Extor Prime

My main has always been a dime-store Green Lantern. I like constructs, what can I say.

Powerset proliferation has a lot to do with this. For example aside from thematic appeal, there is little reason to run /Rad when you can run /Cold, /Dark or /Traps.

Cold for killin', Dark for survivin', Rad for classic appeal.

Ice storm makes them fall on their ass. Heat Loss slows and drains endurance. Nice thing is that both go off fairly fast and you have an OPTION not to be in PBAOE. Flash is just too got-dang slow and I got no slots for it either.

On miserable nights like this one, I miss the bug known as Jack Emmert. It was a bug that made everyone else miserable. But it got fixed.

Despite some initial issues with the software, I am quite happy with Roccat LEADR. It is certainly not cheap, but I think it is worth the asking price. It's large, has plenty of buttons that are spread around the mouse (unlike the mini-numpad on some MMO nice that is just begging for misfires) and is very customizable (as far as button configs go). Before I used WoW Cataclysm mouse and enjoyed it, and leadr is a worthy successor. If you want a mouse with 15 buttons that are spread around rather than grouped together, this is what you want. I don't think there are others with this layout and this many buttons.

Here's how it worked out for me. Do you spend a lot of time at or near do damage bonus cap? Radial. Example: brute. Do you spend most of your time way below the damage bonus cap AND have a fast attack chain? Core. Example: illusion controller. Conventional wisdom suggests radial, but your attack chain is very fast and you have no issues having six stacks of bonus all the time. Do you have a slow attack chain? Radial. You will have better return from a damage proc than from inconsistent number of bonuses.

I have it in Kick. Works well for an extra bit of recharge here and there but does dilute the attack rotation a bit.

This is the way.

Phantom Army early on. PLEASE. Maybe even before invisibility.

/em throws assorted blunt objects at walls Goddamnit... Thanks of course.

Suppose we have a custom popmenu: Menu "Test" { option "Load Bindfile 1" "bind_load_file C:\Games\CoH\Binds\Bindfile1.txt" option "Load Bindfile 2" "bind_load_file C:\Games\CoH\Binds\Bindfile2.txt" option "Load Bindfile 3" "bind_load_file C:\Games\CoH\Binds\Bindfile3.txt" option "Load Bindfile 4" "bind_load_file C:\Games\CoH\Binds\Bindfile4.txt" } Our Bind files are simple one-line binds: Bindfile1.txt ALT+C "local "Bindfile 1 loaded!"" Bindfile1.txt ALT+C "local "Bindfile 2 loaded!"" Bindfile3.txt ALT+C "local "Bindfile 3 loaded!"" Bindfile3.txt ALT+C "local "Bindfile 4 loaded!"" We start the game and call the popmenu and select any one of the options (let's say option 1). The SYS chat reports: "Keybinds file C:\Games\CoH\Binds\Bindfile1.txt loaded". But when we press ALT+C nothing happens. "OK maybe the bind files are bad." - you'd think that SYS would have say something about that, but it doesn't. Nevertheless, we manually execute: /bind_load_file bind_load_file C:\Games\CoH\Binds\Bindfile1.txt Now we press ALT+C and the character says in Local channel "Bindfile 1 loaded!" OK, progress. We call the popmenu again and select the second option. SYS says that Bindfile 2 has been loaded. We press ALT+C again and the character says "Bindfile 1 loaded!" in local chat again. We double-check by dumping the full keybinds with keybinds_save_file and notice that ALT+C is still bound to "local "Bindfile 1 loaded!"". We test further by manually loading Bindfile 2 (/bind_load_file...), SYS once again reports that it has been loaded, but now when we press ALT+C the character correctly says "Bindfile 2 loaded!". We double-check by dumping the full keybinds again, and indeed we see that ALT+C has been bound to "local "Bindfile 2 loaded!"" So, it appears that some kind of issue prevents the keybind files from TAKING EFFECT when loaded via a popup menu even though the game reports that the keybind file has been LOADED.

Enough is fully finished sets of IOs on each 50, 2bn in the bank on each 50 and 1bn in the mail for an emergency fund/impulse spending. Sauce: that's where I'm at (3 50s) and I quit marketeering.

He looks like a fancy lad.

