Maelwys

Aside from all the fun globals/procs, I tend to use Eradication (Lv30 cap PBAoE Damage) quite a bit for +Energy Defence and +MaxHP... ..and sometimes Cloud Senses (Lv30 cap Accurate ToHit Debuff) for +Energy Resistance and +Global Recharge.... and Reactive Armor (Lv40 cap Damage Resistance) for +Smashing/Lethal Resistance and +Energy Defence... and Touch of Death (Lv40 cap Melee Damage) for +Smashing/Lethal Resistance and +Melee Defence... and Kinetic Combat (Lv35 cap Melee Damage) for S/L Defence... and Shield Breaker (Lv30 Accurate Defence Debuff) for +Smashing/Lethal Resistance and +AoE Defence... Yeah, there're actually quite a few low-level-capping enhancement sets that provide very useful set bonuses. I very rarely 6-slot an enhancement set into a power; it's all about the build goals and set bonuses so Frankenslotting some lower-capped enhancement sets are fair game.

Agreed. The -MaxHP component of Brine could really do with being flagged as Unresistible (and possibly Unaffected by level differences) in order to be worthwhile against exactly the sort of tough single targets that you'd want to use it on.

This has been dropped from the patch note description since Build 2. Honestly? that's a real shame IMO. The Labyrinth genuinely looks like a very fun addition to the game and a viable alternative to AE mission spam - and I really would prefer if the majority of the CoH playerbase did not end up avoiding it like the plague just because "yeah that place is effectively an instant death zone unless you can get >X people together". (Again, basing this on experiences on a Server with a lower active playerbase than usual at odd hours of the day. Perhaps on the higher population servers at primetime it'll be viable as-is; but even on live it was unusual for our Coalition on the EU servers to get a dedicated team of more than 8 people together at a time...)

