Smurphy

[ QUOTE ]
My kids are 9 and 7. They have several toons because they like making new characters. We let them team together sometimes so they have an idea of what's going on. They have mostly played stalkers and brutes so far. I wonder if Masterminds would be good for them?

Smurphy, you mention force fields. Isn't MM the only villain-side toon that has that as a secondary? I wonder about 4 thug/ff MMs? I guess that would kind of be overkill with all the defense from bubbles and enforcers. Plus, my God, how much bubbling would you have to do. Crazy.

I guess 4 thugs/* would be fine, I would think once everyone has two enforcers that all the pets would be at the defense soft cap and beyond. Maybe if we mixed up our secondaries, so we had a pain dom, a dark, a storm, and something else. Does steamy mist stack with shadowfall for stealth?

[/ QUOTE ]

Steamy mist and Shadowfall stack for stealth. Also, getting Maneuvers on 4 people is amazing

The trick with Masterminds is you don't have to buff the pets. The pets are easily replaceable. Try to get the enemies to shoot at you, the Mastermind. Use bodyguard to protect yourself. By getting yourself shot at a lot the pet's won't need the buffs. Plus, with big bubbles and leadership the pets are bound to have lots of buffs themselves. Some people like to give lot's of orders on their Masterminds. I'm the opposite. I like to give few orders and get shot at.

For kids 7 and 9 I think simple to play is ideal. I'll mix and match some guys so you can all mix and match who is on who. Any combination of these will work fine. Ask around the family for what sounds cool to everyone. The key to these guys is mostly "ease of play." The kids can easily jump on the Mastermind. You can explain to the kids how to buff teammates. "Shift-1" then these buttons to target teammate #1. Then explain for the FF MM "Your henchman are there to protect you. When we are all ready to attack you lead the charge and attack the bad guys. Your henchman, and all of us will cover you. Your job is to lead us into battle! Your the Mastermind!" For the Thermal/Cold/Sonic Corruptors its just "Push these buttons to put shields on us, then shoot the snot outa the bad guys after the Mastermind goes in"

Fire/Thermal Corruptor (Fire Concept).
Use Thermal shields to grant resistance to teammate. Throw fire at bad guys.

Thugs/Force Field Mastermind
Use Shields on player teammates only. This guy is the "Tank" of the team. Have him keep his pets in Bodyguard mode. Charge into each pack maniacally and try to get the bad guys to shoot at you. Brawl, Veteran Attacks, Air Superiority, Provoke, or whatever you can think of works to get enemy attention.

For the last two spots mix in some more buffs and what concepts you might like...

/Cold, /Thermal, /Sonic Corruptor
Each of these three brings more shields to the table. Buffing teammates is the only important thing. Don't worry about the pets.

/Storm, /Dark, /Traps Corruptor or Mastermind
Each of these brings an area defense power as well as debuffs to mix things up.

Stacking up all those buffs will make everyone super-survivable

Feel free to send me an in-game tell at @Smurphy or fire me some PMs.

Actually I didn't create that phrase but it might have been created to describe my attitude. I make my money with patience, ruthless efficiency, statistics and mathematical analysis. I spend my money spontaneously, recklessly and with no regard for its value.

*EDIT* Actually now that I think about it I think I did make that phrase

I'm gladly one of the buyers of pre-crafted items. I despise haggling over kinetic weapons and carting my garbage to push a button to get me what I want. I'd rather fork over a sack of money and be done with it.

There's no full list that I can think of that lists them all.

Veteran Badges
Super Booster
Boxed Released

www.paragonwiki.com

[ QUOTE ]
Hello, I am fairly new to this game and still testing out most of the classes to figure out which one fits me best. Currently I am looking for a PvE centric build, but one that will also fair well in PvP when I get bored. From what I've heard about PvP I am sort of guessing a Pve Centric/keep me alive in zone PvP build is probally impossible to find, but it doesn't hurt to ask I guess. Any suggestions on which one between fire/kin, storm, or dark to take?

Also another thing, from what I've heard about Kin is that it is a group's first invite priorty, but has a steep learning curve for a rather new corrupter. Will this pose a problem for me getting in groups because I am not /kin?