I have been so unlucky with the salvage rolls that I always take merits now. Merits will never betray you or stab you while you sleep.

Hopefully soon the Phantasm will get a brain transplant and won't run in anymore.

They said that after the MM changes get tested and released live, controllers and doms are next. Good times are on the horizon.

Good deal, thank you.

What about Illusion's Phantasm? He's also meant to be ranged but runs into melee all the time.

Ho-leeee....

You will wake up the dreadful gazebos, and they will eat us all.

If you are looking to shore up your AoE game, /Ice may be a better choice than /Mace. Frozen Armor is only a bit worse than Scorpion Shield (though with Fade, you might not care), Ice Blast is a great single target, Ice Storm is a very good rain AoE, and since you like to be up close, Frost Breath might be helpful (though I never used it). Aside: Can you imagine what life would be like if there was such a thing as an Illusion Dominator? Holy crap, I'm salivating just thinking about it. Illusion/Energy Assault/Ice. Illusion's constructs, Energy's bolts, beams and glowing punchery, and Ice for Sleet, Hoarfrost, Ice Storm and Frozen Armor. Might be a bit light on the defenses, but then again maybe not. I love my Ill/Cold, but I'd reroll THAT in a heartbeat.

It's not a renewal, this was already covered. No idea about what happened in May, and yes they can legally shut down HC and any one of the major rogue servers if they want to. This is an obvious fact on the level of "sky is blue and water is wet".

What is most important is this is the first time NCSoft has made an overt move with regards to CoX since the HC and other servers went public. Whatever comes next, one thing is guaranteed: the situation is about to change. How and in which direction is unclear, but the times are a-changin'. The era of being ignored is over, we have been officially noticed and perhaps put on notice. If the HC team has been talking to NCSoft, they should know something and it would be helpful if they shared what they know.

