David_Yanakov
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Posts
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Joined
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For the Steadfast set, if I slot the knockback and defense IOs into a shield power, do I get the benefit of them or just the target?
For power of the Pheonix, if I slot in an Energy Manipulator chance to stun, will it go off on the mobs around the target or would it be wasted? -
Quote:Signed. It's all I've really wanted as far as custom pets go. That or to be able to select existing models for certain sets, such as Family gunners in place of enforcers or soldiersOriginally Posted by Cynical_Gamer
At this point I'd be happy just to be able to color the henchmen. -
The detonator is actually why I went Necro for my newer trapper MM. Ran it with thugs before and was quite happy with the results but I'm looking forward to being able to blow up one spawn with the lich, then pulling out a ghost from him and resummoning to roll through the next dozen.
Does it matter which pet goes boom if they all have the same amount of damage enhancement? -
The difference between 35% and 45% is only a major issue when facing defense debuffs. They're three times more likely to hit the 35% defense but lucks are cheap enough to eat like candy so no, I don't feel like the softcap should be the priority when you have plenty of hard controls available. Just get it to the point where you don't get hit so often that it isn't fun to play.
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The only real issue that kills dark miasma as an MM power is the ity-bitty radius on twilight grasp and that's getting fixed. Can't wait for it as it's impossible to count the number of times the minion that I'm trying to heal runs away from me right as I root for the animation.
The early levels can be very difficult for this reason but by the time you hit 24 most any set should be rolling right along. One thing to keep in mind is that your protector bots will be healing most damage that slips through the softcap. Dark does have some much more potent debuffs, particularly in howling twilight but traps is a much more solo friendly set -
/Sonic and /Rad for MMs would be fairly overpowered with just the 40% or so reduction from defender levels. A bruiser or oni with disruption field kept on them would be horrifying. Awesome, but still horrifying. Rad is less of an issue but both sets will require a lot of balance work, which likely moves them further down the priority list. Also probably why /kinetics MMs will never, ever happen even tho' a Ninjas/Kin would be the best thing ever.
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I never really have this problem. I just hit the goto aggressive macro and get them back away from it. Or moved away from any other fight for that matter.
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It really depends on who you team with, too. On my electric armor brute I really, really like the defence that any FF or trapper mastermind brings but I actually had to ask a trapper to stop stealing my alpha strikes with seekers once. I appreciate that they can tank but the team was moving a lot slower while I was dealing half-fury damage.
It comes down to playstyle. If you like to support the squishies and hang back, you'll get more out of FF. More aggressive types will prefer traps. FF does allow you to pay more attention to micromanagement of your bots and positioning of your knockback powers but it's a whole lot harder to be the tank when you need to be for a team since you don't have the agro magnets and alpha sponges of traps. -
I've been running a Mercs/Thermal toon. Up to 25 so far and it's actually been a blast to play even before the Commando. Thermal really shines because you not only get shields for the pets like a bubbler, you get very solid heals and buffs like a pain with enough damage resist debuff in the later levels to keep the damage curve smooth. It also handily fills in that fire hole in merc inherent resists.
As for serum, I am picking it up. No slots as it's a situational power and one should be enough but slapped on a commando when things are going south will give you sixty seconds where he can hold agro with minimal support from you while you get everything set back up. With fitness being free now there's really not much reason not to grab it for that once in awhile situation where you really need it. Like a rez, but more proactive. -
Thugs/Traps is a beast but when rolling toons on a new server, I started a Mercs/Thermal and it has served surprisingly well. Until we get sonic resonance as a secondary, the buffs and debuffs that thermal gives you access to will always be useful.
If you're looking to solo AVs, you may want to look at Bots/Poison. Pets that stay out of melee and can look after themselves mixed with some incredibly powerful single target debuffs will make the big fights easy. -
I've been having similar problems at 23 with SO's. I'm just keeping him logged out to build patrol xp in a police station til I can get a group together until I can get Gravitic Emanation. Then hopefully I can try soloing a bit in the lulls again. At least I hope so. Form dancing has turned out to be a lot of fun even when I do go down.
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Nova also takes endurance mod sets. What happens if you slot a chance to stun in there from the Energy Manipulator set?
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I can understand some frustration when you can't make use of the combo you spent forty levels building up to but if the spawns are dying too fast to make use of your nuke, you're being a good kineticist and can focus on it while enjoying a steamroll. On teams where they aren't you can go a long way toward making up any lack of AoE damage and enjoy the amazed looks on your team's faces as you melt them your own self.
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Malta titans are no fun at all for lethal damage heavy squishy types. They appear to be vulnerable to smashing damage but the debuffs of a Corr's trick arrows at that level just aren't enough to cut through before the very heavy incoming damage faceplants you.
It's almost as bad as that one praetorian mission where you have to fight two EBs that can either perma mez you or two shot you. Alone. And no, three LT grade assistants aren't going to fix that... -
Psy worked well for me. /Ice is working better in the mid-levels. The fairly powerful -recharge really helps and there's no knockback on the blaps mucking up the AoEs. I expect Chilling Embrace will make for a much more survivable Hail of Bullets as well
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Quote:I'd like to second that request to see these builds. The description of the latter intrigues me since 99% of the time when I team it would be far more valuable to be stacking the traps and there is almost always a team member with a buff that will get that last bit of defense needed.Originally Posted by BlissfulChaos
i have a couple of dp/traps builds saved and i cant pick which one i like more..
one softcaps me to s/l/e/n/range
the other only softcaps s/l but i have permahasten(w/o purple sets) -
I'm a huge fan of kinetic melee but it seems to have a couple issues on stalkers at the moment. Namely that sometimes the mobs will start smacking you before the assassin strike lands. On the other hand, following up with placate and burst is a beautiful thing.
