Madam_Enigma

My TA slots acc in just one power: acid arrow. If that hits, I'm targeting things under it's effects. Even without it I can fight +3 and +4 without accuracy issues being too bad due to archery's inherant acc boosts. Ice arrow I might eventualy add a slot of acc into, but had to devote too many slots for recharge to put accuracy in most anything.

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You guys have an interesting and funny conversation going on about how you can solo rugged with no accuracys but I can't help but post and say, what the heck does this have to do with TA debuffs lol. I know you are both trying to prove points and discredit the other but it really doesnt do much except to bump this post and keep it going :-)

Oh and btw, my TA mastermind is lvl 13 now and tons of fun. Definately not the most powerful but fun so far. Even though I enjoy the character immensly I feel it is still a bit behind the other sets. Animation times make it terrible for pvp and recharge times seem to be much longer than other sets. Not to mention the nice debuffs of some of the other sets do multiple things all in one power where I have to fire a seperate power for each one. All in all though so far I'm still having fun, hope it lasts.

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The point is that he's (she?) is claiming I know nothing. I had mentioned in passing that my dark/rad and TA/A both forgo accuracy enhancements, at which point he (she?) began calling me a lier. Started claiming there's no way I'm able to do what I claim, so am obviously lying. Thus my posting the screenshots that clearly show I do in fact have a dark/rad on rugged without slotting more then one acc in twilight gasp. I'm then told I must be playing on rugged doing outleveled missions, and thus lying anyway. Once more I posted screenshots that debunk that load of bull. Rather then adressing TA's very real issues he attacked me and claim I lie about everything. Is it so wrong to defend myself with factual evidance supporting my claim?

It relates because he (she?) insinuates that I lie about how my dark/rad preforms, and thus lie about how my TA/A preforms too.

Tell me about it. A friend told me she's only seen one other TA besides me. That TA also took archery, and only had entangle arrow from the primary at level 20. I like the set, have since it first hit test. Unlike Mieux however I've never claimed it is without fault. Even as I defend the set against those claiming it sucks I'll admit to it's many flaws. You and I have gone round and round in every thread where someone asks if TA's any good. Something I think Mieux eather refuses to admit, or is too new to have seen.

Anyway, back on topic. What would help the set reach a state of balance? Lowering the freaking recharge rates, and maybe restoring a few of the things the devs took out of powers. Things such as GPA's -recharge, as well as mayhap giving entanlgle arrow it's -recharge back. Maybe make them unenhancable if stacking with glue is such a problem. Heh, yeah I remember the glory days on test. Entangle arrow+Glue arrow acting as a ghetto hold. Make the -recharge for the three non-stacking, or make the values for EA and GPA low and unenhancable.

First screen shot to disprove that whole stale mission theory. Here is evidance number two. Oh and please remember that taking these screenshots mid mission is slowing me down more then no accuracy enhancements is. Oh, and in both please tell me how many insight buff icons you see. I'd really like to know. Oh, here's the final nail in my argument. That fight took along time for one main reason, he kept running away. Please note that I left the team window open the entire mission so you know I'm in fact soloing him. Did you see the experiance his defeat gave? If I had backup in the mission fighting him for me, I'd have gotten little to nothing. Keep that in mind too.

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At that time I was low level, and BARELY noticing any difrance.

[/ QUOTE ] I'm not surprised...because based on your posts...you're clueless. The value of PGA is the same regardless of your level.

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I've seen little credable tests for it's actual value eather.

[/ QUOTE ] lol...because it's sooooooo difficult to test it yourself before running your mouth that it's 5%. Can you do subtraction and division?

You have no idea what you're talking about, but that doesn't stop you from running your mouth like you do know what's up. In school they have a way to deal with it. They give you an F. You get an F in TA.

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First of all Here is a screenshot

[/ QUOTE ] Let's go on Test right now and let me see you solo your Rugged missions without acc. Let's see how long it takes...

oh please oh please let me see you solo Heracles with that build.

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You know what I find pretty funny about all this?

You are basicaly calling some of the staunchest defenders of TA whiners about the set. You would have to go back to their first posts about the set after it released on live but several of the people here who are saying that the set could use a few tweaks are the same people that fought me tooth and nail when I started suggesting that TA needed to be improved becuase it was under par compared to other defender sets.

The arguements they brought up then are the EXACT same arguements that you bring up now.

