InfamousBrad

Hmm. I'd be more likely to go Brute and pair Katana with Reflexes than with Regen, but I assume you have your reasons. Here's how I'd do it:

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...D67F0142E8F32A

I made no attempt to build for perma-Hasten or perma-IH, because I hate the rest of the compromises you have to make to get there. Instead, I built to Regen's natural strength, by building for every possible +MaxHP set bonus. This gives hard-capped hit points when Dull Pain is up and +644 hit points when it's not -- a 48% hit point buff that is also a 48% regen buff on top of the rest of the regen buffs in the set, because how many hit points per second regen returns is based on your current max HP.

That gives a base regeneration of 57 hp/sec, 69 hp/sec with DP, 172 hp/sec with DP+IH. But, because I skipped a lot of +rech to get this build, DP is only up 120/164, and IH only 90/297. You pick your preferred compromises in CoH.

You didn't specify a travel power, so I skipped one; go buy a jetpack in Firebase Zulu or Grandville. What I did do was stick a Celerity +stealth proc into Sprint and took Stealth, so you can stealth to objectives while grinding repeatables for incarnate rewards in Dark Astoria. If you don't want to do that, you can replace Stealth with the travel power of your choosing. Or you can take out Assault and Tactics, which I stuck in there because Regen is inherently weak against debuffs and for the extra resistance to the odder forms of mez; I try to fit them into every build. But if you give up Tactics, that'll cost you one of the +MaxHP set bonuses I fit in.

I picked Soul Mastery for the APP/PPP, mostly for Shadow Meld, 30% def(all) for 15 seconds on a 41 second recharge, often enough to buy you time for regen to catch up with unlucky breaks and rough alpha strikes, up a lot more often than MoG. But Soul Mastery also gives Soul Storm, which will really help with all the Tsoo sorcs and BanPan shamans in DA, and a Blood Widow pet to draw some of the aggro off of you (and lend a tiny sliver of DPS) when soloing. And, hey, having Dark Blast at 35 meant not having to take the taunt (or depend on vet powers) as a pulling tool.

Note that the recharge times above assume the Spiritual Partial Core Revamp alpha incarnate ability; they'll be a little longer until you slot that. After the alpha slot, I'd go Void as the melee-optimal judgment (and because, as a mildly squishy regen, AoE damage debuff is your friend), and after that, it's a matter of taste.

Since Synapse was the guest on this week's Coffee Talk, I brought up an old, old bug, one that I try to bring up with the dev team about once a year. Imagine my annoyance that Synapse doesn't even remember that this bug exists. So I guess it's time to review this, in writing.

Note, by the way, that there are actually two bugs with Oil Slick Arrow: intermittent failure to ignite, and the fact that it causes friendly NPCs, as well as hostile ones, to go "Afraid" and try to run out of the ignited slick.

Oil Slick Arrow, Castle explained to us, is perhaps the single most complicated power in the game, and suffers from the fact that the game engine doesn't handle it well when a pseudo-pet uses a power that spawns yet another pseudo-pet. Here, as best as it has been explained to us, is how Oil Slick Arrow really works:

• You fire OSA at a spot on the ground. Upon activation, the game engine creates two pseudo-pets.
• One is the Oil Slick itself. It is friendly to the caster, hostile to the caster's enemies. It targets any hostile within the sphere every two (I think?) seconds with a chance to knockdown. It also targets any hostile within the sphere with a movement slow effect. It also targets any hostile within the sphere with a defense debuff effect. It also targets any hostile NPC within the sphere with an Afraid status attack: the urge to run in a straight line directly away from the center of the sphere until outside the sphere.
• The other is the Target pseudo-pet, spawned slightly above the center of the oil slick pseudo pet. It has no attacks of its own. As far as I know, it can't be missed when attacked? It is immune to all damage types except energy and fire. It has 1 hit point.
• When the Target pseudo-pet dies (to hostile damage only, not when its timer expires), it does two things: it kills the Oil Slick pseudo-pet, and it spawns a new Flaming Oil Slick pseudo-pet.
• The Flaming Oil Slick Pseudo-Pet has all of the same powers as the Oil Slick: defense debuff, movement slow, recurring chance to knockdown, and afraid status. However, it also has a fire damage (or damage over time?) proc that goes off every 2 (I think?) seconds.

Bug number one: sometimes killing the Target fails to spawn the Flaming Oil Slick pseudo-pet. There was a bug fix that reduced this happening, a while back, and it hasn't happened to me lately, but some users are still reporting it happening occasionally. Yes, I know, intermittent bugs are a pain to debug.

Bug number two: the Afraid status attack from the Flaming Oil Slick affects all NPCs, not just hostile ones. This one is not intermittent; it happens every time.

