Neparos

Just as long as it drops the bastards in 30 seconds, good enough for me. I may not be able to last against some brute/tank builds, but I want this build to be taken seriously enough that if I'm ignored or "show boated" on, what ever I am fighting will die.

OKay, quick and dirty Mid's build here. Any advice on it?

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

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

Level 50 Magic Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Sonic Attacks
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Scream -- Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(3), Decim-Acc/Dmg(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(5), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(5)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- Dct'dW-Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal(7), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(7), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(9)
Level 2: Howl -- Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Posi-Dmg/Rng(11), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(11), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(13), Posi-Acc/Dmg(13), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(46)
Level 4: Radiation Infection -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb(A), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx(15), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx(15), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg(17), LdyGrey-DefDeb(17), LdyGrey-DefDeb/EndRdx(19)
Level 6: Accelerate Metabolism -- P'Shift-Acc/Rchg(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg(19), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg(21), P'Shift-End%(21), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc(23), P'Shift-EndMod(23)
Level 8: Shout -- Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(A), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(25), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(25), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(27), Decim-Acc/Dmg(27), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(29)
Level 10: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(29), EndRdx-I(31)
Level 12: Amplify -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 14: Combat Jumping -- Jump-I(A)
Level 16: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 18: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 20: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(46)
Level 22: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(33), EndMod-I(33)
Level 24: Lingering Radiation -- P'ngTtl-Acc/Slow(A), P'ngTtl-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(33), P'ngTtl-Rng/Slow(34), TmpRdns-EndRdx/Rchg/Slow(34), P'ngTtl-Acc/EndRdx(34), RechRdx-I(43)
Level 26: Screech -- Amaze-Stun(A), Amaze-Acc/Rchg(36), Amaze-Acc/Stun/Rchg(36), Amaze-Stun/Rchg(36), Amaze-EndRdx/Stun(37)
Level 28: Hasten -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(37), RechRdx-I(37)
Level 30: Super Speed -- Empty(A)
Level 32: Dreadful Wail -- Sciroc-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(A), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg(39), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg(39), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg(39), Oblit-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(40)
Level 35: Mutation -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg(40), BasGaze-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(40), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold(42), EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg(42)
Level 41: Scorpion Shield -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(42), GftotA-Def/EndRdx(43), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(43)
Level 44: Focused Accuracy -- GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(A), GSFC-Build%(45), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(45), GSFC-ToHit(46)
Level 47: Web Envelope -- GravAnch-Immob/EndRdx(A), GravAnch-Acc/Rchg(48), GravAnch-Acc/Immob/Rchg(48), GravAnch-Immob/Rchg(48), GravAnch-Hold%(50)
Level 49: Web Cocoon -- EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg(A), G'Wdw-Acc/Hold/Rchg(50), UbrkCons-Acc/Hold/Rchg(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Scourge

I have a friend who has a rad/sonic and she actually solos AVs with it... that could be a build that works. What about if it was sonic/radiation corruptor?

Okay, so any advice on those two?

I'm sick of having characters that do not have the offensive capabilities to actually kill a brute or tank, even if they stand there and do nothing.

So I'm bored and in the mood to roll a new toon, so here's a question for you PVP professionals: What is the absolute most unstoppable offensive build in the game? The complete utter pinacle of spike damage, or mid term substained damage (ie within 20 to 30 seconds) that would oblitherate any defense in the game?

I definately feel your pain, OP. I had a mission arc that had been an enjoyable hit with my SG, and other people had played it and liked it too... then all of a sudden out of nowhere 5 0s and 1s appear out of thin air and slam the average down to 3 stars. No comments, no criticism, just a torrent of down voting. Hopefully there is some sort of protection against this in the future, as it is pretty disheartening to spend time trying to make a legitimate story arc only to get it smushed.

I'm doing programming myself, so I'll say while it sucks that there is no work around to fixing the pet AI issues, its not fair to roast Castle on having to make this change. A 50% increase in CPU load time for pet AI routines is just not acceptable, and it would break the game far worse than a pet attack speed nerf. So it looks like its either they leave pets 'broken' (ie eternally rock hurling), or go with this change. Or leave it alone, which means that thugs brutes (and other pets) will still eternally be stuck in an single attack loop.