That, is what I find amuseing. The same people that you accuse of not knowing the set, used the exact same arguements that you use now when trying to explain to me how the set was balanced. Enigma in particular was defensive of the set if I recall even when he thought that Poison Gas Arrow only had a 5% damage debuff.

Speaking of which, the damage debuff suffers the same problem that all damage debuffs do in PvE. So, the net damage debuff that a player sees can actually vary from mob to mob similar to how kinetics debuffs can vary from mob to mob. If you don't understand the damage debuff mechanic, you can look at Ladioss_Sopp's guide to kinetics defenders for the full details on it.

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Amen. Oh Concern, one reason I defended the set so violently was because everyone kept saying it was useless. I still think it's a good set, but I've had 22 levels of experiance. I've gotten more powers, and spent level after level in debt due to it's weaknesses. Ones that didn't really exist until the developers 'balanced' the set in test. It took 21 freaking levels to get recharge rates at a reasonable speed for petes sake.

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For the record, I play a Rad/Rad on a team who runs on Unyielding.

[/ QUOTE ] And I have a Rad/Rad as well...who has all red enhance his attacks. I know EXACTLY what /Rad can do with zero accuracy enhancements. I also have a Dark/Dark...so if ME is soloing on Rugged with no Acc in her attakcs:

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I'm going to adress each claim in turn.

1) It takes her a ridiculously inordinate amount of time, in which case her post is an attempt to mislead...tantamount to lying.

It takes about the same length of time as my rad/rad, and about 2/3 the time my scrappers take to solo each mission. I'm not trying to mislead.

2) She's fighting on Rugged against stale missions...in which case she's lying.

If my missions are stale, then please explain why I am working on the striga missions. While at it explain how my mission against Skyraiders was stale when I had to first accept it. Then continue to explain how my missions are stale when teaming. Something I don't do much actualy. If I only do stale missions, then an alt I don't play offten must be some sort of super-streat sweeper while I'm playing other characters.

3) She's using insights in a majority of battles...in which case is identical to a lying.

I DELETE insights. I only keep two or three for emergancies. What I keep in stock with that toon most times is catch breaths. I personaly find insights to be worthless most times.

To sum it up your familar with Dark/Dark. You have zero clue. how dark/rad works out. If you think having no accuracy makes me take longer, then you don't seem to understand how -def works. Get a full attack chain with rad blast and that -defense is stacking with it's self. Base accuracy of 75% right? Even if every attack debuffs for 5%, I'm able to stack it two or three times. That's 10 to 15% aditional defense debuff, raising my chance to hit to eather 85% or 90%. Not bad if you think about it.

Here's another tidbit. Joined a team today who lied about what we were facing. Turned out to be all 26s when I was told 24s. I had extreme dificulty hitting due to no accuracy being slotted. If on those rare times I hit 3 or so times, my hit/miss ratio improved to the point my heal was actualy reliable. Still did almost no damage, but could heal. If I didn't hit 3 times nothing was gonna hit. Odds were I hit MAYBE once or twice against any one foe. That's facing +4s btw.

I actualy find no reasonable need for accuracy slots. Maybe later I'll have extra slots to waste. Maybe then I will slot accuacy, maybe not. Wait, give me a moment and I'll prove to you how stale my missions are.

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At that time I was low level, and BARELY noticing any difrance.

[/ QUOTE ] I'm not surprised...because based on your posts...you're clueless. The value of PGA is the same regardless of your level.

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I've seen little credable tests for it's actual value eather.

[/ QUOTE ] lol...because it's sooooooo difficult to test it yourself before running your mouth that it's 5%. Can you do subtraction and division?

You have no idea what you're talking about, but that doesn't stop you from running your mouth like you do know what's up. In school they have a way to deal with it. They give you an F. You get an F in TA.

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First of all Here is a screenshot

[/ QUOTE ] Let's go on Test right now and let me see you solo your Rugged missions without acc. Let's see how long it takes...

oh please oh please let me see you solo Heracles with that build.

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That's funny, I have that mission right now. In fact the only reason I havent' done that is a game crash half way through the mission. Turns out that I solo most times with almost all my toons. In fact I tend to solo defenders 90% of the time due to the Not Empathy=Not Defender mindset. A mindset that gets my defenders booted from teams before I even enter a mission.

Hmm, an enemy is hitting you for 10 damage, you use an ability, and the damage drops to 9 or 8. How big are you going to think that power's debuff is? I know some out there think it's possably fun to spend hours testing the statistics to determine the hidden values of each power. I find it fun to spend hours actualy doing missions and talking with friends.

