MoonSheep

i think what OP is referring to with the view on “holy trinity” is that oldschool CoH required much more cooperation between support ATs, damage and tanky type characters you’d often be very pleased to see a controller with ice slick or a rad to help buff and debuff. this would be complimented by a strong tank type lead to take the alpha, with blasters and scrappers ready to mash things up this compares to modern HC CoH where the focus is primarily just on damage, as support ATs have less value

i find teams under level 25 still have a mostly familiar CoH feel, after that it things disappear quite quickly low level teams are mostly non existent due to DFB, which i find a shame as some of my most memorable experiences are those low level teams where teamplay is the pathway to success i agree that instant SOs make things a lot easier, as does many of the goodies available from P2W vendors progression is too quick thesedays, combined with an ability to circumvent the designed game mechanics i appreciate people say “well you don’t have to engage in those buffs”, but we’re an MMO community. if we’re on track and i’m driving driving an 80hp fiat 500 and everyone is in a 400hp mustang, it’s not going to be an enjoyable experience to me, the game felt more meaningful when progression was a moderate rate and you’d invest in your alt and its journey

i do find running TFs on enemies buffed incurs a classic CoH feel as people are forced to play together to succeed when i saw this thread i was a bit annoyed as i’ve been meaning to make a post for weeks on why i think the game has decayed into its current state IOs have ruined CoH and were a mistake. they introduced a materially significant increase in character strength without the game responding by increasing enemy strength or difficulty IOs have allowed people to reject teamplay and solo everything in the game - this has led to the demise of support and control ATs which aren’t needed or valued

on a more constructive note - the game has lost its appeal. everything has been watered down to homeopathic levels of challenge and doesn’t hold my interest much anymore i log on and play because of the nostalgia, but a game without challenge and gradual progression isn’t interesting to me. if i wanted auto win and solo play i’d buy the sims

haha, i knew this would be downvoted. i completely agree mate. to manage expectations, people are highly offended at the thought of having to play CoH let me summarise the three types of responses you’ll be receiving: 1. muh playstyle 2. having to work to achieve in-game items is unbearable, everything should be instantly available 3. every game should be a sandbox pickup and play FPS because that’s the style i enjoy can’t believe you expect MMO mechanics in an MMO, so unreasonable man

psi mastery 🙂 whilst we’re in discussion i do also think psi assault on doms is quite forgettably average thesedays. it used to be S tier on live. but now it’s not bad, not good, just there doing its thing i think it remains a popular choice because of how good it used to be i suppose for context on my position, i play fire assault and like quick, high end damage. energy assault also appealing for the same reason

interesting that psi mastery is so popular despite being a dreadful choice for dominators

it would be nice to have a new powerset that isn’t accompanied by a goofy combo mechanic

as i’ve mentioned on other kin posts - it’s such a forgiving set that i would just slot what feels fun. even 2acc/3dmg/1rech in all your attacks would be effective. having FS, a strong heal, transference and siphon speed to hand makes it flexible to play however you want my kin/sonic is mostly SOs and some random crap thrown in because i like the IO icons, does speed runs, HM content etc fine

don’t forget the no enhancements option

i recommend running them with enemies buffed for that classic CoH feel 😎

fold space pulls enemies from around you to your location, bunching them up nicely. helps to contain situations where things are scattered around, i love it on my kin i’m not sure people use TP as much, it’s still a slightly clunky travel power. i take combat TP, teleport target and fold space

i liked the old SK system too, it was a bit of fun and a good concept CoH is still a fun game but not challenging enough to hold my attention for long thesedays. you can do pretty much anything in the game and still succeed edit: edited my grumpiness

Low level mission teams are almost non existent thesedays with DFB and double XP catapulting people to level 20 the days of running frostfire, lowbie kings row missions etc are long gone. the extreme pace of the game removes the gradual learning curve people experience through running that type of content most of us have less free time compared to 15 years ago, spending 2-3 months of regular gameplay to reach 50 is out of the question for many of us, can always be nostalgic though 😀 apart from the absolutely crawl lvl 39-45 used to be.. not nostalgic about that

agreed - i’ll add this to my list of demands to make AV’s a formidable battle 10% of damage is unresistable / undefendable also

