Geldon

Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot about the macro file swapping trick.

Oh well, I'm okay with my shift-binds for now, they give me a little more freedom over who gets what buff when.

Nope, just cues up the same one it fired last time, which makes sense or it wouldn't have fired it in the first place.

(Maybe if you really slammed it and the parser is choking, but that's not advisable if you don't want the devs having a nice long conversation with you about choking their parser. "So, we couldn't help but notice that the chat server keeps crashing whenever you're online...")

That'd be neat if it worked, but you can only activate one at a time, so that macro ends up just triggering the Insulation shield.

If only there was a "wait" command that'd be feasible. It'd be like:
/powexec_name "deflection shield"$$wait 1$$powexec_name "insulation shield"
But I think they left that command out deliberately to prevent too much automation.

/bind shift+q,"powexec_name "deflection shield""
/bind shift+e,"powexec_name "insulation shield""

(Checks watch... hmm, I guess that's it.)

Force Field, as implemented, is already quite effective. The only thing that bothers me about it is having to recast those shields every 4 minutes on the other 7 members of the group. I would totally play Force Field were it not for that - it looks awesome, and it's awesomely effective.

So my suggestion goes something like:

1) Do something to streamline all this incessant recasting. I really don't care what, so long as the +DEF potency remains in tact.

2) Fix the zone recasting exploit.

But I probably wrote this somewhere on this thread before.

I know the general consensus (probably pulled from a developer comment somewhere) is that if you increase the duration of Force Field bubbles, you have to decrease something else. However, I think that there's simply a user-friendliness problem in Force Field (and other powers such as Speed Boost) in that you have to continually re-apply your Force Bubbles.

So, my suggestion to change Force Fields is this:

1. Prevent stacking from same characters on zoning. (It's an exploit, plain and simple.)
2. Make single target buffed force fields last much longer. Say, 15 minutes or until zoning.
3. Do not nerf anything to compensate for this change.

Yes, I'm aware that there'll probably be people passing out force fields to everybody on the street. I don't care. From my game balance perspective, if you've got something that runs for 4 solid minutes, it stops matter how long it lasts.

Right now, this is the main thing keeping me away from Force Fields and Kinetics. Having to reapply buffs constantly is not fun for me, it's just needless tedium. Other MMORPGs have changed such buffs to a concept of "cast once and it's automatically maintained" and City of Heroes (which is ahead in so many other ways) could afford to catch up here as well.

About all they can do about those is kill trial accounts. Or maybe limit your number of allowed emails per day. Either prospect doesn't seem very attractive.

Here's a good fix idea: Make sending emails a 3-mo veteran reward.

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I really don't see why people find it slow to level. Lady Grey task force earlier today, went from level 42 to 43 in 2 hours and a half (10 or 11 bars of XP). And that TF works for anyone 35+, even if the contact says otherwise. One level in under 3 hours sounds pretty good to me.

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42-43 is actually a pretty bad example. Under the current experience system, the number of minions to defeat to advance to the next level stops at 40. So, once you reach 40, you're "over the hump" in terms of advancement decelleration rate.

I expect that the smoothing of the experience curve will redirect that slack towards the lower levels. (It'll probably keep your existing xp points earned to be fair.)

City of Heroes Experience Table link

The smoothing of the xp tables is what I'm looking forward to the most. Some people have said the 30s are the trouble, but the thing to consider this board is that the people here need to be subscribed to the game. I'm thinking that droves of players were driven off by the current "sticking points" on the experience tables and this has the potential to pull them back. That said, I think the real trouble is in the whole 12-32 range.

However, the devs have access to the actual data that tells them where the sticking points are better than I can predict from my own observations.

Awesome guide.

From my personal experiences with Trick Arrow, I'd say the main trouble with the set is it tries to be both a Control set and a Debuff set and, as a result, doesn't really satisfy Controllers or Defenders because too many of the effects are dedicated to things they're bad it. It's reasonably good for Masterminds who want a hands-off support set, though, since the henchies tend to do the heavy lifting anyway - it's perhaps the only set that can outrun those spastic ninjas.

It was an unusual operating room, but then, these were not the usual surgeons. They stood around the metal operating table containing the "patient" in the way they had been trained back when they were considered legitimate doctors. However, this operating room was strange in that it contained all the butchery tools and maniacal electric machines suitable of Dr. Frankenstein's lab. It was almost enough to overlook the operating "room" was merely a raised stone platform in a still-operating section of the Paragon City sewer system.

