Deadly_Buzz

I started up a new SG about 3 weeks ago to facilitate a couple of people from another forum who'd just started playing and a couple of us who were reactivating. There are currently no more 3 active members (not online at once, in total!) but with all our alts we've gotten the full amount of bonus prestige which has paid for a salvage rack, vault, invention table and workshop. Since we're all low level we can play in SG mode without penalty and we've currently no need for a med bay or teleporter so it does the job. I don't think I've ever actually teamed up with any of the other SG members just 'cause it's never suited - For me, the SG provides a channel for chatting to my online friends while using my friends list to keep track of people I've teamed with who I thought were decent team members and are worth looking up if I'm putting a team together. The base just saves me running back and forth from the Vault to the University invention tables. Since I don't really play often or for long enough to get involved in a proper SG, I don't feel I'm missing out on anything and besides, there's always Coalition!

Cheers for that lads. A few good points worth considering. As a general rule, do not do me the courtesy of assuming I know what I'm talking about, I can't stack chairs let alone stealth toggles. I have the I10 and 9 month respecs and a long way to go to 50, so there's plenty of time to make a few mistakes and learn a few lessons

No. No you weren't wrong. In fact, for me this is a test case for permitting PvE hero-on-hero attacks that cause the loser's keyboard to electrocute them.

Had he taken the recipe, built the wings and swanned about in them while thanking you profusely, it'd be a different matter. He was clearly taking advantage of you in order to cash in on your ignorance, seeing as how he didn't mention or even hint at how much the recipe was worth and he paid next to nothing for it.

I can only assume that either I've chosen an odd/poor/popular-as-the-herpes-fairy mix of primary and secondary or I just didn't ask politely enough. Maybe I should have planned up to 50 so people could critique the choices? Well, here goes.....

+---------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner
+ http://www.cohplanner.com
+---------------------------------------------
Name: Psyclone
Level: 50
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Storm Summoning
Secondary: Psychic Blast
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Mental Blast ==> Acc(1)
01 => O2 Boost ==> Heal(1),Rech(3),Heal(5),Rech(9),Heal(15),Rech(34)
02 => Subdue ==> Acc(2),Dam(3),Dam(7),Acc(15),Immob(21)
04 => Psionic Lance ==> Acc(4),Dam(5),Dam(7),Acc(11)
06 => Hover ==> EndCost(6)
08 => Freezing Rain ==> Rech(8),DefDeBuff(9),Rech(13),DefDeBuff(27)
10 => Snow Storm ==> EndCost(10),Slow(11),EndCost(21),EndCost(31),Slow(39)
12 => Steamy Mist ==> EndCost(12),DamRes(13),DamRes(19),EndCost(19),DamRes(39),EndCost(45)
14 => Fly ==> EndCost(14),Flight(37),Flight(37),Flight(46)
16 => Telekinetic Blast ==> Acc(16),Dam(17),Dam(17),Acc(25),KBDist(34)
18 => Swift ==> RunSpd(18)
20 => Health ==> Heal(20),Heal(34),Heal(43)
22 => Stamina ==> EndMod(22),EndMod(23),EndMod(23),EndMod(29),EndMod(33),EndMod(37)
24 => Hurricane ==> EndCost(24),ToHitDeBuff(25),EndCost(36),ToHitDeBuff(40),EndCost(50)
26 => Tornado ==> DefDeBuff(26),DisDur(27),DefDeBuff(36),DisDur(40)
28 => Will Domination ==> Acc(28),Sleep(29),Sleep(31),Sleep(42)
30 => Psionic Tornado ==> Acc(30),Dam(31),Dam(37),Acc(46)
32 => Lightning Storm ==> Acc(32),Dam(33),Dam(33),Rech(43),Rech(43)
35 => Stealth ==> EndCost(35),DefBuff(36),DefBuff(37),EndCost(37)
38 => Psychic Wail ==> Acc(38),DisDur(39),DisDur(40),Acc(43)
41 => Dark Consumption ==> Acc(41),EndMod(42),EndMod(42),Acc(46)
44 => Dark Embrace ==> EndCost(44),DamRes(45),DamRes(45),EndCost(46)
47 => Soul Drain ==> Acc(47),ToHitBuff(48),ToHitBuff(48),Acc(48)
49 => Invisibility ==> EndCost(49),DefBuff(50),DefBuff(50)
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Sprint ==> Empty(1)
01 => Brawl ==> Empty(1)
02 => Rest ==> Empty(1)


Please pretty please, mighty citizens of Paragon, give an ignorant altaholic the benefit of your wisdom!
I'm wondering if maybe Tornado and Psionic Tornado are a little too similar (I've never seen them in action) in which case the only benefit to taking them both is that I'll have one or other available to fire off that bit more often...

