Yallander

I do apologize, but most players on this forum don't build for "thematic" reasons. Stealth cap for anything that isn't a stalker isn't that high and 1 perception power will make you perfectly visible. The perception idea is a good one, however katana isn't much of a burst damage powerset. In "most" PVP your opponent doesn't just stand still while you attack them, even with travel suppression.

With travel suppression your regen goes to 0, so no matter what your regen rate is while attacking or being attacked it is the same as someone who doesn't have any at all.

Advising what type of PVP you are building for will also help. If it is toe to toe vs hit and run makes a big difference.

MM pets did not get a damage boost with the i13 changes so I find /poison to be the better choice, especially if you plan on being agressive. Also if you go with Black Scorpion as your patron you can get webnades and powerboost. Powerboosted siphon life is a decent heal. Your pets also all have siphon life and I find zombies to have a fairly lower upkeep required. The first set of pets die often, but they recharge pretty quick.

Pain on the other hand is a great heal set and if you are playing with a team and feel more like being support then it can be alot of fun as well.

Agressor vs Supporter is pretty much what it comes down to in my book. Both are important, but it depends on what you care to play.

The problem isn't you trying to kill a MM with a SoA, it's that you cut alot of your tools out by not allowing travel powers.

All any MM has to do is just turtle up with his pets and share damage with them. Since he's dark he could just heal spam while his pets auto target you.

In order to beat a MM in general you have to either;

1. Seperate the MM from his pets
2. Get the MM to attack you first and then do enough burst damage to take him out in 4-6 seconds.

Going toe to toe fite club style with a MM of even mediocre experience like that isn't very smart to say the least unless you have alot of high damage aoes. If he has hasten then chances are picking off his pets isn't much of an option.

That is why it is important to have several characters to pvp, because you never know what the situation will require. Saying that every AT should be on par solo with every other AT is what got pvp in the current situation. PVP has in the past and should be IMHO built around the team aspect and not lone rangers.

My suggestion is if you can build enough defense to make him miss his heal you can take him down.

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how long would it take for noobs that play this game now to replace all ppl that got banned...:/

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Well if they have someone to help them learn and will listen then hopefully not too long. Was fun for the matches I could participate.

Wonder if Curious Observer is really going to give us some idea of what the devs want us to test or just rely on PVPers to provide it?

Did he actually spectate any of the matches or just sit in PD and chat?

Hey Bee,

Not sure if you are still reading this post, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and try to answer your issues to help you understand PVP in CoX and more specifically against a stalker. Note this is not a perfect source of dealing with stalkers, but should point you in the right direction.

Before I begin...PVP is in the state it is in not because of "certain players" as you put it in your post, but because many very good players left due to unwanted changes. If you cannot get your head around that and realize that asking for any further nerfs is a sensitive subject to those of us remaining then get ready for a tough time in CoX PVP and especially on the forums.

Back to the subject at hand. You are a BS/Shield Scrapper, which gives you access to a slew of powers that could help you perceive a stalker. I am not sure which pool powers you are running, but here are a few suggestions--stamina, leadership, speed (or leaping your preference) and stealth (stealth, invis, and phase.) There are other ways to escape than phase, but it still remains the most viable at this time.

For APPs I'd suggest either Body Mastery or Weapons Mastery. If you go with Body Mastery pick up FA the the extra perception along with tactics. If you go with Weapons pick up targeting drone and caltraps has it's usefulness against stalkers as well as it is autohit and knocks them out of hide.

Now to your complaints and a brief explanation:

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Dont get me wrong Im all for players being able to pick any power available to them, wether its on villains side or hero side.

/Rant on
My Rant is the auto Hide power. If I choose invisiblity then I should be hidden totally just like a Stalker. I honestly think its crap to constatly loose your target after target after target just because they Hide. Ive have soooo many villains down to the wire to where they start running for their lives to only loose them due to them Hiding.

