The News Thread

[geldonyetich]

If you take someone from the low 30s to 50 in the month or so until Issue 8 is live... well, for one, you're not going to want to play any CoH for a while.

Having just taken a character from 18 to 32 in the space of 9 or 10 days, I'm nearly to the point of wanting a CoH vacation already. 

I'm currently waffling between Scrapper (which is fast-paced fun) and a Controller (which has more freedom of choice in combat), which is pretty bad sign I may be enjoying neither.  Actually, I'm enjoying both for their unique qualities.  However, the ease in which I can identify shortcomings in either (Scrappers are shallow, Controllers are slow) is leading to the alt-a-holicism that is cutting into my sense of continuity with either. Leveling one character to 50 takes time enough without me inadvertently trying to level up two. 

Choosing to go to the City of Villains is an entirely different can of worms.  I'd functionally be abandoning both characters outright for having outleveled much of the enhancements the next issue likely would bring (the Scrapper is 27, the Controller 32).  Throwing a villain into the mix just soups up the alt-a-holicism that much more by adding yet another character to entice my notice.

So basically, I'm caught between a mental rock and a hard place, my only real escape (other than quitting the game entirely) is to get one or the other to 50 before the issue is released.  That might be achievable if I can stick to a single character, but which?  Potent Scrapper or Flexible Controller? 

I've been wrestling with that for about half a week now since I discovered the Phantasm does not, in fact, make a Controller's damage particularly great.  That's too bad, it would have made the Scrapper's exceptional damage output a moot point, but Cryptic is too good at balancing for such an easy out.

[Edit: Here's an idea, if I don't get a 50th Hero by the time the new issue is out, I'll start a new Blaster.  Potency and relatively good sophistication in one package.  Sure, they die if they get sneezed on wrong, but that just makes things interesting.]

[Raging Turtle]

Psh, you're burned out.  Take a break.  If you force yourself to keep going you'll end up hating it and never go back.

[Glazius]

If you take someone from the low 30s to 50 in the month or so until Issue 8 is live... well, for one, you're not going to want to play any CoH for a while.

Having just taken a character from 18 to 32 in the space of 9 or 10 days, I'm nearly to the point of wanting a CoH vacation already. 

I'm currently waffling between Scrapper (which is fast-paced fun) and a Controller (which has more freedom of choice in combat), which is pretty bad sign I may be enjoying neither.  Actually, I'm enjoying both for their unique qualities.  However, the ease in which I can identify shortcomings in either (Scrappers are shallow, Controllers are slow) is leading to the alt-a-holicism that is cutting into my sense of continuity with either. Leveling one character to 50 takes time enough without me inadvertently trying to level up two. 

Choosing to go to the City of Villains is an entirely different can of worms.  I'd functionally be abandoning both characters outright for having outleveled much of the enhancements the next issue likely would bring (the Scrapper is 27, the Controller 32).  Throwing a villain into the mix just soups up the alt-a-holicism that much more by adding yet another character to entice my notice.

So basically, I'm caught between a mental rock and a hard place, my only real escape (other than quitting the game entirely) is to get one or the other to 50 before the issue is released.  That might be achievable if I can stick to a single character, but which?  Potent Scrapper or Flexible Controller? 

I've been wrestling with that for about half a week now since I discovered the Phantasm does not, in fact, make a Controller's damage particularly great.  That's too bad, it would have made the Scrapper's exceptional damage output a moot point, but Cryptic is too good at balancing for such an easy out.

[Edit: Here's an idea, if I don't get a 50th Hero by the time the new issue is out, I'll start a new Blaster.  Potency and relatively good sophistication in one package.  Sure, they die if they get sneezed on wrong, but that just makes things interesting.]

Good idea. Blasters, if played just stupidly enough, are real damage monsters, to the point that the OHSHITIT'SINMYFACE melee attack most blasters get at level 10 is on part with a scrapper's FINAL ASSAULT at 32.

Stupidly Obvious Question - you've got buildup for your scrapper, right? I just remember the ideas I had reading through the manual, some of which went "increases damage for a short period of time? Doesn't sound useful". I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

As far as damage on your illusion controller, part of that should be coming from the opposition's heavy hitter (yay Deceive), if you're soloing. Sure it ramps down experience slightly, but that damage is only counted for 1/4 when the XP is split, so you can get 1/5 damage out of your phantasm and/or army (when up) and still get 1/2 credit.

