Kineticlysm

No workarounds for me either, although I am back in the game after a full reinstall. Not to mention, because of a series of errors where the installer either wouldn't delete or create folders on my computer (I had to manually create a City of Heroes folder, for instance), I got to download the entire game twice when the first download went *poof* and vanished. The uninstaller, similarly, let me down big time. So no game Thursday, no game Friday, and 1/3 of my three day weekend ate up by whatever error(s) this happened to be. And I did in fact, keep a copy of the pigg files and put them in the CoH folder so that the download wouldn't be so huge. The downloader ignored them, as far as I can tell.

I did the repair, and that didn't end up helping me. I also made sure CoH was let through my firewall, and just to be sure I turned my firewall off and tried logging in. I also tried in safe mode. Nothing. I haven't tried a reinstall...

I am having this exact same issue. It started yesterday (Sept 1), and I didn't realize it was a problem then. I just thought the game was down. The NCSoft launcher runs with no problem, the game loads to the login screen. When I try to log in, it hangs as if the connection it bad, for about 20 seconds, and then tells me that the game client cannot connect to the login server.

My other computer can log in just fine.

This may have been the first April Fools Day for CoH, but a poster on the forums started a thread with the title "Why does everyone have me on ignore?" The text of the message was the text you see when you ignore someone, the

***YOU ARE IGNORING THIS USER***

or whatever it looks like.

Mass short term confusion and virtual high fives for that guy when a lot of people checked and double checked their forum settings before figuring it out.

I have Mind/Ice sitting at level 45, and he was about the first villain I created, way back when CoV launched. I just started playing him again, but it's been awhile. He still has Acrobatics and a full-SO build. I definitely haven't changed his build since the big Dom changes. The build I have now is especially bad in that it highlights and enhances his main weaknesses, the biggest being endurance costs.

This guy is fun; don't get me wrong, and Bitter Ice Blast is still a thing to behold even with his paltry strength. But all of the toggles I had picked up for this character were used situationally. There was pretty much no keeping any of them on all the time, and he would blow through his blue bar faster than maybe anything I have ever seen even without them.

What was especially galling was that my mind/sonic controller outperformed him in every way. Why is the character without an awesome ice sword making the one with a sword look like SUCH A LOSER? The answer partly that I didn't know much about building a good dom, and partly because there weren't a lot of ways to do it anyway back then. Still, when he has endurance to burn, and when Hasten is up, he's a killer.

Which highlights the strengths of this combo quite nicely. I'm playing around with updating his build with all the modern conveniences of Issue 18+, and here's an early one. It has very little AoE, and it is riddled with my personal preferences, and it still looks tough. And expensive. I always build expensive and find cheap alternatives later. The AoE powers drop in pretty nicely, if you want them to. He's a permadom, and a perma-hasten, if you pick the right Alpha.


Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Popliteal: Level 50 Mutation Dominator
Primary Power Set: Mind Control
Secondary Power Set: Icy Assault
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Presence
Power Pool: Fighting
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Mesmerize -- CSndmn-Acc/Rchg(A), CSndmn-EndRdx/Sleep(3), CSndmn-Acc/EndRdx(3), CSndmn-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(25), CSndmn-Heal%(36)
Level 1: Ice Bolt -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg(25)
Level 2: Dominate -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(7), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(7), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Decim-Build%(31), UbrkCons-Hold(34)
Level 4: Levitate -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 6: Super Jump -- Winter-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng(A), Winter-ResSlow(34)
Level 8: Confuse -- CoPers-Conf(A), CoPers-Conf/Rchg(11), CoPers-Acc/Conf/Rchg(13), CoPers-Acc/Rchg(23), CoPers-Conf/EndRdx(42), CoPers-Conf%(50)
Level 10: Ice Blast -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(15), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(34), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 12: Combat Jumping -- Winter-RunSpd/Jump/Fly/Rng/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(15), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 14: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(17), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 16: Power Boost -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(21)
Level 18: Mass Hypnosis -- FtnHyp-Sleep(A), FtnHyp-Sleep/Rchg(21), FtnHyp-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(23), FtnHyp-Acc/Rchg(40), FtnHyp-Plct%(46)
Level 20: Telekinesis -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 22: Challenge -- Acc-I(A)
Level 24: Intimidate -- Acc-I(A)
Level 26: Terrify -- Ragnrk-Dmg(A), Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg(27), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Ragnrk-Acc/Rchg(29), Ragnrk-Knock%(36)
Level 28: Invoke Panic -- Abys-Acc/Rchg(A), Abys-EndRdx/Fear(29), Abys-Acc/EndRdx(31), Abys-Acc/Fear/Rchg(31), Abys-Dam%(46)
Level 30: Kick -- Acc-I(A)
Level 32: Mass Confusion -- Mlais-Acc/Rchg(A), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf(33), Mlais-Conf/Rng(33), Mlais-Acc/Conf/Rchg(33), Mlais-Acc/EndRdx(40), Mlais-Dam%(42)
Level 35: Ice Slash -- Hectmb-Dmg(A), Hectmb-Dmg/Rchg(37), Hectmb-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(37), Hectmb-Acc/Rchg(37), Hectmb-Dmg/EndRdx(43), Hectmb-Dam%(45)
Level 38: Bitter Ice Blast -- Apoc-Dmg(A), Apoc-Dmg/Rchg(39), Apoc-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(39), Apoc-Acc/Rchg(39), Apoc-Dmg/EndRdx(40), Apoc-Dam%(43)
Level 41: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB(42)
Level 44: Dark Embrace -- Aegis-Psi/Status(A), Aegis-ResDam(45), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(45)
Level 47: Soul Drain -- Oblit-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Oblit-Acc/Rchg(48), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(48)
Level 49: Weave -- HO:Cyto(A), HO:Cyto(50), LkGmblr-Rchg+(50)
Level 50: Spiritual Total Radial Revamp
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Domination
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(46)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Stamina -- P'Shift-End%(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(19), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(19), Efficacy-EndMod(48)

I've been playing since Pre-order beta for CoH. I always thought I'd get to meet the fabled player-turned-dev. I always thought I'd get to impress him with a story arc, or with an amazing costume design, or a cleverly-worded PM about a new powerset. I always thought Castle would just be here as long as I was.

In short...what the hell?! Also...good luck on whatever you do, buddy.

I've been playing this game for a long time, and I used to be fairly active on these forums. I don't remember a lot of discussions that carried this exact tilt. Here's why.

The driving force, thematically, behind City of Heroes is idealism. You are a hero. You are free to do what you want, pretty much, but what you do is good. Most missions consist of a nice person saying, "Help! Do this for me." When you defeat a random criminal on the street, citizens will run up to you and hand you money. You live in a city where portals to other dimensions are expanding the boundaries of what is possible, and besides the fact that they have all so far only released monsters and crazy people into our world, everyone just seems to be in a hurry to open the next one (that solid gold Earth is right around the corner. I can feel it!). Nearly all of the streets go absolutely nowhere, and people still drive all the time. You can throw fireballs and fly, and you still carry an ID card that the city gave you. The police outrank you.

The archetypes in City of Heroes are designed to be teammates. They are designed to work towards a common goal from different angles. They are nice people. Some of them are called Defenders. A guy who swings a katana is called (nearly euphemistically) a Scrapper. They have the highest hit point caps, or the highest damage modifiers, or the strongest de/buffing power.

You essentially prove that you are tougher than Statesman, and you get a badge that says you are his pal.

You are an idealist, and you believe that your powers work for the common good. That's all you really ever do with them (except when you win at skiiing in Pocket D using Inertial Reduction). I'm not saying that's how YOU specifically play the game. It's just the flavor of it all, the theme of Paragon City.


The driving force behind City of Villains is ambition. You begin your career breaking out of prison and immediately set upon your path as a "Chosen One." Everyone is doing this. You do missions to earn brownie points with Recluse or his higher-ups. Willie Wheeler and Johnny Sonata come to mind as personifications of this theme. Everything you do hangs upon you getting stronger, or richer, or more powerful. You choose a patron to give you more power, and the very second you are able, you beat that person up. The zones are not well designed for people who stay on the ground. You are always looking up at something bigger, something higher up to go and find new things to rob/murder/dominate.

