Who's still alive?

[kb3edk]

Hey NiX, I'm also a new CoV player lured in by the $10 retail box price and I'm *really* enjoying my first 3 days in-game. Don't know how long I'll stay around but after 15 months on Guild Wars (still my primary MMO) this is a wonderful change of pace.

I have a level 8 Brute on Freedom, who has made it to Port Oakes. He's very powerful but frankly, I think I'll get bored playing him after a while. Next I am going to make a Corruptor which is the closest thing to a "cleric" type job in this game and much more my style (I play Elementalist and Monk a lot in Guild Wars).

I would like to meet up with some F13 folks in game and maybe join a Super Group (or start our own!). Is there any "official" F13 group?

Where did you wind up NiX? Freedom is definitely hopping with players (and friendly ones at that) but I have been lag booted off the Mapserver a few times :( and I'm wondering if some other servers are maybe a little more stable.

[schild]

There has been 2 f13 supergroups me thinks. Also, there's an f13 chat channel I think.

I think.

Also, the first 3 days are awesome.

[Surlyboi]

Yes, the first three days do indeed rock you like the proverbial hurricane.

[Furiously]

So how do I join the batnet global talk thing? Or is that the channel name?

[dEOS]

So how do I join the batnet global talk thing? Or is that the channel name?

Select a chat window, right-click (as far as I remember) -> Edit
Join channel, enter channel name...
should appear in one of the list
Add it to your chat window by adding it (arrow going from right to left)
Done

Chat by using
/send <channame> <message>

[Furiously]

Yes - that is technically how one does it.

Now. That. Still. Leaves. My. Question. Unanswered.

[Signe]

It is Batnet but last time I looked it was gone.  I made it again, though.  Maybe it's still there.  There was never anyone on it.  If that doesn't answer your question and if dEOS didn't answer your question then I don't know what your question is, you silly girl, you.   

[Furiously]

Thank you Signe...

that does answer the question.

And anyone have a good supervillian group I can join?

[Surlyboi]

I need one too. The Mighty Truckules don't roll without a posse.

[Sky]

I'm in now. Played CoH for some free weekend lovin' and quickly decided I needed to install CoV. Rolled up a Corrupter, because I played a blaster as my main and I could switch my alt defender's powerset around to play him the way I wanted to (rad/rad). That was cool until I rolled up my mastermind. Holy crap masterminds kick ass.

I'm thinking of rerolling because I named him when I was drunk and unable to think of a name and Croaker was taken, so he's Cpt Croaker. Mercenaries and Traps, your basic military-type (Pvt Otto and Pvt Hagop for pets). My corrupter died once on the way to level 6, with a few risky battles besides that. The mastermind has yet to die at level 8 and he was in danger once because I got sloppy (ok I was still drunk) and took on a massive battle while the game was scripting in waves of attackers I hadn't anticipated (who woulda thunk cops would show up at a bank robbery!). A web grenade later, that stupid kung fu hero was eating lead! Die, kung fu hero, die.

My only problem is travel powers, none of them really fit my 'non-superpower' character. He's got a temp flying power from that first mayhem mission, I wish there were a more tech flying power like that. My man is just an old grunt, not some tights-wearing supergoof.

I rolled him on Virtue because I always pick roleplay servers when I can....and my Victory character slots were already full  Since all my characters were on ice, I lost a few names :( .

[Llava]

Concept-wise, I find that teleport can be used as a decent travel power for tech types.  Manticore uses it, the Sky Raiders use it, and the Malta Group uses it.

It's rather easily explained away by saying you've hacked into the teleportation system in Paragon/The Rogue Isles.

[Glazius]

My only problem is travel powers, none of them really fit my 'non-superpower' character. He's got a temp flying power from that first mayhem mission, I wish there were a more tech flying power like that. My man is just an old grunt, not some tights-wearing supergoof.

Hmm. There's that raptor pack from the first mayhem, the superjump pack from the 10-15 mayhem, the Goldbricker pack from the first mission you run for Marshall Brass, and a Skyraider pack from Lt. Chalmers, who you get introduced to by Captain Petrovich in Sharkhead, assuming you haven't gone past 25 when you finish the captain's missions.

I think added all up you've got like six hours of flight time and two hours of jump time, and if you got the RMT jump jet (which serves as a turbo booster for flight powers) that'll help you get more distance out of your time.

