Red_Thorn

My first was a spines/invulnerable scrapper. Good at just about everything, useful in groups, good solo. My second was the PB that came with the first 50, and was again good at just about everything, so I was valuable in groups but good solo as well. That being said, I played the game for about 4 years before I got someone to 50, as I too suffer alt-itis.

The key, as others have said, is playing something you like as often as you can. It flies by if you can team effectively and play solo, so there is little downtime for the character. If you are too purpose built, you may find that the purpose doesn't pop up often enough.

And, in my opinion, 50 is overrated. Play what you want, when you want, and have fun. Read everything. 50 will just sort of happen.

One thing that no one mentioned and I am curious about is the "miss chain correction." (FYI, not completely sure what the standard term for it is/was.) For the longest time (I1 through at least I10, possibly longer) people talked about there being a mechanism in the game that prevented a character from missing too many times in a row. Basically, it guaranteed a hit after X number of misses in a row. I recall that number being 7, but I am relying on memory. The other aspect of this mechanism that was never clear to me was if this miss chain correction mechanism was per power or overall (i.e., if I used, say, Jab and then Punch, is it 7 misses total using both Jab and Punch, or is it 7 misses by Jab and/or 7 misses by Punch)? Do auras with a taunt, fear, damage, or other "to hit" effect count toward the miss chain being interrupted?

I ask because the last few times I've played I have been able to count upwards of 10+ misses in a row before a hit is recorded. I have, at times, been specific to count whether that was per power (rarely) or overall (more often), which leads me to think this miss chain correction mechanism has either been removed, changed, or I don't fully understand when it takes place. Now, I'm not claiming any conspiracy or nerf here -- I may have simply missed this being in an update, it may be something people talked about but wasn't actually in existence, or, again, I may simply not fully understand the mechanic if it does/did exist in the game.

From the responses given to the OP, I figure this crowd most likely knows what I'm referring to, most likely knows how it works, and can correct me/inform me of the mechanic.

I see on the patch notes for 8/24 that the praetoria missions that give you your first zowie missions (the flowers one) now has text to explain that. Good. My problem is that, since Beta, I have never seen a zowie show up on my map. Period. My map remains looking the same regardless, and no yellow star shows up. I am NOT color blind and I have great vision-- I should be able to see those yellow stars if they were there, but they are not.

I notice in Kheldarn's post about making those icons more visible that he points to the directory "\data\texture_library\GUI\HUD\Map\" as being where the files should be. I do not have that directory in my COH library. I only have \data\texture_library\GUI, but from there I only have Icons, MAPS, and V_MAPS ... no HUD directory. Actually, that data location is missing from Test, Beta, and Live directories. Is this a verified correct location for the file? If so, then I seem to be missing a directory. If it is, then something failed in the installation of this directory and maybe QA/programmers should look into it. May have happened to others.

FYI - I installed Kheldarn's solution after creating the necessary file locations. However, I still do not have Zowies showing up (I have a character with an existing Zowie mission-- nothing displays on his map).

I have a 40 WS that I love playing. However, I struggled until about 32 with many of the same questions you had.

What I found that worked for me was that the WS seems best at being a human (using those powers in human form predominantly) and using the two other forms for teaming (if a team was short on tanking/scrapping or needed a nuker) or for specific instances or against specific mob-types.

The powers that the WS gets in human form are pretty powerful. I focused on Sunless Mire, Gravity Well, Stygian Circle, and Eclipse to power up, do a lot of damage, and recover as I needed to. Has worked very well for me. While many say it isn't great, and I agree you have to be careful with it especially early on, I also found Orbiting Death, especially once you could couple it with Inky Aspect, quite useful.

I took a PB up to 50 and found that they were better (for me) as a constant changer. I spent as much time in tank and nuke form as I did in human form (maybe more!). However, I found the opposite true of WSs... the powers of the human form are just so good and the tank form in particular is not as "tank-ish" (more like a brute or a really tough scrapper than a tank) with this set, that I felt I would be limiting my strengths if I didn't focus more on the human form and its abilities.

Anyway, that's my two cents worth.

I have a couple of friends who may be interested in seeing the "new" City of Heroes after Going Rogue comes out. Are there any plans for a re-up or free weekend to coincide with this launch?

Melee archetypes and the HEATs. My two 50s are a scrapper and a PB, with many tanks and WSs making it ot the high 30s, low 40s before alt-itis struck.

