Staalker

I wanted to add something to this, for the people playing Fire Controllers. Rad or otherwise.

The OP doesn't put much merit in Bonfire, but the beauty of firecages is that is has knockback protection. Once you cage them, drop the bonfire on the group. They burn, can't be knocked back, although the knockback will cause them to pause for a second before they can shoot at you.

I recently went back to my fire controller, and I use cages and bonfire to great success. A group that would normally cause problems for me, the ones that can hurt me from range, generally are no trouble.

A quick Flashfire to stun who I can, immediately Fire Cage, and then Bonfire. I can back out of range from their attacks and wait for them to burn to death. Those who survive don't take much to finish off.

If someone does get lucky and avoid everything, Char is a pretty quick recharge...and a single or duo of baddies is easier to face than a swarm.

Hope you have success as I have.

Cheers.

You know, I don't think the AE is breaking the game. In many ways, I find it fun and useful to the game.

For one, lvl 50 characters can get tickets to roll for recipes that they would have to do TF for in a much shorter time.

It also gives players a freedom to expand their characters, to show who their characters are and create stories for those characters they worked hard designing and playing.

The second one is the reason I use AE. My missions aren't farms, and sadly...they are never played. I won't make a farm, I made a story, and I wanted it to be played for the story.

I do have recent worries with the AE, though. I worked my butt off to get my first 50. I have played since beta, and I can attest to the state of the game compared to then. I see a lot of new, so-called, AE-babies...and I agree they suck the life of my game.

I won't swear they all do, but I would put a fair percentage of 75 that they do. Why? Many reasons.

First, most have no knowledge of the game, the mechanics, or what all the little buzzers and dings do. The AE doesn't teach about enhancements, recipes, salvage, or anything else. Honestly, does anyone feel the AE is designed for NEW players? Honestly now.

I don't.

The AE is for the experienced players, the ones who know the rules and the methods of the game. When I see a lvl 40 tank who claims Greater Fire Sword sucks because he put 6 TO enchancements in it, I want to laugh...but instead I cry. I cry simply because this guy is on my team, and I have the esteemed previlege of ressurecting him ten times before he calls me stupid and quits.

Some of these players can be taught, but most can't or won't. I just had to put a guy on ignore yesterday because he called me names (and some racial slurs of which he was kindly reported). Why did he go off on me? I had a dark tanker who would not stand next to him and he died. Apparently, my death shroud would have saved him. He mistakingly thought it would give him stealth, and when I kindly attempted to explain otherwise...

My point is simple, really. New players SHOULD NOT be in the AE. They just shouldn't. There are things in the game that are hard enough to learn on your own without a free pass to 50.

Sure, you can level up quickly in other ways, and some would. But the thing about the "other ways" is that you are forced to learn the game along the way. You have to learn how to travel zones, enhancements, inspirations, and even learn about costumes, capes and auras.

You will learn about Task Forces, level pacting, and other great info.

The tutorial zone is only a crumb of what is in the game, and you CAN skip it.

My solution to fix these types of problems, and I have stated this elsewhere before, is to put a stopper on the AE similar to EAT's. We have to hit 50 to get a Kheldian/Arachnos Soldier. Why? Those are advanced classes that you need experience to play effectlvely. They have a tendency to be harder to play, and require more experience with the game mehcanics to understand.

So why not put such a requirement on the AE? It doesn't have to be lvl 50, but something like 30 or 35 should be fine. By the time a player is lvl 35, if they don't know the game, they never will.

The AE wasn't designed with brand new players in mind, so I don't see why it's such a hard rule to input. Doing that won't stop farming, but it will require players to play the "real game" before they can use the AE. I think it's fair, and simple to do.

When I have a blaster quit the Posi TF on the fifth mission because he has only leveled up twice, and then has the nerve to say, "This is stupid, worse than the real game!"... I want to punch something. What does he call the "real game"? He was farming in the AE.

To each his own, I say. I too feel like the AE is cheating, lvl 20 in an hour...wow, how am I NOT exploiting right now? I feel I am...so I stay out of the AE.

I see it's potential, and I see it's flaws. Hopefully, there can be some way to make it work for everyone involved...but only time will tell.

Thanks for reading.
Phantom Staalker

This is why I support the idea that players have to reach a certain level with a character before they can EVER enter the AE.

It really isn't designed for new players, be honest. It's for vet players who want new content.

You can't get EAT's on either without hitting 50, it sucks, but it's there.

The AE should require you to have to reach lvl 35, at least, on a character before you can take any characters into it. If you don't know the game by lvl 35, you probably never will.

