Failsight

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  1. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Psylenz View Post
    While Illusion/Storm does have 3 Phantom Armies, a Phantasm, and a Decoy Phantasm, Bots/Storm has six pets with knockback to go with the Storm secondary.
    Nin/Storm is also chaotic. But definitely not for everyone. Especially if you like your pets alive.
  2. Quote:
    Originally Posted by North_Woods View Post
    According to some patch notes on test, shield charge is now going to be affected by damage multipliers that give it a small damage boost on tanks and a large damage boost on scrappers.

    Now that the damage gap is even farther apart between a shield tanker vs. a shield scrapper, why would you ever make a shield/elec tank over an elec/shield scrapper? Also, I'm pretty sure its possible to softcap a shield scrapper with just a little more work than it would take to softcap a tanker. So aside from the HP difference, the scrapper is going to have the same survivability as the tank right?


    This is not a troll for tank lovers. I honestly want to make a tanker, but its hard when the damage potential an elec/shield scrapper has is staring me in the face.
    Convince on why I should not reroll my level 15 shield/elec tanker into an elec/shield scrapper.
    There's no one who can convince you one way or another: it's all about what you want to do with the character and your playstyle. Bill hit it on the head: it depends on a) how far you want to take your build, b) how often you team, and c) what role you want to take on the team (if you team).

    If you have the resources to soft-cap the Scrapper (which is significantly more work, but certainly possible), and either don't team a lot or don't care to be primary aggro control, then you're not losing out going Scrapper.

    If you want the extra durability behind the soft-cap and like to tank for teams, the Scrapper is a "sometimes enough" as opposed to the Tanker's "no worries." Greater safety and situational control traded for Tanker level damage.
  3. Quote:
    Originally Posted by TRTerror View Post
    i think tk blast, subdual, dominate is pretty fast
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mylia View Post
    Indeed I find it a quick three attack myself. My chain usually goes.

    Aim -> TK Blast -> Subdual ->Dominate -> follow up ->Repeat with TK
    Add in Gloom or Mu Lightning and it's a very solid ST attack chain.

    Add in 3 decent ranged AoE attacks (3 with a patron), 2 solid controls (if you can get the recharge down) and Fort's Psychic Wail, which is both, and Forts are just scary when facing a large number of weak enemies.

    Night Widows, on the other hand, are extremely strong ST killers due to their high DPA.

    Both only suffer from one curse, really: the same curse that any squishy with softcapped defence suffers: it doesn't always work when you need it.
  4. Quote:
    Originally Posted by dave_p View Post
    I softcap S/L def on all my Fire, Dark, WP & Elec toons, scrappers & tanks. Some sacrifice a bit more than others (none too badly, btw), but it's *well* worth it. IK has a good build as an example, though I'd do it a little differently, of course (Zinger in Taunt, more damage for LF for starters ).
    It takes time, patience, and a moderate amount of inf to do, but it is indeed quite possible. Not that I have the time, patience, or inf to do it. Still, very possible. And definitely very worthwhile.
  5. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Robot_Lawyer View Post
    Hi guys. Question....


    I notice that One With The Shield has a small End cost on activation and then a cost of 60 End on its completion. Will placing End Reducers in this power decrease both the initial and final end penalties, just the initial, just the final.... or none of the above?

    Thanks all.

    Robot Lawyer
    Just the initial. It's the same way with all end crashes at the end of long click powers.

    So putting end reduction in these powers is, for all practical purposes, useless.
  6. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Techbot Alpha View Post
    Except be Ninjas

    In all seriousness, it's mostly true. I love my Claws/Ninja stalker, but I do hate it at times when he feels somewhat useless on teams where we're not wailing on a big AV or somesuch. The good thing about Claws is that it has a ranged component, and Ninja adds in some nice litte tricks.

    An increase in base damage would be very nice, especially given the major lack of AoEs in Stalkers. My Biggest gripe is Eviscerate in Claws. Seriously, the HORRIBLE animation, for a single target attack? It used to be a cone, what the heck was wrong with that...?
    This is why an ElM Stalker is good. Like any Stalker, AS is there for hard targets. The rest of the time, it's all about the AoEs, with LR not taking you out of Hide.
  7. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Mr_Body View Post
    Not exactly. You will want to concentrate on light endurance usage powers (brawl, taunt, kick, boxing, Jab), attacks with damage procs (proc damage is unaffected by Rage -damage crash), attacks with mitigation (KB, KD, Stun, Hold as these will still work as normal), and Vet Temp powers (Blackwand, Nem Staff, Sands of MU and the Axe as these do not suffer from Rage -damage crash). Since Brawl and Taunt are endurance free, these 2 are your best bet if your blue bar is low.
    On the stated SD/SS Tanker, I tend to use those 10 seconds to round up more enemies to nuke with Shield Charge and Footstomp once the Rage crash wears off. After all, the change to Rage was entirely to allow Tankers to continue to manage aggro while giving a penalty to them for the damage boost they get.

