Local_Man

David Parker a/k/a Red Tomax made one of the best sources of information about City of Heroes/Villains. Sadly, he has left the game, but the wonderful folks at Titan Network have taken over the site and updated the "City of Data" part.

You can find the site HERE. It has a little bit of information on David himself.

My Electric/Rad is 34, and has been fun. I see a lot of Elec/Rads, as there is a lot of synergy with Conductive Aura and Choking Cloud. The damage, however, is pretty low even with the Gremlins, so it is better as a team-focused controller. Yes, I can solo now that I have Gremlins, but it isn't very fast.

Sometimes, the remake somewhat replaces the original . . . or makes the original less popular or less available. In some cases, the remake may do some things better than the original, but not certain key parts that made the original so charming.

One of my favorite examples is a story/movie that keeps being done over and over: A Christmas Carol. No actor has ever been able to play Scrooge better than Alistair Sims. The 1951 version has Sims with just the right amount of angry, miserable miserly Scrooge in the beginning, and giddy, overjoyed, almost insane Scrooge in the end. Other actors from Rich Little to Patrick Stewart to Bill Murry to the Muppets to the recent CGI version have made good attempts, but nobody has been as good as Sims.

And yet, because there are so many versions and that is an old black&white version, it is hard to find and too few people have seen it. Newer versions have better ghosts or lots of color or more humor, but Mr. Sims' performance outshines them all. The remakes have diluted the market.

Many people feel the same way about Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. While the recent Downey version was a fun action flick, it was not really Holmes.

I was in college when Rocky Horror first became a cult favorite. It was daring and bizzare back in the late 70's. I went about a dozen times, but I knew people who went every week. The people who "knew" were kind of a secret club. We all knew that it was cheesy and funny and anyone who didn't "get it" thought it was perverted. Seeing Rocky Horror sung by young people with modern views in the mainstream kind of invalidates those memories.

First on the build: Consider pulling the Recharge out of LR. A perma-PA build should have enough recharge to make LR perma without that slot. There are a few other places you could use it. You could put it in Blind. I like to slot up Blind with damage. After the 4 Baz Gaze, I have an Acc/Dam Hami-O (Nucleous) and a common Damage IO.

With the Acc bonuses, you may not even need the second Accuracy in LR either. I have only a single Acc in mine. That other slot could be used to add some defense from your Ice Armor, or an Achilles Heal -Resist proc.

Happy Cat: I generally run RI during AV fights . . . but I have Recovery of over 4 on my build. Even against AVs, it has an effect to reduce its chance to hit you and increase your chance to hit it. Plus, and maybe more importantly, it affects any of the AV's buddies in the area. It is not as important as EF or LR, but it still has an effect.

As for Mutation, I don't have it now, but plan to pick it up with I-19. I also plan to pick up Recall Friend. Mutation is a good battlefield rez, since the target gets full health and endurance and other buffs. But I wouldn't take it if other powers are more helpful.

It really depends on playstyle. The suggesting of Katana/WP is good if that is his playstyle. (My first character was a Katana/Regen back when Regen was god-mode.) An Ice/Ice Blaster is also a great first character. (That was my second, and my first one to make it to level 20.) And Illusion/Radiation controller would also be a great character through which to learn a lot about the game. If he goes that direction, suggest that he look at my Illusion/Radiation guide, which gives tons of basic information for someone new to controllers.

The nice thing about Illusion/Radiation is that it starts out as a single target Controller/Blaster, using Blind and Deceive for control, Blind-Spectral Wounds for blasting (with containment). Early invisibility helps with your survival -- Starting at level 8, you can move around like a Stalker . . . but with Deceive and Blind and the ability to attack from range, it is a lot safer. Then your buff and debuff powers . . . a heal and AM for a great general buff, with Radiation Infection to keep the foes from hitting you as often while you can hit them more often, and Enervating Field to hit them harder while they hit you softer.

Then the character changes substantially at 18 with Phantom Army. The character changes again at 26 with Spectral Terror. An Ill/Rad is fairly easy to play moderately well, but has enough complex aspects to be challenging to play really well.

You have a few problems: Personal Force Field is no longer available to controllers. OK if you picked it up during the short time you could get it and you never respec, but otherwise, you can't get it. It was replaced by Focused Accuracy (which is mostly worthless in my opinion).

I understand you are trying to go for a Defense build. In most cases, Ill/Rad benefits the most from high Recharge, then Recovery. With high Recharge getting Phantom Army out more often, they draw the aggro and you don't get hit. Stay invisible, Deceive any foes who look at you funny and take out single targets. If you want some other ideas, take a look at my Illusion/Radiation Guide, linked in my sig. The guide has several sample builds, and once I-19 hits, I plan on revising parts of it with the new build options. I haven't updated it with a discussion about the PPP options yet, but I still prefer Fire and Ice APPs over the PPPs. The key is the fast-recharging single target blast that lets you have an attack chain of Blind-SW-Blast-SW. That chain substantially increases your single target damage AND helps you keep most or all of the Illusory Damage from Spectral Wounds. None of the PPPs have a fast-recharging single-target blast -- the recharge on Poisonous Ray is 24 seconds, vs 8 seconds for the APP blasts. If you want AoE Damage, you can go with Fireball (which I have) or Frostbreath (or Ice Storm, but it has too long a recharge and is DoT). If you really want Defense, you can get it from Ice Shield, but Recharge is far more important.

