Fury Flechette

Testing...just seeing there's a _NA by my name.

I have a 50 claws/sr stalker that I dearly love to play solo. However she is completely eclipsed by either of my scrappers on teams. My spines/regen and fire/shield can decimate entire spawns before she can take out the second minion. The lack of spin in the stalker claws arsenal is quite noticeable and her best AoE is unfortunately shockwave (which is just okay, but nothing spectacular).

Most other stalker combinations also suffer from the lack of AoEs. With that said, I've never teamed with a high level electric melee stalker, but the spines stalkers I've seen seemed disappointing. I see a lot of PvP centric builds that seem to gimp their performance on PvE teams.

A Dark/Sonic can make anything look good. Grab tar patch, fearsome stare, howling twilight and darkest night along with your heal and it's pretty easy. The only thing that you may wish is having more AoEs. With tar patch's -res and the -res provided by your sonic blasts, stuff dies pretty fast.

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1. Ill/Cold
2. Ill/Rad
3. Fire/Cold
4. Fire/Rad
5. Ill/Storm
6. Fire/Storm

For AV soloing, thats the best for controllers, Ill/Cold will definatly be #1 when it comes out.

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Most /kins can solo AVs as well, though it's a bit more dangerous. Kin debuffs (-regen, -dmg, -rech) are very underrated. Plus you have unlimited endurance, can self buff (+rech, +dmg, +spd) and can pseudo-tank via a fast charging transfusion. Throw in a pet to absorb some damage (and provide some) and epic blasts and it becomes easy.

I haven't tried soloing an AV with my fire/kin since back in the day before inventions, but even then, she was able solo the easier AVs (Bobcat, Battlemaiden, Siege, Nightstar) without much difficulty. With IOs, it would probably be far easier.

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EDIT: if you want a challenge, go ice/emp solo.

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I'm not sure about challenge. Controllers aren't really challenging since the control can easily eliminate the worst enemies have to offer. Definitely slow and tedious though, especially if you slot your powers for hold duration and not damage.

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I'm talking about solo leveling speed. Yeah, it's not a challenge (as in difficulty) since ice can lock down just about anything fast. And if they're not locked down, they're at the -rech and -movement caps.

With that said, it's rough when block of ice, chillblain and brawl is your attack chain.

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Mind Bubbler Controller

Do It... Solo...

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It's actually not that weak or even slow. Mesmerize -> Dominate -> Levitate is pretty early attack chain. Throw in some Confuse for some unwilling allies and you fly through missions pretty quickly. Just slot mesmerize and dominate for damage (easy to do that with IOs) and you do fine.

At some higher levels you can do stuff like Repulsion Bomb -> Terrorize and pretty much get a jump start on any group. Even bosses are no problem if you take either TK or the AoE hold since you can stack holds really easily.

To top of it, you also have dispersion bubble, so you have mez protection to most things as well too.

With that said, while I wouldn't consider it weak, it probably is in the weaker part of the spectrum of what solo controllers can do.

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I did this Pre Issue 6 and it was so slow... and so tedious I actually deleted it when it was level 41. It was my first character... and it was PAINFUL.

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I played a mind controller, mind/empathy during issue 4. And I didn't think it was that bad. Back then, controllers didn't even have containment, though admittedly being able to six slot things (this was pre-ED) makes it hard to compare.

[ QUOTE ]
Mind Bubbler Controller

Do It... Solo...

[/ QUOTE ]

It's actually not that weak or even slow. Mesmerize -> Dominate -> Levitate is pretty early attack chain. Throw in some Confuse for some unwilling allies and you fly through missions pretty quickly. Just slot mesmerize and dominate for damage (easy to do that with IOs) and you do fine.

At some higher levels you can do stuff like Repulsion Bomb -> Terrorize and pretty much get a jump start on any group. Even bosses are no problem if you take either TK or the AoE hold since you can stack holds really easily.

To top of it, you also have dispersion bubble, so you have mez protection to most things as well too.

With that said, while I wouldn't consider it weak, it probably is in the weaker part of the spectrum of what solo controllers can do.

EDIT: if you want a challenge, go ice/emp solo.

There are a number of controller combinations that can solo AVs. My Fire/Kin was capable of beating AVs with just SOs. Ill/Rad is probably the top of the heap, but many others are capable.

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Actually the splash screen is determined by what you logged onto last. If you were last playing a villain, then the next time you log in, you will see the villain background, if you last logged into a hero, the next time you log in you will see the hero background.

