JusticeBowler

Wow, I've never had a character come together so early in the game and feel like a complete and useful member of any team they join. Because of Devices, especially the Targeting Drone and Field Operative I've got a complete attack chain and solid damage dealing in every setting (between instasnipe and endurance recovery with a bit of stealth for aggro management). Heck, smoke grenade is surprisingly useful in keeping adds away from the team getting their business done. Man, I love being useful. I mean, it is good enough that I'm sure if Statesman were here he'd want to nerf it. There's no point in adding recharges to my attacks since I'm only ever waiting to fire because I'm waiting for an attack animation to finish. I don't need endurance reductions either owing to a combination of workable firing pace with FO's boost. And as long as I'm not fighting +3s (in which case I'm in a team and getting buffs from elsewhere) I don't even need to slot for accuracy (I have three SOs in TG). All of this at the tender level of 22. I mean, I know no one talks about builds that aren't lvl 50 and full of purple sets, and you all have your Pine-codeblocks to share the awesomeness. That's fine a good. But I have a great character to play and enjoy "getting there" rather than getting there and working backwards. Sure the nuke will be fun and collecting sets will be fun too. And I'm not ragging on anyone for how they like to play. I'm just celebrating that I can play my way and have fun too. The truth is, it was a blast (pun intended) as soon as to hit buffs rolled in from teammates about lvl 12 and snipe became a part of the chain. It really was a game changing experience for me. And FO and Recall friend are available even when you run Positron's TF so I'm stocked, loaded, and ready to be the guy who gets the missions done quick if that's what people want.

The first thing I do on every girl toon I've ever made is boobs-small, waist-large, legs-shorten a little, then I decide what she's actually going to look like. Oddly enough I usually find the heads on all the models male and female (unless you make the body very small-thin) are much too small in terms of classic proportions. I suspect they did that to compensate for the look of helmets and such. Anyway this isn't some sort of modesty or commentary on girl bodies in society thing, it is a that doesn't even look aesthetically balanced, EVEN for comic characters. It's like the existing "middle" is already at the extreme end. If you put on any torso decoration, the poor girl can't even execute her powers without clipping her own costume. But then this is a very old topic and has always been a thing in this game or any other that let you fiddle with your character's particulars (Elder Scrolls Online has the same problem and they add to that huge feet for some reason... I think one of their design people must have been a foot fetishist).

I love the Hollows, but it seems hard to keep folks there once they do Frostfire... but it really is good to go on to do the whole arc, then you get the cool Trial at the end.. apparently not very popular though.

I remember logging into CoH once and there was some sort of mistake, they loaded a "restored" King's Row... all cleaned up and fancy looking. It was pretty cool to see the sort of alt-universe of it.

Bosses aren't specifically selectable unless the word Boss is in their name.

You you mind sharing your files? It would make a great place to start trying to build a single command depending on the limit.

The bind will be stored with the rest of my binds in a text file for ease of loading and management. I use GABB as a basis for my own additions and tweaks.

And anyone who doesn't have -REG should grab it, just in case they need it. It makes a difference on AVs and on weird stuff like Nemesis when they max Vengence out.

I suspect that DFB insanity will smooth out over the next couple of months once folks have a staple of mid-to-high range toons they can play as they like and aren't obsessed with getting out of King's Row. I could be wrong, but at least it won't be channel flooding levels of crazy. A better approach would be fixing the LFG widget so they don't need to advertise in the channel in the first place.

