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Chaos_String

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  1. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Perspective View Post
    You are seeing the proc fire, and it is granting the pet a recharge buff for five seconds, but the pets powers are ignoring it.
    This. The proc is firing, the pet is getting a +rech buff, but none of its powers can be affected by +/- recharge.
  2. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Iggy_Kamakaze View Post
    Well if you move Scorch between Gloom and Incinerate like so... GFS > Gloom > Scorch > Incinerate > Cremate > Scorch, should put the recharge down a bit. I don't have the numbers infront of me but maybe if you put Fire Sword in place of Scorch, might be able to lower down the recharge more.
    Good idea.
  3. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Castratotron View Post
    But no where that I've seen in game, or in the patch notes, did it tell me that now MM pets can't be affected by bonuses to their recharge (thus making me craft and waste the FF IOs)
    I doubt this will make you feel any better, but here it is in the Issue 14 release notes dated 04/07/2009:

    Quote:
    Recharge times on pet attack powers will no longer be affected by any outside source. This includes buffs and debuffs. What this means is that pets can no longer have the recharge time on their powers increased by player buffs (like Speed Boost) or their recharge time decreased by player or NPC debuffs. This change was made to allow pets to correctly cycle through their attacks instead of getting locked on using the same attack over and over and neglecting to use other available powers.
    Of course, it's silly to think that each time you craft a new IO or choose a new power, you're going to read through the entire history of patch notes to make sure that it's working as the in-game description says it does. Obviously, then, the in-game descriptions should be changed when the powers or IOs or whatever are patched.
  4. Chaos_String
    GFS > Gloom > Incinerate > Scorch > Cremate > Scorch

    Recharge values:
    1) GFS 66% (131% pre-Granite)
    2) Gloom 42% (107% pre-Granite)
    3) Incinerate 27% (92% pre-Granite)
    4) Cremate 0% (65% pre-Granite)
    5) Scorch 75% (140% pre-Granite) <--place Hecatombs here

    So you will need some global recharge to drive this chain in Granite, but it shouldn't take very much.
  5. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fury Flechette View Post
    It's not based on hearsay. I've seen the behavior in question. Mobs do run away. It could be a build issue or maybe you have a lot better tolerance for scatter.
    Well I've farmed entire maps without lightning field on, and the enemies still tried to run away. Obviously the key is not to let them, and in fact lightning field helps in this regard more than it hurts. Perhaps my damage output is sufficient to achieve this effectively where other builds fail; but in any case, running quills+lightning field doesn't cause much more scatter than just running quills.

    The issue is actually lack of gauntlet or taunt, not the pittance of -end in lightning field.

    My observations are in the linked thread if you're actually interested.
  6. Chaos_String
    I have a spines/elec that I use to farm, and I find that it works well.

    The point about lightning field is greatly overstated. Here is a thread in which I debate the alleged problem with another poster whose arguments were based on hearsay. I discuss an experiment in which I ran the scrapper on the Battle Maiden farm without lightning field, and found that it really doesn't cause much scatter beyond what you see running just Quills.

    Bottom line: spines/elec is comparable to spines/fire or spines/dark in effectiveness, but the bad press on it never goes away.
  7. Chaos_String

    Aoe farm build?

    POST-ACTION

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by plainguy View Post
    Sorry, asking because I don't know.

    Is this Solo farming or Group farming ?

    If it is group, my question would be can you solo farm with the scrapper or are we talking more the Tank route ?
    They're talking about solo farming and yes, you can solo farm with a scrapper. In fact, few (if any) tanks have the damage output to compete with the top farming scrappers. Farming is generally about fighting enemies that pose you little threat and killing them as fast as possible, so outstanding AoE damage output with adequate survivability is the preferred route.

    Good scrapper farmers include:

    Electric/Shield
    Fire/Shield
    Spines/Fire
    Spines/Electric
    Spines/Dark

    Among tanks, I'm not really sure what the best combination is, but my Shield/SS tank is about as good as my Spines/Electric scrapper.
  8. Chaos_String
    Umbral's build is very good. Over the cap on +5% recharge bonuses, but still strong.

    The one thing I'd change about it is the slotting of Hack.

    Right now your attack chain will be Parry > Hack > Headsplitter > (0.142sec) > Hack > Disembowel. By changing the slotting of Hack, you could remove that 0.142sec gap.