However, I'm seeing a possible comprimise here: can you make recharges effect a pet only a certain ammount, ie like a cap of '50%' as opposed to '100%ish' that it does now? Maybe there's a magic number where pets still can see an attack speed boost, but not go all 'gimp' in their AI routines. It may not be possible to do with how 'recharge' is inhereted, but its worth considering. Later on, maybe a long term overhaul of pet AI is in the cards, ideally one that does not come with a 50% overhead cost.

Well, fair enough, BAB. Any sort of power customization like that would require a complete overhaul of City of Heroes' code, which does not sound practical at the moment. To paraphrase this, its like having a massive building that there is something wrong with the foundation that does not allow you to do something. At this point, removing and redoing the foundation of the building you may as well tear the whole thing down and start from scratch. I still remember how much of a head ache adding in rag doll physics was, and how long that took to get sorted out, so I agree that its wise just to drop the thing and move onto other stuff people have been asking for (Hero PPPs, villain APPs, side swapping, gunslinger power pool, etc) that could realistically be done.


But rather then dwell on the stuff we *won't* see done, let's see some stuff we *will* see done, eh BABs?

1) 50/50 seems to me to be a bare base number for a defender and an attack with zero buffs

2) If tohit capped and the defender has no defense, they should be hit at 95% accuracy

3) Likewise, an attacker who takes no +tohit should floor on a capped out +defense person

4) This is the tricky part: I would expect that insane ammounts of tohit is the "counter" to insane ammounts of defense, or some sort of heavy duty debuffs bring that defense down. Realistically, 50/50 would be the way to go, assuming each person can get the defense/+tohit cap.


The real problem isn't so much the fact that in some lab someplace, a build/aim/tactics counters elude. The problem is the fact that villains do not have as good of a +tohit selection as heroes do. Corruptors will never have as good of tactics running as the heroes do, and the heroes will always have (overall) better defenses. Couple that with the fact that heroes get power boosted fortitudes/force field bubbles along with focused accuracy and you can see why villains have a hard time competing in RV. Any good hero team can get capped +tohit AND defender, where as its a hell of a lot tougher to get the same on villain teams. Tangent, yes, but this is the real defense/tohit problem I believe.

What I love about this game is the sheer ammount of choice you have on everything. For instance, take our generic (yet sucessful) fantasy MMO. Every orc warrior looks roughly the same, wears the same silly looking top raid teir gear, and any chance to make that character "yours" really isn't there.


COH/COV is so much beyond that. For instance, when I was running my brute a while back (a SS/electrical armor), I ran into another SS/Electrical armor brute. This other brute had something of a resemblence to Dick Dastardly, while my brute was was more heavily inspired by Devil May Cry's Vergil. Both were roughly the same AT/primary/secondary choices, but were completely different characters. You compare that to say "Generic-Quest" where you would have the same looking characters both looking like Power Ranger monster rejects in their teir 5 gear and you realize just how good customization is. Sure, those Teir 5s can do 500 dps and may have some sexy awesome trinkets, but can they do it in STYLE?

So, while your vision is generally good (let's not talk about I4/I5 though...), its the fact that you let us play around with our visions that really makes this game shine, Statesman.

Arguably the hardest character to manage endurance on is a bots/ff mastermind. Keeping 7 people and 6 robots all healthy, bubbled, upgraded (in the bots case), AND keeping your must have defensive toggles up can be insanely draining. Needless to say, unless you want to be one of those cranky gits that NEVER buffs anyone, stamina and good endurance management is a must have.


Some powers are definately worth slotting up while others aren't needed. For instance, insulation shield and deflection shield will both be spammed constantly and are worth every slot of end reduction you can get. Force bubble and dispersion bubble as well. And henchmen upgrade endurance reductions are just about a must have these days. Ironically, I've found protector bots can benefit from one endred as they will punch themselves out when left to their own devices. On the other hand, personal force field is a waste of an end red simply because when you throw that up... you won't be doing much of anything anyhow. Hover is so cheap that you don't really need an end red on it.


