Elanthil

Just out of curiosity. While the site(s) are down, is there a mirror to the latest version of Mids anywhere out there?

Forgive the harsh phrasing, but if the company is so worried about their precious bottom line that they give the axe to perfectly good games like Tabula Rasa, and are so 'committed' to making CoX a flagship game, then why don't they *ADVERTISE*?

It's my belief that server pop has fallen because of vets merging into one or two servers based on server rep, as well as attrition due to loss of interest, game age, age demographics, and newer 'shinier' games coming out.

1 server is generally known as the 'gay coalition' server, and a large population of alternative lifestyle folks hang there

1 server is generally known as the 'roleplay' server, and the LARP wannabes hang there.

1 server is generally known as the 'pvp' server, and the more hardcore folks hang there.

The problem as I see it is that, between population merges and older players losing interest/moving to other games, and the lack of advertising for this game, it is becoming an unknown in the community again.

This game has been advertised on television twice..once for CoH, and once for CoV. Thats it. Thats all.

The company claims they ARE advertising...by way of having some kind of 'partnership' with Gamestop, apparently...funny, I go to Gamestop every week and have YET to see *ANYTHING* on their walls, racks or in/on the counters that has to do with this game.

Dudes, you can't have your cake and eat it too. You have to spend money to make money.

Advertise the *bleep* game *ON TELEVISION* again. Your wallets will thank you.

Stellar advice, Local Man. thanks a lot...and I'm getting more and more out of the guide as I reread sections.

I've played this char for over 2 years, and its my second ill/rad, but I've always had those questions about how OTHER people played their build...I tended to play mine like a blaster with pets...but now, I see some other ways to play, based on what you explained and what the guide covers.

Really good stuff!

As the title says. Given current states of each powerset, whats the current highest sustainable damage output controller?

The damage can be situational, DoT, or direct.

I'm not planning to FOTM, I'm just curious.

Did some more reading and I must say, the guide is a bit...chewy for the brain...at first, but it digests quite nicely if you just put in the effort to nibble at it steadily (sorry, I love analogies).

Found quite a bit of good info in there. I'm still feeling a bit muddle-headed about when to assign a slot to a power, but that should come in time and practice.

Some questions/comments I had about your final build:


1- What is your particular play style for this build? Do you stand off at all times and let your pets do the work, stepping in only to finish tough foes....or do you actively blast on things the whole time?

2- Whats the purpose of taking EM Pulse in YOUR playstyle? It requires advancing to melee range, much as Flash does, but its debuff and other side effects have such a meager duration (compared to Flash) that one wonders why you would really bother?

3- What is the best position, relative to the enemies, in your opinion, for the flying/hovering Ill/Rad during a large mob battle while SOLO...and where again while TEAMING? Directly above? As far out back as possible?

4-I'm suddenly having issues in Cimmerora with being seen and attacked after dropping pets. On my old (several years old) build, this didn't seem to happen so much. My superior Invis is currently SO'd, so could that be the problem, or could it be something that happened in a recent patch, as the problem just cropped up recently?

Yes, I understand its possible to be seen, your stealth drops 50%, yadda yadda, but I'm teaming with other Ill/Rads and Kins and they are not getting focus fired by 10 mobs...but I am.

5- Lastly, I'm having issues with my pets lack of AI activation range. Unless I literally get close enough to pick the enemies nose, my pets just...stand there. Furthermore, on the flip side, they occaisionally go insane and wander off to attack things nowhere near the party. Can you offer any suggestions on how to deal with their stupidity, and do you know of a macro that will 'mass kill' all my pets?

Honestly, I glaze over a bit when I read guides for this game. They seem to all be...and I don't mean anything rude by this....theorycrafting rather than the hard 'do this or suck' kind of information I need.

Again, the real big problem comes in not even so much what POWER to take at what level, but what SLOT to attach to that power at what level, because of exemplaring, et al.

Even after reading your guide, I still feel clueless about how to swap powers and slots around...I guess I'm just thick skulled.

