Welcome back! 
And then into business. Devices vs other secondaries: I prefer other secondaries, they offer (usually) high damage melee attacks, utility and build up. I cant think of a secondary powerset that hasn't got at least two of the things I mentioned. Aim and BU +damage does stack but can easily hit the damage cap.
Fun is very subjective so it really is up to you.
About slotting powers, there's a new thing for this called Enhancement Diversification (ED). This basically means that once your power has had an attribute increased by 90% the effect of further enhancing is greatly diminished. Basically this means that using more than 3 of one type of generic IO or SO is a waste.
To give you an example:
Power 3 slotted with even level SOs: 94.3% increased attribute (category A enhancements)
Power 4 slotted with even level SOs: 98%'ish
The current norm in slotting (as opposed to that of pre-ED world) is 3 DAM, 1-2 ACC, 1-2 RECH, 1-2 END. If that isn't clear it basically means 3 DAM and a combination of ACC/END/RECH depending on your other powers. Characters with recovery boosting powers are able to skip the END slot while characters with RECH boosting powers are usually able to skip the RECH.
Set IOs make the whole thing a bit difficult, but I'm sure there's a nice guide into IOs somewhere in here.
About Hasten. As I mentioned before it would be a waste to slot this power with more than 3 RECH enhancements. The usual slotting of it is the 3 RECH which will make it available for 2 mins out of every 3. That's not too bad and considering there are a variety of options in set IOs to get global recharge bonuses you are actually still able to achieve perma-hasten pre-ED style.
- @DSorrow - alts on Union and Freedom mostly -
Currently playing as Castigation on Freedom
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In Issues 6 (I believe) a new feature was introduced called Enhancement Diversity.
this effectively means that if you slot 3 level 50 SO enhancements (or their equivalent) you'll be as about as good as you can get. Adding a 4th will literally add 1 or 2% at best. This was designed to encourage the use of other Enhancements and prevent people 6 slotting for damage. (I joined just after so have never missed it but it was very controversial - and still is now, although I think most people agree it was basically a good thing, but very poorly handled by Cryptic, the then developers.)
So any power with more than 3 of the same type of SO/IO in - including your hasten - is basically wasted. (But as I understand things, that's not true for DOs)
As DSorrow said, IO sets do complicate things but if a set has 6 components it's fine slotting them in one power. There are some guides but the fora were recently pruned so you might want to look at things like Mids Hero Designer or some other updated build planners.
Welcome back! (you can catch me on Defiant and my global is @Riff)
Thelonious Monk
Thank you. This enhancement diversification does indeed change everything. I wasn't aware of this. And,frankly,having been around at the beginning,i must say it's not a thing that makes you very happy.You can bet it was controversial. But enough about that.
I guess i've made up my mind about secondaries,i'll forget about devices and go with energy all the way.
Fortunately the second active build will make up for the mistakes i've made so far about hasten.
Well,back to the game now....i'm enjoying it very much,i think i'll become a regular player now 
Ice/nrg, my very first blaster (i think i was 1st or 2nd of the server reaching 50 back then), still is a awsome set.
My choice always was storm, it stacks lovely with blizzard. Frost breath i never took, i see ice/nrg has a single target fighter with a great set of holds (3 if u pick an epic too) along with boosts that make ice/ ever greater. (powerboost to increase hold duration, boost range for further blizzard and bitter ice blast).
Only side downside, unlike many other primairy, the nuke aint a instant BOOMM! Leeeroy style booming just aint ice style, standing behind a corner (it doesnt require LoS) is ice style
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I like standing in plain sight watching them fall down over and over until they cant stand up again myself, but I guess corners work too
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Yeah, ED was controversial. But it makes much more sense with IOs.
You should know that smoke grenade got nerfed, it doesn't floor the accuracy of enemies any more. 
I can try to describe IOs in this way... Instead of taking Targeting Drone and six-slotting attacks for damage, you would slot your attacks to max out damage and boost the other attributes at your whim. IOs allow you to get more out of each slot. For example, the right combination will allow you to cap DMG, ACC, and moteradely boost end, recharge, and range even. The crucial thing to remember is that this does not conflict with ED.
