Combat

Minions:
Earthquake
Hurricane
Phase Shift (especially Carnie phase shift)
MoG
All psy powers without a positional defense tag
Nullifier Grenades
Group Invisibility

Lts:
Tar Patch
Sonic Blast attacks
Howling Twilight
Dark Servant
Build Up, Aim, and Rage
Heat Loss
Wormhole
Phase Shift
MoG
Sapper guns
Fulcrum Shift/Siphon Power

Boss:
Build Up, Aim, Rage
Group Fly
Detention Field
Radiation Blast Attacks
Phase Shift
MoG
Various very high damage attacks


All hit with the accuracy of a Rularuu eyeball, or are autohit. I created a mission that only used non-positional psy holds as attacks, and my scrapper was held with 2 stacks of his mez protection and OWtS on, so an alternative would be to have them all use those attacks.

Apparently beast mastery is a set that will be added sometime during the timeframe of I22 (before I23). It is in development. Summons wolves, lions, and a dire wolf (why not a bear?). Also summons hawk and locusts as attacks.

Discuss.

AT mods:
Melee Damage- Scrapper
Ranged Damage- Blaster
MaxHP/Defense/Resistance- Tanker
Buffs/Debuffs- Defenders
Controls- Controller
Cap Damage%- Brute
Cap Resist%- Tank

Inherent: Fury

Primary:
1. Old ET (Energy Melee)
2. Rage (Super Strength, scrapper level)
3. Slash (NW)
4. Shatter (Mace patron)
5. Blaze (Fire blast)
6. Venom Grenade (Wolfspiders/Crabs)
7. Footstomp
8. Rain of Arrows
9. Old Psychic Shockwave (Dom psy assault)

Secondary:
1. Tactical Training: Maneuvers (Wolf-Spiders)
2. Dispersion Bubble (FF)
3. FF Generator (Traps)
4. Fulcrum Shift (Kinetics)
5. Heat Loss (Cold)
6. Freezing Rain (Storm)
7. Sleet (Cold)
8. Eclipse (Warshades)
9. Dark Regeneration (Dark Armor)

Max everything.

Add Rikti to the very easy group. DE were annoying, but surprisingly not that bad (apparently the level 50 DE don't drop quartz anymore, but those cairns are still blasted annoying). From what I've seen, the preatorians aren't that bad. I'm expecting vanguard to be dangerous though. .

They changed the FF: +recharge proc, fyi. It still won't stack, but it will refresh itself, as far as I know.

I've done some testing on +4/x8, and I'd like to share my findings (using the 32.5% to all build).

The following villain groups were very easy, and I could basically steam-roll them without even using inspirations:

• Circle of Thorns-
  A lot of fire damage and negative damage, but no bad debuffs. Only annoying thing they can do is apply a lot of -tohit when I'm fighting a lot of bosses (at one point on a tip mission I went against 7 or 8 death mages, and I had to sap them and use BM before they started going down).
  
  
• Malta-
  Mostly smashing/lethal damage, and I'm immune to end drain. Gunslingers can put out a lot of damage, but not enough to threaten me, and the only annoying thing they do is combine into a Zeus titan.
  
  
• Crey-
  Lot of energy damage, no debuffs. Easy prey.
  
  
• Freakshow-
  Smashing, lethal, and energy damage, and I'm immune to the only debuff. Again, very easy.
  
  
• Council/5th Column-
  Some negative energy damage, and guns that deal -defense, but mostly smashing and lethal damage with no real dangerous debuffs.

Then there were enemy groups that required a little strategy, and/or forced me to use inspirations and godmodes:

• PPD-
  Mostly energy damage, but the defense debuff on every hit builds up quick. I still completed the Destroy Portal Corp Lab building (the one with 99 Ms. Thistle ambushes, and Rularuu/Council Empire enemies) without dying, but I had to carefully manage how much defense debuff I had on me, and I had to use a few respites and my god-modes to survive.
  
  
• Carnies-
  Not hard at all, but very annoying. This is true for any character, as the carnies are just annoying to fight. I never was in danger of dying (even to the non-positional psy attacks), but I hate being heavily -tohit debuffed and trying to kill a +4 boss that is phased half the time. The minions and lts. were easy though.
  
