Failsight

I'd really love it if the doves thing was left in as a one-in-a-million chance to fire Easter Egg in the Live version. I mean who wouldn't love it if just suddenly, you hit your T9 and bang! Doves! It'd be a great little surprise, and they already have the assets done.

Because that somehow fits with cowboys and 18th century gentlemen so much better!

I never liked Chuck Norris, either. But stupid memes are stupid memes and are meant to be abused until they're a bad joke. And optionally abused some more.

Scratch that, they're meant to be abused until they go from a bad joke to an anger-inducing mental thorn in the collective conscience.

Wrong. if a video game were a novel, the graphical representation would be the images evoked by the words written on the page. It is the prose. That means the quality of the graphics would be roughly equivalent to things like grammar, word choice, and general style.

The content of a story could be listed on a timeline or in point form (i.e. Cole's Notes), but what gives a story its breadth, its life, is how the author describes–shows–those events.

The cover of a novel would be represented by things like game packaging or even the program icon. Those are things that stand outside the actual telling of a story, and are more important as items that help sell the book/game inside.

As is usually the case, I forget the most obvious....

I want my cyber peg leg.

I'm just trying to figure out what kinds of animations would be necessary to make a non-flashy DP set that also included at least one cone and one AoE. I mean, realistically, a pistol is a piss poor choice for someone who's going to be taking on super-powered or super-armoured enemies, unless they've got some massive tricks up their sleeves (like Malta Gunslingers, who notably wouldn't have good enough powers to create a solid Blaster set) or so much ridiculous "skillz" as to not fall into the realistic category. In this case, we seem to be getting both.

If that police officer also has a peg leg and a hook arm, I'm so bringing my Ninja MM to Praetoria first.

Hmm off the top of my head, there are a number of arcs V-side where your character defeats and captures signature heroes, who are then broken out of the Rogue Isles by none other than Blue Steel.

Also, as there's no combat-able version of him in the game, officially, he's also probably the longest existing signature character to not have been defeated by a player.

There is also no known Praetorian version of him, for the reason directly above.

I'm not sure where the Chuck Norris part came in, but Blue Steel has always been a bit of an enigma character, other than the fact he apparently kicks butt.

If there was a Praetorian Blue Steel at all, there wouldn't be a living Emperor Cole. His awesomeness alone would have convinced Tyrant to cede all power to him.

Regardless of dev mode or not, it could also simply be that since this was a demo version of the game, they just tweaked the recharge numbers down such that it's just short but not immediate.

Or even more likely, the recharge numbers are "regular" and they simply have a power that automagically refreshes all powers' cooldown timers to usable.

Seriously, if graphics didn't matter, why aren't we all playing the MUD version of CoX?

We all know how that'd play, since we were shown it.

I believe what people are getting confused about is that it's been said (not sure if it was BaBs) that grappling and such powers that require sustained physical contact between two (or more) entities, such as, say a whip wrapping around an enemy's limbs, was impossible with the current engine.

There's nothing there to say that cracking whips on people wouldn't work. Especially if you can cover up the end with sexy fire.

Though I do have to say this is making me curious what AoE attack(s) Demon whips will have, and how the animations for those would work.

Unfortunately, Positron already beat us to it (see HeroCon keynote part 2 opening). I'm wondering whose underwear Arbiter Fabulous stole, though...(part 3).

I'm not sure we're likely to get any new base ATs with Rogue, but I do see room for some "Epic ATs" that are unlocked by something other than hitting 50. Maybe something as simple as starting a new character as a Praetorian starting as part of one of the two major joinable factions.

They'd be "Epic" in the way that their power structure is different from regular ATs, just like Khelds and Arachnos have different power set structures, and that they'd be (at least initially) tied to the world story.

Just wanted to key on this paragraph alone: from watching the video, Paragon's new "Type R" programmers have actually done something very difficult and special. They've actually seamlessly grafted on current and next-gen graphics rendering technologies to a five year old engine with full backwards compatibility and it seems, many long awaited bug fixes.

