Warkupo

1. Be nobodies fool.
2. 3 strikes.
3. Pulling is lame.

As a side note, question, thing:

How exactly are we defining popularity in this case? I only ask because I realize that our perception of what makes something popular might be slightly skewed due to the type of game we play. For instance, if we are defining popularity in the most scientific sense, where a population of some species (the players) occupies an area, Preatoria, then we'd be correct in stating that Preatoria is not very populated, especially if we compare it to something like Atlas Park, which is so densely populated it needs to break the laws of physics and exist in multiple instance to hold all the people who commonly occupy the area.

But if we where to describe popularity as the shared personal enjoyment of an area then I might start to make the case that Preatoria actually was rather popular in the same way I would describe a console game as being 'popular'. For example, I only played the most recent Batman games twice before I ran off to do something else. I'd still consider it a highly successful and widely popular game, even though very few people are probably still playing it.

My point then, is that it might not entirely be fair to describe Preatoria as unpopular, more that it has just run its' course. I'm likely just arguing semantics too, but I think the distinction is worth making.

My characters do age, but they aren't perfectly aligned with real-time either. I think they've progressed about 3 years over the course of the game.

The biggest problem with Preatoria is that is has a wealth of content spread over an alarmingly thin level range. Most people who where playing Preatoria approached is like they did the rest of the game, that is, leveling very quickly in a group. Thing is, lv1-20 is kind of a bad place to have this epic story unfold because level 1-20 goes by almost instantaneously in a group. The only 'good' way to approach preatoria content while retaining any comprehension of the story is solo, and that's not everyone's cup of tea.

I, with my full powers of hindsight, would have stretched the current content out over 30 levels, rather than 20, with the bulk of the stories occurring *after* level 20.

Edit: That's not really very helpful to repopulating Preatoria, mind, but it's my analysis on why I think it died so fast.

Let's just update all the graphics and models, and keep all the missions.

We'll call it CoH 1.5

Is it really that stressful to log back into the forum every eight hours? What do you guys do when you have to log into the game?

Given how sequel MMO's usually do, it'd be kind of dumb to directly compete with yourself. You're going to spend enormous resources creating an entire new game, and then going "hey, this is the improved version of your OLDER game. Come play this instead." only for people to go "yeah, you know what, I really miss all my old stuff. Later."

Then game 2 fails.

The main benefit of IO's is that they offer multiple enhancements in one "package", and offer set bonuses for having a "family" of them. If your power only needs one thing, and none of the set bonuses look appealing, you don't need the set-bonus IO's. Just get the normal ones.


As for getting more use out of Stamina: Grab the Performance Shifter: Chance for Endurance, shove it in there, and then slot it for Endurance Mod Enhancement.

The animation time of the placate doesn't usually equate to enough additional damage to justify it's use. A lot of the time you'd have been just fine if not better off continuing to attack. That's, of course, assuming you aren't knocked out of hide before you can capitalize from it.

Personally, I haven't been using Placate for awhile and this new update to Stalkers only continues to further my justification for that decision.

I'm not sure I even consider it a very good mitigation tool. It only gets rid of one enemy, and only for a little bit. If I'm getting mobbed, placating one enemy isn't going to matter. If I'm only fighting one enemy, most of the time I could just as easily run away in the time it takes to placate one guy. The only situation I could see it being useful is against a single strong opponent in a crowded/small room in which there is no good way to escape. That's far too specialized of a circumstance for me to warrant picking the power.

Also I just don't think it melds with a lot of my Stalker concepts. It doesn't make sense to me that my natural assassin can just whip out a jedi mind trick. That's not really a mechanical reason though, it just bugs me.

You're probably getting ahead of yourself. Your first task for making an IO build is to actually make an IO build. Go to mids, make something you think looks decent, and then bring it here so we can tell you that you're wrong and help you along to something that will smite the faces of thine enemies.

Anyway,

1: Salvage and Recipes can be found normally while playing the game, although they have different tiers of rarity. A lot of the time, for anything specific, you are going to be using Wentworth's. If something is too expensive you might be better off doing hero alignment missions, using merit points, or farming AE. You'll want to be doing SOMETHING to get random salvage and recipe drops anyway, so any one of those is a good place to spend your efforts.

Exactly how much time and effort you want to place into making the 'perfect' build is up to you. You can grind for hours or just play normally, entirely depends on how fast you want it done.


2: You can build at level 50, and in fact most enhancements are at their best value at their max level, so it's not even a terrible idea to do so. You need to be aware, however, that set bonuses won't apply if you exemplar down past the level range of the IO. How much of a problem this is for you depends on you. My *personal* philosophy is that I didn't need set bonuses leveling up, I shouldn't need them exemplaring down. You might think differently.

The *enhancement* values will still work like any other normal SO when you exemplar down, so you needn't worry about that. Also "procs", IO's which have a chance of doing something every time the power they're slotted in gets used, will work at any level as well because they are considered an enhancement.

