ninja surprise

Not sure I agree with the "really" part of that... Bio is only really good against the things it's really good against, but then super weak where it has no protection or when slows or debuffs come in. I don't know how much free time @Galaxy Brainhas, but it'd be super interesting to re-run the damage distribution to mimic some of the major enemy groups: Devouring Earth, Circle of Thorns, Arachnos, Crey, or Malta. For instance, people love to cry about Malta Sappers, but big spawns will have lots of Gunslinger Lieut/Bosses with their freeze-ray guns stacking Stun and Hold magnitude. On Crimson's arc last night my Rad/Fire Tank got held a couple times. I believe by default Defense outlasts Resist because it gets hit less. Resist armors you have to max out and still be active with healing whereas Defense just stands there clicking glowies while enemy attacks whiff all around. Plus, Icicles defeats the minions vs Rad armor doesn't have a damage aura so the entire spawn keeps attacking till the tank's dead.

Did any of the attacking mobs have attacks that debuff Defense or recharge? -Def is pretty common and debuffs are the primary killer of some of the stronger armors.

Well, yeah. When you start with a published game and a tiny group of hardcore fans keeping it running in their spare time and making a few mods for quality of life, balance, and bug fixes while trying to slip in a few big improvements without ruining what people already love and are accustomed to or pissing off some very emotional players... it's a big balancing act. I've always figured the "Suggestions and Feedback" were "Pipe dreams with barely a snowball's chance of ever being implemented" and if one was, hey that's great. Like, I think an easy one to implement is "Shield Defense, no FX" because it just deletes the shield and uses all the normal animations for attacks, but it'll probably never get implemented. But you know what? You can get the code and spin up your own version of the game and make all the changes you want!

On this topic, I think it's hilarious in the ITF, at the computer, when you pull down Rom/Req and a bunch of minions, and they all jump down and land bolt upright and start walking over to attack.

It also makes zero sense to be a hero literally surrounded by badguys, swinging an axe, and hit nothing. Titan Weapons should almost NOT be able to miss, unless the mobs are jumping over or ducking underneath the attack somehow. Or to shoot laser beams from your eyeballs at something you're literally staring at and miss. Unless you got hit or sneezed right when blasting, that would cause a miss. I can think of some tough-to-implement game mechanics that would support or prevent auto-hit: AoE attacks should have bonus to-hit; eyebeams should definitely have a massive bonus to hit because you're looking right at the target. Mob density should give a bonus to-hit, with auto-hits when your area of attack is saturated. Range and movement should affect to-hit. But then the hit would be modified by the target's defense or resistance. Like, you hit but then there's a chance it's deflected by defensive armor, if the critter has it. But the attacking hero still gets the benefit of landing the strike/combo/build-up, etc.

I'm gonna give Rad/Spines a try. I have a Rad/Fire that's also a lot of fun for pretty much the same reasons. The only other Spines toon I've played is a Spines/Ice Scrapper named Iceberg Lettuce with the spines colored green. It's fun too, but too often meets things that can smash his defense.

It would be pretty funny if it were re-coded into a DoT with a to hit on each DoT. Then you could have the unique joy of lining up some chumps, starting Sands of Mu, and seeing land one punch on the guy in back and 15 Misses floating up.

Yep I know. It's just lame when the only AoE damage is "once every 30 seconds". But that's why I've never gotten Mind out of the teens. I'd rather play a set that does more damage.

Bio - I have a Bio/DM tank and it's a total hoot. But Bio is super vulnerable to debuffs and slows so you're either totally awesome or dead. Look like a lumpy tree stump or with min FX look like Pigpen. Dark - Dark/Dark is the original theme pairing, with Soul Drain buffing the damage aura and Dark Consumption getting all your End back after 3 Dark Regens. Snarky described it well. You have to use IOs to get knockback protection. Look like a pile of angry pixels surrounded by ghost-skulls. Fiery - I hate the pulsating fire aura and never play it. Otherwise it'll be like /Dark but with another +Dam buff and self-buffs. Also need IOs for KB protection and LOTS of IOs to make it tough. Look like a walking campfire. Bio, Dark, and Fire have damage auras if that's your priority. Regen - if you love clicking buttons you'll love DM/Regen. Attacks animate fast so you click them a lot and you need to heal all the time so click those a lot too. Minimal FX. Invul / Shield / SR - These will all play very similar. Toggle up and go punch. You'll be tough, have defense and resist. Where they differ: Invul - Start with the most resistance, lowest defense, and least debuff resist but a big +HP/+Heal. Get +Def+Acc when surrounded. Most expensive to cap. Semi-minimal FX option but you still glow. Shield - Start with medium def and resist, easily cap def and near-cap resist. Sweet teleport-nuke-attack. Get a +Dam buff when surrounded. Medium expensive to cap but doesn't require pool powers unless you want them. Always have a shield, no min-FX. SR - Start with the most def, lowest resist, bonus to Recharge and run speed. Get +Resist when attacked. Minimal FX means you can see your beautiful costume. The other big diff is only SR and Shield have clickie mez protection, so if you run out of endurance and toggle-drop you still have KB/Stun/Hold protection until it expires or Dark Consumption recharges. With all the others if you get sapped you're mezzed until someone saves you, you loser.

