Peacemoon

I have to say I am also in the camp that finds Arachnos and Recluse terribly overused redside.

I don't see why we have to have such a huge Arachnos & Longbow presence. It would be like Paragon City having PPD everywhere and in such large numbers, controlling what your hero does.

If you are tight on slots you can slot Numina in your PBAE heal, its usually used atleast once every 2 minutes so basically perma. Plus if you are rich and afford the whole set, it offers some good bonuses.

Seriously, if you aren't going to take any of the attack powers you should role an Empathy Controller.

I think first you have to realise whether you are comparing a Mind/ Controller with a PermaDom Mind/ Dominator or just a normal Mind/ Dominator.

Then you have to realise that to make a PermaDom Dominator costs a substantial amount of money. So you have to compare it to a Controller who also has a lot of money invested in their enhancements.

If you do all that, the difference is not as big as you probably think.

Not to mention as a Dominator you are giving up a buff/debuff set for an assault set. Personally I always feel a bit naked playing as a Dominator because I'm so used to the buffs and debuffs. On top of that, Mind Control is one of the Control sets that has a good amount of single target attacks, plus can get decent AoE attacks with Terrfiy + EPP. So you have to ask yourself, is losing the buff/debuff really worth it? Especially considered the investment needed to make a PermaDom.

My advice to you would be to not take hasten, you don't need to worry about Perma Dom until you are 50 anyway. Once you are 50 you can decide whether you want to go down that route or not. If you have been playing since i3, you should have some veteren respecs at your disposal for then anyway.

As for Earth/Earth or Earth/Fire, from a gameplay perspective /Earth is much more melee orientated and /Fire is much more range orientated. Personally I have found /Earth more difficult than my /Fire Dom, the necessity of being in melee opens you up for a lot of damage, atleast until you can reliably lock stuff down.

Think of it as a patch of gas that lasts 60s, which targets enemies inside it and shoots up fumes which then hold the targeted enemy and anyone surrounding it.

Why do this? Because thats exactly what it does

The ingame description does not do this power justice. The main drawback of most AoE holds is their relatively short duration. Volcanic Gasses however can last for over 60 seconds..

The above posters are right. In my experience, 4 points will protect you against every power which has a secondary effect of knockback. I.e, AoE attacks which just happen to also knockback.

The only powers I have seen get past this are powers specifically designed for knockback, and they are exceptionally rare. So rare, I can't even think of an example. Its also unlikely you will get stacked knockback unless you are the tank.

PvE, of course.

Balance is inconsequential if you are only going to play CoH like a single player game, and have no interest in comparing your capabilities with someone elses.

However the moment you start seeing a lower level character of the same AT vastly outperform your character, you are going to start asking questions. Either you're doing something wrong, or the developers are. (I admit, too many people given this scenario instantly view it as a balance problem when in reality, they just don't know how to play.)

I have to agree with the OP.

While this game is great in many areas, and I've always admired the "polished" feel on any graphical development, whether it is when they first introduced capes, when they added the "ultra" mode or when they have added the amazing new animations which are smooth and realistic.

However, the problem I have always had with this game is the almost amateurish way they handle the numbers and mathematics behind the scenes. It is a shame that the game gets let down in this way. I'm afraid whenever I read what the devs write on the forum it always comes across like a team of modders, working on someone elses game and still trying to figure out how it works.

"Hey guys I just figured out power X works in such and such way! I'll put a quick fix in the next patch." Sure, it would be okay occasionally, but where is the damn VISION? What about saying at a Dev meeting: "Okay guys, we are going to do a serious review of all the Buff/Debuff powersets, make sure the numbers are right and update any old powers which were designed 6 yrs ago and are still crap." I mean.. where. is. it. Why does this never happen? *sigh*

I just don't see why its not an option, so many people would pay for this. Cmon devs, let us spend our hard earned cash! ;-)

Don't be silly, this isn't the scrapper/tanker/brute forum.

I haven;t played my mind controller much lately but in general I have been seeing this, especially with the "hold head" and "coughing" animations. For some reason though, Fossilize and Ice Block never fails to animate the "I'm stuck!" pose

Makes me think some of them are "hard" animations which literally force the enemy to do it straight away, and the other ones are more like soft emotes which play at the earliest convenience.

Gradually these booster pack powers are getting more and more powerful and I for one am becoming a bit worried.

Why has this pack included a self buff when Mystic Fortune was so obviously made to only buff other people and not yourself?

Why are the buffs that it grants so powerful instead of just being a random tiny perk?

As someone mentioned, people will pay millions of influence for a +3% defence enhancement. I think someone in the dev teams need a bit of a wakeup call and a reality check.

There is a fine line between paying for cosmetic features and actual substantial ingame advantages. Ninja Run was pushing it as far as I was concerned, but its such a cool power and fits the theme so well I let it go. However a random self buff? Please. It is both unnecessary and unwarrented.

P.S: I speak as someone who owns every booster pack going.

One thing to consider is the Placate proc can cause aggro, where as Mass Hypnosis is usually aggro free.

So considering you can buy more MA story slots, any chance of more costume slots? With so many costume options and all the booster packs, it seems a shame to limit characters to only 4 costumes

I present to you the following anecdotal evidence, both of which are amusing and sad.

#1

Teamed with a PUG in Steel Canyon, the leader decides to do a "normal" mission and not just a random radio mission (i.e, one from a contact with an actual plot). It happens to be the Tsoo mission with the hacker, where you must first rescue him and then escort him to a computer to get some information.

Everything is going pretty well, there are a few deaths but we are making progress. We finally reach the hacker and rescue him, only for someone to escort him back to the entrance. I try to explain in team chat that we need to do take him to the computer(rest of the team remain silent), which is located on the map, however this guy ignores me and takes him down all the elevators and to the mission door. We then get a load of "???"'s in team chat while I try to explain again why the mission hasn't completed. After I explain, the guy says he is confused and quits the team, leaving the hacker on the bottom floor.

Eventually we do manage to get the hacker to the computer but I feel like im babysitting a team that has had Mass Confuse used on it.

#2

After finishing a bank mission where I helpfully explained to someone how to get inside the bank (yes this person claimed he never could do bank missions), we travelled to IP for a bit of a change of scenery. We get the mission where we must go to Striga Isle. Of course most of the team have no clue how to get there and so I personally escort them to the boat.

Then we finally reach Ms. Peebles when the team starts to gather by the door to her left. "Aren't you going to click on her?" I said to the team lead, to which he replied "Everyone wait inside." Does the rest of the team challenge him? No, they attempt to run into the building behind Ms. Peebles. *Facepalm*. So I reiterate in caps that they need to speak to the contact.. but by then I had already given up hope on the team.


So, anyone else have any funny stories like this? I think its a real shame a lot of the population who probably live in the 1-30 bracket have such a simplistic time in this game. Isn't it about time we do away with the boring repeatable missions with no plot and instead open up all the contacts in this game (without having to be introduced to them) and show some of these players how great CoH/CoV really is.

Dominators aren't comparable to any other AT so they will be fine. No other AT offers Control/Blast.

It is Corrupters/Defenders and Brutes/Scrappers + Brutes/Tankers that will be most at war with each other.

Thanks guys, some great ideas coming in

Funny because I don't usually have a problem making a build, but on this character i was completely stuck. Earth Control is a great asset, and I regularly team with a Mercs/Pain MM, yet even still im finding going toe to toe with mobs is still quite painful. Still, I haven't got SO's yet and they make a huge difference.