I've been playing off and on for about 2 years, but since I never seem to get a toon much beyond about lvl 16 before creating a new alt (I'm reduced to using slots on the french and german servers - the shame!) I never really got much of a handle on the game mechanics beyond the basics of "smashie-smashie". I'm currently running with a Storm / Psy defender, I couldn't find any guide to outline how those two might work together and so I'm looking for help on where to go from Lvl 14 :
+---------------------------------------------
Name: Psyclone
Level: 16
Archetype: Defender
Primary: Storm Summoning
Secondary: Psychic Blast
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Mental Blast ==> Acc(1)
01 => O2 Boost ==> Heal(1),Rech(3),Heal(5),Rech(7)
02 => Subdue ==> Acc(2),Dam(3),Dam(7),Acc(11)
04 => Psionic Lance ==> Acc(4),Dam(5),Dam(9),Acc(11)
06 => Hover ==> EndCost(6)
08 => Snow Storm ==> EndCost(8),EndCost(9),Slow(13)
10 => Freezing Rain ==> Rech(10),Rech(11)
12 => Steamy Mist ==> EndCost(12),DamRes(13)
14 => Fly ==> EndCost(14)
+---------------------------------------------
01 => Sprint ==> Empty(1)
01 => Brawl ==> Empty(1)
02 => Rest ==> Empty(1)

I tend to spend my time 50/50 between playing in ad hoc teams and very slowly soloing by sniping the odds down until they're in my favour, often while hovering just outside their range or in a position that's likely to cause them to run around the level trying to get close enough to punch me. When teaming, I tend to lay down the Freezing Rain patch, pick an anchor for Snow Storm, then start spamming O2 boost on whoever's lowest on health while firing Subdue at their target during the O2 recharge. So basically I want to be able to be helpful without giving up my ability to inflict enough pain to get me through a solo mission. And I have no compunction about annoying the [censored] out of a team by using knockback as it fits the theme. And I'm just that kind of [censored].

So, I know nothing about the rest of the powers in either set, and I'm not sure I know anything about the one's I've already taken. Any suggestions on where I should take the build, what pools I should pull in and what kind of tactics I should be employing? Any help will be gratefully received - Be brutal as you like, it's not like I can hurt you. Not with this build anyway

I know it's faster but I have to say I really didn't enjoy super-speed. I found myself too often having to run up stairs, or jump at a wall that was too high like a bluebottle trying to get out a window. Fly on the otherhand is slow but so much fun - when I first got it I spent about 30 minutes just playing, and when you're flying to the mish you just get to a safe cruising altitude and then you're free to talk to the team all you like, often getting the SS-ers killed when they stop to answer.
I found O2 in the storm set to be useless - a one shot heal with no real umph, I've never saved anyones life or gotten the team through a tough fight with it, not without a rad/dark/emp healer to do the hard work.

Given that I'm responding to myself, clearly this is not that interesting a thread, but in case you are like me - a misanthropic sad case with a penchant for female alts and a burning desire to open a 1-room base, here's what I've learned :
If you broadcast, you will find someone not in an SG who's willing to help.
It's important that you promote the person who is assisting to the level within the SG that you want your Alts to have. You can't promote an offline member so you won't be able to do this later yourself. And they obviously have to have invite rights.
If you forget to get your helper to promote your alts, you can always set the base level rights to the same as the top level rights, but this will mean you can't invite others into the sg for any reason unless you are logged on as the leader - they will have full rights and your alts wont be able to promote them into a pre-prepared limited tier above base level. So now you can't have slaves to rake in the inf for you.
5 members will by you a functional room but not the stuff that goes into it. If it's window dressing cosmetic rooms you want, you'll need 8 members.
At the end of the day, you will probably not use the base at all - it would cost hundreds of millions of inf to get enough to have a functioning med-bay, workshop and/or teleporter and even an RP base with decorative rooms will cost a small fortune. It's more trouble than it's worth.

I'm not far enough along with any toon in CoV to know if this exists but I would love to see a mission where the description was "Oh no, Frostfire's been arrested for the Xth time today - you have to bust him out!" followed by a "Kidnap Estate Agent and make him give Frosty another free warehouse". It would really help to tie up loose ends for me!

Did you by any chance find that at level 13 your contacts didn't have any more missions for you and you were inexplicably getting the [censored] kicked out of you by blue a nd white mobs on a regular basis, or was that just me?

