Ynaught

Some folks will feel that getting the power sets early is well worth the difference and that if the extras are really good, buying them later is fine with them.

I don't need Dual Pistols early though I have to admit it'd be pretty nice. Demon Summoning I won't be able to play until GR hits anyway since I'm not a fan of villainside.

So, I'm in the same boat as you, I'll be waiting until July. Saving a little bit of money is never a bad thing and I can wait.

But, it'll be tough seeing the DP'ers running around. I can tell it'll be taunting me to get my own "bang bang" fix.

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I'm taking a break from CoX for a bit as I'm more than a bit tired of all the GR talk from players and none from the Devs/marketing. I look forward to playing GR, I'm just sick of players who can't or won't stop talking about it.

"When's it coming out?"

"What new stuff is there?"

"Why aren't we hearing more about GR?"

"I hear that we're getting a new AT!"

"Oh yeah, well I heard we're getting a bunch of new powersets too!"

"The graphics update looks awesome!"

...on and on.

I figure I'll be back once GR is released, if not before then since I would likely qualify for one of the beta waves. (60+ month vet and I stayed through the "loyalty" program phase)

I hope there is some serious info on GR coming soon from the Devs/marketing. I wouldn't mind cutting my break short if there is some serious, solid info about GR. Anything to lower the amount rampant speculation and whining would be great in my book!

You say you have some IO sets slotted. If one of the sets you have is Devastation, check to see if you have the chance to hold proc. If you do, there is your answer. The Devastation: Chance to Hold proc uses the Tesla Cage effect, when it fires.

Pretty sure (not 100% positive) it's been confirmed that you'll only be able to have 1 version of an accolade. If you get a red side accolade that gives +5% HP, you won't be able to get a blue side accolade that gives the same bonus.

You can switch from red to blue and keep your red accolades, but you won't get the same type of accolade blue side.

You can get the BADGES that would normally grant the blue side accolade, you just won't get to "double dip".

I agree entirely with FireWyvern, it's nearly impossible to tell how you're slotted. Telling us you have X amount of Y set slotted doesn't give enough information on just exactly WHAT ones you have slotted.

Like in Punch, you say you have 3 Mako and 3 Smashing Haymaker slotted, but I can't tell how much Acc, Dam, End Reduct or Rech you actually have since specific enhancements aren't listed.

About the only things I can see that immediately jumps out at me is Resist Physical Damage: 4 So's... you slotted 4 Damage Resist SO's in it? If so, then you wasted at least 1 slot since with "ED" anything past the 3rd slot with SO's is giving next to no increase.

Also, you only have 2 enhancements in Dull Pain, a power that essentially BEGS to be 5-6 slotted and comes early enough in the Invul set that it SHOULD be 5-6 slotted ASAP, and definitely 5-6 slotted before you get to Footstomp!

There are other things that I would do differently, but they are play style choices and not suitable for a critique*. Though I have to ask why you'd put KB in KO Blow instead of acc and damage, since KO Blow is your heaviest hitting attack.


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*(I NEVER take taunt on Brutes, I play them as scrappers not tanks. Of course I hardly ever team either, so...)

At first I thought that you were a new player that just wanted an uber build to level fast, but after reading your post I realized that you had actually learned the game fairly well and would probably do well with an uber build.

Then I see your slotting and I see you aren't as knowledgeable as I thought, or you've been given some very bad advice along the way.

First thing I see is you have recharge in Siphon Power and Speed. That's alright and all, but with no accuracy in there you're wasting endurance and getting zero benefit. Swap those recharge out for at least 1 lvl 50 common Acc IO and you should be ok. (I didn't have your build loaded at the time I wrote this part of my reply, so I didn't see you have a 69% acc bonus with all your sets. Even so, more accuracy is not a bad thing. To an extent...)

Next up I see 4 slots in Combat Jumping. Not worth it to slot that past the starting slot as it only gives a small bonus and those slots can probably be used elsewhere. Now, if those ARE extra slots and you want those bonuses, then fine, just don't gimp yourself to eek out an extra 1.5% defense.

