Desmodos

The short and simple of it is the caps, already stated by Werner. Many folks focus exclusively on defense because the cap is not only substantial but the same for every AT (90%).

Resist caps not only very by AT but bonuses are comparably scarce. Scrappers cap a 75% but finding bonuses to cap resistance to every type is damned near impossible (if possible at all). Even Brutes whose caps are at 90% can't get anywhere near them since their base values are the same as scrappers.

45% defense is substantially superior to 75% resistance but these are not the final determining factors for a scrappers survivability. Anyone looking down on a resistance set doesn't understand mechanics that go into your survivability. Regeneration, defense, resistance, and self heals do combine (though not stack) to compose your final mitigation. That's before factoring in debuffs, KBs, and out righting killing your opponent before they can harm you.

EDIT: Ultimately it boils down to personal preference. I can't play SR despite numerous attempts. I've seen outstanding performances by SR players so I know what it can do. I find DA, FA, WP, and Inv far more enjoyable and natural to play. (I haven't played Elec yet.)

EB and I have played together for years and we've constantly teased each other over the SR vs DA performance.

That's quite the compliment, thank you.


I'm currently on a self imposed hiatus from CoH until Going Rogue. Basically my way warding off burn out.

Physical Perfection was introduced after this guide was written and after my hiatus began. I haven't actually tested it yet. My particular DM/DA character is married to Darkness Mastery for her epic power pool; strictly for concept reasons, so she'll never use it.

There are so many tools for managing endurance now a days, it's scarcely an issue. I would think anyone pursuing Physical Perfection would give up a few of the endurance management alternatives and pursue other bonuses instead, particularly defense or recharge.

That's only true for TFs/SFs. Most CoH content can be soloed. With the introduction of O-zone flashbacks, it's not really an issue. I've spent a lot of time running old arcs just for the 'story'. I'd do it more often if the mission doors weren't designed to be the equivalent of playing Duck-Duck-Goose with the members of Congress. Yes, Mission Porter, Base Portals, and O-zone portal alleviate this but why is any of it necessary in the first place. 80% of the time the door placement is entirely arbitrary, adding nothing to the story.

An important distinction. One you explained very well...as always.

Can't agree with this. Good special effects does not equal a good movie. I enjoyed Avatar. It's a good movie, but I don't consider it award worthy, we'll see what happens come Oscar time. Compared to other James Cameron films, Avatar wasn't that ground breaking. Abyss, T2, and Titanic were all more impressive; oh and they were better stories too.

Cameron makes better use of 3D vs the gimmick aspect most 3D films go for, but that's the mark of a good director. To make matters worst, Hollywood is tripping over self to make every movie 3D now. 2010 will be filled with 3D movies trying to ride the bandwagon. I think all this 'innovation' will be forgotten before the summer is over. I've spoken to many who watched the movie without 3D and their overall reaction didn't differ from those who did watch it in 3D.

At 18 hp/sec you would need 6 mobs in OG range to cancel your regen. That's before factoring in how much net regen you gained from the fact these mobs cannot attack you. In the end, it's largely moot. Regeneration is rarely if ever a factor in Dark Armor's survival.

Feared mobs will still not attack with the same frequency. When mobs feared by CoF attack, they do so with a ~5% To Hit Debuff; depending on your defense values that may be significant.

As for slotting, I like 3 Dampened Spirits and 3 Cloud Senses, but that's somewhat dependent on how many accuracy bonuses you picked up elsewhere.

In this area, I do not agree. Yes, it's true the 'story telling' elements of CoH has much to be desired, especially the earlier ones. However; this has little to do with the 'revamp' players are requesting.

No matter how well the stories are told, that won't change the excessively cumbersome mechanics inherent to most of the original content of CoH. Cell phones are the primary culprit mentioned. It's asinine contacts force you to physically return to them for the next mission. It seems as if contacts are intentionally placed as far away as possible from the mission door. Rarely are those contacts even in the same zone.

Atlas Park adjacent to the Hollows but the contact that introduces you to Wincott is in Kings Row. Steel Row contacts won't let you progress an arc until you speak to the Bloody Bay intro contact...in Sky Way.

This is why no one knows the stories anymore, it's far to cumbersome. It's considerably less frustrating to simply run scanner missions where the mission doors are in the same zone, never mind that you can pull up the scanner with out having to run to a contact hiding in BFE.

Newer/revamped zones improved on this tremendously. Striga was one of the first 'new' zones that not only told the story of Striga but rarely forces you to leave Striga. Faultline revamp not only gave the zone purpose, but it tells a coherent story in the same spirit of the Striga design. Hollows would have been the first well done new zone except for the fact low level missions sent you into high level (comparatively) areas. The revamp fixed this but created a new problem by adding mobs that were irrelevant to the zones story.

These are the types of revamps players are clamoring for. Simply by granting cell phones from the onset and arranging missions in the same zone as the contact would dramatically improve those earlier Issue missions and folks might actually take the time to read the stories.

I don't agree with the Devs decision to abandon those old story arcs. I don't agree with their decision to abandon barren zones like Perez Park, Boom Town, Crey's Folly, Eden, Dark Astoria, Terra Volta, and The Sewer Network.

Some of these zones are massive yet they serve virtually no purpose. Once upon a time, when street hunts were worth while, these zones filled with players, hunting every mob insight. (That and they herded up massive numbers). Today, they're virtual ghost towns rarely entered unless some obscure mission or TF requires you to.

