TopDoc

With 6 slotted HOs, you get +300% MEZ duration. Power Build Up and Vanguard give you +100% each.

Mez Duration = Base duration * (1 + Enhancements)
Mez Duration = 45 seconds * (1+3+1+1)
Mez Duration = 270 seconds (4 and a half minutes)

Seems pretty close to what you saw.

I've included Hover and Fly measurements from my tests below, from a level 50 character using level 50 SOs and HOs. Values are in feet/second. Multiply by 1.4667 to get MPH. These are my highly accurate measurements from demo files. From this, I've determined that Flight powers have a Base Speed that IS NOT affected by Enhancements, and an Enhancement Speed that IS affected by Enhancements. Even level SOs add +33.3% to the Enhancement Speed, while HOs add +30.0%.

Unenhanced Speed = Base Speed + Enhancement Speed
Enhanced Speed = Base Speed + (Enhancement Speed * (1 + Enhancements))

Hover has a Base Speed of -16.8 f/s, and a 21.00 f/s Enhancement Speed. (Note that 21.00 f/s is the base run speed.) Fly has a Base Speed of 21.00 f/s, and a 28.67 f/s enhancement base. These computed speeds match the measured values below to within 0.04%.

Again these speeds are for level 50. Flight supposedly increases in speed, and I have yet to determine the formula for that.

Hover with 0 SO: 4.2
Hover with 1 SO: 11.19
Hover with 2 SO: 18.19
Hover with 3 SO: 25.18
Hover with 4 SO: 32.18
Hover with 5 SO: 39.17
Hover with 6 SO: 46.17
Hover with 1 HO 5 SO: 45.46
Fly with 0 SO: 49.66
Fly with 1 SO: 59.20
Fly with 2 SO: 68.76
Fly with 3 SO: 78.31
Fly with 4+ SO: 86.00
Fly with 1 HO: 58.27

Great work. You beat me to it. :-( But I'm still gonna post my Movement Guide in a week or two. :-) I'm on vacation now and don't have all my data with me, or the ability to easily gather more to finish it. But hopefully I will next week.

I found a MUCH easier and accurate way to determine speeds. I go to PI and use a nice stretch of open water like you, but I record it to a demo file. Then I use a simple script to read through the demo and determine my speed. Demo files have timestamps to the millisecond and positions in X/Y/Z coordinates to the fraction of a foot.

I found that Hurdle is a GREAT movement power at low levels. However I found that a level 50 character with 5 SOs goes faster than with 6! I was working on jumping before I went on vacation, and didn't have time to look into this.

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Shoot!: How effective is Hover with 3 Microfilament Exposures? How fast? Numbers please!

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See what Blue_One said above. HOs only provide a 30% bonus, hopefully that's a bug that's going to be fixed. That said, here are a few numbers...

Base running speed is 21 feet/second. Sprint is a 50% boost, so you go 31.5 feet/second. Fly at level 50 has a base speed of 49.66 feet/second, while Super Speed is 94.53 feet/second. These numbers are all unenhanced and for comparison.

Base Hover is 4.2 feet/second, but Enhancements to Hover use the 21 feet/second as the basis. That means each SO increases the speed of Hover by 7 feet/second. With 3 SOs, you go 25.18 feet/second. With 3 HOs, that would be 23.1 feet/second.

That enough numbers for you? I'm on vacation now, but I expect to finish my Movement Guide next week with all of these numbers and more.

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1. Distance is important, but breaking line of sight is even better.

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I find jump pulling to be the most effective. You find a convenient crate to hide behind. Target an enemy, hit the attack (which won't go off yet), then jump. The attack will go off once you land, safely out of site. If there isn't something to jump over, you can also jump around a corner. This is harder, since you have to move, jump, and hit the attack. It takes some coordination and timing, but it's not too bad. It goes off again after you land behind the corner out of sight. But if done right (and out of perception range), there is no way for a mob to attack you after you attack unless they come after you.

As someone else said, you don't want to defeat the mob you pull. Defeated mobs send out a death cry that agros nearby friends. I've seen a pulling guide that describes this as being a larger radius than the "hey I'm being attacked" cry that pulled mobs normally send out.

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Microfilament - 50% Travel + 50% END --- Fly, Super Speed

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This is wrong. The Travel Enhancement part of this slightly less than an SO, so I'm guessing 30%. I finally found a very accurate way to determine movement speeds (by parsing demo files). In testing various movement powers with SOs and HOs, I found that replacing a SO with an HO made me move slower. I didn't do the math yet (and I'm at work without my data), but I'll try to do it tonight.

