davidg_EU

Even in team missions there has never been a situation where any of the team has faced defeat due to my lacking clearmind,but perhaps that will change in higher levels ,and if it does I might re-select it.

But so far in Pve I have found little use for it, and even with my other chars never had to think "doh if only we had clear mind in the team!"

I do use Recovery aura and find that a much more useful and important power than CM ever was

Thats the great thing about role-play and wargames, its one big happy family tolerant of all its strange offspring :P

I try not to mock anyones idea of rp (though I cant but laugh at some), I met a few people recently who find first person role-play strange and intimidating,they prefer the "group narative " style of role play as can be found in a lot of play by mail games.

I also spoke to a lad the other day who wanted me to help him run a couple of COH style lrp sessions !!11!!

What was scary was that he wanted the combat mechanics to be totaly non-contact and to use a certain "paper scissor rock" system...ugh..

In hindsight if I had considered blapping as a tactic when I started I would have had much more fun with Spurr my sonic/en.

Sonics lack of range is a bit annoying, but not much of a problem if you blapp.

It has some nice aoes shockwave is a great med/longrange knockback aoe with damage, and my used power.

Howl I dont rate at all, its a short/med range cone effect. I only use it if I have no other power available.

Sirens song, the aoe sleep is a must have. It makes so many dangerous situations that much easier
(And you get to shour at other people for using aoes and breaking your sleep...just like trollers and defenders do )

Shout is a nasty shortrange single target power that can really hurt if it hits.

Shriek is a single target disorient that is great in pvp and pve..Its my main opening power in pvp or fighting dangerous bots.

Downsides:
I find that even with Tripple Acc SOs I cant hit the side of a barn, +1 bots need tactics and inspirations to be allmost certain of a hit and I usualy use amplify as well.

No Snipe power..How I miss it

End cost, does seem to drain quickly but thats easily remadied.

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In teams I find that I have to hold off using the aoes as it draws mega-aggro (Tanks complain when there pet badguys leave them to eat the sonic blaster ).

But that is also a blessing in disguise at it does encourage a little more thought on target selection and attack (other wise I just pick a target and click all my powers till everything is dead).

hmm so yeah go sonic.

I was thinking about taking my empath/rad into Sirens, but to do so as a solo would be suicide
The last thing those pesky villains want is some loon running around interfering with their hunts

That said I do take him into BB occasionaly, and he lasts a good while there, getting kills is tricky unless I can find a stalker who is foolish enough to persist in trying to kill me.

I'm still crawling along with my TA/A defender and its not to bad, its a challange that I think I might have dropped if it were not my main RP char on union.

Though when compared to other defender sets he is paff, the two sets are just nowhere near as good as the others for buffs/debuffs.

For some reason I tend to draw a lot of aggro too, which is nice to help keep the team alive but not good for my nerves.

To be honest I think it needs spicing up to be a worthwhile defender combo,perhaps reduce the end cost?

Inspirations are a part of the game and available to all, that they are not available in some pvp areas without leaving/combating bots is some form of limited control over them.

There is nothing wrong with people using them and it is not "abuse", who cares if some lvl 50 chugs down 2000 inspirations in a fight?

They are only using all the tools available to there build after all..

It all comes down to personal opinion and play style and in the end does not make any other person "better" or "worse" than another.

Some chars moaned at me once about using inspirations, I ignored it all.

As a non-pvp build (and as part of my char concept) I set out to make sure that Spurr would be in the [censored] if he cant drop an enemy quickly.
To that end when ever I remember I pack as many CABS as I can (usualy from pickups).

Saying people want skill vs skill and not skill vs inspirations is a flawed argument when a lot of PvP is based on character powers and enhancements, not player skill.

Without using CABS Spurr will flatline in about 15-20 seconds of non stop blasting, but this is little issue in pve where I take my time with mission and have to restrict what powers I use (if in a team I can only really use 2 attack powers safely without drawing aggro from the frontliners and turning into a thin red paste, my aoes are then used to protect the support characters or to draw aggro from the frontliners if things go bad.)

With my defender I run as a medic, not a buff/de-buff machine.

