Author Topic: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]  (Read 4248 times)

ATyger

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Greetings and salutations. As the title reads I am brand new to the forums (at least this sister subset of the CoH forums), and while I did play a little CO back in the day (levels 1 - 10 on a Behemoth as a tie-in to an article about MMORPG's I was writing), I wouldn't call myself anything other than a newb. Especially considering the new abilities, the new AT's, and my newly vested interest in thematic freeforms. I have created character after character not sure what to play, or what to build, or even how to play them either. I guess now would be a good time as any to quantify that I am moving from DCUO to CO, at least for the next couple months, and would ideally like to learn the system while also playing something viable... and not altogether limited to the AT's (silver or gold). In particular, I want a DPS who can eventually self heal (for solo content), doesn't rely on a lot of active blocking and/or dodging (in DCUO you have to hold a button and a direction to roll/dodge), as my hands are moderately arthritic which doesn't afford me a lot of motility in my fingers. Primary DPS or Tank, I couldn't care less. I just want to be able to be effective, survivable, and eventually capable in group play. (I don't care at all about PvP, so you don't even have to consider options for it at all.)

Ideally I was thinking of a ranged DPS/Tank with a self heal, and eventually the ability to fly... as then I could just attack from a good vantage point while remaining out of range (and the need for fancy keyboard finger work), of the BBEG's. If this is even remotely viable, I would love to see what concepts/build you could dream up. I know little to nothing about the powers and how they interact with one another, except that obviously thematic powers (Fire, Ice, Might) all have something to do with one another within the power set. In addition, I heard through the grapevine that there was a competitive Fire/Ice build which uses Rimefire Burst (?) as it's primary DPS set up. I would be very interested in playing with a Gemini concept that had 1/2 Fire and 1/2 Ice as their design concept (and powers build). Please if you're even a little interested, perhaps offer me something along those lines? I thank any and all of you who offer me even the slightest consideration in this endeavor. I know I am new, and please bear with me while I learn a whole new system with a who new set of mechanics and interactions. I do so hope it will be worth it!

Again, thank you!

-ATyger
The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. - Carl Sagan

Xev

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I would have heartily welcomed you a year ago but as-is I have to wonder what I would be welcoming you to... I think this sub section mainly still exists due to I posted in it almost daily since the past few years and off and on a few people were bored enough to respond.

I'll post something more useful for you later in response to your questions, and, welcome you to Kaos & Xev's Corner nao. You have good questions and we can help.

We have LA come here sometimes when he is in a writing mood and Brou when he is selling something. As mentioned above, if someone is really bored they might pop in and most likely take us off-topic.

And we have Aggey who checks in on us occasionally to make sure we're behaving. And who was nice enough to leave my totally off-topic CO subsection fam post made recently tyvm  : )

Anyway, we'll fix ya up. I'll be bahck with something more useful and someone else might chime in before then if THEY AREN'T TOO BUSY CONGRATULATING THEIR FORUM PARTNER FOR LO, THESE PAST YEARS, FOR HIS RECENT WORLD CHANGING LIFE EVENTS. *ahem*

Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

Kaos Arcanna

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Hey, welcome to the CO Forum here at Titan.

I'm a pretty casual player myself in that I tend to make choices based on my character's theme, so I'm sure that Xev and the others would be able to give you much better advice to achieve your goals. That being said, I want to reassure you that blocking in CO is MUCH less difficult than it is in DCU Online. You can block simply by hitting the shift button, and blocking is really something you're going to need in CO at differing points in your career. 
I'm not young and I've never been Mr. Fast Reflexes, but there are enough signals in the game for you to give you ample time to block most of the heavy attacks you'll be facing.

Don't let your experiences in DCUO sour you against the use of block as a viable tactic in CO is all I'm trying to say at this point.  :)



Xev

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First off, lets get this party started right..

http://powerhouse.nullware.com/powerhouse.html (Mids lite)
http://web.archive.org/web/20130825235946/http://champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Power_Sets     (Mids Add-on)
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/234470/specialization-tree-info   (Mids Add-on)
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/225717/de-buffs-and-debuffs (Mids add-on)
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/championsonline#/discussion/175864/faq-for-bindings-commands (keybinds)
http://champions-online.proboards.com/thread/564 (Many builds, some build guides)

You now have the information at your fingertips to build a Champion.


