EvilRyu

Well I dont have actual numbers but I did do some testing pre-change and post change when it was on test server. For me I measured in the time it took to do the same mission on test and on live server. On average it took me 1/2 to 2/3 as long to complete a mission post change than pre-change. Usually the down time was from me running out of endurance, but because post change I could go thru more groups before having to rests it was a very noticable difference. I think that once I got these doms some IOs and the numina/miracle uniques I will be able to kill non-stop.

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Is it too much to ask, that you EXTEND the time you keep this in closed beta (and also open beta) so that the bugs that get trapped get addressed before it goes Live?

cos there was a LOT of stuff in I14 that got flagged by the testers and yet the issue was rushed to market; then we had a devs-vs-players meltdown that lasted for well over two months and scared off a LOT of people, all because of MA exploits getting press / blog / game reviewer coverage.

You folks cannot afford to do that again, so soon after. So please, keep the emphasis on TESTING and not "check out the new shiny early".

[/ QUOTE ]I get what your saying but I dont see many exploits coming from powers being recolored or from powersets getting ported so I dont think we will have anything remotely close to that unless for some reason we get new content thats a TF/SF or something.

Usually I advice people to not bother with xp 64. For the most part it has had horrible driver support. So it might not be worth it to install. Vista and windows 7 on the other hand have had better driver support. I know you might have read some negative things on vista, but most of that comes from the following: Word of mouth of someone else's bad experience, person has vista loaded on a pc thats really under the specs, person has a crappy video card (shakes fist at 6150LE onboard video), person doesnt know how to install drivers properly, person doesnt know how to configure the OS. I will say this I have had very few if any vista issues. I can say with confidence that I have probably installed vista more times than anyone who comes to this message board because I have done a full rollout of vista at my work place. Just about all my users have vista now. The only thing that I can think of is the driver crashing issue but that got fixed with service pack 2. The driver issues wasnt really a vista issue but an nvidia one, its just that nvidia refused to fix it on their end so microsoft patched it instead. All I can say is dont believe the vista haters who dont know what they are doing. If you are still worried about vista why not just get windows 7 64 bit instead? It comes out for purchase for users sometime in october. It was released to manufacturers yesterday, and will be available on MSDN/Technet on August 6th. Windows 7 has the ability to run a virtualized version of xp from within the operating system. That version of xp wont run 3-d games but it will run those older applications that might not run in windows 7. You just have to make sure you have the right proccessor for it. I have run windows 7 and vista, and CoX run perfect on my system. So its worth a try.

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QR

While I would take any buff offered, with three of the four SoA branches being clearly overpowered (not complaining I <3 my widow and huntsman) and the banes being darn good, I think you all are going to have a hard time getting Castle to come on board with this.

The SoA's inherent is that they are full of win. I wouldn't be calling too much attention to the AT in general.

[/ QUOTE ]The SoA are all very endurance intensive prior to IO sets. The end issues is what made my bane take longer it should have to get to lvl 50, While I will say it did take long as it was my fastest toon to 50 I think that it could have gone alot faster if not for the endurance problems. My widow on the otherhand is stuck in the teens due to end issues. I might level her up on 2xp weekend.

Veats should have all gotten inherrent stamina and health that is equal to those powers ED capped but scale with level. Thats how i would have done them. If khelds get free travel powers and we dont ge the keys to the flyer then should get free stamina and health.

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So ya I'm tired of all the poor lazy people complaining about how they cant afford anything because commons are SOOO expensive now. To remedy this problem we need to increase supply, to increase supply we need to generate salvage.

My solution is to forum a crusade to supply more common salvage daily. The goal is small currently, only 100 common salvage per person per day ( this works out to 800 tickets, or half a mission worth of tickets basically).

If you'd like to help out select a level range and tech or arcane and list them here so we know which ranges are getting serviced, then roll 100 of them a day and list them for 10 influence at WW/BM .

[/ QUOTE ]Sorry but I am against this whole thing. Salvage drops pretty much like rain and rare salvage can easily be gained as needed from a 1 single AE mission. Absolutely no one should have a reason to complain about salvage at this point. Its just too easy to get outside of the market. Recipes on the other hand is a different story all together. I can see doing what you are saying to help the recipe situation but never for salvage. Normally I am all for cheaper prices on everything but how do you get cheaper than free when it comes to salvage? The time taken to get it is one missions worth of work at best. Recipes on the other hand take a bit longer especially post ticket nerf.

