DrMike2000

Its important to have both flashy fighting sets (Kinetic Melee, Energy Melee) and plainer more realistic looking ones like Martial Arts (and Superstrength to some degree).

CoX supports much more than Western superheroes or Aisan comic heroes or any one genre - its a kind of mish mash of various comic sources, fantasy and science fiction. And some players are going to want a non-flashy fighting set for characters who are good in a scrap without focussing mystical energy or doing anything superhuman.

I'd say leave MA where it is rather than making it more like Kinetic Melee. Diversity is good.

I think its not so much defence as the fact you're at level 22.

By then your best option for fighting a Slag Golem is probably Invulnerability, and even with that you'd only be mitigating 50% of incoming damage on a Brute (slotted TI, Unyielding and RPD). Thats equivalent to the 25% Defence or so you're already packing.

In the early game, Ive found the sets that do better are the ones with self-heals. As the game progresses, resistance and especialy defence overtake them.

I've got about 24 characters on each of my accounts.

Two used the second build, and I never bother changing it.

One had a wide concept that called for him having lots of powers that change over time - so I gave him two different Epic pools.

The other use of dual builds was to make an exemplar build on my Stalker for running the Spy Hunt arc. I could do it with the base build so rarely bothered changing it when I ran the arc.

All my characters have a few vetspecs stored up, and hardly ever burn their freespecs. I hate respeccing. Having 50 characters means I'm rarely interested in perfecting any of them.

It doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Not all Brutes are brutes. I'm sure that some are foppish tea-sipping Gentlemen Pugilists, but I don't expect the archetype name to change on their account.

In a related note, it always bothered me in Madeliene Casey's arc where she is describeed as "playing the Blaster LiveWyre on a TV series", as if people in paragon City identify supers by archetype. Its about the one place in game where I get the idea that the classification by archetype is more than a game mechanics.

A 20 or 30 minute buff is long enough to allow you to log in as your Defender, buff everyone, and then log back in as a Scrapper. Effectively, the Defender doesn't need to be on the team once its got their blessing, for probably the next two missions.

I've heard that in some games where this was the case, buffers were treated as deadweight and sometimes kicked once they'd done their work, in favour fo another DPS-er.

So the 4 minute buffing cycle ensures that the Defender has to stick around for the team to get their benefit.

Personally, I've never found the 4 minute buffs to be a chore, and I've played Force Fields and Sonic to 50. Kinetics was pushing it, 2 minutes for Speed Boost and 60 seconds for Increase Density, but it was doable, and all part of the frenetic pace of the set.

Dark Armour's toggles are cheaper than normal, so running four base toggles (two armours, mez protection and Cloak of Darkness) amounts to the same end cost as the three Super Reflexes toggles.

Oppressive Gloom is dirt cheap on end - less than 1/4 of a normal toggle cost.

The end hogs are Dark Regen - base end cost of 33, and Cloak of Fear, which costs double the normal toggle cost at least.

If you skip Cloak of Fear and slot the Theft of Essence proc in Dark Regen, you're at the same end cost as any other armour set.

It could even be autohit and generate no aggro.
That would make sense using the Surveillance animation (which is no autohit but is aggro free)

Numerically, you wouldn't need a lot of -Res to help out a solo Blaster.

With Enhancements and Build up they're at 295% base damage roughly, adding in Aim makes that 360%. So you'd only need a -25% Res or less or so to do eqivalent alpha damage on your target.

I think it would be a very viable alternative, even at 20%. Being able to soften up a boss for your Stalker buddy would be a big bonus, although like you say it doesn't help out an AoE blaster so much.

There's also a Psi Defence temporary power available through Vanguard - 150 Vanguard Merits for 30 minutes charge that provides 15% Psi Defence when activated.

Combined with the -To Hit from Dark melee it will provide some of the Psi protection lacking in your base powers.

Yeah, email them.
I've been emailing Yin-O's to myself from level 10 onwards to get SO level enhancements in Praetoria.

Clear Mind has +Perception.

Tactics will be wasted most of the time (especially if you slot fortitude for +To Hit), whereas a second Assualt will provide a constant +18.75% damage. I'd go double Assault myself, but splitting Assault/Tactics is viable if you plan to fight hard to hit enemies often.

I'm still finding the animation times on the form changes far too long.

On my Peacbringer I pretty much abandoned forms after the mid 20s, occasionally dwarfing up if I got mezzed or into trouble.

On my Warshade (now 27), form switching feels more required - there's always a Dwarf Mire followed by a Nova double AoE waiting to happen, and the human damage is lower.

