Draggynn
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Posts
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Joined
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Farewell Virtue.
I started playing City of Heroes in March 2004 just as I was finishing up high school. City of heroes was one of my primary destressers in college, playing at early hours of the morning as I finished my work but was still too pumped to fall asleep. Over the last couple years in graduate school I have had less time for CoH than in the past, but it was always nice on those slower weeks to be able to log in and catch up with folks.
Thanks especially to all of my fellow badgers over the years and to my amazing SG (even if there were only four of us) without whom I probably would have stopped playing long ago,
-Dragg -
The Defender/Corruptor forums have always been my favorite place on the CoH forums. Sadly it now looks like I never will finish my Storm Guide (was waiting for the next update to post about LS to incorporate all of the proc changes...
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And indeed, as many have said, no other game I've tried has offered a comparable class, Having played since March 2004, I will certainly miss this game.... -
I should really stay away from these forums or I might go broke. That Warlordwardog piece is beautiful.
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Quote:It's really only a serious problem with builds that 1) try to soft cap because they tend to be running more toggles and 2) have a high recharge because those expensive powers start getting used much more often. But in those two scenarios, YES.Originally Posted by Micro Atomic
Is Storm that end heavy?
With soft capped ranged defense you will get mezzed less, but my advice is to take Clarion, and then you don't need to worry about getting stunned either which is almost as common as getting held, and just as dangerous.Quote:Do you think I can afford to skip Acrobatics? It seemed necessary to me. That would be one less toggle, however. Super Speed is more of a player choice power. I know I don't need it :/ Though the Zephyr Ranged Set Bonus is yummy.
In general you shouldn't be within melee range of enemies thanks to slow and KD. Rather than something you use proactively, I suggest only turning on Hurricane when enemies are getting near you and you need the extra defense (at this point the group is likely already spread out). If you are on a competent team, then in most situation the tank should have aggro and you shouldn't need the defense at all. Consider using Hurricane to push the stragglers back toward the main group, it is not something you should turn on and charge into a group with, this will, as you predict, cause chaos and be counterproductive.Quote:If we could put the -KB Proc in Hurricane...I'd love it to death. Alas it does no damage. I like the idea of "tagging" a few enemies for the -tohit but I don't see any way in accomplishing that without spreading the entire mob which is not only countering my synergy, but the rest of the teams. You're very right about the AoE, and I like the idea of focusing more on slotting powers beneficially. I'll disregard Soft Capping AoE. -
Quote:Well, you don't have Lightning Storm, which is a big endurance drain (although it is some impressive AoE damage as well) but my guess would be no, it won't solve your problems. I have a range soft capped (smash/lethal/energy res capped) Storm Defender with cardiac and conserve power, and I have seriously considered picking up Power Sink for additional Endurance Recovery.Originally Posted by Micro Atomic
And I've never taken a power like 'Conserve Power' because I feel I could save that power slot for something else, and just take Cardiac for my Alpha Slot. Do you think that would remedy my end problems?
I would not skip it and would probably drop super speed, acrobaticsQuote:Also as a storm player, what is your opinion on Lightning Storm? Between dropping Freezing Rain, Whirlpool, and usually a Tornado, I don't normally have time to set up a Lightning Storm as well. Is it bread and butter of the set? Or am I right to skip it.
Some other thoughts:
Rather than offering slotting advice, I will do as I did in another thread and suggest a paradigm shift in the way you're building your character.
With storm, Melee defense is useless, you have Hurricane. Simply turn that on when You need Melee defense, although if you have LS, Freezing rain, and Tornado, it's unlikely anything will make it to you. AoE damage is rare, and PBAoE damage isn't likely to get near you, so I would recommend ignoring those, and focusing more on slotting powers beneficially, and getting Ranged defense more efficiently. -
FR: I like to team and fight AVs, in which case Saga's advice holds except the Achille's heel is better than a damage proc. I actually slot 2 end/rech/slow an end/rech and rech from undermine defenses, achilles and a damage proc.
LS: 5 Apocalypse, minus the pure damage +hold proc (devastation)
Hurricane: 4 Dark Watchers (no proc or rech/end). Endurance discount isn't as high as I would like, but I run hurricane sparingly and have cardiac alpha. Unless you pin enemies against the wall for long periods of time, FF in Hurricane is wasted.