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The click protections also use less EPS, don't they?

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WP IW: .208 EPS
SR PB: .087 EPS

yup.

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This actually makes sense when you consider that Practiced Brawler has an additional cost that a toggle never has to consider: animation time. In most aspects of the game, this isn't really addressed simply because animation time was never actually considered to have anything to do with game mechanics way back when, but, hopefully, soon the devs will have a mechanism to actually check.

[/ QUOTE ]I wouldnt say animation time is an issue because the animations for these powers can be easily cancelled if you are in motion.

Sorry to threadjack but I think its relavent, let me ask this in anticipation of issue 16, how does trick arrow if using corrupter mods work compared to say cold domination in terms of using a nuke like blizzard. I like the whole everyone dies nao thing that Siolfir mentioned. How exactly does one slot for this? How does corrupter -resistance stack up to corrupter +damage? Whats the lowest time a person can get blizzard down to with IOs?

Make sure the name of the network is exactly the same, the case of the letters does matter. Make sure the key is the same. If using a dell you might have to downgrade drivers because sometimes it tries to install a utility which totally borks wireless. Thats really all I can suggest without actually seeing the machine.

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Aid self could definetly use some love too. Just for concept reasons it would be great to have a magical animation and maybe even another tech/natural option with the change costume emote where you inject yourself.

[/ QUOTE ]Yeah but how fast that power recharges it would look like you are doing drugs in this game if they changed it to the injection emote.

For me I have always seen lvl 50 as the death of my characters. Prior to IOs those characters didnt get any playtime unless it was for a badge or something. Now I only play my lvl 50 to get merits or tickets to cash in for IOs or salvage. Outside of IOs I have no use for level 50 characters as that time could be used towards another toon. I would say the biggest advantage of playing a lvl 50 is how easily you can twink out your other toons due to that. To me thats been a huge help in making many powersets playable to me that previously I couldnt even stomach to play.

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So I was going to kneejerk with a "SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW" reply, but you put so much effort into the post that I slept on it.

I think the root of the problem is this: the devs hate crowd control, but love damage. They want control powers to suck for as many ATs as they can get away with, but want all ATs to be able to deal damage. Result: Control powers are artificially sucktastic for ATs such as defenders, while controller damage only sucks for the 2 seconds it takes for Containment to kick in.

This suggests one way to fix it: Share the team-role bending love. Subdue could be a 100% mag 4 root (like controller roots), Will Domination could be a 100% mag 4 sleep (like Mesmerize), Petrifying Gaze Stunning Shot Bitter Freeze Ray Screech and Scramble Thoughts could recharge faster and deal decent damage, Freeze Ray and Tesla Cage could deal better damage (like controller holds), Howling Twilight Dark Pit Repulsion Bomb and Thunder Clap could be mag 3 stuns (like controller stuns), and ZOMGTRICKARROW. This is just defender changes, so it's not exactly how I'd fix it if I were king, since I'd also get to adjust Containment if I were king, but it's close.

Doesn't help all the defender sets, true, but some defender sets have issues with or without comparing them to controllers.

[/ QUOTE ]While they are at it why not get rid of the stupid accuracy penalty control powers have? To me it always felt like you were being punished for doing your job by having poorer accuracy on AoE control yet blasters dont get anything like this on their AoE damage. In some cases like nukes blasters get a bonus to accuracy these kinds of powers. Since aoe controls take forever and a day + 1 to come back their shouldnt be any penalty to them because you have to make them count when you use them.

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Was thinking of a DM/Inv scrapper...wondering if anyone has any experience with them?

[/ QUOTE ]Been there done that, its just better to go DM/WP and save yourself some grief in the end game content.

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No longer factually correct EvilRyu! The recent buffs to INV have made it a far "beefier" set. The OP will be fine in the late game vs. any potential challenge with decent +Def IO buffage and a well slotted Siphon Life. Soft capping your Res AND defense to S/L damage is nothing to sneeze at either. Dull Pain adds the equivilant of 30% resist to ALL types of damage when it's up. Willpower is a great set, of that there is no doubt, but don't sell invuln short.

[/ QUOTE ]Its still garbage compared to WP and SR. You need IOs just to make the set function well where as the other 2 you dont. Pairing it with DM helps a ton where the secondary fails but without a primary set that has mitigation your going to die alot still.

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Was thinking of a DM/Inv scrapper...wondering if anyone has any experience with them?

