DragonHunter

Just came back after a long long break and getting into these IOs. I spent a lot of time researching a new scrapper i leveled and have a nice IO build for him, but i was looking into my old dark/dark defender and couldnt find much advice on IO slotting.

I pretty much decided what powers i want, however I am on the fence about a few. My concept is to go balls to the wall with tohit debuffs and team defenses, and to use tenebrous tentacles and nightfall to assist the team with cone AE damage. I tried Dark pit and didn't like it, even in conjunction with howling twilight.

What i'm not sure about is the 3 leadership powers. I considered dropping assault for vengeace, but people rarely die when im doing my thing, if they do it's probably going to be me. So i thought about dropping one for Torrent for the utility, but which one should i drop. Or can my end handle all the toggles and some cone blasting with the proper slotting?

Anyway, here are the powers i was thinking of getting:

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.707
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Level 48 Magic Defender
Primary Power Set: Dark Miasma
Secondary Power Set: Dark Blast
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Dark Mastery

Hero Profile:
------------
Level 1: Twilight Grasp Empty(A)
Level 1: Dark Blast Empty(A)
Level 2: Darkest Night Empty(A)
Level 4: Tar Patch Empty(A)
Level 6: Hasten Empty(A)
Level 8: Shadow Fall Empty(A)
Level 10: Swift Empty(A)
Level 12: Fearsome Stare Empty(A)
Level 14: Super Speed Empty(A)
Level 16: Tenebrous Tentacles Empty(A)
Level 18: Health Empty(A)
Level 20: Stamina Empty(A)
Level 22: Howling Twilight Empty(A)
Level 24: Petrifying Gaze Empty(A)
Level 26: Night Fall Empty(A)
Level 28: Maneuvers Empty(A)
Level 30: Tactics Empty(A)
Level 32: Dark Servant Empty(A)
Level 35: Assault Empty(A)
Level 38: Recall Friend Empty(A)
Level 41: Dark Consumption Empty(A)
Level 44: Soul Transfer Empty(A)
Level 47: Dark Embrace Empty(A)
Level 49: Teleport Empty(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest Empty(A)
Level 1: Vigilance
Level 6: Ninja Run

If anyone could take the time to advise me on slotting with set IOs in mind, i would greatly appreciate it.

For reference, here is what i was going for with SOs, before i realized that i was almost 50 and don't want to respec AGAIN when i want to switch to set IOs heheh.

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Very awesome. Particularly tounching since i met my GF in CoH heheh.

Perhaps you can edit your original post to add the mirror site so people can find it more easily.

After looking at all the winners and runners up, and all the other entries officially posted, as well as all those posted to this thread so far i have chosen this one as my new desktop

Its really kewl and it just says CoH to me. The winners entries are all fine and dandy but they just dont leap out at me. Kinda boring really.

Perhaps they picked based on their suitability as wallpaper but i disagree with whoever said wallpaper cant be too 'busy'. I already had my icons sorted and moved to strategic points on my desktop. When i changed it i only had to move a couple to uncover some enemies and it was fine. I like pictures with lots of interesting stuff going on. I like to look at it and theres a lot to see, thats why its on my desktop where i see it all the time.

If you have your desktop halfway covered up with all the icons now THATS too busy =p

Three cheers for Statesman! Hip hip, hooray! =p

Really great news, keep up the good work.

I didnt say it was easy i said i could do it.
No it doesnt suck, its actually kinda fun being able to make it across hollows through tons of purples without dying. Im sure if you died repeatedly it would suck.

Well yeah if something spawns on top of you, thers not much you can do. Most of the time however (most not all) this is due to latency issues, the spawn was actually set to pop when you got near, but because of a minor lag spike or just your normal ping, your client doesnt show it until its too late. It would be nice if they could fix this but... meh. After playing for awhile you get a feel for where there should be spawns and where its more likely to be safe. Even if youv never been to an area before, its a safe bet that theres gonna be a spawn at that intersection of alleys or the little cul-de-sac near the street, or right around that corner, but not right in the middle of the road (generally) or near the edge of a cliff where i normally make my path.

Besides, if your walking around and you notice you dont see any mobs, especially somewhere it seems like there should be, stop and wait a second so you dont walk right into the middle of a group you didnt see. This is probably a main cause of mobs popping on top of people.

One thing i failed to consider is when theres a high level spawn directly outside your mission, theres not much you can do at that point if you cant even take aggro to pull them away without getting one shotted.

So yeah, fix = good i suppose... but im gonna miss those long romantic walks through the hollows

Just for the sake of argument, i have no trouble getting across any zone at any level... EVER. No travel power, no stealth, just me and my 2 feet. In fact just the other day i lead a group of my friends from the atlas gate all the way around gredels gulch to a mission on the other side. Everyone was lvls 6-10, everybody followed me, and nobody died. We walked back without dying too. It requires being aware of your surroundings and paying attention but its not really that difficult. I mean you cant seriously expect to be able to put on auto run and step away from the keyboard in the Hollows, right?

