Kioshi

Although I fail to see how 'shutting 3 servers down' would help CoX, funnily today the WoW clone announced a server merge. I don't know if that's a 'doom' move since making this when it's less than a year old might not affect players as much as doing it to an older game like CoX. Also, maybe they went overboard on the server stuff, the game has 27 NA servers and not sure how many EU ones.

And that game is pretty popular and imo deserves the good reviews - awesome graphics, interesting class system, fun pvp, community was very helpful when I asked about builds and stuff in the forums - well those were my impressions from playing it for 2 months, I gave up because I don't like the slower WoW game style (although it was a bit faster than WoW imo). Now Cox... even with the awesome graphics from all the newer games (including single player ones like Skyrim), Cox is the one I like the gameplay the best and the only one I still stop to look at another toon and am still wowed by another player's design/costume after years and despite the dated graphics. I'm not a big spender but the game has goten more money from me with the new system and I don't regret my purchases (Except for beam rifle, hate that set lol, but it happens).

I still think that CoX's marketing is the worst anyway since nobody knows the damn game, I have to show the website or screenshots I took when my friends, brazilian or american, ask about it since I mention CoX sometimes because it's the only game I play (I'm totally against server merge and I mostly play on the two 'big ones'). Especially when, in the link I mentioned in my previous post with the top score MMOs of all time on MMORPG.com, Cox is second and besides the first and third ones (WoW and EVE), they are the only three 'old' games in the top 10 - Evercrack II comes in 14th.

(I like that site because they do re-reviews and expansion reviews, they are MMO-focused after all, so it's not a 'I played 10 hours and etc' kind of review you see there except maybe for new releases).

The 'retool the nukes' thread made me think about something I've wondered for a long time and forgot because I took a break and only recently played a toon with a 'godmode' again. I'm talking about the Resist ones (Power Surge, Unstoppable) and the defensive ones (Kuji In Retsu, Elude, Overload).

Also, the PB changes. Thy got a godmode which gives the AT something they don't have outside of Dwarf (mez protection), caps their resistance, can be made perma and has a soft crash (half your health and end).

I love godmodes but I find the crash is too bothersome. I adore Power Surge on my Brute and I don't mind the crash because when I use it I have skittles to get back on the fight. The SR and Ninjitsu ones I find the crashes more problematic. So here goes:

1) Reduce the end crash. I'm fine with it leaving you with barely any end and hp, but at least leave us with 5-10 end so you don't have to retoggle. By the time we get our godmodes, we have at least 5 toggles, 8-10 in some extreme cases. That is the most painful aspect of it for me.

2) Maybe it would be out of balance, I don't know, just an idea, but making the crash like PB's Light Form would be even nicer because I'd use the powers (Power Surge, Unstoppable) every time they'd be up (I'm not asking for it to be possibly made perma like PB's). Perhaps this is not absurd to ask since PBs (and WSs) can have theirs perma and still no crash/half a crash and PBs get mez protection, something they don't have in human form.

3) The defensive powers I find more problematic. Except for Overload's +HP, they don't offer much to most toons (when you get the power you'll likely be at more than 30% def to all so usually you'll be at 1 little insp from softcapping, or less). The extra recovery is nice, as the defdebuff resistance, but even on SOs it's not a big deal when you can just use purples. And the crash is horrendous. Even if nothing is changed in them, at least change the crash - because besides detoggling you, the Defensive powers' crashes also have a -recovery effect. That is too much - on my Elec Brute I can actually be 'godly' for 3 minutes, crash, eat a blue and use energize (and power sink) and keep on fighting, with Retsu on my /Nin I actually have to eat a ton of blue skittles if I want to return immediately to the fight because I won't be able to recover any endurance for the next 20 seconds.

So well, the peeve I have with them is mostly the detoggling, easily fixed by leaving you with 5 end or whatever. And also how the SR and Ninjitsu ones aren't that helpful because giving a ton of defense to sets that can reach 35-45% on SOs is much less effective than maxing out resistance to almost everything on an Invul or ELA toon - also the recovery debuff is unnecessary on the defensive ones.

I'm not a fan of WP's or Shield's modes, I like the way my ELA toons feel when using Power Surge, the 'invincible' feeling, even if they have to pay for it with long recharge times and a crash, but I'm not qualified to comment on WP and SD because I never had the powers, just looked at the numbers.

I'd love some opinions on the theoretically 'invincible modes' because I see a lot of people skipping them nowadays, and I really like the resist ones when I know I can manage the crash, but God the retoggling...

I really wish Total Focus was restored to a mag 4 stun (after all, seismic smash has a 1.5 cast time and is a mag 4 hold), the tier 2 attack had the same chance of a mag 3 stun as KM and a little reduction on ET's animation, two slow attacks is too much, playing EM is hell on the prisoner stage on BAF. And for the broots/tankers (mine's a Stalker so I never used the power) the Whirling Hands radius increased, sure. I also don't think it would be OP if Total Focus did a full crit on Stalkers, when it crits it does about the same damage as usual Energy Transfer.

