WARHED

[ QUOTE ]
Got nobody to play with.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear you... story of my life in this game for most of the year I've been playing

[ QUOTE ]
Should I just remove my brain, strip out the 'No blind invites' from my search comment and take every offer that comes along...

[/ QUOTE ]

If you want my opinion, I SO wouldn't recommend it. It's bad enough the idiots who randomly blind invite me when I'm flagged "Blinds ignored, send /tell first please" let alone the ones who still try to invite me when I have "soloing, not teaming, no invites please" up. Don't even get me started on the ones who approach me when I'm hidden and ask "are you hidden? want to team?" lol!

Whilst I've found that most PUG's suck, some are FAR worse than others. I suspect that accepting the first blind invite that comes along is possibly the best and quickest way to find the really bad ones. Way to put you off the game big time IMO.

[ QUOTE ]
or should I just give up and call it a day?

[/ QUOTE ]

Assuming you can't find decent teams, then I imagine that would depend entirely on whether you get any enjoyment out of soloing. I imagine CoX could be an amazing game with a decent team, and I'd still love to find out, but to be honest I've pretty much given up on teaming after a year of playing. Fortunately for me I also get a reasonable amount of enjoyment playing solo most of the time, so I continue to subscribe and play now and then.

If you really don't like soloing, and teaming is what appeals to you, but you're having no luck there (and I can totally sympathise with you) then perhaps this isn't the game for you? Speaking purely for myself, I'd certainly wouldn't continue subscribing under those circumstances.

[ QUOTE ]
i can comfortably solo on invincible, i have a stupid amount of ways of going about things being AR/DEV/MUN and no body armour neither, i love my beanbag, my cryo freeze ray, my sleep grenade, my turret, my timebomb, my trip mines...but i will admit some enemies take a serious amount of damage to put down and can be a challenge ie paragon protectors.

[/ QUOTE ]

Colour me impressed. I'd consider Invincible to be tantamount to suicide for my AR/Dev. Mezzers will get me every time. Guess I suck.

Oddly though, I don't consider PP's to be anything more that a minor inconvenience, I love beating up on those creeps. Method one - I just pull them into eight or so closely laid trip mines. The damage from those virtually one shots them, or at least, they take so much damage so fast that the suckers have virtually no chance of hitting MoG or Unstoppable. Failing that, I just let them go MoG or Unstoppable, set my egg timer and leg it via the nearest lift/exit door. Roll a gicarette, maybe put the kettle on, and just before the egg timer counts down, sneak back cloaked just in time for MoG/Unstoppable to drop. Fish in a barrel - one shot is usually all it takes.

It pretty much explains itself in the description, which, IIRC, says "Your Unyielding stance makes you easier to hit, slightly reducing your defence" or similar. It's about -5% def I think. Fair enough for a power that gives you outstanding all round mez/KB resistance. Gotta be a vast improvement on being rooted to the spot whilst using Unyielding, which I understand used to be the case (shudder)

I've pretty much solo'd my AR/Dev blaster to L45 (he was about L35-ish when ED came in) I have found it tough at times even on heroic. I've more or less stopped playing him now as I can't handle the Praetorian AV's even though they're 'only' EB's against a loner. There seems to be no way for him to progress any further as a solo and I'm not really keen to start teaming with him at such a late stage in the game.

Up till the Praetorians, it was caltrops/trip mines (loads of them) plus auto-turret - hit and run all the way. I'd consider trip mines to be THE most important part of his current build, IMO he'd be virtually unplayable without them, unless I maybe respec'd him into something entirely different. Snipe and fall back to corner/door ambushes is the name of my game, Flamethrower/Full Auto/M30 grenade and Buckshot AoE's as they round the corner bunched up and slowed by caltrops. Ignite is handy for keeping mobs at bay too. 3 recharge SO's in caltrops so I can use them twice per fight - once to cover my trip mines, and again on the corner I fall back to to defend.

No proper holds available in my build, just web grenade for immobilisation. 2 +acc SO's, 2 +recharge and 2 +hold duration means I can get most bosses immobilised pretty quickly and for long enough to incinerate them where they stand with Ignite. Light 'em up, run away, watch them burn. I'm told it's not an auto-hit attack, but it certainly appears to work like one. With 3 +damage and 2 +recharge SO's it has never failed to waste any boss with a maximum of four shots, and it one-shots most minions up to +1. Expect it to be nerfed soon then...

