ShoeTattoo

1. The endurance-based throttle on player progress in the early years drove a huge number of players out of the game, as many wanted to do more than watch their green and/or blue bar refill while sitting in a cave in the Hollows. On that note, I personally watched a fair number of players try out COH with a goofy "I get to be a hero" grin on their face when they started, in a kind of "gaming cafe", where people paid for playing time. Their expression would usually change to anger as they watched blue / green bars slowly refill themselves and/or they were hauling themselves back to the Hollows yet again, after being defeated. Although a fair number experimented with COH, in the end only a very small number of players freely chose COH in the gaming cafe that I frequented for a while, when given a choice among many games, and that ultimately was a sign of a long run trend.

2. ED and the global defense nerf was handled very badly. Years later I still remember how angry players were on the forums and in the game; it led to the loss of a lot of active players.

3. The whole "items and money" side of the game was implemented very badly. New players always started out dirt poor, unable to afford SOs without some kind of market activity, gifts, or TF action -- as if being new wasn't enough of a handicap to building a viable character. Item and inf sinks never worked properly. The IO system and markets had the potential to draw in (or at least keep) players, but it was implemented in a piecemeal, badly thought out way. Markets were hobbled by having tens of thousands of screens for players to wade through, when you added them all up; given the complexity of the markets, most players responded by ignoring them.

*bump*

Because, well, at this point why not?

Plus, there is an idea about how to manage inflation in MMOs. It might even work.

The markets have three problems. First, there are far too many markets to have a healthy level of liquidity in more than a small minority of the markets in existence. With tens of thousands of markets and 80,000+ subscribers, this amounts to nothing more than stating the obvious. The solution to this problem is also obvious, given that the number of subs is unlikely to increase 100-fold.

Second, transparency is key to making markets strongly efficient, and providing only the "last five prices" will never be a good solution. The current limits on information provided lead to very high profits for those who stay regularly connected to the markets because they understand price movements far better than those who don't--essentially, some version of technical trading works, in the COX-verse, because historical information is only available to those who gather and remember it. Those who don't spend a lot of time at the markets end up operating at a strong disadvantage when trying to set their bid and ask prices. This leads to fairness issues, which irritates some players and drives them away from participating in the markets, and it lowers overall volume and liquidity. This is on the devs, though, as players can be counted on to do what is in their best interests and designing a system based on any other premise isn't going to work.

Third, the transaction system for the markets currently encourages players to spend a large percentage of their time at the markets handling low value items, which lowers their motivation to participate. More generally, players incur high hassle costs as the price of their involvement in the markets, which has depressed trading volume. Reducing the hassle costs of participating, and giving players ways of quickly putting low value items onto the markets (or into item sinks), so they can focus most of their attention on higher value items, would help players feel like their time at the markets is producing more "value" and they'd be more likely to want to participate. Ergo, participation would rise.

If these three problems were addressed, then both Wentworths and the Black Market would be functioning better than fine. And, a market merger solves none of these problems.

Of all the arguments presented to justify a merger, Arcannaville's arguments are the only ones that have any level of resonance to me. Wave it all way, and pretend that even those things that happen in plain sight while at the markets aren't actually happening at all.

Any RP way of presenting this is full of obvious holes. Its unthematic. Its doubly ironic that this change is being made when the game is being repositioned as being about moral choice, as moral choice on the items side of the game is essentially being written out of the game. It runs the risk of turning COX into a water cooler joke among those involved in the comic-verse. It runs the risk of having some percentage of players log on their heroes, not feel heroic after they finish supplying their and other villains, and decide they'd rather play other games instead.

And, at the end of the day, a market merger doesn't even solve the three underlying problems that have prevented the markets from functioning well.

Not everybody wants to join an SG/VG and not everybody wants to spend hours and hours on base design and redesign. Good on those who do, and hopefully they have fun doing it.

But, I'd happily use player housing if the costs were not exorbitant and there was a fair amount of (easily managed) flexibility about how to set it up.

