BellaStrega

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only 5C aren't mutant, but Nat/Sci/Mag/Tech (Human, Vamp,Werewolf, and Robot respectively) unless I'm mistaken, that is all but mutant. Or are the higher level Human types considered mutants for some unorthodox reason?

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The 5th C have a higher Mutant drop rate, and the Devouring Earth have a higher Science drop rate. Despite the fact that the Nazis are scientifically altered, and the Trees are mutants. Go figure.

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Wait for the Terra Conspiracy ... you might be surprised as to what the DE are.

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Clearly a hint as to what's in Update #3 - Weeee!

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I seriously doubt it. There has been no official announcement or preview on the website about what's in store for Issue 3 (both the previous issues had at least one preview web page created). Nothing for Issue 3 is on the training room server. There has been no pre-download of content files. All of this means that Issue 3 is still at least one month away, and probably two or three.

If this was a prelude to Issue 3, then it would have to drag out for a very long time, which would make the final release of the issue somewhat anticlamactic.

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Issue 2 = Shadow of the Past.

So, er, what's the 5th Column again?

(a general question, using the above post as a springboard)

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Yes.



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My vote doesn't count. Statesman is a Tyrant!

Er, wait...he agrees with me.

Nevermind.

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I vote no.

There's clear balance issues to allowing it, esp. given that the typical player doesn't know what tactics to expect from a higher-casting mob. (e.g. attacking a scorcher in steel canyon can lead him to summon fire imps! A level 32 power from a level 16 mob, that can decimate a party).

More importantly... giving villains powers before a hero can get them means that a hero is -always- going to feel weaker, and less potent than a Lt or Boss of the same level. How heroic am I when everyone else is better at what I do than I am?

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FWIW, whenever I've hunted Outcast bosses in Steel, the fire imps have never been more than an inconvenience, either solo or in a team.

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Well my rebuttal (to those who say its good because it adds more challenge) is that you can make low level bosses, lieutenants, powerful without giving them high level powers. (and can we PLEASE not use "hurl boulder" as a standard attack for anything without a gun? It does massive ranged damage)

Damned, Bonedaddy's...both were really tough without the need for super high powers.

Also, I think its nice to save some of the high powers for...high level bosses. If a level 14 fire boss is already using fire imps then what will a level 34 or 44 fire boss use? Fire Blast?

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I'm not sure why you're saying this is a bad thing, or why it's only a bad thing now as opposed to how it's been happening all along. Is it more that the powers in question inconvenience you? Believe me, oppressive gloom on murks inconvenience me every time I take a character through the first 20 levels. It wasn't much fun after issue 1 went live to have a Lead Scorcher put me in a ring of fire and send his imps to have his way with me, either, but, well...

So, why is this suddenly an issue now? That's what makes me curious.

Powerbomb,

I've been immobilized once while using combat jumping since update 2. It was in an outdoor Malta Group mission set for two people.

Also, status resistance works by magnitudes, not percentages. When the stacked magnitude exceeds the resistance, the resistance is overcome. So, in my particular example, getting hit by four or five web grenades at once probably did it.

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two people here so far complaining, including OP about how they "need" CJ to play their Character.

more will follow, i'm sure, as this follows along and explodes into yet another nerf thread.

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That's not an exploit, that's people wanting to avoid immobilization status effects. Immobilization isn't even that harsh a status effect - you lose no toggles, after all. However, immobilization is very annoying - I hate it, and prefer to have resistance to it. I really dislike getting locked in a ring of fire and zapped from a distance, as I'm sure many others do as well.

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yeah, just like smoke grenade had an exploit to it.

it's percentages were simply incorrect, so it was abused as soon as it was realized "Hey, this is more effective than anything else in the game, and i *need* it to play."


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What are you talking about?

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And likewise, as it seems, any characters, in general, who rely on a *single* power to their character, instead of the character as a whole, are those people who need my tagline the most. look at every whining "nerf" post...

"Oh no, they nerfed smoke! oh no, they nerfed Smoke GRenade! oh no, they nerfed Combat Jumping!"

They all focus on people saying "I *need* this power to play!"



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Er, where's the swarm of people who need combat jumping to play? Seriously? I mean, please be specific about this so-called exploit that I must otherwise assume you are manufacturing from whole cloth.

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Not to mention Level 2 Luminous Eidolons who used the level 35 radiation blast.

