The Witchfire

OK, let me start by saying just because you've never seen something doesn't mean it doesn't exist or hasn't happened. I've never been to Australia but it's still there, lol. "Even on Virtue" meant that before the other servers were getting shut down or dying out (leading to the servr being invaded by farmers and trolls), Virtue's RPers were genraly more tolerant in my experience than the average player when it came to game mechanics issues. Funny you mention Champion server also, because that's where my first blaster started out; Energy Energy also. My job and other real life issues kept me from having a regular play schedule, so I had difficulties growing a friends list, which was all but vital finding teams. Groups repeatedly refused to let an unknown KB blaster on the team, I was outright told repeatedly that was the issue. It took me FOREVER to get to the mid 20s and the only reason that character made it to 50 at all was Breaker Udual let me on his Family farm runs. That was pre AE days when PI missions got farmed over and over w/o closing the mision out. Strong Girl's antics: That was WELL before Fold Space and it's power set were available. Clockwork seem to be less KB vulnerable than they used to back in those days also, but my experience with them since returning is a little limited. Power sets can and do get tweaked over the years. The incident with Strong Girl stuck in my mind because she was just doing it to troll the team too. If she hadn't been an SG member, I'd have booted her from the team. We wiped 6 or 7 times on one mission at standard dificulty... Against CLOCKWORK. Never should have happened. Regardless, all I was trying to do was getan overal feling for the community's view on the subject

OK, I'm going to necro this one since another thread had me briefly grumbling with my past experiences playing blasters. First, let me say there's alot of good, but conditional advice on blasting in the thread. I say conditional because most of it seems to assume the character is already at 50 and possibly also has been sugar daddy'ed into IO sets. The game plays completely diferent when you're new and broke. Doubly so if you play at odd hours and can't make steady friends for teaming. That was my situation the first year or so of playing Live. I started playing blasters because, as Miyagi said "Best way avoid punch, no be there". Side note; anybody else find it silly that a man who had been in the US for almost 50 years at that point spoke such broken English? 😄 Geting back on topic, the advice I got was always the same ; fly / hover and kite. I'd always get knocked out of the air though, or run out of space to backpedal in the instanced maps. I think it took 3 years of soloing to get that first Blaster to 50, and the character never was able to farm up a single IO set. The time was partialy because I racked up so much debt i'd set the character aside and let it burn off. Instead of sounding like I'm just bitching, the general problem I found was that somewhere betwen 15 and 20, the mobs became too big and too damage resistant to take down before I'd get mobbed. I got a bit better over the years, but I gotta say Blasters were probbaly my least favorite class. If anybody has tips for low / poor characters I'm all ears.

Knockback, or at least the energy blast set (with it's knockback), came up quite a bit in my thread about building a power armor character. Based on that and some of the positive reactions to my PB character, I'm wondering if KB is still the same vile concept it used to be in Live days. I'm guesing some of it has to do with characters being so overpowered nowadays. "Scatter a mob and have them pull in another mob or two? Who cares, I farm 6 mobs at a time." I can remember dealing with it at middle levels on live though. Worst instance was running misions as an SG and having Strong Girl get us wiped repeatedly via Shield Rushing Clockwork, scattering them everywhere, and then getting shot from 10 different directions by the mob and all the nearby ones that got aggro'ed by the first mob being knocked all over the map. Hel, I even had to retire my Energy / Energy blaster because nobody would group with a KB causing character, even on Virtue.

It took me a while to get back to this. Real life has ben crazy, and what litle spare time I did have has ben spent in the game for stress relief. Something I'm sure most of us can relate to. 😆 I have to admit, I didn't expect the topic to spawn such an in depth disusion about Tony's powers specifically. There were alot of great replies here and all of them went into the final concept of my character. My desire to build something SIMILAR in apearance and powers came from the love of the general idea of powered armor, the Champions Online power armor AT (which I wish Homecoming would duplicate as a power set; something similar to arsenal mastery perhaps), and a great RP concept character in CO that I had. I'l have to add a pic when I'm back home instead of replying ia phone at work. I ultimately went with Sentinel AT with Radiation and Invulnerability. I admit I keep second guesing the Radiation choice, but I figured no KB would be better for teams, plus it has the bonus of defense reduction. Force would definitely beter duplicate the feel of repulsors though, and possibly help soloing. My character is level 11 though and can wade into Perez Park mobs with little trouble. FWIW, I think Sentinel fits Iron Man a litle better, at least until higher levels when all those ancilary and extra pool powers can be added in. Tony has a ton of defensive systems that most fans forget about. The suit is normally environmentaly sealed for starters. That means he can't be gassed, can fly in space, is proteted from disease, etc... A blaster build could certainly work, but I'm a bit biased there as blaster play was the bane of my existence on Live despite have 4 level 50s. That's a rant for another thread though 🙂

On a more serious note... I'm newly returned so i didn't realize the fire farm missions were such an issue. Maybe the devs could set up a choice window at the start of opening up the AE interface to choose farm or story content. Yeah, I know the search options SHOULD help there, but let's face it, people are lazy.

