EricHough
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Quote:Originally Posted by Redd35
I prefer Widows, mainly because leveling a soldier from 1-24 is the worst experience in the game.
Odd, I found my experience to be exactly the opposite. A level 1-24 widows are primarily melee characters and while they have ok melee def (12.5%, 15% if you can squeeze in combat jumping) it's not great and their def to other positions is just sad prior to getting foresight at L22. Combined with high end cost, slow recharge attacks I found my widow constantly sucking down purple and blue inspirations to survive when solo, or sucking down a ton of damage. 12.5% def is NOT enough to handle the amount of incoming damage you get in melee. High damage, high end, slow recharging attacks are nice once you can slot up enough end and recharge reduction but they are not quite as fun before that.
Soldiers, on the other hand, are primarily ranged and have far more tools to leverage that. They start out with 17.5% ranged def, higher than the widows melee already, plus they have 10% def to all other positions. When you combine wide area web grenade to lock things down, venom grenade and heavy burst for good AE damage and debuffage, and single shot + burst to finish off the big targets you get a fairly effective soloer. You get all of this by L12 by the way.
In groups either character will be fine, although I tend to give props to the soldiers (pre 24 at least) because they get a better maneuvers (+10% def vs the +5% from widows) and they get venom grenade, which is awesome in groups. After 22/24 widows definitely take off - foresight fills in a lot of their def gaps and mind link gives them superior defenses (both personal and for the group) than a soldier, at least when it is up. They also get some interesting resistances to psionic, which is nice on villainside. Prior to that, however, I found them a hard grind solo - so much so that my widow is the one character I PL'ed up to L24 by grouping them with a brute on my second account and left them door sitting while the brute engaged in smash. I have 2 different soldiers (a crab and a huntsman/mace bane) that I soloed up through the low levels without doing this. -
Quote:I would say that taking WaWG on a crab isn't going to be that much of a redraw hit. You don't have to 'redraw' to fire your crab powers, so the only hit is when you fire WaWG, which is likely to be used to start a fight so the redraw isn't actually going to be an issue.Originally Posted by BlueBattler
Oh, now that I can buy a Steadfast or a Karma, I do play melee toons whose innate powers don't include kb protection.
Now if there's a recipe for a multiple web grenade I could buy ...
The real hit on a soldier is a bane who mixes mace and gun powers - that can get ugly and is the reason I finally dropped build up on my huntsman build, which wasn't a big deal as he has double stacked assault (+30% dam) and tactics.
If you are patient you could also wait until you get your patron pool and take an AE immobilize from there - but that would require one of the patron pools to fit your concept and that is even harder to do since they are so specific. -
The trick I found with soldiers is to leverage their ranged def - if you took both TT: Maneuvers and CT: defensive you should have 17.5% ranged def base, if you can fit combat jumping in that will bring it up to 20% (VEAT's get great bonuses from all the pool +def powers, at least compared to other AT's). This is a healthy chunk of def for pre-SO levels and stacks nicely with purple inspirations. Then take wide area web grenade, venom grenade and heavy burst. Use WaWG to immobilize everyone so they can only use ranged attacks, hit them with venom grenade and heavy burst to whittle them down and finish them off with the single target attacks.
You do have to be methodical and careful while soloing - the long recharges on WaWG and Venom grenade, which are your workhorse powers during the teens, mean you might have to pause for 5-10 seconds between spawns to wait for one or both to recharge. Sometimes you also have to pull with some single target attacks, let them bunch up on you (which means taking one round of melee attacks) and then Webnade them. Don't be afraid to use inspirations freely - a purple right before a pull like this will make a huge difference. While the early levels are not as easy as they might be for a brute or MM, I find you are at least as safe as many corruptors if you leverage WaWG properly and a lot more end efficient as you have a higher base damage modifier. -
To get soul drain mostly perma, so that you could fire it off as soon as the effect faded would take 300% recharge (giving you a 30 second recharge), to get it truly perma (so that the power would finish activating just as the effect of the previous one fade) would take about 344% recharge, which would give you a 27 second recharge and allow for 3 seconds of activation. Note that this is more than you need to make hasten permanent, which only needs about 281% recharge.
