Looking at the numbers for Invulnerability (we are going to have to change that name) it is really bad. Our cornerstone power, Unyielding, has went from 20% Damage resistance to everything (except psionics) with a 5% Defense Debuff, to a 5% Damage resistance, with a 10% Defense Debuff. Fire tanks have better resistance to damage than Invulnerability. The Kheldian dwarf forms have better resistance than Invulnerability.
They even nerfed Tough Hide, the most worthless power in the set.
Against AVs or Monsters, unless they are strictly Smashing/Lethal damage, we are going to be worse than useless.
Okay, I did notice a difference taking my level 28 (forgot to mention that) tank against a larger group. Had to exit the mish and wait for a bit.
Trying my level 14 Illusion Bubbler right now and it’s definitely not quite as fun as it used to be. As it stands now, I think they went a little too far there.
Well, I have been playing him on Tenacious. The group that made me turn tail had two Oranges and four Yellows. One of the Oranges was a Juicer. When I went back in, I made sure to only aggro the Yellows so I could deal with the Oranges separately.
I recently got the Prima Official Game Guide. Mildly useful and interesting in some parts…in other parts, not so much. Maybe you can clear a few things up for me.
With regard to the multiple effects a power can have (such as damage + knockback), it says this:
“Chance” is the base chance that an effect will trigger, not the chance that it will affect the target."
What-the-tap-dancing-Jebus?
What are smashing and lethal damage, anyway? I’ve always wondered this and the book doesn’t define them.
The section on macros and binds is incomprehensible gobbledygook to me, but I won’t ask you to explain that.
Gah, there was something else I wasn’t clear on but I can’t remember what, even scanning the book again. Oh well, I’ll be back if/when I think of it. No doubt I’ll have more questions as I keep reading anyway.
I haven’t played in a bit, but I can answer a few of Licentious’ questions.
The Chance they’re talking about is the chance that an effect will trigger. For instance, if you have a power that does damage and a 10% chance for knockback, then 90% of the time it’ll just be damage, and 10% of the time the knockback power will be fired off as well. But that doesn’t mean that 10% of the time the villian will be knocked back. If the bad guy is a boss, or has some sort of resistance, or whatever, the chance of the knockback affecting him is less.
Smashing and lethal damage are just two damage types. They’re the two most common. Smashing tends to be punching and such, lethal is from guns and knives. Similarly, psionic is a damage type, but it somewhat less common.
Make a little more sense?
As for the macros, you can play the entire game without ever writing a macro, so don’t worry about it for now.
not only are shashuing and lethal the most common, but most things that do any type of damage, usually do some lethal as well. The big exceptions are psionic and toxic, wich tend to just do themselves, but if a Hellion boss burns you, you’ll take fire damage and lethal damage, and if a Lost shoots you with a ray gun, you’ll take energy and lethal, which is why your “basuic” damage resistance powers all tend to resist snashing and lethal, so that even when up against an enemy who doesn’t smash or use guns/knives, odds are at least some of the damage will be reduced.
Oh, and macros? I never use 'em. I can’t figure them out, either. Keybinds I can figure out, but I still don’t use those. Though I finally got high enough level that i have to use the third power try (but only if I have more than two temp powers…and I currently have five, so…) and I don’t like it. I might eliminate some powers on the tray and keybind them to something else, and go back to just the two power traays that I like.
The Prima Guide is notoriously outdated and even incorrect. You can get much better info on the official boards.
I suspect this refers to the fact that extra effect chances and to-hit chances are independent. The effect may trigger, but if you miss your target, it doesn’t take effect. Gale, for example, has a 100% chance to knockback, but its base accuracy is very low.
Damage types are significant because many defenses and resistances are specific to particular types. The damage types are:
Smash: Blunt trauma. This is damage caused by fists, baseball bats, and excessively frank speakers (many sonic attacks are part smashing damage ).
Lethal: Cutting and piercing damage falls in this category. Blades, arrows, and bullets do lethal damage, for example.
Negative: Negative energy damage is fairly self-explanatory. Many Circle of Thorns mobs do negative energy damage with their melee attacks, in addition to the obvious dark blast and dark melee attacks. I think Nictus attacks are also negative–the first place you’re likely to see them is from Council Galaxy mobs.
