Jade_Dragon

My favorite sights of the Rogue Isles are the Golden Giza and Casino strip in St. Martial, the Thorn Tree and Agincourt in Nerva, (look for a tunnel to a prison area, also there's a Crey warehouse FULL of captives in Crimson Cove -- very disturbing, both places) and the Freakshow "city" in Sharkhead. The Sky Raider's base in Sharkhead is also pretty neat, although you might have seen it in the Alignment missions. (I know it's the setting for a Rogue Alignment mission, you may not have seen it as a Vigilante) And you've got to go to the bottom of the Pit at least once.

I've also really loved the clock tower in the middle of Mercy Isle, and of course there are the "horns" of Mount Diable. I thought at first they were in the distance and unreachable, and they are when you first see them from Port Oakes, but then when I got to Cap Au Diable and realized you can actually get there I had to take a screenshot of one of my characters standing on top of it. It's the villain version of the Status of Atlas, I think.

Aeon City also looks awesome. But by the time you've visited it for the thousanth time, it's not so impressive any more.

The problem is that a staff or polearm set as we envision it really would be a complicated thing to animate. The problem is that it isn't JUST held in both hands. It is constantly switched from one hand to another. This is (as I understand it) impossible with the current game engine. The weapon has to be "attached" to one hand as a node, you couldn't animate it "flying" to where the other hand would generically be, and even if you could it would likely miss it, especially with our scalable characters.

The idea of making it a shield/spear combo solves the problem, except that in the ABSENSE of the shield, you're back to wanting to twirl it around and use it two handed. The only way I can see it working is if you continue to use it as a spear even one handed, that is, it's a stabbing weapon, and you use it one handed.

I have a couple of alternate ideas for a way around this problem, though:

1) "Fake" the two handedness by having the staff held in one hand, but your other hand is moved to place it on the staff during animations, to make it look like it's holding it. You wouldn't be able to remove the staff from the main hand, but with complex enough animations it probably wouldn't be noticable. The big problem would be clipping and the off hand not positioning correctly, depending on the scaling of the character.

Honestly, I'm guessing this is how the Stone Mallet (and Gabriel's Hammer) works, it is held two handed, but is actually likely a one handed weapon, with the other hand animated to place it on the handle during the swing. It isn't twirled, though, just brought down in an attack.

2) Use two small staves, which can be used separately, but certain animations can combine them and strike with them as a single staff weapon. This would look really cool, but sort of limit your concept.

Animating this would be a challenge, though, because the animations would essentially have to "overwrite" the staves with their own custom staff or the other. In effect, one of the staves would "extend", while the other would be held so it is close to or within the extended section. Again, this could look bad if the scaling of the character is off, but might work if both hands are held close together, as on the hilt of the Katana during attacks.

The staff could be switched from hand to hand, though, as one could "extend", and then the other, to give the illusion that the wielder switched hands. If it's possible, the off staff might actually be made to disappear, so it won't be seen if the wielder moves his hand away. I'm not sure if that's possible, though, it would have to somehow set a translucency on the weapon. Even if it doesn't disappear, if the natural form of the staff is short enough, it might not be noticable.

This second solution would not be usable with a Shield, though, as it is a Dual Wield stance, like Claws or Dual Blades. (In fact, it is in essence Dual Clubs, just with a twist. )

I suspect that one of the reasons MA and SS got alternate animations that made them look more alike is that they were INTENDED to look more alike. Rather than worry about the headache of porting SS to Scrappers right away, they tried to make it easier to stick with MA for Scrappers and Stalkers, SS for Brutes and Tankers.

That said, I would like to see MA next for Brutes, since it is a compatible match with Super Reflexes. Unless the devs want to develop that Super Speed Melee they've been talking about.

Broadsword's absence also seems notable, and I'd still like to see a tweaked or modified Ice Melee that makes clouds of fog or cold. (The visual difference giving them an excuse to alter whatever might still be interfering with Fury)

In general, Defenders have the strongest ability with Buff/Debuff powers, as they are in their Primary. Corruptors and Controllers have the second strongest, with their buff/debuffs on average about 80% of Defenders. One important point to note is that control powers in a Controller's Secondary will be just as strong as his Primary control powers, so they will actually be STRONGER than the same power for a Defender or Corruptor. But for the powers that are the defining abilities of the Buff/Debuff Set, that's the order.

