Gilfred

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Reasons why devs might be silent on an issue:

1) We didn't see the issue. There are a lot of threads out there.
2) We are in the middle of looking at an issue, and saying anything at the time might be invalidated. Even something like "we are looking into it" can be read as "we are going to change it" if we look at it and find it to be fine, we would get blasted for not changing it when we said we would.
3) The answer is already being given by a lot of players already
4) The answer is obvious (and thus will eventually be given out by a lot of players, see #3).
5) It involves talking about stuff we can't/shouldn't be talking about.
6) The question is a "when" question. We rarely answer these, because even when we put disclaimers on it, our answer becomes taken as gospel, and if we fail to deliver, we look bad.

There's a secret 7th reason that I am not going to give you because of reason #7.

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Regardless of your reasons I think that you should've told the player base before I9 hit that the dev team intended for costume recipes to be commodities that they would seek and pay top inf for. If you did then the player base would not have thought that they would've been able to get those new pieces easily for both their new toons as well as their older toons. It would not have caused sour grapes (so to speak) or bad blood. Players can take it better when they are told up front than when it is hidden from them.

What I would like to see is a seperate set of rules as far as how our powers work for both PVE and PVP. No doubt there are powers and power combinations while they are not an exploit in PVE would be in PVP. I would not like to see the PVE portion of this game die because they need to balance PVP and keep the rules identical. I would like to see a thirty to sixty second cooldown when entering and leaving all PVP zones where no fighting is allowed during that time. During that time you could apply the different rules.

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If I can pick too - my Enemy Resistance spreadsheet is not issue-centric.

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But if it wasn't updated since I6, it wouldn't be necessarily stale as much as incomplete, not containing info about new groups like Arachnos and Longbow. But, since you're updating it, I'll update the issue tag.

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I have written a guide to influnece and infamy. I call it Guide to Influence and Infamy. Please feel free to check it out and add anything that I might have missed.

This guide is for those that are either not part of an sg/vg or their sg/vg does not forced to fight in sg/vg mode all of the time. If you have any guides or extra information of how you can handle your influence/infamy needs fighting in sg/vg mode all of the time feel free to add it to this guide.

1.) Only buy what you absolutely need. Meaning if you toon must have certain enhancements for survival then buy them.

2.) Do not buy to keep all of your enhancements green.

3.) Change your enhancements every five levels. You can either chose to do so at levels like 13,18, 23, ...etc, or you can chose levels 12,17, 22, ...etc. Right now I have two level 18 blasters and I have all DO's in accuracy and TO's in the rest. I will keep on going to see if I can change the DO's to SO's and the TO's to DO's by 22. I may have to wait for a full SO set at either level 27 or 32. I know that I will have a full set of SO's by level 32.

4.) Sell enhancements at the proper stores. Sell as soon as you get a full tray unless you are on a team or on a timed mission. Avoid deleting, the reason is because almost every time I have deleted a TO to open room for a DO or SO I have gotten a TO of lesser value.

5.) Exemplar out of sg/vg mode if possible.

6.) Do lower level tasks forces out of sg/vg mode if possible.

7.) Play one level in sg/vg mode and one level out, starting at level 25 where you start losing influence if possible.

8.) Use enhancements from drops.

9.) Leave the mission as soon as you have completed it. Do not stick around to clean up the rest of enemies left. Usually the amount of enemies left are worth less then the mission bonus. You are trying to get as many mission bonuses per level as possible. Remember if you do run out of content concerning story arcs, then do safeguard missions to cover the gap.

10.) Do not frequently change your difficulty settings.

11.) Do not frequently change your costumes.

12.) This is an option of last resort. Intentially go into perma debt untill either you cannot stand it anymore or you have the influence that you need. This along with doing alot of exemplaring is an option I have not had to use.

By using all of the rest I have my main that is a level 38 scrapper that has had a boost of 800,000 influence about the first few levels he started in the sg he is in. But since then has not needed any more boost to infuence. His current influence is about four million. I was able to easily afford an full tray of level 40 SO's at level 37 and had about 1,600,000 influence left over.

If I have missed anything or you know how to handle gaining influence while playing in sg/vg mode all of the time please add that information here or give a link that would guide us to that information.

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Matt Miller: The Invention system is the single biggest system we have added post-launch to the game. It really changes the face of the game for the hardcore players, by giving them a huge chance to make their awe-inspiring characters even better with the special crafted Enhancements they can make. The best part is anything that is a “reward” can be made using the Invention system, that means the sky is pretty much the limit on what players can obtain, including costume pieces.