Also, safeguards and shared mission completion apply to heroes at all levels, and may actually come into play _more_ at higher levels. Case in point - Tina McIntyre, a Portal Corp contact who always has her first mission set to "investigate a psychic disturbance" which means "take down the Psychic Clockwork King", an archvillain whose opening salvo is a Psychic Wail, the tier-9 desperation nova of the psychic blast set. I'm betting that one is going to be a popular target for shared completion.

Police bands and safeguards can also break up the missioning from 35-40, where apparently a lot of heroes are stealthing missions on heroic with max debt, or something, and run out of stuff to do at 37 or so.

The only thing you might want to force yourself to do is get an extra costume from the Halloween people, and if you're in an SG whose members are badge completionists, you may just be able to pick the parts for that out of your group salvage. (Also, check the description on the Hamidon costume. It's _hilarious_.)

--GF

[Sky]

I've been wrestling with that for about half a week now since I discovered the Phantasm does not, in fact, make a Controller's damage particularly great.  That's too bad, it would have made the Scrapper's exceptional damage output a moot point, but Cryptic is too good at balancing for such an easy out.

One thing that's been bugging me in CoV is the lack of easy respecs. You don't know well enough from the description how a power is going to work or how it will integrate into your playstyle. I'm still without Acid Mortar or any travel powers because of that (granted, I'm lvl 16 and things spread out a bit pretty soon, but I'd still like more power over my character).

Trick or treats! New costume slot is nice. Turning in more for a respec would be nicer ;) Also, as usual the event brings out people's inner assholes. Had a lot of people jump a door I was getting ready to do, which is just annoying. But then there were a lot of high level players just clicking doors and flying away...spawning a bunch of highlevel mobs on me. That was fucking rude. Goddamned people.

Blaster are glass cannons, no doubt. My hero is an energy/energy blaster. I'd probably take a secondary with more control like electric if I did it again. The knockback punch is just too risky :)

[Llava]

Get to 33 on the Controller and slot the pet.  That's when he starts doing damage.  3 damage and 1 accuracy.  Unslotted, no, they don't hit all that hard.

What's your controller's secondary?

[geldonyetich]

Psh, you're burned out.  Take a break.  If you force yourself to keep going you'll end up hating it and never go back.

What you're saying rings very, true.  Granted, I've burned out from the game two or three times in the past, so it's now difficult for me to determine this myself.

Stupidly Obvious Question - you've got buildup for your scrapper, right?

Oh yes indeed.  It's what makes my Scrapper so very enticing.  Lure a group of mobs into a clump, hit buildup, launch my Ripper (Spines short ranged cone attack) and enjoy orgasmic doom distrubution.

As far as damage on your illusion controller, part of that should be coming from the opposition's heavy hitter (yay Deceive)

This is true.  Battles do go a lot faster when I throw Confuse on the resident bosses/lts.  Experience loss from foes hitting eachother have been about halved from that of release.  Still, use of confuse seems a little sloppy as confused foes might run off and attack other groups.  All those NPCs doing their own thing is a reason why Illusion is often regarded as a sloppy control set.  My real issue is when I have only a single boss left and the Phantom Army is down for recharging.  It takes about 6-10 rounds of a 3 SO Spectral Wounds to take down a boss... and that's with Containment in play.

(Also, check the description on the Hamidon costume. It's _hilarious_.)

Totally agreed.

Also, as usual the event brings out people's inner assholes. Had a lot of people jump a door I was getting ready to do, which is just annoying. But then there were a lot of high level players just clicking doors and flying away...spawning a bunch of highlevel mobs on me. That was fucking rude. Goddamned people.

I've doven ahead of other players myself a few times.  I wasn't aware the doors were on a shared timer.  (At least I cleaned up the mobs that spawned in the event of a trick.)

Get to 33 on the Controller and slot the pet.  That's when he starts doing damage.  3 damage and 1 accuracy.  Unslotted, no, they don't hit all that hard.

Alright.  One more level of grinding probably wouldn't leave permanent scars, I guess.

What's your controller's secondary?

Storm Control.  Yes, not the best of the bunch, and quite possibly the worst.  I chose it for fun over potency.  Kinetics, now that would have been potency.

