Overclock

Possibly related, possibly not, but has anyone else noticed in the level 25-30 Hero morality mission that Nocturne has an instantaneous healing power? As in there doesn't even seem to be an animation associated with it. She just suddenly recovers a huge portion of her hit points and it happens several times during the fight.

I'm trying to remember from fighting her in the Faultline arcs, but I don't remember that she had anything like Aid Self that could have been affected by the change in interrupt times. Of course in the morality mission she's only a normal boss so she may have different powers there.

It doesn't sound like this particular guy was receptive to advice but if you do run across someone who is willing to listen point them over to the Combat Attributes window.

Watching their defense values change as they toggle on powers is a pretty simple way for people to see what does and doesn't stack.

That he was running Acrobatics which offers no +Def whatsoever would have been very easy to demonstrate too.

Alternatively, for players with slightly more of clue who may just be forgetting a detail there's always [Real Number Links] like

"/team Compare [Acrobatics] to [Focused Fighting]".

Between i16, Super Booster 3 and the bazillion alts I've got I see myself spending a whole lotta time at Icon / the Facemaker's place. Wonder if they'll offer volume discounts?

I'm in the "glad HoF missions drop tickets" camp as well. Tickets offer more control over the rewards you receive and allow you to buy things that can't be bought with any other resource. If I want regular rewards there's plenty of newspaper missions or regular arcs out there I can run to get them.

[Other Feedback Topic - The New Chat Functionality]
This is one of the few things I'm actually not happy about with i13. There's some added functionality to the chat but it's come at the expense of a lot of headaches and, for now at least, the complete loss of chat coloring.

I'm not clear where the demand was for copying things from chat but unless the new chat editor introduces some other nice core functionality that we just aren't seeing yet, I'd have much preferred that it not be messed with, or at least not rolled out until the old functionality was working (and seriously, how could you miss text coloring? -50dkp to the QA staff for letting something as blatant as that through).

I wasn't a fan of the new rent change at first. Paying rent on bases that had previously been free seemed potentially disastrous.

In play though the size of the rent is proving to be small enough that even the SGs that I have which are played in very rarely (read: once ever 6 months or so), don't seem like they'll be impossible to keep up with.

I do think that pricing on rooms and objects for a basic level base could stand to be reduced a lot further however, but that stems from a desire to have a solo SG for a few of my alts, which may be contrary to the design philosophy.

One key change that's related to this and making it less irksome by the way? The change to costumes where each one tracks SG mode colors differently. That makes it less aggravating to be in SG mode and use the group colors, hence easier to earn prestige, and therefor easier to afford the current modest rents.

[ QUOTE ]
Objective: Choosing shields on the character creator couldn't be more annoying. Unless it included being poked in the eye.

[/ QUOTE ]
Just as a hint? That's not "objective" (see #5), it's an "objection" (see #4).

Now you know and knowing is half the battle!

I've been mostly focusing on a Broadsword/Shield Scrapper on live after trying a Shield/Fire Tanker on test.

Objective Feedback
Even low level enemies pack enough Defense Debuff power to erase the +Def of Shields. Witness the effect of Council machine guns and many Enemy bladed weapon attacks.

It is not unusual to see Base Defense drop to -30% or lower while fighting enemies with Defense Debuffs on a team of 3+ members. This leads to the perception that the set is weaker than it really is since failures tend to occur in cascades.

One moment you're fine, the next your Defense is non-existent and you're taking 2-3x as much damage as usual. The external perception of that is that the character is fragile.

I don't find this to be an issue with Shield itself however, but rather with the scale of Defense Debuffing available to the Enemies in the game.


Subjective Feedback
In practice the set is actually pretty resilient. Especially with Parry stacked on top.

The Shield powers form a decent base so that reaching the "soft cap" for melee defense is doable in 2 successful hits. In the face of defense debuffing this is sometimes even enough to salvage some workable defense after the initial barrage of bullets.

Broadsword and Shield together make for an Endurance intensive combination however, so much of the time it feels like the character is gasping for breath (pre-Stamina and IO slotting that is).

Overall, Shields seems to perform reasonably well and I expect my character will be extremely potent with the addition of Aid Self and IO bonuses.

Since i13 went live I've only been able to do a little zone pvping, though I hope to get to the Arena matches tonight.

Objective Feedback

Shivan and Nuke gathering has not been crippled. I've done runs with both low and high level characters to replace Shivans as well as gathering a full set of Nukes with my Dominator.

