Scarlet Shocker

I had some fun with Mercs back on live - they weren't amazingly good nor bad but I wouldn't say they were terrible

What I'm really taking from this thread is there are no seriously bad combos and power sets it's purely down to preference and play style. If you want to play something truly awful go play World of Warcraft 🤣

I used to Duo quite a bit on Live. I'm kinda getting the vibe again. Anyone else feeling it?

I tried a Psi/FF controller on live. That was... tedious and hard work. Quite survivable, but slow slow slow

A Demon/Cold MM and a Plant/TA controller. Own the game!

I have two dark melee tanks already which is how I know I dislike that particular set. I do have an outstanding tank that I rolled on my recent return here, an Elec/Kin who is pretty damned tough in most situations (but does occasionally experience a sudden crash of stats that I'm still working on.) She caps in a similar way to the Dark Armour you mention here. So far Bio is working well for me and I'm enjoying how this guy plays - but I do find the taunt from Presence quite lacklustre, and it's hard to justify taking two taunts. It's worth thinking about. Logically you're making a good case but as you say at the end of your post, it's the enjoyment that is what really matters and this guy seems to be fun for me. I might roll a DA/Something at a later stage to compare and contrast but I've got a lot of irons in the CoH fire right now so I'm trying to focus on just a few of those projects currently.

Every time I summon my lore pets, they are defaulted to Defensive and Follow me. I appreciate for some of my pets that's not a bad option but the attacking pets are emasculated by it. I change it every summons, but it still defaults to Defensive Follow on next summon. This seems like a dumb bug - but if it is default behaviour how can we change it?

I use Mids, I was confusing Hecatomb with Soulbound Allegiance

I was thinking of a scenario where I'd got Rocky slotted with something like Hecatomb, and a Coralax slotted with a good proc collection. My thinking is thus: Given that the procs are unique they are likely to be global. If they are slotted in the "temp pet" they should still work passively while Rocky can get on with the daily business of smashing stuff. It seems I might be under a misapprehension here.

I certainly agree with this statement. There has always been a segment of the community that believes there is only one true way to create a character and play this game - but that's simply a reflection of wider society. My own personal take is that I love the diversity and options this game gives - to me that is one of its best strengths. That's a very good point. With my Poison toons I have to be in the thick of it because if I'm standing off from the action I'm not giving my team the benefit of Venomous Gas nor am I able to utilise Poison Gas Trap. I do usually prefer to stand back and support from a distance but I have more experience of controllers than I do defenders which lend themselves to that. Your question raises an interesting point to me: Will my first attack be consistent through the levelling process? How will I know what my attack chain looks like at 54 when I've not yet tried the power set combination? But it does nevertheless give a good insight into what I'd like to achieve.

Get mezzed and ALL your toggles turned off so you'd literally have to stop and reset just to get back in the action. Of course a lot of these issues are down to taking time out of the game - running to Skyway or Steel to do missions when nowadays we can TP to a mission instantly. It was a way to make you feel like you were playing, and filling in the time between content. Now we're so content rich we take time out the game with fine tuning those respecs and farming for those purples. There is a certain nostalgia - the game felt a lot more... level there. Most players were in the same boat. Remember when it was a big deal to get your actual travel power at level 14? And FITNESS!!!!

Excellent thankyou

I know almost nothing about fluffy but if I have Audrey II (plant pet) or Rocky (Earth control) up and a Coralax or Mu pet up... which gets the procs? Do the procs affect only the pet they are slotted in or are they global effects?

That's really interesting. I'm pretty sure VG is a GTAOE so you can't target it. But there was once a bind to be able to lay it at a victim's feet I believe

Do you know the macro? If you could pst it here that would be immense!

I actually genuinely want to play a TA/Poison "bugger" It w Some great info here thankyou. I haven't heard of many of these powers. I'm not sure where I'd get half of them but I guess if I have a couple. Interesting point about Volcanic Gasses - nothing like overlooking the obvious (to quote Tony Stark) - that's a question - if I lay OSA on the VG patch will it ignite automatically? Some testing requred

Fire/I'll take you to burn

Earth isn't traditionally one of the high damage sets. It's very much a "lock 'em down and tickle 'em to death" vibe - and from memory I don't think Time adds to that greatly. That said as Menomancer says your buffs and debuffs will do a lot to improve the damage you actually do. But if you were to add a couple of more damaging pool sets such as Force of Will and maybe a damaging Epic you will do a lot to improve your damage output quite a bit.

honestly, I'm trying to unsee that thought very hard right now

It's quite easy to get multiple pets in game - which is a lot of fun. Especially for controllers and SoA. And of course you can also get pets from some of the PPPs. I was frequently told on live to use the various procs for pets when designing a build. There are several specific sets and it kind of makes sense. But if you're playing a controller for example and you have your main pet up all the time, is it better to slot that pet with the procs or have it do what it's good at and slot your "secondary" pet - many PPP pets are on a timer IIRC - be the mule that carries the procs? Does it even make a difference? Does anyone know?

So I'm in the process of rolling a new /TA troller due to a couple of interesting threads and some fond memories of /TA on live - not the least my Fire/TA and my Plant/TA (which was a complete monster even then) I don't want to repeat those - nor do I want to remake one of my favourite trollers on live an Earth/Thermal - fantastic support, great survivability, rubbish damage, would lock a map down and tickle mobs to death. Earth/TA sounds quite fun - but under normal circumstances that would force me to take Fire Mastery to ensure I get the most out of OSA. I dislike Fire Mastery and I am a big fan of Leviathan - the whole Shark Skin and vomiting toxic over your enemies just appeals to me. So is there a pool set that works well and would ignite OSA? I'm looking at Sorcery - Arcane Bolt might, as might Enflame - and it has other benefits too (Does Spirit Ward work on pets?) It is not immediately apparent if any other pool powers can do what I ask. It may be this is an unfortunate pairing for that reason but your input is welcome.

love my Plant/TA which I made on live many years back. Very strong, quite pretty.

They say time is the fire in which we burn... OP, have you considered Fire/TA?

loving this thread. I don't know if it's possible but I would LOVE to play on a pre-invention Server. (Issue 9?) That would be real nostalgia. Don't get me wrong I think inventions truly enhanced the game but as some have pointed out they did facilitate a more homogeneous kind of character.

Interesting. It sounds like fun - glad it works well for you. On live I had a Fire/TA controller that was super fun. I might have to recreate something similar.