_dEOS_

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Quixotik View Post
    The problem is TA is modeled after Defense sets with HEALS and does nothing special except Oil Slick Arrow which (actually only works 10-20% of the time) and takes way to long to aquire, level 26 or 35. In truth most other Defense sets do almost the same thing as TA with fewer activations... and they get a Heal too. So Devs, why did you make a Defense set with no Heals and nothing over-the-top to help players counter this when soloing?
    But you are wearing a bow all the time!!

    My defender TA/A is 50! I never played solo.
    I tried hard (for cape/aura mission). After faceplanting 3 times, I came to the conclusion that this character was a team player specialized in laying AOE wrath from range for the team and now I am a happy mob annihilator OSA, Rain, Explosive arrow, AOE debuffs all around the place. My teammates don't notice how safe I make each of the encounters.

    Sadly, what works very well in teams does not when solo.

    I really wished they would reduce the recharge on OSA.
  2. Level 1 to 50 and I never ever had a need for the phase shifting on my WS.

    Superspeed and/or Dwarf (for mezz prot and its teleport) are probably your best bet if you want to escape troubles.
  3. Very interesting.
    Thanks a lot for the videos.

    I need to give these challenges a try myself
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by SuckerPunch View Post
    As may or may not be a secret - I've returned to the game after nearly a 9-month sabbatical. Since doing so, I've been hard at work at finally bringing my Online Planner out of the dark ages of Issue 9 and into the bright lights of Issue 16.
    Cool.

    First feature I can think of: Better integration with Mid's. I'd like to publish my builds from Mid's to SP's Online Planner for everyone to see/use/consume/reuse.

    Second feature: Ability to tag/favorite/comment builds I like from other people. After that it's all about # of favs and ranking builds flickr-like
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Baby_Phoenix View Post
    After much time musing to myself and generally pondering the above I have decided it is time to ask the question...

    Are farming and PL'ing merely a by-product of the way the game has changed or is it engineered carefully by the Devs for some reason as yet inknown?
    AE current situation + no nerf to fire/kin + I16 features are a direct acknowledgment by the Devs team that they are not going to prevent people to farm & PL.

    I believe it's bad MMO practice but in the end, it's their game.

    After 5 years of unstopped subscription, I believe it has come to such an extent that it's starting to impact my ingame experience. It's becoming increasingly harder to find people willing to participate in teams other than AE farms. Badly built toons are everywhere with no sense of what's wrong with them.

    There are still some amazing people on the forums & ingame but I am afraid that come a new superhero MMO, those will flock to the newness at least for some period of time.

    I believe some Devs have been doing an amazing job on balance & features but what CoH is seriously lacking are new zones to explore and new layouts for mission maps (office building maps are seriously getting old). Simply adding new elements to existing layouts would go a long way (just like they did by adding tunnels starting from office maps (RWZ arcs) and sewers to tunnels connections (Croatoa arcs AFAIR)).

    When there is no new content to explore/play with. Little to no new TF every issue. There is only rerolls that keep the game fresh. And people farm them at huge speeds. How long is this situation going to last until someone fills up all slots?

    If the new way of playing CoH is to make a fire/kin or fire/fire tank and go farm maps alone... then I don't see why I would bother with making support toons or ST focused damage dealers.
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ethric View Post
    3 kins + 1 dark... against even cons.

    -60% damage from 3 Fulcrum Shifts alone in a 30ft radius. (If all kins were trollers, otherwise even more damage debuff)

    -37.5% damage debuff from the Dark Defender'd Darkest Night in a 25ft radius.

    All magnified by the -res from Tar Patch.
    That would easily floor the enemies damage.

    Don't tell me that's not great survivability right there.
    The Dark should barely have the time to summon Tar Patch that the spawn should be dead with sufficient raw offensive power. That's the point of Smurphy. Blitzing through spawns is the key.

    Kin, Cold, Sonic with their very quick or player-centric buffs are the key.
    Dark, Rad, TA, Storm are certainly effective but they are slow to setup.

    By watching 30min ITF videos, you could see that a SS/Elec brute could be both invincible and a machine of destruction chaining Footstomp non-stop while having all the mobs around him constantly debuffed by the sonic aura.
  7. A few comments:
    - One thing that /rad is not so good at is AE farms. The fact that you have to relying a lot on anchors to do your magic makes you very vulnerable to team members attention. Compared to sets like /kin (but others as well) that do not have this limitation, it's a bit behind. That certainly doesn't make it a bad set for it though.

    - /rad is certainly a must have for any TF.

    - Concerning the speed record on STF, I would be surprised to see a well-built team of defenders taking on it. Reichsman was down in 3 minutes recently and team doesn't even have a kin.
  8. Send a link to this thread to Castle.

    I have a 38 Sonic/Sonic Defender and I already thought it sucked in its own way (apart for res debuffing its only trick). Pairing Sonic Resonance with Gravity is just self-inflicted pain, pure masochism

    Funnily enough... someone will probably tell you that the set is able to solo therefore is fine.
    Come I16... when people will be soloing hordes of mobs, you will still be struggling with the lowest level of difficulty.

