EricHough
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Quote:Actually, that is kind of my point though - there IS a single power in TA that dominates the set, Oil Slick Arrow, call it the 5 star power in the set (when compared to powers in other sets as well as in TA). That is clearly the best, dominant power in the set. Then you have glue arrow and acid arrow as good, but not great powers (3 star powers) mostly due to either low radius (acid arrow) or lack of effects other than movement slow. Entangling arrow, ice arrow and disruption arrow are all ok powers but not spectacular (2 stars). EMP arrow is at least a 4 star but it's on to long a recharge for me to count it as anything but an emergency button rather than a mainstayOriginally Posted by Rush_Bolt
But if we look at TA: What are the must haves? There's lots of good ones, but no single one that completely dominates.
On the other hand I would rate RI, EF and AM as all 4 star powers, LR and Mutation as 3 star and everything else in the set at least a 2 star. Thats a lot of really good powers when compared to TA. Dark does nearly as well - Dark servant is at least a 5 star; tar patch, darkest night, howling twilight and fearsome stare all rate in a 4 stars in my book and shadowfall at 3. The only real 2 star power is petrifying gaze and the only loser power is black hole.
The odd thing I see in your statement is that it seems almost the reverse to me - it's not that TA spreads out the good stuff its that except for OSL there is so little really good stuff in TA that you have to take everything just to get some use out of the set. The other two sets have plenty of 'good' stuff spread out but the difference is that there is enough good stuff you don't have to take all of it just to be effective. -
Quote:What do you consider to be the OMG powers in rad and dark? I mean, I think there are a number of good powers in both (actually, practically all of the powers in both are good) but nothing that I would consider OMG, although dark servant is pretty nice. It seems to me that TA is the one that is weak early on in exchange for the OMG power that is Oil Slick Arrow, which has never seemed that fair a trade to me.Originally Posted by Rush_Bolt
Pretty much.
It all boils down to ideas of set design in the end.
Rad (and Dark) were designed back when it was thought that having one or two real OMG powers in an otherwise kinda meh set was good. TA was designed with a "the sum is greater than the parts" idea in mind.
I don't think TA will ever get the OMG level powers that some would like, but with numerous small changes spread through the set (like the myriad Trick's suggested), it can probably be "fixed" in more subtle ways.
Rad has RI, AM, EF, LR and EM Pulse as all very nice, effective powers. The rez is even pretty darned good, just not as globally usefull as the other powers - heck even choking cloud is fairly usefull on, say, a fire/rad controller. Pretty much the only questionable power is the heal - and it's not bad, just not great. In dark you have twilight grasp (arguably one of the better heals in the game), tar patch, darkest night, howling twilight, shadow fall, fearsome stare and dark servant as all being extremely usefull and reasonably powerfull - petrifying gaze is not even a bad hold, at least as good as ice arrow even if you get it later. The powers I would consider 'good' in trick arrow are glue arrow, acid arrow, disruption arrow, OSL and EMP Arrow and only when you add in those last two does the set even begin to stand up to rad and AM - and it still falls a litle short.
EDIT: Fixed typoes -
You really need to settle on an AT and powerset combo before you start asking for builds as there are so many possibilities, even for soloing. Looking at the AT's you mentioned the following sets are good for soloing:
Corruptor Secondaries: Dark, Rad, Traps and storm are all good soloing secondaries. Basically any set that is made up of mostly debuffs or buffs that are usable on te caster will work well.
Corruptor Primaries: Fire, Sonic and Ice are probably the best, but really any primary will work when paired with a secondary that prevents incoming damage in some way or another.
Dominator: All dominators can solo. Some power set combo's will be better at low levels than others. For example, mind control is awesome at low levels as you get 3 good single target controls (mesmerize, dominate, confuse) and 1 up every spawn AE control (mass hypnosis) by level 8. You add 3 more AE controls at higher levels (mass domination, terrify and mass confusion) but you don't get a pet. On the other hand, gravity has very little control at low levels giving you only a single target hold, single target and AE immobilize and the usual long recharge AE hold prior to L26 where you get your first up every spawn AE control (wormhole) but apparently the pet is awesome at controlling (I don't have personal experience with it, I haven't had the patience to level a gravity dom or controller past about 10). All the dominator secondaries are pretty good now as well, so pick your combo and run with it.
Controllers: Mind, Illusion and Plant solo best and you can pretty much combine any secondary with those although some of them won't add much to a soloer (force fields for instance). The other primaries can be soloed but may be a lot slower up until 32 when you get your pet.