And about my build which you laugh at. I've had this build since issue five's respec. Some powers are new, but not many. The respec mostly just rearanged what level I got some powers at. I've been on rugged since level 14 as well.

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Yes I actualy do. Rad Blast's -defense stacks with it's self, so if I hit once, I keep hitting.

[/ QUOTE ] Just lie through your teeth hunh? I have a rad. The -def is on the order of like 5% or so. Without acc enhancements...you don't "keep on hitting." You're lying, plain and simple. I've seen some of your other posts and you don't know up from down. You claimed PGA was a 5% debuff in another TA/A thread.

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Now here is where you shut up and admit you know jack. I personaly haven't tested PGA's percentages. At that time I was low level, and BARELY noticing any difrance. I've seen little credable tests for it's actual value eather. Now you are saying I am lying about what I can do with radiation blast. Fine, buckle up for some in game screen shots. Oh, and if you will recall you'll remember that at the time I even admited I don't know the actual value but that it appeared to be small. At that point I was level 12 by the way.

First of all Here is a screenshot of my enhancement screen. Look it over and tell me how many accuracy enhancements you see.

Now lets look at This one. What dificulty do you see me playing at? HAY, turns out I'm telling the truth. What do ya know. I hate missing as much as the next guy, and yet I don't feel a pressing need to slot accuracy in everything that accepts it? Interesting. That means, gasp, that I find Rad Blast's stacking -defense to be enough to prevent most misses. SUre I gotta hit first, but that's fine by me.

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My dark/rad defender doesn't slot accuracy in attacks, and solos the third dificulty.

[/ QUOTE ] lmao.....sure ya do.

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Yes I actualy do. Rad Blast's -defense stacks with it's self, so if I hit once, I keep hitting. This also means that my primary rarely misses. Only thing I got an ACC in is twilight gasp simply cause I can't stand my heal missing.

The reason my TA/A defender can't solo anything but heroic is quite simple really. Since there's no freaking way I can actualy prevent damage other then ice arrow, a boss tears me apart. It's the small fact that Ice Arrow can't hold a boss ever. Against minions I can lessen damage enough that 3 or 4 enemies is survivable, barely.

And yeah, I know how hard it is for tanks to actualy tank now. Teamed with seven once and outagroed them all. Still tanks do help me alot. Controlers are better yet, but then I'm just a fifth wheel. Sure I can defend a team, but even with heavily slotting recharge like I did the team has to slow down for me to defend them. I can't heal remember? And medicine pool? HA! Having a hard enough time figuring out two powers to drop for a travel power. I already have my staple three: snapshot, aimed shot, and blazing arrow. I'm regretting respecing out of fistful of arrows cause of how much agro I get in teams. I want the snipe and final power. Aim is almost a must since it boosts damage. That leaves stunning shot and... not thinking of anything else in the set I can drop.

Mieux, please actualy play the set, then play other defender sets, then get a freaking clue. My dark/rad defender doesn't slot accuracy in attacks, and solos the third dificulty. My TA slots acc in acid arrow, and can't solo the second dificulty due to encountering bosses. In a team I do ok, while any other defender I have would do great. In a team with any defender or controler I completely stop using debuffs cause they are entirely unneeded.

I tried Flash Arrow on test server before the set went live. I remember when on test the set could hold it's own when compaired to other defender sets. Flash Arrow even then was the worst power choice I made. I wanted stamina, I knew just what to skip-flash arrow. I still need to decide what secondarys to drop for a travel power.

While I like the non-toggle based setup, it's a definate killer in teams. Unless there's three tanks in the team I'm gonna die as soon as my debuffs start flying. Oh wow, that's such a powerful set isn't it? TA is Ok, it needs to be Good. Better yet if they do what's needed to put it at the same effectiveness of other sets. I don't care bout debuff numbers, just that this is my only permadebt defender due to not midigating damage well enough to survive.

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Nice...but again, personal attacks are still not answering how FA is so awesome.


[/ QUOTE ] First off, I said it was "great" I didn't say it was "awesome."

Second, the answer is fairly obvious.

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Third off the answer is NOT as obvious as you claim. Enlighten us, describe what about a very low -acc that you can't stack with anything else you have and misses alot is so good. -Perception is ok, but once again it many times takes 6 or 7 arrows to debuff an entire group.

