New efforts!

[Felderburg]

I'd say, roughly, about Issue #3 of the Top Cow comic...  :)

Y'know, since we never saw the Hard Crash story in game, as an event or an Ouroboros mission, it would be a plausible thing to say happened between CoH1 and 2... unless they just pick up right where the story left off.

[Young Tutor]

Honestly, back in the day, I never understood where the negativity came from against Emps who were built to be healers. Concept/RP aside, why was that so bad?  Back in the early days, that was most of what you did on teams (solo play was more challenging but not impossible or even extremely difficult).  I have had people who would get upset at me for using my Defender as a healer.  They would tell me that I wasn't supposed to be one.  They said I was supposed to be a buffer & debuffer (in the case of Rad powers) toon.  I don't think I still really get it.

I think that there's nothing wrong with a character that mainly uses their primary powerset with a few choice powers from their secondary. That said, here's what turned me off to some of the "pure healers" in COH.

There's nothing wrong with empathy, but the powerset's buffs were really powerful. I would sometimes run into empaths with no fortification (not that they wouldn't use it, but that they didn't even pick it). I'd make a small effort to explain to them how good it was, but ultimately they get to decide how they play. Sometimes "pure healers" would not only take every healing power in emphathy, but take medicine power pool (filled with redundant and generally less powerful effects). They only take the default 1st power from their secondary and not slot it up *at all*. And, again, if someone wants to make a sub-par build that is fun for them to play (maybe for RP purposes), that's fine. For me the disconnect was that a lot of times you'd get the vibe that those guys thought they had a *really good* build when in reality they weren't even really pulling their weight. Most of the time any time someone brought a "healer" mentality to teams in COH it was a sign that they didn't have a good grasp on how support worked.

That's certainly not to slam all empaths. If you kept all your buffs up, while paying attention to other folks health bars and occasionally blasting, that sounds solid.

[Aggelakis]

I especially loved the "pure healers" who were emp Controllers. I mean WTF. All the emp powers (even better when they also took the entire medical pool), and all you took for actually PREVENTING disaster was your single target hold and maybe the pet - MAYBE? Oh, my god, you are definitely doing it wrong!

As a die-hard emp (more emps in my stable than any other support set - though kin was coming up there by the end!), yeah, I definitely looked down on "pure healers". Especially later in the game. Pure healers. LOL. You're not contributing jack or squat when the entire group's health rarely budges.

[Super Firebug]

Looks like I might need to clarify my (much) earlier statement that I ran/run "dedicated healers". I took everything in Empathy, plus Medicine, Leadership, etc. Heals, buffs, debuffs - anything that would help a team. And, as I said, by not attacking, I drew much less aggro, which allowed me to focus on supporting the team. Perhaps I should re-word it as "dedicated team support". :/

[Power Gamer]

Looks like I might need to clarify my (much) earlier statement that I ran/run "dedicated healers". I took everything in Empathy, plus Medicine, Leadership, etc. Heals, buffs, debuffs - anything that would help a team. And, as I said, by not attacking, I drew much less aggro, which allowed me to focus on supporting the team. Perhaps I should re-word it as "dedicated team support". :/

My fav and most popular defender was Emp/Rad.
I stuck mainly with healing and only took defensive attacks when I couldn't select healing, med, leadership and so on.

It was intense and very rewarding to play as 'dedicated team support'.

[DarkCurrent]

Okay, here was my problem with emp.  They'd fort the tank, heal the tank, AB the tank, follow the tank and do squat for the rest of the team. 

WTF.  Why serve as pocket Emp for the guy with the most hp, the best defenses and who couldn't be mezzed???

If you buffed one of the squishies, oh I don't know... like another defender who has just as wicked buffs/debuffs, we'd have 2 tanks.  In fact, you wouldn't need a tank at all.

[Ironwolf]

All I can say tonight is once this is over either way - I would like a nice big apology from the Facebook crowd - not that it will happen but still.

For those who may pass this to that group - I would not name drop former Paragon Devs who have contacted the team and I would not say IM Tony V to verify it.

I know it is slow right now - but the new Devs don't control this dance, NCSoft does. I can't pass on anything except - they are working on something to prove competence. Since I have named everyone involved except the Dev team - you could bother to verify with them what I have said.

The folks here on the board have been great. The Facebook group is going hog wild. You don't hoax people giving them your real street address and phone number. I understand the frenzy that having hope is causing - stay the course.

[Super Firebug]

Okay, here was my problem with emp.  They'd fort the tank, heal the tank, AB the tank, follow the tank and do squat for the rest of the team. 

WTF.  Why serve as pocket Emp for the guy with the most hp, the best defenses and who couldn't be mezzed???

If you buffed one of the squishies, oh I don't know... like another defender who has just as wicked buffs/debuffs, we'd have 2 tanks.  In fact, you wouldn't need a tank at all.

Oh. Well, then, you definitely weren't on a team with me (I was on Protector mostly, and some Pinnacle). With no team experience in other MMOs, and not having the "team trinity" mindset, I buffed anyone who could help end the fight faster, so that I didn't have to do as much work, and did whatever I could to keep the whole team upright and moving forward. There were even times when I'd make sure that the rest of the team was okay, and go chasing down the foolishly-errant scrapper. I took the job seriously. (Man, I am SO wanting to log in now, load up Doc Pruitt, and look for a team!)