The primary powerset of every archetype in City of Villains is a damage set. You are always moving forward, taking down your opponents, taking what you want with your strength. Their names are not very nice. You dominate or corrupt, you are a brute or a stalker who assassinates people. All of the inherents either make you more deadly or are designed to prolong your life at the expense of someone else.

Your goal as a villain is to get stronger, get bigger, and become more powerful and important. That's what the game tells you, anyway.


So what is the theme of Going Rogue? This discussion illuminates that theme a bit, but I think a more direct example can be had right at character creation. Upon choosing to create a Praetorian, you aren't asked what archetype you want to be. You can be any of them! What you are asked is what side you want to be on.

The theme of Going Rogue is compromise. This thread illustrates that perfectly. Your decisions in this world essentially boil down to "I [CAN] or [CANNOT] continue to justify my faction's ultimate goal any longer." You can ally with the immortal god-king who enslaves people so that the proverbial trains run on time, or you can ally with the freedom fighters who want to blow up those trains so that people won't be enslaved. Oh, and the "trains" are actually the infrastructure and social standards that keep this highly ordered society running in such a way that plague, chaos, crime, and mass death do not run rampant.

They both appear to be sides that have good goals but ugly methods. They may both be doing what they think is right, but as Dr. House said, "That's the only reason anyone does anything." If you really try to defend one or the other unilaterally, you're probably missing some important details/brain cells. So, which virtue is noble enough for you to commit atrocities in its name?

No, there doesn't appear to be a happy medium. You've got to tear it down before you can rebuild it, buster.

So your choice is basically between being a terrorist and being a terrorizer, and if you don't like it, you can leave. Yup, you actually can move on to Paragon or the Rogue Isles where it's all about you.

I think we may be forgetting that there are many things that are "not good" or "not evil." There are also many indeterminate actions and courses of action that are also not well-served by being categorically polarized like that. Things like salad, and eating salad, are not good or evil. They are something else, or they just are.

Now eating a salad instead of your wife's casserole, and eating it while you look into her pained, teary eyes and smile, might be evil. A salad made of orphans might be evil. A salad made for orphans might be good. The devil is in the details, so to speak.

You people likely have definitions of good and evil that overlap like my drinking binges (a lot), but you are using such disparate terms that you appear to be overlapping like continental plates, much to the same effect. This is evident in that you are throwing examples at each other that clearly demonstrate that you have a healthy understanding of each others platform. The problem is that you are leaving so much contextual information out (Things like, what kind of group sex? And where, for what purpose?) that it seems like you are deliberately trying not to agree with each other.

But you do! By Jove, you do! Well, I'd bet serious bananas that you overlap enough that you could be drinking buddies, anyway.

I'm not going to pretend that I could do better with unlimited resources than War Witch does with her limited ones.

You talked with him for a long time. Just attacking him and not responding would have gotten the same message across.

Good and evil are relative, but relativity does not erase or hinder meaning, necessarily. Short and tall are relative, but we can look at two people and tell who is taller. We can usually look at a person alone and tell if he is short or tall. We have at least as much experience dealing with the actions of people as we do looking at them, so why do we struggle with concepts like this?

The problem might be that good and evil are secondary modifiers, and that we normally categorize behavior using narrower terms. A Wall Street executive who cheated hundreds of cookie-baking grandmothers out of their retirement savings did something very selfish. But did he do something evil? Our answer would probably change once we were given different sets of qualifying information. He did it because he wanted to buy a new jet. Boo! Evil! He did it because his own grandmother is being held hostage, and his house was robbed last week, and this was the only way he could get the funds to save her. Ummm. Less evil? (It's hard to think of a good reason to do that).

Conflict arises, within our own minds and between others, partially because we categorize, and ultimately judge, the actions of others from the ground up.

