BrandX

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fleeting Whisper View Post
    Granddaughter, actually.
    I hope they keep it!

    It adds dark tones to the story! Whether they keep it 13+ (Heroes) or 16+ (Villains)...though with combining them, I would think the game is 16+ now as a whole...you don't have to go into DETAILS. Details is what gives things the higher rating.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Perfect_Pain View Post
    Villains needs its own stuff.

    I get that heroes cant handle that side of the game getting any attention. But, yanno... Co-Op
    Villains need a lvl 30-35 TF!!!
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by rian_frostdrake View Post
    i have to say that it would be bad storytelling from my perspective. dying holds meaning, it is a sacrifice, if that just gets handwaved away for vanity, then it loses meaning. superman should still be dead, cap should have stayed dead, same with batman, and witch should stay dead. besides, she still can talk to us, and even numidia is non corporeal and gives a tf, so while id be thrilled to see her used more, she must stay dead.
    Agreed! War Witch is like Ghost Widow. Being dead is part of the character.

    It's not like dying has actually stopped them from being here. :P
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by TrueMetal View Post
    I thought everyone had agreed to pretend that this bit of ingenious 'lore' had never happened?
    I know I prefere it this way...totally forgotten.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    And I never said that, either. I said to pick from one of the ways you WANT your character to be called. If you don't want your Kid Flash to be called Bart Allen, then simply do not call him that. I'm sure there are at least a few other things you can call him. The point is, even comic book characters can be called multiple things, like Superman being called the Man of Steel. Just try one of the alternate variants. It doesn't guarantee you'll get a hit, but you might.

    I'm not saying "just use another name," and I'd really like people to stop misquoting me on this one. I'm saying that even if you HAVE to use a particular name, you still have at least a couple of decent variants that you can go off of. Any reasonably developed character has those. And, of course, there is the off chance that yours doesn't, but it goes back to the original point - if you absolutely positively must use one specific name and no variants can EVAR suffice not one iota... Then check it, find it's taken and throw your hands up, because you can't make that character.

    And no, a non-unique naming system is not the solution until one such that's both clear and not fugly is invented.
    Well then I apologize. I wasn't trying misquote. But that's really what your posts sound like.
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Werner View Post
    If you don't want to do without a heal, take a secondary that HAS a heal - Dark Armor, Electric Armor, Fiery Aura or Regeneration. Or take a secondary that really doesn't even want a heal - Willpower. Now yes, in all of these cases, you will still benefit from a heal in the primary. But you'd likely benefit MORE from defense, which is to say Katana or Broad Sword. Of those, Katana/Willpower is arguably both the easiest and the most survivable.

    Or, go for maximum damage output in a more general sense. Not just DPS. We talk about DPS all the time, and it's one of the things we often maximize on our min/max builds. But it's also much less relevant to most of the game than AoE damage output, which is where Dark Melee falls behind. Fiery Melee is a good choice here, at least if you don't want to go all the way to "pure" AoE with something like Spines. Combine it with Shield Defense to boost the damage even higher, throw in Aid Self if you're really going to be pushing it (find room), and go to town.

    So, uh, I guess I just recommended what Telperion recommended. Dittos!
    This...so much this.

    I think people on the boards forget this so much.

    Going for maximum single target DPS is only important if you actually plan to solo AVs (or in the case of non-scrappers GMs) and pylons.

    Dark Melee is a great set, but it's so single target focused (even with shadow maul), I never felt like the one contributing alot to a team when using it, when everything is going down so fast.

    Basically it felt closer to Energy Melee, without me wasting attacks on dead enemies :P
  7. BrandX

    Slot my Fluffy

    4 Basilisk's Gaze (Pick 4, minus the Proc), 2 Touch of the Nictus (ACC/HEAL, ACC/END/RCH).

    I use mine as just more to add to the team. And these give me good set bonuses...+Rec, +Ranged Defense, +RCH, and +HP.

    Basilisk's Gaze while expensive buying them on WW, is easy to get with tickets, and I got all 4 of mine through tickets.
  8. BrandX

    Since when?