I can do you one almost as bad, LOL. Back in the Live days, i made a mision tailored to my SG, based on DC's "Darkest Night" storyline. Gave all the returned to life "villains" dark melee and regeneration... BAD things man, bad things. The whole SG got quickly and severely beat down multiple times before we gave up on the idea, LOL

I may still be relearning the mecbanics, BUT i was able to visualize those parts & how they came together just fine. Maybe I've spent too mucb time at Icon since 2004, rofl.

Being newly returned and still learning all the cbanges, I have to ask though; is the Sentinel as durable as it seems? I've only hit 10 with Witchfire, but I love the Sentinel AT so far. Obviously I'm not expecting Tank or Brute level durability, but I want a character that can still take some hits. 🙂

Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way and save a few replies; every character with any combination of powers COULD be conceived as having them come from power armor. 🙃 I'm specifically asking about trying to build a concept like Iron Man or the Power Armor AT from that OTHER superhero MMO (lol). Tank or scrapper with ranged powers coming from the higher level sets? Sentinel give you range early, but can it get as tanky as Iron Man? Anyway, I'm just looking for some creative build ideas for such a concept. 😀

A ton of fabulous information there. Thanks. 🙂 And yes, I agree that each AT should have a slightly more defined role on a team.

Yeah, that's rough. Reminds me of the old days and Positron's mad hate for the Radiation powers set.

Alot of good advice in the replies here. Thanks all. For those who suggested sticking with teams... Fair point, BUT, i'm having a total blast rediscovering everything since I just came back. Teams just want to clear a map and move on. More importantly, I tend to solo any new build for a while so that I can get a deeper understanding of it's mechanics, strengths and weaknesses. That way when i get on teams, I can fill my role better. 🙂 I think my two biggest issues have been not wanting to turn the difficulty down to -1, feeling like that means I'm bad at the game. 0/0 is based on having at least a small team though. Forgetting that just because contacts are in a specific zone doesn't mean their missions are all the same level was the other problem. In the case of the Widow, I jumped straight into Graves' missions since that's where I left off in Mercy. He's one of the last contacts you can get on Mercy though, so I should have figured his Port Oakes missions would be meant to be run later in the zone PS: Rocketmen and their sonic cannons suck. 😁

MAJOR edit, I had a TLDR ramble of a post about trying to find an ideal build for a character concept, but I suppose it all comes down to one question: how much difference is there between Tanks, Brutes and Scrappers anymore? Posi and Paragon Studios always did a fairly decent job balancing ATs, but Homecoming has taken it to a whole new level. 😀 On a related note, are all the defensive power seta as balanced as they seem? I remember Invulnerability witb a few choice sets used to be the way to go for a truly indestructible Tank. All the sets seem fairly equal now with the possible exception of End costs from toggles.

This is a general problem I had in the original game and it's reoccurring here, otherwise I'd post the thread in the builds section. So, just about any AT can tear up content in the starter zones. Get to the next one though and things, at least for me, tend to get ugly. Less so with tanky type characters; my brute is thus far tearing up Kings Row's bad guys 🙂. Any of the more squishy classes though... What specifically brought me here this time is difficulties with my Widow. I leveled her up to level 10 before moving on to Port Oakes, she has almost exclusively single origin enhancements at max level. My difficulty settings are default too. No cranking things up because lowbies are squishy. ANYWAY... Every instanced mission I get is full of groups of orange Lieutenants and I'm having to run back from the hospital every other mob. It's getting real discouraging. So here's her build thus far at level 10: Poison Dart: (Will of the Seers START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13) Strike: (Clockwork Efficiency START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13) Dart Burst: (Resistance Tactics START, Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13, Military Speed recharge SO - 13) Follow-Up: (Dragon Strike SO Acc - 8 ) Combat Training; Defensive: (Dragon Defense SO Def Buff - 13 x2) Combat Training; Offensive: (Dragon Strike SO Acc - 13 x2) I've also got Sprint, Rest, Health & Stamina single slotted with the appropriate SO enhancement at level 13 I'm trying to pull, make liberal use of Sands of Mu, Nemesis Staff (origin bonus), Blackwand, Secondary Mutation, and Pet: Target Drone. I know this looks like a "Widow" problem, but I've had similar issues with Blasters and other classes traditionally considered squishy. Between the maps being nothing but orange and some yellows and larger groups, I'm playing hell soloing up to a level I'd feel comfortable asking to join leveling groups.