We observe: That Boy Scout is helping an old lady across the street
We analyse/categorize: That is a helpful, selfless thing to do
We pass judgment: That is a good thing to do!
And sometimes we take it a step further: That Boy Scout is a good person!

And from there associations can begin to form, to the point where when we are talking about good and evil, a Boy Scout helping an old lady cross the street becomes a useful example of a good action.

Our social conditioning, however, does not work from the ground up. While as children our behavior is often modified and corrected action-by-action (Don't hit your sister!), we are brought up being taught an overarching set of rules into which those actions fit (Honor thy father and thy mother, that it will be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the Earth, if you were raised a Lutheran like me). We are raised by our parents, teachers, and society from the top down.

We set criteria: You need to do well in school
We observe: You got a D+ in math
We analyze: You are not doing well in school
We attempt to correct so that future behavior will fit the prescribed criteria: GO TO YOUR ROOM!!!!!
Bad instructors and parents (in my opinion) take it a step further: You are a bad student/person.

And from there, associations can begin to form, to the point that a student who is told he is bad because he merely failed begins to think of failure and being bad as commutative, and stops trying.

The conflict arises when we get to the step where we pass judgment, because calling a person or thing good or evil IS passing judgment, for all we like to say these days "Don't judge me!" We judge people all the time, the only real moderating factor being the volume of our voices when we do it. Saying "What is evil?" doesn't work so well in a vacuum, because we need an example of evil to use. Descriptions of evil are almost always referential. We want the whole story before we pass judgment on someone (Bob had an affair? What happened?), and we jump to pass judgment when we have already made up our minds about them (I knew that Bill Clinton was a bad egg! Let's hear David Letterman out on this one.).

Good and evil are easy to define, if you have a who/what/when/where/why/how to draw from. If you don't, then it's like apples and oranges. If you do, then it's like Fuji Apples and Golden Delicious Apples. If someone asks us what evil is, we like to point at something and say, "THAT is evil!" If we have nowhere to point, then the jaws start flappin'. Because while good and evil are relative, they are most useful as abstract terms, ones which work best as archetypes to which we can draw bridges from real-world analogues.

Intent is prime, because intent drives action.

Imagine that a man is walking through the woods and is killed when he falls into a deep hole.

If some enterprising badger is responsible for the hole, is the badger evil?
If a person dug the hole for the purpose of killing someone in this fashion, is that person evil? Did they do an evil thing?
If some public works crew left an unfinished project at the end of the day, is that crew evil?

Since I feel qualified to speak for everyone here, I'm going to say that we'd all find the badger incident unfortunate but not evil, the deliberate hole digger, evil, and the public works crew possibly negligent, but not evil. But our opinion might change if that negligence happened even after other accidents had occurred at their sites, or if they didn't feel bad about what happened. In fact, we might find the crew evil if they were just sitting around joking about a potential accident that hadn't happened at all. We might find that deliberate hole digger evil before he had ever dug a hole at all, just for thinking about it. We wouldn't even consider matters of good and evil if a human wasn't involved.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" is generally seem as a transformative process, where a well-intentioned set of actions butterfly-effect themselves into something terrible, where the journey from white to black happens through such a fine gradient of grays that justification for each successively terrible act comes easily. Alternatively, the saying is a metaphorical tsk-tsk at the Law of Unintended Consequences, and a caution to over-eager do-gooders to double check their methods. We are very forgiving of unintended consequences, in fact. Our laws clearly separate the difference between intentional (First degree murder) and unintentional crimes (manslaughter), even though the basic act (killing a person) is the same.

That's all beside the matter of what evil actually is. We spend a large portion of our lives learning the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, and some of us never even get it. If you're like me, you believe that while we don't often get the particulars straight, humans (normally) possess an internal moral compass that ends up being influenced, to a degree, by the social conditioning that we all get and all get differently. This doesn't send morality into a relativistic cornfield, but it does cast some doubt over how useful such broad terms as good and evil can be.

I imagine that we might all agree that a villain is someone who works against the common good, whether that means intentionally disrupting it, or putting their own interests above it. But then, I guess you might be able to say that about a vigilante as well.

