Capa_Devans

Belated best wishes.

I love the TA Hami Raids and I'd be happy to join a public Hami. However, my biggest issue is timezone. The 'normal' time is waaaay late for me so I often miss it.

If I'm around, then most likely would be happy to join. I've been on almost every team type of a TA Hami so I'm definitely flexible.

I'm also interested in this.

My own rad rad corr is using IOs but I'd like to set her out. I'm normally pretty good at researching builds and coming up with something that suits my playstyle but I just cannot get a handle on this rad corr.

Maybe it would help if you've narrowed down what you want to shoot for? Perma AM? Defence; range or melee?

Perhaps a bit more specific info on how you play would help?

Devs need to read Fiery_Redeemer in this post because it would help them understand the range of players in this game.

- A friend of mine *would not team* except with two out of game friends. If we weren't online, he'd solo. Anything. Including an Emp/dark def. (Pre dual builds.)

- Several friends of mine won't team unless half the team is on their global (IE if they're incredibly stupid the PuG element can be kicked and we'll still be fine)

- I will often solo especially at lower levels to learn the AT and with certain ATs because I prefer it (EG my MMs and stalkers). If I'm in the mood I will team/TF; often I prefer a small team. I will RARELY Raid because at least some of them are going to be afk/incompetent/on my global ignore for whatever reason.

- Some SGs mainly Raid

That's a wide range of existing players. These are all people NC should be looking to keep onboard. It's easier to keep a customer than get a new one, remember.

All new content should be available to all of the above. No-one should be forced into a playstyle they don't like because frankly they're no good to anyone. No disrespect meant to anyone by that but if you don't enjoy something the odds are you aren't good at it.

(I include myself in the above. Some days the thought of teaming just ... *hide*. If I forced my solo-ing friend on to a team he'd be frustrated, annoyed and wouldn't have fun. Why pay money to not have fun?)

I see the game moving away from 'you can solo any mission with any AT' to 'you need a team or x gear or both'.

If you find content to easy then by all means turn up your difficulty. It doesn't mean new content should be so hard that others can't do it solo on their character of choice.

(As an aside I do have a worry that as the incarnates unlock that the solo-teamer-speeder will become more of a problem. We've all seen them; join a TF or team and watch the Uber Player zing off, solo all the objectives and leave those of us who are 'normal' in the dust.)

EDIT:
I give another nod to the ignore feature. It gets rid of a lot of the non-contributing posts in this thread.

Try the following channels: Virtue TFs 2010, Virtue United, Virtue TFs, Virtue and Virtue Forever United.

No clue which are full the last one probably isn't.

All of the above advice is good (recharge, pick your mob type and Indom Will especially). I found x 4 was better on my fire kin because I got more bang for my Fulcrum buck.

I can see the content becoming less solo and small team friendly and I think that's a bad thing.

The reason I am still here after nearly three years and long after the people who introduced me to this game are gone is because of the community it has. That community is directly effected by the type of gameplay that this game has and has fostered over the course of the game.

Unlike Blizzard's monster I never felt that I HAD to have X gear or be involved in Y Guild or play for Z amount of hours to be a worthwhile contributer to a team.

This game has variety and fosters ALL of the options
- teams lowbie and high levels
- taskforces (although some need a spruce up and redside needs more)
- costume making
- base editing
- badging
- altitus

That variety and the feeling that you never have to 'keep up' made me stay in this game after I tried and gave up on other MMOs.

My concern is that someone in NC is trying to clone WoW and that to me is NOT what this game is. If I wanted to play *o* or anything else team-forced, gear-focused, Raid-focused, grind-fest then I would. I don't.

Examples of that:

Team forced - Praetoria sucks if you're a squishy. It's City of Ambushes and I never make chars there now. Well-written but far too irritating on anything other than a tank/scrapper/stalker.

Gear focused - The necessity of Apex/Tin having the Alpha slotted (or be useless) isn't a welcome one but at least the shards will drop when solo. Very slowly. Level-restricted TFs/content is one thing but gear restricted is an unwelcome change.

Raid-focused/forced - I'm looking right at you Cathedral of Pain. This is EXACTLY what I would hate CoX's end game content to become. Bigger isn't necessarily better. Of all the TFs in the game I will run this last. Is it hard? Not always? Is it a gigantic pain in the rear? Yes and that is why I won't run it. I do not want to sit around for an hour coordinating three teams. It's a waste of my (paying playing) time. This Trial stinks of other MMO's and I hope it is the absolutely the last time we see something like that. We have three Raids which exclude a good number of people who either don't have large SGs or whose computers can't handle them (CoP, Hami and Mothership), that's enough. All other content should be one team/solo friendly.

