Anonym

I've been playing with Mid's now that I've had more time and found that FoN is really not needed at all and a few other choices needed to be changed. The teleport stuff is lame, but I can fit in SJ and SS instead I suppose.

Thanks again for the help.

In all the MMOs I've played, melee has been my thing - I've always been either melee DPS or tank. I've played scrappers, brutes, and stalkers to various levels in CoX, but I'm really tired of trying to be successful in PvP with melee. Most of my kills the other night (as a BS/SR scrapper) were from my dark blast power; I took this as a sign that it might be time to change things up a bit.

I'm working on a psi/mind blaster right now, which looks like it has potential in RV, especially IOed up. I thought I might change things up a bit with my power pool choices, and got TP foe, TP, and Hover to use for positioning myself and potential victims, with concealment for stealth/invis and PS (everybody's doing it!), and of course the all-important fitness pool. I'll also pick up force mastery for FoN and a few other things, because the idea of a blaster with 75% resist to all but psi for two minutes at a time is just fun.

Anyone have any advice? Will the TP/Hover combo give me a decent chance in PvP or should I just respect asap? Are there any specific blaster PvP strategies I should be aware of?

Thanks.

Name: Rashiv Azra
AKA: Halfgod
Age: Unknown
Threads: None (yet)
Description: Few beings in this world can say they truly know the man called Rashiv Azra. His softly glowing white eyes give away as little as the deep black mask covering the lower half of his face, and his distant nature has earned him few friends. Those who have observed him can only conclude that he isn't human - his enormous strength and incredible reflexes set him apart from the common man, and his shoulder-length white hair looks decidedly unnatural. Azra himself does nothing to discourage this impression, and has been known to answer questions of his origin with the simple phrase, "It's none of your business."

Rashiv wanders the grey area between good and evil, a dangerous path that worries several of Paragon's more ethical groups and heroes. Despite their best efforts the dark warrior still follows an 'eye for an eye' moral code, perfectly at ease with killing his enemies when he deems the act necessary. Villains across Paragon have come to fear the sight of the nictus-infused broadsword he wields, and his roman-style black-and-silver armor is often the last thing they see before he sends them to the abyss. The PPD and Longbow keep a close eye on him, hesitant to interfere with the vigilante but ready to step in the moment he goes too far.

(OOC Intro: Loosely based on a character from a book I'm in the early stages of writing. May appear in a later RP thread - we'll see if I have time. He's on Freedom now, but I plan to transfer to Virtue in the near future for some RP goodness. PM critiques of my writing in the RP threads will always be welcome - this is, essentially, practice for me, and I hope to learn from it.)

This would be great, I think. Definitely a good addition to the game... my characters tend to be more of a grey area than black or white anyway, so this would be perfect for them.

Cool, thanks for the replies. Ii'll check it out when I get the chance.

First off, I'm glad I found this topic... I didn't know we had one on these forums. I'm interested to see what other RPers have done here.

Second, I've gotta ask... does RP really exist in the game itself? I've never seen anyone make even the most basic attempt outside bios, so I eventually gave up.

I play on Freedom... other games often have servers tagged as "RP", but there's none of that on CoH, unfortunately. If there's a more RP-heavy server I might be able to buy a transfer, depending on cost.

Change number 1: fix MoG so it's at least slightly useful in PvP (Done! Excellent work! I love it!)

Change number 2: Cap slows so that Hasten+3 recharge enhancements on all powers cannot be completely negated.

Change number 3: Hmm... I'd say my number three wish would be a general look at the FotM builds for more balancing, really.

Change number 4: Remove the annoying and easy to exploit arena rankings. They really are pointless : /

The first two are the only two issues that stand out so far, though I intend to keep looking. Overall better than many games I've played in the past.

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I've tried in most cases to consider every part of each post against my argument, and you (the people arguing against me) still have yet to offer a good reason for level 1's needing respecs besides "Oh, but what if they might possibly need it waaay down the road?" Way down the road we'll have reasonably priced respec recipes.

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This seems like a perfectly reasonable agument. From what I saw with the WW and Invention system on release, I'm surprised that you're finding respec recipes for 25-27 million. I wouldn't expect respec recipes to ever reach a reasonable price. They will be the most sought after items at auction.

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While your attacks on my planning ability are cute, it's a pretty lame argument; you even managed to somehow assume everyone has the Test server available to them.

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Earlier you used this same argument, that people with the new DB and willpower characters should have used the Test server.

