LiquidBandage

This pool is intended to help a Super operate in the City. Tools of the Trade T1 - Marker Smoke: (Ranged Location AoE) It drops a little canister that emits a fountain/column of smoke (or a light/laser) to mark a position. If you have ever wanted to tell a team "I am going to pull to here", this is the power for you. This is truely a utility power, so the recharge should be Fast. T2 - Put on the Bracelets: (Melee) High Magnitude Slow with -Fly, -Jump -Teleport that gets applied to both you and your target. It should also apply -DEF (Melee) to both you and your target, but can be enhanced to skew the debuff (defense debuff to negatively impact your target or defense buff to reduce the impact on yourself). The recharge should be somewhere in the Slow to Long range. T3 - Mental Focus: Toggle - Provides a small unenhanceable +Recharge. Provide some Terrorize Protection (mag 4). Predominantly, this power needs to shut down -perception powers, so provide +75% resistance to Perception. T4 - Identify Friend or Foe: Toggle - Provides a small unenhanceable +ACC and +ToHit. Provide Confuse Protection (mag 4) and some Confuse resistance (-30%). T5 - Mimic: Ranged - PBAoE Placate (+300%) that lasts 60 sec at a radius of 80ft. It also changes your appearance to look like whatever enemy you had targeted when you fired the power. The recharge should be in the Long to Very Long range. I envision Put on The Bracelets to thematically be like Marv tangling with Kevin in Sin City. You're not going anywhere now, we're gonna tangle until one of us goes down. Perception tends to be an all or nothing effect that you cannot notice degrading. The lights are on or they are completely off. I hate that aspect of the mechanic. Also, progressing from group to group when clearing an instance it can become really annoying (as a tank) to get confused by a Succubus and not be able to do anything except eat a Break Free. Mimic can be explained as holographics or magic. The big thing is you look like your target, and you have a Placate aura that lasts for a while. This allows you to 'stealth' an area without actually stealthing (or being invisible). The magnitude needs to be strong enough that it fools Bosses but not Elite Bosses or AVs. In roleplay terms you are infiltrating a stronghold with a disguise that won't fool the upper echelons (or snipers that can see you at longer ranges).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Heroes PvP didn't exist in the game for almost a year. A huge portion of the player base only ever experienced the CoX game as a blue. You had to buy the expansion to be able to play a villain. There were a good number of nerfs to powers in the name of pvp balance in that same timeframe. The fact that you could play as a blue or a red and still never experience pvp because you had to essentially opt-in by participating in Arena or step into specially designated zones to pvp. That looks a lot like pvp being shoehorned into a game. If PvP was integrated into the game design from the very beginning, proper implementation would have done a couple things. (1) Provide some in game lore/hints for discoverability so the transition isn't a hard switch that gets thrown where one day there is nothing then the next there is this whole other world. (2) Heroes can't operate as heroes in villain zones, Villains can't operate as villains in hero zones. For a long time you were a villain or a hero, no switching. Your sphere of influence only touches half of the game world at any one time (that seems like a bad design). If you fracture your player base like that, it makes teaming up that much harder. Think about how difficult it can be to put together a full Strike Force team. (3) In their own mind, people tend to want to be the hero and "heroes" are the blues (determined by the system). Supers can have disagreements from time to time (and maybe fight it out in the Arena), but if you want to duke it out with another player they have to be a villain (something that had was determined at character creation) otherwise there is no course of action to be taken. Anecdotally, look at the design maturity of the CoV zones and mission arcs compared to the original vanilla CoH zones & missions. The CoV counterparts are higher in quality, meaning they weren't designed in tandem. Also, look at how co-op content was introduced to the game. They made it easier for both factions to participate cooperatively to achieve a common goal. That does not sound very pvp-centric. The closest it comes is if you see an AT do something cool and it inspired you to make a villain. I'm curious to hear how you can back up the standpoint that pvp was a core design element of the game from the beginning.

My suggestion is to not try to further tweak CoX into some grand melee pvp game. Shoehorning pvp into a pve game didn't work and will continue to not work. If you want a better pvp system in a supers game, wait for a better game to come along that factors in pvp from the start.