What they've done is remove the easy option, and instead added in many more choices. In some ways, a character with tripped-out IOs can be more powerful than anything pre-IOs or pre-ED ever could be.
Your best bet is to read every Inventions guide over on the US forums, then do the Inventions tutorial in the Steel Canyon university. Make a few IOs and see how they work. Get Mids Hero Designer and play around in it. A hands-on approach can be much more informative than a wall of text.
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Aber ja, nat�rlich Hans nass ist, er steht unter einem Wasserfall.
May be worth knowing that alongside ED, endurance cost for all powers was reduced by something like 15-20% (cant recall exactly). This was basically because slotting stamina past 3 slots became pretty pointless.
From your original post, its generally accepted that powers like haste and stamina (which you can only boost one thing on) shouldnt be more than three slotted. The same probably applies to build up and aim (unless you REALLY need accuracy, which you shouldnt).
ED was highly contravertial, yes, but without it, I seriously doubt CoX would still be running.
I don't think anyone who has talked about Ice Storm yet. One thing the power discription doesn't mention is it has a fear effect on mobs: they will try to run out of the aoe. The slow effect helps to counter that though.
It is an excellent power for covering a strategic withdrawl I find.
I really should do something about this signature.
I've seen ice storm in action used by other players,and it's definitely better than frost breath. I'll drop one and take the other.
So far my favorite attack is bitter freeze ray;slow move,but the animation is great. Too bad it doesn't deal more damage....then again,we can't have everything
[ QUOTE ]
...From your original post, its generally accepted that powers like haste and stamina (which you can only boost one thing on) shouldnt be more than three slotted...
[/ QUOTE ]
On hasten it is still possible to get perma hasten if desired with IO global set bonuses. You need to 5-6 slot hasten with lvl 50 vanilla recharge IOs and squeeze 90%+ global recharge out of set bonuses. Therefore with hasten it's all or nothing depending on what you are looking for. Some builds with slow recharging, game changing, powers can benefit greatly from this kind of insane recharge rate (although in many cases a total 170% odd recharge bonus from hasten and set bonuses is a bit of overkill).
@Moondog
Union:
CoH: Moondog (WS); V-Rock (Tnk, semi-retired); Pole-Star (Bla); Demon Dog (Scr).
CoV: Midnight Gunner (Corr); Operative John Doe (Ban); Day-Star (Dom); Commissar Jaeger (MM).
Well if you need anything in game then give me a shout @Kryzel
Right now i'm slotted with level 30 inventions,i think i will wait until very high levels when i'm absolutely sure about my powers to start searching for the sets i want.
I'm having lots of fun and much to my surprise i discovered that ice/energy is a lot mot more powerful than i thought,capable of killing enemies that normally would slaughter you in any mmorpg. Very good
Another question i have is about our inherent power. The description says it allows blasters to use early abilities even when stunned,held ecc. So what exactly are the earliest abilities? I imagine they are related to the ones you chose at early levels,but so far i haven't managed to determine exactly which powers i can use in such a situation.
Also about the stacking damage bonus: is it capable of reaching the damage cap (wich someone told me it was at 400% or so)? Because if it is,it doesn't sound like such a great thing,seeing as how most of the time i use build up before attacking and that alone plus the inventions almost sums up to the aforementioned 400%.
Welcome back to the game!
The early abilities you mention are the first two powers of your primary set and also i believe your first power in your secondary set.
I can't answer conclusively on the damage cap querysince i'm not a number cruncher, but inventions won't push you near to the damage cap alone. It certainly is possible to hit the damage cap but it isnt terribly easy from what i know.
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The way i got it explained to me was this.
[ QUOTE ]
The damagecap is how much additional damage you can add to an attack. The enchancements is calculated into that but not shown in the combat stats window.
So if an attack does 100 damage, is slotted out with +100% damage it'll do 200 damage. If you add build up on that, thats another +100% damage, but on the base value, so it'll do 300 damage now.
