Dragonfish

Thanks to everyone in the SG who helped Nukeleus make the big 5-0 tonight. Cheers guys.

And grats to the SG making rank 19 in the SG charts.

Go DHP!

My lvl 39 Corruptor has kinetics, but I still took flight early on. Siphon Speed does add to flight speed so there is some nice synergy there, it certainly saves some slots.

Hover plus Siphon Speed is a great combat mode for moving, but I wouldn't advise it for cross zone travel.

I've just respecced in Teleport, which works nicely with Hover which then works great in combat. I like it, and Teleport is very fast across zones.

You can get away with not taking a travel power, but there are advantages if you do.

7 brutes, 1 Kin... all the fury, all the time.

That all makes good sense, thanks for the tips.

I think I'll stick with my EM/SR stalker and try what you've suggested when I get round to PvPing with him.

Cheers.

[ QUOTE ]
1. The AoE-Shield will usually not be needed in PvP-Zones later on. PvPers usually do not use AoEs, and you can by-pass the aggro-auras out of hide.

2. You do not need self-heal, if you have to stay in a fight long enough to heal yourself you already lost.

3. With teleport foe, you can decide the speed and place of the fight giving you an advantage over the opponent.

4. The recharge buff through Quickness is one of the main reasons to pick /SR over /Nin. It lets you go all out ACC and DMG on your Attacks, not having to care about Recharge that much.

Kaiser

[/ QUOTE ]

I gather from what you are saying, you are rarely AS'ing and you are using EM's big hitters to scrap as quickly as possible? I remember reading about this tactic when someone was reporting on a base raid they took part in. If that's the case then SR's Quickness definitely comes in handy.

My level 32 stalker is EM/SR. There's no way I can fit in Aid Self (+1 other to get it) and Stealth and Invisibility which I would like to. However, Ninjutsu has an inbuilt heal so you save a slot at least and always seemed to me to be the better option.

Also Nin gets def versus Melee, Ranged, and Area all early on. SR has to run another toggle for Area def which you can't get until late on.

So Nin saves at least two slots. The only advantage I can see for SR is that you can get another 7% def to melee and ranged with three slotted auto powers and you get an effective DO recharge in all your powers and increased running speed. Hmmm.

I can't decide if its worth it. Stalkers aren't really scrappers, do you need the extra def? Someone once said unless you're running elude you will get hit regardless, so a self heal seems to be a must and I find that's not possible with SR if you want to take the extra stealth. I think I'd rather have all my defence in two toggles, less slotting needed and have a self heal built into the set. Combine that with Nin's tricks for added versatility and Nin seems the clear winner over SR.

I chose SR for the reduced recharge to combine with EM's big hitters, but I'm not sure I made the right choice. I would have liked to have taken Stun too, but absolutely no chance of that with SR. However, all said and done, that reduced recharge does mean EM/SR has a higher DPS and there's no getting round that, which is why I've never rerolled Sacrilege as EM/Nin... yet

Yeah, I'd have to side with doing stacked AMs rather than chained ones.

Having them stacked meant we blitzed through most of the mish easily. Okay, we suffered a bit when it crashed and people screamed for more drugs but most of the mish was done by then. I can't wait until this is perma.

Went on last night at 10pm, but couldn't get a team. Then wouldn't ya know it, just as I'm logging at 11.30 ish I get two tells! Then I picked up the timed Ballista-1 mish by mistake as I was about to log, half an hour later I'd managed to clear the map and defeat him solo with my Rad/Kin Corr! Very chuffed (lots of purples helped).

Will try to superteam again tonight, but homelife means I can't always plan to get on earlier.

Currently level 8, I hope there's some room in one of the higher level teams for an lk.

Tried this for the first time last night with Jackal_Ripper (aka Radiation Jackal) and a few others. Cheers all for the team.

It was utterly insane. Five stacked AMs, fighting +2s a lot of the time and we finished one mish so quickly that AM hadn't recharged before we got to the next mish!

There was some confusion over which level 6 power to take. A couple of people took RI, which was occasionally useful for harder bosses, but most things die so quickly it was pointless at our level. I took RoF, which gave good damage and I assume would be awesome if four or five of us had it, however with just one person firing it it tended to scatter the mobs which wasn't great for the fireballs.

