OneWhoBinds

...wait... I won?!

How did that happen?

...

Okay, I've sent the PM... um... thanks?

Stone Armor is like Spines. The reason it hasn't been touched in so long, is because any attempt to 're-balance' it, would necessitate a complete overhaul of the set. You can't just remove the movement and recharge penalty and say it's golden, after all. The OP idea of spreading the is interesting... except the part where it suggests running up to 7 toggles at once, JUST from the single set.

If this ever gets ported to Scrappers (or even Stalkers, though that seems unlikely at this point...) I expect this powerset to be changed to a point of being almost unrecognizable from its current form. But until then, it will remain one of the CoX Elephants in the Room.

Why do I forsee Tactics becoming much more popular on the Ranged ATs?

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Okay, maybe just on Blasters, where Tactics + Build Up can be used to get over the 22% needed for useful snipes.

Honestly, I also hope that the Devs are going to do more than just change one power in each manipulation set. While I doubt they will be giving Devises the overhaul it desperatly needs, there are tweaks that all the Manipulation sets could use. (Primarily in the Tier1 immobilizes... is there really a reason that most only have a 50ft range?)

1) "Pumpkin... I know you like those Twilight books, and I agree that Gregory is a very handsome and polite man... but it doesn't change the fact that he died 200 years ago. Even ignoring that he's much too old for you, necrophilia is still a crime, honey."

2) "Darling, I'm sure Max is very smart, and I'm glad that you're looking beyond outword appearances. Still... he's just a brain, attached to a robotic body. Not that there's anything wrong with that! It's just... I'm not sure this is a relationship that can last, sweetie. And I have to admit, him choosing to become a brain-in-a-jar? That raises all kinds of red flags."

Holes in the Powersets that could be filled in:

• Some kind of Tool/Gadget based Control Set.
• Some kind of Electrical based Support (Buff/Debuff) set.
• An Energy Based Support set, (An argument could be made for Kinetics, though...) and Control set (No, I don't consider Gravity an 'Energy Control' set.)
• Radiation is open for a Melee, Defense, and a Control Set. (Yes, I know Radiation Armor is in the works.)
• Psychic powers could use a Melee (yes, I know, it's coming,) Defnese, and Support set. (Again, an argument could be made for Empathy/Pain BEING the Psychic Support sets.)

Getting into the real exotic stuff...

• Sonics are open for a Melee, Defense, and Control set.
• Poison/Toxic is open for everything but support (Okay, Spines might qualify for melee... but not really.)
• Wind/Storms, like Poison/Toxic, only has a Support set currently.
• Water will soon have a Ranged set... leaving us open for a Melee, Defense, Support, and a Control set.

That's a pretty large list of potential power sets right there, and it doesn't even include some of the Player-desired sets (like, say, Thrown Weapons) or the one-AT only sets.

Um... Taunt?

In all seriousness, what seems to be the issue? Just on a quick cobble-together build, I could fit in all the attacks and staff mastery, all but one power from Dark Armor (There's no real reason to have both Oppressive Gloom and Cloak of Fear, after all.) And I still was able to take three Earth Mastery powers, Boxing/Tough/Weave, a travel power, and one final power free. Unless you are planning on several pool powers, I'm not sure what the issue is.

Still, if you must drop a Staff Attack, then I agree with Reppu. You'l probably want to drop either Serpent's Reach or Mercurial Blow, depending on how fast your other powers are recharging.

At least I am certain you will quite enjoy the Form of Soul, regardless of your build.

Looking at the blog... why?

Enriche is unflavored vitamin water that might include some kind of tasteless mind control and/or intelligence dampening drug in extremely low doeses.

There is nothing, visually, to set it apart from any other bottle of water. Why would the blogger bother making it, then?

Redundant set with some questionable mechanics. (Those "Target Now, hit in X seconds" powers are probably going to be as big a success as Time Bomb is. And I'm rather certain option 1 for Black Hole would need to be a higher tier power, while option 2 is plainly impossible to do with this game engine.)

/unsigned

Well, I'm not one of the miracle workers of the costume creator, but I'll give it a shot.

This first set isn't amazing, but I am 99% certain that it contains nothing that a Free Player wouldn't have access to:



This next one requires a lot of purchased pieces... and didn't get the Rook symbol in the chest. (Um... oops?) Still, I think it looks nice. I probably should have added some kind of pattern on the chainmail, though...



So, nothing amazing, but I hope you find them at least acceptable.

I regularly use a thesaurus when choosing a name for my characters. (Being an unrepentant Altaholic, I make a lot of characters.) Most of my starting names have two words, and I just make sure that I've got about three or four synonyms for each, and just start mixing and matching until I come up with an acceptable one. So far, I have yet to encounter a pairing where ALL the combinations I came up with are taken.

If I am really coming up blank, I use a super hero name generator to provide a seed (there's one on the Seventh Sanctum website that is excellent for getting that starting point.)

And, of course, I'm not above using Xtreme Kool Letterz to get a name I want. Or using a Dash between the two words of a name. Or heck, smashing them into one word, with or without capitalizing the second word.

Really, with all the characters I can end up making, if I can still make get acceptable names? Then there's nothing broken in the system.

Am I the only one who looks at these new, space-warping holes in reality, and thought... "One day, I just know that interdimentional horrors are going to use these things to invade our world..."

Okay... while I've got a lot of alts (altaholism - I don't suffer from it, I enjoy every moment!) Only a few have developed enough to have 'favored' enemies.

Black Mask Brawler (Inv/SS Tanker): Circle of Thorns and Banished Pantheon, by preference. He's drawn to misuse of magic enemies.