Not impossible but fairly difficult. With 95% recharge slotted in soul drain you would need 249% global recharge - you could get 70% from hasten, which means you need another 179% from other sources. Thats a lot of global recharge bonuses. -
Quote:KB doesn't stack as other controls do - its an instantaneous effect, either the single attack has enough KB to knock you down/back or it doesn't. You can get hit by multiple attacks in a row that 'chain' KB you but even then with the rag doll physics model they use it has to be timed just right AND each hit still has to be enough to overcome your KB protection.Originally Posted by Athanatosis
The question arose for my Fire/Fire Brute, but the information is good to have for any AT. I'm also working on a Dark Armor tank, so now I know that I'll need more for him.
I know that 8 won't protect from a super mag KB ability, but would 8 protect against multiple KBs at once on a tank? Or for the tank should I still be going for 12?
If you really want to make sure you have enough KB to cover everything I would recommend slotting 1 -KB IO and then taking acrobatics - the 9 points there + the IO will give you 13 points which I am fairly sure will cover everthing in the PvE game except possibly fake nemesis attacks, but it might even work against those. There is no way to cover everything in the PvP game as players have access to some truly insane KB powers (force bolt - base mag 18, enhancable to mag 50).
As noted before though, the base 4 points in your IO will cover 95+% of the game, maybe even 99%. I would really not worry about it unless you plan on doing hami raids or tanking the STF (and I have seen a fire aura tanker handle lord recluse just by putting his back to a wall so the KB didn't throw him out of range to manage aggro). -
Quote:Thanks for the pointer to the thread, thats the one I was looking for. I am simply not in the mood to slot this character up for def bonuses as its more work and more expense redside than I am in the mood to do with him, for what I feel is fairly small gain since I don't plan on soloing AV's, etc. The build I am contemplating will have shadow meld up every 30 seconds and MoG up every 75 and those two powers cover alpha's pretty well which means all I have to do is build for recharge. I am over the cap on 5% recharge bonuses currently (way over) so I figured I would see if I could get a little extra heal out of siphon life.Originally Posted by Werner
Here's what I consider the classic Siphon Life slotting thread. However, I have to admit that Umbral has a point. On a Regen, you might need set bonuses more than you need the healing.
I a\will play with the suggestions in the thead Werner pointed out, thanks again folks. -
I know I have seen slotting suggestions for siphon life in previous threads but a couple of searches haven't turned any of them up, so I thought I would see if I could get a quick response. This is actually for my dm/regen stalker, not a scrapper but this board gets the most attention, so I am posting here. Currently I have a crushing impact set plus a dampened spirits recharge/end but the character has far to many 5% recharge bonuses from IO sets and this one seems the easiest to drop.
I would like to keep my damage close to the ED cap with at least 40% acc, end reduction and recharge and get as much heal boost as possible. I don't actually care about set bonuses, just the enhancement values. Please, no PVP IO's and no purples, although cheaper hamidon's are possible. This is not a main character although I will probably be using him in redside hami raids so I while I am willing to spend a reasonable amount of cash on him I am not going to go overboard for one attack. I am currently looking to optimize him for occasional play (hami raids, SF's that need a stalker, etc) and the siphon life is the one gap in my build currently.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions. -
I have never actually even gone into warburg for nukes but would certainly be willing to join a group to try - I can bring either my dm/regen stalker or my bane spider soldier. I am logged in fairly frequenly on one side or the other, try @Magik13 or @Midnight Mystique (both are me). I was at the last redside hami with my bane (Midnight Carnage) but I suspect my stalker would work even better and will probably play him on saturday.
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Quote:Honestly, this sounds like a design bug in the combat attributes display to me - global recharge, which works the same way as end reduction displays the actual recharge modifier bestowed by active powers or IO bonuses and since these numbers match the values in the power descriptions/IO set benefit lists AND tend to be the numbers folks are used to working with it makes far more sense to display this, instead of some intermediate value that is no good if you have OTHER sources of end reduction (such as slotting in the power). It also makes a lot more sense to have all the 'divisor' enhancement benefits display in the same fashion, instead of recharge reduction displaying one way and end reduction another.Originally Posted by Stargazer
Both. Sort of.
The effect Mez Resistance have on Mez duration is:
Effective_Duration = Base_Duration/(1+Mez_Resistance)
So, 50% Mez Resistance gives an effective duration of 100%/(1+50%) = 100%/1.5 = 66.67%, or a 33.33% decrease in duration.
Often it's better to look at the Resistance values than the duration changes, since the values for duration changes essentially assumes that there is only *one* Resistance in effect.