  
• Nemesis-
  Again, not that dangerous unless I kill the lts. too quick, but annoying. At one point I fought 4 fake nems and 3 warhulks, and a large number of lts. and minions in one fight. I killed too many lts. with my AoEs, and nearly died until I popped demonic aura and barrier. I then basically played cat and mouse around the diamond structure in the middle of the room (tech lab), killed the remaining lts. so that the bosses didn't get any vengeance, and then beat the bosses up. Even with 7 +4 bosses, I wasn't in any danger, though it was annoying to try and hit them through a lot of force-fields (sapped stopped that).
  
  
• Cimerorans-
  Generally easy to kill, but I can't get too debuffed or they will eat me. Sometimes spamming AoEs is enough to beat them, but I still have to watch my defense and pop purples/godmodes when they stack too much on me.
  
  
• Knives of Artemis-
  Same as Cims, but can also throw down patches of annoyance.

Finally, there were a few enemy groups that were downright dangerous at +4/x8 (though lower difficulty levels would probably make them merely annoying to fight):

• Rularuu-
  I fought them in the villain tip mission mentioned earlier. They weren't insta-death, but required careful strategy and insp/godmode management to defeat. Basically, I would zerg the overseers after popping a godmode, and then target wisps. The only really dangerous mobs are the eyes, and when I retreated to cover I found out that the wisps will heal any unkilled mobs up to full fairly fast. Wisps also have detention field, which is annoying.
  
  
• Longbow-
  Longbow are probably the most dangerous group for me. I can still fight them, but certain combinations of Wardens require special tactics and godmodes. For instance, I had a mob with 2 radiation wardens and an illusion/empathy warden, along with 4 nullifiers. If I stayed in the sonic grenade fields, I'd have died in 2-3 seconds without godmodes on (sonic grenades deal -40% resist debuff to all, and radiation wardens will strip you of any defense). I found the best way to fight them was to throw DN on one of the wardens, and retreat into cover. Then I would try to kill the nullifiers before they used their grenades, or retreat farther back if my resistance got too low.
  
  
• Arachnos-
  These guys are binary. Either you kill the tarantula mistresses before they debuff you, or you die. They are slightly easier than longbow, as they only have one problem mob, but they are still quite dangerous.
  
  
• Snakes-
  Less dangerous than the previous groups, but pretty deadly. Toxic attacks ignore defense, and I have no toxic resistance except for powersurge, so the spit attacks are deadly. The rest of their attacks are smashing/lethal, and can be ignored.

Finally, I'd like to share my general strategy for soloing:

• Lead with Darkest Night on toughest boss
  
• Change target to different boss
  
• Use Build Momentum, then Whirling Smash > Ion > Whirling Smash
  
• Most of the lts. and minions are now dead, so I begin use my cones as best I can, and WS whenever it is up
  
• Energize at the beginning of the fight against easy enemies, used as heal against tougher enemies.
  
• Use powersink whenever it is up to sap and refill my blue bar
  
• When all the is left are the bosses, I switch to my single target chain on the non-DNed bosses.
  
• I use demonic aura whenever things start going badly, and use barrier whenever it is up. Powersurge is saved for truly dangerous mobs, and I rotate it, barrier, and demonic aura when I need prolonged, massive amounts of protection.
  
• I carry greens, blues, purples, oranges, and reds. Blues and greens are mostly used after powersurge crashes, but occasionally I run out of end when I don't use powersink often enough. Purples and oranges are used situationally when I need high levels of protection and/or my godmodes are down. Reds are used as they appear to speed things up.
  
• Against AVs I like to have one or two lts or weak bosses nearby for powersink bait. I also save Lore pets solely for AV fights, as they are too squishy for normal gameplay. Powersurge is used for end recovery during AV fights, and energize is mostly used for its end reduction.
  
• The more dangerous a mob is, the more I move. Against crey or malta, I usually stand in the middle of the mob without much movement. Against longbow, I jump all over the place, retreat behind cover often, and try to make sure the mobs are packed so that my AoEs are at maximum effectiveness.

Using these tactics I was able to complete +4/x8 missions at a decent pace without many deaths. I will hopefully get a video up soon, and I'm working on a guide.

Got all the costume pieces, now mainly use them for PvP IOs. I also use them for a jump-start for new characters, as starting with a ton of threads is a nice way to begin with a few level shifts.

