Issue 5 Features Preview: Forest of Dread
By
Accualt,
Posted on: 2005-06-29 09:18 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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I have played the mission over twenty times. From release to now. Never have the objects been destructable.
You get the ring of pain and scroll of ruin from that mission.
It has Hellions, Tsoo, COT and an outcast boss named Sno-Pac.
I played it when Issue 4 came out as well.
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Ok, that's a different mission. There's one where the Outcasts have taken over an auction house and are holding 4 objects "hostage" because the owner did business with and then betrayed them. There are no other factions in the mission.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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In fact a force field defender often is capable of doing the most blasting. I don't find being a force field defender being boring. I find it the most opportune time to use my blasts to increase the damage output of the team.
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This makes an awful lot of sense to me, and I was wondering about it through a lot of the subthread here. I'm glad it really does work out that way in practice.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA
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In fact a force field defender often is capable of doing the most blasting. I don't find being a force field defender being boring. I find it the most opportune time to use my blasts to increase the damage output of the team.
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I guess it depends on what you mean by opportune. Efficiency just about any other AT can blast better than you and increase the damage output of the team better than you with generally less consequences and powers that personally benefit you.
And doing the most blasting isn't always a sign of something good. On my FF/Rad it took 2 neutrino bolts, 2 x-ray beams, and 1 cosmic burst slotted for damage to kill one even con minion(4-5 slotted for damage, usually with aim used prior to attack). That's hellishly slow going and the best defense in the set is reserved for the teammates.
A FFer doesn't really blast that much more than any other defender though, same with controllers(direct attack damages).
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These powers are so utterly conditional I have never and will never take them. Yeah, they can rock when you die. On a team. With a time constraint or really far from the nearest hospital.
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I took RotP at 49 on my Blaster, and I've been pretty happy with it. I like to play recklessly, so it usually saves at least a couple of load screens, and it was great for TFs in the Shadow Shard and for Hamidon raids. There were no defensive powers that I could get with a single power choice, and without heavy slotting there's nothing that would help my survival noticeably anyway, so it was the most useful of the bunch.
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I consider them novelties for level 50 heroes that had no useful powers to take at 49.
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This is a fair characterization, but it's been much more useful than I was expecting it to be. I do think it's much better as a Blaster power than a Tank or Regen power (seriously, what's the ratio on how often tanks or regen scrappers die vs. blasters?)
I'm a little disappointed in the concept for Croatoa, especially with the new zone and villians. One of the reasons why I like COH so much is the whole "superhero" concept. I feel they are still so far from exhausting ideas within it, that there is no reason we should see something coming even close to Everquest or WOW style concepts. If anything... it worries the hell out of me.
Thumbs up for the new powersets, badges and zone events. Anxiously looking forward to that. Very interested in finding out which missions they've updated specific art, and contentwise to the concepts of the stories... and I still think they need to give us specific news of such, it would be nice to know.
Been thinking long and hard about just rerolling Emerald Cloak due to the "unfinished" missions he passed long ago that are now updated. Problem is, I have a feeling every updates going to be like that... and if thats the case... they seriously need to think about the "flashback" and implementing one that doesn't require exemplar/sk'ing like they now have done for task forces, which is a step int he right direction. I think they just need to get rid of the whole idea of outleveling contacts to begin with. I almost feel as if I'm being punished for being a casual long time player (I just now dinged to 34 with my main, been on since beta). I still hate the idea of having to create new characters to experience all the content --- my free time is very, very limited. I want to be able to enjoy the game with my one main character, not regret playing him.
RTT
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I'm a little disappointed in the concept for Croatoa, especially with the new zone and villians. One of the reasons why I like COH so much is the whole "superhero" concept. I feel they are still so far from exhausting ideas within it, that there is no reason we should see something coming even close to Everquest or WOW style concepts. If anything... it worries the hell out of me.
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Since when is magical beings not part of comics?
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Since when is magical beings not part of comics?
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Not saying it isn't. In fact, I enjoy Dark Astoria as a zone and the story behind it. I'm kinda baffled as to why this new zone isn't tied into it somehow.
I'm just saying, seeing this type of content... only a year into the game, COH should still be introducing fresh and new ideas for itself and not content that makes me wonder if I wandered into Everquest by accident.
RTT
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Since when is magical beings not part of comics?
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Not saying it isn't. In fact, I enjoy Dark Astoria as a zone and the story behind it. I'm kinda baffled as to why this new zone isn't tied into it somehow.
I'm just saying, seeing this type of content... only a year into the game, COH should still be introducing fresh and new ideas for itself and not content that makes me wonder if I wandered into Everquest by accident.
