gameboy1234

#1 Well we just had a new player miss their Patron Pools because they didn't know they had to talk to someone:

http://boards.cityofvillains.com/showfla...=0#Post13638504

I'd like to see Arbiter Rein, Facemaker and Gorgeous Glenda added to your contacts list, as well as a pop-up when these guys become available. Likewise, when your level 1 contact goes active for the cape and aura mish, I think you should get a pop up (any contact actually, that goes from Inactive to Active should warrant a pop-up, I think). Make the text say something like "So-and-so has new work for you" rather than the "So-and-so has contacted you).

I forget about these guys all the time too, frankly.


#2 When the last time the help file was upgraded? I think I have some ideas here too. /cmdlist doesn't cut it. I haven't looked, but are the newer feature from later Issues described in the regular help? More later as I check into this... we've had some really nice UI improvements over all but I haven't noticed any on the in-game help.


#3 Auto-leveling for a fee got mentioned on Test. I think auto-leveling to 50 would be boring, but the more I think about it a boost to 20 or 25 would be awesome. Get rid of the boring bits of re-leveling a character or making a new character. 20 is about when most characters start to get good.

Or just make us pay $5 per week for access to Meow-Mix. Whichever.

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To gain access you must do one of the Patron's Arcs first. First, find Arbiter Rein in Grandville. He'll lead you to a Patron.

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Wow,...I had no idea. So, the fact that I'm about to turn level 50 probably means I'm pretty much screwed

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I'd like to see Arbiter Rein, Facemaker and Gorgeous Glenda added to your contacts list, as well as a pop-up when these guys become available (that's level 20, 30, and 40). Likewise I'd like to see your cape mish get a pop up too, because it's easy to miss your level 1 contact going active again.

Just my 2 tickets.

And if he hasn't, hot key "petcomall pas fol$$petcomall def fol" to reign in the pets.

Then just wait. That mob will come back. But you don't want to let your pets go chasing, that's a disaster.

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The biggest thing I've noticed with my zombie/pain MM is that every team I've joined expected me to be the primary healer, which meant they expected me to focus on the Pain powers over the necro powers.

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All my MMs play this way. Solo, the primary is important. On a team, I concentrate on my secondary and the pool powers (mostly Medicine for me). Sometimes I don't even bother to bubble the pets, just the team.


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I ended up making my second build into a "Support Role"

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I did this too. My level 50 Bots/FF has one raiding-team build and one screwing-around-solo build. It's one of the things that makes MMs interesting, imo.

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Aah alright, thanks a ton ^_^ Another question, then. How can I handle more than one enemy? Since I cant order them to attack a different one thats beating on me, as well. Or is it one of those "Kill the first creature(s) quick with the extra mitigation so you can kill the next one before it kills you" thing?

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Normally, you WANT your pets to attack the mob that's beating on you, so they pull aggro and leave you free.

Once your pets do pull off everything that's hitting you, THEN you can order them around. As I mention, it's safest to leave one or two on bodyguard mode and just order the remainder on to specific targets.

You can select targets a bit while in Defensive mode, since pets will tend to target whatever is closest to them. If you need to remove a guy hitting you, go stand next to some of your pets.

No. Clicking the Attack button sets them on Aggressive, so you loose bodyguard mode right then.

Yes, you HAVE to let them retaliate and attack ONLY when you've been hit, or you lose bodyguard mode. You can also let a pet get hit, it doesn't have to be you personally. All pets respond when one pet gets clobbered.

The later fact suggests a tactic: send one pet in to Attack on target. Preferably a target no one has engaged yet, so it will in turn attack your pet. Then all your pets get involved as soon as one of your pets receives damage.

This gives you most of bodyguard mode. Don't forget to return all pets to bodyguard mode after each fight. If you keep Attacking with a different pet, eventually they'll all be off Defensive and no bodyguard mode for you.

What I do is leave one or two pets on Aggressive and put two on Defensive. This gives me immediate attacks and still keeps bodyguard mode. If I notice my pets aren't engaging, I put them all aggressive. If I start to take damage, I have "petcomall Def Fol" hot-keyed so I get 100% bodyguard mode back in a hurry.

Mastermind don't stand around, you have to actively manage your pets.

I'd at least consider /Poison too for it's AV killing potential. While /Traps probably does a better job all-around, I don't think you should just write-off /Poison for adding punch to a good team.

That said, StrykerX is perfectly correct. Any well played MM is going to boost your team, so if you have some preference thematically, go with that. I like Bots/Traps in that regard, but whatever seems good to you would be fine.

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The big thing with Bots right now is that Protector Bot thing going on that keeps them colliding with their seeker drones and they get stuck and cannot move around them. Supposedly this will be fixed come i15 but who knows?


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Yes, this is fixed on Test Server right now and it works great. The Seeker Drones have had all clipping turned off. Nothing gets stuck on them now.

