makerian

Didn't notice if servers went down. Is there a good way to find out whether the WST is udpated? Usually, it's posted on global channels, but those are as reliable as the users that type in the gmotd.

Thanks!

Can you use the first ward arcs to get Loyalist Resistance moral choices? If so, how? Are there other ways for L50s that started as heroes or villains to get these 3 badges: Moral High Ground, Resistance Member, and Loyalist?

Another thing I've noticed is that when I come back, I usually have at least one person in the team, league, global channel, or help chat that also says they just crashed. When it's the same team or league, it's less of a coincidence but of course globals and help could just be because of the number of people online. I do think it more than just random that teammates or league mates crash at almost the same time I do, not many, but there might be something happening that is not 'memory leak' related.

Ever since the update, I've noticed that after a few hours of activity, I will crash. When I crash, I'm usually doing something, like playing the game or zoning. The application will just freeze. It used to be most noticeable during a zone load, but I've been in the middle of regular content, say a LGTF or OB story arc, and I'll just freeze up. Since I'm playing in a team usually, I'm in a hurry to get back in so I'll click X or go to Task Manager to end the process. With other crashes, I would sometimes get the COH crash handler box (allowing me to input some text to explain what I was doing), but not with this freeze.

I've even tried loading into a mission solo and just afk overnight and I will wake up to a crashed client.

My computers used to be handle days of COH running non-stop, now I usually have to restart COH 1-3 times in one evening of play.

I think those experiences could all be explained, here's my take on them:

Targetting: My experience has been that if you try to do something like place Rain of Fire, you might get "too excited" and target a location and click the left mouse button to place it. That can cause you to lose focus on your target and either result in no target or whatever is in front of your mouse cursor. This can happen with teleport as well, for example. Doesn't sound like what you describe, but I've had it happen. Other common things would be to press the Tab accidentally (if you have it set to target). Do you click powers with a mouse or activate them with the numpad or keyboard?

[Im targeting the boss, pull off one of my super duper moves, and all of a sudden the target is on a minion or something (no the same boss isnt dead)]

Inspiration lag: This is usually because you have something queued, if you're in heavy power spam mode, or trying to toggle on a couple leaderships right before dying, or just in a really long animation, you can click inspirations or press F keys til you're blue in the face and nothing happens. It can be a feedback cycle. You activate, immediately press F1 nothing happens so you hit another power, press F1, nothing happens, etc. The first time you were animating, the second time you queued. If you attack then F1, the inspiration will be queued. Be patient enough and it will trigger, then attack again.

[Seems like forever for a inspiration to be used, enough time to die]

Power recharge: This is a bug, but in my experience the power is really still recharging (check your Combat chat), just not animating like it does. Sometimes a zone load or recharge affecting power will make it appear normal again. I've had powers stuck in circling activation mode long after used as well as powers that are tiny and look like recharging but are actually ready for use and I can activate them. So, I think it's a bug, but not a game breaker. I recall seeing this particularly on old school Hami raids, mothership raids, etc. Not sure how common it still is.

[Sometimes with no rec debuffs (I monitor recharge) my powers are frozen, not recharging at all, with the exception of maybe one or two]

Akarah, this thread was talking about access to Beta Test. It sounds like you're referring to today's live downtime Hopefully they'll all be up soon.

From the first post: "Unable to access server. I'm trying to access the Beta server for city of heroes but it says that my account doesn't have access and access is restricted for the public."

I thought I recall them using a similar message, but saying "scheduled server maintenance" instead of daily. This announcement specifically said patch notes would not be applied.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=269154
This is just a short but necessary maintenance and as such no patch note will be available.

That doesn't sound like a trickle down of patches to the live servers from the Beta. It seems excessive to have 5-7 days of near consecutive downtime scheduled unless Freedom launches today.