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This zone has likely been planned form the begining, I'm sure. It will tie inot the magical groups somehow, perhaps not right away. Just rememer what preceeded the fist apperance of the "Cabal" and the Fir Bolg.
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Hellion Arson The Hellions are torching buildings and its up to the heroes to snuff them out!
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Boy, oh boy...I just hope they give my Fire/Fire blaster a fire extinguisher or else I'm in real trouble!
Rob
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It looks fantastic! I can't wait.
About trick arrows for controllers, as someone who primarily plays controllers, I would rather you guys skip on another defender primary power added to the controller secondaries, and give us some unique secondary powers in I6. Every time you guys do this, it's an annoyance to both Defenders, and even some of us controllers who would rather our AT's be distinct.
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As with most things Controller, I'm on Red's side in this. I was looking forward to the sets being Defender-only, and still want to see elemental secondaries for controllers (Fire/ice/earth).
I'd love to see a psychic-style buff/debuff set, but I think that should go to both controllers (Mind Control) and defenders (Psychic Blast).
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I aggree 100%. However, when certain sets are good in all areas, then they do need to be balanced. Where is Dark's weak area? Rad?
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Why, in the most emphasized area in the endgame - status effects. Dark and Rad do not have any kind of status protection buff. Rad offers status resistance which shortens duration, but it doesn't actually stop them from happening. Most villain status attacks seem to have a really high accuracy on top of that.
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The code for "Defense" against Toxic does not exit *yet*. Positron or Geko told us this alreayd.
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That's good news, and makes more sense. The absence of toxic defense just doesn't follow thematically. Not for a force field.
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The absence of a toxic damage type at launch is borderline inexcusable, but I imagine other things took precedence.
What surprises me is the lack of ability to add new damage types to the game without monkeywrenching the code.
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Which two defender primaries are better than all the rest, and which two ATs are better than all the rest? Just curious; I honestly can't imagine what those two might be.
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Rad and Dark. Dark can do everything except boost your endurance and comes with pets, rad can do everything except free you from mez(though it does halve your mez duration).
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Dark can't free you from mez.
This is a huge weakness for both sets.
Rad and Dark, being primarily debuff-oriented, are also heavily dependent upon relative level to be effective. FF and Empathy defenders can follow characters 20 levels higher and still give full-powered buffs (assuming all else being equal). A Dark or Rad needs to be as close to the villains' level as possible for maximum effectiveness.
I know it's in vogue to describe rad and dark as having absolutely no weaknesses or minimizing them as thoroughly as possible, but come on.
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Sorry Chron I goofed there. But having fearsome stare to prevent the mezzing is more than any force fielder can get. I'd trade the 6 other powers besides the big 3 for just fearsome stare. Let alone fluffies, stackable resistance debuffs, pets, accuracy/damage debuffs.
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Fearsome Stare doesn't do that at all, at least not for me. The best way I've found to get mezzed is to use Fearsome Stare or Darkest Night before someone else comes in. Controllers far more effectively prevent mezzing in this way.
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It's ridiculous the amount that force fielders can't do. But because we provide YOU with enough defense to do well everything is just fine in our powerset.
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Well, if you're arguing that Dark and Rad are overpowered in comparison, you're implying that everything is fine for FF. Personally, I think FF needs some work to make it team friendlier. Like the other defense-based sets, it's too one-dimensional.
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Agreed. The children of the goddess Danu are NOT inherently evil (their high king, The Dagda is known as 'the good god'). Yes, certain aspects of them (previously noted was the Morrigan, who, IIRC was also their goddess of wars and battles) had fearsome qualities, no doubt. Aye, they were mercurial of mood and puissant by their very nature. However, nowhere in any of my studies (admittedly, I'm not a Celtic-mythology major in school, but I have had an interest in Celtic mythos for years) have they ever been depicted as utterly destructive villains. They were mischevious and dangerous, but not ravenously 'evil'.
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One of my characters, Donnybrook, was blessed by Morrigan, for his love for battle, and his success at beating enemies, and for the sheer amount of fights he's gotten into. That explains how he's become more than human as a Natural hero. 
(As in, how is your ordinary guy kicking the junk out of a 30ft tall giant Malta robot?)
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Not saying it isn't. In fact, I enjoy Dark Astoria as a zone and the story behind it. I'm kinda baffled as to why this new zone isn't tied into it somehow.
I'm just saying, seeing this type of content... only a year into the game, COH should still be introducing fresh and new ideas for itself and not content that makes me wonder if I wandered into Everquest by accident.
