Fury Flechette
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Posts
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Joined
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We're in the final stretch of announcing the winners. The other judges and I are actually deadlocked in just one category having largely decided the others. Stay tuned!
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Update: All three judges have made preliminary picks. That was the easy part, relatively speaking. The hard part will be in deciding how we determine the winner in areas we disagree.
Stay tuned! -
Quote:I think this is pretty much correct. I have an IO'ed fire/shield/blaze scrapper and an electric/shield/mu brute. While my scrapper does better than my brute, it's largely because I have more invested in her and possibly due to the fact that shield charge for scrappers is so strong.Originally Posted by Necrotech_Master
overall it mostly comes down to personal preference
I'll have to concede that for pure farming purposes, a heavily IO'ed electric/shield scrapper is probably better than my fire/shield. However, fire/shield isn't a slouch in that department by any means, and the build is more flexible since it also has a strong single target chain.
Survivability wise, the electric/shield wins out a little bit too since lightning rod and thunderstrike also knockdown mobs, providing mitigation. With fire, you don't have knockdown but you do have additional dots of damage, which also provides some mitigation in itself due to the fact that a lot of mobs with a sliver of life left to them get killed by it.
Here's a clip of my fire/shield in action. It's against +3 on a Council farm. I wasn't going all out but purposely slowing down a bit so you can see capabilities.
So I go on the side of electric/shield. -
Quote:Feel free to do so, just be aware that they won't count for contest purposes. Deebs, Bayani and I already have our hands full.Originally Posted by Scrier
Agreed. Good luck to all! Can't wait to see the results. I'd also be interested if anyone wanted to post some non-competition additions.
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One additional note: the contest is closed to BOTH new participants and new entries from existing participants. The 69 entries we received will be the only ones judged.
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Competition is closed for new participants and entries
Here is the final list:
50 Participants - 0 SPOTS LEFT!
Total entries: 69
Participant List
1 Emperor Steele
2 Siberian_Spring - 3 entries
3 Matt_King
4 Oedipus_Tex - 2 entries
5 Prime_Nighthawk
6 Smersh - 2 entries
7 Outback - 3 entries
8 Hydrothermia
9 Stunrunner - 5 entries
10 Doctor_Mechaniker - 2 entries
11 Galactoman
12 Nurse Midnight
13 sweet_ice_t
14 Commander - 2 entries
15 High_Jinks
16 Fire_Wyrm
17 ThE_WiSeCrAcKeR - 5 entries
18 Gaelic Reign - 2 entries
19 Kai - 2 entries*
20 HochroterDrache
21 Antoinette
22 BubblegumBomb - 2 entries
23 Power_Play - 2 entries
24 Hydrophidian - 3 entries
25 Risko_Vinsheen
26 JadesRevenge
27 TheIcyOne
28 PumBumbler
29 Meltman
30 Mr_Mud
31 FredrikSvanber
32 Kyuuen
33 CaptainMidnight
34 Heroid - 2 entries
35 Sardonic_Paladin - 2 entries
36 Twelfth - 2 entries
37 Star of Thade
38 Scrier - 2 entries
39 Bru_Tal - 2 entries
40 Shadow State - 2 entries
41 GreySquirrel
42 Spadra
43 BrandX
44 Starflier
45 Captain_Zero
46 Pirhana - 2 entries
47 CaptainMidnight
48 PowerStream
49 TyrantMikey
50 Ascalon1
I've been trying to monitor this thread to ensure that I closed it just after the receipt of the 50th participant. Due to a bit of a miscount on my part, I wasn't aware that I had counted Smersh twice. I was going to exclude Ascalon1, but with a recount of the number of entries, Ascalon1 makes it on the list as our 50th participant.
I will now confer with the other judges and begin our deliberations. We do intend to take some time, because we want to take our judging duties as seriously as you took your entries. Bayani will begin his deliberations starting March 4. Deebs and I will begin poring over our notes. We will announce our decision by March 10th at the very latest, hopefully earlier than that.
