Journal of a first-time MMORG player
By
187nut,
Posted on: 2005-01-20 01:10 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
Thanks. I've been figuring that I should throw in any villain experiences here too, once I get going on that. Otherwise, there would be many extended lengths of non-posting if I took a villain from 1 to 40, with little to none "hero" adventures during that time frame.
I almost feel guilty as it is with my reduced playing time. My entries have caught up to real time, so I only have new things to relate when I get to sit down and play now!
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 104
My contact, Susan Davies, always says, Are you ready for some action? whenever I go to get a mission, heh. On one she says, Do whatever Larry asks, and Im just hoping its not Larry Flynt. I notice Archery is slow going, because the damage is not all that great, but I can stay alive through almost anything. A combination of the Glue Arrow and Entangling Arrow gives me all the time I need to take out higher cons. From the way things are designed, I can tell they want me to be playing on a team, though.
Perez Park has almost nobody in it, so I try to find a team in the Hollows, but by the time I get there, there is no one looking, and nobody wants a hand. Its a little bit of a ghost town. I try to see where the limits are on my Defender and take on a whole pack of Outcasts. I whittle them down a little bit, but have to run and heal. When I come back again, they make mincemeat out of me, and I only managed to take down one of them. Definitely cant play like a Scrapper with this one.
Someone calls out for a team and follows me a mile to our next mission, and I level up just inside of it. He stops about a fourth of the way into the mission and just stands there. Did he go afk? I guess so, but I cant just stand around and let him be a sponge. He doesnt do anything while I take out a whole mob, so I have to kick him. Ptheh! Im not sure what happens to the spawns inside a mission if you lose a member while its still going on, but I take care of the rest of it solo. Looks like Im back to a bad teaming phase.
The mission is a mile from the Atlas entrance, so I send a tell to Taxibot Medley, who broadcast that he was on duty earlier. My first use of the Taxibot service! Oh, that was nice! I love it. I head top the trainer and settle for Combat Jumping for level 8. None of my other attacks for my secondary are even available yet.
A blonde is in danger right next to the door of my next mission in Kings Row, and I simply cant ignore it, even though everything is grey to me. I keep thinking that with bases to maintain now, we should get some small amount of Influence, or a Badge of some sort, that acknowledges that we still stop to help out the common person, even when we get to the cosmic levels, and normal street crime normally wouldnt make us pause. I notice I cant really use Combat Jump in combat, the End drain is too high, and I also need to use Rest quite often, so its a good thing it recharges faster now. Im on a timed mission, and I get a tell asking if Id like to group. Sure, anywhere from when I logged on over an hour ago! I tell him Im on my last mission for the night, so no. Ptheh! Murphys Law strikes again! And me going out of town all next week means Im gonna have withdrawal symptoms, too.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
[ QUOTE ]
Im not sure what happens to the spawns inside a mission if you lose a member while its still going on.
[/ QUOTE ]
If I remember correctly, they designed the enemies to spawn in missions to accomodate the size of the team when you get close to the spawn point. So if you kick him before you triggered the next spawn, the spawn would have been adjusted down to meet your current team size.
But I could be wrong... 
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
It is designed to do that, but it's a little bit different in missions, most of them have "spawn areas" if I'm remembering correctly. So I think it spawns a whole floor at once rather than each spawn as you get close to it. IF I'm remembering correctly of course. 
Where did TPull go? 
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
[ QUOTE ]
I notice I cant really use Combat Jump in combat, the End drain is too high, and I also need to use Rest quite often, so its a good thing it recharges faster now.
[/ QUOTE ]
First, your series has been lots of good reads, but I'd like to point out something to
you:
Combat Jumping, prior to the 13.33% end use reduction to all powers that came with
ED had a total cost of...
0.08 end/second
To put this in perspective, fresh out of the box, your endurance recovery is:
5.00 end/3 seconds, or...
1.6666666667 end/second.
Feel free to use Combat Jumping. It's not what's eating your endurance.
You know what might be?
