EricHough
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Posts
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Quote:Originally Posted by EmperorSteele
I'll tell you why Levitate does more than lift: Grav gets an autonomous pet. Mind doesn't (unless you count confusing a horde of minions who can't hit one another once every 4 minutes).
Though it doesn't explain giving the dom version a damage boost =. *shrug*
Its actually pretty clear the dev's don't agree with this logic - the fact that they upped the damage on lift for dominators without any corresponding changes to mind shows that they don't think it needs to be 'weaker' at single target damage then mind. You are also ignoring the fact that mind actually has 2 single target damage powers as you can basically consider mesmerize as a blast power - it does as much damage as any normal tier 1 blast and at the same end cost, its only real disadvantage is that it has a 6 second recharge instead of 4 seconds which is more than offset by the 1.1 accuracy and the long sleep at the end. So mind is WAY ahead of gravity in both control and single target damage. -
Well, on first glance I can suggest the following:
1) The detonation Dam/end in gale isn't buying you anything - gale doesn't do enough damage to merit damage enhancement so you should either put a end reduction IO in it if thats what you want or an accuracy as its base accuracy is pretty crappy (60%). If you want to actually hit with it a L50 accuracy IO would work wonders.
2) Roots has got way to much end reduction and not nearly enough damage enhancement - you are wasting almost an SO's worth of end reduction due to ED capping. Replace the Detonation damage/end with a straight damage IO and replace the Positrons blast acc/dam/end with an acc/dam. That will give you 91% damage enhancment and still leave you at 78% end reduction, which is quite enough.
3) I see the same problem with the mako's bite in air superiority - one dam/end enhancment is not going to buy you anything so slot an accuracy so that if you DO use the attack for the knockup it actually hits. 26% enhancement to damage is not enough to matter and you should only be using an attack like this at L50 in an emergency - like knocking a boss on its *** while you wait for strangler to recharge so you can stack it.
4) If you can free up a 6th slot for strangler or replace one of the thunderstrikes with a 4th basilisks gaze you can get another 7.5% global recharge. I would recommend the following slotting for strangler: Basilisks Gaze Acc/hold, Acc/Rech, Rech/hold, end/rech/hold and either 1 or 2 L50 damage IO's. That will get you 43% accuracy, 60% recharge and hold and 18% end reduction with either 40% or 80% damage enhancement. In a single target hold like this the Slow proc is not going to buy you much as it will only really kick in if the target isn't held AND it happens to go off.
5) 5 Basilisks gaze in vines is to much - the 5th one doesn't buy you any good set bonuses and it is a very expensive set. I would replace the acc/end/rech/hold quad with a L50 acc/rech/hold, either ghost widows embrace or essense of curare, whichever is cheapest.
6) you probably want damage slotting in lightning storm, not end drain - its an offensive pet and with seeds you want to do damge to the confused mobs not drain thier end, which keeps them from attacking each other.
I could probably pick it apart a lot more but those are the most obvious things that occured to me. It looks like you are slotting set IO's just because you can - there is no shame in using a common L50 IO if you get more out of it. -
Quote:Plant is pretty straightforward, take the following powers:Originally Posted by Nintova
Holy cow ! A lot to think about .. for the record though ... celerity IS in sprint
I knew I was in need of help slotting but sheesh Louise !
I went on advice from several storm controller threads. Plant was a bit harder to find info that was anything near to current. I tried to make this while I was at work >.> <.< (Shh!!) Clearly I need to focus a bit
I'll spend more time writing things down and loking at how mids changes the numbers. I did indeed put the wrong 3 into that .. doggone it.
Anyway thanks much for the feedback !
Strangler
Roots
Seeds of Confusion
Carrion Creepers
Fly Trap
You can also take vines as an emergency control although it isn't really necessary. Strangler is your single target lockdown - slot it up about equally with recharge and hold duration so you can stack it on bosses. Roots is your primary AE damage - slot it up like an attack power but slot at least 60% accuracy (2 SO's or 3 L25+ Acc/Dam IO's). Seeds is your primary area control, slot it up soon and focus on recharge after you get enough accuracy to make sure it is always capped. Slot up carrion creepers a lot like an attack but you want a lot of recharge as well. With fly trap you can get get all the accuracy and damage you need in 4 slots if you don't mind franken-slotting with pet IO's - 3 x ACC/DAM, and 1xDAM will give you 60% accuracy and capped damage.
If you can fit the other powers in your build feel free but those are the ones my plant/storm has taken (well, he is only L30 so he doesn't have fly trap yet - working on it).