My first to 50 took me about 3.5-4 years to get, due to alt-itis and not seeing a need to rush. He is a Spines/Invulnerable scrapper named Red Thorn. Enjoy spines so much, I have a few alts of my main. ;-) I still brush him off and play him occasionally.

This reminds me... I should be getting close to next badge... ah, yes, 66 months on Oct 30.

I agree. I have often commented to my SG and other mates online that there is no better tanker for taking an alpha strike than my veteran buff pet. The only characters I have that have a chance of keeping the buff pet running are the tankers or scrappers with a very strong taunt or aura damage effect. Even the blaster I have who have aura damage effects can't keep them up and running.

However, it has led to a new tactic when soloing with blasters; I use the pet to take the first hit from something, allowing me to survive a little longer and get my snipes or aoes off on the group. Works well; I recommend it. Takes some practice though.

I'm on the east coast of Canada, and my ISP is Aliant. So it is looking like there isn't a lot of common ground between people with issues and the ISP. However it does look like it is east coast people connecting to the servers.

As I said in my original post, I rarely have any issues. Even during the worst of the alien attacks, zombie incursions, etc. I usually run with little to no issues. Yet yesterday the simple act of zoning would cause me to freeze. I stumbled on a zombie attack in KR and that caused no end of issues. It got so bad that I literally couldn't move-- I would try to jump or run, would get half way through a jump, and the app would freeze. When I logged out and back in, I would be back wherever I started the movement at.

We'll see if it has improve today, after the servers come back up.

I normally have no issues when playing. Matter of fact, my SG mates are often a little jealous of how few network issues I have with this game.

Which makes tonight stand out. I can't play for longer than a few minutes before I get the dreaded Mapserver Disconnected message on my screen. When I finally click to log out or exit, it immediately disconnects me, with no timer.

Just had my fifth one in under an hour of play, after playing with no problems or issues this morning for about 3 hours.

Anyone else having this issue?
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Edit -- Wrote "Galaxy" instead of "Guardian in title. Fixed it.

I finally had to stop playing. I had 5 in the first 30 minutes of playing and then another 5 in the last 15 minutes. When it got to the point where I couldn't complete even one super jump without it happening, I said no more.

While I, too, miss some of what you mention, I miss most the days when Tankers could tank entire maps and would stand around with 40 mobs surrounding them and all leaping on his head trying to get at him.

These days, Tankers can barely hold more than a well-built scrapper with a taunt aura. *sigh

And, yes, blasters are broken. (*just kidding)

Define "best". Some are better at single-target damage (energy), some are great at AoE damage (fire), some fall somewhere in between and do other things well.

Once you have the badge, when you reach level 6, those powers will be avialable from those pools. At least, that is how it works for me. I don't have to click on anything in the Vet Rewards list to get these powers.

I think this game is pretty well balanced between between RP and nonRP. It is a bit unfair to make your assumption based mostly on the Mission Architect content; this, as was stated earlier, is a specific case of players being told not to do something, doing it anyway, and now reaping the rewards.

The rest of the game still exists. You can still play PVE or PVP in all the various zones. You can still play Red or Blue side. And a ton of content in the MA is, in fact, both RP and legitimate "test yourself"/fight hordes type of missions -- they just avoid the farm aspects that became wildly popular and abused when the MA was first released.

So, to answer your question, no.

Good for you!

I help when I notice someone is struggling, and I certainly answer questions put to me when they see that 60-month vet reward in my collection. I also step up if I'm on a PUG and no one knows tactics (usually because they are new, but some people do resist learning tactics regardless).

The last one who asked me something turned out to be a 6-8 year old (can't remember what parent said) who pestered me with questions the entire time I was on. Made soloing harder, having these random questions pop up in the middle of combats and such, but I kept answering them until his parent told him to log off.

It's good to help the new to understand the strengths and differences of this game as opposed to other games.

60 months and going strong.

I have the same situation. One of my original characters with TP uses that same exact bind and does NOT have the targeting reticule. All new ones I make using the same, exact bind it works as intended but does have the targeting reticule.

Not sure what has changed.

I've played every tank except Fire to at least the high 30s. In my experience:

Stone is the strongest situationally, but you have to deal with the slowness. Your best ability comes later in the game - but is game-changing in how good it is.

Willpower is the strongest overall, but you don't have a self-heal. +Regen and +HP help you survive when you can herd the groups around you. Can hold aggro very well, if slotted for it, which keeps those +regen effects high. Also depends a bit on secondary usage.

Invulnerability is the strongest most of the time, especially in herded groups, except you have to consider psy attacks. Holds aggro very well. Lots of toggles, and somewhat high end usage.

