Zem

...while wearing a Knives costume. Trick or Treat, ladies!

The ones that don't come with built-in endurance recovery powers?

The poster you're replying to is that other 1%.

Katana's Divine Avalanche grants melee/lethal defense but NOT smashing defense. I assume that's where he's getting soft-capped to m/l without s, as strange as that is to see in this context.

Whatever you're missing is still going to have to get past your resists, regen, and considerable hit points... so probably not.

Dark Miasma is a pretty inoffensive (VFX-wise) set, assuming you skip Black Hole (and really, almost everyone does). Yes, it has one anchor, but as others have said, don't sweat it when your anchor is killed. If you put it on a boss and the boss is quickly killed then good. It was probably one of the few things in the spawn anyone needed to be debuffed with that anchor anyway.

If you're on a fast moving team and the anchor seems like a waste of time, you still have Fearsome Stare as a click tohit and fear debuff. Fluffy can be summoned right into the middle of a spawn to take an alpha or just to debuff everyone around itself merely by standing there.

When things go bad you can drop all your stuff on a spawn, Darkest Night, Fearsome Stare, Fluffy, Tar Patch, and then Howling Twilight to mass ressurect fallen teammates and turn the battle 180 degrees around in your favor. Everybody's back in fighting shape and the enemy is debuffed into next week by all that.

Worried the team will aggro a second spawn while fighting? If anyone is getting close, go stand next to them with Shadow Fall and they're good unless they run right into that other spawn. Big AoE heal... and the real kicker: Every single power in the set is useful solo or teamed. What's not to like?

You don't know that. Like I said, if this is considered a bug then they will fix it. The likelihood it IS a bug is high because every other melee range AoE in the game accepts PBAoE sets, including the only other one which is ALSO implemented as a TAoE, Thunder Strike.

Powers accept IOs according to how they are used, not how they are implemented. Rain of Fire doesn't accept Pet Enhancement sets even though it actually IS a pet summoning power. That's an implementation detail. It functions AS a targeted ranged AoE so it accepts TAoE sets. Spinning Strike is a "Point-Blank" range AoE. Thus it should accept PBAoE sets like every other melee AoE which is used at Point-Blank range and is not meant to be range-extendable.

That's not really the point. People are concerned that it has the correct set because no one wants to deal with it being changed at a later date, nor do they want sets that offer unusable range enhancement. I think that's a pretty reasonable concern.

It's an advantage until some dev happens along and says, "Oops... Spinning Strike should be taking PBAoE sets like every other melee range AoE. Let's just fix that now!" At which point you better be really happy with that build because if you want to keep the purple set you can't ever respec again.

Which is why, while I may have a preference, I actually care less about which way they decide this one as long as they DECIDE and remove the lingering doubt that this was a mistake that will one day be "fixed".

So rednames, if you're listening, would you kindly drop by and favor us with a "WAI" or something? Thx.

What mission is this? Because it's not the hero morality mission I am talking about. In the one I am talking about you free a police officer. The first ambush is Silent Blade. You defeat her and talk to her, then your doppelganger ambushes you. Since posting last time in this thread, I've run this mission again and stood my ground right there next to Silent Blade with my NB/Nin Stalker in Hide. My doppelganger runs right up, hits build up, and then... nothing. Just stands there until I attack.

I know of no game mechanic that can describe what you're seeing there, but I'd love to try it myself. I'm curious what's going on there in whatever mission it is you're talking about.

In the part of my post you didn't quote, I said "7ft" PBAoE. Considering this is smaller than any of those you listed AND it's in a set that has combo-point damage add-ons, no, I do NOT want a Spinning Strike that does as little damage as those others. Never said I did.

I'd like to think that after five years, I know my way around melee AoEs, thanks. I'm not having "problems" hitting things with SS. That's not my point. I am probably doing as well with it as can be done. The point is I think I could do still better with a PBAoE in most typical situations. Heck, even if it had the SAME radius. What I mean is, I notice when I have 3 combo points up, SS recharged, and the enemies are NOT conveniently pre-herded in front of me three levels deep for my TAoE pleasure, which is frankly most of the time.

But you know, I do sometimes get stuck on PuGs with the "wait for my ready signal" type of tanker so I guess I can look forward to those times. SS's tiny TAoE will actually ROCK then!