Have you actually tried Choking Cloud with an Ill/Rad? I love it on my two Fire/Rads, I just finished slotting it up on my Elec/Rad, but I hated it on my Ill/Rad. Fire, Electric and Ice all have an additonal PB AoE Aura to combine with Choking Cloud to make it effective. Illusion doesn't. As part of layered control it can be great, but on its own it is pretty lackluster even fully slotted. The hold pulses take a while to hit and then can drop. It uses tons of endurance and needs 5-6 slots, so it is a big investment for a power that isn't very effective. I much prefer Flash over CC. Having both Flash and EM Pulse is like having a PB AoE Hold that recharges much faster -- and you can stack them to hold bosses.

Any build that doesn't take Phantom Army at 18 is questionable. Just sayin'

Not enough Recharge in AM.

Sure, you can slot Blind as a damage power. I prefer 4 Basilik's Gaze, and then fill it out with as much damage as you can. Those 4 Baz Gaze give 7.5% Recharge.

Why do you need Stealth in Hover when you have Superior Invis? And why an EndRdx in one of the lowest costing endurance toggles? On the other hand, Superior Invis needs lots of EndRdx. I 6-slot it with 1 LotG Recharge, and 5 Red Fortunes. You get capped EndRdx and Defense, plus a total of 12.5% recharge out of one power.

My wife (who no longer plays) had an account along with mine. I keep the second account to share with the kids. I recently pulled up the wife's Emp Defender, who got to 50 long before Inventions . . . She has a ton of nice Hami-Os from the old Hami-Raid days. So it is taking me several Respecs to pull out 10 Hami-Os at a time and replace them with SOs.

Why take Choking Cloud with 4 slots as a mule? Why not trade that out for Hover (which can take your 5th LotG Recharge) and then use three slots somewhere else?

I also think you don't have enough EndRdx in Superior Invis. It isn't very useful if you can't afford to run it.

It is really too bad. The Shard is an awesome-looking zone and the TFs there should be epic. Instead, they are mostly tedious. There are some impressive looking settings -- great for screen shots. Try to get someone on the team who knows the TFs well. It is also a good idea to have easy access to the summaries of the TFs on the Titan Network so that you can know what to expect.

Many of our newer forms of transportation have really helped with these TFs -- O-portal, Teleport to mission, Assemble the Team, Pocket-D and Base Portals, and even the temps from Day Jobs to the markets. Also, it is good to know that if you fall off an edge and let yourself drop, you go to the front of the zone.

Last time I did a Dr. Q, we got it done in about 5.5 hours, but just about all of us were on voice-chat so coordination was easier. Dr. Quarterfield is frustrating because there are so many runs back and forth between the Shard and other zones. A Kinetics who speed boosts the team will definitely help.

It would be soooo nice to have these TFs cleaned up with all the thinks that the Devs have learned. Dr. Q could be broken up into three other TFs. The Shard really has the opportunity to be an amazing zone. It could be a Co-op zone with TFs from different points-of-view.

Most of the folks I know who play Illusion on a regular basis have been commenting on the change in Phantasm's AI causing him to run into melee and die frequently. This is a problem not only because you lose a chunk of damage from your pet, but also some folks relied upon Phanty's Decoy to hold aggro when re-casting Phantom Army.

Well, I rarely do this, but I went ahead and PM'ed Castle. He gave a quick but nice response that this was a problem with most pets and other critters, and that it is on the list for them to work on.

That's all I really expected or wanted . . . to know that it will likely be fixed sometime in the hopefully not too distant future. I appreciate that our Developers will answer such questions. Thanks, Castle!

I don't think there is anything in the Bind commands that will allow you to load a file onto your bio. The best you could do is a series of macros or rotating binds that explain your background.

I have my Traps Defender based upon a certain well-known TV Pitchman of gadgets. He has a full series of macros of short speeches that echo usual statements on his Infomercials. I have been meaning to link them to emotes but haven't taken the time yet. But the same principle would apply.

This AI bug that causes Phantasm now to like to go into melee is a real pain. Phanty is constantly killed. Either the AI needs to be fixed, or the Devs need to substantially increase his Defense or Resistance so he can survive. I would rather see the AI fixed . . . Phanty is supposed to be a Energy Blaster pet from range, using his decoy to protect himself.

Here is a graph. The blue line shows XP% if damage were cause by a third party not on your team, while the pink line shows XP percent if the damage is done by a confused foe:

I used to listen to Casey Kasim's American Top 40, and try to record the songs without talking over the beginnings and end. Those were my tapes. Next year is my 35th Reunion . . . Elton John, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Aerosmith.