WARHED

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a tanker wwithout taunt is like...erm...a tanker without taunt.

..ie a poor scrapper.

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As the owner of an L41 Invul/SS 'scranker' with no taunt, and an L42 Katana/Regen scrapper, I'm pretty much in agreement there. Only 2 things my tank is somewhat 'better' at - he can survive some powerful 'alpha' strikes that would one-shot the scrapper, and his PBAoE (foot stomp) can do decent damage to a lot of foes and knock them back, and it can sometimes even be a reasonable attention-grabber. Otherwise he's seriously second rate by comparison.

My main has NO travel power whatsoever - just basic swift from the fitness pool, and then only because I can't get stamina without it. OK, I am a solo, it's not very team friendly for sure, but still, I've never really found it to be a problem. Longest it's ever taken me to get to a timed mission (the only time I thought no travel power might be an issue) is 9 minutes 45 seconds. On the rare occasions I do team I'm often not even the last to arrive at missions, but I guess being a footslogger does tend to encourage you to learn the quickest routes.

Sure, Terra Volta and Faultline can be a pain - realistically though, you never need to go further that 200 yds into Faultline in the entire game, and TV you only really need to visit for respecs. I never found Boomtown to be a particular a problem once I learned my way around. I've never visited the shadow shard though, dunno how crippling that will be - though I hear it's NOT a place for solos anyway!

I'm a keen badge hunter and I've been surprised at how few badges require a z-axis travel power - IIRC I've only had to ask for help with 7 or 8 exploration badges so far. All the reast I've picked up unaided, and the only exploration badges I don't yet have are from Eden, the Crash Site, the Hive and the Shadow Shards (and I've not even been into these zones yet)

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can only say ED....

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I'm really not so sure I'd agree with that - my empath was effectively ED-slotted well before ED was even a glimmer in some malevolent developers eye. All my heals were slotted 3 heal, 3 recharge reduction, the theory being that players rarely die because a heal isn't big enough - they usually die because it's just not there (i.e. it's still recharging)

Personally I'm 100% happy with the way my ED slotted empath plays, no regrets at all - even if ED was rescinded tomorrow I wouldn't go back to 6-slotting with heal SO's.

I have 2 AR/Devices blasters. Both are esssentially solos.

Both have fitness, with 3 slotted Stamina - for me this is an absolute 'must have'.

My first (main) has no travel power at all, and only has the medicine pool besides fitness. 6 slotted aid self is the prize here, 3 heal, 1 recharge and 2 Reduce interrupt makes it fairly usable even in combat. Would only recommend this for a solo really, and only then if you particularly like/want it. Aid other (which you need to take to get aid self) is pitiful and obviously it's a power pick flushed if you're a solo. I mainly chose medicine for this guy because it had a devices type animation - he's kind of a 'no super powers' concept hero. My other guy gets by fine without it.

AR/Dev number 2 has Leaping and Concealment as well as Fitness.

Combat jump and acrobatics come in handy now and then for the little bit of added hold(?)/immob/knockback resitance they give. They're ok, but after having played my other blaster for ages without them they're really no biggie to me. Combat jump I have to have anyway to get super jump (which I really like, it's fun and it makes this alt more team-friendly) Acrobatics? IMO pretty pointless really. Wouldn't miss it if I didn't have it.

As a solo I personally consider some form of concealment vital for my style of play (my other guy uses cloaking device) This guy has stealth and invis. Wouldn't be without them. Had phase shift and respec'd it out - virtually useless IMO. I regularly use invisibility for ghosting missions quickly when I just can't face slogging through all the goons. Otherwise I'm perma-stealthed, slotted for end reduction. I'm told the defence bonus is risible, but I don't use it for defence, it's so I can lay trip mines and caltrops closer to enemies. I can't count the number of times stealth/invis have saved my rear in rubbish PUG's when someone else has suicidally aggro'd. If you don't like ghosting missions, don't have trip mines, and/or have a regular/reliable team then personally I can't see that much use for the concealment pool.

