Fernandes

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Hay any one spot an ego here???

EDIT: Opps forgot to add that my brute can take on mobs of a 8 team alone with no problem so i guess "Contankers" are not the only AT that can do that

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My phantom army can take on an infinite amount of enemies.

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When they can take on the Hamidon I'll be satisfied.

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Never did the old hamidon raids, did you? Ahh for the good old days when illusionists were THE absoluetley essential component of any raid. Alas, the wheal turns, the developers redesigned the raid, including the hamidon's unique decoy-harming damage, and now we're relegated to begging a place on a ranged assault team with the rest of the plebs.

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Illusion/Rad controllers are the best AV soloers.

i havent heard of many defenders soloing AVs although it is perfectly possible.

Controllers cant easily infact solo AVs, if not easier than Defenders, but that is a different topic.

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Once again, exactly.

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I guess there is no reason to play a Defender anymore since a Controller can do everything a Defender can do plus control.

Controllers are awesome I guess.. unless you liked to play Defenders...

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Exactly.

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First Firnandes i am sorry i was so harsh earlier, please forgive me as I must not forget that there are people that want their hero to be the best that it can be just as you said that you cannot forget the average player.

Second as for playing a fire/kin it is as strong outside a farm as it is inside. The way you present them at the end of your statement suggests that you feel that they are inferior to other controllers outside farm missions. That is simply untrue. Infact due to their better-than-average damage and the ability to buff others makes them prime candidates for teams (farms or not). They have a reputation for being a "controller-that-buffs-and-deals-damage." while there is nothing wrong with being unique and having a unique roll in a group. It creates a state of mind that all other controllers need to be held to this standard.

Due to the huge population of fire/kin controllers, other controllers have to live by the fire/kin standard which isnt always possible, and is unfair to the lowly ice/TA controller (which is amazing at doing invincible solo, although ive only seen one hehe)or other controller combinations that don't do the amount of damage the Fire/Kin can do but offer their own unique buffs and styles to a team.

Another point is that fire/kin controllers make kin/-- defenders and --/kin corruptors (during the times they can team with fire/kin controllers) almost obsolete in some player's eyes. While it isn't spoken, kin defenders cant compete with a fire/kin controller in a team. If you had the option to choose a fire/kin controller or a kin/-- defender, who would you pick? Don't beat around the bush saying things like "factor in skill, etc, etc". We're assuming this is a PuG in a vacuum. Fire/Kin controllers have created a void in the amount of kins you see in defenders and corruptors (though, not as much due to corruptors being villains).

Yes, the second best would come in line if fire/kin was some how reduced in power (or whatever scenario we use to quell the numbers). Yes, there will always be a "better combination" but other ATs don't seem to have this poblem of 1 specific combination completely dominating the census. Yes Willpower and Stone tanks are generally better at soaking damage than other sets but they don't seem to have a problem with huge numbers of them. Spines/Dark (or fire) scrappers are popular but agian they dont seem to be raising the standards for other scrapper combinations.

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Well, I concede that you're half right. Fire/Kinetics is a high end build, no doubt, but having played both them and other high end builds on a more or less unlimited budget, i can testify first hand that they are not the best at everything. If they were, I would be playing Fire/Kin and not Ill/Rad.

If I made it seems as though any othre controller can out-perform them outside fo a farm, then I appologize, because you're right, thats simply not true. TO be more specific, and therefor, more accurate, other high end contorller builds out-perform them outside of spawns (and many less optimal builds can compete with them, though ussually not for offense). If you feel that the disparity between low and high end builds is too high, then I respect your opinion, but that would not be a problem unique to fire/kinetics- fire/kinetics would simply be the most prominant example of a build with excellent synergy and a high level of general performance.

It is true that they are highly demanded by teams, however, I would argue that this ha smore to do with teams under-valuing other secondary sets and over-valuing kinetics, rather than actual differences in performance.

