Ultra_Violence

I'm with you Tasty I've never heard that one. If someone is actually doing that they need to find something better to do with their time LOL.

Yes well unfortunately the easiest way to get PvP "kills" is still to attack players who are involved in another fight either with a NPC or another player. Once they are badly hurt you poach the kill from the NPC/other player.

With other players this is really annoying for them after they take all the risk, someone else snipes for the kill and possibly kills them too. The unfortunate part is that as irritating as this is it is also incredibly sweet when you can pull off a solo double kill this way.

With NPCs if you don't quite kill the player it probably means debt for them. Personally I don't believe anyone should expose others to debt so I will never engage anyone fighting mobs. But not everyone was raised to be a caring indivdual LOL.

Removing debt is probably the best answer since relying on people's better nature is pretty funny in a game featuring villains.

The absolute BEST answer would be experience/debt suppression. Attack or be attacked by a PC and experience and debt is suppressed for say 1-5 minutes (whatever works).

I don't know if people were really using other players attacks to escape debt (I can't imagine how you would set this up and make it worthwhile). But if experience was suppressed for 5 minutes this would also discourage cheating since it would mean standing around a lot. Meanwhile if all you want is a badge then you shouldn't care if experience is turned on or not.

Not sure of exactly what the correct time frame to balance out the suppression vs "hey I still want to play" is but it is a thought.

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Just added this patch note to PvP section:

Being defeated in a PvP zone will carry debt if any of the damage to you was caused by NPCs. The amount of debt is directly proportional to the amount of damage you took from NPCs vs. how much was done by opposing Player Characters. The more damage dealt to you by NPCs means more debt when you are defeated.

* This means that you can no longer “escape debt” by being defeated by a PC after taking massive damage from NPCs, nor will you be penalized with a massive amount of debt if you are defeated by an NPC after taking a huge amount of damage from a PC.

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Why is there Debt in PvP zones at all?

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Because there is Experience in PvP zones. Possibly if you eliminated both it would make sense but then people would complain "Why have mobs there if they aren't worth experience?"

Rules:
1) everyone will never be happy
2) you will break the game trying to please some people
3) see rule 1

Can't believe anyone would suggest replacing Build-UP.

You can't have a Stalker without Build-Up. Build-Up + AS practially = Stalker. AS does a lot of damage but it does an incredible amount with Build-Up. If they skipped Build-Up there would be a lot more complaints.

Hopefully, someday they will find the time to add 1 or 2 extra powers to all the sets to add even more variety to player builds as a quality of life thing. That would be as cool as customizing power graphics IMO. The game has actually become a bit too mechanical, too much you have to have this power and that power to make a set/build. The more optional stuff the better.

Until then every set has things that would be really cool if they had been included, but there are only so many power slots. Sad but true.

Doesn't matter no one voted for it. LOL

The last thing the game needs is a "SUPER"market. There are plenty of MMOs with crafting systems and they fit them. CoX doesn't need or fit crafting. There is no reason to force crafting on it.

Every game doesn't have to be the same and have the same elements. In fact that is a very bad thing. CoX has avoided the "loot" mentality until now and that is part of what makes it different from most every other MMO. Different is good. WoW clones continue to go broke for a reason.

Making temp powers for yourself is one thing (and fairly unique) but the day the game starts having "rare" drops and elite equipment it will stop being CoH/CoV and be just another EQ/WoW clone.

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100 times out of 100 Longbow will beat Arachnos in the street fights in Siren's Call, if left to their own devices. I don't know what kind of tests you need to run to see that. I think I have seen the villain merchant in SC open once since CoV launched. And I go there almost every day.

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Except that Sirens call is supposed to work that way as the zone is balanced toward the heros. That is in the background of the zone, the villains are attacking the heros on their home turf.

The new PvP zone is supposed to be balanced toward the villains and should work the exact opposite.

What happens when players get involved is something completely different entirely.

The Blue Coralax Badge does not seem to work correctly either. I killed 150 Blue Coralax in Nerva and no badge. This was after killing many in Port Oaks already.