Even before the Praetorians he was a very slow character to play. Failure to carefully pick the right ground to fight on and thoroughly prepare it with mines and caltrops would usually result in a trip to the ICU. As would any attempt to stand and front it out aggressively rather than play defensively - AR just doesn't seem to have the damage output for head-on confrontations, and slow firing animations across the board only make it worse. It takes my four best shots consecutively, including snipe, to drop just one Malta Sapper - only he can easily fire twice, totally depleting my endurance in the time I can get off three shots... mines it is then. Spending too long trading shots in the open usually results in death by loss of hit points, or worse, and even with plenty of break frees (a must at all times regardless) being mez'd in full view - once that happens it's usually time for some hospital food. Incidentally, I've noticed that regular break frees do NOT work for me at all against a mez from an orange+ mob (seven perma-mez deaths in ten minutes in one carnie mission alone, and nearly as pitiful a showing against Malta Gunslingers) So, heroic only from then on.

I don't have either of the AR/Dev mez's (Beanbag/Tazer) Apparently the smart money is on taking both and slotting them heavily for +acc/+disorient duration, but then I've never claimed to be smart. Tried beanbag slotted as recommended but respec'd it out as it rarely worked for me. Never even bothered trying Tazer as a result. Anyway, I can't fit them into my preferred build (even with no travel power, which frees up a couple of power picks)

As my build (and the way I'm used to playing it) is almost totally focused on defensive/mining tactics it's probably as team-unfriendly as you can get. Until I can get used to the idea of rebuilding him differently, I suspect this is one solo that won't be getting to L50 any time soon, if ever.

Missed this when it was posted, and I've no idea which sever you're on. If it's Defiant, and if you're still after doing a respec, my L26 robotics MM could use one. If you see GUNHED Zero on fell free to gimme a shout.

Been doing some experiments using herostats with my low-lev brute since reading this thread. With 3 TO's (around +24% to base to hit) in my two main attacks (Punch and Haymaker) I'm hitting between 50-60% of the time against white minions. Rarely as good as, but never better than 70% hit rate against even cons. I would have hoped for maybe 70-80% average with +24% assuming base to hit against evens is 75%, unless low-lev minions have a lot more defence adds that I'm not aware of? Strangely, my latest attack, Knockout Blow, with only one Acc TO, seems to be hitting far more often comparatively - consistently 45-50%. Wonder if it has an inherent Acc+?

Hit rates against yellows and higher are all over the place, but always below 50%. Whatever, my brute certainly feels like a grind to play compared to my tank and scrapper when they were similar levels.

Ahh, I see, so the consensus is that a Brutes 'Gauntlet' effect is limited to just the target you're actually pummeling and doesn't generate an AoE taunt against other mobs that are in melee range but not being hit. Sounds reasonable and makes sense. Thanks for all the replies.

So, I've recently made my first Brute, Super Strength/Invul, and I notice that as well as all the usual enhancement suspects (damage, acc, recharge, KB/disorient and end reduction) all the SS attacks so far also allow taunt duration enhancements to be slotted as well. This surprised me somewhat as I didn't expect it to be the case.

I already have an Invul/SS tanker, and to date I've just assumed that the only reason he could slot taunt duration enhancements on all his attacks was because his inherent Gauntlet power added a taunt component to them in the first place. I also thought the Gauntlet inherent ability was unique to Tankers alone (AFAIK no other AT gets more than one inherent power) Yet my Brute also seems to have it - in addition to his inherent Fury power (at least, I'm assuming his attacks have taunt seeing as I'm I'm allowed to enhance their taunt duration!)

So is Gauntlet/taunt/punchvoke/whatever inherent to the SS powerset irrespective of AT? Or is it just a mistake they made when transferring the SS set over to CoV? Or even something else entirely?

Thanks in advance.

My only interest in joining any SG would be to team regularly with other the members. Most single AT groups would seem to me to maybe be less useful in that respect compared mixed AT groups (I'm aware there is an all-empath SG... wonder how that works?) and if so I doubt if I would want to join one personally.