Just an update, I've finished getting everything for the build and all T4 incarnate stuff. So far I've run against a few +4/x8 missions with no temps or inspirations. Circle of Thorns are very easy, as are malta, but longbow require either very careful strategy or rotating godmodes (barrier, powersurge, and demonic aura will basically make you invincible most of the time). I tried fighting Ms. Liberty as a +4 AV, but wasn't able to cause damage without lore pets because she is pretty resistant to smashing. With lore pets, I could damage her, and if I was using temp powers I could have beaten her.

Here's the build for smashing and lethal. Forgive some of the odd slotting in the attacks, as I found it was necessary to get all of what I wanted:

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.953
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

TW non positional: Level 50 Magic Brute
Primary Power Set: Titan Weapons
Secondary Power Set: Electric Armor
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Mu Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Crushing Blow -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(3), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Achilles-ResDeb%(13)
Level 1: Charged Armor -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(7), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(7), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(9)
Level 2: Titan Sweep -- HO:Nucle(A), Dmg-I(11), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(23)
Level 4: Conductive Shield -- RctvArm-ResDam(A), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(9), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(17), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(48)
Level 6: Lightning Field -- HO:Nucle(A), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(37), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(48)
Level 8: Follow Through -- Hectmb-Dam%(A), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(37), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(39), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(40)
Level 10: Build Momentum -- Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(A), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(11)
Level 12: Static Shield -- HO:Cyto(A), ResDam-I(13), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(15)
Level 14: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Enzym(17)
Level 16: Grounded -- GA-3defTpProc(A)
Level 18: Rend Armor -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(19), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(21), Achilles-ResDeb%(23)
Level 20: Boxing -- Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(A), Amaze-ToHitDeb%(25), Amaze-Stun/Rchg(36), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(46), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(48)
Level 22: Lightning Reflexes -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Tough -- HO:Ribo(A), ResDam-I(25)
Level 26: Whirling Smash -- Armgdn-Dam%(A), Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg(27), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg(29), Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx(29), FrcFbk-Rechg%(31)
Level 28: Energize -- Panac-Heal(A), Panac-Heal/EndRedux/Rchg(31), Panac-Heal/Rchg(34), Panac-Heal/EndRedux(34), Panac-EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), HO:Enzym(37)
Level 32: Arc of Destruction -- HO:Nucle(A), Armgdn-Dmg(33), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx(33), FotG-ResDeb%(46)
Level 35: Power Sink -- Mocking-Taunt/Rchg(A), Mocking-Taunt/Rng(36), Mocking-Taunt/Rchg/Rng(39), Mocking-Taunt(40), Mocking-Rchg(43), Mocking-Acc/Rchg(43)
Level 38: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(39)
Level 41: Electrifying Fences -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(42), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(50), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(50)
Level 44: Ball Lightning -- Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(45), Ragnrk-Knock%(45), Ragnrk-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(46)
Level 47: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Ksmt-ToHit+(50)
Level 49: Defensive Sweep -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 0: Born In Battle
Level 0: Marshal
Level 0: Invader
Level 0: High Pain Threshold
Level 50: Agility Core Paragon
------------
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(15)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(31)
Level 1: Momentum
Level 1: Brawl -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(33), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(36), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 1: Fury
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run

I don't know the lore like the back of my hand, but the only relatives Statesman has, that I know of are Ms. and Miss Liberty.

We killed his daughter, or Malaise did, in a recent WWD. His granddaughter is killed in the LRSF. And finally, States himself is supposed to be killed on the 17th in WWD5.

I have a feeling it is a very bad idea to be related to States right now. And that isn't even counting the many dimensional States we have defeated.

Alan Turing had an answer to the soul argument against thinking machines (sorry, this will probably be long):

"Thinking is a function of man's immortal soul. God has given an immortal soul to every man and woman, but not to any other animal or to machines. Hence no animal or machine can think.
I am unable to accept any part of this, but will attempt to reply in theological terms. I should find the argument more convincing if animals were classed with men, for there is a greater difference, to my mind, between the typical animate and the inanimate than there is between man and the other animals. The arbitrary character of the orthodox view becomes clearer if we consider how it might appear to a member of some other religious community. How do Christians regard the Moslem view that women have no souls? But let us leave this point aside and return to the main argument. It appears to me that the argument quoted above implies a serious restriction of the omnipotence of the Almighty. It is admitted that there are certain things that He cannot do such as making one equal to two, but should we not believe that He has freedom to confer a soul on an elephant if He sees fit? We might expect that He would only exercise this power in conjunction with a mutation which provided the elephant with an appropriately improved brain to minister to the needs of this sort[. An argument of exactly similar form may be made for the case of machines. It may seem different because it is more difficult to "swallow." But this really only means that we think it would be less likely that He would consider the circumstances suitable for conferring a soul. The circumstances in question are discussed in the rest of this paper. In attempting to construct such machines we should not be irreverently usurping His power of creating souls, any more than we are in the procreation of children: rather we are, in either case, instruments of His will providing .mansions for the souls that He creates.