I was clearing everything so I killed at least 3 times as many Green than Blue and many Reds too if there is a counter for overall Coralax.

As soon as I went back to Port Oakes and killed 20 there I got the badge. I think this is another badge which isn't counting mobs over a certain level, but I haven't found anyone else who hunted Coralax anywhere but Port Oakes.

PS Hunting Coralax in Nerva is a lot more fun.

The other point that people "forget" about with Placate is that it isn't a hold/sleep or a forget about everyone. I only makes the mob forget about the Stalker. So if you are in a group Placate is what I call an "Attack somone else key".

This may be good or bad but you have to remember as a Stalker that the second you use Placate the mob is going to attack a teammate. If the closest teammate is an almost dead squishy using Placate is a really stupid thing to do.

Placate is the potential for serious backfire if not used intelligently, but I have run into many people who don't even realize this possibility. Or people who just don't like grouping with Stalkers, they don't know why but they just seem to die a lot around them... hmmm.

GMs have always been very helpful to me but they are doing a job and are told what they can and can't do, just like you are when you go to work. Just because you don't like their answer doesn't make them idiots.

It is no different than when you go to the complaints desk at the department store. If they aren't allowed to do what you want, they aren't allowed to do what you want it isn't their fault it is company policy. I work in IT and the best way to deal with things like that IS cut and paste replies. It keeps you from telling people who don't take No for an answer what you really think of them.

I have a Dark/Dark, Energy/Stone and Fire/Energy. And I have to say the Energy Primary rocks incredibly. All the stuns will make any secondary look good.

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Some people just want a travel power that does everything. Fast and versatile. Fly and Hover have a lot of advantages, which is offset by slower speed and a high endurance cost for Fly. If you make Fly faster, why take Super Jump or Super Speed?

I've noticed a big drop in the number of super speeders, although I still see them here and there. They used to be very much FotM. People liked the speed and the stealth and kept complaining about obstacles. Oddly, I don't remember seeing too many complaints about Super Jump.

I'm not wild about the suppression in Fly, but I don't think it's any worse than the big accuracy penalty it replaced. I can live with the top speed, especially since it's a good speed to zip around inside door missions. Hover is meant to be very slow, and gives me a good ranged firing platform. The endurance cost of Fly isn't really a problem if you slap an endurance reduction enhancemnt or two in it, since it's not meant as a power to be used in combat (switch to Hover or land).

I currently have 23 characters with Fly and another who will be picking it up next level.

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Hover also has a small Defensive bonus. And to point out the obvious again the name is HOVER not fly. Hover means float in one place not fly around. If you want to Fly use Fly, if you want to Hover use Hover. You aren't supposed to get everything in one package.

Using Hover means sacrificing some mobility for the many other benefits you gain. Without trade-offs the game is a lot less interesting. This is the same arguement that escapes people wanting to give Super Speed vertical movement. The trade-off for the fastest movement power is that you don't have vertical movement. That is the whole point.

If you don't like the trade-off, don't take the power. That is the nature of trade-offs and what makes them interesting.

Sounds like it will be more like Sirens Call with some sort of NPC AoE attacks you can request. AoE attacks mean trouble for Stalkers.

If you have trouble with Stalkers on your Mastermind one thing you can do is get Invisibility and Phase Shift. You can still command your pets while Invisible and many Stalkers can't see you. You can also randomly phase shift to stay out of danger, if you make hunting you annoying enough people move on.

You can also get Tactics so you can see any Stalker that doesn't also have stealth.

Unless a Stalker is built strictly for PvP it is hard for the to fit Tactics in AND Stealth into their build so it helps you avoid the less "dedicated" Stalkers anyway. Stalkers dedicated to PvP the only way to deal with is to be in a team because while they can kill 1 person they don't have a lot of HPs. In PvP zones accept the fact that you are going to die, probably a lot.

If you can't handle the frustration of dieing suddenly and a lot you shouldn't go to the PvP zones because that is how they are going to work in this game for the forseeable future.

Suppression isn't going away - deal with it.

