Dirges
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Posts
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Joined
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Quote:That and it is a major slow. So guys run up to you, and right before they attack the fear kicks in and the slowly run away.Originally Posted by Auroxis
Could you explain how Caltrops is such a survivability boon? The fear effect, I presume? -
Quote:Reppu are you talking about Ice armor here? If so it doesn't decently protect against ice attacks, it ignores ice attacks. Ice Armor runs around with 90 resists to cold, caped at 75, without even slotting for res.Originally Posted by Reppu
And Psionic.
And decently Fire.
And decently Ice. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Bosstone
1. Why are you using travel powers in missions? Yes, SS gives +stealth, but close quarters also makes it a giant pain in the patella to use. And there aren't many door missions where Fly is more useful than Hover or even Teleport; Teleport is useful both where Fly is useful and where it isn't.
2. Teleport, once the effort has been made to utilize it properly (set up the keybind and put a couple slots in it) is the fastest travel power. That's not in question. It is objectively the fastest, by a long shot. The significance of that has been diluted these days with all the changes to zone travel (the train lines merger, Midnighter Club, Ouro, and RWZ), but even now, when most of my characters travel by temp power, SS, or SJ, I definitely feel the slowness when crossing a zone that has no other shortcuts.
1. How is SS hard to use in close quarters, especially compared to using TP in close quarters? Yes hover is better then fly in missions, but I was just commenting on actual travel powers, and if I was running it for the mission of course I would use hover. But comparing travel powers for vertical movement for the times you need it fly out does TP by miles. I have tried to TPing to get around caves it doesn't work neard as well as fly.
2. Just being fastest does not give TP enough dividends for its clunky nature. As you said the importance of being fastest is diminished, especially when the devs are selling a team mission tp that can be used every 30 minutes. -
Quote:I wouldn't call TP the expert travel power. Yes it takes more effort to use, but it does not pay more dividends. In missions I find ss or fly better alternatives for the extra control the give. If you give an expert player the use of all three, I can't see TP coming out on top for most of the game.Originally Posted by Bosstone
Not necessarily. There's nothing wrong with having an 'expert' power in a group which requires more effort but pays more dividends.
Also look at what I was replying to, TwoHeadedBoy was clearly trying to make TP sound better then it is. -
Quote:That is one of the meanings, but big brother also means older (bigger) brother, as well as someone that provides guidance and protection.Originally Posted by dugfromthearth
Does anyone think that Big Brother in 1984 refers to the government being older than you, or is bigger and more powerful? Age has nothing to do with it.
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Quote:Sorry if you have to try this hard, there is something wrong with TP.Originally Posted by TwoHeadedBoy
See previous pros to TP.
1.) It's the fastest travel power in the game.
Was one of those reasons.
My main is a Warshade so that's taught me to appreciate the pro's of teleport.
TP vs: SS in combat scenarios...
Aside from the obvious 'can get to the mission faster.'
Multi-level maps (see: office maps, etc.) You can TP up a level and sink into mobs, and probably clear an entire spawn in the time it would take SS to get up the stairs.
Can get down hallways faster and engage (and/or kill) mobs before SS.
Also: No toggling on or off, just click and go for TP vs. SS. It might only seem like a second, but those seconds add up.
You mention vertical travel, you do know there are more then enough temp powers to cover that hole. When it only costs a measly 10000 inf. The fraction of a second to toggle on and off and the time move is about the same as as TPing and dealing with the forced immob hover, and the control is a lot better
The moving down the hallways is funny though, yeah you get there slightly faster, but tping is so much more prone to over and under shooting your target. Remember in short distances the animation time and hover time work against tp.
On topic, yeah TP needs some work, there is no need for a lvl 4 character to be out of end half way through a zone. If the devs want to limit TP for combat they could make it apply a short term buff that costs extra end on the next offensive power. That way people can travel before so's and it would work the same as before for combat. Also the hover needs to end when you try to move, it needs some sort of cancel since it stops people from using some powers. -
Quote:You know both those examples do not break the cottage rule.Originally Posted by PsychicKitty
There is no Cottage rule....there has not been one...
There has not been one since the developers altered Telekinesis from a granted flight toggle to a team meber to a telekinetic toggle hold.
They proved it again when they changed storm kick from a 100 kick animation damage over time effect to a lower damage single jump kick animation.
So cottage rule....thats a myth
Telekinesis is still toggled targeted flight, the core of the power is the same, they just remodeled it to make it an aoe enemy control as well. I also thought this change was made before live. Any changes made before a power hits live can't break the cottage rule. Singularity is a good example of that, it goes from team TP, fold space, to a pet. The change was made before live though so it does not break the cottage rule.