I understand your complaint, how some people are less skilled then others and you shouldnt HAVE to slalom your way across a difficult zone for every mission, but seriously how often do you have to do this? Just thought you should be aware that while im sure your not the only person with this problem, its far from universal. Theres no zone thats so hard the mobs arent spaced far enough apart that you cant sneak thru with alittle effort.

[ QUOTE ]

1) Are you sure that you are getting the benefits of your slots while exemplaring? Mind you, my time doing this was short, but the amount of damage I was putting out being exemplared down to 18 seemed to be as if I did not have anything in the slots, not just 'cut down' to dual origin-level.

2) You get 0 influence or enhancements (even training ones at the level you are going down to) until you are out of debt, then you get influence, never enhancements. Whether this is double the xp you would gain, or not, I do not know. Even if it is double - Is 400xp and therefore 800 influence in the end more than 200 xp, 200 debt reduction, 650 influence, and a training enhancement per 3 mobs that sells at minimum for 1000 influence equal? That's very, very debatable and the point people are trying to make in this discussion.

My point is if influence is gained along with the debt reduction, then exemplaring becomes worth the time to do. Yes, I do realize the idea is to help low characters through their missions, but there has to be incentive to do it, otherwise it is more advantageous for both parties to sidekick and skip the low missions altogether, because both gain enhancements, the sidekick's powers are still modified by their slot allocation, and both gain influence.

With this change, I would feel better about risking getting whacked and taking 13k more in debt, since I have less versatility and alpha strike power than I do against an equivalent level of mob non-exemplared.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not 100% posative that you get the benefit of your enhancements however i was hunting with a level 30 and i exemplared him down to my level of 21. So we both had the same powersets and were at the same level. I had a bunch of damage DOs in my powers and he had even more SOs. When exemplared he was still doing CONSIDERABLY more damage then i was with the exact same powers. I didnt ask how many slots he had because it didnt seem to be relevent, if it DID cut down his slots to my level we would be about even and it wasnt even close.

I dont think influence is relevent to this issue, The benefit is that if you have debt, you are effectively 'advancing' at the same rate by getting 100% debt reduction (despite the fact that you are not actually advancing). This is the sole benefit of RSK aside from the fact that you can hunt with an whole group thats lower then you. Once you can do TF as well, the system is pretty much complete for what they intended it to do. It is NOT an alternate way to hunt like regular SK is. Its a specialty feature used to A) Work off debt and B) hunt at a lower level for whatever reason. All penalties suffered for doing RSK are inherent in the concept of RSK.

It works much like the concept of sidekicking, you get an increase in power but it doesnt give you the powers/slots/skill that would otherwise come with that level.
SK = increased risk for increased reward
RSK = decreased risk for a decreased reward

Im talking about best case scenario here, if your in more risk when rsk then you are when normally hunting, your doing something wrong. Its a situational feature, as intended.

If you just want influence, go hunt regularly

Its true that you get relatively more debt at the higher levels then you would at lower levels but you could consider that to be balanced by the fact that you know the game better and should be better at avoiding death =)

It does suck that you get so much debt when dying exemplared, especially since it can totally undo any debt removal you had done so far, however when exemplaring you should consider that and plan your hunt accordingly. Do something you would be able to handle at that level and play it safe.

Couple things to add,

You are NOT advancing when exemplared even if your paying off debt. If you have 10000 xp and you die you will have 10000 xp and 2000 debt(for example) after you work off all your debt as an exemplar you will still have only 10000 xp and no debt, just where you were when you started. Dying on purpose so you can work off the debt as exemplar gets you nowhere. You might as well be getting inf.

Also, there isnt supposed to be a 'reward' for exemplaring. Working off debt at 100% is nice but technically its not any better then hunting normally. Its a penalty not a reward.

edit: Furthermore, theres actually less risk then hunting normally. Sure you get debt as normal but you also get xp as normal. The game is supposed to get harder with advanced levels so your hunting at an easier level, and also while it lowers your powerset to what you had at that level(not a penalty, thats what you would have had anyway) it doesnt take away slots. It reduces them in power but its still the equivelent of having 6 SOs at whatever level you would have been even if you couldnt use SOs or didnt have that many slots at that point.

Exemplaring is fine how it is

I just thought of a great idea...

I was contemplating the difficulties of implementing a 'consented random PvP' system(you know that youre going to be PvP but not necessarily who you will be fighting) in a game with seperate factions. There is no equilibrium of higher players protecting lower players from being killed unfairly(this leads to a point where all fights are consented, about even, or are revenged) because no matter what your level your supposed to be killing the other team. RP demands it, that level 10 villain is still a villain, you cant say 'oh il leave him alone cuz hes only level 10'. Well I mean you COULD but i doubt many would.

So how do you maintain the excitement of random PvP encounters without putting every noob at a disadvantage? I call it Rise to the Challenge!