Of course, whether such bias is legitimate or not is almost besides the point. So long as the perception exists its the same difference. And you are right - the profusion of players who have teamed with fire/kinetics and watched them solo 3-dozen freaks at once does a disservice to other controller builds trying to compete for spots on teams. I am generally unsympathetic to people whining about not being able to find teams, because I have found it is unbelievably easy, even on low population servers, to simply start your own, but I recognize that it does make life much easier, or at least more conveniant, to be the crack dealer (kinetics) the healx0r (Empathy), or the AV-killer (radiation) and have all the cool kids begging you to be in their end-game clubs - and that nowhere is this social advantage more obvious than with fire/kinetics. THis is a legitimate complaint on the part of other controllers. ONce again, however, we are left with the quesiton of how to fix it without unfairly and unbalancing affecting all other builds that use those sets.

As for defenders, I agree that /kinetics controllers obviate the need for kinetics/*anything defenders. However, I would argue that this is a symptom of the more general truth that all well-built controllers obviate the need for ANY defender with the same secondary - that defenders are strictly inferior to controllers at the level cap. There are certain exceptions to thise rule, and it is much less true before epic level, but seterus paribus (as we say in economics), I would gladly kick a defender from my ITF team to take a controller in his place. This is not a problem with fire/kinetics people overpowered; it is a problem with defenders being underpowered. It is one that has existed for a very long time. It is not one to which I foresee a solution other than to either massivley nerf contorller damage (which would have the disadvantage of making it impossible to solo with them), or to massivley buff defender damage (which would essentially just mean that instead of controllers obviating the need for defenders, defenders would obviate the need for blasters).

The reasons why other optimal builds for other architeypoes do not dominate the demographics as much is partly becuase their superior performance is often less obvious and dramatic, but more importantly, becuase those builds are not optimal farm builds. If I were ALREADY GOING to roll a tank, then I might roll a stone or willpower tnak because I know its better than the alternatives. Fire/Kinetics, however leads people to play controllers BECAUSE they want to use it to farm. IF they were nerfed to the point where some other farm build from another class were more optimal, then that architype would see a similar demographic skew as people re-rolled to the new top farmer. Most fire/kinetic farmers do not belong to people who already decided to play a controller and chose fire/kin because it was the best available option for what they wanted to do within the contraint of that class - they play it because they already decided what they wanted to do before they choose an architype and the fact that it simply ahppened to be a controller build was beside the point.

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post Fernandez said about stuff not concerning dominators... stupid

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look princess, before you start becoming a smarty-pants mabye you need to consider that mabye soloing invincible isnt normal for the average player.

yes, im angry, dont up standards for the average player saying that they solo invincible.

something is wrong, you know it. Don't pretend your logic and your brainstorm from the controller boards is 100% accurate

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Im not certain if you're talking to me, or the person I quoted, but I know I certainly never said anything of the kind. Personally, I have very high standards for character performance - ones that go well beyond soloing invincible missions - but I recognize that these are not standard, and that breezing through +2/+3 mobs is not a requirem,ent for every build of every class - especially not a crowd control/support class. Soloing missions on the easiest difficulty, however, is something all character SHOULD be able to do, and any nerf to fire or kinetics will push other builds including them, that much closer to being unable to do that.

Ultimately, its a question of who you're balancing for. FIre/Keintics is an extreme outlier. There will always be some builds more powerful in a certain area than others, and if you try to balance based on them, then you make all other, more average builds, suddenly bellow average. Nerfing FIre or Kinetics because of fire/kin controllers is equivalent to BUFFING them because your fire/energy dominator, or ice/kinetics controller is under-powered. Both are extreme outliers, just in different directions.

I should also point out that if you, theoretically, completely removed those sets from the game, then people would simply switch to whatever the second-most-efficient farming build is in order to farm. The prevelance of a build that excels in any particular area is ussually an indicator that a lot of people want to be good at that area. Nerfing Fire Control, and/or kinetics will not make farming go away, regardless of whether you think it should or not, it will just make fire/kinetics controllers less good at it... and also less good at everything else.