Both activities, without interference from other players, are quit doable (the Shivans by a range of characters including several Defenders, a Peacebringer, a Scrapper and a Brute).


Subjective Feedback

The PvP fighting I've done in i13 has been more fun and more enjoyable than the battles I fought in early issues. This may be do to any number of reasons, from the caliber of the opponents (who've all been very cordial), to the effects of the changes. Ultimately though it's simply been more enjoyable and I have more desire to return and have more fights.

In terms of performance testing, I've tried a Peacebringer, an Empathy Defender, a Mind/Nrg Dominator and a Kat/SR Scrapper in duels in Warburg and found each of them to perform well.

Despite winning no matches with my Emp, the fights were entertaining because they lasted long enough for me to feel I was having some effect on my foe. I contrast this with a battle I fought in i12 where my Fire/Fire blaster was unable to overcome the regeneration rate of a SS/Fire Brute who was standing still and not fighting back. It's possible that disparity still exists, but so far I have not encountered it.

Objective Feedback

After this week's maintainence it seems that if you are leveling a pacted character without your pactmate logged in and you have leveled since they last logged in then you will not see xps accruing in your xp bar until you change zones.

This leads to most level ups taking place at the end of a mission as you exit to the street (which means the level up bonus is essentially wasted).

I'm not sure if this is a bug or the desired behavior however as it doesn't seem that the experience is being lost, just delayed due to the level imbalance in the pact.


Subjective Feedback

I had thought that Dual Builds would be the big winning feature in this issue for me, but since i13 launched I have spent far more time working on leveling pacts.

I find there's a much stronger psychological reward for leveling up if I know that I'm also helping a friend to level. Additionally there's more reward in playing in general in that I am able to "play with friends" even when they are not on (as is often the case with our conflicting schedules).

Subjective Feedback:
Merits seem to be having a noticeable, positive effect on game play from what I can see, at least in the short term.

Globally there seem to be more and different Task Forces being run now than prior to I13. I've frequently seen calls for each of the Task Force Commander TFs as well as some of the others (such as Moonfire or Ouro TFs). I've even run a Katie TF since i13 launched, which hit 8 members despite the low merit reward (most of us were <35 and so still earning xps on it).

Personally, merits have lead me back to the Hollows on a pair of my new alts to play through the arcs there and gain the few merits offered. They're not much but if I'm going to be soloing for a bit it beats soloing newspaper missions (at least once the 1st safeguard is taken care of).

Fare the well Lighthouse and thanks for the support and work you've done for us over your tenure!

I just did a fairly long and grueling STF this weekend with a non-optimal layout so I've been thinking about it a bit since then. Here's what I've got for you:

[ QUOTE ]
I'll post my big question first, so if you want you can skip my justification for asking and just post.

What team build is required to beat STF?

[/ QUOTE ]
The most critical component is to assemble a group of good players. Good in this case means better than "ok", it means players who are aware of how their powers work, which are effective at taking down hard AVs and can coordinate with each other well.

If you have that you can beat the STF with many different team makeups. Some make-ups will be easier and some harder though.

Some things that will make it easier:
- A solid tank or two. The AVs in the STF aren't wimpy, have some unusual tricks and Lord Recluse is flat out ridiculous when buffed by the towers. It's possible to beat the STF without a tank but it's a hell of a lot easier with one. Two can be handy as well for managing aggro and keeping the squishies safe.

- Regen and Resistance debuffing. These two debuffs radically alter the difficulty of fighting Arch-Villians. Just having them on the team isn't enough though. The players need to be aware of them and need to use them. For example: Transfusion from Kinetics has a Regen debuff component. This means the Kinetic needs to spam it as often as they can (since they'll miss occasionally) to insure that the AV's regen is supressed. Using Transfusion only when people are injured is not enough to get the job done.

- Defense buffs. There's a lot of time you don't want to be hit in this TF. Vs Ghost Widow for example you don't need to worry about her heals if she can't hit you. Vs Lord Recluse you absolutely want your Defense high enough so that he's wiffing as close to 95% of the time as you can get (he's an AV so you can't get him down to a 5% hit rate but you can get him reasonably close to that).

- A Toggle Debuff. This one's a bit odd but it's for one purpose -> throwing a toggle debuff (like Enervating field, Snow Storm, etc) onto Lord Recluse will prevent him from summoning Bane helpers or at the least keep their numbers drastically reduced. This is critical in keeping your tank, even a Granite backed up by an Emp, alive for longer than 30 seconds or so.