Storm kick was no where close to breaking the cottage rule, it is still a damage attack, it didn't become a no damage ally buff. All the cottage rule is about is keeping the core of the power the same. A lot can be changed without effecting what the devs see as the core of a power. -
Quote:See I disagree with the term brother. At most cold would be the love child between storm and FF. I find brother the wrong term, cold only shares 2.5 powers with storms, and doesn't play anything like storm. It is just not close enough to be a brother to storm.Originally Posted by dugfromthearth
I have to side with Leo on this one.
"Big Brother" would mean more powerful version
"Older Brother" means older -
Quote:Oh I could fully be wrong, it could of just been my faulty memory filling in the only excuse for lowering the stun percentage the way it was. If so I stand corrected, but the percentages still need to be changed to match other versions of EM.Originally Posted by Siolfir
Admittedly I started in issue 7 instead of issue 6 (or CoV beta pre-i6), but as far as I know Stalkers never got crits on stunned targets. The 20% chance was for held or sleeping targets only for as long as I'm aware of.
I'm not disagreeing with any of the other points, and I am aware that some changes were made to Stalkers before I started (hide suppressing on clicking glowies being one). I just wanted to address this because I got to hear about how stuns help Stalkers get criticals for years - even after the revamp where the mez criticals only happened in PvP - as a reason for EM's stuns being reduced. Since it hasn't been that way for as long as I've had an account it's a convenient excuse based on misrepresentation rather than a logical reason.
That change never really bothered me, since it was for all versions of EM. What bothers me is Energy punch has a 30% chance to stun on a brute and only 10% for stalkers. It is the same for some of the other powers, the stalker version has a lower chance for the mez to go off.Quote:The only thing I remember is that Total Focus had its Stun Mag reduced from 4 to 3 some time back. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Reppu
Energy Melee doesn't really need a 'revamp' anyway. Just some basic number tweaking. It's not even a BAD set. Rather far from it. It's just Average ST with Bad ST.
... Okay so maybe it's kind of bad. But it's just a numbers issue, not a design flaw. It just needs some numbers tweaked upwards.
It is more then just tweaking some numbers. Not even looking at the lack of AOE.
EM needs all of it's stun percentages looked at, they prenerfed them from when stalkers got crits from stunned targets. This makes it harder for stalkers to use energies secondary effect, just in case some one uses an EM stalker in PvP.
ET needs to start criting from hide, I never use ET during hide since the loss of the crit damage is not worth not taking the self damage. If something is going to kill me will using ET it is not the self damage, it is incoming damage taken during the animation.
TF for stalkers needs help, it is the big gun for EM and bone smasher has a bigger crit. I think it is bad that on my stalker that the best power to use after placate was one I picked up at level 2. When you compare it to the final power in other sets it falls short.
Really the only reason to play EM on a stalker over any other AT is it now has the old ET back with the AS changes. -
Quote:Thankfully rad gets an acc bonus as well in most powers, as well as -def. Though I wouldn't mind x-ray being changed to match the 6second blast sets, a bit more damage would help, the only other change would be to speed up the beach ball.Originally Posted by vernichterhelge
for the defense debuff you have to hit your target
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Quote:Originally Posted by Reppu
It's almost like I didn't think it was an issue that cones had horrible cooldowns, horrible shapes, and horrible target caps!
Yeah, it's a 'something' of a 'something'. Unfortunate it went as is, but I tried on beta. Maybe we'll see something in i23, or a hopeful 'i22.5'?
So what does this have anything to do with the issues mentioned? Did you just see a BM thread an go on a rant without reading anything. I see and understand you don't like BM, but off topic rants like this just makes you look foolish with a grudge you can't justify. -
Quote:Easy it is a dev post, most dev posts were automatically flagged not to purge and have to be deleted manually.Originally Posted by Oathbound
Holy cow, how does a 5 year old thread even still exist?
I'd have thought it would be purged at some point.
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Quote:Not that I wouldn't mind instant cast toggles, but instant cast toggles would affect combat. There are still toggles that turn off when mezzed, and they all turn off when you die.Originally Posted by Beelzy
Here's a better idea, decrease the cast time of toggles! There is no game mechanic reason to have a long cast time on a toggle, it will not affect combat aspects of the game, but it will make life a heck of a lot easier, on start-up and when using the annoying travel powers.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Jibikao
LOL this is truly sad. I've never liked EM because it was too popular when ET was 1s but after that, I just can't imagine myself playing a set that only has ST and it's slower than Martial Arts.
