Chriffer

Perhaps we should refer to this as a "City of Villains feature" like Base Raids and Items of Powers.

It took me a long time to actually get attached to a Blaster. When I finally did, with my AR/Ice/Fire, it pretty much made all my other similar level characters disappear. The build has huge AoE damage, tons of utility, and matched perfectly with my utter lack of respect for any enemies in the game.

Full Auto, Flamethrower, M30, Buckshot kills weak guys in bunches. Shiver + Bonefire, Ice Patch, and knockdown was overkill on control. Rise of the Phoenix + Resuscitate made for some incredible stupid combos. All this without the need to Stamina. If I got low on endurance, I would go die and get endurance from RotP. Did I forget to mention Vengeance?

I mostly like to shoot stuff and not worry about the consequences too much. What I am looking for is another Blaster build idea. I like having some complexity for sure. All the positioning, control, utility made me much happier than having nothing but attacks would. Anyone have a fun idea for my style?

Everything seems to be going according to plan.

"Secret builds" is an amusing and silly concept and quite laughable.

If someone has a "secret build" that you want that you should be able to figure it out with a small amount of work. There aren't too many ways to create effective builds for various goals. If you know what the build is trying to accomplish you should be able to design it in virtually the exact same way. Likely you will come up slightly different based your own personal playstyle and taste. For example I design my super-high-end builds to stop at exactly permahasten where I have a friend who wants all the recharge he can cram in. My builds usually end up with a tiny bit more +HP and his with a tiny bit more +recharge but 9 out of 10 powers are slotted the same. Figuring out a "Secret Build" isn't a "infinite monkeys on infinite keyboards" type of thing. There are only so many sets that give the bonuses you want and the enhancement percentages that create effective characters.

If you want to say "I'm not interested in sharing my build and its a secret" that's your choice. Probably in the time it took you to tell someone that you could have sent them the build. But if you somehow think its unique and a real secret ... well... I'll refrain from posting my thoughts on that in interest of maintaining access to the CoH forums.

I had heard this event was in the works and checked the forums once or twice a week for info on it. Sadly, those checks were on the 15th and right now. I was looking forward to purchasing Avatea and price was not going to be an issue.

Please next time give more advanced warning. If the winner of Avatea is possibly willing to sell my opening offer is double

CoH Dance Pad Guide
Version Dos.


Quick Version
Take a look at the dance mat and game pad. Then check out the demo video to see them in action playing City of Heroes.

Setup
A USB dance pad is the easiest to setup. The other important factor is to get one with 10 buttons. With that some software to convert joystick buttons into keyboard presses I find the easiest way to get things working. These are used for all the power tray buttons. A wireless game controller is the perfect compliment to the dance mat. Two analog sticks and lots of buttons are the useful features. To get usable gameplay you need movement, mouse usage, targeting, alt power use, and jump. Highly reccommended are inspiration buttons (can macro these instead in game), and time savers like follow and autorun.



All that is left after that is to have a screen big enough you can play the game at a safe distance.


Here is a terribly boring demo video. With the wireless controller and dance mat you can just tap your feet on the right buttons, or go all crazy elbow dropping the buttons and spinning aound in circle if you want. Just make sure you have enough room to be safe. Also don't let anyone record a video of you doing this and upload it onto the internets.

Click here for video at bottom

1,2) These are too boring people play all different characters
3) Blaster Guns/Ice/Rise of the Phoenix, Lots of AoE attacks, +recharge bonuses, no fitness pool, no penalty for death, can rez others in RoTP invincible time. Mostly do task forces on this guy, I run around and blast things. If I happen to die I just RoTP back up and blast some more. This also refills my endurance bar. Shiver + Bonefire with M30 and AoE megadeath keeps the enemies away from me.

However now the devs made it so you can't do task forces above Heroic diffculty, and now this character would be a complete waste of time to play since he could just pretty much solo the TFs anyway. At least they stuck it to those farmers or whatever they got out of killing the thing I enjoy about the game.

Sample stool

Here's my new proposed build for JoJo the Bunny, my SS/Elec Brute. I use him for general play and pretty much do everything. I have the mez thingers because I tend to get a lot of baddies shooting at me and that's pretty much their only chance. I dropped Power Sink and Power Surge because I don't need them anymore. I have taunt to ensure holding aggro on RSF runs (had issues without it). I don't really care about travel powers.

