ClawsandEffect

I would like to have the bosses in an arc use the name of the character that is currently running it. The arc is going to be presented as this group gunning for that player in particular, and I would like to be able to personalize it a little.

Is there a command that will cause an NPC to use the name of the character currently running the arc, or am I SOL?

/signed (with my own signature and as many other people's as I can reasonably forge)

This is a great idea.

I don't think the devs were intending to shut hearing impaired players out at all, far from it. I think they just didn't THINK about it when they designed things.

Any of the ideas suggested above would be an improvement, and I think it would e awesome to see it make it into the game.

Sonic/Devices is good. I deleted a Fire/Devices and remade it Fire/Electric. That's the only experience I have with it.

The Fire/Devices was deleted in the mid 20's because it just didn't feel right compared to my fire/fire. The Sonic/Devices on the other hand was my second of 4 50's and is still regularly played. It's also my main PvP toon.

I go entire missions without ever taking damage. I solo a little slower than a Sonic/EM, but much safer.

Sonic/Devices blasters.

Yup, I'm ahead of the curve, I've been PvPing with one for 2 years.

I think the problem you're encountering here with the lack of answers....is that no one is entirely sure how Diminishing Returns actually works.

Personally, I have no idea how it works because all my attempted tests turned up different results. It seems kind of random, I don't think it is, but it seems that way.

SR was overpowered in i13 due to Elusivity. I won't explain it because I don't know how it works that well, but essentially it makes accuracy and to-hit buffs less effective against you.

They tweaked Elusivity for i14, so lot of people are assuming it is going to make SR laughable again. I'm sticking to my guns here, there's nothing wrong with SR. What is viewed as bad about it is that opponents with a lot of accuracy or to-hit buffs hit them too often and it seems like there is no secondary at all. You're at the mercy of the random number generator. I've seen SR's 2-shotted, and I've also seen them be untouchable for extended periods of time. It just depends on how the number generator feels like being at the moment.

Fire/Sonic won't be horrible, but it probably won't be that awesome either. 4 of the 9 Sonic powers require a teammate to be useful, you can put one of them on your Imps, but they pobably won't live very long. Good PvE pairing that will do okay in PvP, but not great. Mind or Ice are the generally preferred primaries for PvP. Storm is one of the better secondaries. Like I said, I don't know controllers that well, so this is just hearsay.

Edit: The control part will not be anything like it is in PvE. Your controls will automatically affect your target if they hit, but their duration has been severely reduced. Don't expect to hold someone for more than 3 seconds or so. Mind and Ice do well for different reasons. Mind's damage is all up front instead of DoT, so it does it's damage faster. Ice has a lot of effects that are useful aside from holds, mostly in the form of slows. Fire doesn't really have any secondary effect.

Anything can work well in PvP, it's more a matter of powers you choose and how you slot them.

There are varying degrees of performance even within ATs. As a general rule, ranged ATs will outperform melee ATs almost every time. There are a lot of good scrapper and tank players out there, but they are outnumbered by good ranged AT players.

MY personal favorite PvP combination is a Sonic/Devices/Electric blaster. It's not the top of the heap, but it suits my playstyle.

You can PvP with just about any scrapper you want. Spines tends to do the best due to it's two ranged powers. Impale is a ranged attack that does High damage, immobilizes them, grounds them if they were flying, and slows them, all in one attack. It is generally seen as the BEST attack available to a scrapper for PvP. Pairing it with SR, Regen, or Fire are all good options.

Defender-wise, Cold/Ice is a very nice combo. Ice/Cold corruptors have been giving heroes fits for a long time and Defenders finally got Cold Domination to even the score. Cold/Sonic is a good one too. Cold/Psi is another good option. Storm is effective in PvP as well as Dark. Generally avoid Empathy for PvP. Good set for team PvP, but if you're solo it won't do you much good.

