SteelR4t

Oh.. and I preferred old defiance on blasters. Some very fond memories of just about surviving a wipe and managing to clear agg'd mobs with a huge damage buff due to only having a sliver of health. Seat of your pants, nail biting glass cannon at its very, very best. Is Defiance 2.0 easier to play? Yes. Does it lend itself to that sort of incredibly satisfying, bordering on truly heroic scenario that could come straight out of the pages of your favourite comic? If it does, I've not come across it yet - or at least not in a way that was anywhere near as memorable.

Joined in i6, rolled an en / en blaster called "Powerblast Man", ran through the tutorial and thought, "I'm not really sure I like this". After a number of alts, I settled on a Claws / Regen scrapper who was my first 50. By then I'd joined an SG on Defiant called "Amazon Stars" and I remember having a 50 ding party with them in Pocket D. It'd probably taken about 3 months to get there and it felt like a real achievement. I played fairly solidly right up until shutdown, and stayed up right up until that final Map server disconnect. Fondest memories were the Taxibots in the Hollows and how valuable that was in learning mob group aggro ranges. I remember learning that a "mob" wasn't a group of enemy NPCs, but a single enemy entity and was short for "mobile object". I remember when blasters, controllers and defenders were squishies. I remember when people had to play together as a team, when a blaster with a snipe would attempt to pull mobs to thin the numbers to make things less of a wipe fest. I also remember the incredible way that we stood up for our game and tried to prevent it from being shut down by an enemy that we couldn't defeat. By then, we'd got IOs, AE and the DFB trial, which (at least in my opinion) contributed more to its death than NCSoft ever did. Todays game has lost some of its soul with an LFG channel that seems to be full of nothing but farm and DFB requests. I do also agree with the "8 solo players who are all on the same map" point of view too. That said, I do have a very prolific creative streak and the 2023 game allows me to exercise that in a far, far more complete way than I ever would have been able to in live. I don't just create single characters any more, but groups of them that share a common theme, or in one case the entire journey of a single one across different stages represented by different power combos. Do I miss the old game? Yes. Am I enjoying the changes and the 2023 version? Yes.. but for entirely different reasons.

My post probably would have made more sense if I'd have used the actual names of the powers, instead of "that one with the shortest animation time". Thank you for those suggestions on the attack chain. I quickly logged in to see what order I'd put the powers in on the trays, and I've got them set up in pretty much the order you suggest for your multi target combo - although I don't yet have Arc of Destruction.

Bit of an update after the weekend.. Ice / Ice - Currently at lvl 27.. superb character. EA is nothing short of astounding, (defenses regularly at 60 odd % that you can build up to between groups) and the "mostly mitigation, few active attacks" approach is obviously effective for a pure tank, not to mention the aggro grabbing being an absolute doddle. I also found it surprisingly effective even soloing because of the trickle of DoTs from Icicles and even the ice patch. Definitely exceeded expectations. Lec / TW - At lvl 28. Again.. a pleasant surprise. TW definitely flows better somehow now - although I think that's as much to do with me getting a better handle on how to use it as it is the improvements to the set. For example, pre "Insta Momentum Build Up Power", using the attack with the shortest animation to generate momentum and following up with Defensive Sweep, was a much better way of doing things. Definitely more damage oriented than the Ice / Ice, but Lec still seems pretty sturdy - I think possibly helped by the defensive buffs of TW. The only time when I got in to trouble was when I went in one direction and the rest of the team went in to a different one. Ice / Dark - He's still at level 1 as I was busy with the other two, but he definitely has my favourite name: "Mjol-Noir"

Yeah.. I think the only two that really detract from the full "minimalist but slightly frosty" look are Icicles and the other one that looks a bit like Invulns Unstoppable (not sure if it's wet ice, or the mez / status protection toggle). It's fine though.. mid combat I would be less worried about relatively minor stuff like that

Probably about a year ago I think in terms of getting it much above level 25 or so, although I had another go with a TW scrapper relatively recently (within the last month) and he got shelved before level 10 (yes I know, barely even scratching the surface.. but so many alts and a hyperactive gnat attention span has it's downsides). Maybe a bit more persistence is needed to give it a fair crack of the whip then! Thematically, I'd say TW is right up there as #1 preference, so that'll be alt #4.

