_Wolfen

You still have good Cimmies at the old time of 1130 am EST - its now 8pm EST per this thread

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you can also farm it in Atlas. get a buddy, have one of you keep making new alts, skip the tutorial and immediately give your gift. in 4 attempts I got the hat and the jetpack last night. when it was my friends turn, it took 10 times or so before he got snowball and the hat.

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I got snowballs in the first winter event way back but haven't this time - is a present the only way...?

also does anyone have any idea if our two temp powers (the gifts) expire if we don't use them by the end, or will be saved..)

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_Castle_ posted on this earlier here but it, regrettably, didn't make it into the patch notes from 12/7/06.

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Blaster Devices Smoke Grenade: No longer requires a 'to hit' check for the Perception Debuff. The other effects of the power still require a successful to hit check.

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This change is now included in the patch notes for reference. Happy blasting!

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Awesome! Well I am a fire/dev blaster but i gave up on smoke grenade BUT STILL!

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it still sounds pretty skippable even for a guaranteed debuff imo. (37 ar/dev) ....I dropped smoke on my fire troller and never missed it

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What's the general meeting place for both?

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If I tell you, then you'll know where to find us

I am starting a thread tonight or tomorrow for Cimmie updates and soliciting feedbacks for new times....

good timing on this, I was actually going to start an official thread for events, if for no other reason to avoid conflicts; besides Cimmie's there are other events and SGs that host many things - Corrupter Days being one example....

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Thanks for the reply.

1) Ok, I see if I can spare an Acc for VG, but it's great that I don't need to worry about it much. Good news.

2) You said 'can' run out, but will they make it priority...? For example, like with a Rain type power, or Caltrops... or will they stay assuming someone is in melee taking the aggro ? Sorry, I'd really like a clarification on this one.

3) I don't care much for containment, this character is going to be for a fixed Superteam with my SG, I don't intend on soloing ever with her, and we got the damage planned for. But I do take your points on AV's and immobilizes into consideration.


Thanks again.

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your discussion above is yet another good example of why I highly recommend 1-2 recharges in QS.....

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Increased minimum ranges for attacks like Blaze.
Some improvements for */Fire (No, no powers were switched out. No Fiery Embrace, I'm afraid. )
Some improvements for Fire/*
A very minor improvement for Gadgets...I mean, Devices! (Yeah, it was a dumb mistake -- typing in haste and all of that.)

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My faith has been restored! /faint

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I guess some love is better than none, but devices, and most especially the AR/devices combo needs some real love....

I know all of them could use some love, but I'd happily swap out my /devices on my AR for /energy /ice /fire any ole day of the week....

As another fellow earth groupie (50 earth/emp and a 31 earth/storm - Earth is the only Primary in an AT I have ever repeated) - huge kudos as well on the earth section of your guide. (I don't have /sonic experience.)

I think you did a great job keeping it easy to read, being unbiased, and laying it out with synergies. I am usually fairly strong in my opinions on earth, and I agree with almost everything you suggested, down to slotting even...

The only areas I differ slightly -
QS - I am one of those people that slot recharge in QS - 2 slows, 2 recharges.....since QS self stacks, I have had great success layering 2+ on top of each other, although I am sure that means I hit the slow cap in there somewhere. The other reason I like recharge(s), is for large entry room maps with close mobs, and/or when the mud hits fan, I can make a huge overlapping area of QS's. Being able to make multiple QS zones means I can combine QS+quake for one area, QS+VG for another, and QS+Stalag for yet one more when some loonie or pet on the team goes Leroy in that train mish map with huge spawns all 20 feet apart.

Stone Prison - my builds are so tight I have to usually pick one or the other, and invariably go Stone cages for mass containment, and the tactical advantages you mention. Would be great to work both in - 'unfortunately' Earth only has one power I always recommend skipping (salt cystals)
so SP usually gets the drop. I can definately see reasons why in some builds it would be very beneficial though. So many shinies...sigh.

Epics - great great job on the epics. Like an above poster, I am a big fan of the armors, and find Fires and Psi's to be the best two. I am one of the people who definately is not in the Earth Epic camp, after playing it for 5 levels, and then testing 4/5, and switching to fire. (like you I can't make Psi work conceptually.)

