Jade_Dragon

The main thing I notice about Kinetic Melee is that it sounds like you are defeating your foes by having cars drive past them at high speed. I keep wanting to create a character based on a NASCAR concept.

The animations and sound effects are still awesome, though, even if (possibly intentionally) amusing. I particularly like it combined with Shield (an energy shield in one hand, with the one handed kinetic animations colored the same looks awesome) but both my Kinetic Melees so far are Scrappers.

First of all, I would suggest biting the bullet and upgrading your hardware. Yes, it's expensive to do that for just a single game that you don't play that much. But you don't have to go full out, you can probably find a relatively cheap (maybe even used) graphics card that is stronger than what you have. In the end, it will make it easier to play, and probably improve your other programs on the computer as well.

Alternatively, pick yourself up a good laptop. They can go pretty cheap these days, and usually come with strong enough hardware to play this game at the Performance level without lag.

Also, you're having trouble with your graphics keeping up, and selecting x2 and x3 difficulty? Try +1/x1 and +2/x1 instead. Smaller spawns will produce less lag, even though it may not do much to help your boredom.

Second, I would work on playing around with your keybinds and control mapping. It sounds like you're doing a lot of reaching and scrambling to juggle your various options. Keep your most common attacks in keys 1-5, and your heal or some other defensive toggle you have to click all the time in 0, or some similar key you can reach easily and instinctively. Use the same pattern for all characters so your fingers get "trained" to reach for the right keys in an emergency. Likewise, you can use certain keys to trigger travel powers, like "F" for "Fly". (Although that's normally "Follow", you might want to try another letter)

If you have Tab bound to target_enemy_next, try changing it to target_enemy_near and bind some other key to cycle through targets. That way, one press of Tab is ALWAYS target the most immediate threat, the one closest to you. You can also quickly select foes by rotating and positioning yourself so the target you want is the closest. You do still want the cycle key, though, I bind it to Q so it's right next to Tab, but you may prefer another location. (One thing you shouldn't do is bind it to Alt-Tab, that switches you out of the game. I found that out the hard way. )

You should also try and find an effective balance between mouse use and keyboard use. For instance, I use keys for powers, but my mouse is always positioned over the Inspiration box for fast Inspiration selection. You may prefer to bind Inspirations to keys. The mouse can then be used for something else. I also like to use the mouse to click on the powers from 7 to 9, so I can keep pressing the 1-5 keys with my left hand. (So for instance Build Up - attack is usually initiated with a mouse click on the Build Up icon)

Another thing that can come in very handy is powexec_auto. Or, manually hold down the Ctrl key and click on the power. This will cause it to be set to autofire. This is useful for Hasten, Practiced Brawler, Dull Pain, or any similar power you want to trigger automatically every time it recharges. Setting up a keybind to set that power to auto can be very useful. (and if you want to cancel the autofire, say for Taunt or some other attack you wouldn't want to go off just because you targetted a foe, Z should be mapped to that)

If you've played a Mastermind, you probably already know about keybinds, but in case you don't, check the Guides forum. There should be plenty of guides on the subject. Finally, setting up common keybinds for special actions, like Shift + mouse click to drop Caltrops or some other dropped power, can speed that up, and make it easier to make the action consistent across multiple characters. You might check out the movement/auto Hasten keybinds, or Teleport keybinds.

I generally sell all Uncommons since they typically go for less on the Market than the 1000 they are worth. Depending on the room available in the base I may keep one of commonly used types around to speed up crafting. Rares, though, I typically hoard since I will want one when I get a recipe that uses it. And when I do get such a Recipe it usually disappears pretty fast.

I just can't afford Rare items to craft. If I sold them, I wouldn't have enough to buy all the Rares I need anyway, so I just hold onto it until it's needed. Occasionally I'll sell something that I know will never show up in the Inventions I usually craft, but that's a hard thing to predict.

Commons depend a lot on the Market. I usually keep them around so I have a good solid base for crafting, and then if I have any surpluses (like 7 or more of the same thing) I will check the Market. If they're cheap I'll sell them, if they're really going for high value I'll sell them, but if they're only moderately priced I'll usually keep them, since it would cost so much to try and buy them back later. Because of market fluctuations I can usually count on what is expensive one week to be moderate the next, and vice versa.

This is complicated by the fact that I have both personal SGs, and an SG I belong to where I am the main crafter. My own base I can fill up with storage items, but I have to be more stingy with the storage space the shared SG provides me. Then again, with email I can transfer some salvage around.

One of my female characters was inspired by Lyla from Spider-Man 2099, and thus I always envision her wearing a full length, tight skirt that gathers around her feet. I have no earthly idea how that could be animated without clipping, or even how she would be able to move or fight in that. (Since she transforms into a bodysuit for fighting it wouldn't really be a problem)

Well, if this is a comparison between how many Primary picks the various ATs have, Blasters, Corruptors and Defenders all have 10, while Dominators and Controllers each have 7. So while Tankers don't have the most choices at 8, they don't have the least, either.

