Crysis

I've only played /Kin MM's with Demons and Beasts. With Demons, I -had- to make heavy use of "tankerminding" to take the alpha and initial aggro, hoping my pets would jump into melee for me to Fulcrum. Later I started making heavy use of the GOTO command to get the Demons to stay in one place for the heals and fulcrum, but that just meant they weren't doing their thing on their own, which is a big draw to me of playing MM's in the first place...my henchmen have their own combat routines. I enjoy micromanaging to a point, but with Kin, it was micromanaging to use my /Kin powers, forcing me to mostly override the Demons own combat strengths. Beasts/Kin was easier, but by that point I'd pretty much just decided that as much as I love Kinetics, its better suited to a self-damage dealer like Corruptors or as a team buff.

These -ARE- the droids you were looking for.... Some great builds and clever use of the P2W powers included. I was pretty happy with how mine turned out.

Way, way back in time maybe around Issue 4 or 5 a bunch of SG mates and I would play “Marco Polo” in Perez Park. The rule was first person perspective only, no maps and you couldn’t ‘target’ the player in your friends’ list to find them. The “Marco” would use broadcast to start and the “Polo’s” would use /Local to answer. More of a hide and seek I guess but we’d spend hours doing that sometimes. I’d get VERY lost in some of those trails through the forest since the scenery never changed much.

Yup I play a bunch of different stormies and all are riddled with FF +Rech Procs plus as many +Rech set bonuses I can work into build…..plus almost always Burnout on top of that. Storm minus Recharge is just a blowing air.

Don’t disagree and have the exact same builds. A Fire/Rad/Fire Sent doesn’t need many damage Procs to be effective but my DP/SR Sent is literally more Procs than set bonuses. If they ever nerf Procs most of my Sents get stripped of IO’s and deleted unless they buff the entire AT. And that’s not an exaggeration.

Sentinels as an entire AT just barely get to decent with procs for DPS. Some combos within the set fare better than others. But since a Sent, unlike a Defender or Controller, -only- contributes damage to a team, then damage procs matter quite a bit for the AT as a whole.

There’s obviously different kinds of procs to consider. So to me it really depends more on the AT than on the specific power I’m looking to “proc-out.” If you are referencing damage procs, in general I find they simply allow low-damage classes to punch way outside their intended damage scales. Damage procs are also great for builds that are limited on slots (VEAT’s being obvious) as it allows you to get some great damage with minimal slotting. But on AT’s that already focus on damage output, I find damage procs to offer little vs. the set bonuses that can be had via non-proc slotting and/or limited to just a few. Non-damage procs, like +RECH, +HEAL, +END, Knockback to Knockdown, -RES, Chance for Buildup…….yeah, have room for those in almost every build I make.

uhhhhh….are we talking COH or some other game entirely?

One of my farmers is a DP/Time blaster. Easy S/l farm clears in 5 min range.

I’d argue that by default -most- players of this game know the forum exists since it plays a role in getting your account setup. But I could quiz most forum posters and discover quickly that there are dozens of differences between forum posters and non posters. Stuff like DPA, pseudo-pets, proc rates, MIDS, marketeering, etc…..those things take up pages of discussions. Even casual forum posters likely know what those things are, although likely at different levels of understanding. But pure game players who just load up the client, make a toon and play it and never visit forums again……Bill that’s an entirely different kind of player. And -most- of us aren’t that kind of player and have very little ability to discern what that kind of player wants outside of n=1 anecdotes, blamestorming AE or whatever. Again….echo chamber. And I’m obviously contributing to the echo along with everyone else so…..I’m out!

I’ve a few trappers and I’ve never once seen procs go off from Seeker Drones. I even went over to test server once and tried a bunch of different slotting techniques and really didn’t find anything that delivered any ‘oomph’ worth throwing into them. Honestly, their best function is alpha eating. Just summon them on the target and they pull the aggro and alpha. Then finish up the fight. I’ve yet to find any other value for them other than this, or as perhaps a set mule if youve got slots to spare.

