Jacke

Hey @ScarySai, @Maelwys, I said I looked at Beanbag and it's still not good enough to fit into my AR/Devices build. Beanbag is a ST attack and would need to replace another ST attack, either Burst or Slug (Sniper Rifle is too good, as is the Pseudo-ST Ignite). (See ST chain below.) Beanbag could maybe replace Burst, but replacing Burst (currently with 2 Procs, Apocalypse chance of Neg Dam and Achilles Heel chance of -Res, as well 4s Base Recharge) would hurt a lot. Beanbag replacing Slug is more likely. Burst has Cast ArcanaTime of 1.188s, DPA of 59.79/s, Base Recharge of 4s, Base DPS of 12.7/s, and Base Range of 90ft. Outstanding feature is 8s -7.5% Def, which means it can slot the Achilles Heel Proc. Slug has Cast ArcanaTime of 1.584s, DPA of 51.61/s, Base Recharge of 8s, Base DPS of 10.56/s, and Base Range of 100ft. Outstanding feature is 25% chance for Mag 1.25 KB. Beanbag has Cast ArcanaTime of 1.056s, DPA of 51.19/s, Base Recharge of 10s, Base DPS of 5.46/s, and Base Range of 60ft. Outstanding feature is 11.92s Mag3 Stun. So, to get that Stun, the build would take a hit on its Range and likely DPS. My current ST chain is: Burst - Ignite - Sniper Rifle - Burst - Slug If Exemplared such that Ignite is disabled, can swap in Buckshot. Beanbag maybe could replace Slug and move that to the start. But the Range is down to 60ft. Build has +10% Range, so that would be 66ft. When Ignite currently has the shortest range at 81.3ft. And I use that ST chain at more than 66ft range. Beanbag is better than it was. But it's still not good enough for me to put into a build. EDIT: Alternately, I could put in Beanbag and replace another Power. Making just a situational Mag 3 Stun. But Beanbag's always been that. I tried it out years ago. But if I use Beanbag and I get that 5% chance to miss, I've got to do something else. So I just haven't included Beanbag and always do that something else. And I don't think I can find any Power in the build I'd want to drop to make room for Beanbag.

Recently, I looked at Beanbag for my main Toon, AR/Devices Blaster. It does more Damage now than it did in the past. But I've developed that Toon since 2005. The build is tight and I don't want to lose any of the existing Powers to add in Beanbag. Just the way it is. When all Powers in a Primary and Secondary Powersets are good, still to fit in the more-than-6 needed Pool/Epic Powers to flesh out the Toon's build so it works well, thus have to skip what are good Powers. EDIT: Looked at it again. I'd almost be willing to drop Slug for Beanbag. But Beanbag has a Base Range of 60ft, while Slug has a Base Range of 100ft. Beanbag has a faster Cast but Slug has betterDPA. Sticking with Slug. For now....

I've written up important advice for the builds of all Toons who depend on the vast majority of Pets and Pseudopets here.

The first thing any Toon that depended on Pets or Pseudopets (example all Masterminds, Traps Toons (8 out of 9 Powers, all but Web Grenade), etc.) needs to do is get their Pets final ToHit close to 95%. The vast majority of Pets do not benefit from the Global Buffs that the Caster has. No Level Shifts (except from the MM Inherent Supremacy), no Global ToHit, no Global Accuracy. Some Pets (like Trip Mine for all ATs) don't even get benefit from the Leadership Auras (there are flags that exclude those buffs). Only Pets who are considered an extension of the Toon benefit from the Global Buffs. The example I use to point this out, especially in CoD2, are 2 Pets on a Electrical Affinity/Electrical Blast Defender: Electrical Blast's T8 Voltaic Sentinel is an extension of the Toon and does benefit from the Caster's Global Buffs. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=defender_ranged.electrical_blast.voltaic_sentinel&at=defender Note the Double Green Box on the right side of the Create Entity Effect, "Boosts are copied to entity". That means the slotted Enhancements are copied (with some restrictions shown elsewhere) to the entity, the Pet. Elsewhere this is called "Use Combat Mods". Note the Double Red Box on the right side of the Create Entity Effect, "Entity has creator's modifiers". That means the Caster's Global Buffs are copied (with some restrictions shown elsewhere) to the entity, the Pet. Elsewhere this is called "Use Caster Mods". Note that the Effects of the Pets are all listed immediately here. Note that in game, the Pet cannot be targeted. Any aggro the Pet gets is immediately passed to the Caster. Electrical Affinity's T3 Galvanic Sentinel is like the vast majority of Pets and Pseudopets and doesn't benefit from Caster's Global Buffs. https://cod.uberguy.net/html/power.html?power=defender_buff.shock_therapy.discharge&at=defender Note there's only a Double Green Box on the right side of the Create Entity Effects, "Boosts are copied to entity". That means the slotted Enhancements are copied (with some restrictions shown elsewhere) to the entity, the Pet. Note that there's a link to a separate Entity page for the created Pet. Where you see a lot of information and links to the Pet's Powers. Note that in game, the Pet can be targets usually (not all Pseudopets of this type can be targeted). This type of Pet includes all Mastermind Henchmen. As well, there is a large and effectively unfixable bug in Mids Reborn: It doesn't recognise this difference and always gives Pets the benefit of the Caster's Global Buffs. You cannot depend on MRB's calculations of the final ToHit chance of the vast majority of Pets and Pseudopets. To avoid calculating every case of the vast majority of Pets, I have 2 rules I use to get the Pet's final ToHit close to 95% in content the Casting Toon may see as +3 (+4 with the Toon +1 due to an Incarnate T3 or T4 Alpha Boost slotted--which the Pet sees as +4 all the time): Slot the Pet Casting Power with ED-capped Accuracy (~93%+). If the Pets has important Attack Powers that aren't autohit and have a Base Accuracy of under 1.2, do one or both of the following: Have the Caster take Leadership's Tactics, even just the base Slot on a Mastermind. Have a -Def Power applied to the potential targets. Two examples of Pets who's Attack Powers have 1.2 Base Accuracy: Devices' Gun Drone Fire Control's Imps Most Pet IO sets do not have enough Accuracy, requiring mixed slotting of different IO sets to get there. This has to be done for ALL Pet and Pseudopet Summons Powers of the second type from above. Some Pet Toons won't have a -Def Power, so in that case they'll often need Tactics. Mastermind Henchmen have other Level reductions from that of the Mastermind that complicates this. Mastermind Supremacy Inherent Power can offset this, but Henchmen need to remain close enough to the MM. I have heard that this won't be changed until other changes go in.

