COH: Issue 5 is alive!

Hobbes

Haven't tried it yet.

Hobbes

Ok Tried some stuff..

Croatia = Fantastic zone. Up there with Striga/Shadow Shard.
Shadow Shard = Got a make over making it much easier to get around.
PI = Short cut to crash site is handy, Powerlevelling still viable although the tank I was with could only maintain the hold on 70 mobs instead of 300.
Mobs = Souped up a lot more, XP is good.

Haven't tried everything yet. The only thing that sucks is Phase Shift. Will be respec'ing that out next time I log in.

monkeyfudge

I just tried it out for about an hour there this evening.

I only did the one mission... but it was interesting...

I had to rescue a hero who had been captured by the monsters from the area. But once I'd rescued him, I had to escort him back to the entrance all the while being ambushed... but he even helped out in the battles by using his archery skills.. it's a very nice little feature.

I've heard that the new Task Force has a NPC who stays with you for the whole campaign.

Smellyirishman

monkeyfudge wrote:

I've heard that the new Task Force has a NPC who stays with you for the whole campaign.

You heard lies .

New TF is great though, only about one hour long.

monkeyfudge

Smellyirishman wrote:

You heard lies .

New TF is great though, only about one hour long.

ha.. okay.. fair enough.

Ivan

How is defiance and the new archery skillset?

quaalude

Ivan wrote:

How is defiance and the new archery skillset?

Defiance isn't so great, as a nearly-dead blaster is a dead blaster, I find.

Smellyirishman

Ivan, I think it is over now, but Cryptic reactivated (or allowed you to reactivate) ANY account that had been cancelled in the last year and a half so you could have got on and tried it for yourself.... the offer may still be going, check your mail/spam remover.

I have heard most blasters praising Defiance.

Ivan

Smellyirishman wrote:

Ivan, I think it is over now, but Cryptic reactivated (or allowed you to reactivate) ANY account that had been cancelled in the last year and a half so you could have got on and tried it for yourself.... the offer may still be going, check your mail/spam remover.

I have heard most blasters praising Defiance.

Actually I reactivated my account there recently for a month but I've moved home now and dont have a net connection. I cant imagine defiance being anything but great. It would be quite easy to run forward, take some damage and use it to your advantage in a group. And 500% damage boost is amazing. The archery skillset seems a bit naff in my personal opinion however I'd love to give it a shot at some point anyway...

quaalude

Ivan wrote:

It would be quite easy to run forward, take some damage and use it to your advantage in a group..

I have a lot of experience playing blasters, and it doesn't quite work that way, not with me anyhow, but everyone has their own way of playing. My current blasters are a 41 elec/elec, and a 28 fire/devices. I duo a lot, the elec blaster I duo with a invun tank (still deadly, despite what you might have heard about post Issue 5 tanks), and the fire with a dark/dark defender (very controllerish). They way I play with both duos it would be suicide to go in first, just to do some extra damage. Far better to let them do their stuff, be it gathering or immob/debuffs, and go in late, where the baddies are just where we want them. I have never gotten so low in my HP bar that defiance even kicks in, and that's just how I like it to be! Others may be risk-takers with their blasters, but waiting til the last possible second is the way I play my blasters, so it's not terribly useful to me. I've not heard of anyone, or indeed seen anyone, use it effectively either.
Croatoa is the best, it might be even better than Striga. That "Stop 30 Fir Bolg" mission had my heart racing like mad, and the temp powers are amazing also.

LoLth

Just reactivated my account and have a respec waiting for me

can I get rid of my secondary power set completely and choose a different one? Electricity sucks IMHO, I want energy manipulation (gun based blaster, the power punch is great for pushing away mobs that get too close to you though the switching from gun to fist to gun wastes a small bit of time).

Set up an archery based blaster fo rthe laugh. I like it. Havent used defiance yet at all. I can see it being handy and tipping the balance in a close battle but I wouldnt deliberately get battered about the place just to do the extra damage.

Hobbes

Created my first Squid 2 weeks back and haven't had time to play it much, so currently up to level 24 with it. It is extremly fast to level. In squid mode I have two high power AOE blasts (one short range) and 3 of the 4 attacks have insane range. So since level 20 I've been nuking from orbit the large numbers of groups in Striga.

In a team its excellent though. Normally goes likes this...
Tank: Ok heres the plan, see that group over there? I'm going to herd them to...
Me: Those? *BAM* *BAM* there all dead
Tank: Stop that! its dangerous!
Me: Ooh look another group *BAM* *BAM* dead.



So it will be a while before I try archery or sonics. Can't wait for croata though. Had a wander around with my level 50 and didn't think much of it, but I got to play 2 missions and I love how they have made them.

I especially love the red caps.

While fighting them, one of them grabbed his mate and threw him at me. The red cap proceeded to slap me around the head and then blew up from the bomb on his back.

Had me in stitches laughing.

LoLth

ah hobbes.... spoiler-ise the redcap thingy. would be a laugh to find that out for yourself

yeah, those squids seem pretty good alright. Are there many creatures that can cause them a lot of damage (werent there some gang members in perez that were lethal to the squids? )?

my blaster seems to be stuck on level 22. where's best place to level him up? at the minute I'm tidying up some missions solo but is there a decent hunting ground for a group?

Hobbes

LoLth wrote:

Are there many creatures that can cause them a lot of damage (werent there some gang members in perez that were lethal to the squids? )?

Voids. They are a serious pain. They can 1 shot kill you. Even if the shot doesn't kill it stuns you, slows you down and drops your defenses. If a void gets a second shot off or your in a group of baddies your dead. They also ignore taunts and can shoot from sniper distance sometimes. They also see through invisibility. Oh and they are somewhat immune to your attacks as well.

Other then that Quantums. They are scaled down versions of voids. Not a serious threat unless you don't kill them first.

At higher levels there are other mobs like evil peacebringers/warshades and cysts (which I haven't met yet but can wipe out experienced teams with ease).

Dwarf mode you can become like a souped up tank (but no real taunt ability). You become almost immume to all stun/mez attacks but your attacks suck. Squid is the reverse. Human mode for PB is like a scrapper, and for WS is like a controller.

As your level 22. I recommend doing every mission in Striga. Go talk to melanie peebles. It has good XP, the zone is excellent and the missions give good temp powers that you can hang onto later in the game. Also do the Taskforce there as its one of the coolest and has very good xp.

When you hit 26 head to Croata. Also if you have the time try to hit task forces for your level. They generally give good xp, but take some time.

Hobbes

Ok got my squid to a level to play Croatoa. WOW. All I can say is wow..

The big difference here is the missions and how they are played.

For example entering the spirit world is kind of cool. Got to do 'defend the henge" about 5 times before we figured out how best to combat the hordes of Fir Bolg zerg rushing us.

Another mission We were fighting mobs in the spirit world and they kept pouring out of mission doors as we were fighting others.

You have to think how to complete some of these. I'm about less then halfway though the Croatoa missions.