Maelwys

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.

I heard if you stack the Mag high enough, the target will ricochet off its own character model and turn into a Big Red Ball...

KB/KU/KD is a very viable means of damage mitigation. Unfortunately KB is also a very viable means of annoying the crap out of your teammates; as Knockback powers cause positioning changes and Positioning changes mess with PBAoE, Targeted AoE and short-range (e.g. "melee") Single Target attacks. Personally I'd suggest something like "Roll up, Roll up, for this the amazing once-in-a-lifetime chance to see pixel-perfect pinball prowess in action!" If your knockback abilities are honestly never causing any enemies to be moved out of range of any of your teammate's powers then more power to you; but you're in very distinguished company. I've teamed with exactly one player over the decades who has been able to leverage KB reliably without annoying any of the rest of their team (a PB who tended to hover at 90 degrees to whatever they were hitting and skipped most of their AoEs). The recent AoE immobilise changes are fantastic, but they effectively convert KB into KD which is not what really you're looking for...

You sure about that one Snarky? To be fair my Doms have mainly been things like Plant/, Earth/ and Arse/ which have a lot of pseudopets... but a very quick glance through the CoD powers listing doesn't appear to show any difference in the radius or max targets of their regular powers either. Maybe I'm missing something or you're just referring to the secondary sets...?

For starters, because it will get glommed onto by other responders, there is no "absolute best" powerset combination in CoH. It might be helpful to think of it like a big game of Rock/Paper/Scissors. Some toons have more Scissors, others have more Rock, others are essentially all Paper (Blasters! 😸). Controllers are Support with CC. Dominators are DPS with CC. Both are useful and have places on teams. The difference between an "entry-level" and a "min-maxxed" build will probably be more evident on a Dominator than a Controller: because getting Domination "permanent" (with enough global recharge it recharges faster than it expires) gives constant mez protection; a substantial boost to control powers and an Endurance bar refill. If you're just after Solo Damage Output then generally Dominators will beat Controllers due to their secondary being damage-orientated and their higher damage scalars. However for Team Damage Output; a /Kinetics Controller will likely blow any Dom out of the water. On Dominators: Some powersets are better at AoE damage, and others are better at Single Target damage. However if you want to solo Archvillains then you'll want a pet that can Taunt... meaning Earth/ or Arsenal/ (Illusion's Phantom Army has Taunt on a Controller; but not on a Dominator!) and likely /Psi (for Drain Psyche's -Regen debuff). For CC, any Dominator can excel but different sets have different types of CC available: "AoE Stun + AoE immobilize" can take out a spawn just as well as "AoE Hold"; but the former tends to have a higher uptime. "Knockdown" or "Slow" powers work better versus some foes than others. Immobilize is one of the few things that cuts through Archvillain resistances. Confusing a AV can let you solo Hardmode TFs. Therefore what's "best" here will depend a lot on what you actually want to do with the toon. On Controllers: "Containment" doubles their damage against foes that are already CCed (Held, Immobilized, Slept or Stunned... but not Feared or Confused. Note that this means that having an immobilize power is very useful for additional damage vs AVs!) however they have much lower raw damage output and Containment can get a bit flaky when it comes to pseudopet powers. Their buffing Secondaries bring a wide variety of buff/debuffs to the table (notably Darkness Affinity is unique to them - other ATs don't get access to "Fade") and certain primaries also have defining powers like Plant's Seeds of Confusion, Illusion's Phantom Army, Gravity's Singularity; etc. For a "no holds barred endgame build" scenario I'd probably recommend a Plant/ or Illusion/ primary with a /Cold or /Time secondary due to their extremely high performance ceilings; but leveraging their powers properly will still take a fair bit of practice (and a decent set of keybinds!) Also: something you may not have considered is a VEAT Fortuna. Their "Fate Sealed" passive gives them a major boost to CC duration; and they've a decent mixture of raw damage and team buffs - so they can end up with the best of both worlds when min-maxxed. EDIT: Going to touch on this particular question briefly. The short answer is "Dominators". Dominators CC abilities gain additional magnitude whilst Domination is active. This means that Dominators can stack greater levels of CC much faster than Controllers. However... in practice that only really matters versus Archvillains (it's possible to stack CC higher than the Mag 50 mez protection that AVs get during their "Purple Triangles" phase, although it takes a fair amount of work even for Dominators) and these days most AVs will get killed pretty quickly anyway.