I'm starting to work on new builds for my Dark Armor Toons. The changes for Cloak of Fear and Soul Transfer I can figure from their CoD2 entries. But this one I'm wondering about for all Dark Armor builds for several ATs (Scrapper, Tanker, Sentinel, Brute, Stalker): -- Dark Regeneration versus Obscure Sustenance ? This one is more complex. One feedback I've heard is that a build should take Obscure Sustenance while Levelling but for a final L50 build take Dark Regeneration. The reasoning is that the +Recovery buffs from OS helps Levelling builds but the greater healing of DR helps in final builds. But DR needs to hit mobs to Heal while OS doesn't. OS also provides Regen and Debuff Resistance for ToHit and Regen. Apparently, there's currently a bug in Sentinel's DR that it currently can't take Accurate Healing IOs, which will hopefully get fixed soon. So, questions: Does the above apply for all ATs? How workable or unworkable each is for Levelling and L50 builds for Scrappers? Same for Tankers. Same for Sentinels. Same for Brutes. Same for Stalkers. EDIT: Decided to go with Obscure Sustenance for all 5 ATs, even at L50. Will see how it works out.

It's common, Psy. 😺

Those are the traditional Issue 0 Contacts in Atlas Park,1 for each of the 5 Origins (Magic, Mutant, Natural, Science, Technology), which determines the Mob Gangs the Toon is sent against. A Toon can get 5 of them every 5 Levels. Above the first group, L1 to L5, there are more than 1 per Origin, with usually 3 possible that the Toon connects to 1 of them for each Origin. The Contacts I'm talking about are the ones added much later, a group of 4 each in Atlas Park and Mercy Island. Of each 4, can do the missions of 3 of them during Leveling. The 4th needs to be done by Flashback. Here's them listed as from the 2 Zones: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Atlas_Park Level 1-7 Matthew Habashy └► Officer Fields └► Aaron Thiery └►Sondra Costel └► Aaron Thiery https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Mercy_Island Level 1-7 Operative Kuzmin (Mercy: -1219, 243, -88) └►Fire Wire (Mercy: -2726, 239, 139) └►Doctor Weber ((Mercy: -1037, 238, 525) └►Lt. Harris (Darwin's Landing: -533, 98, -1295)

Welcome back! All your Toons exist on the HC Shards, not locally on your own computer. They're located via the Game Username and Game Password you used to log into the Game Client Program (which connects to the HC servers over the Internet). Glad you're enjoying yourself.

There are 4 Contacts each in Atlas Park and in Mercy Island for those Arcs that were added. You can only do 3 of them from each as there's 2 options in the middle of the runs of 3. Do the missed one via the Pillar of Ice and Flame and you get a Badge for both Hero and Villain starting zones.

I'm planning to have just 1 Energy Blast Toon. An Energy Blast/Atomic Manipulation Blaster. The Secondary has a fast casting Immob that has strong KB Resistance, so it'll turn Knockback into Knockdown, so at least the ST attacks won't need a KB>KD IO. I looked through all the Blaster Secondaries in CoD2 for those with KB Resistance on the target and the faster Cast times. As for Energy Manipulation, I have a long time Toon I need to someday play more often, a Sonic Attack/Energy Manipulation Blapper.

