SmokinIndo

Suppressive Fire and Piercing Rounds both got significant buffs. Suppressive Fire's base recharge has been reduced to 8 seconds, which makes it a perfect Proc Monster. It's been given a significant hold magnitude, with cryogenic rounds giving it a mag 4 hold. And to top it off, it's base damage is on par with Pistols. I see Suppressive Fire as an almost mandatory pick for builds simply because of the chance for Procs, opportunity for set bonuses, and the hold. Now onto Piercing Rounds. To be honest, I think this ability is still mostly skippable. It's a -res, and even though it lasts for 15 seconds, I've always found powers with -res to be pretty average. The damage per animation second is low, and the cone is so narrow it's basically a single target attack. I would love to be proven wrong. The problem I'm facing is where I'm going to fit Suppressive Fire. I would love to swap out Pistols, but I'm locked into taking 2 of the first 3 powers in the set, and Empty Clips is an awkward and short range cone attack. When I do respec into Suppressive Fire, should I proc it, or try to get some juicy +defense with the Winter IO set? Has anyone taken the new DP for a spin? I'd love some feedback on the set.

I know that the experimental graphics settings are NOT supported, which is a shame because I think the Cel Shader looks awesome. It hides the dated graphics of CoH and creates a nice contrast against the murkier colors of the older zones. There's currently a bug, however, that's been present since the game's relaunch. With Cel Shader enabled, character thumbnails hide most of the details in the face. If I'm looking at a mission acceptance dialogue, the contact might be missing her hair. The same extends to player bios. If I want to read a character's description and powers, their portrait will be missing some details in the costume. Any plans on fixing this? I'm not a developer so i don't know how hard it would be to change this. I know quite a few people who play with Cell Shader turned on.

I knew my stats looked off, but I couldn't figure out what was causing it. I guess Power Boost was the culprit. LotG was supposed to be in Fortify Pack. I just forgot to put it in. Acid Arrow does activate Oil Slick, but I macro'd my taser dart to target oil slick. Is the fire proc still worth it? It's more AoE damage. I don't have an 5th slot for LotG. I would need to sacrifice a power to pick up vengeance in the leadership pool. So I'm using lions as a mule.

I'm currently running a level 50 incarnate beast mastery/trick arrow that's similar to this build, and I agree with this sentiment. Oh.... levelling up was an absolute nightmare. But once I got IO'd, my pets managed to stay pretty safe and kill everything. But I wasn't sure how I stacked compared to other MMs that have more defense/damage buffs.