My guide has a pretty good explanation of how various procs work in those powers if you're interested. (Haven't gone back and covered the purchaseable procs yet, since I still need to post lightning Storm, but within the next three years
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Hey Zapping:
Glancing at your build, some thoughts (which also apply to some of the other builds):
In Freezing Rain I would focus on recharge, since Freezing Rain stacks having it up more often means more damage. If you are running on tactics, there are few circumstances in which the additional defense debuff will make much difference (If they have a high enough defense, that it would, the probably also have resistance to debuff). You're better off being able to slap two Freezing Rains on them than 1 powerful one.
Tornado: Someone already mentioned the new overwhelming force proc being beneficial, and I like to go for the Expedient Reinforcement for the recharge bonus (although since you don't have hasten, the drop in Tornado uptime will be substantial for you)
Hasten: I would get it. Since Storm has a lot of powerful high recharge powers (LS, Tornado, Freezing Rain) it benefits substantially from the improved recharge, although I know some folks hate glowing hands.
Lightning Storm will actually deal more damage if you swap out the pure damage IO for a damage proc (you go from about 5 additional damage per bolt (10% damage buff)) to 14 additional damage per bolt (20% chance for 75))
Charged Armor: The Status resistance proc will only be about a 5% reduction in mez time because you have the Aegis Proc, so I wouldn't bother.
And some quick thoughts for Shadey:
It looks like you tried to build for defense, but are all over the board. My advice with a Storm Defender is to hit the ranged soft cap, and then rely on Hurricane for melee, rather than trying for typed defenses. Although it may not sound as broad, soft cap ranged defense will actually protect you from a wider range of attacks and better. The difference between 45% defense and 42% defense is getting 8% of the time, or 5% of the time (roughly, level and enemy comes into play as well) which is a 40% reduction in the amount of time you get hit. Some of your slotting choices seem odd, but I suspect they are motivated by this effort to have broad typed defenses, so rather than making slotting suggestions I will advocate for a paradigm shift. -
Incoming wall of text:
Obviously the best APP choices and incarnate choices depend heavily on your play style. Personally I enjoy playing a very high survival (soft capped defense to range, and capped resistance to Smash/Lethal/Energy) high recharge build. In addition to Storm's generally high endurance cost (which aren't helped by high recharge) I run tactics, maneuvers, tough, weave, steamy mist, hover, and charged armor. For endurance management I find that nothing works as well for me as conserve power (I just burn through endurance too quickly for any of the endurance granting powers to be much use). Thus my choices were Power of Mu Mastery. But since I could hit the 75% resistance cap from smashing, lethal, and energy with Charged Armor (rather than just smashing and lethal with Temp Invul) I went with Mu Mastery. At various points I have seriously considered taking both Conserve Power and Power Sink, but I think my endurance use is manageable at this point.
As for Alpha slots, I went Cardiac because, as mentioned, I eat through endurance like no other (having high recharge doesn't help there) and the resistance benefit allows me to hit the cap. Before I changed to playing a survival build I used to use Spiritual for the increased recharge.
As for Destiny, the only thing that can slow me down is getting mezzed, so I went with Clarion so that I can now survive virtually anything without having to carry a tray of purples with me. Depending on the team, or if I know I'm fighting low mez mobs I will often out Clarion for Rebirth as a panic button to keep me and the team alive a little bit longer to get everything under control.
Unfortunately, given your post, I don't think any of that will be particularly helpful to you in making your decision, so here are some thoughts to aid with that.
Absolutely make sure you have a recovery power outside of Incarnate abilities. Storm likes its endurance and you may occasionally exemp, or have need of a particular destiny for an incarnate trial. If you take a recovery power at level 41 then you can have it available as low as 36 (That's the Eden Trial, the Numina TF, Stutter, and 2 respsec trials) as well as just generally teaming with friends. So that means not psychic, mace, or soul mastery. As I've said I find Conserve Power works best for me, but if you find Power Sink gives you enough endurance, then stick with it.
