Hyperstrike

But, in the end, that's what this actually came down to. Your build couldn't qualify for the participation metric in the game. Hence, you didn't get the badge.

It wasn't a "bug" in the game, or some nasty confluence of game mechanics. It was the fact that your particular build was flat out incapable of meeting the minimum participation metrics for the badge award.

And when you were told this, you argued about your play style.

Then, when you finally took a modified, more balanced build into the event, you got the badge.

Que surprise.

From the page:

If you did not get the badge, you did NOT meet the "participation criteria" for the badge.

That doesn't mean you didn't meet the participation criteria for the "booby prize" for simply showing up.

That's okay Bonehead. Hopefully they won't have the Shadowrun guys exiled out like they did last year. Their location was in very nice surroundings, but it was WAY the hell out of the way.

Yeahno.

Pretty much for all the reasons Nalrok outlined.

My company (and several we contract out to) no longer use these. Quite simply, they were too much of a hassle to keep properly synced.

This is a *game*, not sensitive corporate info. I don't care to be locked out of my account for an indefinite period simply because a stupid fob malfunctions. That kinda thing can get me parking a Rikti mothership out in Paragon's parking lot (RWZ style).

C'mon. A jerk?

The whole point of the comic was supposed to be the off-kilter, absurdist dark humor.

If you ever read Howard the Duck, you weren't reading it because you were a Disney fan.

Basically, it's taking a bunch of conventions, tossing them on their ear (in a pit full of poison-coated punji sticks), then beating them in further with a dead department store Santa Claus.

Then heading off to do the same to those conventions moms while shagging their sisters.

Basically, doing all the stuff you WISH you could get away with when you're cosmically ticked off, plus witty banter.

If they keep this out of PG-land, it could be an absolute SCREAM!

Someone already did a home version of the Christmas special (look around the web for it). Maybe the Lobo Convention Special could work. The "There is a God!" denoument would be friggin' hilarious.

I think you've already found one. The participation metric in the event you were failing.



If you want to twist what I said around to make it sound like I was calling you an idiot, fine. I'm not going to stop you. But that's not what I said or even implied.


On this subject, my mind's wide open. But an emp defender with a single attack and a monofocus on healing powers is ludicrous.



Bullseye's primary power is his aim.
He's also got an adamantium-reinforced skeleton (but not to Wolvie's level).

Mr. Fantastic's primary power is his stretching. It's been implied that his stretching and elasticity have also allowed him to augment his already ridiculously high intellect. He can also alter his size and mass (note, size alteration can be just inflation, mass alteration isn't, think Banner ==> HULK, that's mass alteration).

It still doesn't sidestep the issue that you've only chosen to develop half your powerset, essentially (at least) halving your effectiveness on a team.


Sorry, but the question is a valid one. Is this what happens on missions when you're not required?


My main is a tank. He mixes it up fairly nice. He's no scrapper, but he IS an excellent meat-shield who can output non-trivial amounts of damage when he feels like it. If someone kills one of my opponents, I simply move onto another. I don't go "Hey! That was MY baddie!"
And yeah, occasionally I get a string of killsteals in a team where I activate a power and someone else nukes them down before the power actually connects. It happens.

I don't sit there and simply burp at them (taunt) and then try to hold them there for others to whack down. That puts me in more danger of a streak of lucky hits, and puts my teammates in more danger. Yeah, I'll pop a Destiny here or there if someone is getting mauled. And yeah, I occasionally forget to toss my Lore pets out. So my tank controls aggro, does damage, buffs, heals, etc. I'm contributing more than just the bare minimum of "Aggro control" that the Holy Trinity requires.

You can't say the same with your monofocused "healer".


I can talk for days about the people I team with. For the most part, everyone I team with is at least "okay", with lots of "good" and "really good" players. And there's actually a significant group that are so good, I feel like a fifth wheel sometimes. But yeah, there's a small group of people who I have had the misfortune of playing with who, even with slow, painstakingly detailed instructions, couldn't find their *** with two hands, a map and a guide, let alone from one end of the mission to the other.

I try to be patient with people like this. Some are simply new and overwhelmed (hey, I was dumb and initially six-slotted brawl too). Some are simply overwhelmed period. But some of them are just flat out...well, let's just say that I am wondering what game they THINK they're playing.

