Arbiter_Shade
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Posts
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Joined
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There are many problems with releasing unresistable damage because they had a similar issue with Blasters in PvP back before they ruined it. Blasters had a portion of their damage as unresistable in PvP and it was REALLY unbalancing; Now in PvE that wouldn't be so much an issue because NPCs can't complain when something is OP but if you think about it AV's have such high resistances ontop of a large health bar. When I was looking at Marauder last night my AS was doing in the realm of 120~ and unresistable damage would add another zero to that....that is a a HUGE difference and would make Stalkers almost mandatory for any AV encounter because they would make it almost trivial. Though I guess the balance would be that the AV would then turn around and womp the Stalker that just did so much damage to it...
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Quote:If you find anything send them my way too...Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
I'm resurrecting this thread. I'm still in dire need of an active, non-clique non-strict non-godmode non-broody-teen-vigilante RPVG for my main, and similar RPSG's/VG's for my other toons. Read the OP and help a guy out?
I am in the same place you described EXACTLY and it has been over a year since the last group I was part of imploded on itself.
Frankly though I have pretty much given up on finding RP on the unofficial RP server, no one cares to even initiate conversation outside of their groups of friends anymore so I just stick to playing OOC and working on my incarnates... -
I really like idea one and three on that list. I mean rework some of three and I think it would work really well to make Stalkers more unique and better as an AT. Unresistable damage may be a BIT much but I would like to see a portion of critical damage as unresistable even if it is as small as 5% because that would do WONDERS for making Stalkers more desirable on larger teams. Upping Stalker Hp would be the low hanging fruit in my opinion...it would be nice but wouldn't really change anything about how Stalkers work.
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The three big things I would do are:
1. Actually give a damn about PvP and listen to the PvP community when they say the global changes you are pushing through are a terrible idea.
2. Make CoV more faction based where you character basically chooses a villain faction and goes through content based on the faction they chose. Also have costume bits tied to each faction such as Freakshow claws and armor being tired to Freakshow aligned characters while still allowing a character to switch between factions so that completionist can get all the pieces. Have each faction have its own contacts while still having mercenary based contacts that will higher any faction. I think this would give villains a more interesting play style and a bit more interest.
3. Rework all ATs so that the powersets they use are unique to them. I mean this in a way that a Stalker wont get a shoehorned version of a Scrapper powerset. They may both have say, Electric Melee, but the sets are designed independently with the AT in mind. They can share powers but it wont be a carbon copy so that Stalkers, who have a completely different play style get the short end of the stick. -
TL;DR version:
There will be Praetorian invasions similar to the Rikti ones we already have and ignore. Maybe something spiffy like AVs thrown into the mix that get nicely stomped flat by the amount of heroes in the zone. Probably no meaningful rewards. Maybe some shinny new badges.
In shorter words, "Meh." -
Quote:Okay so I never looked at the numbers for the Pyre Mastery Pool and I have to say what I see is disgusting...Fireball deals more than my Lightning Rod? What the hell is up with that?! But I can definitely see how that particular pool can greatly increase the damage of a Stalker...Originally Posted by blueruckus
Grab Fireball from epic pools. Auto-crit from hide. AS rarely gets any play anymore.
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Hear me out, has anyone considered how useful assassin strike really is in the new end game content? Or even in level 50 trials? I have begun to wonder if it is really worth keeping it in spec when running these because all it really does is slow down your DPS. I have found myself trying to cycle placate-AS often but I feel like I should just use another stronger attack. I also feel like it would help my DPS more to have another attack in my chain and slot it up with damage procs...
So am I crazy or has anyone else been feeling this way lately? -
Quote:The way I look at it is in direct comparison to the other DPS classes in the game. So comparing Stalker damage to Blasters, Brutes, Scrappers, and hell lets even throw in VEATs and HEATs you can see that Stalkers are on the low side of damage. They deal more than HEATs generally but the rest do more damage than Stalkers and often times they deal a great deal more.Originally Posted by Leo_G
Either you guys are intentionally low-balling your descriptions to compensate for anyone getting their hopes up, or your definition for 'low damage' is extremely faulty.
