MacOberon
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Posts
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Joined
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I'd hardly agree that paindom or empathy are somehow non-powers. I love shields, of all kinds, for the longevity they give a team, but in the end, with all the shielding in the world, you still need some proper healing to deal with the damage that's being done to the team. In any proper team situation, you want both "support" and "healing".
Personally, I'm a Fire/Pain corruptor, and it's the most fun I every had. The aoe healing-toggle can handle any small damage being done, and the proper heals can deal with anything else. I'm always a busy little bee; every spare second I have, if I'm not throwing buffs around - I'm burning the enemy alive and cackling with insane glee. I'm packing a positively massive dps, mostly of the aoe flavor.
Calling a paindom corruptor useless is a sign of ignorance. I'm sure the same goes for an empath defender/controller. -
Had one run-in with a gm for a petition, and one with customer support regarding an account issue. Got to say, both were handled very well, and quickly too. Unusually good for an MMORPG. I complain at times about things in the game, but it's probably good to point out that in some areas, CoX is really fab.
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Oh and yeah, offices look like they have been designed by a Rikti on crack, but I like that. Can you imagine how boring it'd be if all maps were predictably regular? Ew.
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Personally, I can live with the strangeness of spending half my life in a stupid cave, even in the big city. What I can't stand is the game-technical effects of it.
8 players, 10 MM pets, and a passage so narrow you can't walk two abreast? Bad idea, end of story. To make it worse yet, your camera gets squashed into the same narrow space, making you effectively blind. The blindness is the worst. You can't see where the tank is, where the healer is, where the stupid enemies are, or if you are actually one of the MMs - good lucky keeping track of your pets.
That's when the enemies burst in, Making it 8 chars, 10 pets and 15 mobs in the stupid shaft. Queue special effects and screen shake. Normally special effects are fun, but only when you can pull the camera back to 5-10 meters at LEAST. It's not fun to play the game blind. It really isn't. Even when solo, I think the mines restrict my camera too much to be fun.
mac -
All sounds good to me, and I'm having a blast on it right now. Only level 12 so far but loads of fun, and very pretty to look at. I'm suffering badly with endurance though. Got end reducers in all attack skills and toggles, and it's still iffy. Guess all that will change once I hit 20 though. Temporary issue.
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I created an MA stalker, just because I wanted MA - it fit the char I wanted to make. I just realised yesterday though, that ALL attacks are single target. There's no kind of aoe, cones or anything of the sorts. Nothing.
Now, I don't mind that personally. I think it's kind of cool but: Does the MA dish out enough single-target dps that it makes it a competitive option compared to the powersets that do have aoe? -
Well, personally I consider my witch (pain/fire) perfectly sane, but I did get some interesting reactions when I asked for pointers here on the forum. I've broken with the main view that focusing on your primary is the first priority; I see myself as support first and foremost, and wanted some aoe as a kicker. I'm up to 32 now, and still see myself as primary support, but now I also got loads of fire skills with 4 slots each. Never had so much fun on a "healer" in my life. I happily took care of a team on +4x8 diff, and still had time to provide enough fire support that I cackled insanely.
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It was suggested this be linked from over here, since no one actually bothers to check on the server-specific forums. So... give that link a little whack with the clicky-thing.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...62#post3206062
mac -
I had this idea, and it turns out I wasn't the only one having it. I got a tell almost immediately when the subject came up, and we discussed it for a while. My backstory had a sort of... unofficial gathering for the magically inclined. Neutral ground. A place to swap books, reagents, and get to know people. I'll just start with a little extended story from my background I think, and get to details further down.
Quote:So yes... The Gathering (name is a work in progress) would be a loosely connected group of the magically inclined, regardless of school. It's pretty much an anarchy - there's no leader, no leadership structure, and no goal or purpose, other than meeting others in the trade. They mostly get together because they share a few things with eachother:The Gathering
Valerie was 14 when Mr Bocor finally gave in and borrowed her a book on witchcraft, though at a price that should not be mentioned out loud even in a dark room. Valerie returned to him a week later, as instructed, and returned the book. She also showed off what she had learned in just one week. Of course, Mr Bocor isn't the kind to deliver compliments, or reveal much in the way of emotions, but he had to admit that she was a natural. After a moments thought, he invited her back the coming Saturday. He said he wanted her to meet some friends.
"In most cases" mr Bocor said as the two walked towards the secret location along the twisted back alleys of Cap Au Diable, "I'd instruct anyone accompanying me here, on how to behave. Don't take offense, don't judge, be polite, keep your mouth shut about what you see, and so on..." She glanced down at the young girl next to him. "...but considering the services you did me in payment of the book, I doubt much of anything will make you do more than raise an eyebrow. That saves me the inconvenience."
