Adeon Hawkwood
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Posts
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Quote:You can argue this one either way since it is extremely situational. Solo a defender is pretty low in effectiveness but a team of 8 Defenders is one of the most effective out there (assuming a reasonable mix of primaries). The primary issue with suggestions for boosting Defender damage do partly come down to the fact that a Defender only take is horribly OP for anything except AVS (and even then they can take down most of them).Originally Posted by KaliMagdalene
I'll disagree that defenders are balanced relative to heroic ATs. Defender damage was balanced against blaster damage at launch. Every AT has received damage buffs since then, while defenders have not. I think this pretty clearly leaves them slightly underpowered.
That is a very simplified view, the changes in the buff numbers between the classes are pretty major (although damage is similar until you factor in Fury).Quote:Originally Posted by Talionis
Think about the difference between Brutes and Tanks. Basically thematically they are the same almost all Tanks can be made as Brutes and vis versa. Its Gauntlet versus Fury, that makes the real choice for people which Archetype to use. Gauntlet has become a very good "control" power that is extremely useful on teams. Fury allows for sick things for damage output. The difference between the two like Archetypes is obvious mostly from their inherents. -
Quote:Yep, if you feel that it should have a link the best plan is to go through and start adding them (you'll need to register).Originally Posted by Texarkana
Thanks! The wiki should probably link to that for the respective enh's.
edit: or I can go in and add those edits myself ( ' : -
Nope. I suggest bugging the devs for a Trick Arrow based manipulation set.
Here was my suggested version (including a suggestion that the melee attacks be animated to work with the bow out) but it wasn't particularly popular in the suggestions forum
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=204832 -
Quote:Empathy cannot reduce a significant portion of incoming damage. The only defense/resistance buff in the set is Fortitude which prevents a lot of damage on a few teammates but by no means the entire team.Originally Posted by StratoNexus
It has always been nonsense that those who heal can gain more benefit from vigilance than those who cannot. If there is a disparity (and I am not saying there is), those who can heal probably gain less from vigilance (since every defender with heals also has ways to prevent a significant portion of incoming damage on top of being able to remove their own vigilance buff).
In general I would say Defenders fall into three categories where Vigilance is concerned:
1. Those who gain no benefit since their powers are aimed at preventing damage from occurring in the first place (FF and Sonic are the prime examples but honestly a lot of Defender sets fall into this category)
2. Those who benefit and can counter it (primarily Empathy and Kinetics). These sets have limited methods of preventing damage from occuring but can heal it afterwards with spammable powers (the ones that benefit the most from endurance reduction).
3. Those who benefit but can't do anything about it (TA and Traps are the prime examples). These sets aren't really focused on damage prevention (although Traps does have quite a bit of damage prevention) so they are likely to benefit from Vigilance to some extent even if they are playing well. However when Vigilance kicks in their options for countering it are pretty limited. They have no direct healing so they have to rely on mezzing or killing the offending enemy which is pretty dependent on what powers they have ready at the time (since a lot of their powers have long recharges). Additionally they lack the spammable powers which really benefit from end reduction.
*shrug* Just my thoughts on why Vigilance is less than useful to a majority of Defenders. -
Quote:That might work. The only thing is it's going to play very differently on different sets. Resistance sets will (generally) get a low damage bonus most of the time while defense sets would get nothing with an occasional larger spike. The obvious downside is that Willpower and Regen wouldn't really get much benefit from it.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Eww. Ewwwww! That sounds ungodly complicated. Worse than trying to build and slot a Kheldian efficiently. First time around. Without reading guides.
This might sound mad, but maybe something like Defiance V1?
Yes, yes, shoot the heretic. However; the problem with Defiance V1 on Blasters was just that; you got more damage for dying...on a squishy. An AT that, when it takes damage, dies fast. Not a good mix.
Adding that to an AT that has shields to move the damage into more manageable numbers? That sounds a bit more feasible. -
Quote:To clarify a little, it doesn't matter whether your character has the badge or not*. You just have to visit every badge while in SG mode to get the beacon. So in your case there was no need to have a minion do it you can get the beacon even if you already have the exploration badges in question. Conversely once the badge has been earned it belongs to the SG and a person quitting will not cause them to lose badges.Originally Posted by Zyanya
I had all the Atlas park badges, but I earned a few on a different server. That seemed to cause the problem, so I just had one of my minions grab them all.