Stalker's base damage is only a fraction below that of Scrappers and yet Stalkers get the ability to control their critical hits and downright more critical hits total. I won't say it's a fair trade but it's far from being 'low damage' unless you're considering Scrappers 'medium damage' or intentionally skewing your opinions by AoE damage output on ST sets. Even for AoE, Stalkers aren't bad if you pick the right sets. Actually, they're pretty decent to great with the proper build.
This is where the perception that Stalkers are underpowered comes in. While soloing it doesn't matter how powerful you are because you will very likely never come up against something you can't beat with any AT. But look at the new raids, playing a Stalker really sucks because you deal so much less damage than the other damage ATs and with the way the reward tables are weighted you "contribute" less and get less rewards. I have never seen higher than an uncommon on my Stalker and even an uncommon is rare. While I am on my Dom it is rare for me to get anything less than the rare table.
My three 50 Stalkers are an EM/Regen, Spines/Regen, and an Elec/Nin, the Elec/Nin being my new main for the time being, and first off Regen is terrible on an AT with such low HP to begin with, just getting that out of the way first. EM/ does a decent amount of damage but it just lacks the "Oomph" I get off of my EM/ElecA Brute. Spines is nice but even you admit that it is very slow and results in a lot of necro-blasting on larger teams. Elec/Nin is a lot of fun but it doesn't deal a whole lot of damage when compared to other ATs just looking at Lightning Rod as an example for AoE damage a base Stalker with 3 damage IO's does 353 while a Scrapper does 398, that doesn't seem bad right? Well then take into account the damage cap and buffs and it gets wildly different. Just with build up alone the difference become 498 to 598 and it all goes downhill from there.
But my belief is that the AT as a whole needs MINOR damage buffs and maybe higher base resist/defense to make them more "elusive" but the key flaw to Stalkers is that they were given sets that were designed for Scrappers and expect to excel with them? This is why I believe that Ninjitsu is the best secondary for Stakers because it was DESIGNED for them. -
Why does the concept of, I don't know say, PvPing ever come into the equation?
Ohh that's right, it is because the system is terribly broken and the Devs have already done all they can to chase away the PvPers that were here by telling them their input doesn't matter. So we are stuck with a broken system with broken rewards that no one has any interest in participating in. -
As said earlier what you can expect of Stalkers is low to mid range damage depending on your primary damage type, low health, and mid range defense. All this purely based on life without IOs of course. Stalkers are kinda just a "blah" AT and don't have the flare that other ATs do, so don't expect to run around killing massive groups of enemies and look good doing it. Also, you are not king of single target damage unlike what most people will tell you. You are king of BURST single target damage, which as you can guess isn't great in PvE.
I am gonna throw my hat in with the Elec/Nin crowd as it is one of the better combos you can get with Stalkers. Ninjitsu is the best Stalker secondary because it was designed for the AT as opposed to being shoe horned into it and fitting very poorly like the other sets. For a primary stick to the elemental or energy based damages because Smashing/Lethal are so heavily resisted red side and in both sides end games that they really lose their appeal.
As was stated earlier don't pressure yourself into taking placate early, another attack will help you a great deal more considering if you take placate you can expect to have two attacks and Assassin Strike which isn't really an attack so much as an opener.
Finally, don't be fooled by the early game with Stalkers where they shine. Things get worse and worse for Stalkers as you level because enemies scale with you dealing more damage but AS doesn't. At 50 you can expect to kill minions with a regular AS and most LT's with a build up + AS. Before IOs your defense will be weak and your HP low so expect to die a lot on TFs/SFs where AoE is more common. -
Quote:Yes because 1-50 has such diverse content with its three mission archetypes of kill boss, find glowie, escort....Wait what were you saying again?Originally Posted by Infernus_Hades
Like a Pyromaniac in a field of strawmen I will burn this notion down.
