Hagis

Let's see....

Thugs: How about freedom-loving Scottish hooligans? Kind of a modernized Jacobite uprising against Emperor Cole?

Mercs: You washed out of the Super Soldier Program because they thought you were too much of a loose cannon. Hah...had too much of a mind of your own is what they meant. Seeing how the political winds were blowing, you rounded up a few of your buddies and went to ground in Paragon City. You know there are plenty of people and organizations here who have done research into super soldier engineering and who have some pretty nice military gear to boot. May as well bust some heads that need busting while looking for your answers.

Robots: Baby Transformers spawned by that Cube thing, and brought to Paragon City to be reprogrammed and made useful. You just happen to be the poor wretch who got volunteered for the job of cleaning up after them.

Ninjas: Could just be a bunch of people from a martial arts school who take their training to the "Nth" level by taking on super-powered foes. Or, dare I say it...Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...in really good disguises?

Zombies: "This...is my BOOMstick!" (Army of Darkness)
Anyway, one day you woke up with a strange yearning. A feeling that you could control something beyond the realm of this world. So you let things happen, hoping that you'd wind up with something cool as a pet, like a baby Igneous or even a mini-Godzilla. What you got was a a sack of bones and a bit of flesh that had once been a rabbit. Hmm. Well, after a bit of training and a lot of gag-reflex-suppressing, you have managed to get yourself to the point where you can call forth a human zombie. It's not what you would have preferred, certainly..but you figure that Someone Out There must want you to have this odd power, and you guess crimefighting is about the only useful thing that might come of it. Those crash test dummies have the automotive testing market cornered, after all. If someone else complains, maybe they can tell you where you can go to exchange your power for something that fits better.

Demons: You are an agent of a Higher Power. This Higher Power sends demons to you that are seeking redemption. You act to harness their powers and abilities for good purposes, hoping to help them one day return to the good graces of the Higher Power. It's a job that requires equal parts strong will, compassionate heart, and steely nerves.

Hagis' Guide to the War Mace v. 1.0 (Issue 11)

Aye, lads and lasses, it's high time fer a guide ta one of the most underappreciated Tanker secondaries. Hope ye get somethin' out o' it!

I rolled up an Invulnerability/War Mace tanker right around the time I4 hit and he's now sitting just shy of level 43. I have every power in the set and use them all regularly. What follows is some general info on the powers in the set, some tactics, and a hodgepodge of random thoughts about the Big Spiked Steel Ball Onna Stick.

First: Why play War Mace? Doesn't the damage blow chunks?

-It's not hard to get that impression. War Mace has fairly long recharge times and it's all Smashing damage, which gets resisted a fair bit. But like all Tanker secondaries, it develops into a powerhouse over time. It's also hindered by the lack of a third single target heavy hitter. The last single target attack you get is Jawbreaker! (Most of us adapt and use Shatter as a ST attack, which has its ups and downs.) For a long time, Mace had some animation glitches that slowed its Damage Per Second (DPS) output down. (These have all been fixed or at least reduced to the point where I don't notice them anymore.) Also, the set did have a fair amount of knockback, which meant you had to spend time chasing mobs down after you hit them. Those powers have since been changed to knockdown, which is a different beast all together. (The argument for pro vs anti knockback has caused more than its fair share of heartburn on the forums. Suffice it to say that right now, the point is moot as far as War Mace goes.)

Ok, those sound like a lot of reaons to avoid the set. Why play it?

-There are a few good reasons.
1) You get to hit thugs with a Big Spiked Steel Ball Onna Stick. Repeatedly. Until they fall over and get teleported to the hospital. (This also applies to shovels, shilleleghs, baseball bats, and any of the other items you can use instead of the standard mace.)
2) War Mace is a surprisingly good AoE set. Whirling Mace is a really nice PBAoE with a decent chance to stun LTs and Minions. Crowd Control is a huge (180 degree) arc that knocks down pretty much anything it hits. Shatter is a narrower cone that can, with practice, reliably hit two thugs at a time. (It can hit more, but 2 is pretty much my limit at my level of skill.) And oh boy, when it hits, it hits HARD. Which brings me to my next point.

3) Accuracy. I hate missing. Let me say it again. I. HATE. MISSING. As a drawn weapon, mace gets a small (5%) inherent accuracy buff. Big deal, you say? Wouldn't you like every soldier in the armed forces to have a free extra bit of accuracy? Would you turn down 5% extra accuracy for your favorite baseball pitcher or basketball team? Granted, it's not much, but every little bit helps.

