Ultimo_

I would agree. All powers, offensive and defensive (and other) should have standardized endurance. The only exception I would make would be the Power Pools. Where a power appears in both a pool and a pormary or secondary, I would have it cost that little bit more endurance.

For example, Air Superiority and Super Strength's Punch have almost identical attributes. Even so, Air Superiority should cost just a bit more endurance than Punch because it's a pool power.

The thing is, most of us (well, ME at least) don't care if I have red or green dots. That aspect can be turned off, and is completely inoffensive. It's the comments that can't be turned off, and are frequently offensive ("offensive" is a subjective term. I'm sure there are comments that some would think offensive and others wouldn't).

If the comments would turn off when I turn off the rep system, then I'd be happy. If you want to continue insulting people that are willing to play that "game," then that's fine. You could do so, and I wouldn't be subjected to a "game" I have no desire to play.

Ya, that's what I meant, the ratio of endurance to damage would be the same from AT to AT. My bad for not being clearer.

The Deadly Apocalypse (at least, the banner thing), has been rather underwhelming for me.

The first time it happened to me, I was alone, and unaware of this new event. I stumbled upon a banner, and went to investigate. As I approached, four bad guys spawned. Then, 2 seconds later, four more. Then 2 seconds later, four more, and so on. I was swamped by dozens of foes in a matter of seconds. Not much fun, I'm afraid.

The next time, I was on a team, and it happened around us, so we started doing it. We fought foes at a banner for ages, but it never became active, and the event passed unresolved. Again, underwhelming.

The third time, there was a big group of people doing it, so I took part. On this occasion, I was fortunate enough to get on a team, and got all the badges. The final fight was kind of disappointing, it went so fast and wasn't anything new. Just Jack-in-Irons.

The next time, I took part as much as I could, and after the four banners were destroyed, the avatar was defeated before I coudl get anywhere near him. Telporters are seriously disadvantaged trying to find him.

Every other time the event happened, a dozen or so, I was playing redside. The largest team I ever saw was 5 people. On average 2-3 people was the most that showed up, and they were entirely unsufficient to the task of even surviving the overwhelming spawns, let alone trying to damage the banner.


Like so much in this game, I see here an event with tremendous potential and eye candy, but little substance and poor execution.

I get that solo players aren't supposed to be able to overcome it, but you should not have made it impossible for a soloist to enjoy some of. If I could go to the banner and fight reasonable spawns, I might enjoy it somewhat. As it was, it took all the street spawns away, and left me with no way to enjoy the event (because of the unreasonable spawns... 30-1 is LONG odds), so I had nothing to do in the zone.

All in all, a good try, but underwhelming to say the least.

By my nature, I play defensively. My preferred AT is the Tanker. My problem with the Defender has always been that he can defend everyone but himself. Either way, soloing slowly isn't so much an issue as being able to solo effectively. In my experience, Defenders really can't, certainly not at lower level, and only barely at higher level. I haven't played all the power sets, however.

I would do two things.

1) Standardize endurance costs across all power sets. The amount would need to be determined, but it should be something that will allow all ATs to use the same endurance for the same effect (eg. use 20% endurance to defeat a "standard" spawn of 3-4 Minions/Lts.)

2) Increase base recovery rates to match the current Stamina levels. Allow Stamina to increase the recover rate further.

Yah, I've suggested the exact same thing (and usually been flamed for it, for some reason). It seems to me that effect should determine endurance use. The point is that endurance shouldn't be as big an issue as it is. I mean, I'd be willing to bet that the VAST majority of characters in the game have Stamina. That should tell you something.

In my opinion, Stamina should all but remove the need to concern yourself with endurance unless you're facing sappers of sime kind (clockwork, malta, etc.).

Anyway, we digress (a bit).

In my opinion, almost across the board, endurance costs are excessive. Defenders suffer more than most. My FF/Nrg Defender typically has to rest in the middle of any fight (eg. Defeat a minion, rest, defeat a minion, rest, defeat a minion, rest, defeat a minion, rest, wear the Lieutenant to around 20% health, rest, defea the leiutenant). It's ludicrous. I can't imagine what it must be like for Defenders without PFF.

It amounts to this: The devs have a strange notion of what's FUN if they think standing around unable to act because you have no endurance is fun. To me, it's just frustrating, and is among the main reasons I constantly consider leaving this game.