The reason why people argue about some things that become controversial on these boards is because the stakes are so low.

This subject would definitely fit that description.

TA offers more burst damage through OSA than the buff secondaries and it has decent debuffs and a fair amount of control, for a corruptor secondary. But, it brings no buffs at all. Storm is light on buffs as well, although it has some and it offers decent damage and strong debuffs.

If you'd like TA or storm for pure enjoyment, then in the hands of a good player either set can contribute a lot in any non-extreme setting. But, if your primary concern is high-end performance at buffing and debuffing in team play, then cold, thermal, rad, or traps will bring more to the table.

That nod in the general direction of "the numbers" having been given, by all means play whatever you enjoy.

I've run into the same bug from time to time, and I *may* have stumbled onto a workaround. Here's my method for "breaking" this problem.

1. Return to the last zone where the pets could and did move around.
2. Click on the pet controls menu buttons for "all pets", to bring up the "dismiss" option. Dismiss them. If they do not physically disappear, then do it again.
3. After the pets physically disappear, on being dismissed, and give their "I've just been dismissed" scripts, I go to the zone where I'd like to be able to use them.
4. Re-summon all pets, buff, and continue.

I stumbled onto this because it always seems to strike just after I enter a zone, and they can't move, plus they can't be dismissed at that point either. So, I'd go back to the previous zone, dismiss, and move forward from there.

I've tried this several times in the last week or thereabouts, and it always seems to work. Its almost as if the pets bring along their bodies to a new zone, but leave behind their ability to move in the immediately previous zone. Until I return to the zone *before* the one in which they stopped moving, and dismiss them *there*, I don't seem to be able to eliminate their inability to move.

The bug and the seemingly reliable workaround are both bizarre, though, and it would be helpful if other(s) can confirm or disconfirm this as a reliable workaround.

I'm more interested in the temp powers than the badges, although it is nice to get the Invader accolade on villains. The main value to me would be the freedom to get the jump pack over and over. I'm happy with the game whether this change ever goes through or not, though; it would be a small QOL perk that gives a little more build flexibility.

Those who want to challenge themselves to fit the mayhems / safeguards into the leveling process would still be free to do that, if they so choose, if mayhems/safeguards are incorporated into Ouro.

I would also like this to be added to Ouro.

We can use our future knowledge to pick a time period of vulnerability (mayhem) or when we know that a bank robbery occurred (safeguard), then go back and re-write a little history.

The patron arcs aren't appealing to me. If they (and Phipps) disappeared tomorrow I wouldn't miss them. I'm not entirely certain about why, except in the case of Phipps because I flat out don't like him.

Overall, I find myself using the RWZ and the ITF to get through the 40s content more than I would prefer, although its a bit of a blend rather than a total opt out. I always enjoy the arcs delivered by Vernon (especially by Vernon), Dobbs, Zukhara, Abyss, and Daos.

I find that the 40s are easier to move through on a hero because I find it easier to find high level PUGs hero-side.

With maneuvers on the enforcers, thugs can be easily softcapped with the FF secondary. Necro/FF can be brought very close the softcap, with two +5% defense IOs and a slotted up maneuvers. All the -to hit will push necro minions effectively well over the softcap, which helps for mobs that have defense debuffs. Ninja can also be softcapped because of their inherent +defense totals.

Of all of the available choices, though, demons are to me the most intriguing pairing for FF, based on purely on thinking through their capabilities. A key reason is that all the -resistance that demons do, and the exotic damage types, means that demons will hit hard even with an almost purely defensive secondary. Also, the -recharge in the demon prince stacks very nicely with softcapped defenses, plus the relatively good inherent resistances of demons add another layer of mitigation. With the ember demon taking on healing duties, and the potential to put recharge intensive IOs into Hell on Earth, a well built demons / FF will be borderline broken for most in-game situations.