4) Most robots take extra Smashing damage. Clockworks? Nemesis Jaegers? Malta Titans? Sky Raider Shield Generators? The crystalline Devouring Earth critters? All get broken into itty bitty pieces by the Big Spiked Steel Ball Onna Stick.

5) The mix of soft controls in War Mace is somewhat unpredictable. The lower level attacks have a Stun component, and the higher ones knock people off their feet. Thugs can't attack if they're on their kiesters or staggering around like drunken sods. Either way, though, they're not inflicting damage to you or your team. Also, with the AoE capability of War Mace, holding aggro is a fairly easy task.

Let's go through the powers. I'm going to list each one with some observations and some recommended slotting. Not having any direct experience with IOs, I can't make any recommendations that way. There are, however, plenty of guides out there that can walk you down that road, should you choose to go that route.

Brawl- Yes, Brawl. My tanker has it and uses it enough for it to be in the attack tray. In the early going, it's a filler attack. In the late going...it's still a filler attack. It does jack for damage, but every little bit helps...and it's easy on the ol' Blue Bar. One accuracy SO is plenty.

Bash- You HAVE to take it, so why not use it? It does a moderate amount of damage and has a 10% chance to disorient the one it hits. (MAG 3, maybe a 5-6 second duration.) Slot it out at two accuracies, then gradually add in an end reduction and up to three damages as slots become available.

Pulverize- This is actually a decent attack. It does fair damage, has a 20% chance to disorient (MAG 3, 5-6 seconds duration). Most attack chains will make good use of it. Slot in two accuracies, one end reducer, and up to three damages as slots become available.

Jawbreaker- This is your first power that gives you a hint of the awesomeness that is to come. This attack does good damage (the highest single target attack you get) and sends people flying most of the time. The animation shows you slamming the mace into your target's chin with an upward blow, sending them up in the air a short distance. They don't go too far from you, though. You need to be careful using this on ledges and such, because you can knock thugs away enough that they'll fall of the ledge and away from you. Oh, and the sound effect is very nice-it's a bone-breaking crunch. Nice work, whoever programmed that in. Slot it with two accuracies, one end reducer, and three damages. You will want to six-slot this bad boy.

Whirling Mace- This is your first AoE attack. It hits up to 10-14 targets (I forget which) and does damage on par with Bash. It also has a 30% chance to disorient (MAG 3, duration 5-6 seconds). I wouldn't skip it, although if you must make room somewhere, this can probably be sacrificed. The end usage is a little heavy but that's purely a Quality of Life issue. This is a nice aggro-holding tool and one of the best bang-for-your-buck early AoEs that tankers get. Slot it with 1 Acc, 1 End Reduction, 1 more Acc, and three Damages as slots become available.

Clobber- This power is kind of like a roll of duct tape. You might feel silly for carrying it around, but when it is needed it really comes in handy. It's a MAG 3 Disorient for about 10-12 seconds and does a piddling amount of damage. It also gulps endurance, so you really don't want to use this as a regular part of the attack chain. I use it on Sappers, Illusionists, Rikti Communications Officers, and anyone else I want to keep out of the fight for a while. It's handy for dropping toggles like Hover, Concealment, and Invincibility on thugs. It's also good for stunning CoT Behemoths and Freakshow before they heal, so you can finish them off faster. I'd reccomend slotting two accuracies or one acc and one recharge reduction or one acc and one Disorient Duration. Slotting Disorient Durations will not affect the magnitude of the stun.

Taunt- Enough has been said about taunt in other places that I don't need to get into it here much. Suffice it to say that there are those who swear by it and those who do not need it. Personally, I like it. I have one recharge reduction slotted in it. Taunt affects up to 5 foes in a farly large area, and is autohit in PvE. If you PvP, you'll need to put a couple of accuracies in this.

Build Up- Take it. Use it. Love it. Build Up really fills a void in the Mace secondary-namely, MORE DAMAGE. It's a 20% ToHit buff (like Accuracy, but on steroids) and an 80% damage buff that lasts 10 seconds. BU plus Shatter plus Jawbreaker plus Pulverize really puts a hurting on most anything at +3 to you or higher, and BU + Whirling Mace + Crowd Control + Shatter is an almost obcene amount of AoE damage. Slot it with three recharge reductions. This is actually the last power I took out of the set and I wish I had taken it sooner.