All of this is awesome info, thank you! I've already rolled two based on the info / feedback I've already had, so this looks like it's going to be a third. And actually as a side note, I do like creating characters that are part of an interconnected "Universe" as it were that are in some way linked to one another. I've got that for most of my others, just not for my Vikings - this is a great opportunity to fill that backstory out in my head! Oh and getting a stone melee / fire or even a BA / fire to 50 can be tricky in terms of end management and I do know that is one thing DM suffers with too, so that is kinda expected and actually it's probably only a real concern if I'm soloing. On teams I'll be focussing on getting mobs to hit me, so that other people can do the arresting, rather than a rapid fire attack chain of smash like with my brutes (and even thinking of Volkanik being let off the chain makes me grin to myself)

I was playing around with the character creator last night and actually the swords don't look half bad. Lots of uneven spikey bits so almost look like a club. The Minimal FX settings for the armours are good too and I'm pretty pleased with the overall aesthetic.

I think your summary of TW is also largely why I've never really been able to get on with it even on other ATs that I've tried it with (I hear it's godly in damage for Scrappers for example). "You will be restricted unless you do this thing" rather than, "Things will be fine if you don't, but they'll be amazing if you do". Ice / Fire secondaries.. Hmm.. this is going to sound unbelievably pedantic, but I'm not a sword fan - however, if the set is that good maybe I should build a bridge and get over that. Wasn't there also talk of weaponless customisations for fire and ice animations? I can see this evening being a lot of trial and error. And a lot of Viking themed alts.

I do have a SD / Lec Tank, but Ice / Elec could certainly work thematically, so definitely something to consider! "I've got a dozen alts I'm working on".. This is the way. From that point of view, the other option to "Which tank combo should I roll" is simply, "Yes."

My altitis has fully taken hold and new character ideas seem to come in to my mind even from innocuous and random words during daily conversation. More generally these ideas end up as brutes or dominators, and whilst I've dabbled with Tanks, I've never really been able to find one that I can really gel with on HC, largely because it often feels like we're a little obsolete in the run of the mill PI radio Pugs or TFs that I find myself on. To give you an idea of what my particular idea of "fun" is, my absolute favourite character is a Stone Melee / Firey Aura brute. Lots of damage. Lots of noise, screen shake, disorients - he's a visceral character that is perfect therapy after a particularly bad day at work or whatever. More recently, and in particular following the changes to weapon arcs on tank secondaries and brute primaries, I've been levelling a BA / Fire brute which was actually a fire / axe tank on live. So, on to the question.. the axe character has a "Viking in Valhalla, brought back to the mortal world by a CoT ritual which doesn't go according to plan ending up in their slaughter and a new hero in Paragon roaming about". I'd like him to have a buddy - perhaps another go of the ritual, or one of the other Valhalla residents following the original one through the portal.. something like that. So keep in mind, theme / concept is important. Primary-wise Id settled on Ice or Elec (leaning to wards Ice if I'm honest). Secondary wise I thought I might go for WM.. buuutt on the surface it just looks like BA with a different weapon, and a lot of the weapon options are two handed which applied to a single handed animation looks a bit.. well.. naff. There's one thematically good hammer weapon, but very often when he swings it he smacks himself in the head with it due to the way the BA animations are applied and the size of the hammer (in all honesty BA suffers with this issue as well). Other possibilities might be TW - tried this before; initially took a while to get used to the momentum mechanic, but I don't know whether this works better with a tank? Dark Melee or SS would be good possibilities for a weaponless theme, particularly DM's - to Hit with Ice's +Def and I hear good things about Lec / SS. Apologies if this seems a bit rambled, I'm kinda brain storming here. Hopefully you can make sense of that brain dump to maybe give me some possibilities I might have missed, or perhaps comment on some of those possibilities I've listed, even if that ends up being "You're better off with a brute".

