BigBoss Eyepatch

Thermal will allow you to reduce the damage they take, but not stop it. I tried ninjas / Pain domination to level 20 in Praet, not impressed with them really, the pets are VERY squishy compared to the other choices.

I was healing them virtually continuously. Had I picked forcefields, I may have had a better experience.

MM forcefields are not as good as a Defenders, but if you triple slot deflection and insulation shields, those combined with your dispersion bubble, and manouvres. Should let you get quite a lot of defence and as such protect your ninjas from incoming attack. But it may well be a later bloomer for you.

I guess the term "healer" can be loosely applied to an Empathy Defender because they have 4 powers out of 9, if you count ressurect, 5, whose primary function is hit point recovery.

However, I see an Empathy Defender as a buffer first a foremost, it just so happens that their way of buffing is to regenerate people's health through the damage. But there are some cases where you just really want an Empathy Defender for sure, though, if you have a Defender that can cripple the enemies to the point they are not a threat that's just as good, maybe some cases, better.

My other main Defender is a Forcefields / Electric blasts. Back when she was shiny and new, and I was still finding my way about looking for groups I just sent out tels etc... and once or twice seemed to only get grudgingly accepted onto the group. I had to say well, I put forcefields on you which stop you getting hit and losing health in the first place, so, why would you need a "healer" if the forcefield can stop most attacks harming you? Also electrical blasts I can leave the mobs without endurance and only able to perform their basic punch.

Any Defender is worthwhile to any team IMO

The villain breakout from the Zig was cool. I loved that tutorial mission.

Any new villain I always ran it.

Well Demons / Thermal Rad go togother like bacon and eggs. The only thing is, there's loads of them, they are, as we British say 10 a Penny, or as the American bretherin say, Dime a dozen. But the power sets work so good together not to mention with thermal you get a few added bonuses...

Forge. That = a 30% damage bonus, plus naturally, as a mastermind you will be taking Assault from leadership anyway which will mean another 11%, plus if you keep pets in line of sight, your own mastermind boost, you can have well over 50% damage just from those alone.

Heat Exhaustion / Melt Armour the final lvl 35 and 38 powers in Thermal Rad, lets you cripple pretty much anything you point them at. Elite bosses and Archvillains or Heroes, will be a much nicer prospect as your Demons then efficiently tear them to pieces.

And the best part is, Demons and fire, you know it makes sense.

Pain Domination you can't go wrong with, just heal your pets through anything. Plus World of Pain is a nice little buff too.

Forcefields too will work well immaterial of what primary you roll.

But Im biased as I have a Demon / Thermal. I managed to solo Protean with her too. Which I thought was a good accomplishment, and I didn't have half my powers then.

Shards and threads are our two basic bare bones components. What I hope is that they will do away with one or the other, or, improve the shard drop rate so its a little better than it is.

My guess is, we'll get the next 4 incarnate doohickeys, and then Omega will be released last as Alpha was released first.

But if they do decide to invent a new type of basic salvage for the next four then if I'd took the time to play and prepare for the next ones, I think I'd be quite personally insulted.

Scrapper I'd say. Pretty sturdy, good damage output, good AT to start on.

The AoE buffs for forcefields are amazing. I have an FF/Elec Blast Defender and I often tag team with my friend on his Mercs / Traps MM when we want an easy night of gameplay. Between his FF drone and my own bubbles, plus dispersion bubble, his soldiers are just untouchable by the enemies. I literally only have to stand there. Since I got Manouvres, heck, he doesn't even need his FF drone any more.

Its a very lazy style of gameplay, but its quite amazing watching his trigger soldiers just cut a swath of destruction through the enemies with absolute impunity.

I gather though that MM buffs on Forcefields won't be quite as good as a Defender's more than likely, but even so, IMO any kind of forcefield that can be put up around you is helpful

Galaxy city is one of the nicest zones, when it is gone, its gonna be just another disaster zone that probably wont get used for naff all.

I think one of the key problems you describe here is the sheer fact some people know it like the back of their hands. And that puts you at a colossal disadvantage. I've gone on many lambdas and BAF's in CoH telling them before we even start... me: Noob. You show me how please. And yet... I still get left behind like the fat kid at the start of the 100m sprint.

