Adeon Hawkwood

Where are you getting those values from?

I just checked the values in RedTomax and it's saying what I always thought, Controllers and Corruptors have the same heals with Masterminds being slightly worse.

Going by RedTomax the values are:

At level 1:
Controller: 11 & 21.56
Corruptor: 11 & 21.56
Mastermind: 8.8 & 17.2

At level 50:
Controller: 117.799 & 230.885
Corruptor: 117.799 & 230.885
Mastermind: 94.239 & 184.194

http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...rmal_Radiation
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...rmal_Radiation
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...rmal_Radiation

You know, I'm not even sure I'd agree with that. There's an old humor piece floating around (Superman Needs an Agent) arguing that Superman should spend at least sometime doing commercial endeavors (such as lifting satellites into orbit) since the money he makes could be more effectively used to fight crime/poverty/etc. than him trying to to do it all personally.

A similar argument applies in CoX. Super powered villains (and even minor street gangs) are apparently a major threat beyond the abilities of the police to control unaided which is why Peregrine Island is full of armed paramilitary forces (two different groups), invading aliens, demons and circus clowns. The preferred method of handling this is apparently through a system of semi-autonomous vigilantes. As such it makes sense to ensure that these people have sufficient funds to ensure a decent standard of living in order to improve their efficiency. After all who would you prefer to have come and rescue you: a hero who spent his day engaged in combat with enemies before working an eight hour shift at Wal Mart and then collapsing into bed or one who got a good nights sleep, a solid breakfast and spent a few hours training/maintaining his gear before going out on patrol?

Now admittedly there is another side to this (similar to the Superman article above) which is Mundane Utility. In a world where Superpowers are common there is a potentially lucrative job market for a lot of superpowers and it's not unreasonable to assume that some heroes receive funding from corporations in exchange for this. For example a mining corporation might pay an Earth Controller to fill in their abandoned mines as a publicity stunt or a Storm Summoner might offer a service to ensure good weather for major outdoor events.

Actually Controllers and Corruptors have the same "ranged" buff/debuff modifiers for everything except slows and mezzes. Controllers do get slightly higher "melee" buff modifiers but those (generally) are only used by the self buffs in the Power Pools/Epic Pools rather than in their actual secondary powers.

So, for example, the shields in Cold Domination or the heal in Thermal Radiation have the same effectiveness for both ATs since those are ally buffs but controllers get slightly higher values from Scorpion Shield since it is a self buff.

Hmmmm.... I wonder could we convince him to change the VIP stipend form 400 PPs/Month to 1 PP in the first month and then each month the number doubles .

Well, I think it's left to the player's decision. Influence can represent you getting paid via Hero Corps but it can also represent people giving you assistance as thanks for your help.

tl;dr version: VEATs don't need an inherent

Honestly it doesn't really both me. The main purpose of Inherents (IMHO) is to help differentiate ATs with the same powersets by allowing the same powers to work in different ways and allow different playstyles.
Defiance versus Scourge
Critical Hits versus Fury versus Assassination
Containment versus Domination

The other ones don't really fit into this but serve other useful purposes. Gauntlet and Supremacy are mostly about encouraging a certain play style (damage dealing tanking for Gauntlet and tight pet control for Supremacy). Vigilance is the most obvious "non-power" and indeed it was originally added as a bit of an afterthought (the recent buff was about addressing issues with Defenders not issues with Vigilance).

EATs, however, are in a special situation. They have unique powersets so the need to differentiate is not there. Khelds have an inherent along the lines of Gauntlet or Supremacy, it's there to encourage a particular play style, Peacebringers are designed to help make up for their teammates weaknesses, providing more damage to a low damage team or more toughness on a high damage team. Warshades are designed to accentuate their teammates strengths, adding more toughness on a tough team or more damage on a high damage team.

VEATs, on the other hand, have a Vigilance style inherent, added as something of an afterthought so that they have one. This is largely because they don't really need one, they provide strong team buffs and debuffs along with good personal damage and self buffs. Trying to shoehorn in some special inherent wouldn't really do much. Effectively their inherent is the Tactical Training powers, a set of special Leadership powers that provide strong team and self buffs.

I generally advise taking some attacks alongside Provoke. Provoke on it's own generates very little threat. It's enough to get enemies to waste their alpha on you but if you want to reliably hold the attention of a boss or AV you really want to deal some damage.