Knowing what toggles you need to have up is also important, as you don't *always* need force bubble running, or temp powers. On the other hand, its better to use a blue when you're low on end than risk accidently detoggling yourself at a critical moment.


Oh and needless to say hami-Os are worth their weight in gold as far as endurance reductions go. 3 defense/end red Hami os per bubble or defense toggle and you're golden


I hope this helps a lot of MMs who are always winded.

One blapper, 4 purples, 30 seconds worth of pounding, one dead Cyst. That's the usual way I do those things, other wise an all out blitz with the tank tanking the Cyst works pretty well. I did not know about the "Kheldians being strong against Cysts" thing, so I'll keep that in mind in the future.


EDIT: Dropping a Thunderous Blast or some other nova or massive AOE control like EMP blast works miracles after someone's soaked the initial alpha strike. Moments like those are why "oh [censored]" powers were invented.

I'm just hoping we'll see some "meat" information this time around. It seems every time they do a dev chat, they pick out questions that have already been answered, or that are pretty easy ("Oh you guys are going to love I9, it will kick [censored]!" responses). In other words, some nice announcements of stuff we didn't know.

Yes, we know about inventions. Yes, we know there's a Statesman TF in the works. But what about epic arch types for villains? What about new power sets? What about side switching or what ever?

Those would be the *real* headliners as opposed to "Yes, I9 will be cool!"

The fact that you can customize your characters more than any other MMO out there (except Second Life).

One time I was in a group with my SS/Electrical brute (who's got sort of a Devil May Cry's Nelo Angelo /Vergil slant to him), and there was another SS/Electrical brute who was more of a silly space circus Dick Dastardly character. Both more or less had the relatively same powers, but had COMPLETELY different looks and feels to them. In WOW or EverQuest, both would have been two goons in goofy teir 3 armor that look exactly the same. COH's customizability is a cut above the rest, and makes for real memorable characters!

I guess I will be seeing you over in Tabula Rasa when I pick that game up. Take care, Cuppa, you're definately one of the better forum mods I've seen in a long time.

My tried and true method to infamy saving in COV (in a nutshell):


First time around:

1- a character
2- do all the stuff the original poster mentions, but in perticular use your respec at 32 to get yourself a good set of SOs. By 32 you should be fully self substaining provided you stay out of the facemaker's and don't go in SG mode.
3- Get 50. You now should have close to 30,000,000 infamy if you did this all right .


Second time around:

Step 1- Have your 30,000,000 infamy character finance your alt with about 5 million infamy before they get 22. Taa daa, no more money worries



Okay seriously, there are a few other ideas worth noting:


1- In your super group use the enhancement storage exchange. Set up a system where if you put one relative level SO into the storage, you may take one relative level SO out. Make sure you only do this for accuracy, damage, recharges, end reds, heals and other very common SOs as nobody wants a phase duration SO.


2- Setup an "infamy for prestiege" exchange program within your super group. How does this work? The newbies stay in SG mode the whole time to build up presteige, while the "Sugar Daddies" dole out infamy from their 50 characters. 200k for the first two sets of DOs, and 3 million (or so) infamy to get the 25 and 30 sets of SOs is chump change for an active level 50 character.


3- Do story arcs, tasks forces, and AV/Hero killing missions. AVs and Heroes will *ALWAYS* drop a relative level SO of your type you can use. Mission arcs later on tend to give you SOs at the end of them. One SO you pick up from natural means is one less SO you got to buy.

4- If you are good at pvp, do siren's call. 6000 collected bounty will net you one free SO you can pick for your troubles. Of course, if you are doing Siren's Call you're either a- a stalker, or b- higher than 30 but its worth considering .

5- Do exemplared missions for friends you want to help out. Not only will it make it so THEY have an easier time gaining levels, but you will also rake in infamy/influence doing so.