*The exception is one of the RWZ badges which is hidden so it is extremely hard to tell if you got it for the SG on a character that already has it -
Quote:I don't necessarily disagree that Defenders are balanced in relation to the Blueside ATs and as a Buff/Damage they are good (although some controllers can give them a run for their money) but I don't think that they are balanced in relation to Corruptors and with Going Rogue this will become more obvious.Originally Posted by Schismatrix
But i still tend to agree with the theory many on the forums proposed when Vigilance was first added: The Devs felt that Defenders were already properly balanced, and Vigilance was added so that Defenders wouldn't complain about not having an inherent. (The Devs later stating that Defenders were considered the most balanced class as is pretty much confirmed that theory for many players.)
Finally I'll note that Vigilance was introduced between Issues 5 and 6. Even given that Defenders were balanced without needing an inherent THEN the game has changed a lot in the ten issues since then so i'm not convinced that is still the case. -
Quote:Well I can see that working for a EAT but not for a generic AT. There are two reasons for this. First off it's not an intuitively obvious mechanic which means for new players the AT will be hard to play (making it an EAT eliminates this somewhat since it won't be a person's first character). However more importantly this would make it very hard to port armor sets to the AT. Having an inherent that grants any noticeable amount of positional defense (i.e. 10% or so) would really screw with the balance of the different sets. Some sets would directly stack with the bonus (i.e. Super Reflexes would be much easier to softcap), some would benefit from it (i.e. Regen and the pure Resistance sets would benefit from having some basic defense), while others would get essentially no benefit since they already have typed Defense and there is little to no benefit in having both positional and typed defense.Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow
As I envision such an AT, you'd get about equal measure ranged and melee attacks in your set. You start out with a naturally strong defence to ranged (and AoE) attacks, and for every enemy in melee, you lose some ranged defence and gain some melee defence. Additionally, each time you use a melee attack, you lose some melee defence and gain some ranged defence, and each ranged attack costs you some ranged defence and earns you some melee defence. The point of the inherent was both to reward you for using melee powers in melee and ranged powers at range AND to incite you to move from melee to range to melee dynamically.
I'm not sure if defence is the right way to go about it, other than some kind of damage buff, but general drive remains.
As a side note, a hypothetical Assault/Armor AT would almost certainly not be able to use Shield Defense. To many of the ranged powers in the Assault sets rely on having both hands for animations. So I guess you could use it but it would look silly. -
Quote:Yes, and there's a reason for thatOriginally Posted by Godpants
Eh... maybe Defenders could just get the old Defiance. Blasters aren't using it anymore
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In the lower right of the crafting window there is a drop down that filters recipe displays. Turn off the filters and see if it turns up. It sounds as if you're missing one of the items.
Alternatively I misunderstood your post and you're looking at the tailor window. In that case you need to go to an invention worktable and craft the wings then go to the tailor and add them to your costume.
I hope one of these two solves your problem. -
Ok, the ones I'd like to see:
Grenade Control: Basically a control set with a similar theme to Devices and Traps. I'd go with Grenades as the basic theme since I think that works well but there are a lot of ways to do this.
Martial Arts based Manipulation set: This one is pretty popular but basically a manipulation set with some of the kicks from Martial Arts as its melee powers. Not sure how to fill in the rest of the set, personally I like filling it in with Trick Arrow powers since to me it seems like a natural pairing but that idea was unpopular when I proposed it in the suggestion forum.
Trick Arrow based Manipulation set: I'd like to see more debuff based manipulation sets (currently Ice Manipulation is the only one that really focuses on debuff) and Trick Arrow seems a logical framework to build on. I'm not sure where to fill up the rest of the set from, my personal preference is Martial Arts but as I mentioned above it's an unpopular view.
Dark Manipulation: Hopefully the devs intend to eventually port Dark Blast to Blasters (with, I suspect, some changes to make it more suitable for Blasters). At that time it would be nice to make a Dark Manipulation set to go with it. I'd expect that this would end up as a rather control/debuff heavy set along the lines of Ice Manipulation.
Swashbuckler Assault: Basically an assault set where you wield a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other (so both out at the same time, no redraw). The pistol powers would be mostly single target attacks while the sword attacks would be similar to either Dual Blade or Broadsword powers (obviously, they'd all have to be reanimated). Ideally it should have a variant of Dual Blades combo system (where the combos incorporate attacks from both weapons).
