UberGuy

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Technically, that's only true for autohit -def powers, which are significantly less common than the non-autohit variety. For regular -def powers to affect the target they have to hit first - which means existing defense will "resist" it in the sense of making the attack less likely to land in the first place.

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What what you say is correct, it does not make what I said untrue. When -defense lands, or when the "penetrator" is +toHit, its mathematical interaction is completely different from the -DR mechanic. There is, for example, no such thing as "cascade DR breakdown", while the phenomenon of cascade Defense breakdown is very well understood. While +defense serves to initially limit the impact of non-auto-hit defense-debuffs, after the 1st one hits, all others hit more easily, and so on.

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I also don't recall the last time an empath took out an injection and gave me some anesthetics. I recall him standing in a spot and extending his arms without touching anyone makeing all feel better, I also know how they can absorb pain. How can a doctor absorb pain if not via a mental link?

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Empathy is indeed very much based on the notion of mental/psychic abilities.

A good (if poorly citationed) description is found in the very first paragraph of the Wikipedia page on "Empath".

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An empath or telempath is a person who has an acute or highly developed sense of empathy. In the paranormal and in some works of science fiction and fantasy, empathy is a paranormal or psychic ability to sense the emotions of others. It is distinguished from telepathy, which allows one to perceive thoughts as well. Occasionally empaths are also able to project their own emotions, or to affect the emotions of others.

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Dude.




My mustache is totally not that huge.

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Also funny, I just killed Scrapyard on my way to taking that shot. So I actually stopped to keep the working man down on the way to bragging about how rich I am.

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Haha. That is excellent.

(I, too, approve of your appearance.)

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and you all know this how? as it isn't currently implemented, I don't see how any of you know with certainty what builds, if any, would be able to take it to the extremes for both def and resist. I, for one, give the developers some credit and think they would take that into account when creating new sets and, possibly, modifying old ones.

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I'm sorry you are this poor at basic logic and math.

People are asking for +res bonuses to exist on scales comparable in mitigation to those that already exist for +def. I understand what those values mean, and know what sorts of +res bonuses already exist in the powersets today. I can do basic arithmetic.

If the devs were to actually create the +res bonuses that people are asking for, and the devs do not nerf existing +res powersets (which I am very confident no one would want in exchange for +res sets), then I can see what would be possible.

I'm frankly not sure why you can't.

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QR

Can you get a drop from a mastermind pet?

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Doubtful.

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Decreasing Defense and Resistance scales in I3? Stacking armors? Unyielding from Unyielding Stance?

GDR in I5, so many changes, one of which was increasing their damage scale 12.5%?

Massive changes in animation times (most would say vast improvements)?

Recent MA and Invuln buffs?

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None of those except for the damage scale increase (which I forgot about when making my earlier post) are AT specific. Changes to specific powersets do not benefit the whole AT, or even just the Scrapper AT, depending on the powerset. GDR and ED were game-wide and affected all ATs.

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The thing i do have notice happening lately, though, is that foes will start acting even before my attack hits them. I can be at one mile away and use a ranged hold, they still get one shot because they react as soon as I start casting. THAT is a bit annoying. And by a bit i mean a lot.

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Is that just when you miss, or even when you hit? Because it's always been like that for [edit] misses.

In either case, they have really [censored]'d the AI a lot lately, and it's very annoying. Until the most recent patch, fleeing bosses spawned and immediately started running, before taking any damage and before any buddy in their spawn was defeated.

Edit2: This is one of those times that the censor makes it look like I said something far worse than I did.

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Nop, always been this way. Effects are calculated after interrupt windows, or at activation for powers without interrupts. Hold, knock back, even killing the foe wont stop the effects from landing if the to-hit was successful.

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This is not absolutely untrue. It cannot possibly be true. I have experienced probably thousands of events where a foe has animated an attack, my character has played the "I was hit" animation, sometimes including sparks or embedded arrows, knives, etc., but I took no damage because the foe was defeated after they began their animation but before the damage was delivered.

If there was no hit animation, I could accept that this wasn't the case and the game was just playing the animation late. But if my character animated a hit effect, the game had clearly already determined that the blow had landed.

I distinctly remember this changing very early in the game's history. It used to be that foes always hit you with parting shots. People even used to complain about it on the forums. I distinctly remember it clearly changing at some point, and my being very grateful for it.

