ClawsandEffect

Ah, yes. I'd forgotten about them.

HEAT stands for Hero Epic Archetype.

VEAT stands for Villain Epic Archetype.

The names are somewhat misleading. They're not particularly more powerful than the basic ATs, the term "Epic" means they are more heavily tied into the game's story than the others.

Example: WHen you create an Arachnos Soldier (a VEAT) you are pretty much tied into being a guy who works for Arachnos. If you create a Brute, your backstory can be whatever you want it to be.

Oh, and creating copies of trademarked characters is a no-no. You won't be banned for it, but if you are caught the GMs will wipe your character's name and appearance (you get to keep the character though, along with anything you've earned on it). Repeat offenders might be punished more harshly, but I don't know of anyone who has been.

If you mean the server, it is the highest or second highest in population.

If you mean CoH Freedom, it is somewhat above 100,000 players, and holding fairly steady.


PvP is either in the arena or in specific zones. There are 4 PvP zones at different level ranges. If you are above the level range of the zone you are in you will be reduced to that level while you are in the zone. In 3 of the 4 zones the combat is faction based, in the 4th it is a free-for-all where only your teammates are on your side.

There is no open-world PvP, and in general the playerbase is vehemently opposed to the idea. All PvP in CoH is voluntary, it is impossible to force someone to fight you if they do not want to. Simply entering a PvP zone IS consenting to PvP. Some PvE players complain when they are attacked in PvP zones, but there is nothing they can actually do about it (if they petition you for attacking them it will be ignored). There are very few offenses in PvP zones that are considered griefing, and other than those few things anything goes.

Your powers will work differently in PvE and PvP, so it would be wise to read up on the differences before you dive in. In general, ranged characters trump melee in PvP.

My advice is to just play whatever sounds cool and learn the game. There ARE some builds that excel at farming, but I don't encourage new players to start doing that right away. There's a lot of game you'll miss if you start farming right away.

PvP-specific builds tend to be rather cookie-cutterish. As a general rule, your PvP character and your farming character will probably not be the same one.

I already mentioned it, but I would just play the game and not worry about "gearing up" just yet. You'll start building up cash just by playing, but building up the cash for a high end PvP build will not be a quick process (see my notes on VIP status).

There are several:

-VIPs can use Inventions automatically, Premium payers have to buy a license to use them. Inventions are this game's version of "gear". If you plan on PvPing they will be pretty vital if you want to be at all competitive. Inventions will take a character from "Hey, this guy's pretty cool" to "ZOMG I'M AWESOME"......BUT.....you have to learn how to build them first. Just slapping Inventions in your build because they're expensive without a plan will not achieve the desired result.

-VIPs also have an influence cap of 2 billion. (how much you can carry at one time), free players are restricted to 25 million to start. This is important because there are some Inventions that will cost you several hundred million at a time.

-VIPs have access to 2 Archetypes not available to Free players: Controllers and Masterminds. They also have access to several powersets not available to Free players. It's not a game-breaking limitation, but it is there.

And lastly: Do not worry about making the most optimal character. This game is balanced pretty well to the point that there is no one build that is the best at everything. Different characters will have different things that they excel at and are bad at. The difference can be between classes, or even between power sets within a class (we call classes Archetypes here, usually shortened to AT)

My overall advice is: Do not rush toward a predetermined goal, especially before you've played the game enough to decide if that is still your goal. There's a LOT of game to play, and if you focus on farming and "gearing up" right off the bat, you're going to miss most of it.

For Willpower? They're pretty important if you want to reach your peak of survivability.

No more so than your other toggles, and Willpower doesn't need to worry about end consumption as much as other sets.

I would assume so. Anything you buy is yours to keep, so I guess it would let you use them at creation.

I generally just remember what I have and what I don't.

Yep. There's a reason farming Brutes are all SS/Fire. If you pair SS with any other secondary its AoE damage output drops significantly.

SS/Fire also holds the crown for ST damage on Brutes. All it takes is Soul Mastery. KO Blow-Gloom-Burn. I find it funny that the top ST damage chain for Brutes only includes 2 powers from the primary.