Bit of a strawman there. This game has always involved the player being a cliché powerful hero (typically a "super" one, although building a "normal skilled human" is quite possible via natural origins and weapon based powersets etc). And core progression sees the player climbing up from level one (catching purse snatchers) to level 50 (saving the world and parallel Earths). That's the setting, that's the story. Then ON TOP OF that you get the opportunity to boost your inherent abilities further via enhancements and inspirations. Later Issues have seen power levels creep higher via leveraging Inventions; then boosting them; and finally gathering additional legendary levels of power from outside sources (Incarnate abilities). Mission Arcs and TFs see your character being the big damn hero multiple times; and whilst powerful nemesis exist in the game (one who is even appropriately named!) they're always survivable and beatable; because ultimately that's what heroes do - the story of how they win just needs to be entertaining. IMO (and I know I'm not alone here) the main draw of CoH is that playing it makes you feel like a hero. You can easily survive fighting huge hordes of foes; you can take on Archvillians; you can save the world. Or you can become a Villian yourself, or some mixture of both. Unlike most MMORPGs; CoH favours creating lots of alts, and its lower-than-level-cap TFs and Story Arcs have a lot of replay value because simply playing the game as it is is fun and engaging. Hardly any of the people I've encountered since 2004 have cared about "loot" or "difficult challenges" - instead they're in it for things like making new fun costumes, trying out different powersets, and enjoying the bedlam that comes from a bunch of friends steamrolling their way through a fun storyline where they don't have to overly worry about being punished for misclicking or going AFK for a few minutes. Personally, one of my very favourite things to do after a hard day of work is to run "The 5th Column Overthrow" mission from Mender Lazarus, because I find mowing my way through endless hordes of Undead Nazis to be fun and incredibly cathartic. There are always a few outliers, but I firmly believe that it's the storyline and experiencing all the different playstyle combos that is mainly what keeps people coming back (rather than constantly just farming for money, loot and shiny things). And yes, the friends and community - because even decades later whenever we've lost a lot of the old hands, the community here still isn't quite as much of a Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy as other MMORPGs. In other words, this game is primarily about being a FUN PLAYGROUND rather than a DIFFICULT GRIND. My mild rants here are not just a wordy way of saying "I hate challenges". Challenges are fine. Heroes thrive on challenges. Superman has his Kryptonite just like (most) INV Tankers have holes against Psychic damage. The trick is getting the level of Challenge right so that it's "tricky but achievable" rather than "I keep getting kerbstomped" - because the latter is simply not fun. And it's extra tricky because of the wide variation in build effectiveness and skill levels across CoH's playerbase. Higher difficulty levels have been baked into the game from very early in Live... however enabling those higher levels of difficulty has always been optional. Later on during Live we got "Master of" badges (and I was one of the first to get a good few of those in the EU) - good for bragging rights... but once again, optional. On HC we've now got "HardMode" TFs and Incarnate Trials. Great! Yet again, optional. They've even given us "Ultimate Boss Fights" like the one in the HM4 LGTF. Still optional. Outside of Hamidon Raids the rewards from completing these optional difficulty challenges have always been limited - a bit more EXP and some minor currency bonuses, badges, vanity items, accolades that do not contribute to making your character "mechanically better" such as Excalibonk. Realistically the only "loot" in CoH are enhancements that anyone can save up and purchase with merits or buy from the Auction House; and it is so easy to gain large levels of currency that a lot of long-term players have resorted to inventive methods of getting around the 2 billion-per-character influence limit (like placing large bids on non-existent inspirations; or sending it via email to your global chat handle and never "claiming" it again). This means that the "casual armchair" crowd do not notably end up left mechanically miles behind the "elite hardcore" crowd; which is something that I greatly appreciate - I'll always be very thankful that the devs in CoH have never "gated" loot. - - - - - - My big problem at present with the Labyrinth is that whilst going there is optional, it's accessible from the Midnighter Mansion rather than one of the very high level hazard zones, and you initially get thrown in at insane practically unbeatable levels of difficulty right off the bat if you venture in there solo or with only 1-2 friends. And unbeatable challenges is not, IMO, what CoH is about. By all means ramp the Labyrinths' difficulty up drastically if someone chooses to enter it with a big team; or if the zone is highly populated by a large number of unaligned players/teams (RWZ is a good example here)... but if the zone lets you enter solo, and describes how a determined solo player can handle it, then at the very least a munchkin fully purpled T4 Incarnate build attempting to enter it solo should not get instantly one-shot without being able to do anything about it. There are other ways to implement variation in difficulty here- you could let the level shifts linger for longer (something I'm in favour of) or you could grant everyone that enters a passive "temporary power" that gives them additional level buffs whenever there are <X people in the zone; or provide an optional setting that if someone is unteamed can make the Minotaur much less damaging towards them (or outright fail to lock onto them and/or become untouchable to them). It is quite possible to provide a "challenge" here without letting soloers and smaller teams on low-population servers get kerbstomped into oblivion. Ultimately the Labyrinth looks like a very fun addition to the game and a viable alternative to AE mission spam - so I really would prefer if the majority of the CoH playerbase did not end up avoiding it like the plague just because "it's effectively an instant death zone unless you can get >X people together".

Foes of +4 and higher have, sadly, always been unpractical for MMs to fight. Unfortunately because the T1 and T2 pets are lower level than their owner they get disproportionately hampered by the Purple Patch. That disadvantage gets offset in incarnate content by automatically level shifting the pets up to become the same level as the Mastermind. But (despite the Minotaur having Incarnate tier buffs) the Labyrinth is not incarnate content. By Default the only level shift you'll have in there is the one that applies in all content (from a T3+ Alpha slot)... and getting more requires completing the various zone objectives. But as far as I'm aware your henchmen are always going to remain lower level than you within this zone. It's apparently on the Dev's radar to eliminate the pet level differences across ALL content, but we've not heard any updates on that aspiration recently (rebalancing is hard) so I'm not holding my breath for a magical fix any time soon. To make matters worse, a powerset that relies on debuffs (like Dark) is hampered much more than one that relies on Buffs due to the same reason - Purple Patch means you'll be dealing a fraction of your regular -ToHit to these mobs and they'll be getting additional ToHit buffs vs anything lower than -5 to them. Check what their final chance to hit you and your pets was in the combat log, if it's much higher than 5-10% then you're going to need additional help/buffs.

