Maestintaolius

I've gotta admit, TSW has been quite appealing to me and seems pretty casual friendly. I initially wrote the game off when it first came out based on the negative reviews and it gave me the impression it was faction pvp focused so I instead got into TERA. TERA is pretty fun but the endgame is totally gated by the random number generator so the endgame progression totally sucks, is ridiculously grindy and not really all that well balanced. After reading the reddit coh boards there seemed to be a few CoH players eyeballin TSW so I decided to give it a try and I'm pretty glad I did.

With NC killing CoX, TSW is the MMO that 'feels' most like CoH to me. The synergies and whatnot you have to consider when making your toon is similar to the thought process that goes into thinking about IO builds and the dungeons are TF/SF-ish. The quests, particularly the investigation ones, are brilliantly done and the lore is pretty good (do yourself a favor and try to minimize looking everything up online and actually try to solve the mysteries yourself).

Costuming/clothing options are no where's near as great as CoH, but I don't think any MMO, except maybe champions, holds a candle to CoH's character creator. The combat is pretty fast like CoH's and you can dodge some attacks so there's a small action component (nothing like TERA though).

Hope to see a lot of my fellow CoH refugees there!

Well, I don't really think you can find the Holy Trinity origins in AD&D. Yeah, in the beginning, when the mage dies to a giant rat and the cleric dies to 2-3 rats, the fighter classes were more or less tanks and served that role for a time. But later on, the game becomes ruled by mages who can not only become totally invulnerable, but can easily wipe out most fighters with Finger of Death or similar methods of mass destruction. Granted, 3rd and Pathfinder (I refuse to touch 4th) remedied some of this high and low level power balance but, generally, good DMs, in my opinion, never relied on combat XP to provide the majority of the player rewards. Combat can be central to DnD but it doesn't have to be to level/progress so you don't really need clearly defined class roles.

I happen to think the holy trinity roles have their origins in older CRPGs, particularly things like Wizardry where only the first 3 people out of 6 could generally be meleed (granted this changed in 4 and later with long reach/ranged type weapons) but your first 3 people generally were your 'tanks' and the last 3 people were your mage dps and cleric heals. Many CRPGs followed this, partially due to technological limitations, partially due to AI limitations and partially due to designer creativity. FF1, for example, the probability of taking dmg for each spot was 4:3:2:1 so naturally you put your meatshields in the front 2 and whm/blm in the back 2. Its easy to balance and program games around well defined roles.

The first MMO I can remember was NWN (the original that was basically gold box DnD online, not Bioware's) and it basically held true to the tank, healz, dps structure. Granted, it wasn't really massively multiplayer like the games of today are, but the progression from CRPG to MMORPG meant that a lot of the first MMOs were similar in structure to the general "holy trinity" CRPG model (EQ for example). Most MMOs today still incorporate these basic elements because its easy to balance for designers and familiar to players.

When you start implementing things that have tree systems or loose roles, balancing can start to become quite the headache. I loved the original SWG with all the options for trees but it also resulted in powergaming on a massive scale because of the fact the trees were definitely not equal and the players figured it out quickly and before you knew it, nearly everyone had 2-3 rancors, then they all became BHs, then they all became commandos as devs kept trying to balance (read:nerf) the classes. I remember being quite upset over the whole pistols >> rifles issue. Balancing open trees is very, very hard and nerfs generally anger players and risks your revenue stream.

That said, it does seem that games are trying to move away from the traditional 1970s-80s CRPG models. Bioware with Mass Effect and, even more so, Dragon Age are starting to open up to a more open tree/skill based system. Granted, both of those still have somewhat clearly defined ATs but the variety in the tree system is opening up more options to branch out of the traditional "tank, support, dps" roles. Of course, the balance issue with the tree system can become brutally apparent in Dragon Age with some builds that are able to waltz through the game on hard while others will get destroyed by 3 Mabari on easy. This also generally means, the new player gets destroyed a lot because they don't know the effective power combinations. This is less risky for single player games (because you already have their money), but can be deadly to MMOs when you're trying to secure a player base/revenue stream.

Unfortunately, this probably means that most MMOs for the near future will be still 'tank, heal, dps' because its proven,already out there and successful. I'm sure eventually someone, somewhere will figure out a balanced open tree system suitable for online play and easy to learn that will bring changes to the MMORPG genre. Until that day, most new MMOs will probably still try to be newer shinier versions of WoW because its familiar and successful.

