twelfth

Swipe doesn't do much for damage on its own and has no other status effects (which is why many other ATs will tell you to skip it), but its a low-end, fast recharging attack - so it's a good fury builder that makes it well suited to a brute build (at least at an early stage). In short, it helps with the blenderifficness.

Putting in the taunt psi damage proc is an experiment on my part, I don't know if it would actually be worth it.

OP here.
I'm willing/interested to see what Doc Aeon has planned for the re-patch, and I did post this before his response back to the community. At this point, I've pretty much said my piece here but I was curious how many people would back such an idea.

Seriously, so. Redside love. What you should know about Villain-side is that it features a smaller number of zones, but with considerably more compressed content that tosses out a lot of the "filler" you will find on blueside. Since City of Villains was released after City of Heroes, the developers took a lot of what they learned in building and getting feedback on CoH and applied it to City of Villains. CoV/Redside typically has a smaller population of players, but not drastically. In my experience, the playerbase tends to be a little friendlier as well.

Villain side archetypes are commonly seen as being conceptual reversals of the hero-side archetypes, although this isn't exactly the case (but it's close enough to understand what they do). There aren't always clear analogues to the blue-side/hero-side archetypes, and the roles are not carbon-copies of the Heroic ones. This may be in contrast to other MMOs where, for example, a melee class with high damage/high defenses are the same regardless of what faction you belong to. This isn't the case in "City of X", so be aware of this. Although both are high melee damage/medium defense Archetypes: Scrappers =/= Stalkers. Although both ATs have control-based powers, Controllers =/= Dominators. Etc.

Note that until issue 17 is released, the Epic Archetypes will unlock at lvl 50 (the level cap). You're probably not likely to reach level 50 before issue 17 drops (several months or a year of casual play is probably a "reasonable" range for being able to reach the cap).

An "issue" is a moderate-to-major content update, usually with new patches, new content, sometimes with new power changes, and frequently with gameplay and Quality-of-Life updates. It's not a full expansion (which is what the aforementioned "Going Rogue" will be), but just an interim update. There are usually one to three issues released per calendar year.

Edited for correction. Brutes have comparable defense/resistence numbers to Scrappers. They are, basically, the highest-ranked in defense/resistence for Villains (or "redside"). (Yes, there is debate over this but for your purposes, this is how you should imagine it.)

Corrs are actually the reverse of Defenders. Corruptors value damage dealing over buffing/healing/debuffing - but are powerful on those tasks as well. You can get blaster-like damage (but not quite as high as blasters) while being able to assist a team. Mind you, many powerset combinations are quite "soloable" if you prefer not to play on a team. Corruptors, like blasters and defenders, are still fragile with low hit points and very limited to nil innate defenses.


Masterminds can be a complex archetype to manage and requires you to be able to handle the AI on several pets. Its not an AT I would exactly recommend for a starting player. However, many people comment that once you get the interface down with commanding your pets, Masterminds are basically putting the game on autopilot with a collision course for WIN.

This link goes to the single best source for information on the game (other than the boards itself), Paragon Wiki. You can learn about various powersets (in general, the boards here have more detailed information; but you can find out the general information here), mission/story arcs, contacts, in-game lore.

Let me say that I'm extremely relieved that we had a redname come down and talk to us about the issue. At least we know that they are aware of the issue. Acknowledgement is better than nothing and while the statement here doesn't necessarily solve the issue, at least we know that the Devs are also unsatisfied with the patch. At least I have the feeling this was a decision which was acknowledged as being flawed but probably mandated by factors outside the player's knowledge base. Do I wish they had just not done it at all? Sure.

Furthermore I'm glad this the issue is under the nose of the devs. I think it's the right choice here to name some names and let us know that a solution is a team effort.

Seriously. No one loved AE more than Aeon's pre-dev self. He had designed and authored about a dozen arcs before most of us had managed to squeeze our first stinking, malformed, and buggy arcs out for others to see. While there might be some folks out at Paragon Studios who think CoH is just a job, I fully believe that the AE system is a labor of love for Doc Aeon. 'Tis why he's my favorite Dev.

Besides, look at what he said. This issue is considered to be such a danger to the playerbase that it's banded together two formerly irreconcilable enemies: Aeon and Television!

If Paragon Studio wants to pay me to go through the system and flag 'em, I'll do it. Hell it doesn't have to even be for cash, we can negotiate. I'm sure there's no small number of players who'd be glad to start flagging exploitative content.

Hmm. That does sound bad. However, I think the PCs are still having the rez bug where using certain rez/wakie/power combinations skips the rez animation entirely (toon on floor - rez - toon pops up instantly without "standing up"). Might be related to that since I don't think critter rez results in stunned status.

Come to think of it, this isn't so much of a change. CoT Hordelings did this already with their rez, they would be untargetable as well during their rez. Sounds like it's just an expansion on that idea. Still, if they are attacking before their rez animation is completed (or its coded time to animate is complete), then that sounds like a bug.

Based on what I hear, I think it's purples. But meh. Semantic quibble.

So does this also count "person-class" critters, those with no power or other value to them? I assume it would, since it sounds like a code-flag issue rather than something that based on critter type.

Seriously, a redname might help cool people out.

So, what you're saying is that you're Bi? =D

Seriously, though. I would love to have XP and rewards and a great story. It definitely helps. I want both.

I am willing to make a compromise, though.

I can sympathize with this. I really can. I know the content can get repetitive. That's a challenge I gotta put to the devs. Please generate more content, new content.

This, on the other hand, is something I can't get behind. Exploits should be exposed. Farm all you want, I don't care. Hell, I want you to farm legitimately, I need the salvage and recipes and stuff. But don't exploit the system. If players find exploits, they are under no obligation to keep them secret.

I can agree with the sentiment, the ones building the exploiting AE arcs are the problem. Unfortunately, the Devs are presently attempting to deal with a swarm of gnats by using a shotgun. This is not a good solution, which basically just makes it part of the problem.

I general though, I am not hating on the devs specifically. I am hating on the solution. With some hatesauce for the folks who forced the Devs hands into placing that solution on Live. And a slice of hate-pie for the folks who enable the exploiters by running exploit-enhanced missions.

Dunno yet, Eva, but we need to find this out in the PDQ.