The result is a graphics engine that is going to hold up for another 5 years, at least. It also means the most gorgeous superhero MMO is here. The models and world will look far more detailed and attractive (subjective opinion) than the competition. With the revamp, only DCUO has a chance to best CoX graphics-wise. Meanwhile, for those who don't have up-to-date systems, the game remains respectably attractive (running CO on my old iMac Core Duo is...well, not pretty, whereas CoX still looks respectable, thanks to its art direction).

Side switching opens a lot of options for playing with whomever you want on whatever content you want–something that has been improved over time, via Flashbacks, and now especially via the new SSK system.

Not to mention a whole new path through 1-20, which may or may not percolate some features to the heroes and villains 1-20 paths as well.

From the sound of the video taken during the keynote, there's a lot more to GR than what's been presented so far. Things are looking good from what's been shown, though my only question right now is just how much new content is being written for GR. While the new tech and features sound great, it may be hard to justify a full $50 purchase without 40 levels (with 41-50 coming later, per formula) worth of content. While side switching will help alleviate this, I'm hoping for more than just 1-20 content plus some TFs at 50.

If Paragon can provide a full 40 levels worth of content on top of side switching, I think that CoX will have a complete package that will be unrivalled.

The problem, really, is the secondary, not the primary. I have an MA/WP and now an ElM/WP, and I have to say...they're both pretty good! Where the MA does better on single targets, the Elec Melee far surpasses it in AoE when played smart. The fact that Elec also has Energy typed damage goes a long way to making up for the lower overall damage when compared to a set like MA or pre-Achilles Heel swords.

MA/Regen will, almost assuredly, be more fun during the lower levels, simply due to how powerful Regen is during this time. Having a recovery boost that surpasses Stamina from level 4, a heal and Dull Pain, as well as a mitigation type that doesn't care about damage type makes Regen a monster during those levels. It also has the benefit of having an enhancement type that doubles in effective strength instead of only adding up to 50% more--not an issue in SO range, but is significant in TO and DO ranges.

Also note that Elec Armour has zero--as in no resistance to Toxic damage outside of its T9. Before picking up Energize, it has no way to handle toxic damage outside of inspirations or team buffs. Facing Vahz on an Elec Armour Scrapper is pretty much suicide. As noted, Regen does not have that problem.

At higher levels, things balance out somewhat. In the right hands, a Regen is still amongst the best defensive sets out there, period (but in the hands of those not initiated in the fine art of Regen mastery, it blows without hefty built assistance). ElA, however, is a much steadier set, due to its significant resists. Energize makes all the difference, however, especially if it can be made to recharge as quickly as possible, as it gives up to 50% heal (enhanced), and 30 seconds of very significantly increased regen (unfortunately with nothing to stack it on) and end discount (which helps balance the set against Regen in one respect, though Energize alone doesn't do enough). At recharge cap, it can be made practically perma, but I don't think it's possible to stack.

In a long fight, ElA also has the advantage of being able to quickly drain an enemy's endurance. Against EBs and AVs, this can be used pretty well, especially in addition to ElM's end drain.

While technically true, there's a lot to be said for being able to make good inf while playing a wide assortment of missions, which an SD/SS can excel in doing. Making an SD/SS survivable enough to take on hordes of even dreaded Malta and Carnies (okay, somewhat less dreaded) without breaking a sweat is, at least IMO, significantly cheaper. Soft-capped positional defences are just that good.

Yes, it's technically not real farming if you're actually playing through content normally, even if the rewards are still sickeningly good, but I could never stand running the same mission over and over again.

I'd rather see one of:

1) more direct mitigation (def, res, health)
2) faster recharging Placate
3) more debuffing in powers

than a "t9" power that doesn't even conceptually fit.

Oh, and you'll be prying Elude from my Night Widow's arsenal over my dead body. Especially not for a freaking damage aura. You've got to be kidding.

Give us a list of builds you have. I find that different ATs and builds excel with often very different settings in the new system.

My SD/SS Tanker, for instance, loves +1/8/no boss as a set-up, as it's fast, chaotic, and a good balance between not dying and reward.

My MA/WP Scrapper, on the other hand, will go +2/3/bosses instead.

