Carnifax

According to that Server Status link sent earlier in this thread the servers are back up.

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Sappers are not that hard if the team (or you) locks him down the moment he tries to attack. Some mobs still require priority over other mobs.

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I think the reason for mentioning sappers is that Ice is very good against them.

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Exactly. Everything has a weakness, I'm not sure you can make a Tank in CoH who is going to be best at everything (for obvious reasons).

For example Custom Mobs with Hard+ Cold Domination are going to make a Fire Tank (and lots of other things) weep regardless of how IO'd they are. Stacked Infrig & Benumb is pure ebil (funny though. Especially since I gave them Dark Blast as their primary too)

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I shall bathe in badges tonight

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Will you work up a shiny lather?

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Will you thinking about it?

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Ninja edit: fixed number of days to make it look like I was right all along

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Cunning Mr Standoff. No-one will suspect a thing.

Yep, the lack of warning about it is pretty rubbish. I'm sure I've lost quite a few bids from forgetting about alts.

Anything in the Auction House is wiped after 60 days inactivity.

But the Shadow Shards has a split-personality demi-god trying to break free from it's aeon-long confines. Surely that counts as big enough to force Heroes and Villains to team together

You're right about the TFs, some of them would need to be rejigged / fixed.

I'd like for the Shadow Shards to be co-op. Actually to be honest I'd much prefer a 20-35 co-op zone instead (again I nominate Dark Astoria. Stick a TF & storyline about Something That Should Not Be being awoken). But some people despise them. I quite like them, but I'm coming from a gameplay PoV where more teaming opportunities is better.

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You don't need a dead teammate to use it!

The rez is a side effect, it's a ST attack

Jeez

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It's a targetted AOE attack, not a ST one (and autohit in PvE, not sure about PvP)

It's a massive AOE mez & debuff which has the side effect of bringing people back from the dead, in the same way Twilight Grasp is a decent ToHit, Damage and Regen debuff which also happens to heal anyone near you

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Howling Twilight - Ranged Targeted area of effect, Minor damage (Negative), Target Slow, -Recharge, Disorient, Ally resurrect
PvE power, ignore it.

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I can understand a difference of opinion, but that's just plain misinformation. Against anything which uses regen as it's main form of mitigation, HT = essential

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Far as I am aware HT is an ally Rez, where is the 500% Regen coming from?

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Activating this power channels the power of the Netherworld to weaken your foes, in an attempt to revive all nearby fallen allies. You must stand near your defeated allies to revive them, then select a foe. The selected foe and all nearby foes will be Slowed, Disoriented, and drained of some life. Revived allies will have full Hit Points and Endurance and will suffer no ill effects and are left protected from XP Debt for 20 seconds

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????


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Try City of Data (or look at the detailed numbers ingame). Howling Twilight has a hefty -Regen component in PvE and PvP. In PvE it should ALWAYS be used on AVs (along with copious amounts of stacked Twilight Grasps from you and the Darkl Servant).

The description of Fearsome Stare is a wee bit confusing too. I'd change it to
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Fearsome Stare - Ranged (Cone), Foe Fear, -Accuracy
Mezzes aren't what they used to be, but Fear can mez someone long enough to drop your tar patch, personally I would go with some range on this if you can fit it in


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With Fire aren't you just swapping one weakness (Cascading defense failure in Ice) for others (Malta Sappers & Recharge Debuffs)?

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Oh come on do you live in a covenant or something its not that bad its no worse than what a 16 year old can find else where, hell I've seen people in clubs/pubs/out on the street showing as much flesh as that the only costume part that's remotely risky is the upper legs/pants but its hardly youth corrupting filth just wait till the summer rolls round and it look like perfectly acceptable day ware.

also go do a google image search for one of the following names

Emma Frost
Goblin Queen
Lady Mastermind

there all marvel characters and all appear in books that can be bought by any one regardless of age and at least one of the characters mentioned above appeared for many years in a g-string and corset as her regular costume

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After seeing the images I can only agree with my earlier statement, at least on two of them. Jay Wet-Dream material.

