Adeon Hawkwood

No, we SUGGEST that you try the FREE trial for the American version of the game. But at this point you're just trolling right?

People are suggesting that you get an NA trial of the game and use that to test the connection. If you don't want to that is your prerogative but don't claim people aren't reading what you write. Agge posted a set of instructions for converting your installation from one to the other without reinstalling from scratch and a trial is by definition free. Yes you will have to start a new character but given that the trial limits you to level 14 that isn't really a big deal.

For the record, here is the location that you can sign up for the NA version of the trial:
http://www.cityofheroes.com/trial/

One other thing to consider is that the EU servers are located in Germany. So while the distance to the American ones is longer the servers themselves actually seem to have a better network infrastructure that helps make up the difference. Since you can test it WITHOUT PAYING why not do so?

This is my understanding as well.

The problem with that definition is that both Force Field and Traps offer mez protection to their user (and teammates).

The nah was aimed more at the statement that since the Corruptor version is powerful the Defender version should be as well. Normally that is true since Defender damage is 86% of Corruptor damage but since they re-did all of the pseuso-pets for Defender Traps the Defender Trip Mine does only 65% of the damage of the Corruptor one.

Well first off Blasters, Corruptors and Defenders all use the same blast sets so a change to Defender nukes would probably change the nukes for all three (unless the devs decided there was a balance issue so severe that changing defender nukes alone was the only possible fix).

This subject has been discussed in the Blaster forums before and there is a solid case for it. Full Auto and RoA are extremely powerful attacks especially in these days of IOs (specifically recharge global bonuses mean you can have them up a lot). However there is also a solid case for leaving everything as is and keeping the crashless nuke as a feature of the weapon sets (chances are Dual Pistols will get one as well).

Nah, Corruptor Trip Mine does Blaster level damage but the Defender version doesn't. Bascially the Corruptor and Blaster versions use the same pseudo-pet but Defenders get their own version with 65% of the damage.

It's still ok damage for a Defender but it's not the same as the Blaster/Corruptor version.

If you're slotting SOs or Franken-slotting then this is useful but once you go to IOs the utility drops off fast. First off the sets blasters tend to favor often have accuracy in them so you get quite a bit of global accuracy without trying (my blaster has a couple of SO's worth). Secondly it's hard to take advantage of it unless oyu want to give up useful slot bonuses. When you're 5 or 6 slotting a set you can't easily leave out the accuracy IOs.

The thing is I don't think that Devices is really that great on a team when it comes to nno-damage group abilities either. In a group I would consider Electricity and Ice better for the non-damage abilities and they both have build up.

I was being somewhat snarky in my evaluation of caltrops but my main point stands. If you throw them between the melee guys and the ranged guys then chances are enemies will not be stepping on them. Most good melee toons (especially tanks but also the better scrappers and butes) will be keeping the majority of the enemies close to them. You might get a few loose minions but they rarely last long. Similarly if you've got controllers then the enemies aren't running around anyway.

Recharge debuffs are probably the weakest form of mitigation out there. Even given that web grenade is one of the strongest of them it doesn't provide a lot of mitigation. Most NPCs have enough attacks that even with a recharge debuff you don't notice a lot of difference. Additionally it suffers from the same problem as all single target debuffs in a group when you're facing a 10-15 man spawn debuffing one enemy, even a boss, doesn't do a lot unless you have a very strong debuff. Against AVs these considerations go away, the fight is longer so the mitigation of -rech adds up and there is only a single target.

I like Devices, but I really think it's the weakest Blaster set when it comes to group play.

While I do agree that if you adjust the team's playstyle for it then Dev is good on a team but for a random pickup team it isn't that great.

Web 'Nade is useful against AVs but against most enemies it isn't really worth it, especially if the team has a controller or two. Recharge debuffs are generally the worst form of mitigation and run speed debuffs are only really useful if the whole team is ranged.

Caltrops are a nice defense if you're fighting at range but if you've got any melee toons then they're problematic. The fear effect means that melee toons have trouble keeping the enemies close to them which they need both to get the most from their AoE attacks and in some cases to provide a solid chunk of their own defenses. Willpower Tanks in particular will hate you if you make them fight in a field of caltrops. Additionally see my comment on run speed debuffs.

Taser performs pretty much the same in a group or solo. But the usefulness of a single target stun does decrease with higher spawn counts, still it's a solid power for what it does.

Targeting Drone is a personal buff so it's the same group or solo and it does rock

Smoke Grenade, a decent debuff for a blaster and on a team that needs the extra mitigation it can't hurt. But once you get a couple of Defenders or Controllers (particuarly Forcefield or Dark) you probably won't notice the difference.

Cloaking Device is one of those powers that was nice once but the availability of stealth IOs and the popularity of super speed means that plenty of people have full stealth anyway. Besides, unless you have a teleport stealthing doesn't really accomplish much.

Trip Mine. If you've got a patient team that consists mostly of ranged fighters then this is useful but if you've got a couple of melee toons then pulling enemies into mines is generally a waste of time and setting them in combat, whilst effective, is not the most efficent use of four seconds, particuarly if you're an AR/Dev with all those nice AoEs that you could be using.

