Champions Online: Zen and the Art of Power Armor Maintenance

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Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

I still sort of suggest SMG or Gatling Gun over Lead Tempest if you aren't holding totally to the dual-pistols theme. Lead Tempest's a lot better than it was, and it has an advantage that syncs well with Quarry (and BCR+RR), but the damage isn't that exciting and it's as far as I know the only attack power in the game that can theoretically do no damage. Okay okay, it's really unlikely, but there's still a 25% chance to miss each tick even with close-range targets and it is incredibly annoying to have some minion just not die after a full maintain. I find the cone attacks a lot more manageable too, since you can use them at range easier, even with Lead Tempest's giant AoE.

That said, it's still basically the best power in the game for catching AoE aggro with Challengine Strikes. And it does look spiffy.

# ¿ Jul 20, 2011 22:47

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 16:31

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

whatspeakyou posted:

Daredevil

... Why is he puce? :geno:

# ¿ Jul 22, 2011 01:51

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

whatspeakyou posted:

went off the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 character model.

Huh, having never played that... so it is. Go figure.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2011 03:59

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

So it turns out the server problems are being caused by hideouts.

Oh dear. Who would have thought a mess of new instances would be causing problems? :ughh:

Hopefully the solution is something simple, I rather like the things, pointless as they are.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2011 04:07

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Does anyone actually buy those transformation items? I mean apparently there's a market for them, and some of them have unique effects and all, but (at least as a gold member) they seem to be basically "become a character that's probably not as good as the one you are, with a costume you can't change".

# ¿ Jul 23, 2011 00:06

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

repLOLican posted:

Aren't the C-Store items bound to you?

Depends on the item (costumes and headquarters and such are account-unlocked rather tham items), but I believe most of the actual item devices aren't, no. If there's any question about a particular item, just search for it in the AH. In general, the only way they're "bound" is that you can't get a refund for what you buy.

# ¿ Jul 23, 2011 15:41

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

And you'll have way more than 100g by 40 unless you do a total respec by in-game cash or just change your costumes like some crazy. My two 40's have something like 280 and 220g each, and that's after spending 200ish on something a few months back. Without even really bothering with playing the AH, just selling crap that doesn't look like it has decent stat spreads for alts or that can't be crushed down for crafting mats.

_{I am the worst economist.}

# ¿ Jul 23, 2011 18:35

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Nah. I've pretty much got all the costume pieces I wanted already _{which is far too many of them,} and the only things I'm really eyeing are HQ options for alts, and those aren't on sale this time. The Medieval costume tempts me solely for the cape, but that's not worth the full spend.

# ¿ Jul 24, 2011 13:32

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

That's... weird. If you're in a group, you should (in theory) always zone to the same instance, even city zones, although you may need to manually swap the first time you group. You were teamed up and not just talking to each other in real life, yeah? Since all the quest instances are group-specific, and solo characters count as their own "group". I imagine this isn't the problem, but gotta ask. Hmm.

vvvv Oh, Cryptic. :allears:

Asimo fucked around with this message at 01:55 on Jul 26, 2011

# ¿ Jul 26, 2011 01:51

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Bloodly posted:

Difficulty curve is...odd. Once you've got proper defensive abilities, you can be nigh untouchable. The difficulty is getting to that point, especially as it's easy to get mobbed. So the first levels can easily be the most frustrating.

The game's a little harder if you're in an Archetype, since you can't make properly twinky builds, but even there it varies quite a bit from Archetype to Archetype. Grimoire's more "support" while Blade's just up and up damage, so it'll be easier to level with yeah. Overall though... the difficulty's aimed fairly low, just because of how great a variation there is in potential character abilities. The only really hard stuff is generally endgame, doing certain Lairs or soloing adventure packs on Elite difficulty or things like that. Things even out a lot in teams, and the fact that (especially with freeform characters) PCs can generally be self-sufficient makes for some surprisingly fun teaming, even if the game doesn't go out of its way to encourage it.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2011 13:11

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

Edit: Also the August release calender is up.

