EricHough
-
Posts
938 -
Joined
-
My favorite cut scene is Dr Aeon in the STF - its humorous, doesn't really interrupt the flow of the TF much and its quite appropriate - he IS an evil genius mastermind after all and they ALWAYS stop to explain their evil plans to the heroes.
-
Ice Mastery's Sleet + ice storm + dull pain clone (hoarfrost) for extra damage/ debuff / healing is hard to beat if you are looking at pure numbers. The exception is possibly fire mastery in a */fire dom - the boost from embrace of fire will apply to all your attacks and fireball is a really nice addition to any dom's AoE damage
However, none of the APP's they gave to dom's really suck - they are all pretty nice and add more area attacks and other tools. You won't lose out by taking any of them if you don't like the ice theme for whatever reason. -
Its a baen book so you can also get it in an ebook format (they support pretty much every format out there). Check the webscriptions page on baen.com.
-
Quote:Both times I have run the admiral sutter TF we killed the preatorian duray first (mostly because he sat still longer thant he primal one) and during the fight with the primal a 'clone' of the praetorian duray shows up. Not sure why it does or if it would show up if you took out the primal duray first but you don't have to actually take the 'clone' out, just the two original AV's.Originally Posted by catwhowalksbyhimself
Why is everyone saying there's a clone Durray? It was my understanding that the final AV's were Primal Durray and Praetorian Durray, since the whole story is that the two are working together. -
If we don't get enough for a hami raid, we could always switch to one of the other trials with whomever shows up.
I will certainly be there, going to bring my mind/fire dom, Astral Flare, instead of Andromache for some variety. -
Quote:Getting a start on a cardiac alpha is actually really easy. You can probably craft and slot a cardiac common just by doing the following on the character in question:Originally Posted by UnicyclePeon
I've been reading up on the system a tiny bit, and I think it is looking a bit grindy to me. I may not actively partake. But if I do nibble, I will definitely go cardiac.
Do the Incarnate powers always work when you are level 50 (like in a scanner mission) or do they only work on Incarnate-flagged stuff (such as the 2 new missions)?
Thanks,
Lewis
1) Open the alpha slot by running mender remiels arc.
2) Run a Lady Grey Task Force.
The LGTF awards you one of the components needed to craft a cardiac common (Hero 1 DNA sample), the second component can be purchased with vanguard merits (Gr'ai Matter) - which drop in the LGTF and after you open your alpha slot you will start getting incarnate shard drops and you only need 3 more shards (in addition to the 1 shard you get from the mender remiel arc) to craft the third component needed for the common cardiac (an ancient nictus fragment) - you are likely to get at least 3 incarnate shard drops from an LGTF, if not more.
You can also get an ancient nictus fragment as a reward from an ITF. Even if you do get enough shards to craft one, I would suggest also running an ITF this week as it is the weekly strike task and will award you a notice of the well in addition to the ancient nictus fragment. You will need a notice if you want to craft all the way to rare and an ITF is an easy way to get one, plus you should get more shards.
After that what you do depends on which uncommon/rare you want to have in the end. Ultimately you don't need to do anything but open up your alpha slot: all alpha components can be crafted from incarnate shards and once your alpha slot is open anytime your character defeats a mob you have a chance of getting an incarnate shard drop - even when you are SK'ed below 50 now. (new with i20 - you used to only get shard drops from L50+ mobs). You can speed up the process by running selected TF's to get the components they award or just play your character and craft everything out of shards - the one exception to this is the notice of the well: it CAN be crafted with shards these days but costs a LOT, so you are better off running the weekly strike task and getting one as a reward. -
Quote:No, you don't have to have a level shift - you don't even have to have your alpha slot open, you just need to be L50. There is no penalty imposed on non-incarnates like there is in the Apex and Tin mage TF's.Originally Posted by Nylonus
To do the new trials do you have to have the +1 level shift? I haven't gotten that yet on Nylonus. (Damm lowbe alts demanding all my attention.) I am also not in a huge hurry to get it done. I figure that I can wait until the tactics get perfected then I can be just dragged along as dead weight. It's worked for 50 levels so far.