AVs need an all round serious buff to make them aligned with modern day CoH and the increase in power ATs have experienced AVs used to be a team event that required a bit effort and were dangerous I’d like to see a +50% acc boost, +100% dmg boost and their regen rates doubled The game is too DPS focused thesedays in my view, support and control ATs have become often irrelevant

that’s a smart choice in my view - i slotted mesmerize for damage, i use it as a reasonably useful psi attack against things like paragon protectors and the EBs on ITFs when they pop unstoppable

i see it as a positive thing - kin is such a powerful set that it’s accessible to all and effective at low levels

if you're interested in getting the most out of the AT and powerset combination, i'd recommend something similar to the below i play my defender kin/sonic as a purely support AT for both high end challenging content and lowbie TFs for the last 4 years. in my view, if i tried to make it a defender-scrapper that would quite likely still die during big aggro moments it would severely blunt the razor sharp multi skilled offerings this combination has. so yes, whilst it does go against the HC Flavour Of The Month to focus every build in the persuit of defense, if you're in hot water, pop a few purple insps - it's a much more effective survival strategy, especially because you can hit up /AH after each mish to reload. moreover, it's just simply not needed in my experience of playing a kin a lot. if you are interested in playing it as a support AT, you'll find you really just don't take much damage after letting the lead aggro taker jump in first - and if you do, you can heal yourself, woo kin is such a strong powerset that in my experience, being the best kin i can benefits the team much more than if i was to fire off a few of my low damage attacks. defender secondaries are basically a range of different pillow fight options (other than a select few, e.g. fire). after the -res aspect of sonic was nerfed i turned my kin passion to /elec which has a secondary effect i can invest in to make it truly powerful if the above is not your cup of tea and you're wondering what i've been huffing, disregard all of the above! opinions are free and ten a penny Key highlights of the combo when built to get the best out of Kin and Elec's unique properties: - Transfusion is one of the strongest heals in the game. Kin defenders are top tier healers when things start going wrong - combined with powerboost, you have an incredibly strong support AT should it be needed. Having a decent amount of accuracy on it will be important, you definitely don't want it to miss at key times - Powerboosted Veng is an incredibly strong support. It will turn the tide of battle in an instant and is lovely to have at lower levels if you enjoy Posi TFs and similar. Likewise with Spirit Ward, a great power to have in the lower levels to apply against your lead tank - Grouping things up with Fold Space to guarantee a good Fulcrum Shift makes a meaningful difference in some battles - Slot Ball Lightning and Short Circuit for as much end drain as you can. Even at low levels it's massively effective in reducing the damage a team experiences by making the mobs stand around and admire their surroundings. Charge Up also adds a small amount of +End Mod boost, you'll find you can easily zap the full end bar of enemies, supplementing it with transference for harder foes where needed. Thunderous Blast also has really good end drain properties for AVs and similar - There is no movement penalty for Intertial Reduction, it's one of the best travel powers in the game - it allows you to be constantly agile after firing off attacks and to move quickly out of danger. Siphon Speed can easily be doubled up, giving you both quasi Super Speed combined with IR and the best of it all - the build is cheap cheap cheap. even with SOs it would be almost as effective

i’ve recently re-rolled my kin/sonic as a kin/elec after 4 years - mostly focusing on the kin and elec drain side of things will be slotting for end drain in the elec attacks, good accuracy in transfusion and picking up veng / fold space / powerboost - makes a huge difference on hard content, nothing beats a lovely powerboosted veng i personally wouldn’t recommend slotting for defence on a support AT, it will take the shine off what is an amazing team alt. i’ve never needed any def on my defender in speed runs / hard mode Aeon TFs, incarnate trials etc edit: added more detail in a separate post

i’ve recently made a kin/elec defender after playing my kin/sonic one for 4 years powerboosted transference is a good end drain on single targets, then applyin short circuit etc

i can see sentinels making sense, they’re the ranged version of a scrapper - good potential, reasonable damage masterminds on the other hand.. jeez, what a cruel mistake one day in the year 2036 the first ever mastermind created back on live will have defeated a +1 minion, the MM community are hyped for this upcoming rare event

if he dies then i’m not going to run his TF ever again - that’s poor leadership citadel is already on thin ice with his undesirable TF. i can’t be taking orders from someone who’s getting into street fights and losing

when i built my desktop in 2019 for homecoming - which felt pretty good, given i built my first desktop in 2005 for CoH - i went with an i3 CPU and a GPU for ~$150 + some bog standard 16GB DDR4 RAM runs everything in CoH fine at max graphics

Liquefy needs a massive rework to bring some life back into the sonic resonance powerset - should have a 90 second base recharge time max i have always loved sonic and played a sonic/archery def on live to 50, but gawd does that T9 power need some serious love