Blasters: All blasters can solo but they tend to require a different playstyle than most other solo AT's. Barring a couple of secondaries (ice, devices) you have very few active or passive defenses so you have to hit hard and fast, expect to take damage and die sometimes and work up tactics that let you hit and run a bit. I don't play many blasters as I can't stand soloing most of them past the mid 20's when the incoming damage gets to be too much for simple hit and run, so I can't really give you good advice here, except for the two secondaries that let you play a bit more defensively - ice and devices. Ice lets you leverage ice slick to prevent mobs from closing with you and shiver to reduce the incoming damage so you don't have to hit and run as much. With devices you can use caltrops in the same way as ice slick and you can combine cloaking device with other def boosts (combat jumping, +def IO's and IO sets, etc) to get a decent amount of ranged def. Caltrops + ranged def + trip mine fields make a hard to kill blaster but the playstyle is a little slower and more deliberate than most blasters and a /devices blaster won't group all that well as their best tricks take more time than most groups are willing to allow.
Settle on an AT and powerset and then we can start discussing builds but until then the above advice is the best I can give without turning an already long post into a dissertation. -
As Talen noted the recharge proc wouldn't work on earthquake as it buffs the pet and pets are immune to recharge buffs/debuffs - however earthquake is one of the only powers in earth control that takes def debuff sets which means you can slot an Achilles Heel -res proc in earthquake and that IS worth the slot.
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Quote:Actually, unless the mobs are a LOT higher level than you the softcap is going to basically behave the same, with only a minor increase in the to hit chance. Mobs up to +5 levels higher than you only get an accuracy bonus (1.5 accuracy for +5) which means that being softcapped will reduce their to hit down to 7.5% ( [50% base - 45% softcap]*1.5). A few mobs have an extra accuracy bonus: bosses, EB's, snipers have an additional 1.3 accuracy mod, so a +5 boss/EB would actually have a 9.75% chance to hit, but mobs to hit doesn't get any better until they are at least 6 levels higher than you. An extra 2.5%-4% chance to hit isn't really that much.Originally Posted by kangaroo120y
yeah some mobs have a higher chance of hitting.
Also at +2x8 thats a lot of enemies, and higher level enemies have a better chance of hitting you so the soft cap doesn't apply as much.
So, barring special mobs that have extra to hit modifiers (DE Crystals for example - once those are planted the other DE chew up DEF based scrappers) your def should be nearly as effective against +3's as against even level mobs when softcapped. I suspect the real problem is the simple volume of mobs combined with the streaky nature of the random number generator used by CoX. I have noticed it a lot when monitoring my own attack's - I will go a couple fights with almost no misses then miss 3-4 times in a row (allowing for the streakbreaker). The reverse is certainly going to be true with critter attacks - there will be some times when the RNG will generate several attack rolls under 5% in a row and the more mobs attacking you at one time the more likely it is a a streak will occur. -
I haven't tried using one in a ninja MM yet, but I have used them in Grave Knight on my necro/pain MM and it seems to be worth it. Basically any attack that has a def debuff will have a chance of triggering it which for Jounin should be every sword attack and might include other attacks.
If you want to figure out how often it will fire I would suggest crafting the IO but don't slot it. Then copy your character over to test with the IO in your inventory and slot it on the copy. If you make sure one of your combat windows has "Pet healing delivered" added to it you should get notifications when the proc fires off. At your level I wouldn't expect it incredibly often but once you get a second Jounin the opportunity for it to fire will double.
I think this proc works best on mercenaries as pretty much every attack on the tier 1 pet there does def debuff but the sword wielding pets do fairly well. -
I think the theory is that while you get less merits redside (overall) it takes less time so technically you should be able to run more arcs in the same amount of time/levels and make roughly the same amount of merits. The problem is that even if you DO run all the arcs available redside you won't get the same amount of merits because there simply are not all that much available. I have run multiple characters from 1-30ish on both sides carefully running all the best arcs I could (and in some cases simply running ALL the arcs available) and where I have hit well above 300 merits blueside by L30 the best I have managed is about 200 by the low 30's villainside - and that is only after the last round of increases in redside merit awards (i15 i think?) - prior to that it wasn't worth trying to run all the arcs, you just didn't get enough merits to justify it. Please note - in both cases my goal was to see how well I could earn merits without having to turn off XP, to sort of chart what a soloist who mostly never ran taskforces could do to earn merits. I did end up running a couple of TF's on either side because I got invites and was in the mood but i figure the TF awards balanced out.
Now, things aren't as bad now with the changes to sidekicking that allow you to both get XP while doing oroborous missions and to keep 5 levels worth of powers, so you can repeat the 'good' arcs redside, but the fact remains that no matter how much time you have villains simply don't have as much opportunity to earn merits as heroes. In fact, it gets worse at higher levels, after about level 30 there are very few villain arcs that give more than 10 merits where most hero arcs give 20+ at those levels. Another factor that makes it hard villainside is that you have to 'earn' your contacts through mayhem missions which generally means you have to do 3 mayhem missions per zone as well as 3 full sets of paper missions, which adds up quite a bit after level 20. You don't get ANY merits for that. Once again, orobourous somewhat helps you work around this but I don't like having to go back and 'grind' things in order to get the same thing I can heroside just by levelling my character at a normal pace. -
I am currently duoing with a fire/SD scrapper and a kin/sonic defender. I tried with a sonic/* defender and at low levels the resistance just does not slow down the incoming damage enough whereas the heal in kinetics made a huge difference - that plus speed boost makes your fire/SD scrapper a killing machine.
