First off... Were Blasters nerfed, and how so? (I think I noticed considerably less damage from my blaster's Fire Sword Circle...) Were Tankers made non-useless, and how so?
Then... I saw some Field coordinator dudes offering to change my reputation/difficulty. The question is, how does it affect missions? I set it to Unyielding and ended up with a hard mission, but still soloable with a lot of time and Inspirations. Does it just bump up the average levels? Does it also scale with group size on top of that? What happens if someone set to Heroic is grouped with someone set to Invincible?
And last... Apart from these specific questions, is there somewhere I can quickly catch up on what powersets and classes are balanced/unbalanced/min/max'd? I'll probably be starting a new character just to see what's new and whatnot, so that's why I'm wondering. Last I played, a lot of powersets were a "must have" for each archetype (like Invuln for tankers, regen for scrappers, fire or devices for blasters), so I guess the question really is whether the unbalances are still as glaring.
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This insanity brought to you by Asha'man:
I've come back to fighting crime after a 9 month absence, and I've found a lot to be changed... There are some things I'm wondering about happenings on this timeframe.First off... Were Blasters nerfed, and how so? (I think I noticed considerably less damage from my blaster's Fire Sword Circle...) Were Tankers made non-useless, and how so?
Then... I saw some Field coordinator dudes offering to change my reputation/difficulty. The question is, how does it affect missions? I set it to Unyielding and ended up with a hard mission, but still soloable with a lot of time and Inspirations. Does it just bump up the average levels? Does it also scale with group size on top of that? What happens if someone set to Heroic is grouped with someone set to Invincible?
And last... Apart from these specific questions, is there somewhere I can quickly catch up on what powersets and classes are balanced/unbalanced/min/max'd? I'll probably be starting a new character just to see what's new and whatnot, so that's why I'm wondering. Last I played, a lot of powersets were a "must have" for each archetype (like Invuln for tankers, regen for scrappers, fire or devices for blasters), so I guess the question really is whether the unbalances are still as glaring.
Blasters were nerfed, and in the high game are considered practically useless. The reason for this is that their damage is capped much loweer than scrappers, who can not only deal more damage, but are able to survive if they draw aggro.
Mission coordinators bump up the average level of the enemies on missions. They also grant more XP for higher difficulty missions. For example, at Invincible I run accross enemies 2-3 levels higher than me, whereas a character set at Heroic (default) will usually be even or +1 mobs.
As far as powersets, the best place to check is the official forums. As far as what's needed and not, the general consensus is that hasten, health, stamina, tough, and weave (as well as whatever prerequisites they might have) are necessary. Tough and weave are only considered needed if you're a tank, or if you're herding.
As far as powersets, each AT has their gimps. Dark armor scrappers are ridiculously rare, and ice tankers remain purely in the realm of the mythological. Each scrapper set has had their final power toned down so that it can no longer be used permanently. For scrappers the prominent choices for min/maxers are invulnerability and regen. Super Reflexes aren't popular despite being great against normal missions because Archvillians' accuracy is so high that it negates their defense. As far as tanks, stone is rare and considered mediocre. Fire is by far the most popular, with Invulnerability second. The reason is that fire tankers can herd large groups of enemies and finish them with burn for great XP.
As far as blasters, controllers, and defenders, I don't know much about their sets.
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Sakkra wrote this stupid crap:
Mission coordinators bump up the average level of the enemies on missions. They also grant more XP for higher difficulty missions. For example, at Invincible I run accross enemies 2-3 levels higher than me, whereas a character set at Heroic (default) will usually be even or +1 mobs.
Also, missions set at Heroic will not have actual bosses in them. They will be Lieutenants instead. The ones that are normally set above boss level (Dr. Vahz, for example) will still be at their normal level.
Also, this rule does not apply to Task Force missions.
As to what happens when two people with different settings group together? The mission is set according to the person who it belongs to. So double-check that setting before agreeing to go along with some pickup group on a mission one of them has, it could be set to wipe you all out.
And what are you playing to solo Invincible missions, I bet a scrapper?
My tanker was Invuln/fire, never got him high, but I was thinking it'd combine awesome tanking with two or three AEs to kill large masses of things with Invincibility. I wonder if that works...
