ClawsandEffect

Absolutely unprecedented. I agree with Fire-Minded on something. Well, some of it anyway. There's nothing in there that's just flat out wrong, though there is stuff I disagree with.

I don't think CoD will double your suvivability by itself, but it will improve it some.

Calling it a pointless power to take, though, that IS flat out wrong. Getting 30% defense on a Dark Armor tank will double or triple your survivability, since you have defense in order to be hit less, resistance to reduce the damage of what gets through, and a monster heal to take care of what defense and resistance let through. Just resistance and the heal won't give you as much ability to survive, especially if you are the main tank on a TF with a makeup that makes you responsible for keeping others alive.

I won't bother for 1 million.
I'll join one for 10 million if I happen to already be in the zone and don't have anything else to do.
I'll cross zones and/or switch characters for 100 million.
I'll log in on another server for 1 billion.

I agree with both of these.

Skipping Siren's song on a sonic blast ANYTHING is a huge mistake. Siren's Song and Screech make for an absolutely untouchable solo blaster. Siren's Song is perma out of the box (it's duration is longer than it's base recharge). I use that combination with Taser added in on my Sonic/Devices and it's awesome. If you have a stealth power or a stealth IO you can sneak up on a mob and put them to sleep, then wake them up one at a time wth Screech (they wake up stunned and still can't attack that way). Single target attack them to death and do the same with the next one. Voila! you have just killed an entire spawn without ever even being targeted, let alone damaged.

Also, the purple sleep set is still pretty cheap, comparitively speaking.

I still like Focused Accuracy. My Claws/Regen has more than enough endurance to run it full time without ever being in danger of running out, and it's the only place I can fit in my build to slot Gaussian's (since slotting Gaussian's in Follow Up is a horrible idea)

Ideally, you should try to tweak in order to pik up both Fighting AND Body Mastery. You really only need 2 powers from Body, Conserve Power (which won't need to be slotted on a WP, it's basically a throwaway power here) and Physical Perfection (which I would actually *** for regen on a WP toon)

Tough, Weave, and Physical Perfection will add tons to your survivbility. Any chance you can post your current powers so we can see what you can get away with dropping to pick up 5 powers? After IOing, you can probably get away with dropping Stamina, especially if you take PP. (that's assuming you have it) I wouldn't drop Health though.

Well, it probably won't be Cloak of Darkness it gets, but it would retain some sort of stealth power.

And scrappers getting Venom Grenade?..........

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! That one isn't gonna happen.

Ninjitsu would be a cool port for scrappers, and will probably happen at some point, but they are VERY unlikely to get Venom Grenade in place of Caltrops.

According to the math Umbral did on it, you only need 55% global recharge to have perma DP. That is assuming both Hasten and DP both have 95% recharge enhancement. It is also assuming you click Hasten and DP as soon as they recharge.

So you're a computer programmer with loads of experience with the EXACT game engine they are using? (which means you work at Paragon Studios, because as far as I know CoH is the ONLY game using this engine)

Sure sounds like it, since you keep saying this is so easy to do. It's very doubtful that doing all this is just "cut and paste" like you keep saying.

Did you know that every single attack animation in every set that you can use a shield with was altered slightly in order to work with the shield? Every. Single. One. And they had to create an entirely new combat stance to use with it.

That's why it took us so long to get Shields in the first place. Dual Blades and Shields were the sets that won the voting contest to see what powersets they were going to give us for melee ATs. We got Willpower instead of Shield Defense back then because Shields was a LOT of work to do.

What you're essentially asking for is an entirely new powerset, that is not an entirely new powerset. BaBs's workload remains just about the same, but Castle and the other powers guys won't have to do much with it.

If all this stuff is SO easy, why aren't we getting new stuff every month? You think they works for a couple days and take a few weeks off every time they add something? Programming a video game is incredibly time consuming. Doing this would take time out of the animator's days that could be used on something brand new, like oh, I dunno, the giant expansion that is coming out soon that likely isn't completely finished.

I think you're thinking of a Luger. Which was the sidearm carried by the Nazis in WWII.

Ruger is a more recent company. One of their flagship handguns is the Ruger Blackhawk, which is a .44 Magnum revolver with a long barrel. The Magnum revolver model is actually most likely based on it. So if you use that model for the pistols they could easily be Rugers.

I use the Apprentice Charm all the time. It's secondary effect is a minor resistance debuff. The others get removed from my tray as soon as I can put together an attack chain.

Yes, but not like other games. Your powers determine what you can do, so you don't have to buy weapons or armor or anything like that. What we have is called enhancements. They make your powers better. Staccato mentioned that your origin determines what enhancements you can use. In order from worst to best they are: Training Origin (TO), Dual Origin (DO), Single Origin (SO), and Invention Origin (IO).

There are also Invention Set Enhancements. These are a set of enhancements with a common name (Positron's Blast, Thunderstrike, Crushing Impact, etc.) The sets are made up of between 3 and 6 enhancements, and you get bonuses to your character when you have 2 or more slotted (they must all be slotted in the same power to grant a bonus).

Some of the set pieces are extremely valuable, so if you happen to get one, check it's price at the market before you sell it to a vendor or delete it. A vendor will not pay more that 10,000 influence/infamy for a set piece, but to another player it could be worth millions.

Quick tips:

You already heard how to get a travel power. You must reach level 6 in order to take the prerequisite for that power.

You can have up to 4 Power Pools. These are powers available to any character of any archetype. Choose them carefully, because you are limited in what you can take, and being new you won't have any respecs available to you right away. (A respec lets you re-choose your powers, but you can't change your powersets)

One of the most helpful power pools is the Fitness pool. It includes the power Stamina, which increases the rate you recover endurance. It's not mandatory to take it, but most people agree that it is a very good idea. You must have 2 powers from the pool before you can take Stamina, and Stamina unlocks at level 20. All power pools work the same way, you unlock the first 2 powers at level 6, the third power at level 14, and the 4th power at level 20. You do NOT need to take both of the first two powers, one is all you need to access the third. You can also take both of the first 2 powers and jump straight to the 4th at level 20, but one of the powers is almost always better than the other.

You get a 5th power pool you can choose from later, those are called Epic or Ancillary power pools. But since those don't unlock until level 41 we won't worry about them yet.

Also, another note: You happened to have started the game during a Double XP weekend, until Monday morning you gain twice the normal experience for everything. After it's over you will notice your leveling speed will slow down. That will be the normal leveling speed, and it's supposed to happen. Just wanted to make sure you knew that so you don't go "WTF?!, why am I leveling so slow now?!"

Okay, I've thrown enough information at you for now

Welcome to the game! I hope your stay is long and enjoyable!

Claws