Teklord

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A baseball bat that shoots webs and lasers? How absurd.

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So get the cane, a top hat and tails.

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Holy crap, I'm gonna have to roll a war mace something-or-other (brute I guess... not one for tankers) then. That's just too funny to pass up.

Won't be pairing it with EA, though...

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If you go */*/mace on any COV AT you now get the mace weapon options too. So you can use your bat on your corruptor if you wish.
-Teklord

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Hard to pull off? No. You can drain a whole mob with just Two Short Circuit blasts, no other powers needed. The epics just let you do it INSTANTLY.

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Assuming a definition of instantly which is actually multiple power invocations over a period of 3-5 seconds.

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WTF? How has this survived forum clean ups.

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rednames preserve threads.

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regarding EQ tactics.

(rest of the horrorshow censored for the weak at heart)

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Good God, man. There are children on this board! Think of the children! Won't somebody think of the children!

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Sorry,

I was a dedicated multi-forum reader and numbers guy in EQ as well. Poke me and the old info spills out. Calling quad kiting game breaking annoyed me a bit. Kiting TEAMS in Plane of Fire was the only way an undergeared but keyed wizard could even get a team with reasonable XP in my day. Our fatality rate was not great either, and debt doesn't exist in EQ, you lose XP directly upon death, including the potential level loss.

OTOH, Arcanavilles amazing work shines brightly through this all again. I am stunned again. Great information. Makes me want to play my blaster again.

-Teklord

<qr>

regarding EQ tactics.

First some definitions

1- Quad kiting. A druid or wizard using an aoe snare and a max 4 hit aoe to run in circles and kill enemies. 100% mitigation was necessary since these enemies could one shot you and if all 4 hit you then you were well and truly dead. An interesting side note- scriptable using hacker tools readily available for EQ. Quad Kiting wasn't really bad but it allowed wizards/druids to solo in a game that hated solo play. This was the sole reason it was vilified.

2- Swarm Kiting. Only doable by a bard. A charm tactic where a bard would aggro as many enemies as possible that had the same runspeed. Aggro should be as soft as possible. Then the bard would charm one to be chewed up by the swarm he has kited. Just before death the charm would be broken using a self invisibility trick. Instant use invisibility was strongly preferred but others were possible. Then final kill would be issued by the bard using a form of drum kiting. During the initial gather the bard needs to maintain distance to swarm to avoid losing aggro, careful not to attack to turn the aggro from soft to hard. Careful track of the charm victim needed to be maintained so that you could switch targets correctly. During the swarm kill stage the bard would circle the swarm as it chewed on the victim. Carefully keeping proper distance to the charmed one and avoiding getting too close to the swarm. During the final kill stage the bard would again drag the whole swarm behind him but keeping the right distance to the victim and swarm.
An interesting side note- scriptable using hacker tools readily available for EQ. Charm aggro rules and various distances/timing changed to nerf this were put in place. I stopped playing before this was completely broken. A good bard could kite the entire plane of fear exempting the ones that summoned. Fastest XP in the game for those skilled enough.

3- Charm Kiting. A technique usable by Druids, Enchanters and Bards though bards almost always used swarm kiting instead. This was often done by using the charmed animal or critter to kill for the chanter/druid, swarm kiting used the swarm to kill the charmed one. This was very effective since EQ decided to balance by making critters so frickin' tough. They all had damage much much higher than players and could take a ton of damage as well. Putting damage shields and other buffs on the critter accelerated the kill speed. Breaking charm at the right place could really bump up XP gain but was VERY VERY dangerous as the critter has 20 minute - 2 hour long buffs on it which turn a dangerous enemy into a force of nature not to be opposed by anyone. Charm was also very unpredicable. This type of charming wasn't really scriptable and achieved excellent gains during the expansion that introduced instances to EQ (can't remember the right name). It was later nerfed to oblivion during Omens of War and later.

