Hedgefund

What I ended up doing is something I won't be able to replicate across my other chars, at least not as neatly.

I switched to the 2nd build, which I hadn't leveled up yet. I leveled him to 23, just before the forced VEAT respec at 24 and 3-slotted rest and health, all with lvl 50 SOs. Ran a carny radio, found a strongman minion (even con), cleared out the rest of his spawn and took a knee. He hits me for 700 or so, which I can easily regen while he recharges. I went from 1.4M last night to 4.2M before the server restart. So, another 2-3 afk nights should get the job done.

Other non-VEAT characters won't have the luxury of a disposable (pre-24) 2nd build unfortunately. I'll make do.

Let me justify real quick why I am a strong Assault proponent for Sonic even though, as you alluded to, endurance management is already brutal.

It boils down to the mechanics of damage taken and the multiplicative relationship between damage and resistance.

Assume an attack is slotted to ED max of .95, further assume both Sonic -Res debuffs are applied to a tough target on an even con. Then damage becomes (1.95) * ( 1 + .3 + .3) = 3.12. Add in Assault you get (1.95 + .1875) * (1.6) = 3.42.

For a more common case without Sonic Siphon, you have 2.535 w/o Assault vs 2.78 with.

This is an effect for the entire team, so I think it makes a difference.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to your guide. I have an unusual amount of Sonic experience under my belt (50 Def, 50 Troll, 39 Corr) but still haven't taken Repulsion.

Few things:

For ally shields, you can save a slot, if you want, by using a RED/END IO in the 3rd slot. This isn't a big deal, only a tip if you'd really like to use a slot elsewhere.

Sonic Siphon... I dunno. Fine power and I suggest you keep it, but 4 slots... I tend to just throw an ACC in it and call it a day, unless I have slots to burn. I only even use it if a) All other attacks are recharging b) Fighting an AB/EB. In the latter case, recharge is useless because it doesn't stack and it recharges in time to keep the debuff on.

My understanding of Liquefy may be off, but I think the debuffs auto-hit. The ACC is for damage, maybe hold? I don't throw in ACC except via IO sets.

Assault on a Sonic is a very nice addition. I'd certainly take it over Repulsion.

Also Ice Storm is great for a Defender, not just good.

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I have CoV day one characters who don't have that badge. But then I gave up too. Not worth it.

(by the way the SoA were released on 5/20/08)

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Thanks for clarification. That means I only have 6 more years, at the current rate, to get the badge.

For the first time, I'm pursuing the accolades for my villains.

When I first looked at vill accolades, they seemed a bit daunting (with a few notable exceptions - Demonic and Invader) so I didn't go after them.

Now I'm relooking at them and, on the whole, they don't seem SO bad. With one notable exception - Unbreakable.

The first vill I'm looking to accolade is a Soldier who has always had a Crab build. He's a tough hombre, he has high defenses and, with Tough, good resists. I rolled him as soon as VEATS came out, so he's been around that long (2-ish years?) and I play him a lot. So after 2 years of regular play, I had 1.4M points of damage taken. That's 2 years, regular play, 14% progress to the badge. If my math is right (and it is) that means it would take me over 12 more years, playing the same rate, to get there. Ludicrous. So I began the afk damage farming last night. Whee! Because there's just no other way to get it.

Or is there? I'm just curious if anyone has managed to get this badge through regular game-play. If so, is it because you only play one char. Also, what type of char was it? I can see a Regen based character having a strong advantage for this.

Note - before someone complains this should be in the Badges section, this question is meant for the broader playerbase, not just badgers.

I have, in 3 years of play time that has included a lot of Croatoa time, never seen her con grey or purple, always yellow, always.

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Don't bother using the hospital... just buy some awakens before you go find something that can kill you. Much faster that way.

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Don't wakies have a brief "no debt" period?

My trick for quick debt accumulation is to go to a couple of spawn points that are directly in front of the hospital in PI, just behind the parking deck. There's usually a bunch of lvl 50 Malta, Rikti or Carny that can take anyone down pretty quickly if you turn all your defenses off.

Vills takes a little longer. I head to the Fab where there's lots of lvl 49-50 bosses. This isn't very close to the hosp though so it's not as fast to get to debt cap.

I haven't tried it, but a friend suggested the wall in cim. It's probably quicker to get from the hosp to the wall in cim than from the hosp to the Fab in G-ville.

Personally, on my chars that have a big shield with a sleep mez hold (Sonic, FF, Traps), I don't stress too much about it. You'll either get hit soon (waking you up) or a teammate with a heal or de-mezzer can wake you up. Worst case, if you find you're slept, then ignored while your teammates are getting pounded, use or make a BF. 95% of the time a stray aoe will hit you to get you back.

Really Sonic suffers the worst since they lose the Disruption toggle. Now that we're in a world where mezzes don't break defensive toggles, Sleeps really aren't that bad.

This sounds like how many people are watching TV at a point in time. Sometimes it's nobody, sometimes, it's a freak tank and carny mistress, other times it's a full house, watching the American Idol finale, I suppose.

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Why anyone thinks that there is some obligation to these random strangers in this setting, is fascinating to me.

