Cybercel

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that is very good advice =)

(i was a member of the Union team that did it ;p)

I do think that you'll be damn lucky to get three on the first shot. It may only be Numina first go to be honest as the incoming damage is huge. But then next time without her damage and without Clear Mind and Fort she sticks on everyone you should get Sister Psyche and Manticore, and without their buffs/leadership and their damage, you know you've got it made =)

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I think after the upcoming nerf, and with experience, two the first time could really work - remember, we didn't actually have a full set of nukes when we started. And it's always a good idea to be sure of who you're going to be going after next, just in case you're lucky and can take down a third.

My advice to the Defiant team would be this: don't give up if you have a few teamwipes, because we had a load, before we got things right. If you use up your nukes, and really find you need them? Go organise your team to get more, leaving someone in the mission to make sure it doesn't reset if need be. Get more Shivans if you run out and want more for the alpha strike.

Oh, and on the mission before, the VIndicators' base? We had an awful time the first go, because we just couldn't split them up, and their AoEs in a confined space were destroying us. We reset it, and suddenly they all happily came in ones and twos with snipe. I suspect that it may be best to just reset that mission and try again fresh if it doesn't work out at first - either their positions must have changed slightly, or after the first snipe didn't work, we ended up with them too close together and none of the later snipes worked as a result.

It's also possible that the Vindicators could be stormed in the same manner as the Freedom Phalanx in the last mission, but we were trying to save nukes and so didn't try it.

Yeah, you really need everyone to be dedicated to getting it done - if anyone had dropped, or hadn't kept trying their best, we'd really have had problems.

Have to agree that it's great to see you posting over here. I regularly check your site to see all the changes - love seeing the work in progress.

Like plenty of others, I only wish I could afford a piece myself!

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No HO, a badge short... but victory has never tasted quite as sweet. Great work, everyone.

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Dratz! (no SHO? )

...but please don't tell me it took 12 hours...o_0 ?

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He's petitioned for it. I got my HO!

And more like 10 hours, but with some breaks, and we ended up nuke-hunting multiple times as we were short of them to start with, and had a few false starts as we figured out how to do it. I think we could do it in half the time, especially after the upcoming AV nerf.

Yeah, well done everyone.

We weren't the quickest at it, but we probably didn't have the "ideal" team when it comes to ATs and powersets. And as I said at the end, I'm quite sure we could do it much more quickly if we were to repeat it. It does go to show that even without the perfect setup with tons of Corruptors like the US used, it absolutely can be done.

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I've not had trouble with Mind Probe myself, but like Seriphos suggests Hero Stats is a good way to check it. I think you might be running into the Brute syndrome that because it's a big melee attack you notice it more when it misses - compare it with Psi Dart for example, which I spam all the time and misses a lot but I don't really notice that much - when Probe misses I think "drat" because I know it will do good damage.

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That's pretty much the conslusion I'd come to with my /Psi Dom. It's such a good attack, that I'm always really annoyed when it happens... especially during Domination.

Especially as a /Dark, I can't really see the problem with standing near some mobs... if they have Darkest Night on them, and are feared, they shouldn't be hurting you much.

On teams, I tend to stand pretty near everything on my squishies anyway, and it's only a problem if we're fighting stuff that fires off a load of AoEs, and I get hit by those. Most enemies, though, I find are either too busy attacking other people, or are mezzed or debuffed, and it's not really a problem to jump in long enough to fire off a PBAoE power. I regularly use Power Sink and Irradiate on my Corruptors, and yeah I get some aggro afterwards, but I don't think I've ever managed to kill myself that way.

Just so you all know, I have got all of this noted down, and I've started the update... but it seems like every time I try to get it finished, something interrupts me!

Barring any more problems with my ISP, bizarre allergic reactions, important phonecalls, or swarms of angry bees, this will get done soon.

Okay, yeah, I made that last one up.

Take one of the end reductions out of Enervating Field, and put that slot into Cosmic Burst, as damage. It's a fantastic attack, and I really doubt you need three end reductions in EF. I generally use two.

Also, I'm pretty sure Proton Volley and Atomic Blast both have an accuracy bonus, so you might not need two accuracies in those. You could use those slots elsewhere, too... recharges in attacks, heal, and Lingering Radiation could all be useful.

Looks like a pretty solid build, though... especially considering you'll probably have more slots to go around post-40.

I think that was over on Defiant - there are some posts on the Defiant Villains forum about it.

I'm still up for the original day, as is Syn, if it's still going ahead.

I'd say try out whatever you like, but I can see the argument that you might be better off playing another toon or two first, just to get an idea of how decent teams tend to play.

It is really easy to cause complete chaos with a Stormy. It's easy to get in the way of how other people on the team are used to playing. If you've only just started and don't know about how tanks tend to group up the mobs, and which of your powers will cause problems for a good tank by breaking up the group, for instance, you could cause some problems on a team. You might annoy people if you misuse your knockback powers in other situations, too.