For blasters Fire and just about any secondary will work. And just about any primary paired with Energy will work. With that in mind it should come as no surprise that Fire/Energy is one of the most popular PvP blaster combos. Ice/Energy is a good one as well, as is Psi/Energy. Assault Rifle is best avoided for PvP as it does not play to the sets strengths. Electric underperforms when paired with the wrong secondary, but can work with the right one. I've seen a few good ones, but they were anomalies. Devices can be paired with just about any primary and be effective, if not stellar. Electric/Devices and Assault Rifle/Devices are probably the worst pairings for PvP

I don't know a whole lot about PvP tanks, but Stone Melee, Super Strength, and Energy Melee seem to be the most common secondaries. Stone and SS because they are higher damaging sets that include a ranged attack. Fire, Ice, Shield, and Invuln seem to be the most common primarie, not necessarily in that order. I only have one tank and he's below level 30, so I can't help much here.

Controller-wise Mind, Plant, and Gravity are okay. Storm, Kinetics, and Rad are all decent. I'm not going to give advice here because I don't really play controllers.

I'm not a PvP guru, or even one of the more knowledgable forum members. I'm just telling you what I have experience with or have seen firsthand. I could be wrong on any of the above points, so don't take my word for any of it without checking other sources.

Before the recent changes fear was an AWESOME mez. The ATs that had mez protection (which no longer exists in PvP) generally didn't have fear protection, with a couple exceptions (Dark Armor being one, but it had other problems, Willpower being another) I believe one of the changes made in PvP is that mez protection powers that give resistance now give resistance to everything but I'm not for sure on that. If that is not the case then your fear power will have its full duration. Which is 4 seconds or so when slotted.

Nowadays it is still a decent mez that will buy you a couple seconds to either attack or escape, but I wouldn't design a build around it. Fearsome Stare from Dark Miasma, Touch of Fear from Dark Melee, and Terrify from Mind Control are the most effective fear powers in PvP, Intimidate isn't that great but its better than nothing if you're dead set on having a fear power.

Electric Blast is actually one of the worst pairings with Radiation Emission. It can be worked with, but Electric's damage output is, well, pretty pathetic for a defender.

In PvE it is a perfectly viable pairing, but in PvP it has a number of drawbacks that are difficult to overcome.

First, End Drain isn't very effective in PvP. There are builds that can do it, but Rad/Electric doesn't do it as well. Kin/Electric with Electric or Power Mastery as an Epic will be the most viable PvP end drainer. Granted, Rad's tier 9 has a significant amount of end drain in it, and if you slot for it, it is very nice, but it is not up nearly often enough to be a viable PvP power.

You've already discovered the unreliability of Rad's toggle debuffs in a PvP situation. Unfortunately, that does hurt Rad's performance. It will still do well in a duel, but for zone PvP there are just too many mezzes flying around for you to really get much use out of them. If *I* get a Rad debuff toggle put on me the first thing I do is figure out where it came from and hit them with a mez, which all of my PvP characters have at least one of. Most people feel the same about it. You will get a lot more use out of Enervating Field than you will Radiation Infection, it will still get dropped but it activates a lot faster so you don't waste time putting a toggle on that won't stay on.

If you really want to be a PvP end drainer and are set on playing a defender to do it then Kinetics/Electric/Power or Electric is your best option.

If you want to PvP with a Rad, I would suggest you look into taking Ice or Sonic as your secondary. They both have enough single target damage to be viable in a PvP zone, which makes up for the fact that only a few powers from Rad are truly useful in PvP.

You can run a Rad/Electric if you really want to, but you will most likely end up being disappointed with it's performance. Any real ability to end drain doesn't come until the 40's with your epic pool. Power Build Up works like Power Boost and Build Up combined, so using it before Short Circuit is an option. Another option is Power Sink, which is available in the Electric Mastery pool.

The reason I recommended Kin/Elec/Elec is it gives you 3 powers that have a large amount of end drain. Transference and Short Circuit in the middle of a fight after your opponent has already expended some endurance will floor their end bar long enough to drop some toggles, making them easier to kill. Always remember that end drain is an all or nothing proposal, either you drain 100% of their end, or don't bother doing it at all.

Unless I am mistaken, Radiation Infection debuffs their accuracy, not their to-hit. If that is the case, then you are reducing a total of 130% by 50, coming up with 80%. I can't guarantee this is accurate advice, but it seems to me to be the most likely reason.

Also, Diminished Returns could be coming into play here. If their To-Hit started at 95% and you put Radiation Infection on them, you still debuffed their to-hit by 15%, a not insignificant amount. And if the character in question has any kind of to-hit debuff resistance then RI is not going to be as effective against them. Tactics I believe has to-hit debuff resistance. Some other powers do as well, but Tactics is available to everyone, and unless you see them activate it's hard to tell when they're running it.