Hmm, something else, if you or anyone can answer that one. Confuse (mind controller power) used to be bad because damage from confused mobs would take away exp... That, combined with Sleep effects being easy to break and having no pet, made Mind Controllers rather subpar. Is Confuse still stealing exp, or is it a viable alternative to a pet now? Asha'man fucked around with this message on 05-21-2005 at 05:01 AM.
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Verily, Asha'man doth proclaim:
And what are you playing to solo Invincible missions, I bet a scrapper?
I know of no one that solos those. It takes a damned good team. And keep in mind that the more people there are on a team, the more opponents you have to face, so more people on the team isn't allways better.
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Palador ChibiDragon was listening to Cher while typing:
I know of no one that solos those. It takes a damned good team. And keep in mind that the more people there are on a team, the more opponents you have to face, so more people on the team isn't allways better.
Hi. I solo them. I'm a regen scrapper. Mooj also solos them, and hes a SR scrapper.
And as for Inv/Fire, you can herd large groups pretty easily, and get much more than a fire tank can, but even with your AOEs you won't be able to kill them as quickly without burn. You'll also run into problems if there's lots of bosses in the herd. However, the best XP I've ever got was with an invul tank herding and a fire blaster using AOEs to kill things very quickly. About the only thing I had to do was take out the bosses. Sakkra fucked around with this message on 05-21-2005 at 05:41 AM.
Plenty of builds can solo Invincible, many tanker, scrapper, and pretty much all controller builds can solo at the very high difficulty levels. The problem comes when defenders and blasters cannot solo at even the heroic level due to damage caps and other only buffs. In all balance is really out of wack, some builds are just way too good.
For example I play a Fire/Rad controller, things are way too easy. I do not need a group unless a mission contains an archvillian or a monster. Illusion/Kinetic is even more broken, and I will not even touch how busted Fire tankers still are even after being nerfed in every issue.
The pseudo good news is that powersets and archtypes that are bad in PvE are really good in PvP. Electric blasters rule, as do storm and kinetic defenders.
There is still a lot of work to do, Fire tankers just need a major overhaul with total power redesigns. Same with scrapper regen, it is getting nerfed in every issue now and is still a bit too strong. Controllers just need to lose the ability to put recharge enhancements on their pet powers. Lastly blasters need their damage cap raised and defenders need their secondary power sets ungimped. That should curb many of the abuses that go on right now with busted combos. Tyewa Dawnsister fucked around with this message on 05-21-2005 at 05:43 AM.
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Sakkra had this to say about Knight Rider:
Hi. I solo them. I'm a regen scrapper. Mooj also solos them, and hes a SR scrapper.
I stand corrected. I now know of two people that solo them.
Personally, I avoid them like the plague. Maybe I should change that, try it with my blaster...?
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This one time, at Batty camp:
I figure since questions are being asked and answered: Are gravity controllers any good yet?
Greetings,
Yes, you have some of the better controller abilities. Ranged AE immobilize, ranged AE hold, and powers that do direct damage before you get your pets. After level 32 Gravity becomes really good as their pets cause some serious chaos. They never do as much damage as Fire or Illusion, but the overall effect is just as awesome.
I would say Rad or Storm are your best bets for secondaries.
The only downsides are the lack of any good debuffs, long animation times, and no AE disorient. Debuffs and disorient can be compensated for with radiation, but Rad only hurts your issues with long animation times. Storm is probably a better bet, more control, good debuffs, and a cone shaped AE disorient.
Any build will work though, the most important things will continue to be Hasten and the Fitness pool. For gravity I still recommend slotting up hover since your pets fly. You do not want to be the only target in melee range while your pets are flinging things around.
I loved gravity but I couldn't solo, was mainly seeing if that had changed, thanks. 
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Batty had this to say about Pirotess:
So nothing's really changed much for gravity, ah well. I was hoping for at least some more damage on lift and propel so soloing wasn't so time consuming, haha. ;DI loved gravity but I couldn't solo, was mainly seeing if that had changed, thanks.
Just remember it could be worse, fire controllers have to brawl their way to level 32. After that they just sit back and let the evil fire monkeys do their bidding. 