City of Heroes was built as a superhero game and unfortunately not as a supers game. And by that I mean the superheroes have powers that only affect "the bad guys" (unless you get confused). The system determines who gets damaged (the bad guys) and who does not (the good guys). The "villains" in City of Villains are nothing but reskinned heroes that are separated from the "hero" player base. Ask yourself what makes your character concept a hero or a villain. Then ask yourself how others (the world in general & specifically other players) would see/judge your character concept. Some might see you as a hard binary of "hero" or "villain" while others would see you as gray (aka, don't care). A static system would have a real hard time trying to model that interaction (who can I hurt, who can hurt me), so players would be dumped into one of two buckets (hero or villain, aka what CoX does). City of Titans is building a system that accounts for pvp right from the beginning. Take a look at the first two posts in this thread (https://cityoftitans.com/forum/pvp-phase-suggestion-part-2). It allows for a dynamic system that you the player gets to decide by your actions (who you associate with) who is the enemy (aka who I can hurt and who can hurt me). You can act as a splinter faction that spreads wanton destruction as far as the eye sees. You can act as part of a collective do-gooders association that protects the public "for the greater good". You can act as an invading host of aliens bent on dominating the planet. You can act as a group of super human mutants that are trying to save the world. All of these groups could potentially see an ally or foe in each other or maybe see a common foe. This kind of arrangement makes how you use AoE attacks even more important. If on the regular you just AoE everything, damaging foe & potential friend alike it could paint you into a smaller corner (make more enemies). How you behave and who you associate with impacts the gyre of the player base. Long story short, CoX does a good job of providing a superhero experience.

I really do not like not being able to see inside all the Arachnos bases. I get that it should be sorta dark & foreboding but when you just stare into the void that is Arachnos structural design it gets really annoying. I want to be able to SEE what I am doing (it is also why I really hate being Blinded).

In order, I pay attention to: - People that regularly run groups (Hamidon, MSR, Incarnates, etc) - People on my Global List that coincidentally run/join teams on a regular basis - People that speak up in Coalition chat or other designated chat channels - Random people that ask for help with X content - Random people that advertise running content in LFG/Broadcast (either missions, TF/SF, whatever specific thing they want to do) - Random people that just say "lvl 23 Blaster LFG" - Then I acknowledge then immediately dismiss people that ask to door sit on whatever AE farm that may or may not exist or be looking for people. I get what you are saying though. Sometimes you just want a group and you don't have anything specific in mind but you want to be part of a group. Be patient and wait for someone to advertise or become proactive and run a team. Sometimes just running Radio/Paper missions + Bank to unlock more contacts is helpful all on its own (and isn't a large time commitment). Often when you are running a team, it is hard to keep an eye on LFG chat (unless you setup specifically to do so) to catch the people that just say "lvl 23 Blaster LFG". It is much more attractive to join/help when someone advertises "Talos mission team (27) looking for heroes to save the day". Or "I need help with this AV mission" gives a stronger starting point for forming a team. A simple "lvl 23 Blaster LFG" is a little more problematic because there might not be a group out there that is looking for more. There are most definitely plenty of people out there looking to join a team though.

Three things that really helped me were to: - scale back the scope of what I stored & crafted - have my characters stash certain types of salvage in their own personal vaults - dedicate one character to craft everything to get all common recipes memorized This is how I have my enh storage containers allocated: - I keep two containers for level 25 crafted common IOs (Accuracy, Damage, Recharge, Endurance Reduction then the other holds the other various types) - one container for level 35 IOs - two containers for level 50 crafted common IOs (Acc/Dam/End/Rech + others) - one container for Hamidon, Overwhelming Force, purple set IOs - one container for other crafted sets that are useful or provide a global or proc Then the rest of the containers are allocated for salvage storage: - two for rares (roughly no more than 5 of any one type) - two for uncommons (roughly no more than 5 of any one type) - seven (iirc) for commons (no more than 20 of any one type) What this does is bring into focus what types of salvage are of value since you only craft in bulk at 25, 35 & 50. Once you see the pattern emerge you can safely just sell off salvage that you don't ever use. Then for things like yellow/orange/purple recipes you will have some salvage on hand or can easily purchase from the Auction House. You can still hoard salvage on characters in their personal vaults if you want (just more overhead on your part).

Not finished if you don't have all the badges 😛

I feel this would work better. There's a whole zone (Khalisti Wharf) waiting to be populated.

Could you please explain a couple things for me? What is 'Arcanatime'? Does 'TimeHit' mean "time until hit" for things like firing off sound effects (aka back loaded cast time)? Regardless of the answer, I am interested to see this. Many times I am curious to know arc for cones, cast times etc and can't find out until I jump in feet first.

