ATRAtwo

[ QUOTE ]
LOL dont even think of having SS as a travel and goign to this zone.

[/ QUOTE ]

Incorrect. It's been mentioned in dev digest previously that there will be many
elevators.

I mean, consider the Quartermaster in Cap au Diable, on top of the skyscraper. You
just enter the building at ground level, take the elevator, bam.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
it is a change for combat text only.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup. Text change only.

[/ QUOTE ]

Check the original thread. Called it. :-)

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Basically: if it was meant to be taken down by more than 1 team, it gives the badge. Mission versions are scaled down versions that are more like AV's, thus able to be defeated by a single team, and thus do not give the badge.

[/ QUOTE ]
You might need to buff Giant Monsters then. There's not one in the game that requires more than one team to defeat.

[/ QUOTE ]

Will do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Positron, this makes sense for some (See: Paladin, non-psychic Babbage,
Adamastor) but not for others (Lusca is kinda 9 in one, and regularly requires 20-30
heroes).

Also, for areas with MANY giant monsters (see Hive, some islands on Peregrine)
please leave those Giant Monsters as-is, because the threat is from MULTIPLES
of them.

Also, Hami Raids become more undesirable if you have a zone full of GMs that need
20+ heroes to beat, JUST to clear enough space to fight Hami.

In short, buff UNIQUE, NAMED Giant Monsters (except Lusca), but leave the
many Devouring Earth Giant Monsters alone.

(A hint: my level 50 controller with both HP accolades can only take ~2 shots from
an existing Hive GM, and sometimes the 2nd shot is enough to wipe him out.)

[ QUOTE ]

You're right... I fixed it

[/ QUOTE ]

Some are focused on the bold text above.

I prefer to see

[ QUOTE ]

You're right... I fixed it

[/ QUOTE ]

More of that, please :-) Gogo Castle and Positron, the only devs to have recently
posted "I fixed it" instead of "working as intended"

Good Guide.

I haven't rolled a Brute yet, but you have good observations on the best ways
to obtain Fury, which agree with what I've observed Brutes in teams doing.

However, some perspective on endurance:

with no stamina, you recover 1.67 endurance/second.
(technically 5.00 every 3 seconds)

So, over a 3-second period, combat jumping eats:

(0.07 * 3) out of 5.00 endurance. That is 21 out of 500 points, so to speak.

And you used a slot on end reduction, reducing that 7 to 6, and thus the
21 to 18.

I posit that saving 0.01 endurance/second was a waste of a slot for you.

Not that you need to respec anytime soon, but my thoughts on slotting CJ are
either

A) default slot, +defense

or

B) 3 slots, all +defense

In contrast, 1 end reduction on Tough or Weave pretty much saves the entire
cost of CJ. :-)

I look forward to your expanded guide post-Ish 7. Keep up the good work!

[ QUOTE ]

/snip/
and the fact that I share info with you guys. Plenty of folks here read the boards and deal with issues; they just don't spend much time reporting on it.

So, while I appreciate the praise, don't let it degenerate into disparaging the other folks here and the work they do.

[/ QUOTE ]

So, how about doing some force multiplication for them?

Fold /bug into the NCSoft CoH/V Knowledge Base so we can see the BugTracker in
almost exactly the same way you can.

We don't need to see which user reported things. (Privacy concern, of course)

We would like to see WHAT has been reported, the progress made, and the
priority assigned to it.

Would any of that violate any Cryptic/NCSoft policy?

If, with the same amount of work Cryptic spends updating its own internal
bug tracker, it could also communicate that info to its customers, I'd call that
a win/win.

[ QUOTE ]
In the 40 plus range heroes get the Praetorian AV arc. Likely there is a simular one planned with mostly heroes and Suckboy.... I mean Synapse.

[/ QUOTE ]

No, no, that's heroes and "Throwboy," whose power is to be thrown!

Sadly, Throwboy just doesn't have the same effect as a good old Byrne/Claremont
Cannonball Special!

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the numbers, ATRAtwo. Now if only I knew why I kept missing the Empath Defender...


[/ QUOTE ]

Probably bad luck.