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That's not correct. I will get the CoV splash screen every time I logon to CoH/CoV the very first time. I will get the CoH splash screen if I log out after initially logging on and switch to a hero.

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-Heroes get more attention because it is the original game, the game opens up to the City of Heroes screen, rather than the City of Villains screen, and as said before, everyone loves a hero.

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That's entirely dependent on what set of CDs or which installer you used to install the game. I rebuilt my PC some time ago and installed using the CoV CDs (since I didn't want to use the updater you can download). I get the CoV splash screen when I start up the game. I actually think you can swap them out by just pointing to a different executable regardless of what you used to install the game.

Players that started with City of Villains may be used to seeing a CoV splash screen. No idea what kind of splash screen the Mission Architect version uses, but I think it's different than the one used by CoH.

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Because it's frustrating as heck.

I love redside. I play on Champion. Redside on Champion is dead. It was limping before Issue 14 and the Mission Architect, but Issue 14 and the Mission Architect honestly put the final nail in it.

Just last night, I was on my level 29 Thugs Mastermind. During the period of a hour and a half, there were exactly three people within 5 levels of me either way that weren't already on a team in the search window. I sent a tell to all three of them, asking if they'd be interested in teaming with me. One was busy selling and buying at the black market. The other two were only interested in AE farms.

Seriously, I don't know if it's like this on all servers, but AE killed what little redside activity Champion had.

At this point, I'm looking forward to Champions Online just so I can team with other super-powered players again.

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Really odd. Doesn't match my experience at all, though I'm not discounting your experience. I wondered if the problem was server related so a couple of sessions ago, I brought out my old AR/Dev blaster on Guardian server to see if I can get a team started around 11 PM Pacific time. I started with just two people joining, but had a full team of 8 (levels 44 - 50) doing parts of the Maria Jenkins arc and radio missions just for flavor. We even did a Safeguard mission (wow, that was hard on Invincible!)

I don't have any villains on Champion, but I have no problems on finding/starting teams where I have most of my major characters (Guardian blue side, Virtue blue/red side).

Recently, I had a discussion with an acquaintance of mine who has been bemoaning the fact that she can go hours without finding a team. We both have characters in the same level range, and as we were duo'ing, I asked her why she doesn't start one up herself.

The answers she provided were interesting. But mostly boiled down to the fact that she didn't like to take responsibility for leading. She'd happily join to help someone else, but didn't like the responsibility of grabbing new teammates, worrying about team balance or picking missions.

Meanwhile, I've had almost no difficulty in finding teams *if* I started them myself. It seems there is a plethora of players who will eagerly join you if you ask nicely and tell them the level range and type of missions we're doing. Selfishly, I even have them doing my story arc missions so I can get reward merits (though I will generally alternate missions if there are open missions for other characters in the same level range).

I don't know whether or not it's actually more difficult to find pick up groups nowadays, but I think (and this is based on my experience only) that it is harder for people to just get picked up for teams by setting the LFT flag or just broadcasting their availability to the zone. However, starting your own team is as easy as it's always been. And once you take the time to start your own, players seem to come out of the woodwork...I've had to turn down players in recent sessions because my teams were always full.

Has the game just become the City of Wallflowers?

If you're mostly teaming, then they aren't really needed. I would, however, recommend you to cherry pick a few:

* kb IO (steadfast, karma, zephyr)
* performance shifter +end (it's fairly cheap and a lot more effective than most people think it is). Stick it in Stamina.
* steadfast res/def - this little gem is very worth it and stacks well with EF, manuevers (if you have it) and combat jumping/hover
* Achilles -res proc. Stick it in radiation infection.

What IOs allow you to do is simulate team buffs while you are solo. In most team situations, where there are ally buffs and debuffs, IOs are nice but not that necessary.

One thing I do like to do is frankenslot any attack powers (the major source of endurance usage) so that every attack is endurance efficient. The fact that you can do that for cheap is even better.

Only counting ones above level 30.

Blaster/Scrapper

Blaster - 4
Controller - 2
Defender - 2
Scrapper - 4
Tank - 1
Warshade - 0
PB - 0

Corruptor - 2
Brute - 3
Stalker - 1
MM - 0
Dominator - 0
Widow - 2
Soldier - 0

My fire/kin *can* farm, but is built more as an all around character. She has speed boost, ID and is built for a combination of survivability (ranged defense) and recharge. She'd be terrible at boss farming; she's decent at Lts. However, I feel she isn't gimped when I'm on TFs and on teams, so I wouldn't change her to an optimized farm build.