RTT
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Croatoa... the Malleus Mundi event in its own zone...COOL!
RTT, the Fir Bolgs mentioned are connected to the Malleus Mundi event with the monster during the event named Eochai, leader of the Fir Bolg. I'm not sure if you got to experience this event, but if not it was wicked fun running around clicking on doors getting inspiration treats or enemy spawning tricks. If one got bored trick-or-treating, people sought out Eochai and fought him in his many many incarnations. Eochai was basically a larger form of the Fir Bolg, which was a DE Razorvine with a funny jack-o-lantern for a head.
Eochai
This excerpt is Found in the Paragon Times' interview with Azuria, explaining IC why the event occurred:
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The dimensional barriers that normally protect us from these combatants can become weakened for a time and suddenly this war makes a tangible appearance on our plane of existenceusually to our great detrimentand then we have a crisis like the Malleus Mundi event of last Halloween. The struggle is ongoing nevertheless. We must remain vigilant.
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I'm assuming that Croatoa is connected directly to the Malleus Mundi Event and that is why the Fir Bolg have returned. Others have speculated this as well, which has validity in speculation since the features update says,
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"New Villains The Cabal of witches, the nasty imps called Red Caps, the giant Fir Bolg and the legendary Tuatha de Dannan rule this realm."
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I hope this helps explain why Croatoa is another and unique magic oriented zone and not connected to Dark Astoria.
Personally I'm gonna start waving aroung my Halloween badges again...damn I can't wait to get on to the test server and beat those guys up again!
edited for referencing who I was talking to
Summer Heat
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I really could care less that defenders are shaing their powersets with blasters and controllers.
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This is gonna be a bit nitpicky, but why is it assumed that Archey and Sonic blast sets were originally meant for Defenders? Ranged blasts are a Blaster primary, so whose to say that Blasters aren't sharing them with Defenders and not the other way around?
Told ya it would be nitpicky didn't I? 
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Because Statesman has indicated he's aware that defenders don't feel needed in the late game, and he indicated that the Sonic Debuff and Trick Arrow sets were going to defenders.
People have wanted for a long time (since launch, I would say) to have more defender-only primaries and controller-only secondaries. I don't think it's ever been a loud issue, but it seems to be a constant issue.
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It's sad when they add cool stuff that we lobby against it because it makes the game more difficult...
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Forgive me, I literally just woke up, so I don't understand where you are coming from here. Are you for or against these power sets? Do you think they will make the game harder or easier? And for whom?
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while it may take some time, I'd much rather for a harder game with more powerful characters than an easier game with no depth...
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I have come to this conclusion, too. Though I am not a fan of nerfs, or at least some that have come down the pike, I admit the disparity in power bothers me sometimes, even between power sets in the same AT, but ultimately I trust the Devs to do what is right for the game.
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As with most things Controller, I'm on Red's side in this. I was looking forward to the sets being Defender-only, and still want to see elemental secondaries for controllers (Fire/ice/earth).
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I haven't given much thought about what would be good as more unique Controller sets, but I personally view the addition of Trick Arrow and Sonic Debuff to Controllers is nice because otherwise, they wouldn't be getting new power sets right now.
Nobody _has_ to take these power sets, but it's another option for those that want to. That's how I look at it.
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I'm a little disappointed in the concept for Croatoa, especially with the new zone and villians. One of the reasons why I like COH so much is the whole "superhero" concept. I feel they are still so far from exhausting ideas within it, that there is no reason we should see something coming even close to Everquest or WOW style concepts. If anything... it worries the hell out of me.
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I'm not sure what the problem is. Have you ever read The Mighty Thor? I mean, he goes to his home in Asgard on occasion, which is prettysword and sorcery-style fantasy at times. Being as it's based on mythological Asgard from the Norse stories, this should hardly be surprising.
Heck, it has giants, evil witches, and elves.
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I'm just saying, seeing this type of content... only a year into the game, COH should still be introducing fresh and new ideas for itself and not content that makes me wonder if I wandered into Everquest by accident.
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This kind of complaint makes no sense - since Everquest is fantasy, any fantastic elements must necessarily be derived from it? There are more sources of inspiration for this stuf than Everquest. Take Irish mythology, from whence these creatures are derived. You might as well complain that CoH is ripping off Xena because Statesman is an incarnate of Zeus.
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I'm a little disappointed in the concept for Croatoa, especially with the new zone and villians. One of the reasons why I like COH so much is the whole "superhero" concept. I feel they are still so far from exhausting ideas within it, that there is no reason we should see something coming even close to Everquest or WOW style concepts. If anything... it worries the hell out of me.
