Midnight_Guard
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Posts
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Joined
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Think you dropped this GG
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I logged in on my Mastermind in Grandville on Test a few days ago, he had about 3 bulbs of the On Patrol experience.
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Friend quoted this, sadly don't have the source...
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Hi everyone, my name is Jonathan Courney, and I am privileged to be the main Data-Miner and Designer behind the Epic Power pool and Patron Power pool revamp.
This revamp has been a highly requested feature for many years, and something that I personally had a great deal of interest in seeing completed. I am a big proponent of balance amongst all the different combinations of characters that players enjoy, and felt that these power pools could be more useful to players, and fit the theme of various characters as well.
The goal of the revamp is simple: Find the Epic and Patron powers that players are rarely using, and update those powers into more useful and interesting powers.
A lot of data mining was done for this project. Amongst the hundreds of thousands of characters that log in every month, we examined what kinds of characters took each pool, and what powers they took out of that pool. Based on those numbers, we looked at why players would take those powers, and carefully chose powers to upgrade./
Aside from making many of the more popular pool powers available to many different archetypes, we also wanted to improve some powers and add a few new powers into the mix. Also, by adding powers that fit the theme of each pool, we could give players better options to build thematic characters.
Unfortunately, the best option we had to improve the pools was to replace the less commonly used powers with powers that should be more useful to a wider range of characters. So, while some characters may have had to give up a power, we made every effort to make better powers available in the pools for each archetype.
In general, all 10 original Archetypes were upgraded, but here are a few of the highlights:
* Brutes and Stalkers had several pets replaced with better utility powers and AOE debuffs.
* Dominators and Masterminds had most Area of Effect powers replaced with better utility powers.
* Blasters replaced several unused sleep powers.
* Controllers upgraded some of their less popular AOE and Single target attacks.
* Tankers upgraded immobilizes and a few other powers for better AOE debuffs and slows.
So, for a few specifics about what was added to the sets. There were several popular utility powers that were added to many sets. These include:
* Focused Accuracy
* Conserve Power
* Hibernate
* Force of Nature
* Power Boost.
There were some pools that also needed something extra, so a few new powers were created, and a number of old ones improved. Two of the new powers include:
* Shadow Meld - A new stalker power that boosts their defense for a few seconds, but recharges after a short duration.
* Power Surge - Added to many Electric based pools. It is a modified version of Electric Armors Power Surge. The power works similarly to the Blaster Epic Power, Force of Nature.
Many older powers were improved or adjusted. A few examples include:
* Soul Drain - All versions of Soul Drain were updated, they now offer a large damage and to-hit boost from the first target, and a smaller boost from up to 10 more targets. The power was added to several more pools as well.
* Water Spout - This was such a popular power, we felt it deserved some improvements. The Fear and knock back component were removed, however it retains the disorient and knock up effects. It should be a better power for normal use, both in groups and as a solo survival tool.
* Arctic Spray - The Brute Power Bile Spray was also extremely popular, but we felt it could be better. The power now has an additional slow, knockdown and debuff effect similar to Freezing Rain.
* Stalker Snipes and AOE's - These were changed to the Melee scale instead of the Ranged scale, dramatically increasing damage.
* Focused accuracy was adjusted so it is no longer as strong in PVP, but provides a slightly better bonus in PVE. It now provides a smaller to-hit bonus, but adds an accuracy bonus.
For the complete list of changes:
Brute
Soul Mastery
* Dark Blast (Replacing Gloom)
* Darkest Night (Replacing pet)
Mace Mastery
* Focused accuracy (Replacing pet)
Leviathan Mastery
* Rework Bile Spray.