Ice is strong early, as it is the first to get a taunt aura effect. The slows (stacked) means you are taking less damage during a long fight. Damage aura can hit things at times your attacks can't. Ice slick means things near you can't attack.

Shields are strongest with another shield user (scrap or tank) or other melee character. Good overall survivability and has one very strong attack/knockdown to mitigate the damage you take. Holds aggro very well, especially when slotted for it.

Dark is strong against most things, but sacrifices some survivability for damage and control effects. The damage and control effects means mobs can't attack as often (mezzed or dead) so you can continue. Still a bit end heavy. Is often at its best with a controller or another melee on the team.

Fire is strongest in the damage it does. Some effects cause foes to flee, which increases survivability but lowers damage ability. Good heal keeps them going. Is weaker than other sets at holding aggro due to fleeing mobs and damage. Great when teamed with another tank, a controller, or a WP/Invuln scrapper (something with a taunt aura to hold foes close).

As to my favorite: 1. WP, 2. Invulnerable, 3. Ice/Shields, 5. Dark, 6. Stone, 7. Fire. I often have WP and Invuln tanks that can out-tank a Stone or any other tanker.

That's my 2 influence.

Do you run it on Vista in full-screen or windowed mode? While I can run in Vista under either, I see a very nice increase in framerate when running in Windowed mode (I just stretch the window to be as big as the desktop, so I'm not really losing much in real estate). This might help your rubberbanding issue, at least some.

Very nice, well-thought-out suggestion. I like it.

Objective feedback: A pair of level pacted Kheldians, one PB and one WS. The WS played on a small group for a couple of hours (2) without the PB, then they played together for a couple of hours, then the PB played on a moderate group (5) of higher leveled heroes for a couple of hours.

During the time solo, both experienced what was approximately 1/4 to 1/3 of the XP of those with whom they were playing. I.e., the PB as the lowest level character in a group of 5 (total) running a story arc. Everyone else was level 31 and leveled during the missions at some point, at least one of whom needed 8+ bubbles to level. The 30 PB, on the other hand, barely got 2.5 bubbles of XP during the same set of mission and while being a lower level to everyone else in group.

Subjective feedback: When playing the level pacted Kheldians together, it still seems like their leveling is slower than any teammates of the same or similar level not on a pact. Playing on a group of four, two non-pacted and the two pacted, the non pacted leveled twice (a few bubbles for one level, all 10 for the next level) while the Kheldians managed to get 6-7 bubbles. Which is half XP-- except they were on together, so it should have been 1/2+1/2=100% XP and the same amount of XP as those who leveled.

Comments: I love the idea of the Leveling Pact. My west coast buddy and I (east coast) want to use it to keep a couple of characters synced up for those times when we can play together. However, the XP seems to be working against us regardless, and doesn't seem worth it.

We second allowing Level Pacts to be formed outside of the current level restrictions. We also second allowing level pacts to be made between more than two characters -- once, of course, the seeming XP issue we're experiencing is resolved. Just have the XP divided by the number of players involved in the pact (I would argue for a max of 4, personally).

My good friend and I have a duo with a Leveling Pact. All today, well after the patch went live, we were finding that our XP would not show up for long stretches or until we exited the mission. Also, even tho we were in absolute sync in our XP, we would get messages like "175 Experience..." followed by "0 experience earned" because it thought we were out of sync. Since this seems to be one of the issues expressly mentioned in the Patch notes, I don't think it is completely fixed yet.

Characters are Knight Crimson and Shield Sentinel on Champion.

In one case we actually lost XP-- we were at +7 bubbles then defeated a mob and went down to just under +5 bubbles, then about 4 fights later it caught up to the +7 again, and then added the additional until we were nearly +8. And then when we zoned, we were suddenly levels and at +1 to that. So it was really bouncing around. In another, our XP bar didn't move from the moment we entered until we exited the mission-- and then we leaped from +2 bubs to +8 bubs.

Again, this was all after we downloaded and installed the patch.

It sure would be nice if the patch notes could be posted somewhere highly visible before, during, or very shortly after the patch goes live. I looked for the notes on the official location on the website for 2 hours after the patch went live and didn't see them. My vote would be before the patch is posted so that, as my machine downloads and installs it, I can click the Patch Updates link in the Updater and read about the changes I'm getting.

Great guide. I have set up a few binds now and am happily using my G15 to a lot more of its fullest potential. Moving my Kheldian shapechange macros and targeting sappers/voids/quants to the G15 were particularly useful.

Thank you!