Crysis

Sorry gang, I forgot about this thread. I followed my old build initially, but then went off it considerably about level 40 and used many IO sets not readily available to me back in Live. Plainguy, the reason you can’t get MIDS/PINES to match my old screenshots (forgot about those!) is because it doesn’t properly account for the bubbles you get from the Protector bots. And how you slot those bots can impact the +DEF from those bubbles by as much as 5% or more. Thus why I posted the screenshots. Also, while perma-Powerboosted Farsight exists in the numbers I’m showing in screenshots below, it’s CRITICAL that every time Powerboost AND Farsight are charged, you pop them in that order. If you don’t, you’ll be off considerably from these numbers. Not that it matters terribly if you mess up because of all the -TOHIT this build throws out. But timing and sequence of your “defense application chain” is everything to achieve the desired results. Let me get my final build back into PINES (or MIDS or whatever its called now) and I’ll post it soon. For those who don’t know what we are referencing, here’s the old link and I’m attaching the screenshots of my in-game stats from original build. And off topic, but looking back at my younger-self posts, my apologies for being such a twerp back then. I’ve matured considerably and life circumstances have humbled me greatly. I apologize if my old self came across as flippant or offensive. Funny what time-traveling your internet history will reveal about you. That was a dark time for me. https://web.archive.org/web/20120907075205/http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=285768

Thanks, I kept up with this in the whip-only Demon MM thread. There’s also been some chatter over on Reddit about petless MM builds, but most seem to recommend going with /Kin vs. /Storm. For Hurricane, I assumed I would mainly be using that solo, and primarily when leveling. At higher levels, nothing outside of AV’s lives long enough to stand up to team steamroller damage output. I’d guess it may come in handy for trials (BAF doors, denial of passage chokepoints, etc) but would become more and more situational as I level up. Maybe even possible to respec out of it? I’ve played Storm defenders plenty, and have a lower level Plant/Storm Dominator right now as well, but never really thought of it for MM play. Apparently, given how few threads I found even on the old boards (I went back 75+ pages of archives looking for some DS/Storm builds) it was never a popular combo. I do like challenges however!

This was my old build on Live. I’ve improved it on Homecoming but currently in process of taking her through the Incarnate trees (only T3’s thus far). It’s actually better, and TP-self “Combat Teleporting” into spawn still has her taking the alpha (without impact in all but RNG-doom cases) and the bots opening up at range. Way beyond softcapped +DEF to everything, and insanely high recharge as well. Fun MM to play. Was and remains my favorite. Never found the MM playstyle outside of the COH game. Certainly some pets, but not the same “I’m directing my own film here” playstyle. I can post an updated Pine’s build if you’d like.

Way back when CIty of Villains was being discussed but not even in beta yet, there was rampant speculation and forum discussion about how the mechanics of “your personal nemesis” would play out. Of course, it never really did, but I dreamed of a game where a player on Redside (or Blue if reversed) would be able to target campaigns to combat their ‘Arch Nemesis.” Like, setup a sniper/stalker per zone to specifically track and harass/ambush the other player. Or cross-over and actually BE the end-map boss they were going to have to face off. The thought of having Snipers actively targeting your player in zones because your arch-nemesis had directed them to do so would have been pretty compelling, and was an example used by many at the time to describe one way such a mechanic could have been enabled. Of course, the overwhelming number of players DESPISED anything to do with PVP so these ideas got nowhere. But still, that kind of deep, personal interaction would have been pretty fun to see play out.

Well I think he took the trope “absolute power corrupts absolutely” as his basic premise. If you really had the power of Homelander, and the complete access to/benefit of a massive PR and business behind you and that business had absolutely zero code of ethics....what would you do? The answer, he shows us, is pretty much unbridled narcissistic debauchery. All the power, none of the consequences.

After GOT and several other books-to-television/movie series I’ve long since given up seeing faithful adaptations of written works converted into screenplays. The theater of the mind is one thing, while actual theater is something else. I was a fan of the comics, but I am also a fan of the show. I tend to view it as a based-on/alternate reality version of the books and it goes down better for me.