The trick there is learning how to control the pets while you pull.

Put pets on Def Follow. Quickly aggro (Force Bolt) a mob and pull it away from the crowd. You have a bout 5 seconds of time until your pets respond, so re-issue the Def Follow command as needed until you get to a safe spot to fight.

You will get adds this way, but very, very seldom from more than one group. Mostly you'll get a couple of whites an a yellow while playing solo. This should still be easy to deal with.

As you pull, you'll have full bodyguard mode since you're using Def Follow. With 2/3 damage resistance to everything, you're pretty tough to kill or even injure significantly. If you add Life Tap from your primary, survivability goes up.

After you get to where you want to fight, don't re-issue any more pet commands. Let the timer on Def Follow expire. This will keep you in bodyguard mode, which is essential to avoiding sudden spikes in damage taken. After your pets pull some aggro from you (a good reason to use Force Bolt, it damages mobs only a little and therefore doesn't cause much aggro on you directly), you can order your pets to attack a single target to kill things off quicker.

One thing to remember is you can "perma ghetto hold" one mob by Force Bolting the bejeesus out of it. They can't fight you when they're being force bolted into a wall. That takes one mob out of the fight, and since few things have KB resistance most mobs are susceptible to this technique. Accuracy and Recharge are essential here, and EndRedux and Range in FB helps too. And unlike a Defender you can have your pets do damage as you FB.

My Zombie/FF never made it past level 6 so I can't say how great Z/FF is in later levels, although my Zombie/Poison seemed ok while I was playing it.

Well, a /Stone Brute is something to think about for your team, but for Mastermind options, here's what occurs to me:

1. /FF is a possibility, and with the Def buffs you have now your entire team will exceed the soft cap. Should make for very safe and fun gameplay. Little will be able to touch you.

2. However, given that you do already have a lot of Def, you might want to think about offense instead. Both /Poison and /Dark are good debuffing sets. The /Poison in particular might allow you to take down very tough targets, and it has a bit of healing and AoE debuff for ordinary fights.

However I think the winner might be /Traps. Debuffs plus the Force Field generator might provide the biggest boost to your team.

3. With a regular play group, everyone taking Leadership is something to think about. Stacking up Maneuvers and Tactics from everybody should be quite a boost. Something to think about it. Taking and slotting Maneuvers for both the Stalker and the MM gives about +10% Def for the whole team. Combined with the Widow and Bane (assuming they slot too) that's about 32% Def for the team -- not counting Mind Link.

4. Primary, doesn't matter. Bots look coolest, imo, but take what ever tickles your fancy.

I have Bots/FF and I love it. I think that it unfairly gets a bad name for being boring. First, the guides say to skip personal attacks, and that's a mistake at low levels. Second, you're not ordering your pets around enough and mashing things with Force Bolt. These things will make you more active.

Just my 2 Tickets, but I do things Bots/FF rep is undeserved.

Yeah, bots/FF is my main and I love it. I don't find it boring, you just have to come up with interesting ways to use Force Bolt. Also, it helps greatly if you take your first two personal attacks. This adds to damage (a great thing when you only have two or three pets at low levels) and gives you a button to mash too.

Something like Bots/Dark, Thugs/Dark or Merc/Dark will probably give you a good feel for the AT though, as well as being a bit more standard in play. Again, you should probably take two of your personal attacks to boost damage and give you a bit more to do.

/Pain Domination like /FF only buffs at low levels, and /Trick Arrow is kinda slow getting started, I didn't care for it at all.

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Do you have any idea how hard it is to actually do those tests while doing missions in the distant past? Things kept throwing greek fire at me, or my pets would draw ALL the agro the instant I try getting stuff to hit me.

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Well, that's why when I mentioned to the OP about practicing, I said to practice on the street with lower level mobs. Greys and greens pose little threat to any MM, and you can concentrate on the results of the fight rather than worry about dieing.

Also, I mentioned the battle spam window. It's great for new MMs. You don't have to look at damage and guess, bodyguard mode is printed right in the window every time it happens.

Just to be crystal clear, here's an old pic. Look in the lower left corner in the chat pane. See where it says "Your henchmen protect you from 141 points of damage. You take 47 points of damage?" That's bodyguard mode.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m.../bodyguard.jpg

So if you're are ever not sure, open that chat pane and watch it, because it's right there.

Lastly, bodyguard mode comes from Supremacy. Supremacy has an 80ft range (iirc) and is Line of Sight. Lose Supremacy and lose bodyguard mode. So you only have to glance at the icons in your pet window to see who has supremacy and who doesn't. You have to click on the little arrow on the side of your pet window to display those icons.

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There is a specific bind/macro for bodyguard mode. It is a deffensive follow, but it is different thanthe normal defensive follow.

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This of course is just plain wrong.

Madam Enigma, thanks for testing. We were all mostly sure that it was any of the Defensive modes, but it's good to make certain, especially because these things *can* change. I should check the test server, actually, just to make sure I15 isn't going to mess with this. (Or anyone could, it's open.)