I will admit that my kin/sonic defender was already L25 when I started my 'duo' - I didn't really do it as a duo as much as I did it so semi-PL my scrapper because I wanted to finally try an SD scrapper and I find them WAY to squishy at lower levels. Even at L24, fully SO'ed and with a steadfast prot +3% def IO I find her to squishy to play solo. So things where a little easier for me as I always had speed boost available. Prior to L7-8 I just had the kin follow my scrapper around and speed boost her without grouping - one speed boost just before entering a paper mission lasts for almost the entire mission if you go fast enough. When the scrapper hit L7 then i could group and still have SB, thanks to the new SSK system.
The nice thing about this combo is that you don't have to do much with the kin/sonic defender. Take transfusion, siphon power, and speed boost at a minimum. I also took increase density (for the smashing & energy resists), manuevers and tactics. Turn on your leadership toggles, hotkey/macro speed boost, siphon power, siphon speed and transfusion, then set the kin to autofollow the scrapper, healing and buffing as needed. On big targets make sure you use siphon speed - most people think of it more as a travel buff for the defender but it is also a kin's best debuff. Prior to L16 you might have to work to keep aggro off the defender but after your scrapper gets against all odds you turn into a damage machine who keeps aggro almost as well as a tank.
You could do the same thing with a */kinetics corruptor and a brute but you wouldn't be able to get speed boost until L20. On the other hand, brutes are a bit easier to level pre-20 as they can slot for end reduction and recharge and rely on fury for extra damage where a scrapper doesn't have that luxury. You could also do this with any Shield defense brute or scrapper - I chose fire melee because I had a cool concept and I like the attacks but I understand electric/SD makes for an awesome AE damage machine and DM/SD dishes out huge amounts of single target damage when you combine AOO with Soul Drain. A DM/SD might also allow you to go the sonic/sonic route as the heal in siphon life and the -to hit in all the attacks will fill in for the defenders lack of heal. -
Quote:The primary argument against taking wolf spider armor on a crab is simply that crab spiders (well, all the VEATS) are very power hungry builds - between attacks from the primary, defenses from the secondary, stamina and any other pool powers you have a very tight build at least until the 40's where you have a little leeway depending on whether or not you want to take any epic pool powers. I can see taking the wolf spider armor on a bane who is going to be in melee a lot as the bane spider doesn't get the boost from fortification but on a crab, even a melee crab, the combination of fortification + the crab armor is going to be enough in almost all situations. The few situations where crab armor + fort isn't enough are probably going to be so few and far between that spending an entire power pick on wolf spider armor is still going to be a waste, when you can take some other power that does SO much more. Just carry a single break free and you pretty much cover those rare circumstances when some mobs stack more than 12 points of hold or stun, or even 4 points of confuse.Originally Posted by Biowraith
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it doesn't provide any benefit at all, I've just found that the mez protection is 99.9% redundant for a Crab, while there's alternative choices that provide greater benefits in damage mitigation and/or other areas.
I acknowledge IO set slotter as one reason to take it instead of the alternatives, but that reason needs a very clear and specific plan behind it. -
Quote:Siren's song does damage before it applies the sleep so using it a second time will break the previous sleep, preventing it from stacking.Originally Posted by ArchLight
Sirens does not stack? Recharge and duration make it look like it would.
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Quote:I based the suggestion for the -recharge increase off experience with my Wolf Spider hunstman and my crab spider. My huntsman has wide area web grenade but my crab doesn't and the 50% recharge debuff in WaWG makes a HUGE difference in survivablitily betwen the two, at least so far. My huntsman is a lot higher level than my crab (36 vs 24) so the comparison isn't completely fair but I am taking a lot more damage on my crab even with the resistance from fortification than I remember my huntsman taking at the same level.Originally Posted by EvilRyu
I am kind of against buffing the whole -recharge thing. To me that debuff is basically worthless because you wont get values high enough to floor them unless you have ice attacks or controls in addition to that and its usually just enough for one target with a few exceptions here and there. -Tohit only has real value when its unresisted. Its kind of dumb that defense doesnt get resisted but yet tohit debuffs do. I think it should only be fair that the value stays constant no matter what the level of the critter is. Also I think its about time for a power engine overhaul so we can finally get some +damage or -damage and -resistance enhancements for those damage buffs/debuffs and resistance debuff powers. -Speed and immobilize are also worthless and should be changed because just about any enemy in the game can out range you at some point even with boost range on your attacks. Speed debuffs and immobilizes work well in other MMOs because not all critters in those games have range attacks or they cant out range you to begin with.