Also since they have added respecs to the game, you can slot up lift and propel with damage then spec out of them at later levels. They do respectable damage for controller powers when slotted, but their animation times are the real problem.
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This one time, at Addy camp:
Out of sheer curiosity, how are ice controllers? I remember playing one waaaay back when CoH first came out and absolutely adored her.
I don't have a lot of experience with them, but whenever I group with them, I love them. Their holds are absolute love, and Jack Frost's been souped up pretty heavily too.
They're also highly desireable in Hamidon raids.
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Asha'man had this to say about Pirotess:
Thanks a bunch, that's enlightening.And what are you playing to solo Invincible missions, I bet a scrapper?
My tanker was Invuln/fire, never got him high, but I was thinking it'd combine awesome tanking with two or three AEs to kill large masses of things with Invincibility. I wonder if that works...
Hmm, something else, if you or anyone can answer that one. Confuse (mind controller power) used to be bad because damage from confused mobs would take away exp... That, combined with Sleep effects being easy to break and having no pet, made Mind Controllers rather subpar. Is Confuse still stealing exp, or is it a viable alternative to a pet now?
Only of the confused mob makes the kill does it steal exp. If it's defeated anytime before it can finish a mob off, group still gets full exp. My partner plays ill/kin and uses it all the time.. really quite handy
On a side note, unless it got changed in the last issue update.. it works on emitters (ie: stealing the remote to Sky Raider force field gens > )
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Palador ChibiDragon was naked while typing this:
I know of no one that solos those. It takes a damned good team. And keep in mind that the more people there are on a team, the more opponents you have to face, so more people on the team isn't allways better.
I solo them, both with my tanker and my scrapper. I can solo a lot of it with my empathy defender. Set at invincible, a mission will first have more mobs with a team of up to 6, and any after that will spawn bosses. I personally like having a team of 8 in my mission and taking on the bosses with burn. So much XP is 
Blasters were nerfed to hell, which is a shame, because I liked playing mine. The damage cap, even with things like enrages, build up, and SOs, is 400%, and all of their attacks cause a massive ammount of aggro. Unless you have a good tank, as a blaster you will die a lot. At 40+ there are very few blasters.
Gravity controllers are some of the best in the game, because their pets cast the same spells as the controller, which means that one grav controller can hold and even level AV.
edit: messege me in game if you need some influence or whatever, if you are on the guardian server. I'm almost always online.
edit2: Burn causes massive amounts of fear now =( I can't even lay down a burn on an AV without haveing it run. Ctrl-Alt-Del fucked around with this message on 05-21-2005 at 11:09 AM.
I know the comic is probably not much good but...
Doing some of my Invincible missions with a group of 8 on Geeorn last night was fun. We were in a Rikti warehouse and rounded a corner to see about 40-50 Rikti 3 levels above us. Only the tanker and i survived and i kept her up using Adreniline Rush, Fort, and heals while the rest of the group filtered in from the hospital. We were more careful about peeling off and killing afterwords.
.
Now I have to blow a /respec on my teletanker... >:(
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Ctrl-Alt-Del had this to say about Pirotess:
I still have the "evercrest" channel up, just join channel and type evercrest.
/join evercrest or /channel evercrest?
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Dr. Gee had this to say about John Romero:
/join evercrest or /channel evercrest?
Right click your chat log, join channel should show up. Type evercrest, profit.
With that in mind, do I still need Provoke at all, or is the tanker Taunt + Invincibility sufficient for most taunting purposes?
And if I use the christmas /respec on one character, will others still have one?
So many things changed, sorry for asking all this ;d
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Asha'man had this to say about Cuba:
I was playing my tanker, and wanted to taunt one guy away from a group... Little did I know, they changed the regular taunt into an AE one. So I taunted the whole group. Augh.With that in mind, do I still need Provoke at all, or is the tanker Taunt + Invincibility sufficient for most taunting purposes?
And if I use the christmas /respec on one character, will others still have one?
So many things changed, sorry for asking all this ;d
Tanker taunt should be sufficient, because it's attacks now aggro mobs also. I'm not really sure if provoke is helpful. I made it to 48 without it, but I'm a fire tank.
JooJoo, blasters start to feel weaker at level 35 or so.
My Kheldian is Silver Fury, a level 17 Peacebringer.
