MoonSheep

February 5

ice melee is the king of examplaring - frost at lvl 2, the best melee cone available. ice patch also available low down, great for posi TFs

ice armor good for similar reasons - chilling embrace and icicles within posi 1 range

combined, you hold a lot of aggro and can dish out the AoE

February 5

57 minutes ago, Ironblade said:

Citadel probably deserves MORE than triple the merits. Tarikoss is both easy AND fun. Citadel is easy in a bad way (kill everything in the mission, now do it again, and again) and a tedious slog.

Also, the wiki says Katie Hannon awards 26 merits which, frankly, seems overly generous to me. Is that figure incorrect?

citadel needs an overall refresh like some of the other task force commander TFs. it's uncreative and a miserable slog through tiny cramped caves over and over

synapse is a similar feel, but at least it has nice maps

February 5

Mind Control/Telekinesis:
- No longer holds
- Now Immobilizes
- Target cap increased to 16
- Radius increased to 20'
- Recharge increased from 60s to 120s
- Will now keep the targets between 40 and 60 feet from the player
- Will group enemies close to the main target (i.e. "reverse repel" or "pull towards").
- Toggle now lasts a max of 30s before auto-shutdown

I've remade my mind/fire on the test server and tried out the new TK and levitate

The recharge is too long in my opinion. Doubling the recharge of a power which already has a 60 second cooldown is quite a nerf - If it needed increasing, could this have not been a subtle increase? Perhaps 80 or 90 seconds.

The damage aspect of Levitate impacting the group is disappointing. Looks like it deals around half as much damage as a standard application of the power. Levitate has a standard base (according to mids) of 69.74 damage, halved is 34.87. A 90 second recharge AoE with 34.87 damage is a bit meaningless

Mind control has a lot less damage compared to almost every other control set through the lack of pets. Setting the AoE damage of a TK induced Levitate at 90-110 base would be a great addition. Even base 85 would be worthwhile. The current damage is far too low

February 4

On 1/31/2024 at 6:20 PM, scottocamp said:

I am profoundly grateful this game still exists for me to enjoy. And I greatly appreciate the efforts of the extremely talented HC team running this game and moving it forward.

My concern, however, is that the HC team seems focused almost exclusively on “balance” issues. To a degree that at times feels like they are balancing the life out of the game. Offering a reward for a balanced team composition, balancing villain groups to make sure all are equally powered, only introducing new power sets or enhancement recipes that are middle of the road, making sure all epic powers are equally lackluster, reducing the effectiveness of oddball powers like Bonfire, and so on. After every update the game seems a lot more balanced and little bit less fun.

Patch notes 4 February 2024

Reduced the character count of @scottocamp’s criticisms to bring it in-line with other criticisms of the Epic / Ancillary Power Pools revamp

yey i’m balancing, where do i pick up my dev hat?

(please don’t ban me, i love you really)

February 4

Epic > Dark Mastery > Soul Consumption (All versions): This power has changed from +Heal and +End over time to Regen/Recovery. Foe debuffs have been changed from Damage and -End overtime to -Regen/-Recovery over time.

i mean, it looked quite a weak power in the first iteration.. was it necessary to make it even weaker?

these homeopathic mastery powers are a bit disappointing and there doesn’t appear to be any pattern or direction. for example, if survival aspects were nerfed across the board but a key attack power within each mastery was championed and made stronger i would get it

the current changes seem to be a blanket nerf across the board and introduction of some very forgettable powers

is there an intended move away and de-prioritisation of mastery powers? some context would be insightful

February 4

8 hours ago, Laucianna said:

I've seen a few new players with the help me above their head and amazing outfits based on copyrighted characters, a lot of the time a simple message saying that it's a cool costume but against the ToS lets them know in a gentle way I find, I know I would rather be told be a fellow player then hit with the generic hammer if I didn't know ❤️

- Lauci x

this does seem a kinder approach than my idea: copyrighted alts are subject to in-zone PvP without notice

February 2

On 1/31/2024 at 2:26 AM, Renatos1023 said:

It looks like the Devs were listening! The version on the test server now has a 150 second recharge. I think this will be a huge change for Sonic/.

I do think a couple of the other powers need to be updated or changed to truly bring the set in-line with others.

Clarity, in a set that has Sonic Dispersion, is useless and almost never taken. Maybe drop it to later in the set (say T8) and make it a decent single target buff ala Fortitude, but with +Res, +Perception, +Dam (but a longer recharge than Fort so it can't be easily perma, think Adrenaline Boost-ish).