4- Fear Kiting. Useful only until level 55. A necromancer would fear something which caused it to run. He would then layer on DOTs while it ran. Eventually the fear wore off and it ran back to kill the necro. Once it got close the necro would fear it again. If it got too close of the fear failed, the necro would feign death to shed aggro. Careful choice of camps was needed to avoid feigning death at a spawn point. Safe and easy xp. Usable for Player Leveling as well. Post 55 a necro would use other techniques. Necros were the best solo character that weren't bards. Bards required much more skill then a necromancer, necromancers just required time. Necromancers were the easiest to gear as well. And Necromancers couldn't use clarity from enchanters instead prefering their own lich style mana regen buffs.
Post Omens, Enchanters were in a bad way having no appreciable role left outside of slowing enemies which shamans did much better and more besides. Enchanters were reduced to buff bots in POK selling 3 hour long buffs for plat. I leveled an enchanter on my third EQ account just for buffs. Once I got C3 I stopped. Only my Necromancer and Wizard were raid levels and geared.

Check city of Data.
http://www.nofuture.org.uk/cox/

I would also note that none of the numbers in the guide are correct except for Regen Aura being +500% regen.
-Teklord

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The Empathy/Psychic Blast Defender - Updated for I8

[u]Adrenalin Boost (32):[u]
Well this is the top-tier power and the "jewel" allegedly. The target will receive a nice boost to Recharge (30%), Endurance recovery (40%) and hit point regeneration (50%). It makes a massive difference to the survivability of whoever you gift this buff to. Combined with Fortitude you can put your mind at ease that short of trying to take on Lusca's 8 tentacles singlehandedly, your target will now be safe. Well... for the next 90 seconds anyway. Another 300 second recharge timer makes it a "once per fight" power when coupled with three recharge reductions. Personally, I don't slot for end mod or health, but if you're slot rich, you may want to consider it.



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The numbers here are wrong. Don't trust builders for numbers. Trust City of Data for I7 numbers but not the builders.

AB is 100% recharge boost - double that of speed boost.
AB is 800% recovery boost - 16x that of slotted stamina, 16x that of speed boost, 8x slotted speed boost (3 endmod).
AB is +500% regen - same as regen aura.
AB also provides resistance to slows both in recharge and runspeed/flightspeed/jumpspeed.

-Teklord

You evil evil man. I have just convinced myself go tri-form and only lightly use the human form goodness. I was working the respec out as you posted this. Now I need to reconsider the human/dwarf combo. I see the potential in it. Well I do have TWO respecs available right now.

Evil I say and good guide.
-Teklord

* Supergroup Name: Green Machine

* Website (if any): www.repeat-offenders.net

* Leader or Recruiting Officers: Hobo Healer, Rogue Empath, Dr. Robert, Jo Stockton, Mystic Celt

* Preferred Method of contact: Best way to reach Green Machine is via the "Repeat Offenders" in game channel. All members of GM can invite to the SG at this time.

* Guild Description:
Green Machine is an all Empathy Offender SG. We are part of the Repeat Offender network of SGs. You may have heard of Pinball Wizards and the J-Man challenge. Green Machine wouldn't even allow the one death JMan had with the pinballs. Capped Defense and Capped Regen is pretty darn powerful. This SG is not for H3alors, it is for Offenders only. I will personally kick any so-called pure empaths out of the SG. We are a concept SG and don't have room for people who aren't part of our concept.

Check this link for full requirements: Green Machine Power and Slotting Requirements
This link is our FAQ : Green Machine FAQ and Guide

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I don't remember exactly the details of the problem, but the crux is that these powers are driven off of enemies, so there is a lot of complex stuff going on behind the scenes that gets this to work. I seem to recall something about how the power creates something akin to a "pet" that does the work. As Castle said, it's a timing issue, along the lines of 1.) cast power, do accuracy check, 2.) successful check, create pet, 3.) pet then acts upon the initial target to apply power effect.

There is a short period of time, between when the power is activated and the pet tries to apply the buff. If the initial target dies during this period, the pet has nothing to work off of and the power fails.


