Alvan

Some random musings:

I have to add that against some enemies, Smoke Grenade is an excellent addition (2xACC) from Devices - even if it doesn't drop the ToHit like it used to, the -Perception will let a ranged character work a bit better.

AR/Dev combo's biggest problem is the lack of Aim/Build Up for increased burst damage (in PvP burst damage is the king) - while you can hinder a lot of people from using their Aid Self with the DoT attacks you have (Caltrops + Web Grenade + Ignite will keep quite many enemies from Aid Selfing), there are still many ATs out there that don't have to rely on that for self-healing. And every time they self-heal, you're one step away from victory.

Stalkers are the prime prey for you, corruptors and dominators if you're up for dangerous game hunting. Brutes might be a bit hard for you as you hit a brick wall at high levels of defense and a lot of your attacks are S/L which is easilly resisted. If you want to get masterminds, you have it easier than most others (Archery is better than you in this, sorry) - your "nuke" doesn't drain you of all your endurance, allowing you to keep on killing even after you've fired it at those pets in Bodyguard mode.

you should make one then. :P

First question that comes to mind with the Pom-Pomps...

How is your Invincibility slotted?

Didn't the yellows have that long range psi-style whirly head circle disorient? Or am I now confusing things?

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I am evil? o.O

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Actually, I have a goatee, so I guess I'm the evil version. *thinks about world domination*

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At higher levels you can pick up Invincibility which does give you innate (although dependant on number of nearby mobs) +DEF and can help stop the mezzes landing.

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The problem with Invincibility is that it's "+def(all except psi)", which means a group of Yellow Inks will still eat through it for breakfast as their mezzes are typed Psi damage.

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BTW, both of you are from Finland... funny, seems that the Finnish community is strong in all pvp worlds (I was playing Guild Wards in a Finnish-lead guild ).

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I'm worried Hammerfall might be some sort of an evil alternate version of me from Defiant, judging by these threads..

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I currently have self aid which heals 120 at lvl 23. The problem is that it does not activate very fast and is interruptible, so I am not sure how useful it would be in pvp.

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It is not the fastest power on earth, but... (there is always a but) - when you slot it with 2 Interrupt Reduction SOs, 1 Recharge and 3 Heals, it won't get interrupted that much and will heal a nice sum of damage. When you later get Power Boost, the amount it heals will double, which makes it very effective power.

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To the contrary, I am pretty convinced that stamina would help greatly because I always miss endurance, unless I am buffed.

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Stamina is pretty much a "Must Have" for a Blaster (and most other characters as well, but Blasters seem to need it the most), so yes, taking Stamina is a good idea.

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I am thus considering ditching stimulant and self aid (together with Ice Storm which I use seldom in pve and won't use in pvp), in order to take swift, health and stamina (health might even somehow compensate for the loss of self aid?).

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Health doesn't compensate for Aid Self, even with 3 slots of Heal in it, Health is no use in battle - it decreases the time between battles as you heal a bit faster, and provides some help against Sleep (you will still get slept, but won't be for as long as normally).

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What do you think of this?

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I would drop Aid Self (and take it again at later levels, maybe 28/30, so it's available at Siren's Call levels as you've geared towards PvP) and get Stamina. As you lose your self-heal, you will have to re-think your tactics a bit, but it's a live and learn.

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Also, I'm happy with super jump, but I use either super jump (outdoor) or combat jump (indoor), not both. Should I rather take super speed, coming with hasten which would be useful in all circumstances? How bad would it be to loose the verticality of super jump, from a pvp perspective?

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Loss of Vertical Movement is not bad, but you will lose Immobolization protection from Combat Jumping and the possibility of taking Acrobatics, which is a Knockback protection, which is quite essential in PvP.

Basically, you'll be wanting the following pool powers in the end (with number of enhancement slots there):
Hasten (3 slots), Swift (1 slot), Hurdle or Health (1 slot), Stamina (3 slots), Aid Other (1 slot), Aid Self (6 slots), Combat Jumping (1 slot), Super Jump (1 slot), Acrobatics (1 slot).

