tidge

July 3

Non-player perspective on how range is not under-rated: If the grim vale event is allowed to commence, it is almost always Team Pumpkin that will be left standing. This is true of every wave. The Witches hover-blast (and run away fast), the Pumpkins attack almost exclusively at range and/or have ranged AoE attacks. When the GMs come out, the auto-hit PBAoE from Eochai makes short work of any of Jack's minions. Eventually Jack's cone/melee can eliminate the scrubs of team Eochai, but how quickly depends on random pathing.

July 3

Like @Riverdusk, 40-50 hours of play (over however many sessions that takes) is about how long it takes me to get a character to 50, because my playstyle is:

There is a LOT of content I like doing "at level", and some that can only be done at certain levels
I'm not thrilled with much of the 50+ content, some of this is a personal dislike from the Incarnate system rollout of Live
I can easily "afford" things (enhancements, buffs, temp powers, etc.) to smooth out the play experience
I enjoy seeing how sets/ATs play across levels.... trying new powers, new slotting choices, I respec/unslot quite a bit.

Now that zone exploration badges yield Patrol XP, I never buy 2XP and I generally avoid team-ups (like DFB, but also early TFs) until I find myself at a relative slow point. Often 2XP isn't even considered until something like 30+, depending on what I am doing. If I'm not crazy about a build, there is a 50-50 coin flip between setting it aside or rushing to 50 to see if set bonuses make it come together (usually they don't).

This is just a personal attitude: When I do content in a less rushed way, I feel like I have more personal agency in how I approach the game. Eventually my characters will want certain accolades and temp powers, it isn't that much harder to get most of them "along the way" than circling back to them as a level 50+. I'm perfectly happy to be challenged by playing a sub-50 build on TFs that have had the difficulty turned up. I don't need 50+ builds to seek out "challenges".

July 2

There are many satisfying moments to be had in the City of Heroes. One of them I never tire often of occurs on a Penny Yin TF when my Energy/Martial can Burst of Speed next to the Super Stunner (engaged in melee with something like a Scrapper or MM henchmen), execute a Ki Push and follow up with a Sniper Blast to deny the Freakshow Resurrection.

July 2

4 minutes ago, ZemX said:

Talking to the Gull is reasonable to suggest. Fucking over one's build to solve a similarly minor annoyance isn't. I'm not even sure why you mention both in the same post.

Talking to Null the Gull is a suggestion made to others, just as asking other players to slot KB->KD into their powers or taking Immobilizes. some may see this as a wide spectrum, but they are all on the same spectrum.

2 minutes ago, UltraAlt said:

In my experience, if I'm playing a tank and I taunt a foe, they run up on me. They don't fire more than once at me from a distance. Much like when you attack a foe with a hold, etc. they usually get one shot off before power takes effect.

But then again, I'm constantly taunting and herding ... I don't even care if some of the enemies get knocked away. It isn't that hard to round them up again ... for me at least.

Tanker Taunts also have a large baseline duration, as well as an inherently fast recharge time. It is pretty basic for a Tanker with Taunt, even without having it slotted, to keep attention at the aggro cap. If a Tanker sees enemies being knocked back... they should be treated no differently than any other critters that happen to be at a distance.

July 2

Like I said: If a player is THAT ANNOYED by knockback from another player... that player can pick a power to deal with their annoyance. I'm not asking players to modify their builds to suit my tastes and tolerances, I am asking them to modify their builds to suit their tastes and tolerances.

I still encounter players that won't go to Pocket D to change the way Group Fly affects them... and those players will still ##### about it.

July 2

21 minutes ago, Maelwys said:

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...?

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.

July 2

3 hours ago, Videra said:

This is a thread that definitely needed to exist.

Please just slot KB->KD, the effect on KB is incredibly disruptive and actively makes the game harder for your team. That is all.

I agree the thread needs to exist: It needs to exist to explain to players with a Knockback allergy how they can mitigate their issue. (AoE Immobilize)

My experience: Playing a character that does knockback is an excellent way to understand how to play with a teammate that generates knockback.

There are pretty much only two types of powers that I will be certain to slot a KB->KD piece in:

Attacks that vector enemies away at 360° away from a point (e.g. Meteor, Nova)
AoE "controls"

It is funny to watch Meteor the first time... but that sort of scatter makes cleanup rather confusing IMO.

