Newbie Questions Compiled into one neat post

[hyacathinose]

Hello everyone... I have been learning the game and had some questions about it.

 

1. Is it possible to combine a taunt/provoke ability while flying above the range of an enemy to get them to target you but be unable to damage you?

2. With enough ranged attack range increase... is it possible to aggro only one monster in a group, getting them to leave their group, and this pick off enemies one at a time instead of aggroing the whole group... would be useful for 1v1 dps if possible?

3. Is it possible to increase the attack range of a melee type ability on a minion/pet

4. I have the sovereign right set and am running thug/force field, which minion should I slot the set into?

[hyacathinose]

Almost missed one! (I would edit my topic but people might reply without seeing this, if double posting something intelligent is against the rules than I truely apologize, let me know and I will delete this second post.)

 

Farming at lvl 50 would logically take millions upon millions of inf, but I have an alternative to it. I am not sure if it will work, but could be viable at any level I guess.

 

5. Is it possible to afk farm as a summoner/pet class? E.g. Summon your pets at a lower level area (Enemies will not drop exp or money, but they still drop recipes and materials... right?) And then just afk and collect the recipes and materials from them, with your summons doing the damage for you, defensive auras up so you don't die.

6. If 5. is possible, is it allowed by the rules??

Edited March 17, 2020 by hyacathinose

[siolfir]

Yay for editing quotes:

27 minutes ago, hyacathinose said:

Hello everyone... I have been learning the game and had some questions about it.

 

1. Is it possible to combine a taunt/provoke ability while flying above the range of an enemy to get them to target you but be unable to damage you?

2. With enough ranged attack range increase... is it possible to aggro only one monster in a group, getting them to leave their group, and this pick off enemies one at a time instead of aggroing the whole group... would be useful for 1v1 dps if possible?

3. Is it possible to increase the attack range of a melee type ability on a minion/pet

4. I have the sovereign right set and am running thug/force field, which minion should I slot the set into?

5. Is it possible to afk farm as a summoner/pet class? E.g. Summon your pets at a lower level area (Enemies will not drop exp or money, but they still drop recipes and materials... right?) And then just afk and collect the recipes and materials from them, with your summons doing the damage for you, defensive auras up so you don't die.

6. If 5. is possible, is it allowed by the rules??

1. Yes, if you have the Taunt or Confront power which provides -range and some method of keeping the enemy from getting close. This can be Flight, an immobilize, or simply just moving a lot to play with the somewhat silly AI, but once your build matures you likely won't have to use this tactic at all.
2. Yes. You don't even need enough ranged attack increase to do this - you can pull mobs one at a time moderately easily just by breaking line of sight after attacking from range, although you should select targets near the edges or otherwise away from the group since there's a small area that is alerted. Note that some mobs are just tethered and will travel together anyway, but you're unlikely to run into them without a team, and in a team this tactic isn't usually necessary.
3. No. Melee attacks are flagged to ignore range enhancements and boosts to range, with the exception of most Tanker AoE attacks which get a boost due to their inherent.
4. I haven't run a MM in a really long time, but if you ask in the Mastermind section of the forums people there will be happy to help you out.
5. This one has some extra questions implied or outright asked, so I'll try to break it down further:
   1. It is possible to do, but you likely would have to create a script for it since the mobs aren't going to respawn directly on top of you, so you'd have to move around to get more enemies. Pet classes aren't usually the best for this type of farming, also: the pets tend to stay near you unless you're running missions where spawns are close to each other, and then without you micromanaging them they will often run off to the next spawn because it attacked them when they got close. The pets are also likely to get killed eventually from anything worth farming without you providing them some help.
   2. Low level enemies aren't going to drop anything except for Enchancement Converters past a certain level lower than you.
   3. All of which is irrelevant because of the answer to question 6, below.
6. No. Scripts and programs to automate gameplay is explicitly called out as illegal under point 7.2 of Conduct Guidelines in the Code of Conduct.

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by siolfir
changing the adjective to an adverb when modifying a verb

[Snarky]

on 2)  yes.  I agree sort of with siolfir.  up until I don't.  I can snipe with a Blaster and sometimes irritate no one around them.  (any attack is a "taunt") othertimes…..it hits the fan.  The more your AT is made to be a melee taunter, the harder time you will have just getting 1.  Taunt for Brutes and Tanks affect more than one mob by design.  so, to pull the blaster trick it has to be 1) physically far enough away the taunt does not auto hit it 2) not "connected" to another mob you taunt.  THat is why sometimes you can attack and be fine, other times not.  

 

I do not know the mechanics behind it.  But some mobs are "bound together"  you pick on one you fight the whole trailer park.  Other times you can pop a Snipe on one right in the middle of 3 others and everyone stands around without realizing their companion just vaporized.

