Adeon Hawkwood
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Posts
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Joined
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I know, I know a Martial Arts based secondary has been suggested for Blasters on many occasions. However I'm bored and I can't recall seeing it combined with Trick Arrow before so at least I'm trying to give it a new twist
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First off why combine Martial Arts with Trick Arrow? A Martial Arts style manipulation set is pretty obvious but the problem is what to use as the basis for the non-melee attack powers. A combination of Ninjitsu and Weapon Mastery would be an obvious choice but the problem there is that (to me) it would feel like devices only with kicking instead of explosives. Given that I think that Trick Arrow makes a good choice, it's relatively control heavy for a buff set which provides the basis for the control powers most manipulation sets have while also providing some suitable de-buffs.
In general I think the set would be a bit like Ice Manipulation, it's relatively control and de-buff heavy set with less focus on damage and self-buffs.
Suggested power progression, powers are basically the same as in the parent set, but I've included a quick summary for people who can't remember:
1. Entangling Arrow (basic ranged immobilize power with a speed/recharge debuff)
2. Thunder Kick (short recharge melee attack with a small chance to stun)
3. Crane Kick (high damage melee attack with a good chance to knockback)
4. Flash Arrow (your basic AoE perception/to hit debuff power)
5. Focus Chi (Build Up by any other name)
6. Glue Arrow (a persistent AoE that debuffs speed and recharge)
7. Ice Arrow (a single ranged target hold with a speed/recharge debuff; Cobra Strike [a melee range stun] might work better here since it is a stun and so would stack with Thunder Kick and Eagle's Claw as well as the stun attack that a lot of Blasters have in their primary)
8. Eagle's Claw (a high damage melee attack that stuns, this one might need changing for blasters i.e. with a higher recharge)
9. Poison Gas Arrow (an AoE sleep and damage debuff)
The main issue with this set is going to be redraw. Obviously some attacks require a bow while the melee attacks and Focus Chi don't. One option would be to redo the animations for the melee attacks so that you wield a bow while using them. The problem is that what Archery Blasters would like this for any other primary it would look silly (I pull my bow out and KICK YOU IN THE FACE!!!!). There are basically three options for this. The ideal solution would be to use the power customization system to have two animation options for all of the kicks one which has the bow out and one that doesn't thereby allowing the player to chose. The second option would be to do the brute force approach used with brawl and have different animations played depending on the characters current combat stance although obviously this is a lot of work for the animation team (although on the up side from what I understand this would also allow you to kick while wielding an Assault Rifle). The final option is to leave the animations as is and lauch at the Archery blasters. -
As others have said the Devices set is a little underpowered especially in a team situation. However it is an enjoyable set and you can have a lot of fun with it (if you enjoy it you may also like playing a Traps Defender).
My quick rundown of the powers:
Web Grenade: Very useful at low levels, although utility drops off at higher levels, don't bother slotting it to much although some slotting for immobilization duration and end reduction helps against bosses.
Caltrops: Very, very useful solo. It only really needs recharge enhancement although a single slow enhancement can be useful if you're fighting enemies of a higher level than you. Less useful in a team since the fear effect can cause enemies to split up.
Taser: Useful at low levels for stunning a LT and can stack with Screech to stun bosses. The lack of range is rather annoying though. The usefulness fo this depends a lot on your play-style, if you run at basic difficulty it's extremely useful, however if you like to up the difficulty to have spawns set for 3+ size teams the usefulness of a single target stun goes down a lot.
Targeting Drone: The set's signature power. Really helps with hitting things at low level. As with most toggles slotting for endurance reduction is much less effective than it sounds.
Smoke Grenade: As ClawsandEffect noted you don't need the -perception much if you already have full stealth. However the -To Hit is actually quite useful damage mitigation. Additionally the -perception can be used to get guarded glowies.
Cloaking Device: Combined with Super Speed or a Stealth IO this gives full PvE stealth. Other than that there isn't much to say about it. If you can spare the endurance to run it during combat the defense is useful, but it's not worth enhancing at all.