I think it'd be groovy to bump Levitate into Mass Levitate, or convert Mass Hypnosis into Mass Stun - an AoE Stun that does damage like the new Headache mechanic that's coming out in Sonic.

If you get held/slept then any aggro-toggles will turn off. The Gunslingers can stack up holds quick if they all shoot you at the same time, or maybe it was that combined with stuns or some other mez, stacked up enough to detoggle you.

You're welcome! For chatset, this says to spell out the channel name completely unless it has a single-letter alias: https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Chat_set_(Slash_Command) edit: The aliases seem to be the same as the single-letter choosers on the bottom of the chat window, except G is League. Help and LFG have icons instead of letters.

I think it'd be great if it has a Minimum FX setting and I could use Auras for the FX.

That would be pretty amazing, you toggle it on and just keep spraying until you run out of endurance or enemies.

When I try to take off flying and get stuck underneath power lines.

If this were like a single-player story-based game like Icewind Dale that I can keep forever and play whenever and I wasn't a grown-up with a job and family and other responsibilities, I'd go for the grind/unlock. But since it's a MMO with a billion combinations of powersets and an unknown lifespan I prefer quicker unlocks. We thought the Live game was going to last forever and it didn't. We hope these independent servers will last for years, but we don't know for sure. So my focus is trying new things and trying the old things with new toons and powersets in what little time I have. I don't want to grind and unlock everything over and over again, I want to play and team and TF and try out things I've never done before. I've already done most of the unlockable stuff on live at least once, and probably several times. There's so many storylines on red and blueside I haven't done

Fire Melee (Scrapper/etc) is supposed to be the damage king with no other mitigation or secondary effects, but isn't near the top of the damage heap. Mind could be fixed quick giving the "big" powers had quicker cooldowns. Particularly Mass Confusion, quicker recharge to make it at least as good as Seeds of Confusion, but worthy of being a T9. @Heracleahad some great ideas for improving Regen. The one I remember best is giving it super debuff resistance, to reflect how regen heals over everything. Give it maxed out debuff resistance to speed, defense, regen, end, etc, and that would make it unique amongst armors. And then people can IO it up to make it really good. Easy to implement and easy to rebalance later if needed. A quick buff would be to let it jump but have the rooting powers behave like Grounded in Electric Armor. So the set can jump and move but loses the buff when you're not on the ground.

To confirm (because I hate the names of the incarnate powers) Core is the build-up damage buff and Radial is the double-hit damage right? Are all these Bills Claws/SR?

Can we have the regular maps made more vidiotish? With all the additional markers added to the official maps?

Particularly true when your self-heal doesn't do double-duty as an attack, like the heals in Dark Armor, Rad, and especially Bio.

I just made two new Scrappers yesterday, and DFB'd with a bunch of other new Scrapper toons! Another OG scrapper is Dark/Dark. If you're feeling super nostalgic you can try running only one armor at a time! edit: My new scrappers are Psi/Shield and Dual Blades/Invuln, no OG there. After I got the Psi/Shield to 12 and then went to re-arrange him on the Character Select screen I discovered I had another with the same concept and nearly identical name at level 4 🤫

Something like this, two files, one named hover.txt and one called fly.txt. Put them in your \coh\data\ directory and they'll load without pathnames. Feel free to use a letter besides G, I just like to use that one to turn on my travel power. You can use a number or F# key though. hover.txt g "++$$powexectoggleon Hover$$powexectoggleoff Afterburner$$powexectoggleoff Fly$$bindloadfile fly.txt" fly.txt g ""++$$powexectoggleon Afterburner$$powexectoggleon Fly$$bindloadfile hover.txt" DISCLAIMER: When I use a single keypress for Fly/Afterburner, I have to press it slowly or sometimes Afterburner turns on but not Fly, or vice-versa. I think it has to do with their activation times.

