Top 10 Most Useful Game Elements People Never Use
By
Angry_Angel,
Posted on: 2010-09-10 07:23 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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/cmdlist to the rescue!|
Originally Posted by Tenzhi
Isn't there a turning speed option?
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speed_turn Sets the turning speed
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It's also in the Controls menu right under mouse sensitivity. Or possibly right ABOVE it, I'm not sure.
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Originally Posted by Quinch
/cmdlist to the rescue!
speed_turn Sets the turning speed |
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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I'd forgotten all about this! How had I forgotten about this! I used to rave about this all the time!|
Originally Posted by Dementor_NA
An ongoing discussion of very useful game elements in City of Heroes that people don't use, don't know about, or don't appreciate enough.
1. Empowerment Buffs. For the price of three pieces of salvage (two common, one uncommon) you get a full hour of a buff of your choice from the Empowerment Altar in your Supergroup Base. Your dominator still 3 LotG's away from perma-dom? No problem, get a 20% boost to your attack rate for pennies. You have issues with endurance below 20? The Empowerment Altar can grant a recharge rate boost as well. The altar also grants bonuses to resistance of various damage types, and even protection from unusual and annoying effects like knockback and endurance drain. Somebody cranking up the price of Demon Blood today? No problem, each buff has three recipes, one for each salvage tier! |
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2. Confusion In the category of "Something people don't appreciate enough", I hear all the time people complaining about confused creatures "stealing exp." This is true to a point, but the math behind how confused creatures' damage effects the rewards gained at the defeat of an enemy means you won't get a better deal on exp/time than pitting confused enemies against each other. Think of it this way: Say it would take you 30 seconds to defeat monster X with your normal rate of damage. That's too long! Lets enlist monster Y to help us out by confusing him: You and monster Y both wail on X and it takes you half the time to defeat the enemy, so about 15 second. But wait, Monster Y dealt half the damage! Now he steals half the exp, right? Nope. Monster Y only steals 20% of the exp, you get a full 80% Do you see what just happened there? Your exp/time just went up by 60% Let's say you're fighting really tough critters, and your damage is just piddling compared to theirs: in this situation, Monster Y deals a full 90% of the damage! Well, surely you'll get a piddling percentage of the rewards, right? Wrong. You get a full 30% from a mob a confused creature dealt 90% of the damage to. It would have taken you ten times as long to kill this guy by yourself, which means by using confuse here your exp/time went up 200%! That's three times as much exp as normal. Unless you're facing enemies you can one-shot kill, confusion is ALWAYS a bargain. Add the fact that confusion is a hard control: confused monsters will not attack you. Even better, confused monsters will actually turn around and buff you if they have buffing powers. Confusion is, quite frankly, overpowered. However, the intense misunderstanding of how it works by the playerbase have kept is fairly safe from the nerfbat all these years. |
- Carnival Mistresses. Stack a confuse on her, she'll pull out her illusions/pets, then do the aoe blind on them. If you time it right, they won't be phase shifted when it goes off. Since most of the damage she'll do while confused will be against her own pets, the XP loss is negligible.
- Malta Yeah, you can choose to just hold/stun the sappers them or snipe them, but there's nothing more satisfying than confusing them and watching them drain the endurance from your foes. They don't do much damage with those hits though, so the xp loss is again negligible. If you don't mind a little XP loss, hit an ops engineer and wait for his stun grenade to take out the sappers (and several others) before going in.
There's a long list of tasty confusion targets. A few of my faves:
Embalmed Cadavers
These will actually cost you some experience, when they wipe an entire mob of Vaz. A worthy sacrifice for the lolz.
Sorcerors
Hurricane and O2 boost on tap.
Shield Gens & Cairns
The only downside is rabid teammates will still hammer them like pinatas, even as they're getting buffed by them.
Shaman
I love watching them get floored by their own Earthquakes.
Knives
Caltrop me? NO! Caltrop YOU!
Grenadiers & Demolitionists
Boom.
Centurions & Praefetus Castorum
Getting demezzed by the enemy FTW. And for that matter, the Surgeons can be handy too.
Freakshow Tanks
Maybe another waste of Xp, but its so funny to watch him pound his buddies into the ground like they were nails.
I might be wrong on this one, but I think if you confuse a Cyst, when it explodes it will pretty much annihilate all the fluffies it spawned.
Stay Gold, Paragon. Stay Gold.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum.
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Pretty sure I saw this or one almost just like it at Fry's in Sacramento last month.
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Originally Posted by Revanchist
I haven't used the keyboard in this game in about 4 years, not since I picked up this:
 Shame they don't make it any more, I'm going to have to find a suitable replacement for when it finally dies. |
Craft your inventions in AE!!
Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!
#69(of 10) Day Job accolade powers.
