Ethric

WARNING! HUGE WALL OF TEXT WITH HOLES BELOW!


I was about to post a thread containing calculation, comparison and experience of these two sets: Super Strength and Willpower. What my calculations showed that these two pull out very high in damage/mitigation departments, using Arcanaville's mitigation table and different DPS calculators, sometimes giving the slotting edge to non-SS and non-WP, yet SS and WP still pulled higher, or, came very close.

Why did I not include them here? I wanted to keep it short(er) and sweet, and keep the calculations to myself until they're needed. It became pretty long anyway.

Seems that these two sets, rather than being "Jacks of All Trades", they are Masters of the [censored] Universe. You may ask "How come?" all you have to do is a little bit of comparison, or how about looking in the game! What do you see? Unkillable /WPs and SS/ which beat all other primaries in damage and mitigation.

When IO'd, these turn into freaking Godzillas. You don't even have to put a million expensive sets in them, because they just don't need to.

If SS isn't overpowered, why does the set have Rage, KOB, and Footstomp? Rage is about the best self-damage boost with a very laughable "crash". KOB is a pretty standard scale 3.56 attack, but it has a hold, a huge KU and it is in the same set with Rage. Which can be stacked. The only penalty KOB has is that it recharges in 25 seconds instead of 20 like Seismic Smash and Total Focus.

Foot Stomp is a PBAoE with a 1.42 DS 15" radius. The other PBAoEs in other sets are usually 1 DS with an 8" radius. While the recharge on FS is typically 6 seconds slower than other PBAoEs, the huge radius and 80% KD chance make greatly up for it. And it's in the same set as Rage.

Then in the same set there are 6 other powers, to add to the mighty and powerful, those 6 other powers are in the same set as Rage, as well. Oh boy does Rage make the set soar high!

Would a reduction to Rage bring it in line with the other sets? Seems like the Devs are afraid to nerf the set. They even improved Rage to have a milder crash! More buffs to SS please!




Now, to WP. WP is to CoX like Jimi Hendrix to a guitar. It meshes perhaps too well to how the game is played and provides even additional advantages to other sets. The set was buffed heavily when it was still tested, and now, it is broken beyond anything. The guy with Willpower can stand afk in 90% of the game's spawns, go on like an /Elec Brute, tank AVs and is good with minimal slotting.

Why the guy with Willpower does better against S/L mobs than the Invulnerable guy, to whom S/L are his 'strong point'? The insane regen you get and multiple stacked defenses, complete mezprotection and no general holes, except "alpha strikes" as by game description. I've seen more WP guys take alphas better than any other secondary, except a Stoner with Granite on, and even then WP doesn't fall short of what Granite can take.

What is the set supposed to sacrifice? What do you lose in exchange for complete mezprotection? What do you lose in exchange for nigh-unlimited endurance? Survivability? No. Willpower is at the top at survivability charts after a Stoner with Granite. It doesn't have a tier-3 Godmode, but instead a Demigodmode that puts you into Godmode when combined with other powers in the same set.

It has the worst aggro-management capability, I'll give you that. It also has no resistance to enddrain, I'll give you that too. Which set lacks both of those too and has more holes than swiss cheese? Hmm, let's see... EA? Yeah, that's it.

Any aggro-management problems are easily taken care of simply smashing your opponents with an AoE, or just by taking Taunt. Both of those work to WP's advantage because 1) WP can take multiple guys being in melee range, so AoE becomes really attractive. QR takes care of endproblems, so you can also use all those AoEs taking all that endurance. Taunt fixes the lack of taunt, and also brings the enemies not in melee range TO melee range. Taunt sets, which are cheap, also come with great typed defense bonuses which all stack with WP, further improving survivability.

Enddrain, while impossible to be taken care of without outside buffing, is soothed by having QR. Many other protective sets also have no res to enddrain, such as SR, EA, Fire, Shield, Regen and Ice. It's hardly a unique hole.

Also, sure. WP is not unkillable. I've seen people die with WP. In those same situations any other secondary would have died too, and before a WP would have anyway.

What happened to Devs' vision of introducing weaker sets and buffing them up later? See: Trick Arrow, Stalkers, Mace and many more.

Btw

Immobilizes sure help a lot more when i13 landed

The game frikken lies about power descriptions when it comes to damage and recharge. "Slow", "Superior", "Moderate", just don't put any of your eggs in this basket, instead look at the Real Numbers in detailed info.

Siphon Life is definitely an awesometastic attack now. Take it, slot it, love it.

"Working As Intended"

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This linky should show my complete roster dressed in their classic cossies.
Possibly ...
If it works...