Once upon a time, when Hasten still added +5% defense while it was active, (which
with perma hasten was all the time :-) ) One could make the following build on any
character...

stack:

5% combat jumping
5% hasten
7.5% stealth
5% hover

and there were some other pool-based ways to get defense. Don't forget 6-slotting
all those powers for defense, so the 22.5% * 2.2 (6 SOs) = 50%

50% to-hit of minions -45% in character defense = mobs floored at 5% to hit.

Sure, a lot of slots, but at least one Blapper did that, and 6-slotted his melee attacks,
and dished out some serious melee aoe attacks like greater fire sword circle.

Flooring mobs to 5% meant he effectively had mez protection, as he was almost
never hit.

Then, the rules changed. Ish 5 reduced defenses and resists. Stealth suppression
of defense occurred.

Suddenly the mobs had 20-30% chance to hit the blapper, and the build was dead.

Fast forward to present day, and the numbers are more like:

2.5% combat jumping
3.75% stealth (1.875% when attacking)
2.5% hover
3% maneuvers (Defender base %)

max of 3 useful SOs per power...

11.75% * 1.6 = only 19% or so

So perhaps the Empath wasn't doing that.

But, could the empath simply have eaten 2-3 Lucks and you didn't use insps
or Focus Chi to compensate?

Also, the Empath might have recently received buffs from other players,
whether FF bubbles or even another Empath's Fortitude.

If it was an Emp/Dark Blast, well, Dark Blast gives a small amount of -acc for
2-3 seconds for each blast that hits you...

Maneuvers may be a wimpy bonus now, but in theory, 8 defenders with it 3-slotted
generate 5% * 8 = 40% defense.

And you could have had bad luck, but I'd bet on 2-3 lucks while you didn't use
any tohitbuff powers...

[ QUOTE ]
Entry 111
than miss. So much for SR being defense-based, as usual!


[/ QUOTE ]

tpull, a short lesson in how CoH calculates to-hit and defense:

In the PvP zone, everyone has a base 50% to hit.

SR, with correct SOs under ED, all 3 toggles and passives, is perhaps
24 per toggle, 6 per passive, about -30%.

so, everyone has

50 - 30 = 20% base.

20 * 1.33 = 27%

base to hit you with 1 acc SO.

Contrast this with PvE, which is:

Minions, 50%, -30% = 20%

And you can always eat a luck to floor things to 5%, while the minions cannot
do much to raise their acc. (Some CoV lieuts & CoH Nemesis do have Tactics)

Now, back to the 50% base and 27% after your defenses. 1 luck would take
that down to 5%.

But...

Powers like Aim, Buildup, Focus Chi and the rest don't multiply like an Acc SO does.
They simply add.

Aim = +100% to-hit buff.

That 5% you had? Blaster uses Aim. 100+50-30=120, 120 * 1.33 = 160% to hit.

Another Scrapper does Buildup/Focus Chi?

66+50-30=86, 86 * 1.33 = 114.5% to hit.

ANY CHARACTER eats one insight (yellow pill), your luck is cancelled.
(both are 25%)

If you forgot to eat a luck, 50+25-30=45, 45 * 1.33 = 60% to hit.

And this is for the base, level 1 inspirations, assuming no one eats more than one
such inspiration in battle.

So, normally you're only hit 27% of the time, but even a single inspiration hoses
you.

Did I mention Tactics does the same thing, though it might only be 10-15 points
of accuracy at most, with 3 SOs?

Most PvPers take Tactics for the +perception, and the fact it helps them hose
defense-based sets, that's just a bonus.

Now, let's contrast this with the Invulnerable Scrapper:

His resists continue to work regardless of how many yellow pills are eaten.
Red pills to boost enemy damage harm him less than if you are hit by the same,
though in general most people need to slot 2 acc SOs or else use a yellow pill to
hit you.

I wouldn't be surprised if PvP attack slotting was 2 acc SOs, 3 damage, 1 recharge.

2 acc SOs would result in 50 - 30 = 20, 20 * 1.66 = 34% base, even before
inspirations.

So yeah, you're getting clobbered.

The upcoming Issue 7 defense change will make the PvE to-hit bonuses for being
levels higher than you (up to +5) work like accuracy (multiplying) instead of the
current to-hit buff way (like aim, bu, yellow pills), which will help you in PvE.

