LightMaster

There’s definitely some redefinitions needed regarding this rule so that there is clearly a thin line not to cross, given that both definitions can be stretched too far. Politics should be about what is defined as true politics (i.e. governments, president of USA, dictatorship, voting processes, protests, etc), and not based solely on others’ identity. Religions should be defined as religions that are still active today such Christianism and Buddhism, while ancient religions and ancient traditions such as mythological deities are fine to discuss as long as it doesn’t get aggressive and mean-spirited. I call foul when people says “everything is political” where the definition is just that; “relating to the government or the public affairs of a country” (Oxford Dictionary), and going beyond the definition can undermine any message or intent the author have for their artistic product.

Even with the spaghetti code in mind, I’m surprised the Minimal or No FX were implemented given it’s proven to be possible with whole Armor power sets. It’ll be especially helpful turning off effects that you would find garish on your character.

The Energy Focus for Energy Torrent to hit more targets, I can get behind! This makes Energy Torrent more inticing to use and puts it more in-line with the Energy Mastery versions, too, since those usually do not scatter mobs thanks to already having Knockdown instead of Knockback. Also thanks for pointing out abotu Power Crash’s increased target cap in Energy Focus.

Other than Sniper Blast having massive KB being overkill and grief-inviting given it’s main purposes are snipe and rotation Extreme Energy/Smashing damage, the rest sounds good to me. Power Push in particular may invite players that aren’t Sentinel to try it beyond just pushing an overly aggressive foe away.

You’re right, my bad, lost in the track with this thread. Back into the subject, I’d agree with pseudo-pets replaced by toggles if it means increased effectiveness and not dealing with long recharge time, but true pets can stay.

Not helping is their tendency to expire (automatic 0 HP + die) after minutes passed, so you have to re-summon them, especially with the long recharge time for those Pet summoning powers like Dark Servant.

I hear at least more than a few people saying about Energy Blast being a weak power set, as well as annoying for teammates if used recklessly. While I have met a player whose NRG/NRG Blaster outshining their own Fire/Fire Blaster, the general concensus that I can gather doesn’t change. Knockback means you have to be strategic with using your powers, and not spam them liberally. For Nova, slap a KB > KD and you’re good to go. A Homecoming Issue (update) grants the Dominator’s Energy Assault that uses the Energy Storing / Energy Focus gimmick akin to Energy Melee, but with different powers having different benefits unlike the latter. Both sets’ Energy Focus is never granted through Build Up powers, so it’ll be kept in mind for Energy Blast. Energy Melee’s Energy Focus Only granted through Total Focus. Barrage: Weaken the foe’s regeneration and secondary effects, and 100% stun rate. Power Crash: Hit five additional foes (six for Tankers, thanks Uun) in a cone. Energy Transfer: Executes extremely quickly. Energy Assault’s Energy Focus In addition of Total Focus always granting Energy Focus, the four powers have a chance of granting it if used against a Disoriented target. Bone Crusher: Reduces the foe’s secondary effects. Whirling Hands: Recharges instantly. Power Burst: Increase base damage from 2.6 Energy/Smashing to 4.29 Energy/Smashing, higher than all other damaging Powers of Energy Assault except a Snipe cast Sniper Blast. Example of Energy Blast’s Energy Focus The first four powers have a small chance of granting Energy Focus if used against a foe that resists Knockback (or the replacing status). Explosive Blast always grant Energy Focus. Alternatively, Power Push always activate Energy Focus and Explosive Blast has a chance of per target. (Suggested by Uun) Power Bolt (or Power Blast depending on which if the two is far less picked): Reduce the foe’s secondary effects and regeneration. Power Push: Damage increased at 3.75 Energy/Smashing (or 4.15 Energy/Smashing if used by Sentinel, given the latter’s Power Push already deals pretty good damage) Nova: Greatly reduces the foes’ Resist(All) and Defense(All) for ten seconds. The resist and defense reducement depends on the Archetype: Defender: Highest reducement on foes. Corruptor: Second highest. Sentinel: Slightly below Corruptor’s; can stack with Vulnerability. Blaster: Lowest, but still noticable. Suggested by Steampunkette: Energy Torrent increases to 16 targets. (Mirroring Power Crash's target count increase) Sniper Blast becomes a massive KB power. (Mirroring Barrage's high Stun) [This one I don’t agree much but might see potential to push away a knockback-resistant foe off you.] Power Blast becomes the "Deals double damage" power. [Might overlap with my idea for Power Push unless thiat power becomes the “always activate Energy Focus” one.] These three / four powers can benefit a temporary but powerful buff that can help turn the tide while being distinguished from both Energy Melee and Energy Assault. Do you have other ideas how to improve the power set other than resolving the excessive knockback?