My advice to you is to create yourself another character and wait for the freespec. You've said that you aren't interested in the new missions and that the level 50 content is not up to your standards, so why is it that you must change your capable playing character now.

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I doubt respec recipes will remain so high after the freespec, and IIRC I said test was an option for some, along with reading some forums posts, etc.

I personally don't have access to Test with this computer and I find that while a lot of the info on the forums is useful, it's not something to go by all the time. Besides, making your own character without using a model set up by others is more rewarding, IMO.

As to the last part of your post, level 50 "content" is improving your toon with IOs, making your costumes better, getting badges, and in some cases changing powers to a better build. Grinding back to 50 might be fun for some, but not for me personally.

*Edit: Another valid part of endgame content is PvP, but at this point my toon would get laughed out of RV or the Arena in any serious fight.

Nope, just makes me wait longer. (Editted: makes US wait longer, so I don't sound so selfish to you... I can use "us" here because there's no denying the wait )

And you're right, arguing over the internet doesn't ever seem to lead anywhere. Look at the past 15 or so posts, you'll basically see my original point and Lighthouse's original points getting thrown back and forth with no one adding anything and many people selecting single parts of my posts to reply to while ignoring the rest of the post and all before it. I've tried in most cases to consider every part of each post against my argument, and you (the people arguing against me) still have yet to offer a good reason for level 1's needing respecs besides "Oh, but what if they might possibly need it waaay down the road?" Way down the road we'll have reasonably priced respec recipes.

DoctorNuncheon:

First, I've had three respecs, because I've never gotten one from an issue or vet reward. While your attacks on my planning ability are cute, it's a pretty lame argument; you even managed to somehow assume everyone has the Test server available to them. In case you forgot, not everyone has the HD space for an entire second copy of the game. As an added bonus, you seem to assume I know as much about CoH as you do. That's truly a horrible way to think of things; IIRC the post was something to the effect of "Players will get a free respec along with i11" which, as I had little experience with this new-issue-freespec policy, made me think "Oh, when i11 launches players get a free respec."

Second, it's my first toon. You're bound to make mistakes, especially when you try things out for yourself rather than going to the forums and finding a FotM or adhering to the hundred and one conflicting ideas for the "best" powers and ATs.

Third, I don't like grinding to 50. I don't have a farming toon, so no bonus inf unless I bankrupt my main. I don't know any PLers and don't have any desire to seek one out to ask for help.

Fourth, I never once said my character is unplayable, and that's a really stupid argument to make. You'd be hard-pressed to make an unplayable character. However, while a new toon can get new powers by grinding, I can't.

Fifth, as I mentioned before, I refuse to speak in terms of "everyone" or "most players" if I can help it, because I won't put words in their mouths. So yes, you're going to see a whole lot of "I I I ME ME ME" since I'm describing MY situation.

Need another analogy? Here:
You're suggesting something similar to giving out welfare to the rich along with the poor, and making it take longer for the poor to get it to boot. Of course everyone can use the money, but who has a greater need? This may not be the best example, but it's as valid as any of the various misinterpretations and attacks launched at my argument.

I can't possibly imagine a scenario in which these new players won't get a respec for months. Seriously, that is the lamest argument I've ever heard. If you're taking MONTHS to get to level 24, you must be paying $15 a month to play maybe an hour a week.

Like you said, nobody -needs- a respec. I believe I mentioned that my character doesn't strictly need one, but not having one will cut into my enjoyment of the game for a week, while all these new toons everyone's worried about have levelling up and playing with their new powers to do.

This game already has a significant lack of endgame content compared to many MMOs. Why make the decision based on the level 1's with the whole game's story arcs and level grinding ahead of them?

Hell, I bet half the reason I don't have any people posting in favor of my argument is that most of you made a new toon, so YOU benefit from the decision. That may or may not be the case, but since it's the most likely scenario I'll go with it. Don't bother posting "oh no, I didn't make a new toon" because there's no way for anyone to tell if it's the truth. I personally made no new toon, so all I get is a week-long wait.

By the time they get to a high enough level to have burned through all three TV task forces, chances are good the price of respec recipes will be within the "reasonable" range. 25-27 million (last time I looked) is not reasonable when you'll get another one within a week for free.

As I've mentioned before, if you need a respec before level 24, something's horribly wrong. The Terra Volta TF is in no way unreasonably time-consuming or difficult. And the vast majority of the level 1's running around after launch were almost certainly not total newbies who couldn't make it to 24 because of a bad power choice. Please go back and read some of my posts, as Lighthouse's response to my very first post brought up that issue and my next post (as well as several after it) explained what I've said yet again in THIS post.

