PorkchopXpress

Bravo.


Well played I must say.

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Stealth powers have no effect on the Rikti's ability to select a Hero or Villain as a target and their counting scanners for determing threat levels are likewise not affected by stealth.

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An epic "I told you so" to everyone that griped about Shadowfall.

An epic "OMG thank you for settling that" to DW.

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Indeed. Sadly, not everyone reads the forums.

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And even worse some people still won't believe what they read here.

Just last night I logged in to check the purp market on my Brute and found myself in the midst of a Rikti attack in Cap on Triumph. In broadcast several people kept yelling at everyone to shut off Shadowfall "or else". I calmly explained that DW did a thorough job of debunking that myth on the forums. To my dismay I had several people flatly state that it was a bug that they had PROVEN and knew it to be truth - completely disregarding DW's statement here. Oh well. I wasn't participating and have long since given up on bringing enlightenment to the conspiracy theorists so I logged out to let them go about their misguided way.

Perfect timing Malty. With the pending release of all the new axe murderers from the pokey this guide is perfect for TWO ATs now. Insider information?!?!?!?!?!?!? Are you really BaB in disguise!?!?!?!?!?!


Nice job.

Off to a flying start Malty. Can't wait to see the finished product.

So....... Hero1 has had enlightenment from the Rikti and has now become fully integrated into a clothes-less society and wants to come back and spread the virtue of this way of life.

But do we ALL have to grow such large heads to join the Rikti lifestyle? I know that "bald is beautiful", but I kinda like my hair also. And where are the females? Will Hero1 become a "herm" as well?

So many questions........

Excellent writeup!


And should I comment that I'm the first person to post after a poster that will definitely be wiped and possibly banned?

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# A crafted enhancement with 1 attribute (Damage, Hold, Range, etc) multiplies the level value of an enhancement by 1.0; in other words, it grants full value.

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Maybe I'm way behind the learning curve here but the crafted enhancements that I was looking at today - comparing them to my level 50+s seem to be about +7.5% stronger across the board. Making a single crafted enhancement look like a nice little improvement over a 50++ - or any ++ enhancement for that matter.

PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong or looking at this incorrectly.


The split crafted enhancements on the other hand look to be almost exactly along the lines described here and significantly weaker than a Hami Enhancement.

I had posted this some time ago on the Tanker Forums and linked it in the guide section. The link destroyed with the great forums purge many moons ago. I have had many people inquire about the original post over the months and finally managed to salvage the draft off an old laptop. Although this was written before ED and the great Defenses Nerf many of the points are still pertinent today. Feel free to add anything that I may have failed to include or is no longer useful in the age of mediocrity.



Herding: A Brief Look at a Practice Used by Tankers in Team Settings

Hello, I am a tanker. I have played a tanker on and off since May of 04 and have seen most of the goods and bads associated with Tankers in regards to CoH. It would seem that recently I have personally witnessed a small regression in the overall state of tankers in regards to team play. There are many theories as to why this may or may not indeed be the case and I will try to avoid that subject in this post. What I would like to address is the subject of effectively corralling villains in a team oriented setting – more commonly referred to as “herding”. The goal of this being to help aspiring young tankers to more effectively help their teams by safely and effectively herding up villains in a responsible manner.

[u]Lets start with the Why’s and When’s of herding.[u]

Why do we herd? That is a good question with several different responses. The one that most people generally tend to think about is the power leveling aspect. Indeed, many people utilize this tactic to group large numbers of villains to generate experience at an extremely fast clip. Another reason, and the one that we will focus on in this discussion is to herd villains up into a tight and manageable group so that a team can quickly and effectively deal with a dangerous situation. A responsible tanker herds to ensure his teams safety during a potentially debt ridden encounter, not to just expedite the completion of a mission. Please remember that the bottom line for a tanker is the safety of your group. So the “why do we herd” reasonably needs to be answered with something along the lines of “helping to protect your wards”.

This leads into the question of “when do we herd”. To answer this question I would pose a retort of “when shouldn’t we herd”. I think that question better helps to lay out the ground rules of safe and effective herding. There are numerous answers to this question but a few that are potential team breakers.

* When a team is moving quickly and effectively through a mission or outdoor hunting area it is generally best not to attempt to herd. This can actually cause the opposite of the intended effect and slow down a teams progress and generally cause more debt due to lack of focus.

* When a team has shown repeated displays of impatience or an unwillingness to listen to directions. Both of these traits will generally cause unwanted debt in the near future. An impatient team will usually preemptively attack a herd, and eventually will break up due to people not being willing to wait for a safe delivery. A team not willing to follow directions will generally tend to die regardless, but will do so in increasing frequency under the specter of large numbers of villains being led around by a Tanker.