Shatter- Oh, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. The animation rocks, especially if you can land if right after Jawbreaker so it looks like you're smashing someone's skull into the pavement. It is a small cone attack-45 degrees and does "Superior" damage. I think it actually outdoes Jawbreaker by a small amount. When it hits, it knocks foes down. This is definitely a heavy hitter. Slot it with 2 accs, 1 end reducer, and three damages. You will want to six-slot this one as well. You could also slot in a knockback enhancer in place of one of the accs or damages. This will give you some knockback capability if that's what gets your motor running.

Crowd Control- This is one power I felt kind of underwhelmed with. It's a huge arc. It does damage on par with Pulverize. It kinocks down thugs by the bucketload. It's just...I expect something a little more from a Tier 9. Oh well, for all that, it's a decent power. I'd slot it 2 accs, 1 end reducer, and up to three damages.

End reducers are a must if you want to play Mace with Invuln or Stone. Ice, Fire, and Willpower all have tools to help manage their endurance use, so you might be able to get away with not slotting end reducers in your lower level attacks...but I wouldn't recommend it. Likewise, using Hasten with Mace is a good way to boost your DPS at the cost of having more endurance issues. Personally, I plan on picking up Assault for that extra bit of damage and I'll need the endurance.

War Mace is not an overwhelmingly popular set. Thematically, you just don't see that many comic book heroes smacking people with medieval weapons. If you like the concept, though, give it a shot. The set doesn't really excel in any one area, but it also doesn't have any major weaknesses aside from the lack of a ranged attack.

Good luck out there. If you need to, send me an email through the forum and I'll try to help where I can. I also play on Freedom, so if you see a burly Scottish tanker engaging in some "Thugbashin' " feel free to say hello or ask a question.

-Hagis

Actually, I made a big booboo on the shuttles and couldn't get back to edit the post. D'oh!

Enterprise (Atmospheric testing only, prototype...wonder if it's in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum?)
Columbia (R.I.P.)
Challenger (R.I.P)
Atlantis
Discovery
Endeavor
(In no particular order.)

Someone once told me that the destruction of the Challenger is a generational hallmark. If you were old enough to remember it, you were on one side of a generational divide, and if you couldn't, you were on the other side. Dunno if that's true, but I can sure tell you where I was when it got destroyed.

Hoo boy...

"Exit, Stage left!"
You know you're an old gamer when...

-....you remember when floppy disks were floppy.
-...you can remember when there were four shuttles in the NASA fleet, plus the prototype named Enterprise..and you can name them all.
-....if "Kill de Wabbit, kill de Wabbit, Kill De Wabbit" makes you smile
-...you grew up wondering if the tricked-out black Pontiac Trans Am could outrace the orange and blue General Lee
-.....you look for a certain logo on the side of every red semi truck you see in CoH
-....you were around to see JR get shot
-....you remember a time when the cartoon about Bart and Homer wasn't on the air
-...your kids are playing with your old Tonka trucks

Credit given to Blueeyed for pointing out some glaring errors.

I've seen a few people here and there asking for an Archery guide, so here it is.

What This Guide Is NOT:
-A comprehensive, tell-all guide that tells you which powers to skip and which to avoid. Power A can be useless in Situation X but can save your team's hides in Situation Y. Only you can decide what types of scenarios you'll likely run into.

-A guide that puts rose-tinted glasses on the whole thing. Hagis is your friend; I won't lie to you. Likewise, I'm not going to condemn the entire set because of its known flaws-in spite of them, I find Archery works well for me.

-Complete. I haven't worked to level 32 yet with my Archer, so I don't know all the powers. (Hey, at least I'm honest!)

What This Guide IS:
-A basic no-set of impressions based on "yardsticks" from other better-known powersets. Where possible, I try to compare specific powers to other powers to give fellow players an idea as to what to expect.

So: Here's The Fine Print
A) I don't do PvP. All I can say is if you choose to go this route, consider being a dedicated squishy killer. Archery has some good range, and with practice and enhancements you might even be able to keep out of the range of controllers/dominators/defenders/corruptors/masterminds. But...I've never tried it, so......

