Seldom

Shady Shyster
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  1. "Don't get so broken up about it, big guy. She just wasn't right for you."
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Neuronia View Post
    Behavioural Adjustment Facility:...Strong & Pretty
    ...
    Underground Trial: Bombs...
    These for me. Not surprisingly, they are some of the badges you almost have to go out of your way to get. All the 'coincidental' or 'doing things well' badges I've gotten via osmosis because Champion rocks at iTrials, and the other tough ones were gained from earlier badge runs. If this ends up in some BAF/Underground badge runs I'd love to tag along, and I'll certainly assist on other badge runs as well, schedule permitting.
  3. Heh. Nope, no need for therapy.

    My first character was a rad/rad defender. My goal has been to try every powerset and as many archetypes as possible...this supposedly would mean no repeat powersets.

    ...And yet I ended up with my rad/rad defender, An electric/rad controller, a rad/rad corruptor, a fire/rad controller, and a beam/rad corruptor. Whoops!
  4. Nope.

    Once upon a time, dominators were low damage, but had high damage via domination. Now they have no damage bonus from domination, but have high base damage.
  5. Honestly, I'd just like for the veteran "skip tier one in travel pools" to be able to work for all pools...but if that's asking too much, I'd add in a new non-attack power, call "block." This would act as a VERY short burst of high resistance, and give non-melee characters a tool they could use.
  6. Seldom

    Molrsf

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Artic Keeper View Post
    Running Master of Lord Recluse Strike Force on Sunday at 8:00 pm Eastern time for anyone who needs the badge.
    I should be available then; though I have the badge, let me know if you need a sleeper mind/ permadom to help out.

    Edit to add: the same dominator has the necessary badge to start the SF if need be as well.
  7. Usually, my priorities are:
    1. Tier 3 alpha
    2. Tier 4 destiny
    3. Tier 1 judgement
    4. Tier 3 Lore
    5. Tier 1 interface
    6. Tier 3-4 Interface
    7. Tier 3-4 Judgement
    8. Tier 4 alpha
    9. Tier 4 Lore

    The alpha is an always on level shift, with enhancements over the ED limit, so that's top priority.
    Destiny gives a level shift, and at tier 4 gains scaling but often permanent buffs
    Judgement even at tier one gives a panic button, burst damage, and AoE that's great for fast enemy add-ons or ambushes.
    Tier 3 lore gives a level shift, and extra damage and/or damage/support
    Tier one interface gives an extra effect to damage attacks, but won't be a game changer
    Tier 3-4 interface makes the effects reliable
    Tier 3-4 judgement ups the damage/adds bonus effects/range/target caps
    Tier 4 Alpha ignores more of the enhancement cap, if the value is one that needs to surpass that
    Tier 4 lore gives an extra damage buff to pets (core) or a better/invulnerable support pet.
  8. A fave of mine is the energy melee/dark armor pairing for brutes. The stuns from EM/ work well with the stun toggle in /dark. With cloak of fear and oppressive gloom, you can take ~10 minions out of the picture every fight via those controls, then the stacking stuns that come from EM control the bosses. I call it a "SMASHtroller." Energy melee takes some flack, but it's still fun for burst damage, just make sure you use your heavy hitters on full health enemies. Otherwise you do a lot of long windup attacks vs. dead bodies, at least on teams.
  9. I've always thought of stalkers not as the 'sneaky' archetype in its mechanical function, but as a master of tactical burst damage. By 'tactical' I mean that the player using a stalker can analyze a situation and use a specific strategy to take out enemies. Actually, I always thought the flat scrapper crit rate+team crit rate were undermining this, as everything else seemed to focus not on random chance but on mechanics that could be pretty well predicted. As such, i'm very pleased with the new stalker changes that give more strategy to how you time attacks, and in what order, rather than the "hang around buddies, and you might win free damage!" criticals. I would actually prefer if the base damage/buildup were boosted on stalkers, and the out of hide/team criticals were done away with.