Thread: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=188393
Link #1: http://www.mediafire.com/file/mmkttzdnndu/...I16_Mids_v5.zip
Link #2: http://www.adrive.com/public/d7799a50fdb86...3f14dcaeb1.html

Villain Profile:
------------
Level 1: Punch C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(3), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(5), Mako-Dmg/Rchg:50(7)
Level 1: Charged Armor TtmC'tng-ResDam:50(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:50(7), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg:50(9), GA-3defTpProc:50(13), ImpSkn-Status:30(25)
Level 2: Haymaker Hectmb-Dam%:50(A), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg:50(11), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(13)
Level 4: Conductive Shield Aegis-ResDam:50(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(15), S'fstPrt-ResKB:30(40)
Level 6: Hasten RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(17), RechRdx-I:50(17)
Level 8: Knockout Blow C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(19), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(21), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(21), Mako-Dmg/Rchg:50(23)
Level 10: Static Shield Aegis-Psi/Status:50(A), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(15)
Level 12: Hurdle Jump-I:50(A)
Level 14: Health Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(A), Numna-Heal:50(23), Numna-Heal/EndRdx:50(25), Numna-Heal/Rchg:50(37), Panac-Heal/+End:50(37), RgnTis-Regen+:30(43)
Level 16: Grounded S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(A)
Level 18: Rage GSFC-ToHit:50(A)
Level 20: Stamina P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod:50(27), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(27), P'Shift-End%:50(48)
Level 22: Lightning Reflexes Run-I:50(A)
Level 24: Combat Jumping LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def:50(40)
Level 26: Lightning Field Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), Oblit-%Dam:50(29), Oblit-Acc/Rchg:50(29), Oblit-Dmg:50(31), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(37), Oblit-Dmg/Rchg:50(42)
Level 28: Energize Numna-Heal:50(A), Numna-Heal/Rchg:50(31), Numna-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:50(31), Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(33), Mrcl-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:40(33), Mrcl-Heal/Rchg:40(50)
Level 30: Boxing Amaze-EndRdx/Stun:50(A), Amaze-ToHitDeb%:50(33), Amaze-Stun/Rchg:50(34), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(39), Amaze-Acc/Rchg:50(40)
Level 32: Foot Stomp Armgdn-Dam%:50(A), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(34), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg:50(34), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(36), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg:50(36), FrcFbk-Rchg/KB:50(36)
Level 35: Tough TtmC'tng-ResDam:50(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:50(39), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(39)
Level 38: Weave LkGmblr-Def:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(46), LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(50)
Level 41: Gloom Apoc-Dam%:50(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg:50(42), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(42), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(43), Apoc-Acc/Rchg:50(43)
Level 44: Dark Obliteration Ragnrk-Knock%:50(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg:50(45), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg:50(45), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx:50(46), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx:50(46)
Level 47: Darkest Night DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx:50(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb:50(48), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx:50(48), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg:50(50)
Level 49: Taunt Zinger-Taunt:50(A)

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
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|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Ludicrous Numbers:
Old JoJo: 158.75% Recharge + FF:Recharge in Foot Stomp and Haymaker
New JoJo: 165% Recharge + FF: Recharge in Foot Stomp

Old: 2074 Hit Points
New: 2119

Old: 23.57 Hit Points Regen per second.
New: 46.4 Hit Points Regen per second + Panacea Proc

Old: Roughly 8% Defense all + Darkest Night
New: 18% Melee, 14.5% other + Darkest Night

Old: Power Surge, Power Sink and Super Speed
New: Energize, 33 Second Recharge and 30 Second duration (pre FF:Proc), 858 HP Heal; 60% Endurance Reduction to all powers. Combat Jumping and Taunt.

Same JoJo attacks

[ QUOTE ]
Still would like to hear from Smurphy why he's chosen Pain MM ... from a min/max perspective my sense is that Dark or even Traps (depending on how bad nerfs end up) are more effective for hard targets (e.g., AVs). Maybe even TA.

[/ QUOTE ]

Have you ever tried to 5-box a click based set. Especially with targeted drop powers. I mean really do you think he has 5 keyboards in front of him? He is looking for passive sets. Previously he has used Fire/Rad controllers Hotfeet and Choking Cloud toggles, Fire Cages, and Flashfire on autofire on different characters. And of course the all storm MM team. but with that level of thuggery the storm part really wasn't too important anyway.

