tidge

I'll save the trouble and just attach a bunch of merits, badges, and other rewards to this post. If they aren't here, that means someone else was more enterprising/faster at claiming them.

I've been working on an alt-Soldier/Bane(*1), so I peeked at the first post to see how my choices compare... I noticed that the posted build included two Steadfast Protection: Knockback Protection pieces. I don't use MIDS, so by my rough eye it looks like that build has 11 points of KB protection (including the unique mistake); it would be trivial to move a slot such that the Karma 4pt KB protection could be included. I have a different set of goals for my current project than the posted build, but I do think that 11 points of KB protection is a good target, since: It is pretty easy to hit with Gladiatior's Armor (going to be used anyway) and a pair of 4-point uniques With the SG base 10-point buff, it puts a build over the 20 point FREEM! threshold I've had a handful of other characters (different ATs, mostly Melee with Dark Armor which needs to chase KB protection) where I had the ability to relatively painlessly get to 21 points (protection) from enhancement bonuses but usually I stop at 11, 12, or 14 points depending which sets I am using (11 and 14 are more common for me than 12). *1 The lack of DDR is my biggest concern with my current build. For a hybridized AT, I definitely prefer the Fortunata... but I wanted to give the Soldier another try.

I used to rely on binds for MM henchmen controls (on Live) but for a couple of reasons I stopped using them and just put macros in trays for "all" of the henchmen (as a group): the four actions, and the three stances (green, blue, red). I'm pretty sure I just drag and drop icons from the pet window(s), editing if necessary to make sure the icon affects "all" but here are the actions (like I said, I think I just drag the stances): /macro_image "PetCommand_action_Goto" "GoTo" "petcom_all goto" /macro_image "PetCommand_Action_Dismiss" "Dismiss" "release_pets" /macro_image "PetCommand_Action_Stay" "Stay" "petcom_all stay" /macro_image "PetCommand_Action_Follow" "Follow" "petcom_all follow" I recommend putting "Dismiss" somewhere it won't be clicked accidentally. The main reason I abandoned binds for MM is that I can't remember which "character unique" binds do what (for any given character)! The other reason is that because of a series of accumulating changes to MMs (some from Live, most from Homecoming) I find I don't need to have such fine control (quickly via binds) over all the henchmen. We have really fast resummon times, the upgrades apply en masse to all henches in a radius of the target (no need to specifically target any one henchmen or pet), the cost of enhancements is low enough to make them all obtainable, etc. As a practical matter, there are only a limited set of circumstances when I want my henchmen doing different things... so the pet window serves this purpose just fine. These circumstances aren't rare (for the content I play), but I don't have to change the stances often enough (and I'm not usually in "panic mode" constantly resummoning defeated henchmen). The MM play experience changes while leveling up more than any other AT... so I don't want to completely dismiss the idea of more "fine control" of henchmen, or other alternative (pool) powers that might want specialty binds for (specific) henchmen targeting: Aid Other, Spirit Ward, Enflame, Grant Invisibility, whatever. Specific/Individual henchmen may warrant specific controls based upon playstyle, based upon their attacks... but generally I just direct the henches as a group.

IIRC, the final mission of the Shining Stars (blue-side) arc takes place in "Galaxy City". From memory, it is definitely NOT an "instanced" partial map based on the original Galaxy City but a different map.

The current devs don't seem motivated to add either straight buffs(*1) or straight nerfs to current power sets, so I want to believe that it was recognized buffing cold via +Wet didn't fit things as is. IMO Marine is in the top tier, and Water Blast is well. I don't think there were any thoughts about making Fire do less damage to Wet enemies, mostly because I don't think the Wet concept was thoroughly considered. "Balance" is a handy reason to drop it altogether.... besides, CoH isn't Pokemon. The game already implements a straightforward method of type/positional resistances/defenses with no need to try to work "combo mechanics" from multiple different attack types. (*1) There are "clumsy" mechanics that have been reworked/revised since relaunch of course. Water Blast even got a 'fix' with respect to how Tidal Power used to be able to be consumed without benefit.

Wet status doesn't make me mad, but I definitely felt like it was a step in a wrong direction (for everything except the animation effect): It was a plan to boost the effects (status, not sure what else was on the table) of certain cold powers used by anyone; cold is already one of the better options across all AT It has echoes of Pokemon cross-type battles for effectiveness/non-effectiveness Once one player's elemental attacks apply this sort of effect, there is literally no place to stop trying to do it. I can understand why the idea of trying to explicitly build in potential synergy was appealing, but this wasn't going to be particularly good to "balance within a single power set". It wouldn't be well-received to do something like "reduce damage across the board for all powers that apply Wet" just because of the potential for the extra effects... and NOT doing that would have been an unbalanced boost to sets that apply Wet. One my last bullet point above, players would start to argue that enemies with Wet status should take less damage from some attack types (e.g. Fire) and more damage from other types (e.g. Electric). Then folks might start wondering about other powers and effects. It's not so much a slippery slope as the edge of a cliff face.