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Hmmm...does this mean that all Veterens rewards will be able to be created by the invention system? Does this also mean, that rewards like the Jump Pack from Good Vs. Evil or the costume pieces gained from the other DVD sets will be able to be invented?

Edit: I just recalled Positron stating before that the wings from the Veterans Rewards were a preview of what's to come from the inventions system. I'm not thinking that all we're getting from being a veteran is stuff from the Inventions system without having to invent them.

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With Matt's quote I have been thinking is it possible that inventions will not be affected by ED. Could one of the reasons for ED was to make inventions possible? Could it be that what bothered players and the devs was not how powerful we could be but there were cookie cutter builds, with only a few ways to properly slot your toon? Today cookie cutter builds exists but are different.

Will the enhancement we invent give us true power customizateion? With the new system will it be possible for all types of builds to become almost equal in power to each other, with the only difference being how the hero gets the job done.

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I'm extremely disappointed that an image of Statesman would be used in such a way. I know that we designed City of Heroes to appeal to "children of all ages." My proudest accomplishment with the game is that many parents (including my brother) play with their children...sharing, I hope, the same joy for the comic book world that I've had ever since I was 8. I cannot express the shock that I felt seeing that a character created by Cryptic would be used in the same sentence as Columbine.

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I can see the shock of it - and agree for the most part with the majority of the comments here. But I also as a parent chose COH as a game I could play with my son, and know what kind of games my kids have. That's responsible parenting.

By the same token - I see games where to score points you're shooting cops, burning people on the street, blowing away people because they don't believe in the same religion as you ... and I have to ask myself as a parent why the heck there's not something being done to limit this kind of thing beyond the efforts I put in.

I won't go so far as to say "If you play those evil games you'll be a drug dealing satanic axe murderer!!". But lets face it - it sure as heck does not shock me if you become one. You sleep with dogs - you have a tendency to wake up with fleas, and sufficient exposure to thinking that sort of thing is cool will affect your outlook.

Responsible adults know what their kids are up to - they don't control them - but they help guide them. Responsible game makers - need to decide if the message they're sending out is one they endorse, or one they plan on making money off of.

I have had some serious issues with CoH's emphasis on CoV for so many issues because I'm really not thrilled with the idea of my kid playing a villian. Let's face it - as corny as it is - CoV is supposed to be about being a successful villain.

And we can all say, "Anyone who can't tell the difference between reality and a game is nuts." and you'll be right. But then - how many sane people kill? How many sane people deal drugs, shoot cops, blow up schools? I'm hoping the answer to that question is zero.

Is it necessary to enjoy a game - to kill a cop? Is it necessary to enjoy a game - to kill someone who did absolutely nothing - they're just there? Well - some say yes, it increases the believablity of the game - allows you to get into the role - allows you to pretend. And that's all it is - it's pretending. Okay I can see that.

Is it necessary to enjoy a game to see somethings blood splatter all over a wall? To see a skull rip open with a chain saw? Why is it better in a game - acceptable in a game - but not in real life? The answer (I'm hoping) is you know you wouldn't ever do that but it's fun to pretend. And the violence - makes it more believable. Makes it more fun.

Gotcha. It's more fun - if you pretend to blow the head off something.

Now - I want you to think about what you would do - if the guy sitting next to you at McDonalds or where ever ... started explaining how chainsaws and blood and blowing the head off cops - was okay - so long as you're only pretending.
Let me know how that works out for you.

We cannot keep claiming that because it's all "pretending" and therefore it's okay. Adults - Parents have to take responsiblity at home - Game Designers have to take responsibility in the market. It's our world - we decide how it's supposed to be shaped.

States and CoH here has been seriously slandered in this clip. CoH and even - regardless of it's design - CoV - do a good job of pushing a positive set of life values. They're one of the very very few games that manages to do that, and Cryptic should seriously look into legal action because it does give people the wrong impression.

Even still - you'd impress even me more if my kids could pay for a Hero expansion that means they don't have to buy CoV to get into SG Bases.

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Good job on your post. The sad thing is that the only way that game makers will start taking responsibility to the market is only when they have no choice but to do so. I will use a statement from one of Christopher Reeve's superman movies. It was called Quest for Peace. He said that when the people want peace bad enough their leaders will have no choice but to give it to them. Sad but the same is true for video games only when we have decided as a people that we do not find such games as GTA series good and fun, and the game makers make no profits on them then they will have no choice but to stop making them.

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(A bit off topic) They do that with global warming too. I think we'll realize that the water level is rising before it's too late... We're not just gonna all drawn one day out of the blue...