Alright! Soapbox time! This is a subject that is near and dear to me. EmperorSteele here has hit a quite a few nails on the head. Illusion/ is perhaps the least "controlly" powerset of all controller sets; you get a great ST hold, a great AoE fear, a (sometimes AoE) great ST Confuse, and... that's about it. Our AoE hold is PBAoE, mediocre and skippable. We don't have an AoE immob or an AoE confuse. We are DPSers first and foremost, and we rely on debuffs and straight DPS output for our damage - Containment plays a second fiddle. You know what? We were Dominators before Dominators were cool. Or Corruptors. I don't know. There isn't anything quite like an Illusion controller out there. Some like to call us pseudo-Masterminds, but you go ahead and show me a Mastermind whose pet can facetank an AV or a GM right out of the box without the need of any manner of buff. We soloed AVs and GMs before incarnates were even a thing. We are a DPS class onto itself with a strong predisposition to solo. With the right primary/secondary pairings, we can do nearly anything in the game, which is a lot to say for a non-melee squishy. Our approach is slower and more deliberate than that of a Brute or a Scrapper, which makes us less amazing in the current GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO group meta. We do have a setup time, however short (it takes time for us to summon the decoys and for the decoys to engage). Our Phantasm is both daft and squishy, and often bites the dust quickly in a group scrum with a lot of unchecked AoE flying around. You could clear things faster with a Brute or a Scrapper; or with a right Blaster even (after all, a right Blaster can solo MoITF, and that ain't chump change). But, we combine a very unique playstyle with a lot of capability, particularly for soloing hard targets, and that is what matters, at least to me. We are concept characters that still kick more ass than five men beating a dead donkey. We are also the only controllers that can reliably "control" any AV or GM in existence, short of Hamidon: after all, if it is busy trying to kill an unkillable construct, it might as well be controlled. As to the theme. My honest opinion is that "Illusion" is just a word. I've always seen Illusion controllers as dime-store Lanterns (pick a color, any color). We make constructs out of light and use light to fight. Yes, there's the healback, but... just ignore it. It's there and it's annoying but just pretend it's not there. The decoys and the phantasm can be recolored and even made to look somewhat solid. Throw in extra summons from Lore Incarnate and voila - constructs galore! There's even one Lore (Phantoms) that gives you two more constructs that look exactly like your decoys. It's not the best Lore however. Anyway, for me Illusion theme was always about light and energy emission and manipulation. I would love it if my basic attacks (Blind and Spectral Wounds) could look like beams or projectiles, but you can't quite have it all. To give you an example, the current incarnation of my main (Ill/Cold/Ice) justifies his cold powers by saying that he can manipulate energy in his enemies or in a target area. Drain energy from the enemy and take it for himself? Heat Loss. Remove energy from everything in a target area, to the point that the air itself condenses into ice crystals? Sleet and Ice Storm. Remove energy from a single enemy, rendering him sluggish and vulnerable? Benumb. Bend light around himself to become partially invisible? Arctic Fog (I color it the darkest purple so it is effectively invisible). I know it ain't exactly science-science, but it's enough to pass for comic book-science, and we're all in a comic book after all. As to Primary/Secondary pairings. There is a lot of opinion out there on the subject. Here's what I know. Your primary is best complemented by a secondary that 1) debuffs your targets - the harder the better; and 2) feeds your rather steep requirements for Stamina, or Recharge, or both. Ill/Rad is the perennial classic. Ill/Rad is what took me to the top back in the day. There wasn't a bigger Ill/Rad fanboy than me, except maybe Local Man, whose guide to building an Ill/Rad is still gold standard. /Rad gives you a recharge and recovery buff, a heal, and debuffs the enemies' regen and resistance. That is just about all you need to rock. And it doesn't hurt that it has one of the absolute best PBAoE holds in the game, too. Ill/Cold is the best there is. I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to admitting that, but there's no way around it. Much like /Rad, it debuffs the enemy's damage resistance and regen, but unlike /Rad, with enough recharge, these debuffs are stackable, That is BIGLY YUGE. It also gives you a COLOSSAL Stamina and Recovery buff (Heat Loss) that is comparable in its effect to Destiny Ageless; the only catch is that when you use it, you have to be in PBAoE range. This lets you use the Destiny slot for something else, like Clarion (to make yourself immune to all mez). Or if you don't expect a lot of mez, you can still slot Destiny Ageless and use Heat Loss as a ranged AoE debuff. /Cold debuffs also don't require anchors and are very quick to deploy. This improves your value on teams - even if you can't quite keep up with the GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO ball of meleers, you can still help them out by dropping substantially helpful debuffs onto the enemies frequently. You pay for this buy having absolutely no self-heal and no way outside of IO sets to buff your own recharge. But boy, is it ever a worthwhile exchange. This is one of the combos that delivers Incarnate-like performance before it actually gets into Incarnate abilities. Ill/Dark is somewhat similar, quite a bit tankier and has a lot of similar tools in its toolchest, plus an extra pet (Dark Servant). However, it lacks the ability of /Cold to stack debuffs, which makes it less efficient against hard targets. Soul Absorption, while very similar on paper to Heat Loss, is a lot less powerful and you may need to use Destiny Ageless to keep your blue bar topped up. Ill/Traps is predictably great, because /Traps is great; but it's also a bit too slow for my tastes as traps take time to set up in each fight. Illusion also lends itself well to flying, and Traps requires you to be up close and personal, at least in the setup phase. TBH if you want to use Traps, you are better off as Bots/Traps MM (AKA "the guy who can kill anything"). Ill/Storm has insane DPS output potential that only gets better the more recharge you get. On paper, that is. In reality, because /Storm's best tools (Tornado and Lightning Storm) induce terror in everything, this combinations suffers TERRIBLY from the lack of a reliable AoE immobilize. Seriously, everything runs like a scared little girl. Even AVs. They run into the next zip code, regen, then come back to bother you. Worse, if your Tornado decides to chase, it can aggro things along the way and ruin your plans with extra adds. Is it fun? Sure. If you love making an utter mess of the battlefield, Ill/Storm is your huckleberry. But a lot of actual damage potential is wasted because of the "RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!" effect, and it won't make you a team darling either. /Storm plays a lot better with something that can immobilize, like Plant. Ill/Time is a good choice, but it is a bit more team-oriented and lacks the debuff potential that you so very sorely need. I don't know much about it, but there's an ongoing thread that hopefully can provide some guidance. Two secondaries that you should definitely NOT pick are /Force Field and /Empathy, unless you want to take a chunk out of your own performance to be extra-team friendly. But hey, Leandro plays Ill/Emp, so I guess there's something to it.