The whole experience feels very laggy and glue-y. The main offenders are:

- Animation times on form switches
- Form switch bugs where I get mezzed or the switch to human fails because of a power going off, leaving me with the wrong tray. Trying an emergency Stygian Circle has killed me a couple of times if I stayed in Dwarf.
- The flight drift and inertia on Nova form

I've been practicing switching, and getting the hang of a few good rhythms. Gravitic Emnation, run in and Mire, Gravity Well the lieutenant. Dwarf up and Mire. Retreat and Nova and take the minions down.

But it all feels very slow and buggy. In many ways it feels easier to just slug it out in human form.

I don't find the animation times on the form shifts challenging as much as offputting. On my second Kheldian I'm already favouring a playstyle that ignores the main feature of the archetype - the shapeshifting.

I'd love to see a wider range of body slider options. Fat superheroes are cool in my book.

Clipping be damned. There are already plenty of options that clip. If you have Glam hair and wear a cloak, better put it up in a ponytail. Neck chains clip through some jacket collars on male and female models. Some belts clip on wide-hipped characters.

Its partly up to the player to choose a set of options that wont clip badly.

Follow the link in my sig, Spike.

I dont have the COH stuff on the front page, but its accessible via the sidebar on the left - City of Heroes x2.

You give it to each other. Thats the "Duo" part.

By "mutual slotted fortitude" I mean you do it to each other, not to yourself and your duo-mate.

Its really hard to do.

Physically, most game characters have no arms and legs. They have a position, and a cylindrical capsule to represent their size, and thats it - the rest is just animation. CoH uses this model almost definitely.

Stretchy characters start to violate the assumptions that make this work - they can extend their arms and legs outside the capsule.

It would be possible to fake a stretchy punch by making a tube-like arm graphic and stretching it out as a beam as the character punches forwards. Think of an energy blast Power bolt whcih is the same colour as your costume, and skinned with your arm texture. It wouldnt look very good or give a very satisfying effect though.

What else do stretchy supers typically do?
Deforming as attacks hit them is tricky, You could make it a custom flinch/dodge animation, but lining it up to the direction of the attck would be problematic.

Wrapping your arms around an enemy to hold them - there is no game mechanic for this, because its pretty boring really. Imagine it working like a sustained Hold (like Mind Control - Telekinesis) that stops you from moving, or even attacking if you use both arms. Its a pretty dull thing to do in-game, and probably wouldn't be allowed to work against AVs, where it would be most useful. Could you have two arms to hold two separate targets? Or hold one and attack with the other arm? Can you move while holding one target? If so how far? What if you try to move round the corner form them?

Then theres targetting. If you're standing behind a corner with an arm extended out around the corner, can an enemy shoot you in the arm? You're no longer a simple capsule...

Technical limitations aside, I wouldn't even know where to start in just designing powers for this type of character.

This idea has merit because it's different from existing sets in terms of its game mechanics. The effects-over-time would make it play differently. It doesn't really matter whether its officially called nanotech, swarms or whatever, players will interpret it as they will.

Yep, Dark Blast or Radiation Infection or a host of other things can already be roleplayed as nanotech.
But, before Going Rogue I was already able to roleplay Energy Melee as a hyperkinetic force field, blue-tinted Fire Control as electrical powers and a Ninja Mastermind as a demon summoner if I wanted. It doesn't make the new powersets redundant, does it?

I wouldn't bother with Tough and Weave. Boxing is also a bit sub-par as a pool melee attack, Air Superiority, Flurry or even Jump Kick are better. Your controls provide all the safety you need - your main enemy at many times will be your own endurance bar (up until 35), and these will just drain it while you face held enemies.

Sands of Mu temp power will be worth its weight in gold, since your -Def will allow it to hit reliably.

Do get Stone Prison (single target immobilise), and slot it as a damage attack. Its also important for instantly establishing containment on bosses or hold resistant enemies like Lost Anathema. Slot your single targte hold Fossilise as a damage attack too.

For set bonuses, I'd focus on +End, +Recovery and +Recharge. Your controls will make +Def irrelevant. Decimation is a good ranged attack set.

Also look into damage procs - you can stick Positrons Blast and Trap of the Hunter into Stone Cages, for example. These will help out with your low damage quite well, especially if you slot up Stone Cages for End reduction so you can spam it freely.


I'd also have a look at the Stone Mastery epic set. Hurl Boulder and Seismic Smash both do excellent damage, and Fissure recharges much quicker than Fireball, even though it does less damage. This pool requires you be up close more than Fire Mastery, but so does Kinetics.

My Empathy/Energy Blast duo which I dual boxed were the sickest, most powerful combination I have ever played. That's my experience

Emp/Sonic should be even better, so its ll downhill from here for you and your girlfriend, you've started at the top! I've also tried twin Energy/Pain Dom Corrupters, and they're nowhere near as good as the Empaths.

