Crysis

Pretty sure it was there back on Live too, but experimental and most grafx cards back then didn’t have enough memory to support it. City zones, I think, really look nifty using the mode. But some maps (COT underground lairs for example) look terrible to me and are virtually unplayable in cel shaded mode. Could just be my rig though.

I was a Fire/Energy blaster on Live and learned to love the blapper style of play. It was better when kiting was a thing but you can still do that to some extent now. SS in and Total Focus the Boss and be out of range as animation finished was so fun. Take a hard look at /Martial Combat. I blipped at least a couple times per spawn. Perfect follow up to your quick charge crashless nukes.

BAF runs are very fast way to T4 out. I’m vet level 5 and have T4’d out 3 incarnate powers and T3’d all others, two of them twice now and accumulating Emps to T4 those also. Throw in some MSR runs for fast levels and Threads also. I hate Hami slideshows personally.

As a DP/MC blaster, I’ve no idea what this talk of “half Endurance” even means?

Do Scorpion’s arc the fast way to unlock all patron power pools. Hop over to Pocket D, Null the Gull to Villain, -1/+1 mission difficulty, Scorpion’s arc can then be run in about 40 mins. Send out messages in global and you’ll likely find people who want to run it with you. When done, PPP’s unlocked, Null the Gull back to Hero and back on blue side. SOOOOOOO much easier than it was back on Live where you had to spend days making the round trip alignment conversions. For a Robotics MM, it’s really hard to beat the combination of +DEF from Protector Bots and Scorpion Shield, especially for the S/L/E defense bonuses.

Same. I’ve gotten fast enough with Heather’s arc I can do the whole thing in about 10 mins. I also got lucky with the random Incarnate component and hit rares several times (no VR yet). So I’m now getting about 5-10 Emp Merits an hour. You can T4 out everything in a weekend doing this, coupled with a few BAF runs.

Thanks for the feedback. Regarding more recharge, I’ve had this build up as high as 200+% recharge before. Chronoshift is +50% by itself. But what I’ve found, since I have really only my one primary attack, I’m just not needing anything perma-d other than Perma-Powerboosted Farsight. So what I do is leave Hasten off of auto and whenever I’m ready to take on a spawn, I’m clicking PB+Farsight+Chronoshift and then clicking Hasten again when it’s up. This is 193% recharge when those are both running with these set bonuses as is (off memory, I think I’m at 73% recharge from set bonuses). Add in a T4 Ageless and you’ve got plenty to get to perma Chronoshift AND Hasten if I recall. So I agree, you bring down some of the DEF set bonuses as you’ve got so much to work with already here, and gain a little more Recharge, but you are going to have enough Recharge to move from spawn to spawn +4/x8 as-is already. So for me, didn’t need anything else. That’s the cool part about playing this set though...so many ways to slot, especially the /Time side.

The best tanker set I ever played was a TW/Elec Brute. Had to use Taunt to hold AV aggro many times, whereas a tanker could just hold it, but the superlative damage output was too much of an advantage to ignore.

There was a time when Claws/Elec brutes were the belle of the ball. I think there’s just so many other choices now. Nothing wrong with the set. It’s a fast and fun primary.

Ditto everyone else’s comments, DEF is generally going to be better than RES, but I’ll go a little further and say that positional DEF is better than typed DEF. Ranged DEF in particular for Blasters in most cases, although Melee DEF can be highly useful for a Blapper. Generally speaking, the easiest DEF to obtain in the game is S/L, which is also the most common attack type (especially lower levels).

Here’s how to make Vengeance work on your pet. Check the LFT channel or just the server global channels. Or swing by AE in Atlas. Look for a lowbie LFT, blasters are great for this, but really any lowbie will work. Tell them you’ll keep them buffed and healed and they’ll earn great XP. Once in mission, tell them to group tightly with your pets “to avoid aggro.” Now, pull aggro onto your pets. Don’t heal/buff them at all. When they die, Veng off of them. Then Rez them. Rinse/repeat. Profit. Master your evil laugh. MM’s were originally a villain class after all. You’ll have to replace your Vengeance Pet frequently, they do wear out and often just run away from the team to the exits or quit altogether. But I find a steady supply of them readily available. Fully expendable.

It is. Running any power from the Shield set will deploy it. About the only time you see it non-deployed like this is in Character Creator.

