Hagakure_NA

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I'd use the crap out of d-shift if it lasted 10 seconds, had an obvious visual and recharged in 30 seconds.

That would be very nice for the new uber npc's in MA that like to 1 shot squishies with buildup.

But at 30 seconds of intang it just lasts too long for most applications. imo of course.

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What if D-shift got changed to a lower duration (10 secs), lower recharge (30 secs), had a nice pulsing "Dimension Shifted" text over affected enemies like "Containment", AND had a significant debuff to affected enemies coming out of the intang. -Recovery, -Regen, -Mvment speed, -Def Res?

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As long as you are comfortable acknowledging that no matter how much you like this idea it will not happen, then that's a perfectly fine mental mode to be in. If you want to talk about changing Gravity, then you had best move past this desire.

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Gald I have you permission Talen, thanks bro. If you think about it though, D-Shift being an AoE Lift power would be thematically consistent as well as being unique (You don't come across Knockup powers that often and certainly not an AoE Knockup.) This would also provide some set defining soft control to Grav early on to help bring it up to par with the other primaries.

Honestly though, I don't really expect D-shift to get changed. I understand the whole "Cottage" thing so, I don't put a lot of faith in D-Shift being anything but an intang.

I just, you know, threw the idea out there for fun.

City of Data can sometimes be inaccurate. That being said though what lvl of enemies are you talking about squaring off against? Also, while we'd likely need a number cruncher in here to hash out numeric details, I would imagine that the intang might have different durations for enemy classes. Not sure though.

I get what you're trying to say Dahjee...that D-Shift has it's uses and performs well in those circumstances. My point however is that for the most part when you're running with a team that's not clinically retarded, those "Oh Sh!@" situations you're describing don't really happen much if at all. While I admire the fact that you're trying to encourage the use of a highly neglected form of control in Intanging, to compare it's usefulness to something that can reliably soft-control EACH spawn just falls short.

You said it yourself in that D-Shift is situational. So, by this very definition it's obvious that when used in the manner you're describing it's in extremely rare circumstances.

Honestly, what do you encounter more...massive overwhelming aggro or constant clustered enemy spawns? I'd put my money on the 2nd.

I'd rather D-Shift be some sort of AoE Knockup power or patch.

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Another unique quirk about Grav/ that many are often turned off by is it's level 12 AoE power. Instead of a standard AoE soft sontrol power like flashfire, or ice slick that is available every spawn, Grav/ is given a situational AoE hard control power. One that calls for an absolute time-out on foes by phasing them out and rendering them un-affectable. A power that is Mag-enhancable and also available every spawn. Gravity's Dimension shift power is probably the most mis-used power in the game due to ammount teammates it has pissed off, but one shouldn't allow it's reputation of misuse to define the power itself. It's usage solo versus teamed vary greatly, but in either case it can prove invaluble when used right... whether taking out the ambush when the AV has just 10%hp left... or calling a timeout so teammate can wakie and regroup when split... to the classic "I thought you all were gonna aggro that mob!" scenaro. D-shift never pisses off the player you save from debt.

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You make it sound like situations where intanging enemies are common place enough to justify D-Shift as a solid power selection or comparable to other set's power selections at that level. It's just not true.

It's not new news that mitigation in the form of mass intanging or knockback is the least team friendly for a vairtey of reasons (Scatters aggro, jacks up anchor/placement debuffs, screws up other member's AoE's).

Face it, Gravity is not well designed for Dominators.

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EA is okay, but if there's another Brute on the team and s/he has a taunt aura, your Fury generation is gonna be sucking.

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Will pairing it with a AoE centric primary help to maintain aggro?

I'm running a Elec/EA right now though she's still at the low lvls.

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I have a Dark Melee / Energy Aura brute that does quite well solo --- I don't team much, so I can't offer any insights there.

Dark melee synergizes well with defense-based sets due to the -ToHit component, and Touch of Fear lets me take one for entirely out of the fight.