    Ideally, I'd go with 5pc Hecatomb (all but the straight Damage piece) along with the AH proc. This would make your attack chain seamless and substantially improve the DPS you get from Hack.

    Avoiding purple sets, I'd go with:

    1) Mako's Bite: Acc/Dam
    2) Mako's Bite: Dam/Rech
    3) Mako's Bite: Acc/End/Rech
    4) Mako's Bite: Acc/Dam/End/Rech
    5) Crushing Impact: Dam/Rech
    6) Achilles Heel: Chance for -Res

    This would make your attack chain seamless. Hack would be more accurate but cost slightly (0.33) more endurance. You'd gain a larger +HP buff and a global +3%dam buff, and since Umbral's build was already over the cap on +5%rech, you wouldn't lose anything of consequence.
  9. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Laevateinn View Post
    I agree with the gist of your post but want to point out that the rad could probably still solo the AV, because EM Pulse has -1000% regen in it and on a permahastened build you can get it to about 17% uptime. I don't think even most rads know that EMP is half the reason Rad outputs more -Regen than the other debuff sets.
    The fact that EMP shuts down your endurance recovery for the same amount of time that it debuffs enemy regeneration makes it impractical for soloing AVs and GMs.

    Although my ill/rad has soloed everything up to and including Lusca, I didn't use EMP for that purpose, except in a few cases where I missed with LR and wanted to let my pets continue to make headway against the AV/GM while I basically did nothing for 15sec.

    Now I'm going to have to break out my ill/rad and see if I can take down some AVs without LR.

    EDIT: just soloed Chimera without LR. So yeah, it's sub-optimal but definitely doable. In fact I'm pretty sure I could have taken him down without any -regen at all, though it would have taken longer without EMP. An ill/rad can put more raw DPS on target than most people realize, I guess.

    Looking back on things, this shouldn't have surprised me in the least. I took down Nightstar and Siege even though they both have 80% psi resistance, and the bulk of my damage output is psi.

    Now I feel this thread has been thorougly derailed.
  10. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cyber_naut View Post
    I'd love to see your BS build that puts out that kind of dps.

    And while you're right to point out that SD will put most if not all primaries above any non SD paired primary, all things being equal (ie. when measuring primary vs primary, they either both have sd or neither does), the chart does give a good idea of which sets are best in regards to single target dmg over an extended period, and BS seems to finish in the lower half in most of the discussions we've had (which is why I'd love to see your build, I'm curious to see your slotting and attack chain).
    Hack > Headsplitter > Hack > Disembowel > (0.5sec)

    BTW, I was the one who gave BillZ this attack chain and convinced him that it was better than the one he was going to use.

    Code:
    | Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
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|-------------------------------------------------------------------|
  11. Chaos_String
    Personally, I made a Peacebringer before I made a Warshade, and played it to SO level, and although I agree that it's a less complicated AT, my Peacebringer ultimately languished in the mid-20s while my Warshade swiftly leveled to 50.

    I think Warshades are much more engaging to play; the complexity of the AT and the quirkiness of the playstyle are more than paid off by its sheer power and versatility once you get the hang of it.

    If you're a person who is already fairly familiar with game mechanics, or one who learns and adapts quickly, you might just as well go ahead with the Warshade. Sure, it's a steeper learning curve and there are a lot of nuances to pick up along the way, but it isn't like it's brain surgery either.

    Just don't think that you can coast to 50 on the coattails of teammates or get powerleveled and still be able to play a kheld well. Flatly you cannot, if it's your first time. There's no faking it. Some things you have to learn how to use for them to be effective, and the kheld powersets (especially Warshades) are full of those kinds of things.

    Either one you chooose, I suggest you try tri-form first, so you'll gain a first-hand appreciation of the versatility of the AT and the many things that it can do, before you try a human-only build.
  12. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Laevateinn View Post
    I just want to note that a lot of those /SD pylon times are achieved only with saturated AAO. And you don't always get saturated AAO in normal gameplay, since teammates are killing things, stuff gets scattered/knocked around, you don't always have the luxury of perfect positioning, etc. Even playing solo, I rarely bother to get fully saturated AAO, especially vs enemies that don't herd well.
    While all that is true, if you're headed into a situation where sustained single-target DPS is going to be a critical issue (like soloing an AV), it's usually easy to arrange circumstances so that you'll receive a substantial buff from AAO.

