ATRAtwo

[ QUOTE ]

As I said in my previous post however, [character name] will be the main character of a story-arc that will start in issue #7. A specific threat will force him to get more actively involved.

[/ QUOTE ]

The next great Manticore quote to be repeated ad infinitum

Insert hero name of your choice, and possibly issue # of your choice

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Well, actually the end of the article mentions that the MAGI folks as well as the magic origin heroes are the descendants of Mu. The coven makes sense too, though.

[/ QUOTE ]

"The blood of Mu shall rise, and it shall wash across the ocean and the land. The power that lies dormant within these humble rocks cannot remain so forever."

Does that sound heroic to you?

[/ QUOTE ]

It does if...

you are The Blood of the Black Stream!

din-din-da! One of the forthcoming Epic ATs.

Fills a hole too. Let's see:

Natural: Peacebringer, Incarnate
Science: Warshade
Mutant: Coralax, Avilan
Magic: Blood of the Black Stream
Tech: Unknown

Tech could use a real Iron Man workalike, say the "Power Armor" AT where you
get some melee, some blasts, some misc abilities, and function as a kind of
scrapper/blaster/defender.

Yes, yes, one-star me for putting the merpeople and winged people as Mutants,
but I think it fits. And they're kinda opposites, so it's like the PB/WS split.

On Bubblers, issue 4 added this change:

[ QUOTE ]
Dark Armor/Murky Cloud, Stone Armor/Rooted, Storm Summoning/O2 Boost, Radiation Emission/Accelerate Metabolism, and Force Field/Insulation Field now offer resistance to Endurance Drain effects.

[/ QUOTE ]

Now, I've mentioned O2 boost a few times of course, but do you notice that
Force Field/Insulation Field is in there?

So, unlike the 30-second timer on O2 boost, FF Defenders can give 4 minutes of
Sapper-immunity at a shot.

Of course, this just means the FF Defender gives the fire/fire tank a bubble, then
sits at the front door to the mission for the 2.5 minutes it takes the fire/fire
tanker to herd and Burn the entire level.

The weakness of the FF primary does allow one cool thing tho: the FF Defender is
freed to be an Offender, and can heavily slot his secondary. Once the fire/fire
tanker has started the burn herd, the FF Offender can reduce the 2.5 minutes
to 2.45 minutes with a well-placed nuke.

Storm does a few nice things for a scrapper:

1: a heal that provides end drain resistance; just what you need before heading
into battle with a Sapper. (unless you are Claws, then you can hit the Sapper with
Focus)

2: Steamy mist is still more defense granted you. Of course, certain scrapper builds
feel nigh-invulnerable anyways, but you might be able to face mobs of 1 higher
level with this running, as you would with Maneuvers present

3: Various Storm powers are good at clearing mobs from a doorway, so you can
get inside to do your area-of-effect thing

4: Blast your foes.

[ QUOTE ]

What would be the benifit of a team taking a storm defender over a /storm controller? I don't know, but I can't see much of one, and that does not sound right to me.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hobo, pre-32, the Defender gets the Storm powers faster. Also, the Secondaries
can offer new capabilities.

On Thunderclap, you need Stalag + TClap to stun some bosses. That's why my
Controller has both.

(L35, I have all Earth powers but Salt Crystals; have Gale, O2 Boost, Steamy Mist,
Freezing Rain and Thunderclap on Storm side, and just took Snow Storm at
35 for AVs. Tornado, as an anti-AV power, just debuffs defense while doing
minor damage, and 6 of 9 earth powers debuff foe defense as it is. I am
debating whether Lightning Storm is more damage than Assault would bring to
my team for 38. LS would help my soloing, but I almost exclusively team.
Maneuvers is also attractive, to stack with Steamy Mist.)

My Defender is Storm/Elec, and I am gaining Short Circuit (must be 6 slotted,
1 acc, 5 end drain SOs to be effective vs. bosses and such; Aim + 6 end drain
or yellow pill + 6 end drain also not a bad idea.) and Tesla Cage (single hold),
plus eventually a Ranged Nuke (the 9th elec blast power).