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The core of a stalker is hide and AS, no matter how many other powers they have access to through their builds. Having the ability to hide like a stalker just makes you a stalker. You have to try and learn what makes scrappers viable in PVP and unfortunately that is not something I can help you with, but comes from practice.

Stalkers go back into hide after 8 seconds of not either being attacked or attacking. This is what appears to have happen with your above example and has nothing to do with hide vs invisibility.

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Well shouldn't I have the same option with Invisibilty?! If I chose to run for the sake of living and toggle off Stealth for Invisibility then it SHOULD make enemies loose target as well. This constant being able to target hero's just because they dont have hide is nonsense. It cheats players outta so many kills thats its borderline gamebreaking in the sense.

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To put it simply the answer is a resounding "No." In this line of thought it would be safe to say then that on my MMs I want stone armor because tanks have it and I'm suppose to be sorta like a villain tank. It takes the AT out of the role they were designed to play.

Also stealth plus a stealth IO or even with phase will cause you to disappear the same if you get in a jam.

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Talked to a Stalker today as a matter of fact. He told me Stalkers got Hide because they dont Crit.. If thats true then why is it every other post I see that Stalkers in fact DO crit.

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It's a bonus of attacking from hide, however unlike scrappers they only have a handful of powers that have a chance to crit out of hide. Sorry to tell you, but that stalker wasn't giving a complete answer. Also scrappers have more survivability because their secondaries are figured on a higher scale. /Shield however isn't one of the best secondaries for this, but is still useful. Some powers just work better in PVP than others and no matter what the devs do it will always be this way.

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Hide+Placate (sp?) make stalkers pretty much high end dmg dealers and shoves scrappers to the bottom of the barrel below Brutes because it makes targeting them next to freakin impossible. Hell Brutes can just stand there and take all the dmg they want from Hybernate while building up Fury.. Total nonsense.

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If you have never played a stalker, please understand it is not as easy as it seems. AS is interuptable and you have to be in range to activate it on a grounded somewhat stationary target (unless you have fly/hover.) Assault, tactics, and either FA or Targeting drone will help you see the stalker even placated and you can use your mouse to retarget them I find. Placate is a tool just like your parry. If used correctly it can help you win. If not it is useless.

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Its almost like PvP was made only for Villains because heroes hardly stand a chance against all the extra "tools" that Villains got over on them. Almost like Heroes are only allowed to get them to 1/4 hp so they can A: Hide B: Hybernate C: Phase Shift. Im sure there are more powers along those lines that do pretty much the same thing, I just dont currently know the names of them. These are the main ones I see 99% of the time though.

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Zone PVP is kinda like playing basetball down the street. The rules are loose and usually it's "no blood, no fool" from my experience until you get in with the players.

I pvp on freedom and virtue and I find lately that when one side has control there is little done to keep the fight going by switching sides. Usually one side will base camp in a huddle and wait for a target. If this happens and you aren't having fun then go do something else and wait for more heroes to show up.

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/Rant off

For PvP I feel that Powers that are considered UBER Powers or of that nature should be in fact disregarded from the PvP system. That would include Hide, Hybernate, Phase Shift, etc. Any power that makes you undetectable, unable to be touched, or unable to be hindered in anyway shape or form should be deleted or greyed out from PVP zones.

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Every power is a tool and understanding how to use those tools is key. Hibernate on any AT that cannot hide is a death sentence with travel suppression. Phased players can also be attacked by phased players and hide can be overcome by autohit powers (thus why caltraps is useful.)

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For some players Ive noticed if they didnt have these powers then they pretty much couldnt PvP and thats all that saves their butts from being killed. I believe if those UBER powers were greyed out then PVP would be MORE fun because of more kills for everyone + the fact that when you chase someone down for that final blow it MIGHT be possible to actually get that kill instead of them just disappearing from your sight totally.

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You are allowed your opinion, however understanding how to counter those powers is also a part of PVP. There are posts discussing this or if you ask you might just find the right person to answer you.