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No Claws, it isnt. I agree with you those were jerks, but its not fault of them the PvP is the mess it is. These same griefers play other games with PvP, right? And there are PVPs out there that are way superior to ours.

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Sorry, I should have specified a little more. I wasn't trying to say that ALL PvPers are bad, just that the ones who ARE jerks and delight in griefing people give the rest of the PvPers a bad rap and it tends to color the general populace's perception of PvP and the people who enjoy it.

I have had a number of great experiences in PvP zones, and I have had a number of annoying ones. if a new PvPer steps into a zone and has a good experience (meaning they have fun, whether they win or lose) they will be more likely to come back because it was enjoyable for them.

On the flipside of it, if a new PvPer comes into Siren's Call 5 times,and my aforementioned griefing scenario happens all 5 times, it is definitely going to have an effect on their perception of PvP. And the odds of that happening are pretty good.

Your Controller example is a case in point. Yes, that player would be confused that their hold did not work the way he expected it to, and rightly so if they have never been to a PvP zone. But, as I have seen happen, as soon as he asks why that is, the jerks in the zone pick him out as a newbie and an easy target, and the griefing begins. If that player is unaware of the existance of the forums, as many are, he has no resource to find out what just happened and why. All he knows is that his powers don't work and that he had 8 people killing him without having a chance to defend himself. End result: One more player with the impression that PvP is unfair because no one answered an honest question he had, instead taking it as a sign that he was an easy target.

And now you have that same player telling his friends (also new players) that PvP is unfair and that they shouldn't try it. And they will tell their friends, and so on. So you have an entire group of players that will never PvP, all because of a group of jerks that decided it was a better idea to repeatedly gank a new player rather than answer a few simple questions.

PvP is a niche in the game. The devs want to make it a larger part of the game as far as how many people do it. The elitist attitude held by some PvPers discourages new players from entering the zones. The devs saw that (the lack of players in the zones, they'd have to be IN the zone to see the elitist attitudes) and it was probably part of the reason for the changes.

Saying that the PvP changes were ALL caused by the players is foolish, and not what I was trying to say. However, the stance that the players were completely innocent and not to blame for ANY of the changes is just as foolish.

Edit: The person I quoted and responded to did not make the point about the Controller.

Very nicely done. I kinda skimmed it because I'm at work right now, but it caught my interest enough that I'll be reading the whole thing when I have time.

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What i13 made was making things worse; because if the aforementioned newcomer plays a Controller or a Defender, or is used to see Flurry as a silly chain filler (to name a few things), he will realize that on PvP there are completely different rules altogether without any kind of warning.

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That was kind of my point. How is a new player supposed to learn the rules difference if they never live longer than 10 seconds after leaving the hospital? Or even worse in the case of Siren's Call, getting teleported OUT of the hospital with a sliver of health. That is a CHEAP tactic. Viable, yes, but anyone who does it earns my instant ill-will.

FOTM builds are nasty, that is true. The point I was making was, if ONE of them is hard to kill, then how are you supposed to do anything at all aginst EIGHT of them?

And, yeah, that is the fault of the players. A while back I went into Siren's to kill some Warrior bosses and pick a few fights while I was there. Someone wandered into the zone and said in broadcast "So, how does PvP work in this game, I've never done it before." Someone replied that if they met them in the circles they would show them how PvP worked. Predictably enough (I was waiting for it) 5 people showed up and damage spiked the poor guy before he even knew what was going on. The victim went to the hospital, and was teleported out and killed again by a stalker.

Understandably the newbie's response was "WTF, this sucks" and he left the zone. As far as I know he never came back. It's the players doing things like this that chase new PvPers away, not the way PvP works.

If you damage spike ME, oh well, I know what to expect. My options are to try and blindside someone for a kill, or get a team, or come back later when the odds may not be as stacked against me, I don't whine about it.

Someone who has never PvPed before will get frustrated very quickly with their inability to do anything. Sure, maybe their powerset is a bad one for PvP, but they're never going to find that out if they don't get the chance to actually fight.