[ QUOTE ]
I wanted to see if what I was reading was true, I logged in as my empath last night and got invited onto two teams without any problems. What really stuck out was how poor my damage output was. Great night on both teams but I remember why many empaths ignore their secondary.

[/ QUOTE ]

That pretty much mirrors my experience 100% across the board. Yesterday I logged my empath on very briefly, purely to take some pics of her for an SG costume competition, and I got two team invites in the few minutes she was on. Happens all the time. As to damage output, heh, don't make me laugh, the only reason I currently have ANY powers from my energy plaster secondary is that I literally cannot take anymore from empathy, and I already have all the pool powers I need and many I don't, and cannot take any more pools.

Exactly what I was looking for, thank you.

Yeah, sure, bows are cool if that's what you're into, each to his or her own and all that... still, the less frivolous part of my post was asking how the Archery powerset actually compares with the AR powerset in game terms. Anyone able to enlighten me there?

Now you mention it I've NEVER seen an Archery blaster! Can't say as it surprises me though - pretty dumb wanting a bow when guns are on offer! (JOKE people, lighten up! )

Seriously thought - currently the Assault Rifle is... how shall I put it?... possibly the most sub-optimal choice of blaster powerset. In case anyone's unaware, AR is generally characterised by slow animations AND poor inherent point/burst damage with no inherent aim/build up type ability, meaning very poor damage output over time compared to any other blaster set. No uber-nuke, although AR's top tier equivalent Full Auto burst is ranged, not PBAoE, cycles relatively fast and doesn't drain you, so IMO is generally more useful in a wider variety of situations IF you're mindful of the insane aggro it draws (it's not referrred to as Full Aggro for nothing!) ARs only unarguable upside a small inherent +Acc bonus (+5% IIRC) on most of it's attacks, and a hefty +Acc (+30% or so, again, IIRC) on the Flamethrowers cone AoE. Plus guns are cool.

So, to the point - how does the Archery powerset compare overall with the AR? Better/more powerful? How? - better damage, faster animations? Or is it equally mediocre? Heavens forbid it's worse, although if so it might explain why I've never seen any bow blasters around.

[ QUOTE ]
I know this may offend some people so please don't take this as an invitation to flame but I do know what you mean and would suggest that maybe a change of server could help?

[/ QUOTE ]

Also not wanting to offend here, just reporting my own personal (and limited) experiences -

I started playing on Defiant because the R/L friends who introduced me to CoH were on it. When they left the game and I found it getting increasingly hard to get teams I eventually decided to see if a change to Union might be better for me. Maybe I was just unlucky, or perhaps I didn't give it long enough, but personally I found it much harder (impossible) to get onto (or recruit, the only times I've ever really tried) even halfway decent teams there. After (enforced) soloing to L10 I packed it in when I got given Frostfire and couldn't get anyone to help me with it.

Okey doke, I get it now - he CAN be taught! - thanks all.

I guess I kind of see where Lode is coming from at least in some respects. Whatever the exact reasons, I supspect CoV hasn't exactly helped the situation - I've only been playing it for two weeks myself, but already I have pretty much totally given up on teaming in that game. Took me a lot longer to do so in CoH, although maybe I was less jaded when I stated heroing.

Whatever, I'm a confirmed soloist in both games now. For me teaming is most often a frustrating, even miserable experience. Is that down to me? I don't THINK so, though I'll admit I'm hardly best placed to judge. Is it down to the PUG's I team with. Well, yes, usually I'd say it is. Has it become worse lately? IMO definitely. Is that a reflection of the 'community' at large? Well, I'm not sure but I guess it must be.

I can't remember the last time I added someone to my friends list - virtually everyone on my list is someone I met way back in my Hollows days with my first ever character. They've all long outlevelled me and moved on now, but they still take the time to chat to me, and we team once in a while with me providing the comedy (face down) sidekick relief.

As to comments about people not chatting and stuff, Lode my man, speaking purely for myself I'm not too proud to admit that I'm probably your stereotypical saddo online RPG'er. I have precious little life outside the game and few R/L friends. I'm socially incompetant and find starting any kind of conversation awkward, much more so with people I've never met face to face and hardly know ...and I don't imagine I'm unique in that respect. Bottom line, if I don't initiate conversations with people it's NOT because I dislike them, I'm just not comfortable with it.