The statements don't indicate there are game improvements going in. The lack of patch notes would indicate that as well. Perhaps there are some insidious exploits uncovered during last 2xp weekend? There was also a mid weekend shutdown, wasn't there?

Seems unlikely they need to trickle patches for Freedom now on live servers.

Hopefully, this doesn't become "daily" as suggested by the Admin message:

[Admin] Attention! In 30 minutes, City of Heroes and City of Villains will go down for daily server maintenance. The "downtime" window is two hours long but maintenance may or may not take that entire time. We will have the game back up as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!

I'm not sure what you mean by (3), what origins should Trick Arrow take to ignite powers and why?

But there might be a (5): Vet powers that benefit by your Origin, say Blackwand for Mutation (and Magic?), Nemesis Staff for Tech (and Natural, Science?).

The differences aren't great, but they are noticeable.

Thanks for the feebdack. All good suggestions.

I've made some changes to the build. I also recently made the character, so only L5 atm

I removed Whirlwind (which was just a throwaway), Bonfire, and Mud Pots (because of the small radius)
I added Aid Other / Aid Self and Seismic Smash

I put in either Mako's Bite or Crushing Impact in Stone Mallet, Heavy Mallet, and Seismic Smash

I added 5 FF Chance for Rcg procs in Stone Spears, Stone Mallet, Heavy Mallet, Tremor, and Fissure.

I rearranged a few other slots so my Health is 3 slotted with 2 Miracles for set +Rec and +Reg/Rec proc

I kept the purple in Immob, I do like the idea of chance to Hold

I was really hoping the KB procs would result in KnockUp against higher level mobs. May not even be necessary but I figure it would've been good mitigation if Disorients start dropping off. I also though I could keep mobs in a Bonfire with Fire Cages spammed, still not sure how that works.

You're right about the end being a potential issue. Initially I was thinking Spiritual (not for Domination, but for Rcg and Stun), but Cardiac or Musculature might prove to be better (either killing faster or keeping end up longer when killing).

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...F5FE1FAA52E0E1

I agree with a Dom or say an Emp Cardiac is possibly the least useful, I meant that in general it was best out of the box for most of my ATs, because, for example Acc/Dam/Rcg tend to be highly slotted and so I'm against the ED cap normally.

I also like Spiritual because of the on paper increase in Disorient and Heal, but I think Musculature is gonna be the way to go. For whatever reason, this build is slightly Dam light, so popping the musculature will put me in the 100%+ range for almost all attacks, which will be nice.

Lemur, I meant more in terms of how my slotting is. My damage is between 55-105%, but I have a number of pb/aoe type attacks like Ice Storm, Fire Cages, Tremor, etc. that I plan on using plus a few ST ones. I think with the chain of attacks, even my modest dmg buffs will be pretty good. I just didn't go for capped dmg. I think I will probably also be getting Musculature (my other 3 incarnates have all of just about everything), so we'll see how it plays out for me with Spiritual at first. Typically, I prefer Cardiac as I tend to get the most bang for my buck on that.

I'd like to come check you out in action. My build is as much theme as it is meant to be overpowered. I find I can make just about any build work, but some are more fun than others.

For me, I think the most relevant question for my dom would be:

When fighting 50 level PVE NPCs (iTrials, TFs, Missions), would S/L or Ranged defense be more effective based on the frequency and damage of the various types of attacks I will encounter (only positional, only typed, combination), particularly when I plan to alphamez from Ranged (Flashfire) but spend the rest of my time in Melee?

I think based on the new build I was considering, I will spend the majority of my time in Melee range, so I think I already have the answer to my question (S/L is better), but it's a combination of dmg per activation and frequency of type of attack that would seem to matter. During an alpha strike if, say, 10 NPCs hit me with Ranged, I might not even get into Melee, which is also a consideration, but I think the more likely scenario is that I can bypass initial Ranged aggro and a couple bosses would escape from a Flashfire and start pounding on me with Melee/PBAOE.