Masterminds come in last, with about 60-75% of the strength of a Defender's buffs and debuffs. This is because they are intended, in part, to tank for the team by letting their henchmen absorb damage. This greater resiliance they bring to the team is countered by having their buffs to the team be somewhat less.

The short version is, no, an MM with Dark Miasma will not be as good as buffing or debuffing as a Corruptor with Dark Miasma.

If you're actually interested in knowing the specifics, it gets complicated:

When it comes to debuffs, tohit, damage, or defense, Controllers and Corruptors have 80% of the strength of a Defender. MMs have only 66.7%

Buffs or debuffs to damage resistance, Controllers, Corruptors and MMs are all the same at 75% of a Defender.

It is also 75% for buffs to Defense.

Damage and to hit buffs follow the same pattern as debuffs, 80% for Controllers and Corruptors, 66.7% for MMs.

Healing, a Controller or Corruptor is 88% of a Defender, an MM is 80%.

Thus, a set like Dark Miasma, with all its debuffs, is definately weaker for an MM. Tar Patch will be about the same, though. Force Field and Sonic, though, since they center around Defense and Damage Resistance buffs, they are about equal for MMs and Corruptors. They don't currently both share both sets, though, but Sonic for a Corruptor and FF for a Mastermind are about the same relative to each other that they would be for the same Defender. (Sonic tends to be a bit weaker in terms of protection, but then grants more damage in the form of -Res)

In some cases, as well, the Mastermind version of a power is just nerfed, so MMs won't be TOO powerful. Dark Miasma is actually hit twice, Twilight Grasp has a much smaller heal radius, as well as healing less, as noted above. And Dark Servant is on a much longer recharge timer. It takes work to make it perma, while the Corruptor version is perma "out of the box".

You might also be interested to know that Masterminds get better PERSONAL defense than Corruptors. They can't defend others as well, but Tough or Weave will be stronger for them. Their Epic Pool shields, as well.

Well, I was going to post in this before it turned into a long moral discussion. Now I'm not sure discussing individual characters is on topic any more.

But personally, I don't see most of my characters as evil. Most of them are motivated by injustices they have seen in the past to lose faith in "morality" and attempt to remake the world in their image. The best example of this is my main villain, Silver Bolt. He was born into a Mob family, and his parents were betrayed by the Family and turned over to corrupt police, who killed them. He was then taken in by the Boss and raised by him. He resents his "father", but not openly. He was trained as a hit man, and has killed quite a few people, with only a few being "innocents", in his eyes. When given the chance to claim the powers of a metahuman, he took it with the intention of freeing himself from the control of others. But he's quite capable of embarking on a campaign of conquest as well, to turn the world into his vision of "Utopia".

The thing is, being somewhat aware of his own nature, and facing off constantly against the heroes who ended up with some of the powers he wanted, he's come to realize that if he really did go that far, he'd be no better than those who were trying to control him. Or at least, in my own version of the stories separate from this game. He's got enough moral character to recognize that he is in danger of losing that aspect of himself, and that in fact the heroes are themselves pretty strong characters that can resist the corrupting nature of power themselves. So this reestablishes a faith in individuals in him, even if he still can't believe in mankind as a whole. It's sort of a redemption story, so he ends up as somewhat of a Rogue.

My werewolf character isn't evil at all. There is no curse or animal spirit within him, he just looks like a wolf. And in fact, there are hints that he may be lying about getting the form by being bitten by a werewolf. He's a wrestler, and the monster werewolf act is just an act, at least to the extent that if he IS a werewolf, he's totally in control of it and fully sentient and aware of the consequences of his actions. He will defend himself if attacked, and in the Rogue Isles one is often attacked, but he's never actually killed anyone. Hurt them badly, put then in the hospital, yes, but no one's ever died.