WW Teleporter
Vitalize: Ally Heal
Revive Ally
Frag Grenades
Rune of whatever the heck you get from the Midnighter Club
Tear Gas (AOE Hold)
Base Teleporter
Craft your inventions in AE!!
Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!
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I love this one. I use it all the time. I tend to log at the market anyway, so it's extra convenient to get.
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Originally Posted by BackFire
#69(of 10) Day Job accolade powers.
WW Teleporter |
Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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I used to be a huge fan of these buffs. This was back when you could craft up base salvage and store 999 of the components needed. It was easy to memorize which components were required to craft (a knockback took one tech material or mystic element, recovery took tech power + (I'm forgetting the recipes now).|
Originally Posted by Dementor_NA
1. Empowerment Buffs.
For the price of three pieces of salvage (two common, one uncommon) you get a full hour of a buff of your choice from the Empowerment Altar in your Supergroup Base. Your dominator still 3 LotG's away from perma-dom? No problem, get a 20% boost to your attack rate for pennies. You have issues with endurance below 20? The Empowerment Altar can grant a recharge rate boost as well. The altar also grants bonuses to resistance of various damage types, and even protection from unusual and annoying effects like knockback and endurance drain. Somebody cranking up the price of Demon Blood today? No problem, each buff has three recipes, one for each salvage tier! |
Since I can't create components now it's too much of a pain for me to remember which combo of three pieces of salvage will get me which buff before I zone into my base.
I think I've used my stations less than ten times since the change, and each time it was an afterthought.
My Characters
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My Mind dom loves to sneak close to the rikti, hit with a mass sleep, followed by mass confuse. Then goes sits nexts to the rikti guradians and uses a AoE to wake everyone up, and score 1-4 AMs |
Originally Posted by MaHaBone23
There's a long list of tasty confusion targets. A few of my faves:
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I don't suffer from altitis, I enjoy every minute of it.
Thank you Devs & Community people for a great game.
So sad to be ending ):
All those temp powers we save over time and never actually use. It's fun to break them all out on a tray and mix up your game with things with great animations. I've played my scrapper for hundreds of hours. Maybe thousands.... I know her powers.. so it's great to throw out a jar of bees or snowbeast or even a fire extenguisher which does no damage but is just silly fun when you blast an AV in the face.
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Confused Rikti Guardians should get their own spot on the list. They'll bubble you too.
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Originally Posted by tanstaafl
My Mind dom loves to sneak close to the rikti, hit with a mass sleep, followed by mass confuse. Then goes sits nexts to the rikti guradians and uses a AoE to wake everyone up, and score 1-4 AMs
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Eva Destruction AR/Fire/Munitions Blaster
Darkfire Avenger DM/SD/Body Scrapper
Arc ID#161629 Freaks, Geeks, and Men in Black
Arc ID#431270 Until the End of the World
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With stacking bubbles. After hitting you with AM. Though they'll only bubble you if you have less than 100% health.
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Originally Posted by Eva Destruction
Confused Rikti Guardians should get their own spot on the list. They'll bubble you too.
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And Time Lord's Boon! (Though WW Teleporter is the one I get on pretty much every character.) I just wish these things refilled faster. I burn most of them way faster than they refill.
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Originally Posted by BackFire
#69(of 10) Day Job accolade powers.
WW Teleporter Vitalize: Ally Heal Revive Ally Frag Grenades Rune of whatever the heck you get from the Midnighter Club Tear Gas (AOE Hold) Base Teleporter |
Having Vengeance and Fallout slotted for recharge means never having to say you're sorry.
AE. Ok, what good are the tickets worth after you've gotten every thing from the ticket vendor? Can you cash them in for cash?
/bind button4, powexec_name Respite
Makes your back button on your mouse pop a respite. Great for when your in mid battle and can't stop attacking to pull up the insp tray. Just click and continue!
button5 would be the forward button on the mouse (if you have one)
I've got it bound to activate Fly currently.
Maestro Mavius - Infinity
Capt. Biohazrd - PCSAR
Talsor Tech - Talsorian Guard
Keep Calm & Chive On!
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Is that supposed to be rhetorical?
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Originally Posted by thanos316
AE. Ok, what good are the tickets worth after you've gotten every thing from the ticket vendor? Can you cash them in for cash?
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Just gotta thank the OP for this thread. Loaded up my lowbie on WW temp power attacks last night and had a blast!! Now to get working on those empowerment buffs...
Craft your inventions in AE!!
Play "Crafter's Cafe" - Arc #487283. A 1 mission, NON-COMBAT AE arc with workable invention tables!
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I was just thinking about these again after making some Praetorian lowbies. I don't suppose there's a way to create empowerments in Praetoria?
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Originally Posted by Dementor_NA
1. Empowerment Buffs.
For the price of three pieces of salvage (two common, one uncommon) you get a full hour of a buff of your choice from the Empowerment Altar in your Supergroup Base. Your dominator still 3 LotG's away from perma-dom? No problem, get a 20% boost to your attack rate for pennies. You have issues with endurance below 20? The Empowerment Altar can grant a recharge rate boost as well. |
The Bacon Compels You.