I expect this is a bug, as HOs are supposed to be 50% better than SOs. Travel Enhancement SOs are 33%, so HOs should provide 50%.

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For Membrane and Cytoskeleton, it says “50% ToHit”. How is this different from just saying “50% ACC” like it says earlier in the table? If it is not different, then it should be consistent, I would think, so the thick-headed ones like me find it easier to grasp.

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There is a difference between Accuracy and ToHit. Accuracy goes in attack powers, like melee and ranged attacks. ToHit buffs go in things that increase your chance to hit with any power, like Aim, Build-Up, and Targeting Drone. ToHit debuffs go in powers that decrease an enemy's chance to hit with all attacks, like Radiation Infection.

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There's one thing that I'm still a bit confused about though: the ToHit Debuff and Def Debuff from the Lysosome and the Enzyme are both shown as a 30% buff, but I was under the empression that SOs of these types gave a 33% buff. So wouldn't they give a 50% buff in Hami-O form?

AFAIK, the only SO enhancements that give 20% are Def, Res, Range, and Cone Range. Is this incorrect?

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I believe it's incorrect. When SOs were being balanced long ago, maybe in Beta, the Devs realized that 33% on range and defense oriented things was just too much. I know that they reduced Range and Damage Resistance because I can see those numbers easily. I believe they also reduced Cone Range, Defense Buffs, and Defense Debuffs. They left Accuracy alone, and I don't remember whether or not they adjusted ToHit Buffs and Debuffs.

Unfortunately it's moderately hard to test these things. But at least it's possible now with the Arena.

As far as I know there are five areas where powers overlap. It isn't just a question of Primary and Secondary powers.

There are two Primary Blaster powersets that are also Defender Secondary powersets, Energy Blast and Electrical Blast. For Damage, it's well known that Defenders do less damage (a fixed percent I think) less than Blasters. All of the Defender Primaries excluding Dark Miasma are also Controller Secondaries. The Brawl Index lists 4 attacks in all of those powersets, though apparently Ian missed at least the EM Pulse damage against robots. I can compare EM Pulse damage against robots, and even Fallout on the test server if I can find a willing dead body. But I'm not sure it will be very useful. It will just tell us how Defenders and Controllers compare, and I can see it going either way.

Power Pools can be taken by any characters, and the Devs have often said that different ATs will gain different benefits from them. I expect Scrappers and Blasters to do more damage than anyone else with Boxing for example. However Defenders grant the biggest buffs from Leadership, Controllers second, and everyone else third. Epic power pools are a somewhat new area that gives us more things to test. How does the Blaster EPP Dominate compare to the Mind Controller Primary?

And finally, temporary powers. How long will the Clockwork Immobilizer Mk IV hold the Clockwork King when wielded by a Blaster, Defender or Controller? I bet you'll see different numbers. And you may be surprised. If the duration on Tesla Cage in Verxion's Hero Planner is correct, it looks like a Blaster may hold longer than a Defender or even Controller. Blasters and maybe Scrappers will probably do the most damage with the Nemesis Staff.

From my understanding of the game, every power has a certain set of stats that define it, and every AT has a certain set of modifiers for some of those stats. The Brawl Index recognizes this, and lists the base damage for powers. Note that the Blaster and Defender Energy and Electrical Blast attacks all have the same Brawl Indexes, as do the Defender Primary and Controller Secondary powers that do damage. That's because they're the same powers. But they do different amounts of damage when used by different ATs because those ATs do different amounts of damage with Brawl. That's due to the different Melee Damage modifier for different ATs.

What does all of this have to do with Hami Enhancements? Um... Nothing really. So just ignore it, and stay on topic!

Defenders buff, Controllers control. According to Verxion's Hero Planner, Controller's EM Pulse lasts 56 seconds, while Defender's last 45. I'm sure about the first number, and I've heard the second number from someone in my SG (Buffer Overrun, all Rads). It would be interesting to compare actual damage numbers (against robots) to see how Defenders and Controllers compare.

On the other hand, my mostly HO slotted Radiant Aura (AoE Heal) does 457, but I would expect a Defender to heal for around 571 if slotted the same.

