Starget

I have played COX off and on since issue 4. I took a year off for CO and DCUO, about 6 months for each game, and returned for incarnates. Ultimately neither game compares to COX but they do allow me to play the only MMO theme I am interested in. For me, it is about being a super hero, not an elven wizard.

I have already resubbed in CO. The only thing I find it truly lacking in is teaming. 99% of the content is easily soloable and you just don't see people joining together for the joy of teaming. DCUO has the same issue (along with many many others).

The thing is, CO has changed a lot since release. My old 40s are all gimp now requiring total retcon (which is thankfully free). The crafting system has totally changed along with the old stores. Suddenly the game is new again for me and likely to hold my attention for another 6 months at least, more if teams become more evident. I even have a slight hope that increased revenue from COX refugees might lead cryptic to reinvest in the game. COX closing might even allow them to bring some of the ideas cryptic left behind when they licenced the engine out to paragon studios:. Like I said it is a slight hope. At the very least it gives me something to do while waiting for marvel to launch an MMO

I had been using ice storm but will try frostbreath out on the working build. Not generally a fan of cones but the higher damage might be nice. Gonna look to see how much i actually use snowstorm while working on purples. This toon has yet to run any of the ssa since he hasn't seen playtime for about 3 years until this week. Unfortunately he doesn't have any merits either since arcs only started rewarding them after he had obtained 50.

I have decent fire farmer for +4x8 as long as he is solo without bosses. I have tended to ae farm for about a week per toon i have built. The inf gain is decent plus i tend to score many of the recipes I'm building for. Sometimes it's just nice to spend an hour burning things.

Converters are a mainstay of my tactics. Most of my lotg procs and healing procs have come from converting.

Another big tactic is that i formed my own sg so that i can hoard useful drops regardless of which toon i play to have them readily accessible for alts. Sometimes it's just more economic to hold the big ones like purples for a toon that can use them later. Plus i like to go for a working build while waiting for the big one down the road. PermaPA is a goal that i am willing to wait on. As is pa should be up more often than down and purples drop decently in itrials alongside astrals for converters.

I noticed you have skipped snowstorm. I love that power and have previously skipped the aoe stun and hold. Gives me something to think about

thanks Local Man and everyone else. I have started working towards IOing him out, but it will take a long time for me to earn the inf or actual recipes for the purples. I only get to play a couple days a week, so even farming it will be a bit. In the meantime it looks like I am going to need to find a way to vary the recharge bonuses so I don't end up with more than 5? at 6.25%.

oops, yes, I should have said end reduction. I had been looking at nerve, spiritual, and agility. Crystalline's build look closer to how I have had him set up to date. I had previously skipped flash and thunderstrike myself and taken snowstorm for the slow and -recharge

I understand your reasoning on Fly Local Man, but graphically and thematically I prefer flight under my own power. My concept for the toon is magical in nature and despite the opinions of Wotan and Dr Doom, I just don't think technowizardry is a viable option. Now, if the magic carpet allowed you to activate powers...

Which Alpha do you suggest? I was thinking along the lines of Agility or Spritual for the recharge. Currently Agility is winning due to the accuracy buff

How about the Forced Feedback proc? Is the +recharge for 5 secs good or no? Was thinking about it in Hurricane

Yeah, I figured the ss+stealth enh+steamy mist. Not up on the math of speed of attacks but understand why you want speed with the spectral damage. I don't mind SS as a secondary travel, but so many zones in this game require verticle

hmm, looks like I need to update my signature, lol. I used to have a website for my old SG on Pinnacle, but stopped paying for it quite some time ago. Just one more way in which the times they have changed ;-)

Hmm, thanks Local. It is definitely expensive with purples. As it stands, I think the big thing I would feel missing is flight. I spent a lot of time on this toon hovering over Hami and dropping PAs back in the day when there was a dedicated PA team (that was actually the initial reason I made him). As is, though, I could drop Hibernate and take flight Fly though. Still kind of wondering about Mu vs Ice. Both fit with the Storm summoning but I have yet to look up what powers controllers get from Mu. The good news is I have 15 or so HOs I can sell off. Hopefully Acc/Mess Dmg/Mezz and buff/end HOs sell high

I recently returned to the game and have slowly been transfering my old toons to a busier server. My most recent transfer is my old Illusion/Storm. I used to love this character, but that was before the invention system and incarnates. Now I find myself looking at him and being totally lost on how to set up his build with all the new goodies and a hope of getting permaPA back, since IOs make it possible post ED.

