Raye_Gunn

True, though it should still be shiny, all liquids are shiny and reflective. If they could tint the water, but keep the reflections etc. that would be ideal, but I don't know if that's possible. They seem to just tint the surface of the area the water fills when they want to suggest murky water, so I suspect not. Though this was just to point out a discrepancy, the entire rest of the sewer on this map was with the ultra mode water, it was jut this one dead end without, they obviously intended to use the ultra mode water throughout.

Was running the new villain side acs, and in one with the sewer map that leads into an office building, I came across a spot where the old water had not been replaced with the Ultra Mode water:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...3-18-09-30.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...3-18-09-14.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...3-18-09-01.jpg

with a map to show where it is, and the mission name. It's just past the transition between the sewers and caves/office:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...3-18-08-48.jpg

I'm not sure of the numbers, but stacked with Stealth it gives the effect of full invisibility. so it's at least as much as whatever superspeed grants.

Screenshot of my character with Stealth on and one of the +stealth IO's slotted into Sprint.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...3-20-46-23.jpg

Thanks everyone

You wouldn't think you'd get a lot of compliments on a puke green and brown colour scheme, but people always do compliment me on the costume in game, and yeah it think it worked well for the pic. Quite happy with it overall.

Well after Arctic Sun begged for new fanart, I decided to do a new piece of my TA/Sonic Defender, Chaointe.

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/49884841/

On the end draining side, my defender solo's a fair bit, and when I team there is often another dark/elec or a rad/elec that I team with fairly often (multiple debuffs for the win!), so we can coordinate SC's for a full drain instantly. There are more people out there with endurance draining abilities than you'd guess, Ice tanks are more popular than ever and EA recharges very quickly and saps a lot of end, for instance. If there is not another sapper around, no, it will not be too useful on a team, which is why I put some damage in there. It's not too shabby in the damage department if you slot it up a bit. Where it comes in really handy as far as sapping goes is if you solo. It's saved my butt against things with a lot of mezzers, like DE, or things with very high accuracy that can punch through my debuffs... DE again, or Nemesis. If they don't have the end to hit you, the fact that they can punch through your debuffs is much less of an issue. I also plan on taking Electric Mastery, (my defender is level 39 right now) personally, so it will then become more useful in a team setting.

I've just posted my new Dark/Elec guide here: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showf...Number=7653110

the Dark/Elec combo is popular becuase it was one of the 'Sith' builds, and it's also got a neat light out of darkness look to it, The only other guide around is really out of date, so I wrote a new one . I will not suggest one specific build as 'the way to go' as one of the great things about Dark/Elec is that it can be used to cater to a number of different playstyles. You can be a debuffing king/queen, Dominator wannabe, blaster with extreme safety, whatever. My personal mode of play is a melee oriented debuffer that blasts a lot.

Why a Dark/Elec? Myself, I wanted a Sith character, so it was for concept reasons. But two holds and two pets can be a big draw for some people, either for utility or just the cool factor. Also, with the extreme safety Dark gives you, Short Circuit can be used twice to drain things with a high degree of safety, and even with Voltaic Sentinel's aggro being directed to you, again, the high degree of safety your debuffs offer make this a non-issue, especially if you've already sucked things dry with Short Circuit. In short, the debuffs protection help cancel out two of the complaints about Electrical Blast.

The Powers of Dark Miasma

1. Twilight Grasp - A large AoE heal (centered around you) that needs to hit an enemy. This power is a HUGE heal and even unslotted, it will do very respectable healing providing it hits, so accuracy is key with this power. It does however have a long animation which can make it annoying to use at times. This power also has a (minor) accuracy, damage and regen debuff affecting the target you heal off of, can be handy against AV's and GM's to help lower their regen rate.
[u]Rating 4/5[u] (would be higher with a shorter animation)
Recommended Slotting - 2 accuracy, 2-3 heal, 1-2 recharge if you can find the slots.

2. Tar Patch - Targeted AoE Slow and 30% Resistance Debuff. This Power is placed with a 'bullseye' on the floor, it does not require an enemy present to be used, as such a useful tactic is to place it infront of a corner and then pull enemies into it. What you are after in this power is not actually the slow, though it is nice, it's the -resistance it offers. This power will allow you and your team to do 30% additional damage to anything standing on it. That's not to say the slow is bad, it's come in very handy in situations such as the 'Stop 30 Fir Bolg' mission, and slowing down mobs that want to flee (in 'stop X from escaping!' missions) but your first priority should be to get this power up as often as possible to increase your own and others damage. One nice thing about this power is that it WILL self-stack, provided you have a power that boosts your recharge on you, Hasten, Speed Boost, AM, whatever, AND it is slotted with 3 recharges.
[u]Rating 5/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 3 Recharge is your first priority. Slows if you can fit them after that.