We also noticed that when the AM wore off endurance began to plummet. Does anyone have any firm figures for when AM gets perma'd (assuming 3 slotted with SO's)?

The another thing I noticed was that it was pointless slotting enhancements because we were levelling so fast! I waited until I logged out at level 7 to go buy a load of level 10s. My advice to anyone starting would be to sell everything and don't slot. It doesn't make a lot of difference and you'll outlevel the enhancements in no time. Besides, you're wasting time shopping when you could be earning xp!

How are you guys finding the higher levels above 10? Any tips you can share?

This sounds like a great idea.

I'd like to sign up please : @dragonfish

See you Sunday.

I'd like in on a little Spelunker action.

I can do any night except tonight.

Happy to donate some inf from my lvl 50.

Just let me know when you are doing it.

Cheers.

Doesn't sound like I'm going to get a unanimous answer.

In that case, assuming I don't PvP until late in the game (no real plans to until lvl50), is Stealth needed in PvE?

Is Invis needed in PvE?

Would Agile and Dodge let me scrap more in PvE or is it unnoticeable?

I can see the obvious benefits to Aid Self in PvE, but has anyone got it and is thinking of resepeccing it out because they just don't use it?

If I do take Agile and Dodge then, I'm still left with my original problem of whether to take Stealth/Invis or Aid Other/Aid Self.

I've only really got two spare slots.

What would you choose? More Stealth or Heals?

So I guess what you are saying is that Agile and Dodge aren't worth it. I'm not so sure. Three slotted they are about 8% which on top of the 30% from the other toggles and hide is quite a good bonus and besides Quickness, its the only advantage SR has over the other defence based secondaries.

I'm not so sure about dropping Evasion. I've not seen any concrete numbers, but HeroBuilder states about 12% for Hide and 36% for Evasion on AoE defence (three slotted with SO's). That's a big difference. Mind you, that's another endurance draining toggle to manage, although I do have the slots for the End Reds.

Surely though, If I drop Evasion, Agile and Dodge, I might as well have taken Ninjutsu and got a built in heal (costing one slot not two). As daft as it seems, aren't these the powers that define SR?

My EM / SR stalker's build is pretty much sorted, but there are some powers I just can't decide on.

In my opinion, if I don't take Agile and Dodge then I might as well have taken one of the other Stalker defence pools as I would only have the same defence as Ninjutsu or Energy Aura and they both have some nice little tricks as well. Taking Agile and Dodge though, makes SR a pretty tight set power selection wise having taken all the powers.

My dilemma is then whether I take Stealth and Invisibility or Aid Other and Aid Self.

I hear both Aid Self and Stealth are pretty much needed (and Invisibility for PvP).

Are there any high level stalkers who can advise how they get on with or without these powers?

Or should I just accept that my defence is the same as Ninjutsu and Energy Aura and take both of the power pools?

Cheers in advance.

Ballista-1 cost me two trips to the hospital but I managed to solo him.

In the end the trick was to kill all the goons around him and then Poison him to death whilst he took his time killing the Posse from a Gangwar. Having my Thugs spread out helped too as its his AoE attacks that are the killer.

I've found that the Posse tend to get distracted by weaker mobs leaving the EB's to turn their focus on your minions. Sometimes you have to kill the minions first and then beat a hasty retreat and return when the EB is on his own and you've resummoned your mins.

God bless Gangwar, I love that power, although I find less use for it now I have my Bruiser.

My Thugs / Poison MM is level 27. I picked up Pistols and Dual Wield and can confirm what everyone else is saying.

To begin with I did use the pistol attacks, but as I've levelled I've noticed I use them less and less because I'm using more and more secondary powers.

I still intend to take Empty Clips and my planned slotting is to six slot all three attacks, but I am wondering if its going to be worth it.

Still, Pistols are cool and Empty Clips doesn't look much cooler imo (I did take it on the toon before, but rerolled him to get earlier secondaries in).

Bottom line, is that Empty Clips will draw more aggro and use a big chunk of End, those should be your primary concerns.

That's very similar to the build I have now. I've taken Hover and Flight, but other than that the build is very close.

My MM is only level 15 at the moment, but so far the build is working very well. I can certainly say that with only Twilight Grasp to spam during combat that my End bar rarely moves and I have sprint and Assault running constantly. I'm expecting that when Stamina kicks in even with Tactics and Shadow Fall I don't think I'll need all the End Redux that you have slotted for in your toggles. You might want to think about moving those slots, certainly three End Rdx won't be needed, one will probably be enough.

