Jibikao
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Posts
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Joined
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I am not too interested in the current costume pieces as I've bought most of the booster packs already.
What is a "Signature Story"?
The one free character transfer per month as VIP is good. -
I am sorry but Grave Knights are not meant to be "debuffers". They are meant for doing damage. I say majority of your Necro damage is from Grave Knight. In fact, if you don't take Ninja's critical into consideration, Grave Knight can out-damage Jounins because they have Dark Blast and Gloom for range and if they cycle Head Splitter and Disem correctly, they have the highest ST damage of all MM pets.
The debuffs from their attacks are just gravy since Grave Knights also have bad resistance. They don't have lethal/smashing. -
Taking Enchant Undead at lvl 47???!!!
Is this your first Mastermind?
I don't care what kind of build you are trying to achieve, but taking first upgrade at lvl 47 is just bad. If you hate upgrades that much, you are better off taking the 2nd upgrade at 47. The first upgrade gives you more reliable attacks than the 2nd. Your zombies will have two pukes and your Grave Knights have Gloom.
Edited: You didn't even slot +damage/acc for Grave Knight? Well, I think you might have just achieved "the build is not meant to do damage". You aren't getting any damage in the end I can tell you that.
What are you trying to achieve exactly? A healer? -
Part of the problem with Medic is that, if I remember correctly, his range is only 70' whereas the rest have at least 80' shooting range.
He also shoots frag grenade which has knockbacks and larger radius so naturally he draws more aggro to himself than the other two minions.
If you look at other sets, their "defensive pets" are usually Lieuts like Protector Robots and Demons. Medic plays a pretty minor role in Merc's survival. He randomly buffs anti-mez and his healing isn't good enough and he is just a minion who can die in seconds.
Too bad Spec-Ops aren't much of defensive role. I say their lack of damage puts Merc in a worse position than the amount of controls they offer. The best defense is still offense. At the rate Merc is killing, they'll need to lower Spec-Ops' control down to 60s! lol -
I find my MMs taking either Mace for S/L shield and web and power boost or Mu for aoe immb and good resistance shields.
None of my MMs have tried epic yet.
My lvl 50 Necro/Pain takes Soul mastery for the stun aoe. -
Quote:Isn't Recharge Intensive a newer set? When they made the set, they should have given to all MM primaries as well.Originally Posted by Dechs Kaison
Well, you're missing a little background on that. Originally, Controller/Dominator pets WERE recharge intensive. MM pets couldn't be slotted with recharge, so having the recharge intensive pet sets wouldn't be useful to us.
In trials, I feel I do need some +recharge because pets are dying rather quick. I am glad they are going to half the upgrades cost because throwing two upgrades drain like over 50 endurance. -
Quote:Ok, I'll try to do this tonight. Thanks. I just don't want to spend the time to get another purple proc.Originally Posted by Celtic Coders
This same thing happened to me once. Your IO is in limbo. Clear space in your tray and then log out and back in. Maybe simply zoning will work. Wait a minute and it will drop back in your tray.
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Oh I am so mad right now. I finally made a Soulbound build up proc for my newly 50 ninja/ff tonight. I used my lvl 50 fortunata to make it and then send it through global email as attachment.
I logged on my ninja/ff and clicked "Claim". I didn't realize my Enhancement slots are full so I got a warning message saying that the slots are full. I deleted one of the enhancements but when I went back to the email, the ATTACHMENT IS GONE?!!!! I still have that email. I didn't delete the email.
Is there any way to get it back? I already submitted an in-game Bug report. Please don't tell me I am out of luck and I need to make another one. It took me a long time to make.
I've never had this happened to me before. -
The only AT that I just can't get into is Tankers.
I have too much alt-tis to play only one type of AT. -
Quote:They should post this in the announcement section of the launch screen!Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Brian Clayton addressed this to a certain extent in his letter to the community and the ustreams touched on this as well, but the sign that this isn't a last ditch effort to save the game is that this has been in motion for a very long time. No one plans last ditch efforts that take over a year to implement. If they thought the game was on its last legs, taking a year to develop Freedom would have been too long: the game wouldn't be around or healthy enough to matter.
Second Measure mentions that Paragon Studios performed significant changes to their development structures to streamline themselves for the ramp up to Freedom, including the creation of strike teams internal to the company that were designed to focus on particular areas of the game. I know for a fact that was happening at the beginning of 2010 because I heard the term "strike team" that far back. So the seeds of Freedom go back at least that far.
With a launch date that is probably out in the September/October timeframe, that will mean that when City of Heroes Freedom launches, it will have been in development for about two years. Does that sound like an act of desperation?
