Darkonne

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I really liked the idea of removing the fitness pool from many of my builds but that's a no go now with the whole click thing / not perma buffs deal.


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If anything, it Fitness will likely become even more valuable, since it is one of the few ways to add passive powers to a character. It appears to be the only viable way for every non /Regen to add tasty IO perks like Numi's Convalesence to a character. :-/

-D

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Set Bonuses are always active. The special powers from IO Enhancements which grant them are not.

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What about in passive powers? If I slot +20% regeneration in Fast Healing do I get that bonus all the time?

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Passive powers are always on, therefore any enhancements of this type would always give their bonus.

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If I slot +20% regeneration in Dull Pain do I get that bonus only when I click Dull Pain?

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Right. A Set Bonus which gave +Regeneration would *always* be active in Dull Pain, while an Enhancement which grants +Regeneration would only work for a set period of time after Dull Pain was activated.

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This sounds like a documenting nightmare. I really hope the Invention system will break with tradition and have plenty of up to date, accurate information available for it in game.

-D

I'm liking the story so far. :-)

-D

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And now you'll have a new, seperate inventory for Recipes. I'm not seeing the issue here.

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I think it will be an unecessary restriction that serves only to make using the system harder than people want. Many of the IO sets look like they'll only really be worth using if you get several IOs; otherwise, the lesser effect of any one IO makes slotting it a bit of a drawback. If people need to mix and match anyway, why make it harder?

The answer, of course, is that they want to encourage trading and restrict hoarding. In classic hamhanded fashion, they do that by trying to give you no choice in the matter. In my experience, attempts by developers to force certain sorts of behavior on players very rarely works as intended, and I suspect that will be the case here.

-D

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That is Stupid!

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Why? You're limited in the number of Inspirations and Enhancements you can carry. You're even limited in the number of auctions you can put up.


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Because you're already limited on the number of Enhancements you can hold and/or slot. There's not need to further restrict your ability to use the system. The devs are just paranoid about the players having anything easy.

-D

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Really?

So I can carry around 30 metric tonnes of titanium, alien artifacts, arcane books, jars of steaming entrails, trinkets, chotchkies, techno-doodads, and something like 1200 pieces of refined components (enough to create scores of gigantic power generators, machine guns, robotic surgeons, and many other types of massive equipment)...

... but I'm limited in the number of bits of paper carrying recipe instructions I can have on my person?

errr....

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Paper cuts. Extremely dangerous.

-D

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I just read the entire thread, all I can say is I think I deserve a rare recipe from pool B for that.

I would like to add that I'm thankful the dev's are looking into alternate solutions as I was a bit concerned previously.

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This is another good point. While I'm still very concerned about the potential for fixed supplies of Pool B loot, I do appreciate the Devs' willingness to listen to our concerns. I appreciate them mentioning the fact that they are listening to our concerns even more. I know you guys take a lot of abuse (from myself and others) so thanks for keeping up the effort, and keeping the lines of communication open.

-D

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Something else just occured to me and I haven't seen it mentioned...

It was mentioned by Doc B that rewards from pools B, C and D depend on level, and that the Trial Recipe Pool doesn't exist at "early levels."

What's the state of the Task/Strike Force Recipe Pool at levels 10-15, 30-35, and 40-45? Villains have no Strike Forces in these level ranges, but Heroes do have Task Forces there.

Or did Doc mean that the reward depends on character level, so that a 42 exemping into a 35-40 Strike force can get a 42 Recipe?

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These are rather good questions.

-D

Okay, I've managed to skim the whole thread, and can now comment.

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I am listening to your ideas, but a Flashback system is simply not something we can implement in a timeframe you would all be happy with.

Instead we are looking into other options to get you the Pool B choice so level 50s don't feel gimped.


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KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHNN!!

How on earth can the very people who need to add new content to the game not understand how badly a Flashback system is needed?!? You could skip new content for a year to add Flashback and it's release would STILL give more content options to a large number of characters than all the new content you would have added in that year could have. And as time goes on, that dynamic only gets worse. This is just about the only MMO I've seen that actively punishes characters for gaining levels. Insanity!

[Deep breaths. Find the happy place.]

Okay. Flashback is out. As EvilGecko has already explained, restricting some recipies to a finite resource is an extremely bad idea; the fact that those recipies are further tied to a narow 5 level bracket is an EXTREMELY BAD idea that must not happen. I think the best suggestion made so far was simply to drop the annoying concept of getting Rare recipies from certain activities and simply make all recipie drops have a small chance for a rare; that would provide the most playstyle freedom while still keeping some of the recipies rarer than others. Since I suspect you would never do that, the backup would be to make the Story Arc pool a combination of subset of the Trial and TF pools. That way you can get all the rare recipies from repeatable content, but Story Arcs will still provide a measureable bonus. It would be nice to also retroactively get the bonus on characters that have done the Arcs, but I'd be willing to forgoe that bonus as long as the system provides a way to get the rares repeatably.

-D

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Bah, I was the first Dark/Rad defender! Well...probably not, but there's actually a decent chance I'm the one that's been around the longest, since June 8th '04.