In a brief Siren's Call test I did, my claws/sr scrapper was able to avoid some tp foe
attempts and SJ out of targeting range due to being SR.

However, it was likely a mastermind or dominator using it, from what I saw.

Let's let someone with Aim or BU use TP Foe, and how can they miss?

I don't know how Cryptic is gonna solve that one. The PvE fix is great for
SR, Ice tankers and FF defenders for sure. PvP? Sigh... you don't want SR to
equal uber-mode, but you don't want to have your defenses totally ignored.

[ QUOTE ]
Some more good news...

Ice Tankers and SR Scrappers have long lamented that Defense doesn't scale with level. Because mobs higher level than a player possess an inherent to hit bonus, Defense isn't as effective over levels as Resistance.

...Defense powers will now work equally well against critters, regardless of their rank or level....

[/ QUOTE ]

"And The GRecluserinch looked down upon Paraville, to see the sorrow of Defensive
Heroes whose scaling he'd never given. To his surprise, the Defensive Heroes came
out and fought crime anyways. Villains and Villainesses, Felons and Felonas, they
arrested them all!

And the more The GRecluserinch watched, he realized that Defensive Heroes weren't
Heroic only because of Defensive Prowess, but because they truly cared about the
Spirit of Crime-Fighting!

Moved to tears, The GRecluserinch cracked his whip on the poor lizard's whipmarked
back, and shouted, 'Mush! Mush! Back to Paraville!' and old Geko moved his legs
as fast as he could, and minutes later the sleigh tipped forward and the
GRecluserinch, with Geko too, was sliding towards Paraville!

As GRecluserinch slid amongst the Defensive Heroes, tossing gifts of Defensive
Scaling to them...

his heart *grew three sizes* that day!"

And that, young reader, is the story of...

How the GRecluserinch Stole Crime-Fighting.

[ QUOTE ]
One thing I always wanted to see in an AV mission are two AV's in the same room not fighting each other but working together to fight your team. I think the added difficulty would be very nice to help spice up some AV battles. Most of the time they are over really fast with the right team on your side.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can arrange that in SOME of the 40-50 AV missions. Requires some work because
they don't start in the same area, but doable.

I think a fairer way might be to do a TF/SF where at the end, you fight one elite
boss for every two players or fraction thereof. Maybe play with those numbers if
that seems too easy (aoe debuffs and aoe damage can do that).

Possibly toss in the AV-level mez protection. Two holds is too easy to get on an
elite boss I think. (5-slotted single target hold: 1 acc/3 duration/1 recharge, or
2 recharge if you like...)

Might be amusing to have an early (L40) Praetorian mission with 4 of the sidekicks
in the same final room, but as elite bosses.

You mean posted here maybe?

I've stopped relying on the nameserver recognition for Cryptic/NCSoft's servers.

Just mass download from this server of theirs that always seems to be updated.

(Ish 9 went up just yesterday I think.)

[ QUOTE ]
I notice I can’t really use Combat Jump in combat, the End drain is too high, and I also need to use Rest quite often, so it’s a good thing it recharges faster now.

[/ QUOTE ]

First, your series has been lots of good reads, but I'd like to point out something to
you:

Combat Jumping, prior to the 13.33% end use reduction to all powers that came with
ED had a total cost of...

0.08 end/second

To put this in perspective, fresh out of the box, your endurance recovery is:

5.00 end/3 seconds, or...

1.6666666667 end/second.

Feel free to use Combat Jumping. It's not what's eating your endurance.

You know what might be?

Your attacks.

Archery's attacks cost more end than comparable defender attacks.

Aimed Shot is particularly at fault here.

My TA/A Defender normally teams with a friend's fire/TA controller, and it is often
Vigilance that keeps my endurance costs under control.

I currently have snap shot 1-slotted for damage, and aimed shot 4-slotted for
damage, at level 9.

(Archery Blast is +5% accuracy for a drawn weapon, then the special power of the
set is +5% more accuracy, for a total of +10% without any enhancements.)