If you earned to drawn to the lure of permanent mez protection, or additional defense/resistance, ageless is certainly a fine choice for a destiny power, and that does then free up more options for your alpha (and the recharge certainly doesn't hurt). But I think the alpha impact is less than the destiny impact, so I would pick the destiny power you want first, and then pick an alpha slot that compliments it.
In terms of choosing an alpha to increase debuffs in FR and Hurricane, in most situation you won't see significant changes because either 1) the buffs are so massive already that more will have no noticeable impact (in the case of hurricane if you have it slotted you are likely already flooring many things chance to hit) or else 2) The debuffs are resisted so strongly that a little bit more still won't be significant. -
Quote:I think I'm wasting my time with you, as I have already answered this question, and I'm done repeating myself. I have been suggesting slotting Freezing Rain with a mixture of procs and IOs that provide recharge, forgoing set bonuses in the power altogether.Originally Posted by Beauregard
The key thing Freezing Rain needs is recharge. Can you name a set that provides near-ED levels of recharge and gives better set bonuses than Ragnarok?
Saying the best possible set for the power is "poorly slotting" is ludicrous - especially when you can't give any sort of alternative that's even close.
I continue to be amused by your claim that you alone know what everyone reading this thread will think. I understand you got embarrassed early on by your lack of knowledge of game mechanics and now feel the necessity to prove that you do in fact have some knowledge of how the game works so that people don't discount your opinions completely, and I'm happy to allow you to continue to insult me to bolster your ego. Let me know when you feel confident again.Quote:You're just embarrassing yourself now. If people wanted to read your guide, they would have done so the first dozen time you mentioned it. You wrote the universal-guide-to-all-Storm-Summoning. We get it. We're just wondering why the evidence of this thread suggests you weren't the right guy to write such a guide. -
Quote:sigh...but that's not what you've done. You haven't equalized thing, you are comparing a 130 base damage attack to a 100 base damage attack, and trying to draw conclusions based on this false premise.Originally Posted by Beauregard
No, I'm really not. We're attempting to determine what proc yields more damage. The best damage performance comes from equalizing the two factors we're multiplying together rather than emphasizing one over the other.
I generally find that Freezing Rain on its own is sufficient to keep me alive. If you find you need more, then go for it.Quote:Dividing the attacks over time is huge because it gives an opportunity to respond to attacks rather than just going down under a withering assault.
Yes, but at the cost of poorly slotting Freezing Rain. In general I think the sole pursuit of bonuses to the detriment of the power being slotted unless, as Doomguide points out, it's for a particular build purpose (permanent mez protection, permanent Phantom Army, Permanent domination), is a mistake. In my experience most builds can be improved by slotting IOs that benefit the power, rather than simply IOs that provide a bonus. I believe that a well slotted Freezing Rain is most beneficial to a build, you think 4% recovery and 10% recharge is.Quote:He gains an entire power's worth of useful IO set bonuses.
Ragnarok, on the other hand, gives him precisely what he needs.
**Shrugs** I initially responded to your post because I felt it was important to correct some factual inaccuracies, and while I was at it, figured I would provide some more feedback. I am often telling you to look at my guide because I provide numbers and a more detailed explanation of many of things I have touched on here in the guide. Rather than repeating the entire guide, I am directing interested parties to read it for more of my viewpoint. If you are only interested in keeping your own view on Storm Summoning, I can't help you. The truth of the matter though is that, without looking at my guide, you really have no idea what its take on Storm Summoning is at all. It's hard to judge something without even looking at it. If rather than considering my points you would rather throw around personal attacks, that's your call.Quote:As for your guide, I didn't bother to read it. Anyone who has to self-aggrandize their work that much probably didn't produce a work worth reading in the first place - and your comments here strongly indicated that you neither thought about (nor played) anything but one particular application of Storm Summoning. -
Quote:You have missed the point, because it sounds like you understand how -resistance works. Regardless of whether the enemy is already debuffed by 30% or 0% the amount of additional damage you deal will be 30 points of damage. Either 130 damage instead of 100 damage or 160 damage instead of 130 damage. In both cases, that's 30 more damage. Your debuff wasn't any less effective in terms of raw damage just because there was a debuff already there.Originally Posted by Beauregard
If you deal 100 damage on a 0% resistance target, you'll deal 130 damage on a -30% resistance target and 160 damage on a -60% target. The first debuff increases damage by 130%. The second one increases damage by 23% beyond that.