* When we aren’t equipped to deal with the villains. Do NOT let a team push you into a herding situation when you don’t feel it is in the best interest of you or your team. I have experienced this both as a tanker and as a general member of a team. You can call it “when greed strikes” or something along those lines, but it tends to end in debt. If you have doubts, share them with the team and explain how dealing with single groups in this instance would be better for the group. If certain members object and become obstinate about it, you are probably better off without them in your group and gameplay experience. Certain villain groups just aren’t wise to herd and you will have to make that decision based upon your group settings. Malta, Knives of Artemis and Carnies all carry individual members within their ranks that can not only kill you quickly, but will decimate your teammates as well. I learned this the hard way the first time I tried to herd a cemetery full of carnie Lts and Bosses. By the time I had a large group back to my destination the realization hit me that this group of psi users was going to quickly send me to the hospital and probably eat my teammates up as well. I yelled for them to run, but being the good super group mates they are running wasn’t an option. So the dreaded group wipe followed quickly.


Now that we have the basic philosophy out of the way I would like to offer a few words of advice on safe and effective herding from an old tank. This point of view will generally be from the tankers perspective, but I will attempt to interject views from other AT s as well. Please note that this is by no means all inclusive and is subject to interpretation, but that I have found it to be extremely effective from both a tanker and teammates point of view.

* Corners are your friend. Some tankers come by this skill naturally, and some still can’t grasp it after 50 levels of tanking. The premise is simple, use any and all corners/obstructions to your advantage. Not only at the very end, but during the actual herding process. Cornering helps to ensure that the properly aggro’ed villains will come as close to your tanker as possible to provide them with a direct line of sight for attack. By repeatedly ducking behind corners during the roundup process you will keep a tighter herd behind you thereby making sure you don’t have stragglers lose interest and cause potentially dangerous road bumps for your teammates down the road. This also saves time by not having to repeatedly herd the same areas. The end result enables you to provide a very tight group of villains for your teammates arresting pleasure. Utilize any nook and cranny that is available and remember that many villains will stop and attack at range if at all possible.

* Herd AWAY from your team. It is normally in your best interest and that of your group to start with your team and herd groups of villains that are nearby and beyond to a further destination. When you are properly positioned with your herd in a tight knot, let your team then come to you, not vice versa. This isn’t always possible, but should always be a common practice. The reason being that any time you bring a large group of villains BACK towards your teammates the chances of one of them being unprepared or trigger happy increases exponentially. This usually results in debt. I have seen many decent tankers that utilize the cornering technique to great effectiveness only to bring a large mob right back over an unsuspecting defender or controller that was waiting eagerly to assist the tanker to survive the big bad mob.

* Don’t bite off more than you or your team can handle. It is sometimes a desire to “show off” or to display the raw power of our AT while dealing with large groups of villains. Usually this isn’t wise or in the best interest of your team. My general rule of thumb is that if you can’t individually survive the ENTIRE herd that you pull for an decent period of time then you have probably pulled too many villains. A herd that is too large increases the difficulty in aggro’ management and possibility of debt being incurred by members of your group. The boards are full of stories about tankers describing their extraordinary deeds like herding the entire map of X hazard zone, or taking an entire mission with one herd. What you don’t hear is the sob story of their teammates that died while trying to deal with this overwhelming number of enemies, or that the tank wasn’t able to deal with the group in a timely and efficient manner if at all. In my general experience with an 8 man team I have found it generally safe to pull approximately 4 large groups at a time (tends to be about 50 villains). Any more and it the danger and potential for debt starts to increase dramatically. Some teams are better equipped to deal with large groups than others, so be conservative at first with your estimates and ramp up to the desired level. Much safer than starting high and working DOWN to a safe number.

* Some teams will provide hidden obstacles. This is not always a noticeable issue but it will sometimes be prevalent. One of the first obstacles that comes to mind are pets. Pets are great, no debate on that. What pets aren’t is smart, and that can sometimes lead to very messy situations. Generally try to take wide paths around pets during the herding process and in your setup phase. A pet making premature contact with your herd is a recipe for disaster, so make sure to avoid this at all reasonable costs. Another obstacle is your quick trigger AoE teammie. Many times they will jump the gun by diving into your well managed herd before your team is ready. I have been on both sides of this fence on this issue. Most cases revolve around the damage dealing classes – blasters and scrappers, but this isn’t the only offenders by any means. And yes I have been guilty also. Several times I have either jumped into a group with my buildup/Whirling Sword on my broadsword scrapper or laid down a pre-emptive Stone Cages with my controller. One of the easiest ways to resolve this is to properly train your team by using a bind to state when you are through moving and the team is open to blast away.