If you solo at all you will find your single target damage lacking, I took air superiority and use it as an extra single target attack but I also wanted fly as my movement power so it was easy to fit it in. You could take jump kick, boxing or kick as well. Alternatively you could take entangle and slot it up for damage - but that's kinda slow (9s dot). If you have veteran attacks they work quite well after you drop freezing rain - the def debuff will cap your accuracy with them and the resistance debuff will increase your damage nicely, I get a lot of mileage out of blackwand and sands of mu although I still use AS a lot on LT's and bosses. -
If you do choose fire/devices don't get caught up in the trap of assuming that you need to lay huge fields of mines out all the time - I used to do this with my archery/dev blaster before I realized that against most opponents 1 trip mine, generally at my feet, was the best bet. You stealth in range of your cones, plant a trip mine, throw a caltrop field at your feet, hit aim and unleash your AE attacks. That generally kills all the minions and when the LT's or bosses close with you the trip mine blows them back before then can get more than 1 melee attack off - if they even get close enough due to the caltrops field.
Alternatively if you have full stealth (cloaking device + SS, the stealth power or a stealth IO) you can toe bomb smaller groups by planting a trip mine right at their feet then backing up and firing off your other AE attacks - works best with small groups of minions that are tightly packed.
Pretty much the only time I lay more than 1 trip mine is high level bosses (+2 or higher) and EB's.
The nice thing about trip mine is that its a final defense, when planted at your feet, that does good damage AND it gives you a great defiance boost - 26% for 11 seconds, enough to almost make up for not having build up. -
I really suspect perception of the lack of Dev posts are a combination of the following:
1) Inability to find the posts without the dev digest
2) Lower volume of posts because the dev's are hard at work on i16 and have less time to read/post on the forums
3) What time the dev's DO have to post on the forums is being spent in the i16 beta forums.
I know that on the old boards that I would not have seen even 20% of the dev posts if I hadn't been able to look them up in the dev digest - so without that it certain feels like they are posting a lot less, although I have seen numerous BaBs and Castle posts. I certainly hope they are devoting more time to i16 - I would rather have that soon then see a lot of dev posts. -
I have never come acrossed any specific guides for frankenslotting, probably because the true goal in frankenslotting is to maximize enhancment bonuses without paying any attention to set bonuses, so the actual options are endless.
I start frankenslotting around L22, when i can slot L25 IO's which seem to give me the best return when compared to SO's as the dual aspect IO's give you 20% enhancment to each aspect. This means that when you have 2 slots in which you would normally put, say an accuracy and a damage SO, giving you 32%-38% enhancment to each depending on SO level, you can slot 2 different accuracy/damage IO's and get 40% to each aspect that won't degrade as you level. I certainly don't wait until 50 to frankenslot - I don't even wait until 50 to slot up full sets for the set bonuses as I have certain favorite sets that give good general bonuses and are not too expensive, like crushing impact sets for melee attacks which give you +7% global accuracy, +5% global recharge and +1.12% HP for a 5 piece set.
At level 22 I generally try to 5 slot attacks and put damage based dual IO's in them with the goal of getting 100% damage enhancment (or as close as you can get with ED) and then another 100% split out between accuracy, recharge and end reduction. The exact amount of each depends what I want to do - I normally try to get at least 40% accuracy but in order to reliabley hit +2's (mission difficulty level 3) you need 60% accuracy in slotting or global accuracy to make up for it.
Other than that it all depends on what you need to get out of a power. I frankenslot my controller and dominator controls up at 25 as well but since they don't need to cap any one aspect (usually) I don't 5 slot them, 2-3 slots focusing on accuracy, recharge and a little end reduction or control duration is frequently enough, although important controls (e.g. seeds of confusion on my plant controller/dominator) will also get 5 slots.
Basic guidelines:
1) Dual aspect set IO's (acc/dam, acc/recharge, etc) give 20% to each aspect starting at L25. They go up after that but it is pretty slow so a L30 is slightly better but not enough to matter. 2 Identical dual aspect IO's are always at least slightly better than 2 SO's that enhance each aspect. So 2 ACC/DAM IO's are always a good replacement for 1 Accuracy and 1 Damage SO.
2) Triple aspect set IO's (acc/dam/recharge, acc/recharge/hold, etc) give 16% to each aspect starting at L25. IF you can get 3 triple aspect IO's that enhance the same things they make a good replacement for 3 individual SO's with the same enhancment. For example, 3 ACC/HOLD/RECH IO's will give you 48% enhancment to each aspect which makes them a hugely better choice over 1 SO of each type in the same 3 slots. The catch here is that it is hard to find 3 triple aspect IO's that enhance the same things - many control sets have enough triple aspect IO's you can frankenslot them effectively but few damage sets do. However slotting 1 triple IO in place of a double when you have 4-5 slots will frequently let you pick up a some extra enhacement in one area with minimal loss in another.
Some examples of Frankenslotting powers:
Example 1: Attack power with 5 L25 IO's - 3x Acc/Dam, Dam/End, Dam/Rech, will give you 95% damage after ED capping, 60% accuracy, 20% end reduction and recharge.
Example 2: Attack power with 5 L25 IO's - 2x Acc/Dam, Dam/End, Dam/Rech, Acc/Dam/Rech gives you approx 92% damage after ED, 56% accuracy, 20% end reduction and 36% recharge.
