_dEOS_

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Bad players have and always will exist in this game. Blaming it entirely on AE is to easy although that has exasperated the problem.

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Of course, but what was a one in a month experience (or even on less frequency) is becoming a daily occurence.

I know that I am extremely cautious when recruiting team members now.

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There were always noobs, but normally they either quit or learned basics before MA came online. So now we just have high-powered noobs that will quit or learn the basics.

Get over it, and you will feel like a brand new person.

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This is affecting every player game experience.
Very hard to join anything pick-up nowadays that is not AE farming.

Even the latest TFs have a hard time getting a team started outside of tight communities.

Given the number of noobs that are reaching upper levels I can only see this situation aggravate.

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I just hate that I can't get any normal teams anymore...unless I lead them.

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So terribly true.

I hate this thread. Made me do a Shield/DM tank last night. Already leveled to 12 (mix of AE and soloing).

Super fun.
Shadow Maul + Sands of Mu is just

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Throws Rad auras on The Point.

Seriously, if you're trying to say Stone/Ice doesn't have much offensive output, I'd vigorously disagree with you. Pots for damage, Frost, Frozen Aura, Ice Storm (or Epic of choice) and many, many things are dead around me. Ice Melee's mitigation allows me to stay out of Granite for the most part so my damage isn't much debuffed for most fights. It's a late bloomer to be sure, but so are many other tanker secondaries.

If anything, my Stone/Ice outdamages my Fire/EM, but that says more about EM's lack of AoE than anything else.

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You make it so tempting. I must resist the urge to make another tanker!
Raaah....
Already opened Mid's Hero Designer...
Tooo late!!

Would you mind posting a build?

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Anyone know if procs work off ticks or single activation?

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Per activation.
Otherwise it would be overpowered.

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So my character "Pool Boy" with 4 powers from Medicine, Stealth, Speed, Fitness is gimp!

At least I warn people of my awkward build

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From someone playing Ice/sonic! Err sorry that was an easy one.

What's most disturbing is that now newbs with vet badges are getting to 45 faster. At least before, it took some intense begging to get that far. So we could at least hope that they would *gasp* play in the meantime and so get a freaking clue.

My defender background:
- Rad played to 50 on an ill/rad
- Storm played to 45 on a fire/storm controller
- TA/A played to 50
- Bots/FF MM played to 50
- Dark/Dark played to 40
and
- Sonic/Sonic Def played to 38 (so all powers and fully slotted)...

I believe the following comments were absolutely right.

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Sonic also has the bad luck to get a redundant anti-mezz power, a "knockback" aura power that can't be used on yourself, and a very situational intangibility power. All with no heal, and much weaker shields than Force Field. Sonic does offer extra damage, but it requires a teammate for the full effect. ...
Once Thermal comes to Defenders that may be the last we ever see of Sonic.

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and

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The thing is that /Sonic is so toggle heavy that the character can do little else.


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Personally, I think that the only thing Sonic has for itself is the cool orange looks. People love having you on teams... but it's just not fun to play. You buff people, apply toggle and that's it. That's even worse than FF in terms of interactivity.

There should be a balancing factor between mission XP rewards and AE XP rewards.

If too many people AE farm then the weight increases on mission XP rewards. Ideally, the amount of XP gained on a given day through AE or missions should be the same.

That's just an idea.

Martial Arts

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- 42% ranged def in all forms
- perma-eclipse

See my post here for build:
https://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat...ue#Post13123072

Expensive but it can be made
Missing one purple set currently but I am almost there.

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I don't expect controllers to have blaster style AoE damage, but as far I've noticed, only Mind is so horrid at any sort of AoE damage.

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If you come from Fire/Kin background that's not a surprise.
Not really many controllers are good with AOE damage, Fire with Hotfeet and Plant to some extent with its AOE Immob+Creepers but really controllers are not especially built for AOE damage, they are a lot more single target focused in the damage department.

After that there are epic pools that do provide some AOE damage options.

As a kin defender, I hate people saying "No speedboost please" and then I have to maintain that mental list of people who said they don't want it.

That's of course pre-20 when people don't have Stamina nor proper enhancements. That game is way too fast in those levels you know.

My TA/A is reaching 50 (half a bubble away from it). One of my coolest characters in both special effects, weapon and stylish attacks.

It really shines on big teams with a good tank. Definetly a toon that tremendously helps on those bosses farms.

The TA/Dark concept is interesting.

The only gripes I have with MA are:
* that it exposed I13 type of broadcast spam we had in Peregrine to the new comers in Atlas Park.

If you come to a new game and all you see is constant requests to be PL-ed, why oh why would you ask yourself if maybe there is something else to do level decently.