I have also noticed that the same amount of recharge debuff in web grenade helps out my */traps corruptors a lot. In both cases I am combining -recharge with a considerable amount of def so I do agree with you that we need a lot more -to hit but I think that combining that with a good increase in the recharge debuff will make for a better rounded set and one that is less likely to be overpowered. We would need a LOT more -recharge though, the current values are so low as to be unnoticable.
As for unresistable to hit debuff I personally would love it and I think the point you make about def vs -to hit is good but I am not sure the dev's are going to buy into it. My fear is that if we push for something completely new, like a lot of unresistable -to hit, we won't get anything or we will only get a little more of it. While having a 10% unresistable to hit debuff will be incredible against AV's or at the high level game against +3 to +4 enemies I don't spend much time playing at that level and would rather have 20% to hit even if it is resistable, as that be more usefull over the entire life of the character. I really dislike powers that usefull against AV's but not really much use in the rest of the game. -
Quote:Originally Posted by EvilRyu
Well my gripe with TA has always been this. All other defender sets can pretty much keep an 8 man invincible team alive single handedly where as this set fails epically to do the same thing. You might say the other sets are overpowered then if they can do that but I am a firm believer in bringing the underdog up to par than nerfing everyone else into the ground. I think there should be more focus on the mitigation part of the set. If they arent going to put a heal in it then the tohit debuff needs to be more significant than it already is. Who cares if you can debuff the enemies resistances into the floor, alot of good thats going to do you when you are eating the floor due to lack of mitigation.
Basically what needs to happen is the tohit debuff should be something crazy high like 15% unslotted for defenders and 10% for all others. It should be irresistable as well meaning it doesnt scale down with level or against avs kind of like how the stalker AS debuff is. I dont get the whole thing its going to make controllers overpowered arguement, when was the last time you seen any controller farming with TA? Like never. Also all the resistance debuff values for the defender version should be given to the other ATs and the defender value raised so it still has the 75-80% ratio with the other ATs.
Lastly I say lower the recharge of oil slick there is no reason for the stupidly long recharge on alot of powers in this game. Its kind of gotten to the point now where players dont even feel super due to the long recharges. I say cut it down to being an every spawn power so 90 seconds recharge unslotted. Now to me thats how you fix TA. If the set is going to give piss poor mitigation then the debuffs need to be extremely powerful. TA and Sonics should be the only sets that can floor any +4 critters resistances down to 25%. I feel thats only fair.When it comes to controllers I would agree with Milady's Knight - TA is fine as it is. However the reason it is fine for controllers is that they have plenty of damage mitigation in their primaries so the lack of mitigation doesn't hurt them. In fact, I consider TA pretty much the best secondary for controllers because it is active, interesting and has JUST what a controller needs - extra control (to fill in whatever gaps the primary might have) and -resistance. My second favorite set is radiation and while that set is far more powerful than TA most of the extra ability is wasted - for example, my illusion/rad hardly ever uses radiation infection or lingering radiation, pretty much relying on AM+Hasten and EF to supplement phantom army, phantasm and his controls. So TA works nicely for controllers.Quote:Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
I farm with both my Fire/TA and my Plant/TA. Both are greatly under appreciated by CoH players in general. The biggest problem I have is dud OSAs.
However for corruptors and defenders I would tend to agree with EvilRyu - there is not enough damage mitigation in TA to keep a solo corruptor alive and in a group every other set will add so much more. While the defender has a little more damage mitigation it still falls far short of every other buff/debuff set. I tried a /TA corruptor and after 20 levels of getting shredded by any enemy with reasonable ranged damage I finally gave up: as Ryu noted the -to hit isn't enough to matter and the other primary damage mitigation, the -damage in PGA, is far to low for corruptors to make a difference. While the controls in TA do have some -recharge they don't have enough to make a difference, especially considering that one power in traps (web grenade) has more -recharge than all of TA's -recharge combined: 50% for webnade vs 40% for entangling + glue + ice arrow - and in the time it takes you to stack that on one target I could have webnaded 3 targets. (FYI - using corruptor/controller numbers here)
I don't know if Ryu's suggestions are the best changes, that much unresistable -to hit might be to much but I do agree that for a set that has NO buffs or heals it needs to debuff a LOT more. The -recharge in glue and entangling arrow need to be increased, the -damage in PGA needs to be high enough to make a difference or another debuff needs to be added. The set needs some more -to hit somewhere, I would actually suggest adding it to PGA and making it normal, resistable to hit debuff that way the set won't suddenly become an AV killer but will have more utility in normal situations. I also think the -recharge needs to be buffed up - that combined with some more -to hit would probably give the set what it needs -
Quote:If I remembered correctly most actual quotes show that this is what the dev's originally intended - that doesn't mean that that is actually accurate and what we have right now. I will agree that masterminds where probably intended to be the redside tankers, brutes the redside scrappers and stalkers the redside blasters (or at least as close as reside gets to blasters) - but after all the changes and the way the AT's play now I think dispari's chart is a lot more accurate, at least as far as current functionality. Stalkers are a LOT scrappier since their last changes and dominators a lot more like blasters (albeit blasters with a LOT of control). Brutes have pretty much always been a cross between tanks and scrappers and Masterminds stand on their own, although a controller is a reasonable comparison.Originally Posted by Vitality
It's already been stated by the devs that Brutes are the Scrappers counterpart. Masterminds are the Tankers counterpart.