I probably would like to be more actively involved with other people in the game, but I don't require it to enjoy playing. I'm still happy enough bumbling around solo, and as long as I am I'll continue playing. I guess if one has higher expectations of the community side of the game it's bound to affect one's enjoyment more if it seems like your expectations aren't being met, or worse still, it's deteriorating. Maybe I just have low expectations...

As someone somewhere once said - "Hope is but the first step on the road to disappointment". lol!

[ QUOTE ]
1 as the posters before have said it does rehide you and remove you from the npc agro list for a short time so they can not see you.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for all the replies, and sorry if I'm still being dense here, but Placate is just single target, yes? So, unless I'm only up against a single target (has never happened and don't ever expect it to) I still can't see how it's useful to me personally because anyone (everyone) else aggro'd and not Placated will still be wailing on me and interrupting my AS? ...and wail on me they will - because as a solo, there IS no one else for them to attack! ...or am I still not understanding what you're all saying about how Placate works?

My current tactic is to AS the big guy, and if that doesn't floor him maybe get in an extra hit or two on him whilst Build Up is still running. Then (unless I think I can handle it from there) I beat feet big time using super speed before the main mans mates batter me into a greasy spot. Has worked well so far, and I can't see how placate would improve matters for me. Though if it could, I'd love to hear the specifics.


[ QUOTE ]
TBH if your just PVE'ing stealth or invis will not be worth taking (stealth and invis DO stack with hide so do the defence bonus) as hide will give you all the concealment that you would need but no amount of stealth will make you invisable to certain mobs types like rikti drones or nemesis snipers

[/ QUOTE ]

Yup, solo PvE only for me, so all other considerations are moot. Great, and thanks again, this is exactly the info I needed - I was hoping that enough stacked concealments might fool snipers and Rikti drones, sadly, seems like a no-go. Least I know now.

I'm still considering stealth/invis for when I'm ghosting missions - just recently I'd got to the target without touching any other mobs and then my AS missed. Oops - no worries, I'll run away. Or not. I got nailed by mobs I'd bypassed to get to the target, who spotted me even with superspeed running (my hidden status hadn't yet returned obviously, nor did I have time to wait for it as the guy I'd failed to AS and his crew were in hot pursuit)

This isn't an isolated occurrence, and in fact these sort of situations are the only times I've faceplanted solo.

So in the case of a bungled AS and immediate withdrawal, I'm wondering if running stealth permanently with my existing superspeed (or better still full invisibility, if I can toggle it fast enough) would make it easier for me to escape past existing (previously un-aggro'd) mobs? - or would it make no difference?

Final thought - I'm also considering taking Stealth, and possibly Combat Jumping for their defence bonuses (and I kind of want Super Jump as well) I know they are only small bonuses, but I'm Regen so I currently have pretty much no defence adds at all once my hide gets voided by me attacking. Also, apart from possibly Placate, there are no other powers yet available to me that I really want/need, so I figured any extra defence, even a little, has got to be an improvement? I'd value your opinions.

I share your pain, and it seems to me to make no sense at all. I can live with pets inability to travel between zones, no biggie IMO, as they're usually covered by security drones - it's their inability to use mission doors that seems totally unfair to me. AFAIK no other AT is automatically rendered almost totally helpless simply by using a mission door. You can be in REALLY deep doo-doo if an enemy happens to be standing just inside (or outside) when you arrive... alone and minion-less.

...and don't even get me started on teams who suddenly decide to 'all out and reset the mission' just as you finish summoning and buffing all your pets.

Although, now I think about it... lately I HAVE noticed a semi-regular 'bug' where my other AT's have had all their toggles mysteriously dropped when they exit a mission... not always, and only ever on exiting a mission (door or exit button) but still, often enough for it to have been a problem on more than a few occasions. Particularly nasty for my stalker - you certainly do NOT want to exit a mission in a rough (masses of purple mobs) part of town brazenly un-hidden.

Hmmm... just a bug? ...or maybe WAI in an attempt to nerf everyone equally?

My first Stalker, some newbie questions.

1) Lots of people here seem to think Placate is a must-have power, but I'm unclear as to exactly what it does or how to actually use it in practice (ok, I admit it, I'm stupid) Could anyone explain to me exactly what placate does/how it should be used please?