Added to the OP now, too. Seems pretty self-explanatory, although I wonder why they're added new stuff to Gadgeteering; it's been one of the better and more fleshed out sets since a few patches back. But eh, all I'm looking for is the jetpack and retro sci-fi sets, dammit. :stare:

# ¿ Jul 26, 2011 22:26

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Huh. So I guess I can have a pulp sci-fi blaster-wielding hero them. Well, as long as they make experimental burst ray far less annoying...

# ¿ Jul 26, 2011 23:46

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Allatum posted:

I think this is actually that token they were trying to make for switching between archetype and freeform, and not a free retcon. Yes, for some reason it's taken them this long to get a functioning token that allows you two switch.

Oh, Cryptic. :v:

# ¿ Jul 27, 2011 02:02

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Also, it looks like tomorrow's patch stuff is up on the PTR, if anyone wants to take a look. Including the Archetype and the Magic Carpet travel power. The latter's pretty much what you expect, in the vein of the other "rides on stuff" flight-clones, but curiously the carpet itself glows in the dark and is pretty prominent. Also, single-colored and able to have its hue changed. I'm not sure I like it, but customization is a nice change after the last few gimmick movement powers.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2011 05:12

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

OP's been updated with the latest patch. And now I need to figure out a good Telekinesis build. For both ranged and melee. :ughh:

# ¿ Jul 27, 2011 21:21

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

There's too many powers. You'll want to pick one or the other.

I meant "one of each" yeah. Hmm, what other sets have such a drastic split like that? Supernatural used to, but it was since split off. Munitions has the dual pistols/military weapons split, but there's no real reason you can't mix and match there. But TK's now basically two different powersets that share a damage type.

# ¿ Jul 27, 2011 21:43

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Yeah, was messing around with a TK sword character earlier (albeit only at level 17) and it's just... a blender. Once you have the passive offense and the energy regen passive and Form of the Tempest, it can basically operate constantly even as just Dex/Ego. And Ego Blade Annihilation when maxed out hits like a goddamn truck, one-shotting villains and one-shotting bosses on a crit at that level... and that's without even having EBB's debuff on them or other damage boosts (was in Guardian role at the time, not Brawler, for example). Ego Blade Frenzy obliterates minions in about half a second, similarly. The only downside to the set is its still squishy, but the Ego Weaponry/Siphoning Strikes advantage covers this a bit, and there's enough room for some defensive powers later.

Ranged TK is... uh, not as good. :v:

The only really decent power in the sub-set is TK Lance, and that's not really enough to cover it. The offensive ranged passive is too narrow and does nothing for defense, and even with the toggle form buff none of the other attacks just hit all that hard, and all of them are charge powers so they have the usual annoyances there. Sad, but nothing that can't be poked at, and at least TK as a whole is menacing in PVE finally.

Also, the Telekinesis power itself is absolutely hilarious. Somewhat limited use, but it's sort of how throwing things with strength should've been. Push button, character makes a gesture, and a nearby car or something flies into enemy's face. Not the most effective of powers, but up there with Roomsweeper in the "fun to watch" category.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 06:44

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

I've started Ice characters about 4 times, but I always abandon them early because Ice might very well have the worst early level power selection in the game.

Ice definitely has the problem of basically being "Fire or Electricity, except not as good". Avalanche is pretty drat awesome sure, and Snow Storm and Frost Breath helps with the minion-grinding before that, but Fire gets Conflagration and Fire Breath... and has useful powers beyond that, as well as a mess of ways to increase fire damage instantly rather than having to hope for a Chill/Shatter chain. Electricity similarly gets Thunderstorm... as well as Gigabolt, the best drat nuke power in the game, and far superior single-target damage in Lightning Arc. And both Fire and Elec get passive energy regen powers to work off their gimmick debuffs, too.

