Biowraith

InfamousBrad's list covers a lot of the reasons for me. I actually used to form/lead teams quite a lot, way way back at release. But gradually over time I've become more of a follower than a leader. A lot of it is (perhaps just the perception of) increasing expectations: expectations of travel time/distance, xp efficiency, team size, farming & AE, etc. Also the decline in use of the lfg flags; time is maybe clouding my memory, but I remember people using the lfg flags a lot more often in times past, setting them when they wanted a team and leaving them off when they didn't. Now very few people set them, or it seems check for them, and we have this big mass of people half of whom consider "Not Looking" to mean "Do not try to invite me EVER" and the other half who use it for "I might team, just ask me" (and lots of people who are actively looking for a team - you see the broadcasts and tells - but stay on "Not Looking").

Unfortunately I'm a pretty shy, socially awkward kind of person with a serious aversion to confrontation of any kind, so the general grief that can go with all that (perceived or otherwise) has become increasingly offputting. Also general laziness can kick in - sometimes everything else aside I just don't feel like putting in the effort. On that note, I'd probably "lead" teams a bit more often if we got some kind of LFM interface similar to some other games - let me mark myself LFM, set a level variation, add a note saying what I'm doing, and just let people self-invite as I go. Leading for lazy people!

All that said, I don't generally complain when I can't find a team - I have enough alts across 3 servers that, combined with global channels watching for TFs, I'll usually find something sooner or later (though probably not redside on Victory ).

Yeah I've noticed this, you're not imagining things.

[ QUOTE ]
If killing AVs is important, then it's hard to go past Radiation, Kinetics, or Cold.

[/ QUOTE ]
For killing AVs with a duo I'd take Dark over Rad, personally, as it provides a lot more damage mitigation in that scenario (with Dark Servant in play Dark gives 3-4 times the -dam and over double the -tohit, not to mention more healing, a little defense, and neg/ene/psi resists).

Rad does provide more offense from AM's +recovery/dam/rech (and better -regen, but it doesn't have nearly as big a lead on that now it's lost its non-resistable perk) and on a larger team I'd maybe look at it differently, but if it's a pair of squishies who may not be minmaxed and IO'd out for the purpose I'd prefer the superior mitigation that Dark provides.

I'd put Kin roughly on par with Dark for that purpose, maybe better (it has enough stacked -dam to actually do pretty well for mitigation on a single target, -slow making kiting easy, and obviously speeds up offense a lot). I don't have enough experience with Cold to comment.

One of the most effective duos I've run (with a friend whom I've duoed with often over the years) was an Ill/Kin Controller coupled with an Ice/Ice Blaster.

Illusion is good as a sort of fire-and-forget control setup, letting you drop down spectral terror and/or decoys, then get on with buffing and attacking. Slot up Blind as an attack for both damage and containment (most things don't survive long enough to worry about hold duration, and the Blaster can stack theirs if need be.. though with HOs you can max out damage and hold, get respectable acc, and still have room for damage procs), along with Spectral Wounds and, later, an epic pool attack, and it's pretty good single target damage. Not so good for setting up AoE-containment, but you say you're not so worried about AoE. Once it gets going it's great at harmlessly deflecting aggro too - Decoys are up that bit more often when you have Siphon Speed boosting your recharge (I took Hasten too, personally) and later on the Phantasm summons his own Decoy which I found worked fine against AV/Boss targets while the decoys recharged.

Meanwhile the Blaster gets to be, well, blasty, and gets buffed up by the Ill/Kin while doing so. Ice Blast is pretty good for single target damage, and with the Ice Blast holds and Ice Manipulation soft controls they can easily deal with anything that escapes the Ill/Kin's aggro grabbing/ceasing activities.

The Ill/Kin maybes takes a little while to mature (endurance can be painful before Transference), but even early on you can neuter any 2-person spawns by cycling Deceive and Blind, while the Kin part provides a fairly hefty heal (if you can train the Blaster to stay in range of it), a damage buff, and you only need to wait til 20 for Speed Boost. By the 40s this duo was taking on everything, from multiple spawns to AVs and the odd zone Giant Monster. All pre-IOs too, so no big deal if they're out of reach (and gravy if they're not).

There's lots of powerful combos out there, and probably several better than this one, but that's the one I've had the most experience (and success) with so far.

1. What is your favorite word?
Embiggens.

2. What is your least favorite word?
Can't think of one, so I'll do a reference and say "moist", because it sounds pornographic.

