The_SiXKillA

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They blow in PVE though.

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No they don't. They just have to be played right.

In a big team with lots of mobs there is some skill involved, but they can be played with great success. They are created to be able to assassinate tough mobs. The best way to play them PvE is to be behind the mob group and take out the peripheral mobs with AS. You can't deal constant damage with them, you have to AS, plactate, do some other attack, wait for hide to kick in and AS again. By applying guerilla tactics the stalker can be VERY successful in PvE.

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Im having fun with my Fire/dev blaster from the US making stalkers lives very difficult, to be honest I feel quite bad for them when im in the zone

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But to be effective against stalkers as a blaster you HAVE to have */devices, while a stalker is effective against almost any other AT no matter what powersets they choose. To me, this isn't very fair.

Anyways, the reason I hate the stalker AT so much is because they make the perfect ganking tool. And the reason they make such great gankers is because the stalker AT is so easy to be good at, and that they have all the right tools for ganking.

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People hate them because they don't know how to beat them.

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I know how to beat them, but there's no way for me to do so without a team.
A stalker with hide+stealth is -impossible- for me to see, even with Tactics, IR Goggles and two medium sized yellows.

Now, a soloing stalker with hide+stealh can take out any soloing hero, and a lot of teamed ones too.

Stalkers has so many trix up their sleeves you'd be pretty stupid to fail more than 20% of the time. Stalkers has so many things going for them it's silly, compared to just about any other AT in the game.

I've tried stalking and the only thing you have to worry about in both PvE and PvP is random AoE and PBAoE, and apart from that, it's just plain sailing.

Of course it takes skill to excell as a stalker, but it takes no skill at all to be merely good at it, and in this the stalker AT is alone.

It's well worth getting and 3 slotting with recharge SO's. My en/en blaster has it ready in the beginning of each fight, and sometimes in the end, depending on how long the fight is, naturally. But one Build Up and a cycle through my powers usually floors a +2 boss.

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Whomg new Scrapapocalypse theme song...

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Dang you, Hobo. Dang you to Heck(tm)
I dunno if I'm right about it, but this song goes by the melody to the Team America theme?

Even if I am wrong, and it's a different melody, that's the melody (with your lyrics) I have burned into my frontal brainlobe this very moment.

Dang you, Hobo.

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i like the 'intro' music.. how did u make it play automatically?

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Dunno how he dunit, but it can be done with a simple OnLoad: java script. Can probably be found here: Webmonkey

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Psychic Tornado is knockdown/up

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Knock-up superpower could prove to be expensive if over-used.

Do this make super-babies, btw?

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While scoring kills with any of my Hero alts usually weren't a problem since any Villains I encountered almost always stood their ground and fought until the bitter end, scoring kills with my Villain alts have proven to be a vastly bigger problem.

I'm simply getting FED UP with Heroes fleeing back to the Hospital zone repeatedly if their health drops below 10%, even if they are there in far superior numbers!

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This is the exact oposite of my experience. Fleeing villains, and stalkers in particular, is one of the main reasons I don't PvP anymore.

On the rare occation when I pop by sirens, I usually advice hanging around that comet statue thingy, just so the villains will dare come out of the base (and have a longer way to run when they finally flee).

Slightly off topic, but I'll get to the point, just bare with me.

Nothing more annoying to a tank than having some troller or blaster throw "Rain of Whatever" on top of him when he finally have all the mobs gathered around himself.

IMO there's two uses for Rain of blahblahblah:
1) if you find yourself surrounded by mobs intent on making your life miserable, cast Rain on top of yourself, and watch the mobs take the hint. (This does work for scaring mobs off any squishy.)
2) When the tank has gathered the mobs around himself, root the mobs with CF (see? I did get to the point) THEN use the Rain of somethingorother.

I find CF (or equivalent) pretty handy, as you can cast it then step out of the mobs range. Also SUPER for */Rad trollers and their AOE toggles to make mobs stay in range of the anchor.

Controlling isn't so much about constantly casting powers on everything in range, but rather (yes, you guessed it) controlling troublesome mobs, and having a general overview of the battle. So you don't have to be in range of the mobs at all times.