Funny, Eidolons were always my favorite bosses.

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I hates them, but that means I love to punch them. I'd rather not see them altered because their character is heavily influenced by their powers. Just how scary would a Murk be without Oppressive Gloom, really?

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If you haven't noticed, Poz and Geko have lately been on a witch-hunt for exploited powers, and exploits in-game. Missions no longer allow "Helpers" (High levels to sit in the zone out of team, to kill things in the event of an emergency)... You can't sideline a highlevel to power level someone.. etc. This was just another in a long list of powers that needed tweaking to remove the exploit to it.

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Combat Jumping had an exploit to it?

Pardon me, is this the Bizarro World?

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Now, I respecced to it on my scrapper, post-Update 2, and I've found that it doesn't resist immobilizations whatsoever. Not on my blaster anymore, either. It's not fun trying to get by a group of CoT in the sewers and have their Death Mage drop Midnight Grasp on you and CJ does nothing. I'm just curious if anyone else is having this problem?

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Once. I was in a Malta outdoor mission when a sapper hit me. I tried to jump away (had combat jumping on) to escape before I detoggled from the end loss over time, only I couldn't, because I was webbed.

However, another time, I was detoggled and webbed, and I fixed it by turning combat jumping back on.

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Extreme example: If level 1 hellion bosses spawned in atlas, and were summoning fire imps, I'm sure a lot less people would feel excited about the prospect of getting them. (not that anyone in their right mind would dare to level a controller solo without some close friends to play with....)

The fire imps on lead scorchers bugged me a lot, moreso then any of the others.

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I've fought level 2 Murk Eidolons in Galaxy, who used Oppressive Gloom (level 35 dark armor) and Midnight Grasp (level 32 Dark Melee).

This isn't new to the game.

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We'll also be tuning down Trolls and Outcasts even more - to make them like Skulls and Hellions (fewer powers, etc.).

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I don't mind them being a bit easier, but I love the shift over to them having elemental powers. I'd hate to see that go away.

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"this challenge is not hard enough, make it harder" is not whining . . . it is the anithesis of whining.

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Well, this is a game where you're telling several people that their fun really is less important than your fun. It's not the Shao Lin Temple, nor is it Navy Seal training.

I agree with Kazarek, though. There's definitely a lot of whining to keep the game hard. I'm not sure how anyone could call what most of the complaints have been anything else.

Also, there's been mockery, derision, and condescension from those who want the game to remain harder, with comments about how people need to learn to play the game properly, and how they should go team with a controller, and other pointless replies. And, honestly, you've participated ("amused by shiny objects crowd" comes to mind) in all of it - and I'm somewhat sympathetic to what you're looking for, I just think you're looking for it in the wrong part of the game.

Fundamentally, when I'm playing low level characters, I want to get them to Talos/IP. The current setup puts obstacles in that path. I want the game once I get to Talos/IP to be more challenging. I don't want the part of the game that I've played through at least a dozen times to be hard enough that it takes me that much longer to get through it. I also don't like the idea of new players going into door missions at second level and getting pounded by two patrols of two yellow minions and an orange lt. each because they don't yet know their character or the game well enough to handle that fight...especially if playing a controller, blaster, or defender.

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Update 2 essentially killed the blaster. I have a good friend, Maklov 41 Fire/Dev who quit CoH simply because he can no longer solo anything without the awesome: cloak, aim, trops, mine, t bomb, fire ball, inferno combo... :'( so basically they've killed soloing blasters altogether which is a shame

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It sounds like what you really mean is "Issue 2 killed the soloing smoke grenade blaster."

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No.. mob levels in missions must be turned back to where they were.

Reasons are stated by many people who came to these boards to express their dissatisfaction.

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Many of the players who say they want a challenge are pretty self-absorbed in terms of gameplay. They don't want anything other than what's specifically convenient for them, as opposed to a broader base of gameplay that would more easily cater to all styles...and maintaining accessible play until that broader base is established.

Instead, they want everyone to fight Godzilla with a putty knife and call it a good show because that's what they want to do.

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Also, yellow minions = orange lts. = red bosses, and before you get SOs, red bosses are very difficult to deal with.

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3 Lucks, 2 Enrages, 4 Breaths, 1 Awaken. That's what I used to defeat Electric Eel and Bedrock (the two Hollows Ouctast mission) at level 11 with no enhancers at all in my powers. Not even training enhancers. Fire / Dev blaster and the only dev power I used was Caltrops. I didn't even have targeting drone running because of the end drain. It's very possible to defeat red bosses without enhancers in your powers.