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except why is everyone assuming that you would be able to buff yourself heavily with both?

for most characters, you have to make a very large investment in slots to get to, or close to, soft capped defense. that isn't going to leave enough slots to also get my resists up to the 70% + range.

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Because all of us saying this are aware of builds where you could.

You have to view it in terms of the characters that can. The ones who happen to not be able to aren't the problem. You can't just look at how nice it would be for the builds who would end up with middle-of-the-road benefits when there are other builds who would converge on the extremes.

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on the other hand, along the same lines, if there were IO sets available that gave me more resist bonuses, I would expect to pay the price in slots used also. so I wouldn't have the slots left to heavily slot for defense bonuses.

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Again, this is true for some builds and not for others.

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as far as the argument that we have way more +def options because there are more -def powers used by mobs. well, players have several powers that have a -resist attribute, would think it very possible to add -resist to some of the mob's powers. they already have a good assortment of -def, -recharge, -to hit; could make things more interesting if a few had -resist.

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Mechanically, -resist is completely different from -defense. Defense penetrators subtract directly from your defense, after you resist them (if you can). DR "penetrators" are, effectively, scale factors on your damage because all DR resists all DR debuffs. The end result would not be the same.

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Of all the AT's Scrapper haven't had any AT changes since the formalizing of Critical Hits as the inherant

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Defenders have been unchanged since Vigilance.

Other than my feeling that Vigilance is crap, I'm not especially complaining.

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Scrappers are also the only AT with only 3 APP choices.

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Yeah. That's still annoying.

Eh, glad it was amusing. Sadly, it's not hard to believe people hold that kind of view - people have posted it in absolute seriousness with annoying frequency.

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Anyhoo, I propose an exercise. Start a new character on another server, not using your existing support groups to find teams, etc. Just to see how it is for a new player.

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The counter proposal is to ask, here on the forums in particular (since, after all, you clearly know about them) what good global channels are for teaming etc. The server-specific forums are your best bet for these questions.

You don't need to convince anyone that this sort of thing is harder without a support group. The point is that you can find support groups.

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If my memory serves me correctly, the rularu invasions also spawned rather high. I distinctly remember being in Atlas Park and having a portal open nearby with VERY purple conning enemies step out.

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These days they could presumably make "raid only" versions of them that work like invasion Rikti and raid Zombies, so that they would be always treated as even-level.

They'd still be kind of wicked, but not "hi, I'm +6 to you on top of it."

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I miss the Rularuu portals that would pop open in random zone and a line of mobs would march out preshadow shard release.

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Those were sort of suck, though. The massive +toHit that the eyes have means those spawns were hitting (and, where possible, mezzing) characters well over their level. Part of it was definitely that players weren't as knowledgeable as they are today (at least forum-going types), but there was a lot of griping about people being killed by green and sometimes gray mobs. (Back then, there were no Break Frees - if you were mezzed solo, you were hosed.)

Now, if all the mob factions did that, it'd be one thing, but since it was a total surprise that these new guys could do this, and they were popping out and wandering around open zones, it generated something of a backlash.

One thing I did like about those invasions were how they actually wandered around patrol style. It upped the annoyance factor given how dangerous they could be, but it had a nice "hi, we're scouting you out" feel to it.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind it as an invasion alternative, with some sort of trigger (perhaps completing some of the Shard TFs).

It was fun, and not just because I won the "bounty".

As a one-off IO in a Spines Regen, I would sell it.

The amount of +Regen it grants isn't that meaningful to you because you already have so much from your powerset. You don't have endurance problems, so you probably don't need that.

So my bet is that your best return is to sell it and spend the profits on IOs that give +recharge bonuses, like Doctored Wounds (Reconstruction, Dull Pain), Crushing Impact (single-target melee attacks), etc.

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Dull and uninteresting would be an inherent I had to stop scrapping and plan how to use for maximum advantage. Wild and scrapper-like is one that crushes my foes unpredictably, without requiring any thought on my part, during frenzied melee.

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Amen.

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That still bugs me that they gave the scrapper inherent to stalkers on TOP of their guaranteed critical from hide, and even made it so the stalker version works better.

That's like giving corruptors defiance on top of scourge, or vice versa with blasters.