    As for clicking before the Rage crash, that's something I rarely do--only in situations where I think that I will be in immediate danger if I get one unlucky hit (i.e. Sappers are around). In normal situations, waiting for the Rage crash to hit before using Rage again increases Rage's length of effectiveness before the next crash, which is both more damage and endurance efficient. After all, you're a Tanker--likely with soft-capped defences outside of the crash--you're probably going to be able to take a good number of hits before going down anyway, even with only 20% defence or so.

    The longer you can wait before stacking Rage, the better (for defensive purposes). I tend not to Rage stack with my SD/SS, more due to endurance limitations than anything. Plus, AAO whittles away a good portion of what could be gotten from Rage stacking for damage.
  8. Honestly, I dislike the entire rep system. It doesn't really do much other than provide another avenue for people to be condescending and insulting. As if we needed any more of that on the Internet.

    As for the topic at hand, I've said my say, even though I can't find my post anymore. Ultimately, squishies not having mez protection is almost a non-factor in normal team play. Soloing can be a different matter.

    I like having mez protection, but mainly because I'm one of the many who believe the current mez mechanic as a whole is terrible. That being said, my squishies without, at least on teams, have not had issues.
  9. I'm only jumping into this thread now, and really don't see Scrappers as broken. They're certainly less broken than a number of other ATs, or specifically builds in other ATs.

    Ultimately, every build is a different combination of force multiplier (team buffs/enemy debuffs), additive force (damage), team mitigation (anything from team buffs to mezzes and soft control to defeating enemies really fast), and personal mitigation (team/personal buffs, enemy debuffs, and damage). It's in the combinations that the fun is to be had.

    Scrappers are largely additive force with decent-to-strong personal mitigation, some team mitigation (better on AoE heavy Scrappers), and little-but-still-there force multiplication.

    No AT is singularly a force multiplier or singularly additive force. We only see them as primarily focussed on that, generally because that's what their primary powerset is.

    Assuming builds that are not IO'd to the teeth or heavily amped on particular, particularly strong builds, teams that have a good mix excel more than teams that rely on only one category (and to anyone who's going to point out all-X runs, read that sentence again, carefully).

    So assuming a team already has significant damage and mitigation already, and only one slot left to invite a player, it is generally better to invite a strong force multiplier like most Defenders or Controllers compared to a primarily force additive Scrapper. There are exceptions, but since mathematically, Scrappers are poor force multipliers, this tends to follow through.

    Generally speaking, Tankers are better force multipliers than Scrappers are, due to better aggro management by default, and usually better AoE with secondary effects. But without the two major debuffs--resistance and regen (defence debuffs generally aren't much of a factor at higher levels)--there are far better picks if looking for force multiplication.

    So looking at this subject from an AT perspective only yields generalities. Looking at particular builds is far more significant, as well as looking at the difficulty settings and make-up of the mission and team.

    For instance, on a moderate damage team with decent buffs, debuffs, and mez, with a large spawn count and needing to choose between my SD/SS Tanker and my MA/WP Scrapper, I will take my Tanker every time, due to SD's damage buff in large crowds, better AoE, and general utility. That isn't to say my MA/WP is a bad choice--for instance, a team lacking ST damage and/or significant -res would probably benefit greatly from my MA/WP, at least as much as SD/SS if there's another Tanker on the team.

    So, as with so many things, details matter far too much to be passed over.
  10. Generally don't herd, so I don't much care about aggro cap. Only time I herd is solo on my SD/SS. Any team with significant AoE can steamroll fast enough that a Tanker is more important as an alpha taker and to keep the groups packed tight. After that, they're there to keep the pace of the group balanced between action-packed fun and relatively safe.