Not necessarily an individual map, but as it's clear that maps are made from joining bits together, the bit or "map component" that does my nut in is that multi-levelled cave section that is common with Lost and CoT missions. Lots of levels, lots of nooks and crannies; solo you can spend more time looking for mission completing final mobs than in the rest of the mission itself, especially in "Defeat Boss and his crew" missions. In addition it's generally spherical shape means lots of possibility for a mob to get KD'd pr KB'd under an overhang and then get stuck in the wall or roof when it gets up. If you don't have any sort of fly power, it can be very difficult finding the way out once you get in as well! Ugh.

You've taken that entirely out of context. It was used as an example to illustrate a point, not the point itself.

You won't find me arguing with any of that - all perfectly reasonable. From my experience and the handful of times I've done it, it's been within the "expected" level range, so levels 8-11 ish. No exemps. Full teams of 8, no skipping. One character I did it on didn't have any enhancements at all, I think the mobs were conning Red / Purple, yet not only was the whole mission a cake walk, I think Frosty himself was dead before I'd even manage to target him and get a shot off. It's possible (and I'll concede likely) that at least one of that teams members was an exemped 50, but the number of times that I've done it in the last few weeks (and it's such a classic mission I'll always try and run it on a lowbie character) that this experience has been repeated, has taken the shine off the reasons for precisely why it was such a classic mission. I'll admit all of this is the very definition of anecdotal evidence, but there is (at least to me) a very definite shift in a particular direction which whilst I recognise the reasoning for, I don't believe is necessarily in the games best interest. I suppose all the time numbers are consistent and good quantities of people are playing it, that becomes more of a "Me Problem"! In any case, I'm in the process of standing up a private server from those lovely chaps at OuroDev, so it might be interesting to run some comparisons.

I'll admit I'm kinda on the fence about this. I can whole heartedly relate to where the OP is coming from, but at the same time, I have incurable altitis so the pure version of the game would limit the time I'd realistically be able to spend levelling and building each one a whole lot more than the version we have today does. On the flip side I don't know how or why this is the case but content at every level just feels flat easier. Ive always thought that good old Frosty is a rather good yardstick. It happens at low level (so generally pre IO for most) and was for some PUGs quite a challenge. Yes, there was an RNG component to how good a pug or what it's composition was that could decide on how easy a time you were going to have, but these days EVERY PUG I've joined that's done it has smashed it without so much of a bead of sweat regardless of what ATs made the team up. In addition, I liked that capes were level locked to 20 and auras at 30 and you had to do a mission to achieve them both. And that certain other costume pieces or unique items were attached as a special reward to a specific piece of content. It gave value to those things, made you feel more invested in your character and that it was on a journey and you were in the process of telling its story. Perhaps that's where the shift is? Less focus on the development of a small number of characters, and greater on giving players the opportunity to play lots of different ones with all the increased power set combos that there now are? The interesting question is, is this not just a sign of the times? Greater and more limitless choice on the one side, but less focus and dare I say "soul" on the other; like the difference between a finite CD or vinyl collection vs Spotify.

This is brilliant, thank you for taking the time to detail the process. Definitely something I'll be having a play with! I'm assuming it should be possible to create a copy of the CoH game files in a different folder, make the necessary .dll file changes and then create a short cut on the desktop to the cityofheroes.exe in that folder that includes the launch parameters so that you haven't got to make changes and revert them between when you want to make a capture and not? Of course should the game update, you'd need to duplicate the folder again.

Another returning Unionite. Played on live from about i6 until they turned the servers off! My main was a stone / fire brute called Volkanik, but I also had a whole host of characters including Illuzi-One (ill / Rad troller), Techo-Demon (Fire / NRG blaster), City Watchman (MA / Shield Scrapper), Arak-Atak (Crab Spider) and CyberDeath (Bots / Dark MM). Mostly play on Exelsior these days solo and random PUGs. Not in any SGs, my global list has 3 people in it and one of those is a second account, so if there's anyone that knows any of those characters, it'd be great to hear from you.

