Melancton

This is where it just gets puzzling, because we were able to damage Reichsman and get him down to a little (and I mean little) nub of health--- where he stayed from there on.

I have been in some AV fights where you get the AV beaten down and they activate some "Popeye the Sailor Man" power and suddenly they have a lot of health and/or a lot of energy and you are clearly losing ground. But Reichsman got to his nub and never regained any health nor lost any health. We were suddenly at a perfect stalemate. Periodically some of us would get one-shotted out of the blue, but between my Day Job rez temp power and someone else with the Emp rez, we were able to totter on. (When the only other person with a rez DCd, I had to hit the hospital.)

So with Reichsie at his nub of health, we still got about 3 shots apiece on him with the Temp Power. Various Temp Pets would get deployed. All of our attacks continued as they had to get him down to the nub of health in the first place. And his health bar never moved again, up or down, for about an hour.

I would just chalk this up to needing a Kin or Rad (regardless of Dev protestations to the contrary) except the first team I was on took him out without a Kin or a Rad, and I don't know that everyone fired all their Temp Power shots, either.

The mystery deepens.

Which is what threw me. Actually, as it turns out, you talk to the radio again.

Don't know why that did not occur to me, but the detective was not helping, so I thought there was some knack to it.

And there you go.

How does one drop a radio mission? Or is it even possible?

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The OSA-AE bug is being investigated, it'll be fixed when they figure out why it's broken.

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The exact mechanic in AE missions is that the Oil Slick, once on the ground, is showing up as a Friend, complete with blue target reticle. So when you target it, it sends the attack at a baddie, as though you were "assisting" the tank.

As a result, the ONLY way I have seen it light in AE missions is if some baddie fires off an AoE, like Rain of Fire, that happens to hit the Slick with the appropriate sort of attack. (So far, I have not seen a baddie deliberately attack the Slick individually, probably since anything else has more aggro.)

Your own AoEs, or those of your team, will not ever hit the Slick because it is "friendly," so your own Rain of Fire, etc., will never light it.

Castle has said they are aware of it and working on a fix, but commentary beyond that leads to grumbling and a thread derailment.

I have run the Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaahn! TF twice now on my Plant/Storm. On neither occasion did we have a Rad or a Kin.

The first go-round, the team arbitrarily shot Reichsie when the thought occurred with the Temp Power that is supposed to "ground him in his own dimension and take away his additional power." With a mere 64 deaths for the whole TF, we FINALLY whittled him down, but he periodically would one-shot members of the team, or even two or three at a time. We used Shivans and Wolves, but only a handful, and ultimately took him down, bit by bit, and beat the TF.

The second go-round, the team decided to go down the roster and hit Reichsie in succession with the Temp Power, calling out "Done" when each of us fired. We got him down to a little nub of health much faster, but same as the last time, we could not finish that last bit off, even firing the Temp Power in succession. We eventually ran out of shots with him still at the little nub of health. Unlike the last time, we could not ever finish him.

In the second instance, we used Shivans, Wolves, Amy's and even SnowBeasts. Reichsie loved to one-shot them shortly after deployment, so we took to healing on them as soon as we deployed them.

In both instances, we had to fight all of the AVs. In both instances, we had a stone Tank in the lead. Both took a long time, the first about 2 1/2 hours, the second right around 3 hours. But we could NOT finish him off in the second. At around the 3 hour mark, two members (who had DCd periodically all evening) were lost again. I got killed and had to use the hospital, and locked up trying to reenter the mission. When I forced the program to end and bypassed the updater to get back, the team had given up.

Now I realize that Life Is Just Better with a Rad or a Kin, and preferably both. But I have no idea if the Temp Power is helping or not, and if so, what the best way to use it would be. Clearly one does not "HAVE" to have a Rad or a Kin, since we did triumph the first time, but I am certainly open to suggestions on the Temp Power. (Obviously, I would get a Rad or Kin if possible.)

How is the best way to use the Temp Power, or does it even matter?

