ClawsandEffect

It was the middle of the day, it started as 1 hero, and over the next 15 minutes more showed up, all from the same SG (naming them is against forum rules so I won't do so)

So, we ended up with 2 or 3 Electric/Devices blasters snipe-spiking anyone who ventured outside the hospital before they could even move, and another 2 or 3 inside the hospital waiting for PvP timers to count down. If you didn't run outside before the timer counted down they killed you in the hospital, inside the rez rings if they could. If you DID run out of the hospital you got spiked before you even finished zoning in.

No villains with TP Foe in the zone and it basically equated to the heroes farming us at will. I got disgusted and left, after petitioning the players doing the griefing. As it currently stands I don't believe I will be going back, as I'm not keen on the idea of being farmed by a bunch of jackholes using an exploit to make sure I can't defend myself or even avoid them. NPC critters can't avoid being farmed because their AI doesn't give them a choice in the matter. I can choose not to be farmed and that's exactly what I have done.

And all I really wanted was the accolade required time badge. Which I will either never get, or will get extremely slowly, because I'm not going back in there while that SG is in the zone, since from what I've seen no one ever gets punished for this behavior.

The thing I find incredibly amusing is the people using this exploit seem to think it means they are "skilled" at PvP. It doesn't take skill to spawn camp. Just like the meow farms didn't mean you were a good player because you could level fast.

Sorry about the rant, I'm sure in a few days I won't give a flying [censored], but I'm still annoyed at the moment and wanted to vent.

Ah, ok. Makes sense now.

WP is good in PvE because it does many things passably well and no one thing exceptionally good. The power that makes Willpower so awesome in PvE is Rise to the Challenge.

RttC has a couple problems in PvP
1) It needs enemies in melee range of you to function, and unless you spend a lot of time fighting brutes nothing is going to stay in melee with you to fuel it.
2) It has a component (to-hit debuff) that affects enemies, so when you get mezzed (which happens a LOT in PvP) it shuts off.

Those two issues together make RttC just about useless in a PvP situation.

The other things Willpower has:
1) Middling resistance to Smashing/Lethal/Psi. Which is both good and bad. You take less damage from those damage types, that's the good. Those damage types generally tend to hit really hard, which cancels out some of the resistance.
2) Middling to good defense against Fire/Cold/Energy/N.Energy. This is defense, not resistance. Meaning if an attack gets through of these damage types it will deal all of it's damage instad of being reduced. In PvP you will be getting hit through this a LOT, as most PvP characters have extremely high accuracy.

The good points of Willpower USED to be: Fear protection, both Psionic resistance AND defense. Fear was used a lot against melee characters because, until Willpower was introduced only Dark Armor was protected from it, and DA is another set that does not perform well in PvP, so it was a safe bet that a fear power would affect a scrapper. Now that all mezzes that hit take effect that advantage has largely disappeared.

The Psi resistance and defense is still a plus, but it means a lot less when you take into account all the things Willpower has going against it.

Finally, Willpower's lack of a self heal deals the killing blow to it as far as PvP is concerned. If you run out of green inspirations you have no way to heal yourself at all. You could take Aid Self, but Willpower lacks the defense of SR or Shield that would allow you to consistently use Aid Self without being interrupted.

So there's a basic explanation of why Willpower isn't good for PvP. Essentially, all the things that make it great for PvE are the same things that make it suck in PvP, Dark Armor is in the same boat.

I ran into a similar issue with my Shield tank. No matter how much buffing I had my Shield Charge would never do more than 504 damage.

Perhaps the powers themselves have a cap that is not immediately apparent? I suppose it would be akin to a damage softcap? Like with defense, once you hit 45% anything above it won't do you any good as far as performance goes, but the hard cap (the point where you just can't get any more defense) is just over 200%. Maybe attack powers have a similar mechanic in place that isn't widely known?

Not bad. Maybe add a minor damage component to bring Petrifying Gaze in line with other Dom ST holds. The only downside I see is your Dark Control set has almost zero damage in it. Not a huge deal, but every other set has at least some damage in it, I see one damaging power in there, the ST immobilize. Even Earth and Ice do more damage than this would.

The Dark Assault, however, looks pretty good. I would play a Gravity/Dark/Soul Dom in a heartbeat. Mind/Dark would likely be a new FOTM if we got these sets.

I like Gravity/Ice. I'm not even that experienced of a Dominator player and it works nicely for me. I solo pretty good if I keep my wits about me (and remember that I'm not a scrapper) and I contribute decently on teams.

Also worth noting, my characters are all concept based and I pick my powersets based on concept or what sounds like fun, rather than what other people tell me is the best set. In the case of Grav/Ice it was a combination of both concept and fun.

I have a Grav/Ice that I'm enjoying quite a bit.