Also, while no one is infallible, the people on the controller boards are generally the ones with the most experience with,a nd theoretical knowledge of controller issues, and they ahve spent the most time of any sub-community going over, and over, and over these problems. This problem, in particular, has been the subject of endless discussion for years. When those things are true, and the overwhelming majority of discussions lead to the same conclusions, it a reasonably good indication that those conclusions are probably valid.

I am also inclined to ask if you have ever actaully played a fire/kinetics controller yourself? Experiencing how a they perform outside of a farm mission first-hand might help give you some insight into the situation.

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post Fernandez said about stuff not concerning dominators... stupid

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Im not certain what youre trying to say. If yuo're upset because you believe I do not consider the impact of a potential nerf on dominators then you're mistaken - as I said, I consider the the impact of such changes on not only other controler builds that include either fire control or kinetrics, but every other class, including dominators, that has one, to be a main problem with the idea. If you're upset with me because you believe its foolish somehow to consider the impact of a change to a control powerset on dominators (I.E. the other crowd control class in the game) then... welll, I suppose you're entiteld to your opinions, but I, and most other people who play dominators, would respectfuly disagree.

Also, although I can see this statement quoted in Vel_Overlord's post (and copy it from there) I cant see the post that originally has it. I dont know why, since I make it a point never to /ignore other forumites, no matter how much I may occasionally wish to.

Also, whomever you are, you mispelled my name. The spanish with a Z - the portugease is with an S. In some parts of the world such a mistake would be enough for a fistfight!

Ignoring it and forgetting aobut it are part f the problem. As someone noted above, the fact that tickets tend to sit in peopels inventories while they decide what to do with them and not circulate is a problem for the market.

Id say the biggst con used to be tha it encouraged ultra-super-duper-uber fast task-forces repeated a trillion times. And task-forces even more so than farms get old FAST! Fortunately, AE has given a better outlet for those wanting to maximize their reward over time.

As a general matter I consider th merit system a good thing an improvement over the previous random rolls. But it does have its downsides.

You could if you ahd bothered to check the controller boards where the issue has been discussed numberous times.

TO make it short and simple, the probem is twofold:

1) While fire/kinetic is impressive as all get out when it comes to taking big groups of drasticly bellow average enemies like all-lieuitenant freakshow spawns, in the highly predictable envirnment of a farm mission, and burning them down to the ground in 10 seconds or less its much less good at anything else. It suffers for its comparatively thin hard control, and it has, more importnatly, a complete LACK of the defensive debuffs and soft control that msot controllers relly upon to one extent or another. It is the highest damaging controller build, but also the weekest at actual control. The fact that this is a trade-off that many are willing to make does not change that.

Second and perhaps more importantly, chaning either fire conrl or kinetics in such as way as to nerf the fire/kinerics combination would also nerf every other controller, dominator, defender, or corrupter who used either of those powersets. Go explain to the ice/kinetics controller who can barely solo on invincible, or the fire/kinetics corrupter who might as well toss a coin to see if he kills his enemies befor ethe agro he generates kills him, and convince them that they're verpowered and deserve a nerf. This is compounded by the fact that farming is pretty easy - to make it appreciably harder you would ned a BIG nerf. Weve seen this before when FIre IMps were nerfed to always spawn at -1 to your level. This did not appreciably slow the average time in which a fire/kinetics farmer could run through a freak map, but it DID appreciably reduce their ability top survive and be of any use to the player or the team in a REAL fight.

On an unrelated noite, Rich fantasy Lives is now my new favorite song.

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I was on heroes today and i looked around and all i could find were controllers and controllers then there was some blasters and tankers. Is this just a freak thing that happened or is that really how it is now?

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Thats how its always been. THe reason for this, of course, is that a sufficient quantity of controllers renders alll other architypes superfluous.

Well, that may be hyperbole, but seriously folks, for a very, very long time controllers ahve been the most heavily played class at max level.

