EricHough

For this one the best implementation would have a pop-up come up when a 'travel event' is triggered that asks you if you want to take part in it. This way if you are on your way to sell/level/ect just before logging off you can choose not to take it. The events should only have a chance to trigger when you are solo and don't have a timed mission on your plate. Then add in an entry in the options menu to completely disable them and that will pretty much cover all bases.

I was misreading here - I was referring to IronYeti's post in which he talked about losing XP to someone else damaging a MOB, your reply to that point is above - I confused it with my comparison to teamed XP vs solo XP. Specifically my point is that getting reduced XP from a confused mob is like getting reduced XP due to teaming - in this case the confused mob is part of your 'team' and just like in a team the XP you recieve is less than if you where solo but more than if someone outside your team had finished off the mob for you.

I didn't think you where anything but calm - however the point I am trying make is that I believe you add to the misconception of confuse being a bad power by insisting that you lose xp to confused mobs. I think this results in mis-communication due to imprecise use of language. Consider these two statements:

"When I arrest enemies damaged by a confused mob it takes me half the normal time but I lose 20% of the experience"

"When I arrest enemies damaged by a confused mob I earn experience 60% faster, even though I get less experience for each enemy"

They both say the same thing - but the first sounds negative to me, giving the impression that you are losing out, the second sounds positive. As this thread has established there is a wide perception that confusion powers are not good and that you lose XP then using them - which we both have agreed is not true when all factors are taken into account. I just think your insistence on using language similar to the first sentence is adding to the problem, not helping it. I also think this is why you got into a disagreement with Enantiodromos - from what I can tell his guide on confused XP simply lays out how to tell if you are actually making enough XP over time to justify the reduced XP per mob.

I don't think you really read my post correctly - please note that I tried to avoid using the word "loss" to describe the reduced XP - because you aren't LOSING anything (and ultimately I think thats Enantiodromos's point as well). The way this game works is you only get the XP for which you do the damage, which is why I mentioned initially that its normal to only get 50% of the XP if you did 50% of the damage to kill a mob. By giving you MORE xp than the amount of damage you dealt when using a confuse power the game is actually awarding you MORE than you should get instead of LESS. So while you may receive LESS xp per mob when using a confuse power you don't actually LOSE anything, indeed you do the opposite. Claiming otherwise is simply playing word games.

Its a lot like when you team - you don't get full XP for killing a mob in a team, you only get a portion of it. Would you consider this to be "losing" XP? Actually, I think this is a very good comparison - in a team you get X/(Group Size) multiplied by a team size mod (where X = normal mob xp) to make grouping more attractive. Confuses are just like that - you get X*(% damage done)*(Confuse mod) to make confuses more attractive but that doesn't change the fact that you are getting MORE xp than you should so there is no loss of XP.

I think the real point here is that by referring to the effects of a confuse as "losing xp" it comes out more as a complaint than an observation and you also mislead people into thinking that they are coming out short when they use a confuse - when the real truth is that by any REAL measure you are coming out ahead of the game because you earn XP at a faster rate.

EDIT: I definitely need to read ahead before reposting - I see that Pan has already dismissed the "It's like teaming" theory. I completely disagree with him on that - its exactly like teaming, but thats not really the point. As I said above, I think the real point is that using the word "loss" to describe how a confused mob affects your xp gain is both incorrect and misleading - but as long as you always follow that up with the addition that your xp over time will go up even though your xp/mob goes down it's a tolerable habit, even if wrong :-)

If a confused mob does some of the damage you don't get the full xp but you don't lose as much as Pan is implying. For a simple explanation of how much XP you get from a mobs that are being damaged by other confused mobs look at this paragon wiki chart:

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Confusion

Unfortunately, as thorough as Enantiodromos guide looks to be it is also a little hard to follow - so take as a simple example the case where you do 50% of the damage to a mob and something else does the other 50% of the damage (say a player who is not grouped with you). In this situation you would only get 50% of the xp. This is the normal case.

If instead a confused mob did 50% of the damage you actually get 80% of the xp instead of 50%. Now, this may seem like a loss of 20% but consider that it probably only took you half the time to kill the mob - so if you killed two confused mobs in the time it would normally take you to kill one you just got 60% more xp than normal, not 20% less because the only number that REALLY matters is xp earned over time.

This is what makes all the whining about xp 'loss' to confusion to be silly - there is no limit to the number of mobs you can fight in the game as you can always find more, either by moving on to a new group along the street, starting another paper/scanner mission or re-running a mission in the MA. As long as you are still earning xp as fast or faster than you would without confusion there is no grounds for complaint.

Finally, my comments above completely ignore the control aspect of confustion - both area confuse powers (mass confusion and seeds of confusion) are long duration control powers that completely prevent all damage from a spawn, unless they miss. Factor that in to the increased kill speed and any xp that you don't get because of confused mobs damaging each other is meaningless.

The following option will work fine on these boards:

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You can select it when you do the export or you can set it permanently in your options: Seclect Options -> Configuration from the menu then go to the Forum Export Settings tab and select that option in the Formatting Codes section.