Each of the controller epics, as described, has one unique power - I can't encourage people enough to look at them all, and decide which set best completes your concept and what you desire for your playstyle and build. Want fast DPS - hands down its fire (and major fun.) Need a self heal - earth's embrace. etc etc. Earth Epic is not the place to go, even though Val is gonna yell at me, for damage. Its one attack, Boulder, while having a high BI, is s/l (thus resisted) very short range, and very long animation, which means most times on a team someone (bad stoni!) is gonna kill steal you. Having 2 so-so powers, and a damage attack that needs some love, is the reason many people respec it out. That said, I'll take any of the Troller epics anyday over what Scrapper options are.

Again, awesome job, one of the best I have seen in awhile - look forward to more!! (I am debating getting a Earth/empath mini guide out...)

Wolfie

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Good in theory, not so much in reality.

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Bingo. That pretty much nails our design on bases. We're slowly but surely making additions and changes based on feedback & data. We'll get there...I think bases are a case study where a design didn't mesh well with actual gameplay! For some odd reason, some posters have thought my Serious Games speech blamed the players; heck no! Bases are 100% a DESIGN problem. Not a player problem.

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I want to re-iterate a post I made somewhere else that while bases aren't perfect,and certainly not everyone here likes them - everyone in my SG, our coalitions, and many of my regular friends, all very much appreciate bases - for us they have totally enhanced gameplay and its enjoyability - and we make maximum use of empowerment stations, enh and insp storage, and most especially telepads.

I/we have since started alt SGs and gone through the building process again - and always appreciate our achievements when we get the next upgrade.

I think allowing personal rooms/lockers, as well as a lowering of costs for major upgrade and a reasonale rent adjustment, will go a long way to pleasing the disgruntled.

but from all of us that use and love bases - thanks!!!

would you mine explaining why anytime someone creates a thread to this in their Server forum, it keeps getting locked? Those threads have been helping voting...isn't that the point?

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Tough is fine for while you're out of Granite but it's pointless for Granite tanking. Stone Skin alone will cap your S/L while in Granite. As for Weave, I've always considered it too little return for the number of slots to get it and how much endurance it costs.

When not in Granite us stone tanks are in a constant battle for endurance gain and adding two armors on top of the ones we already have plus Mudpots is going to have us standing there basically being a tauntbot. 1) Because to fit all of that in you won't have very many attacks left and 2) there won't be much endurance to attack with. This also reduces the use of Gaunlet.

I'm not saying Weave wouldn't help at all but the cons far outweigh the pros IMO but YMMV.

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I'd hugely agree with this - weave in general since i5 is mostly useless since you exchange a very high end cost toggle for a 2.5 def buff - meh.

I started my 50 stone in i4, when ya could six slot swift (them was the days) and dinged him 50 in i6. Your original guide was a big help, and your update is even better, and best stone tank guide around imo.

A few things I'd add

Epics
I played with several epics and went with fire - I have a 50 stone troller and knew most of the powerset - the nice thing about fire for this build is !2 more ranged attacks! - fireball and fireblast are fun, fasting recharging, and fire as opposed to smashing - good stuff.

Next few items are my 2 inf:

Teleport
Many people dislike TP has a travel power:
- you don't even have to use binds to make it easy...make it one of your first 10 keys (I always do swift as 1, TP (or other) as 2.
now just hit '2' point mouse and click. rinse, repeat.
- I see more and more stone tanks without TP - its a shame, even if you think you'll have a pocket kin. Your job is to get into the middle of the mob and gather/manage aggro - you are holding the team back making them wait while you waddle in....and worse, when it goes to hell, which it will, and multiple mobs get aggroed, lack of mobility means you may have to stand and watch, depending on if taunt/hurl boulder are up, and in range; when you could have Ported right in and saved it....

Let them suffer you think....its your call if you wish to be a scranker, but a total waste of this tanks abilities....nor very heroic!

Even with a pocket Kin, without TP, you can't so much as get over the shin high wall in the water pool by Ms Liberty in Atlas....