The bow attacks just don't fit with the toon concept which is why I've left them out and its certainly working.

The only problem I am having is that Twilight Grasp has such a long animation that sometimes the Ninjas have run off before it activates and it misses them, that can be frustrating.

I took down a +2 boss (Aberrant Rector) this evening with no problem. Certainly at this level its working fine.

[ QUOTE ]
By any change, do you know that pyromanic pet, does he trow the fire bombs alot?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've only got one with the first upgrade, but he tends to throw firebombs as his most often used attack. Occasionally if the mobs are still there after 15 or so seconds, then he'll move in closer and breathe fire.

I've only just picked this up, but my intention was to slot for recharge and accuracy. They are only an aggro magnet and they can't do that if they don't hit.

However, I've no idea what their base accuracy is and if they have pet level accuracy then I don't think slotting for accuracy would be necessary.

[ QUOTE ]
Fine for me thx, free from 6.30-7pm onwards.
- lovely *claps hands excitedly.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd love to join you if possible.

Nightfear is only missing this badge for the Medallion too.

I'll send a tell to @Deluge when I log on. Not sure what time that will be so don't wait for me. I'll try and make it for 6.30pm to 7pm.

Cheers.

I'd try and get Build Up a lot sooner.

I'm not sure you need Recharges in all your attacks with Hasten. A lot of those Katana attacks recharge pretty quick.

Resilience is only needed if you are going to do a lot of PvP and if so then extra accuracies in your attacks would be better.

I don't think you'll need Conserve Power along with Stamina and Quick Recovery, but then again if they don't resolve the current Endurance problem maybe you will.

I'm running Focused Accuracy on a lvl 47 MA/Regen build and I have to turn it off when fighting anything that saps End (Carnies, Malta, anything with Elec attacks). I have three accuracies in all attacks, but its amazing the difference FA makes when you start seeing "Deflected" popping up when you miss.

With the current End probs, I'm considering swapping out one accuracy for an End Red in each attack and trying to run FA permanently. Attacks drain much more End/sec when scrapping than a few toggles (with the exception of Flight ).

Ok, round 2.

