Champions Online: Zen and the Art of Power Armor Maintenance

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

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

I'm working on a character perfect for the Basement hideout: Orangefinger, the Space Elf Samurai High Technomagelord. Or, at least he is in his tabletop game. I want him to use a katana, and various magic/technology based pets, but I'm not sure where to start on powers. It feels weird mixing melee ability with stuff like pets/ranged abilities. There's a metric poo poo ton of pets to go around.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2011 17:58

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 23:11

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Bluhman posted:

The good thing about pets is that they don't really scale much with any stats anymore, so any build that doesn't have terrible energy issues can feel free to use them.

The bad thing is that they hold you back on powers that make you more powerful, and can be very aggravating to level with (especially if they're melee pets.)

Probably the most moderate and easy-to-use pets would be the support drones, as they usually don't rush off ahead into battle, and at rank-3, they almost always will point their healing beams in your direction, and they heal a lot.
_{edit: I am terrible with phpbb tags.}

Well, none of the energy unlocks seem very viable for this set up, being pet focused and all (plus a katana attack or two). Maybe just focusing on rec/end and taking something like, say, Aura of Primal Majesty to boost them further?

# ¿ Jul 8, 2011 18:37

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Bluhman posted:

Literally everything works with Aura of Primal Majesty. Heck, if you superstatted Dex/Ego with AoPM, it would probably work; by the time you reach 40, you'll have at least 300 in both your superstats and 100 in every other one. You'll be landing criticals much more often than other builds, have much more energy capability with high Rec, End, and Int, even your heals operate at increased effectiveness, and, like Quarry, you're set-agnostic, so you can throw any balance of blade vs magic in there and it would still probably work.

Since you'll be landing criticals a lot, I'd maybe suggest using the Form of the Tempest, which will make your melee strikes do even more damage as you build focus stacks through critical hits, and also returns energy as you do this. If you still need help with energy, you might want to take a look at Force Shield with Force Sheath, allowing you to restore energy whenever you're hit.

If it doesn't sound like your thing, I'm almost certain you could build a single-blade character that uses some pets and just stacks Rec/End (at least one of the two) a bit on top of his Dex/Ego superstats.

Thanks for the advice, I put something together that might not be bad. I'll have to play it a bit and see how it goes.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2011 19:36

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Thanks for the awesome rundown on the sets, Bluhman! Definitely helps in piecing characters together.

# ¿ Jul 11, 2011 00:18

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Aphrodite posted:

Though it isn't 1:1, CoX is really inefficient.

CoX is really inefficient but at least it's not EQ2. :allears:

Talk about horribly optimized games.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2011 00:13

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

I might play some more since I saw you can get a freeform slot with Zen. What restrictions can't be gotten around by throwing Zen at them? Or, in other words, what exists that REQUIRES a sub?

# ¿ Dec 6, 2012 21:29

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Aphrodite posted:

Power color changing.

(Also it's a lot of Zen. It's $50.)

Haha, wow, really? Just that? Jesus. Whoop de doo. And $50 isn't that bad, I'm used to playing STO. :v:

Archonex posted:

Edit: Also, according to the forums this game has something better than STO's fire extinguisher when it comes to pissing players off. Teliosaur Pheremones apparently summon Jurassic Park style velociraptors. However, unlike the summon powers, there's apparently no upper cap to how many times they can be summoned. So if you were to take them into an instance that relied on people not being nailed in place by a tide of dinosaurs...

Welp, time to reinstall. Any of the f2p archetypes not dogshit? I remember one of them was excruciatingly awful, but can't recall which.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2012 03:26

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Kelp Plankton posted:

It's $50 for a single Freeform slot, in case that wasn't clear. Not just Freeform access in general. This is pretty important to understand. You aren't buying access to a freeform AT, you're buying a single character slot that can access the Freeform system.

Yeah, I can live with that. I played on/off since release and, unlike CoH, I never really felt the same 'GOTTA MAKE ALTS' thing.

