Villains! Lets make a list!

As a fan of the brute and follower of the Church of SMASH!, I have always found the Patron Power Pools to be lacking and underwhelming when it comes to helping me what I do better, and that is superior damage output and crushing mobs like a lawn of old plaster. While the powers are asthetically true in concept to the patron they belong to, they enforce a certain amount concept deviation from what a player may want to adhere to. Additionally, the powers while potent do not help brutes destroy enemies faster, just in new ways.

On thing I think the developers have missed is the opportunity to use the brute's inherant special ability, Fury, as an use-enhancing ability.

Here is a breakdown of who would give what, what the power does, and why it would be useful.



Leviathan Mastery - Captain Mako

Brute-Specific Training: Animalistic Fury - When sharks smell blood in the water, their ferocity increases into a frenzy of rage. When this power is activated, your fury bar increases twice as fast as normal. Additionally, any attack on an enemy under 50% health recieves a chance to do additional leathal damge. Be careful, as the adrenaline subsides you will loose all fury built up and be unable to build fury for a short duration. Recharge: Very Long.

What this power does is play on Mako's shark heritage/origin. Simply put, it'll double your fury buildup and essentially become a chance for extra damage IO proc ability in line with the one that already bear's Mako's name, Mako's Bite. This is useful for all brutes because more fury between mobs means less time to rebuild it, and therefore more damage per hit, and the chance for more damage is icing on the cake. It has the same drawbacks as a standard click tier 9 power, except drain all your fury at the end of the power and leave you unable to build up fury for a short duration, but in a tense fight would be well worth the repercussions after use.

Additionally in PvP, it would assist brutes in being able to do more damage both in fury build up and additional damage done, the concession being that since the extra damage is leathal, the most resisted damage type in the game next to smashing, that the extra damage in PvP might not be as distingishing as first impressions might lead it to be. Plus you could nix the extra damage in PvP all together.

This power could only be slotted for Recharge enhancements.



Mace Mastery - Black Scorpion

Brute-Specific Training: Cybernetic Stimulation - You have submitted to Black Scorpion's technicians and have become cybernetically enhanced! When this power is activated, the recharge speed of your powers is increased in relation to how much fury you have built up, as well as increasing your movement and travel speed. Additionally this power provides resistance against Slow effects. Recharge: Very Long.

What this power does is play on Black Scorpion's technological abilities. Simply put, it acts like a clickable Quickness power, speeding up your movement speed and your global recharge speed. The amount it speeds up is directly proportionate to how much fury you have, meaning the more fury you have the faster you are. It encourages and rewards brutes to take on as much aggro as they can handle and not stop until the power is finished, which is in line of what brutes should (in my opinion) be doing anyway. I would say the maximum recharge buff this would give is about 50% recharge bonus.

Additionally in PvP, it would assist brutes in being able to resist slow effects and continue to assault opponents when all others would be brought to a near standstill, the consession being that the amount of hasten and movement speed is in relation to how much fury they have. A small amount of fury might help but would not dramatically change the balance of the fight.

This power could be slotted for Recharge, Run, and Flight enhancements.



Mu Mastery - Scirocco

Brute-Specific Training: Focused Fury - Your Mu training has given you the ability to turn your fury into focused control. When you activate this power, you gain clarity of mind over body and a powerful protection against Immobilize, Hold, Sleep, Disorient, Confuse, and Knockback for as long as you have fury. If your fury falls to zero or you have no fury when activating this power, then the power is nullified until you regain fury. Recharge: Very Long.

What this power does is play on Scirocco's personality and character. Simply put, it will cast the equivalent of two breakfree inspirations on your brute for the entire duration of the power so long as you have fury to fuel it. If you have no fury anytime during the power's use, then you get no protection. While there are brute sets that have total Mez protection toggles, this would be useful for sets that have drawbacks to their Mez protection, like Stone, Electric, Fire, and Dark armor, allowing them to detoggle more powers to allow more endurance recovery and greater mobility options.

Additionally in PvP, it would assist brutes in being able to escape being locked down by controllers/dominators and a combination of Mezzes from other ATs, allowing them to continue to operate and attack their opponents, the concession being that it requires fury to be activated and if the brute is caught without any fury and is locked down, the power is nullified until fury is built. I would also say this power can be used like a break free, meaning it can be activated when Mezzed.

This power could be slotted for Recharge and Knockback enhancements (in the same way Acrobatics slots for Knockback).