If you have two powers giving 50% Resistance, you have a total of 100% Resistance, cutting duration in half.
However, if you attempt to add together the duration changes for both Resistance sources, you end up with 2*33.33% = 66.67%, and this is wrong.
This leads to some apparent weirdness in the Combat Attributes, since the per-power descriptions show the duration changes that would result if you *only* had that power, and the totals show the *actual* duration change (it takes the total Resistance value, and calculates the duration change from this). This means that if you sum together all sub-entries, it won't match what the totals say. In those cases, the total is the one that's correct.
(looking at per-power values is usually the source of people claiming the Combat Numbers are "wrong")
I consider myself to be reasonably adept at manipulating the in game numbers and the funky display of the end reduction power confused ME until Arcana pointed out that it was a calculated reduction. -
Anyone know whats planned for today? Or if there is a plan for today.
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Quote:I am not really disagreeing with your main point but I thought I would note that the above comment is one of the reasons there IS so much wailing and teeth gnashing at the slightest change - most folks even on the boards don't fully understand the impact of the changes. The reason I say this is that the domination change did NOT nerf permadom - in fact, it gave it a slight damage boost in most cases (like, 5%-10% depending on powerset) and a HUGE damage boost if you have some outside source of damage enhancement since the change was to move the damage enhancement that used to be in domination into the AT's base modifier. Since all damage modifiers multiply the base damage this means that a dom's max damage potential is actually HIGHER than it was before. The only nerf was to the few folks who had so much recharge that they had domination double or triple stacked - in this case they could no longer get a huge damage bonus from just domination but would now have to rely on outside buffs. (Which are now more effective - so the top performance of dom's is STILL higher than it was before it just isn't attainable solo).Originally Posted by Lightfoot
Another case in point would be the Dominator buff. Permadom was nerfed, while damage was increased across the board resulting in Doms whose damage output matched, or in some cases exceeded, their performance while in Domination mode. There were violent threats of ragequits all over the place, and there are still people complaining about the buff to this day (including the uninformed people like yourselves who only listen to the malcontents rather than finding out firsthand).
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Quote:If this IS WAI its a bad design choice because what you are displaying here is an intermediate calculation that may have no relation to the final end value, especially for powers that have end reduction in them. It is also obviously not necessary to display them this way considering that global recharge works the same way as end reduction and mez duration and IT is displayed as a simple percentage value with no 'extra' calculations performed on it.Originally Posted by Arcanaville
That's a Real Numbers quirk. EndReduce and Status Resists are quoted as "percentages" but neither really are a percentage. The power provides 0.3 endred and 0.5 status resist. That's often quoted by both players and the devs as "30%" and "50%" but the way EndRed and Status Resists work is different than Resistance, say. Your end endurance usage is:
End Use = Endurance Cost / (1 + EndReduce)
and status resist also works like that:
Mez Duration = Base Duration / (1 + Mez Resistance)
So a 0.3 end reduce will reduce your endurance costs:
End Use / Endurance Cost = 1/(1+EndRed) = 1/(1+ 0.3) = 0.7692.
Real Numbers is quoting that as a 0.2308 reduction from base, or 23.08% (round off error on the last digit). Same for mez resistance. So this is weird, but probably WAI.
So, I would still say its a bug - all the values that work as divisors should display in the same way AND should display in a way that makes sense to the general user. I mean, I consider myself fairly comfortable with running numbers for this game in my head and it didn't occur to me what was going on with the end reduction number until you pointed it out. -
Quote:Explosive arrow does pretty much the same damage as any other target AoE in a blast set - they all do about 32-36 points of damage at L50 (bullet rain and ball lightning do 36 damage, explosive arrow, explosive blast, psionic tornado and neutron bomb all do 32 damage in various ways).Originally Posted by CaptA
I would also recommend you buff up your slotting in Blazing Arrow. I think you could do without one or two slots in Disruption Arrow. I also think you might find Explosive Arrow disappointing. I think it is an awesome-looking attack, but it's damage seems very weak to me. Oil Slick Arrow is awesome and needs damage. World of Confusion also leaves a lot to be desired, however it is a nice way to get a full purple set of bonuses for cheap. Personally the slots are worth more to me.
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Quote:Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
That said, I'm scared to take the BotZ out of Combat Jumping because that leaves me with no knockback protection. I remember before I had that slotted and the character was practically unplayable.