    One of the problems I think, is that people don't realize Howling Twilight has a huge -regen debuff.

    Even those who play it, don't realize it.

    I know on my Dark/Ice/Psi, I didn't realize it.

    Now, on my Dark/Sonic/Dark...I do.

    The only reason I didn't go D3 on my Dark/Sonic/Dark, was part of the concept is my toon is a exorsist type (not exactly one, but close enough)...and ghosts in CoH resist negative energy damage.

    So, that left me with Electric, Rad, Energy, or Sonic as my choices, based entirely on the weakness of ghosts (energy damage).

    Dark Miasma is a great primary, and while I've never actually seen a Defender tank (absorb the alpha, sure...but keep all attention on them, no)...I know my Dark/Sonic/Dark was out surviving IOed tanks/scrappers on the ITF, handling three ambushes on it's own.

    However, the toon is IOed (not completed) for alot of defense to stack with the -tohit of Darkest Night. And I was told the +Defense on it would be a waste (it's not).
  9. BrandX

    Skipping EMP?

    Ditch Aim or Soul Drain.
  10. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Motley_Cruel View Post
    I played DM for the first time after it got buffed back in issue whatever (was it 12?)
    Anyway, since then I leveled a few characters with the set, and the more I played, the more I realized how ridiculously awesome it was. Not only does it have the potential for the highest DPS (due to having probably the best Build-up esque power) but it also has a strong end recovery power, Siphon Life (IMHO, one of the best attacks in the game), to-hit debuffs (including the awesome ToF), and is a relatively loose set (By 50, you only probably need S, SL, MG, SD. DC and ToF are usually optional) So as far as I can tell, the ONLY weakness DM has is the relative lack of AoE, which can be filled out with SD/APPs/PPPs (writing this from a brute perspective as well). In exchange for its AoE weakness, DM has crazy damage and is one of the most survivable sets. So as something of a min/maxer, explain to me why I would want to play any other set, other than simply for flavor?
    Like you said, better AOE.

    Yes, you can pick up some AOE in the Epics, to stack with the weak AOE of SD, but it's still relatively weak AOE output.

    And on a one on one DPS route, isn't Claws and Dual Blades better, unless SD has cannon fodder to fuel Soul Drain?
  11. AR/DARK MIASMA Corruptor or DARK MIASMA/AR Defender

    Tar Patch + Ignite + Flame Thrower

    And because AR is the suckie, you know you have a great set in Dark Miasma to make up for it
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha View Post
    Now, the title isn't exactly very clear, so I shall explain.

    Pretty much everyone knows about Shadow Cysts. If you dont, quick run-down; Shadow Cysts are the same crystals that spawn in the ITF. They appear randomly for any team that has a Kheldian in it, or a team which has a member that HAS teamed with a Kheldian within a certain number of hours (cant exactly recall)

    Shadow Cysts spawn number of Unbound Nicti clouds. Lesser (minion), Unbound (Lt) and Greater (Boss).
    They also spawn these damn things in ungodly large numbers. Now, one on one the fluffies arent much of a threat. When they spawn in about...I dunno, clouds of thirty? Their attacks are all neg damage with -recharge. They are HORRIBLE to fight. Even a team that is doing competantly, not steamrollering but mashing away at a nice steady pace, and even steamroller teams, tend to grind to a horrible, horrible halt when confronted with a Cyst 'Swarm' as I call them.

    Now, the suggestion. Cap the number of Nicti clouds the Cyst can summon. Say about ten.
    Reasoning behind that? Cysts are just another spanner in the HEAT works. Void hunters and the like are ok to deal with, as are 'Bound' Nictus, such as Dark Dwarves and Bright Novas. Cysts, on the other hand, are just plain nasty. It's a real cramp to any incentive to team with a Kheldian. Whats worse is when they spawn in the same room as, say, an AV, which happened when fighting Captain Castillo in Faultline.