Sonic Cage, I guess could be useful for people who don't hate intangible powers - but should at least be a toggle that lasts max 30 seconds that you can drop whenever (I still likely wouldn't take it but it would at least have some situational usefulness).

Sonic Repulsion, which is just plain useless. I think there needs to be another AoE/Cone -Res power, because that should be Sonic's forte. I'd make this that type of power. Maybe something in the mold of Fearsome Stare's cone, but with -15% Res and a mag 2 stun (maybe call it Disorienting Screech).

Just spit-balling here in the hopes that we can get some more love for one of my favorite (albeit, less powerful) support sets.

i agree with you regarding clarity. given sonic has no heal ability, it needs to offer something more dramatic than what it does now. clarity should become a mez protection version of Forge from thermal

that, along with the changes to liquefy would make sonic a viable powerset

February 1

partly a game, partly a digital third space - i sometimes log on just to see who’s about

February 1

swap out tough & weave for something useful like fold space would be my recommendation

vengeance is a good one for hard mode content too, worth having as a defender - stacks nicely with your FF shields

January 31

i’d recommend earth assault for a melee dom set. good damage and has a hold

mechanic in seismic smash.

psi used to be good on live but it’s quite low damage and uninspiring thesedays. people’s memory of it being good is likely why its still so popular despite it now being the lowest damage dominator assault set available

January 31

i mean, perhaps a zone event where a portal opens in atlas park and turns certain contained, visible areas into a PvP arena where there’s no debt, but perma deleting someones alt at random is bit too brutal haha

January 31

15 hours ago, Judasace said:

Teleport pool has Fold Space which brings enemies to you, Gravity Control has Wormhole which lets you move a group of enemies.

i must say, fold space is one of the best powers added in recent times. the current trend of introducing gathering powers is fantastic

January 31

fast paced, full of inspirations

ran a great speed TF train last night with a PuG and a good friend - i like running lesser played content

on HC i play a lot less alts than on live, just two

i do want to roll a tank and a nature def sometime but don’t want the responsibility of keeping people alive

January 30

56 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

I'm guessing the same things that would effect HA when concerning other defender heals like Transfusion would apply. If so one big advantage to HA vs other is a complete lack of aiming or requiring a foe to be present, positioning issues would be about as minimized as you'd get. I really need to dig around these forums for info about how recharge, cast time, arcanatime and the rest all interact. While I'm probably more a numbers guy than a lot of folks are I'm nowhere near the same league as the top folks are. So just how fast on 300% recharge could one spam HO/HA rinse repeat ad infinitum is not a question playing to my number crunching strengths. And I remember the days my Kin/Psy/Power using PBU Transfusion and watching a fairly jaw dropping number come up. And that was probably on SOs only as they were one of my earliest characters on Live. It's also why I'm a little annoyed with myself for not taking better notes on where the info about Incandescence came up and it put replacing 3000+ hp in the 3 use of HA or less category. Still as long as it hit not hard to see something like Transfusion putting up similar numbers in a similar time span.

yes you’re absolutely right - there’s a reason i have vengeance well slotted on the kin def. if my powerboosted transfusion misses, i wait a few seconds, mourn briefly and then get a lovely +63% def vengeance buff for the team

i think thesedays nature is the new empathy, it seems more viable for end stage content and has buffs that work better in the modern era

January 30

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Thanks for the very prompt reply. The answer is much as expected leading me to many of the same conclusions as MonteCarla. First I've minimal experience in Hard Mode and none of it so far is as an Empath but I have put a couple of builds together in Mids which have included AP because much like I'm experimenting with adding Elude back into my SR build seems like the utility of both Elude and AP might find a place in a Hard Mode specific build.

well, thank you for the friendly discussion. i’ve replaced my thumbs down with a banjo on OPs post

spamming heal aura sounds to me like a long time, a 5-6 second wait for multiple applications is an eternity when chaos is raining down. max HP tanks have over 3000hp, it’s going to take a long time to get them up to a healthy position

my main defender is a kin with powerboost, even powerboosted transfusion - the most powerful AoE heal in the game (along with dark’s AoE heal i think) - sometimes feels it’s not doing enough when supporting the big tanks!