Wonder all you want. Hell, come on over to Protector and play with some of us. We're always willing to teach those that actually want to learn. Or just kick butt and have a GM follow us through the game taking names.

This stuff isn't "hard". The Really Hard Way? That's hard-ish. It's all about understanding how the game functions and the best ways to exploit that functionality (exploit in the non-negative sense, as in "develop").


I'm not saying "never rock the aura". As you said, there are times when there's good reason for it. What I'm saying is, even on high difficulty, there's better uses of your time and endurance in a good chunk of the content in this game.



Another analogy. You're sticking your finger into a failing dike.

Yes. You're "helping", but not necessarily in an appreciable, or even effective, way.


Occasionally there are deaths. It does happen. Hell, on my monday night Fire/Rad team, deaths are like bonus rounds! Vengeance, stacking Fallout, Mutation. We're stronger, they're mostly dead, and the corpse ain't dead anymore.

The problem is, you're using it interchangeably with your AT, your build, etc.

Sorry if it irks you that I'm being so didactic on this point. But it is important to make the distinction. Lots of sloppy thinking and sloppy usage of language goes on otherwise.



Sorry, that's not how this works.

You made the spurious claim

It's on YOU to back your spurious, statistical statement. It's not on me to prove or disprove it for you.

No, you were expressing an opinion as if it were a quantifiable fact.

This is what I'm talking about with sloppy usage.

I stress again, Empathy is only ONE of your TWO primary powersets.
Again, you continue to ignore the fact that you are not an Empathy/NothingElse defender.


Sorry, but you still didn't learn the lesson properly.

You're never a Primary/NothingElse AT.

What you've done is NOT "taken your primaries first". You've taken your primary and ignored your secondary altogether.

Additionally, a tank who's essentially ignored their secondary is, eventually, going to die anyhow. Regardless of how tough their primary is. Because they're not outputting enough damage to kill enemies before those enemies overcome them.

I say again, you are NOT an Emp defender.
You're an Empathy/Secondary defender. You've ignored half the equation in a fit of colossal monofocus.

The healing Ancillary is just that. An ANCILLARY pool. Not your secondary.

Tell that to the cop who stops you and asks for proof of insurance.


Way to completely miss that "healing is not mitigation".



I say again, BULL SCHNITZEL.

Not all of them do it in the same way Emp does. But for the most part, every set is doing a good portion of the same thing you are, with some near-100% overlap on several.

Pop mids and check them out again.

Yep. So what? Simply because Empathy contains no attack power doesn't mean you're SUPPOSED to play it with no attacks from your secondary. The fact that, due to teaming, you CAN and HAVE gotten as far as you have is a testament to the flexibility of the teaming system in CoH. NOT your skill.




Simply because you contribute "a little" doesn't mean your build isn't gimped. You essentially HAVE to team in order to achieve goals in reasonable periods of time.



Blasters kill enemies alongside the tank. They can still manage (depending on the powersets) debuff actions in addition to raw damage output.

Controllers lock down and kill enemies alongside the brute. They still manage to buff and control when doing damage.

Why's it so hard for YOU to heal AND do damage to the enemies?




Let me stake down these moving goalposts for ya!

You didn't just choose one or two ancillary powers in lieu of a secondary power.

YOU IGNORED YOUR SECONDARY.

Flat out. Full stop.

BIG, BIG MONSTROUSLY HUGE DIFFERENCE!



Because their understanding of the game's combat systems is deficient.

Or you get pulled over and required to show proof.

You've basically bought an expensive new car and only gotten liability insurance on it. And you insist that you'll never break any glass. You'll never get hurt yourself in a collision. And you'll never total your car and require a replacement vehicle. Heck, you're assuming you won't need to finish paying off the car even.




Apparently you're still having trouble reading. One of a tank's myriad tasks is damage output. It isn't his ONLY one. Nor is simple aggro control.

And a blaster who nukes an enemy in a group before I can establish control of them is going to have to deal with some aggro themselves. If they can handle it, cool. If not, they need to review their strategy.

Yep. Luckily I team with very few such masterminds. Most have a firm grip on their power sets (both primary and secondary) and don't need to waste time constantly resummoning and buffing pets.

You've, ostensibly, been playing for nearly 8 years and you haven't figured this out yet?

