Plasma

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I think player created content can be GREAT...if it's handled correctly.

The problem with OK'ing submissions is partially an issue because of manpower. Depending on the number of submissions, you'd need people entirely devoted to reviewing, approving and ultimately putting that stuff into the game. That's not trivial, to be honest, when dealing with 100,000+ subscribers.

We've always talked about ways to get player material into the game...imagine using the base creator tools to make your own missions! Or a your own training room? Maybe some day we can figure a way to put this stuff into the game. The imagination just on these forums alone is so amazing; I can only hope we find a way an outlet for it.

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Have an unofficial community trial server, a la Training Room, where community content can be instanced and played through, then popup a feedback box with voting and comments for the author. Top vote-getting instances/modules get the attention of devs.

I don't know how easy it would be for CoH. A game like NWN built the toolset first, then built the game themselves in their own toolset. If your tools aren't in a shippable condition, that's problematic. If your missions/arcs aren't modular enough for import from a discrete source, that's a problem. But man, I would so love to get my hands on a toolset that let me manipulate enemies, objects, music, lightning, etc, all with a scripting language.

In your job, not playing NWN would be basically criminal, but if you haven't, do that. Community content was a huge, huge thing for NWN. They eventually sold "premium modules" made in collaboration with community members. Maybe that'd work for CoH if your tools could swing it.

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Your information on Bonuses, Specials, and exemping is confusing. Some corrections:

(1) IOs do not "get better with level" as you say; IO recipes of a higher level are better than recipes of a lower level. But if you slot a L10 damage IO, it provides the same (small) bonus forever.

(2) You do not have to activate a power to get a set bonus. Set bonuses are always on, period.

(3) "specials" and "procs" need to be activated, and that's where the auto/toggle/click distinction comes in. This only applies to those particular things, which are granted by enhancements, not set bonuses. For example, all the +stealth IOs are specials; those have the passive/click/toggle timing. Numina's +regen+recovery IO and the miracle +recovery IO are in this class.

(4) There are several that LOOK like they might fit the above, but are actually treated AS set bonuses, so again, they are always on unless something would remove a set bonus (See exemplaring issues, below). There's a comprehensive list floating around, but it includes things like Luck of the Gambler: 7.5% increased rech speed.

(5) At this time, exemplaring AT ALL shuts of ALL set bonuses. This is a bug. The devs have stated that set bonuses shut off when: (a) The power in which a set is slotted becomes inactive due to lower exemplar level. (b) When the ehancements that make up the set would be unusable at your exemplared combat level (i.e., if you enter Sirens, then the highest level IO that will be considered for a set bonus is 33, which is the highest you could slot at L30). (c) When you shapeshift. While no official contradiction has been posted, people on the Kheldian forum report that shapeshifting does NOT actual disable set bonuses. Unlike the first two, intentional for balance, this was not believed to be a balance issue but an engine limitation, so it is unlikely to be changed.

Positron stated this was for balance reasons - if you wanted access to set bonuses at lower levels you had to plan accordingly. (For example, my fire/en blaster has been capping his IO purchases at 33 to ensure the bonuses are available at 30+)

It's hardly original, but on Tue nights (was Thu, we moved), I formed an 8-man (well, now 7, one person is multiboxing a bit of vengebait) of all fire/rad and ice/rad corruptors.

Using vengeance and 8x maneuvers, recall friend, team teleport, 7x leadership, 7-8x accel meta, we are legion. We're now L30, I believe we're still well under 30 hours playing just 2 hours each week. We've been able to crush +5 spawns (acquired by getting task forces earlier than their max level). This last week we were running Doc Buzzsaw's missions. One vengeance bait takes a dive, we pick up vengeance, and then team tp into the middle of a spawn, all with Choking Cloud running. Nothing can hit us, and we immediately drop ice storms, fireballs, rains of fires on our position. Everything dies. Running on invincible, we kill a full spawn in 6-10 seconds and move on.

None of us has Stamina or Hasten. In fact, I have all of about 8 enhancements slotted right now - 6 of which are in Accel Meta (3xrech, 3xEndRec). Yes, we crushed +5 spawns without enhancements slotted. Who needs them?

8x tactics = >80% tohit
8x maneuvers + 1-2x Radiation Infection = tohit floor
8x assault + 8x accel meta = over +300% damage
8x meta = +240% rech

Our name? Geiger Force.

It's a lot of fun, and our players range from horrifically veteran to absolute nooblet (my wife plays, and she's got all of about 10 levels under her belt before this).

As strong as this is, there's no doubt the Frads idea is even stronger, since you add massive control and imps to the mix as well.