    And to Shred_Monkey:

    Quote:
    I think what's really revealing about that list isn't so much how DM and Fire dominate the primaries, but how there's a huge gap between /Shield and /(everything else).
    Exactly what I was saying upthread. But I agree, too, that a DPS-specced DB/SR ought to solo pylons much faster than the DB builds currently on record.
  13. Chaos_String
  14. Chaos_String
    Even if you're going for pure team support and not for soloing AVs, building for +recharge and perma-PA is still better than building for ranged defense.

    Here's an apparently well-kept secret: ill/rad doesn't need an uber purpled-out build to solo AVs or be an extremely survivable asset to a team. You can do either of those things on an SO build--but not as effectively as you could with a perma-PA build. If you're going to IO your ill/rad out, though, +recharge is still the way to go.

    Of course, build your ill/rad however you like. If you must go for defense, the amount you'll need depends on the foes you're fighting. With RI fully slotted for -ToHit, a mere 6% defense will softcap you against even-cons caught within the debuff. Higher level foes will require more defense to floor their chances to hit you as their level scales up relative to yours; and level 50 AVs with their debuff resistance will require 39% defense to floor their chances to hit you, even with RI fully slotted for -ToHit.

    Yet I urge you to reconsider building for +recharge. Remember that with enough recharge, you will provide teams with:

    1) omnipresent indestructible tanks
    2) perma-AM
    3) crippling debuffs that recharge so fast you needn't sweat the anchors being killed
    4) those omnipresent tanks again
    5) a fast-pulsing heal
    6) AoE holds that recharge hella fast
    7) great damage output with a tight attack chain, and
    8) omni. present. tanks.

    Comparatively speaking, a defense build would offer a team less of each of those things, with little or no additional survivability.

    There are precious few builds in CoX that are better if you don't build for defense. But omg, ill/rad is way up at the top of that very short list. Plus like I say, there's no real disconnect between a perma-PA AV soloing build and a team-support build, when it comes to ill/rad. Power selection early in the game may be different, and slotting priorities may differ, but in the end, the perma-PA build is the way to go for either purpose.

    EDIT: originally I slipped you a peek at my own Ill/Rad build, intended to show you how a lot of +recharge could be had fairly cheaply by level 42, perma-PA could be attained by level 48, and all this without any purple or pvp IOs. But now I've thought better of it. Your focus is very different from mine; you'd want to take the force multipliers RI and EF earlier than I did, you'd want Mutation which I skipped, and so on.

    Still, I stand by my assertion that +recharge and not +defense is the best way to go, even for a support-focused build.
  15. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Cyber_naut View Post
    Bill did a list with just the primary doing the dmg and fm and dm both were top performers. SD just widens the gap for the primaries that go with SD.
    BillZ's thread showed Broadsword ranking among the worst primaries for high-end DPS; yet my BS/SD build outperformed every single non-shield build on record in pylon time.

    The point remains: choice of secondary (Shield vs. not-Shield) has more to do with high-end DPS than choice of primary.
  16. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Local_Man View Post
    Frankly, how hard is it to turn off your Sprint Toggle when fighting?
    Even running it between spawns costs you almost 1 endurance per three seconds of travel time. Doesn't seem like a lot, but it quickly adds up. Endurance is a big limitation in the early game, when you don't have adequate accuracy, endredux and damage in your powers. The sooner you can stop using Sprint entirely, the better.

    That said, I took:

    1: Blind
    2: SW
    4: Deceive
    6: AM
    8: Air Sup
    10: Swift

    and although it's been a long time (since i7 or i8), I'm pretty confident the selection was spot on. By level 10 I had strong controls, strong damage and soloed very quickly and efficiently.

    I know RI would have been useful early had I been more focused on team support, but as it was, I soloed, and RI wouldn't have been sustainable in situations where I'd really benefit from it.

    Like you, I'm a big fan of an early Deceive, but I'm a bigger fan of early Sprint than I am of early RI; but that's likely just a difference in playstyle, not really definitive advice.
  17. Chaos_String

    Good BS/SD name?