-> Roster <-

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I like Daydream the best for some reason.

Some of my characters

I really like Tech Wired for flared gloves and boots.

The multicolored abomination was inspired by a YouTube video of "how to make perfect viallain" or something like that. I forgot to put the scales higher up for total tribution.

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Waiting to rest between mobs kills your furry.

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QFT

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Please think of the kittens!

The crit chance against an AV is 10% on most attacks and the 15% chance on most tier-9 attacks and Eviscerate stays the same.

Dark Consumption is on a 180 sec base recharge, costs basically nothing since the cost is really, really small.
It isn't as good as Power Sink, but it's still a good refill and Dark Melee, even having some endredux in attacks, can have trouble running out of endurance. Even more so if you're using IOs or have an endurance managing secondary like /EA, /ElA or /WP.

On my level 32 Dark/Invuln Brute I have just about 60% worth of damage enhancementing on my attacks, the rest is a good mix of acc/rchg/endredux so I can SMASH more often and stay in battle longer, resulting in MOAR DAMAGE!

It's additive and examples 1, 2 and 4 are correct.

I was talking specificly about Share Pain, not Pain Domination set as a whole.

I think Share Pain is superior to Absorb Pain because
<ul type="square">[*]Share Pain still heals very much, even at around 80% of it, enough to bring almost anyone from the brink of death.[*]Heal/Regen debuff lasts only 15 secs instead of 20. [*]It has a damage buff for you (yay!)[*]It's frikken red.[*] Edit: it also damages you less than Absorb Pain![/list]
It might heal worse, but other aspects make it clearly the superior version, and way more friendly to a Corruptor playstyle.

I'd like to think it as a superior version of Absorb Pain. Share Pain's heal is about 80% of Absorb Pain's heal, but the -regen and 100% heal resist only last 15 seconds instead of 20.

Damage buff is just gravy!

Dark/Pain rolled

Tenebrous Tentacles is so going to be loaded with damage procs!

So shiny!

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Dark/Sonic, nuff said

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Flurry &gt; Time Bomb.

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Put it this way: How often would you rather choose a Scrapper OR Stalker over a Blaster for PvP? Assuming that we're talking generally and not specific cases such as a TO'ed AR/Dev/Munitions versus a Purpled EM/Regen/Soul.

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This is very interesting, because redside has no Blasters or Scrappers. A Stalker's main selling point is burst damage, and the Stalker is redside's only AT along with Forts that can bring out unresistable damage (Psi is only resisted heroside by those who have Mind over Body or loldarks or PFF)

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We seem to be getting needlessly sidetracked on the Stalker issue, so for clarity instead try substituting the word "Brute" or "Scranker". The point I'm getting at is that the game's current PvP mechanics work against the effectiveness of the vast majority of builds - and the melee versus ranged disparity is one of the most glaring examples of this imbalance.

Besides the AT-versus-AT imbalance, there is also side-versus-side imbalance to deal with... Redside is traditionally weaker than Blueside in PvP scenarios since they only have one "Buffer" AT and no real ranged spike damage. They tend to make use of Stalkers only because they have no access to Blasters, and because decent-damage Fortunas and Corruptors are few and far between.

When you have such disparity in a game, it needs addressed before said game will attract more than a very dedicated clique of people who are prepared to continually put up with and exploit that disparity.

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I agree. It was no surprise that most pentad teams at X4 were either pure hero or with an oddcard villain. I'm eager to see the changes to APP/PPP and the final numbers on powers.

From the now released mechanics (like new mez changes and -range in Taunt) I can't say anything yet because I don't think we've got all the info we need to make conclusions on the gameplay. If -range and mez changes were to be implemented now in issue 12, it'd be a certain buff to melee. At the same time mezzes would affect easily the same people as well, which would be a 'nerf.'

People can speculate how this'll affect PvP, but we don't know the final numbers yet, or how certain powers will work or how many of them will be completely changed.

Nice necropost.

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I stated that Stalkers had become ignorable since the nerf to ET - ET was one of the few short-activating heavy damage mezzing attacks that can be activated from out of Hide. Leading off with Bonesmasher from Hide and immediately following up with ET was dangerous, as it could be used with impunity whilst autofollowing someone who was bunnyhopping.


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ET's animation time may have increased, but it still is just as easy to hit with it as it was before. The enemies have more time to react, but ET was horribly good in its own right, so it was no surprise it was nerfed.