Tired of playing the game for fun?
Desperate to pay money so you can log on to your favourite MMO and toil endlessly for prestige for no appreciable reward?
Then join the Rebel Appliance today! We guarantee that you will not not be disappointed!
Promotion is guaranteed to all members who either are, or have their actions controlled by, malignant food preparation equipment.
Ability to make sandwhiches is a plus.
All applications to The Wafflemaker, c/o Defiant Server, Port Oakes, Co. Kildare.

Look on the bright side - at least if there's a raid you know that 100% of the SG will turn up to defend your bedsit. I mean base!
If you ever get a raidable base, my one-man SGs Legion of Femalts (coh) and The Rebel Appliance (CoV) would be more than happy to challenge you to a microscopic unimpressive raid. Although I probably wont have a raid teleporter until 2015. But keep your schedule clear!

[ QUOTE ]
I'll be your friend

[/ QUOTE ]
Am I the only one who started craving a glass of KiaOra when they read that? It's too orangey for JDoggs, just for me and my crows!

[ QUOTE ]
I will help you out with this if you like, I have a few alts that aren't in my SG that will help. Is it CoV, or CoH you want to do this on, and which server?

[/ QUOTE ]

Ideally Defiant on CoV or CoH but I have to get my alt to 10 in CoV. I may be on this evening and probably on thursday so if you're up for it drop a tell to :
CoH : Pizzazz / CoV : Wafflemaker, Malady, Bracken or Koshka
I'll be curious to see what the results are. Whatever happens, thanks for the offer!

Depends on the quality of the SG. In a good one you're part of a social scene, you have direct access to a number of active players which is helpful in setting up a team, organising TFs and PvP excursions etc. You can do SG-only mishes. You get alternate colours for your costume. You get teleporter access for quicker transport. You can join in raids.
Can't think of anything else at the moment...

For those looking to build a solo-base in the mean time, would there be any benefit in setting up some sort of an unofficial support matrix?
I haven't played with the base builder since Beta so please let me know if the following assumptions are untrue :
1. An SG with one member does not have enough prestige to build 2nd room beside the portal room
2. You get a bonus for each of the first 15 members which cannot be taken off you if you have spent it before you kick them
(2.1 - if you then invite another 14 members you get the bonus again? that sounds too good to be true so I'll pretend I never thought it).
Say I want to start my own base for me and my alts. I log on and there are 15 members of the support matrix who log their alts on and I invite to join my new SG. I then spend all the inf building a couple of rooms and then kick all but one of the members. This guy gets invite rights. I then log all of my alts on one at a time and they get invites from the accomplice. I then log the leader back on and kick the accomplice. I have an SG with a multi-room base and all my alts can now work for prestige to decorate it.

This may only sound like a good idea to me because I have no actual in-game friends to help me get all my alts into one SG

[ QUOTE ]
The whole idea of someone whos been in 50 Supergroups is scary. What do we call the badge? How about Easy, Loose, Liberal, Capricious or wanton?

[/ QUOTE ]

Sure this could lead to SG-sluts becomming a mainstay of the game, but given that the SG base system as developed by the devs rewards a rapid hire-fire cycle for SG management then it's a natural progression. I think the idea of being able to hire mercs to defend your base is great. You can expand it too - Imagine the first day you turn up in the Hollows as a level 5, faceplant a few times and then a figure emerges from the shadows and says in their best Cap'n Quint voice "I'll get you to your Frostfire mish for 10 pieces of salvage, but I'll kill him for 50!"
Ok, it'll never work until /em fingersdownblackboard is developed but I can dream.
If the freelancing thing picks up in the manner stated in a better post than this though, where everyone in the 10-24 bracket is for hire earning prestige and getting paid in inf then surely that's going to lead to a hike in DO and SO prices or mob difficulty to try and keep the challenge of the game stable? A solution would be the proposed 'player apartments' being paid for with inf rather than prestige, so you have somewhere to channel all the extra cash. Or unlockable costume pieces that cost prestige or inf before you can access them in the tailor.

Sounds like a great idea for a badge set- after earning 100K prestige for say 3 SGs, 10 and 50 (no idea what a reasonable amount of prestige takes to earn anymore as my girlfriend won't let me near the PC so this might be way off . Go from Hireling to Gun for Hire to Soldier of Fortune?
Would you consider working for anything other than influence for the smaller SGs that can't afford your fee? You don't want to end up like Robert Vaughan in the Magnificent Seven!

