New efforts!

[Triplash]

I can't locate any *functional* archives of the comics online. The archived version of the main comic page from old CoH site points to a bunch of dead ftp links ( http://web.archive.org/web/20121014173246/http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/media-and-downloads/comic-archive/ ).

That being said, three years ago I fortunately decided to save almost every one of those PDFs from that page to my harddrive (I'm only missing the two Special Edition ones). So if the new owners of CoH or somebody else official-ish want to make them available and have some problems locating them, they can always toss me a line. :)

Somebody made a close-as-they-could-get remake of the official forums a while back:  http://www.cityofheroes.ca/

It has a comic download section:  http://www.cityofheroes.ca/media-and-downloads/comic-archive/index.html

They seem to be downloading fine for me :)

[Des_Tructive]

With all the defender talk going on. Am I the only one who had the mindset that controllers were the better supporters on blueside?

[HEATSTROKE]

With all the defender talk going on. Am I the only one who had the mindset that controllers were the better supporters on blueside?

I think that depends completely on the powerset and the person utilizing it...

Statistically speaking a Defender set should always outperform a Controller set.. ie.. Rad on a Defender has a higher value that Rad on a Controller..

However when the Controller can also lock down mobs.. AND debuff enemies and buff friends.. it makes them extremely useful..

I will take anything that is played well..

[LaughingAlex]

With all the defender talk going on. Am I the only one who had the mindset that controllers were the better supporters on blueside?

It depends on how your supporting the team.  Defenders were better at buffing/debuffing but controllers would out-control defenders.  On the other hand, if you used an offensive blast set on a defender you'd out-damage controllers using the offensive control sets.  Usually.  Both were out-damaged by corruptors made for damage.

[Acanous]

Yarr. Corruptors were actually my favorite support. They're like a Blaster and a Defender. Dark Corrs even had decent control.

[Ohioknight]

I thought the cool kids stopped using facebook already.

And this relates to CoH fans how?

[ag88t88]

Yarr. Corruptors were actually my favorite support. They're like a Blaster and a Defender. Dark Corrs even had decent control.

I don't know about that, I always saw them as more of an offensive Defender, same power sets but with offensive being primary and more of a damage focus\purpose.  I don't see them as being all that close to Blasters, which were double offensive, vs range\buff.  But then again, why quibble, awesome is awesome, right? 

[MWRuger]

I have a hard time seeing how offering unsolicited advice to a teammate would be rude if it were offered in a nice way. If I saw a teammate with an obviously sub-par build, I wouldn't simply want to stay silent or one-star them, especially if they were new to the game. I'd look at their badges, and then engage them in a friendly conversation via /tells asking them how they enjoyed their build, etc. If they wanted to talk about it fine, if not, I'd back off. I wouldn't actually tell them what I thought of their build unless it seemed welcome, but I would usually throw something out there like "you might want to look into Fortitude and see if it fit into your build, it is really good". I wouldn't just offer unsolicited advice, I'd offer IOs and INF as well. Of course, if someone doesn't care whether their build is "good" that's fine with me too.

The flip side is, in forums where people are discussing their builds I don't see anything wrong or rude with talking about ineffective or effective builds. Again, if someone has fun with a build, it doesn't matter what other people think of it. At the same time, that doesn't mean other people can't discuss what they think is effective or ineffective. If you want to be a "pure healer" that doesn't take or slot any blasts and picks redundant power pool powers over really great buffs like Fortitude, and you enjoy playing that way, who am I to tell you what you should consider fun? That doesn't change how effective the build is, or whether a build that intentionally chooses sub-par powers over really good powers is a good model for other players.

If people approached that way, it would probably be fine. But you never know how someone you just met is going to take it. Innocuous comments can just hit people the wrong way. I just don't think it is worth the risk.

If someone asks in a tell or chatting on a channel, then sure. I helped people all the time. I spent an hour and 500 million in inf helping a neophyte get a build started. But they asked.

Me? If I saw someone do something awesome I would ask how they did it. Sometimes I even say, "hey all I never did this one before so if I start doing something stupid let me know" or "just tell me what I need to do. I'm great at taking direction"

I would also say that if you are discussing builds on a forum, you are soliciting build advice and so shouldn't be surprised when you get it.

But I have seen players do some crazy stuff with builds and I've seen them do what i thought was stupid stuff as well.  Unless they ask, I usually don't say anything. I've seen too many people take it personally. Frankly, when somebody is giving someone grief about their build on a team, it ruins the mood for me even when I'm not the target.

I've seen the same thing in the unending war about ghost vs kill all or most. Endless debates about ROI timewise, drops, etc. I announce up front what the goal is and the only time I ever had to kick someone was for being an ass when we were kill most and he wanted to ghost everything. He was sending tells to other team members complaining and was constantly harping on how much faster and so on. Finally I told him to drop it and he wouldn't so I kicked him.

