Dechs Kaison
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Posts
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Quote:At this point I can see you're asking more about Dark Armor than about Spines, so I know I can help. I've build a few Dark Armor characters. Some were to the softcap, some that weren't.Originally Posted by Deceivius
Tentatively, I'm considering building for S/L defense, but I'm not going to go all crazy trying to reach the soft cap with it. For one, Kinetic Combats are *incredibly* overpriced, and my alt-itis and ADD keeps me from building too many merits on one toon :P. Not that I'm against getting a few, just that I'd rather not spend all my time chasing them.
You can actually build DA two different ways to get ridiculous survivability. One is to go for defense. What you'll end up with is a character that takes damage very slowly because of the layered resists and defense, and every once in a while fires Dark Regeneration to fill up. The other way is to go for recharge, which means you can fill your health bar much more often with Dark Regeneration every ten seconds or less. That's very reactionary, but lends itself to great offense.
So far, my favorite has been a brute that I built with a balance of defense and recharge. If you're not going to hit the softcap, then a good number to aim for is 32.5% since one small purple inspiration is all it will take to softcap you.
In my experience, melee defense is almost the least useful to Dark Armor. When melee foes become a problem, toggle on Oppressive Gloom. It's those ranged bastards that hurt. S/L defense is great, but I put just as much emphasis on E/N defense because energy is tied for your least resisted element and it's quite common to be hit with it.Quote:Originally Posted by Deceivius
Would it be more sound to shoot for melee defense, instead? I mean, it's quite a bit easier to shoot for melee defense (at least from what I've encountered).
Spines adds the benefit of -recharge to people in melee, so I really would suggest against building for that.
To avoid sucking wind, just pick up a Theft of Essence proc and throw that in Dark Regeneration. I know Spines gives you an extra toggle, but most of your endurance consumption still comes from your attacks. Use endurance reduction there first.Quote:Originally Posted by Deceivius
What should I be building towards? Besides obvious +end powers, since I'll be sucking wind like a vacuum
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Expense is a funny thing. I tout that I only spent 300 million on my Dark Armor Tank that Sucks, and he has five sets of Kinetic Combat. This was before Amerits, so I used mostly reward merits to build him. I'd show you my builds, but I have a feeling they're out of your range.Quote:Originally Posted by Deceivius
Does anyone have a decent build that's not *too* expensive? -
Quote:You think the sniper could pull that shot off with an AK-47? Or a .44 revolver?Originally Posted by Schismatrix
Right, because guns require no training or martial skill at all. That sniper that shot his target from two miles away? The only difference between him and the guy that opened fire at a storefront where a guy he hated was standing and only managed to hit a mother and two kids is the guns they're using. All that training that prize winning shooters do before competing is just morale building; it has no actual effect on performance.
Yes, most of the sniper's ability to actually land the shot is in the gun, the scope, and the spotter. All of his martial training went into getting into position and not being seen.
Don't get me wrong, not anyone can be a "sniper." But anyone with that gun, scope, and spotter telling him what to do can make that shot. -
All your answers are here.
Particularly:
Quote:Originally Posted by seebs
Why is /devices weak?
The /devices set has never really been updated to fit the modern CoH game. Before ED and IOs, Targeting Drone meant that you could put one more damage enhancement, and one less accuracy, in most powers. That translated into a substantial damage increase -- figure about 10-15% compared to a blaster who had to slot for more accuracy. Now, most people will have damage at the ED cap, and with set bonuses, they may well have plenty of accuracy without even explicitly slotting for it. Targeting Drone went from a pretty decent power to a sort of mediocre power. It's still better than nothing, but it's not at all obvious that it's better than a pool power, or better than not using it and saving your endurance.
Similarly, Cloaking Device was a really nice stealth, back when there were no Stealth IOs. Now, it's not great. It's not awful, and it helps that it stacks with Stealth IOs, but it's a mediocre to pitiful amount of defense (especially since only part of that defense is available when you're in combat), and stealth is not in and of itself all that useful most of the time.