That said, I'd like to see a Sonic or Radiation Melee/Defense combo, and there needs to be a Psi Melee to go with Willpower. When you start to go into new crazy ways of mitigating damage, though, well, other meleers could benefit from that as well.

I've got many concept characters of all Archetypes. I guess my favorite Brute would have to be my werewolf, Loopy Loup Garou. He was based on a character I originally created for the Playstation wrestling game Smackdown vs Raw, so in CoH he's an ex-wrestler who's trying to clear his name after being framed by his managers.

He's a lot of fun because he's a parody of various wrestlers, and takes his catchphrases from them, like "Can you smell what the werewolf is cookin'?" He's currently EM/Willpower, although I plan on creating a Claws version. I originally wanted claws, but since that wasn't available I with with EM because of its punches, and the similarity of Whirling Hands to Spin. Eventually, I came up with concept that as he fights, his muscles overheat, and start glowing red. So he has this sort of dark, blood red aura around him, from both EM and Willpower, thanks to Power Customization.

And of course he has Super Leap and Combat Jumping, due to his experience leaping off of ropes and such. So he's this great hulking werewolf bounding around all over the place. He's gone Rogue, too, so I can play him on the hero side. He's not really a villain, after all, just a "Heel".

My other Brute is really just an alternate version of my Tanker, and while I like him equally well as both, I think when it comes to characterization he's more a tank than a brute. I've created an Electric Brute, but just didn't like his concept. I really wanted him to be ranged, and was happier when I remade him as a Dominator. I've also got a Stone Brute who's another wolf character. None of those are as much fun as the Loopster, though.

Wow, that's like... interesting. It sounds like of like a "MAN" build, where you go mostly to the Pool for your powers. But your build shows a lot of attacks other than the three you listed. Am I misunderstanding what you are saying, that you actually only want Neutrino Bolt, Boxing and Kick, and don't plan to use those other attacks? Or are you planning to use all those attacks, but the three are the ones you HAVE to have?

Neutrino Bolt, Boxing and Kick all recharge so fast that using Hasten or a Recharge IO build isn't going to help you much. Eventually you'll get to the point where the attacks are recharging so fast you don't have time to animate them. So what you will probably need is more damage boosts, like from Assault. Honestly, I think I would try and build around the slower recharging attacks, like Cosmic Burst and Bonesmasher, to try and get the damage up. I think I would also go for Air Superiority and Jump Kick from the Pool instead of Boxing and Kick, as they would have more damage with slower recharge.

I have found one great use for Time Bomb. Set it up in the midst of an outside spawn of greens or greys, and then use the Walk animation to calmly walk away.

As for Teleport, I have characters that use it all the time. It helps to have keybinds to use it, but it helps to have keybinds to play Masterminds and Kheldians, too. (And honestly, if you're playing a Kheldian, or at least a Warshade, you should be setting up teleport keybinds too)

Okay, first of all, whether or not you can have a gun or swords in your hand when you perform an animation isn't the problem, AFAIK. It's how the gun or swords GET there. All animations in this game have a "stance", and this stance determines how and what you are holding in your hands when you perform the animation. Most animations have the bare handed stance, while the Dual Pistols animations have the Dual Wield stance.

What this means, basically, is that you could do an MA roundhouse kick with a Katana out. But everyone else playing the game would also do that roundhouse kick with the Katana out. Including Martial Arts Scrappers who don't even have a Katana. While it is certainly POSSIBLE, the way the stance is "baked in" to the animation means that it must be baked in for EVERYONE using that animation.

Plus, it wouldn't just put the Katana in your hand, it would make you draw the Katana. You would have to go into the Left Hand Wield (actually a substance of Dual Wield) stance before doing the roundhouse kick. This would eliminate the redraw problem for people wielding a Katana, but add one for players who are using Dual Pistols, or nothing at all. So instead of removing the redraw problem, you are just passing it on to someone else to deal with.

What is needed is for an animation to be able to play in a selection of stances. If it's a kick, for instance, let it play whether you have a Katana or Dual Pistols in your hand or not. But since this is "baked in" code, we are probably talking about rewriting the game engine. BaB tried to work around it, but apparently couldn't because of Shields, and its stance. Alternately, he may have tried to make the weapon "teleport" into your hand, but couldn't stop at least some time being taken for the redraw when stance changed.

The short version is, this isn't anything they can do anything about unless they start working on CoH2. Although, who knows, maybe customizable weapons will enable a way around it. One thought I've had is just to always use a weapon stance, and have "no weapon" as a weapon option. That will still need to distinguish between left handed, right handed and dual wield stances, but maybe something can be done.

Ow. My head hurts.

The way I like to look at it is, healing is like a debuff to your foes' damage. It's not a flat percentage, though, like Res or Def, it knocks an amount off the top, and then anything beyond that gets to you.

As a result, healing based characters tend to be immortal until the point where the damage they are taking exceeds their regen, at which time they tend to die really fast. This is a characteristic very different from Res, which just dies slowly but steadily, and Def, which dies rarely, but suddenly and without warning.