Enough people brag about being able to get to level 50 within a week that by the time the freespec rolls out, most of these people should have three (or more) respecs available.

Those who desperately need a respec are likely to also have little experience and therefore take much longer than a week to level up, and by the time they have enough powers to even merit a respec, the cost of respecs could very well be low enough to be a real option for those of us without tons of time or luck.

Like I said before, they'd be rolling greed ("I might need it later, even though I have three free ones already!") while I'd be rolling need ("I can use this now, and have a genuine need for it").

All the claw weapons I looked at had two colors, besides the legacy ones of course

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Yes, it would have been great if the freespec came at launch of the Issue. Of course, they haven't ever done it that way before, but it woulda been nice for them to completely change how they do it just this one time.

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So, you DO agree with (or at the very least understand) my point then? Yes, it would have been great. Yes, it would have been nice. Yes, the reasons given by Lighthouse for not giving the freespec at launch were, in my opinion, flawed. Having posted my reasoning here, I'm reasonably certain the devs will at least glance at it, and the chances are that much better that they'll make exceptions to how they "always" do it when it makes sense to do things differently.

As to the rest of your post... You're bringing up history. I'm aware of the lack of respecs when CoH first launched, but fortunately that's not the case anymore.

I also am not whining just because "this is inconviniencing me". It was my intention to discuss how one specific part of the launch could have been better, and my reasons why. I have absolutely no interest in discussing how things were when the game was just beginning.

And the "Be grateful, it could be worse" argument is tired and sad. I already expressed gratitude plenty of times, and actually I've only done one thing besides that: state my reasons for being upset with this one part of the new issue's launch. I'm saying, "This is how it could have been better" while you and a few others are replying, "Well, this is how it could be worse, so shut up."

I certainly hope the devs like to always think of how they could do better, and consider all the options for each situation, because otherwise you end up making no progress. From what I've seen, they do their best, but argue with me on that if you want.

I honestly don't see my reasoning as any more selfish than their reasoning; after all, it doesn't really seem possible to me that you'd need to respec before the mid 20s, when the first TF is available. "Just so I can have it for later" is certainly as selfish as anything I've said. My first time through the 20s was on this exact same toon and I recall only making one bad power choice. No help from the forums, no outside advice, just picking what looked good. Granted, it was a regen scrapper which are pretty easy going, but it's still unlikely anyone would need a respec before the 20s.

And of course there are more level 1s than 50s like mine, that's because there are two new powersets. that doesn't make my situation unique, but that's irrelevant anyway. It seems people are using the "needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" argument when the few don't really need any of it. Heck, I'd go so far as to say my character doesn't "need" a respec, he'll still function without it, but not nearly as well as he could, which translates to less fun. If this were a WoW loot contest, they'd be rolling greed while I rolled need, if you want an analogy.

If part of why I come across as being self-centered is the liberal use of "I" in my posts, it's because I speak _my_ mind, and am sharing what _I_ think, and can't say anything for anyone else. I could say "some people" , because you can be pretty certain that others would have benefitted greatly from the freespec being released early, but I'd rather not put words in their mouths.

Let me again clarify that I'm happy to be given a gift. There was no reason they HAD to give a freespec out, but the fact remains that they did.

Also, you're wrong on one point. I don't have to wait a week. I have to wait a week in ADDITION to the time I've already been waiting since discovering that I did not in fact have to spend time remaking a toon and regrinding to 50 just to fix some powers.

Needless to say, when I read that everyone was getting a free respec (I am 99% sure it did NOT say it would be held back until the 7th in that particular post) I was extremely happy. Realizing that someone goofed up on the costume tokens, and moments later finding out that the freespec was held back so that the players who (let me say it again) already have free or very cheap respecs waiting to be used, did indeed make me a little angry. That's the summary of what led to my first post, if you can't see where it came from.