I can take things out fairly fast, one on one, by cycling snap-aimed-snap,
snap-aimed-snap over and over, but it's much easier if my aggro-gathering
controller buddy is at 1/2 health :-)

damage per endurance-wise, some players think one should just six-slot
snap shot, skip aimed shot, and ctrl-click snap shot to autofire on your target.

This strategy was originally done with */Radiation Blast defenders, using their
#1 attack, neutrino bolt, which seemed to work well back in the day.

Once you have SOs, snap shot would be 1 acc/3 dam/2 recharge, with you subbing
in an end redux for one of the recharge if needed.

Yes, Archery needs some love.

However, it might be a while until it gets it, so plan on stamina and end reducers in
the meantime.

You should leave CJ on all the time, for the 2.5% defense, mobility, and
obnoxiously low endurance cost, and simply fire aimed shot or other big attacks
less often if your endurance is getting low.

I understand your schedule is weird; so is mine. But if you can team with at least
one other person who's an aggro-magnet, Vigilance will make your endurance
problems a thing of the past :-)

[ QUOTE ]
Lightning Storm Great power. Pretty simple too… it floats in one spot and deals damage and knockback. Great for use in hallways, doorways or to position around the backline to keep people off them and support them with damage. Also has a new graphical effect. Sparks fly off the body when it hits. Ragdoll also applies to this power, which is just great stuff. Fun to watch a guy get hit by lightning and his limbs flail around as he falls.
Slotting Suggestion: Damage to taste. An end reducer or two if you find you need it. It takes knockback distance, end drain and range. I wouldn’t mess with these.


[/ QUOTE ]

Good guide in general. I slot differently, but /agree on most things.

On Live, I5, I use 3 recharge/3damage (converted from 1 recharge/5 damage in
preparation for ED) for Lightning Storm

Can you still create more than one Lightning Storm on test?

Currently running Animate Stone as 1 acc/2 disorient/3 damage, also in preparation
for ED.

Animate Stone still has this use, especially in the 40+ game with psi damage foes:

"Rocky," as I call him, is IMMUNE TO PSI DAMAGE.

So, I have Swift/Hurdle/Stamina, Combat Jumping and Steamy Mist.

Teamed with a blaster and defender, I wondered at how to engage all these
psychic clockwork! (AV not present)

So, I found I was able to do the following.

Rocky starts next to me, not dropped in the middle, because his recharge is a lot
longer these days.

I move forward at Swift (1 SO runspeed) speed, and jump (CJ + hurdle, with SO
for jump height in Hurdle) over the clockwork, who cannot see me due to Mist.

I land on the opposite side.

Rocky trudges after me, comes within range of the psychic clockwork, and either
moves to engage or Hurl Boulder, and they all Alpha Strike him, for 0 damage :-)

That done, my teammates open up with heavy AoEs and other attacks, and we
swiftly make work of things.

Both lieut types (tesla replacement lieut and cannon knight) EACH have a mez
this time around, the fake-tesla's sleep/hold and the cannon knight's KB/disorient.
So, make sure you Hold any lieuts you see. The Boss with Psychic Tornado is a
bit more of a problem, but doable with strategy.

Rocky's also nice vs. Carnies.

Also, unlike your players, my SG demands if people can take a Primary or
Secondary Heal (not Pool) that they do so.

So, I've always had O2 Boost since it was available. 1-slotted, but there. Made
Medic at level 33 :-) later in the 30s added 3 slots with Heal SOs.

I've found that vs. some foes, if you have no tanker, and a scrapper is standing
in, and the return alpha from a quicksand, etc. might be too much for the
controller, best to send in the scrapper, toss in O2 a couple times (1 recharge, as
many heal as you like, to the ED max) and throw those location AEs between O2
activations.

It just depends. Nemesis in particular are wont to return fire rather than try
to move in slo-mo. Steamy Mist with 3 resist SOs does help vs. the fire, but not
the KB. (though I have CJ/SJ, Acrobatics lost out to Snow Storm, which I took at
level 35, 1-slotted for end, as a debuff for AVs.)