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Assassin's strike, on the other hand, requires you to stay immobile for a second or two due to the interruptable component of the attack animation. Therefore you either have to know in advance where an enemy is going to be, or have to be very lucky/skilled when autofollowing someone in order that as soon as they become immobile, you can hit Build Up, Toggle off Autofollow and queue AS. And even then they won't die, since unless Procs in AS activate or they're already damaged, you'll need to land a follow up hit to bypass the one shot code.


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Just like the Railgun in Quake series or the Sniper Rifle in CS, AS does require a bit of finesse to be used effectively. Still, it's a big burst of damage which is very useful.
You don't necessarily have to 1-shot the player to kill him/her, as when teaming usually spikes are called and an AS can be followed with Fort/Corr/Dom attacks.
One great thing about AS's quite long animation time is that it gives time for other players to lock on your target.

It depends on the situation if you're better off opening with ET or TF or AS. Sometimes the enemy is debuffed or already damaged by grand amounts which means that AS is not always needed. This is especially true in RV or small arena team combat.


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So yes, currently if you're bunnyhopping properly and activating buffs like CM (which is 3.1 secs long, unlike its clone "Clarity" which is only 1.5 secs and far more spammable) at the crest of a a jump then you're very unlikely to be AS'ed, and even more unlikely to be actually killed by a Stalker.


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Does not work that way in practice in the case of CM. Although you can be more survivable by buffing at Super Jump peaks, many just don't. An Emp is always busy with buffing up if there are more than several people, you just won't have time to do any of that. People usually compromise by just touching the ground very slightly so that baddie stalkers just can't get an AS there.

And if they really fear an incoming AS so that they will only buff at great heights so that they will at no point touch the ground, the Emp is disrupted and so less buffing is done.

ASing is always possible in normal combat situations anyway, as being able to heal &amp; buff in great amounts means that you will very likely be near the ground. To be protected, you'll have to jump on street lamps to avoid an AS

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And their skills, and the PvP system's unbalanced nature in general.
All of which brings us nicely back to my original point, which was that PvP is currently unfairly biased against melee combat, and against the overwhelmingly vast majority of possible powerset combinations.


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Melee has a disadvantage, I give you that. However, Stalkers are unlike other melee ATs. Stalkers can actually provide great burst damage reliably, which is important in today's PvP (it might change in i13 if there's more DPS required in killing targets)


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Put it this way: How often would you rather choose a Scrapper OR Stalker over a Blaster for PvP? Assuming that we're talking generally and not specific cases such as a TO'ed AR/Dev/Munitions versus a Purpled EM/Regen/Soul.

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This is very interesting, because redside has no Blasters or Scrappers. A Stalker's main selling point is burst damage, and the Stalker is redside's only AT along with Forts that can bring out unresistable damage (Psi is only resisted heroside by those who have Mind over Body or loldarks or PFF)

As I said earlier, AS is not the Stalker's only tool. A BU'd TF or ET still hurt a lot.

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Or if they're suppressed.
Or if they're being KBd (Power Pushhh!!!)
Or if they're in a long animation like CM.

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All --&gt; Standing Still. Except for the Knockback one, and last I checked Stalkers can't get Power Push....


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If you're being suppressed and bunny hopping, kiting, whatever, that is not the same thing as standing still. Getting an AS off requires a bit of skill here, as following and trying to AS can be tricky thanks to server lag. Still, it's possible.

Since you were implying that Stalkers are useless with the nerf to ET, I assumed that you were thinking teams. So can't a Stalker have his own, then? Power Push ftw. (Fortunata TK blast works great as well.)

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CMing whilst standing immobile on the ground? Stupid.
Suppressed and not Bunnyhopping? Stupid.

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CM has like a 3 second animation time... the Emp will touch the ground for long enough that Stalkers can get off an AS.
ASing while the other person is bunnyhopping can be done as well.


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I swear, some people still act like they don't even expect there to be a stalker nearby...

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People can know that there's a Stalker, but still they're limited by their powers' animation times and game mechanics.

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Currently stalkers are only effective if their prey is stupid enough to stand still.


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Or if they're suppressed.
Or if they're being KBd (Power Pushhh!!!)
Or if they're in a long animation like CM.

I don't use TPFoe.

edit: obligatory first after red name

PEBKAC

Yes!

Villains: not only red lightning... but red heals!

Sweet!

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Well seeing as so far the pvp community seems to think this wont help i guess your wrong, there is nothing there to make say the rp lot want to come into a pvp zone they still gain nothing for doing so

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"Winning rewards you with the access to an exclusive chat room with all of your RP fantasies come true so that even the most hardened RPrs will convert into rock-solid PvPrs."