No Bill. You are representative of the “OLD guard” so to speak. You in particular. Me too but likely not quite as old school as you are. The thread title infers NEW players. People who have never heard of this game, or at best, have heard of it but never played it or only back on Live a month or so. If you want NEW players, gotta figure out what appeals to NEW players. Not to you. Not to me. We are inherently biased and thus our opinions on what would make a NEW player attracted to this game is dramatically biased. We’d get thrown out of any panel surveys designed by big marketing firms to determine how to find NEW players. You want NEW players? Go look at what they are playing RIGHT NOW. It’s not this game. It’s Runescape. LOTR Online. Black Desert Online. Those are among the top CURRENT MMO’s, although I’ll grant you most MMO’s are MMORPG’s, whereas I’d classify retro COH more of a MMO Action game. My point isn’t to belittle our opinions. But to recognize what matters to US here in this thread is likely nowhere near what matters to players of those other current top MMO’s. You want to attract THOSE players to come here? Figure out what attracts them to THOSE games. And either replicate it (highly unlikely given this is a 12+ year old retro codebase) or simulate it to get their attention….or possibly appeal to their retro-gaming, nostalgic ideals and bang on the “free!” Drum. That’s always the problem with these kinds of discussions though. Seasoned players talk about what THEY think the absolute neophyte wants or would want as if they are an authority on the subject. They are categorically totally ignorant of what a new player wants/desires because they are not now, nor can ever be again, a “new” player to this game. Forest…meet trees.

Y’all realize this entire thread is an echo chamber of die hard longtime COH players right? Not a single voice from an absolute newcomer. We play for our own reasons, and those reasons frankly have exactly zero relevance to attracting new players because NONE of us represent the interests or motivations of new players. EDIT: To ensure I’m not being entirely hyperbolic in my comment here, I actually tallied up all the posters in this thread with ‘merely’ double digit post histories. I count 2 posters with single digit post histories. I’ll count them as ‘newcomers.’ The overwhelming majority of posters in this thread, myself included, are well into triple digit post histories and many several thousand posts under their belts. We are not the droids you are looking for, as it were, and thus not likely a good reference for what a “new” player would even look like. If you were one of my clients in the business world, I’d say you need to convene a panel made up of gamers who -might- be interested in a retro game based on a superhero theme and survey THOSE non-players of COH to see what would entice them to TRY COH. But good luck with that because any new crop of players even remotely interested in a superhero MMO circa 2010 would say “lol wut” and not even participate in the survey, let alone play this game. This is one big circle jerk. Forums have been that way since Live days. Active forum participants are already a micro-segment of the broader game population. What matters to us is not representative of the game population in general. And what matters to them is unknown and un-knowable, by us here at least.

Scotty was old. McCoy was old. Keyboard…..how “quaint.”

Honestly with Tanker changes I don’t know why everyone is recommending Brute, especially for a duo. You didn’t really say what kind of AT you’d be playing alongside him but a Tank + Corruptor or Controller duo is potent. Even more so if you are playing Kin so you can max out damage for both of you constantly. Even poorly built tanks seldom need buffs in PVE content to survive but augmenting damage makes everything viable.

Westworld. Red Dead Heroes.

I still believe shitcanning farming is part of the player population decline. And not for the reasons most would think. Farmers automatically had multiple accounts....it's part of the farming lifestyle. You shitcan the results, you shitcan the "spare accounts" and are left with 2/3 to 1/2 of the ACTIVE playing population. Thus....some of this is an illusion. We -never- had the "active" population we thought we had. Selection bias I'm sure but....I have 5 accounts here. I used to play 3-4 of them at a time, always observing the max account rules. I only have two now and my farming account is only used to powerfarm an alt to 32 or so in 30 mins. And while I literally used to create almost a new alt a day, I'm maybe down to one new alt per week, if that. I tend to have "farming" days where I mass create a bunch of new alts to add to the 'reserve library' for future use. But I just quit rolling them out, leveling them up and kitting them out with IO builds. I used to enjoy that (not everybody would) and then played them actively from mid 30's to 50 over the course of a week or so. Now? Just not into it like I once was. Thus....you "had" 5 players (all Crysis). You now "have" 1.2 players. If that. And I'm playing maybe 2-4 hours per week tops whereas I used to be playing 10-15 hours per week.....even more if you considered all my alt accounts. Just not there now, other games to occupy my time. Hell, I'm playing D&D again, mostly virtually, and at least one Champions campaign, also virtually. Those are high-interaction gaming sessions. The world, as they say, has changed. And for us....it may have changed in ways we just didn't recognize at the time.