(At L26, I have O2 Boost, Steamy Mist, Snow Storm, Hurricane, Thunderclap
and Tornado. I likely will respec out of Tornado to take it again at L35 for the
AV missions, so I can take and slot up Lightning Bolt in the meantime. I also
have Ball Lightning slightly slotted.)

Now, to keep on track on this thread, here's how they play:

My Controller plays almost exactly as you describe yours; O2 boost has saved
many a party member, and the resistance to end drain is vital vs. Sappers and
Carnies. Keeps the tanker alive long enough to swat them if he mistimes a
Foot Stomp...

My Defender hangs back with other squishies, protecting them with Hurricane and
using Freezing Rain's fear effect to *make mobs leave the squishies*. So count me
as one who likes Freezing Rain's damage and fear, as a tool to keep squishies
safer. I have Snow Storm with 3 Slow SOs in it, which floors up to +2 mobs.
Snow Storm + Freezing Rain is not as perfect as a mass immob, but it's not
awful. Some in my SG are perfectionists who prefer me to be a Steamy Mist and
O2 Boost machine and do nothing else. I rebuke them heartily :-)

In a melee heavy party, my Secondary Blasts are my main contribution after
Mist and O2.

This would not necessarily be bad, if the other Defender sets had the same amount
of situational powers.

But, I watch Dark and Rad defenders happily use ALL their powers (ok, fallout
requires that someone be defeated) in every battle, with the melee guys quite
happy, and the ranged guys are just as happy.

The teams that value my Storm Defender the most (when not facing Carnies and
Sappers) are teams with ONLY Controllers, Defenders, and Blasters. Also
Kheldians, who are blaster-multiclasses anyways.

Our first 50s were a tanker/scrapper duo, and my storm defender was often mocked
for bringing nothing to the table but weak blasts. Sure, I could Short Circuit, but
they were self-sufficient, and only SCing a Sapper might mean something to them,
and I could just O2 them instead.

Then they made 50 and made Kheldians.

And suddenly they were appreciative of my anti-melee shield (hurricane),
extra defense and some resists (Steamy Mist), my usual healing (O2),
and sometimes even Thunderclap if too many minions were firing away.

I haven't tried it yet, but heck, I bet I could superspeed+steamy mist
(double stealth) into a pack of earth thorn casters (minions), fire off my
almost-guaranteed-auto-hit Thunderclap, and Disorient them all before they
can fire Quicksands.

Of course, my Controller could stand at range, and toss Earthquakes, Volcanic
Gasses, summon a pet into their midst... sigh.

What's sad is the learning curve. The Controller was my first character, and is
much easier to play, and plays well with others, at any comparable level to my
Storm Defender.

I relish the challenge of the Storm Defender, but let me leave you this quote from
one of our 50s, the Tanker, while teaming his Peacebringer with me:

"[for all I faceplant as a Kheldian, having hit debt cap by level 10] A Storm
Defender seems to be harder to run than a Kheldian, because any little mistake
you make [with hurricane/gale/tornado/etc.] could either slow down arresting
speed by causing scatter, or cause a team wipe by aggroing the mobs in the
next room."

I have not built a solo, offender-style, storm defender, but I think nearly half
the powers help the solo Stormie, not the teaming Stormie. Tornado is
relegated to an anti-AV power.

Why all this?

Arresting speed revolves around herding and timing AoE powers. I mentioned the
Inv/SS tanker's Foot Stomp in an earlier post.

Even with a non-offensive Tanker who slots defense, and has just enough attacks
to keep punchvoking, can still herd, and let a 32+ blaster fire a built-up nuke.
Have a second blaster on the team for good measure, or maybe a Rad defender
with Enervating field.

A large portion of players want to fight more total battles per hour, not less. The
risk/reward tradeoff for the safety-via-chaos Storm brings is a bit off.

The genie's out of the bottle on the level cap having been raised from 40 to 50,
which is what makes Controllers more useful than Defenders in the end game,
but there's still work that can be done.

So thanks for this thread.

[ QUOTE ]
Hmmm... Defenders get higher magnitudes... I kinda like that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Could also do the Kheldian thing, where you start out with the same mez
vulnerability as all ATs, but each other non-defender gives you 1 more magnitude
of resistance.

