Bionic_Flea

I am torn between an explanation and just-say-no (/jranger). If you, as a poster, have a unique take on it or are an early responder then yes, you should provide some detail. But if your positions have already been expressed by others I think a "no" is perfectly acceptable.

No thanks. I don't think insta-50 is a good idea.

Life is full of choices. "If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice." Moving set bonuses will not turn Force Field into Cold. It won't turn a Fire Blast defender into a Fire Blaster. There will still be uber players with uber builds and some other players with a generic build that wonder how those Uber players do what they do. There will still be power set combos with synergy and those without. And I will repeat: ANY power set combo can do amazing things and clear +1/x8 or higher missions solo at level 50, perhaps earlier. I'm not talking about a petless mastermind with only pool powers. But I am talking about Mercenaries/Sonic, TA/Assault Rifle, and whatever other wacky combo you can think of. If I haven't played one to 50, I'm sure someone else has and I'm sure I could make an awesome build that uses current powers and set bonuses.

I disagree with everything above that says "mandatory" or "need." But I agree that all of them are nice to have. I finished this with 4 players on +2/x8 - A tank, a blaster, a cold corrupter, and . . . an MM? Not sure of the last one. Oh, we died a lot and it took a long time, but we did it: Without voice chat. Without extra aggro control Without revive powers other than inspirations Minimal healing Moderate stealth Moderate buffing

Ukase knows these things. This is why Ukase plays CoX in the most unusual ways.

The thing is, you can play whatever you want. But you do have a choice: You can ignore the numbers or you can embrace them. Either way is valid. The choice is yours. ANY power set pairing with a good build and a competent player can solo at LEAST at +1/x8 by level 50. Many can do it earlier or at higher plus levels. You can do this now, today, without having to change anything in the game. Transferring set bonuses to other sets will not let you ignore the numbers -- you'd still have to know which set bonuses to chase and balance damage, defense, endurance, etc. Transferring set bonuses to other sets will not make any old build just as good as a great build -- you'd still have to get the proper amount of set bonuses. What it will do is decrease the value of Purples, ATOs, Winter-Os and certain other premier sets. Why pay for those when I can give those set bonuses to Trap of the Hunter or whatever?

You say dogpile like it's a bad thing. I see dogpile and think "all-you-can-eat buffet" YUM!

Who plays CoX in the most unusual way? Ukase. I nominate Ukase.

I know vigilantes can join, but not sure that they can start villain TFs. Or is that something new?

I LIKE BIG BUNS, and I cannot lie.

I went with Intuition Radial on my Plant/Poison/Psy - Extra Hold, Damage, Range, Defense Debuff, and -Tohit? Yes, please. Clarion Radial for mez resistance and MORE hold, defense, and debuff. Control Core for +1 Mag and bonus Psy damage. Reactive Radial for -res and bonus fire damage. Pyronic Radial for big, fast AoE that also stuns. And Knives of Vengeance Radial because I love their buff and debuff.

At first, because he felt bad for Batman. Later, because he was scared of Batman.

I wonder if the devs would be willing to allow inf to Vanguard Merit conversion or a reverse conversion of Reward Merits to V-merits. That would essentially be the same result.

1. Yes, need Vanguard Merits 2. Yes, can purchase in TF Mode. Additionally, you can head to Pocket D's P2W and buy the ranged damage signature summon. Both Ghost Widow and Manticore have holds. While in Pocket D, head out to the Winter Chalet, talk to the Candy Keeper elf and buy the Golden Rings hold power for 20 Candy Canes. Don't have any canes? You can buy some from AH. And VileTerror is correct, you can always train or even switch builds while on TF mode. But unless you already have a second build done with a hold in it, that seems like a lot of time and effort. You can also talk to a Merit Vendor in TF mode to buy or convert Reward Merits. Unfortunately, you can't buy Vanguard Merits or convert R-Merits to V-Merits, but you can buy R-Merits or convert V- merits to R-merits. Going back to the OP, I would not be opposed to adding tear gas as a purchasable power in P2W. It's already available as a temp power in game either through day jobs or mission completion and P2W already sells stuns, ranged attacks, melee attacks, buffs, debuffs, etc. And as I mentioned above, you can already buy a hold directly via candy canes, and indirectly via summons. But I do not think that the TF should give you a free hold. Yes, I know some other TFs give a temp power. But it's usually a mcguffin needed to overcome a specific need in the content, like the Orestes Rifle for Ms. Liberty or Dampening Ray for Reichsman.

Here's a thread that has a couple of builds I came up with as well as a few from Sir Myshkin. After those were posted, the Devs changed the sustain from force of thunder to dynamo, so here is my updated build with that change. EDIT: I tried my hand at soloing a level 52 Dominatrix AV and just as I was making a little bit of progress, I died. Maybe a different version of Elecx3 can do it, or maybe an even level AV, but this build couldn't.

I responded to an identical thread that should be merged. Here's my take: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The result of this suggestion would be that any set could have any set bonus. No, sorry, I don't think that would be a good idea or lead to build diversity . . . unless you define build diversity by the names and pictures on your enhancements. There's a lot of ground between gimp on one end and the ultimate, cannot-be-better build, if such a thing even exists, on the other end. And from one extreme to the other are thousands of permutations of viable builds that can do crazy and amazing things. Moreover, in this game, even the most gimp build you can think of can solo the game from 1 to 50. So build your teleporting, rifle-toting medic! I'd wager that with a little time in Mids you can even come up with one with soft-cap defense and good damage without having to transfer set bonuses between sets.

The result of this suggestion would be that any set could have any set bonus. No, sorry, I don't think that would be a good idea or lead to build diversity . . . unless you define build diversity by the names and pictures on your enhancements. There's a lot of ground between gimp on one end and the ultimate, cannot-be-better build, if such a thing even exists, on the other end. And from one extreme to the other are thousands of permutations of viable builds that can do crazy and amazing things. Moreover, in this game, even the most gimp build you can think of can solo the game from 1 to 50. So build your teleporting, rifle-toting medic! I'd wager that with a little time in Mids you can even come up with one with soft-cap defense and good damage without having to transfer set bonuses between sets.

You're Ignatz the Insane, not Ignatz the Innocuous! 😜

But Cobalt Arachne, I don't want my challenges to be too hard . . . or too easy . . . you know, like Goldilocks!

You can also buy the Power Core from Vanguard, which gives you a Heavy Mech that has the tear gas hold. Conveniently located just under the entrance to the Hamidon Mission. https://hcwiki.cityofheroes.dev/wiki/Vanguard_HVAS

My take: 1. No. 2. No. 3. Hell yes! 4. Yes.