JakHammer

This would really just be for cute if it works, but does anyone know for certain if Spring Attack will work while in Granite? Since it is apparently actually an animated teleport I suspect it does.

It might be fun to make a 2nd or 3rd build just to see the rockpile hop.

Jak

I have had to miss TT mostly, since it falls on our reg. SG night.

But I beleive I'll tell the SG about this, invite our tanks to come, and use up one of those free server transfers we get now.

Is it true that all the statues have laurel wreath crowns on Champion?

Jak

I admit I only scanned this thread so if someone already suggested / predicted this my apologies.

I would say that the solution is / will be to create an 'almost' identical power and put it on the market. Look at the similarities of some of the auras. Promise kept, wanters satisfied and duly exploited, everybody happy.

I once bought a hand painted extremely limited edtion super lithographeded 'cel' from a famous animated movie for $$$$ (boy it was nice to be able to work and have $$$$) from the exclusive gallery inside a park that will remain nameless.

A few years later at the same park in a different, less pretencious, gallery I saw what was effectivly the exact same scene and character pose in the exact same size (very large) for $$$ (less than 1/10 what I had paid.) I asked the salesman what was the explanation for this incredible disparity? "Oh that is just a simple lithograph." he replied, it will have no effect on the value of Your exclusive item.

After I got the third major illness and we started trying to sell everything we could I put that exclusive cel on an auction site. Top bid was $$$, less that 1/10 original. So those of you considering the purchase of a sealed box just be prepared to take your whipping and smile. My cel is back over the fireplace and it still looks Great!

Jak

PS: The cel craze of course has run its course. The type of buyer backstabs like the one I described went a long way to helping kill it. So I learned a double lesson with regard to any 'created' collectible. Pretty much anything 'made' in a 'limited edition' is one heck of a gamble with the end consumer on the very short end of long odds. J

Edit: I took a while researching this and tweaking the build as I worked. Now this I see you are wanting something to use on premium accounts, and considering most Preemies won't have access to IO sets without paying it is probably not useful.

I would suggest a Granite Tank, with Weave, Maneuvers, and Stealth. Also a Tier 4 Nerve Radial Alpha. Oh and of coure get all 4 attribute boosting accolades.

With Both +3% Def uniques and set bonuses I have a MIDS build showing Psionic Defense at 44.8% (if you are willing to sacrifice some resistance and Fire/Cold defense you can squeeze one more Impervium set into Granite and soft cap Psi) and 60%+ for all other types (thus over the 59% Incarnate content softcap.) My in game Granite build is nowhere near this, being at 50% or less D and no Psi sets.

The MIDS build also includes the 3% resistance unique. Psionic resist is a paltry 9% but all others are 79% plus.

I suggest a Tier 4 Ageless Radial Epiphany for use versus mobs having Defense Debuff. With your Granite and Rooted the Radial Epiphany will Hard Cap you DDR for 60 seconds and it's lingering effect combined with your Granite + Rooted DDR of 60.6% will be a minimum DDR of 81.8%. It also booosts your resist versus End Drain, Recovery debuff, and Recharge debuff. I use this combo in game. It will also give a one shot fill to your blue bar, and a highly useful little recharge boost (Granite loves the recharge) every 2 min. Put it on auto fire. Down time is a bare 2 sec.

If facing mobs without Defense Debuff, you don't need the DDR, put your Earth's Embrace on auto fire, or

You may also want or prefer a T4 Destiny Rebirth Radial Ephipany (another great candidate for auto fire.) I have both in game and the monster regen added to your rooted is very nice.

This build is way way overkill for almost any regular content. And I am sure it could be improved, perhaps by selecting a different Epic, but it is the most survivable thing I could come up with.

Jak

PS: Here's the data chunk:

I think possibly some of us particapating in this discussion have lost sight of the core idea behind the F2P and Premium Status add-on to our existing model.

That foremost goal, as I undersatnd it, is to greatly expand our player base. The primary quality of the F2P experience and the Premium experience should be that they are serious FUN and create a desire in those new and returning players to have More Fun by becoming more deeply involved in CoH, eventually choosing to be VIPs. For players that need or want for whatever reason to be Premium only, there needs to be a solid Fun factor to fuel those micro transactions.