Stalker
Soul Mastery
* Shadow Meld (New power replacing pet)
Mace Mastery
* Disruptor Blast (Replacing pet)
Leviathan Mastery
* Water Spout (Improved power)
* Hibernate (Replacing pet)
Mu Mastery
* Ball Lightning (Replacing Zapp)
* Conserve Power (Replacing summon adept)
Dominators
Soul Mastery
* Oppressive Gloom (Replacing Dark Consumption)
* Soul Drain (Replacing Dark Obliteration)
Mace Mastery
* Personal Force Field (Replacing Disruptor Blast)
Leviathan Mastery
* Water Spout (Improved Power)
* Hibernate (Replacing Chum spray)
Mu Mastery
* Power Surge (New power replacing Ball Lightning)
Mastermind
Soul Mastery
* Oppressive Gloom (Replacing Night Fall, increased radius)
Mace Mastery
* Power Boost (Replacing Mace Beam Volley)
Leviathan Mastery
* Knockout Blow (Replacing Chum Spray)
Mu Mastery
* Thunderstrike (Replacing Static Discharge)
Corruptor
Soul Mastery
* Power Boost (Replacing Soul Drain)
Mace Mastery
* Focused Accuracy (Replacing Pet)
Leviathan Mastery
* Hibernate (Replacing School of Sharks)
Mu Mastery
* Conserve Power (Replacing Electric Shackles)
Blaster
Cold mastery
* Hoarfrost (Replacing Flash Freeze)
Electrical mastery
* Conserve Power (Replacing Shocking Bolt)
* Power Surge (Replacing EM Pulse)
Munitions Mastery
* Surveillance (Replacing Sleep Grenade)
Controller
Stone Mastery
* Seismic Smash (Replacing hurl boulder)
Ice Mastery
* Frost Breath (Replacing ice storm)
Primal Forces Mastery
* Energy Torrent (Replacing power blast)
Defender
Dark mastery
* Oppressive Gloom (Increased Radius)
* Soul Drain (Altered version)
Psychic Mastery
* World of Confusion (replacing Telekinesis)
Electricity Mastery
* Shocking bolt (replacing Electric fence)
Scrapper
Body mastery
* Focused Accuracy (Adjusted power)
Weapon Mastery
* Targeting Drone (Modified to work like focus accuracy)
Tanker
Energy Mastery
* Focused Accuracy (Adjusted)
Pyre Mastery
* Melt Armor (replacing Ring of Fire)
Arctic Mastery
* Shiver (replacing Chilblain)
* Freezing Rain (replacing Ice storm)
Earth Mastery
* Quicksand (Replacing stone prison)
* Conserve Power (replacing Salt Crystals)
Overall, a lot of careful planning and data mining was put into rebalancing the pools. We know that everyone has their favorite powers, and so no power change was taken lightly. It is our hope, that with so many new powers to choose from, players will still have many of their old favorites, and find many new favorite powers for their characters.
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We've got that, it's called Ninjas and Thugs.
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Ki, Chi, or anything as such has no relation, whatsoever, to street fighting. They also aren't generic enough. And what is wrong with a Roundhouse kick in a street fighting set? It's Street Fighting.
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Agreed on the Ki thing. This is more Fight Club than Dragonball, sorudo, and IMO, it should remain that way.
As for Roundhouse kick, it's description makes it sound more like a helicopter/windmill kick or something, closer to someone doing Capoeira rather than your basic street fighter or something. >_>
For the sake of keeping a PBAoE attack in, I'd personally suggest a Leg Sweep-style attack instead. Of course, my opinion.
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Yeah, it's pretty windmill-style, though I didn't want a Dragon's Tail clone, and went for something more flashy. -
It's been suggested here, there, here again, and even more times over there.
I just feel like sharing my ideas.
Street Fighting, a melee hand-to-hand set, where you use dirty tricks, and every part of your body to attack. Available for Brutes, Stalkers, Scrappers and probably also Tankers.
Street Fighting come with a variety of debuffs, when a hit is to the head (-ToHit), the torso (-Resistance), and the lower body (-Defense), as well as a couple of other fitting debuffs.
We haven't seen any -Resistance melee sets, so I thought it might fit in here, too.
Uppercut - You perform a quick uppercut to your enemy's jaw, lowering his accuracy. Uppercut also has a small chance to disorient.