Your attacks.
Archery's attacks cost more end than comparable defender attacks.
Aimed Shot is particularly at fault here.
My TA/A Defender normally teams with a friend's fire/TA controller, and it is often
Vigilance that keeps my endurance costs under control.
I currently have snap shot 1-slotted for damage, and aimed shot 4-slotted for
damage, at level 9.
(Archery Blast is +5% accuracy for a drawn weapon, then the special power of the
set is +5% more accuracy, for a total of +10% without any enhancements.)
I can take things out fairly fast, one on one, by cycling snap-aimed-snap,
snap-aimed-snap over and over, but it's much easier if my aggro-gathering
controller buddy is at 1/2 health :-)
damage per endurance-wise, some players think one should just six-slot
snap shot, skip aimed shot, and ctrl-click snap shot to autofire on your target.
This strategy was originally done with */Radiation Blast defenders, using their
#1 attack, neutrino bolt, which seemed to work well back in the day.
Once you have SOs, snap shot would be 1 acc/3 dam/2 recharge, with you subbing
in an end redux for one of the recharge if needed.
Yes, Archery needs some love.
However, it might be a while until it gets it, so plan on stamina and end reducers in
the meantime.
You should leave CJ on all the time, for the 2.5% defense, mobility, and
obnoxiously low endurance cost, and simply fire aimed shot or other big attacks
less often if your endurance is getting low.
I understand your schedule is weird; so is mine. But if you can team with at least
one other person who's an aggro-magnet, Vigilance will make your endurance
problems a thing of the past :-)
[ QUOTE ]
Where did TPull go?
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm around, but I literally have not played in a whole month. Yuck! I just used my new house for a housewarming party one weekend, a wedding reception on another, and the family gathering for Thanksgiving, all in-between a business trip out of town for a week. I need to clone myself so I can get in some play time...
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Where did TPull go?
[/ QUOTE ]
I'm around, but I literally have not played in a whole month. Yuck! I just used my new house for a housewarming party one weekend, a wedding reception on another, and the family gathering for Thanksgiving, all in-between a business trip out of town for a week. I need to clone myself so I can get in some play time...
[/ QUOTE ]
Damn, someone needs some CoH downtime! 
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
Entry 105
Ive got an hour to myself finally. It only took what seems like two months. Quick! To the computer! I am so rusty its pathetic. Good Sport is level 8, and he comes across an orange-con with a couple yellow-cons in a warehouse mission. I can dispatch a yellow-con, but the others are too much for me to take out before Ill run out of Endurance, so I run what I think is far enough to rest up real quick, and Im not even close. They catch up to me, and I get turned around on the map, thinking Im running towards the exit when Im really just running into a dead end. I feel like such a chump when they knock me out. When I pull up the map, I find I really was at the entrance, but I couldnt find the right door to click on to save my life. Literally! No doubt about it, my Defender is squishy.
I have run into a new problem as far as teams go, but its partly just my state of mind. I want to join a team or even a super group now more than ever to help pass through the lower levels faster, but I know Id be logging on once every two weeks, and thats no good for maintaining pace with your friends. I only manage to do two missions as it is this time around, and I already have to log to go do real world stuff. Ive got to organize things different so I have more than one hour free at a time. Then we can go back to solid teaming!
A few nights later, Ive burned through all my new comics, and Im feeling excited. I have free time to play! MM II goes out for a stroll, and gets directed to Sirens Call. I take a mission at first to debuff something for the villains, and level up to 25 on a Crane Kick that dispatches an Arachnos soldier. Sweet! Just in time too, because the boss is a red-con when I run into him, and I have to run away to rest at first. Upon exiting, I decide to try some PvP.
Im pretty sure I suck at PvP. I took out one guy the whole time I was there, and spent the rest of the time coming out of the hospital. One Brute took away half my health in one punch, and then followed me all over the map. He took me out while I was resting near the Steel Canyon entrance, and then he got zapped by the police drones. It definitely seems like a place where you need to go in with a team.