Badgers that have been around a while, they know what to expect when they go into a PvP zone for a badge, I have no sympathy for them. I do have sympathy for the newbies who want to PvP and no one lets them learn anything.

I never said PvP was fine, I said I had no problem with it, because there is nothing I can do to change the direction it is going in. The above example was nothing more than a small group of players just being jerks to someone they KNEW was new to PvP. And, unfortunately, that seems to be the rule rather than the exception.

I doubt I will ever change my opinion that the jerkwad players are what killed PvP. I still think the PvP changes were a direct result of the devs watching the behavior in the zones and asking themselves "What can we do to give the new people a fighting chance?" I don't agree with how they chose to go about it, but I appreciate the sentiment behind it.

I don't really have a problem with new PvP. The only problem I ever had with PvP at all was the attitude of some of the players engaging in it in the zones.

When someone new to PvP comes into Siren's Call with the intention of trying PvP and seeing what it's all about, damage-spiking them over and over and not giving them a chance to even play is likely to leave a bad taste in their mouth, and they will leave with the view that PvP sucks.

That's the main reason there aren't a whole lot of new PvPers, they got repeatedly ganked in their first venture into the zone and left feeling completely ineffective. And when the only advice anyone gives them is "lrn2playnub" it just makes it worse. They were trying to learn how to PvP. Being killed by a team of 8 in less than 3 seconds doesn't exactly give anyone a whole lot of time to learn anything.

It's not hard to tell when someone is new at PvP, when you spot a new player, instead of spiking them to death right away, give them a fighting chance and they might stay interested and, you know, actually come back to the zone.

I enjoy zone PvP myself, but when a zone turns into a one-sided gank-fest, I tend to leave. Even if I'm on the side doing the ganking. Getting killed repeatedly with no chance at all of fighting back isn't fun for me, neither is killing a basically helpless opponent.

I'm perfectly willing to give a newbie a fighting chance against me if it means that there might be a new opponent in the zones out of it. Sometimes I'll even let them beat me in the interest of getting that hook. I mean, what was it that got most of you more hardcore PvPers hooked on PvPing? Most likely it was the first time you defeated another player without assistance from anyone else. It doesn't even matter what game it happened in, the satisfaction of that first kill is probably what made you come back for more.

In the zones in CoX, that first kill almost never happens for someone who has never PvPed before. Since all they accomplished in coming into the zone was dying over and over, they never got that hook getting them to come back, and never PvP again. Hence, no new PvPers.

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You guys are probably discuraging this guy from the game from forum PvP

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Seems to me like he already left.

His last post said something to the effect of "endgame" with PvP involved.

After almost 3 years my Fire/Fire blaster, Return to Cinder, finally dinged 50. It came as part of the AoE spawn destruction while fighting Tyrant.

((He's a hero in the same sense the Punisher is a hero, no goody-two shoes, coddle the badguy for him. He views it like this: Why would I put a criminal in jail, when they will be back out committing crimes again, when I can put them in the morgue and not have to worry about them? The villains in the thread didn't do anything he cared about while he was around, so he had no reason to fight them.))

That's kind of amusing actually. The Sonic/Devices blaster that I've been PvPing with since I started PvPing (issue 7) is now one of the better combos.

Part of it I think is the PvP recipe drops.

I have stated my theory in another thread, but I'll say it here too.

They probably had the idea for PvP drops a while ago, before any changes were made. In any other area of the game everyone has an equal chance of getting any drop.

In PvP, had it not been changed, you would run into the problem of 1% of the population getting 95% or more of the drops.
As more skilled PvPers got the PvP specific drops, with the PvP-only bonuses on top of the PvE ones, the ratio would skew even more as the already skilled players would be even more overpowering and difficult to defeat.
Eventually what would have happened is, if you were not one of the old guard, or friends with someone who was, PvP would be pointless for you because you would win maybe one time out of every 100 encounters. I can understand the devs not wanting to see that happen.

Personally I don't really have a problem with any of the changes. They changed how it works, I adapted. Some of my characters got better, some of them got worse. No big deal.

I PvP when I'm in the mood to PvP, I don't take it seriously like some people do. I get pwnd on a fairly regular basis, and as long as I'm still having fun, I don't care at all. My sense of self worth does not depend on how well my pixelated character performs in a fictional world that has zero bearing on my day to day life. Some people LIVE for PvP in video games, to those people the only thing I can say is: Go outside once in a while.