If you can get good players and cover those attributes in your team you're well on the way to a successful run.


[ QUOTE ]
I made a fourth attempt at Statesman with my 50 claws / dark scrapper last night. Like two of my previous attempts, we were forced to give up after reaching the inner circle.

[/ QUOTE ]
The Inner Circle is tricky, each has a special way of kicking your butt (well aside from Black Scorpion, he's just a meat bag). Learning their tricks can make them a lot easier to deal with though.


[ QUOTE ]
First and second time, we were stopped by Mako's defense. (Second time we brought a sonic defender who either wasn't doing her job or it just wasn't enough). First point: it would be really nice to be able to see debuffs that your team applies to an enemy, so that as a leader I can tell if someone is not doing their job.

[/ QUOTE ]
As someone else mentioned, Mako has high Defense. Sonic has -Resistance, which is different. -Resistance means you'll hit for more damage. Defense means you'll hit less often.

Most of the game is easy enough that you can breeze through it without being aware of the difference. The STF is meant to be challenging though so you (or whoever's leading the team) needs to understand how it works a bit better.


[ QUOTE ]
Third attempt the tank bailed in mission 4.

[/ QUOTE ]
That's just a sucky player, not your bad at all. Having a second tank on the team does help in situations like that though, or if the tank just legitimately disconnects for a few minutes.


[ QUOTE ]
Last night we finally had a great (so I thought) team going. Dark Defender, plant / thermal troller, empath, storm defenders, fire tank, two scrappers and a blaster. All 50s.

A little light on damage, but we've got the right (again, so I thought) set of debuffs and buffs to compensate.

So we start, and once again reach the inner circle. We kill Mako this time, no problem. Same with Scorpion. Their health just melts like any other AV. Next we pull Ghost Widow.

Ultimately we couldn't figure out how her heal worked. After first 20 minutes fighting her we figured out she was healing (as opposed to just insanely high regen). A quick search of the boards today seems to indicate that she heals off of targets within a cone, so standing behind her circumvents the problem. We had never heard of such a power, so it was assumed that it was a PBAEO target drain.

We spent an hour trying different tactics, even bringing her to the boat to have the turrets chip in, and her health bar didn't move, so once again, we gave up.

[/ QUOTE ]
You had a good team there and trying different tactics is a great idea. If you hit a wall like that though try checking on line. There's a section specifically about fighting her on the Paragon Wiki entry for the Statesman's Task Force.
http://cityofheroes.wikia.com/wiki/S...rce#Strategy_5


[ QUOTE ]
I'm thinking Kheldians are the key, just based on both their inherent powers and the inherent defense / recharge debuffs attached to their powers. Of course, Kheldians are extremely hard to come by.

[/ QUOTE ]
If only this were true. Sadly, while Khelds can be valuable team members, they just about as far from critical as you can get. The -Def on the Peacebringer blasts and the -Recharge on the Warshade blasts are frankly pathetic. Especially against a level 54 Arch-Villain who resists a huge percentage of the effect.

Working an STF with Khelds is more of an "advanced strategy" sort of thing than "easy mode" I'm afraid.


[ QUOTE ]
Maybe trading our empathy defender for another blaster would have been enough damage?

[/ QUOTE ]

You ran into a tactical hiccup, the only trading that would have helped was to a team that could use some much easier tactics - like 8x Fire/Rad controllers or something. Try that setup again with a better understanding of the mission and you'll see it goes a lot differently.


[ QUOTE ]
< rant>
But why should it have to take a fifth attempt to be successful at Statesman? Why should I have to give up before starting because I can't find the exactly correct combination of power pools needed to take down those Villains?

[/ QUOTE ]
You don't need an exact set of heroes for this. It's taken you 4 tries so far because the STF isn't designed to be steamrolled the way normal xp missions are. This is meant to be challenging and hard in a way the rest of the game isn't. It's the pinnacle of achievement in many ways. And once you know enough about how it works it really not that undoable.

Come back to this thread after you've gotten a half dozen wins under your belt and you'll wonder why it seemed so awful at the time.


[ QUOTE ]
Does it make sense to anyone else that an entire team of the most powerful hero players in the game is needed to take down any one <i>henchman</i>? Or that sometimes an entire team isn't enough?

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes. Yes it does. This is the game saying "bring your best or else". There's a level of satisfaction you can only get when you beat something like that.


