Hedgefund

I was part of "Team 1" last night. It was a safe, moderately paced experience. I guess that's to be expected of doms at level 20-25, with the primary more developed and the secondary lacking heavy hitters. Can't imagine things being safer than Mass Hypnosis > Seeds > do whatever you want.

My guy (er, demoness) is ice/thorn, because I've never played any ice, never played any thorn. So far, I love the secondary and... am still trying to figure out how to play ice/. Now that I've got to SOs, I can get Ice Slick up more and maybe afford the endurance of Arctic Air. AA has been extraordinarily frustrating up to now, I've only been activating it when I'd see the dom bar almost full, wait until it almost drained me of end then pop dom. I'll certainly wait until I'm satisfied with basic slotting and get Jack before I condemn Ice/. At least it seems to pair well with /Thorns.

There's a link above to the base empowerment buff to gain stealth. Check out the others you can gain. Many are very handy for the Posi tf.

http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/Empowerment_Station

Particularly slow resistance, increase attack speed, end drain resistance and increase recovery are very nice buffs for this tf. I’ve never heard of sub 1 hour Posi runs, so you want need to recraft a time or 2.

Base empowerment buffs are so underrated. People will spend 300M inf to get 20% recharge (3 LOTGs) but not 3k inf to have the buff for an hour.

Don’t let people poo-pooing the Shivan suggestion discourage you. No, they’re not needed at all, but they’ll make things a lot faster for the defeat alls. Summon them at the first mob, then move on to the end of the floor and meet them halfway. The time they save may well be less than the time invested to get them in BB.

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Anyone who has played both a defender and a corruptor to 50 knows that defender damage is completely out of whack and the support number advantage they supposed to have is utter garbage. You don't need to crunch numbers to know this, it's obvious from playing both ATs. Of course, you've admitted to having not actually played a corruptor to 50, so as I said before you really don't have a leg to stand on here. Defenders aren't "fine as is", they need to be tuned to have better base damage and the support numbers need to be more consistent, no more of this bullcrap with over half of entire sets like Kinetics have identical numbers on defenders, controllers, and corruptors.


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As someone who has played several Corruptors and Defenders to 50, the only "utter garbage" I see is the assessment above of the relative support capabilities.

So you've been throwing out numbers for an indivual Defenders vs one Corrupter and their relative damage output. What you fail to account for is that Defenders are intended to excel on teams and do just that, in a manner Corrupters are unable to.

Let's say there's a 7-member team that cranks out 1000 DPS. The 7 and 1000 are chosen arbitrarily and only used as a convenience instead of a variable "k". Further, let's just say the Defender does 100 DPS and the Corr does a corresponding 100 * (75/.65) * (1 + .1752 (your Scourge number that I'll trust w/o verification)) = 136 DPS. I'll also assume the team is fighting even cons. Let's make things simple by saying 1/2 of the damage is base and 1/2 is from enhancements (rather than .95 from enh).

Add a Rad defender to that team and their team DPS becomes

(500+ 50) * (1 + 1 (enh) + .25 (DMG boost from AM)) * (1 + .3 (RES debuff from EF)) = 1609

Add a Rad Corr and their team DPS becomes

(500 + 68) * (1 + 1 (enh) + .2 (DMG boost from AM)) * (1 + .225 (RES debuff from EF)) = 1531

Including Assault widens the gap.

On top of that, by fully enhancing RI for -ToHit, before adjusting for rank, the defender has enemy to-hit floored. With the corr debuff enhanced to .3875, a team takes almost double the damage. Increasing rank and level does lessen this disparity.

Lastly, the Defender heals for more and debuffs recharge and damage better than the corr as well. I'm having serious trouble finding why a team would choose a Rad Corruptor over a Rad Defender.

Before you question my bona fides, I have a 50 fire/rad corr, a 45 rad/rad def, 50 fire/rad cont and 50 ill/rad cont, and currently working on a 35 Sonic/Rad corr, so I've played a little of the rad flavors.

Of course, Rad is just one case. The other common sets are Cold, Dark, Kin, Sonic, Storm. I'm not going to crunch numbers right now. Kin is the only set that may not have an apparent advantage to a team from a Defender over a corr.

The question for Going Rogue isn't "will corrs replace defenders?" it's "will trollers make corrs irrelevant?" Same support numbers, but control and containment damage as well.

