Black_Cats_Paw

If there's room on team 1, I'll take a spot as Coalstar (scrapper). If not, I'll take a spot on team 2.

You might want to check out the two posts stickied at the top of the forum by BillZBubba. They're both called "The Results are in..." They're a fairly comprehensive breakdown of the the set DPSes on single targets. Results may vary, of course, but, DB is still a strong set, though it's incompatibility with the new shiny shield defense has made it less popular.

Ironically, in messing around with the build without CoF, it's very difficult to find anything to replace it with. I had originally wanted Hasten in the build, but as I'm out of pool choices, that's not an option. In losing the full set of Cloud Senses, I also lost some difficult-to-replace ranged defense, some good recharge (6.25%), and some max end. All in all, it's a difficult power to give up if only because the Cloud Senses bonuses match the toon's needs so perfectly.

PS: Op Gloom is kinda out of the picture. On my sturdier toons, I don't like undermining what regen I can get them by putting a constant negative regen on them.

Howdy folks.

So I've been planning a Kat/DA for some time. I've raised three other /DA toons, and each has had their own charms, but now I'd like to raise the final one up as a Katana user, and I'm finding myself running into a dilemma.

Should I take Cloak of Fear or not?

On all my previous /DAs, the question has been CoF or OG. Depending on the toon, I've gone for both at different times. OG for fast and end-heavy toons that don't stay surrounded long, and CoF for heavy hitters who want the extra -ToHit to augment their defense. Now, though, I'm looking to make a fully IOed out and soft-capped character, and I'm realizing that if I do soft-cap him (and I have) I'm not really using the advantages of CoF. Since I wouldn't want OG (the damage you take when surrounded nullifies all attempts to benefit from regen), I find myself coming down on the side of not taking either.

Do any other experienced /DA players have input here? Right now, CoF is just acting as a placeholder for some set bonuses, but it could be much better used if I were to drop it in favor of something else (not to mention it would greatly help my endurance costs). Can anyone think of any unintended consequences of dropping the power? Might I seriously regret this later, and if so how?

Thanks ahead of time for any input you can give.

PS: I can post the build, but for now I'm just trying to get ideas on this. Picture any generic soft-capped like Claws or Werner if you need a placeholder

I could critique this build, but I think it would be best just to start over. You've skipped important powers and underslotted your attack chain. You're over cap on melee while being far under on the others (and with BS, the reverse should be true before parry is applied). If I were to build a BS/SD, which I haven't yet done, it would look something like this (NOTE: This is a first draft, and so this might not be how I'd actually build something after playing; it's also a very expensive build, but that's just a fact of life at this point, the important thing would be getting these powers and prioritizing them, not going for extreme uberness off the bat; it does not take a travel power because I never take a travel power; your mileage may vary):

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.601
http://www.cohplanner.com/


Click this DataLink to open the build!

Well, first thing to note is that Energy Torrent MUST be your Lv 47 power. Skip FA entirely, you won't have the endurance for it (and nevermind Mid's complaining that you can't do that, it's a bug in Mid's). I'd post my own build, but as it is now it looks terrible (he's half updated to the new IOs, have using older Hamis... in short, he's a mess), but I can say that you might not want to bother with the high defense slotting you have, as you'll benefit more (on a farming build, especially an AE farming build) from Recovery and Recharge. It'll be important to slot your attacks well both for endurance (because your cones are very high end cost), and recharge (as they'll be part of a regular attack chain). Procs will add a lot to your damage since you'll be hitting a lot of enemies. I added the Armageddon proc to quills and kept the Posi procs in Throw Spines and ET (though at the cost of recharge; I'm leaning heavily on a fair bit of global recharge).

Interesting thing: I loaded Werner's build to get a look at it, and changed Katana to Broadsword. That shouldn't change anything about the build so far as I can tell, but just by making that change, the Ranged and AoE defense dropped by about 3%. Even stranger: changing it back to Katana did not return the lost defense, though it stayed at 42% from that point on. This probably has an easy solution (going to look into it now), but if anyone knows why this might happen, I'd be interested to hear.

Skipping Eagle's Claw isn't really a big deal. I haven't looked too heavily into the build otherwise, but I can say from long experience that Eagle's Claw, due to the extremely long animation compared to the smooth, flowing awesomeness of the rest of the set, won't be missed. Heck, I'm not even a huge Crippling Axe Kick fan, but even it suits the set better.

Well, I don't know who Santorican is, and I haven't really seen his build, but I've been running a Spine/Dark for a long time now, so the suggestions I give are from my own play time. Your build looks a lot like one I played a while back before I started making some odd changes that have worked out well over time. These might sound a bit unorthodox, but they're all things I've tested very thoroughly against Council (my normal farm) and Demons (my alternate).