I have had decent success with making other builds on my own, but this one is a little beyond my limited IO knowledge. Currently, he is ill/storm/ice with the fitness pool and a nice amount of HOs. I have thought about going rogue to get /mu mastery but would love any assistance on choices and a decent permaPA build. The only stuff I have found in the forums so far seems to be as dated as I am

I was just wondering if Virtue has a standard schedule for RWZ Ship Raids or if anyone is planning one soon. I recently came from Pinnacle the Pinnacle server. We had regularly scheduled raids and I was hoping Virtue had omething similar. I just got my axe/electric brute to level 41 and want the Talsorian Axe. After spending hours running RWZ missions, I have less than 50 Vanguard Merits and no available contact, aside from doing those horrible repatative missions from Borea

Asking for a system where people could voluntarily nerf themselves instead of being forced into nerfs by the Dev team isn't asking for free stuff. The intent is do allow those of us who have not, for some reason, maximized our toons to be gently introduced to PvP so that we can get up to speed instead of nerf nuking the people who actually spent the time and effort to learn the system.

As I said in the negative feedback section, nerfing PvP to where I can survive it better does nothing to get me into these zones where I have to deal with personality traits I have no desire to encounter at close range. I have no complaints about this system, but I won't use it more than 5 times a year.

In general the PvP changes seem good to me. As an extremely casual PvPer, I am usually easy bait for the PvP crowd.
I say I am a casual PvPer because I only enter PvP zones or Arenas for 2 reasons.

1. I am looking for some specific game reward such as badges or temp powewrs.

2. My online friends actually prevail upon me to PvP.

In the old style PvP, it would take about 15 seconds for some avid PvPer to jump on me. Another 15 seconds saw me dead. The ease of my deaths seamed to be like chum in the water to those PvPers that seem to feel they must do whatever they can to make sure the inept players who actually brave the zones will become totally discouraged by endlessly repetative and seemingly meaningless (the game does not actually reward rapidly defeating the same foe in succession) quickfire defeats. Now, at least I have a chance to get away from most people and possibly even win about 10% of the time if I fight back. As long as I am just interested in getting whatever reward I came for, I can get it and run and the less friendly players tend to get frustrated having to chase for any duration.

Some of the changes don't seem to encourage play though. It seems that (de)buffs, heals and mezzes received the most nerf aggro. Defenders and controllers definitely took a hit. Some of it was needed when you consider the dominance of Radiation and Perma Dom, but then you think about things like Containment and primary/seconday choices and you can easily see why any controller player would be extremely upset by PvP v 2.0.

Could we see the NPCs and RV Heavies face the same nerfs that players get? being indefinitely held by Longbow after successfully escaping an 8-man controller team just seems wrong

Now, the Devs can twist, tweak and pervert powers for PvP balance as they wish without effecting PvE, and vice verse. Hopefully, the devs might rethink some of the PvP balance nerfs that were suffered in the past while developing a more dynamic relationship with the avid PvP crowd. They could change the entire mechanic for Containment in PvP if data mining shows controllers taking too large a hit without it doing anything to PvE or any number of other things. Ultimately, this is the best change I have seen in CoX since PvP was introduced. Universal changes always resulted in increasing PvP vs PvE bickering.

I have a couple of suggestions for Arena options.
1. turn off accolades option
2. turn off set bonuses option

The more casual players most likely lack accolades and sets (at least the optimal sets) Being able to switch these off would allow casual players to fight their optimized friends with less of a disadvantage. It would also recall the nastalgia of times when we didnt have those fancy set bonuses and our accolades were nerfed by exemping as we walked uphill through 10 feet of snow to reach the arena, both ways.

[*] SG/VG Name: The Rising Stars & Rising Stars Reserves[*] Public relations: cityofrisingstars.com[*] Peak teaming hours: varies [*] Amount of PvP: up to the individual[*] Amount of Powerleveling: up to the high levels[*] Amount of Drama: actively and thoroughly discouraged[*] Size of Base: complete from A to Zinc[*] Requirements: considerate and open minded behaviour. promotions are completely prestige based[*] Other: we are casual gamers who pool resources to gain the benefits of an SG without the hastle[*] Guild Description: Casual Gamers Unite![*] Leader or Recruiting Officers: @starget & @wonderland[*] Voice chat: we live off the Vents of our friends and in the silence of our minds[*] Preferred Method of contact: We don't care how you get here, Just get here if you can

I used to play and judge HeroClix quite often. I traveled to various conventions as an envoy assisting WizKids, but somehow managed to be on break when Cryptic passed out the free copies of CoH, or I would have entered Paragon City muich earlier. Unfortunately, WizKids has totaly died around here. I actuallly sold off my entire collection while on layoff.

