How many times must I die to ambushes before I can re-complain?

I had a friend mention to me that his sons got wind of CoH's existence, and in his words had the reaction of: "OMG DAD OMG OMG OMG WHEN CAN WE PLAY HOW CAN WE PLAY CAN WE PLAY WHERE IS IT WHERE DO WE GO HOW DO WE PLAY CAN WE PLAY????!!!!!!" He wanted to know if I felt it was safe for them to play what is labeled a teen/adult game.

I told him it was (I let my son play, but with some definite restrictions on teaming and communication). But I also warned him that should they play, they should definitely *not* start in Praetoria, and likely not in the Rogue Isles either.

Fire/Fire/Fire blasters are the exception, when Death just becomes part of the attack chain

Originally Posted by Zwillinger GG, I would tell you that "I am killing you with my mind", but I couldn't find an emoticon to properly express my sentiment.

Originally Posted by Captain_Photon NOTE: The Incarnate System is basically farming for IOs on a larger scale, and with more obtrusive lore.

I totally do the same thing with my Fire/Fire Brute.

Even my WP tank has Resurgence. Although that one doesn't get the damage+knockback+stun combo.

My buds think it's weird that I always take self-rezes. But then again I'm not the one always running back from the hospital, so....

I still want to have a character with Inferno/Rise of the Pheonix/Quasar/Stygian Return/Black Star/Soul Transfer/Dawn Strike Thrown in Self-Destruct to start things off.

While I may not always understand what Arcanaville is saying, I'm always entertained by it. And, occasionally I learn something.


Is that even an option for new players? Aside from the difficulty issue, I find the canon issue to be even greater.

--NT

Start Praetorian character, load up tutorial. Log out, start second character. Choose Hero/Paragon City.

Not with the Going Rogue box, at least not until the second character. For trial purposes I advised looking for GvE or Architect editions, which of course wouldn't even give Praetoria as an option.

I also gave my opinion to him that story-wise Praetoria really wouldn't be appropriate either. The storylines are just too weighty for kids.

Being repeatedly frustrated by broken mechanic (one they may not know is possibly bugged unless they visit the forums btw) is not the best first impression of this game to new players.

Some may agree to disagree.

But seeing as how the devs keep trying to fix such ambush bugs in OTHER areas of the game, and ALREADY made passes at some ambushes in Preatoria and the comments by some devs/community reps I think I have a good guess how they feel about repeatedly frustrating new players.

/shrug.

If I died, chances are those cyans, yelows, blues, and solitary tiny orange weren't going to stop it.

I often forget to use them other than in an opening volley. It's one of the reasons I hate such short-lived, long recharge buffs.

I'm the same way. Given the choice between Build Up and Assault, I'll choose the fire-and-forget passive toggle any day of the week.

The only character I have that has Build Up is my Elec/Shield Brute. She only uses it just before firing off a Lightning Rod/Shield Charge combo.

Then I have to ask why you're carrying so many inspirations that won't keep you alive that you don't have room for those that will. I don't get people who carry a full tray of awakens either, when by carrying a few purples and greens they could probably avoid needing to use that many awakens.

Well if you're playing a Blaster the opening volley is often all you've got, so yeah, that's when you'd use them. Some people don't use them even then. Or they hit both together, snipe the boss, kill nothing and use up their buff.

Kinda makes me wonder how many other people feel this way. Because if the number is significant, I'm sure it contributes quite a bit to Blaster death and frustration.

Full disclosure: her recharge on those three powers is nearly identical, so it actually makes for a complete chain.

But I don't play Blasters, so I'm not really a good case study.

Because I'm on a team that's moving quickly and I haven't had time to stop and manage my Inspiration tray just yet, and/or I didn't notice the need to empty it until it was too late because consumables aren't a high priority for me.

I find that setting up custom keybinds for inspirations helps with this a lot. Instead of pasting all mine here, I'll just link to a thread that has very similar binds:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showt...aker%27s+guide

I have mine set up so that F1 uses Accuracy inspirations (smaller first), F2 is Damage, then Defense, Resistance, Endurance, Health down to F6. I should probably add break frees to F7 and mebbe even wakes to F8 for completeness.

"Oh crap, they're shooting at me! F3 F3 F3 F3 F3!!!"

Doesn't work. You have to get a character out of Praetoria before you can pick Hero/Villain, on the new accounts.

As Eva says, if you're full on things you don't have use for, you should either be combining them (if you have three of something) or deleting extras.

And an orange will do a lot more for your survivability than you seem to think. So will a yellow.

I'm a bit of an aberration, but on my blaster I consistently use Concentration together with Drain Psyche and Hail of Bullets. It's fun.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Softcapping an Invuln is fantastic. Softcapping a Willpower is amazing. Softcapping SR is kissing your sister.