Just hit 49 this evening with my DP/MC/Force Blaster. For me it’s been the most fun I’ve had leveling any of the 30 or so blasters I’ve taken to Incarnate levels between Live and Homecoming. Fantastic synergy and it’s thematically a very pleasing combination of Gunkata and pistol dancing. Very durable as well. Telefrag into the spawn, Hail of Bullets (DEF boost while you do that), Telefrag again and spawn minions and Lts are dead. Backflip out a bit and finish off the boss, Ki pushing him away while delivering the killing shot. Get in over your head? Pop PFF and heal up (I have Aid Self). Then go again! Its the ultimate gun dancer combo.

So my search-fu is failing me. Can't find anything on here, on the Titan forums, on Reddit OR on the old COH archived forums. Surely someone has tried to play this set before? It seems to me with the KB-to-KD IO's out now it's gotta be pretty decent. I love my stormies, so I know how to play to that powerset, but not sure there's any synergy with Demon's at all. Anyone got a build they can share? I've seen the whips-only one but that isn't what I'm looking for. TIA!

I'm still not happy you've been listening to the nerf-herders who want everyone to play their way, but I do want to show my appreciation for what you've done to sustain this game. Glad I was online when the announcement hit.

Would you mind posting the data chunk for your build? When I click on the MIDS link Pines says it's missing data. Thanks.

Demon/TA Mastermind was pretty horrid. Thematically, it was a joy. I played a demonic Cupid kind of character. But even though I really thought it would be cool to have Demons triggering Oil Slick, in practice it was pretty weak sauce. Also the ONLY character I ever fully IO'd out, hoping all the while to make it better in the process, that I then summarily did a handful of /respecs and used a dozen enhancement unslotters on to give to other alts. Deleted that toon shortly thereafter. Still think perhaps I just played it wrong but it was easily the worst slog to 50+ I ever did. Only toon I ever forced myself to play (because I'm OCD like that).

Can’t say that it works in Carrion Creepers but can say it works in Bonfire and both powers are pseudopets. High chance to proc once per casting for +100% recharge but it only lasts a few seconds. There’s a whole thread about this over on Reddit and a guy tested it with Bonfire.

Ironically, for likely the very same reasons you enjoy playing here. To meet new players who have a shared interest in super-hero culture and play co-op missions, TF’s, etc. -AND- to then tune up my characters in farms/PL scenarios, racing my fellow farmers through a missions we reset over and over and time each other (while PL’ing one of our other alts) and discuss how to improve the build and/or play style to get the mission done a little bit faster. Or to go cruise a PVP zone for fresh players who are anxious to prove their purpled-out builds in one on one (or better, team on team) combat. Many, not all, of those reasons likely resonate with you. As well they should since we are playing the same “content,” but just enjoying it differently. Those who disdain my style of play often fail to realize that outside of AE farms and street sweeping, we both have access to the SAME kinds of content. I just ignore most of it and focus on the game mechanics of DPS/sec whereas you focus on the speech bubbles and/or prose presented by your contacts between missions. Honestly, I’ve played them enough I could likely go toe to toe with most people in a game of COH Contact Arc Trivial Pursuit. Even for most of the newish zones. But that’s just it....we like the same things....DIFFERENTLY. There’s just this myopic view of many of the players calling for nerfs or changes that the way I enjoy playing OUR content is wrong and I need to learn to enjoy it YOUR way...or hit the road. Thankfully, I can just hit the road now that I have my own server. I just hope you don’t wake up and find out week over week server pops start dropping by double digit percentages as more start doing what I’m doing and spending far more time on private servers and far less time on these pseudo-public servers. Because if we do.....public will start to feel a lot more like private, and then we both lose.

