Tongz

This is my humble suggestion:

Direct survivability (HP buff, defense buff, etc) does not seem to fit the personality of the Stalker class. Let's not make them into Scrappers, Tankers, or Blasters for that matter. My suggestion is to capitalize on the phrase "skill can divert clumsy raw power" in the class description. Suggestions:

--Placate should make you untargetable by up to 10 enemies within a certain radius. This gives you the opportunity to do all sorts of sneaky things (Another reliable AS, back out of the fight, wait for a heal, toss out a CC, etc.)

--Hide needs to be inherent. Give us a unique, secondary, stalker-ish power. Perhaps one that clears up to 3 movement impairing effects/CC's?

--Give us another option as an opener besides AS.

Agree with the OP.

Thugs, zombies, and demons aren't heroic.

Furry Mastery for MM's!

Okay, maybe I didn't clarify well enough. (Or maybe some folks don't know what "obsolete" entails...)

Obsolete, in this context, would indicate that one archetype is "numerically" inferior to the other, while possessing no strengths to compensate for this. Who has more IO's, more skill, more influence, or more pimples on their back is all irrelevant. The question at hand deals with basic, equal-ground gameplay.

Nobody's trying to make the point that Scrappers won't be fun anymore. Neither are they saying that they will cease to do great damage and have great survivability. The POINT is: There is no mechanical reason to play or recruit a Scrapper *instead of* a Brute. My Lamborghini might not make your Escort drive slower, but if they were both available at the same price, why choose the latter? It has become obsolete.

Sorry, but the "but Scrappers are totally the stabbiest coolest thing in CoH" argument just isn't relevant here.

I'm not so much doom-crying as just flat out wondering.

I mean, it *is* kind of a good question. Is a scrapper's base damage higher than a brute's, then? How do the AT's damage compare at different levels of brute fury? I myself don't have a brute, so I have no idea how common it is to stay at 90% fury.

I'm just thinking, as a TF leader, if they both did about the same amount of damage, why take the squishier scrapper? Because it has a sword?

Here it is, guys... the big question. Has it been asked before? Probably. Has it been answered in full? Not that I know of. So, it's still on the table.

What advantages does a scrapper have over a brute? Brutes have about the same amount of HP and do more damage. On top of that, if we're imagining, say, a brute vs. scrapper PVP match, the brute will be building rage the whole time... and eventually out DPS the scrap. In PVE, the damage differences are huge, and the brutes have arguably better defenses.

Once Going Rogue hits, will Scrappers be obsolete? Should I delete my level 24 elec/*? Which ARE cuter, kittens or puppies?!?

Wonderfully informational responses, guys. Thanks.

I'm not sure I'm up to this whole Warshade thing. I'm doing a bit of soul-searching... and I'm wondering if I'm not trying to force my shade to be a scrapper. The forms are ok, but definitely not as fun as all the cool stuff you get in human. AoE's. Yay. The ability not die. Yay. I'm just not sure it's for me. But that's my own problem, I guess.

Thanks again for the info. I'll keep ole No-Shadow around, but I don't know that I'll be "maining" him or pouring bazillions of inf into him...... at least, not yet.

Thanks for the detailed reply! I'm sure that information gets slung around these boards pretty regularly, but I was having trouble finding exactly what I needed. Your post about does it. I'm sitting on a lowly 20 million inf right now... just trying to marketeer my way up, but I don't play my 50 much (ice/ice blast), so it's slow going.

Haylo?

Hey all,

Forgive me if this has been asked before (I have looked around the guides (really)... did I miss it?). How much global recharge is needed to have Eclipse "up" for every fight?

There's a bigger question here, though. Folks around here say stuff like "OMG I love my WS! Eclipse is always up and I double mire for leet epicsauce and blow everything up!!" Here's my problem with that: I'm thinking it might require all set-IO's. Or at least, a lot of 'em.

Sure, Warshades are great when you purple them out. But... isn't EVERY archetype? I ask because I'm trying to decide which toon to raise up--a blaster, a scrapper, or my WS. I haven't hit 36 yet (I'm 35, actually), so I haven't felt the glory that is eclipse. However, is this all I'm going to be doing the rest of my warshade life? Eclipse > Mire > Nova? That's... boring.

What about the human form blasts? The human shields? Tank form? Inky Aspect? Unchain Essence/Quasar?

