Le_Count

I started around i4 so to me 'classic' is anything before trick arrow and Villian ATs.

Of my classic toons I have...

Le Count, a broadsword/regen scrapper who never got past lvl 14. That has nothing to with the powerset combo - I just can't play Scrappers (I just re-rolled him as a Stalker since they can use Broadswords and can be heroes now)

SS/Invul Tanker. This one I got to lvl 41 but it petered out as I tried out new toys. Every attempt to go back to it hasn't gone very far.


Elec/Elec Blaster. This one I haven't picked up since I started playing again last month or so, but always finds its way back in to my regular rotation. Blap n' Sap is an extemely fun combo that I don't ever see getting old.

Dark/Dark Defender. This one was actually the first toon I made, but I didn't want my global handle to be "Ms Evard". I made her just to play with one particular group of friends but she got pre-empted by my elec/elec blaster and then later City Of Villians. I've made plenty of Dark Blast using toons since so I don't think I'll ever really get back to her. Maybe...

Fire/Rad Controller. Cool combo, but another character that kinda got swept under the rug

Pretty much, the only combo I have that is 'classic' and has been played in the last 2 years has been the elec/elec blaster.

I really do love my EM/EA brute. The ability to have exactly as much aggro as I want at any given time is kinda awesome. I couldn't imagine playing her without taunt though - even if it is only slotted with a single stun proc.

I can't say it has replaced my DM/SR Stalker though. Actually, the Stalker performs a little better to be honest (looks cuter too).

I just run ComboFix on my machine every morning

Seriously though - Malwarebytes, by ginormous leaps and bounds, catches more stuff than the others do - just make sure to update it before you run it. You can get a full version that does more stuff for about $20 but the free version gives you everything you need.

Hitman Pro 3.5 is working out pretty nicely too - but the free license only lasts a month.

Any one AV program is just about as useless as another in protecting you from getting infected in the first place (the programs I mentioned above are just really good at cleaning things up AFTER you get infected) - the best thing you can do to protect yourself is keep java, adobe, and windows up to date...and remember that just because a little window that says 'do you want to run this file' comes up does not mean you have to always click 'yes'.

Blasters.

Because even an incompetent Blaster can't help but do their job.

I made good use of Cryo rounds exactly once - and that was fighting a later EB (I forget who) that had like 3-4 EM attacks and one Energy Blast at range. With Cryo rounds and Siphon Speed I was able to easily kite him where standing toe-to-toe would have been pretty much suicide.

Kiting is probably the only use I'll ever find for Cryo rounds though - and I'm pretty sure Siphon Speed is doing most of the work there anyway.

So far I've only been busting out Chem rounds on teams where I'm getting lots of aggro and/or the guy who IS taking the aggro is having a tough time surviving it (not that anyone cares what I do at this point as long as I keep speed boost up).

I was able to kill a -1 Jamie Noble just fine with my DP/Kin corruptor.

If you weren't able to beat his regen then I'm thinking its most likely Siphon Speed you are missing.

My first and only 50 turned out to be a DM/SR Stalker.

Hit 50 about a week before the i12 Stalker upgrade too...

When your recharge gets buffed, your Lightning Storm's fire rate increases as well. Found that out when my Stormie teamed with a kin in Croatoa. Respec'd the second that team broke up to put Hasten in my build.

Widow - Widow Orphan Annie

Huntsman - Wolfmother

Storm/anything Defender.

I remember my Storm/Archery defender being incredibly fun to solo from about lvl 8 on. I'm not soloing AVs in my mid 40,s but not once did this toon ever need to grab a teammate to complete content.

I've gone the MM and Corrupter route with /Storm, but when you solo you can't pretend entire blocks of levels don't exist like you do when you team - this means having to wait until you hit your 20s to get the powers that matter out of Storm, not to mention those 6 extra levels you need to suffer through without Thunderstorm...well, I can't say I like that.

In case no one has mentioned, I would like the old fly animation available for Hover. Not all of my toons that use Hover in combat want to float around like Dr. Doom.