[/ QUOTE ]Been there done that, its just better to go DM/WP and save yourself some grief in the end game content.

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I use OpenOffice, because I can't afford Office. But let me tell you, there's a [censored] reason that they can charge hundreds of dollars for Office and OpenOffice is free.

[/ QUOTE ] You are looking in the wrong places then, there are legit sites that sell even the fullest loaded edition of office for less than $60.

Also I am pretty sure they are going to do this with Windows 7 and office 2010 too.

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There are a [very few] things that count as "puzzles" in this game. You can tell because players have been consistently and extensively complaining about them, and avoiding them, for five years straight. Ever get lost in the Perez maze.

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The Perez maze is complained about for numerous reasons:

- Non-visible openings (that space between two trees that looks like the space between every other pair of trees you can't go through? That's the opening,)
- No guidance, unless you're going to Vidiotmaps, and the biggie
- Mobs that often outlevel you on your way to mission doors inside the maze.... yet when you're sent there at 30+, the door's along the outer wall.

It's not disliked because "it's a puzzle," it's disliked because it's a badly designed deathtrap for the lowbies who get sent into it for missions.

[/ QUOTE ]QFT. I think thats the reason folks stopped going there after the first few issues. We traded one death trap for a slightly less deathtrap with the Hollows. Pretty much every toon that gets the fortune teller missions only does it when they are so high the critters con grey and I have a jetpack to get over the walls. The mission tp power has helped this some but I still would end up needing a way out with a lowbie.

I am gonna say Terra Volta. Prior to the jet packs if you didnt have fly or super jump you just end up being stuck if you fall in a ditch. No way to save your toon outside of a petition.

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- a domination like button where they build their 'defenderation' bar by attacking, then when activated gives an effect like power boost (how does this affect buff and debuff powersets then?).


[/ QUOTE ] No just no, we already been thru this with doms. We would end up with a bunch of elitist players who can stack defenderation 3 times saying that defenders are fine and dont need changing while the rest of us have piss poor damage because we cant afford a perma-defenderation build. Sorry not going to happen and if it ever did I would personally go to Paragon Studios and have a long talk with Castle for doing it and Positron for allowing Castle to do it.

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However defender don't need to be balanced with controllers, they need to be balanced with corruptors because their sets and playstyles are almost exactly the same and corruptors end up being vastly superior in both damage and team support in actual play.


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/Agree. This has also been on my mind lately, especially with going rogue around the corner.

[/ QUOTE ]I see it as something thats going to get addressed maybe not due to GR but because the other Super Hero MMOs show how easy just about any combination is to solo specifically DCUO. If we could get rid of the solo issues in this game it would be healthier in the long run. People wouldnt switch games because with the competion all classes and powersets can solo near the same level of effectivness.

You might want to check this because for every TF/SF you get the merits either as soon as the final mission completes or as soon as you exit the final mission once the TF/SF completes. Its even like this on the Ouroboros stuff. This could be a totally new bug all together where it just isnt giving you merits period, because I dont think talking to the contact again is even going to make a difference.

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no, the most you get is a chance of one if you don't fight each other, or look sideways at each other, for 5 min. so its Kill, knit, knit, knit, knit, knit, kill. Hey I got a sweater!


[/ QUOTE ] so let me get this straight. Toons A and B are in an arena match. Toon A kills Toon B. Toon B kills Toon A. Now they wait 5 minutes? Then do it again? Thats all it takes to get pvp recipes?

All non-aoe attacks are auto crit from hide except energy transfer. That one power doesnt crit but it negates the hitpoint penalty instead. As for as advice to give, ninjutsu is always a good secondary to choose. Stalkers have gone thru alot of changes the past few issues. The whole run and hide thing after you come out of hide is not good to do anymore. If on a team always stay and scrap it out. You get increased criticals than scrappers when you have more teammates near you in melee. So running aways doesnt help you there. Also when using assassin's strike always target the critter with the most hitpoints, usually a boss. If you dont do this alot of the time the damage is overkill and wasted. The only time I dont go after boss first unless its something that can totally screw over a team like say a Tsoo Sorcerer or Malta sapper. For the most part your job is kill the boss fast so that once all the aoes from your teammates a laid down just about everything would be dead.

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A couple of things you seem to be missing here.

First of all, a defenders primary is by far stronger than a controllers secondary any day. Example -- an empath defenders absorb pain will always be better than a controllers (given they are the same level & slotted the same).