If you deal 130 damage on a 0% resistance target. A single -30% resistance will increase this to 169 damage.
It's not an issue of 'diminishing returns'. It's the fact that resistance and damage are both additive with themselves while being multiplicative with each other, so when you add to both you get a better return than when you add to just one.
In your second attempt at an example you are comparing apples and oranges. sure, a single -30% damage buff would cause 130 damage to deal 169 damage, but an additional 30% debuff would cause that same 130 damage to deal 208 damage. Another increase of 39 damage, which is the same as the increase from 130 to 169. The 130 damage in your two scenarios is not equivalent, because you are comparing a base 130 damage to a base 100 damage with a debuff applied. And certainly, the higher base damage will deal more damage, we don't even need math to show that.
No kidding. And if you looked at anything in my sig, you would see that all of my advice is targeted at defenders not controllers. If you bothered to read any of my advice you might learn something.Quote:He's playing a Fire Blast, not Fire Control. This is the Corruptor forum, not the Controller forum.
The Ragnarok will not be as effective as you claim. First it will only proc at the 0 second and 10 second mark, and Freezing Rain is already giving a chance (5%) to knockdown enemies every .2 seconds. This makes Ragnarok's ability mostly redundant in my view. Sure it can delay the alpha strike a little bit, but the attacks are just going to come later on when they stand back up. Fortunately, Fire might actual be able to take them out before they stand back up, so we can pretend that you might want the knockdown for the next little bit.Quote:When he drops a Freezing Rain/Rain of Fire, he's doing so on uncontrolled targets much of the time. Neither of these powers has any sort of control attached other than "well, things will run out of their radius... maybe". That means the Ragnarok knockdown proc is huge. It effectively subtracts 20% of the incoming attacks that are probably going to slice through his paper-thin defenses and do some serious harm.
Pretending he might want the Ragnarok proc in freezing Rain, he would be better off just sticking the proc in freezing rain, putting the other 5 IOs in Rain of Fire, where they will be useful, and moving that ATOs to any of his many damage powers, which you point out, he has no shortage of. He gains nothing by wasting the purple set in Freezing Rain, and then he can fill out the rest of FR with recharge and procs that will benefit the power.Quote:Fire Blast is also not Fire Control in another significant way: it places huge demands on both endurance and recharge. The easiest way to solve this? Slot purples.
Now, he can slot Ragnarok in Rain of Fire. But he's already got Rain of Fire slotted with the ATO because it's the only option other than Ragnarok with enough single power recharge reduction and the ATO won't slot into Freezing Rain. He knows he wants to at least slot the Ragnarok proc into one of the two rains, and as long as he's putting the proc in he might as well get the 5-set bonus.
**raises an eyebrow** Well, I'm glad that you know exactly what everyone looking at this thread wants to do. I've come across many folks who want to solo AVs, and speed TFs, and seeing that they have a better idea of their goal than I do, I figure I'll let them decide which is more beneficial to them. Again I'm wondering if you're even reading what I posted. I layed out quite clearly when I would slot the achilles' heel versus the proc. And...congratulations, you have picked a cricumstance in which I suggest a damage proc would be more useful. I'm glad my guide could helpQuote:He's not particularly worried about a single tough target. His ranged defense should be able to cover that in any case where a tank isn't mandatory. However, a small army of little targets fires off enough attacks that he's almost guaranteed to get hit - and if any of those hits contain any of a variety of control/debuff effects, he's screwed.
Certainly, slotting Achilles' Heel rather than a damage proc isn't going to break the build. But it's an example of how you're taking advice that might be appropriate for one use and misapplying it to a completely different one.
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Just to be clear, I am not offering particularly nuanced advice, because you can find more advice than you could possibly want in my Storm Guide. What I am responding to is your lack of nuance (and occasional outright inaccuracies) making sure than an alternative view point is represented.