Likewise, my robot character isn't evil for much the reasons described. It's not sentient, just following its programming to continue functioning and provide itself with energy. It just so happens that that energy is human life. It DOES have a demonic spirit trapped within itself, but that spirit is weak, and probably not conscious of its actions either, at least not yet. Early on, the robot did decide that feeding recklessly on life energy would cause conflict with the "authorities", and so it took a more measured and less fatal approach to feeding from then on. This may pave the way for redeption later, although ultimately humans mean nothing to it. I think it could be said that it has no desire to inflict suffering, though, unless the demon starts to awaken somewhat more. (And turns out to be a major demon and not just some unlucky little minor spirit)

The one character I have that is TRULY evil, though, is a wizard from medieval times who experimented with using magic to control and torture people. He finally found a way to switch bodies with a victim, and used it to trade bodies with a dragon. He's completely cruel and sadistic, however, when he interacts without people, he is polite and charming, sometimes unnervingly so. It comes, I think, from my liking villains that are not the stereotypical mustache-twirling villain, but instead are smart, manipulative, and most of all Genre Savvy. He's not going to tick off allies just to prove that he's evil, or kill a few otherwise useful minions to enforce fear. He's just going to jump you while your back is turned, drain you of all information and power you have to offer, and make you disappear forever never to be found...

I suppose the darkest example I can come up with, but not one that is truly evil, is another robot character, a cyborg transformed from a young girl by Crey. As my main character, she was able to escape and stabilize the process, but her greatest fear is that the machine will overpower her and she won't be able to stop it. That happened to her Praetorian version, the process completed, and her mind was completely "assimilated". While she has gone completely insane, and there really isn't enough left of her human mind to be conscious anyway, there is still some part of her that is aware of what she is doing and has to watch as her body goes around killing people. Needless to say, she's not a character I play often, as it's not a very nice mindset to get into.

Really, that's kind of what the werewolf mythology is about, although in this case I'm making it technological instead of mystical.

Well, I have to say that a Stalker is primarily a solo-oriented AT. That's really been its weakness, while a Stalker can be very powerful stalking through a mission alone, in a team it is assumed that "there's nothing a Stalker can do that a Scrapper can't do better". Even with the revamp that hasn't changed -- except for the "better" part. On a team a Stalker now feels much like a Scrapper with a few extra party favors.

However, those party favors are the difference. First of all, you have the Demoralize from Assassin Strike, which causes everyone around a Boss or AV hit by an AS cowering in terror and with a debuff -tohit. Keep this up on an AV during a fight and you can speed up the elimination of his minions, and then him. Second, AS, when following a Placate, is still one of the highest DPA attacks you can make, so as long as you don't get hit by an AoE while casting it, there's no need to hold it back. A Headsplitter will kill the AV just as fast, sure, but with a slightly higher chance for him to hit you.

Plus, you've got that stealth, and the first free strike on the spawn with either an AS or a Crit. That can speed things up for the team, leaving them with one less foe to worry about. On a large enough team, the Stalker can actually start doing MORE sustained damage than the Scrapper, although that's unlikely, as it takes like 7 other allies in melee. Still, even if you don't want to do anything but scrap, and pick an AoE combo like the Elec/Nin suggestion, your lower sustained damage probably wouldn't even be noticable on an average team. You'll be killing right along with everyone else, and your allies will see the occasional Fears from your AS.

One nice thing to note is that although you have a lower base damage than a Scrapper, since everything you do is based on a Critical, it all scales nicely when you are buffed by a team. So you won't be falling behind a Scrapper on a team with a Kin or Rad. However, Scrappers that can buff themselves to a high level on big spawns, like Dark or Kin Melee, will have the advantage there. Kin Melee is good, but there's some argument as to whether it's better on Scrappers.

Eagle's Claw is wow. When they revamped MA, they gave Stalker Eagle's Claw more damage than the Scrapper version. It's almost got as much damage per attack as Total Focus, now. (It's actually Clobber, albeit with a somewhat longer animation time)

What Scrapper Eagle's Claw gets is the ability to Crit on the next attack. But as I suspect most folks use that with Dragon's Tail anyway, the greater damage is probably doubly better for Stalkers.