Such great advice of "just follow the leader" is wonderful if I have a reasonable grasp on what to do, but, really it doesn't teach me squat about how to play the thing. I suppose its my fault, had I had a level 50 when the incarnate stuff came out, I wouldn't have to learn it the hard way, but its the same with other TF's as well. Unless you know what you are doing, its a harsh environment. I know a lot more TF's quite well now, but, still, not to the level others know them, and it does put me at a disadvantage. Especially if I want to lead.

I'd say the only TF's I know inside out and upside down, are the ITF and Sutter. The Mortimer Kal SF on redside and me are good friends too.

I know most people don't want to nursemaid me through the game, and heck I don't expect them to. But, I think its easy to forget once upon a time they too had to learn the hard way what to do. Its like when a driver sees a learner driver, they think... "oh shat, a learner!! Better avoid them somehow" When once upon a time, it was you with the L plates. I mean, wouldn't it have been great for somebody to explain the ropes to you so you didn't have to learn the harsh way... Im not bitter. Having said that, if I say that Im new and don't know what Im doing, and can they help me through it... some of the guys I know have slowed it down deliberately for me.

I suppose the moral of the story is, time is a great healer. I think, were it not for my friend, I would have probably quit COH as I didn't have a clue what to do, that, and the fact MMO's were new to me, as of COH. Bottom line is, any game that has a multiplayer element, whether its co-op or PvP requires a learning curve and the knowledge of what to do and when to do it. There is skill obviously, some will just be better than you, got to accept that, its life. The biggest thing of all, is the game is played by other people, its easy to predict what a computer will do to you because there's only so much it can do, people, they have a very random element usually. So you just have to anticipate their next move.

I use CoH as the basis here, but really the logic can fit to any game.

I wouldn't mind pool powers being customisable too with regards to the colouring and the animations.

Hasten with its glowy hand thing is a little odd. Why would my hands glow?

Also the ability to turn off some effects would be welcome particularly combat jumping and super jump.

Gadget control. Using web grenades, bolos, maybe even chains etc, to tie your target up.

Tech Assault. Tasers, ranged laser blasts, stuff like that. That'd be neat.

This is a very brief post I know, but am in work and don't have time to elucidate further. But hopefully somebody has an idea what I mean.

Hi guys,

Got a Defender, loving forcefields, its very handy to have when I team with my squishy friends and I think she makes a big difference to the heroes when I play her. I just had a thought though regarding the Lady Grey Task force.

As her secondary is electrical blast which has Tesla cage, does that mean she can hold the green orbs on the Weakened Hami for the others to destroy them?

Naturally it won't top a Controller or a Dominator, but, will it work?

I guess you're right, to be fair these were all good people whom I grouped with before, and have no complaint about them whatsoever just want to make that clear, and hope I can group with them once again.

I just felt, I genuinely don't really care that I lost. It was a wipe out, these things happen, but I just thought, was this my fault? Could I have done something better, should I have used my star to bark out more leadership orders?

I suppose Im second guessing myself because I started the whole thing and well, was unable to finish. Im not upset because I didn't win and get the reward, don't give a monkeys about that... what bothered me the most of all, was that the other guys may have felt bad and maybe also felt they wasted their time. I just hope if they read this post they don't have hard feelings about it, and will group with me again in future for a rematch with Rommy.

I just needed a vent because I just wanted to make this my message of the day, being that, its just a game, and we should never forget that and let it come between us.

This morning I was leading and tanking an ITF. It was not the best run ever to be truthful. I'd like to think I was doing a good job tanking, I tried to cycle my taunts, plenty of aoe's for aggro, but still people were getting hurt and dying, granted there were 7 of us, but I think I was the only level 50, and Im not as powerful as other incarnates out there, but powerful enough to get myself through the ITF intact.

So we weren't able to beat Rommy, not enough damage, Im gutted naturally because I wanted the incarnate reward at the end, but its not like the ITF won't run again and there'll be another chance. But I just got the vibe my teammates were very upset. People left without saying goodbye etc, and as I had star, I just feel like it was my fault. It probably was, maybe I should have insisted somebody get a higher level something or other.