The debuff resistance may end up outdoing Tanker in survivability and overshadowing Scrapper in damage due to the risk of resisting -DMG and -Res/-Def too much, even if those situations are rare. Fury granting a mobility buff, though, sounds pretty good to make Fury more enticing to keep it high than just more damage and get in-and-out of battle fast. I agree with the rest though. 0.8 armor modifier in particular would make it a more solid middleground between Tanks and Scrap/Stalk than already is before.

The numbers could be slightly lower than Corruptor’s debuffing numbers, have slightly shorter time but can stack per-hit, given that the Brute will attack in melee-range and have much higher tankiness than actual buff/debuff ATs. Going back to your example, Shadow Punch will have around 4.125% -ToHit for 4 seconds, but can stack with itself and with the Brute’s Dark Melee powers’ -ToHit chance. Keep in mind it requires the Brute to get up close to the enemies, making for a risky but rewarding maneuver. And that’s without saying about the AV’s Purple Patch. In a sense, the Brute can become a melee-oriented debuffer that can become more desirable on a team than before, with a niche that no other Melee ATs has, all while remaining solo-friendly with high damage and survivability combined vs other ATs.

Ooh definitely, I remembered that. In fact, the practice shows the direct counterparts among CoH and CoV Archetypes: Scrapper and Stalker: Melee Glass Cannons, with Scrappers being more straightforward while Stalker have built-in stealth for their Armor. Tanker and Brute: Tanky Melees, with Tanker being more durable / dodgy while Brutes are more damage-oriented. Defender and Corruptor: Buff/Debuff ATs, with Defender having stronger buffs/debuffs while Corruptor focus more on damage. Controller and Dominator: Crowd Control-oriented ATs, with Controller having stronger controls (at least in theory) while Dominator have higher damage scalar (not by much back then, but definitely higher nowadays to be much less overrelient on Domination) HEATs and VEATs: Team oriented versatile ATs, with Kheldians having changeling ability to change role on the spot depending in situation and team composition, while the Soldiers of Arachnos have a limited career selection but have very good individual powers and support, especially Toxic Web Grenade. Blaster and Mastermind: The odd-ones-out, with Blaster having emphasis on damage more than every other ATs, while Mastermind orients around commanding many pets and are stronger when a teammate MM is involved. Sentinel was made way after the CoH and CoV merge thus no direct counterpart. The villain side has more emphasis on damage (single target damage in Stalker’s case), barring Mastermind which that is their own thing. It worked in favor of Stalker, Dominator, the VEATs and especially the Corruptor… not so much the Brute nowadays.

