gec72

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I've been around the block with this a few times, so I believe a heroic version of this NEEDS to use a different framework. More specifically, it needs to have Summon as a secondary, possibly with support-heavy pets, with a self-initiative primary like Assault or Blast or at the very least Control. This gives the hero the initiative and puts him front row centre, with his followers following behind and supporting him. This has the hero act like a hero should - by taking the risks and protecting his people.

I think the other way you can go forward with this is with a single henchman that you can upgrade (read, give more powers and visual upgrades to) as a primary ENTIRELY devoted to that one henchman. If he goes down, you're following in pretty short order. The secondary can then be support, I suppose, though with a primary that's "all about the henchman," it might be redundant. Call it Control, perhaps. It doesn't really have the "big hero" vibe to it, but it fulfils the role many "pure" Defenders aim to achieve - you're a wimpy, fragile hero whose only real ability is to help others. Only you have one other to help right from your powersets.

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I've not read the Blue-Side MM threads in a while, but thinking about a suggestion in another thread (posted in the wrong forum) had me leaning this way as well. Make a new AT that is maybe more like a reverse-Dominator; dominator secondary as the primary, with a control secondary that contains a lone sidekick. Maybe the whole set IS the sidekick, to allow for some variety.

Make the sidekick customizable. Maybe give it a reverse bodyguard, where if the sidekick takes damage, you get a portion of it (of course without good AI, that could get somewhat frustrating). Might be interesting to play.

Really does belong in the Suggestions forum.

With the requests for a blue-side equivalent to MMs, sure, why not? Make a new AT that is somewhere between a controller and a MM. Make it a Melee AT with a control secondary containing the Sidekick.

Hmm. I've been making a decent living these days just from running missions and selling common salvage - I'm all for keeping the prices higher (if I need a piece of salvage badly enough, I'll either pay, run more missions, or run to the AE and roll some, selling the extras).

Your plan might help the poor, won't hurt the rich, but will squeeze the middle class.

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Pain Domination is entirely based on mental control. You don't actually 'heal' anyone, you just make them ignore any pain they might be feeling.

Kind of like how someone hopped up on PcP can demonstrate feats of 'invulnerability'.

Which is why it's a villainous powerset.

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Right. We would never give heroes the ability to Dull Pain as a combat ability. That would be off-theme. In other news, Aspirin is evil.

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:| Because Pain Domination is so much different from Empathy. Oi.

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Pain Domination is "Suck it up son! Be a man!"

Empathy is "now now, Mommy kiss it and make it better!"

So um, men are evil and women are good, or something.

How about a change to the inherent where the more teammates you have, the better the primary performs, and the less teammates you have the better the secondary performs?

Say the base is a team of four. Defender operates just as it does now. Increase the size of the team to 5? Boost the effects of the primary by 3%*, decrease the secondary by 3%. Increase to 6, buff the primary another 3%, decrease the secondary another 3%.

Move down to a team of three, decrease the primary by 3% but give a 3% bump to secondary's damage. Step them the same for a team of two, and solo give three bumps to damage (important solo) and three drops to the primary (not always as important).


* just given for illustration...the numbers would need to be balanced obviously. And maybe the "equilibrium" would be a team of five and not four. Just throwing out an idea.

Red Tomax's contact guide is also very good:

http://www.redtomax.com/contacts/cov.php

This?

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....16#Post13710016

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Melee/Buff Archetype.

Give them Defender damage mods, or Mastermind buff mods or whatever. Defenders/Corruptors do it at range. Why can't someone have the same amount of damage but close to melee? Closing to melee is inherently weaker.

Katana/Kinetics
Super Strength/Radiation
War Mace/Empathy.

Nothing says "I care" like a a pipe wrench to the face.

*Off topic: Stop stalking me Chriffer*

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I had wrote this up awhile ago. Called it the "Guardian AT"

I had it at .9 for most AT mods.

