Milk Sheik

Random note for those who hated on Mesmerize early in the thread -- I played my mind/rad recently and noticed that Mesmerize does about twice the base psi damage as Dominate. So besides the control aspects and the reasonably fast recharge, it's got that going for it. For all the "but sleep doesn't work because of AoEs," I was recently on a 5-man TinPex that was the safest TinPex I've ever been on because we had a mind dom. We popped the War Walkers while the rest of the mobs were unconscious and just didn't fling Ion Judgement willy-nilly. Turned out to be surgical and easy. (This would be the same mind dom that made my Master of Eden badge a cakewalk because he perma-confused the Crystal Titan.) Oh, and +1 vote for Fear triggering containment. I'm not really sure why it wouldn't. Considering damage temporarily breaks them out of the feared state and lets them get an attack off, so it's more compatible than Sleep but less than Holds, and it takes a mez enhancement when it comes to HOs and ATOs, this seems like it would make sense and not be terribly unbalancing.

Yeah, I didn't want to go into all the mitigation I've had to use to get around its not-so-great damage, but you can. Personally I put an Achilles' Heel in Neutrino Bolt so I can spam it, Overwhelming Force in X-Ray Beam so I have a little knockdown punch with fast recharge and animation (esp. useful at low levels), Irradiate gets a PBAOE purple knockdown proc and the Gladiator's -res proc so it and AH can stack (I hear multiple Achilles Heel's don't stack, but the two of those can be a lot of -res together). My addiction to knockdown also got thrown into Neutron Bomb (purple set, gets the 10% recharge too). -Def sounds awesome in theory, but in practice I mostly notice the difference on the Manti TF when you can hit a Power Paragon Protector with Irradiate, drop his def by 51%, and then beat him up after he MOGs. Other than that... kind of underwhelming.

Having played an emp/rad badge toon, I agree that while good teams don't need me, the game is still full of idiots less optimized players who do. When teams split up to chew through content faster, all of a sudden the squishies find they are soloing or duoing mobs, and all of a sudden my Fort and single target heal are loved once more. Or we're doing radios full of Carnies and everyone loves end buffs. Or there's a Hami raid where someone forgot to take their EoE or ran out because Hami showed up early and they only had one or two before diving into the goo. All the damage fields like the blue s**t in a Tinpex or the pink s**t in a MoM leave plenty of toons hurting no matter how high their defense is. CM is of course nice on squishies, but it is also loved after multiple toons are eating pavement and while rez is recharging, they have clicked wakies to try to get back into the fight. CM banishes that stun, and with a heal and an end buff, they are back into the fight super fast. Are there better combos? Definitely. Rad blast has got long animation times and not much damage. I'd love to see it buffed. But I'm rarely at a loss for something to do.

I threw in 3 membrane HOs (rech/def/to-hit), 1 LotG 7.5% for the recharge buff, and 1 Rectified Reticle +Perception. If you're not running Tactics (I wanted the Concealment pool more for speeding through missions), the RR comes in handy for shrugging off Night Widows and Fiends trying to blind you.

The Cimeroran NPCs say things just like the NPCs in all the other zones. It was a little weird when I completed a LRSF and then went straight to the ITF and an NPC in a toga said, "$Playername just beat up the Freedom Phalanx in Atlas Park!" Pass that NPC on to Sister Solaris, baby, 'cause she's got some mad visions of the future.

This and the Lord Recluse statue in Recluse's victory when the villains win. Don't have a screenshot of that one though.

One other reward so obvious, only Milk would mention it -- xp and inf. When you're 35-49, all those enemies are +5 to you, so if you don't like farms or the MSR is at a more convenient time, you can score some fast levels out of it, particularly with double XP. You might die a few times if you range out of the heal spam, but you will definitely have stuff to do. Pick on the lieutenants and the wounded if you're damage, or buff and heal the pullers and killers.

I use Hasten to keep Dull Pain on frequently -- if not always up, then always ready. If I'm heading into a tough fight, I want it on to begin with since there are bosses that can cut me down super fast (a crit from a purple Victoria or a Hewer Elite for example, some EBs, or AVs when we don't have a tank and I'm the next best thing). If I think I can handle it (e.g. the team buffer threw something on me or I'm heading into a mob), I keep it around for its huge heal, somewhere around 1200 hp for me whereas the extra granted hit points (despite the big green numbers you see) are only 550 or so.

My WP is a stalker - supposedly even squishier -- but let's go down the list. Hide -- yeah, always on, but after the first strike it's not on much. High Pain Tolerance -- always on. Keeps her around 2000 hp with the Vigor T4 Alpha plus accolades (both toons have all hp/end accolades) Reconstruction -- click power, I'd say it's used less often but still, flag it as "used, yes" Mind over Body -- toggle, on, yes Indomitable Will -- toggle, on, yes Heightened Senses -- toggle, on, yes Fast Healing -- always on but I don't notice it and it's not slotted for much the way Milk's is 2-or-3 slotted. I think I threw a Preventive Medicine or Panacea into it. Resurgence -- both toons have it but I don't want to use it. Strength of Will -- as mentioned, infrequently used. However, the regen burns through insps and Barrier incarnate powers sometimes just to save his butt. Not so with the WP stalker.

