Dr_Occult

Moving the discussion here, on the Virtue forum. Let's make some Mad Science together!

Hello Virtuites!

This is an idea that grew out of a thread discussing steampunk costume options, Gaslamp fantasy and the webcomic Girl Genius in the Player Questions forum.

There seems to be some interest in forming a supergroup based around steampunk aesthetics and Girl Genius fan fiction. The first question is whether to form a hero supergroup, a villain supergroup or both. My first thoughts are that two groups might dilute membership, but there are two "schools" of society possible: the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" type, and the "Mad Science" type. I thought I'd start this thread so as to bring the conversation here instead of continuing it in the Player Questions forum, as the subject of the thread had changed.

Also, feel free to post pictures of your steampunk-influenced characters here, no matter their affiliation or desire to join in this nascent society. I'll start off with The Gaslamp Golem, my SS/Inv brute (it's hard to get the steam jets aura in a shot) :

Be sure and target a minion with the EC when jumping into a mass of enemies, to guarantee it connects to boost the crit chance on DT. THEN, you can work on the Lts/Bosses.

Quickness only enhances for run speed or flight speed, neither of which I need more of. Haste is three-slotted with recharge to get it back faster, so you can attack more often at a faster rate. (Since I have endurance issues as it is, it's not something I use on this toon unless against a EB or AV and trying to outdamage their regen.)

I don't need Elude up all the time because I am at the soft cap for defenses. That's why it only has the slot it came with.

I'm really thinking of dropping Haste completely since I hardly seem to use it. I"m also thinking of dropping Focus Chi down to two slots (1 to-hit and 1 rech) and using the two slots freed up to put endredux in toggles to try and tame the end burn beast.

Elude really isn't necessary when you are over the soft cap, but I included it just in case I might run into a situation like against Nemesis where they break my softcap but might not have my defenses bottomed out. Hope that Elude gives me time to get away or kill the LT/boss.

Soft cap is when your defense to Melee and Ranged and AOE are all above 45%. That gives normal mobs a 5% chance to hit you. /SR is good because it's easy to get your Defense Debuff Resistance to the cap of 95%, making it very hard for mobs to debuff your defenses. Since /SR has little to no resistance in most builds, anything that gets through your defense hits your for full damage.

Looking at totals, we're not that far apart other than you have 10% more recharge and acc. And yes, end use has been the albatross around my neck the whole time I've been playing him. Trying for perma-Haste is just going to make it worse.

Guess I'm going cardiac after all...

I'm looking to upgrade from my 9600GT (I wait til the $100 card on Tom's Hardware's "Best Graphics Cards for the Money" is 3 tiers above my present one) and *almost* pulled the trigger on a Radeon 5770, but came here and it seems the game runs like crap on Ati/AMD. Now I'm thinking to drop another $25 and get the Geforce 460 instead. A plus would be having PhysX fully supported.

Ok, changing the look and backstory for an established character blueside tonight to get the ball rolling on this. Will be starting a thread on the Virtue server forum here at the coh forums. First question: redside, blueside, or both? Will "both" dilute membership?

Question: what is the "farming channel" on Virtue? I wouldn't mind padding on some alts that I'd like to level, and am working on a ELM/FA brute myself and having a blast in Jekev's invasion map so wouldn't mind returning the favor. He's only level 22, but been running -1/x8 since level 17 or so and having a great time.

Okay, I think this is as good as it's going to get. I'll run a full set of ToD in SK to begin with, and fill it out with Hecatombs as I buy them:

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Hmm I probably dropped the 6th ToD in CS because I was way over on melee defense and figured to save the cost of the proc. Forgot to re-add the 6th slot after deleting the proc. I'll look through the sets to see what to replace ToD with, thanks.

I"m 4 slotting the auto defenses with LotG for the accuracy bonus (I have the slots to spare, and want the 7.5% rech anyway.)

Yeah, I have the Gaussian in Focus Chi because FA didn't come until the end of the build. Guess it doesn't matter now, does it?

Thanks for the help, I'll work on it some more this afternoon!

Very neat!

We don't have an option for those awesome Victorian sideburns, do we?