Ok so now when a TF is starting up and isn't a well balanced team, I will have to choose between my character who is building up enough merits to actually use them and the character that is the right fit. Right now I could bring a dominator, blaster, tank, warshade, defender, or brute to an ITF depending on what would work best for the team. If merits can't be traded then there's a big incentive to stick to one character, and this is against everything that makes CoH fun for me.

These effects had no real impact on trying to do the Cap au Diable strike force for time. We did a test with 4 people with no softloading. Finished time was 24:52. Made both the 30 minute and no death challenges. Best previous time with softloading 22:30. The difference can be attributed to luck of the draw on map layouts. This was far more fun than having someone solo the whole thing though.

Pics or it didn't happen

In summary Cap au Diable SF 24 Minutes 52 Seconds. I Hope this wasn't what they were trying to fix because a lot of other stuff got caught in the crossfire.

This thread is for posting Guide or FAQ links for Tankers. Please create your guides in the "Player Guides" forum (since posts in that section do not roll off) and link the thread here. Also, do not post your guide in this thread - only the link to your guide. For non-Tanker guides, check the master list of all Guides in the Guide to Guides.

Failing any clear identifier from the poster, I will go by the original post date vs. Issue releases (I1: 6/30/04, I2: 9/17/04, I3: 1/5/05, I4: 5/5/05, I5: 9/1/05, I6: 10/28/05, I7 6/6/06) - e.g., if it was posted in March/05, it is an I3 Guide.

Guides appearing here were gleaned from links posted in one of the "Guide to Guides" threads (the Tanker GtG or the GtG threads in the "Player Guides" forum). Some idiot named Chriffer sifted through the hundreds of individual threads to find the postings. In the future be sure to 1) place your guide in the "Player Guides" forum, nowhere else and 2) post a link to it in a "Guide to Guides" thread to make things work smoothly!

TANKER

** GENERAL
Juzam's Tao of Tanking for Beginners [I7]
Tanker Primary Information for Issue 7 (BuffyASummers ) [I7]
So you want to know about Taunt... (Circeus) [I6]
Tanking for Teams: The Anvil (BlackSly) [I3]
A Guide to Lowbie Tanking and Surviving Spillover (Lycaeus) [I3]
A Beginner's Guide to Tanker Primaries 1.0 (Paradoxe) [I3]
The MinMax Army's Guide to Sustained DPS (da5id) [I3]
Initiating Battle: A Guide For the Large Team Tank (Super) [I2]

** INVULNERABILITY
Superman Returns A.K.A. Superman 4.0 (Hero14) [I8]
Invulnerability/EM Guide For The Unhappy Tank (Sister_Andara) [I8]
Tiffany Seville’s Inv/Fire Guide for I7 (Tiffany_Seville) [I7]
INV/SS Tanking in Post-I6 Paragon City (The_Hegemon) [I6]
The SuperTank! Inv/SS/Fly Build (Vox_Populi) [I6]
Guide to Invulnerability: The Basics (Sword) [I6]
Invulnerability/Super Strength - The "Lasher" (Thors_Mitersaw) [I5]
Weathering the Storm 2.0: An I5 Invulnerability/Super Strength Guide (Iron_Vixen) [I5]
Kara's Watch Out for Self and Survive I5 Build (Invulnerability/Super Strength) (SvZurich) [I5]
Robobot's Guide to I5 Tanking (Invulnerability/Super Strength) (Project_Robobot) [I5]
Immortal-Nite’s Invulnerability/Energy Melee Guide for I4 (ImmortalNite) [I4]
Smersh's Invulnerability/Fire Melee Guide V1.0 (Smersh) [I3]
Invulnerability for Tankers - The Basics (Sword) [I3]
Magnus Star's Invulnerability/Super Strength Build (Magnus_Star) [I3]
How to Build Superman V3.0 & Invulnerability/Super Strength+ Guide (_Havok_) [I3]
The Cuddles Build: Issue 3 Invulnerability/Super Strength (Cuddles) [I3]
Lady Tara's I3 Invulnerable/Super Strength Tanker (Lady_Tara) [I3]
It's Krunch time! Revising Krunch V2 for Issue 3 (Skulker) [I3]
Pulverizor's Invulnerability/Energy Melee Guide (Pulverizor) [I3]
Brick And Mortar - A Post 34, I3, Invulnerability/Energy Melee Build (da5id) [I3]
Invulnerability/Energy Melee Post-Issue 3 (GoodFoo) [I3]
Invulnerability/Battle Axe (Major_Kreissack) [I1]

