Draeth Darkstar

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  1. One of the much-appreciated goals of Issue 24 is to make Pool Powers more fun and useful to a wider variety of characters. Prerequisites are being changed in Travel powers to work like APPs (1/2, 3/4, 5). Also, several changes are being made to the Fighting pool (as well as many others) to accomplish that goal.

    The current changes, courtesy ParagonWiki, are:

    Fighting
    • Cross-Cut added as a fifth power (very similar to Sweeping Cross in Street Justice)
    • Brawl, Boxing, Kick and Cross-Cut all have increased effects based on the number of Fighting pool attacks you own.

    I would, in addition to the above, like to see Tough switched with either Boxing or Kick, so that you could, hypothetically, select just Tough and potentially Weave, without taking an attack. This would make the set more useful to builds that don't require the extra attack chain that Fighting is now being designed to provide.

    I'd imagine several people have an opinion on this matter, so I thought I'd post it in General. Thoughts?
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bronze Knight View Post
    Daemons/Beast Mastery as compared to Mercs/Robots?
    There are a few things in your post that I agree with, and overall I do feel that Masterminds need a balance pass, but you also have some terribly flawed ideas, and this really exemplifies them to me.

    Robotics is still among the very best of the Mastermind arsenal and Beast Mastery is terrible.
  3. Draeth Darkstar

    30,000

    I got a good chuckle out of "Arcanaville Arcanaville Arcanaville Arcanaville."

    Congratulations on becoming your own title. You're like Caesar now.

    Edit: Lol @ Post 30,003 followed by Post 1,001.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dink View Post
    I have been pushing for a Hairstyle pack so lets keep our fingers crossed!
    Oh God please yes.

    I would adore a pack with nothing but a bunch of hairstyles more than probably any other single offering of costume items (Except maybe the Black Knight armor...).

    Just please make sure men get some nice looking long hair varieties, please?
  5. Draeth Darkstar

    Ok, I give up!

    Time does not need a res. It is one of few sets in the entire game that has no bad powers. Leave it be and carry awakens.
  6. I'm making a new Vampire character right now... using red Water Blast.

    And it will be DELIGHTFUL.

    Edit: Scooped :<

    Edit2: Water/Time Corruptor looks very... bloody with Dark particles using a bright and dark red.
  7. Draeth Darkstar

    The omega slot

    Since Freedom came out we've gotten Time Manipulation, Dark Control, Dark Assault, and Dark Affinity for free. That's 4 sets in less than a year. On top of that, any VIP that didn't buy Going Rogue also gets Kinetic Melee, Electric Control, Demon Summoning, and Dual Pistols for free.

    Prior to Freedom (span of 7 years), we got Shield Defense, Willpower, Dual Blades, Archery, Trick Arrow, Sonic Attacks, and Sonic Resonance for free, and the sets that came out with CoV were made free several years later.

    I'd say they're doing pretty good.
  8. I have definitely also experienced Acid Mortar causing abnormal fleeing.
  9. Mercenaries and Ninjas are some of the worst sets in the entire game, and though I haven't played it (I refused to buy it based on the numbers alone), I have seen many compelling arguments for Beast Mastery being just as bad. Mastermind primaries as a whole could stand for a serious tune-up, especially considering that the only mechanical reason to take any of their personal attacks is for the (mostly meager) debuffs associated with Demons' and Beasts', and several of their tier 7s are borderline useless as well.

    Ice Control is definitely in need of resuscitation. I honestly wouldn't be opposed to more adjustments for Gravity, either. I have never put serious effort into Mind Control either, but it could definitely use some improvements to make it more competitive, as Plant has long since stolen its thunder.

    The Assault sets are another group which I feel could handle an overall balance pass, since some of them are just outrageously better than others.

    Electrical Blast is the epitome of bad design. It may as well have no secondary effect in most situations and on top of that has bad-to-mediocre damage. Dual Pistols is pretty bad too, tragically, but is supposed to be being looked at for i24 (Yay!).

    Regen and Super Reflexes have been largely trumped by newer, better sets (and IOs) at their own games, and should probably be made more viable as choices.

