Monos King

It's definitely not working on Cryonic Final Radial Judgement at the moment. Nor Void. Probably safe to say it's not triggering at this moment.

It's been a while since I've been active on Homecoming. Haven't touched the servers much, the forums even less. So coming in now, it's kind of like a mix in perspective between the total newcomers and the veterans. There's been a lot of excitement, but nothing is perfect. I remember how things were, so I think it's time for someone to finally balance some of that enthusiasm with a realistic outlook. This is the feedback section, after all. The Current State of Homecoming Missions and Storylines Let's take a look at this here...Mender Valen. Apparently she's supposed to connect to some other contacts, which just seems to be an excuse not to make original storyline content. Not impressed so far. I'm looking at how this is supposed to connect to Laura Lockhart, things didn't go to well in that arc. Keep playing through missions, normal, normal, did this before, did this before and- Oh. Oh shit. You can change the fate of the character? You can use Ouroboros for what everyone would have always expected you to use it for, and actually change the timeline? This is way too cool. It's legitimately better than content in the original game. You can time travel using Ouroboros to get unique outcomes? Seriously? Alright, I guess that one passes the test. HC: 1. Apparently that's old news though. Going to need a bit more. Alright, well what about this Aeon Task Force? What's that about? A recognizably fodder, weakling low tier level group is now relevant? That's clearly stupid and would never work. Surely there's no way that they could add challenge in a way that is both sensible to the lore and also actually makes use of existing powers. Surely there's no way that they would create Smelters and unique currency, and new enhancements, and set up plot point after plot point in an interdimensional adventure that includes both space and time...and that's exactly what's happening right now. Wow. Yeah, the bait post ends here. I was won over as soon as I got to beat up Flambeaux. I usually call her something a lot less kind than beaux. There is so much to unravel there I couldn't even believe it. The lore additions, the amazing maps, the flow, the dialogue, this: And that's only one of many storylines that was added. Kheldian lore is my bread and butter, and seeing Requiem have time in the limelight was fantastic. Similarly, Void Harbingers were just...excellent. I think the crowning jewel of it all is the absolute chaos of plotwist and time skips that is Dr. Stribbling. I could not be more happy with how storyline creation is going. The only thing that's lacking is end-game storylines that advance the overall plot but..I'm sure we'll get there. Also on the topic of things I like Masterminds I think no one would smile harder than me and Galaxy Brain with those Robotics changes that were added. I mean, it felt like HC took them straight from our propositions. They are awesome. Robots feel like murder machines currently, while retaining the debuffs they were known for in a good way. And don't even get me started on necromancy. That ones just super cool. No other power plays like that. It's a different approach...but I like it. Challenge Settings Are splendid. I realize some the implementation is controversial, looking over some of the old threads. But it ended up being exactly in line with some of the concepts I was looking for in one of the threads cited in my signature. Optional, but valuable. Incentive is there to play them. They encourage more diverse team play, and have mechanics that you'd really be best with support if you wanted to survive. The Nictus stealing your body is just sooooooooooo fun to see and Actually that reminds me of something else. EMPEROR ROMULUS AUGUSTUS He drank from the well, becoming a quick incarnate. He trained his whole life as an elite cimeroran warrior. He's 12 feet tall. And on top of all that...he's the first Nictus-Human merger in history. This guy should be the big bingo, an elite who is at a level of power everyone should want to be. And he just sucks, he sucks so much in the ITF. I feel more threatened clipping my own nails than fighting him. And lore wise this is even more true...technically he should be capable of drawing upon two wells. That's something else altogether though. So seeing him in his proper glory, as an emperor and incarnate thats freely using black holes and attracting the attention of the Talons of Vengeance was excellent on very many levels. Bravo to everyone involved there. I'm seeing revamps to zones, expanding them and showing everyone that the team doesn't forget about content just because it isn't end game or level 50. I'm seeing QoL changes that are so good it makes jumping to another server feel like deportation. I'm seeing new powers like Storm Blast no one even knew they wanted. And of course, I can't forget that their actually developers like Boop and Fault that actually remember PvP exists and has a playerbase. And again, the storylines and dialogue are just stupendous. So really, I just wanted to say to the Homecoming team you guys are awesome, and I love you all. I've had some pretty depressing things to deal with lately, but I have friends here that help push me through it. We wouldn't have CoH if it weren't for all of you. Even a serial server hopper like me sees that. There's really nothing like the effort and work you all are putting into what was, until recently (nice!) a rogue server. Looks like everything is going as strong as ever. Keep up the good work guys.

