JakHammer

Thanks CoX for a fun way to get some highly useful items. Great value! I am very pleased. I planed for this and saved back cash for $100 in points. The 8 tokens from the points got me almost to tier 9 which was a definite factor in my decision.

If you had only guaranteed the full Costume set would drop in the first 12 packs opened, and made sure that the Discounted 12 Pack Bundle was Prominently featured, this thread wold be a lot shorter. Along that line can Anyone say, or has Anyone said that they FAILED to get the full set in 12 packs or less?

I read a lot of the thread last night. This morning I just can't deal with all the vitriol, but will add a tiny drop.

I have a comment about gambling. I will not try to explain all the ins and out of what really constitutes gambling. I will say that people who don't want to gamble should just quit breathing, as with every breath you take, you may inhale a particle of this or that which will cause your eventual death by some from of malady. It is impossible, in life, to Avoid gambling.

Since, properly considered, every action made and every decision taken is a gamble, buying a pack is, in that broadest possible sense, also gamble. But to compare an absolute certainty that you will get useful stuff out of every pack, compounded by the statistical certanties of multiple packs results, to what goes on in a casino or at the corner grocery when you buy a lotto ticket, well that is just plain silly. Don't find the stuff in the packs useful? Then just don't buy packs. Want the costume cheaper and as a stand alone? You may have to grow up and get used to dissappointment.

The best single post I read in the thread last night was number 157. Thank you Arcanaville.

Jak

Holy Smokes. This warning should be reposted in the All Access player questions. Thanks a bunch fo rthe heads up!

Jak

Yep I was disappointed that the ATOs could not be individually +5 boosted, but I will purple my Might of the Tanker as there is no good way to get a 5th Purple set on to my Granite tank.

Scorp Shield is better than Frozen Armor, but S/L Softcap with Frozen Armor does not require a side switch for your hero types.

Pre-eating Lucks so you can take a few hits without cascade failure really only works well for me on toons already at or near the Defense soft cap.

It won't help you now at Level 37 but a T4 Ageless Radial Epiphany does wonders for Defense Debuff Resistance.

Base Empowerments, yummmmm.

Jak

A couple of extended threads were done in the Tanker forums about this subject also several months back. The hands down consensus is the Regen.

On my Stone Tank, when wearing my T4 Spiritual 45% and using Earth's Embrace I am at the Regen Hard Cap for several seconds.
Base Hp 2452.6 Embraced HP 3534 (cap)
basic regen 301% 30.73 HP/s 44.25 HP/s
Add Rooted 498% 50.94 HP/s 73.36 HP/s
Add Destiny T4 2500% 255.5 HP/s 361.8 HP/s - I was in error earlier, had the T3 picked in MIDS

T4 Destiny no root 2500% 255.5 HP/s 361.8 HP/s - Error As above. With the T4 Regen is capped with or without Rooted - but the rooted hels after the first drop at 10 seconds.

You can easilly get your healing badges too .

I found this was way more regen than I needed for normal work and Wear a T4 Musculature Radial (PVE and Solo) or T4 Spiritual Radial (extreme tanking) most of the time now. I only use the Rebirth on certain I-trials, preferring the Ageless Radial to Cap my DDR and give a Recharge Boost, and avoid duplication on Leagues.

Jak

PS: the Regen does have a significant initial heal also, and that heal is boosted by the Heal affecting Alphas too.

I realize this is probably a dead thread based on Blue's other post today but I have a Perma Hasted hover Arch/Em with S/L capped Def and Super Speed with a stealth proc. Far and away the best of my 4 Lvl 50 blasters. Unless you are over-aggroing getting rushed does not happen. You get to position unseen then ...

What does happen every 24.7 seconds from a range of 100 feet or less is Boost Range - Aim - BU - RoA - Fistful (at 90-100 feet this cone is huge) - Explosive Arrow.
With Assault running that is about 1200 points arriving on target in about 3 seconds from the first report.
Clean up the one or two remaining Bosses with you 3 ST. Treat Fistful as a forth ST attack whenever you need to, as it does about the same damage as your T1.
Occasional even spawns wipe on just RoA and Fistful.
It IS pretty much cheating outdoors, if your opposition can't fly.
The limiting factors are the Aim/BU everything else recharges much faster. On a steam roller team just RoA every 16 sec and fill in the rest with multiple Fist and Explosive. You can alternate Aim and BU if you have time. Even without Boost Range, Fistful is boosted to 70 feet with 5 Posi Blast and a Range IO.
Indoors can be a lot more interesting which is why I went S/L instead of ranged Def.