Edited to fix a math mechanics error that changed the values, but not the conclusions

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So why do you do it? What is the point in having bazillions? Do you have more than you need, or are you saving for super-super-super builds? Do you think it makes a difference (super-IO'd build vs reasonable-cost IO build)? Are you playing the market because there isn't a "Market Trader" MMORPG out there? (i.e. The Market is why you play CoX, not the superness) Or is it simply just bragging rights here?


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When the market came out, I deliberately avoided it. I play this game for the super hero/villain fighting aspects of it, not to engage in activity a little to close to real life work. Unfortunately, even by just listing items for 1 inf as I was doing upon market launch, trends and patterns became apparent and it was just too juicy to avoid. Eventually I started dedicating time to it then realized "uh oh, I'm spending time on the market" and quit. A half hour spent on the market is a half hour I could spend reading prospectuses or other activities to general US$, or, playing the game.

There may be one or two that say "but I see a Hedgefund in the market quite a bit". Yes, that's because I consolidate all items into him and do still use him to sell items I produce, not just flip.

So, to answer your question of "why play the market when you're already rich", the answer for me was, it was just too easy.

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I gotta say, I don't see many sonics or Forcefields that much anymore. Since it's easy to hit soft-capped defense in the higher lvls, so why need them?

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There's no redundancy in adding a Sonic to a soft-capped team. In fact, the Sonic basically guarantees invincibility. Even with a 5% chance to get hit (that goes up according to rank and level), if a boss Cimeroran crits a squishy and connects, that's basically a dead squishy. Sonic softens the blow quite nicely. With a Sonic that dead squishy is instead at 1/2 health and has enough time to react to get back to full health.

You can roll an AR/Sonic corr right now. I should know, I'm doing it (lvl 37).

From Sonic, take the sleep, the stun, Shriek and Scream and Howl (for teams). The nuke is cool too. The rest is season to taste.

The sleeps and stun make soloing PVE content almost trivially easy. I say that based on pre i-15 spawning patterns that would not include bosses except for scripted ones. It seems bosses are appearing more frequently and those powers may no longer trivialize soloing. Dunno, haven't tried much soloing since it came out.

If your main objective is to run the "Hero's Hero" arc for Dimensional Warder (and subsequently Portal Jockey Accolade), I actually suggest getting a team together and doing it through Oro. I've done this a couple of times with my SG recently and I think it's a good approach. Everyone on the team gets the merits instead of just the mission holder and it can be knocked out in about 2-ish hours. No, it doesn't have a compelling merits/hour ratio and I wouldn't run it just for that, but for folks looking for the Accolade, it's a nice bonus.

Otherwise, as mentioned above, just keep running radios and doing banks until either a) you get Maria as a contact or b) they stop giving you any contacts.

I've never had a character be completely unable to get her as a contact, though several have had to jump through hoops - visit old (yet active) contacts or run banks.

Edit to add - I just reread the OP and saw the character was lvl 47, so you won't be able to start it in Oro, but a lvl 50 can and you (and anyone 45+) can be on the team.

I have a high level Sonic/ Def (47), a /Sonic Troller (50) and am working on a mid level /Sonic Corr (36) right now and I agree that it seems like it's missing a little oomph. I'm comfortable with the +Res for the Defender and Troller. I know Corr buffs are basically the same as Troller buffs, but it "feels" like the Corr needs more +Res buff.

The meat and potatos of Sonic is Resistance buffs and debuffs. As you say, 42-ish percent +Res is very nice, but hardly turns a team into god-mode. And the -Res debuffs range from very nice (with an aggro magnet meleer) to almost irrelevant (without the aggro magnet meleer). Playing TA recently, I thought I was creating far more -Res debuffs, and on my terms at that. By that I mean I could dictate where the debuffs would be, rather than relying on a teammate. So, solid status protection, decent buffs, inconsistent debuffs and a mixed bag of tricks is what you get. I'm content with those for the Troller and Defender, but the Corrupter version just doesn't seem to add enough to a team.

That does all change when a 2nd /Sonic (or Thermal) Corr joins, then your team is in god-mode.

That said, I like your suggestions 1 and 2. I'm fine with Sonic Cage as is though. Easy to skip, but if you want it, it does what it does very very well. Psi +Res I'll take, but not lobby for.

And for sure Liquefy needs a serious reduction on the timer.

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So it's a specific mission behavior not a general mission behavior, okay. That was my error.

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No, I provided 2 instances that described the behavior to see if it is happening on a larger scale. From the responses in this thread, it appears it is indeed on a larger scale.

Maybe you should re-read my OP. No one else seems to have a problem understanding with how I presented the issue.