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This is accurate as far I as I understand it. It is a classic "race condition" which is a better thing to say then a timing issue since it identifies the problem as one of design.

The solution is simple but let me write it out and label stuff so people don't misquote me too much.

The user power is TRANSFUSION.
It creates a pet call it TPET
The pet casts a power on the enemy call it PETTRANS

so PETTRANS is the problem. It is a twilight grasp style power. Combo heal and debuff. What needs to happen is to separate the heal and the debuff in PETRANS into two powers, PETTRANSA and PETTRANSB. PETTRANSA should be the heal aura, based on Radiant Aura style heals, no target needed. PETTRANSB should be the debuff that applies -regen to the target. If PETTRANSB fails it will be because the enemy is dead already, and we don't care anymore.

This isn't a radical solution, it is pretty simple infact. There may be limits, the type of pet spawned by TRANSFUSION today may not be one that can do multiple actions. No big deal, use a different class of pet. Overall the issue is something that could be solved by an engineer taking a little time to solve the design flaw of the power rather than patch it with a bandaid.

-Teklord

Animation time means they need to have the Animators create a new animation for the new power. It doesn't mean the animation time of the power will change.
-Teklord

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I believe the "mob can't die during the activation" issue is well known, but was determined to be very difficult to fix given the limitations of the game engine. In other words, I think it's been looked at, and was given a "ouch, sorry, can't help ya"

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Here is the redname post that contradicts this long held belief. There is a fix that requires animation time.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....rue#Post4675148

Here is the quote
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* Bug: When Transfusion is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no heal, though the animation fires. However, if Twilight Grasp goes off on a dying enemy, it heals the recipients. There are also reports of the same issue occuring if the enemy moves out of Line of Sight during Tranfusion's animation time. (Rigel_Kent adds: To be more technical, this seems to be a problem with all AoE effects generated around the single target of a power. Illusion Control-&gt;Blind's AoE mez effect also has this problem; if the Blind damage defeats the target, the AoE mez will not happen. AoE's generated around the user don't have this problem.)
* Bug: When Transference is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, there is no endurance regained for those in the AOE, though the animation fires. (Dark Pyroblast)
* Bug: If Fulcrum Shift is fired off on an enemy that is defeated before the power activates, you get the single 50% caster buff, but NOT the 25% effect from the dying mob OR any mobs around him. (Quason)


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I'll put this on the bug list. I think it takes animation time. See above for problems with that.


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The problem with Transfusion/Transference/Fulcrum Shift not working if the target dies is well known. The devs have acknowledged it's a problem with the game engine, but apparently it's a design shortcoming, not a simple bug fix. So while this would be FAR AND AWAY my biggest desire to see fixed, I'm not holding my breath. My guess is it won't ever change, sadly.

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The dev chatter on that has changed. There has been talk of fixing this from the devs. I will try to dig up some redname posts on it.
-Teklord

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I just rechecked this. It looks like Brute taunt auras (invincibility, mud pots) are exempt from this restriction. The inherent taunt of those powers apparently is set to work on all NPCs, but the Tanker equivalents do not. The inherent taunt of melee attack powers for both ATs does not work on AVs/GMs.

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Classic. The devs do love their tankers.
-Teklord

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Sigh...so controllers become 2nd rate defenders and get to be controlelrs for 1/3 of an AV fight.


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My controllers tank AVs. Controllers are not second rate defenders ever. During the approach I use my AOE controls to hold the entire spawn surrounding the AV, I then use the spawn to fuel my fulcrum shift before slaying them. I have no problems with AVs as a controller, dominators are another story.
-Teklord

Though I don't play Tankers and have supported many of the anti-tank changes made since Issue 4, I find this change to be completely out of line. There is no justification for this and it is typical overreaction of due to behavior that never occurs in game. By that I mean the supposition that this was added post COV beta due to the way the taunt effects caused the devs driving the HEROs difficutly attacking specific targets.

