Aurora_Girl

Blood is thicker than water... Another one of my favorite WILDLY DIFFERENT original sentiments.

This is going in the BillZ Hall of Fame.

Driving a car and playing a video game are...not the same thing. If I literally have no idea how cars work, putting me inside one isn't going to help me. I wouldn't be able to start it (or even know that "starting it" is a thing), let alone pilot it; assuming we'll go all the way with this clunky-ass metaphor. Yes, play in the game! Learn new things! I learn something new or unusual about this place every single day. I suppose I just miss actual guides, descriptions of powers and how they feel to be wielded, rather than 0.5% MOAR DEF FOR MAX DMG WIN INCARNATE SMASH regardless of intention. If the message anyone gets from what I'm saying is "play exactly how I want you to and no other way" that couldn't be further from the truth. It just seems, if I were new to the game and interacting with the community at all, it reads to me that login -> copy someone else's build -> profit (whatever profit even means) is the only way to feel "successful" at City of Heroes, and I think we can all rally around the idea that it's not. To add another clunky metaphor: I won't tell you how to use your charcoal grill but if you're trying to use it in your garage with the door closed I might knock on it to tell you it's a bad idea.

I feel like we've covered a lot of this ground in a couple of recent threads.

Thanks for your help... 🧐

I in fact have thought about it! Thank you so much for such an obvious and well-intentioned solution. I decided to continue to be upset about it and make a thread on the forum with the knowledge that I'd have a lively discussion...like I already said. It upsets me. It always will. If new folks understand how the game works, how their characters work, I believe they are more likely to stick around. More likely to share the game with others. More likely to become awesome members of the community.

I feel like enemies *period* run specifically more and for longer durations because of being debuffed. Rommy pulling his best mountain goat act and parkouring all over the courtyard is, to me, a hell of a lot more entertaining and dynamic than a tank-n-spank experience. Feel like this is a taxonomical branch of the knockback naysayers family tbh 😛 Call it the difference between a $4 pizza buffet and wood-fired Neopolitan-style. If that type of experience bugs ya, bring your immobing friends or just embrace the chase.

@ZemX I bring up the point specifically for new players or folks who have never played a specific AT or powerset. It comes off as lazy (to me) to beg for a build on something that you have no idea how to play. Behind the scenes, if somebody grabs an available build? Sure, knock yourself out. Making a post or discord message like "never played a blaster fire/fire build plz" pisses me off.

Inherent in rolling Illusion/anything with an enemy-affecting or otherwise conflicting toggle. My Ill/Dark doesn't have Superior Invis specifically because of Shadow Fall.

As a journalist, I support this message. EDIT: Bonus props for spelling "lede" correctly!

This has brought up a good point I hadn't considered: guides as written now aren't really like guides as they once were. Instead of descriptions of powers and their uses (every spawn as well as situationally), maybe the trend has become a simple build post with no context or explanation of *why*.

A truism in all walks of life: no matter how big you make your sign, a not-i consequential amount of people will choose to ignore it.

Reeeeeeally getting strong TDE here.

It's a single enemy group on a single TF that happens to have a unique and challenging system of interacting powers. Why are we mad again?

By the time you trigger Electron Haze and it actually does any damage, you could solo an ITF. Poison/Rad at 50, love everything else about rad blast.

He's saying the original plan was to do that praetorian theme. Looks more like either the incognito one is the official or they're scheduling two contests on the same day/time.

On PUGs, if I'm leading... somebody wants to go Leeeeroy? Let 'em. Either they can handle themselves, or they can't. If they can, and for whatever reason I don't want them speeding/stealthing/etc, as lead it's my responsibility to say so. If they can't? They'll get waxed and either learn to stay with the murderball or quit the team. Either way is a win in my book. As in most of human existence, communication is key.

You misspelled "They know I'm a cruelly efficient murder machine and to attempt any semblance of control would be futile" wrong.

Never said otherwise.

Neither one of those things are what I'm talking about.

This is the impetus for me to get this thread started. I think the problem becomes that new players come, in see build posts and assume that’s just how you play the game and don’t learn how the powers actually work in practice. Don’t see how they actually work in teams or solo or against different mobs and don’t understand what the builds are even doing; they just assume it’s like wow where each thing just has a static value. I’m more of a play a little bit, learn the lingo, then figure out what you’re trying to build for. If you don’t wanna mess with mids, just say hey I don’t wanna mess with mids; here’s what I want to build, for here’s what I’m playing, where should I go? If they don’t wanna use mids that’s fine but don’t just copy a build, use it, and then bitch about how you can’t play or how the game is hard.

(Author's Note: This is purely for discussion, because it annoys me, and I'm looking for lively discourse.) Rather than unabashedly asking for a completed build someone else spent their valuable time to create (which may or may not have your goals/concept/etc in mind), why not do it yourself? At least give it a shot first, then throw it up to be dissected civilly and have a back and forth on those goals and how to best fit them in. Conversely, if you don't even know where to begin, take your idea and ask for direction or something...give a man a build, set him on fire, ad nauseum. *Calling all "don't tell me how to have fun" folks!*

Absolutely game changer.

Just tried (+Ox8, for a control) on my kitted DB/EnA stalker, smooth if slow until the last general group on Mish 3 and I forgot to keep an eye on my health while spinning to look for surgeons. I call it user error.

It's not a buff, it's adding back a power that was mistakenly turned off.