Carnifax

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Tbh I admire the courage of the OP . Gotta hand it to the lad, took guts to ask to get PL'd on the forums of all places .

-Petitioned

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Nothing wrong with PLing itself. Good way to skip the boring chunks of the game. Wouldn't mind PLing my villain from 30-35 to get him ready for i10 for example (hmmm).

Its when inexperienced players do it that trouble beckons IMO.

How does one PL in todays game anyway? Bridging with (for example) a 50, a 25 and a level 1?

I just throw Recharges into the Siphons and spam it usually. It hits eventually. Maybe one accuracy in Siphon Speed, but certainly as many recharge as you can spare. Stacked SS is great. You can get up to 3 of em stacked.

I'd drop Group Fly for Hasten too, it stacks beautifully with Siphon Speed to turn you into a hyperactive lunatic.

I went without Stamina at all on my Kin/Elec and he's fine. Bit seat of the pants but with all the +recharge going you should be Ok. I know other Kins like to have stamina too though.

I initially dumped Fly for Siphon Speed & IR (at 18), but missed Air Sup too much and took it back. But you can miss a travel power if you like. Take IR at 18 though as Siphon Speed in Talos / IP when you're only level 20 is annoying. Kin is nice and flexible that way as Fitness & Travel powers become optional.

I'd have 2 acc/3 heal/1 recharge in Transfusion too but 2/2/2 is good too, its annoying when I miss or the target dies mid-cast.

Increase Density is handy for buffing some of your teamies too but skipable. Its useful as you can get away with one slot (although 3 resists in it is good too). Main use is a demezzer. People will love it in the 40s.

I have no clue on Psi really.

Reading your guide to Illusion and the fact I've seen you in action IM I'd recommend you'd stick to slogging it through normally. You'll learn a lot more through playing the game through fully.

Although given that non-Pvper PLed people tend to have a shorter CoH career and get bored and play something else ...

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People who have it are sometimes harder to defeat - so the answer is "maybe"

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And so are people with shields... and with de/buffs... and... wait, let's just nerf them all!

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I thought about that point and my opinion is thst it`s not the same thing. The buffs etc you refer to are part of the AT set generally. And, you could argue they`re consistent with the super hero theme.
Plus, you balance out your powers against someone elses so it kind of levels out.

Aid self though (bear in mind i`m really highlighting PvP)to me, comes out differently.

To fight someone who at the touch of a button can regen a great portion of health ends up being almost pointless. And the fact it`s interupptable is almost irrelevent in solo PvP.

Maybe I feel it more than other ATs because, as a Tanker, my outright damage is limited so maybe I can`t quite hit hard/fast enough to deck someone before they fire the damn thing off.

But, aid self just seems to give my opponent an advantage that strikes me as unfair.

My only alternative is to take it myself and long haul them which, to me, would be a shame because I don`t feel the concept fits my char. (although that is one power I don`t really fits any char conceptually.)

What brought this on was a fight I had against a level 40 in RV.

I was beating him easily throughout the fight, yet every time I got close to dropping him he would employ aid self, no matter how much I tried to interrupt. In the end he chipped away at me after about 15 minutes of me having the advantage.

I just came away thinking, that given how dominant I was in the fight, and how dominant I was as a 50 it was just weird that he had this kind of "save me" button he could press, almost endlessly, until he finally managed to catch me. (in frustration I turned on unstoppable so my stamina stayed up. I was hoping if I hit him non stop he wouldnt be able to fire the damn thing up. I saved the drop but was a bit weak after that and he nailed me.)

Like I say, it`s just my opinion but yes, to me, aid self gives one a massive advantage in PvP.

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It gives one an advantage in one-on-one PvP. However the game is really based around team and zone PvP where it isn't that much of an advantage really. Anyway the focus of the game is PvE for the most part and its well balanced there I feel.

PvP isn't balanced and one-on-one PvP certainly isn't. Its due to the sheer array of powers and builds available in the game and it makes for a much more interesting PvE game (imo).

What sort of Tank were you? Even if you don't want the medicine pool most get a heal anyway. And can't Tanks get an aura capable of interrupting Aid Self?

The %chance to heal PROC might be useful to you, as might +regen set IOs (you only need 2 for Regen bonuses usually).

What AT was he btw?

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A kin CANNOT keep a full team buffed and it would very quickly become very tedious for them

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Yes I can and no it doesn't.

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Yep, its easy enough to keep everyone Speed Boosted up. I bound the numpad keys to select players 1-8 and Numpad 0 to fire SB and Numpad-decimal for Increased Density.

