Steampunkette

At this point in the game's life a team of 8 Crabberminds could each have 5 core pets, 1 EPP pet, and 2 Incarnate Pets. With Assault, TT:A, and TT:M all fully slotted, that's 64 pets with 240% damage and 120% defense to all vectors. That's just disgustingly OP...

.... just writing that last post makes me want to get an 8-man Arachnoteam together to just steamroll everything. Constant 240% Damage Bonus, 120% Defense to all positions (If it's all Soldiers), All Crabberminds with Epic Pool Pets and Incarnate Pets.... Gnnn... the devastation....

Oh, no doubt! For my Fortunata I went Psychic rather than Melee (Because I hate myself) and when everyone else is dead she's just there. Fighting. 'Til people rez, the enemy is dead, or the cows come home. But the 6-Man Band is a Spank and Spank, not Tank n' Spank. With 6 Tactical Training: Assault powers and hopefully 6 regular old Assault powers you're firing off 180% increased damage without build up/aim/follow up. And with just Tactical Training: Maneuvers from everyone in the group you're at 67% Defense to Everything. Okay that's not true. Widows, by default, are going to have 7.5% more melee defense if they don't slot it (And up to 10% more melee defense if they -do- choose to slot it) And with Crab, Bane, and Huntsman pets in play also all getting 180% Damage buffing and 67% Defense Buffing... Plus Incarnate Pets and possibly 6 Epic Power Pool Pets... Nothing stands around long enough to "Tank". Especially once the Bane and Huntsman toss out Surveillance on Bosses and the Crab opens up with a Venom Grenade. AVs will still be standing, typically... But no one has any taunt mechanics because you don't -need- them. You just throw out all of the damage in the world with great accuracy and significant debuffs. Spank n' Spank. It's what's for Arachnos!

Been a bit since I checked this thread... Here's how she stands, now! ... okay. That was a BIT literal, sue me. I did wind up stealing 4 slots from Combat Training: Defensive. I moved them around to add a slot to Indomitable Will for an Aegis Res/End (I like more runspeed), 2 slots to Endurance (3 slots of Performance Shifter for more running and HP), and the last slot to Health (For another Recovery Proc). I also took Victory Rush a level earlier and dropped regular ol' Vengeance to grab Combat Training: Offensive, instead. I did, intentionally, choose not to take a travel power on this character. I've got Sprint and Ninja Run to get me where I'm going with a few speed buff set bonuses. With Sprint and Ninja Run I'm going 68mph. That's 10mph faster than max level Flight Speed (Without Afterburner) I also stripped a couple slots from the Assaults to put in FF for TK Push and Tornado. I use both fairly often, so Recharging Hasten or Mind Link isn't an issue, anymore. On all Cylinders (Except Vengeance), Mind Link and Hasten are perma, 56.9% Ranged/AoE with 70% Melee, 82% Psi Resistance, 183% Recovery (3.46/Sec) +133% ToHit, draining 1.46 end/sec. Kill both Tactics (Rarely need 'em, really) and it's down to 1.07 end/sec and 109.3% ToHit. WITH Vengeance, it's a 99% Melee Defense, 85% everything else and 175% ToHit.

Back on live, I had a character named Longfang Vasquez as a Crab in a squad of Arachnos Characters. Huntsman Russeau, Widow Gettes, Bane Thompson. You get the idea. We steamrolled every piece of content in the game outside of Empowered Reichsman and the DE. "DE?!" I hear you cry in confusion and alarm... Yes. DE. Because the ToHit bonus they get from multiple Quartz Emanators makes any level of Defense completely meaningless! MEANINGLESS I TELL YOU! We'd have to actually -fight- the DE like normal characters, more or less, specifically targeting Crystals in the opening volley... THEN we would Steamroll them. You get 2-3 VEATs on a team and they become nigh unstoppable, though. Put together a 6-Man Band with every build variant represented (Night Widow, Blood Widow, Fortunata, Huntsman, Crab Spider, Bane Spider) and you'll never stop killing... but your Fortunata is gonna cry 'cause their Controls mean jack shit. Everything's dead too fast for it to matter and their AoEs are SO SLOW.