3. Darkest Night - This is your bread and butter accuracy and damage debuff. It is an 'anchor' debuff in that you place it on a mob, and the debuff will radiate out from them in a 25 foot radius, and affect all foes in that area. The -ToHit is not actually as strong as many people assume it to be, it's about 19% base. It does however stack with all the other -ToHit powers in Dark Miasma, so it adds up to quite a lot of protection when all the tools are used together. It is also a 37% damage debuff so whatever hits you, hurts a lot less. When choosing targets for your anchor, try to choose a LT towards the back of the pack, if possible, it is most likely they will last a good while, ensuring your debuff stays active longer.
[u]Rating - 4/5[u]
Recommended slotting - 1-2 Endurance Reduction, 3 ToHit Debuff, a Recharge if you can find room.

4. Howling Twilight - Targeted AoE mag 2, 15 second disorient, 20 second slow, and a -500% Regeneration debuff... oh, and it will rez people as a side effect. This is your Rez, though, if you are doing your job right, you wont have many people to rez, so I find it more beneficial to use this power as a debuff when fighting AV's/GM's, to overcome their regen rate, and for the disorient. But when you DO need a rez, this power can rez an entire team in one go, provided they are all close to you. The Disorient is a low magnitude, so will only affect minions, BUT it IS auto-hit, and even if it does only affect minions, that's still less things shooting at you and your team. It is a good power, but I found other powers took priority and I took this power quite late, and did not regret it, I still fit it in before I started facing a lot of AV's. As for the Regen debuff, it lasts 20 seconds, and is resistable but can be a very beneficial tool when fighting AV's if you slot it for recharge and use it as it recharges.
[u]Rating 3/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 3 recharges, disorients if you can fit them. 1 recharge is probably good enough if you intend to use this as a rez only.

5. Shadow Fall - PBAoE (40 foot radius) stealth and (20% unslotted) resistance to Dark, Psi and Energy damage. This power will have you in high demand in certain situations in the late game - Sewer Trial, Psychic Clockwork King, Malaise/Mother Mayhem and their minions, Psychic Babbage, Carnies, basically anything that does Psi damage, since this power plugs a major hole in many defensive sets. Turn this power on when you log in and never turn it off, unless you need to escort a hostage. The main benefit of this power is the Resistance, and when slotted, it can give very respectable resistance to the three damage types. The stealth is just gravy, but can be used just like regular stealth from the concealment pool, and when stacked with SuperSpeed, another Shadow Fall or Steamy Mist, you will have full invisibility.
[u]Rating 5/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 1-2 Endurance Reduction, 3 Damage Resistance

6. Fearsome Stare - A cone fear and a accuracy debuff (19%, 20 seconds). The Fear effect duration is enhanceable, the strength of the accuracy debuff is enhanceable, but the duration of the debuff is not. This is a fast activating power with a VERY large cone, you will easily be able to cover an entire group with this if you stand a few feet back. While feared they will be as good as held until they take damage, at which point they will take a shot, (which is debuffed) then return to cowering. This is a great power to open with once you have enough accuracy to ensure it hits most of them. Strong debuff, good control, what's not to love? There are a few caveats. This power will be of limited use against robots, the undead (most of them, anyway) and Nemesis troops of all kinds, since they have fear resistance. However, the accuracy debuff will still take effect, so it is not completely useless to use it in these situations, but you will want to open with Darkest Night rather than Fearsome Stare in these situations.
[u]Rating 5/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 1-2 Accuracy, 2 Fear Duration, 1-2 Recharge. Really, slotting is pretty variable on this one. Do you want it to last a long time, or be up as often as possible? use it as a debuff? I prefer to split the difference.

7. Petrifying Gaze - A pretty basic single target hold, no side effects, just a hold. If you want to take both holds, go for it, but if choosing between Tesla Cage in your secondary and this, Personally, I would go with Tesla Cage.
[u]Rating 3/5[u]
Recommended Slotting 1-2 Accuracy, 2-3 Hold Duration, 1-2 Recharge

8. Black Hole - AoE foe intangible. Most sets have a lemon, this is Dark's. It can be situationally useful, a patrol comes by, you aggro a nearby group and you want to take them out of the picture for a while... But all in all, Fearsome Stare can fill the same function while annoying your teammates a lot less. This would be the first power to skip in Dark Miasma.
[u]Rating 1/5[u]
[Recommended Slotting - I can't give advice here, as I do not have this power in my build, and never have besides playing with it on Test.

9. Dark Servant - The power you've been waiting for, your pet! Fluffy will not do much damage, but he will help debuff and control things and will also heal. He has an aura, Chill of the Night, minor DoT and an accuracy debuff. Tenebrous Tentacles, which does much less damage than the 'real' version in the Dark Blast set, but will keep things immobilized (though Fluffy is not exactly good at lining up cones). Twilight Grasp, heals for less than your version of the power, but will do a very good job at keeping the health of those near him topped off, since he spams it frequently. Darkest Night, functionally exactly the same as yours, Though he will toggle it on and off. And Petrifying Gaze, which will stack with your own holds.
[u]Rating 5/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 1 Accuracy, 3 ToHit Debuff, 1 Heal, 1 Hold Duration.