[/ QUOTE ] Yeah I could see how it would being a quickly animated utility set whose secondary effect pairs perfectly for +Defense. I'm really looking for AoE potential though but I appreciate the feedback.

I rolled up a Elec/EA to start getting some personal experience. We'll see how it goes.

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Yeah, whatever. Another person who is bringing a ton of preconceptions to EA so the set won't stand a chance. Just play one.

In answering yout first question, relying on attacking is absolutely not a good way to build fury. Get taunt.

Controling threat levels with stealth comes more into play when stealthing missions or breaking contact. Since the stealth is unsupressed, enemies will de-aggro fairly quickly. Yeah, you will find situations where you are whipping up on a group and a nearby group is standing there clueless. But most of the time it's a novelty. Situations where that is really helpful are pretty rare. You will do fine on teams. But on teams, try to think of yourself as a scrapper more than a tank. Once you get higher defenses via IOs, you can tank. Until then you are like a stalker/scrapper hybrid.

As above, EA holds aggro well, especially since a taunt was recently added to energy drain. You can tank.

EA is not weak. It has a ton of utility. You can skip stamina and/or skip the passives and/or conserve power and pretty much build any kind of set up you want. Look to the medicine and fighting pools to toughen your toon.

EA works well with just about all primaries except maybe fire. Something with some mitigation helps. But that is mostly everything.

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Thanks for the response From_Below, this is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping for.

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The problem with Katana, for Stalkers, is lethal damage (See below) and the fact that we have no reasonable AOE or Cone power. Flashing Steel is suck beyond imagining, and Golden Dragonfly's Cone is way too small to justify the lack of an auto-crit. Hopefully, the devs will realize this and bring Stalker primaries up to bar with Spines and Elec for PvE, and perhaps even EM for PvP.

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While admittedly this is as likely to happen as AC actually updating his guide, I'd like to see something along the lines of:

[u]Raging Tempest[u]

Damage: Moderate (Lethal)

Recharge: Slow (14 seconds)

Effects: Targeted Point Blank Area of Effect
Foe Knockback (Knockdown Mag 0.64 - 80% chance)
Self Teleport
[u]NOTE:[u] Power summons an entity so it wouldn't
break hide. Would not Crit from hide.

Animation: Finally a true dashing attack worthy of the mighty ninja. Charging forward with blade drawn, the ninja swings in a wide semi-circular arc, mowing down opponents.

I mean hell, if the Dev's can justify the Shield Charge animation knocking down a whole mess of enemies then there's no reason this couldn't work. And seriously, how many times have you seen a Ninja do this in an anime or video game...or standing in line at the DMV?

Bloody eviscerated torsos optional.

I know, I know.../EA is a pretty masochistic set to try and work with. Recently though, I've taken an interest on trying "black sheep" powersets in order for some fresh gameplay experiences and /EA seems like an excellent candidate...in a manner of speaking. I've rarely had the opportunity to team with an /EA so, I'm turning to the community here in hopes of answering a few questions to try and understand the powerset.

With that being said, let's move to the questions:

1. Is relying on quick attack chains to build fury the best way to go for an Energy Aura? I ask this because I know that /EA is highly susceptible to the "streak breaker" code and will likely get bashed with attacks that hit through defense thereby making prolonged fights problematic. This seems to discourage slower activating primaries.

2. I've read that controlling enemy threat levels via Energy Cloak is one of the trademark utilities of an /EA. What does this translate to in-game in a typical teaming situation from spawn to spawn?

3. Can /EA handle spawn alphas and how does it mitigate this?

4. What sort of team role does an /EA play in terms of holding aggro and psuedo-tanking? I ask this in response to a guide I read regarding approaching an /EA as your typical "SMASH" Brute that acts like a Tank.

5. What primaries pair well with /EA? I should mention that I plan on a PvE teaming build and lean more towards sets with AoE potential vs strictly single target. So, I'm thinking Elec/, DB/, or possibly SS/ (Footstomp). Any suggestions/opinions?

Sorry for the length but I'm really interested in this set and I'm hoping to get some feedback here. Some of the questions are a bit redundant as I'm really trying to understand the approach of an /EA without actually having seen many in action.