In general, I believe powers have certain stats, and AT modifies those stats. Electric/* Blasters do more damage than */Electric Defenders because Blasters as an AT do more damage that Defenders. But I expect Defenders drain more END because as an AT they buff & debuff more than Blasters.

As an Illusion/Rad Controller, my EM Pulse lasts 55 seconds base. I'm gonna put one HO in there with ACC no matter what, just to make sure I'm at 95% chance to hit almost any mob, and it might as well be an Acc/Mez. But 6??? That's 220 seconds if you're a Controller, or 180 for a Defender. If it takes you that long to defeat mobs, you might want to consider adding some slots to your Brawl. Or better yet, take an attack power! :-)

The Ishin Ryu / Artphobia site no longer has anything CoH related on it. All of the content has been moved to another site which is under new management:

http://www.cityofheroesonline.com/

In early December of 2004 I sat down and figured out that an all-Rad Defender team was amazingly powerful. I posted a thread on it, and recruited enough people to form an all-Rad Supergroup. Any Rad Defender or Controller was welcome, though it was mostly Defenders. The intent was to form big teams, stack buffs and debuffs, and play. Playing regularly, we got to the 30s in one month. But my original concept was slightly flawed. With only status resistance and no status protection, and the higher damage alpha strikes in the late game, we were having a lot of problems.

To survive, we turned to pets. Several of us made up Rad Controllers, mostly Illusion but a few others as well. They went up fast, and soon Phantom Army was doing all the tanking we needed. It would take the alpha strike and grab enough agro that we could debuff and AoE group after group after group. We hit the Hydra trial to advance fast right around 40, but otherwise we just did mission after mission. With under 240 hours of total play time over 2 months (about 4 hours a night), I now have a level 50 Illusion/Radiation Controller. The SG has about 10 characters at level 50. Now we've started farming Hami and playing alts.

So here is the official all-Rad Superteam...

5 Radiation/* Defenders
3 Illusion/Radiation Controllers

That's all there is to it, really.

I recommend mostly Radiation/Radiation Defenders because they get 2 AoE attacks early on. But feel free to mix it up. For example, I'd recommend at least one Rad/Dark Defender because they get a cone Immobilize, which helps keep the bad guys together for debuffs.

At lower levels you can get by with most any combination, but you still need at least 6 or so people. The key is perma-Accelerate Metabolism. With 8 people, that gives you +200% Damage, +240% Recharge Reduction, lots of run speed, lots of END Recovery, and lots of status resistance. You play the game at high speed, running fast without any travel power, unlimited Endurance, and a massive damage bonus. You can get this at level 2 with all Defenders! At low levels that +200% Damage lets you just roll over mobs. You need to 6-slot AM with Recharge Reduction, and you'll likely have a little downtime in the early levels if you don't have 8 people.

You usually open combat with Radiation Infection (RI), available to the Defenders at level 1. At 4 the Rad/Rad Defenders get Irradiate, an AoE attack. At 6 they get Enervating Field (EF) which is amazing stacked, while the Controllers get Flash (AoE Hold). Everyone in the team can get Radiant Aura, an AoE Heal, but you should have a few people who get it and 6 slot it. They often put it on auto-cast.

I highly recommend everyone take Assault and Tactics. Most everyone took Hasten as well, mainly for when we couldn't put big teams together, and I'll officially recommend it. I recommend a couple people take Teleport and Recall Friend, to help move around SKs. The Illusion Controllers should definitely take Group Invis.

We did this and the teens passed pretty quickly. Without Controllers, we had to rely on Grant Invis. Doom Virus made some videos of us doing TFs. We put down AVs and Monsters (Babbage) in under 20 seconds.

For the rest of the game, just do what we did. In the 20s people took Stamina, again for when the teams were small. Phantom Army (PA) would start every battle, quickly followed by a couple Radiation Infections (RI), several Enervating Fields (EF), and lots of AoEs. Attacks with only a couple of Damage SOs were hitting the damage cap.

In the 30s the big pets came out. With 8xAM, a Controller could get out lots of Phantasms, and they did a LOT of damage. After all, they get the AM bonus too. Add in an average of 5 each Assaults, Maneuvers, and Tactics. Pure carnage.

The late 30s and early 40s passed very quickly due to the Sewer Trial and massive Kraken XP. We knew how to take monsters down REAL fast. Then on to the end game AVs and lots of portal corp missions. Once we started hitting 45 it was Hami time. With lots of Controllers with pets (including one Fire/Rad with Imps), we got huge XP from defeating the many buds formed when Hami was defeated. (That no longer works due to the changes that went live today.) Level 50 came all too soon.