Soul Mastery - Ghost Widow

Brute-Specific Training: Siphon Rage - The dark power of the Netherworld allows you to tranfer the damage done to you into pure hatred. For every attack that hits you, a percent of the damage done is added to your fury bar. The bigger the hit the bigger the increase! Additionally while this power is active you have a chance to do additional negative engery damage. Recharge: Very Slow.

What this power does is play on Ghost Widow's training of Wretch. Simply put, it will increase the amount of fury you have with a percentage of the amount of damage you take, as well as providing a chance to do negative energy damage for every attack while the power is active. This encourages brutes to take the brunt of the damage of mobs and enemies in order to get their fury up faster. I would say the fury bonus percentage to the amount of damage taken per hit would be about 25% - 40%.

Additionally in PvP, it would assist brute in being able to respond to very powerful alpha/burst attacks made on them, allowing them deal more damage per attack the more they are hit with strong attacks, the concession being that DoTs do not give them a major bonus to their fury, and they can still be locked down and/or overpowered by a coordinated assult. I would probbably drop the chance for negative damage bonus in PvP zones/arena.

This power can only be could only be slotted for recharge.

I agree with everything Weatherby_Goode put. I am glad that you have raised these issues, especially because I was wondering about the witches hat, etc.

I would also add that it is harder to get some of the badges... for example, Villains only see the Outcasts in one mish. Trolls show up once in a while on Newspaper mishes (and one mayhem mish). If you want villains to have accesses to these badges, then it should be a bit easier to do so.

It has been brought up, but could always be brought up again. Villains need hazard zones such as the hollows, sewers or Perez. The Hollows and Perez could simply be little islands off the coast of the main ones that we (as the villains) have just been given access too. Maybe one that is 10-25 and the other being 30ish-45 or some sort. Alternate leveling is a GOOD thing!

As for a red side version of the sewers, I suggest the Mercy Undercity. It would start out as a massive network (stretching from Darwin's Landing to Mercy city) of caves that is full of Skulls and Snakes. Snakes being the larger of the two presences down there. Then, it would switch to the Mercy City sewers where you would encounter Snakes and Infected. Accessible at level one and going up until how ever high the mobs in the sewers are. (never been down there past 8)

Better travel from the later zones to Mercy! Good god is this one of the most annoying things in CoV imo. First you have to travel to Cap, go to the PA ferry, into PA, then to the MI ferry and then into ME its self. It should be like the Yellow and Green lines. Yellow would be Cap, Oaks and Mercy, and Green would be everything else. They wouldn't even need to add anything!

One issue I've been encountering on my mastermind lately seems to take "pets are dumb as a post" to a new level. I set them to Follow/Defensive for the bodyguard bonus, and they take upwards of 15 second to register that I'm being attacked -- if they ever register it at all. And of course, if I tell them manually to attack, I lose the bodyguard benefits.

I'd also like Defensive to trigger "pets attack stuff" behavior if a nearby party member is being attacked, not just me, but that's less of an issue at the moment than "how do i shot laser".

Let MMs customize the looks of their minions. Sorry is this has been brought up already.

If we can't make major minions changes, it'd be nice if we could at least make some colour changes to them.

My biggest problem with Villainside is the maps. They are either super run down and messed up, or they are large, obsticle-like arachnos structures. I agree that the Family should have some nice estate along the beach. Make it look like one of those really nice italian beach houses with Feraris in the driveway or something kinda money like that. Also there could be an "old money" style neighborhood. Like rich private school alumni, meets the crime does pay attitude.

A revamp of some of the overly abundant "slum" areas would be very nice!

Arachnos are way too prominant, it seems like one has to deal with them every other contact. I hate that I am always some random contacts expendable lackey if you will. I want a contact to possibly start out that way, but then after I prove myself I am his go to guy that he cannot do without. Make him kiss your butt so to speak.

I also want a contact that you go to who is terribly afraid of you because he has heard of your talents. Most of the low lvl contacts think they are hot stuff and talk down to you all the time. Who the bleep are they to be like that. After you outlevel them they say stuff like "Shove off I have nothing for you." or "Move on, I have nothing that suits you", instead they should be saying stuff like "I am so sorry *cowers* but...I...don't have anything that is up to your standards. But I will search around for you" this could in turn introduce you to a better contact who is in your level range, but by your reputation he doesnt mouth off to you like the other contacts do. We villains demand respect as icons of power!

Another cool mission arc could start out with like a jewlry heist, or a bank robbery, or perhaps something more interesting, but once you finish the mish Police NPCs bust in and catch you in the act. Instead of arresting you they pitch a crooked operation to get rid of the Arachnos. "They disrespect you, they disrespect us, lets level the playing field and work together".