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Quote:There is one potential drawback to having the vault be account based instead of character based - loss of total storage space. As it stands now I have 30 slots per character to store extra stuff, in addition to all my base storage (yes, I have a personal base, 2 accounts and plenty of storage). I like to use the vault for stuff I know one particular character will be using and the base racks for general storage for all characters. If they change the vaults to per per account I can easily see them reducing it to 30 slots total instead of per character.Originally Posted by Dispari
The thing is, anything you could possibly do by using an account-wide storage system can already be done, just with more steps. That's why there's really no point in not having account-wide storage.
Mind you, I think all of the effort they make us go through just to do trades between our own characters is insane - I totally agree with Billz that the should allow offine SG invites and I will go even further and suggest that they allow emailing influence and other items between characters. It wouldn't change the way I play - even with those QoL features I would still have two accounts to feed my alt-itits but it would make life a lot easier. However on the vault issue after looking over the discussion I think it would be better to leave that on a per-character basis and implement other, better methods of sharing things on the same account, although if they added an extra 'vault' that was cross account and left the personal vault as is, that would work as well (This is kinda what EQ2 does - you have several bank slots that are cross account and anything in them (or in containers in them) can be accessed by all your characters - I would love this. -
Quote:Well, the combo of buffs and debuffs might be too good but the heal isn't a good reason for putting off the port - its exactly the same heal as the one in thermal and pain domination.Originally Posted by CryoTech
I think mainly because it would cover nearly every type of debuff, that being, damage, to hit, defense, and resitance. No other MM debuff set can do that and it would become the best set you can pick for MMs and it would be fire/kin trollers or fire/psy doms all over again.
Plust it has a good fast recharging PBAoE heal with a bigger AoE than /Dark, along with a speed and recharge buff in AM.
Not saying it shouldn't be brought to MMs, I would gladly welcome it, but at this point it would just be to good for MMs IMO.
Even with the smaller area twilight grasp still does twice as much healing as the pbae heals in thermal/pain at about half the end cost and has a fairly nice debuff (-to hit, -dam and -regen). So I would consider it roughly equal to thermal and pains AE heals and the rad heal would pretty much have the same values as those two.
I do agree that the combo of -to hit, -def, -dam, -res along with the buffs in AM would be a little powerfull on an MM but all that means is that they might want to reduce the values even more than usual for the buff/debuff powers - but not the heal. -
I took shadowmeld on my DM/Regen stalker and it was quite nice. Basically I used it as a mini-MoG with the added advantage that it was up about twice as often. Now, if you have softcapped SR or Ninjitsu I would expect that shadow meld is not going to be as usefull but for a regen, any of the resistance based secondaries or a non-softcapped ninjistu/sr it is a huge survival boost.
Instead of using Shadowmeld (or MoG) as oh-**** powers I would recommend using them as alpha soakers. On hard targets I would move in for the AS, fire of Shadowmeld/MoG, build up then AS. Between the secondary effects of AS and the def of Shadow meld / MoG I basically ignored the alpha. I would use SM for bosses and MoG for EB's or hard bosses. On a ninjitsu or SR stalker you could probably save SM/MoG as an emergency button but regen has so many emergency buttons already that I found that I got more mileage out of the powers this way. -
I think the real problem the OP is facing here is the assumption that acid mortar and poison trap are only (or even mostly) effective if you use a lure and kill play style. The fact is that both of these powers are very useful for both the set trap and lure play style and the run in and kill things play style.
Because neither power is interruptible both can be dropped in the middle of a group without any problems. Poison trap makes a great 'beta' absorber, in that you will take the alpha when you drop it but then the hold kicks in and gives your pets a chance to kill the mobs before they attack again. Acid mortar is even better as it is ranged and has quite a long range - longer than it may initially seem because it only fires at targets near YOU but it can fire at targets a long ways away from the mortar itself if you run up to them - so if you have two groups in LOS of the mortar you can drop it in the middle of one, finish that group off, then move up to group two and have a good chance of getting a couple mortar shells off.
I would definitely recommend taking acid mortar - in fact, if you can respec to fit it in at an earlier level and get a couple slots in it for some recharge and maybe a little accuracy all the better. Acid mortar is one of the traps powers you want up every spawn if possible due to the def and res debuff - you can also slot an achilles heel chance for res debuff proc in it to get some extra resistance debuff. Poison gas is a little less important - my thugs/traps alternates it with seeker drones as an alpha/beta absorber but if you don't have a problem with alpha's then it is probably skippable.