You can do it too. All you need to do is find a group of people who want to play regularly, and are willing to try something new. Make up your own team, visit my SG site (in my sig), or give me a /tell @TopDoc.

Have everyone in the team get the mission. After the first time through, the important people will have particle cannons. You don't need to get them for the next several runs. That will let you shave off about 1.5 minutes from your time.

But let me ask a question. Why bother finishing it in 10 minutes? If you can do that, then you have a good team with decent builds. Therefore you don't really NEED the special Enhancements you get for finishing the mission. In fact your Enhancements will be white or yellow when you hit level 41, and can't get the mission yourself anymore. If you keep doing your teammate's sewer missions till 42, the Enhancements are only slightly better than SOs. Given the massive XP you get from doing this trial repeatedly, the Enhancements are quickly useless.

If you take some time to smell the roses and defeat the other 5 Krakens, you'll get more than 3 times the XP in about twice the time (based on your numbers). If you take into account the time it takes to get the mission again from the contact in FF (even doing it 4 at a time), your method looks a bit worse. If you have a team of 8 that can all get the mission, so you only need to leave the sewers once every 8 runs, your method looks even worse. Take into account that 8 people can defeat Krakens MUCH faster and more safely than 4. Last night I was on a team of 7 that was doing the trial in 15 minutes and defeating 5 Krakens. That included getting guns for everyone because we only did it twice (had other things to do). Granted the XP is divided by more people for defeating the Krakens, the team XP bonus is higher for the bigger team. And the mission completion bonus doesn't change.

So let me present...

How to maximize your XP and time in the Sewers

1) Get a decent team of 8 that can beat the Sewer trial.
2) Have everyone get the mission from the contact in FF.
3) Defeat the 150 Rikti in the sewers, this counts for everyone.
4) Back to FF to get the actual Hydra mission.
5) Head to the Sewers, do the mission 8 times.
6) Go back to Step 4 as often as you want.

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Excellent post I can confirm that the final mission reward does not scale up which is disappointing. Watch being Invincible when your nearing the end of a story arc Invincible AV are more than a little challenging.

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Yes and no. It does not scale up for the mission holder, but it does scale up for others. I believe this is a known bug. A level 32 char gets about 4k XP for completing a mission. They get 4k Debt Removal if exemplared down to level 1 to do a Heroic mission. But they get about 7k if exemplared down to do a level 1 mission on maximum difficulty. The XP reward jumps at difficulty 3 and 5, which corresponds to full level jumps in the mobs. I tested this exemplaring and with chars near my own doing my missions. When doing my missions, I always got the same XP, but my teammates got more XP at Difficulty3 (Rugged) and again at 5 (Invincible).

I didn't notice any entries for temp powers. This number might be interesting. I got it from my Defender. The number isn't exact as the damage doesn't show up in the combat window. I had to use the numbers floating over the heads to figure it out.

Nemesis Staff 12.81 Smashing

Time for the 1 month update. Well, actually a bit over 1 month. I created the SG on Dec 3 I think (35 days ago), rerolled Buffer Master as Rad/Rad 34 days ago, and I hit level 32 last night. (That 5 day vacation really put a dent in my levelling speed.) We had a few high level characters join, but most everyone else that plays regularly has leveled up from 1 to the mid 30s in the past 35 days.

The SG has a web site here. We're actually 2 SGs, with the original Buffer Overrun at nearly 75 people and Buffer Overrun 21 at ... 40 or so I think. We're still accepting level 1 characters, and I'll invite anyone in either SG to team with me. We're eagerly awaiting Global Chat, so we can communicate a little easier. We have 1 or 2 teams of mostly BO 21 running every night. I'm not sure how many people play in the original BO, but I hear it can be a bit slow. Lots of people joined but don't play much. But maybe that'll pick up again now that the new year is underway. Or maybe the lower level characters can recruit like I did early on to get enough people to play with regularly.

With EM Pulse at 32 things have gotten a bit easier. Send in the pets to grab agro, send in a couple EM Pulses, AoE, finish the bosses. We'll see how things go till 40.

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You were talking about how to deal with the alpha strike- I would suggest picking up a token fire tank. ... When built correctly, a fire tank could easily take the alpha from most any scenario.