3. What turns you on?
Intelligence & sense of humour (specifically, the combination of the two).

4. What turns you off?
Pretence - spin, marketing, cosmetics, self-deception, keeping up appearances, etc.

5. What sound or noise do you love?
"Good" music, and certain people's laughter.

6. What sound or noise do you hate?
"Bad" music, and certain people's laughter.

7. What is your favorite curse word?
Damn/Damnit.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Professional layabout.

9. What profession would you not like to participate in?
Just about all of them, but I guess the military would probably be the biggest nightmare for me.

10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"Sorry."

[ QUOTE ]
2) knock them all over creation with multiple wind-themed powers (some of which also debuff, just nowhere near as much as /rad)

[/ QUOTE ]
Huh?

Unless I'm getting my numbers wrong, for a Corruptor Rad provides -regen and -dam that Storm doesn't, however Storm provides more -res, -def, -tohit, -rech and -runspeed than Rad (except when Fallout comes into play, which solo is never). Storm is very competitive with Rad for debuffing, certainly way above "nowhere near as much".

Tank - 1
Kheldian - 2 (one of each)
Controller - 3
Blaster - 4
Scrapper - 4
Defender - 5

Corruptor - 2
Stalker - 2
Dominator - 3
Brute - 4
Veat - 4 (one of each)
Mastermind - 5


My preference is for buff/debuff and jack-of-all-trades types, but not to the exclusion of everything else, and I generally aim for at least one of each AT per server (I run on three servers currently). Kheldian and Tank are the exception - I don't feel the need to run more than one of each flavour of Kheldian, and I am not terribly keen on the gameplay of tanks so I just have the one. I'm also not counting the placeholders (1 controller, 1 blaster, 2 brutes, 1 stalker, 2 corruptors) that are waiting on i16 and/or Going Rogue. I try to vary the powersets across my alts (I think 3 repeats of any given set is about my limit), and for some reason, more than any other AT, I feel compelled to make one of each MM primary and secondary (though maybes not every combination of the two).

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You want to know what I hate? I'll tell you!

<ul type="square">[*] Embarrassing Situations in Sitcoms -- I literally have to change the channel or leave the room to avoid seeing the characters humiliated at times.[/list]

[/ QUOTE ]

The British version of The Office must be your least favorite sitcom EVER.

[/ QUOTE ]
That was exactly the show I thought of when I read that.

I can watch the US version all day long (and enjoy it, too), but the British version, as much as I wanted to like it, I just couldn't get through an episode without it getting too cringeworthy for me, prompting a change of channel. I'm not sure if that's a triumph for the original or not.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Soldier versions of grenades cause redraw (you pull out your gun and fire the grenade).

Crab version shoots from one of the backpack legs, and animates faster. Crab version is therefore preferable.

Crabs can be plenty epic, but it takes time and influence to get there. A fully IOd out crab can tank, blast and spawn as many pets as a Mastermind - on a perma basis. Just be ready to pay through the nose for all those +Rech sets.

[/ QUOTE ]

As many as a Mastermind? How so? Not being snarky, I'm new to VEATS and I'm wondering how they do that?

[/ QUOTE ]
3 Spiderlings
2 Disruptors
1 Patron Pet

Though permaing the last two takes a heck of a lot of recharge.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

No. CoV is the name of the first paid expansion. The game has always been City of Heroes.

[/ QUOTE ]
uh wrong.

CoV was an expansion, but it was also a stand-alone game.
For quite a while plenty of players *only* had CoV, with no access to Paragon City.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hence the birth of the horrid term: "expansalone."

[/ QUOTE ]

Thats not even a real word!

[/ QUOTE ]
What are you talking about? It's a perfectly cromulent word.

Well, if we're talking about upping the damage:

I'd second the Achilles Heel - put one in Soldiers and one in Spec Ops.

I'd also suggest a Lady Grey damage proc in Soldiers and Spec Ops too, for another damage boost.

Both of those can proc off every attack Soldiers have, and the two main attacks Spec Ops have (not their snipes or grenades).

I'd not put them in Commando though, as he only has one single target attack that qualifies. The Kinetic Crash smashing damage works well with him though - procs off his Slug, Buckshot, M30 and LRM attacks.

From Pain, besides World of Pain there's not a lot that'll boost your pets killing speed until Painbringer (which you'll want to pop on your Commando) and Anguishing Cry.