It all boils down to being respectful of other people.

[LaughingAlex]

Yarr. Corruptors were actually my favorite support. They're like a Blaster and a Defender. Dark Corrs even had decent control.

I wouldn't really say that, more to be honest I felt that corruptors were really just somewhat higher damage defenders with a higher damage cap but they had lower buff/debuff magnitudes and thus had a harder time getting good defense and needed the damage more.  They were not blasters though.  Blasters you either destroyed or died very fast, any good blaster would tell you that dead enemies do no damage to you but living enemies kill you.

Both defenders and corruptors had decent control to, with the right sets, just not as much as controllers or dominators.

[Mistress Urd]

With all the defender talk going on. Am I the only one who had the mindset that controllers were the better supporters on blueside?

With the differences in buff/debuff sets and control sets its going to vary. So in some cases a defender will be better and in other cases a controller is better. Also, the player can be a big factor, you can have a very offensive minded defender or a debuff first one. I don't think there is a good answer, the best answer would be, "is your team doing well?"

[Nebularian]

I can't locate any *functional* archives of the comics online. The archived version of the main comic page from old CoH site points to a bunch of dead ftp links ( http://web.archive.org/web/20121014173246/http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/media-and-downloads/comic-archive/ ).

That being said, three years ago I fortunately decided to save almost every one of those PDFs from that page to my harddrive (I'm only missing the two Special Edition ones). So if the new owners of CoH or somebody else official-ish want to make them available and have some problems locating them, they can always toss me a line. :)

I have all the editions...and had them up on my page.....I THINK I took them down (not sure...going to have to go check LOL) because I was a bit worried about getting in trouble...but I wanted to make them available to those who did not have them.

(Okay....I checked....they are still up but I WILL take them down at the first request to do so!)  http://www.continuumworlds.org/cwmain2/index.php/cohcomics

[Everfreefire]

In regards to the whole "What is the better buff/debuff AT?" I've always gone with MMs. While I know they don't have the strongest modifiers, I just have a soft spot for the fact I can be doing a lot of damage (via Minions) while still running all my secondary buff/debuffs. Granted, I *might* be a tad biased, as MMs are my favorite AT to play as...

[Thirty-Seven]

I think that's a really good way to look at it, Urd.  I know I was generally pretty focused on my controls and my offensive powers in my secondary as a Controller, but I also did take a look at my team's line-up, and how we did on deaths and things too.

I would sometimes have to throw a [Detention Field] on a troublesome enemy mid-fight to get him out of the fight because he was wrecking people and no one seemed to be focused on him, then we'd nail him at the end.  Was it the most effective?  Maybe not, but it kept us alive on times when folks would do things like ignore the Freak who had rezzed and was attacking squisies in the back.  I also sometimes would toss out a [Dimension Shift] on that incoming group that no one was ready for.  Not to mention focusing a bit more on making sure bubbles were up when I noticed we were taking longer to knock out a group and folks were actually taking damage... that sorta thing.

But, in general terms, I was always a very offense-oriented Controller, and I liked it that way.  Perhaps that's why I enjoyed my Dark/Dark Def more than any other Defender I ever built.

I hated being way in the back on my squishies, and on my Grav/FF it was totally possible to avoid that a lot of the time due to his over 45% ranged def, so he was floating just out of melee range at pretty much all times above the action.

[Mistress Urd]

I think that's a really good way to look at it, Urd.  I know I was generally pretty focused on my controls and my offensive powers in my secondary as a Controller, but I also did take a look at my team's line-up, and how we did on deaths and things too.

I would sometimes have to throw a [Detention Field] on a troublesome enemy mid-fight to get him out of the fight because he was wrecking people and no one seemed to be focused on him, then we'd nail him at the end.  Was it the most effective?  Maybe not, but it kept us alive on times when folks would do things like ignore the Freak who had rezzed and was attacking squisies in the back.  I also sometimes would toss out a [Dimension Shift] on that incoming group that no one was ready for.  Not to mention focusing a bit more on making sure bubbles were up when I noticed we were taking longer to knock out a group and folks were actually taking damage... that sorta thing.

But, in general terms, I was always a very offense-oriented Controller, and I liked it that way.  Perhaps that's why I enjoyed my Dark/Dark Def more than any other Defender I ever built.

I hated being way in the back on my squishies, and on my Grav/FF it was totally possible to avoid that a lot of the time due to his over 45% ranged def, so he was floating just out of melee range at pretty much all times above the action.

Yeah, team makeup and making use of what you have is key. Just doing regular random papers/alignments we had a team and we got the "we need a tank" comment. I went, "we have one, my fire/fire blaster can fill in" We had a sonic and an emp defender on the team, I was quite sure we had no issues. With all of those area attacks + blazing aura and hot feet, taunt wasn't needed.

