Seldom

Thank you for all the work on this. It's very clean, very easy to use.

Just noting, the soul drain power from dark melee and soul mastery correctly accepts to hit buffs and PbAoE sets, but not tohit debuff sets.

Having the ability to access builds from anywhere is a great help. I look forward to seeing how the planner develops.

I paid for them. Unfortunately, recent penalizations to custom critters have left me with buyer's remorse and less willingness to make arcs.

I do hope they sort out the adjustments to the MA so that my critters are worth the challenge they present. I do love making them, fighting them. But I digress.

So, Yez. Extra arcs. I'm maxed out, but strangely enough haven't used all slots. Making good arcs is a lot of work, and to be honest, keeping arcs valid is work too. I have only so much play time, and other game content has taken precedence as of late.

*cough* thread deserves a proper title. *cough*

Sorry. Raised by english teachers, so some things nag meh.

It's not a dying game, as people still enjoy it. They can get on each other at times for enjoying it different ways, but so long as it's fun, people will play the game. Hate to say it, but despite playing with their product for so long, it only makes sense that I (or anybody) leave the dev's product behind when it ceases to bring a good time.

It hasn't.

There are many different power capabilities, but they are all, amazingly enough, balanced to be able to do well some way. The core of this game is the combat system and the variety of powers...and after all these years it's still good.

Will people go? Sure.

To be honest, not a huge ammount of actual game content has been added considering the time. It's been about a few contacts/task forces per issue, a little less, and frankly, going through the same stuff over and over can be boring. (But I find teaming helps this, as people are always different.) When people get bored, they don't have fun, they move on. If something changes, and fun stuff is introduced, they may come back to have fun with it until they don't.

It's a game. It doesn't need to be saved, or even, dare I say it, supported due to loyalty: it just needs to be a product that delivers good entertainment for those that pay to use it.

It does that for enough folks that I think it'll be here for some time.

/Psi has better AoE than energy, gives you regeneration to heal back damage, and allows you to bypass stamina. It has a decent ability for a ranged attack chain, especially with levitate. It has no way to boost your abilities, and not much for melee. It does decent damage, but the things psy resistant are usually HIGHLY psy resistant. Oh, yes...as a mind/psy you can help control most Av's (Through mesmerize) and help take the AV down, with drain psyche's -regen helping damage go further.

/Nrg has better single target damage, control, and a damage type not as highly resisted as /psi. Power boost will boost the already powerful lockdown in mind/, making you the best build in-game for locking down AV's. (With a lot of investment, mind you.) Power boost+mesmerize+domination will make almost anything in-game snooze, irregardless of triangles. If you can get enough recharge, you can even control through triangles. /Nrg is very good at melee as well.

My 'main' is a mind/psi, whom I prefer to most everything in the game. The lack of need for stamina is a big one for me, as I can get many more powers. I also love the +regen with mind/ since most things get locked down, the few that get through are easily recovered from. /Psi, despite the things that resist it, does very well against most everything in-game.

I started a new mind/nrg with the changes, but have not brought him far yet. I was interested in the combo when I saw all the things players had done with it, and after playing energy melee on my secondary go-to character. It's good so far, but I'm still sticking with my mind/psi.

I can dig it. I find it funny that there are daily escapes redside, but it seems pretty tame blueside. It might make sense to have the generic villain bosses encountered in safeguard missions be the escapees, to rationalize why they seem to be causing mayhem so often.

As an aside, it would be cool if troops from all villain factions could be seen escaping as well, to explain why after so many 'arrests' from heroes, the factions still have plenty of minions to use for cannon fodder.

I was talking with somebody about this a bit ago. It would be nice for zones to be a bit more "alive," more than just stopping a purse-snatcher or such. The reason I love the steel canyon firefights, no matter what level, is that it's a way to do something to "help" the city, do something heroic, that's totally spontaneous.

