Arbegla

Yeah, he shouldn't aggro until you get to him, and he should stop summoning clones once you die. Only time i've done him after the patch is on my Archery/EM blaster, and frankly it was a minor speed bump. I lead with BU-Aim-RoA->blazing arrow then killed the clone he summoned, and finished poor trapdoor off before he could get another clone summoned, and before BU and Aim were back up.

Don't forget travel suppression making Kins pretty much useless *as IR and SB helped the fast paced PvP* As well as redoing ALL attacks so that FLURRY was the hardest hitting attack in PvP period (no really, look it up, it even tops Total Focus on a blaster)

Talk about screwing up the ATs.

Now, he did do some good for PvE, Energize being changed, as well as the stalker changes (hide going back into effect after 8 seconds, AS not triggering aggro if it misses, etc) and the Dominator changes are all pretty good. (granted, it pissed up those who could double stack domination, but over all gave a MASSIVE buff to dominators) Can't forget the defiance 2.0 changes to blaster either, all pretty much spearheaded by Castle.

Quoted for Truth. Comparing Tankers to Scrappers is just awful. heck, even comparing brutes to scrappers can be off balancing. Tankers are in their own class, and until scrappers OR brutes get the base numbers a tanker does, neither of the 3 ATs should be complaining about any damage differences.

Plus didn't they add the shaky screen thing to SS to make it feel more powerful awhile ago? And didn't they redo Rage so that tankers could actually be more useful during the crash? So it didn't trigger a Only Affecting Self status affect, and tankers could still hold aggro?

Poison trap from /traps does the same thing to poor statesmen, and its actually permable.

I know, which is why i didn't add it in the other numbers (the how much -def debuff can each build take) i just mentioned it cuz i do have it slotted, and am praying it gets fixed sometimes soon.

Actually Air Superiority and Punch do the exact same amount of damage. So even with full fury and rage, they will still do the same damage. the differences lie in the endurance, cast times, secondary effects and recharge values of the powers.

Air superiority costs 6.5 endurance, recharges in 4 seconds, takes 1.716 seconds to animate, has -fly, and a 100% chance for Knock up, and has no taunt component added

Punch costs 5.2 endurance, recharges in 4 seconds, takes 1.452 seconds to animate, and has a 30% chance for knock up and has a taunt component.

So Punch costs slightly less endurance, and animates just a hair faster, for the same damage.

I will agree that a bad trapper is probably the worst kind of 'bad' debuff set you could possibly have, but a good (and i mean really good) trapper is the kind that can get around the weakness of the set. For example, there is little reason to summon seeker drones next to you and then rush into a group, when you can just summon the drones inside the group, let them soak the alpha, and then explode in a debuff. If your drones lead the fray, then noone gets hit by the alpha, and the enemys are either hit with a -damage/-tohit debuff, blinded, or stunned (or sometimes all three)

Do you play on liberty? If you don't maybe I can run a mish or two with you over test, and show you how my actually play /traps. I don't mean to sound elitist, but I play traps a lot differently then how most people are used to them being played, and I've gotten quite a few people to change their minds about how traps performs.

But enough derailment, if you want to set something up, send me a PM and we'll talk more in private

Your argument is that inf is losing its value, as 2 million inf, used to mean something, and now it really doesn't.

Thing is, we get that part. What your not getting is that 2 million inf still remains the same value as before, as the content hasn't gotten harder, and SOs are still very viable pieces of enhancements, and 2 million inf can pretty much net you an entire stock of SOs.

Now, when talking about IOs, those are much more affected by inflation, and things like higher level 50 earnings, the difficulty slider, and other things have all raised the prices due to inflation. In order to combat inflation completely you have to 1) gets rid of extra inf, and 2) get rid of lazy people.

now #1 is being worked on pretty hardcore by the Crazy 88s. They burn more inf in a week times then I've ever earned in my entire 4 and a half years of game play.

the problem is #2. you can't fight lazy, just like you can't fix stupid. Lazy people want things RIGHT NOW and in order to do that, they are willing to pay insane prices (like 1 million for an alchemical silver) Now, the 'you can't fix stupid' part kicks in, and you have 3 - 4 other people not realizing alchemical silvers can easily be purchased for less then 1 million, and they start bidding the same thing. Granted, this cycle usually only lasts a few transactions and then its back to normal, market sustainable prices.