And yep, I know freeform will trump archetypes, I'm just wondering which ones are 'good for what they are'.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2012 04:01

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Returning impressions since I haven't played in a loooong while: Huh, character creator feels more robust than I recall. May be in my head, though. Alerts seem pretty fun, am playing The Unleashed. Either pubbie tanks are retarded or my level 10-scaled-up DPS is better than I expected, as I regularly pull off tanks even giving them a ~10s lead. This Archetype feels decent but squishy, gotta kill fast or risk dying.

Also man my old characters are embarrassing as gently caress. :v:

I should delete some and try some of the other f2p archetypes. How's The Radiant, and are the two free tanks decent?

e: Last time I played, Heavy Weapons had just come out. Time last played on that character: 515 days. :v:

my other characters are 1,120ish days.

e2: I'm @Treveran in game.

Tsurupettan fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Dec 13, 2012

# ¿ Dec 13, 2012 17:21

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Neurolimal posted:

If you go back a page or two someone lunk the free Heavy Weapons Archetype (and matching Viking costume set), it's -really- good at being a Tanky DPS, and has a pretty nice variety of powers. Not to mention most of the Heavy Weapons animations are really, really satisfying.

Oddly, I have that key on my account, but I can't use the Devastator.

e: vvv Well, I did now. :shobon:

Tsurupettan fucked around with this message at 22:16 on Dec 13, 2012

# ¿ Dec 13, 2012 22:05

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Huh, turns out I had an unused Amazon code (couple, actually, should do something with the others) on my shelf. So I've got a month of gold, hooray. Now to deal with the overwhelming options. I'm probably gonna sink a bunch of time in and spread out and try a slew of characters: Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Tank, Pets, Heals/Buff+Debuff. Oh god I can feel my CoH build sperging coming back.

My first character is level 19 and used electric stuff. I saw the glory days of Gigabolt+Sonic Devices oneshotting everything are gone, so I'm not sure what to do now. I'm thinking of speccing her to start off like this, with suggestions from the elemental projector set post: http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=5&n=&d=1547YRTWXaU70101000120315031700370018001B000000000000000000000000000000000100000000 And then I don't know where to go from there! I'm guessing I'll use Avenger/Vindicator for specialization trees and buff the gently caress out of my crit, but power-wise I am clueless.

For the Melee DPS, the Laser Knight thing mentioned sounds really loving cool, but again, I'm having the same issue of 'what do I take after the first 20 levels to round this out?' Here's what I have so far: http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=5&n=&d=1142Z9BHEKT70109204950598039D05C8039E009G030000000000000000000000000000000200000000 I'm really not sure what to do with it for energy management, though. Electric Form is a big bump to recovery and equilibrium and works with the laser sword attacks, but Way of the Warrior would make me more defensive. I was really pleased to see they fully fleshed out Laser Swords, though. Alternatively, would it be doable to make a Laser Sword character a reasonable tank given the benefits of Laser Knight? I'd swap Dex to Con and pick up Defiance for that I imagine.

For heals/buffs/debuffs I did a bit better in filling it out, though still missing a few spots: http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=5&n=&d=1683HOQZSMU7010O000O100O403N303OC05LB03LA03LG05OD00O500OA000000OH0000000cZ40CLN2JrY Some healing, lot of friendly damage reduction, manage my energy with Circle of Arcane Power, debuff with Ebon Sigils.

As for pets, gently caress theme, I just want to poo poo an endless army of pets on people. Is there any real limit to summoning pets, or can I have an army that puts Masterminds to shame? Sadly I have no idea where to even begin here. I know there's something like nine or ten unique pets you can summon. v :shobon:

v edit: http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=5&n=&d=1458YRUXMNQ7010710074000000M5037P037R037Q034C03M703PE035E03KC0300007V000maU0GF20cGI this has 8 controllable pets, I'd include more but I ran out of advantage points. I have two empty spots that could hold something useful. Maybe Bionic Shielding for filler to dump on tanks/pets? I don't think I have anything that triggers MSA or I'd take that. I could put Arcane or Primal circles in near the end depending on how my energy looks.