I think replacing dimension shift with a gravity well power would greatly improve the utility of the set, something like a reverse bonfire. Of course... it'd be highly exploitable in the farming community. That, or make dimension shift a single target toggle with more noticeable graphic effects.

I would really love to see more options for the color choices in cold domination and ice blast sets. My dark blast character by comparison has the full rainbow for color choices yet my poor ice blast toon is limited to the color choices found in Easter egg dye kits.

edit: fixed dye

The ease of the game and the lack of a grind is what keeps me playing to be honest. If I want to just chill out and goof around for an hour while simultaneously making tangible progress on my toon I can, and that's the appeal of the game to me. Likewise, if I'm not burned out from work/family/etc and want to do something more hardcore, those settings are also available in the game. The flexibility, user-determined difficulty and speed of this game are what I love about it. If I wanted a long tedious grind MMO or an MMO that focused on lvl 50, 60, 104920 on one 'main toon' being the end goal I'd be there and not here. There's plenty of MMOs like that out there already and I see no reason for CoH to move that already crowded MMO direction.

Just tested it, disruption field shuts off at 100 yards.

Well, as far as corr/def/troll debate goes, it really depends on your preference. Earth/sonic is quite effective, especially the combination of liquefy and earthquake as it'll keep an entire spawn totally locked down and pooman becomes indestructible, especially with the +res uniques. Fender vs Corr, well I'd say both have endurance issues, I had more issues with my corr but that's because I blasted more in the low levels, but if you slot a few +end/+rcvry sets you'll be just fine (4 slot imperviums), defender's a tad less squishy than the corr due to slightly higher self buff values from epics and dispersion.

As far as caging goes, I have slotted two acc/hold HOs and 2 rchgs, it's enough to keep any AV perma caged. It's been a long time since my intanges have been unenhanced, but if iirc the towers and AVs are holdable with just 2 acc, 2 rchg slotting so you don't need any intang enhancement for that. The flyer needs at least one acc/hold HO enhancement to cage I think. As far as caging the nictus, I haven't been able to do it solo, the only time I've been able to cage nictus is when there is another cager on the team and we stack it (same for GMs).

I couldn't tell you the range for certain on sonic disruption breaking, it's usually when you're not looking :P. Sleeps and rikti will really tick you off after a while as mesmerists will generally laugh at your shields.

As far as blast sets go, I like radiation personally but sonic/sonic is just phenomenal. Ice or fire + sonic are good fun too but endurance can be painful in the lower levels. I also enjoyed my dark/sonic corr but the cones have a bit of a learning curve and sadly gloom, tt and nightfall don't work well (or at all really) with scourge but life drain was handy. If you go radiation slot -res procs.

If you've got the space, aid self is always kind of handy on a sonic resonance. Your self protection levels aren't quite as high as a bubbler because, generally, you're always going to get hit and are always taking damage (granted it is reduced) where as a bubbler is missed a lot. I would say it's far from required however as anyone with a minor heal on the team can patch you up.

Edit: Oh until the repairmen are changed, if you plan on STF runs you'll probably want sonic repulsion. Be mindful though that it eats FAR more endurance than force bubble.

Well, with rad blast there's a few things you can do to actually make the set quite effective. Generally, the key to remember is rad blast is kind of a jack-of-all trades blast set, it has a good mix of AoE capability and ST capability but excels at neither. So if you're busy comparing your AoE capability to fire and your ST to sonic or ice, you're generally always going to be unhappy. Also, remember that your AEs, unlike rain of fire/ice/blizzard can cause critters to scatter, which may or may not be an annoyance. The other thing to remember is rad blast is generally faster recharging, so while your dmg numbers may be smaller, you throw out quite a few of them.

That said, there are a few things you can do to greatly improve the effectiveness of the set.

First off, I use the AEs, generally, after dropping sleet on my rad/cold corr, I drop irradiate followed up by newt bomb then position myself for a good electron haze (target a critter on the opposite side of the spawn and jump back to max range and let loose to hit a lot of things). The numbers aren't super impressive but they do whittle things down and by the time you finish these three things the spawn is either A) dead, B) still alive but your irradiate, newt, electron cycle is recharged. If you combine the effects of enervating field+am you can actually churn out some decent numbers in addition to flooring pretty much everything's defense (without needing RI).