One tip for AoE root powers (not specifically to the OP, but to any troller): You don't have to use it RIGHT AWAY. If the team decides to pull the group of mobs, DON'T root untill the mobs are where you want them to be. Too many times (even at lvl 40+) I have trollers in my team who insists on using all their powers the second a group of mobs are agroed (and very often, before they are agroed). It's not a competition of who makes the most damage, and if it had been, controlling wouldn't be the way to go. Everyone wants to be the most important player in the team, but that doesn't mean being the first person to attack. There are more often than not an ideal sequence of events in a battle, and rooting a loosely gathered group of mobs isn't on top of that list.

So I guess it's impossible for people to use their head, and to be respectful to other people... It's apparent that kids today has to do anything that is possible for them to do, as long as it is entertaining to them and it gives other people grief. As long as it's in your OWN PERSONAL best interest, OF COURSE you HAVE to do it...

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This is a game. The devs set the rules. The rules include: by entering a PvP zone you declare yourself to be a target for anyone; and abuse and sweering is not alowed.

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I have no problem with a rule that says no swearing, but to me ganking and general griefing is 100 times worse.

And if two ppl are fighting and someone hops in and joins the fracas, and the two original combatants tell the newcomer that it's a friendly duel, then how hard is it for the newcomer to just lay off? Open PvP shouldnt be a standing invitation to behave like a drunken idiot, but clearly this is the sort of behaviour that's encouraged by devs and rednames, and it's for this reason I've, like you so eloquently proclaimed, picked up my ball and gone to play somewhere else. Problem is that I find PvP in CoX one of the more entertaining and exhilerating experiences in computer games today, when it's not ruined by children behaving like neanderthals on coke cut with ratpoison.

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Also, like you said, it's a GAME. Shouldn't everyone try to make the game as entertaining as possible for everyone else? If entertainment to you is giving other players grief, then you don't deserve respect from anyone.

Wouldn't it be in the dev's best interest to have as many people enjoy the game as possible? It's not my belief, but sincere hope that most people aren't idiots, so the griefers must be the minority, but this minority are still able to keep most people away from PvP. Most of the people I've talked to who say they don't enjoy PvP say they don't like it because there's so many idiots giving them grief.

When the "devs" start siding with griefers, it's about time to let the devs and the griefers have the game to themselves.

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There is no excuse for abusive language, no matter what the provocation.

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There's no excuse for behaving like an idiot either.

Petitions about abusive morons don't get taken seriously anyway, so what's the point? Or is it just abusive language that is frowned upon? Sure, there's no harm in roving bands of gankers, but the second someone utters a naughty word "AAARGH! THE WORLD'S ABOUT TO END!" I'm sorry but this seems to me like an all american policy. "Think of the children, for the allmighty Baby Jesus' sake!"

I remember way back when, just a couple weeks after CoV launch, I was taking my nrg/nrg blaster for a stroll through Siren's, and came across a stalker and a scrapper who appeared to be duelling. It looked to me like the scrapper was about to lose, but polite as I am, I stood by watching, not wanting to interfere with a duel.

But as I stand there watching (in stealth by the way), another stalker appear and AS the scrapper but by some stroke of devine intervention the scrapper didn't die, so I decide to help out with the spare stalker. I hop in, power push the first stalker to give the scrapper some breathing room, then I go to work on the second stalker and have him down to around 1/4 hp before the first one comes back.

I power push him again, and finish off the second one, but no sooner is he dead before a third stalker appear and AS me. I'll admit luck was by my side here, because it wasn't a OHK, but I do end up with nearly full defiance. I turn to the newcomer and fill him full of harnessed plasma, three hits and he's dead. I'm JUST quick enough to yet again power push the first stalker before he can land the killing blow on me, and I commence the eradication procedure once more.

I have just finished him off from a distance when another stalker (if it was one of my earlier victims or a different stalker alltogether eludes my tired mind at the moment) come up behind me, I can see him, but I'm not quick enough this time, and I faceplant.

This is probably my most intense battle ever, in any game, even though the experience was cut a tad short by three angry stalkers on the broadcast channel.