You may want to pick up Assault for another small damage boost. Personally I also took M30 despite the general wisdom of no personal attacks; I added 2 damage procs to it (Positron's Energy damage and Kinetic Crash Smashing) so while the base damage is still weak, it sometimes gets a good run of proc damage - gives me a little bit of extra offense for when I'm not needed in supporting my pets.

Downside is this all costs inf, and I think the procs (Achilles especially) are a bit pricier than they once were.

Only Head Splitter (it has an inherent 15% chance to crit).

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I probably have "issues" ; I found myself feeling awfully self conscious on the rare occasion I made one running around in little more than her underwear, it was almost like I was creeping myself out.

[/ QUOTE ]

What you have, most likely, is preconceptions about what preconceptions other people would have when they saw your character. I used to feel the same way, feeling bad about playing scantly-clad girls. But the fact of the matter is that, for the most part, what we are upset with is not how we look at the characters, but how we project other people would look at the character. "Man, this makes me look like some 13 year old hormone addict little boy!"

[/ QUOTE ]
I think there's probably a large element of that - I think of how I roll my eyes at the ones that *do* come across as the hormone addled teenage boy and don't want to be the person I'm rolling my eyes at. Though there's also an element of it just not doing much for me - even in real life the swimsuit models and Maxim centre spreads just don't interest me much (maybe if they were right in front of me in person and showing me a certain amount of, ah, attention, but not just to look at in a magazine), so a collection of pixels depicting a fictional character certainly won't. Which kinda takes away the incentive to get past the how-it'll-make-me-look aspect.

[ QUOTE ]
Fact is, a LOT of girls play video games now, and while it may not be true last time I saw the numbers more girls played MMOs then guys did world wide. (I no longer have the numbers was years ago).

[/ QUOTE ]
The numbers I remember (alas, no links) was for gaming online in general rather than specifically MMOs. It included things like Yahoo Games, or online Solitaire (a concept which always kinda puzzled me). I don't think I've ever seen/heard anything that suggests Everquest, WoW, et al have ever been anything other than male dominated all this time, despite the gradual shift in ratios.


As to the thread topic, eh, I guess I have some preconceptions about the more scantily clad female characters mostly being male players, though it tends to be heavily influenced by both the character's name, bio, and the way they act. But said preconceptions only usually result in a passing idle thought, then it's gone and I continue playing the game. Ultimately I don't care who the player is so long as they play half-way decently and don't have an irritating personality.

My own female chars (probably about 40% of my alts) tend towards the more covered costumes. I'm looking through them and the majority of them are in some kind of power armour, along with one in military uniform and another in a suit (Crey agent look). The closest mine come to "bare" is a stalker in a t-shirt with the "shredded" bottoms option. I probably have "issues" ; I found myself feeling awfully self conscious on the rare occasion I made one running around in little more than her underwear, it was almost like I was creeping myself out.

For reference, the Battle Drones and Protector Bots only have one (single target) attack that it can proc off - the Heavy Laser Burst (the one that sort of looks like a snipe).

Assault Bot sees much better mileage from it, proccing on both plasma blasts and his swarm missiles (not the burn version though).

But yeah, the attack just has to have the capability for knockback for the proc chance to occur; it doesn't matter whether the knockback itself actually happens.

[ QUOTE ]
Is it because they die too quickly? Does their AI suck?

[/ QUOTE ]
Bit of both, probably more the former though. Often times they die early on, or survive but their contribution kinda gets lost in all the stuff you and your team are doing.

These aspects are all amplified by the long recharge though - they'd probably not be skipped so often if, when they do die early on in their life, you didn't have such a long wait before they were available again.

They're ok for a boost against hard targets (well, if the hard target doesn't aoe a lot), but for general use they're just not up often enough to compensate for their fragile and generally mediocre nature.

I'm not sure I see what the big deal would be. Other than it'd make Ninjas even more hilarious.

Demon/Thermal, if I can resist rolling a Thugs/Thermal first.

Zombies on fire!

I don't think any of the redside Poison powers (including Traps' contribution) are any more evil / less heroic than most of the Radiation powers; I can't imagine suffering from radiation poisoning is any more fun than suffering from regular poisoning. The latter even uses words like "lethal" while the former never goes beyond "nasty" or "viciously".

Personally I'd pick up Foresight and/or TT:Maneuvers instead of CT:Offensive and/or Tough. Once you're at the point of slotting all those sets I think CT:Offensive will be overkill, while you could use that little extra base defense for when Mask Presence suppresses and Vengeance isn't in effect (plus TT:M buffs up teams some more).