In particular, I was hoping to be able to use the Baseball Bat (as used as the St. Louis Slugger temp power) as a "low tech" option for the Soldier of Arachnos/Bane weapon option. I realize that this would also be used for the non-melee stuff, but that is completely fine with me.

Not a Controller, but my Storm/Storm Defender is one of the most Controller-like AT I've ever played. It is, in some ways, better at Control than my Mind/Poison Controller... which is a good character to play, but it has an oddball assortment of controls, and no pets to speak of aside from Confuses.

I prefer 'evergreen' content, as opposed to having Lore that requires changing/evolving story arcs. I find that some of the missions for Incarnate content, or "Who Will Die?" are perfectly fine and can be enjoyable, but I strongly dislike the way they changed the Lore. "Warning: this mission takes place after Issue ___" is something I'm allergic to. I prefer content that can be played organically on any character. I strongly dislike what Live did to Praetoria and Galaxy City, and I'm not crazy about what was done to Dark Astoria. Of the Live stuff that told an 'arc', yet reset things at the end... I rather like The First Ward. Anyway, the above rambling is my "no vote" explanation.

A Bane will work, but there are a few things to consider: You will either be using guns or a mace (or both) to make attacks and use certain powers (Placate, Build Up, for example) (my experience) Bane's are quite slow against single (hard) targets, but pretty good with AoE Mask Presence comes midway through the build (for both Soldiers and Widows) If you want less of a 'mechanical' means of attacking, a Fortunata offers quite a lot (with or without the claw attacks). There are a variety of different directions to go with either Banes or Fortunatas. I don't think any of mine have particularly great DPS against +N content (especially if the enemies resist the primary damage types) but they are fine against +1x8. Some leveraging of the Patron pools might me necessary, depending on what is taken earlier in the build and if an off-type damage is desired.

Barrier Reef is going to be complicated with Robots. 1) Barrier Reef offers less defense than a FFG, but at 5%-ish (unboosted) that is still pretty good. 2) Robots have the Maintenance Drone, so healing is far less necessary... and while Absorb is nice, avoiding damage is better. There are a few enemies for which the Absorb might prevent an quick 2-shot kill on the henchmen. A player would have to experiment to see if it really matters for what they play.

I've experienced the issue of mobiles being stuck (or otherwise, off-the-map *enough* that they can't be affected)... sometimes this has been 'natural', sometimes this is due to a specific combination of knockback powers and specific maps (that seem prone to this... 'new caves' for example). However: This is an incredibly niche use case, even with the one character I was playing that seemed to have this happen somewhat frequently. This request ('give us *this* temp power') strikes me as something of a big ask, with relatively little justification (from the niche case) and would likely just be used for things like getting aggro from distant mobs (or some other game effect). I feel like such a power (single target, standard TP rules) wouldn't be worth the effort for the returns. There are other 'missing' temp attacks that I think are more relevant, not just for the 'stuck in wall' use case (but somewhat applicable): ground-targeted AoE (we have multiple enemy targeted AoE) (single-target) immobilize/-fly <- I'm reasonably sure that there are acquirable 'Web Grenades' as a temp power. The latter seems like a big miss, especially when I consider that Envenomed Daggers exist and have an out-sized impact for some content. Single-target immobilizes are IMO pretty skippable powers (often T1, they pretty much either have minimal slotting or rarely have been used for a specific set bonus on my characters), but -Regeneration powers are not. YMMV. Many immobilizes reduce the magnitude of KB.

I want to note that "top notch" should probably only consider builds that include the Issue 27 page 5 updates (for Robots) and possibly even the Issue 27 page 7 updates (to Traps). I didn't change my Robotics/Traps MM for the Detonator changes, but some players like the power. A couple things to point out about Robotics/Traps: Like every other Mastermind, it plays differently when leveling as opposed to being post-50. Like every other Mastermind, to be "top notch" the player has to adjust playstyle for different content. Having multiple builds and switching between them is purely optional, in my experience. There are a rather wide variety of build options for Robots/Traps. Even the older threads with builds will offer insight into how those players make their builds work. On the last note: despite no shortage of advocacy for certain powers and playstyles, I'll not recommend certain other players' choices... but that is the beauty of the game.

That was my recollection, but it had been so long since I worked on my triple-build Soldier, and I didn't want to mess with that one. I did recall that some non-attack powers force a drawing of the mace... I worked up a concept that didn't leverage those too hard, but for me it looks like there is no avoiding them... I really want Placate! EDIT: ... and I'd rather have a non-power pool version of it, since AFAIK Pacify won't trigger hides or critical.

While this topic is fresh, can someone remind me that if a Soldier chooses Bane, opts for a second costume slot (i.e. NOT the default), will attacks like Web/Frag Grenade come from the gun chosen in the costume creator or will there be a mace used?