I get a blind invite around midnight, and decide what the heck. I head for Croatoa, and find the missions are set for level 32 villains, and the team leader was just inviting anyone he could get his hands on. I shrug and jump in anyway, since this is my last mission for the night. We take on a bunch of purples and surprisingly, no one dies the first fight. We have a grand old time, and I think I died twice, but with a whole new zone like Croatoa, I need something to slow down my leveling already anyway, so who cares? My one complaint is the glitch that stops us from rotating the camera view now. I wanted to take a picture of MM II from the front, with his new holiday jetpack! I log into CoV to play my first villain after that, since the jetpacks will make it a lot easier to get around Mercy Island. Im level 1 and I can fly! Bwah-ha-ha-hah! Merry Christmas everybody!
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
[ QUOTE ]
My one complaint is the glitch that stops us from rotating the camera view now. I wanted to take a picture of MM II from the front, with his new holiday jetpack!
[/ QUOTE ]
It works. Hold only the Page Up key then rotate with your mouse. If you have the mouse look/steer (or whatever) button pressed it wont work. If you use the rotate left/right keys it won't work.
Entry 106
The plan was for MM II to experience more of Croatoa, but the next contact gives him a mission in Siren's Call. New content to check out! With so much time between gameplay sessions and all the updates, I have to sort out how to get to each PvP zone real quick. I take a mission which helps to debuff something of the villains in the PvP area, and then bounce around to the hotspots on the map. I start by engaging the Arachnos troops, all of whom look cool, in my opinion, although the peskiness of the Rikti Drones makes me feel dread when I spot Arachnos drones. They prove to be relatively easy to dispatch, though.
Then come the villains. The area gradually fills up with others who are looking for a fight, and one Brute decides to stalk me. I'm not sure if I'm on his bounty or not, but I don't seem to be able to do much against him. On the other hand, when he connects with me, he can basically two-shot me. I'm a Scrapper, not a Blaster, what is going on here? He pursues me again and gets my health down, and I Super Jump to the exit, resting near the zone gate. He leaps in and knocks me out anyway, and gets zapped by the police drones. Almost all the other villains are in groups, with tons of Masterminds around. I knock out just a couple Corrupters, but spend most of my time running.
The jury is still out on whether I like PvP at all, my experience with it is so small. I have read so much about Scrappers pounding squishies into the sand, but that does not match my experience at all. It takes a lot of hits to take someone down, enough time that they can usually run for safety, or call for help from others who gang up on you. That doesn't even count the Brute I couldn't dent earlier. Is this a common sense of PvP that everyone experiences? So used to PvE that you get a sense of relative deprivation compared to other archetypes? I didn't expect to be uber at level 25, but I did expect to at least be able to hold my own one-on-one with the Brute, since Scrappers are billed as the best solo AT. I am also missing a lot. Ptheh! I detest missing! I'll have to explore this situation further. I was never very interested in PvP at all, but it is mildly fun. I see now that the Arenas were needed to help pit the power sets against each other, and with these new PvP zones, the Arenas will be barren except for the few groups of people that decide to make them a home of sorts. I think the developers could have communicated some of that earlier with the introduction of Arenas, and perhaps there would not have been so much anger at the Arena setup and the battles there in the first place.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
I'm delighted to see your journal still running, Tpull - it's always been fascinating for me to read, as it comes from a much different viewpoint than my own.
I thought I'd mention something in regards to your most recent post: base accuracy in PvP combat is reduced to 50% from 75%, so that battles last longer and defense sets are decent. So that's why you feel like you're missing a lot!
Entry 107
Ooh, an invitation to PvP on the Training Server! I take Martial Master out to Warburg and jump in cluelessly against people like Catwhoorg and Anti-Catwhoorg. To my surprise Cuppa is there too, and is one of the few people I can actually defeat once in a while. There are no teams, and it seems that too few people had villains at a high enough level to test, so it's mostly heroes in a free-for-all. Some psychic Arachnos soldiers get drawn in at one point and take me out, giving me debt. Good thing I'm on the test server! Warburg caps you at level 40, I believe, and I do a double take when I try to use Recall Foe (I got it at level 49 for PvP use, mostly). Gah! It's unavailable! I can't use Conserve Power, Focused Accuracy, or Quickness, either, which means Elude will take longer than three minutes to recharge.