So, in an 8-hero team, if you are the only defender, you have mag 7 resistance to
mez. If there are two defenders, you each have mag 6, and so on, so an 8
defender team has no mez resistance boost, but they probably just buff each other
anyways to cover that :-)

(My Stormie makes FF defenders happy because O2 boost covers their one
weakness: Sleep. In return, I am happy to be resistant to all but Sleep because
of their Dispersion Bubble. And if they were a nice FF defender, they picked up
Stimulant from the Medicine Pool :-) )

I say we put on the Test Server, that Controller secondaries are only 50% as good
as Defender primaries.

Maybe 50% is too much, but we could start by *making every single Controller
secondary power 80% of the Defender version.* This is a year+ oversight.

I have a 35 Earth/Storm and a 26 Storm/Elec, and I say, NERF my Controller
Secondary with the intended 80% that was supposed to have been done at
game launch. My Snow Storm should be 80% the recharge nerf of the Defenders.
My Freezing Rain should be 80% the resistance and defense debuff, 80% the
damage, etc. Especially since my ability to mass immobilize foes so they can't
run from Freezing Rain makes Freezing Rain BETTER on my Controller.

Balancing the other 4 ATs is already on the schedule for ish 5. Please, please,
Jack, ensure all Controller Secondary powers are 80% as effective as the Defender
version so we can at least see how that plays out.

[ QUOTE ]
After all, Defenders are all about buffs (and debuffs). Every Archetype should be extremely happy when the Defender provides a resistance or defense buff...


[/ QUOTE ]

Jack, let me hit a nail on the head:

So long as ANY archetype can hit a resist or defense cap (or equivalent) on their
own, merely by their own power choices and slotting, you will never achieve this
goal.

I have no problem with melee ATs being tough in solo missions. That's fine. But
adding a Defender, of any flavor, ought to make the melee player say "cool, I
can now arrest mobs faster than if I was solo."

Here's an interesting balance idea from our SG's think tank:

Take away ALL AoEs from Scrappers and Tankers.

That will instantly make Blasters wanted in the 35+ game, make Defenders and
Controllers wanted in order to keep Blasters safe, and make Defenders wanted
for the increase in arrest speed they bring to Scrappers and Tankers.


(end of short suggestion. beginning of anecdotal section.)


And here's one anecdote of why that'd be good:

As a 32/33 Controller, I SKed along with our SG's inv/ss tanker and ma/regen
scrapper on their road to 50.

so, 40ish wolf mission most people farm. maybe 45.

Tanker herds 100+ wolves (over half the map of this instanced outdoors mission)
and calls for us to come visit.

I watch as the inv/ss tanker, with double-rage (recharge SOs + Hasten) uses
1 acc/5 dam Foot Stomp to ARREST THEM ALL.

One power activation. Already at the damage cap from double-rage.

Damage cap should *require* other teammates to be reached. Reaching it on
your own (except maybe for blasters/scrappers) should not be possible.

This is a TANKER doing this.

I know you gave tankers a little melee damage love, but this is too much.

Let's see how many forum 1-star ratings I get for suggesting all AEs be removed
from Tankers and Scrappers...

[ QUOTE ]

And to be honest, he never "really" answers a friggin' question anyway! So, really, what the hell is he doing at these things?? It's fairly obvious he HATES doing them and answering the same questions over and over....are people really going out and buying COH after a charming conversation with Statesman?? LOL My guess is no. He also is always tight lipped about new happenings in the game - so he isn't much of a PR/Salesman AND he doesn't answer a great majority of the questions people want answers for, so what's the point? LOL

Just one guy's observation.......

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, you are .

Read my post earlier, for how he was at WWLA.

I tried to apologize to him for all the extra questions I was asking, but he said
this:

"You guys are my customers. It's part of my job to interact with you. I have no
problem with answering questions. You deserve it."

That said, Jack is still human... and also is the writer, trying to keep some suspense.

For example, remember "no respec with issue 4" ?

And then the Anniversary respec hit?

The rednames were completely truthful on saying no respec with issue 4. Jack
probably got them to hold back so he could play a prank, and keep some suspense.

Everyone has good days and bad days.