I'll contribute my standard Insp binds. Since it seems the game doesn't use the right side of the keyboard much, I tied them to the inspirations they most closely resemble: i - insight/yellow/acc k - reds / damage (so pressing i, k, quickly to get acc and damage buff) h - greens/health j - blue/end (pressing h, j, quickly for more health and end) l - purple/luck m - orange/resist n - break frees Plus a set of bindfiles where pressing shift+letter combines the other insps to make that letter's insp. So "h" to consume a health, shift+h to make a health from any available insp (except from breakfrees or wakies). This way I don't have to keep my insp tray organized at all and can use them frequently. keybinds.txt H "INSPEXEC_NAME Resurgence$$INSPEXEC_NAME Invigorate$$INSPEXEC_NAME Dramatic_Improvement$$INSPEXEC_NAME Rejuvinate$$INSPEXEC_NAME Respite" I "INSPEXEC_NAME Sight Beyond Sight$$INSPEXEC_NAME Uncanny_Insight$$INSPEXEC_NAME Keen_Insight$$INSPEXEC_NAME Tactical$$INSPEXEC_NAME Insight$$INSPEXEC_NAME Precise$$INSPEXEC_NAME Keen" J "INSPEXEC_NAME Back in the Fight$$INSPEXEC_NAME Second_Wind$$INSPEXEC_NAME Invigorate$$INSPEXEC_NAME Take_a_Breather$$INSPEXEC_NAME Rejuvinate$$INSPEXEC_NAME Catch_a_Breath" K "INSPEXEC_NAME Furious Rage$$INSPEXEC_NAME Righteous_Rage$$INSPEXEC_NAME Focused_Rage$$INSPEXEC_NAME Tactical$$INSPEXEC_NAME Enrage$$INSPEXEC_NAME Precise$$INSPEXEC_NAME Keen" L "INSPEXEC_NAME Amazing_Luck$$INSPEXEC_NAME Phenomenal_Luck$$INSPEXEC_NAME Protected$$INSPEXEC_NAME Good_Luck$$INSPEXEC_NAME Luck$$INSPEXEC_NAME Amazing_Luck$$INSPEXEC_NAME Guarded$$INSPEXEC_NAME Shielded" M "INSPEXEC_NAME Resistant$$INSPEXEC_NAME Robust$$INSPEXEC_NAME Rugged$$INSPEXEC_NAME Protected$$INSPEXEC_NAME Sturdy$$INSPEXEC_NAME Guarded$$INSPEXEC_NAME Shielded" N "INSPEXEC_NAME Liberate$$INSPEXEC_NAME Escape$$INSPEXEC_NAME Emerge$$INSPEXEC_NAME Break Free" inspSmall.txt SHIFT+H "INSPCOMBINE Enrage Respite$$INSPCOMBINE Luck Respite$$INSPCOMBINE Catch_a_Breath Respite$$INSPCOMBINE Sturdy Respite$$INSPCOMBINE Insight Respite$$BINDLOADFILE inspMedium.txt" SHIFT+I "INSPCOMBINE Enrage Insight$$INSPCOMBINE Luck Insight$$INSPCOMBINE Catch_a_Breath Insight$$INSPCOMBINE Respite Insight$$INSPCOMBINE Sturdy Insight$$BINDLOADFILE inspMedium.txt" SHIFT+J "INSPCOMBINE Enrage Catch_a_Breath$$INSPCOMBINE Luck Catch_a_Breath$$INSPCOMBINE Respite Catch_a_Breath$$INSPCOMBINE Sturdy Catch_a_Breath$$INSPCOMBINE Insight Catch_a_Breath$$BINDLOADFILE inspMedium.txt" SHIFT+K "INSPCOMBINE Luck Enrage$$INSPCOMBINE Catch_a_Breath Enrage$$INSPCOMBINE Respite Enrage$$INSPCOMBINE Sturdy Enrage$$INSPCOMBINE Insight Enrage$$BINDLOADFILE inspMedium.txt" SHIFT+L "INSPCOMBINE Enrage Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Catch_a_Breath Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Respite Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Sturdy Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Insight Luck$$BINDLOADFILE inspMedium.txt" SHIFT+M "INSPCOMBINE Enrage Sturdy$$INSPCOMBINE Luck Sturdy$$INSPCOMBINE Catch_a_Breath Sturdy$$INSPCOMBINE Respite Sturdy$$INSPCOMBINE Insight Sturdy$$BINDLOADFILE inspMedium.txt" inspMedium.txt SHIFT+H "INSPCOMBINE focused_rage dramatic_improvement$$INSPCOMBINE keen_insight dramatic_improvement$$INSPCOMBINE take_a_breather dramatic_improvement$$INSPCOMBINE