Monos King

Just confirmed this is happening with Nature Affinity as well; on Live. I tested bio on beta, but this behavior is happening with Nature Affinity on live as well as beta. It's probably happening on live as well, though I can't confirm that yet.

If you have enough recharge to use Ablative Carapace again, before the first ones buff is removed, the entire remaining absorb buff is lost, and the second use of Ablative is rendered useless. This happens whether or not you use tester recharge to auto recharge, or simply have enough recharge to stack the two. Furthermore, taking damage and losing some of the initial absorb does not change the fact the second Ablative will remove all of the initial. This has been observed on tankers, scrappers, and brutes. It does not appear to happen with stalkers or sentinels.

I was on my main, pursuing King's Row, killin Skulls and all that, and one of them mentioned my appearance. Said some bad things. After I kindly skipped his prison sentence, I thought about what he said, and started looking at my mains teeth. I thought it was alright. Wasn't special though. Now, haven't seen myself reach for a brush even once in my idle animation. Could this be the cause of these cruel comments from NPCs? Should we the players have the choice to brush our teeth? I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts on this.

I didn't know we could use this forum that way. Could anyone review my imp-only controller build while we're at it?

Ah, I've been washed into thinking it was only 50 only due to the star run demands I always see. I feel like the second half of what you said shouldn't be too much of an issue.

That's kind of a cool idea. If we let existing enhancement catalysts be used to remove chance for failure that would be interesting. I wonder how that would affect the price of catalysts.

That makes sense. D-Sync is 50 and above only though right? Maybe anything that's 50 or above gets to retain 100%. Edit: Ah, I remember that all of them can fuse with each other. And Aeon is 35+. Not sure if that changes things. This is hardly something that I consider egregious or a priority, but it did occur to me "wow, not everyone is rich in game and they can just casually lose millions on each individual role". Seems somewhat needless at this stage.

I had a conversation with someone a bit ago about the echo's of capitalism in City of Heroes design. I disagreed that what we were talking about was something motivated by monetization. But surely this old mechanism totally is, right? D-Sync can only fail because Hami's and the like can fail. Do we actually need this to mechanic to still exist? I'm of the opinion it's only around to further manufacture the grind. Was curious on people's thoughts on this.

Well taken. I'm pretty conservative about the mechanic with stacks, so theres a lot of things weakening it here. However, the actual DMG buff can be acquired without Kinetic Potential, so it's not as much as a crux as it would be otherwise. Similar with the lockout, which is just to prevent KM from being the same as EM while having a uniquely clippable cast. The DPS numbers align well even with the lockout. But after testing, all of that might end up being unnecessary.

Stealth isn't something that's mandatory for play, and we shouldn't balance around the abberance that is speed running. So I wouldn't say this is something that I would want that badly. But I do like the idea of giving passive something similar to this, even like lowering their threat level or increasing regen. I'll also note that having stealth is a unique feature of several MM pets already, and all pets just inheriting that from the user would take away from that quirk as well.

I have to agree with all of the criticisms here. They're pretty much objectively correct. But what if we added it anyway? +1 OP shine on you crazy diamond

Probably shouldn't be in the description for Brutes and Tanks.

On the topic of fixes. Could the tank/brute Psionic Mastery powers start using PvP melee modifiers in PvP like melee epics are supposed to? They both use PvP ranged at the moment which is pretty bad. Maybe only Dominate though, both being at that scale would probably be too much. Also, in PvP leviathan stacks at any number cause the DoT to not apply.

Horus was kind of cool. I'd like an arc with Horus in it, and then also maybe Thunder Clap can be there too. Neither would probably get a big role though. Also I like the idea of seeing more of Wisdom, even though they were really only some kind of geographical release bait.

Heh, peasant problems. I for one haven't been Thumbs Down'd even once.

This is something I'd like to see more of. Black Knights and Apparitions are absolutely destructive. They aren't too special, but man can they ruin you quick. Especially Black Knights, I'm surprised they aren't an incarnate specific group.

The ambush wouldn't be too much of a difficulty to clear, and it would be encouraged that you just skip it to get back to your group anyway. They're there mostly to slow you down with some threat. The boss is a purely optional thing as the team can just not kill them to avoid it's reappearance later, so if that ends up being a problem then that falls under "wanting people to coordinate" and I think that's legitimate challenge since it's easily circumventable otherwise. Appreciate the opinions on it, which parts did you find most compelling? I think a part of it involves players going off on their own, but that should be the only thing that's even a little bit like this, right? There's no constant group separation, or conditional teleport, demand to rush back to the boss fight, or any of the other things here. Unless I'm forgetting. Been a loong time since I ran that.

