Crysis

I know and it's why I refuse to play there. 😛

I think this argument has been hashed and re-hashed for over a decade. Whether it was or wasn't, it wasn't your nor my business property. I'm a business person. I have bought properties and although I never had a hard time renting them out, at some point, it's worth more to me to sell it to another property investor than it is to keep throwing money into it just to earn enough rental fees to pay for the upkeep. Heck, if you are watching the housing market right now, for many 'corporate' property owners, they buy homes so they can take the depreciating asset write-down to offset profits elsewhere in their portfolio. But for a game that was subscriber-driven for revenue, the metaphor is appropriate. They owned it. They evaluated their options. Looking at where we are today, I'm pretty confident they pursued the right option. Glad we have THIS as OUR option today (free to play), but highly doubtful that the view out the front of the windshield is ever going to show me more promise than what I'm seeing distantly in the rear view mirror. We were young once, and full of hope. We are old now and well....old. And dying. Get busy living with what we have or get busy dying.

@Without_Pause At the end of the day, all business plans must include a measure of growth. If you aren't growing, you don't have much of a viable business plan. This very thread is here because one of our shards isn't seeing any growth. From what data we have to work off of, it appears -none- of the shards are on the rise for player populations. And Homecoming is likely the highest population of any of the existing servers out there (Rebirth, etc). So if we aren't growing, nobody in COH land is growing. We hit our peak population likely in the first year of Homecoming. And that was significantly smaller than anything experienced during Live. Our player population continues to decline, forum participation (always a subset of player pop) continues to decline. And yes, I run into people frequently who didn't realize HC was even available. We will continue to shrink until we look like one of the other server communities. And then....just fade to nothing. Honestly, I don't have any ill will towards NC Soft like a great many others do here. They realized the peak money making years for the IP were behind them and made a business choice (likely a sound one) to kill it rather than continuing to invest in something that didn't show growth promise. Here we are, the game is free to play entirely now almost a decade later....and I'm not so sure I disagree with their evaluation of the facts. The facts say....they were right to cease investment in it. You and I may not like having our home sunsetted and our playtime taken away from us, but there just weren't enough of us then, nor now, to make a viable business case for continuation. So yes....NC Soft made a sound business decision. And this thread proves it.

My guess is “the talks” was basically “Look, show us you can build up a paying population worth our time to sponsor this and we will do a royalty deal with you to legitimize this. Otherwise admit we were right in killing it initially back in 2013 because we saw what you are going to see….player pop just isn’t there.” And guess what…..they were right. Again.

Oh you can experience swarming, running zombies. Just take a Necro MM into a mission against the Ninja Chicks. Those zombies LOOOOOVE to happy dance on caltrops.

Illusion/Storm Controller and Thugs/Storm Masterminds, both with high Recharge. Try them both with knockback to knockdown IO’s inserted -AND- without them inserted. That one single IO is literally an entire game changer for both of those AT’s. Honestly, I wish Homecoming would just give us a damn toggle in settings to convert KB to KD. It’s almost unfair to many sets to force them to forego damage or something else just to get that kind of playstyle difference. The MM, in particular….I’ve just never found another AT anything quite like it in any other MMO/Action RPG. In Path of Exile maybe to some extent….but the ability to directly command/control Thugs plus the inability to really control what 3 tornado’s and a waterspout can do all out once is….wow. Just wow.

Okay got it working but controls are going to need some work. You -can- use joypad/mousepads on Deck to do full character movement, but you really have to use on-screen touch to activate any powers. That renders the SD relatively useless for combat since you have to let go of one side of the Deck to do that. I'm going to do some research back to the native COH-HC joypad controls and see if I can address that. Progress though. This is already -sooooo- much better than what I could accomplish via ShadowPC and my iPad with a joypad.

Read the posters’ “how to” in description. I’m trying to duplicate it now. It apparently doesn’t require installing windows on the Steamdeck.

Check it out gang! COH handheld!