This is an old, very old by gaming standards, game. And it was officially killed over a decade ago. Many players left for good back then and many of those players a) don't even know the game is back and b) don't really care. The superhero genre was never big back in the heyday of COH Live and it's certainly not today, although that does actually intrigue me given we are witnessing the golden age of Marvel and DC movies. But maybe that's actually part of the issue....there's far more visually stunning outlets to get your superhero 'fix' now rather than a recycled game from 2012. And honestly, are MMO's still a really big thing these days? Multiplayer gaming is very mature now and there's a lot of other games to pull in players who enjoy cooperative playstyles. I think the rise and fall of the MMO came about with the rise of mobile gaming and people who used to spend hours grinding out a level or two now spend 10 minutes every other hour playing a mission on their phone to some other game because that's the lifestyle today. Honestly, I think this is about what we can expect from here on out. One shard, about an average of 700-1000 active players, slowly folding in on itself over how ever many years are left. Will I miss it when it's gone, if its gone for good? Yes, to a degree. But already been through that separation anxiety once and hey....I managed to find other gaming outlets to scratch that itch. I'll do so again. In fact, even now, I find I've more alts available than I have time to level them and with that desire to level them. The game mechanics haven't changed, the new content is neat and all but it's still the same enemy AI and behaviors against different maps and it's the same game, played the same way, with different power combo's but still a zerg-fest of DPS rules and nobody else really matters at endgame. I have gaming buddies who herd everything regardless of tactics and all the enemies are the same AI so they simply bunch up while we rain DPS on them until they die. Rinse and repeat. Crafting system has come and gone many years ago and really...what's left? COVID brought about a massive work-from-home movement, and I can't speak for everyone else, but I often had games running in a side window when I was listening in to some drone buzzing about P&L statements for hours. Even while on video (just don't wear glasses!). And the release of this game benefitted from the stay at home shift when nostalgia and retro-gaming got this big lift. We enjoyed it as well. Rising tide lifted ALL boats, ours included. But now, we have a leaky boat and well.....we are sinking. And will continue to sink. So the question is....why should I recruit someone to come play this game for the first time? It's free, sure. But there's gobs of free games out there. Most of which I can get with a single download from the App store or even Xbox or PS or Steam stores. Not something that requires me to download this sketchy launcher and then learn how to use a quaint keyboard and mouse combo to activate my powers. It's old. It's retro. Just like the vast majority of us players are. And it's dying. Just like we are as well. Some of us faster than others but all things must come to an end. I'll play here until it sunsets again, but I've got so many other options (I'm literally resting my thumbs from a Steam Deck session as I type this) available to me now that I just don't really care if it dies again. Not enough to go out and recruit a bunch of players at any rate. I love finding old friends here, but I've found many of them in other games also. The game can die and that's fine. Friendships will still prevail if they were truly more than casual acquaintances.

Ive got a real thing for WW2 era superheroes. This is great!

I’ve got several /Nin blasters. DP/Ninja is likely the best mix of animations but not necessarily best DPS. Fire/Ninja is likely highest DPS. Archery/Ninja is thematic but I think not as good as Archery/Tac Arrow (even post nerf). Ice/Ninja is kinda a weird pairing but I admit it’s fun to slow everything down and then jump into melee with sword attacks. I also have AR/Nin and Beam/Nin but don’t really recommend those two as its this constant mix of ranged cones and jumping into melee to blap. Honestly, I tend to prefer thematics and overlapping benefits between primary and secondary. So my vote remains DP/Nin or Fire/Nin.