...and in most MMORPGs I'd be a fan of incredibly overpowered bosses where half the server has to club together to stand a chance of beating it. But not in CoH. I play this game to feel like a *proper* superhero, dammit. (OK, even if I'm playing a Level 50+1 T4 Incarnated fully-Purple-IOed-out min-maxed toon it might not always have to be a case of 'Superman vs Random Mooks' or even 'Superman vs Doomsday'... but stuff like this feels more like 'Snapper Carr vs the OG Juggernaut'... 🚑 ) I like the idea of trying out new content. But I don't like it being gated behind assembling a league simply in order to avoid being one-shot by a macguffin steamroller; especially whenever it's the one thing in the zone that I can't feasibly beat or at least survive an encounter with as long as I'm well-built and careful. But it seems that's much easier with the likes of Hamidon than the Minotaur. If I need to keep running older TFs and Ouroboros arcs in order to maintain the feeling of being "super" then... fine; I guess. Perhaps my head's just still stuck somewhere around Issue 7ish? 🙂

Aye the big killer is the effective level difference between the Minotaur and whoever he's hitting. The only way I can get Crushing Blow's ToHit chance to balance out at "89.24%" vs my VEAT is if the Minotaur's attacks are getting additional buffs on top of the big cow's listed base stats (+63.75 ToHit/150% Acc) and the level differences (against my VEAT who was -8 to the Minotaur it'd be getting +15% ToHit and +50% Acc). Whilst the exact values involved are tricky to pinpoint from a single data point (the required Accuracy decreases as the ToHit increases; but one example is roughly "+7.5% ToHit plus +50% Accuracy") the same attack versus a foe which is only -5 to them (e.g. your SR Tanker) would get its chance of hitting floored at somewhere between 60%-75% defence. Therefore with around 70% Defence to start with, I doubt you even needed the buff from Mind Link! So I'm in favour of lessening the level differences between Players and the Minotaur or making it less damaging/slower/etc whenever there are very small numbers of people in the zone (e.g. It's fine for it to be a major threat, but I dislike the idea of it being completely unbeatable and unsurvivable whenever the rest of the server is asleep...)

If you were Lv50+1 (Standard Incarnate with T3+ Alpha) and the zone was giving you another +3 then a Lv54+5 Minotaur would conn +5 to you. That's *just barely* squeaking into soloable territory for AVs - you'd be taking 155% regular damage and hitting them for 30% regular damage. So "Crushing Blow" should have been dealing about 2935 base damage to you; which a SR Tanker could theoretically get down to ~293 with enough scaling damage resistance - definitely survivable even without any outside healing. I'd be interested to know what the ToHit rolls were like though for you to be flooring their accuracy... there were no zonewide level shifts in play when my Bane encountered the Minotaur, but I was sitting at a smidge over 50% defense to all positions before being attacked (suppressing to a smidge over 45% whilst attacked). The combat log shows the Minotaur's "Cursed Plague" power apparently had a 95% Hit chance against me; and their Crushing Blow had a 89.24% chance. Even with 63.75% Incarnate ToHit chance and 150% inherent accuracy plus another 15% ToHit from the +8 level scaling, that still seems a tad high to me...