For a long time I've tried and failed to really gel with Domis, although I've always thought on paper they were the perfect swiss army knife AT; lots of hard control, a permanent pet, blasts and melee attacks and with proliferation a really nice choice of available powers and power combos that would lend themselves to pretty much any character theme. I'd tried various combos but never really stuck with them much past level 20 or so. I had one Dark / Fire domi that I stuck with, played him to late 30s and logged on over the weekend after not playing him for ages to find that he'd got 40 mil inf in the bank. Bit of build research, and a relatively cheap more or less fully IO'd build later and I'm having an absolute blast. Domination isn't perma yet (I'm about 130% recharge with hasten), but even that massive recharge number means that the really strong group control powers are up much, much more often, meaning my squishy face is far less likely to be pressed against the floor. I've realised that they are the very definition of a late bloomer and it's perfectly OK to put more slots in the secondary than I might otherwise do with other ATs, but I'll definitely be making a lot more. Currently working on a lec / lec, but I've got a whole load of ideas for other combinations to try out, including the very first Domi I tried when CoV came out; Grav / NRG.

Thank you. I appreciate that. Is MoonSheep your global? Most of my alts are on Excelsior too

You may not realise how hard this has hit home. I reread biostems OP and have realised that for some reason I completely missed the place he was coming from and it was nothing like what I initially thought. I don't know how or why I got that so spectacularly wrong, but in any case @biostem I apologise for acting like a dick. I'm dealing with some personal demons at the moment, and I'm aware that I've channeled those issues in entirely the wrong way. None of you deserved that and it's very much a me problem, rather than a you problem.

Knowing when to keep your mouth shut is also a valuable life skill. Honestly, it's not even about whether or not advice is given, its about the place it comes from. "Icouldobetteritis" is even the title of this thread. People with that ailment need to do nothing but get over themselves.

It's not irrelevant. It's a subset of precisely what you're talking about. What they're not doing, what they are doing, ultimately why they're not playing in the way you expect them to. Because it's not your business. And there's no guarantee that focussing on the things you are talking about is going to result in a positive outcome. I've been playing this game since 2006. In the vast majority of cases, in my experience it is. YMMV. Of course that happens, but I would suggest the only reason when it's worth saying, "maybe that's not such a great idea" is if it keeps happening. You're talking about a very specific set of circumstances which usually comes as a result of a simple one off mistake, rather than a fundamental playstyle flaw. Again, exception, not rule. Coh in 2022 doesn't have anywhere near the same requirement for syncronised team work as it used to and actually, "soloing together" seems to be how the majority of PUGs play now anyway, largely because there's very little reason to play otherwise. Granted it's a different situation on things like MO TFs, but then the kinds of people who attempt that kind of content generally would be even less likely to require or appreciate "Helpful" advice from some random dbag who thinks he knows more about their character than they do. Haha. Seriously? It really isn't. Honestly, it's not. The only time I've ever examined what powers other players have is not as a way of critiquing their builds or play style, but usually from curiosity for power sets or combos that I've not played before.

I know right. Shocker.

On that we agree.. but other team members thinking they know best about how I play my character or anyone elses but their own is rarely likely to be received well. In that scenario it's best to keep those "why are you doing that", "why haven't you taken that power" or "why aren't you using this one" to yourself. Let's be honest, team wipes are usually caused by poor positioning, or an errant power being fired off into a dormant group of mobs which causes unwanted aggro, especially in the 2022 version of CoH. Not from Johnny Blogg choosing to use one power over another one. Do you honestly think that in a team of 8 characters, the non use or over use of a single power from one of those players is going to cause that much of a problem? Team composition rarely matters these days, let alone individual power choices. So with that in mind any suggestions for improvements may well be better aimed at the team in general; "Why don't we try..." rather than to single individuals.

... and that not being the least bit of your concern. So pipe down, unless asked for advice. OK?