Example 3: Single target hold with 3 L25 IO's - 2 x Acc/hold/recharge 1x end/hold gives 32% Accuracy and recharge, 20% end reduction and 52% hold duration.
Here is an example of blaster I frankenslotted right at L22. Any powers that do not have a specific IO in them just have SO's - I don't slot generic IO's until I can slot L30 IO's. I have some set bonuses because I tend to use Ruin IO's in most of my single target ranged attacks as they fairly common and cheap - but I slot whatever I can get without spending to much on them:
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
Level 37 Mutation Blaster
Primary Power Set: Sonic Attack
Secondary Power Set: Mental Manipulation
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Power Pool: Leaping
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Shriek -- Ruin-Acc/Dmg:25(A), Mael'Fry-Acc/Dmg:25(3), Salvo-Acc/Dmg:25(7), Ruin-Dmg/EndRdx:25(11), Ruin-Dmg/Rchg:25(23)
Level 1: Subdual -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Scream -- Ruin-Acc/Dmg:25(A), Mael'Fry-Acc/Dmg:25(3), Ruin-Dmg/EndRdx:25(7), Ruin-Dmg/Rchg:25(11), Mael'Fry-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:25(17)
Level 4: Howl -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg:25(A), AirB'st-Acc/Dmg:25(5), Det'tn-Dmg/Rng:25(5), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx/Rng:25(13), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:25(19)
Level 6: Swift -- Empty(A)
Level 8: Shout -- Ruin-Acc/Dmg:25(A), Ruin-Dmg/EndRdx:25(9), Ruin-Dmg/Rchg:25(9), Mael'Fry-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:25(13), Mael'Fry-Acc/Dmg:25(15)
Level 10: Hasten -- Empty(A)
Level 12: Psychic Scream -- Det'tn-Acc/Dmg:25(A), AirB'st-Acc/Dmg:25(15), Det'tn-Dmg/EndRdx:25(19), Det'tn-Dmg/Rchg:25(21), AirB'st-Dmg/Rchg:25(21)
Level 14: Health -- Empty(A)
Level 16: Concentration -- RechRdx(A), RechRdx(17)
Level 18: Sirens Song -- LgcRps-Acc/Rchg:25(A), Empty(23), Empty(29)
Level 20: Stamina -- Empty(A), Empty(25)
Level 22: Super Speed -- Empty(A)
Level 24: Amplify -- Empty(A), Empty(25)
Level 26: Drain Psyche -- Empty(A), Empty(27), Empty(27), Empty(29)
Level 28: Combat Jumping -- Empty(A)
Level 30: World of Confusion -- Empty(A), Empty(31), Empty(31), Empty(31)
Level 32: Dreadful Wail -- Empty(A)
Level 35: Telekinetic Thrust -- Empty(A)
Level 38: Psychic Shockwave -- Empty(A)
Level 41: [Empty]
Level 44: [Empty]
Level 47: [Empty]
Level 49: [Empty]
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Defiance
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Set Bonus Totals:- 2% Enhancement(Knockback)
- 2% Enhancement(Knockup)
- 40.7 HP (3.37%) HitPoints
- MezResist(Sleep) 3.3%
- MezResist(Terrorized) 4.95%
- 3.75% Resistance(Energy)
- 6% RunSpeed
- 1% XPDebtProtection
Hero Plan by Mids' Hero Designer 1.401
http://www.cohplanner.com/
Click this DataLink to open the build!
dwa: Level 48 Science Controller
Primary Power Set: Illusion Control
Secondary Power Set: Radiation Emission
Power Pool: Flight
Power Pool: Fitness
Power Pool: Speed
Ancillary Pool: Fire Mastery
Hero Profile:
Level 1: Spectral Wounds -- Decim-Acc/Dmg:36(A), Decim-Dmg/EndRdx:36(3), Decim-Dmg/Rchg:39(5), Decim-Acc/EndRdx/Rchg:40(11), Decim-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:38(15)
Level 1: Radiant Aura -- EndRdx-I:30(A), Empty(43), Empty(43), Empty(45), Empty(45)
Level 2: Blind -- BasGaze-Acc/Hold:30(A), BasGaze-Acc/Rchg:30(3), BasGaze-Rchg/Hold:30(5), BasGaze-EndRdx/Rchg/Hold:30(40)
Level 4: Deceive -- Mlais-Acc/Conf/Rchg:40(A), Mlais-Acc/Rchg:39(37), Mlais-Dam%:37(37), Mlais-EndRdx/Conf:38(37), Mlais-Conf/Rng:35(40)
Level 6: Air Superiority -- C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx:30(A), C'ngImp-Dmg/EndRdx/Rchg:30(7), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(7), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg/EndRdx:30(11), C'ngImp-Acc/Dmg:30(15)