In their current form I think I'll Pass. Unless there's an interesting power which comes with them.

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Well... I am fairly certain 16year olds are not allowed to buy prostitutes.

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So magic booster pack is the same as buying a prostitiute?

mmkay.

I'll readily agree it's alittle slutty looking, but there are clothed up versions too.

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Point is... Some of the parts there are indeed slutty as you said. Sure there are some that are covering each and every inch of body... But not all of the parts are.
On the verge of being just too much.

Heck... Eden pattern on skin is more covering.

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Well Magic users are well known for wearing slutty, ninja-****** outfits.

Look at Harry Potter. The slag.

If they are just more Jay wet-dreams then no sale for me. I want robes or something close to robes, anything else is just some cynical attempt to milk cash from an aging customer base (or was that the Wedding Pack?)

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I'm sure there's some reason for keeping it all secret till the last minute but I can't imagine what it might be - unless maybe it's not been finalised yet.


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Because they needed to remake because they realized it was a wee bit too much for a game with this low age limit?

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didn't know 16+ was low.

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Well... I am fairly certain 16year olds are not allowed to buy prostitutes.

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Not even if they promise to walk them every day and clean out their cages once a week?

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Don't know. I'll need to see what's in it first.

I'm sure there's some reason for keeping it all secret till the last minute but I can't imagine what it might be - unless maybe it's not been finalised yet.

If I'd come up with something and needed to sell it I'd be shouting about it from the rooftops not trying to keep a lid on it.

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Yes, but you don't work in Marketting Cal. It's obviously a plan so cunning us mere mortals couldn't comprehend it's brilliance.

There's plenty of other examples of NCSofts genius marketting ploys which to us look like the inept failings of a headless octopus but that's because we lack the wit and reason to fathom them.

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It depends on how the costume pieces look. If I like it I buy it, simple really

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^This. Didn't bother with the previous packs because they didn't appeal to me. I'll wait to see what's in this one before deciding.

Isn't Invul as bad or worse against Psi?

WP has fewer holes but is a bit worse at taking alphas and holding aggro. And anything that does -regen will make you weep (based on personal experiences on my scrapper with a Test custom Cold critter with Benumb).

Overall Granite tanks are the toughest to kill afaik. That doesn't mean they are god mode against everything in the game though, but they are the toughest things to kill.

Random update on how this is going. I'm now level 11.

My main issue is staying alive at the moment. All of Rads AOEs coupled with a Heal which gives me a damage boost but prevents me healing myself, along with the lack of crowd control in early Villains is an evil combo. I often find myself gathering too much aggro from the AOEs. Most teams I've gone on have been 1 or 2 levels higher than me, so the enemies I'm fighting are a bit too tough for me.

However once I DO and SO up and team with my regular team of Domis and Brutes I figure it'll get better. Still a blast to play but will get better when I move from being The Healer to The Buffer with lots of AOE Death I think.

*Edit : There's a debate on the US server on Pain Corrupters vs Mastermind ones. With annoying fact which I hadn't considered in the Corrupter vs Mastermind argument.

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Well the "no healing allowed" part of share pain does not disallow regen. It does reduce regen by 100%, but with a slotted suppress pain, you're providing the group with 300% regen, allowing you to continue gaining life after sharing pain.


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Drat! Stupid annoyingly useless Corrupter version!

I'm now thinking of a second, more PuG friendly build (funded by an alt) with one of the AOEs (Irradiate probably) dropped for X-Ray Beam and switching the heal to the non-crippling targetted one instead, I lose the damage buff but should be more suited to dealing with my own aggro.

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Personally I think NC have someone watching me. They *always* conspire to start things like double exp weekends and major updates when I'm going to be away or will have visitors for an extended period. It's uncanny...

I'll pop on occasionally to read the forum and see what delights have popped up out of the woodwork...

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I know what you mean. I've to go back into hospital for some minor surgery next Monday. Hopefully though it won't be a repeat of last time over Xmas (six weeks in there ) and I'll have a week or so afterwards to play lots.