He's only level 28 so far, and I chose Grav/Ice because of the truly awesome (IMO) name I got for him...Magnetic North

Power Boost has been a big help, and it's funny because it recharges roughly twice as fast as the power I wanted it for, Gravity Distortion Field (the AoE hold for anyone that doesn't know)

Is Singularity really as awesome of a pet as I've heard? If so, could someone give me a couple slotting ideas for it?

My strategy so far is fight at range until I have the mob whittled down and/or locked down and close to melee for Ice Sword and Ice Sword Circle. After hearing about the Gravity changes in another thread I'm contemplating adding Lift into my build for more ST damage. This is the first Dominator I've enjoyed enough to stick with (I think the name has a lot to do with it) so the fact that they are getting buffed is really nice.

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The reason you can't see stalkers now with tatics or cm or both is because the Stealth cap is higher then the perception cap

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This (bolded part) was untrue last I checked. I have a sonic/devices blaster with Tactics and a +perception IO, he is at the perception cap, which is 1153 feet. According to numerous sources (ParagonWiki, actual in-game experience) the stealth cap is 1143. How that works out is, if both players are at their respective caps the stalker will be visible within 10 feet of the perception capped character. The reason you can't see stalkers with capped perception is they are not close enough to you, you should see enough of an outline to target them within 10 feet if you are at perception cap.

As far as I know that is the current state of things, unless things have recently changed.

Not really that worried. I was just bringing it to people's attention if they were unaware of it. My search for topics over the last year turned up nothing. Since I only recently started playing villains more I didn't know about this until yesterday.

I already petitioned it and, as far as I'm concerned that is the end of it.

I thought it was a new exploit, I didn't realize that it had been around for several years. Which just cements my decision to be done with PvP. They can do all these other things to th eentire PvP system, but they can't fix this exploit? Sheesh.

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Get on a toon with TP Foe and introduce them to a drone.

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That's just it, I don't HAVE a toon with TP Foe. There is little use for it anywhere else in the game and I hate teleport as a travel power, so I can't use it to open the pool.

My solution is easier still. I just quit PvPing.

No I don't. The character in question is a Dark/Kin corruptor, who is never taking a travel power other than maybe SJ or SS.

It is beyond ridiculous to have to take certain powers just to be able to do NOTHING.

You also don't get the accolade-required time badge for PvPing in RV. I don't have the luxury of being able to start a task force and lay there dead in the zone for the time badge.

And now that there is forced rezzing I can't even lay there dead while sitting at the computer.

It just annoys me that the players using this exploit think it's funny as hell while they're doing it, but if the same thing happens to them they scream bloody murder.

"LOL, did you see how many times we killed that guy and he couldn't do anything!"

turns into:

"Hey, I died, NO FAIR! They cheated!!"


The same kind of people that in a real life altercation will talk all kinds of trash while running away and come back later with 12 of their friends, at which point they become really brave all of a sudden.

I have zero respect and no use for those kinds of people.

Still sucks that your options are pretty much:

Roll one of a very small number of ATs and/or powerset combos, and take powers that are next to useless anywhere else (Phase Shift)

-OR-

Don't PvP


And I don't see this ever changing. The devs are unlikely to ever fix it, so I am unlikely to be seen in PvP zones. Well, they keep trying to fix it, but their approach to fixing PvP is akin to solving a household pest problem by burning down the house (which the pests tend to live through)

This was my first run in with it. It pretty much led to the decision that I'm done with PvP completely, except for possibly the arena. I don't mind the RV gank squads, I expect it anytime I venture in there. Yes, it IS annoying to get killed repeatedly, but the ones doing the killing aren't actually breaking any rules to do it.

If the devs want to nerf PvP to the ground and STILL allow such blatant griefing then I want no part of it. Which sucks, because it was a part of the game I USED to enjoy. With the addition of the PvP recipes we will be seeing more of this type of thing, if we haven't been already.

It's such a SIMPLE fix too. Just add a couple more drones in the corner the heroes hide in. That's what, maybe an hour's worth of work for a junior programmer?

My experience tonight was that a team of 4 Electric/Devices blasters could farm villain players at will and there was nothing the villains could do about it. You come out of the base, they snipe-spike you before you can even move. And once you rez (or are forced to) you have to run out of the hospital to avoid being killed again, which leads you right back into the field of snipes. Griefing, plain and simple. And if the same thing was possible in the hero hospital you can believe there would be an uproar. But since it's the villain's problem no one seems to care.

And yes, I know there are going to be people telling me to quit being such a crybaby about this, but this is a legitimate complaint about something that has been broken for over 3 years. I didn't know how long this has been an issue for, since I just recently started playing vilains more, and when I'm heroside I don't use PvP exploits to grief people like this.