Best of luck participants! And thank you for the amazing costumes. -
Quote:Heh, I guess a number of people vehemently disagree with me. I can't believe this post got so much negative rep. Honestly, folks, it's just my opinion. That's why I said *my rough* ranking. If you disagree, that's fine. I'm hardly the spokesperson for scrapper AoE anyhow.Originally Posted by Fury Flechette
It's shield charge >>>>>>>> everything else
My rough ranking of everything else:
lightning rod
spin
fire sword circle
fire ball (from APP)
sweep combo from dual blades
throw spines
thunderstrike -
Quote:It's shield charge >>>>>>>> everything elseOriginally Posted by Vitality
Is there a list, of the single best Scrapper AoE power?
Possibly from best to worst?
My rough ranking of everything else:
lightning rod
spin
fire sword circle
fire ball (from APP)
sweep combo from dual blades
throw spines
thunderstrike -
Quote:44%+ for a position is very sufficient. However, you will notice the difference between your scrapper and another that is soft capped, but fire/shield kills fast enough that the difference in mitigation is largely irrelevant.
(1) I managed to get a Fire/SD character with only 44% melee defense, but 47% to ranged and 46% to AOE. However, it does allow me to have the various concept attacks I feel obligated to have. Are those numbers sufficient, considering I have Grant Cover and all the other stuff in my build that can at least sorta keep my defense debuff resistance up?
Although personally, I'd have grabbed combat jumping instead of grant cover. I'd much rather have fully soft capped defenses than better DDR. Plus the 2% defens that CJ would give you would give you better flexibility to swap around slots in your build.
That's more than fine. In my build, I have fire sword, cremate, incinerate, fire blast for single target and FSC and shield charge for AoE, and I feel that's plenty.Quote:(2) Is it sufficient to have these attacks (3 single, 4 AOE)? Fire Sword, Greater Fire Sword, Fire Blast, Breath of Fire, Fire Sword Circle, Shield Charge, Fireball? I do realize exemplaring will suck, but I'll probably have a leveling build and an endgame build, and keep both so I can use the leveling build to exemplar.
You could do that, but you're gimping a key power for shields, the ability to have better than average scrapper hitpoints. I'd rather have health slotted in true grit than maxing out the resistance in deflection. In fact, I'd move the Res/Def to Deflection and move the slots to true grit, even at the expense of AoE defense. Further active defense doesn't need 3 slots. You could get by with 1 if you have a high recharge build (and won't exempt) or just 2 with a build w/o any global recharge at all. I have 2 membranes in mine.Quote:(3) Is it OK to have True Grit unslotted except for my Steadfast res/def? I just wasnt able to come up with slots. -
Quote:Same. I'm blowing a lot on costume contests. Nothing on the PumBumbler level, but 1.35B (2.1B total, see sig). That's not a huge hit to me because of earning power and reserves.Originally Posted by Nethergoat
Ditto.
We need more stuff to blow our inf on, whatever form it takes.
My marketeering has taken a hit over the last year or so because I don't need inf any more. All my characters have more than enough for their needs. If I needed inf for something, I'd be a lot more active playing the market than I am now. -
Quote:Quite public and very suboptimal. It's not even a good cheap build.Originally Posted by bAss_ackwards
Public.
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Quote:By my count at the time of this writng, there are 3 slots left. We did get new entries from existing participants, but only Pirahna is a new participant.Originally Posted by ShadowWings
Should be 2 slots left with the two NEW entires. Maybe 3 slots, not sure.
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Quote:Just so this doesn't detract from the participants and entries.Originally Posted by Outback
I hate to snipe, but I really had to point this out somewhere...
Good looks? Yes. Must be why he used them each twice...
I don't consider the costumes the same. If I were to take that stance, I could invalidate a lot of costumes based on the fact they look so much like ones that were posted earlier. There are many costumes that look alike. Sometimes it is the small details that may elevate one above another. -
Quick headcount.
Counting 4 new additons:
Spadra
Starflier
BrandX
Captain_Zero
That leaves our participant total to 46, which means that there are 4 slots left. After the 50th participant enters, the competition portion of this contest is over. The judges and I will no longer accept any further participants -OR- entries from existing participants at that point. We will then enter the judging phase.