To get these incarnate rewards you must run multiple times the same 2 missions.
Any other path would take you YEARS of game play. All of the other content is wide open to be played for all other purposes and drops shards if you are 50 and have your alpha unlocked.
On one hand all of the entire game - on the other hand 2 missions that take 30 minutes and must be run 20-30 times. Run little strawmen run but you will still burn. -
Umm well it does indeed change things because Singy on the BAF is awesome! He can single handedly hold off all the minions trying to escape. Otherwise it is still Grav...it is still a meh set at best
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Quote:Well the reason I brought up your experience with WoW is because they have a merit system very similar to ours, I haven't played it since I played vanilla WoW way back at release but a lot of my family still does. A lot of MMOs follow trends and old style EQ raiding is falling away in favor of a merit or token based equipment purchasing route.Originally Posted by Kiana Wolf
I've played quite a few MMOs... Mostly Ragnarok Online, years ago. I've never played WoW, but I have many, many friends who do... And they've always been raid-this, grind-that, gotta-get-better-loot. Very few even read quest information, let alone the background game lore.
Which puts me at odds with them, because sometimes I just like to sit down and take in the game world. I like to imagine that it's more than just a daily chore, to log on, stab some random monsters and hope for a lucky drop. With CoH, I can do that. CoH gives me the sense that I'm a world filled with super heroes, not just a bunch of people level grinding or botting.
And yet, Stalkers are entertaining to play and some of the most profoundly fun teams I've been on have consisted of seven scrappers and a tanker going up against high difficulty enemies.
Further more, Kheldians aren't 'duds'. They just require a deeper understanding of the game mechanics and, above all, focus. Kheldians can do anything in the game, but can't do everything. Want a durable blaster? Kheldians can do it. How about a Defender with self heals? Kheldians can do it. But it's right there in the description that Kheldians aren't outright specialists in one area. They work best when augmenting a team. But that doesn't mean they're weak. Heck, I've seen a pair of Kheldians that could duo x8 missions.
As a role player and fan of casual-friendly games, I think the devs are awesome.
There's the possibility that they knew they didn't have enough time to produce polished Incarnate content in time for the Alpha slot. So when the decision came down to 'Alpha slot with no content', 'Alpha slot with sloppy content' and 'Late Alpha slot with polished content', they went with the last one. Which is the safe bet, honestly.
There was guaranteed to be someone complaining regardless, and some impatient brats are easier to listen to than a torrent of "PATCH NAO!" whiners.
As for the AT balance I am not saying that those ATs aren't fun, every AT can be fun, but when it comes to certain ATs there are major balance issues. Stalkers at this point really have an ill defined role. Burst damage in a game where AoE and sustained DPS are king is rather pointless, I enjoy my Stalkers and in fact right now I would say my main is my Elec/Nin but even as my favorite AT, yes they are my favorite AT, I just feel like I am playing a weak scrapper and that they need another looking at. Kheldians are the jack of all trades master of none which leaves them in a weird state of limbo as far as team make up goes. They can do a little bit of everything but if you need damage, you can get better damage, if you need a tank, you can get a better tank. Do you see where I am coming from? I don't think they just push Blaster level damage but it wouldn't hurt if they did a little more damage. Warshades are the exception in my opinion, they have enough unique tricks and powers that make them powerful in their own rights. Peacebringers are the ones who seem to have been a mashup of a bunch of old abilities with new skins.
As for the last two points I hope you can see that a lot of people have valid reasons to question the idea that the Devs in this game are our best friends. While you may not have been on the receiving end of some of their more interesting development "ideals" I bet you know people who have been. i13 really was made despite PvPers, not because of them. A lot of people feel the new raids are terrible ideas that are ruining the game for one reason or another. Hell even as far back as ED it has been the same way. For me it is really hard to see people praising the Devs as perfect when no one is perfect and least of all the Devs. They have done things to make this game better, but they have done things that have made the game worse, they aren't perfect and they aren't any better than any other MMOs Dev team I have played in nor or they any worse. They are Devs for a company where the bottom line is money, not player happiness. -
I can't help but feel that you've never played another MMO...or even WoW for that matter....