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I took Phase Shift on my PvP build because its the only chance I have at reletively even getting away from the Heavy dmg stalkers can do right off the bat + if your tryin to kill a brute with Hybernate then you have 4 villains just pop outta no where and try to eradicate you while you were trying to kill the brute. But then again Phase Shift CAN be gotten through and the player can still be killed. I feel the same should be made for Hybernate and Hide should be set up like Invisibility where players can still see you and your "auras" but has to be activiated for that assassins strike they love so much.

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As I mentioned in my above explanation hide can be overcome. Hibernate only lasts 30 secs and the player is stationary that is why the devs kept the "only affecting self" and did not allow them to be attacked. You may not know this, but when you are taking damage or attacking your regeneration rate drops off. How fair would it be for someone in hibernate to be stuck in place with no regeneration only gaining endurance? Every coin has two sides. Try to look at them both.

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But to each their own. Im sure some would agree with me on these points and Im sure some wont. Please lets hear some intelligent replies other than Flames? What do some of you do to get around these issues? Are there some of you who dont even take those powers just because they are such a hinderance and borderline gamebreaking?

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The powers you mentioned are not game breaking if you understand the mechanics. Being new to PVP and if I am correct your scrapper is your first PVP character, it is easy to see things from one point of view. Try and branch out and then you will understand the mechanics more. If you don't have time to branch out, then try to team and WATCH what other players do. Then ask them why they did such and such. You might just be suprised how much you can learn.

Any news on why arena is down on Virtue? Does it have to do with the lag that is affecting that server only or something or did they really just break arena complete?

I think what you tested was not the best indicator of PVP in this game. IMHO zone PVP is not the best place to start learning, however the game points players to zones first. Zones are a bit more chaotic and while you perceived the players there to be picking on you it could of been that you were the only player not on their team. WB to me is a stalker haven usually set to pray on alot of the soloist and nuke seekers that go there (at least on Virtue.) There use to be alot of dynamic PVP happening there, however with RV opening players can get full benefits of their builds and WB became the ignored middle child.

The best place I can suggest for any new player to Learn2pvp is take a few friends and head to arena. Also by asking someone in your VG or coalition that has some type of experience and asking them to show you the dynamics can help.

If someone feels they should start with zones then SC or RV would be the best places to begin because you can work with your side. Trying doing a /search or /whoall and asking to join a team. Let the team know you are new and that you are still trying to get the hang of it. PVPers are a bit of a cliq due to several reasons, however it's not impossible to get involved with a good group of people--just ask what are some good PVP VGs or well known PVPers on your server.

On a side note saying that PVPers deserve the effective "nerfs" that came with i13 is very narrow minded. The players that were run off are not the ganking, bad mouthers that you are still facing. They were generally the test arena folk that contributed heavily to promoting PVP and were alienated.

The cries about DR, movement suppression, mezz changes, and heal decay are because they were forced onto players even dispite requests that they would not be implemented. They were not in the best interest of new or current players because they create a seperate game that new players have to learn how to use their powers all over again. Mezzes all last 2-4 secs, resistances don't resist (unless you were gifted with universal resistances in which case you are now nearly capped with just a patron shield), attacking/being attacked causing you to all but stand still afterward even if you are trying to escape a gank squad.

So with that said:

To the OP I feel the pain of those who have experienced what you tested and would hope that PVPers would be more open to new players.

To the new PVPer, please don't allow the bad attitude of a few have you feel that the whole community is exactly the same. Make friends, ask questions, and realize that alot of the community is bitter to the recent changes that have made the learning curve even more steep.

I just think it would be nice to flip around the "You've been Naughty" and "You've been nice" for villains, I mean we aren't in this to be polite.

Name-Forces of Evil
Server- Virtue
Alignment-Villains of course! We're EVIL :P
Team size-Small to Medium
Recruitment-open to all players on virtue server
Contacts-@yallander
PVP Preferences-Raids, Arena, Zones...in that order

History-An open group of players who just have fun playing toghther and getting to know new members the best we can. We love the PVP!!! Base Raids are our favorite pvp type, so if you are on virtue and would like to raid/be raided look us up.