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Well, Darkonne has been on Pinnacle since three days before the official launch, which I think would be April 25, 2004. He was originally created in Beta, and I liked the powerset combo (as well as the way the random costume matched it) so much that I rebuilt him when the game started.

On the other hand, I took a year and a half break from CoH, and I don't think seniority accrues while my account is inactive. ;-)

-D

Nice guide, Gyffes! I've manged to get Darkonne up to level 45 on Pinnacle, and I've seen I think one other Dark/Rad Defender in all that time; that one was somewhere around level 9 in Atlas Park way back when.

In general, I'd say our styles are similar. I still use Neutrino Bolt and X-Ray Beam to help whittle down targets one at a time, and I also don't much like Electron Haze or Black Hole. Like you, I was seduced by the Psychic side of the Epic pools. That said, you should send for your halibut becuase I don't actually have Dark Fluffy: for all his somewhat malevolent appearance, Darkonne isn't the type to go summoning nether-creatures. :-/

The other differences in playstyle seem small. I do use Proton Volley to soften up a spawn, but I don't use Aim very often. I also don't use Neutron Bomb much. It looks really cool, but it has a long animation and the AoE isn't quite big enough to hit many targets unless they're clustered together. I mostly use it to mop up low level mobs for badges or street sweeping. I went for Recall Friend/Teleport as a travel power, and added Hover for ease of use. The ability to stack bodies up for Howling Twilight is handy, but as you say it's not really a big deal; I just went with Teleport because I though it most fit the character. I tried Atomic Blast, but I didn't really like it. The idea is nice, but since its hold will wear off before my endurance will start recharging, it just doesn't seem that helpful to me. With Dark Miasma (and then Psychic Mastery), I have enough tricks that I can usually shut down a spawn without taking myself out of the fight.

Anyway, great guide for a seldom mentioned set. Good to know there are still a few others out there!

-D

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Lord Recluse's orders for mandatory Halloween cheer among the populace.

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Heh - the floggings will continue until morale improves.

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Darn it I was going to quote this too and say something about it... Got beaten to it...

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Me too. Fortunately, my regulation cheer prevents me from being upset about it...

-D

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This is great, but does this mean "You can change your title once at any point while you are level 50" or "level 50's can change their titles an unlimited number of times"?


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I'd assume he means an unlimited number of times. If you could only change it once at level 50, why not just list 50 along with the other title-alterable levels?

As for Positron, that's good to hear. It's a nice improvement to the game, and I'm glad we know it's coming. :-)

-D

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And they've jerk hacked the map. Look at the third image. Look at the old city zone setup on vidiotmaps. Notice something missing? On the new map, there's an 'X' with 'Hamidon sighting here', but there's no room to put the Hive in its relation to Eden without a lot of shuffling. All of the other zone gates are straightforward tunnels to the next zone, but the link between Eden and the Hive has to either loop way out of line -- based on the other zone connections, the gate on the west side of Eden should go straight into southeastern Faultline -- or go under Faultline to pop up on the far side, which doesn't make sense from the position of the Hamidon sighting mark and the fact that the tunnel would be going under a reservoir. Could this be an indication that the Hive and the Hamidon are going away in the future, with Hamidon raids being replaced by the Statesman SF?


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I thought that at first too, but the original map was the same: the "dam zone" of Faultline was right next to the Eden zone. Apparently, the Hive is out of line with the zone door. Go figure.

-D

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"They'll give respecs when there are major changes." OK, define the difference between 'major' changes and 'minor'.

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Just a guess, but ...
Minor? A change to team teleport would only affect the FEW who've ever taken it.
Major? something that affects thousands of toons (i.e. the defense changes)


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Yeah, that'll teach those Group Teleporters to be different. Loosers!

-D

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Unless of course the Vet reward is a respec that can be redone every so many days/weeks.


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I dare not hope for such a thing! The disapointment would be too cruel!

-D

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I8 doesn't have any changes to game play or changes to sets so there is no reason for a free respec. I felt it was obvious there would be no free respec.


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No, there have definately been changes to various powers since the last issue launched. Whether those changes were major or minor largely depends on whether they affect you or not. :-/

Personally, I think it's a mistake to limit respecs to a maximum of three that requires completion of a group task. Giving out free respecs is a nice way to redress the issue, and once an issue (give or take) seems like a good rate for it. That way, no matter how screwball your build, or how unpopular your gaming time, the sun will always come out in a few months at most.

I suppose veteran rewards could similarly solve the problem, but it would take a fairly ongoing set of respecs to fix the problem, and for most veterans (who just don't respec anywhere near that often) this would wind up being a fairly lackluster reward.

So really, why not add a respec with each issue? It doesn't cost the devs anything to do it, and they don't pile up.

-D

Ah, very nice guide, thanks!

-D

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Bah! If only my blaster was high enough to actually know about these guys!

I really wanna right about them but I can't cause I know squat. Aside from whose double they all are.

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My feelings exactly!

-D

Very nice guide!

-D