Melee Minor Smashing DMG, -ToHit, Disorient.
Back Kick - You perform a quick feint kick, only to recover with an unexpected back kick that hits the lower body of your enemy, reducing his ability to defend, and slowing their movement.
Melee Moderate Smashing DMG, -Def.
Headbutt - You powerfully jab your head into the stomach of the enemy, reducing his resistance. Headbutt also renders your enemy out of breath for a while.
Melee High Smashing DMG, -Res, -End, -Recovery.
Hype - Greatly increases the damage you deal for a few seconds, as well as slightly increasing your attack rate and chance to hit.
Self +Dmg, +ToHit, +Rech. ((+65%, +15%, +20%))
Low Kick - You do a quick low spin to cap the knees of enemies in front of you, weakening their ability to defend, and slowing their movement.
Melee Cone Moderate Smashing DMG, -Def, -Spd.
Taunt - Basic Taunt.
Roundhouse - You spin around on your hands, legs straightened, hitting anyone in melee range in the head, lowering their accuracy. Roundhouse also has a chance to disorient.
Melee PBAoE Moderate Smashing DMG, -ToHit, Disorient.
Knee Jab - You forcefully jab your knee into the chest of your foe, reducing his resistance. Knee Jab also renders your enemy out of breath for a while.
Melee High Smashing DMG, -Res, -End, -Recovery.
Comeback - You brace yourself to build up power for a few seconds, then unleash a powerful uppercut on all enemies around you, knocking them into the air and reducing their accuracy.
Melee PBAoE Superior Smashing DMG, Knockup, -ToHit. -
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Dark melee won't be usable with Shields unless the animations have changed significantly as it uses some two handed animations.
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It will, they did.
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I'm making a Dark Melee / Shields Brute in i13, even though I'd kind of looked forward to a Shields Tanker.
Only thing is just that I don't see Tankers as the 'damaging' melee AT, so the Against All Odds power (Rise to the Challenge, but +dmg instead) doesn't suit them.
Though, I saw a use for it with DM on Brutes, since it both aggros enemies and thereby generates more Fury, and it could make up for the lack of burst damage DM has.
And with this:
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Shields is a great mix of offense, defense and team buffing all rolled into one powerset. It's a jack of all trades set, and pretty good at all aspects it tries to cover
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Plus DM's already very hybrid playing style, I think my Brute will come out nicely.
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Woah, that list must be really old.
I remember Babs mentioning a while ago he'd liked to get started on Staves since it's on the wishlist all right, but there was too much to do already.
Sounds fun though.. -
Getting Hover at 6 on my first toon, then flying to the Port Oakes ferry...
Otherwise, my stupidity is often very prominently displayed in the team chat tab:
"wwas½asdrrsss221r2392"
"Wakie?" -
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I just used the name my mom called - and sometimes still calls - me
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Aw.
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Big gratz - but take your time and don't PL next time!
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This
Grats bud -
It's natural for people to notice others mistakes, and it's what most are good at (And never realizing or admitting their own, even).
I played an Empath a good while, but ultimately got very bored of it. However, I'd find that sometimes my healing was completely superfluous, and I'd stand around doing nothing but buffing and using my tier 1 attack powers.
When I was actually running back and forth, healing, rezzing, and buffing the whiners, I found that after everything'd calmed down, explaining my situation to the team helped. We're all human, after all. We can understand.
So even if they're calling you noob, slow, bad healer or whatever, explain your trouble to them, and I'll sure they'll at the very least keep it in the back of their mind, for further consideration. Trust the good in people -
Hey, this thread is actually quite interesting.
Seven Sins, my very first character, I'm quite proud of the name I came up with, albeit he never made it past 7. I waded around my room trying to come up with a good Villainous name for hours, and I got it. Random stray thought.
Midnight Guard, my first proper character. I enjoy making different armors in the costume creator, and one day I by coincidence had put together his now signature helmet, which is also my current avatar. Quickly thought up of a name I found fitting for him and his Dark powers.