A secondary goal is to allow everyone, particularly Premium Players to spend as much or as little as they wish, when they wish, or to play completely for free at times if they wish, as that is the way a LOT of people prefer to manage their MMO experience.

The current implementation of the IO restriction is going to be really not-fun to returning players with existing Alt's with IO's and to currently subscribed players such as myself that, for money reasons, must fall back to Premium on an account for some unknowable period. I think that this Lack of Fun should be addressed. Completely new players will not miss what they never had and the utility of the IO system will be a nifty carrot to draw them on.

While it would not help my situation with my 2nd account, one of my SG Leaders had a suggestion that I think would make a lot of sense for maximising Fun for returning returning Vets and also for lot of people slipping back to Premium. It would put one of the funnest things in the game within a more reasonable investment level for new Premium players.

That would be to adjust the Vet Reward/Reward Token level where you gain permanent access to the Invention System to a lower tier, perhaps 5. This would more nearly match the Tier where you gain access to the Trading house/Auction House/Black Market. He suggested that since both Trading/Auction Houses and the Invention System were introduced in Issue 9 it would make a lot more sense if they became permanent at about the same level. Sounds like a good idea to me. I might even be able to eventually ooch my 2nd account up to Tier 5 as 13 tokens is a lot more do-able than 27.

Anyway, we all need to focus on the idea of Fun and put aside any dissappointment with the implementation as best we can. The Train is on the tracks and coming fast and we Have to jump on board or be flattened.

Jak

PS: And now for a little RANT.

As has been relentlessly repeated Premium Player status is a gift to those of us who are not going to keep an account fully subscribed. I am glad to recieve it and will treasure and enjoy it like a new puppy, even if it has a broken ear and limps a bit.

And I am glad that for most of you, $2.00 a month is a trivial amount of money. For my wife and myself $2.00 is the cost of some of our generic prescriptions. We forego any form of pay TV. We have the stupidest possible phones with the fewest possible minutes only so we can summon help if a car breaks down or there is a medical emergency. We do not rent movies, we do not go out to the movies, we do not go out to eat, we buy no liquor, no beer, no wine, and eat the cheapest food our individual special diets permit. The only time we get high is when we visit our primary care physcians who happen to have their offices right next to the local Broadcast TV antenna farm, which naturally is on the greatest elevation in the DFW metroplex. We are considering adopting out our pets since we can no longer afford the vets bills. This game is our only extravagance and we are now choosing to laspe the sub on one account, and diverting those funds elsewhere, because of the great generousity shown by Paragon and NCSoft in creating this new model.

For ANYONE on this or any forum to puff up or take to task some other poster because they are thrifty people who want as much as possible for as little as possible, all I can say is:

A) You demonstrate an utter lack of understanding of the basic rules of the marketplace and should probably relocate to a non-capitalist country, or play a game not based in a country that still has the for profit business model in use, however hamstrung that model has become. To review for your benefit: It is the job of the consumer to seek the best deal possible for themselves. It is the job of the merchant or service provider to get as much as possible from the consumer.
B) Are probably youthful and healthy with a shallow life experience.
C) Show a lack of compassion typical of so many of todays light thinking people.
D) Arrogate to yourself an astonishing presumtion in judging others financial desires or decisions with NO knowledge whatsoever of where their shoes pinch them, and
E) A just plain boorish lack of tact.

So if you are 'exasperated' with us 'cheapskates', I can only say that exasperation is a pallid corpse of a word for my reciprocal feeling towards you and all your ilk.

End of Rant.

Thank you all for your replies. I enjoyed all_hell's response a lot.

Since I have never had a toon that did not get a KB protection IO if it needed it, I had totally forgotten about Acrobatics, and I have never had an Alt that took it. So that pool power pick solves 1 problem for a lot of AT's.

Appparently most of you missed the central point of this post. I am sure you are all correct in saying that any AT and power set can be viable/playable on a diet of pure SO chow.

What I was looking for is recommendations for AT's and their associated powersets that can actually Shine (Thank you Fulmen's for your recommends) with nothing but SO's. We constantly see threads in the various forums listing examples of the best this and the worst that. Surely there are certain AT's and/or Powersets that are the best with just SO enhancers.

