Underbridge

The bad part about /FF is that you can make a team almost invincible just with your secondary. You'll feel like you don't even need your primary most of the time. It can get very boring.

I love my Ice/Energy Melee.

I leave Power Thrust on auto, so if something closes for melee I target it and it gets instantly nocked back. It even nocks most bosses back. Combined with having my hold 6 slotted I hardly ever die solo.

I tend to blap a bit so in teams I die if I can't put up PFF fast enough.

I also have leaping pool and healing pool too. Power boosted aid self heals me almost to full.

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There are a couple of interesting points here that touch on a variety of areas. For example:<ul type="square">[*]Defenders are less likely to be stupid? Eh, I don't think so. I've seen many a defender with one attack in their forties. I've seen more than a few defenders whine about running out of support powers to take and being 'forced' to take something in their epics that can deal damage.[*]Controllers' buffs and debuffs are less than defenders. That's true. On the other hand, mezzing a spawn for the entirety of its life makes the cuteness of forcefields rather redundant, for example. When comparing a controller's buffs/debuffs to the buffs/debuffs of the defender, remember the controller will usually contribute some damage, and often in many cases, some control too, which relieves the need to lean on his buffs/debuffs. In many cases, this can be a bit of a pain for the defender, where the controller provides less, but needs to provide less.[*]Defender damage isn't great. Well, I suppose it's not. My empathy/archery doesn't feel like he hits like a truck, but then if he did, something would be very wrong because there are other archetypes that do it. Would it be nice to feel like I did more? I suppose so, but then it wouldn't really be fair to the other archetypes that don't have any buffs or debuffs worth a damn.[*]Tornelco's build costing a lot... well, yes, do you think soloing GMs and AVs should be cheap and easy? Go ask the scrapper boards how many of them did their av-soloing builds on the cheap. Same with the controllers.[*]Sonic Blast is awesome. I totally agree. Ironically I have a hard time enjoying playing it because the animations annoy me.[*]Dominators are being adjusted to have both their roles considered equally important. Maybe that's a wet test for the defender. I doubt it, but that can give people a smidgen of hope.[*]So, you don't like how defenders do damage? Okay, neat. You see those other ATs out there? Try them, maybe they'll have something you like. I know I like corruptors but don't like defenders as much. That's not indicative of a problem, that's indicative of taste. There are a bunch of guys in this thread who seem to really enjoy their defenders and don't feel they lack for damage.[*]It's late. Who are you people and where's my horse?[/list]
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Do you teach cool lessons?

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If mass confusion were given the same recharge as Seeds I wouldn't care if it aggroed every fucing mob in the Zone.

The whole "OMG it AGGROZ STUFF" is fucing moot. You have aoe holds and other crap.

Oh and btw, one of Mind's "tons of other stuff" is our fear, which guess what... aggroes everything and lets it get a free shot on us before it kicks in.

Everyone with a Mind Controller main would trade Mass Confusion for Seeds.

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You are wrong, the fact that Mass Confusion doesn't cause aggro is a huge benefit, especially when I'm staring at a +3 8 man spawn with multiple bosses. Also Mind Control can easily "double up" its mass confuse with its single target confuse which again, causes no aggro.

Small tip also, don't open with terrify, open with Mass Hypnosis.

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I don't open with either if I'm in a team where a controller can do anything but hope to get off an EPP attack. I generally start off Confusing the boss or Lt. of a spawn and then doing whatever.


Anyways. I agree with the OP in that, having played a mind/ta and a mind/kin and a plant/rad to 50 I have to say the Plant/Rad was a cakewalk compared to mind. And this was mostly do to being able to spam Seeds.

Seeds is the cornerstone of plant. I'd also say it's overpowered at the level you can get it.


I think it's important for me to state that I in no way want plant nerfed. I have a level 50 plant and I like him. When all the powers are out, and I have the radiation clouds going, it looks like "Natures Revenge 2 - Hell on Earth".

I would however like Mass Confusion lowered from a base 4 minute recharge to a 2 minute recharge. That would make it usable in most fights with a few recharge enhancements.

Does anyone think the perfectly balanced nature of the game would crumble if Mass Confusion were Available once a fight?

So we all agree that because a single 1 Billion Influence Ultra Cheezy Build Rad/Sonic can do ok damage that defender damage is therefor ok?

Works for me.

I like Defenders in teams btw. They are almost as good as an endless inspiration tray.

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Altitis, embrace it

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QFT

The variety of different characters and the fact you can easily get them to 50 is CoH's main attaction to me.

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The only thing Mind had to itself? So... who else has Telekinesis?

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Defenders who want it. Since they made it max 5 targets who DOESN'T want it!!!???


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Who else has a single-target sleep of high enough magnitude to get bosses in one hit? Who else has an aggro-free area sleep?

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You got me, those are real [censored] show stoppers there. That's why I rolled my Mind controllers. Yes Plural.

I guess sleep is usefull soloing. In pug's Mass Hypnosis is good for picking the group of mobs the fire blaster will attack.

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Seeds of Confusion is Plant's "every fight" area control. Its best counterpart in Mind is Terrify, which is a more interesting comparison.

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I'm sure Plant controllers would gladly trade Seeds for an aoe
Fear that lets every mob you use it on hit you every time you use it or they are attacked. Hell they'd probably give up Creepers too.

I know [censored] isn't going to change, but I don't have to like it. Mass Confusion used to be something I broke out with pride when the [censored] hit the fan. It was, dare I say it, Exotic. It was also hillarious since it was so seldom seen.