The Powers of Electrical Blast

1. Charged Bolts - Standard low damage attack, you're stuck with this power. It's not bad, but not great, either, but that's normal for the first blasts for Defenders. If this power recharged a bit faster, it would be easier to put together a full single target attack chain.
[u]Rating 3/5[u]
Recommended Slotting 1-2 Accuracy, 3 Damage, Recharge if you can fit it.

2. Lightining Bolt Does twice the damage of Charged Bolts, but suffers from the same problem of taking just a touch too long to recharge, imo. But you do need this power if you want an attack chain at all, so I would not recommend skipping this under any circumstances, despite this minor flaw.
[u]Rating 4/5[u]
Recommended Slotting 1-2 Accuracy, 3 Damage, Recharge if you can fit it.

3. Ball Lightning - Targeted AoE which does DoT. This is your basic AoE attack, it does good damage for an AoE, and I find this power to be invaluable when it comes to soloing, as it allows me to take down large groups relatively quickly. With your debuffs, it is not dangerous to use this, even on a team setting.
[u]Rating 5/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 1-2 Accuracy, 3 Damage, 1 Endurance Reduction

4. Short Circuit - This is the power that will allow you to sap endurance efficiently. Most of your other blasts drain only a very small amount, but this one will drain quite a lot. You will need 2 applications to drain anything completely, and it is PBAoE, which leads some sets to not use it, since it can be dangerous. But with your debuffs protecting you, it is quite safe for you to be in melee and get off two applications of this power. It can be very handy against your weak spot, multiple mezzers, and preventing bosses from using their hardest hitting attacks. More useful solo than on a team, but still has its uses on a team, especially if you should be fortunate enough to be teamed with another character with endurance draining abilities - an Ice tank, a Kin, or another Elec with SC. Not a power I would skip, though I would possibly put it off until level 18 or 22, since it will not be very effective without SO's.
[u]Rating 4/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - My slotting differs from most. Many recommend 3 EndMod in this power, but I have found that it takes 2 applications whether you have 2 or 3 Endmod enhancements, it makes no difference. So I recommend six slotting this power, so it can perform 2 functions, sapping and damage. 1 Accuracy (it has a high base accuracy), 2 EndMod, 2 Damage, 1 Endurance Reduction OR Recharge. Once you get to Hami's you can slip in a couple dam/acc.

5. Aim - Standard Aim power found in most blast sets, will significantly boost your accuracy and slightly boost your damage for a short time. Handy in several situations, but probably skippable if you can find no room for it. It is handy or hitting higher con enemies with your powers, particularly when you REALLY want Twilight Grasp or Fearsome Stare to hit, or enemeis with high defense, such as Rikti Drones. I would highly reccomend taking this power if you plan on taking Thunderous Blast.
[u]Rating 3/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 3 Recharge

6. Zapp - Standard Snipe attack, which will also drain a good chunk of endurance. I personally play up close and personal, but if you want to keep your distance, you will like this. Even up close, you may find use for it, since with all the accuracy debuffs, you have a good chance of getting it off un interrupted, even in melee range.
[u]Rating 4/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 2 acc, 3 damage 1 Interrupt Reduction

7. Tesla Cage - Standard single target hold, which deals a small amount of damage, and drains a bit of endurance. As said above, if taking one of the two holds available, I suggest this one. It does more, costs less endurance, recharges faster, and has a more visible hold graphic. Though PG has a longer range and lasts a bit longer, I just feel more effective with Tesla Cage.
[u]Rating 4/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 1-2 accuracy, 3 hold duration, 1 recharge

8. Voltaic Sentinel - You either like this power, or absolutely hate it, it seems. Your primary dictates which, to a large degree, I feel it works well with Dark Miasma. The main complaint about this power is that due to the fact that is not targetable, any aggro it generates is directed towards you. But with your debuffs, this isn't really much of an issue, your debuffs generate more aggro than Sparky ever will, and everything is so debuffed they will almost never hit you, anyway. The other complaint is low damage. It throws out 10 charged bolts. Though in my experience, this isn't bad considering what it costs to summon. It costs less than 10 Charged Bolts would, and once summoned, it allows you to use other powers while it is doing its thing, be that blasting or using your primary, it is still doing damage while you are doing other things. So all in all, I do not feel this is a bad power for a Dark/Elec, not fantastic, but not bad, I enjoy having it. But it is a power you will have to try out and see if you agree.
[u]Rating 3/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 1 accuracy, 3 damage, 1 endurance reduction, 1 recharge

9. Thunderous Blast - The Elec Nuke. Does a large amount of damage in an AoE with a side effect of a large endurance drain on those hit. This nuke is unique in that it is RANGED. You can use it at a distance, which can be handy if you want to keep your distance. I have not taken this power myself, (though I plan to) but have seen it used to good effect by others. I recommend using this power in conjunction with Aim for a bit of extra damage as well as ensuring it hits, also with Tar Patch. Keep in mind that as with all nukes, you will lose all your endurance when using this power, so be sure to have a blue on hand for getting back in the fight post-nuke.
[u]Rating 5/5[u]
Recommended Slotting - 1-2 acc, 3 damage, recharge to taste, depending on how often you want to nuke.