There's no question that this is an attempt to grow the game. The devs have admitted as much that its hard for a seven year old game to grab mindshare and attract newer players. What we can do is retain existing ones with our seven years of content and depth of gameplay. So they see Freedom as a way to bridge that gap: get people interested in the game again and get people playing with a minimal barrier to entry. That's why free to play. That's why the game client will launch within a couple minutes of starting the installer - the idea is to get them in the game, quickly. Once here, the hope is the game will sell itself. Some will play for free forever. But I doubt many will. Many will become premium players, playing the game ala carte and coming and going casually because there's no money on the line if they take a break for a week, a month, or a year. Some will become VIP subscribers, and some of them will become long-term veteran players.
So its not like Paragon doesn't need Freedom to succeed. It does. I think they realize that something dramatic like this was the only way to grow and evolve the game. But the game doesn't need to have been *failing* for Paragon Studios to want to grow and expand the game. We don't even *consider* for one instant that Catalysm was a desperation move on the part of Blizzard, because we all know their Mr. T budget is probably higher than Paragon Studios' office lease. Most MMOs continuously try to push the boundaries of what they do, constantly try to figure out ways to attract new players to their game, and figure out ways to deliver newer and more interesting content. For some companies, and not just NCSoft, the Hybrid model is part of that overall strategy.
I think many people are operating under a curious fallacy. That fallacy is that either City of Heroes was successful, so Freedom wasn't necessary, or Freedom was necessary, so City of Heroes wasn't successful. In other words the only reason to transition to a Hybrid model is at the end of a gun. But that's very wrong. If you're going to do this, the time to start, and the time to launch, is when you are still strong. If you're weak when you launch, you may be too weak for the model to help you any more. And if you're weak when you start development, you'll be rushed to launch too early, before you have all the structures necessary to make it work, before you have a well thought out plan for what to sell, before you've stocked your shelves, before you figure out how to compensate your VIPs, and before you've generated enough related content to launch big, and loud, and in a way people will notice, and be attracted to actually try the game whether its free or not. Its no coincidence that Issue 21 is designed to be a very large issue, designed to update the introductory content from the tutorial through the low level mission. Its no coincidence the devs forced the NCSoft launcher on us, so that they could eventually move to the quickstart launcher that can get a new player in the game in a couple minutes. They aren't just opening the doors to free players, they are giving new players an experience worth trying out the game.
Why now, if this is not a desperation move? It was only a few years ago when some big names made this transition to the hybrid model of freemium buttressing the subscription model. Its taken that long for other companies to see the results of that transition, and try to learn what works and what doesn't. And now you're seeing the second wave of companies try to apply those lessons to their own games. NCSoft is one of them, but not the only one. Its happening now because to be honest, others have shown it can work. The trick for Paragon Studios is to make it work with their own unique circumstances and in their own way. -
Quote:With the new group buff, you probably don't need to keep bubbling much, which means you should take personal attack one or two to add more damage, since Force Field has no -resistance or -regen.Originally Posted by Robert_B
Thanks all!
I took my bots/traps to 22 and I am going to park him for a bit while I try my Thugs/FF, I really cant wait for I20.5 and the group shielding
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I would say Demond has the best synergy with /Thermal because Demons themselves already have lethal/smashing/fire resistance so the shields stack nicely.
Another one maybe Merc because Mec has S/L resistance already which can stack with thermal shields.
Just don't combo Thermal with Ninja because they have no resistance and the fire shields' resistance won't be enough to keep them alive.
Resistance shields work well if you have ways to keep healing (hence two healing powers in thermal). With Ninja's low health and almost no resistance (only Oni has some), the fire shields won't work well unless you have other friends that can stack the shields.
I think even Necro can benefit from Thermal as they have no fire resistance at all. -
Quote:Exactly! Our pets will benefit greatly from other source of shields with group buff change.Originally Posted by Emberly
"Server Meltdown" superteam!
The big deal for me about this isn't so much buffing my pets versus my teammates, but that my pets are going to gain the benefit of incidental shields from other shielding characters. -
If you tend to solo more, I will highly recommend Team Teleport with Ninja. I have a Necro/Trap and it's hard for FFG to cover melee-oriented pets because FFG is always "behind" them. Team Teleport teleports FFG (but not acid mortars and poison trap) so you can tp your whole crew in the middle of the mob.
I will also get Aid Other. It's highly useful to keep your pets going. -
One thing I think the dev needs to clear up is that the game isn't on its "last leg" and trying to gamble on F2P model.
I hear that rants a lot in the game last night. People were guessing, suspecting and even worried that the game is failing and the dev is just trying to pull one "last trick".
I've noticed some decline in # of players after Going Rogue but I've also noticed player population is not evenly "spread out". You can see whole bunch of people in Cap, Altas, RWZ or Pocket D and when you go to Port Oaks, you see nobody is there. That may give some people an impression that the game has fewer number of players.
