EmperorSteele

Dance to the muuusic, IT'S ELECTRIC!

Electric is underused because, well... it doesn't offer a whole lot of protection. NO Defense at ALL. Only one power gives you S/L res. One more power gives you extra energy res. Then you got your Mez res power... And that's IT (besides the T9). Fleshing out the set is a foe damage aura, a heal, an end drain/recovery power, and a +recharge power.

However, if built right, it can be very good. It's just that, compared to an easily softcappable Invuln or Stone build, Electric "seems" weak. However, with just 2 slots each in the res powers and tough, you have a VERY respectable 75% s/l res, Over-capped Energy res, and over 50% fire/cold res.

You'll want to pair it with a secondary that's very AoE focused to take advantage of the extra AoE damage from Lightning Field... But not fire. It's high damage, sure, but it's also all DoT. You want your enemies to die as fast as possible, not wait for ticks to whittle them down. You'll probably NEED Tough/Weave to balance out and layer your mitigation. Also, with Hasten, Lightning Reflexes and just a few IO recharge bonuses, you can get the self-heal/+regen perma, and that's not a whole lot to sneeze at. Combine with some regen and HP bonuses, yeah, you'll get hit, but it'll take a lot to take you down. I played around in mids and got well over 380% regen with just a few powers and 18 slots.. not too shaby.

Anyway, i'd play around with a build planner first, just so you know what you're getting into. Like i said, it can be a beast fully slotted, but the road to 50 looks painful...

I think Local Man is just trying to get his guide to be the most read thread on the forums... "I have a question about illu/rad" "read my guide"

"I have a question about Phantom army..." "Read my guide"

"I'm a Defender rolling a Rad/ , any advice?" "Read my guide"

"Hey, I have a Fire/Storm..." "Roll an Ill/Rad and read my guide!"

=P

Heh heh heh, heh heh-m-heh, hehehe... you said "pub-"

Err... wait, no, i misread that. Nevermind, carry on!

Buy lots of good IOs, dress up as Santa, and run around randomly giving people shinies?

Tier 2 is expensive because many more people play their level 50s than their level 20-40's and thuse do not provide that level of salvage. However, those same players still buy up tier 2 salvage to outfit their alts or to craft those few lower level IOs that are still worthwhile to have on a higher level character (Kismet, Miracle, Regenerative Tissue, Decimation, etc). So there's a lot more demand than supply... and even when supply highly outpaces demand, you still have people charging higher prices knowing that it's a level 50 with a few hundred million inf trying to buy it and not usually a cash-starved level 23.. in which case, just put in a low bid and wait.

*low whistle* Veerrryy niiiice!

On one hand i was hoping i could rotate my villains... but looks like we need an MM, so put me down for that (Mercs/Traps) =)

Well, we have all-purpose Energy melee, then dark melee, Stone melee, Fire melee, Ice melee, Super strength, and up-and-coming kinetic melee... Shields can be MADE to look elemental... i guess Psi melee would be nice, but other than that, how many other "super" melee sets would the game support (ie, no stretching powers)? Unless you mean across all ATs in general, but we ARE getting demon summoning and electric control soon, so this wouldn't hurt =)

Yeah, i included "spear" in the opening blurb and considered power animations based on the staff possibly having a blade at the end.

Personally I'd make a character using a speed limit sign, but that's just me =D

Though funny you should mention samurais... i was doing some research on staffs before making this post and learned that staffs were weapons made by Japanese farmers because the samurai forbid them to use swords. So it'd actually be a bit.. inaccurate, to give a feudal samurai a bo staff =)

As for a blaster secondary... It could work. Replace the first power with a stun, remove an AoE in favor of build-Up and you'd probably have a decent Secondary there =)

Bo Staffs. Spears. Halberds. Glaives. We want 'em, the devs wanna make 'em, but darn it, it hasn't happened yet so we're just gonna keep making suggestions to get 'em in-game!

*ahem*

My proposal for a staff set would be one that focuses on AoEs and knockdown. However, the Devs have clearly shown that they don't want any set having too many AoE attacks, let alone with mitigation, so the set would probably have to be low in damage (smashing) overall. Still, i can think of a few ways to work around that. Also, most attacks would probably be animated with some kind of show-offy swinging effect before landing a blow. I realize people may be getting tired of time-consuming, showy animations, but staff fighting actually does rely on misdirecting your opponent so they don't know where you're attacking from.


Thrust: You lunge the front of your weapon into your opponent for a fair amount of damage. Short activation and recharge makes for a decent, spammable attack.

Smash: You twirl your staff and bring it down on your foe, hitting them hard. This attack gains a +15-20% (Depends on AT) damage bonus if the target is already knocked down.

Swing: You swing your staff in an arc, hitting multiple foes in front of you (30 degree cone attack) with a small chance for Knock Down (say 15-20% chance?).

Taunt/Confront/Assassin Strike varies by AT, of course. The AS version would be an overhead jab that forces the opponent down (50% chance of KD)

Staff Twirl Click, 1 minute duration. You spin your staff furiously, gaining a defense bonus to all melee and ranged attacks for a short time. This bonus is somewhat reduced if you're actively attacking though. (Tank numbers: +10% melee(7.5% when attacking), +7.5% range(5% when attacking). Scrap/Stalker numbers: 7.5% melee(5% when attacking), 5% ranged(3.75% when attacking))

Trip: You take your opponent's feet out from under them. This attack does little damage but results in 100% chance for Knock Down and a small chance for disorient.

Placate/Clothesline Placate is the standard Stalker maneuver (tier 6, pushing Trip down to T7). Clothesline: You hold your staff parallel and thrust forward, possibly knocking down any foes in front of you (145 degree cone, but only 6 foot range) and doing a small amount of damage.