Helpful pool powers.
You will not be able to fit all of these, but many people swear by them for a Dark defender.

Fitness Line, especially Stamina - this is a very endurance heavy set, and unless you refrain from blasting almost entirely, you WILL need Stamina to keep up with your team.

Hasten/Superspeed - Hasten is always nice, for obvious reasons, and Superspeed will stack with Shadowfall to grant you full invisibility. This combo is very tempting to me, but I went with Leaping because it seemed more 'Sith like'.

Recall Friend - Will be handy getting people to mission doors, or helping a team stealth to the end of a mission, but the main reason some Darks take this is to port Fluffy around to where you want him, and/or to port fallen teammates into a pile wen something goes wrong to all be rezzed by Howling Twilight. Myself, I respecced out of it for lack of use, but some people will no doubt find it more useful than I did.

Acrobatics - If you are playing the insane melee-fender, like I do, the knockback protection in Acrobatics, as well as saving you from one hold, can be invaluable.

Ancillary Power Pools

Electricity Mastery
-Thunder Strike is a very nice attack, and will help flesh out your attack chain
-Power Sink will complete the job of Short Circuit to drain a group very rapidly, as well as replenishing your endurance, in this very endurance heavy set
-Charged Armor will give 27% resistance to Smashing and Lethal, and 20% to Energy, which will stack with Shadow Fall to give you 40% resistance to energy damage, unslotted.
-Good thematic fit

Power Mastery
-Total Focus. Need I say more?
-Temp Invulnerability will grant 30% resistance to Smashing and Lethal
-Conserve Power will help with this very endurance heavy set
-Power Buildup will boost the strength of your heals, your attacks, your controls, and your endurance draining abilities, so if you hit PBU then hit Short Circuit while it is active, you will be able to drain things entirely in one hit.

Dark Mastery
-Dark Consumption will help with your endurance problems, though unlike power Sink, it will not help with your endurance draining abilities
-Oppressive Gloom will stack with Howling Twilight to allow you to stun LT's and maybe even bosses, you can also heal yourself easily to counter the health drain.
-Dark Embrace will grant 27% resistance to Smashing and Lethal, as well as 15% resistance to Negative and Toxic. the Negative resistance will stack with Shadow Fall to give you a total of 35%, unslotted.
-Soul Drain will greatly boost your damage
-the melee nature of Dark Mastery is not a problem for a Dark Miasma character
-Good thematic fit

Psychic Mastery
-More controls than you'll know what to do with, you will get a THIRD single target hold, an AoE sleep and an AoE hold/repel.
-Mind over Body offers 27% resistance to Smashing and Lethal and 20% to Psi, which will give you a total of 40% resistance, unslotted, to Psionic damage, more than anyone else in the game could ever hope of getting.

Strategies and Playstyles

[u]Crazy Melee Debuffer[u] - This is my preferred playstyle. Don't worry that you're a squishy, you have so many tools at your disposal to absolutely neuter an enemy, you are very safe, and when something does hurt you, you have a big heal to pull yourself out of trouble. Playing up close makes it easier to keep things in your debuffs, if they are all gathered around you, they will not spread out, and will stay nicely clumped up and debuffed. It also makes it easier to use Short Circuit. You will want to focus on Darkest Night, Tar Patch, Shadow Fall, Fearsome Stare, Ball Lightning and Short Circuit, with Fluffy backing you up, of course. The up close and personal approach functions best with lots of AoE damage, while making sure the enemy can't hit the broad side of a barn. Acrobatics or Hover would be beneficial here, to help with knockback. If you have the Veteran melee attack, I suggest Sands of Mu since with everything bunched up nice and tight, the chances of hitting more than one target are pretty good. Good strategies are using Darkest Night on a spread out group then ducking behind a corner. They come around the corner all bunched up and already debuffed. If they are already bunched up nicely, open with Fearsome Stare, Darkest Night, and jump in the middle. Throw down Tar Patch, Short Circuit, and Fearsome stare once they're all gathered around you and debuffed, and get to work killi.. er, arresting them. Electric or Power Mastery is a good fit for this playstyle.