If so many of the current AT's and powersets are so well balanced with purely SO builds that no Standouts can be pointed too (Memphis Bill, could you please list the old time GM soloers,) then at least try to select the few dogs that should be avoided or only attempted by experienced players.

Finally, do any of you see a comeback for Titan and Hydra enhancers for the premium or F2P crowd as multi-aspect enhancers that might still be useful but cheaper than Hami-O's. I continue to exclude Hami-O's, and having done more research, the restricted Inf Cap for F2P and low Vet Status Premium players, and the restricted player-to-player trade and Auction House access, will make purchase of Hami-O's impossible anyway.

Jak

I would prefer to see your build before giving an unqualifird yes, but my IO'ed Stone-Fire-Pyre is my favorite Alt.

Jak

Having just learned from ClawsandEffect's post of the fact that IO builds are not available to Premium accounts unless you pay a fee in points each month for a special license, I would like to start a list of power set choices for each Archtype, if possible, that will work well on a pure SO basis.

I expect these would be AT's and power selections with minimal holes to be patched as, for example, KB protection IO's and/or Set bonuses will not be available. AT's without an inherent KB protection power will have to look at Hover. Power sets with low inherent accuracy in attacks should probably be avoided as well, as there will not be any +Accuracy from set bonuses and no Kismet unique. Power sets that have skipable powers or powers that function well 'out of the box' may be preferred as while it is often possible to get a good selection of enhancement bonuses in a power with only 5 or even 4 IO's, my experience in leveling various Alts leads me to believe you will have to commit 6 SO slots to every truly important power.

I have basically no experience with trying to do a final build with just SO's as I started playing after the Invention System was pretty much exactly as it is today. I hope the old hands who started before the IO system was released will share their knowledge. And please no Hami O's, I understand they will still work for Premium without a fee but I want this thread to serve as a resource for new and casual players. Also, since the Hami-O is going to be the best advanced resource for people who want to play totally free, there will probably be new demand in the market that will push them back up to the Inf cap.

The fun and challenge of designing IO builds is one of my principal joys in the game. Sure am going to miss it on the second account. I sure wish there was such a thing as Account Transfers, so I could pull all the Level 50 full IO toons I made over that last few months off my 2nd account and put them in the one account we are going to try to keep subscribed.

Jak

PS: Are the Devs going to create a PvP area just for SO toons, or are they going to screw down the lid on the PvP coffin by making all the new free and no points purchased Premium account players just fresh meat for the PvP IO players? I don't PvP but it would seem obvious that a real PvP build would be impossible for a SO build to combat, correct?

Thanks you for starting this thread ClawsandEffect.

I also failed to notice this Flaming Gotcha for droping to Premium level.

I will admit that it is reasonable for the company to take this stance as they have always stated that content is balanced for SO built toons. Fair warning I suppose.

I had planned to let my second account drop to Premium permanently or until I get back to work someday. Now, since I missed the no IO access for Premium consequence, I have to totally rethink that strategy as the five level 50 toons I spent the last few months making and slotting out on that 2nd account ALL require their full IO builds to do what I want them to do. A second build using just SO's will be relatively usless.

I have a different service that I need to direct the money currently spent on the 2nd account to, and as it is for the safety of my wife over the road on her daily commute, it wins. To those of you who have budgets such that $2 a month is trivial, and who don't mind the annoyance of having to remember to buy a license every 30 days - gratz.

I am going to start a new thread asking for suggestions of AT type and Power set picks that function very well on pure SO builds.

i believe the word I want is OOPS,
Jak

Saw this morning that there was going to be an 'extended downtime' so I did other things.

Now 8 hours later I thought I would have a spot of afternoon CoX. Nope still down. Visit forums - 'Join us on Beta for free codes till servers back up.' Ok I say.

Start my Beta shortcut and find a little 138 Megabyte update needs to be installed for that plan.

ROFL.

Do I gamble that the servers will still be down 6 hours from now? (My connection is not terribly speedy and the NCSoft updater gives that as the estimated time to complete the update.) Or do I hope that one of the servers I play on will be up by 9:30 PM?