Until you can manage to complete both problem 1 and problem 2 inf for IOs will always have less value then inf spent on SOs.

And here is my build

Your has:

41.9% lethal/smash def(+7.5% def from Protector bot force shield)
36.9% energy/neg def(+7.5% def from protector bot force shield)
28.5% psi def
39.7% fire/cold def(+7.5% def from protector bot force shield)
46.9% melee def(+7.5% def from protector bot force shield)
45.3% range/AoE def(+7.5% def from protector bot force shield)
17% lethal/smash resistance
1.9% neg resistance
2.72 EPS recovery (1.537EPS after toggles)
213% regen (9.012HP/sec) without triage beacon
502% regen (21.21HP/sec) with triage beacon (perma)
790% regen (33.408HP/sec) with double stack triage beacon (25% of the time)
42.5% global recharge (112.5% global recharge with hasten)
+11.8% tohit from tactics

Your bots have 15.05% def from the FFG, 4.047% def from maneuvers and 15% def from the protector bots, giving a final def value of 34.097% defense, except for your protector bots, which only have 26.597% defense.

Your seeker drones do 5% -tohit each, and with hasten up, you have a 4.24second window of double stacked (without hasten, the drones are not even perma)
Your protector bots seeker drones do 5% -tohit each, and are only up about half the time, due to pets not being affected by recharge of any sort

Your acid mortar does 31.62% -def, -20% resistance, and with hasten up, you have enough recharge to have 2 acid mortars out (between 80% uptime, and 25% uptime depending on hasten cycles) giving a total debuff value of 63.24% -def, and -40% resistance

Your poison trap, with hasten up, is not quite permanent (the -1000% regen debuff only lasts 30 seconds, and your recharge is 29.76, but the cast time is 2.904 meaning there is a lapse of about 2.664 seconds where the debuff drops, and without hasten the downtime is increased to about 10 seconds).


Now, in my build i have
30% lethal/smash/energy/neg def (+12.21% def from protector bots force shield)
27.5% fire/cold/psi def (fire/cold is increased by 12.21% def from protector bots force shield)
28.7% melee/range def (+12.21%def from protector bot force shield)
27.5% AoE def (+12.21%def from protector bot force shield)
46.2% lethal/smashing/energy resistance
4.9% neg resistance
10.6% fire/cold resistance
4.6% toxic/psi resistance
3.63EPS recovery(2.205EPS after toggles)
247% regen(11.23HP/second) Without triage beacon
544% regen(24.68HP/second) with 1 triage beacon(perma)
840% regen(38.13HP/second) with double stacked triage beacon (33% of the time)
87.5% Global recharge (157.5% global recharge with hasten)
+9.682% tohit from tactics

My bots get 15.42% def from the FFG, 3.462 def from maneuvers, 5% def from the Edict of the master +def aura, and 24.42% def from the protector bot force shield, giving a final def value of 48.302% defense, except for my protector bots, which only have 36.092% defense.

My seeker drones do 6.434% -tohit each for 40 seconds, with a 33% chance to do another -7.5% tohit for 10 seconds, and without hasten active, i have a 4.076 seconds of double stacking, hasten brings that time to 11.066 seconds.
My protector bots seeker drones do 7.8% -tohit (5% base * 56% enhancement value gives 7.8%) and are only up about half the time, due to pets being unaffected by recharge of any sort.

My acid mortar does 29.39% -def, -20% resistance, with a 20% chance for an additional -20% resistance (unstackable, but lasts 10 seconds per mortar, so its easily perma) and without hasten i have enough recharge to have 2 acid mortars out about 85% of the time, hasten allows me to have 3 acid mortars out, for about 1 second, which means my total debuff value is 88.17% -def, and -80% resistance (-60% from the 3 mortars, -20% from the proc)

My poison trap, with hasten is made permanent and even double stacked for 1.1 seconds, without hasten my downtime is only 5.34 seconds.

Now, the above is not factoring in the alpha slot, for either build, but I'm pretty sure having just shy of the softcap, (aside from psi def, my lowest def value is 39.71%, with my highest being 42.21%) is more then made up for with higher recovery rates, higher regeneration rates, higher -tohit values (and the ability to perma, and double stack said -tohit values) and higher resistance values to common damage types (lethal/smash/energy are the top 3 most common damage types in the game)

My bots are also softcapped to everything but psi damage, while you bots fall quite short of it. So when they are targeted, which can, and will happen even when spamming provoke as often as possible, your bots are much easier to take out then mine are.