Just a couple ideas off the top o me noggin.

Be sure to drink your

Oh, I forgot, this thing about the Ferry and the Black Helicopter; I feel like the whole thing is kinda backwards. In the higher level zones (Cap and up) you have this ferry that takes you to almost any zone "except Port Oaks and Mercy). But you have this helicopter that takes you to Port Oaks and Mercy. This should be the other way around. Usually a ferry will just go from one place to another and back. Helicopters could fly anywhere they want and can go many places that a ferry could not. I would imagine that the ferry should be more like a city door is on heroside. It goes to one place and back. There could be 2 or 3 of them per zone, each ferry goes to a dif place. This is much more logical. The helicopter should be more like the train line, but can take you anywhere you wanna go villainside.

Earning a specialty temp travel power would be very cool in this idea. You have completed Random Rich Villains story arc, and he has given you access to his private Helicopter. "Here is a beeper, use it to contact a pilot". Or "Here is the number to my travel agent." Whatever floats your boat, or chopper rather.

When activated a prompt pops up asking which zone you wanna go to. A helicopter just flies down to pick you up. You jump in (same animation as jumping in the submarines, or run in the back hanger) and are dropped off at that maps VG beacon. It would be very nice if other people could board the private chopper similar to how your ouro portal works. You lay it down and anyone can click on it.

Be sure to drink your

Here's an idea that I've been meaning to put down for a while, and I apologise if it's been mentioned before. Pretty much involves the way villain contacts are handed out and to make it on a parity with heroes.

In an attempt to give villains more to do, why not unlock all of the secret contacts and just add them to the regular list? Since the changes to xp and the introduction of Day Jobs, I've found that I outlevel several before I even unlock them (eg Doc Buzzsaw, Kristof Jaeger) and others are just a pain to get for a variety of reasons(Velata Lunata, The Slot Machine, Viridian, Number 204, Crimson Revenant). In fact,of that last list, since the launch of CoV I've only ever managed to unlock Velata when a team purposely did so, and the Slot Machine when Oro came along.

Keeping them hidden is pointless. Who wants to grind out 200 Marcone bosses when you could be doing something more entertaining instead?

Something else I'd like to see is the removal of requiring you to do a a string of paper missions and then a Mayhem to be given a contact when you're fresh to a zone. I'm not saying remove it, I'm saying give us the same system / choice as heroes where right from the get go one contact introduces another, then then the next and so on til you have about 4-6 in each 5 level range. Papers and mayhems can still be there to pick up temp powers and contacts you missed or for a quick mission fix or whatever. I hate having to be forced through a series of 3-5 generic missions and a mayhem to get a new contact when I'd rather be doing the more meaty content provided by the contacts. Especially if I have to do it a 2nd or 3rd or 4th time in any level range (St Martial & Nerva are especially bad for this) just to get something to do.

Implementing these options should hopefully leave villains with a much wider choice of stuff to do, rather than the 'paper missions - mayhem - 1 contact' repeat to fade that we have now.

I know it's been said before, but can we please get illusion and Mind Control for dominators and/or controllers? The potential for these powers to be used for evil makes them more suited for COV than COH, but where are they?

Lost my reply.. that I had formulated rather big.. This new board is not up to the task I see.

Basically... I agree on 90% of what here is told. Give villains some love!

Hero side is like more by the Dev's. Look at the merit values of task/strike forces. Does a Positron TF really desever 64 merits while the Binder of Beasts gets only 12. The villian side is harder but shorter, and has a Arch-villian and Hero in it. Positron doesn't. All it has is like around 15 missions that can be done in under two hours with the right team and a stealthy teleporter character. Most of the task force can be done in under two and a half hours on blue side. Yet the merit payment is really high. Not really fair.

So I agree with you man.
Things need to be changed.

They could make a Strike Force for Port Oaks, where you fight Skuls and Outcasts. Skul bosses are hard to come by for the badge and Outcasts are really rare in newspaper missions. Paper missions the only place to fight Outcasts except for a Mayhem one. Hard to get that badge too.

Thematic and Content:


More contrast to how CoH does things.

You dont escort - u abduct.You need to be able to tie the victim up, or put it in a bag(forcefield,wahtever), that u can carry or drag along on a leash.

I know the Patrons have thier own arcs, but the villain side could use more TFS.Why not make TF/SFs for each patron?(GWSF,BSSF,MSF,SSF)
You could make the SF an offshoot of the Patron ARcs content.

Oops. Posted in the wrong thread again. Sorry!