Have to say this was my experience too - the rest of the mobs are soloable slowly... but the minotaur ignores stealth (and largely ignores defence too due to the level scaling and inherent 150% Accuracy and 63.75% ToHit bonus) and kerbstomps you. It's not even a "slowly moving unstoppable steamroller"... the darn thing supersped towards me; and their very first attack would have one-shot me even without the effects of the "Diseased" debuff. In my second encounter with them a regular attack (Crushing Blow) dealt 3560HP worth of Negative Energy damage before my damage resistances; and that was at their minimum level of Lv54+5. Sure it's technically killable... but without oodles of friendly Level Shifts in play you're talking capped Tanker levels of MaxHP and Damage Resistance to survive even a hit or two from them - and that's before their apparently considerable amount of -MaxHP debuffs

Crossposting this here at the request of the One that Moogles and Googles: (In Short: a brief study in getting repeatedly punished by the Minotaur for daring to venture into the Labyrinth solo as a fully decked out level 50+1 T4 Incarnate VEAT. Although I did at least manage to record his inside leg measurements whilst he was continually stomping on my corpse...) As per this brief test and my earlier comments in the above linked thread: "I do not enjoy "random" severely punitive mechanics, even when offset by potential rewards (a classic example is a roulette wheel or "mimic" treasure box setup in other games where you are randomly either instantly killed or given a reward) and as a result, I do not enjoy running around in a maze with a level 54+10 archvillain behind me. That makes me feel like I'm a mouse stuck in a cage with a cat, not a powerful superhero.A [My Current Level]+5 Archvillain - who I have a chance of surviving and beating - sure. That's fine. And I understand that the objective of the zone is to team up and gain level shifts so that things get easier to manage.However those level shifts currently decay too rapidly for a small squad of heroes, let alone a solo one - I'm simply unable to put up a decent fight. On the larger population servers this might not be a huge deal, but not on Brainstorm in UK primetime hours it seems; and I expect the same will be true on Reunion once this hits live. So personally it would be very much appreciated if you could allow the Labyrinth level shifts to last 30 or 60 minutes, not five... or alternatively let their duration scale in inverse proportion to the number of active players in the zone." (I appreciate that this content is not intended for soloers/small teams, but unfortunately that's often what happens on lower-population servers; particularly whenever the bulk of the people on the Western side of the pond are asleep) 👍

Just hopped on to Brainstorm to retest. I was the only one there. My experience went pretty much like this: Pick a Glowy portal. Enter. Engage Stealth abilities. Run as fast as possible through all the doors. Last ~10mins before getting to a sufficiently open area to find a "Gladiator in the Fog" and be given a "Draft of Fog". After screenshotting the text of the Draft (below) I began to make my way back out into the main corridor, and spotted the Minotaur lumbering quickly towards me up the corridor. As I backed away it supersped towards me and one-shotted me despite all my Stealth, Fully T4ed Incarnate powers, +MaxHP accolades/set bonuses and considerable amounts of defence and damage resistance. My VEAT Bane has 1704 HP, >45% Defence to all positionals and 16.72% Toxic Resistance. "Cursed Plague Howl" from this thing still had a 95% chance to hit on me, and it dealt a base 2140 points of Toxic Damage with just the FIRST hit, plus the below debuff which lingered for several minutes after the fight (I suspect it's a 5 minute debuff but couldn't see a duration listed in the powers text) I was however able to raise and activate Surveillance; so I took a snapshot of the offending oik's powers before faceplanting a second time. Hurrah! I then raised (again) in the hospital, entered another (red?) coloured portal; popped up all my stealth abilities (-85ft in PVE total) and waited. Less than a minute later the minotaur appeared, ignored my stealth, and faceplanted me again. (I've 18.97% Negative Energy Resistance so that's a base 3560HP worth of Negative Energy damage he poked me with!) - - - - - - - - - - FWIW, here's what I got from Surveillance: (Note their perception radius is lower than my 85ft stealth radius, and their current level shift is apparently only "+5"!) And the "Draught of Fog" inspiration text: ...so yeah. Feels pretty much like I've just had a cheating (since they could see through my stealth and ignore my defence) nigh-unkillable Juggernaut repeatedly play Whack-a-Mole with my character's head. And whilst I understand the mechanics behind it (Purple Patch + AV scalars and resistances + Level Shifts), it was not exactly a Heroic or enjoyable excursion. If that is *really* the minotaur only at Lv54+5 (e.g. conning +8 to my poor Lv50+1 Bane) then I'd hate to see them at Lv54+10... 🤯

