ClawsandEffect

Removing Set IOs from the game would have the same end result as removing gear in other MMOs. Sure, you'd make the legacy content challenging again like it used to be. But you'd also make the content that was designed with IOs in mind nearly impossible, or only possible with a narrow set of ATs and powersets. I don't know about you, but I personally enjoy the fact that in this game you don't need any particular thing on your team to succeed at a task. Do certain ATs make some things easier to accomplish? Sure. Having a dedicated Tanker built for survivability to tank Aeon and Recluse in the MLTF makes it loads easier on everyone else, but you don't need one to succeed. I'd rather not see CoH follow the same path that other MMOs trod and have things be pretty much impossible without a specific team composition. Especially when you consider the fact that not following that model is one of the things that made it stand out in the first place.

I'm actually okay with a 5% guaranteed miss rate on powers, mostly because as far as I can tell the overwhelming majority of enemies in the game are playing by the same rules. The only ones that break it are particularly challenging enemies that are meant to be taken on in groups. I wasn't there when the game was designed, but I suspect the original developers probably played D&D or were at least familiar with the system. I could easily see them taking the "natural 1" mechanic and translating it to their to-hit system.

The chance is identical either way if your character is at both extremes on defense and accuracy. A 1 in 20 chance to hit or be hit. Saying it isn't the same thing because the miss happens above 95% instead of on 1 is nothing but semantics. I don't want to see a "fumble" mechanic added into the game though. That only exists in tabletop games to add a storytelling element to what actually happens and it's up to the GM to define that. There's no way to do that in an MMO because there is no human there to determine when a simple miss is called for and when a catastrophic accident is.

To address Luminara's post. We actually HAVE a "natural 1" and "natural 20" mechanic in place already. If your defense is softcapped versus a normal enemy they have a 5% chance to hit you. To translate that to D&D terminology, they have to roll a natural 20 to hit you at all. If your to-hit is 95% (it won't go higher), then the only way you can miss is on a natural 1.

Personally, I feel like changing procs from a percentage chance to a procs per minute system was a mistake. It eliminated the "buzzsaw" builds of the past, but created builds just as skewed to replace them. And it had a negative effect on certain procs overall. My Dark Armor Scrapper would sometimes GAIN endurance from the Theft of Essence proc. The best I can hope for now is for it to break even with the power's cost.

In Superman's case it is entirely believable, because his disguise has almost nothing to do with the suit and glasses. It's his mannerisms and how he carries himself. He slouches and does anything he can to make himself appear shorter. He scrunches his neck up and makes his jawline look softer. He stutters deliberately. He makes a point of visibly flinching at loud noises. In short, he acts like a little bitch. No one would ever associate that person with someone who can take a tank shell to the face without blinking. Then when the glasses come off he stands up to his full height, speaks confidently and distinctly and nothing fazes him. In Superman's case it's not about people being dumb and easily fooled. It's about using their own perception and unconscious assumptions against them.

Not going to read every single post, but my idea: Superheroic (or villainous) stuff to do that doesn't involve variations of "beat this guy up". Rescue people from burning buildings, stop out of control monorails, shore up a damaged building before it collapses so people can get out safely, etc. You know, the non-combat stuff superheroes do in the comics all the time. As an added bonus, I would add a mechanic that gives you different options to do those things depending on your AT and powerset. Burning building example: Your ice themed character can slow down the flames so people can escape. Meanwhile your super strong character can knock a hole in the wall to circumvent a blocked exit. Your tech character can repair damaged sprinkler systems. And so on. I don't know what the villainous equivalent to those things should be, but it would be nice to be able to be a hero and not spend all your time beating the shit out of the bad guys. And it would open up a way to play the type of character that has useful but not combat effective powers.

Got .02 influence to throw in. Balance is important for the powersets within a given AT (specific AT is irrelevant). It is less important to balance across ATs. I don't think a Scrapper and Defender should be able to achieve the same amount of rewards while playing solo. Mostly because the Scrapper is designed as an AT to be self-sustaining and independent, while a Defender is designed to make a team more effective with their presence. Hence why Defenders have so many buff powers thy cannot use on themselves. Those 2 ATs should not be expected to perform equally in scenarios the other one is designed for. However, if one Defender makes a team significantly better than another, or one Scrapper deals significantly more damage than another when all variables are taken into account, that is where balance comes in. If you decide that your new character is going to be a Scrapper, you should be able to take it as a given that the specific powersets you choose are largely irrelevant to your gameplay experience.

Who do you think is going to hurt someone more? The angry guy who just flails away at someone? Or the angry guy who knows exactly where to hit them to hurt them the most? In my opinion, thinking Brutes all have to be like the Hulk and Juggernaut is a mistake. The Fury mechanic can also represent someone who gets "in the zone" in combat, or someone who gets more powerful the more you beat on them. As an example of the latter: The Netflix version of Iron Fist is absolutely a Martial Arts/Willpower brute.

I did exactly the same thing. My reasoning was that I needed something that could actually hold agro a little bit because my wife's main is a blaster.

Trying to be stealthy by hiding in shadows in broad daylight is dumb. Even the deepest shade in the daytime is going to make a guy in a bright red costume pretty freaking obvious. As I said before, Daredevil's stealth comes more from being very quiet and coming at people from unexpected angles. I can see just fine and I can almost always tell when someone is behind me by the little noises they make as they move that you don't consciously register. If Daredevil can avoid making those noises he's ahead of the game as far as stealth is concerned. He also almost always attacks from above or behind. It doesn't matter how visible you are if no one is looking in your direction. Daredevil wasn't born blind. He may not have the best memory of what red looks like, but he certainly remembers that it is a bright color. Since the costumes he is most often associated with are bright red and bright yellow and red it is fairly obvious (at least to me) that stealthily hiding in shadows was never part of his M.O.