Level 8: Accelerate Metabolism -- Efficacy-EndMod/Rchg:40(A), P'Shift-EndMod/Rchg:40(9), P'Shift-EndMod/Acc/Rchg:40(9), RechRdx-I:30(17), P'Shift-EndMod:35(17)
Level 10: Swift -- Run-I:30(A)
Level 12: Hasten -- RechRdx-I:30(A), RechRdx-I:30(13), RechRdx-I:30(13)
Level 14: Fly -- Flight-I:30(A)
Level 16: Health -- Heal-I:30(A)
Level 18: Phantom Army -- C'Arms-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:30(A), ExRmnt-Acc/Dmg/Rchg:41(19), RechRdx-I:30(19), RechRdx-I:30(21), EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg:38(31), Dmg-I:40(31)
Level 20: Stamina -- EndMod-I:30(A), EndMod-I:30(21), EndMod(34)
Level 22: Radiation Infection -- DarkWD-ToHitDeb/Rchg:25(A), DarkWD-ToHitdeb/Rchg/EndRdx:25(23), DarkWD-ToHitDeb/EndRdx:25(23), DarkWD-ToHitDeb:25(25), Achilles-ResDeb%:20(25)
Level 24: Enervating Field -- EndRdx-I:30(A), EndRdx-I:30(34)
Level 26: Spectral Terror -- Abys-Acc/Rchg:30(A), Abys-Acc/EndRdx:30(27), Abys-Dam%:30(27), Abys-EndRdx/Fear:25(29), Abys-Acc/Fear/Rchg:25(29)
Level 28: Superior Invisibility -- EndRdx-I:30(A)
Level 30: Lingering Radiation -- P'ngTtl-Acc/EndRdx:37(A), RechRdx-I:25(31), TmpRdns-Acc/EndRdx:37(34)
Level 32: Phantasm -- BriL'shp-Acc/Dmg:34(A), EdctM'r-Acc/Dmg:35(33), BldM'dt-Acc/Dmg:35(33), BldM'dt-Dmg:35(33), ExStrk-Dam%:15(40)
Level 35: Flash -- EoCur-Acc/Rchg:39(A), NrncSD-Acc/Hold/Rchg:30(36), EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg:39(36), G'Wdw-Acc/Hold/Rchg:35(36)
Level 38: EM Pulse -- EoCur-Acc/Rchg:39(A), NrncSD-Acc/Hold/Rchg:29(39), EoCur-Acc/Hold/Rchg:39(39), G'Wdw-Acc/Hold/Rchg:40(39)
Level 41: Fire Ball -- Empty(A), Empty(42), Empty(42), Empty(42), Empty(43)
Level 44: Fire Shield -- Empty(A), Empty(45), Empty(46), Empty(46)
Level 47: Consume -- Empty(A)
Level 49: Choking Cloud -- Empty(A)
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Level 1: Brawl -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Sprint -- Empty(A)
Level 2: Rest -- Empty(A)
Level 1: Containment
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Set Bonus Totals:- 2.5% DamageBuff(Smashing)
- 2.5% DamageBuff(Lethal)
- 2.5% DamageBuff(Fire)
- 2.5% DamageBuff(Cold)
- 2.5% DamageBuff(Energy)
- 2.5% DamageBuff(Negative)
- 2.5% DamageBuff(Toxic)
- 2.5% DamageBuff(Psionic)
- 2.5% Defense(Energy)
- 2.5% Defense(Negative)
- 1.25% Defense(Ranged)
- 2.25% Max End
- 16% Enhancement(Accuracy)
- 2.5% Enhancement(Confused)
- 36.3% Enhancement(RechargeTime)
- 2.75% Enhancement(Terrorized)
- 5% FlySpeed
- 76.3 HP (7.5%) HitPoints
- 5% JumpHeight
- 5% JumpSpeed
- MezResist(Immobilize) 4.95%
- MezResist(Terrorized) 3.3%
- 8.5% (0.14 End/sec) Recovery
- 5% RunSpeed
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Quote:I have to disagree - swift/hurdle and health are all very nice auto powers that don't even need to be slotted in order to give you good benefits. I generally end up taking swift or hurdle at least on all my masterminds even if I don't go for stamina and just about every character can benefit from health.Originally Posted by Ahmon
Stamina is 3 wasted power picks. The few times you need an END reduction, it's more efficient to just use your saved inspirations. Do be sure you slot Web Grenade well, however, as spamming it without END reduction can be quite tiring and there are many situations in which you'll want to spam it.
The real problem I find with NOT taking stamina is that all the things you frequently take instead of it are constant end drains - leadership powers, tough/weave, etc, all of them are an extra end burden. Just one or two isn't a big deal, which is why my thugs/traps doesn't have stamina YET (although she does have swift and health) as she only has manuevers but as I said previously, by the time I get both tactics and scorpion shield I expect I will want stamina as well.