Didn't know that. Guess taunt not having the 5/6 mob restriction it has now just made it less obvoius.

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Ice primary is, IMO, unbeatable for aggro grabbing. No other primary comes close

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I don't have personal experience with this, but from what I've heard, Ice primary can't handle that much agro. But I'm starting an Ice/* tanker soon, so I'll be noticing if it's untrue.

If you want to manage agro like a champ, you'll want three recharge reductions in taunt and have Fire Melee for secondary (for the two pbaoe powers), and eventually Pyre Mastery for epic (for fireball). In other words, as much AoE as you can possibly fit in your build. Maybe even throw in the Challenge Poolpower set(it might be called Provoke, I can't remember what is the power set and what's the actual power).

I have Inv/Fire and never have trouble holding agro as long as some triggerhappy en/* blaster don't manage to get off nova before I get in either "combustion" or "fire sword circle".

After Gauntlet was introduced as Inherit for tankers, getting and keeping agro is just a matter of how many mobs you can get within reach of your AOE's. Taunt for stray mobs. It's a surefire way of success.

In all honesty, I got to say that survivability only becomes an issue the longer the fight lasts. If you'r a scrapper then you don't have the kind of damage a blaster has, I don't care what you say. Maybe a BS/DA with tons of recharge reductors and lots of damage in that pbaoe aura power they has will come close, but will never top a blaster. And the more ppl of the same AT in a team, the more pronounced the difference becomes.

I'll say, without ANY base in fact or proof, that a full */regen team and a full en/en blaster team will take about the same time for the same missions. Because while the blaster teams are chilling out, recovering from the last fight, the scrappers will still be fighting.

And there's nothing anyone can say about the damage differance. A fully SO'd blaster will have more damage than a fully SO'd scrapper. The blasters does have two powersets crammed full of damage (unless you are a /devices) while the scrappers has one set half-full of damage and one set with no damage (except DA). Even Crits don't equal this out, because it doesn't hit by far often enough. And Defiance will also count some way towards finishing off a fight faster.

This is all, of course, only based on observations, and so even if I sound completely positively sure about this, I'm not.

Hehe. This is starting to confirm my own experiences. Of course inexperienced players will drop the average a bit, but they do that in any team. Like when I play my tank, I tell the team I will pull a group of mobs away from a bigger group of mobs, I hit taunt and start moving back to the place I said I'd pull to, then the controller in the team aoe roots the mobs 3 meters from where they originally were. I want to pull my hair and scream, but that is so out of character with my calm and collected tank.

I can also relate to the boredom issue. Playing with my tank in a team of experienced blasters means that I step into a group of mobs, fire off a couple of pbaoe's and my taunt, then the blasters proceeds to wiping out the mob group in seconds. Move to next mob group, rinse and repeat. This with mobs 2-3 levels above the highest member of the team. The bonus is that this makes extremely fast xp, but the fun-factor is rather slim after the 15'th group.

Reading a post just now called something like "what do you hate the most in cox?", I notice that about the only thing that repeats itself is "team with 5 blasters". I know it's taken a bit out of context, but my experience with blaster teams is almost all positive.

Most often I've been in blaster-heavy teams while playing my tank, and I must say those teams have without a doubt the most effective I've ever been in. it's usually me as a tank, an empath and 5-6 blasters, and we're cutting through the missions like knife through hot butter.

Even when playing my blaster, and there is no tank in the team, the sheer damage output of a teamful of blasters are enough to cut a bloody swathe through almost any mission. Albeit with a tad more downtime for resting and such, but anyway. Of course this also dictates some form of teamplay or other, to make sure everyone knows their place in the team, and knows the timing of the attack and such.

These are only my experiences, but what are yours?

In this I include Warshades in squid form as blasters.

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lol, no it's not. The effectiveness of the breaks on a car has nothing to do with reaction time or skill in any way. Also the pony analogy is flawed because you could never train a pony to be faster than a race horse, but you can play this game enough to be good enough at point and click to not have to worry about binds.