My experience of Sonic's AoE power is don't knock it - its better than it first appears. (My Sonic/Mental Blaster certainly found this to be so)
Howl does standard AoE damage, and debuffs Resistance. Shockwave does 80% standard AoE damage, which means standard AoE damage after Howl's debuff is applied. So those two should do similar damage to Energy Torrent and Explosive Blast. Except both recharge in 8 seconds (or <3 if you're perma AB'd and slotted!!)

Hover above the enemies to bunch them up and avoid too much spread from Shockwave, and you should be able to fire these off continuously as an attack chain. Thats pretty decent AoE firepower.

I've come across people on the forums who hate knockback in all its forms, but I've never been treated unfairly while playing pickup groups on Virtue.
I've had a couple of comments to keep it under control once or twice which I thought were unwarranted (since I was hovering above the bad guys at the time) but nothing too harsh.

So I wouldn't let the supposed reputation put you off playing Energy Blast.

Sonic/Sonic will work much better on a Defender.

The buffs and debuff values from Sonic Resonance are noticeably better on a Defender, and the increased -Res debuff from Sonic Blast will make up for the lower base damage.

Sonic Resonance is a very passive set, and quite endurance hungry, and terrible solo.
On teams, it's great, but requires very little of you, allowing you plenty of time to blast.

Shout (the Tier 3 Blast) is skippable, since Shriek and Scream are faster recharge than normal blast Tier 1 and 2's, and form an attack chain of their own. And Shouts animation time is as long as both Shriek and Scream combined, so it doesn't gain you any DPA using it.

From Sonic Resonance, skip Sonic Repulsion, Sonic Cage and maybe Clarity. On a Defender, Sonic Siphon can be delayed until really hard targets like EBs/AVs start to appear, say the mid-20s. (Corrupters of course have to take it).

I really like the idea of the powers being applied over time.

I can see some technical problems, e.g. Nanoguard is required to stack its buff with itself to build up the effect, but I guess cannot stack from the same user in the same way Force Fields: Deflection Shield can't. But, nothing that can't be figured out. It might require some custom coding, but so did Dual Pistols and Kinetic Melee and many other powers.

Increased Efficiency and Direct Modification are both really cool ideas. Increased Efficiency Nanogaurd would be like Power Boosted Fiorce Fields, and an obvious 24/7 use for this power, but then again a Increased Efficiency Consumption would eb very handy. I like powersets that make you make decisions like this.

I can see this powerset playing a lot like Trick Arrows - if you take your time and set up you're good, but your ability to react quickly to events like ambushes may be a bit weak.

And with power customisation, I'm, sure the set could double as many other themes like insect control, magical dust or whatever.

I'd play this in a heartbeat.

I enjoyed Kin/Elec.

- No cones, so you can stay in range of your own buffs while pumping out the damage
- Transference and Short Circuit will sap a boss reliably, and keep him there till hes down.
- Tesla Cage recharges quickly, letting you hold an enemy stationary as a source fo health and endurance.
- Kinetics boosts Elec's lowish damage, Elec provides the safety that Kin needs.

I also liked Kin/Ice

- Ice provides the damage mitigation that Kin lacks through holds
- Freeze Ray is a hold on a par with Tesla Cage - great for turning an enemy into a "healing post"
- Blaster level damage in Ice Storm and Blizzard + Fulcrum Shift is insanely good.

Both do take a long time to come together though. Having a Scrapper buddy to keep the aggro off you will make it much easier. Kins and Scrappers synergise really well.


And what do you mean by the highest second power for Defenders? I dont understand.
Is this page any use?
http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/power...etype.php?at=4

You survive by your Defence and your ungodly +Regen, +1000% all the time once you hit level 33 and get AB slotted. (Alternate auras and they'll be pretty much perma)
Mutual slotted Fortitude and 2 sets of slotted Manouvers puts you at +35% defence, which is more than a Super Reflex scrapper on IOs. Surviviability won't be an issue.

Archery does get Stunning Shot at 35, which is worth taking for preventing god-moding PP's and so on, so its not totally control free.

Once you get Rain of Arrows, and have your recharge pumped up by AB, you'll be an AoE death machine, so going +2/x8 or whatever you can manage would make lots of sense.

You'll need either Hasten or around 40% global recharge to get AB perma. I'd try for both.

If they were on the market, and had extended range, then we'd all hit SO power at level 10.

Would that be a bad thing? Probably not. The teens are often that part of a character's career that you rush through to get to Stamina and SO's, when you can finally stop gasping for air after a couple of groups.

If it were up to me I'd probably just make SO's available at level 15 instead of 25.