Since I'm already here and in case you can't be troubled to do that, I'll try to state it with simpler terms. I have a couple of missions that I farm. Prior to i15, they never had bosses with how I set them up (diff 4, spawned for 4). Now there are lots of bosses. If you're still confused, I give up, that's as plain as I can put it.

My only Stalker at 50 is a Claws/Nin so I'm not a Stalker guru. I can say though, I have a blast with him every time I play him. I haven't even started working on IO sets for him, I expect once I get him to soft-cap (or near) it's going to be a whole new ball game.

As for leveling up, before you soft-cap, you've got good survival tools on top of your defense. Caltrops, Blinding Powder, serious kb in a couple of your attacks. Oh yeah, and a great heal. I give the combo a thumbs-up.

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Sometimes I do wonder what it is like to live in a world where such things matter and context is overridden by pedantic nature.

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Eh, accuracy is important; details matter. We DO live in a world where you will die if you see a sign that says "Mines" and assume it says "Mimes" and walk into a minefield.

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I'd actually run away faster from a mime field.

I have a few missions that I repeat periodically (yes, aka farming). I don't do a lot of farming and recently, for the first time since i15 was released, I ran both a vill farm and hero farm. Both exhibited the same behavior - bosses on the map where there had been none before.

The details - both are run on setting 4, a level 50 mission, set for a 4 member team. Before anybody asks, I ran these exactly the same as I did pre-i15: difficulty 4, set for 4. And no, these are not AE missions.

I even set it for 3 once and still, bosses were appearing. I haven't tried adjusting the difficulty yet.

The bosses weren't appearing in every spawn point, but, set for 4, in about half of them (my best guess, I didn't actually count). When set for 3, about 1/3 of the spawns contained a boss.

So, are other people experiencing the same? Any idea if this is intentional?

If this has been discussed elsewhere, I did not see it.

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Are they bad? Is that why no one plays dem?

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Heavens no. I have a Thugs/FF that I've played more than any other char of mine. Extremely powerful. When bubbled, with Enforcer Maneuvers, the Thugs are soft capped (or very close, I don't remember specific numbers right now), even without the +Def IOs. My MM himself is soft-capped to range. That's a bit of overkill, really, so I'm going to rethink him.

There's really not much to say about it. Thugs are straightforward - takes your pets and upgrades, FF is straightforward - take the big 3 shields, Repulsion and season to taste. 2-3 of the Leadership powers and Aid Other round out the build. Not recommended for AV soloing (no way to sufficiently boost your damage or debuff AV), but all other PVE content is trivial.

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Enough ranting. What's the weirdest team composition that you've ever completed the LRSF, MoLRSF, STF, or MoSTF on?

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Here's my nomination for STF:

1 - Invul/Dark tank
7 - TA/(variable) Defenders

After doing that my patience for the "we need a <AT/Powerset>" crowd has shrunk to nil.

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I don't like to go in blind or be responsible for taking people on a sucky TF, though, so I'd like to get as much info/tips beforehand as possible. So to that end, how do people prefer to do the ITF these days, if at all?

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For your purposes, I wouldn't bother with a speed version. A true speed run is painful for SKd lowbies, squishies without appropriate buffs and (most importantly) less experienced people. So if you've only done it once ever, then forget the speed run.

Virtue does have plenty of ITFs running. Subscribing to the badge channel (virtuebadges2009 or something like that) will let you know what's up.

Did any guide give advice that it's an endurance draining first power? It's a damage power, and a darn good one, and to slot it otherwise would cause you to underperform.

That's not to say DON'T slot for drain, just that damage come first. Get to the ED damage cap, then frankenslot endmod/endred, acc/endmod.

I'll try to answer specifically your question of "what would solo the Posi tf better, Dark/ or Rad/?" Both have rich powers by level 15. I think either would be a very good choice for a duo. Dark would offer more safety solo. More -ToHit with a Fear, also more -Dmg. Rad may offer more speed with its +Dmg buff from AM. Still, nothing slows you down more than a trip from the hosp. So to the question "Dark/ or Rad/ for Posi?" I suggest Dark Miasma.

Neither Defender would be my first choice for soloing Posi across all ATs though. I'm thinking Plant/Rad is the way to go. I'm putting my money where my mouth is by making this combo my newest project.

I've been doing this with my DB and Kat scrappers and have never given any thought that this was buggy (or "exploitable") behavior. It's more than a little disconcerting that the timing of this thread coincides with this "fix", yet there have been several threads about the hostile Amy temp pet and no sign of that getting fixed.