Did you PM Synapse about looking at EM for Stalker? Its only real good use is in Siren Call pvp?
PS: Oh, just realized that Ninja Blade has none too but at least that set has two cones.
The lack of aoe isn't EM's worst problem. It's top two powers get little to no benefit from hidden/crits, and there is a lower chance for stalkers to stun targets then other AT's. The lack of aoe is a problem several sets face, but those two things really lowers EM compared to other sets. -
Quote:You mentioned willpowers other abilities in passing, but have you added their effect into how the reduction in damage makes willpower more efficient. If both sets are taking 100 dps, but willpower is able to shirk off about 20% of that through defense/debuffs then they are only taking in about 80 dps. That makes will will power take 22 dps using your midline numbers for RttC, and regen taking 23.5 dps while dull pain is active.Originally Posted by Zeh_Masteh
Okay, so I've done some homework (not my *real* homework that's due Friday, though
) and came up w/ two SO-only builds to use by comparison.
The first is a Stone/Regen Brute, fully slotted. It has 30 slots in its secondary (including the initial slots), and every /Regen power was taken.
The second is a Stone/WP Brute, only secondary slotted. It has 27 slots in its secondary (including initial slots), and every /WP power was taken.
Differences that I found? They have the same recovery, but WP drains more endurance due to more toggles. WP obviously has more resist and more defense for the same amount of investment.
As for HP regeneration:
WP, w/ RttC and 6 enemies surrounding gains ~58 HP/s
WP, w/ RttC fully saturated gains ~71 HP/s.
Regen, w/ no Instant Healing, no Dull Pain, gains ~33 HP/s.
After activating Dull Pain, which has only a minute downtime w/o Hasten, Regen bumps up to ~52.5 HP/s
Woe unto Regen! , unless you count Reconstruction: w/o Hasten, Reconstruction heals for 730 HP every 30 seconds. You may not want to count this in the calculation (I would), but if you do, it comes out to +~24 HP/s
All said and done, 2/3rds of the time (DP being 2 mins up, 1 min down), Regen is a *little* better than WP on passive regeneration, even on fully saturated RttC, even w/o touching Instant Healing, and 1/3rd of the time being pretty handily worse than WP.
By the by, Instant Healing is up for 1.5 minutes, down for 4 minutes, which is comparable to Strength of Will being up 2 minutes, down for 3 minutes.
My verdict: Regen is about as good Willpower, but takes more effort. Also, Willpower is a smooth ride that never gets any better or worse, whereas Regen has it's great spells and it's not-so-great spells.., which is exactly what everyone's known all along!
I am not a numbers guys, and this is simplified and not calculating resists or specific damage types. But it shows they are not as even as you might suggest, since WP at full saturation would only be taking about 9 dps.
This is not saying regen is bad it is a good set, and hard to balance since with the way it works, a little tweak can easily make it overpowered since it treats all damage as the same. I myself would like more debuff resists, especially for -regen, and that integration should be fully enhanceable. -
So you are saying that having the right terrain is needed to get the most out of force bubble? Well you see that is a limit, and sorry not every map and every encounter will be the ideal use of your strategy.
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Quote:The problem is FF secondary effects all come with limits. The repel keeps you from using all your defense powers on melees. The knock down is on a 30 second recharge and only a 40% chance to stun. You already mentioned the cage power.Originally Posted by Stormbird
Except it's not defense with "nothing else." Not that what it *does* bring (a small degree of crowd control) isn't eclipsed to where it could use a buff, I'll agree there, but it does bring a *few* other tricks (repel, KB, knockdown/stun, cage.)
Caging, at least, has started to see some (limited) use from what I've been picking up (Recluse's towers, Rommy's puffy friends) so it's one power that's not *always* an auto-skip. Very situational though.
Compared to cold, that really gives more trick then defense you see how one trick FF really looks. -
Ice Control: I would change flash freeze to a stun, the numbers already are similar to flash fire, and it would fix the delay issue. Glacier also needs to be usable in the air. Add massive -fly for enemies hit so they fall, since being frozen in a giant block of ice should drop them like a rock.
Devices: Stealth strike while cloak, even just a 5% chance for 20% extra damage would be a good buff. Targeting drone should give some +damage, about 15-20%. Get rid of time bomb. There is already one damage bomb power we don't need two. Maybe make it a sticky bomb, you throw it at an enemy and it blows up in 5 seconds. I even see the damage dropping just to lose the long cast time.