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I'm not sure what the problem is. Have you ever read The Mighty Thor? I mean, he goes to his home in Asgard on occasion, which is prettysword and sorcery-style fantasy at times. Being as it's based on mythological Asgard from the Norse stories, this should hardly be surprising.
Heck, it has giants, evil witches, and elves.
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To be fair, CoH deals in villain *groups* and not singleton villains, like a lot of comic book stories. Because of this, there are limits to what they can do. We have loosely affiliated gangs (hellions, freakshow), criminal or other organizations (malta, knives), religions and quasi religions (cot, carnies), creatures (DE, igneous) and races (Rikti). Supernatural entities are one of the few ways they have to introduce additional "villain groups."
The only thing about the superhero concept that CoH could have had that other MMOs did not have, but has never pursued, is the notion that the average superhero does not wade through thousands of minor villains most of the time. Occasionally, yes, but almost always to get to the real fight, which is with a single or very small group of villains that are roughly the hero's equal.
Missions are really random spawn points with a boss randomly in there. It ought to be that the hero(s) have to sneak/fight/force/incapacitate the minions to get past them to the actual point of the mission, be it blinkie or powerful boss, and *that* is where the mission should really begin.
The one-on-one hero on villain fight is severely under-represented in CoH, and when it occurs - hero vs AV - its considered broken.
Switching from fighting hordes of hellions to fighting hordes of giants - be they from fairieland or Alpha Centauri - does not in and of itself break the game concept. As long as the villain group is interesting, I don't mind that they might be magical in origin.
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I really want to see the cool stuff too. But I am really, really apprehensive about the swath of nerfage I fear will accompany the content.
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Thank you.
And the new content....what content? blah
Escort missions?
NOooooo*flash forward 5 minutes later* oooooo! I hates them! Escort missions are the worst type of mission in any game ever. Ever. Did I mention ever? I've never played a game with a GOOD escort mission in it, especialy not a online one. For some reason no matter who or what your escorting, its weaker than a sick lamb. You could be doing prison detail escorting Super-Omega-Ultra-Badguy to another holding facility due to death threats from victims and despite the fact that he could destroy worlds, a few stray shots could bring him down.
I can only hope these missions are labeled a bit better than some of the missions currently in game liked timed ones or ones that require partners. Or at least that after a year of this game being out someone finally puts in a dang abort mission button in.
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Tough Hide doesn't suck. Trust me when you get defense debuffs piled on you Tough Hide helps to counteract the defense debuffs.
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Most reliable testing puts this power at around 5% defense with questionable stacking with Invincibility. That's not worth it compared to any other power in the set or many pool powers you could take (and slot) instead.
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Self-rez? The fire armor for tanks and fire epic for blaster self rez knocks and stuns the mobs and makes the person inv for ten seconds. This would allow the fire tank or fire blaster to get back in the fight.
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These powers are so utterly conditional I have never and will never take them. Yeah, they can rock when you die. On a team. With a time constraint or really far from the nearest hospital.
My entire strategy is not to die (or to let anyone else die). I refuse to spend power slots on a power that is predicated on a condition that all my other powers and slotting are designed to prevent. I could instead take another power that will improve my not dying.
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Just set the fire armor rez to auto. The damage it causes and stun would keep agro on the fire armor tank so the team doesn't get slaughtered.
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Again, there are so many more effective ways to do this that don't involve getting defeated that I really don't see the point.
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The regen revive? A regen that teams a lot could find use for it.
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I'm not sure you're helping you case here. Hell, the most stupid and aggressive blappers I've ever known did fine going to the hospital or using inspirations. Why on earth waste a power on something you can cover with inspirations?
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As long as the self rez has a major aoe stun or makes you inv long enough to get away or put on your defenses or resists then they are quite usefull.
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Again, based on the predication that you are going to need this. Why would I need to rez on the spot? I have experienced two cases where self-rezzes are actively useful. The Respec Trial and the Sewer Trial. Never once outside that.
I consider them novelties for level 50 heroes that had no useful powers to take at 49.
Blue
American Steele: 50 BS/Inv
Nightfall: 50 DDD
Sable Slayer: 50 DM/Rgn
Fortune's Shadow: 50 Dark/Psi
WinterStrike: 47 Ice/Dev
Quantum Well: 43 Inv/EM
Twilit Destiny: 43 MA/DA
Red
Shadowslip: 50 DDC
Final Rest: 50 MA/Rgn
Abyssal Frost: 50 Ice/Dark
Golden Ember: 50 SM/FA