** FIERY AURA
The Red Five I7 Fire / Super Strength Guide (Kyrin) [I7]
My Fiery Aura/Energy Melee Build Post-I5 (Nfinity) [I5]
Being the Brute Squad - A Look At Fiery Aura/War Mace Tankers (Chalyss) [I4]
Fiery Aura/Fiery Melee Tanking, the Infurno Way (Robotech_Master) [I4]
A Guide To Making a Fiery Aura/Energy Melee Tanker V2.0 (GladDog) [I4]
Fiery Aura/Ice Melee Tanker Guide (Cleat) [I3]
Fiery Aura/Stone Melee Guide (BrimstoneGale) [I3]
Coalfire's Fiery Aura Guide V1.0 (Ebon_Wrath) [I3]
Fiery Aura/Fiery Melee Tank Guide V2.0 (Mephe) [I3]
Spiral's Fiery Aura/Super Strength Tanker Guide (Spiral) [I3]
Fiery Aura, A Fire Tank Primary Guide (Moot_Point) [I2]
Fiery Aura/Ice Melee Tanker Guide V0.8 (Saccade) [I2]

** ICE ARMOR
Growing an Ice/Ice Tanker (DocSharpe) [I7]
Tanking with an Ice/Em tank (bulkmale) [I7]
Ice/Ice build guide (AettThorn) [I7]
Darth's Guide to Ice/Em Tanks in pvp, v 1.5 (DarthJoe) [I7]
The Living Glacier: Being the Ice Tanker (ccelizic) [I7]
Energy Absorption Calculator & Guide (Circeus) [I7]
Driving an Ice Armor/Ice Melee Tank with Arctic Ant V1.1 (The_Arctic_Ant) [I4]
Basilisk's Quick Guide to Ice Armor (Basilisk) [I4]
Ice Armor/Energy Melee Guide (Kyrin) [I3]
Dynamo Frost's Ice Armor FAQ (Dynamo Frost) [Pre-I1]

** STONE ARMOR
The Uber Defensive Stone/Fire Tanker (Maurice)[I7]
Ode to Roxstar - A Guide to Stone Tanking (Roxstar) [I7]
Mor'gan's Totally Awesome Guide to Stone/Ice Tanks (Morgy) [I7]
Completely Stoned, Again: The Stone/Stone Guide (EsoKujo) [I7]
Guide To My Thoughts On Stone Armor (Rexpendable) [I3]

** SECONDARIES
Comprehensive Guide to Tanker Secondaries (docbuzzard) [I4]

First off my apologies for the broken link on the Gamepad Layout diagram. Afriend pointed it out, and now since I can't edit the guide I had to move the image. It seems to be wokring now. If anyone spots any other issues like that give me a yell.

A video is my next goal once I get the equipment together.

My suggestion for Kheldian macros are this (adjust for PB/WS):

/macro Nova "powexec_toggle_on Dark Nova$$goto_tray 9"
/macro Dwarf "powexec_toggle_on Black Dwarf$$goto_tray 8"
/macro Off "powexec_toggle_off Dark Nova$$powexec_toggle_off black dwarf$$goto_tray 1"

This works best with an extra mouse button to bind it to, but it isn't necessary. I would suggest putting the Nova Macro in tray1 slot9 and dwarf in tray1 slot 8. This leaves tray1 slot10 for a travel power which can be bound to a button or better yet a mouse button. Then when you hit your 8 button (or the mouse button that activates tray1 slot8), it will switch into dwarf mode, swap trays to the one with dwarf powers. Put the dwarf teleport in tray8 slot10, off in tray8 slot8, and 2nd copy of Nova into tray8 slot9. Do the same for nova.

So here is a recap of what you end up with (or what I end up with as a Warshade)..

Tray 1 Human form. Mouse 4teleport, mouse 5 nova. ctrl+mouse 4 recall friend, ctrl+mouse 5 dwarf.

Tray 9 Nova form. 1234 for attacks, mouse 5 Off, ctrl+mouse 5 dwarf. In slot 7 is nova toggle power so it's visible and can be hit again if detoggled.