Ah, and is there a list somewhere of the badges that can be earned? I hear something about a debt one, something tells me I'll be earning it real fast =P Asha'man fucked around with this message on 05-22-2005 at 04:07 AM.
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Asha'man had this to say about pies:
Yet more questions, narrowing down my choices now... I've been looking at things, and I'll probably start over as a katana/invuln scrapper. I'm only hesitating between invuln and super reflexes now... Invuln's obvious weaknesses are the same old psionics+toxic, but what are SR's? I keep hearing stuff about Rularuu and the Shadow Shard. What makes them so threatening to SR? And which of the two sets is the better one in the long run?Ah, and is there a list somewhere of the badges that can be earned? I hear something about a debt one, something tells me I'll be earning it real fast =P
SRs real bad thing is that some enemies(all AVs, most bosses) have an extremely high defense, and will probably be able to one hit kill you.
these both have badge lists. Neither have issue 4 badges yet, but I know they don't have accolades yet.
here's one
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Asha'man spewed forth this undeniable truth:
Yet more questions, narrowing down my choices now... I've been looking at things, and I'll probably start over as a katana/invuln scrapper. I'm only hesitating between invuln and super reflexes now... Invuln's obvious weaknesses are the same old psionics+toxic, but what are SR's? I keep hearing stuff about Rularuu and the Shadow Shard. What makes them so threatening to SR? And which of the two sets is the better one in the long run?Ah, and is there a list somewhere of the badges that can be earned? I hear something about a debt one, something tells me I'll be earning it real fast =P
As noted ArchVillians hive 95% accuracy at even level. The Rularuu on the other hand are in a hazard zone almost noone goes to but they seem to debuff just about anything but their eye type mobs have almost unerring accuracy and debuff defense so that the rest of the group has similar chances to hit you.
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Asha'man had this to say about Jimmy Carter:
Yet more questions, narrowing down my choices now... I've been looking at things, and I'll probably start over as a katana/invuln scrapper. I'm only hesitating between invuln and super reflexes now... Invuln's obvious weaknesses are the same old psionics+toxic, but what are SR's? I keep hearing stuff about Rularuu and the Shadow Shard. What makes them so threatening to SR? And which of the two sets is the better one in the long run?Ah, and is there a list somewhere of the badges that can be earned? I hear something about a debt one, something tells me I'll be earning it real fast =P
Invuln is pretty good, though you'll have to watch out for anything that uses toxic damage at lower levels such as Vahz. Luckily the lethal damage on katana will chew through zombies fairly easily. At higher levels, psionics will give you a tough time, and they're fairly common at higher levels.
You can't go wrong with katana however, as it's largely regarded as the most balanced scrapper primary. You have the quickest attacks (animation-wise anyway, claws has faster recharge but the animation times are ridiculous), great damage, and the defense buff on Divine Avalanche is far better than it's broadsword equivalent.
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ACES! Another post by Asha'man:
Now I just need to throw together a build... But joechott.com is down, and that's the only place I can find the COH planner.
If you think about it, it's pretty easy to go the first few levels and not make any mistakes. There's not very many choices, and you know what you need. Then, at 6, most people take Hasten and spend their next five slots on it. No real brainpower is required 'till 8 at the earliest.
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Palador ChibiDragon painfully thought these words up:
If you think about it, it's pretty easy to go the first few levels and not make any mistakes. There's not very many choices, and you know what you need. Then, at 6, most people take Hasten and spend their next five slots on it. No real brainpower is required 'till 8 at the earliest.
Every time someone says taking and six-slotting haste is mandatory it makes baby Statesman cry, especially at level 6. As a tanker you'll burn through your endurance way too quickly running hasten and constantly attacking.
Asha'man fucked around with this message on 05-22-2005 at 06:55 PM.
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Sakkra's unholy Backstreet Boys obsession manifested in:
Every time someone says taking and six-slotting haste is mandatory it makes baby Statesman cry, especially at level 6. As a tanker you'll burn through your endurance way too quickly running hasten and constantly attacking.
I did say "most people". I don't allways do it. In fact, rarely. I like to keep it as the "panic button", but I figure it's better to get the other powers to the point where you don't need to rely on it.
