Robot_Lawyer

Hey guys,

Sounds like I'm having similiar issues to a few others. I have a Windows 7 - 64 bit system with a Radeon 5800. I recieved a message when logging into CoH that my drivers were out of date. As soon as I updated them to the most current drivers, COH refuses to launch. I get the "...your card is too old or drivers are out of date" pop-up. I spent time with my manufacture tech support and I am pretty certain that the drivers are up-to-date. (My card works fine with World Of Warcraft, just not CoH)

Based on reading this board, I think the most simple solution is to roll back to old drivers. How do I go about that. Are the old drivers somewhere on my machine so i can activate them?

Thanks

After looking at Redtomax.com I have some questions.

I notice that the Earth Control pet has 100% resistance to Psi. Of course, this doesnt mean that he could be buffed to have 100% to other things as well,.... right? What is a pets max resistance cap?

Also, I see a '-25%' to-hit listed as well for the pet. Is that information accurate or am I misreading things?

Liquefy is a GREAT power! It should never be skipped.

But I do understand your confusion; it does so many things its a little hard to understand what the primary use of the power should be. Here's my opinion:

If you want it to be the 'oh, crap' button of the set, then you need to slot it for to-hit debuffs and recharge. With full slotting the to-hit debuff can reach around 60%. Nothing is going to hit your team through that.

I like the power so much that I have taken Hasten and 5 recharge set bonuses just to have it up as much as possible.

The power does have a downside though. Anything that doesnt get 'tanked' will come gunning for you after the 30 sec duration is over. If you are on a team with a tanker who just stands there and doesnt pick up any mob beyond his melee radius, or no tanker at all or a team that believes in the chaos offense approach (can be fun), you can expect anything that doesnt die in the 30 sec duration to be mad at you.

Hi guys. Love playing my Elec/Elec Blapper - yes, I know blapping isn't as popular as it once was but i enjoy it.

Played on a team against Nemesis and was getting really annoyed with all the knockdown they use. I was thinking about taking hover and slotting it out to use as an in-combat movement ability. I know a lot of people used to do this (I played a lot back in I1-5).

Has ED killed this? Whats the speed on 3-slot Hover?

Thanks guys.

Hi guys. Question....


I notice that One With The Shield has a small End cost on activation and then a cost of 60 End on its completion. Will placing End Reducers in this power decrease both the initial and final end penalties, just the initial, just the final.... or none of the above?

Thanks all.

Robot Lawyer

Hi guys. Been gone a long time. Would someone be so kind as to remind me of the endurance mechanics of Sonic Repulsion. Does placing End Reducers in this power effect both the toggle endurance AND the endurance cost per mob that is knocked back? Or is it just the toggle cost?

*Yes, I know, most people hate this power but i enjoy playing around with it and it has helped me save more than one stupid Blaster - there are so many :P Sorry Blasters)

Just FYI, I posted about the new ice tanker change to Hibernate in the tanker forum. Change took place on 8/24/05.

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Well, after some quick testing, I found out that I have no staying power at all. Isn't that what the tank is there for?

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Say hello to your Issue 5 Ice Tank!

- JJ

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Well, I can't say that it isn't a challenge at least, if that's what this issue was meant to bring

All I want is to be able to tank a even level boss for a while, when I can't do that I feel pretty bad :P

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Wow, thats a powerful statement. What was the boss and what is your build? You should still be able to easily tank an even level boss on test. i do it daily and have yet to die once, or even come close.

An AV on the other hand can be pretty terrible. If you don't have the "right" team then I still maintain my recommendation of bringing 9-15 lucks with you and using three at a time. works pretty good.

I'm having a very hard time accepting the accuracy of AVs on test. As of 7/28/05 archvillian accuracy was lowered from "90% to 75%".

Let's assume that this 75% is static--which I do not believe it to be--to all AVs. The highest amount of static defense an Ice tank can get is around 40% (17% from Frozen or Glacial with 6 SOs is approx 37.4%. Add to that 2% from Wet Ice and you get 39.4%) So the approximate chance for an AV to hit you in I5 is 35.6%. ... greater than 1/3 of the time.