I also have an SG that worships at the altar of "KB is bad. Do not even make any
kind of strategy that revolves around KB in any way." I find it pretty restrictive, but
the fun is equal, and I do run my En/En Blaster to keep them humble :-) Tried
Tornado briefly on my Storm Defender. Am hopeful ED is enough of a nerf to make
KB desirable again. Word is AE damage is fairly low in CoV, and that design idea
might make its way into CoH.

I like my Stone Prison with 1 acc/1 end redux/1 recharge/3 DAMAGE.

At level 42, I'm doing base 10, containment total of 20, per tick. That's 80 damage
over the lifespan of the power. Yes, my APP Ice Blast is a lot more damage
(1 acc, 3 dam = 100-150 base, depending on foe resist, x2 in containment) but
80 damage is pretty appreciable, given that I'm just trying to control the foe.

When arresting just one lieut or boss while the team is busy, I am often just pressing
1, 2 and 3 (Stone Prison, Fossilize, Ice Blast) until he falls.

Some of your slotting suggestions are interesting indeed. Quicksand, like Snow
Storm is 1-slotted, though with Slow, and I took it at level 8. A while back I observed
that even -3 warwolves in striga would RACE through quicksand... so indeed there
is merit in raising the number of slows to 3.

Also, I believe Quicksand can stack with itself, in terms of the -DEF, so 1 to 3
recharges might be useful from that perspective.

For any who wonder at the order of stacking Joe suggests, go find a Paragon
Protector with Flight, open with Quicksand, watch him fall to the ground, then
Earthquake him, and if he hasn't fallen on his butt, add Freezing Rain, and enjoy
the show :-)

And Joe, I'm sure you didn't mean to, but Earth's Immobs have that -knockback,
and that stops the Quake/Rain combo from doing its thing.

Gasses is a great followup to the Quake/Rain, as Cages/Prison is with the
Stalagmites/Tclap combo.

On the subject of slotting 1 or 2 acc in some powers, it's important to know these
details:

Stone Prison is +20% acc, base, so 1 acc SO is all you need.

Foss is standard +0, so 1 or 2 acc as you like. I do 1 acc/1 end redux/1 recharge/
3 duration.

Stone Cages is -20% acc. Note the MINUS sign. 2 ACC SOs is a real good idea here.
If this is a Control for you, 2 acc, 1 recharge, 1 end redux might be fine. At present
I use 1 acc, 1 titan shard [eden trial] that is acc/dam, 2 dam, 1 end redux, 1
recharge. The recharge was a 4th damage SO, because Cages recharges pretty
fast, but I consider it an AoE containment generator in addition to its control uses.

My SG's love for AoEs means I have never taken Salt Crystals. Joe is quite right
that it takes a team willing to "go slow" and pay attention to make it work right.
My SG runs fast, with little to no debt and good xp/minute; I've never missed
Salt Crystals, really. I'd like to try out the slower strat, say throw an SC then
have a scrapper or tanker confront/taunt and such, but unlikely to happen in the
near future.

On Freezing Rain: 3 recharge. As Earth already debuffs defense, save yourself
3 slots, IMHO.

Freezing Rain *does* have to roll to hit now, though it's +100% acc or something.
You may wish to consider 1 ACC SO if you fight a lot of purples. You can observe
how well the Rain is doing by watching the stream of "-1"s above mobs. If you
see hardly any, that's because some of Rain's "ticks" are MISSING. In theory, if
you have already opened up with Quicksand and Quake, this is a non-issue, but
there are edge cases where you just did Quicksand and Quake, but are ambushed
by Devouring Earth Swarms, and you have to self-nuke with Rain to send them
away. Or, you might have some silly player trying to solo a second spawn off to
the side, and a quick Rain over there helps him recover.

Hope that helps.

[ QUOTE ]
I think most will be calling it "Along came a Nerf".

I'll be calling it "Little Miss Muffet took it in the Tuffet" to commemorate all the Perma-Power users who are going to be walkin funny for the next couple weeks.

[/ QUOTE ]

CrazyCat (Claws/SR) looks at her perma-Practiced Brawler.

"Nope, just fine! Perma with 2 SOs and Quickness. Whatever are you talking about? "

"Ooh... I guess Quickness is the only perma-hasten game in town now. Too bad you
uber scrappers won't take a defensive powerset that is "teh gimp!" "

[ QUOTE ]
And Fortitude stays 'working as intended'?

