Bromin

Just one other thing, pvp builds are always tight no matter what game you are doing pvp in. You have to make some hard cuts. It is better to have a few good solid attacks that do good to really good damage than try to squeeze in a bunch of weaker attacks and wasting slots for them to even be viable. Plus it is easier to wrap your mind around.

The new pvp system seems to have made everyone get more gimmicky so maybe I am wrong in thinking having a solid, efficient and compact build is better than having a bunch of tricks. How many buttons can you press in 15 seconds anyway?

Well one thing you don't actually have any heals in your health pool. If you are worried about regen rate then you will need to cut elsewhere. Played around a bit on Mids and got the result below

Regen rate to 761 in pvp mode whereas your build has 667 for a regen rate and 1662 with fast healing on, and the one below is at 1765 with fast healing on:

|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1194;551;1102;HEX;|
|78DA9D925B6F124114C787CB76A12C972D5268CB42494D497 DD8C4372F8946A555B|
|42448B589B616B79B914E240B6137C6FAE407F02BF8418C1F 0ECF65C055121F9CC0|
|EFECFECF9C73FE999DDEE78E25C4D78722517832F6C27078E 2CFBCE954CE8C9E375|
|2BE308510CE421BF6E4584AF7850A64A4FCE1A328F2FC8FBF B31DF94106A1740772|
|240339F3223509EC6E7025673288DCC583D59F4CC6EEB1F4A 62A18F1CB918A02198|
|636BD74834F2A54976AACA2EBBC4E8FAE22D8BC713855BEFB 78EC7D91C39E174672|
|765D037B07F07F630BBDE6F083253AE83C418A215EC3C36D9 17CC9E184C2412B45E|
|101BC39E2D6298987A62E82AA046F4F0F3870D5DA2E55AD35 28649A148EA02AC5B3|
|92299A9E21AE13DF8237837B268D986E11CF206BEAAC19D30 BC4A790CA6A3F59F65|
|3603F25F653623F1B0E07B6B50955397D1A39EA530525AF95 3C29CF4029EAF329F2|
|F9B478408B3BEF71E7BD3A1F1377BE00B7B6F663539F1B316 EC6D82276614A99A78|
|83229062815AD54483141A96A2755B6506343B53F9CB4D949 9B9D0CC1C69676B245|
|7DB663DC5DE17398B2A3F7EFF0943A9F649DA734784A83DB3 7785806AA1CFD651DE|
|AB34F6C13DF8387A6EED924E5E60AF7639CFF73D5D37FDFE1 E315A59F5EDE4F9120|
|A5995EDEF379B604F790B3FFBB7E588B91D9C13AF015A28F3 8459C23DE212E101EE|
|212E123E63F97D5C53BE8EB2EE21EE23EA202FEC437DC69E2 F5CC212C441E514014|
|11254419B18DF88E98FF0215726FFB|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

(edit) or if you went hero and added body mastery you could have a regen rate at 803 normal and with fast healing 1807:

|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1286;593;1186;HEX;|
|78DA9D93D96E125118C70F5B07CAB08C48A12D4B494DE9628 670E79268545A454B4|
|2A136712B4EC7239D4806C24C8CDCF900BE82B7BE83F1E1F0 5B0E38CA9D27F03B33|
|FFF32DFF7C33D3F9D2D285F8FA5084D24F4696E70DFAF6D49 A4CE434D6B1868E2D3|
|4214479A10D3A7224A5F9C271A5EFD88347BE6FD99FFE9CB6 E447E97AD2ECC9A174|
|E5D4F29DB16BB4DD6B3995AE6F2E2EF4EE783C324FA53571D C21DF9C38BE2B3DCFA|
|09BB6FBD9F19C2B67E4F8B3943A1E5EFB106C1C4F1CDB7C3C FE301B742CCF97D359|
|11DC1DC0FF9521D49AC30F9668A1F1102931F1122E9A227CC 65B9FB6835A84B6077|
|057168717241E6B2A09B2421C1EEDF1C6596B3B94B556A12D 5EA5ED04B222DC2B1C|
|A1EE71E23AF135788BA99AB180AE130F03BC4D7C03F11AC78 7B540649AF8148E12A|
|A5A821DA6D961961D66D9E18D326F6C7403B2926A3E49AA53 0025A5941429CF40C9|
|A889657862356E50E3CABB5C79B7C483E3CA97E0D6507E0CA A7333C08D006BC4367|
|4C97117912325064A5E29795234500ACA49812D14D950F12F 27757652672703B0B1|
|A99C6C529DAD007756F81CBA6CABF86DEE52E24996B84B85B B54B87C859BC521ABA|
|C9E7599EAEC11EBC4F7E0A1AA6A5649B9B5C2BD00E7CB750E D5F7D5F3D8A7B33E28|
|474A3922E5073C3053CDC5E48134D878831D37D87193AD36D 938952F45FFFD404E5|
|7946E74F9F28B1029D5E8F2239A27B2F092F3E9FFAE9FFAA2 65A2B70E3C47741117|
|88B78877884B8485B842D888F9AF6576E60EFABA8BB887B88 FC8833FF10D23357CD|
|393081D9142A41119441691436C21BE23E6BF01A0267DF1|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Of course I am no regen expert but it seems to me you get biggest increase after 500 by set bonuses. You just have to play around with it and tinker a bit. Also be aware I have not pvp'd in two years (only came back last month) so I am not up on all the new limits and such... but that is what Mids is for, right?