To be fair; it was touched on rather a lot in the "How do you folks build?" thread just last week. Personally I think it's still worthwhile when levelling to use level 25-30 Common IOs as placeholders until I can replace those with whatever enhancement will end up in that slot for the final build. That typically saves a bit of cash compared to using SOs every few levels and keeps the boosts constant (frankenslotting cheap Set IOs can certainly save even more if you buy the recipe and craft it yourself - but if you've inf to burn or exemplar a lot, then by all means buy precrafted attuned...) Inf generation is pretty easy these days even if you don't participate in market PVP; but there are plenty of folk out there sitting on 100mil or less. (which can honestly change your outlook on building - I must have spent 300m yesterday just restocking my base's salvage storage with boosters after my most recent toon dinged 50...)

It'll depend on your other buffs (Tactics, global Accuracy bonuses etc). Minimum slotting (for me) is probably One +5 Level 50 Acc IO plus One +5 Level 50 Rech IO. Two Rech and Two Acc (or 2x Provocation DSyncs if you've more inf than sense) if you want to max it out. However honestly as long as it ends up reaching 95%+ hitrate versus +3 enemies you're good for most PVE content. 4 star Hardmode content adds 30% Defence to all, and some of the enemies there are level-shifted... so if you really wanted to max it out then you'd be shooting for "125%+ accuracy versus +4 enemies" (personally I don't bother doing that for anything other than Fulcrum and Transfusion)

There are a few. This video gives a visual overview of the entire thing and this guide on the Homecoming forums is a decent text-based summary. The Wiki entry has the nuts and bolts. Once you've read over those, honestly I'd probably recommend starting to play around in Mids Reborn - there are plenty of example builds dotted around the various archetype subforums here as well as on discord. In my experience the learning curve goes something like: Using SOs --> Using Common IOs (at level ~25 and upwards they become direct replacements for SOs that you never outlevel) --> Using "Frankenslotted" Set IOs (a single IO can cover multiple aspects much like HOs; and slotting two "Acc/Dam" set IOs gives more benefit than one "Acc" plus one "Dam" IO at the same level) --> Using "Global" IOs (some IOs provide very useful standalone bonuses like recovery, defence or recharge) --> Using Set IOs for their set bonuses (pick a straightforward goal to start with here such as "softcapped melee defence" or "Perma Hasten" etc and build towards it) --> Using Damage Procs (understanding PPM mechanics and tweaking your build to have the optimal activation chances is a stretch goal here) --> Optimising further (Factoring in Exemplaring and Incarnate Slot Boosts and Hami/DSync enhancements, etc.)

Toggle Binds are a bit involved and I doubt you'll spot it on the Wiki - The Incomplete and Unofficial Guide to Bind is a great resource but doesn't really cover it either beyond a few very brief example mouse movement remapping binds. It's mentioned in places like this and this though (the first link assumes you need to use a sacrificial command at the start. Currently on Homecoming a simple "+$$" works) Whenever I was checking the binds I posted earlier... the first keypress always dropped out of Nova form and activated Essence Boost. Then as long as I waited for long enough before pressing the key a second time it successfully shifted back into Nova form. Sometimes Nova form wasn't recharged in time and in that case it would queue it up (Nova form became highlighted in red until it was fully recharged; then it activated). If I "double clicked" the key too quickly then sometimes it would skip the Essence Boost activation and/or the Nova form retoggle; which I assume is due to the game only being able to process a single power activation every Arcanatime tick (0.132 seconds). But I needed to really hammer the key for that to happen.