The ability of hero players in Siren's Call to spawn camp INSIDE the villain hospital in the same room as the rez rings?

I went in to get the time badge (that for some stupid reason is required for an accolade) and saw some heroes in the zone, so I figured I'd do some PvPing instead of just standing around in the base. After I had been killed repeatedly (kind of cheaply, but legitimately) I saw that there were several heroes inside the hospital sniping villains as soon as their PvP timer counted down.

I generally don't complain about things in PvP, but that was just too much. There was no real way to avoid the heroes, I couldn't even stay dead because of the forced rez in zones now. If they were just hovering above the base sniping me as I came out, I could deal with that, as it isn't exploiting anything, and I would do the same myself if I had the ability.

In my book, spawn camping inside what is supposed to be a safe area for one side is a textbook example of griefing. Other than petitioning the players doing it (which I did) is there anything else I can do? Also, are there any plans to fix this that anyone is aware of, or are the devs just going to allow griefing like this?

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Based on second-hand experience, the AOE Immobilize is a great way to get yourself killed (controllers and dominators both). Aggro everyone, don't do a lot of damage, and don't stop them from shooting back? Sign ME up!

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Agreed, I only use mine on teams when there is sufficient agro control, or for a little bit of damage after I hit with my AoE hold. I'm Gravity/Ice btw. So far at level 28 I'm enjoying it, I imagine it will get even better once I get my Singularity.

The only thing I see is you should flip the picking of Integration and Spin.

Consider taking Instant Healing at 28. But if you have plans to take it at 30 that's fine too. It's not THAT vitally important that you can't wait another 2 levels.

Other than that, for a leveling build you look fine.

Sta-Puft Marshmallow Man.


That is all.

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I have to side with the big man with the metal gloves on this one. As something of a personal ultimate dream of mine, I've been following official commentary on Power Customization, and that's pretty much what BABs has said in the past. Technologically, the solution isn't very difficult. Powers currently draw off static effects files and use sprite textures draw in colour. That's why Dark Melee can be black AND not transparent. Changing those isn't as much about reinventing the wheel as it is about digging through all the files and reworking them by hand, redoing coloured textures in monochrome and at the same time making sure not to mess up how powers look in the process. I believe he mentioned it was at least two Issues' worth of work.

But then, BABs, now that you have a minion or two... Maybe?

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You forgot the possibly most important bit.

Rewrite the FX engine to let effects remember their creator's color. Right now, they could make the glow around your hands and your fire bolt purple, but they have no way to change the color of the bolt exploding on the enemy and the fire that lingers to show the DoT.

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In some cases this would be a good idea. However, fire is a bad example. If you set something on fire it doesn't matter what color the source flame is, it will burn normal fire colors unless there is a chemical or composition that causes it to burn otherwise. If you light a stick on fire with a blue flamed blowtorch, the stick will still burn orange. Simple chemistry. The explosion of the blast on the enemy should be changeable though, that I will grant.

For other power effects such as the cloud around enemies when you hit them with a dark attack or the color of rad toggles this feature will make more sense.

Not bashing your idea, just pointing out that fire effects are a bad example of what you're talking about. This is of course assuming you are talking about physical fire, magical fire may have different effects.

Another for DM/Nin. Largely because it's the only one I have enough experience with to comment on.

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I am having a bit of trouble selecting from the Ninjitsu powers though, I haven't needed defense or utility much.

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That will change soon. No, they're not changing the powers. It's just that you will reach a point where you are going to have to scrap it out after an AS, and that gets a lot harder if you have no defense.

I have a DM/Nin and I skipped all 3 of the utility powers in the set, and will probably be skipping the tier 9 as well (he's level 37 at the moment) I like the fact that Ninjitsu has powers in it that aren't absolutely vital that you can get away with skipping. Like you, I happened to pick a good combo because it sounded cool, I did no research whatsoever beforehand. Of course I also have at least 1 DM character from every AT that has it as a powerset too.

I like it. It's something the AE is currently missing. In my experience it is difficult to make your custom critters neither too easy or too hard. This would give the ability to create custom critters more in line with the regular mobs in the rest of the game.

I disagree with the reduced XP though, they should give normal minion, LT, and Boss XP.

Nope. I have unlocked everything you can unlock in AE. No Frostfire map.

Sure, why not. This should really go in Jay's Costume Request Thread though. Jay won't see your idea unless it's in there, and Jay is the one you want to see your idea.

I agree with _Mojo_ on th HPT slotting. The Steadfast Res/Def is a good choice for it, but I would slot the rest with more Numina's. Indomitable Will should provide plenty of KB and status Protection. If you slotted the -KB Steadfast for the recovery bonus, switch it to the Res/End instead, it will benefit the power more, still nets you the bonus and is a HELL of a lot cheaper.

Other than that, if it works for you, go with it.