Hope this helps.

Market is best way. Here are some tips:

1. Make sure your salvage bin has enough room before each mission.
2. Before unloading salvage and recipes at the vendor CHECK THE MARKET! So many people don't do the simple step of stopping by the market and putting all their salvage in the stored area and then looking at the prices it is selling for. Plenty of bidders, high price, few being sold = inf. Simple really.
3. Just because a recipe is low level does not mean it is not valuable. Some special IOs are actually worth more at the lower levels than at the higher ones. For instance Regenerative Tissue +regen only goes to level 30 but can be sold easily for 20 million. Even some regular low level IOs sell for a good amount, more than you will get at the vendor.
4. Merit points = inf Do Ouroboros flashback missions and try to complete story arcs in your normal play. You can buy some really expensive IOs for 200 - 250 merit points.
5. AE tickets let you buy rare salvage. Look in the market for what is selling the highest, go to the ticket guy and buy it, sell it... or use the tickets to buy rare salvage you need to make your IOs.
6. Don't hold onto salvage unless you know you are going to need it soon. Sell it while the market is hot, buy it later when it is not. The storage space you have is limited so you have to make the most of it. Having a constant flow of salvage through your storage means you are making money on the market. Achemical Silver selling for 100k today? Sell the 10 you have been holding and buy what you need when it is at 20k.

Just use your head.

Maybe a good idea for a new booster pack is the ability to go to "alternate" pvp zones, where instead of the new pvp system you have the old one, or perhaps one where powers are just like in PvE... unchecked and unadjusted for PvP.

I would pay for that.

You could even put a dialogue making players who enter agree they understand it might not be "fair" for all ATs.

My take on trash-talking is that if you are busy typing you aren't pvping.

Have to agree the tone has gotten really ugly though. There was a time it was more good-natured.

Personally I feel some power changes have contributed to the negative atmosphere. Now the zones have turned into tp gank zones.

My impression is that most trash talking usually is the result of someone being tped into a hole they can't get out of or into a box and ganked.

TP foe is the only power I have ever wanted to see get a major nerf (or better yet gotten rid of completely). I think it would improve pvp in general... but hey, that is only my opinion. :-)

Most of the animations look great and the shorter animations for some powers is great too... however...

The animation for Superspeed is really bright and busy. This makes it sort of hard to see especially when on the downward arc of a jump.

The "fountain" effect is nice if you have to look at it once in a while however seeing it pulsate with each step of your character is a bit much. It seems my screen is more often dominated by the visual effects of superspeed than anything else.

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Grandeville reminds me of one big Arachnos base, which is fitting I suppose however unless you have a way to fix the horrible lag in the Arachnos base and apply it to Grandville I suspect it will be a zone that people will only go to if they have to. I am not running a low-end system; SLI with dual 7800 GTXs, and still experience lag to the point I usually solo any Arachnos base missions... and sadly in some parts of Grandville at peak times have experienced massive lag. Lag has been a problem with with CoV since I started playing this game and seems to be something that just never gets fixed. At this point I am sure I am not the only one who would take less in the way of graphics to get better performance. I am also aware test has not been optimized but how much optimization is going to help? Hope it is a lot but doubt it if the current game is an example of "optimization." Only can guess at how difficult it is to play with a lower end system or a laptop.