Ok, here is where I stand now. I've been trying to reuse the set IOs I have now, but have pretty much decided to not worry about losing the three full sets of Red Fortune. I also have the Kismet and Steadfast uniques, and 1 LotG unique already. Other sets are two full ToDs, a full Mako, a full Gaussian, and 5 of 6 of the following: Aegis, ToD, Scirrocco

NOTE: I still have 12 slots that I haven't assigned. I had Manuevers at level 38, but it was overkill, so I replaced it with Recall Friend for convenience's sake (couldn't think of anything else.) Scirroco's Dervish puts me over the regen cap. I could make up the loss in AOE defense elsewhere, but what would I put in Dragon's Tail in its place?

Is the Hecatomb in Eagle's Claw overkill? Right now I only use EC on bosses, and to set up increased crit chances for the following attack (usually Dragon's Tail when surrounded, to get the most crit chances.)

In my present unoptimized build, the main worry is endurance, followed by recharge not being enough for a seamless attack chain ( SK -> CS -> SK-> CAK).

I'll be building this up using Amerits to outright buy the really rare stuff, and converting merits to Amerits for random gold rolls. I only have like 300 mil right now, in addition to the sets I have now that I can reslot.

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Thanks!

Right now, I have a crab at... 30 I think, haven't played him since I returned (which is why I'm here to respec him for inherent fitness.) I've been opening Venom grenade -> Frag grenade -> Suppression then single target attacks. I've just had no idea how to slot him. As I said above, I'll be starting a new crab to test a concept, but keeping this one in case the concept character doesn't work out.

I wonder if one could put a tiny head on a Crab Spider model and make it look like a midget controlling a clank powersuit/robot?

Hey guys, I want to start a crab from scratch to fit a concept, but I'm *really* not interested in the Spiderlings or a pet focus. I have masterminds when I want to let others do the killing. (I'd include the disruptors for special situations though.)

I'm looking for maximum AOE damage, with whatever defenses I can get. For a change of pace, I'll make a melee-centric tank build on my second build. Are there any particular i19 builds that people are using that don't focus on the pets?

Thanks!

(Now to check the costume builder to see if I can make a crab with no helmet!)

I use this on my non-SGed alts all the time. It's a beautiful thing!

EDIT: and I like the Starbucks-type logo you have in your sig.

ALL hats have short hair in the back, and the hair can *only* be the same color as the hatband.

The Foglio slaver wasps claim another!

So, I've been thinking, and since Mad Science is all about personal aggrandizement and "Fools! I'LL SHOW THEM ALL!!!", I figure this should be a villain SG. Any suggestions for names? "Schmot Guyz"? "Mad Science"?

Should I make a "buffer" over the 45% soft cap, and if so, how much is recommended? (Also, noticed I had too many 2.% damage boosts, so took out a set of ToD for 5 slots of Mako.)

To be honest, the only reason I kicked him into the lava was that I was miffed at myself for taking as long as I did to realize the doubles weren't AVs and were feeding his regen. The first time he went into the lava, he already had 3 or 4 clones, and I mentioned on SG chat that it was BS that he wasn't taking damage in the lava :P

Right after that, I noticed the clones were minions and it all clicked.

I've only done it on my MA/SR scrapper (who has a really hodgepodge build and slotting.) Until I realized I had to go kill the dopplegangers, it was a pain in the *** trying to move his health bar. Once I figured that out, I had to run around and kill 6 or 7 of them at once. After that, I'd crane kick him into the lava and go kill the double when he split, then beat on him some more. Running normal missions at 0/x8 is far harder than this was.

All in all, I thought it was a nicely thought-out mission. Wish we'd see more like that.

EDIT: Now Holtz/Honoree was hard. Managed to solo it without dying, but had to run off and let Elude crash after killing Holtz and beating on Honoree some, then go bug hunting to refill on cookies.

Thanks!

I'd already added Hasten on an amended build. Also, I take EC to set up increased crit chances on DT, which immediately follows, and also for the stun when needed. Since DT is the only AE attack, I try to leverage it as much as possible. Once I have the crowd down to 4 or less, I don't bother.

EDIT: Isn't the chain SK -> CAK -> SK -> CS?

Let's see who is interested before picking a server. I'm on Virtue, and would like this to be an RP group (but not like there'd be any draconian rules about RP.) I don't think you'd *have* to enforce RP in a group interested in a gaslamp fantasy SG in the first place, really.