Valerie followed quietly, as the path took them through alleys, broken sewers and burned out buildings. After a few minutes, he stopped in front of a sad looking shack of a warehouse. "The location changes now and then." he explained. "Keeps things quiet. We might find a permanent location one day, but today, this is it. In you go, little girl." Mr Bocor pushed Valerie gently in front of him to the unguarded door.
Inside, was very little of anything, really. Old tables, armchair and sofas, all looking like they came from your grandparents' house. A temporary bar had been set up to serve tea, coffee and half a dozen alcoholic beverages. About two dozen figures were standing around in small groups or seated in little circles of chairs, all of them talking i hushed voices. It didn't take a genius to see that this was a gathering of very special people. Even Valerie could immediately recognise what many of them were, simply from the clothes they wore: warlocks, necromancers, voodun, witches, mages - and a few things of more exotic origin. It was like a dinner club for the undesirables.
Mr Bocor was greeted immediately as he stepped through the door, and Valerie got a few nods as well, mostly because of her distinguished company. He walked up to a small group nearby, and gave Valerie a little nudge, pushing her a bit inside the circle. "I'd like you to meet Valerie Dobbs." he said. "I think she will become quite the witch one day." He grinned like only Mr Bocor can. "Say hello, girl." Valerie managed a lopsided smile.
A woman with spectacular dreadlocks, a face covered in black tattoos -and smoky eyes revealing her to be quite blind- beamed a wide smile at her. "What took ya so long childe?" She had a strong accent, partly Jamaican, partly something completely different. "The loa said to expect ya a month ago. Did ya get lost trying to find the place?" She laughed, a warm disarming laugh. "Welcome to the Gathering. Make yaself at home."
- They are generally involved in something or other of a sinister nature. These are (mostly) rogues we are talking about.
- They don't like the rigidity of a formal organisations.
- They want friends. Perhaps not allies, but at least people with whom there is a mutual understanding. A non aggression pact, if you will.
- They probably wish to share information, books, magical items, herbs, and so on. When coming together, the Gathering would be in possession of a massive quantity of very important artifacts, and the shared knowledge is just about endless.
- Safety in numbers. The isles can be a dangerous place, and the Gathering is a way to find help, when it's desperately needed. By banding together in this non-organisation, the members can maintain their independence in reasonable safety.
It would hopefully be a place to find people to team up with, to role play with, and a place to make some friends. It would be a place to get the benefits of a SG, while remaining practically completely independent.
There would be some ground rules of course, based on mutual respect:
- No fighting.
- Nothing underhanded towards members. (Sell cheaper potions, yes. Burn their shop, no.)
- Keep your mouth shut about the Gathering. (Unless you are inviting someone in.)
- Respect all members and their craft. (If you can't tolerate what a necromancer does, this isn't the place to be, and so on.)
What I'm looking for now is ideas, suggestions, interest, and perhaps some founding members if everything looks like it's "go for launch". Just... go nuts and write. Drop a few lines, or an essay if you like. Nothing is set, or determined, so everything is open for change or adjustment or... yeah. Write something.
Cheerio.
Mac ( Valerie Dobbs, Witch ) -
Lol. Poor hubby.
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Yeah, well, it's hard to not be frustrated:
- Maintenance is supposed to last 2 hrs or less - going on 2.5 now
- No information from CoH officials whatsoever on the issue
- Only available info, server status page (which was updated last WEEK)
- Surely, the company is aware of all this and chose to be silent
But, we moan and gripe, because somewhere deep inside us, our inner hero considers it an injustice to us paying customers - and we really want to grab this villain by the tail and swing him around a bit... -
Hello.
Looking for a few tips on SGs, that would suit an RP-light player. Light just means I don't do this all the time, and don't always take it that seriously, much preferring to chat over a beer on a rooftop than bickering with heroes, and chasing arch nemesis, and such...
I'm curious about both red and blue side, and possibly in between. I'm kind of hoping to avoid overly themed SGs, as I find that I rarely fit into Arachnos, or Longbow, or any other specific.
Any tips, greatly appreciated.
Mac -
Heheh. No worries.
Yeah, you can always start yourself in Pretoria and all but... ew? Defender? I have yet to see one over on the isles. It just feels so... heroic.