I slot my Full Aggro with 3 damage, 1 acc and 2 recharge SO's (I'm /devices so I also have target drone acc buff)

Used to have 3 dam/3 recharge, but I've found the extra Acc can make a big difference against +level mobs, when de-buffed and high defence targets (Rikti Drones etc.) Had this setup for a while now and I'm very happy with it.

Anyone tried +range on FA? If so - good/worthless/ok sometimes?

Is there any way to find out any details about the current membership of a Supergroup BEFORE you actually commit to joining?

I've tried a number of SG's with my various alts on Defiant, only to find that once I've joined they've had few (sometimes no) members in or even anywhere near my level range (I generally dislike playing either Exemplared or SK'd)

I chose regen on my katana scrapper for a few reasons.

1) I already had an invul tank, and I wanted to try something different. Being a newbie, the other scrapper secondaries seemed pretty daunting, and none really attracted me, whereas regen seemed to be something a know-nothing like me could get a handle on, and I liked the concept.
2) I was utterly sick and tired of my other alts running out of end all the time - regen was the only thing that seemed to offer me an excellent opportunity to avoid all that nonsense - and it does! (on reflection this was probably the single biggest factor in selling me on regen)
3) I solo a lot, and regens fast healing and self healing options seemed very attractive to me in terms of greater self-sufficiency. I'm sure it's a failing on my part, but I'm afraid defence/resistance just doesn't float my boat at all - I like more obvious/transparent stuff. I'm pretty simple like that.
4) Being realistic and honest, I'm nothing special as a player, and probably never will be. Plus I'm lazy. Intentionally adding unnescessary 'challenge' is not for me - I find things quite hard enough as they are thank you. So many people I spoke to rated regen very highly as a scrapper secondary, and a good choice for an inexperienced player, that it seemed almost rude not to go that route. I'm very glad indeed that I did.

IMO TAILMAN and Synaesthetix are both correct. Depending on the circumstances and what I actually want to achieve, I lay minefields in a number of patterns, although caltrops are always part of my setup.

I'm pretty certain that mines make a fairly frequent periodic acc checks to see if they detonate. Enemies slowed by caltrops cause more acc checks and therefore more chances of detonation because they're spending more time in the danger area. Even when using only one SO acc enhancement I never had any problems with detonation if my mines were covered in caltrops. Sooner or later they do go off.

However, once a successful acc check for detonation has been made, the subsequent acc check for damage is a one-time deal. Caltrops don't help at all here, and targets are hit or not hit for damage irrespective of them. It's this second acc check that extra accuracy enhancements appear to make a big difference to. Since I added a second acc SO failed damage rolls after sucessful detonation have become quite rare.

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Maybe I missed a meeting or something, but the Timebomb from the devices powerset seems to be fairly pointless to me.

You can't lay it whilst using invisibility, so unless someone ELSE can grant invis on you you can't lay it in the middle of a group and leg it. As it's a fixed 15 second timer before detonation, it's hard to see how you could lay it and then reliably get an opponent to come over and stand on/near it till it explodes. Even if you use caltrops/web grenade and a stopwatch, I dunno, to me it just seems way too fiddly to be of any real use. More so given that you can just use multiple Trip Mines to get a similar (but far more reliable) effect.

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too fiddly? cloak and superspeed, middle of group,time bomb, blam! shoot at whats left and have them chase you over your tripmines, too fiddly?

Also cloak and superspeed, middle of a group, timebomb, count ten seconds tripmine, double blam! pull anything left back to more tripmines.

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Ahh, right, that makes sense. Never used SS, so didn't realise until recently that it had a stacking stealth component that still allowed you to use attack powers. Sadly, I don't have SS, just cloak, so that's not going to cut it for me personally.

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Well dps wise (including actiontime and recharge) and risk v reward (AI predictability) i think its safe from nerfbat. It makes devices what it should be but these soloing techniques cant be used for every type of enemy.