Well... I just re-tested with regards to a greater spectrum of powers being tested. I was correct that Kinetic Melee is in fact the third slowest power if looking at just an average of animation times. It was actually Staff however, and not Stone that was above Radiation Melee and KM. Staff averages at a 1.9 animation time, whereas KM averages at 1.8, and Rad at 1.87. Spines is fourth...but only if you include the toggle. Here's that list for you. Which brings us to the issue with determining a powersets speed from overall average animation time. Some powersets are actually faster if you include non-damage dealing quick cast abilities. Some are faster if you don't. But the actual metric of a powersets speed is from the rotations that are commonly, and optimally used. Along with their DPS. If you go by just all of the animations, then Spines is faster than Dual Blades which is...nah. Instead, the speed of the Optimal Rotations is used. KM's is Quick Strike ->Body Blow -> Smashing Blow -> Quick Strike-> Concentrated Strike. This takes 6.76 seconds and deals 73 DPS, as noted earlier. Meanwhile, something like Rad can do something like Contaminated Strike -> Radioactive Smash -> Contaminated -> Devastating Blow for 66 DPS before Contaminated and roughly 76.9 DPS with Contaminated and surrounded by 4 enemies. In only 5.83 seconds. Meanwhile, this is not even Radiations optimal rotation, and it IS Kinetic Melee's optimal rotation. One would think glancing at the numbers Rad is slower than KM. But not truly. And even if you just take the animation times, Kinetic Melee is third slowest. So, yeah, I'm preaching to the choir a bit with my overall point, but for the sake of documentation and discussion Kinetic Melee truly is very bad from literally every metric available, whether its animation speed, damage per second, damage per rotation, damage per attack. It's just...awful. Also I found that sound FX link for you, post is edited above.

Maybe something like this would be more up your alley @TheSpiritFox

I saw a quarrel about how current Challenge mechanics don't really encourage coordination to create their difficulty, and so that made me flesh this out. While working on a little fanfic storyline involving an Ouroboros Boss Fight, I was thinking of ways that it could be challenging, but also something I could see a Time Traveler doing. The Aeon Task Force had the ability to teleport players into different dimensions, and is heavily spatial based. What if there was something similar, but more time focused? The idea is a boss who scrambles the teams ability to coordinate via looping (teleporting) players to a different point in the mission, separating them, and leaving them with an ambush or past boss fight. The teleported players would also be exemplared or debuffed. The brunt of the effect would be mitigatable via completing an objective ahead of time, or by fulfilling a condition on the Time Manipulator Boss. Failing to complete the objective leads to being ported elsewhere in the mission, being ambushed, becoming exemplared (while fighting level appropriate enemies of course), or just losing access to powers as though they were exemplared without the level loss. Time boss randomly separates group via teleporting some of those not a certain closeness to the boss Teleported players have debuff and spawns (potentially a past boss) waiting for them, and have to get back to the boss room Time boss is weakened by a special power, limiting or removing the ability to send the team through earlier points in the mission Time boss loses access to the ability after reaching a certain health TP spots each teleport a certain Role. Players can strategically choose which role they want being teleported less by closing more of the corresponding TP spot. However, the chance of being TP'd is never zero, unless you are within 4-7 feet Completing objectives in advance of the boss fight will prevent this mechanic from transpiring Time boss also has the ability to exemplar players when below 40% health. At this point, the boss will no longer teleport the team, and the special power can be used to disable this power as well. The time bosses power damage ignores level difference It would go as such: The Time Traveler will teleport random team members (not pets) to pre-ordained locations during set stages. This power has a very large radius damage but players that are very close (about 4-7 feet) will not be teleported. The rest will be left alone with the Boss. These teleport locations will come with an ambush, and likely an exemplar. There will be a large, but surmountable, gap in distance between the location and the Time boss. Fast players can recover with minimal downtime. Earlier in the mission you will have had the opportunity to either click on items placed in certain places or to defeat an enemy in these same locations, which will remove the location as a possible teleport spot. This is useful, because the Time boss can only TP members to certain spots during their stages. Removing a spot can essentially skip a round of teleport, if you're lucky. However, the opportunity to remove the objectives will be a timed endeavor, probably happening simultaneously to another mission phase (like a boss fight). Both would be optional, but the skilled team could knock off both (for a badge, less teleports) or choose neither (for a badge, extra difficulty). The catch? Offing the boss from the simultaneous objective ensures they show up again during Time boss teleports. If you have left them alive, they will not respawn or reappear during the Time boss separations to avoid a Paradox. This is an idea that could be played with, but for now it works like this regardless because it's better for navigating the challenge. Maximum difficulty (also a badge) includes killing the bosses, and not clearing any of the objectives. This ensures teleports refresh or respawn the bosses, while also making sure the teleports keep happening no matter what before the boss is brought down to certain health. Players can, under a time limit, complete objectives that will limit the Time Bosses ability to separate the team Players can complete another objective (boss fight or mob clear) during this time limit Killing the boss ensures they respawn later, leaving them alive allows them to wonder and be killed during Time Boss fight Both are optional, players can choose to do neither, both, or max difficulty each for badges I happen to like current Challenge mechanics, but I was curious how something like this would be received. With the exemplaring, some of the strategies of playing lower level TFs might come into play, making sure you have the right powers for the lower level, using attuned, etc. A well coordinated team could make an encounter like this go very smoothly, but one without any sense of mind will simply be getting separated left and right, and without having prepped a travel power would have a hard time getting back.