If you don't have the alpha open your incarnate XP will go towards opening it first, before the new slots. -
2 sorta failed Lamba attempts: On tuesday was on a run that was about to start the first timed stage when the entire server crashed, wasn't in the mood to wait for the league to reform when it came back up, went and did an ITF instead. Today I got on a second league that failed at the same spot due to the boot bug - we reformed the league right away and went back in and ran a completely successfull lamba - even got all 20 temp powers in the first timed section so I got all 3 astral merits. Now at about 79% of my interface slot on Crimson Mystique.
Also did a Sutter TF first thing tuesday morning with Mistress Andromache and ran the Kal SF just tonight. I liked them both although I think the Mortimer Kal SF shortchanges everyone but the leader - there is a lot of dialog with NPC's in the missions and the other team members only see the NPC's replies, which is likely to make it a lot less fun for them. The Admiral Sutter TF is a blast though - I love the ships in the first mission and the destroyed skyway landscape in the second, I was disappointed when it ended and I had to go back to the normal skyway - it looked MUCH better in the TF :-).
I am looking forward to doing Hami raids with the new league interface though - it should make things a lot easier to coordinate. -
Quote:I am curious why villains have to unlock the contact for their SF but heroes do not for the TF. I expect it will be easy enough to do but it seems kinda silly, especially for those of us who alt a lot and might not be able to keep track of who has and hasn't unlocked the contact.
Mortimer Kal Strike Force
- Mortimer Kal, a venerable wizard and member of the Midnight Squad, has been spotted in Sharkhead Isle. Rumors abound that he has secret information regarding Incarnate artifacts and ways of seizing such power. But whispers amongst dark circles tell of a weakness of his which can be exploited to force him to reveal those secrets to anyone brave enough to cross him.
- A special Tip Mission now drops for villains and rogues in the Rogue Isles greater than level 20 revealing Mortimer Kals weakness. Completing this mission will allow you to start Mortimer Kals Strike Force with a team of at least 4 villains between levels 20 and 40.
- Only the leader of the Strike Force needs to have completed the Tip Mission to unlock Mortimer Kal as a contact.
- On this strike force you can expect to exploit and/or betray anyone and everyone you encounter in an effort to claim glorious incarnate power! Crushed and broken enemies will be left in your wake, as nothing will keep you from the power that is rightfully yours!
-
Quote:I noticed this same problem during the GR beta. You are correct - the progression from villain - > rogue -> hero makes sense. You start doing missions where you are out for the money but don't REALLY want to hurt someone and eventually you start to do things just to help people and become a hero. But the hero -> vigilante -> villain progression does not work except in one case, a hero who slips into full out psychosis and becomes the worst possible kind of villain.Originally Posted by Impervious Fist
Why does every thread I make always go so off topic, just like that Statesman one, but this one actually a question...
Anyone remember the original question, y'know, why am I, a guy who thinks hes still a vigilante, trying to do evil that I know is evil when I thought the evil I was doing is good 5 minutes ago.
It's more of a topic on Lore and Morality, not a complaint on lackying for contacts.
The real breakdown here is the fact that the dev's wanted 4 identifiable moralities - the two black/white ones and 2 greys but a true vigilante would NEVER work with villains - the vigilante mentality is to punish/kill the villains when the law won't and as I noted above, the only viable explanation I can see for slipping over to full villainy is if you totally lost it and went psychotic. Really, things would have worked much better with just 1 grey morality - rogue. I can easily see a hero who gets tired of saving folks endlessly for no return starting to charge for it, getting more and more into the money/pay off and eventually slipping into full villainy because they no longer care for anything but the pay off. -
Already had a double whammy on this - was in the middle of a manticore TF, got the first hunt (25 crey in bricks) and when we got there a banner event was running with 16 minutes left. As SOON as that finished a zombie apocalypse spawned.
End result: The TF took about 35-45 minutes longer than it should have and my character got all 4 zombie invasion badges. We tried to do the banner event but being leveled down to 35 and not having a lot of debuffs killed that.
So, probably break even for my character but if you HAD the badges already would have been a wasted 45 minutes. Fortunately all on the TF could hang that long and didn't mind doing the events. -
Well, a couple of things stick out:
1) You have maneuvers listed twice, so you have an extra LoTG +recharge that you won't be able to fit in without some other mule - the stealth pool is a good one for this, can get 3 LoTG mules out of the one pool (stealth, invis, grant invis). You could take stealth instead of hover or combat jump if you are tight on power pool selections.
