SaintTzu

(somewhat) objective: A mid-ranked set with an interesting gimmick of being able to alter some of the effects and secondary damage types. It's not going to put you into the top rank of either AoE or single target damage, but it does both reasonably well. Crashless tier 9 with a choice of extra damage (incendiary ammo) or lots of KD (standard ammo) is a nice touch.

subjective: a really fun and stylish set. I like mine paired with /Traps. It's possibly my favorite character in about 5 years of playing.

Compared to Fire/Dark? No. Not likely to match that for any sort of raw performance.

The issue with the launcher/updater is the one that has me worried. Its the NCSoft Launcher, not the Mac CoX Launcher. It has to go through NCSoft QA to make sure that whatever is done doesn't mess with Guild Wars or Aion or whatever, and I'll bet something moderately precious that those who've been developing CoX and Freedom don't even get to touch the Launcher's code.

A whole new set of eyes has to focus on the problem and made to care about it a little bit. Those eyes, from my limited and secondhand knowledge of the South Korean programming world, are generally ignorant of or apathetic toward the Mac.

Feel free to correct my assumptions or talk me down a bit.

Is CoH the only NCSoft game that's playable on a Mac? If so, where is this issue going to have to go be resolved, the *huge* Mac developer community in South Korea?

OsX 10.5.8

No joy. Assertion Failure. Repeated attempts.

Fix more, please.

For the little its worth here's my take.

AE is the wild west. Law is scarce. Someday this territory may get some real government and even become a bit civilized, but that ain't today. The best you can do is carve out some territory with some like-minded folks and defend it yourselves.

That means pretty much ignoring the rating system. It means giving up on quality showing up on the front page and getting wide attention. Might happen, but it's not likely. Make arcs for the enjoyment of you and your circle/group/SG/fans/whatever, make a note when you trip over a good Architect, and maybe some of these little points of light will link together.

That's all you can do.

Well, except for 'and complain' and don't let me hinder that activity. it may not do all that much right now, but it really is better than doing nothing.

Recharge starts at 2 minutes, but in-game numbers are telling me that it does take recharge reduction enhancements.

A small bright spot in my stalker testing: Spring Attack does not break hide. It's more 'Lightning Rod' than it is 'Shield Charge'.

... not that I'm saying its a good as Lightning Rod, just that it uses the same basic game mechanic.

Also note that some badges are necessary before certain contacts will give you missions. Generally if you trip over one of these and talk to them they'll tell you which badge(s) you need.

Movie: Yeah, must give it to Inception. Great movie making all around. I suspect that once I get a chance to see them that The King's Speech and The American will be impressive.

TV: I gotta say the BBC was very good to me this last year. Sherlock is the winner, its brilliant and made it to the states on Masterpiece on many PBS stations if you couldn't get it from the source. This last season of Doctor Who was probably the best written ever (even though it took me 'til almost mid-season to get how good Matt Smith really is) and deserves a mention.

Comics: I like Bendis' work and his new 'Avengers' series is very good, 'Secret Avengers' too. Simone has been brilliant as well, 'Secret Six' and 'Birds of Prey' are not to be missed. Though started in '09, Carrey's 'Unwritten' and Wilson's 'Air' are both exceptionally good and fascinating in conception. Finally, even though it's just getting started, I'm enjoying Spencer's 'Morning Glories'.

This thread is making me even more annoyed at the legs. I'd like to try a HuntCrab build, one that uses the Soldier attacks, but has the pets (spiderlings, I mean) and Fortitude/Serum instead of Stealth/Surveilance. Might even take Omega Maneuver on a build like that.

At the very least they could make it so that only an attack that uses the legs causes them to appear, rather than any power at all from either Crab pool.

Just to toss in my take on the Huntsman thing.

The HuntsBane build is simply the most fun character for me. I've deviated significantly from the 'standard' huntsman though. I don't have Frag Grenade, nor do I have the pets. I do have the stealth, Shatter, Crowd Control, Shatter Armor, and the Fighting Pool. Fully IO'd out, my recharge is very nice indeed. The result is a stealthing, big-hitting, AoEing, debuffing, and leadership buff generating all around good time. He can hang back and mow down the minions with the ranged crew, or step up and carve the big single target with the melee-ers with equal facility.

I made the character on a whim and he's been every variety of Soldier at some point or other. During the middle levels I almost hated him, but stuck with it since I had a glimmer of the potential. A while back I realized that he's simply become my favorite character, and I'm still a bit surprised at that.

Looks good to me.

Thanks, Psylenz, I haven't been playing my MM all that much and that change had eluded me.

I know it's a new animation but: Concentrated Strike. Right now it's 'Swirl your hands like a cheerleader and PUUUSHHHHHhhhh'... ugh, makes the whole set untouchable for me as it stands.

I like the way you think, Siolfir.

Of the other suggestions, AS getting a regen debuff makes some sense to me. The target has just been hit by a precision critical, some effect beyond simple damage seems logical.

Also, what if Placate placed a -Res/-Def debuff on the target? It seems quite within the basic idea of the power that it could 'set up' or distract the target. This would also make it a power worth using in the middle of a big melee or when taking ongoing damage.

I've always liked the idea of Stalkers as opportunists. The idea that not only can the stalker take advantage of opportunities (the crit bonus from nearby teammates) but that they can also create opportunities for their teammates (via debuffs) supports this concept well.

[afterthought] For similar conceptual and practical reasons I'd also be happy with a chance for an AoE confuse linked to AS's 'intimidate' and/or to Placate. "Confuse" seems like the closest game mechanic currently available to get the effect of 'he tried to blast me but hit his buddy instead'.

Shame. Was looking forward to this feature. But *deep sigh* yeah, better do it right the first time.

Aaaand again.

Perhaps we should swap from hamsters to ferrets or something..

Hmm, well there are a number of small things I could quibble over, but there's one larger issue which might be more important: growing room.

What I mean is that you have a number of 5-slotted powers which have very nice bonuses available if they're 6-slotted. With current slotting this might be fine, but if you want to grow into a more powerful/expensive build then you'd need to respec again later.

Specific examples include: Skewer, currently 5 x CI, but consider the Def bonuses with 6 of ToD or Mako. Impale & Thorn Barrage, see 6x TS. Fly Trap, see 6x Expedient Reinforcement. Ripper (and Thorn Burst, but that's already 6 slotted), see 6x Obliteration.

Where to get those slots from? Thats a tougher question, of course. If it were me I'd probably trade Vines or Spore Burst in for something that didn't need slotting. Honestly, if it were me I'd trade 'em both in, but that's very much a personal play-style sort of issue.

[QUOTE=Morbid Star;2807193]

Oh! It all comes together! They've been hinting about it for literally YEARS!

CoH2 = The Coming Storm!

A new invasion, a changed world, it all makes sense I tells ya!

*runs off frothing*