Carnifax

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Its kinda wierd, but everyone in my group seems to be leveling at the same speed as me ? And when I group Masterminds are not the only people my level, theres some Brutes, some Dominators even some Corruptors, not sure about the stalkers you can never see em.

My Mastermind is lvl 30. Could I solo a ruthless mission which is what I play on ? not sure. probably not. I would thus drop my difficulty and eat through missions.

Leveling is easy for all AT's. CoH/CoV is built that way, you dont need to play with anyone really, just drop your difficulty and hop to it.

I just think its a touch premature that were planning a major overhaul of an AT thats only about a month old.

Especially when there is no obvious big flaw. Its just this 'feeling' that everyone is getting because they are good to play.

The other thing of course is Im fairly sure that not all masterminds are equal...they may well spend an issue looking at that balance rather than trying to change the whole AT.

Is robots/forcefield better than Ninja/Poisons ? is it just Robot and Merc guys wading through missions and making it look easy ?

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Can I ask how many alts you've played. Not being sarky or anything, just asking over your "Levelling is easy" comment. Cos it's not for a lot of ATs. My Flame Tank is currently 27 and finds it hard going. My Spines / Dark scrapper is only 12 and again its difficult for him.

Oh, and the Big Flaw is that I can deal damage, heal, tank mobs and debuff all at once. Although I wouldn't call it a flaw personally Its great. But a little too great. My MM is far more powerful than any other AT I have was at that level.

[Edit : Forgot I can heal too ]

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And in regards to the "differentiate xp-gain calculation". What I meant that there are too many things to calculate if the minions were to be dragged into the loop, causing more stress on the servers - hence more lag.

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Not really. You don't need to store damage per minion. Just "damage done by Xs minions". So you can lump all of one persons minions together for these purposes. So it's not 6 extra people to keep track of, its 1 who happens to be a group of minions.

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That would be overpowered according to the game designers of course, Players just create too much static these days. Hell, read the US boards, they are embarrasing.
Masterminds are consistent, they dont have some giant alpha strike like blasters used to and Stalkers do now, they dont have a summit point where they suddenly become supreme like dominators or rage for brutes.
People are mixing consistency up with potency I think.

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Masterminds are very, very easy to level in PvE. Much easier than any other AT I can think of except my I4 Controller, post level 32. And we all know what happened to them. Ditto with the Stone Tanks, Burn, Regen and now SOs (via ED).

There is very little chance that MMs are not going to nerfed. Thats what happens. They can easily level in a team or solo with little/no risk to themselves. That's not going to last IMO.

It's the rate of leveling that always grabs the devs attention. If something is seen to be racing ahead its beaten over the head with the Bat-O-Nerf until it promises to slow down and behave.

Basing it on whats happened to every build that was considered more powerful in every issue so far to be honest.

Currently I've ignored Repel. I might get it later.

If it's like Hurricane then its a two-edged sword in PvE. Can be brillant when there's a group in an alcove or against a wall. You can have them permentantly on there backs (no, not like that. This isn't Grand Theft Auto). But it can really irritate your meleers.

But the fact it costs end for each knockback put me off. Didn't know it had been reduced (or is this just the across-the-board I6 drop?). There's too many other cool Dark / Kinetics powers I want first so I could repel having to wait until the mid to late 20s...

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Unless they figure out at way to grant xp based on damageoutput and diffentiate between minions and MM and other potential members in team. Not doable, because these calculations would surely kill the server

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Doesn't it already do this? If you jump to help a non-team villain/hero kill a mob xp is rewarded by damage done and then modified by level isn't it?

My 2 cents. The MM will be nerfed. Bank on it. Happened to Blasters way back, regen scrappers, tanks and controllers when they were all top dog. I don't think it will be a XP nerf I'm afraid because MMs will still be felt to be overshadowing their teamies in power. Plus it would be easy to get around that system as Bolt has just shown.

Part of the problem is that the MM powers are so visible I think. My pets don't actually do that much damage. But people think they are uber. Until they see them go up against miners / dockworkers on Sharkshead Isle ....