I'm also not sure why you have 2 recharges in TT:Assault - it shouldn't be dropping much/ever and when it does it recharges fast enough. Maybes move them to enhance TT:Leadership further?

If the Miracle unique still operates on a 120sec-when-power-is-activated basis, put it in Health instead of Vengeance so that it's perma.

May as well swap that GotA Def/End for a Def/Rec - endurance cost of Mind Link isn't really an issue, but you'll get some mileage from enhancing its recharge.

I'd maybes also move up Lunge and Slash a bit if you exemplar a lot, so's you have a filled out attack chain, but if you're already at the 24-auto-respec stage and don't plan to exemplar I don't suppose it matters.


Those are the things that jumped out at me anyway.

Well, for AoE focus you'll definitely want Suppression &amp; Venom Grenade. Optionally you'll also want Frag Grenade (if you don't mind the knockback) and/or Heavy Burst (if you don't mind drawing the rifle). You'll most likely also want the patron AoE.

Slot them as you would any AoE really - I'd say 1-2 acc (partly dependent on whether you take Combat Training: Offensive or Tactical Training: Leadership), 3 dam, then the last couple slots with recharge or endurance reduction, depending how your endurance is holding up while you play. Probably want to focus on the recharge slightly more with Venom Grenade (-res is a force multiplier, so even ignoring the damage the power does you want that -res covering everything at all times) and maybe the Patron one too (slow base recharge).

You'll also want at least one single target attack - Channelgun cycles faster and is almost an attack chain on its own (if you enhance recharge), while Longfang provides heavier hitting. Melee attacks are optional - Crabs are stronger at range (more ranged defense than other positions), but the melee attacks can provide a bit of extra single target damage if you don't mind dancing in and out of range of the nastier melee opponents. I'm not impressed by Frenzy though, even if it is a bit more (PB)AoE.

Defensively, make sure you pick up (ideally as soon as possible): Combat Training: Defensive, Tactical Training: Maneuvers (not to be confused with the inferior power pool Leadership: Maneuvers, though you can pick that up too if you want) and Fortification. Slot 2-3 defense IOs in CT (if you slot generic level 50 IOs, a pair of 50s gives almost the same as three of them), give TT:M 3 defensive and optionally 1 endurance redux, and give fortification 3 resist and optionally 1 endurance redux.

Pick Crab Spider Armour Upgrade and, imo, ignore Wolf Spider Armour - you have to take one of them and Crab gives marginally more mez protection. Both of them only give very very minor resistances and the mez protect they give is dwarfed by Fortification, so I wouldn't burn two power choices to get both passives. I'd not bother slotting if you're not going for set IOs (it's a good place for the steadfast protection -kb and +3% def IO otherwise).

Optionally pick up Serum and slot it with 2-3 heal and 2-3 recharge - it provides a nice extra layer of protection for when things get tough.

You'll almost certainly want Fitness for Stamina, slotted with up to 3 end mod dependant on how badly you find yourself burning endurance.

If you solo I'd heartily recommend the two pet choices - Spiderlings to provide a general dps boost, and Call Reinforcements to provide assistance during tough fights; 1 acc, 3 dam, 2 rech. For teams they're not so vital, especially if you aren't relying on set bonuses/slotting to boost their recharge.

Get Mental Training too - don't turn down extra +recharge, especially if you're not getting any from set bonuses - just don't bother slotting it beyond the default 1 runspeed.

Everything else - the other Tactical Training powers, attacks, pool powers, etc, are down to personal preference and what direction you want to take the build beyond aoe. Hasten is useful with all the high recharge powers, Tough and Weave provide that bit extra protection for the aggro you'll inevitably draw with all your AoE, TT:Assault stacked with Leadership:Assault means a 30% damage boost for you and your team at all times, etc etc.