New animation for Energy Transfer. I'm cool that you want to root me there all day, but make it look more stylish than what we got.

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And that is their misfortune.
There should be some really high-level content that is EXPLICITLY balanced around IO's. Not reworking old content, but a new zone (The moon?) where 'heroic' is pretty much equal 'invincible', and the difficulty goes up from there. Zones that make TF encounters look like fighting hellions. Something for the hard-core players to make their builds in the hope of being able to survive.

Rewards that won't unbalance the game? That is a major issue, yes. but even a slightly minor adjustment such as a 15% higher chance of a purple dropping would be enough to make people play there. Call it 'elite content' or something.

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Actually, that would be kinda cool. Also, since like I said, buffers trump IOs, a decently designed super team with just SOs could also participate in a zone like that no problem. Really, only the people who wanted to take on that zone's solo content would need IOs (and certain builds probably wouldn't even need that).

I don't know what this has to do with fixing Energy Aura...but I pretty much consider /EA fixed so I suppose going off topic at this point is no big deal.

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Who the hell doesn't run with IOs anyway? Is there some CoX equivilant of the Amish running around?


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It depends on how IO is used. If it is optimizing set bonus, then not everyone will do it. In particular, optimizing set bonus may involve rare recipes and even purple sets. In addition, it involves planning and good knowledge of the game mechanics. However, having a couple unique recipes or rare sets is within the reach of most people.

Franken-slotting a toon with IO set recipes should be ok for all players. Basically, you just pick a recipe that is cheap and don't care about set bonus. The budget can be as low as a few mil. Such kind of slotting can enhance a power in multiple ways that require less slots than using SO. In my opinion, there isn't much reason not to use IO this way, as it is cheap, effective and great QoL improvement. For those who don't use IO at all, it's actually not a big deal, that's their choice.

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Maybe this leads to the big misconception about IOs - that if you aren't getting the super rare uniques or sets you aren't using them. A lot of other responses to IOs basically are 'we aren't all rich like you, you big cheater' or 'IOs scare and confuse Gronk'. This attitude leads to the downright insane point of view that it is somehow possible to insert IOs in to the game while completely ignoring them in regards to balance.

Every toon I've made or used since inventions came out have been taking advantage or IOs. I don't farm, I don't play the market, and I sure the hell don't have billions of influence/infamy. Each toon is pretty much self contained as far as resources go, so anything that runs over 5mil to get the recipe for never finds its way on any of my people. Yet...I still find massive use for IOs.

Some toons frankenslot(I don't know about the rest of you, but I like getting the benefits of 6 slotting a power by using only 5 slots), some go for affordable set bonuses (like Thunerstrike, Red Fortune, and Kinetic Combat), and some just like to save up for procs (I have an all proc and SO rad/storm corruptor I'm working on).

Seriously, I'm all for you not bothering to use them since this game provides for any and all manner of builds (also, there is nothing IOs provide that one or two good buffers won't match or exceed), but its downright silly to petition for the devs and those of us who DO use them to pretend like they don't exist.

I honestly could give to ****s about whether or not EA is balanced with or without IOs in mind. My brute runs with IOs. Those IOs are now going to be better (capped smashing defense is gonna become capped smashing/lethal defense - score). My brute is happy. You all and your 'sets shouldn't be balanced by blah blah blah' hooplah can go pee in someone else's Cheerios.

Who the hell doesn't run with IOs anyway? Is there some CoX equivilant of the Amish running around?

Way back in this thread all I really asked for was better numbers for the passives, toxic resist somewhere, and some added functionality to Energy Drain. I pretty much got all I wanted.

Didn't get better passive numbers (Invul did - so at least I got that passive boost somewhere), but since that added functionality in Energy Drain is healing, that more than makes up for being 5% less resistant after slotting than I'd like to be.

The only thing I could possibly want at this point is a taunt effect on Energy Drain really...

Going on about how EA is based basically on bubbles...I saw it mentioned that one of the FF bubbles gives an unenhanceable 30% resist to toxic.

