The_Storm

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March Madness in.... May?

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In the SPIRIT OF March Madness... sheesh!

What can I tell you. We got inspired watching the tournament, and decided we wanted to do something similar.

-Dave
CCG guy

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But I'd also be lying if it doesnt worry me about the thinning of staff for CoX The game got twice as big and the staff is getting smaller. So either they're running things alot more efficient, or it's a bad omen.

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Or they've added a bunch of new people who maybe aren't on the boards. Let's remember that there are a whole LOT of people who work at both Cryptic and NCSoft who *never* post on these boards. The vast majority in fact. Having a couple public faces switch to different teams doesn't mean that the CoH/V teams are understaffed.

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Just how well do those 'self-made' cards of your own heroes that you can print off stack up against the existing 'face' heroes?

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Fairly well.

Compared to the named heroes, the generated heroes have 2 advantages:

1. Flexibility - you can choose any combination of powersets you want and any starting powers in those sets.
2. Speed - The generated heroes have an extra starting power - this makes them both faster out of the gate and faster to get to the highest level powers in their primary powerset.

What they don't have are signature powers - and those are universally quite strong. All in all, I'd say that the generated heroes are just a *touch* behind the named heroes, but not very much.

-Dave

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Here's a question...
What are the largest team battles you have tried?
I'm trying a 2-on-2 this Friday (assuming we all show up), but I'm wondering if larger team play is viable/fun.

(Yeah, I guess I could ask this on the AEG boards, but I don't get to check them as often as these )

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We've played up to 5v5 here in the office - it's great fun, but runs into 2 problems:

1. Early eliminated players get bored.
2. It's too easy for one team to gang up and wipe out a player before their first or second turn and they get going. The next time we do one this size, we're going to try out a targeting restriction of some kind (only the player across from you and the 2 on either side of him) to force the attacks to spread out a bit. The more I think about it, I like the idea of using that rule and then being able to use the move action to switch your position in the table instead of your combat tactic.

hehe.

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Seriously though, I want to try it, but first want to know what the Travel Powers do. I've been looking everywhere, to find no information?

Does it affect tactic?

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As Pohsyb said, they don't give an inherent ability or effect. They let you use certain edge cards (for example "Defensive Teleport" can only be used by a hero with the Teleport travel power) which are really quite strong. Tactically, they make heroes using each travel power play fairly differently - you have to expect for a superjumper to jump out of the way of your bigger attacks, and most fliers are going to swoop in for a heavily damaging "Out of the Sun" at some point during the game.

-Dave
The CoH CCG Designer

Guys,

The thing about the demo decks is that they went to press MONTHS before the base set. There was more than a little bit of rushing to get things ready for press, so a chunk of art from the comic (already made, didn't need to wait for artists) was used. Also, original art that normally would have been sent back for retouching or improvements had to be accepted simply due to time constraints so that the deck would be available to Gencon.

-Dave

No, don't bother slotting rest. The enhancements you have now aren't going to speed it up very much, and later on you'll have Hasten and AM doing it better than a slot or two would. Rad is a very tight build and you'll need those slots elsewhere far more.

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What would you say about skipping both Gloom and Moonbeam in favor of more defensive powers early?

Following part of a build I found in another post, I am only going to take Dark Blast until 16 when I get Tenebrous Tentacles. I will take Night Fall at either 22 or 28, but I haven't decided yet.

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If you're planning to group a lot, You can easily keep yourself busy with buffs, debuffs and heals such that you don't really need many attacks, and you'll be fine with just DBlast. If you plan to solo, however, it's a LONG slow road with just DBlast and Brawl - Grab gloom (IMO better for soloing than moonbeam, but there's a 50/50 split on these boards) as a strong second attack. You can always respec it out later.

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For those who took Moonbeam instead of Gloom, how is the recharge? I'm level 6 with Moonbeam. After the first big shot, I'm left plinking away with Dark Blast until MB recharges. I'm wondering if I'd do faster damage with Gloom. Also, would both Gloom and Moonbeam be overkill?

I played a Rad/Rad defender up to about 8 or so. He rocked in solo. I had trouble in groups, though, due to all of the chaos. It sucked to have people scatter or kill my anchors. I felt like I really wasn't contributing very much to the group. Do you have any suggestions for group play with this build? I'm sure I'll feel more useful once I get TT, but that's not until 16.

Oh, and for those that pick up AM early, when should you start slotting it? Which is a higher priority - AM or your blasts? Same question for when you get Haste.

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1. The recharge is only so-so. I picked up gloom later on in my build and I'll probably drop moonbeam on respec. It's useful and as a rad defender I can use it point blank... but it's just kinda... inefficient. Nice pulling power, but with Superspeed I can use regular attacks to pull with. I hardly ever use moonbeam these days (level 25).

2. Teach them about anchors, then stop fretting. If they kill 'em, they kill 'em. If you've got AM/Hasten then they'll be back up quickly and you can recast. Fire EF first because it casts quickly. That's also a good time to check everyone's health to see if a heal would be useful.

3. I slotted it pretty quick. It's SUCH a great power that I 6 slotted for recharge until 22 when I could put SOs in and turn 2 recharges into endurance recovery.

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This is what I have. Using the updated template, changed on some of my preferences or more immediate needs. Level 12 currently.

Radiation Infection
Dark Blast
Accelerate Metabolism
Moonbeam
Mutation (didnt take EF, group a lot)
Radiant Aura
Hover ("defense bonus" - yeah, right)
Hasten (couldn't wait and need recharge bad)

At 14 I will take Fly and if its slow might take Superspeed after. Finding my xp intake is not as good as it could be without fast travel when looking for targets or going to missions with nothing but sprint/AM to get around. Also considering Choking Cloud instead of some of the other debuffs since it is AOE and the target debuffs get old fast.

Suggestions?

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A couple:

1. I wouldn't bother with 2 travel powers before 20. You *really* should be looking to get stamina as soon as you can fit it into your build. Since it's 3 powers and you're already 12 (travel at 14) that means you'll be doing the stamina grind next (16,18,20) or else picking up one power and pushing stamina back to 22.

2. If there's a power to take at 16 that isn't getting you ready for stamina, I'd say it should be EF (which I personally think is MORE effective for group play than solo, because of the end useage). It really is that good, even though it chews through your endurance.

3. After stamina, you're best powers are probably: Lingering Radiation, Tenebrous Tentacles, Gloom.

4. Hover and hasten only provide a 5% def bonus each. The real defense bonus on hover is to hang out above the badguys out of melee range which prevents the badguys' biggest attacks.

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great guide, but would any of you suggest either Gloom or Moonbeam for better sustainable damage power for the END cost when soloing with the Debuff / Tentacles method?

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Gloom is probably better for that method. It's damage to endurance ratio is a bit better and can't be interrupted like moonbeam (rare with RI up, but it does happen). If you never really plan to pull with Moonbeam, you probably shouldn't bother with it.