I don't lead a lot of teams, and I mainly end up leading them when a previous leader takes off and leaves me the star. I do like to team as a member, however, and team dynamics are really very simple. In this game, teaming is an entirely voluntary exercise. I don't mean that in the sense that you should never have to team; you should spend some of your time teaming, and if you don't solo all that well or it isn't fun, that's what teams are for. It might be your only viable option, if you want to have a good time.

But teaming is voluntary because nothing holds you to the team, and nothing is there to force a team leader to deal with difficult team members. There's not even a dialogue box when you click to quit team. That's how easy it is.

So the few times that I have kicked somebody, it isn't because they are difficult or mean, or don't do what I want. It's because they don't really want to be on my team. Oh, the controller won't use speed boost even after I or others ask? Oh, the scrapper wants to go into the next room and fight alone? Oh, the blaster wants to afk in the corner? Oh, team member number 4 wants to tell everyone how to play, or wants to make fun of the controller, or wants to tell racist jokes? They must not want to be on a team. Specifically, they don't want to be on my team.

I will let these people know this (Like this: That's not funny/stop it/I think we'd better off if you tried taunting that boss/Your debuffs would really help right now/etc), and if they keep doing what they are doing, then I assume that they have a misconception about team dynamics. They clearly don't want to be on my team, but they aren't hitting the button that allows them to quit and go do what they want. So I assist them.

Things are similar when I am not leading a team. I play how I like. Sometimes, I don't feel like keeping SB on all the team members all the time, or keeping my ice shields up on everyone, or whatever. So I don't. If the team leader or a member has a problem with that, and lets me know about that, then I decide whether or not I want to be on that team. Sometimes I do, and I adjust accordingly. Sometimes, I'd rather not.

This doesn't mean I don't get frustrated like the OP. But it does mean that I tend not to get frustrated on teams that I am running. I'm also pretty easy going most of the time as well, so my range for acceptable team behavior is pretty wide (except the racist jokes. I'm looking at you, blaster from two weeks ago!).

Stick to your own criteria, and you'll find yourself venting less and looking for justification or validation rarely.

So my PlayNC account says that I have 4 years 6 months of paid time, but that I have 5 years of Veteran time (stupid unemployment). I have the 60 month vet badge, wasn't subscribed during the loyalty period, and no way I made Hero Con. No beta invite. That doesn't concern me, but I am rather confused by how ambiguously I meet or do not meet the requirements.

My ice/cold controller hit 21 tonight, so I probably can't give you the whole run of advice. I have played the ice control set most of the way up on my ice/rad controller...

I don't see the point of glacier. I'm not saying it would never come in handy. You may never be in a situation where it's the one power you need, though.

While there really isn't anything wrong with Shiver (it does what it says it does, and it does it well), it's totally superfluous here.

Your ability to completely manage a large group of enemies and turn them all into blind turtles, while simultaneously providing real mitigation directly to your teammates, is going to be very strong. But you can do most of that without coming within 20 feet of the enemy. This is important, because you're going to be pretty much a turtle yourself when it comes to killing speed. You're going to make teams really awesome, and that's probably going to be where you shine until you get Jackie. After that, who knows.

With that in mind, I'd rethink the no-damage cold cone, and the PBAoE hold. You can do better for mitigation than that dinky hold glacier gives, and you've already got enough slows outside of some enemies with serious slow resistance.

As for set bonuses? I imagine someone out there can get you a softcapped god-mode controller who farms AVs, but that's not me. I'd probably tell you to focus on procs and recharge reduction though. That seems sensible.

(Disclaimer: I like ice based powers, and I'm perfectly fine with fictional characters throwing cold beams around. I just like discussions like this, and I haven't been on the boards for many moons...)

