Jacke

As we come to the end of Yule in Paragon, alas, it appears that Pineapple has gone down to defeat this year. While 6 people chose wisely and 2 gave into abstaining hunger, 14 were deluded into opposing the Noble Topping. Back on the original poll by @Obsidian Light in 2019, Ananas comosus managed a plurality of 207 against 98 (why do I keep encountering this number!?!) busy noshing and 195 of the Pie Rebellion. Consider the max number of poll responses of 500 was reached, some may wonder if the only stuffing was of pizza. No matter. Like many a battle between the Forces of Light Toppings and those of Darkest Desolate Decoration of Dishes, this grudge match will return. I kind of feel like Patrick Troughton. Of course, without the intervention of forces from Galli--what's that noise?--SIGNAL LOST

This is what you want to read. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Window_Scale_Guide Then, after getting things just right, goto Menu > Options > Options window > Windows tab > scroll to the bottom > click the save buttons for Chat, Windows, and Options (note that the buttons for Options are the other way around). That way, when you make a new toon/swap to an unconfig'ed toon, you can load the 3 config files to get that UI just right as well.

At some point even smaller changes will in their cumulative and interacting effects radically change the game. They have done so in the past. Discussing and playing City of Heroes as much as possible as if it was Issue 0 on the Classic Hero Challenge has really emphasized that. And radical changes have been introduced as well. I reconsidered and now see Recharge and Hasten can't be changed independently of each other. Recharge can't be changed without changing Hasten and vice versa. I still think as part of those changes, Hasten should be made an auto power. I think more changes, including radical changes, have to be considered and discussed and revised, because the right change, even the right radical change, is needed in current City of Heroes. And Hasten and Recharge are going to be obvious targets of those proposed changes, as would any feature that is so important and challenging in a build. Changes still need to happen to the game. Some people won't like those changes. Many won't like no changes to existing systems at all either.

Oh yeah, Level 15 and I'm still using Brawl as a filler and low-health mob finisher (base slot with an Accuracy DO) and Rest after nearly every battle (especially against the Vahzilok). And the ST Immob is often the best DPS attack and very useful to pin down tough targets including AVs. And also often the first power dropped when planning a build. It's "Rescue the Mystic". And at 14 you match the highest leveled mobs in Perez Park. Oft times just getting to the door in PP (hopefully only once) is 90% of the "fun". As in Dwarf Fortress "fun". 🙂 Being defeated on a PP door mission and realising you've got to run the gauntlet AGAIN is the other 10%. 🙂 I was mindbogglingly lucky on my Spelunker mission at Level 10 and had the door on a copse edge in the south Park instead of buried in a forest of twisty passages all different. Still think I got dropped at least once getting there. And definitely got dropped try to exit the Park after finishing it.

Two excellent points. Powersets with attacks often have various attack chains that require certain levels of recharge, of which enhancements will only give something in the 95-100% range. Global sources are especially important if exemplaring is considered and no boosts from Incarnate powers or even later power picks are available. The importance is the tactical employment of the toon overall. No toon attacks continuously. A small gap in a chain isn't that detremental and often provides a point to easily add in repositioning, Inspirations, or other click powers like buffs and debuffs. The two points I mentioned in my last point still hold: Adding Hasten so it can be used effectively requires limited resources. Only some cases truly benefit from the levels of recharge that is reachable with Hasten added in. At this point, it comes down to what is possible in a build. As an example, excluding the cases I mentioned above that truly benefit from Hasten, you could PM me a build of yours, as well as under what conditions you want to play the toon (difficulty, exemplaring, etc.) and I'll try my best to recast it in the same style but without Hasten.

@Super Atom, I updated my post above with more details and better flow. Hasten doesn't always increase damage if there are enough powers with enough non-Hasten recharge to form a near-solid attack chain. And there's a diminishing return for more recharge that's significant. A build that approaches perma-Hasten often has enough recharge without Hasten. Two points from above: To include Hasten in a build requires 1 of 4 Power Pool picks, 1 of 23 Power Picks, and 1 of 67 Extra Slots. These are significant resources in a game where the toon builds are always tight. Like Build Up and similar powers, there is added complexity having to mind yet another click power while tactically employing the toon in combat. Hasten is really only necessary if the toon has very long recharge powers and there is very great benefit to getting one or more of them close to perma or back every group of mobs or every other group of mobs (thus every 15s to 45s). Thus Domination, Illusion's Phantom Army, Shadow Meld, etc. For example, my Rad/Rad Defender would like to consider Hasten, but already has 4 Power Pools picked: Concealment, Fighting, Sorcery, and Teleportation. I cannot drop any of these Power Pool picks to free up one for Speed to add Hasten, because to do so would remove powers from the build I want. I build the toon to get enough recharge from IO set bonuses along with powers' recharge enhancement and the 30% boost from Accelerate Metabolism.