Wow, I got quite a conversation started, lol. 🙂 Instead of spamming a bunch of individual replies, let me try to respond to the main points brought up. First, as far as what to do with the returning Statesman; he can do more than stand around. It's up to the devs to find ways to use him, and we can offer constructive ideas there *IF* he were brought back. Regarding changing existing content, there's not much need. All the game's content follows a timeline with characters caught up and in the present when they reach end-game. All MMOs work that way. RPers have learned to work around it also with duplicate missions being said to be something else or OOC. If nothing else, there's Ouroboros for missions. 🙂 Tyrant's redemption... Well, that's another story. *IF* it ever happens (it's been talk for ages now), it presents problems or at least story arcs of it's own... Here's what I mean: I see one of three paths happening with such a redemption arc... First is it's 100% legit and Tyrant becomes as big a boy scout as Captain America or Superman. Where does that leave Praetoria though? It's either sunshine and kittens everywhere (doesn't make for good storytelling after the reformation) OR Tyrant is ousted by one or more of the other Praetors and becomes an exile. MAYBE he could lead the Resistance at that point but after ages of horrors, the people aren't going to be so quick to take him on as a savior. Second, it's all show as Techwright posted above. Tyrant's ego is huge and everything is about him, so the redemption isn't real. All this story path does is further muddy the name of the Statesman character and would probably leave people as annoyed as Tyrant impersonating Statesman in that fighting game. Third might be the best from a pure storytelling perspective; it's sort of real. Cole wants to do better but is struggling against his old urges and tendencies, as well as forces in Praetoria that see his change in persona as a sign of weakness. Heroes are left acting as his conscience, cleaning up his messes and helping him try to guide Praetoria to something better. Eventually he gets there and becomes truly worthy of the mantle though. Any of those options could happen even with the original Statesman returning though; Tyrant just takes a different name for his new heroic persona.

Many thanks to both of you for the replies. 🙂 I did see a modest amount of RP tags over people's heads this morning on Excelsior, but nobody actually seemed to be doing anything beyond content (hey, leveling is important 😄 ). I'll give Everlasting a look next.

THAT is absolutely awesome to hear. 😄 Many thanks for the info, and thanks to the current dev team for what sounds like spectacular improvement of the AT.

I was on a phone last night, so I didn't have the ability (desire) to write a longer reply here BUT... As somebody who just came back to COH after not having played since the original servers closed down.... Raising prices is bad all around. Inflation is just as bad in a game as the real world. Leveling a toon, even more so multiple toons, gets expensive and at lower levels it seems enhancements need upgrading every time you turn around. Absolutely no bug deal if this is your 15th alt and you have 14 level 50s that have been playing for 6 years to bankroll your advancement. Completely different animal when you're new and completely broke. This is half the reason MMO games stop getting new players; newbies can't keep up. Bad for veterans in the long run also. Eventually all but the most hardcore are priced out of the top tier content and an elitist subculture sets in. It's been mentioned in a few posts here (you don't have the right build) and I've left a couple games because it's popped up elsewhere also.

Well, the OP wanted a mixed ranged and melee AT, thats why i was thinking of something along the lines of the Arachnos Soldier AT power set adapted for blasters. They have ranged and melee attacks. They play alot better tha. Champions Online's 'Specialist' AT also. LOL.

Newly returning player, so please humor what will doubtless seem like a silly question to those in the know. Where is the roleplaying? I saw the post about RP and OOC channels at least. Is there an "(un)official" RP server like Virtue once was? I've poked around multiple servers and seen varying levels of mission team activity, but no hints of RP yet.

Humor me here, it's been forever since I played... Back in the old days, all the minions used to start going mindlessly aggressive as a MM leveled up. iIRC, Bots were the worst and would get out of control around level 20, etc... Long diatribe cut short, I just wanted to know if their AI and controls have gotten any better before I make a cbaracter.

Fair enough, but am I that far off in thinking it wouldnt be hard to adapt something along those lines as a blaster power set?

Scarcer and more expensive... Well, that would be a great way to drive off new players; make them unable to acquire or afford anything.

Nobody (except Uncle Ben) ever dies permanently in comics after all. I never liked the way the character was killed off anyway. The actual story wasn't bad, but it felt like it had alot more to do with the conflict between the devs at Paragon, and that a good flagship character was killed off over who occasionally played him in-game. The reaction to the fake Statesman in that fighting game years back shows the fan base was able to separate the character from the dev.

Interesting idea. With my old speedster, I went the 'Reverse Flash' route and had her absorb kinetic energy. As has been pointed out, the powers and origin are less important for RP than just being approachable and likeable as a character. I agree with the don't abuse the fourth wall thing also. Even Deadpool gets obnoxious after a while, lol. Beyond that, do what feels right. Let me briefly tell you what I'm doing with my character Witchfire, who is also a reaiity hopper. She's a Wiccan who comes from our world and got recruited by her goddess to dimension hop and help alternate realities. Paragon will be her second. She's played COH, but that's only given her a basic understanding of the factions & marquee characters; only a bit morr knowledge than the average person on Primal Earth. When asked about "we're all just a story or game", she replies that imagination is a gateway to seeing other worlds and nobody is any less real. 🙂