I got to meet and talk with Jack at WWLA, beginning of the con season. The man
ran a TRIVIA CONTEST at the NCSoft booth, comics trivia only of course, and
was giving away t-shirts and even the occasional CoH DVD edition. (And that's
how I got my Prestige Power Slide :-) )

He seemed well-rested and no worse than polite, even after I ambushed him with
questions on the way back to the NCSoft booth.

Now it's a couple months later, 3000 miles away, and they just put out ish 4,
are working hard on ish 5, and have ramped up for CoV?

Yeh, I can understand.

I'm not a "homer" for CoH/CoV, but I've seen the man when rested, you've seen
him when exhausted, and for all that:

I've yet to hear of Jack cussing out a fan or losing his temper and having a
meltdown, etc.

So, he ain't perfect, and he ain't Attila the Hun.

He's like the Editor of a newspaper. Some days you hate the Editor's Page, and
some days you're ecstatic. But you CONTINUE TO SUBSCRIBE because, overall,
you feel the product is worth the money.

In the meantime, please note the newspaper has about 200+ other pages besides
the Editor's Page, and go have fun. (read: go play CoH and remind yourself why
you're here reading these forums :-) )

[ QUOTE ]
I've never met him, but States sounds like a pretty nice fellow. He's probably just heard the same questions about 180 times so the answers seem trite to him.

If anything, he's acting harried because it's con season right now, so there's a lot of pressure on the MMOG industry in general. E3, Wizardworld, SOE Fanfaire in vegas, etc...

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeh. I got to talk with him briefly at Wizardworld Los Angeles. (only several blocks
from my apartment in Long Beach :-) But it's moving to the L.A. Convention Center
next year :-( )

He was very cool. WWLA was a decent-size con, but lacked activities other than
the dealer's room and some comics-related panels for the most part. (I had taken
my movie-fiend wife there, expecting at least one 24-hr anime room or something,
and we were disappointed that the con really only had stuff for me. (comics and
CoH))

The smaller size contributed to the relaxed atmosphere in the CoH panel, and
Jack being in a good mood as we walked from the panel back to the dealers' room.

I suggested a future expansion should do for cyber/robot/tech heroes what I4
would do for anime/asian characters, such as "TV-camera eyes" which he seemed
pleasantly surprised to hear. (The particular TV-camera eyes I was thinking of,
and described to him, were from the graphic novel adaptation of William Gibson's
Neuromancer; I forget her name, but there's a female mercenary with pop-out
razorblades in her fingers, and her eyes are roughly rectangular (but still fitting in
the normal eye sockets) lenses.)

[ QUOTE ]

Synapse: Why is everyone looking at me? Oh I get it. Send the blaster right? I'm just going to die anyway so why not?


[/ QUOTE ]

I have noticed a disparity, I think, between game and comic.

In the new Mark Waid CoH comic, Synapse is a MA/SR scrapper.

In the game, he's an elec/elec blaster?

So which is right?

[ QUOTE ]
...among the Hmong...

[/ QUOTE ]

Aie! I intentionally avoid using those words when talking about
when I met some Hmong in SE China.

For those not in the know, "the H in Hmong is unaspirated" i.e.
don't pronounce it.

To these very Western, very American ears, I hear:

"Mong"

like "among" without the "a." My Hmong friends choose not
to correct me when I say Hmong that way, so I figure I must
be close :-)

Also, a good google on Hmong will get you to pages briefly
covering their history, to wit:

They were in approx. SE China before the Han Chinese (the
main 95% of China's population today) met them.

The Han, from a few thousand years ago until the late 1800s,
used their larger, faster-growing population (lots of arable
farmland) to push the Hmong into the mountains, thus making
the Hmong one of many peoples known as the Miao (just like
a cat says it, but romanized like that) or "Mountain People(s)."

The Han treated the Hmong and other minorities like the
American Colonists eventually treated Native Americans, though
the Hmong were eventually left to themselves in the mountains,
with poor farmland. (They terrace mountains to create more
flat land for farming. One of the few areas in the world you'll
see this method of farming.) Native Americans, by contrast,
got reservations and really bad treaties.

Eventually, 20th century remorse descended upon China as it
has on the USA.