Tray 8 Dwarf. 12345 for attacks. Mouse 5 off, ctrl+mouse5 nova, mouse 4 teleport. In slot 7 is dwarf toggle power so it's visible and can be hit again if detoggled.

See it's that simple. So simple I can barely explain it in a page worth of text. Well it's simple in game anyway,

I'm happy to see everyone likes this guide so far, even if you do think I'm crazy. I've edited to add some more things I overlooked in the first posting. I'd love to hear stories from anyone who tries this out for real. I didn't put up a hand holding type guide to getting everything setup, so I hope it is enough guidance to get a working setup. Anyone with any useful feedback, please contact me so I can get this guide to where it should be.

And which would be more popular, the CoH workout guide or the Video Additions to the Dance Mat guide? A more detailed howto section would be possible, but there are so many possibilities as to how to set it up I didn't want to go into too much hardware specific talk.

Have you ever wanted to burst out of your chair and really get into the action? Interested in a new challenge to bring a fresh spin on City of Heroes? Would a game workout make your life complete? Do you have a couple bucks to spend and a little too much free time?

If you answered yes to all these questions, you should seek professional help. Otherwise read on for a illustrated guide to taking City of Heroes to the next level which I have dubbed "Dance Dance Hero City of Revolution Villains." DDHCoRV combines the best aspects of DDR with CoH to provide an entirely new experience (except for all the stuff that's the same).


[u]Intro[u]

City of Heroes is an exciting game that puts you into the action of being a super hero, but that experience isn't complete tapping buttons on a keyboard and a mouse. Something beyond this was needed to bring the world to life, and all attempts at simulated zombie puke ended at the hospital. Say goodbye to the chair, keyboard, and mouse, and welcome the dance mat.

With a dance mat, a player can stomp their way to fame (or infamy) without being constrained to sitting. This setup brings the game to a different level of interaction and fun, but is not without it's problems. The remainder of this guide will explain why one might want to use a dance mat, and how to setup a dance mat and get the most out of it.


The Basics

With a combination of dance mat and game pad, all the basic functions needed to play City of Heroes are available. The keyboard and mouse still may be needed at times for specific tasks that don't work well with the dance mat Controls. Getting the player to stand and move is the main advantage to the setup, but it also lends itself nicely to play on large televisions and similar devices where the user would want to be at a greater distance than a normal computer monitor.


Dance Mat

Dance mat in this guide refers to a game controller designed for Dance Dance Revolution (about DDR from ddrfreak.com ) and other similar games. It consists of a flat mat that can lay on the floor, and buttons can be activated by stepping into specific areas of the mat. These mats generally have 6-10 buttons that are arranged in a similar way to a numpad for a computer with the center area as a rest location where most of the time no sensor is placed. The player stands in the center of the mat, and then can activate one of the buttons on the ground with his or her feet. This can be exciting and challenging especially because other controls must be used with the hands during this time. At a basic level the game may just be standing and tapping feet onto a mat, but with practice more interesting and demanding techniques are possible.

Choosing a dance mat can be a bit complex since few are designed for the PC. Console game systems have a much greater number of mats made for them, but they require special equipment to connect to a PC. Much more detail about mats can be found at the StepMania Guide to Dance Pads . The main suggestion is to find a mat that has 10 buttons, and one that can be easily setup with a PC.

Gamecube and Playstation mats need a special converter box. Xbox mats need a converter cable or some surgery. The USB mats made for connecting directly to computers are fairly rare, and generally more costly. I've seen USB mats from Gamesis, BNS, Red Octane, Digital Praise, and even Kraft (yes that Kraft). Any of these mats should work fine with City of Heroes when properly setup.


Game Pad


City of Heroes is far too complex to be controlled with only 10 buttons under ones foot. This means that the hands must be used for the remainder of the controls. Finding a game pad with at minimum 6 buttons, 2 Analog Sticks, and two triggers is essential. Every additional button is of great importance. A Saitek P990 (or P2900 for wireless) controller is going to be used as an example. It's a fairly cheap controller with a lot of input possibility. Two analog sticks, 4 Triggers, 1 D-pad, 6 buttons, along with a mode swap button make for a lot of control.

Wireless controllers should also be considered to free the player from any constraints. A wire dangling around and tethering one to the computer is dangerous and just not fun. Batteries can be an issue and should be considered with wireless controllers. Make sure you do your research when considering wireless so you aren't left wondering why your controller barely functions.