2) If you DO stick an obliteration in hot feet, you will NEED a 6th slot for an end reduction IO. The obliteration set gives you like 15%-20% end reduction and thats not nearly enough in hot feet. Oblit is kind of a waste in HF as it gives you a ton of recharge, which is useless in a toggle. But there isn't much else to stick in there if you want recharge unless you can get your hands on an Armageddon set - but thats one of the most expensive purple sets out there.
3) Instead of putting an obliteration in hot feet you could put it in Rise of the Phoenix instead. RoTP will also take a doctored wounds set for 5% recharge as well. Oblit will give you a rez that kills things around you but returns you with like 25% of your health, Doctored wounds will give you a rez that returns nearly all your health but probably won't kill everything around you, although with the huge KB and stun in RoTP I find it usually doesn't matter if they are all dead.
4) Are you designing a levelling char or a final L50 build. I ask that because at L47+ you can cut down on a lot of extra slots in powers by putting L50 common IO's in them - you get about 85% enhancement from 2 L50 common IO's and in powers that you would normally slot 3 SO's, like fiery embrace, you can frequently get by with 2 L50 IO's in thier place. Especially with recharge, since you will have a ton of global.
If there is anyway to get access to Mids so you can run a build it would help a lot - very often I find myself automatically trying to cap recharge in a power, only to find that the last IO I slotted is only saving me maybe 1-2 seconds on a long recharge power,or a few tenths of a second on a faster recharging power.
I tend to agree that purples are not worth the effort unless you are really into farming or this is your primary toon and you rarely play others. THere are a few purple sets that are not too expensive and on a dom I sometimes try to slot them, but a fire/* dom is probably not going to find any cheap ones - confuse, immobilize and sleep are the cheap (relatively speaking) purple sets. -
Quote:Minds advantage over plant is in aggroless controls - confuse, mass confusion and mass hypnosis are all agroless. So a stealthed mind dom can stack confuse on hard targets without drawing aggro and if played carefully, lock down groups without drawing any fire either, this is the real key to soloing the ITF and LRSF - you confuse the AV's from stealth and get them to kill each other. Seeds gives plant good area control that is up every spawn but it cannot be stacked on a hard target safely.Originally Posted by Sloshed
So plant/fire uses more confuse abilities than mind/fire?
This is making it all the more difficult! I love confuse. I want to be able to solo things like a wide variety of challenges as well. And still be useful/wanted in groups. Any thoughts on what might suit me for that? Even in other archetypes.
Plant/fire is definitely going to be a monster when it comes to AoE control and damage in normal play though. Seeds + creepers + fire breath = dead groups. It only gets better when you get to the APP pools and add in fireball + Rain of Fire (both of which are boosted by Embrace of fire) or Sleet + Ice Storm.
I have both a plant/fire/fire dom and a mind/fire/ice dom and find them both fun, but I am also afflicted with terminal alt-itis, so given the choice of toon a or toon b, I will always go for both :-). -
Quote:Procs in any area effect power, whether a damage aura, AoE attack or summoned area patch, make separate activation checks for each target in the area. Procs in a constant effect, like a toggle or rain, check once on initial cast and then every 10 seconds afterwards - so a proc in FR will have 2 chances to fire for each activation, as the patch lasts 15 seconds. Each time the proc 'fires' it will check against the targets currently in the patch - so theoretically if a target runs in immediately after casting and out again after 9 seconds, it won't have any chance of triggering the proc. Generally its best to count on the targets in the initial cast having a chance to fire off the proc and considering any you get the second time around to be a bonus.Originally Posted by Atago
Simple Question to the Storm-users. How do Damageprocs work in Freezing Rain. Is there a roll for every single NPC like in damage-auras or one roll and if it shoots it affect all baddies? Is there only a chance of firing once when i cast FR or is it possible that the Proc shoots more than once? What is with NPCs that run into FR? Never slotted a "Rain" Power with Procs, so excuse this Noob-Question.