Well one thing to keep in mind is that the Protector pots give you 7.5% defense and if you slot them (as Cheetatron) did they give you about 11.5% which puts him a little of 40%. For the last 5% he took the Barrier Destiny which provides a minimum defense bonus of 5% (it provides higher for 60 seconds and then 5% for the next 60 seconds and recharges in 120 seconds so it's effectively a permanent 5% defense bonus worst case).

I took a similar approach with my Bots/Traps. I am soft capped with the Protector Bots shields although I slightly higher for my defense from set bonuses so I could use the Rebirth Destiny instead of Barrier.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.942
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Adeon Hawkwood MK3: Level 50 Technology Mastermind
Primary Power Set: Robotics
Secondary Power Set: Traps
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Presence
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Battle Drones -- SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg(A), SvgnRt-Dmg/EndRdx(3), SvgnRt-Acc/EndRdx(5), SvgnRt-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), SvgnRt-Acc(7), SvgnRt-PetResDam(7)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- HO:Endo(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(48)
Level 2: Pulse Rifle Burst -- Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(A), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(9), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(11), Apoc-Dam%(31)
Level 4: Triage Beacon -- Panac-Heal/EndRedux(A), Panac-EndRdx/Rchg(31), Panac-Heal/Rchg(40), Panac-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(40), Panac-Heal(42), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 6: Equip Robot -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 10: Acid Mortar -- AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(A), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(11), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg(25), UndDef-DefDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(29)
Level 12: Protector Bots -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(13), HO:Nucle(13), Heal-I(15), HO:Enzym(15), HO:Enzym(19)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-ResKB(34)
Level 16: Force Field Generator -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(17), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(17), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(42), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(46), RedFtn-Def(50)
Level 18: Photon Grenade -- Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(21), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(21), Ragnrk-Knock%(23)
Level 20: Poison Trap -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(25), Lock-Rchg/Hold(27), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(27), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(29), Lock-%Hold(31)
Level 22: Repair -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(23)
Level 24: Provoke -- Mocking-Taunt(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(34), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(36), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(37), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(37), Mocking-Rchg(39)
Level 26: Assault Bot -- HO:Nucle(A), HO:Nucle(33), S'bndAl-Dmg/EndRdx(33), S'bndAl-Build%(33), EdctM'r-PetDef(34)
Level 28: Seeker Drones -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(A), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(43), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(43), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(46), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(48)
Level 30: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 32: Upgrade Robot -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 35: Tactics -- GSFC-ToHit(A), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(36), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(36), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(37), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(39), GSFC-Build%(40)
Level 38: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Enzym(39)
Level 41: Charged Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), GA-3defTpProc(42), HO:Ribo(43), HO:Ribo(50)
Level 44: Electrifying Fences -- GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(A), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(45), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(45), GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(45), GravAnch-Hold%(46)
Level 47: Caltrops -- TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(A), Slow-I(48)
Level 49: Vengeance -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 50: Musculature Core Paragon
Level 50: Pyronic Total Core Judgement
Level 50: Reactive Total Radial Conversion
Level 50: Seers Total Core Improved Ally
Level 50: Rebirth Radial Epiphany
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Supremacy
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(3)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A)

Thank you.

As others have said there are general concerns with trolling and such if F2Pers get access to the forums. I'd like to see them get limited forum access however espeically for tech support. A F2P section would seem like a suitable compromise.

This I do tend to agree with. However according to the info released Premium players (meaning anyone who has spent money) will be able to join SGs which I think is an acceptable compromise.

I don't think Free players should get access but I do think Premium players should. One of the major advantages of the Consignment House compared to the more traditional Auction House in other MMOs is how casual friendly it is. The ability to easily set up buy orders and leave them overnight means that players don't have to worry about getting screwed on pricing, current prices to high? Leave a bid up overnight. Now with free players not having access that emans that there will be VIPs who act as go betweens, buying items from F2Pers in chat and reselling at a profit on the market.

So why do I say premium only and not F2Pers? Largely for the same reason I suspect the devs have restricted it: gold farmers. The market is an extremely useful tool for gold farmers looking to launder inf before selling it. Allowing F2P accounts full access is going to make that problem worse. Allowing Premium players access will still have some issues but it should not be as bad. I do think that Premium players should get access though.