You may not even need a travel power at all, but Recall Friend -> Teleport isn't bad, especially since you can haul around your own minions and some of your traps with Recall Friend.

Also, something you may have noticed - ambushes in mayhem missions don't stop shooting you. Minions on bodyguard is a good way to handle this; so is immobilizing/slowing part of the ambush and ducking out of LOS. They'll run across caltrops while your soldiers gun 'em down.

--GF

[Sky]

I already want to respec. The game should make it easier :)

I went too deep into my guns, wish I had taken caltrops. Webby is great for rooting, at least. I've slotted out the triage beacon and it's a nice little addition to a fight.

I wasn't sure what applies to my minions, what buffs or things like recall friend. I was taking a long look at that and leadership when I hit 10 last night.

Right now I'm set up with (iirc, I'm at work):

Soldier (4dam. 1heal)
Burst (1dam.)
Buff Soldiers (no good slot options?)
Slug (1dam.)
Mwhatever Grenade (1dam. - rarely use it)

Web Grenade (1hold dur. - enough to be a big difference)
Triage Beacon (3 recharge red. 2 heal)

I miss fly, which both my CoH guys had. It's probably my favorite power (I'm conserving my jetpack). And as I said, I'm too deep into my personal gun, though I like having burst (for general damage, cleaning up, etc) and slug (for pulling and helping on tough mobs + knockback rocks). Web grenade is crucial and I really could use caltrops. Also took a long look at the acid mortar, dropping one of those and caltrops could be cool.

Overall I'm really digging the character, so when I hit a respec I'll be golden.

[geldonyetich]

Right now I'm mostly playing on the Hero side of Virtue.  I'm thinking I'll roll my Villains up on Freedom because I'm liable to piss off a lot of players on the other side in the PvP, so I might as well keep my grudges on seperate dimensions.  Would that I had thought that before leveling level 20ish Masterminds on Virtue and Victory (which I avoid due to low population).

My personal preference with a Mastermind is to get the slow single target attack (for finishing off persistant foes) and the AOE/Cone attack.  The AOE/Cone attack used to be a death wish for a Mastermind to use, but with the inclusion of bodyguard mode, it can actually be quite handy for both AOE damage and getting the bodyguards interested in the fight.

[Sky]

Hmm. I've got to figure out how to do that. I don't know squat about running pets in CoV, I'm just running on my old experience as a necro in EQ :)

For instance, how can I put all the commands on my alt-menu? I have the 'easy' commands (attack, follow, heel), but I'd like to have more granularity. And when I tell them to stay via rt-click (so they can heal at the triage beacon), they still come and defend me when I pull something back to them. More 'heel' mashing than even EQ required.

[geldonyetich]

Putting commands on alt menu is done with the happy-fun /macro command.
/macro "hotkey text goes here","command text goes here"

Command text should not have a / in front of the first command because it assumes one is already there, and seperate commands can be parsed in with a semicolon delimiter.  For example, "me boombox;/petsay_all <em dance>" is one of my favorites and would be created with:

/macro "dance!","me boombox;/petsay_all <em dance>"

I could be slighty off since I haven't done it in awhile, but if so, it's easy enough to fix.  If you want to edit the macro, just right click on the hot button and select 'edit' - it's even easier than the initial making it through the command line.  Incidentally, drag the existing 'attack' and 'follow' buttons from your powers window and edit them so you can keep that the picture instead of having the ugly hotkey text, which is limited to only a few visible characters.

To put your pets in bodyguard mode, just make sure they're set to both 'defensive' mode and commanded to 'follow' you.  You'll take 2 portions of the damage, and the bodyguard pets will each take 1.  Thus, if you've three pets to take your damage, you're taking 2/5th of the damage and the pets are each taking 1/5th.  AOE attacks that are hitting you are problematic, though, as the bodyguards take damage from attacks to themselves normally on top of your bodyguard damage.  With a phat AOE heal, though, you're very hard to kill - my Thugs/Dark Miasma Mastermind can attest to that.

While I might not be recommending swapping out your Grenade, I am feeling some respec pain.  I'm currently dabbling with a Spines/Dark Armor Scrapper who is running around at level 22 without a travel power due to decisions made when I last played it some months ago.  Dark Armor needs Combat Jumping and Super Jump in order to bridge the way to Acrobatics.  Without Combat Jumping they have no immobilization resistance.  Without Acrobatics, they have no knockback resistance.  Throw in that Spines/Dark Armor is somewhat PBAOE related and you can see why being immobilized and knocked back is such a probem for me.  I've gotta slog my way to level 24 before I even have the opportunity to earn a respec via the Terra Volta trial.