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I'm hoping that GR introduces a new batch of its own ATs. That would be high on my list too.

Hmm...Dominators could really use a -RES set.

Save that, with that combo I'd probably go for sets with -DEF as many others here have advised.

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Looking forward to Thorntrops, but then I tend to like DoT slows (Rain of Fire, Freezing Rain).

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Talen is right - thorntrops is the exact same power as caltrops with a different animation. It's maximum damage potential is high but it's spread over 45 seconds where the rain powers only take 15 seconds.

I still think both of them are neat powers as they can be constantly up with no extra slotting and my /devices blasters use them as a melee denial tool with great effect (throw them at your feet, enemies get at MOST 1 shot with melee before turning and fleeing - if they close with you at all) which would work even better with a dominator, I just wouldn't waste any slots on them.

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Ok, difference noted. I've not had caltrops on a character yet (picking it up on my DB/WP when I get to 41 just for kicks, but not quite there yet) so the other two powers were the closest comparisons I've had experience with. I use RoF not only for the damage but for the mitigation (yes, I'm strange like that), so I do like that aspect of trops. It might not be bread and butter but I'm sure I'll find uses for it.

I have a Stone Brute that I've been wanting to reroll as an Earth Dom, so this is great news for me.

Thorn Burst is the one power from /Thorny that I'm leaving out of my build. The 3s cast just seems way too long (I'm not a fan of Combustion, either).

Looking forward to Thorntrops, but then I tend to like DoT slows (Rain of Fire, Freezing Rain).

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Doms require a very unique "blapper" type of playstyle. You'll constantly be moving in and out of melee range. Though with Plant/Thorns I find it best to lay out solid Aoe Control first (seeds of confusion) and then go in with my hevay hitting melee attacks.

Plant/Thorn is one of the safest dom set out there. Especially after you get seeds. I'm not a fan of the immobilizes, they set up containment for controllers, but in general they don't do that much for doms. Except get you huge amount of aggro. However, casting the immobilize after you cast seeds isn't a bad thing. That can work out well...and add to the damage you're doing to the mobs.

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My Plant/Thorns dinged 26 last night, and this very much sums up my experience thus far. Lead with Seeds, follow with Roots, then use the Thorns attacks. Definitely have a blapper mentality.

I'm not so down on the immobs though - between Roots/Carrion Creepers/Thorntrops, I'm planning on keeping mobs right where I want them, sucking them try*.


*well...and *eventually* getting them wet too, as I plan on getting Water Spout

I'd wondered the same; if some standard mobs give greater xp (Tsoo, Freaks), it would make some sense for custom mobs of greater difficulty to give greater rewards. Unless that could somehow be gamed too.

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No "sane" person uses SOs?

I do, good sir, disagree!

IO'ing at level 25 takes more time, and more inf than fully outfitting in SOs. For some, time and/or inf are rarer commmodities.

Also, as I open up slots on my 45+ characters, I sometimes put SOs in there, as I don't have the time or inclination to shop for or build IOs.

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Agreed. For the most part if the slot is one that I am planning on eventually filling with a set IO, I will slot SO there until I get the set piece. I'd rather just pay for the SO - even if I have to replace it - while saving the crafting cost and making money by vendoring the IO recipe and marketing the required salvage.

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While testing a new arc tonight, I encountered some buggy behavior. Along with several other goals, the mission at issue included two instances of a "release captive" goal. All the enemies' and hostages' dialogue and animations played correctly, and the hostage properly ran away once the captors were defeated.

However, as soon as the hostage reached an elevator, the mission failed. The system seems to be treating the hostage as an escaping boss. Has anyone else seen this happen, either in a published mission or in testing?

I should add that the mission at issue could be "legitimately" failed, since it is timed, but both times I tested it and saw this bug, I had well over an hour of time left. I wonder if the "failable" flag is part of what's causing this problem.

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Yes - my son is writing an arc that had a release captive, and when I tested the mission containing it the mission failed when the captive reached the mission door.

