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tidge

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Posts posted by tidge

  1. Running content post-50 is necessary to get the XP to unlock other Incarnates anyway, so I find my Incarnates do some Dark Astoria farming. I always take the random salvage. Once you have a T3 Alpha and a Judgement, farming Dark Astoria arcs is easy for almost all builds.

     

    The Empyrean merits flow with extra levels, so there is very little need to bank them from choices. It can help to keep a list of which salvage you actually want. Once a toon can farm/grind DA, you can spend as much time finding what salvage you need as it takes to run certain missions.

  2. At the risk of thread necromancy, I can also concur that HO Membranes do nothing for the recharge of Mind Link. I thought I got a great drop for Mind Link courtesy Miss Liberty!

     

    I can also note that Adjusted Targetting:Recharge (a ToHit IO) DOES work as a means of Recharge for Mind Link, with a larger bonus than can be had by a X/Recharge IO.

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  3. There are quite a bit of Crey in the SE (city) corner of FF, where ICON is located. The eastern red zone (of the city, not hills) is basically Circle of Thorns to the north and Crey to the south.

     

    There are definitely plenty of Crey, but it may be that these Crey are too high a level for you if you get this mission at lvl 35, especially if you run into bosses. It's similar to getting 'Defeat N Circle of Thorns in Talos Island' when you are just level 20.

  4. 5 hours ago, Ukase said:

    The only thing that went through my mind was sincere appreciation for the creativity in making all these twisty-turning pathways in these mission maps. Yes, they can be frustrating and hard to navigate, but those devs sure did make an interesting place to play! 

    Council/5th Column maps have wall-mounted pipes to help you navigate the turns, just as newer (originally red-side snake) caves have torches to help you find your way.

     

    The pool maps are very frustrating for 'defeat alls' and they sit somewhere in my top 3 peeves along with:

    • Oranbegan 'rescue x' maps: It's such a pain to find things (including all the mobs to defeat)... so many nooks and crannies!
    • (Unai Kemen's) 'Defeat All' missions that take place on the many-tiered outdoor factory map. I made the mistake of keeping one of these missions at x8, and it was Clockwork. Not only are there wandering patrols, but the enemies purposely jump off the structure, run away, or fly away!
  5. Add me to the chorus of players who almost always take Fly as a travel power. Sure it has a slow cap speed, but that just means I slot it with some other IO! (I tried Afterburner, but didn't find it improved things much). My next favorite travel power is Super Jumping. Those two travel powers let me see the most of the world.

     

    I like to have Hover to go through missions, primarily because the animation evokes certain cinematic characters calmly moving through buildings bringing destruction (erm, justice) to all the opponents. To be honest, Group Flight really offers the best speed & combat control of the pool, but good luck finding teammates who don't think you're griefing them personally when using it. Only thing I'll add here: If you are in Pocket D for a League mission and you don't want to be 'punished' with Group Flight, take 10 seconds to visit Null the Gull to turn it off instead of using extra time to complain about it in team chat.

     

    The Sorcery pool is a fine alternative flight option, but with one major drawback: Choosing Sorcery: Mystic Flight means you can't take Force of Will: Weaken Resolve! I definitely understand if you are dipping deeper into the Sorcery Pool.

    • Like 3
  6. Aiming in a different direction:

     

    Setting aside ATOs with special effects (e.g. Energy Font, assorted PBAoE), there are only a few 'control' procs that I look towards slotting. For me, typically those are the %Damage in the (PB)AoE. I've seen the case made for +%Absorb from Entomb, and I'm a BIG FAN of 'Contagious Confusion' in single-target Confuses... but in general the procs in the controls seem rather lackluster. For example, is there really an advantage (aside from set bonuses) to %Disorient on top of a Fear attack? Or a -ToHit on a Stun? Can someone make the case (corner case if necessary) for these sorts of procs?

     

    Also: If anyone wants to start a petition drive to get the Fear and Taunt powers their own Superior (preferred) or PVP custom sets, I'm on board! For Fear, I'd like a 'Contagious' proc variant (since single-target Fear attacks are generally meh); for Taunts a % -ToHit (or -Damage) would be a nice proc option.

  7. On 12/29/2019 at 4:07 AM, parabola said:

    To my mind the aoe holds have become very optional powers, emergency use at best. I'm tending to leave them out these days favouring powers that can be used on every spawn. If that fits the design intention then that's fine but if not perhaps they could do with a tweak.

    Hmmm. This isn't how I play AoE controls (a larger set than just Holds, including Mass Confusion, Invoke Panic, etc.), at least not on solo-running characters that can't AoE nuke every +N/x8 mob of enemies. When running solo against a large number of spawns, the toons with AoE controls have a separate control/AoE attack chain that is commensurate with the faster-cycling single-target attacks.