Soooo to the questions...

If you want to play something that's easiest on your hands I can tell you right off that you want to play Ranged. Playing melee destroyed my mouse...! And I had fun doing it. It makes my dogs edgy, too.. I just get too into my melee maybe.


As far as what is survivable... That's playstyle. I have a toon that has 6 Billion Smashes Served (TM) (it's a queue thing) and he usually ends up tanking, and he is dps, has a offense passive, and he has no heal. I have to play him by the seat of my pants.. hehe. Even pre-nerfed... *ahem*

Get used to getting nerfed btw. This usually happens ~ the time you are happy with your build.

Flying is cool if you're into that. Most ranged dps probably are (judging by my loose head count) and flying can make some encounters go from being hard to trivial. There is exponentially less movement involved in flying vs. Athletics. With Athletics I'm all over the place, with Flying I generally go from spot to spot. All of my toons have Athletics at at least level 2 and have the advantage I forget the name of already... The one that makes you go fast when mobs try to make you go slow.I really liked Combat Jumping and whatever that other jumping thing was we got in CoH and Athletics just takes that to the next level for me. One of my first mouse buttons to start going out was the one I used to make barrel rolls.. Teleportation is also very worthy to check out. It has a nice inherent agro wipe and is fast. For combat... nahhh prolly not a good choice. Maybe for a tank going from spot to spot or someone with innate teleportation combat skills. *shrug* You can eventually have two travel powers in case you didn't know yet.

I'm not real big on blocking.. I finally made a build with a fully ranked block right before I took my current break from CO ... And They Nerfed It Right Afterwards.. Having said that, though, blocking is an extreeeeemely effective tool in CO even if you don't take a blocking power. Blocking can be as elegant or simple as you want - you can be real good at knowing when to do it or just know well enough when to do it before you faceplant and hope it can buy you the time you need. Block is very powerful in CO, tho, don't discount it. If your hps start plumetting it's generally a decent time to try it out even if you don't have a Block power.

Rimefire can be very powerful. I played around with this for awhile. It was too gimicky for me. I like nice dependable boom/meltage.

It's hard to go wrong with what powerset to chose and all that good stuff. First off, 99% of the content in CO can be played in a team or solo with any Real powerset. A 'real' powerset is defined as one that you can look at and interpret as a complete powerset. Like Fire, or Might. Over there to the far right where the Celestials are gets more questionable and you probly won't go there anyway due to .. why would you. The Supernaturals and Darkness powersets also live to the far right of your power choice screen and Are complete powersets.

Basically, as it was with CoH when you got good at it, all powersets will do the job it's more a matter of what fits you best playstylewise and looks most fun at thus particular moment.

Having said that... Some decent heals are.. Bountiful Chi Resurgence - with the advantage, virtually always, and with some dodge if at all possible. Another good heal can be Conviction. For some toons the cost can be highish and the recharge time slowish. A good toggle heal is... gah.. whatever the only toggle heal is called.

Toggle powers are a whole other beast by the way. I would recommend avoiding toggle powers, such as you will mostly find in Power Armor, until you're more comfortable with the game. It took me forever to get the hang of them and I'm still not sure I like them.

There is also a lot of passsssive healing. This can be very helpful. There's things that give you hp's on a defeat/crit... per tic..per situation (Sentinal Mastery f/x..) and there are two lifetaps (you damage them and get healed at the same time), one is melee and one is ranged.

When all else fails... check your Mids add-on for ideas..
http://web.archive.org/web/20130808131939/http://champions-online-wiki.com/wiki/Healing

The wiki has many things catagorized nicely for you btw...


It's worth it. Making builds in CO, that is. I think. If you like making builds, it's an artform in CO. Thing is, their best feature is also the thing they like to fidget with most. So, get used to being nerfed. You probly won't feel the pain until a good year or so into the game... hehe


I didn't give you a ton of specifics but I hope the links help and I'll do what I can to make you into a lean, mean, toonin' macheen.