Put a karma - KB io in CJ instead of the BoTZ. It gives as much kb protection and tends to be a lot cheaper to pick up than the BoTZ -KB. -
You are probably confusing the AI reaction to being low on HP and debuffed with the 'fear' game effect in powers like Rain of Fire and caltrops. When mobs are low on HP and debuffed to the point where no attacks will be available for a long time the AI turns into flee mode and gets a little crazy. iIf you have hit a group with both psionic tornado and psychic scream you are looking at an 80% recharge debuff which is quite a bit. Low HP + dot's + lesser debuffs can also get the AI to kick into this mode and the mobs tend to behave pretty randomly once this starts up.
I have seen this with other debuffs as well - stack enough -to hit (or have enough def that mobs never hit) and the AI can get into the same 'run away randomly' mode when HP get low. My traps MM's have similar problems which I suspect are due to the debuff from acid mortar although with caltrops added to the mix it's hard to be sure. I haven't specifically seen this ever happen after my fortunata uses psionic tornado but since she opens with it, then follows up with psychic scream and dart burst while things are bouncing around most stuff is dead before it gets the chance to try and run.
Whatever the case, there are many more things that will cause a mob to run away and behave strangely OTHER than an 'fear' effect that is specifically coded into a power. (note - redtomax lists effects that cause mobs to flee as an 'afraid' or 'avoid' but the in game powers display shows 'fear' for the 'run away' effect, both display the cower effect that most fear powers have as 'terrorize'). -
Here is a softcapped DB/SR build I put together for a charater I am thinking of playing. The softcap part shouldn't be too expensive - the only really expensive things in it are the numina/miracle unique's and the LoTG +recharge IOs which you don't need to get the softcap. The primary focus of this build is getting BF+Attack Vitals up as often as possible though I did add in 1k cuts for some extra AE damage (and because a full set of multi-strike is a cheap way to get AE and melee def). I went with conserve power instead of focused accuracy because FA sucks and I tend to slot a kismet +to hit in it's place - between that and single or double stacked BF you should have plenty of accuracy.
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.704
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 50 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Dual Blades
Secondary Power Set: Super Reflexes
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Body Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Power Slice -- T'Death-Acc/Dmg(A), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx(3), T'Death-Dmg/Rchg(3), T'Death-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(5), T'Death-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(5), T'Death-Dam%(37)
Level 1: Focused Fighting -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(7), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(7), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37), RedFtn-Def(42), RedFtn-EndRdx(42)
Level 2: Ablating Strike -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(9), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(9), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(11), Achilles-ResDeb%(37)
Level 4: Focused Senses -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(13), DefBuff-I(13), EndRdx-I(43)
Level 6: Agile -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 8: Blinding Feint -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(15), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(15), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(17), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(17), F'dSmite-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(25)
Level 10: Practiced Brawler -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(19)
Level 12: Hurdle -- Jump-I(A)
Level 14: Health -- Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(A), Mrcl-Rcvry+(39), Numna-Heal(42), Heal-I(50), Heal-I(50)
Level 16: Dodge -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(45)
Level 18: Vengeful Slice -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg(19), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(21), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(21), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(23)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(23), EndMod-I(25), P'Shift-End%(45)
Level 22: Quickness -- Run-I(A)
Level 24: Boxing -- Stpfy-Acc/Rchg(A), Stpfy-EndRdx/Stun(39), Stpfy-Acc/EndRdx(39), Stpfy-Stun/Rng(40), Stpfy-Acc/Stun/Rchg(40), Stpfy-KB%(40)
Level 26: Sweeping Strike -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(27), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(27), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(29), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(29), RechRdx-I(31)
Level 28: Tough -- S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(A), ResDam-I(45), ResDam-I(46), EndRdx-I(50)
Level 30: Weave -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(31), DefBuff-I(31), EndRdx-I(33)
Level 32: One Thousand Cuts -- M'Strk-Acc/Dmg(A), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx(33), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg(33), M'Strk-Acc/EndRdx(34), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(34), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(34)
Level 35: Evasion -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(36), DefBuff-I(36), EndRdx-I(36)
Level 38: Lucky -- DefBuff-I(A), DefBuff-I(43), DefBuff-I(43)
Level 41: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A), Ksmt-ToHit+(48)
Level 44: Conserve Power -- RechRdx-I(A), RechRdx-I(46), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 47: Physical Perfection -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(48), EndMod-I(48)
Level 49: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
Level 6: Ninja Run -
Quote:Huntsman builds can be quite awesome in a group. My bane has both a huntsman build, which I use for groups, and a melee bane build which I use when soloing for the massive single target damage it puts out. My huntsman build provides his group with +21% def to all positions, +30% damage and +15.4% to hit in buffs. He can provide up to 35% resistance debuff in an AE (venom grenade + acrtic breath) with an additional 20% resistance debuff to a single target (surviellance). He puts out a ton of AE damage, opening up with venom grenade + arctic breath + bile spray and finishing up with heavy burst if anything is left.Originally Posted by Lillika
Sort of a general question relating to this thread but, how do Huntsman builds workout in the long run? Do they end up getting left behind as far as damage and utility go? At a glance I really like the look of Dingo's build but does it reach a point when its silly to be huntsman and I should just pick Bane or Crab?