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Ok, I'm getting really tired of saying this, but if you plan on using the word "lag" in a post, know what it means. I have a helpful guide in my signature to let people know.

LAG IS NOT LOW FRAMERATE! LAG IS PACKET LOSS DUE TO POOR INTERNET CONNECTION PERFORMANCE! ARGHHHGGGHGHGHG!

Phew, glad I got that out of my system.

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Well I don't care what you call it, it sucks when characters rubberband accross the screen and as you move in a particular direction you keep moving in the same area over and over. Arachnos bases are notoriously bad for playing and I know I am not the only one who avoids them... and now we have one big Arachnos base in the form of Grandville. What causes the low framerate and skips? Is it my internet connection? Nope. Is it my system? Guess a high end system is not enough to play this game however I can play any other game at the highest settings. Why does CoV perform so badly? Not sure... bad design would be my guess. No matter what it is, or what you call it, it needs to be fixed. Bump maps should come second to performance... but it looks like they haven't even added the bump maps as of yet... so who knows how bad it will be by then.

I am wondering if anyone else felt the 1 hp and 1 end when you go to the hospital is a bit much. My dislike of it is for the following reasons:
1. It gives griefers more power. They kill you as you are coming out of the base and you have to go back in for a long time... until your rest recharges or you gain your hp + end back.
2. Often when you are going to the hospital more is when your side is heavily outnumbered and so it is more important that you get back in the battle sooner. The low end and hp means that players are going to get back in the game slower and this hurts the outnumbered side more than the one with big mobs.
3. The wait has the opposite effect I think the devs wanted... or at least I hope that the devs wanted to make it harder for big groups to dominate. Currently as things stand it makes it much easier for the big groups to dominate the field and makes it near impossible for the side with fewer to recoup and be able to mount some resistence
4. Not sure if this was a bug or not but in Warburg I was fighting a NPC and died... went to the hospital and was hit several times by the delayed attacks and died. I got double debt for dying.
5. The change is going to make it heaven for the base campers who sit outside the hospital in the PvP zones and snipe away at everyone leaving the hospital... as they straggle out one by one it is basically going to be a shooting gallery... and not fun at all if you are on the recieving end.
6. Come on! What is a hospital for but to heal you? What is the point of going to the hospital and being practically dead.

All in all I think it is a horrible idea and seems quite unpopular from what many were saying. It introduces a level of annoyance that is really not needed. Just think of the squishies who end up in the hospital a lot. It makes most of their game time being waiting to heal because they can only use rest every once in a while.

In practice the 1 hp and 1 end points is a terrible idea and I really hope the devs kill it. It only makes it easier for one group to dominate the field and makes some of the more difficult to play ATs practically impossible to play in PvP. ATs with regen and Fitness are harder to kill but they also can get back in the game quicker. MMs, Doms, Corrs especially are effected.

When playing my ice/dark corr I spent more time in the hospital waiting to heal than I did playing while the heroes camped outside the base and killed us as we left. They controlled all the turrents and there was no hope of the villians recapturing them as they all were lingering inside the hospital. To me it was the only real drawback to RV. It does suck that hide is worthless but that is really another topic. (since hide is no good they should give the stalkers at least some more hp or something to make up for it and make them more viable. I just do not see how sniper attacks are going to even things out)

Maybe a good fix for this would be to make the side with more players on the map have the low hp and end when they go to the hospital and the side with fewer players come out of the hosp fully charged. This would allow the side with fewer players to mount a better resistence and would make it more difficult for the side with the huge mobs to dominate so easily.

Other than this I thought RV was a lot of fun and can't wait to get to 50 to see what it is like then.

Grandeville reminds me of one big Arachnos base, which is fitting I suppose however unless you have a way to fix the horrible lag in the Arachnos base and apply it to Grandville I suspect it will be a zone that people will only go to if they have to. I am not running a low-end system; SLI with dual 7800 GTXs, and still experience lag to the point I usually solo any Arachnos base missions... and sadly in some parts of Grandville at peak times have experienced massive lag. Lag has been a problem with with CoV since I started playing this game and seems to be something that just never gets fixed. At this point I am sure I am not the only one who would take less in the way of graphics to get better performance. I am also aware test has not been optimized but how much optimization is going to help? Hope it is a lot but doubt it if the current game is an example of "optimization." Only can guess at how difficult it is to play with a lower end system or a laptop.