I should add that I'm a solo/PvE only player on Heroic. I don't team and I don't do PvP. Obviously I don't want to waste a power pick on something that may not actually be of use to me specifically and that I won't be able to respec out.

2) I understand that there are various forms of concealemnt, main ones I'm aware of that seem most relevant to stalkers appear to be - Hide (naturally) Stealth and Invis, plus I believe Super Speed also has a stealth component? So, do all these stack with each other if used together - i.e. is a Hidden, Stealthed/Invisible Super Speeding stalker any harder to spot (say for snipers or other mobs with improved perception) than one with just the basic Hide running? Also, do the defence bonuses stack?

Thanks in advance.

[ QUOTE ]
I have it 2recharge, 1 def at the minute...but I've been sneaky with my empathy defender and respec'd out of the fort slots and put them in my attacks instead. Makes life a little easier for me, and no-one is any the wiser.

I found that if you give someone fort, they're not going to know whether you've got 3 +def in there or whatever, as long as they see the shiny red glow, they're happy enough!

At some point I'm of course going to put the slots back, but in the meantime I've slotted up cosmic burst to great effect. Maybe at 40 or 42 I'll stick the fort slots back in there like it used to be, 2 rec, 2 def, 2 tohit.

Does that make me a bad person?

[/ QUOTE ]

Pretty much what Brit_Man said! (so if he's bad guess I must be too) 3 recharge rate is all I have in mine ATM. Got my Fortitude to that state pretty much as soon as I could so that I could use it as often as possible - THAT'S what the public seems to want.

Since the latest defence changes I'm somewhat sceptical about boosting defence. If and when more slots become available for Fort I may put some 'to hits' in, but realistically, as Brit_Man says, who's gonna know either way?

Yeah, I guess it can be a 2-edged sword with my empath. On the one hand, I can't complain about XP and levelling - she outstrips my other alts hands down and has done pretty much since day one.

OTOH, as seems to be the way with all the PUG's I play with, no one ever wants to do her missions. Being a full team empath build with minimal apttack powers, soloing (particularly now she's mid-40's) is well nigh impossible. She is getting SO far behind with her missions it's ridiculous.

Getting to L50 isn't a big deal to me, and I actually enjoy working through the content a lot, so it's not an ideal situation. Then again, I guess it's an imperfect world.

[ QUOTE ]
Have just started playng with a specific AR/Dev SG and have to say that in a team of 6 we literally do pwn everything in our way. I know thats the same with any specific team dynamics (I have always found duplicate powerset teams to be awesome since our 8 man bubbler team herded the lvl 10/11s in hallows when we were at lvl 5/6)

It is a lot of fun at the moment, just wait till we hit sirens

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear you. I have only once been fortunate enough to play in an all blaster team (3 AR and an energy) it was a total bullet fest, and we effortlessly laid waste to everything that got in our way.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Secondly, is it my imagination, or do trip mines now require you to be fairly close to them in order to be detonated by enemies?

[/ QUOTE ]

point i picked up on, yes you do and you can make controlled detonations without caltrops, use a tanker, scrapper or any squishie toon phaseshifted to herd.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting... though as a solo without the concealment pool, none of those options are open to me. Caltrops all the way then.

[ QUOTE ]
"You there , Death or Cake?"

[/ QUOTE ]

Ermmm... before I decide... what kind of cake are you offering?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Best thing to do is to join the SG and check the members. If you get in and theres nobody on or they aren't in your level range, apologise and say that this isn't the SG for you and leave.

[/ QUOTE ]

OR wait till no ones looking and slink off

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, pretty much exactly what I've done so far (though if your SG officials are rarely if ever on when you are, how else can you do it?)

I don't think bases have helped the situation much - what with SG's getting Prestige for any schmuck who joins, and needing ridiculous amounts of the stuff just to have a desk lamp or whatever - well, it seems to me that some SG's only reason for recruiting people might be to bolster their coffers. The only contact I ever really got from either of my SG's after I joined was when the L50's at the top kept asking me to be in SG mode for Prestige (and very occasionally low level members pestering me for influence) I don't even have CoV and so can't use the base (and to be honest, wouldn't WANT to even if I could) ...well, it does kind of feel like a bit of a one-way door there IMO.