I guess if this is the new best response they have to necessary downtime, I'll just have to keep Beta and Test updated more often. A lot more often. After all running two computers all night every few days updating seldom used versions is good for them and the planet.

Ah the pangs and pains of growth.

Nap time in Texas,

Jak

Ah Ha: Update 1 machine leave the other. In 6 Hrs do something!

Edit: Apparently machine one and the updater are on unfriendly terms. Machine two managed the update in a little over 20 min. But all the characters I had transferred and all the ones I made are gone. It just gets better and better. Bet the queue is enormous, but what the hey, I'll go try it.

ROFLMAO: Since the servers are all down the character copy tool is too. Guess I'll go Make a toon. Hope they are giving out some truly awesome CC codes.

I strongly suggest anyone leveling in AE do this.

Monitor your levels.
At exactly Level 10 (Gamble on 10 and 9 bulbs if you like for max tickets .)

Stop and go roll out all tickets at Bronze level 10-14. You are looking to score Steadfast 3% at min level and the various Knockback Protection IO's.

Optional: Stop again at 14 and repeat.

For both steps your max level limits your pool of posssible recipies and seems to greatly increase your chance of the 3% defense.

After that I tend to go for Silver at 30-34. You will get a lot more inf from that than any possible gold unless you hit a home run, and the size of the pool makes that pretty unlikely in my experience. I have blown about 50,000 tickets chasing the Gold Fairy and got only 1 decent recipe (a Numina's ++.)

Jak

Just read the whole thread. Thanks for a solid lesson. I pretty much always get something out of your posts.

Two thoughts to add.

1) Some have called you to task for the auction house vet power. With the amount of inf moving around in this project anyone can have a partial substitute (not good for in between missions) for trivial amounts of inf. I refer to the 10,000 inf for a one time use Market Teleport powers. Just remember to buy a new one every time you use it before you leave whichever Market you are at. I find it saves me a lot of time when I market, and it is useful during certain missions too.

2) I have been exploring the world of farming Tanks and Brutes for a couple of months. With NO knockback protection in Fiery Aura deciding on how many IO's to use was big. I settled on 1 for level 4 protection. On toons with high defense (example - FA Tank with +def power pools and IO build) a lot of the KB attacks will miss, and most of the rest will be stopped by level 4. If you know you will be, or find in mission that you are, facing a more serious knockback challenge - then base empowerment stations can give you a buff for 1 hour of addition +10 for a total of Lvl 14. Empowerment buffs will persist for the full hour even if you are defeated. I use them a lot when leveling, esp. +recharge and +recovery. I was warned that mere level 4 KB would be really bad in I trials but I found it perfectly acceptable even without the empowerment buff.

On toons with out significant defense, and/or without hover to minimize the effect, you may want more.

Jak

Out of my limited experience Local Man said it.

Put your Stone tank in Granite (good IO build) with Mud Pots on and Fire Sword Circle on auto, and Root him for some extra regen. I have actually run ambush farms at +4 that way for testing purposes. Helps if you have a Tier 4 Reactive.

Seriously I can run that tank solo vs just about anything except actual AV's. You just think about the most efficient way to accomplish the mission and stroll along.

Don't have any of the other fequenty mentioned AT's tricked out yet.

Jak

I cannot speak to your specific Brute yet, but I have both Ageless T 4's on my Stone Tank as he is my main.

As far as I know the Ageless Radial Epiphany is the Only Way to get extra DDR. For Extreme content having my DDR never fall below 81.8% has been really useful. That is Granite + Rooted + the Ageless Radial Epiphany. There is a down time of about 1 seconds which seems meaningless, as the recast leaves me Hard Capped to DDR for a long time (1 min at 95% 1 min at 81.8%). Also a Stone in Granite greatly enjoys the Epiphany 2 min. Recharge boost (70%-30%-20% falling to a lingering 10% for the final min.) I try to time it so the one time Blue Bar fill is of max value. This is my everyday solo choice, and I generally leave it on for teaming too, as other incarnates will probably be bringing the Regen version - it seems more common. Note that at least one chart in the WIKI shows the boosts from Radial Epiphany lasting only 90 sec, and that is wrong.

