Questions and answers

[Lorddundar]

Please post an questions and answers in this tread so we can help out the Noobs (hehe low level beginners). Things that can be helpful would be powers and suggestions for builds.

[Lorddundar]

Ok the basic things that I think everyone ahould consider for character builds are:

Stamina of the Fitness pool power set. This lets you gain back endurance faster but inorder to get it you must have 2 other pool powers from the fitness pool first, I suggest Swiftness and Healing. Swiftness will alow you to go from mission to mission faster during the low levels and really help get levels faster.

Look at what travel power you want before level 12 because you get to pick your travel power at level 14. Each travel power pool requires that you take one of the first 2 powers in the pool before you get the 3 power (the travel power at level 14) Make sure you have the first power of the pool before level 14. Travel powers are very important and will let you level even faster due to less time between missions.

[Brak Zanagin]

Stamina of the Fitness pool power set. This lets you gain back endurance faster but inorder to get it you must have 2 other pool powers from the fitness pool first, I suggest Swiftness and Healing. Swiftness will alow you to go from mission to mission faster during the low levels and really help get levels faster.

Don't forget that the other 1st tier Fitness pool power leaping (jumping, whatever the fuck it is) will stack with Superleap and even Combat Jumping.  Stamina isn't a requirement, but damn is it useful.  The cost is a bit high though.  2 pre-reqs and 2 slots for Stamina once you get it.

[ElCheop]

A general note on Travel Powers:

Super Speed is really fast, but has no vertical component.  It's a nice power to get since Hasten (powers recharge faster) is it's prerequisite.  It also gives a little stealth bonus for traveling around, and with the improvements in the AI's perception, every little bit helps.  I would avoid this power until you really know the layout of the zones.  Nothing is more annoying than being unable to get where you need to go because the wall is just a touch to high.  It's top power of Whirlwind is fun, but very much of an emergency power.  Hasten (the other possible pre-req) is an attack, but it takes so long, and does such middling damage, that everyone pretty much ignores it.

Super Jump is just awesome.  It's slightly slower than SSpeed, but it gives you a good, as in fraking amazing, vertical.  It's prerequisite of Combat jumping is nice since that helps with knockback (or Immobilise, I can never remember) as well as increased leaping hight and good control while jumping.  The top power for this pool is Acrobatics, which provides some deffense from status attacks.  All in all, probably my single favorite travel power in the game.  The biggest down side is when you land in a sea of mobs that are a lot higher level than you.  Sometimes you just can't jump out fast enough.  I'd say go with this one if you can take a beating for a couple of seconds, or once you have some experiance playing.  Jump kick, while a fun animation to watch, just doesn't do enough damage for the animation time to even hold a candle to Combat Jumping.

Fly is probably the best travel power to start out with.  It feels fun to fly around a zone, nothing is ever to high for you, and it makes a great escape power.  In CoH pre-PvP everyone went with Hover for the pre-requisite.  For CoV, I'd say go with Air Supiriority.  This allows you to knock other flyers out of the air, it's a decent attack, and with PvP being a bigger part of the game, is very useful.  Fly is slower than the other usual travel powers, but it's pretty much always safe.  Group fly is a blast to have, but it eats up Endurance (end), and by the time you have it, almost everyone has a travel power.  It can be nice to help out your friends with SSpeed, or to get everyone up to fight off flyers, but I'd rather go for Air Sup. and knock those guys down.

Teleport is wierd.  It works best when mapped to your mouse since clicking it in your task bar and finding a place to TP to can be tough.  On a straight run this is supposidly the fastest travel power.  It eats End and takes a while to get used to.  Teleport Friend and Teleport Foe are both good pre-requisites.  TP Foe can be used to pull very effectivly since you can be out of sight of the mob, and it has a good range.  TP friend is lovely for teams, especially with lower level's playing as it can bring the group togehter.  TP Team is not so great; if it pulled the entire team to your location, that would be nice, but instead it works just like regular TP, only you can take along people.  This power can get you anywhere, and has two other nice powers for teams, but I'd advise against it until you've tried out the other three.

A side note on TP: Don't be ther guy who TP drops his team mates just because it's funny.  It isn't.  Not even if you have fun doing it.  TP Droping Foes however is okay, and should be encouraged.

Next post, Pool Powers!

[Ceili]

You guys are so helpful.

Thank you thank you thank you! 

[Derrick Heyoka]

A side note on TP: Don't be ther guy who TP drops his team mates just because it's funny.  It isn't.  Not even if you have fun doing it.  TP Droping Foes however is okay, and should be encouraged.

So not true, this was straight up hilarious... until everyone yelled at me.  Still I'll always have the fond memories to make me giggle, totally worth it.  Although to be fair that was much earlier in the game when it was still kinda new.  >;P

-Shmooo

[Lucy St. Jude]

Don't be that guy!

[Nalroth]

Stamina of the Fitness pool power set. This lets you gain back endurance faster but inorder to get it you must have 2 other pool powers from the fitness pool first, I suggest Swiftness and Healing. Swiftness will alow you to go from mission to mission faster during the low levels and really help get levels faster.