And while I know it's a futile argument, I've kept posting for three reasons:
1) I'd prefer to get my point of view across to the devs, which I believe I've done, so that they might at least consider it.
2) People like yourself continue to bring up the argument that waiting is more "fair to everyone" and I stand by my reasoning against that.
A) If you have a respec sitting on your character, you obviously have not needed it and will likely continue to not need it. To argue against this is nothing but greed; "I have one, but why be happy with that when I can have two (one for now and one to save)?"
B) If you just made a toon after the i11 launch, you cannot possibly have any reasonable need for a respec. I am pretty sure that no character needs one before at least the first TV TF. Even I saved two of mine until 50, and because I experimented for myself instead of checking the forums, I didn't end up with very good powers.
C) Believe it or not, handing out the freespec later DOES take away from my fun. The new Ouroboros missions look kinda cool, but missions aren't where the fun is for me. I could be playing right now with my new powers, but instead I either have to grind for the respec or wait. Neither is fun in any way, especially adding the respec grind to the IO grind. So I'm left to wait... how much am I paying them a month so I can HAVE FUN? Will they refund a fourth of my month's subscription? Nope. So I'm paying them so I can wait if I take that option.
3) I have nothing better to do atm, a side effect of being first stuck at work, then home without plans. Since I'm waiting for the freespec, I might as well look through the forums and post.

No, I'm not screaming about the end of the world here. IIRC my original post was hotheaded, and I apologize for being angry at the time. My second post, though, showed my view on the descision and why I thought it was a mistake, and hopefully it'll make the devs consider that viewpoint if any similar situation ever arises. That was my initial goal. They're not perfect, or all-knowing, and if we don't post our opinions then they won't know what the players think. So far, CoH has been better than any other MMO I've played at listening to the players.

And my posts are lengthy because I type fast and want to be clear when I post, so they end up being long reads. If you don't want to read them, no one's making you.

This is definitely not what I consider a "big stink", but yeah I'm voicing my opinion of the decision and defending it against people who argue with it. That's kinda what this part of the forums are about, right? That and complimenting the devs on their good work, which I've done at least twice so far. Not that many seem to notice it, but it's sincere.

You're saying if you can make something "good enough", but it could be better with little to no extra effort, you'd just leave it as good enough?

I simply hope that they consider using a different policy on things like this in the future.

Dear Auto Repair Shop,

I am writing this letter to you to express my concern for your recent service.

Over the past few weeks, I realized my car has some problems that are hampering its performance, due to my inadequate skills at maintaining it in the past. I read an ad saying your shop was giving out the tools necessary for someone like myself to correct my past mistakes, and the offer of a free set of the tools was impossible to pass up. I signed up, of course, but the new tools have yet to arrive.

It is my understanding that you are withholding these tools from everyone, though you already have them all on-hand, in order to give people a chance to get rid of their old, still-functional sets, buy brand-new cars, and assess their vehicles to find the exact problem and predict any future problems that may arise. This leaves people like myself, who already know the problem and could use the free set, out in the cold. Now we must purchase these tools for no small fee from a third party, if we want our cars to perform well before the free tools are sent out.

I still plan to continue my service with your shop, but I am confused as to why this policy was used, and wondering if it will happen in the future.

(There you go, fixed it as well as I could with the time I have. Please understand that while yes, it could have been worse, it could have been better with a very simple change)

wow... wait to miss the point entirely.

1) I definitely stated at least once that I understand the problem with the free costume change tokens.

2) There were no good reasons stated for withholding the freespec. No "We didn't have the parts on hand" reasons that could not be avoided. Lighthouses' reasons were, IIRC, to:

A) give the ten thousand new DB characters a free respec
B) FORCE people to wait, instead of giving them the OPTION to wait, until they've tested any of the minor power changes announced
and C) give people who already have a free respec tucked away somewhere to use that one so they can get another one

So... we who need one have to shell out time, inf, or wait for a week so the people who don't have any good reason to have a freespec, can have a freespec. NOT a good plan.

And, on top of all THAT, I also stated somewhere that I wasn't horribly and irreversibly disgruntled over this mistake. Did you not read ANY of my other posts?

1) Not surprised at the cost, really. Where did I say that?

2) by the time the free respec is given out, I'll almost certainly have earned one. Why wait when my toon's powers aren't very good NOW? Of course, I can wait a few months for one of the vet respecs you mentioned, but to be honest that's the dumbest thing you can possibly bring up. That would take even LONGER to get.

3) Now now NOW. Yes NOW. Holding back and giving the respec out when it's not needed (I'll say this again: By the time it's given, most people with even a little time to grind will probably have found a way to get one) is like giving a bucket of water to a man who WAS on fire a few minutes ago, but isn't anymore. Does it hurt to get something free, even late? No. Is there any really good reason for them to have held off? No. Would it have been BETTER to give the man a bucket of water when he was still on fire? YES.