Some that I'd wanted to see: enemy group is doing a 'lookout' emote outside a store. defeat them, and you get a pop-up offering you to go inside and help the clerk. This spawns an instanced mission at the door. You go inside, and find a robbery in progress: rescue the clerks, defeat the robbers, and save the day!

You see a lone NPC boss crossing the city using a travel powers. If you engage them, they run to a hideout: if you are nearby when they enter, you are offered the chance to follow them inside. Inside, you engage in a fight- if they get hurt, they call on some hired goons. Defeat them, and cops show up to recover the loot they'd stolen.

You see squad cars in a circle, cops in the middle, defending themselves as waves of foes assault them; wipe out enough waves, and they thank you.

Hostage situation: you see a negotiator on a megaphone talk to him, he asks you to help. The building door becomes an instanced mission available. You go inside: aggroed foes run to an alarm, which fails the mission. Stop the foes without sounding the alarm, and you can get to the hostage, where a foe goes to a switch that can zap/explode/whichever the hostage. Finish with the hostage in good shape, and they thank you. Outside, the cops cheer as you exit.

Redside:

You see some armed guards escorting a rich dude. take out his guards, and he runs to a building. You can go inside, wipe out more guards, and he offers to bribe you, which you get in a mission end bonus.

You see a heroic NPC outside a building, in a bad disguise. you attack them, and bomb placements spawn outside the building. NPC's run out do stop your bombs...wipe them out, with your bombs intact, and the building 'burns' ala steel canyon. Waves of foes run out of the building as you are awarded for shutting down a secret base.

You see bouncers outside a door. take them out, and you can get inside the building. Inside, you find some rich folks at a party, and guards. Defeat the guards, whilst kidnapping all the guests, and you are rewarded.

You see a mad scientist snooping around. Engage him, he runs inside- you are offered the chance to follow. Inside, you fight his robots/monsters/etc, and face him. take him out, and his invention glows. You can collect this for a reward.

Anyways, that's the kind of thing I'd like to see. Stuff where you react to the environment, rather than just clicking that static guy, going to a place that could be instanced anywhere in the game. Something where instead, it's all visibly tied to something happening at that moment in the city.

My main is a mind/psy, whom I play quite often- early on, single target damage is good, favoring the stalker. Stalkers deal very good damage, but lack durability. Ealy on, the best mind control powers are not AoE, except for mass hypnosis, which can be broken. Stalkers are great here. AoE sleep, ST hold, assassinate missed targets or held targets.

The AR/kin corrupter I'd advise against. Psy gets a few foes that are highly resistant to their damage, adding another, even more highly resisted damage type might be trouble. Speed boost on a dom is wonderful, especially one as full of excellent but long-recharging powers like mind, but it is terrible for the AR user, who operates better outside the range of his buffs in this case.

The mercs/ff mastermind, see damage issue above. I haven't tried mercs, but it is heavily smashing/lethal. Forcefield is good as a set, but with the control from mind/, it's superfluous. (Especially once the dom gets good slots and a feel for the powers.)

Dark/Rad....this has potential. Corrs lack mez protections, doms stop things from using such powers, or in this case, can turn those on foes. Good choice. Doms do good damage, corrs scourge highly damaged foes. Good plus there. Doms can shut down all in the game but the toughest foes, in which case /rad truly shines, besides which case the rad makes most everything die faster. The mind/ user can stop runaway toggle 'anchors,' keeping debuffs well clumped. good plus here. Negative energy damage is less resisted, so you'd be good with a /psy.

A second dom? It's good, but I'd avoid fire/fire. Fire is about burning things as you mess them up. Problem is, it's slow to start up, breaks all of mind's sleeps with ease, and cannot stack controls except for holds. If you go the double dom route, which can be good, I'd go with something that could make use of the mind's control and double up controls to instantly lock bosses and such, or at least has powers that won't so easily break the sleeps. I'm leaning towards a second mind/, but that level of control is almost silly.

Brutes are a bit funky with doms...if you do go this route, go with a fast attack set, as few things will be fighting you to add fury. Also get one that can heal itself, for the few things that slip the control. A brute should eat up all the aggro from things that escape the dom, so that controls can recharge. Weapons alongside a /psy have the same resist issues as mentioned earlier.