One thing that helps in making a build are looking at builds already made and there are tons in that link above. Some of my tips would be to try and concentrate on the basics in the beginning. What powers do you want to use. What passive looks most attractive - Defense, Offense, Support, Hybrid? What toggle power works for you (damage buff, Concentration for Example). Oh and an energy unlock. Put some thought into that. Active Defenses can be very helpful Oh No buttons - Masterful Dodge and Unbreakable are two of the more useful ones. You might also be interested in agro wipes like Evasive Manuevers w/advantage.

Mostly, it's all about what's fun to you. About annnnnny decently thought out and played build can make it through 99% of the content in the game both solo and in teams, so, concentrate on what looks funnest, I would say. Some people can tear up a powerset that others fumble with. It's not just about the powers but you do want a good foundation of understanding how builds work. So off to the Wiki and Powerhouse with you! *kawhip*! and when you have questions ask away.

Basically, as every, Kaos summed it up in 1/100 the words (while I was writing my book). Just play what looks fun but do figure out the basic mechanics of things like active defenses/offenses, passive defenses, energy unlocks, toggle/buff powers,.. It usually helps to have a heal, so it wouldn't hurt to check out the list above for something that looks decent. Oh and you can res yourself (and/or others) too. There are also circle powers and pets that might interest you but I don't generally use them. Probably one of the most popular healing powers is Support Drones but it sucks too much energy for my taste.

-------

It's also probably worth mentioning what's been nerfed in gear (that comes to mind atm)...
Don't bother with:
Recharge (until/unless you reeeeally need to squeeze a tiny bit out of your gear)
Crowd control resistance
....what else?
« Last Edit: May 11, 2016, 01:39:58 AM by Xev »
Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

ATyger

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Thank you all so much! As I said I am very new to the game and everything that entitles, but you've given me so much to consider. I am not sure how I'll build out my fire/ice Gemini concept power wise, but I do know it will have mostly fire and ice powers with rimeburst being one of my core abilities when I get high enough to slot it. I like the ice shield and the fire based energy unlock but I'm not stone set on anything right now. I'm thinking Ego primary and Endurance/Recovery secondary. But I don't know if this will give me enough survivability. My idea as to how valid my power set will be as freeform is to blend both fire and ice... under the assumption that the AT's are decent and balanced as both are ranged AT's.

Thoughts?
The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. - Carl Sagan

Xev

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I like Fire. I like Ice. I like Ice shield. I like the Fire energy unlock. I like the Ice energy unlock. Rimefire takes skill and timing. I like Frost Breath w/advantage. You likely will want Fire Snake and I like the advantage that makes it go fast, like a firey lil missile. Flashfire may also be worthy in this build. There is an Ice power that has an interrupt... I forget which. This can be handy.

Conviction might go well with this build.

Hmmm

Ego/end or rec/con with cost reduction maxed in the Ego primary as well as Crit Severity being maxed and a fair amount of points dumped into Con and Ego.

Hitpoints are your friend.

There's some thoughts  : )


------

Oh, and, there are synergies in Fire, and in Ice. You can't really utilize them as much or at all when you go Fire AND Ice. Probably the best time to go Fire and Ice is if you plan on using... Rimefire.

« Last Edit: May 11, 2016, 02:24:26 AM by Xev »
Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

ATyger

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It's not perfect, but here is what I currently have idealized. I'm REALLY liking taking CON primary as it means I have a butt ton of hit points... which I've been reminded are my friends. :)

Fire/Ice

As before, nothing is set in stone. This is a bastard of a concept put to paper without much effort or real intelligence. I like the build so far, but none of the wiki's or build guides tell me WHEN to take certain powers, just that I need to take certain powers (Energy Builder, AOE, Buffs/Debuffs, etc). In this endeavor I am all ears, please feel free to direct me which powers would be good and at what level(s) to take them.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2016, 06:55:41 AM by ATyger »
The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. - Carl Sagan

Xev

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Dang, that was fast. It took me like a week to even start trying to pick powers. Then I noticed....

This is a bastard of a concept put to paper without much effort or real intelligence.

haha I'm teasing... Couldn't resist.. That line was too good.