Please explain it to me because I thought I understood both of the sentences I quoted from your posts. If I'm reading PF's previous posts right, the point they're making is "I don't feel it's worth providing honest feedback, because I've previously done so and been punished (via accusations of trolling etc) whenever said feedback has been negative and/or unpopular"? Now personally, I have some negative feedback about the Labyrinth - I do not enjoy "random" severely punitive mechanics even when offset by potential rewards (a classic example is a roulette wheel or "mimic" treasure box setup in other games where you are randomly either instantly killed or given a reward) and as a result, I do not enjoy running around in a maze with a level 54+10 archvillain behind me. That makes me feel like I'm a mouse stuck in a cage with a cat, not a powerful superhero. A [My Current Level]+5 Archvillain - who I have a chance of surviving and beating - sure. That's fine. And I understand that the objective of the zone is to team up and gain level shifts so that things get easier to manage. However those level shifts currently decay too rapidly for a small squad of heroes, let alone a solo one - I'm simply unable to put up a decent fight. On the larger population servers this might not be a huge deal, but not on Brainstorm in UK primetime hours it seems; and I expect the same will be true on Reunion once this hits live. So personally it would be very much appreciated if you could allow the Labyrinth level shifts to last 30 or 60 minutes, not five... or alternatively let their duration scale in inverse proportion to the number of active players in the zone. I don't know if that feedback is likely to get me trolled (and I don't really care) but voicing it certainly feels important to me... 🤷‍♂️

Probably the best primer - so go there first. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Mastermind_Strategy Short and very worth looking at. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Also well worth a read. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Has a lot of questionable advice and bad suggestions; IMO one to take with a big pinch of salt. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Wordy and has a few now-out-of-date ideas about Mercs, but some good information on pet management and tactics nonetheless. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ultimately there's a lot of advice out there, but I'll reiterate what I said a few months back in a similar thread: Above all else... be sure to get yourself a solid set of keybinds 🙂

FF is the defacto "Fire and Forget" Defence-buffing follower - just click 3-4 buttons every ~4 minutes (Power Boost and the two Bubbles; plus *potentially* Radial Clarion) and you're instantly softcapped. But it's much less attractive if you already have a /Traps tagging along; even if the FFG is squishy and slow. Time and Cold definitely work too - Time needs button clicks a bit more often but can be Powerboosted. Both of those sets have decent on-demand active buffs/debuffs available for when you find yourself up against AVs. Another option that you may not have considered is a Dark Affinity Controller - Fade whilst not Power Boostable can be Perma'd with a bit of effort; and the rest of its toolset compares favourably. Taking Illusion primary synergises nicely here as the +Recharge you build for Fade will provide better uptime on Phantom Army. However if you tend to run at level 50 then I'd rather bring a VEAT Crab/Fortuna than any of the above... and if you tend to run a lot of lower-level TFs (which don't benefit as much from all the overpowered set bonuses and IO fluff) and play a variety of ATs on your "main" account then it may be worth bringing a Shield Defence Tanker along instead. Crabbermind and Fortuna VEATs both bring a *lot* of damage output, strong +Damage/ToHit buffs and +Defence (via Maneuvers or Mind Link) plus debuffs or CC (Venom Grenade or Psychic Wail/Aura of Confusion) but they're best with oodles of Global Recharge so if you're exemplaring for a lot of lowbie TFs they'll suffer. + Crabbermind pets are squishy and will die pretty often whilst farming at +4x8, but they need zero micromanaging and are excellent help at taking down an AV. The Crab themselves can just set Frenzy or Dark Obliteration on Auto and trigger their self-heal occasionally - plenty of room to take double Leadership powers. + Fortunas are less tough than Crabs, but they're still Defence-capped with damage resistance that scales up as their health drops. Confusing nasty Bosses/AVs is always fun; and Psychic Wail makes an excellent Crowd-Clearer. The downside is that Mind Link is rather difficult to perma on a Fort; especially if you're exemplaring. Tankerwise, for an autofollowing helper it'll be hard to beat Superstrength (with Footstomp on Auto) as a secondary. There are lots of primaries that work at lower levels; but Shield Defence will buff teammates a fair bit even without the Leadership pool due to "Grant Cover". - - - - - - - - - - All that said... if you're already at or near the Defence Softcap (not unlikely with /Traps) and you're set on a MM then don't overlook Thermal. Thermals are to +Resistance what Cold is to +Defence; and they bring Healing that /Traps lacks. So this would probably be the best all rounder IMO - Bubble up once every 4 minutes, stick "Warmth" on Autofire, and save "Melt Armor" and "Heat Exhaustion" for bosses/AVs. As for the AT? Another Mastermind would provide extra passive damage output; or an Earth Controller would give you something to Tank AVs for you (Stoney Taunts and can hit the Resistance cap to everything with Thermal buffs and the Aura IOs). I have some very fond memories from Live dualboxing an Earth/Thermal Controller with a Robotics/Traps Mastermind.