That fact that the ratings system is borked is old news, my friend, and I agree with you. Although I consider it perfetly legiitimate that some farm maps have high ratings. IF its a very good farm mission then it deserves recognition as a good farm mission, just as a well written story arc, or a particularly challenging AV mission deserv recognition as good stories, or good challenges.

Unfortunately, there is no method by which to differentiate what you're rating it on. Ive always felt there should be - that farm maps should be rated against other farm maps; story arcs against other stories; and those rare missions designed primarily as unique tactical scenarios against others of a similar nature.

Oh joy, another 'ban the farmers thread'. Is ti just me, or has anyone else gotten tired of responding intelligently to these thigns? I think Ill take a page from the WoW boards, and keep it blunt and pithy from no on.

qq moar, n00b.

Roleplaying, or really doing anything in broadcast that doesnt REQUIRE you to reach the maximum number of people to be effective (recruiting for a team, or a social event, for instnace) is not witty and cool, its asinine and inconsiderate.

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Also, a minor addendum: nice thread necromancy, Mouse Droid!

Im also curious - in an average fight how often tdo ou use Incinerate? Also, when you use it in a team situation, how often do you find it is able to deal its full damage, rather than having the mob killed off by a team-mate first?

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Not sure what that first part means. Hope I didn't do something wrong - I didn't mean to derail, or kill your thread.

As for incinerate, I probably use it more than I should when I'm solo, or at least more than I should have to - I shouldn't be letting anything get that close to me. The two awesome powers I don't use anywhere near enough are Confuse and Mass Confusion, which also contributes to my self gimpage. In team play I almost never use Incinerate or Combustion, because I'm much more likely to stay out of melee range.

Good point about Blazing Bolt. I've been trying to five slot it with Sting of the Manticore for the +7.5% (I think) recharge, but I guess there are other, easier ways to get that recharge.

For the record, I never PvP. I might try it in an attempt to get some of the new badges, but I won't significantly alter my build for it, and I don't have the Inf to slot out a second, PvP build on this toon.

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You never use combustion on teams, and you said before you dont have fire breath. if you feel underpowered, it may have to do with not using your AoEs. Fire is famous for its ability to burn whole spawns down to the ground (second only to the glorious broken-ness that is Psionic Shockwave). I dont care for melee either, but thts why I like hover. yu can float above their heads and melt them in (relative) safety.

Thread necromany, as the term implies, is the art of ressurecting a dead post (generally, any post that has fallen off the first page or two, and/or had no new posts made it in 24-48 hours) with renewed discussion.

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So, looking at our builds they are very similar. I made mine with the intent of doing everything PvE could offer, from the lowliest flashback mission to sleeping the Freedom Phalanx. Power order is clearly crucial in this case. I use my dual build for PvP. I have not looked at the new PvP sets, I detest doing respecs.

<ul type="square">[*]I skipped Stamina, and I don't miss it at all. Occasionally my endurance bottoms out, but it's usually only a few seconds before Domination fills it again. I've toyed with Consume, but never been that fond of it. I'm sure you could move all those slots out of Stamina at least.[*]I typically put the purples in the lower level powers, Confuse, Fire Breath, Fire Blast because they give by far the best benefits when malefed. The top tier powers are just fine with regular sets.[*]Mass Hypnosis I took very early, because when I'm doing the low level SFs it's the only AoE control I have. Call of the Sandman Heal proc in there is good for a laugh, but not actually as practical as I had once hoped. I put the Fortunata Hypnosis in here for the Freedom Phalanx, and for a good malef experience.
[*}I am addicted to Superspeed +Celerity Stealth. Full invisibility + travel with just a single power, and it's in the same pool as Hasten! yes please.[*]I'd throw a sixth slot into Blaze, is it at 96% damage? Adding recharge and range is always good.[*]Putting the Coercive Persuasion proc into Confuse is a good laugh, and quite handy when exemped down.[*]I'd drop slots from Charged Armor. I find I barely need it, and certainly could use slots elsewhere.[*]Blazing Bolt is good for building Domination quickly by activating and interrupting.[*]Why not Posi Blast or Glimpse in Terrify? I only see four 6.25% bonuses.[/list]
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The 5 6.25% rewcharge sets are Malaise's Illusions (Confusion), Positron's Blast (Fire Breath), Call of the Sandman (Mass Hypnosis), Decimation (Blaze), and Expediant Reinforcement (Mu Guardian).