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't take the general "what people want in Atlas/Mercy/Cap Au Diabloe broadcast" as an accurate representation of what makes a City of Heroes team function. I'd suggest ignoring any advice you get from Atlas Park/Mercy broadcast

Kinetics is a very fast paced set. If you like button mashing then it will be fun for you. I don't think there are any complicated concepts to Kinetics - it's just that the buttons recharge really fast and you want to keep pressing them.

Perhaps something like Thermal or Cold might be ideal secondaries for you. Both shine in PvP and teammate buff powers are very simple to understand and use. Those are both not complicated and very powerful.

[ QUOTE ]
Ooops, read controller. Sorry about that. A Fire/Kin corruptor can be calculated, so let's see, shall we.

Edit: Assuming double stacked FS so they're at the damage cap at all times, it gets 245 DPS before Scourge. That's good, but it needs a decent boost from Scourge to be the best. A Fire/Elec blaster gets about 280 DPS.

Edit 2: Bah, stupid me. Corruptor cap is 500%, not 400%. That means a DPS of 294. Yes, it wins.

[/ QUOTE ]

How do you calculate that? Do you take IOs into account?

How old are the kids?

I think 2 Sonic Buff and 2 Force Fields will be the way to go for you personally. These sets are very easy to play. Even if you are out of practice to the game, or new to the game, or wildly distracted... if you have your big bubble up and stand next to your teammates who have their big bubbles up you will crush everything Start throwing out the shields and your other powers and you will really start dominating.

There are more powerful combos but that team will steamroll AND be easy to play.

I have two brothers and multiple friends who play. There are lots of potential "bests" so you can mix and match things to best suit each of your family member's style and preferences. Here are some of our fun combos. I'll start with 4 ofs then go to some mix and match combos...

4x Emp/Sonic Defenders
Everyone will have more defense than a Scrapper in Elude, more regeneration than a Scrapper with Instant Healing, more damage than a Blaster, and the equivalent of 2 Speed Boosts recharge from Adrenaline Boost ... and nigh infinite Endurance without stamina.

4x Thug/Storm Masterminds.
Thugs give buffs to each other thug on the team. You would have a lot with 4 Thug/Storms. Basically, all you have to do is call your thugs, updgrade them, turn on steamy mist, cast Freezing Rain, and push forward.

2x Sonic and 2x Force field Defenders, Controller or Corruptors(Thermal can replace Sonic, Cold can replace Force Field)
Basically everyone on the team get's teammate buff shields. Everyone buffs each other and EVERYONE on the team is a Stone Tank. Think absolutely positively unkillable if you stick together.

Buffs are quite amazing in tihs game. Any combination of 4 Defenders, Controllers and Corruptors who all take their team buff powers and use them will be insanely powerful. For increased damage throw in a Kinetics. If someone wants to be big and strong throw in a Tanker or Brute.

Some silliness for aoe damage combos is Super Strength/Fire or Super Strength Shield + Kinetics. Either Tank/Controller or Brute/Kin works. Throw in two whatever and at high levels they will fly along.

[ QUOTE ]
Ok thanks everyone. So Dual Blade for a brute isnt that great?

I am thinking I will go super strength + fire armor or willpower. Anywhere I can find a good build?

[/ QUOTE ]

Dual Blades works great with a brute. However it may not "feel" Brute like and smashy to you.

Try doing this with a Super Strength build. If you don't like it at level 8 then Brute is not for you.

Take Punch at level 1
Take Haymaker at level 2.
Take Air Superiority from the Flight Power Pool at level 6.
Take Knockout Blow at level 8.

The other powers don't matter so much. Slot all of those powers to 4 slots first, two Accuracy and two Endurance Reduction. If you don't enjoy that you won't enjoy a Brute.

I'll give you basic "feel" version of each Primary/Secondary and pros cons. However, the first thing you should do before making a brute is reading the Endurance Dysfunction Guide in my signature. My analysis will mostly be focused on "feel" rather than the hard #s.

Battle Axe and War Mace are relatively the same. You whoop out a big chunk of something on a stick. Then you swing it and bash something.

Dark Melee has a lot of very fast activating Punch/Jab type powers. Think your hands turning black then moving a billion miles an hour.