As for AV's with a device blaster you can make a nice kickstart with stacked mines and timebomb and tanker/scrapper. Whether thats completely worth doing is a question as the team can pretty much do without the wait, but if you are waiting for people to arrive to mission lay the trap.

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Yeah, been there, done that, I'd say you've pretty much nailed it there. When I'm teamed, the only time I usually get to drop more than one or two trip mines is when we're waiting for people to arrive. I doubt if having a full trip mine field makes much difference either way when taking on an AV. A headstart, yes, but AV fights usually seem to be so long that in the great scheme of things mines aren't going to be pivotal. In my experience if a team can take the AV, they can do it with or without the assitance of mines, and if they can't, mines probably aren't going to swing it for them.

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Hmmm, i used to think web grenade in the devices secondary was nigh on useless... That was until i started pvping... Slap 2 accuracys on the bugger and one immob duration and you can bounce past flyers and take them down

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The -recharge is pretty good for PvP. More use w00t!!1

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Yup, it's not shabby in PvE either - mine is slotted with 3 immob, 2 acc, 1 recharge rate, works well for me.

Thanks for all the input, most helpful. From what you're all saying seems that Resilience doesn't have a great deal to offer me in PvE. I don't do PvP at all, so it looks like I'm not missing much by not taking it - cheers.

Hadn't really considered it before, but now a couple of people have mentioned it, yeah, I guess I'd have to agree that MoG doesn't really seem to fit the whole regen concept that well. Probably not nearly so well as powers like Rage or Unstoppable would. Oh well, MoG is what we get and I can't see that changing any time soon.

Thanks for the comments regarding auto-hit powers - my AR/Devices blaster has found caltrops and even the AR power ignite very useful against MoG'd opponents (although running away and waiting for MoG to expire is far safer!) I've been led to believe that ignite isn't actually an auto hit power (by Bridger no less) - regardless, I can vouch for the fact that when I've used it in the past it has always hit and done damage to MoG'd opponents. Not a lot, but more than zero, which all helps if the target is already on a sliver of health. Definitely something for me to be aware of with my scrapper.

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Thing I dislike about mines isn't only that things can walk by them without them going off but even when they do go off they frequently miss the things standing right on top of them. Looks like two hit checks there...

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Agreed, I've seen that happen so often (mines detonating without doing any damage) that I'm convinced there must be 2 separate acc checks going on. Now that I slot mine with 2 accuracy SO's I rarely if ever see it happen.

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When they do hit, they do some very decent damage. Pity it takes so long to lay a few though, even with recharge SO's and hasten teams usually gets fed up and charge in before the third mine is down.

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Yup, I consider the damage output excellent, no complaints from me there, and I guess we just have to accept that the time it takes to lay them is the tradeoff we make for the massive potential damage. IMO it just can't work any other way and be balanced -in principle pretty much every damaging power works along the same lines - EITHER you have longer recharge with better damage, OR you have faster recharge with proportionally lower damage. AFAIK no other power allows you to do so much damage in such a short time, AND in most cases (if you're smart/patient) with little or no real risk to yourself - heck, you don't even have to be in sight of your target for them to work.

I would agree, few teams I've been on have had the inclination or patience to let me use my mines effectively (beyond the occasional one-off demonstration) but then, I can't blame them. It's not their power, they didn't choose it, and it is boring standing around waiting for someone else to lay a full minefield even once - never mind before every fight. Whatever, IMO that's more of a team/attitude issue, not a really a shortcoming of the power itself. So, yeah, it's not really a team-friendly power, but IMO it's a fantastic power for a solo. I do play mostly solo, and I'd find it very hard without them. Indeed, I do worry that they've become a crutch I can no longer play without. I'm not sure I could solo effectively post-L40 without them (if at all) and I can't really say that about any of my other powers.

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I believe Ignite has a very high inherent accuracy, but it isn't autohit.

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That's how I understand it. That said, putting Acc enhancements in it seems somewhat redundant.