B) Most of my time with my archery blaster is spent in a team with a Stone/Ice tanker and an Empathy/Radiation defender. I don't solo much with Brigid, but if someone were to try a solo archer, I'd tell them to adopt a hunter mindset. Choose your prey. Learn how to snipe so that you don't pull the entire mob on you. Where other sets blast, explode, scream, ignite, freeze, and generally explode, the arrow whispers. Learn to use the range, accuracy, and rate of recharge that archery offers to your advantage. Slot the holds and immobilizations in your secondary well. Be prepared to spend a fair amount of time at the hospital. There are players far better than I who can solo a blaster effectively, but they learned their craft the hard way. As for me, I consider myself lucky if I get to play alongside one of them.

Archery: The Good News
-You've got an inherent accuracy bonus. From what I've seen from postings, it's about 10%. Add in the 5% bonus for having a drawn weapon, and you start out with about an 87% chance to hit an even con minion. (75% base accuracy times 1.16 from Geko.) So what this means down the road is that you can get away with only slotting one accuracy SO (maybe even none if you choose Devices as a secondary and pick up Targetting Drone). Assuming you choose to go 1 accuracy and 3 damage SOs, that leaves two slots for you to adapt to your needs. Want a high dps rate? Toss in a couple of recharge reducers. Want to be super efficient? Tack on an endurance reducer or two. Want to really have some range? Go hog wild with the range enhancements. Put an interrupt reducer in Ranged Shot if you take that power. Get funky and throw a knockback enhancer into Exploding Arrow. Or put those slots into your secondary or power pools if you want...I won't stop you! One of archery's perks as a result of its accuracy bonus is that you can deviate a lot from the standard formula for adding in enhancements.

-Archery has a pretty good recharge rate. Chances are decent once you reach a certain level that you'll never be without an attack to use. This means that enemies who use Slow powers on you are just that much less fearsome.

-Archery has range. In tactical terms, this is equivalent to having a larger "field of fire" and having multiple chances to attack an opponent before it can close with you. Its best single target attack (other than the snipe) is Blazing Arrow, which has a range in excess of 50 feet. I think it's more than that, but I can't remember if I have a range enhancment in it or not. Compare that to some other blaster sets where their heavy hitter is closer to 30 feet. The snipe (Ranged Shot) competes with Psionic Lance and Moonbeam for the longest ranged attack in the game. The cone attack (Fistful of Arrows) is in the ballpark with Psychic Scream, one of the largest cone AoEs in the game.

-Archery has a good amount of versatility. It really doesn't lack in single target attacks or area of effect attacks, making it well balanced.

-The level 32 nuke, Rain of Arrows, is ranged and does not consume all of your endurance or leave you disoriented.

The Bad News:
-Just about all of Archery's damage is Lethal. In this respect, it's similar to Claws. Lethal damage is commonly resisted to varying degrees even starting from the lower levels (Vahzilok/Clockwork/Trolls?).

-Archery has an animation bug in the Ranged Shot, meaning that there is a short period of "dead time" after the attack goes off where you can not activate another power. (Note: a fix for this is supposed to be released soon, perhaps with Issue 7?)

-Archery attacks (at least the lower ones) gulp endurance. It wasn't until I was able to slot DOs for endurance reduction in the first four attacks that I was able to last through a good fight. I still ran out of gas taking on Dr. Vahzilok at lvl 19 though. (Note: the endurance costs are supposed to be looked at and perhaps reduced a bit come Issue 7.)

-Archery has some longish animation times. Sometimes you want to reach through the screen and flick your toon's elbow to make it fire already.

-The level 32 "nuke" power, as it stands, can not be buffed damage-wise with powers like Aim or Build-Up. This results in a nuke that does low damage for its position in the power tier, especially against enemies with Lethal resistance. (Note: this is set to be adjusted with Issue 7.)

Choosing A Secondary
-There are two schools of thought on this. A, you can pick a secondary that will add a good amount of damage to the primary. I chose to make up for Archery's damage deficiency against robots and picked up the Electricity secondary. Others might try Fire or Energy for the same reason. B, you might want to try to slow the pace of the fight down by choosing Ice with its controls or Devices with its tricks and stealth capability. Be warned, though that none of the secondaries really feels "synergistic" with Archery. Every time you use a secondary or pool power that is a "click" power, you'll have to redraw your bow to attack. Brawl is an exception. Toggle powers will generally not cause you to redraw your bow, although there may of course be exceptions.