The interesting thing about cold or heat based powers is that "hot" and "cold" are intensely relative terms, and not only to each other. Temperature is essentially the average kinetic energy of all the particles in a mass, and it's related to the density of the mass as well (but it's more of an extrinsic relation, since specific heat has more to do with mass). A character with, say, spatial manipulation powers could intensely chill an area by simply "spreading" things out. The basic idea behind the ideal gas law would come into play, and the average energy goes down, so the temp would as well. The amount of heat would remain the same in this case. There are lots of ways a character could cause cold to happen without moving heat anywhere. I like Ultimate Reed Richard's idea in Ultimate...well I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but they were fighting Ultimate Galactus. Reed's idea was to connect a small portal between his universe and a younger, hotter universe. Thermodynamic equilibrium kicked in once the two were connected, and the resulting geyser of energy, aimed properly, made a very powerful weapon.

And then there's the property of specific heat, which is basically the amount of energy it takes to raise the temperature of a certain amount of something by a certain number of degrees. Water has one of the highest specific heats around, meaning that the same amount of energy that will raise the temperature of a pot of water by one degree will raise a similar pot of, say, ethanol, much more. So with a guy like Frozone, who needs ambient moisture to work his magic, I wonder if he might just find it easier to throw liquid nitrogen balls at badguys. A character that pulls heat out of the air to make ice balls is probably better off just redirecting that heat so that it lands in the badguy's sinuses, or lights his pants on fire, or makes his knife red-hot. Better bang for your buck that way, then just pick up the ice ball and throw it.

Pushing or shooting a cold object, like a snowball (we'll forget about cold beams for a second), might work like this: To create the snowball, the person draws heat out of the air in a specific area (and we'll imagine a perfect snowball forms, sure). This alone would be an example of negative entropy, which is a violation of thermodynamics, so let's take it a step further. That heat has to go somewhere, so let's say that it is drawn towards the user, and then released. The heat spontaneously disperses to reach equilibrium, something we would expect, and if this happens in the air a shockwave would be released. I don't have the numbers to do the exact specifics, but let's say that the force of the shockwave is sufficient to propel the newly formed snowball forward (off the top of my head, I'm guessing that it likely wouldn't, and if it did it would rattle the user's teeth in the process). This might explain how Iceman, for instance, climbs uphill on his ice slide from a dead start.

Transferring and sequestering heat like this is something that things like refrigerators, air conditioners, and the human body are good at, but it comes at a price. That price is heat. Whatever energy was expended to draw that heat away would have to be larger than the amount of heat that was drawn away, and in the process that heat expended would be lost to thermodynamic equilibrium as well. Making snowballs out of thin air is a costly process, regardless of whether or not they fly places on their own. Additionally, it would likely be a rather noisy power to have.

Sounds like fun, mostly. Costume pieces, yes. Emotes, yes. Not sure about the special powers you propose though. Sounds like a bit too much.

[ QUOTE ]
"Spoils: to victor!"

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh yeah. This is it.

I've got a mind/ice sitting at level 42. He's good, and I think I could make him a lot better with a respec, since he's never had one ever. I solo most of the time, and this build has taken down a good number of EBs. He met his match with a +1 Ballista, something that my Earth/Elec took down with surprisingly little effort. But you don't want Elec.

I had never played Earth until I put it on a dominator, and now I regret not playing it sooner. It's got mega control, and a bunch of powers you can cast around corners or leave as traps. And the pet is a beast. I'd pair it with any assault set and give it a try, personally. I'd probably go ice or thorns given your options, but that's just me.

But then, I've played mind hero and villain side, and there's little to complain about.

Instead of using Assemble the Team, they Recall Friend all the team mates but you, one by one, to the next mission.

They change the name of your SG rank to "Litter Critter" and then promote everyone out of it but you.

They show a peculiar pattern of unstable connections right at the last AV of the taskforce, leaving you to try and take it on alone. You log in the next day to find they pulled together and finished while you were asleep.

They like to recast Grant Invisibility on you when you enter a room first.

You see a message in SG chat that was supposed to be sent to a global channel you've never heard of.

That message contains your name and the words "hate," "kick," or "let's see if we can get him to fall in love."

Whenever you are present, they treat you with a sufficiently sullen disposition that strongly implies they dislike you in some way, and that attitude is reinforced by negative actions taken against you, such that you are convinced you are not welcome. Zing!