I don't know about the web grenade powers yet, but I've been running with Scorpion Sheild on my master mind. Holy crap is this thing powerful when stacked with robotics/force fields on a master mind running body guard! Dispersion bubble, scorpion sheild, and the bot bubble buffs with +3 SOs basically is a 39% defense against smashing/lethal, and roughly 33% or so against energy attacks. While that may not seem like a big deal in a world populated by scrappers who are all running +39% focused accuracy powers, in PVE this is awesome, as 50% is the standard number on tohit buffs across the board on baddies and non aim non focused accuracy players and NPCs.


I'm quite litterally tanking (and then decimating) spawns made for 8 man teams with these defenses and the bots with this setup, and quite like it. Move over brutes, there's a new damage sponge in town!


I am hoping the web powers in the master mind sets do as advertised and kill off jumping/flying, as this would make this patron power a perfect compliment for a master mind in pvp (space, root, then nuke).

You would honestly be amazed how well you can learn to do stuff if you just go to a drawing class and get *forced* to draw something. Its a good idea to try "duplicating" a picture or still life to get started, though. And there are plenty of tutorials online you can hunt around for, or art classes.

I just got to get off my [censored] and start drawing my in game characters and other ideas I have floating around in my head .

A quick tip with archery: People say that the archery attacks are too slow to use, but that's only if you have to take out your bow every time. Try to chain your attacks similar to how you would in a fighting game and you will find archery can put out a lot of hurt.

Also, if you have no attack to do, but your bow isn't out, cycle an archery attack anyways and you will take out the bow *before* you are ready to fire.

When a 16/17 lowbie team has two brutes, one dominator, and one bots/FF master mind(with medicine pool) and can basically clean house in wall to wall packed hordes of lost.


Or when an Atlas sewer team cleans house so well that said team keeps the momentum up all the way through the Hollows without mucking around.


Amazingly, not all PUGs are bad, and you get good PUGs in City of Heroes/Villains compared to say WOW (where *nobody* teams unless they're 60 anyways, n00b.)

((Seems I was in on the scene played out in Pocket D last night, didn't realize the big plot I stepped into inadvertantly O.o))

EM Pulse seemed to be working just fine for my rad/rad as of yesterday or so. I hope that the blaster EM Pulse isn't a disorient though, I would like my blaster to pick that up eventually (EM Pulse + a new and improved arrow rain ftw)

EM Pulse seemed to be working just fine for my rad/rad as of yesterday or so. I hope that the blaster EM Pulse isn't a disorient though, I would like my blaster to pick that up eventually (EM Pulse + a new and improved arrow rain ftw)

Both are pretty good changes. I don't normally champion for nerfs, but toggle dropping was getting pretty silly, especially after all the defense toggle based sets took really hard nerfs on their. A few character classes (ie blasters, defenders, dominators) should still have a couple powers that are good at "purging" as an AT strength, but it should not but totally taken out.


The blizzard (and maybe arrow rain too? ) fix is very welcome, and this fix has been something anyone who uses a DoT non buffable power has been waiting on for a while.

Here's some advice for those who go from CoH/CoV to other "grind" MMOs: don't expect things to be half as fast or exciting as CoH. In fact, COH is very unique and it bucks all trends set by fantasy grind MMOs.


Basically, other MMOs are engineered to be as slow of a grind as humanly possible. You will litterally spend more time begging for groups, walking between places, crafting stuff, and on the back of a griphon then you will just plain old kicking [censored].

I tried WOW for a month, and found I just could not do it. No matter how much people would tell me "its the best", or no matter how much I would tell myself "its the best", the game was just no fun. Compared to say CoH or even PlanetSide, World of Warcraft was a big snooze fest. Any game where you have ANY time you can put something on "auto pilot" and go off and play on the Play Station 2 is not very excite IMHO.


Curse you, Statesman, for making a game design so inherently fun that they can @$#k us around on nerfs every other week, but still keep us comming back for more action!