Sovera

I'm so so so so so so x100 glad you're not in charge of things. Because if you want to play without travel powers and not taking attacks you can. It is a choice you can exert. But, like WoW players who hate flying and lobby for flying not to be included in the game because it makes everything too easy, I bet you don't, like they immediately pick flight when it's available and don't go around in ground mounts to exert their beliefs. I started in issue 6 as well and City of Cooldowns was a well deserved named. Endurance running out every two fights added... what? Complexity? Surely not. Boredom and slowness? Yes. Having to reserve five powers pre level 20 to take Stamina and a travel power added.. what? Complexity? Surely not. Boredom, slowness. Oh look, we had two attacks who recharge super slow and a third or fourth one would be great, but no, can't, because otherwise I'm pushing Stamina or my travel power past 14/20. Eventually people figured out (or at least I did) about using the dual build system for a pre level 20 build where we ignored taking the pre-requisites for Stamina and then at 20 change build because we only had a few respecs and had to earn them since they weren't given for free. This love for grind and boredom and slowness is 100% nostalgia with the gloss bad memories get. We can all laugh it up now of being sent to the Hollows pre-level 14 and travel on frigging foot to the other side of the map while dodging purple mobs, but lets not pretend we were having fun at the time. I can laugh about it now, but I'm not going to say it was a good experience at the time. Playing without Stamina was just about impossible and no amount of endurance reduction slotting made it bearable. Who thinks that chipping at mobs with brawl was good fun? Because that's how so many so many fights ended up being when we ran out of blue and pressed the button and watched it go red and we waited, and waited, and waited, and brawl would recharge and we'd stop queuing the attack and use brawl again, while STILL waiting for endurance to return. Good god, yes, it makes for some good shit talking now 15 years later, but was it FUN at the time? It sure wasn't.

Definitely my vote on removing the -level that the pets get.

PvP with its, numbers pulled out of my ass, 5% of the total population shouldn't be this thing balance revolves around. I still remember when PvP was two immortal character slugging it out for minutes before giving up. 'nuff of dat. MMs have a mystique of an high damage AT that is supported by the lack of a DPS meter that accounts for total damage. Sure, they do great against a pylon, but the game is about fast moving from pack to pack. I mean, hell, in any mission where we need to back track because we reached a dead end my MM will toggle on their travel power and back track until finding enemies again.... and then sit there twiddling their thumbs as the rest of the team trickles in and starts killing things, and then the pets arrive using Sprint. Eventually arrive.

*vibrates*

Very little. I don't roleplay with NPCs so I don't nerf my own build to accommodate them. As roleplayers in this setting imagination is the key. We are not bound by the status quo of comics that forces Batman to go fight crime in spandex when his universe is rife with skin thin armors that deflect tank shells and allow the user to fly. Same reason the X-men have that exact same armor in their lore but go to fight with spandex. Same reason a Super-man doesn't have an utility belt with some lead he can melt and throw over kryptonite or cover himself with, you know, the way he has dealt with it in the past but never seems prepared in case it is sprung on him. All of those are comic book devices. Thing who is perpetually trapped in his rocky body while Reed is unable to help him, ooooh, draaaaama, even if every half bit science villain has spare bodies and transfer their consciousness to them when they are defeated. Voila, solution. So if our fire blaster wants to fly my imagination says sure. If we don't want his powers to be the reason why then nab rocket boots from a villain. But back on topic. Roleplaying with NPCs is just not my thing. We could, yes, maybe, if roleplaying in a group, and we are playing a character who is young and low on the power scale, then sure, turn off some toggles, but even so I would be iffy about this, because people also don't tend to roleplay consequences. Yep, my young and weak hero got knocked down and I need to use a wakie. Let me just grumble about how that will leave a bruise or how it stung, then get up and jump back into the fray. Roleplay, for me, is not game mechanics. Game mechanics are game mechanics and roleplay is roleplay. My health bar can be at 100% and I'll roleplay I got hit and need to fall back and ow ow ow.

Best way to check for ToHit is going into Hero Designer, options, Configuration, Exemp&Math and change ToHit to 38. This is what hitting a +3 will be like which is what you will be at once you have your first level shift and fighting +4.

Guys, the trick is not to generate 20+ pages of back and forth controversy. We sing praises for the changes and then ask nicely if they can't be made separate from the tank changes so we can have the MM stuff earlier.