Couple of notes about the guide...

Increase Density does not protect against sleep. It does protect against immobilizes, holds, stuns, knock backs, and repels. It also gives resistance to enemy teleportation.

Inertial Reduction lasts for only 1 minute, not 3.

Fulcrum Shift is a somewhat complicated power, and bears a little explanation...

When you cast FS, you create two buff fields, and one debuff field. The debuff and one buff are centered around the enemy that you target with the power. All enemies hit in the area of the debuff field (there's an accuracy check for each one) have a -20% damage debuff applied to them. All allies in the area of effect around the enemy target receive a +25% damage buff for every enemy affected. The user of the power (you) also radiates a +40% damage buff that affects all allies near you. These are corruptor numbers, of course. Defenders have a more powerful version.

Think of the area of effect as being shaped like a dumbbell. One sphere is around you and one is around the target. If you want the maximum effect from this power, the ideal location is, of course, to stand near the target to use it, so that the spheres intersect and stack on top of each other. It is rather easy (and common) to top a 100% damage buff with this power alone. And it lasts 45 seconds!

Also keep in mind that while it is possible to miss all the enemies in your area of effect, the initial buff that radiates from you is automatic when you use the power.

This is a rather good compilation of information, and it contains a very thorough analysis. I cannot honestly say I knew that arctic air worked exactly like that, or volcanic gasses.

That all said, I'm interested in a couple of points you're making here, beginning with the word "arcane." I'm assuming you're using something similar to the one I grabbed from the dictionary

"known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret; obscure; esoteric"

While the information you're providing here appears to be somewhat arcane, I really doubt that these powers themselves would be considered such on their own. I've been using VG and AA for a long time now, and while I did not have the full quantitative view of things that you present here, I certainly had a full qualitative and a partially quantitative view. None of these powers are especially mysterious; well, not much more than a power like Burn, anyway. Still, I suppose that a 90% understanding of a power's mechanics is not technically a full understanding. Anyway, the title struck me as containing an odd word choice, and a mild insinuation on top of that. Nothing too serious.

Additionally, I'm interested in this...
[ QUOTE ]
Soft Control: Controls that can't provide their full control effect while you're actively attacking the mobs controlled. (Includes Sleeps, Terrifies, and Intangibilities.)

Hard Control: Controls that DO provide their full control effect while you're actively attacking the mobs controlled. (Includes Holds, Confuses, slows, stuns, pulsing fractional knockback effects, immobilizes.)

Partial Control: Controls that reduce, but don't entirely eliminate, the frequency of MOb's attacks (debuffs, etc) made on you, while in effect. (Includes pulsing fractional knockback, slows, immobilizes. Could in principle also include damage debuffs such as are found in some controller secondaries.)

Total Control: Controls that entirely eliminate a MOb's ability to attack (or debuff) you while in effect. (Includes holds, stuns, confusions, intangibilities.)

[/ QUOTE ]
Looking at it, I don't really have any disputes. I just haven't seen them all lined up like this before. Why further categorize hard controls into Total and Partial controls, for instance. Most of the hard controls that get funneled into the partial control category are just things that I've read for a long time around here were just soft controls. I always got the idea that a hard control was something that locked a mob's actions down, while a soft control hindered them some other way. I've always seen slows and knockbacks regarded as soft controls, for instance, especially slows. At any rate it seems like a lot of hairs to split.