However, I don't think that playing a Stormy as one of your first toons would really be the end of the world. If you're playing mainly in pick-up groups, a lot of the people you're teaming with will be inexperienced as well, and you'll learn as you go. If you ever feel like your powers are causing problems for a team, or a team seems more organised and you're not sure where your powers best fit in, you can always ask them if anything you're doing is a problem. I know I've done that with my Stormy at times - memorably, one team told me (as the sole Defender in a team of 7 damage dealers) to just go nuts - I kept everything flying around the room and falling over so it couldn't hit the Blasters. We didn't have a single death, playing on Invincible. If we'd had a tank who wanted to try and keep the mobs grouped up, though, I would have driven them insane.

And if you have a good SG you've joined, and are regularly joining good teams who know what they're doing, then you could always just ask for advice from the get-go. Let them know you've heard Stormies can cause problems on a team, and you want them to let you know if you're doing anything that annoys them or causes problems.

Sleet is pretty much Freezing Rain from the Storm sets, right? If so, I'd have to agree that it's a fantastic power, and I really don't see how it's 'situational'. My stormies use it all the time, both early in fights to make use of the -def and -res, and when things go wrong to take some of the heat off the team. I've never found it to cause much more aggro than anything else, and the knockdown stops a lot of that aggro from doing anything to you. I'm pretty sure I've killed myself with Snow Storm aggro in the past, but never Freezing Rain. In fact, I often use Freezing Rain if I picked up a little too much aggro, to stop it.

There's really no "best" build of any AT.

Instead, think about what you'd like to be able to do. The various Corruptor powersets are quite different from one another. Do you want to be able to team well, or do you prefer to solo? Maybe a bit of both? Do you want to focus more on doing damage, or on buffing/debuffing/healing? Some sets will even give you a little control if you enjoy that.

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...up to 75% of dominator primaries, I wouldnt like to be without AOE/Cone def when domination is up, you may as well just drop your toggles as pb will count for little.

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Jus to back this up, someone from my SG wanted to do some testing, and my boyfriend and I helped out. I saw just how easily a Dominator can stack over PB. Even if you have PB slotted up and with Quickness and Hasten so you have it stacked, when Domination is going, you only chance is to not get hit. The difference between how long it took for the SR Scrapper to get held (through stacked PB) with and without defenses was huge - it became quite difficult to stack enough holds together.

It's probably just the buff making it seem useless. I did a number of AVs recently on my /Dark Corruptor along with a /Dark MM, and it was certainly helping. Multiple people all using their -regen is very noticeable - with a couple of Darks and a Kin, say, we would be having no trouble. If one person stopped spamming their -regen for some reason, the AVS would start to regen, though.

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Xanthe - Ice/Thermal shall take your place... any objections?

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No objections from here - Thermals are quite nice to have against AVs, with the -regen in the single-target debuff. And Ice is nice single-target damage, and the more damage we have the better.

Antithetix and I are planning on grabbing the nukes and Shivans later today... anything else we should be keeping in mind?

My Ice/Dark has taken on a good number of Blasters in the zones one-on-one (or on one memorable occasssion, two-on-one ) and won. She can also stand up to a lot of Scrappers for a good while, but would always run out of endurance before being able to finish them off.

I've never really gone in for actual duels, mind you - this is just from hanging around in the zones and running into someone when no one else is nearby, and so on.

/Dark is a great option if you want to be able to solo, whether you go for a Corruptor or an MM. It's a fun mix of powers, too. The AoE heal on it is fantastic for MMs - especially those with ranged pets who'll tend to stay close to the MM. As an added bonus, it's also a fantastic set to have when you're teaming, too!

I took out a few EBs solo on my Ice/Dark Corruptor, so Corruptors are certainly viable solo. More downtime and risk than an MM, though.

I think a lot of the unfairness as far as Empaths unbalancing things would be helped if the version of Clear Mind in Thermal Radiation was actually as good as Clear Mind. It would still be iffy, seeing as there's no hero AT that depends on invisibility, but it would go some way to correcting the imbalance, especially in lower-level PvP zones. Clarity for Sonic Corruptors (which IS as good as Clear Mind, if I'm remembering correctly) isn't available until level 35.

Playing both an Empath and a Thermal, I know how much I miss the perception boost and Fear and Confuse res when I'm PvPing on the villain side. Also, the Thermal heals root you for a moment, while Empath heals don't.

Level 50 Ice/Dark Corruptor here. I'll come along as long as there's room for my boyfriend, too - he plays as a level 50 Robots/Dark MM, so we'll both bring useful debuffs including -regen.

Yeah, I've seen the guide - sadly, I've already seem some distrust as far as the numbers in it, but it must at least be a good general guide. Personally, I tend to go on a combination on the numbers in Sherk Silver's hero builder program, searches or both the EU and US forums, and my own experience.