1) GET ENERGY TORRENT. I can't emphasize this strongly enough. Entering a group should be Energy Torrent > Throw Spines. This will ensure that most of the mob is still on its back when you enter, which nullifies the alpha and keeps your mitigation needs to a minimum. Once you hit them with the first spine burst, all minions should be dead or very close.

2) I can appreciate the want to max defense, however you're spending a lot of resources on it and in the end it won't (or shouldn't, if you're farming the right things) be a big benefit. My current build runs with 9% defense (terrible by any measure) and has no problems with dying. You'll be relying heavily on your self heal, but being that it's the best self-heal in the game and is up all the time (especially with decent recharge), it's very much up to the task. Energy Torrent will also help with this. My suggestion would be to drop Weave and Combat Jumping, and cut back on the slots on Build Up and Impale (and anywhere else where a sixth slot was used just to get a defense bonus): those slots are better used elsewhere.

3) Throw more slots into OpGloom, and use the set bonuses on Stupefy to your advantage. They're perfect for a spines farmer.

4) Some things should be updated since it looks like this build was pre-QoL changes: pick up physical perfection, drop Combat Jumping.

5) This is probably my most unorthodox choice, but it's served me very well in the end: Drop Ripper. It's big, it's ugly, it's slow, and you should never have the chance to use it. Once you find yourself in a position to, you'll be better off (will hit more people for more collective damage) if you just jump out of the crowd and throw in a Throw Spines or Energy Torrent. They're faster cast, easier to line up, and can get more the pesky short-range attackers that stand outside Ripper's arc. This also frees up a power slot that can be better-used, and (more importantly) five slots that are desperately needed elsewhere.

6) This is a biggie: turn off bosses. Spines/Dark is not the build to take on strong single enemies. You'll kill more quickly and efficiently if you focus down on Lts and below, as very few things will survive your first volley, and those that do will die in the dual damage aura haze and flurry of impales, lunges, and secondary cones that come after. Most groups take a matter of seconds once you get in a good groove (though I usually do +2 x6, which takes a smidge longer), but bosses will only ever get you bogged down.

7) Single slot Obsidian Shield, and move those sets out to Murky or Dark Emb. Speaking of which: Impervium Armor is your friend, as is Steadfast Protection. Both sets give a bonus to Recovery, and if there's one thing Spine/DA needs its recovery. I prefer it to Titanium and Reactive because of that. I go for a 4/2 split Imp and Stead respectively, so that I get the end bonus from Imp.


As you can see, my farming philosophy is: only enough mitigation to keep me alive. This build I'm suggesting will feel squishy at first, but it's more than up to just about any farming you can throw at it, and once you get adapted to its flow, it can be a killing machine. I've refrained from commenting on most of the slotting, but I'll throw some general slotting comments in here at the end: My slotting of Throw Spines and ET are fairly low recharge, so I can't say I agree with the previous poster (maybe my having both and Hasten has helped); keep procs in mind for your Shroud and Quills; slot Dark Regen as an attack and organize your slotting to get some useful set bonuses, as every bit counts with DA.

If you want some purple suggestions, I can give them, but for now just give this a look over and see what you think.

Anyone have "Misfortune" or know someone who does?

So I gotta ask:

Does anyone know who has Calamity?

I've currently been abusing the sans-serif misspelling CaIamity, but I'd love to change over.

Hmm, it seems strange that people had so much trouble with Nosferatu. At first, I thought the mention of the second mission being difficult was a typo: the last mission was much harder for me, and Nosferatu died in the final battle. I don't have anything special going, just a fairly standard MA/SR scrapper. I pumped a lot of reds and two purples pre-battle (kinda standard if i'm trying to solo an EB), but he wasn't at all remarkably hard. Heck, I even managed to finish the TF within the 30 min time limit.

EDIT: Clarified who "him" was.

I agree. We need to see more effort in the bases, or at least know where they're going. As a base builder, it pains me to see no major progress basically since I started playing.

Thanks to both of you for the compliment. I enjoyed every minute of making it. Ok, well, maybe not placing all the bookshelves, but every other minute.

EDIT: At last count, there are between 300 and 400 bookshelves, and over 2000 total decorative items shoved in that little 8x8.

Hi, I'm BCP, and I'm an 8x8-aholic. My little personal base has been my obsession for quite some time, and now the only reason I want to get a larger base is because I think I've stuffed about as much as humanly possible into my 8x8 base. Anyway, check it out. Maybe you'll get some ideas that I stole from others.

The base (overview) is designed around views down hallways. This is what you see when you enter.

The base began as a place to hang out, but slowly turned into (big surprise if you know me) a Library. Hence, the first room you see is a reading room, adjoined by a small laboratory..

The main hall comes next, and acts as the base hub. It contains the second reading room, the crafting area,, and has a side area containing our base's only teleporter.

Our our infirmary is broken up into a waiting area, and an examination room, with cots to care for the sick.