Although it occurs to me if the devs wanted to be creative, they could have had the "Crit" for Stalkers cause a follow up attack to do an AoE "splash" damage. That would have taken care of the AoE issue. OTOH, Broadsword still lacks Whirling Sword, Dark Melee still lacks Dark Consumption and Soul Drain, Energy Melee still lacks Whirling Hands, and Ninja Blade The Lotus Drops. So if MA gets AoE damage, all those sets will have to get it too.

They've so far lasted as long as my characters have had them. So if they expire the timer must be in months.

IIRC, when I have changed alignment the Alignment Power disappears until replaced by the next. So I'm assuming this is an incentive not to change Alignment all the time. Keep switching between "pure" and "tourist", or going around the circle, and you'll never get your Alignment Power. Stick with it, though, and I'm guessing you don't have to keep doing the missions to renew it.

Honestly, it sounds like the OP explained the situation, the PvPer agreed with it, and everyone was happy. If he'd intentionally set out to harass the OP and turn other players against him as well after a polite request that would be one thing. But the OP admitted that he needed a little help, and the PvPer gave it to him.

An example of how to deal with the situation, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, on to a post of my own:

I've been a fan of comic books all my life, Western style superheroes growing up, and Japanese Manga and Anime when I was a teenager. I don't really have a problem with any of them, I like all the genres, and couldn't care less if they are compatible or not.

One thing I do feel I have to point out, is that comic books, particularly in the West, are our modern age's version of mythology. It's not a coincidence that Thor and Hercules and mythologically inspired superheroes like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel draw from Ancient Greek and Norse myths. We are retelling those myths, in our modern day and age, with our modern backdrop of science and technology. But the stories are still the same old stories, and the heroes are still the same old heroes.

Star Wars is the same thing. Check out Joseph Campbell some time.

In the Golden Age, heroes were mostly magical and mythical in nature. Wonder Woman started out as an Amazon empowered by the Greek Gods. Dr. Fate and many of the other heroes mentioned previously were derived from the same sources. Even today, you've still got characters like Dr. Strange with magical powers, dealing with the occult, or recurring demonic characters like Mephisto providing magical and mythical influences for heroes that are otherwise science or technology-based.

The Silver Age introduce the science and technology angle, with Green Lantern reinvisioned as a member of a space Corps, and The Flash with less nods to Mercury. (Garrick's origin was apparently somewhat scientific in nature, but then so was Superman, but this was considerably expanded on after the birth of the Atomic Age) And the dark anti-heroes of the 80's and 90's, whether you like them or not, are part of the history of the genre as well. So I think CoH does a good job of combining all these influences, and building a backstory and universe of its own.

For me, personally, my main characters have always been superheroes in the Golden Age and Silver Age sense. Jade Dragon, Blue Diamond, Genie Gold and Silver Bolt would all have been completely at home in any comic of the 50s through 70s. Element Dog, the original version of Genie Gold, was very much based on the funny animal characters, like Krypto and Marvel Bunny. Although he was also very strongly inspired by Mr. Peabody of the Rocky and Bullwinckle Show.

My two cyberpunk characters, though, Alan Midnight and his AI Rachel, are very much influenced by modern dark comics, as well as film noir detective movies, and cyberpunk influences like Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic. Not a small amount of Tron, as well. Bloodwolf is definately a modern hero in the non-costumed, mercenary vigilante mold, plus very strongly inspired by a TV Series called the Sword of Justice.

Sandy, and in fact Rachel, are inspired by Anime, specifically Battle Angel Alita and Ghost in the Shell. Sandy goes beyond that into a sort of teenage angst, reluctant heroine kind of mold, like Sailor Moon, the X-Men, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Her story would be perfectly at home in a totally different genre, as she was originally created for a fanfic story I wrote for another game, but she makes a great (if reluctant) superhero too.