Lets say your level 20 blaster decides to go to the PvP area. Your walking around and some level 30 controller sees you and tries to put a hold on you... In the Rise to the Challenge system, your blaster would get a popup, You are being attacked by a powerful Villain! Do you Flee or Rise to the Challenge? If you choose to flee either it kicks you out of the PvP area, or combat is not initiated, whatever works. If you rise to the challenge, your blaster would have his level artificially raised to that of the attacker, much like a sidekick. The attackers first power would then go through and combat would be initiated. The attacker still gets the first attack but the defender doesnt get cought completely by surprise.

Lets say the attacker is in a group of 3. The popup should tell you that 3 villains higher level then you are attacking. That way you will know whether or not you will be outnumbered and need to get backup. If you invite 2 more people and then accept, it should prompt the attacking group to confirm that they are attacking a group of 3 heroes. If both parties confirm the levels of each member will be raised appropriatly to make an even match. Once a side initaites battle, or confirms the assault, no more members should be able to join.

There are some difficulties with this, id like to get some feedback on it.
Should the feature be available to everyone or just within a certain level range?
Should combat be off by default unless its confirmed or only confirm if youre out of their level range?
Should the confirmation tell you what level is attacking you or just that they are higher then you?
What other problems, questions, or exploits can you forsee with this system?

Spawn camping(aka load killing) refers to killing someone as they spawn into the area, such as at a zone boundry. This is unfair because generally your avatar will load into a zone while the loading screen is still up, leading to a several second delay between when you can first be attacked, and when you can first defend yourself.

Killing someone that rezzed themself is different because they are already loaded into the world. It may seem the same because theres still a delay before disorient wears off(if using a rez insp) but the person in question knows that they will have a delay before they can defend themself and are putting themselves at risk.

Zoning is different because theres no other way to get into a different area other then zoning and you should be guarenteed that you will at least have control of your avatar before you have to defend yourself. Rezzing offers no such guarentee.

Edit: Reading back through several posts i seem to detect a bit of confusion on res killing. I am assuming that the hospital is NOT in the PvP area. If you die, it should not force you to stay in a PvP area, thats just dumb. Also, if you are going to be rezzed by someone else you have to consent to it, there no such thing as a non-consentual rez. The ONLY way to continue the PvP experience after you die is to return to the PvP area, allow someone to rez you, or rez yourself. In all 3 conditions you are consenting to PvP again.

I agree with having lots of options for PvP. More options is always better, assuming they work out the bugs and exploits. Its also less likely to have griefing run rampant then if there was just 1 place or a couple places people could go to do general PvP. SG wars and Duels are good examples of alternate ways to PvP.

I didnt consider having drones guarding the entrances, strategically placed drones would definately limit possibilities for load-killing.

[ QUOTE ]
Also, for dragonhunter's sake, I hilighted the part that counters his opinion. If I re-enter the PvP zone after you maul me, and you're waiting for me, and maul me again, and again... you're breaking the line between constructive gameplay and griefing. Camping "spawn sites" is the same as camping the entrance- it's effectively a spawn into the PvP realm

[/ QUOTE ]
If youre killed as your loading, thats griefing. If they wait till your ready, even if they kill you over and over i dont consider that griefing. Youre choosing to enter the PvP area so that you can PvP. If youre entering for some other reason, like you have a mission there, and/or theres no other way to get into the zone, thats just poor design.
As for the hopelessly outclassed, i would imagine theres going to be different areas of PvP for different levels just like theres different areas for PvE. If a level 20 goes into a zone designed for level 40+ to PvP thats his own stupid fault.

I figure that there will be specific areas for PvP when CoV comes out. For example, level 50 villains wont be able to go to atlas park and kill whatever noobs they see.

Keeping that in mind, ig you get killed in a PvP zone thats not griefing. If a hero keeps going back to the same danger zone and keeps getting killed by the same villain, he is not being griefed because he is making the choice to keep going back. This is a sensetive issue because there is a very good possibility that the devs will put important content that people will want to experience into the danger zones. Still, it is up to the hero whether or not they want to go into the zone to experience the content and by making the choice to enter a PvP area they are consenting to the possibility of being killed.

So... anytime you are consenting to being killed either by your actions or inactions(going afk in a PvP area is an example of inaction), you are not being griefed. If someone is going out of their way to make you upset by taking advantage of features in a way they were not designed to be used (exploiting) and theres nothing you can do about it, you are being griefed.

You shouldnt have to abort your mission or stop hunting in an area you have been in to avoid someone whose trying to kill you. The exception is if your in an area that is specifically designed for PvP.

They dont really need to clarify it any more, the key lies in the phrase 'non-consentual PvP'

If you enter a PvP area, you are consenting.

As for the harassment bit, if someone is roleplaying that they are a villain insulting a hero, i dont see a problem with that. If they are NOT roleplaying, thats harassment. How can you tell the difference? Besides context, you can always try this...
/tell Mean Villain, OOC: please stop insulting me, its bothering me

If they continue to insult you, thats harassment.