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Thank you for making my point more clear.
In the hands (or in this example, the feet) of a novice driver, disc-breaks and drum-breaks are equally effective, but an experienced driver will recognize the increased effectiveness of the disc-breaks.
And the pony example is the same, only more pronounced. A novice rider will have an easier time riding a pony, but once rider learns to handle the derby horse, his speed does in fact increase. (EDIT: ach [cencored], I really really don't mean you guys are novice players, it was just the examples that lead to this explanation. If I offended anyone I sincearly apologize.)

Point and Click is much easier to master, but it is inherently slower than "wasd123". The problem with "wasd123" is that it has a much steeper learning curve, so while you learn to use it, you might be rubbish, but once it's in your fingers you'll see the difference. This is, of course, dependant of being able to do different things with each hand at the same time, and I do recognize that people that aren't ambidextrous (like me. ) may struggle with this.

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Now please stop with your incessant need to be correct.

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I should say "ditto", but I really AM right in this. The problem is that humans really really really don't like being told that the way they are doing things isn't the ultimate-super-leet way of doing it.

I don't have a problem with you people using point and click. Far from it. It's your completely unreasonable belief that it's the better way that's getting to me. (This was partially a joke. You figure out which part.)
You people using Point and Click just means MORE FRAGS FOR ME!! WOOHOO!

Honestly though, I'm having a laugh here, because it's fun watching people grab on to the rocks with their bare hands, while I'm safely secured in a harness.

PS: learning to be at least partially ambidextrous will make you a hit among the ladies too.

(Although I do really mean the bulk of what I say, I'm really just pulling your leg(s) with the way it's said.)

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It is not "how" you choose powers that makes you good, it is HOW you play the game.

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Okay, so how good a footballplayer is isn't down to how he kicks the ball -at all-?

Like I said in an earlier post, EVERTYTHING isn't only down to personal preferance. There are actually some methods of doing something that are more effective than others. Honestly.

And (like I've said many times already) I'm not saying I am a better player, I'm saying the combination between mouse and keyboard is much more effective than using the mouse alone.
Using the mouse you have 4 directions and maybe seven buttons at your disposal, while using the keyboard at the same time increases your control options infinitely. Indeed, on a keyboard there is between 105 and 107 buttons.

Saying the two methods are equally effective, is like saying drum-breaks and disc-breaks work equally well on a car, because both will stop the car. It's a matter of distance. While the drum-breaks will stop the car eventually, the disc-breaks will do the same job at a much much shorter distance.

It's like saying a pony is equally good as a derby horse because they both get you from A to B. The difference is the horse will get you there in a much shorter span of time.

Point and Click works very well in Monkey Island, in Kings Quest, in DOTT and Full throttle and a shedload of other games. But in ANY software, be it games or applications, where you have more than, say, 10 functions, there has been introduced HOTKEYS to make the work/game more effective.

Point and Click is good for anything less complicated than Solitaire, but for anything with remotely complex controls it's just SLOW and OLD. Watching people using Point and Click play CoX is kind of like watching a disabled person dance. It's slightly funny, but most of the time it makes you wince in sympathy.

My point here is that some things ARE actually more effective than others, and that we're all supposed to respect each other and not hurt each others feelings doesn't change that fact.
What you PREFER is a matter of opinion, but what is -better- and -faster- and -more effective- isn't.

Again I must press the point that I'm not saying I'M better than YOU. I'm talking about different methods, and I'm not even remotely claiming that this is MY method. I learned it from people that repeatedly defeated me in any action orientated game there was. Before that I used your good OLD point and click method. And I must say that converting to this method has made me a better player than I used to be. And I've been using computers every day since I was six and I'm now 27, so it's not like I don't know how the mouse works.

I'm not saying this because I want to make you people look bad and horribly outdated. I'm saying it because it's true.

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I have my clicks all nicely lined up in order, I don't need to look where I'm clicking cause after 10 months of playing I know..., nudge the mouse a tiny bit to the side and click next power! means that I can focus on using my left hand to move around, jump, run turn and all that jazz...

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So you never use your mouse for ANYTHING but clicking powers? And you NEVER get your mouse out of alignment? And even in an 8 man indoor mission, you never have to use your mouse to maybe select a specific mob, or click on a member to see where he/she is, or turn the screen around, or keep the screen from turning around when performing an action on a mob or team member that's perpendicular to your screen?