Xbox 360 controllers should work with computers, so this is another possibility. Console controllers generally are limited to a set number of buttons for all controllers. PC controllers can have as many buttons as the manufacturer and fit.


Display

A computer monitor from a standard keyboard/mouse setup can be perfectly reasonable as a display device for a dance mat setup, but can create some problems depending on eyesight and distance required. A player with a good understand of what is going on in City of Heroes should have no issue player on a 19" monitor at normal dance mat range. Closing in distance for reading what contacts have to say or other situations like that is not a big issue.

Problems can arise using standard definition TV-out or a smaller monitor with the increased distance a dance mat requires. Knowing what powers are in what tray slots without needed to look becomes very important. The UI scaling options in City of Heroes allows the player to increase of decrease the size of the normal windows for powers, health, and navigation. Fine tuning this for a specific setup can greatly increase the ability to see important information, while still maintaining enough space to see what else is on the screen.

The real magic of the Dance Mat setup is when it is paired with a high definition large screen display. A big HDTV or projector can really change the immersion level. This requires a video card and display device that talk the same language. Either a TV that inputs a DVI (Best) or VGA signal and the proper cable, or a computer that can output Component Video. HDMI inputs in TVs are almost pretty common now, and with a converter cable can be treated as a DVI input for our purposes. Playing video games on some of these displays can cause some problems when one image (like the power tray) is shown over the same part of the screen constantly. So please make sure you aren't going to destroy anything before you get started.


[u]Setting it up[u]

At this point I will assume you have a Dance Mat with a way of connecting it to a computer, and a game pad with a bunch of buttons. A few more pieces of the puzzle may be required to duct tape this system together, but those two basic controllers are the only specific requirements.

The standard setup is to have the ten buttons of the Dance Mat correspond to the 10 power slots. All movement and targeting are left to the game pad. This setup lets one get into a rhythm of power activations, and makes finding the buttons for powers easiest. An alternative is to have movement on the Dance Mat, but this requires more thought into where to find room for some power buttons on the Game Controller.


Setup Overview

City of Heroes has some basic Joystick support, but I have in the past had no luck with it and will bypass it entirely. The steps after this are designed to get the Dance Mat buttons corresponding to the number keys on the keyboard, and to get the game controller to have the ability for movement, targeting, and various other operations.

City of Heroes requires some basic functionality to be playable, and many buttons to really have full potential. Being able to activate 5 power slots, some inspirations, move in 4 directions, and be able to target things are the absolute minimum needed to play. Getting all 30 power slots, all inspiration slots, 6 directions of movement, some control over targeting, and the ability to use the mouse when needed are the real goal for the setup.


If your Dance Mat drivers can already be setup to output presses on the mat as the number keys on the keyboard, you're pretty much done setting it up. Otherwise we are going to need that first piece of duct tape to get this all together. A program that listens for joystick presses and outputs key presses is what is required. JoystickCursor is what I found that worked with the least setup. It's interface allows you to look at a chart of joystick buttons and attach them to keyboard buttons. It's a bit confusing to make sure you get the correct dance mat buttons, but you can press the buttons on the pad and see lights blink on the screen. My personal preference is to have the Mat laid out as follow shown.Dance Mat Layout

The Game Controller setup can get complex, and I can only cover the controller I have. If you also have a Saitek P990, you can download the setup I list with no changes. I'll try to find a way to get the saved setup file from the drivers at some point. The general setup is as shown in the diagram.
Game Pad Layout

The D pad controls autorun (R) and follow (F) with up and down. Tab/Tilde are used for various targeting options. Tab — enemy next, Shift Tab — enemy previous, Tilde — Enemy Near, Shift Tilde — Enemy Far. The buttons of the face are for Inspiration slots and Escape to cancel targets/powers. The left analog stick for movement, with the directions turned into Up, Down, A, and D. This allows the stick to be used for up and down arrows outside of CoH which I find handy sometimes. When you push in the stick, it acts as a button to activate mouse look mode. The other stick is purely mouse with the button as the first mouse button.