Just remember to go Magic or Tech for your origin, so that you can light the Oil Slick with your Temp Power. But Earth/TA can also light it when you fire it on top of Volcanic Gasses.

Earth/TA is an asset to any team, but you won't be going solo very fast until Rocky and the Oil Slick come along.

QR

Earth is such a great set, it would be hard to go wrong with any secondary. I think the top 3 to consider would be /Storm, /Rad and /TA.

Earth/Storm is tremendous fun, and the AoE Immob makes Lightning Storm and especially Tornado vastly more effective. Between Freezing Rain and Quicksand and Earthquake, which can all be deployed while around a corner and under cover, baddies will be hugely debuffed. I took an Earth/Storm to 50 and then participated in an all-Earth Super Team with another up to 50 and loved every minute of both. /Storm brings some heavy damage starting in the mid-30s, and is the easiest to solo at that point.

Earth/Rad will be an even more killer debuffer, as well as picking up Acc Metabolism and other goodies, but Local Man does the best job singing those praises. Not as heavy damage-wise as the other two, though.

Earth/TA is also a huge debuffer, and adds the interesting effect that Volcanic Gases always seems to ignite the Oil Slick, which is the damage component of /TA. Rocky is not as wonky with the Slick as the Fire Imps are, but that has to be taken into account. Do take a Tech or Magic origin so that you will have the Temp Power to light the Oil Slick for when you use it without VG.

Earth is a wonderful set any way you go.

QR

This is one of those situations in which Snow Storm in the /Storm set is very handy for its -fly.

If you don't have a -fly power available, as has been noted, if you can hit a baddie on the ground with Roots, very often the AoE will "splash" onto nearby fliers. I have noted this when trying to keep Roots on baddies getting buzzed down by Tornado. Sometimes I am just a hair late and baddies get flung before I can fire Roots off. I have seen Roots hit someone with the "splash" that was being held in the air in a corner by the Tornado, whereas it would "Target in Air" if fired at him directly.

I suppose it "logically" makes sense that the plants have to be able to grow up out of the ground in order to grab the baddies, and it adds that element of challenge to playing Plant. I do like it that not every Controller set is exactly the same with just different animations.

Back when Midnight Hour first debuted, Lady Jane's AI was extremely aggressive--- she would run down hallways to attack groups that had not been aggroed by anyone, leaving groups already in combat to do so!

But someone noted that NPC AI calls for the NPC to attack non-slept, non-stunned, non-held enemies FIRST. The idea is that attacking a slept enemy awakens them, and also to deal with "active" threats first. Further, being slept, stunned or held lowers the "threat level," so aggro may shift elsewhere. So when I would hold or stun a group, Lady Jane followed this rule and ran down the hall to find the next NPC she could attack. So bear that in mind as well. She could go chasing again, although if I recall correctly, her aggro ranged was reduced.

For the first dozen or so of my heroes, I finally got to where it was easier to just free Lady Jane and run off to a safe place while she LEEEEEEEROY JENKINNNNNNNSed every available baddie and got offed. Less stress for me, at least. Even if the mission fails (because Lady Jane gets zonked), you still get the salvage.

But this mission CAN be completed conventionally now if you take care on how you go about it. Clearing the path to the chest PRIOR to freeing Lady Jane will usually work, as many have described in more detail.

"Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty Rikti!"

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I am getting the idea, though, that any "Investigation" means Defeat All, and although it usually won't say that, the mission will go on until every foe is beaten. That seems to be how it always works.

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It's much easier to "investigate" dead mobs than live ones.

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Paul Newman, as Judge Roy Bean, sentenced a freshly shot baddie lying on the floor. Bean went through his pockets and charged him a fine, which he then collected, for "discharging a firearm." He then found $20 in another pocket, so he added, "... and $20 for loitering!"

It DOES simplify a lot of matters.

That is certainly possible. Runners on the street will eventually return to where they started, Whistling Innocently and strolling like a day in the park.

Runners in the Terra Volta TF, however, tend to run into the hallway outside the bubbling room and pitch a tent!