Trip Mine: Another solo only power (most teams move way to quickly for this to be useful). That being said it's a very useful power. Stacking a few and then luring an opponent onto them is always fun. Additionally due to the way Defiance works dropping one of these at your feet right before combat will give you a nice damage bonus to your first couple of attacks and provide a bit of close in defense. Primarily this needs slotting for damage and accuracy, you generally won't use it rapidly enough to benefit from recharge and endurance reduction.
Time Bomb: While this can be fun, Trip Mine does almost as much damage and is much more tactically flexible.
Gun Drone: This one was a big disappointment for me. The damage it does it not that great and having to keep re-summoning it (with an 6-second cast time) makes it more trouble than it's worth. That being said it is kinda cool so my blaster has it (I just rarely remember to actually use it). Slot for damage, accuracy and recharge. -
Quote:My understanding is that -mez protection is not possible. Basically mez protection and status effects are actually the same effect just different magnitudes. -Mez resistance should be possible though and would increase the duration of all other mezs used on the opponent.Originally Posted by Arctic_Princess
Is there an ability to add a -mag resistance/protection to a power?
Let me clarify this question: We have the ability to lower defence, ToHit, certain types of damage output, overall damage, resistance, movement speed, recharge speed, repel enemies, cause enemies to fall down, cause enemies to fly up, and cause enemies to fall away from us. They are secondary effects in quite a number of powers and, in some cases, are the primary effects in other powers. We also have the ability to buff stats, and protect/resist against effects.
Therefore would it be possible to have attacks that, whilst not inducing holds, sleeps, fear, immobilise etc could reduce a mob's resistance to those effects? -
Quote:On the other hand the extra +3 might allow the build to be softcapped solo without needing other sacrifices. Maybe it won't make a huge difference in the overall build's ability but plenty of people like making the best build possible.Originally Posted by xeaon
3B for +3def in PVE when your team is the weak sauce, wont help you that much... also you can eat luck or have team buff that get you over 45% already... well you know that already.
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Quote:The question though becomes how well will that work long term once the experienced players have gotten bored with top level PvP? In general that sort of thing works best when all (or at least the vast majority) of the characters competing are characters in the process of being leveled up and are therefore at similar gear and player skill levels as well as character levels. WoW has a similar system but from what I've heard the lower level tiers are completely dominated by twinks that have XP turned off and the very best gear available for that level (as well as being Engineers for easy access to explosives and headgear). In most games if you freeze a character at a particular level and spend time optimizing their build as well as using your higher level characters to help them get the best gear you can generally make a character that is significantly better than a character with the basic leveling gear.Originally Posted by Smurch
Actually it depends on the MMO. For example, Warhammer Online breaks PVP into "tiers" of 10 levels each, and higher levels could not participate in lower tiers at all (well almost: they could, but they'd be changed into a chicken with 1 HP and able to peck for 1 point of damage).
Also, the PVP is team based (called RVR or Realm vs Realm). You will be teaming up and when engaging. You can, in WAR, jump into RVR around level 2 until the endgame and be able to compete. Whenever I made a new character, as soon as I finished the intro missions to get my basic gear, I'd be queing up for RVR scenarios. In that game you can gain RVR levels in addition to your PVE levels, so you can be a high level PVP player even at a lower level within your tier. -
Quote:Personally I'm of the opinion that the very nature of an MMO means that MMO PvP is something that will never interest me. The problem is one of power levels. In non-MMO games a new player can jump in and his basic power level is basically identical to a veterans (there are a few exceptions like the unlockable weapons in Team Fortress 2 but they tend to be minor and a person without them is still at about the same power level). Obviously his skills will be worse but his basic power level is equivalent to the existing player so he can focus entirely on developing his skills.Originally Posted by Prof_Backfire
But many, including me, will gladly fight other players in games like Counter-strike, Team Fortress 2, Mario Kart, Bomerman, Chess, etc. It's not that we don't like PVP- it's that we don't like how this game handles it.