Energy: In addition to obvious energy blasts, electrical attacks count as energy damage. Rikti weapons do energy damage (including the swords). Tsoo Green Ink Men use energy melee attacks.
Fire/Cold: These should be pretty obvious.
Psi: Psychic damage. If it’s pink, it’s probably psi. Also, illusion damage is generally psi (Carnie Illusionists are the main mobs you face that do this.) CoT spectres do negative/psi for the most part.
Toxic: Poison, often applied as damage over time. Zombie puke is the most common, but Pantheon Totems, CoT Life Mages, and a few others do Toxic damage. It’s a relatively rare damage type.
Untyped: Nasty damage that no resistance helps against. Zombie puke was in this category before the Toxic type was added. As far as I know, only Hamidon and his Mitochondria do untyped damage now.
Near the end of the list of links in the Guide to Guides thread are links to some guides to using binds. There are also links to slash-command guides, which are useful in building macros and binds.
Just to make some minor corrections to bouv:
Electrical and Radiation attacks are 100% energy.
Energy attacks (both melee and ranged) are part energy/part smash. I believe the ratios vary by attack.
Rikti Swords are probably energy/lethal, but I’d have to confirm that, which I can’t do anytime soon.
On the Victory server, I play The Resilient Carapace. A Claws/Invulnerability Scrapper, with Stealth.
I’m going to get hit HARD, I think. The changes in Invul are pretty bad, but I’m more pissed about the changes to Stealth. Let’s see… I get into combat with my stealth on, and then I’m suddenly visible and I no longer get a defense bonus. Yet I still move slower as a penalty for having the power active, and I’m still paying endurance.
Um… Pardon? Why would anyone want this power?
While out of combat? Isn’t that what Invisibility is for?
I’ve still got one respec saved up. They say they’re going to give everyone another respec when I5 goes live. But dammit, I HATE doing respecs! I’m level 38- picking all my powers and reassigning all my enhancements takes forever, and it’s way too easy to screw it up.
I’m fairly irritated. Honestly, I can’t understand what they’re thinking with the changes to the pool defenses.
Thanks for the explanations - it makes much more sense now. Maybe you guys should have written the book.
Glad to know I’m not the only one flummoxed by binds and macros; I don’t feel like such a dummy now.
I remembered what else I was confused about. Not confused exactly, but it’s a little odd. The book seems to refer to individual bad guys as “mobs.” What’s up with that? More bad writing?
Does anyone know if there’s a way to transfer leadership of a super group? Or if that’s not possible, what happens if the leader resigns? The whole group doesn’t dissolve, does it? I kind of want out of the SG I created in Champion, for a number of reasons.
It was originally intended for me, my SO, and our friend. The two of them are now hooked on World of Warcraft, and seldom play CoH any more. The SG actually has about 50 members now, but you’d never know it - most of them are MIA for weeks at a time. Somehow my SG became the Unplayed Alts Club. So it’s not fulfilling its purpose, and I’d like a chance to be part of an active SG. Plus there’s the fact that I’m about to go back to school full time, so I won’t have as much time to play, let alone maintain an SG. I’d also like to play a few of my characters in different servers.
There are a handful of people in the SG who are on regularly, and I’d hate to leave them high and dry. If possible I’d like to pass leadership to one of them and give them the courtesy of letting them know I’m leaving.
You what? You mean they’re gimping my stealth as well? That’s just not on. Seriously. It’s already bad enough that my lvl 17 scrapper does less damage than my lvl 8 defender per hit, now they’re going to screw my ninja-power? Asses.
You can promote somone in the super group before you leave. There are three levels in a Supergroup, the lowest rank can’t affect membership, the middle one can prmote others to the middle tier and invite new people, and the upper elvel can promote someone to the second or third tier and add new members. So just make someone a highest level and get yer ass out of there. I think they have to be online for you to promote them, though.
Soon as they patch it, you’ll get half of the normal Defense bonus from the stealth power while attacking. (I believe this includes all stealth powers, but I’m not quite certain. There are so many dev posts recently that I can’t find the specific one I’m remembering. It mentioned a few powers by name, and may have indicated that other similar powers would also have this applied.)