Unfortunately this always just continually attempts to activate Essence Boost, even whenever it's already on cooldown. You might be able to kludge your way past it via setting Essence Boost to Auto via "powexecauto"; but I get a wicked case of the heebie-jeebies whenever macros start mucking around with my precious big green circle...

I suspect the problem here is that you're trying to perform three things with one key/macro. (i) Detoggling Nova Form (ii) Activating Essence Boost (which isn't usable unless you're already dropped out of Nova Form) (iii) Retoggling Nova Form (this might also require a very brief wait since you've only just detoggled it) It's possible to perform up to TWO things with a single keybind (one event triggers on holding the key down, the next on releasing the key) but not three. You could link all three commands to a single bind and repeatedly hammer it, but then (as you've already noted!) the timings might get tricky in the heat of battle. I suspect that the cleanest way to do this may be to use something like the below rotating Keybinds: KEYNAME "powexec_toggle_off Bright_Nova$$bindloadfile c:\temp\cohbind2.txt" KEYNAME "+$$powexec_name essence boost$$bindloadfile c:\temp\cohbind3.txt" KEYNAME "powexec_toggle_on Bright_Nova$$bindloadfile c:\temp\cohbind1.txt" [In this case you tap the chosen key twice: The first time whenever you depress the button it detoggles Nova Form, then when you release the button it triggers Essence Boost. The second time you tap the button it retoggles Nova Form. I did a brief test on Brainstorm and seems to work fine as long as you don't utterly machine-gun the button...] If you're using Macros rather than Keybinds then you'll likely need to tap the key three times (since macros don't differentiate between trigger key states, so you can't use "+$$" at the start of a macro to trigger a command twice with one activation!)

Happy Friday Diantane. Sentinel Epic Pools don't give "armor" because Sentinel Secondary Pools already give "armor". Just like Brutes, Scrappers, Stalkers and Tanks. As for "really cool powers"... do you perhaps mean things like Debuffs? Buffs? Pets? Heals? Debuff Resistance? Mez? Damage Auras? 'cause they already get all of that. And the only archetype that gets access to a pet (for example) at a low level is a Mastermind.

Would probably help to specify whether this was pylon/street-sweeping, missions or a Mothership raid. A lot of casual empaths play reactively (e.g. suboptimally); but to be fair triggering the auras and then blasting is probably more useful than trying to keep Fortitude up on 6-8 random needles in a massive mothership haystack.

I've found the Test server to be very helpful there - it just takes a few minutes to copy a character across, then all incarnates can be crafted for free and tested fully before you decide on what one(s) you want for live. The only caveat is that you can't unlock your Hybrid slot "from scratch" on test by buying exp with the free merits. Alpha for me tends to be +Damage (Musculature Core > Musculature Radial = Intuition Radial) unless the character can reliably self-cap damage% buffs (e.g. a Kinetics or Warshade). Lore pets are very unbalanced mechanically; with all but a few options being "traps". Outside of things like controlled pylon tests, the damage-orientated pets tend to die so quickly that they're ignorable... but the buff pets have varying levels of effectiveness/uptime. Carnival or Seers can permanently buff one ally (e.g. YOU) raising their damage plus either tohit or defence by a decent amount. Clockwork can keep 2-3 allies defence bubbled permanently. Talons and Arachnos have non-permanent-but-still-very-powerful aura buffs that affect large numbers of pets/henchmen. Banished Pantheon actually deal damage to foes whilst remaining intangible. The rest are mostly a mix of poor-uptime buffs/debuffs or heals. Best Judgement is almost always going to be Void for the -damage debuff; or Pyro for the additional raw damage. Best Interface is almost always going to be either Degenerative or Reactive (depending on what you're fighting and other available -res debuffs) Destiny and Hybrid are where the real choices comes in IMO. + Ageless Destiny gives either major Defence Debuff Resistance or extra Recovery. + Barrier Destiny is a Survivability GodMode button. + Clarion Destiny is either permanent mez protection; or nearly-permanent mez protection plus a Power Boost effect. + Incandescence Destiny and Rebirth Destiny are more situational, but I've seen both used pretty well. + Assault Hybrid is a pure damage output increase; either damage%-buff-based or proc-based. + Melee Core Hybrid is another Survivability GodMode button - major damage resistance plus mez protection. + Support Core Hybrid (+12% to everything for pets) is almost always going to be the optimal choice for Masterminds/Crabberminds. + Control is... also an option, I guess. The Core variant can be useful for Dominators/Controllers, even if it doesn't typically quite parse as well as Assault Radial.