Ice is certainly workable and still not really a bad powerset, but it's just kind of awkward a bit in comparison and suffers a bit from the same "control-hybrid sets do less damage, except that control in ChampO in PVE is pointless" problem that Darkness does. Which is a shame, since I really like the Ice SFX. The Archetype version probably hints at the best way of doing it, really; grab a defensive passive and abuse the AoE effects and the like for a ranged tank.

Hmm. I wonder if you could make a decent Fire/Ice hybrid set. Both their passives buff the others' damage after all, and there's enough overlap in feel (Frost/Fire Breath, Avalanche/Conflagration, etc.) that choosing one set's power over the other wouldn't hurt on the surface. But on the other hand there's no real synergy in the debuffs, and you'd lose some of the benefit of Thermal Reverberation if you took it.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 10:56

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

I should clarify my comment earlier: Darkness has lower damage due to its utility, but it's also really goddamn survivable due to it. Fear is an excellent debuff, it has a damage power that heals you, and the knockback advantages on Shadow Embrace are one of the most effective control methods in practice, say.

Really, the important thing to remember is that ChampO is not all that... hard, and while it's easy to make a gimpy character if you don't know what you're doing, if you're able to scythe your way through minions and have decent single-target damage there's not a whole lot that can be a threat. That said, there's a difference between "pretty good" and "crazy optimized", and folks're usually talking about the latter, but don't let that make you assume a powerset is inviable or something due to it.

As for a walking juggernaut... yeah, most of the simplest ways of making one are melee. My current walking brick is a Might guy, and not even a fancy build; Defiance, Enrage, BCR (although Bionic Shielding or something is probably better on paper), IDF, and so on. The damage is decent and he can survive and solo almost anything short of endgame lair bosses on elite, and with a more intentionally specialized build could probably do that too.

# ¿ Jul 28, 2011 20:56

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Also, apparently Mental Discipline is better than it looks. The Ego damage boost apparently applies to the base damage of the power rather than the damage multiplier (like Focus and Enrage do), which doesn't sound like a big difference but apparently there's some Cryptic math involved and the latter has diminishing returns while the former doesn't. So it doesn't quite compete with a maxed Focus stack, but in practice it's still equivalent to something like 5 ranks of it, and with the crit percent addition atop. Handy if you don't have a Dex superstat or if you want to mix in some of the ranged telekinesis attacks too.

Still, since there's no real reason not to do Dex/Ego as a TK Sword build, and Focus gives higher net melee damage and more energy regen, Form of the Tempest still tends to be better in practice.

# ¿ Jul 29, 2011 01:15

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

Or /Rec, since Ego Reverb scales from that and it's an energy heavy set.

But then you wouldn't be able to throw giant things with Telekinesis! :shepface:

(That, and I haven't had too much problems between statting for Rec and Ego Reverb, Focus stacking adding energy, and Ego Annihilation re-stacking Ego Leech for extra energy. But the character is only 18, so.)

# ¿ Jul 29, 2011 02:30

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Haha, beaten to it. That's what I get for having dinner and procrastinating. But... yeah. I will have this set. I will have all these sets if need be. :stare:

They drat well better let you use gorilla heads inside those bubble domes though. And looks like they went with what they were thinking, putting the domes as chest pieces so you still had head customization. Limits the chest armor a bit, but probably easiest in the long run.

And that just raises further questions about the impending Jetpack Flight. Will it just emanate from the back regardless? If so, are the extra jetpack models part of the retro sci-fi set, or a bonus with the power? If not, will you choose the jetpack from a drop-down menu? And since that's likely a new tech for them, what's that mean for other travel powers or powers in general? Hmm.

Also that first jetpack with the twin ducts on struts looks amazing and better make it in. :colbert:

Asimo fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Jul 30, 2011

# ¿ Jul 30, 2011 04:55

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

FlyinPingu posted:

Also, get Krogan'd:

Please share that costume file. :stare:

Also, saving the costume image from the official site for posterity here.