While your build sports more overall defense, which allows you to toss off -def values a little easier then mine (you can be debuffed by about 17.5% -def before you lose your softcap, taking into account your -tohit values, while i can only take about -7.5% -def also considering my -tohit values before losing my softcap) once those attacks actually break your softcap, you are more likely to fall much quicker then my build is.

This is also not accounting for the Panacea +hit/end proc i have slotted, which is basically added regeneration and recovery, nor is it accounting for the fact both our builds sport a +end proc.

Remember, its not a matter of IF you get hit, its a matter of WHEN, and what you do to mitigate that damage once it does hit you.

Have we told you lately how awesome you guys are? Cuz we really need to say it more often


*edit* Could you add a toggle option on Hail of bullets? Its not really needed, but as HoB does add a 'defense' bonus during its animation time, it might be useful to know exactly what your defense looks like when HoB is active.

*edit edit* And a toggle option on Protector bots (for the force shield they offer) The toggle button is there, but to my knowledge it doesn't affect affect anything, so maybe just having it add the defense value of 1 force shield..

Actually, we're more like heroes vs villain vs rogue vs vigilante vs NPC vs other NPCs etc.

It actually makes sense for some zones to be co-op in nature, but have an overall 'villain' or 'hero' feel to them.

Take boomtown for example. The heroic thing would be to try to build it back up to the glory it was before, OR stop the villains from taking over the area.

The villain thing would be to either build it back up to the glory it was before, so you can rule it, OR stop the construction of the remodel, just cuz your evil.

With going rogue, everything is a shade of gray now. Its not just Blue vs Red anymore.

The funny thing about increased prices is it benefits BOTH the rich AND the poor! It actually benefits any SELLER of items. Say, your a newbie, and you beat up this level 13 outcast boss, and he drops a steadfast def/res recipe. So you go hmm.. this is only a yellow recipe, maybe i should check the market before just deleting it. And you check said market, and see that its selling for upwards of 10 million. Then just for giggles you check the crafted enhancement, and see that the price is now over 20 million. So you just made a clean 10 - 20 million by playing the game like normal.

Now, in your example, that same player gets that same drop, at the same level, and the prices are not 20 to 40 million. Who does that benefit? The newbie who got the drop? or the people BUYING the items at those increase prices?

On a defender:

/rad gets all its available debuffs/buffs by level 12 (26 if you count fallout, which noone seems to do..)

/dark gets all its available debuffs/buffs by level 8 (32 if you count dark servant, which as he has some pretty decent debuffs himself, you might wanna count)

/traps get all its available debuffs by level 18, as the other powers are offensive (trip mines, and time bomb)


So.. to answer your question, level 18? but they don't have to rely on other powers to do the things for them, like /rad and fallout, or /dark and fearsome stare, petrifying gaze, or dark servant. Throw seeker drones into a group, and you've not just taken out the alpha, but then debuffed the damage, and tohit values (and maybe even stunned) a good portion of said group. While they are focusing on the seeker drones (AI is so dumb sometimes) you can drop a acid mortar, or poison trap.

Poison trap could hold mobs around it, giving you even more time to drop an acid mortar, all the while protected from FFG (which gives mez protection, so that /rad, or /dark can actually USE thier debuffs without being mez'ed) and throwing out a triage beacon to cover people up. Its not quite as good as green numbers (like /rad or /dark can do with their heals) but if used correctly it can keep people from dieing.

I've seen an all blaster ITF that went really well, granted, it was an all Archery/EM blaster ITF, and that many Aim->BU->Rain of Arrows is enough to make just about anything melt.

*in a loud voice that is quickly ignored*

"And traps!!!"


Thing is, /traps can, in theory put out more -resisance, more -def, and much more -regen then rad and dark. It can also put out even amounts of -tohit (if you cound the +def as a -tohit value as they affect the same equation in the same way)

Yeah, the set up time is a bummer, and theres a ramp up time (takes about a minute for 2 acid mortars, which will match what a /rad or /dark can do with 1 or two powers, but after 2 minutes, assuming you have the recharge, 3 acid mortars are more powerful then the /rad or /dark debuffs that do the same thing) but the -regen is enough to make things just stop regenerating at all, even with the AVs resistance AND the purple patch (-1000% regen is awesome like that, especially when it stacks with other poison traps)