Hand_Of_Osiris

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Lol. Alas, there are no winners in this game....

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lol only losers because the more you 'win' you are actually just losing.

btw this is the best thread in Cox

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If you remember having a remote control that had a wire connecting it to the VHS (or Beta)
or better yet a Remote that made an odd hissing noise to change the channel up or down but did nothing else

If you remember getting your first cordless phone (very expensive with about 20 ft of range)

If you remember getting your first computer being a Texas Instrument TI994a (I think that's what it was called)

If you remember there being no dice for table top games, just a small cup with a bunch on little pieces of heavy paper with #'s on them.

and finally

If you run an entire night of missions with someone who is afk more then 75% of the time because their kid is sick and you never complain, even waiting to start each new mish until they get back and load into the mish, because you understand how hard it is to be a parent

34 and aging

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about ready to join that CoH sub-group 34 year old with infant on the way.

ha ha don't mess with a Voltron nurd!

btw isn't Hyakujuu = 110 so that really is the Hundred and Ten Beast king?

don't mess with 1st year Japanese students!

I would like to ammend my Flash comment. The TA\A and A\nrgy duo is now 26. We recently experienced the Flash Arrow + Defender death to some freak show.

Flash is still good if you want to do pull's, especially a snipe.

However... I am thinking that entagle will be the better optioin for most.

Me and my wife have a TA/A & A/nrg duo. The basic combo of Flash + Glue Arrow is our bread and butter. We are both 20 now (took some time off) and went through the whole Hollows arc on Rugged.

If/when you get Explosive Arrow is important because you can time this to knock all those Trolls back into the debuff zones of the defender (or power thrust).

We have never had a problem with Flash Arrow drawing agro. In fact we TRY to have the def open with FistFull (flash + glue + fistfull + x2 assault + x2 tactics) so that she takes the alpha. As the blaster when he unloads will pull agro from her (the defender)

one usefull tactic when dealing with imps and getting them to both draw agro and where you want them.

With SS and/or stealth run at a spawn group and jump over them when you land (or sometimes when you are halfway over the top) your imps will hit agro range, following you into the spawn group. Note you are on the otherside not IN the spawn. Queue flashfire just before you land to go off just after alpha strike on imps. Follow up with LR or Firecages and EF.

You win again!

my 2 influence:

Smoke and Bonfire: Unless you want to lean heavily on some pool powers, I would take both for PvE. Neither is bread or butter, but both are effective.

Smoke is really nice coupled with SS + Stealth to provide a limited Group Invisibility. If you do have it you start with this every time. It is also good in the 40+ range in those really cramped Malta missions where you are afraid to pull multiple spawns. Depending on your build etc. maybe a range, or a recharge, I think it is no longer autohit.. so maybe an acc.

Bonfire shines in cramped, heavily populated maps. Like the Orenbega maps. It is also sweet for the respec mission in Terra Volta. With 3 Recharge SO's you can get 3 out at once (with hasten and AM) it is fun bouncing Freakshow tanks like pinball. Bonfire was all powerful back in the day, when you could PL thoese CoT portal missions. They provide sustaining control kinda like a toggle but without costing end. You could build a character around Bonfire. 3 recharge, 2 end red, 1 range.

Flashfire is the best control power fire has. Once this is slotted and once you have imps you can respec out of RoF and Fire Cages (if you want of course) 6 slot love here. Only using Char on bosses or stragglers. However Flashfire is the sux in PvP.


All in all you have 2 basic plans you can scraptroll or you can be ranged. Fire/rad have so many options that I suggest doing both! Use your respecs to keep your character fresh.

The only power I would totally avoid is Fallout. That said I haven't used it with containment but unless it has been tweaked in the last year or so, its area of effect is just too small. Get a power like Vengeance instead if you want a dead body power.

try the in game help... my post is lame...

do a search for luminara for a guide about archery both def and blasters.

Obviously over the longhaul it is doing all of these things at the certain moment.

I have found that hanging out in PvP zones is really good xp. What?! you KrAzY debt what what... wahh! If you are lower than the zone all the street mobs are yellow/orange to you and there are a lot of bosses without much support. Hitting 15th and if you have SS, you can Patrol BB again and again... taking out interesting mobs along the way.

If you set your mission difficulty low you can run through the missions there getting fat on the (I have heard 25% xp boost in PvP zones) while getting to fight a interesting boss at the end of each mission!

Since you have run a good amount of PvP missions you are buffed up. I always choose the "buff your side" because it will help you street sweep. And then when you do see the enemy you charge and have a bit o' PvP madness!