Yes Devs didn't do away with Jousting on day 1 but they didn't do away with hearding on day 1 either. That doesn't mean they approved of that either. Sometimes they step on things very quickly sometimes very deliberately. How they decide which is only known to them.

Saying that they are lieing about why they put in suppression isn't likely to get they to change their minds is it?

Personally I don't see the big problem with supression. It ends so fast I barely notice it even when I am badge hunting greys.

I do see the problem with END usage on Fly and Teleport now that Stamina has been reduced via ED. Attacks were reduced in END usage but these powers also needed to have the same reduction to keep them in line. (or if they were reduced it certainly wasn't enough)

As far as changing the enhancement schedules for Fly and Hover that sounds like a plan to me. I think there are a number of Powers that could use that sort of love though. Some of the PP defensive powers could use the same thing.

People gather to do things like game for 2 reasons for companionship and for the games themselves. This is where MMOs differ from D&D. In D&D you had no choice but to play as a group. In CoX not only do you have a choice but you can often play with people you've never met before from different parts of the world. Often people you would never associate with in RL.

The need some have for Companionship is much greater than others. This is why you see 1 group of players who always team, do TFs and SFs and are active in SGs and another group who may do those things but also very actively solo. The second group just likes the game and don't really care about the companionship much.

Conflict between "extremists" of these 2 groups of people are fairly easy to understand. The first group sometimes have trouble understanding soloing because company is the main reason they are here. The second group sometimes see others as an obstacle. They are their own social experiment in miniature.

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Hover: We might buff it some, at some point. However, it should never be an effective travel power.

Flight: I'll talk to geko about it. No promises. (I got spoiled by the Holiday Jet Pack, too!)

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At least reduce Flight's END cost or relate it's END cost to whether you are attacking. High END if you are attacking, Low END if just traveling. That way you can take and use Flight without being almost forced to take Stamina to stay in the air for long.

I would still like to see a "Swoop" type attack that turns altitute into damage in a one time landing from flight attack. This is an attack you see so often in comics I love to see a character fly down knocking back enemies in the area while landing. Perhaps the Avians?

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AND now...we're changing the way Archvillains spawn. A ton of forum goers disliked adding so many AV's into missions a while back...so we've come up with a solution. If the team size and mission difficulty are ABOVE a certain level, an Archvillain spawns. Below that, players will face only an Elite Boss. If the mission is set on the first two levels of difficulty, it takes 4 heroes or more to spawn an Arch Villain. On the third level, 3 heroes or more. On the fourth level, 2 heroes. On the highest (Invincible), a solo hero will spawn an AV. Note this works in BOTH City of Heroes and Villains.

In order to incentivize larger teams, Positron is going to add a bonus to AV rewards!

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This is an excellent solution. While I'm sure someone will still find something to cry about this seems like the best solution I have ever heard of to keep everyone happy.

Way to go.

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3) Spec Ops are limited to 1 per spawn point for generic spawns. There may be specific encounter groups designed with more than one, however.


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Sorry but if PvP missions are considered generic spawns this just isn't true. In a spawn of 3 mobs post 35 you will get 2 Spec-Ops quite frequently solo. My 40 Dom has the scars to prove it. It isn't insurmountable though, just very annoying at times.

As far as flamethrowers go well remember that for some AT builds flamerhrowers are actually much easier than any other type of mob. For example my Merc/Traps MM hits them with a Web grenade and they never get within attack range of me or my pets. They are kind of sad really LOL.

Personally I've never found Flamethrowers much of a challenge on any of my toons I'm not sure why anyone is having trouble with them. Until Spec Ops start draining END I've always found Longbow to be much easier than other most other mobs and better experience.

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The worst for me so far has been those times that I've met a Spines Warden. These guys, along with other targets make my life miserable. They've got a PBAoE that's on from the moment they spawn. What's a Stalker supposed to do?

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Actually what a Stalker is supposed to do is eat 4 luck an hope for the best. Usually this will prevent you from getting hit long enough to use your AS.