Electric Control is a powerful enough sapping tool on it's own that you don't have to worry about your secondary, or EPP. Especially if you build for it. Static Field and Conductive Aura work to consistently take the endurance of entire spawns with minimal input. Toss in Jolting Chain or Chain Fences and it can get ridiculous. 3-slotting Conductive Aura for endmod and taking the Agility Radial results in a whopping 22.2 end/tick stolen from every enemy in range. Static Field pulls only 6.7 per second, sadly, but over the duration it's 46% of the target's end. Per Target. Meanwhile Chain Fences pulls another 22.2% along with Jolting Chain. Drop the Sleep (For Safety!) , get in the mob for conductive, fire jolting, pop chains... Everyone is now out of endurance except EB/AVs. And they should be on their way down -fast-. Add in your Gremlins and your enemies won't be able to do -anything- after the EBs/AVs get off 2-3 attacks. Done for the rest of the fight. And since these are your controls rather than your actual -attacks-... muahahahahaaaa! Combine with /Earth or /Energy or /Ice for Power Boost to make the End Drain even more insane. Jolting Chain, Chain Fences, and Conductive Aura will spike to 32.1 End. Meanwhile Static field's total draw hits 67. And then slot your attacks for actual damage dealing. Or to be the ULTIMATE JERKFACE go for Electric Assault and slot that for End Reduction, too. The Electric Attacks not only reduce endurance, but apply a -100% End Recovery Debuff, making it almost impossible for anyone to get their End back except AVs because of their ridiculous debuff resistances... AVs at 54 get 87% Recovery Debuff protection, and they're +3 so it's only 65% Normal effectiveness to begin with (Assuming you're level boosted and with your Alpha to Radial Paragon you have to be). So that -100% Recovery debuff on Electric Assault attacks is down to 8.45% per stack. Still. Slotting to be an Endurance Vampire is a time honored Electric Character tradition! Even if it is your Secondary Build instead of your Primary. Go out and live your most devastating life!

Vorpal means "Takes off Heads" In the Jabberwocky, the Vorpal Blade goes snicker-snack, snicker-snack he left it dead and with it's head he went galumphing back. D&D took that quite literally and carried it forward into Vorpal Swords, which on a critical hit, behead your opponent, instantly killing them. Unless it's an Ettin or a Hydra, in which case it specifically, -explicitly- loses only one head per critical hit. It has nothing to do with teleportation or being "Deadly".

Rotating the zones would mean taking the servers offline every day of the month to change out specific maps for other specific maps, instead of doing it once at the start of the month and once at the end of the month. And yes, darkness determines when certain enemies can be triggered. Caleb comes to mind. And the Ghosts of Salamanca.

Harder than the Primalist. By far. See, the Primalist is easier 'cause it uses the player models with the Animal Heads and stuff that were added to the game late in life for the shape-change models, rather than wholly unique models like the Nova and Dwarf forms. They used normal model animations for their powers and had normal model emanation points. The Devs would need to actively screw with brand new model-swaps to add more forms to Kheldians and Nicti. They'd also be Energy-Blasting Birds or Bears or Whatever. Which is dumb. Fortunately, someone has already done the work on making the Primalist available to the CoH Community. The only thing that -hasn't- been done is the inherent 'cause it would require a recompiling of the game data to implement so the Primalist Creator is waiting for the next recompiling of the OuroDev team's work. They've also stated they'll be handing their Primalist Class work over to the Homecoming Team as long as the HC Team -wants- Primalists added to the game... My money is on "Yes". TLDR: Leave PBs and WSs alone, use the Primalist, instead, once it's available for implementation.

Assuming each Combo Point grants the exact same amount of damage difference, per rank... You're "Losing" 16 points of damage. When you AS you get the 2 combo points, so your CU is at Combo 2 and dishes out 201 damage plus Crit. I dunno. To me it just doesn't feel like a big deal. 16 points out of 369 is just not enough to care?

Maybe! My thought on the Double Build Up was to make the second one a big damn debuff with a small buff per target (Capping out at around 30% Recharge and Damage bonus but applying a 30-40% debuff to each target) and then give it a long recharge and a fairly long duration (40 second Duration, 10 minute recharge) Impossible to get to perma or overlap, but definitely a big boost two or three times per mission. I only used Chronos because it's the build up from Time Manipulation

