Biowraith

Born in Battle is just plain retarded.

The rest I don't feel particularly strongly about - occasionally I'll go for Demonic or the +hp ones, but mostly I only try for ones I notice I've gotten most of the requirements already through normal play.

I skipped it on mine, largely due to lack of space in the build. While it'd have certainly been nice, I don't particularly miss it.

Most of these don't deal with the biblical apocalypse in particular, but they do have an end of the world kinda theme:

Nine Inch Nails - Zero Sum
Switchblade Symphony - Rampid
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
Alabama 3 - Gospel Train
Rasputina - Doomsday Averted (though maybes the "averted" part is contrary to what you're after)


Also, while I can't speak to how appropriate each entry is (and it's nowhere near exhaustive), wikipedia has a list.

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Jet pack as mission reward (Villains only, infinitely renewable from Ouroboros)

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OMG! You can get the Goldbricker jet pack reward again and again via flashback?

I doubt I'll spec a travel power on my non-PVP oriented red-side characters ever again.

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Not 100% sure, but I think it's the Sky Raider one (from Lt Chalmer's mission with Ballista-1) that you can get repeatedly. I don't think the Goldbricker one can be accessed via Flashback.

Of course I may have that backwards.

I spent quite a bit of time PuGging on lowbie (5-20) characters at the weekend and encountered several apparent newbies, asking a lot of questions about, well, just about everything.

I've also had three separate people approach me when I was idling at the markets, asking for advice/info on IOs, set bonuses, etc. Each said that they'd played during the first year and have now returned to find so much new stuff to learn.

They all (new and returning) seemed pretty positive about their experiences so far. Which is nice.

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Qr - if I couldntbtrust someone with my coh password, I'm not sure I'd be happy trusting them with my actual life.

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I'm not sure I'd be entirely happy with the idea that someone would place the same value on my life as they do my characters in a video game.

Elephant Manipulation

Summer Blast

Steve Control

Random Generation

Nausea Summoning

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By the way - You can put up somewhat low bids for Level 15 IOs - people who are getting the badges will simply post them for chump change. Make sure you bid BEFORE you need them - it can be tricky getting them at a moment's notice.

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Yeah, I've recently run an alt to 12 and have filled out everything except accuracy for 2-4k per IO. Accuracies look like I'll need to bid nearer 10k for, but since it's just the one type that's not too prohibitive (after buying everything else I have about 70k left over). Often the price histories are filled with sales for 50k or more, but I still get my 2-4k bids filled within a day or three.

All I do to fund this is auction common salvage for 300 inf, and sell most uncommon/rare direct to vendor (I check price histories first, but at that level it's very rare for them to sell quickly enough at high enough value to make it worth occupying a market slot). Nothing fancy, and no handouts from alts or other people. That gets me enough for 8-10 bids by around level 8-9, which usually fill out within a couple of days. As I level closer to 12 I pick up more inf to get the rest. I perhaps don't level as fast as some, but that's usually fast enough to get all my enhancements before I'm much past 12.

I find common IOs cheaper than DOs, if you bid a bit in advance and buy pre-made instead of crafting them yourself. I rarely spend more than 3-4k per level 15 IO (comparable to DO in performance and don't run out).

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I would take Channelgun to diversify your damage type a bit. And then take Arm Slash, Frenzy and either Slice or Air Sup.

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Although I've not build my Crab to be a "Melee Crab" per se (he's an AoE machine first and foremost), I do mix it up in melee when facing small (1-3) spawns. I've got Channelgun, Arm Lash and Slice and it works pretty well. It'd probably be a bit more effective if I'd taken Longfang instead of Channelgun, but there are occasions I have to kite or hit a runner twice, and I've got Channelgun recharging very quickly for that purpose.

Although going pure range plays to the Crab's strength more, I'm finding that between the fast animation on Slice and the potential for multiple targets with Arm Lash that any difference in efficiency is barely noticeable. I'd not try to build a pure melee crab (as in no ranged attacks at all), but if it suits your playstyle they mix in with the other attacks quite nicely.

Personally, I took them because I'm amused by the visual of a hulking suit of power armour bearing down on the enemy and going into a slashing frenzy (Frenzy itself kinda sucks though) amuses me - the fact it's not noticeably hurt my performance is an added bonus.

Arc Name: Zombies From Space!
Arc ID: 2411
Faction: Hero
Creator Global/Forum Name: Biowraith
Difficulty Level: Medium, maybe Hard
Synopsis: It's a zombie apocalypse. From space!
Estimated Time to Play: 1-1.5 hours solo, not tested teamed.


Arc Name: Die Hardcase, Die!
Arc ID: 1366
Faction: Villain
Creator Global/Forum Name: Biowraith
Difficulty Level: Medium
Synopsis: Ever since the Vivacious Verandi arc I've wanted to kill Hardcase. And now that I can I'm letting everyone else have a crack at it too. Over and over again.
Estimated Time to Play: 1-1.5 hours solo, not tested teamed.


Besides a few issues I can't (see a way to) avoid with the current MA options, both arcs are pretty much where I want them to be. Feedback is still welcome though (esp. regarding powersets, whether the EBs should be AVs to give teams a challenge, etc).