Fighting Infernal (yet again) yesterday he (of course) hit me for the following numbers in the space of 5 attacks. 900 lethal damage...1000 lethal damage...1100 lethal damage. Naturally I died seeing as I only have 2800 health at level 50 (with Hoarfrost and the +10% health accolade). Oh, and this doesn't include the additional fire damage he caused AND the fact that I WAS running Tough (6 slotted dmgresist).

States, is this really what you intend for I5? Villians who can hit for over 1000 (even whith Tough) and who have a 1/3 chance to hit?

Let me assure you, this is not an isolated event.
Fellow Ice tanks, after many hours on test, I really think we need to make AVs our number one gripe to the Devs.

As an Ice tank in I5, you must herd minions to the AV in order to have any chance or survival... And even then you will find that until EA stacks with itself, you are gonna be hurting (and even when it stacks you're still playing the dice). Am I the only one who finds it really silly to design an entire set and serious of encounters this way?

"But Robot Lawyer, that's what defenders and controllers are there for...to fill the gaps in your defense".

Wrong...that's what "some" controllers and defenders are there for. As I mentioned, I have been running AV battles on test with many different groups. And lacking the appropriate combination of players is now devastating. Regardless, this isnt the point.

The point is my previous question. States, do you really find acceptable a villians who consistantly hits for 1000+ and has a greater than 1/3 chance to hit?

My recommendation to fellow Ice tanks: If I5 goes live as is, the absolute best way to fight AVs is to max out on purple inspirations. I've found 9-15 lucks is far better and has a greater chance of success than any power you have or combination of players. (no I'm not joking or overstating to make my point). Use three at a time and bring blasters with you. If hes not defeated before you run out Luck, you're screwed. Of course, you could just spam the chat channels until you get the right defender/controller.

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So I dunno if it's ever been suggested before, or even if it would be feasible. But change EA into a pulse toggle a la Invincibility and/or PBAoE damage auras.

Have it provide a static +def per mob in range like Invincibility. This would eliminate some of the problems I see that EA has: surviving long enough to use it, choosing an appropriate time to use it, hopefully not right before a patrol rounds the corner, and having it actually provide defense ALL the time without having to rely on perma-hasten or a boat load of recharge reducers.

In addition, add a pulse effect that drains a bit of end from the enemies in the radius and adds a bit to the users end bar. This effect would be enhanceable. The benefits here are that it could be used to effectively lock down some of the mobs in the radius from using big attacks in a long battle as it's a constant end drain, as opposed to a one shot deal until it recharges. Have the +end be enough to make it useful, but not so much to overdo it. Maybe have it even out at a zero sum around 2-3 enemies, after that have it be a positive net gain.

Yeah, it might be overpowered, and yes, it's yet another toggle. In addition we'd lose the ability to stack the +defense as well, which I'd counter by just increasing the static +def per mob a bit. But I dunno, EA has always rubbed me the wrong way to some extent simply because it's a click power that in many cases is the lynchpin in our defenses, and especially now in I5.

Oh well, time to wake up and stop dreaming. Heh.

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Intersting idea. It at least deserves debate.

You pointed out one of the biggest flaws for making it a toggle: you won't be able to stack it. I think we all know that if the Devs made it a toggle they would not let us use the stacked defense value of current EA to determine the static defense of the toggle. They would most likely just keep the 0.5 value and that scares me. Without stacking EA is now a sad, sorry little power when it comes to defense.

Another strike against the idea is that it takes away choice. In general I think it's a good idea (and more "fun") to let players make the choice of when to activate powers. I really don't want to see another "click and forget" power in Ice/, or any other set.

Having said that, I think your idea would help solve some of the problems EA has. And it would certainly make life easier on us. Hmm...something to think about.

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Oh yeah, silly me, I forgot myself for a second there and thought we had at least a minor leg up on some of the other tanker sets.

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Ice's niche is "anything I can do, someone else can do better."

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Oh I dunno, we faceplant pretty good...better than average I'd say! I dunno about you, but sometimes keeping an eye on that wily floor for signs of danger helps out the team...right?...RIGHT?!?