Dechs - as Adeon noted if you have the miracle unique slotted in triage beacon you will only get the boost to end for 200 seconds after you place a beacon. On that note I would actually recommend at least keeping swift or hurdle and health so that you have a place to slot the IO. -
The biggest thing that keeps me from going /SR on a stalker is how tight the build will be - I have a DM/SR scrapper and it was hard enough getting a decent attack chain and still getting all the defense I need in the build, doing the same thing with a stalker who needs to squeeze in AS and placate would be ugly. Ninjitsu is tight but not as tight as SR with 6 powers required to round out your defenses in SR (3 toggles, 2 passives and PB) vs 4 power choices in Ninjitsu (2 toggles and 2 clicks - I am counting Kuji-In Sha as required to round out your defense as that is what makes up for the lesser def). I don't count all the other extra stuff in either set - obviously anyone who goes SR will probably want quickness - but its a bonus just like caltrops or blinding powder, not something required to round out your defenses.
If you don't mind skipping travel powers completely (which I DO - personal preference thing) you can probably do SR just as easily as Ninjitsu but the looser build and the built in heal makes it a little more attractive than SR. -
Quote:Where I see some benefit to leveling in the AE is at lower levels when you don't have access to the really good places for non-AE levelling (like the RWZ) and don't want to do story arcs that require you to travel all over the place, especially on blueside where your contacts seem to LOVE perez park. Also, being able to stock up on insp's between missions has opened up several AT's that I had trouble levelling prior to stamina (corruptors and defenders mostly due to end problems). I can only do paper missions for a little while before I become bored and even with them there is still travel time to consider, so AE is a nice alternative.Originally Posted by Zanthar
I was wondering that myself. Bosses are good exp but only if you could down them at a fast rate. I was making more exp doing War zone missions than i did on that 'farm' that and I wasent bored out of my skill (also was working on the costume pieces!!)
Boss on farm i killed: 4k sometimes 5k
Warzone Mob: normal 1k, Lut about 2k, boss: 8-9k
Boss on farm was about 2-3 minutes to down
Warzone mobs in order: Norm 10-20s, Lut, 30 sec to 40 Boss: about 1 minute
on top of this I get the 'mission complete' alot more often at about 15k
I really dont see the benifit. I use AE for getting tickets and checking out player made missions, I dont see it as a more efficent way to get exp.
Now, if the character I am working on is capable of going through standard story arc content set at a reasonable level and speed I will happily do it - especially since careful choice of story arcs blueside will net me enough merits for one of the really good IO's by mid 30's (either the numina or miracle unique or a LoTG +7.5% rech) which I could pretty much never get before since I don't do TF's and won't pay the going price at the market for them (not that I thought they where to expensive - it's just that for the same price as one of the unique's I could easily get 4-5 full sets of crushing impact for my scrappers and would much rather do that), but pretty much only scrappers, blasters and certain controllers solo non-AE content fast enough to keep me happy and since I solo 99% of the time that left other AT's in the dust (blueside) before MA came out.
In summary - lack of travel time between missions and access to a vendor to stock up on inspirations at low levels when you are sucking end like crazy is what keeps me in the AE at times. Usually by the time I have stamina and SO's with pretty much any character I leave it behind except when I need tickets for various things (love those random salvage rolls - I can get the stuff I need without hassle and generally sell the excess for a tidy profit). -
Quote:The last time I payed any attention to how the 'report' function works folks where saying that if you got X reports against an arc it would be auto locked and you had to petition a GM to get it back - so whether or not an AE mission is bannable (or is even a farm) if you get to many reports then the person who wrote it now has to take action to get their mission back, which means reporting something has great potential for griefing.Originally Posted by Lady_Sadako
Looks like it, doesn't it? Perhaps we need some nice clear guidelines about 'what to report and what not to'.
No, that decision is out of the player's hands. The Devs, not the players, decide what's appropriate for the MA and what's not. The most any one person can do is help the Devs achieve their aims. They don't get to decide anything.
Now, I don't know if it is still like that because I have stayed out of the AE forums for a while as all the threads there are anti-farm/anti-anti-farm threads and not very interesting, so if its changed then all for the better. If it is still like that then I tend to side with nethergoat, especially since there are NO guidelines for what is an exploit and what isn't and the dev's are actually adamant about NOT establishing said guidelines. (For good reasons, I am sure). -
If you are just getting +recovery from IO set bonuses I doubt you can even come close to equaling stamina, however if you can afford and slot either or both of the +recovery uniques (miracle or numina's) you could probably get by with those. The biggest problem I find with replacing stamina is in most builds you frequently need health in order to slot the +rec IO's and once you have health it is almost as easy to take stamina. Now you could probably slot them in repair provided it takes heal IO sets.