[Sky]

I go for fun over minmax powah, too. Thus my energy/energy blaster. But it really put the hurt on soloing, which is why I've been playing a mastermind. That's going to be funny in another dozen levels when I max out my henchmen. Right now I've got two soldiers, a specops, the force field bot all following me around and I'll have three more henchmen plus placeables like the acid mortar. I'll need a gpu upgrade!

[CmdrSlack]

Geldon, I have been thinking about going back to CoX as my primary game, and since you and Sky are both playing, that's now very very very likely (as in, I need to get off my lazy ass and download CoV and reinstall CoH).  My scrapper is around 35 or 37 IIRC...so if you wanted to get your controller to 50 (seeing as how he's already mostly there), we might could work out some kind of mutual playing schedule that would get us there pretty quick.

Obviously, if I get CoV as well, I'll be fooling with that too, but yeah, we could try that.

It would actually make for mildly humorous writing....our attempt at unlocking the Kheldians.  Kind of like the Jedi Holo-grind, but less ghey.

[Llava]

Illusion/Storm is a great combo.

Your Phantasm uses Energy Torrent, and Storm gives you the exact tools you need to bunch all the badguys up for him.

I'm sure you know how to play your set, just take advantage of your positioning abilities and combine it with your pets' AE (Lightning Storm later will make things go even faster).  Freezing Rain will definitely help.

[geldonyetich]

Well, I've tried out the Phantasm with three Single Origin damage enhancers (which is about all the enhancement you can give damage short of applying recharge reducers which probably won't affect a Phantasm).  The damage improved, but it still took me way too long to take down a boss.

With my Scrapper, a boss fight goes like this:
Build Up, Lunge, Ripper, Impale, Lunge.  (This is assuming a critical hit manifest on the Ripperotherwise throw in another Ripper and Impale.)

With my Controller, a boss fight goes like this:
Summon Phantasm (if not already out), Hasten, Blind, Blind (to set up Containment), Freezing Rain (-RES), Spectral Wounds, Spectral Wounds, Spectral Wounds, Spectral Wounds, Blind (to sustain Containment), Spectral Wounds, Spectral Wounds, Spectral Wounds, Blind, Spectral Wounds, Spectral Wounds, Spectral Wounds.
(Phantom Army reduces the number of those Spectral Wounds attacks by about half, but isn't available every fight.)

So, Controllers take a long time to take down foes.  The boss example above is about equivalent to nine minions.  So I've basically two choices here:

1) Go Scrapper and have a fast rate of progress solo or in a group.
2) Go Controller and have a slow rate of progress solo and a fast rate of progression in a Scrapper/Blaster enabled group.

Why settle for #2 when I could have #1?  The Controller possessing a variety of unique effects is all I can really confirm.  The party support might be a little better as well, but then again, the contributon the Scrapper brings in raw Offense/Defense is pretty vital.

Geldon, I have been thinking about going back to CoX as my primary game, and since you and Sky are both playing, that's now very very very likely (as in, I need to get off my lazy ass and download CoV and reinstall CoH).

Hang on to that credit card!  I'm playing on the Virtue server these days, and Cryptic has yet to figure out these "character transfer" things.   They did it once when they moved some characters to European servers, but they've yet to offer it as a service to the players.

[Llava]

Well naturally no AT is going to take down a boss as fast as a scrapper, since scrappers are dubbed the boss-killer AT by Statesman himself and enjoy an increased chance to critical against them.

I find that my Ill/Rad can still solo at a pretty good pace, though, and tear through missions in complete safety.  But no, it's not the visceral feeling you get from a Scrapper, running at high speed from one fight to the next and ripping your opponents to shreds.

[geldonyetich]

But no, it's not the visceral feeling you get from a Scrapper, running at high speed from one fight to the next and ripping your opponents to shreds.

That's a more accurate way of looking at it than I have, which the erronous assumption that Controllers should be able to compete in terms of damage.  I guess I'll just have to learn to let go of not being able to go through foes as quickly as a Scrapper.   I must be burning out that I can't seem to muster the patience to settle for less sometimes.  That's where groups come in, I either need to join an existing one or invite a couple damage dealers and yell, "Mush!"

Considering how I'm planning on playing either a Kheldian or a Blaster when Issue 8 comes out (depending on whether or not I earn 50 before then), I really shouldn't stress not doing great damage with my Controller.  Kheldians and Blasters got it in spades.

[Llava]

Depends on the Kheldian.

Pick up Nova and slot it, yeah you'll have damage.