At least from level 6 to ~40 you were not exposed to so much spamming. You went into the zones appropriate for your level and looked for teams there (even if they only did radio missions).

* that it's harder to find teams of your level as MA teams are locked into a TF mode. It diminishes the free flowing teams experience we had before with new members joining the team as we progressed through missions. It was much easier for casual players like me to join friends. Now I have to wait endless minutes for them to finish their arc while I have perfectly capable characters able to help them.

- When you say across all servers does that also include the European servers?
- What about localization/internationalization? Not for objectives that would be translated but wouldn't mission creators creating missions text in let's say german or french be penalized for doing so by not getting good ratings? Is the english use a requirement/strong recommendation?
- Can we filter by languages? Like if I'd like to do missions with text descriptions in french, I can find some.

Concise and very informative guide. Excellent job.
Thanks for sharing.

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Holy Necro-Post Batman!

Quick! Kill the Zombie Thread before it infects the other threads and we all end up among the Undead Horde!!!11!1!

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hmmm, found it on page three, why is it not out of date after 3 or 4 years? oh well.

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I would agree that it is a very good point. The thread seemed very end of 2008 to me.

Why is the issue still here after two years? My only guess is that there is no hope for a fix.

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Mr E-Man's semi-regular and mostly useless information post #416

It is Election Day, so I figured I would harken back to the Last Great American President: Ronald Wilson Reagan

Chock full of some great (funny) quotes.

Thanks to Erin for inspiring this post - I miss Ronny!

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Thanks a lot for that one! Loved it.

So what's your feeling on the change (heal portion added to EA) since we are now in open beta ?

Enough or not?

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argh - at work - can't see it. Youtube anyone?

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Buffering makes sad pandas. Someone please youtube it!

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Vidoe's not available on the official site yet, but I downloaded the video from MMORPG.com until I can replace it with the official vid. Voila!

(You'll have to wait untiil the upload is approved, however)

Edit: fixed URL

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Thanks a ton!

Just to make my previous post clearer.
Performance/maintenance might be a concern but user experience should be a concern too.

Things I like in the current UBB forum:
* Overall:
- color scheme must be nice on the eye : current color schemes on UBB are perfect,
- font: the current font is immensely better than default vBulletin font. It reads faster. Wired magazine changed its printed font to improve readability. It counts if you want people to have pleasure reading you. Pocket books use a certain font for a reason: tight text but readable with less effort.

* Main index:
- Underlining links is so 1999: Underlining all links reduces readability (unless you hover over them),
- Forum subsections name are packed: little to no decoration here compared to what vBulletin is doing. With the current numbers of section, UBB sections list is already long, with vBulletin standards we are looking at skyscraper long,
- Forum subsections name really stand out from the rest of the text description (bold green),
- Last post stands out as well (bold green),

* Section:
- Posts list: Once again packed very well in the current UBB... all vBulletins I have seen seem to like spaced out items. With the number of posts we get here... it will be painful.
- Unread/New posts indication with a lightblue background on the post info
- No underline!

* Thread view:
- Packed / Condensed view please
- Only text and links in sigs

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I seriously hope you retemplate it. The vbulletin templates putting gaps between each post are obnoxious. I also hope it tracks read/unread well. It's one thing UBB does that I've never seen any other forum software do even remotely as well.

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I hope they take it seriously to provide an equivalent or better readability than the current UBB forums. It's essential for a large community to have a pleasant and not painful to read forum.

All examples provided as links here are painful to read... dungeonrunners is awful and guildangels is making my eyes bleed.

Decent color schemes and fonts please !!

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I think these 2 changes should pretty much balance EA in PvE. It cuts down the toxic hole, leave psy as the common hole. Then gives a potential 40% heal with a sacrifice to end recovery or recharge.

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Not for me it won't. The toxic resistance isn't much, and I won't get anywhere near that "potential" 40% heal. But any little buff is nice, even if it doesn't balance the set sufficiently.

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I was expecting a bit more from Castle and what was proposed left me a bit underwhelmed. My DA/EA brute will not use or need the changes to Energy Drain. For a brute, the animation of Energy Drain is so slow that I find it is a Fury killer to use in battle which is why I respecc'd out of it and went with Dark Consumption. But then again I know I am an outlier case and all the other /EA brutes that went with Aid Self for a heal can drop those powers for Eng Drain instead.

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I am in the exact situation (DM/EA) and feel as well underwhelmed.

Very good and simple guide. However, you might get some people irritated by emphasizing that much on your leadership but I agree, it's necessary to make it a time-efficient run.