That’s a pretty significant over-generalization and I don’t know why you think your voice speaks for everyone, but I’m aware of bias and I have my own. Personally, I’ve played since Beta on Live. I subbed three accounts since mid 2005. I used the accounts for PVP, playing so many alts I’ve lost track of them. I did play the original game (back when level cap was 40 and Founders was the ‘high level zone’) as a Defender. I remember being pretty much forced to team back then just to survive. So when the mechanics were changed to allow solo play, I relished the opportunity to write my own storyline. I was very active in the AE community originally but saw so much indignation about how that toy was being abused by the farmers that it really made me grow to loathe interacting with the other mission builders. I actually still wish the AE missions had passwords so you could make some just to enable the friends you chose to come in and do so. At any rate, I am a vet. I still have the Sentinel XML exports of all my lvl 50’s from Live....well over 200 of them. Many were intentionally gimped by powersets. I had one guy who only played via pool powers, ignoring all the primary/secondary powers, just to see how that’d go (newsflash...it sucks, don’t try it). As a veteran, what hooked me on this game was being ABLE to powerlevel for an hour or even entire playsessions. And, when I became bored, to jump into a TF or PUG. Then when I had enough of that, to jump back into Powerlevling an alt or my friends’ alts, or sometimes even just random people hanging out in Atlas. I didn’t charge for it. I even used to broadcast “Free 20 levels if you can tell me a great joke every time you ding I’ve never heard before!” And people would do it. It was fun. It was fun for me. THAT is what hooked me on this game....not the content. I did enjoy the content once or twice, don’t mistake that, and I appreciate that you and many others did/do as well. But eventually, I enjoyed the open sandbox approach to playing this game far, far more. Pushing myself to make builds that could solo GM’s out on Monster Island. Soloing AV’s. Eventually the Ritki Pylon tests. THAT is what hooked me as a veteran. I realize for many reasons people don’t enjoy the game for the same reason I do. But what I don’t get, what I will never get, is why they openly have a disdain for people like me ENJOYING the game in a manner different than they find enjoyment for themselves. That’s just....well to be blunt....incredibly insecure and immature behavior. And that was really, IMO, one of the biggest downfalls of this game when it was live. And, unfortunately, a month after the game has been made available again, already an area of focus for the devs. It just....concerns me really....that here we go all over again. But as I said....I don’t understand it. I guess it’s just the hallmark of this community to want to impose a set of behavioral norms on everyone, as voiced by what is in reality an incredibly small (but vocal) minority of players who participate in these forums. And I fear we will pay the price for it in loss of active players. Almost immediately.

Actually, I said exactly what I meant. I’m highly disappointed. Mad would mean I’m a bit emotional over a game mechanic. Which I’m not. I don’t like playing with anyone who attempts to force me to play “their way or the highway.” Which is basically what you just outlined here and in a few other posts in this thread. I have the highway model well within my grasp (as does everyone). And I get you don’t want an “I win” button, nor do you prefer to level quickly. That’s fine, I’ve no intention nor desire to prevent you from playing however you wish. I once leveled a blaster wayyyyyy back in like issue 5 days from 1-50 totally solo and via missions (not street sweeping) just to prove to myself I could when everyone was complaining that blasters were far too squishy to survive. It was darn annoying at times, and almost all of this was pre-IO, but I did it. Because I wanted to play my way....not teamed with controllers and defenders as most blasters were told to do. Your tone indicates a level of superior condemnation that I want to play that way, but its interesting to me how little I care how YOU prefer to play. In fact, I hope that your preferred play style remains fully available to you. But regardless of your beliefs, I remain very disappointed in this change. Not the change itself, but in the precedent that it represents. Once again, years after being mothballed, the game is available to play. And once again, there’s a chorus of players who really insist that the game only be played however they believe it must be played. Forced teaming, forced soloing, I shouldn’t have to go into a PVP zone to earn a PVP badge/drops/whatever, Regen is too strong nerf them, Burn needs to be changed, put a timer on the wolf mission, etc etc etc. I’d really hoped this mentality was left in mothballs. Judging by your post....it appears its alive and well. For what reasons I can’t fathom. Other than a deep seated need to impose one players’ will on that of the entire population in the name of balance of powers, time, effort or just egos. Interesting lesson in psychology.

Curious. Why is a "bit much to ask" that a person be able to do it in such a short period of time? I'm not being combative. I'm really trying to understand the mentality that "X is too fast, and should be eliminated." I'll qualify my question here: PVP, I get your point. That's competitive. But for a co-operative game that also allows solo play with built-in mission difficulty sliders so you can effectively solo content meant for full teams if you can build for that......and there's no financial reward for anyone for keeping the player base moving slowly or at least all at the same speed/pace..... Why is this a bit much to ask for?