[edit]Another thought occurred to me. The consignment house fee is (from what I can tell) the primary inf sink in the game. Encouraging off-market transactions decreases the value of that sink.[/quote]

Heck no. Not allowing F2Pers to use the Ae encourages them to do regular content. If they do that I think they are more likely to stick around than if they AE farm to 50, get bored and quit.

Either you're mis-reading my posts or you're confusing what I said with what other people have said. I've never actually had a trial fail due to one person doing something incompetent (including the ever popular "lead Marauder out of the area" failure). I've had a few trials that failed back when they were new and people were still learning them but it's been a while since I've seen a failure. The closest I had was when the choke points were new and a trial failed due to the southern choke point being to far west despite me repeatedly asking in league chat for them to move further east. The trial failed we restarted and I specifically lead them where they needed to be ahead of time.

I can't even recall any specific cases of truly incompetent players. Minor annoyances, sure they come up all the time, such as people ignoring positioning requests ("please get on this side of Nightstar so the tanker can pull Siege that means everyone") or masterminds who don't set their pets on aggressive for the prisoners but nothing game breaking.

Now that doesn't mean I don't keep an eye out for it and take precautions against the possibility. Back when I actually bothered aciding the doors in Lambda I would automatically start taking out the extra containment chamber in the courtyard on the grounds that someone would lose their acid but it was never a big deal.

At the end of the day my motto is "never ascribe to malice what can be explained by incompetence". If someone is doing something wrong I assume it's because they don't know what to do. I'm happy to explain but a lot of the time I have no way of knowing who I need to talk to unless they tell me (a lot of people seem to completely ignore league chat).

Indeed I did. I find it more comfortable to write this sort of thing in the non-specific second person than try and write it in the third person.

Maybe I'm a jerk but I really do not care for people who have that attitude. We are not born knowing everything, we learn throughout our lives and admitting you don't know something is the first step to learning it. I've had to work with people in real life who refuse to admit that they don't know something and you know what? They end up causing a lot more problems and a lot more work for other people trying to muddle through than if they had had the guts to admit up front that they needed help. Admitting a lack of knowledge is not a weakness, it's a strength.

Yes, people tend to get annoyed when things go wrong. But part of the reason is that if the person had said upfront that they were unclear on what to do it could have been explained which would have avoided the situation in the first place.

Again, I'll say that asking questions is not a sign of weakness. As for being kicked for not contributing, it's much easier to contribute if you know what you are doing and it's much easier to know what you are doing if you ask in advance.

Yes, there are stupid team leaders out there. Not much can be done about that except add a player note and don't team with them in the future.

Yes, I am responsible. But what am I responsible for? I am responsible for providing direction and leadership to the league as a whole. I'm responsible for selecting a strategy and ensuring that people are following it. I'm responsible for making sure that when the league splits the splits are reasonably balanced (ideally I would also make sure that the split groups have adequate leadership but that can be tricky unless you know the people involved).

Now the first one is obviously the one we are discussing. I will provide direction and leadership to the league, but I will tailor it to the needs of the league. Since I don't know everyone involved I base my assumption of knowledge on the average demonstrated by the sever unless I'm told differently. When the trials were new I gave detailed explanations but as people got more experienced I backed off on doing that with, at most, a brief run down unless someone said they needed more. I did the same when Keyes came out (actually I still tend to default to explaining in Keyes, it doesn't get run much so the odds of a first timer are high). I consider this a perfectly valid method to use, I HATE people who waste my time explaining something I already know and the same is true of leagues. If all people in the league know it I am just wasting time for the sake of hearing myself speak. If someone doesn't know then I'm happy to explain but I'm not going to waste the time of every person on every league I run just in case someone doesn't know.

And indeed if I see someone who is obviously lost I'll offer advice. I'd have preferred them to tell me ahead of time but I can handle it in progress if necessary. Some of it's little tricks, for example doing choke points on BAF I'll always assign team 1 north and 2 and 3 south. Do you know why? Because I can do a quick scan of the area and tell at a glance if people are in position or not. Anyone with a bright green name should be near me, teal names should be south. If I see someone out of position I'll give them a minute to move and then send them a friendly tell. Some of it's less obvious, when I run Lambda I always assign team 1 to grenades. Why? Because it means there is a good chance I'll get a couple of grenades that way. A lack of acid doesn't really hurt the league (in fact I've started not using acids at all) but a lack of pac grenades can. Assigning myself to pac grenades means there is a person I know for a fact is competent getting at least some of them.