[ QUOTE ]
1stly people join an s g for different reasons.

mainly the teaming aspect.some will no doubt join and want an active role in sg .
the base system has many features and the widesrceen tv is not a good example .these feature are of use to all sg, the base teleporter for example. makes long trips all the shorter
either way it benifits both parties.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, the flat screen tv is a bad example, I was trying to pick something facetious to emphasise that CoH is rewarding consumerist behaviour that from an RP perspective is wrong on the hero side of things. From a gameplay perspective, again you're right - the facilities in a base do benefit all members but if the base is built by and for the SG owner who has spammed loads of low-levellers into joining and working for him then the members only get the benefits that the SG owner wants for himself - and what good is TP into a hazard zone that's 10 levels beyond my capabilities?
I consider myself pretty lucky, in that despite not playing often and the obvious abrasive personality issues I've gotten into a couple of decent SGs which, while I may not be a great contributer to them at least I can see that most of the members are working together, having a laugh and helping eachother out. I just feel that the way base-building works, any new players who don't know better are going to be put off this aspect of the game when they find that they've been invited to make up the numbers and earn some cash for a nameless faceless 'leader' who couldn't give a [censored] about them.
This is all terribly hippocritical of me, I know, as I intend to do exactly the same thing to any willing party I can find when I reform the my one-man SG The Rebel Appliance just as soon as I can get time to get the Wafflemaker back up to 10. But at least I know I'm wrong
Bottom line, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with big SGs, just that the way that they're artificially driving us towards creating large SGs in the same way we've been artificially 'encouraged' to diversify our power slotting rankles me.

Living in ireland, I guess I more used to outrageous builder's and property costs and the shoddy workmanship that goes along with it. Maybe the Base system was modelled on the south Dublin property market? (1.5 million for a 1 bedroomed apartment with no parking and a 2 hour car journey from the city center? Bargain!)

In terms of longevity, I suppose the idea is that
a) it takes time to build a big base with all mod cons. You have something to aspire to.
b) it means that to have a decent base, you can't just be a one-man SG. The active SGs with lots of members and a bit of organisation will be able to afford better bases.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How will having less SG's make the game better?

[/ QUOTE ]

One of the functions of a supergroup is to "provide" people for you to team with. In theory, the larger and more active the supergroup you're a member of, the more people available to team with you - and thus, surely improving the gaming experience.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is one of the outcomes of having SGs but surely not the original intention. It's a superhero game. Superheroes have a tendancy in comics to form relatively small groups with rosters of 5-20 or so heroes who team up to face a common foe. Surely the intention in CoH was to create the opportunity to emulate this, and not say to create a situation where I hit level 10 and decide I want a base so I invite everyone I see into my group, give them no rights and get them working for me. This isn't City of Pyramid Schemes for god's sake!
I have 20 alts. All of them are in SGs and most of those SGs were spam invites. I'd rather be in a hollow SG than no SG - it's shallow but I like the change of colour. I don't know the people, I've never teamed with them and the chat channel is dead. That's not giving me access to insta-teams, that's not improving my game experience. All it's doing is paying for some schmuck's base.
Now, in CoV it makes sense for you to hire as many goons as you can, put them to work, create monster cash flow and build an underground lair. I can accept it for villains. But the dynamic should be different for heroes. I mean, influence, infamy and prestige can be explained in a role-playing context so how do you justify Captain Fantastic putting all his little sidekicks to work on the corner so he can buy a flat-screen TV? Is that heroic?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking MMs, I have 4 myself! They're the perfect social AT - turn on your toggles, send in the drones and kick of the party. In fact I think MM-only teams actually make the early mishes way too easy - especially if you all target the big bad guy in the cutscenes and then send the troops in on agressive Think they patched that out but it was great while it lasted.

[ QUOTE ]
We on the same server cause all i seem to be able to get is corrupters.... now a decent brute is hard to come by and then dominators, thats another story.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'll second that on Corruptors - I regularly seem to end up in 3, 4 or all corruptor teams. Which is kind of fun in it's own way - there's nothing like watching your health bomb into the red while 4 guys keep repeating the Twilight Grasp animation but can't hit their target.
Anyway, give it a couple of weeks and people will get sick of playing MMs and Corruptors and we'll get a little diversity out there. (hang on, didn't we all say that in the Beta?)

I had exactly the same prob in beta, same fix too. Probably not an issue in a larger vault but I'm a cheapskate.

I really think that we should all be a little more noble about this, accept the offer of an honourable fight and meet on the battlefield not as enemies, but as equals. And then when the tools bow, it will leave the back of their head wide open to a good SMASHing.

Banjax - Stone / Stone brute.

I'd be really interested in tips on specifically the poison secondary as well - I find the debuffs don't seem to have any noticeable effect, and the lack of a animation to indicate when they're active on a mob makes me look like a lazy team member when I'm really a tactical genius
Any idea which is more efficient, the Leadership buffs or the Poison debuffs?