Spines/DA is one of those sets that I like to play with in Mids to see what I can get out of it. Since a lot of people keep mentioning farming, here's a build I might use for killing hordes of demons, if I had the cash to build it. It sacrifices primarily psionic mitigation (even if I'm still over 50%) to shore up fire defense/resist, and I tried to go for a little bit of damage and recharge set bonuses. It's tough on the end bar, like a lot of spine/da builds, but it's not too bad. I don't know if I'd have every toggle running at once. I ended up going for a little bit of set bonuses on dark regen instead of ideal slotting, but you've still got a mostly full heal off of 3 enemies every 10-13 seconds.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.4006
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Interstice: Level 50 Technology Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Spines
Secondary Power Set: Dark Armor
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Weapon Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Lunge -- Mako-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Mako-Dmg/EndRdx:50(3), Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(46)
Level 1: Dark Embrace -- S'fstPrt-ResKB:30(A), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg:50(3), Aegis-ResDam:50(7), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg:50(15), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(34), Aegis-Psi/Status:50(40)
Level 2: Spine Burst -- Armgdn-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Armgdn-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Armgdn-Acc/Rchg:50(5), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(9), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:50(39)
Level 4: Death Shroud -- EndRdx-I:50(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(7), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:50(13), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), Sciroc-Dam%:50(42)
Level 6: Build Up -- GSFC-ToHit:50(A), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx:50(13), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg:50(15), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx:50(34), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx:50(34), GSFC-Build%:50(40)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(17), RechRdx-I:50(25)
Level 10: Obsidian Shield -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(A), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg:50(11), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(11)
Level 12: Swift -- HO:Micro(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Clrty-Stlth:50(A)
Level 16: Boxing -- Mako-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:50(A), Mako-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(17), Mako-Acc/Dmg:50(33), Mako-Dmg/Rchg:50(39)
Level 18: Quills -- Armgdn-Dmg/EndRdx:50(A), Armgdn-Dam%:50(19), Armgdn-Dmg:50(19), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(23), Sciroc-Dam%:50(31), Sciroc-Dmg/EndRdx:50(48)
Level 20: Murky Cloud -- ResDam-I:50(A), Aegis-ResDam:50(21), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(21), Aegis-ResDam/Rchg:50(23), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(37), Aegis-EndRdx/Rchg:50(37)
Level 22: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+:40(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+:50(29), Mrcl-Heal:40(33)
Level 24: Dark Regeneration -- RechRdx-I:50(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(25), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx:50(29), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:50(36)
Level 26: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(27), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:50(27), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc:50(37), P'Shift-End%:50(43)
Level 28: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/EndRdx:30(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:30(45), S'fstPrt-ResKB:30(45), Aegis-ResDam:50(46), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx:50(46), Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg:50(48)
Level 30: Weave -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), HO:Enzym(31)
Level 32: Throw Spines -- Ragnrk-Dmg/Rchg:50(A), Ragnrk-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(33), Ragnrk-Dmg:50(39)
Level 35: Oppressive Gloom -- Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun:50(36), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx:50(36)
Level 38: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A)
Level 41: Cloak of Darkness -- LkGmblr-Rchg+:50(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx:50(42), LkGmblr-Def:50(42), GftotA-Def:40(43), GftotA-Def/EndRdx:40(43), GftotA-Def/EndRdx/Rchg:40(45)
Level 44: Confront -- Zinger-Taunt:50(A), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg:50(48), Zinger-Taunt/Rchg/Rng:50(50), Zinger-Acc/Rchg:50(50), Zinger-Dam%:50(50)
Level 47: Web Grenade -- GravAnch-Hold%:50(A)
Level 49: Caltrops -- Ragnrk-Knock%:50(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
------------
[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]13.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]13.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]13.5% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]13.5% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]13.5% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]13.5% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]13.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]13.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]3% Defense(Smashing)[*]3% Defense(Lethal)[*]9.3% Defense(Fire)[*]9.3% Defense(Cold)[*]3% Defense(Energy)[*]3% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]5.5% Defense(Melee)[*]5.5% Defense(Ranged)[*]14.9% Defense(AoE)[*]9% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]27.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]10% FlySpeed[*]150.6 HP (11.2%) HitPoints[*]10% JumpHeight[*]10% JumpSpeed[*]Knockback (Mag -8)[*]Knockup (Mag -8)[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 6.6%[*]MezResist(Sleep) 1.65%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 2.75%[*]25.5% (0.43 End/sec) Recovery[*]50% (2.8 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]11% Resistance(Fire)[*]8.51% Resistance(Cold)[*]6.25% Resistance(Negative)[*]2.25% Resistance(Psionic)[*]30% RunSpeed[*]5% XPDebtProtection[/list]


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