The second issue I have is this: Once getting to Grandville I opened the paper to do some mish from the paper and was faced with one Council mission and two CoT mish. Come on guys! If you have hit 40 you have already done more Council missions and CoT missions that you ever care to do again. I noticed someone else posted about the CoT missions. It is a pretty common complaint... so common I am surprised you have not gotten the message. Please do away with the CoT missions... Please! Most avoid them if they can anyway and besides what place do weird druids have in the overall scheme of a Super Hero vs Super Villian storyline anyway? They seem to belong to some other game... a game many of us would not bother to buy. Do everyone a favor and either cut back on the CoT missions or get rid of them completely. You will improve the game drastically by that one simple thing. Trolls, Skyraiders, Carnies, Mooks... anything other than CoT please. There are some really cool missions in the early stages of the game but by the last 10 levels it is like the missions get stuck in a horrible CoT/Council rut. Just seems to be a shame to contiue that same rut for the next 10 levels.

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A good analysis of the Force Field Secondary set (one I was going to make myself). The thing is, most MMs who build for PvP forget that, like you said:

Repulsion Bomb and ForceBolt: {edit}Both are{/edit}KB + good detoggler {edit} and RB has a decent Stun (Disorient){/edit}

Force Bubble: Keeps away anyone without significant Repulsion (NOT Knock Back) protection. This means only two builds (*/EnergyAura Brutes/Stalkers) can reliably bypass this. A significant ranged striker (including BU + reds for Claws/Spines people) can bypass this, however.

Repulsion Field: EXCELLENT Detoggler. Pulses 4 times per SECOND. On average, an enemy will lose 3 toggles every five seconds, at the least. The added Knock Down is a great soft control.

Detention Field: Slot for acc. Then prepare.

Between all of that, a FF MM who wants to PvP can certainly build a decent PvP build (but will likely need Stamina...but then, don't most MMs take it?), and TP Foe antics aren't reliable if Force Bubble is up (you Repel enemies before they get to attack, buying time, if nothing else). Also, Force Bubble and Repulsion Field allow careful use of terrain: non-TPers can be trapped. This probably belongs in a PvP discussion thread, but I'm posting it here to show the people complaining about FF and Bodyguard (I hate the PFF nerf too, so be quiet) aren't looking at all of their options.

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My primary is now a EM/Ninj stalker. I was able to hit a merc/ff MM while his force bubble was up with Energy transfer which stunned him. It was not easy and involved a lot of bouncing in and out.

The same MM was tp'd away from his pets by a stormie more than 4 times... I stopped counting. Force Bubble + Dispersion field did not seem to be a problem for tp foe.

No, most MMs don't take stamina. Unless you are dark or trick arrow you are not likely to need stamina... at least not to the point that it is worth the investment.

Repulsion field does detoggle... but you have to be right on the person for it to do so. I did an experiment with a bubbler where marked out how close it took for my toggles to get dropped. It was in AS range. Then we tested a run-by AS where he ran by me and I AS'd him as he passed. I was able to hit him with AS. That type of AS is difficult to perform though and only likely to happen a few times in any night of PvP.

Most PvP builds have Acro and it keeps you from being knocked back quite nicely. If Nullifiers grenades aren't going to knock me down I seriously doubt that a bubbler's force bubble or repulsion field is going to. It has yet to do so.

All that being said, force bubble is still the best in the set. Personal Forcefield is something any bubbler should think of trading in.

We can talk all day about FF as a powerset but the real issue here is if the Body Guard is a "fix" for the MM in PvP and I personally feel it is not. Pets in defensive mode run off... if attacked they follow the attacker... well at least Ninjas do. The passive command is the best way to bring them back to you. Defensive is also not ideal when traveling.

As a MM I had ninjas/FF which is a bad combo however I was able to do just fine in PvP in Siren's call. Warburg as well to a lesser degree since there I have to contend with stalkers as well. I am not happy with Body Guard but I guess any improvement is better than none.. although this is pretty close to the "none" category. As a stalker I can see a thousand holes in it and how to get around it.

Basically with Body Guard a MM will have to be careful of going on the offensive ever. Does Body Guard make bubbles worthless? Not so sure about that. All you have to do to keep out of Body Guard mode is to not go in it. It sounds like it will be something you have to explicitly activate.

