[So apparently Homecoming is only the 7th most popular server]

/coxg/ "we're not homecoming i guess"

 

Well at least we're notable enough to be a joke reference for 4chan's version of City of Heroes, I guess?

 

I heard /coxg/ was powered entirely by salt.

[Altaholics Anonymous]

I've only made 27 characters so far. I'm fine, and I can stop at any time.

[I have an issue with Scrappers, does anyone else?]

Things aren't running away despite the damage aura, they are running away because of it.

 

This. Death Shroud for Brutes and Tankers has taunt. Death Shroud for scrappers and Stalkers does not.

[A Guide to Jerk Hacking on the Beta Server]

The freebies popmenu and /boost or the macro in a newly generated mission map also does nothing for me. It's not a huge deal but it's a bit awkward to test things without having enhancements. The log says that boost is an unknown command.

 

I guess it's time to hang out with the merit vendor.  :P

 

That error message is misleading.  It only means the particular /boost command is unknown, not that /boost in general is unknown.

 

Okay, but like that was in response to /boost enhancement_name enhancement name 50

 

Worked tonight, no idea why it didn't last night, since I did exactly the same thing.

[Best way to fill KB hole in DA?]

I found one mission with four bosses spamming psi attacks that overcame 8 points of KB protection. Once. Ran into a few instances with four points, too, but I don't remember where.

[I remember when...]

I remember when the PVP zones first opened up.

 

I remember all the heroes showing up in Bloody Bay - the lowest-level PvP zone - with their HOs, and pushing the battle so close to the villain base, people were getting sniped IN THE HOSPITAL. 

  (Speaking of which, I remember when the villain bases had open-air hospitals.  Ugh.)

 

The battle was right up against the gates, barely fifteen or twenty feet beyond the Arbiter Drones' range.  Literally, villains couldn't get out of the base to do anything else in the zone.  Level 9s with scrounged-up TOs, even SKed up to ... what is it, 12, for Bloody Bay?  Well, they can't compete with 50's sporting wall to wall HOs, even EX'd down to the same effective level.

 

That night, I pissed off SO many "Hero" players (quote marks intentional), because I stood my Robotics/FF mastermind next to an Arbiter and kept using "Teleport Other" to haul their butts into obliterate range.

 

Back when Arbiter Drones gave full Debt.

 

OH THE HOWLS.  And dozens, literally dozens, of reports/complaints sent to the GMs.

 

To which I calmly and repeatedly said "just move back down to the beach, away from the base, and you won't get Arbiter'd anymore."

 

And nary a GM said half a syllable to me about it, either.

 

But the heroes did move back.  After a dozen or more of them got great big piles of debt (some of them, six or eight times apiece!).

 

:D :D :D Good times, good times!! :D :D :D

 

I remember during the City of Villains beta, they tested each PVP zone by giving you free level ups, and the first one, Bloody Bay, we got 15th level characters. I checked over the Stalker secondaries and found that only one out of the four would get status protection before level 16. So... I made an AR/Dev blaster with targeting drone and beanbag and spent the event stunning stalker out of Hide. My favorite was someone who got inside the arrival point (a helicopter) so when I stunned him the police drones got him. At one point I had multiple villains after me, including an ice/ice corruptor trying to freeze me in place so I could get assassin striked like four times. It was glorious, and possibly the most fun I've ever had in PVP, despite not directly killing literally anyone.

 

IIRC it was Dark Armor that got Obsidian Shield at level 10.

 

Had fun testing Recluse's Victory on an Ice/Stone tanker for that matter. Again, I didn't kill anyone but I was able to mess up people's days enough for other people to do it. And that time I had a dozen villains debuffing me to keep me from escaping, or even healing while in Hibernate. Good stuff.

 

Also used to do small PVP events with other players on the test server for fun. I recall LaserJesus was a part of those, and he had quite the accent.

 

[Who took my name???]

I will admit I ended up camping a few names before sunset, but each of those names ended up on a level 50 character when I finally found an AT and powerset I liked for each one. In most cases they were just multiple false starts (like my Peacebringer Solar Fury started as a fire/fire blaster, a fire/something controller, a fire/fire tanker, etc).

[A Guide to Jerk Hacking on the Beta Server]

The freebies popmenu and /boost or the macro in a newly generated mission map also does nothing for me. It's not a huge deal but it's a bit awkward to test things without having enhancements. The log says that boost is an unknown command.

 

I guess it's time to hang out with the merit vendor.  :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Freebies Popmenu - Give yourself levels, inf, and enhancements]

I can't seem to get this to work.

[Willpower Tanks, Weedy Taunters?]

Yeah, just tested OG + CoF, and you're right - they get the one action every 10 seconds that allows them to stagger around, they cower, repeat.

[What makes a good tanker secondary?]