Are you sure about that? Currently Sleep Grenade's damage component just kicks in once upon casting, but the Slow component kicks in once upon casting and then lingers for 30s (giving it two additional chances for procs to activate after the 10s and 20s mark). CoDv2's database is out of date - it doesn't show the most recent Arsenal tweaks. My in-game testing showed all the procs currently perform quite decently in SG, although the two Slow Set damage Procs (Impeded Swiftness and Ice Mistral's Torment) are obviously slightly better due to the additional lingering proc activation chance. The guaranteed Dominator Firey Orb ATO spawn rate was also a pleasant surprise; even if it's only useful when you treat the power as an PBAoE.

Base damage isn't great, but the powers do take a heck of a lot of damage procs - Sleep Grenade in particular can take 2x Slow procs and 3x Targeted AoE procs and always (for some convoluted coding reason) triggers a Firey Orb ATO spawn; and the slow set procs have additional chances to kick in multiple times over its duration. Liquid Nitrogen seems to be mostly a trap pick for damage since it only kicks in whenever the mobs fall over; but between Procced Sleep Grenade/Cryo Freeze Ray plus the Confuse from Smoke Grenade, plus the Tri-Cannon... I've definitely noticed the Arse Control set providing a decent stream of AoE and ST damage. Still needs to mesh with a good secondary though - and I much prefer /PsiAssault to /ArseAssault despite any potential giggles over the naming convention.

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Rogue_Robots ? AFAIK It's not currently available in Ouroboros; and there's no special badge/merit reward... but it's an interesting alternative villain group so might be worth suggesting as an addition there. I remember coming across it whilst levelling up a recent toon in the 30-35 bracket; although can't remember offhand exactly which contact it came from.

I'll always have a "level 50 Fully IOed + T4 Incarnates all purpled out and money-is-no-object" build that I'm aiming towards. Whenever I'm first planning a new toon's powerset combination, often I'll start off with a few variations in Mids - one build might have a different Epic Pool and another might be geared for slightly more damage at the expense of some survivability; etc... but I'll generally iron out which build I want by playing around on the Brainstorm test server until I'm happy with its performance; then after that I'll start levelling it up on a "real" server. It's rare that one of my toons actually ends up with multiple builds in-game.... off the top of my head it's currently really only my VEAT Soldier (with one "Crabbermind" build, and one "Mace-Wielding Stalker" build). Whilst I'm levelling up, I'll typically place my enhancement slots wherever they're going to end up in the final level 50 build... but until the toon gets high enough level to actually slot those final enhancements, I obviously still need to fill those slots somehow... so I start off with DOs/SOs; then move to Common Crafted IOs at level 22. And after a certain point (level 30 ish?) I may start frankenslotting some random disposable set IOs. I'll always slot attuned versions of the important procs/globals ASAP though; particularly Panacea/Miracle/Celerity, plus a KB Protection for non-melee toons. I'm not generally a fan of powerlevelling myself up - I like to get all the contacts within each level range up to at least a "phonable" level of familiarity, complete any story arcs they're offering me and grab all the passive accolades enroute to level 50. If I ever run out of contacts then I'll powerlevel myself up just enough to reach the next tier of contacts. If/when I hop on a TF whilst levelling up then EXP gain gets turned off; otherwise it's easy to earn too much EXP and overshoot contacts. Completing the story arcs as they come up typically provides me with enough merits that my toons are mostly self-financing until they hit 50; but I'll always transfer a hundred million or so to each new toon as a "starter fund" in order to let them grab all the START powers and a few sets of ATOs etc. After the toon hits 50, THEN I'll throw it into some TFs/Farming maps in order to quickly bump it to Veteran level 100; crafting the T4 Incarnates along the way. Any leftover Empyrean Merits will then get sent to a new alt; and the toon itself will probably get stabled until I fancy using it on a TF. Oh, and lastly - whilst I'm not a RPer by any stretch of the imagination... I'll always write up a bio (although it might not always be a sensible one!) and have a particular badge title in mind for each toon; and it'll not feel "complete" to me until I have that particular badge displayed underneath its character name. I love tweaking stats and theorycrafting in Mids... but oddly enough having a decent Backstory/Badge combination seems to be the main thing that gets me emotionally invested in each toon and actually entices me back to play it again after its build is "fully completed".