I suspect the point being made there was that if you add +range to a powerset that relies on Cone attacks then it's damage output will ramp up drastically because those cones will suddenly find it substantially easier to hit their target caps.

Slight update to my previously posted Bane Build - this character has seen substantial playtime recently, so I've refined the build to work a smidge better across various flavours of level 50 +4/8 and Incarnate content. Arachnos Bane Spider.mbd Compared to before: + Two slots (the standalone Damage Procs) moved from Pummel into Health and Stamina (Numina and Performance Shifter Procs). Pummel was sitting permanently unused in level 50 content; and the build is rather heavy on endurance - now it's self-sufficient enough to no longer need Ageless when spamming AoEs or ploughing though Carnies/Malta. + One slot moved from Cloaking Device into Health (Preventative Medicine unique) leaving 2x LoTGs in CD. This provides a noticeable passive survivability boost. + Build Up has dropped the Adjusted Targeting IOs for a 50+5 recharge plus a Rectified Reticle +Perception. This allows for visibility of stealthed/invisible mobs. + Surveillance has swapped the Damage Proc for a End/Rech/DefDebuff IO (keeping the original set bonuses intact but no longer inflicting any damage) in order that the power can be used from Stealth as an opener without aggroing the target. I tested slotting an Achilles' Heel IO but unfortunately that also causes aggro whenever it activates despite not actually inflicting any damage. As before, it plays very much like an Oldschool Stalker. Typical opener from Stealth is [Surveillance -> Build Up -> Shatter -> Poisonous Ray and/or Gloom -> Placate -> Pulverise] vs Single targets or [Build Up -> Crowd Control -> Venom Grenade -> Dark Obliteration -> Placate -> Crowd Control] vs Groups. It can occasionally get into trouble due to the lack of any Defence Debuff Resistance - but between Barrier and Placate (plus the pets to attract some aggro in a pinch) the Passive Regeneration and Power Transfer/Panacea procs tend to cover things. Not as hardy as my Crabbermind, but hardy enough - and the damage output being far more controllable makes it considerably more useful on teams/TFs.

The most hilarious example I've ever observed of this was a spectacularly-well-timed usage of Enforced Morale on the offending oik right before an AV backhanded them. The resulting "One shot code bypass" meant that the rest of the team gained a handy vengeance mule for the remainder of the mission, and everyone agreed afterwards that the character in question was much more useful with zero hitpoints.