Really, the only power in the MM traps set that really needs a lure and kill strategy to use it fully is trip mine, mostly because it IS interruptible so you can't plant it in the middle of a group easily - although with a reasonable amount of def you stand a good chance of planting one even while being attacked. I do have trip mine on my thugs/traps but I may respec out of it - generally by the time I get around to planting it I end up wasting the mine on nearly dead mobs. I could see using it on EB's and av's though - hard, single targets like EB's are about the only time I would resort to a mine and lure strategy - otherwise I play my thugs/traps about the same way the OP does for pretty much the same reason, to prevent mob spread so everyone stays in the FFG & Enforcer maneuvers area. -
Quote:Originally Posted by Fiery-Enforcer
SS/Shield not benefiting much from a kin? Are you serious?
While Combat was certainly overstating things a bit, as getting to the damage cap is always a good thing, I think the basic point is sound. Until fulcrum shift (at L38) a kin is going to be adding a lot less to an SS/Shield brute who is already going to be better than halfway to the damage cap than a /sonic would. A reasonably target saturated SS/Shield brute is going to be at roughly +450% damage (say, 7 targets in AOO for 130% from AAO, 80% from rage, 90% from enhancements and say 150% from fury) so a 22.5% resistance debuff is going to add 123 damage for every 100 points base damage, where it would take another 123% damage buf to do the same. Sonic siphon will double the damage increase on larger hard targets - a kin will ONLY exceed this if they can get the brute up to the damage cap and even then they won't exceed it by much, as there is only 300% more to go to the cap and sonic dispersion + sonic siphon is like having a 250% boost on top of the numbers above.
Add in the extra resistance from sonic and you get a lot of extra damage and survivability from a very early level where kinetics is basically going to only add a 20% damage boost and a 20% recharge boost (which you wont' get until L20). While transfusion is an awesome heal it is one of the harder to use heals and with a potential for 55% resistance to all plus shields defenses you get a lot of survivability with a lot less effort.
Obviously if you only care about end game farming then a kin is your best bet. If this where a blueside combo with a scrapper and defender I would be more tempted to recommend the kin - getting speed boost at L12 makes a HUGE difference in leveling as you basically don't have to worry about end any more, but for a shield brute (if that is what you want) the extra resistance will probably make a HUGE difference in low level survivability - which is what has always kept me from trying out a shield brute.
Darn, I may have talked myself into dual boxing this combo now :-). -
Quote:Originally Posted by Rinkoz
Your insane if you think farming drops is easier then its ever been, farming drops was "easy" when you could pad for 8 people and run a farm back in i14, you would get drops like there was 8 people in your team and you where the only one in the mission map....that would be why we call it padding.
Now what we call "padding" is set for 8 people is 7 other people in there taking your rewards even though your the only one in there although I would agree that making the level lower then your current does help drop farming somewhat but I'd give that up in a second to have drops rates before when padding for 8 with 52's.... I agree somewhat with XP farming but its been extremely slowed down no were near how it was even before AE came out, I was all for AE getting nerfed, not nearly to the extreme that the devs took it but nerfed somewhat.
The autosk system is a true fail to force everyone to "autosk" or quit the team every single time u team with anyone 1 level above you, we really could've had more options then that and would have been much more pleasing to the majority and may have saved us some poeple who have left recently, although AE is what killed many many more but thats for another post.I am also sure that this is not true, athough it was for a short while after i16. During and after the i16 beta there where a large number of folks who ran extensive tests to verify that drops where working as they should using the new settings. There WAS a bug with recipe drops and the folks testing it managed to brute force enough data to prove that the drops where indeed off - oddly enough it turned out that this was an OLD bug, not a new one - if I remember correctly it was a problem with an uninitialized local variable that was getting hit more often after the i16 changes - often enough to show up in the test data. However that bug was fixed shortly after i16 and verified by the very folks who put together the data to show it existed.Quote:Originally Posted by spiritfox
Pretty sure this is not true, I don't have a high level farmer, but I've been playing a lowbie MM a ton lately. I put missions on x2 at level 10 and x3 at lvl 26, and I've noticed that a single mission usually just about fills my enhancements compared to two or three enh per mission at x1. My 26 Bots/Traps has around 40 million infamy all self earned because I keep getting decent, sellable drops and he's decked out in lvl 25 set ios that I spent about 10 million on.
I am pretty sure that there was never a problem with enhancement drops, just IO recipes. The fix for that bug went in on sept 29 in build 1600.20090918.4T2, although the patch note on it is almost unnoticable (under Rewards it just says 'Fixed bug was causing drop rates to be slightly too low').
Most of the threads on this issue where in the Market and Inventions forum as your most avid farmers/marketers spend a lot of time there - you might be able to find them if you look through old posts if you are interested in how they tested the drop rates, I don't farm myself and even if I did I don't have the patience to generate the kind of data you need to prove that a random event is not occuring frequently enough, so I only paid attention to the results not the test method. -
Quote:The chance for hold is probably a good choice but the chance for +recharge won't do you any good - the +recharge affects the pet, not you, but pets are immune to all things that affect the recharge rate of their attacks so the proc is basically wasted.Originally Posted by kojirodensetsu
I was thinking more the chance to hold (from purple immob set) and the chance for +recharge procs.