Next, a defenders prime purpose is to use their primary (well that is how I play it). Focusing on your buffs, debuffs and assisting the team. Blasting is the lesser of my concerns, if the team wanted a blaster, they would have invited one (although I do damage when my primaries are recharging).

Controllers on the other hand, their main objective is to *control* things. Their buffs/debuffs are also expected to be up & out, right after the control is done. My only controller that plays at times like a defender is my illusionist, simply as he pops out the pets, and has not much left to do other than secondaries (no immob, no group hold, only the single target hold). So he goes back to doing the thermal buff/debuffs, which are lovely.

If I have invited a controller to team to say, oh I don't know, lock mobs down, and that controller is doing things *other* than said lockdown, then they are a waste of time. (Especially as I already have defenders on team doing the buffs/debuffs that we require). Once the controller locks stuff down, I don't mind him buffing etc.

Aside from buffing my team mates INBETWEEN mobs (when no fighting is going on), I have always played my controllers by opening with my primary - mezzing the shinola out of mobs. Confuse, hold, fear, immob, and throw in anything else from my primary.

The best teams I have played, especially on TF's have always had a lot of defenders on team. I've found in the past that *some* controller players just can't keep up with staying actively busy on all their powers for the duration of a TF and end up slacking.

I will agree however that a defenders' secondary is weak.
The only one I've found decent is the sonic blast.

Comparing defenders to blasters isn't a good idea imo.
Defenders are designed for the biggest buffing/debuffing primary in game, and the weakest blast.
Blasters are the complete opposite (and buffless to boot).

One more thing you have forgotten, the best buff from the entire leadership set is only achievable by a defender.

[/ QUOTE ]I try to look at the entire package when looking at defenders vs controllers. The difference between primary and secondary isnt big enough once you factor in controls. Controls+80% buff/debuff +pet damage >100% buff/debuff + piss poor blast damage. I cant think of a single defender combination with the same set for a controller that can protect a team better than a controller. Its just not possible. That in itself means somethings need to change but most likely wont happen till CoX 2. Despite what the primary or secondary roles are players will change those to either fit the situation or their playstyles. Another reason I feel defenders get the shorthand in all of this is due to troller pets. Trollers can contribute damage via pets without ever having to stop supporting with their controls/buff/debuffs. Defenders have to choose between blasting and supporting. Often times on some sets that can get in the way. The added damage they contribute doesnt amount to enough to be worth risking a teammates life by blasting instead of supporting.

Well as things are now there is just no reason to ever choose a defender over a controller due to the way controls/buff/debuffs work together. Aside from the few buff/debuff sets they dont share I cant see a reason to ever make a defender. Now I dont see this ever getting address until CoH 2. One of the biggest flaws in this game is that the devs initially had this idea that just because you are a support AT you are destined to forever have suck [censored] damage. As things progressed on VEATs broke this mold by being one of the first damage dealing support ATs. I think this is what lead to the justification of them finally addressing dominator issues of suck [censored] damage. VEATs and doms are proof you can create a support AT that does decent damage and not be a tank mage. I think this is something that can apply to defenders and corrupters so they can finally get a damage boost to make them soloable in my eyes. The only issue with this is that it steps on blasters toes, so they may end up having to boost blaster damage in pve once again so that they keep a big difference from the rest of the pack. I think overall if CoX didnt have such grand canyon size gaps in solo speed for some ATs we wouldnt be having as much of the FoTM crap as we do now. It would be a more balanced game in terms of who picks what AT and powerset instead of the majority flocking to whats FoTM because it does damage.

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Actually TS is a TAoE, the aoe damage radiates from the target of the melee attack.

[/ QUOTE ] That doesnt mean anything, you could say the same thing about lightning rod or shield charge or inferno or nova. They all do this. Chance for damage is based on how close you are to the center of where the power starts.

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One sure fire way to tell it isn't an pbaoe; can you use it with no targets?


[/ QUOTE ] What about lotus drops, combustion, and various PBAoEs that be used with no targets. Some that require targets are shadow maul, flashing steel, Head spliter. If you want targeted AoE then you need to look at attacks like shockwave. Thats about as targeted as you can get.
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I think it is the only melee range taoe though, so it is pretty unique and something I personally feel a lot more melee attacks should have. Effectively spalsh damage. Makes sense on fire attacks at least.

[/ QUOTE ] Dude for the last time you are just wrong on this. Its not a TAoE,its PBAoE.