I jump in anyway and do what I can to whomever is closer to me at the moment. After a little while, it becomes apparent that tackling Tanks is useless for me, I can barely dent a Regen Scrapper, and Dark Scrappers somehow eat me for lunch. I get scared a couple times, which is kind of cute, and every once in a while four or five people gang up on me while Elude is up. It's a little funny, because the Regens and Tanks and such that can't be hurt are the ones ganging up on me. I don't need a gang to take me down, they do! Heh.
When Elude is off, I alternate between running away and hanging on the periphery, only running if I attract someone's attention in a serious manner. Teleport becomes my best friend, getting me out of a ton of potentially fatal scrapes. An Energy Melee Blaster tends to edge me out if we go toe-to-toe. He may only have five health left, but he tags me more often than I tag him. Someone else is always quick to capitalize on his low health, though, so I start broadcasting jokes about him getting his corpse off of my corpse. Using Cobra Strike on a Blaster along with Focused Chi, I thought I could take him out, but he held on to come back and defeat me, even as I got a few free hits in on him while he was stunned. It leaves me feeling that SR is a chump set in PvP, with other players having such high defenses, making me miss more and handling it when I do connect, while my health seems to drop at an alarming rate from almost everybody else's attacks. Another flying Blaster tends to hover near a safe zone, and when he is in the slightest amount of trouble, ducks out. Hmm, maybe I should have taken Teleport Foe sooner in my build....
I can see now how PvP can be fun, but this was among a group of friendly people. I can see how multiple trips to the hospital in a different setting might turn people off from PvP. I had no idea how easy it was for other people to punch through Elude. My Scrapper is fast enough that I thought I could take out an opponent before much damage could be done to me, but my many hospital trips educate me. Even with Elude full-up, I was tossed around like a tempest in a tea-storm, especially when I tried to figure out how to hit someone who was using Whirlwind - no luck! By the time most of us have to leave, my Reputation is at 13.9, and I have no clue if that is good or bad. My high level Scrapper is in the same state as my low-level one, though: I had expected slightly better performance. I still enjoy the rest of the game far more, but I am tempted to explore this aspect of the game further, which is good, I think. Next time, I'll have to add Brawl back to my power bars somewhere and actually use it...
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 108
Diamond Cut and I finally get a schedule where we are both at our respective homes. We dive in with CRM and Diamond Cut, just cuz its been so long. We head for our first mission as I re-memorize all of my hotkeys, which are very different for my Emp/Rad than any other character, and get turned around on the map. Outside. I am soooo rusty, I type in. If we were the type of people to sweat bullets, we would, since were always on Invincible setting.
We head in and start to rock. With time so short for play, I have yet to Respec a single character to account for ED, so Im wondering just how sub-par my guy is, what with all the reduced percentages that things like a fourth or fifth damage or heal SO accomplish now. Funny thing happens. We breeze through the mission like a supersonic jet! Were both like No way we cans till do things that easy! Im hoping for more free time in the future to actually plan how to do my slots, but the thing is, I still dont feel broken. Maybe solo might be a different picture, and maybe PvP is a mess, but in a team setting, both of my high level characters perform great.