With Power Boost you pretty much have to have ridiculous amounts of recharge to make it Perma. Then you have to decide whether you're going to Auto PowerBoost or Hasten.

At which point, you're essentially still having to click something instead of "set and forget" and may as well be using BU+Aim.

Cold: Sleet
Radiation: Fallout
Sonic: Liquefy
Storm: Gale, Freezing Rain, Tornado, Lightning Storm
Traps: Caltrops, Acid Mortar, Seeker Drones, Trip Mine, Time Bomb
Trick Arrow: Acid Arrow, Oil Slick Arrow

The problem is, you're demanding that the game reward you the same as any other character for artificially hobbling yourself.

If you want to hobble yourself, tweak task force conditions or PVP.

No. Actually it isn't.

No. I said "any idiot could do this".

This does not, by extension, make you an idiot or mean that I'm implying you're an idiot. Thicker skin and a less contentious attitude please.

Yes. Yes, it's me. And I don't seem to have issues with the participation metrics for some reason.

Sorry. The "I'm playing a different powerset" argument doesn't work.

I have Emp characters too. I take more than one attack from my secondary. And, again, I don't have problems attaining badges in events that include the participation metric.

Sorry. But it's commonly accepted here that people who try to pigeon hole other players into singular categories like "healer" and expect them to essentially do nothing else in the game simply don't understand that the game is quite a bit broader than that. Moreover, it rewards people who aren't caught up in the Healer, DPS, Aggro trinity mentality.

I'm not going to soften my opinion of people who still react this way (because they aren't actually "thinking") and then insist that the game conform to THEIR interpretation of the "holy trinity".

In short. "I calls 'em like I sees 'em!"

Again. And what happens when you're in a group that doesn't REQUIRE your sort of "help". You just sit back and leech XP/Inf/Prestige/Rewards? Like you're "due" for it because you helped someone else out in a completely different situation at some nebulous point in the past?

Yeahno.

As you level up, you'll notice it happening more and more as builds get more self-sufficient. So you'll, what? Sit around, thumb rectally inserted, going "I did my job, this is my reward"?

Are you going to camp the door too?

You "ride it out"?

And on four level-old missions? Please.

Then it says something about the people you're playing with.

Again, even adding a couple percent to firepower is killing enemies that much faster.

Sitting back with your hands in your pockets going "You don't need me" or spamming unneeded powers isn't contributing.

It doesn't make sense for you to solo because it's much easier for you to level up when everyone else is doing the actual work for you on a team right? That's what you're actually saying.

And if they don't need the buffs and heals, you keep spamming them anyhow to pretend like you're actually doing something when what's actually happening can be summed up in one word.

Leeching.

I didn't say you weren't contributing. I said you're not "fully contributing" to the team.

• The more damage the enemy takes, the faster they die.
• The faster they die, the fewer attacks they make.
• The fewer attacks they make, the fewer land and do damage.
• When less damage is taken the need for healing is less.

You're so caught up in treating the symptom, that you're not treating the problem.

Most decent teams don't require such constant healing that they need to fall back into "protect the healer so we don't die" mode. And, as I've been saying, in this game, it isn't needed.

Sorry, but an Empathy defender isn't a healer either. It is primarily a buff set (5 of the powers in the set are buffs, not heals) with a rez and three heals in lieu of enemy debuffs.

You, additionally, have an entire secondary that you've essentially ignored.

I say again. This game has no "healer" AT. Only people who don't understand that a "healer" build of existing ATs (or the introduction of a "healer" AT) would be of only marginal use. As your case so aptly demonstrates.

And you have stats to back this up right?

No. I'm saying that while healing can be a valuable part of an arsenal of powers, healing and buffing to the exclusion of all else (a buffbot) is of marginal real utility.

Before or after I stopped laughing in their face?

Also, isn't this, essentially, the argument you're giving me with your "pure healer"?

No. FACT. Powers like Dispersion Bubble (and healing auras) require little to no actual monitoring. Ally bubbles (and Emp buffs) don't get spammed continually. CM is of some use because it can be stacked. But you don't go spamming that all the time either.

Again. I ask you, what do you SPECIFICALLY. When your allies require no healing and you've already got a layer of buffs on them, what do you do with that other 90+% of your time in a mission?