I've put comments under each power.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.6.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://sherksilver.coldfront.net/index.php)
---------------------------------------------
Name:
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Crush==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Dmg(13) Dmg(15)
I've reduced the number of accuracies I've taken and slotted for damage... not sure about this one, I don't think I'll need it at high levels, may respec it out.
01) --> Gale==> Acc(1) Acc(15)
I like Gale, I find it useful as a panic button for when mobs get too close or are swamping the team. I imagine there are better mass mob control tools later tho' (only level 15 at the mo).
02) --> Lift==> Acc(2) Acc(3) Dmg(27) Dmg(31)
Nice little single target damage and control.
04) --> Gravity Distortion==> Acc(4) Acc(5) Hold(5) Hold(7) Hold(7)
Good for stacking on bosses after GDF.
06) --> Snow Storm==> Slow(6)
I've reduced the slows. I still think reducing melee mob's speed is a good idea, but slots were better used elsewhere.
08) --> Propel==> Acc(8) Acc(9) Dmg(9) Dmg(11) Dmg(13) Range(29)
I like propel. Very slow tho, I have to make sure I'm targetting mobs that the team aren't hitting or its a waste. Great damage with containment. Does BI of 10.85 fully slotted, that's 21 with containment... that's Energy Transfer territory! The range is in there to put it at GD distance.
10) --> Crushing Field==> Acc(10) Acc(11)
Just going to use this to immobilise and combine with FR and Ice Storm.
12) --> Hover==> Fly(12) Fly(40) Fly(42)
Should keep me out of the way when necessary. I don't plan to use it all the time as that would make Hurricane pointless.
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14) Fly(43) Fly(43)
I like Fly, its my favourite travel power and it isn't that slow, it just feels like it because everything is so far away and there's nothing to do whilst flying. Nothing looks cooler and its versatility is unmatched... unless you're a stone tank
16) --> Freezing Rain==> Dmg(16) Dmg(17) Dmg(17) DefDeBuf(25) Slow(25) Range(37)
Gone with the advice that it doesn't need accuracies. I took range because a lot of the Grav powers are range 80, but some of the Storm ones are range 60. With one Range SO I get range 74 and its a nice distance from the mobs. I could have taken Steamy Mist, but I ran out of slots. I also find that I stay at the back of the team a lot so I can see what's going on.
18) --> Gravity Distortion Field==> Acc(18) Acc(19) Hold(19) Hold(21) Rechg(21) Rechg(29)
Nothing to say here, move along.
20) --> Hurricane==> TH_DeBuf(20) KB_Dist(46) EndRdx(46)
Okay, I took it, it had better be good! Not sure of slotting, open to suggestions.
22) --> Hasten==> Rechg(22) Rechg(23) Rechg(23)
Taken just in time to get the SO's into it, no point taking it earlier in my mind. I lot of people advised taking recharge reductions in some powers, but with Hasten running I don't think its that necessary. I still took some recharges in the long recharge powers.
24) --> Swift==> Run(24)
I've really pushed back taking the Fitness pool to get in some of the other powers earlier. The character is currently level 15 and has taken powers differently to this list, but I'm hoping to use the upcoming freespec.
26) --> Wormhole==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Range(34) Rechg(42) Rechg(42)
Again, range to bring it up to 74yards, I hope the rest of the slotting is ok. I think I should have slotted it sooner tho', not sure what happened there, so the slot levels may change.
28) --> Health==> Heal(28)
No use in combat, but does reduce downtime. I would have liked to put more slots in, but I've never created a character before that needs so many slots and has so many cool and useful powers!
30) --> Stamina==> EndMod(30) EndMod(31) EndMod(31)
This is coming in late for me. I usually have it at lvl 20. I'm really not sure about this, but if I take the good powers at the level they are available then this is the only chance I get.
32) --> Singularity==> Dmg(32) Dmg(33) Dmg(33) Hold(33) Hold(34) Acc(34)
I hope this is a good mix of enhancements.
35) --> Tornado==> Dmg(35) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Rechg(36) Rechg(37) DefDeBuf(37)
Well the damage on paper from Tornado certainly looks worth slotting, is the defence debuff worth it?
38) --> Lightning Storm==> Acc(38) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(39) Rechg(40) Rechg(40)
Again, on paper the damage is awesome. I hope it lives up to it.
41) --> Hibernate==> Rechg(41) Rechg(43)
I do like this power, the ultimate panic button. I just hope all the mobs are dead or gone before the time runs out.
44) --> Ice Blast==> Acc(44) Acc(45) Dmg(45) Dmg(45) Dmg(46)
With contaiment the BI on this is 18, awesome! And with hasten, the recharge is 4.71 secs. With an activation time of 1 this is much better than Propel. Obviously I'm not looking for an attack chain, but some single target damage at range to help the team out where needed is very useful.
47) --> Ice Storm==> Dmg(47) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Range(48) Rechg(50)
With a BI of 29 (over 72 tics!) I'm hoping to combine this with GDF and CF for mass area annhilation.
49) --> O2 Boost==> Heal(49) Heal(50) Heal(50)
Finally, I must admit I currently have this in my build and it is very useful. I imagine three slotted with SO's its even more useful, but I'm wondering that in the 40's with all the other tricks and attacks, am I really going to use it. It'll probably be more use in the 20's when the best thing I can do would be to heal the tank/blaster/scrapper or other healer to keep them alive to either damage the mobs or heal properly. Its probably not worth taking at this level. Should I swap it for Steamy Mist which I didn't manage to fit in?
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Power Slide==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
02) --> Rest==> IntRdx(2)
---------------------------------------------

Overall, I've really struggled to take all the powers I wanted and slot them how I would like. I'm currently leaning to the idea that some of the early powers (Crush, Lift) might not be of much use once all the tricks have been picked up and fully slotted, ie: Wormhole, GDF, FR. And once I have the Ice Epic, I think even Propel might be redundant.

So how is the build looking now? Its a mix of playabilty without respeccing, but I think maybe I should look to a respec build for when I get to the late 40's. Maybe I should put Steamy Mist in and O2 Boost at lower levels and then respec them out at later levels... thoughts?

Thanks for all the advice.

Sounds like I need to drop Frozen Armour and take Hurricane.

I figured some of the slotting would need amending.

I'll try another build and post it later.

Thanks all.