Grind-fest - Just looking at the start of the Incarnate and doing a bit of guesswork makes me think I'm not going to be getting very rare on all of my 50s. That's bad.

The community I've met in this game generally play whatever alt the team needs and not their main. You force X gear to play Y content and that goes out of the window. That isn't what this game is, that isn't who these players are in my experience.

I can understand that somethings cannot be solo'd. GMs for instance but it seems like the current focus is shifting from casual to hardcore players/grinders and that's bad.

I really want more TFs/SFs which I can run with my small group of friends. But I also want to be able to solo practically everything if they aren't online or don't fancy something. You take that away from me and that is not the game I want.

EDIT:
Special note to the increased difficulty which started with Praet and continues through Tip missions. If Tips can tear my setted out MM apart (who is fine on content at +1 x8 but can't handle Tips with the diff down) then I don't fancy the chances of a solo'er. That's a bad thing. You spent years encouraging odd builds and altitus and now you change to must have x gear. There's a definite shift in focus and it is off putting to those who have played this game for years. Unless you think getting other MMO players here replaces those of us who will get irritated and tired of this new direction.

I used to think my ill/sonic controller was the laziest char around. Apply debuff toggle, buff every 4 minutes, drop pets, use Liquify every now and again and drink tea. Then I started playing her seriously and played well she is very busy. Shields, clarity, pets, debuff, reapply toggle which dropped, attack, etc etc.

However, I think almost every set is. How many chars do you actually use a few powers then stop? (I'm really trying not to make a snarky comment about my bots/ff mm.) None as I can think of, so really being a shielder isn't that different. (I'm ignoring CM/clarity/thaw/SB etc because it isn't feasible/necessary to keep them up 100% of the time.)

So a shielder has to reapply up to 14 powers in 4 minutes. I wonder how many times footstomp is used in that time? Or Ripper? Or Assassin Strike?

I can see the argument for either an AoE shield like Regen/Recovery Aura or a longer lasting shield, BUT I can also see the valid counter arguments.
(1) An AoE would likely be a much weaker buff with a huge endurance cost.
- Generally I will buff half the team, wait two minutes then buff the other half otherwise I'm going to drop toggles
- An AoE end-heavy buff would be a poor trade off for me and doubly so if that buff is then smaller than currently
- Individual shields allow me to prioritize; if I'm short on time/end I know I can skip someone and they'll be fine without; an AoE would take out that flexibility and if I miss a squishy I get to burn all that end again

I'm too tired to do a good mathematical comparison right now but check out AoE buffs like Regen/Recovery aura. End cost 26 for 90s and recharge 500s (all unenhanced). That's a compared to a sonic shield of 7.8 end for 4 mins (negligible recharge time). My guess is the two shields as an AoE would bottom out my sonic.

(2) Longer lasting buffs
- Depends on the length, a minute ... ok, 10 minutes ... "you've got shields, afk now" ... 20 minutes "you've got shields" *kick*
- CoX has a great community but there's always going to be idiots and I don't see any need to encourage them

A good buffer is worth their weight in gold. They keep the team up, they think fast, react fast and most of the time you don't even know they're there. I don't think increasing the buff length is going to improve someone's playskills. I don't want a wanna-be blaster on the team when I expect and invited a buffer. Pretty sure if I showed up on a tank with Aid-Other, you'd rather I took aggro over casting my little heal.

Thermal is a busy set. So is a good sonic, a good emp, a good kin. Pretty much a good anything. It's part of the AT.

On balance I don't see a good enough justification for changing the way the shields work except a few people saying "they're annoyingly repetitive". Well my assassin strike being interrupted or the team knocking stuff out of my melee range annoys me a great deal. I don't see assassin strike having its activation time halved or KB being changed to KD (the latter would likely cause a celebration across RI and PC ) and I suspect both would be more easy to do than what you're suggesting.

Additionally, while I know you are only talking about shields, it is pretty predictable that the next complaint will be "shields now last 8 minutes and are an AoE so why can't CM/clarity/thaw/sb/id/ir be like that?". At which point we get "CM etc doesn't need to be up 100% of the time" and "I don't want SB/ID on a melee char" "You suck" "No it alters my control" "You have better recharge" "Which I can't use because I'm either stuck on a wall or over shoot and aggro three extra mobs and cause a team wipe" "You suck" argument.

For the effort it would take to change the shields, I'd rather have a new TF coded which me and seven of my friends will enjoy.

This is my view based on my experiences of being a buffer and a buffee. I'm certain not everyone will agree but I'd appreciate it if any response contained a lot less snark than has been posted previously.

*checks spreadsheet*

perma mind/ice dom - slotted but villain
ill/sonic troller - slotted and vig
mind/ff troller - slotted and vig

My other controllers/doms aren't old enough to be incarnates.