The other thing that makes her odd is that she wasn't PL'ed. I have the souvenirs and badges from low level story arcs to prove it, and she can exempt down very nicely.

I would look here first. Cap'n Canadian does a good job summarizing IOs at the beginning level, though he covers mostly frankenslotting techniques not sets. Still, he does point to Paragonwiki, City of Data and Mid's.

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Hey guys and girls, I've been playing a Psi/Ment blaster since I started here. She's level 44 now, but I'm stuck at getting her up higher. I cant seem to find a map that has some decent mobs or good levels to get her higher. I've run the ITF, but she is on Justice and there arent a lot of people on there anymore to team with, so I'm pretty much stuck soloing. Any suggestions?

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1. Tina Macintyre if you haven't already done her missions. She provides a crucial mission against Antimatter that is crucial for the Portal Jockey accolade.

2. Daedulus in Cimerora provides two story arcs worth doing

3. RWZ zones - at level 44, you're qualified to run Borea's and Serpent Drummer's missions.

4. Ask the Mission Architect forum for a list of appropriate story arcs for you to do. Specify solo friendly. Most authors would love for you to run their arcs, especially if you give feedback.

Some good suggestions already.

WP is great with just SOs. In fact, out of all the secondaries, it probably benefits the least from IOs, though capped smash/lethal defense on top of WP's resistances and regen is sexy.

DM works pretty well with secondaries w/o a self heal. So SR and shield defense works well with it.

Another option is to grab a sword primary, either broadsword and/or katana and grab a defense based secondary (SR, Shield Defense, even WP) and grab parry (or divine avalanche) to stack melee/lethal defense.

They're both pretty good, and I see the trade off this way.

Shield defense - more damage (AAO), shield charge, may need a self heal in aid self unless you have lots of native regen, positional defenses defend against all sorts of threats, has a small amount of resistances

WP - more endurance, very good health regen in HttC, layered defenses (moderate resistances, defenses against type attacks), can cap against smash/lethal but hard to cap completely against all types

Personally, it's the higher damage potential of shield defense that won me over. I figure that the best mitigation is a mob that's dead. Also, fire sword circle + shield charge is a mighty sexy AoE combo. I went fire/shield.

Capped ranged defense (and AoE defense) -OR-

Capped smashing/lethal defense and some range defense.

The one thing I've seen in a lot of end game builds is fighting pool. Add in your epic shields and you're packing 67-68 percent smash/lethal resistance, a mez toggle and defense. I didn't opt for that in my build largely because I like the AoE web nade in helping position my sonic blasts.

The build I'm using is below; it has abour 41% smash/lethal defense, 32% ranged. I could easily cap smash/lethal if I decided to spec in Weave, but I like the build as is. Perhaps, the only thing I might change is take out Siren's Song and put Liquefy back in.

Also, instead of Reactive Armor, I've seen builds where you use either Impervium Armor or Aegis to work up either psionic resistance or AoE defense.

Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

[u]Click this DataLink to open the build![u]

Fell Fiend - Issue 14 Mk II: Level 50 Science Corruptor
Primary Power Set: Sonic Attacks
Secondary Power Set: Sonic Resonance
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Medicine
Ancillary Pool: Mace Mastery