If I can find Solar's old post on changing power sounds I'll send it to you, if you aren't already familiar with that kind of thing. Apparently it's pretty great for issues like that. Edit: Found it. Understood. Just make sure you know what points Jay is referring to from the main post, otherwise the conversation won't go anywhere. For what it's worth, I get what your point is and don't much disagree (besides CS), and will note that speed is also kind of relative to damage. Knockout Blow is still "slow", but for its DPA its quite fast. Aside from Seismic Smash, it's the fastest of the damage scale. CS is the same damage scale, but slow and can't even crit. Burst is the same speed as FSC, but does less damage. It does less damage than Foot Stomp too, which is faster and also hits more targets. So yes, while technically it is true that the cast time of KM powers isn't too far different from some other powersets, the fact KM powers suck, and have lower radius, and apply damage way later all makes its actual DPS slower, effective damage speed lower (enemies will die in content before the damage is applied, whereas FSC and others dont do this), and the power worse overall. When shortening animations further would actually be one effective method to raise KMs DPS, arguing over whether or not the powers are slow compared to other powers becomes a slightly obsolete endeavor. Cutting Cast Times always improves DPS, as does raising damage, so just presenting the fact KM has decent average speed is enough. That being said...KM is definitely a slow powerset. I think it's actually the third slowest, I'll check. The distribution of speed is terrible. I mentioned this in the post (please read it lmao), but having a backloaded set makes it effectively slower even if it averages out to be similar to others. The big hitters are all 2 or more seconds of at-completion damage. Only Radiation Melee and Spines are slower, and in Spines case that's entirely dependent on if you pick two powers you certainly aren't incentivized to take...while also being good. Meanwhile, Radiation Melee is a godlike set that actually justifies its slow speed. There is more to the speed of a set than just the average of the cast times, but even in that regard it's only like...okay.

I see the issue. In general, sped up animations are not considered to be "new" ones. New ones are ones that require a different division of design. Sped up and cut animations are colloquially known as recycled or modified animations. One is much harder, or at least is dealt with differently. In regards to your points about Kinetic Melee not needing speed changes because the powers are not slow, there is an entire section about that. The goal is, ultimately to improve Kinetic Melee's DPS. I referenced that there are posts that take a different approach to this, like making RT and CS super big hitters, but this post takes a thematic speedening approach. The reason for this preference is also noted above - one regarding a sense of "kinetic" nature. I opted to go with acceleration to reflect this preference and theme. I also noted that the first 4 powers are distinctly good in speed, and why the later powers are or feel slow even beyond the point in the animation the damage is applied.

That is correct, yes.

New powers would need to be created (because one would be the normal slower version and the other would be the 30% reduction version). However, new animations would not. What this would look like is included in the Spoiler tags under the "Animation Fixes" category in the original post.

I think this is a really cool idea for City of Heroes 2. If I ever decide to launch a game, I would probably dabble with something like this. I enjoyed reading through the naming and in-game connection with family and such. CoH doesn't really need the clutter though. There's enough inf to get you what you need and guides to get you what you want, so it's not really worth the implementation.