If you pick up FSC, slot it up well with recharge and add in Blazing aura I think you will find you do enough AE damage. My fire/fire scrapper jumps into the middle of a mob with blazing aura up, fires off build up or fiery embrace (depending on whats up) and lets go with an FSC and then whales on the LT's or bosses in the group and by the time I finish them off the minions have dropped - this is on mission level 4. Fire breath is going to require so much time to position and fire that I think you will find it not worth the effort by the time you have a well slotted FSC.

Here is the build I am currently using - Sahara just hit L39 and I haven't picked a possible ancillary pool yet because I am waiting on i16 for the blaze mastery pool that has been mentioned. She only has one -KB io currently but will slot a steadfast prot -KB when i can free up an extra slot for it.

Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/

Click this DataLink to open the build!

Level 40 Magic Scrapper
Primary Power Set: Fiery Melee
Secondary Power Set: Fiery Aura
Power Pool: Fighting
Power Pool: Leaping
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed

Hero Profile:
Level 1: Scorch -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:30(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(5), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(7), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(9)
Level 1: Fire Shield -- TtmC'tng-ResDam:30(A), TtmC'tng-EndRdx:30(11), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:30(11), ResDam-I:30(37)
Level 2: Cremate -- C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:30(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:30(3), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(5), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(7), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(9), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:30(15)
Level 4: Healing Flames -- Dct'dW-Heal:38(A), Dct'dW-EndRdx/Rchg:37(13), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx/Rchg:32(13), Dct'dW-Heal/EndRdx:35(34), Dct'dW-Heal/Rchg:35(36)
Level 6: Build Up -- RechRdx-I:30(A), RechRdx-I:30(15)
Level 8: Boxing -- Acc-I:30(A)
Level 10: Combat Jumping -- Krma-ResKB:30(A), Ksmt-ToHit+:30(36)
Level 12: Swift -- Run-I:30(A)
Level 14: Health -- RgnTis-Regen+:21(A), Heal-I:30(39), Empty(39), Empty(40)
Level 16: Plasma Shield -- TtmC'tng-ResDam:40(A), TtmC'tng-EndRdx:39(17), TtmC'tng-ResDam/EndRdx:39(17), ResDam-I:30(37)
Level 18: Fire Sword Circle -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:32(A), Erad-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:25(19), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:32(19), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:30(21), M'Strk-Dmg/Rchg:25(21), Empty(39)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:30(A), EndMod-I:30(23), EndMod-I:30(23), P'Shift-End%:30(34)
Level 22: Super Jump -- Jump-I:30(A)
Level 24: Consume -- Efficacy-Acc/Rchg:30(A), Efficacy-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:32(25), Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg:30(25), Sciroc-Acc/Rchg:30(37)
Level 26: Incinerate -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:35(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/Rchg:35(27), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:35(27), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:35(29), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:35(29), RechRdx-I:30(31)
Level 28: Tough -- ResDam-I:30(A), ResDam-I:30(31), EndRdx-I:30(31), Empty(40)
Level 30: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:30(A)
Level 32: Blazing Aura -- C'ngBlow-Acc/Dmg:30(A), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:28(33), M'Strk-Acc/Dmg:30(33), M'Strk-Dmg/EndRdx:26(33), C'ngBlow-Dmg/EndRdx:34(34)
Level 35: Fiery Embrace -- RechRdx-I:30(A), RechRdx-I:30(36), Empty(40)
Level 38: Rise of the Phoenix -- Empty(A)
Level 41: Temperature Protection -- Empty(A)
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
------------
Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Critical Hit
------------
Set Bonus Totals:

• 21% Enhancement(Accuracy)
• 20% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
• 4% Enhancement(Heal)
• 100.4 HP (7.5%) HitPoints
• Knockback (Mag -4)
• Knockup (Mag -4)
• MezResist(Immobilize) 6.6%
• MezResist(Sleep) 7.7%
• MezResist(Terrorized) 2.2%
• 2.5% (0.04 End/sec) Recovery
• 3.15% Resistance(Fire)
• 3.15% Resistance(Cold)
• 2.5% Resistance(Psionic)

EDIT: Just an FYI - This is not the build I used to level up to this point. I recently respec'ed out of fire sword and greater fire sword so I could focus on non-fire blade attacks - I kept FSC because it is to good not to keep but my current concept is mostly sword free. All the single target attacks in fire melee are pretty good so my theory is to just pick the ones you prefer and slot them up with enough recharge so you can get a good attack chain.

Wiki info on feared foes:

http://wiki.cohtitan.com/wiki/Fear

However since terrify does damage it actually is worse than most fears as it's own damage will break fear initially, allowing the targets to get an alpha strike through - which weakens one of minds traditional strengths, locking down groups without drawing initial aggro (either by using mass hypnosis, confuse or mass confuse).

It also doesn't really do a ton of damage - pretty much the same as mesmerize which even with containment isn't that great since with its base recharge of 40 seconds you won't use it more than once a battle, at least not without a ton of recharge. It also costs a LOT of end, 20.8, about 2.5 times fearsome stare and it is really hard to say if a small amount of AE damage is worth that much extra end cost. I think its real problem is that it tries to be both a control and damage power but doesn't really do well at either - I would trade it for fearsome stare in a heartbeat, since FS gets a nice enhancable to hit debuff.