My memories of playing a Bot/Dark from live were spoiled when I returned to Homecoming and went eeeeeh, I no longer have the patience to resummon all the time, then upgrade and etc (and this with AoE upgrades). This change would certain spark my interest in the AT again. Want!

*vibrates harder* Are we there yet!?!

I agree with @Auroxis in that -regen isn't some sort of magic bullet. Other than an EB or AB nothing will notice -regen. We can say that about -res, but a solo tank, at least, will increase their damage in a small way against a boss. What makes -regen strong is the fact AVs have such stupidly large HP pools that a % regen tick is a large heal, but other than an AV nothing has that huge pool. Someone testing this against a pylon might say there is an upgrade, but again, large HP pools. Does it matter, yeah, I guess, sort of? In a DPS test against a pylon at least, since those have rules like not using lore pets. In normal gameplay the moment we get to the last boss of a TF two or three or four pets are dropped and everything is nuked in 30 seconds. So, please, lets keep it more generalist instead of focused on the mythical 'hard target'. Yeah, we have weekly TFs where we exemp down and lose the lore pets. Does anyone run this lower content at +4? Only +0 I would wager. Increase in AoE size or target per AoE is good and generalist. Lets keep in this line. Also, as Auroxis pointed I'm not 100% sure people really understand -regen. I see a lot of mention about woo, Beam is an AV killer, they have -regen!! And it's, what', 75%? 100%? In practical terms it takes a five minute fight to notice a difference. And if we boost -regen to actually noticeable levels then we are talking in the 200%-300% 'passively' applied which steps on a debuffer's toes. BUT! I feel that all this talk of balance is just plain WEIRD. This is CoH we are talking. We thrive on semi genocide each time we enter a mission. Heck, ITF and the 'slay 300 traitors' just shows it. Who cares if a Tank and a Brute are pretty interchangeable? So is a Scrapper and a Brute, so is a Scrapper and a Stalker. Stalkers don't even abuse their stealth anymore and just scrap side by side with the other meleers, and nowadays anyone has perfect stealth with a single IO and a power pick (since 90% of players take Hasten Super-speed is available to 90% of players). We slay 'tough' targets in 30 seconds. What is this super finicky, super complicated, super balanced attempt at making things equal? It reminds me of GW2 doing stuff like lowering a CD by 0.5 seconds which at the time made me laugh. It's out of place. CoH is not this super elitist game with DPS meters and a ton of theorycrafting and DPS checks. Anyone can reach max level in a week and then completely slot up to the max in another week. It's not like saying 'omg, my rogue is nerfed, but it's the character I was raiding with so I can't abandon it or I will lose my progress and my guild will kill me for having taken the drops to gear up, and it's the one I was grinding reputation on to unlock flying too, aaaaaaah!'. So what if Tanks end slightly better than Brutes at AoE damage? In two weeks the brute players will have a new Tank leveled and slotted. I have all the love and respect for Captain Powerhouse, but this is a serious case of overthinking.

This is one of the few cases where I would say to play a Sentinel instead of a Blaster. Sentinels get a reworked T3 that hits like a truck (driven by a Sentinel though). Sentinels also get their mechanic COMPLETELY abused by Sonic's cones. How abused? This abused: And before anyone asks no, this is not normal behavior, this only works on a Sonic. It also starts really early. By level 18 there are three cones that can be chained one after the other and a single use of these will fill the Sentinel's bar allowing to start with that vampiric gameplay. I made a post about it and I still declare it to be the most fun and durable experience I had with the cones having baked in -res for the team and also baked in CC.

Mad numbers for a supposed AoE focused AT. No Assault incarnate clicked or anything?

Energy Aura is a bit squishy but works perfectly fine. You just don't notice what it is doing in the low to mid levels without building for it. A build that takes Maneuvers, has both 3% defense uniques and has their toggles slotted (I'm not the only one only sparing slots for the toggles by level 30+) can achieve enough defense that a single purple insp will make fights easy. I'm talking jump-into-a-full-8-man-team-spawn-and-survive easy. For example: I don't know what you took for a primary so just change accordingly. I used exactly only enough slots that a level 25 character would have. By level 24-25 you can eat a small purple insp and be near immune to enemies. You can easily buy inspirations by going into a base who has a nurse. I use /macro Portals "enterbasefrompasscode ZONE-8888" (this will create a button in your bar, you can use this to teleport to a base that has portals to all zones in the game + a trainer and vendor, etc). After each mission I don't click on Exit but rather the macro button and go replenish my purples so I'm always topped. The expensive stuff are the Miracle and the Gladiator but you can put them off until you have earned the money. Making money isn't hard. Do Task Forces. Afterwards go to Atlas Park, go into the Atlas Hall (the building behind the trainer), locate the ATM against the wall and exchange the merits you got as a reward for the TF for Enhancement Converters. Type /AH, open your salvage tab and throw them in there and sell for what price they are currently going (around 90k each, and each merit is worth three Converters). Then locate Enhancements in the AH, go look for Attuned and buy what you need. if you have any questions my account name is in my signature and I can be poked in game.