Thanks for taking the time to read this if you stuck with me for this long.

Thanks for all of the info guys, really appreciate the help. I just dinged 32 with my Ar/Traps and have been enjoying it thus far. While I've been exclusively running with PUG's, I'm starting to get a feel for some general strategies. A few questions remain though:

1. Specific Hold Proc's in Poison Trap - I've read a guide that indicates that there are 3 yet I could only see two (Devastation and Lockdown). Am I missing something?

2. Seeker Drone's slotting - I'm determined to get more mileage out of Seeker Drones as they are one of the few things I can contribute reliably on quick moving teams. Does anyone have suggestions for IO Proc's? I realize the base To-Hit debuff is pretty weak so slotting for that isn't likely to have a large impact.

3. Caltrops Procs - As has been mentioned before, do people have good experiences in slotting Caltrops with Damage Proc's despite allowing only 2?

4. Acid Mortar - Similar question in finding usage for Proc slottage in Acid Mortar. Any suggestions there?

Thanks again to those that take time to respond.

Thanks for the confirmation guys and the heads up about the Kinetic KD Proc.

This Proc is listed as causing 6.0 pts of Knockback. Will this always cause Knockback and not Knockdown? I guess what I'm trying to determine is at what stage Knockback becomes Knockdown points wise since I know they check the same statistic. I'm thinking that anything less than 1.0 points of Knockback causes Knockdown but, I could use some clarification. Thanks in advance.

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Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but I've joined VU2009, but cannot send messages through it (lack of permission). What do I need to do to get the necessary permission?

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Same issue...joined channel but don't have messaging permission. Who do we contact to gain permission?

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If I want to play realism, I'll go play a shooter. The fact that I'm SuperJumping around or using SuperSpeed kind of removes any sense of realism for me.

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You're missing the point...completely. *zoom!* right over your head..

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No, I got the point, it is just a ridiculous point. Seriously, talking about realism in a superhero MMO? Give me a break. We can already run almost as fast as a moving car and jump 10 feet in the air. We've got an assault rifle that can shoot bullets, shotgun shells, grenades, bean bags and has a flamethrower, but lets talk about the set in the context of realism. Yeah, good luck with that.

If you want to make a "natural" character, as much as is possible in this game, then AR is pretty much all you have, and the set is fine as is. It is arguably the AoE king (Fire and Dark are contenders for that title as well), but AR is a great set that works well with several secondaries.

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Shouldn't there be some realism? I also like the comparison to fire breath, because it should be like that. I don't understand why if it makes sense in real life it cant make sense in this game too just not vise versa? Made sense in my head don't know if what I just wrote makes sense to you though.

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I think it's arguing semantics at this point. There's absolutely no reason why Flamethrower shouldn't resemble Fire Breath as far as damage application is concerned.

Thanks Sio, that answers question 1 and 2 pretty significantly. As it stands, I'm not too impressed with how viable /Traps is with an emphasis on PvE teaming. Too bad Corr's don't have Archery or Trick Arrow.

EDIT: I'm also looking for some synergy with being able to stack some of the control aspects of /Traps (Stuns from Seeker Drones as well as the Hold from Poison Trap) by being supported from a Primary. I read about how Sonic might help with this. Dark Pit from Dark Blast is also a possibility.

I'm basically trying to find some unorthodox use of powers here as I've played most of the straightforward combos in one incarnation or another.

Alright so to follow up:

1. Poison Trap - Gotcha loud and clear on the nerf. Is it still useful in teams though?

2. IO Proc's - I still don't see what the did to IO Proc's to make slotting for them less useful. Did they reduce the amount of Proc's allowed in a power, or the frequency the game checks to fire them off?

3. Primary Synergy - I've read many complaints about AR/ for Corr's especially when paired with /Traps but AR/ seems like a natural pairing if you're going for that "natural merc" sort of build. Fire/ seems like a solid heavy hitter however. I'm torn between the two having played both to endgame a few times.