[u]Controller Wannabe[u] - This strategy will work best for those who are too chicken to get into melee focus on the single target holds, Fearsome Stare, Howling Twilight slotted for recharge and disorient duration, slot a slow or two in Tar Patch. Fluffy will take care of immobs. With both single target holds well slotted, you will be able to hold a boss and a LT or two, and disorient the minions with HT, and turn it into a shooting gallery for yourself and your team. Dark or Psi Mastery would be good for this.

General Tips
-Open with a defensive power first, not an offensive one. If you open with Tar patch you will be eating an undebuffed alpha strike, and you put yourself in a lot of danger. On the other hand, if you open with Fearsome stare or Darkest Night, if they shoot at you they will most likely miss and you will be much safer.
-Shadow Fall combined with Zapp makes an excellent pulling strategy
-Voltaic Sentinel summoned infront of a group while you wait around the corner is also an effective pulling strategy
-However, you don't really need to worry about pulling one at a time most of the time, so Darkest Night works best of all to pull a large group to your location safely.
-Turn player healthbars on in the control panel, this will make it easier for you to see if someone needs your help. If someone's health is dropping, target through and fire off one of your single target holds, this will most likely hit whatever is bothering them, if it is a boss, it wont do much, but if it's a LT or lower, you'll reduce the damage they are taking. Then get yourself over there to fire off Twilight Grasp.

That's what mine is supposed to be. I have absolutely no idea if it's 'canon' but a friend and I wanted to make Jedi's afer the last... third... whatever... movie came out, he made a grav/kin, and I considered various scrappers, and such, but had always wanted to try a Dark defender, so....

He abandoned his controller fairly early on, but he too now has a Dark/Elec.

Darth Vader kinda repented way at the end, so I guess it can happen.

I think I am going to take a stab at guide writing, I have a level 38 Dark/Elec and this guide is WAY out of date, and I think it's just confusing people....

[ QUOTE ]
Quick Reply:
Great thread!

A comment on datamining. While I can't tell you exactly how and what we look at in datamining, I can say that we don't usually look at 'Defiance' in and of itself. Overall performance matters much more than any single aspect of a character.

[/ QUOTE ]

So if an inherent isn't being used, this wont show up? I don't have many blasters, (just saw this in the Dev digest) but I do know that Defiance rarely gets used at all on the ones i do have, I've never had a full bar, I think I may have had half a bar on rare occasions, maybe, and then i run away if i want to not die.... It kicks in too late to get used. I've heard of people using it when they had a sliver of life to basically one shot whatever is beating on them, but it is VERY rare. now Defenders, I have a lot of them, many above level 35, Rad, Storm, Dark, Trick Arrow. Pre Stamina, occasionally useful. But If I want to be able to solo at all, and I do with all of them because I don't like being dependent on a team no matter what I play, I take Stamina on all but my Trick Arrow. I also slot end redux where appropriate, to keep me going solo. So then the inherent is not really used, I have my endurance managed already. I may have more endurance than I would solo, but I was never in any danger of running out, even without Vigilance. It probably helps some 100% team focused characters manage to go without Stamina, but it's still really weak for the vast majority of Defenders who want to be able to solo their own missions sometimes.

But i use Gauntlet, Scrapper Criticals, Assassination, Containment, Domination, Fury, Scourge, Supremacy/Bodyguard VERY frequently, they are an important part of my characters. Defender and Blaster inherents though are barely touched. It may be that they are effective without them, but it still feels like those characters got shafted, because everyone else gets something that helps them more noticably/frequently. If we can't have something to add to effectiveness if we don't need it, why not have something fun?

I knew Jack Thompson was an idiot, but I could not imagine even he could see something bad about the, lets be honest, rather cartoony violence in CoX... even villain side....

Every generation has something in the media that people seem to want to blame for kids behaving badly, comics, tv, music, and now games :-/

I wish these people would get that if they don't like even mildly violent games, then they have every right not to purchase them. Why force their idea of 'moral entertainment' or whatever on the rest of us? as an atheist I'm kinda offended by the idea of the Left Behind game that came out a while ago, what with the converting unbelievers or killing them thing, but I'm not trying to get it taken off shelves, I'm just not going to buy it.

(QR)

Been running my level 36/7 Ice/Fire the last couple days. Before I ever saw this, I knew something was wrong when while waiting for a Synapse TF to start yesterday, I went hunting Supa Trolls with a un SK'd level 18ish blaster who was also waiting for the rest of the group to show up. I had a hell of a time keeping them off of him (though, any that did charge him were dead in pretty short order). It was really bizarre for me since I have Chilling Embrace slotted with 2 Taunt SO's, and he could pull them off me with one hit. At the time, I chalked it up to the fact that they were gray, and it was something caused by the 'you're 20 levels higher than me, I gotta run away!' behavior. In the TF itself, it worked allright on minions, but bosses and LT's were tough to keep on me, several people got slept by Teslas and the like, (me and a scrapper were the only ones out of 7 of us with Mez protection) though on the whole we did run death free run of the TF, so it didn't cause any disasters or anything, but it was still annoying to not be able to keep the LT's and bosses on me. I WAS able to keep Babbage's attention, (I don't have Taunt) so I was pleased about that. (the CWK was held most of the fight so can't really judge there)

