New efforts!

[Aron]

Sonic Resonance was - ok.


Liquefy - was a decent knockdown/hold power.

Speaking as someone who used it a lot Liquify wasn't really a very good knockdown or hold power.  Its hold was a pretty weak mag 2 that lasted about four seconds.  The knockdown was also fairly anemic compared to most other AoE knockdowns.(e.g. Ice Controls Ice Slick)  On the other hand it also had a very strong base -ToHit Debuff, -Def Debuff, and -Recharge debuff.  When you added that all together with the weak hold and knockdown it was actually kind of awesome.  I found that generally the best tactic when using it was to lead off with it then jump into the middle.  Thirty seconds of near invulnerability.

As an extra, probably unintended bonus, there was a Hamidon enhancement that enhanced -Tohit, -Def, and +Recharge.  It was like that enhancement was custom made for Liquify and you could usually get it really cheap.

Oh yeah.  This actually dragged me out of lurking.   

[KennonGL]

... This suggests that the AI think interval of unalerted critters is dynamic and based on the proximity of players, whether the critter can perceive them or not. That makes sense as a performance optimization.

Actually, that's pretty much exactly how I coded the NPC AI in my game. 

Although every spawned critter was known to the server, only those within visible range of a PC would receive any clock cycles. 
(Actually it was visible range + the maximum amount of distance a PC character could move in 1 clock cycle.)

Worked really well and kept performance acceptable.  It did have some strange effects if you were in a very deserted area though (or the only PC logged in during testing).

Since the NPCs would interact with each other as well as players, it was possible to come across a group of Undead attacking a group of NPC soldiers.  If you were
the only PC in range, it then became possible to leave the area, wait awhile, and come back to see the battle pick up from where it left off...

At least until the automatic refresh/de-spawn timer wiped out the critters.  I also had the NPCs to where they would loot any defeated enemies, so their own loot could
radically vary from one spawn to the next depending on what other NPCs they had previously encountered.

[pinballdave]

Speaking as someone who used it a lot Liquify wasn't really a very good knockdown or hold power.  Its hold was a pretty weak mag 2 that lasted about four seconds.  The knockdown was also fairly anemic compared to most other AoE knockdowns.(e.g. Ice Controls Ice Slick)  On the other hand it also had a very strong base -ToHit Debuff, -Def Debuff, and -Recharge debuff.  When you added that all together with the weak hold and knockdown it was actually kind of awesome.  I found that generally the best tactic when using it was to lead off with it then jump into the middle.  Thirty seconds of near invulnerability.

As an extra, probably unintended bonus, there was a Hamidon enhancement that enhanced -Tohit, -Def, and +Recharge.  It was like that enhancement was custom made for Liquify and you could usually get it really cheap.

Oh yeah.  This actually dragged me out of lurking.   

As in many cases, the populace sees the damage, the heal, the hold, the knockdown. Debuffs seemed to be overlooked by the masses.  I tried to have Liquefy up for the boss fights. Of course, disruption field + liquefy was even more amazing in conjunction.

[pinballdave]

Yes in Bonfire it's to good.Which is why I try not to add it.I don't want to make the fights to easy.
While I'm thinking about I want to ask if most of you use recharge on your controller builds or do
a combination recharge,def,res?There are certain builds I'm just not sure what should be my main
goal.

I didn't run a lot of controllers. My third character was an earth/kinetic. Plenty of built in recharge, and quicksand had the -def that really helped early with attacks hitting. Earthquake was a big debuff and a control. Stoney was permanent at the end. Kinetics love -def/+acc. Kinetic has to hit.

My late controller experiment was illusion/time. Everything was about reduce recharge. Chronoshift would help wind the clock up for faster recharge for all in the team. The goal of course was trying to get perma-hasten along with perma-phantom army. I never got to perma-PA but it was close enough to relish the ability.

In the middle of the CoH run you could mentor/exempt down and run the original positron for merits. I developed a template for a support controller that could walk through the original positron with 2 damage dealers and my ICE/FF controller. The build was fairly worthless for soloing at the level, but on a team of scrappers/blasters mix (maybe a defender but level 15 tanks just didn't have the dps to blow through the missions like a scrapper could). Besides, ice slick was all the tank the trio needed. The little bubbles and the dispersion bubble were as good as defense could get at level 15 with enough dps to get the job done. The team size of 3 was important for the indoor CoT mission to limit the boss count spawn. This trio team was a real beast with a purpose.

[Vee]

I completely forgot liquefy even had hold and knockdown. I just remembered it as one of those debuffs that i really wish had faster recharge.

[HEATSTROKE]

Speaking as someone who used it a lot Liquify wasn't really a very good knockdown or hold power.  Its hold was a pretty weak mag 2 that lasted about four seconds.  The knockdown was also fairly anemic compared to most other AoE knockdowns.(e.g. Ice Controls Ice Slick)  On the other hand it also had a very strong base -ToHit Debuff, -Def Debuff, and -Recharge debuff.  When you added that all together with the weak hold and knockdown it was actually kind of awesome.  I found that generally the best tactic when using it was to lead off with it then jump into the middle.  Thirty seconds of near invulnerability.