Mm, I guess things change with level. Once in a while, you get a team with FFs, Miasma, and more. I tend to burn a lot more at those times, and suppport far less. As people level up, they start putting points into their secondaries. Coincidently, I expect I'll be putting more points into my primary at that time, so it should all work out well. I'm slowly unlocking my buffing skills as well around this level, which is something I'm very much looking forward to.
I probably should have started my OP with "hi, I'm making a secondary levelling build, support focused" and avoided some things. Oh well. We live, we learn. And yes, this is definitely something adapted to my level - taking into consideration that most teams are PUGs composed of whatever ATs is available at the time.
Sorry if my post came off a bit over the top as well. That'll tech me to make posts after midnight. ^_^
Mac -
First of all, thanks for the advice, particularly on Share Pain and Enforced Morale. I completely failed to notice for example that Shared pain actually BUFFS.
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Y'all are way too concerned about what I'm "missing" and "giving up", and "sacrificing". I'm not giving up anything; this type of build does exactly what I want it to do: provide powerful support, while having the capacity to burn down a warehouse in the meantime for ***** and giggles. Honestly, I've done controllers and defenders and all that, but never have I had a "healer" (support is a better word) that provided me with such delightful entertainment.
My main objective is to have fun, and be useful in a team - not to squeeze numbers and "be all I can be" by unwillingly following unwritten rules about what a corruptor should be doing. So far, every team I've been in contact with has been extremely pleased to have me, as that quickly eliminates one large problem - a lack of support. Not only that, but I'm certainly not useless or restricted by a support mentality; as you all are so eager to point out my primary is fire, and trust me - I make plenty of use of it. Even in the roughest fights, I usually manage to carpet-bomb the enemy to the stone age with aoe, as well as assist some point damage on tougher nuts. Could I do more damage? Of course, but I would never be able to keep a team safe, in the way that I do now. Don't forget, it's a team effort: without me, the rest of the team's dps would suffer badly, when they had to interrupt their effective dps, to mass-spam ineffective, badly slotted heals, while running around and hiding like headless chickens.
One thing that just doesn't happen, at least around my level, is someone saying "Oh gosh, we have too much support!" Simple fact is - there is no villain AT with heal/support as the primary. Just about everyone I meet that has the potential to heal, says "I'm not a healer" and hopes someone else is willing to deal with it. They are all slotting themselves for high dps while leveling! At the end of the day, someone still has to keep people alive - even if that means a heavy focus on a secondary power set. Heck, I'm becoming popular... I'm getting tells from people the moment I log on, hoping I'll join their team.
Being fairly new to the game, I'm not entirely sure where I end up at 50. I don't much care either; if I'm unhappy, I'll respec. In the long run, everything I consider important will be there I'm sure, as I get a skill and two slots every two levels. I'm pretty sure there will be a lot of powers in both Pain and Fire that will end up maxed out, just like on your average corruptor. The biggest difference is probably my view on what my role in a team is - and thus the order in which I get skills, my priority in getting them slotted - and to a much lesser degree a choice of what skills to actually pick and end up with at level 50. In some cases though, there are points where my opinions may be a bit unorthodox - like hesitating when it comes to picking an attack skill that requires me to run around when I have options that gives me a kind of "fire and forget" option. Often I just knock out what ever is currently in the tank's sights. Assist, yay!
Of course, with a difference in mindset, comes a different play style. Where as your dps corruptor would be highly concerned about the all-important "attack chain", and probably curses every time he needs to interrupt it for a heal - it's not a big concern of mine. I'm more concerned with what damage I can deal quickly and easily, between the heals that I have taken it upon myself to provide. If my attack chain is less than perfect when healing isn't required at all for a while - so what? If we don't even need healing, pumping out maximum dps is hardly going to be a big concern. See where I'm going?
Don't worry, I have two builds. Wouldn't be much point in using both builds for top dps, would it? Makes sense to me, to focus on the secondary set in one build so you can use the char for something OTHER than what your other build does, don't you think? Honestly, what do you all do with your secondary builds?
Mac -
I used to have an ice-empath controller. Most of the time, I was so focused on my team's health bars, that any control I could actually get out would be far between, and not always very effective.
Now, I'm a Witch Corruptor. L22. (Hello my name is Atkins, and I'm a switcher!) I play with fire, burn things down, and I can heal a bit to boot! (What? I'm main healer again? Okiday.) It's not that I mind healing. I like it! And this is where I realised the beauty of Fire-Pain. I don't need much control over the field of battle. I just need 2 seconds of freedom, to lay down aim followed by a devastating carpet-bombing of fire, and go back to healing. Most of the time, I can even just use the tank's target as ground zero. No clicky! And it works great!