I beggars belief to think that bug number two can't be fixed, because the Flaming Oil Slick knows not to slow friendly targets. It knows not to defense-debuff friendly targets. It knows not to burn friendly targets. How does it NOT know not to "afraid" status attack friendly targets?

- - - -

This bug goes all the way back to issue 5, at the very least; it has been a problem for Trick Arrow masterminds for as long as there have been Trick Arrow masterminds. This means that the only masterminds that can use Trick Arrows are those that either only use ranged pets (roboticists, mostly, although mercs are also mostly possible) or who skip the single best power in the powerset.

I bring this up now, because, we're about to get the first new mastermind primary powerset since Thugs, and even more than Thugs (and even more than Ninjas), it is a melee minion only powerset. Worse luck, it's one that fits, thematically, with Trick Arrows. Which means that as soon as the first Beasts/Arrows mastermind hits level 35, they're going to have to re-roll in a fit of rage, or else give up on OSA, just like just about every ninjas/arrows or thugs/arrows or demons/arrows mastermind already does.

Can we please get this fixed? Sooner would be better than later, but for crying out loud, can we at least get it back onto the priority bug fix list even if it's at the bottom, so that the guy in charge of powersets at least knows that the bug exists?

There is no meaningful doubt that I'm buying this the day it hits the store. But I would like to know which powersets are getting the rifle? Beam Rifle, obviously, but Robotics, please? And conceivably Assault Rifle?

(Now if only we could get a Beam Pistols powerset ...)

Probably not economically feasible in the short term, but my number two request would be alternate particle effects for energy melee and energy aura ... specifically, I want the ones that the Praetorian PD use for those powersets.

My number one request: an alternate animation for Bane Spiders' Build Up power that uses the gun instead of the mace, so that character doesn't have to do a redraw every time I hit build up.

1. I agree with Dechs: if something isn't fun, don't do it. Being miserable for hundreds of hours so you can have a few minutes' worth of fun later is never worth it.

2. Play nice. Insulting somebody else is never worth it. It's pointless, they don't benefit from it, and the drama just expands. Don't do it.

3. If you want to decide what task the team is going to take on, recruit the team yourself, or shut the ____ up. If they did they work of recruiting the team, they get to decide.

4. TGIF: Tanks Go In First. If you want to decide how fast the team moves from spawn to spawn, and what spawns to skip, and what direction the team goes at each intersection, roll a tank or (maybe) a brute and lead from the front. Otherwise, shut the _____ up. Nobody likes a back-seat driver.

5. Blessed are they that expect the worst, because they can be pleasantly surprised.

Oh, man, I really don't want to have to choose! Blame "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command," because I want (b) on any male or female models, and (c) on huge! But if I only get one of them, it's B.

I could make a case for any of them, but if I only get one of them, the simpler one is more versatile, in my opinion.

What are the odds of getting these put on the costume menu as either a separate head type, or as Detail 1, so that we can have our choice of hair types and can use shoulder pieces on our space suits? You run the risk of hair like glam poking through the helmet, but that's user choice. I'll still somewhat-grudgingly buy it if it's implemented as a hat, but I'd prefer more versatility.

My personal opinion is that without the accordion-pleated joints and the discs, it's not really retro sci fi. Although I am curious about something important, related to the discs: are the overlapping shoulder pieces on C separate from the chest part, or included in it like a jacket? I'm hoping it's the former, because when I use it, it'll be with the shoulder discs, instead of those protrusions.

I'm looking longingly at the chest symbol on A, but I can make do with the jewels and/or the Stealth straps and/or the bandolier straps if it gets me the accordion-pleated joints and the wrist and ankle discs.

Don't forget that Touch of Fear isn't just a strong control power. It's also a really hefty to-hit debuff, which stacks quite well with your +def if you stay SR, and isn't entirely worthless no matter what your secondary is.

There are four specific powers I want enhanced:

Mastermind.Mercenaries.Serum needs its duration at least doubled, preferably tripled, so that it actually lasts the full duration of an AV fight.

Mastermind.Ninjas.Train_Ninjas needs to also double the innate +def of Genins; once you get the third one, +7% def(all) doesn't even make up for the innate accuracy increase that enemies get for being higher level than they are.

And Peacebringer.Luminous_Aura.Incandescence and Warshade.Umbral_Aura.Absorption both need to grant at least +1 protection to Hold, Stun, and Sleep, preferably +2. Having even a single minion be able to suppress your shields is just too annoying for words when in human form.

I'm less sure of my numbers, but I also have a subjective feeling that the endurance costs on the toggles are way too high in Stone Armor and Shield Defense, and a subjective sense that defender secondaries should get a slight endurance discount.