Traps: The same get rid of time bomb. Make it a bomb field, you toss out several miniature bombs over a 15ft area. The bombs randomly go off over 10-15 seconds causing damage, knock up, a chance to confuse, and a chance to stun.
Mercs: Increase the radius of soldier cones, increase medics range and make his support powers aoe. Spec ops need alot of work. Their controls recharge times reduced, as well as adding some aoe damage, stealth strike would be nice, but for me instead of damage I would rather it be acc/damage debuffs. -
Quote:Yet they also stop flying to reach into the ground to grab a rock to throw, and to stomp the ground.Originally Posted by Vitality
Right...because the flying bricks in comics never hover while fighting...
What exactly is so hard to understand? -
So is there a reason to take single shot over channelgun? I know single shot is faster, but you lose that with redraw, and channelgun does energy damage which is usually preferred over lethal. Also on your attack chain I always start with venom it is a -res power making all other attacks do more damage. I then follow it with bilespray since venom gives double -res to toxic attacks, and it is a much quicker attack then suppression. Then I use suppression, that way all the dots from the last to powers go off during its animation.
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Quote:You could also do energy armor as air as well. It uses a lot of swirling particles for graphics.Originally Posted by Leo_G
It's always good to simply make a list then pick and choose from there. It's not hard
Water:
-Ice Melee (ice)
-Ice Armor (ice)
-Shield Defense (ice shield, color: blue energy)
-Dark Armor (color:blue, water)
-Ninjutsu (water)
-Arctic Mastery (ice)
-Leviathan Mastery (ice and water breath)
-Cryo Aura
---Claws, Katana, Broadsword, Dual Blades, Battle Axe, Stone Melee, Energy Aura
Fire:
-Shield Defense (lava shield)
-Fire Melee (fire)
-Fiery Aura (fire)
-Dark Melee (smoke)
-Dark Armor (smoke)
-Stone Melee (lava)
-Stone Armor (lava)
-Pyre Mastery (fire)
-Various auras
---Claws, Katana, Broadsword, Dual Blades, Battle Axe, Energy Melee, Energy Aura
Earth:
-Stone Melee (rock)
-Stone Armor (rock)
-Spines (rock/crystal/plant)
-Shield Defense (rock/crystal)
-Titan Weapons (rock)
-War Mace (mineral/fossil)
-Dark Armor (sand)
-Dark Melee (sand)
-Earth Mastery (rock)
-Rock/Omega Costume pieces and/or Rock crumble path aura
---Martial Arts, Super Strength, Street Justice (earth)
-Autumn Path aura
---Regen, Willpower, Energy Aura, Ninjutsu (plant)
Air:
-Kinetic Melee (wind)
-Shield defense (lightning shield)
-Electrical Melee (lightning)
-Electric Armor (lightning)
-Super Reflexes (wind)
-Mu Mastery (lightning)
-Leaf aura
---Willpower, Super Reflexes (air)
You just need to be more creative
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Quote:Originally Posted by Hopeling
Well, it sounds silly when you put it that way >.>
If anything, though, it proves the point more strongly. Using only SOs, I was easily able to solo something more than six times as difficult as what a solo player is expected to face.
It depends on how you look at it. If you are playing a class with it's own defense it is much easier, but the game balance isn't just on AT's with their own defense. The balance is also based on a emp/rad defender being able to solo as well. The bar is set low so that everyone could solo and handle basic game play, and it is why they have changed our ability to adjust difficulty for ourselves a few times now. -
Quote:Mez isn't that bad between 20-30. I have solo'd with plenty of toons with no mez protection in that range. It is a matter of picking targets and taking mezers first. You make it sound like this game is actually hard.Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
Yes worse than Sonic.
20-30 is when enemy NPC's start to mez and Sonic Dispersion makes it a walk in the park while with Thermal it is like playing a blaster without a melee secondary, but less damage. Non root heal is nice in a pinch but that can't save you honestly when mez is flying around. -
Quote:Not any worst then sonic. Sonic has what one debuff and one buff before thirty, and the debuff is just a single target -res. Both sets are going to have to rely on their other set (primary or secondary) to get things done solo. Team-wise, they would both be the same, both are heavy team support sets so they would level about the same.Originally Posted by Gemini_2099
Sonic Dispersion was ported to Thermal? :P
Thermal's key debuffs are nice, but they come much later (even much later on Corruptors). Unless you have a concept in mind leveling a Thermal isn't easy 1-30.