[ QUOTE ]
Why is the entire inner circle standing in a line as they are? You aren't supposed to fight all of them at once. I'd like to see the team that could. But they line them up all dramatic like, like it supposed to be an even match between all four of them.

[/ QUOTE ]
To make them harder to single pull. And as people have mentioned, some really insane teams can just take them on that way. For normal teams though it's just another challenge to overcome.


[ QUOTE ]
Strictly from a design standpoint, why is this mission so hard? Yes, it's supposed to be the climax of the game, the mission where you finally stop Recluse, but is the difficulty curve like running headlong into a brick wall to anyone else?

[/ QUOTE ]
In my view, this is the end point, as hard as it gets, as big a challenge as the game will throw at you. So, yeah, it's very hard. It's something that even at 50 you may need to learn a bit, practice skills and refine you're build for.


[ QUOTE ]
It's a common MMO mindset that the upper-level content should be nearly impossible because it creates lasting challenge for players. Maybe I'm alone on this one, but I'd enjoy running Statesman frequently if it were just easier. For me, any dramatic tension that might have come from stopping Recluse was killed the first time I fought Mako and had to give up. There's no consequence, the world keeps spinning regardless of my failure, so why bother? Granted, I've wanted to retry for the badge, the accomplishment and to see Recluse in battle, but when I do beat it my reaction isn't going to be "We saved the world!". Rather, I'm going to think "hooray, our numbers were finally better than theirs."

[/ QUOTE ]
Numbers alone won't do it. When you beat this you should be able to say "Hooray, I'm a better player and a better team leader than I was before."


[ QUOTE ]
So, do we just need the "right" team build? Do we just need to understand our opponents better? If so, why couldn't we have been told this before we started? Couldn't Statesman say, "you need to have 8 players, including a radiation defense pool, to start", or even better, "go to the library before you start and access read through our database on the inner circle"?

[/ QUOTE ]
As has been said, you don't need "the right build" for the team. Lots of builds can work. What you need are the right players, and the right knowledge to back them up.


[ QUOTE ]
I would have really like to have done more to get from 45-50 than continue failing the same task force.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hopefully you got to play in all the great arcs in the game from 45-50 rather than trying to farm the STF to get there? If not I suggest leaving the STF till 50 when you need a new challenge for your hero and working on Maria Jenkins arc, and Dark Watchers arc and the Cimerora arc and so on and so forth.

Heroside
------------
<ul type="square">[*] Game Developer - Cryptic Studios doorway (in Talos) == Gives an "I Win Button" (note: button simply silences all chat channels for 1 minute, giving the developer a break from the players for a bit )[*]Model - Atlas Statue platform == Gives a "Fan Adulation" Award (all NPCs will spout the "wow your costume is the best" line instead of their normal speech).[/list]
Villainside
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<ul type="square">[*]Hermit - CoT forest at the far northern end of Nerva.[*]Carnie - Carnival town in St Martial. [/list]

Blue Steel's current post count -&gt; 6
Entries returned on a search for Blue Steel posts in the last 5 years -&gt; 3

Hmmm.....he's working undercover 1/2 the time I guess?

Welcome to our new undercover Overlord! If you have any wire taps going, I'm not the guy speaking, no matter how much it sounds like me

The group prestige total is the only one increased.

The prestige total in the SG roster still shows what the character actually earned through play (similar I suppose to how the first free 20k you get for people up to 15 members isn't assigned to those members).

Can confirm that the debt wipe is working.

Logged in this morning (post maintainence) to find 2 alts, one on Triumph and one on Pinnacle both still with the debt I left on them last night.

Checked on them again just now and both are debt free.

Especially in light of I11, this sounds like a good idea.

With Flashback allowing self-nerfing, there's an easy path forward for encouraging people to play without Accolades at a lower level (just tie a badge to it). For normal use though? Especially helping out lower level friends? Definitely a good idea to make Accolades level-independent.

Excellent work. It was very handy and helpful to see the whole thought process that went into putting together both guides.

I do see one issue arising with crafting a build like this: If you need to exemp your Fire tank down you'll lose the set bonuses, meaning you'll crash down in power even faster than normal for exemping. Just something to consider .

Ms. Liberty was kicking it (literally) Martial Arts style. I saw her Eagle's Claw a bunch of folk. I'm guessing she must have Dragon's Tail'd at one point too because all of sudden there were a whole buncha dead villians near her.