    I hope they have some serious packed love for Gravity (having a 26 grav/storm myself) and Sonic.
  9. I'll give my opinion by first pointing to BaB's twitter where he posted a link to a good article:
    BaB's twitter:
    http://twitter.com/CoHBABs

    Quote:
    http://tinyurl.com/mrtt4u . I'm convinced author is one of our forum users, seen same 'points' there.11:04 AM Aug 6th from web
    => http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009...34657392.shtml

    To specifically talk about AE:
    Quote:
    The debacles centering around the Mission Architect left a bad taste in many people's mouths. There were problems with the Mission Architect, centering around how easy it was to powerlevel (i.e., level much faster than the developers intended) using the MA, when Issue 14 (the update that included the MA) was in closed beta testing. Those, and other MA problems, were virtually ignored by the developers and the update was allowed to go live with massive exploits. It wasn't until after a "free" weekend designed to lure old players back into the game that punishments were retroactively handed out to the biggest "offenders." The whole thing was handled very poorly, and for those who were iffy on staying with City of Heroes in the first place, this was plenty enough to push them over the edge. A more minor, but still poorly handled, Mission Architect issue had to do with the game's badge system. Dozens of MA-related badges were removed from the game because, according to the developers, they led to people creating easy-to-farm badge missions in the MA. They never really satisfactorily answered questions about this, or suggestions for a different fix to the supposed problem, at least not in my eyes, or the eyes of many others. Even ignoring these problems, many City of Heroes player believe that the Mission Architect has actually taken away from the game itself, because so many players focus on nothing but the MA and ignore the rest of the game.
    The first and last sentence are really what I am thinking.
    1. There is no reason to go anywhere else than AE in Atlas Park if you intend to "level","ticket farm"
    2. This is detrimental to the rest of the game

    As a powergamer (with an excellent SG) trapped in a casual player time schedule , I still like to do some pickup teams and pickup TFs sometimes when I feel like it. This is particularly true for some of my characters who are basically totally a chore to solo with like my sonic/sonic or TA/A defenders

    That said, I am also taking my part in the farming that goes on. It's ridiculous. I leveled from 6 to 20 in a single farm (sk-ed to 46 fighting 51s). It's like everyone has access to the former PI farms 100% of the time. How are players supposed to get out of that mindset? Especially as it gives XP AND TICKETS (and consequently loot).

    There are still some cool people around that are ready to take part in mission teams though (even ones with no vet badges).
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by sigma1932 View Post
    K, I didn't bother to read all 16 pages, but to put it simply, if you wanna stop people from farming in AE, limit them from getting any rewards after they've earned 10 bars worth of XP (even at 50, count up what it would be for 10 bars), and then cut them off from all rewards... no XP, no Inf., no Tix, nothing... well, they can still get inspirations I guess. Then, reset this counter once per day, at an arbitrary time. If people decide they want to farm, then they're done in half an hour, and have to leave the building if they want to make real progress, or wait until the next reset time.

    Something like this would cover all the marketing points on the box on shelves in stores: a player could still level from 1 to 50 using only AE, and they can still use it starting at level 1.

    IF that's too harsh, give "double-XP" credit similar to Patrol XP (could even have it stack with patrol XP-- giving 3x XP... normal once, patrol second, AE bank third) after the cap has been met for the day (but still no inf. or tix). I'd say this doubleing effect could count while earning real XP in while playing in AE, but the doubled part should count against that day's cap before they just start earning more banked XP again (so theoretically, if someone spends 30 minutes hitting the cap one day by farming, then keep farming and earn another 10 bars of banked XP, then come back the next day and farm again and do the same farm, they'll actually be done farming in 15 min before they just start banking XP again).

    The idea here is to discourage the ridiculously fast XP/inf. gain and promote playing actual story arcs, which is what the AE was meant for. Typically we don't gain a full level by playing 2-3, even 4 arcs, depending on the level of the arc, especially with no end-of-mission bonuses, so it really won't hamper people who are creating/playing real arcs.

    To balance all this, lower the price of tickets needed for rolls as people would be getting fewer per day.
    Excellent suggestions!
  11. Wait...
    There are other zones than Atlas Park ???!!??
  12. Use binds on the numeric pad for the forms
    1. human
    2. nova
    3. dwarf

    This way you can mash the button until you are in the form you desire
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Willowpaw View Post
    Would slotting an endurance reducer in dark Nova instead of putting them in the 2 Dark Nova AOE attacks have the same effect?
    No, endredux in dark nova will only reduce the cost of the "dark nova" toggle which isn't much as far as I remember. Having endredux in your nova attacks is crucial to be able to blast for any long period of time.

    Quote:
    Currently I have Dark Nova slotted with a Flight and a To Hit Buff (which nullifies the need to burn 4 slots to get an accuracy in each attack), and then I put an endurance reducer in the two big squid attacks. Would replacing those 2 endurance reducers with a single one in Dark Nova itself be a better idea? I wouldn't mind freeing up a slot that way if the net effect is the same.
    The same for tohit vs acc. ToHit buff in Dark Nova is a good idea. Accuracy in your attacks will stack and you won't miss. I wouldn't pass myself on the accuracy in the attacks unless you are very low in level. In the early levels, the accuracy is not such a problem (unless you intend to be active in AE +4 farms) as the dark nova inherent acc buff is plenty sufficient already. This is not the case in the later levels when the mobs have def buffs and are significantly higher than you most of the time.
  14. I think this thread is derailing a bit.