    While the new stalker changes do make stalkers come into their own as bosskillers more than ever, it does in gameplay somewhat exemplify the difference between stalker sand scrappers for me: stalkers play best when you think about things, (attack order, visibility, environment, agrro) scrappers just fight. The difference in performance for timing things wrong, using powers in a suboptimal order will result in far less of a damage disparity. Scrappers you hit stuff, damage happens. As noted there are some sets that do give scrappers more of an attack strategy, but for the most part the archetype does well just running at things and smacking them.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon View Post
    Do any Stalkers have any good AOE options? I seem to remember that maybe Elec Melee gets lightning rod, which seems unfairly sick compared to what other stalkers get (in terms of AOE). My friend made Elec/ for some reason, I havent asked him why he went with Elec/ but as a min/maxer, I assume he picked Elec/ because lf the AOE.

    Anyway, I am just wondering if any other sets posess any nice AOE?

    Thanks,

    Lewis
    I'm currently working on a spines/ice character. Spines has one PbAoE and two cones, which is pretty decent. And on stalkers, it makes up for spines' weakness in ST damage with its assassin strike, which is blazingly fast out of hide. It's a win/win.

    Oh, and spines has a lot of nifty customizations...colorizable bones, crystals, spikes, it's fun for concepts too.
  11. Heh. Seeing the title, my first thought was "best server for what...?"

    I have very limited experience with Virtue, but know it's where many RP players go. Freedom has some PvP from what I've heard.

    I play a lot on Champion, and though it's a small server it's got lots of seasoned/regular incarnate runs, and is a great place to do badging, strike/task forces and the like. Pick up grouping is far more quiet, and redside mission teaming is even more infrequent. "Best" will all depend on what you are looking for out of a server.
  12. This is actually my highest desired remaining option, as my characters with their fully customized powers look jarring when they start shooting purple APP electricity with the normal gold bolts, orange fire with their blue fire, or purpley soul powers with their green darkness. It would guarantee that I play a number of characters almost double what I do now, as now the visual difference can be annoying. I'd be enormously happy if pool customization were made.

    That said, I'd be perturbed if they charged me for it, particularly as a subscriber. How perturbed? Depends what they charged, but at a base level I find customization to be at the core of this game, so charging for something so close to the center of it would rub me the wrong way. Yes, I know they charge for costume stuff, but that's not locking away the ability to change stuff our character already has/controls.
  13. After playing around in the mission architect for quite some time, I came to this conclusion: powers>stats in bosses.

    Let me explain. I wanted a tough boss...I used a standard-ish power setup, as an elite boss. the fight was difficult, but not in an interesting way. The boss enemy character started with a standard setup of some a fast attack, a medium attack, a ranged attack, and an AoE. It had some basic armor, then got ratched up to elite boss modifiers on all the powers. All of a sudden with the full blown stats, the character was almost one-shotting my squishies and shacking off the damage of less offense-based characters. It wasn't a fun fight because you were basically pounding down a wall before it could fall on you.

    Then I downgraded the 'Elite boss' to a standard boss, but with some meaner powers. Buildup, some interesting aura powers, and a heal. Rather than pounding on a wall, the fight got more interesting. The boss hit buildup...I pulled back a few seconds for the damage to wear off before it could melee me. With the lower HP/resistance, I did more damage...but the heal would undo that, if I let it hit me. So I tried to either time my damage bursts to after the heal, or use tactics to stay out of heal range. The fight was far more interesting.

    The same went for archvillains...an elite boss with nasty tricks beat a vanilla archvillain any day.

    This isn't to say that there's no place for big stats...on full teams, a simple boss with tricks would die so fast you wouldn't notice them. An elite boss might be a bit more of a trick, but not for long. But that said, hitpoints, one shots, and immunities that come with higher ranks do not make for an interesting or memorable encounter. I'd love it if before upping an enemy's rank, the question was instead "what player power ability could we put in to mix this up?" The game has a truckload of different powers that players get to use, or are used around the players. they get familiar with these powers. Giving them to a boss means the player can have some idea how to react and what's going on, and spawns strategy as they must react to the effects.