As for whether or not bots/traps needs added recovery - that is kind of up to you I think. I have a mercs/traps currently at 35 and I don't have stamina yet either although I am thinking of picking it up by 41/44. It would be mostly for the convenience, although once I get tactics and scorpion shield (I currently have manuevers) I may decide I need it to manage the extra end use. Since you just got stamina, I would suggest playing with it for a while to see if it feels like it adds to your play experience. If it does, then either keep it or replace it with a miracle or numina's unique if you can get your hands on them AND have a place to slot them. If it doesn't then you can drop it. -
Traps is definitely a nice secondary that works well with ranged primaries, however I find it works best with thugs or robots because the main defense (FFG) stacks with the inherent defenses in the set - enforcers maneuvers and protector bots force fields. FFG does not synergize quite so well with mercs or any of the other resistance based pet sets simply because there is nothing to stack it with and stacking defenses (whether def or resists) is usually the best way to go with pets. Oh, you can try for the multi-layer defense like a willpower character does but most of the resistance pets have to many holes in thier resistances to do this.
Thats why my preferred secondaries for mercs are dark or storm as you get a resist based AE field that fills in various gaps - dark's shadowfall gives them energy, negative energy and psionic resist, storm's steamy mist gives fire, cold and energy. Stack that with at least one of the +resist aura IO's (2 if you go storm as you can put the RIP sets in tornado) and you get the most bang for your buck, as it where.
As for -resist powers like acid mortar - both dark and storm have thier own versions (tar patch and freezing rain), both of which actually do MORE debuff than acid mortar (acid mortar does a 20% resistance debuff where tar patch and freezing rain do a 30% resistance debuff). Both dark and storm also have plenty of control and/or alpha blunting powers as well - I would say more than traps as they all work at range where most of the traps powers require you either set a trap in the center of a group of mobs (poison trap, trip mine, etc) or figure out how to drag the mobs over a pre-set trap.
Ultimately I think the best secondary for mercs will depend on style and concept. I have played all three of the above mentioned secondaries with mercs - traps up to the high 20's before I decided to switch to thugs/traps, dark up to L32, currently semi-retired while I work on my merc/storm who is sitting at 22 right now. I enjoyed all of them and probably would have stuck with any one if I didn't have a nearly terminal case of alt-itis. -
Quote:The same can be said to you :-).Originally Posted by Forbin_Project
Unless you are sitting in a chair right next to the OP you have no idea if the problem he says he is having is on his end or not.
So stop acting like you know where the problem lies.
To the OP - as some less snarky posters have already noted, this weekend there was an unusual load on some servers due to the double xp weekend. I know I saw it on protector, which was unplayable for me sunday morning when I normally have problems (1200 ms ping times, mapserver disconnects like crazy). However by sunday evening protector was back to normal for me (150 ms ping times, not problems). So take any problems you saw last weekend as possibly being caused by the 2xp weekend.
As for problems you saw before this weekend - here is the link to the general network troubleshooting thread, I would recommend running through the info here to see if there are network issues on your side that need to be cleared up:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=120694
Ultimately if you DO have connectivity issues you will probably need to get your ISP involved and linked up with ncsoft support so that if there are problems on the ISP's end they can get them cleaned up. -
Hmm, it would have to be a tie between Sinister Mystique, my merc/dark MM and Ariel Blaze, my fire/energy blaster.
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Quote:I just make sure to save one of my 1/3 day mission bypass choices for that mission - unless I am on scrapper, then I play it as a 'kill everything on the map as fast as you can' mission - good xp, lots of scrapperlock potential.Originally Posted by Arctic_Man
Not a big fan of that one myself, which is why I typically leave Croatoa after finishing Gordon Bower's missions and not moving on to Skipper's and beyond. I think the only time I've managed to pull it off (of the 2-3 times I've gotten it) without severely outlevelling it was with my storm summoning defender, with hurricane running. A few still got through, but it helped a lot.
My least favorite missions villainside are anything in an arachnos base that has a defeat all in it, with Lorenz Ansaldo's defeat the sea witch getting a runner up nomination as that mission is either a walk in the park or nearly impossible. You should NOT have to face an EB in the early 20's that has hurricane, tornado AND lightning storm.
Heroside I would have to throw my vote behind any missions in the troll caves - way to many spawns way to close together. This includes Talshak's mission in them as well as the second mission in Mercedes Sheldon's crown of glory arc. Even on my scrappers, who love the target rich environment, having to crawl all over those maps looking for just the right mobs is way to painful (I actually like all the other missions in Mercedes arcs despite all the ambushes - much more interesting and interactive than most story arcs heroside). -
Pain should pair with mercs fairly well - mercs are fully ranged (like bots) and resistance based so having them stay around you will maximize your AE heal and AE regen field plus mercs have decent resists which will stack with the resist in world of pain. The only real drawback to the set is that Anguishing cry requires you to get in melee range of mobs, which is not the best way to play mercs. Second drawback is that neither set has a place you can slot the recharge intensive pet sets, so you can only slot one of the +res pet aura IO's and for a set that is relying on resists + heals it really helps to slot that second resistance aura IO. If you want to be able to stack resists up you will need to go with thugs/pain, necro/pain or */storm as thugs, necro and storm all offer you a place to slot the RIP sets.