Insight is much appreciated!!

Hello all. My tri-form Warshade hit 35 last night, and I'm liking it so far. But today, I ran a mish in Cimerora at +0/3 and got whallopped. I must have died 7 or 8 times. Now I've got a few questions.

First, my general battleplan: Group the enemies together, Gravitic/Inky for disorient. Sunless Mire, Grav Well lieutenant. Start firing human blasts at minions. At this point, I'm usually taking damage. The enemies have either wandered out of Inky's range or Inky has missed a couple tics (I have 2 acc IO's in it...). Now I get to go lobsterform and slowwwwly kill the mob.

What am I doing wrong? Should I have the human form shields? 'cause I don't.

Second, my role on a team. To my great amusement, I'm finding that I can almost take on a different role every other mob. CC/single target damage (Inky, Gravitic, blasts), AoE nuker (Unchain, Quasar), and of course blaster and tanker with my shapeshift forms. Is this par for the course for a teamed Warshade? I enjoy it, but I'm not sure if I'm covering all the bases.

Finally, how exactly do you slot for global recharge? Is this mostly a frankenslotting thing? I have no idea what sets to collect or bonuses to go for. (I haven't played around with Mid's yet, so... give me a couple of days on that one). Any quick tips? (Some of those enhancements cost 20-30 million apiece. Good grief.)

Thanks very much, and sorry it was such a long read.

Hey all, thanks very much for the replies (especially the one that linked the non-broken guides!) I'm not sure if it's the abundance of trolls around here, but many of you seem a bit sensitive. I was trying to put forward my attitude of frustration (and, moreover, confusion), rather than the "gimme" attitude some of you accused me of. But... if you want to keep reading what I say through your own filter, that's fine.

It looks like there IS a middle ground between "I have no IO's because I don't have 50 hours a week to play" and "I want all my IO's for free." I didn't know that. I spent a few hours around here reading last night, and got the impression that having IO's sucked up a lot more time than many of you are portraying here. (Which I'm thankful for.) I'm not saying I want the "perfect" purpled-out build... just that it'd be nice to take advantage of set bonuses and do decent damage/control/whatever. (i.e. some global recharge on my warshade).

I'll give this a try. Maybe economics and math aren't my thing, but I seem to have a hard time grasping how some of these things could work. Can y'all help? (forgive me if some of these questions are stupid):

1) I've tried selling salvage. I have, on multiple occasions, scrolled through my full salvage list to try and find something that would sell for more than 1,000 inf. (I search it on WW and look at the history to find out if it's worth anything.) Is this the only way? Am I missing something? Should I be doing this on my 50?

2) My 50 is an ice/ice/cold blaster with SO's and a few Hamio's. (I got into WoW right before IO's came out, and have never got back into them full time). Obviously, she can AoE, but not survive lots of mobs at a time. Even though I don't like her as a toon, I don't mind playing her a bit to make some money.

3) How do I know what a "reasonable" patient bid should be?

Thanks again to all those who posted helpful tips.

I'm not trolling at all. I'm very frustrated about this. I understand the softcore:hardcore dichotomy, I really do. For the most part, I'm okay with it.

WoW is a good comparison here. I was never one of those guys who could spend hours a week raiding for the best gear. But you know what? I was always in high-level dungeon epics due to the badge system and some casual raiding. I didn't have the most 1337 ep!c enchants/gems, but I had the money and know-how to be decent.

I have no problem with CoX having a system that caters to "hardcore" gamers that have the time to spend crunching numbers and working spreadsheets. My beef is that, if I'm hearing these forums right, the difference between soft/hardcore builds is *substantial.* Game-changing, even. It's not just "my attacks do 10% more damage than yours because I slave over the auction house." No, it's "My global recharge is 15% less. I have a +60% global acc bonus. My endurance recovers 50% faster than yours." These are SERIOUS improvements that make a softcore gamer's blaster look impotent next to the competition.

IMHO, the softcore-ers should look at the hardcore people and go, "That's pretty cool, it must have taken a lot of work." As it is now, however, I feel like a kid looking through a window at something I'll never have.

I'm not saying time invested should not yield return to the hardcore players. My point is that ALL types of gamers, casual or hardcore, should be able to feel super-heroic while playing this game, without pouring half their life into it. This game is NOT hardcore. (How many 50's do YOU have?) It's sorta crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. That's why I like it, and why I came here fleeing from the min-maxers of WoW. Looks like I may have come to the wrong place.