Still, at I can see this mostly AOE-damaged focused Scrapper to have extremely hardcore potental at higher levels.  Thus, I'm waffling between him and the level 29 Illusions/Storm Summoning Controller I've been working on lately.  Alt-A-Holicism, thou art an ever-screeching bitch in my brain.

[Sky]

Thanks, I remember about macros now. I also used google-fu: http://cov.coldfront.net/Guides/Mastermind/Mastermind_Notes.html

[Lantyssa]

If you are interested I can give you my numpad binds for pet control.  They are easy enough to modify if you want to change the layout.  The nice thing about them is they leave my toolbars free for powers.

I have used some variation of these in SWG, WoW, and CoH so they hold up well with most pet-based characters.

[Sky]

The link I mentioned has a good pet control scheme for the numpad. I'm just not sure how much I'd like it as it seems it would be bothersome to always have to take my hand off the mouse during battles. I dunno, I'll have a better idea once I actually set aside time to set up my macros instead of playing the game. Just having the Goto macro has made it a hell of a lot better. I'll mostly need the granularity when I get my upgraded henchmen.

I guess I've been a pet player quite a bit, too. I was a hunter in WoW to 58 and a necro in EQ to 54.

[Llava]

Call me crazy, I don't use any binds.

I find with 3 rows of hotbars available to be displayed at all times, I really don't need to.  I keep the commands I use frequently on the first bar and the ones I use less frequently (passive mode, aggressive mode, goto) on the third bar, so if I need them they're just a click away.

But a lot of things about my setup drive people nuts.  For instance, A nd D are for strafing, Q and E are for turning.

[Signe]

Call me crazy, I don't use any binds.

I find with 3 rows of hotbars available to be displayed at all times, I really don't need to.  I keep the commands I use frequently on the first bar and the ones I use less frequently (passive mode, aggressive mode, goto) on the third bar, so if I need them they're just a click away.

But a lot of things about my setup drive people nuts.  For instance, A nd D are for strafing, Q and E are for turning.

It must not be too weird because that's exactly what I do, including the turning keys. 

[Sky]

It's default behaviour. I use the mouse to turn, but Q&E are good in a beerswilling situation.

Btw, there's a Bat Country on Virtue now.

[Signe]

I also almost always use the mouse to turn.  It's easier because you can look up and down, too.

Virtue is where I keep all my villians. 

[Lantyssa]

I was going to say, aren't A and D usually strafe?  I always have to bind Q and E in games to strafe, and I do not need a turn because I use mouse look.  (AWD is extremely painful for my hand after a bit.)

I have to use keybinds though.  I lose my mouse cursor a lot, then I lose focus on the action while I try to find the cursor, then more time while I glide it to the proper spot.  By the time I accomplish all that several seconds have gone past.  I am not very good at fast-paced games.

[Llava]

It must not be too weird because that's exactly what I do 

Oh shit.

[Trippy]

I was going to say, aren't A and D usually strafe?  I always have to bind Q and E in games to strafe, and I do not need a turn because I use mouse look.  (AWD is extremely painful for my hand after a bit.)

A and D are usually strafe in FPSes these days because it's easier to circle strafe that way -- it's easier to reach up to the W if your fingers are resting on ASD than to reach down to S if they are resting on QWE. Many MMORPGs have A and D as turn left and right by default since it's easier for people new to 3D PC games -- i.e. it's more important for them to be able to turn easily than to strafe easily.

[Signe]

It must not be too weird because that's exactly what I do 

Oh shit.

Hey!  What are you implying?

[CmdrSlack]

Try being left handed.  I have a hard time configuring keyboard layouts that I like.  For CoX I used to use the numpad for movement and flight controls (up and down) and I'd just click every power as it was needed.  I haven't ever figured out a good way to also bind macros to fire off powers, largely because my right hand just isn't dextrous enough and I hate using the mouse in my off-hand.

[stray]

I'm lefthanded, but for some reason, feel better using the mouse with my right.