I tried to explain to my friends that switching to F2P doesn't mean the game is on its last leg. I used to play Lord of Ring Online and if I remember correctly, it was ranked #3 in terms of the number of players but in the end, they still switched to F2P and even gained more profits from the model.
City Of is still the BEST Super Hero game on the market. If CoX fails somehow, then I am afraid the whole Super Hero genre is dying.
I guess the point I am trying to make is that Business needs to adapt. More and more games are using F2P model and the new generation of "gamers" are expecting to play the game "for free" and only "pay when they want to". I run a pretty successful online store myself and if that's what the market wants, then my business needs to change, adapt and cater to the new customers. This doesn't mean my business is failing when I switch away from "membership only".
And honestly, would you rather have this game fail in the end and get closed down, or would you rather have this game do something to make it better? -
Quote:Oh..now I am excited!!! So basically if I still subscribe, I should get the same level of gaming PLUS 400 extra points to spend.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
I think you misunderstand. I hope that my subscription buys at least as much game as it did before if not more, period. I expect my subscription to provide at least the same level of game as it has previously, and as a practical matter it should be at least minimally better.
Totally separate from that, the 400 points should buy me something nice, but it should be all gravy. If that gravy is a hearty wine reduction with garlic and shalots, fantastic. If its peppercorns and pan scrapings, its still all good.
The real purpose to the 400 points isn't a cash back reward. Its that actually, buying things ala carte can be fun, engaging, and empowering all its own. The 400 points is to ensure that VIP subscribers *also* have at least some access to that side of the house for no extra cost: that they can play with the house's chips as it were, to get them involved with the system. This is a form of empowerment that the premium players get automatically as part of satisfying their need to buy many parts of the game we VIPers get for free. But the devs want to get us involved as well - and to be honest hope we decide we *want* to buy some of the new shinies as well - so they comp us some chips to see what happens.
If you can exercise self-control, the 400 points will be free money. if not, it might be the loss-leader that gets players spending even more money. But either way, the choice is the players to decide what to do with it. But it is *not* supposed to buy what your subscription used to buy. Your subscription plus the 400 points should net to what you're getting now *combined* at the very least, and for this model to be truly successful your subscription alone, without even counting the 400 points, should continue to deliver $14.95 of content. The 400 points isn't supposed to be delivering $14.95 of content on top of the $14.95 you're supposed to be getting with your subscription, and it would be amazing bordering on ludicrous if it did.
Well, judging from what you've described, it sounds like a good plan to me. One thing I don't like about buying Booster Packs is that sometimes I only want one of the pieces. I may just want to spend $5 on Ninja Run but I don't care much for the costume pieces. So instead of paying $10 for the whole pack, I only need to spend up to $5 worth of points for Ninja Run and specific emote. -
Quote:Hehe, Ninja at least the potential to deal the most ST damage of all primaries. Merc has no potential at all.Originally Posted by Redlynne
What does Ninjas have? Kick Me signs.
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Quote:It's under Mace mastery. I actually didn't know MM can get power boost until recently. It's a pleasant surprise. I thought Power Boost won't affect shields but then again, I know little about power boost. I just knew Power Boost increases the duration of control powers and my dominators use it. That's all.Originally Posted by Redlynne
How are you getting access to Power Boost? On my copy of Mids', Masterminds only have access to Charge (electric), Chill (cold), Field (energy) and Heat (fire) Mastery. Are you somehow able to access the Primal Forces Mastery that's usually only available to Controllers on your Mastermind on Live?
I've also found out that Power Boost does not improve any power with +resistance or +damage because +resistance is treated as +damage in the codes so if power boost improves +resistance, it will also improve +damage portion which will be a headache to balance with. So in the end, they got rid of +resistance but keep +defense.
Force Field works because it only has +defense. Ice Shields, however, won't benefit from Power Boost because it has +resistance. I asked this question when I wanted to find out if power boost increases World of Pain. -
Quote:This is exactly what I am hoping. :POriginally Posted by Arcanaville
I would hope my $14.95 is still worth $14.95, and my 400 points is worth a little bit more on top.
I plan on staying as subscriber and we get 400 points per month. I just want to feel like these 400 points is worth $14.95.
I don't want a new costume set costing 1200 points and my $14.95 will be worth 3x less. That won't be good! I'll feel cheated.
Like I said, I think as long as current subscribers (400 point monthly) are treated right, this F2P won't change much to me. The key point is what can you buy with those 400 points.
If the value of 400 points sucks, then I can see a lot of angry fans do rage-quit. The company just needs to be very careful about the conversions. -
As long as current subscribers are treated very well and those monthly 400 cash points are worth a lot (at least the same value as the old $14.95), then I am all for drawing more players to this game through F2P. I am less worried about the "bad players" coming to this game because the worst players I've met are in a paying game that starts with W and ends with W.
I've just had bad experience with F2P because the game mechanism forces you to buy cash items. I have no problem paying monthly fees but please DO NOT FORCE me to buy cash items if I don't have to.