I'm about halfway through with my work on the smashing/lethal build, hopefully will be up by the end of the week. I will say that I have managed to get smashing/lethal to 45%, with 3 -res procs, and 178.8% +recharge. I'm not thrilled at what I had to do to get there, and I'm seeing if I can make it better for I release my "final" version.

What I would like to see from a CoH2:

1. Not to be named CoH 2.
Obviously, we can't call ourselves World of Heroes, but we could go to Country or Continent and keep the abbreviation, or alternatively expand on the multi-dimensional side of our game universe and call it Multi-verse of Heroes or Omniverse of Heroes.

2. To retain all the systems we know and love.
This is the hard one. I couldn't upgrade to a CoH 2 with less to do, even knowing it had better graphics/mechanics. I'd want SSK, Flashbacks, Bases, and MA at least. Adding these to a new engine instead of an old would allow them to be more functional and hopefully would make the game much more enjoyable.

3. To increase the potentials of the game engine.
The developers have done a lot with engine, but nevertheless they have been trapped by it. A new engine would hopefully allow much more options, even if the basic gameplay isn't largely changed. Said engine should allow things like negative Knockback (pulling instead of pushing) and get rids of quirks like an inability to slot for damage resistance debuff.

4. A greatly increased focus on lore and storytelling.
The original CoH was largely a blank canvas, with very little in-game story (the background was fine, but was largely not exploited). In essence, it was a large number of newspaper missions with more annoying objectives. We've gotten better through the years, but I'd like to see focus on story-telling throughout the game, perhaps with a system similar to SWTOR. I'd also like to see the game embrace its roots more, with more comic-book like cutscenes. Another cool option would be phases of the game featuring different comic-book eras, which could done by traveling in time or across dimensions.

There is a ton of stuff that could be exploited. I would love to use ouroboros to see the Nemesis take-over, for instance. Additionally, I'd like to see more exotic locations and threats, like fighting Shiva in space or Rularuu in the Shadow Shard.

5. The closing of CoH1
I wouldn't like to see a huge division between the new game and the old one, as our playerbase is narrow enough as it is. Instead, I'd like all current CoH subscribers to get a free download of the new game, which would probably use the same freemium model as this one. I'd also like to see this game's servers shut down so that all of our population would be in the same game.

This means that CoH 2 cannot change so much that it alienates players from this game. For example, it cannot become a WoW-clone with superheroes, and it can't rely on the old MMO holy trinity.

6. A move away from Paragon
I'd like to see us find another city. Alternatively, Paragon could get a huge revamp. I'd like to see a much more "city-like" city, instead a bunch of boring buildings and more locations around said city. Oh, and no walls. I'll address that later.

I mentioned earlier that I'd like more exotic locations, but I also want the "normal" zone to be upgraded. Preatoria was a set in the right direction (new Atlas was not). Such a city would have: more than three types of buildings, a difference between zones greater than sky color, differing types of architecture (little China-town, residential areas, "old-town", etc.), and each building would have a history. Instead of a building being randomly picked for an instance, I'd like for the locations to be set, for example the mission "Go to the Crey, Inc. offices and stop the Countess!" would send you to the Crey office building, which would probably be obvious in-game with Crey logos, statues, etc.

7. Remove the War-Walls!
They have some fiction behind them, but they are basically an example of in-game limitations. Instead, I'd like to be able to travel from one zone to another without going through a gate or being stopped by a wall. To do that, I'd like to have more travel powers. Instead of just having flight, I'd like to have an option for "Very-Very fast flight", which would allow me to travel between zones. In ordinary zones, you would use regular travel powers (which would be more customizable than the travel powers of today), but when you get to the land between zones you would pick up your speed at scream across the zone to get too the next area. This would make you feel like more of a superhero, but the fast-movement segment would basically be in place of a loading bar (ie, it would be a loading-bar game).