* Good communication is essential. Lastly and most importantly don’t take communication and group knowledge for granted. Very simple but very important. Always let your group know when you plan on herding, where you anticipate ending up, and when it is safe to attack. A well prepared group is less likely to jump the gun on a mob, and will make for a safer grouping experience for everyone. And don’t assume that just because the last two herds worked well, that you can continue to progress at the same level of effectiveness without continued communication. People aren’t mind readers, so expect the worst and be diligent in your preparations. Repetition is the key to success. Also, make sure to LISTEN as well as talk. If your big Nuking blaster is afk and you have to sit on that big mob you just skillfully herded up your group may well be in trouble. So make sure to pay attention to all of your teammates and the group chat.

Lastly just remember that this game is about fun. If your group isn’t having fun it more than likely won’t stay together long. Hopefully some of the above tips and guidelines will help you to ensure that your team stays debt free while also enabling a fun and safe herding experience as well as bolster some of the skillsets of the younger tankers out there.

Please feel free to post any other tips and tricks that I may have missed out on.

Good luck and Happy Hunting,

Beo

What a great guide. All the informative stuff along with the creative, witty fluff that makes reading guides such as this entertaining as well as informative. Kudos.


And thank you for helping to give my floundering AR/Energy Blaster direction. He is almost 3 years old yet had no goals in life and meandered through the CoH world as a quasi blapper that liked to snipe. Now that he has inspiration to be the Master of Cones he has a goal in life.

Much appreciated.

The Sinkiller finally dinged 50 last night. Ice/Dark Corruptor (see sig).

Impressive.

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What people forget and the guide can't explain is that the defense it gives isn't remotely comparable to the -aggro you get from the power. That is worth 10x the paltry defense number.

Minimizing Aggro is the forgotten defense

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Quoted for truth.

Stealth + Snipe = High probability of pulling single minions off of a pack.

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Spread the gospel brother Bee!

What people forget and the guide can't explain is that the defense it gives isn't remotely comparable to the -aggro you get from the power. That is worth 10x the paltry defense number.

Minimizing Aggro is the forgotten defense.

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Nice to see you being yourself man, good show. Yeah, you probably wouldn't have seen any of the mobs that now placate and "AS" in a fashion...you, in the new zone. Now, quit being a [censored].

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The wink means we were laughing WITH you, not AT you (well for the most part ).


And I apologize if it offends, but I still don't understand your reasoning. I've been throughout all of Grandville now but the top most levels of the Tower with my Corruptor who is much more Fragile than any /Elec Brute and I have been AS killed ONE time. What/where/who do you plan on fighting in PvE that is gonna MULTIPLE AS you through Power Surge? You plan on herding up outdoor spawns? Indoor instanced missions or mayhem missions? And if you knew the bosses could do it, why would you? It would be akin to herding up Sappers.

And being as how these mobs don't show up until Grandville, why in the world would that keep you from taking Power Surge UNTIL you reached the mobs that you fear will kill you through it (ie at 41)? Seems to me it would make more sense to use it in the levels leading up to these mobs than not use it around them if you are so concerned about that one small aspect.

Sure the drop will always bug people and keep them from taking it - same as Unstoppable - but I just don't understand the reasoning as put forth.

LoPan: "You were not put on this world to get it Mr. Burton!"

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I was running Power Surge and ran to prepare for the crash had toggled Rest and died fromt he crash. Think the HP buff happened but because i was resting and vulneable it did more damage.

No i did not have any debuffs on me no one attacked me. The EMP went pop an I died.

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I'm gonna go waaaaay out on a limb here and guess that in this instance the drop was a lot lower than 10% of your hit points. Ouch - but on the good side this is a great way for the badge hunters to grab the undying badge.

Now that Arch has "officially" discovered this bug we can blame HIM for holding back I7 from the live servers.

My noticeable (as in when I freaked) crashes were a sliver also. Being a Perma-Unstop user from the way old days I am pretty used to dealing with crashes - especially the 10% hit point/no end variety. This was NOT 10% of my hit points left.

I'm thinking that we are looking at a bug here where it randomly drops to different levels.

Great, we may have just caused this to stay on Test for another week.

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what does AS stand for in this post?

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aid self

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From the context it looks to be referring to Assassin's Strike. As in multiple ones will bring you down. Well, no [censored] - that was a revelation.