You could take the same powers on a mace bane but you would spend a lot of time swapping between the mace and gun if you wanted to use any of the mace attacks.
Here is my huntsman build for reference - its not particularily cheap although I don't slot any purple set - the most expensive things are the miracle/numina's uniques and the single LoTG +recharge, which I bought with merits. It is softcaped to ranged def and at 40% to melee when cloaking device is suppressed:
Villain Plan by Mids' Villain Designer 1.704
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Midnight Carnage: Level 50 Natural Arachnos Soldier
Primary Power Set: Bane Spider Soldier
Secondary Power Set: Bane Spider Training
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Leadership
Power Pool: Leaping
Ancillary Pool: Leviathan Mastery
Villain Profile:
Level 1: Single Shot -- Decim-Acc/Dmg(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg(5), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg(7), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(27)
Level 1: Bane Spider Armor Upgrade -- S'fstPrt-ResKB(A), S'fstPrt-ResDam/Def+(25)
Level 2: Burst -- Thundr-Acc/Dmg(A), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx(3), Thundr-Dmg/Rchg(5), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/Rchg(7), Thundr-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(13), Thundr-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg(31)
Level 4: Combat Training: Defensive -- DefBuff-I(A)
Level 6: Wide Area Web Grenade -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(13), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(29), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(40), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(40), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(40)
Level 8: Heavy Burst -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(9), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(9), Posi-Dmg/Rng(11), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(11), Achilles-ResDeb%(29)
Level 10: Tactical Training: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(23), RedFtn-Def(23), RedFtn-EndRdx(36), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(37)
Level 12: Venom Grenade -- AirB'st-Acc/Dmg(A), Det'tn-Acc/Dmg(15), AirB'st-Dmg/EndRdx(15), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg(17), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg(17), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(34)
Level 14: Swift -- Run(A)
Level 16: Health -- Mrcl-Rcvry+(A), Numna-Regen/Rcvry+(31), Heal-I(46)
Level 18: Maneuvers -- RedFtn-Def(A), RedFtn-EndRdx(19), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(19), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(21), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(25), RedFtn-EndRdx/Rchg(33)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I(A), EndMod-I(21), EndMod-I(27), P'Shift-End%(33)
Level 22: Combat Jumping -- LkGmblr-Rchg+(A)
Level 24: Mental Training -- Run(A)
Level 26: Super Jump -- Jump-I(A)
Level 28: Tactical Training: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A)
Level 30: Tactical Training: Leadership -- AdjTgt-ToHit(A), AdjTgt-ToHit/Rchg(31), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx/Rchg(33), AdjTgt-EndRdx/Rchg(37), AdjTgt-ToHit/EndRdx(37)
Level 32: Cloaking Device -- RedFtn-EndRdx(A), RedFtn-Def(34), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx(34), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(36), RedFtn-Def/EndRdx/Rchg(36)
Level 35: Assault -- EndRdx-I(A), EndRdx-I(43)
Level 38: Surveillance -- AnWeak-DefDeb(A), AnWeak-Acc/DefDeb(39), AnWeak-Acc/Rchg(39), AnWeak-DefDeb/EndRdx/Rchg(39)
Level 41: School of Sharks -- Enf'dOp-Acc/Rchg(A), Enf'dOp-EndRdx/Immob(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/EndRdx(42), Enf'dOp-Immob/Rng(42), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob/Rchg(43), Enf'dOp-Acc/Immob(43)
Level 44: Arctic Breath -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(45), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(45), Posi-Dmg/Rng(45), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(46), RechRdx-I(46)
Level 47: Bile Spray -- Posi-Acc/Dmg(A), Posi-Dmg/EndRdx(48), Posi-Dmg/Rchg(48), Posi-Dmg/Rng(48), Posi-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx(50), RechRdx-I(50)
Level 49: Vengeance -- S'dpty-Def/Rchg(A), RedFtn-Def/Rchg(50)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Conditioning
Level 0: Ninja Run
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Quote:So, because one single secondary results in too much AE damage you want to remove the ability of ALL controllers to do decent AE damage.Originally Posted by Oedipus_Tex
On Controllers as a whole though, though I love the AT more than any other, I think putting containment in Immob, Stun, and Sleep was a huge mistake. We should get containment from Holds only. As painful as that is, the amount of damage Controllers do once they get their epics compared to ATs that get blasts in a "legit" way is rather unfair. It kind of sucks for Defenders to get stuck with a "blast" powerset that actually does less damage than a "control" set with vastly superior survival capabilities.