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With a damage and a recharge getting replaced with the Pet +Defense and +Resist uniques if I can get them (the Spirit doesn't need to be out or anything for these to work on all pets so he works nicely as a mule for them)


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It actually works like that? That's pretty sweet...looks like I might have to start saving some Inf for those then.

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And just to throw an onion in the ointment, if you slotted with ToHit Debuff/Recharge IOs not only will they boost the Recharge of the power but they'll also boost how quickly the Spirit fires off its powers with a ToHit debuff (Ghastly Blast and the Life Drain heal).

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Just an FYI, with i14 this will no longer be the case, the Spirits attacks shouldn't be enhancable with Recharge.

I used to use the Numeric Control system for my MMs, but it was a bit too fiddly for me.

Instead now I tend to cluster my henchies into grouped commands for a few different "stances", bound to the bottom row of the keyboard, and it's a lot easier.

b is Follow Defensive mode for everyone (Bodyguard), n is Passive Goto mode for everyone (when I want to pull and prepare an ambush without my pets running to my aid), v is Attack Aggressive for everyone (Gank em mode). After that I've got "Attack Aggressive" commands for each tier (z for zombies, x for knights, c for Lich) and two Goto Aggressive commands : One for the knights, to get the broadsword attacks going, one for one lone zombie for "Go and die so I can rip out your soul". And one bodyguard mode for Zombies (in case I need it or a zombie goes legging it off). That gives me just enough to get them to do whatever I want, for the most part, and fits nicely along the bottom row of the keyboard (I used the bottom row since I play on a laptop without a number pad).

So :

/bind z petcompow "Zombie Horde" attack aggressive
/bind x petcompow "Grave Knights" attack aggressive
/bind c petcompow "Lich" attack aggressive
/bind v petcomall attack aggressive
/bind b petcomall follow defensive
/bind n petcomall goto passive
/bind m petcompow "Zombie Horde" follow defensive
/bind lcontrol+lbutton petcompow "Grave Knight" goto aggressive
/bind lalt+lbutton petcomname "Grey" goto aggressive

So you can hold left Control and Click a position to move the Knights to that spot. I do this to move them beside an enemy I'm targetting and once they get there I hit x to get them to attack him with their sword attacks (the Sword attacks are much, much better than the Dark Blasts the knights have). Once i14 goes live you may not need to do this as much as you currently do, they should be better at closing in and using their swords.

Note that in the final bind my sacrifical lamb zombie is called Mr Grey so holding left alt and clicking a location makes him run to that location and attack anything nearby, absorbing the alpha and getting himself nicely killed so you can use Soul Extraction on him to make a Spirit.

Here's my team-orientated SO build (with an eye to IOing up as I go, eventually PROCcing Neut Bolt and Irradiate). My single target chain is shored up by the 2 Vet attacks.

Rather worringly for my teammates I like the idea of leveraging Power Boosted Vengence...

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Mr Dark Avocado: Level 50 Natural Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Radiation Blast
Secondary Power Set: Pain Domination
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Teleportation
Ancillary Pool: Soul Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Neutrino Bolt -- Acc(A), Dmg(3), Dmg(9), Dmg(15), RechRdx(34), EndRdx(34)
Level 1: Nullify Pain -- Heal(A), Heal(3), Heal(7), RechRdx(31), RechRdx(40), EndRdx(46)
Level 2: Irradiate -- Acc(A), Dmg(5), Dmg(9), Dmg(11), RechRdx(25), RechRdx(36)
Level 4: Share Pain -- Heal(A), Heal(5), Heal(13), EndRdx(40)
Level 6: Electron Haze -- Acc(A), Dmg(7), Dmg(11), Dmg(17), RechRdx(17), EndRdx(34)
Level 8: Hasten -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(13), RechRdx(15)
Level 10: Conduit of Pain -- EndRdx(A)
Level 12: Swift -- Run(A)
Level 14: Super Speed -- Run(A)
Level 16: Health -- Heal(A), Heal(50), Heal(50)
Level 18: Cosmic Burst -- Acc(A), Dmg(19), Dmg(19), Dmg(23), RechRdx(23), RechRdx(25)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod(A), EndMod(21), EndMod(21)
Level 22: Enforced Morale -- EndRdx(A)
Level 24: Assault -- EndRdx(A)
Level 26: Neutron Bomb -- Acc(A), Dmg(27), Dmg(27), Dmg(33), RechRdx(33)
Level 28: World of Pain -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(29), RechRdx(29), ResDam(37), ResDam(43), ResDam(45)
Level 30: Tactics -- ToHit(A), ToHit(31), ToHit(31), EndRdx(50)
Level 32: Vengeance -- DefBuff(A), DefBuff(33), DefBuff(37)
Level 35: Anguishing Cry -- Acc(A), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(36), RechRdx(37), EndRdx(46)
Level 38: Painbringer -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(39), RechRdx(39), Heal(39), Heal(40), Heal(46)
Level 41: Soul Drain -- Acc(A), RechRdx(42), RechRdx(42), RechRdx(42), Dmg(43), Dmg(43)
Level 44: Power Boost -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(45), RechRdx(45)
Level 47: Dark Embrace -- ResDam(A), ResDam(48), ResDam(48), EndRdx(48)
Level 49: Recall Friend -- IntRdx(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx(A)
Level 1: Scourge