Then DC sets us for a mission with an AV, and runs off to it. I ask if he wants some teammates, but he wants to try it with just the two of us?! Oh-ho, who is full of bravery now, I wonder? The AV is Anti-Matter! I shrug and follow him in, because my caring about debt left me a long time ago. I have to heal him more often from the debuffs that all the robots have, but we get to the AV with ease anyway. He clicks on Unstoppable and jumps in, as I try top figure out where there is a safe place for me to support him without dying too quickly. Doesnt work, he notices me fast and takes me out. We come back, and hold him off for a few minutes, and take him down about 5,000 hit points. DC yells out to run now, and I turn on blind trust and take off. His Unstoppable drops, and so does he! He had fun just trying toe-to-toe, but we knew that we couldnt do enough damage to him with just us. Searching for help does no good, though, as the game is basically a ghost town, most likely due to CoV at this point. He decides to save the mission for later, and we log, both fairly happy with our performance. Its good to get back into the groove.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
For those who enjoy my story-telling, I wrote a short story about a character of Ironik's choosing, since he was the one who designed my nifty avatar! It's here in the RP section:
The Story of the Brother of Minotaurus
Hope you like it.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Write up my adventures or play the game? Write up my adventures or play the game? Grah! Choices
Entry 109
Play times are few and far between, but I do read about the holiday antics, and log in to receive a jetpack on a couple of my characters. Oh, these were such a great idea! My cousin and his friend stay with me for ten days for Christmas, and they are hooked on the game as well, monopolizing the computer while Im at work (and often when Im home!). I manage to get in some time here and there, and start logging in both heroes and villains so everyone gets the jetpack and a badge or two.
I take my Electric/Energy Blaster, Teslas Prodigy, out for a spin, and enjoy things immensely, mostly because of the ragdoll physics. At first it takes me by surprise, and I laugh out loud as a Power Thrust and other attacks throw bad guys on their butts. The way they fly through the air, and the awkward positions in which they land are just awesome-fun to behold. It gets me to thinking about some of my other characters, so I switch to Ironic Twist and have my Storm Controller start tossing around thugs with her wind powers. That looks cool too! The new maps and increased graphics and everything really make the gaming an enjoyable experience.
I think Im going through a phase, as I have almost no desire to team up with anyone. Instead, I end up logging most of my alts in and I start a system of flying to the top of Atlas for the badge there, then swooping over City Hall for that one, and then going for the third badge near the hospital, before going on the holiday mission. The jetpack comes in handy for some missions in the Hollows, so I dont risk certain death by running a mile through a bunch of purple-cons. I run the holiday mission with Martial Master on Invincible, and enjoy all of the different high-powered villains Arachnos has, which are all very well designed. A couple of them are even creepy looking. I like having all of these alternate characters, because I can see the thugs at the simplest level, and see the toughest they have to offer at the highest difficulty setting with my higher-level characters. It allows me to see the full range of what the developers set up for the game, and test it all at the various different levels. Ooh, and Martial Master finally got the Devilfish badge, running through IP just when the Monster had surfaced. One more badge down!
Diamond Cut logs on to help CRM do his holiday mission, and I still have not done the free Respec on CRM, but the two of us trundle through on Invincible setting with nary a nosebleed. I can only imagine how my healer will be when I make him more optimal with the revised slotting due to Enhancement Diversification, but even unaltered, were still pretty unstoppable. I get all but six of my heroes taken care of for the badge and the holiday mission, because I did divert over to City of Villains to do the same for those characters. That place is not mapped out well for the early levels, and a jetpack is a miracle over there! Ive got a number of characters with names decided and powers set up, but I havent had time to give them proper costumes. I had planned to delete the character name and re-design them when I had time to play around with their costumes (and for some of them Ill still have to do that), but for a lot of them, I simply run the holiday mission to get the free tailor session, so now I can keep the names and powers, avoid going through the character creation engine again, and just go get them new threads. Sigh. So many plans, and not enough time to be truly villainous or heroic
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Entry 110
By last count I have about 24 characters as heroes, and I manage to get the holiday mission done for about 18 of them. Its not tedious for me, as many of them I havent logged on in a while, so its fun to see my different costumes and remember how I placed the powers on each of them. By the time I switch to my villains, though, the mission itself is getting a little redundant, so I mostly just use Hide and/or the jetpack to get the mission done.