The latter. Easily. Why? Because outside of the forum theory-crafting going on in this thread it would actually amount to MORE damage. You talk about relative areas as though you'd actually run into that perfect three-deep, three-wide group of enemies (with no room to stand in the middle) every time Spinning Strike is ready to use. And you'd have to, because any time you don't, this whole thing about taking up space in the area of effect is totally irrelevant. It only matters if the space you would take up is already occupied by an enemy.

If I could have it my way, I'd make SS a 7ft radius PBAoE with slightly less damage. I am absolutely confident this would result in MORE damage contribution from the power simply because I could use it in more situations to hit more targets.

Maybe if you subscribe to the "Wait here while I herd!" school of tanking, you're geeked about this thing being a TAoE now. I can't think of another reason other than to be different merely for the sake of being different (rather than being better).

You're right. It's only 50% more area.

Yeah that's how most of them work and how I figure they're supposed to work. They don't want you able to stealth walk a hostage out past enemies. But an ally has to follow you INTO combat, and a Stalker goes into combat stealthed. This is a new issue with just a few NPCs it seems. Others, even in that same arc, don't seem to have this problem.

I am guessing it is just an oversight.

The extra end reducers in your armors are wasted. Here's how it looks with Charged Armor, Conductive Shield, and Static Shield:

2 SO EndRdx = 0.44 end/s total for the 3 toggles.
1 SO EndRdx = 0.56 end/s
0 SO EndRdx = 0.73 end/s

So slotting just 1 each saves you just 0.17 end/s. Two saves you a further 0.12 end/s. To put that in perspective, if you just spammed Initial Strike as often as you could and had it slotted with 1 SO EndRdx, no recharge (other than Lightning Reflexes) it would consume 3.28 end roughly every 3.6 seconds, or 0.91 end/s, more than all three of your toggles put together even if they had no end reducers in them. With two EndRdx in Initial Strike that becomes around 0.73 end/s, saving you another 0.18 end/s. In other words, a second EndRdx in your cheapest attack saves you as much endurance as putting one into each of your 3 toggles.

So it would seem to make more sense to spend those slots on endrdx in your attacks. However, Gavin's got a good point. Monitor "Last hit chance" in your combat monitor window and make sure you're hitting 95% most of the time. If not, add an acc. I'm tempted to say max your damage slotting next, but while it is true that will mean fewer attacks to defeat, it's also true you've got a whole map full of enemies, so unless you want to spend a lot of time waiting between spawns you want to get your burn rate down to a sustainable level. Slotting endrdx instead of damage will do that but it will extend each fight. So long as it does not extend the fight to the point where you're taking enough damage to get killed, that's okay. So play with the balance between damage and endurance in attacks until it works.

I would say don't even bother with any endrdx in your toggles. Slot for resistance first. You will get much more end/s out of putting endrdx in attacks than in most any toggle.

Depends how you play a Stalker. Those who regularly donate to the church of "AoE is Everything!!!11" tend not to believe in Assassin Strike and are therefore upset that AS is a combo builder and that Stalkers don't get the hybrid BU/Combo Builder that the other ATs get.

I kind of like it. Generally, there is a nice meaty target in any given spawn that is well worth Assassin Striking so you get a full Build Up (well, the 80% that Stalkers get at any rate), Demoralize AoE debuff, take a nice chunk out of that boss, get 2 combo points, and can either let loose that Spinning Strike right away or make a quick Initial Strike / Heavy Blow / Shin Breaker on the same boss and THEN drop SS at combo level 3.

I'm not there yet. My StJ Stalker is only 11. Looking forward to it though. Seems to be a decently hard-hitting set even if the criticals are not boosted by combo level. Still wish they were though, since Stalkers depend on them more than Scrappers.

I can see doing this when DOWN-grading drivers. I still wonder why this is ever necessary when UP-grading a driver from the same company that wrote the previous drivers. Is the answer simply that they suck or are careless at writing the install/uninstall programs?

A location ambush shouldn't find you regardless of line-of-sight. If it's not aggro on you and can't see you it won't attack. Either the doppelganger has enough perception to see me or it doesn't. If it doesn't, then I should be able to stand right where I am and let it run right up to me. It shouldn't attack.

I'm not exactly sure how doppelgangers work, but if it counts as an NPC for base perception, that's only 50ft (54 if it's a boss). Danger Sense would only add 60%, which is not enough to see through Hide's 150ft stealth radius at any range.