Desmodos
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Posts
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Joined
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curious as to why you are running OG and CoF. Seems to be costing you a lot of slots.
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I remember the first time I cleared the "Find Security Chief" solo to avoid anyone dieing on a Master STF.
I remember a Hess TF we thought was a kill all where someone said "Ok Des go left, everyone go right. If he clears before we do we just suck." I think they beat me by one or two mobs, lol. -
Quote:Oh I will be around. Lots if I have anything to say about it.Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim
You can play with us until the end of November. I know I'm not the only one planning to play 'til the end. Too good of a game not too (even if it isn't perfect, it is good). -
Of all the things I will miss from CoH, the scrapper forums will be the hardest. This is where I came to learn to play CoH. I have fond memories of in depth and sometimes heated discussions here.
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Quote:THAT WAS THE BEST!!!Originally Posted by MedievalPower
I remember Des getting Relentless and Heroic mixed up on an ITF
But then I routinely forgot to lower my settings for TFs. Seems silly as we always cranked them up in the end. -
This still sinking in. FINALLY GOT things sorted in RL. I was looking forward to returning to CoH...now this.
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I remember Dark Armors not stacking...
I remember 8 hour Task Forces...
I remember exemplaring SG mates to they could get a badge for a out leveled TF...only to get DCd and kicked from the TF in the final mission...
I remember sooo many epic fights on teams, global channels, and on the forums...
I remember screens shots where I was a black blob and SG mates photoshopping in and arrows saying "that's Des"...
I REMEMBER GETTING WINGS!!!!! -
Quote:Which is why I did not want to go into an explanation. I didn't want to derail yet another Dark Armor thread with this debate... not that I don't enjoy them.Originally Posted by ClawsandEffect
We've disagreed on this issue so many times it's practically a requirement for a Dark Armor thread at this point.
This is a valid argument and a choice everyone who plays any Dark Armor build needs to make.. While I personally favor Cloak of Fear (obviously), if you are unwilling/unable to invest the slots into it, CoF will not be effective. Un-slotted, Oppressive Gloom is the superior choice. After two slots, CoF becomes the superior choice, particularly on a build that pursues defense bonuses. Of all the primaries Dark Armor can be paired with, Katana and Broadsword make Cloak of Fear the most effective.Quote:Originally Posted by Vauluur
I'd like to clarify that I agree with these options. I was tired when I was posting and I neglected to mention that OG would be situational on a softcapped build anyway. Regardless of how many slots you put in Cloak of Fear, I don't think it will be as useful as the situational application of OG for this build. CoF just costs so much endurance to apply a status effect that really isn't as useful in most cases IMO as the stun from OG. With a lower end cost or higher accuracy (as Claws said) it might be more worth it.
IMHO, it's worth it to invest the slots into CoF. -
Quote:I would not agree with this.Originally Posted by Vauluur
If I were you, I'd drop Cloak of Fear. Oppressive Gloom is a stun while Cloak of Fear is, well, a fear. Stuns are hard controls, and stunned enemies will not attack you when you hit them. That means when you hit an enemy who is stunned by Oppressive Gloom there is a 0% chance they will hit you back as opposed to the 5% chance from them attacking you through softcapped defenses. Not only that, Oppressive Gloom is virtually free to run (low end cost, and you can heal yourself with Dark Regeneration). -
For future reference, you'll get a better response if you include the data chunk when posting a build. Not everyone can use the links effectively.
I see several issues here, but I can't offer a full critique without a data chunk. These comments are based solely one what I can see in your actual post.
Dark Regeneration is poorly slotted. Purple sets are wasted there and offer minimal benefit. You REALLY want a Theft of the Essence unique in Dark Regeneration, it has a tremendous impact on endurance management. I recommend using 2 additional TotE in Dark Regeneration for the max End bonus, which also helps with endurance management. I franken-slot the last three slots with Touch of Nictus; Acc/end/rech and two end/rech/heal from any heal set.
Siphon Life is incorrectly slotted. On a DM/DA build, SL should be slotted as an attack, not for heals. SL is a crucial component of Dark Melee's single target damage out put. -
I'll volunteer...although technically I did not pay up the last time I got auctioned off. So i still owe ya.
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Quote:While this seems more realistic, something is still wonky in Mid's.Originally Posted by Hopeling
This means that, not counting crits, and before enhancements/buffs, Fire Ball does an average of 68.52 and Ball Lightning does 63.81.
When slotted, Mid's tells me Fire Ball does 293 damage while Ball Lightning does 197. That seems like a HUGE difference for two powers that do comparable damage. -
Quote:...SSSOOO glad you asked this question...Originally Posted by pearofpance1
Been told that ball Light is better, but mids is wrong about it, anyone know what the actual damage differences are in real numbers?
in game, type [Ball Lightning]
This will create a link for you that give detailed power info. Be aware, it's not always accurate and numbers are AT dependent.