My next run will be my own Frad team, or possibly something like 2x bot/FF MM, 2x elec brute, and 4x fire/kin or such. Tasty. Invincible, double-lightning rod for more or less every spawn. Elec/Elec or Elec/Stone would be good; since 4x speed boost+base+hasten+3rech will cap recharge on lightning rod even AFTER subtracting the penalty for granite.

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Plasma, When will you come out with an i9 update, with sets needed for the ultimate Kheldian? Fantastic guide, btw.

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Well, I'm around, I'm playing and slotting up characters with IOs, and getting a better feel for the system. When I do post, I'd like to be able to address people at different levels - that is, there are people who will be able to field any set of IOs they want because they have a 9+ digit influence balance; and there are people who will be going up naturally by necessity or for the challenge, and I'd like to address when and what to get, and perhaps even how to use the strengths of the Kheldians (such as AoE) to make more IOs affordable.

I also want my comments on IOs to be well-researched and accurate, so I'm taking my time. But certainly, an update for I9 is coming.

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Some more Cavern Trial Results:

Debilitative Action: Immob/Rech
Cacophany: Conf/Range



And again, a Set IO you have listed for Pool B dropped as a Pool D Trial reward:

Regenerative Tissue: Heal/Rech

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I'd have sworn I've gotten this on a KH run when completing mission #2. Might still have it up in the CH, even.

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Plasma, Have you considered saving this guide elsewhere? That way if the forums get wiped your work is not lost.

Howl of the Wyld
The Regenners

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I have a copy. You don't edit a guide this long on the forums.

But they don't purge the player guide section.

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Very good guide. But I have found a grave error.

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I'd say both dwarfs are superior to Fiery Aura Tanks, simply because fiery aura sucks.

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It's actually very funny. Fix it please. It's obviously we don't have a 'real' tier 9, but I don't think you've seen a 'Golden Age' Fire Tank perform.

*EDIT* I felt like my post yesterday was kind of different than how I meant to show my opinion. I have fully slotted Dwarf before in a deleted toon, as well as the powers associated, but you are right that Dwarf will have more defense, but it is by no means better. This is because Fiery Aura has more powers, a better heal, consume, and burn although most people (including me) don't use it. Additionally, along with any secondary, there is psynergy, because Fire is meant to take things out faster than the others.
Fire: Fiery Embrace, addition DoT damage
Ice: Ice Patch+Burn
Stone: Powerful
SS: Rage and Powerful
Mace: Not familiar with this powerset
Axe: Powerful and Knockdowns

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I have a L50 fire/EM tank, and my comment there may be bitterness, because I had to suffer through ED, the GDN, and the meganerf to burn; plus I wrote that before healing flames was buffed.

Fiery aura is much improved with the change to HF, although I'm not convinced it is not the weakest set still for a tank. (For brutes, I like it more)

Certainly, my dwarf forms felt more survivable, at least pre-HF buff.

I had a lot of fun meeting Cuppa, Alexa, Awry, and Arctic at the original Austin event. Although I didn't talk to him, I drifted by BillZ, met Solarexx, and a couple other Austin players, and a good time was had by all. Alexa and Awry taught me how to play the CoH CCG, and it was a LOT of fun seeing CoH played in a big LAN environment. Perhaps the best thing was the schwag; I made out with a bunch of CCG cards, extra comic books, a CoV t-shirt I still occasionally wear, as well as a CoH "bootleg edition" disc or two, which resulted in a new subscriber (two actually, since my recruit recruited another friend).

How cool would it be to run a hami raid with everyone in the room?

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So I take it the 3D guru's have left the scene. Any new artists out there have any suggestions for free or inexpensive programs for a starting artist?

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Well, DAZ Studio is still free, and is better than ever; DAZ also gives away several of the most popular base models. The Victoria figure mentioned earlier in the thread is now completely free (the V4 version came out recently and is not free, but the V3 is).

http://www.daz3d.com

There's also a large repository of tutorials to help you learn, and if you check out http://artzone.daz3d.com there's a community of people with blogs/galleries/etc and a chat, and they're fairly newb friendly.

Several people at DAZ are also fans of the game.

<qr> Neurotic shutdown, acc/hold/rech is a TF drop.

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Both of these have been reported as Pool B, however, I just ran the Caverns Trial twice and I got:

Induced Coma: Sleep/Range
Commanding Presence: Acc/End

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Hmm that's a little weird that two recipes reported as B have turned up as rewards for the Cavern Trial. However the Cavern Trial rewards seem a little weird anyway at the moment - a lot of people seem to be getting level 30 recipes when they are auto-exemped down (remember the cavern trial auto-exemps to 15 - so 30 is a really weird level to be rewarding at). Were the recipes you got level 30 too?