good_luck dramatic_improvement$$INSPCOMBINE rugged dramatic_improvement$$BINDLOADFILE inspLarge.txt" SHIFT+I "INSPCOMBINE focused_rage keen_insight$$INSPCOMBINE good_luck keen_insight$$INSPCOMBINE take_a_breather keen_insight$$INSPCOMBINE dramatic_improvement keen_insight$$INSPCOMBINE rugged keen_insight$$BINDLOADFILE inspLarge.txt" SHIFT+J "INSPCOMBINE focused_rage take_a_breather$$INSPCOMBINE keen_insight take_a_breather$$INSPCOMBINE good_luck take_a_breather$$INSPCOMBINE dramatic_improvement take_a_breather$$INSPCOMBINE rugged take_a_breather$$BINDLOADFILE inspLarge.txt" SHIFT+K "INSPCOMBINE keen_insight focused_rage$$INSPCOMBINE good_luck focused_rage$$INSPCOMBINE take_a_breather focused_rage$$INSPCOMBINE dramatic_improvement focused_rage$$INSPCOMBINE rugged focused_rage$$BINDLOADFILE inspLarge.txt" SHIFT+L "INSPCOMBINE Keen_Insight Good_Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Focused_Rage Good_Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Take_a_Breather Good_Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Dramatic_Improvement Good_Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Rugged Good_Luck$$BINDLOADFILE inspLarge.txt" SHIFT+M "INSPCOMBINE Keen_Insight Rugged$$INSPCOMBINE Focused_Rage Rugged$$INSPCOMBINE Good_Luck Rugged$$INSPCOMBINE Take_a_Breather Rugged$$INSPCOMBINE Dramatic_Improvement Rugged$$BINDLOADFILE inspLarge.txt" inspLarge.txt SHIFT+H "INSPCOMBINE Uncanny_Insight Resurgence$$INSPCOMBINE Righteous_Rage Resurgence$$INSPCOMBINE Phenomenal_Luck Resurgence$$INSPCOMBINE Second_Wind Resurgence$$INSPCOMBINE Robust Resurgence$$BINDLOADFILE inspSmall.txt" SHIFT+I "INSPCOMBINE Righteous_Rage Uncanny_Insight$$INSPCOMBINE Phenomenal_Luck Uncanny_Insight$$INSPCOMBINE Second_Wind Uncanny_Insight$$INSPCOMBINE Resurgence Uncanny_Insight$$INSPCOMBINE Robust Uncanny_Insight$$BINDLOADFILE inspSmall.txt" SHIFT+J "INSPCOMBINE Uncanny_Insight Second_Wind$$INSPCOMBINE Righteous_Rage Second_Wind$$INSPCOMBINE Phenomenal_Luck Second_Wind$$INSPCOMBINE Resurgence Second_Wind$$INSPCOMBINE Robust Second_Wind$$BINDLOADFILE inspSmall.txt" SHIFT+K "INSPCOMBINE Uncanny_Insight Righteous_Rage$$INSPCOMBINE Phenomenal_Luck Righteous_Rage$$INSPCOMBINE Second_Wind Righteous_Rage$$INSPCOMBINE Resurgence Righteous_Rage$$INSPCOMBINE Robust Righteous_Rage$$BINDLOADFILE inspSmall.txt" SHIFT+L "INSPCOMBINE Uncanny_Insight Phenomenal_Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Righteous_Rage Phenomenal_Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Second_Wind Phenomenal_Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Resurgence Phenomenal_Luck$$INSPCOMBINE Robust Phenomenal_Luck$$BINDLOADFILE inspSmall.txt" SHIFT+M "INSPCOMBINE Uncanny_Insight Robust$$INSPCOMBINE Righteous_Rage Robust$$INSPCOMBINE Phenomenal_Luck Robust$$INSPCOMBINE Second_Wind Robust$$INSPCOMBINE Resurgence Robust$$BINDLOADFILE inspSmall.txt"

Victory! I was one of the Qberts group, also had my own mini-SG but don't remember the name. My mains were Amasu (DM/SR scrapper) and Cute Kinetic (Grav/Kin Controller), and Ninja Surprise, Ill/TA controller. Plus so many alts. So good to see familiar faces again!

It does have a good mix, with up to three AoE. But damage isn't all that great. Wonder if it's balanced around perma fiery embrace?