First of all this is just hung off the last post.

Plus sides to TA from my experiance on test pre and post balancing as well as playing on on live:
1. No anchors
2. Synergizes well with archery
3. Once a debuff string is started they fire quickly
4. Many tools for any given situation.

Cons:
1. Recharge is entirely too long
2. The debuffs don't always seem to do anything (didn't even notice PGA's main effect for the longest time.)
3. Flash Arrow is next to useless
4. Glue Arrow can't affect or target anything in the air, nor prevents jumping.
5. Entangle arrow, why the heck did they remove it's -recharge again?
6. Ice Arrow's -recharge is so short it barely is useful in boss fights.
7. DA doesn't exactly last long enough IMHO.
8. When teamed with any other defender you feel useless

Yeah, the list of problems is twice as long as th list of pros to the set. That to me is a sign it needs improvement.

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Two effects are applied when you cast Glue Arrow (it helps if you know how the power works). One is that a debuff is applied to every mob in the AoE effect of the power on casting of the power and this is due to the TA defender. Then, a pet or spawn is created that casts it's own debuff every tic. These already do not stack. Obviously they can make non-stacking debuffs.

[/ QUOTE ] I don't believe this is correc.t The debuff is applied by the patch...not the defender...otherwise they would stack. I can stack debuffs with Dark Servant.

As you point out, Glue does two things. It applies a sticky debuff which is not dependent on its existance and it also reinfects anyone who enters the patch. This means that after the patch is gone, mobs are still affected by the debuff.

Now, I don't have a dev response saying this is how it works, but as you said, it helps to know how the power works, which appears to be different than your understanding.

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So, removing the pet and applying the same mechanics of Smoke Grenade and other powers could work.


[/ QUOTE ] I've already addressed this. It's a question of making the power too good. Permanent anchorless, sticky, debuffs are very powerful. This is probably why FA is lower than DN and why PGA only debuffs one thing.

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Fact I've noticed during game play, when GA's patch expires so does the debuff. When the original target dies, so does the debuff patch. After that the debuff goes very soon as well. NEXT.

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Radiation can debuff defense to the point where accuracy enhancements are unneeded against purple-con mobs.

[/ QUOTE ] Right...right...and how many people do you know take out their acc enhancements because of it? Do you know any Rads that take out their acc enhancements because of it?

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Shamefaced raises hand

Then again my TA/A doesn't have any acc enhancements slotted eather except for in a couple primary powers.

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My TA provides more debuffs, on average than my Rad.

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Then please never, ever, ever, play Radiation again. Radiation Emission can debuff defense. Trick Arrow can't. Radiation Emission can debuff regeneration. Trick Arrow can't. Radiation Emission has a Slow and Recharge debuff that's up 1/3rd of the time base. Trick Arrow's? 1/4th. Resistance debuffs? Trick Arrow falls behind whenever Hasten's down.

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I don't have hasten, I'm level 21, I can use disruption arrow almost every fight. By the way, are you aware that acid arrow not only debuffs defense, but takes defense debuff enhancements? Glue arrow is up every fight now, solo. In a team it may be up two times a fight. Regen, um yeah I'll grant you that one.

Thing is, when soloing I now don't NEED more then Ice Arrow and Acid Arrow most times. To get preformance putting me on par with other sets (barely) all it took was just about every slot I got by level 21 going for recharge in my primary powers. That's not good. Lower the recharges PLEASE. You made flash arrow non-stacking, can't you devs please make the other powers non-stacking so recharges can be reasonable again? No other power set I've played needs to slot 2 or 3 recharge in every single power.

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Running an [censored] Eden trial at [censored].

Oh...

Alright, Flash Arrow is equal to Smoke Grenade, maybe a whole 2.5% better. It's still a lot of your damage mitigation, a good 40% of it, so take this power and slot it. Doesn't stack, but it misses often enough that you'll want to fire it pretty often.


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Didn't _castle_ it's exactly the same as fire controller smoke? Ignoreing the fact that it has almost twice the activication time.

Activation time is a real bottleneck for anyone using slow working trick arrows. If you are using all those helpful arrows where is the time to blast. I have a hard enough time finding time to reposition myself with all the activation times on my /trick arrow MM.

And if it was my primary.. wow.. it would feel weird not taking haste with 3 recharge in it. I get a lot from that recharge for some powers like glue pretty bad in a hotspot with it as my secondary. If it was my main job I'd label it as necessary I'd think.