I borrowed some great builds from others like @plainguy and @Darkir (among others) and used this for my recent DP/Kin. With Agility -or- Defense Amplifier you are softcapped DEF to Ranged and Melee both. I found Melee softcap to be very helpful for a /Kin Corr since you'll be in melee often for Fulcrum, Transfusion/Transference, etc. Couple that with the big +DEF buff from Hail of Bullets and you'll be damage capped and very safe at same time for most spawns. It's a great build, very fast and fun. EDIT: Oh and yes, absolutely, I have CrossPunch in here and a five slotted boxing. Boxing is just meh but Cross Punch, since you are in melee all the time, with a full Fulcrum load does bonkers damage. Looks wild too from a ‘squishie’ Corr. Both are in my single target rotation, usually used on Bosses that survive a HOB alpha. This Villain build was built using Mids Reborn 3.2.17 https://github.com/LoadedCamel/MidsReborn Click this DataLink to open the build! Level 48 Natural Corruptor Primary Power Set: Dual Pistols Secondary Power Set: Kinetics Power Pool: Fighting Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Speed Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery Villain Profile: Level 1: Dual Wield -- Thn-Acc/Dmg(A), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thn-Dmg/Rchg(3), Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5), Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(7) Level 1: Transfusion -- NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx(A), NmnCnv-EndRdx/Rchg(7), NmnCnv-Heal/Rchg(9), NmnCnv-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), NmnCnv-Heal(11), NmnCnv-Regen/Rcvry+(11) Level 2: Empty Clips -- SprScrBls-Acc/Dmg(A), SprScrBls-Dmg/Rchg(13), SprScrBls-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(13), FrcFdb-Rechg%(15) Level 4: Boxing -- SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx/Acc/Rchg(A), SprBlsCol-Dmg/EndRdx(17), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), SprBlsCol-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), SprBlsCol-Rchg/HoldProc(19) Level 6: Swap Ammo Level 8: Bullet Rain -- SprScrBls-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), SprScrBls-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), SprScrBls-Rchg/+End(21), FrcFdb-Rechg%(23) Level 10: Siphon Speed -- Acc-I(A) Level 12: Repel -- SuddAcc--KB/+KD(A), FrcFdb-Rechg%(23) Level 14: Tough -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(25), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(25), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(27), GldArm-3defTpProc(27) Level 16: Weave -- LucoftheG-Def(A), LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(29) Level 18: Executioner's Shot -- Thn-Acc/Dmg(A), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx(29), Thn-Dmg/Rchg(31), Thn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(31), Thn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), Thn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(33) Level 20: Speed Boost -- BlsoftheZ-ResKB(A), BlsoftheZ-Travel/EndRdx(33) Level 22: Maneuvers -- RedFrt-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFrt-Def/Rchg(33), RedFrt-EndRdx/Rchg(34), RedFrt-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(34), RedFrt-Def(34), RedFrt-EndRdx(36) Level 24: Tactics -- GssSynFr--ToHit(A), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg(36), GssSynFr--ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(36), GssSynFr--Rchg/EndRdx(37), GssSynFr--ToHit/EndRdx(37), GssSynFr--Build%(37) Level 26: Piercing Rounds -- SprMlcoft-Acc/Dmg(A), SprMlcoft-Dmg/Rchg(39), SprMlcoft-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), SprMlcoft-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(39), SprMlcoft-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(40), SprMlcoft-Rchg/Dmg%(40) Level 28: Combat Jumping -- LucoftheG-Def/Rchg+(A), LucoftheG-Def(40) Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A) Level 32: Hail of Bullets -- SprAvl-Dmg/EndRdx(A), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(42), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), SprAvl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(42), SprAvl-Rchg/KDProc(43), FrcFdb-Rechg%(43) Level 35: Transference -- EndMod-I(A) Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc-I(A) Level 41: Charged Armor -- UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(A), UnbGrd-ResDam(43), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(45), UnbGrd-EndRdx/Rchg(45), StdPrt-ResDam/Def+(45) Level 44: Increase Density -- UnbGrd-ResDam(A), UnbGrd-ResDam/EndRdx(46), UnbGrd-Rchg/ResDam(46), UnbGrd-Max HP%(46) Level 47: Cross Punch -- Obl-Dmg(A), Obl-Acc/Rchg(47), Obl-Dmg/Rchg(47), Obl-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(47), Obl-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(48), Obl-%Dam(48) Level 49: Inertial Reduction -- BlsoftheZ-Travel(A), BlsoftheZ-ResKB(49) Level 1: Scourge Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Pnc-Heal/+End(A) Level 2: Stamina -- PrfShf-EndMod(A), PrfShf-End%(15) 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: Agility Core Paragon Level 50: Marshal Level 50: Invader Level 50: High Pain Threshold Level 50: Born In Battle Level 6: Chemical Ammunition Level 6: Cryo Ammunition Level 6: Incendiary Ammunition ------------

I still think, as others have pointed out already, a shard merge at some point would address some of these issues. But I realize bases, names, etc....makes that unlikely.

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.