So we have 3 Melee Attacks from Blaster's Temporal Manipulation. Aging Touch as a Minor ST Psionic Damage Attack End of Time as High PBAoE Cold/Energy Damage Attack Future Pain as a High ST Psionic Damage Attack Both Aging Touch and Future Pain reuse the model animation of Ranged Blast attacks. Aging touch pulls the right arm back, then thrusts it forward, fingers ahead of open palm in the "Fireball Cast" animation, while Future Pain has a double hand at head level thrust forward, "Power Blast Cast". Meanwhile Edge of Time is a sort of whole body thrust where the character gathers energy by bringing their shoulders forward and bending their knees with their hands balling to fists, then rapidly straightens their legs, throws back their arms, unclenches their fists, and throws their head back. This gives us a partial visual expectation for Time Melee as a powerset. Specifically that it doesn't involve punching, kicking, or even striking the target. Simply reaching out towards them, or building up Temporal Energy and letting it burst outwards. We also learn some things from the damage types chosen. Firstly that it focuses on "Exotic" damage, in this case Psionic, but has room for particularly eclectic combinations of damage types. I don't think I've ever seen another attack which deals both Cold and Energy Damage. And I think that's a good thing. To me, this feels like a set where strange damage combinations should be a significant part. And where different powers deal different damage types, rather than having a monolithic damage type identity. An Eclectic Array, essentially. Here is how I would implement a Time Melee set. Tier 1: Aging Touch (ST Minor Psionic, chance of Fear) Tier 2: Temporal Shift (ST Teleport Moderate Cold/Energy) Violently yanking the target through time, you teleport them near to you. (Use Recall Enemy model animation, use Pseudopet at the player's feet as target location for the teleport) Tier 3: Glimpse the Future (ST High Psionic, chance of Fear) (Power Push model animation) Tier 4: Chronos (Build up with Recharge Component) Tier 5: End of Time (PBAoE High Cold/Energy) Tier 6: Dessicate (Cone Moderate Energy/Toxic) You send out a shockwave of time that causes enemies to feel as though it has been a week since they ate, drank, or slept. (We can use the Wall of Force model animation) Tier 7: Future Pain (ST Superior Psionic, chance of Fear) Tier 8: Timeslip (PBAoE -Spd -Rech -Dam, Self +Spd +Rech +Dam per target hit) Tier 9: Warped Time (PBAoE High Cold/Psionic/Energy/Smashing Knock Up, Dimension Shift Pseudopet at Caster's position for 3 seconds while the damage is happening) (Use Nova Model Animation) Cold/Psionic/Energy hits immediately, then the AoE Group Lift portion triggers for Smashing Damage.

So I've got this character to 38, so far... I love her to pieces. She's not as badass a fighter as a Scrapper would be (Less damage output). And she doesn't throw as comprehensive of controls as your average Dominator (Less options). But she -feels- fantastic. Playing her is a different style of movement and butt-kicking. I've got my Gremlins on hand to help make up some of the damage difference, I've got defenses to shore up my survivability. And the Sapping effect means the longer I'm in a fight the less fight my enemies have. So far it's working great. And I do more damage than the average Dom not by value but by volume. Rather than spending 3-4 animations on non-damaging powers, or powers with only the most insignificant amount of damage tacked onto them, I'm putting out damage with almost every press of the keys. It feels stronger than I think it actually is... but I appreciate it. And yeah. The low HP means she can drop like a stone out of nowhere. But the risk is a LOT of fun!

I wound up playing the Shoxx build. Same concept, but centered around Electric. Ultimately I feel like it's much more effective (I'm 38 at this point) because I sap the enemy so very hard -while- I'm kicking their butts. It's a much more fulfilling design, so far.

Adding Cobwebs or making broken windows would require changing the map, which is a large pile of pieces stuffed together, like the world's largest SG Base. It would be prohibitively resource intensive to swap maps on the fly and either require everyone get kicked out of the zone or go through a loading screen. That's why the mapsets change during Maintenance Windows. That said, the Skybox -can- change on the fly. And invasion spawning logic exists. So it might be reasonable to change the skybox to the Dense Fog version, resulting in any zone suddenly becoming murky, cloudy, and harder to see through... And I think that'd be a great thing to do during, say, a Spectral Invasion where a bunch of Ghostly NPCs appear. From Ghostly Citizens like in Crotoa to Spectral Pirates like in Port Oakes... could even spawn in some EBs by putting the AE "Ghost Filter" on them. In Talos and Indy Port you could even force the Ghost-Ship to spawn during any Spectral Invasion just to add some spice to those -specific- invasions.

It would be increased time and increased risk for increased reward. I feel like that's valid.

Designed in the same vein as Fastbreak but with a bit more panache thanks to end drain being a reasonable option on the path to victory. Absolutely taking Agility for Incarnate on this babe for the very slight defense increase and the very massive End Drain increase. 32% Defenses, except for a moderate psi-hole (27% Ranged Def, though!) 75% S/L Resist and 50% Nrg. Has a Panic Button in Surge which caps all Resistances but Neg/Tox/Psi. This character cannot, and will not, ever run out of endurance. Ion for the Judgement, obviously, and either Assault or Melee for the Hybrid. Melee would softcap common defenses, nearly softcap uncommons, and provide Mag 20 protection at full saturation. While Assault would just let me do scads more damage. Hard choice!