    Cysts are not fun as they are now, and thats not a good thing in an AT that already has an averaging rep (Not all of it true, YMMV)
    o.O They give people pause?! I just run in and start attacking them.

    I like them

    /unsigned
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    To give you an example, you can go with The Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, Banner, Bruce Banner, Bruce, Dr. Banner or Dr. Bruce Banner. That's 7 names for the same Marvel character, all of them equally his, all of them equally appropriate, simply because he's known as Dr. Bruce Banner, aka the Incredible Hulk. Trying to suggest that picking one over the other is somehow not caring about it is absurd, because they are all things he is called and has been called in comic books and on comic book covers.
    The name Hulk (for a superhero comicbookk hero) is good.

    Now imagine that comicbook cover, instead of HULK, it read's Dr. Bruce Banner.

    Yeah, not the same effect.

    And to keep repeating that it is, when you KNOW people are saying they want names that sound like TRADITIONAL COMICBOOK HEROES (and Villains)...so why do you keep saying take the other route?

    You know that's not what they want. I personally don't mind either way. But saying take the name Helen Goldenstien, for a character name, because you can't have Foxfire. Is a stupid thing to say, or even suggest, when you know it goes against what comicbook heroes/villains are about.

    And sorry, part of what they are about is fun/cool/awesom call sign/handle.

    This isn't to say there aren't good ones left. I'm sure there are some really good ones that havent been taken/thought of yet. Problem there, is they might not fit the actual concept of said character.
  14. ...for a Corr (Elec/Thermal), should I take it? If so, should I slot it as an attack or as a hold?
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    It's not a question of realism, it's a question of looking good, and I just don't see this looking good without a hand wave massive enough to start a hurricane. I suppose you could just say you're doing this by building up defence as a secondary effect, but I rather doubt the set's going to have any more secondary effects besides its rumoured variable damage types.

    Again, I don't dislike the idea, I just don't think there's a good way to implement it into the game. I actually like it a lot as a concept
    Admittedly, I don't think DA and Parry look all that great. And really they look like attacks. And people are using them on anything and everything, even if it's things they couldn't Parry against.

    I'd see no difference with Dual Pistols just have a nice looking attack, that does exactly the same thing mechanic wise and it's just called "Deflecting Shot".

    An attack that shoots out multiple rounds to deflect what coming after the hero/villain.
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sardan View Post
    First, let me say I know that ultimately debating about an end game that we literally know nothing about is pointless. But hey, it's entertaining so here I go!

    The traditional definition of level 50 content in this game is "stuff that any level 50 can do". We know that anything an IO'd team can do, an SO'd team of competent players can also do. Set bonuses or elite purple IOs are not required.

    But given that Positron specifically said at Comicon that a key part of GR will be a way to make 50s more powerful, I think that will necessarily create an entirely new class of content. Here's why:

    We know from the old '08 marketing survey that Universal Enhancement Slots were summarized as a way to give your character the equivalent strength/effectiveness of a hypothetical level 60, but without raising the level cap. Now August '08 was a long time ago, and they may have a completely different mechanism in mind for GR, but the key part is to realize the design philosophy behind using a phrase like "hypothetical level 60." That means they intend for the new mechanism to convey seriously meaningful buffs, not trivial buffs that would be impossible for a player to notice in action.

    That leads inescapably to the idea of there being new, harder, content that is aimed squarely at players climbing the UES slotting ladder, plus new end game content specifically designed for fully "leveled up" characters.

    We don't expect level 40 characters to be able to do anything a level 50 can do. If there is truly meaningful character empowerment/progression as part of GR, I wouldn't expect someone who hasn't begun that process to be able to do the same tasks a fully geared up character could. To put it another way, if GR moved the level cap to 60, people wouldn't say stuff like "I shouldn't be required to level up to 60. My existing 50s should be able to tackle all the new content." Well, GR is adding a new way to progress characters, albeit without bumping the level cap.