Time Bomb... yeah right. Few groups will wait on a 30second activation nuke

Gun Drone. This performs pretty much the same in a group. It's an annoying power due to the short duration and 8second cast time but it works in a group.


So yes on a team consisting of 8 AR/Dev blasters then most of the powers are useful but in standard group play with your average team you're only regularly going to use Targeting Drone, Gun Drone (if you can be bothered to cast it) and maybe Taser occasionally to stun an Lt. You might use Smoke Grenade if the team is short on mitigation and Web Grenades help with AVs.

So overall I'd say on an average team you've got 2 solid powers, 3 situational powers, 2 powers that are basically incompatible with melee toons, 1 power that works but doesn't really do much and one power that most players agree is useless, especially in a group.

I love my AR/Dev and I have a lot of fun with him both solo and teamed but Devices is not a useful team set unless the team has a very unusual composition (such as 8 devices blasters).

It's a little known fact that all MMOs are actually developed in Proč. The various world wide headquarters are really just shell corporations. This is why so many missions in CoH involve shell corporations and front companies, the developers have a lot of experience with them.

Actually that's a backronym developed later (in WoW according to Paragon Wiki), the origin of the term proc dates back to the old MUDs where it was shorthand for "procedure" or "process" as Humility said.

Something to keep in mind though is that Glue Arrow is FAR superior to Caltrops (especially once you hit SOs and can slot more recharge). The damage in Caltrops is negligible so that is basically a non-factor (except that it technically means you could slot an extra damage proc in there if you were insane). The important difference is that the glue arrow debuff lingers for 30seconds after the opponent leave the patch while the Caltrops debuff ends immediately. In exchange Caltrops gets a shorter recharge and a fear effect which can be a double edged sword.

Also as a slight quibble when comparing Flash Arrow and Smoke Grenade. Flash Arrow is both auto-hit (in PvE) and unresistable (in both PvE and PvP) while Smoke grenade only gets the auto-hit on the perception debuff (PvE only) and is resistable. I think the Blaster version of Flash Arrow should follow the Smoke Grenade rules.

Honestly I don't think that AR does have damage issues overall. It is weak in single target damage no question of that but it's very strong in AoE damage. The long animation times were annoying but those got reduced and the only one I'd really consider bad in that department is Ignite.

Basically AR is THE AoE damage blast set, Fire and Archery are the only sets with comparable AoE and while there are plenty of debates about FA vs. RoA I'm going to go ahead and say that I prefer AR for AoE damage but that I think fire and Archery do provide a better mix of ST and AoE damage.

I slightly disagree with this. First off with the exception of Foot Stomp and Tremor Brute AoEs have the same radius as Scrapper AoEs. A Brute with a full rage bar will do more damage but at lower rage levels the Scrapper will do more so I'd consider them pretty equal. Similarly while Corruptors do more damage than Defenders it's only about 15% more outside of Scourge and like Corruptors some Defenders can also use their other powerset to boost the damage.

I'd also disagree that only Kin Defenders do good damage. Several other primaries have strong resistance debuffs that the defender can use to boost his damage. Additionally even without using the various damage boosts the more AoE focused secondaries deal decent damage (Assault Rifle and Archery in particular)

They also decreased a the activation times on a bunch of powers (including all three cones) which really helped the set flow smoother:
http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Patch_...01-22#Blasters

Agreed. I enjoy the stories for the Shard TFs but the actual task forces are horribly implemented. Three of them are just plain grinds and Justin Augustine is just a frustrating series of hunt missions. I would LOVE to see them re-made using along the lines of the newer TFs.

For example in Faathim the Kind's TF I'd probably keep the missions where you have to activate all four keys at once (7 missions total) and then make the end boss fight a little harder. It would still be longer than the newer TFs but by eliminating the first three kill alls and the annoying sub-plot with recovering keys from Paragon City you get rid of most of the grind and personally I find the key missions a lot of fun since unlike most TFs you get a lot of variety from the enemy groups present (Nemesis, Rikti and Malta). Also, give him a cell phone, he can communicate with Azuria telepathically, why can't he do the same with us?

Nope, they are orange (or at least were last time I checked).

Not really, the PVPIOs only special feature common to both Purples and PVPIOs is that the set bonuses are always on regardless of level. Purples are only available at level 50 while PVPIOs are available at any level. Purples use "Superior" enhancement values (25% higher than regular level 50 IOs). Purples also get "Ultimate" set bonuses (a x4 modifier) whereas PVPIOs use the use the standard "Tiny" through "Huge" bonuses (x1 to x3). Additionally PVPIOs get two sets of set bonuses, one set is always on while the other only works in a PvP zone.

I did that once and wondered why I was having so much trouble. Then I realized that I had my taunt aura on .

I disagree. I almost never use a raptor pack in the shard, relying on a mix of super jump and geysers to get around. When I do TFs I am frequently the fastest person on the team. Geysers take some practice to learn but once you do they are significantly faster than the raptor packs. There are a few places with no convenient geyser route and the packs help there but most of the time the geysers are faster even for people with speed capped fly.

This made me laugh.