If that is it then it's a bug. AFAIK Heroes and Vigilantes should be able to earn the same badges through Hero content.

No it's not the players fault if they don't understand something. However it is their fault for not seeking assistance. I've been running trials on Virtue since they were released (both as a leader and a member of others trials) and I have never seen anyone ridiculed for saying "I've never done this trial before and could use some assistance". If I did see someone ridiculing another player for that I'd kick them immediately (if I were the league leader) and 1-star them to remind me not to team with them again.

Asking the leader to explain the trial to you is the simplest way of getting the information you need to run the trial successfully but it is not the only method. There are several good guides written for all of the trials (both the Paragon Studios official guide and player-made ones) so if you don't want to ask for help read those it should explain enough to allow you to figure it out as you go. If you're unwilling to ask for help AND unwilling to read the guides then I'm afraid I have very little sympathy for you. You are essentially sitting around hoping that someone will decide to explain the trial to you.

If you don't tell me that you are new to the trial I will assume you know what you are doing and act accordingly (people are assumed competent until proven otherwise).

My opinion the new person is at fault. Not because they don't know what to do but because they didn't tell the leader that they don't know what to do. The (reasonably valid) assumption at this point is that 99% of people have already done the Lambda/BAF trials so leaders do not bother giving detailed instructions which would be a waste of everyone's time (in the same way that people rarely give detailed instruction on the older level 50 TFs).

So if you're doing a trial for the first time TELL THE LEADER. If they are at all deserving of being called a leader they will be happy to give you at least a condensed instruction set so that you know what to do ahead of time. Sitting in silence hoping that someone will suddenly decide to tell you what to do is really frustrating for everyone. Even if it's just a simple "FYI I have not done this before" when you join the league telling people that you need assistance is the first step towards getting it.

As an example I ran a Keyes a few nights ago. Several people told me when they joined that they were first timers so before we started I gave a brief rundown of the trial and told them how to make the two macros I find useful before we started. The trial went smootly and everyone went home happy.

Maybe, my Knowledge(Lore) skill is low.

It would be neat but I'd guess the developers would be against it on thematic grounds. The existing sets we have are all "generic" rather than representing specific villain groups. Obviously there is some overlap in themes but it is (as an example) Thugs rather than Hellions. This isn't practical with Shivans since they are a very specific group rather than something that can be made generic. Plus they seem to be setting Shivans up as this uber threat and making them basic summonables would go against that.

Don't take this the wrong way but I really hope you end up disappointed. From my viewpoint the big (potential) advantage of Freedom is that the extra income should allow Paragon Studios to make a lot more "stuff" than they come with their current income model. I WANT them to produce so much stuff in the store that it's impractical for an individual to get all of it without spending an unreasonable amount of money. Realistically, I am unlikely to want everything they put in the store so the more stuff they put in total the more stuff they will put in that I DO want.

I think you mean Huntsman, not Crab. Also, VEATs do not actually get access to Pyre Mastery or any of the APPs, they only get the PPPs, this is bugged in Mids.

Purple set bonuses remain active even if the power is not available.

To some degree this depends on how you view it. If you just look at the base prices then it's more expensive that the boosters. However, Arcanaville wrote a pretty good post in one of the threads pointing out that what the devs have effectively done is set the prices based on the price a person who is not subscribing will pay and then provided a stipend to VIPs effectively subsidizing their purchases.

Based on that I think the paragon market is slightly more valuable than the current boosters. The ability to buy a la carte means that we can target our purchases on the things we specifically want. For example, I purchased the Origin Pack because I wanted the Impervium Mantle (and have yet to use any other items in the pack), however under the new system I could instead have just purchased the Impervium Mantle saving me money for purchasing other things.

It also (based on what we've seen so far) means more things available to purchase. We are getting 3 power sets with I21 and 1 other has been announced as coming soon(tm). Now we are only getting one of them for three but conversely since the others are premium that is what (presumably) allowed the devs to justify developing 4 new sets instead of 1 or 2.

My experience is that Keyes is actually pretty MM friendly, although you probably want a Rebirth Destiny or significant healing in your secondary.

The main issue is keeping your pets from aggroing on Anti-Matter but that's easy to do if you have some basic control binds setup.