On the suggestion: Thank you, @aethereal, for putting this suggestion together and posting it. I agree with your analysis on the difficulty of balancing City of Heroes when aspects of powers, like recharge time, can vary so much. I don't agree on the necessity of high recharge. Many builds can get by on power enhancement recharge reduction and about 50% to 70% global recharge. This is often best provided by IO set bonuses and there is rarely a need for Hasten in every build. @aethereal's proposed solution is interesting. But I don't think even if it was done, it could be done only as he's specified. I suspect many powers would need special tuning and even other aspects changed. The change to IO bonus recharge reduction may need other changes as well. It's likely too radical a change to be done in full strength or without a lot of though, alternate ideas, and revision. But it's good to think about such radical changes. On Hasten: To include Hasten in a build requires 1 of 4 Power Pool picks, 1 of 23 Power Picks, and 1 of 67 Extra Slots. These are significant resources in a game where the toon builds are always tight. Like Build Up and similar powers, there is added complexity having to mind yet another click power while tactically employing the toon in combat. The cast time of the powers is always lost to other use and the buffs they provide can be effectively lessened. Only one click power can be on auto and even that has its own complexities. Consider a mature Incarnate can have--besides attack powers--a click Mez Protection, a Destiny Power, self-buffs, team buffs, and debuffs, with many powers that can never be perma or even close to it and need to be used tactically or in a cycle like Rune of Protection and Hybrid. Off-times it's better to build without Hasten (or the Build Up powers) to simplify the running of the toon and focus on tactics. Hasten also has a small Endurance crash at the end that can cause toggle failure for toons low on Endurance. Hasten is really only necessary if the toon has very long recharge powers and there is very great benefit to getting one or more of them close to perma or back every group of mobs or every other group of mobs (thus every 15s to 45s). Thus Domination, Illusion's Phantom Army, Shadow Meld, etc. I have many toon designs that are tough and still forgo Hasten (and the Build Up powers, especially the non-melee build ups). Others include them where I consider it worth it. I like the idea of making Hasten an auto power. This one change alone would be helpful. EDIT: On second thought, Hasten really couldn't be changed without some changes to Recharge. And changes to Recharge would need a change in Hasten as well. On Stealth: This is the universal in my builds. I always include a Stealth Power, from the Primary or Secondary Powerset or Concealment Stealth. If it isn't Boss-level PvE stealth (65ft+), I add in a Celerity: Stealth in Prestige Power Surge to take it to Boss-level. I rarely use Superspeed, but if a toon does use it, I'll consider using it for stealth. I really like stealth and not getting hit by mobs before I'm ready to hit them. I have one toon right now who won't have this level of stealth. That's my Claws/Dark Armor Scrapper, who's my toon running @ineffablebob's Classic Hero Challenge. Still will have Cloak of Darkness. 🙂

I'd advise not flying in Founders Falls but go on the ground. Which origin? Brickstown has Magic SW, Science ESE, and Founders Falls has Mutant SSW and Tech and Natural in the many twisty passages all different on the East side. In other news, ran my Launch Re-enactor Jacke Shadowclaw (Claws/Dark Armor) from Level 12 to 15. Already did missions from Haley Philips to get to 12, including "Rescue the Mystic" for a future Atlas Accolade; also previously did the first mission from Jill Pastor but still had to turn it in. Tonight, I started out with initial missions from Alphonse Rubel, Willy Starbuck, and Athena Currie. Athena Currie's first mission was "Test the EMP Glove on Clockwork", which gave my toon an Electric Blast power with 30 charges. And I knew after defeating 10 Clockwork NOT to talk to Athena Currie until I'd used all 30 charges, because clearing the completed mission takes away the power (still have 14 or so shots left at the end of the night). Then more missions from Jill Pastor, The Vahzilok Pollutant Plot arc providing the XP to push me to 15 (and 35 Reward Merits for post-40). So, I've got a Travel Power (Super Jump) and I'm ready for a team to run the Old Positron Task Force. It's long, 18 missions, some being Fed Ex, but at least starts with cell contact with Positron. I think it would be the ultimate way to do things Level 15 Issue 0 style. 🙂 https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Old_Positron_Task_Force The mission that got me to Level 13 was in South-West Atlas Park, so I decided to visit Back Alley Brawler to level up. He's just so lonely and out-of-the-way down there. I know if you do the new Atlas Park arcs, you end up down by him likely levelled and wanting training, but it's just another sad fallout of the decision to trash Galaxy City. Which I've disliked for a long time.