Superspeed would ahve been mroe slot effecient as a travel power, but goddamit, real superheroes can fly!

The idea of running without stamina has a novel appeal. I think I will add that to the list of things to try in a respec as my build nears completion, and starts to mount up global +rec and endurence reduction, and quicker domination refills. I have toa dmit skepticality, but I wouldnt mind fitting tactics into the build,a nd a pair of respecs are worth the trouble. Thanks.

I hate the exemplar system. And low level play in general, for that matter. Im not concerned about the build's ability to operate at under 50th level - barring the occasional brief request froma guid-mate, or a quick trip or two back in time to refill a useful temp power, its not something I ever do. I find that Mass Mypnosis is porimarlly usful as a way to set up terrify, but I can see why you might take it earlier if you intended to spend a lot fo time exempalredinto your teans. I stuck the pruple sets into the powers that could most benefit from them.

Thats a good trick with blazing bolt. I may have to do that - perhaps replacing Stealth (which is really jsut there to hang a LotG on - any actual stealth required can be provided easily by an appropriate enhancement in a prestige sprint). I still wouldn't slot it though, since I still wuldn't use it in PvE combat.

You have no difficulty running without stamina?

A final, final addendum - someone mentioned taking stealth earleir, but I find this unnecesary, as the temporary invisibility power you recieve from completing a patrol fo siren's call can take care of things until you get up to that level. Aso, thank to the miracle of MA, the soul-crushing boredom of low and mid level play (a subjective opinion of course) does not last nearly as long as used to.

Also, a minor addendum: nice thread necromancy, Mouse Droid!

Im also curious - in an average fight how often tdo ou use Incinerate? Also, when you use it in a team situation, how often do you find it is able to deal its full damage, rather than having the mob killed off by a team-mate first?

There are actually some changes tot he uild since I looked at the new PvP IOs. I took the 6th slot out of combustion and put it into Blaze. In that slot, and in the 6th slot of Fire Blast (replacign Decimation 5% chance for buildup), I put the poison damage proc from Javalin Volley. I am strongly considering taking the +Hp/+End proc from Panacea over the Miracle +rec special. I will make that decisionb ased on my endurence situation once the build is nearing completion (Panacea averages less net endurence, but the persistant healing would be very nice.

I agree - Firebreqatha nnoys me too for its animation,b ut sometimes ugly, or out of character special effects are the price you pay for win.

I like telekinesis, but it si certainly sitautional. I would strongly cosndier taking incenerate as a replacement for it, except that I would then have to find 4 or 5 slots to put into it, and I dont have them.

The snipe will almost certainly be in my PvP build, but this (as you may be able to tell from all the AoEs, and the low +HP, and the complete disregard for DR, is NOT my PvP build. Ive never found snipes useful in PvE. In the time it takes to anumate, I could have hit the guty with 2 blazes anda fireblast, and had time left over to dominate something. If you wnat to pwn EBs I suiggst fprgettomg abpit about your snipe and concentrating on eekingn every ounce of damage out of fire blast, blaze, and either incinerate or dominate (depending on how close you want tog et, and whetehr your buildis meant to be high end enough to perma-hold through triangles).

As for perma-dom in PvP, you might want to hold your horses on that. I am waiting for I15 to come out and see how the domination changes affect PvP. Since domination already does not affect duration in PvP, and now may not affect damage either, and since the mezz protection it gives you is converted into much less useful mezz resistance, it just may not be the otpimal thing to build for perma-domination anymore. Not that +recharge wont still be awesome, but the defining quesiton may become "how much do you need to get a continuous attack chain at the highest ST damage practical" rather than "how much do you need to get domiantion permanent with a comfortable margin to spare". In either case, I think the PvP gurus will agree that the extreme +recharge of this build would probably be excessive for PvP and that reducing it a bit to reap gains in hit points and possibly damage would be better.