4) If you'd read the end of my first post, I thanked the devs for i11. It's a great update and I'm pretty pleased with it, but it could have been much better with this minor change.

Any new character has three respecs from the Terra Volta reactor, and now more from the respec recipes.

50s who already used their three respecs (and STILL didn't manage to get it right, like me) stand to benefit the most from the new respecs and a free respec.

Currently on Freedom respec recipes are going for 40 million inf... so unless you get lucky and loot one, or want to spend/earn that much, you aren't getting a respec yet.

At this rate, everyone will likely get a free respec right as the prices on the respec recipes drop down into the "barely reasonable" range. If the price goes down (significantly!)sooner than that, why have a free respec at all? Everyone who's not a lazy bum already got one.

This decision ultimately favors everyone equally, from the new toons and alts who shouldn't need a respec anytime soon to the 50s who've been waiting for one ever since they botched the third TV respec. Sounds like communism to me :P

I see your point with the stacking of free respecs, and totally understand the problem with the free tailor session, but here's how I see it:

First, the new characters don't need the free respec; not only have most people had every opportunity to test the new powersets on Test and read about them on the forums, but every single new character has three respecs waiting for them with the Terra Volta reactor missions, which while moderately time-intensive are by no means difficult and always there to do, once you get to the required level. There's not really any genuine need to have another free one so early (IMHO). Within a week at least some if not most of them will be level 50 and have access to all three respecs.

Secondly, there's no true need to assess power options post-release in this particular case; if you don't know your powers and didn't read about any of the changes made to them in the release, it's your fault for making poor choices. From what I've seen the powers haven't changed much anyway.

On top of that, you can always WAIT to use it, and let those who have their respec planned out already and DO read the forums and keep track of changes have their respec to use. Some of us are totally ready, and those who are not ready can make a choice on whether to use it now or not.

The old 50's (and new ones like mine) have had NO ability at all to change their powers once all three respecs have been used. We finally get it, and believe me I love you guys for that, but holding out on the freebie after temping us with it is kinda mean. Especially if it's for the sake of all the alts and noobs and "I-only-play-when-new-stuff-comes-out" players who have three easy respecs in addition to the new respec recipes.

ADDITIONALLY, anyone who already HAS a free repec sitting on their toon obviously doesn't need another. If they needed to respec, they would have already, unless they're in the planning phase or something. I'm pretty sure that's a minority.

This is a huge post, sorry about that, but I don't have much inf on my ONE toon over level 10, nor do I enjoy grinding for it so I can buy (or find) a respec. It's something I'll do, of course, because it'll be quicker than waiting for the free one. It won't be fun though, more like work so I can have fun later, which I have enough of already (IOs).

Okay, last paragraph. I'm not a horribly disgruntled player who will quit if I don't have it my way. Don't take what I'm saying the wrong way, I absolutely love the new release, and from what I've seen the devs have done a great job on i11. I don't imagine it was easy, or that they could think of everything, but this particular bit was pretty lame. Personally, I'd like to see the respecs doled out early, but (correct me if I'm wrong) the chances of that happening NOW are slim to none. Thanks for responding so quickly by the way, Lighthouse.

i11 has been released! I've been looking forward to this all month! The first thing I did was build those vanguard claws that I can never correctly remember the name of!

Then... it sorta fell apart. My costume changes took 400k EACH, which would have been cut in half by the free tailor token, but someone goofed there. Understandable, and I can earn the inf back relatively quickly. However... the announcement of a free respec in addition to the respec recipes got me pretty excited, until I read Lighthouse's post that they're withholding said free respec until December 7th. Over a week away, with no explaination that I've seen!

LAME LAME LAME. I can't stress that enough... I've been waiting to respec my main for awhile now due to some pretty sorry power choices, yet now it'll cost me loads of inf or time to get one before the week is over, AND I'll have a free one sitting there unused afterward. Can we PLEASE get a good reason for this? I've not read one, and it would put my mind at ease if there was a reason for not handing out the respec now.

**First two based SOLELY on limited PvP knowlege gained primarily by reading the boards. Feel free to let me know why it won't work if both are implemented.

1) Remove any changes specific to PvP that make it different that PvE (unresistable damage, etc.).

2) Restrict all insps besides BFs, greens, and blues (No insps besides those listed).

3) Remove win/loss tracking from custom matches in the arena. It's broken, useless code that serves no purpose except to clog up storage in some dark corner or the server.