Jemma

Back in CoH when I was always a heal-type controller or defender nobody really complained about dying because they wandered off on their own. It wasn't because they didn't wander off, it wasn't because I'm undescribably awesome... it's because I had tp friend and a sharp tongue

If some idiot wandered off and went into red hp I'd tp them back to me, heal them and give them a rollicking for being so silly. Sometimes it felt like a glimpse of what it must be like to be a mother ^^;
On the bright side people never complained and they'd learn quickly enough with the end result being fun for everyone :3

Who's Viscord? o.O

Oh okies... It's just that someone said mind was good when I mentioned break-free inspirations so I thought TK might still be unresistable or something

I take it the big fuss over Mind in PvP is Telekinesis right?
I know at one point they had trouble balancing it back in CoH when I played because it was unresistable but I have no idea how it works now :s

Uh... I did mention I used it to totally disable bosses in missions already right?
I played "keepie uppie" with most troublesome key badguys while everyone cleared out the lower ones then if the team was all ranged we could clay pidgeon shoot him ^^

Sadly that was back in CoH US so I can't show you it in action without making a new char :3

To be honest I just lost interest in MMs recently. It's silly but the reasons are just my personal style really :3

I was excellent at controlling them (never accidently aggroed or blocked teammates) and never really died or had difficulty fighting. Nope. My problem was that once I got to two pets I felt like I had too many lol.

Strange thing to say but I prefer the personal touch of just having 1 lil minion that's my equal. Problem is I can't justify ditching the little ones either as each seems to have it's own role so I kinda jumped off the AT instead ^^;

Luckily most people won't have this problem so have fun and I hope you enjoy being a master of minds :3

If you've seen someone use the kinetics power 'repel' then you've seen your grav pet

Unless they changed the graphics it's a giant whirly ball of energy. Or to be a bit more accurate it's a bunch of rotating energy rings with lights inside.
Looks rather snazzy if you ask me ^^

Fair enough Ammon. One point in talking or even writing is that how you say something is often as important, if not more, than what you actually say
Your posting style is so brusque it's hard not to imagine you being angry ^~

Shame these star thingies don't tell you who give low ratings though; I think it just encourages randoms to give bad ratings merely because they feel like it. I've not given any 1-stars yet as far as I remember but if I do I'll be telling them I did it to their face

As for your point, I didn't really say anything about it being heal vs debuff for a good build. I merely stated that people find one, the other or both either fun or boring and they're just going to do what they want to do. You can advise them and there's nothing wrong with that (though finding a friendlier way of saying it might make people actually listen more ) and your point about it not being buff or heal but the option of both is fair enough.

Problem is I suspect most people aren't doing it as a black or white choice; this is something I covered in my first post. Some people merely find certain playstyles boring and therefore don't incorporate them.
They're not avoiding the buffs to take heals; they're taking heals because they want them and ignoring buffs because they want more active skills.

I'm not sure everyone making that choice is aware how it'll effect their strategy and you'll get some players who will obviously not perform but those who are aware and make the choice with some thought behind it are likely to find ways to compensate using the free power slots they get from not taking the undesired powers.

That's the crux of my point :3

I'd probably slot them for slow if I had a clue how much and how long the slow effect of each lasts but we know how detailed the power descriptions are in this game :3

Weird to say but... I'd gladly give up all the secondaries to have ANOTHER control set as my secondary XD

Holding/messing with stuff has always amused the heck out of me more than blasts (which I find boring) and I'd love nothing more than to be a mind/ice double dominator

Well Repel is what you make of it really... I used to act as a living hold by running up to the hardest boss (usually those horrible lost rectors or whatever the psychic things are called) and bouncing them against a wall till everyone had killed the rest of the baddies.
I also used it as a shield against melee badguys :3

The only downside is that it's quite hard sometimes to only bounce the enemy you want to if you're trying to keep one out of the fight, some enemies can still attack while being bounced to death (though their attack rate does feel drastically reduced) and more imporantly, in the higher levels some baddies start getting knockback resistance meaning it has little to no effect on them :s

Still fun though; specially if you go on a roof full of badguys, get your team to wait at the bottom and turn it on right in the middle of the enemy crowd XD

Well if he'd actually put it like that dipster I don't think many people would take offence :3
In many ways the problem of communication isn't what you say but how you say it.

As I said before though; it's all very well having a balanced template but if everyone did then we'd all be much the same and not everyone finds the 'intended' way much fun.