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For sure - as far as I can see, and even if Ignite isn't actually auto-hit, it does seem to be so accurate that I wouldn't even consider adding Accuracy enhancements as things stand.


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Secondly, is it my imagination, or do trip mines now require you to be fairly close to them in order to be detonated by enemies? If so, I'm pretty certain they never used to - not so long ago I'd lay mines with caltrops, aggravate the mobs with my M30, and run away whilst they were picking themselves up, to return after a short while to find all my mines (and the mobs) gone.
Recently however I've been noticing that if I've backpedalled a fair distance from my trip mines (laced with caltrops, as always) I can actually be watching enemies slow-dancing in my minefield without setting any off - and they only explode if I move closer.

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I think this is just perceptual - Trip Mines don't fire off immediately, they have to 'roll' to notice the mob. Even if you're up close, mobs can run past and through/around a minefield before they detonate - it could just be coincidence that the mines are only detonating as you move forward - but not because you moved forward. I can't comment for certain, as I tend to stay in close range to use the AR cones to finish off injured mobs afterwards, but I'm pretty sure they're not bugged. It could also be something as mundane as a graphical perspective glitch, but that's idle speculation.

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From my observations I'm guessing that mines make accuracy checks at regular intervals as long as potential targets keep walking back and forth over them, which is why I always lace them with caltrops. Sometimes a mob will walk into the mines without initially detonating any. Invariably though, as they start milling around in the caltrops, the mines soon go off... unless I happen to be a fair distance away. This may well be just be coincidence or even perceptual. I'd like to try some more controlled tests on this as soon as I can find the right place/mobs and someone who can help me as an observer.


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I don't THINK it's just because the added +acc of my target drone is coming into play as I move in

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I can reassure you that it's definitely not this - Trip Mines aren't buffed by TD.

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No, I didn't think so, though purely from what I've been seeing recently I'm still undecided as to whether my prescence is needed within a certain distance simply for my mines to be active. I notice SHANNON seems to be pretty firmly of the opinion that you do need to be fairly close, and I think there's a certain logic to that.


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they can't ALL miss ALL the time, surely?

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They only miss when you're expecting them to hit.

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Overall I'm very happy with their performance - with 2 Acc SO's they're very reliable. I've never had them fail due to unexpected non-detonation (apart from in the specific examples described above) The only time things tend to go badly wrong is when just one goon runs into the mines well ahead of all his buddies and detonates the lot before the rest arrive. That really sucks, but it's hardly down to the mines, and it's most certainly NOT a non-detonation issue!

Firstly, I only just noticed that my AR blasters Ignite power accepts Accuracy enhancements - which seems odd because I thought it was auto-hit against any target in the AoE. So far it's never failed to do damage to absolutely anything held immobilse in it's AoE including AV's and GM's. Is this just a mistake on the designers part? (like when Recall Friend used to accept range enhancements) - or would adding Accuracy enhancements actually somehow improve the power?

Secondly, is it my imagination, or do trip mines now require you to be fairly close to them in order to be detonated by enemies? If so, I'm pretty certain they never used to - not so long ago I'd lay mines with caltrops, aggravate the mobs with my M30, and run away whilst they were picking themselves up, to return after a short while to find all my mines (and the mobs) gone.

Recently however I've been noticing that if I've backpedalled a fair distance from my trip mines (laced with caltrops, as always) I can actually be watching enemies slow-dancing in my minefield without setting any off - and they only explode if I move closer. I don't THINK it's just because the added +acc of my target drone is coming into play as I move in - my mines currently have 2 Accuracy SO's and yet this happens with what seems so far to be 100% consistency even against groups of much lower level minions (where I'd expect at least some detonations, given multiple lower level targets walking around on multiple mines - they can't ALL miss ALL the time, surely?)

TIA for any comments.

I'd appreciate any advice/input from experienced /Regen scrappers please. I'm curious about the pros and cons of Resilience - am I right in thinking it's main purpose is to give you resistance vs Disorient? Since I've had Integration I don't think I've ever suffered from any Disorient status effects, so is it really much use?