Ok, so, here we go,,,

Your SS & tree choices are very solid. Surprisingly solid. The rest of the build... Wellllll. It has powers in it!

Disclaimer: I've not played Ice since they updated (not nerfed, yay) it and I never was very good with Rimefire.

Having said that.. What I was trying to say before about Synergies in Fire or Ice is that you kinda have to go all fire or all Ice to take advantage of them. Otherwise, if you are going Fire AND Ice and you also want to lay down as much dps as possible (not just going for looks/concept/the flowery frilly fun of it) you are going to want Rimefire.

Having said all that.. If you go Rimefire, and your goal is min/maxing dps, you want to build around Rimefire. You want your build to make Rimefire happen as on-demand as possible. All your powers go towards this goal - even your healing powers.

Kaos bulds for them, so do I. but my themes revolve around dps. I pick how I want to dps and I build for that.

Here's some specifics. Conflag? Wonnnderful power. If you are Fire, and are building around doing Fire dps. Avalanche is also uber. You have two of the most uber aoe's in CO but nothing to pump them to potential so you may as well just have one or the other (for dps purposes) r better yet, dump them both and concentrate on your Rimefire, and, staying alive long enough to deliver as many Rimefires as possible.

Also. you don't know that you're going to like Rimefire yet. You like it on paper but you haven't used it yet and you have to go 20 levels to try it and some levels on top of that to make it shine..I hope it works out grewat for you but if it doesn't you're looking at re-rolling, basically. No biggy, but these things do happen.. To me anyway.

Anyway, I like your SS's and tree choices a lot. Only problem you are going to run into is that with a Con primary Crit chance and Crit severity (dps dps dps) are going to be a lot harder to come by. Rimefire is a solid dps tool for those that are good with it, so, nothing wrong with giving it a go, I would just suggest building around that power vs. trying to grab a collection of the most powerful powers. One good rule of thumb for dps purposes is - you don't generally need more than 1 power that does the same thing - for example, Avalanche and Conflag are basically the same powers for dps purposes.

And then when you get everything straight and on paper you can try it out in the real fake world and completely change your mind  : ) It *is* good to take a break from the Powerhouse and just go play sometimes. Then you see what you are lacking in (my aoe sucks, my single target is weak, I faceplant way to fast, I never have enough energy, etc etc).

Also, keep in mind that at level 35 or so everything changes. Your gear starts getting so much better that your powers start working a lot better, too, so, things like energy management problems that may be a constant problem for you until level 35 (or so) might just vanish with better gear.

My super gamer senses tell me that you may be subbed. If so, Kaos might be able to fill you in on the playtest server. The PTS is a great place to try out new builds a lot cheaper and easier than retconning on Live.

I think it took me like 2 months to come out of the Powerhouse with my first build.. Don't feel bad if it takes awhile  : ) GL!

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Oh, and, Heatwave? Never get this power without the advantage if you are doing Fire dps.. In your build I would probably dump it altogether due to you aren't building for fire dps you are building for Rimefire - these are two different processes. It takes time to set up Rimefire, it takes time to set up Fire dps, you generally can't/don't want to do both at the same time, there's just no time the game moves too fast - you have to choose one or the other, if min/maxing dps is your goal.


-----

Ugh... why did I think Rimefire was AoE... I was thinking of Shatter maybe. Well hmm. Single target powers are the most important to have pumped to the max, if you have one, due to single targets (bosses) have, by farrrrrrr, the most hps. Yard trash generally goes down fast without a lot of effort. You still may want to invest some time in pumping up your aoe, tho... Hmmm... The fastest way to pump up your aoe that I can think of off the top of my head, in this situation, is to swap Heatwave for Fireball w/Unstable accelerant advantage. You only have to spend one or two points to get the Fireball advantage (I wouldn't rank it otherwise) and it is a very fast and significant Fire aoe debuff - i.e. this combo should melt anything that you aren't ST'ing nicely. You won't be the AoE king, but, you aren't building for that.
« Last Edit: May 11, 2016, 01:32:00 PM by Xev »
Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

ATyger

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Rimefire Burst was just something I read about and thought that the duality of fire/ice seemed like it could be a fun concept. By no means am I sandwiched into a Rimefire Burst build. I am subbed as you said, it was a gift to me from my brother in law for my birthday. He bought me 3 months (at a discount) in DCUO and CO, which included other games, but I like superhero MMO's. :) In any case, my initial desire was to replicate my DCUO toon over in CO (as much as possible) which is strictly a Fire DPS/Tank. As I said above, I want Fire, DPS, survivability, a solid Heal or HoT that is fire based. It was another CO player who told me about Rimefire Burst and I just picked it up and ran with it. If I can do everything (and better) with a single element (preferably Fire) than I'm all ears for that.