And there are many things beside these that can only be done with the mouse. with the wasd-method, you can do these things at the same time as fighting or healing or controlling or whatever it is you are doing.

Of course I use the mouse to execute powers on occation, it's not that doing this in it self is a bad thing. It's just that using a combination of the mouse and the keyboard allowes for a MUCH MUCH MUCH more flexible gamestyle, and you can adapt to -any- situation you care to be in. Learning to be flexible enough to adapt, is the single most important ingredient in being effective.

Oh, this was in the last patch?

I can't really say then, because I haven't played much since.

Not noticed any difference.
If anything, I think the knocback distance has increased. I can knock a target up on a double stacked container with that Energy Thrust, or whatever it's called, that you get on level one, by the time the mob lands I've got off at least one ranged attack, and by the time he's standing up I've got next to him again and unleashed Bone Smasher to disorient and Power Burst to send him flying once again.

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What is this talk about looking away from the fight. Do you guys know when BU is ready?
I play a regen scrapper. I have 2 heals and build up. I need to know when they are ready to be used. If I get toggle dropped, I need to know what toggle Im missing.

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But you don't have to look at the power tray for every single power you are going to execute (if you are using the keyboard to some degree anyways).

If I'd have to look at the powertray and "aim" my mouse on the power-buttons for -every- power on my blapper, I wouldn't do anything BUT look at the powertray.
And anyway, noticing a power being recharged you can see in the corner of your eye without focusing your sight on it, but to hit it with the mousepointer does require focus on where you click, depth of field vision to see exactly where the button is and hand to eye coordination to actually hit it, all at the same time. That's three things just to execute one power. Not to mention the time that is wasted on actually doing these three things. And in the end, you've done ONE thing.

When using the mouse and keyboard together, I can move my toon, execute a power, change targets AND have a COMPLETE overview of the battle at the same time.

But of course, proving (to yourself) you don't have a squint and proving (to yourself) that you can position your mousepointer where your eye's focus is 18 times during EACH and every battle is MUCH more important than actually being efficient. <- This was sarcasm if you didn't catch it.

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Indeed EVERYONE converted to mouse look..
Maybe these guys are still living *way back in the days*..

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No, you see. YOU are living way back in the days. Mouse-look isn't an issue in CoX because that's by default on the right mouse button. I used mouse-look as an EXAMPLE. (That is a similar case that constitutes a model or precedent, if you didn't know.)

And in your OP, you did ask for a more efficient way of executing your melee powers, even though you didn't really do a very good job of it. (I may have gotten this wrong, as a few others also apparently did. And if I did indeed get it wrong, I appologize.)

I also appologize for coming off a tad harsh in my first reply, but the fact remains that though there are different ways to control your toon, not all of them are equally efficient. And Point-And-Click ISN'T that efficient.

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But funnily yesterday I got even worse insults just for inviting people to my team =S "Hey wanna join? team lvl 20"- "Shut up u [censored] [censored], cant ya see my msg? say SOLO ya [censored] [censored] stop annoying ya..."


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Yep, I've had that too.

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Happened to me I got spammed by insulting tells after I declined 3 blind invites from the same guy and then sent a tell that if I declined the first time it's not likely that I will accept nr 2, 3, 4... and asked him if he could stop sending those invites. Immediate reply: "shut up u n00b!" and "y r u retarted or something?!?!".

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And this.

Both in CoV strangely enough, within 1 month of release, and neither happened to me in all the time I've played CoH.

I suspect that the instant players are allowed to play an "evil" faction, they gain a mysterious A-Hole chromosome (maybe that's their superpower). "Well, what can you do? I'm a VILLAIN!" yeah, you are also an idiot.

You get exactly the same behaviour in WoW from the Horde side.

I must say I was looking forward to CoV like a little kid looking forward to christmas morning, right up untill the time when I actually tried it, and experienced all the bad behaviour that an evil faction will produce.

Not saying there's no idiots in CoH. Just saying there are less of them.