The description also mentions some resistances to smash and I think lethal... and toxic damage (how many opponents do toxic damage?) I'd expect this to be a relatively small amount as I believe Resilience is an 'always on' power and that seems to be the way they're handled. Again, worthwhile or not really?

Anything I've overlooked, any good reasons to take or to avoid taking the power?

TIA

Fristly, thanks for all your replies - most helpful. It doesn't bother me if it's not totally 'uber', just that it's not worthless. From your replies it certainly doesn't sound to me like MoG is a totally 'gimped' or pointless power pick, so I'm going to stick with it, try it out, and see how it goes.

BTW, I also run an Invul tanker (scranker) with Unstoppable. I get good use out of the power and I like it a lot, which is why I thought I'd take MoG on my scrapper - seemed kind of similar. FWIW most people on the tank forum seem to be pretty positive about the power. As you're probably aware, timing Unstoppables duration accurately is pretty important if you want to get the most out of it and avoid faceplanting when you 'crash'.

Tried Herostats, but it was hopeless - it seemed to cause all sorts of crashes and lockups, and the power timers regularly failed to display at all. Kinda pointless seeing as the buff/power duration timers were my sole reason for using it.

Anyway, I found a cheap old fashioned 3 minute sand-in-glass egg timer that does the job perfectly (as long as I remember to turn it over!) so if MoG also runs for 3 minutes it looks like I'm all set. Thanks again

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maybe an empath is not as important any more because almost every origin can choose powers for healing and stuff i think these powers only should be availeble to defenders only but that would probably will be to difficult to do

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Well, my AR/Devices blaster has Aid Self, partly because it fits nicely with the theme of my character, but also because I'm a solo. Still, it is severely limited compared to 'proper' empath heals, and I would in no way consider it any kind of substitute - merely the best I can do under the circumstances, being the ONLY self-healing option open to me. Given the chance of an empath as backup (for heals AND buffs) solo or teamed, I would jump at the opportunity every time, absolutely no doubt about it.

I've recently taken the Moment Of Glory power on my Katana/Regen scrapper (my first and only scrapper) although I've yet to use it.

Since then I've come across quite a few comments on the forums to the effect that it's a pretty useless power, with some people really slating it off as complete rubbish. I've yet to see anyone say anything it's defence, which is somewhat... troubling. I doubt that anyone wants to have wasted a pick on a 'gimped' power.

So, could any experienced /Regen scrappers be so kind as give me the benefit of their experience - is MoG really pants? ...and if so, your reasons for coming to that conclusion, please?
(in case it makes a difference, I mostly tend to play solo)

TIA.

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I know what you mean. Im finding it hard to find one too. What is going on? I have had to face switching toons or the dreaded solo which Jack isnt suited for. Im getting a tad frustrated that he levels so slow because I cant find a team. Infact Gand here has read my comments about lack of teams with my emp a few times.

WellI have to disagree with the point empaths are redundant high levels unless you are trying to prove a point they are not needed. We help AV missions to be sure and we dont just heal. CM is needed for even the high level teams. As is fort and RA.

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Hi Lode - only just notice your post. Have to say, I'm amazed at your comment about slow levelling - not that I don't believe you, I'm just genunely shocked. My experience with my empath is quite the opposite - not only does she get regular team calls, but she's often invited to much higher level teams. They'll often offer to SK her very favourably so that she can get the best XP, that's how keen they seem to be to have her along. As a result, she just rockets up the levels. I can usually get as much XP in a couple of weekday evenings with her as either of my AR/Dev blasters can grind in a full week including the weekend. Only downside being that she has outlevelled loads of contacts and story arcs.