Villain Profile:
Level 1: Scream -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 1: Sonic Siphon -- Acc-I(A)
Level 2: Shriek -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31)
Level 4: Sonic Barrier -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(5), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(13), RctvArm-ResDam(17)
Level 6: Sonic Haven -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(7), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(13), RctvArm-ResDam(17)
Level 8: Shout -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(9), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(11)
Level 12: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 14: Super Jump -- Zephyr-Travel(A), Zephyr-Travel/EndRdx(15)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A)
Level 18: Sirens Song -- LgcRps-Acc/Rchg(A), LgcRps-Acc/EndRdx(19), LgcRps-EndRdx/Sleep(19), LgcRps-Acc/Sleep/Rchg(23)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), P'Shift-EndMod(21), P'Shift-End%(21)
Level 22: Sonic Dispersion -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(23), RctvArm-ResDam(40), RctvArm-EndRdx(40), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(43)
Level 24: Amplify -- Rec'dRet-ToHit/Rchg(A), Rec'dRet-Pcptn(25), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(25), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(36), AdjTgt-Rchg(37)
Level 26: Kick -- KntkC'bat-Acc/Dmg(A), KntkC'bat-Dmg/EndRdx(29), KntkC'bat-Dmg/Rchg(29), KntkC'bat-Knock%(36)
Level 28: Aid Other -- Heal-I(A), Heal-I(37)
Level 30: Aid Self -- Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx(A), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(31), Dct'dW-Heal(39), IntRdx-I(39)
Level 32: Howl -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(33), Posi-Dmg/Rng(33), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(37)
Level 35: Clarity -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 38: Tough -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(39), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(40), RctvArm-ResDam(46)
Level 41: Web Envelope -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(42), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(43), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(43)
Level 44: Web Cocoon -- Lock-Acc/Hold(A), Lock-Acc/Rchg(45), Lock-Rchg/Hold(45), Lock-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(45), Lock-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg/Hold(46), Lock-%Hold(46)
Level 47: Scorpion Shield -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(48), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(48), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(48), RedFtn-Def(50), RedFtn-EndRdx(50)
Level 49: Disruption Field -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(50)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Acc-I(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- ULeap-Stlth(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Scourge
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[u]Set Bonus Totals:[u]<ul type="square">[*]7% DamageBuff(Smashing)[*]7% DamageBuff(Lethal)[*]7% DamageBuff(Fire)[*]7% DamageBuff(Cold)[*]7% DamageBuff(Energy)[*]7% DamageBuff(Negative)[*]7% DamageBuff(Toxic)[*]7% DamageBuff(Psionic)[*]19.6% Defense(Smashing)[*]19.6% Defense(Lethal)[*]4.25% Defense(Fire)[*]4.25% Defense(Cold)[*]27.4% Defense(Energy)[*]27.4% Defense(Negative)[*]3% Defense(Psionic)[*]13.6% Defense(Melee)[*]30.2% Defense(Ranged)[*]5.5% Defense(AoE)[*]2.5% Enhancement(Held)[*]4% Enhancement(Sleep)[*]15% Enhancement(RechargeTime)[*]30% Enhancement(Accuracy)[*]3% Enhancement(Immobilize)[*]17% FlySpeed[*]16.1 HP (1.5%) HitPoints[*]17% JumpHeight[*]17% JumpSpeed[*]MezResist(Held) 2.2%[*]MezResist(Immobilize) 9.35%[*]MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%[*]20% Perception[*]8.5% (0.14 End/sec) Recovery[*]4.1% Resistance(Fire)[*]4.1% Resistance(Cold)[*]1.26% Resistance(Energy)[*]3.14% Resistance(Negative)[*]17% RunSpeed[/list]


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[ QUOTE ]
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I'm always happy to see power sets proliferated, so please don't take this post as a sour grapes post. With that said, is anyone a little disappointed that the most wanted sets weren't proliferated.

Here's what would've made me jump for joy:

Blasters -Dark Blast (though I admit, Rad Blast is a fine choice)

Brutes - Regeneration

Controller - Dark Miasma

Corruptor - Poison (though Trick Arrow was a fine choice too)

Defender - Poison

Dominator - Illusion

MM - Kinetics

Scrapper - Super strength or energy melee or fire epic powers

Stalker - Shields or fire melee

Tanker - Spines or energy aura

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe next time.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm always happy to see power sets proliferated, so please don't take this post as a sour grapes post. With that said, is anyone a little disappointed that the most wanted sets weren't proliferated.

Here's what would've made me jump for joy:

Blasters -Dark Blast (though I admit, Rad Blast is a fine choice)

Brutes - Regeneration

Controller - Dark Miasma

Corruptor - Poison (though Trick Arrow was a fine choice too)

Defender - Poison

Dominator - Illusion

MM - Kinetics

Scrapper - Super strength or energy melee or fire epic powers

Stalker - Shields or fire melee

Tanker - Spines or energy aura

I'm not a big advocate of farming, but this is going to be a good feature.

One of the biggest negative side effects of farming is that it unintentionally (or intentionally) PLs inexperienced players. This feature will, I think, cause a reduction of this by allowing people to solo farm if they choose.

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I'm told the Devs have described the Defender as the best balanced AT. I'm forced to wonder at this. Consider the following.

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I just love when people bring up a dev quote from *years* ago and think it's still applicable. MMOs change a lot from inception and holding to something a dev (who hasn't been here for years) said as this untouchable pillar of game design is not fair to the current dev team nor the dev who originally said it.

By the way, I think the OP's straw man of using probably weakest self buffing defender against a scapper is dubious at best.

If you're just Hami mito farming, why bother rolling a defender at all? Just bring 8 blasters and have at it. Tanks, control, mitigation, healing are all worthless in that scenario.

As for level 54 bosses, TA is a fine choice. I'd probably go with storm or cold if I had to choose a defender type for this kind of task.