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It was very off topic. Certainly, I am not the ONLY one who prefers we focus on one piece of propaganda at a time (video game "violence"). I saw your point, but I wish folks like you would go start their OWN threads or blogs about Global Warming or the Iraq conflict somewhere ELSE.

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When someone claims that a video game, book, movie or even a voice in their head made them commit the crime. I feel that the person should be immediately examined by a psychiatrist no waiting not even a single day would pass. Then if they are proven to have a mental disorder then they would be put in an institution for the criminally insane. If not then they should stand trial and not be able to use that as a defense.

Part of human nature is to pass the buck. Finding a scapegoat to blame other than themselves as teenagers or adults for their actions. Parents that do not truly do their job of raising their children properly because they just do not care want to have something else to blame.

If they stuck Mickey Mouse in with porno movies and said that Walt Disney's toon are just as sexually explicit then Walt Disney would sue. For crying out loud this is a teen rated game. The rest of the games in the mix are either R rated or for Adults only. You can correct me if I am wrong but I think that Best Buy has a policy concerning video games. That policy is that they will have any mature or adult rated titles in there store. There may be other companies like but I just do not know.

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Poster: Myrmydon
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Poster: Statesman
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I'm extremely disappointed that an image of Statesman would be used in such a way. I know that we designed City of Heroes to appeal to "children of all ages." My proudest accomplishment with the game is that many parents (including my brother) play with their children...sharing, I hope, the same joy for the comic book world that I've had ever since I was 8. I cannot express the shock that I felt seeing that a character created by Cryptic would be used in the same sentence as Columbine.

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This one is the link your looking for you, States. They can go [censored] themselves.

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Personally I don't think it is an attack on City of Heroes. We as gamers know how absurd it is. The average politicians pick 7 games they "Heard" is bad or popular and chain them all Together. "Look at scenes from GTA, Manhunt, and Tetris. You can see the violence and how it is making our children into killing machines." It would be the same thing as villifying Ms Pacman for having unprotected sex and having her little pac baby and exposing it to gang violence by having 4 ghosts come after the child.

Gamers: They are thinking W T and F

Non Gamers: "I saw a decapitation in man hunt!! Ban tetris its bad too!!" They don't even know what tetris is!!

Ignorence is the issue. Rather then take a stance against how ignorent people are about reality and consequences of violence they take the easy way and pick a scapegoat so they don't have to take responsibility for letting little Timmy have one of their 17 fire arms, 2 boxes of ammo and not telling the kid that shooting people is wrong.

Saying "You are a bad parent and should be locked in jail because you allowed Timmy to have the guns and bullets used to kill people and never taught him the basic human decency and values that killing is wrong.". is not going to get them any votes when yahoos like Hilary say "Video games are the reason kids kill people and need to be stopped".

1: I was a bad parent I had guns and ammo lying around. If I had of taught Timmy better people wouldn't have died. How could I have left my child down and the innocent children killed.

VS

2: How could I have let video games corrupt my child!! Ban Tetris and Manhunt so no child will go on a killing spree!!

My money is on 2.

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This game is so tame even the villians we heroes face say things like I am not going to jail, Didn't you bust me for purse snatching last week. All as anyone has to do is check out the games they list before listing some game along with others. It is an insult to list this game which has a teen rating, no blood and guts along with those that have an R rating with all the blood and guts you could think of. It is impossible to rid the world of violence by eliminating it in all forms of the media. People have to change and decide for themselves that they will not be violent. Also if there were no violence in the media and people were still violent, then they would have no one else or anything else to lay the blame on other than themselves. Do they really want to do that?

While I have not read the entire 34 pages I want to add my two cents. Here goes, I hope that I do not offend anyone with my following statement. People have been passing the buck since Adam and Eve. Look Adam blamed God for his sin, because he said to God it is the woman that YOU GAVE TO ME gave me the fruit and I ate it. There will always be people that will pass the buck and say it was not my fault for what I did. I will never by into that. Of course you will have some people that are sick in the head with some mental disease and legitmately believe that it was a book, game, TV, magazine that made him do it.

I agree that the rest of the blame falls on parents. Part of the problem is that some of the children are grandchildren of Dr. Spock's generation.

Dr Spock was a child psychologist that said over 50 years ago do not spank your children because you maybe stunting the growth of a genius. Many decades later he recanted his first statement and said that we have a generation of brats. Not only did his generation of children wind up not learning any proper parental skills and show any real concern for their children the same happened to the generation after them.