Flammenklinge, another fairly old Fire Brute, based on a 5th Column crowd control soldier division. His name means 'fire sword' in German, but at first I had it wrong, missing an 'n' in Flammen, making it a Danish instead of German name, albeit same meaning.
Choshu, my samurai, derived from the old name of the Nagato province in northwestern Honshu, Japan. I just found it suitable for a samurai name. I found out later, however, that the proper spelling is 'choushuu'. The name is still okay, though without any particular meaning.
Ex Nihilo, 'from nothing', scientific term about things in space being created 'ex nihilo'. Just wiki'd some space-y stuff suitable for a Warshade, and this fit pretty well.
Holly Good, derived from 'jolly good', not Hollywood. Empathy Defender, and one of my two only female characters.
Zenodorus, I needed a cool name for a Crab Spider, and after some research, I found this. Although the actual Zenodorus spider is a dung spider
, ah heck, name's awesome.
Midnight Phantom, started out as being an underling/brother to Midnight Guard, my main. Didn't work out with the concept or biography, but "Maboroshi no Hanshou" sounded cool, which is 'phantom of midnight' in Japanese.
Otonashi, 'no sound'. Martial Arts/Regeneration, ninja. Soon to switch roles with one of my other characters though.
Scintillatus, from 'scintillate', Fire/Psi Blaster. I've always liked -tus at the end of names, but that usually fits Magic characters better, and I'm a Tech person.
Battler, Axe Brute, the name comes from an encounter in Dark Age of Camelot, my old MMORPG. Some Minotaur with an artifact you have to slaughter.
Chihaji, 'earth grasp', also Japanese. Sorcerer. Cool powers, but Magic and me is meh.
Karokage, also a Japanese character. Ninja Mastermind, -kage (-shadow) is a term shinobi overseers used to address themselves with, I can't exactly remember where Karo came from, but translates to overwork or retainer. -
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Quite.
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Whadya mean? My old BBC micro could do wireframe spacestation graphics in Elite, and now I play CoX, a supposedly "modern" game, and find that it can't! Why can't it just do it, Praf?
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-Standoff
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Hahaha, touché Praf. I guess I can't demand a new system like this to be implemented into City of Heroes, just because I was a DAoC (Reaver, all the way) veteran, but I'd still really, really like to see it happen.
Just waiting for the devs to list the powers now, I really hope they bring something fresh that can finally get me started on a Tanker. Resistance plz
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Perhaps a "Guard" Ally Buff could be put in somewhere, gives a chance for you to deflect a melee hit directed at the player you're guarding, assuming they're within a specific radius?
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Not something the game engine can do.
Other things it can't do include reflecting damage back at attackers, and making defense depend of facing.
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It was done in Dark Age of Camelot, which is 7 years old, and still works quite well. It doesn't just block melee hits either, but ranged attacks (Arrows, etc.) too.
If they could make it, I'm pretty sure it could be implemented/tweaked here as well, or at least inspire something similar. -
Perhaps a "Guard" Ally Buff could be put in somewhere, gives a chance for you to deflect a melee hit directed at the player you're guarding, assuming they're within a specific radius?
I like the ideas of shouts with Shields, although it might turn out a little too much 'barbarian'.
A heavy Stun magnitude "Pin" power could prove lovely, though. Oh! And some slow. -
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#Because of the Zombie-themed DVD prizes the event has an age-limit of 18.
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Darn it! I quite like the Resident Evil series, and I've only seen 28 Weeks Later in Thailand. Zombie movies are the best, anyhow.
I can volunteer as a Marshal though, unless the age limit is changed (Or some exceptions are allowed. ).
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One-handed Shadow Maul? YES PLEASE!
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Yeah! Spidermasters!
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Pictures of the new chest details please! I don't have access to CoX for another 78 days..
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Didn't see this anywhere else, so posting it in Gen. Discussion.
Click here for the complete list of entries!
Vote and review! Samuraiko's in there too, so be sure to check that out!