As I run through the tutorial with a Natural Stalker named Ekato, I notice that there are very few correctional officers in the jails courtyard; I wonder if thats on purpose. I had originally planned to keep the villains out of the journal, but sometimes neat things happen that I feel are worth sharing. For example, my main villain right now is a Mastermind called Loser, and its just hilarious how much fun the story text is now with that kind of name. Kalinda tells me: Your future is looking quite bright, Loser. Hah! On a mission with a video cutout, a Snake says, But I heard there was someone sspecial. One they call Loser. Brilliant! Ive got guys telling me, I have nothing more for you, Loser, or Great job, Loser! I think its the best character name I have so far, just because of that.
After the holidays, Martial Master gets a Respecification on the Test Server, and I run him around some areas new to me, like Bloody Bay and Sirens Call. In Bloody Bay, I collect all of the shards and then knock out the firebase. Some of the turrets respawn, so I run around and take them out again. Since Martial Master is exemplared down from level 50, that may have helped, but I knock out all the turrets by myself, and finish the mission. Ooh, I get a Shivan to follow me around! Neat. Im running to Warburg next, and I spot Paladin in Kings Row. I cant pass this up! I first spotted a massive trail of Clockwork running around, and I followed them out of curiosity. I know I shouldnt be able to solo a purple-con Monster, but what the heck. I hit Elude and jump in after him.
Elude wears off and I run to rest, knocking out a few pesky Clockworks that follow me. I try to trail Paladin until Elude has recharged, but just when Elude is back, he hops over a massive wall. I lost him! Grr! I Super Speed up and down all of Kings Row trying to locate him. How can I lose a four-story purple Monster? I could have taken him, I had his health half down the first time Elude wore off, all I needed was one more cycle. Ill half to try it in the real Kings Row and see how I do.
Now its time for another PvP rumble on Test, this time with teams. We assemble and things go pretty well, as I end up with another Scrapper and a Defender. We take down anyone who comes close, and things go pretty great. MA/SR may not be the greatest for one-on-one PvP, but it does much better as part of a balanced team. Our opponents switch up and get smarter, and everyone gets taken out now and then. Our play is interrupted as some real PvPers enter Warburg on Test, and we can tell they are designed just for PvP. We all disassemble our teams and re-from to take them out!
One poor guy sends me a tell: I. Hate. You. I had used Teleport Foe to bring him to my side, Cobra Strike to stun him, and then two hits sent him to the hospital. I apologized, actually, because I had done that to him about three times already, and tried to go after his teammate for a while instead. She used Teleport to escape quite fast, so I hardly ever defeated her. Her new teammate, a Peacebringer, used Taunt to keep us off of his teammates, to great effect. A Blaster had spent a large amount of time laying down Trip Mines, and he used TP Foe to bring me up there. All of his bombs went off, with not a scratch on me. Darn SR Scrappers! he protests. Heh.
Samuel Tow is on the Peacebringer team, playing his SR Scrapper as well, and I run up and smack him into the hospital. Hoo-ah! Later, he starts reading the newspaper as I whiff on him constantly. I return the favor later, and start reading as he futilely tries to connect, and were all laughing heartily (I used Ventrillo for the first time in an attempt to communicate verbally with the others, but my microphone kept cutting out). Team PvP was a lot more fun than trying it one-on-one! I'm on a learnign curve with this stuff, as I forgot to use a Break Free to try and break the Taunt off of me, and I think I could use Brawl more often in my attack sequences. Also, I hardly ever noticed when someone knocked my own toggles off, and I really need to pay more attention to that. After just a couple of PvP events, though, I feel I'm starting to get the hang of things. Yay, I don't purely suck anymore! Man, that sounded wrong...
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
[ QUOTE ]
For example, my main villain right now is a Mastermind called Loser, and its just hilarious how much fun the story text is now with that kind of name. Kalinda tells me: Your future is looking quite bright, Loser. Hah! On a mission with a video cutout, a Snake says, But I heard there was someone sspecial. One they call Loser. Brilliant! Ive got guys telling me, I have nothing more for you, Loser, or Great job, Loser! I think its the best character name I have so far, just because of that.