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All at 27, which is the level of the character.

Someone who was two-boxing reported getting one 30 and one 29!

[make mental note: ask teammates what they got...]

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In one KH run where I multiboxed a 30 and a 50, I got one 34 (on the 30) and one 49 (on the 50).

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It's no secret. From the forum rules:

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5. No “I Demand Answers” threads

Threads that make threats or use other combative language will be removed without notice. If you ask a question on the board and it has not been addressed by a moderator, there is a reason for that (or there is not an answer currently available). In the event of legitimate emergencies, or other unprecedented scenarios, we will endeavor to provide comments, even if it is only to state that there is no officially available information. However, this is not always possible.

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And yet, Positron has indulged two 'calling out' threads.

Forum mods should have locked both down contents unseen just by the thread title alone.

If there are more of them, Posi, it's you're own fault.

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There's a fine line; I took this thread mostly to be a joke, so I'm surprised Posi even replied. But didn't you start the "Set IOs shut off when Exemplared - Feedback" thread? Since the devs didn't ASK for feedback and it wasn't stickied, it's borderline; it doesn't demand a dev response, but by presuming to emulate an official feed it implies they should be reading it, at least, if not responding. The "Devs, I want an answer" threads are just silly because they're presumptuous. I liked your method better, and I posted in the thread a lot not only to make sure all the points had been made but hoping the devs would address the issue, possibly engaging in a dialogue and addressing individual points... the "dev silence" threads are the same thing, just with a neon sign.

Perhaps we need a "Continued Dev Silence on Exemplaring Set Bonus Shutoff" thread.

<qr> Just got decimation: dam/rch from a pool B drop.

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Interesting. I think the issue here is using that third Nucleolus. The slotting I'm looking at is either:

Two Nucleolus; Mako's Bite: Dmg/End, Dmg/Rech, Acc/Rech/End, Mako's proc

or

Two Nucleolus; Mako's Bite: Dmg/End, Dmg/Rech, Acc/Rech/End, Dmg/Acc/Rech/End

The first gets you the following:

Damage 99%
Accuracy 84%
Recharge/Endurance 48%

IO bonuses: Chance for Lethal; Immobilize resist; Max Health 1.5%, Damage 3%

Replacing the proc ups the Accuracy to 99% and the Recharge/Endurance to 66%.

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I was planning to slot disembowel, for example, with 2 nucs, and Mako (proc - dmg/acc/end/rch - acc/end/rch - dmg/rch), which totals out to:

Dmg: 112%
Acc: 106%
Rch: 68%
End: 40%

Set bonuses: res(immob), +hp, +dmg

I started from the assumption that I wanted 4 mako's to get the +dmg bonus, and went from there; it's for a bs/regen.

But the capped rch vs capped acc question is up the in air still for me, since with the +tohit bonuses I'll pick up from Scirocco's Dervish and the def procs and such, will I need capped accuracy? I already have FA and tactics, which I'll keep for the perception.

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For the PvE folks reading this, no, Vengeance is not meant to stack in PvE, either and the change, when it happens, will apply in those encounters as well.

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Will this be true of NPCs (Nemesis Lieutenants), as well?

If so, I can accept this.

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Please make all relevant nerfs apply to NPC powers too. "NPC Cheating" where NPCs get to play by different rules than us is very annoying to players.

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qfe.

Some days, keeping the encyclopedia of CoH knowledge in my head to feel like I'm not screwing up feels more like work than fun.

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1) You have the default To Hit value (ie no buffs), your target has no Defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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50/50

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2) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has no defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?


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95%.

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3) You have the default To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?


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5%.

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4) You have the maximum possible To Hit value, and your target has the maximum possible defense value. How often do you WANT to hit him? Conversely, as the defender, how often do you expect to be missed?

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50/50.

However, I'm not convinced there should be such a thing as a "cap". I just think there should be diminishing returns required, so that it is difficult to continue to hit ever higher levels of tohit/defense. So the higher I want to push it, the more I have to sacrafice. (I think Granite Armor is one of the neater powers in the game because it manages to be so, so strong, yet balanced).

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And thus a real life example of why I think there are variances with fpsers, rtsers, mmo pvpers, and mmo pvpers. Trying to lump them into one group misses many nuances.

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Yep. I was a Q3 maniac. I'd DM constantly, and 1v1 every night. I pwned the lan at qcon in 02, and I was a third tier 1v1 player. (That is, I could compete against the 2nd tier of players, who were the perpetual also-rans against the good pros)

Then I was a rabidly persistent NWN player. Played tons and tons of modules single player, and wrote tens of thousands of lines of nwscript for one of the most popular persistent worlds.

I wrote 100k lines of code implementing a MUD, and played competitively for ages on a hardcore PvP mud, back in the day.

I played C&C:RA a ton.

Never played an MMO until CoH, but I've been here for 3 years and actually active during most of it.

I don't feel like there's much of a rhyme or reason.

Certainly MMOs which can be "the next WoW" will be few and far between.

Still, there are companies with the pedigree and the funds to do it, and at the top of the A list is Bioware. They are "the" RPG company, and the only company with comparable name and goodwill to Blizzard. Afterall, Blizzard had a legion of fanboys. Bioware, similarly, has millions of registered users and has produced a nonstop string of megahits for both PC and console, since Baldur's Gate put them on the A list and BG2 made them into a legend.

WoW is a phenomenon, but they have more subscribers than their game deserves, frankly. It's a great game, and Blizzard did a lot of things well. For example, if you have lower end hardware, WoW is a lot more friendly to you than CoH. But Blizzard also had millions of fans, was very accessible as a fresh MMO, but this doesn't account for it. Instead, I think WoW hit a critical mass of fanboys, accessibility, ease of use for a newb, and widespread appeal (PvP, PvE, crafting, raiding, solo and team, widespread classes) that people signed up just to try it out and stayed often for social reasons. In other words, if you had them try all MMOs in a vacuum, knowing no one, WoW would not achieve nearly the success it has.

I still remember popping into Target to grab some game, and some little kid grabbed the last WoW box. "Wow, the last one!" he said. "Have you played this yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's okay. I like City of Heroes a lot better. Have you tried it?"

"What's City of Heroes?"

And while everyone has heard of WoW, CoH remains relatively niche. On the other hand, a LOT of people have played both and prefer WoW, but the margin is most assuredly not 80:1.

In any event, I hope Cryptic stays focused on fun and players. People trying desperately to mass-market everything is a recipe for disaster; DDO probably being the best example, mangling D&D rules to appeal more to traditional MMO themes and players, while offending the tabletop vets, and pleasing neither. (Although the problems run much deeper than that)

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"Your skill at drowning has increased to level 2!"

--NT

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rofl, awesome

I'd guess that just adding "$$powexec_name White Dwarf Sublimation" to the end would work, but it's an intriguing idea that I'll probably test when I can.

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Very nice, except I don't see the need to run 3 end reduction in the armor toggles (Dark Embrace, Murky Cloud, Obsidian Shield). The whole lot together costs less than Quills or Death Shroud. Lunge and Impale are fairly cheap attacks. I slot a bit more damage and try to kill stuff faster, plus a bit more end reduction in Dark Regen. It's an end-heavy build, but 3 end in a toggle costing 0.1 end per second seems like overkill.

Do you really slot 3 end reduction in Combat Jumping? Cost 0.03 end per second?

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They're actually 0.2 per second, and CJ is 0.06. When you get end numbers off CoD, make sure you divide by the activate period.

Prima sucks.

Ironically, the other guide lists CoD as its source as well. I've posted on his (Tomax's) forums about it; if he responds, I'll update here. I'm thinking there may have been an error since corrected, or there may be an error in it now.

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You say there's an acc penalty for LR, but I don't see that in the CoD numbers. Where are you getting that?

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It is not a literal "-acc" debuff, I refer to the penalty based on how its base accuracy number is 0.9 instead of 1.0. This means that compared to "normal" 1.0 powers (most attacks), it is 90% as accurate...10% less accurate than standard...a penalty that really shows when facing mobs above your level. Put another way, most attacks work off of being 1.0 * base 0.75 accuracy. LR uses 0.9 instead, so instead of unslotted 0.75, it operates at base 0.675. As mentioned, one the best powers to counteract this is actually Build Up (which gives a +acc effect in addition to its +dmg). In fact, when you get access to dual enhancements (through IOs or SHOs), slotting +ToHit/Rch is worth your time. Yellow pills will certainly cover things, but slotting at LEAST one (I prefer 2) Acc SO(s) [or Acc/Dmg SHOs] is pretty essential.

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No, I know what you meant. What I mean is, I'm looking at both the summon of LR, and the Pets > Lightning_Rod > Lightning Rod power, and both on CoD list Accuracy of 1, not 0.9.

You say there's an acc penalty for LR, but I don't see that in the CoD numbers. Where are you getting that?