The big central flaw, though, becomes clear when you look at time bomb and trip mines. The powers that ought to be among the set's star players are utterly useless once combat starts; they are essentially impractical to use except by setting up before combat. On a fast team, the average spawn will be dead in the time it takes you to set up a time bomb, rendering the power completely pointless.
Quite simply, /devices was not built for CoH the way it is actually played.
How does /devices compare to traps/ or /traps?
The traps/ defender set is widely regarded as an amazing set. The reason is clear if you look at a few of the powers that traps/ has and /devices doesn't. Look at Triage Beacon, Acid Mortar, Force Field Generator, Poison Gas Trap, and Seeker Drones. Do you know what they have in common? They aren't interruptible. You can use them in combat. And that means that you can actually get substantial utility from them. Furthermore, with the better defense of FFG, a traps/ defender can toe bomb with a reasonable hope of success even after a fight has started; a /devices blaster has to build very, very, carefully to get enough defense to be able to use any powers in combat.
Defenders get less mileage from Trip Mines and Time Bomb than blasters; for blasters, at least the bombs do enough damage to be potentially worth the hassle. For defenders, Time Bomb does less damage. (Corruptors, however, might consider it as a situational power.) Masterminds replace Time Bomb with Detonator, but Trip Mines is pretty useful everywhere.
If you really want to use the /devices powers actively in combat, on teams, consider going with a traps/ defender, or /traps corruptor, instead.
Why would anyone play /devices, then?
Why play a set which is inefficient compared to other sets? Because this game is not fundamentally about efficiency of builds. It's about building a character that looks cool to you. It's about awesome super heroes doing amazing things and being stunning. If you have never seen a /devices blaster wiping out a spawn with mines, it's hard to appreciate just how awesome it looks; the ragdoll physics in CoH really shines on handling large numbers of enemies hitting mines with decent knockback. (Ask around if you want to see this; I bet most people who would play /devices would be happy to show it off.)
I play /devices because I love the way it plays, and don't care that it's inefficient. I sit around watching TV while I set up nests of trip mines. I wander through missions arranging to one-shot the one and only enemy on the map I need to kill, without bothering to kill everyone else. Sure, I get less loot and XP and inf. But my superspy stealth infiltrator is playing like a superspy stealth infiltrator, not like a muscle-bound idiot. So I'm happy. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Sailboat
They did not nerf the "B" in Lambda.Quote:Originally Posted by Sailboat
Maybe you're in the wrong trial -- are you sure you're spelling it right?I don't think he's going to learn anything about Lambda at this point.Quote:Originally Posted by Sailboat
I can see it, right there -- there's a "b" on your keyboard, you used it in "bites."
Why won't you use it in "lambda"? Is this some kind of weird Dadaist protest against the trial itself?
Or how to spell it, for that matter. -
Quote:Yes.Originally Posted by reiella
Just curious here, is 25ft/whatever the area of effect for Team Teleport?
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Quote:Wow. I think I just read this and mentally shelved all of my characters with guns.Originally Posted by Arilou
Superpowers makes you special, as does martial training, a gun makes you just like all the other men with guns.
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Quote:I wish I could.Originally Posted by Chaos Creator
My dom can solo containers.
Fire/Fire/Fire not built for any defense.
Inspirations
get them, use them, love them. -
Quote:Simple. Because the only thing missing from that is a skateboard.Originally Posted by Memphis_Bill
Why am I thinking the only thing missing from that is a skateboard?
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Quote:Well, you're missing a little background on that. Originally, Controller/Dominator pets WERE recharge intensive. MM pets couldn't be slotted with recharge, so having the recharge intensive pet sets wouldn't be useful to us.Originally Posted by Jibikao
I just can't understand the logic behind it. Why do other ATs' pets get to use both Pet and Intensive Pet Recharge? Shouldn't Mastermind be the first priority when it comes to pet slotting?
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When it comes to claws, it feels like a shame to not pair it with a damage aura because of Follow Up synergy.
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Quote:Agreed, they suffer from some serious balance issues. Which is why I tried to direct the OP to the threads with mathematical analysis that could lead to a change.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
PBs ain't *anything* atm really though
Which is also a point that is really worth multiple threads with requests to fix them.