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Quote:Mobs gain an accuracy bonus with level, not a to hit bonus, at least not until they are much higher level than you (Like +6 or higher). Accuracy is a multiplier applied after to hit is figured using base to hit, def and to hit buffs, if any.Originally Posted by SoulSpark
I have another question regarding defence.
We all know that the "soft cap" is 45% to defence because the chance for enemy to hit is 50%.
I also know that for each level the enemy has on you they gain a 5% ToHit bonus. So when fighting +4 enemies their base ToHit chance goes up to 70% instead of 50% right?
So...if I want a toon that has "capped" defence to all possible critters in the game I will need to have 65% Defence. Is this right or am I reading this wrong?
Better information would be found in Arcanaville's guide to the i7 changes to def, to hit and accuracy:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=115003
I am fairly sure everything in this guide is still up to date.
EDIT: Adeon beat me to with what is probably a better resource, definitely go there. -
You don't have to deal with sets to get good acc/dam in your pets, although you DO need to use set IO's. The trick here is frankenslotting - just slot the 3 cheapest acc/dam pet IO's you can get your hands on and you will get 60% accuracy and 60% damage. One more damage (SO, IO or whatever) will cap your damage at that point and only take 4 slots, leaving you more slots for your secondary or extra slots for procs or other enhancments in the pets.
I realize that most folks don't like dealing with creating IO's, figuring out which give the best set bonuses and so on. The thing is that you get SO much out of frankenslotting that it is almost a sin not to try. If you avoid any expensive set IO's and only buy the cheapest you can find on the market it is not going to cost that much. I slot up all my mastermind pet powers this way around L27 - I buy level 30 acc/dam pet IO's, whatever happens to be selling cheap, craft them then slot them in my pets. Then I never have to look at my pet slotting again, at least not until the low 40's where I might look into replacing the acc/dam IO with acc/dam/end for those pets that tend to burn through end.
Looking at the market redside right now there are 5 edict of the master L30 acc/dam for sale - last 5 sales price range 15k-20k. 4 unquestioning loyalty with a price range of 5k -100k. 5 commanding presense, last 5 prices 50k-100k although they would probably go for less than that.
I certainly don't recommend going out for IO set bonuses in any big way on a mastermind but frankenslotting to get the most enhancement bonus you can out of 4-6 slots is they way I go on all characters. -
Quote:Do you want more single target damage or more AE? I would generally suggest combustion for the AE but while I have it on my plant/fire dominator I am not that fond of it - the long activation combined with the fact that a large portion of its damage is in a dot means I am frequently wasting a large portion of the damage on dead mobs. On the other hand, between carrion creepers and roots a plant/fire has a lot of extra AE damage where a mind/fire doesn't, so combustion might be better in that case. Mind also adds a lot of extra ranged single target damage in mesmerize and levitate, so that also argues for combustion over incinerate.Originally Posted by BlackBellatrix
I decided on Fire.
Should I go with Incinerate or Combustion? Both will slot a purple set so set bonuses is moot. Both require being upclose, which I can but don't like doing, due to lining up Breath of Fire and Terrify... -
Here is a sample build I did in suckerpunch's planner - it isn't as nice an output as you get with Mids and doesn't show you the numbers like Mids would but I don't have much experience with this planner so someone else might be able to tell you how to get more out of it. (I am one of those evil PC users who uses Mid's for all his planning :-).