# ¿ Jul 30, 2011 06:40

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

FlyinPingu posted:

Here's the costume file: http://filesmelt.com/dl/Costume_FlyinPingu_NoName_CC_Comic_Page_Blue_365315629.jpg

The Cyborg Steampunk back piece makes for a better hump if you've got it unlocked, but I'm pretty sure to use that you also have to give up the chest wear.

Huh. What's the head piece(s) and chest piece there? I don't seem to have either. :raise:

# ¿ Jul 30, 2011 12:27

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Doing a Lair or Adventure Pack or the like in a full group is far, far more fun. Which, more than loot or any of that stuff is the reason to do it. It's just the twin problems of having people you actually like doing it with you, and that there really isn't all that much replayability to the endgame content.

Personally I don't really see this as a critical problem, but mostly after years spent raiding in WoW I am very, very glad there's absolutely nothing like that sort of mindset involved in the game here.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2011 03:02

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

WarLocke posted:

Speaking of this, I'm going over Dynamo Lass' build and considering a retcon to a LR-BCR&RR dodge tank setup. How useful/necessary are Challenging Strikes and Crippling challenge? I've never really tried to 'tank' in CO before.

"Very". While being incredibly durable and tankish in terms of taking damage is fairly easy, unless you have a few seconds head start or a big alpha strike it can be hard to get a hold on a big target against a twinked out damage-dealer build, but with those advantages and the Protector role they'll be on you like glue. More importantly though is the debuffs attached to them, as it reduces the enemy's damage by 20% and 5% (for crippling challenge and challenging strikes respectively) for several seconds, or as long as they keep attacking you. As you'll probably be stacking things like IDF and self-heals and whatever, yet more effective damage resistance goes a long way in survivability.

That said, there's probably folks here with more "endgame experience" than me. My level 40 Might guy doesn't have either (since I set him up for DPS, I forgot to throw it onto mighty leap or something, and I'm too lazy to respec) and just throwing on Defiance (and IDF/BCR) and the Protector role and I'm able to survive and hold aggro easily enough against, say, the undead heroes during Blood Moon or whatever. So anecdotally it probably isn't required if you're running with pubbies. But that said, if a dedicated tank swings by they'll pull off me in seconds even if it's midway through the battle, so it's definitely noticeable.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2011 05:21

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Huh, I didn't even know they added a DX11 mode. :stare:

It's actually (semi-)implemented already. It looks a little dark and metallic textures are noticeable with all the lighting changes, and takes like ten minutes to first load for some reason. But wow, it runs smooth; I gained like 10-15 FPS with it.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2011 16:14

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

Once you get to the powerhouse, retcon out of Caress and take Scything.

They should really just make everything "free" in the powerhouse until you leave for the first time. I have enough subscriber perks to have the resources to respec out of the first power by just talking to Defender and doing the gimme perk quest outside the power house, but it's still faintly annoying to do that just to have a decent low-tier power.

But yeah. Cryptic doesn't make it obvious, but there's absolutely no reason to keep the default non-energy-builder power. Some of them are alright or have useful advantages, but in most cases they're rapidly obsoleted by something better, possibly right at level five there.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2011 22:38

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

WarLocke posted:

Wait, so instead of letting you mail resources they just put vendor items in that are basically just there to transfer resources with?

Well, they have other uses. But they're just convenient for moneylending. But yeah, I can't wait for the shared bank in the Headquarters.

Also, is it wrong of me that I decided to stop leveling my Telekinesis alt because I realized they really, really need the sci-fi costume set and/or jetpack flight? :negative:

# ¿ Aug 2, 2011 05:38

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

It's really wrong of you to have a Retro Sci-Fi character that isn't Munitions, if that's what you're asking.