Complaining about the state of PvP is unlikely to ever accomplish anything productive. The devs changed it for a reason. Granted, it is a reason that the hardcore PvP crowd disagrees with, but it's not going to change in a direction the devs don't want it to go because people complain. I'm unhappy with some of the changes myself, I just don't see the point to complaining about something that won't change because of it.

If PvP is that important to you and you are dissatisfied with the way it is being implemented in this game, your only real option is to find another game that has PvP more to your liking. Maybe a little harsh, but it's true.

And for the record, I am not a PvE carebear, or a badge-hunting whiner. I PvP fairly often and enjoy it. I'm not trying to bash anyone, just being realistic about the state of PvP in this game.

I've been popping into the PvP forums here and there, and from what I've seen the most common attempt at constructive feedback is "change it back."
That isn't very constructive.
The first person who said "change it back" basically got told "no"
The next 4000 who say it are very, very unlikely to get a different answer. And from what I've seen, they aren't even getting an answer anymore.

The devs were listening to the players when they implemented the changes to see how well they went over. They listened to the relatively small amount of positive constructive feedback they got, and adjusted things here and there in beta. When it degenerated into a chorus of "Waaah! Change it back NAO!!!" they stopped listening.

Honestly, I can't really say I blame them.

*shrug*

I went with Dark Melee/Ninjitsu.

Sure it isn't the best combo, but it's not the worst either.

I don't choose my powersets based on what is good in PvP.
I choose them based on what I like and figure out how to make them work in PvP.

Probably why I'm not that great of a PvPer, but I refuse to play a set I don't like in the rest of the game just to be good at something I spend less than 10% of my time doing.

But YMMV.

((C'mon guys, I wasn't trying to kill it! I just can't post a whole lot right now so I took myself out of it for a bit))

Claws got up and dusted himself off, the momentary paralysis from the Voltaic Tank's electric attack had worn off and his limbs were functioning again.

Looking around at the destruction he noticed something the villains hadn't yet. With a sigh, he watched as the pair of Paragon Protectors melted back into the shadows they came from. Just because they were brainwashed didn't mean they were stupid, they weren't going to take on those odds with no backup. They were badly hurt but still alive, which was more than could be said for anything else in the area.

With a low growl he walked back into the bar and made a beeline straight back to where Tommy was still clutching his bleeding leg.

"You set me up you piece of garbage," he told the terrified thug "gonna have to pay for that."

With no further warning, Claws powered up his left claw and slammed it into the thug's head right between his eyes. Leaving Tommy's twitching corpse behind, Claws headed toward the door.

"Thanks for the help guys." he told the villains in the room "I'm gonna get outta here before Arachnos shows up, I don't know if they know enough about me to take me out, and I'm in no hurry to find out."

As he said that he slid open a compartment on his right thigh and pulled out a wad of cash.

"Three grand cover the damages nicely?" he asked Brian "It's gonna have to, that's all I have."

He threw the wad of cash down on the bar and sauntered out the door. Powering up his leap-assisters he leaped off into the night in search of the pair of Protectors who had survived the blast. As weak as they were after the explosion he should be able to take them out pretty easily now.

((Claws is removed from the ensuing events for now, he might make another appearance later on though))

"I'll be fine without it, the pain helps me focus" Claws told Brian as he headed in the direction of the door, stepping on the unconscious Damned on the way. "If they sent the same goons they did last time they'll be tough customers. I'm starting to think I was set up, helluva coincidence that Crey fired Tommy right when they did, knowing I'd come looking for him as soon as I could. Even more of a coincidence that the Hellions he was running with have Crey backup."

Claws made his way out the door, ensuring that he was clearly visible to the arriving Crey squad. He wanted to make sure they headed for him first. He appreciated the assistance, but the ones helping him were still villains, and he didn't want to owe them any favors.

"Just so we're clear," he said in a casual tone "anyone fighting these clowns is doing it for their own reasons and not because I asked for help."

No sooner did the words leave his lips than a Voltaic Tank dropped off the roof behind him, smashing both electrically charged fists into the space between his shoulder blades, dropping him to the ground like a ton of bricks.