I agree the current information we have is insufficient for a paid expansion. I've always suspected the information we currently have regarding Going Rogue was entirely an accident. Someone's typo sent out an e-mail a year in advance and the devs have been stuck with that situation.

If this is all there is to Going Rogue, things will not go well. I for one am hoping for content on the scale of Rogue Isles.

Ultimately, existing players don't care about any of this. Yeah, CoH may be over 5 years old, but it still looks great. Pretty graphics are nice and all, it's not what current CoH players looking to have improved. We need existing content revamped and stream lined. We need new content.

I don't think the issue is about negativity towards GR. On the contrary, I think most of us are hopeful GR will deliver. The issue is many of us feel GR will make or break CoH. CoH is hemorrhaging players. Nothing new has been added to the game to bring in new blood. I think the devs hoped AE would do that but I can't imagine it brought in anywhere near what they wanted. The AE crack down didn't help. GR needs to good enough to wow current players, bring back former players, and bring in new ones.

While I am very optimistic about GR, there seems to be a awful lot riding on it. If expectations are set too high, people will declare it a failure no matter how good it is. It's almost unfair to ask so much of GR, but at the moment, it's the only thing we know to look forward to.

The players. The game will allow you to assemble at team with any class make up you wish. You just won't accomplish much. Bare in mind, I'm referring to Elite areas only. Everything else can be accomplished by any team make up.

We'll go around in circles on this issue. I was trying to avoid a whole numbers discussion. I think if you started to plug in actualy values, you'd see why I say exemplaring is not a factor in this issue. Exemplar affect on Enhancements

Aion heavily uses Elites which is basically the CoH equivalent of an AV. Only ranged classes can solo these, it takes 4-10 minutes per elite, and they only have a 50% success rate. They're intended to be taken down by a full group. That's well and good except for the fact that you have massive areas of zone that are populated 90-100% with Elites. Imagine a mission set for 8 people where every single mob in the mission was an AV. On a good team, it would be long, but probably a lot of fun. In Aion, after level 40 all of your quests consist of this scenario.

In Aion, after level 40, your choices are grind your way to 50 or get a group and quest your way through Elites. I HATE grinding. Add insult to injury, Aion groups MUST consist of a cleric, a templar, 2 rangers or sorcerers. In 6 member groups (the max) assassins, gladiators(my class), chanters, and spiritmasters round out the pity spots. We all remember the days when folks INSISTED we had a Tanker and Healer in CoH, well that's the reality of Aion.

It's one thing to have areas of 'forced teaming', it's another to ONLY have areas of 'forced teaming.' I've got a massive list of quests I can't complete on my own. Legion members have to dredge the areas over and over and over again to help members complete their quests. It's great that they're willing to do that, but some days I don't want to bother anyone. That just took all the fun out of it for me.

Personally, I'm hoping it won't be sleeper agent story at all and be more of an Arlington Road approach.

Sorry if I misunderstood or misrepresented your statement.

I put forth that TOs are completely useless. The only argument that could be entered for the continued existence of DOs is influence/infamy costs to a new player, which I feel remains a weak argument. You reach DO/IO levels so quickly that DOs simply aren't worth the investment. From an influence/infamy management point of view, a new player is better off waiting until level 17 and slotting lvl 20 IOs,

You brought up exemplaring which IMHO has no bearing on the issue.

Ummm....no. I'm not aware of any circumstance in which you are ever better off with TOs....or DOs for that matter. Exemplar affects enhancement according to your level, not the type of enhancements. Yes, there are threshold caps, but even factoring those in, you are much better off with IOs. The only reason to keep TOs and DOs in the game is the help out new players who don't have any funds with which to buy generic IOs but even that is weak argument.

Well...Long Kiss Goodnight is basically Borne Identity with a female lead. It was a slightly different take on the sleeper agent plot. I actually enjoyed it more despite the over the top action and glaring plot holes.

Salt will either be another variation of a long line of sleep agent movies or something fresh. They have no choice but to advertise it as a sleeper agent movie or they'd spoil what makes it different, assuming it actually isn't.

If the film didn't have a headliner, most would wait for Netflix to find out which. For me, Angelina Jolie is worth chancing there might be more to it.

I think you got that the other way around.

Maybe, but CoH devs are notoriously vague about release dates. At times, I don't think they even have the same calenders as the rest of us. 2nd quarter could easily be 6 months from now.

This is pretty much why I'm forcing myself to stay away from CoH. I miss the game terribly and all the friends I have here. For all the shiny of other games, I REALLY prefer how most things are set up in CoH.

CoH Devs have been slow adding new things to the game. Their last big addition was AE which I pretty much hated the moment it went live. I appreciate the work that went into it, but it didn't anything to the game for me.

If Going Rogue lives up to half the hype it's got going for it, I'll be thrilled. By staying away now, everything will be fresher for me when I return. I won't even participate much in the beta, for the same reason. (I'll probably sneak a peak at costume stuff.)

Unfortunately for me, Aion high level content is not to my liking. It's been weeks since I logged into Aion. The other MMORPGS that interest me are too far off to be of consequence (SW and BnS). I'll probably fiddle with stand alones for a bit, I haven't finished TR: Underworld or Batman: AA yet.


Some Going Rogue tid bit news would be nice.

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Just sharing my latest acquisition. As always, I'm blown away with how Graver tells a story with but a single image. Desmodas's arrival on Earth was the result of an accident of her magic mixing with a Circle of Thorns ritual.