His mission was a timed one as well.

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So I've been reading this thread for the past few days and instead of joining in on what could be done I decided to do something.I hopped on my lvl 30 scrapper today and searched for people in atlas that had no vet badges and no exploration badges outside of atlas. The first thing I asked them was if they had ever left the zone and if they hadn't asked them if they wanted to do non-AE missions. I got a full team of AE babies within ten minutes. We went off to Talos to do as many missions as we could. They all had to follow me to the trains and through Steel, but asked questions when something new popped up they didn't know about. If you have patience then I suggest you do this as well. It will help to get them away from the AE buildings at least for a little while. I know it's not a permanent fix but every bit helps to get them to notice the rest of the game.

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Five years later, we finally stumble upon the reason for Group Fly.

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And that's why I think that AE should give something like Patrol XP instead of regular XP.

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Bah. Players leaving AE and joining TFs at level 50 with questions like "what are enhancements" and "how do I get to the train" are not a symptom of informed players choosing an alternate style. They are a symptom of uninformed players whose expectations about the rest of the game have been poorly established by their experiences in the AE. Mind you, those players have not done anything wrong. The developers screwed up by presenting a path that left players ignorant of how most of the game's content worked.

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Quoting this idea because it was similar to the one I had a few pages ago. AE XP gets stored, then gets converted to real XP when you play outside of AE. Maybe at a 50/50 clip; earn half XP while in AE, get the other half later.

Pros:
* it encourages players to do things outside of AE (to get the rest of the XP)
* it still gives some XP for AE missions
* you can still level completely in AE - just at half the pace

Cons:
* for vets, it might mean that you have to spend more time out of AE than you might like


Looking at this from a canon standpoint...why would the city award the "Hero of the City" badge to someone who hasn't actually done anything for the city? Explain the half and half XP thing as getting practice in the AE which isn't *quite* like the real thing, but does train you to be more effective when you do fight in the "real" world (the banked AE XP bonus).

I suppose that could be the case. I don't think he mentioned a preorder though (this was on 6/20 - before it was available, possibly).

I always got the impression that PC games there were an afterthought at GameStop - relegated to one little shelf. Even on just that trip I spent more on Wii/GameCube/DS stuff for the kids.

Bank AE XP as you might Patrol XP. You're earning it, but to fully *apply* it you have to earn "real" XP. When real XP is earned, the banked AE is too. In effect putting you in double XP mode.

The XP from AE is still there, it's not lost. You just need to do something else to have it count. Maybe doing this at a 100% clip wouldn't fly (it *has* been stated as a *feature* that a toon could level from 1-50 in the AE). 50/50 maybe?

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Everything else about Malta is fun except for Sappers, IMO.

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Actually, while I agree they're a pain, Sappers aren't why I avoid Malta. Especially solo, they seem to have toned down how many Sappers you see in a regular Malta mission.

No, the reason I avoid Malta on characters lacking mez protection is the stun grenades. The Stun of Doom. The "go read a book while this wears off" stun.

I think it's notable the the stun grenade mez from a +2 boss will outlast a single Break Free. "Well don't play on CR:5!" you say? Well, I can against all the other foes and generally not be mezzed all day long. Even Rikti, who are a wild mezfest, don't mez that severely. Does it say anything that I'd rather face +2 Rikti than +2 Malta? I think it does. Oh, and the Rikti give better reward on top of it.

And now, hey, they mez even more. Cool.

Just sayin'.

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That drives me nuts. I've had fights where I got mezzed, popped a Break Free, finished the fight then started to move to the next group...only to have the BF end and go loopy. Funny, but a bit annoying. Actually annoying enough that I completely avoided Malta on my Nrg/Kin - she just had no tools to handle that, save for a bucketfull of break frees.

Is this related to 'linked WW sliders' bug, or 'seeing vertical cursors everywhere now' bug?