During Link Minds (Around 60% Uptime) S/L Res: 83.36 (Capped at 75) Psi Res: 41.3% Psi Def: 62.5% (Softcapped against Incarnates) M Def: 35.3% R Def: 32.8%

So I had this neat idea, right? A flashy fighting fairly survivable street-hero with a little bit of psychic power. She can put people to sleep, she can confuse them, she can make them terrified, but mostly she just beats them around the head and neck or flings shuriken around. THIS IS A NONSTANDARD BUILD. I've long wanted an Assault/Defense character and I figure this might be an interesting way to try and implement it. This is not a Permadom Build. Or a Permahasten build. It's not about being the best Dominator in the game, but about being a well rounded fighter type character with both Melee and Ranged attacks. The character winds up with 6 melee and 4 ranged attacks. Boxing and Kick are there mostly as filler material if I get recharge-slowed or need to fight a single target for an extended period. Crosspunch is just more AoE. Whatchya think? Interesting concept? Ninja Run as main travel mode, hoverboard for long distance flight (Yeah, I know. Detoggling sucks!), and eventually the Vorpal Judgement.

... I actually REALLY LIKE THIS IDEA. I would NEVER USE IT ON NEMESIS. You'd need to have a switch in the spawning logic that caused LTs to spawn for every minion in a group, and possibly to have bosses spawn in the normal LT spot... but damn it if I wouldn't eat that up. Don't get me wrong, I love the feeling of POWER when I drop a Nuke or Judgement on a group of enemies and watch the minions melt away like wax under a blowtorch, just as much as the next player! But having the option to increase the difficulty by THAT DEGREE?! Sign me up.

I know you've worked on it, and it's something you're fairly happy with in it's design... but could you implement it in the next patch? Like November 1st, please? If there was a "Requests" forum I'd put this, there, but... Yeah. I would deeply appreciate the activation 'cause I know some people sitting on choice names for characters that don't actually exist, yet, and may never be realized.

Personally I don't like the second build up being a thing. Build Up-Distracting Dagger-Fan/Exe/Twist. Bit much. I feel like adding in a second layer gimmick would work really well at that point. Like Poisoning your weapons as an option to change damage types or add status effects. Nothing fancy or huge. Nothing to make the set dish out significantly more damage... just different Blade Coatings you could play with. 1) Flame Blades. You literally add a viscous burning material to your blades that makes them do 50% fire damage, 40% Lethal, reduces enemy accuracy by 2-4% per strike. Add a Minor Fire DoT to make up the 10% loss. 2) Poisoned Blades. Changes 30% of the attack's damage to Toxic, adds chance to Hold. 3) Shocking Knives. Changes it to 60/40 Energy/Lethal adds chance to Stun. The Coatings are a fun little way to play with enemy resistances, and depending on your team could help you stack controls or set off oil-slicks and such. And then you can play with different Weapon Customizations and Alternate Animations for players who want to use things like Tonfa or Flaming Fists. Same general animation, but the wrist straight instead of bent.... could be fun!

Your snarky passive aggressive and sarcastic bullshit, aside, Omega, the entire -suggestion forum- is made up of pipe dreams and "Wouldn't it be nice?" As to the future it's going to go one of three ways: 1) CoH HC shuts down when NCSoft isn't appeased. 2) CoH HC expands it's current staff when NCSoft is appeased but refuses to allow the HC staff to monetize the game to support development. Development picks up as more people are on hand to do work. 3) CoH HC expands it's current staff when NCSoft is appeased and allows the HC staff to monetize the game to support development. Development picks up rapidly as more people are on hand to do work and are able to quit their day jobs and get paid to do it. I'm hoping for Option 3, but Option 2 is far more likely. Grind. Unlock. Whatever. Different people will call it different things. Content and/or Reward gating is most accurate.

No one is suggesting taking away what already exists. We're suggesting that some of the future stuff be put behind gameplay walls or challenges that have to be overcome. Not all of it. Not even most of it. Just some.

... god I hate Longbow... They're a privately owned Paramilitary Organization created by Miss Liberty expressly to overthrow Lord Recluse. They run around Mercy Island armed with Flamethrowers (Banned by the Geneva Convention) firing willy nilly in the world's largest Fire Hazard slash Civilian Area. They're a terrorist organization that gets lauded for being heroes. It's so sickening. No thank you. I'd rather have something superheroic than another way to fire a gun. We've got, what, 5 ways as it stands? Assault Rifle, Beam Rifle, Thugs MM, Dual Pistols, Arachnos Soldier, and Robot MM. 6 different ways. That's more than enough. We don't need yet another Run and Gun AT. We need something superheroic... though the Olympian is probably not the best way to go about that, either.