[u]**New Questions**[u]

4. Traps and Teaming - How well does a /Traps team? I keep hearing about how /Traps solo well but honestly, I don't play MMO's to solo and would hope to be able t contribute to my team outside of my Primary and Pool Powers.

5. Attack Chain - What does an attack chain or priority power execution list look like with a /Traps? I get that you can lay down a /Traps field of doom and then pull spawns into it but how does a /Traps play if you following the usual teaming play style of going spawn to spawn?

Again, any feedback would be helpful.

I've been around since Issue 6 and /Traps is one of the few secondaries I've managed to never spend any time playing. Spurred by boredom and a desire to try something a bit different playstyle wise, I've decided to roll up a /Traps corruptor. After reading what posts I could find regarding /Traps though I can't help but be a little put off. I'll break my questions up for easier reference:

1. Poison Trap - This seems to be where the majority of posts I've read indicate a substantial nerf. What happened that gimped it so bad? Is it still useful in it's current state?

2. IO Proc's - I've also read posts indicating that /Traps is best used with multiple Proc's in a variety of powers. What are the specific powers and procs to try and build for as well as their uses?

3. Primary synergy - What sort of primaries seem to compliment /Traps or and perform well with it?

Thanks in advance to those that respond. I hardly ever see/team with a /Traps character so any feedback would definitely be appreciated.

I've read multiple well written and thoughtful guides explaining the hard numbers and benefits of slotting generic IO's and Frankenslotting multi aspect IO's such as these:

Inventions 301 – Building Blocks for Superior Slotting

The No Numbers Guide to I9 for the Casual Player

Guide: Introduction to Inventions 1.0

Viva Las Vegas intermediate guide to IOs (I9).

My dilemma is understanding when to start trying to build for a character that's geared towards taking advantage of IO set bonuses. For example, I have a lvl 35 SD/SS Tank that ideally I'd like to soft cap positional defense with (Melee, Ranged, AoE) as well as gaining +Rchg. Is going for something like this more reserved for endgame play or is it something I should be working to build at my current lvl?

My biggest hurdle is not ironing out the specific percentages number wise via Mids, it's knowing when to start purchasing these sets and trying to spec in favor of the set bonuses. Comprehending this "starting point" really affects any character I try and build for with set bonuses in mind. Do I try and build for my current lvl or should I again be thinking of an endgame build?

Any help on understanding this aspect of IO's would help me significantly as right now, it all seems a bit overwhelming.

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Nah these are optional costume additions - they will still add new ones to standard issues.

Its up to you whether you want to buy the themed packs or not.

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Yeah, I know...I'll admit it I'm a costume fanatic and I'll buy it just like all the others. But when was the last time we got free costume pieces? All I can think of is the wedding pack, cyborg pack, valkarie pack and now this. It's been a long wile since we got anything free when it comes to costumes. (I think? I really can't remember any new costume pieces that were free since they started charging for it)

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You know, I'm sick of this statement. All too often I read CoX loyalists who seem happy to hand over hard cash for this things like this. By indicating that the player has the right to choose whether or not to purchase the expansion pack as some means of justification is extremely misleading and frustrating as we actually DO pay a fee for the game already. What does my monthly fee go to if not towards new content, maintenance, and proper staffing?

So, the fact is, if we want to experience new costume sets (which most people usually do) we're forced to eat an additional fee on top of the monthly. The fact that we're even put into this position is a valid point and should not be so readily dismissed.

I think that what's causing a lot of these "outraged" reactions is the fact that we had time to speculate. People started brainstorming possibilities and were getting hyped up based upon conjecture. I am a bit surprised to see the Heroes get Cold Domination and Thermal where the Villains got Storm and Elec. Oh well, here's to hoping the VEAT's are full of awesomesauce.

Seems like a great build but is there anyway you could provide some info on what this looks like leveling up? End game builds are really helpful but for us youngbloods, it's nice to see what we're working with initially.

Name: The Nuclear 90


Currently Recruiting: We are most definitely recruiting and encourage all those interested to stop by and ask any questions they might have.