In an MMO that is not going to be the case. A potential PvPer starts at a large power disadvantage. First off he has to level a character up to a particular level (normally the max) then he has to invest time and effort in obtaining a set of entry level PvP gear to go along with it. This means that there is a significant amount of time investment required before he can start working on his skills.
There are things an MMO can do to ameliorate this but they rarely seem to be successful. For example, WoW introduced low level battlegrounds to give somewhere for lower level characters to practice PvP. However from what I've heard they've basically been taken over by experienced PvPers playing twinks which completely defeats the purpose. The only way an MMO could truly have the even playing field a non-MMO offers is to allow people to make a PvP-only character (or an alternate build for an existing character) that is automatically at the desired level and has full access to whatever PvP gear the player wants. I think Guild Wars does something like this but most MMOs seem disinclined to do so.
If an MMO introduced a system like this (and I liked the MMO anyway) I'd be tempted to PvP but until that my MMO playing will be purely PvE and I'll stick to playing TF2 (very poorly) when I want to play against other people. (ok, this last is a lie, I do PvP occasionally in MMOs when I'm bored but I never take it seriously). -
Quote:Actually both the Magic and Tech origin attacks do energy damage.Originally Posted by Brynstar
If I remember corrrectly its energy and Negative energy attacks that will light it, in addition ot the obvious fire attacks. One of the origin attacks(magic I believe) does energy dmg and will light it.
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Overall Melee attacks are the most common since almost every NPC has one or more of them, they also tend to be more powerful. In general AoEs are actually less common although some groups do have lots (Malta for example).
In general I would prioritize Ranged > AoE > Melee for Ranged characters and Melee > Ranged > AoE for melee characters.
Obviously soft capping all three is the best but it can be a bit pricey for some builds. -
Actually I suspect the difficulty is that you've cranked the difficulty up to high. The new difficulty tools are awesome but most Blasters need to stay on the lower end of the spectrum.
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Well the primary purpose of the Security chiefs isn't for missions. They're there to provide information about the zone to players (I believe they do this even if you don't have the mission). The extremely annoying mission and hunt are just there to help guid players to them.
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Quote:In that case I'd say got for the direct buy of a few high priced recipes. LotG 7.5s are always pretty reliable (as Laev said the level 25 crafted one is normally the most profitable).Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
I'm terribly unlucky, so all this rolling stuff makes me nervous. The other week, I had some characters with 9999 tickets (3 of them) so I made like 6 rolls, and got zip. I had a different character with about 8200 and rolled all bronze and got zip, except for 1 Touch of Death that maybe sold for a few million (I always check every item I'm unsure of in terms of value).
So rolling has not been kind to me, not at all.
Ah well. Bummer.
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I think we should lower the price cap to 10million inf, that way everyone will be able to afford them and the supply will increase.
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I'm 90% sure it was a coincidence.
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Quote:Apparently if you participate in lolPvP it's beneficial to have both, not entirely sure why though.Originally Posted by je_saist
This is why taking two travel powers, such as Super-Speed and Super-Jump is widely considered to be a brain-dead decision. The effect of the powers do not stack, so you've basically just wasted a travel power slot that could have gone to another attack, buff, debuff, or something elser.
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Also if you decide you want to play on the North American servers you can but you have to purchase the North American version of the game. The store normally only gives you the versions appropriate for your country but there are links to the other versions. You can tell which version you're looking at by the price. If it's in Euros it's the EU version while the NA version is in dollars. For example:
EU Version:
https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/St...em&item_id=123
NA Version:
https://secure.ncsoft.com/cgi-bin/St...em&item_id=121 -
Which editors choice missions? It's possible that they weren't updated to take into account the last set of AE nerfs. In particular custom enemies got a huge XP nerf if they weren't made insanely difficult.
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What level is it?
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Well first off welcome to the forums. As Sharker said the search function is your friend. The ideas have pretty much all been bought up before and mostly shot down by the devs for technical reasons.
In particular back items along with scabbards apparently cannot be done without horrible clipping issues and water attacks were attempted but looked horrible so they were replaced with ice.
