DrMike2000

Sometimes a non-immobilised Kineticist is much more valuable to the team than 4% Defence, Captain.

I haven't given Electrical Melee a go yet on any archetype. After reading this I think I'll try it on a Stalker.

(I'm also getting seriously addicted to stealth playing A Stalker, 2 VEATs and a Warshade at the mo )

Edit: Aside from Ninjutsu, what secondaries have people tried with Elec, and how would you rate it? I've been eyeing up Electrical Armor and Regen. Would either of those work or not? And whats the problem with Elec/Elec solo, Adam?

Good question.

Phantom Army would still be valuable for pumping out the damage once it was slotted.
Illusion would still have the per-spawn control of Spectral Terror, long timer hold of Flash and enough single target holds to function, so it still covers all the usual Controller defensive bases.

I think without Phantom Army's tanking abilities it would still be a workable set. Slightly low on control and higher on damage, a lot like Gravity is now.

Playing last night, Enforced Morale on my level 20 Energy/Pain Corrupter was NOT giving mez Protection to my level 47 Stalker (who runs at the softcap without Practiced Brawler). I could see the mez resistance in COmbat Attributes, but the mez protection wasn't there at all.

When I switched back to my other level 20 Energy/Pain Corrupter, they were able to buff each other with full effects.

I wonder if lackeying was part of the problem? I've got a number of villains of different ATs. I'll do some tests later and report back.

I use temp powers extensively (both Grenades, Kinetic Dampener, Med packs, Recovery Serums and Envenomed Daggers), but I support the OP's idea.
I also find it annoying to have to open up my full recipe tray and delete a few hand grenades or sluggers or whatever every couple of missions.

Despite the high drop rate, the crafting annoyance barrier has been enough to deter most players from using them, judging by the high supply and low prices on both BM and WW.

They do clog up recipe slots unnecessarily, just like TO's and SO's used to do when they still dropped at the high levels.

The clean solution is to make them fixed price items on the market. This way they're still available for the same price and inconvenience for thsoe of us who use them (they still need crafting and salvage purchases) and they don't take up recipe slots.

Making them fixed price also removes influence from the total player pool more efficiently than market fees do as they shift between players.

No one loses anything (no-one's making serious money from selling or vending these), and it removes an irritation.

I think the demons make far too much noise when they're standing still.

My first introduction to demon summoning was at the Facemakers in Cap, and a Demon MM came and stood next to me while they changed their costume. I could hear all the blazing and howling whilst on the costume screen with no idea what it was. (Well, a pretty good guess since it was the first or second day of the new issue )

On my Ninja or Thugs MM I take my pets to the black Market with me. I also turn off stealth auras and Dispersion Bubbles by habit when Im there. So I think I'd de-summonany demons if I ever got around to playing a demon MM.

I've been having a look at Widows for the first time today (so I'm no expert), and I've got a high level MA/SR Stalker, and the similarities between the two struck me too.

A Widow can get pretty close to soft-capping all defences easily enough with both Manouvers, Foresight and Mind Link, similar to a SR stalker.

Widows also get:
- some ranged attacks
- some AoE attacks, both melee and AoE
- they also transfer much of their defense bonus to the team, a whopping 29% or so while Mind Link is up, which is equivalent to the entire SR set.
- defence that works against non-positional Psi attacks.
- offensive buffs for team and self from Mind Link

The one big plus the Stalker gets is burst damage. Widows have nothing that comes even close to Assassin's Strike. And that alone probably makes up for all the Widow gimmicks.

I never play from power pick to power pick. When I start a character I tend to have a plan of at least which powers I'll take to 20, usually so I dont get caught flat-footed and miss Stamina. If the set has good powers at 16 and 20 (eg Corrupter Traps) I plan accordingly so I cna get them and Fitness.

From 20 on I'm usually making sure I'll have slots for come sets that open up at level 27, eg Thunderstrike, Red Fortune, Crushing Impact and Doctored Wounds.

At regular points through my character's career I'll write down and plan what i want for the next ten levels if not more, so I can fit in the powers or set bonuses I really want.

If I'm doing something a bit odd (eg my MA/SR Stalker with no mez protection who needs soft-capping as quick as I can) I'll probably have the entire build planned out to make it work.