[/ QUOTE ]
I'd agree with that! The comedic value of that name is going to go a long way.
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
Entry 111
MM II runs a couple missions and ends up in Sirens Call, and I have him take all four missions from the contact there. Once I get through with that, I wander around trying to find villains, and hit the hotspot places to help the heroes win battles. I am invited to a team, and I join immediately, since I cant find a single villain to save my life. As we go along, there are a precious couple who dare to show themselves. As the night progresses, the heroes win enough fights that the zone changes from under villain control to under hero control.
Fighting villains is tough exhausting work, mostly because they always run! I expected that from Stalkers and squishies, but the Brute?!? A Mastermind hovers at the edge of a battle, but he immediately turns and runs back to the villain base evry single time. One time I decide to really make a solid attempt, and all I need is one more hit on him, but we are squarely in the villain base, and I am surrounded by hopeless odds, so I go to the hospital instead. I just wanted to get a taste of the PvP zone, but endlessly Super Jumping around is really futile.
I get a couple of bounties, but my map is bugged. I get two readings of the same guy, and old bounties stay on my map when a new one is supposed to show up for me. When I get one as a bounty, she simply Teleports to the top of a really tall building and stays there. I cant reach her, and cant fight her at all. Ptheh! When they finally decide to actually play, they always wait until Im fighting NPCs, and ambush me, and I notice that I miss a lot, but their attacks seem to hit more often than miss. So much for SR being defense-based, as usual!
I send some to the hospital, but get sent more often than not myself, as the villains only stand and fight if there are two of them against me. As the night drags on, there are only two heroes left, a Blaster and myself, and were standing around asking for villains to attack us in Broadcast. One Stalker hovers at the periphery, but every time I jump after him, he runs away. Three times in a row, and I stop chasing. When one of them knocked me out earlier, I send a broadcast saying good job, and once a tell to the person, I think. None of them ever replied at all. I end the night feeling like PvP is a little bit of a waste if youre not already with friends. I tried to be polite and friendly, but nobody wanted to talk in the slightest, and I spent most of the hours there using Super Jump in a futile attempt just to get face to face with one of them. PvP is fighting, not chasing people around the map! Im hoping if I do more of it, there will be more teaming and more villains to fight. This was kind of boring, and the zone was almost a ghost town, I only saw maybe six or seven villains the entire time.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
[ QUOTE ]
I send a broadcast saying good job, and once a tell to the person, I think. None of them ever replied at all.
[/ QUOTE ]
Is it possible that you (or maybe them) have Enemy chat disabled, which means you can't see any communications from them?
"Goodbye, Jean-Luc. I'm gonna miss you... you had such potential. But then again, all good things must come to an end..." -- Q
I'm gonna check! I figured that stuff was automatically enabled to show it off, but maybe in my settings it's turned off to start with.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
Great thread!! Great insights from a thoughtful and sane player - I've been playing for a little over 2 months, and agree with nearly every word you have posted! Hope to see some of your toons out there!
Arc #6015 - Coming Unglued
"A good n00b-sauce is based on a good n00b-roux." - The Masque
[ QUOTE ]
Entry 111
than miss. So much for SR being defense-based, as usual!
[/ QUOTE ]
tpull, a short lesson in how CoH calculates to-hit and defense:
In the PvP zone, everyone has a base 50% to hit.
SR, with correct SOs under ED, all 3 toggles and passives, is perhaps
24 per toggle, 6 per passive, about -30%.
so, everyone has
50 - 30 = 20% base.
20 * 1.33 = 27%
base to hit you with 1 acc SO.
Contrast this with PvE, which is:
Minions, 50%, -30% = 20%
And you can always eat a luck to floor things to 5%, while the minions cannot
do much to raise their acc. (Some CoV lieuts & CoH Nemesis do have Tactics)
Now, back to the 50% base and 27% after your defenses. 1 luck would take
that down to 5%.
But...
Powers like Aim, Buildup, Focus Chi and the rest don't multiply like an Acc SO does.