I have no idea where I want to go conceptually with a tank unless I can turn Laser Sword poo poo above into a tank, so I'll leave that off.

Tsurupettan fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Dec 14, 2012

# ¿ Dec 14, 2012 03:40

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Guy Forget posted:

My partner has a Best Buy code he can't use. Interested in trading?

e: Got the code, sent you yours. I've still got one left.

Tsurupettan fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Dec 14, 2012

# ¿ Dec 14, 2012 03:56

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

I wanted to put together a goofy rear end build whose whole theme was stacking lots of obnoxious particle/physics effects, screen-shaking and noisy powers. I quickly ran into one major issue though: A lot of the effects don't persist. The best I can figure out at the moment is Fissure and Avalanche together. Are there any recommendations you guys can make as to more poo poo I can toss out while keeping those going so I can be obnoxious as hell?

If not, I might as well add Avalanche to my pet build and call it a day. :v:

# ¿ Dec 15, 2012 03:57

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

e: gently caress it after how infuriating pubbies are I'm going to make a loving tank and just try to carry everyone. :v:

e2: Here's what I threw together for tanking: http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html?v=5&n=&d=1312aAG9FPQ7010G000G403G603I20KI80KGC0BBG03MB03GE00IE04IH0300000000QJ002MR40Bd33bhx

It has two free slots to do 'something' with, I'm not sure what. The only immediate thought for one of them was to grab Unstoppable for if I have to DPS. Not sure what I'd do with the other. Not sure if my trees and advantages are good either. Would love input on these final elements.

Tsurupettan fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Dec 15, 2012

# ¿ Dec 15, 2012 19:55

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Dinictus posted:

So I've removed Crippling Challenge from this build and added in Epidemic as a PbAOE on this altered Power Armor-based build. I'll probably play this as a tanking Hybrid, for the Bulwark Hybrid role +threat generation. Would you all say this is a pretty solid ranged tank that can still stand a beating? Or should I allocate advantages elsewhere or rethink power selection?

EDIT: Oh motherfucker. I pony up for Gold membership and I suddenly get locked out of using my Silver characters that I played yesterday with just fine as a Gold member. The Play button is greyed out.

You have to click the 'Convert' button which lets you choose to keep the current AT, go freeform, or choose another AT.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2012 16:16

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Dinictus posted:

Do I at least get to make all my four normal character slots (yeah, I bought two character slots on the last sale) Silver again after my subscription runs out?

You can convert them to an AT you have access to.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2012 16:37

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Section Z posted:

Huh, that's surprising. I can understand them locking you out of your shiny freeform characters if you stop being a Gold subber... But why the hell would they lock you out of your F2P Archetypes that you can still create and use as a Gold?

Bonus enraged confusion because you're getting slammed with this surprised after you give them money.

You can continue using the character as-is, it just does it so you can change it to freeform or another AT if you so desire.

# ¿ Dec 20, 2012 01:10

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Bluhman posted:

A real lightweight. A stiff breeze could knock this guy over.

Unless its tons, in which case he really needs to stop packing away those antimatter bullets that got embedded in his skull.

That could be in stone, which would be a legitimate weight (about 235 lbs or 106 kilos). :v:

# ¿ Mar 9, 2013 21:45

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

Command Animals has a reskin where you can make them raptors. :iia:

# ¿ Aug 25, 2013 17:16

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

jjac posted:

Wanna see that Hen Masters (if it's not part of the creep-fest), it would go great with this:

Holy poo poo this is loving amazing. :allears:

# ¿ Nov 20, 2013 22:56

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 23:11

Tsurupettan: Mar 26, 2011; My many CoX, always poised, always ready, always willing to thrust.

sometimes i read this thread and want to reinstall this game. i haven't played since 2013 apparently. how much have things changed?

# ¿ May 19, 2018 17:34

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