Also some powers could benefit a lot from direct comparisons.. like web grenade vs the trick arrow immoblise. Almost the same except there is no -recharge in the trick arrow defender immoblise. TA immoblise 2.17 activation time it says. Web grenade? 1.37. (2.17 isn't a bad activation time for the trick arrow set though)

Really.. it doesn't seem like a bad set in the powers it's just a few powers that are obviously overshadowed, activation times, and recharges that need a look at it seems to me.

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Plenty of time to blast. TA/A defender here, and I'm always blasting dispite using all my arrows. Actualy it's all I have left while waiting for stuff to recharge.

Lets put it this way, so far every character I have that has faced an elite boss (even +3) has been able to solo it. No one can (or at least should be able to) solo an AV. Teaming isn't always an option. I have a mission with my level 41 scrapper that I dread finishing because it leads into an AV mission. I'm finding it hard most times to put togather a AV team.

On the CoV side my MM main is a elite boss destroyer, but can't handle an AV without at least two other team members.

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To reitterate my post here:

Kind of raises more questions actually.

I thought scaling DEF was promised to the Tank AT, not just certain sets...

And why scrappers? Not to be rude, but their "role" is not defensive... perhaps because they ARE changing the way DEF works globally?

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Why scrappers? Ok, spiderman would be considered a SR scrapper right? He's equaly able to dodge that cosmicly powered being as he is the street punks. If the enemy is way faster then him he's gonna get splatted, but even then he gets hit far less then most heroes.

Iceman would be what, an ice blaster or ice tank? I'd say ice tank since he becomes living ice. He's hit, but most times it just does nothing to him (consider this a miss).

Why shouldn't the Super Reflexes scrapper get scaleing defence too? Our overall defence is lower then an ice tanks defence right? +0 minions are hitting me about 24% of the time due to my increadable agility... but a +2 minion is hitting me 48% of the time? Now I don't care too much about PvP, I do it but don't care. In PvE I've just got to the shadow shard. It's bad enough those eyeballs rip me a new one all the time, the many +2 minions and non-eyeball bosses shouldn't always be ripping me apart as well.

Thanks Statesman! My CoH main has a SG of one just to build a personal lair. Batman has one, Superman has one, Green Arrow at least use to have one, why can't Madam Enigma have a working lair? As it is I'm hoping the prestige gained for trading in 1mil influance is alot. Running invincable missions at level 39 and I'm barely getting 15 prestige for minions conning orange, and maybe 28 for red cons... it's gonna take forever to get a very small base going. My bowfender on liberty is the leader of an sg on liberty. No more then 7 or so players (one of my alts who can earn decent prestige as a spines/dark armor [censored] well). Finaly managed to build a single room, a workshop. Took two days and a member joining to get a worktable put in it. Now just need 400 thousand prestige or so to build a control room, power room, and the needed core items to get the base working! Surrrrrre. After five days we gained maybe 10 thou prestige mostly cause I never leave SG mode. This is nuts! Madam Enigma will never Raid, and likely my other SG wont eather, the group's too dang small! Not to mention it's probably gonna be june before we have a working workshop, let alone the transporter room and private hospital I want to add!

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I have _barely_ dodged that attack, by good mobility... already being in the air when the teleport went off. The caltrops aren't there for damage, they're to make you stick to the ground.

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How about this one? TP foe+stacked caltrops? Enough stacked in one place that the 1 damage ticks combine to take out a scrapper on the first tick? It's happened to me. I had zero chance to react. Heck all I saw after the TP was a ton of 1s floating up at once. Wouldn't that fall under the same category as AS for this thread? A insta-kill with no retaliation?

Ah, not to complane about a buff, with ED Madam Enigma will definatly need this. However the original concept for her was not damage resistance, but damage avoidance. I guess I can change the concept to another character I made in a tabletop game who had superhuman agility and limited invulnabilty. The thing is, that's not who I rolled Madam Enigma to be. The damage resistance numbers had better be good however. SR just can't survive three slotted for defence in I5. I tried.

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The client is the program, and associated files, created by the installer. The folder is little more than a designation as to where to find it. You seem to be implying that if I rename "C:\City Of Heroes" to "C:\Cryptic Nerfed Me", then I have modified the client.