First, I find it amusing how much negative rep I have got just from posting my opinion here.

Second, no one has the right to make attacks on me. These forums are not here to facilitate attacks on me. I'm not here for your fun. If you enjoy trading barbs with people, that's fine. I'm not saying you shouldn't. I'm saying that you shouldn't be able to play that game with the people who don't want to play.

If the rep system would turn off when I turn it off, you could go on with your little game unimpeded and I wouldn't be confronted by inflammatory comments. Unfortunately it doesn't.

I don't PvP because I don't like it. However, as you pointed out, that's not terribly informative, so I'll tell you whyI don't like it.

1) Bad attitudes. In my experience, PvPers are rude and insulting, and enjoy degrading an opponent. There's no respect, no sportsmanship.

2) No balance. The ATs and power sets are not balanced. There are times when you have exactly 0 chance of competing. A competition without competition is... what? As an example, consider the day I took my Inv/SS Tanker into BB and found myself facing a Zombie/Dark Mastermind. I was unable to reach him, and had minimal defenses to his dark powers. I could attack the Zombies, but he'd heal them for 3 times the damage I could do, so there was no way to fight back. Personally, I don't find that fun. Similarly, there's the entire Stalker class. When you can defeat a foe in less than a second, there's no way to compete. Blasters do this too. It's like playing chess and telling your opponent that he doesn't get to move.

3) Ganking. Related to the above, it's the same non-competition thing. I don't mind losing, it's when I can't figth back that I get frustrated, and frustration isn't fun.

4) Griefing. Related to #1 above. Beaming people into drones or holes in the geometry, or just pursuing a player and defeating him over and over when he can't fight back. I remembre being in Warburg once, and trying to leave the zone. I came out of the hospital and was beamed into a gank. For half an hour. I stopped playing.

Now, I have had a couple of good PvP experiences.

The first time I went into a PvP zone (BB), I was using my Corruptor (Nrg/Traps). I encountered someone playing a Thor clone Tank, and we began an aerial battle (curse suppression...). It was a pretty interesting fight, and was decded by lack of endurance and a crowd of Shivans. We both fell out of the sky and had to flee from the Shivans, and lost each other in the confusion. Very comic-booky.

The second time, I was playing my Bots/FF Mastermind in BB. People were delling on the docks as they often did, and I was just nearby watching. A Scrapper decided to attack me, and it sent my bots into combat mode. He found himself unable to defeat me, so he took to the air, I imagine hoping to lure me away from the bots. However, I happened to have Group Fly, so my bots followed us into the air. He flew straight up as fast as he could, presumably to make me outrun the bots. I did so, quite on purpose. The bots fell to earth, and he moved in for what he must have thought would be an easy kill. Unfortunately for him, I had Air Superiority queued up, and once hit, he fell from the stratosphere, taking massive damage from the fall, right among my waiting bots. As I swooped in for the kill, someone else jumped me and I was defeated, but I enjoyed the battle. It was one of manuever and cunning. Plus, I was winning until someone interfered...

Unfortunately, this is the sum total of good experiences in PvP in CoH.

I've been calling for this since the first day of the new forums. I have rep turned off, yet I am STILL receiving insulting or inflammatory comments. Worse, I've sent messages to the webmaster several times and have not received so much as an acknowledgement that they recieved the message.

Get rid of it, it's just a source of bile and trolling.

(EDIT)
I'll point out that I have no problem with people enjoying it. If you like it, good for you. I don't like it, and I don't like being the unwilling target of your "fun" so I turned off the system. My problem is that it doesn't turn off. I still get the comments.

It has nothing to do with the thickness of my skin, you DO NOT have the right to get your jollies at my expense. Suggesting that somehow I am in the wrong for not wanting to put up with the abuse is ridiculous. It's victim blaming.

The only things I'll add is that on occasion, one's rank is secondary to one's actual job. That is, if you have two Majors, one is on a General's staff and the other is in Logistics, chances are that the General's aide will have greater authority.

The other thing I'll mention (I didn't see it, but I may have missed it...) is tha Captain is a naval rank as well as an Army/Marine rank, and is equivalent to Colonel in the general scheme of things.

I had considered making him something more blasty (as I mentioned, I was considering making him a Defender), but Dr. Strange is also known for using controls and such (eg. Crimson Bands of Cyttorak). The Dominator might work, but he gives up the ability to boost his teammates, something else Strange is known for.