Today I duo'd with a SK'd level 19/20 Empathy defender (also was on the Synapse TF from before, not like it matters) who was pretty focused on 'pure support' though they did have Neutrino bolt and X-Ray Beam eyes and did use them, (particularly when Paragon Protectors whent MoG, to try and debuff defense somewhat) but said they weren't really slotted. We were doing my missions on Unyielding. When fighting Crey things went well, since Crey generally bunch up all nice and tight so i can hit them with my AoE's. Then we fought CoT... still went ok, but the Thorn Casters always try to get at range, so there was more scatter, and my AoE's couldn't always hit all of them, and the Behemoth Overlords took a real liking to swatting at the defender even if they were in my Chilling Embrace right as they were doing it. I could run around touch the minions and they'd stay focused on me for a while even if they insisted on running way far away, but the LT's, and there were a lot of them, would only pay attention to me if i stayed focused on attacking them non stop, pretty much.

After hittinng 20, the defender switched characters to their Ill/Rad controller, level 32, who again, I SK'd up to me. Again had trouble with LT's and Bosses, but this time, with the Rad debuffs and all, they were drawing more aggro to themselves. In one mission with CoT, the controller did die, after getting aggro from some LT's which I was not able to get back. But to be fair, it was a very tough fight, after they went down I had to hit Hibernate twice before the fight was over.

after that, switched to Scanner missions, same problems arose against Arachnos and Freakshow where the LT's would go for the controller even if they were in range of Chilling Embrace.

After THAT (hey, it's Saturday) I discovered thanks to the handy dandy little book icons I had 2 gray storyarcs with no clues in my list, the Scroll of Tikiwhatever (Banished Pantheon with Warriors for flavor) and the Vahzilok Plague (...Vahz ) I also came agross a Fire in Steel Canyon. For the Fire, I was rounding up hellions with Chilling Embrace, but always discovered that the Damned and Fallen had run away after I had laid waste to the minions, and i had to go chase them down. Dr. Vahzilok tried to run the second I came near him, as did all the Morts, Shamans, and Masks, but the zombies (of both varieties) played nicely for the most part.

As superficial as it sounds, I had to choose costumes :-P it's fun being able to make your characters your own. some other games let you choose between a handful of choices, but there is a pretty good chance you'll end up looking just like everyone else. In CoX, the odds of finding someone with the exact same costume as you (unless they were copying you. which I have had happen, and was very annoyed. the original Raye Gunn is on Virtue, and Virtue ONLY, btw.) is very small, and some of the costumes you can create are very fun.

But story and badges are a close second. I love Freaks, too. I'd love to have some Freakshow costume pieces so I could make a decent Freak character.

[ QUOTE ]
CoV has the same problem all the way through. Every five levels, you meet a new contact and start a new story arc. The story arc then comes to a screeching halt and never connects with any others.

[/ QUOTE ]

not quite true... though in general, yeah they are more segmented... but Jenkins makes repeat appearances, and....

SPOILERS!
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That fire blaster you turned to villainy, Pyriss shows up level 45+ as a Devouring Earth AV, you have to beat the snot out of the Radio (Free Opportunity!) for Television in an arc that really would make very little sense unless you had done Radio's missions. That reporter you saved after learning the secret of the PTS shows up again, too. there's a few others.

what I really want to see? some reformed Freak contacts, hero side, that came from Miss Francine's school

Apologies if I am repeating someone, but i don't have time to go through all the pages following this comment, but wanted to address this point...

[ QUOTE ]

Yet a Super Group costume isn’t your creation, either. And yet people wear them. The counterpoint is, of course, that a Super Group costume is in addition to one’s normal costume, not instead of. There’s no such personal property in the base. We thought (on paper) that the “personal items” would do the trick, but it isn’t really the same thing, is it?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think there would be a much bigger issue with SG costumes if we didn't have multiple costumes to choose from. I have 5 costume slots (after Halloween salvage). Four of those are 100% my own creation that I can design however I wish, so it's not a huge sacrifice to give up 1 slot (unless I am below level 20, but most SG's tell you to make your second slot a SG costume, not your default one, and will wait for you to hit 20) out of a potential 5 to a SG costume which I will only wear when teamed with my SG. If, on the other hand, I only had one costume slot, ever, I would never join a SG that required a SG costume, it's that simple.

So yeah, a SG costume isn't my creation, but I do have a choice to wear something that IS my creation when not teamed with my SG, which is why a SG costume isn't a big deal.