     

    The above use is in addition to what was described as 'emergency' use, but one player's emergency is another player's default standard of play. In my experience the AoE controls (again, more than just Holds) are not just great for rescuing teammates who are in over their heads, but also very good for priming large spawns in 'defeat all missions' when teaming. Here I'm referring to AoE controls that can result in some amount of damage as well.

    On 12/29/2019 at 3:10 AM, MTeague said:

    Hey!  Keep your paws off Mass Confusion, I love that power.  I'm fine if an additional power that's mutually exclusive with it is added to Mind Control, but don't be messin with my fav toy.

    /agreed. It loses its luster on large teams that can nuke every group of enemies, and at +0/x1 the spawns aren't really big enough to enjoy it,  but I find it to be incredibly useful when soloing content with larger team sizes. It is especially fun to find those large groups that don't particularly resist their own damage type!

    • Like 1
  8. On 12/28/2019 at 10:13 PM, MetaVileTerror said:

    Web Grenade is absolutely . . . what's the kid the words use these days?  "Baller?"  -Fly and Slow should not be scoffed at.  Sure, ol' Webby's pretty heavy on the Endurance cost, but that can be compensated for without too much agony.

    Gotta have another Power you could use for your example, no?

    -Fly and Slow, but only AFTER a To Hit Check, to a SINGLE target, and those debuffs don't do anything to most of the opposing figures you would actually want to keep in place, especially at lower levels (for example: Warwolves, Demon Lords, or boss+). Web Grenade is pathetic. I grok that the idea is that the Mastermind ties up a single character for the pets to attack, but in practice this is not useful. I'd like to see how many slots level 50 Mastermind players assign to this a la 'flavor of the month'.

     

    By contrast, the MM secondary T2 is Caltrops. This is an AoE slow that also does Damage, and is much more useful at keeping enemies where you want them for the pet attacks, and is better at grabbing initial aggro for Tankerminds.

  9. I grok the desire for more options, but I wonder if there isn't a clear case to be made that certain secondary T1 are recognized as being bad enough to merit swapping with the T2? 

     

    Setting aside the question of Tanker/Bruising, the T1 choice that always bothers me is Traps secondary for MMs: Web Grenade. Even slotted it isn't very useful, and it certainly doesn't serve as a mule.

  10. 4 hours ago, Haijinx said:

    I use weave to avoid the whole trying to get mindlink perma problem.

     

    I would have agreed about tough in the old days, but now that you can build a lot of resist with IOs you can hit about 50%  S/L with tough on a widow.

    With Mental Training perma-Mind Link isn't difficult. That being said, it is only when teaming (or in extreme circumstance) that I even worry about using it. Fortunata/Widow positional Defenses are simply good enough.

    I know the conventional wisdom about S/L resistance but with different types of damage I would much rather use the power choices (and slots) elsewhere. YMMV.

  11. 12 hours ago, Harlequin565 said:

    So.

    When is enough enough for you?

    Most of my lvl 50s sit around 500M, because as I'm leveling them up, I am also playing the market, spending inf as I go. It is usually one or more of the level 50s that helps the new alts get started, usually by providing IOs, or by simply providing inf to buy things from P2W ASAP.

     

    I've found that 200M inf is more than enough to get an alt started in the market: that is plenty for the portable workbench, recipes, salvage, converters, and AH vig costs to quickly make even more inf to fund the inventions you want along the way. 200M can even let you be a little sloppy (but not too much) with higher priced items in the AH like ATO or Winter-Os.

  12. On 12/19/2019 at 12:51 PM, gusthemole said:

    I suppose it's probably way too late to point out how grossly inferior the Invulnerability power "Dull Pain" is to virtually all the other powersets' alternatives. Healing Flames? It's up far more often. Earth's Embrace is similar. Dark Regeneration is FAR superior.

     

    A base of something like six minutes for a power that is only a little better than a medium inspiration seems incredibly underwhelming.

    Add my voice to the chorus of "wha?".  On an Invulnerability Tanker the only way this could be disappointing is if you take it ASAP and think of it as nothing more than a heal, or are in a headspace that thinks it should be 'perma' to keep your toon at max HP. I suppose depending on Enhancement sets level ranges, if you do a lot of exemplaring against particularly difficult content you can find the 'natural' Dull Pain underwhelming at low levels.

     

    Once the rest of the primary is slotted, you may find that you don't even NEED Dull Pain, except in extreme circumstances. I feel like it's something I barely used after lvl 40, and then only against particular enemies able to hit me and cut through the defenses.

  13. In Mayhem missions, you can unleash a spree of terror and destruction against civilians, police, and named heroes.

     

    I suggest you do SSA1 "Who Will Die?", and that you don't leave the final mission of Arc 1 right away. Once the FP abuse you, you won't think twice about putting them down in lvl 40+ content.

     

    My recollection is that at higher levels you really do get to be quite dastardly.