As to power choices, well I debated over whether to take group invis, mutation and recall friend or not, but since I do a lot of task forces...speed runs....I kind of felt that taking them...and taking them as early as I could...was fairly important, given the sheer lack of available, RELIABLE empathy based characters on Freedom server. Trying to find a healer around here is like trying to get Yak milk from a chicken. And the lack of teleporters is just as bad.

I HAD considered the leadership pool, but several people informed me they don't think I'll be in range of my pets often enough or long enough for the power effects to come into play, and one person claimed that leadership powers don't affect phantom pets at all, so I felt because of the confusion it was best to skip it.

as to your set advice...after reading it over a couple of times I concur...you may have just save me billions that I don't even have yet .

I'll post the data chunk here, with slotting but no sets. Would you be willing to play with it a bit to optimize it? and feel free to ditch group invis if you think its really unneeded and replace ice with whatever you feel best.

Heres the data:

I'm putting together an Illusion/Radiation/Ice Mastery controller and find I need some help.

The build is designed to be able to handle soloing on (some) GM's, (most) AV's, and kick massive amounts of butt for missioning and TF's.

Eventually the build will be kitted out with a lot of purples, but for now I only have part of that worked out.

I have the powers set more or less at the levels I want them, although suggestions on variations would be great!

I also know HOW MANY slots I want/need on the powers.

The problem I'm really having is what slot to put on what power...when.

I'll post the list of powers by level and slotting, then the build itself.

Here is the 'laundry list' for the build:

Level 1: Spectral Wounds - APOCALYPSE (4 PIECE)
Level 1: Radiant Aura - DOCTORED (5 PIECE)
Level 2: Blind - FORTUNATA (5 PIECE)
Level 4: Radiation Infection - DAMPENED SPIRIT(X3), LADY GREY(X2)
Level 6: Deceive - COERCIVE (5 PIECE)
Level 8: Accelerate Metabolism - WINTER(X3), ZEPHYR<KB>(X1), RECHARGE IO(X2)
Level 10: Enervating Field - RECHARGE (X1), END REDUX (X2)
Level 12: Air Superiority -(5 slot for set bonus) - HECATOMB
Level 14: Fly -FREEBIRD(X2)
Level 16: Superior Invisibility - LUCK OF THE GAMBLER(X2)
Level 18: Phantom Army - EXPEDIENT REINFORCEMENTS (X5)
Level 20: Swift - FLIGHT SPEED (X1)
Level 22: Health - NUMINA (X3)
Level 24: Stamina - PERFORMANCE SHIFTER (3)
Level 26: Spectral Terror -GLIMPSE OF THE ABYSS (5 PIECE)
Level 28: Lingering Radiation - PACING OF THE TURTLE (5 PIECE)
Level 30: Mutation - RECHARGE RATE (X1)
Level 32: Phantasm - SOULDBOUND ALLEGIANCE (5 PIECE)
Level 35: Group Invisibility - RECHARGE REDUCTION(X1)
Level 38: Flash - UNBREAKABLE CONSTRAINT (5 PIECE)
Level 41: Hibernate - REGENERATIVE TISSUE (2 PIECE)
Level 44: Frozen Armor - LUCK OF THE GAMBLER (2 PIECE)
Level 47: Ice Storm - RAGNAROK (5 PIECE)
Level 49: Recall Friend -RECHARGE REDUCTION (X1)

--------------------------------------


Again, as you can see, I know how MANY slots to take, and what to put IN the slots...I just don't understand/know WHEN to TAKE what slots.

Is there any hard data available on the 'softcaps' for defense and resists for the various scrapper archetypes?

I did a little searching, but my search-fu is weak and did not find anything recent.

ahh thanks. That clears up some things I was wondering about. Really appreciate it.

Working on one now, but I'm not sure what the 'get asap' powers really are for this kind of build. Any suggestions?

As the title says, I'm looking for a good build.