Me? I'd go with the corr.

...and the virulent demands for lactose-rich beverages will follow.

Give a player the option for both "bright" and "dark" versions to many of their powers, and they will ask the same for their costume auras.

...or so shall I. Please?

(oh, and obligatory power pool/patron pool/ancillary pool plea here as well.)

<A note on the side comment above, BackAlleyBrawler, I did see your comment about Patrons not being as customizable as patrons, and I would highly recommend you rethink such a position, for the good of Paragon City. You have NO idea how fussy my villains would be if heroes could look snazzier than they. I hold no responsibility for the mayhem Paragon would have to endure.>

That is all. Carry on.

My room mate used to play alongside an energy/dark corruptor. The player was very perturbed by the build, and I could see why: lay down a tar patch, and most attacks can knock them out of it. Toggle the debuff on an anchor, and your attacks knock the targets out of the debuff, or if on the anchor, knock the anchor away.

I could see how trick arrow, radiation, and kinetics to some degree would have a hard time with energy blast.

But yeah, if you want another troublesome combo, energy blast/dark miasma is a good choice.

I always was wondering about the combos not included. The original problem about lack of balance, for which the original archetypes were constructed. That has been mitigated by changes to how inherent powers work, which often countebalance or compliment base modifiers. As such, my considerations would be these:
.................................................. .
Support/melee hero and Melee/support villain
Targeted debuffs changed into PBAoE debuffs, single +mez/minor damage resistance (or regen/def, depending on the set) armor given in place of a support power. (So all support sets would loose access to one power.)
Damage: Medium, HP: medium

Hero inherent gives +Dam per nearby foe, Villain's gives +Dam per fallen foe
.................................................. .
Debuff/Armor
All debuffs do high damage. Debuff sets have a few attacks added to them, toggle debuffs are toggle damage powers.
Damage:High, HP:Low

Inherent gives better recovery for every enemy counter attack.
.................................................. .
Assault/Armor
Uses Dominator assault set, and select armor sets.
Damage: medium, HP: Medium

Inherent: two click powers: One boosts damage, debuffs defenses, the other boosts defenses and HP.
.................................................. .
Range/Armor
Attack: medium, HP: low

Inherent: +boost to def/res/regen from secondary by attacking/being attacked
.................................................. .

Summon/Assault
Attack: medium, HP: Medium
Attacks removed from summoning sets, moved to the new assault sets. (Summoning sets are filled with limited buff/debuff abilities)

Inherent: +Res/def/regen to all pets near the summoner

That's my wishlist, at least.

The "not a willing servant" is a leftover text from when the servant would not follow or move, and I think was left in for flavor. It works like a standard pet though it does have a lot of nice tricks.

I personally skipped cloak of darkness.

I see it as the 'stalking' option, where you can sneak about hitting stuff with less trouble from the outside. Using the damage aura, CoF, and/or OG negate it's stealth by aggroing nearby foes.

I see it's use as mutually exclusive with the aforementioned auras. On the upside, that means by using cloak of darkness you can leave 3 toggles off, on the downside, things don't get hurt, feared, or stunned. Yes, there is the defense factor, but I find the numbers a bit too 'meh' outside of a +def IO bonus focus. (And I bypass +def for +recovery)

I forget his exact name, but the villain group registrar is in the main arachnos building in marconeville, port oakes. (The tower with the arachnos flags and long elevated plaza.)

This is also where you pay base rent.

Things that help all your powers, like the recharge buff, are visible by opening the power attribute monitor, check under 'base.' I think you're looking at the enhancement screen, right? the buff isn't from an enhancement, so it's under the power monitor instead.

I have mixed feelings on this one. I understand the mentality to reduce rewards for where the risk is purposefully reduced for the benefit of better results, but some of this is simply not consistent with the game, and goes as far as to penalize players for playing custom content that bears a consistent if not greater risk than developer-made content. Just look at your standard NPC foe, and you will find that they have very few abilities. NO enemies in the game come close to the number of abilities an 'extreme' custom enemy has.