On the other hand, I'm not making Dr. Strange, just a character based loosely on him (in fact, he actually resembles the Phantom Stranger in appearance, now that I think of it...).

As I say, I've started raather enjoying him as a Grav/Rad, and I like the look of the Grav effects. Some good ideas here though.

Yeh, I agonized over including either the ST Hold or the AOE Immob, and went with the latter. I figured slapping a hold on a large group so they're all in the area of the debuffs was a good idea, but I expected playtesting to make the determination. I hadn't considered the sappers and such (annoying buggers).

Allrighty then, here's the two builds I'm using now. The solo build has been well tested, but the team build is new. It's been used once so far, fighting with Eochai. The character is now L22. If you have any comments or further suggestions about either build, I'm happy to see them. I should also say, the epic pools are still in consideration. I was thinking of having a different epic pool on each build, but that's up for grabs. It's kind of a concept thing.

Solo Build...

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Doctor Solomon: Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Gravity Control
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Primal Forces Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Crush -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(3), Dmg-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(5), Range-I(43)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(7), EndRdx-I(7), Heal-I(9), Heal-I(46), Heal-I(46)
Level 2: Gravity Distortion -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(9), Dmg-I(11), Dmg-I(11), Dmg-I(13), Range-I(45)
Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism -- RechRdx-I(A), EndMod-I(13), EndMod-I(15), EndMod-I(15)
Level 6: Radiation Infection -- EndRdx-I(A), DefDeb-I(17), DefDeb-I(17), ToHitDeb-I(19), ToHitDeb-I(19), ToHitDeb-I(21)
Level 8: Crushing Field -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(21), Dmg-I(23), Dmg-I(23), Dmg-I(25), Range-I(46)
Level 10: Recall Friend -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Hover -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(25), Flight-I(27)
Level 14: Teleport -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(27), Range-I(43)
Level 16: Swift -- Flight-I(A)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(29), Heal-I(29)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(31), EndMod-I(31)
Level 22: Gravity Distortion Field -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(31), Acc-I(33), Hold-I(33), Hold-I(33), Hold-I(34)
Level 24: Grant Invisibility -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 26: Wormhole -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(34), Dsrnt-I(34), Dsrnt-I(36), Dsrnt-I(36)
Level 28: Invisibility -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(36), DefBuff-I(37)
Level 30: Phase Shift -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 32: Singularity -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(37), Hold-I(37), Hold-I(39), Dmg-I(39), Dmg-I(39)
Level 35: Lingering Radiation -- Acc-I(A)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- Acc-I(A), Hold-I(40), Hold-I(40), Hold-I(40)
Level 41: Power Blast -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(42), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(42), Dmg-I(43)
Level 44: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(45), RechRdx-I(45)
Level 47: Energy Torrent -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(48), Dmg-I(48), Dmg-I(48), Dmg-I(50)
Level 49: Temp Invulnerability -- ResDam-I(A), ResDam-I(50), ResDam-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Containment


Team build...

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Dr. Solomon: Level 50 Magic Controller
Primary Power Set: Gravity Control
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Teleportation
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Concealment
Ancillary Pool: Psionic Mastery

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Crush -- Acc-I(A), Range-I(3), Range-I(3), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(5), Dmg-I(7)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- EndRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(7), RechRdx-I(9), Heal-I(9), Heal-I(11), Heal-I(11)
Level 2: Radiation Infection -- DefDeb-I(A), DefDeb-I(13), DefDeb-I(13), ToHitDeb-I(15), ToHitDeb-I(15), ToHitDeb-I(17)
Level 4: Accelerate Metabolism -- RechRdx-I(A), EndMod-I(17), EndMod-I(19), EndMod-I(19)
Level 6: Recall Friend -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 8: Crushing Field -- RechRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(21), Acc-I(21), Dmg-I(23), Dmg-I(23), Dmg-I(25)
Level 10: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 12: Swift -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(25), Flight-I(27)
Level 14: Teleport -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(27), Range-I(46)
Level 16: Hover -- Flight-I(A), Flight-I(29), Flight-I(29)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(31), Heal-I(31)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(31), EndMod-I(33)
Level 22: Lingering Radiation -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(33), Slow-I(33), Slow-I(34), Slow-I(34)
Level 24: Gravity Distortion Field -- RechRdx-I(A), Acc-I(34), Hold-I(36), Hold-I(36), Hold-I(36)
Level 26: Wormhole -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(37), Dsrnt-I(37), Dsrnt-I(37), Dsrnt-I(39)
Level 28: Grant Invisibility -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(39), DefBuff-I(39)
Level 30: Invisibility -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 32: Singularity -- Acc-I(A), Acc-I(40), Dmg-I(40), Dmg-I(40), Hold-I(42), Hold-I(42)
Level 35: Phase Shift -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(42), Acc-I(43), Hold-I(43), Hold-I(43)
Level 41: Mental Blast -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(45), Dmg-I(45), Dmg-I(45), Dmg-I(46)
Level 44: Indomitable Will -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 47: World of Confusion -- EndRdx-I(A), Acc-I(48), Conf-I(48), Conf-I(48), Conf-I(50)
Level 49: Psionic Tornado -- Acc-I(A), Dmg-I(50), Dmg-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Containment