Taking that as their signal, the rest of the Crey operatives began their attack. Leading the charge were a pair of Paragon Protectors with strikingly similar cybernetic enhancements to the ones Claws had. They seemed to move perfectly in sync with each other, almost as if they shared one mind.

((The Crey operatives in question consist of a dozen Vigilants and Field Agents, five Voltaic Tanks, five Power Tanks, and the two Protectors. Other than the Protectors they will all behave exactly as they do in-game. I might not post for a little while so I figured I'd at least let you all know what's coming))

((OOC Post, I posted in the Character Descriptions thread with Claws's backstory and current situation. Crey is hunting him to gain the technology they only have half completed, which explains their presence here. And incidentally, he did sabotage the infirmary beacon. He is currently a rogue hero, or true vigilante))

Name: Alvin Morris, PhD
Alias: Claws and Effect
Appearances: The Den Bar and Grill, a couple dead threads from a while back.

Claws and Effect is a claws/regen scrapper, technologically based. He has cybernetic arms which contain energy field generators. The generators are most commonly used to form scythe-shaped claws that extend 17 inches in front of his hand and extend all the way back to 6 inches past his elbow. They can also create energy waves for knocking opponents off their feet and shockwaves that send them flying. The claws themselves are formed of solid energy and have the same basic function as razor sharp metal blades of the same size.

His artificial lower legs contain pneumatic leap-assisters that can propel him several hundred yards in a single leap. He usually uses them in much shorter jumps as he has no way to control a leap of that distance and tends to smash into things on landing. They are recharged by the simple act of walking or running.

His regeneration stems from millions of nanomachines that begin to repair any damage done to organic or mineral materials almost instantaneously. It has effectively halted his aging at the apparent age of 34 and it will not repair any damage caused before their introduction to his body (scars and such) as they consider it to be it's natural state (Note: Due to that property, the nanomachines cannot be used as an outside healing agent. If they are transfered elsewhere they consider anything they encounter when first transfered to be the baseline condition, they will repair anything that occurs afterward though). The only known way to disable the nanomachines is with an electromagnetic pulse which will interrupt their functioning for long enough to damage their owner. As soon as the pulse is over the nanomachines will begin to function again within a couple minutes (they just go dormant instead of being destroyed, this was intended in their design)

Alvin has a very cynical outlook on life that comes from the destruction of his life and livelyhood at the hands of the Crey Corporation. He was once a gifted scientist in the fields of robotics, cybernetics, and nano-robotics. He designed and built his cybernetic enhancements and nanomachines by himself over a period of several years, and Crey wanted his technology to fuel their Revenant Hero project. In an attempt to sway him to their side they planted a bomb in his lab. They only wanted to destroy his work so they could offer him facilities to work out of, all with the goal of eventually killing him and keeping his work for themselves. Him being caught in the blast and disfigured wasn't part of the plan.

Without his cyber-limbs Alvin would be a quadraplegic and blind in his right eye. Thanks to the quick actions of the paramedics and surgeons from D.A.T.A., he was saved from that fate by the grafting of his own prototypes to his body within a few days of the explosion.

He is a registered hero in Paragon City, but he much prefers to work alone, or with a loose network of individuals who have similar outlooks on crime prevention. He believes that heroes are not an effective deterrent unless the criminals believe they are in real danger. This led him to the conclusion that criminals will not believe they are in real danger unless they actually are in real danger.
Hero Corps is not fond of his outlook, but as long as he doesn't cross the line from hero to true vigilante they are willing to overlook it for the time being, reprimanding him from time to time in an attempt to keep him in check.

Recently he has been suspended from duty pending an investigation into his actions on a case. A number of thugs died of injuries inflicted by Alvin when the Ziggurat infirmary teleport beacon all heroes are required to carry failed to activate when used. His attitude and general dislike of obeying the rules of his proffesion have raised questions that he may have sabotaged the beacon himself to enact a more "permanant" solution to the case at hand.

His current whereabouts are unknown as he has jammed the transponder which monitors his location. A side effect of this jamming is that if he is critically injured his own hospital teleport beacon will not activate, and he may die wherever he is. Several of the more outspoken heroes have shared the opinion that this might not be such a bad thing.