Now, on to Acrobatics. There is this little thing called "Enhancement Diversification" that happened a few years back. Essentially it makes slotting ANYTHING past the 3rd slot with SO's (and these days lvl 30-ish+ IO's) or 100%/60%* of certain attributes basically useless. You have 4 end reds in Acro, where most people put 1 in there and are plenty happy. they slot 2 if they are massive end hogs, which a Fire/Kin can be. Three slotting is almost unheard of and that 4th slot is completely wasted.

Your Imps are poorly slotted as well, with less accuracy than a single on-level SO in them, they won't be hitting that much, especially considering that they spawn at -1 to you. Accuracy bonuses you have DO NOT carry over to the Imps. And they need the extra acc to hit anything, especially if you're fighting anything more than +1 to yourself. This is where some of those extra slots in CJ could be put to better use and ESPECIALLY the wasted one (at the very least) in Acro. 6 slot Imps with Blood Mandate and you get some decent AoE and ranged defense out of it.

Fulcrum Shift you want to be up as often as possible, so most fire/kins will slot it with at least 2-3 acc and then 2-3 recharge.

Also, you want Hasten up as much as possible, so you'll want to 3 slot that with Recharge as well.

Now we come to the things you are WAY over slotted on, at least as far as wasting percentages and not slots.

On Char you have too much damage slotted. Swap out the Dam/End for the chance to hold proc and you will only be losing a little bit of end red and will get lucky once in a while to land a critical hold PLUS the proc hold, making holding tough bosses/EB's that much easier.

Most fire/kins I know (not many, truthfully) slot fire cages for acc and damage since slotting for immob is mostly a waste. The cages already last longer than the mobs will/should be alive without slotting. Any fire/kin who can't take out a normal +2 spawn in under 20 seconds is doing something wrong, and you have yours up to almost a minute worth of immob! More damage is what kills the mobs, not holding them in place.

Fire Ball is extremely over the cap as far as damage goes, as nearly half of what you have slotted is not even making it to the mobs. Take out the Ragnarok: Damage and put in the Acc/Rech. That way you keep your bonuses lose next to nothing on your damage (since you are SO far over the cap) and get some more recharge in a long recharge power.

Now, I know I didn't help you hit the soft cap for defense and for that I'm sorry. I'm no fire/kin expert by any stretch, but I hope that the suggestions I did make helps you clean up your build and find other areas to possibly make hitting the soft cap easier. I'm sure others can and hopefully will come along and show you exactly how.

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*Just off the top of my head, the attributes that fall under the 100% and 60% "ED" rule are...

100% - Damage, Accuracy, Recharge, End Reduction and End Mod, among others.

60% - ToHit Buffs, ToHit Debuffs, Defense and Resistance just to name what ones I can think of right now.

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I'd just like to say "Hi" to all the people on Protector, since I think I have a toon or two I'll be moving to Protector from Freedom.

Free transfers, right in my price range.

This is awesome!

Finally, I can get my toons off Freedom and move them to a server I'll actually enjoy playing on!

And I won't go broke doing it, hehe.

Right at the top of the boards, under Announcements, is your answer.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...65#post2455765

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The only thing I think I would change is switch out one of the common heal IO's in Health for the Numina: Heal IO and get an extra 12% regen. Other than that...

Pretty much agree with everything brophog said.

Merits have indeed messed up what is available and when. Not to mention that pre-merits, people would literally be able to run several short TF's and were generating dozens of rare recipes a DAY. Now players are much more limited and consequently the number of recipes has fallen off.

Also to add on to other reasons there are fewer recipes, a lot of players want lower level recipes for PvP or for when they exemplar. They want those set bonuses around for certain lower levels. So even when players are playing lower level toons, if they happen to get those great recipes, they are keeping them for themselves. Even if they can't use it on the toon that gets the recipe, they likely have an alt that can so they are just trading in-house. At least, I know that's what I do.

I'll say this, if I EVER win hundreds of millions* in the mega lotto, I would personally fund a commercial for CoX to be broadcast during the Superbowl. And not one of the cheapo spots either, I'd go for the most high profile spot there is and shell out $3 mil for it. On top of getting a couple of celebs to 'star' in it and having good production value.

Of course that's not likely to ever happen, but if it ever does, let this be more or less my personal promise that I will do it.


*By hundreds of millions, I'm talking that AFTER taxes and everything I still have more that $100+ million left.

Those only affect the pets.