I've already made my suggestion for a build. As for now don't try to level with these builds. Pick everything, try to slot what you can where you can, and at most respec into one of them at 32.

My bad then, thanks for the compliment and I'll correct that part. In the end I find myself using Lightning Fences so little that the gain in AoE is actually minimal since both get access to Ball Lightning. I suppose it is there for some extra oomph in solo play.

SR and tank is not a happy marriage IMO. Those 5% chances pile up very fast and as a tank you're going to be an agro magnet unlike a scrapper who will have a lot less attention on them. Market Crash is one of the few TFs where we can get to agro cap pretty easily because of huge spawns very close together (it's almost designed as a farm map tbh). Which then need to be healed, but SR has no heal. I posted a SR tank build somewhere and mentioned how when I threw it into a farm map to stress test it I was using Aid-Self as part of my rotation, and often times eagerly waiting for it to recharge. Aid-Self had a six seconds CD. The only two strengths of SR is being softcapped super early (I believe by level 24 on a tank) and its immunity to defense debuffs. I don't find either good enough to warrant playing one. For example. I level plenty of /Bio because I find it super survival and also offense oriented. I am no where near the defense softcap while leveling but I eat one or two purples on tough fights (in TFs) and I'm fine. I replenish my purple stock after a mission (easy enough with a base macro if we use it when a mission is over instead of clicking on exit, loading screen, then base macro, loading screen). And while my /Bios are eaten alive if I jump into the middle of an ITF roman pack thanks to the defense debuffs it works fine if I don't jump into the *middle* of the pack and instead approach them from the side and start unleashing AoEs to kill off all the minions. With those dead my absorb shield takes care of the rest. But lets say you like your SR shield and are happy with it or don't want to level a new character? Well, that's fine. Just carry oranges with you. When you see things are going badly (or you know you're approaching an ambush, or you see a second spawn that was agroed) just pop a couple. It is an unpopular opinion but I would work Aid-Self into the build to not rely on greens. Greens run out and then what?

I just do TFs. But you really want to farm merits? Keep an eye on your LFG and join the double Hami raids that happen daily. That's 120 mertis there for 20 minutes. Join a daily Tinpex for 80 merits for 40 minutes. Do a MSR for about 60 merits for 30 minutes (though it may *take* 30 minutes to get the group together). A Yin TF is 20 merits for 30 minutes too. Few things will beat pure farming. An hour can and should net you 100 million (with XP turned off, check the Farming builds in Guides for the mechanics of XP turned off), and if you can't stomach an hour of farming then do half hour here and there.

*vibrates in place* Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

My first advice would be 'don't'. City of Heroes allows anything to work and that's a trueism so ignore that first advice, but, keep in mind that we have several sets that never got tested and polished. While most of these are overtuned (anything /Bioarmor, Titan Weapons) some came out of the oven undertuned and Beasts is one. We see that there is still something lacking and the whole idea was not fully fleshed out. Beasts/Nature goes well together for both theme and gameplay.