As Bayani related earlier in the thread, he will judge everything at once when he can get past some RL work issues. Deebs and I have been taking notes as the contest have been rolling. I will however re-look at every entry once the competition part is over to see how much I agree with my own notes. -
Participants and entries received:
42 out of 50 Participants - ONLY 8 SPOTS LEFT!
Total entries: 62
Participant List
Emperor Steele
Siberian_Spring - 3 entries
Matt_King
Oedipus_Tex - 2 entries
Prime_Nighthawk
Smersh
Outback - 3 entries
Hydrothermia
Stunrunner - 5 entries
Doctor_Mechaniker - 2 entries
Galactoman
Nurse Midnight
sweet_ice_t
Commander
High_Jinks
Fire_Wyrm
ThE_WiSeCrAcKeR - 5 entries
Gaelic Reign - 2 entries
Kai
HochroterDrache - suggestion to embed images in your post
Antoinette
Smersh - 2 entries
BubblegumBomb - 2 entries
Power_Play - 2 entries
Hydrophidian - 2 entries
Risko_Vinsheen
JadesRevenge
TheIcyOne
PumBumbler
Meltman
Mr_Mud
FredrikSvanber
Kyuuen
CaptainMidnight
Heroid - 2 entries
Sardonic_Paladin - 2 entries
Twelfth
Star of Thade
Scrier
Bru_Tal
Shadow State
GreySquirrel
The above have valid entries in this competition. Please note that the competition will stop taking entries on March 4 regardless of whether or not we hit the participant cap of 50. Most likely, I suspect we'll hit 50 in the next day or so based on the rate we have been receiving them.
After we stop taking entries, we will begin the judging phase. I will get together with the judges and compare notes and we'll begin what I think will be a rather grueling process of figuring who comes up on top. As always, I am reserving compliments until the end of the competition. It is all I can do to stop gushing at this point.
For those who are keeping up with and enjoying the thread, please don't hesitate to tell us judges as to which costumes, not just sets, you enjoy. There's been a couple of comments in this thread which has made me re-look at certain costumes and sets that I initially overlooked. With 62 entries with a minimum of 3 costumes each, the other judges and I will be pouring over hundreds of costumes. So let us know what you think. -
Quote:Actually, it's buried a bit early in this thread, but entries need to be done with the CoH character creator. Your entry looks great, but drawing an entry or using an alternate modeling tool gives some participants too much of an advantage over the others.Originally Posted by Risko_Vinsheen
I looked in the rules and they didn't specify that it had to be in the CoH character creator, or a video game at all. (From what I see someone could draw them out themselves and it would still count)
But if the judge doesn't want to count it then I'm perfectly fine with it. Just thought it'd be a fun way to redesign them.
Edit: Deebs beat me to it. -
Quote:Outstanding! I think nothing more needs to be said.Originally Posted by RobertoLyon
So last night in Atlas (on Freedom), I stumbled across an uber-newb and his g/f, both on Trial Accounts.
They were long-time WoW players, coming to CoH because, in his words, he "heard the players were really nice", and the Costume Creator was "awesome".
Invited them both to join me, gave them each some start-up Inf, and ran a few of their early missions with them, explaining various concepts, mechanics, tips, etc. as needed. Was also able to keep them SB'd for travelling.
It was a very rewarding experience, and I intend to try to find some more uber-newbs to help out again tonight, if possible.
I know some, perhaps *many* players already do the same kind of thing, I just want to encourage them, and suggest it as an alternative activity in general if you're feeling bored with whatever you're up to in-game.
And not just for the benefits of building the player base. For me, the time spent with the newbs passed very quickly (2.5 hours in the blink of an eye), and it was really fun seeing it all through their eyes again (after many years of play). It also left me with a nice warm-fuzzy feeling, and reminded me of the first player to take me under their wing as an uber-newb back in the day (Thanks Orion Arms!).
[Of course, 5 minutes after leaving those two newbs, a lowbie called me "another selfish, self-serving hero" for not agreeing to PL him in the AE (as I was about to log off).]
So if you're feeling like you've "hit the wall" on content or TFs or Badging or whatever, let me recommend taking a break, finding some true newbs, and offering your assistance... it is, as I said, very rewarding in many ways.