  14. I also have found that the Fighting pool is wasted for both Widow paths. The AT has enough powers to slot what you need (from IOs) and the extra SL resistance isn't worthwhile. Try instead to maximize positional Defenses.

     

    Slotting Mind Link: with Global Recharge,  I only 3-slot this with Recharge (from the ToHit buff set) and 2 LotG (Global and Def/Recharge). Any other x/Recharge were not really helping. I don't have this perma except on a Night Widow because I also pass on Hasten.

     

    Self-heal: my builds use Unrelenting (from the Presence pool) as the self-heal. It also provides a large Damage boost. If you 6-slot this (Preventative Medicine) on a high Recharge build it should be up every 3 minutes or so. Widows don't really need more control, but I love the PBAoE Invoke Panic.

     

  15. One thing I did with my 'bots MM (upon Respec) was to slot the two (?) highest rifle attacks as well as Epic attacks with Knockdown. The T1 and T3 bots also are slotted with Knockdown. At higher levels this has my toon firing off shots to keep baddies in place.

     

    Prior to the Respec, I was using the Medicine pool to keep bots healthy. After the Respec I solo enough x8 content that the Triage Beacon is generally enough to keep the bots working, especially with Incarnate powers.

     

    You can also take Grant Invisibility if you feel like doing a lot of individual casting on pets.

  16. On 12/13/2019 at 6:37 AM, MetaVileTerror said:

    Veelectric Boogaloo beat me to it.  Yeah.  I was already pretty non-plussed about the Freedom Phalanx as characters just in the game; they were there as fixtures for /real/ characters as far as I was concerned.  The second run of the comics cemented my feelings on them as pretty heavily negative.  The books, as precursors to the lore were a much better place to explore those Phalanx characters.

    There was always something that felt 'off' to me about the comics (as an original subscriber);  I am still weirdly non-plussed by the SSA, Incarnate, and introductory Arcs that are "lore heavy". I'm just not interested in the 'drama' of certain characters. City of Heroes was always supposed to be about 'us' (the players) and the constant stream of content wrapped up around the big NPCs always felt like I was being forced to listen to someone else's retelling of a 'cool' RPG session from several summers ago.

     

    City of Villains (and the Villain take on 'Who Will Die') are very cathartic, as you get to punk all of the various obnoxious Blue-side NPCs. I even found weird satisfaction in taking down Indigo and Crimson as revenge for their painfully long story arcs.

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  17. 13 hours ago, EmmySky said:

    powexeclocation target (powernamehere)

    powexeclocation me (powernamehere)

     

    Like:

    /bind f "Powexeclocation target Freezing Rain"

    will activate freezing rain on your target (friend or foe, I tested it by raining on Ms. Liberty)

     

    IIRC the powexeclocation command can also take arguments for distance and radial direction, in case you don't want to target on yourself.

     

    For example: powexec_location 0:10 is directly in front of you "0", and 10 units away from you). The direction is 0 - 359 IIRC with "90" being to your right.

    • Like 1
  18. 6 hours ago, Mr. Wallet said:

     

    No, again, you can't just go play your own game the old way, unless you never want to team with anybody until 14...

    Allow me to jump in (very early) to this post. *IF* you can find a group of like-minded players who will team with you, it is perfectly possible to run Flashback missions that return the feel of the slow grind through missions/TFs as long as you select the specific limitations of the flashback. It isn't going to return you to the pre-Enhancement Diversification days, but if you want to eliminate Temporary/Travel powers and enhancements (e.g. from IO sets) you absolutely can do this.

     

    Do I have a desire to send my Energy Melee/Invulnerability tanker back through the Legacy Positron TF in this manner just to relive what it is like to finish a story under painful circumstances when everyone else on the team had dropped the TF because of boredom? Not really. It was something of a triumph for that character at the time... but that time has passed.

    • Like 3
  19. Can we take a few minutes to describe the groups which scatter that cause the most aggravation?

     

    For me it is the Knives of Vengance, specifically in the second mission of Heather Townshend's arc in Dark Astoria. I usually run this arc at x8, and the cursed RNG always allow a few to escape  being hit...and so they will run (or fly) to the literal ends of the map. This unnecessarily prevents completion of the defeat X, as long as one of them is hiding somewhere else.

  20. There are three ways I know of. You must meet the minimum level requirements of the individual arcs.

     

    1) You walk up to the contact and talk to them.

     

    2) You use a Pillar to select the mission as a 'flashback'

     

    3) You can get a tip that starts you... this happened with Pandora's Box redside for me.

  21. 3 hours ago, Extor Prime said:

    CoX is just about the only MMO in existence where an orange drop can elicit a "meh" response. Took a while to adjust to that.

    I craft precious few Orange recipes, and after lvl 50 I turn them off because they generally aren't worth the use of Rare salvage.

     

    Most disappointing to me is when a lvl 50 gets an Orange recipe drop notice and when I go looking for the PvP recipe and I see it is a Touch of the Nictus 😛

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