Another psuedo-drawback I have found is that mercs play best if you can keep the enemy at range and pain has no tools for that. My current merc is a /storm and that works well - steamy mist fills in the gaps in the mercs resists by giving them fire, cold and energy resist (they get smashing and lethal), gale + freezing rain keeps enemies at range and on their back and snowstorm slows down thier attack rate so even ranged attacks are not coming all that fast and o2 boost fills in the gaps (although it is not really a hugely better heal than aid other, it just saves a pool selection). My merc/storm is still only 22 so I haven't gotten much else from the secondary yet but I am looking forward to the rest of the set. -
I agree - don't remove the email system but for those of us who NEVER EVER EVER use it, let us disable mail on either an account by account basis or a character by character basis.
Alternatively, allow me to turn of the email recieved notification that turns the 'email' on my chat menu red - if that didn't keep turning red I could actually ignore any and all incoming email. (I know, I know - I should be able to ignore the stupid red letters - but then again, the dev's should also be able to implement a few simple QoL features, so we are about even on that front). -
Are you looking at solo, in a group or both? For solo I would say mind is probably the safest - with 3 single target lockdowns by L6 (mesmerize, dominate and confuse), two of which are long duration, and an AE lockdown that can be up nearly every spawn available by level 8 (mass hypnosis) its pretty hard to beat for safe soloing.
For groups I would tend to echo the previous posts - anything /rad is fairly safe, just take radiation infection and use it all the time. Illuison is a good primary for soaking up alpha's but only once you get phantom army - prior to that you have to lean on decieve a lot. -
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Change FFG to operate the same way. A click power that summons a targeting drone looking thing that hovers around you and provides a dispersion bubble buff. Only this would have something like a 60 duration and a 120 recharge, requiring the player to invest in recharge to perma it.
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No. Just no.
If other squishies can have toggles that provide mezz protection without detoggling upon being put to sleep anymore (Force Field, Sonic Resonance) then nerfing Force Field Generator is just a dick move. They don't have the danger either that the FFG can be destroyed, which does happen in fights where powerful AoEs are being used by enemies, especially in AV fights when the Trapper has to get in close to redeploy Poison Trap and Trip Mines.
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I have to agree with lazarus - I thought the point of this thread was to ask for BUFFS to traps, not nerfs. FFG is the best power in the set (possibly tied with acid mortar - hard to say) and is perfect just as is.
Personally while I would like to see poison trap made a bit more effective for a non-MM (longer initial hold maybe, now that it doesn't proc 1 hold cloud per target) I would be quite happy with just a change to the last power - replace time bomb with something usefull and that would round out the set nicely. I liked a previous suggestion to replace it with gun drone - it would actually be very useful for a defender/corruptor. -
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I can't tell you how jazzed I am about Rad blast becoming a Blaster primary... but I'm also getting myself ready for disappointment, because I was equally jazzed about Psy blast and was disappointed.
That disappointment was due in part because I loved the fast recharge rate of Psionic Dart over on redside, and I really like power sets that play differently rather than falling into generic 'tier 1, tier 2' blast settings. I feel that powers sets should be (relatively) balanced overall rather than individual powers.
Having said that, I just can't see them keeping Neutrino Bolt as is, and what's more I can't see the entire set not getting hit with a nerf bat before it comes over for oen reason and one reason only... the Achilles Heel proc.
-Defense ranged attacks that recharge that quickly piling on the defiance AND having the awesome potential of a few Achilles heel procs just seems a bit overpowered - and while I absolutely believe that you should balance a set based on the powers themselves and not how they might be slotted with expensive IO's, I don't have faith in the Devs to put those kinds of blinders on...
I just don't want to get excited about Rad blast and have it come out as Energy Blast without knock-back. Thoughts?
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You can count on the animation/rooting times on Neutrino Bolt and X-Ray Beam being 1 second and 1.67 seconds respectively. Defiance requires that. The Devs can play with the rech/end/damage values (to a point) as long as the ratios remain the same.
I would also count on the -def values on all the rad powers being greatly reduced but with damage being increased to compensate and the Hold magnitude and/or duration on Atomic Blast being reduced as well.
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I think that nuetrino bolt/x-ray beam might get the same treatment archery's first two attacks did, upping them to 3/6 second recharges with appropriate damage increases. (well, snap shot actually got better treatment that it should have - it has a 2 second recharge but does the same damage as shriek with a 3 second recharge). Other than that I doubt they would make any changes to the damage/def debuff that the AT modifiers didn't already.
I mean I don't see why they would change the base DS of any of the attacks other upping them on the first two attacks if they up the recharge and I would expect that, just like sonic blast, the blaster AT mods for debuffs will reduce the def debuffs on the attacks appropriately. Blaster sonic attacks do 65% as much debuff as a defender (13% instead of 20%) so I would expect the rad attacks to be affected the same - for example nuetrino bolt would do 8.125% def debuff on a blaster; x-ray beam, electron haze and nuetron bomb 16.25%; irradiate, proton volley and cosmic burst would do 24.375% and atomic blast 32.5% -
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These are all pretty awesome. Glad to see the stone dagger move made it into Earth Assault.