Today, minorities are exempt from the 1-child rule in China,
and are encouraged to have large families and grow their
population.

I just got back from China, and saw lots of old-and-new.

Bustling Hmong market with both traditional Hmong dress and
Western clothes alike.

Farmer with Ox and Cart in front of a Hmong elementary
school's TV satellite dish. (or possibly just large round TV
antenna, but it looked like a dish to me.)

Hmong brick house with VCD (Video CD) player, OLD 17"
TV, OLD stereo amp, one light bulb hanging from the ceiling,
and motorbike in good condition.

The Hmong I met were in good spirits, though indoor plumbing
is unknown out in the boondocks. Not even Eastern toilets, but
rather outhouses. Yes, TVs, but no plumbing. MOBILE PHONES,
but no plumbing.

Power lines go almost everywhere though; I guess China has
its own rural electrification project.

Someone mentioned the Hmong in Central California. I didn't
know they were that far south from Sacramento, where there
are some large Hmong churches.

[ QUOTE ]
Slot[05] Level 6 : Hover /DefBuf,DefBuf,DefBuf
Slot[08] Level 12 : Swift /Run
Slot[09] Level 14 : Fly /Fly,Fly,Fly
Slot[10] Level 16 : Health /Heal,Heal,Heal,Heal,Heal,Heal
Slot[12] Level 20 : Stamina /EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec,EndRec
Slot[13] Level 22 : Hasten /Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg,Rchg
Slot[17] Level 30 : Stealth /EndRdx,DefBuf
Slot[19] Level 35 : Aid Other /Rchg
Slot[20] Level 38 : Aid Self /Rchg

This build has helped me up to level 31 and will continue to help me through to 50 and my Kheldian. With it, I can also earn ALL my badges (Heal Other helps towards the medical badges).

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, much deleted, but take a look at what I've left up there:

I count FIVE power pools. If they ever make Stamina an
inherent power, great!

But, it looks like you'll find yourself unable to take the healing
powers next level.

You could respec and throw out flight, take superspeed for your
travel power, and fit in the medicine pool that way but...

I ran into the same issue recently. I wanted to add teleport
to my flight, for character concept (was a paper RPG char
before CoH) but Hasten, even though I don't slot it, was
simply too useful, even if I only turn it on for big boss battles,
or the horde of mobs facing a 6+ team of heroes.

I'm happy with my blaster's build, though I might redo some
things for Exemplaring purposes with a respec, IF Stamina
becomes an Inherent power.

(Health is nice, but I'd dump it and Swift, despite me having
Stealth, to free up more early power choices.)

[ QUOTE ]
Boss Changes
.snip.
But, I digress (apologies to Peter David). My main issue right now is the “one shot” defeats. Blasters, Controllers or Defenders who round a corner a little too quickly can find themselves facing instant debt. They have no opportunity to prepare for the boss because they didn’t see him. I do like that Bosses now stay around longer in fights, but I don’t like how deadly they can be so we are actively analyzing this situation.
.snip.


[/ QUOTE ]

Hm. Here's an idea:

Player(s) get(s) within detection range of the Boss.

Boss Battle Cry (like F10, with the pointing) activates.

Boss does not attack until X seconds after Battle Cry
("Get $heroname, my minions!")

(or Boss uses a click power that buffs himself and/or
minions a LITTLE)

The X seconds is enough time to strafe back behind the
corner, hit a travel power, and flee!

Of course, if $heroname leaves detection range, Boss
bellows an Instance-wide broadcast:

"Yes, flee, you yellow-bellied coward! $Boss's boss was
right when he told me how scared you were of me!"

People like?

Alternately, Boss should have some low-level wimpy attacks
he uses to "check out" $heroname. Either Boss Brawl or
some other relatively wimpy power.

More dangerous Bosses might have this Battle Cry:

"So, $heroname, we meet at last. Be warned, I will not
hold back against you, for I, the great $Bossname,
command terrible force you cannot comprehend!"

(Cue the X second delay before Boss fires his Alpha.
If the game can detect a hero's attack power before it
hits the Boss, have the Boss go right to his Big Attack
without delaying. "$heroname, I lied! No delay!")