High level controllers (offensive ones) can certainly do their fair share of damage with containment. I had every control set to 50 and it was probably my favorite AT, although I did have all 14 ATs with at least one 50. I certainly had my fair share of Defender, Corruptor, Blaster and Tanks. I felt the experience of playing everything to 50 helped me team better as I knew the ins and out of each AT, (although buff/debuff play very different)

I didn't like sitting in the back either, I had the bad habit of using PBAoE and melee attacks with ranged classes. 

[AlienOne]

I have all the editions...and had them up on my page.....I THINK I took them down (not sure...going to have to go check LOL) because I was a bit worried about getting in trouble...but I wanted to make them available to those who did not have them.

(Okay....I checked....they are still up but I WILL take them down at the first request to do so!)  http://www.continuumworlds.org/cwmain2/index.php/cohcomics

Thanks! :D

[ukaserex]

It's like telling someone they are disciplining their children wrong. Even if you are right they certainly won't appreciate it and hooray! You just ruined their day! Well done you!

Wow! Now I know what I'm gonna do this weekend at Wal-mart! What a great idea! I could just spread so much joy.. oh - wait. Lemme read that again..
Drat. I thought people wanted free parenting advice.

Seriously, this cracked me up.

[ukaserex]

In regards to the whole "What is the better buff/debuff AT?" I've always gone with MMs. While I know they don't have the strongest modifiers, I just have a soft spot for the fact I can be doing a lot of damage (via Minions) while still running all my secondary buff/debuffs. Granted, I *might* be a tad biased, as MMs are my favorite AT to play as...

I'm not sure why, but this post reminded me that I have a level 19 Beast Mastery MM that I'd really like to finish playing. Somehow, he's managed to not die yet. I've avoided teaming with him, because I'm still learning the nuances of the set and how to properly bind certain commands. (rather, I was still learning). All in due time, I suppose.

[Remaugen]

People never cease to amaze me. I made a petless MM on villain side just to experiment with how long he could solo. People would invite me to a team - I would explain the petlessness of my Mastermind - team leader would say it's ok- just team with us. Nine times out of 10 the team leader would eventually ask where my pets were.

I had several friends who made petless Gunslingers as MMs had pistols first. When Dual Pistols came along for other classes they got deleted or put aside.


Are we there yet?  ;D

[Super Firebug]

I had several friends who made petless Gunslingers as MMs had pistols first. When Dual Pistols came along for other classes they got deleted or put aside.


Are we there yet?  ;D

I wanted to be able to pick the weapon that my mercs MM had, so that I could give him the thugs MM's pistols, and he could be kind of like Patton and his ivory-handled revolvers. (They were not pearl-handled, as a lot of people think.)

[primeknight]

Yeah, team makeup and making use of what you have is key. Just doing regular random papers/alignments we had a team and we got the "we need a tank" comment. I went, "we have one, my fire/fire blaster can fill in" We had a sonic and an emp defender on the team, I was quite sure we had no issues. With all of those area attacks + blazing aura and hot feet, taunt wasn't needed.

High level controllers (offensive ones) can certainly do their fair share of damage with containment. I had every control set to 50 and it was probably my favorite AT, although I did have all 14 ATs with at least one 50. I certainly had my fair share of Defender, Corruptor, Blaster and Tanks. I felt the experience of playing everything to 50 helped me team better as I knew the ins and out of each AT, (although buff/debuff play very different)

I didn't like sitting in the back either, I had the bad habit of using PBAoE and melee attacks with ranged classes.

I mained a claws/sr/bm scrapper first so I was well versed playing at both melee and range. 

Once I mained my mind/kin I had great practice and moving in and out of melee.  Fulcrum Shift, Transfusion, and Transference where just so useful in general:  I found myself focusing on those powers in AV fights pretty much exclusively (of course I used siphon speed when it was available too). 

For movement I found hover+siphon speed (and hasten)+combat jumping were invaluable in positioning my controller where he needed to be to both get buffs and to get a great vantage point.   

And I played him very offensively and safely.  In teams I always tried to save a Mass Confusion, a Total Domination, or a Mass Hypnosis (with Terrify), for every group.  And I was constantly spamming Dominate, Confuse, and Levitate around the bad guys too.  During those fights I caught myself forgetting to hit the fulcrum shift far too often, getting into a, sort of, controller version of scrapper lock.   I think it was those fights that I wished I used a FF secondary the most: being able to have 45% defense and just slug it out with the scrappers and using PFF if things got a little too dangerous. 

I keep thinking that if I have to start over, maybe I'll make prime knight a mind/ff instead of a mind/kin, but I think I'd miss siphon speed too much and there are several other synergenic combos I liked: telekinesis + transference and mass hypnosis + fulcrum shift + terrify + psi tornado and siphon speed + hover to name a few.  I ended up getting indomitable will (epic), mind over body (epic), and barrier (incarnate) , to fill the gaps that my controller was missing (in both game play and thematically). 

There were so many ways to play, and I definitely do miss it.