My favorit team was always Teen Titans, but, once most of the original New Mutants released, I would pay them as well. I never really cared for how WizKids stated out the CoX characters.

I can imagine all the "Why do I have to enter a PvP zone to get a badge to get an IO?" complaints if this were to happen. Granted, ther are few achievements restricted to PvP zone content, but some badge-hunters are very persistent in their complaints over those already. Do we want to fuel that fire with even an ounce more angst?

* the big thing is, achievements are quite sizable, possibly beyond the scope the devs have in mind for Pool B. If they were to link Pool B to any badges, it would seem more appropriate for accomplishment badges. Even then, the above obstacle concerning PvP restricted conten stands.

Badges have their own rewards. Explorations give XP, and the right combination of the various pieces grant accolade powers. Those people who say retroactive rewards would be rewarding people with something for nothing would go into group shock if I suddenly had recipes for some combination of the 373 badges I already have.

Oh, there is no real benefit to rarity for the players, aside from elitists. The rarity is for the benefit of of merchandising. The rarer an item, the more effort must be expended to obtain it usually (note, luck can make the rarest item in the world drop into your lap on your first attempt).

Think along the line of baseball cards and collectible card/miniature games (HeroClix, Magic the Gathering, Star Wars Minis, etc). If you could purchase every piece individually at the same cost, you would purchase only those pieces you wanted and have a defined finite spending cap. Since you can't just buy 3 packs and get the specific 12 items you want, you are more likely to spend more. It is actually common to see collectible gamers start with 3 packs > buy 3 more > buy some more > buy some more > until they get what they really wanted. Instead of $21 dollars in sales, the collector has spent $60-$100, possibly all the money they had on them, resulting in no fine dining that evening. The reveal of the contents becomes addictive. All unnecessary, duplicate common items are easily placed on the secondary market, fueling the collector's belief that he/she has made some progress.

Putting rarity into the computer MMO is similar. Yo know that certain items will only be obtainable in certain ways depending on the drop pool. Initially, you will likely only go out of your way in order to obtain a few rares. The thing is, you might have to attempt the same action, be it TF/SF/Arc, 5-10 times to get the one rare you desire. Each drop will be a sort of bait for the next. Once you finally get those few items you wanted in the beginning, you might notice that you now have enough of the rare pieces to convince you to try for the remaining ones. All of this takes time. Unless you purchase from the secondary market, or live in game, you are likely to spend multiple months working for your pieces. Even if you purchase them, you must wait for the items to finally appear, checking every day, and then accumulate enough in-game resources to have the winning bid. Even in the case of real money transfers, you must then sign into the game, once you purchase the item, for transfer. Each of these methods requires you to keep an active account, which requires you to pay NC Soft, which requires them to pay Cryptic to continue development of further items to bait the hook of our online habit.

Real money transfers substantially reduce the time you will have to maintain an account, and purchasers usually lack the personal attachment to the account, so those accounts close more rapidly. To prevent rapid transfers, NC Soft will do what they can to reduce this third party money transfer. It likely has little/nothing to do with any ethical viewpoint banded about by "concerned" players. NC Soft and Cryptic are businesses that need purchases to survive. It is in their best interest to keep you paying as long and often as possible if they want to stay in business. A rarity based collector's item mechanic is one way of enticing you to prolong your account, especially if you are one of the many people easily seduced by the "Got to catch 'em all" mentality.

The benefit to us players is that these items function in a new, and possibly more powerful manner than pre-existing items. They are new. They are shinny. They make us slightly more "super."

I meant this in addition to normal reward via story arcs. 1/5 is better than 0/50 for those who have no arcs remaining. This of course depends on the assumption that the Devs wish Pool B to have limited accessability. A 1/day drop would not limit farming of pool B any more than than LRSF limits access to SHOES. All people have to do to work around the restriction is change toons. At best a 1/day limit is in reality a 12/day limit per account for farmers. Assuming people find a RL market for these drops, the prices may very well pay for multiple accounts.