I just don't want to make an Inferno clone. It's fine if it's similar, but what's the points of FF if I'm just effectively playing an AT? If you have a build that works better (best?) and it happens to be all (or mostly) Fire, then please let me know. I know that CO mechanics and DCUO mechanics are completely different, but I desperately want the vein of the concept to be the same.

However in the interest of "ease" beta testing concepts on a playtest sever sounds wonderful. I am indeed subbed so if that is a perk, I'd very much like to utilize it.
The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. - Carl Sagan

Xev

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Ha, no way are you getting my Fire build  : )

Fire has changed since I played it last, too. It didn't have a heal before. Actually, I'm not up to date with CO in general. Haven't been playing for some months now. I probly couldn't even do a decent barrel roll on the first try. My head is still trying to get past the learning curve in STO.

I could spend a week or two or three and bury my nose in facts and figures in the PowerHouse (in-game) and mix that with some build inspiration and factor in the new nerfs I missed to get caught up again for the 1 billionth time, but, nah. I'm gonna stick to just playing.. STO. For awhile.

Maybe Brou could chime in, he knows the game mechanics better than me and hasn't had the opportunity to post anything original for awhile. Brou is definitely the man to ask about encounters, too. I can dig up a good link for you that helps in fighting bosses when you get to that point, too.

Pretty much about everything in Fire is good. I can't stress enough, it's all about your playstyle. Pick a goal (what sounds fun to you) and aim your build towards that goal, is how I do it. Fire has good pbao, good aoe, good single target, good cone (I don't like it but I see why some do), good debuffs, even some CC with the hold and knockdown. You can play Fire flying at range, up close and personal, or running around like an idiot (I do the last 2 a lot) - it's all in how you want to play it and based on that, your build will be different than mine or anyone else's. That's part of the beauty of CO. There is no one perfect Fire build. There is one or more perfect Fire builds for you, likely, though. And, there are people that are happy with cookie cutter builds but my super gamer senses don't detect this about you.

Kaos, I want to hear about the PTS too. Tell us what we're missing! Man I bet I would have saved (more than several hundreds of?) hours and hours and hours of G farming by being able to basically retcon a 40, at-will, for free. I bet the CO PTS works like CoH, huh?
Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

ATyger

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #10 on: May 12, 2016, 02:37:52 AM »
Alright, I tried my hand again... and spend about 3 hours reading and rereading post after post about synergies, and super stats, etc. I don't completely understand it all (yet), but I'd like to believe I have a reasonable grasp of things. After those many hours pouring over stats and opinions and the like... I have come to this conclusion. You were correct. There is A LOT of synergy (obviously) between the Fire Power Set abilities. And, I tried to fit what I could in, when I could fit it in to make sense and stack some much needed synergy. So without further adieu;

Here is my Fire build.

Thanks so much! (And, per usual, please feel free to pick it apart, or tell me what direction I might be interested in moving the build to make it more DPS, more survivable, more akin to the concept I originally designated as my inspiration.)
« Last Edit: May 12, 2016, 04:20:21 AM by ATyger »
The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. - Carl Sagan

Xev

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #11 on: May 12, 2016, 04:27:13 AM »
I'm curious why a fully ranked Regen and an unranked Fiery Form? Hmmm Energy Storm. Conflag at only rank 2? Yet, Heat Wave, Ranked.. One of your most powerful debuffs is your last power choice. You took out Con?? Pyre at rank 2..no advantage, no rank 3... You took a snare for a power that you want to damage stationary mobs with...why does Flashfire even have that advantage... I didn't even know Flashfire had that advantage.