    But before people doomcry, having a new harder level of content doesn't automatically turn the COH endgame into a WOW-clone. In CoH you can earn the finest loot from soloing, either directly or with merits or purchased from the market. I would expect that this philosophy will be part of COHs new end game too. Yes there will surely be TFs and probably raids, but it would be shocking to me if pure solo characters couldn't get the same rewards by merits or the market. Posi knows the concept of large scale raids as a mandatory means of character progression is antithetical to CoH's gameplay. There's no way he'll design a system where a soloer or small team can't get to the new cap, however that's ultimately defined.

    EDIT:
    What would be in keeping with current COH design philosophy is if there's an "easy mode" way to slot up the UES's that's equivalent to SOs. That'd be the bare minimum you'd need to tackle all the new end game content. Then there'd be the next level that was nicer but not hugely so, equivalent to getting IO set bonuses. Then finally there will be an elite level of slotting that only the most hardcore players bother to go after, equivalent to purples. That'd put you at the top of the pyramid of character effectiveness but there wouldn't be any content designed to require this level of uber gear.
    I imagine the new content being, a lvl 50 is able to earn new slots, that can be slotted with SOs/IOs/or possibly some new type of enhancement, that anyone can obtain if they desire. May need a team to do it, but I doubt it'll be something the team has to be all Purpled to do.
  17. Nervous? Fear?

    Nope. None at all.

    I've reached the level cap on my 50's.

    I haven't done a Hami Raid or STF on all my 50's.

    End Game content for me, will be for those toons I still play at 50 and like to pull out even if they are 50. For more than just "Okay let me grab this toon to help out".

    Right now, that's my main and namesake, DB/WP Scrapper.

    Who in all likelyhood will be rerolled as a Dual Pistol/something (Probably Mental, as that's the closest to a time manipulation feel), then be busy doing end game content for her, while getting her all IO'ed out!
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    While I can't really fault the idea at its root, it doesn't strike me as something that would be as much symbolic of handguns unless you had super speed or super reflexes to count. They're guns, after all, and while you use them in funny ways, they're still guns... That can make bullets rain from the sky...

    Basically, one of the usual uses for a sword, at least in fiction, is to parry with, so it makes sense for them to shoehorn a parry in there somewhere, even if it doesn't make sense. A typical use for a handgun, however, is not to shoot down other people's bullets, and I've honestly not seen that outside of Mythbusters or that comical scene in The Shadow. Granted, it's in anime, but even THEN it's fairly rare. You might see ninja hitting each other's throwing knives in mid air, but for bullets, it's fairly rare.

    I can't say I'm against something to the effect of suppressing fire, but really - this isn't the domain of handguns. It would be the domain of Assault Rife, if Assault Rifle were anything like an assault rifle. The thing with swords is that when you activate Parry, you parry while doing it, so it can kind of work. If you use a gun to do that, you do what? Shoot off into the air, hurting no-one but being magically protected for the next 10 seconds? And protected from what? Parry stops melee attacks and lethal attacks, which is basically bullets, swords and arrows, plus whatever comes in melee, like fists, clubs and claws. What would bullets stop? They can't stop anything ranged, since it doesn't always make sense, and limiting them to just lethal attacks seems odd, since they ought to be able to stop rocks flung at you, at the very least.

    It's an interesting concept, but I just don't see it as applicable.
    Admittedly, my idea (parring with bullets...not the healing bullet) would not work in the real world. But in a world of superheroes. It could easily.

    Though, building for alot of defense, I could just say that's what the hero is doing anyways.

    My idea was more of a good comicbook superhero trick. And personally that's what I go for in CoH.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow View Post
    OK, OK, this is a stupid reason to start a new thread, but... Well, when has that ever stopped me? You know, for the past five years I've been listening to the same tired old argument - all the good character names are already taken, woe is me. On the one hand, I don't buy that, because I know they're not, but on the other hand, there's always that niggling little thought at the back of my mind: "Yeah, I'm making fun of these people and dismissing their concerns, but what if it happens to me?"

    What if it happens to me, indeed? Suppose there was a character I just HAD to give a descriptive name, where giving her two names or a personal name would just have been a step down? What if all the descriptive names I could come up with are taken? What if... Well, it finally happened.