If I didn't like my Tank so much this would be my main.

Jak

At this point it is impossible to give a rational estimate.

I am willing to engage in rampant speculation, based on opening a couple hundred packs on Beta, about the first few weeks.

Extremely high initial demand. I would expect them to be in Damage Purple / PvP range (500 mil - 2 bil) at first, at least for the more popular AT types. So popular and so high in fact, that lazy people with income will be tempted to spend real world bucks to tear packs just to convert/sell them for inf.

After the new wears off and everyone has their fav toon tricked out, it will all depend on the drop rate and in game currency purchase options.

If for example the ATO drops are added to the same pool that drops purples, I would guess that will thin the existing purple drops, thus supporting the purple market price in the face of the surge in desirable Purps from enh converters. That level of rarity would keep the ATO's in the very high range. If they do stay that high, well funded players whose time is to valuable to waste farming and marketeering in game, will continue to spend bucks - for points - for packs as in indirect way to easily swap real money for inf. This should kill or at least cripple the inf for cash spammers. If that should happen, Hurrah!, as for as I am concerned.

Another possible path would be only the ATO procs being super high. Since both converters and random ATO's drop from packs the points-packs-inf chain remains complete but less desirable, as procs only really shine after the application of a Catalyst, and those drop very infrequently from packs, and can't be sold. Catalyst upgraded ATO's can't be sold either.

Or not, really rich people play ... golf. As I said, rampant, unfounded on any empirical data, speculation.

But was a fun diversion,
Jak

Thank you Very much Zombie. You ARE the MAN.

Jak

Love my Storm Summoning alts, but ...

Can someone suggest the best color combo for the most transparent or even invisible Hurricane.

Thanks Jak

Another note. Based on my experiments with ATO's on the Beta Server is that, at present, enhancement boosters do not work on ATO's. I was very sad to see that.

This may be because all the ATO's I have on Beta were generated from the new 'cards' in the Super Packs, and born fully cratfed. I have never dropped one in game play. If they also drop as crafted enhancers, and not as recipes, then I guess they will remain un-boostable. Sort of a hybrid between HO's and IO's. Can anybody shed ay light on this as WAI ?

Jak

The ___________ (insert your favorite extreme negative) itsy bitsy teensy weensy buttons in various parts of the UI are my single greatest, and almost only, HATE for this game.

My wife has a slight palsy from necessary medications, and simply cannot use them, even with a resized UI. I think her frustration with this totally unnecessary gotcha is one of the major reasons we dropped our second account back to premium, since she just would not play anymore after trying CoH out for many hours. With the shift to widescreen monitors this problem is even worse.

If everybody else is in love with these skill testers, could us older folks with older eyes and hands at least get an option to have double size buttons. We have a option to pick the old or new Team UI after all.

Please believe I would have liked to make this a FLAME, but just don't have the flame gene. Even better would be to pay a sky writer to put "FIX the ____ Buttons" in letters a 10,000 feet across above the Paragon HQ. Shame I ain't rich.

Jak

I think peterpeter may have the answer, with his Hours on TF when logged out counting comment. Our SG often does multi week TF's, one night at a time. So some of my toons have been in the Shadow Shard on a TF for as long as 4 weeks. And I have used AE a lot also, and don't always remember to quit an Arc when I log.

I have eleven 50's and a 49. Some were PL'ed, but most were played. I also have maybe 30 non-50 alts and perhaps 10 deletes (one was a 44) so, yeah, something wacky has to be happening. If I had actually played 8 hours a day for 2 years and 3 months the total would be (2920 + 2920 + 720 = ) 6,560 hours, and as much as I have played, my real time in game cannot be anywhere near that.

Thanks for a mystery soved peterpeter,

Jak

Does anyone know how the "Total Hours in game on current character" report you get for clicking an NPC with a name beginning with the letter 'M' are calculated?

The numbers I am getting don't make sense, as apparently I have 9,334 hours on just my 50's in approx. 2 years and 3 months of real time.