    Oh, and it's also nice to have a Tanker when facing AVs and such, assuming they know how to direct cones away from the team (also assuming the team doesn't stupidly run into said cones on their own...oy).
  11. Ultimately, mez as it is in this game is a problematic mechanic: you are either mezzed or you are not. In general, you are either mezz-able or are not. Even mag 2-3 protection would be enough for 99% of gameplay such that most players, regardless of AT would not be mezzed. But drop that to mag 1 and it's a different story.

    Looking at even the Arachnos Soldier AT and Wolf Spider Armour's mag 2 protection, under most situations, there's little to worry about. Bane Armour's mag 4 (Crab gets more in Fortification) is enough such that they can run into melee and not worry about being mezzed in almost all situations.

    Finding a better mechanic is the hard part. There are better mechanics to be found, but either come in the form of quick time events like in CO, which has its own issues and might not be a good fit in this game's gameplay, or in forms that may not be easy on the servers or may be difficult for players to understand.

    No matter what, any such change would be a huge fundamental modification to current gameplay, so probably out of the question for something that is not, technically, broken.

    The only mid-point to be found right now is to give non-melee characters much higher mez resistance base values than we generally see. This is still problematic in that, in some cases, it can make mez almost a non-factor for non-offensive toggle characters, where offensive toggle characters benefit somewhat less, as the powers that were previously protecting them (generally by debuffing enemies) get toggle dropped.
  12. Quote:
    Originally Posted by JumpinJackSlash View Post
    Your analysis is nice and all, but when you hit 0 endurance, six slotting damage enhancers still produces 0 dmg.
    I understand what Vanden is saying, except I'd alter it to say, "until you begin seeing diminishing returns from slotting damage." That means, generally, after 2 damage SOs, you're starting to see slightly less effect in DPE by slotting another damage SO than by slotting an endurance SO. It's certainly fine to slot that 3rd damage SO, but preferably after slotting an endurance SO.

    I also hate missing, so accuracy comes before either. Without any sets, bonuses or perma powers like Rage or Focused Accuracy, I like to have 2 accuracies slotted in most attack powers (assuming their base to-hit is below 90%), at least at levels where I am facing +2s or higher.

    Most sets provide enough inherent accuracy to fall in-between slotting 1 or 2 accuracies, which I think is just perfect. Looking at a 5-slotted ST attack using Crushing Impact (or Thunderstrike) as an example, when slotted to use the "first five" of those IOs in Mid's is what I generally consider my ideal balance for a normal ST attack. Obviously, "big hitters" and AoE attacks may be slotted differently to get the most out of them.

    This is all IMO, though.
  13. I personally find that hybrid sets tend to perform better than ones that rely mostly on just one thing when considering pure passive survivability (i.e. not factoring attacks). Stone (especially in Granite), Willpower, and Invul all have a number of layers of mitigation, and most importantly, all include defence as one of the significant ones. Dark does, too--but tends to be more restricted by endurance usage (taking out the fear aura tends to make things more manageable, but its heal is still its biggest end user).

    Generally, pure x sets have a number of interesting boons (extra damage or faster recharge) to help make up for the lack of layering...or just some simply near-game-breaking powers (Regen's IH and MoG would be considered unbalanced in any other set).

    Another bonus to layered mitigation: if defence is one of the layers (as it generally is), raising it is also one of the best ways to raise overall mitigation, letting what little gets through be absorbed by the other layers.
  14. Failsight

    Is Rage bugged?

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Clouded View Post
    Currently if the player stacks Rage, they can avoid the -Defense portion of the crash (but still get hit with -damage and -endurance).

    Defensive Primaries are at a disadvantage if they do not double stack crash since they would be hit with -20% defense (IIRC). Going from 45% Def to 25% is rough.

    A regen or resistance based tanker would not feel the -def from the crash as much, if at all.

    I think that's the point the previous poster was trying to convey.
    Yup. It simply hits defence based characters harder than regen or resistance based ones.
  15. Failsight

    Is Rage bugged?

    If they ever "fixed" Rage to make sure it got the defence crash regardless of stacking, it'd break every defence-based character with SS. There'd be an uproar if they did that.

    Castle won't "fix" that bug until he gets a chance to revamp the entire Rage power. Which, honestly, could be never. He's got more important things to do. The power is doing fine as is.
  16. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Legislate View Post
    Aye getting the large spawns will be great for my tank but I must admit I16 had me with the new animations for SS.
    Yes, SD/SS with new KO Blow anim!
  17. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Coldmed View Post
    when you guys are trying the reach the soft cap.

    which one do you try for first?..

    s/l defense or postional?

    ive always tried postional but wondering why someone might take the s/l over it.
    Well, what do you mean by "first?" Defence sets are generally mainly typed or mainly positional. I.e. it generally makes sense going only after typed or only after positional, and not both.