Not knocking CoX, even though I have major issues with some of the things that Devs have done and continue to do, cause in the end I do enjoy the game.
But just for a couple of point by points...
RP community: This game is really hit or miss, you get some REALLY elitist uptight people and some really chill laid back people. The problem is, I play red side, red side is has a lot of vacant VGs, RP is hard to come by. Blue side is great but I just find it boring really so I tend to stay red and just wish I wasn't so alone.
Balance: Yeeeeah...there are some real duds in the AT department, Stalkers and Kheldians, and there are some REALLY powerful sets and ATs out there. The thing is, this game is so easy it doesn't really matter what power sets or ATs you bring as long as you have support characters. Cause lets face it Defenders, Corrs, Trollers, and MMs are force multipliers and they make everything cake.
Devs Listening to the Players: Well...call me crazy but I have noticed this in every MMO I play, the thing I WILL say is that our Devs don't care if the players are so powerful that they run through all content without breaking a sweat. Most conflict between Devs and players comes from when Devs nerf a class or power or something to do with Joe Schmoes favorite character. As a PvPer I feel like our Dev team has terrible communication skills and flat out ignore the players, but it is all about perception. I think we have an alright Dev team, some Devs I like more than others, but I never understood the praise they get for something that is relatively small.
For example, your Alpha slot thing...Pushing it back isn't exactly listening to the players...it is pushing it back. Listening to players would have been to release enough content with GR to encompass all new additions to the game. -
That would be to nice if they were via incarnate merits. They will be in a booster pack coming up, just like all costume pieces are now.
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Quote:Well aren't you special? Just like he said!Originally Posted by Clouded
Sometimes the lumping of all forumgoers, with feedback about the new content, under a blanket statement of entitlement complex, just plains disgusts me.
For the record I completely agree with Duncan but for me it is ohhh so sweet. Remember when everyone laughed at PvPers and told them to adapt when i13 hit and the PvP gameplay was ACTUALLY turned on its head and now works completely different then it did? Yeah well that was real, this is just a bunch of people whinning that they aren't so special anymore and that the game "changed completely." No that is a matter of perception my friends, a very, VERY, entitled perception. -
This is hilarious! No seriously I think this is just absolutely GOLDEN. People think this is the worst communication from the Dev team ever? Have you even SEEN what happened during i13 with the PvP changes? REALLY?! God people are spoiled in this game.
On TOP of that I have run BAF and Lambada multiple times and haven't won either of them yet and you know what? I think they are the best thing ever added to this game. They are HARD for once this game has HARD content and people whine all the way to the forums just like they do anytime something remotely challenging gets released. People can't stand to lose in this game on a sickening level. Every single time I have run these trials I KNOW that they can be done if people would just do what they needed to do rather then treat it like another tank and spank like this game has always been up until now.
As much as people like to feel special if you don't know what you are doing in these raids then let someone who does guide you. If the only thing stopping a PUG from completing it is the fact that people can't be bothered to pay attention then it isn't a design flaw, it is a player flaw.
So you know what? Good job devs. You've finally made challenging content that is fun to play, because overwhelming success isn't always fun and failure and learning are a lot more fun. -
I completely agree...After being told be the Dev apologist when GR came out to "just wait" for i20 and how HUGE and awesome it was going to be, I still feel like GR was overpriced for what we got and so far nothing has changed that. From base what has been added to GR in i19 and i20 is four new TF, two trials, five incarnate abilities, and a handful of tip missions. I just don't see what was so special about GR still and so far incarnate content has been so slow in coming it feels like it will be another year before it is even finally "done."