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Actually, we are the loudest tank there is too. When others are all stuck-up about being able to do this or that better than us, i just listen to the dull drone of my powers and find that it makes me feel better... much, much better.

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It seemed like a good cap to Circ's rant.

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I suppose it might make Circ feel better knowing that the I5 APP version of Hibernate does not have the End boost that the new I5 tanker version does.

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So what's an Ice Tank's niche again? Oh yeah, that's right its not defense, its not damage mitigation, its to sit in a freakin' ice cube and whistle dixie for hours on end. That's why Hibernate is my Happy Place, its all I've got.

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Blasters can get hibernate in an epic, though.

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Priceless... just priceless.

Don't know if anyone cares about this, but I just logged onto the test server and checked Chilling Embrace in the Blaster line-up of powers. According to the text describing the power, a blaster's version of Chilling Embrace does have the new -damage aspect as well. I am assuming then that Jack Frost's Chilling Embrace does as well.

So, if yall want to up your -damage numbers I recommend teaming with ice blasters and controllers now

Jason,

Thanks for testing out the stacking of Chilling Embrace's -damage on baddies. You've saved me some time.

Another thing yall might look into--if anyone is interested--is, "Does the -damage scale with villian level?" Will it do less on a +5 villian than it will on an even level villian. In my earlier post I specifically tested CE against 2 minions and then a Lt. hoping that, if there was a difference, I would notice it. But obviously my little test is far from conclusive. Anyone know for sure?

Finally, I'm a little shocked by all of the posts I've seen in which people say they expected the -damage to be between 20-30%. From the first time I heard that we were getting it, I assumed that at the very most it would be 10%.

Think about it a second... 20-30% would be very ideal for the ice tank vrs an AV. But in regular play that would give the ice tank a huge advantage over the other I5 tanks. If Invulnerability has to use 2 powers, both 6 slotted, to get around 38% resistence to elements and energies, then giving ice tanks a flat 30% resistence (-damage) to everything in melee range (and a little beyond) for the cost of 1 power and NO additional slotting is an I5 uber power. No, I think 7% is right in-line with what I expected. Does it solve the AV problem. Of course not. (And heres the clincher) I don't think it was ever intended too. We've been reading that into it from the moment we heard about it. The -damage, imo, is another small tool to help Ice in the long-term issue of survivability, not the immediate needs presented by an AV.

This move, yet again, demonstrates my previous points made over the last several months that there is a philosophy at work in the Devs decision making that is and has been taking Ice away from being most effective against a single, powerful target, and more effective against many, lesser targets.

Again, I say this is a terrible mistake. There will NEVER be end-game or PvP equity for the Ice set unless an Ice tanker is able to gain the set's maximum defense values from a single target, not a large group of targets.

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I'm pretty sure it was that significant. I'll copy my character over to Test right now and get another feel for it (I've been meaning to see the changes to Burn for my Fire Tanker anyway).


I wouldn't be surprised if Wet Ice was around 17% though. Yes, that would be a pretty significant difference between the haves and have-nots, but I guess the devs are assuming that the best you can keep that up for is five levels. And another 20% would only mean comfortably fighting two levels above normal.

And of course, they must have forgotten how level 50s would be advantaged over the others forever-- either that or they figure that since they're level 50, it doesn't matter anyway.

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Wha?????? Are you sure? 17%. I will admit that I could tell that defense was increased without even testing the powers... but I seriously doubt that they would give us 17%. If that really is the case then I think we can probably expect a future "fix" to this.

Think of the problems that would cause between ice tanks. There would be some people who actually had defense to fire while most people didn't (Hurry up and powerlevel to 50 everyone and do your I5 respec in I4 so you can grab the grandfather clause on ice tanks). Who knows though. At this point I've stopped trying to understand what's going on.

Also, you mentioned that you think the -damage should be 20-30%. That's a little high, I think. I don't recal States ever saying that the purpose of the -damage was specifically for the AV problem. That's just something that we--players--have attributed it too. Of course, it helps with that (barely) but I think AVs are but a piece of the Devs intent on that one.
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Btw, love the new signature, Cir.