The head surgeon indicated to his assistants that he was ready to begin, and began to monologue for the records of the operation.

"Subject: 'The Nanites.' Cause of death: poisoned crossbow bolt fired by... well, me."

The head surgeon smiled. The other surgeons chuckled at his little joke. The head surgeon gestured and was given a wicked looking curved saw from the table. He began to cut into the abdomen of the corpse, a humanoid that appeared to be wearing full-body grey tights with a bright neon circuitry pattern. The head surgeon continued his monologue.

"Initially the hero appeared to be biological composition but further investigation reveals a... quasi-metallic lattice. It seems quite incompatible with our existing creations. Perhaps we can reanimate the corpse under our control instead. As I dig deeper... hmm..."

The surgeon withdrew his saw and furrowed his brow. He placed the saw he was using aside and gestured to be given a small electric slicer. He dug into the wound again.

"The... metallic flesh of this hero seems to have some regenerative properties that have proved resistant to the standard probing saw. I've switched to a powered blade and am making some progress now, but the incision appears to be regrowing almost... no, faster than I am cutting and..."

The electric slicer suddenly stopped. The surgeon's eyes widened in surprise as he withdrew it from the wound. As he turned the slicer over in his hand, wondering where the malfunction was, he noticed the blade seemed to be disintegrating rapidly. The blade was gone entirely in the space of a few seconds and now the machine base of the electric unit seemed to be dissolving. The surgeon passed a look of amusement to his assistants and tossed the destroyed device off the platform and into the sewer water.

"Right then. Hand me the Rikti blade. We'll see if this cadaver is any match for a monomolecular energy field. I'm now reinserting the... what?!"

The body of the hero on the began to melt and pour off the sides of the operating table. The surgeons stepped back and watched as it formed a small river that drained off the concrete platform and into the sewer water below. In moments, there was nothing left. The head surgeon frowned and put the rikti blade on the now bare operating table.

"Well, it seems the subject has lost molecular cohesion. This salvage operation has concluded unsuccessfully. Lets try to find some heroes that are not so useless next time, shall we?"

The surgeons put down their operating tools and picked up the hacksaws and crossbows they used when fighting heroes on the streets of Paragon City. There was often unusual things encountered when operating on mutants, aliens, or other freaks of nature that were the heroes of Paragon City. Nothing really surprised them anymore... in fact, they looked forward to it. As Dr. Vahzilok had promised when he convinced them to join his crusade, they really were making some incredible medical discoveries now that petty morality had been cast aside.

As they turned towards the sewer grating leading over water that was sole exit from the room, they noticed the green slime that was the sewer water was bubbling furiously. It suddenly spewed upwards in a fountain and, as it fell, a humanoid creature was found standing there, blocking the exit. It was instantly recognized by its grey tights and the green circuitry pattern - the hero was back, and apparently alive. Then there was something new: suddenly it had red glowing eyes and a series of large wicked spikes burst strategically from every section of its body.

Before battle was joined anew, the creature said one thing in a voice that sounded like it was made up of millions of smaller ones.

WE ARE THE NANITES, YOU MAY DAMAGE US, BUT WE WILL ALWAYS REBUILD.

The Hellion, a gang member empowered with magical tattoos that imbued him with infernal demon fire, had been apparently attempting to wrest a purse from the somewhat feeble-looking grandmother all day. They stood in broad daylight on city streets as they engaged in their impromptu tug-o-war over this piece of aged leather with some replaceable knickknacks inside of it. In any other city, this would seem to be a woman bravely (if foolishly) opposing an evil-doer much bigger and nastier than she was. In Paragon City, the City of Heroes, this was something else entirely.

It is a simple, unspoken arrangement between the villains of Paragon City and the citizens. If a member of a villainous group wishes to get into a fight with one of the thousands of costumed superheroes heroes of this city, they need to be caught committing a crime. For this, it would often necessitate inconveniencing a citizen of Paragon City, whose cooperation would be rewarded with not being harmed and possibly being allowed to meet the hero afterwards.

The purse snatching is a common crime for low-level hoods to commit. The villain gathers as many friends as they feel is neccessary and then proceeds to find a woman carrying a purse. After appearing to ambush the victim in an opportune (highly-visible) location, they start pretending as though they were taking the purse. Back and forth they would tug, for hours if neccessary, until a costumed hero arrives. Thug and victim would shout a few lines to get the attention of the hero and, with any luck, battle is joined. It was not uncommon for there to be dozens of purses being stolen, simultaneously, on the same street.