Yeah I get this, if all you do is post a build and then never hear from them again. But there’s an abundance of threads on here where someone posts a build and asks for advice, or already has a build (but doesn’t know about MIDS) in-game and is seeking help on how to better their play experience. I don’t personally see how offering a build is just giving someone advice. They still need to understand attack chains (which can differ by build/recharge), how to obtain their own preferred powers by swapping out Hover/Fly for CJ/Super Speed as an example, how precious a single available slot might be and why you can two-slot Hasten, how Incarnate powers totally can change your build approach, leveling vs. end-of-game builds, etc etc. Just posting a build doesn’t address all that and all “that” is really the learning how to fish part of the game. Heck, I’ll go one level further. I’ve posted many builds that can cost upwards of a half billion or higher, which is still ridiculously cheap by Live standards. Equally, I’ve posted builds that -only- achieve certain build goals via P2W Amplifiers, which in HC at least is a perfectly viable approach and allows you to proc stuff out and outright sacrifice some set bonuses you’d otherwise be chasing. Just knowing how to obtain all the needed enhancements, and how to get ‘creative’ with a different approach to obtain similar results….posted builds have taught me to fish in a variety of ways. So I assume the best intent for other players and just post when asked and hope they engage in further dialogue that benefits others. Look at this thread (before the delete bombing)….it was a constructive dialogue about a rather “unimpressive” build combo that most wouldn’t have considered a top performer otherwise. IMHO teaching a person to fish easily accomplished by posting builds. Maybe not the person you were speaking with, but often because someone does a google search who already has a build or is considering rolling an alt but doesn’t quite know what the final outcome can look like.

Hmmm, well obviously some drama I don’t know about nor care to know about. Just know that for me at least, I enjoyed your contributions and your build advice has given me dozens of hours of happiness in a game. So thanks for that, sorry you felt unappreciated.

Judging by some of the comments originally posted (and available still via Wayback) @Switchfade simply doesn’t like to share build ideas. Some players feel a sense of ownership of a build even though hundreds of other players have likely assembled similar if not identical ones. /em shrug

For anyone searching for this set and wondering why all the comment deletions….can’t say. But the internet is forever: https://web.archive.org/web/20210205142644/https://forums.homecomingservers.com/topic/18033-dual-blades-energy-armor/

I think some some people are just social players and enjoy the company and chatting regardless of min/max for XP gain. And honestly I see a fair number of farmers exchanging power farming just to have an audience.

Here’s the two threads I have macro’d in-game. Very useful for a DIY’er.

DPS/DPA is an absolute measure of effectiveness of a power, but ‘efficacy’ isn’t exactly the same thing. I think you nailed it with the ‘follows me to next spawn’ perception. Water Spout, like Tornado, is mostly a fire-and-forget power. It does it’s thing tearing up targets and just keeps doing it until you have to recast it. Most of your other powers require a bit more effort to bring some pain. Sleet is great unless that group over yonder says “Hey lookit all our buddies getting ripped up, mebbe we should go investigate?” And they start firing Ranged attacks laughing at your sleet. No problem…..there goes your Water Spout over to say hi to them, welcoming them to party. And you did absolutely nothing. Pets are pets and I always find them, even the less powerful ones (howdy Gremlins!) to be nice little emotional support buddies who do their thing without me needing to manage them. Very different than playing an MM where they will literally sit there stupidly in BG mode waiting for something to throw a rock at me unless I command them to be aggressive. Water Spout? She’s -always- aggressive.

Another true story. I went on a ‘binge’ powerfarming once I discovered AFK farming. So day after day I was making alts. I see a build that looks interesting, I make an alt out of it. So many that I start to lose track of them because I’m parking them on different servers so as to not mess up the order of my ‘actives’ list of 40-50 alts. Most are unleveled/unslotted and it’s an effort to level up, slot and IO out a toon all at once. Easily an hour or so depending on market availability, how many converters I have to burn, etc. I also prefer to have a bio and a name that matches. Anyhoo, maybe 200-250 alts all-in parked in the ‘library’ waiting to be rolled out and played. Across three accounts. I seldom powerfarm to 50, typically in the 36-38 range instead because I actually like to play the later levels, TF’s and such. Having both T9’s active makes for well rounded character. So for me it’s about an hour per alt, or sometimes as many as 3-4 alts in an evening/morning of playing actively on my main account while afk farmer on account 2 builds me a new alt on account 3, etc. I think it’s because I spent a lot of time between Live and Homecoming continuing to “theorycraft” new builds in Mids. I really didn’t like the IO system at first, felt as if it was an absolute money grab and I felt it ‘cheapened’ the superhero feeling. I actually liked doing my SO missions once upon a time to get a seller to sell me what I needed to feel stronger/faster/better. Maybe they just didn’t click for me for whatever reason but once they did it became a bit of an obsession to min/max what is really a fairly easy game. It became the game within the game. Thus…..having freedom to have as many alts as I can, and outfit them so relatively easily/cheaply this time around….I’ve gone a bit overboard. I do like Snarky’s original comment. My first farmer on Homecoming was a Fire/Kin controller as I knew it could farm easily on just SO’s, and at the time of launch, I didn’t know what the economic climate would look like for IO’s etc. That farmer created my first Spines/Fire brute on my second account. Then I created a Rad/Fire by self-PL back on my first account. Honestly, it’s so easy to do I just keep that thread bookmarked and copy/paste it into Local chat anytime I’m in AE powerfarming an alt and someone asks me to be a sitter. Teach them how to light themselves on fires.