I find this nerf completely ego driven and having no basis in reason.
-Teklord

I would vote against this type of change. Kinetics is fine the way it is. Having played more that 200 levels of kinetics I am very pleased with it.
-Teklord

I would say NO.

Kin defenders are very good at low levels. Transfusion, Siphon Power alone will turn the tide of most battles. The trick with Kinetics is to get close to melee for all of the buffage.

Transfusion, Siphon Power, Increase Density, Speed Boost are all received by level 12 and very useful for teams.

-Teklord

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All kidding aside, it baffles me every time I see someone refer to their character as their "toon"... Maybe it's because I'm a P&amp;P RPGer and not a video gamer, but where in the heck did that originate? I think it sounds pretty silly.

Thanks

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The first place I heard 'Toon' used was on The Realm many years back, where it was common. Apparently, the 'toon' vs. 'character' thing largely depends on what your introduction to online gaming culture was. There isn't really much of a difference.

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I use the term toon as well. It is absolutely precise. When you say "toon" there is no chance of miscommunication, it is exact. Character, Hero, Villian, etc, all come with a chance of misunderstanding. For that reason alone I would use it.
-Teklord

-deleted- I tested and was incorrect. Read the posts below by my more accurate fellows.
-Teklord

Name: Pinball Wizards
Shard: City of Heroes, Freedom
Overall Theme: All Kinetics defenders/controllers. Speed Boost and Leadership are both required. ID is strongly encouraged. Siphon Power, Transfusion, Transferance, Fulcrum Shift are all core powers. We also suggest /elec blast for defenders but make a big deal out of it. We also strongly encourage Grant Invis for defenders.
Backstory: n/a
Group Make-up: Generally we are open and fun players. Our standard teams early on were 6 defenders and maybe 2 controllers. Many were 8 defenders. As we have aged and more alts have come into network, we have more controllers. Our numbers of controllers are nearly 50% now.
Combat Strategy and Power Combinations: Depending on what we have available. If we are defender heavy we will all be invisible and multiple speed boosts, with 4-8 tactics and assault running. We will open with Fulcrum Shift, then a mitigation attack such as short circuit. Transfusion is used a lot as well. If the team has 38 level defenders in it, we may just be using rolling nukes. That is one person FS, one person nukes, another transferance, plus regular AoEs. AoEs are a constant. We are using as many aoes as possible. In fact my kin/elec has a complete aoe attack chain due to speed boost. If we have controllers then we open with aoe control such as flashfire, wormhold, hypnosis, etc. Controllers make life much safer for us. We ID pre-fight when fighting mez heavy enemies. We are also big fans of vengeance and use it heavily.

Controllers and Pets have made our teams much less brittle. Large scale mez attacks can hurt us. We often have one or two people who specialize in cracking the alpha per team. When those people go down too fast it can get ugly. Using a controller in that roll has been very powerful.

Notes: Pinball Wizards is part of the Repeat Offender network. We now team with the whole coalition, including Bubblicious, Shadows of Salvation, Perfect Storms, Faithful Friends of Fallout, Think Tanks and Apostles of Ro. This means we are now running more than just kinetics though we have in general pretty kinetic heavy teams.
-Teklord

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ok, Ive tested this numerous times, MoG ends BEFORE the warning timer even starts blinking. All the other tier 9 powers are working fine though. Devs, pls fix this, MoG already has enough trouble as it is.

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Technically, it's not a bug -- it works as designed. The problem is that MoG is the exception to that design. That doesn't help YOU folks at all, it's mainly me straightening out my thoughts on how to approach it. In order for this to be fixed, it will require a code change. So, I'll add it to the queue.

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I hate this type of developer double-speak. I hear it a lot.

It is a bug when the developers make an assumption that isn't true. It should still be filed as a bug not a feature request. Just because the functional spec fails to make the correct assumptions doesn't absolve this of bug status.
-Teklord

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I've noticed that too, but I don't think it is a bug. You still have the MoG -regen on you still.

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This may be why it doesn't flash early BUT it is a bug. the -regen is part of the CRASH not the power.
-Teklord