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Quote:You can label in the post is just fine. I don't expect people to have uber graphics skills, though I have been very impressed by how some folks have been showing off their costumes. Note however that the costume, not the presentation of it, has the strongest bearing on the judging process.Originally Posted by twelfth
Cool, still room as long as I post some stuff when I get home.
FF, do the pics have to be labeled within the screenpic itself, or can they be labeled in the text of the post? -
Participants and entries received:
29 out of 50 Participants / 43 entries
Emperor Steele
Siberian_Spring - 3 entries
Matt_King
Oedipus_Tex - 2 entries
Prime_Nighthawk
Smersh
Outback - 3 entries, last entry is really wide
Hydrothermia
Stunrunner - 4 entries
Doctor_Mechaniker
Galactoman
Nurse Midnight
sweet_ice_t
Commander
High_Jinks
Fire_Wyrm
ThE_WiSeCrAcKeR - 5 entries
Gaelic Reign
Kai
HochroterDrache - suggestion to embed images in your post
Antoinette
Smersh - 2 entries
BubblegumBomb - 2 entries, last entry is really wide
Power_Play
Hydrophidian
Risko_Vinsheen
JadesRevenge
TheIcyOne
PumBumbler
I also again ask for those of you who are posting really wide angle pictures to modify them so they fit better in the frame. The wide shots can mess up formatting for others, including their attempts to label.
Let me know if I missed anyone on this list.
Thanks, FF -
Overall, that's a very good build. The critiques below are real nitpicks and may boil down to personal preference than actually something you have to do.
1. Recommended: switch out the Def/Rech LoTG pieces for Def/Rech/End pieces on your defensive powers. The switch doesn't affect your defense at all but does lower your endurance consumption from 1.46 to 1.35, which is a nice reduction.
2. I'd swap out the Focused Smite Acc/Dmg/Rech pieces to Crushing Impact Acc/Dmg/End pieces for any attack power costing over 9 end. In long fights, that small change will make a big difference.
3. I'd much rather have 3 Dark Watcher's set than Discouraging Words, even if giving up the 1.25 smash/lethal defense. Level 50 Dark Watcher's give you -5 tohit debuff which translate roughly to 5% more defense. With this swap, you're still at 40% smash/lethal defense, which effectively means you're capped. The Dark Watcher's has far better other set bonuses: hitpoints and recovery. This isn't something you have to do, but it's something I'd do.
4. I'd take a slot from storm kick, replace the remaining non Kinetic Combat slot to a Nucleolus Exposure (Dmg/Acc) HO and move the extra slot to super jump and slot it with two Blessing of the Zephyrs. It's a cheap way to raise Energy/Neg Energy Defense.
The main cost of the build will be from:
LoTGs/ Global Recharge (4 x 120M)
Other LoTG pieces (12 x 15M)
Numina proc (50M)
Other Numina pieces (5 x 30M)
Steadfast Res/Def (20M)
Kinetic Combat Dmg/End (3 x 80M)
Kinetic Combat Dmg/Rech (3 x 40M)
Kinetic Combat Acc/Dmg (3 x 20M)
Obliteration set (100M)
Reactive Armor set (2 x 60M)
Gaussian's Rech/Eng (30M)
Approximately 1.55B, assuming you bought max level recipes and bought mostly at the "buy it nao" price. -
Quote:I don't understand this. I paid for both City of Heroes when it first came out and pre-ordered CoV, which means I bought both. Three years later, a small number of hold out players who didn't have one or the other got both. Big deal. I got three years to fully enjoy the content that they finally got access to years later.Originally Posted by Doctor_Bob
i was wondering if after a short time if going rogue was going to be given to us free like COV was. honestly i cant get to excited to pay for something after what happened to those who got the last one for free after some of us paid full price for it!
You're certainly entitled to not buy the expansion, but it could be years before they make it free, if at all. -
I'd recommend looking for channels as opposed to SGs. A lot of players now have solo 1-person SGs and interact primarily through channels.
I don't know of any RP-oriented SG, so I can't help you in that regard, but I found that SG activity for the most part isn't very active, while teaming opportunities, including opportunities to RP, abound in channels. -
PhilBilly,
It looks like you got a couple of responses that while having good information didn't really answer your question.