Secondly, my ST attack chain is newt, cosmic, newt, xray, repeat (if your global recharge is too low to keep this up you can throw ehaze in the cycle, its perfectly useful as a ST attack). Newt bolt is actually quite effective if you load it up with procs, to the point where it actually becomes respecable dps. If you throw a apocalypse, shield breaker, lady grey and achilles proc along with 2 nuc HOs (combined with +rchg set bonuses from elsewhere) newt bolt will always be available as a quick animating filler that does an awful lot of procing and is very cheap to use. You could also replace a nuc HO for the pvp IO proc as well but right now the cost of those is around triple that of the apoc proc so I don't see the cost to return ratio being worth it atm. You won't see huge numbers, but its a pretty constant dps stream, especially when the achilles proc kicks in.

Third, slot -res achilles in procs in everything, they're great in newt bomb, bolt, xray, irradiate. You don't need to worry about getting maximum recharge or acc slotting in the powers because they all come back so fast and you can make up for it with global +rchg (which will help your AM as well) and rad's -def debuffs and innate higher to-hit. The only two rad blasts I don't have achilles in are cosmic burst, which I have 5 slotted decimation and the analyze weakness acc/rchg because it does have a somewhat substantial recharge time and its stun effect is important enough to me that I like it having a higher accuracy just in case I need it. I also have the +rchg proc in electron haze instead of achilles (but I mostly use it to keep my heat loss/hasten near perma).

With all the -res and -def you throw around, especially with AEs, you'll find that while your damage might not be the highest on the team you improve the overall dmg of the team due to the fact everyone else hits harder and more reliably, especially those sidekicking moochers.

Generally, I skip the nuke (while fun it's usually counterproductive to my team protecting duties), aim (because I skipped the nuke) and proton volley (I dislike snipes despite its cool sound effect). Depending on how tight your build is you might be able to fit aim in there, but personally I'd recommend dark mastery and take og (to stack with cosmic's stun and give you the ability to stun bosses) and the wonderful little soul drain power which can become quite impressive after you get a good chunk of +rchg. Perma or near perma-soul drain will go a long way to upping your dmg output and being considerably more useful (IMHO) than aim and will mesh well with the fact you'll be in melee anyway to use irradiate (and if you use it after irradiate, will hit a lot of things). Dark embrace will also go a long way towards making you more durable as well as you will occasionally get bruised when hanging out in melee. Normally defender types go for power mastery for PBU, but I find PBU isn't all that great for radiation emission.

All these doom posts, I just don't understand them or why they've been so prevalent lately...

Perhaps it has something to do with that lone crow the onion was talking about...

Worrying about being obsolete in this game is just silly. Outside of hamidon, I can't think of anything I haven't been able to do with a core team of 3 people, and several times that group of 3 has included a defender (and not just /sonic ones). You hardly need a team to composed purely of the optimal builds to steamroll anything in this game. This game is fun, but this game certainly isn't hard and hardly requires any magical combination of blessed builds to play.

My defenders have had no trouble finding ITFs, LGTFs or AE RWZ teams despite their 'inferiority' to corruptors and controllers. And furthermore, I would hardly consider my defenders 'burdens' or 'mooches' on those farming or speed-tf teams, especially since there's usually 1 or 2 poor players who are underperforming and presenting more of a burden than a supposedly suboptimal defender, regardless of their build type or AT.

You can always argue that one AT/Powerset makes another obsolete. Granite and cleverly built WPs can be argued that they out-tank all other armor sets in the game, yet there are plently of flavors of tank out there and all just as effective. To go even further, scrappers can be argued that they make tanks and some brutes obsolete because a super maxed scrapper will outperform both damage-wise and be just as indestructible, especially when combined with a support AT, yet there are still many tanks and brutes around and they have no difficulty finding teams. MMs can pretty much make every AT unneeded, yet there are still plenty of everything around redside and purpleside. And then to take it to the extreme, there's my buddies and their 2 AR/MM blasters that are IOed in such a way that it pretty much makes everyone feel obsolete with their destructive capabilities coupled with their being nearly indestructible.