As for the MA/SS:
Have one character with MA. She's a martial artist (duh!) who used to work with the Council. Great physical shape, very agile and flexible. Always bothered me MA was all kicks.
I like the starting kicks enough that I probably won't change them. The little gut-punch thing isn't flashy or fluid enough for her tastes either. I like the Cobra uppercut, but don't have Cobra sadly. Not too happy with the CAK exchange either. And the Eagle replacement is nowhere near flashy enough. Just watching the video I can't say I'll be replacing any. For that character I'm looking more for really flashy moves, akin to how DB was built.
Have a Troll Brute with SS. Ideally she's supposed to look clumsy and unskilled. She uses brute force and doesn't care about where she hits. So I actually like the classic Knockout Blow.
The new Jab is a maybe, but probably not. It seems a little to "intentional" to me though, at least for her. New Punch is a definite yes though. The old one looked half-baked. New one looks better, while still looking "clumsy" enough for me. Going to be really hard to pick between new and old Haymaker. I like both. New KO Blow is good, but it doesn't suit her. Foot Stomp is going to be hard to decide too. Love that new animation, but I think an actual stomp might fit a rage-o-holic better. Though a fist into the ground is just as angry. Gah, decisions!
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Well, if you can tie the animations to a specific costume slot just like you are supposed to be able to do with the coloring you could have one costume do the foot stomp, the other the 'ground strike' version or whatever they are calling it.
I do like the new punch and jab - I could never figure out why they used essentially an elbow strike as a 'punch' and a rabbit punch to the kidneys as a jab (at least thats what it always looked like to me). I really couldn't make out the new KO blow animation so I am not sure there either. The MA stuff looked like a mixed bag - I actually am quite fond of the current thunder/storm kick animations and am oK with crane kick - I can't stand crippling axe kick but I am not sure the new version is any better - at least not without a better view than the video gave. -
Honestly, I can't see broadsword being fail in anyway for stalkers as it should play exactly like ninja blade. You get slightly harder hitting attacks in exchange for slightly higher recharge - nothing more, nothing less.
On the other hand I see that as being exactly the reason NOT to port BS over - or at least port it over last, as it is yet ANOTHER lethal damaging set that will basically perform almost the same as ninja blade with different animations and weapons. So if all you care about is getting the different animations/weapons (which IS sometimes a big deal) then this set is win - on the other hand if you where looking for something that would add some serious variety to stalkers you are not going to get much out of BS. -
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Bwah? I would imagine that it's the same as player defence cap. Which is to say inconsequential.
However, the soft cap numbers vary somewhat due to the level differences amongst MM pets. I don't know the exact numbers, but lowest tier pets require a substantial amount more defence to be as safe as a highest tier pet, simply due to level differences, and the likely level difference between them and the enemies you're likely to be facing.
Remember: if you're facing +2s, then your lowest tier minions are facing +3s (assuming the full complement of pets).
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Actually, unless you are fighting mobs that are more than +3 to you (and thus +6 or better to your tier 1 pets) they won't need any more defense than normal. Until the purple patch REALLY starts to kick in (which is at +6 levels and up) enemies only get accuracy bonuses, not to hit bonuses and the softcap is unaffected (relatively speaking) by accuracy bonuses. -
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I like dark as well but find it TOO easy, I like things to be somewhat challenging.
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Try Ninja/Dark then. I have one at level 33 and I find that one pretty challenging. Maybe its me, since that was my first Ninja combo, but my pets keep getting torn up. Well, by comparison.
Lewis
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I think the primary reason i found /dark to be easy mode is because I tried it with mercs and thugs - with the ranged emphasis the pets stayed around you in close proximity so the heal hit them all. With melee pets it would still work provided ALL the pets went into melee and you followed them. Unfortunately even with the latest pet changes some still tend to hang back, which lowers the benefit of the heal. Shadowfall also complimented mercs well by filling in some of the resistance gaps.
I have thought about playing a ninja/ff under that theory that the boringness of FF would be offset by all the pet control I would have to do to maximize the melee damage AND that stacking FF with what little def the ninja's get would produce maximum survivability (for ninja's at least). However I haven't come up with a good character name/costume yet and I won't play something without a good concept. -
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"Rule of thumb is to slot Achilles Heel -Res into all you pets." Oh so true Gypsy..If you can find them for sale anymore. I was trying last night and not one was for sale.(That I had seen.)
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I have noticed the same thing with the Achilles heel - it used to be that they where a nice, cheap (relatively speaking) way to increase damage. I think the problem here is that they are pool b (mission completion) drops and with a lot of folks still trying the MA they don't drop as often PLUS the random roll table that generates them (silver roll) also gives you pool A rares - so even when people do roll for them they come up less often.
Hopefully the issue 16 feature that allows folks to set mission size will get more people back out into the regular missions, thus generating more pool b drops.