July 1

2 hours ago, Forager said:

My current issue is I am not causing any of those problems, but I'm still getting the "advice" to change KB to KD.

I am sure this has been discussed many times. Does anyone have a short, succinct explanation that they have had success with? I'm not optimistic... as the person saying it rarely has any reasoning behind it. This is a reflexive thing people do sometimes, repeating conventional "wisdom" out of context.

Me (for Tankers, Brutes) : I'm not hearing any Taunts.

Me (For just about everyone): You can pick and slot an AoE Immobilize.

July 1

To the OP (and anyone else who cares): My suggestions for "Imma gonna make my version of ____" are to either:

Go straight parody, not using trademarked elements (of anybody's IP, including existing parodies), or
Graft the powerset onto a completely different costume/body than the character you are trying to mimic.

...and maybe make a character bio that makes it obvious why your character isn't someone else's IP?

July 1

9 hours ago, TG BrainFog said:

I appreciate the feedback, but the intended use for this character is solo work. The video I mentioned shows its purpose, and it appeals to me. It's not something I generally use, but it is a decent way to get a single group into my debuff area and away from other groups.

I almost exclusively solo with MMs, I haven't used the Teleportation pools since Live... I want to say that I last used it when Long Range Teleport was the capstone power. I cannot recall if this was before it was available as a tiered reward for long-term subscribers or not, but I digress.

I understand the appeal: "I'll separate the enemy!" or (more likely, once you see it isn't grabbing all enemies) "I'll have a long range taunt!"... but in practice, this simply doesn't work. Applying minimal control of the henchmen (via commands) achieves all those effects (and more!) and the MM will move much faster through missions and maps.

There are two direct negatives with the Teleportation pool (for offense) and many indirect negatives. The direct ones are that you need to slot the powers (offensively) for both Accuracy and Recharge... and all that will get you are a couple of powers that you have to cast for the exact same effect as simply walking up to enemies.

June 30

There is one part of the Peacebringer Lore^TM that always sits weird with me: It's the HUGE numbers of PPD Peacebringers that can appear in missions (Mayhem, Morality, Newspaper, Incarnate, etc.). Those missions make it seem like they are everywhere.

June 30

10 hours ago, FupDup said:

A lot of people put them in AOE powers because AOE powers tend to be less effective at proc bombing than ST powers.

As someone who doesn't usually proc bomb...

I think that for most cases, this is backwards thinking. AoE tend to be better for %procs because even though the individual %proc rate is smaller, because most mobile critters tend to cluster, hitting three or more enemy mobiles tends to "guarantee" a firing of the %proc, even if the recharge in the AoE is relatively high. If you get more than one %effect (like %damage, %-res) then the player is ahead of what might have happened with a single-target attack that also got %damage. Also: Many AoE tend to be lower damage than a similar-level single-target attack, so %damage adds more relative to what a single-target could do.

Conversely, most single-target attacks are relatively fast-recharging (12 second or less), so they have inherently worse %proc rates... on top of maybe only getting the effect on a single target.

Sentinels have generally smaller AoE of course.

11 hours ago, Exqzr984 said:

Specifically what skills or skill types are best for placing your Sentinel AT Enhancements. For example, do you find they are best suited for Melee, Ranged, PBAOE, Long Cool Downs, Short, High Damage... Etc.

My opinion is that the Sentinel ATO sets have set bonuses that are worth significant slotting... that is, more than three in a single power, so I'll have them usually 6-slotted in a couple of the early single-target powers. Which ones depends on what other sets I intend to use in single-targets. I suppose some players may look at the potential for getting lots of 10% Range bonuses, but I'd consider that a waste on Sentinels who don't need to stay at range.

A note on Franker-slotting the Sentinel ATO. The only piece I'd consider NOT using with the other five is the (Superior) Sentinel's Ward Recharge/%Absorb. Six of that set gives a health Global +Recharge bonus... and generally Sentinels would probably need it because of their armor secondaries... but if the Sentinel had a 40+ second recharging AoE and the Sentinel had inferior resistances, and that attack was going to be used regularly, I have found that these sorts of %Absorb piece (such as from the Entomb Winter set) can help with surviving certain types of fights. I wouldn't recommend this choice (over 6-slotting) without some serious consideration of the rest of the build... Sentinels have pretty good HP caps, and they are the only AT I have that has hit the AT HP cap without incarnates and without specifically choosing primary/secondary and specifically building to do exactly that... so %Absorb could just be overkill.