A big part of Dark Melee's defensive elements are the to-hit debuffs, especially in Touch of Fear, but every attack has it, and I think Midnight Grasp and Siphon Life both have a fairly decent amount of it, although not as good as ToF.

[Someone Explain Taunt to Me.]

This is true, and if the community is similar to how it was when CoH was not canceled, many scrappers and brutes may be deliberately trying to steal that aggro. :D

 

At least Brutes benefit by way of Fury. Scrappers, on the other hand...  :o (Of course, Taunt duration outstrips Confront, so they'd be fighting a losing battle, there!)

 

Are most tankers taking taunt now?

 

Probably but there was a running argument in the old forums about how "I don't need no stinking taunt", more often than not by players unfamiliar with the game.  Bottom line is that a tank is more effective with taunt than without it, although some sets with strong auras can get by without.  Of course if it comes to grabbing that add across the room you're out of luck without it.

 

This is not how I remember those arguments going. That is, many of the proponents of skipping Taunt I personally knew were actually fairly good tankers with a decent amount of experience. As far as grabbing adds across the room tanks have options to deal with that.

 

I also recall people campaigning for something like the aoe taunt in attacks just so taunt wouldn't be required.

[I have an issue with Scrappers, does anyone else?]

What's a Brute?

 

It's one of those things that hits harder at low levels before SOs but wishes it had scrapper damage at high levels.

 

This is what's known as "doing brutes wrong."

[Someone Explain Taunt to Me.]

This is true, and if the community is similar to how it was when CoH was not canceled, many scrappers and brutes may be deliberately trying to steal that aggro. :D

 

At least Brutes benefit by way of Fury. Scrappers, on the other hand...  :o (Of course, Taunt duration outstrips Confront, so they'd be fighting a losing battle, there!)

 

Are most tankers taking taunt now?

[Willpower Tanks, Weedy Taunters?]

I've only played DA on a scrapper for eight years, and on a brute for a few years less, so I might be missing something, but in my attempts to use OG and CoF together, what I saw was stunned mobs would wander away and the fear and stun would wear off.

 

I haven't been playing over the past seven of the last eight years, but that isn't what should be happening; if the terror lands, the mob should be rooted and unable to attack for five seconds.  They would then (because they're presumably taking damage from Death Shroud so the terror will break) ordinarily be able to attack and move, but the stun is supposed to lock down the attack part and the cycle repeats as CoF ticks again.  Even in the best case, it's an "if" because of the miserable base tohit of CoF.  But if it is hitting, and they're moving while under an ongoing terror effect, then something is buggy.

 

...With all that being said, I'm dropping OG on my DA/ tanker, so my defense of it is halfhearted at best.

 

I meant 2004 to 2012, and I also meant, really, that I haven't done a DA tanker, so I admit there may be something I'm missing here.

 

That said, my prior experience in the previously live game was that fear doesn't prevent stunned mobs from wandering.

[I don't get why this is so much better than CO]

I've popped back in from time to time to see how it's doing, but man is it lifeless. And there's not really that much more content than was there when it went live. The fact that it's still around when CoH got shut down by NCSoft still angers me. To this day I refuse to buy any product that NCSoft puts out.

 

To be fair, they do (last time I looked) actually have enough content to reach 40 without having to farm.

[Someone Explain Taunt to Me.]

Yep. I wasn't as clear as I could have been. What I meant was, "if you don't have Taunt, you'll likely lose aggro to [all] Brutes and Scrappers [with taunt auras]."

 

This is true, and if the community is similar to how it was when CoH was not canceled, many scrappers and brutes may be deliberately trying to steal that aggro. :D

[Willpower Tanks, Weedy Taunters?]

You probably wouldn't want Oppressive Gloom to hold aggro as stunned minions will wander away.

 

OG and CoF are intended to work together; neither is a particularly good mez on their own, but cooperatively they lock minions in place.

 

I've only played DA on a scrapper for eight years, and on a brute for a few years less, so I might be missing something, but in my attempts to use OG and CoF together, what I saw was stunned mobs would wander away and the fear and stun would wear off. While I was able to keep moving to keep them mezzed, I never saw much value to using both in most circumstances. Exceptions being, say, fighting an elite boss with a ton of minions nearby. The two mezzes don't really synergize.

 

Also, Cloak of Fear's other benefit, esp against bosses, AVs, etc. is the to-hit debuff. Unfortunately, it's not a massive debuff, but it still helps.

 

Anyway, Death Shroud + Cloak of Fear makes a decent combination to taunt everything around you without loose stunned minions wandering off in random directions.

[Who took my name???]

I missed out on a handful of names, including one I was really attached to (but now I like the variation I came up with more, so all is well).

 

I wish I could have reclaimed Crownfire, though.