8. Improved graphics
Specifically, on our characters. I'd like to see realistic faces and skin textures, and more options to make our characters distinct (as opposed to just our costumes). I'd also like to retain the costume options from this game, but updated for 20xx. With a totally new engine, I'd like to see options for moving fingers, swaying hair, and vastly improved power customization (location customization, emanation from an object, etc.).

I'd also like to see improvements made so that even the vanilla of the game looks realistic. I like the general graphics style of the game, but it could be less plasticy for characters and cardboardlike for zones.

I'd also like to see more animations rigs, so that we can fight enemies that are currently impossible. On the same subject, I'd like to see the ability to fight much larger enemies, starting on the scale of Rularuu and the Super-Meks and going up from there. I see Shiva as being the size of a small moon, for instance.

9. Keep the AT-powerset mechanic
I'd like to see a return of our ATs, but probably with a little combining of classes. I'd probably end with Blasters/Dominators, Controllers, Defenders/Corrupters, Scrappers/Stalkers, MMs, and Tanks/Brutes, with the classes with a / between them combined. This means blasters and dominators would be combined into one class that focuses on blasting with a minor in crowd control (improve blaster secondaries or swap dominators around), defenders and corrupters would be combined as a higher damage defender with scourge, scrappers would have options to either scrap or stalk, and tanks would get the Fury mechanic.

I'd wait until I22 and do either a controller or a dominator

Another option I'm think of is a Claws/Dark/Blaze Scrapper. That way, I could pick up Rings of Fire as an extra single target attack, and have a decent attack chain from Focus, RoF, Fire Blast, and Shockwave. I've got a build for such a character with soft-capped range/AoE, plus perma-hasten. Other upside is that I wouldn't have to worry about fury.

For those who may not fully understand, Dominatrix is Tyrant's granddaughter... I'm not sure the lore guys thought her through very well. She's kind of a hush-hush secret that we avoid talking about to keep the T rating intact.

I'm trying to decide what my next "main" will be after I've fully explored my TW/Elec Brute. My last few toons have all been melee, so I'd like to try something out of the blue. Basically, I have come down to two options.

The first is a Crab Spider that combines the best of AoE, pets and protection into one package. Basically, I would get ranged and AoE to 45%ish (probably a little higher for protection), and perma the 3 pets (spiderlings, reinforcements, and the blaster from the Mace patron). I would rely on my pets to destroy single targets while I wipe away large groups with a full AoE attack chain. I think the character has the potential to be very powerful, but at the same time would give me some challenges as I wouldn't have the mez protection and debuff protection I'm used too.

My second option is a little more crazy. Basically, I'd like to make a ranged melee character. A traditional melee character that fights solely from range, ideally hover-blasted. I think Claws/Dark may work well for this, or perhaps Claws/Inv. I wouldn't deal as much damage as an actual melee character, but I'd be able to do "enough" and still keep everything a melee character gets for protection without needing to enter brawls. I think this would work better on a character with gloom, so I was thinking a claws/x/soul brute that has an attack chain consisting of Focus, Gloom, Shockwave, Dark Obliteration, and Soul Tentacles, which should give me enough to work with. If anyone has other ideas about this concept, I'd love to hear them.

Both characters would basically be play at 50 only, and would have alternate builds for exemplaring. Budget is infinite. Which one gets eliminated?

Titan Weapons seems to work fairly well, even on a non-fire. I've run my TW/Elec through a few energy farms, and he runs at fast pace. I wouldn't be surprised if a TW/Fire would be comparable to SS, though probably a bit trickier to use, as timing the momentum mechanic and making use of the cones will require more work than spamming 4 AoE attacks.

The upside of Titan Weapons is that at the damage cap, a TW will be better than SS because WS does virtually the same damage as FS with a much faster recharge (14 seconds compared to 20). The challenge, however, is that TW has to balance momentum and needs 160% more damage to reach the cap, though it won't suffer from rage crashes. Either way, it should be a plausible alternative for someone tired of the SS/Fire FoF (Flavor of Forever).

I usually keep a few purples and oranges for situations, but everything else is either used immediately or converted to a red. Basically, I run every mission like its a farm. Max speed, powers blazing, things dying too fast to kill me.

Had another similar encounter today. Was running a MoKeyes. Leader asks if any has incandesence, so that they could tp us out of obliteration beam.

First beam in, and someone had used it to teleport the entire league INTO obliteration beam, failing two badges.