As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

City of Heroes or Villains or Rogues

1575860626374

Posts

  • GlaziusGlazius Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    ooooooooo i am the ghost of patch notes past cold dom has been a defender powerset since issue tweeeeeelve

    Not a bad combination, especially with Shockwave to just put that finishing touch on the enemy slow. Kind of a shame Sleet and Siren's Song don't play nice with each other, though.

    My cold defender leaned into the "storm but with buffs" aspect and went elec blast for thematic consistency like a chump. I suppose it fires fast, at least.

    Glazius on
  • H3KnucklesH3Knuckles But we decide which is right and which is an illusion.Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    It always seemed weird to me that Sonic had a very creative defender power set, but no control power set, which seems like the most straightforward application of sound-based powers. Granted, it'd probably end up feeling a bit too close to the Mind Control set mechanically, but still.

    H3Knuckles on
    If you're curious about my icon; it's an update of the early Lego Castle theme's "Black Falcons" faction.
    camo_sig2-400.png
  • GlaziusGlazius Registered User regular
    H3Knuckles wrote: »
    It always seemed weird to me that Sonic had a very creative defender power set, but no control power set, which seems like the most straightforward application of sound-based powers. Granted, it'd probably end up feeling a bit to close too the Mind Control set mechanically, but still.

    Well, when you can't come up with 18 powers to give a sound control/sonic resonance controller, do you break to a control set with some support, or a support set with some control? More ATs are going to get support sets, so...

  • Just_Bri_ThanksJust_Bri_Thanks Seething with rage from a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPA regular
    Man, I really want to play my Blapper again.

    ...and when you are done with that; take a folding
    chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    So, just came home after a very long and tiring week and the 64-bit client is now live!

    Nice.

  • GlaziusGlazius Registered User regular
    I don't know when they actually put Countess Crey in the last mission of the Manticore TF but I'm glad she's there. It was always a shame to get to the end of that and fight a big beefy Agent Vigilant who did not matter before or since. At least Vandal got to stick around and get laughed at later in the Council/5th content. Hopkins got diddly.

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    Glazius wrote: »
    I don't know when they actually put Countess Crey in the last mission of the Manticore TF but I'm glad she's there. It was always a shame to get to the end of that and fight a big beefy Agent Vigilant who did not matter before or since. At least Vandal got to stick around and get laughed at later in the Council/5th content. Hopkins got diddly.

    My character got a little... cheeky during a Manticore run earlier this week.

    Countess Crey: Hopkins, what's your status?
    Blokbusta: On his ass, ma'am!

  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    Looking at Hero vs. Vigilante dialogue options and similars I'm amazed....at how much the Vigilante options makes you sound like a petty, self-righteous asshole. No thank you.

    TryCatcher on
  • Mr RayMr Ray Sarcasm sphereRegistered User regular
    TryCatcher wrote: »
    Looking at Hero vs. Vigilante dialogue options and similars I'm amazed....at how much the Vigilante options makes you sound like a petty, self-righteous asshole. No thank you.

    IMO vigilante is just "jerk hero", whereas Rogue is just "nice villain".
    Man, I really want to play my Blapper again.

    So what's stopping you? Dual pistols + martial assault feels built for blapping.

  • GlaziusGlazius Registered User regular
    Mr Ray wrote: »
    TryCatcher wrote: »
    Looking at Hero vs. Vigilante dialogue options and similars I'm amazed....at how much the Vigilante options makes you sound like a petty, self-righteous asshole. No thank you.

    IMO vigilante is just "jerk hero", whereas Rogue is just "nice villain".

    The way most redside tips are written, it's more like Villain is "jerk villain".