Got around to fixing the /buildsave. Here's the final version of my Demon/Storm MM with much assistance from @Maxzero and others who have posted builds before. Couple of notes: -Makes heavy use of Enh boosters to get native S/L Defense over softcap. In reality, once you take your Hybrid Support, you'll find you really don't need these. Likewise, if money is an issue for you, you can grab easy +DEF boost to everything by just grabbing a Combat Defense Amplifier. I've done the math and it's actually a little cheaper to go the Combat Defense Multiplier, although some people think of that as a "cheat." If you don't, look at both options. Also don't forget your Demons will throw you an Ember Shield which helps your Resistance. You can use the Mids Reborn app to look at how various Pet powers impact your stats. -Endurance management, as I've said with all stormies, is really brutal until you get Ageless. You'll be taking Musculature so won't get a lot of help for END bar until Destiny Ageless. But once you get that....you are a meat grinder. Otherwise, S/L defcapped, crazy high recharge + Burnout for all stormy chaos you'd ever want, all storm powers are driving +Recharge and healthy damage and Demons are just plain awesome. Enjoy! This Hero build was built using Mids Reborn 3.2.17 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Seventh Trumpet: Level 50 Natural Mastermind Primary Power Set: Demon Summoning Secondary Power Set: Storm Summoning Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Summon Demonlings -- SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg(A), SprMarofS-EndRdx/+Resist/+Regen(3), CaltoArm-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(3), CaltoArm-Dmg/EndRdx(5), CaltoArm-Acc/Dmg(5), CaltoArm-+Def(Pets)(7) Level 1: Gale -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A) Level 2: Lash -- SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(7), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(9), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(11) Level 4: Maneuvers -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A) Level 6: Enchant Demon -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 8: Super Speed -- BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(A), BlsoftheZ-ResKB(13) Level 10: Steamy Mist -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(15), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(15), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx(17), RctArm-ResDam(17), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(19) Level 12: Summon Demons -- SprMarofS-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprMarofS-Dmg(19), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx(21), RctArm-ResDam(21), RctArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(23), SvrRgh-PetResDam(23) Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25) Level 16: Freezing Rain -- TchofLadG-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(A), TchofLadG-Rchg/EndRdx(25), UndDfn-Rchg/EndRdx(27) Level 18: Hell on Earth -- ExpRnf-Acc/Rchg(A), ExpRnf-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(29), ExpRnf-+Res(Pets)(29), SprCmmoft-Rchg/PetAoEDef(31) Level 20: Kick -- FrcFdb-Rechg%(A) Level 22: Tough -- StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GldArm-3defTpProc(31), GldArm-End/Res(31) Level 24: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(33), ShlWal-ResDam/Re TP(33), GifoftheA-Def/EndRdx(33), GifoftheA-Def(34), LucoftheG-Def(46) Level 26: Summon Demon Prince -- SprMarofS-Acc/EndRdx(A), SprMarofS-Dmg/EndRdx(34), SlbAll-Dmg(34), SlbAll-Build%(36), ImpSwf-Dam%(36), EdcoftheM-PetDef(36) Level 28: Tactics -- GssSynFr--Build%(A), HO:Cyto(37) Level 30: Burnout -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 32: Abyssal Empowerment -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 35: Tornado -- OvrFrc-Dam/KB(A), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg(37), ExpRnf-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(37), OvrFrc-Acc/Dmg/End(39), AchHee-ResDeb%(39), FrcFdb-Rechg%(39) Level 38: Lightning Storm -- Apc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apc-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Apc-Acc/Rchg(40), Apc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Apc-Dam%(42), FrcFdb-Rechg%(42) Level 41: Web Envelope -- GrvAnc-Acc/Immob/Rchg(A), GrvAnc-Acc/Rchg(42), GrvAnc-Immob/EndRdx(43), GrvAnc-Immob/Rchg(43), GrvAnc-Hold%(43) Level 44: Mace Beam Volley -- PstBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), PstBls-Dmg/EndRdx(45), PstBls-Dam%(45), ExpStr-Dam%(45), FrcFdb-Rechg%(46), Ann-ResDeb%(46) Level 47: Web Cocoon -- ImpSwf-Dam%(A), UnbCns-Dam%(48), GldNet-Dam%(48), NrnSht-Dam%(48), GhsWdwEmb-Dam%(50), GhsWdwEmb-Acc/EndRdx(50) Level 49: Scorpion Shield -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def/EndRdx(50) Level 1: Supremacy Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Clr-Stlth(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 2: Swift -- Flight-I(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A), Mrc-Rcvry+(11) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-End%(A), PrfShf-EndMod(13) Level 1: Prestige Power Dash -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Slide -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Quick -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Rush -- Empty(A) Level 1: Prestige Power Surge -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 50: Musculature Radial Paragon Level 50: Ageless Core Epiphany Level 50: Portal Jockey Level 50: The Atlas Medallion Level 50: Task Force Commander Level 50: Freedom Phalanx Reserve Level 1: Cold Demonling Level 26: Demon Prince Level 12: Ember Demon Level 1: Fiery Demonling Level 1: Hellfire Demonling Level 12: Hellfire Gargoyle Level 8: Speed Phase Level 50: Support Core Embodiment Level 50: Pyronic Core Final Judgement Level 50: Degenerative Core Flawless Interface ------------ | Copy & Paste this data into Mids Reborn : Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1744;785;1570;HEX;| |78DA6553494F535114BE6FA8A5056CA1858240E90094A9C35350DC182343A2B6062| 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At 50 w/Incarnates, -many- MM's will be running max +DEF henchmen and via Bodyguard mode has impressive +RES as well. If they took Clarion vs Barrier, they are damn near mezz proof as well. If using an aura (like /Time's Time's Junction) or Presence pool for Provoke, they can generate massive aggro and thanks to henchmen attacking hold it pretty well. MM's appear artificially weak because of the relative flimsiness of henchmen at lower levels. But a well built MM is among the tankiest of non-tank players in the game.