Against anything that does not debuff defense, the Core T4 may be more useful to your team. I crafted that one first and used it a long time. It really leverages a Tanker or Brutes high Hit Point cap.

I just finished leveling a SS/Fire Brute to 50, so I'll have to make the same decision soon. If you only want to craft one I think it all hinges on what your max un-boosted DDR is. If the Epiphany is going to give you a near constant DDR over 80% like it does my Granite main then I would go there. With the servers down I can't go look at my new SS/FA Brute to decide and I don't have him in Mids yet.

EDIT: Ok while perusing the boards access to the server for the new SS/FA Brute came back up. Since you have NO base DDR in FA, commiting a T4 incarnate power to a band-aid, have to hold it in reserve, situational use panic button is almost certainlly a BAD idea. The lingering DDR of Epiphany is going to give you just that 21.25% DDR which is not going to be enough to matter imo. I think going to a no-rez Barrier T4 Destiny will be my T4 goal for this SS/FA, as then I am leveraging at least a little existing Defense (15.25% before sets) and capping nearly all my resists. Note that there are two ways to beat defense debuff. Resist the debuff or have a Defense so high that 50% or more debuff still leaves you soft-capped. A Barrier T4 could give you a panic button with a brief huge increase in Defense.

Jak

Woot!. Thank you a Heap!

Jak

You may find some of the ideas presented in this guide helpful. I did.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=119607

On my Stone / Fire, I hated the idea of using 5 slot Kinetic Combats, as you lose a badly needed accy/damage/recharge boosting 5th enhancer to have a weak Knock Down Proc. This is a bad idea on a tank that is already taking a huge damage output penalty in Granite. And it does hit rule of 5 with the Aegis. Been that way since I started serious work on this tank, over a year ago.

I found the following the most efficient moves to get my Stony up to 22.3 mph in Granite. 5 GotA 7.5% run speed. 2 slots in Swift (NOT 3 - ED kills the boost on the 3rd slot.) Several Aegis 2 slot bonuses ( I have two 3 slot Aegis.) One Regen Tissue 2 slot and one Gaussians two slot. I could have much more run speed (I have had this tank up around 30 mph in the past,) but preferred to commit most other sets to Recharge boosts, which is another critical need. I find 22.3 feels great. If you are getting Speed Boosted, you will probably have to turn on Rooted just to slow down for control.

I would suggest you abandon the idea of real speed with both Granite and Rooted. 22.3 mph drops to 9.4 when I go Rooted too, and for short repositions this is ok. Otherwise, drop then reactivate Rooted, or TP. Once you have Granite well slotted and a few well chosen Defensive bonuses you will almost never need to root in Granite.

Jak

Edit: Duh, forgot the 5% from the first two Performance Shifter slots. Two slot bonuses are your friend.

That trick helps for the body but ... I have a somewhat different problem.

Almost all of my Alt's have custom faces. If you want to have the EXACT same face with and without a hat or perhaps a helmet, there is just no way I know of. You can, at best, estimate and write down the face slider positions for that particular customized face and then try to recreate them when you switch to a different type.

Is there any work around for that? Is there and kind of digital numeric readout each slider that you can find to set them to exact positions?

Here's hoping,
Jak

I went to Point Sierra in FBZ last night needing 70 Fakes. It took about an hour solo on a Lvl 50 F/F/Pyre tank with Tier 3 pyronic and T3 interface.

Since I was familiar with where Fakes can spawn from prior hunts at Point Sierra, I knew that certain spawn points that did not have a Fake should be wiped to allow the potential respawn of a Fake containing group. Basically if a spawn has a Warhulk (esp a Warhulk and a PP) but no Fake, wipe it and see if it has a Fake on your next pass around the circle. There are some that will never spawn Fakes, but that should get you a feel for those that do.

Another advantage I have found at Point Sierra is the common prescence of double Fake spawns near the main fort in the center of the island.