    As to allies, they do change things up as well. Rather than having an enemy have 10,000 extra hp, have a healing ally show up that heals back x amount if the team is larger. Or have a sniper show up across the room that starts taking potshots, so you have to divert for a bit to take them down.

    That said, there should be balance to this. powers should interact to give variance to a fight, but not in a way that frustrates progress. You can't give a huge heal to a huge resistance foe, or a foe that flattens player damage, as that just means the players feel helpless as the enemy that takes forever to wear down recoups it all. Or give huge regen to a character you have to leave, only to come back and find all your progress has worn away.

    Challenge, to me, means a situation arises that requires extra consideration and thinking, using what is experienced in the game in new/interesting situations. I LOVED the ice mistral task force final boss, surrounded by exploding crystals. Exploding items are in the game, but here was an encounter where you could be careful and eliminate foes/danger by taking out the hazard items as you face a boss, or you could bull rush and face the prospect of the crystals exploding on you, making the situation that much more dangerous. What I get perturbed by is when the game tries new tricks that use new rules, and/or cannot be avoided by playing smarter. It's one thing if you do not take down some empowering mages, the archvillain's attacks become autohit and unresistable. It's another if the archvillain's attacks are autohit and unresistable, no matter what you do.
  14. Seldom

    The One?

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    This sort of approach that's going to represent the line in the sand not just between you and me, but for the whole idea in general. It really comes down to whether you prefer characters who reached their superiority through hard work and dedication, or whether you favour the ones who were fated, just because fated characters typically reach a MUCH higher level of inherent power. Again, neither approach is wrong or bad, it's just a matter of personal preference, and mine just happens to lie with those fated for greatness. It has less to do with circumventing the labour than it has to do with the sheer absurdity of importance such a character can attain.

    To give you an example, let's take a common but very determined man. His exploits and his power could well become legendary if, after many years of hard work and training, he simply became the greatest human who ever lived. Let's avoid "toe treading" for a moment and assume that's the case. Even then, how powerful do you really foresee that character being? How powerful when, within the span of a day, an old god with power greater than our entire universe combined, can return into our existence and reassert authority? What, really, did that god do to earn this kind of power? Nothing. He was born/made/imagined with it. Of course, you can fudge ways for a common but highly skilled and intelligent man to challenge a god, but on the grand scheme of "greatness," you really can't compete on the field of aesthetics, personal opinion depending...
    Heh, here's though where I do start fudging that "line in the sand." None of my "would just be a normal hero" characters would ever be a normal real life human. My definition of normality is not outside of the game's contexts. I have a "normal hero" fire dominator. He has a fire retardant suit, and pyronic gauntlets and a few other gadgets that let him control enemies with fire and attack them with it as well. If he were to slack off, he'd still be (in my mind) a guy running around capable of encircling foes in fire and choking them with smoke, setting them on fire. The now "normal" blind hero tanker can, as a 'normal hero tanker' stand in a crowd of ten+ enemies and punch them with the strength of a freight train. My arachnos soldier deserter would, if normal, still have crab legs in his back and shoots stuff with a gun.

    I guess in the end there's a way of having your cake and eating it too, I guess. You can be 'normal' for a certain echelon of characters while not being a highly trained civilian beneath it all. That's part of what I enjoy about this game: I like exploring what a reality would be like where it's to be expected to fly through the air, face fascists on city streets, and flinging elements and energy about. In this game, that's the baseline for me.

    Perhaps that's where I start to feel a bit disingenuous making 'unique, THE one' characters. Because as unique as their story may be, they are beneath it all quite replicable. I can sort of circumvent this by having a unique strategy to playing them, having personally themed outfits, and so on. But behind it all I know that with some observation, a mids build, a copy/paste of a bio, and a .costume file somebody else could be the same character. But don't get me wrong, I still love 'em. I'm just more judicious about making them.
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gatecrasher View Post
    If you picked up any super packs and have enhancement boosters laying around unused, they might make for a cheaper alternative to the piece of Apocalypse, no?