[Neutrio]

That's certainly not to slam all empaths. If you kept all your buffs up, while paying attention to other folks health bars and occasionally blasting, that sounds solid.

The above is how I played my Emp (later in the game).  Even in the beginning of the game, I don't know why one would not pick Fort, CM or AB (aside from concept/RP).  I was too afraid to pick AP though.

Especially later in the game. Pure healers. LOL. You're not contributing jack or squat when the entire group's health rarely budges.

Indeed.  Later in the game, a decent group with decent builds seldom had health bar problems.  I recall clearly seeing this on a CoT cave mish that had a fair number of squishies (formerly) & about all I did was just follow them through to the end while cycling through CM, Fort & AB.  That's why I made a "damage" build that let me "get in on the action" more.

However, even at the end, I never felt that I was unneeded or useless.  I realized that my true heal powers weren't really needed any longer on non-TFs, iTrials, etc. (the "support" build was used mostly for those).  I felt that I was more liberated from the humble static role we were crafted for in the beginning of the game.

Okay, here was my problem with emp.  They'd fort the tank, heal the tank, AB the tank, follow the tank and do squat for the rest of the team. 

WTF.  Why serve as pocket Emp for the guy with the most hp, the best defenses and who couldn't be mezzed???

If you buffed one of the squishies, oh I don't know... like another defender who has just as wicked buffs/debuffs, we'd have 2 tanks.  In fact, you wouldn't need a tank at all.

Yeah.  You were getting some bad Emps.


Tactically, I mostly:

   
• Stayed with the tank & generally kept Fort on them and at least one scrapper or blaster and possibly a third melee/ranged toon.
• Cycled through CM on everybody (usually twice) and I AB'd the ranged toon when it cycled (generally blaster types however I do have a soft spot for scrappies as it is just so much fun to see the carnage happen when they get a dose of AB -- that probably became less of a need as the ATs changed).
• Toss out the increasingly rare HO or HA
• Cast the RAs if we were headed into a big/boss fight.
• Otherwise, I'd be firing off my rad powers -- now that I had at least one AoE to use :)

[Angel Phoenix77]

All I can say tonight is once this is over either way - I would like a nice big apology from the Facebook crowd - not that it will happen but still.

For those who may pass this to that group - I would not name drop former Paragon Devs who have contacted the team and I would not say IM Tony V to verify it.

I know it is slow right now - but the new Devs don't control this dance, NCSoft does. I can't pass on anything except - they are working on something to prove competence. Since I have named everyone involved except the Dev team - you could bother to verify with them what I have said.

The folks here on the board have been great. The Facebook group is going hog wild. You don't hoax people giving them your real street address and phone number. I understand the frenzy that having hope is causing - stay the course.

For me it is ok, if news slows down, because I know that the team is doing something. Just have to stay the course, and think happy thoughts, that is what I do plus my homework and watch movies and such. This is how I pass the time :)
thank you again IronWolf and team :)

[Super Firebug]

The above is how I played my Emp (later in the game).  Even in the beginning of the game, I don't know why one would not pick Fort, CM or AB (aside from concept/RP).  I was too afraid to pick AP though.

I'd heard of quite a few Emps who were leery of Absorb Pain. Sure, there were a few times I overdid it - usually in an emergency situation - and ended up hospitalized. And a couple of times when an enemy took advantage of my weakened state. But overall, when used judiciously, I found AP indispensable.

[LaughingAlex]

All I can say tonight is once this is over either way - I would like a nice big apology from the Facebook crowd - not that it will happen but still.

For those who may pass this to that group - I would not name drop former Paragon Devs who have contacted the team and I would not say IM Tony V to verify it.

I know it is slow right now - but the new Devs don't control this dance, NCSoft does. I can't pass on anything except - they are working on something to prove competence. Since I have named everyone involved except the Dev team - you could bother to verify with them what I have said.

The folks here on the board have been great. The Facebook group is going hog wild. You don't hoax people giving them your real street address and phone number. I understand the frenzy that having hope is causing - stay the course.

I totally understand you.  I really really wish the facebook group would calm down still, though I wonder which group at this point, as I look at save city of heroes, they talk about other things.  I did rant there to tell them to calm down in a way, go figure.  I do believe I owe you an apology, I worry I may have when I initially found this months ago shared on face book.  But I did say to keep quiet, but some people are just morons and will still be to noisy.  I feel my loud mouth may have hastened the problem some :S.

[Fanta]

All I can say tonight is once this is over either way - I would like a nice big apology from the Facebook crowd - not that it will happen but still.

For those who may pass this to that group - I would not name drop former Paragon Devs who have contacted the team and I would not say IM Tony V to verify it.

I know it is slow right now - but the new Devs don't control this dance, NCSoft does. I can't pass on anything except - they are working on something to prove competence. Since I have named everyone involved except the Dev team - you could bother to verify with them what I have said.