But, I'm a number-cruncher by nature, and wouldn't expect everyone to do this.

I agree with the OP, Empathy is a really tiring set to play well.

You have to watch the team window for reactive healing, AND your power bar to make sure you're providing the best support you can due to all the long recharge buffs. All of which have different cycles. Fortitude's up every 30 seconds when slotted, so you never get much of a break from this intense HUD-monitoring.

Contrast with FF or Sonic, which as other s have said can be split between 30 seconds of buffing during which time you ignore the enemy, and 3 1/2 minutes of attacking during which time you ignore the HUD.

The Blaster version definitely does knockback, and not knockdown, just like the Controller version.

I'd choose Combat Jumping for a Kinetics character.
The extra defence from Manouvers won't make a big difference to you or your team.
The immobilise protection could save you if you get immobilised without an enemy next to you to heal off. Positioning yourself is also important for a number of other powers like Hot Feet and Cinders.

This could be done in missions, just like in Mayhem missions. In the open world, forget it, since there's no obvious point to reset a whole map.

Would you want targettable prop objects in non-Mayhem missions?

I guess it would be possible to add non-targettable destructable props that are affected by AoEs though.

Mastermind's Poison Gas Trap is a placeable Sleep AoE, and almost universally reviled from what I've heard.

Hopefully the better numbers make a difference here. I certainly think its an interesting idea for a power mechanism if done right.

Saving civilians is good from a story point of view, but really hard to make into fun gameplay, because it allows AI to lose the mission or penalise your score for you.

I'm more than familiar with Freedom Force, as my website will show. There, the penalties for collateral damage were so small that it didn't really matter, it was worth watching a building collapse jsut for fun even if you lost 25 prestige or whatever. Except for mission specific cases like the "Save Nick Craft" mission that frustrated the heck out of many players.

Champions Online had a number of escort missions, which also proved really frustrating much of the time. (eg escort the aggro-grabbing lady Bigfoot)

The common problem with these two cases is that its no fun to watch an AI run into the line of fire and be unable to stop them.

It can be improved upon, but its still tricky to get right.
In one of the Freedom Force missions I wrote for a mod, I had groups of civilians to escort to safety. I included commands to move them to spots, get them to wait, and so on, similar to CoX Mastermind commands, and made sure the enemies in that level preferentially targetted player controlled heroes. Even so, it wasn't one of the smoothest missions.
If you want to try this out in CoX, make a Ninja MM and try to keep your Genin alive. Its quite challenging. Fun? Maybe...

Not saying it can't be done, just that its often one of the least popular and most frustrating forms of gameplay in cases where its been tried.

I think you're building a lot of recharge into a build that doesn't really benefit from it too much.
It'll make Amplify, PBU and your nuke come up quicker, but thats about it in terms of long recharge powers. I'd scraped together every scrap of +Rech for an Empath, but not for a FF-er.

I think your ally sheilds and Dispersion are fully slotted for maximum defence ehnacement there, aren't they? But if not, make sure that they are. Maybe 4 LotG's would give better set bonuses (+Acc and +Health instead of +Runspeed from 2 GotA's)

Repulsion Bomb's stun only goes off 40% of the time, so I'd prefer to slot it for damage. Positron's Blast would be better than Stupefy if you're chasing set bonuses.

Its really easy to get some Ranged Defence using either Thunderstrike or Red Fortune into this build. Since you're starting from a pretty high base I'd aim for some of this. Thunderstrike in 3 single target blasts, Red Fortune in Dispersion and Manouvers, 6 each. That needs 7 extra slots. I'd take the 4 from Siren's Song and slot it one Acc, its perma out of the box. Take the Heal from health, and just slot Amplify 3 Recharge.

Red Fortunes will give you back 10% Recharge, and Thunderstrikes give you some +Rec and +Acc. Between the 5 sets you also gain +16.25% Ranged defence, taking you from around 27% to close to the 45% softcap.

That's the route I'd go.

Selfish/team-focussed debate aside, I think any Bane Soldier who doesn't take TT:Manouvers for purely selfish reasons hasn't understood the power.

16% Defence slotted to absolutely everything (including Psi and all the other usual holes)? 1 in 3 of all attacks bounce off for 1 power is pretty awesome.
Adding on the top of 12% Ranged slotted def from CT: Defensive? Sold!