Sometimes I wonder if certain archtypes or maybe power combinations should unlock (tankers and scrappers) after you have played a squishy a bit. I know, I know... so many bad ideas here, but the concept of having to learn how to play and coordinate is what I am getting at.

It took me from I1 to I5 to get my fire/rad (and at the time /mind) controller to 50 with very limited Alts. That said I also came up with some really fun moves and crazy things that various forums foofoo'd (smoke and bonfire come to mind).

My ultimate favorite move is kinda similiar I used SS + slotted Hurdle jumping over the group of mobs. While in the air I would queue Flashfire (tactics, Assault, manuevers all running) such that when I landed my toon would auto-turn around and 'Blast' the whole group but what was truly sweet is that my Imps, 5-9 of them in the good 'ole days would be hitting the mob group about the same instant that Flashfire would go off.

I would follow up with Enervating Field and Lingering Radiation.

Big explosions, flashy effects, other players crying out that wow you are crazy was great. However, my tactic was infinitely safe you notice that I only actually did a couple of points of damage from flashfire and ran up with -perception. It looked dangerous but I ended up living by the motto "I only die when targetted"

Hell the worst thing I could have done was to use Hotfeet, Ring of Fire, and Fire Cages. :-)

During your fun guide you also mention forget attack chains. This is pretty smart. I would like to add to this comment by saying the following. You can manage your endurance by making smart decisions on which powers to use on a particular mob.

Just because your AOE attack is 'up' while everything else is recharging doesn't neccessarily mean you should use it if you are only going to catch 1 or 2 mobs in it.

You don't need to hit the minion mob with 25% life left with Total focus... (Let a Blaster/Defender/Corruptor kill them).

Sure your theoretical DPS will drop through the floor but if you manage yourself you might be surprised at what the team can accomplish.

Communication can also lead to 'fun' and success. If you are leaving mobs so that squishies can finish them, please inform the blasters on the team. If you have a -perception power please always open with it before the Tanker runs up there.

If you have a power like Vengeance, or even if you have Recall Friend and carry extra Awakes... just tell people this (and that they need to make sure they have an open slot... ever wonder how those people that just died seemingly are always full of insp and have seemingly gone bio at the same instant?)

If you are an alternative archtype (def who can't heal, ScrapTroller, DefTanker, or my new favorite my BruTroller d/d brute can you say 4 fear powers!) You should announce the fact that as a fear monger I will be ghetto holding everyone but not laying out the smack down.

sigh back to work!

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Vengeance? Yes, Vengeance. I took the time to calculate the buff numbers and was surprised to find that it's even powerful in the hands of its weakest wielders, blasters. Since I'm not concerned about PvP with this character, I have some room to add "fun" powers, like Vengeance.


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Vengeance is a PvP monster power... considering just how many times a teammate of yours will die.

It just got nerfed so that multiple Vengeances cant stack, as this was the UBER power in Base Raids.

I ran it on my controller because it buffs the pets too.

My wife is going to start playing and I was thinking of a great duo and doing a synergy thing and running unslotted vengeance on both.

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So would a 3 slotted swift, sprint, and hurdle be a good substitute to a travel power? This idea is really intriguing to me.

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add combat jumping and you are now called an Easter Bunny

PvP is great fun you just have to realize that most builds have some critical flaw... by d/d brute is amazingly fun in PvP but I can't kill anybody! However team me with anyone that can do decent damage and my tp foe and all my fear powers totally dominate.

Likewise when I play my fire/rad controller I have to play this amazing game of keep away from all melee types who I put Lingering Radiation on and spam the hell out of them with chars while the imps are jumping around all crazy. It is really fun, sometimes I finally hold them and then quickly kill them other times they get their one or two shot in and I am dead.


I just wish PvE AI played the same as PvP.

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Only problem is that the upgrade animation is exactly the same as the mercs animation for the first upgrade. Can we get somethign differenant then the clip toss? Hell, toss em a beer or something?

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No way you should pass a blunt around! sweet! I mean sweetleaf!

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Aid Self is over-powered.

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ZOMG!


Seriously, though: isn't this all just a merry-go-round at this point? Aren't you (the Dev team) just letting Aid Self fill in the cracks that have appeared in game? Wouldn't it be better to actually get in there and address these sorts of issues so that you can change Aid Self and at the same time point and say, "but look at the changes we made to survivability overall!" when you do it?