You have to Plan you strageties and use all the tricks in your bag. There is always a way. You can't use the same attack plan for every fight. Not if you want to be successful anyway.

I actually find much them easier to fight than many other mob types until you start getting spec ops anyway. Freak show for example with meat doctors are much tougher.

It certainly isn't one shotting since it takes a while to set up. It is a question of whether it is fun however. This sort of thing is just being a pain, little different than camping hospitals or whatever. It is defensible, but only if people want to take time out to constantly go hunt gankers.

Actually you prove my point. As long as people have the attitude that "the best way play is to get 3 friends and find single players low on health and kill them" then you are going to keep the average player out of PvP zones. The only players in PvP zones are going to be other gankers.

While posters say there is nothing wrong with running from battles I still haven't seen one reason WHY. Dieing doesn't cause debt or hurt your PvP stats in this game. Seems to me you're the whiney ones worried about your pride. "I don't want to play if I can't win every time."

As I said most PvPers only want to play if they have an unfair advantage. This is why it doesn't work. Everyone can't have an unfair advantage, it stands to reason.

So if they change the rules, they change the rules. You can still use whatever powers you have to win. You will just have different powers.

The real goal is to make PvP attractive to the mainstream player not to hardcore PvPers, they will play regardless.

The subtext is who cares what gankers think? If your main goal is to ruin other people's game, I see no reason to respect your opinion.

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I am tired of doing bank missions with full teams only to have my AS interupted because the damn headless chicken npcs that run thru the bank push me out the way. Is there a way to change it to where only mobs can push us around. I remember at one point a red name said that they were working on this but nothing has come to the light yet. It is bad enough during those missions that we get doors blocked by them but now they can interupt the AS too? Its almost like they be trying to grief us on purpose. I have had a few team wipeouts from this where I could not take out the boss due to the interuptions from the npcs and we had a few situations where we could retreat because the npcs blocked the doors.

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I would say this is called "Part of the game". Random factors effect everything in life and you can't predict everything.

Not sure how a mob pushing you would mess up your AS though since once the animation starts it doesn't matter how far the mob is from you at the end. I have hit mobs 2 rooms away from me with AS as they were running by. All that matters is that the mob is beside you when you trigger it. After that the further away you are the better.

On Triumph the PvP zones have become empty lately. Unless you go looking for someone it is fairly easy to avoid people.

Advantages of being on the least crowded server I guess.

The real problem is that in PvP no one wants a fair fight. Everyone wants an unfair advantage.

Best example I can make is that is my Dominator gets attacked while Domination is up I turn and hold them. They hit break free. I hold them again. They hit break free, turn on Super Speed or Super Jump and head for zone line. They attacked me but as soon as they don't have the advantage they are out of there.

PvP just doesn't work terribly well one-on-one in this game. Because of: \
1) invisibility
2) travel powers
3) general cowardice of PvPers

Yes most PvPers are cowards. They run from fights even though there is no debt. They form groups to hunt individuals. They camp hosptials and come up with strategies like Trip-Mine + Port Foe which is really pointless but at least has a set up time. Anything to avoid actually having to fight head-to head on an even basis.

I think part of the problem really is that they have gotten used to PvE play and are applying the same strategies to PvP even though there is no need.

Against a team a Stalker isn't nearly as effective. Sure he can get off 1 shot but if there is a couple people with holds in there who can overwhelm his protection or something like mud pots. Stalkers can't take a lot of damage and Villains don't have the defensive buffs or healing power in groups that Heros do.

The main problem now is that you have a lot of whiney people complaining because they don't have the unfair advantage every time in PvP.

I will agree on one level though with some of them travel powers do make PvP zones pointless. Too many people run from any fight that they may lose. The complete loss of travel powers would make it hard on those doing missions however (stealth in SS is critical for many). I would suggest extending the suppression on travel powers in PvP zones to be like 30-45 seconds. Something huge anyway so that no one runs from a fight or uses hit-and-run tactics. If possible make this suppression only apply after an attack on another player rather than on a mob.

If your gonna fight, fight. (look for people to 3 slot sprint and swift LOL)