If EA is thematically equivilant to bubbles I want that 30% toxic resist. Its a hole the set doesn't need, and if that spackle job is good enough for bubblers its good enough for me.

This might have been mentioned before. Lord knows I can barely recall the contents of this big [censored] thread.

In case my second hand data is wrong and there is no bubble in the FF set that gives an unenhanceable 30% toxic resist...I still want it, and you can give it to them too.

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Any other perceived problems with /ea stem from misuse, assuming that a brute is a 'redside tanker' instead of a single-target high-endurance killing machine.

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Let's just assume that another brute is on the team and you are competing for fury building because that's where the power of the SMASH! is.

I would agree that /EA (the only brute secondary that wasn't originally a tank primary transplant) would be good if it had *something else*. Obviously it doesn't.

Some of its powers are truly uninspired (auto +res) and didn't get a change since they were introduced.

IMHO, /EA wasn't proliferated because it needs some adjustments before. Hints seem to indicate that some are coming. There is hope.

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When two brutes on a team are competing for aggro - the one who took 'taunt' wins, followed by the guy who has the best set of AoE attacks. The guy with the damage aura, sitting there all proud thinking their passive aggro control is all that they need is only going to beat the guys who threw up their hands and gave up because they don't have an aggro aura of their own.

I really want EA to remain the same and just be tweaked a little. I like my brute managing it's end bar with clicks and not Stamina and I definately like diving into groups with non-suppressing stealth. Furthermore, I really really really like Overload as a tier 9. This keeps me from getting on board with about 90% of the changes mentioned here.

What I'd like to see (in order):

1) Give us energy drain earlier - you can have it swap places with one of the resist passives to do this. Being able to buff your endurance recovery in any way is nice, but its much, much nicer when you can do it before Stamina is available

2) Adding some extra functionality to that energy drain would be nice too. A taunt element, debuff of some kind...anything would be nice really (I'd be willing to give up the power being auto-hit to see this too). I'd really like to see this become the defining power of the set.

3) Speaking of those passives - more resist please. If this means buffing the equivilant passive resists in Invulnerability...I'm cool with that too. I'd like to see them start at 12.5% and 15%.

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Things already done to help Energy Aura:

VEATs

Purple inspirations

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Neither of those things were "done to help" Energy Aura. For that matter, Lucks predate energy aura.


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Things I'd like to see changed in the set:

Same thing I want for Invulnerability - passives that are are at worth slotting. 12.5% resist would be lovely (with 15% for energy).

Conserve power or energy drain to show up earlier (i.e. - before Stamina does)

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The "passive power problem" is, in general, a wider scope problem than Energy Aura. The simple fact is that given the current way powers are designed, passives are going to be weaker than toggles. And numerically smaller equals lower slotting efficiency. They will always, under this scheme, be "not worth slotting" for a large number of players in the general case.

The conserve power argument might have legs, though: I used it successfully on Willpower. I think a strong case can be made for either of conserve power or energy drain to swap places with cloak (my preference would be energy drain, since it would be at least nominally replacing the damage mitigation of cloak with drain, *and* adding endurance, while conserve power would add endurance efficiency but not replace the damage mitigation of cloak with anything).

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A simple 'shout-out' to the excellent help that is given by the VEATs and Luck inspirations shouldn't be an excuse for everyone to put on their condescension hats and patiently explain to me that 2+2=4. I'm honestly amazed.

On the subject of passives, I agree that they should be weaker than toggles. I don't agree by the amount of that difference. That's for the primary/secondary versions of those toggles. I have no problem whatsover with a passive providing numbers comparable to 'Tough' from the fitness pool.

Does adding 15% defense to, say a Fire brute, gonna do as much as adding that 15% to an /EA? I don't think so. VEATs are a great crutch for /EA and I don't see how pretending that it isn't true is required for this discussion.

You guys gotta give the devs more credit than that. You could easily say Tanks and breakfrees are just as useful to blasters as what I mentioned is to /EA...that didn't stop the blasters from getting a buff. Stop being so damned paranoid over a quip.