Lady Courage (StJ/Shield Scrapper): Council & 5th Column, some Arachnos. She's a legacy hero, taking up the mantel of her WWII era Great Grandfather Captain Courage… so she seems to end up butting heads with the WWII Remnant groups often.

Rat Bite (Claws/Ninjitsu Stalker): Lacking any other ninja-like group, Rat Bite tangles with the Tsoo by preference. She also tangles with the Warriors quite a bit, as a result.

Operative Rathbourne (SoA (Huntsman Build)): Takes a sadistic pleasure in disrupting Arachnos plans not her own.

Galvanique (Elec/Elec Brute): A little backstory here… When Galvanique was just starting off as a hero, she got into a situation way over her head, finding herself fighting for her life in a three-way gang war between the Council, the Family, and the Tsoo. Longbow came in an (not unreasonable) took out everyone there to stop the violence. But when the Longbow Captain in charge came across Galvanique, decided that capturing a 'Super Villain' as well as all the other criminals would be good for his career. In short order, Galvanique found herself locked up in the Zig, supposedly the Mastermind behind the entire incident. After Arachnos broke her out, she's held a grudge against the Council, the Family (and Marcones by association), the Tsoo, and most especially Longbow.

Cerebral Kortex (Mind/Psi Dominator): Making a clone based of DNA that they were about 80% sure came from the Clockwork King prior to being reduced to a brain-in-a-jar… probably not the brightest of ideas they Crey scientists ever had, but at least one that makes a degree of sense. Turning the clone into a Brain-in-a-jar just to see what happens, on the other hand? That was just plain stupid. Needless to say, Cerebral Kortex does have a grudge against Crey, and a love-hate relationship with Primal Clockwork.

Challenger 8 – Challenger 8 doesn't know who decided to throw her into an underground maze full of deathtraps and other, better armed people, and then set them all loose with the message that only the first person to find their way out would survive… but since the destruction of Galaxy freed her from the Maze, she's tried to find out. She really has a thing against any organization that treats people as things. CoT, Vahzilok, Trolls, Lost, Crey, Arachnos, Devouring Earth, Malta, Restructurist Rikti… I think you get the idea…

And yeah, that's just a handful of my alts… whew.

Currently on Beta... the color options are the same as the standard character creater. So yes, yellow and red are currently available.

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And personally? The Yellow shades need to be removed.

Personally, I'm much more interested in the teir 9. Unless I'm misreading everything, this is a crashless nuke in a non-weapon set. And it's in a set with two other Targeted AoEs and a Cone... and a strong third single-target attack, AND it has a self heal/attack instead of a snipe.

Wow... I'm kinda expecting many adjustments in the near future. 'cause I think this may be a bit OP right now, just looking at the numbers.

Of course, I'll have to actually play around with it this evening, to see for sure.

First: The only reason to play either set (or any set in the game) is because you want to.

Selling points of Stone melee are that it's a hard hitting set, full of SMASH! It also comes with excellent mitigation, which goes a long way to shoring up any Armor deficiencies. That said, it pays for all this by acting like a sponge on your Blue Bar... it just sucks endurance up. I don't think it's as bad as Titan Weapons, but it is still pretty hungry, so be prepared to slot End Reducers.

Ice... I can't sell this one. I've never played it myself. It strikes me as a set that sacrificed too much damage for mitigation.

That said... yes. It will be ported to other ATs. At the very least, it will get put on Stalkers sooner or later. Like many of the remaining sets viable for proliferation, it will probably get an overhaul when they decide to port the thing elsewhere. But until that time, I don't see any changes being made.

While doing the Safeguard/Mayhem missions are really the only thing 'missable' missions left in CoH, I will point out some personal favorite arcs that you might want to check out at least once. (Whether durring leveling, or via Flashback is up to you.)

Remember, these are arcs I found fun. Your Milage May Vary.

Blue Side:

Be sure to run the Faultline arcs at least once. They aren't easy (three different Elite Bosses/Archvillains) will be encountered, but they do tell an interesting tale. Also, if you don't get it another way, the second arc (IIRC) will give you acess to Ouroboros and the Flashback system, so that's a bonus.

You may want to experience the Hollows, Striga Island, and Croatoa arcs... they are less coherent than Faultline, but not without their high points.

Check out the Mercedes Sheldon arcs. These mark the point where the Devs started really working on their story telling and shouldn't be missed.

As for some old content arcs (these aren't anywhere near as well told as arcs added post Issue 13, but they still have their merits.)

The Bonefire Plot
The Mind of a King
The Vahzilok Plague (Warning! This arc includes getting a nasty debuff for a mission, and an encounter with an EB/AV - Dr. Vahzilok himself.)
A Hand of Iron (An arc where the Freakshow are a credible threat, not just easily led buffons.)
The Wheel of Destruction
The Freaklympics
An Unnatural Order
The Envoy of Shadows (Another Elite Boss/Archvillain arc)
The Organ Grinders
Revenant Hero Project
The Terra Conspiracy (Yep, another EB/AV)
Division: Line
The Eternal Nemesis (2 EB/AV encounters here. One of them is Nosferatu, who can be a particularly challenging fight if you try this solo.)
The Evil Countess Crey (EB/AV)
Missing Melvin and the Mysterious Malta Group
Project: World Wide Red (Not just an EB/AV encounter, this arc includes an ambush by a Giant Monster!)

Well, that's just my Blue Side list of Arcs You Should Check Out At Least Once.

I give an anti-recomendation to the two arcs centered around the Carnival of Shadows. Trust me... your life will be better off IGNORING these arcs.

I'm not as familiar with Red Side arcs, so I'll just leave with the observation that they start actual story arcs right away, but the quality is very debateable in them. Be ready to feel like a hired Thug for most of them, because that's how you are treated.