+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Built with SuckerPunch's Online Planner v5.0
+ http://planner.cohtitan.com/planner
+----------------------------------------------------------------
Archetype: Mastermind
Primary: Mercenaries
Secondary: Dark Miasma
+----------------------------------------------------------------
01: Soldiers => Blood_Mandate(1), Blood_Mandate(3), Blood_Mandate(3), Sovereign_Right(5), Achilles_Heel(5), Touch_of_Lady_Grey(19)
01: Twilight Grasp => Accuracy(1), Doctored_Wounds(9), Doctored_Wounds(11), Doctored_Wounds(11), Doctored_Wounds(31), Doctored_Wounds(33)
02: Tar Patch => Recharge(2), Recharge(7), Recharge(7)
04: Darkest Night => Dark_Watchers_Despair(4), Dark_Watchers_Despair(17), Dark_Watchers_Despair(17), Dark_Watchers_Despair(23), Dampened_Spirits(43)
06: Equip Mercenary => EnduranceDiscount(6)
08: Swift => SpeedRunning(8)
10: Combat Jumping => Karma(10)
12: Spec Ops => Blood_Mandate(12), Blood_Mandate(13), Blood_Mandate(13), Sovereign_Right(15), Touch_of_Lady_Grey(15), Achilles_Heel(19)
14: Health => Heal(14)
16: Shadow Fall => Titanium_Coating(16), Titanium_Coating(36), Titanium_Coating(36), Luck_of_the_Gambler(36), Luck_of_the_Gambler(37), Luck_of_the_Gambler(40)
18: Super Jump => Jump(18)
20: Fearsome Stare => Siphon_Insight(20), Siphon_Insight(21), Siphon_Insight(21), Siphon_Insight(23), Nightmare(33), Nightmare(37)
22: Stamina => Recovery(22), Recovery(25), Recovery(25)
24: Assault => EnduranceDiscount(24)
26: Commando => Blood_Mandate(26), Blood_Mandate(27), Blood_Mandate(27), Sovereign_Right(29), Sovereign_Right(29), Touch_of_Lady_Grey(37)
28: Petrifying Gaze => Basilisks_Gaze(28), Basilisks_Gaze(31), Basilisks_Gaze(31), Basilisks_Gaze(43)
30: Tactics => Adjusted_Targeting(30), Adjusted_Targeting(33), Adjusted_Targeting(34), Adjusted_Targeting(34), Adjusted_Targeting(34), Empty(43)
32: Tactical Upgrade => EnduranceDiscount(32), EnduranceDiscount(33)
35: Recall Friend => EnduranceDiscount(35)
38: Dark Servant => Basilisks_Gaze(38), Basilisks_Gaze(39), Basilisks_Gaze(39), Basilisks_Gaze(39), Dark_Watchers_Despair(40), Dark_Watchers_Despair(40)
41: Dark Embrace => Titanium_Coating(41), Titanium_Coating(42), Titanium_Coating(42), Titanium_Coating(42)
44: Oppressive Gloom => Stupefy(44), Stupefy(45), Stupefy(45), Stupefy(45), Stupefy(46), Stupefy(46)
+----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Inherent Powers
+----------------------------------------------------------------
01: Brawl => Empty(1)
01: Sprint => Empty(1)
02: Rest => Empty(2)
In most cases I went for recharge, regen and HP bonuses when I could, with some accuracy bonuses thrown in. In all cases I tried to maximize the enhancement values in each power rather than go for the best set bonuses, since the better set bonuses are iffy for masterminds. -
I usually don't worry much about set bonuses on my masterminds as the most common set bonuses don't affect your pets. However, if you are going to build for anything I would suggest some mix of +recharge, +regen and +hp. Basically anything that helps you get your secondary powers back faster, heal faster and live longer. With dark a little accuracy bonus wouldn't hurt either since so much of your secondary has to hit to be effective. The following sets might be usefull:
- 5 Doctored wounds in Twilight grasp for the recharge and heal bonuses (Only do this if you can afford to 6 slot twilight grasp as you need to slot a L45+ accuracy IO as well). Alternatively you could slot 3 numina's convalescence for the HP and regen boost, but numina's are a LOT more expensive and harder to get than DW.
- Slot either 4 siphon insights into fearsome stare for the accuracy bonus or 5 Glimpse of the abyss for the recharge. The set bonuses on siphon insight aren't as good as those on glimpse of the abyss but you are better off enhancing the to hit debuff on fearsome stare than the fear.
- Slot 4 Dark Watcher's despair into darkest night for the recharge bonus.
- If you can 4 slot Petrifying gaze put 4 basilisks hold IO's in it for the 7.5% recharge.
- 3 Luck of the gambler in shadow fall will buy you a nice HP and regen boost, alternatively you can slot 5 red fortune for a recharge boost.
I am a big believer in frankenslotting your pets to cap damage, get good accuracy (60%+) and on the pets that tend to go through endurance fast maybe even a little end reduction. At level 45 slotting the following pet damage IO's will give you 65% accuracy, 40% end reduction and capped damage in 4 slots (I am assuming all IO's are L45+):
Blood Mandate: Acc/Dam, Acc/Dam/End, Dam
Sovereign Right: Acc/Dam/End
That leaves up to 2 slots in each pet for procs, etc. If you haven't already you definitely want to slot an achilles heel chance for res debuff proc in Soldiers and a touch of lady grey chance for negative energy damage proc is also nice. All 3 pets can take those procs but the AH proc is best in soldiers since it won't stack with itself and they have the best chance of making sure it goes off at least once. The Lady Grey proc would probably be usefull in all pets (every attack that does a def debuff would have a chance of triggering one of these procs - for the soldiers thats pretty much every attack, for the other pets its not as frequent but still covers a lot of their attacks). You probably want to slot a Sovereign Right: Resistance bonus aura IO in one of the pets for 10% bonus to resistance, since Mercs are resistance based and your best bonuses from shadowfall are also resistance based.
No other specific slotting thoughts come to mind.
EDIT: After posting this I remembered that there was an online hero planner you can use on a mac - SuckerPunch's online planner at http://planner.cohtitan.com/planner