Bah. Munitions has too many bullets and rockets, not enough vague energy weapon laser blasty things. :colbert:

Which on that note makes me wonder if the Gadgeteering additions later this month will add enough blaster powers to make a viable subset there.

# ¿ Aug 2, 2011 08:02

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

New Hideouts out today. High-Tech Basement and 60's Retro Moonbase.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2011 20:52

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

terminal mehmet posted:

Oh my god I want a moonbase.

The original moonbase is probably more generically useful for multiple alts (and it's the only one I've nabbed so far), but I'd be lying if I said the styling on the 60's moonbase wasn't absolutely hilarious.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 02:00

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Yeah. Gold characters get one "free", and you still have to buy the rest. But it's an account-wide purchase, and any settings you make in them are character-specific, so if you had the retro sci-fi moonbase say you could have one character with orange lighting on the floor, and another with a big death ray visible through the dome, and so on, but none of them could have a cave base unless you bought that. And if you did, any of your characters could, and could even swap between them at will if so inclined.

(Personally, if you don't want to put down cryptic funbucks on a base, the original Cave's probably the best bet. It's nice and generic, as much as I like the moonbases.)

And yeah. The 60's styled moonbase is... 60's styled. It's hilarious but a bit concept-specific. The new tech basement's not bad either, but I think all the basement options are just a little small.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 04:11

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

It's pretty common to have a defensive and offensive passive, at least.

Yeah. It used to be tricky to find a pair that matched, but now that passives match your super stats, whatever they are, it's really quite easy. Especially since most defensive passives are set-agnostic.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 05:37

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Mewnie posted:

Yeah, LR is good- with a lot of bandaids attached

I've avoided straight up dodge builds. I learned my lesson after playing a SR scrapper in CoH.

It's arguable that a dodge-based tank is the most survivable tank in game, especially if you're out soloing, simply due to the fact that almost all the actually-dangerous things are cosmics/legendaries/etc. with massive charged alpha-strike style attacks. Granted, you still need a lot of synergy; a block that boosts defenses when you melee, BCR+RR (obviously), equipment that boosts dodge chance (rare, but there's some from quests and it's craftable later), attacks that boost dodge chance, other self-heals or shields, and so on. That's a pretty heavy investment, yeah. With the BCR+RR synergy it's even surprisingly durable against massed minions, especially with an AoE attack that can clear them out while they futilely try and beat you up.

If you just want to be nigh-invulnerable whole soloing and don't really have any intention of going up against those sorts of things, then any sort of passive defense with any sort of self-heal will more than suffice. Invuln or Defiance are obvious examples, there; Lightning Reflexes really only starts getting good in the midgame, while those help you from the moment they're taken.

And yeah, PFF still sucks. Even after repeated buffs it's still basically "regeneration but shittier". It needs a lot higher regeneration to even start to be useful, sadly. Or hell, even rapid out of combat regen...

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 09:04

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Aphrodite posted:

When using LR though, Parry's not worth it because of diminishing returns.

Yeah. It winds up adding like... 3-4% dodge. Barely noticeable, let alone being worth three advantage points. Laser Knight is way better in practive since its damage resistance effectively stacks on top of LR/Dodge. If you're using WotW or Quarry (assuming you have a melee attack with the latter), then definitely go for Parry, it kicks your dodge up to near-LR levels and makes the BCR+RR synergy work wonders.

doomfunk posted:

Yeah. I look at defense like a chair. The more "legs" it has (heal/time, damage resistance, damage reduction, etc) the less likely it is to fall down.

...I got that from the CoH forums like seven years ago but it's just as good a metaphor now as it was then.