To clarify, I also build characters that lean heavily into control or buffs early on in their careers too and they tend to need to rely on other sources (teammates or time to scrape them down myself) to arrest mobs. Even on those characters I focus on one damage power so I can at least solo when I need/want to. So Arcane Bolt (Sorcery power pool) as a Controller that usually does not naturally have access to damage powers or 1-2 powers from a Defender secondary. Once you get past a certain hump (usually late 20s or early 30s) you'll have some sort of self synergy that will allow you to arrest more efficiently.

@Diantane just a couple quick things to help out. The wiki has a good explanation of how Gauntlet (aka, punchvoke / pokevoke) works. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Inherent_Powers#Gauntlet When I first started playing Homecoming, I focused on one character to level to 50 (a Peacebringer). I also found a group of people that play on a fairly regular schedule (mostly leveling characters via running missions). I focused on just being an effective damage dealer in squid form. That meant I only needed to really pay attention to seven total powers wrt enhancements (Glinting Eye, Bright Nova, Stamina, Bright Nova Bolt, BN Blast, BN Scatter, BN Detonation). I fit into the group as "ranged damage dealer" and that's what I did. I could have swapped it around and focused on White Dwarf form instead (tanking/melee), but the group already had a tank. It is easier to 'neglect' initially crafting a well rounded character and just focus on one aspect (Blasters-> ranged attacks, Scrappers-> melee attacks, Defenders-> defendery things) to make a character functional to sort of bootstrap yourself into something 'more' when the character blossoms at higher levels. It is possible to be the 'complete' vision of your character from the very beginning, but you will encounter problems along the way (some villain groups employ powers that will completely exploit your weaknesses, whatever they are). With that kind of viewpoint (understanding where you are weak), you can try to form a team that can assist where your character is weak and you can compliment them in the same manner. Things that helped along the way: Invention Origin enhancements (https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Enhancements#Invention_Origin_Enhancements) If you visit the University (there is one in Steel Canyon), you'll find a contact that introduces you the crafting system. Step through that mission arc and near the end you get to craft an IO for free (level 25, 20, 15, 10 iirc depending on your current level). You get a free respec every 10 levels. With that in mind, I crafted a few level 25 & 30 IO enhancements as I leveled (accuracy, damage, recharge) and when the time came to upgrade enhancements, instead of just slotting new ones (destroying what is already there), I respec'd. When you respec, all of the enhancements you had slotted become unslotted (and you can drop into the seven tabs of your inventory). So I respec'd and mailed those enhancements to myself or dropped them into SG storage for my other characters to use as they leveled. That way I only had to make the initial expenditure and got to reuse those good enhancements on multiple characters as they leveled. In general, early in a character's career I like to six slot a couple attack powers that I use frequently, then put good enhancements in there. Having a couple powers that you can reliably count on to do damage helps immensely. If you have all of your attacks 2-3 slotted, you will end up slowly wearing down opponents that in turn get to slowly wear you down. That's where the recycled IOs I mentioned above can help out immensely. There is also the option to run the Summer Blockbuster Holiday event (via LFG) to get the Overwhelming Force enhancements. Just like IOs, the Overwhelming Force set is level agnostic, so they are always active. If you get duplicates, you can play roulette with enhancement converters to see if you get the one(s) you need. For defensive things (like armor toggles), I generally only two slot (for endurance reduction) until mid-20s where I can dedicate useful enhancements to actually make it worthwhile AND not run of endurance in the process. One thing that will really help is to take a look at the Combat Attributes window and see which powers would benefit most from slotting first. Usually, if you have a power like Dark Embrace (resistance toggle from Dark Armor set) and Tough (resistance toggle from Fighting power pool) that both impact Smashing & Lethal, it helps to determine where you'll get the most bang for your buck. Then there are powers like Combat Jumping. If you look at the endurance consumption, it is something like 0.06 endurance/sec (which is miniscule compared to other toggles). You technically CAN slot an Endurance Reduction enhancement, but the impact is so incredibly insignificant it would be more impactful to just donate the influence you would have spent to some random person instead. So making smart choices about where you apply slots and what enhancements you do slot can impact your bottom line. One other thing to mention about tanking: As the person who usually engages the enemy first, you will learn which are the problematic mobs and which you can effectively ignore. If some straggler or random minion turns to shoot a teammate, they aren't going to shrivel up and die on the spot. If they somehow got aggro, it is an important lesson for them to learn (clean up your own messes or learn to tame your unending flow of DPS). You can try to hold all of the aggro everywhere always and forever eternal, but you will end up bursting a blood vessel somewhere. Find your own zen tanking timing & flow. Talk to your team about what you intend to do so they can react appropriately (if you need to pull a group around a corner or something). It isn't always just jump into the middle of a pack and tank your brains out. Sometimes there needs to be some nuance to how you do it (given your strengths and the capabilities of the team).