There’s a saying, and I’ll try to adjust it a bit here but.... “When everyone around you seems like a jerk, you are probably the jerk”

You mix and match. On Homecoming an Attuned set enhancement will “match” a non attuned one. So you use Attuned while leveling and then when you hit 50 you buy Enhancement Unslotters and Boosters and Catalysts and start mix and matching. Example: on LotG sets you want to keep the +Recharge so you leave that one Attuned but any others with +Def you’ll unslot the Attuned version, sell back to store and buy the non-Attuned and then slot and boost it to +5. But honestly, for me, I exemplar down very little at 50 since I’m spending another 20-25 levels post 50 working on Incarnate powers.

I honestly think this may have been more due to cave map than MM’s. I’ve said before and will again, if I could have just ONE quality of life improvement in this game, just one and only one, I’d take the ability to remove cave maps entirely (or at least the blue/purple floor/wall ones) or better the ability to “choose” your map tile set when choosing a mission. Caves pre-dated MM creation, and I don’t think the developers of MM’s ever really understood what a royal PITA caves were in general, but in a cave setting (any Close Quarters map really, but caves especially) that many henchman you can’t pass through are just a serious hindrance to enjoyment. Even for ME and I’m playing the damn MM! One of the many reasons I skip content are caves. There are other reasons, but that’s always been the biggest. Hate them with a passion. Can understand why other players don’t like MM’s on cave maps and it’s likely more to do with the map than the archetype.

For almost all my MM’s, when teams are just steamrolling like that I just ignore my henchmen and focus on my secondaries and the odd personal attacks until the “main event” time comes. Then pop them all out and go to town. Depends on your powerset but I’m beyond softcapped to all but Psi and thus rarely lose even my lowest tier pets while in the bowl.

Sorry gang, been working a bunch. Just had time to update things. I have my own private server setup now and spend more time tweaking it than I think I do actually playing it. Until PINES updates to show bubbles correctly, you'll have to "imagine" that you are seeing 11-12% additional +DEF to all by Psionics from Protector Bot bubbles. And remember that they double-bubble their pals (not themselves) for twice that amount. I've included my Incarnate power choices in the build, but left them turned off. What you'll see is softcapped to everything but Psionics for PVE, and well beyond iTrials softcaps to S/L (at almost 80%) and Energy at around 77%. The rest of the positionals/typed will be ranging from 50-56% for normal PVE stuff. Bots will be at 48% for all but Psi, other than AOE which will be at 58%. Protector Bots, again being unable to double bubble themselves, will drop down to around 36% for all but AOE, and they will be at 46% for that. Psi remains a weakspot for all of them at 24%. Can't really get around that. But with such high +DEF I seldom get mezzed and it's rare for more than one of them to get mezzed as well. Clarion eventually comes along to help with that. You by no means need this much +DEF, and I built it by sacrificing almost all +RES as well as some other things like holds, etc. But I've been happier with this build on HC than I was on my already-happy-with-it build back on Live. Recharge is very high (192% or so with Hasten + Chrono + full set bonuses) and I did some Boosting on some of the normal IO's and most of the +DEF IO's from the LOTG sets. But you can definitely get by with quite a bit less if you prefer. Everything is so cheap (relative to Live) that I just went a bit crazy with a ton of merits and playing the enhancement converter game. So why not? At any rate, hope you find it useful! | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1559;739;1478;HEX;| |78DA6594DB4F927118C77F2FBC44202608A828A268A682906487CB36B5B426CB25B| |975C5085EF5DD809771D8F2B27FA1E33F5099375DB4B69C1DA61D2EFA0BB232ADCB| |0E6A97AD1B7A789F6FC0C63BD8E7E5391F7E3FA2D7276D8FA76E9C15927D229D281| |4E2D144A1A8E4336A36658D29C9A5AC96D616978D4208CFB8562CC4636A46894FE4| |970B6A213E3D111F2FA9E99499B49D35BFF85C2993D1B2E1CBDA35ADA8260BFE3AD| |578696121ACC78826B26AAE944E14552D2B5A66352D1D9E511229255F58527356FD| |F75C4E5152ADFA6B4C492B392D5FD4CD6DFFAD736A76D17B2EA726C37529A289A48| |22E963BA8B2207DD74D024FD9247E12066561F805FE20466421EF81FBCC4307CC0F| |EEAAAF2456245DE65F656E914E92749D2CF518D9CFC73CEC057B99563FF323F9185| |18BF1B98175CF98F63566EB3AF894E97AC2F95E501FDC4A5998FC5C9F83C66FE61A| |8C6677C5CE245CAE0A2DA2CD0EFE2175B72C3E516E0BFC2D41F67F45019BD8DFD47| |455D665B618788579641EF4093D9EFD7DA517B3E8A7DCCDEC2B9A2D5CEB67CAD182| |FE5A36D8AF63137CCDF4BD61F6BE05DF315B299E03F11CE86F9BE239399EECBCC03| |97AA799FE29F03CB37F92E9A4386EF4E45E85EE11B8C23CFA007C08DE670E926F3B| |66D4BECDB20D9A91073D79BEF11E3BB7C11DA67717FCCAF47DE7F3F585EAEFE25A0| |C5D6EDE6308FB0939987D94B39B6DA4EE20CFD8076E52EE1ED4D38399EC50CC3ECC| |A4CF64D4773B68640E1B40891938C4DC259F01CC64E026F775EC16781BBC8319DC0| |5EF31D728C4107A187273CD019CAD11F4B26FA3BB861E82385B23E04BEA218C7AC3| |A739E6F153E01878821939C36CA3998C22E728E61641CE08727AE5EADDA40F3D22D| |02019AD48A47A49A4C166AC4172B24132D310275AB329CFCA509256D2B5167BF59E| |97F7ACD5FF0921857826073599245D94F4B31298E73EF7EBED87D8FE774D6694B09| |761EC7104FB0A619F7FDB08C8ED71D13BFB95B79C35F9A53AF96A9D5C7FFE0106D1| |08FC| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|