Let's talk about Mid's first. Assuming that you have it installed / updated correctly, Mid's is a build planning tool. The easiest way to use is to put Mid's into Level-Up mode instead of Dynamic mode. Dynamic and Level-Up are modes that are toggled between each other and they show up as a blue box beneath the Mid's character file title.
Once you toggle on Level-Up mode, select the archetype, primary power set and secondary power sets and start building your hero. You can select primary powers by just clicking on the powers to the left of the screen. The process is fairly similar to how you would respec in the game. As you "level up", Mid's will prompt you to choose new powers and then slots.
After you've completed leveling up, you will have a character with powers and empty slots. If you right-click on an empty slot you can fill the empty with a choice of different enhancements (SOs, HOs, IOs). What I recommend you start doing first is to simply stick with SOs until you get comfortable with the Mid's interface and then practice swapping out those for IOs.
Mid's also does a few other things that are useful. You can import builds from the forums by highlight the data chunk (one is posted in this thread), copy it to your clip board (Ctrl + C) and then select Import from forum post from the Import/Export menu. That will allow you to import any builds you find on the forums into Mid's.
Another thing that's useful is the ability to export the same build once you have completed one. This allows you to solicit feedback and to give others a point of reference.
Most of the builds you see on this forum will be invention origin builds (IOs). If you haven't had experience using them, I'd suggest you read up on them first and also take the tutorial offered at the Steel Canyon university. Here's a good overview: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Inventio...n_Enhancements
Inventions are used by most advanced players because they offer superior enhancement values than what you can get from SOs and because the minor set bonuses they provide by slotting 2 or more of the same set can be stacked with like set bonuses from other sets to provide significant advantages over non-IO using characters. For example, a 3% ranged defense set bonus sound insignificant until you realize that ranged defense set bonuses from other sets can stack with that...it is possible to have a blaster that has 45% ranged defense (a defensive rating as good / better than scrappers) while still maintaining the superior ranged fire power of a blaster.
As the other posters mentioned, set bonuses for recharge, recovery, hit points are also very popular. However, before you start respec'ing your hero, get an understanding of how you want to play and how you want those set bonuses to supplement the strengths of your character.
Also, if you're uncomfortable about using set bonuses, frankenslotting is a very viable option that is an inexpensive way to increase your character's power without spending a fortune. Definition: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Frankenslotting A good guide on frankenslotting: http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=121255 -
Quote:Ice/SS - very solid tank, can hold aggro with the best of them, does respectable damage, doesn't have to worry about endurance after energy absorption, has a get out of jail card in hibernate, and can play as the lead tank in all end game taskforces (personal experience here - I've tanked with mine on the STF, LGTF, ITF as lead tank).Originally Posted by Psiko
So I need to make a tanker seeing as I've gone ahead and rolled literally everything else, and i'm looking for one that's challenging to play, fun and with interesting tools at it's disposal - but is not gimped, nerfed, or under-achieving on the tanking front, I want it to be versatile but capable etc, and so I've appealed to the forumites! Gimme gimme gimme!
My only reservation is that it's NOT invuln, fire or WP. They bore me to pieces
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Quote:It depends a lot on team makeup. If you have teammates that can provide buffs, then sure, a brute can sub into a tank role easily. If you don't then a tank would be better. Unbuffed, tanks have higher modifiers and can more easily reach higher hitpoint totals.Originally Posted by OmnipotentMerlin
Then do you think that when GR comes out that Brutes will fill in tanking spots more?
Currently I don't see a reason, when GR comes out, to use a tank anymore if I can have a brute. I almost feel that they might even be more played then scrappers. I mean comeon a scrapper that takes more of a beating. What about that doesn't sound good? This coming from a guy that can't stand Tankers and rarely main tanks.
I don't agree that tanks will be obsoleted. There are plenty of tank variants which also do respectable damage along with being a meat shield. The one's that I suspect won't become as popular are those builds that are a meat shield in exclusion to anything else - those become dead weight. This is as much due to the fact that in the end game, a lot characters can take the alpha not just tanks/brutes. So if that's the only value you have, then yeah, you need to find some other way to contribute.