It is a legitimate balance concern that ONE set combination is at the top of both ST and AoE damage. I've felt that way about it for quite a while now.

Very.

My main (Claws/Regen) occasionally crits several times in a row.

I find the scenario in which you only got one crit over the span of an entire mission.....unlikely.

This.

Aside from that, Shadow Fall provides 20% Psi resistance.

It is a mathematical fact that 20 is more than 0.

I was going to address this earlier, but didn't have a chance to.

Devices has been nerfed exactly TWICE.

-Once was ED, which screwed everyone. Saying Devices was the target of ED is just.....wrong.

-The second was actually a fix. Smoke Grenade had a decimal point in the wrong place and was giving everything it hit a 50% to-hit debuff. Blasters having ONE power that effectively gave them more defense than an SR Scrapper's entire secondary with no non-positional/psionic hole was more than a little overpowered.

That is the entirety of the "nerfs" to Devices. One was a global nerf that affected everyone, the other was a fix to an accidentally broken as all hell power.

Now, buffs.

-Taser used to be a melee range stun that dealt negligible damage. Now it is a ranged stun that deals negligible damage. A nice buff for a set that specializes in remaining at range.

-Gun Drone used to be called Auto Turret, and was completely immobile. It also took forever and a week to cast, and now it has an instant cast time (which I actually didn't know, haven't played my /Devices blaster in a while).

-The devs have also mentioned "something cool" being planned for Time Bomb. They haven't mentioned exactly what yet, but they've had a pretty good track record with power buffs lately, so I'm looking forward to it.

-It is a very specific buff, but Targeting Drone adds damage to Sniper Rifle. I'm in favor of that damage bonus being spread to the other snipes as well.

Oh, and as far as Cloaking Device being an "out of combat power":

-When I play my Sonic/Devices I can attack one target and have other targets not notice that I did so.
-I can lay a Trip Mine in the middle of a spawn with impunity, thanks to Cloaking Device and the Stealth IO I have in Hover.
-I get as much defense from Cloaking Device when it is suppressed as I do from Hover. When chasing the soft-cap that 2% is very valuable.

Yeah, too bad none of those things are useful while I'm fighting things. Gee, I wish Cloaking Device had some kind of application in combat.

The best part? Since Cloaking Device is part of my secondary, I don't have to waste a power pool choice to get one power out of an otherwise useless pool. I can have stealth and I can still have 4 power pool choices.

This my friends, is an example of a perma-noob. Someone who so tenaciously clings to ignorance that it cannot be rectified by any means.

The level of ignorance in this post is truly epic.

If you hate Devices as much as you imply in this post, why did you roll one in the first place?

And what do you tell the people who LIKE Voltaic Sentinel?

"Too bad. I don't like it, so you can't have it"?

That was.....totally irrelevant to my point.

My point was that Entropic Aura is a Taunt aura and cannot be suppressed by stealth powers.

Try using Stealth while running Invincibility. Hell, try to remain hidden while standing in the middle of 5 Shadow Fall/Steamy Mist. Your aura will Taunt them, regardless of how much stealth you have.

The usefulness of the stealth power in Energy Aura is that you will only have enemies that your aura is actually hitting agroed on you. Enemies in the next mob over will not come running over.

Also, I'm pretty sure you're wrong about the fury thing. I remember reading reports from Energy Aura brute players saying that they could stand in the middle of a mob and never be noticed. If it worked like you say they wouldn't have been able to do that.

You mean you've never slotted any enhancements AT ALL?

Because the zone store ones you are talking about are the ones that most people slot while they are leveling up.

Also, you can slot common Invention enhancements at level 30 or so and you won't have to replace them as you level.

Wait.

You're saying that you want someone to post a build....

....but the builds that have already been posted in a different section (the section dedicated to the exact purpose of the requested build) .....are useless?



Does this clown not realize that the builds in the PvP section and the build posted here are most likely going to be extremely similar, if not identical?

I didn't look over the build, but I would have given him a terrible one just for being a doofus.

Entropic Aura is also a Taunt aura.

The Scrapper version notifies enemies too, just like Against All Odds, Rise to the Challenge, and Invincibility.

It is not just a recharge boosting aura, it is actively taunting them when you are within range.