Add to that when children are having children and they do not know how to raise them causes even more problems. Then add the fact that some children from good homes of parents that really do their best but the children just disobey. And the parents that do not care (whatever the reason is) let other things and people teach their children the lessons they should teach them. When their child does wrong they blame their pastor, teacher at school or something else other than themselves. What are we going to do let the government raise our children? I know that I would not if I had children. What are we going to do as a people let the government make rules where they make all of our decisions for us and our children? Is making those decisions way to hard for most? Sorry I will make my own decisions and would teach any children that I have to make their own decisions and teach them right from wrong.

I believe that censorship could get worst unless we as parents and individuals start taking responsibility for what we do. I agree that games and other media are in no way near real life. Do we have only two senses sight and sound. No in the real world we have five senses, but in a game world only two are used. I would rather see the government pass a law where if a person young or old claims that something made him do what he/she did that they would be tested by a psychologist to see if that is true. If they pass the test then immediate committed for any sentence that would be normally passed on the crime committed. If not they stand trial and cannot use that as a defense. Then one of us could do a study showing just how many people were trying to blame something else when they should've accepted the blame for their own actions. Sorry if it is a little long.

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Yeah, but some things should be untouched, like yesterday, someone on the pinnacle forums was warning everyone how a paticlur person was hijacking other peoples accounts and using it for his gain, that was definatly one that shouldve been left up, for what the guy did he deserved too get fried.

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I think if the OP could've left his name out and just warned us about how a hacker could hijacker out accounts and use it for personal gain. I think that this route if the OP had undeniable proof of how it was done, then it may have been better. But still I would have given the GM's the information and warn anyone I could about how it could be done without naming names. If I feel that I would be warned for sounding a warning then I would give my proof to the GM's or Lighthouse and see if they could properly warn our fellow players.

When a con moan con's someone is it better to warn people about the man or his con game? His con game of course, because if you do not then another copycat con man could use the same con and you could be riped off because the name is different.

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Actually, I PM'd Castle on this a few days ago.

My PM:

Dear Castle,

As you know, blaster secondaries have been broken since beta. I know you've posted on this, and you've promised to try and fix it. But here we are on the eve of I8 without these changes, and no word if I9 will be any different.

When Statesman stopped posting and Positron became lead designer, there was rumor of 'The Demise of CoX!!!' We later came to find that it was simply because Jack (and a few others) were redirected to start working on the Marvel MMO. Now, I didn't buy into the 'End of CoX' hype, but it does seem to me that resources are being redirected... I am theorizing that with the Marvel MMO on the horizon there is less of a focus to make CoX better, and more of a focus to simply make Marvel Universe essentially City of Heroes II.

So what I'm asking is, with everything going on at Cryptic right now, are blaster secondary fixes still in the works?

I'm biased, you see. My 'main' is an Energy/Fire blaster. I've been playing CoX now for over 2 years and have 6 level capped characters. Out of all of them, I dislike my blaster the most. Not because its not my playstyle, not because I dislike the AT, but because I dislike looking at my power tray and seeing half my power choices as 'fluff.' (I mean, bonfire on a blaster? Burn patch? They're just for show -- I never actually use them.)

I'm not angry, and I'm not 'demanding' any changes, certaintly. But I am curious as to the fate of my blaster. Will she stay shelved forever? Will I someday get a chance to make her wonderful? I don't know, so I figured I'd ask.

Many Thanks,
Shak


His Reply:

Yes, they are.



In my personal opinion....uh...he's lying. I don't think they're in the works. I think it's one of those things where they *think* about doing it, but never actually schedule the time for it -- thus it never gets done. It happens at my job quite frequently, actually. They ask people to cover 'special projects' without reducing their normal workload. The result? The special project never gets done.

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I do not think that the devs are lying. I believe that it is hard to fix the blaster secondaries. Why, because even blasters do not agree on what needs to be done. I have seen post that has said to change melee to range attacks. This change hurts the blappers that are quit good at blapping. I have seen those same post say increase the range of the short attacks. Trouble of it is do we as blasters have to act like the enemies we face? Do we have to stay in one place and keep blasting until defeated? No we can be a hit and run blaster by mixing blasting and moving. We can even use hover blasting taking us out of the melee range. I have even seen posts that have said allow the secondary to give some defense. That goes against us being glass cannons and comes close to making us a tank mage, which will not happen.

Dominators get power sink from mu mastery. From soul mastery they get dark consumption. That is what they get from their patron powers.

MASTERMINDS

The mastermind seems to be one of the exception to the rule that many AT's have powers to help them manage endurance. The mastermind does not have any extra powers to help him. Does that mean that he must use stamina. Not at all, because I have read post of experienced masterminds that said this AT properly slotted could survive without stamina because of all of the henchmen they have available to them. Masterminds with henchmen are a team without extra players. We know that on a team you will use less endurance because you have more players or henchmen that are also fighting along with you.