As for your other powerset suggestions, they would probably be ok in technical terms (although the beast mastery one might be a problem due to the need to animate a whole new set of skeletons) but have concept problems. How would Sorcery differ from making a magic origin defender with the normal powersets? Similarly how does Animal Instincts lend itself to a set of nine melee attacks? Most animals attack with either claws, kicks or biting. The Claws and Martial Arts sets cover the first two pretty well and I think biting would run into technical problems since the animation can't directly interact with the enemy. -
Quote:You forgot vetspecsOriginally Posted by Kheldarn
Hmm... This means that while Heroes can have a max of 4 respecs (3x Terra Volta Trials and 1 Freespec), Villains can have a max of 5 (3x Thorn Tree Trials, 1 Freespec, 1 Patronspec). Interesting.
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Ok, I slightly misunderstood your last post. In regards to your concern I'm going to say don't worry about it. Sprint only gives a bonus to jump height not jump speed and the bonus is pretty minuscule. Slotting for it will allow you to jump an extra 0.4ft so stop worrying and slot run speed enhancements in Sprint.
In any case I did a quick build in Mids, this gives 44.4mph run speed, 52mph jump speed and 18ft jump height. I'm sure you can tweak this for better performance and to suit your tastes, this was something I threw together in a few minutes.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Natural Blaster
Primary Power Set: Archery
Secondary Power Set: Devices
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Munitions Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Snap Shot -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(5), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(7), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(9)
Level 1: Web Grenade -- Empty(A), Empty(19)
Level 2: Aimed Shot -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(9), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(11), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(13)
Level 4: Fistful of Arrows -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(15), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(15), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(17), Posi-Dam%:50(17), RechRdx-I:50(23)
Level 6: Blazing Arrow -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(23), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(25), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(25), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(27), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(27)
Level 8: Caltrops -- Empty(A)
Level 10: Targeting Drone -- GSFC-ToHit:50(A), GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx:50(29), ToHit-I:50(29)
Level 12: Explosive Arrow -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(31), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(31), Posi-Dam%:50(33), RechRdx-I:50(33)
Level 14: Swift -- Run-I:50(A), Run-I:50(36)
Level 16: Hurdle -- Jump-I:50(A), Jump-I:50(37)
Level 18: Health -- Heal-I:50(A), Heal-I:50(19)
Level 20: Stamina -- P'Shift-EndMod:50(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:50(21), EndMod-I:50(21)
Level 22: Smoke Grenade -- Empty(A), Empty(45), Empty(45)
Level 24: Cloaking Device -- GftotA-Run+:40(A), Krma-ResKB:30(36)
Level 26: Stunning Shot -- Stgr-Acc/Rchg:30(A), Stgr-Acc/Stun/Rchg:30(37), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(43), Dsrnt-I:50(46)
Level 28: Ranged Shot -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(37), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(40), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(42), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(43), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(43)
Level 30: Trip Mine -- FrcFbk-Dmg/KB:50(A), FrcFbk-Dmg/EndRdx/KB:50(45), Sciroc-Dmg/Rchg:50(46), Sciroc-Acc/Dmg:50(46)
Level 32: Rain of Arrows -- Posi-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx:50(33), Posi-Dmg/Rchg:50(34), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(34), Posi-Dam%:50(34), RechRdx-I:50(36)
Level 35: Maneuvers -- GftotA-Run+:40(A)
Level 38: Gun Drone -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg:50(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx:50(39), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:50(39), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:50(40), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:50(40)
Level 41: Body Armor -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+:10(A), ResDam-I:50(42), ResDam-I:50(42)
Level 44: Surveillance -- Empty(A), Empty(50)
Level 47: Taser -- Stgr-Acc/Rchg:30(A), Stgr-Acc/Stun/Rchg:30(48), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg:50(48), Dsrnt-I:50(48)
Level 49: Aim -- RechRdx-I:50(A), RechRdx-I:50(50), RechRdx-I:50(50)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Run-I:50(A), Run-I:50(3), ULeap-Stlth:50(3)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Defiance -
Quote:In that case use generic IOs. Sprint, Swift and Hurdle will all take generic IOs which are as good as Set IOs for enhancing the power itself. Yes, Winter's Gift does have a very small run speed set bonus but honestly will 6% speed make a huge difference? There are plenty of other sets with movement speed set bonuses that you can use in your build so get some of those (Thunderstrike is a great set for Blasters anyway and it has a 4% speed boost). Also Gift of the Ancients has an IO with a global 7.5% speed boost that you can stick in Cloaking Device.Originally Posted by Du Hast
its not the set bonuses that bother me, its the "natural" origin route thats getting screwed. all travel powers don't allow for Natural origin movement except by forced PR means. super speed, super jump, fly and teleport are simply not natural means of transportation.