I’ve once posted solutions for Brute some months ago with mixed receptions, and I got more experience with CoX since then. As many complained about Brute being overshadowed by other Melee ATs, there is something to remember about the AT prior to Issue 28; Tanker ended up being overshadowed by Brute as the Tanker deals too little damage to be appealing. Back when CoH and CoV were seperate, this is not an issue, but once the games and servers merged, it’s clear that neither were future-proofed. At this day, the Tanker became more fun to use; damage scalar moderately increased to be able to deal damage especially through their AoE attacks, but still below even the Brute’s maximum damage capability overall. Back to the Brute… We as a community is reaching a point where we ended up becoming too conflicted and close-minded on how to buff the Brute without stepping over the line of other Melee ATs despite their lack of true specialty. Even the Sentinel, which isn’t a high tier AT by any mean as a “ranged Scrapper”, is still specialized enough to be capable of turning the tide when all else fails and do what other ATs cannot do better in every way, including their very valuable Inherent, Vulnerability, which benefits the Sentinel and all other ATs. The Brute’s ATO procs are their own issues that will be addressed seperately, right now I shall focus on the Brute’s two advantages that are best keep that way (and maybe even build upon), and two fondamental issues that need to be addressed. Do note that the goal isn’t necessarily making Brutes viable for 4-stat contents, given most team runs the rigid but effective team composition of One Tank-Two Blasters-Five Corruptors - sometimes four and a Defender, but rather give the Brute something other Melee ATs cannot do so easily. Advantage 1: Ease of use and solo-friendliness The Brute is one of the ATs with the most created toons, and for good reasons that’ll be explained below. And for the same reasons, it is also one of, if not the most consistently great AT to go for when solo’ing, be it farming or simply playing through missions, especially at +4/8 difficulty. With that in mind, not much responsibility is required for the Brute on a team if there is a Tanker around. This allows the Brute to do whatever the heck they want as long they directly contribute to the team, be it defeating foes or completing objectives. As an off-tank, they do a pretty good job, even if not strictly all that tankier than Scrapper in mathematical terms. Advantage 2: A solid middleground of Scrapper and Tanker An important factor of the Brute’s popularity is a good balance between damage and tankiness. If one wants to be tanky but found Tankers hit like wet noodles, or wants high damage melee-only AT but found Scrapper or Stalker too fragile, then they will find the Brute very appealing, especially for solo plays. In other words, simple premise, but effective at it. “Unga bunga” all the way! Disadventage 1: Lack of true specialization Among the Melee ATs, the Brute is a master of none. Scrapper and Stalker outdo it in overall damage, while the Tanker obviously out-tanks it. The only thing going for it is higher ranged damage, and even then you have to rely on Temporary Power and Epic Pools to do that. Not helping is that putting ranged powers as alternative/mutually exclusives in Brute’s primary may be stepping over Sentinel, even if the latter can only use it’s Melee scalar for Boxing or at most two Melee powers in Epic Pools. Brute may be much tankier than Blaster and Dominator, the two true Melee+Ranged hybrid ATs, but the latter two don’t need extra survivability anyways, especially on a team. Disadventage 2: Fury is boring (even if effective) As an Inherent, Fury does it’s job pretty well; encourage the Brute to keep fighting and taking hits for Bonus Damage, allowing the Brute to eventually reaches higher damage potential than the Tanker. However, aside of being bugged (not reaching higher than 85%), it doesn’t do anything else important for itself or it’s team. What’s more is that the residential True DPS Archetype, Blaster, has an Inherent called Defiance that not only grants some Damage Bonus when using it’s primary or secondary, but even allows it to attack with level 1 powers when mezzed. Defiance used to be different in which way I do not know, but now Fury feels redundant in that department. What can be done, then? Turns out, none of the Melees have buff/debuff as their main style, and the Stalker can inflict Terrorize via stealthed Assassination, so a possible solution is to allow the Brute to have stronger debuff (and only Debuff!) potential, making it more akin to Sentinel’s Vulnerability and the ATs that has access to Buff/Debuff sets and thus more appealing to a team. Solution to Disadventage 1: Melee-oriented Debuffs Lore-wise and logically, there is no doubt that a brutal punch from a Brute will leave bigger marks and more broken bones than a precise strike from a Scrapper or Stalker, as the latters’ strike are not necessarily more pain-inducing. As such, a Brute can shatter an armor or split apart a forcefield with their bare hands or their heavy and powerful weapon. -Res might be a no-no because it can result in Brute dealing more damage than Scrapper/Stalker, granted -Res is a team-wide benefit anyways, but -Def, -ToHit, -Rech, -Regen, -Recovery and other non-mezzing debuffs will be very much more severe if used by a Brute than other melee-only Archetypes through stacking, but those debuffs will be slightly weaker and shorter meaning the Brute must keep hitting them to stay true with their playstyle. The Brute’s Melee sets will be able to inflict a variety of debuffs as a result, making some more appealing than on other ATs. Take Kinetic Melee, for example. It’s only known unique aspect is -DMG on foe with a Quick Strike, and that’s it. Any Knockup/back/down are already done by other Melee sets and those have another thing going for them. Now with a Brute, the -DMG is near-universal when using Kinetic Melee, each having small but stackable -DMG on a foe making a Brute a monster in a 1v1 fight, whereas the Tanker can take multiple enemies at once but not necessarily a super-powerful AV without the help of a Defender, Controller or Corruptor. Melee sets that don’t inflict a debuff when used by a Brute can inflict one depending on the theme. This means when used by a Brute, a Energy Melee can potentially inflicts -ToHit / -Rech, Fiery Melee inflicting -Regen (mimicking the Fire DoT of Fire Blast!), Ice Melee having more severe Slow and -Rech, Stone Melee inflicting -Recovery, etc. Solution to Disadventage 2: Fury now also provides +ToHit Pretty simple to keep Fury simple to use and easy to understand. Thusly Brute players now don’t need to slot some Accuracy Enhancements SOs / IOs until they can afford sets, and makes it even friendlier for +4/8 soloing. To counterbalance this, the Brute has a small ToHit penalty if Fury is empty and then if the Brute wasn’t in combat for more than ten seconds. What do you think of the solutions? Do you have any other solution you have in mind?