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The damage output of a tank wouldn't be very important. Believe me, we do enough damage. I'd be inclined to go with the most resistant tank out there.

But I'd prefer to "keep it in the family" and find a Rad-only solution. And it seems like Pets are it. We have a surprising number of Ill/Rad Controllers (probably due to the earlier posts in this thread). They get PA at 18, and they get it often due to the Recharge Reduction of AM. Drag your PA through a group, or cast it in the middle. Let it fight for a bit to grab plenty of agro. Then debuff and wade in with the AoEs.

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... Great concept and very cool videos, but a bit of overkill... You won't have time to put on all the nifty Rad auras, cuz things die too fast.

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Yep. The whole point is overkill. And EF is the only all-game all-the-time aura.

I originally recommended skipping Lingering Radiation, and I stand by that. If AVs and Monsters fall in 20 seconds, nothing lives long enough to worry about how many attacks they get. It's kind of useful as a Slow to keep mobs together, but */Rad controllers usually do that better with AoE Immobs, and EM Pulse at 32 is a Hold. Maybe 1 or 2 people in a team could take it, but then respec it out after 32.

I'm recommending Leadership at the higher levels. Maneuvers and Tactics replace RI, though you may still want RI when going up against very purple mobs. (Plus Assault on everyone lets you get +300% damage in an 8 person team without slotting attacks.)

Someone in the SG complained that they were levelling too fast to sell Enhancements for Inf, to keep their slotted Enhancements up to date. I replied that if you're still levelling fast, you don't really need those Enhancements. The same applies to Auras. Many people open combat with EF, some with RI. If most mobs go down in the AoE alpha strike, no need to cast those auras again.

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On a tangential point, at the high end, I think you get more versatility and synergy swapping out a Rad or two for a Kin & maybe a FF (which would dilute your concept, so prolly not worth it, rp-wise).

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A big mob AoE alpha strike is dangerous, but a */Rad Controller with pets can have the pets take that. Otherwise, RI (if needed) combined with Maneuvers and Invis make you mostly unhittable. And EF makes the mob attacks hurt less when they hit. You don't need an FF when you don't worry much about getting hit and hurt. And an FF can't make up for all of the other Rad buffs and debuffs. FF is a VERY narrow power set (one trick pony, Defense Only) with absolutely no synergy.

Kinetics have some nice buffs comparable to Rads. But you usually have to be higher level to get them. And Transfusion (Heal) and Transferrence (+END) require a target mob to work. Similarly, Siphon Power requires a target to give your teammates +DAM, and is only a single target DAM debuff. And you have to cast Speed Boost and Increase Density on one teammate at a time. And you can't easily tell when you need to recast them. And by the time you get Fulcrum Shift, it isn't needed unless you're in a small team. (In decent sized all-Rad teams, you're at the damage cap from AM and some combination of Assault and minimal slotting.) And you cannot debuff mob resistance to really boost Damage/Second. And you don't get EM Pulse (AoE Hold). Taken all together, Kinetics is a high maintenance very poor man's Rad with less versatility and less synergy.

FFs and Kinetics are great in big teams without lots of other Defenders. But an all-Rad team usually becomes weaker if they swap out a Rad for any other AT or Power Set. The only exception to this that I've seen is a big pet-less level 20+ team facing AoE heavy mobs, and they just need a Tanker for the initial AoE.

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Having said that, I'd love to join your SG if I were on Freedom, which, unfortunately, I'm not. Sounds like serious fun.

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There are a lot of people who started new characters on Freedom just for this SG. I've been promoting level 16+ characters into Buffer Overrun 21 in order to make more room in the original Buffer Overrun. (And it doesn't take long to get to 16.) As of last night there were nearly 40 people in BO 21 and close to 75 in BO. And the SG isn't even a month old.

Here some more info on contacts...

CONTACT TYPES...

There are several different types of contacts. The Tutorial contacts only exist while you're doing the Tutorial, and they disappear forever after that. The first contact you get in Atlas Park or Galaxy City is an Origin Contact. Most of the contacts you meet are Origin Contacts. At higher levels there are Extra Contacts (Steven Sheridan and 1 other maybe?). There are temporary Store Contacts at levels 30 & 40. There are Costume Contacts. There are TF & Trial Contacts. Finally, there are Update Contacts in the Hollows and Shadow Shard.

Origin and Extra Contacts will not have anything to do with you unless they are properly introduced (see below). All other contacts will talk politely to you and offer missions (if you're at the right level) without an introduction.