Thats basically what you are saying, even if you don't realize it. Without the ability to get AE containment controllers are going to suck at doing AE damage - something they are not very good at even WITH containment in thier AE immobilizes prior to 41+ when they get ancilliary pools and decent AE attacks. Even with good AE damage in the ancilliary pools most controllers still only do OK AE damage - they will certainly never match the ability of a blaster with multiple AE attacks, aim, build up and a higher damage mod.
The exception to this is kin controllers and I think removing almost all AE containment just because one secondary is somewhat overpowered is serious overkill. -
Quote:I took mako on my huntsman and am considering it on my crab. With a soldier you actually want both arctic breath and bile spray if you can squeeze them in - arctic breath for the debuffs you mentioned, bile spray because it is fairly high damage that is all toxic, so it gets double benefit from venom grenades resistance debuff which is 40% for toxic vs 20% for everything else.Originally Posted by Nny_the_mad
nobody took mako for arctic breath?
a ranged cone that deals some damage, apply -spd -rech -res -def and do KD seems to be a nice debuff no? -
Quote:I like resist as much as the next guy but the two extra slots you have in each power is only adding 0.98% resistance to smashing/lethal - this is a truly sad gain for a huge investment. It is a safe bet you can get a LOT more out of these slots somewhere else in the build.Originally Posted by HeavyTank
also i like resists alot so that explains the slotting on crab and wolf armor... blame my invul tanker mentality
Really, the best use of these powers if you feel you need to take both (and the wolf armor is pretty much a total waste on a crab) is to put a Steadfast protection +3% def IO and a Steadfast protection -KB IO in each of the default slots and leave them at that. The first one is about the cheapest way to add 3% def to all through an IO and the second is good because NONE of the soldier armor powers offer knockback resistance.
Personally, I would leave the crab spider armor at 1 slot, put the steadfast +def in it, drop the wolf spider armor and slot a karma -KB IO in combat jumping.
Other comments:
1. The end reduction in combat jumping is a total waste, it's base end cost is so small as to be insignificant (0.07 end/sec which is about 1/4th of most toggles). Even if you don't slot a karma -KB IO in this I would just put a single def in it and leave it at that.
2. Two leap IO's in super jump is way overkill - I am pretty sure that 1 will put you pretty close to the cap, if not at the cap. The end reduction is not needed unless you plan on leaving SJ on while in combat - end costs while traveling are generally never an issue.
3. Mental training gives you the equivalent of swift already, I much prefer taking hurdle on soldiers as hurdle + CJ + mental training makes you very mobile in combat. Plus the movement bonus from hurdle is an order of magnitude better than that from swift.
4. You have way overslotted many powers - level 50 IO's give you a lot more bonus than an SO would so any power where you are only enhancing one aspect (say, recharge in aim) you are losing a LOT of bonus by going with 3 L50 IO's, particularly for something like recharge where you get diminishing returns the more you slot. You could easily go with 2 L50 IO's in powers like aim and still get nearly as much return on the slotting where the third level 50 IO is only reducing the recharge on the power by 2 seconds.