    I'd say the melee sets could handle some leveling-out for damage output, but, honestly, the melee sets already get the most attention out of any powerset group in the game, and I find them the least interesting group personally, so, whatever.

    Sonic, Force Fields, and Trick Arrows need help. The former two have been totally usurped by sets that do their jobs better than they do, and the latter one has never had a strong niche. Poison is still pretty bad in my opinion, too, since its debuffing potential is mostly single-target and it doesn't even have an advantage in that realm, while it's buffing/healing is terribly subpar.

    Most of the manipulation sets straight-up suck, but those are getting looked at for i24, so we'll see how that stands afterwards.

    Oh, yeah, and Bane Spiders and Peacebringers still wish they were nearly as good as their EAT cousins.
  10. Honestly, I think that any serious nerf to the recharge/defense metagame that we've had for years upon years would be so jarring to the hardcore playerbase that it could damage the game's image and population in ways the development team wouldn't want to chance.

    Major reworks of game systems late in the life cycle of an MMO are a very, very dangerous proposition that have killed many games before this one, and I would really hate to see that happen here.
  11. Quote:
    Originally Posted by warden_de_dios View Post
    scapel
    I'm sorry to be 'that guy,' but are you trying to refer to a scalpel? It still seems like a somewhat odd component to this metaphor in tandem with your use of a 'hammer,' given that there's nothing particularly piercing about launching somebody across a room with blunt force, but I found it fairly distracting from your point nonetheless.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by GuyPerfect View Post
    Neither are Dominator secondaries, but they're getting the range treatment.

    Nice try though.

    This.

    SoA's attack sets are more similar to Assault sets than anything else. I fully support this buff. Banes are the redheaded stepchild of the VEAT family anyway.
  13. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Arbiter Hawk View Post
    Death Shroud, like Electric's damage aura, comes at level 4, which is earlier than we wanted to put these powers within the cadence of the powersets. You only need to use Touch of the Beyond once every 60 seconds, and you may even find that the mitigation from Fear also helps you stay alive, especially now that you can use it at an 80 foot range.
    I don't know about anyone else, but I would rather see powers reordered so that the protection can be consistently on the toggles in the secondaries than getting Touch of the Beyond, and I would WAY rather see them reordered for Lightning Field. I HATE Lightning Clap and don't want to be forced to take it to get a mandatory survivability tool.
  14. Quote:
    Originally Posted by snowzone View Post
    That way we can get the Black Knight stuff too.
    Want more than anything! O.o
  15. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lucky666 View Post
    "It's a fez, I wear a fez now, fezzes are cool."
    That was my first thought, too.

    Caption: "Yes, it is real. And, it runs on steam."
  16. Draeth Darkstar

    I24 hopes?

    I'm only hoping for more powerset balance passes.

    There have been hints dropped of Masterminds and Blast sets getting looked at Soon(TM). Crossing my fingers that means i24.
  17. Draeth Darkstar

    Melee AT for me?

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by firespray View Post
    The only place where brutes have a clear edge is when playing with a large group and lots of buffs. A damage-capped brute does slightly more damage than a damage-capped scrapper (though the difference is only 2-3%). They also benefit from higher hit-point caps and higher resistance caps. Outside of league play, it's uncommon for either a scrapper or a brute to be capped to much.
    This isn't true.

    Brute damage scale is 0.75, damage cap is 775%.
    Scrapper damage scale is 1.125, damage cap is 500%.

    At the damage cap:
    Brute damage scale is 5.8125.
    Scrapper damage scale is 5.625.

    After factoring Critical Hits (+5% total damage against underlings and minions, +10% against everything else):
    Without an ATO set unique, Scrapper damage scale increases to:
    5.90625 against underlings and minions, 6.1875 against everything else.
    With the Basic ATO set unique (+2%/4% Critical):
    6.01875 against underlings and minions, 6.4125 against everything else.
    With the Catalyzed ATO set unique (+3%/+6% Critical):
    6.075 against underlings and minions, 6.525 against everything else.

    This is a simplistic view of the situation, but it does work as a general case. The biggest complications are that many sets get bonus Critical rates on certain key powers for Scrappers, any set with a DoT doesn't benefit from Criticals as much (most obvious on Fiery Melee), Armor sets that deal damage don't benefit from criticals at all, and Brutes can get Gloom to supplement their single target DPS by a usually large amount on any non-weapon set.