    Later on,
    Gate
    As mentioned elsewhere the singular damage purples offer the highest singular base damage. So for best possible damage it's actually better to have a base purple +dam. While you can get decent enhancement from boosted damage IO's, a similarly boosted purple +dam gets you +66% damage enhancement. This is higher than any other possible single slot can give.
  16. Seldom

    The One?

    Many of my characters fall into the broader category, while a few I confess are of the more unique variety. Yet there is cause for both approaches, and I find myself actually gravitating towards the former for the same reason I prefer the 'natural' origin.

    It comes to this: unique characters, while having the hook of having a concept that sets them apart from all others, they are also more mundane because that unique snowflake quality makes their ascent to greatness almost fated. Contrast that to a character that is more broad based: They could just as easily be an anybody, even a nobody. It's by training or trying that they find their way to distinction, and without that they'd be just another face in the crowd. Behind them is the thought that if they failed or stopped, they'd sink into mediocrity.

    This is a far different narrative than the unique characters who, while special and driven and all that, could do nothing and still stand out.

    Of course I wouldn't say all characters are so cut and dried. Many characters have the aspect of having a broader origin, then having something happen later to define them. One character was a vanilla street hero put under science experiments to gain new powers. Strangely enough, though, the stories I like most are about a unique character who loses what makes them so special, and have to work their way back up from being an 'anybody' now. My favorite story is of a hero who had special vision that allowed for both xray vision and visual precognition. This made him good at crime fighting...too good. So Mr. Snowflake was caught in a trap by a group of enemies and blinded. He now fights as a 'regular' blind hero. (played with gamma set to zero.)
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by robwigg05 View Post
    What are some primaries that would stand out with the new changes?
    I'm looking forward to using spines because of the changes, actually. I've been kind of 'meh' about it on scrappers because though it has good AoE, I always had trouble accepting its slow single target damage. With the changes, spines for stalkers gains a fast high damage attack in unhidden assassin strike. The frosting on this cake is that I'm planning on putting the +hide in assasin strike to have two ways to go hidden (the proc and placate) to get some extra critical burst damage on throw spines/spine burst/ripper.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Digito View Post
    So in continuing my personal quest to try more AT's that aren't Scrappers, Brute's or Masterminds, I've decided it's about time I gave Dominators a try after hearing about how insanely awesome Permadom is, and it seems like a good long term goal to be able to work towards. I could have sworn I made a topic about this some time back, but I got sidetracked with other things and I can't find the thread, so maybe I'm just imagining it... anyways!

    So from my understanding, a Dominator is about two things. Controls and Damage, and they're really, really good damage dealers. Also the Fire APP is insanely awesome. That's about the extent of my current knowledge of them.

    I do know Electric Control is a really good primary, and IMO also looks very very cool so I'm pretty sure that's what I want to go with. The secondary though is proving a bit tougher, Elec/Elec is a strong sapping combo as I've heard, and aside from fitting thematically also happens to look pretty cool. Elec/Psi however I've heard has even better end-sapping, along with Drain Psyche. On the other hand, I sort of worry about Psi's lower damage early on, and I do kind of like how Elec Assault's powers look a bit more. (Although telekinetic thrust looks like a very fun power.) So I'm just wondering how Elec Assault and Psi Assault stack up compared to each other, I guess. I'm also open to the possibility of other secondaries though, and I'm sort of assuming Doms are a bit like Scrappers in that they're pretty much all awesome if you build and play 'em well.

    Aside from figuring out the secondary though, I'm also wondering about the first couple of powers. I can probably work out a basic build myself, but is the single target immob worth bothering with? That's the last question to come to mind right now, so thanks!
    A few things: Electric control is a very potent control set, just be warned that many of its controls will NOT benefit from domination. Static field is a patch pet, so no domination on it, and synaptic overload will only be boosted on its first target, not subsequent targets. Besides this it has gremlins, jolting chain, and Conductive aura, none of which get a domination boost. Still, you get mez protection, a full endurance bar, and good magnitude on your holds/immobilizes.