Do you think this would be useful for a Mastermind? I have a feeling I am going to be dumping many slots into my minions who take a significant chunk out of my END but then cost nothing from there on out. I know I have other powers that will cost END, but as far as I can tell they are typically pretty cheap with quick recharge times.

[Luther]

A lot of forums claim that MMs can skip Stamina.  My guess is it would depend on a lot of things:

1) What 2ndary you have - if it has lots of toggles or quickly recharging powers, you might end up going through END faster.  FF for instance.

2) If you use pool powers like Leadership that include a lot of toggles, you might need it.

3) If you plan to get the attack powers (their are three of them) that you have available to you, it might be a good idea.

[Nalroth]

Well, I grabbed the 3rd Power under Robotics only because I wanted something distancy to do some damage with other than my bot. Decent Damage with a Fast Recharge...I kind of dig on it will look into its END cost, but it doesn't look that high.

[Lorddundar]

I would say (from experiance) that if your Mastermind has Leadership and just one more toggle then you need stamina. Right now my Ninja/Dark has 3 toggle powers and 2 buff/debuff powers and I could use the stamina boost.

[Nalroth]

Is Leadership Stackable? Cause Bro. Corrupt is the one I wish to play in the VG and I am trying to fix him so he meshes well with the VG.

With another person with the Dark powerset I am thinking we are going to be pretty painful to take down....but any advice is useful.

[Louisa Ming]

Is Leadership Stackable? Cause Bro. Corrupt is the one I wish to play in the VG and I am trying to fix him so he meshes well with the VG.

Leadership is stackable.

[Nalroth]

Looks like I am getting stamina and Leadership then

Makes sense for a MM to have Leadership so he can solo.  I figured it would be stackable, I just wanted to make sure I was right.

[Brak Zanagin]

I have the MM Dark secondary and i'm not planning on taking Stamina.  If I need it, i'll eventually respec into it, rather than build towards it.

The reason being, that right now, in combat I run Sprint, Combat Jumping, and Darkest Night without seeing any serious drop in End.

If I turn off sprint and turn on some of the Leadership pool toggles, I bet things would be about the same.  If they aren't, I can always slot them for endred.

[Nalroth]

I was wondering if the MM player with Dark would weigh in. I would rather spend my pool powers on something else, so before I grabbed the "Stamina" pool I wanted to make sure that it made sense to do so and I figured with a respec at 25 I can streamline my character if I want to.

[Lorddundar]

As I have said before, Kage the Teacher has found that at level 19 he should be looking to get stamina soon. I have the leadership pool (Assault), an Anchor toggle (Can't remeber the name Debuffs all around target), plus a PBAoE toggle (gives stealth and Def Buff and cant remeber the name again). If I run with sprint (powerslide) and Use my heal to debuff and heal teammates, plus drop tarpatch at the start of almost all combats then I run out of juice. I figure that I can wait untill 24/26 for stamina if need be but I'm working my way towards it cause I know I'll wan't more Debuffs later.

[Nalroth]

What am I giving up by working towards Stamina? Anything?

Leadership + Movement Power + Stamina is a lot of slots. Do I have enough to spare? I am not trying to be contrary, I am just wondering.

[Lorddundar]

I gave up my three attack powers, but you could give up other things if you want. Also you will never have all the powers you want but some will work better than others, In large groups the anchors really aren't very useful (the mob dies to fast) but in small groups, PVP, or solo play anchors rock. If you want to, you could give up the anchor and see if you really need the extra end gain from stamina.

[Brak Zanagin]

So the solution to your issue is not to use powerslide/sprint.  I don't place enough value on run speed to consider it worth the gigantic endurance cost.   I would be interested in the end recovery rate when you subtract powerslide.  If it is adequate, then I submit that this is a preference issue. If it isn't then either additional endred slotting or stamina should be explored.

Something else I would like verified is if the Dark team cloak effects Supremecy.  The problem is that if your minions can't see you, they don't get the bonus.

To obtain Stamina, you're giving up 2 other power choices.  You need to take 2 of Swift, Leaping or Health.  None of them is particularly worth choosing when Stamina isn't the end goal.

Additionally, you may only choose 4 pools.  Stamina, Leadership and one movement power puts you at 3.  This isn't particularly worrisome, but you would be forced to choose between something like Medicine, Teleport (perhaps for TP Friend or TP Foe), Fighting (for increased duribility, not something i'm going to persue), Invisibility, and Super Speed (primary focus Hasten).

Currently, I have Leaping, and I plan on getting some of the Leadership powers.  I don't know if I want Hasten or not.  I might copy my character over to the Test server and see what the recharge reduction is on my summons.

[Lorddundar]

So the solution to your issue is not to use powerslide/sprint. I don't place enough value on run speed to consider it worth the gigantic endurance cost. I would be interested in the end recovery rate when you subtract powerslide. If it is adequate, then I submit that this is a preference issue. If it isn't then either additional endred slotting or stamina should be explored.

I keep powerslide off during combat but I find that I still run low on End, so I would think that its the toggles more than the powerslide, plus now that I have fly I normaly don't run with powerslide on at all.