Basically. You have to look at your "effective" damage resistance over time, which is fairly complicated but which everything adds to. It's easier in CO than CoH say, mostly because CO actually has some decently-planned mechanics (CoH was laughably imbalanced at launch and for a few years afterwards). Ideally you want to hit a point where the amount you heal is greater than the damage you're taking; if you can manage that, you're literally invincible. In practice fighting anything actually worth being durable against you'll wind up with a slow net drain on HP, but that's what active defenses and just murdering the enemy are for.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2011 21:30

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

BlueDestiny posted:

Anyone know if Roles effect pet damage/healing? I'm making a pokemaster and plan on using medical nanites with IDF to make my horde basically invincible, so I'm wondering if I should be in sentinel or guardian.

Also, if one is going petmaster for pure damage would the +damage aura or +stats aura be better?

Medical Nanites suck. It's less healing than Regeneration on you, which is already sort of off-and-on in effectiveness, and it'll barely even be noticeable on your pets. You're better off with something like Aura of Radiant Protection (at rank 3 and with Pre superstatted it's a good 40-50% damage resistance on your pets, and more than that for you too) so they can take a few hits, and some sort of area healing. Support Drones can generally handle this themselves, but something like Vala's Light or Arcane Vitality helps a lot too. Ritual of Arcane Summoning is pretty handy too, as the pet taunts things and is fairly durable.

As for whether role affects pet damage... you know, I have no idea. Time to go test. :stare:

In general it shouldn't really matter though; stuff will cost so much once you have five or six pets out that you'll be energy building most of the time while they scythe through whatever's in your way.

Asimo fucked around with this message at 07:57 on Aug 5, 2011

# ¿ Aug 5, 2011 07:55

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

doomfunk posted:

I strongly urge you to r3 your support drones ASAP. They went from mostly useless, disposable, only good when overtuned to pretty goddamn awesome with the pet pass.

I argue that in 99% of situations they're even overpowered. Healing on par or even superior to Regen, but you get to have a more useful passive and it takes no effort on your part and it's AoE and they'll auto-heal escorts and similar NPCs for you and you can swap them to do extra damage if you really don't need the healing? That's usually more than worth the hit to energy generation and power cost they give really.

The situations they have trouble are either when there's a lot of AoE damage being thrown about (they share the pet AoE damage resistance, but they aren't very durable) or if you're in a large group (public or not) or other situation where they may focus elsewhere than you. But it's not like they're hard to resummon either, so hey. The only major downside beyond that is the aforementioned pet scaling one, but as noted they're so good it usually doesn't really matter.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2011 12:44

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

Also added that weapon draw macro to the OP.

(And if there's any Cryptic devs reading this through some unlikely event, give Force Cascade the same disadvantage Gigabolt does. The current energy form-stripping one renders it semi-useless, and keeps the set from catching up to the other energy sets.)

EDIT: Also looks like an upcoming set will be... Avian Warrior! Best start on all your bird-related pun names now, get them out of your system. _{No, someone already thought of "Doctor Hoot".}

Asimo fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Aug 5, 2011

# ¿ Aug 5, 2011 23:33

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# ¿ May 12, 2024 16:31

Asimo: Sep 23, 2007

The uh, conversation earlier here reminds me of something I've mentioned in game before. Namely, how when you find some "sexy gurl" costume that's obviously done by a guy, bustiers and bare skin and all that stuff, take a good look at the character's face. More often than not, even with costumes that otherwise look like their creator spent a lot of time on them, the face is some sort of horrible derpy downs-mutant :downs:

with widely-set eyes, a too-tiny nose, enormous fish mouth, and all sorts of similar things. Part of this is due to the default settings for female faces being horrible, but it isn't that hard to make a good looking one, and it shows either the creator's complete artistic ineptitude, or the fact they were focused... elsewhere while making it.

You can occasionally see hilarious results with other sliders too. I don't just mean maxing out the titometer, but also things like maxing out the hips slider without quite understanding that it is not, in fact, the counterpoint to the boob slider. It's absolutely loving hilarious.

# ¿ Aug 8, 2011 06:41

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > Champions Online: Zen and the Art of Power Armor Maintenance

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