What @Luminara said. For Blue-side, every 5 Levels, there's 5 Traditional Contacts, 1 for each Origin (Magic, Mutant, Natural, Science, Technology), who mostly have missions and an arc or two sending the Hero against a particular mob group or two. For each Origin, there's about 3 to 4 for each 5 Levels that gets selected when your Toon gets high enough. There's also extra Contacts, some mostly added in after the early game Traditional Contacts. And the Police Radio for its missions and the Safeguard missions. Red-side, you have the Paper missions which then lead to the Mayhem mission and then to the Red-side Contacts. Again, some added in more recently. Gold-side, there's 4 Factions (Resistance Wardens and Crusaders, Loyalist Responsibility and Power) and about 4 to 5 Contacts per Faction. With a few added in and more in First Ward and Night Ward. This page lists most categories of Contact: https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Category:Contacts_By_Level I have a Blue+Red-side Completist, a Shield/Rad Melee Tanker. Also run 2 Gold-side Completist, a copy of my main, AR/Devices Blaster, and a Kinetic Melee/Ninjitsu Scrapper.

I agree. I've got 6 Trays in a Stack on the lower-right of my UI. And I use my Commands Popmenu so I don't need common Click Powers in the Trays. And those Trays are already packed by L50. Adding even 1 more Power that I'd need to Click or Toggle on would be a pain. I've heard that the current Incarnate Powers won't get new ones added until Toons have to face much stronger opponents. I do think that the current Incarnate Powers need some sort of rebalance, especially in the details of the crafting. But even that is a major undertaking. I would think that would be done before adding new Incarnate Powers.

@Snarky, I also run Completist Toons. Others in RO like @Bombur run them too, a lot. If the Level Range says "40 to 45", you should assume you have to unlock before L45. Maybe the contact works at L45, but often they don't. Gotta play defensively as a Completist. At least Wes Schnabel has been fixed.

Doesn't matter. It's all Vib Coding with A.I. support to maximize R.O.I.

Buckshot is among the best Cone Attacks in the game. I've not played Assault Rifle on a Corruptor, but I have on a Blaster (my main is an AR/Devices Blaster), Defender, and Sentinel. Buckshot is a fast casting Cone Attack that early on with the Blaster I used as a simple chain: Burst - Slug - Burst - Buckshot, rotating around the sequence as needed. Well, damn. That's kind of brutal. Any idea what's the best AT to run Seismic on if you're going to only roll one? And what Powerset to best pair with it?

Also, despite the name on the recipe and the enhancement, the Preventive Medicine Special is a Global that provides a Proc. It should be L20 or Attuned so it will work down to L17 Exemplared. The Power doesn't need to be used for the Special to have a chance to trigger the Proc based upon on the HP/MaxHP of the Toon.

I'm guessing the player in question has found another use of a 2nd Account Toon, probably a L50. I do a lot of things with 2nd Account Toons, but that's way too excessive for me. What does a L1 need with Accolade Passive Boosts? Mine are too busy at L1 going through Outbreak, Breakout, or the Praetorian Tutorial.

I don't always argue with you. Easily half the time or more I agree with you. In this case, it's a typo. You just need to write up a single Post in that Topic using the text you have used above. I don't know if a GM is able to or will split out a single Post from this Topic and move it to that Topic, which is where typos are supposed to be reported. I always consider the Homecoming Staff as overworked. Anything we can do to help, we should.

That sounds like a text typo in a mission. Which you file in this pinned post in the Bug Report Forum.

I'm not quite sure of the details here. But if it's a Compass direction going wrong, that's something to do with the Beacons which isn't right (I've seen that in Mercy Island). What's more likely, if it's a popup saying "Cap au Diable" when it actually should say "Grandville", that's a typo of some sort in the mission. Which should be reported as a typo with the Contact and Mission. I've done Pither's missions on one Toon. Next time I do them, I'll be on the lookout for that glitch.

In Soviet Kallisti Wharf, YOU get donated! 😺

With Escorting NPCs (ugh): Turn off all sources of stealth (and if you have the Base Buff Grant Invisibility, delete that Temp Power). This helps so much it's not funny. You can get well ahead of the NPC(s) and they'll still find you. Turn off all +Run Speed Powers, including Sprint, as you'll still move faster than the NPC(s) even with them off. As @Psyonico mentions, running backward and looking at the minimap to guide your way is a good way to keep an eye on the NPC(s). Clicking on the NPC(s) to target them, especially with Range turned on, also helps. If enemy show up, from any direction, use what Powers you have to (including stealth Powers that have other effects) to defeat them. Then pick up the NPS(s) again and start from the top. Get to the Exit point, wait for the NPC(s) to catch up and exit. If that ends the Mission, hurrah! Else do whatever else needs to be done.

Here we see the @Snarky Memorial Statue in Perez Parak. Whoops! Looks like Snarky must have had the "good" blood before posing. 😺

I think all the continued existence of KB proves is that there's only so much Power Devs attention to go 'round. There's only a few of them and they can't do everything every Page release.

I've seen other factors that don't show up in Combat Attributes still affect things in Combat. Sometimes, the final value in Combat Attributes is accurate, sometimes not, Would have to test such a Pet and check the Combat Logs to see what the actual final ToHit vales were in a situation where the relative Level difference between Pet and target are known, as well as anything that benefits the Pet like Leadership Auras (which are only disallowed in a few cases like Trip Mine). I've done this before for other Toons, but I don't have any Earth Control, Grav Control, Pyrotechnic Control, or Symphony Toons. I'll try asking in other places to see if I can find out more.