Only if your character concept needs it. If the people you typically play with run Maneuvers or Maneuvers-like powers, consider it, yes. Just for the hell of it? No, why feed another end sucking toggle or two that will have minimal impact. If your playstyle has you soloing a lot, pulling frequently or squatting in melee range, consider it. There are many Defender primaries & secondaries that makes this kind of vague question only really answerable by the person that asks the question.

But how do we know what our alts are doing when we are logged out? They could be running amok, destroying numerous alternate dimensions just for funsies.

Psionic/Willpower Scrapper - I took Strength of Will and I use it when I have to sit in a pool of AoE or if I am the first in on a pack and I don't think I can juggle them with Mass Levitate. DarkArmor/Radiation Tank - I took Soul Transfer and I only use it as a self rez if I get too greedy with not healing myself. It is more of a convenience thing. Fire/Fire Tank - Yep, took Rise of the Phoenix just in case I get bested. Stone/EnergyAura Brute - I took Overload and I use it with some frequency. This character is built more to deal damage than to tank, so Overload helps fill the gap if I have to try to tank tricky mobs. I either don't plan on needing to tank longer than the duration of the power or the odds are so overwhelming that I'd be eating floor regardless. Energy/Regen Sentinel - I took MoG. If I am on point and pulling/tanking then I use it if I have aggro on too many big things after a salvo of attacks. Peacebringer - I took Lightform and I barely ever use it (but I need to qualify that). I invested heavily in Bright Nova & White Dwarf forms, so I back filled with an assortment of click powers to supplement the forms prior to engaging. Like running the chain of Conserve Energy-Essence Boost-Rune of Protection-Haste-Inner Light-Photon Seekers-Bright Nova then go to town. I'll incorporate Light Form into the chain if it looks like it will be rough. I also have Restore Essence incase I die. I also have Unrelenting just in case I die again before Restore Essence recharges. Invincibility/Dark Tank - Unstoppable is the only primary power I didn't take. I played an INV tank back on live (around the time CoV released) and remember needing it from time to time but managing the crash was something that needed to be coordinated with the group. You either had to have a macro that let the team know "I just fired Unstoppable and I am going to need help in X seconds". Or you had to pound the inspirations to bridge the gap. I prefer to have a reliable/consistent performance with my defensive powerset when I am tanking so I know what to expect when I wade in. The people I play with on a regular basis in Homecoming are semi-casual and have a play what you want ethos, so that level of coordinated effort does not always happen. I feel that the maturation of the game (Incarnates, proliferation of powersets & pools, IO sets) has made many of the T9 click powers obsolete. I think what I want to say is that the way I see people playing the game has changed. It is much less oriented around people asking themselves "how do I make a team synergize better" and more about personal output (in terms of damage or ability solo).

The first character I raised to 50 in HC was a Peacebringer that lived exclusively in squid form. The fact that you fly by default makes it so you can angle your shots to limit the annoyance of KB. Also, I fully kitted out (6 slot) all attacks and slotted all available purple sets. I believe I have Sudden Accel KB->KD in the blast and Overwhelming Force in the cone. Beyond that I have not needed anything else and I am not suffering from the missed opportunity of any 6 slot bonuses. I am plenty competitive and do not need any outside help to be a good teammate. I am in the process of leveling an EB Sentinel and I admit I feel a little dirty knocking things around. I am more conscious of it so I Hover to angle a bit better where possible or I wait for an Immobilize or I just use single target on Bosses (usually more resistant to KB) and that solves the problem. If you are just firing whatever AoE you can as fast as you can wherever you can, then yes, you will be knocking mobs out of melee range and potentially pissing people off. I admit, it is an idea. It could help some people. It won't help me or my characters because I have found out how to use my powers to the best of my abilities. I play tanks, I play other melee characters and I get annoyed sometimes by people that constantly AoE KB mobs that I am herding (or they knock stuff out of my Burn patch). Sure they are probably debuffed, but now I am less effective.