5. Even if you don't want to go for IO set bonuses by L50 you are generally better off at least frankenslotting your attacks with cheap IO sets instead of using common IO's. You can get a lot more ehancement value for a lot cheaper investment - for example, in most of your attacks you have 42% acc/end reduction/recharge reduction and have way overslotted damage as you are losing about 30% enhancement to ED. The following IO slotting in longfang will get you 62% accuracy, 61% end discount, 80% recharge and capped damage:
L40 Ruin IO's: Acc/Dam, Dam/End, Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/Rech, Acc/End/Rech
L35 Maelstrom's Fury: Dam/End/Rech
I don't know what pre-crafted 50's are going for on the market these days but the crafting cost alone on a L50 damage IO is 465K (232K if you have the recipe memorized) and I know that Ruin IO's go for a LOT less than this even on the redside market. -
Quote:I agree - I can barely see it on a Widow as you only get 5% def from the power (which is quite a bit compared to the pool manuevers, but small enough I can see folks thinking it is less important) but the Soldier version gives you 10% to all positions at a fairly low end cost (.21 end/sec) - that one power is almost as good as both def toggles on a shield scrapper/bruteOriginally Posted by devil dingo
LOL Whats the deal with so many people not taking TT:M??
During the weekend i was on a team with 2 crabs, a widow, and a bane....all over level 35 and only 1 of the 4 had TT M (1 of the crabs). I was kinda dumbfounded. lol -
Quote:300% recharge to be able to cast it as soon as it drops, approximately 328% recharge to be able to truly perma it so by the time the previous effect fades you have finished casting it and have it up again (i went with a recharge of 28 seconds to get this number, allowing about 1/2 a second of overlap). Mind you, with a power like DP that requires enemies around to get up again having it truly perma is probably overkill (or you need to be way better than perma so that you can make sure you are always in a new group before it drops - the best you can get though is 24s recharge since the recharge cap is 400%)Originally Posted by MementoMori
Im going to say it can be done, however its going to take a huge amount of +rech, if you have managed to perma hasten your likly alrdy very far on your way to geting it done.
I know there is a knock back set that has a nice +rech buff at a 5 slot cost and that will help unless your willing hunt down Perp IO's they do provide the largest +rech in bouns terms
Assuming about 95% recharge slotting in the power itself (which is about as much as you can get reasonably with ED reduction) you need at least 205% global recharge. -
I went with a mix of melee and range on my crab - frenzy and arm lash are just too good to pass up and I found that all the mobs tended to close up anyway so I prefer those to frag grenade. I also took the fighting pool (boxing, tough, weave) so I could push my smashing/lethal resistance up and cap all positions with some careful IO slotting.
The cost of this is that I didn't go for a pet build - I never remember to summon the things anyway so I decided to go for more of a tank than a mini-MM. -
Specifically cloaking device gives you an suppressed value of 3.75% def unslotted, about 5.5% fully slotted for def enhancement. When I plot my bane in mids I leave CD unselected and mentally add 5% to all positions (once it is fully slotted).
Its actually a pretty good value - the widow version only gives 2.5% suppressed. -
Quote:Range enhancements in cones increases the length of the cone, thereby increasing the overall area covered - so a 20% range enhancement in fire breath would increase its cone from 40 feet to 48 feet and increasing the area from 133*pi to 192*pi square feet.Originally Posted by Master_Templar
Lots of great opinions/ideas here, thanks a lot guys
I am leaning at this point towards Fire/MM or Rad/MM (want to try MM because I have never played the set). Fire/Fire is a bit too boring to me I think.
That said, I tend to have to agree with the strong dislike (hate is too strong of a word for a power as good as Fire Breath) of cones, because placement is quite annoying. Is there any way to get around the size of a cone? The only thing that really comes to mind is Range enhancements. Do they increase the size (degree) or a cone or just the length, or both? I'm currently playing a lowbie controller and haven't had time to test this out for my 30 Fire/Dev blaster. I'm not familiar with any of the IO sets really yet as I'm just getting back into the game, but are there any procs or any set bonuses (etc) to handle a "cone degree increase"? I would sacrifice distance, as long as I am insured to hit almost all of the mobs!
-MT
The important thing here is that you can start your cone from farther out and the end of the cone will be wider, making it easier to hit targets. As for IO's, cones use targeted AOE sets (air burst, detonation, positrons blast) and each set offers some range enhancements, which is great for cones but kinda sucks for all other targetted AE's that don't really need range as those IO sets are fairly sad at enhancing recharge. Keep in mind that range enchancements are on schedule b so you get 20% from even level SO's and a reduced value from multi aspect IO's.