Also, human form Peacebringers have a couple hard hitting attacks.

But as a human Warshade, your Controller's damage is going to seem superior for a good 32 levels.

[eldaec]

Why settle for #2 when I could have #1?  The Controller possessing a variety of unique effects is all I can really confirm.

If you want speed when soloing, you can do ok with a carefully built blaster, stalker, or brute as well.

But ultimately scrapper is going to be > all in terms of soloing speed.

In groups, your controller is adding more than your scrapper, you probably just don't feel it because you only get one-eighth of the benefit. It's a while since I played one of my controllers, but my controller-heavy pet groups (esp. illusion controller groups) used to tear through villians quicker than my scrapper's groups. Controllers are force multipliers, wheras scrappers are just more force.

[geldonyetich]

In retrospect, if Controller + Damage was that important to me, I should have gone Fire/Kinetics.  Fire Imps under the effect of Fulcrum Shift, Speed Boost, and Siphon Power do considerably good damage, I bet.   At least, I've noticed my Phantasm does well with a Fulcrum shift applied.  Phantom Army can't be buffed because they're untouchable by everything.

[Llava]

Forget Fulcrum Shift, imagine those little firemonkeys hopping around at mach 3 with speed boost.

[geldonyetich]

In order to provide (a) Closure and (b) more fuel for this Cryptic-founded fire, I'll mention that I actually ended up settling on the Scrapper, after all.  It was a decision based on the overall flow and aim of the archetypes.  I preferred to be the "visceral" and "soloable" Scrapper over the "prime group lubrication" Controller.  There's something more satisfying about tearing the bad guys to shreds versus confusing them from afar.  I'm not saying that this is universal, people's preferences differ, but in faster-paced gameplay lies my preference.

This might also be of interest to folks who may have noticed my rabid "forced grouping" stance in the "grouping versus solo" argument.  Here I am saying that being able to solo is an important determiner of my playing the character.  However, actually, I don't think it's so much being able to solo, because both the Controller and Scrapper can solo relatively safely.  It has more to do with the flow rate of the game.  A high damage class is going to be able to go through a lot more mobs quicker, while a low damage class is going to have to lean on others to improve their speed of defeating the foes.

That speed actually matters to me probably asserts that, on some level, I'm already burnt (again).  If I'm truly enjoying the journey over the destination, it shouldn't matter if it takes a little longer to get there.

[Sky]

I haven't noticed any grind yet. I think not playing for more than an hour a day has something to do with that. Level 18 with my MM, started a couple alts, also played around a bit with my 26 blaster (I had thought he was 24) to open his costume slot. Apparently he had a free costume upgrade, fee waived. I put a civilian costume in his third slot, red bandana/white tee shirt/blue jeans/motorcycle jacket. Looks funny with his blue skin/white hair/double monocle (picture early in thread).

I started a scrapper, too. Claws/regen, he shreds through mobs, alright. The MM is still a strong solo class, though. Some people have said I should be playing on a higher difficulty with the MM but I'm already fighting yellow/orange mobs in most missions, maybe a couple white minions near the door. What does raising the difficulty mean in terms of effect on missions? More mobs, higher levels?

[Hutch]

What does raising the difficulty mean in terms of effect on missions? More mobs, higher levels?

Diff 1 = default. Small mob groups. +0 to +1 mob level (compared to yours). No bosses (at least when soloing).
Diff 2: Larger mob groups. +0 to +1 mob level.
Diff 3: Small mob groups. +1 to +2 mob level.
Diff 4: Larger mob groups. +1 to +2 mob level.
Diff 5 = max diff. Small mob groups. +2 to +3 mob level.

If you see mobs outside these level ranges:
- you are in someone else's mission
- you are doing a mission you got before you leveled up
- the mission itself is designed that way

Edit: forgot to mention that higher diff settings give higher xp rewards for completing the mission.

[geldonyetich]

My Scrapper runs missions on Unyielding (Diff 4).  It's a great mix of risk:reward, and my occationally slipping up and being taken down confirms I haven't mastered this difficulty yet. 