TLDR version; Yes i20 was incredibly over hyped and I can see absolutely no reason for the huge fuss over an NDA for it. -
Quote:Well as hard as it may be for you, and to be fair a good deal of people in this game, to believe but some people couldn't care less about role playing. At all. As far as a lot of people are concerned, I.E. those who do not role play, it is just a game with two different sides and the labels "villain" and "hero" matter about as much as red and blue.Originally Posted by BrandX
I just can't imagine heroes and villains playing capture the flag
This coming from someone who plays on Virtue and actively participates in role play, BUT I used to play on Freedom and PvPed seriously and I never really saw my characters as "villains" they were just characters in a video game...nothing else.
Even then I can see CTF in RP terms, because villains are hardly villainous in this game and more like lackeys. So the lackeys could be trying to steal some shinny artifact and the heroes have to stop them and bring it back. -
Quote:Let me tell you! i13 Was exactly what this game needed to bring new life to PvP! /sarcasmOriginally Posted by TheUnnamedOne
PVP sounds like so much fun these days...
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If you honestly plan on PvPing then your primary wont matter all that much as most of your time will be spent throwing sharks. But out of the two you are most interested in I would have to give the nod to Energy Melee because of the cast time on ET. Have you considered Kinetic Melee though? The damage scales wierdly, in your benefit, in PvP and is good choice.
Basically for a PvP stalker just make sure to throw sharks, hibernate, and phase shift mostly because those will be your bread and butter abilities. -
Almost across the board I take the epic pools over the patrons. The only exception is on Brutes, because lets face it gloom + darkest night rock, and Stalkers Shadow Meld rocks. Other than that I mostly stick to epic pools because they are so much better for most every AT, I mean look at Doms! Who wants the crappy patron pools when you can get things like melt armor, sleet, energy transfer, or link minds?
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Just poping in to voice my support for the PvP community! I was with you guys up until i13 playing with the good ol' Renegades but I just gave up after i13. I would love to join this but I have a previous obligation in RL that I must attend to but I really hope that you guys get some new blood looking into PvP.
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Since everyone seems to be on the side of the "journey" and patting themselves on the back for it I will come out on the side of the "destination." I hate leveling up in this game, I hate playing through endless missions of beat up -generic villain group here-, and most of all I really hate levels 1-35. I do love playing a level 50 character and IOing them out, to bad the only way to do that is by running the same content that I have been running for 50 levels to get anything accomplished. But wait! They are finally adding content designed for and rewarding for level 50! Ohh...people are doing nothing but complaining about it and hoping that it goes the way of PvP and gets ignored for years after it is released...
So yeah, as Arcanaville put it there are people in both camps and for the longest time in this game there was no destination, now that they are building one it is a problem? Let us have ours, you journey folks have had this game for years now and while I enjoy this game I typically can't play it for more than a month because there is little left for me to work towards, finally I get something to work towards and it is the end of the world? -
Quote:This pretty much.Originally Posted by Warp_Factor
Admittedly I'm pretty out of touch with the community outside my SG and a handful of friends, so I may be making assumptions based on old information. But from what I saw and experienced back in the day, it wasn't the number of RPers on Virtue that hurt it's sense of cohesion so much as the rivalries that used to go on between prominent RPers and their cliques. Speaking for myself and for several of my friends, we gave up on trying to tie our RP into the RP of others who weren't close personal friends exactly because we didn't want to get dragged into some blowout over Rocket Pants having committed a minor alleged godmoding two years ago and Space Trunk Man still being upset about it. I don't want to get specific and invite a flame war, but you know what I mean. The general rank and file of Virtue RPers have always struck me as fairly unproblematic, it's been the "movers and shakers", as it were, that have in some cases been a problem. If Union's more prominent and popular RPers and cliques are able to conduct themselves differently, I could see that cohesion maybe surviving the addition of a few Virtueites.
But for me this means that maybe I can go to another server and RP where I don't have to worry so much about politics and something that happened years ago ruining what could be great RP. So I am not being selfless like you, I see this is an opportunity for me.