So I'm the brave soul that decides to roll Beasts/Trick Arrow. I know it's not the best pairing due to Trick Arrow's lack of +defense, but I rolled it anyway because it fits thematically and let's face it, having an active secondary as a mastermind is just too cool. Sometimes I feel like a blaster with how much damage my Ice Arrow does. Beasts/Traps was a close option, but I desperately want to have a bow as part of my costume whenever holstered ranged weapons are added to the game. The goal is to be able to solo x8/+1, although if I can fight tougher enemies then that's a plus. I want to be able to take on the game's most challenging content. I want to give my pets the best possible defense without sacrificing their damage output, so I'm not going to use Fortify Pack. I will be running Barrier nonstop to shore up my pets' defense. I'm going to spam flash arrow for the -toHit on enemies. In addition, I'm going to be running bodyguard all the time. Let me know what you think. Link to Build This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.4.7 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Poacher: Level 50 Natural Mastermind Primary Power Set: Beast Mastery Secondary Power Set: Trick Arrow Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Villain Profile: ------------ Level 1: Summon Wolves (A) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff (3) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage (3) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Recharge/Pet +AoE Defense Aura (5) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance/Recharge (5) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Damage/Endurance (7) Superior Command of the Mastermind - Accuracy/Damage Level 1: Entangling Arrow (A) Gravitational Anchor - Chance for Hold (7) Gravitational Anchor - Recharge/Accuracy (46) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize/Recharge (46) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize/Endurance (50) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize (50) Gravitational Anchor - Immobilize/Recharge/Accuracy Level 2: Flash Arrow (A) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge (9) Cloud Senses - Chance for Negative Energy Damage (9) Cloud Senses - ToHit Debuff (11) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/ToHitDebuff (11) Cloud Senses - Accuracy/Recharge (42) Cloud Senses - ToHit Debuff/Endurance/Recharge Level 4: Call Hawk (A) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (13) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance/Recharge (13) Thunderstrike - Damage/Endurance (15) Thunderstrike - Damage/Recharge (15) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage/Recharge (17) Thunderstrike - Accuracy/Damage Level 6: Train Beasts (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 8: Call Ravens (A) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage (17) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage (19) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (19) Positron's Blast - Accuracy/Damage/Endurance (21) Impeded Swiftness - Chance of Damage(Smashing) (21) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge Level 10: Ice Arrow (A) Gladiator's Net - Chance of Damage(Lethal) (23) Unbreakable Constraint - Chance for Smashing Damage (23) Unbreakable Constraint - Recharge/Accuracy (25) Superior Entomb - Recharge/Chance for +Absorb (25) Ghost Widow's Embrace - Chance of Damage(Psionic) (27) Neuronic Shutdown - Chance of Damage(Psionic) Level 12: Summon Lions (A) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Endurance/Pet +Resist +Regen (27) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Damage/Endurance (29) Superior Mark of Supremacy - Accuracy/Damage (29) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (31) Call to Arms - Defense Bonus Aura for Pets (31) Expedient Reinforcement - Resist Bonus Aura for Pets Level 14: Hasten (A) Recharge Reduction IO (31) Recharge Reduction IO Level 16: Poison Gas Arrow (A) Fortunata Hypnosis - Recharge/Accuracy (46) Fortunata Hypnosis - Sleep/Recharge/Accuracy Level 18: Fortify Pack (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 20: Acid Arrow (A) Touch of Lady Grey - Chance for Negative Damage (33) Annihilation - Chance for Res Debuff (33) Positron's Blast - Chance of Damage(Energy) (33) Shield Breaker - Chance for Lethal Damage (34) Shield Breaker - Accuracy/Recharge (34) Achilles' Heel - Chance for Res Debuff Level 22: Summon Dire Wolf (A) Soulbound Allegiance - Chance for Build Up (34) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (36) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage/Recharge (36) Soulbound Allegiance - Damage (36) Sovereign Right - Resistance Bonus (37) Edict of the Master - Defense Bonus Level 24: Disruption Arrow (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 26: Tame Beasts (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 28: Oil Slick Arrow (A) Ragnarok - Damage (37) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge (37) Ragnarok - Damage/Recharge/Accuracy (39) Ragnarok - Damage/Endurance (39) Ragnarok - Chance for Knockdown Level 30: EMP Arrow (A) Lockdown - Chance for +2 Mag Hold (43) Lockdown - Accuracy/Recharge (43) Lockdown - Recharge/Hold (43) Lockdown - Endurance/Recharge/Hold (45) Lockdown - Accuracy/Endurance/Recharge/Hold (45) Lockdown - Accuracy/Hold Level 32: Maneuvers (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed Level 35: Tactics (A) Endurance Reduction IO Level 38: Kick (A) Empty Level 41: Tough (A) Gladiator's Armor - TP Protection +3% Def (All) (42) Steadfast Protection - Resistance/+Def 3% (42) Steadfast Protection - Knockback Protection Level 44: Weave (A) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (45) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance Level 47: Scorpion Shield (A) Shield Wall - +Res (Teleportation), +5% Res (All) (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Increased Global Recharge Speed (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense/Endurance (48) Luck of the Gambler - Defense Level 49: Power Boost (A) Recharge Reduction IO (50) Recharge Reduction IO Level 1: Supremacy Level 1: Brawl (A) Empty Level 1: Sprint (A) Empty Level 2: Rest (A) Empty Level 1: Swift (A) Empty Level 1: Hurdle (A) Empty Level 1: Health (A) Panacea - +Hit Points/Endurance (39) Numina's Convalesence - +Regeneration/+Recovery (40) Miracle - +Recovery Level 1: Stamina (A) Performance Shifter - Chance for +End (40) Performance Shifter - EndMod/Accuracy (40) Synapse's Shock - EndMod/Increased Run Speed Level 1: Alpha Howler Wolf Level 1: Howler Wolf Level 22: Dire Wolf Level 12: Lioness Level 1: Pack Mentality ------------

There's always next year for holstered pistols and bows....

A little bird on Reddit said there were big changes coming to Masterminds in page 6. Any word on what that might look like? I know that Masterminds pets don't scale well with the new relentless content that they've added. I tried playing the new content with a mastermind and it's brutal. My pets die instantly and I spend the majority of the run spawning and respawning. If masterminds get a buff, that would be a welcome change.

The ability to access the AE from a portable workbench or from the base.

Lady Grey TF. I like the difficulty, the length, and the story. A lot of fun characters pop up (CW King, Hamidon.), and the Hero 1 reveal at the end was one of the most memorable moments in the game.

If I solo with the group size set to x8, I can always get a good power rotation in with every mob. Every buff, debuff, and heal I have goes into making sure I survive and the enemy does not. Solo play is very satisfying. Playing with a team is a different story. Because I can solo mobs at x8, any additional help means that I don't need to use a full power rotation. I can get by on missing a debuff or forgetting to toggle my aura. The more people join the team, the less reliant that I and my teammates are on my abilities. It gets to a point where I don't have to use my secondary power set because nobody is taking damage and enemies are getting deleted. It makes any powerset not designed for max dps utterly trivial. There needs to be an enhanced difficulty for group play to keep the enjoyment going.

The problem is that i'm the bad guy for thinking the game needs some polish, because the current player base likes things the way they are. But that's the keyword... "current". Nobody here is considering all the players who were on here at the start and have since left. The game is massively smaller than it was at launch, where there were multiple instances of city zones throughout the server. Games that have a challenging curve at endgame have long lifespans. People continue playing the same content on MMOs and ARPG because it gets progressively harder and more difficult each run. There's nothing like that in City of Heroes, and it's killing the game. My criticism isn't because I hate the game. It's because I like the game and I want to see it flourish.

Why don't I just play the game with my arms tied behind my back? I'm sure that will make the game more challenging.

That's because I didn't say that. I talked about removing attunement, which I think is fair balance. You already lose powers you had past the max level of whatever task force you're on. And this makes sense for balancing purposes. You're playing with level 14s who still have TOs.

I'm one of the people playing, and I'm not having fun. If constructive criticism isn't your thing, then continue playing a broken game that's soon to have zero players.