June 27

On 6/25/2024 at 5:30 PM, tidge said:

Don't take Fold Space on a Mastermind.

A recent post I made about Fold Space, and why to not take it.

For the TL;DR crowd: The opportunity cost (i.e. three powers must be taken to get Fold Space) is too high for most characters, it is definitely too high for a MM, yielding not enough in return.

June 27

Re: The "Bugle" idea to "announce" player presence to enemies. I can't tell how absurd this idea is... but I don't think it is a good one.

1) Players with enemy-affecting auras can already pretty much do this.

2) It is indistinguishable from aggro management, despite protestations to the contrary.

3) It feels like "MOAR EAZY PLZ"... soon to be followed by "I can't find the mobile that moved away from its spawn position/trapped on geometry!"

June 26

Without playing the game: I feel like the best thing Ship of Heroes did was to simply explain why the zones have limits. The early development on a different spiritual successor seemed way too obsessed with having game zones without limits and/or insane amounts of open-world geometric detail.

June 26

My candidates for best value: Civ II and Civ V. Both of these allowed me to pass a LOT of time that would have otherwise been spent in dangerous ways. The latter also came during the podcast era, so it was a good excuse to chill to a whole lotta audio.

Very close would be Deus Ex, as well as the DX: Human Revolution and DX: Mankind Divided versions. The initial release IIRC had the first two entire zones as part of a promo from PC Gamer! These FPS allowed alternate win-conditions as well as different ways to configure yourself! I enjoyed these so much more than other puzzle FPS like Half-Life, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Star Trek: Elite Force (I, II)... even though I enjoyed those.

Least value is slightly harder, because I simply set games aside and usually don't bear a grudge towards them. I paid for Civ VI during a steam sale, but haven't played it. I jumped through a LOT of hoops for a (at the time) newer version of Galactic Civilizations... so Gal Civ III I think... because of the nature of my original purchase, and a desire to install on a new PC... and I didn't end up playing it for very long. I'm a pretty casual 4x player, and Civ V tapped me out as far as exactly how much micro-management could I tolerate to play on the hardest (ehem, PC cheats) settings.

In the dark distant past, I can think of games like Starflight (I, II) that were fun, but ultimately time-sinks that became stressful, and Earl Weaver Baseball (more micromanagement, and not as much fun as Strat-o-Matic). In terms of consoles, the Intellivision AD&D: Treasure of Tarmin basically forever, as long as you didn't turn off the console. Similarly, I spent a lot of hours during a relatively short period of time with Bard's Tale I and II.

June 26

1 hour ago, Lusiphur Malache said:

I know less than nothing about tanking Lord Recluse. How would a Bio tank with maybe a boost from a Kin do against him?

I doubt the Kin would make any difference. As I wrote above: The character Tanking Lord Recluse really should not need help from others, because the other players have different things to be doing. Bio should do ok (Absorption! Regeneration!) provided that the tank hasn't ignored resistances.

My experience has been that the Lord recluse fight is about as close to "just keep his attention and be able to take punishment" content as there is in the game. There is no real fighting Lord recluse while the towers are up, certainly not for 99.9% of characters. Auto-Hit Taunts and Survival are what's needed. I've never seen a team zerg LR.

June 26

I find AoE Slows to be "ok" if the radius is large enough, but I don't think trying to "double up" would yield particularly noticeable results. The ones that require ToHit checks stand a better chance of affecting more critters, if the spawn size is big enough.

I used to think of AoE Slows as a sort of damage mitigation tool (and I suppose they are), but I tend to treat them as a way of getting aggro. The primary downside to slows IMO is that the enemies I most want to slow are ones that have Protection and/or Resistance to slows, and an AI behavior that makes them want to skedaddle all over the map.

June 25

Don't take Fold Space on a Mastermind.

June 25

June 25

I doubt there is anything magical about the build you want to see that you can't figure out for yourself. My advice: Don't take Hasten, and don't chase +Recharge. Use sets instead of franken-slotting. Endurance burning is the death of MMs.

Ninjas primary: If you avoid %procs, the henchmen slotting should be pretty standard, leveraging the unique pieces and the MM ATOs. I would make sure to have the Overwhelming Force Damage/KB->KD piece in the T1. I say to avoid %procs because on almost all MM builds, trying to be clever with %damage in henchmen is almost always coming at the expense of something that serves the build better. Similarly, trying to get %damage from MM attacks will end up being a waste of Endurance. Better to slot MM attacks with sets, and any %proc should be %-Resistance or possibly a soft control like knockdown (if the attacks do knockback, because the T1 got the OF piece).