Sounds like a good idea. We don’t need Tyrant pull a heel-face turn given everything wrong he has done and his illusional ambitions, but instead an attempt that may seem he turned into a new leaf, but turned out to be another of his power-hungry conquest, even if he’a not as big of a threat as he was before. Maybe he’ll pull a sincere one down the line, but not at the point where Praetorian Hamidon and eventually the Battalion (ya know, the planned Coming Storm?) are among to worry about. Oh yeah, no doubt that the Crey Corp. will try their hands on making their own Statesman that may or may not go rogue. I met at least one toon based on the concept of a Statesman / Stateswoman made by Cray Corp.

Wouldn’t that be redundant with the Blaster Archetype? The thing about the Blaster is that it specializes in DPS more than any other ATs, including the Melee oriented ATs, by sacrifying survivability for Holds, Self-Substain (for self End management), miscelleanous stuff but especially Melee powers. The Melee powers within their Secondary alone, alongside the Self-Substain, is what allows the Blaster to go full-on DPS and bravely take on the foes heads-on. The Blaster’s Melee powers aren’t as powerful as Scrapper’s or Stalker’s Melee powers as the latter two can Crits for double damage. And the Dominator, the other non-Epic AT capable of both ranged and melee through their Assault secondaries, have a slightly higher Melee scalar than Blaster. That said, the Blaster does have Defiance for small Damage Bonus and capable of shooting down distant or fleeing foes. Not to mention that obviously the Blaster has the second highest Ranged scalar behind the Bright/Dark Nova forms. Not all Blaster Secondaries have Melee powers of course, with Archery being purely ranged, but it is still an important aspect about the Blaster to keep in mind. And of course there is the Blapper style, a Blaster that mostly or only uses their Secondary to focus on the Melee powers, is popular for a reason. While not perfectly viable for 4-Star contents afaik, it is an alternative playstyle few complained about as it not only gives an exhilerating playstyle that not even the real Melee ATs has, but it proved to be pretty good in their own right, especially if the Blapper doesn’t completely neglect their primary. tl;dr Blaster is and should remain top DPS, Blapper exists, is fun, and works remarkably well, so an AT with Melee primary and “Ranged + Hold + Self-Substain” secondary might be redundant.

While the two sides has good arguments, one keep moving goal posts for opposing arguments while another comes off as constantly naysaying despite that the negatives are very real. If you assumed bad faith and resorted to sarcasm and namecallings instead of providing actual strong points, I do not think those who haven’t picked any side and only listening are getting much less endeared to join either side of the argument. I argue the real issue is the misuse of AI by corporates and common people by investing the more mundane or even unhelpful aspects of it, and using the word as an incessant buzzword without getting people to know what kind of AI is even about, as well as overexposure and overly pushy promotion of Generative AI.

This user gets it. I came to Homecoming for City of Heroes game(s) itself, not the AI generated art of the server(s) or forums, and I can play the game while ignoring forums and channels involving those of Homecoming and beyond. If the Homecoming devs decided to use generative AI to speed up with designs and sound effects, then that’s a nope for me. Another thing against generative art is that I hear about several if not many of them “artists” turning out to be among the biggest scums of Earth, including controversial personalities that endorsed them over man-made arts. Those scums also overlap with cryptobros in terms of bootlicking, scummy and stealing tendencies too. I know this might be a Godwin fallacy, but when it is a whole group of a mainstream thing that commit injustices or horrid crimes, maybe it is time for the Homecoming devs and Game Masters to reconsider about generative AI art?