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not to dis what he's done... but from what I understand the CO dev staff (Emmert is not a dev over there, IIRC) isn't 100% professional in their public remarks about CoH/V. Which makes me wonder how good their work ethics are if their ethics are not 100%.

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The stump speach runs something along the lines of, "we enjoyed making that game and we're very proud fo it, but we reached the limits of waht we could do with it and it was time to move on and make something better". This, of course, is more or less gauranteed to get under the skin of major City of Heroes fans, particularly those who feel threatened by the advent of direct competition and the possible impact on CoHs playerbase. But its a highly effective strategy, and you cant fault them for doing what works.

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Not really bashing on a game so much as Jack Emmert's questionable ability to deliver a decent game.

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Well, he and his team invented this one.

Which, as other have noted, is why the Cryptic logo is still around - the game engine is, as I seem to recall, still liscenced from cryptic. Im not sure how big an over-haul it would take for their agreement to no longer apply, but I suspect it would be a much bigger re-write of the game engine than they're likely to embark on.

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Relatively new to the 'creating' side of the MA here, and I have some (I hope) simple questions:

First, a tangentially related lore question. Rularuu and his aspects - does anyone know if he's always existed as both one being and seven aspects, or does that have something to do with his imprisonment in the shadow shard?

Now, on to the actual MA questions. For the idea I have in mind, I would like some really alien looking maps - no office buildings or whatnot here. Something along this lines of the shadow shard, or something similarly strange looking. However, I don't see anything particularly good, and in particular, no shadow shard maps. Are there any shadow shard maps, and if so, where can I find them? And otherwise, does anyone have any suggestions for good looking 'alien' feeling maps - indoor and out, but nothing too techy.

Also, another map I want to use is that strange 'circle map in the sky' floating island style map from the last mission of Mage Killer Zuhkara's 'The circle plot' story arc. Does anyone know if that exists in the MA? I can't find it.

Finally, I originally wanted the contact to look like the phantasm pet from illusion control. I thought you ought to be able to do that, because I once saw a fire imp as a contact. However, the 'pets' contact category doesn't have the controller pets, and I haven't been able to find them anywhere else. Anyone know where these are hiding? My packup plan was to use a cabal sprite - the little things you see floating around kelly nemmers in croatoa. However, these are inexplicably missing from the cabal list. Anyone know why they aren't there?

If anyone can help a new MA user out, that'd be awesome.

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To answer your first question, it happened before he was imprisoned in the shadow shard. The native inhabitants fo the shadow shard (I.E. his slaves) tell myths about the seven aspects that date back as far as their collective history goes (which, granted, doesnt seem to be far). It is lightly implied by certain facts, but by no means certain, that they may pre-date any living slaves inhabiting the shard.

On more practiclamatters, to my knwoldge tehre is only one shadow shard specific map available - the Ruladak's Cave map, which is under unique maps. the chantry and storm palace are unavailable, as are any of the exterior maps of the zone. For other freaky and alien-seeming maps, try the Cave of the Shaper; the Arachnoid cave maps; or, for a more constructed look, the Vaults of Mu special oranbegan map with its freaky blue haze, or the Thorn Tree cavern, with its giant evil plant cave.

I am fairly sure the floating temple island is also unavailable.

An imperfect solution at best, but such is life.

I do not know how to unlock the phantasm as a contact, but if you cant, you mgiht be able ot create a reasonable fascimile, or at least give a similar impression by creating a custom contact.

I have to say, I would be interestede to see it too.

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Gah 80+ mins. gj I guess.

This sounds like an unintended way to play the game though

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Of course it is. theoretically, archivllains are supposed tob e unsoloable. And really, can you call anything a signifciant accomplishment, if it is exactly what is expected of you and no more?