I guess ultimately what I have to say is that when comic books range from Looney Tunes to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Strangers in Paradise, to The Maxx to Maus, what does it really mean to say, "this is a game about comic books?" Is it a game about comic book SUPERheroes? Or is it just a game about comic book HEROES? Is it a game about heroes in general? About heroes in the movies and TV shows as well? Is a pulp novel detective, or a mystical space-faring knight, or a sword swinging barbarian really out of place here?

You know, I actually find the fact that you can create other MMOs' characters here, and you can't create these characters there, to be a GOOD thing.

Well, it's actually two issues, Brawl itself is useful to Brutes for all reasons given here, but also there is the question of how useful it is to put Brawl on auto. It would still be as useful as it was before, assuming Brawl is as useful as it was before.

It's a matter of personal preference, really. I know I like to do it because I don't have to think about it, which Brawl is on auto, all I have to do is hesitate between attacks and my End usage goes down. As long as I keep queueing up new attacks first, it will never go off. So it's a convenience. You might as well ask why put Taunt on auto on a Tanker, the main reason is so you don't FORGET to use it. (Or have something to go off automatically while you decide)

Honestly, I use it the same way I use auto-Taunt on my Tanker. I have a keybind set up to say something to taunt in chat. It makes it fun. So there is a purpose to my keybind, it also sets up auto-Taunt for my Tankers and auto-Brawl for my Brutes. (And I still have the normal Taunt key to taunt on my Brutes. I don't want to spam chat EVERY time I taunt, but that way I can open the fight with a comment that's good for a laugh)

Hm. Let's edit this to make it less sure of the issue...

Make sure you don't have any Fame Points that haven't expired. If you've gone to the Rogue Isles and found Villain Tips I don't see how that could be the case, but it won't hurt to make sure. Also, make sure you didn't use up some Fame Points on those villain missions, although again you said you deleted them without running them.

If that is not the problem, then it is probably just a string of bad luck. I don't know what else to suggest other than to get a Hero Tip team as you said. Hopefully you will earn a tip of your own by running one.

This has been posted before. And while Devices may have a power with Defense capability (and another with -Acc) it is important to note that it is the ONLY Blaster Secondary WITHOUT melee attacks. So it's my guess that you should got one or the other. Either you get melee attacks, or you get Defense and something like mines you lay down for the foes that get too close.

Any set based on Martial Arts would have to be not too much based on Martial Arts. Devices combined with martial arts would be a bit redundant since there is already a Devices, but there needs to be some way to introduce some control powers as active mitigation. I honestly would like to see Martial Arts used with the bow from Archery out, combined with a small number of control powers from Trick Arrow, such as Ice Arrow. Obviously not the debuffs, of course.

My take on it:

General version:

1) Flying Crane Kick - This does minimal damage compared to Crane Kick, but 100% knockback
2) Storm Kick
3) Caltrops - moved to tier 3 so Storm Kick can be picked up early, also consistent with Glue Arrow below
4) Crippling Axe Kick (or the new high damage Cobra Strike)
5) Focus Chi
6) Gas Grenade - This has a blinding and confuse effect similar to Blinding Powder, or perhaps a sleep/choke like Poison's Poison Trap
7) Superior Conditioning - I agree with this one as it fits with the concept of a martial artist, and is similar to Conserve Power or Power Sink
8) Dragon's Tail - possibly increased chance of knockdown or increased to knockback
9) Eagle's Claw

Archery version:

1) Entangling Arrow
2) Storm Kick - performed with the bow out, same with all MA attacks below
3) Glue Arrow
4) Crippling Axe Kick
5) Focus Chi
6) Gas Arrow - As above, so named to distinguish it from Poison Gas Arrow, as it would NOT have the debuff effect
7) Ice Arrow
8) Dragon's Tail
9) Eagle's Claw (or Oil Slick Arrow)

You could actually do both, by using Cobra Strike in the general version, and Oil Slick Arrow in the Archery version, so only Storm Kick and Dragon's Tail would be common to both. The Gas Grenade could actually be Blinding Powder, (or a cone Sleep/Confuse, anyway) with Gas Arrow essentially being Poison Gas Arrow without the -Dmg debuff.