There is more than one player who just logs out without completing a TF/SF?

I didn't look at the build (I don't MIDS, I can look at the text but that doesn't give me a very complete picture, sorry). On the topic of "selfish %proc Controllers": Go for it! Some advice I apply to my own builds: I almost never %proc (multiples) in single-target controls. Those are good places for sets that offer bonuses at 5 (or more) pieces. I often have one AoE (usually a fast-cycling cone) that is holding 5+ pieces of a set. For Controllers, the long base recharge (often 4 minutes) AoE control also usually gets a set... I find that the long recharge times means (practically) that despite being reliable for %procs, no matter how much recharge those powers have (slotted, globally) they almost never provide enough extra damage for most Controller builds. Better IMO to focus %damage on other AoE powers that have base recharge times on the order of 90 seconds. For me, being selfish in a build is more about delaying/minimizing slotting of powers that only affect teammates. I'll do this typically to improve the quality-of-life for my character... maybe more power pool picks taken earlier. Finally: Once you have some Controller AoE, you may find it satisfying to set the difficulty at something like -1x4 for some content. This will be far less of a slog for the low/random DPS of a solo Controller.

The reason for so many threads is that some players may be encountering Group Fly (for any noticeable length of time), no one on the team says anything, yet the player that encountered Group Fly was still unhappy. I'm always caught by surprise, unless I am using a character that needs to be on the ground for certain powers (because I've visited Null the Gull to change it to not affect me). I have one character with Group Fly, I use it all the time solo outdoors or on instanced maps with lots of vertical space. I almost exclusively use it for traveling around zones, there are some instances with Giant Monsters where it helps the henchmen (e.g. nuEochai's Pumpkin Patch). If I'm fighting a Giant Monster, I will occasionally forget I have it on (moving to the next Lusca position, getting henches out of a Pumpkin patch, cleaning up sky-scattered clockworks in KR/Croatoa, are examples) but I typically turn it off as soon as I notice it is on and I'm not needing it. This seems to be what other players do as well. I can't say I've ever had a player troll a team or league with it... certainly I've seen Incarnate Incandescence used in a troll-ish manner (but not recently). I've had exactly one player who was on a team my Mastermind was leading complain about my using Group Fly during the 'defeat striking scrapyarders' phase. Not only did the player NOT have to be close enough to be affected by Group Fly in order to defeat scrapyarders, they had plenty of time to go to Pocket D(*1) before the Ghost of Scrapyard would be summoned. Complaining to the team lead about the lead's use of Group Fly when zipping around Sharkhead seems pretty pointless, just as complaining about being asked to turn it off by a team lead. (*1) Of course not every player has quick access to Pocket D, but that was almost certainly not the case here given how we were traveling between zones, and the player's comments.

You do realize that you literally equated a thumbs-down reaction to

Players will always want more of whatever, but the following strikes me as both narrow and somewhat bitter: The focus above that ignores the HC additions/changes to power sets, enhancements, markets/fungibility perhaps intentionally... and throws shade at content additions updates that have been made across a pretty wide variety of levels. We've gotten updated content for rogues/vigilantes, revised co-op zones, high-level content with different typse of grind, etc. plus some additions to the lore where there were gaps. I'm not super-excited about everything new, but none of it is sour to me, and it would be foolish to say we aren't getting new stuff. As far as my personal opinion of the flavor of the new arcs: sometimes they require me to pay a little more attention than I'd like, or have in-mission "key objectives" to complete in order for my taste, but there hasn't been much I that I can't just button mash my way through when I prefer. This is a real balancing act when it comes to missions IMO. Generally I think the stuff that has been released has been pretty good about that balance.

It is typical of my characters that will eventually end up using the Apocalypse set in a single-target ranged attack, I rarely have more than three slots in that attack before level 50. This is just the way things shake out for different ATs, and the various other options they have (for slots, for enhancement sets). There is some balancing of considerations of course. Now to answer the question: I typically grab pieces from an attuned set from the SG base, either Overwhelming Force or Gladiator's Javelin. These become 'slot-and-forget' options that get recycled back into SG storage at level 50.

I am starting to question why it takes less effort to start a thread about Group Fly than it does to visit Null the Gull.

I don't think there is an issue with Storm that requires 'fixing'. From memory, the main thing I didn't like (but isn't wrong, at least not in a certain context) is the inherent 0.9 base Accuracy in Gale. This isn't unusual for (most) Control AoE, but it is a rather big difference when compare to cone attacks from Blast sets. FWIW I checked my slotting for Tornado, it is: Soulbound Allegiance: Accuracy/Recharge (boosted) Soulbound Allegiance: Damage/Endurance (boosted) Overwhelming Force: Damage/KB->KD Overwhelming Force: Endurance/Recharge Achilles' Heel: %-Resistance Touch of Lady Grey: %Negative