2/6 = 1/3 = 33.3%

Taking 33.3% damage means you have 67.7% damage resistance. You resist two-thirds of the damage (which your pets absorb).

Just saying, for those who are unclear on how the "shares" thing actually works.

Yeah that's a fair point. /Pain seems to provide a good reason for keeping your personal attacks.

I'm /FF but I play my secondary very actively. I'm always force bolting something or trying to pin a bunch of mobs in a corner with Force Bubble. I don't really have time for attacks, and no way to boost them anyway. Other secondaries play differently. If attacks work for you, go for it.

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Hmm. Interesting. Maybe that's why my dang MM always dies. I just always click attack when i get in range to fight.

This game can be waaaay over the top if you don't have ALL the right info on your builds. lol

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Yeah, that is true.

Set you pets on Def Fol, then lead the attack yourself. You'll pull aggro, get 70% resistance, and then your pets will respond. As long as they are responding and not being ordered, they'll still count as "Def Fol" and you'll get bodyguard mode through the whole fight.

Once you figure this out, you get really tough really fast.

Line of Sight does cancel however so watch this. Even tiny transparent low walls like banisters, railing and chain link fences will block line of sight so keep an eye on your pet's icons to see if any have lost supremacy. If they're lost supremacy they've lost bodyguard mode.

I use hover to stay just above my pets. Helps stay in bodyguard mode a lot.

You can also see bodyguard mode in the combat window. It'll tell you when your pets block damage for you.

Play around with this, watching the combat spam window, with lower level foes (outside, street hunting) until you get the hang of it. Then the methods become easier to do when you are fighting higher level foes and you can't afford to watch the battle spam as much.

nm, it's 8 HOURS not 8 minutes. I'm stopping this turkey.

Any one got a fix for "fixing tempfile"?

Oooookay. It fixed all the piggs files, then re-downloaded the manifest. Now it's fixing tempfile. Wth?

9 minuutes estimated total time, but the file size / total shows 0 in the second part, and the progress bar doesn't move, although the time part is counting down ok.

Weird stuff...

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I know that beefing up one's flunkies is the main priority of a MM, but how do people feel about taking personal attacks as a MM? Many guides I've read stated that taking personal attacks is a waste of a power choice, how true is that?

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Those guides are somewhat obsolete. Simple math, pointed out by Jade Dragon about a year ago or so, says that the attacks at low levels actually add quite a bit of damage, because you don't have all your pets yet.

Below level 20 or so, take them. Around level 24, I found them fairly useless. with 5 pets and SOs at that point, the time and endurance spent on attacking just wasn't cutting it.

So at 24 I recommend you use your second build and rebuild your character with out the personal attacks. Usually my Jet Pack is running out around then, so usually I add in my travel power at that point.

Note to Devs: The piggs/ subdir also seemed about half empty. Hopefully the new piggs brought over from the regular CoH program file will fix this.

So you unplug your MoBo from your hard drive, plug the HD in to the new MoBo, and expect it to go?

I doubt it. mobos format the hard drive differently, and don't read each others formats. As mentioned it's possible to do this if you keep the same chip set and sometimes the same manufacturer, but in general, nope.

Worst cases: You'll have to sell your new mobo one ebay 'cause you can't use it. Or you'll have to buy a new hard drive and a few other components, and basically build a new rig.


One thought: transfer everything you want off the old HD onto a USB hard drive. Install new MoBo and reformat drive. You'll need a copy of an OS to run too. Ouch. Then install the OS just like a new comp. Copy info from external USB Hard Drive back to comp.

Long and painful, but that's as cheap as I can think of.

Yeah, I just found that thread myself. Thanks for the heads up. Hopefully we'll get an official work-around soon. In the meantime, I'm trying the piggs fix.



And while I'm waiting for the piggs to patch....


Devs nerfted our downloading power!!

I had this problem too. The file I deleted was CoHTest.checksum though, hope that was right.

Verifying now, we'll see if it goes.

If not, the quick method to get on test is what? I think....

1. Copy all files and subdirs in CityOfHeroes to CoHTest
2. Delete the checksum file.
3. Start patcher and let it patch.

I think, not sure. Anyone?

I had some trouble with downloading the latest patch. I stopped the pathcher, restarted it. It verified the files, "fixed" several and after about 30 minutes was ready to go again.

When I started up, CoH.exe gave me this error:

CityOfHeroes.exe - Unable to Locate Component. This application has failed to start because DfEngine.dll was not fund. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.


I notice that several files now seem to be missing from my CoHTest subdirectory. That's the main one right off the root. I don't know how to make a file list in text form Explorer so I'll post a screen shot instead. Please get a developer to look at it. At minimum, I think these files should be restored by the patcher, or not touched by it.

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...Red/CoHbug.jpg