I think the poster is pretty focused on either Warburg or Arena.

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10% hp just like Unstoppable

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That is the part I'm questioning. It sure didn't look like I had 1/10th of my hit points left. More like 1/100th. I haven't seen anyone come up and give a definitive answer to this and since I was running for the hills everytime it dropped I never had an actual chance to check it out myself.

Hoping it is a bug.

Correct.

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Personaly, I am all for loseing the knockback and immobilization protection and getting either a +regen or a self heal added to the set somewhere. Just my opinion.

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That would be nice - but it would just cause an eventual nerf to the set. Aid Self added to this Armor is bordering on overpowered as is, to add a self heal power would just cause heartbreak and bad feelings towards the Devs down the road.

As much as I would like my future Elec/Elec Brute to have a Healing Electricity type power even I see this as being just too much.

Please give us a little insight into which AT/type and what it does.

Thanks.

I think the overwhelming concern with this zone is the extreme potential for debt.


I sure hope the Devs notice this as well. I know that I won't be taking my level 40 Corruptor anywhere near RV until he is 50 - whereas my level 50 heros will be in there quite often. I fear this will create the dynamic where RV will be swamped with heros from players that feel the same way.

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If that gets changed in other zones, I'm not going to bother any more, since your choice will be "run with 1 HP and find a place to hide and heal" (having someone follow you,) "Find an empath" or "run out of base, get killed, then stand in the base while your natural regen rate slowly heals you."

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Lesson learned from my first RV toon the last few days.... Slot Rest with a couple slots of recharge reduction. ++ them when you buy your enh's. Rest was back up as often as I needed it.

I played a brute, Corruptor and a Dominator. All copies of characters I have on live now cause I wanted to see what they would be like late game... SUHWEEEET!!

This event totally rocked! I have heroes that I will be able to play right away in there at release. But I'm on a mission now to get my Villains up there too...... Gotta stock up on HotPockets and Mountain Dew for the next week or so.. Cause I'm gonna be spending a lot of time at the 'puter.

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Ha! My goal while playing a "Fragile" Mind/Rad was to last long enough in the zone while dodging Stalkers left and right to have Rest recharged by the time I finally made it back to the Hospital. Usually accomplished that goal - but not always.

And Rest was the ONLY power that I actually slotted up to 40++ level. Did anyone actually take the time to slot up all their powers with ++?

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Eventhough I got PWNED a lot with my Dom, I am having a blast.

One suggestion ...

DO THIS ONE WEEKEND EVERY OTHER MONTH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Here's a better suggestion for you.... play it live on your own server.
Here's another one....ask the devs to set up a PvP only server that you can copy characters to.

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I do PvP on my own server, but I doubt any server puts up the numbers that this event does.

As for a PvP server, the limited time makes this so much more special. Everyone wants to jump in the action. A dedicated PvP server would dwindle down to just the "Hardcore PvP'ers" eventually. This server wipe and limited time allows everyone to have an equal footing.

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If all you want is some lame special event where everyone has "equal footing" then the develpers could easily set up a pvp only server that anyone can copy to and be insta leveled to whatever level x zone is. Unlimited free respecs basically. If it ends up being only hardcore pvp'ers then they have proven the point that it doesn't excite most of the PvE population. They could even wipe that server every other week, not that it would be needed.

There is nothing special about this event. Log in, build crappy/great character get owned/own people, get mapserverd or lagged out due to all the graphics and way too many people on a server not optimized for it. what fun!

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Hehe, I smell an extra serving of BITTER OLD FART!

Seems to me that you probably don't need to be logging in and wasting your time with an event that everyone else seems to be enjoying. Please go sit on your porch and yell at the neighborhood kids to stay off your grass and you will be a much happier person.

I think Czar's idea has merit if only for the fact that it would keep players interested in potential alts they would want to roll for PvE or even PvP purposes thereby keeping playerbase interest for a longer period of time. This event definitely opened my eyes to the potential of several very intruiging ATs/combos.

I can't express how much friggin fun it was to roll up on a group of Thug MMs and their bajillion combined pets and throw out a Mass Confuse - and THEN Confuse their accompanying Heavy. Oh the joy that caused. That one single incident more than made up for the fact that I was stalker bait for the rest of the day. Mass Confuse ftw!!!!!!

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I only triple slotted it for recharge,

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Don't you think that might have made a difference.




Also - I tried to use Telekinesis with my Mind/Rad on several /Elecs running Surge last night and it didn't work. I'm still not sold that the crash leaves you with 10% hit points. I wish someone with a better memory than myself would verify this.