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Sure, except that I used all my inspirations to fight the lieutenant/minion groups that also spawned at +1, so I had to go back and buy more to handle the next group, and so on until getting to the boss. Using inspirations to defeat bosses is not rocket science. No Bothan had to die to bring us that information - it is fundamentally obvious to use them for such. Unfortunately, getting to red bosses also requires the use of inspirations.

Also, I suspect you fought Electric Eel before the change to Outcasts that gave Lead Shockers access to Hurricane, because without insights, targeting drone, or accuracy enhancements, you're whiffing when you don't have aim up, and you're probably not killing him with the attacks you get while aim is up.

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The missions are fine being +1 for those who can use SO's, but for those below lvl 22, some are extremely difficult to impossible. I can go up to +2 mobs with my lvl 29 blaster and get by ok, but my 12 scrapper just can't take all the mezzes and orange and red bosses in some of these missions.

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I don't think most of the people who want to keep the +1 spawns realize that they're speaking from the perspective of one or both of: playing characters who have one of their defining powers (like, say, phantom army for an illusion controller) or having fully slotted SOs.

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if you cant handle groups of 3 +1 minions then you can always get help or level up to finish it.


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Most people don't want to restrict themselves to three missions/level, and the way door missions are spawning villains, that's pretty much what this amounts to.

Also, yellow minions = orange lts. = red bosses, and before you get SOs, red bosses are very difficult to deal with. I was having trouble with an orange clockwork knight just a bit ago, and found that for all I wanted to do some playing, I didn't want to fight Clocks, Vahz, or CoT or Tsoo spawning at +1 because in each case, their powers and higher ranking villains make soloing all but impossible, and the best answer is not "get help." Sometimes, it's fine, and sometimes I don't want to deal with someone else on my missions. More than half the time, they really make the experience worse - I've lost count of the number of defenders and controllers I've had teamed with me because I needed assistance who carelessly aggro'd half the map when I was out of endurance. That's not help, that's debt waiting to happen.

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now tell me, which side of that coin needs to fixed?

remove the +1s from missions and wait for a difficulty slider to get coded and for beefed up minions to get balanced?

or just leave the +1s minions there until the difficulty slider and beefed up minions can be added?

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How about:

Remove the spawning of +1 anythings in mission doors pre-25th level (and even post-25th level, some bosses and lts spawning at +1 will make soloing extremely difficult for some ATs and builds) and wait for the mission difficulty slider.

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You are correct PainGod. And that is how I see them as well. Any type of spawn (boss,lt,minion composition) that you find in a trial zone is also found in a hazard zone.

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This is demonstrably not true.

Or... where are the spawns in Dark Astoria of nothing but 8 Storm Shaman?

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If 3 of them equals one of us, and every hero 6 levels under them is meaningless to them, as is the case between them and us, there are enough of them, scattered throughout the city and sourrounding areas that, given the general lack of heroes throughout the rest of the world due to the Rikti War, unchecked super villains would control the remainder of the Earth.

Just playing out the scenario to it's logical conclusion. Even if they were fighting each other tooth and nail, each faction would have it's own continent or so. That's why I can't believe the Earth-native factions having minions as powerful as that being proposed.

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I'm just thinking of the immersion/suspension of disbelief.

Right now, you can find Rikti shooting it out with the military in the Crash Site, and while it's clear that the military is supposed to be outclassed, it's still seen as reasonable that they're sent in there to try to keep the Rikti under control. Sure, they need superheroes to save them, but.

If one 40+ superhero can handle at best three Rikti, then...why is the army even in there? They're getting slaughtered. They'd have to be. I mean, as it stands now, it's on the edge of plausibility.

I don't really have a strong opinion there, that's just what leapt out at me when I was in the Crash Site. I'm willing to test whatever they put on the training room, as it appears that feedback really does make a difference. If the game is more fun due to challenge with three white minions being my match at any level, then groovy.

On the other hand, I do see the points about not feeling as cool after leveling up to 40 and still fighting three minions...and yes, the label "minion" does conjure certain expectations.

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Sorry, can't find the stunt doubles anywhere in the video.

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Heres a hint: Blasters arent very well known for thier melee abilities...

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Yeah, I was wondering where the storm kicks came from.