Body Guard is not what killed bubbles, it was the devs and their endless nerfs of the powerset. Now they are even getting blatant with their bias and nerfing MMs(Villian ATs) in particular. Basically the claim they made that they were going to "strengthen" the ATs was a lie. Gimpy half measures won't cut it it when you hand it out with a whole lot of nerfs attached... as is bodyguard. Personally I am dreading I7.

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Against AoE attacks...MAYBE. But we still lack any way to fight back effectively (forcebolt hardly counts) we still don't have a way to keep our pets alive, and remember, AoE attacks are a MINORITY of the attacks in the game. The large majority of what people use in PvP are single target. Knowing you can pump damage through the MM and kill the pets easier and faster than attacking the pets themselves (even with AoE attacks) why should anyone every bother attacking a pet? As I said before, Traps, Poison, even Trick Arrow can fight back....Dark Miasma can heal....FF get to sit there and watch our pets die, because our bubbles are IGNORED, and the protection we provide to ourselves is laughable.

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Ok, don't take this as a flame

You seem to be complaining that you have no attacks, and having picked up a supporting secondary (FF) as opposed to a more offensive one (traps/DM/Poison) have little you can offer the fight yourself if you are personally under attack...

Well... Newsflash. That was always going to be the case.

BG is NOT a '100% fix all, sit there in complete and utter safety laughing your [censored] off at the enemy whilst he ineffectively plinks at you whilst pets kill him' solution.

BG should be used as an emergency buffer period, where you attempt to place yourself in an advantageous situation - ie. where the enemy is no longer frickin shooting you.

The role of the MM in PvP has not changed - we're never going to be a class that can (or should) stand there toe to toe with a DD class knocking lumps out of each other until one drops. BG should buy you time, and help remove the potential for sudden death - but inevitably, if you're getting hit, you'll want to stop getting hit.

The PRIMARY order given to your pet in PvP should still be an attack order, not a defensive (BG) order. This is how we'll do the majority of our killing. If we start taking hits, then sure, go Def - and run like crazy - then go on the offensive again.

Finally, need I remind you that as a FF user, you have the ultimate option of PFF - massively raising your defense.

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PFF was gimped. FF as a secondary is less than it was a week ago. In addition ice blasters have never had a problem getting through PFF in the past, now they can knock it off you and it takes 2 minutes for you to get it back up. In addition PFF still removes your supremecy which ends the BG advantages.

If no one beleived in the past there was a bias against villians you should now... the pff was nerfed for MMs ONLY. With BG it would be a power I would respec away. It removes your protection from sharing hp loss with your pets AND it is not hard to get through. BU + Aim gets through the majority of the time.

Let me point out another flaw in your argument. If you put your pets on defensive and run away... guess what? You are taking your supremecy with you but not your pets. They will stay and fight. In addition consider this one. Your pets are on defensive, you are on a team, one of your teammates gets attacked... your pets run off. I am not sure if this sort of behavior is a bug or not since it seems to happen infrequently but does so more in PvP. How many MMs have been buffing their pets only to have them run off over the horizon because some teammate is getting attacked far away... it has happened enough for me that when I am spawning and buffing in PvP I put my pets on passive or aggressive to avoid the "defensive" behavior which seems to include teammates... and we all know soloing with a MM is suicide in PvP.

All in all, my opinion that this is a poorly thought out, gimpy fix remains. If this is a preview of what we can expect in I7 then there are most likely going to be some unhappy customers for ncsoft.

There are so many ways to get around this "fix" for an attacker that my decision to shelve my MM remains. Let's consider some of the issues here. The pets have to remain in the supremecy zone... which means they need to be near the MM himself. One attacker can run in aggro the pets and run out, the pets will follow, the MM has a choice, put pets on passive to bring them back or run after his fastly scattering pets. Most now in order to control their pets put them on passive to return them. If he puts them on passive or they leave his area a quick strike will kill him. Simple to do especially on a ninj MM.

TP foe negates this altogether, tp him, hit him hard and stun him or put him in a hold, kill him.. his pets will never get there in time.

I can see putting some sort of limit on the ability of MMs to share hp loss with their pets... otherwise they might actually become a force to reckon with... but this limit makes the rest pointless. Basically just standing there is no protection for a MM nor is actually getting involved in the battle. This is just the sort of gimpy fix I expected from the devs. Nice work guys.