Besides, the map patches, texture mods, sound mods, and such did not modify a single one of these files. They were added. External. The client *chose* to load these over the compressed data. We were using a built-in capability of the client. Now, if we were to unpack the .piggs, change the data, and recompress them, then yes, we would be modifying the game files. Nobody has argued that.

Let me try this in simple terms, for those who still don't get it.


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I'm sorry, did you have a real point there? Now then how about I give my $0.02 worth. They are called mods for a reason right? They MODIFY the game in some way. It doesn't matter if your changing the files, or adding new ones, you just altered the game. THAT is something against the TOS that everyone read and agreed to. At least they should have read it.

So, you claim that the CoH folder isn't the product that the TOS covers, but just the core program files? Um, didn't the game create said folder to hold the entire product? So if you add a new sound file or texture file, didn't you just add to the product your not sopose to mess with? And the infamous map hack? I met someone who used it, and he described exactly what it did to me. He was trying to convince me it's needed to play the game.

Map hack features he mentioned? The location of every store in every zone (added to the game now btw, just have to find them first), standard spawning locations of enemies and what level they will be, event/monster spawn locations... Sounds alot like a major cheet. And just how usefull was this map hack? From how many times he tried entering the same building looking for the magic/mutation shop in Steel, when it was three buildings down the street with a sign. not very helpfull other then a cheet to aviod fighting. I can avoid a fight if I want to by just keeping my eyes pealed.

You have a problem with a looping sound such as targeting drone? Um, why are you running that power when it's not needed anyway? So your playing dark armor and don't like your mez shield's FX? Guess what, it's not always needed anyway so can be turned off when not required. Gee, that's two of the mods everyone is saying are requred I just demonstrated are not really needed. How about custom weapon images? Wow, violating the TOS never felt so lame. The costume creation is already deep, and getting even larger all the time. Do we really need customized weapons before the devs figure out a way to impliment it? And they are working on that remember.

In short, I fail to see why everyone is so upset over having threads about mods removed when the mods are eather blatent cheets or aren't needed anyway, and against the TOS to boot.

Scrappus Devastatus here. My main is a level 32 (almost 33) Claw/SR. I started out teaming alot, but after a few really idiotic teams I tended to solo. I've at least attempted to slolo Doc Vahz (took him down to half with only four respites), but didn't have the patiance to level a few times before trying again. I duoed Positron, and actualy worked with a team for Manticore. In addition I tried to solo the Tera Volta TF

My secondary is a level 18 Dark/Dark scrapper. Tend to only solo with him. Just now tried to team, and the leader refused to listen when I told him I do best when surounded. He kept pulling single enemies and expected me to serve as the main damage dealer. He also ignored my telling him I don't need a defender to heal me. Dark Regen does more then any defender I've ever teamed with to heal me. Got really annoying when he kept pulling one enemy at a time, and expected dark consumsion to keep my endurance filled. I ran out of endurance far too many times in each fight because of that.

Scrapperlock... Madam Enigma has a serious problem with it. I've been known to dive headlong into 60+ enemies without thinking twice about it. Slimy Sam however has less of a problem. He wants to be surounded, he prefers it. Thus getting swarmed by 20+ bad guys is a good thing. He'll dive right in.

As for the squishies? Well as long as their not energy blasters I love them to death. They never need to worry with me around. If they are getting swarmed I dive in and spin attack the whole mess of them. Instant agro.

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As far as I can tell throughout this entire post is more of a repeat of a long ago abilities. A lot of the information is good. However, its misleading and is not reflecting the true results of I5.

Now grated you have to applaud anyone taking the time to report and try to help others, and overall the report is clear, but I hardly think its precise. Moreover this above is just a repeat of older patch notes and results, and not what is really going on.

Dark Scrappers have always been an Offensive Template and originally that was due to the fact that you didn’t get any real defensive properties on your character until level 20- Cloak of Darkness. At this point you desperately needed it as you have basically reached the limit of your Offensive potential.

My Quick Review of Powers under I5-

Dark Embrace
-Resist Smash, Lethal (Very Low), Resist Negative Energy, Toxic (Low).
No matter how much you slot this, or what enhancements you use, it is not [or ever will be] equivalent to any other scrapper damage resistances or skill. Supposedly Dark Embrace was getting an Endurance cost decrease, however results so far have indicated that Damage Resistance has been decreased and in fact Endurance cost has increased slightly over pervious.