My Kat/Regen is an ST killer, what with the Achilles' Heel proc being slotted in multiple attacks (so that in a long fight, it's practically always on).

Surprisingly, my ElM/WP Scrapper is in much the same boat as my MA Scrapper, but she's without a number of IOs still, so that may change quite a bit.

On average, I find that +2/3/bosses is my normal setup for anything melee. My Ill/Storm, as much as I love the chaos she brings, is better off with a smaller number of harder targets, as Ill's controls generally bypass most defences and mez resistances.

This is about as much downside as there is to the SD/ElM combo. However, due to AAO and the way that ElM attacks work, probably the best thing to do is to in fact not use SC + LR to start, but instead let all the minions and lts power up your normal attacks so you can take out bosses ASAP. After that you've probably done enough damage to the crowd around you that either SC or LR can take out most of the rest.

Of course, this is assuming soft-capped defence, as you're going to be wanting to have full saturation of AAO.

This works well with ElM, because ElM is actually not a true AoE set: It's an almost exclusively ST-minded set with a load of collateral damage! I personally find that approaching it from that mentality works best.

Jacob's Ladder is a somewhat narrow cone, so with the "wider" attacks available with the set, a player should be unafraid to use it as an ST attack. As a Tanker, later levels will give you enough of a crowd that you'll be hitting "incidentals" (i.e. not aiming for them specifically) a lot, anyway. The best part is that Jacob's Ladder is a pure energy attack, which makes it a heavy hitter for your early-to-mid career. I just wish its animation was a bit shorter.

Chain Induction is the primary example of a single-target attack with collateral damage: the pseudo-pet spawn only works if the target isn't defeated by the actual attack. That's a bit of a downer, but CI's saving grace is that it is a quick activating attack, so at least has good (not excellent) DPA. Recharge benefits this power immensely because of that.

Thunder Strike is also an ST attack with collateral damage, as I'm sure some know that the AoE is centred around the target, not the player. In that way, it works like a ranged AoE, except in melee range. That fact, as well as wanting to hit multiple targets with Jacob's Ladder, means that you want to keep the big enemies (bosses, lts) in front of you as much as possible.

So the only "real" PbAoE attacks (which is what we're used to for melee sets) are Lightning Clap (meh) and Lightning Rod (yay!).

ElM's other attribute is its end drain. On most bosses, my Scrapper seems to knock as much off their blue bar as their green bar. On longer fights, with a Tanker against an EB or AV, this is far more significant.

It's not the most efficient set-up, which is why for pure AoE, Fire still trumps ElM (ease of use and extra DoT) and SS is so powerful (better ST burst damage, Footstomp is up more often than Lightning Rod) and even Stone Melee is practically comparable due to easier use. But ElM is up there with Dark Melee, IMO, as "the sets with the most fun toys" while providing significantly more AoE--incidental as it is--which I find much better, regardless of AT, for my playstyle.

That is the magic of Ill/Storm: while there's plenty of chaos to be had, it can be reined in fairly quickly with the use of a few powers. Ill/Storms are one of those combos where, if well played, can make impossible odds into child's play, or if poorly played, can make an irredeemable mess of everything.

From my experience, juggling enemies is very timing dependant: too late and they get a shot off, and often times it'd just be more efficient to throw as much damage as possible at them to get rid of them; too early and the knockdown/back animation doesn't kick in and you've wasted it as a soft control, and...it'd just be more efficient to throw damage at them instead.

So while it's perfectly manageable against single targets (or pairs) with no kb protection, it's of limited use most other times.

A power like Tornado can get enemies stuck against geometry, which can either keep them on their "backs" and unable to attack for long periods of time or...get them stuck "standing" where they can shoot you but you need to find exactly the right spot to stand to hit them (or use AoEs).

When it works, KB/KD is a great soft control. But it gets unwieldy fast unless you've got the right geometry and few enough enemies close enough together to knock into it.

I'd simply rather use Gale for the +recharge proc you can stick in there and hope that it works often enough to be worth it. Get an Ill/Storm as close to perma-PA as possible and you're pretty much safe. And if PA is down...I like dropping a Tornado and phase shifting, myself.