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That's not really fair, because what we saw in practice was that Stalkers, with their general inability at AoE, their lower HP, and their dependency on Hidden status, they were an inferior AT compared to Scrappers. Giving them something that Scrappers had, plus things they already had, only managed to bring them up to something comparable to Scrappers. They were starting from a meaningful all-around performance deficit.

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(QR)
Scrappers do not need buffs.

[/ QUOTE ] I disagree, Scrappers are horrible on teams. They don't bring anything to a team at all.

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And, say, Stalkers do?

You can argue that no melee character brings "anything" (read: enough for your tastes) to a team. It will remain a subjective assertion.

There is no reason to "look at" the Scrapper inherent. It is unconditional and effective at benefiting what Scrappers do - deal damage.

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According to CoD's entry on the proc, it only works on other players.

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That absolutely sounds like a /bug candidate.

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I'm seeing that as well, but then you find a player like myself whose top 2 ATs are Brutes and Defenders.

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I fit that mold, and I find it rather easy to explain, at least from my perspective as someone who likes characters who can take on a lot solo. (I'm really looking forward to the new difficulty settings in I16 and hopeful there are no unannounced downsides.)

Despite the differences in the AT's playstyles, I lump Scrappers, Brutes and even (the lastest version of) Stalkers into on broad category of high-damage melee, and Defenders and Corrs into a category of high-survival, moderate ranged damage.

Both of those categories of characters can be built into different variations of what could be viewed as "tank mages". Sure, perhaps not in the truly classic sense, but with the right powerset and build choices, you can turn both into things that clearly exceed the game's old norms in terms of what it can take on and live. (Not a nerf herd - I love that about the game.)

Depending on how far up the IO scale you go, the two categories of character are efficient in different ways, and in my mind roughly represent flip sides of how to win a fight. Solo Brutes and Scrappers have pretty good survivability that's enough to keep them alive long enough for their high damage to win the day. Meanwhile, the right kinds of soloing Def or Corr can't defeat foes as fast in general, but can instead neuter their foes badly enough to win anyway.

For many players certain builds of Controllers would trump Defenders or Corrs in this category, but for me they don't because I prefer the Def/Corr playstyle to the Controller's control-centric and (sometimes) pet-centric play. Notably, my one Controller and my one Dominator are both Mind Control, one of the most "blasty" of the control sets, and one with no pets.

MA is not for everyone. Check the forums to see if the MA is right for you. If you develop sleep disorders, high blood pressure, thoughts of suicide, rapid weight gain, or sudden loss of vision, contact a technician immediately. Do not use the MA while operating heavy machinery. Only use the MA when you can get a full eight hours of sleep. Women who are pregnant should not use the MA, as there may be risks of specific birth defects.

If you experience a mission that lasts more than four hours, contact the author immediately.

Scrapper: 5
Corruptor: 5
Defender: 3
Brute: 3
Stalker: 2
Blaster: 2
Tanker: 1
Controller: 1
Dominator: 1
Warshade: 1
Night Widow: 1

No PB, Huntsman/Bane/Crab, or Mastermind.

Restricting the list to 50s:

Scrapper: 2
Corruptor: 2
Defender: 2
Brute: 1
Stalker: 1
Night Widow: 1

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I'll be honest, i dont know how you have "no problem" finding teams. When there's a handful of people in PI now or a few so many in Talos or FF as compared to the decent amount pre-AE.

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Get in global channels. As far as I know, ever server has some dedicated to people who play on their server, managed either by large SG networks or by general concept, like raiding. Even better, through teaming with folks in the larger channels, try to find smaller, more private or focused channels with people who share your interests in playstyle.

I don't know how anyone who's an old vet gets by looking for teams in broadcast or /search.

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The reason i'm saying our vets are leaving is because i just couldnt have imagined them enjoying this PLing forever idea; i guess i'm wrong though.

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The old vets aren't all PLing. They just aren't all experiencing the problem you are, because I'd venture that most of them have networks that nicely sidestep shifts in how people play. I'm an old vet, and I'm not farming the AE - I hardly touch the thing nowadays. I hang out in channels where I get multiple Task Forces in a night, and could team more casually if I wanted. When I'm not on TFs, I tend to prefer to solo though.