Quote:Beauregard, you are wrong on this fact. Please stop disseminating false information. Look at this page: http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/IO_Sets. When we say "Global enhancement" we mean the ones marked by the globe icon. You are wrong about how Winter's Gift operates. It is a global enhancement you get the bonus even if the travel power isn't turned on. Stealth on the other has no globe symbol by it and is not global, you must have the power turned on. Knock back is global you don't need the power turned on. Likewise with the +defense and +resistance IOs. The +recovery and +regeneration IOs are NOT global, the power must be used/turned on. (Fortunately, these usually go in the fitness pool, which is always on)Originally Posted by Beauregard
Movement globals tend not to be truly 'global' in this fashion. If you want Celerity's Stealth or Winter's Gift's slow resistance, you need to turn on (or activate) the power. I believe BotZ works this way as well, but I'm not positive - in any case, he should check before slotting it.
Right, so don't slot those sets. Proc this power out, you will have much more success. Again...I point you to the guide.Quote:The reason you use Ragnarok/Positron's like this has nothing to do with trying to boost the damage of the power - it has to do with the fact that slow/defense sets are horrible compared to the purple on powers that require significant recharge reduction (and, frankly, pretty horrible in general).
First, a factual inaccuracy in the bolded part. Resistance debuffs are not subject to diminishing returns. A 30% resistance debuff will cause the same increase in damage regardless of how much resistance debuff is already on the enemy.Quote:In terms of Achilles' Heel, non-AV/GM don't have enough health to justify using it compared to conventional damage procs. Against AV/GM, you're either fighting in team/league (probably minimizing the actual value of the -resistance debuff given all the other -resistance debuffs) or fighting solo (where you're unlikely to consistently deal enough damage within the 10 sec window to justify it).
Achilles' Heel is a great proc. But that doesn't mean you can just blindly slot it in any power that happens to have -defense attached. It works a lot better for a Katana Scrapper than it does here.
I mostly agree with the beginning of your statement, but in the higher levels and if you run TFs, there are going to be a lot of AVs. Again the numbers are available in my guide, but since you insist on asserting without evidence, I will reproduce it here to make it clear that I am not advocating "blindly slotting it". You might find this helpful to understand exactly when you slot the Achilles' proc and exactly when you should slot a damage proc.
Quote:Originally Posted by Draggynn
I've heard about this Achilles' Heel proc, should I slot it?
Probably. If you team, then yes. If you fight higher level foes and bosses, then yes.
This proc has a 20% chance to provide a 20% -res debuff for 10 seconds. Like the damage procs it has two chances to fire in Freezing Rain: once on the first tick, and once at the 10 second mark. Because Freezing Rain won't have debuffed enemies on the first tick, it may be advantageous to slot Freezing Rain for accuracy to increase the chance that the proc will land. This proc also has the advantage that it is not subjected to the purple patch. That means that even against +4 enemies it will still provide a 20% resistance debuff while Freezing Rain's debuff will be reduced to 16.8%. However, the debuff is still resisted by resistance. Unfortunately the debuff will not stack, so there is no chance of achieving a 40% resistance debuff thanks to multiple Freezing Rains.
Although the proc is quite strong, in order to make the Achilles' Heel proc better than a damage proc you must deal 360 damage in 10 seconds. Against a single hard target, where you can focus your fire, this is certainly doable, but depending on your Area of Effect potential, you may actually deal more damage using a damage proc than the Achilles' Heel proc. It is also worth mentioning that at level 50 a minion only has 430 hit points. This means that, thanks to the -res in Freezing Rain, the minion is dead before you can deal the requisite damage. Of course, against lieutenants and bosses you don't run out of hit points, and on a team you don't have any trouble reaching that 360 damage mark. So as long as you regularly encounter lieutenants and higher, play on teams, or fight higher level enemies, the Achilles' Heel proc is worthwhile.24 dps, from a fire and forget power IS "remarkable". If you look at the damage/activation instead of straight up dps, you will see why it is. Furthermore, it is not 24 dps, instead of whatever other powers you are casting. It is 24 dps in addition to whatever other powers you are casting. Tornado is what allowed Stormies to solo AVs even before incarnate powers.Quote:It's not 'remarkably strong'. Tornado deals about 12 dps. Once you've enhanced it, you get to around 24 dps. While it can theoretically deal damage to up to 5 targets, the chance of finding 5 targets that aren't flung away immediately and are standing in melee range of the Tornado is extremely slim. This is a nice addition to his basic dps, but that's all it is - especially given how the basic dps is both significantly larger and externally buffable.