Our base's main attraction is the library. It is a large (4x4) room, subdivided into several smaller compartments for easier organization. It has a full-sized classroom, a reference desk, and a massive central reading room, which contains most of the library's stacks. The stacks themselves have several nooks nestled away where patrons can read in peace.

Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the base tour. I'd like to show more, but I've already rambled enough as it is. Contact me @BCP in game if you'd like to take a tour.

Hey folks. I've been doing more work on my mini-base lately, mostly to fill out some of the details that lacked and cover over some of the blatant eyesores. Here are some pics of the results, with commentary:

The Entry Hall(2) has gotten a lot of work, mostly in the addition of a skylight (frame top right), and the filling of the wallspace below it, which before was a visual annoyance. The two colors on my banners have been lightened to make them more visible in the low light of the base.

The addition of the skylight slightly altered the lighting in the Laboratory.

The Main Hall (viewed HERE from the infirmary and HERE from the entry hall) has had many major additions. One, seen in the view from the infirmary) is the addition of banners labeling the entryway to the infirmary. The other is the addition of a few decorative pieces to the Leader's Office, some additional work rearranging the Study, and an as-yet incomplete museum in the future traversal hall from the main hub to what will be the meeting hall (not pictured).

The most work has gone into The Infirmary, which has been well overhauled recently. New are the banners for the officers of the supergroup (frame right) used to cover up difficult wall-space, the waiting room (frame bottom left), the supply counter and reception desk (frame center right), and many many details in the newly-equipped Operating Room.


That about covers the tour. Pics from before the changes can be seen HERE.

Final Note: Yes, I posted this to two boards. Yes, I know I'm not supposed to do that. I apologize.

Hey folks. I've been doing more work on my mini-base lately, mostly to fill out some of the details that lacked and cover over some of the blatant eyesores. Here are some pics of the results, with commentary:

The Entry Hall(2) has gotten a lot of work, mostly in the addition of a skylight (frame top right), and the filling of the wallspace below it, which before was a visual annoyance. The two colors on my banners have been lightened to make them more visible in the low light of the base.

The addition of the skylight slightly altered the lighting in the Laboratory.

The Main Hall (viewed HERE from the infirmary and HERE from the entry hall) has had many major additions. One, seen in the view from the infirmary) is the addition of banners labeling the entryway to the infirmary. The other is the addition of a few decorative pieces to the Leader's Office, some additional work rearranging the Study, and an as-yet incomplete museum in the future traversal hall from the main hub to what will be the meeting hall (not pictured).

The most work has gone into The Infirmary, which has been well overhauled recently. New are the banners for the officers of the supergroup (frame right) used to cover up difficult wall-space, the waiting room (frame bottom left), the supply counter and reception desk (frame center right), and many many details in the newly-equipped Operating Room.


That about covers the tour. Pics from before the changes can be seen HERE.

Final Note: Yes, I posted this to two boards. Yes, I know I'm not supposed to do that. I apologize.

Hey folks, and thanks for all the comments. I'm on Infinity, and this SG is part of the Statesman's Watch Coalition. I'm currently still struggling along with the second room, but having an amazing amount of fun with it. I'll post more in the next day or two.

Not too long ago, I started an SG just for the sake of toying around with the base. Several all-nighters and about 40k prestige in decorative items later, I had the first room more or less done. I'm currently working on the second room (a 3x3, so it's taking me a bit), and having a blast, but I figured I'd toss a few pics up here just for everyone to see.

Laboratory
Study
Rest Hall

I'll keep updating them as I get more prestige and continue to work on it. I literally ran out of money halfway through placing a row of shoji lamps above my bookcases.

Global: @BCP
Gender: Male
Height: 5'7"
Age: 25
Location: San Diego & San Luis Obispo, CA
Best known characters: Black Cat's Paw, Autumnal Forge, Ordovician
SG/VG: Statesman's Watch, The Shadow Stalkers

Did you know?: I'm a veteran of more MMOs than most people know exist (my high school days were spent more in beta testing than in schoolwork), and my MMO history dates back to the MajorMUD days. I'm currently finishing up a degree in Architectural Engineering at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo (if, by 'finishing up,' I mean ' barely halfway through'). I play scrappers almost exclusively, with only brief interludes into the world of other damage dealers (tankers, blasters, and kheldians), and am an inveterate number cruncher. If you need some number related to how the game processes some random bit of damage, I'm the go-to guy. I joke that I play far more City of Theory than I do CoX.

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Buff ALL secondaries to make them equal--don't nerf ANYTHING--and give me back IH as a toggle...

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For every Arcanaville, there's a...

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That's pretty funny. Almost as funny as swapping instant healing for lucky would be.

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I'll probably get my regenner's license removed for saying this, but I think that would be cool. Give us a mild passive defense ability with scaling resists like that and I'd be really stoked.

ArchGemini: I know, hehe. Whole thing's just a joke. I'm aware that the issue with MoG and /SR is more complicated than just a little 'Moment of Envy.'