[Willpower Tanks, Weedy Taunters?]

I also wonder if this is behind Invuln’s old reputation as a gold standard aggro magnet - a great taunt aura -plus- little care and feeding.  Though everything I hear suggests that Ice is even -better-, it may be harder to do this with Ice due to that aggro management being active rather than passive?  (Cannot say - have not played Ice Armor)

 

Ice Armor is a "set and forget" primary, aside from Energy Absorption, and Ice/* has TWO auras that attract attention ... Chilling Embrace and Icicles ... not just one.

 

It may just be that Ice is much less common, so few people have teamed with one/with a good one.

 

I wonder how sticky Dark Armor can be made - 3 toggle auras...

 

You probably wouldn't want Oppressive Gloom to hold aggro as stunned minions will wander away.

[Someone Explain Taunt to Me.]

Addendum 1

 

If you don't have Taunt, you'll likely lose aggro to Brutes and Scrappers (with actual Taunt auras). Why? You'll both have roughly the same taunt duration (taunt auras and Gauntlet have the same duration), but far less damage. With Taunt you can overwhelm their damage advantage with a bigger threat multiplier.

 

Also, brutes have inherent taunt (but not aoe taunt) in their attacks.

[I don't get why this is so much better than CO]

I totally agree the defensive passives were too powerful, especially force field and regeneration. The problem was just that they overcorrected so hard there was no reason to take them without the buff that came later.

 

Also, offensive passives sorely needed buffs to compete.

[So we're getting new archetypes?]

I'd love to see the powersets that were started finished up. For example, Wind Control and the other Origin based Power Pools (like Sorcery).

 

Would love to see this, but I've heard the animations for the other four origin based power pools were never done.

[I don't get why this is so much better than CO]

Then the Day One patch happened.  I don't know if you were able to play during the Headstart, but believe me when I say the game was different.  Night-and-day different.  That Day One patch cut player power by about 30%, while increasing NPC power by at least 50%.  I went from being able to solo spawns of 1-2 LTs and 3-4 mooks .... to faceplanting if there were more than 3 enemies of ANY power level.

 

It sounds a bit like Jack Emmert's mantra from the early days of CoH that "three minions = one hero" -- his vision that three bottom-tier enemies would be a significant challenge to a solo hero, the last vestige of which can be seen in the fact that the default minion spawn in solo missions at x1 is three minions. He also had the fixation on 'fun' being throwing yourself at the end boss again and again and again, being defeated over and over, until you figured out what the obscure specific actions you had to do to defeat it (as if the correct tactics wouldn't get splashed across the net within hours of that boss being beaten for the first time). Both of these aspects that made CoH more tedious to play got phased out as he was pushed upstairs, then the buyout by NCsoft freed the rest of the devs to make play feel more 'heroic'.

Except it wound up being "1.5 minions = 1 hero".

 

See, what triggered the whole thing is this: a small cadre of over-achievers who had a lot of experience in the Beta managed to hit the level cap within the 3-day Head Start.

 

So they panicked, and grossly over-corrected.  They nerfed everything playerside - especially player defenses - and buffed everything NPC-side - especially NPC defenses.

 

I used to be able, on my Munitions/Devices character "Arsenal of Justice" during that headstart, to bounce from 3-5 spawn to 3-5 spawn, pretty much nonstop.  It truly felt SUPERHEROIC; I still had to not be asleep at the keyboard for Lieutenants, and actually pay attention for Bosses.  But the generic mooks?  Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, all day long.  Like I was the friggin' Batman, but with guns and a hoverdisk.

 

Then, on Day One?  Suddenly, I couldn't take more than two of those mooks, or one single Lieutenant, without having to find a safe spot to "take a knee" for a few moments to heal back up.  And that's WITH Healing Drones following me around 24/7.  My speed of play absolutely crashed, to less than 1/20 what it used to be.

 

When your DPS goes down by 1/3, your defenses go down by half or two-thirds while simultaneously the enemy's DPS goes up by a 1/3, and their defenses go up by half or two-thirds ...

 

... it's no longer the same game.

 

I was one of those who wanted a refund for my Lifetime subscription.

 

I was not one of those who was given that refund.  >_<

 

With Emmert-led Cryptic, if something was overpowered and any one of three or more solutions would correct the issue, Cryptic would implement all three. Also, getting Cryptic to revisit old nerfs before changes in management or the team was extremely difficult.

 

 

[I remember when...]

I remember learning how to window hop in King's Row because I didn't have Fly/Hover, and I had no easier way to get to the roofs to take out the Circle of Thorns that I needed for my mission to be complete.

 

Anyone else remember the "art" of window hopping? Before we got all sorts of cheap and easy free travel powers from like level 1?

 

Yes. My first 50 had jumping as a travel pool.