[/ QUOTE ]

Good point. Fortitude needs to do something for Super Reflexes Scrappers, for
the same reason Cryptic updated FF bubbles to cover melee, range, aoe.

if fortitude were all damage types, and all of melee/range/aoe that would cover
things nicely.

Fortitude already offers Psionic Defense, so making it cover m/r/aoe just helps
SR Scrappers with stacking.

Don't forget your friendly neighborhood Earth Controller.

Yes, that's right.

Animate Stone: "mumble mumble... IS IMMUNE TO PSIONIC DAMAGE... mumble..."

And, Rocky just got KB resistance in ish 5 I think, so he's gonna sit there and take
it.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
PnP rules. God I miss those days. Nothing beats a great group of people to roleplay with.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hopefully you can get a group together to play the City of Heroes PnP RPG coming out from Eden Studios and relive the glory days!

[/ QUOTE ]

Excellent. Another Manticore quote to trot out as a non-sequitur whenever anyone
wishes for the "glory days" :-)

If CoT spawns had this rule "one Thorn of each of the four elements, no
duplication, up to the first four Thorns in the group, then repeat the cycle"

Then things would be fine.

I like ETCs as is, I just want them capped at 1-2 per group. 1 can be in every
single group spawn as far as I care, and yes, I have a */SR Scrapper. I can
handle 1-2 Quicksands just fine. 3+ is the nightmare.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Nearly every religion is based on earlier religions that have had doctrines refined or corupted and bit made up out of whole cloth. Christianity is no exception to this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Idioteraser:

I rebuke you and your anti-Christian hate speech, over several posts in
pages 23 to 25 of this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]
The heck? I hate Idioteraser as much as the next guy, but he's right on this count, at least as far as being based on earlier religions goes. Or are you claiming that Christianity didn't take anything (the Old Testament) from Judaism?

[/ QUOTE ]

Specifically:

"that have had doctrines refined or corupted and bit made up out of whole cloth."

It's the 'made up' part there, in regards to your comment, that's the problem.

The way Idioteraser wrote it, and I am doing my best not to put words in his
mouth that he didn't type in this thread, he implies, In My Humble Opinion, that
those who became Christians saw the Old Testament and thought "we know better,
and we'll incorporate it in our book, and make up a few things too."

The New Testament continues God's relationship with man, and is not an
expansion pack by a different team, for lack of a better term.

This is not the forum for proselytization, so I hope I have adequately answered
your question without further derailing the thread.

If you have more questions on the Christian faith itself, that is what PMs are for.

Back to our regularly scheduled discussion of issue 5, which I hope will be on the
test server soonish. I have a Trick Arrow/Archery Defender to roll up.

[ QUOTE ]

Nearly every religion is based on earlier religions that have had doctrines refined or corupted and bit made up out of whole cloth. Christianity is no exception to this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Idioteraser:

I rebuke you and your anti-Christian hate speech, over several posts in
pages 23 to 25 of this thread.

It is just as wrong, in this City of Heroes forum, as if I was busily posting to this
thread bashing your faith.

It's my faith that Christianity is 100% true, and other faiths are 100% false.

But I haven't written several nasty posts declaring that.

Whatever faith any human follows, it is quite clear that your heart is filled with
hatred. Your writing isn't aimed at convincing people they are misguided; your
writing is hate speech trying to get others to agree with your hate.

I don't want you censored, but now that you've spilled your hatred onto this thread,
I would like to see you apologize for it, by posting on this thread.

I know you can make insightful posts, minus the hate. Please do so.

Please get back to things this thread does cover, such as the interesting
back and forth regarding origins of myths, pagan faiths, etc. and how that
is being implemented in issue 5.

Now, *that* makes for interesting reading, no matter your faith.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
And don't worry about us level 50s. We'll just find another game to tinker with until the dev team decides to wake up over there and get a clue. I enjoyed that whole, "...sidekicking with 50s will give the sidekick extra XP..." like it has anything to do with end game content. That's helping the lower levels, not the level 50s. Again. Genius. /sarcasm


[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think that's all he has planned for us. That's just an idea he stole from EQ II. But since EQ II stole exemplaring in the first place it's ok.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hm. So, does the XP boost of an exemplar change marginally or radically depending
on the level difference?