Que the respec:
Ok, since I always heal, let's focus on healing - and keep the fire as a fun, area oriented, but highly effective backup. Works very well! But uh... what am I going for NEXT?
I'd like to work as the primary healer, as this is what I always end up doing anyway. But, I got endurance to waste much of the time - and I want to use it to burn. AOE is nice, but some point damage for a tough boss never hurts either.
So my ideas on the attack part:
Flare+Blast Chain: Fast, ranged, almost chaining - a combo that will add significant damage, and I can even squeeze a heal into the rotation. Not a bad idea.
Ball+Rain+Breath Alpha: This will wreak absolute havoc on the enemy and should probably be used with exceptional care. Fun though. So much fun. I can hear Beavis chanting "Fire! Fire!" already. Aggro magnet.
The low down:
So, here's what I got so far, and some plans for the future. I'll just pop it all out here for y'all to see. I could use suggestions. Nothing too specific though. I like to do things myself, and to figure things out. Also keep in mind, I'm still only 22 here. Advice on level 50 purple IOs... not here.
Noteworthy Pool Powers:Stamina:
Pain Domination:3 Endurance Mod SOs
Awesomeness. Should I leave it like this, or slot something more in time?
Nullify Pain:
3 Heal SOs
Soothe:
2 Recharge SOs
1 Endurance Reduction SO
3 Heal SOs
2 Recharge SOs
1 Endurance Reduction SO
Share Pain:
Fire Blast:Skipped.
Conduit of Pain:
I find that two single-heals is rarely needed, at least if the group has some kind of reasonable organisation. This one also gives me a kick in the groin. Is this a huge mistake?
1 Recharge SO
Enforced Morale:
This is an emergency tool, and an oops-we-wiped tool. A quicker recharge would be nice, but there's other places I'll rather put my slots right now. Plans on a few more rechargers, when I have slots to spare. No rush. Here. Have a wakie.
Skipped.
Soothing Aura:
Temporarily skipped. Anti-control is nice, and I want it. However, how am I supposed to slot something like this? Also, will it be a pain to keep the entire team buffed? Should I focus it on a select few people only, like the tank and the main controller? What about mutiple applications? Can I extend the buff's duration?
Nice one.
World of Pain: Only have one slot so far, but I shoved an endurance reduction into it. I'd like to add maybe one more reducer and 3 heals or so. Sounds like an all right plan? I'm assuming recharge will NOT make it tick more often, yes?
Out of my range. Want it. A lot. I really do.Help me out with how to slot this. I'm thinking lots of resists, lots of to-hit and maybe some rechargers.
Anguishing Cry:
Attack rate is nice, but will be an end drain for everyone. Not sure.
Want! Bit fuzzy on slots but... enough +acc to hit, and lots of +debuff. Fill up with rechargers and endurance reducers as needed?
Painbringer:
Sounds good, but I have never seen it work. No idea how to slot something like that. I want it.
Flares:
2 accuracy SOs
Fire Blast:
1 damage SO
Planning to top it up mostly with damage when I can spare the slots. Now sure how to slot an attack power when you get lots of slots...
Skipped. Temporarily. I want it. I guess it slots like the Flares.
Fire Ball:
2 accuracy SOs
Rain of Fire:
1 damage SO
AOE attack number one. Essential. I guess it slots like the Flares.
2 accuracy SOs
Fire Breath:
1 damage SO
AOE attack number two. Essential and FUN! I guess it slots like the Flares.
Want it. AOE number three... Same slot story?
Aim:
That's the rundown of little old me. If you see any major "WTH is he doing!?"s in there, let me know! Any kind of general advice is super-appreciated, as I then can apply the advice as a starting point, and make up my own mind on how to build it.2 Recharger SOs
Blaze:
1 ToHit SOs
Planning on more of both. I'd like it active every time it's time for an aoe-carpet.
Everything about my char works at range, and this would be the 1 exception. Now, I'm usually not FAR from action, doing the aoe heals and all but... I'm thinking: skip it.
Blazing Bolt:
I dunno. Stand still and charge before it goes off? I'm a healer; I don't have time for this, even to help clean a boss' clock. By the time I dare use this, they no longer need the extra firepower. What do you think?
Inferno:
No. Just No! I'm not picking up a skill that will leave me drained with no regen. I'm a healer for crying out loud.
Mac -
I find that switching from defensive-goto to defensive-follow always render my pets passive for a while. I have to run around and push em around a bit before they react to fire. Same thing happens when trying to gather my pets for heals with a passive-follow, switching to a defensive-follow.