Just feel really bad about how it went.

Just to make my position here more clear, Im not saying I want less resistance and defence for tankers for the sake of more damage, I don't feel that way, what I was saying is, with enough effort, and patience, and inf! A brute can do everything a tanker can, which to me could potentially make the tanker somewhat redundant and thus make it harder for us tanker players to get groups that was my worry / paranoud delusions.

In terms of tanker damage output though...

Why not just do the same thing to tankers via Gauntlet that Defenders have via Vigilance?

When a tanker is solo, give em a 10% damage boost via gauntlet. They already have bruising for 20% additional damage. So that comes to a nice round 30%, just like a solo Defender.

On a team, a tanker is not required to do damage 9 times out of 10. Just be a moving distraction. So in cases like that you don't need super-damage. And thus, you lost the 10% damage boost afforded you.

Obviously if you set yourself to x8 having 10% extra damage won't matter zilch if your tanker can't handle the pounding in the first place. So it won't make them a farmers choice.

I guess the flip side is, it will make super strength tankers quite a power house. 80% from rage, plus on my Invul / SS I got about 15 or 16% via set bonuses, so theoretically Im already hitting for almost double damage, when you factor bruising in, that's nearly 120% more damage already, which may not be as good as a scrapper, but damn, its impressive IMHO (This is if I am interpreting the numbers right)

I think that is the main disparity being hinted at above. With the way the game is now, why build a Tanker anymore when you can have a brute? For me personally the answer is simple, on a tanker, I don't have to monitor a fury bar.

But with powerset proliferation coming, soon there will be war mace, battle axe scrappers available. Heck super strength will probably make its way onto a scrapper. So with the way we are now, reason to roll a tanker gets less and less, especially when at the higher levels and post incarnate the lines between a brute and a tanker become VERY hazy. Esssentially when you get an incarnate tanker and an incarnate brute, slotted the same, the same set bonuses, the same incarnate abilities etc... The Brute is a more attractive proposition. Because for one, he's nearly as tough as the tanker, and his damage output is superior. So ****** in his armour is counteracted by his speed to kill things... ultimately, that might make a tanker, "the poor cousin" perhaps?

If that's the notion then I can't help but agree. The similar discussion is happening in the Defender forum about why roll a Defender when you can have a corruptor. Who do superior damage and buffs secondary.

If I am on a group and there are brutes, I ask if they want me to tank or just play in a melee capacity. Some say they'll lead others let me be the moving distraction. I always ask as in the past I ended up playing aggro ping pong.

From what I see in my short time playing this game, a lot of brutes have the tendancy to bite off more than they can sometimes chew in the name of fury. I actually think to play a brute you need patience above all else because sometimes fury is going to drop.

100 million? That's not so bad. Darn sight better than 400 million.

Yeah, there's also the matter of the 400 million price tags to create some of the very rare things using threads.

Shards may take time but its free!

That was lovely, thanks very much! The more mobs the merrier essentially, and as long as they are at least white, we're good.

And I exemplar loads on my characters anyway. I think doing that lends quite a hefty advantage to your team mates who are not high level. As I understood it, what powers you have that still work while exemplared or malefactored, are slotted with how many slots you have prior to exemplaring, and the enchancements you got in them, function to what level of enhancement you could use at that level. I find exemplaring kind of cool as well. Makes you think before you strike.

Well I was certainly happy to have picked up 9 shards in that TF but Im gonna need to do a whole lot more to get my alpha sorted out!

I'll just have to let me mate know that he just had rotten luck.

Hello good people of incarnate disposition. Just got a few queries.

If you are doing a TF and you set it to +1,2,3, or 4. Does this affect the liklihood of shard dropping?

If you are level shifted from your existing alpha enhancement, does that affect your pickup rate?

What about Incarnate shifted from Judgement, Interface etc...?

Im just wondering because myself on an unlocked but unslotted Tanker last night in the Lady Grey TF picked up 9 shards, a friend on a Defender with level shift and an incarnate shift got 1.

Or is it the same answer as always... random?