Honbrid

I think NPC Allies ignore stealth on an engaged enemy in much the same way NPC enemies do. From my experience, once you've engaged an enemy, turning on Stealth/Invis doesn't make the enemy lose track of you, even if you are beyond the point they should be able to see you. It's part of the reason Placate and Stealth are two different effects.

Regarding Dietrich/Fusionette and racing forward - I wouldn't be surprised if they have the same power that Longbow Eagles do (Positioning?) that forces them to engage from range. (I also wouldn't be surprised if Dietrich was considered an Eagle herself, if an EB one, but that's another topic.)The AI has no sense of direction, only distance. This doesn't matter so much to Eagles, because if they are running away from you, the only other thing they'll run into are allied Longbow. For your NPC ally on the other hand, all they will run into are more enemies, or at best empty spaces. If you could keep the enemy between the ally and the next spawn, would that make the helper run backward to empty space, or would the ally charge past the enemy anyway?

Another problem I have encountered with NPC allies comes when I am running Tactics, due to the +Perception it grants. Suddenly my NPC ally can see further down that long hallway to the next enemy spawn. Since it has no sense of self-preservation, it runs to attack and leaves me behind. Turning off Tactics often alleviates the problem.

I will agree that NPC allies can often be more trouble than they are worth. However, if the AI for them was better, I'd expect the devs would use the same AI for enemies. I'll leave whether smarter enemies is a good thing for another thread.

I wouldn't think it randomly picks a shard receiver so much as it rolls the drop before it checks eligibility. If the roller is ineligible, then the shard is either randomly distributed as any other drop would be or is passed to the next person.

Then again, neither you nor I have seen the code, so either or neither of us could be right on this.

Your characters will be there, however, depending on your veteran status and purchased slots, you may not be able to access them without subscribing or buying more slots. Premium players (aka former subscribers in this case) are limited on the number of characters they can have active. Your characters will not ever be deleted, although depending on how long ago you left and what level your characters were, the names may have been released. I'll let someone else give the details on numbers of characters and name release info.

Your published missions should still be around. There have been a number of changes to how AE missions work since it came out, so they may not reward the same way you remember.

Any unpublished ones were saved locally to your own hard drive, so you're the only one who can answer for those. However....

By 'bought AE', I assume you mean you bought the Architect Edition of CoH.

Unfortunately, the Architect Edition was a release commemorating AE, and was not required to use AE. Under CoH:Freedom, you must have a certain level of Paragon Rewards (vet rewards) to use AE as a Premium player.
Tier 2 (which as a former subscriber is the minimum you will have) allows you to play any AE arc without reward.
Tier 4 (with 8 reward tokens) allows you to play AE arcs with rewards.
Tier 6 (20 tokens) is required to create/test/publish in AE.

If you subscribe, there are no limits on AE.

For more information on the Paragon Rewards program, see here: http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Paragon_Rewards_Program

One final note: it is best practice on these forums to edit your own post if you have more to add, rather than posting directly after yourself.

Basically what this means is that most Radiation Blast powers have a higher than 1.00 base accuracy (all but Neutrino Bolt and Cosmic Burst are at least 1.05), and have defense debuffs. 'Normal defenses' means no defense powers. Why they don't just say that is probably legacy from before Real Numbers, when they didn't want us to have the numbers. Rad Blast is an old (launch?) set and I doubt the description has changed in all that time. When you're saturated for accuracy, you're not likely to notice either effect.

If there are outleveled contacts in your active contact list, one of two situations applies:

1) The outleveled contact has someone to introduce you to. In this case, Call/Go visit them to get your new contact, and the old one will move off to Inactiveland.

2) You have begun but not finished a story arc (as denoted by a book icon on the contact). In this case, finishing the arc should move them off your list. Note, the arc will still only be run at the contact's max level, so it is entirely possible the missions could be filled with gray enemies if it has been awhile. On the plus side, it'll make it that much easier to clear, but on the minus side, you'll get nothing out of it other than a cleaned up contact list.

I believe catalysts drop from Incarnate content. However I reserve the right to be wrong, and if so, someone will correct me shortly, I'm sure.

Can't really help with a channel for Victory, but the two Justice channels I hear most about are Justice United and Justice For All (I think that second one's right, only belong to the first myself). TF/SFs are also now queueable in the LFG tab (on your chat window) and the Weekly is supposed to be highlighted in some way. In the past, the LFG has been set aside in favor of preforming via Global channels, but the changes to it in I22 may (or may not) make it more popular to use.


One thing that some people seem to overlook when it comes to Alpha abilities is that there are two recipes available for each power - one using 'shard based' components and one using 'thread based' components. There is a scroll bar on the right side of the window showing what you need.

Shard based come from high level TF/SFs or by making them from scratch with shards. Each TF/SF rewards a component specific/connected to that TF/SF - so, as examples, ITFs award an Ancient Nictus Fragment, while STFs award an Essence of the Incarnate. Shards drop from defeating even-con or better enemies in all content except the new DA content and Incarnate Trials. The Notice of the Well that is rewarded from the Weekly TF/SF is a Rare level Shard based component.

Thread based comes from the New DA content and Incarnate Trials. When a Trial or story arc is completed, a choice of a random level (Common, Uncommon, Rare, Very Rare) component is rewarded. Threads drop from enemy defeats in this content.

The Incarnate Trials are the fastest way to gather the needed components, but it will involve some amount of grinding trials to get very far. Shards offers lower rates, but more variety. It may be to your advantage to combine both strategies, at least for the Alpha ability - run a few I-trials to get your Tier 1 and/or 2 ability, then run a Weekly TF for the rare Shard based component. Running another high level TF/SF will get a common component and between the weekly and the second TF, you will most likely have earned enough shards for the final piece of your rare Alpha. If you decide to pursue the fourth Tier of Alpha, you need to go back to the bottom (Tier 1) and start all over to craft a second Tier 3 in the same tree (a second Agility Alpha in your case). The difference between T4 and T3 may or may not justify the added work. (Personally, I'm content to stop at T3.)

For the complete list of TF/SF Shard component rewards, see http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Incarnate_Component.

One final note - Shard based components only contribute to building your Alpha ability - Judgement, Lore, Interface, and Destiny can only be made with Thread based components.

This is true, but you fight a TON of AV class critters in the STF, which are good exp on their own. Also if you get really unlucky looking for the Security Chief in that one mission, the XP can pile up.

This is true, but it WAS Tuesday morning where I am when I made my post (a little after 1 AM to be exact), so we're both right

(Or at least I thought it was when I made that post - and this one. Apparently I have lost my sense of time.)

Actually, STF/LRSF ends this morning, switching to the third Respec trials. Those are 44+, so point 3 still applies, just only need to finish one level.

I took a brute through First Ward from 21 or 22 to 26, and ran all missions there solo, +0x0, so expect to gain at minimum 4 to 5 levels during the trip.

Actually, that doesn't factor in Patrol XP, but still, you WILL gain some levels there. My recommendation is go before 25, especially if you team it or run higher than base difficulty, or be prepared to shut off XP at some point.