I did a few quick tests on the new -damage aspect of Chilling Embrace. Here are my numbers as of 8/20/05 on test.

1) Villian=Nemesis Werfer Minion
Damage to Me without CE=120.47 smashing
Damage to Me with CE=110.77 smashing

2) Villian=CoT Guide Minion
Damage to Me without CE=120.47 lethal & 89.15 negative energy
Damage to Me with CE=112.04 lethal & 82.9 negative energy

3) Villian= CoT Behemoth Overlord Lt.
Damage to Me without CE=238.53 lethal & 14.9x4 fire
Damage to Me with CE=221.83 lethal & 14.06x4 fire

As you can see, the percentage of -damage is not 10% but somewhere more in the area of 7ish%. Obviously, further testing is required but I thought you all might like preliminary results.

*all tests were conducted against even level villians--level 50. During the tests no powers were active except the turning off and on of Chilling Embrace and the passive power Permafrost which would affect the incoming fire damage but not the percantage of change caused by Chilling Embrace.*

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Also, I would rather people logged into their ice tankers when it goes live, and get a team of eight, and go tanking without the aid of any defenders that can buff defense or debuff accuracy.



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Say what? There are actually 8 ice tanks on a server? This I've gotta see!

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Actually, if you had a team of 8 Ice tankers... wow, what a nasty force that would be. Anything that you faced would almost immediately be drained of all endurance (and if you could get the team to stagger EA, it would stay drained permanently) and with 8 stacked Chilling Embraces enemies would have an attack rate that was floored. It would be a very potent force.

Of course, you, the player, would most likely have a photo-sensitive seizure because of all that white light on your screen.

Yes, I would rather people play their ice tanks in I5. Part of the reason we have been overlooked for so long is because of simple economics; it makes much more sense to cater your resources to where the most people are..after all that is where most of your problems/interests are--give the people what they want. (yes yes, i know...the minority has a voice too...I'm just talking about practical application here). So really, it would only serve us better if everyone has an ice tank. Having said that... it would suck to lose that feeling of being unique if there were as many Ice tanks as their are Fire.

As far as Statesman's comments in the defender section... It left me feeling really sad... not that people disagreed with his reasoning but that a FF defender can get such high defense numbers and pass them out to anyone AND have it perma. What exactly am I (an ice tank) here for again? It would seem to me that of all the sets, the defense tanker should have unequalled status in this area.

Which gets me thinking...

If States rationalizes us having less defense than other sets because of us (tankers) having greater hitpoints, inherent taunt abilities and status protection, then what can I (a player) "give up" to get what I want? What do I need to sacrifice in order to get my wish, unequalled defense in this game.

I have been thinking about this for a long time and it is one of the few areas of Ice that I have not settle in my mind. Stone tanks are by far the most survivable (complete) tank in I5. they have maxed resistence, respectable defense and very nice regenerative abilites, making them...well, rocks. To get this though they have to pay a very large price.

So, I ask you, the community, assuming that we would have to pay our price, what would it be to have the best defense in the game, bar none?

I have pondered this for a while, and yes it is all hypothetical, but what would it be--the cost? Say a new 9th-tier click power arrived that provided +50% defense in addition to toggles, doubled chilling embrace, provided 50% damage debuff and healed all of the tanks hitpoints when activated (too powerful, I know...just focus on the cost, not the power). What would this power be worth?

The cost would have to be very steep. Stone pays for their power with -speed, -jump, -fly, -recharge, -damage. We couldn't use these because they go against the nature of ice; ice being built around mobility and resistence to slowing effects. But how about the -damage part? For some uber 9th tier power I don't think taking a substancial -damage hit would be unfair. ... ...but that's as far I have gotten. What other costs could there be. We can't do -movement/recharge because its against the set. We can't have the power end with an End crash like Elude because, again, it's against the end gaining already established in EA. What else is there beside the obvious 1000 recharge?