And since it's slotted with +100% enhancements, the damagecap is effectively in place at +300% damage, going up in combat stats to the actual cap of 400% makes no diffrence then.
[/ QUOTE ]
I have NO idea if thats true or not, but thats how someone explained it to me.
Personally i question if the enhancements are taken into account on the damage cap shown in combat stats or if it's just extra damage we can get with slots that's not really capped.
Sort of like [Base damage] + [enhancements] + [dmg bonus].
And the [dmg bonus] being the one part with the actual dmg cap on it.
But like i said, i have no idea how it actually works, i've never tested it and am just reiterating whats been told to me, and how i think it *could* work.
Don't take this as some actual fact, i'm just guessing here!
Who ever told you how damage caps worked was correct.
With regards to combat stats I have no idea though, I could well end up monitoring everything at this rate
"Well, they found my diary today.
They were appropriately appalled
at the discovery of the eight victims
They're now putting it all together.
Women wrapped in silk
with one leg missing
Eight legs, one body, silk,
spider, brilliant!"
Well except for the final phrase in it.
The combat stats show the damage bonus you receieve rather than the total damage
in other words if you see +300% damage you are at 100% (base)+300%=400% total which is damage cap for many ATs
The base damage is the value you will receive without any buffs applied or enhancements slotted and no set bonuses.
All modifiers are to that value.
Note with containment and domination the additional damage is effectively a second attack with seperate damage and so damage cap is applied seperately for each with them. I suspect Scourge will operate in the same manner. Defiance I couldn't say.
Mind of Gaia lvl 50 Defiant's first Mind/Storm 'troller.
Deadly Doc 50 Dark/Dark Corr
and lots more on Pinnacle,Union and Defiant
Greetings to everyone who's playing this great game.
Before i start asking questions,i think it's polite to introduce myself: i'm an old player (and by old i mean i played city of heroes back when it was first released) who then quit for personal reasons and because i didn't have the time to dedicate myself to any kind of mmorpgs.
I've recently returned (i've been playing for 10 days now) and after a little experimenting i built a level 22 ice/energy blaster (blasters are my favorite archetypes).
I must say,players move pretty fast now,mainly because almost everyone is an experienced player who alrerady has 10 other characters and knows the game very well. But that's good,because we gain experience very fast moving from one mission to another and don't waste time on petty squabbles. That's one of the reasons i didn't ask many questions in game,i didn't want to bother people with things they've heard maybe 100 other times.
So,i came to the forum.I've tried searching for the information i need but the forum sure is HUGE,so i have no choice but to ask my questions directly. sorry if i'm bothering you folks.
Things have changed since when i played years ago,so i'm left with a few doubts:
1) secondary powers. once upon a time,devices where the favorite choice,because of targeting drone wich allowed to six-slot powers with damage ignoring accuracy,smoke bomb,trip mine etc.
I always hated devices,and chose energy for style,fun and damage:however,the doubt still lingered about what was the best choice.Today,it seems like nobody has devices anymore,and maybe with good reason.Because of the new enhancements wich give multiple bonuses,and for the aim/build up combo.
What i'm asking is: wich is really better,more efficient and fun? Do the damage bonuses from aim and build up stack? And the to hit bonuses? Is there a maximun cap for damage? How should i slot and enhance my powers?
wich brings us to the next question: Hasten. Again,once upon a time,you had to six slot it with recharge reduction to use it effectively. Now i'm not so sure,but by the time i realized it,i already had it 5-slotted. is it too much? should i change it,in case i respec?
last question...frost breath,ice storm,both,or neither?
this is my first ice blaster and i'm very happy with it,but these two attacks doesn't satisfy me.
for now i have frost breath,but i'm not happy with its damage,plus tha animation is AWFUL, it doesn't feel like you're damaging the enemy,it feels like snuffing the candles on a cake.i'm considering switching to ice storm,but damage seems low too,then again,an area slow effect could be useful...or not?
I realize maybe these questions are as old as the world,but i would greatly appreciate a little insight from experienced players.
p.s. it just occured to me...if you're wondering wether i want i pvp build or not,the answer is no. i'm looking for an efficient pve character mainly