Adeon Hawkwood

Homecoming is the collective name, the servers have different names. Reunion is located in the EU, the others are in Canada. The version of the game isn't identical to live, it's had some new content made plus economy changes. When you zone into Atlas (or another starting zone) check your map for a "P2W Vendor" you can talk to them to get the various Veteran Rewards powers that you probably had on live. You also have the option to increase your XP rate at the cost of reducing the rate you gain inf. Wentworths and the IO economy have been radically changed. The key parts: 1. Enhancement converters are super cheap so most enhancements are gotten by crafting cheap enhancements and converting them into good ones. 2. Most things are bucketed meaning that all salvage of a given rarity draws from a common pool. Plus for a given IO all levels and the attuned version of the IO all draw from a single pool. So the attuned cost of an IO is the same as the non-attuned cost. This makes low level sets much more accessible and slotting attuned IOs is nice for leveling.

From what I recall PI was the best place. AE doesn't count for defeat badges so that's not an option. But yeah that badge sucks.

There's a relatively easy workaround you can use. First close Tequila (if you've got it open). Second go to the folder where you installed City of Heroes, find the "homecoming" folder and copy the contents of that folder to "beta-hc" (if you haven't started the download you'll have to create this folder). When you reopen Tequila it will still download the Beta but it will do so much faster (since you've already copied over 90% of the files).

So having it not work during Synapse is WAI but having it not work the rest of the time does sound like a bug. Basic troubleshooting: confirm you aren't sidekicked or exemplared, log out and log back in. Is it still not working?

I tried this - copied the "homecoming" folder and renamed it to "beta-hc". Sadly, the update goes to a folder called "hc-beta". No ill will here - just was hoping for the shortcut... It still works, quit Tequila, copy the files to "hc-beta" and reopen tequila.

yes, but its junk damage I dont really mind it leaving /dev, things like fire/dev beam/dev were crazy strong but Ar/Dev? Its fun atm but its the bottom of the heap in terms of the classes function. I like Ar/Dev, it's a fun combo with lots of AoE damage.

You can take Tactics but it's generally overkill for /Time. Farsight + Supremacy gives your bots +21.7% To Hit. That's enough that even your Battle Bots should be able to hit reliably assuming you slot them for accuracy. Since Battle Bots only need Damage and Accuracy it's pretty easy to get them ED capped on accuracy, especially at level 50 (you can use either HOs or +5 some Acc/Dam IOs to ED cap both stats in 3 slots). And that's before you factor in Defense Debuffs from Slowed Response. So yeah, I'd skip Tactics on a Bots/Time. Now you can also skip Assault if you want but personally I like it since Vengeance is useful as a LotG mule.

I'm a little sad since this seems to be taking away the thing that made Devices special. Does Targeting Drone still cause Sniper Rifle to do bonus damage?

That's one of the things I love about CoH. Two completely different playstyles and neither of them are wrong. I'm an AoE whore, I just love arresting large groups of baddies at once.

So with the classic fixed percentage procs they would generally have a chance to proc every 10 seconds in toggle and pseudopet powers. However with the shift to PPM I think they changed it back to have a chance to proc on every tick of damage (since the proc chance scales down based on the frequency of the ticks).

Full Auto comes into its own with the Energy Manipulation secondary, where Boost Range gives you the ability to stand off far enough that the cone spreads to a useful width. I find it's relatively easy to hit the target cap for Full Auto even at the default range. That being said I do like slotting some range into Buckshot and Flamethrower to give them a longer range. If you add a generic range IO and an Alpha Slot ability with range you can get them up to almost 60ft.

Well the Defender version of Frostwork has a base value of 535 Max HP. So maybe split it so that it has a base value of +200 MaxHP and +300 Absorb (scaled down as appropriate for other ATs)? I still think a pure absorb shield is more interesting but I can see your point and this would work as a decent compromise.

Yes, and that's the point. It's a very large single-use shield which you can use every 30 seconds (with recharge slotting). If no one is taking damage then you can put just in case shields around multiple characters, but if one person is taking damage then you can keep refreshing their shield. So you can still use it the old way if you want and just put it on a rotating set of characters and it will still work basically the same (in fact better since you will get the full benefit of the power rather than bouncing off Max HP caps) but you also have the option to use it as a reactive pseudo-heal when that's needed.

Except that's not what I'm proposing. I'm proposing that it remain as a 120second duration buff. So basically it puts a large absorb shield on the character that lasts for 2 minutes if they don't take any damage. Right now the recharge is 60 seconds so you can theoretically have it out on four or five people at once. Changing it to an absorb doesn't change that but adds a new dynamic since when it recharges you can decide if you want to put it on a person who doesn't have a shield or refresh the shield of someone who does. Essentially it would still function the same in that it adds additional HP to a character but differ in two key ways. First those HPs would ignore Max HP limits and secondly those HP would not be heal-able. The thing with absorb is that when a power gives an absorb shield it actually does two things. First it increases the targets Max Absorb for a duration and secondly it increases their current absorb by the same amount. So this would give a 120second max-absorb buff (which wouldn't stack from the same caster) and give current absorb (which could). This would allow the Cold Dominator to give a character an absorb shield and then when the power recharges it could either be used to give a shield to a second character or refill the shield on the first character.

It depends on the sale price of the enhancement. Unslotters are generally going for 150K-200K so the enhancement would have to be worth more than that for it to be worth unslotting. So in general generic enhancements (whether IOs, SOs or DOs) I just overwrite, the cost isn't really worth it. For IOs or HOs then the value is high enough that I'll unslot it to either sell or save for later.