The rules of battle are simple: The hero and villains are free to use whatever powers they have at their disposal in an attempt to defeat each other. Currently, it is considered bad form to uproot street lights or throw cars, but rules of engagement may change over time. At the start of the battle, the victim is free to flee to a safe distance, perhaps in order to thank the hero later. It's considered good form for the victim to pretend they are reporting the crime. It's also considered good form for the hero to pretend they're interested in recovering the purse. Some villains attempt to take advantage of this and pretend to flee with the purse but, upon noticing they are not being chased, will usually return to the scene of the crime to try again. After all, the point was not to get the purse, the point was to start a battle.

Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, battles go largely without consequence. Given the astounding efforts of Paragon Public Works it's very difficult to cause lasting damage to small parts of the city. Given time and effort, entire blocks of the city may be restored, such as was the case of the Overbrook district. If the hero is defeated, they are teleported to the nearest medical facility and nursed back to health in seconds. If a (human or derivative human-like creature) villain is defeated, they are teleported to the Ziggurat, a maximum security prison, where they are similarly nursed back to health. This is often considered a boon, as incarceration in the Ziggurat puts them in contact with a vast crime network of criminals who were similarly "arrested". Given that the Ziggurat is perpetually under siege by villainous forces, it was quite poor at actually keeping villains behind bars. Average turnaround time for an incarcerated villain is 2 to 3 days (or in the case of the Outcast leader, Frostfire, 2 to 3 seconds).

Attempting to break this cycle is difficult. Some particularly overzealous participants like to think they're permanently killing their foes. However, short of complete atomization or failure of the city-wide teleportation grid, it's difficult to cause lasting damage thanks to modern Paragon City medical technology. Some villains have taken to attempting to capture heroes, but have yet to come up with a solution to actually contain them. Villains are loathe to resort to killing heroes in captivity for fear that authorities in the Ziggurat may institute a similar policy. Permanent defeat or transformation of heroes or villains is quite rare, even noteworthy. Even mere disappearances of little-known participants usually lead to permanent public landmarks being established.

For the villains, there is often (but not always) ulterior motives to commit a highly visible crimes besides simply to fight. For example, the Vahzilok, a sect of rogue surgeons who seek immortality through stealing the body parts of others, often pretend to be about their grisly business in order to attract superior hero parts to harvest. However, given the effectiveness of the Paragon City teleport system, defeated heroes instantly escape the vast majority of the time. The actual goal of the Vahzilok is to steal heroic cells of heroic DNA extracted during the battle proceedings. This DNA, once cloned, can be used to forward their agenda or create the necessary parts to stitch together a nearly limitless army of abominations. For other villainous groups, reasons to goad heroes into a fight can extend to testing new battle technology or simply increasing their reputation amongst villains.

Heroes, on the other hand, are mostly interested in fame. It's all very well to be able to fly about and shoot laser beams from your armpits but, unless you actually do something productive with that, nobody cares. The ideal position of a hero is to be a member of a prestigious super group that has amassed enough influence to gain access to even greater power. Then, in the event that such a major catastrophe (as an invasion from an alternate dimension of aliens) they might just have sufficient power at their disposal to survive.

Such was how the heroism business is conducted daily on the streets of Paragon City.

Writer's Note: This is primarily a piece that plugs a lot of the logical gaps in City of Heroes' execution. Of course, it's secondarily a humor piece.

Well, thanks to double XP weekend, I had to change my signiture.

It used to read: "Definitive Alt-A-Holic: 15+ Mo Vet without a 50."

You guessed it: I got my 50. Went from 41 to 50 in three days of binge playing with my Illusion/Storm Controller.

And yes, I did not have any help from supergroups or RL friends I knew in the game. I just hunted for pickup groups. Assembled my own for most of Saturday. It's not that hard to do, folks. Turn on your LFG flag. Also learn the /search function: Grey name folks are on a team, so ask the ones at your level range if they have room or start recruiting the available players at your level.

I actually had little connection issues on the Virtue server, one of the busier ones. There was that one time it went down for awhile, and I lost connection once or twice (although my cable modem may have been at fault). At its worse, I just had to wait at the login screen for it to eventually pull up my character data. I suspect that having a broadband connection might have given me the edge, but there may have also been some east coast-directionly routing issues, because I did fine on the west coast.