As far as PI goes, the first 3 50's I had got their Fakes there and it was an unfun grind except the one time I did catch a team. My understanding is that the level and diffiulty of the random outdoor spawns is weighted by the numbers and levels of the players in the area at any particular time. So when I was solo in PI during off hours (I waited till our SG group had finished for the night to do my personal farming) ther were very few Fakes to be found. Also, as at Point Sierra, there are many points around the docks that need to be wiped as you go because they sometimes have Fakes but are occupied by junk right now. Several of them give no clue that they can have a Fake sometimes as they will have no boss level Nem in the place of a fake to tip you off. Until you learn the spots I would suggest just wiping everything as you go.

I am glad to learn of the other Fake gaining tricks listed above and look forwaed to trying them.

Jak

I would also mention that I was thinking of moving Lvl 50's off Justice (which was/is certainly a well populated server) a while back because it seemed to have had such a big drop in activity.

Turned out it was because so many people were playing in the Beta that was hot back then. We have the same thing going on now, perhaps even worse, with a large number of players looking at all the new stuff coming.

So be patient. A big change is coming.

Jak

I will be unlocking Lore for the 2nd time soon.

With all the new choices, has any particular T3 Pet pair emerged as the best pair for the BAF escapee phase?

What makes that pair most effective?

Thanks,
Jak

Our deepest sympathy to you and yours,

OMAC JAK, Andie Oakley

When I first started playing 21 months ago BotZ was still at full power for Ranged Defense and Ranged Def builds were all the rage.

I wound up going with the S/L Def because I could not afford the insane prices that BotZ was commanding back then. I have been glad ever since that I did. I have found S/L cap to be very robust, as so many attacks carry a Smashing or Lethal component, and thus are treated as an S/L attack and defended by the soft capped defense. So you get very good all around protection. And you get protection when not at range which happens a lot in general play with all the indoor, cave, and what have you complex maps. Zevatron was my goto guy for all missions, not just farming.

Since the BotZ nerf the Ranged vs Smash/Lethal debate has been rehashed many, many times. My vote for the Smash/Lethal approach is from a positive experience so far, and the fact that every time I try to do a Ranged build now days, it just seems to compare unfavorably with the same Alt doing Smash/Lethal. YMMV.

I do have one Defender going ranged because Hurricane, Lightning Storm and, if needed, Tornado will keep things at range pretty much guaranteed.

Jak

Drop the crash nuke and keep all the rest. I find the Neutron Bomb feels slowest to me. With nifty recharge you will have an unbroken PBAoE Chain (just target the Neutron Bomb on you feet) and can slip in the Cones with a little positioning. You will still have all 3 ST attacks too.

Zev needs a respec and an Apocalypse and maybe an Armageddon, plus a switch to Scorpion Shield, but this is pretty much his in-game build today. That build paid for everything else I had until I got a tank to Farming quality. It worked, just slower, even before Spiritual Alpha.

I have two Blasters that I can farm with. Not ambush farms mind you, but any map with a little room between spawns. Alpha slot only so far. Both are S/L capped.

Rad/MM, no purples, Spiritual 45%, all 4 att boosting accolades. Perma Haste and Perma Drain, no nuke, all PBAOE and the 2 Cones. A stealth proc in sprint so I can always get the drain off in each new spawn. Both cones hit really hard and are great on confined maps, or as finishers if you can line up multiple goons. Also I open with the cones on the wall in Cim. All lined up for you . Farmed the wall even before perma Haste.

Arch/Energy for the Boost range. Needs an outdoor or any roomy map for proper range. Perma Haste, all 4 accolades, 45% Spiritual. 1 purple in Rain of Arrows. RoA -> queue Fistful (with boosted range it covers a huge area too, and will strike at almost the same time as the RoA hits. Follow with Explosive and then 2nd Fistful or Blazing as needed. Very easy famer on proper map.

The Rad/MM paid for all my builds till my Stone Fire got nasty. The Arch/E I made for fun. Now I just made a couple of Fire farmers, a tank and a brute. They are just so much more efficient.

The Rad/MM can farm in tight maps with the Perma Drain, but it can get dicey, esp. if mezzed. Carry plenty of break free.

Jak

PS: assume all know to Aim + BuildUp at each spawn too. Love that perma haste.

I got a nasty surprise Sunday when I learned that Burn would not work on my FA tank while using a Raptor Pack. Fortunately, I had not done the respec to the planned build including Hover yet.

Jak