PEACEBRINGERS

They have no epics and only one primary and one secondary. When in bright nova form their endurance recovery is increased. When in white dwarf form their endurance recovery is increased. They also get conserve energy which is similar to conserve power.

SCRAPPERS

Regeneration has quick recovery which increase you endurance recovery. From body mastery they have conserve power.

STALKERS

From energy aura they have energy drain which is an endurance leech power. You drain endurance from your foes and get some of what you drained back. Enduarnce cost of 13 and a recharge time of 60 seconds. Energy aura also gives a stalker conserve power.

TANKERS

From fiery aura they get consume. From the epic pool power of energy mastery they get conserve power available at level 41.

WARSHADES

They have Dark Nova form and a Black Dwarf form that increases endurance recovery. Stygian circle may help recover endurance, I am not sure about this one. Like peacebringers they have no epic pool powers.

In closing it is up to us as players to decide how we will manage our endurance according to our playstyle, not according to the playstyle or based on the choices of other players. Why even rest can be reduce to 92 seconds with enhancements. As heroes and villians we have many ways to manage endurance. Do not force your way of endurance management or playstyle upon any other player whether in game or on these forums. Do not force them by kicking them from teams or say they will suck without stamina. That is childish, acting like a little child. Yes I am aware that young children play this game. But all players do not have to act like young children. We can use one or all of the tools that each AT has to manage endurance. Have fun playing either the heroes or the villians.

I have to thank the both of you for telling me there are different ways to slot those powers for effectiveness. From here on I will only talk about the powers of the AT and Show that each AT has powers that could be use to help manage endurance, along with stamina, and slotting for endurance and slotting rest with recharge reduction. Does this limit our choices and make stamina a must? Not at all unless what has already been mentioned before is true for you.

DEFENDERS

They have the same powers that controllers have but they get them sooner and are more powerful than the controller version because they are their primary powers instead of secondary like the controller. Even the defenders inherent helps reduce endurance usage in teams, not the solo defender.

In the epics the controller has dark consumption from dark mastery. I cost .65 endurance and has a recharge rate of 360 seconds. It drains hit points and gives you endurance in return. I do not know the ratio of hit point drain to endurance returned. From electric mastery they get power sink. It has a recharge of 120 seconds and a cost of 16.25 endurance. Also it is the last power in the electric mastery meaning you must use three power slots to get it. From power mastery they get conserve power which they can get at level 41.

DOMINATORS

From fiery assault they get consume. From psionic mastery they get drain psyche. It weakens the health and endurance recovery of the foe and gives you both hits points and endurance in return. It cost 13 points of endurance and has a recharge time of 120 seconds. Why even the dominators inherent when fully charged will give them all of their endurance back when used.

CONTROLLERS

Controllers have recovery aura from empathy. Recovery Aura increase endurance recovery for 90 seconds. It has a recharge of 500 seconds. It has an endurance cost of 26. With enhancements you can reduce it endurance cost to 13. It's recharge can be brought down to 256 seconds. Enhanced you can use this power every two minutes and forty four seconds for thirteen points of endurance. This power also is not available until level 28.

Next we have transference from kinetics, which leeches endurance from the enemies. But you must wait until level 35 to get it. From Radiation we have accelerate metabolism. For two minutes it increases your endurance recovery. The amount it gives is a little .27 which is small, but remember little things do mean alot. All powers do not have to give the same amount of help.

The controllers have epic pool powers that can help. But like Stamina you must be willing to sacrifice power slots to get it.
Fire mastery has consume. In order to get consume you must have two other fire mastery powers to get it. So you must be willing to sacrifice three power slots to get consume. In primal forces you have consume power. Just like all epics you must be willing to wait until level 41 before you can aquire them.

CORRUPTORS

From cold domination we have heat loss. This drains heat and changes heat into endurance. It has a recharge time of 360 seconds and a cost of 15.6 of endurance. Also you have to wait till level 38. It's recharge time can be reduced to 184 seconds or three minutes and four seconds. It's endurance can be reduced to 8.

Kinetics has transference like controllers. Radiation emission has accelerate metabolism like controllers. They have on patron power called power sink from mu mastery. you have to wait till level 41 to get it.

Before I continue with the next AT I will talk about when stamina is required. I feel that stamina is required if any of the following is true

<ul type="square">[*] If you like going from one spawn to the next with little down time
[*]If you set your difficulty to invincible.
[*]If you choose hasten., I will never choose hasten again because I agree with those that feel it make their hands look like power ranger hands.
[*] Or you want to slot for something other than endurance reduction.[/list]
Choosing stamina is left up to you but you can do without and still function quite well. I know that I will choose a villian next.