Do the same thing for [Fire Ball]
Assuming this numbers are right,
Fire Ball = 34.62
Ball Lightning = 63.81
There a bit more to this though. Fire Ball does more damage initially up front with a weak tick afterwards. Ball Lightning does little damage up front but has a strong tick afterwards. This should factor into your decision. -
Quote:To me, a person who uses CoF extensively, this is misleading. It seems to claim a tit for tat effect for CoF. Feared mobs do not get to attacks once for every attack. Yes, feared mobs can retaliate when attacked, but they do so at a substantially reduced rate. This will not translated into an attack for every tick of Death Shroud or any other AoE for that matter.Originally Posted by Gospel_NA
The issue with cloak of fear is how fear works itself.
The problem is that when a mob is affected by fear it will cower in place only some of the time. The rest of the time it actually causes them to run away. So, stunned or not they still have a 50% chance to do one or the other.
The great thing about it though is cloak of fear debuffs their to-hit and when the fear is in effect that mob doesn't attack.
But then you run into a second issue. The mob that is affected by fear can't attack, unless you attack them. This means ticks from death shroud or a failed stun from whirling mace gives the mob a chance to throw a single attack when they are hit.
It's a useful ability, but with the most taking damage most of the time, you're not going to see any sort of reliability of them staying in your circle of doom when they are stunned.
The running away part of feared mobs is annoying, but it's specific to mob types. Ranged mobs will run away and attack from range, regardless if feared or not. If a ranged mob is feared and then attacked, they will run away and then cower outside of CoF and Death Shroud range. Once the fear wears off, they can not attack at ranged with impunity.
Additionally, all mobs had their AIs tweaked to run away when debuffed. This means even melee mobs will ran away from CoF, not because of the fear, but because of the to hit debuff associated with it. This happens with any debuff when stacked to a significant degree. -
Not really seeing a "stand out" in terms of scrapper durability. Yes, some builds will excel in certain scenarios, but on average I still think most the secondaries are about equal.
Granted play style will always be factored in. I can see the durability of Regeneration on paper, but I can never achieve it game and usually abandon every attempt in frustration. Nothing I've played holds a candle to my DM/DA but then I have oodles of experience with it and hefty investments into the build.
Now if we discuss "the easiest durable" scrapper to build, I'd vote for DM/WP. While DM/Inv can achieve greater defense values, DM/WP can achieve decent numbers via IO builds and already has impressive amounts of regeneration inherently. -
With out further details, I'd suggest you keep Hasten.
The real question is, what would you take instead? Depending on the rest of your build, if you can make a valid argument for another power over Hasten, then take it. Off hand, I can't imagine what that choice could be though. -
While damage aura scrappers don't have taunt, I haven't really found the need to do much chasing. Granted I chose maps with small rooms I can easily break line of sight with. Yes, mobs run away, at which point I switch targets until they come back. I only need to chase the last 5-10% of the mobs, but I rarely do. Faster just to end the mission and re-set.
I've impressed a few folks farming with my DM/DA. While I can chew threw farms faster on my scrappers, it requires more concentration. With Brutes, it takes a bit longer, but it's considerably easier. Having 90% resistance to Fire or Energy really simplifies things. -
Quote:In general terms, Cloak of Fear keeps mobs in Melee range where Death Shroud, Soul Drain, and other AoEs can be leveraged to their maximum potential. There are of course exceptions.Originally Posted by evertheskeptic
I agree that CoF makes DA more survivable, but I don't see how it increases kill efficiency
For a scrapper, anything that passively increases your survivablity increases your damage out put. The less you are concerned with staying alive, the more you can focus on dispensing carnage. -
This is precisely why my DM/DA abandoned Darkness Mastery. Nigh Fall is simply broken. Soul Mastery for Scrappers is useless. Had we gotten a Soul Mastery version with Dark Obliteration I would have been very happy.
I switched to Blaze Mastery for Fire Ball. I hated giving up on the full Dark concept, but I'm hoping we can customize Ancillary Pool powers at some point. For me, play style trumps concept. -
Quote:This version of your build is an improvement on what you initially posted, but the premise you've stated here is incorrect. DM/DA is more survivable and kills more efficiently with CoF. Removing CoF from your build is actually weakening it. IO sets allow you to over come all of the downsides of CoF. Combined with defense, CoF becomes more effective, not less.Originally Posted by evertheskeptic
I do like the control aspect of the fear powers, I've loyally stuck with CoF even after the nerfs years ago. But after I decided on strengthening my build, I thought about changing to an aura that would help me kill that much faster, and replace the fear-based survivability with some standard, ie stronger defense and resistance. I do still like the option of having ToF, though
Your new build seems to be combining typed defense and positional defense. These do not mix well. You can achieve better numbers if you focus on one. A positional defense build is just as good as a typed defense build, so it doesn't really matter which you choose. I personally prefer typed defense for DM/DA; I feel less compromises are required.