Now, I will agree that the defender inherent is kind of lame. But, this is likely influenced by the fact I tend to play more proactively than reactively and end up getting little benefit from it, so my opinion of it is definitely skewed. That said, I wouldn't mind a little change to it. Perhaps instead of being only an endurance discount when you've been slacking and your team is dying, it could be a damage modifier boost on the other end of the spectrum. So when your team is doing well, the defender damage scalar goes up, and when it's doing poorly, you get a boost to endredux. The damage boost could go down while the team is dying and the end redux remain as it is now. Odds are, if your team is dying you're not going to be shooting stuff in the face and when it's doing well, odds are, you will be shooting stuff in the face (unless you're one of those useless "healer" players).

But, then again, heroes in generally don't really depend all that strongly on their inherent to do their jobs, they help, but aren't as core to the AT as the villain inherents are. Of course, I personally feel that scourge is highly overrated. The only toon I've ever had that I felt got any real use out of scourge was my rad/cold because x2 dmg newt bolt was actually helpful for finishing stuff off. My ice, fire, sonic corrs found it to generally be useless because by the time it reliably kicks in, x1 dmg would have killed the critter anyway. And my dark blast most certainly found it to be totally useless as scourge doesn't work for %@#$ on nightfall, gloom or TT (not to mention scream, irradiate or any other of the quick DoT powers).

The difficulty I see with buffing defenders is it's a very slippery slope, several solo defender builds out there already laugh at the game's content with only moderate budgetary cost and many competent defender duos with just SO slotting can easily laugh at 99% of the game's content. Heck, my FF/Elec with a build primarily focused on teaming has no problem soloing most EBs and he's hardly an optimal soloer, he doesn't even have aid self.

Sell em now, when the ability to set spawn size rolls out in the next issue odds are purples will drop in price.

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In normal missions, I just arrange to tank alternate mobs with the other tank, so that there's always a nice tight group for the damage to blow away.

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I typically won't want a second tank on the team because I'm usually looking for something else like a blaster or aoe scrapper. However, if I have a second tank I'll typically grab agro on one spawn, and if the second tank is not smart enough to skip to the next one then I'll just jump to the next spawn and group it up while the team finishes off the first spawn, and so on. Unfortunately, it's kind of rare for me to run into the tankers that understand the leap-frog concept, but it's great when you find a partner that does.

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Can AVs endurance bar even get dented?

IMO Stone tanks dies in PvP. They use to not die as much since all they did was teleport away and all the way to the safety of the base. But i'm pretty sure stone tanks are pretty squishy in PvP now.

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It can, but it's usually easier to drain the hp bar first.

The only times I've ever really done it was on teams with my ff/elec with a kin/elec partner. It's possible, but on a decent dps team you'll kill the AV before the end gets drained.

My build, focusing on recharge and keeping indomitable will pretty close to perma (perma with stacked siphons) without bothering with purple sets. ID for the purposes of STF and +res in stoney.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Earth Control
Secondary Power Set: Kinetics
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Fossilize -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), RechRdx-I(42), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(43), HO:Endo(43), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(45), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(46)
Level 1: Transfusion -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(A), Acc-I(25), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(34), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(40), Dct'dW-Rchg(40)
Level 2: Siphon Power -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(3), RechRdx-I(3), RechRdx-I(25)
Level 4: Stone Cages -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(5), Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(5), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(7), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(9)
Level 6: Quicksand -- TmpRdns-Rng/Slow(A), TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(7)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(9)
Level 10: Siphon Speed -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(11), RechRdx-I(11), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 12: Stalagmites -- Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(A), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(13), Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(13), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(15), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(15), RechRdx-I(17)
Level 14: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 18: Earthquake -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(A), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(19), DarkWD-Rchg/EndRdx(19), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(21), Achilles-ResDeb%(46)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21)
Level 22: Speed Boost -- Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(23), Efficacy-EndMod(23)
Level 24: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 26: Volcanic Gasses -- BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(A), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(27), BasGaze-Acc/Hold(27), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(29), RechRdx-I(29), HO:Endo(43)
Level 28: Inertial Reduction -- Zephyr-ResKB(A)
Level 30: Tactics -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(31), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(31), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(31), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 32: Animate Stone -- SvgnRt-PetResDam(A), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(33), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(33), ExRmnt-+Res(Pets)(34), ExRmnt-Acc/Rchg(40)
Level 35: Transference -- Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod(36), Efficacy-Acc/Rchg(36), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc(37), Efficacy-EndMod/EndRdx(37)
Level 38: Fulcrum Shift -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(39), RechRdx-I(39), RechRdx-I(39)
Level 41: Indomitable Will -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(42), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 44: Mind Over Body -- TtmC'tng-ResDam(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(45), TtmC'tng-ResDam/Rchg(45), S'fstPrt-ResKB(46)
Level 47: Psionic Tornado -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(48), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Posi-Dmg/Rng(48), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), FrcFbk-Rechg%(50)
Level 49: Increase Density -- (A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
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[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]7.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]7.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]7.5% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]7.5% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]7.5% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]7.5% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]7.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]7.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]2.5% Defense(Smashing)[*]2.5% Defense(Lethal)[*]5% Defense(Energy)[*]5% Defense(Negative)[*]1.25% Defense(Melee)[*]2.5% Defense(Ranged)[*]4% Enhancement(Heal)[*]18% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]72.5% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]3% Enhancement(Immobilize)[*]3% Enhancement(Stun)[*]72.5 HP (7.13%) HitPoints[*]Knockback (Mag -8)[*]Knockup (Mag -8)[*]MezResist(Confused) 2.5%[*]MezResist(Held) 2.5%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 2.5%[*]MezResist(Sleep) 4.7%[*]MezResist(Stun) 2.5%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 4.7%[*]16% (0.27 End/sec) Recovery[*]20% (0.85 HP/sec) Regeneration[*]20% Resistance(Smashing)[*]20% Resistance(Lethal)[*]22.8% Resistance(Fire)[*]22.8% Resistance(Cold)[*]21.3% Resistance(Energy)[*]23.1% Resistance(Negative)[*]20% Resistance(Toxic)[*]20% Resistance(Psionic)[/list]