The Powers:

-Snap Shot (Single Target): Good range, fast recharge, Low damage. Reminds me a lot of Neutrino Bolt from the Radiation Blast set. Falls on the lower end of the scale as far as damage goes for first-tier blaster attacks.

-Aimed Shot (Single Target): Better damage (Moderate) than Snap Shot (although not THAT much better), slower recharge, about the same range. Recharges faster than most second-tier blaster attacks.

-Fistful of Arrow (Cone): Starts off with a nice cone and good range, but shines with one or two range enhancers in it. Really covers a big chunk of territory once you learn to position yourself. Does Moderate damage. Recharges about the same as other early blaster cone attacks.

-Blazing Arrow (Single Target)- This is a fun one. Has a good punch to it (High damage), the second hardest hitting power in the set next to your snipe. Also does not have the same accuracy bonus that most of your other powers do, so you need to account for that when slotting. Also has an annoyingly long animation that makes me cringe when I miss. I don't know if this is fire or lethal damage, although I suspect it's fire. Again, please correct me if I'm wrong.

-Aim (Self Buff): Standard, no difference from other blaster Aim powers. Boosts accuracy by 100% and damage by 65% for blasters. If for no other reason than the damage bonus, this is a good power to take. I tend to get good use out of it when peppering mobs with Fistful of Arrows and Exploding Arrow.

-Exploding Arrow (Ranged AoE): Woohoo, this is another fun power. Results in a big blast (good-sized AoE), the screen shakes, and most of the time bad guys get flung. Does a Moderate combination of Lethal and Smashing damage. Has a fair recharge rate, but balances out with another rather long animation. I will use this to disrupt mobs that are refusing to be drawn in to the tank or scrapper.

-Ranged Shot (Single Target, Snipe)- This competes with some of the Defender snipes for longest player character attack of the game. It has an average animation/interruption time for a snipe, and does very nice (High to Superior) damage. The big problem is the delay at the end of the animation where you can't activate any other powers. Irritating at best, a sure path to debt at worst.

-Stunning Shot (Ranged Mez Attack, Single Target): * I don't have this power yet, so I can't comment. Hopefully someone else can jump in or I'll update it when I get that far.

[From Blueeyed-Single target attack power, does similar damage to Aimed Shot but with five times the recharge and a high chance to stun. I'd say it successful three out of four times against minions or LTs. Decent duration when it actually works. ]


-Rain of Arrows (Ranged AoE): *I don't have this power yet, so I can't comment. Hopefully someone else can jump in or I'll update it when I get that far.

[From Blueeyed- Think Blizzard without the slow, but with a little more damage, a much shorter recharge, and no endurance crash. Very nice power, but can't be buffed by Aim/Build Up/Enrages/Siphon Power until i7. ]

Good luck. If you have any questions, send me a PM and I'll try to help you out.

--------------------
Chekmate PI- FF/Psy defender, Virtue
Hagis- Inv/War Mace tanker, Freeeeeedom
Brigid Huntress- Arch/Elec blaster, Freedom

And you never get hit
When your back's to the wall
Gonna fight to the end
And you're taking it all!!
-TF:TM, "The Touch"

I've seen a few people here and there asking for an Archery guide, so here it is.

Edit: Whoops..it's in the Player Guide section instead.

Hagis' Archery Guide Version 1.1 (Issue 6)

I'm a casual player only, and do PvE 90% of the time. With that caveat in mind....

"What's a Tank's Role post ED?"
- I assume that most tank players are looking for a high-damage-mitigating AT (team friendly) that does good damage and can take a beating (both qualities desired for soloing).

With I5, I6, and ED....I really don't know if a tank can do all of the above. I see tanks becoming offensive and defensive specialists. Defensive tanks will try their utmost to be team-friendly damage mitigators. It'll be harder than in the past, but given the talent out there, I can't believe that people won't still find ways to take a licking and keep on ticking. Meanwhile, the offense oriented tanks will be geared towards keeping small groups of baddies occupied or even whittling them down while the rest of the team does their thing.

I've always felt that the tanker attack sets could be grouped into solo-friendly and team-friendly categories. Axe, Fire, EM, and maybe SS I see as being easier for offensive characters to get the most out of, while Mace, Ice, and Stone just seem geared to contribute more defensively.

The Bottom Line: Tanker capabilities have been more or less reduced to the point where we can't do everything we used to be able to do. Instead, we'll have to choose certain aspects of "tanking" to focus on and try to fill in the gaps as best we can.