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I wonder... is Shadow Fall really that good? I was thinking of taking Flares instead of Shadow Fall, thus slightly modifying the build.

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On my Dark miasma MM I wouldn't trade Shadow Fall for much. It's +20% resist to Psionics (pink Fortuna attacks. very few powers resist psi), energy and neg energy which is great.

But the best thing is that it's a Stealth power. Plenty of missions I've entered and there's a group right by the door. As a squishy it's very useful not to aggro them upon entering. Plus since it's AOE the team will be hidden too when they enter. Unless they summon, sometimes. If they summon the mobs may see the minions and attack.

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and so far i have to say i'm uninpressed with it. it doesn't last very long, and doesn't seem to give much in the way of defence bonus. Now that could be because i've only got 2 DO Defence on it at the moment, but all i know is that it made no difference to the ammount of healing i had to do.
if anyone has the powers and could give a little advice as to how many slots can make it effective i'd be greatful. thanks

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Isn't Fire Shield a damage resist power, not defense.

Difference is +defense powers (like Forcefield) make you harder to hit but if you are you take full damage. +dmg resist absorb some of the damage when you are hit.

I've teamed with a */Thermal corrupter and it made a noticable difference to my meatbags alright. I'd assume slotting should be 3 +dmg resists anyway (SOs). After that I don't really know.

Started this build over the weekend. My alt-itis is spreading...

Great fun until one of the numerous map transition crashes seperated me from the nice team I'd built.

Level 6 at the mo. Took all 3 blasting powers from Dark and the heal and Siphon from Kinetics. I was wondering about the debuff accuracy that Dark does. I can't find figures for it anywhere. Is it the same for all Dark powers? And do they stack with themselves?

If so I'm thinking of slotting Dark Blast with 3 to-hit debuffs, 1 recharge, 1 end reduc and 1 accuracy and stacking it to debuff lieuts / bosses in fights. Of course its a way off anyway since it needs DO / SOs to be effective.

Exactly. We're perfectly balanced thanks to our useless PvPness. So no need to nerf at all Mr Dev. I'm already wailing and gnashing my teeth at my useless PvP powers.

*scurries off and continues uber-pveing away happily*

Oh and Spirits seem to hang around after your death for some reason.

What server are you on actually?

Shout if you see me on anyway. Always happy to team up.

Lock them up more? They're already chained up in the cellar surviving on fungus and the occasion rat that gets too close.

What more can a loving father do?

Ta.

All Dark blasts have a -accuracy component. How much is it? Is it worth slotting for in Tentacles for example?

Single Target terror? It's better than that. Fearsome Stare is a Cone Fear/Terror effect.

It's certainly a more flexible build than any Dominator I can think of. You have Blasts, holds and a pet but you get heals and serious debuffs too.

Hi all,
i'm thinking of starting a Dark Blast / Kinetics Corrupter. Basically I was thinking of a char thats a Masterminds best friend, specifically a Necro or other melee types.

Don't really care about PvP for the moment so that doesn't come into it really.

From Dark I was thinking just Gloom and Moonbeam from the 3 starting "blaster" powers. Or should I take Dark Blast instead and drop Moonbeam starting out?

Dark Pit / Tentacles seems to be a 2 part hold. I know Tentacles is a decent power and since it doesn't do damage it shouldn't attract the same hate as Fire Cages does for a Dominator. Am I right there?

Is Dark Pit useful anyway?

Can't send a potential build since I'm in work but all suggestions are welcome.

Cheers

The point about the AOE is a great one and one people teaming with Masterminds should pay attention too as well. Basically if an enemy has nothing better to do they will attack a PA / pet / meleer in range, even if they aren't being attacked by them. But as soon as you AOE you're the chief damager on that enemy so he's going to focus on you unless a tank or someone grabs the aggro.

When soloing I'd reckon on getting 2 close groups of mobs with the same casting of Phantom Army. You get a feel for when they are about to drop. So occasionally I will do the Invis run to drag the PA into another group, especially on smaller, damage heavy teams where the fights are short and furious.