-
Shatter armor definitely does not crit - however it does have a 20% resistance debuff and while it has the exact same damage as the bane shatter power, it does it all up front - where shatter has a bunch in a toxic dot. Outside of hide its actually a better opener shot than shatter, to take advantage of the resistance debuff. Shatter armor -> Shatter -> whatever makes for a hard hitting attack chain.
-
Interestingly enough this is almost exactly what I did on my crab - I have two builds, one I call my gun crab build and the other a melee/pet build. The gun crab DOES have a pet, mostly because you can only take so many AoE attacks before you have to many and the spiderlings are so nice. Otherwise it is a basically a crab version of the huntsman build (which is normally a bane). My AoE attack chain is venom grenade -> suppresion -> bile spray -> heavy burst (if there is anything left after the first 3 AoE's). The build is softcapped to ranged and melee and has decent AoE Def (35%), plus it has almost 50% smashing/lethal resists and about 40% to everything else but psi.
If you really don't want to take the spiderlings, you could always pick up frag grenade or omega manuever in its place.
Here is my build:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.92
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Midnight Carnage: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Crab Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Crab Spider Training
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Leadership
Ancillary Pool: Leviathan Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Single Shot -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(3), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(5)
Level 1: Crab Spider Armor Upgrade -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), S'fstPrt-ResKB(7)
Level 2: Burst -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(9), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(11), Mael'Fry-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 6: Wide Area Web Grenade -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(13), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(13), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(15), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(15), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(17)
Level 8: Heavy Burst -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(17), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(19), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(19), RechRdx-I(21), Achilles-ResDeb%(21)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(23), LkGmblr-Rchg+(23)
Level 12: Venom Grenade -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(25), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(25), Posi-Dmg/Rng(27), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(27), RechRdx-I(29)
Level 14: Suppression -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(29), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng(31), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(31), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg/EndRdx(31)
Level 16: Boxing -- Empty(A)
Level 18: Tough -- Aegis-ResDam/EndRdx(A), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx(33), ResDam-I(33)
Level 20: Weave -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(33), LkGmblr-Rchg+(34)
Level 22: Mental Training -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Fortification -- RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx(A), RctvArm-ResDam/Rchg(34), RctvArm-ResDam/EndRdx/Rchg(34), RctvArm-ResDam(36)
Level 26: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB(A), LkGmblr-Rchg+(36)
Level 28: Serum -- Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg(A), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg(36), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg(37), Dct'dW-Heal(37), Dct'dW-Rchg(37)
Level 30: Tactical Training: Leadership -- GSFC-ToHit/EndRdx(A), GSFC-Rchg/EndRdx(39), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg/EndRdx(39), GSFC-ToHit(39), GSFC-ToHit/Rchg(40), GSFC-Build%(40)
Level 32: Super Jump -- Winter-ResSlow(A)
Level 35: Summon Spiderlings -- ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg(A), ExRmnt-Dmg/EndRdx(40), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(42), ExRmnt-EndRdx/Dmg/Rchg(42), RechRdx-I(42)
Level 38: Maneuvers -- LkGmblr-Def/EndRdx(A), S'dpty-Def(43), LkGmblr-Def(43)
Level 41: School of Sharks -- Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(A), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(43), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(45), Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(45), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(45), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(46)