Before the Snipe changes last summer, a player needed over 22% ToHit to make Sniper attacks instant. With a Defender you could push Tactics slightly above that threshold so snipes were always instant. That was one reason. If you are looking for a cookie cutter build, then just go ahead and copy someone else's work. Not all primary/secondary sets use endurance in the same way, so Leadership could be a lesser or greater burden. Open up the Combat Attributes dialog and look at how buffs stack in a team. Look at your powers and decide whether it is important to slot END reduction so you can spam and have Leadership powers running, or display some restraint and not spam your END hog powers on that white con minion that some Blaster is just going to brush aside anyways. You have to decide what is important to your effectiveness and how you perceive your worth in a team or solo. If you don't like Leadership, then don't take it.

I have Aid Other, Aid Self & Field Medic on my FF/Psi Defender. Out of all those powers, I get the most mileage out of Aid Other. The boost of Field Medic just doesn't feel significant enough to justify the pick or the activation time. I still use it if it is up before I try to heal myself. And then we come to Aid Self, it is useful if you have enough defense to make it through the activation cycle. I run Dispersion Bubble, Maneuvers & Combat Jumping and it doesn't feel like enough to reliably get a heal off. If I am deep in the muck, trying to heal myself is usually a waste of time. Where it is useful is if I take splash damage and there is no other healer in the group. If I am not the focus target or I can jump out of the fray, I can heal myself just fine. Overall it is a useful power to keep yourself functional as the group chews through things. Do not think that it is a self heal like you would find in a primary pool. Think of it as a Rest where you don't have to kneel down.

I would be happy if the Void Skiff / RocketBoard did NOT turn your toggles off. That is the number one reason why I have purchased one Void Skiff and one only. I only recently (after a year) purchased a Rocket Board on a character that did not have any toggles just to avoid that annoyance.

I prefer that you are invested in the character you are playing. If you are quirky, great. If you role play, great. If you lead a team, lead it. If you are looking to get invited to teams, make sure you play in a manner that benefits the team and recognize when other people make it possible for other players to be successful.

Another Beam Rifle Defender as a duo could be great. You could be the Vegan Police (from Scott Pilgrim), running around zapping all the naughty vegans. Lots of emote / role play possibilities there. Could be lots of fun.

I have not needed AoE damage to feel like I am contributing or to tank mostly effectively (and I don't even have taunt). I will admit that I also was initially disappointed that Fault did not do damage as I too came from the Controller Epic pool version of the world. I thought I was going to stomp the city into submission. The thing is I don't miss having a damage component in Fault because my other attacks feel so good. The single targets do so much damage as a Brute it doesn't matter. Dispatching a full health mob in one hit is way more satisfying than doing 30 damage to everyone around me. If the tanking aspect is a concern, Brutes still benefit from PokeVoke. And if they are flying up in the air or trying to stand up they are effectively mitigated/tanked. Energy Drain does a pretty good job of pissing off nearby foes. If you are truely worried about doing AoE damage, look into making a Dark/Rad Tank. You can have two Damage toggles and a really good PBAoE.

I went with a more controlery twist. The double single target holds makes locking down annoying mobs easy to burn down (Fake Nemesis, Paragon Protector, etc). The Bonfire picks up what the Distortion Field misses. I have my MM up to 47 now and I am pretty happy with it. 1: Pulse Rifle Blast 1: Time Crawl 2: Pulse Rifle Burst 4: Battle Drones 6: Equip Robot 8: Super Speed 10: Temporal Selection 12: Protector Robots 14: Temporal Mending 16: Distortion Field 18: Repair 20: Time Stop 22: Photon Grenade 24: Hasten 26: Assault Bot 28: Farsight 30: Burnout 32: Upgrade Robot 35: Bonfire 38: Chrono Shift 41: Char 44: Slowed Response 47: Maneuvers 49: Tactics

I had not thought to do that, thank you.

Really early on, one thing that can help is to get the first shot off then hide out of Line of Sight while the shot is in flight (or after you knock them down/back). It forces them to come to you and gives you a moment to not take damage while recharging. Otherwise all of the above suggestions work great. But one of the best suggestions is to not play solo. Find yourself some bipedal squishies to meatshield for you. 😛