RP Level: Moderate-High RP group as we are heavily thematically driven. There is of course opportunity for OOC talk as well.

Theme/Concept: The Nuclear 90 are a heroside SG based loosely on the back story of Fusionette. For those of you that might not be familiar with the back story, The Nuclear 90 are 90 children from around the world all born in one year with an unusual mutation that gives them natural magnetic nuclear fusion reactors for hearts, and the ability to channel energy from their internal reactor for a variety of super powers.

Activity: As it stands to date we have about 8-12 unique members at the moment with only 7-8 of those being fairly active. We are trying to implement activities and being more proactive on getting the word out in order to encourage more members. Most members usually log during evenings on weekdays and various times on the weekends. Several but not all members seem to be on EST.

Requirements for Membership: There aren’t many but what we do require:
- Must fit the “Nuke 90 theme” described earlier
- Must be a young adult (age 17-19) and look accordingly.
- Must be of Mutant Origin
- Can be any powerset as long as it’s justified by the theme
- Please play in SG mode


Leadership: Leader/Co-Founder: Titanette
Leader: Frostfury
Recruiting Officer: Shatter Sonic
Recruiting Officer: Cobalt Charge


In-Game Contact(s): Titanette: @ColossalGirl
Shatter Sonic: @Darkhearted
Cobalt Charge: @RivalofEvil
Frostfury: @TheArtifex

Out-of-Game Contact(s): Titanette: Mr_Astounding
Shatter Sonic: Hagakure
Cobalt Charge: fitztwg1

URL: The Nuclear 90 is our home on guildportal.com and we encourage you to stop by.


Coalition(s): We currently don’t have many coalitions as this group was formed from players coming from several different servers but we are absolutely interested in forming coalitions with like minded SG’s or possible even rival SG’s. Please contact us if you’re interested.

Other Details: There is a Recruitment FAQ that we’ve compiled to answer some of the basic questions concerning our SG. If you have more specific questions, feel free to look us up on these forums, in-game, or on the guildportal forum.

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People have repeatedly asked for a clearer explanation on what the recent ignore_spammer command does. Why don't you talk about that?

People wanted a status update on Cathedral of Pain Trial and Base Raids. Why don't you talk about that?

People asked to be told whether numerous issues with bases, such as bugged Robo Surgery Units, bugged Energy Curtain, base plot costs, base item costs, influence to prestige conversion, clumsy editor and many other concerns, etc. etc. Why don't you talk about that?

If all those things are too complicated, how about simple stuff like when will the i8 badge graphics be fixed since they are missing for a year? Or the Force of Justice accolade? The missing Fabricator progress bar, or whether you still think Empath is a good idea. Why don't you talk about these?

Please don't pretend there is nothing to say, when there are many important issues other than i11.

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*winces* Ouch, ease up a bit man. This thread is more about talking with the Dev's about things OTHER than CoX stuff from what I can gather. You ever been hanging out with co-workers and heard one of them grumble "Lets not talk shop"? I think that's the case here. These guys are no doubt putting in serious hours concerning I11 so taking a break to interact with the community in a laid back manner is cool with me.

I'm actually curious if any of the Dev's are college football fans.

((OOC))

Hey folks!

I'm trying to work out some backstory both in-game and via forum threads concerning a character of mine named Sunder Shock and am curious about some details of Paragon City University. My questions are as follows and are all in regards to accepted continuity in the community:

1. Is there a generally agreed upon mascot for the school? (I'm RPing this character as a soccer athlete at the school so it would be helpful for me to know)

2. Are there school colors that are generally agreed upon? (Again for the same reasons as above.)

3. Is there a "Main Campus" generally agreed upon as there are several zones with a University building in them?

4. Are there certain buildings/locations/halls that are broadly accepted by the community?

I apologize for not picking through the Paragon Univ. RP thread but there are so many posts there's just no way I could do it. If someone can help me sort this out I would appreciate it.
Also, if we get a lot of contribution, I would recommend having a RP continuity thread stickied for easy and quick reference.

Thanks in advance!