EDIT: One more
Pulse Rifle: Pretty obvious really, Robotics Masterminds have cool looking Pulse Rifles, so follow the Dual Pistols route and make it into a blast set for Blasters/Defenders/Corruptors. Admittedly it would be pretty similar to Assault Rifle with Energy/Smashing damage instead of Lethal (and occasional Smashing or Fire) but I think you could make it a distinct set with a bit of work. Robotics has what are basically clones of Burst, Slug and M30 Grenade (although the activation times need changing for a Blast set). Reskinned version of Buckshot, Sniper Rifle, Beanbag and Full Auto all make sense (Dispersion Pattern, High Powered Blast, Stun Pulse, Pulse Spray). Replace Flamethrower and Ignite with something more thematic to help give it a distinctive feel and reorder the powers somewhat and Bjorn Stronginthearm's your uncle. I'd probably give it a T3 Blast because this is one of the two standard blast set powers missing from Assault Rifle. I'm not sure what for the other power choice, Aim could work but then you've got a set that's rather similar to Archery, another TAoE would work (TAoE rather than cone to differentiate from AR) but thematically that's a stretch. -
Quote:This has been argued back and forth and I tend to agree that you'll still see Defenders being played and people aren't going to discriminate then.Originally Posted by PennyPA
I think it comes down to perception only. Corruptors have scourge, thus more damage. On the teams I have experienced, damage>the difference between defender and corruptor in de/buffing. These numbers are crunched all the time. You know DPS. You know the percent de/buffing. So, a team that believes damage "is king" will take a corruptor to shave off those few moments more for maximum efficiency.
I don't think anything will happen in GR. I see people play ATs and powerset combos that they want to play. They are not perfect or the best, but they are happy.
But on the other hand, the difference between them in the team support role is minimal and solo Corruptors higher damage makes thing a lot easier. Given that I think a lot of players will choose to make Corruptors since they can support the team while having better solo capability than a Defender. -
Quote:I think a better option might be to keep to bonus static and increase the buff duration for long recharge powers but even so I'm not sure it's necessary. Maintaining Vigilance would be more about activation times than recharge times and as long as you have a decent attack chain to fill in the gaps the recharges on your primary won't matter a whole lot. Sets with short recharge powers will be using them for Vigilance while those with longer ones will use attacks.Originally Posted by Zamuel
Actually, I'd argue that Traps would be at a distinct disadvantage since it has long recharge times on a lot of its moves. While any form of inherant global recharge buff seems like it would be heavily scrutinized by the devs, I think there's a better way to implement your idea. Rather than a static 5% buff for each move used, make the amount of the buff scale up or down based upon the default recharge time of the power with a static buff that is reapplied for toggles. This way you can use a few longer recharging powers or constantly blast with your secondary to build up your inherant.
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Quote:Yes, you can slot or take powers so that you don't have endurance issues, no one is arguing that. The problem is that Vigilance is giving me a buff that I can't take advantage of. When I design a defender I have to assume that I'm soloing (or on a team at full health) and design my build around that. If I don't then I'm going to be constantly running out of endurance. Given that what use is Vigilance? If I'm solo or on a good team then it's not providing any benefit but that's ok because I've designed my build to account for it. If I'm on a team that is doing poorly then it's giving me an endurance cost reduction but I DON'T NEED IT because I've designed my build to not have endurance problems.Originally Posted by PennyPA
Maybe I am missing the point that some defender primaries have ways to restore/recover END as well in the epics. So, if END is an issue, the game gives ways to compensate.
I didn't miss any point. Again, you can change slotting. If too much, change it around. Too little, change it back. I am also curious if I missed the boat on slotting end red in all my defender powers, too. I don't have the slots to do so. We would get benefits from vigilance then.
I think at this point we might as well agree to disagree. It seems that the crux of our disagreement is that I'm irritated by the fact that Vigilance is giving me a buff that I can't take advantage of and this doesn't bother you. -
Quote:I hadn't looked at it that way (since I have little interest in playing buffing defenders) but yeah that makes sense.Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
Actually it is a form of compensation for the buffer since most of the buffing sets have powers that they can't use while solo because they can't be used on the caster. Also some of the debuffing ATs have area targetted debuffs, like Disruption Arrow, Tar patch, Sleet, Freezing rain etc, that could be used this way.
For example Empathy's healing Aura with ED capped rech slotting and cast time is about 6 seconds. The best an empath could get from rocking the aura would be 2 buffs, maybe 3 on a high recharge build. So keep in mind while figuring that even buffers won't be easily able to maintain a full set of 5 buffs, and the resultant benefits outside of a combat type situation.