Woot. Nice to see the altitus being fed. Get people off their shard-hunting 50's.

I wanted the Mystic Overseer for an idea I had. It would be great if I could work on that.

Received, given to SG and working on decorative items for my maze. Then the sauna. Thank you.

Plugging RWH shamelessly on other forums too.

Would love to catch a tour on the re-opening. It was amazing the last time I was there. Can't wait to see what you've done.

My established bases (one red, one blue) have:
5 of each arcane tier 1 salvage
5 of each tech tier 2 salvage
5 of each arcane tier 2 salvage
5 of each tech tier 2 salvage
1 bin to dump in tier 3 salvage (tier 3 is usually cheap and my 50's are swimming it in)

I have a 2nd VG for rare salvage (five bins I think); I don't specify which but if I have room, it goes in there. There is also one bin of tier 3 arcane and 1 bin of tier 3 tech uncommon. Plus a dump bin of 'this tends to be useful uncommon'. I pull stuff out of here for red and blue use.

This allows me to grab pretty much anything off the shelf to craft anything I pick up for use, storage or sale.

Low level alts grab standard IO's from bins and replenish the salvage stock with what they collect so my crafters replace the IOs.

My bases on other servers (IE baby bases) will collect whatever salvage is picked up for the use of my crafters-to-be-there.

I will often use the two accounts to transfer items rather than wait 15 seconds between emails especially if I'm setting out a character because I can be doing 40 or so crafts (presuming I can pull half of the characters' planned build from IO storage).

I did once sell all my salvage and the prices then skyrocketed so I won't do it again. However, I will sometimes buy salvage if it's fairly cheap and I can't be bothered to load a second instance to find it. I don't keep an exact list of salvage kept except how I've listed it above. I do keep a spreadsheet of IOs in the bases though.

A friend who no longer plays had a list of every alt with every item stored on it. I wish I was that organized. However, another friend who no longer plays sold EVERYTHING. We actually used to check what he was selling so we could nab the purples before he vendored it.

Some people can't be bothered with micro-management, others are such hoarders they can't bear to sell anything that they might possibly use at some point in the future.

I'm a natural hoarder but I'm also lazy; the set IO storage makes setting chars less painful, the rare salvage appeals to my inner cheapskate.

Do whatever makes you happy.

Awesome again, Fulmans.

If I'm not too late:
SG: Obelisk
@Capa Devans

All my MoLG runs are done the same way:
* kill pylons and rikti (don't drag them into hami)
* mitos
* hami

Everytime I've been on a team that drags rikti into goo, someone seems to die. So I won't do it. YMMV. The above works for me so I do it that way. *shrug*

Pic 1: I'm a fan of burying one item in another and I like the way you've done that. Bit more special than the usual 'arc'

Pic 2: Love the steps.

Pic 3: From that angle the stones block the view line and I feel the area to the left would be cramped. However, that could be the photo angle.

Pic 4: LOL.

Pic 5: Kudos for the effot that's gone into that. Not just the idea but the execution (bad choice of words) is awesome. I did a similar thing with counters and lights so I know that takes a while. I really do like the whole feel of that room. Did you consider moving the bars around the curve and using glass on that counter?

Pic 6: Fantastic detail. Love the idea of embedded safes as body holders.

Great ideas there. Nice work.

"Earth/Emp is great if you just want to heal your team and hold enemies".

No mention of Earth's debuffs and control nor Emp's great buffs. With help like that, who needs enemies.

Hope it's a good one Ninus.

Happy birthday. Go terrorize some more GMs.

All the best for 2011, guys and gals. May your drops be purple and your cookies fresh.

I try and avoid garish colours because I think if I was on the team with them, would I be happy with it being activated around me?

For example, on a melee char do I really want to see bright blue transfusion or the default for the rad heal or blisteringly white for fireball? No because I couldn't see what I was supposed to be killing.

I have a fire corr which has fire effects which follow the colour changes for the heat of real fires. But I use dark rather than bright on most of them. The only time I use bright options is for a nuke. "Yes I've nuked, now I don't have any endurance/toggles, someone please save me."

Admittedly, I do have a major issue with the thermal/fire shields; I do wish the little balls would turn off with /suppressclosefx. Similarly with Quills. If I'm trying to suppress the power effects, I'd like to kill ALL of them. I do recall confusing the life out of a team mate when I first started playing by asking them not to put the shields with the little balls on me because I found them really distracting. They must have thought I was nuts but were kind enough not to start a "U R NUB" argument. (Thank you.)

The only garish power I ever have - and I confess that this is totally deliberate - is SB. I make a point of making it revolting on any char that has it. You beg for SB and you are begging to be disgustingly coloured; if only briefly. Petty, yes I know, but one of my kins got from 37 to 50 on ITFs while level-pacted and believe me it's payback time. They don't get out much if I can help it.