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Vysires View Post
    This total comes from the fact that the defense debuff resist in Battle Agility is enhanceable
    This is no longer true. It can still stack with itself on multiple applications, but it cannot be enhanced as of i22.

    For the OP:
    Titan/Electric Brute has amazing performance and synergy between the sets - Titan Weapons is king of the heap for melee sets right now, and Electric helps it hit its ludicrously high recharge threshold for the top DPS chain, mitigates its endurance usage, protects from endurance drains, and adds a damage aura on top of it.
    Titan/Elec/Body with the Agility Core Paragon Alpha builds even further on that synergy, increasing your recharge on all powers, endurance gain/recovery/drain on all powers, and Defense on all powers (which, if you use pool powers to boost your survivability, will be a helpful, if small, perk).

    Anything/Shield Scrapper will be strong - Dark/Shield (exotic damage type, permable damage/accuracy buff, -tohit on every attack and a self-heal) and Fiery/Shield (exotic damage type, high single target damage with one great AoE and one okay one) are some of the best. I have heard StJ/Shield is quite good as well but have no personal experience to speak from there.

    Anything/Staff Fighting Tanker will have ridiculous survivability - Staff has both a +Defense and +Resist buff available to it, and both are better on Tankers than the other ATs.
  18. Quote:
    Originally Posted by CyberGlitch View Post
    Redname just posted that the damage bonus is bugged for pets....not working at all apparently.
    I'm not seeing this post in the dev or community trackers, could someone provide a link please?
  19. So what happens if you put this proc in... say... Tornado?
  20. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dink View Post
    Feasible (Depending):
    • NPC ports - Since they are NPC's most are made specifically for that and will not work in the Costume creator, for future we are keeping this in mind so we may be able to port over NPC parts that will work in the Creator. So some may work and some may not, it would be a case by case situation.

    Noted for possible consideration, however not at this time:
    • Bomber Jacket
    • More high res Faces no Normal Mapping
    • Hairstyles (30's, 40's, etc)
    • Cloth belts, more folds (Dynamic cloth)
    • New Masks (Many themes and 3d)
    • Sashes
    • Hats
    • Skull masks ported to male for Jackets
    • Quiver
    • More Hoods
    • Multiple tails
    • Bandoleers

    Themed Costume set ideas
    • Egyptian
    • Mythological Creatures
    • Aliens
    • Ghosts
    • Warworks
    • Fantasy
    • Tactical
    My votes for "Best of the Dink Lists."
  21. You should be able to test this yourself relatively easy with a power analyzer.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tenzhi View Post
    We could do it in Call of Cthulhu and lose SAN every time Arcanaville explains the math behind something in excruciating detail using the missing number.
    I have the strong impression that Arcanaville would be a delightful person to play Call of Cthulhu with, now that you mention it.
  23. I'd really make a point of getting the Achilles proc into Acid Mortar, considering how good it is at applying it. That's all I really see that stands out to me - granted I'm going on my fourth day of alternating all-nighters at this point (finals suck).
  24. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Gemini_2099 View Post
    Thank you for confirming that you can't admit when you are wrong. Older brother = always means that he was born first before the younger brother. Unless English isn't your first language, you essentially don't have a leg to stand on.
    Thank you for confirming that you can't admit when you are wrong. Literal familial relationships and gendered pronouns = inapplicable to inanimate concepts such as super powers in a video game. Unless English isn't your first language, you essentially don't have a leg to stand on.

    In all seriousness, though, congratulations, you've just joined Golden Girl on my very, very short ignore list, so, you can take that as a compliment towards the degree of your ability to completely miss the point of a discussion and latch on to irrelevant and imbecilic tangents.
  25. I would be satisfied if the only change made was changing Arctic Air to a guaranteed confuse and removing the fear effect from it. That would give Ice comparable control to the other sets, at least. I'd LIKE to also see it gain a damage component similar in magnitude to Hot Feet and to lose the -recharge slow (to better leverage the confuse effect for damage) too, though.