So one of the Freaks could conceivably have run off and never returned. And was the very last baddie I found.

Perhaps I can run that mission again with another hero and see if the mission ends prior to defeating everyone.

I was running Mercedes Sheldon's first mission, "Investigate the Rave in Skyway" and when I entered, the Nav Bar showed that I had to rescue 5 citizens and defeat 3 Freak Bosses. 2 of them were Tanks, but the 3rd, TaseBro, was not, so initially, I did not see him. Got everyone else rescued and/or defeated, and the Nav Bar read "1 Freak Boss Remaining."

I found TaseBro and whooped him, but the Nav Bar still read "1 Freak Boss Remaining" and the mission did not end.

Well, apparently "Investigate"= "Defeat All," because the mission did not end until I had hunted down every last Freak. Annoying, but Oh Well. The Nav Bar not updating was the thing that really annoyed me, though. It should have updated to Defeat All, but did not. Some Dev needs to brush up on their MA scripting!

I am getting the idea, though, that any "Investigation" means Defeat All, and although it usually won't say that, the mission will go on until every foe is beaten. That seems to be how it always works.

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Stack those magnitudes, yes.

Even then, I'm sure I could design a Boss mob in AE that could resist you.
In most cases, it'll work though.



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Oh, Heck Yes it will work.

I have been in many AE missions where a boss not only was not held, they proceeded to moonwalk over to me and one-shot me.

I believe you.

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So, until I get the AoE Hold, I'll just avoid them

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Well, you can park your heroes in a Vault until you get the badge and then Police Station until you get the badge, and then after that, your offtime at either location will charge up the AoE Tear Gas Hold temp power.

Granted, if you are playing them often, that is not going to get you help very soon, but thinking ahead, it will be something else to toss in the mix on tough critters.

Another route to go is to get the Chance of Mag 2 Hold proc for your holds, which will fire off periodically and help out.

You are correct to search out the info on the particular baddies you have trouble with, because they are all different.

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some things that are good ideas while soloing on Heroic (drop Rain of Fire into a spawn so they're too busy running around to murder you) will get you slaughtered on TFs.

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Yes! Rain of Fire proved to be a bad way to start an attack in the Caves of Atta, as it caused a general jailbreak of hundreds of Trolls who overran us. But dropping it on top of our group made the Trolls scatter instead of pounding us to mush as they had been.

Live (or get killed and go to the Hospital ) and learn!



PS- To bring back a Fond Memory of Hami Raids Back in the Day:

Raid Leader: "Rain of Fire is NOT a Hold!"

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<_<

I was doing THAT with SOs and insps.

Kids these days forget that *mutters*

*gerrof my lawn*

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Catwhoorg, you keep leaving out the part where you had Vahzilok Disease at the time and walked both ways in the snow.

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It makes me sad when i see vets post threads like this. Oh look this kid didn't pick up deflection shield but instead grabed personal FF. Lets trash talk him on the fourums. So what. Are they are not good enough to play CoX because they just got the game and cant build a toon as good as you can so they should be baned? How did you play when you first got this game. Did you pick the cool looking powers that sucked and skip the great ones because they had high end cost and long recharges, or did you automaticly know that i have to slot fire imps with (enter realy good and realy rare enhacement here)? Now think about you starting out before trash talking, insulting, and just plain degrading other players just because there new. Oh also if you think they should be baned because they used AE to lvl. Tell the devs to remove it. Even though I bet most of you 50's use it also to get a bunch of influnce and tickets. So stop making threads about newbs and how much they suck because i know all of you were newbs at one point or another, and start helping newer players by helping them and giving them positive reasons to pick powers.

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There are two sides to that argument. On the one hand, sure, everyone new makes mistakes that "old hands" find amusing. But most of these "Noobs" that we are talking about got their levels through AE powerleveling, with no concept of learning how things work -- all they care about is getting a high level character, whether or not they know how to play it. Then, when we invite them on teams expecting the person to have experience commensurate with the levels, we are sadly dissappointed.