Opinions and feelings will get nothing accomplished. To get something changed, you must demonstrate how it is underperforming. -
Brute, Dark Armor.
But I might be biased. -
Quote:Yeah, that's kinda the point.Originally Posted by oreso
They can still attack while mezzed, and attack pretty well. I really like blasters, but PBs ain't them.
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Yes, Peacebringers underperform solo. You're a little late to the party on that one.
One of our problems, though, is the inherent.
I encourage you to read those topics and then offer your own suggestions. -
Quote:Originally Posted by je_saist
Correct me if I'm wrong, but would not the Gravitic Interface set with the Debuff Secondary Effect also lower Ghost Widow's Ability to Hold a target?Not exactly, Syntax. It would decrease the duration, not the magnitude.Quote:Originally Posted by Syntax42
Each debuff is -10%, so a stack of 5 would make it a mag 50 hold. So, the Gravitic is not a viable option by itself.
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Quote:I didn't actually kill any of them.Originally Posted by Cheetatron
Did you get hero killing credit? lmao
I'm pretty sure they got rep points for killing me, though. -
6/10
Don't get me wrong, I laughed. And thank you for that.
This just isn't your best work. -
Quote:The streak breaker cannot force a miss.Originally Posted by Curveball
I'm a bit confused as to what the OP is trying to say.
Rangle, do you mean that if:
1. A physical attack hits (i.e. haymaker)
2. The streak-breaker for gauntlet forces a miss for gauntlet
then
3. The streak-breaker for gauntlet will also force the physical attack to miss?
... I would find that... objectionable. :-) -
Quote:Not really, most of the really valuable recipes you'll want will be better at their minimum level.Originally Posted by anonymoose
Ah well no need to decide today, gotta hit 50 anyways to squeeze maximum inf from those vmerits.
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When going rogue first came out, I didn't realize that the Ouro's were still separate, and going to Ouro as a rogue would "reset" your alignment to villain.
I zoned into the last mission of a Khan TF with my bots/traps and started killing my team by accident. Somebody's damage aura had set off my pets. It was going surprisingly well for me, mostly due to confusion, until the fire/kin used fulcrum shift. -
One important thing to note: It's not going to add 20% defense to what your shields give.
If the shield gives 10% base defense, with Nerve it will give 12%. -
Quote:Except Protector Bots are notorious for going into melee when they have no melee attack. Letting us set pets to not use melee attacks won't help.Originally Posted by Robert_B
The code does exist, witness our pets running in and meleeing, it's more of a matter of tweaking what is there (letting us set our pets to NOT use that attack) rather then reinventing the wheel.
I'm not arguing that it's broken. I think the best thing for pet AI would be to let goto/stay override the henchmen's desire to move. I just know that the coding isn't that simple.Quote:Originally Posted by Robert_B
The goto/stay commands should override any movement actions other then follow if thats our choice, and from what I keep reading, that is the case.
The AI is broken, and it would be nice if they would fix it, and the code to do that exists as well, it's a matter of taking some of the code from passive mode and applying that to attacks we want to skip. -
It's because you're out of high level slots. Your black dwarf powers have most of your level 46, 48 and 50 slots.
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Quote:Ok, you just missed my point. You claimed this code already existed. I said it didn't. Your retort was "Well just add it."Originally Posted by Robert_B
Umm, you add them my friend, you make it sound as if they can't add anything to the code, like it was written by a higher intelligence or a Super(I would say)Villan but they can do whatever they want to it, so, using good ole Pseudocode :
Fine. That doesn't change the fact that it doesn't work that way now like you said it does. -
Quote:Arrrrgh. This is what I was trying to get across (particularly the emphasized) and failed to do. Thanks.Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha
Humans have no base powers.
The Dwarf form 'attacks' are likely natural for their race. They're certainly big enough and, boosted by Kheldian energy, it makes perfect sense.
Ditto for the Nova form.
And yes, Kheldian lore is a mess. So it doubly doesn't need this making it even more a headache.
/Unsigned, thanks