In fact, for a click power that did all that, I don't think I'd mind having a 90% reduction in my attacking damage output--if it meant I had that kind of survivability. And a 90% reduction would mean I'd only use it on AVs and in large team situations. Heck, make it a 30 minute recharge along with the -damage. But surely you guys can come up with more creative (fun) disadvantages for a new uber power.

*I'm really not interested in ideas for new uber powers, but more in what you'e be willing to pay for a power that would make us, bar none, the best at what we do, our corner of the game*

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I just won't have the time to test this weekend at all (going to Disney World - they can't nerf that!!!).


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Um.... what the hell are you talking about? Disney World can't be nerfed 'cause it is nerf. *shudders*.

Robot Lawyer's prediction: Cir comes back from WDW with "It's a small small world" stuck in his head. He then composes a post begging for the name of Hibernate to be changed to "Happy Place".

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In the spirit of brainstorming and feedback, I offer the following suggestion: Has anyone considered letting Ice deflect a flat amount of damage per attack? Even a small amount would be helpful without breaking the game. For example, an Ice Tanker could subtract a flat 10 points of damage from each hit. This would not provide appreciable help against the powerful attacks of high-level villains, but it would effectively let Ice shrug off Swarms and Caltrops as dealing no damage.

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Things like this have been suggested many times--the reason?..it is a sound idea. Or another possibility would be to let Ice literally reflect damage...say, back at the attacker. So 10% of imcoming damage shoots (reflects) off the ice. Call it *gong sounds*..."Reflective Ice".

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No, Ice isn't gimped live... but it is unbalanced.


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Exactly. Ice is not gimped on live, but many people's perceptions color it so. And that sullies it's actual ability, even if it is weaker overall than the other 3 primaries.

If the test version is even worse, this needs to be rectified!

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I hope you're seeing the point of my last several posts though. I don't think the best thing to do is balance ice to the other sets. I think the best thing for ice is to balance the villians.

And the few things I've been pulling for are:
--Massive increase in the number of cold attacks from villians.

--Decrease in the acc buff of DE quartz eminators and an elimination of the defacto auto-hit from their Swarms. It's completely silly that underlings can spank a tank that fast.

--Decrease the amount that Rularuu can debuff defense. Or in I5's case, perhaps eliminate the debuff completely.

I do however think that the only way Ice will ever be of any use in PvP is to change powers. The set needs to be moved toward, not away from, being effective against a single target. As issue 5 stands, I can think of no weaker PvP build than an Ice/Ice tank. Low defense, low resistence, low damage--and a lot of it DoT.

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Ice isn't gimped live, but it's not quite as good as scrapper defenses (my DA has better odds against some AVs, and of course Invuln always does better). Ice is gimped on test.

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No, Ice isn't gimped live... but it is unbalanced.

On live, I have faced Infernal so many times I can't keep count--I enjoy that mission. And I always outlast any other tank in the mission with me. I've even gone into the mission with a fire tank before and had a little chuckle as he died twice around the portal while I lived (a good example of how important defense is when facing large numbers of baddies).

And yet, you turn around and face DE or Rularuu and BAM!, it's amazing how fast you can go down.

I don't think the issue is that Ice is gimp. I think the issue is the way acc/to-hit buffs/debuffs is an all-or-nothing game. You either look really good (and are too powerful, imo) or you're dead (and are too weak/not enough defense). There just isn't any middle ground for ice.

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I don't know why the devs seem dead set on keeping ice as weak as possible. What do they see in the set that makes up for such gimping?



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Remember when Issue 4 came out and Geko made a comment about being almost done with Issue 5? Obviously, the Dev's, in their thinking and balancing are, months ahead of us, the player base. I would wonder if perhaps there is going to be some massive influx of cold damage or attacks with a secondary affect that slows players.

If I am correct in my previous post (the only thing Ice Tanks have over other tanks is resistence to slowing effects) then perhaps this addition of slow resistence in Permafrost (which seems completely silly at this point) will be made viable and perhaps even *holds breath*...powerful.

Of course... I am kinda an opptomistic idiot at times--but if anyone else calls me that I'm totally gonna sue you.