I probably should have addressed this in my original post. My feeling is that it skirts close to the edge of the cottage rule but doesn't fundamentally violate the intent of the rule. First Enhancements are unchanged, if you have it slotted for healing and recharge then it will still benefit from those enhancements. Secondly the mission statement of the power is still "if you use this on a character they will require more hits to kill". The main advantage of this change is that it gains a new use which is that it can be used to save an ally who is near death (which the current version of Frostwork cannot). So while this is skirting close to the cottage rule I don't feel that it violates it. An alternative change would be to make it more like Dull Pain and give it both Max HP and Healing but I feel like an absorb shield is more thematic.

There's also Bane Spiders which are kind of like a ranged/melee hybrid Stalker.

So Frostwork from Cold Domination is an odd power. The idea is kind of cool, it's a Dull Pain that you cast on an ally. The problem is the implementation is kind of spotty for a few reasons. First Max HP buffs aren't that useful the combination of accolade powers and armor sets that increase Max HP means that Frostwork doesn't really take full effect since it tends to buff them above the cap (in fact for Blasters it can actually do this unenhanced). Secondly since it lacks the heal that Dull Pain powers have meaning that it's useless as a response power. Right now it's a "nice to have" you take it as a spare power but don't bother to slot it beyond the default slot. So what about turning it into an absorb power? Absorb didn't exist when Cold Domination was first made but I feel like if it had that would have been a logical fit for Frostwork since it's supposed to be a temporary ice shield around a character. You'd probably need to reduce the numbers a bit since allowing Defenders to give some 1000 HP worth of absorb (535 base plus enhancements) might be a bit to much but even if you halved the size of the shield I feel like it would be a more useful power than the current version. EDIT: I added my thoughts regarding the cottage rule a few posts down. EDIT2: Actually the more I think about it the more I like the idea of keeping the absorb shield at the same strength as the current Max HP buff. I might feel different if it was a team buff or a shorter recharge but given it has a base recharge of 60 seconds I like the idea of it giving a huge shield.

This is already doable. When you're in the select enhancement interface pressing the + key will allow you to add enhancement boosters up to +5.

So I figured I should add on a bit about Incarnate abilities. Alpha slot: I'm going to go with Intuition Radial. Now I know what you're thinking, why on earth would I want an alpha slot ability that primarily buffs Holds when I don't have any? Well I don't actually care about the primary enhancements, I'm looking at the secondary and tertiary enhancements. Intuition combines two enhancements I want: Range and Damage. Back on live my AR/Dev used Cardiac since I needed the help with Endurance and I found that the extra range helped a lot with Buckshot and Flamethrower. Now the Field Operative changes mean I don't really need the Endurance help but I still kind of want the range bonus and Intuition lets me combine Range and more Damage. It also has both To Hit Debuffs and Slows which are nice to have to have for Devices. Judgement: I'll go with Pyronic. I tend to pick this one based on what fits well theme wise and I think it comes down to Pyronic or Ion as the more thematic options here. I prefer pyronic since I can theme that as a high explosive grenade which fits better thematically than a lightning gun. Interface: Honestly the various DoTs are my go to here since the debuffs aren't great. Reactive and Preemptive both work well thematically for having bullets loaded with either phosphorus or a small EMP generator. I'm leaning towards Reactive since the secondary debuff is slightly more useful. Destiny: I like Rebirth here. There's an argument for Barrie or Clarion but I like having Rebirth for the emergency heal. Plus the long duration regen buff stacks well with Field Operative. Lore: This is another thematic choice so I'll go with Robotic Drones since they fit well with my character. Hybrid: I'm honestly not sure here. Assault is the obvious DPS choice. Control Radial is potentially useful for soloing. Support is a bit meh, in theory the stacking buffs are good but in practice large teams/leagues tend to toss out so many buffs that I'm not sure how much extra value it really adds.

I'm glad you like it. Personally I tried a Beam Rifle/Devices blaster back when it first went live and couldn't stand it. Part of the problem for me is that my main blaster was (and is) an Assault Rifle/Devices and I hated the lack of AoE that BR has compared to AR.

Personally I'm fine with this. The invention system has a lot of "meh" enhancements that no one ever used anyway. Converters make those recipes more valuable as drops while bringing down the cost of the actual desirable recipes. So overall this does two things, first it makes drops more predictable, you're less likely to get a lottery ticket drop but more likely to get a profitable drop. Second it makes good builds more affordable, popular IOs like LotGs and Obliterations are a lot more affordable than they would be under the old system. Personally I like the economy here, I think IO build are a lot more affordable so more people can have them. I had plenty of characters on live with top tier IO'd build but then I also had something like 25billion inf in the bank so I could afford it. Here everyone can have those sorts of builds if they want them with relatively little effort so I'm all for it.

Mace Mastery has three advantages over Chill Mastery: 1. The Tier 1 powers in Chill Mastery (Ice Blast and Flash Freeze) aren't very good while Mace Mastery lets you take the S/L shield with no prerequisites. 2. Mace Mastery also has Web Envelope and Power Boost and one or both of those are useful for a decent number of masterminds. The other Chill Mastery powers (Hoarfrost and Hibernate) aren't awful but they also aren't super great for MMs either. 3. Frozen Armor has really ugly graphics while Scorpion Shield doesn't have much graphical impact.

You can also buy a Resuscitator temp power from the P2W vendor, it lets you stack up to 100 charges. I tend to get that rather than taking the medicine pool.

Honestly the best option is to just buy it at the auction house.