The folks here on the board have been great. The Facebook group is going hog wild. You don't hoax people giving them your real street address and phone number. I understand the frenzy that having hope is causing - stay the course.

Thanks Ironwolf. I do hope everything works out. I'm thinking happy thoughts, and that your granddaughter gets to see the game again.

[Felderburg]

Tactically, I mostly:

   
• Stayed with the tank & generally kept Fort on them and at least one scrapper or blaster and possibly a third melee/ranged toon.
• Cycled through CM on everybody (usually twice) and I AB'd the ranged toon when it cycled (generally blaster types however I do have a soft spot for scrappies as it is just so much fun to see the carnage happen when they get a dose of AB -- that probably became less of a need as the ATs changed).
• Toss out the increasingly rare HO or HA
• Cast the RAs if we were headed into a big/boss fight.
• Otherwise, I'd be firing off my rad powers -- now that I had at least one AoE to use :)

That's about what I would do, once I got the recharge of my emp powers up to super sweet levels. I think I was able to get CM on everyone, and Fort on up to three, if I hit it right when it recharged. The +def is nice, but I tended to watch the team, and if the main agro receivers were doing fine, I would use it on someone like a blaster for the +dmg. RAs were situational - sometimes I was able to get them in the middle of a fight, which was fun, but I had binds to call the team to me for them. Adrenalin Boost was also situational, for me - I would generally go with a damage AT, but because of the endurance boost, I would monitor the End of teammates as we played, and see if someone needed it.

As for Absorb Pain, I used it as a last resort heal. Typically my regular heals were fast enough and strong enough, when they were needed. But every so often someone would get out of range, or bite off more than they could chew, which led to a frenzy of me running to them for the Aura and individual heals.

[Tubbius]

As a /emp Controller (Plant, Ice, Mind, Electric), my usual picks after my offensive capabilities from my primary were MOST of the Empathy tree but Heal Other, Fortitude, Clear Mind, and Absorb Pain.  I had a firm belief that other players should know how to hit a Break Free when they need to, and properly Hastened Recovery/Regeneration/Healing Auras were perfectly sufficient at keeping everyone in the game, particularly in the lagtastic Rikti mothership runs.  Sometimes, you just don't have time to deal with single target powers when you should be spamming holds, group holds, buff auras, and heal auras.

And Ironwolf, I hate the Facebook bunch is still causing such troubles.  Here's hoping that doesn't derail or cost us the game's return.  Best wishes the team on proving technical competence and impressing NCSoft with what the team can do.

[HEATSTROKE]

All I can say tonight is once this is over either way - I would like a nice big apology from the Facebook crowd - not that it will happen but still.

For those who may pass this to that group - I would not name drop former Paragon Devs who have contacted the team and I would not say IM Tony V to verify it.

I know it is slow right now - but the new Devs don't control this dance, NCSoft does. I can't pass on anything except - they are working on something to prove competence. Since I have named everyone involved except the Dev team - you could bother to verify with them what I have said.

The folks here on the board have been great. The Facebook group is going hog wild. You don't hoax people giving them your real street address and phone number. I understand the frenzy that having hope is causing - stay the course.

which Facebook group are you talking about.. I am on three different groups and pretty much all of them have calmed down and moved along..

[Goddangit]

There, there now. Don't cry.

Here's a prescription from Dr. SkullPunch or Professor HeadSlap, whichever he picks.
*Take a jab and two right crosses followed by an upper-cut every hour until pain stops*

I'm thinking Dr. SkullPunch.  HeadSlap would more properly belong to someone similar to NCIS' Gibbs.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Agreed.  I've been waiting on a Wonder Woman movie for about as long as I waited for an Iron Man movie (I think by the time IM1 came out, it was going on 10 years?). 

There's the 2011 TV pilot. Be warned: it's a fanbase killer.

[Goddangit]

Things like this are why I miss the City. I never know what I would find in people's backstories.

I like to make backstories for all my characters.  Some are serious, some are silly.  But I'm always trying to just have fun.

You. I like you.

Thank you!

Did he major in retrophrenology, by any chance? :)

I'd the say the chances are better than average.  :)

   


Doctor Skullpunch sounds good. Authoritarian with a hint of violence. Ok more than a hint

Yeah, its definitely Dr. SkullPunch.

First outfit will be medical with a surgical mask and cap I think.  First costume I usually want to look like something not well thought out; A variant on what they'd usually wear.  Like they just decided to do this thing and put on a mask.  The nicer look comes after the first visit to Icon.

edit: spent a little time in Icon.  Just a rough idea.  I'd have liked a Caduceus, but I guess the fist symbol will have to do...

https://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t198/motherswhistler/Computer/skullpunch_zpsb665a707.jpg

[Thirty-Seven]

First outfit will be medical with a surgical mask and cap I think.  First costume I usually want to look like something not well thought out; A variant on what they'd usually wear.  Like they just decided to do this thing and put on a mask.  The nicer look comes after the first visit to Icon.

I like doing that too!

I've also done characters who, over the course of their costume slots, have slowly evolved too.  One character of mine turned from man into humanoid dragon!  Another eventually earned an "Incarnate Costume" that was essentially his power personified, he became (red) lightning.