    I have wished that EU players would be setup on the same servers as the US players for around the clock availability of members for pickup teams. Marketing & Business guys deciced otherwise. Too bad.

    I am glad that you have joined us on the forums.
    Welcome.

    Note that I am French myself and playing on Freedom for 57 months now and have no intention whatsoever to read the French community section. Can't understand the power names anyway as they translated everything with no relation whatsoever with the english names which I am so accustomed to.
  15. _dEOS_

    Who did it?!

    Yesterday I saw a yellow salvage go for 150.000.000 in the sale history.
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Noxilicious View Post
    This is why CoH is bad for you. It spoils you with sweet, sugary goodness like its character creator so that the character creators in other MMOs seem like prison meals, to the point you don't even want to start the game proper because you know, you know, that you will meet your perfect clones, of which there are numerous, at least twelve times an hour.

    Really, CoH was the first MMO that gave you the satisfaction of saying "this is my toon, this is my in-game avatar and mine alone". It made you feel unique in a game with a hundred thousand players and at least ten times as many toons. Compare that to most other MMOs, wherein you just need, oh I don't know, three ploayers for two to look alike already.
    Exactly.
    Add to that:
    - fast-paced action
    - tons of powers available on one toon
    - lots of character powers build options (more def, more recharge, mix of powers)
    - even using Sprint is faster than the speed you move in most other MMORPGs
    - packs of dozens of mobs

    My only regret:
    Exploration benefits are very limited and level 10+ outdoor hunting has been killed by balance fixes (sadly making hazard zones dead zones).
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by SinergyX_EU View Post
    Apart from what already been said,

    If im on my granite, i dont need a sonic or ice, i dont need a FF. I have trashloads of defense myself already (basicly capped resist), i need healing. Nothing more, nothing less.

    So i wont ask for a defender, i will ask for a healer. Controller empath is good too
    I am confused. If mobs are supposedly not hitting you due to your already high defense, why would you need a healer?

    For me if they are hitting me it's because I don't have enough defense.
    Having done +4 TFs with a bubbler on my Ice tank... I can tell you that 80% defense to all makes a lot of difference.
  18. Can't we just love each others like good defenders do?
  19. <QR>

    Long time player of Dark/Dark... I have went with multiple builds over time. Never been really convinced that one was much better than another.

    The stuns are not that good. You are hardly seeing the effect most of the time. Moreover, we are not controllers and will struggle to try to catch up with their controls.

    In most team & solo situation, my take as Dark def is debuff, debuff, debuff and heal. To do so I need DN, Tar patch and TT for keeping mobs in one place. PetGaze helps with occasional annoying foe solo. Fluffy is a great addition as (s)he brings more of the same making me even more efficient.

    I wouldn't pass on the AOE damage powers as today high-level game is essentially focused on large groups of mobs (or AVs).
  20. <qr>

    Wow... I was certainly expecting a downgrade in usability with the switch to the new forums but I am much more disappointed than my expectations.

    Can we have ?
    - Smaller avatars
    - Smaller left box parts with all the user info
    - Better index with all subforums for English that I could bookmark (and I am saying so being French and having no interest whatsoever in the French sections)
    - Smaller icons in the index!!
    - proper CSS tags (classes!!) where appropriate to edit the look & feel like graying out the signatures (a div tag with no class element)
  21. [ QUOTE ]
    [ QUOTE ]
    Keep rereading this until the light bulb goes off. Semantical misdirection bores me.

    [/ QUOTE ]

    *chuckle* To quote a man, "I accept your apology."

    [/ QUOTE ]

    I agree with Kruunch: you are systematically misreading what he wrote.

    What I understood from what he said is:
    If you meet someone level 50 who took the time &amp; effort to fully equip the toon with something else than SO, you can assume that the player has at least some clue about the toon.

    I have seen enough toons to say that is true even for Fire/Kin controllers. Purpled-out fire/kin =&gt; dedicated player.

    You can always find counter-examples but IO-ed out toons are a sign of dedication from the player behind the keyboard.

    And if you pick up someone else build... it's one thing to select the powers, it's another to buy all the necessary IOs.
  22. Excellent suggestions.
    TAG for later.
  23. Wow really too long and didn't read most of it.

    - You have a whole section dedicated to controllers that could be a guide in itself.
    - I like the introduction showing the strengths of the AT combo
    - Powers descriptions are just overwhelming... way too much text if you ask me
    - I like the different builds as you level

    An excellent guide.
  24. [ QUOTE ]
    The only thing that made me friends in game was that I was always determined to finish things. No matter how many times we wiped or how slow it was, we would see it through to the (bitter) end.


    [/ QUOTE ]

    You mean run to the glowie named "Mission finisher" ?