Its only annoying when you get the "SB plix" idiots who call for it every time it drops.

Avoid the Hollows solo

The Hollows is a hazard zone (as is Perez Park). That means huge spawns intended for teams. What you can do is go back to the person who sent you to the Hollows and they should have another mish or contact for you.

Atlas or Galaxy, then kings and you can do normal Radio Missions (like Paper ones). Once you've enough of them you can do a Safeguard and the detective should offer you Story contacts outside of the Hazard Zones. Probably Kings / Atlas / Galaxy and then Skyway/Steel, Faultline (also a Hazard zone but should be lots of teams), Talos/IP and so on.

You can use the once-per-week "Drop the mission" (or wait until you're a few levels up to blitz) the annoying Hollows & Perez hunt missions.

Hazard Zones are intended for teams really. Some of them, Faultline and Stirga Isle later, are a lot of fun though.

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Well, as one of my intentions was to go with 3 slotted Steamy Mist, CJ and Manouvers for +Def as it would, according to the planner, give about 17% of Def to myself along with about 13% for the team. So would it be wise to go that way or would the slots just be wasted and better used in other places maybe? Like in Total Focus or Tornado for an example?

For the Rad blasts, Neutrino Bolt i figured could benefit for an Acc SO/IO along with an RechRed one as though the damage is low, it does stack up with time. Cosmic Burst was taken for the stun i think, Neutron Bomb for some ranged AoE debuffing/damage and Atomic Blast for the hold/debuff/damage.

Now, why i left Aim out was that i couldn't really see a point to pick it up over some other powers, though again, as my experience is not too stellar in regards how to build a Defender, i might have made a mistake

Other than that, the suggested slotting for the Storm powers along with everything else looks good so thanks to all for the advice as it surely helps

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Don't bother. Hurricane gives a 37.5% accuracy debuff unslotted. That goes up to about 60% with 3 accuracy debuffs IOs in there.

Steamy Mist should be slotted for End and Resistance as the Resistance buff is better. You could get Maneuveurs too if you liked to add a bit more Teamie protection in there if you liked but its not a huge amount of a gain.

As far as I'm aware Scourge is calculated per Tick but PROCs aren't, they're either when the power hits or once per 10 seconds the power is active (these might be the same thing really).

I'm basing this on my PROCed Crushing Field which has 3 damage Procs in it, I've never seen any of the test subjects in Perez be PROCed by anything other than the initial impact.

Things like Acid Arrow and Freezing Rain would be way too overpowered if they did go off per tick of damage. As far as i'm aware both use the 10 second rule.

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No Def Debuffs for Freezing Rain? Where did i get that sloting then???

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Use them if you can afford the slots, but Rechg and EndRdx come first. -30% base is already quite good

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I tend to slot for it on my Illusion/Stormy but a Storm/Rad probably doesn't need even more defense debuffage in fairness.

Anything/Rad is good.

Its the daddy of the controller secondaries (with Kin being the Uncle and Sonics & FF being the wussie little sisters )

Oooh, congrats Shinro. Sorry I missed it.

Don't go deleting it again now

Spectral Terror pulses in a close AOE (cloak of fear really) and casts single target Fears as well across a wider area. ST also comes with a handy accuracy debuff on Feared foes.

Gasses is has a wider area than the "pulse" of Terror but no single target mez attack, its more like a placeable Choking Cloud really (I wouldn't really bother with Choking Cloud on an Earth/Rad, you've plenty of other mezzes and you won't be melee based).

One important point though is that Spectral Terror is a very low aggro move. I'm not sure Gasses comes with the same low aggro footprint. So as an opener it may not be as good.

Just remember the holy 3 in Rad, Radiation Infection, Enverating Field and Lingering Rad and you'll be laughing. An Earthquaked, Quicksanded mob with those 3 debuffs on em too is going nowhere! If they look like they are Gasses or Stalagmites will keep em put while you figure out how you're going to actually kill em (Earth/Rad would be failrly low damage).

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The greater invisibility also was in NWN 1, as all D&D games. Also in NWN:Hordes of the Underdark you fight with Drugears whose become invisibile at the little sign of danger. But unlike CoH, D&D has counter spells like you mentioned (True Seeing is a high level spell but Invisibility Purge is low level spell and only for countring Invisibility. True Seeing has many other benefits). Also many creatures have special abilities like Blind-sight, scent or constant True Seeing.