Have to agree about electric control, though. It seems really bright and lag-inducing.

My experience of the AV pull on the STF is I'm either very lucky (I get one at a time) or I'm very unlucky (and I get all four). I've never seen an additional one arrive once one was damaged to a certain level (ala the AVs on Khan arriving when Reichs health hits a certain point).

When I tanked MoSTF recently, I pulled and got all four. I held GW, Scir and BS and a brute taunted Mako away to the team to kill. I wonder if you had any mez protection like Clarity, Clear Mind, Increased Density or the one from Thermal which I always forget? I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that a stoner needs 6 and other tanks 8 to avoid GW's hold. (Not sure if that's up to date though.) I know I didn't get held on that run.

Trying to improve my own pull success, I spoke with a friend and he said he had five Devastation in lazer beam eyes on one char (and lazer is what I use to pull) and five of a purple on the other char (think that was apoc in fireblast). Neither increases range so it isn't that. He did say he targets the AV, starts the power activating and creeps very slowly forward. He also said he's awesome. Which maybe true but doesn't help us mere mortals with a 50:50 pull ratio.

As for damage; I would be interested in the secondaries of the team because I don't see lack of damage as a problem with what you listed. This was the make up of a successful MoSTF I lead recently. My team make up was hardly damage heavy but it was outstanding at debuffing. We didn't trap where the AVs were either.

Usually if I see a STF go pear-shaped it's either because they team won't function as a team (IE half the team at the hospital and rather than regroup they go back during which time the other half have died and are enroute to the hospital) or they don't take enough debuff. If the AV's are kicking you then I'm guessing debuff and/or mez prot.

Best of luck with the next run.

Below is my current build. I wanted to soft cap ranged def with reasonable numbers for the others because she does jump in melee for the soul mastery.

Ranged def 45%, recharge 140% with hasten. So far I'm very happy with her and was able to solo an Arachnos mission at x8. She seems very solid.

It would be easy to make her a bit less expensive by losing some othe LotG combo's and using def IOs instead. I did it for the bonuses. The HO could go too; I had it in the base so I used it.

I hope it gives you a few ideas.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.81
http://www.cohplanner.com/

P'thaquein: Level 50 Natural Defender
Primary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Secondary Power Set: Dark Blast
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery

Hero Profile:
------------
Level 1: Twilight Grasp Theft-Heal(A), Theft-+End%(3), Theft-Acc/Heal(3), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Heal(5), Theft-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Dark Blast Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(9), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 2: Gloom Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(17), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(17), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(19), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(19), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21)
Level 4: Tar Patch RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(11)
Level 6: Darkest Night DampS-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(A), DampS-ToHitDeb/Rchg/EndRdx(13), DampS-ToHitDeb(39)
Level 8: Howling Twilight RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(13)
Level 10: Shadow Fall S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(15), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(21), S'fstPrt-ResKB(23), LkGmblr-Rchg+(23), LkGmblr-Def(25)
Level 12: Combat Jumping LkGmblr-Def(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(15)
Level 14: Assault EndRdx-I(A)
Level 16: Fearsome Stare Cloud-ToHitDeb(A), Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb(27), Cloud-Acc/Rchg(29), Cloud-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(29), Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Cloud-%Dam(37)
Level 18: Tenebrous Tentacles Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(31), Posi-Dmg/Rng(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34)
Level 20: Petrifying Gaze HO:Endo(A)
Level 22: Hasten RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(25), RechRdx-I(39)
Level 24: Boxing Empty(A)
Level 26: Night Fall Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(40), Posi-Dmg/Rng(40)
Level 28: Tough ImpSkn-Status(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(43), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg(45), Aegis-Psi/Status(45), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(46), Aegis-ResDam(46)
Level 30: Maneuvers LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), LkGmblr-Def(46), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(50)
Level 32: Dark Servant Cloud-Acc/ToHitDeb(A), Cloud-ToHitDeb(33), Cloud-Acc/Rchg(33), Cloud-ToHitDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(33), Cloud-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(34), Cloud-%Dam(40)
Level 35: Weave RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(36), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def(37), RedFtn-EndRdx(39)
Level 38: Super Speed EndRdx-I(A)
Level 41: Dark Consumption Oblit-Dmg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(42), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(42), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43), Oblit-%Dam(43)
Level 44: Dark Embrace Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), Aegis-ResDam(45)
Level 47: Soul Drain Oblit-%Dam(A), Oblit-Dmg(48), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(48), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg(48), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(50), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(50)
Level 49: Vengeance LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 1: Swift Empty(A)
Level 1: Hurdle Empty(A)
Level 1: Health Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A)
Level 1: Stamina EndMod-I(A)



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