Right....which would be fights with single hard targets, which was exactly what I was talking about. Now if he doesn't intend to fight hard targets, fine, it doesn't matter. Again, a more nuanced perspective is available in my guide.Quote:More importantly, he'll rarely ever use Tornado. About the only fights where you wouldn't lose more damage from scattering the spawn than you'd add from the Tornado would be kb-immune AV/GM. -
Of course a longer response to my thoughts on Storm Powers can be found in my guide, but a couple things that really stand out at me:
Quote:The BotZ enhancement, is a global enhancement and is thus always on. Regardless of whether you have fly toggled on or not.Originally Posted by Beauregard
Fly. If you take Fly, it's because you want Afterburner for a LotG mule/panic button. Also, I think you won't get the BotZ KB reduction unless Fly is active (i.e.: you'll never have it when you need it).
Please, no. Neither of these sets are good in Freezing Rain. Freezing Rain is NOT a damage power. It is however, probably the most powerful AoE debuff available in the game. Although slotting 5 Raganaroks will give you enough recharge in the power, the accuracy and damage buffs to the power are pretty much wasted. You can read my guide for a detailed analysis of when the Achilles' proc is better than a damage proc, and more advice on how to slot FR. This power will benefit much more from procs than the Ragnarok set. If you're slotting Ragnarok just for the set bonus, I'm sure you have better places to use those slots (if not a better power to slot Ragnarok in).Quote:Freezing Rain. 6-slot this with 5 Ragnarok (including Knockdown) and a Positron's Blast Chance for Energy Damage. None of the debuff components are worth buffing, the Achilles' proc won't go off enough to matter and Ragnarok is the only set besides the ATO that brings enough recharge to the table.
Except of course that Tornado is a remarkably strong damage source against single targets. Figure out if you enjoy Tornado before deciding on whether it deserves recharge. Having multiple tornados out at a time can be a lot of fun.Quote:Tornado. Blood Mandate is a better set and there's no reason to reduce the recharge on Tornado.
You should always be running Steamy Mist which has a stealth component. Thus both super speed and +stealth are unnecessary. Any one of those in addition to Steamy Mist will provide full invisibility.Quote:Lastly, take Super Speed and Celerity +stealth. There really isn't any excuse for a squishie who can't stealth at level 50. -
Quote:I certainly recommend storm/psi, but you may not want to plan on the /psi epic pool. Storm requires more endurance than most sets, and so I highly recommend choosing an epic pool that has an endurance recovery power to help mitigate this problem. Of course if you always team (in which case vigilance may help you a little, especially if there are blasters) or find that your playstyle doesn't lead to any endurance troubles by the time you're 41, ignore this advice.Originally Posted by Subject87
Hmm storm/psi sounds really interesting, Thanks, I'll keep watching this for additional posts.. but sounds like a storm/psi defender, probably with the /psi epic pool.
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Quote:I'm glad you found the guide helpful. It looks like next week I may finally have time to finish the LS section and get started on revisions.Originally Posted by FlashToo
Looked at Draggynn's helpful guide...
Here I suspect that you have made a common mids mistake of looking at numbers with Gale toggled on. As a general rule, I find it best to treat your numbers as if the force feedback proc doesn't fire, because you will find the proc never fires as often as you think it should. As currently slotted Freezing Rain will recharge in ~20 seconds (with hasten active), with a second recharge IO, it will recharge in ~17.5 seconds. If you team, there is no question that having Freezing Rain up 2.5 seconds faster is better than the damage proc. If you primarily solo, then you may not have damage output to fully compensate for the expected loss of ~30 damage, but I would take the more consistent debuff any day.Quote:I've also proc'd out Freezing Rain rather than slotting for max recharge, but it's down pretty close to Draggynn's suggested recharge time of 15 seconds anyway, but I concede it might still be worth doing some math over it to see if replacing the smashing or lethal proc with more recharge is a good idea especially if it stacks with itself.