Dual Blades whoops out two blades of any kind you can imagine then you can use them in crazy combos to slash enemies.

Electric Melee is lots of big bad BOOM lightning effects. Electric Melee is often focused on hitting lots of enemies at the same time. Solo, you are likely not to fight hordes of guys often.

Energy Melee gives you Pink "pom-poms" which you use do ridiculous style punches that send enemies flying.

Fire Melee pulls out Fire swords and fists and hits the enemy. The enemies don't go flying or get stunned or shocked or anything... but they will take extra damage ticks.

Stone Melee gives you big rocks and stone mallets that you can use the crush the enemies and send them flying.

Super Strength's punches can knock guys over. Knockout Blow gives you a ridiculous windup and drills a guy into orbit.

Secondary wise there are two major categories: Resistance and Defense. Resistance means that attacks that hit you do less damage. Defense means attacks miss you completely.

Dark Armor is mostly resistance but has some Defense as well. Also it has a HUGE self-heal with a steep endurance cost. Dark is very much an all around set but it causes your costume to essentially become a black cloud.

Electric Armor is almost purely a resistance set with no way to self-heal. It also grants you several bonus damage and endurance management powers.

Energy Armor is a defense based set with many endurance management powers and a minor self-heal that is relatively late blooming.

Fire Armor is a resistance based set with a very fast recharging, early self-heal power. Fire Armor also has many damage bonus powers.

Invulnerability has both Defense/Resistances. The resistances are almost all to Smashing/Lethal damage types. They are the most common in the game. It also has a huge self-heal type power on a very long recharge timer.

Shield Defense is a defense set with bonus defense for teammates and an attack power in the set. Also, you pull out a shield. Shield does not work with Dual Blades.

Stone Armor glues rocks to your face. Initially you get mainly defense based powers. Your status protection power slows you down. Also you have a long recharge big self-heal. At level 38 you can completely encase yourself in rocks making you nigh invulnerable but severely lowering your damage/recharge if you choose to turn on that power

Super Reflexes is a defense based set with some increase speed powers. There is no self-heal power.

Willpower is a regeneration/defense/resist set. None of the powers require you to push a button. Also has a bonus endurance power.

I personally recommend, for you... either Fire Armor, Invulnerability or Willpower. Willpower has you pushing the buttons the least often and is generally "easiest to use". Fire Armor will give you the ability to use a Self-Heal very often and more damage. However it lacks some of the survival "oomph" other sets get. Invulnerability gives you fantastic Smashing/Lethal resists and a big self-heal on a long timer. I think you could do fine with pretty much any secondary but these may three may be best for you personally.

[ QUOTE ]
Brutes are like scrappers - Pick one from each category and enjoy your wrecking ball. Playstyle and personal preference weigh so much into it, it's hard to really say what is by the numbers the 'most dominating', as everyone has a different way of interpreting that phrase.

Purely damage wise, Super Strength/Fire Armor likely tops the chart. Survival wise, Stone Melee/Stone Armor. Middle of the road, cointoss.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your answers are all tailored towards high level and a lot of team and area of effect situations. He is asking specifically for soloing from 1-50. I don't think your analysis and choices are very applicable.

[ QUOTE ]
Thank you everyone. Now then let me rephrase my question. Which class completely dominates and is incredibly enjoyable in PvE? Mastermind or Brute? I don't want to play one of them and then start getting bored even though I am blowing through. I want to play a class that is incredibly fun to play and deals a lot of damage.

Also if I go MM which would be a good combination?

[/ QUOTE ]

In City of Heroes all combos and all classes can work. It's more about fitting your personal playstyle.

I think you want to be a Brute of somekind. Masterminds tend to make their Henchman and then you simply need to press the forward button. Sure, you could debuff or attack but you don't actually need to on a Mastermind while soloing.

Brute Primary wise I'd pick the Primary that sounds "coolest" to you. They all can work just fine solo. Personally, I prefer Stone, Super Strength, War Mace, and Battle Axe because they are the most "smashy" feeling. The others work fine but the ones I listed make me "feel" like I just crushed something.

Secondary wise, Willpower is very user friendly. You simply turn on the toggles and go. There are no buttons to press. Allowing you to mash your attack buttons mercilessly without thinking "do I need to do something to survive".