I don’t share builds as I still have only basic ideas on Enhancements and not familiar enough with Set Bonuses, but I do have an idea what do to and what not to as a Dominator on a team. AFAIK Doms have a lower than average Recharge rate (meaning Powers takes a bit longer to recharge on a Dom) and higher than average Endurance cost, so it’s not a good idea taking toggles from Power Pools except mobility ones like Fly or Combat Jump until around level 41, because the higher than average end costs can add up fast for the Dominator. I’m sure you might be aware of it too. Any great Dominator set should be able to Perma-Dom as soon as possible. According to the unofficial Homecoming wiki: “PermaDom - Domination needs a total of +123% Recharge” “Unable to slot enhancements so it must all be buffs or set bonuses” In this case, you may want Haste and then Set Bonuses that grants a global recharge bonus, as well as up to five the Luck of the Gambler’s +Global Recharge if you can afford picking five powers that accepts Defense Enchancements. I do not know which Set Bonuses provide the best Global Recharge, but Ascendency of Dominator does provide 8.75% global Recharge bonus, or 10% in the case of the Superior version, when slotting five of the Enchancements of the set, so that will help a lot. Reason why PermaDom is important is due to effectively giving Dominator Perma-Res on mezzing statuses like Hold, Sleep and Fear, while the magnitude of the Dominator’s mezzing statuses they dish out is amplified, which can affect Elite Bosses and even Archvillains when the time is right. Not to say you don’t do damage of course, in fact yout Assault is another thing you should not neglect slotting properly, and they can dish a lot more damage than the Controller ever could without Illusion. Dominator is not among the top 4 DPS; that honor goes to Scrapper, Stalker, Corruptor and especially Blaster. However, it does mean that the Dominator can still clean off Minions and Lieutenants fast if needed to. Your teammates will appreciate focusing on mezzing your foes first to prevent them from running away or scatter, and then directly deliver the pain with Assault. Though not many would complain you not using your Control set on low Notoriety difficulties so long you still use it on larger groups or to stop an ambush.

If Energy Melee isn’t pinnacle of Single-Target DPS today, then it sure still is punchy. Either way, what was / would be the pinnacle of ST DPS if NRG Melee isn’t?

I’ll say cones in general should be consistent in how wide they are. I love Shred because I can hit more than two targets consistently as long as I click on the right target, so other cones should follow upon Shred. Cones that wouldn’t make sense to be wide cones should deal more damage to compensate instead.

Even if AI voice became accurate enough, using AI just for sake of it instead of actual voice actors isn’t gonna bode well for the game. Homecoming doesn’t use AI for their promos as far as I know, and for good reasons, such as authencity. AI voice can end up sounding emotionless, sounding robotic, have inconsistent dialects (or lack thereof), can glitch out at certain pronounciations, etc. Alongside what Rudra already said. Not to mention AI in general being very resource intensive; even the cheaper ones fonded in China can consume a lot of electricity just to run an AI to generate voicelines. It’s also poor timing suggesting it, considering that SAG-aligned voice actors are now protected from AI, which you can see in this BSky post. So if this server uses AI generated voicelines from a voice actor that is part of the SAG and he/she/they discovers it, this can catch fire really bad, even if Homecoming is not a for-profit project.

But of course, given that the damage scalars alone already grant damage differences between archetypes, so the different maximum damage cap can be overkill as it’s just a “rich get richer” scenario between melee + Corruptor + Sentinel Archetypes and the other Archetypes. Brute’s case is understandable due to Fury providing large Damage Bonus at high Fury. Like I get Dominator’s lower damage cap due to potential of Perma-Dom, but in a damage-oriented meta, having the same damage cap with the other DPS-oriented ATs and Tankers isn’t going to spell doom to the meta, given that Dominator have factors like high end cost, lack of survivability and inability of buffing teammates to take into account - latter two also applying to Blasters to an extent - making Dominator still difficult to master but, imho, truly sastifying to pull off.

