Crysis

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.

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.