As for your endurance problems, the biggest tool you're going to have for dealing with those is going to be Hibernate. Because of the lockout on phasing powers, Hibernate can only be used every 120 seconds. Thus I would not bother slotting it with more than the base slot unless you are going for a set bonus (which it doesn't look like you are)
I would pull those three slots out of hibernate and get yourself more endurance reduction (and defense/resistance) in Steamy Mist and Maneuvers. Or pull out afterburner and take another power.
This build should be perfectly respectable, and should be able to take down enemies plenty fast. If you were looking to solo AVs, or run solo at +4x8, you would need to hit the softcap to ranged defense, but if those aren't goals this build should work fine.
basically freezing rain, cycle tentacles and night fall whenever they're up and throw in some single target attacks on the hard targets and enemies should pretty much melt.
Also, hitting 38 and getting lightning storm, may help you feel like you have more damage output. If it's a couple bosses that feel like they're taking a while, use hurricane/gale to pin them in a corner, and then unleash FR, LS, and tornado on them and they should melt (but then you know all that from the guide ) When it focuses on a single target debuffed by Freezing Rain, Tornado's damage is massive.
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Quote:Actually, I don't believe this will work. Neither web envelope nor web cocoon suppress knock back, so although enemies will not be able to run, they can certainly be moved all over the place. I am not particularly familiar with corruptor ancillary pools, but I'm pretty sure that they only power there that suppresses KB is electric fence.Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
One word of warning, both Tornado and Lightning Storm do a fair chunk of damage, but come with knockback. Because of this Mace Mastery might be of use so you can AOE immob things in place and then let Tornado & LS whittle them down along with your Fire powers.
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The answer is not really. Damage always helps you get aggro, but a proc in time's juncture will only fire on a particular enemy every 50 seconds (a 20% chance to fire every 10 seconds). In practice it will feel better because against a large group some enemies are likely to get hit every 10 seconds, but that damage on its own is unlikely to overcome the aggro of other players unless you are on a team with very low damage output, or few AoEs. So I suspect you will notice almost no change in your ability to keep aggro.
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Quote:Because I think numbers are always helpful:Originally Posted by Tenjoy
Actually, that's not true. For your averaged end/s gain, the proc is better than a lv. 50 endmod IO even in the first slot.
Slotting a single lvl 50 end mod IO: .177%end/sec
Base Recovery is 1.67%/sec.
Stamina is a +25% recovery buff (so .42%/sec)
A single lvl 50 IO provides 42.4% buff, so that's (.424*.25*1.67) = .177%/sec
Slotting Performance Shifter: .20%end/sec
The +Stamina proc on the other hand is a 20% chance for +10% endurance every 10 seconds, so it will proc, on average once every 50 seconds. Thus the expected endurance recovery from Performance Shifter is .20%/sec.
The Miracle Unique on the other hand provides a 15% recovery buff so (.15*1.67)= .25%end/sec -
Bleh, I'm theoretically still boycotting this forum, but I just needed to correct a common misconception that popped up here:
Quote:If we're talking about hard targets, at this point in the game's development, with all the incarnate powers out there, we are most often talking about an AV fight. Under most circumstances an AV fight will last longer than 30 seconds. As long as the AV fight lasts longer than the duration of Tornado there is no difference between the damage dealt by Tornado over time, and an attack that dealt Tornado's damage in one shot at the beginning. The only time npc regen effects damage over time powers, is when the enemy is almost dead and the spike damage would kill the mob. If the damage wouldn't kill the enemy as is the case during most of an AV fight, there is no difference between damage over time and otherwise.Originally Posted by MisterD
And nevermind that since its over a long time period, npc regen will mean you never get the full damage anyhow.