A good tanker can hold aggro well, with or without taunt. But, taking taunt will make any tank instantly better at holding aggro. I happen to like old-school aggro tanking, which means I like taunt. I also like its slot-friendly, endurance-friendly nature.

As at least one other has pointed out, if you're aiming to build a scranker, then there isn't a good reason to take taunt.

It comes down to what your objectives are for the character you're building.

I love EMP arrow on my necro/TA MM, both solo and on teams.

When soloing against bosses, I begin with flash arrow, move my Lich into his "happy spot" (where he'll cast fearsome stare and tenebrous tentacles), and generally get my Lich to start the proceedings. I'll get the Lich set up so that boss cones get pointed away from my MM and the rest of the necro minions. Then I follow up with EMP arrow and ice arrow on the boss. From there, the fight usually proceeds smoothly and quickly. If there's over-aggro while solo, then a single casting of EMP arrow tends to eliminate that problem because of its huge radius.

Essentially, when soloing anything other than EBs or above, EMP arrow is shaped a lot like a near immediate "I Win" button. It makes good sense that it wouldn't be up all that often.

When teaming, its nice to have a "pause" button that you can press on any spawn, when needed. You can't absorb alpha every spawn with it, but you can every now and again. Its also nice to have available for over-aggro or boss spawns, or when a teammate is on the verge of being overwhelmed. Overall, I find it to be an excellent "break glass in case of emergency" power, in a variety of settings.

I dislike that EMP arrow has -regen because I suspect that if they hadn't put the ridiculously short duration -regen into that very long recharge power, then -regen would probably have been put into a power where it might have actually been helpful. As it is, it looks a lot like somebody was given instructions to include -regen in the set when designing it, and they got to check off that box by putting it into EMP arrow. Given where -regen is in the set now, though, -regen in TA is about as useful as an umbrella that only works for 15 seconds out of every 2 or 3 minutes.

The +10% pet *resistance* IOs are a long way behind the +5% pet *defense* IOs in how much they will boost pet survival. For one thing, the resistance IOs don't cover psi damage. For another, a defense capped set of pets is extremely tough, compared to virtually any other kind of pets. You need both +5% defense unique IOs (Edict of the Master, and the recharge intensive one, I forget which set) to end up just shy of the defense cap, when put together with a slotted up maneuvers and shields.

More generally, set bonuses that accrue to your MM don't generally buy you as much as they would on other characters (ie: chance for build up doesn't buy you much, for example), except perhaps recharge bonuses or endurance/recovery bonuses. Recharge bonuses don't help as much when you can't turn them into bigger damage, and your pets will seldom die, meaning recharge doesn't count for overly much that way either. Recovery bonuses can be helpful because end drain can be an issue if you'd like to keep your MM active. You just don't get as much return for your mega-bucks on a necro/FF as you might for some other characters. In a way that's nice, as it means you can use all that influence for other purposes.

And, if you have life drain and your pets are alive, sharing damage, you just don't need the fighting pool, or the end drain that it represents. If the situation is bad enough that your pets are no longer alive, the fighting pool will be unlikely to keep you alive.

FWIW, YMMV, and good luck no matter how you decide to build.

PS: I generally put at least 2 SOs worth of to hit debuffs into the Lich. Check out his stats in-game sometime. He packs 9.38% or thereabouts to hit debuffing on most stuff he does, and that adds up quickly.

Your anticipated "on" ramp was my "off" ramp for my petless pistols / traps MM.

The difficulty wasn't effectiveness, as soon as trip mine was slotted up at 36. The difficulty was the predictability of each battle. Lay a mine, squeeze a few rounds into anything still moving after it explodes, drop caltrops and/or acid mortar from time to time, as needed, move on to next spawn. Refresh FFG as needed, keep it invisible with grant invisibility, and remember to teleport often enough to refresh the stealth IO I put into teleport, which along with stealth kept me fully invisible. I'd rinse and repeat until sleep overtook me, which unfortunately didn't take very long.