You've got me baffled there, because that completely goes against my experiences so far. My Empath/Energy blast defender (heavy on the empath, blaster side almost non-existant) has been extremely popular with teams since the day I first logged into Atlas, remaining so to this very day (currently L43) Many times I'm fighting off random team offers with a bat almost as soon as I log on! (I wish my AR/Dev blasters were even half a popular)

It's not like I have a regular group I play with, or even a few regular friends. I only joined my first SG around L35, and have yet to actually team with anyone from either SG I've been in. Nope, I'm a complete freelancer and it's been non-stop random PUG's all the way for me. Whilst that's never really been what I wanted I have to say it's worked out fine for me, and as long as it continues to do so I'm not complaining.

I have noticed a lot more empaths around my level online recently - was on a team the other day that had THREE of us for a while! - a first for me. I'd also have to agree that the job often seems to be money for old rope now, even if I'm the only medic/buffer on the team. Lately I almost feel embarrased at how little I have to do, or even CAN do in a resonably organised/competant team. Even so, I've never been made to feel like I'm deadweight or leeching even if I've had flat zero to do. I really don't know what to say to those emps who are having lean times getting onto teams - serious case of YMMV going on here

A final thought - perhaps it might be worth actively looking for AR-blasters to team with? Both mine are having a real hard time getting teams, and I don't think they're the only ones. Until reading this thread, and based on my own empaths ability to pick and choose her company, I would never have dreamed of trying to invite an empath to team. Just assumed I'd have been turned down faster than a tramp asking a supermodel for a date!

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Well I have topped my poor old empath for not wanted in a team. I joined one with my AR/Dev blaster, entered the mission and was told, "sorry we wanted a real blaster" and got kicked from the team.

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Wow, I thought my AR/Dev blasters have had it tough, but that's seriously harsh. It's true, I do have difficulty getting onto teams with my gunmen, and enforced soloing has become the norm for me now, rather than the exception. Still, on the occasions I have been invited I've never been booted (or even mocked) once they've seen that I'm playing what many seem to think is a fatally gimped and almost worthless toon. For what little it's worth you have my sympathies bro.

Maybe I missed a meeting or something, but the Timebomb from the devices powerset seems to be fairly pointless to me.

You can't lay it whilst using invisibility, so unless someone ELSE can grant invis on you you can't lay it in the middle of a group and leg it. As it's a fixed 15 second timer before detonation, it's hard to see how you could lay it and then reliably get an opponent to come over and stand on/near it till it explodes. Even if you use caltrops/web grenade and a stopwatch, I dunno, to me it just seems way too fiddly to be of any real use. More so given that you can just use multiple Trip Mines to get a similar (but far more reliable) effect.

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I actually asked a team is everyone spoke English and if so were the words I was using too big for them?

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I've been invited onto both all-Spanish and all-Italian teams before now for some reason (desperation?) Well, at least, I THINK those were their nationalities - not 100% sure as I do not speak either language! Anyway, it soon became clear that no one else on the team spoke (or was prepared to speak) a word of English. Needless to say I bailed pronto. Since then I have been on a few teams where the odd member has appeared to have little or no understanding of English (or was totally unresponsive to any communication, even though they were clearly not AFK) What's with that I wonder?

I think it's something of a catch-22 here. I don't imagine anyone is 'born' a great tanker, you probably have to learn to become one. So how DO you learn to become one? Actually I'm not at all sure, but my guess is that either someone with more experience teaches/advises you, or maybe you pick it up with a team as you go along. Obviously, having a competant advisor is vital for the first method to yield worthwhile results, and I'd imagine that having a decent (or at least reasonably organised) team is probably pretty important for the second method.

Well, in all my time playing CoH hardly anyone has ever been forthcoming with any advice on how to play my tank (other than telling me to get taunt) Also, as my entire CoH career has been PUG after random PUG, I've rarely if ever teamed with the same people more than once or twice, and usually no one else in the group has teamed with anyone else there on a regular basis either. So, I've never really been able to pick up much that way either.

I quickly got tired of chaotic PUG's so I just went solo, and after ED I respec'd my tank into a 'scranker' - as a result of which I probably stand pretty much flat zero chance of ever learning how to be a better tank.