Personally, I could care less if someone pays RL money for something ingame, but others fear it beyond my comprehension despite all the multitude of stated reasons for it being bad. I have no intention of paying RL money for something that is fun to obtain normally. I have no intention of turning a game into a job. To me, its the same as proffesional sports. It is not worth my time/money to pay to watch someone else have fun, especially since the players seem to have lost any clue as to how to simply enjoy the game. I don't care how someone else earns/spends their money. I would rather enjoy what I have and take pleasure in the scenery of my journey. Life is much more pleasant without being bogged down by the weight of greed, envy, prejudice, and the never ending cycle of "what if?"

[ QUOTE ]
Knowledge is power!

[/ QUOTE ]

And

"Knowing is half the battle"

sorry, couldn't help myself, GI Joe played a major part in my elementary school life

Instead of posting in every forum, I will just say WELCOME here, while i am here

I miss the galaga arcade game i udes to have in my basement as a kid. it was so nice not needing quarters

Maybe I could possibly get behind proposals to link Mayhem/Safeguards to Pool B under one of these possibilities.

1. Each broker offered a one time only Pool B drop instead of a new contact. This could be available from outleveled Brokers via teaming with lower levels long enough to fill the broker bar, then being allowed access to the recipe drop. Once the recipe drop is chosen, it is removed from that broker's list just like a contact.

2. Broker's could possibly offer Pool B drops once they run out of contacts to offer an appropriately leveled character. This way characters could not simply run for mayhem/safeguards for 5 levels and be rewarded instantly with recipes. They would have to wait for each contact in the zone to unlock first. Unfortunately, as characters reach the 30s and 40s, this suggestion allows massive access to Pool B, which I doubt the devs want.

All-in-all, I kind of like the first suggestion, while the second one is something I could live with if I had to.

I would still prefer retroactive rewards or being up the creek to either, though. I really like the 4 Pool idea. Once we figure out what enhancement is where, 4 Pools allows us to increase our likelihood to get the drop we actually want. I can live with my 6 level 50s not getting any goodies if it means my lower level alts have some map available to shortcut getting what they actually want. One huge pool of drops only reminds me of how many damage/range HOs and +Knockback SOs I have received in comparrison to the 3 golgis and zero level 51+ Endurance Modification SOs I have seen in 20 months of play.

The analogy is only flawed if viewed for timing of release. It is dead on in demonstrating a desire to have something that is not available during my lifetime for less than a small fortune. Instead I could have said a Special Edition signed Pentultimate X-Men #1 (totally fictional comic) only available at Wizard World LA. Those who play Hero Clicks might consider it along the lines of the Wizard World only release of Spectre. It is a matter of collection and desire, not need. That was the point.

Every slot I place is very deliberately planned by myself (not hero builder or some such). Two extra slots in SJ to run a toggle I don't want to run in combat upsets my endurance plans regardless of the endurance reduction. And that is 2 slots I don't have for something else that I do normally slot which has never included Stealth. I never feel like I have enough slots as is. Maybe, if I could somehow invent a whole new slot to replace the sacrificed slots now in an SJ that was fast enough and totally unnecessary stealth bonus, I would consider it. But then again, probably not. I will only use IOs in powers where I believe the trade off in power is worth it, which I have yet to see. (Maybe once an official finalized list is released by Cryptic I will find something) The Invention Sets are great temptation to otherwise gimp a build. It is a very slippery slope to chase those special bonuses in place of optimally slotted SOs and HOs.


Every time a toon sacrifices 25% total damage for a 5% total health gain, a slain intern gets his wings.

except that Inventions and Vet Rewards reward two totally different time chunks. Unvention rewards individual character time investment (until the economy actually gets rolling) and Vet rewards is for player activity.

If Inventions were tied to VRs, they would probably be claimed in the same manner as temp powers, respecs, base items, and costume tokens. This means the PL group that the devs and many players love to hate would have seriously easy access to level 50+ recipes on new toons every 2-3 weeks (it does still happen that fast for the serious PL crew, they just stopped talking so much about it). retroactive rewards is already viewed by many as something for nothing, VRs would be even worse. At least with the retroactive rewards players can argue that they did actually do the required content, just somewhat in advance of need and without knowledge of that need.