And anyone who's "played" Progress Quest may get a small kick out of my third arc, whose ID I don't have handy. Or they may think it's retarded - I was just messing around.

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Assuming the miscellaneous power(Repair for Robotics or Gang War for Thugs) would be part of the pet subset, and that you couldn't respec to a different pet subset, this sounds cool.

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I think the only thing in the 'attack' subset is the three main attacks listed...

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Yeah, that was my intent. No soul extracted assault bots or smoke flashed commandos.


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Of course, there could be a possibility of overpoweredness from a Robotics/Force Fields Mastermind with Dark Blast ToHit debuffs, and the slight lack of incentive for taking the lethal damage attack subsets.

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That'd be something to keep in mind, but I don't think it'd be a real issue with the limited scope of attacks available (especially since the Dark Blasts only provide single target ones). You can already pretty much floor an opponent's chance of hitting as a Bots/FF Mastermind, so it'd only really have an effect vs the few enemies with +tohit buffs. Though granted, I've only been thinking with PvE in mind - I'm not even sure how PvP works anymore

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Also, would be good if 1-2 of the attacks were very, very thin cones, essentially making them straight line beams that hit anything along their path.

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I think any version of Pulse/Energy Rifle they add needs this for sure. A sniper attack that did this would be pure awesomeness.

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I'd love to see that - would put me in mind of the lasers from Syndicate


Also I approve of the overall suggestion for an Energy Rifle set. Especially if it became available for our MA mobs to use it - then my space zombies could have their energy rifles without having to also summon robots all over the place

This is something I discussed with a couple other people who both agreed it'd be a pretty cool change (albeit not entirely likely with the amount of work it might require, but hey, no harm trying), so here's a thread for it.

Basically the suggestion is that the 3 attack powers in the Mastermind primaries be separated from the main pet part of the set. The idea is that when you create a Mastermind you'd pick the 'pet' subset, the 'attack' subset, and then secondary set as normal. Perhaps something similar to the branching system used for VEATs to accomplish it. This would then allow people to mix and match personal attack themes with pet themes.

So you'd be able to e.g. have a Mercs/Traps MM with dual pistols instead of an assault rifle, or a Ninja/Dark MM with dark blasts instead of a bow.

This would have the obvious immediate benefit of giving Masterminds some more diversity in build options - they maybe don't *need* it, but it'd be nice. However my main thought was that it has the longer term benefit that with the two now separated, the devs would now have the option of releasing extra attack sets for MMs without needing an entire pet set to go with it. As they generally follow the format of 1. standard light attack, 2. standard heavy attack, 3. standard AoE attack, I am thinking that it should not be too difficult to proliferate many existing blast sets to MMs in this way (e.g. 1. Charged Bolts, 2. Lightning Bolt, 3. Ball Lightning). Perhaps also allow the possibility of melee sets too.


Basically my hope would be that a system like this would give the players further options to customise their Masterminds to fit whatever concept they had in mind, while also making it perhaps a bit easier for the devs to provide new powersets to the class in future, particularly during proliferation Issues (e.g. where resources may not have allowed for a new pet set this Issue, they could maybe still squeeze in a new attack set).

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While I generally only use Kick as a novelty attack on certain characters that suit the animation, on the characters that it does suit I get great glee from kicking enemies across the room with that stupid, sluggish, lumbering boot to the stomach.

So the change I'd really want to see is to greatly increase the chance of knockback from the piddly small value it has now. That's not to say I'd object to more damage or eliminating redraw, but I'd actually prefer the animation stay as it is.

More knockback for Kick!

Arc Name: Zombies From Space!
Arc ID: 9377
Faction: Zombies From Space! Smattering of other groups. Heroic morality.
Creator Global/Forum Name: @Biowraith
Difficulty Level: Somewhat tough.
Synopsis: We're being invaded! By Zombies From Space!
Estimated Time to Play: Running a 50 Bots/FF MM on Unyielding solo, with a handful of pauses to talk testing, the two missions took me about 30 min each for an hour total.

(warning: contains a fair amount of mastermind enemies, so not sure how it'll impact performance or scale for teams - runs fine for me but I've only ran it solo)

This is really just the foundations of an arc I plan to do properly when i14 goes Live. Not a complex story, and not at all serious. Mostly after feedback on difficulty (meant to be tough but not silly-hard, roughly equivalent to high level Longbow) and amusement value. Also pondering whether to keep the Knights or Blasters - adds variety, but dilutes the Raygun presence.

I approve.

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No one on the villainside pays 10,000 inf for BRASS.

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Nobody needs to pay 10k for Brass on either side. Some may choose to, but anyone can get it quite easily for normal prices. Personally I pay 300-500inf heroside and usually get it within a few minutes, 24 hours at the most (well, I place a bid before I log around 9-10pm then I have my brass when I log back on next day around 6pm). Only time I pay more - and it's usually 1000-2000, not 10k - is if I want it right now with no waiting.