The main power I use is either heal other or healing aura (Ive got that endurance thingy two which is usefull, but I tend to only use it when I think the team will need it, or when the most experienced character on the team thinks it is needed).

AP is my emergency heal, if some one is losing health rapidly and entering red I'll hit them with AP, though most times I can make do with just the first two empathy heals.

The one power I did get rid of was clear mind.
In most teams my defender ran with beig caught in a hold/sleep was not much of a problem...And Frankly I found proton volly more useful

heh, I tend to avoid the battles going near them us just asking for debt..And those giant spider/crab villain things chew through me faster than a cow on laxatives!

And its a situation where Both sides are setting out to combat bots,so I leave them to it

Things which might introduce a bit of "skill" to pvp (and the game in general)

1: More LOS or Cone based perception powers.
(had other ideas but they were kinda rubbish)

2: Larger zones with more secure hero and villain entery points.

3:larger selection of temp powers for sale ( I know it shifts focus back to powers again, but it might help plug a few gaps in some builds)

4: Make everyone play TA/A defenders or sonic blasters

The stalker invis issue is a complex one I think depending upon your take of the game.

On one hand you would expect heroes to have come up with some method of detecting them other than "hmmmmm is that my blood...gack!", after all Stalkers are a deadly threat to the good and innocent (and powerful leaders of the world).

Sure there are powers which apparently allow you to see them , but these seem to require a dedicated PvP build as the ones most my chars have access to suck mightily unless you are "cowering in a group" which is a standard tactic now.. We pretty much need all the stacked tactics and stuf to have a chance of detecting them (by we I mean me ).

I love the bug that allows you to see them at long range, its horrific! Those frantic seconds of "Gack A stalker this way comes And now I cant see it!!!!!111!!!", as I start dancing around with tp and making sure Assault is active.

And on another hand you expect stalkers to be good at what they do, and for it to be hard to detect them...
I've seen blasters,scrappers ,controler and the others mash villains left right and centre (though I would love a high lvl sonic blaster to post some pointers on what they do in PvP, I feel a bit cowardly using my vulture tactics).

Being known as an easy target can be kinda sucky, I dont mind getting defeated but recently its seems that a lot of "anger" has seeped into Sirens, with people now using any tactic/oppurtunity to get a kill regardless of if it causes debt or not.

Note: When in PvP I never attack Villains who are in combat with bots, I try to make sure there are no bots too close though , if I attack a villain and bots get in on the action I switch targets to take out the bots first.

If I see angry bots going for a villain/hero I will move in and clear the bots..

All things I consider nice and polite.

But nice and polite it seems is out of fasion.


And that is the problem with PvP.
Not stalkers, Not any AT or buff/debuff.

With my sonic/energy blaster I need to use aim to be certain of at least one hit every two trys against mobile targets of +2lvs to me and thats with triple acc SOs in mst my powers.

Its a vital part of my opening gambit against foes in PvP and damned handy to get rid of those bleeping council types..

As a quick update, we are looking at doing Atta tommorrow ..so we can getout of the hollows!!! lol.

AP is great, I only ever died from it when the party were really getting hammered, and it was a case of use ap to heal the tank or we all die. SO I AP'd the tank and died from it due to the hp loss.

I use healing aura a lot too and its never healed the hp loss from AP on me

Ah but the use of travel powers is a valid tactic, and if zones prevented them (like to see the IC rationale for that), a lot of us would need free respecs

I like a good scrap as much as the next person, but walking around is far to dangerous for squishy types like me, Ive had and seen some amasing airborn duels and fights...And many an innocent has been rained on with bits of me

(( "Freedom Flight" On COH Unions server is a RP SG, active in the hollows at the moment. We do mainly mobile role-play. Look around for Longshot if you want to rp at some one ))

I usualy offer myself up as bait, or run as cover for who ever is bait.

Though I think to be honest a lot of people team up not to work as a team but to enable better hero coordination

"villains here!"

"where?"

"uhm the corner of x street and y park"

or

"They on me!!!!!" (Everyone looks on map).