It is also important to note that not all the best enhancements will be capped at level 50. The Kinetic Combat set, which offers high amounts of S/L defense and is the cornerstone for many such defense based builds, caps at level 35. Achilles' Heel: Chance for Resistance Debuff maxes out at level 20. Miracle: +Recovery caps at level 40. Point is that you really want to become more familiar with a wide level range of IO's if your serious about making an IO character. Again, it can seem overwhelming, but you got this entire forum here that likes to help with stuff like this.


3: Yes. What is expensive and what is cheap depends a lot on the rarity of the item, and how the market dictates its' price. Like any shrewd business man, you should aim to sell high and buy cheap. Failing that, there is always alignment/merits/ae if you aren't willing to spend 300 billion influence on something you could more capably get utilizing some other method.


4: You don't *have* to build for defense, but it is currently one of the most powerful mitigating methods available too you. To get an idea of just how powerful it can be, go find an arch-villain, pop three purples, and watch as you don't die. Now imagine doing that, but all the time.

The problem with building defense is that you must make very specialized builds for it, often taking many defense oriented toggles and powers you normally wouldn't use, and whose use won't be appreciated until your build starts to come together. Because of this you'll also need to consider the extra amount of endurance you use, and build for that as well. The OTHER problem with defense is that the developers totally know we build for it, and meta-game more recent challenges to make it less useful. It's also probably one of the most attractive things to the nerf-hammer right now, so just keep that in mind.

How important defense is and the amount of difference it will make depends on what AT you're playing. Scrappers/brutes/tankers/stalkers, who are almost always getting hit will find defense extremely useful. Controllers or Dominators, who usually have all the enemies locked down from the word "go" might not be so enthusiastic about it.

All that said, don't worry too much about getting to the magical 45%. While it does make a big difference, a good defense is probably around 25-30%, which is generally adequate to handle the "normal" encounters in the game provided you aren't entirely relying upon it. You don't really *need* 45% defense unless you're doing something more crazy, like soloing on the highest difficulty settings or trying to take down an arch-villain by yourself. Or both. For the "normal" game you can get away with smaller defense numbers and just pop a purple of things get hairy.

I should also mention, briefly, that aside from defense the *other* major thing you can do for your build is to greatly increase its' global recharge. In fact, I might venture to say that global recharge will make a bigger impact on your builds than building for defense. As a Scrapper your attacks will come back quicker and you'll be capable of performing some of the top end DPS chains. As a Controller your long cooldown control effects are suddenly back in, say, 30 seconds, rather than two minutes. The amount of difference it can make is staggering.


5: Kind of, but it won't happen for you right away. As you create a lot of IO builds, you'll get used to what tools can make what happen. For example, Weave, Maneuvers, Tactics, Combat Jumping, and Kinetic Combat are usually go-to aspects in my builds when trying to get high Smashing/Lethal defense regardless of AT. I know Certain pool powers are good for certain things. It's just a matter of becoming educated with what's available to you.


6: Depends on what you consider a 'cheap' build. If you're just looking to round out your powers with better enhancement options with no regards to set bonuses it can be super easey. If you're looking to make something with set bonuses that's got fairly good recharge and defense, it's going to get a little more expensive. If you're absolutely sweating every single decimal point of improvement and buying expensive PVP IO's in order to get every ounce of strength so you can run around as the most ultimate being in creation (until someone pops an inspiration and easily matches you) it's going to be crazy expensive.

It's going to take awhile the first time you make an IO character anyway just because there's a high amount of STUFF you need to be educated about first. Once you get into the swing of it, and once you know how to effectively make influence, it shouldn't be terribly difficult to decently outfit your characters in a way that is meaningful to their survival.


I hope that was long enough for you :P

Hard choice, but I think I'll go with B. I like the metallic look of C, but I think glowing in space would be more practical.

I tend to prefer Willpower now because I'm lazy, but regen is still plenty survivable if you play it right. My biggest hurdle with the set was using IO's to soft-cap defense and always being frustrated that I couldn't get to the magical 45. I eventually solved that problem by just getting over the phobia of inspirations, getting defense as high as possible without utterly sacrificing everything, and just popping a purple if things where getting rough. Much less expensive than making some million billion dollar build, and doesn't gut the entire build to do it.

You might not even care about IO's and all that though, so take from that what you will. Bottom line is that regen is still a beast.

Aside from melee, which I undoubtedly have the most of, I find I also like Controllers, or more recently, Dominators. The biggest 'draw' for me about melee is that I can ignore mez effects for the most part and just punch people in the face. Dominators have the ability, if played intelligently, to shut down enemies and then eviscerate them to bits, in melee even, so it tends to work out pretty well.

Blasters are also fun for the complete opposite reason: they kill things before it's a problem.

I'm a bit less attracted to corruptors, but I have those as well, and they tend to play like more defensive blasters. Everything else is probably too much of a support role for me to get too seriously into it.


Edit: BONUS ALTERNATE REPLY:

The cure for melee is MORE MELEE. WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, GET IN THERE AND PUNCH SOMETHING IN THE FACE, SOLDIER! ARRARRRRARRARARARGH!

I haven't really thought of it, I usually just assume my guy is dodging stuff but... what is Willpower doing then? Ignoring fire through the sheer force of his awesomeness (ie: deflection)?

Sounds like a great way to get a bunch of viruses on your computer.