Level 44: Bile Spray -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx(46), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(46), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(48), RechRdx-I(48)
Level 47: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 49: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 2: Rest -- RechRdx-I(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 4: Ninja Run
Level 2: Swift -- Run-I(A)
Level 2: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 2: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(48), Heal-I(50)
Level 2: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(50), P'Shift-End%(50)
------------
Code:| Copy & Paste this data into Mids' Hero Designer to view the build | |-------------------------------------------------------------------| |MxDz;1419;750;1500;HEX;| |78DA65934B4F1A5114C7CF0CE828F8009587A20802A2080869F78DB1B6692BD644E| |3964C65029390810CB46977FD005D68D5D8C7B6CF459F6A4D1F9B7E857E8FB6DA6E| |BAA3E79E33502C84F0E3FEEFB9FFF9DF7BEEE46E5FEC03B87B0124EF6259ADD5F20| |BA6BA59322AB5FC5AA55CD035535951EB374DB5ECCAE905432F96EAA145D534D4A2| |A60040ECFFEA5A7AD1546FE4D7AA7A41339B626CDD547543378AF9CB6AA1A8D5CF1| |63527DD578C92666A463DDDFCD3BF5AA994D397C44371FEECA88F46CB9A5AC5C160| |73807EB5925E0D2C55F5CDF4C6D2C27A7E59BBA5ABF5926AE4736AADAE9977FC223| |6B47F1A76D8474C80FC80F190607FC4784C78EF6C954BE09300FCD0ED478C808C9A| |C4335D92300A42B75813821EE130063DC2360A0E611B01C73DC4141CA39F8D5781C| |D23894788619765D4B54552DF36E33E616007310C03BB3472ED11EC58AF58AB9457| |882CB85E1386DE32DE1146E6185F31AF0B3EE2E37B7995DCEB90C48CD7C5F010BA7| |1CA69D93A0F1073E03F4424C17F849885B10F88348C1D235230CEEE5EFCEDB70EB5| |9FC38C73982087097298E0375940C2E083D6210C36F0033654DC562E77069364209| |440C42194A49576451C01170C73F010070FF3297EC1D41ECBD393A2DE1DA0E463C9| |E60B625518C29392E850382C896644A668E445EF51ABC7A37F682B11363D448780B| |5AFC032394472884988AE48A2B9D1EB8C5549F4F8B3532CE2C39B78415B9D7ECE78| |268B55D34F08F1A7B2288CBF94C545F22942E3E49301BC0D0E38728A78FCDCA9137| |2889F12667F317E33F8F8DD4AF36E37E49838951824643ABDC408EDE3045D67AC60| |33E2520521B14748EE32B66857C96D1AA57608A736D17E4E31C75D4D7157536F08F| |3DCD5794EF1C9292E06EF231DA60E0C29A2932C65C27C2FECAD170ABFA2F7CBED0A| |AF5BB5B7DE2D90D8FD9ABDF9BE351ABDAED64BD4F8EE4059B24AB9EF3FDAA519927| |EFE9364E9AA24EEC5FC061D4D364AF627ED052192B216F6657149321DB9131D4AB6| |4339DFA19CEB50FE028065EDE2| |-------------------------------------------------------------------|
-
Quote:Originally Posted by Jetpack
Venom grenade is skippable.
You can do quite well without it.If you are going primarily solo with a mace based bane, venom grenade is a bit questionable. The massive redraw in going from mace -> gun -> mace combined with the fact that venom grenade will drop you out of hide, so you can't use it as an opener, means that it solo usefulness is extremely limited. However, if you expect to spend any reasonable amount of time in a group then it is well worth taking.Quote:Originally Posted by Kailure
There's a lot of amazing powers in this game that you can do quite well without. That's just the nature of City of Heroes.
I'd still strongly recommend Venom Grenade.
As an alternative, my recommendation for a group bane would be to take advantage of the second build and make that one a huntsman for grouping and use the mace based bane purely for solo - thats what I did and it works very well. The huntsman is an awesome group support character who focuses on AoE damage and group buffs. A huntsman can also sofcap ranged damage fairly easily, which means they can put any extra +def towards AoE and leave melee def at the base values, since you are a ranged expert. When solo you can switch to the mace build and focus that build on high single target damage and melee def.
Check the guide sticky at the top of the VEAT forum for a huntsman guide. -
Quote:Yes, although unless you are slotting mutltiple numina's for set bonuses you are better off putting it in health and slotting straight heal enhancements in true grit for the hit point bonusOriginally Posted by Cyberium_neo
A question about Shield Defense and Brute in general (this probably can go into Tank forum as well):
1) Does "Numina's Convalescence: Regeneration/Recovery" work with True Grit?
Phalanx fighting has 2 def values, the base def (3.75% for brutes/scrappers and 5% for tanks) which is not enhanceable and then a second def value that is granted for each team member within 8' of you - I don't remember what this value is and its not listed in real numbers, but this value is enhanceable, which is why phalanx fighting takes def sets.Quote:2) How does Defense set works with Phalanx Fighting? I attempted to slot in a Defense enhancement and all it says is "+X%" but did not specify which part it increases. Just the buff on teammates or buffs on myself as well?