January 30

more badges always gets my vote

January 29

18 minutes ago, Doomguide2005 said:

@MoonSheepand others who think we're a bit harsh on Absorb Pain what do you like about the power? What do you see as pros to the power that make the cons worth having it in your tool kit? Is it merely the size of the heal or do you find it more useful at certain level ranges. Do you find it less hazardous to use than implied?

if a high HP lead tank gets hit by a hard mode AV and needs rapidly bringing back up to full health, it’s one of the few powers in the game that can do that

in hectic situations it also gives the defender a second ranged heal to provide support and can be the difference between the target recipient dying or staying alive

the art of playing a fast paced “PvP” style empath to support a target during challenging runs has mostly been forgotten

January 28

i played a posi 1 last night, on the very first mob whilst we were waiting for the team, the tank jumped into a large mob of +1 vahzilok and died very quickly

the next few missions involved the team playing in absolute silence and not using any of their buffing powers

a signature PuG Posi

January 28

From a Dominator perspective it looks like the mastery revamp has hit quite hard and reduced the effectiveness of most powers that they're not really an "epic" poolset anymore, but more of a "ehh, okay" poolset choice

I have the following feedback to contribute:

Ice Mastery

As with the feedback on dark mastery below, the icon power colour seems a bit odd. It has been changed to match.. invulnerability? Not feeling it

Sleet - I did used to love my defender strength sleet but understand why it was nerfed. Upping the recharge time from 90 seconds to 120 seconds feels to be unncessary though

Hibernate - Always been a meh power and today is no exception. Swapping this out for the scrapper version could be fun

Frozen Armor - Fine

Hoarfrost - Almost doubled to a 9 minute recharge? Why even bother having it. I'll just bring some inspirations instead

Dark Mastery

Visually I don't like the power icon colours, it's out of sync with other dark powers within City of Heroes. Red graphics with a dark colour is usually for CoV Patron powers. In my opinion this needs adjusting to align with other Dark Blast, Dark Melee and Dark Control powers

Murky Cloud - No resistance to Smashing or Lethal was a bit surprising, but maybe the fire/cold/energy/neg resistance will come in handy for some

Tar Patch - This sounded exciting when announced on the forums, a 3 minute recharge feels a bit long

Darkest Night - A base 11.25% -To Hit feels a bit pointless, enhanced it will push around 15% which is sort of useful I suppose, but nothing to get excited about

Umbral Torrent - Forgettable like most Mastery attacks

Soul Consumption - A great power in principle, made pointless by the 10 minute recharge

I'm looking at my mind/fire dom and thinking of respeccing the build to not take a mastery choice when the update comes out, they've all been watered down to the point where they're not really worth having. That reads like quite a kneejerk statement, but I think I'd prefer to have Fold Space than any of the powers on offer

I like to be consistent with my feedback, so I will spin my usual line for the past 4.5 years: This patch has an opportunity to review the popularity of each archetype and bring balance to the number of people choosing each one. Dominators tend to be quite infrequently played compared to more popular ATs, these nerfs are likely to further deepen that trend

January 27

i choose option e) drop bonfire then cast my AoE immob

January 24

49 minutes ago, ZemX said:

No Tanker is without taunt, though some are without Taunt.

i like the subtle nuance there

i think it’s a great power to pull enemies away from squishies that may have left the main aggro pack

playing a team tank is an art and a skill

January 24

three to four updates a year would be way too many in my view. once a year is fine with me, gives people time to adjust to changes

January 24

this is frustrating, but it’s second in line to people who play support ATs who rarely bother to use any of their buff/debuff powers and instead sit there hitting things for 22 damage with weak defender blast powers instead

or tanks without taunt - cmon, bless us with your aggro holding abilities

January 23

1 hour ago, Voltak said:

In our runs in hard mode, elec control is always appreciated.
The drain is very strong and contributes.
The reapplying sleep is good as well.

+1 for the end drain on elec control

i have an elec/earth dom i play on test, the end drain is really quite effective

January 23

On 11/8/2023 at 7:21 PM, drbuzzard said:

It doesn’t take much effort to be able to put this on a number of teammates.

quoted from your empathy section, this is a foundation behaviour that anyone playing a buffing defender set needs to keep in mind

applying buffs to the team is the baseline for a defender - everything else comes after this.

- if you have shields, SB and similar, this needs to be maintained on the team

- individual buffs and less frequent buffs come second

- blasts come third

when playing my kin, my primary focus is applying SB and FS as it has the most impact on the team. my low damage blasts are an afterthought should they be needed

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