Jak

I have one complete set of every base (Orange Level) ATO on Beta and I made 1 toon of every AT to slot them in. I am working on a review for my SG. After I get it done I'll try to post a summary of what is being tested, here on the main boards. But really I am sure there will be changes from the tested versions.

I only got enough Catalysts (8) to upgrade 1 full set to the Purple level max values. Thank goodness Catalysts are going to be Ultra Rare drops in addition to being in packs, if the threads I have read so far are correct. Ditto the option to purchase ATO's via some form of Merits + Inf.

Total packs opened was 120. Total ATO's was 76. Sets completed using enhancement converters. It took a BOATLOAD of converters to do the in type (ATO to ATO) conversions to get 6 of each type, and a second BOATLOAD to do the in set (Might of the Tanker to Might of the Tanker, etc.) conversions to get the 12 complete sets. Fortunatly I got one boatloat of converters from the packs as well. Only had to supplement with two 90 converters purchases and wound up with almost 90 leftover. Probably would have cost over 10,000 points to do this if the current prices for packs etc. stay as proposed. But there are so many goodies in the packs overall that I am sure I will buy at least some.

Jak

Thanks so much for this thread.

I was always too embarrased to ask about the ED penalty because I thought the Game and MIDS somehow knew I had had prostate cancer, and I was being zapped for an unfortunate side effect of survival.

Jak






PS: No offense meant to fellow sufferers. Hope this just produces a chuckle. I learned to deal with this a long time past now, and you have to laugh or cry about it. I choose to laugh.

Texas Justice listed the two key channels for Justice. Get Both, the activity on each varies. Off hours can be a little slow, but I sure like the community on Justice.

I did not have time to read the whole thread, so if this has been addressed already - sorry.

When I was still healthy and working, I played a card game for serious. I found it most efficient to purchase, not boxes of packs, as mentioned in the OP, but a case of boxes, generally consisting of 6 boxes to the case. These were available at a much larger discount. I hope this type of true bulk purchase will be made available with Super Packs.

Jak

Just been meaning to ask why Tankers do not have Claws as a secondary option?

Well, Please, yes extra slots would make the game somewhat easier, and make building somewhat less challenging, but yes we are serious.

Personally I want the option to make every toon as perfect as possible, and the current slot progression makes that impossible. I think that, aesthetically and mechanically, a very small number of extra slots is needed. Until every power comes with six slots free you will still have to make choices, and even at 69 or 70 slots there will be many things you can't squeeze in.

In addition, Free-2-Play and Premium players do not have access to many of the recent add-ons you complain about. A 70 slot build would be a good thing for them. We live in a two tiered community now and that is what it is.

As to game difficulty, X 3 and X 4 level play, even with incarnate powers, can still be challenging, at least to some of us, but I am completely cool with a game wide rebalance of PvE opposition, giving them some of the same oommph we have been getting.

One thing is certain, just as the world we actually live in constantly changes and evolves, so too Must the game, if only to stay fresh and fun. And the Devs on high have, in the past before I started playing, shown that they will fix errors such as implementing ED. Or since I started playing the BotZ nerf. Like ancient Greeks, we live at the whim of the Dev Gods, and they can fix, or not fix, anything. As long as we worship them with our fees !

Fortunately, Pyre Mastery fit my concept as a Stone-Fire. Most of the utility of ranged attacks have been already been mentioned, but I want to throw out a few extra ideas.

This may be obvious to most, but was a revelation to me when I finally noticed it. Example: ITF. You aggro the spawn but the healer stays back outside you AoEs. Target him and you can still activate PBAoEs while shooting him in between and without changing targets. Worst case is usually Fire Blast-Fire Sword Circle-Fire Blast-Combustion-Fireblast and he drops - target nearest - Fireball. That is all seamless. If build up was active then two Fire Blasts usually does the trick.

In addition -

Without a ST ranged (Fire Blast) no Apocalypse.
Without a targeted AoE (Fireball) no Ragnarok.
I also use the Char for a nice little hold for LGTF, etc. The Char gets a 4 slot Basilisk Gaze. Those three powers and 14 slots account for 27.5% of my desperatly needed Global Recharge.