and a little bit of a response before I resume my boycott
I agree that Tornado is "situational" but then so are many powers in this game. As Psylenz points out there are many situations in which, with use of hurricane and geometry, Tornado can be used without affecting mob grouping or causing too much chaos. More importantly though, as you mention Tornado excels at hard targets. If the OP has any intention of running content with AVs (either his own missions solo, or TFs and Trials) I would strongly encourage him to devote more slots to Tornado since it will be substantially more effective than any of his own attacks during an AV fight (did we mention Tornado is auto-hit?). Using Tornado only as an IO mule is a bit of a tragedy.Quote:As I said, the main situations for Tornado is a panic button, to use on a single Hard target, or or a mob that has been locked down with -kb. If you are solo, you wont have a mob sized -kb (I think, unless theres one hidden in the epics). Also, if you are solo, considering a bots storm can go +4/8 easily, WHY would you be using tornado every mob, and ruining your own aoes? -
Quote:I'm going to disagree here. With a soft capped build, high resistance, and storm's inherent control, a self heal will rarely be necessary. If you're taking enough damage that your health is in danger aid self probably isn't going to do a ton to save you. Just carry around some greens (Although death is likely to be from cascade defense failure, so carrying around purples is usually more important).Originally Posted by NecroOmNomNomicon
If you go Clarion then make sure you have Aid Self slotted up because not having any self heal at all is teh sux.
If you're not going for high resistance on top of high defense, then aid self is more valuable. But with both, I think it's mostly a waste. -
You're endurance numbers don't seem as bad as I would have thought, but I suspect you will still find that you have endurance problems. If you're planning to incarnate this character and take cardiac (which is what you should take if you do, since it will also increase your resistance) that will help reduce some of you're troubles, but probably not eliminate it.
At the very least, I recommend that you stick the performance shifter +end in stamina but I would also find a way to take an endurance recovery power (powersink)
If you're planning on incarnating this character, then I would probably be a little more careless with my endurance as well. I would probably swap afterburner for maneuvers. Yes, this takes more endurance, but it will also free up some of the slots that you are currently devoting to set bonuses so that another slot can be stuck in Freezing Rain (Achilles' Heel), Hasten, and some other powers you feel are underslotted. I would get a lot of these slots by reducing the number of slots in weave and using Luck of the Gamblers there instead.
Also depending on how much you are interested in investing, you can also free up slots by replacing your titanium coatings with Ribosomes (end/resistance Hamios) although you may decide that more hit points are more important than more slots. However, you should be pretty survivable to the point where either they can't touch you, or else you're going to smush and a few extra hit points won't matter a whole lot. (Unless you PvP).
I hope that gives you some things to consider. -
Defense will make a more noticeable difference in survivability than resistance, but the nice thing on storm is that you don't need to choose between the two. Storm gets the most benefit from ranged defense since Hurricane essentially completes your melee defense. Since ranged defense can pretty much only be improved through set bonuses (after steamy mist, weave, hover, maneuvers) there is no need to choose your epic armor for defense. So Defenders can actually get very impressive defense/resistance numbers by building set bonuses for ranged defense and taking an epic armor for resistance.
Just be aware that the endurance costs will be high. -
Quote:Which means two strikes worthOriginally Posted by Trickshooter
But even if it does, it's duration will only be as long as Power Boost normally lasts. Power Boost only lingers on the effect of Clicks; Summons and Toggles will only have the effect for the duration of Power Boost, more or less.
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perhaps post a link to where you found your answer in case someone else comes looking for the answer
The incarnate procs should finally be fixed so that they fire at exactly the same times other procs slotted in the powers would. (Although the interface proc firing on every tic of Freezing Rain was pretty awesome. Really, you only needed one attack then. Then when they were fixing that bug there was a period where the incarnate procs would only have a chance to fire on the first tic of duration powers rather than every 10 seconds)
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Quote:Thank you, that view of the contest helps me understand the reasoning for your rules.Originally Posted by DarthDelicious
Personally, I see the FArt Battle as a battle where devotion plays a big part in.
My suggestion was premised on the notion that if an entry weren't required every month, then many of the artists who "self eliminate" would actually return in later months, but then this doesn't support your goal of rewarding devotion, so it wouldn't work.Quote:Originally Posted by DarthDelicious
Unfortunately history has shown us that participants sometimes drop out, out of the blue, with or without notion, for whatever reason.
Most eliminations are pretty much from own choices.
I look forward to seeing this year's contest and wish you the best of luck