High end defender IO builds all ready are nasty. This doesn't make them that much nastier and still pales in comparison to a high end IO'd Scrapper, Brute, Tank, Dominator, or Blaster. -
Quote:Well the problem with this argument is that Defenders are one of the few ATs where you could claim to slot based on their inherent at all.Originally Posted by PennyPA
And I think this is what our difference is. For me, I don't slot any AT I have based on its inherent power. For defenders, an inherent power based on teaming for an AT designed for teaming is common sense to me at least. If a player wants to solo, there are some defenders that can solo better than other defenders. But even then, there are ATs that are designed to solo much more efficiently than defenders.
The ones that can't at all:
Blasters, Controllers, Scrappers, Stalkers, Masterminds, Corruptors and Brutes all get bonus damage. Since this bonus is not limited by ED and more damage is always good there's no reason not to ED cap damage and add this bonus to it.
HEATs get more damage (always good), more recharge slow resistance, and more damage resistance based on their team. In general they won't be hitting the caps on these so slotting for the inherent is pointless (the exception would be perma-eclipse warshades but they can't really tune the damage resistance that tightly anyway).
The ones that can:
VEATs have a power that basically provides a static bonus which people can and do take it into account when deciding if their character has enough regeneration and recovery. You might end up with a person choosing a different set since he has enough regen/recovery but it would be rare.
Tankers can slot taunt into their attacks to improve their inherent, but few chose to take the option since their inherent is strong enough without slotting
Dominators have perma-doms, need I say more?
So, out of 14 ATs only 5 can do any slotting related to their inherent and of them only two (Defenders and Dominators) would really get any benefit from doing so. The major difference between the Defender inherent and all other ATs is that as Talionis said Endurance is one place you can have to much of a good thing. With most other stats more is always better, sure you have the ED cap which means that you're frequently better off trading a small amount of one thing for a large amount of another but in general until you hit the actual cap more is always better.
Endurance this isn't the case, you need enough to keep your blue bar reasonably full so that you can use powers but after that any endurance related slotting is of no benefit to you.
You are missing the point. It's not that Defenders can't slot for adequate endurance management it's that if we do so Vigilance is useless and if we slot so that we get some benefit from Vigilance we get punished for doing our job and defending the team.Quote:So I can't see where there is an issue. If a player really has END problems, that player can look at a different way - like an IO unique or set bonus or 2 SO end red instead of one - and work back to a level where END use fits their playstyle.
Maybe, but that is no reason not to discuss it.Quote:And to clarify since it may not be clear, from my experience on the forums and reading why the devs make changes, I can't see how a buff to this AT will not be balanced with something else, especially without any data to show they are underperforming. -
Quote:Yep it's pretty much identical to burn just with better damage. As for it's value personally I don't care for it, it has very good damage but the scatter means that you need to immobilize the target first. On the other hand AR doesn't have a 3rd single target attack and ignite basically fills that hole but has horrible activation time.Originally Posted by Cainus
What's the deal with Ignite, anyway? Is it similar to the Fire Armour's Burn patch? Does it cause mob scattering the same way? Is it worth taking, damage wise, or will it just be overkill anyway?
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The one hunt I do rather like is the series of hunts in Numina's TF. Sure they are pointless and go one for a while but they're an iconic part of the TF, something besides door missions.
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Yes, it works but as far as farming goes it isn't going to be fast. I've done a bit of farming the wall in Cim while witing for an ITF and even with a nice chunk of global recharge I only get Oil Slick up every three spawns or so, and even if you did a perma-hasten build I think you'd probably only get it every other spawn.
The other problem for farming is that outside of EMP Arrow TA's damage mitigation against the alpha strike isn't that great and it lacks tools for healing between fights (an important part of farming speed).
So yes, you can probably farm with a TA/A but it's not going to be particuarly high on the list of good farming builds. -
Quote:In the context "correct" slotting can be defined as "the slotting that someone determined to get the most out of his slots would use". In this case the goal is to slot enough endurance reduction that you aren't panting for breath but not so much that you're hurting the rest of your power through a lack of slotting. In the case of vigilance you can't really account for it in your slotting since it is so situational so therefore you slot enough endurance reduction not to need it and consequently you get no real benefit from it. A well slotted defender will have sufficient endurance regardless of the health of his teammates (baring rare cases like malta sappers).Originally Posted by Thirty-Seven
Albeit nitpicky of me, I feel I have to comment on this line. Just what, exactly, constitutes "correct" slotting? Unless people are going out of their way to be annoying, or ignoring things like ED Caps... well, I just don't see a "wrong" way.