The journey to 36 was quite enjoyable, though, and I won't rule out the possibility that one day I find some "zen" in the pattern I would follow to keep her advancing toward level 50.

I think the proposed TF/SF is a nifty idea on paper, and the intentions of the OP are clearly good. Implementation issues would make this very unlikely to have the intended effect of making PvP more popular, though.

The level of coordination needed to get two PUG teams set up would make getting this TF going quite difficult. Most likely SGs / VGs would be the ones to coordinate this, which substantially reduces the frequency with which teams would be likely to engage in it.

I could also see this being a favorite with farmers, as at least one other does. And, those who really don't enjoy PvP would be tempted to put a single target attack power on "auto-fire" when the PvP hits, just to get the reward (there would probably be a badge, in addition to merits, and some would go for that). People dropping in TFs happens quite frequently anyways, which would seem more likely to unbalance the PvP element, rather than the opposite. Obviously unbalanced PvP would be a common outcome, which is more likely to elicit disappointment than to elicit excitement.

The core underlying problem with PvP in COX, which this TF in no way addresses, is that many players don't enjoy doing it. That higher-than-normal rewards could even be required is one sign of that, the frequently empty PvP zones is another. The high probability of one team grinding the other into the soil on this TF because of a lack of balance in the PvP parts of this, in addition to all the problems mentioned previously, means that this would be very unlikely to "convert" many PvE players into those who love PvP.

In more general terms, efforts to weave together PvP and PvE haven't worked in this game. In fact, the extent to which such efforts have failed has been as resounding as it has been consistent. Enter the PvP zones if you'd like to confirm this assertion. This sounds like history repeating itself, only in a more linear setting, and with the added problems associated with actually getting this proposed TF/SF to even start, as well as predictable problems preserving any level of uncertainty about how the PvP will turn out.

Again, the intentions are good, but the proposed vehicle seems unlikely to help toward achieving its larger purpose.

/signed on the proposed change, as I think that would remedy the key limitation of the set.

The set scores very high on "cool factor", especially with customizable colors. But, it has always been relatively weak against single targets and I've found that difficult to get past.

The additional proposal to boost the secondary effect of the snipe would also be a helpful step to take.

I also like this idea, and I have one suggestion to add. Make it so that there are three mutually exclusive options for Mystic Fortune, as follows:

1. Always prompt
2. Auto-accept, no prompt
3. Auto-decline, no prompt

I would auto-accept the buff, preferably without seeing a prompt, for most characters, if I could. I might always turn down the buff on some characters, for RP reasons.

It would be helpful and appreciated to have all three options listed here.

I'm confused by your choice to six-slot shields, as you'll probably be soloing on this build. Also, if you can afford Ragnaroks you have a lot of flexibility about what sets to choose, and you can definitely use the slots in your shields elsewhere. Three endurance reducers into assault can be replaced by one slot, and a single endurance reducer in a power that will burn more endurance (ie: an attack) will save you far more in endurance than the extra two endurance reducers in assault ever could. Put those two slots elsewhere.

FWIW, plainguy's advice about capping defense seems sound. And, it would be a good idea to six-slot your attacks using slots you would pull out of a variety of other powers, because your rifle will be your "lifeline" when petless.

I tried this for the first time this week. It wasn't fun because you need to follow a carefully worked out plan or "cookbook", and it ended up feeling more like baking a cake under time pressure than it felt like being heroic. Some of the stuff you need to memorize and do in particular ways is just arbitrary, and I found myself thinking "We do what and why?" multiple times during the trial. Examples include who gets what temp weapons and what each temp weapon does, the careful timing with generators, what to fight and what to avoid, and so on.

If I was to ever do it again, I would like to see the timing be a little more generous. In the trial we did we had one or two teammates who knew what they were doing and a few like me who had never done the trial before. The leader had a rough time of it, and probably ended up not having much fun, because it was a *lot* of work for the leader to educate the first timers while working against a strict time limit.

I wasn't bothered by the levels in a significant way, and neither were my teammates.