Basically, all of them can take accuracy and damage but from there things get more diverse.

Some pets can take heal sets, others defense debuffs. Some can take knockback while still others can use immobilize. You'll have to see specifically what sets your pet can take by hovering over each pet in the enhancement window. There it will say what "common" enhancements they can use but also below that what IO sets they can.

Now, as for the difference between Damage Pet IO's and Recharge Pet IO's...

The tier 1, 2 and 3 MM pets cannot use the recharge pet sets, they can only use the regular pet IO's. Those recharge pet IO's are for short duration and/or long recharge pets like Fire Imps and Singularity in the Controller/Dom sets and can even be used for things like Voltaic Sentinel, Tornado and Gun Drone. However, those recharge pet IO's CAN be used in certain MM pets, like Thugs Gangwar and Necro's Soul Extraction.

Just double check each of your powers to be sure what can go where and you'll be fine. Also, if you don't have it yet, download a copy of Mid's Hero designer here.

Hope this helps.

How about this...

For every 12 months subscribed to the game, you get to make 1 server transfer for a "discounted" price, say $1-$5. It wouldn't necessarily need to be added to the current vet rewards so much as it would be something added to your account. Not sure how, or even IF character transfers and renaming appears on your account, does it show up like the booster packs or not at all?

Anyway, just an idea. Not a freebie, but make it cheaper for those who have stuck around for a bit to get a little something.

Odd, I came to Champion not long ago and am still getting used to all the people here. It's kinda weird to see broadcast chatter in Talos, let alone actually seeing other heroes flying or hopping around.

Mind you, I have branched out from my home server (Pinnacle) NOT because the population is anemic (I actually prefer lower pop servers), but simply because I've ran out of slots and I won't delete any alts and can't afford to buy any new slots ATM. If I could, I'd stay on Pinn, even with it's low population. Needless to say, Champion has a rather large community, at least in my eyes.

Of course, I've spread out to every server except Freedumb, so while I do have 4 alts currently on Champion, I may not be playing there all that often as I tend to jump around to different alts, depending on my state of mind at the time.

Don't worry, Champion is not dying. There are a couple others in much worse shape than Champ. Trust me.

I was lucky enough to get a team to defeat Lord Winter and someone asked a valid question about the badges earned through this sneak peek.

Will the badges earned during this sneak peek remain, or will players need to re-earn them once the winter event officially goes live?

At the time my answer was "of course we'll keep them". After thinking on it for a few minutes though, I began to think the badges could be taken away, not unlike the AE badge gutting not too long ago. The only difference is we can re-earn these.

So yeah, will they stay or will we need to rerun this?

To expand on DumpleBerry's dead on accurate post...

EB's count just fine towards Portal Jockey. Which is nice when you're solo or can't find a team to take down the AV's. Just remember that Anti-Matter only shows up in the 40-45 arc from Tina Macintyre and even then only the second encounter with him counts. And that is in the last mission of the arc. There is another Anti-Matter mish from her that has Anti in it and is a stand alone mish, but you can't get that through Ouro.

Nothing defeated in AE counts towards any non-AE badge. So no creating a map with nothing but Outcast bosses and getting Weatherman/Weatherwoman badge villainside, not going to happen. You can't even earn inf or damage taken badges in AE.

...maybe someday.

I agree with Hyperstrike, your TF, run it how you like. You even talked to the 2nd person who stayed and apparently both agreed you should kick the 3rd if they came back. There was consensus and majority ruled for this instance.

Now, as for this specific case, would I have kicked the person who went to eat dinner?

No. Especially since they actually came back seemingly willing to go on.

Could they have been mooching? Sure, not unheard of. But they could have legitimately been eating just the same. An hour to eat dinner is not unheard of, not everyone wolfs food down to get back to a game. Some people, especially those who don't eat alone, sometimes actually talk with each other making the whole "dinner experience" last longer than simply chewing and swallowing the food.

For me, I would have just kept going but I would have kept an eye on the 3rd person and made a note on them after the TF was over. My note would have been along the lines of "Person went off to eat dinner for over an hour during a Posi. They came back and..."

Whether the note would be positive or negative would have been based on the rest of my experience with them. I doubt they would get 5 stars from me, but I wouldn't 1 star them and say "never team with them again" either.