the closest alternative to this is sprint, swift and hurdle. in effect I still take the same number of powers to get as close to on par with others travel abilities but still lacking and sets are the only way to bridge that gap. I was looking forward to slotting winters gift into sprint because of the + jump and + run components. the - end mearly negated the need to keep sprint on (not that it was a big deal end wise)
that combination along with jump IO in hurdle and run IO in swift would have made a natural travel power feasable. instead pure natural characters are screwed.
Sets that you could easily use with Movement or Run Speed set bonuses:
Thunderstrike in your single target attacks and gun drone (an excellent option for blasters anyway)
Force Feedback or Kinetic Crash in Explosive Arrow and Trip Mine (although other sets offer much better bonuses here)
Performance Shifter in Stamina
Gaussian's Synchronized Fire-Control in Targeting Drone
Regenerative Tissue in Health
Aegis in Cloaking Device
Ghost Widow's Embrace in a hold power if you take one from your APP
Exploit Weakness in Ranged Shot
Stagger in Stunning Shot and Taser
Seriously you can slot a movement speed bonus is most of your powers and slot generic IOs in Swift, Sprint and Hurdle. I really don't see why you're bent out of shape that your concept character can't slot one specific set.
EDIT: Also please note that the exclusion of the two Accurate To Hit Debuff sets from the list above is correct. Smoke Grenade can't take them for some reason, it's a bit odd since it does need accuracy while Flash Arrow which only needs accuracy for PvP does get to use them). -
Yes you get a free respec. You could also opt not to train until then so as to save the respec for when you actually want it.
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Quote:It still makes a difference in your patron armor. Global IO bonus availability is only affected by the IO level, the level of the power makes no difference. In your case both characters will keep the bonus down to level 27.Originally Posted by SerialBeggar
Well, I had it in my head that I wanted level 30s and there weren't any available at 30 (I think, kinda fuzzy now).
Hmmm, speaking of thinking, one of them was put into a Patron pool armor, so it being 30 doesn't make much difference for that case then. However, the second one was put into the first armor of my Fire Tank, so I'll need to consider switching it out. I'll wait for the next free respec though, because I'm cheap.
As for why go for the level 30, maybe you decided you needed the extra resistance? The IO does also provide a small resistance enhancement (62% of a generic IO of the same level) so maybe you really wanted the extra 9% damage resistance enhancement value? -
There are two ways to do this. The first is the lazy way (which I use). Press print scren then alt-tab out of the game open up paint and press ctrl-v to paste the image directly into paint.
The harder way is to use the Screenshotui command. Typing /Screenshotui 1 into your chat will make screenshots show the whole interface. Typing /Screenshotui 0 will make it stop. -
Quote:Very true, I was on a Moonfire TF last night with a (self described) healer. The leader says mid-TF "good heals". I didn't want to start a fight in the team channel but I did send the leader a tell pointing out that the Storm defender and the Illusion/Force Field controller were doing a LOT more for the teams survival and progress than the Empath (we barely needed any healing and he only had two attacks).Originally Posted by Emberly
Yes! I hate forming teams or joining a team and having someone ask "who is tanking" or "do we have heals." The entire idea of these roles is irrelevant in CoX.