Based on my own personal observations, they don't seem rare. That may be the company I keep though; usually the teams I'm on take some effort to make sure a Cold is included and is what I get requested to bring the most, if a Kin is already on a team, otherwise the Kin gets preference.

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Dave: You clearly, as a retired guy, need a hobby.

I'm trying to burn 10 billion inf- not just spend 10 billion, remove it from the game. I'm at like 700 M after about a week. Wanna help me out?

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I'm interested in how you do this. Though I have no plans to leave any time soon, when I do, I'm going to "salt the Earth" and delete everything. No one gets to "has my stuffs". I just did the math and I guess i could blow 10B in about 1.5 hours buying and deleting SOs, if I could buy/delete one per second. More realistically I guess it would take 2-3 hours.

I've not run this specific combo, but I've got a lvl 50 TA and am kind of a Sonic Assault junkie (1 Blaster, 1 Def at 50, 2 more Defs in the 40s) so I can conceptualize the synergies (or lack thereof).

Acid Arrow will wake up whoever you sleep, since it causes some damage. Otherwise, you can Sleep, lay down debuffs (but Acid and Oil Slick) and pick them off one by one. This is, of course, a solo strategy. In my view, soloing a TA/Sonic is like driving your Ferrari up and down your driveway, but never taking it out where it would really shine on a race track. TA/Sonic should be on big teams, debuffing lots of foes. It may not be "the best" combo for keeping a team safe, but late game teams don't need safety, they want more steam-rollery, which this combo provides in spades.

There's a part of me that thinks maybe you should skip medicine and go with 2 Fitness powers, so you don't have to micromanage using Aid Self. I don't feel strongly about that though and see how you're killing 2 birds with one stone. I really don't like the Resuscitate pick though, personally speaking, unless you're building for a Hami Raid. I think Entangling Arrow would do you more good. Some AVs, like Romulus, like to run around and Entangling WILL keep him in place.

By the way, Flash draws no aggro. For that reason, I wouldn't want to put in a damage proc in the power. You WILL aggro mobs when the proc goes off, not a good trade-off.

I'd suggest 3 recharges in Poison Gas. It's on a fairly high recharge timer and, when you need it, you really need it. -Dmg is a great debuff that works well on AVs/GMs. Steamrolling through regular spawns you may not use it as much, but stil...

I like putting the -Res proc in Acid.

I don't know how important "value" is to you. You'd save a lot of inf by 4 slotting Kinetic Crash for 3 points of kb protection than slotting Blessing of Zephyr in SS. Also I'd skip the endurance enhancement in SS, unless you like to use it combat.

This is just a matter of preference, but if you're not slotting much Heal enhancement into Aid Other, I say just go with Stimulant. A mez breaker is, in my mind, more helpful than a puny heal.

Now, TA is a very busy. VERY busy. With Sonic, you've got a 1-2-3 combo of Howl-Shriek-Scream you can seemlessly chain. With all the the things you could be doing, the animation time for Shout will feel like forever. I say skip it, you won't miss it at all.

What you should add is Assault. You want synergy? There is it. The +DMG buff from Assault combines multiplicatively with the -Res from Acid and Disruption. So that 18.75% buff Assault would normally give? Now (.1875)*(1.4) = .2625. With a Howl? Now 30%. The other leadership powers are very nice on TA too. You won't need Tactics so much, but it's a nice team buff. Still, I strongly suggest Assault.

As for what bonuses to build for, without Stamina don't skimp on Recovery bonuses. I think Recharge is going to be a TA's friend. The juiciest powers have long timers. I wouldn't worry about soft capping defenses, I'd want to keep those debuffs coming up quick.

I hate to provide TMI here, but I just want to point out that I've heard 2 different songs from in-game in... mature videos.

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I believe that NCSoft's monthly bottom line showed a severe downward trend precipitated by dissatisfaction with the Developers and the forum OPs and word has come down from the corporate office that those who are providing us service need to abandon their haughty attitude that one would commonly associate with the wait-staff of a French restaurant and instead show us some deep-south hospitality of a Barbeque roadhouse.

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I suspect you may have mis-translated that particular piece. I may be wrong, but for some reason I associate that C_L guy as French. I would not expect that a Frenchman would speak ill of a French restaurant and would expect him to infer a uniquely American style of restaurant to be "low class".

So I think he's saying that because of a decline in numbers, NCSoft has downgraded from a high class French restaurant to a roadside bbq joint.