Something else I would like verified is if the Dark team cloak effects Supremecy. The problem is that if your minions can't see you, they don't get the bonus.

The Dark team cloak doesn't effect supremecy. You can check your minions status bars when running it and supremecy is active at the same range with the Cloak up or down.


I agree that Stamina is giving up alot of powers and many AT's don't have a choice about it (which sucks), but I like to think if I can get away without Stamina I get three extra powers rather than lossing 3 to get stamina. If at all possible try running without the Stamina for as long as possible but Toggles = End drain = Need for stamina (or Recovery Aura). Ignore the Medicine pool as all of the powers are interupttable and normally can't be used well in a combat. Hasten is another power that most AT's must take but I think that MM's can get away with foregoing it. Many battles are spent with minor clicking of powers and more time with Minion management. I would say Invisibility is my favorate pool power for MM's because of the Grant invis to minions and teammates.

[Lucy St. Jude]

I am very familiar with this dilemma.  N'yx has the Leadership pool (Manuevers, Assault, and Tactics), the Fitness pool (Hurdle, Health, and Stamina), the Concealment pool (Invis Other), and the Speed pool (Hasten and Super Speed).  It's a lot of powers, but it was totally worth it.  I neeeeeeeeded Stamina with N'yx, but healing is a huuuuuuuge end drain, especially while running three toggles and constantly buffing.  In my opinion, you can never have too much Endurance.  You'll find something to do with it if you have it.   

[Ceili]

Anyone have any advice on how to best use the teleport self power?

I just acquired it and I reallize it's probably pretty limited at first (I seem to be able to only tp myself 100 yrds) but I know I'm probably not using it right.

Sooo, any advice?

[Derrick Heyoka]

No you're right, tp self kinda sucks.    Theoretically if you're going from point A to point B it *is* the fastest travel power regardless of distance though.    What I do is just put it on my main power tray in slot 10, zoom into first person view and hit 0 to activate teleport, left click, rinse repeat.  Some people prefer to map teleport to one of their mouse buttons though (middle button I'd imagine).

[Lorddundar]

Really the biggest problem with TP self is the End Cost. To travel across a good sized Zone you will need to rest at least once in the middle of your travel. With End Redux enhancements you can really travel quite fast across the zone using the Mouse key bind or the power tray 10 click travel that Derrick Heyoka suggested. Remeber that TP self is very Costly in End but Fast and flexable, most people dislike it but with practice and the right slots it can be a good travel power.

[Derrick Heyoka]

Ahhh fucking character logins.  Just in case anyone's forgotten or didn't know, this is Shmoo. 

-Shmooooo

[Derrick Heyoka]

So like, when did mobs learn to use elevators?  Holy shit I nearly pissed myself but I couldn't stop laughing either as I frantically ran like a little girl... good times.

Also, so I'm not seeing huge diminishing returns on enhancement stacking / ED / whatever.... but I'm only using DOs so far.  Anyone have like a link or document or anything with actual numbers that'd show me how futile four damage SOs will be?  Does everyone agree that 3 is the useful limit on multiple enhancements of the same types?

-Shmoo

[Lorddundar]

Also, so I'm not seeing huge diminishing returns on enhancement stacking / ED / whatever.... but I'm only using DOs so far.  Anyone have like a link or document or anything with actual numbers that'd show me how futile four damage SOs will be?  Does everyone agree that 3 is the useful limit on multiple enhancements of the same types?

The new enhancement deverisfication progrm also added a pop up window when you add enhancements to a power. It will show you what your current bonus is and then what the new enhancement will give you. This lets you check what your over all % gain for each type of enhancement is. The general rule is 3 of one type of enhancement is good and the 4th will be a waste. The patch notes for I6 will have the details.

They also made mobs use elevators in I6.

[Lorddundar]

In other notes for people that are planning a character. If you use lots of toggle powers you may want to look at the Super jump power pool to get some statis protection.
Combat jumping protects vs. Imobbilisation
Acrobatics protects vs. Knockback and holds (this is only a mag 1 protection)

[Lucy St. Jude]

Also, so I'm not seeing huge diminishing returns on enhancement stacking / ED / whatever.... but I'm only using DOs so far.  Anyone have like a link or document or anything with actual numbers that'd show me how futile four damage SOs will be?  Does everyone agree that 3 is the useful limit on multiple enhancements of the same types?

Courtesy of the lovely CoV Manual Mr. Pup gave me for Christmas:

Class A SO Enh (everything not in Class B):
+33.33%
+66.66%
+95%
+100%
+105%
+110%

The last three SOs only net you 5% each.  Up to you whether or not you think it's worth it.

Class B SO Enh (Def Buff, Damage Resist, Range, To Hit Buff):
+20%
+40%
+56%
+59%
+62%
+65%

Even less gain on Class B enh.  ::weeps for N'yx's To Hit Buffs::

Interrupt and Knockback are each in their own classes, but no one uses them, so I'm to lazy to post their stats.

[Lorddundar]

Rember that you can Stack other effects on your character to increase your %. I.E.  when N'yx uses RA bubbles (I love so much) my end recovery gets a 95% boost (I think) and combined with Stamina I'm pulling full end in about 2 seconds.