And a 'personal' item isn't really... well, personal. They are pre created items that we simply have to save up enough salvage for, the only choice is arcane or tech, and we are often forbidden by SG leaders from placing them. They usually request that you put salvage into storage so THEY can create and place what's needed, otherwise it could be a 'waste' of salvage and prestiege desperately needed for other things. Like say someone created a turret when what the base really needed was another teleporter, or they were saving up for a larger plot. The official base designer then comes in and just up and deletes the newly placed 'personal' item because the prestiege is needed elsewhere or doesn't fit with their design. There is no incentive to make a personal item if it isn't actually all that personal to begin with and can just be deleted by someone else, anyway.

What I would like is that while hidden the Cloak of Fear/Oppressive Gloom can be on, but not do anything to enemies. Once you attack, hide is broken, and the Cloak/Gloom start affecting the enemies. I'd be fine with the fear/disorient ticks preventing you from getting hidden again outside of Placate, but this would lead to a lot less toggling it on and off constantly

[ QUOTE ]
The first pic of my character seems to have 3 costume auras, but only on my client. I have asked other players and all they see is the aura I have chosen.

The 2nd pic shows the only aura I have chosen.

As I noted in the pics, this seems to be affecting my client only. Other players see the Electrical Hands aura I have selected.

[/ QUOTE ]

Um. I don't see 3 auras. what I see is either Dull Pain or the HP boosting Mayhem Mission power in action. the HP boost and Debt Protection give temporary auras (debt protection is pink) possibly others as well, but those are the ones I've experienced with my stalker. It will go away when the time expires on the power.

edit - this is my EM/Regen stalker, InvisiblePinkUnicorn. She currently has the Debt Protection Mayhem Mission power. this is what it looks like:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...U-debtprot.jpg

note that her REAL aura is firey eyes in pink.

this is what she looks like when she pops Dull Pain:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...CoV/IPU-DP.jpg

The power looks identical to the HP Mayhem Mission power I got in the mid 30's, and identical to your picture. In short, it's not a bug

Just checked again, aned there seems to be some confusion over what powers fall into Radiation Blast Vs. Radiation Emission, such as: -Defender - Radiation Blast - EM Pulse which you seem to have fixed, but for future reference....

Emission:
Radiant Aura
Radiation Infection
Accelerate Metabolism
Enervating Field
Choking Cloud
Lingering Radiation
Mutation
EM Pulse
Fallout


Blast:
Neutrino Bolt
X-Ray Beam
Irradiate
Electron Haze
Proton Volley
Aim
Cosmic Burst
Neutron Bomb
Atomic Blast

as for Tanks... I have an Ice Tank up to level 32. not able to use any Hammis yet, but I do know the properties of many of the powers, so here goes....

Ice Armor

Cytoskeleton Exposure: Can be used in Frozen Armor and Glacial Armor. Uses the Defense Buff and End redux aspects.
Can technically be used in Energy Absorption, but since it is a power used to give you endurance, the end redux isn't terribly worth it, and it doesn't use the to-hit aspect.

Golgi Exposure: Can be used in Hoarfrost (it's a self heal/HP boost like Dull Pain)

Nucleolus Exposure: Icicles

Membrane Exposure: Can be used in Energy Absorption, which will use the Recharge and Defense aspects.
Can technically be used in Frozen Armor and Glacial Armor... But they are not really worth slotting for recharge.


My tank has Fire as a secondary. Fire is pretty straight forward, there are no secondary effects, no knockback, no mezzing, it's pure damage, so acc/dam can be used in all of them, and that's about it. And there's buildup, the same as Buildup in any other set.

I tested out my Dark/Elec defender, and my Ice/Fire tank. didn't test much with the tank, as I got called by some friends to RV, but here's my first impressions.... I am horrendously bad at math, I can't make sense of the math posts some people post, so these are just general impressions on how effective they feel...

Ice Tank, level 32, found a small group of +2 Crey with a LT, toggled up and jumped in and just stood there. It seemed to work extremely well at first, i was mostly healing back damage (I have 2 slotted Health) I took, and i liked the 'deflected!' messages above my head. it helped me see how much my armors were actually doing. towards the end, the mobs seemed to be getting more hits in, though. I got hit many times in a row and it took 3/4 of my health rapidly. I will have to test more to see if this is a fluke incident or not. maybe it was a streak breaker kicking in. all in all though, a good change. My Ice tank would normally have face planted to +2's unless i used Hoarfrost, greens, puprles, and/or killed them very quickly. will test agaisnt +3's and +4's and in larger groups as soon as I can. Energy Absorprion on this character is currently only slotted with recharge, no endmod (yet) but i seemed to be able to drain about a quarter of their blue bar.