    POST-ACTION

    Swordy McBoardy.
  18. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Local_Man View Post
    The order of powers will matter if you ever exempt . . . and one of the biggest benefits of the purple sets is that you keep your bonuses when you exemp. I try to take the most effective powers I can as early as possible to make the character better when exemping down. A frequent trend by many is to take Swift or Hurdle at level 6 . . . why? There are so many powers much more useful at that level and Hurdle can be delayed to 12 or 16.
    While I agree with most of your comments on ill/rad and endorse your guide, there are a couple things here I'd like to point out.

    1) People take Swift or Hurdle at 6 so they can stop running Sprint all the time, which is very taxing pre-Stamina. Personally I don't take it that early if there's something a lot more important, but neither do I like to run in slow motion.

    2) Unless you're slumming in AP to run with sewer teams, or joining radio teams in KR to get safeguards you've outleveled, or doing that Ouroboros mission that sets you to level 1, there's no reason to sweat whether you took Swift at 6 or 16. Exemping below 14 doesn't happen in flashback and it doesn't happen on TFs. And you now have access to your level 18 power even when exemped that low.
  19. Chaos_String

    Stupid question

    POST-ACTION

    I saw a video of a claws/regen soloing Bobcat. Dunno who it was, but yeah, it can be done.

    It seemed that recharge was the name of the game, and there was a bit of kiting involved. Also I think the build had substantial S/L defense--well below softcap though if I'm remembering right.
  20. Chaos_String
    Well, what that list in particular says to me is that choice of secondary (ie. Shield or not Shield) has more to do with top-end DPS than choice of primary.
  21. Chaos_String
    That's odd.

    On my spines/elec I had no trouble customizing Throw Spines, but all I did is change the entire powerset under "Spines" (rather than each power individually) to "Crystal Spines" (instead of "Custom" as you've done).

    Then I colorized one power to my liking and matched colors across the whole powerset.

    All my spines powers produce white crystal spines with black edges.

    Maybe try doing that, but with metal spikes in your case.
  22. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Igor_The_Mad View Post
    Yeah. I ITF a lot with Virya and if I don't have 90+ def debuff res she starts to feel squishy pretty fast. Those cimerorans pack a nasty punch.
    My BS/SD did over 200 ITFs before I got burnt out on them (haven't done one in a couple months now).

    I ran at a little under 90% DDR, and it was just fine for ITF, even considering I played like a psycho, never turning off Super Speed, soloing a lot, and being first to attack everything. I died maybe 5 times in those 200+ runs, playing in perma-scrapperlock mode.

    It's laughably simple actually: just keep a couple purples in your tray and monitor your defense #s. They start to drop, you pop a purple; problem solved.

    Shield Defense is a very, very powerful set, especially a late-game build kitted out with IOs. Lack of DDR was never a huge issue for me. It made the Positron + Manticore AV fight pretty tough, but I can't think of any other time I ever wished for SR.

    The list that Werner compiled from the Pylon Results thread says something pretty loud and clear about /SD.
  23. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Fury Flechette View Post
    I have a Rad/Mental and would recommend that combination unhesitatingly.
    So do I, and so would I. The two sets are very well-matched.
  24. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sailboat View Post
    Certainly valid. I used to do that too. However, if you've never tried Hurdle's synergy with Super Jump, you should do so, once, on a mature character (so as to get the higher values that come with level). The first time I did so was a Keanu-like "Whoa!" moment for me. You rise up and up to the top of the arc of your leap, and then keep rising and hurtling forward, a lot farther than before.
    If you're slotting level 50 BotZ in SJ, they'll put you within 1.3 mph of the jump speed cap. Hurdle at that point merely gives you 9 feet of jump height and 1.3mph of jump speed. It's barely noticeable.

    Skipping Swift forces you to either run in slow motion, bunny hop everywhere, or run Sprint all the time. I find none of these options particularly appealing.

    Given that the OP build has both speed-enhancing BotZ in it, it's IMO pointless to prefer Hurdle for better travel speed; I'd rather have Swift for better mobility on the ground.
  25. Chaos_String
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by DaveMebs View Post
    Can you say BR + BU + Aim + Flamethrower + Full Auto chain?
    You can say it; you just can't do it, since AR lacks Aim.

    However, having played AR/EM to 50, I can agree that it's a very strong combination. Boost Range is really awesome when applied to Buckshot, Flamethrower and Full Auto. It gives you a degree of standoff capability that you'd otherwise lack with AR, and ensures that each of your cones will pretty much always hit the maximum 10 targets.