What I meant by "had to itself" is sort of like how only Gravity Controllers can throw forklifts at people. Or how a level 50 /SS tank can punch a level 1 mob 15 stories into the air.

The fact that the version Plant gets is functionally better only inflames things.

This argument is pointless though. And I've hyjacked the thread enough. All of you are right. Mind is overpowered, especially our pet. Mass Confusion should be Tier 1 in the Presence pool. Or make a pool set made up of all the tier 9 controller powers.



To the OP. Obviously I'm a controller freak. Plant rules. I played a plant/rad to 50 and it was great fun. Plant/TA is probably better numbers wise. I just liked the evil look of all the "vines from hell" with the swirling green mist. From level 8 I was able to solo almost as fast as a Blaster (counting time not spent running back from the hospital). I can definitly see it asthetically as a love it or hate it set. I appreciate Butter Cup (Fly Trap) in a sort of "Plan 9" campy way. It's hard to take it seriously.

Edit: Oh, looks like you picked /Storm. That's a great set too. Actually a Plant/Storm may be my next alt. I don't have a /Storm with a primary with -KB. And like you said, it's an obvious thematic pairing.

My main gripe is that I wish Mass Confusion, the only thing that Mind had to itself, had been left Mind only.

Anyone with a lick of sense would trade Mass Confusion for Seeds. I think recharging every 30 seconds vs. every 2 minutes kinda makes up for the aggro.

And I just reactivated but when I had left a year ago, the only reason mind was worshipped redside is because of Billion Infamy Mind/Fire doms.

If mass confusion were given the same recharge as Seeds I wouldn't care if it aggroed every fucing mob in the Zone.

The whole "OMG it AGGROZ STUFF" is [censored] moot. You have aoe holds and other crap.

Oh and btw, one of Mind's "tons of other stuff" is our fear, which guess what... aggroes everything and lets it get a free shot on us before it kicks in.

Everyone with a Mind Controller main would trade Mass Confusion for Seeds.

Yea,

Mind is Awesome. That's why it's been FotM for so long.

Edit: I must have deleted half my reply.

The thing about Plant is it gets Mind Control's tier 9 at tier 5 except it's better.

My Plant/Radiation leveled as fast as my non Fire/XXX Blasters solo. I guess Radiation might be ideal with Plant, but so what.

I AM one of those angry guys who feels that Plant makes people snicker at Mind, maybye sometimes they are nice and throw in a "Poor Mind, it was already the Masochists set".

How about just make Mass Confusion tier 5, throw away Mass Hypnosis and give Mind a giant floating brain at tier 9 that spams Dominate and Mesmerize and is surrounded by World of Confusion.

Sorry for the thread derail. It's just annoying being actually "LoL-ed" at by pugs when I'm on my Mind Controller since Plant has more control by level 8. Plant can totally lock down an average spawn of mobs with just training enhancements.

I can't believe anyone can say Mind solos like Plant. It is good against bosses. And you can definitly "get by". But it's two "defining" powers Confuse, and Mass Confusion, were given to Illusion and Plant respectively. Sets that both get Pets and strong damage (Illusion single target, Plant AoE).

Thanks for the guide. I just returned to game and it's helped me a bunch.

Six months to a year before the servers get shut down.

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And this is a great goal, I want to see this happen. But right now the current trend is in introducing status effects. At level 10 there where very few mobs with status effects, the occasional Edilon or Lost Blaster. By 40 it seems the only challenge is chain stunning or holding mobs and well that is not what many people consider to be a fun challenge.



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No - the Status effects are not meant to be the way that things get "harder" in the overall sense. The current changes to Rikti and Nemesis bring them into line with the difficulty of other groups (Malta, Carnival). So now all groups are of equal difficulty (that's the goal!).

Now the Inspirations and powers that protect oneself from stunning, etc. are very, very needed. And that's a good thing. Tackle the high level groups without preparation and a hero is in deep trouble - quickly.

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Status Effects are overused and plain old not fun. I would rather the mobs have higher damage, longer range, more debuffs, ANYTHING but status effects.

Either that, or have high end mobs drop nothing but Iron Wills.


Or you could always add a status effect line of pool powers for those of us who don't have pocket Defenders.

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Gaffer, I don't understand why this has to all be done as one HUGE update.

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Because while source code is easy to version control (i.e. you can set a marker which will give you two distinct copies of the source, one with the current build and the other with Issue 2, and change them independently) data in the database and the client wad files is much harder to keep in sync - especially with different source versions. And of course don't forget that some changes may require changes to stored character or world state (SGs, etc.) data, either adding new info, changing the structure of existing info, or more.

And we have internal versions separate from the external versions, so it's not a simple "live and test" branches in any case.

The short form is it's non-trivial to put some bug fixes up on live and test, especially when there are data changes. Cryptic does try to when possible.

As a side note, we are experimenting with trying to get more changes out in between the "big *** updates" which currently are on a 2 or 3 month schedule. Cause that's a long time to wait...on the other hand, we get better press coverage by having big cool updates like Capes+new zones+power fixes+new content all at once, which means more players which is good.

This is the least intelligible dev post I've ever made. If you can't wade through the above: "CROSS-VERSION BUG FIXES HARD. BIG UPDATES MAYBE GOOD" and ignore the rest.

-jg

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Best post by a game dev ever. You turned my opinion of CoH around.

Oh frickin well. People see something that makes them mad and they come here and vent some frustration. Better than more ******** Bubble defenders training half the mobs in PP onto noob teams.

They need to just make a forum for flame wars, and move all threads that turn into them there.

Taking crap from players is part of a forum Admin's job.


If they can't take the heat...