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    in the context of CoX the 'vigilante' stories are meant to be transitional between being a hero and a villain, so they're less 'gruff hero' than they are 'hero losing their shit'

    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Mr RayMr Ray Sarcasm sphereRegistered User regular
    I've not done any alignment missions yet, but I fully intend to take my Duke Nukem lookalike, Dick Kickum, that way. His backstory is that he was an action hero type, cryogenically frozen in the 90's after saving the world from aliens so that he could be thawed out when the world needed him again. Unfortunately he was just sort of forgotten about in his tube in a warehouse somewhere, and instead of being welcomed back as a savior everyone just thinks he's super cringeworthy what with his constant cheesy one liners and 90's movie references.

  • KayKay What we need... Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered User regular
    I'm playing a Rad/Rad blaster concentrating on PBAOE and blaps, capped their S/L/E defense, got a BUNCH of recharge... and holy shit it's the most fun ever.

    ew9y0DD.png
    3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    Mr Ray wrote: »
    I've not done any alignment missions yet, but I fully intend to take my Duke Nukem lookalike, Dick Kickum, that way. His backstory is that he was an action hero type, cryogenically frozen in the 90's after saving the world from aliens so that he could be thawed out when the world needed him again. Unfortunately he was just sort of forgotten about in his tube in a warehouse somewhere, and instead of being welcomed back as a savior everyone just thinks he's super cringeworthy what with his constant cheesy one liners and 90's movie references.

    I bet he's real unhappy about missing the (First) Rikti War.

  • GlaziusGlazius Registered User regular
    Mr Ray wrote: »
    I've not done any alignment missions yet, but I fully intend to take my Duke Nukem lookalike, Dick Kickum, that way. His backstory is that he was an action hero type, cryogenically frozen in the 90's after saving the world from aliens so that he could be thawed out when the world needed him again. Unfortunately he was just sort of forgotten about in his tube in a warehouse somewhere, and instead of being welcomed back as a savior everyone just thinks he's super cringeworthy what with his constant cheesy one liners and 90's movie references.

    I bet he's real unhappy about missing the (First) Rikti War.

    And just think of all that angst he would have had when he finally got Omega Clearance and learned the truth! Real missed opportunity.

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    Cheesy 90s action heroes don't angst, they just get angrier.

  • DacDac Registered User regular
    Incoming salt the "must run x8+4 everything" attitude is starting to seep into the level 30 bracket and it's making me want to slit my wrists.

    Fighting mobs five levels above me is not fucking fun.

    Steam: catseye543
    PSN: ShogunGunshow
    Origin: ShogunGunshow
  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    edited August 2019
    People vastly underestimate the difference between having sets and Archetype Enhancements and Incarnate powers and not having them.

    Got bored and made a new Brute. Wanted a /Fire Brute for actually playing instead of farming, and haven't had the best luck with Melee sets since I have a low tolerance for sets that have AoE attacks come waaay too late and I hated playing Titan Weapons the two times that I tried it. So, turns out that power proliferations is not only for all the Spines/Fire Brutes parked at the AE building, but Ice Melee got proliferated and got pointed to a very cool build. Found a costume that I liked and:

    57ef215e6fa0cfc99947c5a4a654b518.png

    I'm still amazed at finding a melee set with a cone attack that doesn't suck to aim at more than 1 mob.

    TryCatcher on
  • KayKay What we need... Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered User regular
    TryCatcher wrote: »
    I'm still amazed at finding a melee set with a cone attack that doesn't suck to aim at more than 1 mob.

    Katana (and BS, but weh) has a good cone.

    Savage Melee/Shred is very good, too. See also War Mace and Battle Axe. Street Justice has a great 'cone' (it's technically a targetted AOE that splashes around the target rather than you, treat it like a wide cone and you can't go wrong) and an AWFULLY narrow one. I think I'm gonna drop the narrow one.

    ew9y0DD.png
    3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    Bringing up news, the donations required for server upkeep this month were filled on....3 minutes and 47.78 seconds. And people were worried about WoW Classic making a dent on the population. Hah!