Stamina and Combat Jumping are over slotted. Pull some of those out and make better use of them.
Kinetic Combats are a great set for S/L defense, but they do lack sufficient basic slotting values. (not enough accuracy, not enough damage). This is easily over come by adding a 5th slot to your single target attacks and putting an acc/dmg/rechg or acc/dmg/end from any set. Frakensloting-lite if you will. A Nucleus HO also works well here.
I don't recommend using Regenerative Tissue Uniques on Dark Armor. You simply don't have enough hit points for it to make any significant impact. What little it offers is dwarfed by Dark Regeneration. -
Don't want to de-rail this any further. I sent Rodoan a PM with details. Anyone wishing info or assistance with tuning in, please PM me.
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Quote:STOP using HOs. Outside of a few powers (Swift for example) they offer little benefit over IO set bonuses.Originally Posted by evertheskeptic
I actually don't have all those HOs slotted, maybe only like a third, and the rest I have stored. But to answer the question, yes, I do have a lot of respecs saved
This is a very generic question and hinders greatly on each build. You need to chose specific bonuses to target, and get as many of them as you can (keeping in mind rule of 5). Decimation is a great set for a DM/DA build for endurance management and recharge. Thunderstrike is a great set if you are trying to stack up some defense values. Devastation is a terrible set for DM/DA, non of the bonuses contribute significantly to the build. In the end, it always boils down to opportunity costs, choosing one set means you miss out on bonuses offered by another. On a complete build, these choices can be balanced out, creating an over all superior build.Quote:More questions
1. Is there a specific reason to take Decimation instead of Thunderstrike or Devastation (or even aiming for Apocalypse)? They don't offer the same bonuses obviously, but they (the bonuses) seem about equally effective, except I would be able to use the Decimation bonuses at lower levels. Was that a factor here (and in other lower level sets)?
If you are not careful, you can gimp a power for the sake of a set bonus. This is a common error, not a requirement. Be careful not to ignore set bonuses that make up for perceived deficiency in a specific powers slotting. As I mentioned on your other question, opportunity costs have to be weighed.Quote:2. So set builds are stronger, and I can't deny the survivability numbers of the suggested build. But how much is individual slotting sacrificed to get those set bonuses? For example, in the suggested Touch of Fear, it's slotted completely with a toHit debuff set, for the max end and recharge bonuses. I did want to boost the debuff aspect, but I would also like to boost the mez aspect, are the bonuses (not just in this case but overall) that great?
Your ToF slotting isn't terrible, but rather it utilizes many slots for very little benefit. What need is there for 15% To Hit Debuff on a Scrapper that has 35-40% defense? If fear was your objective, you'd be better off including Cloak of Fear in the build. With IO set builds, you cannot view a powers enhancements in isolation, but rather how it contributes to the over all builds and it's cumulative bonuses.
Yes, you are correct. Just keep in mind, frakenslotting is generally limited to single power, not the entire build. Obviously you can frakenslot an entire build, which can be helpful if you're lacking funds, but it will drastically hinder performance.Quote:3. I thought frankenslotting included builds like the one I originally posted, where different set IO enhancements are used, with or without much regard to set bonuses (without, in the case of my proposed build) -
Thanks, Kindredsun.
Evertheskeptic, do you have a lot of respecs saved up? You need to dump 90-95% of those HOs. There is a MASSIVE benefit to IO set builds, particularly for Dark Armor. If you sell off those HOs, you should have enough funds for any build you're interested in. I feel for you, the transition is difficult. I did it when IOs were first introduced, but I was very happy for it. -
I'm very saddened by this news. I had not heard from Lord of Time since last summer, when we last exchanged PMs. I was away from CoH for most of last winter, and hoped to see his posts upon my return. I thought he'd just taken a break from CoH
While our interactions were limited to CoH forums and PMs, I greatly appreciated his presence and opinions (even though I occasionally disagreed with him). He was very helpful to me in finding Doctor Who episodes before they were readily available to those of us in US.
In light of this news, I'll be doing two things in LoT memory.
1) An hour of my weekly Split Infinity Radio show Epic Scores will be dedicated to him, during which I will play nothing but Doctor Who music.
2) I'm post this picture, because I know it made him smile.
Rest in peace, Lord of Time. -
Quote:Apologies. Like Werner, data links usually do not work for me. Lately copy pasting builds hasn't been working either. With out a data chunk, I can't see the OP build, so I didn't see the comparisonOriginally Posted by kindredsun
To be honest, it was only a baseline build for the OP to work off of. I did not build it to be a super high end build, just a decent upgrade to his posted build, and not be overly expensive with over 2 billion inf worth of purples.