I have a 50 Fire/Kin Corruptor with a ridiculous pile of IOs. I cannot imagine another anything comparing to its damage output in a solo single target nor aoe situation if I'm allowed to Fulcrum shift to max targets.

Of course, surviving the onslaught after Fulcrum shifting max targets is tough. Even when I have 1500 HP, 50% S/L Resist, 20% Defense and Transfusion at Permahasten recharge. But if I, on a Fire/Kin Cor, get to Fulcrum Shift myself to max targets, and every other archetype/build has to simply rely on their own powers alone, then I can't fathom what does more damage.

[ QUOTE ]
I just started to play with my son we are looking for a good At team for both the red side and the blue. What types work well together. What types do not work well together? One good player one inexperienced player. Thanks for your time so let the heated discussion begin....

[/ QUOTE ]

Answering the other half of your question - there really isn't anything that doesn't work together. Any combo that works towards you and your teammate's personal preferences can be fantastic, fun and good.

Some might say Knockback and Melee doesn't work well together. I simply consider that bad playing. Knockback should be thought of as "throwing". Pick where you want to throw the enemies and then throw them at the target. Don't shoot guys off the meleer who wants enemies standing near them -- shoot enemies towards the meleer.

*EDIT* I have two brothers and a few friends from the real world who play. Here are some awesome duo combos that we find enjoyable.

Emp/X & Emp/X Defender - Each teammates buffs the other into King Kong
You Fortitude me, I Fortitude you. You do your Regeneration/Recovery Auras first, then I'll do mine. You Adrenaline Boost me, I'll Adrenaline Boost you. These guys will show you why some people giggle at the thought of "we need heals".

Radiation x 2 - Using death as a weapon.
Fallout and Vengeance both are amazing with a teammate who knows how to die. Also, Radiation debuffs and Accerlate Metabolism are amazing.

Thug/Storm MM x 2 - More chaos!
A huge horde of Thugs who benefit from being around more thugs and Freezing Rain is crazy cool.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I believe that a fire/kin corruptor, with max targets, cannot be beat for single target damage. That's assuming you get to use fulcrum though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Maybe if you assume the imps will all be attacking the right target. As it is I don't think so.

[/ QUOTE ]

Corruptors get Imps?

You really don't have to do anything but fire 3x Freezing Rain with Thug/Storms. I'd recommend not even using Hurricane except for very specific rare circumstances.

I've gone through the routine of deciding which trio has the best ridiculous damage and multiboxing potential. Thug/Storm was it. I'll show you it sometime if you like

I vote for a trio off the list: Thug/Storm x 3.

I am willing to demonstrate the insane potential of such a combo. I've got 6 myself Freezing Rain pretty much ends the game.

Romans don't Mez.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Bio, take it from my FF defender. You are flat out wrong. With the exception of psy attacks that bypass force-fields entirely, the number of times anybody on my team takes more damage than they can sustain without an outside heal/regen buff do not warrant a power selection.

[/ QUOTE ]

That may be true for 90% of the content, but you cannot run a STF/LRSF w/ FF alone. You cannot run a MA mission w/ lvl 54 enemies w/ FF alone. I know I'm picking on FF here, but there aren't many sets that are *only* buff/debuff w/ no heal whatsoever. I can only think of: FF, Sonic, TA, Cold Dom. Even traps has a +regen buff, and storm has a heal-other.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually yes, yes you can run those with FF alone.

Tell that to Cerulean Watchman while he solos another level 54 Rikti Pack. The Tanks usually ask him to take Lord Recluses aggro in the STF

Cerulean Watchman

Here's the build I use to solo 8-man Liberate or duo it even faster with a /Kin. (Meaning comparing 2 Brutes going two separate ways verse Fire/Kin + Brute working together, Brute + Kin is faster)

Don't double stack rage. When facing non-Nemesis or other enemies who don't have defense, and you have Fulcrum Shift, don't even bother turn on Rage #1. This Brute has minor endurance problems when spamming Foot Stomp, Fences and Ball lightning at perma-hasten speed when solo (boo friggin hoo). The build was made pre-PvP IOs. Also running the Virgil Strike Force was in mind in the design.

| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
|MxDz;1390;689;1378;HEX;|
|78DAA5935B6F524110C7F714286D81422FB4F45E8A2D14ECB 178ED4563D45A2F855|
|EA455A346C476A5240D4538C4CB93F1D94BA2893EF9A87E02 35B67E379C99FF96F8|
|EE09FC7F6767666767E7EC669F2FF9957A755159BE2B7B855 A2D7FB95A77B4275B2|
|896B69557293528867C56EF696DE7EA155DCDE79CAA2E179D DD085C4BFA892ED7B4|
|BD5CD2D517F94BF56AA1EB467957538C631FBD74ACEFEFEFD 9B98AD63B7E795D2E3|
|9655DAB6190D1854AA95C0C184F71D7A151F86AA5B46D9BD5 EBF96CA1E650FE0895|
|344DFF094B99A7E151A916A5D2AA2509C405EE04302D687D2 DF8C1136466C3AD6C4|
|B3C49415B4A301C218CA8997E41CC32D1146E3D5612B72DE8 28005AE0DF11FC2275|
|21BBC7755BF275DE24C455E7A68C4239A4BD2EC6E435194D5 0973D98D5E24949A21|
|0D00D4C92D36BAAF062253F96EF464D7DA8A20FA57928B61D F954FB8C985AC9E443|
|06CB9710D32810234F001E15888AE9376910F35D41F4A8175 D89A05549C4C569D06|
|5595277D777696FEF37C1F057411BE5EE31897A3E8869F423 F04970E2B3E0274584|
|51832BEC48EEC167C04BC1F853EC8FF2F5239FD51F965222B D028B3C03A64303AB9|
|2747C0D581144338299ACC045E143A6E343D861145B8BE214 1C28DE2EB636F25EE6|
|C4DEA1E4B78269F28D99D33776414CC7168045605E30751E4 0C7FEF0B9359F6102D|
|F360678A9A249732E27D7A486A9AC209E0156E4C8C457058F 5C4A25CCF2892D54B4|
|016C022705C95B82E339418166A5CCACD459784E03E7D09E3 3D823AA4D9F92D1210|
|D6C7342EC39DC29AA76D6F46F161F228D0F910EE116B99B97 937EF4A8CCBF169764|
|5977372F97B22468D9DDBC9DFFF51CF88F166BDFE820CDB16 CB1DC61B9CB728FE53|
|ECB0396872C7996C6617376708E0B9A675960596479C3415E BE4D3E163F4B80A593|
|25C81262E961E9631964F9C2D2F80BDF44E7E9|
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|

Donating to the thrift store.

[ QUOTE ]
All I know is, if Assault Rifle isn't proliferated at or before the expansion, my Defender is going to be rerolled as a blue-side AR/FF Corrupter.

[/ QUOTE ]

Defenders don't get AR. Corruptors don't get Force Field. Perhaps you are going Mastermind? You'd have some type of fancy gun with Bubbles.

[ QUOTE ]
The thing is if you bounce down to level 1, what will happen is it will be a 1 side game.

As everyone switches to hero for access to the better market at as low a level as they can.

And if this does happen, if you think powerleveling is annoying now.... OOOOOH BOY you aint seen nothing yet.

[/ QUOTE ]

Would these happen before or after...
"1, The merit system is going to encourage most teams to build for speed. We've seen this before with people being left out or unwanted.

2, Stupidly low rewards on many TF, namely Katie, LRSF, and Eden.

3 Speedfarmers finding new and interesting ways to speed TF's resulting in most if not all TF's getting their rewards heavily cut and joining #2 above.

4 with all the above, Story arcs and Oreo becoming the way the way to get merits, bringing about the death of pug teaming as everyone decides soloing their own merits is more important than teaming."

[ QUOTE ]
thinking about it, you know what makes sense is the lower level you are, the easier it is to switch.

since your 'reputation' isn't secure yet.

The higher level, the harder and the longer it would take.

maybe you have to earn 'reputation' equal to your career exp to switch sides?

that would certainly be a time sink, heh.

[/ QUOTE ]

Is this Nethergoat applying Role Playing reasons to game functionality?

*EDIT* Welcome to the Praetorian Market forum.

I think the key is getting to know the people behind the characters. Get global names. Make friends with the people.