I'm working on a bind I found for targeting really annoying things. Since I'm running a Warshade lately its easy to fixate on Quants etc, but there's plenty of room in the bind for other things: Sappers, Master Illusionists, etc... I'd love some input on what you all think ought to be in the list. There's an upper character limit (and also at some point this gets silly). But I thought I'd throw it on the board and see what people thought. /bind ALT+TAB "targetcustomnext sorc$$targetcustomnext quant$$targetcustomnext void$$targetcustomnext dwarf$$targetcustomnext nova$$targetcustomnext cryst$$targetcustomnext sapp$$targetcustomnext master" Some bind expert will have to chime in, but I assume this bind runs forward. So I assume the "most bad" would come at the end and not at the beginning of the bind. As a side note sometime this bind (below) is supposed to work for finding clickies but doesn't when I tried it, any ideas why? /bind CTRL+TAB "targetcustomnext base"

Well, I remember the posts by Statesman. It wasn't about making powers better without needing to overslot them or rebalancing the game. He and the other devs explicitly said it (like the Purple Patch, Taunt and AoE target limits) was to change the way people were playing the game. That's a punishment to people who wanted to play the game that way. Then, long after the fact (and after Statesman left) the DEVs retconned the change as a necessary step, not to fix gameplay at the time, but to prepare for the Inventions system that would let hardcore players get OP in a different way. You can claim the word punishment is over the top, but it was "you guys were naughty so we are changing the rules so you can't break them in ways we don't want you to."

I think I'll post one more time about this and then I'm done. Redlynne is, of course, right again (stop being so darned correct all the time). ED was a punishment. It wasn't about balance or uber characters or make way for Inventions. It was a part of a series of major overhauls to the engine to stop people playing in certain ways. Some of those changes (Purple Patch) were reasonably well received, changes like Taunt and AoE limits were debated, and ED was a trainwreck. Now it doesn't really matter in the end because everyone assumes you'll be playing your main for months-years to get it to crazy purple set IO and Incarnate unlimited awesome anyway, which is fine, but the current devs can still go back and unbork powers that are explicitly game balanced around crazy expensive global recharge rates that aren't otherwise necessary for a specific AT/build. My Grav/Storm Controller doesn't need any recharge at all (how fast do I need to litter a room with forklifts anyway), but my Traps/Duel Pistols defender, yeah, I'm going to have to save up all my dough because without some serious global recharge (and IO set defense bonuses) even high end play will be gimped, especially against big bads in long fights since none of my powers are going to up more than half the time. It is fun to play Traps, but if PUGs weren't generally generous and not all that picky about my actual contribution to most of the fights, I'd never get invited to a team because I'm far less effective (even now that I'm carefully slotted with SOs at 22) than almost anyone else on the team who hasn't wrecked their build because they don't know what they are doing.

I have a grav controller and because my secondary storm has so much going on, I really only use GD > Propel with lots of RCHG as my attack chain. In other words, I throw a lot of crap at mobs. I've never had anyone complain. Blue Caves have always been at once cool and annoying for a thousand reasons not related to a forklift (or three) in the middle of the path.

It is good to see the community coming together again! Costume contest. I'm there.

The SG I was in in the old days always ran with colors. In fact, we asked people to dedicate a costume slot and adopt as much of the uniform as wouldn't mess with their main design/concept. It worked out very well and I'd love to see more of that in the game. Especially when we were doing TFs and Trials... it felt... supergroupy.