At -1x1? Nearly all of them. Otherwise, probably Dr. Quaterfield... 🤔

Was their name "Sycorax" by any chance? 🙄

Not an issue: A player that uses KB certainly encounters enemy spawns that haven't yet been knocked back, and immobilized spawn would be no different to that player. But (and I'm not trying to be pedantic here, but genuinely curious) surely there'd be only a few possible scenarios there: (i) Player with KB abilities encounters a fresh mob, uses powers, powers inflict KnockBACK. (ii) Player with KB abilities encounters a mob which has already been immobilised, uses powers, powers inflict KnockDOWN. Since the recent balance pass, most AoE immobilises now grant mobs a large amount of Resistance to KU/KB effects rather than either granting them Protection to KU/KB effects or Doing Nothing... although there are still a few outliers like "Tenebrous Tentacles". So before, an Earth Controller would have completely shut down powers like Energy torrent.. but these days it just converts them to Knockdown. That's much better from a mechanics point of view, but it still changes the behavior of any KB-inflicting abilities that hit the immobilized spawn. So surely the player that is using KB still effectively ends up having the effects of their powers altered; potentially annoying that player even if it pleases the rest of the team?

You mean like practically all the powers in the game? Astonishing. It's mind-boggling that someone would try to imply that only powers with knockback have a hit check. No, that is not what is being said here. This is not about power "Hit Checks" It's about activation chances of secondary effects that are tied to those powers. If a power has an effect with a 100% activation chance, then if you hit with it; the effect will trigger. Nova has a 100% chance to inflict a Knockback effect. So hitting a mob with it produces predictable behaviour. Energy Torrent has a 60% chance to inflict a Knockback effect. So hitting a mob with it produces unpredictable "random" behaviour. A lot of AoE Knockback powers possess this inherent unpredictability; and so using them on a large mob of foes will cause randomized scatter rather than guaranteed forced movement. Some people enjoy randomness - well known examples from TTG would be "Wild Magic" or "Slot Machine" style powersets. But an awful lot of people prefer order to chaos; and inflicting chaos in a team situation with someone who prefers order causes annoyance. To make matters worse, a lot of people on the autistic/OCD spectrum (myself included) gravitate towards Computer Games; and encountering this sort of thing tends to be like nails on a chalkboard to them. Personally if someone started overusing things like KB abilities or Sonic Cage I'd just roll my eyes and run ahead to find another group of mobs to solo (each to his own, and IMO telling someone how to play is more rude than activating annoying powers) but I know of others over the years who've felt creating a stink in game about it to be worth the hassle. They can't do ranged attacks if they are taunted. They have to move into melee range with the tank before they can attack if they are taunted and they can only attack the tank.But, as I said, there are so many tanks these days that don't have taunt - the signature power of the set as far as I'm concerned. It's only the Taunt ability that inflicts a range debuff; not Taunt Auras or Punchvoke or Gauntlet. Most toons who end up tanking (Tankers/Brutes/Scrappers/EATs/whatever) are not going to be actively keeping the Taunt power itself constantly up on an aggro cap's worth of foes. Although to Devil's-Advocate myself here, I suppose if a team *is* having to play that defensively then inviting Luminara having someone play Extreme Rage-Mode Pinball Madness with the surrounding mooks might actually be welcome.

Honestly, it'd be tricky to cover all the bases without simulating the effect of a KB>KD IO. You could grant yourself a reduction to Knockup, Knockback Strength (self only) but that wouldn't affect pseudopet powers. From a technical standpoint the only really foolproof method is to grant a sizable amount of Knockback and Knockup resistance to the mob you're hitting (typical values listed are "+10000% Knockup, Knockback Resistance") but if you do that via a "proccing" set bonus effect attached to your powers (the usual method) then the resistance would get applied at the same time as the ability that inflicts KB - so you'd knock the foe back and THEN it'd become resistant to further KB for X seconds. No good. And if you set it up as an Aura affecting every hostile creature within X feet of you; that'd mean nobody attacking anything around you would inflict KB (spoiling the fun of other Energy Blasters).

100% agreed that AoE immobs are great for this since the recent balance pass. But under the hood that's really just making someone else on the team convert your Knockback into Knockdown... and presumably if the person with KB abilities actually enjoys the look and feel of inflicting KB on foes then they'd get annoyed at seeing their powers "nerfed" by a teammate...? And for the poor Melee toons who failed to take any AoE immobilises; it really just devolves into this: In terms of putting a choke chain on your own KB abilities there's certainly something of an enhancement-slot tax downside involved at present; and IMO a Null-the-Gull option would be much better than having to use multiple KB>KD IOs everywhere.