Hah! I totally called this one. People thought the 5th Column were returning, but it made a lot more sense to me to see the Rikti were going to turn into a nasty invasion force. After all, they wiped out all but a few heroes the last time they attacked.

Good feedback, thanks.

I don't think I'm going to get universal agreement out of this though. I did use some DPS calculations and Red Tomax stats in generating these figures, but eventually just settled for approximations because I realized there's a lot of room for debate here. The disclaimer on the top is intended to warn everybody that City of Heroes is a game of many exceptions to the rule.

Thus, I tried to shy away from extreme examples: /Dark Scrapper versus Invuln/ Tank in a psychic fight, a Fire Tank's damage output, a Fire/Kinetics Controller, the impact of certain Epic powers, ect. If you go in there with those expectations, you'll find yourself disappointed that your Illusion/Storm Controller isn't doing Blastery damage like a Fire/Kinetics Controller may, or that your Defender doesn't get Build Up until level 41.

By avoiding the extremes, this chart reflects what a given archetype can be expected to do. This chart is intended to simplify, not complicate, with just enough details to transcend the character generation screen in the CoH executable. It's not all-inclusive, but for good reason.

Keep em' coming, though. I'm sure those interested would appreciate the added detail. Consider this an "open reference," especially considering who knows what Issue 10 and beyond will bring?

An Accomplished Alt-A-Holic's Archetype Reference Chart:

Important Note: General reference only. Certain power sets and powers, such as Kinetics and Fulcrum Shift, may produce unusual results.

Archetype: Blaster
Offensive Power:
Highest, thanks in part to ease of application. "Defiance" can boost damage considerably, but is rarely used due to inherent risk.
Defensive Power:
Weakest, but varies. Some sets have more mitigation and control than others and these are easier to solo.

Archetype: Scrapper
Offensive Power:
Blaster base with 5-15% chance for double damage "critical hit" depending on the attack. Would be highest overall, but is difficult to apply due to melee range limitations.
Defensive Power:
Self-Sufficient, about 25-75%+ of Tanker depending on situation and powers used. Weak taunting potential, usually skipped in favor of additional damage doing focus.

Archetype: Defender
Offensive Power:
Approximately 66% of Blaster and also fairly easy to apply, further enhanced by debuffs/buffs that can also benefit others.
Defensive Power:
Powerful damage mitigation and (sometimes) healing. Note that many, but not all, Primary sets are focused on mostly benefiting others.

Archetype: Tank
Offensive Power:
Approx 66% of Scrapper without the critical hits. As difficult to apply due to melee range limitation.
Defensive Power:
Highest self-applicable defensive power. Deliberately focused to bring the enemies' aggression to them and live. However, not immortal, and some situations may require outside help for survival.

Archetype: Controller
Offensive Power:
Weakest. Even with pets and "containment" (double damage) maybe 25-50% of Blaster. (Results may vary depending on situation and secondary set taken.)
Defensive Power:
Extreme - Can be neigh unkillable when selecting ample control powers and/or buffs/debuffs. Though buffs/debuffs are less effective than than the Defender versions, this archetype often the best at damage mitigation.

Archetype: Kheldian (Either Warshade or Peacebringer).
Offensive Power:
Special - Multiple forms and influenced by team makeup.
Defensive Power:
Special - Multiple forms and influenced by team makeup.

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Reasons why devs might be silent on an issue:
[...]
3) The answer is already being given by a lot of players already
4) The answer is obvious (and thus will eventually be given out by a lot of players, see #3).

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Hold up there. It might seem obvious to you, but you realize you're leaving yourself wide open for a, "If the developers don't address it, it must be true" clause here, y'know. Might want to exert a little more effort here to perform a bit of rumor control.

I've got to say, Issue 9 has made CoH a heck of a lot more addictive.

Good job!

Vengeance is just low on their priority list, I have proof!

A demonstration of complete and utter paranoia in terms of computing...

That said, I don't know if I should criticize or praise this guide.

On one hand, I know that not all of these tips here will generate results. Indeed, many of them will render your computer less secure or less user friendly without any noticeable benefit in terms of game performance. Which ones in particular require a reliable benchmark and a lot of spare time on your hands, but the results speak for themselves.

On the other hand, the 'better safe than sorry' motto isn't a bad one to have in terms of computing, especially if you're not tech savvy enough to know the difference between bloatware and stuff you need. On other words, paranoia is the one computing practice you can trust.

I do have one solid critique about this guide, and that is that it does nothing to tell you how to configure City of Heroes, itself.