Is it really fair that an SR Scrapper with Aid Self is about as effective as a Fire Tank that doesn't stray from their primary? Doesn't Aid Self on a Brute make a mockery of the Brute vs. Tank comparison?

Maybe you can't reply candidly in this venue, but this does seem like a case where everyone's trying very hard not to point out the pink elephant in the room.

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You're going to tell me to go smash something again, aren't you?

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QFT, QFE
Eloquently put.

At least _Castle_ doesnt just field the softball topics and sit back and make cute little quips in general chat.
More than I can say for many other dev's.

This power being even remotely close to the caliber of melee powers in effectiveness is a joke, and just further illustrates the sub-mediocre level that melee defenses have been tuned to - on top of being reduced to a trivial concern in PvP for the opposition to overcome.

It also illustrates the continued divorce from comic-book heroics and influence in the game as a whole and in relation to AT's across the board.

What comic book character constantly juices a med-pack in every encounter, between 2-3 attacks to hang with his opponents?

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None: There is too much healing in CoX. I had a discussion about this a few weeks ago. Although, some characters have healing powers- mostly wizards or cosmically do 'anything' types, it is rare to open a comic and see a character healing another while the other fights against hordes of mobs.

Comic book battles are 1 of 2 types: either hordes of minions AIM, Hydra, Kingpin etc or against other villian groups.

What CoX has made is a modification to the classic 'dungeon crawl' by adding defenders into the game at all or at least at the numbers they currently are. Also when was the last time you opened up an avengers comic and saw someone running around with 'pets'. This is also a variation of a summoner or necromancer instead of a true superhero archtype.

Sweet that is a great solution! And it makes my Warshade Nova Form that much more kick @$$ on MM cause now my two aoe's will double up on the damage! woot! Nothing sorrier than a MM without pets!

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Setting to Bodyguard
You can set any Mastermind Henchman to Bodyguard by selecting the Defensive Stance and the Follow Order. Your Henchmen must be within Supremacy range for this function to work.

Bodyguard Mode
When set to Bodyguard mode, the Mastermind and his Henchmen share damage from any attack that the Mastermind takes damage from. Each Henchman takes one “Share” of the damage, and the Mastermind himself takes 2 “Shares”. This is in addition to any damage that the Henchmen themselves might incur from Area attacks.

Example: If a Mastermind has 3 Henchmen set to Def/Fol, and he gets hit with a 100 point attack, each Henchman will take 20 points of damage, and he himself will take 40 points. (total of 100 points of damage).

Example 2: If a Mastermind has 3 Henchmen set to Def/Fol, and he gets hit with an Area Effect attack for 10 points of damage, then each Henchman will take 2 points of damage, and he himself will take 4 points. Henchmen that were also in the Area of Effect will take an additional 10 points each.

What Does This Mean?
Bodyguard will work as long as a Henchman is in Defensive Follow. This means that they will follow you around and attack back when you or they are attacked. Issuing an order of “Attack my target” will take them out of bodyguard mode, as will issuing any other stance or order. You can set as many of your Henchmen to bodyguard that you want. As long as the Henchman is in Defensive Follow and within Supremacy range, he is in Bodyguard mode. Being stunned will not turn off bodyguard mode.

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My grandparents used to drive around in this! Actually you would pull quite a few heads if you drove one today.

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I can beat that! My grandfather was the original owner of one of these. His was a black hard-top. He would pull it out on some Sundays in the spring and summer, and we would ride to church in it. We heard that when he passed away, he was the last original owner of that kind of car anywhere. My Uncle still has the car, but it will end up in a museum.

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Well... in some ways you don't win, you lose... because that is a NICE car and the Volkswagen Thing is a piece of crap that they couldn't even come up with a name for.

Actually I ran into company firewall/other packet security issues that prevent me from connecting to the game (not local firewall). Actually I can play video games at work (Software Engineer) so long as I finish all the work I promised to complete. I get jealous of the guy playing Civilization IV a few offices down...

But BEST occupation to play games at work is COLLEGE PROFESSOR WITH TENURE! I almost missed graduating because one of my college computer sci professor was gaming it up all day long (starcraft & Quake) at night he would play hockey (real hockey). Everyday I would say "You know that if you don't turn in my grades to the main office I am going to miss graduating." and he would ensure me that he would get to it....

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You could not make a long-distance call without the operator (There were times when you could not even make a local one either, but I'm not that old )

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oh oh! How about you SHARED a phone line with everyone else on your street and if you were a true 'assassin' could pick up the receiver without your neighbors knowing you were listening to their phone conversation.