It's actually kind of a nifty idea, that your higher level (40, 50, whatever) translates
into "better teaching" for your buddy.

So now when some noob says "PL me plz!" you say "Ok, I'll exemplar to you,
we'll do your missions, and you'll level X % faster than if you duo'ed with any
hero your own level, plus build up your contacts."

Not bad.

[ QUOTE ]
Image

Link / Context

[/ QUOTE ]

Most notable quote from Statesman there, towards the bottom:

[ QUOTE ]
On the topic of developing ideas and having outside influences game ideas, Emmert said that he doesn’t like focus groups. He also referenced the message board communities saying there was “no statistical drop [in play hours] when particular classes were nerfed…regardless what the community does, it doesn’t affect the game at all.” He also added that there were a lot of flamers in the community.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sounds about right. The exploiters simply look for the next exploit. Most people
aren't on the cookie-cutter edge of exploiting, so notice stuff little.

Check the characters in my signature. Without exception, all of them, with issue 4,
either stayed at the same power level or got slightly more powerful.

It is true that some enemy mobs got better because they used their powers
more often (Earth Thorn Casters, etc.) but I simply found myself adjusting and
using new strategies.

I also team (at least a duo) almost exclusively, so that might factor into part of
it. "Guys, I have a 35+ CoT mission. Can I get some ranged help?" or the like.
(Actually, at ~35 I *am* the ranged help :-) )

I for one am looking forward to I5 and the various AT/powerset changes.

[ QUOTE ]
/cry

I just dinged 25 last night. I have extreme difficulty making alts. Unless I fall into a coma until August, I'm gonna miss out on all the sweet content. I wonder if the Devs are considering the 30-40 thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you like your AT/Powerset so much, consider making it again on another server,
or possibly even the same one.

Noted forum poster tpull, who writes a good "hero diary" on these forums, had
reached level 49 with his first hero, Martial Master, a MA/SR Scrapper. He chose
to "not let retirement hit quite so soon" and made Martial Master II, now up to
level 15 or so.

If you go with the "parallel worlds" concept, you could recreate your main on another
server, pausing your "real main" at L25, and enjoy the alternate-universe
version of your main, who would team with new and different heroes, and strange
powers you don't see often on your other server. You might even try building
the alternate version subtly differently in terms of power choices and slotting.

Me, I'm looking at my heroes near the start of that range (25 and 26) and
wondering which one to take over to Croatoa. My 32 Blaster is my Striga character,
and may or may not do Croatoa. (Thematically, as an Android, the hypothetical
writer of his comic book wouldn't have him face off against magic-based villains
for an extended time period.)

Hm. Could do both. Have my Scrapper take the missions, since she could solo at
some non-glacial pace if needed, while my Defender simply joins teams doing
Croatoa missions. (As my second Natural hero, I don't have a need to have her
run Natural contacts for anything other than SO-access.)

[ QUOTE ]

Please do. Because as far as I am concerend it is !@#$%^& stupid.

No incentive to play a defender anymore unless you want to play Dark/, /dark, /psionic. At 80% funtionality between the two there is no point. Heck just hit 41 and you get ranged damage then also.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hm. Hadn't noticed that on the ancillary pools, but you have a point.

However, a Defender still gets his 9th primary power 6 levels earlier than the
controller, etc.

One "bright side" on the Archery powersets is that much as Scrappers using
weapons suffer the redraw of the weapon when using other powers, any
Controller with */Trick Arrow will see it likewise. That may make TA/Archery
Defenders more common than */TA Controllers.

Sonic, of course, will not have that problem.

But, don't forget: significant rebalancing among ATs is coming to issue 5.

So, stay tuned to the Test Server forum to find out if the cheers for the new
content in issue 5 are drowned out by the boos for any perceived "nerfs."

I would like to see issue 5 fully make Controller secondaries 80% in all aspects.
As is, powers like Enervating Field, etc. work exactly the same.

I almost wonder if Controller secondaries should be 50% effectiveness across
the board, but that's a topic for another thread.

3 cheers to the devs for new content!