EDIT: Terrifies damage doesn't exactly break its fear - like mesmerize, there is a 0.25 second delay between the damage and the control effect which still allows for an attack to fire off, much like chain - mesmerizing targets allows them one attack in between each sleep. Not as bad as fully breaking fear, but still allows an alpha strike to get through.

So does Venture's - of course, its the half that his father finished that works .

While true in the sense that no AT or build REQUIRES a stamina type power even for stalkers its still nice to have one, so i find it unfortunate that the stalker version of WP doesn't get quick recovery, since that would save you the 2 extra power picks it takes to get stamina. While YMMV on whether or not a stalker NEEDS stamina/QR I find that if you like to scrap at all stamina helps a lot - and playing a stalker without being a boring hit and run specialist requires scrapping it out after the initial AS. If you took QR+Stamina on your other WP characters because your the kind of person (like me) who never wants to stop and wait for the blue bar to recover and loves non stop action, then I recommend trying to fit in stamina on your stalker.

With the stalker you want to do pretty much the same thing as a brute - slot for def bonuses to maximize heightened senses as stalkers benefit more from DEF than anything else as getting missed helps you get off those assasins strike even when you have aggro. You will probably want to build for a decent amount of recharge as well since the more often reconstruction is up the better - it is essentially your regen its just a click heal for a bulk amount rather than the constant regen that RttC gives you.

You don't actually need to build a WP stalker for +HP - their base HP are so close to thier cap that HPT alone will either cap you or nearly cap you. Adding some extra regen wouldn't hurt but I would put that in third place after def and recharge.

If your troops are mindless robots that you can replace by hitting a few keys, evil demons that you summon to do good (and who just to back to thier home plane when they are defeated) or elemental creations that are simply extentions of your will (which is basically what I consider the current controller pets) then getting them killed is neither villainous nor heroic.

Besides, with the current game explanation for character 'defeat' it is no small stretch even with soldiers to decide that they are not getting killed - instead they are getting defeated and teleported back to the hospital - and when you resummon them you simply teleport them back from the hospital. Even the most 'villainous' mastermind power in the game, detonator, can be explained as a satchel charge that your pet planted and TP'ed away from just as the bomb went off.

I think he is confusing it with dark miasma's fearsome stare or illusions control spectral terror. Its a very common mistake - both of them are area fears that also debuff to hit so the three powers get frequently confused. It doesn't help that terrify accepts to hit debuff enhancements even though they don't do anything (at least mids has it accepting to hit debuff enhancements - I don't know if the live power still does or not).

I wish terrify had a to hit debuff - i would prefer that over the damage it now does as its on to long a timer to really be use full as a damaging power, then it would be a decent control. As it is it is on too long a timer to use as more than an opener and costs WAY to much end for just a control.

I don't think the previous poster was being naive, I think he was being realistic. There is NO way the dev's are going to 'balance' defenders by nerfing controllers - whether the nerf is real or just perceived. I mean, look at the hue and cry over the changes to dominators, which in all but a few, corner cases was definitely a buff.

He is also correct to say that nerfing controllers will NOT make more people play defenders, it will just make less people play controllers - if defenders don't get improved and controllers get nerfed folks will probably just move to corruptors in going rogue as they can at least solo decently.

I certainly have noticed it - on many characters I run at difficulty level 2 I have noticed that where a mission would previously spawn a pair of LT's and a minion I am frequently seeing a boss and a minion. First time it happened to me after i15 was in a warriors mission and since the bosses look an aweful lot like the LT's I had a tight moment when the LT I thought I had held proceeded to knock me off my feet and nearly kill me. After that I started checking a lot more carefully and they do pop up fairly often - it will be interesting to see what the i16 changes do to this.

The only problem there is then you have no immobilization protection, which is almost as important for melee characters as KB prot. That's why combat jumping + a karma -KB IO is one of the best methods for filling the holes in /FA, you get both KB and immob covered in one power. You could still take kick, slot kinetic in it to get -7 Kb resistance instead of the -4 karma would give you.

Also, slotting 4 kinetic IO's is only going to give you 3 points of KB protection - not sure if that extra point matters or not but its good to be aware that it IS less than a karma or steadfast prot -kb IO.

I would be happy with exactly the same kind of change they made to CP - reduce the recharge, up the duration and reduce or change the effects a bit so that you have a power that is up more often and maybe does a little less but is actually usefull. Seriously - the real problem is that serum is up way to infrequently and it turns it's target into a MELEE monster, in a set that doesn't have any melee pets. On a grave knight or thugs bruiser this would be an awesome power, on the commando not so awesome. I would happily give up all the resistance and regen buf in exchange for a decent amount of damage buf and something better than 9% uptime (with 100% recharge slotting).

I cant' see how this would break the cottage rule - serum is basically a single target pet buff power and it would stay as such.