This didn't happen to include Assault Radial's Double Hit did it?

It'll definitely be worth testing again once the next mini patch is passed and Frostwork is properly re-applying instead of ignoring. The performance looks abysmal right now as a result of that, much worse than it should. Right now the absorb doesn't even have the advantage over +HP it should.

Hi, it's been a while. I greatly appreciate the work and sentiment behind the Frostwork re-evaluation, that power should be getting some love. However, I desperately despise the change from max HP to absorb. Now in spite of my feelings, it's not all bad, but if a buff was the intention it falls short - especially for Masterminds. I talked to a few others who may have echoed some of these points here a little while ago, but I think it's a good idea to go over the benefits and detriments so that everyone understands my perspective. Absorb Vs Max HP Both act a pseudo resistance; a 10% absorb or 10% HP buff will cause you to die 10% slower. Say you have 2000 HP and are struck with 2000 pts of solid dmg. At base, you will now have 1 HP (since players can't get one shot). If you are given a 50% absorb bonus, you now have an additional 1000 health and are left with the same. If you are given a 50% MAX HP bonus, the same happens. Absorb Benefits 1. Allows you to expand your max HP The absorb cap is equal to the base HP cap of whichever AT is being buffed (including pets, NPCs, you name it). Tanks can receive up to 5,408.028 HP with full absorb, something elite Bio builds will often find themselves with. For pet henchmen who have pitifully tiny max HP caps, absorb consistently offers better survival...on paper. 2. Protects you against Percentage Based Damage This is pretty huge, and a strong argument in absorbs favor in any situation. Attacks like Marauder's Nova Fist, Tyrant's Flow Lightning, Diaboliques Earthshatter, Penelope Yin's psionic Drift and various other abilities from challenge content attack your HP directly, making HP buffs entirely useless. Nova Fist in particular sets players to about 1HP, as it does 99% of your health. Absorb will cushion this greatly. 3. Can be re-applied Old Frostwork will offer you the big max HP, but further usages won't help you. Absorb offers a shield that can be re-added once it falters. This allows it to act like resistance, as well as like a heal. 4. Can come in small, reapplying DoTs This is a testament to the versatility of absorb. Instantly reapplying absorb could prevent taking dmg below a certain threshold *at all*, but primarily the current state it is used in for powers like Spirit Ward is very helpful because 5. Absorb can be Power Boosted Which, in the rare instances of such a power being added, allows for a good synergy permitting the small DoTs to become much larger absorb shields. However, Absorb Issues 1. Absorb can be weakened Attacks that deal -HP such as Crimsons abilities naturally weaken the strength of absorb as well. The only way to counteract Crimson and his godlike -HP is with HP buffs of your own. Once your max HP is set to 10, absorb isn't helping you at all. You'll get like 1 Absorb. Furthermore, in the instance you are fighting something with -special, should that exist, it's worth noting your absorb benefits would be affected as well - assuming it was your own click power. As far as I know, -special would not affect the buffs you receive from others. 2. Bodyguard mode and many other abilities bypass Absorb You may have heard this on the discord, I was informing people of this fact for a hot second. It's my biggest gripe; absorb is not perfect. Hamidon's attacks, some of Crimsons, various many challenge abilities and zone/object triggered effects all ignore absorb outright. This is especially troublesome for masterminds who are already struggling to keep pets alive on a regular basis. But most importantly, Bodyguard mode damage split ignores absorb. If you are taking the brunt of the damage, using absorb on your pets literally does nothing. You've wasted a power. For the other mastermind secondaries like elec affin and Nature, yyou also have plentiful healing to circumvent this issue. Not so with cold domination. Running my demons/cold, I actually had to start clicking Rebirth occasionally when the pets health got low with this change. My pets personal survival was a bit better if I had them attack, but that's not exactly useful when I'm fighting AVs that will one shot them regardless. 