    See, for a while now I've been throwing around a concept for a character who is blind (and deaf and lacks any sense of smell, taste or touch), but has alternate methods to see. "Daredevil" was out of the question, obviously, but I wanted to go with something that meant "blindness." "Blindness" itself wouldn't do, again very obviously, and I've tried both "nearsigted" and "shortsighted" before, and both were taken, as well as, let's be frank here, not being terribly good names. Being that English is not my first language and I hadn't dealt with blindness much before, that's where my synonyms ran out. What is one to do, then? I've seen a lot of people post thesaurus sites, but like an arrogant *****, I just ignored them, proudly thinking to myself "I would never need such a thing! My vocabulary is far too vast for me to worry about it!" Yeah, apparently not vast enough.

    But there's still the 'net, obviously, and doing something as simple as googling "blindness synonym" (and that's straight out of my search history) presented me with a couple of user-unfriendly dictionary sites that gave me such odd suggestions like "sightlessness" and "blindness" o.O. But among them were good suggestions, such as "myopia," which I never actually knew the meaning of, but it turns out to be a medical term for near-sightedness. "Cool!" I thought. "That... Sounds like a really crappy name, but maybe it's free!" Nope. No dice. Someone thought of it first, and perplexingly decided to use it. Huh. Well, people are typically smarter than me, and there are, like, a hundred thousand of them consuming, like, 30 names each, so they pretty much have to be.

    Moving down the list, I found the word "cecity," which is apparently SUCH a rare word for blindness that a google search for it reveals nothing and asks me if I actually meant "city" (it does show ONE sight that has it, though), and Wikipedia has no articles of that name, or with that word in their titles. Huh. Here I thought it was a word that meant some kind of specific blindness condition, or an eye disease of some sort, but apparently it literally means blindness in all sense of the word. Imagine that.

    Of course, before I did any of those additional searches, I tried the word as a character name. Surely someone smarter than me, with a better vocabulary and English as a native language would have thought of such a curious word and it would be taken. After all, all the obvious names are taken, a "blindness by another name" is very much as obvious as it gets. Nope. "This character name is available." Huh... I did not expect that, but I'll take it! So I sit around, making a character for around five minutes (I had the costume all planned out beforehand), get to the name selection field and type the name in. Just to be sure (and out of disbelief), I hit Check Name. "This name could not be checked." Son of a... Hit again, cannot be checked again. Why, I don't know, but I decided to give the name check system the finger and go ahead with it anyway. Name went through and the game popped me up into Outbreak.

    Still in disbelief, I checked to make sure I'd spelled the name right. My /infoself name field says "CECITY," that's C E C I T Y. Looks the same as what I'm seeing in my google serches. I can't copy my name off my infoscreen, so I do a /whoall (I'm the only one in Outbreak on Victory at the moment), copy my name out of there (in the process closing my chat window ARGH!!!), plop it down into google and I get a confirmation from The Free Dictionary explaining that my search term meant "(Medicine / Pathology) a rare word for blindness." Well, I guess I spelled it right, I'm in the game with the right name, it has the right meaning, and apparently either no-one thought of the name or no-one liked it. Huh...

    Finding the word to use as a name took me somewhere in the neighbourhood of 3-4 minutes, give or take. I've been typing up this post talking about it for the past 15-20 minutes. That ought to give you some context as to how hard it was to find.

    Good character names are running out, huh?

    The fact that people will see this name, and have no idea of what it means, really goes against what people REALLY mean, when they say there are no good names out there.

    The name Striptease was taken. I found (and used Divest, which means to strip), alot of people don't seem to know that though. :P

    NekoFuki (a name I normally wouldn't consider for a superhero) is my recent Plant/Thermal Troller...and most people don't know Fuki is Butterbur (a plant) in Japanese. I came up with it, because Fuki was taken.