Did no one else notice or care that every single link on the guides section of this forum is coming up "Page not found"? I don't wanna sound whiney, but... for real?

Since that's the case and I'm completely new to IO's and the market, does anybody know of any other (working) guides to making money? I'm thoroughly poor blueside (~3 mill total influ) and no moneybags on red (~20 mil). Again, not trying to sound whiney... but unless I'm completely wrong, the market system is takes a lot away from the game. Let me see if I've about got this pegged:

The whole feeling of "I just enhanced my character, now watch me go into battle and show off!" can only be achieved through hours of crunching numbers and "working" the auction house to get inf. Once you MAKE enough inf to IO your character you get to spend even more hours painstakingly deciding how to slot your IOs so as to maximize every single little set bonus you can find. You are allowed this privilege every few levels until 50, if you want maximum enhancement efficacy. Want to customize your powers so your Dominate is holds longer, but recharges more slowly than every other mind controller on the block? Too bad: All customization is squashed by the overpowering need for set bonuses.

Did I say "need"? Yes, I did. One could make the accusation that SO's are still in the game, or that generic IO's get the job done. If I'd give up on min/maxing, I could quit my nerdrage against IO's, right? Wrong. Ask any long-term MMO developer and they'll tell you straight: If you say "here's a way your numbers CAN be higher," the people hear "here's how your numbers SHOULD look." We're not talking 1 or 2 percent here, either: Maxing out set bonuses results in huge and noticeable increase in efficiency.

Buy low, sell high, work the market, make inf, assign slots perfectly, slot enhancements perfectly, maximize set bonuses, obtain super-expensive/rare enhancements like Miracle/Perf. Shift...

Good grief! I didn't spend this much time crunching numbers in WoW!! You could realize your full potential by raiding, getting the best gear, and enchanting/gemming it. If this is the world of making money and realizing your character's potential, I guess I'll be gimp the rest of my CoX career. This is just too much.

This may be a *really* stupid question, so brace yourselves. I never really caught onto the whole "IO" thing fully.

How do you "look for" set bonuses that give certain things? I mean, you can't just type in "+recharge" at the Consignment House and buy everything up. Are there certain sets that are well known to give +recharge? When does it not become expedient to go for a set bonus? (2 piece? 4 piece? 8 piece?) How does one go about doing this without completely ruining what they actually want to slot the POWER for? ("I want to slot this power for 2 acc, 2 dam, 1 rech, but if I sacrifice the 2 damage for these weird hybrid IO's I can get another 1.6% off my global recharge....")

P.S.: Is this going to cost a fortune? I don't have much influence. Around 3 mil currently.

This whole system is really confusing and frustrating. Seems to defeat the whole purpose of enhancing if all you're going for is set bonuses. Can someone explain plox?

I mean, he's not that interesting of a character anyway compared to Posi and Sis Psyche, and hey... he doesn't even work here anymore.

Two very different responses. Guess I'll have to try it out and see what happens. As a side note, it *has* always bothered me that being a kheldian means sacrificing 2/3 of your in-game individuality. Oof.

P.S.: It's a Philosophy of Religion course, and I'm reading Draper, Rowe, and Locke. Very good stuff, actually. It just takes a lifetime to read and extract.

Hello all, please forgive me for the broadness of this topic. I am new here, and am *still in the process of reading guides/stickies* and etc. (120 pages of Philosophy homework, or CoX? Easy choice.

I'll get right to the point. I've had kheldians unlocked since whatever issue they came out in, but never payed them any attention due to all the negative reviews I heard. Their powers cost too much endurance, did too little damage, and slotting was very restrictive, often forcing a "2-form" build. There is also a long list of "bad things" stickied up there...

I'm really interested in trying something unique and challenging. (I have a 50 ice/ice blaster and a 50 claws/ninjitsu stalker. While I like 1-shotting minions, I think it's time I branched out.) I'm especially enamored with the Warshade. My questions are simple:

1. Do kheldians perform their function(s)?
2. Are kheldians unique and interesting in their role, or are they simply a scrapper and a blaster smushed together?
3. What's the playstyle like? (Are you sitting in squid form on teams facerolling 4 buttons, or are you changing forms and using all your abilities?)

Thanks very much in advance for your support. *Back to reading*