I remember things being brutal for Influence from the high teens into the high twenties. This is an issue for the game still. The Homecoming devs expect players to earn Reward Merits (through arc completion, Zone Exploration Badge Accolades, Task Forces, etc), exchange them for Salvage (best is often Enhancement Converters, though sometimes Enhancement Booster or Enhancement Unslotters are better), and sell those on the Auction House to get the Inf to equip their toons. This is currently poorly explained within the game itself, so there is work going on to provide better information to players. But out of the question for a Launch Re-enactor. If things get really bad, I guess you could take drops like Recipes and Invention Salvage and sell them to vendors. Not quite Issue 0, but when the Enhancements turn red, it's kind of hard to continue playing unless you're a /Devices Blaster with Targeting Drone or on a team with Defenders running the Leadership toggles, especially Tactics, and providing other buffs. In other news, I was running another toon today, not my Launcher Re-enactor, but one taking the traditional contacts, so it does apply here. Level 5 and just finished Azuria's missions, so referred to Laurence Mansfield. Who's offering 2 missions, talk to the Kings Row Security Chief. Or a Hellion Hunt mission in Perez Park. Perez Park, where the mobs are Level 7 and up. For a Level 5 toon. Noted the bug and will report it eventually. Not so silly as to take it. Kings Row, here I come. 🙂

This is still a bug for Issue 27 Page 1. Attuned Air Burst IOs cannot be converted as Catagory: Ranged AoE. They also make it near impossible to reasonably convert any Attuned Ranged AoE IO to another Ranged AoE IO set as in the process if they convert to Air Burst, can then only convert as Rarity: Uncommon.

This is still a bug for Issue 27 Page 1. Attuned Exploit Weakness IOs cannot be converted as Catagory: Sniper. They also make it near impossible to reasonably convert any Attuned Sniper IO to another Sniper IO set as in the process if they convert to Exploit Weakness, can then only convert as Rarity: Uncommon.

I ran Jacke Shadowclaw around Steel Canyon today (several times with hospital visits) and took him to Level 12. Now all his Inf has been spent on DOs. 🙂

I propose we get a number of Launch Re-creator Heroes together and run the old original Positron Task Force, as would have been present during Issue 0. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Old_Positron_Task_Force It's still possible to launch this Task Force from an Ouroboros Pillar of Ice and Flame, such as many of us have in our Bases. Do take note of this. After starting the Task Force in a Base, the team can take the Base Teleporter to Steel Canyon, which will deliver them to beside the Base Portal there, very close to Positron. The first mission in the Task Force will be set and the Team Leader will be able to call Positron by cell phone from the start. The team can then run the Task Force much as it was in Issue 0. One of my strong memories of my early days in City of Heroes was this Task Force. In Issue 9 or 10, I ran this on a PUG with my main, AR/Devices Blaster Jack Dark. Got to the last mission with just 2 other team members remaining. But they soon gave up and quit, leaving me with the mission spawned with mobs for 3 players. It was damn hard, with a lot of defeats and runs back from the hospital, slowing clearing the map. But the Old Positron Task Force doesn't have an AV at the end, so even though hard, it was doable. I persevered and completed it. Jack Dark got as a reward a Level 15 Celerity Stealth IO recipe, which I soon crafted and put to good use.

Yesterday, December 26, I was on for several hours on my Claws/Dark Armor Scrapper Jacke Shadowclaw. Started at Level 6, took him through Kings Row and Perez Park missions to Level 10. Here he is exiting a Kings Row warehouse after completing Juan Jimenez's mission to shut down a Skulls drug lab. He's Level 10 as his mez power, Obsidian Shield, is glowing prominently around his head, while Death Shroud's mottled grey effects cover the ground. Just after this he ran a mission for contact Haley Philips in Skyway to rescue a Mystic from the Circle of Thorns in Perez Park. Lucked out as the door wasn't in one of the twisty little forest passages all different, but on the edge of a copse of trees in the south of the zone.

Nothing so easy to lose as a game one thinks is won. 2020 is not yet gone. Please do not taunt it. 2021 is still as through a glass darkly. It could turn to 2020 and say, "Huh. Here, hold my beer and let me show you...."

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I was doing a build for an Illusion Control / Darkness Affinity Controller. And in the build, Superior Invisibility and Shadow Fall won't run at the same time. Is this true in game as well? Do Superior invisibility and Shadow Fall exclude each other from running?

In the Friends display off of the Chat window, all Global Chat Channels joined also have an entry in its drop down selection, so you can see who's on that's a member of the Global Chat Channel as well.

Indeed. .... Clown food ?!? .... Could this be the source...of KILLER CLOWNS !?!?! So, reactionary archer, how many arrows you put down range...TODAY! Maybe too busy fletching because arrows all lost all their feathers! Or maybe goofing off! Maybe you should take a cue...from IGOR! Am authorized to use all glorious content of Comrade Balboa! Including the ultimate training montage!