MISSIONS...

All Origin Contacts of the same level and Origin have the exact same pool of missions they will offer. Some missions are in 2 pools, and can be offered by 2 different Origins (you see this a lot at level 30+). The pools gets bigger as you level up. Early on it is easy to outlevel your contacts before draining the pools. Later on the situation is reversed. Extra Contacts (Steven Sheridan) have a pool and look very similar to Origin Contacts in the way they offer missions.

There is one Store Contact for each Origin type. They will offer you a mission at level 30+. Once you do the mission, they will let you buy SOs. Store Contacts do not show up on your contact list. (What about during their mission?)

Costume Contacts include the City Representative and 1 person in each Icon store. At certain levels, they will offer you a costume related mission (extra costume slot, cape, or aura). They do not show up in your contact list. (What about during their mission?)

TF Contacts (Positron, Synapse, Sister Psyche, ...) offer you a small pool of missions in a mostly fixed order. You have to form a TF to do this, and the TF Contact becomes your ONLY contact while on a TF. After that they disappear from your contact list.

Trial Contacts (Sewer one is the only one I know) offer you a small set of fixed order missions. I assume they come and go similar to TF Contacts, but you don't have to form a TF to do them.

Update Contacts are new contacts added with the updates. Once you talk to them, they get added to your contact list, and will give you missions from a pool similar to Origin Contacts.

INTRODUCTIONS (Origin and Extra Contacts)...

You start the game (after the Tutorial if you did it) with 1 Origin Contact in your starting city zone. With 5 origins and 2 zones that makes 10 different first contacts. This is a level 0 Origin Contact.

You can only have 1 level 0 Origin Contact. You can have 5 of every tier above that to 40. An Origin Contact of level X will introduce you to another Origin or Extra Contact at level X ONCE after you do 1 mission for them if there are any left. An Origin Contact of level X will introduce you to a corresponding level X+5 Origin Contact when you reach level X+5 if you've done at least one mission for them, or when you reach level X+4 if you're a Confidant.

Assuming you do lots of missions, this goes as follows. If you're a Magic character in Atlas Park, you get Azuria as your level 0 Origin Contact. At level 4 she introduces you to a level 5 Magic Origin Contact. At level 5 after 1 mission, that new Magic Origin Contact intriduces you to a non-Magic level 5 Origin Contact (say Mutant). I haven't ever checked to see if this follows any sort of pattern. After one mission for the Mutant Origin Contact, they introduce you to another, say Tech. After a Tech mission, you meet the Sci Contact. After a Sci mission, you meet the Natural Contact. You have met every level 5 Origin Contact you will ever meet. At level 9, assuming they are all at the Confidant level, they will all introduce you to one of the level 10 Origin Contacts corresponding to their origin. This procedure repeats for many levels.

At level 35 you have 5 Origin Contacts. After you do a mission for one, they introduce you to Extra Contact Steven Sheridan. At level 39 with 6 Confidants, your 5 Origin Contacts will introduce you to a level 40 Origin Contact, but Steven Sheridan will not.

What happens if you don't do missions? The same thing applies. I believe your first Origin Contact will always offer to introduce you to your Level 5 Origin Contact after you hit level 5. The Level 5 Origin Contact will introduce you to the Level 10 one, and they will pass you up the line. Eventually you will hit a contact that will offer you missions. Once you do a mission for that contact, you will be introduced to another Origin Contact at that level, and you can repeat the process to get a full set.

What happens if you never do a mission for your Level 5 Origin Contact? I don't think you will ever be introduced to any other Level 5 Origin contacts. The same applies at higher levels. That means you may not be able to ever do certain badge missions or story arcs, as you don't have a contact of the right origin to give you the mission.

INTRODUCTIONS (Update Contacts)...

Update Contacts will introduce you to other Update Contacts along a certain chain similar to Tutorial Contacts. For example, Sgt. David Wincott will introduce you to Flux, who introduces you to Julius the Troll, who introduces you to Talshak the Mystic. There are certain level restrictions too, similar to Origin Contacts.

There's a contact list HERE.

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Step 6) Click on "Ask about this contact". Then click on "Talk about what else is going on." See if they now have text you can click on, or if they still insist that they can't help you.