Just saw you post this on Reddit. Cool trick, I’m thinking of creating some stealth on/off macros with it!

Normally I'd just pop into game and then use /buildsave to export the build and then File/Open it in Mids, but for some reason, the exported build isn't opening in the latest version of Mids Reborn.....I get errors. Here's my /buildsave file, and I'll see if I can figure out how to convert it into Mids from here for you. build.txt

I have a Bots/Storm, Necro/Storm, Thugs/Storm and Demon/Storm, all fully T4’d incarnates. Of them all, Thugs/Storm is highest DPS (thanks to double Gang War up often) but Demon/Storm is likely easiest to play. Super high +Recharge is key to playing /Storm and you -always- need to play /Storm offensively. Skip snowstorm and hurricane……useless unless you want to waste time and END. And yes….Endurance is a serious issue. Manageable via combat amplifiers, recovery serum and base empowerment recovery buffs. Ageless fixes all this but Endurance management is a mini-game by itself until then. Happy to share my builds but they are also widely available via searching forums here. Make no mistake….a well built /Storm MM makes you totally understand why the devs gave us such Endurance penalties for our primary attacks and limited our buff/debuff strength. If not for those you’d never see players running anything else. Some of the best pylon melt times in game come from /Storm Masterminds.

...and her more modern Superhero costume version.

I never really came back to show you how I ended up with Tailgunner Tina. I liked both of your costumes, so one became my "Show" costume for Bond Rally's and the other became my modernized crime fighting costume. For both, I changed hairstyle and face as I was really liking the Sci Fi face with the beauty mark. And because I fiddled with hairstyles (went with Beverly Thrills) I could incorporate the short Fortune cape which gave her that much needed 'flourish' that all dual pistoleers should have. The hairbow really help to set things off for both as well. So two different costumes, both thanks to you two, but something to tie them both together as uniquely Tailgunner TIna. Thanks to both of you @Mjolnerd and @biostem Here's her "classic" Bond Rally costume.....