Only 'requirements' I have are:

Energy Melee
Ninjutsu
Phase Shift

THROWING FREAKIN SHARKS! (grin)

I'm thinking of calling him 'Mr. Spamtastic'

Another thing about Fire/Kin is that there is a sort of...rhythm to their attacks...a chain of events most kins..even team kins..follow, and since you can't speed boost yourself (insert shaking of fists at Devs emote here>, that particular Godsend team buff IS NOT part of the general rotation.

This gets into the whole WoW-like concept of casting rotations, so I'll keep it brief, but the best thing any team can do for a Kin is to give the kin one person to 'hang out with' in battle...usually the guy with the star. The kin can target enemies THROUGH that person (most of the time...not all)...and then whenever you need a speed boost...REMIND the kin.

Forgetting to SB seven people every 1.8 minutes is NOT a sign of a bad kin, or even a bad player...its a reflection of the fact that I have almost two entire rows of buttons to mash, in particular (situationally changing) orders.

Here's a rundown of a fairly common combat flow:

-Turn on toggles, Open with Flashfires, follow with cages. Close distance to melee. Pop Fulcrum shift. Pop heal. Pop transference. Pop heal. pop fireball. Pop siphon speed. pop heal. reapply cages. pop cinders. pop heal. pop transference. pop fireball. giggle repeatedly while doing /e dance6

Thats a pretty tight time limit on popping HEAL by the way. Mistiming heal or transference or fulcrum shift is a fast trip to the hospital.

Oh I dunno, as a person who has happily spent thousands of hours editing maps, models and more for games as far back as Quake, Jedi Knight II, et al I suppose my idea of 'simple' is different than most folks

To me simple is going from A to B to C, then connecting C to A, then cross connecting B to Z, mirroring the whole thing in 3 dimensions, then throwing in a tap dancing bullfrog for good measure

For Devs with a proper set of tools (which I'm certain they have), most of this stuff isn't particularly DIFFICULT...just...tedious...very...very...tedious .

For instance adding nodes for wall/ceiling crawl, I tend to agree now that I've thought about it, it would either require an odd situational change to game physics or else adding 'sticky' nodes in the bazillions on every existing map.


I'll try to find some time to hunt down the costume sticky thread.

1. Increase the character description text limit from 1024 to 2048 or even 4096 characters, allowing for better, more in depth descriptions. INFO and ID panels would need scroll bars to handle the extra info.

2. Allow all costume pieces that have a secondary feature, such as ability to take a pattern, or 'special' patterns such as the enforcer pattern for the enforcer 'tight' armor to use a glow-map color the way the new costume from the mutant pack does, BUT, move 'glow-map' colors onto their own pop up panel, to use as an option. This additionally means persons using the new mutant pack could choose to use a normal or even muted or pastel color instead of a glowing color on their costume, should they so desire.

3. Allow slotting of ninja run, HOWEVER, keep it so that while ninja run is on, no other travel power can be used, AND, set it so that ninja run CANNOT be slotted EXCEPT at levels 31+, with a maximum of 6 slots. This would allow more creativity in builds by removing the need for other travel powers completely, but ensure that ONLY high level characters would be able to take advantage, which would remove the danger of having super jumping, super speeding, near invisible characters at low level. LASTLY, DOUBLE the endurance drain of ninja run.

4. Alternatively, ninja run could be moved to a new power pool, along with several new powers such as fast swim, whirlwind (move from the speed set), and 'blink', which would be an endurance heavy power that causes you to randomly teleport a short distance during combat whenever you are melee attacked, granting a situational bonus to avoidance of that attack, as well as a defense bonus.

5. Fix the sound system. Your 'volume levels' are a joke. The difference in volumes between different sounds is minimal, leans to the too loud side, and even with volume set to 25%, sounds are so invasive and loud that they overwrite ventrilo conversations.

6. Consider adding a ventrilo-like client to the game, running on its own hardware server, and add the ability to use preset and client created channels by tying the voice system to the chat system.

This would exclude the global and broadcast channels to avoid idiot-spam.

7. Allow team and supergroup based map pinging like in other games. Client chooses to send pings to team, supergroup, or supergroup and team.

8. add an option for a ROUND minimap, non-sizeable, but moveable and anchorable.