    Oh, and there was a Dragon Con panel of City of Heroes:
    Going Back to Paragon City: The Return of City of Heroes After six years, City of Heroes is back & the same as it ever was (well, not exactly). Beware of flying objects coming from the stage. Staff: Kevin Stallard Fri 11:30 am Augusta A-B [W] 1 Hour

    It brought the Director of the Video Game Track as a speaker. Besides that it was a meet-and-greet for sharing stories and such.

  • RingoRingo He/Him a distinct lack of substanceRegistered User regular
    I want you all to know that you are loved, and I am proud to be part of this community with you

    Sterica wrote: »
    I know my last visit to my grandpa on his deathbed was to find out how the whole Nazi werewolf thing turned out.
    Edcrab's Exigency RPG
  • INeedNoSaltINeedNoSalt with blood on my teeth Registered User regular
    this is crazy, excited to rebuild acronym x, why hadn't i heard about this sooner

  • Crippl3Crippl3 oh noRegistered User regular
    Some stats from The Big Server:

    CirA7Gp.png
    kxLZUaL.png

    911,434 total characters made, over 60k have hit level 50. Over 17 million hours played so far. There's tons more stats on those forums, but here's the most popular primary powerset, secondary powerset, and primary+secondary powerset combos for each AT:
    • Blaster: Dual Pistols, Gadgets, Fire/Fire
    • Brutes: Spines, Fire, Spines/Fire (Ice and Ice Armor are way in the back)
    • Controller: Illusion, Kinetics, Fire/Kinetics (shocking no one, also only 600 characters are using Trick Arrow at all)
    • Corrupter: Fire, Kinetics, Dark/Dark (only 4 people are using Psychic/Trick Arrow)
    • Defender: Empathy (#2, Kinetics, is trailing by over 11,000, 16,940 characters vs. 5690), Radiation, Radiation/Radiation
    • Dominator: Dark, Psionic, Dark/Dark
    • Mastermind: Robotics (Ninjas barely trailing Mercs for last place), Dark Miasma (Similar to Defender Empathy, Dark has 19,649 uses while #2 Time is only 10,136), Demon/Dark
    • Scrapper: Street Justice (almost tied with Martial Arts, 7927 vs 7909), Regeneration, Claws/Regeneration (as it turns out, people like Wolverine, also like Brutes Ice Melee and Armor are way way in last)
    • Sentinel: Dual Pistols, Regeneration, Electric/Electric (beating out Fire/Fire by 5 characters)
    • Stalker: Ninja Sword, Ninjutsu (9049 vs. #2 Super Reflexes at 5776), Ninja Sword/Ninjutsu (only 3 combos have over 1000 characters: Ninja Sword/Ninjutsu, Dual Blades/Ninjutsu, and Dark/Dark, everything else is less than 900)
    • Tanker: Invulnerability (15,006 vs. #2 Shield Defense at 8,105), Super Strength (almost a bigger blowout, 12,128 vs. #2 Titan Weapons at 5545), Invuln/Super Strength (beats out #2 Fire/Fire by over 4k, 6914 vs, 2838)

  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    Note that the popularity of Spines and Fire is almost entirely due to that being the Official Farming Build™.

  • KayKay What we need... Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered User regular
    And it's not even the besssssssst.

    ew9y0DD.png
    3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
  • FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    Is it weird that I feel an annoyance with "empathy" being the leading powerset for Defenders (since in my mind it indicates a "Tank/Healer/DPS" mindset)? Especially since there are powersets that are so much more flexible.

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    "Would you like to play the least interesting/effective powerset on the least interesting AT? Boy do we have an offer for you!"

  • FiendishrabbitFiendishrabbit Registered User regular
    Defender is plenty interesting as long as you play a pro-active powerset (like, pretty much anything but empathy and Force fields). Now scrapper on the other hand.
    "I'm a self-contained powerset without the ability to do much to others and others don't have the ability to do much to me. Crowdcontrol, team tanking, helping the team? Those are for lesser people. I do damage. My most interesting choice is 'Who do I do damage to?', but generally the answer is 'the most annoying lieutenant'"

    "The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
    -Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
  • KayKay What we need... Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered User regular
    Scrappers become much more useful during Incarnate level trial stuff, someone that can quickly neutralise key targets without instantly dying is very useful.

