Ars Valde

Also all this love for Damage Auras doesnt really give the truth. Theyre nice, and Lightning Field coupled with Power Sink will help keep enemies sapped, but Sans farming, they wont be doing anything worthwhile. Mostly saving you Fractional Overkill but even then their end costs over time might not be worth it.

Play with the Auras and figure it out for yourself, I never took them in PvE on my Spines/Dark but Im looking forward to Lightning on my Spines/Elec for Sapping.

Also for Endurance issues...really? Youre not going to have any with Power Sink and Energize, youll be firing them off nearly every group so you should be topped off.

Lastly Tough and Weave are definitely worth it over an Epic. Spines has Redraw and if youre IOing, even Franken Slotting, youll have enough attacks to fill any holes that Epics wont make a difference. The survivability boost from Fighting is worth more than the extra attacks you likely wont use.

For general play, Dont Auto Energize, just fire it when you need a heal, your Endurance doesnt start tanking til Throw Spines shows up (Unless you decided to just opt into the DoT Auras early, then youre gasping for an effect thats hardly noticeable teaming) and right after Throw Spines is Powersink. 3 Slot with recharge and you get a free Blue Bar Refill every 30 seconds.

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Noted.

I still don't believe anything like this is necessary.

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then can you explain why invul is ok to buff to s/l cap with tough and fire is not?

cause im STILL trying to figure out how you justify that one

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Individual Balancing issue.

FA is Scrankery and has a Consistent Spammable Heal. Invuln does not retain such an ability.

1. Any Stalker combo can solo as long as youre an effective player.

2. Elec/WP or EM/WP. EM/WP Will solo well and do great in PvP

3. Stealth is good for PvP (Puts you at the Stalker Stealth Cap) but in PvE its hardly worth it

4. Pirates that are Ninjas.

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i15: You got the touch!

i16: You got the power!

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I still prefer i16: Taste the Rainbow

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I'm trying to get it to go off, but so far all my chat entries have been clear of wwwwaaaaasssstrash.

110020000110001000000Can anyone verify that this bug is gone?

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I hate this bug. It's a minor issue ultimately since it isn't crashing servers or corrupting data, but it is highly visible, distracting and annoying.

What's broken and why is it taking so long to fix? The key problem here is way back when, someone decided it would be a good idea to have three separate keyboard input interpreters and any changes done have to play "house of cards" game with the three. The current set of bugs began appearing a while back when we started making changes to implement the mission editor, which morphed into the Mission Architect.

I've no doubt that it will be fixed at some point; I just wanted to basically point out that, yes, we're aware of it and yes, we are trying to fix it. It's just an enormously more complicated task that it "should" be.

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It's pretty fun to wander over into programmer land and causally ask, "So what's up with the chat bug?"

They have said that not having reliable repro steps makes this particular bug nigh-impossible to track down, so if anyone can figure out a way of making this happen 100% of the time, I'm sure those guys would name children after you or something.

I'd even push for Posi to hand out the vaunted 'badge-which-must-not-be-named"

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Im not sure, but it seems that when youre not using your chat box for a small amount of time the bug crops up.

Youll see it after combat, after sitting in wentworths for a while, or if youre standing around looking around and then try to type anything.

Consistent chatting isnt interrupted, but the first statement of any conversation or reply after a small silence usually is afflicted by the bug.

At least thats what Ive noticed.

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I hate this bug.

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512125125You know, there's something just all-around nice about seeing dev hatred for a bug.

Here's to a successful hunt.

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The only bug I don't hate is the one with using any power that calls the "Smashcast" animation while you have the Nemesis staff in hand.

I've been very slow to 'fix' that particular one.

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Heh thank you. I do that 'Bugged' Animation whenever I get a chance

Random Thread is Random, but entertaining.

Welcome back to AE Spam and the end of times.

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I miss Buttons and Mindy....

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Heh.

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I tend to disagree on peak potential, it takes a tight build with layered defense and resist but it can be done.

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Youre either one or the other. Extreme Defense but with a lowered Damage Output compared to others, or a Great Offense but a lack of the extreme mitigation that other sets can achieve.

(I Feel this way about Fire as well)

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If you put it with the right primary and load it up with IO's its ok otherwise it just doesnt bring enough to the table.

In my humble opinion it only works with spines and even then it takes a large IO investment before it becomes truly powerful. Claws and the swords can work with dark but they would be stronger with almost any other secondary which is a telling point.

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Now, I'm only talking about seriously expensive builds here. And I don't have a build I'm satisfied with, but I can tell you what I believe that Katana/Dark and Broad Sword/Dark are capable of. I believe they are capable of soft capping defense, plus having all those nice resists, plus having one of the best heals in the game on a quick recharge, plus being solid builds that give up almost nothing to get there. I think they would have better survivability than most top tier scrappers under most circumstances.

Again, I'm not fully-satisfied with anything I've seen or made yet, but I think there's a build out there waiting to be discovered that will put most everything else to shame.

Or I could be wrong. But even if I'm wrong, the builds I've seen are at least competitive.

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I'd agree with most of those assessments Werner with one qualification: it's gonna be hell on your blue bar. You're either going to get a build that has nice, sustainable blue bar, or you're going to get one that blows every other set's survivability out of the water. There isn't really much middle ground on the mega-builds.

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This. Ive found the hurdle with IOing my BS/DA is that...you cant get as awesome of survivability and efficiency as other scrapper combos. Which has led me to abandon IOing it.

It was a fun 50 but it doesnt have the peak potential of other scrapper combos.