Like many (most?) here I enjoy the mitigation of Knockback, but not the disruptiveness. When soloing it's less of a concern than when teaming, but even then KnockBACK (and to a lesser extent KnockUP) is inherently counterproductive for damage output purposes because punting your target out of range of a followup Melee attack prevents optimal attack chaining. It gets even worse whenever a power doesn't have a 100% chance for Knockback/Knockup; as you become unable to reliably predict an enemy's position - it might stay where it is or you might need to move after it. Using the "Follow" button can partially mitigate this, but that results in YOU moving unpredictably instead - which can play merry havoc with PBAoEs and static "patch" psuedopet abilities. From top to bottom: ALL OF THEM. Aside from the inherent unslottable powers like Nemesis Staff, On Homecoming I don't have a single Knockback ability on a single character which isn't converted to Knockdown. That includes things like Mastermind Henchmen and pseudopets (e.g. Bonfire) as well as the character themselves. To be fair, it helps that most useful KB-inflicting abilities lend themselves to Proc bombing, and so optimal slotting is typically 2x HO Acc/Dams plus 4x Procs (including FF +Rech and a KB->KD IO). Energy Blast is something of a Black Sheep. Most of the other KB inflicting abilities in damage-orientated powersets were in fact converted to Knockdown over the years (I found the changes to MM henchmen abilities like Robotics and Thugs particularly welcome!) but the KB in Energy Blast has been left intact. The CoH Devs were keenly aware that some people enjoy YEET and FREEM; so leaving a Powerset devoted to that kind of playstyle made sense. That doesn't mean the powerset isn't disruptive on teams; and to be blunt if it didn't cause problems then you wouldn't see complaints about it. As Shin Magmus has already pointed out: any effect with a sub-100% activation chance is inherently random. And that includes Procs. The difference here is that KB effects when they activate change foe positions - and randomly changing a foe's position causes problems. The reason a lot of people detest teammates with knockback effects is that they don't have control over when the enemy's position will suddenly change - and if the person activating the KB-inflicting powers can't even tell when the effect will kick in?!? Yeah, that's a problem. Finally, a lot of mobs won't clump neatly unless you break line of sight. Even if an entity has "Prefer-Melee" AI, as long as it has a ranged attack recharged and available it'll use that attack before closing into melee. As a result, quite often what happens is that a bunch of enemies start off meleeing the Tank.. then a KB effect hits them, knocking some of them away... then the ones that were knocked away will stand back up and fire off any available ranged attacks at the Tank BEFORE closing to melee range again. The "scattering" caused by KB powers therefore unclumps those enemies for several seconds (which is typically long enough that a wave of AoE damage effects around the tank would have taken them out had they not been scattered) and results in the Tank getting hit by several Ranged attacks instead of Melee attacks (usually not a major issue, but some tanks still pump Melee defence rather than the other positionals). So whilst most of the time inflicting AoE KB isn't going to cause a team wipe, it does usually slow down the kill speed as well as disrupt any abilities that require careful positioning (AoE and patch powers). Therefore it's not exactly surprising to see people becoming annoyed by them. I'm not saying that everyone who uses AoE KB is intentionally a troll (although I know of at least one player - a close family member in fact - who only plays an Energy Blaster whenever he's feeling the need to annoy people) and I'm aware that it's very superheroey to send mooks flying across the screen with a single blow. However I am saying that I believe Knockback - and particularly non-guaranteed Knockback - is inherently disruptive by design - and therefore if you're intending to use those powers alongside teammates then those teammates are entitled to become annoyed at it. That doesn't give them the right to mouth off at you; but I wouldn't raise an eyebrow at you being asked politely to stop it or take a hike.