Anyway, good luck with the respec - if there are any powers left you're unsure about, then maybe level a bit more, take them, and try them out before you do it. My Ice/Dark's first build was an utter mess, since I didn't know the two sets and was just trying out everything I could, but it worked, and gave me a good idea of how to respec her into something that worked better for me.

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The two acc was more done for PvP, where base def is higher

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Its the base Acc that is lower, not the Def which is higher.


Its just a tiny quibble

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That's actually a very common misconception. Here's the actual patch note from the devs about the change that was made to PvP:

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In PvP, all players have been given a 25% bonus to base Defense. This change was made to help power sets like Super Reflexes and Force Field that rely on Defense, as they were underperforming in PvP. These power sets were originally balanced against the base to hit chance of minions, which is much lower than the base to hit for characters. This change has no effect on PvE.

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The initial post made about the change listed it as being a change to base accuracy in PvP. This was incorrect, and the patch note was replaced fairly quickly. Apparently, the two work out pretty much the same anyway.

For whatever reason, the "reduced accuracy" reasoning stuck in people's minds, I guess because it was posted first.

I don't see Darkest Night mentioned anywhere - did you just not mention it, or are you honestly not planning on taking it? If the latter, I'd really suggest you rethink that... a lot of people consider it one of the defining powers of the Dark Miasma set, and it's a fantastic power. Especially AVs/Heroes, which there are plenty of in CoV.

There are just too many good powers in Ice/Dark to have all of the useful ones at once, that said. It really depends what you want to go for. Personally, mine is single-target only, with the exception of Blizzard. I just couldn't afford the slots to make Ice Storm really worthwhile, and Freezing Breath's slow animation annoyed me, as did the endurance usage. I used it a lot during earlier levels, but after a respec at 24 found I was barely using it anymore, and I've now respecced it out altogether. Ice/Dark certainly could be played more towards the AoEs though, if you enjoy them - Tar Patch certainly helps the damage from them.

As far as holds go, I've gone with Freeze Ray and Petrifying Gaze. Two holds lets me stack on bosses, and I love being able to do that. Bitter Freeze Ray has an awful activation time and again uses rather a lot of endurance - I took it, then dropped it ASAP. I now also have the hold from my Patron Pool, which I have to admit is somewhat overkill in a lot of situations, but it means I can help stack holds with other characters in PvP or on AVs... plus, if I need to hold a boss, and one hold misses, I still lock it down.

Shadow Fall is fantastic, make sure you do get it. Stacked with my patron power shield, it's become especially good (both have energy resist). The psy resist in it is really handy for helping protect Brutes who have no psy resist and take a real beating if they're handling a lot of the aggro from psy-using enemies.

As far as the Fitness pool... how are you finding your endurance is holding up? I found Ice/Dark to be the single most endurance-intensive character I've ever played, and it drove me to utter despair at times. The toggles do NOT help this at all though, and it looks like you don't have them. Bitter Ice Blast will eat through your endurance as well. I actually went Stamina-free until a respec in my 20s myself, grabbed it as soon as I could after realising my mistake, but found I was still gasping for breath once I had it. I found I was better off on large teams where I didn't need to act like a main damage dealer, though. Anyway, I'd say Stamina is a must, especially if you pick up Shadow Fall, Darkest Night, and Bitter Ice Blast. Using the holds will start eating into your endurance, as well. Oh, and I'd take Hurdle over Health - extra movement is never bad, Hurdle is actually faster than Swift, plus Health is a very small boost, and pretty much useless when you have a self-heal.

As far as the attacks go, I pretty much always go with 2 acc/3 dam/1 recharge. I was considering switching to an endurance reduction rather than a recharge, but have since picked up Power Sink from my patron pool, and instead I'm happy to just keep spamming the attacks as fast as I can. The two acc was more done for PvP, where base def is higher - you may be okay with one in PvE, but that could depend on what levels you tend to fight. I like to fight much higher levels, and now that I'm used to two acc, I won't go back to one.

If you're going to bother having the AoEs, my feeling would be they're only worth the endurance cost if you get them slotted right up so they do plenty of damage. I'd slot Freezing Breath the same as the single-target attacks. Blizzard has a huge acc boost and just needs 3 damage and as many recharge as you feel like, and I'm honestly not entirely sure on Ice Storm. I'm sure a little forum searching would turn up an answer on how to slot it, if no one responds here.

I'm going to stop now since this is getting horribly long and rambly, but feel free to ask anything else. My Ice/Dark is my absolute pride and joy, and probably my favourite character ever, so there's a good chance I'll have something to say if you're looking for opinions on any more power or slotting choices. I might even get my intended guide written up sometime soon if I can focus myself a for a while...

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kk mate, i was just asking just wanted to see my alt name on a website :P

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No worries, you'll see it soon. I'll see if I can get around to updating tonight, in fact.