I go out of my way to help new players. I have spent 45 min. just chatting with someone trying to give them suggestions. I spent many, many hours writing up two guides. But I have little patience for people who want to short-cut the system just the get the good stuff of a high level character without the work or still.

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I think this sums it up pretty well. I for one called nobody out. I am simply mystified at why one would take a powerset and never use any of the powers. Why not take a powerset that you will actually use?

In the four years and change that I have played, I have helped out any number of new players with directions, explanations and even hefty doses of Influence. I received such help Back in the Day from other kind Vets, and it is in keeping with being Heroes.

The problem, as Local Man neatly summed up, is when the new One Day Wonders take their 50s and try to do non-farm AE content and muck up the works while refusing any guidance on how to avoid it. Don't use Rain of Fire on a group we are trying to pull. Turn on your armors. Flash Arrow does not aggro, so that is not the signal for an all-out attack. Things like that.

Mistakes will be made, even by Vets. If intentions are good and the lessons are learned, it is all part of the fun. But repeatedly doing the same wrong thing will bring a ton of disdain down on someone. If they are a 50 with no Veteran badges, it simply honks some folks off even more.

Personally, I think a recklessly bad player is annoying, period, and it little matters how or why they are that way. But I would bet you a buck that the folks who are annoyed at AE Farm 50s get just as annoyed with a 44 month Veteran 50 who is acting like an idiot as well, since they really ought to know better.

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I got home today and my 5 year old had logged into mine and my wifes accounts. He was on my toon and had set hers to follow. LOL. He said, "Look daddy, i got her on follow and we're going to a mission".

Sorry, just thought it was funny. Anyone else's kids play?

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A five year old Haxxor!!

Oh, you had shared your log-in codes? In that case, yeah, that is cute.

My own kids, however, have not played as much as Dear Old Dad. The game with all of its nuances is pretty complex, actually. But as you have shown, it is possible to take the game at whatever level you enjoy and, dare I say it, enjoy it. As ZI mentioned, there is a thread in the General section about a six year old who mostly enjoyed swimming in the small lake near Atlas Park and had a grand time doing it. She went on to author a pretty cool arc as well.

It is great there was such enjoyment for your child.

If you are asking about how to bind the Oil Slick as a target, then try:

/bind o "target_custom_next Oil Slick"

I hit O (for Oil Slick) and then 9 where I have my Tech Temp Power Taser bound and voila. Baddies Flambee.

At least that is how I interpreted your question.

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Mind, Plant and Illusion can even engage battles with enemies scrappers of the same level wouldnt dare attack

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Methinks the scrappers you have seen are wusses. I have seen nothing in the game a real scrapper wouldn't attack.

Silly domesticated scrappers keep forgetting how to kill things

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I don't play Scrappers, but I have not met any yet that "did not dare to attack," bless 'em.

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I can't think of a single SF/TF in the high end game that doesn't require some sort of debuffing. Well maybe the ITF if you don't mind it taking forever.

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See, if it eventually could be done, that would be one thing. But there have been baddies that it became quite obvious were NEVER going to go down, no matter how long you whittled at them.

There seems to be some finesse in a lot of CoH play, and certainly in the TFs. How to defeat the four AVs in the STF, how to go after the towers, etc. That is fine.

But it just seems that Life Goes Better with a -regen buff most of the time, regardless of the Official Posture on such matters. And it had better be strong enough to matter, or No Soup For You.

I now have a couple of /Rads, and I am sure they will never be lonely.

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i was wondering, i am still new, what should i spend my time doing? level 6 atm, did some sewer runs but cant seem to find people to do it anymore...also been following the main story missions or w/e and well they were easy at first but now i am getting missions that dont have a way point and its difficult to find my mission objectives and stuff.

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There is a lot of good information given in this thread, from a lot of knowledgeable folks. If we know what server you are on, somebody would be happy to team up with you and show you some ropes. There is no risk to you if we do this. There is no way for anyone to steal anything from you or harm you, and you will find the Heroes pretty much act in a friendly manner.