Lastly -

I don't know about other Tanker APP ST ranged powers, but Mids says my Fire Blast DPS is 33.71. DPA shows 136.1

That excludes Musculature Radial Paragon and Radial Interface Paragon. I routinely kill things quickly at range with 1-3 shots (Fireblast-Fireball-Fireblast is almost seamless for the first three shots or Fire Blast x 2 with a small gap). Recharge on Fire Blast shows 2.58 sec. With Alpha and Reactive on it shows 216.8 DPA and 53.75 DPS. These numbers are all with Granite active.

for comparison - also without Alpha or Interface in Granite

Greater Fire Sword - 31.79 DPS - DPA 253.5
Incinerate is -36.74 DPS - DPA 226
Scorch is - 31.5 DPS - DPA 82.96

Obviously Bruising and the DPAs on Incinerate and GFS are huge and highly preferable but if you can't stand in melee they are effectivly zero.

So Fire Blast at least does not seem all that big a damage compromise to me. Even before the Purple set it was great with a Decimation. Since even with loads of global my ST attack chain would have gaps I use Fire Blast all the time and like it muchly.

Jak

I, too, have long felt there should be the option to fully slot level 49. I hope this comes to pass.

I also thought and still think a 3rd added slot should be awarded at Level 2 (total at Lvl 2 then = 3) making a grand total of 70 slots across all levels, a appealing round number.

A new toon has 3 regular powers and 4 Inherent Fitness powers that may need slotting, all at that one level. No other level ever has this many new choices. I can't tell you how many times I have wanted that one extra slot early. In the past many have riduculed this idea saying that slots that early are pretty useless since the possible enhancers are so puny. My response is that perhaps you need to reconsider slotting a power early, as I know I could find a good use for that third slot. Particularly as I now have the 5 Vet SO grade enhancer/procs. As for an extra slot being more useful later, if you have allocated the extra slot at level 2 properly you will have more flexibilty all the way to Lvl 50, imho.

But I think I will remain a voice in the wilderness on this idea of a lvl 2 extra.

Hope we see an increase of any kind though, as the change to inherent fitness has really thinned out the available slots for the rest of the build.

Jak

I got 6 total purples soloing Lady Winter many many times last year for a nice boatload of canes, and a teammate got one on our SG night run this year. I like that mish as a nice break from Demons and BM warriors. Recommended.

Jak

There was a lengthy discussion of boosters in the Market forum a while back. http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=272664

Somewhere in that thread it was stated that while it is true that you can only boost slotted IOs and that they are then pretty much locked in to that one character, if you are willing to lose the boosters you can unslot a boosted IO (unslotter or respec) and simply trade it to another toon. This will strip the boosters but does allow the enhancement to return to normal and become email-able and bin-able.

NOTE: I have not personally attempted this trading thing.

Jak

Edit: Blue - they boost all parts of a double or triple IO, but are most useful when trying to get 2 and 3 slot powers to shine. For instance in your build, taking Temp Invul as an example, there you have a 4 slot already. Boosting the Endurance Reduction / Resist 5 times changes 24.13 End red to 30.16% and the 14.5% Resist to 18.3% but the effect on the final numbers is slight, esp. as resist is already well into ED red penalty. I had to +5 the triple in that power also to get even a .01 reduction in Endurance use from .18 down to .17. The boost to overall S/L resist would only be .2%

In Resist Physical Damage where you only have 3 slots, you could +5 the single aspect Resist and +3 either double to get to ED red level and pick up .4% S/L.

Basically to significantly impact a good build you have to be willing to use massive boosting to pick up multiple small percantages, esp where you have 2-3 slots, or a very big number to leverage up or down. I found going +5 on every endurance reducing enhancer in my Greater Fire Sword and Fire Sword Circle really helped my endurance problems. Clicks will usually impact your endurance use more than toggles.

Althoug I prefer the Radial Paragon version of the two T4 Alphas you mention they can all be very useful. They act as an extra enhancement for every power you have that accepts defense. The 20% boost in part ignores ED. The new Agility Radial (End Mod, Rchg Rate, Move Speed, Defense) hits every problem area except the damage penaly on my Granite tank, and even helps there with better attack rate.

For my main tank it super powers Granite, Weave, and Manuevers and permits extra endurance reduction slotting. It also allows me to Two slot my Rock, Crystal, and Minerals. The 3 slots gained are really golden. It gains another slot by allowing a two slot swift. It puts Stamina over 100%. The Rechage boost improves dps and the endurance mod supports the extra attacks so you don't run dry.

Jak