In fact, many somewhat unconventional slottings can be justified. So, I guess I just don't know what you mean.
I don't even need to quibble on your use of an absolute like "impossible;" that word alone kills whatever point you were going for in the above statement.
Kinda like Defiance for Defenders. I like this idea, the numbers probably need tweaking a bit but I like it. It is slightly imbalanced in favor of buffers since they can use spammable buffs (particularly AoE heals) to build up Vigilance in between combat in order to help recharge their long recharge buffs but overall I don't think that's a major problem. My only concern is that high end Defender IO builds are going to be nasty. A 50% global recharge bonus while in combat is pretty good.Quote:Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
Vigilance's benefit shouldn't be anything that would benefit one particular defender power set or other. With that in mind I have always said that vigilance should give the defender a 5% global reduction in endurance costs and a 5% increase in global recharge each time the defender activates a primary or secondary power. The vigilance buff should stack up to 5 times and each 5% buff should last for 10-15 seconds.
That doesn't give any particular defender Power set a distinct advantage from vigilance it's fairly even across the board. The more aware you are and the more you buff and blast the better and more vigilant a defender you are.
The net effect is that defender will get to use their high powered long recharge time buffs a little more often but with out increasing the buff values and making the buffs over powered. It means that the defender does a little more damage by being able to cycle their harder hitting blasts a little more often with out actually increasing the defender damage modifier or defender DPA. It adresses the defender DPE issue and best of all it works the same no matter what team size you are on (even solo!), no matter what type of slotting you have chosen be it, TOs, DOs, SOs, generic IOs, or IO sets, and it provides that reward for doing your job well instead of penalizing you for doing your job well and rewarding failure. -
Quote:This would require a major overhaul of the way combat works. Currently if there is more than a 6 or so level difference the lower level has basically no chance of even hurting the higher level (regardless of whether they are players or NPCs).Originally Posted by Steelclaw
4) The Incredible Hulk Versus Bob Anyone?: It makes no sense to me that a 50th level hero with years of experience can enter a zone with an 18th level Villain who still has that new-car smell and suddenly they're both the same combat level. Yes, I know this is to "even the playing field" but COME ON! Instead of this mandatory level adjustment I would prefer to see a few more options. Maybe Player A gloated that his build was so awesome he could take on Player B with a five level disadvantage? Maybe two teams want to fight but one has 4 players and one has 8? Allow the characters to CHOOSE their combat level prior to beginning combat. Because, to me, one 50th level character standing down eight 30th levels sounds pretty fun.
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The loading bar is primarily an indication of your computers ability to load the data so suhtting down other programs that you have running in th ebackground should help. Freedom doesn't generally lag more than the other servers but Freedom and Virtue both have a much higher population so you might want to try one fo the other servers and see if that helps.
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Quote:Well technically only the 65 one is part of the actual arc, the two different 50s are just generic hunt missions he gives out. While the hunts are annoying, I actually quite liked Harvey's arc. But then my character is an AR blaster so he chews through carnies no problem.Originally Posted by Catwhoorg
Arguably, yes. In regards hunts most assuredly
The arcs that most annoy me in terms of hunts are the one's given out by the Hansen brothers in Striga. They both have good arcs but the hunt missions are rather annoying. Striga gets hazard zone sized spawns and the missions tend to be in areas that are even con for you which makes it hard (or at least slow) for a lot of characters. -
Quote:The vetspecs stack with the ones from trials and the villain patron arcs, you can have as many as you want.Originally Posted by ThatGuyThere
Uh, what about Task Force respecs?
Can I have all three Task Force respecs waiting-to-go, and still claim a Vet Respec? ...or can I only have one Task Force respec at a time, as well?
...PS, thanks for the quick answers. Strong community around here, and that helps a lot.
The "freespecs" are limited to one and include all other forms of respec including:
* actual freespecs given out by the devs
* respec recipes
* the winter event respec
* respecs purchased from the store -
Quote:Can we change it so that it does penalize people who only take their primary? Pretty please?Originally Posted by konshu
I don't believe this really penalizes those who go purely with the primary set, since if the player isn't building out the secondary they'll have plenty of slots for end reduction and recharge on +end/+recovery powers.