As an extra, probably unintended bonus, there was a Hamidon enhancement that enhanced -Tohit, -Def, and +Recharge.  It was like that enhancement was custom made for Liquify and you could usually get it really cheap.

Oh yeah.  This actually dragged me out of lurking.   

Liquefy was awful power IMO for a tier 9.. Radiation Infection was better as tier 1 power IMO..

The Sonic Set IMO was crap.. I personally hated that I could only use the best power while targeting it on a scrapper or tank but the freaking Trick Arrow ARCHER could use the same power at range (albiet at a lower value)

Sonic should have been A LOT better.. it just wasnt.. I played it once.. never played it again..

[HEATSTROKE]

Overwhelming Force made tornado better than waterspout.It became another pet because you could easily make it permanent.
I used both waterspout and tornado in my Illusion/Storm/Leviathan.

Turned Tornado into a freaking buzzsaw..

[worldweary]

Liquefy was awful power IMO for a tier 9.. Radiation Infection was better as tier 1 power IMO..

The Sonic Set IMO was crap.. I personally hated that I could only use the best power while targeting it on a scrapper or tank but the freaking Trick Arrow ARCHER could use the same power at range (albiet at a lower value)

Sonic should have been A LOT better.. it just wasnt.. I played it once.. never played it again..

Noooooo I'm still working on Sonic builds

[pinballdave]

It's different with a controller when you have the pet to put the sonic disruption on.

Empathy is another defender set that clear mind, fortitude, heal other, absorb pain, and adrenalin boost only work on a teammate or a pet. I would suggest that those abilities were the best in the set. Trick arrow is clearly a defender set the functions better in a solo setting than many defender/controller sets.

[Arcana]

Since the NPCs would interact with each other as well as players, it was possible to come across a group of Undead attacking a group of NPC soldiers.  If you were
the only PC in range, it then became possible to leave the area, wait awhile, and come back to see the battle pick up from where it left off...

At least until the automatic refresh/de-spawn timer wiped out the critters.

As a matter of fact that is what happened in City of Heroes as well.  I used to say it was like the NPCs were only pretending to fight each other, and only when they thought they were being watched by a player, like actors doing a scene.

[darkgob]

As a matter of fact that is what happened in City of Heroes as well.  I used to say it was like the NPCs were only pretending to fight each other, and only when they thought they were being watched by a player, like actors doing a scene.

Like Indian in the Cupboard, or Toy Story.

[Aron]

Sonic should have been A LOT better.. it just wasnt.. I played it once.. never played it again..

For me it was my favorite set.  I tried the other sets and for me they never seemed as enjoyable.  I ended up playing my main sonic about 90% of the time.  To me this simply suggests that different sets appealed to different people.   I had a lot of fun with it.

[LaughingAlex]

As a matter of fact that is what happened in City of Heroes as well.  I used to say it was like the NPCs were only pretending to fight each other, and only when they thought they were being watched by a player, like actors doing a scene.

If you leave a cell in any bethesda game npcs in that cell would stop fighting.  This is actually especially noticable if you speed past the caesar legion ambush at the overpass just after passing through Nipton the first time:  If your fast, efficient and just keep running you can stop them from getting killed.  Then you can wait at Novac and they'll arrive safely, when normally if you just watch them, they are prone to getting a total curb-stomping from the ambush.  If your in the cell and they make it past the legion, they'll more then likely get blown to pieces by a viper ambush armed with grenade rifles.  Rushing to Novac can often prevent that.

Edit: In rpg's, often everything waits for the player :/.

[worldweary]

For me it was my favorite set.  I tried the other sets and for me they never seemed as enjoyable.  I ended up playing my main sonic about 90% of the time.  To me this simply suggests that different sets appealed to different people.   I had a lot of fun with it.

This^^^^My gravity/Storm was fun because of the different ways I could play it.Wormhole in corner then Freezing Rain then Gravity Distortion Field while hurricane pins them to the wall.You could keep them held while tornado,lightning storm,singularity,
and water spout if you had it just destroyed them while you watched:)

[Abraxus]

As a matter of fact that is what happened in City of Heroes as well.  I used to say it was like the NPCs were only pretending to fight each other, and only when they thought they were being watched by a player, like actors doing a scene.

You mean if an actual player was not watching, they were just standing around, having a smoke, waiting for their next performance opportunity when a hero would come into view?  Now that's funny!

[Arcana]

You mean if an actual player was not watching, they were just standing around, having a smoke, waiting for their next performance opportunity when a hero would come into view?  Now that's funny!

[Zombie Hustler]

I can just picture that guy in the middle praying that the heroes don't show up and beat them all up. "Insurance still hasn't paid up for the last time I ended up in the hospital!"

[Felderburg]

I can just picture that guy in the middle praying that the heroes don't show up and beat them all up. "Insurance still hasn't paid up for the last time I ended up in the hospital!"

Except... those are Syndicate guys, it looks like. I bet the Powers Division doesn't send people to the hospital...

[Arcana]

The funny part is that's not staged: many of those spawns actually used to do random variations of that in missions until you alerted them.  This one was just particularly noteworthy because all three were running particularly casual animations simultaneously.

[Zerohour]

Wow, its been a year since Nate's "And the mask comes off." thread.  And still.

Nothing.