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What this thread has boiled down to; oranges taste better than apples because oranges are orange.

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Don't forget those who say apples are tasty because they are apples are wrong because oranges are better. Other than that, right on the money.

Who knew that two sets with two very similar powers could make them automatically set in stone that one is better than the others and everyone else is wrong because of it.

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No apples are better because they can be red, green, reddish-greenish-orangish and white-ish on the inside. Also, everyone knows that if you eat oranges you're a noob. Therefore, you're wrong.

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What about clementines?

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Lolzz@ Slax... Guardian people dont know what time to merits is.They are happy with a 3 hour plus sf and 32 deaths as long as there are cookies.

You silly man. WTH are you thinking? Is your air conditioner broken again?I am worried you have a heatstroke now

edited cause I misspelled "silly" of all things.

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Not all of guardian is cookie focused. Some of us here do, in fact, frequently run 30 ± 10min stf, lrsf, lgtf, itf, and khan tfs. Although I have no idea why any tf farmer would bother with a khan tf considering many tfs offer better merit/time rewards.

Bragging about being good at the pve in this game is like bragging about being good at blinking. Don't get me wrong, this game is fun, but it certainly isn't difficult. Some of us enjoy running through TFs at mach speed and peak efficiency, others prefer a more leisurely pace involving cookies, whatever floats yer boat.

Love the changes, non-permadom is definitely more playable now. I just wish domination wasn't rainbow-brite-happy mode.

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(Though, if OnLive has its way with us gamers, this could be the last hardcore PC I ever buy. Big "if" but still kinda amazing...)

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I figured out how OnLive works: They set up "data stargates" at different sectors of the country to instantaneously send the information without any noticeable network latency or destruction of bandwidth. The stargates themselves are simply a massive collection of Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cables set in a Möbius strip located at the source and destinations.

The only setback so far has been all the Gamma Ray Bursters they keep sending in a continuous, accelerating loop.

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The problem I have with those cables is your data travels so fast through them that the electrons approach infinite weight, creating micro black holes that cause you to lose your data.

Not really, no.

edit: Generally, it comes down to your ability to skip/ignore most things or knowing the tricks to skip them.

I do the exact same things using my FF. We will typically run a SpeedTriTF where we run the ITF, STF and LGTF all in under 100 minutes or we fail, counting travel and inbetween TF time, where half the team or more are puggers.

Edit: I don't include recruitment in those times, as that is highly variable, but since I'm known for speed running TFs it usually doesn't take long to get people. Incase you were curious, my SG of 4 people provides the core team (of which 3 are core team, the 4th doesn't play as much). The core trio is WP/EM tank, FF/Sonic, Plant/Kin and the occasional 4th is a sonic/sonic (when I can convince the wife to play). We used to use a cold/sonic, but found it wasn't sufficient due to the lower toxic resist for the tree and no end drain protection (my WP tank's only weaknesses).