Blue_Centurion

Yeah Doctor Roswell. read the thread in Stalkers about the changes. One of your ideas is in there. But I actually am advocating doing more damage when stalkers are against EBs and AVs, on teams. I would even go so far as to say if a league of 20 or more Stalkers could simul AS a AV the thing should drop. period. PS, good luck getting that kinda coordination.

See, the problem with Stalkers, put eloquently by Angry Citizen in the Stalkers forum, is that they are not designed for the City of Heroes game. This is a game of massive fast action fighting where Aoe rules the day, or Controlling Mobs, or Taking all agro around you and laughing it off. Think about it, stalkers bring nothing to the table, nothing. They are on the teams because we need teammates, not because we want Stalkers. Also, most of us like the players, even if they choose to run the most worthless teammate created besides the shepherd. ouch, okay, thats too far. Sorry... anyways, there is absolutely no doubt Stalkers need a serious fix if they are gonna fit into the modern game. If the tweaks that I have read about in the Stalker Forum are implemented then Stalkers go from a completely gimped Scrapper with a neat trick that its better they just do solo, to a 3/4 gimped Scrapper. Yeah! They made 25% improvement! Cheer now! *holds up sign for applause.

Seriously, i was on a team last night that was dialed up too hard. People were struggling. I had just joined. I look at the leader, it's a Stalker. i couldn't help myself. in my mind I am thinking "theres a Stalker that cant level themselves so they are getting 7 of us like an MMs pet to level them." It's sad, but after years in the cities I just think of Stalkers as 2nd class supers. This fix is like giving them a bus pass. They need a new car dude.

You are a sick man.

But this reminds me of a story my friend told me about the other day. Evidently people are dressing up like clowns and jumping in front of traffic with "Beware of Clowns" signs. People are weird...

I have been reading about upcoming changes in the Stalker area. I never see anybody over there, but stuff always gets moved around, it's weird. Anyways here is my 2 Inf:

I would suggest a much simpler solution for Stalkers than I have seen. a damage scalar on Assasin's Strike. just the full one in hide. Have it scale to the Enemy. So a fully buffed AS could level an Boss, any Boss, easily. A buffed AS could leave any EB wobbling and clean some of them. And a buffed AS could actually make a gnarly tick on an AVs health bar. Oh, and add a danged stun to the AS for these hard targets. Cause it should be very surpising to almost get assassinated. Even with purple triangles up. There, then Stalkers would get some respect. And it could be done with a few hours coding, not changing the whole game.

I would suggest a much simpler solution for Stalkers though. a damage scalar on Assasin's Strike. just the full one in hide. Have it scale to the Enemy. So a fully buffed AS could level an Boss, any Boss, easily. A buffed AS could leave any EB wobbling and clean some of them. And a buffed AS could actually make a gnarly tick on an AVs health bar. Oh, and add a danged stun to the AS for these hard targets. Cause it should be very surpising to almost get assassinated. Even with purple triangles up. There, then Stalkers would get some respect. And it could be done with a few hours coding, not changing the whole game.

I would suggest a much simpler solution for Stalkers though. a damage scalar on Assasin's Strike. just the full one in hide. Have it scale to the Enemy. So a fully buffed AS could level an Boss, any Boss, easily. A buffed AS could leave any EB wobbling and clean some of them. And a buffed AS could actually make a gnarly tick on an AVs health bar. Oh, and add a danged stun to the AS for these hard targets. Cause it should be very surpising to almost get assassinated. Even with purple triangles up. There, then Stalkers would get some respect. And it could be done with a few hours coding, not changing the whole game.

I got a Dark stalker to low 30s like 2-3 years ago. I found that one of the toggles actually broke stealth. I think they have changed that, but it really peeved me off they designed something that poorly.

Can you guys tell me whether anything in Dark now breaks hide? i want to try to finish that old concept. It must have been "Cloak of Fear" but the same question applies to "Oppressive Gloom" thanks.

hrm. i'll start a new thread. i have questions about that dark/dark now that have been bothering me since i wrote this. that concept just feels unfinished.

Thanks Sypher Vendetta. I finally got around to looking at this. Was gaming with my wife all Saturday, she is new to the cities. She likes it so much I stayed up until 3 am Sunday morning running door missions with her in Steel. Sunday I basically just ran random stuff on the new Dark/Invul, finished off both Positrons and Synapse. Never run Synapse exhausted, wow did it feel long.

So, I have thrown some I/Os on him already, just 30'd. I am fully expecting to do one respec at 50, so I'll adjust where necessary. It looks like I am going to be using your design as the basis for my build. It is more survivable than my SS/Invul that I have set up. And no, I am not stripping that guy. I made a commitment to myself to have a pimped out SS/Invul build for at least a year. It was my first love in the game, and I want to see how many times I flop back onto it over the next year. This Dark/Invul will represent most of the rest of the treasure I have, except for the odds and ends of a Permadom build I have sitting in a base. I already know I like running a Dark/Invul Brute. Side by side it will be interesting to see which I go to more for trials and such, with both being high end builds. I suspect it will be the Dark/Invul, but you never know.

Anyways, thanks for the bones of the build. I will start looking at it this week for making minor tweaks and adjustments, then post my list of ugly alterations for critique lol.

I got a Dark stalker to low 30s like 2-3 years ago. I found that one of the toggles actually broke stealth. I think they have changed that, but it really peeved me off they designed something that poorly.

I am considering a new Stalker though, with actually no plan to 50 in the near future, if ever. Just going to run them as an off hand project.

Concept wise I am looking at a Silver Age style, tights/hero, mutant agent type concept.

I am considering Energy Melee/Regen. i saw that the Energy Transfer doesn't self-inflict wounds while in hide. Is that true in placate. Can anyone give me tips on whether that is a good combo? Also, any other primaries/secondaries I should look at?