A better solution might be to rate foes according to levels and attack numbers:a foe made for level 15 with two or three attacks is reasonable; just look at how many abilities a level 15 NPC has. A level 50 with only burst and slug? I could see how a reduction would be in order there. A foe with 9 attacks including something like a nuke and all armors including a tier 9 like unstoppable, that foe should be worth FAR more reward than a run of the mill gunner minion.

Just to be clear, I use custom enemies in every arc I've made. I can make them look like new foes, give them abilities not sported by common foes. (radiation, dark powers, and so on which are more uncommon.) I've played around here since the very start, forgive me if I, given advanced tools, wish to make foes that offer a new and novel play experience. I try very hard to make my foes difficult enough that my 50's must play well to win, but easy enough that I can do them with a quick pick up group that doesn't have an 'optimum' build and survive. If I get a team wipe on heroic, I've built the enemy group wrong.

Thumbs up on the enemy group thing, I can see how whole mobs of only minions being mowed down by AoE's would not be reasonable, just as the mobs of boss only mobs standing crazily about to be slapped down aren't. But the custom group things? C'mon folks, we can do this better. Custom groups too easy for their level should be worth less xp, fine, but tough foes should be worth more not even levels of reward. At the very least you should check those custom levels of difficulty and weight some choices: a boss with only healing aura and mesmerize is different than a boss with only fulcrum shift and energy transfer. If you have a problem with some custom powers, penalize the passive/'less dangerous' powers, not all of them. Elsewise, you will find yourselves perturbing the ones you actually made the mission architect for: the writers who are actually interested in making a story.

If you want to balance a system where intelligent people go line by line through choices to find exploits, use the same vantage point to close those exploits. simple as that. Oh, and it would be good if there was some way for a creator to be warned as they make a group if that foe would not give full rewards.

Heh. funny, the last thing I'd call problematic to a /DA stalker is its heal...the resists are on the low side, it's dark regeneration that makes it so survivable. With good slotting, that's pretty much a full health bar VERY often with just two foes.

Here I was thinking that this thread would be about the two obvious issues with stalker /DA: the two toggles that by functioning fully negate the stalker inherent, but which also supply /DA with most of its survivability: cloak of fear and oppressive gloom. If only they could suppress with hide, or loose their long animation? (the latter so the toggle/detoggle didn't eat up fight time) Ah, well...

Hm. I started this game on defenders, my first was a rad/rad. I actually remade him 4 times before tailors were introduced, getting his costume right. I didn't mind, I loved playing him. With an account of my own, he was first to be re-made.

That said, the darkside has claimed my allegiance, and I haven't made many more.

My defenders are:
rad/rad, dark/dark, kin/elec. (The last has had a lot more play, as of late. Nothing saps like a kin/elec defender.)

>sigh< I love my defenders. I wish they didn't seem dull after my corruptors. Sorry, wrong forum for that.

I play 3rd person, but I tend to keep the screen centered on my current or next target, so most of the time the right mouse button (freelooking) is held down most the time. The only time I go 1st person is in cave tunnels.

I've had observers go dizzy watching the freelook play. While I execute a power, I want to quick look at what else is happening in the fight, when the animation ends, quickly hit page down again, execute more attacks, doubleclick my power to go to the next foe. (Unless playing a control or support type, at which I do a quick look-see to see if buffs or holds need to be layed down again)

I play control types often times, so the habit of target jumping gets ingrained in me. The target's almost dead, and my big attack is up? Swap to another target, to get the full meat of the damage. Swap back, finish off target 1 with a lower attack, unless a team member has obliged. Swap to target 3 if there is a mez/debuff available, to lessen their threat. Then go back to target 2 to finish them off. Hit target 3 with a big attack, checking if the mez/debuff is back for other targets...etc. Someone made the mistake of targeting through me once. "Once." /Danny Vermin