The thing to remember about difficulities that all heroes/villains aren't alike in terms of overall mission tackling.  It's not just archetype, it's not just power set, but individual powers and how you've slotted them as well as what tactics you use that will determine whether or not you can tackle a Diff 5 missions or still be doing Diff 1 missions at level 50.  I don't think my Scrapper could handle an Invincible Mission (Diff 5) no matter how good my play is because my Dark Armor wouldn't be effective enough at blunting the damage and my Dark Regeneration power can't hit consistantly enough to keep me alive.  I know my Mastermind never went past difficulty 3 or so, and that was with Dark Miasma which rocks on a Mastermind with his henchies set in bodyguard mode, rendering him neigh unkillable with the further assistance of the debuffs in the set.

From my past experience with Masterminds, I'm going to say their damage is pretty acceptable, especially with secondary power set damage boosts like Acid Mortor and Tar Patch involved.  Not nearly as atrocious as Controllers or Defenders in terms of being able to put down a lot of mobs quick, and a lot more durable thanks to being able to manipulate your henchies to keep you alive.  Masterminds are the hard-to-control Epic class of CoV, IMHO.

[Sky]

Hm. I might notch it up to the next level to get bosses once in a while. Probably kick my ass all over the place :) I do pretty good, though, with the fully-slotted triage beacon and an occasional henchman respawn. Right now I've got Soldiers, Spec Ops, and Triage Beacon fully slotted, not sure if anything else is slotted atm. Figured from my pet class experience in other games I should dump all my specialization into the henchmen. In tough battles I try to keep everyone in triage beacon range and drop caltrops on the beacon to keep enemies out of melee range.

Just got the acid mortar at level 18, my last pick was the force field at 16. I still miss travel powers :)

I keep forgetting about bodyguard mode. I need to set up more macros.

[Llava]

I don't know how different it is with mercs, but for my MM's pets I only 5-slot the two lower tiers, and that was because I didn't know what else to do with the slots.  The lowest tier I would probably 4-slot if I had anywhere better to put that extra slot.

I did 6 slot the final pet.  He's worth it.

You've got the medic, though, so tossing a heal or two in there might not be a bad idea, plus all the side effect that the spec ops can pull off, probably worth it to slot all the way on those.

[Glazius]

That speed actually matters to me probably asserts that, on some level, I'm already burnt (again).  If I'm truly enjoying the journey over the destination, it shouldn't matter if it takes a little longer to get there.

Well, not necessarily. I mean, I've noticed that classes play differently, and _feel_ different on top of that. If you like the way your scrapper feels, there's nothing wrong with that.

--GF

[Signe]

I've received a costume slot for returning stuff to Granny... is that all I get?  No costume?  No candy?  I only resubbed because it's nearly Halloween... I resub to almost everything during holidays.  It's fun.  Not going to bother with WoW, I don't think... not until the expansion in 2012... probably the day after the world ends.

[Hutch]

I've received a costume slot for returning stuff to Granny... is that all I get?  No costume?  No candy?  I only resubbed because it's nearly Halloween... I resub to almost everything during holidays.  It's fun.  Not going to bother with WoW, I don't think... not until the expansion in 2012... probably the day after the world ends.

I think they hand out free costume changes when they publish an issue that contains new costume items. So, if you stick around until Issue 8, which is coming out "soon", you'll likely be able to put a new costume in your new costume slot, for free.

My new feature wish is for a panel that you can view, telling you how many costume tokens and respecs you have available.

[Llava]

There are also a bunch of free costume tokens coming with Veteran Rewards.

But yes, the badges and extra costume slot are the rewards for Halloween.

[Nebu]

While I love the extra costume slot (which takes almost no time to get btw), it would have been nice if new costume items might drop as a result of the holiday events.  Something like the santa hat way back when.

[eldaec]

EDIT: nm, ignore this post, I should read more.

[Llava]

While I love the extra costume slot (which takes almost no time to get btw), it would have been nice if new costume items might drop as a result of the holiday events.  Something like the santa hat way back when.

2 out of 3.

Christmas gave the hats, Valentine's Day gave Togas.  The downside of this is that if you weren't around at this time, you don't get a santa hat or toga.

[stark]

Teabag emote added with I8

[Llava]

That is a much more pleasant emote than I thought it was going to be.

[UnSub]

For those who don't already know, the I8 preupdater is live.

Save yourself some time by downloading I8 before it goes live - the preupdater will launch at the end of a CoH/V session after you quit out.

[Sky]

Thanks, I didn't notice that when I quit out of CoV and it pre-updated.

[Trippy]

I don't think his post was meant for those who play regularly.

[Llava]

Thanks, it wasn't obvious at first and Sky's comment seemed totally necessary.