Hi. Long-time MA/regen scrapper player here, vet level around 24 (i.e. enough to be tricked out but not overly so) and have a fair stack of IOs but I don't use Mids. I'm pretty squishy -- have to burn MoG and IH (and some insps if I recall) to take a bunch of 53 Cim soldiers (minions and lieus mostly) at the top of the gates in Cimerora, and soloing the 54 cyclops/minotaur bosses in the zone are similarly reliant on every power I've got. MA's knockdowns mitigate regular mobs a bit, but of course the cyclopes and minos pop Unyielding or something similar and are unfazed by it or the stuns in the set. My WP stalker outshines this guy immensely -- she's got twice the S/L resist, a ton more defense, the same reconstruction "oh crap" button, and her basically-crashless tier 9 is so rarely used I often forget it's there. He doesn't have Fighting Pool. Yeah, yeah, I know, heresy, learn to play. But I do feel he should be tougher than he is. Things I'd love to see: * MoG being extended a little longer. It has an endurance buff that pre-change allowed the regenner to fire and forget for 3 minutes, bringing the end bar all the way up for its duration. Now, lasting only 20 seconds or so, it mitigates an alpha for one mob -- and just one, and may not last long enough even for that. The end buff isn't on long enough to make a real difference. It is now in the position where it *helps* you solo a hard target (here I'm thinking of end-of-mish EBs, not anything pylon-or-AV-worthy) but has to be combined with IH to last long enough to put them down. I'm running Spiritual radial alpha and Hasten (no Ageless) and its recharge is far from perma, so maybe this is a fix that isn't unbalancing. It's weird when Paragon Protectors have minutes of god mode and I get seconds. * +resist from Reconstruction. We get a little toxic resist, but I don't think anyone's ever slotted it for that when healing sets are available. Maybe it should get love the way Resilience got love -- Resilience used to be S/L/Tox and then became (all). * A Very Rare heal enhancement set or an attuned one like the winter sets that can be made Superior. This may be orthogonal to the discussion (obviously the set should work well on an SO build), but all the heal powers in Regen sort of bring the subject up. I've got a lot of Numinas in the vain hope that their 12% regen buff adds up over many powers, but the bulk of the meaningful passive heals attributed to IOs are being done now by me slotting a Panacea and Power Transfers into Quick Recovery & Stamina. Numinas and Preventive Medicines are sort of the go-to sets, but both have uniques which means you're not going to be 6-slotting multiple powers with them... weirdly, I find Doctored Wounds, an uncommon recipe, to be worth slotting even when there are many rare options. Numina's +max hp benefit doesn't matter when I have Dull Pain up, which is almost always, and then I'm capped at 2409 hp just like all scrappers. Thanks for your time.

Ooof. Okay, I'm calling this one done until Legatus gets fixed. Last two badges included Iron Chef and The Really Hard Way. Big shout-out to Furyraiser for leading the league that scored the TRHW badge (8 corruptors and a 21-man team that knew how to stick and move made it much easier than last attempt). Credit also goes to Omega'Ghost for a memorable Dreamwalker farm (ugh, an entire week of looking for Eochai), Timothy O'Toole for letting me know about obscure accomplishment badges like Guardian of Forever, and the badge tracking site that I pored over without ever uploading anything. Just calculating numbers let me realize I was missing a few like Bailout Hero and Diamond In the Rough. Thanks to all the teams I've healed before. I'm going to chill out for a while and maybe work on a novel until Valentine's.

I did not see them until I had the badge. Most of them don't work for me. I don't have one pocket emp let alone two, I don't have a badge toon with super-high regen ticks or a lot of hp, and I don't like resting in public places as opposed to a mish. I did it the way I did it on Live, playing during the day and knocking out damage at night. Oh, and the Snap mission being in Pocket D helped me back when we had Pocket D teleporters, so I could fire one off late at night after a TF or whatever when all my other teleporters were recharging, set myself up in the mission, and go to sleep.

South side of Perez Park from the docks to the forest, too. Being a hazard zone you can often find bosses in pairs.

+1 vote for basic spear. I brought this up in the Warriors rework suggestion thread, and I'll echo it here. Apart from the club, it's the oldest weapon in human history. Every culture has a spear. With a spear I can make an Asante warrior, Cu Chulain the Irish hero, Odin, and an entire book's worth of Greek mythological figures. At the moment the closest I can get is a trident or a naginata.