But you're not contributing as much as someone who's actually helping them kill the enemies.

Healing is the last, and therefore least dependable form of "mitigation" in the game. Technically it's not "mitigation" at all. No incoming damage was "mitigated". You're simply spackling over it.

The best damage mitigation in the game is to kill the enemy before they can do damage.
The next best way is to prevent them from actually doing damage (controls, defense, etc).
The next best is to reduce incoming damage (resistance, Absorb, etc).
After that, about all you can do is heal up (healing/regen).

I say again, there is no "healer" AT in the game.

As to power sets.

You heal. Lots of sets heal. All ATs can heal with the addition of ancillary power sets, temp powers and Incarnate powers.

You can rez. Same thing goes for my argument about many power sets and all ATs being able to do this.

You can grant some status status protection. Other power sets can do this as well.

You buff defense, damage and ToHit. Again, there are several defender primaries that do so. also, other ATs can do this as well.

You can buff Recovery. Other sets can do this, other ATs (well outside of controllers and Corruptors), not so much.

You can buff regen. There's several other sets that boost regen.

You can boost End and Recharge. Again, other sets can do this. Many better than you and sooner.

So your comment about "no other AT or powerset" being able to do what you do is demonstrably false.

Empathy simply happens to be all buff/heal at the expense of enemy debuffs.



No, they're equally important. But you're essentially buffing/healing to the exclusion of attacking. You're the one who's forgotten that they're equally important.

Nowhere does it say you must do so to the total exclusion of all else.
You've added that spin yourself.

And this is why you're having the issues you do.


This is why I said "basic expectation".
Not "required by the rules".

While it's harder, you can (and have) STILL come up with totally gimped builds in this game.

This game is about more than chocolate and vanilla. This is basically a smorgasboard. You've opted to get a chocolate and vanilla sundae from the the desert bar and are bemoaning the fact that you didn't get any ham, vegetables, bread, pastaor even a Coke.

The fact that you're given an entire secondary THAT YOU ARE REQUIRED TO ACTUALLY TAKE A POWER FROM DURING CHARACTER CREATION should indicate to you that, yeah, attacks are a Good Thing To Have™ in this game. Even for a VERY support-oriented build.

No. But that's how you're playing and the message you're conveying in your post. That killing enemies is "my teammate's problem, not mine".

Right. But that's ALL you're contributing. You have the ability to contribute MORE. You've just opted NOT to do that.

Again with the "I am a mastermind and they are my minions" mentality.

Sorry. NO. Doing damage to the enemy is EVERYONE'S job. Not just the tank/scrapper/blaster/troller/etc. And if you're spamming all your buffs all the time in lieu of attacking, you're wasting Endurance and not contributing anything additional.

Rocking aura on people who don't need heals is not contributing anything.
Spamming non-stacking buffs on allies is not contributing anything.
Waiting around to rez someone who may or may not fall over dead is not contributing anything.

If that's all someone is doing, they are not contributing most of the time and thus, are only marginally better than a door sitter.

I don't "dislike" "pure healer" empaths. I simply have little to no use for them as their players don't understand the game well enough to see that such builds are only marginally useful in a very small swath of content level ranges and utterly pointless for the rest of the time.

If you're standing around waiting for a chance to be useful, you've already failed.

If you're standing around faking usefulness as a way to avoid ACTUALLY being useful where it counts, you've already failed.

I'm not saying your build is "wrong". I'm saying that, outside of the aforementioned narrow swath of content, it isn't as useful as someone who wasn't so monofocused on a single in-game mechanic.

If I had a choice between a Thermal who'd gone light on their heals and buffs and your "pure healer" Emp, I'd take the thermal any day of the week. Because they'd be trying to earn their place instead of simply being escorted through missions because they can put up Big Green Numbers from three powers taken in the first 4-8 levels.

If you want to fight with people about the problems with your rig. Please do so elsewhere.

Likely this is due to the extra load being put on the system by the Transgaming client. So you're not running JUST the game. You're running the game, plus the VM/Emulation layer. Which can be VERY CPU intensive.

Try running something like Distributed.net or Folding@Home and see what those clients do to your fans as well.

Simply because

• another game
• presented in another way
• utilizes less CPU power
• generating less heat
• allowing for lower fan settings
• resulting in quieter system operation.