Taunt

I am not going to open up the ole dead horse of taunt vs no taunt - as a mobility challenged tank, taunt is a great tool to grab aggro across the room. I could fill a small book with the times its saved someone. Work it in.

I find stone/stone to be quite endurance intensive and have one end redux slotted very early in rooted, and 3 in mudpots. I run Herostats to verify where my forerunners are for end usage.

I'd echo skipping the armors, save perhaps Mineral. In general the 1-2 damage resists/defenses don't give the bang for the buck in toggle costs and chewing up a space for a shiny in a tight build plan.

Power Pool comment - I find Hasten to be useful, and even with a few respecs keep it no later than 30, so that I have it 3 slotted by 32. In sustained battles, this goes a long way to overcoming the -recharge, so I like it. ymmv.

Lastly - form shift, especially if you don't have a pocket Kin. Once the mob has whittled down by half, drop to rock armor and help finish em off. Your recharge rate becomes normal, important for all your attacks, as well as assisting Earths Embrace, and things like Hasten.

Great update to your guide Roxstar...I see so many young stone tanks with totally odd, often painful to see builds, I just want to email this right away

Wolfie
aka TerraWolf, the Teleporting Herdomatic

heh, she double posted.

and why did Lighthouse mod your second!

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There were 30 instances of RV, 3 instances of GV. 1/10th of the players left the PvP zone to look at their level 40 build in PvE.

*shrug* I really don't think this is going to convince you because you already have your bigotry in place, but I'm stating the obvious here. You'll only hear what you want to hear and draw only conclusions that you want to believe.

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Being able to sneak out was a bug, that many didn't know about....curious where 10% came from btw....? Why is RV now like a morgue at 11 pm on Friday night?

I am sure that many people came to check out a new zone, some to PvP - and I wouldn't care the slightest iota if 99% came to PvP - but I really doubt you would have seen 1/4 that # were it not for the ability to have an instant 40 - which was the main reason the dozens of people I knew who went did - PvP was an extra.

Convenient to label anyone who disagrees with you as myopic - but it seems you are the one blinded by your bias. Like the label you gave me, and I have probably 40+ hours of active PvP zone time (aka non camping and mishes.)

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Did you see the test of RV when there was auto-leveling to 40? PvP still draws plenty of support, WHEN IT WORKS.


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No, Unfortunately I missed it

How many players were on and how long did it last?

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Just so this all doesn't sound like tossing yourself into the fire...

The test RV event was very fun, and absolutely HUGE. If I remember correctly, I saw over 30 instances of RV listed as FULL (which I think is 200 players, correct me if I'm wrong) and there were several more besides.

If that particular event is any indication, than the PvP events would have HUGE turnouts, and even better turnout and popularity if PvP was more attractive for regular usage.

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LMAO!!

guys, most of the people that went to this event, that I knew at least, self included and most of our server forum, didn't go b/c they wanted to PvP in the new zone, the huge excitement for almost everyone I knew, was the chance to instantly make a 40 and test out all kinds of builds and concepts. I don't think the events attendance was in anyway a measure of the player audiences demand for PvP..

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Long and the short of it, while there are some small PvP thingies getting some attention (like _Castle_ posting about Brute Fury in PvP a few days ago) there are not any big PvP issues on the nearer term feature lists.

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Emphasis mine. How 'big' an issue are the Arena bugs? How about functional base raids? Or the issues with RV that mean nobody uses the zone for what it's meant for (fighting to win the zone)?

New PvP stuff would be nice, but the priority is to get what we already have to WORK. Are you honestly saying we have to forego badly needed fixes to established features in order to free up time for new stuff?

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great ideas and things I'd love to see as well, given the effort was already taken to create them, and one hopes its only incremental effort to fix them.

I guess what isn't clear to me now is how big an issue this each fix is, extropalating these perhaps can't be slated for an i8 patch from what Lighthouse said. But then things like fixing the SG limit and server transfer are long awaited and still not clear if they will make an i8 patch or be pushed to i9 either.

Lots of things to prioritize - perhaps the PvP community, and PvErs that dabble in PvP could help prioritize what gets done - 1-2 things might be better than zero.....

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The problem here is, you say 'we' when the only person you can speak for is you. Much like anyone else with an opinion on the matter.