I don't know if this is how it's supposed to work, but I found that when I set my Stalker's Ninjtsu to Minimal FX, it ceases to have sound.

Also, I've noticed my Mastermind's Protector Bots always run into melee, even though they don't have melee powers (that I'm aware of?).

Just a couple of things I noticed.

My main Defender is FF/Nrg, based loosely on Iron Man. I play him rather like a blaster, with little attention to team buffs (I do have a team build that is more "normal"). However, I don't think of him as being limited.

While my damage isn't astonishing, it's enough to get by. My powers allow me to tank fairly admirably (at least, I take alphas better than most characters via PFF), and my knockback/stun effects are good defensively. On top of that, the Dispersion bubble does provide a significant Defense buff to the team (since I get stuck in, I'm usually in the middle of the action, so the bubble covers everyone).


My point is, there's more than one way to skin a cat (or play a Defender). Why didn't I play a Blaster? Because I wanted a character with some defenses. I LOATHE the glass cannon playstyle. My preferred AT is the Tanker. However, as the concept required blasts, that left only the Defender class available to me.

Sure, he's not as efficient as some, but he's hardly gimped.

Ah, ok, so it's not just me. Yeah, I have my attacks (currently 4 slotted) with accuracy and end redx, and I have brawl on auto (slotted for recharge). I was just suprised because of my many characters, this is the only one that can't seem to do anything. It seemed strange considering what I'd heard about Brutes in general.

As long as there's not something I'm doing wrong, I'll soldier on...

I seem to be posting a lot of these lately...

I've been playing a Brute recently. I've never played a Brute before, but I'm well versed as a Tanker, and I've recently played Scrappers to the L35 range (one MA/Shield, one Claw/Regen). The Brute (Mace/Elec) is L11 now, so it's early, but he can't seem to defeat much of anything.

I've been trick or treating. Literally every time I get a trick, I get defeated. I can't defeat anything that attacks. If a Crone, Sorceress or Vampire pops out, they slap the tentacles on me that do 50% of my health immediately, then DOT. This also renders them immune to me, as I can't hit them. Werewolves do half my damage with every attack and consistently knock me down so I can't retaliate. On those occasions that I get scarecrows and Zombies, or worst of all, the spirits, I run out of endurance before I can defeat any of them. It's got so bad, I reslotted entirely for endurance reduction.

I figure I must be doing something wrong. NONE of my other characters have this much trouble. I have a L9 Scrapper (MA/SR) who has little trouble with defeating foes. He does have to rest after every door knock. I had a Controller at L15 (he's now L22) who had an occasional defeat, but only from bosses and occasionally spirits.

On normal missions, he (the Brute) fares a bit better, but is still astonishingly squishy. I recently did a mission against the council that was two levels BELOW me (all greens and blues) and was killed four times in it.

My question is, is this normal? I mean, I expect it will get better as this is very early, but this seems very weird to me. What am I doing wrong?

Possibly even before that. I played first edition Champions...

Heh, I like the tag, "Gimp Yourself for Concept" - the point is that I make threads like these in an effort to find a way to make a concept build that works fairly well. I haven't played every set, nor every AT to high level, so the expertise and opinions of those that have experience I don't is very useful (to me and others who may be reading), even if I don't follow every suggestion.

Sometimes, even if I HAVE some expertise with an AT or power set, someone may have a good idea I just haven't thought of... You never know. I live by the philosophy that the only bad question is the one you didn't ask.