On one of the comps I use I think I actually have the Succubus Kali build in mids. Otherwises I'll track it down. lol. Thx for reminding me!

You can use the Norton password remember thing, that works for me.

Okay, I have decided where to throw the rest of my cash. All onto one build. It will be a Dark Melee/Invulnerabilty Brute. I know these things are juggernauts, because I ran one for a few months straight about a year back. But the build was not optimal.

Looking for ideas for how to squeeze every last shred of performance out of this thing. I peeled my Glad +3% off another toon using an unslotter. So, 2 bill down lol.

I am looking at softcapping with 1 mob in range to everything but Psi, while not sacrificing on Recharge. Recharge really feeds the Synergy of Dark/Invul, in my opinion. So build priorities are defense then recharge.

Thanks in advance for any tips. I will be looking at any builds thrown up here, of course. I will also be looking to post my own build here by next weekend. With any luck it will be the "final build" and not just pencil sketches. I have startedthe guy today, and am slowing the leveling only to grab a safeguard every five levels. Running Blueside.

yeah, I would prefer a speed itf w/ pros (25-35 min) getting 50-75% of mobs, or a good shard/exp run (45 min to 1:15) Either are much much better Exp than a dead stall 2 1/2 hour ITF (Never encountered one that long myself)

The thing to keep in mind (in my experience) are big teams get big experience, but only when they are grinding fast through big mobs. So, you need to set your difficulty so there is a constant flow of dead (arrested?) mobs. think of it as a spinning saw blade. If the wood is too tough the saw blade stops or slows to where it ain't good. You want the blade spiining at 90% to 100% of capacity, with wood that is as tough as it can get in there and still spin at that rate. it's a different difficulty for every team because of team make up.

The min/maxer (and amateur mathematician) in me has to know. For comparing to Scrapper damage levels I have it that at 50% Fury Brutes equal the Scrapper damage levels. But obviously I am looking for some confirmation of that.

That is based on Brute's damage scalar of .75, and Scrappers damage scalar of 1.125. Also, as long as we are clearing this up, Brute's Fury attaches to Ranged attacks and Epic/Ancillary pools as well, correct?

Trying to remember any other really basic questions, so we can get them answered all in one thread. None are coming to mind. Here is a very complicated one. At what level on the Fury bar does the Brute roughly come equivalent to the Scrapper with Crits included. I know the formula would be complex, with 5% and 10% double damage chances compared to the +% straight damage over a number of hits. I'm guessing that it is actually something like 55% or 60% Fury however.

Okay, I have a concept that requires the dusty ol' Martial Arts set. The concept also limits my secondaries, well, halves them. In no particular order Willpower, Regeneration, Invulnerability, and Super Reflexes would fit the concept well.

Can any of you break down the pitfalls and pluses of any of these pairings? Thanks.

Its technically possible to get a 50 in 48 hours without somebody PLing you. it ain't easy. my fastest non-PL character was a Crab Spider in the week after they came out. I got mine in 3 or 4 days, and that was night hours, cause working full time. The fastest guy on the server had it done in less than 24 hours. We just did a crap ton of missions, as fast as we could. Always 7-8 on a team.

The non-PL strategy for me today is very similar. You can get to around 20 in the sewers, with this being hands down the best non-PL experience you'll get. At 20 a large team (7-8) of heroes/villains doing tip missions tends to give good experience. Technically not a PL (I think), but it is pretty easy to get on a 50 team doing these, at least for me. Keep in mind, do not be shy about grabbing a spare Death from Below (sewer) run if you cannot find a team. in the 20s it gives 1/2 level, in the 30s-low 40s a 1/3 level, and late 40s a 1/4 or so. that is better than standing around LFT. Aint no exp in LFT. But, do not grab a TF. There are certain TF that do nothing but eat time, give no exp. Except when you should grab a TF. Katie Hannon and ITF give good exp on a team that knows whats up. Leading a team might not be a bad idea. If you can control the difficulty of the missions you can dial a team to maximize exp earning. Keep in mind this does NOT mean max out the difficulty. Even if a team can handle +2/x4 it might be a lot faster experience set at +0/x8 and just blow through the crowds. Some team members will scream about needing it to be harder to get more exp, but smart money isnt always on upping the difficulty. With a good amount of time set aside of the 48 hours to coffee intake, limiting bathroom breaks, and no sleep, you should have yourself a bright shining new 50. And an attitude that will annoy the crap outta everyone in your general vicinity. gl.

Danged! I have 3 characters already. All lowbies, and yes I know there are bejillions of TW 50s by now. I will say this, I bought both BM and StJ, and thought both were cool. I think I played beam rifle for 30 minutes, StJ for a week (35 or so). But Titan Weapons? Yeah, there's a couple 50s in this set. And that is from someone who hates redraw.

My main question is Brute or Scrapper? I have many 50 Brutes and like 2 50 Scrappers. I was thinking Titan Wpns would be a good Scrapper set, but I am reconsidering that. I know KM is better on a Scrapper, but not sure with TW. I got a feeling this crowd is gonna say it's better on a Brute, heh. But why?

Then...secondary? I've seen some posts about ElA. i am more interested in Will and Inv. I would love to roll a TW/Inv, but am unsure if the build can handle the End issues. Unsure right now if I will invest anything more than SOs into the concept.

What's the word on the street of Brutes?

K, my main is a SS/Invul Brute. I really love Invulnerabilty's insane toughness. But I hear TW eats the old end bar. I enjoy a good Will character as well.

Will a TW/Invul be brought low gasping for breath, or is that a good path to go?

Also, do we have a definitive answer on whether TW is better on a Brute or Scrapper? And why?