More like "Welcome to gaming on a laptop." or "Welcome to gaming on an MBP."

Most laptops are simply NOT equipped to deal with the load many games (especially OGL games) can put on a system. As such, they heat up and trigger the fans.

MBPs are going to be ESPECIALLY prone to this as they're extremely thin and have very little room to facilitate air movement.

This is what happens on occasion when form triumphs over function.

COULD the Paragon Market have a better UI?

Sure!

But this is the one that Paragon chose by going with whoever these yahoos are that they partnered themselves with, rather than building it in-house and fully incorporating it into the game interface.

Not that Paragon's ability to build interfaces is particularly stellar either.

Great. But that doesn't necessarily mean you're playing a defender/controller/corruptor well.

Any idiot can sit there and rock aura and heal a couple dozen HP worth of wounds with a couple jillion points of heals. It doesn't mean you're necessarily contributing (or not contributing a much as you could).

Take my FF/Arch defender. Do I spend all my time with my **** in my hand going "Your defense is buffed, job done!"

Nope. I toss out the personal shields, pop my big bubble(s) and then proceed to make enemies resemble hedgehogs (roughly 99% of my time is spent attacking).

Then the people you're teaming with are morons. Plain and simple.
Yes, you MIGHT be helping people who're playing with severely broken builds to be somewhat competitive. But for people with sensible builds or people rocking optimized builds, you're not helping them all that much.

But you're telling us that the rewards system is telling you that you're not doing enough to qualify.

Great. But what are you doing when people don't need healing?

Great. But what are you doing when people don't need to be rezzed?

Great. And what are you doing when they don't need to have their endurance buffed?

In short. What are you doing the other 99% of the time?

Demonstrably false.
There are things you can't solo. And the participation metric takes into account your attacks as well. If you don't attack, or don't attack enough, you're not participating.

Yet you're failing to get a reward table for participating by doing "what you do".

Yay. But if you're not also contributing damage output, you're not fully contributing to the team. Sure, you my only contribute another 5% of total damage output for the team. But that's the GM/AV/etc dying 5% faster.

And on decent teams, you just wait...and wait...and wait...

An SR scrapper taking only one secondary MAY be able to solo. But they're not going to do it well. Worse, they're going to die. A LOT.

And you're not "a healer". You're a defender. Or a controller. Or a corruptor. There is NO "healer" AT in the game.

Literally EVERY AT IN THIS GAME has the capability of healing. The ability to heal doesn't make you special. It's simply one of the tools in your toolbox. You've basically got 10-12 hammers, and need to drive a screw.

Again. If a FF defender sits there and relies SOLELY upon bubbles and does NOTHING else, THEY AREN'T CONTRIBUTING. Why do you think teammate bubbles are now AoE? To free the bubbler from having to cycle through 8+ people every 4 minutes instead of attacking as they should be.


The problem is that you're not contributing ANY damage at all. Or doing it in amounts so miniscule as to be incidental. As such you're not contributing.

Nobody's saying you have to kill every enemy, or contribute X% of damage on every enemy killed. But you DO have to be attacking regularly, in addition to buffing/debuffing/healing to be considered as a participant.

Taking a single attack and using it once in a blue moon doesn't meet this basic requirement.

Yes. You're given an OPTION not to take any more offensive powers. But there's a basic EXPECTATION that you should.

You are NOT a mastermind. And your teammates are NOT your pets.

Empaths are not shortchanged.

Players who build "pure healer" empaths are shortchanging THEMSELVES. These type of builds are only marginally better than door-sitters.

As opposed to pre-Freedom where you had certain content that you simply couldn't use unless you spent additional money on top of your $15 subscription.

Nobody ever promised a free solution for people subscribing to "I want it all! I WANT IT ALL! I WANT IT ALL! AND I WANT IT NAO!"

Does it suck having to wait a little bit if you want it "free"? Sure!
BUT YOU GET IT FOR FREE.
Patience is still a Virtue (complete with ERP...wait...that's not right...).
Paragon has chosen to monetize impatience.
And, thus far, they're laughing all the way to the bank.

Honestly, so would I.

On the flip side, they'd probably have to make some drastic changes to the character list interface if they did (so it'd simply autospawn a new "page" once the previous one was filled).

It "may" have come off. But I'm sure it's gone right back on again.