It's nice to succeed but if you're not having a giggle or enjoying your character as you do so it's a very hollow victory indeed :/

WoW Ammon... nice. After all the best way to convince someone of your point is to say they're idiots for not agreeing with you isn't it? XD

Just curious but that corruptor who took 6 blast powers... was he a good damage dealer or were you too busy hollering at him to notice, because he didn't play the AT the way you fanatically believe it should?

Here's an idea... how about you concentrate on your character and your 'perfection' and while you're playing with your calculator or plotting out the coefficient of delimited efficiency, everyone else can focus on remembering the point of the game isn't to 'win' or 'be the best' but to just have fun.

If people don't enjoy buffing why scream at them and insult them for it? I'm well aware of the power of buffing myself but I still don't care personally; if I don't want it or simply don't like the graphic for it, then I won't take it and I'll play around my weaknesses and strengths instead of sitting under the cookie cutter like every other efficiency obsessee :3

Feel free to give people advice and share your experience; that's definitely good, but please calm the heck down and stop getting so angry over something that really is ultimately unimportant ^^;

subtle cynic, reaaaal subtle XD

it's fear... it sorta acts somewhere between a hold and sleep if it's not changed from back in the days I used it; if you hit them they should retaliate once then go back to cowering until you hit them again.

Mind you it's possible it's just a full blown hold type now though; wouldn't know as I've not seen it since the days they started playing with the effect fear had ^^;

Somewhat related but I've noticed that there seems to be a sort of 'red shirt' syndrome in minions; there's always that one particular one that will almost always die first no matter what.

If you can work out which one is your martyr you could call them 'Kenny'

I get the idea of buffing it's just that while pressing buttons 4,5 and 6 every 5 minutes might help my team or myself I don't really like doing it ^^;

An akward viewpoint maybe but for each power I could spam every x minutes I could have a power that only needs to be used when you want to :3

Like I said though; I do know how powerful buffs and debuffs can be as I've done the whole defender/controller thing to death and back... I just find it rather boring to play, personally, that's all ^^;

I think one factor that people overlook when they're trying to disect the 'healer' mentality is the whopping difference in playstyle between healing and debuff/buffing.

For me I much prefer healing; don't get me wrong, I'm not an idiot... I know how powerful buffing and debuffing is :3
The problem is that buffing and debuffing is pro-active while healing is a reactive game.

What I mean to say is that healing is partly a measured use ability and a whack-a-mole test; you decide when to heal and if you have multiple powers you also decide how much and by what technique, but you also have to do all this in reaction as the hits roll in. This 'on the edge' gameplay where you have to keep an eye on the situation and sometimes even think fast appeals to me immensely; I love to use my precious reaction speed :3

Pro-active play ie: buffing, however is all decided mostly before-hand. You slap the shields on people every x minutes and that's your job. That doesn't excite nor interest me :/

Admittedly de-buffing isn't quite as bad; many debuffs rely on anchors or choosing which one to cripple which involves nice use of tactical play and even teamwork (DONT KILL THE ANCHOR DAMMIT! XD ),(hence why I like controllers :3 ) but it can often get very formulaic if you're in a good team and there's not really much in the debuff area of those sudden "HOLY HECK THEIR HP JUST VANISHED AND ALL MY HEALS ARE REGENNING!!! NUUUUUUUUUU!!" moments which gets your blood pumping XD


Don't think everyone who's a heal-fanatic is inexperienced or a bad player; some of them probably just enjoy more reactive gameplay over being a buffbot ^^

One word of warning is to keep an eye out for players carrying a small truckload of break-frees... they could be very lethal for a solo dominator :s

To be honest I find fire a strange weakness for machines :/
I guess you could say it's overheating damage but I can't think of any flame attacks that really look intense enough or last long enough in duration to really merit it.

Stuff like electricity/Energy makes sense but fire? meh

As the SG leader can I move stuff people have placed in our base? I mean if someone stuck a salvage based item somewhere really silly or just somewhere I don't like it, will I be able to shift it about like normal items or is it a case of lump it or sell it? :s

To be honest I'd be happy with just 2 or maybe 3 pets... 6 seems a tad overkill XD

Am I the only one who has a problem with ramps not being allowed near the center of doorways because they 'may block entry'? I'm trying to make the doorway which is one level higher more accessable for heaven's sake, not make it less accessible XD

It's nigh on impossible to have a nice fully sloped entrance with the current restrictions on placements near doors :/

well, if it's any consolation the pretty tree is gonna get a buff soon according to what's being tested in the US servers, so we might get to see more of the serene things sitting about hopefully :3

hmmm weird... I would've thought I'd notice a 20% decrease; but then again I can't say I really notice the +15% dmg from assault when I have it on so I'm probably just being unobservant ^^;

Thanks for that bit of work you've done discerning the figures though; every little helps