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FYI, the lowest Luck Inspiration do not give a boost of 25% as they list. Check Arcanaville's guide to Defense, I think it's actually around 12.5% or so. (With small insights listed at 25% giving an actual boost of 7.5%)

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Seriously? If what you say is true, it's a much nastier stealth nerf than I thought. It's one thing to cut down the effectiveness of Defense to balance the game, it's another thing to do that and leave the old labels reporting 25% defense in place. That's, like, wow.

But, having read the guide, I think you're confused. The only thing it says about inspirations is that they stack. You're probably thinking of enhancements.

Personally, I don't mind a 5% maximum and 95% minimum. It allows my skill to influence the game while still introducing a minute chance of risk to keep things exciting. If it were 1%/99% it'd be too much of a sure thing. 3%/97% is a little harder to mentally round. So, it's a pretty good balance.

However, I have to say that I've been having some lousy luck lately. I expect that popping three 25% defense inspirations is neigh invulnerability against an even-con batch of foes, and yet, I've been getting taken down quite consistently from them. Are you trying to break us into some bad news here, _Castle_? You're going to have to start using Geko's old "accuracy has >not< been nerfed" sig if you keep this up.

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By taking both elements (and both are extremely wide categories) upcoming MMO's are hoping to appeal to a broader range of customer, which is the only real way to recoup the incredible development costs involved in projects of this size. The challenge is, therefore, how to incorporate PvP elements so that they do not repel predominately PvE players?

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To an extent, I think that the answer to this question is in offering incentives. The tipping point is that the incentive has to be valuable enough to be worth the inconveniences of having other players disrupt you when you're playing.

CoH/CoV currently offers some good incentives, but they're unfortunately counterbalanced by the risk of acquiring debt due to players deliberately attacking players when they've taken damage in PvE. Debt is something that PvE players have learned to fear.

Thus, if you want the existing incentives to work, a quick fix is just to remove the potential to acquire debt in PvP zones - that way it's not so bad getting killed repeatedly by other players.

Pretty good guide here. I play a 33 Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper myself, they're pretty interesting heroes. While you can specialize them in different ways, it's also possible to break them.

I broke mine in a couple ways before I finally got it to "work":

1) Spines/Dark Armor Scrappers require Stamina and Acrobatics. You can not function with Endurance Reducers alone - I tried, too many toggles, I barely get by with endurance reducers AND stamina. You can't afford to get knocked around, as that both prevents your AOE from being where it needs to be and prevents you from firing off that Dark Regeneration when you really need it. Thus, you're going to be 6 power slots short, and this makes it a late-maturing set.

Is Dark Armor worth all this? Sometimes, I think I'd be better off with a Regen secondary. However, looking at it again, I realize that Dark Armor does have the benefit of:
* Near Invulnerability-level defense against most types of damage.
* Higher than Invulnerability-level defense against psionic and some kinds of energy damage.
* Better than Regen-level hitpoint regeneration with a well slotted and hastened Dark Regeneration power.
That six slot flexibility penalty comes with a sheer potency trade-off.

2) It's possible to specialize on having too much AOE. I had a build that just had Lunge, Spine Burst, Quills, and Death Shroud as his offensive powers. Sure, the minions died fast enough, but it took way too long to take down those bosses and lieutenants. The Scrappers' role is primarily to take down the toughest targets - that's why there's a higher critical hit chance the higher ranked the target is. An AOE-specialized Scrapper goes against their primarily role somewhat, I can always leave the minions to the Blasters, Warshades, and Peacebringers - not that minions were ever much of a threat.

Currently, I have a multi-role specialized Spines/Dark Scrapper. Not too much AOE, not too little. His attack powers are: Lunge, Impale, Ripper, Throw Spines, and Death Shroud. It's still not quite enough single target potency, because Impale and Ripper both have some pretty long animation times. Because of this, Hasten is only really useful for getting my Build Up and Dark Regeneration powers to cycle faster.

Thoughts for a respec: I might go with Barb Swipe, Lunge, Spine Burst, Ripper, Death Shroud, and Quills as my primary attack powers. Three single target attacks for the bosses taking up all of my animation time (which is why no impale - no time to use it), two toggled on zero-animation time AOE toggles to down the minions quick, spine burst in case the two toggle aren't quite quick enough. (Maybe instead of Spine Burst get Impale as it's handy when a minion runs.)

Gamergod Guide To Team Assembly