We have Spring Fling patch notes on the live servers, but no date for when Spring Fling begins? Odd.

If you read the history plaques, those nukes are left-overs from the '60s, and Blitz doesn't want the nukes. Malta is selling him much better weapons than that already.

And Arachnos already has better weapons than that, anyway; orbital weapons platforms and sub-orbital rockets are so retro-60s, you know. That's why player character heroes have to stop them from finishing and deploying the Grandville Array in the STF, and stop them from altering the timestream in RV. Oh, yeah, and as Serenity_NA just reminded me, a couple of years back they had the Jade Spider battlemech with its psi-blast weaponry. Ultra-tech enough for you?

BTW, I have begged every keeper of the story bible that this game has ever had to clarify the Rogue Isles' position with respect to the UN, and I've never gotten an entirely clear answer. The current impression I have is that it's close to the US's position on Taiwan vs China: there is no such country, they don't recognize its secession from the US.

Nemesis, of course.

I kid.

The actual answer is: Blue Steel, and any other hero who agrees to submit to democracy and the rule of law by only using his or her powers against other human beings under the color of law, subject to the legal process and chain of command, any super who becomes a police officer or a soldier instead of a vigilante.

Statesman's heart was in the right place, and he loved America, but his support for the Citizen's Crime Fighting Act, and all of the horrific fallout of that catastrophic legal mistake, showed just how little he understood what America means. Replacing American government and the rule of law with an incarnate theocracy, where anyone with an FBSA rating above 40 is treated as a god, as a force of nature, instead of being treated the same way any other citizen would be treated who used force against another person, was a monstrous crime that deserves to be remembered right alongside all of the times that he saved the world.

1) BUG: When villains search Darrin Wade's lair, they don't get the clues they're supposed to get.

2) I don't care how much contempt I have for an enemy. If I'm weak to magic, and he's magic origin, and I get into an argument with him on top of one of the most famous magic sites in the world, I am not going to get so distracted that I stop to argue with him while standing directly in the center of where the ritual circle used to be. At some point in Statesman's death scene, he really should have said to himself, "Yeah, okay, now that I think of it, that was really stupid of me. What an embarrassing way to die."

3) As others have pointed out, but I want to point out in more detail: almost all of the old-time villains, and probably more than a third of the newer generation ones, are walking around with the Thief of Midnight badge. That Darrin Wade is Rulu'shin is probably one of the worst-kept secrets in the game; he tells you as much, himself. And (once again, I have to remind you) you do have the capability, now, to modify what happens in a mission based on what badges people have. Those of us who have the Thief of Midnight badge really, really shouldn't have been told that we were surprised to find Soldiers of Rularuu in Darrin Wade's lair(s), aka, "The Idiot Ball: U Haz It."

4) There is something wrong with the geometry of the edge of the Sybelline temple map where the last fight takes place. Once the Aspect of Ruludak got scared of me and flew off, he sank completely into the geometry there, and became completely untargetable. I had to drop out of bodyguard mode, fly to the opposite end of the map with my 'bots, and wait for him to get unstuck. If I hadn't been a +3 incarnate, that could have made it a much more annoying fight.

5) Let me disagree with Venture as respectfully as I can: I think the soldiers of Rularuu are the best enemies in the late game, not the worst. Unique models, counters for everybody's abilities, an existential threat as opposed to random recently powered up thugs, and a dangling plot thread since issue 1. By level 50, the Council and the 5th and Freakshow and the Circle and Longbow and Arachnos are boring; Malta and Knives are boring looking and even more annoying to fight than the Rularuu; the Carnies are fun but I can't take them seriously as an existential threat; the DE are a serious threat and cool looking but I hope they finally get more than 2 mobs at level 50 before we see them again; we're done with the Rikti for at least a little while, I hope. So I'm delighted to see the soldiers of Rularuu get some in-game time.

6) Reading through Darrin Wade's notes, he complains about "some meddling time traveler," specifically, something that my character hasn't done yet, won't do until issue 22. As the Klingons say, "I hate predestination paradoxes."

7) I was under the impression that the reason all this time travel back to Cimerora, including all of the future tech we've dumped on Julia whats-her-name, didn't further screw up the timeline is that shortly after we're done with it, the dormant volcano it's built on blows up. It's also awfully near the Italian mainland for that temple to be just standing out in the open and not have it be a tourist site. So I think the map should have looked a lot more worn down than it is, a lot less of it intact and above ground. It's also 20,000 miles away from Paragon City, and we travel there in a tug-boat or a container ship? This would have been a good mission to use a teleporter of some kind to get to and back, or a jet plane on the runway in Cap au Diable, something other than a ship.