Couple that with Power Boost, Build Up and Aim which are pretty much must-have powers and some others, you have to give quite a lot of thought to what attacks you want to have and how you want to play with your character (ranged/melee/controller style) - It's a process where you'll eventually find the proper balance for your own playstyle.

Damn, my highest on your side is lv 9

Union or Defiant?

You can arrange Arena Fights on the spot - the problem is that no-one ever hangs around the arena, so no fights get organized. This is fixed with Issue 8 when they're adding Arena terminals to Pocket D, which should make ex-tempore Arena Fights more frequent.

Everyone has their achille's heel, with (at least Inv) tanks one of them is enemies that appear in groups and use psi type attacks with a mez in them (Carnivale of Shadows Illusionists are another enemy like this, 2 or 3 of them in a group will push through your Hold resistance with ease).

Can't really give you any other tip than to be careful and work with other members of your team in bringing them down - pull to corners, letting others kill them on their way and that sort of thing. When solo, bring Break Frees, Heals and Lucks. The good thing about them is that they're minions, so they're easy to kill.

True, but who isn't counting on dying a lot? *looks around*

... oh, that was just me.

/ finding the recharge in RotP too slow.

Some additional reasoning for Wyx's advice, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

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I also think any blaster will struggle without some form of knockback protection at higher level, personally I can't stand to play them without. Either Hover (which is second rate, and painfully slow now) or by preference the leaping pool.

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Even if my /Ice blaster has Hover for KB protection, I won't suggest it to any /Ice. At least ones who aren't taking it for concept reasons or are totally running out of powers to pick. You can't use Ice Patch unless you're on the ground, which means you need to turn of Hover every time you do it, nullifying your KB prot in the process.

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I personally don't rate Frozen Aura at all (I know there are people who disagree with me on this one ) ... I'd be looking at ditching that, and possibly the speed pool, in favour of the leaping pool.

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I could see Frozen Aura being useful on a Single Target blaster, but Fire primary is not for that, so the synergy just isn't there. I would skip it. As well as...

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I also don't rate Bonfire for a fire blaster, particularly when you have a good knockdown in the secondary. Bonfire will throw them all over the place and out of your AOEs.

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Also, as you'll be toe to toe a lot (because we all love Ice Patch), you really want that +res from the APP shield.

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Rise of the Pheonix, yes, it's useful on occasion, but I don't recomment slotting it at the expense of anything that will help keep you alive, such as well slotted attacks.

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RotP is nice with just 3 recharges, you'll have it up more times than you're down. If you have a healer on team, you don't need the heals; if you don't, you can run away with the 10 seconds of invincibility it grants.

Noir's team was great fun as well even if we did lose one member at some point.

I'm up for a re-run as well at some point if someone still needs the badges. @Alvan.

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ToHits, quite frankly, are needed only in PvP in my opinion.

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/ QFT

Agreeing there. You might want to impress your scrapper friends by bringing down the MoGed PP every once in a blue moon, but that's all you'll gain in PvE from adding ToHit slots.

I was sort of secretly hoping for an All-Empath TF run.

...

would have been interesting.

Signing up with Jack Crowle, level 41 Grav/Rad/Fire Controller.

Here is the Dev post about Enhancement Diversification.

It's a bit technical, but helps understanding the "why".

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Is it worth having more than 3 Damage SO's on one power?

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No.

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i currently have Ball Lightning with 6 slots (all Damage SO's) but im wondering would it be better with 3 different SO's?

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Yes.

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if so can anyone suggest which ones?

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1 accuracy, 1 endurance reduction, 1 recharge, 3 damage


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same with stamina - worth giving Stamina 6 END SO's? or keep 3 slots for something else?

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No use in putting 6 slots to stamina. Just have 3 slots there and use the spares in another power.

Just 3-slot all three with Recharges, you'll be using Power Boost to boost the secondary effects of your stuns anyways, so that's not slots wasted.