---------------------------------------------
Exported from Ver: 1.7.5.0 of the CoH_CoV Character Builder - (http://home.comcast.net/~SherkSilver/index.html)
---------------------------------------------
Name:
Level: 50
Archetype: Controller
Primary: Gravity Control
Secondary: Storm Summoning
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Crush==> Acc(1) Acc(3) Immob(37) Dmg(37)
01) --> Gale==> Acc(1)
02) --> Lift==> Acc(2) Acc(3) Dmg(36) Dmg(36) Dmg(43)
04) --> Gravity Distortion==> Acc(4) Acc(5) Acc(5) Hold(9) Hold(15) Hold(17)
06) --> Propel==> Acc(6) Acc(7) Acc(7) Dmg(11) Dmg(11) Dmg(15)
08) --> Crushing Field==> Acc(8) Acc(9)
10) --> Snow Storm==> Slow(10) Slow(17) Slow(40)
12) --> Hover==> Fly(12) Fly(13) Fly(13)
14) --> Fly==> Fly(14) Fly(43)
16) --> Swift==> Run(16)
18) --> Gravity Distortion Field==> Acc(18) Acc(19) Acc(19) Hold(21) Hold(21) Hold(34)
20) --> Health==> Heal(20)
22) --> Stamina==> EndMod(22) EndMod(23) EndMod(23)
24) --> Hasten==> Rechg(24) Rechg(25) Rechg(25)
26) --> Wormhole==> Acc(26) Acc(27) Acc(27) DisDur(31) DisDur(31) DisDur(31)
28) --> Freezing Rain==> Acc(28) Acc(29) Slow(29) Slow(37) Slow(43)
30) --> Thunder Clap==> Acc(30) Acc(36) DisDur(42) DisDur(46)
32) --> Singularity==> Acc(32) Acc(33) Acc(33) Dmg(33) Dmg(34) Dmg(34)
35) --> Tornado==> DisDur(35)
38) --> Lightning Storm==> Acc(39) Acc(39) Dmg(39) Dmg(40) Dmg(40)
41) --> Hibernate==> Rechg(41) Rechg(42) Rechg(42)
44) --> Ice Blast==> Acc(44) Acc(45) Acc(45) Dmg(45) Dmg(46) Dmg(46)
47) --> Ice Storm==> Acc(47) Acc(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(48) Dmg(50)
49) --> Frozen Armor==> DefBuf(49) DefBuf(50) DefBuf(50)
---------------------------------------------
01) --> Sprint==> Run(1)
01) --> Brawl==> Acc(1)
01) --> Containment==> Empty(1)
02) --> Rest==> IntRdx(2)
---------------------------------------------

I've recently rolled a Grav / Storm controller after playing several scrappers/tanks/brutes/stalkers and I must say I'm really enjoying the more tactical playing style.

Above is my proposed build. I've left out Dimension Shift from Grav and O2 Boost, Steamy Mist, and Hurricane from Storm as from reading the guides these seemed to be the powers of most contention and I wanted the Ice Epic (I'm a big fan of Slow powers).

Does this look like a good build? I'm not sure if my slotting is a little too scrapper based (lots of accuracy and damage) in some places, but I hate to miss and some of those powers actually have reduced accuracy . I'm used to MA's 80% base accuracy and I still slot three accuracy SO's and run Focused Accuracy... I really hate to miss

I very nearly skipped Wormhole, but one of the guides said it was AoE. This isn't mentioned in the Hero Builder, is it definitely AoE?

I've skipped Hurricane because you can do the same trick standing under the Singularity and I've skipped O2 Boost because you can't heal the Sing and I wouldn't want a team relying on it for a combat heal (although slotted with SO's, is it good?). The only one I'm not sure about is Steamy Mist. I have Stealth on my scrapper (until the next freespec) and I don't find it a lot of use. Is Steamy Mist a good stealth power at lvl50? The defence buff looks as naff as all the other powers with defence secondary effects (Combat jumping, Hover, etc) and once you've aggro'd a mob, what's the point.

So any advice on slotting or power selection would be much appreciated. Its mainly a PvE build, with a 50:50 mix of solo and team play.

[ QUOTE ]
And i would say 7,8% defense are worth taking agile/dodge.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. If you don't take Agile and Dodge then you might as well run a Ninjutsu Stalker and get some tricks. These two are what give SR its edge.