My most common death is the PA dropping since you get the aggro they were holding once they drop. The Pets window is useful here as you can spot straight away when they've dropped in a chaotic battle and do something about it (like scream like a little girl )

And if Fear gave containment we would indeed be too powerful I think.

Small thing. Shadow Fall should probably be slotted for +dmg resists as the +def is pathetic (5%). So with even SOs its 1.66% per SO.

The energy / neg energy / psychic resist is 20% though...

It's tough on CoH in the last few weeks since lots of people are off being villainous at the mo.

However if you use the lft flag plus a couple of Broadcasts you should get invited pretty quickly usually.

Atlas, Hollows, Steel Canyon and Talos tend to be busier than their same level counterparts so broadcasts there usually work better.

Generally I don't start until 10ish so its not the time thats a problem.

I'm now completely addicted to Teleport.

I think its probably poor in the teens and early 20s but I got it in my level 25 respec and its great. You zip around the place once you bind shift+lclick to it.

It can be annoying in some missions and occasionally you plummet to your doom but they're the breaks.

And Xan, "You're wrong, end of discussion" is really the sort of comment that leads to a flame war which consumes the poor thread completely burning all common sense in its path.

Although I tend to agree. But not in such an abrupt way. Duff could have perfectly reasonable logic behind his preferences.

Discussion is good.

Anyone else noticed how the Zombie Spirit looks like a certain French Canadian songtress now banished to Vegas for her crimes against humanity? Sounds like her too.

Yep I've renamed my spirit Celine.

The Knights I'm changing to Agents Moulder and Skully.

I'll get me coat...

Flashfire + cages good. Hotfeet bad.

I'd agree with Kitty though. Go with the travel power. Much more useful.

LOL.

Yeah wouldn't be much use in that case alright

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I don't use advanced controls, don't think I have room for so many controls in my bars, and I DO find it annoying to have my Grave Knights stand around for ages fireing gloom and dark blast at the enemy, when they can go into melee and deal over 100 damage in 2 hits... but then I simply press their command button, quickly press G and send them into the fray

I've heard many say that having pets on Aggressive is stupid, but I find it VERY usefull... When pets kill a target, they immediatly target a new one, the time spent for looking for a new target (or even lagging around) without having one, will be wasted. So I say AGGRESSIVE all the way


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Get the Numeric Keypad control binds for your pets. Makes it really easy to switch and target. Also forces your Knights into melee which is great. And you don't need extra toolbar button then either. Just Num-2, Num-9 and pick a spot. Once they close num-7 makes them attack a specific target with the swords.

Aggressive all the way is harkening back to Controller pets. Usually there's no problem but it can be a huge pain sometimes in big 8 man groups when they decide to run after a fleeing Mook or the like.

But again the numeric controls make it really easy to flip the minions of a type into aggressive so they choose targets and then back to passive if they need to chill.

The main beauty of henchies rather than pets is the control you have over them. It always annoys me when I switch back to my Illusion/Storm controller and the Phantoms go beserk or decide to attack minions instead of the purple boss standing beside them. With henchies you never have this problem.

Yeah Bots seem to be the flavour of the month here. I think its because they are ranged and the AI acts a little funny. Whereas with my Necro / Dark its the same as you: use Master Zaps keyboard binds and move them directly into combat instead of just telling them to attack.

Normally it's aggressive move into combat, Darkest Night then focus them on a lieut or whatever (from my Command and Conquer days its generally better to focus-fire on the hardest hitters 1st), Tar Patch and maybe some heals if they need it.

Normally I'd play in a large group of possible. Just got Fearsome Stare which is great altogether. Gives me some extra control over mobs plus feared mobs have their accuracy reduced even further. And the animation where you give them a good hard glare is class.

Ah Warpcon, Such a great convention. It's been many a year since I decended upon it with my fellow WaRPiGs.

My RP days are behind me now but if anyone is thinking of heading go for it, Its a great convention in a fantastic location. Probably the nicest university in Ireland.