BRUTES

The first power in their primary is dark consumption in the dark melee primary. It has a three minute recharge which can be reduced to 92 seconds with recharge reduction. This power drains hit points of your enemies and increases your endurance.

The Brutes in their secondaries have conserve power and power sink in the electric armor set. Both powers are about the same as they are for the blaster. The last power in the electic armor is power surge. For three minutes your endurance recovery rate is increased. But, after it wears off you are exhausted and drained of almost all of your health and endurance.

In Energy Aura we have energy drain and conserve power. Energy Drain is similar to power sink. In the Fire Aura we have consume which is similar to consume in the blaster's secondary. No patron power can help a Brute manage endurance.

I will try my best to make my own endurance management guide even though I have not played every AT to fifty, I will do the best that I can. Endurance management has changed since this game first launched. At launch the powers costed more endurance. Their were no epic pool powers. Rest was ten minute recharge. Stamina was the only power available to all AT's and was a must have power.

Today things are different, rest is three minutes instead of ten. You have epic pool powers that can help you manage endurance. Powers now cost less endurance than before. Now Stamina is not required like in the past. Stamina is a choice. with it's pro's and con's. Before going any further please go here for a good short guide to endurance management. I felt that a guide needs to be written on a AT by AT basis. I will start with blasters.

You know that endurance management is all about eps (endurance per second) that your toon uses. hopefully you have read the short guide mentioned above. Stamina is just one of many powers/tools used for endurance management. For all AT's you could choose to not use stamina and slot rest with recharge enchancements and you maybe able to rest in between every fight. Yes that does increase downtime but there are those that do not mind or have a narrow concept that stamina would cripple. All times come for SherkSilver's character builder.

BLASTERS
First blasters have three secondary powers that can help. First is electricity has the power called power sink. This power leeches endurance off of your foes. The bad side of this is you have to wait a long time to get it because it is the eitghth power in the secondary. Still you would need to slot your powers with endurance reduction enhancements. Power sink has a recharge time of 60 seconds.

Second is energy, which has conserve power which helps you because for 90 seconds you are using less endurance for all of your powers. You get it sooner than power sink and consume from fire. But it has a long recharge time 600 seconds or ten minutes. if you do the math without recharge reduction enhancements you have to wait eight and a half minutes before you can use it again. With recharge reduchtion enhancement SO's you get the time down to 307 seconds. subtract 307 minus the 90 the power is on and you get 217 seconds, which translates to three minutes and 37 seconds. That is 37 seconds longer than rest unenhanced which is not too bad.

Third and last is from fire which is consume. It too is an endurance leech like power sink. You get this power early than power sink. but it has a longer recharge time which is three minutes like rest. With recharge enhancements you can cut it down to 92 seconds.

Blasters have no epic powers to help them manage endurance. This is a work in progress and I will in time include the rest of the hero AT's as well as the villian AT's.

I have seen many guides on this forum. All of them are good and new players can learn alot from them. They cover all subjects from combat to character builds. But I noticed one that is missing. It is one that I feel that I am not qualified to write. I would be an endurance management guide.

I would talk about the pros and cons of using powers such as Stamina, Conserve Power, Power Sink,...etc. Also it would talk about the pros and cons of using endurance reduction cost enhancement in all of your powers and give the player new ways to build their toons. The reason I feel that this is needed is because the majority of builds here online use stamina as the way to manage endurance. But, I know that is not the only way.

When this game launch back in 2004, the powers costed more endurance, there were no epic pool powers to help manage endurance. A hero back then could not survive without stamina. But now things are different. I know that I am not qualified to write such a guide even though I have hero builder from shierk silver (sorry for any misspellings). The reason is I have not been playing continuely long enough to know how good powers such as conserve power in /eng are or how good it is in the epic pool powers for other AT's. Would a true veteran of this game please write one for both heroes and villians. Endurance management is an important game mechanic.

I have read posts where players that solo because they have limited time to play. There sessions last about a half an hour. Some would love to team and have tried to do so and do a mission within a half an hour. But they said in their posts that it took them a half an hour just to get a team together.

What I am looking for is an improvement or someone that could tell me how to get a team together so I would be able to have a team and do one of my missions in a half an hour session. If the devs need to make an improvement to make this happen then fine. I have played on team that was more interested in doing street sweeping that doing missions, for the one hour I was on the team they never did the leaders mission.