    But then there are Stalkers, now. And they got fixed.

    ew9y0DD.png
    3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    So, overall, what is seen is that the most popular ATs are based on:
    1. Farming.
    2. Concept.
    3. Power level.

    So it doesn't matter that sets like Empathy and Regeneration are boring and suck balls, people want to be "a healer", or Wolverine, or Superman.

    The healer problem is endemic to MMOs, modern WoW puts focus on Healer DPS on the upper end since every bit matters and good players dodge almost all avoidable damage and every time that high end players say it, there's a barrage of "I play a healer to heal*" comments. To be fair, given the nature of this game, those stats after a "level 50 only" filter look quite different.

    But hey, I'm just the guy currently on the minority of people playing Ice Melee. Baby Brute is now level 29, and went through a near 3 hour Synapse TF since two people left and my Internet was...spotty, to say the least. It was hell, but that and Citadel are done, so the rest should be easier. Want to push to 35 since the weekly TF this week is Numina.

    TryCatcher on
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    Defender is plenty interesting as long as you play a pro-active powerset (like, pretty much anything but empathy and Force fields). Now scrapper on the other hand.
    "I'm a self-contained powerset without the ability to do much to others and others don't have the ability to do much to me. Crowdcontrol, team tanking, helping the team? Those are for lesser people. I do damage. My most interesting choice is 'Who do I do damage to?', but generally the answer is 'the most annoying lieutenant'"
    Scrappers (and Brutes) can take the role of a tank just fine. And when that's not needed they're there as Boss killers, since those will two-shot squishies, require too much mag to be comfortably mezzed and have too much health to be burned down quickly.

    Well, unless you're playing on low notoriety (or a heavy debuff team), but pretty much any single AT can be made redundant then.

  • see317see317 Registered User regular
    Yeah, I think the most fun I had back in the day was my Storm/Dark defender. Dropping tentacles, rain and the other dark cone on a big group was good times, then disorient them all with thunderclap (then try to get away before I got beaten to death by the three people I missed). Before enhancement diversification, having lightning storm slotted for End Drain to serve as a pocket sapper you could drain pretty much anything short of an EB of endurance. Sure, I wasn't soloing (and if I was, it wasn't fast), but it was fun to be in a group and lockdown a full spawn.
    Could also, on rare occasions, trap a guy under the stairs with a tornado and watch those DoTs go.

  • DacDac Registered User regular
    The love for Emp is baffling to me.

    Hey you have all these amazing and unique choices for support that no other MMO comes even close to replicating the power of, from blinding your enemies until they can't hit anything, buffing your team's damage through the roof, becoming a resistance machine capable of debuffing enemies as much as allies, to focusing on bloody traps to do the work for you.

    "nah I'm good i'll pick the healer"

    I mean, I guess I shouldn't talk, since I have a profound sickness and have had an FF defender as my main from year 1, but still.

    Steam: catseye543
    PSN: ShogunGunshow
    Origin: ShogunGunshow
  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    IMO, it's what other games have taught them.

    (My first main was an FF defender too. I solo'd them a good portion of the way to 50, because I didn't know any better wanted to see all the story content, at my own pace. At least there wasn't so much of it in late '04...)

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    a lot of people just want to be 'the thing that's wanted by groups,' and somehow a large body of people have convinced themselves that's empathy

    also just anecdotally, there seems to be a lot of overlap between empathy and people who wanna play the like, vaguely mysterious teenager (usually teen girl) with psychic powers; I'm not sure how that combination came into vogue but it seems to be like 75% of empath characters

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    edited September 2019
    Funny you should mention that, 'cause last night I made a new character who appears to be a mysterious teen girl. Not an empath, though; Savage Melee/Bio Armor. And her true form, when you peel back the carapace and mimetic skin, is more like Sil from SPECIES - the full "Bioluminescent" costume set - including the part where she's a potential hazard to all life on Earth. I called her "the Xenofille". :)