3. Has to be reapplied I'll reference Frostwork specifically here. While the benefits of reapplication were discussed earlier, the fact that it *has* to be reapplied is really no good for a single target power like Frostwork. Max HP offers a hands-off approach, you use it and then for the duration of the power, your target has enhanced regeneration and can be brought back up to the their new cap naturally. You can do this which each teammate, or pet. However, with absorb, once the benefit has been tacked off from damage, that is it. Frostwork is now useless until it next recharges, and since it is single target you are either forced to sit and use it on the person who needs it most like a heal, rather than drop it and move onto the next. 4. Faaar more common than +HP (Lengthier, check my math) Now for Max HP. Max HP Benefits 1. Is Permanent Max HP bonuses do not need to be applied once you lose the extra health you were given. Until the duration of the power has expended, you simply keep the HP bonus. This is important when you are using, say, a Single target 1 minute recharge ability and have to apply it to over 7 pets, or have teammates split across that you cannot constantly attend to. 2. Allows you to overcome the regen cap Essentially, whatever the percentage of HP you just gained, you also gained additional regeneration of equal amount. This is effectively allowing you to overcome the Regen cap. 3. Cannot be weakened or bypassed This is very helpful when fighting debuff heavy enemies, or the likes of Crimson. There do not exist any debuffs as of now that weaken MAX HP buffs. This is super important for masterminds. 4. Unique The simple fact is, Max HP buffs are extremely rare as support powers. They have extreme utility in the lower levels, and offer new avenues to face enemies that would be otherwise quite difficult. Max HP Issues 1. One and Done You cannot make use of Max HP once it is applied more than once. They don't stack, and even if they did, the HP cap will have been achieved. Furthermore, unlike absorb, it cannot be used as a pesudo heal. 2. Percentage Based Attacks Ignore Max HP Buffs Regardless of what you do, Nova Fist will take you to 1HP. 3. Maxed out characters find themselves at the HP Cap There are a lot of set bonuses and temps that increase your HP cap, so in end game content, absorb is seemingly better. It is worth noting, however, end game content is also where all of those powers that ignore and weaken absorb show up to begin with. Furthermore, most armors are still not reaching said HP caps. The Take-Away I look at this through the lenses of a mastermind and a scrapper, but I do consider every AT in the game. Even so: Absorb is better when used on a mastermind, but worse when used by a mastermind. If an MM were to have Frostwork used on them, generally speaking, it will be better for bodyguard mode because now the pets don't take any damage at all. However, this is a rarer instance. If you are a mastermind, you are focused on supporting your pets, and so while the absorb will be stronger than max HP for them, they are literally benefitting nothing when BG damage hits them. They are taking Hamidon's damage raw, along with many others. Because this isn't purely an absorb vs max HP conversation, and is instead a "which is better for Cold Domination" conversation, I have to argue that the benefits this single target power of Frostwork are just much higher when as a MAX HP power. The current limitations of Frostwork and Cold Dom make it better tailored to be max HP, and not an absorb power. It's also just mechanically misaligned. Cold dom's point is to make the team take less damage through defense, and debuffing enemies. It cripples enemies so the team can spread out and destroy. It has long last duration buffs to contribute to this task. Giving it a buff that inherently demands of the Cold Dom user to tail and reapply crushes the spirit of the independent playstyle that it cultivates. You're supposed to buff them, and then they go off and do their own thing. Absorb isn't allegiant to that mechanic. And again, Bodyguard mode ignores absorb. This is terrible for masterminds. Cold Dom has no healing to supplement. If nothing else, Frostwork is a screaming sponsor to the notion that Mastermind secondaries should get different treatment for certain powers than other Archetypes get, taking from the example of Detonator from traps. There is definitely a better way to address this power.