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"If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world" (Francis Bacon)

Or, to hit a little closer to home for you:

"It costs nothing to be polite" (Winston S. Churchill)

So, bottom line, you find courtesy to be "fascinating". So be it. Peace.

I suggest you look up the definition of what "sociopath" means. It is not tantamount to saying "serial killer" or "Tony Soprano". These are examples of sociopaths, but not the definitions.

This certainly has nothing to do with my "outlook on life". Unless that "outlook on life" is that basic courtesy should be extended to other people. If you consider that "interesting" then that says something about you.

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QR

Not only do I say goodbye when I leave a team, I tend to say "this will be my last mission" during our instanced mission.



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This is such a trivial thing to do. I've got my 36 month vet badge now. In those 36 months, upon saying "this is my last mission" or even an abrupt "gotta go", I have never ever been asked "why?"

Giving warning lets the leader plan better - they can line someone up for when you leave. Conversley, to say nothing at all causes a brief period of confusion about whether you intended to quit or to wait for you. It's even exhibiting sociopathic traits to say "I'm not having fun, so I'm going to quit without taking 3 seconds to clarify my intentions, because I don't care about the consequences of my actions on you, I'm just here to have my fun."

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Kinetics is the worst case, but even the most balanced case of Rad/* vs */Rad leaves defenders behind with an 18% support advantage to a corruptor's 22% damage advantage (this is including +dmg/-res bonuses and scourge)

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That 18% support advantage (as specious as that value you arbitarily created is) means every member of the team gets "18% more support" so it's (Team * 1.18) instead of a 22% more piddly damage which is merely added in to get (Team Damage + 1.22). A more detailed analysis of Rad/Rad was provided here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....ue#Post13732154

To simply say 22% is better than 18% is a naive analysis when there is much more to consider. The Rad Defender enables more TEAM damage and provides more safety.

As I said in the post linked above, Going Rogue is not going to be the death of Defenders at the hands of Corruptors. Some soloists may make the switch but not power teamers. On the other hand, Doms (no buffs and comparable level of control [unless perma dom] ) and Corrs (same buff/debuff values) are going to have a hard time persuading folks to choose them over a Controller, which provides damage the other two aren't superior to.

I definitely suggest Assault. It adds +DMG to World of Pain and multiplies with Anguishing Cry. Oddly, I don't have Assault on my Ninja/PD, though I will when I finish my lvl 50 respec.

If you're looking for more survivability for your Mercs, then Provoke (once well slotted) could make a big difference.

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Tar Patch's -30% resistance debuff will be 85% resisted by a level 50 AV, meaning you only get -4.5% resist out of it.

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The above statement is inaccurate as per this article;

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Archvillain

An AV resists -Res debuffs only by whatever +Res they may possess.

Not that it changes the gist of the argument that soloing Rommy 4 times in a minute on a Dark/Dark Defender is laughable.

I've got some figgerin' to do. Will do one of

Traps/Arch Def
Arch/TA Corr
TA/AR Def

Actually it depends on the numbers key Traps powers get. If they get a nice Defender boost to Acid and FFG, I'll go that way, otherwise Arch/Traps Corr.

Gang War has no purpose other than pure distraction. They are nothing but fodder and die very quickly, a perfect spot to store uniques.

This is the port I'm most interested in. My first reaction is to pair with Thugs. Layered mitigation of +Def from Maneuvers with +Res and Heals + late game nasty debuffs sounds like it equals an MM capable of most anything.

The simplest thing of all is to run the arc in oro with a team. Easy to sell and get a team together (especially now with LOTS of new 50s out there with only AE badges) and everyone gets the merits.

Then there's still the Anti-Matter issue. If you're needing this on Infinity or Freedom, I happen to have a mission with him in it that I save just for such an occasion.

When I wear my FF defender hat, I'm not opposed to tweaking Force Bolt and I'd sacrifice some of the kb for some more damage. When I wear my MM hat, I say "no way". It does exactly what I want, when I want (well, 95% of the time) to keep big bad nasty guys chain kbd.

I don't have anything new to add except to supplement the suggestion to park this 50 -

DO NOT JOIN ANY STFs or ITFs with this blaster. Do your re-roll, as you said you were doing and concentrate on that character. When you feel you no longer "suck" (using your own terms), then you might be ready.

I'm so scared witless of teaming with these AE babies for STF and LRSR, that I've sequestered myself to only teaming within my current network of friends and coalies. Which is a shame, I've always liked to expand my horizons, but I'm just not going to deal with an AE baby that may or may not have bought some SOs and take on the high-end content.

3 /Traps will provide soft-capped defenses for you and the henchmen. It's FAR preferable to stack /Traps over /FF (and I say this as someone whose highest prestige earner is Thugs/FF) since /Traps has a lot more to offer. Have one team member take Team Teleport and you can carry your Triage Beacon and debuff tools around with you. For the 4th spot, I'd want someone to make things GO. Either via +DMG or -RES. That makes me like Storm, maybe /PD for the +RES and heals to make sure no one ever, ever dies. For primaries, whatevah. Using the TTPing Traps around tactic, I would shy away from Thugs, who are most effective from range for their cones.

First after Dies' first post!!!

My 3rd account joined last week, so technically Hedgefund Platinum is a new channel member.