This is for everyone's benefit, really. Helps vets get players who better understand what is going on, and makes sure new players get the important basics down.

The AE is "after-content", and it should be enforced that way.

Just my opinion. Shoot if you must.

Ya know, this thread is mostly opinion, but it's really stupid in a lot of ways. Let me explain.

First, I have played since beta, I have all five anniversary badges on my Main fire/fire tanker. I have six lvl 50 heroes on pinnacle alone, my primary server. I have five MM's, all lvl 50. Thugs, necro, mercs, and bots all are pet MM's just like everyone thinks you should have.

My ninja/trick arrow...is entirely petless. Yes, he's lvl 50. I soloed him the whole way, except for about an hour helping a new player with his cape mish.

I play this character a good 60% of my playtime. It says it in the "search comment" that I am petless. Any team inviting me knows in advance they are getting a petless MM.

I have honestly saved the life of many brutes, corrupters, and Dom's that I have teamed with. Much to their surprise.

I won't try to claim this character is the most powerful out there. I won't claim he is better than any other character. I have seen a few characters that I was more valuable then, and perhaps that is sad...but THAT isn't the point.

The point is, in five years I have seen most everything done with characters. I have experienced it from both the player role and the partner role. Some concepts given years ago were laughed away and treated like the worst ideas in the world...only to be taken by a determined player and proven to work.

My MM is a concept build, but I built him mostly because I like MM's and I wanted to try something new and different. Something that wasn't being done by many. I am the type who likes to do what everyone else says can't be done.

It's my money, and I can pay to play any character I want however I want. I still get crap for my "jedi" controller, or my defender that didn't take speed boost with his kinetics set.

Still, I play them as I designed them. Concept builds are not intended to be powerful effective characters that contribute to a team. They are intended to be fun. Fun to play and roleplay, if you like.

Don't say that Petless MM's can't be done. There are several lvl 50's out there to prove that wrong. Don't say they are stupid and worthless, that is only an opinion...they all vary.

Don't claim you can't find a team or be useful to a team. My trick arrow set has given many teams that little extra edge. Sure, it's not what a defender can do...but I am not a defender. I am not better than one, but I am my own creation.

If you like the idea of a petless MM, go for it. It can be fun. you might decide it's a waste and scrap them. It's still your game, play it as you please.

Lastly, this game isn't just about dealing major damage, uber heals, and utterly destroying every baddie in the game. When you play that way, you run out of ideas and content extremely quickly. This game has the ability to let you do a million things, regardless of what someone else might see as a valid or useful task.

Do what you want, and don't tell others it's a bad idea or stupid. If you tried it, please share your experience. Otherwise, your comments are off-subject. If you don't like the idea, don't want to try the idea...then fine, no one tried to force you otherwise. Just don't tell me how lame or worthless I will be doing this idea.

There is more to CoX than damage and heals. More than buffs and debuffs. This is a game based on comic books, super-heroes villains. This game is about the characters in it....not what they do. Run with that, and I bet you will find many years of fun in these old worn streets.

Cheers.

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Persuade the devs to increase the description limit and I'd do that.

As it is, seeing as so many people dislike so many different things, warnings for everyone would take all 300 (is it 300?) available characters.

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I actually agree with the OP. I play a grav/ff controller and have come across the same thing. Go into a mission, they were dark/dark and none of my holds or immo's would work. Once I got an overpower that held on for about 3 seconds. I cheered!

I gave up and walked away after wasting 10 minutes. Only got about 30 tickets too. It was ruthless, and no warning.

Really, just saying "mez protoction" at the end would be SO HARD?

Whatever. Hope these people don't get angry when they get a few bad ratings from angry trollers. I didn't rate it, but there will be some who will.

I have the issue. On my ninjitsu stalker, I have Kuji In Rin set to auto. Two minute duration, 2min1sec cooldown. I logged in, was at the BM. Never fired, not once. I fired it myself. Stood there for the two minutes, never fired again. Mine just plain doesn't fire.

In another example, my blaster has buildup. It wasn't set to auto previously, today I set it and it fired as expected.

Perhaps there is something in connection to those of us who had these power set to auto-fire BEFORE the new issue, and now they are broken.

I haven't yet tried turning it off and then restarting the game to see if I can reset it and have it fire as expected.

We only get ONE auto...now we don't have that. Hope this gets fixed soon.

Since when is consume part of the fire controllers arsenal? Fire control and fiery aura are very different sets.

For the OP. I prefer Smoke to RI. Smoke will stay on all the effected targets regardless of death. If the host for RI dies, then you have to activate it again. Generally the defense reduction isn't too much of a big deal if you are slotting with accuracy.