Dark melee's -tohit really does help but you see less benefit as you get closer to the defense caps. Once you get tricked out to that point the damage mitigation offered by KM is superior. Up til then, not so much. They're both going to be effective. Bottom line comes down to which animations and powers you like beter since you'll be spending a lot of hours watching them. -
Quote:Why would we be comparing it to Brute or Scrapper shields? No one here is trying to be a scrapper . If anything, steamy mist and shadow fall are what it should be compared to as it's basically the trick arrow version of it. Main difference being that it's a click rather than a toggle and your team benefits without having to stand beside you.Originally Posted by Happy_Thoughts
Sheesh.
First, how about we all agree on what we're talking about? My response was to a statement comparing Flash Arrow to defensive toggles in terms of effectiveness. When I hear the phrase "defensive toggles" I do NOT immediately think of power pools or toggles that have incidental defense in addition to their main function, such as Steamy Mist. I think of things like tanker/scrapper/brute/stalker toggles that provide defense . If the initial statement actually meant power pools and powers that have some defense but whose main purpose is something else, then I honestly don't understand what relevance that comparison is supposed to have.
Second, we do all understand that it is possible to discuss Trick Arrow's strengths and weaknesses without hyperbolic misquoting, right? I'm rather tired of being attributed with saying TA (or components thereof) is "useless" or "sucks" or whatever. I never have.
As for Flash Arrow, it does have some perks and complements other to-hit debuffs and defense buffs. Do those perks compensate for such low debuff values on a defender primary power in situations where those perks don't matter (such as the unresistable tag when fighting non-AVs)? That's really up to the individual.
We now return you to your originally scheduled topic.
What would you say to a dark/ who skips shadow fall or a storm/ who skipped steamy mist? -
Quote:By the time you've laid down Ignite, your tier 1 immobilize is back up and ready to stack on the target, which you should be doing in the case of bosses anyway. Yes it's an issue for /EM blasters but even then it's still handy for filling choke points.Originally Posted by JD_Gumby
Probably because it's the least used, especially solo.
Location AoEs are awkward to use and position properly in the middle of combat, especially in team combat where you have little to no visibility, and especially when the AoE is so tiny (4ft radius). Does a bind like LSHIFT+LBUTTON "powexec_name Ignite" work like it does for teleports? That'd actually help a bit... (EDIT: And it does; tested it on my unused 3rd build and also found out that it *doesn't* work with MBUTTON or RBUTTON, just using the power instead of using-and-placing in those cases)
Lasts only 10 seconds with a 4s cast time (plus a couple of seconds to place it), so odds are most immobilizations/holds are going to be ending quite quickly by the time it's placed (especially if you're relying on one of your own). And when it does end, that mag 50.0 fear means the target is out of there after having taken very little damage.
Overall, not that great a power, even if the damage numbers under optimal circumstances are very good (27.8 damage per second according to City of Data?). -
Quote:So, you're saying that flash arrow still wins in this scenario despite being 'weak'?Originally Posted by Garent
"Flash arrow's debuff is unresistable and will always debuff the amount it says"- Unresistable means that it ignores to-hit debuff resistance, which all enemies ranked above minion have in small (5-10%) amounts. It is still affected by level differences, just like all powers except for oddities like the achilles heel proc. The only time that this is any kind of advantage is during AV fights, and even then flash arrow is so weak that it's only a couple percentage points stronger than the debuffs found in other sets.
slotted flash arrow against an even level AV- 9.75%
slotted radiation infection against an even level AV- 7.31%
And to be fair to the trappers, In the course of running a Thugs/Traps to 50 I can count the number of times my FF generator got blown up on one hand. Not counting the occasional wipe situation. -
Fully agreed on the Thugs/MM. Once you get to SO levels, the triage beacon goes from terrible to something that's on nearly full time and offers 300% regen. Between that and the forcefield generator plus some - tohit, the thugs become very durable. Best part is you can debuff the mobs at the same time, meaning you end up with quite a lot more dps in that fight.
And as we all know, death is the ultimate damage mitigation. -
Most likely because the mastermind attacks that share the name are very different attacks. The animation times don't mesh up in any of the cases. DP Empty Clips is about ten frames longer than the MM version. If the same animations were used, there would be a noticeable pause after the animation 'finished' similar to what people experience with the pool power heals.
How many complaints do you think you'd hear about a set where people saw themselves being unable to do anything between attacks, even if the numbers were identical? -
It runs into the cap very easily but then it's sort of a one trick pony. That one hit in 20 that always lands can hurt unless you're standing ready with a heal
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I'm not sure I understand the argument. If you're after realism, why are you trying to use two pistols at once accurately? Also, no gun fu moves on Pistols? That power is full of spins and whipped arms.
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Traps supports a very aggressive playstyle quite well. It works best when you have something along to absorb the initial agro, be it pets or a scrapper but basically set up the mortar on the edge of a group, jump in to toe bomb with a poison gas trap and go to town. It isn't like /devices where summons have animations several seconds long. As a defender you'll have most of the fun toys by the time you hit SO levels so it shouldn't be difficult to see if you like it or not before you put serious resources into it.