[CmdrSlack]

Oddly enough, I've never flipped the buttons so that my index finger left clicks and my middle right clicks.  I keep the buttons in right handed config and just hold the sucker in my left.

For some reason this works out better for me.

[eldaec]

But a lot of things about my setup drive people nuts.  For instance, A nd D are for strafing, Q and E are for turning.

And it should drive people nuts. Because everyone knows that the truly enlightened use S and F for strafe, E and D for forward and back, then it's 3 and 4 for travel powers, mouselook for turning, and 1,2 & 5 for the most important powers to be able to use quickly (normally support and heal powers), attack chains on the second hot bar - you can queue them just fine with a mouse.

ESDF ftw etc.
 :-D

[Glazius]

Aren't custom keybindings just so gingerpeacheroonereechykeen?

FWIW:

I kept with the defaults for running around. Tab grabs the nearest target, shift-tab and control-tab move through the target list. Tilde (with shift and control) grabs friendly targets.

I use the keyboard's number keys to activate an appropriately trayed power where mouse targeting is useful. Location-based powers mostly. The rest of the powers I keep in my trays are there more so I have an idea when they're coming back, because just about everything else is on the numpad. Main attacks on straight pad, inspirations on alt-pad, support powers on ctrl-pad. Travel powers on the operation buttons, special long-duration stuff (aim, buildup, hasten, dull pain) on 0 and decimal.

In combat I move around and pan my view with QWASDE, grab targets with tab, and fire off stuff with the numpad and shift-ctrl-alt keys.

Again I say: I would probably not be playing CoX if I didn't have these custom keybinds going.

--GF

[Sky]

Lt. Chalmers, who you get introduced to by Captain Petrovich in Sharkhead, assuming you haven't gone past 25 when you finish the captain's missions.

I have to admit I've become a debtard to flesh out story arcs Still think I lost one contact in Cap from hitting 15 last night. I was even dodging mobs in missions and just trying to hit the objectives without gaining exp. Ah, well. Still a great game, even better if it stays this non-grindy, but I'll reserve judgement until I hit the mid-20s, where my hero stalled. But I do like an mmo where I'm not concerned about gaining exp.

[Stormwaltz]

Soldier (4dam. 1heal)
Burst (1dam.)
Buff Soldiers (no good slot options?)
Slug (1dam.)
Mwhatever Grenade (1dam. - rarely use it)

Web Grenade (1hold dur. - enough to be a big difference)
Triage Beacon (3 recharge red. 2 heal)

You've got the same powers my main villain (41) has. I didn't take the grenade, though.

Buff Soldiers - at higher levels, when you're equipping six minions at the start of every instance, you might want to put end reduction on it. Possibly also recharge reduction, for those boss fights where the enemy has a special attack that can one-shot all three of them (and yes, there are several of these).

Slug - I have 2 Dam, 2 Acc, and 2 Range. It's an obsolete setup now - I used to to snipe-pull. Now I have TP Foe, and should replace the Range with Knockback. Occasionally useful as-is for killing off fleeing enemies.

Serum - Not as useful as I'd hoped it would be. Extremely long recharge, and it rarely lasts for more than 20% of a boss fight (after which you have to pump the guy up with end inspirations). I'd probably drop it if I ever bothered to respec.

Web Grenade - one of my bread-and-butter powers. 2 Hold, 2 Acc, and 2 Recharge Reduction for those hard-to-root enemies. Works well in tandem with Black Scorpions AoE web root. Nobody moves until I say so.

Caltrops - incredibly useful in PvE. The AI will run out of it, so you can use it as a "soft" barrier.

Acid Mortar - I love this thing. Just pump it up with defense reduction enchancments. As a bonus...

TP Friend - I don't have this, but a fellow Mercs/Traps guy does. You can target the acid mortar and move it around with you.

Seeker Drones - The way I use them (pulling them out for tough fights), they're useless. Very low chance of blinding lieutenant, no chance at against bosses. YMMV. Again, I'd probably lose it if I respecced.

[Sky]

I've since taken Caltrops and indeed use it as a soft barrier. Throw it down if it's a big pull or there are tough melee mobs. I was thinking of slotting up web grenade, I use it a bit (though the specops guy is pretty good with his, he usually uses his just as I toss mine). I've found the m90 grenade is decent for cheesy crowd control, so I'd probably drop burst.

I think the recall friend on the acid mortar is getting the nerf with this next Issue (I8?).