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NWN the Improved Invisibity is different to Baldurs Gate. NWN it grants 25 or 50% concealment after you attack, Baldurs Gate 2 you were untargettable even when you attacked, it was too overpowered.

It applies when the mag isn't enough to Hold or Immob them (GDF, Crush and Crushing Field do it too). Great vs Bosses, EBs and AVs in PvE. Run speed caps at 10% and should also benefit from Power Boost AFAIK.

The other good side effect is that these powers can take Slow IOs, including the Damage PROC, meaning you can get 3 damage PROCs into Crushing Field if you liked.

This happens with every game I can think of. NWN2, Oblivion and WoW you all lose the invis if you attack. NWN2 you can retain a concealment bonus but you will be attacked. Baldurs Gate 2 had an Invis that you remained cloaked even when attacking and it was basically an I Win button (until you ran into mages with True Seeing).

I think they were wrong to slash the Def bonus though but that was a global reaction to layered defenses from things like Group Invis and Grant Invis on Tanks and Scrappers.

Group and Superior Invis aren't as useful as they used to be (Surpression always kicks in on them too if you attack) but being stealthy is handy (I always took Steamy Mist instead). Dunno if, in PvE, I'd consider them worth it given the i9 Stealth Travel IOs.

They're all teamworthy really.

I'd suggest reading some of the guides here and on the US boards and seeing what takes your fancy.

I love Dark Miasma but theres no shields in it. Rather it works by debuffing the foes so they can't hit you.

Its quite hard to make a bad decision really though, just pick a combo, use Search here to read up on it and if you like the sounds of it go for it. Thats what I did with my Dark Miasma/Rad on Union.

It revives multiple allies close to you, its a resurrect. They're all restored fully with full health and end and no stun.

It needs at least one foe to hit off but will hit any mobs close to him too. They'll become stunned (Mag 2 I think so only minions really) & slowed by it.

Its a well cool power. TP goes well with it for Corpse Recoveries, I've gotten 3 people raised in one shot with it

When I'm soloing I use it as a mez & debuff.

Congrats Smooth.

7th? Jeez. I've still a grand total of 1.

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If all goes well, generally can do this in 30-45 mins

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Pffft... shoddy rip-off of the genuine article. It can be done in 15-20mins consistently.

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Unless I tag along.

Which was what their original estimates were based on, 20 mins for the TF, 10-15 for Carni arsing about time.

Luckily for them I'm at the beck and call of my tiny Master now so no gaming for me.

Pantsy has one decoy, PAs have 3.

I'm not knocking illusion/emp. Just saying for soloing it isn't the best choice available. Not saying its the weakest or even weak in itself, just not as strong as other options (like Illusion/Rad).

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Thanks all for your answers.

Black Mage: yes, I know Nofuture. It is one of the sources of the discrepancy I mentioned. Nofuture is "Red Tomax's guide". And it is the one with the correct data, btw.

Wilfred: I thought that "critical controls" in which the magnitude is incremented were only possible for controllers. Good to know that defenders can have them too. In fact, looking again at Nofuture's data, seems obvious that defenders can have them too...

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Its Power Based rather than AT based.

The Crit means you can occasionally fear Vash Zombies too as well.

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Its down to playstyles really. If you want to concentrate on your primary then empathy allows you to do that as you just fire off your buffs and you are ready. TA/Kin/Rad require you to use your secondary much more actively.

However my point is that empathy is not a secondary to avoid.

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For soloing I'd say it is, in comparison to the debuff sets. Especially if the primary is Illusion (Pantsasm, even buffed, is a big n00b). PAs are where its at.

I've found Grav/TA slightly tricky soloing EBs in the last few days (Terra & Envoy of Shadows) but the medicine pool and multiple immobs and holds along with Singy saw me survive. Good fun though, much more knife-edge than with my previous controllers.

Oh it was today, not yesterday. Stupid Carni

I'll bow out anyway if thats Ok. Can't promise I'll have the time with the lil ones erratic wake-up times at the mo.

Hi folks, really sorry but I have to cry off. Got visitors here for dinner so can't jump on.


Sorry about that, looks like you've plenty anyway. Good luck with the TFs, hope the Drop Fairy brings you just what you want

Fire, Illusion, Grav and probably Mind are decent soloers (in that order roughly), Earth and Ice are a bit lacking in damage maybe. Rad, Kin, Storm and TA are good versitile secondaries that work well for soloing or teams as they don't require teamies to get the most out of them.

Mix and match out of that really.