Keybinds are useless to me. My keyboard only sees in-game use for chatting, chat commands, and the market. I find using it for gameplay to be an exercise in awkwardness. But the mouse cursor generally hovers over the tray and I can click any inspiration quite easily as needed with a tiny movement of the left joystick.

I already addressed the first point. And a small orange wil not do anything to save me in most situations in which I get defeated. Yellows might depend on the situation or character, but generally speaking I'm setup to not have much trouble hitting things, and when I do have said trouble I'm in a situaion where I'm outclassed to the point that a yellow isn't going to save me.

In teams like that I just burn anything that's not a luck, respite, or break, and let the continuous hail of insps eventually fill me with the right ones. And then, I start burning all the small ones until eventually I have nothing but medium and large lucks, respites, and break frees.


True story from the distant past. When I first started playing this game, I really didn't feel like teaming. I was a dedicated soloer. But I did try a few times to team when someone threw me a tell or invite. The *first* guy that ever threw me a random invite that I accepted was in Skyway. He never once said anything in chat that could be considered english. At one point he stopped fighting and said, and I'm quoting here, "+?"

So there's no confusion, it was:

+?

I said (because I didn't and still don't speak gibberish fluently) "I'm sorry, could you explain please?" (I still use punctuation in tells. I'm weird that way).

He said:

u +

I said "Do you need something?"

ya insp

"Oh" I said, and gave him all my insps, which at that moment was three reds and two blues.

no +

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you need."

He just stopped talking and went back to fighting, and eventually I said thanks and left. I didn't accept a team invite for weeks afterward, because honestly I assumed all you MMO players were illiterate. It was only months later when I was thinking back on that day that I realized he must have been asking for respites.

That's what I do when I'm paying attention to the ersatz potion bar. But I often forget about such consumables even in a fantasy game, much less in a superhero game.

Just to set the record straight, Arcanaville says the only good inspirations are Lucks, Respites, and Break Frees. Let that sink in.

From my well-ordered inspiration tray, a new order arises.

--NT

You're not required to pay attention to everything, but if you elect not to pay attention to the insp tray that is not the fault of the inspirations: their value in the game is not based on the degree to which the least attentive person chooses to exploit them.

Inspirations can help, and can help to a degree virtually unmatched in any other MMO I'm aware of. More than many people think is even healthy. If a player doesn't actually use them properly, then of course they'll get less benefit, but that is presumed. Its not a valid argument against the utility of inspirations. They will often save your life if you choose to manage them, if you choose to use them, and if you don't run out of them.


Here's an example of a case where inattention got me killed in a highly novel way. Because I've done so much blapping, I'm used to jousting on the ground in superspeed or maybe sprint. I now hover blast a lot. I was in a Malta mission shortly after respecing into the ranged build when I got held by a Gunslinger. So I popped a break. Problem solved and I kept fighting. At some point, I got nailed by a flashbang. I didn't notice, because I had a break free still running. Then it expired, and the stun took hold. I *still* didn't notice because I was shooting: while shooting tier 1/2 attacks, you don't appear to be stunned because you are playing the attack animations, not the stun animation. When I killed the last guy, I suddenly realized I was stunned. Flashbangs last a long, long time. In the old days, I would have just been detoggled and fell to the ground. Now, toggles don't detoggle and flight doesn't suppress while mezzed. So I just kept floating up there.

And moving: forward momentum isn't cancelled by mez either, and I was moving towards my target at the time the stun took hold. So I just hovered right over his dead body, hovered right across the room, and hovered right into the next spawn about a hundred feet away. Who promptly killed me while I remained stunned the entire time.

I honestly barely had the presence of mind to start shooting again when I got in range of them, because honestly I had never seen that before. I was actually mesmerized into just watching it happen. It was like what being a pinata must feel like.

I now have a two break free rule.

.. I hope that's getting brought up to someone on the dev team, because hilarious as that is, that can't be the intent.

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Softcapping an Invuln is fantastic. Softcapping a Willpower is amazing. Softcapping SR is kissing your sister.

For blasters I think those are the most important ones. Obviously, breakfrees help melee characters less (although they are good for breaking terrorize if you lack that protection) and sturdies are probably better for regen scrappers than respites. Also, if you are a brute or tanker, a combination of lucks and sturdies can make you temporarily indestructible by almost any threat, even STF Recluse.

Also, those are the best to keep as a blaster. When reds drop, I tend to just use them immediately. They help, but there's no point to keeping them to help later. Damage is useful now. Heals and Breakfrees are more useful reteroactively. Lucks are most useful to use proactively when you know you're about to enter a tough fight, or if you find yourself suddenly getting jumped by unexpected aggro.

Not really on topic, but, just curious here. Is there a way to keybind popping an inspiration to a pet?