Am I being punk'd...


Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

ATyger

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #12 on: May 12, 2016, 04:41:53 AM »
Telling my what I did wrong and then doing nothing to correct my mistakes isn't exactly constructive...

All it does is have me second guess the entire build, especially when you don't even tell me what I did right.

In any case, I wanted Regeneration + a clickable heal as back up, mostly for theme and I'd heard good things about Regeneration. And, honestly, I didn't really know what Fiery Form did/does (advantages wise) except add some more damage. I don't know everything about everything yet... still a STEEP learning curve here, and no way to really test the numbers yet. At this point it's all simply conjecture. I profess that the advantages are something I know nothing about, and really just took those that stated they had synergy with other powers or particularly clinging flames.

I think I removed CON because the Inferno AT didn't use it, and I would imagine that the SS's it has would be acceptable, if not ideal.

I'd still very much like to build a CON primary concept, I just also want it to do more than stand there and take hits. Help (and I mean help constructively) me make such a build and I will gladly do so.

In anycase, thanks for your words. I spent some time talking to active players in the powerhouse, and decided on a rebuild. My new concept is mostly fire (obviously), with the name Goldilocks. (My wife saw the toon while I was designing it, and commented the name, and it sort of stuck.) :) Anyways;

HERE is my new and (hopefully) improved toon.
« Last Edit: May 12, 2016, 09:01:16 AM by ATyger »
The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. - Carl Sagan

Xev

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #13 on: May 12, 2016, 01:24:46 PM »
Hmmmmm ok.

Well, no offense ATyger, but, as you know, there are only so many hours in the day and it would not be the first time I have been punk'd right here in Titan/CO. For example, me and Laughing Alex wrote a well thought out book in response to questions put forth by Ukaserex when he stopped by here awhile back ago due to he seemed to have interest in the game and I knew him as a CoH/Liberty player and then we never heard from him again.

I luv making builds and it's been fun to critique an actual real live newb build (now zat you seeeem to have passed ze troll test...) but I'm not up to date with the latest nerfs and whatnot, and, there are people way better at putting together builds than me. When I do my own it takes *forever*. So take that with ya.. Honestly, I don't know why Brou doesn't post more original topics/responses here. He's been monitoring this section since before I started posting here some years ago now and knows the game way better than me. I mean, I know titan/co has never been the center of excitement for CO (is there one?) but we've been here for awhile now and I know we have our lurkers and apparently we even have actual new players occasionally too.

Anyway, let me get back to ya later today AT (with something more useful).. Sorry I ruffled your feathers. We do have other people here that can see at least one thing to suggest in the meanwhile.... *whistle*

.
Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

Xev

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #14 on: May 13, 2016, 01:16:11 AM »
Alrighty, AT, looks like you're stuck with my advice. Let's see what we see... Sorry again I let your low post count and questions set off some alarm.

One reason I have a hard time helping anyone with a Fire build is my main was a Fire build for like 2 years solid and I don't want to help someone make a clone of it.

Anyway, your latest build. This is a whole other beast you have here.. You haven't been actually playing the game, just making builds, and with that in mind I would say this is a nice build. I've got some stuff for you to polish it up some.

I like Ego/end/con. I particularly like Ego primary and con secondary. End is a solid choice due to I think Thermal Reverb scales off of End, and, the bigger the End pool the merrier when it comes to Fire. For me anyway. Dex is not a terrible choice either, and, you can still pump up End some even though it's not one of your SS's.

A good rule of thumb when picking SS's, for me, is, pick what you're going to put the most points in at level 40 and allow ~ 100 points or less for a non SS (with ego/end/con maybe you want to dump some points into Dex, for example, t pump up crit chance a little..) . At level 40, iirc.., you average like 700 SS points to play around with if you have easily gettable Heroic gear and level 5+ mods and AE bought purple secondaries. So, you can afford to put like 100 points into a non SS.

Places you can save points on power ranks:
It's not bad that you got rank 2 Fireball, but, since you aren't depending on it for dps, just the debuff, you don't really have to rank it. If you have points to spare - why not, moar dmg is moar dmg. Ranking it is kinda a luxury item imho. The advantage, you definitely want ofc..