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I knew I wouldn't get my five points...

But have you seen _the_ doctor in a Sinbad movie? (Golden Voyage in this case) My dad took me to all 3 of the Harryhausen Sinbads in the theater. Wasn't until years later I realized it was the doc. Tommy plays a great villain.

And once again, the old gamer thread comes back to haunt me...

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He was also in the crappy D&D movie that came out a few years ago.

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Thankfully, since I only understand AD&D 2.0, I never caught the movie, released far after that ruleset.

What's possibly more crappy is not playing, sitting here waiting to see if I have to pick up my daughter. Which of course gets me back to being an old gamer (it's really too easy). And in that vein, you may be an old gamer if:

...you ever saw a lot of these critters driving around.
...your family had a woodpaneled station wagon (and it wasn't used) [heck, maybe this should be amended to just a station wagon]
...your neighborhood had one Delorean, before Back to the Future
...but really, what the heck was up with this. Those were hideous (even moreso than those horrid box-shaped cars on the road today).

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My grandparents used to drive around in this! Actually you would pull quite a few heads if you drove one today.

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You used to get up at 7am on a Saturday morning just to watch Robotech. Well, it might have been 8am.

You know that Danger Mouse isn't a DJ.

You played on a Commador Vic 20. I think that's what it was called.

When all the new movies coming out weren't remakes.

G5

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It was 7am... because my bus to school left at 6:45am (hour drive) and I had to spend my 'sick' days wisely to catch key episodes. I was always pissed off, if I got one of the 'crappy' episodes where the girl floated around space singing for the majority of the show.

Long live 'Pitfall' and 'Missle Command'.

You might be old if: You know if you are old if you remember being 'spanked' in public elementary school (I used to wear multiple underwears the days of my punishments)--- we called them 'hacks'. Our principle was missing the top 3rd of this ring finger and had a nice rubber whacking paddle with holes cut in it for that nice zing.

You might be old if: You were only givin 30 minutes detention for bringing your homemade Chinese stars to elementary school and throwing them at recess and sticking them into the school buildings themselves vs. the electrocution you would get today for doing something so stupid.

You might be old if: After debating who kicks more @$$ Bruce Lee, Sho Kusogi (sp?) , Chuck Norris, or the unknown asian guy on Cannonball run and Big Brawl (who turned out to be Jackie Chan) you signed up for a martial arts course.

Actually if you even know who Sho Kusgoi is (The Black Ninja).

I am 33 going on 11.

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When deciding about encouraging teaming and whether soloing is good for the game please consider this and try it out for yourselves. Take non traditional partners (i.e. not healer/tank scrapper) through missions. Try a pre 32 Controller/Defender or Controller/Blaster duo. These work very well once you figure out how, they are odd to play at first though and that is what makes them fun. Especially fun for the Defender when you push them up front and tell them they are the main damage dealer now. And before anyone points it out NO you won't level as fast as you would teamed with a Fire Tank or whatever but who gives a flying fig? Leveling is a goal the point of the game (any game) is to have fun.

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I love Duo's. I am not a fan of Tanks, not because they aren't cool or the players are not nice, its just because sitting around and watching isn't fun.

I have had some of the greatest times teaming in my teens with another low level controller. It starts getting hair raising as you keep trying to hold back the tide of mobs with your single target holds, and somehow do damage before they break free.

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I'm stuck in that same situation. The one I'm really steamed about is the Psychic Clockwork King. Absolutely no indication he was going to be there from the misison briefing and he is nasty as heck. He has a viscious PBAE psionic attack that basically wipes the entire group. Even the tank was shocked at getting one shot. I can't find anyone available with Psionic defense and what am I supposed to do while that person battles the King for me anyway. As regen scrapper even MoG is worthless against him. So the mission has sat there for several levels and I still can't clear it. Am I going to have to wait until cons green or grey to beat him?

The real problem is that this was the only mission available from this contact and there is no warning about it. If I had known there was an AV I would have declined it so at least I could get a mission from someone else. And if and when I finally do clear this mission, what the heck is the next one going to be like from this contact?

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You should have been able to FIND someone playing a /DA scrapper, side-kick them and let them tank the ClockworkKing until he drops his Psychic Wail, then back out.

/DA has a nice bag of tricks, PSI resist is only one of them.

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Find a controller with Pets and SS, or some other no agro power.

Summon pets.
Controller runs past King, pets follow. Pets draw all agro on King, who blasts them with the big Alpha whammy.

Everyone attack.