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Not much experience with damageslotting rad since my defender slots for procs and debuffs except for cosmic burst and proton volley.
The nuke is ok but it's no blizzard.


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I reckon the Nuke goes into the "Maybe" bag so. I'll wait until 32 and see if I actually want it

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I would get electron haze, as it's directed you won't scatter everything to the four winds.


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Yep, I got this and love the power (although the animation is a bit pants)

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Oh and i would get eyebeams unless you are planning to proc neutrino bolt.


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I'm basing a lot of this on my WS, they have the same animations between the sets I think. I tried both of the WS versions and the reason I went Neutrino was just because it's so handy to spam while waiting for other things to recharge. Eye Beam I was worried I'd end up standing around a lot. Once I get Cosmic at 18 I might respec to Eyebeams instead (although I am tempted by the PROCs too).

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Neutron bomb is weird, since it notifies mobs randomly depending on range.

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Urrgh. That's odd. Oh well I'll be in a team with lots of Brutes so hopefully things will focus on them instead. I'm not expecting too much from The Tennis Ball of Death anyway, just some more AOE to throw about. Ta for the tips.

Actually here's a post from the US (ironically in a Defenders "Is Sonics overpowered" thread) which does highlight Sonics weaknesses nicely, which I do agree with.

On large PvE teams rolling through content Sonics lack of AOE does make you sometimes envious of the Fires / Archery / ARs on the same team.

Pffft. Since Castle nerfed Lightbulbs so they won't benefit from +recharge they're now unless and only n00bs bother with them.

Candles FTW (the extra fire damage is far superior)

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...you right-click a woman in the bar to bring up her info, and her boyfriend knocks you out for groping her chest.


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ROFL Too funny i can just imagine that actualy happening

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Well, to enter Hazard Zones, you have to kinda squeeze the guards until they let you through

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It's where you have to squeeze them.....

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Well, it is only realistic. Do that to a RL policeman (not the kind you meet in a nude bar for women) and you end up in a hazard zone, too.

Oh, and I have a little test for some of you:
This "discussion" about sexism in comics being equally bad as racism
a. hurts
b. is comparing apples to oranges
c. needs to be taken elsewhere.
Hint: more than one answer may be correct.

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Ooh, Phone a Friend!

And surely B is blatant Fruitism?

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Yes in essence a regen aura in all but name.

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In essense nothing, it basically seems to do the annoying "greeheal spam" thing like people who leave their AOE aura on auto (hence my original Rocking the Aura comment about it).

Ignoring pointless arguments which don't add much to the discussion how *useful* is it on teams?

*Edit : Oh, and should I bother with the nuke? I'm thinking of skipping it because of the End crash, I've nothing to counter / recover from it really.

*Edit 2 : And what Patron pool to aim for? Thinking of Dark. Power Boost (what will it do for Pain Dom?) and Mire-style draining damage and accuracy boost. Yum.