 

agro is not a normal mechanic like sleep or hold or knockdown.  it is part of the underlying reaction programming of nearly every mob.  they are defined by how they react to a hero (or villains) presence/attack/taunt.  that is one of the reason a Tank is the best controller in the game.  they can guarantee you safety from 17 mobs because they are hooked deep into their behavior programming.  mez/sleep/hold is a nice thing, taunt is king.  

 

so once you taunt one.... all the dominoes start to fall.

[biostem]

I'm not sure if the OP is being tongue-in-cheek, but isn't it a bad idea to give a "newbie" advice on AFK farming?  Isn't it kind of counter productive to such a person learning the ins and outs of the game?

Edited March 18, 2020 by biostem

[hyacathinose]

11 minutes ago, biostem said:

I'm not sure if the OP is being tongue-in-cheek, but isn't it a bad idea to give a "newbie" advice on AFK farming?  Isn't it kind of counter productive to such a person learning the ins and outs of the game?

I'm honestly not being tongue in cheek, I am new and a game I used to play had this mechanics. You would summon your pet, go to a location where monsters spawn, and afk. Each time they attack you, your pet would kill mobs, and then they would respawn in the same area, giving you the ability to kill them again. It was allowed becuase it is utilizing only game mechanics and not a script, so the game is not receiving any fake input pretending to be a player's actions.

[biostem]

5 minutes ago, hyacathinose said:

I'm honestly not being tongue in cheek, I am new and a game I used to play had this mechanics. You would summon your pet, go to a location where monsters spawn, and afk. Each time they attack you, your pet would kill mobs, and then they would respawn in the same area, giving you the ability to kill them again. It was allowed becuase it is utilizing only game mechanics and not a script, so the game is not receiving any fake input pretending to be a player's actions.

It's not a matter of whether the game allows it or not;  It's a matter of why, as a new player, you would specifically opt to not actually play the game from character creation to max level, instead opting to skip large swathes of content in favor of essentially letting the game play itself.  Why not create a character and level them up the "old-fashioned" way, get to know the game and its storyline(s)/mythology, and only once you are familiar with everything, opt to skip content in order to level up and experience higher level content with a different build?

[hyacathinose]

49 minutes ago, biostem said:

It's not a matter of whether the game allows it or not;  It's a matter of why, as a new player, you would specifically opt to not actually play the game from character creation to max level, instead opting to skip large swathes of content in favor of essentially letting the game play itself.  Why not create a character and level them up the "old-fashioned" way, get to know the game and its storyline(s)/mythology, and only once you are familiar with everything, opt to skip content in order to level up and experience higher level content with a different build?

I guess you're right. I was sucking until recently but I joined a 4 person team and we were getting 200 exp each per kill a while ago at lvl 8-10 composed team.

[Snarky]

If you want an efficient (not perfect, but dependable relatively easy and constant levelling strategy) here is mine.  Get 2x Exp power from P2W vendor.  Do 4 DFBs for powers (last until 22) start doing teams/task forces.  Team with a high level team if you can, but don't sweat it that much.  It is better to run with a team (any team that is killing) than sit around strategizing about levelling.  Continue doing that until about 35.  Get midnighter badge.  Do ITF.  Do more ITF.  Done, 50.  You might find ways to do better.  Farms, high rolling teams, a fun TF, a fun team.  If you stall out, go back to basic strategy.

[biostem]

10 minutes ago, hyacathinose said:

I guess you're right. I was sucking until recently but I joined a 4 person team and we were getting 200 exp each per kill a while ago at lvl 8-10 composed team.

Don't be so hard on yourself;  I doubt you were "sucking" - just play around with the game - learn how different enemies behave and become familiar with your powers.  Even if you want to use the P2W vendor in the starting zone to enable 2x XP, still fight some enemies on the streets and run some regular missions, just to get the hang of things.

[Grouchybeast]

Also, CoX isn't a game where you need to get to the level cap so you can start playing the 'real' content.  Most of the content in CoX is between levels 1-50, and for most of the game's history the endgame for many people consisted of rolling a new character and starting again.  What 50+ content there is was added towards the end of the game's life, and while it does exist in part, its development was unfortunately cut short.  On the other hand, there are tons of story arcs, task/strike forces etc below 50, and it would be a shame to miss them.

[Display Name]

 

22 hours ago, biostem said:

I'm not sure if the OP is being tongue-in-cheek, but isn't it a bad idea to give a "newbie" advice on AFK farming?  Isn't it kind of counter productive to such a person learning the ins and outs of the game?

CoX is my first MMO.  I started in May of last year.  The very first thing I was interested in was farming.  Being new to CoX doesn't mean being new to farming.  If  someone wants to know about farming, there's no need to protect them from it.