I'd probably plan on skipping Fistful of Arrows, unless it happens to come at an early time when no other choice is available, and I'd slot it with 6xAnnihilation.

Trick Arrow: as I wrote, this secondary has too many good choices! Skip the single target immobilize and single-target hold. Don't plan on too many slots in Flash Arrow. Plan on Glue Arrow as a Slow. It has the potential for %damage, but the henchmen are for damage. Acid Arrow will be a must for improving clear times. It won't need much except accuracy, endurance reduction and can take a %-resistance. The T7/T8/T9 AoE should be taken.

Take the Leadership pool. I recommend Maneuvers (6 slots), then Assault (1 slot) and then Tactics (1 slot, unless you find you really need ToHit or want better perception).

I recommend the Fighting pool for Tough and Weave, but you can probably delay these.

You have to make a decision on how you want to travel, and what else can you do with other powers in the chosen travel pool. If you want to mimic a youtube video, go with whatever they did. I have found whenever I have tried to be clever by picking a travel pool that wasn't mostly a good choice for enhancement mules (KB protection, Shield Wall, Slow Restistance, etc.) but instead was to support the henchmen... the build ended up being inferior. I think the Flight pool is the simplest, every other pool seems to demand too much attention.

For epics, you will need an armor or shield. Pick the one you like. The Patron pools should offer another chance for an AoE attack that can take 5x or 6x Annihilation.

June 25

Not the easiest IMO, but perfectly doable: Invulnerability. I have been able to tank LR (without help from teammates) on Master runs by (ab)using Dull Pain... which is a power I rarely use outside of "hard" content, despite having it 6-slotted. I'm not too proud to admit that this also involves mostly keeping out of melee range of LR until a couple of the towers are down.

When I remember (on my characters that won't be Tanking Lord Recluse), I try to have Incarnate Rebirth available to help out whoever will be tanking. Personally, I don't like the MLTF where one or more players are trying to constantly "support" the Tank... because it usually means the towers (and the tower healers) are NOT being dealt with. Rebirth is one of those things that I find can help reasonably well-built Tanks and doesn't demand constant vigilance.

June 25

3 hours ago, Uun said:

One of the towers (red?) provides Recluse with a 30% ToHit buff, making it harder to tank him with defense-based armor (SR, Shield, Ice) until it's down. He's also got high mag kb attacks, which can be problematic for sets without native kb protection (Dark and Fire). In addition to energy damage most of his attacks have high levels of toxic damage, which some armors don't have much resistance to.

I think Blue is the one with the +ToHit. Red is his +Damage buff IIRC.

June 25

IIRC: The weekly TF will award a Prismatic Ather, upon first completion (for the week) per character.

Also: The chance for a Prismatic Aether Particle to drop occurs at the completion of any mission. I think they have to be instanced missions, I can't recall ever getting one from an open world hunt mission. In this sense, these are a sort of complimentary award for 'defeat alls'... that is, players can often complete missions quickly by skipping fights... and defeats give all the other game rewards (recipe drops, etc.)... so they ended up being a reward that drops slightly better for players that speed through missions.

June 25

10 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Am I the only one so desperately greedy that I check the quantity of these on all my characters to ensure I don't ever reach the limit?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I hit the limit on Reward Merits intentionally (to verify the limit still exists) before I started doing conversions. I hit the Monstrous Aether limit "by accident", because I hadn't thought it would be on 999. I generally try to keep the 'stockpile' of those at 90% of the limit, because I'll usually remember to convert before I hit the limit. I typically spend the things like Vanguard and Threads so AFAIK I haven't come close to whatever their limits might be.

I'm not trying to (humble)brag about the limits on Reward Merits: it really is quite easy to accumulate them; no special build is required. The primary reason I've accumulated so many is because I don't have a particularly large number of alts. When I want to try a new concept, I almost always convert at least 1000 Reward Merits into ATO (occasionally more if I plan to use Winters), and then as the alt approaches 50 I look to see what, if any, Purple pieces I need that haven't already been accumulated. This isn't the most cost effective (in an arbitrage sense) way to use Merits, but it works fine for me.

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