Pole Vault You plant your staff into the ground, and use it for leverage to deliver a forceful flying kick towards a foe up to 21 feet away. This attack will do decent damage against your target, knocking him back and possibly knocking down any foes next to him (only target receives damage and KB... any foes within 5 feet and 30 degrees have a 50% chance of knock down). You will also be propelled forward to where your target was as a result.

Whirling Smash You spin your staff completely around, hitting all opponents within 15 feet for decent damage and a chance for Knockdown. Then you jump, spin and bring your staff down, hitting your current target hard for extra damage and knocking him back. Basically two attacks in one.


Notes: The set has no Build-Up... this is on purpose. With 4 attacks that affect multiple targets that do damage AND knock down, the set would need to maintain low damage to be balanced (otherwise it'd be a fotm farming build that would get nerfed to high heck eventually), but the inclusion of a (single target) power that relies on KD for extra damage in a set where most attacks have KD built in i think makes up for it. Using Trip + Smash would essentially achieve the effect of build up, so it's not all bad.

Thoughts or other ideas?

I'm going to throw my hat in for Mind Control for a good first controller set. Its first three powers give you a respectable attack chain and functions pretty much like a blaster with mez. Then you get an AoE fear which does good damage. After that you have Confuse, and AoE versions of sleep, hold, and confuse, allowing you to stack pretty much any of your effects. And whether on a team or solo, being able to take an EB out of the fight with a few layers of confusion will always be beneficial. There's also TK which is basically an end-expensive toggle which adds 3 points of Hold... nice for getting EBs held fast or pushing away foes if your team isn't ready for them. Note however that without a pet, Mind doesn't seem as effective after level 32 as most other 'troller sets.

As for a secondary, Rad is good: it offers enough self buffs, team buffs, and foe debuffs to be useful despite the situation. Trick Arrow is nice: it gives you plenty of debuffs to use on foes, but no buffs if you care about that sort of thing (though to be honest, a -15% Tohit debuff on an enemy is functionally similar to a +15% Def buff on an ally, and a -15% Resistance debuff is functionally similar to a +15% Damage buff). Force Fields and Sonic are great on teams but a little less useful solo. Kin is great but doesn't offer much pro-active protection and requires you to stay in melee to get the most out of it.

just my 2 inf =)

One thing no one mentioned:

PLAQUES and BADGES!

Scattered all throughout the city are exploration badges and plaques, most of which give a small bit of history behind that part of the city, a former hero, or something along those lines. It's a small way of adding a bit of depth to the game's lore.

You might also want to check out the City of Heroes comics (available in PDF format on the main site). TBH, aside from Mark Waid's run, the stories are a bit mweh and the later issues sacrifice good story telling for trying to implement in-game situations, but it's a good way to get a feel for the lore and several of the issues were retroactively made into in-game story arcs. Also, it's the only time that the "main" characters get any development whatsoever. Otherwise you're running around in-game wondering who this guy with the glowing ring at his feet is and just why he gets to boss you around.

As far as actually playing? Avoid "the sewer run" for now. When you've made your 3rd or 4th "alt" and are looking for a quick way to get the first 5 or 6 levels, then definitely join a team and hit the sewers; otherwise go through your origin contact's first arc and just talk to whoever you're pointed at. Especially do the Hollows arcs, at least once.

At level 6+, go to King's Row and pick up a Police Radio from the Detective (he'll be marked on your map). This will give you random, repeatable non-story missions which cumulate in preventing a bank robbery, and gives you a special temporary power (like a jetpack). Useful for getting around or filling any lulls in between story arcs.

And pretty much what everyone else already said. =)

Hmmm...

If you're running out of endurance THAT fast, i'd need to see you play. Because right now it sounds like you're leaving Sprint and possibly Ninja Run on while you fight. These are HUGE endurance hogs and should be deactivated during scuffles.

Also, slot your hold for damage. That way maybe the enemy will die before getting freed.

Finally, when fighting, open with your AoE immob and concentrate on the LT. 2 minions aren't going to hurt you. Just keep the immob up so that they take containment damage when you decide to attack them.

ONCE MORE WITH FEELING!

Tonight at about 7 EST =)

Ok, trying AGAIN tonight! 7 pm, like last time!

yaaaaaaaaarrrrr!

Ok, we ALMOST had it this time.. except -i- was a complete, impatient moron and decided to pull a group near the final AV (didn't see him due to scenery glitching, and when my health started dropping my insp tray wouldnt click...)

I was the only death on a mostly smooth attempt. I want to thank my teammates for coming, and offer my HUGEST appologies.

ONE HOUR until i start another run! Meet by Lady Grey or wait for me to start spamming the chat channels!

Ok, tenitively going for tuesday at about 7PM-ish Eastern. Let's get that thar badge, yar!

Huh... you're right, i didn't actually SAY that i meant that night!

Well, i look like a jerk now, huh? >_>

Well, you're certainly not an OPTIMIZED "offender". Your Primary has no tools that enhance your damage (just your survivability, though recovery aura with hasten is awesome), and it's generally agreed that electric is a weak set for damage and proper mitigation. Especially compared to, say, a Kin/Sonic (lots of self-buffs, plus the secondary blasts debuff enemy resistance, which = moar damage)

However, if you can dive into a group and kick butt and come out on top, then yeah, I'd say you've earned the title. Whatever way you like to play that's fun, do it, and don't care about how others conduct themselves!

IIRC, the aura is completely superfluous. It was SUPPOSED to allow the team leader to fight Honoree or do extra damage or something, but when it was realized that a team leader may crash and never come back and leave the TF unwinnable, they pretty much nixed the idea but left the power effect in for some silly reason.