    I have both /electric and /psi, and can honestly say /psi is better reliable damage, despite /electricity having buildup. I guess /electricity is a bit more 'bursty' though.

    A lot of people's ideas on /psi are a bit outdated. Psionic scream is the highest damage AoE of the set, not Psy shockwave. (Helloooo issue 15 dom revisions!) Mental blast and subdue are twin tier 2 ranged damage attacks, of equal speed/damage, tk thrust shares their damage. Mind probe is your biggest ST heavy hitter aside from the snipe. /Psy tends to go for the 'dependable, jack of all trades' approach. Its two AoE's together do good damage, it has plenty of ranged damage, and one high, one medium melee power to use with your pbaoe drain/pbaoE damage. Because you get no build up, and most damage is medium, (But ALL attacks are either medium or high, sans psi dart) you will be doing more of a continuous string of similar damage.

    The 'Power boost" power in /earth, /ice, and /energy assault will also help electric control. Not only does it boost control durations, it boosts endurance drains, one of your stand by methods of control while playing electric control.

    A side note on the /fire app...it does decent AoE damage, just be warned that its damage over time will negate your slee*p patch.

    *Edit* Your St immobilize is the only immboilize to provide -KB to the target, so that things don't get knocked back out of your electric aura/sleep patch. It's good for KB powers like /psi's TK thrust, /energy's kb blasts, and /earth's boulders and such... using it first will keep them close if you wish.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fireheart View Post
    Shorn of any 'envy' of other ATs, this is how I would like Snipes to work:

    Snipes should to be Snipes - Taking the time and effort to put a huge amount of damage, a long way down-range. If You Move before the interruption-time expires, the Snipe is interrupted, just as it is now.

    However, 'Snipes' should Also be able to be used as part of the attack-chain. So, they have some minimum damage and minimum animation time - if you take damage and get interrupted, then the 'minimum' attack goes off.

    If you are interrupted by an attack after the minimum, but before the full Snipe goes off, then the damage should be scaled to match.

    So, if you manage the full Snipe-time, and pass the second line-of sight check, then the Snipe should deliver an absurd amount of damage to enemies that can't even see you, yet. Of course, other Snipers might indeed spot you and return the favor, so you might want to hide...

    And, you know, THEY can shoot through walls... So you might want to hide good.

    Be Well!
    Fireheart
    *Cough*
    *points up the thread*
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Seldom View Post
    I suggested this elsewhere, but basically I'd like for sniper attacks to have two modes: one as a fast, high damage long range power and one as a higher damage but interruptable power.
    • The gist is this: the power is interruptable.
    • Once activated, the snipe is still interruptable.
    • If interrupted, either by enemy attack or player movement, the power fires a current-damage snipe, causing the power to charge the appropriate endurance cost, and causing the power to go into recharge as it has been used.
    • If NOT interupted, the power fires a far higher damage attack (I'm thinking x3 current damage in PvE) that also causes the power to go into recharge- but also causes an unresistable recharge debuff to the snipe power.

    So basically you can use it quickly as a bit hitter, even in combat, or you can use it as a big hitter from range at the cost of using it again soon.
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master View Post
    personally since states is dead why not give us zeus lightning as a judgement attack? it essentially already is a judgement just something the players cannot use
    It's an odd idea, but it would be cool if defeating the main villain in the "who will die" arcs at the end opened the availability of Statesman's lightning attack, if/once you unlock the judgement branch. It would make sense for the story too, as you inherit/steal back the power the villain stole.
  21. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dink View Post
    Just another quick update before I am out of here for a couple of days off to celebrate my Birthday (Friday) I'll be gone until Monday so please play nice and be good



    Since so may asked I shrunk the back pack and you will be happy to know there is a version of the second back pack without the little pistons so 3 back packs will be available.