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I haven't tried this, but I will tonight. I wanted to do a 20-25 arc, and hadn't done any of the earlier arcs. I visited several contacts, and none offered till I got to the Vahz Pollutant (level 10-15). After I finished that I got the Clockwork prisoner (also 10-15), followed by Bonefire (also 10-15). It looks to me like they offer arcs lowest to highest. But given your advice above, maybe they just cycle, and you can increment the cycle by staying at a contact and asking again.

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Step 4) Physically go to that contact (calling them will NOT work!).

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Correct, but I noticed this interesting trick. All contacts have a unique DONE message that they give you when you have either outleveled them or completed all of their missions. Something like "My plate is clean, try another contact." They also have 2 or 3 AVAILABLE messages which indicate they have an available mission. Something like "I could really use your help on something." I was trying to do some old arcs, and I found that one contact that gave me an AVAILABLE message but no missions. When I physically visited that contact, they offered the story arc. All of the others I called while experimenting gave me the usual DONE message.

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Also, I have had old contacts that hadn't even given me their phone number yet still give me a story arc with this method, so the rumor that they have to be maxxed out to give you a missed story arc is not true AFAIK.

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I heard that you have to do at least one mission for some (which?) contacts to "open" them up. You'll see this when you visit them for the first time and they only offer you 1 mission, rather than the usual Hunt + Door pair. (UNCONFIRMED) If you get a contact but don't "open" them before you outlevel them, they won't ever offer a story arc. Unfortunately, I don't know which contacts this applies to, so I can't be sure.

We had mixed results with the Respec trial with 3 tries over the last two nights. In all cases we just did the required parts. We skipped over all of the mobs in the door mission to get to the boss at the end. In the first big reactor room we just defeated the mobs necessary to get the key, and we skipped most of the mobs in the long corridor (except when Invis wore off unexpectedly). After the first wipe in the core, we just went back to the reactor to try again.

The first night we failed twice. There were 6 of us, mostly 25 or exem'd, but one 26 I think. Between RI, Maneuvers, and Invis, we weren't being hit much. There were a few defeats at various points, usually due to AoEs from Sky Skiffs and/or explosions from defeated Sky Skiffs and Jump Bots. But at or near the last wave in the reactor core, we had a whole team wipe. Twice.

You'd think we'd learn after the first time, but we didn't. Usually the Sky Skiffs and Jump Bots would stay at range and attack, while the masses would charge right up to the reactor. We would charge right up to the reactor too in order to AoE the masses with Irradiate and maybe Electron Haze. Then a couple of Sky Skiffs would sync up their AoEs and drop several of us. Maybe the explosion from defeated Jump Bots hidden in the masses helped; the screen was just too busy to know when it was safe to rush in and cast Irradiate.

Last night we had a team of 8. Most everyone had gone up a level, so we had 25s and 26s with one Exemplar. Out of that, 3 were Ill/Rads. Doom and I kept telling the team to go after the Sky Skiffs first, and we did. Some Phantom Armies kept the masses at the reactor core busy, while some kept the Sky Skiffs busy. There were a few defeats, but nothing like the wipes from the night before.

There is one important lesson we all learned. Now if only we remember it.

AoE attacks against you are bad. Defense doesn't appear to do anything. Debuff and defeat anything throwing AoE attacks at you before worrying about anything else.

The Buffer Overrun SG now has a web site! It isn't much yet. In fact, we don't even have all of the links to Doom Virus' videos or much of anything else. But I'm telling people about it so they can start registering. A lot of people have joined the SG by reading about it here, so it seemed appropriate to announce it here.

I want to keep it mostly public, so people don't have to register if they don't want. We'll be posting events (TFs and such), strategies, builds, news, and whatever else is appropriate. Again, there's pretty much NOTHING there yet.

The site is hosted by Guild Portal, which hosts guilds for lots of different games. They make money with ads and by charging to remove the ads from a guild. I expect I'll be paying them to get rid of the ads for our site shortly.

Buffer Overrun web site

I've been thinking about Hamidon Raids, for when the SG gets high enough level.

NOTE: I make a lot of assumptions about numbers. Some of them are correct, but some may not be. Feel free to correct me, but also look at the underlying idea.

A Blaster decides to take on Hamidon. He snipes 4.6 times per minute with perma-Hasten. He's 6-slotted for range, so no Damage SOs. But we'll give him Build UP and Aim on every shot (slightly generous) for +166% damage. Hamidon has 90% resistance, so he does 1.2 base Snipe damage per minute. Undaunted, he gets another blaster, and together they do 2.4 base Snipe damage, exactly double. That's a linear increase. With 15 total blasters, they do about 18 times base Snipe damage per minute, or 15 times what 1 blaster does alone.