Thank you for all the hard work on the costumes, powers, etc. On cutting the rewards down for both DFB and RWZ/MSR raid....all I can say is I'm very disappointed. Less than a month after re-releasing this game that I've missed for many years, you've now given me reason to stop playing it as much. I've been trying very hard to get my original characters rebuilt in the game. I managed to get two of them back to the builds they had before Live shut down. But now that you are removing the fast-pass rebuild features these two tracks represented, I've little reason to invest all the time I have been on trying to get back to parity. I've no desire to play with others who wish to enforce their play style on me. "Don't fire until I herd the room." "Wait for the Blaster to drop his nuke." "Don't use your X power, its messing up with my preference to do Y." Which, really, makes up the bulk of the membership of these boards and in the game. I'm thankful I have my own personal server to enjoy my old archived characters and those I've restored with my friends. I will no longer need to try and do that here. I enjoyed all my fellow DFB/DiB'r teammates I've met, along with the multiple MSR raiders as well. Some have now come over to my private server. Which is cool. But we enjoyed playing in your sandbox while you allowed us to do so unmolested. I guess we can consider you a marketing channel to find others who wish a more open sandbox style of play.

That’s actually the root issue. The “everyone needs to play what I want and how I want” players and posters really are struggling with interpersonal relationships in the virtual world. They believe that they should be able to log in and immediately have a bunch of people willing to play with them, doing the content they want to do and performing it the way they want them to as well. In short, the world revolves around them in their mind and it’s very disappointing to learn that they can’t force all other players to conform to their wishes. Thus they insist the developers force their will on the rest of us. The real issue is self-centeredness. Not leveling speed/rewards/powers/whatever.

Sigh. Do you know how to make friends? If so, make your own team to do what you want them to do. Unless everyone gets sick of you trying to force them to do ONLY what YOU want to do. In which case I think we have identified the real issue here. There’s so many of your type on these boards. Just like in the old Live instance of this game. And the devs will listen to you because they, in general, want you to play the way THEY coded the game to work. They don’t like it, and take it personally, when we find ways to avoid doing it JUST the way they wanted us to. It was this mentality that led to a never ending path of nerfs in the old game, to appease their creative egos and now its yours, and other players like you, who are destined to try and enforce your views on everyone else. Go play how you want. I will do likewise. You won’t see me mounting a campaign to FORBID everyone from trying to play the game the way they want it to be played. Because I enjoy all of it and consider this a sandbox, not a game experience on rails that can only be played the way you want it to be played. I hope selfish attitudes like this don’t ruin this game the way it did the first time.

Says its down for everyone, not just me. Been down more than up in the AM the last few days I’ve noticed. I hope its just something intermittent and it’s not about to go belly up. It’s the last detailed resource on the game I think has survived. I miss City of Data personally. Although you can still reach it via Internet Archive version.

There’s two different ways to build a Fire/Kin, and they vary mainly between going for +DEF or +RES. I know of no way to do both. Everyone should focus on +RECH and with the added bonus of Siphon Speed it’s not hard to get to permahasten with these builds. If you go for +DEF, you are going to take Ice, Stone or Mace as your ancillary pool for the +DEF shields. I don’t know the numerical differences between those powers, could be same for all I know. But I do know that that Stone also offers a self-heal (Embrace, which is also +HP) as well as two decent attacks between Fissure and Seismic Smash. Fire obviously offers the benefits of Fireball and while the AOE value of that is very high with a Fulcrum Shift, I don’t know the value of that versus the loss of +DEF for survivability. Personally, I take the +DEF approach. I’m softcapped to S/L for PVE and can easily do +4/x8 BM maps WITH other players (for PL purposes) and handle the 2+ bosses I’ll get per spawn. Solo it’s almost too easy. I don’t know how I compare to a Pyre Mastery player for speed because I seldom see one playing that way. And in all other end game content, my +DEF gives me a huge amount of survivability to non S/L mobs. I’m ~+30% to just about every other positional defense. The build I posted above makes very little use of purples outside of the LOTG’s. I got it from LIVE and have modified it just a little...swapping Boxing slots for Seismic Smash, for example. Same IO’s though. Ultimately, once you get Incarnate Alpha Agility to T4, you have so many options available to you on how to slot these builds cheaply that I wouldn’t spend your influence on tons of purples. You don’t need them on this particular AT. Spend them on other toons.

