn't much of an issue. I don't see Recharge as a main focus of a Fire/Rad... with mobs Immobilized, and in a Bonfire, with damage being done to them, trying to get Flashfire out a bit earlier is not as beneficial as going for a Ranged Defense build. Adding in Smash/Lethal defense may be useful, but frankly I'd rather go for a Smash/Lethal resistance shield, that way you get both defense and resists against ranged S/L attacks. So if you go with a Ranged Defense build, you can pick up End Recovery bonuses pretty cheaply, and end up with a solid defensive build with good End recovery. Faster Recharge is not that useful, and frankly, your main limiting factor against moving fast is likely to be Recovery and End usage, not Recharge... with good Defenses, you can easily go into a spawn with Smoke, Radiation Infection, Bonfire/Fire Cages, and not worry much about whether the mobs are actually Stunned/Held or not. You can also get Rune of Protection and the Psychic pool for Indomitable Will, so you have alternating mez protection powers so that you don't worry about being detoggled, and then you run pretty fast from spawn to spawn, never worrying about whether control powers are up or not, and with strong defenses. Between Smoke, RI, and 30% defense (easily managed), all the mobs should be floored on their chance to-hit. And if you're trying to solo AVs, you'll want a high Ranged Defense build also since you'll have to tank for the Imps, and solid Recovery so you can keep doing damage and holding aggro for several minutes. So this will work for that, also.

Controllers were my favorite, and still are. But Stalkers have become my favorite melee AT, changed from Brutes.

What surprises me is that in all of the "fix EM" threads I've read over the years, there has been so little discussion about turning ET into either a "bounce" effect or a ball AoE effect centered around the primary target. Other bounce powers use single-target sets (melee or ranged), so this wouldn't affect slotting (unless they switch it to an AoE), and it would both make ET useful and more fitting to the animation.

So what license plate are you planning on? BUFF ET may work, but I think it might be a bit misunderstood :p Frankly, I really think that you should just go with a safe license plate: NerfRegn

Don't these servers run on a 1.5XP multiplier compared to the old Live servers? Also, the game is a lot easier than it was in the early issues, unless you were running specific broken builds, which usually didn't have their special abilities before Level 30 (other than Smoke Grenade). So faster killing and less debt = much faster advancement. For some ATs such as Controllers, also, it would be faster to level now than in the early Issues due to Containment and the Pay 2 Win vendors giving you extra attack powers.

First I've heard of it. CoH has never been a MMO where gear or powersets or powers were used as requirements to join a team or do something, with a very small number of exceptions. Regen Scrappers tanking Hamidon back when they were the only ones with the Regen powerset, for example. Kinetics without Speed Boost usually got comments. But, in general, I never used to hear such comments, and I have not heard such comments now.

I agree. ToHit Debuff is the best slotting for Dark Servant, but it can be argued for someone that slotting for Heals is also useful. I would NEVER suggest to slot an ACCURATE Heal set in it, because then the Accuracy only benefits the Heal, not the Tenebrous Tentacles or Petrifying Gaze... you get more benefit by putting a generic Accuracy IO in there since it helps more powers than just Twilight Grasp. But slotting up the Heal does make sense, because this is one case where you can actually rely on how it uses it. You don't care which target Fluffy uses for its Twilight Grasp, because the main purpose is to Heal, and the Heal is a PBAoE aura around the Dark Servant. And it pretty much spams it. So you can rely on regular bursts of healing around it, so you can make sure that you stand near it, and regularly get healed. So slotting for Heals does make sense.

By the same logic, just slot in one accuracy and call it a day, the slots can be better used elsewhere. The dark servant is more a distraction than anything, since you can’t direct it at all. Dark Servant's Chill of the Night is, I think, a 30% debuff toggle. It's worth slotting up to turn it from a distraction to a "neuter the spawn" ability. Add in that the same slots will boost all of its other -ToHit debuffs, and it's well worth 4-6 slots of Cloud Senses. And in addition, Cloud Senses has a damage proc... when that proc gets to boost like 4 of its powers, it's worth putting it in.

Sarcasm is rarely the best option given that silence is usually also available as an option. In person, you can get away with sarcasm since the humor is usually easier to notice. But on a forum, you're better off not posting than posting only to be sarcastic. And there it is....after you cut off all other avenues of complaining/whining.....you get the "Why don't you just shut up if you're not going to help and/or entertain me?" complaint. Silence is only a desirable option for the person requesting someone be silent. Lack of reading comprehension for the loss. I only say that one should post politely, and that rude posts are worse than no posts at all. If he/she were to post politely about how they manage so well with /Ninja, I'd be quite happy to see them post. Since this was pretty clear in my post, I would suggest that you read it again... before you get snarky with it.

That sounds terrible. Get the Presence Pool, then it's 1 out of 5 :D

I agree completely. We also have Taser animation, which could be a single-target Hold. There are the Seeker Drones... if the animation can be changed to the Targeting Drone, then we have a ranged control/debuff power with effectively new animation. There is Oil Slick, and it can be placed in several ways... like Poison Gas Trap, thrown with a Grenade, or shot from a wrist launcher, and used as a knockdown patch. It would fill the role of a technology-based control set, which right now is hard to manage. Other than Gravity and maybe Electricity, there really isn't much for a technological character.

Heal effects don't work on absolute numbers, but on percentages of their target. Currently, a normally slotted Frostwork provides a +100% HP buff. Halved but put over all three effects, that's a 50% Heal, a 50% maxHP buff, and a 50% Absorb shield. In this case, the 50% maxhp buff is 50% of base HP (50% of 1200, capped to 1600), and the other two effects are 50% of adjusted maxhp (50% of 1600). Got it. I wasn't clear in my numbers, then, since you're misunderstanding what I was saying: when I said 50-50, I did not mean a 50% HP and a 50% absorb buff with 50% being used as a flat value. I mean, 50% of their CURRENT values... I think Frostwork is just over 50% +MaxHP for a Defender, so splitting that up 50-50, would mean about a 25% +MaxHP, 25% Heal, and 25% Absorb. Not a 50% - 50% - 50%, which I agree would definitely be a great improvement and probably too much so. I think compared to a 50% MaxHP buff now, a 25% Heal / 25% MaxHP / 25% Absorb would be a bit of a buff but not unbalanced, and it would satisfy all groups. Those who want to keep it with +MaxHP, those who want to add a Heal component, and those who want to convert it to an Absorb shield.