To paraphrase Crysys, my new build is recharge > acc > mez > dmg > defense.

I'm planning around
180% recharge
150-215% Acc
near perma Flashfire 22 rcg : 22/39 dis with 166% acc)
53-95% dmg
35% S/L

I also have Aid Self planned, so I get a little respite there. Plus, I know how to use inspirations and will have some imps and Lores (on occasion) to assist.

It's tight enough that I could ramp up the difficulty nicely on most content or play high level content and still feel like a bit of a monster.

Thanks for the feebdack.

I've been curious how KB/KD Mag works on +1-4 for a while. I remember the days of being an Ice Controller and mixing and matching my Ice Slick and Frostbite. I sort of remember when the mechanics were changed years ago, but haven't really used it much in a long time.

I figure'd the KB procs etc might help, particularly when fighting bosses that might resist an initial disorient or if npcs start coming out of the disorient sooner than I'd hoped, but you might be right about swapping slots for other things in lieu of all that KB.

As for mud pots, you're probably right it's not helpful, particularly on alpha mezzed groups since half or more will be out of the radius. That'd free up some space, giving me room for something like Aid Self.

Fire Cages will be in my main list and with -100kb mag, I figure it could hold npcs in the KB stacking. I tend to spam FC when I was on my Fire/FF back in the day anyway.

Probably will move the Rag back to a D/R or something though.

Hi all, I'm planning on making a Fire Earth Ice Dominator. I did some tweaking on the build, and this is what I've come up with:

http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...71FF03928BDEFC

It will use 3 purples for Immobilize, Disorient, and Hold as well as one Ragnarok Chance for Knockdown and I should be comfortably in the permahasten permadom range.

I intend to use Spiritual which boosts my Recharge for Hasten/slottables as well as my Stun duration, which is nice, because I will rely on Disorients.

It's intended to have lots of AOE/PBAOE but not necessarily to be the strongest possible set (it's meant to be a praetorian counterpart to my main Hero and Villain).

It does have Hot Feet, Mud Pots, Fire Cages, Flashfire, Tremor, Bonfire, Fissure, Sleet and Ice Storm. I probably couldn't even use that many powers in a row, so it might be overkill. I might consider dropping some.

I also tried to slot in some extra Disorient bonuses in Flashfire and Fissure using Stupefy and Debilitative in Fire Cages as well as some KD bonuses in Sleet, Stone Mallet, and Heavy Mallet.

I am figuring between my alpha Flashfire+Fire Cages+Sleet that the mobs should be sufficiently disoriented, immobilized, and knocked down (if not in the immob) for me to clean up.

I also picked up Whirlwind for no good reason, but I figure I could experiment with it.

Any input on the build would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

ruhroh forcibly disconnected, the drama continues, check out my twitter feed for updates ... ;P

Looks like login server just let me in too

Heh I just noticed the link they provide for the error message "The game client was unable to connect to the login server"... points to an invalid weblink.

The link they provide is:
http://www.cityofheroes.com/servers/index.htm
The official link is:
http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/ser...er_status.html
And the link that actually has the relevant information apparently is:
http://sgspaces.net/server_status/index.php

Would be nice if they
1) fixed the error message so it reported the correct official page link
2) fixed the part of the code on the server_status page that reports incorrect Last Updates (bottom right), and
3) included the Login Server on the server_status page, like the sgspaces.net link does...

Thanks for the input. Like FourSpeed, I was trying to weigh the differences between how many attacks have S/L components versus how often I would only receive ranged attacks.

I think the build I'm considering is Mind/Fire/Ice, which is the Praetorian equivalent of my Hero Fire/Ice/Cold Blaster and Villain Fire/Cold/Soul Corruptor. The idea was to keep some things common (fire and cold).

Looking at that build, I see that I can get around 44+% S/L Def without having to sacrifice too much (http://www.cohplanner.com/mids/downl...31D63FA4CC3236). I'm still tweaking the build and will post on Dom forums to get suggestions.