For the most part I go through fights purely on defensive-follow and defensive-attack, and when I feel the need to gather my pets - I never use a passive-follow, but rather a defensive-goto (which works fine) and then continue to use defensive-gotos to the end of the fight. Only when we are in the clear, dare I switch back to bodyguard with defensive-follow.
Mac -
So, here's the update on my new attempt at masterminding...
I'm now level 21, and I have NO problems at all. I will occasionally lose a bot or three, but that's only against bosses or large overpulls. I never lose a bot and say to myself "WHY did that happen?" I always know the reason.
Without a doubt, having the enemy miasmad straight to kingdom come helps a lot, but I think there's more to it than just that... I think the Ninjas somehow just... suck.
Can't reiterate enough, how wonderful miasma really is: it buffs, it debuffs, it cloaks, it heals and it controls. It does a little bit of everything on top of the massive debuffs. It's just simply delishious.
Personally, I think the devs should replace the three default pet commands with the ones I am using:
- defensive-attack
- defensive-goto
- defensive-follow
- passive-follow
For any professional mastermind this probably looks hopelessly primitive, but it really does the trick, at least so far. I get the control I need, and everything defaults back into bodyguard mode, as it should.
I even joined an 8-man mission team for a while, feeling empowered by my robots success. Sure, I lost the bots now and then, but it was nothing like when I had the ninjas. Ninjas would all be dead 10 seconds into any battle. My bots? In most cases, they all came out just fine. In fact, being a little bit of a tactician, and slamming the enemy with miasma just after the tank/troller has gone nuts - I don't even get aggro, and can calmly order my pets to kill off targets in any order I please.
This is a complicated, but hugely rewarding class to play. I'm still not much for MMs in 8-man teams, but for solo work, or 2-3 man teams, they are just so much fun!
The one small bother I have is stopping my bots from rushing in to melee after a few shots. So far, the only solution to it I have is forcing them back out with a goto.
Mac -
Thank you, thank you. I guess I'm kind of on the right track, and just need to keep going to develop a feeling for it.
My earlier attempt at this was with ninja-pain suppression. Around level 20, it was horrible. I couldn't take down a lieutenant without at least one minion falling down dead, and fast too. I switched to robots instead, because it's just so much more evil-super-genious-ish, and I figured, hey, dark miasma can debuff, buff and heal all at once: sounds like fun.
I guess that mostly leaves one question: if my bots ARE on def-follow, and they run off to kill something that is aggroing - does that break the body guard? I get the impression from your posts that bodyguard works even if the pets engage.
Mac -
I don't actually HAVE all the pets yet, but the names are all in place in my head:
Battle Drones - DRA118, DRA212, and DRA196
Protector Bots - PB17a and PB17b
Assault Bot - Bob
Bob is a good name for anything. I even have a plant named Bob. -
So, here I am, me and my monkeys: 3 robots currently. I experimented a bit with masterminds earlier and what I found is that the first 15 levels were supremely easy, and then... smack: I hit the wall, and get to experience just how squishy the pets really are, as they start dieing in droves around me. Of course, I think the problem is my background...
Background:
I've played WoW, Anarchy Online and many other games. The basic premiss for all of the "masterminds" here is that you are squishy, and your pet will tank for you.
The Villain:
Well, suddenly I get an army of up to 6 pets. Obviously these must be much weaker than a player, for game balance, and as such, I guess it makes sense that they suck as tanks.
What to do?
So how do you go about playing the mastermind around here? I have for now changed my default pet macros: def-attack, def-follow and pet-follow. My basic idea is that the best way to distribute the damage evenly is to take as much damage as possible MYSELF, and let the bodyguarding spread the damage evenly. That can then be easily undone with aura-healing, in my case dark miasma. I move with my pets as a tight group as much as possible, keeping in range of both the healing and the mastermind bonus.
So here's a bunch of questions...
- If I send my pets against a specific target, using defensive-attack, does the bodyguard damage distribution still work? If no, what about when the pets are in defensive-follow, and go off to attack something on their own? (seen two different statements, one that says it always works in defensive, and one that says only in defensive-follow)
- Is my approach still going to work for me when i get to my trouble spot around level 15-20? What about later?
- Once I get the top-level minion, the awe-inspiring battlebot-thingee, does things change? Is that usable as a "tank"?
- Despite trying to shed the wow-hunter mentality as best I can, am I still going about all this ****-backwards?
Hope someone survived to the end here, and is able to help out.
Mac