Meh. Hami just isnt that fun

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You're also apparently James T Kirk?!

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With Nipples on the mind.

Thought I had thrown my 2 Cents in but I guess I hadnt.

Thanks to Mids and to Steiner for the continuation.

The Planner has been something that occupies my time as much as the game sometimes, trying my best to Min-Max builds and especially working out what my next toon to roll will be (So I can dream of IOing them because they could be awesome).

Thank you so much for something so important.

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And you continue to consider there to be an imbalance while ignoring everything that's been shown to be in place that gives the situation balance.

You state that brutes get better aggro management. True. This means they end up having more incoming damage than scrappers. More incoming damage means a need for more mitigation. Balance.

It takes X time to reach the fury value needed to match scrapper damage output. As more buffs are added to the scrapper, the amount of fury needed rises higher, thus increasing the time it takes the brute to catch up. Balance.

The only imbalance that exists is the one you are perceiving, and your perceptions are clouded due to ignoring pertinent data.

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tl;dr Version for you:

lrn2read and lrn2math

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You're invariably ignoring other facets of both AT's.

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Just like those ignoring brute damage output variability pointing to the necessity of higher hitpoints.

It's fascinating to me that the arguments for and against some unfair brute advantage are being shown to have the same kind of overall fairness in their logical holes that I see present between the two ATs.

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At what fury% do brutes do inferior damage to scrappers to justify the survivability advantage, and how often is the average brute playing at that fury%? And even when they are there, I guess when they are resting or the player is afk, they still maintain advantages in survivability and aggro controls. Then add to that, the fact that brutes have the ability to do better damage, have better survivability and possess better aggro control abilities.

What variable am I missing? What 'facet' of the at's am I missing? Yes, in some circumstances (perhaps when the brute is in a coma or mapserving), the scrapper will outdamage a brute commensurate with the inherent survivability advantage brutes have over scrappers, but in those instances, you have parity, because one at is the superior damage dealer, while the other is better at surviving damage damage and controlling aggro. The disparity comes into play when the brute can surpass the scrapper at all of the above, while the scrapper cannot do the same.

And as I've said several times, I don't think the disparity is huge or game breaking, but it's clearly there. Unless someone can point out this 'facet' I'm missing. Do scrappers have a nicer scent or something?

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That can be answered with math:

Scrap AT mod: 62.562
Brute AT mod: 41.708
cremate: 1.64ds

Scrap Cremate: 102.602
Brute Cremate: 68.401

% buff needed for brute to equal scrap: 50% = 25% fury

When we add 95% enhancements:
Scrap Cremate: 200 .074
Brute Cremate: 133.381

But fury only affects base damage: Brute needs 48.751% fury to catch up.

And so on and so forth.

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Thats IF they even slot with that method. Playing a brute myself I only slot 1-2 Damage and rely more on End Redux and Recharge to keep my Fury Built. Its an Alternate playstyle that I find fun, but in this discussion considering base performance, it does make a difference.

Because damage is NOT the only thing that matters. The ability to sustain the damage and continue with that damage for prolonged periods of time also affects it. If a brute can deal more damage but takes doubly as long to move through a mission because sustaining that damage puts them in danger much more often then is it really that much of a sticking point?

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My DM/SD Brute is nasty, and in a recent ITF, outperformed a bunch of better IO'ed SS/WP Brutes. The high defense + high resistance + self heal of SD combined with the surprisingly large offense boost from AAO/SCharge makes DM/SD a vitriolic combo.

Especially at full fury.

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Youre Lying.

To yourself and others.

DM is a beautiful AV soloing tool, but the reason I cant bring myself to play it is because I dont solo the entire game and prefer to feel like Im contributing more to the team than acting like a Stalker without AS.

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It's not really a challenge if you're doing it for the reward, and build restrictions don't belong in a "challenge"

This comes off more as a "build me a merit farmer!" more than anything, sorry :-/

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I'm in this category.

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Roll a Rad Defender and go Merit farm with that.

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Def does suck again in PVP. Case in point, my /EA with Overload, demonic, shadow meld all running at the same time was hit repeatedly by an SS tanker. Moreover, I hit him a couple times with DM.

With PVP IOs (TP res, I'm looking at you) there is no reason to pick /EA over /WP especially since /WP gets a heal.

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Considering youre fighting a SS that has a Constant BU Running in the background its not unheard of. Especially since Rage is stackable.

While going for defense is nice, with you being an Elec/Regen youll want more +Recharge for multiple obvious reasons.

HP Capping is nice, as well has having MoG and IH up more often. You can easily Mitigate an Alpha with an AS + Lightning Rod. Shadow Meld will also be up more often with this kind of build, giving you literally an answer for nearly every situation.

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Stalkers secondaries are all weak in PVP when you think about it. They all have their perks in certain situations though.

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As long as you can Resist KB and Repel youre a step above though. Getting thrown around by someone with Levitate is bawls.

From what Ive heard, Elec/WP or Elec/Regen. Ive been trying my Nin and if anything has Aim theyll cut right through you still, even with Retsu up.

If you absolutely must have DM then more power to you.

Is this for PvE or PvP?

My Broadsword/Dark.

I took me many different scrappers to settle on him but Darks Flexibility and the recent released IOs have let me do something Ive always wanted:

Extreme Damage with Extreme Survivability. I dont care what anyone says, Dark in the hands of a competent player will outlast anyone, and Adding parry to that mix makes you godlike and you have a big friggen sword.

Who doesnt want a big friggen sword?!?