I generally use the default slot in phalanx fighting for a kismet unique (for the +6% to hit) or an LoTG +recharge IO and leave it alone - the bonus def from teammates is going to kick in so infrequently due to the short range that it really isn't worth enhancing.
As with all IO sets, that depends on what you want to get. Red fortune will give you ranged def but take 6 pieces for the full benefit. Luck of the Gamblers will give you good +regen and +hp for 3 pieces. Whatever the case, make sure you ED cap the def bonus on deflection, thats the more important one. I generally don't bother to slot OwtS - but if you do 1 or 2 L50 resistance IO's is probably best, other powers make better set mules.Quote:3) Currently I slot in straightforward +Resist/Def on most abilities but if I were to use IO sets, which ones are recommended for Deflection and One With the Shield?
Not really - that is a lot of slots for a proc, many of which are probably better used for IO's that actually enhance the power or for set bonuses to get you to the def cap/recharge. I suggest actually taking taunt and slotting that in the default slot - its auto hit (for all but GM's and AV's), AoE and costs no end to use - basically a free chance for a damage proc. Plus taunt helps brutes maintain fury in a group and tanks keep aggro.Quote:4) I notice "Perfect Zinger: Chance for Psionic Damage" can proc on damaging ability that allows Taunt set. Would it be wise to insert it into every damaging ability I have (in addition to +Damage, - Recharge)? -
Other than the chance for build up proc and possibly 1-2 others for the regen & hp buff, I can't see any other reason to slot the soulbound allegiance set in a pet - the other bonuses are pretty sad and mostly useless to a mastermind, since your pets don't benefit from them. The proc is very nice and slotting that and 2 of the 3 IO's in the set that give good enhancement ( acc/dam/rech, dam/end or the damage) would give you the 16% regen and 3% hp boost which are the only good bonuses the set gives. The other IO's in the set don't give good enhancements - to much recharge (which is wasted on pets) and not enough damage.
-
Quote:I haven't done it on a scrapper, only on my shield tank so I am not sure if a scrapper can do it as easily, but in order to cap DDR on shield defense you need the following:Originally Posted by Digito
Err, not entirely on topic but I heard someone mention Shield could achive capped DDR, but I only see about 50% or so in Mids... how? I feel like I'm missing something.
1) 3 Membrane Exposure Hami's in Active defense + enough global recharge so that it is double or triple stacked all the time
2) Grant Cover
For a scrapper, the membrane's in AD will enhance the DDR to about 27% and grant cover + battle agility provide about 27% total (unenhanceable). So with a single AD you will be at 55%, double stacked you will be at 82% and you will have to triple stack in to get to the cap.
On my shield tank I only had to double stack AD to get to the cap and she is around 80% with a single AD. -
Of the 3, fire is the most range oriented so technically would have the least amount of synergy with a close in set like ice. The catch there is that fire assault has some of the best damage of all the dom secondaries, so its still pretty good.
I would say either /earth or /thorns would be a good choice. Earth assault will give you the best single target damage in the 2 mallets + seismic smash with somewhat anemic AE damage due to the but slow casting attacks - fissure is ok but not great and tremor is just sad. Thorns would give you decent single target damage and pretty good AE when you combine ripper with fling thorns - even thorn burst isn't that bad, due to the bonus toxic DoT.
From a thematic point of view earth is probably the best - go with the crystal power style and it looks like ice hammers to go with your frost. -
Quote:Any descriptions of damage (low, high, moderate, etc) in game or on the wiki tend to be highly relative at best and frequently inaccurate - it is always best to use a reference that actually gives you damage values (or damage scalars as Scientist posted - those are the base mutliplier before level/AT scalars are applied). Good places for straightforward damage numbers are Mids hero designer or City of Data (http://tomax.cohtitan.com/data/powers/) Both give you the base damage (before enhancements) at L50 - which is the best you will get out of the power.Originally Posted by RadioSilence
Thanks for the link. I was confused by what Paragon Wiki describes as "high" and "moderate" damage for those two powers (HB and FG respectively). DPS-wise, frag grenade is much more superior to both heavy burst and suppression. I guess I'll just keep FG in my arsenal.