They simply add.
Aim = +100% to-hit buff.
That 5% you had? Blaster uses Aim. 100+50-30=120, 120 * 1.33 = 160% to hit.
Another Scrapper does Buildup/Focus Chi?
66+50-30=86, 86 * 1.33 = 114.5% to hit.
ANY CHARACTER eats one insight (yellow pill), your luck is cancelled.
(both are 25%)
If you forgot to eat a luck, 50+25-30=45, 45 * 1.33 = 60% to hit.
And this is for the base, level 1 inspirations, assuming no one eats more than one
such inspiration in battle.
So, normally you're only hit 27% of the time, but even a single inspiration hoses
you.
Did I mention Tactics does the same thing, though it might only be 10-15 points
of accuracy at most, with 3 SOs?
Most PvPers take Tactics for the +perception, and the fact it helps them hose
defense-based sets, that's just a bonus.
Now, let's contrast this with the Invulnerable Scrapper:
His resists continue to work regardless of how many yellow pills are eaten.
Red pills to boost enemy damage harm him less than if you are hit by the same,
though in general most people need to slot 2 acc SOs or else use a yellow pill to
hit you.
I wouldn't be surprised if PvP attack slotting was 2 acc SOs, 3 damage, 1 recharge.
2 acc SOs would result in 50 - 30 = 20, 20 * 1.66 = 34% base, even before
inspirations.
So yeah, you're getting clobbered.
The upcoming Issue 7 defense change will make the PvE to-hit bonuses for being
levels higher than you (up to +5) work like accuracy (multiplying) instead of the
current to-hit buff way (like aim, bu, yellow pills), which will help you in PvE.
In a brief Siren's Call test I did, my claws/sr scrapper was able to avoid some tp foe
attempts and SJ out of targeting range due to being SR.
However, it was likely a mastermind or dominator using it, from what I saw.
Let's let someone with Aim or BU use TP Foe, and how can they miss?
I don't know how Cryptic is gonna solve that one. The PvE fix is great for
SR, Ice tankers and FF defenders for sure. PvP? Sigh... you don't want SR to
equal uber-mode, but you don't want to have your defenses totally ignored.
Thanks for the numbers, ATRAtwo. Now if only I knew why I kept missing the Empath Defender...
I'm not sure how they will find a better balance for PvP myself, unless they just want to keep some of that rock, paper, scissors feel to it, and just say that things like the massive bonus of Build Up and similar powers are permanent Achille's hells that SR has to live with.
For PvE, the combined changes of Issues 5 and 6 made me feel a little squishy, more than I thought I should be, as an SR Scrapper. I walked away alive from all of the fights, but I kept thinking that I should have a little more health at the end, because they really should not have been tagging me so much! I don't really want the uber-ness of perma-Elude, but I do think I shoud be able to wade into a group of four or five even-cons and come away relatively unscathed, if I have taken all of the defensive powers in the set. That is the idea inherent in "super reflexes," after all.
Of course, Martial Master is a little different, because he never took Focused Senses or Evasion (but that changed with my latest Respec). I expected him to take a few more hits. I actually have a good feeling about Issue 7, at least regarding SR. I still have a mental opposition to the damage resist they added, because it taints the "pure defense" concept that I was basically imprinted with when I first looked at the set, but I'll survive.
Ideal for my mindset would be if the Issue 7 changes to scaling defense are good enough, they might decide the damage resists can go away, and we get the orignal concept of SR back, but I sincerely doubt that would happen.
My current impression of one of my favorite powersets is that it's looking good, the I7 changes should help it to balance better in PvP, help out in PvE very well, and the only things I want are perma-backflips when I punch Elude, whether it's up or not, and an official Developer re-examination of Elude's recharge time after all of these cumulative changes. Not too shabby.
I have an idea! No wait...it's just gas.
Hellscorp
heh good to see you still going tpull, loving the entries as always.
Any plans to start a villain journal or just tack on those entries to this one?