This skill currently should be more appropriately named Dark Embarrassment in fact. Its better than a Poke in the Eye, but as far as the post above stating to slot it heavily shows that they are not currently running this type of character.
1. You should never have more than 3 to 4 slots on this before level 20 as the results or desired results from the slots are negligible and you will not notice any difference. Plus you need to save these slots for stuff that actually works and functions. Offense.

Death Shroud
-Negative Energy Damage (Minor PBAoE DoT).
Currently if you take this early it will just end up getting you kill faster that if you didn’t have it at all. For one, you cannot do any real damage with it, and secondly it ends up attracting more villains than you can handle. This was true even under I4.

It’s a nice skill to have, but because you really have no defense anymore [because one or more of the developers had no clue about Dark and what it did or does] you are repeatedly pounded into submission anyway and cannot take on a large mob anyhow [even with Dark Embrace 6 slotted]. Plus the fact that the endurance cost is very high. You can always take this later, but even then your going to get pounded.

Murky Cloud - Resist Fire, Cold (High), Resist Negative Energy, Energy (Moderate), Resist Endurance Drain.
-Actually this is a very handy skill, but you can run without it for a time. Most times you have too anyway, due to the endurance cost of your other armors and your end result of the melee cost of your attacks. However, its actually very effective. You can minimally slot this and still be impressed [compared to your Dark Embrace] as to its effectiveness. Slot no more than 2 or 3 before level 20, and you need to save these slots for stuff that actually works and functions.

Obsidian Shield - Resist Psionics (Moderate), Resist Stun, Sleep, Hold, Fear (Moderate).
-This will become your secondary Armor skill and most likely will run with it on more than any other skill from here on out. Mostly due to the ability to resist STUN and HOLD. It is costly Endurance wise, but not anything like Murky Cloud the true Endurance Hog of this set. Slot no more than 2-3 before level 20 and you need to save these slots for stuff that actually works and functions.

Dark Regeneration - Negative Energy Damage (Minor), Heal (Moderate)-
Firstly you need to bypass this when it becomes available for two very important reasons.
1. You do not have enough endurance to use it in 90% of the situations anway and the overall effect is negligible. Simply put, by the time you have used it, you have already been pounded down to where you started and lost endurance in the process.
2. You need the slots that would go here somewhere else that is actually effective.
Take this at level 26 or later.

Cloak of Darkness - Stealth (Moderate), Melee Defense (Low), Ranged Defense (Low), Resist Immobilizes, Increased Perception.
-Firstly let me say that this was the whole concept behind Dark Armor and why Dark Melee has the worst TOHIT rate of any other character or class within the game. You swing at them and miss, they swing at you and miss. Currently, I have to consider this the worst case scenario out of I5 and the best example of the developers Tomfoolery, and lack of ability to understand the game. Even Tanks were not hit as hard as this. This power was such in demand for and needed for your character even before I5 you had to take this skill over such things like; Stamina. Basically this was a “HaveTo” skill even under I4 at level 20 as your offensive properties are basically peaked and your defenses are peaked and your still getting pounded.

Now if you have managed to get this far with your character here is the point under I5 where you are going to throw in the towel and quit and come and curse the developers. You will probably go a few more levels, but in the end this skill is not functioning PERIOD. Which actually means your character does not function. You have basically topped out and are still doing so poorly that you wont want to continue. You have already taken a bad beating on the way up and not it just going to continue. Everyone else is getting better and your basically stagnate at level 20 for 30 more levels.

The only other solution is have someone Power Level you from 20 to 28 and try again, but the results are basically the same as Cloak of Fear can only effect basically 50% and you are still restricted to small Mobs 3-4 villains of equal level, as you have no defenses and still have a long way to go.

The only real suggestion at this point I can give to anyone is base your character on NOT taking this skill Cloak of Darkness, and take some type of Stealth skill off one of the Power Pools as its at least 10 times more effective. However, if your going to do that anyway pick something else besides DA that actually works and save yourself the trouble. In other words; the developers have taken a Level 20 skill and made it less effective than a skill available at level 6 and 14 level.

The above post indication that this provides 0.65% defense. This could be correct as its below 1% effectiveness and currently its so ineffective I cannot calculate it. Current characters slotted SO’s 1, 3 and 5 show no results defensively from this skill PERIOD. With Cloak of Darkness On or Off no results can be indicated as your hit just as often. Test results have indicated an UNSLOTTED Hover skill has more defensive properties than Cloak of Darkness does.