9. add a 'monstrous' "chicken leg" styled UPPER leg for 'robot' and 'skeletal robot' and 'cyborg' and 'metallic'.

10. Allow use of monstrous (small) feet with normal thighs, by tweaking them to 'fit' properly at the knee.

11. Add moose antlers and round mouse ears...please!

12. Move HORNS to their OWN separate detail on ALL head categories...helmet, half helmet, mask with hair, full mask, full helmet, standard, hats, hoods, et al. Allowing the player to have horns on any head.

13. Add an option to TURN OFF the in-game display of jetpacks, jump packs, and crab backpacks, et al, allowing players to use them without other people seeing them. In the case of the crab pack, might I suggest that the bullet attacks and grenade attacks be animated as the player whipping out a gun, shooting, then putting it away, and the player whipping a grenade by hand. This would mean anyone with a crab backpack would also have to choose a gun style. In the case of energy attacks, make them emanate from the players eyes.

14. Add a shield THROW power. Please!

15. Change the AE so a person can earn full experience on any map or series of maps in a mission group...BUUUT...set it so you can only run 10 mission arcs per day, per character.

16. Change superspeed to allow running up and along vertical surfaces.

17. add a wall-crawl/ceiling-crawl power.

18. Hats....MOAR HATZ!

19. Ditto for full helmets.

20. Add another 5 to 15 shades to each 'normal' color, with a corresponding glow-map color (in the glow map menu suggested earlier in this post).

I realize some of these suggestions may be over the top, unpopular, or mildy idiotic, but they are designed to add flexibility and enjoyment to the game.

Nope, Fitsimmons...doesn't work out. I had to rip the slotting out, and taking trip mine at end of the build seems counterintuitive to me.

Let me describe what I'm really looking for:

Corruptor:

Primary: Dual Pistol

Secondary: Traps, all the way to tripmines

Pool Powers:

superspeed, super jump, stealth, health, stamina, hasten, scorpion shield, web envelope, focused accuracy.


Other than that, I just want one of the travel powers 'early' (like level 14), stamina at 20, the other travel power can go hang itself until level 49 if so desired.

Reasoning behind this is: With superspeed AND superjump AND stealth, there is a snowballs chance in hades of this guy being tagged while moving. This allows him to go anywhere, at the drop of a hat, and put the smackdown on whoever gets in the way.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot.

Does anyone have a really good DP/Traps build I can use as a base for setting up mine?

Thanks Asha'man. I'll look forward to your reply

thanks! It makes sense the way you explained it!

I've been playing around in Mid's for a couple of days trying to stuff everything I want/need into a Demons/Dark Miasma build and just keep hitting a brick wall.

Could someone post a good, solid build with (fairly) early group travel (group flight+hover), generic IO's only (so I can start farming infl to GET sets) and a good, solid epic pool with at least one armor and either one mass hold, or one seriously powerful nova type power?

Again, the big problems I'm running into seem to be with what to place at what level, based on how many slots it will recieve, so I don't have to overslot or underslot things.

I'd like to see (but can live without):

2 or 3 slot hover
2 or 3 slot fly

My preference is definately for FLY instead of teleport.

My 'picture' of the build is flying over the enemy, dropping the minions in to establish tanking, then switching to hover and moving down into range to drop support powers.

Unless you can really give me a pressing reason why I would 'need' it...I have little interest in hasten, aim or buildup, or in tactics pool.

I really appreciate the help, in advance, and maybe if I see a good build I'll learn something.

An explanation of why you placed/slotted certain powers at certain levels would definately help.

appreciate the advice. I'll definately check that guide out.

Hey all, as I've said before, I'm pretty hopeless at slotting and deciding how MANY slots to give a power, so I'm asking for help, again.

Could someone post a solid farming build for Ill/Rad using only 'generic' IO's and maybe SO's?

I flat out can't afford sets or purples.

Also, a rundown of a good 'rotation' to generally follow would be nice so I could compare it to what I've been doing.

I've been away from the game for a long time and came back and dusted off my Ill/Rad and am really dissapointed in his performance, but I know its because of the slotting.