About KM and EM's tier 2 and tier 3 attacks (since except Tankers the rest usually skip the tier 1, Km's tier 1 has a chance to kd tho):

tier 2:
Body Blow: 7.152s Stunned (mag 3) (20% chance)
Energy Punch: 5.96s Stunned (mag 2) (10% chance)

tier 3:
Smashing Blow: 7.152s Stunned (mag 3) (33% chance)
Bone Smasher: 9.536s Stunned (mag 3) (30% chance)

Plus the KM attacks still do -damage to the target and KM has +selfdam, -dam, KD in the AoE, etc. I was wondering why my KM Stalker was stunning mobs so often compared to my EM in the low levels (I didn't like KM's animation so only played till level 20).

Thanks Trickshooter, didn't see your answer before on the -dam from PGA! I'm enjoying the set (well except flash lol), and I'm really enjoying some powers I didn't think I would (Acid Arrow and Ice Arrow), it's certainly nice to play a set with no redraw between primary and secondary. And I like the speed - when you think 'well acid and blazing are kinda slow' and then you see they only have a 1.83 sec cast time, means the set is really fast

I'm on the fence on Explosive arrow tho. I was gonna skip it but I feel I need some mitigation, I got aid self at least for the leveling build.

I'd make a Kinetics/Empathy defender just to be loved by eveybody in this cold virtual world.

I'm actually having an easier time leveling my tw/invul than my stone melee/elec brute (before power sink of course) and the TW already has tough, the elec I delayed because it was too much before PS (I like taunt and tanking so I used Fault a lot).

End has been fine, he's 25 on SOs but well unlike my scrappers I can afford to slot more endredux in the attacks and not worry about damage slotting till a bit later. I don't solo avs (I usually don't solo at all, get bored in 10 minutes) or strive for optimal ST attack chains so this is not an objetive analysis, it just doesn't feel as bad as DA, EA and Elec (both before their +end powers).

And well.. I might do WP on a scrapper someday. I was teaming with 2 WP tankers on my ta/a def in a 8-man team, tons of mobs and me, the ice blaster and even the elec troller were stealing aggro from them all the time - they both had taunt but the missions were set to +4, full of ambushes plenty of times there were 20+ mobs. I also remember that when WP was new, I was on some lowbie TF where the Tanker didn't have taunt (he was exemped, he had it later) and I was able to pull aggro from him with snap shot, the tier 1 from archery that does piddly damage so I'm not excited about WP's aggro holding capabilities, which is one of the reasons I prefer Brutes and wanna make a tough one.

(My TW/Invul got pasted in First Ward trying to solo at x3 but well, lots of exotic damage and no invincibilty, leveling was fine in TFs and other story arcs so far).

And cardiac seems the better choice since Brutes don't gain much from damage bonuses. A +recharge/+resist alpha would be sweet lol.

I have a question, dos PGA's -dam stack? I was on a team fighting +3s so I used it more than once in a mob, the recharge was fast because we had a kin.

Well he made a Broadsword/shield because you can't make a Katana/shield.

And obviously he picked a set that doesn't benefit from katana's +def like regen, elec, da, etc. My kat/regen scrapper is the only toon that I started soloing at x3 before any slotting, and it's not like she had a secondary before SOs since regen requires decent recharge to function properly. 30% melee def after two DA stacks is nothing to sneeze at, and a lot of secondaries can slot IOs in other def types and get softcapped with one DA/Parry.

Even ignoring Divine Avalanche, Katana is great with fast attacks, low end cost, great attack chain with or without recharge, you can have a good attack chain on SOs. Remember that the scrapper min maxers have soloed itfs and tons of AVs on kat/da, kat/wp and etc. So why would it be different on a brute?

I don't see anything in Katana that would make Brutes benefit less than other sets, the higher crit chance on one attack is not as big a deal as KM's Power Siphon recharge and +dam bonuses or even follow up and blinding feint's +tohit and +dam powers. Most sets have something that theoretically benefits scrappers (L. Rod's damage cap, all the BU-like powers including Soul Drain) but they work just fine on Brutes.

BS is a different story since it's considered a bit underperforming among the scrapper primaries but even then it's not by a big margin. And if you're not a min maxer caring about the best dps chain/av soloing, BS might even suit a Brute better than Katana after properly slotted since it has higher rech and more damage than Katana per attack, BS only falls short when considering the top end ST scenario. Remember most attacks follow an end/rech formula except for some outliers like Energy Transfer. And you won't get a +def attack that helps basically every non-pure defense secondary with Mace.

The only set that really stands out to me as lackluster from a non 'min-max ST dps' perspective is Battle Axe, both on scrappers and Brutes, since after the buffs to WM, BA has less reliable KD, doesn't stun, the AoEs are a bit worse and less survival (no def power and as I said, even the set's gimmick, the KD, loses to WM and TW).

If you're comparing purely defensive sets you may want WM, TW or Stone Melee for more mitigation but Katana's damage is plenty good and it's more end friendly than most other primaries.

Seriously, read this. There are sections for every buff/debuff powerset available to corrs except for Time. The link takes you to the Dark Miasma guide.