There are a few pitfalls to watch out for along the way. JoystickCursor will listen to a specific Joystick, so make sure you choose the one that corresponds to your dance mat. If you change what port you plug your game pad or dance mat into, there is a possibility it will need to be setup again (or you can plug it in where you normally plug it in again and be fine). You should be able to type the letters which each key is attached to in a normal program like Notepad. This can aid in debugging your setup if it's almost working. If button 1 should be forward (normally the Up arrow or W), then the normal action should be taken as if you pressed that on the keyboard. This should let you test without starting and stopping City of Heroes all the time.

[u]Playing the Game[u]

How to play

I know this sounds like something that shouldn't really need to be addressed, but there is a good chance you will need some real time to adjust to this new setup. Buttons seem to be everywhere, you will trip over yourself trying to punch enemies, you don't have the mouse to fall back on to click things, but eventually you should be able to play well assuming you pay attention you the limitations. Targeting is far more difficulty without the ability to click on a single enemy out of a pack. You should have buttons for specific targeting like closest and next enemy. Learning to use all these buttons is very important.

Some buttons may be very hard for you to press at the same time. In my setup, walking forward and targeting are both left hand functions so very hard to do and once. Autorun and follow can work around this, but be careful when using them both.

Another consideration are powers that are not easy to use. Wormhole is one obvious example that comes to mind. To use Wormhole effectively it requires accurate targeting, plus the use of the mouse for a targeting reticle. Both these operations can be tough with the game pad. My best advice is to either avoid powers and power sets that require this much accuracy, or just practice a lot and accept whatever results you get.

I suggest using the first two power trays for the majority of powers, and having the third tray be filled with handy macros. In the last slot for this tray, put a macro that to go to the next tray (for tray #3 moving to tray #4, "/macro Goto4 goto_alt_tray2 4"). This will let you get a decent number of chat features, combat talk, and just helpful things. Dialog_yes, dialog_no, and gamereturn fit into this handy category. Don't forget your favorite emotes!


Communication

City of Heroes is best played in a team. Communication is the most important part of a team. Chat macros can be used for the basics, but they are very limited in their versatility. A keyboard still generally needs to stay nearby for unexpected things. Slash commands, complex chatter, and things that should really be typed (like a password) are very unlikely to ever be possible with the dance mat.

The best way of communication is voice chat if it's possible. This may add a wire to the player in many situations which is less than ideal. Also getting voice chat organized with anyone but friends and supergroup mates will not be easy. I have heard of using a voice recognition program with a microphone for chatting, but have no information or experience on this subject other than to say it sounds possible.


Music

Without music, you will feel as something is wrong or missing while playing CoH with a dance mat. Finding a source of songs with the right sort of beat for your style is key. Internet radio is usually fun, but can sometimes be a little to all over the place in it's music selection. Also any talk will take away from your gameplay. A simple metronome is always possible if no music will fit your mood or situation.

You may end up making different playlists for different characters, or some for high intensity play and others for more subdued dance mat use. An important thing to remember is to not let the music take you at a pace that isn't going to work for your game play. A Brute may be able to get away with a frenetic pace, but be carefuly trying the same thing with a Defender (Feel free to flame, but I'm using this as an example more than anything else).


[u]Conclusion[u]

This guide should give you an idea of what you are getting into trying CoH with a dance mat, but should be considered far from complete. New and better ideas for button layouts, macros, software, and controllers are going to show up. I am going to consider this just the first draft of an incomplete guide. In the future expect to see a video guide/demo, and a CoH Workout Guide using the dance mat setup.

So go now and dance!

Feel free to complain to me by PM here to Chriffer, @Chriffer in game, or Chriffer@gmail.com.


**Edited for Contact info and addition of Communication/Music sections **

You should at minimum mention powers like Tough Hide that are in a set. Listing the build of your character isn't enough to make a guide, that would be a summary of your character. I would suggest skipping the inflamatory remarks about Scrappers (even if you didn't mean it that way).

I can't figure out if this is a PvP guide with your comments on Touch of Fear or what the overall goal is. Some talk of strategy would be good too. I know you talked a bit about how Shadow Maul is best after you get Fury up, but more would be nicer. How to use Soul Drain perhaps. Shadow Maul cone setup. Dark Consumption doesn't heal unless I've been hit on the head more often than I thought.

You may want to mention the great animation times on the first 2 dark attacks as great to build Fury with. To me a guide should at minimum cover all the variations on one style, or even as much as it can about a Powet Set combo. What if I wanted to skip Shadow Maul? How would this change me?