I was originally going to ask this question, but I decided instead to investigate it myself and then report in instead. I'm not an expert in these things, but offer intel that other people could correct seemed more constructive than just asking the question: Should anyone ever take a pool power attack? And if so, which one(s)? My answer is currently no, but with a caveat. This is a simple sheet comparing Energy Blaster basic attack numbers with Pool Power Attacks. Then three different Controller basic attacks with a representative list of Pool Power Attacks at Controller damage levels. The base damage per click doesn't matter much, though it doesn't really change anything to look at it. Over time or endurance, pool powers are crippled. These base power set attacks are lowest possible competitors for a power selection and enhancement slots. There's just zero reason to ever take a pool power. If they were 85% of the pool powers, maybe, but 65%? For a Controller, someone might argue they get a bit of and END improvement and Recovery being a per-second thing and the longer animations on some of the power pool attacks might mean that you are better off clicking a pool power if your endurance is crashing. But you'll lose both DPS (aka the mob will still take longer to die) and you lose the secondary effects of your control attacks. That argument also fails to account for Controller's base powers having improved ACC as well (90% compared to 75%) which again, devistates the pool power DPS numbers further if put into the equation. CAVEAT I like to think everything is in the game for a reason and by that logic I used to be fond of Flight/Air Superiority. I figured it did enough damage that along with the knockdown it was worth it. Well, if you find the animation entertaining, or if you are a "always flying" squishy that's trying to keep mobs out of the sky during battle to avoid melee attacks I suppose I might still endorse it. But there are other ways to get a mob out of the sky. I didn't put up melee characters numbers, but they don't really change anything. If you were a melee character that took a powerset with insanely long animation times (I had an Ice/Axe Tank all the way to end game who knows the suffering this causes at low levels) maybe Boxing... maybe just to have a button to click to make you feel better, not because the mob will fall any faster and then only at low levels. And don't forget you'll have to redraw your weapon! I'm not suggesting that Pool Powers should be as good as primaries, but if they aren't really close to the lowest end of the primary no one should ever take them (certainly not slot them). The only thing I didn't explore is whether some of these powers are useful for slotting IOs for global benefit. That's way outside my wheelhouse. Temporary/Vendor Powers I don't have the numbers for the Temp Powers. So I have no idea how they stack up, but apart from melee characters pulling with Nemesis Staff or Black Wand... or the very narrow case of fighting undead with the Axe (and allowing for redraw)... I suspect a deep dive into the numbers won't reveal a diamond in the rough. In fact, I'm convinced that Sands of Mu is more of a honey trap than an actual attack power given how long the animation is and its high END cost. The only advantage Temps really have is that you don't have to purchase them or slot them. I remember being told they "slot themselves" as you go up in levels ... or something like that back in the day. Still, even if they are free, if you have a complete attack chain then clicking on one of these is always a set down and backwards. Yeah, I use them... until about lvl 12. Final Note about Sorcery What gives? This pool is better than Flying in every way accept Group Fly (which in my entire game play in the old days someone tried once in Shadow Shard and after a couple of people fell to their death we never tried again). Yeah, you lose Hover if you want to make a Hover Tank and Arcane Bolt, while still useless as a pool power (gives melee folks a gun) is way better than the other pool powers. Let's combine what players really like about TP and Flight, give them the best pool power attack in the game AND a buff and a damage effect and a Mes protection/inspiration ... it feels like a pool power that a frustrated player put together based on a wishlist.

Essentially PG13 and above content doesn't violate the rules. I hope folks avoid it but tops-with-skin have been around since the beginning of the game and we can't exactly freakout about swimwear. But I did see a guy on the other night that I'll admit really twisted my limits. He had the Water blast powerset color tinted bright white, ran around in tighty whiteys, and called himself Splooge. I mean, its tasteless and offensive, but if there's only a handful of people doing that and that's how they enjoy the game, I'd rather stay away from pushing for any official ruling on these things. If CoH becomes toxic with pornstar names and other vulgarity in the global channels that's a bridge the community as a whole can cross when we get to it.

I try to be this way, but I can't help wanting to be "super" now and then on a particular alt. Also I'm not above taking a powerset and using custom colors to "imagine" that it is a completely different concept. I have a SM/Rad Brute that conceptually is harnessing the power of the sun-god not "nuke type radiation". That's fun too. I will make one caveat though. There are power sets that I would love to play but just can't stand how nerfed they feel in actual play (especially solo). Ice and Mace Melee are like that (yes, I know they have mitigation, but wow they feel s-l-o-w outside of a big team with plenty of DPS). There are a few others.

Freezing Rain is underappreciated. All anyone thinks about Storm is all the crazy knockback (which I'll admit in the hands of an unexperienced player is a recipe for chaos, but isn't without its utility in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing).