No real point in going on with the rest of the skills as this class has been destroyed like so many others. The only REAL defensive skill on the Dark Armor tree has been removed and edited not to function. Dark Armor has no real defensives and coupled with the fact that Dark Melee has the worst TOHIT rate in the game just means you are going to die repeatedly on missions as your hit repeatedly and are missing them repeatedly.

Personally, I have found no solution to this yet on all THREE characters, and basically that is because there is no solution. The only real solution is NOT to click DA, Scrapper, and just pay my 15bucks and click a Blaster and [censored], or quit. Maybe I should get a discount and only have to pay 0.65% of that 15 bucks? 98cents, or something like that.

The current satiation with DA and in particular Cloak of Darkness is so horrendous it has to be a mistake, as if someone misplaced a <insert colorful remark here> decimal point. There is no way this type of character will work anymore with its MAIN defensive skill set at 0.65%. Not when it has to stand Toe to Toe with everything as it is a MELEE CLASS.

Now some of you might be saying it cant be this bad. Well, please try it yourself and good luck. : P Most people gave up before level 28 before I5 anyhow. Now????? I wouldn’t even suggest anyone actually even attempt DA/DM. Your better off as a Tank actually. : P

I would actually have to classify DA/DM as the worst class within the game currently with no solution in sight other than a major edit.

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Not to be rude LoreUndone, but ah... just what the heck are you smoking? How the heck do you figure dark regen is useless, or that you will take just as much damage as it healed? I clocked it at 1400 HP healed at one point during a mission. I had 419 HP max at the time. With one enemy it is better then a respite, with two enemies it will heal you from severly hurt, three plus enemies will take you from 1 HP to full in one use. And you say it's useless?!

I have a level 18 dark/dark scrapper, and he rarely uses his primaries. He still solos all his missions. If I stop paying attention I die, if I'm paying attention almost nothing can kill me, that includes hazard zone spawns.

You claim that taking death shroud early is going to cause you to face plant. Huh? Please explain that statement. It doesn't agro anything not already in melee range of you. It does tons of damage if your surounded. I have it slotted with DOs, and it rocks. Since when is ten damage or so every second or two to everything in melee going to kill you? At low levels I charged into a pack of 5 minions and a LT, I focused on fighting the LT. By the time he was dead most of the minions were already dead or almost dead.

Your saying that it doesn't matter how much or little the damage resist shields are slotted, they will never work as well as the other tank and scrapper sets. And your point is? It has OTHER threat midigation items. It posesses the best self heal in the game, a DoT aura that simply rocks, a pbaoe stun, pbaoe fear, stealth... Dark armor is about being a swiss army knife, you have the tools for the job no matter what the job requires. It is not about being a hammer when you need a screwdriver. I looked at this power set and thought "Hay, this would work great for soloing". So far I have not been proven wrong.

You claim CoD is useless, but since when is the ability to sneek past the enemy useless? I've seen many timed missions where I wished I had it already. Oh, by the way in case you didn't notice, the set isn't about gaining defence. If you want +defence go with super reflexes. The set is about the age old idea that if the enemy can't attack (dead or controled) you have 100% defence to anything that oponant could do to you. If the ten guys around you are dead (death shroud helps with this) they are not attacking you. If they are feared they are not attacking you. If they are stunned they are not attacking you. If they don't know your there... once again they are not attacking you. Once they notice you, switch to another way of keeping them from attacking.

Once again, just what are you smoking? It's obviously the really good stuff if you can't figure out that /DA is not about pure defence. /DA is about being versitile. your whole post is nothing but trying to claim my dark/dark scrapper's five defensive powers (and one I will take soon for stealth) are useless. If that was the case I never would have gotten to level 18 with Slimy Sam. I don't play him much, maybe an hour or two a week, I created him about three weeks ago, he's level 18. That is not useless.

Screwloose, I must applaud your guide. It's truely top notch.

Ok, I have a question about the stealth changes. I use Shadow Fall, and eventualy will have Cloak of Darkness. Do they work like I'm thinking? That being that only the badguy I attack and those next to him see through my stelth and I keep the defence bonus.

If so then why did they not just say it's unchanged. If attacking negates the stelth aspect completely, then why am I running Shadow Fall all the time? It doesn't offer mez protection, it's damage resistance doesn't come into play offten... OH YEAH, higher defence. Wait, until I pump three more slots into it I have the base defence. Was that cut too?