Quick example build (it does have one IO - the -kb from Steadfast - because it's not too expensive (I've bought it on numerous alts that received no funding from my other alts or other players) and it helps a lot):
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Leviathan Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Channelgun -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(7), RechRdx-I(40), EndRdx-I(48)
Level 1: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A)
Level 2: Longfang -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(7), RechRdx-I(37), EndRdx-I(48)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(17)
Level 6: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 8: Suppression -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(9), Dmg-I(9), Dmg-I(11), RechRdx-I(25), EndRdx-I(43)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- EndRdx-I(A), DefBuff-I(11), DefBuff-I(15), DefBuff-I(17)
Level 12: Venom Grenade -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(13), Dmg-I(13), Dmg-I(15), RechRdx-I(23), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 16: Health -- Heal-I(A)
Level 18: Frag Grenade -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(19), Dmg-I(19), Dmg-I(21), RechRdx-I(25), EndRdx-I(46)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(23)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 26: Fortification -- EndRdx-I(A), ResDam-I(27), ResDam-I(27), ResDam-I(29)
Level 28: Serum -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(29), Heal-I(31), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 30: Tactical Training: Leadership -- EndRdx-I(A), ToHit-I(34), ToHit-I(34), ToHit-I(34)
Level 32: Omega Maneuver -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(33), Dmg-I(33), RechRdx-I(33)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(36), Dmg-I(36), RechRdx-I(37), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 38: Call Reinforcements -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39), RechRdx-I(40), RechRdx-I(40)
Level 41: School of Sharks -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(42), Immob-I(43), EndRdx-I(48)
Level 44: Bile Spray -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(45), Dmg-I(45), Dmg-I(45), RechRdx-I(46), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 47: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 49: Aim -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(50), ToHit-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
------------

[ QUOTE ]
The binds you would need are:

/bind numpad# "teamselect #$$powexecname Ice Shield"
/bind LShift+numpad# "teamselect #$$powexecname Glacial Shield"
/bind Lctrl+numpad# "teamselect #$$powexecname Frostworks"

Obviously you would need to replace numpad# and # with the apporpriate numbers 1-8.

[/ QUOTE ]
Do those work reliably? I remember *way* back when I first set up my binds that often you'd have to press the bind key twice before it actually fired the power (like, the first press selected the teammate, the second fired the power).

If that's not the case anymore, I'm off to update my binds

(if it is still the case, one workaround is to add a "+ $$" to the front, i.e. "/bind numpad# "+ $$teamselect #$$powexecname Ice Shield". It creates a bit of error spam as a side effect though)

I'd move the slots from Swift to something else as you don't get much bang for your buck with enhancements there; if you want to keep the slots as the same enhancement type, you'd get more mileage moving the runspeed to sprint and the flyspeed to Fly (or Hover, if you prefer).

I'd swap the interrupt enhancer in Aid Self for a heal as you'll have a fair bit of personal defense which combined with pets taking the aggro means you'll find you can pop off the Aid powers quite easily without worrying about interrupt.

I'd agree with the suggestion of maybe taking an attack or two: I took personal attacks on my own Bots/FF (actually, I took all of them + repulsion bomb, but that may be excessive) just to give me a few more things to do in a fight than chain Force Bolt over and over. FF's not the most active of secondaries, on an AT that can already pretty much play itself.

Health is maybes a bit overslotted - I'm not sure it's worth the expense of slotting those uniques in it for a Bots/FF MM, especially one with Aid Self, though I guess that depends on how much cash you're rolling in.

There's a few other things I did differently - e.g. took the web envelope to help keep stuff in the burn patches (though not guarantee - bots have plenty kb and web doesn't -kb) and web cocoon to disable those rare enemies I actually have to worry about - but mostly they were personal playstyle preferences.

All that said, you've got the key powers (pets, upgrades, 3 main bubbles) and you've taken them suitably early on; so whatever you do in terms of tweaks or changes, you'll be steamrolling the PvE content so long as you keep those key powers intact.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Edit: Note to devs: You really [censored] up on RSF, didn't you? Said, by the way, by someone who has completed it many times with many ATs.

[/ QUOTE ]

So have I. One of the most memorable was with 3 brutes, 3 widow/fort's, a dom (not perma mind) and a (i think) fire/cold corr. We woud have got master too, if BABs hadnt landed 2 lucky hits in a row on the /fire brute.
I've also done the last fight (Pre Master badge) without anyone taking a death with the /stone brute teleporting into the middle of the heroes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, well, good to know it's [censored] based on luck rather than skill.

[/ QUOTE ]

No idea what you're complaining about now. The only "luck" in either of his examples was BaB ruining what was probably not even a Master attempt by getting in two hits back to back. Defense is finicky like that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Funny, I wasn't aware /Fire was a defense based set. Wouldn't call it "lucky".

[/ QUOTE ]

Funny, I wasn't aware that /Cold Corruptors didn't have access to +defense shields.

Guess we learn something new every day, eh?

[/ QUOTE ]
Not to mention 3 forts/widows who likely (if he's calling it luck that two hits landed in a row) had TT:Maneuvers and Mind Link stacking up. You'd not even need all 3 fort/widows to have taken both powers - about a 50% uptake would be sufficient to cap team defense combined with Cold shields.