Madam_Enigma

While all MM teams are a sight to behold... they have their own problems. Especially in cave maps.

Ok, I've got a DM/DA that I solo with exclusivly. Been working on it now and then since issue 4, and the powers up until level 40 are pretty much set in stone. I'm planning/have the following powers.

DM
Shadow Punch
Smite
Shadow Maul
Siphen Life
Dark Consumption
Soul Drain
Midnight Grasp

DA
Dark Embrace
Death Shroud
Murky Cloud
Obsidian Shield
Dark Regen
Cloak of Darkness
Opressive Gloom
Soul Transfer

Fitness
Swift
Health
Stamina

Super Jump
Jump Kick
Super Jump

Now, so far (level 26) the character's working out well. However I'm getting close to where I start looking for IO sets. I noticed that endurance is usually a bit of an issue in protracted fights, so +recovery would be nice to get. But then so would +recharge, since that would allow me to use dark consumption more often.

My question is this: With those two goals in mind, which sets would you guys and gals recommend? Please, no full builds. I'd rather like to hear advice on which sets to go for, and why. Mind you, Slimy Sam doesn't have endless amounts of money.

I'm getting visions of massive lag and graphic card death.

Me, team mates who know how to work as a team. AT doesn't matter, as long as they aren't all "RAWR I'm a villain, I can solo this entire map without you guys".

With Ninja/Poison you can do fine without stamina too I know. I took it eventually on a respec however. Don't regret that choice. Without stamina the combo required a good 12 to 16 catch breaths for EB fights. With stamina don't really need any.

Biggest tip, is also the most dangerous. Try to always keep him close enough to the enforcers to get the +def. That for me (usually) gives me enough time to save his worthless hide. Then again, that also protects the bruiser. That sucker also loves to leave the protective area of your enforcer's maneuvers.

I'm not too sure if it is possible to stop him. Even using Goto I've found he would run into melee. Part of the problem is that he has some fairly close range attacks. Another part is he does a lot of aoe, so enemies charge him too. I swear, he thinks he's a prize fighter or something. I guess the real trick is to kill enemies fast, and never let him pick his own target. He's more likely to brawl if you don't order an attack. I think anyway.

Yeah, at level 36 I'm usually using the arachnos soldier costume too. I mostly swap out for RP reasons. Namely Arachnid Huntress clocking out, and thus no longer being on active duty for the day.

Update:

He finally updated his graphics drivers and Windows. And then today he called me up to say the game stopped crashing. I figured that was the cause after eliminating other possible reasons. Still, thanks for the advice.

Since it seems that the heal is based on the same principle as Dark Regen, more pets wouldn't matter much. And uhm, the team I was on DID kill the healing nictus. We did so because Rom was being stubborn about going down.

For those not aware, Dark Regen consistently over heals. One enemy=1/3 your health back. 3 enemies means you recovered to full from 1 HP. Anything more then 3 and it's just green numbers. And that's without slotting heal enhancements in it.

If the nictus's heal is on the same principle, then it doesn't matter if there's 8 targets, or 38 targets for it to hit. Either way it's a massive over heal. It's the same reason Ghost Widow is such a pain. Well, that and her mag 100 or so hold.

So if the complaint is "mastermind pets fuel the heal", then you should complain about anyone on the team being in melee range. Even the tanker thus would be providing a 1/4 to 1/3 heal. The kinetics defender who is using fulcrom shift? Their also providing a large heal. The scrappers and brutes too. And if you have 3 people in melee, wouldn't that indicate you have to kill him BEFORE the heal goes off... or you can't kill him anyway?

But of course people are pulling him away from the healing nictus first to prevent that. Thus, what is the problem with melee based henchmen again?

Mind you, I can't say for sure how big the nictus heal was. The team was all in melee. Yes, including the /kin corrupter. And transfusion was being spammed, as was Warmth. As such it was impossible to tell which green numbers were ours and which were enemy heals.

Just a random and minor off topic question. Why have perma (and always active) Serum? Wouldn't it be more useful as a 'when needed' heal then it is as a perma HP boost?

Keep in mind though that for most spawns, you wont need nox gas. You mainly want to save it for the really tough fights. AV's, EB's, and when your massively out numbered due to too much aggro. Think of it like a tier 9 defensive set power. Their nice to have for when the excrement hits the fan, but not needed most of the time.

I don't think it's a bug. I think it's just henchmen deaggroing on enemies which pose no threat. Solution: actively tell them who to attack or put them on aggressive stance. It only happens in defensive stance.

It happens because Defensive stance only has them attack things which are threatening the party. Enemies that don't hit or are held... aren't generating aggro.

Me, I can and do buff players if I have them. Here's the thing. Let's say I'm running a /ff mastermind. I'm level 26 and have all six pets. And I'm on a full team. Putting both bubbles on all my pets and all the players can and will drain my endurance fast. And in the middle of combat, my main focus wont be watching your health bar and buff icons. It'll be watching my pets.

However, I always start with my pets when buffing. Thus when they start blinking I know your buff will go down soon too. Here is the thing though, I may not have the time or endurance to refresh your buffs too. Heck, I may not even be able to keep the buffs on my own pets sometimes. And when the team's doing well, I may not buff you anyway. Don't feel bad, I'm not buffing the pets in that situation either.

For me, it happens when I hold an enemy, and have the pets dealing with non-held things. Then when the hold wears off (assuming everything else is dead or almost dead) the pets just don't want to attack it. I see the same thing happen on th thug/ff I have on test. Enemies attack, thugs start fighting. But after nothing hits for a while I have to start ordering attacks.

Not sure if it'll help, but here's what I did. I copied everything in the CoH folder except the updater, .exe, and checksum. I then pasted those copies into the CoH Test folder, overwriting anything there. It still took several hours to update, but it did happen within six hours. It also meant I didn't have to download every patch from launch till current on live for Test either. Just have it update the files that need updating (and install the updater).