As far as super groups I have read posts that have said that there needs to be a better way of managing super groups, and changes to the super group window. I know that this is true but I have no idea on what type of improvement would help. I do know this, that when players say that they can easily find the type of super group they are looking for and have a lot of fun being on a super group. And when solo players can find a team and do a mission in half an hour if they want too. That is what I am looking for. What changes need to be made or what forums need to be visited is unknown. The players will tell me how good it is as far as teaming and super groups.

Even though I applaude you on your changes, I will still not renew my account for a while. I will only renew my account when I see all of the changes mentioned become reality.

Also I would like to see improvements to teaming where it would not take as long to form a team and make it easier to gather the newly formed team together. Maybe it only takes ten minutes to form a team. I would like to see improvements in super group management by making it easier to find the right super group for your hero.

When this game truely fits the genre of the world of super heroes then I will return. I can understand forced grouping in sword and sorcery type of mmo's. Why, because look at any sword and sorcery movie and you will find that it took a team to win the day. Even if the only thing the team mates do is to help the hero make it to the final fight.

Examples are movies called "Krull" and "Willow". The same holds true for science fiction, just look at "Star Wars" and you will know what I mean. Why even Captain America rarely called for backup in his own comic. I hope that one day I will return to this great game because of two main reasons. One, Marvel loses their lawsuit (being thrown out with prejudice). And two, that this game makes all heroes feel like they have accomplished something special during their career because they as a player feel like they are an improtant part of this game. I believe that the devs just might be able to properly encourage teaming and joining super groups. Until then I hope that all have a prosperous year, and continue to have fun playing this game.

I believe that the boss changes have hurt both solo players and team players alike. Why do I feel this way? Simply put, this changed has hurt the variety of teams and the variety of AT builds. Please do not get mad at me, because I do not intend to make anyone mad. Remember variety is the spice of life.

I have read post here that said that all powersets of all AT's could still solo if they choose the right powers and slot them properly. If true then it forces all AT's to have the uber build and choose the right pool powers to back them up. This means that those that chose to build their hero based on a concept will not be able to do it anymore.

If you do not build the uber build correctly then you will be useless as a solo hero (maybe street sweeping your way to the top is okay for some), but you would also be useless to a team. Reason is if you are not powerful enough to help a team to defeat a boss you will be booted from the team. With the new changes to bosses the fights now must last shorter.

Also this hurts teams because you now must carefully choose your team mates. You must decide not only what AT to choose but also what powers of that AT you are looking for. Further, you must make sure everyone is about the same level as you are.

Could this complaint that not enough players were teaming in the 25+ game be because players have stopped joining pick up groups and team only with their friends or supergroup? The question I have here is, are there any players that team 100% of the time, only do so with pick up teams? Are there some that team 100% of the time that have decided not to make any friends or join a super group? If this is so then my suggestion to them is make friends and join a super group. You can also use pick up teams when you have too. Please give us back the variety we once had as well as the freedom to choose whether to team or solo.

I too not only wonder what comics Statesman has been reading. Also, I wonder did Statesman ever really count the number of single hero titles (solo heroes) and the team titles. No doubt I could go to my local comic book store called Dizzy's Dugout and find more single hero comics than team comics. By the number of single comics on the self, suggest a solo friendly game when a player first sees it on the self. Remember, not everyone that has bought this game has learned about it from the Internet. Some like myself like what they saw at the store and bought it with the idea of being able to play the role of a real hero like superman, spiderman, etc...

Then when they get it home and find out that they can't be the hero they invisioned they will cancel their subscription immediately. This game actually brought the world of comics to life when it first hit the stores. Since issue two and now with issue three this game is slowly transforming itself to a city of teams instead of a city of heroes. If this game becomes a city of teams, that would make the heroes no stronger than the citizens of Paragon City. No stronger than a police officer.

I know that team play is where the mmo's shine but the comic book world suggest a solo friendly game. I can understand that sword and sorcery games, and science fiction games need to be very team friendly. Why these type of movies always have a team to defeat the head villian. Even if they only role the other team members is to get the hero (star of the movie) to the final fight with the villian. To me the devs have changed their vision from bringing the world of comics alive to one where you have a city of teams not a city of heroes. Go ahead devs and make your city of teams because when my subscription expires I will not renew it. I will still visit the forums if I can and see if the devs ever change their mind and return to their original vision a city of heroes that brings the world of superheroes to life.

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Thank you for the explanation. Detailed posts like these go a long way towards easing your playerbase; players handle "changes done for X reason I disagree with" better than they handle "changes done for seemingly arbitrary or ill-defined reasons." And I'm glad you're looking into the one-shot deaths; for a few nights there, I felt like I was playing Space Invaders , because I kept getting blown up after one hit.