A Rad/Rad Defender tries the same thing. He uses Phase Shift to cast Enervating Field on Hammi, then gets out of range before unphasing to snipe. Supposedly this works. Hammi resists 90% of the EF (40%?), so he drops to 86% resistance. The Defender activates Accelerate Metabolism (AM) for +25% damage and +30% Recharge Reduction. The Defender snipes 3.9 times per minute for a total of .69 base (Defender) Snipe damage (which is less than base Blaster Snipe damage). He gets a friend. Hammi resistance drops a little more, the AM Damage buff goes up a bit, the Recharge Reduction buff goes up a bit, and they do 2.4 base Snipe damage per minute. Double the people, but more than three times the damage. Very interesting. That's a geometric increase.

A group of 15 Rad/Rad Defenders shows up to take on Hammi. They debuff his resistance to 30%. They hit the +300% damage cap with AM. They hit the +400% Recharge Reduction cap with AM. They each shoot 7.14 times per second for 4 times base Snipe damage, for a total of 300 base Snipe damage per minute. That's 435 times the damage of a single Defender.

2 questions

1) What's wrong with this scenario?
2) How long does it take for Hammi to fall?

[ QUOTE ]
Holy.......................................
/em defects from Champion to Freedom with Rad.
I already got my Ill/Rad to 10 on Champion... but no critical mass :*C.
I will roll one on Freedom soon... cause... wow.


[/ QUOTE ]

Did it take your breath away? :-)

Speaking of critical mass, we've reached it. The SG hit 75 members. I've removed members who signed up for the 8 Rads @ level 1 experiment and have since been inactive, but we're still near 75 with all of the new members from the boards who watched Doom's video. Maybe time to break up the SG into 2 SGs.

If anyone has any advice on how to handle multiple SGs, or pointers to threads on it, please PM me. Looking forward to global chat in Update 3 to manage this.

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Alpha strikes are going to be your downfall, that and AoE Mez attacks (Malta come to mind) as they could crash enough toggles to allow full strength AoE attacks to smash your group. To protect yourself from these sort of attacks I would get some */Rad controllers, they have pets that can take the alpha or Mez the bad guys first. This would keep the Rad theme and make the team safer.

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Freak Tanks are bad. We had a fair number of defeats from them over the weekend. I'm beginning to think the best place to initiate combat is in melee range. Debuff a group of tanks at range and they're likely to all lob AoE attacks at you. Do it right next to them and they may try melee.

Malta starts at 40. Even SKing, there will be several chars in the high 30s at a minimum. That means every combat opens with multiple (well slotted) EM Pulses and Atomic Blasts (or equivalent). We'll see how that turns out when we get there.

[ QUOTE ]
That being said an eight man */rad controller or Rad/* defender group is massive overkill (except vs Hamidon). Arguing what sort of combo of these is best is like arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. From my experience two well built */Rad controllers can take any AV (within +2 levels, the debuffs drop off rapidly in effectiveness after that) in the game, adding more Rad anything just reduces the time it would take to vaporize the AV.

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I see your point, We did the Sister Psyche TF which has a level range of 20-26. We started with 20,21,22,22,22,23,24 if I remember correctly. We still toasted Clamor in under 20 seconds. Doom Virus may have a video of it, but he complained at the time that she fell off screen.

But it's not complete overkill. With big teams the mobs are sufficiently spread out that it takes several debuffs to cover them all. And unless you take time to find a Boss, your debuff anchor is going to be defeated in a couple of seconds. So it's more the AM bonuses that really make the team.

From my original post...

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Monsters and AVs go down pretty quickly. They probably still hit despite the massive Defense buffs and To-Hit debuffs, but not for much due to Enervating Field.

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What powers do you skip in the Radiation Primary? ... Everything but AVs and Monsters die too fast for Lingering Radiation to be useful, but you still might pick it up just for them.

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Experience has shown that AVs and Monsters go down in 20 seconds or less with 6+ Rads, and can be so debuffed by RI and EF that their few attacks rarely hit or hurt.

Given that, I'm recommending against taking Lingering Radiation for all-Rad teams. Mobs are defeated too quickly and do too little damage to bother wasting a power slot on this and taking the time to cast it in combat.