This is a headache for me too actually. My main desktop PC doesn't even notice... but my old laptop really struggles to run Mids Reborn whereas the original version of Mids ran on it just fine. It seems that all the new graphical fluff they've added in recent versions has bloated everything down to a crawl on any kit with a lighter and/or no dedicated graphics card. The current version of Mids Reborn actually has a noticeably longer startup time and requires substantially more resources on my laptop than running the CoH client itself! Regarding the rest, as far as I'm aware the Mids database files are "standalone", which is how it lets you swap between Rebirth/Homecoming/etc. in the options menu. However updating them requires a good deal of manual curmudgeonry (it'd be lovely if both MR and CoD were able to automatically import new database changes from the game client files; but no such luck!) and for some reason minor program updates seem to keep borking the edit feature (and gaining access to the Database Edit Menu in the first place still requires typing in an incoherent string of keypresses for some reason - [Ctrl+Shift+Alt+A] IIRC...)

I certainly tend to keep the siphons around. Siphon Speed for extra +Recharge (obviously) and Siphon Power because yes, occasionally you'll find yourself in a target-poor environment. Against an AV an extra stackable -20% damage debuff/+20% damage buff can be plenty useful; so I find I get far more mileage out of Siphon Power than the likes of IR or Repel.

Mids is by many metrics quite an amazing program. I remember some of the development work put into the original version and the "marketing" of the program itself on the UK forums (now unfortunately lost to the mists of time) and it really was head and shoulders above the rest at that point, even prior to Inventions (and the other planners like Suckerpunch's never coped with Inventions to my knowledge). The sheer amount of work that has been put into it over the years in order to create an interface that lets you work with all the Invention types and their resultant set bonuses, boost them, factor in external buffs like Incarnates etc. etc. is staggering; and that's the main reason why attempts to produce a viable alternative have been doomed to failure. Long gone are the olden days where all players had to work with (and therefore all the builders had to worry about coding!) was SO enhancements plus the occasional Hami-O. The "Reborn" variant of Mids unfortunately suffers from the age old problem of having a team of new devs stuck with a bunch of old legacy code; and changes in CoH (particularly new Powersets and Enhancements) can take a long time to be implemented. But to be fair, they've kept it in a mostly usable state (despite the installer issues and DotNet Core v6 requirement creep) and most of the consistent inaccuracies in its database [like Robotics MM's Protector Bot Bubble +Defence value] can be manually edited and worked around. I dare say that if we didn't have MR, it'd become infeasible for most of the playerbase to properly plan and build new characters... The test server is great, but continually respeccing to test a bunch of different enhancement slot positions gets really tedious really quickly. City of Data v2 is a brilliant resource, but it often gets updated infrequently. Poor @UberGuy has to manually sync it all up, and at the time of writing the Live Data timestamp is currently more than 3 months old (27th Feb 2024) so it's currently missing a few patches worth of changes. Ultimately tools like CoD and MR aren't the work of paid teams of employees; so the fact that they're still going at all is something to be celebrated.