Bodies. Right now if I want you to find a dead or unconscious body, I have to use a body bag glowie, which doesn't fit in Cimerora missions or other non-modern settings. (I think there's a coffin glowie, too, but how often do we really interrupt a funeral?) What I want is a costume-adjustable prone person like in the later-issue missions. For example, the LRSF has Ms. Liberty on the ground in Atlas Park, the "No One Left Behind" badge mission where all the cops are on the floor overcome by the smoke has, well, cop models, and I know there's a mission out there where you find your clones on the floor, too. This would be extremely useful for the "you're too late" plot twists or "you find them on the brink of death and save or kill them" missions.

My experience with Immortal was using the Snaptooth Valentine's mission in Pocket D. There is a high probability of getting a Crab Spider Slicer in the Arachnos mobs, who never runs out of end and attacks reliably with a basic attack that does about 419 damage per shot if you're resting and the crabbie cons orange to you. On my badge toon (an emp/rad defender) I drew him away from the portal so Snap wouldn't aggro to it, stunned the crabbie, and then rested with Healing Aura on autofire. The crabbie was more reliable than most other Arachnos damage. I tried Mu Strikers and Fortunatas (not enough) and Fire Tarantulas (too much) hitting a sweet spot where I ground it out over about 17 nights (the days were regular play).

This badge was a freaking slog to get, we farmed it and it took me about a week to get Eochai.

Mot already has this huge epic storyline about being brought into this world, and the general conceit is that when it happens, the entire world will be devoured. Lord Recluse, the Kronos Titan, and like every hero in Paragon join forces to stop it. It's a little weird for that to be happening every two hours on the regular. I could see some other BP figure, though. Or the Talons of Vengeance trying to summon some GM to give them an edge, and it rampages and trashes BP mobs.

As someone who has healed fellow heroes for over 10 million hit points, got a power called Resurrect around level 4 or 6, and has the Caregiver day job, I feel confident that chopped-up villains being teleported to hospitals are going to get some health care that might blow their minds. But you should see how much I bill 'em if they don't have insurance.

I put Devastation's hold in my mind troller's Lift. On Hami raids going after the green mitos, I spam Lift and Dominate, alternating while the other one is recharging, so I stack damage and holds with a chance for more holds. Every bit helps.

+1 to spawn control, particularly on the outdoor maps where there isn't any. I don't know the reasons why, but the outdoor maps can't even be weighted with front/back. Messes up the pacing in my arc half the time because the bosses can appear near the entrance.

+1 to the Dual Blades idea. The Dual Blades costume options include Greek falcata, which the single broadsword doesn't have. I used DB falcata, axes, and khopesh to round out my Greek and Trojan armies (and Aethiopian allies) in my time-traveling Trojan War arc (see my signature below), and it adds some good variety. +1 also to Greek spearmen using staff fighting, if only so we can get a spear costume option that doesn't look like a naginata or trident. (I'm biased -- I have Diomedes Tydides of Iliad fame as a toon, and while the Warriors could easily have a trident man, it doesn't seem as go-to as a nice basic spear.) The Eye of the Storm animations aren't necessary on a minion toon who probably isn't AoEing anyway. The first two attacks and Serpent's Reach will get the job done. +1 to Leadership as an idea. Powers such as Tactics, Maneuvers and so on are definitely in-character with a group who have natural training as their primary edge. Being able to see through invis makes any group tougher for stalkers and toons trying to ghost. +1 to Street Justice, which distinguishes them from the Tsoo's martial arts theme. +1 to gender diversity. Any weapons are great, but dual blades, archery/trick arrow, and spear are all obvious choices for the "Penthesilea duelist" and "Artemis/Atalanta huntress" kind of archetypes. Titan Weapons seems more appropriate for EBs/AVs -- special occasions.

Also, just to state the sometimes-but-not-always-so-obvious -- there's 2 KB to KDs out there, Sudden Acceleration's (which is just KD/KB) and Overwhelming Force (which is damage/KB-KD). If you hate the "slot tax" of SA, OF is a pretty decent set to stick into the power, whether frankenslotted or not.

Also, in case you don't have the endurance to fling that AoE immobilize one more freakin' time (looking at you, my level 20ish Earth Controller).

CoH being my first MMO, when I started I didn't know how to switch chat channels. (To be fair, I don't think the Quick Start instructions with the game disk I took home from a convention included anything about them.) I got up to level 7 or so on my first toon and level 8 on my second toon only chatting in Local, so when we were running around in Troll tunnels, sometimes my team couldn't hear me. When someone tried to explain it by saying "there are little buttons down in your chat window that help you switch," I said "Uh, no there aren't," because I didn't register those tiny cubes as buttons. So my faithful friend The Green Line said, "okay, just type /team and then your message" and off I went. For the next week or whatever (I don't know how long) I was marveling at how fast other people could type /team before sending their messages. When I expressed this to another player, he started laughing and I figured out the buttons.