A mastermind is never very involved playing. You spend your time directing your minions and waiting for things to die. Some will tell otherwise but choosing attacks is a bit of a waste. Extra damage is never bad but endurance is at a premium for Masterminds since they have an endurance tax on their secondary. Bots does not pair extremely well with /Sonic either. You have a beautiful -res skill you can attach to a friendly, but it requires the friendly to go into melee range for it to have an effect. None of your bots are something you want to go into melee. For the same reason /Poison works well with thugs (they too have a skill that can be attached to a friendly) using thugs would mean you can attach that -res to your level 32 summon. Now this is just solo talk. In groups there is always some brute or tank or scrapper who dives first into the packs of enemies and you can attach that skill to them and reap the benefits. As you are still only 32 I would say that you might like more a Demons/Thermal (little old lady finds her grandson's cultist book 😄 ) since Demons are resistance based and Thermal offers resist shields. Thermal is pretty sweet at all levels. You're just starting? Everyone is low level and doesn't have defenses yet, so Thermal's healings are sweet ambrosia from the heavens and at all levels your pets will like them. Still low level? You have resistance shields that diminish the damage taken. Medium to high level? The shields are *still* going to be useful, but now you can boost someone(s) in your team to increase their damage as well. Higher level still? You can debuff strong enemies and make AV or EB fights much faster. Personally I found this pairing pretty good since we can put our pets in aggressive mode and let them go nuts while we focus in keeping everyone alive, and if things go sour we can go into bodyguard mode (if you don't know about the bodyguard mode please google macros for it, it's a game changer) to be half immortal. Bots/Cold is a good pairing as well. The tier two bots do +defense shields on everyone of the team, your other minions as well. Cold does +defense shields (different from Thermal that does resistance shields). That means your bots and your Cold shields stack up for even moar defense. There Cold falters is the lack of a heal which your minions will NOT appreciate, but it has more debuffs and knockdowns and strong anti-AV skills. Bots or thugs marry very well with /Time (which is an excellent secondary and quite busy to keep someone entertained) since both thugs and bots have +defense and /Time has buffs that increase defense, plus accuracy, plus recharge, plus it has a decent little AoE heal. One thing you will notice is how fragile your pets are. This is why I am advising stacking themes. Demons + Thermal manages to get the minions to cap of 90% resistances. Combined with the healing of Thermal and it will be hard to lose minions. Sonic does resistance shields but does not have the heals. Cold, Forcefield (not the best choice to pick), Time pair very well with thugs and bots since they stack defenses. There are a few builds around this sub-forum that allows pets to reach the soft-cap defense meaning they take a lot less damage. I even posted one where as early as level 28 a Thugs/Time had the pets softcapped.

Both bots and storm want mass immobilizes to hold the mobs in place while the burn patches and tornadoes are active. So I say WITH the caveat of rushing to get the mass immobilize from the patron pool the combo will work well together since you're immobilizing mobs anyway. Pre mass immobilize I feel it's going to be the usual miserable thing of throwing a tornado or bots doing fire patches and the mobs rushing to gtfo. There really is a lot of chaos and confusion going with Storm but I feel that pylon runs don't have a meaning in real gaming. Lots of KD, sure, a ton of little numbers popping all over the screen, which looks and feels great, but also enemies scattering and messing things up for the rest of the team who is trying to AoE them down, and in practical terms the enemies surviving longer because of this, compared to throwing a Tar Patch which slows them in place and increases damage taken.

I have finished the build and slotted everything and etc. My last thoughts about it are: - Perfect build. If I ever get a friend to join me and want to give them a first build to ease them into the game this will be it. - Quick ST chain completed by level 18. This means it is available even if we exemp down to do Posi 1 for the weekly or to play with friends. No big gaps, no big waits. - Very fast animations. As someone who was leveling a second Rad/ I abandoned it at level 35 because I could no longer stomach the 1.7, 2.3 and preposterous 2.9 animation times with my targets dying before I finished the animation, or whiffing, or doing the whole huge animation and not even having a Scrapper's crit to make me feel good about all that time spent locked in place. - Early AoE with Spin. There is some whining about homogenization but to be perfectly honest here we need MORE homogenization, not less. Telling someone to slog it to 32 to have their first AoE and in the meanwhile kill every enemy one at a time is only valid if the game does not have an exemp feature who then removes the powers. Every set should have an early AoE. This is an AoE game. Picking sets for theme or fun should be the thing, not do so because the damage type is resisted, not because of lack of AoE. I'm going to do a Savage/Bio next to test it since both sets are so similar.

I'm trying to find the post about it again but Hemo's long cast + stack eating made it a loss to use. Great for Stalkers though.

...can you believe I can't find this anywhere? So apparently Hemorrhage is pants and we are better off not using it and hoarding our stacks of Frenzy. Alright, fine. But then what? Maiming Slash, Vicious Slash, ???, profit? Rend is too slow at 2.11. Hemorrhage, as mentioned, not to be used. What then? It looks like Savage Strike is on the menu but I can't find a confirmation. Any Savage Melee players out there? Halp!

Noooo, don't tease us with this and then take two months to roll them out!