    Alas, this latest attempt to create/play a Stalker - easily my least favorite AT - ended in failure, like most of the previous ones. Some of it was a lack of synergy between the powers and gameplay; the rhythm of SM seems to fit, say, a Brute much better than an AT that's supposed to stop and pop back into Hide just when I've managed to build some Blood stacks. I'm told that it gets better, and actually very effective, at later levels, but I just can't get my head around it.
    Another part is that almost all of my concepts for characters that spend most of their time invisibly lurking and who interact with other entities mostly by stabbing them are, uh, not very social creatures. Which is fine in a single-player game, or (I suppose) if I PvPed; but this is an MMO, and I'm strictly a PvE player. And finding IC excuses to join teams, or figuring out how to convey information entirely through emoted gestures, for characters who are functionally mute and/or borderline autistic loners, is difficult and wearying after a while. I'd usually rather just play something else. Like a defender. Everyone loves defenders, right? :)

    Commander Zoom on
  • KayKay What we need... Is a little bit of PANIC.Registered User regular
    Oh boy. Did you not get the memo about NuStalkers?

    You don't 'wait around' to pop back into how anymore. You don't even use Placate. At most, you use the 'chance to hide' proc from the Stalker ATO set.

    Every primary powerset attack you use outside of hide, that hits an enemy, generates you a stack of Assassin's Focus. Assassin's Strike now has a SUPER fast out of Hide animation, and has a 33% chance to crit per stack of Focus.

    Stalkers be good, now.

    ew9y0DD.png
    3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
  • TryCatcherTryCatcher Registered User regular
    a lot of people just want to be 'the thing that's wanted by groups,' and somehow a large body of people have convinced themselves that's empathy

    also just anecdotally, there seems to be a lot of overlap between empathy and people who wanna play the like, vaguely mysterious teenager (usually teen girl) with psychic powers; I'm not sure how that combination came into vogue but it seems to be like 75% of empath characters

    So what you are saying that a lot of those people are going to roll a Kin for their second toon. Likely a Controller, though a lot of those could be farm builds.

    Also, the level 50 only stats are up. They....don't actually change much, except the numbers are lower, the proportions are nearly identical.

  • DacDac Registered User regular
    Yeah, Stalkers are tight. Mechanically, they're fun, and they do a shit-ton of damage. And in some sets, they don't even give up that much AoE, which is the main point of comparison people bring up vis a vis Scrappers, and in full parties they have something silly like a 31% chance to crit, on top of having more control over their spike through the Focus mechanic, and the ability to just delete some mobs at the beginning of an encounter.

    Scrappers are kinda meh in comparison. I was surprised to look it up and see that their base crit chance is 5%/10%. I had thought for the longest time it was something like 10%minions/15%LTs/20% bosses. Sure, you can get the scrapper ATO to bump those numbers up, but you really shouldn't have to rely on an ATO to be decent. Without it, Scrappers are pretty easily matched by Brutes around 70+ Fury.

    Admittedly, Brutes are also kind of busted and have needed a nerf for a long ass time, but still.

    Steam: catseye543
    PSN: ShogunGunshow
    Origin: ShogunGunshow
  • Commander ZoomCommander Zoom Registered User regular
    Kay wrote: »
    Oh boy. Did you not get the memo about NuStalkers?

    You don't 'wait around' to pop back into how anymore. You don't even use Placate. At most, you use the 'chance to hide' proc from the Stalker ATO set.

    Every primary powerset attack you use outside of hide, that hits an enemy, generates you a stack of Assassin's Focus. Assassin's Strike now has a SUPER fast out of Hide animation, and has a 33% chance to crit per stack of Focus.

    Stalkers be good, now.

    That's... what? What? I get that they probably had to do something, but... none of that makes any sense to me.
    I give up. "It's useless, Chris can't handle chemicals."

Sign In or Register to comment.