Fwiw, over the last 20 minutes I've been watching the brass prices and they've updated very frequently, with the prices ranging from quite a few sales at 10 each, most around 100-200, and some around 500-600. There's a lot of brass going through the hero market with prices fluctuating rapidly, but the prices fall low enough often enough that anyone can get them at reasonable prices in a reasonable period of time.

(btw, someone (not me ) paid 8k for Brass villainside while I was typing this - there were only 60 on sale, so I guess that was a "I want it right now" purchase, like what happens heroside)

Not just pie, but cake too.

Offer pie to the heroes and cake to the villains.

I think you know what comes next.

I think the real question you need to ask is why do the devs hate ponies? Both sides clamor for one, yet still we all have to go without.

(though obviously if they do add a pony it'll be in CoH rather than CoV)

Overall I like what I'm reading for this issue.

I'm glad the ourobous thing is not just flashback, that it actually has some new content, as I don't feel any real need to go back and do the missions I missed, save for the occasional accolade requirement.

The invention stuff, eh, I don't have strong feelings about either way. I use inventions, and I guess it'll be neat to have some more choices (especially having, well, any choices in the debuff category), but it's not a big deal to me.

New powersets, always welcome. Anything that increases the options for getting the character from the player's imagination into the game is a good thing.

Weapon customisation, woot. Both for the choices it's offering now, and for the possibilities for the future. I am dismayed at the unlocking requirement for some (all?) of the options, both as a player - don't wanna have to sit for 25-30 levels with the "wrong" weaponry, or for that matter farm stuff - and from a lore/rp perspective (the explanation that, e.g. Red Caps don't just give those things away so we have to kill some - surely I'd only need to kill one? And if killing Red Caps gets me their daggers, shouldn't my blasters and controllers and so on be able to get some too? And who says my daggers came from the Red Caps, I could just as easily have made my own in that style. etc etc). It's better than not getting them at all, and I am glad they're added, but still brings with it some dismay and disappointment.

In some games I love it.
In CoH, not particularly.
(so I guess: no)

For what it's worth I'm personally not opposed to this idea in principle and I do think it probably should have been this way from the start.

However I'm not in favour of it being changed to this now as I don't think the increase in fun it would bring - whether directly or in the form of superior future content design - are proportionate with the resources required to make the change at this stage. (Course, as a humble player I realise I actually have no idea what the resources required are, but as a forum dweller I'm still gonna have that opinion )

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Right now, in your powergaming attitude, the choice between a buffing/debuffing corruptor and a dominator is clear. The corruptor gets in. How is it more fair for you to have to reject a dominator (or any other damage/tank class), but it isn't fair that you have to reject another buffer/debuffer? You said it would decrease you wanting to team with certain people, right now, you don't want to team with non buffers/debuffers, but that's alright? It isn't alright to have to reject them? Everything you said reinforces what they want to do, bring more diversification to the team, so that the tankers, scrappers, blasters, dominators, stalkers, and brutes have room in the uber team, not just defenders, corruptors, and controllers.

How is this different than what it is now? You say you don't like this because people would have to look for other powersets they don't already have, making this a selective grouping experience. Under this proposal, everyone would have a spot in the group, and not be restricted to defenders, controllers, and corruptors to have the best possible group. It is already restrictive, to only 3 ATs to have that group that can decimate a Ruthless mission.

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With the possible exception of the LRSF, I almost never see those uber groups forming naturally. When they are in play it is because people have got together and organised one from the start, forming a semi-permanent team lineup. And I'm very confident those all-defender uberteams would continue to exist and continue to trivialise and steamroll content under the proposed system here - they'd just need to choose a slightly more specific lineup of powersets when they were planning the team. As for the dominator being passed over for the corruptor, that'd still happen, and probably to the same extent.

I PuG a lot (almost exclusively - soloing bores me, and most of my SG(s) have long since left for other games) and the teams I'm being invited to are already diverse. Any lack of a given AT presence tends to be down to population numbers rather than being outcast for not being buff/debuff. The uberteams are not part of normal play. And you don't even need those buff/debuff uberteams to decimate a ruthless mission - the diverse teams can manage it quite easily. It's kinda hit and miss to find a PuG version being as it relies on the majority of the team being good at the game, but it can and does happen.

I suspect the effect this would have on team diversity is roughly the same as the effect ED had on slotting diversity - the average player doesn't notice it much, while the powergamer now has a slightly different and/or more specific configuration for 'uber'. The dominators and stalkers of the world won't find themselves in a much better position when the PuG leaders are recruiting.

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Sure! Then Weave could give 15% Defense, and Combat Jumping could give 25% Defense (or whatever) and combined, they'd give 30% instead of 40%. When the local FF Defender buffed the character, instead of the normal 25% for the FF, it'd be 5% for 35% defense.*

Basically, additional buffs would always be helpful, but the base level abilities could be made better and more useful across the board.

* Disclaimer: All numbers used illustratively and do not indicate any relation to what said values or formulae would actually be if we were ever to implement a system such as this, which I doubt.

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This would of course make for the fun situation of said local FF Defender being regularly turned down for the team because "we already have defense buffs, we need resists/heals/debuffs*"

*delete as appropriate, but you know it's gonna be heals