I don’t understand the OP’s mentality at all. Very childish to insist that because you don’t like something the entire structure of the shared asset must be changed to adapt to your level of thinking. People saying “Just go build your own server if you want to play on easy mode” realize this flawed mental model works in reverse too right? Just go build your own server if you want to force people to adapt to your narrow views of what is “fun” and “right.” The issue we have in either scenario is someone is getting their candy taken away and we both end up with smaller and smaller populations of players because people will get upset over changes, compare their new time spent doing X against the “good old days” and grow frustrated and bored. This is what happened on Live. And it led ultimately to the loss of player base and death of the game. But please, go on suggesting ways to enforce your views and then claim victory when server pops start to dwindle. This will not get you more people willing to partner up to run Dr. Q’s insane waste of time TF. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve teamed with your kind and decided no way did I want to spend two hours of my life listening to you pontificate about how the world should adapt to your points of view of things. At least with MRS raids I knew EVERYONE there wanted to kill ritki and reap the same shared benefits. That was teamwork. Emphasis on WAS because I’m pretty sure after this nerf you’ll see this raid, and likely a significant part of the ENTIRE Vanguard and RWZ story, die quickly. Good job killing one of the very things you think are necessary: teaming and shared co-op effort.

Primary Power Set: Fire Control Secondary Power Set: Kinetics Power Pool: Speed Power Pool: Leaping Power Pool: Leadership Power Pool: Fighting Ancillary Pool: Stone Mastery Hero Profile: Level 1: Char -- BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(3), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(3), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(7) Level 1: Transfusion -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-Heal(7), Dct'dW-Rchg(17), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(17), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(23) Level 2: Fire Cages -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(11), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(23), Posi-Dam%(25), EndRdx-I(46) Level 4: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(5), RechRdx-I(5) Level 6: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A) Level 8: Hot Feet -- Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Erad-Dmg(9), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx(46), C'ngBlow-Dmg/Rchg(46), C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg(50) Level 10: Siphon Speed -- Acc-I(A) Level 12: Flashfire -- SWotController-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear(A), SWotController-Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/Rchg(13), SWotController-EndRdx/Rchg(13), SWotController-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx(27), SWotController-Acc/Conf/Hold/Immob/Sleep/Stun/Fear/EndRdx/Rchg(27), SWotController-Rchg/Dmg%(40) Level 14: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(15), LkGmblr-Rchg+(15) Level 16: Tactics -- EndRdx-I(A) Level 18: Cinders -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(19), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(19), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(21) Level 20: Speed Boost -- EndMod-I(A) Level 22: Boxing -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(40), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(40), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43) Level 24: Tough -- GA-3defTpProc(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(25) Level 26: Bonfire -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(34), Posi-Dmg/Rng(34), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(45), OvForce-Dam/KB(50) Level 28: Weave -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(29), LkGmblr-Rchg+(29) Level 30: Inertial Reduction -- Empty(A) Level 32: Fire Imps -- ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(33), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(34), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(37) Level 35: Transference -- Efficacy-EndMod(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(37), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(37) Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(39), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(39) Level 41: Fissure -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(42), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(42), Posi-Dam%(42), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(43), RechRdx-I(43) Level 44: Rock Armor -- LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(45), LkGmblr-Rchg+(45) Level 47: Earth's Embrace -- Panac-Heal/EndRedux(A), Panac-EndRdx/Rchg(48), Panac-Heal/Rchg(48), Panac-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(48), Panac-Heal(50) Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A) Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A) Level 1: Containment 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 1: Sprint -- Empty(A) Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A) Level 4: Ninja Run Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A) Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(31) Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A) Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(21), P'Shift-End%(31) Level 50: Agility Core Paragon Level 50: Reactive Radial Flawless Interface Level 50: Assault Total Radial Graft

So remind me.... If they are going to nerf AE farms, we still have the portal missions that make decent farms right? City maps, that cemetery map, etc? It's been a looooong time, but I think I'm not supposed to talk to that contact until I ding 50 right? Not unless I want to outlevel those maps and use them for farming instead?