You'd be mad not to take it, even if you didn't give a toss about your teammates or intended to solo exclusively.

Yeah, thats exactly what kept happening.

Bunch up in the constipated shake animation, get mezzed. Press transfrom button again, start bunching up again then turn to dwarf if no-one interrupts me this time. I believe the devs are aware of this issue, but its a hard one to fix and low priority.

I'm still not a fan of the length of the shapeshifting animation. It has occurred to me that it will be less of a burden on a WS since it's not cutting into a precious 10 seconds of Build Up time.

Thanks for all the advice, people! Some really useful tips in this thread

Has anyone tried fighting 8 empaths?

1. Reaching ranged softcap is very nice, but not essential. If your buddy plans to soak up most of the aggro, let them do it, you'll be making them indestructible after all. Dispersion and Manouvers (slotted) and Hover give you 25% defence of so, which is good for handling stray shots, and 3 Thunderstrikes will put you at 37%. I wouldn't sweat the other 8% unless you're soloing.

2. Medicine is Ok. FF provides plenty m,itigation by itself, and you'll find the green pills rack up in everyones trays pretty quickly. Aid Other isn't bad as a patch up, and also as a sleep breaker if your Controller buddy gets slept. Aid Self and PFF work very nicely together, but do be mindful that PFF will kill Dispersion Bubble, and thus stuin or hold teammates without mez protection.

3. Sonic Blast will be WAY more effective than Radiation. Do it!
For much of the game, you're able to hit enemies with 95% certainty, at which point Defense debuff contributes absolutely nothing. If you're planning on going light on acc slotting or not using Ios for set bonuses, just take Tactics after Manouvers.

Defense debuff is nice when you face say a Paragon Protector who's activated their god mode, or a bunch of Rikti drones, but there are other ways to deal with these situations, pre-emptive holds for PP's, use of AoE's on drones, yellow pills, and so on.

Sonic Blast on the other hand will increase the damage your team do for every single encounter where you fire off an attack.

I'd much prefer it if you could choose to start any AT in either zone.

Nothing in the game mechanics of any archetype is innately good or evil.

With the way it's going to be, if you have an idea for a stealthy melee hero (eg Batman, Invisible Kid from the Legion) you're forced into making them in Praetoria or the Rogue isles and then playing through some missions that make them become good. Why not allow the player to just start off in Paragon instead of dancing that dance for 20 levels?

Pure survival missions would be interesting.

Theres' the fiery lab escape after fighting Protean, that would be cool to saunter through as a Fire Brute, for example

Retrieve the radioactive device from the toxic lake would be an option - if you imagine Paragon City Waterworks in Crey's Folly with a constant DoT. Being a tank is one option, flight is another..

Last night I did the Gaussian arc again, which has the mission with multiple ambushes that fails immediately if Lady Grey falls. That kind of sucks (unless youre an FF Defender) since the AI can lose the mission for you. I was playing my Stalker, so no luck there.

I'd love to see a similar setup where YOU have to get out past hordes of bad guys, not necessarily having to defeat them all. (Maybe even get to an EMP generator that deactivates all the robots when clicked, thus giving you a big XP boost for surviving or controlling them first?)

Do you have a search comment saying that people had better have the right powers or they'll be kicked?

I agree that its dissappointing when a VEAT rocks up and doesn't have the defense buffs, but I think your standards are a bit high for PUG-ing.

Hmmm....

On my PeaceBringer (who got to 50), I pretty much ended up staying in human form most of the time, with the odd drop into Dwarf when I got into trouble. I'd got the Nova and human single target and AoE blasts slotted, but basically found the switch to Nova form too slow and irritating a lot of the time to make it really worth using.

That was on a PeaceBringer...
On a Warshade, things are different. The human form has less innate firepower, making Nova more valuable. Nova form can also get boosted by powers like the two Mires and eventually Eclipse.

Is it fair to say that Warshades require a bit more shapeshifting than PeaceBringers? Its starting to look that way

I think the original post acknowledges that style and theme are often the reasons people pick powersets, but is asking if there are any game mechanic reasons why MA would work better. He's not saying anyone wouldn't enjoy MA for what it is.

Its pretty poor when one sets trumps another in all aspects, thus penalising some players for concept, isn't it?