    In fact, with NekoFuki, I was told 1) It sounded suggestive 2) People have seen toons with the name Fuki in it, get genericed. :/

    I've kept it anyways, but I put in the bio what Fuki means, just to hopefully curb that whole fiasco from happening.

    Now...go tell me if names you'd actually see as a comicbook title are free.

    Joybuzzer? Spoilsport? Checkmate? Nightwatch? Fiction? Ravage? Bliss?

    And mind you, I use hyphens if I can get away with it. Fox-Girl, I was suprised not to be taken on Virtue.

    Though I have a SG friend who used the name EagIe Boy. I was like "You know, Eagle-Boy, is free" and he was "I don't like to use hyphens" and I was "Spider-Man, uses a hyphen".

    Hyphens like this are okay imo.

    I don't mind the periods so much, when people are using the same name for their toons...

    Dark Watcher
    DarkWatcher
    Dark-Watcher
    Dark.Watcher
    DarkWatcher.
    ...ect

    You know when they are basically making the continuation of their toon (usually main).

    But to just see the period on ones they don't have some for of the first three for instance, just bothers me :P

    xxxNAMEHERExxx also...:/ N A M E H E R E...another sigh moment.

    Just because you can do that, doesn't make the name good.

    And I'll say it again. Read a superhero comic. Very seldom does the superhero use their real name. So, let's not go with that one :P

    People want their comicbook sounding name. Everyone who starts these threads know it.

    Names are limited. They're even more limited by the fact that Marvel & DC has decades on CoH :P
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Elysienne View Post
    The way I've often approached mutant stigma and etc etc etc is that the norm for outside of Paragon City is your usual angsty mistrust and so forth. I figure most people in Paragon City are waaaaaaaaaay over that by now. What with the Rikti and all.

    And depending on the character, the whole "Earth for Humans" thing can go from "bad wording" to "you f---------b------ssh----ph----iftc---rrrrftftft------pp-----eric bigots."
    Oooo...now see, this I can see.

    Though I was always under the impression that the whole world suffered from Rikti, not just Paragon.

    Also figured the Rikti is what keeps mutants from being hated in the game.

    Basically substitute one hatred for another.

    Then of course, if the Rikti get fulled repelled, people start hating the mutants again. Old fears resurfacing.
  21. Hmmm...for stictly Posi runs...I would think Electric Melee wouldn't be bad.

    Energy damage is what ghosts are weak too. TS gives AOE knockdown.
  22. I don't think so. Not all my toons use Ninja Run. It just doesn't fit their concept.

    Butterfly-Girl, my Dark/Sonic Defender, just isn't a ninja run type of guy, so it's off the tray.

    Brand-X, my DB/WP, is very much the acrobatic flip style hero. She also has hover/fly as it fits with her concept (now if I could get rid of that waiting stance >.> The run is great, but the standing still stance...but eh, I can click it off then).

    Ninja Run, I find just works for those style of heroes who aren't really Hulk style jumpers, which is exactly what Super Jump is.

    Ninja Run is the roof top to roof top style travel. Now only if we had an area that gave more easy to hit building to building action
  23. I have my lvl 20 Plant/Thermal I'm working on right now.

    I've solo'ed missions on +0/+0. It can be slow, but confuse helps alot.

    ILL/RAD I solo'ed at a pretty decent speed, and it's a strong combo, but...I enjoyed playing it before...but now, it's really only fun for AVs/GMs...so I don't tend to play it anymore.

    Fire/Thermal, I found slow to lvl untill 32, which picked it up a bit.
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Solicio View Post
    Is there a comic book or anime cartoon out there that has healing bullets in it? I've never heard of that before, but I'd be really curious to actually see it. It sounds like such a bizzare and counter-intuitive concept to me, but I have no context for it outside of this thread.
    Why yes there is! Kurohime!

    I love the manga! Can't wait to see the anime (I think only the first episode has shown, but not sure).
  25. Quote:
    Originally Posted by NarfMann View Post
    BTW: If your concept for a power set requires a healing bullet, then your concept is dumb.
    O_O I want magic bullets though! *sniff*