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Its true we post for ourselves. I don't throw 'we' around lightly - I am an active player here since launch who plays on 2 servers, runs large SGs, actively reads across forums; I draw it from interaction with friends SGs/VGs who I know have similar viewpoints, many non forum readers, as well as active canvassing of forums and global chats, and data points from rednames, repeated multiple times. And I regularly visit all PvP zones.

Does that mean I know what everyone thinks/wants - of course not, but I am pretty confident collaborated so many ways its close...

Sorry the PvPer don't like the stats, but good/bad or ugly, it is what it is today, and it appears NCSoft doesn't see enought potential in the short term that throwing a significant majority of resources at thus, which would require starving things promised since before pvp even existed here, would have to get pushed even further back.

I'd be all over it if NCSoft was willing to invest expansion of dev dollars in hopes of attracting additional players, where we all win, but in the short term, they aren't or can't. Lighthouse didn't say never, he said not by before i9, which is already underway. Wannna really [censored] up a development schedule - keep doing stop/starts on it when stuff is in process - end result is everything takes longer.

It will come, we have waited 3-4 releases for many things. If PvPers can't deal other MMOs exist until this is what they want.

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so double it, triple it, (which would be a far stretch on the two servers I play on...) it still represents a minority of what the player base is here for

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You're not getting it. Enough with the segregation of players into 'pvp' and 'not pvp'. It simply doesn't WORK like that.

Yes, there is a hard core of 'I will never ever PvP' people out there. But that says absolutely nothing about all the players who PvP casually, or dip into it, or PvP part time, or who otherwise evade that neat, silly, non-representative segregation.

PvP is a FEATURE, not a side that you take.

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I think you are reading into what I said - nowhere did I state its a side, the simple fact is the majority of players are here for PvE - many self included dabble in it, since its there - but we'd prefer that dev resources went into another FEATURE, which given what resources are available, was basically what Lighthouse stated, and was jumped on.

I don't disagree with you at all, but I don't think it changes their priorities nor justification.

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Just becaus there is only 2-4% of people in PvP zones, doesn't mean that they are the entire makeup of PvPers in the game.

If PvP problems are fixed, I think that the PvP crowd will grow. Judging by this post alone, there is interest in doing this.

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so double it, triple it, (which would be a far stretch on the two servers I play on...) it still represents a minority of what the player base is here for, and thus (which I agree with) not significant resources going into it. Its a business, they are doing what makes sense to sustain it, which co-incidently makes the majority of the player base happy.

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As for my quoted post above; the main SG I'm in was nearly full of unique players. Only a few had alts in the SG, and they'd drop those if someone new wanted in and there was no room. Personally, I wouldn't want the prestige burden of being in an SG with only 8 players and their alts.

Also, if the average SG is down to 12-20 players, that says a lot right there about the state of the game. Bases certainly didn't draw players together as the devs had hoped.


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Actually for most SGs I know, this has nothing to do with a reflection on bases, their draw, or SG draw, its a status of whats most broken with SGs and thats limiting SG size by alts rather than by globals - most people who have been here since early days have a huge list of friends that go way back, and most have a full stable of alts - desire to group/play those together is what limits it to 12-20, not ability to recruit - and the 2nd SG coalitioned is a kludgey horrible workaround.

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There will always be people that like what others dislike, or like things as they are and see no need for change. But 28/29 pages in this thread, with most posts listing things they dislike about bases tells me there's a real problem, even if you don't see it that way.


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? eh ?

I see 10 pages - certainly some people don't like bases, and to say they need improving is certainly accurate, but I am confidant many many people find their bases extremely useful and enjoyable - its pretty standard stuff that unhappy people complain/post 10:1 over happy people....(self included)

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I rarely enter any base in any SG I belong to. I really have very little reason to. If you enjoy them, and spend a lot of time there, I'm happy for you. That still doesn't change my perception of not needing, or liking them, and my continuing to not use them.