My Dark/Elec defender (level 34) had 2 things going for her. Debuffs and End drain. A group of 5 or so +3 Freaks with 2 LT's, no bosses, were taken down with little problem aside from me sucking wind from a fight that went on a long time due to piddly damage, and running 3 toggles (Darkest Night, Shadow Fall, Acrobatics) on my part. Drop Fluffy to take the alpha, Darkest Night, Fearsome Stare, Tar Patch, then finally get down to the business of using my blasts. I was able to get them completely drained, aside from one LT who I kept missing with Short Circuit.... so I just held him instead. Short Circuit slotted with 3 endmod enhancers seemed to drain a bit over half on most mobs, so 2 applications will completley drain them. i can see this being problematic for blasters or defenders that don't have a highly defensive primary like Dark or Rad, but for me it worked well. the regular blasts seemed to me do be draining more end per hit than before, as well. +4 Council, I got pwned. (and yes, I tested my Dark Defender on tougher/higher conning foes than my Ice Tank.... this is because she's been able to handle +2's with ease in the past. (if they don't mez) however, it may have evened out now. Like I said, I can't log in at the moment to test my Ice against +3's and +4's at the moment. )

One thing I would LOVE to see for defenders.... the 'deflected!' message above the heads of people who avoid an attack due to debuffs. If what is said above about bubblers getting this message, that's FANTASTIC! But I didn't see this with my debuffs. One of the main problems with Dark and Rad isn't what they do, it's that other people don't realize that they are doing anything for them with the black/green clouds of doom. One reason Emps are in higher demand is that the effects of their primary are extremely obvious with an assortment of buffs and green healing numbers. It's hard for the average person to realize that Dark and Rad debuffs are flooring enemy accuracy, and a 'dodged!' or 'deflected!' message could help that.

just a note, Irradiate and Neutron Bomb are from the Radiation BLAST set, Controllers don't have it. All radiation blasts have a -def component to them which is why an Enzyme technically can be used, but the only one worth slotting for that is Irradiate because the debuff lasts several seconds, the rest it lasts only a second or two and isn't as strong, maybe Neutron Bomb because it's an AoE, though personally I wouldn't put a Hami in it unless it was dam/acc....

Irradiate does not have a mez aspect at all, it's an AoE attack with a strong defesne debuff, that's it, so you're only using one aspect of an Endoplasm.

While on the rad blast set though, one that DOES have a mez is Cosmic Burst. (disorient) Peroxisome Exposure and Endoplasm Exposure work very well in it. Especially the Peroxisome. Both would be useful in the entire Energy Melee Blaster/Tanker secondary for the same reasons, and Total Focus from the Power Mastery APP for Defenders.

and Darkest Night uses the ToHit debuff aspect, not the Defense debuff of an Enzyme. Same with Dark Servant.

And I don't have this power on my rad defender which is why I forgot about it, but acuracy/mez would be very good in Choking Cloud from the rad set.

Appologies if this has been covered already... My main area of expertise is Rad and Dark so here goes...

Enzyme Exposure is the best one for a Rad as it enhances every part of Radiation Infection that's worth slotting for, can use all 3 aspects.

Lysosome Exposure can be used in Radiation Infection, though the accuracy bit is not getting any use.

EM Pulse can use Endoplasm Exposure

And, of course, Radiant Aura can use Golgi's

Dark's actually going to get most use out of the Endoplasm. Fearsome Stare, Dark Servant, and Petrifying Gaze, all take accuracies and do one form of mez or another, but generally do no damage (fear, immob, hold)

Darkest Night can get some use out of an Enzyme Exposure, but it does not have a -defense component like Rad so it will only be using 2 parts.

Dark Servant can use a Lysosome Exposure, though the defense debuff part will not be used. a Peroxisome Exposure can also be used, though Fluffy does no deal a huge ammount of damage.

Ribosome Exposure can be used in Shadow Fall to good effect.

Twilight Grasp can use Golgi's, naturally. Also Lysosome's.

Yay! I REALLY like the AV thing. It will be nice to not have to get a team together for half the missions in the post 40 game (post 25 in CoV, seemingly...)

It will be nice to have newspapers in CoH, too... there were a couple points at which where I ran out of missions.

here's Raye Gunn modeling fashions of the future from Virtue...

http://www.bronzepig.ca/coh/Raye-costumes.jpe

Her default costume is the middle one, and that's what she normally wears.... that, or the 'space suit'

more pictures (or Raye and others) and a larger version of the costume shot can be found here: http://www.bronzepig.ca/coh/?M=D

yeah, I submitted a pic a little while ago, and never heard a peep from the CoH people. so i figured it must have not gotten picked and went on with life. then i started getting emails about the picture (i had included my homepage URL on the picture, so people would know how to contact me if they wanted to) saying they had found it on the website. looked today, and lo and behold, there it was, top of the list. http://www.cityofheroes.com/community/fanart_37.html

I think what it is, is that they get a fair number of submissions, and they just don't have time to be responding to everyone, and you sending them your picture is taken as you granting them permission to display it as they see fit, so there is no need to write you back to get permission, either.