As to this portion of your post:

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As for why we put Bosses in missions at all – in other words, why isn’t everything solo-able – the answer is simple. We want gameplay that encourages the best part of the game: teaming up. Soloing is fine, but a MMP really shines when you meet other people and play alongside them.

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So your stated goal for the boss inclusion in missions is to "encourage teaming." I wish you would reconsider other means to encourage teaming instead. There are other methods that don't penalize soloing. Increasing XP, increasing enhancement drops, and adding in easily accessible team content would all encourage teaming, but they wouldn't prevent players from doing their own story arcs and badge missions.

Having a game that's viable for soloers has to mean more than "street sweep" and "scrounge for missions without bosses or AVs in them."*

*: And I'm aware many people can still solo, even against bosses. I can too... my regen scrapper is almost as strong as he was pre-nerf (which makes me think nerf #2 is coming soon). With my controller, it's possible, but it's just now tedium with very little reward. My illusion controller beat on a Sky Raider robot boss for nearly 10 minutes before killing it the other night. The remainder of the mission didn't take me that long.

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If this was my game I would try to have as much new areas, factions, powers, AT's. Even though these would be good changes they would not be top priority on my list. Balancing powers and making more missions with a lot of variety would be number one.

And since mmo's shine when you team I would tell all of my players that from day one. Do you think everyone that plays this game has played other mmo's? The answer is no, for me this is my first mmo. I did not know that teaming is where mmo's shine. I would promise my players that I would make changes that would making it easier to form teams and find super groups. The only idea that I could think of for super groups is to have the same person that registers also be able to tell you about all of the super groups and how to join them.

By this issue I would make many team required missions that solo players could not accept (like task force and trial missions). I would even have team story arcs. I would make super group missions and story arcs. I would allow players to choose for themselves how to play this game. How would I encourage teaming.

Step one make the players that choses to team feel like they are important, more than the simple thank you that you would get from your team mates. If someone would solo (please do not get mad just bare with me), I would have an ending for the soloist that would tell him that he really made a difference in the lives of everyone. Also I would remind him of how much content he missed and try to wet his appetite for the team and super group missions.

Step two, I would tell the soloist that if you run out of missions you could always choose to team up and do some of the team missions by wetting their appetite to do them. I believe that if you make people feel good about teaming then I believe more will team. It would be doing the same thing as dangling a carrot (team and super group missions) in front of a horse (hero).

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Been saying this for 5 WEEKS on the test forums..Statesman doesn't care. He was determined to make these changes regardless of how it affected the casual or solo players.
The ONE area of this game you should always be able to solo is your own missions UNLESS it CLEARY states you will need help before you accept it.
Generic Bosses should NEVER have gotten the boss tweaks.
This is now a power-gamer's game..casual and concept players will be forced to group to finish their own story arcs for the entire second half of the game. Just when they should be starting to feel really powerful because they are starting to get the really cool powers..WHAM.. no we're sorry.. you are not a HERO you are just another peon in tights. Step aside third stringer.

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This could cause the casual or solo player to be discriminated against. What I mean is that it could be possible that with these changes that the casual or concept builder (not min/maxed or 6 slotted attacks all damage) would not be able to stay on a team because they are not doing enough damage.

With the increase in hps and damage boss fights must end quickly or there are more chances of losing and going to the hospital. Let's say you had two scrappers on a team and scrapper A.) casual or concept builder does not do the damage of scrapper B.) the true uber build. The team could say that if you do not change how you slot your scrapper (respec totally change your powers and slots) you will not remain on this team, because you know that these fights with the bosses must end quickly.

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He did not say acceptable. He said inevitable. Those are two very different things. What he means is no matter how much testing you do, there will always be some bugs that slip though. It's just a fact of programming.

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Actually, you are correct. Two different words. HOWEVER, accepting that bugs are inevitable IS accepting them. They no longer try to get rid of them.

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Are you saying that you are a programmer and if you were one of the devs you could release this issue with zero bugs? How long would you take one year, two years, or maybe three years because you are afraid of releasing it with bugs.

Remember this is not the only mmo that has released updates with bugs. I have been told that SWG was released with bugs and all updates had bugs (although I have never played it).

All the poster is trying to say is the devs are not perfect and will make mistakes. Now I would like you to prove to me that the devs never fixed a single bug at all. Yes never, this means this game would have the same bugs that it started with. This would need to be true in order for your statement to be true.

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However, accepting bugs are inevitable is accepting them. They no longer try to get rid of them.

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I know that I am going to seem like an idiot for asking this question. I have seen lol and fotm a lot. What do they mean?