A lot of stuff freaked me out at first. I did not know what to think when someone asked to Trade with me--- as it turns out, they just wanted to GIVE me something to help me. So when someone asks to Trade with you, go ahead and open the window-- they can't take anything from you that you don't put in the window to be given to them. More than likely, they will try to give you something helpful--- Influence, Enhancements, Inspirations, etc.

I was also thrown by the fact that there were so many baddies in so many forms on the streets, and my idiot contacts sent me to Outer Mongolia for my missions. I very often had to get past baddies who were FAR above my level. My Atlas contact sent me to a mission and camped around the door were Weird Undead Looking Guys who used poison arrows on me until I looked like a pincushion and I died. I was not expecting those guys and my wimpy attacks could not fend them off. Fortunately, there are no bad effects for defeats until you hit lvl 10, and even then the penalty is pretty paltry.

I don't have a bookmark for it at work, but I will try to find and link a thread that discusses what to do at various levels.

Brace up, it will become second nature and get much, much better--- even fun!

You really could not go too far wrong since you are playing with folks you know and work well with. In that situation, anything will be an asset.

I enjoy Rad and Kin. They are great powersets, and have much to recommend them, and I have also played Ice a great deal. I got the feeling you were looking for something a bit different. Obviously, what you bring to the team as a Kin and as a TA will vary, and while SB is SB, TA/Arch ultimately will bring tremendous debuffs, a GREAT AoE Hold in EMP Arrow and some killer offense with Oil Slick and Rain of Arrows... it just does not bloom until the 30s.

Good luck with your contemplations and your team!

I have a Plant/Storm at 46 and a TA/Arch at 46; cannot comment on Scrappers as I don't typically play them.

I would tend toward the TA/Arch because the debuffs it adds will really leverage your team's offense. The drawback is that it is a pretty "clicky" powerset to be playing, and some folks get frustrated by drawtime animations and such.

Glue Arrow is a GREAT slow, but Acid Arrow is the real prize as far as debuffs in the early going. Disruption Arrow likewise adds some great debuffs. Your team will hit harder and hit more often, and the baddies will attack less and hit less often. Poison Gas Arrow does some fine debuffs as well, but is not as crucial; it is more icing on the cake, and any Sleep that it causes will be short-lived anyway with a Plant Controller about.

Archery is really not going to add a lot of offense for a good long while, except some single target plinking. Fistful of Arrows is a cone, but damage is nothing to write home about, likewise, Explosive Arrow is AoE but underwhelming. Blazing Arrow is a nice, hefty attack, but still single target.

But about the time Oil Slick Arrow makes its appearance, you will be able to add some pretty substantial offense. HELPFUL HINT: Make your Origin either Tech or Magic so that you can use your origin temp power to light the Oil Slick. I bound the O key to Target Oil Slick, so I hit O and 9 (for my Taser) and in a nonce, Oil Slick is ablaze and flambeeing the baddies.

Not long after, Rain of Arrows shows up and if you pop Aim and fire it off, it is a fine AoE attack that racks up some good numbers. It is up pretty often and friendly to Endurance. Indeed, I did not take the Fitness pool on my TA/Arch and have not missed it, which I cannot say for any other hero.

Now you may not "need" Glue Arrow as much if you have a Plant Controller using Snow Storm. Grouping baddies will be fine with their immobs and Carrion Creepers. Seeds of Confusion will negate tons of incoming damage, but your debuffs will help team speed A LOT in downing the bad guys. Likewise, the Plant Controller will have 02 Boost and possibly the Healing Tree, so the Defender=Healorz will not be the case.

Ice Arrow will stack with Plant's Strangler and hold Bosses from the git-go, which is another plus.

Plant/Storm is a great set, and I think TA/Arch would be a great fit, but be aware that you will be mostly debuffing for a long while, and your AoE damage will not really show up until the 30s. I really enjoy it, but YMMV.