Concentration - not a horrible place to put points when running a Fire build but generally you don't need to rank Concentration, the stacks build up ok enough by themselves with some practice.

Pyre... the advantage is good, you don't have to rank it, but, it's not a bad idea to rank it due to it does so much damage. Out of the things in this list it is the one I would take the rank out of last.

Places you can put the points you saved...
If you are going to pick a block power, rank that baby to the max, I say. It makes a difference. This is coming from someone who usually doesn't even take a block power. It looks cooler full ranked too  : )

FIRE SNAKE! omg my poor lil snakey.. Rank him up! I like the 'make him move fast like a fiery missle' advantage due to you usually have to drag him around with you and he is slow otherwise, so, you usually pick up the lost dps from not ranking him to full and can use him more consistently. They have screwed around with recharge times and I dunno if you can keep him up full time, now.

I see you picked Regen and Fire and Concentration and Regen.. It looks like you plan on doing some hot swapping (pun intended) from offense to defense when need be. Not a horrible idea. Tell us how it works out  : ) I would suggest tossing whichever of those two passives you plan on playing least, at the end of your build - that way, you can retcon it out real easy if, for example, you know you are going to be in a situation where you don't have to swap passives - thus giving you another power choice - another fully ranked power choice - that is real easy to retcon in and out due to it is your last power choice and those are the first ones to go when you retcon.

Energy Storm... Hmmm.. I never tried this power. No offense at all but I can't remember it having any appeal at all to me for some reason so I never tried it. Ya have to tell us how that one works out too  : )

Gotta go! Chores calling.. Whew just in time. GL  : ) Keep us up to date.

Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

ATyger

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #15 on: May 14, 2016, 12:39:38 AM »
My feathers don't ruffle that easy. :) It was more along the lines of... "That wasn't helpful, how about being more helpful in the future." than anything else. Regardless I took everything you gave me, everything I read, and an hour long conversation with a currently active player to come up with the new build that I posted in the other thread. The blank power slot if for the power Absorb Heat (on recommendation) which hasn't as of yet been implemented in the powerhouse generator.

Still, thank you so very much for answering my questions and at least offering an opinion. I am grateful for it, even if I initially didn't sound like it. :)
The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. - Carl Sagan

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #16 on: May 14, 2016, 06:00:27 AM »
You're good, AT.. My bad. Cya tomorrow if things work out.

Oh hey, I said in that other post that Conviction would fit real nice in your build - I forgot about that new Fire heal. I never tried it, dunno how good it is or isn't. Iirc it consumes Clinging Flames. Clinging Flames also fuels Thermal Reverb. I always have a hard time getting Thermal Reverb to get me enough energy return. Just a thought.
Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>

ATyger

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #17 on: May 14, 2016, 08:18:51 AM »
I posted in the other thread already, but all I can say about Thermal Reverberation is that I don't seem to have issues with energy, at least at the moment... except on a few rare occasions. With that being said, if you know of (or even suspect) a better energy unlock... I'm more than all ears. :)
The cosmos is also within us. We're made of star-stuff. We are a way for the cosmos to know itself. - Carl Sagan

Xev

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Re: New to the Forums, mostly new to CO, entirely over my head. [Help?]
« Reply #18 on: May 14, 2016, 01:28:56 PM »
I was more concerned about the HoT consuming your Clinging Flames so Thermal Reverb can't use it. That concern is coming from someone who never used the HoT, just crossed my mind is all.

In your build, I would imagine Thermal Reverb being the best Energy Unlock.

I'm trying to decide who to play later today..

<--- I'm thinking Avatarboy over there, Jooc
Some Faves:

Jooc  ~L50 TW/Ele Brute> Senge  ~L50 Claws/Fire Brute> Leezard  ~L50 Claws/Regen Scrapper> Kosmoz  ~L50 Fire/MM Blaster>  Xev  ~L50 Ice/Emp Troller> |NW|~~ Erste ~L80 Warlock> Reks ~L80 Rogue> Phizzl ~L80 Wizard> Ayeron Gahls McBinty ~L80 Fighter>