An example would be: Please don't invent a new trial where you need to buy certain cash items to beat. And please don't introduce Death Penalty that you suffer from when you die and you have to buy cash item to get rid of it (IE. Allods).
What I really want to see is the possibility of creating your own Power Set through cash shop. :P
I am expecting to see:
1. Cash item for bigger storage room, recipe room, enhancements holder. (this will be great!)
2. Cash item to increase the "blue bar" experience so you can gain exp faster for a duration of time. (this will be great too)
3. Cash item for new travel powers. -
Quote:Hehehe.. well, one thing to consider is that Merc's damage is mostly range. For Ninja to get that great number, both Jounins must be in melee range.Originally Posted by Faded Eidolon
Stop rubbing salt in that wound.
The problem isn't Ninja VS Merc. The balance problem I see is Thug VS Merc. Enforcers, on average, may do more damage than Jounins because they have awesome cone attacks and their ST damage is still superior than Spec-Ops.
What does Spec-Ops have? All single INFERIOR attacks with super long recharge, inconsistent, unreliable controls, and insufficient S/L resistance for survival. -
Please do not give us another version of Phase power!!!! We do not need AoE Phase power. I hate how phase works in this game. Mobs still regenerate health/endurance while being phased out.
Well, the only thing that I can think of is having a lot of +recharge and -slow debuffs. -
Restricting MM is a no brainer. MM is the most unique AT of all whether they are strong or not is out of the question. MM is unique.
The choice of Controller is interesting but I can see why. -
Quote:Yes/No.Originally Posted by Wassabi
I can appreciate what is being said here, but is not a trade-off of damage survivability? Blasters for example?
I do think Ninja at least has the highest ST damage "potential" of all primaries which explains why they only have defense and Genins only have about 7% at lvl 50. Comparing this to Stalker, who has the least amount of survivability, the other melee dps or even range dps like Blaster do more damage while having better survival.
There are tactics that can help Ninja survive longer but those tactics also work even better on Robot/Thug/Demon and Merc (survival yes, but not damage). I've seen Robot/Trap soloing AVs and even some Giant Monsters. I've yet to solo an AV with Ninja/FF. I will try though. :P Of course soloing an AV isn't the base-line performance.
In the toughest battles, there are a lot of aoe damage or even damage that you can't avoid (soul drain, blue flame from sky, etc), melee-oriented pets like Ninja suffers the most because they are simply melee-oriented. Range pets may not survive those aoe but at least they tend to stay on the back. Being range-oriented is already a form of "self defense".
I've said it before, if a melee pet can't survive one/two hits, then they have no business going melee. It is very common for Genin to die from one hit and a lot of times from aoe. Oh and I normally don't use setting lower than +1.
/Storm is one of the best secondaries for MM in my opinion. You can position yourself with Hurrican while your pets attack. When you solo, you have no worries that your teammates are going to hate your hurrican and knock backs. I have a lvl 50 Merc/Storm, 46 Necro/Storm and I used to have a lowbie Ninja/Storm. (By the way, of all Merc combos I've tried, Merc/Storm is the best choice!)
The problem with Ninja is that if you don't take /secondary into consideration, their innate defense is pathetic. There are so many -defense attacks in the game. Almost every attack from Longbow has -defense. However, after playing my old Ninja/FF again, their performance is a lot better than I remembered, especially after I discovered that power boost can boost force shields.
If anyone wants to try Ninja and don't want to deal with the frustration later on, I'll highly recommend /FF. The boredom of casting shield one at a time should be greatly reduced with 20.5 patch. -
Here is the number for Genin at melee range for 60s.
Thunder Kick (25.02) x 6 = 150.12
Storm Kick (33.03) x 5 = 165.12
Crane Kick (41.03) x 4 = 164.12
Shuriken (this one is tricky as both shuriken have the same name and dummy shows zero damage. For sake of simplicity, one has 19.46 and the other has 25.69. I'll use the average, which is 22.58 base damage) x 11 = 248.38
Exploding Shuriken (25.02) x 3 = 75.06 (aoe)
Total base damage is 802.80 and with 95% enhancement, you are looking at 1500 to 1565 damage range depending on the distance. This is just ONE Genin. You have 3 of them.
Now, before we get too excited, it's no secret that when Genins are unharmed, they can really put a lot of hurt but they deal zero damage when they die.
Jounin's damage number is about 2000 before critical is considered. Genin is about 1500. Oni is about 1400 (on average). Ninja set as a whole does put out a lot of damage. I have to say, it is pretty impressive ON PAPER.
For giggle, Commando is about 1600 (with quite a bit of cone damage), Spec-Op is about 823 and Soldier is about 852 and Medic is about 755. Big difference eh? :P
There are a lot of factors to consider of course.