    Thanks guys for the feedback and comments!
    This looks wonderful. The new size for the rocket works, and the glow stripes are not so overstated to pull too much attention, but are delineated well enough to serve as a nice extra detail/flavor.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Kult666 View Post
    I have a billion influence that I'd like to use for an event... the question is.. WHAT EVENT?

    So before I can have a contest we have to have a contest to pick the contest!

    So what are some ideas for contest/events that you would like to see?

    -Kult
    I will admit to a bias towards costume contests, but the two events I enjoyed most were these:

    Round-robin costume contest: Players enter themselves via a thread, each player designs the costume for another player, and wears another person's design in turn. Players can exchange details, character bios, ".costume" files, etc. Costume files would be exchanged before the contest. All entrants then display their 'native' costume, then their new 'donated' design. The winning designer and the wearer both share the prize. This meant that you were designing for an entirely new character, all entrants had two chances of winning, (both by wearing and by designing) and you got to see someone else's take on your character.

    "Wear a badge" costume contest. Make a costume that relates to the badge title a character wears. This was always fun to see, whether titles were taken literally or using wordplay/puns.
  23. Seldom

    The best?

    It sounds like you need to try the Crazed DEV archetype, with the Abuse of Code primary, Server Control secondary.

    You could ask a redname for it, but they'd have to kill you after sharing it.
  24. Heh. Natural tends to be my favorite origin to use, partly because of how I interpret it in the game's universe. In real life just about the only 'origins' for the legendary are either natural or technology, and if you take the long view of history it's skewed very definitely toward the 'natural' side. It's only been recently that we've taken such vast strides to use technology to supplant human skill, training, and ability.

    In a comic book world, though, what comes 'naturally' is very different. I have a character who controls the spirits of the dead and the life force of the living. Not because she found a spell, made an incantation, got stuck in an experiment, grew a new sense by mutating DNA, or used a gadget, but just because she saw and listened to ghosts, and through time and self-training learned to understand and manipulate life and death energies that exist around her.

    I define 'natural' as a skill the character is born with, using genes that have not diverged from their lineage, and not related to tomes, equipment, incantations, or some life-changing science experiment. But using skills that are simply trained/learned/known, with nothing more than natural genes and skills means FAR different things in a universe of superscience, rampant spells, and super powers galore. In a super-world like CoH/V, the mundane would be legendary when compared to many real life 'legends.'

    So what's "naturaly" "legendary" in CoH? I'd submit a "super" natural character that can stand aside the great other heroes or villains just with their will and skill and talents and not skip a beat. They can't be disarmed without serious physical/mental damage, and can't have their abilities negated or siphoned away. They are super because that's what they've done with what they were born with. They become "legendary" when they then surpass most of the other superpowered compatriots or enemies and come to a point where they can't be much more powerful, and yet never needed gadgets/ runes/ procedures to make them any better.

    As mechanics go, my more 'legendary' natural characters may use invention sets and/or incarnate abilities, and are usually high level if not level 50. But story-wise all these powers were gained through a logical progression of their understanding and training paired with their already present talents.

    The dichotomy of the 'pinnacle of ability using only natural skill' between CoH/V and real life is what actually makes it interesting. I see the natural character at level one as only having their innate predispositions...as they level up, they figure out new ways to utilize those, becoming more and more powerful. In real life everyone would be stuck, in my opinion, in the early levels (pre-ten, perhaps pre-5) and "leveling" and "slotting" increases in skill and ability could only come through countless hours and many years. They would be able to use their few talents far better with time, but never to the lengths that the game goes. Even at that, most of the skills present in the game could never happen. But that's what makes the game about "Super"heroes, and makes "Natural" CoH/V characters so interesting to me.
  25. I agree.

    *Edit* though my suggestion for 'fleet judgement' seems to be strangely close to the recent "Vorpal," so it no longer needs consideration.