I love knockback as much as the next guy (assuming the next guy isn't you), but there's a caveat even to this. If a knockback (or hold) effect transpires while the mob's powers are recharging then there is zero damage mitigation. To the extent that the attack chain of a given mob is even momentarily delayed (they had a ready attack and have to wait a couple of seconds to execute it) then we have damage mitigation. In practice, I'd put the mitigation far lower than one would find desirable. This is especially noticeable when one is soloing a controller and fighting a Boss or LT and one's health is already impaired. The hold often feels like it isn't helping and my argument might be that it wasn't all that much. If all you do is give the Boss time to wind up their really big attack and wallop you, the experience (regardless of the math) will be less than optimal. :)

Sentinels feel like the solution to my "I would really enjoy soloing with a non-melee toon and still have status protection" problem. Really, that's what I'm there for. Sure Blasters can enjoy some heavy hitting melees in their secondaries, but all the damage they need is in a proper attack chain from their primaries anyway (past lvl 10 anyway). So yeah, you do a little less damage than a blaster and have a little less variety in your tray to chose from, but you get status protection and some survivability baked in. Slower, safer, but still useful. I had an El/El blaster that due to his PBAoE awesomeness was always face planting in team play. An El/El Sentinel wouldn't have that problem. I fundamentally don't understand their feature power and never use it properly. But that's on me to learn, I suppose.

Knockback is fantastic, when used properly. There's all sorts of great uses for it, just not all the time in every environment. We have way more powers than we can use by lvl 40 (and we keep getting more). A couple of situational powers with something useful like tricked out knockback and be just the thing in a pinch. Oh, and knockback is FUN!

Also there's the question of -RCHG which seems to function mathematically like RES, but it much more effective because it pulls off the attempts to hit rather than only reducing the damage of the remaining hits. If a power has a -10% tohitdebuff or a -10% defense (assuming +0 minion) and so we only get hit 30% rather than 50% of the time. So, as I mentioned -10% RES would only be a -6% actual reduction (since it is resisting a smaller amount), but a -10% RCHG would "come off the top" as it were reducing the total damage more effectively regardless of how close you get to the DEF soft cap. I'm still curious about the actual underlying equations for how the system computes damage. Somewhere everytime a mob tries to hit me (or me hit him) there's a series of basic calculations with all the variables in their place (including boss bonuses or mob +4 bonuses, etc).

I take this to mean, I should twink or go home, but I don't think you mean that. I think you mean I asked the wrong question. That point isn't without merit. My response ADMITTED that there is ambiguity in the question itself. Hardest hitting means something different to someone with 1 billion influence than it does to someone who got to lvl 50 competently slotted. While I get your point about my question being "high end" my thought was still about the powerset itself, not the twinked out IO sets that are available that modify (exaggerate) some quirk of the math in the set out of all proportion. You see, if the slots are more significant than the powers, then the real question is "what crazy IOs do you need to hit ridiculously hard." Because the IOs, in the end, will play a greater multiplicative roll in the end than the set itself does. I didn't mean to cause offense, I didn't even think that was possible. But I see why my additional commentary afterwards could be poorly received. There is an argument for the IO building being more important than the powerset anyway. I can see a legitimate game design choice saying, "broadsword well slotted should be able to cripple DM less-well slotted"... after all the time and effort to learn the game and earn the influence to buy the IOs and develop one's toon is a significant investment.

My brain says, if I have a defense buff of 10% and a tohitdebuff on the baddies of 10% that puts my total defense at 70% (given you start at 50% chance to hit). That seems like a a 40% reduction in damage. if I add to that 10% res then I'm reducing damage 46% since I'm reducing 10% of the remaining 60% I'm still taking. But I'm not sure that's how tohitdebuff works. Obviously with a higher base ACC for LTs and bosses (or +x minions)... the effect is less useful than that, but I thought I'd ask the question for folks who might have worked this out. I remember somewhere there was a right up as to exactly when each aspect of damage reduction over all was applied to the equation, but I don't remember where.