At L50 heavy burst does 60 lethal damage, frag grenade does 65 total (about 1/2 lethal, 1/2 smashing). So the DPA is definitely better, however the area on FG is very small (10' r) and you are unlikely to get a whole group in it - when I had it on my huntsman it was ok as a finisher but I eventually picked up arctic breath and bile spray (for that extra -res from arctic breath and the toxic damage from bile spray, which gets double benefit from venom grenades -res) and found that with having 2 cones it was easier to use a third as a follow up instead of frag grenade.
Heavy burst also takes defense debuff IO sets so you can slot an achilles heel chance for res debuff proc in it, which is nice. As you also noted cones will gain in increase in area from the cardiac alpha. Scientist didn't make it sound like much but it really is - the cone IS wider at the end, due to the extended range, and all you have to do is stand back a little farther to take advantage of that.
I would say which you take depends on the rest of your build. As I noted above, my huntsman is very cone heavy, so heavy burst made more sense. However, on a crab who was going with pets/melee attacks (arm lash + frenzy) and expects to have the enemies clustered around him the smaller area of frag gren won't matter as much as the fact that you dont' have to back away to line it up. -
I absolutely love KB. My first character to break L30 (way back before ED even) was an energy/devices blaster. However, after ED killed my original playstyle with that character (basically, 6 slotting damage in attacks and relying on targetting drone to boost my hit chance) and numerous attempts to play blasters over the last 6 years I have reached the conclusion that I simply cannot adapt to the playstyle they require solo except for a few sets (specifically archery/dev - which is my only L50 blaster) and groups are iffy for a serious knockback character - not that I can't find groups but I also expect to have to solo a lot.
So, I finally re-started my energy blaster as a mind/energy dominator. Now that a dominator can take energy torrent and explosive blast in primal forces mastery, I can basically play her as an energy blaster with excellent controls. I won't get all my AE until nearly L50, but so far she is a single target damage monster at L13. I expect her to eventually be an awesome Jill of all trades char - Decent AE and great single target ranged and melee damage plus controls. -
Quote:Bellatrix's point was that while burn no longer has a fear/flee component, the AI still makes mobs run out of DoT patches after they take a certain amount of damage. I have seen this on my KM/FA scrapper - if I don't finish off mobs with burn or hit them with burst immediately after to knock them down, they will turn and run. This might not be as noticeable on an FA brute/tank as they have a taunt effect in blazing aura (and in their attacks) that will keep the mobs on you.Originally Posted by magikwand
Didn't you hear? Burn no longer causes mobs to scatter because of fear. Turn your range back on HIGH please.
As for the OP - my preference is FA brutes. Tanks don't do enough damage to keep me happy (although FA, like shields, pushes them pretty close) and FA scrappers are just a little to squishy for my taste - the extra HP brutes get make a bigger difference than most people would think. Also, Fiery Embrace gives you some insane damage numbers when your fury is up - my ss/fire brute puts up some sick orange numbers when I fire of FE. -
Quote:Actually, using placate on a bane for the crit is a net DPS loss as banes don't get full crits and the cast time of placate is long enough that it is not always worth the crit damage. For example, looking at shatter (using arcanatime for all activation times and 95.66% damage enhancement in power)Originally Posted by Person34
Placate is nice to have for a few reasons: it only requires one slot, if used defensively it can keep a particularly dangerous critter at bay for a bit (ring mistresses, tarantula queens, etc), and of course allows for a free crit. Plus, as pointed out above, it's a signature bane move. Not a "must have" by any means, but hella nice to have when the opportunity arises.
Shatter Activation time: 2.508s
Shatter Base Damage (counting toxic dot): 302.48
Shatter Damage w/crit: 467.88
Placate Activation time: 1.843s
Shatter Base DPA (no crit): 120.6
Placate + Shatter DPA: 107.4
What this means is that if there are gaps in your attack chain then placate might be a good choice to squeeze out some extra damage. However, if you have a solid attack chain with no gaps placate is not going to raise your overall damage.
Its still not a BAD choice - it is still usefull as a defensive power to shed aggro from one big target. That makes it a good choice as you level up and don't have a full attack chain. On my bane once I hit 50 I finally dropped it in for the leadership pool assault so I could double stack them for +30% damage, which seemed more usefull to me.