I wonder how practical this would be as nice as it sounds, because it might obscure which player is your teammate / leaguemate if a player’s name is a sky blue instead of the expected green. Given that team color and all have priority over role color (i.e. Helper, Help Me!, Roleplayer), maybe make it so that the custom name color will have priority over role color but underneath the team / league color.

My suggestion isn’t to make Dominators triumph the likes of Blasters, Corruptors and Scrappers damage-wise, but to make Dominator consistent with the damage-dealing ATs (and Tankers) for maximum Damage Bonus. Locking down targets is a thing just so they won’t scatter and allow AoE powers to kill more.

I played Dominator and I enjoyed it, one of my top 4 most fun ATs alongside Sentinels, Corruptor and Blasters, if not my top 1 most. There is one thing that I am concerned about though… The title tells you something. While I get Defender, Controller, Mastermind and the Epic Archetypes as they are not involving damage or melee, the Dominator is limited to 300% Damage Bonus (400% max damage) at most, or 200% in level 1, while the Dominator have no only more damage oriented than Controller, but also have melee powers within their Assault secondary power sets. Was it because Perma-Domination, or even just Domination, could make them way too good if they have the same damage bonus cap as the 500% ones? That’s despite the fact that not only Dominators tend to have higher end cost than other ATs from my experience, but also mord of a glass cannon than even Blaster and Controller. It’s not a big deal in the long run, but I do find it odd given that the Dominator is meant to be the far more offense oriented counterpart to Controllers that compensates for much less damage for stronger mezzes, controllable Tier 9 Pet as off the Issue that gave us Pyrotechnic Control and Psionic Armor, and support secondaries.

The one great thing about CoX is the fact that each Archetype has their own niches: Blaster: One of the two non-Epic Melee + Ranged Archetype with unparalleled damage in most scenarios. Defender: Highest buff / debuff numbers that can help a coordinated team a lot. Scrapper: Highest Melee DPS overall and still some nice survivability vs Stalker. Stalker: Stealth with no End cost, highest ST DPS (especially with Energy Melee!), Assassination for a powerful burst danage, at cost of less survivability than even Scrappers. Tanker: Highest survivability and consistently great aggro control. Brute: Solid middleground of Scrappers and Tankers. Fury can also allow Brute for ranged shenanigans (Temporary Powers and Epic Pools) if your concept allows it! Also, by far the most solo-friendly Archetype. Sentinel: In practice, a ranged Scrapper, and very fun in their own right. Unfortunately most Sents doesn’t come close in DPS when you compare to Scrappers, Corruptors and Blasters, but the intent is crystal clear. Controller: Very helpful for early game and keep grouped enemies together, or prevent another group (i.e. Ambush) from overwhelming the team. Dominator: The other non-Epic Melee + Ranged Archetype, less control power compared to Controller in early game, but have more immediate damage and is a powerhouse in late game, especially those whose build allows it to Perma-Dom. Mastermind: For pet-oriented players and tend to be stronger if there is two MMs or more. Buff their henchmen up alongside teammates for more success! HEATs: Shapeshifting Jack-of-all-trades with their own traits, with Peacebringers having their own heal, buff and melee powers (and are a monster in 1v1 PvP if mastering the changeling exploit!) while Warshades having their debuffs and mezzes. VEATs: More team-oriented than the above, with Arachnos Soldiers having emphasis on damage or pets (and Venom Web Grenade!) while Widows can either go for more control and semi-tankiness, or more Psionic mezzing. What makes the Corruptor special is that it is essentially a more efficient swiss-army knife than the HEATs, by being less survivable but is more than capable of dishing out more damage via higher damage scalar, Scourge and debuffs than both Defenders and Controllers. Having the capacity of second highest DPS on their own - Blasters being first - if not surpassing even them in some circumstances also gave Corruptor a serious edge over support-oriented Archetypes like their direct counterpart, the Defenders, themselves already a very solid Archetype. I also feel more relaxed when playing as a Corruptor when compared to other Archetypes; as long as I don’t forget to buff my team or debuff the foes, I can expect some smooth sailing and do whatever I want so long I benefit my team, and same when there is another competant Corruptor.

Since there’s already alternative animations for Energy Blast, the laser sweeping one can make for a good alternative animation. That said, let’s not try give more than one power having laser FX to avoid overlap with Beam Rifle.