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I'm not a lefty. But I have a Fang too. Best piece of gaming equipment EVER.
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Originally Posted by Feycat
As a lefty, this (http://www.simhq.com/_technology2/technology_091a.html) has pretty much saved my gaming/mmo'ing life.
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@Roderick
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Funniest thing I've read all day. Bravo!
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Originally Posted by MaHaBone23
Don't the Empowerment buffs also count towards the Crafting badges? I should go knock some out, I have like 30 pieces of Regenerating Flesh. Which is weird, because I only had 20 pieces last week...
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+1 Genuinely helpful idea for the early levels.|
Originally Posted by Enamel_32
Email an Awaken to yourself. Next time somebody's in a pinch (including you) you'll have one available. If it gets deleted... 250 inf lost, oh well.
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As for base empowerment, I'm still quite miffed at them pulling out base salvage and consequently making empowerment work off of IO salvage: I had a treasure trove of my personal empowerment selection's base salvage in a few racks lined up right next to the station.. used to be so convenient, but now you can't even store a decent amount of salvage in your base. Baka.
That said, the buffs are still substantial when considering number crunching, but A) base load times have always been slower than anything else for me, B) need to hit the Market for salvage each time I want a round of buffs, which usually means zoning more, C) time consuming finding which combo of salvage is most lucrative to purchase, not to mention the typical lag in Market surfing.
I already spend entirely too much time pondering in this game, I've little patience for more idle time that happens to have other detriments.
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I buy the salvage I use for my character's empowerments in stacks of 10, then keep them in my storage vault (which is right by the altar) Buying in bulk beforehand lets you buy cheap, since you can just float a bid when you're running low. One could also store them in the SG storage shelves to make them available to whoever wants 'em.|
Originally Posted by Incubbus
+1 Genuinely helpful idea for the early levels.
As for base empowerment, I'm still quite miffed at them pulling out base salvage and consequently making empowerment work off of IO salvage: I had a treasure trove of my personal empowerment selection's base salvage in a few racks lined up right next to the station.. used to be so convenient, but now you can't even store a decent amount of salvage in your base. Baka. That said, the buffs are still substantial when considering number crunching, but A) base load times have always been slower than anything else for me, B) need to hit the Market for salvage each time I want a round of buffs, which usually means zoning more, C) time consuming finding which combo of salvage is most lucrative to purchase, not to mention the typical lag in Market surfing. I already spend entirely too much time pondering in this game, I've little patience for more idle time that happens to have other detriments. |
My plant dom was technically self-perma a long time ago, but I guess I'm just addicted to the easy recharge and endurance boost the altar gives for so cheap. Can't beat it.
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That's because you're anti-SG and anti-base Sam, trust me, you're not the norm.|
Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
While that might be a decent argument for people who dabble in bases in general (and I know that's who you were addressing), it perpetuates a running problem with bases - they're very hostile to solo players and introduce all manner of hoops to jump through. Rent, an obtuse editor, inability to invite or promote your own alts, prestige conversion rates, blah blah bladity blah blah.
To explain - I've been here for six years, maybe more, and to this day I HAVE NOT SEEN an empowerment station. Ever. I don't know what one even looks like. |
You choose not to use a game system? That's fine. However look at the thread title.
As you said, you've been here years. If you'd chosen to, you could have learned about them easily. You're a smart guy. However you chosing not to use it for reasons of your own doesn't detract a whit from their usefulness. Just puts this on the list of things you're willfully ignorant of.
Edit to add- Bases, base rent, and crafting are nowhere near as onerous for a primarily solo player as you describe. I can earn rent for a month for all three of my small bases in a day's play. Once stuff is crafted, it's done. No need to repeatedly use the editors if you have what you want. For the time invested, my bases have paid back their cost a hundredfold in utility and convenience.
MMOs by design are about jumping through hoops, pretty much every game of any kind is. Whether you choose to or not, you've made it clear that your personal threshold for that is very very low.
Could bases be better? Most assuredly. Do the niggling problems that bug you mean most people ignore them altogether? You really sound like you're trying to argue that no one should make an effort to learn about bases and use them because you've already decided they suck.
"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
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Way to make something sound worse than it is by being vague. The amounts of prestige needed to pay base rent can be earned in minutes. The salvage costs are moderate. And I don't remember the prestige costs to build it but none of them ever seemed excessive to me after the current round of cost cuts went through.
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Originally Posted by IanTheM1
And, to boot, Empowerment Stations contribute to your SG base tax, on top of the relative priceyness of the later models, requiring both a chunk of salvage to craft and a chunk of prestige to place.
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"Null is as much an argument "for removing the cottage rule" as the moon being round is for buying tennis shoes." -Memphis Bill
Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound