Sailboat

OK, I've just read the patch notes, searched the forums several times and wandered through likely forums looking visually for info about the ancillary/epic pool additions (the ones that got a 5th choice added).

Did I see a thread detailing these changes, or am I imagining that? Who got what?

Thanks!

The problem with making resistance bonuses more widely available on sets is that someone could abuse them to make a character literally somewhat more powerful.

My own soft-capped Inv Tanker does not take an Ancillary/Epic pool. I think if you want to be as sturdy as possible, it's a compromise you can live with.

I'd get RPD in earlier if I were you.

You only need 5 Doctored Wounds to slot Dull Pain if you're using 50s or thereabouts; you can save a slot.

I'm not entirely sure that's it. I was doing a lot of things last night, and had a hard time keeping track rigorously enough to rule out user error, but in several cases the powerset changes did not save the first few runs through and then seemed to save. I mean both "keeping changes to the actual costume" and also the "save/load the file" function, and I might be getting confused between the twoi a little bit. But it felt like I was doing the same thing all over again a few times before it "stuck."

Also, in one case, the character's powerset animation changes stayed on the character after accepting (which is what I mean by "keeping changes" above), but the color tinting was lost. That seems weird.

I did not experiment with saving primary and secondary separately, just the whole thing.

In the meantime, I've got plenty of costume tokens, so that fact that this is using up resources on every attempt to save doesn't matter so much.

Thanks.

I never pay attention to Beta or Test patch notes, since I cannot get onto the Test Server usefully (for a couple of years now the Test server runs at freeze-frame speed no matter what Issue and no matter what I do) and everything changes so much it would just create confusing memories of rules changes that never went live.

So I wait for the Live patch notes. They weren't up yesterday, as far as I could find; maybe they'll get some out today.

Anyone else having trouble saving customized powers and making them stick?

At 18, specifically if you take Invincibility, an Invulnerability Tanker becomes pretty strong. Frankly, I've been doing a lot of exemplaring on mine, and even before 18 and with no set bonuses he hasn't seemed so bad. I did a pair of Synapse TFs against endurance-draining electrical Clockwork attacks, pre-stamina (I took it at 22, the cutoff for Synapse is 20) and was surprised at how well I held up. I needed End and blues a lot, but was seldom drained flat.

Oh, about this part:

How about a straight-up Energy/Energy Blaster? Recolor (yay I-16!) the blasts a tad for purity and blow stuff away...or hover at extreme altitude with Boost Range and the snipe, and be the Wrath of God from On High.

Yeah, I figured it must be known to someone.

The first link you gave says this:

Are you saying you want to stay 46 in a 50 mission for better exp? Is this an AE mission?

(exact coding format is from memory, please ignore any errors)

<&bgcolor[00203]>Ready!<&bgcolor[00203]>

Some of my characters say roughly that when I use the default chat keys (like F7 for "Ready!"). Other characters do not.

These are default chat settings designed into the game, not custom binds.

I am not certain whether all the characters in question have altered their chat bubble colors or not.

What causes this? How can I get it back to the normal default setting that my other characters enjoy?

I get why they zone. What I don't understand is why pet's are now possessive.

Well, there's several schools of thought on how to make a tough Fire tanker.

In this thread, Baelrath is has made a somewhat novel build focused on defense. You could just slot your /Axe attacks roughly like he's slotted his /Fire attacks and you'd do well.

I myself lean toward somewhat more conventionally four-slotting the defensive toggles -- Reactive Armors if you're going for defense, Impervium Armors to improve your endurance issue, or even Impervious Skins 5-slotted if you're going for recharge (more on that later).

Kinetic Combat (very expensive) or Smashing Haymaker in single-target melee attacks will help with the smashing/lethal defense, which will be by far the biggest payoff in typed defense slotting.

Or you could go for positional defense, since Fire starts with zero of either type.

There's an alternative line of thought to defense -- see Coldmed's post here. Let Tough and your primary toggles keep damage within the ability of Healing Flames to fix, and concentrate on recharge and endurance and use your damage output to "outkill" the enemy.

Use this page as your bible when planning builds. Click on an individual set's page and at the very bottom you'll see tags like "Sets that improve melee defense," or "Sets that improve recharge," and so on. Try clicking those to get summaries of all sets in that category. You can sort those tables (click the arrows in the upper right) to see things like which ones give the highest bonus, which ones use the least slots, and so on.

Debt is almost a negligible hazard in COH/V.

Some IOs give a small percentage reduction in debt (list here). The text calls it debt protection, but it really just reduces the amount of debt, and very slightly at that. It's never more than 2.5 %, and it's hard to accumulate much debt reduction. Some sets that provide debt reduction are generally undesirable in their other properties as well, making them "loser" sets.

Since IOs were introduced, patrol exp has further reduced the functionality of debt. Now in Issue 16 leveling speed in the low-to-middle level ranges is again being sped up, further trivializing debt (and further trivializing investment in debt reduction IOs). You could easily spend many times more influence buying debt reduction set bonuses than you will ever have in exp debt (assuming influence and exp are vaguely equivalent; I'm aware they'/re apples and oranges).

I've never met anyone who intentionally slotted for debt reduction. Instead, and bonuses someone has are the byproduct of other slotting goals; mere accidents that, frankly, never get noticed. I've never said, nor heard anyone else say, "Thank goodness I slotted that 2% debt reduction set just before this TF!" It just seems like sort of wasted text and a wasted opportunity to make things more interesting. Even if it were a staggeringly larger percentage, like say 10% per set, I still don't know if anyone would slot it -- I hardly would.

Lastly, debt reduction is completely meaningless on level 50 characters, of course.

It seems to me that replacing debt reduction property entirely with something else that might be more desirable would be beneficial to a lot of borderline sets. (The exceptions are Eradication and Aegis, already great sets, and maybe Unspeakable Terror and Detonation, which are sort of second- or third-rate sets).

What to replace the debt reduction property with? I don't know. Something that exists already would be fine, or something new, as long as it's not overpowering.

If sets like Ruin or Induced Coma or Debilitative Action got some neat, new, but small property, what harm could it do?