 

Also, power-leveling and farming does *not* "skip" content.  It's LIES, I tell you!  ALL LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Edit: Yay! I deleted the attachment! Thank you!

 

Edited March 18, 2020 by Display Name

[siolfir]

3 hours ago, Display Name said:

Edit: Sigh... I can't get rid of my screenshot that I accidentally loaded!?

Delete it from the post attachments.

 

[DougGraves]

19 hours ago, hyacathinose said:

1. Is it possible to combine a taunt/provoke ability while flying above the range of an enemy to get them to target you but be unable to damage you?

2. With enough ranged attack range increase... is it possible to aggro only one monster in a group, getting them to leave their group, and this pick off enemies one at a time instead of aggroing the whole group... would be useful for 1v1 dps if possible?

1. Maybe in theory.  The enemies have a much longer range than you start with.  You may be able to get a longer range than they do, but it would be hard.

 

What is good to know is that different enemies have different ranged/defense strengths.  Many groups are weaker at range and want to close to melee.  Council does more damage at range, so you want to get in melee with them. 

 

2. Pulling is a common tactic.  You stand at the edge of your range, target a foe on the edge of the enemies, and try to pull them.  There are also powers that blind the enemy so they cannot see as far and blind does not itself trigger them to attack you.  This makes it easier to pull without getting nearby enemies to attack you.

[Dazl]

I found you can get single pulls if you position yourself so only the mob you are trying to pull has a line of sight on you. 

 

As far as farming I would suggest you build a character just for that, obviously spine/fire brutes are the most popular. If you can get a farmer to let you door sit, you will have one pretty quick.

[gameboy1234]

On 3/17/2020 at 3:56 PM, hyacathinose said:

2. With enough ranged attack range increase... is it possible to aggro only one monster in a group, getting them to leave their group, and this pick off enemies one at a time instead of aggroing the whole group... would be useful for 1v1 dps if possible?

I haven't played with this extensively, but if you have enough -Perception on you (Invisibility, Hide, Mask Presence, etc.) you can often get the other mobs to ignore you while you single pull enemies from their group.

 

I can do with with my Night Widow (Mask Presence) but I don't rely on it much so I don't have much experience with it.  Certainly sometimes I'll pop one mob and it seems to pull the whole group, regardless.  I don't do it much though because Night Widows tend to be more of the "just wade in and kill them all" mentality rather than rely on single pulls.

 

The other way of getting single pulls is of course Teleport Foe.  Just zap them so they appear next to you and vola, single pull.  Of course it is possible to aggro an entire group this way so it's not 100% reliable.

 

[Snarky]

I seem to remember using AR rifle snipe, possibly with some range boost to level an LT.  Then a couple of his friends ran toward me....and ran...and ran...and seemed to forget why they were running.  But I play that powerset only once every few years, so maybe it is my memory that is faulty. I don't enjoy disappearing weapons, limited weapon options, nor redraw.

[Call Me Awesome]

1. Is it possible to combine a taunt/provoke ability while flying above the range of an enemy to get them to target you but be unable to damage you?

 

Entirely possible, however in general characters with a Taunt ability don't need to avoid aggro for one and for another they're melee characters so they WANT to be able to punch the bad guy in the face.  One highly effective tactic for squishy characters is to hover or fly high enough to be out of melee range while attacking.  Yes, all mobs do have a ranged attack, but for many their ranged attack is their weakest attack so you'll avoid a great deal of damage if that's all they can hit you with.  Exception - there's a fair number of mobs that are primarily ranged damage dealers, this doesn't help a lot against them, but it makes a huge difference against melee mobs.

 

I do NOT recommend getting Provoke from the Presence pool, any character who can benefit from it already has a better power in their primary or secondary powers.  Other AT's are better off avoiding aggro than hollering "Shoot ME!  Not him, shoot at ME!!!"   There's almost no situations where a character will benefit from having this power which is an inferior version of a Tanker's Taunt ability.

 

 

2. With enough ranged attack range increase... is it possible to aggro only one monster in a group, getting them to leave their group, and this pick off enemies one at a time instead of aggroing the whole group... would be useful for 1v1 dps if possible?

 

Pulling a single mob is possible, you'll need to make sure only the one mob has line of sight of you and fire, then break line of sight.  Ideally shoot him in the back from range and duck around a corner before he turns around... he'll come running to say hello and won't tell his buddies what's going on.  You don't even need a great deal of range, 20' is usually enough.

 

There ARE exceptions to this however, for example Vahz zombies are too stupid to pull, they'll loose interest after a couple of steps.  The other Vahz mobs however will usually bring their zombies with them... make sure to kill them first as the zombies are too stupid to be dangerous with the other mobs dead.  Additionally trying to pull a boss is more likely to result in him bringing friends than pulling a minion.