It's got a few more. And each mixes with the ones before and after. Several stone tool schools. Copper tools. Bronze tools. Iron tools. Steel tools. Woodwinds. Pizza. Bongos. Flight. Salsa. Digital Watches. Peak over-priced twaddle. Warp speed. Overindulgence in convoluted time-travel plots without any attention to the latest in Physics research indicating time travel is always forward at some rate. I just recently tried again the two leader "burgers" from McDonald's: the Big Mac (usually bug-free) and the Quarter Pounder. I'm amazed that a restaurant chain with many good offerings (like on their breakfast menu) can produce something that looks like a burger but in consumption is almost inverse Aristotelian in being not a burger at all, but some vague cooked compressed meat thingie. And has two ways of making this not-really-a-burger. I also have note that despite being the Right Choice, Pineapple is barely holding ground against the Forces of Fruitlessness. 20 votes but only 5 Correct Ones. You know what that means. Training montage! Here we have Comrade Balboa showing us how to prepare! Does Comrade Balboa not epitomise a true Champion of the Workers and Peasants? 🙂 You know what that means. Salsa montage!

Everyone forgets about Galaxy City was also on the Yellow Line. (Get a ton of 2nd gen Shivans dropped on you and it's like the MiB did the cleanup.) Skyway South and Founders Falls Green Line Stations were added in Issue 9. And the Yellow Line and the Green Line were merged in Issue 19.

@Knock!'s post from Dec 4 has the Issue 0 ATs and Powersets. For Defenders, it's: Primaries Dark Miasma, Empathy, Force Field, Kinetics, Radiation Emission, and Storm Summoning. Secondaries Dark Blast, Electrical Blast, Energy Blast, Psychic Blast, and Radiation Blast.

I don't think you mean do the run without enhancements 'cause that would turn this from a fun challenge to crazy stupid hard. I think no-enhancements is only done to get some Flashback Badges for doing arcs with enhancements disabled, but for that there are other tools to compensate that a Classic Hero can't use. If you mean no TOs, with i27p1, you can only get TOs from Base Quartermasters. Bases weren't present in Issue 0 but using Base Quartermasters only to buy TOs is an appropriate compensation. I think most taking this challenge do this: Before level 12 sell all drops, maybe buying a few Accuracy and perhaps Endurance Reduction TOs from Base Quartermasters. Get to Level 12, slot and buy some DOs and sell the rest. Get to Level 22, slot and buy some SOs and sell the rest. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Stores_Inventory Best places to sell (this is still likely true) is the matching Origin Store for DOs and SOs, Freedom Corps Stores for TOs. As @Greycat points out, now all stores buy enhancements for the same price. In Issue 0, the Stores in Steel Canyon and Skyway City sold L15 and L20 DOs (and same-Levels TOs). Freedom Corps Stores sold only same-Levels TOs. In Issue 0, the Stores in Talos Island and IP sold L25 and L30 SOs (and same-Levels similar-Origin DOs and TOs). Freedom Corp Stores sold only same-Levels DOs and TOs. Get to level 30, do the unlock missions for the SO vendors in Brickstown and Founders Falls, the only source of L35 and L40 SOs in Issue 0 (they also sold L30 SOs and same-Levels similar-Origin DOs).

Hit Level 7 and you soon discover that Perez Park is so bad that even the original The Hollows with its crazy runs across the zone was easier. The forest paths. Without Vidiot Maps. You've got a door in there somewhere. Or maybe you're lucky and the door is not in the middle of a big blot of green on your minimap. It's 3/4's of the way across a zone filled with mobs that barely have enough space between them to sneak. Mobs that are higher level than you and your mission. Or worse, your mission is to "arrest" a number of those mobs. And all the ones you can find are Level 10. And up. Circle of Thorns, Clockwork, Hydra, The Lost, Vahzilok. The Hellions and Skulls around the outside are almost a relief. There's a wall around most of the zone, too high to jump over, with only 2 ways in and out near the entrances from Atlas Park and Galaxy City. You've got to get to that door. Do the mission. Then get out. And "going to the Hospital" in Issue 0 means going to the Hospital in the zone you entered Perez Park from, likely Atlas Park. You can get out with the "suicide express" but you can't get in or get back that way. If you on a team, congratulations! You either going to recreate the experience of the Ten Thousand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Thousand But more likely recreate the experience of the Teutoburger Wald. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Teutoburg_Forest Have a nice day too. Just thinking about Perez Park makes me think that I made a mistake going with Dark Armor. 'Cause Cloak of Darkness is only available at Level 20. I'f I'd gone with Invulnerability, Regeneration, or Super Reflexes, I would take Concealment's Stealth and I could have that at Level 6. Now Bases weren't present in Issue 0, so no Base Buff Grant Invisibility to layer on top of that. And no IOs so no Celerity: Stealth at Level 12. But at least with that much stealth in the past I have run past groups where some see me for a bit but I often don't take aggro or can survive the hits. Without it, well.... Have a nice day. Perez Park appreciates careful Heroes!

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