If I were to go Ranged Def, it seems I would be making a lot more sacrifices. Any recommendations for easier higher Ranged Def? I think I was stalling in the 30s% range. If not, I think I'm sold on a tradeoff analysis with the S/L Def.

Also, as a note, I like to be near melee range, and this build will have close cone/ranged Fire Breath and Blaze and melee/pbaoe Combustion, Consume, and Incinerate. It will not have Blazing Bolt. I expect the alpha mezzes to help considerably in providing mitigation on incoming dmg at least long enough for me to not get overwhelmed.

I'll probably also go with Nerve Radial Total Revamp to get the added Acc/Hold/Confuse/Def.

I'm thinking of making a Dominator, and was looking for opinions as to which would be better to try to get with IOs, Ranged Defense or Smashing and Lethal Defense?

I may choose another AT, Def, Cor, Con, so it's not Dominator specific. However, it will be an AT that will be able to keep most enemies at a distance.

I just went through this process over the past week.

What I find better than the forums is doing a /search and narrowing the level range down for the safeguard/mayhem you want (e.g., find players in the 25-30 range). I prefer someone in the middle, say 26-28.

Then I send them a prewritten message, something like "Hi, would you be interested in earning 50 million inf? Just get me a mayhem mission in your level range and let me get the exploration badge. Takes between 5-60 minutes. Let me know, thanks!"

Some will respond, some won't, some don't have time. I only need 1.

Often, I was helping them run some paper missions, but you could make them do that. Then when the safeguard/mayhem was available, I'd announce to see if others wanted to pay to play, so that person could earn more inf.

Worked a lot better than shouting in help chat, global channels, etc.

Good luck!

Congratulations!

I figure this is as good a time as any.

For those that don't have the badges for doing additional WSTs: Assistant (1), Backup (10), and Partner (50), I'm gonna be doing them this week.

I will be focusing on the 3rd Treespec in Nerva. If you're interested, come join in for the fast runs. I think this is one of the fastest runs in the game, and it has other nice rewards like badges and respecs.

Evenings, EST, maybe 8pm and later.

See you there.

Sounds like a trollquest, but I think as others have said that it will get easier and faster with familiarity. I like to do it sometimes to do a trifecta and get 3 e-merits in an evening.

I do think 3 reactors and 90 temps is excessive. I would have preferred 1-2 temp per terminal, I think that would speed it along more, even if they had to reduce the number of glowies, increase the number of Goliaths, or increase the refresh timers.

It can be an exciting trial and also frustrating. It's the first one where I really feel like the league could be effectively split into multiple tasks (defeating WW, collecting temps, using temps, taunting AM) in such a way as to significantly reduce the overall time. So on a great team, it's quite fun. On a new or poor team, it can be very frustrating, particularly when Obliterations keep healing him and you fail due to lack of time.

I like to keep it in my mix, but finding people is still like finding people on LAM a couple months ago when BAF was the only easy iTrial.

Two other 'solutions' to the TUT problem.

1. Once you have an Open league queued, the League and Team leaders should still be able to invite players. It's sort of silly that you queue an OPEN league of 16 players, and someone in /broadcast says they are interested in a league, and I can't invite them (and then have to try to tell them to go into LFG and queue into the trial, hoping they'll get in).

2. Players who are in LFG should be able to be invited to leagues by League (and Team?) leaders. If the person is in LFG, that means they want to be in a league, it makes sense a /leagueinvite /li would allow them to join a league.

If I could do those two things, here's what I would do:

Form the minimum for a BAF, LAM, or KEY using /b in PocketD. Once I have the minimum, I would begin the queue, and continue to recruit until full or the timer runs out.

Btw, is there a way to see which players are queued in LFG? Because, it would be nice to do a search of those people, send tells or invite them FIRST to a trial, then recruit in open channels...