Hellstar was a fixture in the Freedom community long ago, and had made a brief return to Homecoming, being the reason I learned about Homecoming to begin with. In fact, Hellstar was the reason I played City of Heroes at all, learned how to type by playing this game, and began to explore complicated scientific concepts. That is because Hellstar was in fact a character played by by father. I always thought this outfit was stupid, and often inquired as to why he was even playing a female character when I was younger. Something something I don't want to look at a man lmao. He seemed to have a storyline in his head with it. With his various Hellstar characters, he was amongst the first to engage in a successful Freedom Hami raid, and had over 58 level 50s as early as 2008, going on to eventually lead the Bounty Hunters R Us Supergroup in its heyday. From the hours he poured in from start to finish, and the bonding we had while he did, it was clear he loved City of Heroes. He was there in the games final hours, before the plug was pulled. Sadly, he loved another thing nearly as much as City of Heroes - smoking. Lung cancer took him out of the fight. Towards the end of his life, our relationship wasn't exactly positive. He wasn't the best. But I always remembered the moments we had in this game. It brought us together. I wasn't able to be by his side when the plug was pulled on him. So I'll leave this post in remembrance instead. I didn't always like you dad. But I still love you.

Utterly unacceptable. Terms of Service typo discovered. Shut it all down, NCSoft. (In fact there's two)

I vaguely recall posting this a few years back, but in the event I did not I'll just revive the topic. Thugs Bruiser possesses an enhanceable Hold bonus from Knockout Blow, but does not accept Hold enhancement set IOs. It's been this way for years. Would love to see this remedied.

Good show old boy.

Oh interesting, good suggestion. I did look and it is doing the damage tick. But it is not applying the -def on players, or on NPCs.

I've been at this for a while, it's probably just a bug with the continuous refresh. There aren't any mechanisms in PvP that would cause this, so we most likely need dev intervention. I'll also check to see if this occurs in PvE. Edit: It does. The -def is not affecting NPCs either.

That is the case, however each of these ticks is supposed to be a 100% chance. The -defense should be applying throughout the 15 seconds. Similar powers usually show this. My target did not move, and I monitored not the combat attributes, but my own To-Hit chance initially, which is how I discovered this. Even while attacking non-stop with extremely short animation time powers, my chance to hit never rose while the target was in the puddle, just as the targets defense never updated. If this is a glitch not in performance, but a byproduct of its design, it's still not working as it should. Although, it seems that it's just not applying -def.

The Experimentation pool power Corrosive Vial is not properly applying -Defense in PvP, and possibly in other settings as well. My Chance to hit before and during usage of Corrosive Vial did not change. Here is the defense on the character that had Corrosive Vial used on them: Before After The power shows up in the Base Defense category, but does not actually apply to any of the defense types, leaving it unchanged. Occasionally the debuff does show up, but only for a second, and still does no affect defense even during that second.

Pets summon from villain epic pools are taunting enemies as a result of Gauntlet, taking away aggro from the user. In Pulling situations, and especially PvP situations, this bug makes a huge mess of things. (Note: This bug was discovered on beta).

based on toxic tarantulas powers, it should allow slow enhancements, but currently does not.

Seems like I do. The title is an error however, I meant that Tanks/Brutes widow is not allowing for Slow enhancements, and is instead showing To Hit debuff.

Power seems to erroneously slot To Hit Debuff (which the powers don't actually have) rather than Slows.

I'm young enough to have Snapchat on my phone, just to eye it with disdain.

I like this. I personally think you shouldn't even get the new LRSF unless you've played through the accompanying who will die arcs, but this would be an acceptable alternative. Pretty sure that's how MLTF was but I guess continuity is just moot.

I like this idea.

Oh I haven't given up, I just think we got a pretty decent amount of good suggestions that can be revisited when desired. The devs have certainly seen the most productive proposals as well.

Oh that's just a joke your comment is very much valid lol We are certainly very and unavoidably powerful once we're maxed out, and it would be silly to call content universally easy once we're at the precipice of power. There are just some other conspicuous factors, like how we got there.

That isn't quite the scenario that is being discussed here. I can find some quotes to bring you up to speed if you're interested, as I imagine you haven't in fact read "the entire discussion". Though this thread is now a discussion of iron man's morality and the meaning of being a hero so maybe that'll have to wait.