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I tend to feel guilty after a while in a team too, unless the villains are really putting up a good fight..sometimes it can seem quite harsh when the team is cutting down villain after villain using good team tactics, and lets not forget some people call team work "gang killing"

The little icon thingy telling you that you are suffering from an area buff/de-buff does seem a bit hit and miss.

Hell for a good few weeks it was telling my I was buffing and debuffing when it blatantly wasnt.

One question.
Are te buffs and debuffs cumulaitive?
Or is my evil plan to do 100 missions of each type in one sitting to totaly nerf the enemy doomed to failure???

I dont mind the missions, but what annoys me are the "dont attack me I'm just doing missions,im not here to pvp" villains (and probably hereos too).

Sure I am nice and leave them alone(that is till they attack another hero..then they are fair game), but lets be honest here, would they do the same?

And there is whining, and offering criticism

The ability to team up with villains would rock, and now stalk has said it cannot happen guess Im never going to warburg

The only real problem I have with sirens is..... no inspirations.. cant they stick some one there to sell them?

(I dont count the temp powers as worth anything...I can tp allready, I can fly allready.. If Im getting hit then no amount of ice armour will save me..and goggles are just rubbish)

I like the little messages that people attach to some powers. Part of the fun of the genre is heroic banter and conversation/wordplay.

I guess it all comes down to preferance of style of play.
I like to take my time, interact with the team not fly through missions in a "rack up as much xp as possible before midnight" style game (though I do those too )

what server?
I have a TA/archery defender on union, and though solo can be hard in teams they are nails!

Glue arrow is a must have
And the fast rate of fire for the netty hold arrow is great too

1) Three of any sort can beat certain characters with ease.
Three on one odds are fairly tight for most characters without using inspirations, and certain ATS are going to be weaker than others.. As a blaster I expect most enemies to get in close to kill "the glass cannon".

2) Certain powers can be switched off; others can't.
3) Secondary effects rule
As they do in pve, the only bonus to playing some powersets is the secondary effects, ive been saved many times in pve by my stuns or sleeps.

4) Preventing people gaining certain inspires/powers makes the playing field completely unlevel.
Thats something I find challanging, it means that I have another reason to do the missions in PvP so myself and other heroes can access them.

5) A full volley from a Blaster (leaving Stamina on near to zero and no recharged powers) is required to floor a Mastermind (The Squishiest AT)

Not allways true, but as a blaster I find that to take down any boss I must do this and more, and thats in pve.

6) Secondary powers that come under the main defence sets are close to useless.

7) Certain Powers bypass others with no problem.

8) Defence is so low on some AT's that first strike wins.
9) -ability powers last far too long.
10) Once either side has gained a significant advantage; there is no longer a viable alternative to challenge them excepting getting twice the number of attackers.


As a PvP "dabbler" I have great fun in sirens call, I play one of the weakest blaster sets you can have and I have made no effort to tailor my character for PvP, and I still can make villains run occasionaly

The problems I have in PvP are ones I think have their basis in the flaws of the AT, our damage output at range can be lower than our melee damage output and we are far from the "glass cannon" ideal.

I've seen ice blasters dominate the zone for hours, sending all they face running, or forcing them to gang up for protection.

And energy blasters seem to have great fun throwing people around, or just smashing stalkers and other ATs in melee.

Love: Me. If not me then I love everyone

Hate: I dont really hate anything, people who do not have hero/villain chat enabled winds me up a bit, a little acknowledgement when I congratulate someone over a good kill of me is allways nice.

Brutes can be a pain...or any character that has so many hits I have to follow them for a week to hurt them
Nerf all chars but mine!!!!!

I try not to deprive people of their hard earned defeats/victories, but if you want a 1v1 then post a broadcast telling everyone

That said, I had an awesome 1 on 1 with a corrupter in sirens the other night, a truly epc battle (Well for me anyway,I hope the villain had fun too) that required a much needed rest to regain end part way throug And that was after about an hour of a teleportation chase through the zone....good times

The debt thing is more to do with their role in a team, when you get down to the crunch, Blasters are one of the last ATs that people will heal as they are the least important in a team and attract death to them like flys to dung.

How about having the ability to do crits with their primary powerset?
Perhaps linked in to lack of health too.