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no one said you had to lol, again the point is maybe you and 10 pages of people don't but many do - ask all the people on Victory forum how they felt

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Of course, the thing that has always stuck out to me the most is that the most fun aspect of bases is limited to a very small portion of the playerbase: building the base. It's a lot of fun to design and put together a base, but unless I'm a leader of a SG or appointed architect, I'm never going to get to experience this. Between the way it's currently set up and Cryptic's refusal to add individual bases, they've essentially spent a ton of time putting together an excellent feature that few get to play with.

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QFT.

If you have 100 SGs with 75 players per, that's 7500 players in SGs. However, more than likely only one person in each SG is the base builder/decorator. That's 100 out of 7500 players. That means 7400 people are just the financial backers. It's kind of frightening when you look at it that way. And he wonders why they aren't popular?

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After reading 2 pages I have to agree with Valkyrie about how much I am amazed how people don't get bases, or SGs for that matter...

I don't know a single SG on 2 servers where its 75 unique players, or even half that - it only takes 8 people to completely fill an SG with alts; the average active full SG is more like 12-20 players, fyi

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Here's the writeup of his speech.

The only thing that jumps out at me - he claims bases are unpopular because people don't like paying money to contribute to group identity. I don't think that's correct. I think they're unpopular because
1) they're too expensive for casual players, and
2) they don't have anything to do with our day-to-day activities in CoH/V.

Now,
- make them cheaper
- let us place NPCs, scriptable bosses, and a scripted win condition in them
- let us open them up to other players to run as missions
- get raids working
and see if that makes them more popular.

*waves magic wand*

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since this thread is on page 10, it may now resemble nothing like the Ops post, but I don't feel like wading thru 10 pages, so responding to the initial concept.

I know some people feel this way, and I agree *some* of the base items are too expensive (plot upgrads being the worst offender) but I can't disagree strongly enough with "2) they don't have anything to do with our day-to-day activities in CoH/V."

For myself, and others I know - bases have added a whole new dimension to the game - and losing them for a week for our alt SG on Victory - drove that home. And I run an SG of predom casual players, and help lead another thats for alts, so all bases have taken time to grow, and enjoy.

Besides mundane stuff like the pride we feel, and a place to sometimes meet up, day to day items like storing and buying inspirations, the HUGE bennie of storing and sharing SOs, being able to rez in the base, telepads, empowerment stations -all of these have *very positively* changed our game experience, and allow us in the end to spend more time enjoying the game, and less time in mundane things.

For myself, and many SG mates and Friends, the addition and evolution of bases is one of the most incremental positive changes I/we have seen and while I am the first to throw rocks about stuff, I can't thank Posi and team enough for them.

(costumes on the other hand, despite his post in this thread....meh, lol.)

I have to agree, I tried it out last night in Hollows on a level 8, and maybe I just need driving lessons, but it was faster just to run for the most part it seemed. Its a help if you need a quick vertical boost, no doubt, but I was unable to see any real boost to forward/horizontal movement....any tips..?

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I think we can sum up our collective feelings and frustrations in two words: "this sucks"

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The people at NCSoft and Cryptic are super nice people with great intentions, but have managed to bumble the execution of pretty much most of the releases with dates, codes, conflicts (raise your hand if you had CoV issues)

My 2 influence, until they slot and buy accuracy SOs for their Operations team, they should stop pre-announcing stuff, including releases, until they are on the shelf or on the test server. They mean well trying to pump us up, but the bigger let down when the bumble, which they historically do, causes a bigger ill will and unhappiness over all.

Come on guys - time to get some Ops people who have some real experience - seriously.

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Needs a lot of work and is quite misleading in sections. I suggest you read some of the other guides and posts specific to the trial.

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thanks for the additional info, quick search didn't turn up any others in the last 3 months - do you have any you find useful?

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I debated on including the recipes, but some of them (like the hold protection) are big; like 6 ingredients each. Basically, I got lazy, and wasn't sure how to present them. Perhaps I'll add that to a version 2...

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really well done and useful - tyvm! and i'd LOVE to see recipe costs in v2.

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Most deaths result from squishies who aren't smart enough to stay back.

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and those who refuse to listen that it spawns based on attackers in melee range and get close, increasing the purple fluff monsters.....kinda like what the brilliant raid leader did in a earlier post encouraging an entire Hami raid map to attack it....would love to see those pics