You do know you don't HAVE to use your finisher, right? Staff and Street Justice's combo system isn't like Dual Blades where you have to use powers in a certain order. Every power in Staff builds stacks of Mastery and as long as you keep attacking and don't use a finisher those stacks will never go away. Don't fall into the shiny orange circle trap. I've dabbled in Staff enough to know more or less how it works, but I wouldn't call myself an expert. You can leverage the Forms to give you bonuses to end reduction, recharge, or damage without ever using a finisher to consume the stacks.

For Claws, take everything but Strike (Swipe is better damage for the animation time). For Energy Aura....you pretty much want everything. The tier 9 is of debatable use, but it's not a bad pick. Claws is unique in that it (along with Spines) can slot all of the offensive Winter sets for set bonuses. Or purple sets if you would rather have those. If you slot enough set bonuses to softcap Negative Energy defense you'll end up with nearly 60% Energy defense. Energy Aura is really easy to softcap and you can get the important types there before level 30.

I feel like you'd be better off using a set that doesn't really care about resistance caps for a Scrapper. Invuln seems like it would be better on a Tanker or Brute. Dual Blades and WIllpower synergize very well. Might have something to do with the fact that they were released at the same time and thus playtested together quite a bit.

Not based on just being blind. Based on the fact that he has been described as having zero light perception. He can tell whether he is standing in direct sunlight or shade based on the temperature. Hell I can do that without relying on my eyes. He can tell whether the lights are on in a given room based on the hum they give off and maybe ambient heat. Neither of those things means he knows whether he is in shadows or not. Standing in shade on a sunny day isn't very stealthy, and the lights being off in a room doesn't necessarily mean it is pitch black.

His stealth has to do with the fact that he is very quiet, and he banks on the fact that people very rarely look up. That much he could tell just by simple observation, because he can certainly tell what direction someone is facing and/or looking. Ever notice that his sneak attacks are always from behind or above? All that is why I really appreciated the Netflix series version of him. It's a much more realistic depiction of someone with enhanced senses but no vision and how they would fight. He still takes hits because his senses aren't perfect and can be fooled occasionally. Imagine how much information he has to sort through in any given fight, especially against multiple opponents. Comics Daredevil is a Martial Arts/Super Reflexes Scrapper. Netflix series Daredevil is a Street Justice/Willpower Scrapper.

Daredevil is 100% a Scrapper. Him using shadows to hide in is one of the dumbest things I've seen (not from you guys, from the comics). He is blind with ZERO light perception. How can you use a shadow to conceal yourself when you have no idea where the shadows are? He could have a floodlight pointed right at him and never know it if it was far enough away to not detect the heat. He fights mostly at night because he doesn't rely on sight and nighttime is generally darker, but he doesn't (or shouldn't) know exactly how well lit any given location is.

This is also a good point. Claws was buffed back on live to be a more competitive choice with all the new sets being released. It's damage values look nothing like their original state. Slash used to have the same animation as Impaler, and Spin was worse than Whirling Hands.

Actually don't see a problem with that. They aren't trivial badges to get, and it would be a nice bonus for actually grinding it all out.

No thanks. I REALLY don't want to get ganked every time I go to Echo:Galaxy to read the damn plaque for Atlas Medallion. That's the difference between the badges in already existing PvP zones and this suggestion. The Echoes have badges that are required for certain accolades. I really don't want to have to deal with PvPers when all I want to do is get my damn accolade. I know where the PvP zones are when I'm in the mood for it. When I'm going after those accolades it's a safe bet I'm not in the mood for it right then. And you know as well as I do that if the Echoes were made into free-for-all zones it would become a favorite pastime of PvPers to make life hell for anyone who just wants to read the plaque and leave. Stalkers camped out near the plaque waiting to AS anyone who tries to get close enough to click on it? Hard pass.

My blaster is a mutant teleporter who uses guns and Martial Arts. I headcanoned his Incarnate progression to simply be the well boosting his already existing abilities, instead of giving him new ones. With Vorpal Judgement basically being a rapid teleport attack using the same kick animation Martial Combat's Storm Kick already had, it's a no-brainer. Unfortunately, he's the only character I have whose Incarnate power choices were that easy to make. A lot of the time I have to really reach for something that makes some kind of sense.

One thing that was completely overlooked: Yes, Shockwave's damage is lower than other tier 9s, but it is also a guaranteed KB/KD. The amount of soft mitigation in that one power is invaluable for secondaries that need the occasional bit of breathing room. And it's also a ranged attack in a melee set. Claws and Spines are the only sets I can think of that can slot all 4 of the offensive purple sets without going outside the set for a pool power. Maybe Kinetic, but I don't know that set very well.

Stop talking about me, it's rude. On topic, yes, buff Claws. It is terribly underperforming and I don't understand why anyone would ever play such a gimped set <.< >.> *I think they bought it*

It really needs a regenerating absorb shield like the Sentinel version got. My main was Claws/Regen on live for 7 years. He was tough, but I've built things now that survive things that would have left him a grease spot. I do have a build planned for one that hits perma-Hasten and softcaps S/L. Wondering how beefy he'll be (not done yet)

My StJ/Bio scrapper does pretty well in most things. But I haven't attempted a max diff MoITF solo run. Bill, you know you're insane, right?