Use Power Boost before Aim and Build Up (or you won't get the boost to their tohit) and go wild.

Basically you'll have "problems" only against people who have slotted their Moment of Glory or Personal Force Field with defense enhancements (with 2 accuracies in a standard attack power, you'll be hitting 75% of the time vs. 3-slotted MoG, 95% of the time vs. 2 or worse slotted)

If I had to choose I'd go with both Frost Breath and Ice Storm over having just one of them and Shiver. Ice Storm works well with Blizzard in a couple of levels and Frost Breath is your only actual attack (not counting Blizzard and Ice Storm, first one is a nuke, second one isn't an attack) that can hit multiple enemies.

That said, I agree with Wyx - it is really not worth the endurance unless you hit two or more enemies and you should try it on Test Server.

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In the powers, Aim and Build Up, I want 3 slots of recharge for maximum use but how many should I devote to the ToHit buffs?

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Depends on your secondary and what you want to hit? Aim is +37.5% ToHit, Build Up is +15%, that totals to +52.5%, which is more than enough against pretty much anything (you might still miss against stuff like a MoGed Paragon Protector) if you're not doing PvP.

If you're going for PvP, 1 or 2 slots in Aim might be worth it, depending what you want to go against. Also if you're /Energy and low on slots, get Power Boost, it pretty much doubles the +ToHits.

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Also, what powers are good defence against holds, immobs, sleeps etc? Obviously BF's! but what else?

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Combat Jumping is good against Immobs, Acrobatics is good against Knockback and -down. Aid Self offers some help against Disorient (reducing the time it affects you), Health does the same for sleep. Tactics reduces Confuse and Fear durations against you, Assault does the same for Taunt and Placate.

Good places to start on the Squiddy lore are:

WARNING - LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS

Moonfire Task Force
Sunstorm's Story Arcs
Shadowstar's story Arcs

(they actually answer most of the stuff talked about here, and beyond that, it's pretty much speculation, apart from the fact they're energy beings that bind to other creatures and can assume shapes of beings they've previously bound themselves with)

Coldest War (blaster with 3 holds) will be there to swear and curse at all the noobs who can't understand simple orders and don't have the patience to wait around for a couple of hours doing nothing.

[color= red]Tip for the first-timers:[/color] Bring something to read or do while raiding. A good book, pile of Sudoku or that half-finished sock you were knitting is a good start.

Thanks for the comments, will definitely toy around with these ideas later.

One ToHit -> EndRed might not be a bad idea with Aim, good point. Also moving slots to Ice Bolt and Blast will be taken into a test server build once I get a respec to try them out.

The reason for ToHit overkilling is based on the PvP role of taking down people with high Defense values. Enemies with Personal Force Fields, Eludes and other high-end boosts to Defense. Also as a single hit from a Mez or firing of Blizzard brings my toggles down, I can't be relying on them for being on always when fighting, thus the Accuracy Enhancements in all attacks. When detoggled, I'm still running on a good 88% total hit probability on PvP zones (vs. even level foes), 95% in PvE.

(Disclaimer: Following numbers are approximates that are based on calculations that ignore the degrading effect of ED on the third enhancement on a power) With TD running, both (PvE and PvP) are roofed against moderate (15%) levels of defense. With Aim and TD, I have a shot against someone with PFF or MoG, depending on their slotting. (Around 90% hit probability vs. unslotted Defender PFF, some 15% vs. fully slotted Defender PFF)

Works as others have said - basically.

Usually it takes 1 Tactics to see through Hide, 2 to see Through Hide+Stealth, more vs. Hide + Invis.

Exactly how well Tactics boosts Perception depends on your archtype and level. For example, a Defender Tactics is almost twice as effective as Blaster tactics. At level 50, with a single Defender running Tactics, you can technically see a Stealth+Hidden character at around 45 feet.

At lower levels, Tactics is even worse for +Perception as the efficiency scales by level. Other +Perception powers have a steady boost. As do all Stealth powers.

(edit: small detail change)