With respect, there has yet to be a single change/nerf/adjustment/improvement made to this game that entices/forces everyone else to play the way you (or anyone else) intend/desire for them to play. I really wish people would stop this kind of behavior of trying to dictate that others play their preferred way. The game is enjoyable BECAUSE it doesn’t restrict how you play. Want to go wallop some level 3 minions in Perez Park in your 50’s? Be my guest. Want to exemplar down 45 levels and play? Sure. Want to sidekick up 45 levels and play? Of course. Want to play the ENTIRE GAME as an unslotted character? Nobody stopping you. Want to street sweep your way to level 50 and never once take a mission/contact, saving them all for lvl 50 Ouro? You can do that (I have a couple of times, its a slog, but its do-able). Want to PL to 32, 38 or 50 so that you can start the game feeling super-powered? Numerous options exist to allow you to do that...including DIB/DFB, AE and Portal missions. There’s really no need to try to force others to play a certain way. Nothing good will come from it other than irritated players and a shrinking player base. Likely far more than forcing people to “like” playing the game the way you enjoy it. Just be thankful you have players here at all.

I’ve had very good luck with Suppressive Fire and the Lockdown IO set w/the +2 Mag Proc. Lockdown set bonuses also include a very nice +Ranged DEF bonus, a Hold bonus and a few other goodies. Suppressive also does some minor damage and if you use one of the ammo types other than standard, it also increases the Hold duration.

Not sure I agree, although this being a re-release of sorts may play out that way. Back when this game was Live, WOW new issue releases had HUGE impact on player populations in COH. It was in part what drove the original game to move to F2P model I think? Given COH is now effectively perma-F2P, and all MMO’s today pretty much pull from overlapping shared player population, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a drop in server pops later this month. May not stay this way but clearly we’ve seen player pops already drop since Homecoming launched.

When slotted in sprint or any other toggle power, as long as that power is on the +Stealth component of Celerity is working for you. However, you still have to deal with all the combat stuff that breaks stealth, like attacking, being hit by an AOE, etc. So even when its active, it can drop. That may be misinterpreted as not being “strict” because otherwise it is. I’ve also noticed with some visual graphic settings the Stealth appearance (character is translucent) appears to drop. But even in those cases, unless you are under some form of attack/attacking, it’s still active. Just a visual bug.

I’ve got a few /MC blasters now. On all of them, I find the secondary power picks to be pretty much “limited” to the following: Ki Push (you have to take) Reach for the Limit Burst of Speed (Great leveling power, but feel free to Respec out at 50) Reaction Time Inner Will Eagles Claw Pre-50, attack was tab-target the Boss or Mezzer, Burst of Speed into spawn, drop Nuke, Burst of Speed within spawn second time, Ki Push the boss, jump out of spawn, single target boss/AOE the remaining spawn until dead. As needed, Ki-Push + ST hold (on my DP/MC I use Suppressive Fire 6-slotted with Lockdown set with Chance for +2 Hold proc), and fire at range until defeated. Works very well. Probably the most consistent damage without death I’ve ever had on any Blaster toon. I’m softcapped DEF to Range via IO sets pre-incarnate which also helps. My issue late game with Burst of Speed is that stuff dies so fast that I rarely have time to use Burst of Speed unless soloing. I’m teaming late game frequently. I’m sure others can accomplish similar playstyles from /Time or other Blaster secondaries, but I’m really happy with how /MC works in practical use. Very non-clicky also.

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.