    With the way IO sets work now, S/L defence gives a boost to melee positional defence and vice-versa, so ultimately, you just go for whichever you have more of in the first place. Sets like Inv, WP, Ice, Dark, and Stone all use typed defence. Only Shields uses positional.

    The main reason to use typed over positional is simply that you like the rest of the set better. For Tankers, for instance, if you don't want your character lugging around an actual shield, Inv or WP might be better choices, but are both typed defence, in which case all set bonuses should be aimed at increasing typed defence (positional defence will go up as a side-effect). The only thing to watch out for is that IO bonuses will favour either typed or positional based on what the bonus was before the change was made to IO defence bonuses to make them affect both.

    Ultimately, positional is more complete, plain and simple. But positional defence sets tend to rely more on its defence and less on other forms of mitigation--SR and Widows have only scaling resists to fall back on, Nin only has a heal, Shields is the most versatile (though not by much), having resists, a damage debuff aura, and extra HP (the first and last improved by its T9) behind the defence.

    Typed defence, on the other hand, relies much more on having things to back it up. Layered defence goes extremely well with buffing, as it allows a number of moderate buffs to different categories affect survivability by a greater amount--most noticeably, of course, more defence. That means that generally speaking, a typed defence character at soft cap will be more survivable than a positional one, not because typed is better (it's not), but because there are more layers of mitigation that can be used when defence fails.

    tl;dr: try whatever fits your concept and work the numbers from there?
  18. Failsight

    Ninjutsu

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by EvilRyu View Post
    Points finger at Night Widows. You can soft cap with just the powers in the set and Widows get higher scaling resists than scrappers. I can see this working on tankers.
    Though with SOs, a Night Widow can only cap melee and come close with ranged and AoE some amount of the time. SR with Tanker mods would be full time.

    EDIT: Nor is it perma with a stock NW that has the (relatively cheap) IOs to make out ML's rech.
  19. Quote:
    Originally Posted by Psiphon_EU View Post
    Quick question really - how good is Shield at holding aggro without Taunt and is Taunt needed.

    Coming from Ice/ and Fire/ the Taunt aura doesn't appear to be as affective.

    Thanks
    For the most part, I don't use Taunt with my SD/SS Tanker. I have it, but I only use it during Rage crashes because it doesn't use any endurance.

    For the most part, when I run into a situation where I should need to use Taunt, I use Shield Charge or Hurl instead (depending on whether I need to get the attention of a group or a single enemy).

    Tanking up to aggro cap on an SD/SS is usually not a common occurrence, really, as your own alpha strike (never mind what your team launches) generally defeats all minions right away.

    EDIT: Oh, and taunt auras that do damage should be more effective in holding aggro: the trade off is that they have to hit to do so.
  20. Failsight

    Ninjutsu

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Dersk View Post
    I asked that question when inventions were first on the test server, and SR scrappers were showing softcapped defense builds. No one seemed to care then... I doubt anyone will care now.
    The difference being that there's a big difference in hitting soft cap with Inventions and doing it with just the powers from your set.
  21. Failsight

    Ninjutsu

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sailboat View Post
    Shields gets the global damage bonus from AAO.

    Super Reflexes gets the global recharge bonus from Quickness.

    Damage is great, and it's also new, which makes it feel fresher. But 20% global recharge before slotting a single IO isn't trash either.
    Other things to consider:

    SR would be very close to cap-able with just Tanker mods, IIRC. Shields (as Nin would) takes Weave plus some more (CJ, Steadfast, and a tiny bit on top in Shields' case--less so for Nin, I think, without running the numbers).

    I would also be sceptical of SR getting the full mod treatment on its scaling resists. Capped resists at low health (which is more manageable with Tanker HP), near soft-cap defence before adding anything....

    SR is one of those sets that would be cool to translate, but runs into some obvious balancing issues. Perhaps the biggest one being: what's the point of a T9 that adds a ridiculous amount of defence when you've practically got all the defence you need all the time anyway.

    Nin stands a better chance in that it's not as much of a one-trick pony. Problems, however, come up when considering some of the other tricks it has. Caltrops, for one, seems a bit of an issue for a Tanker to have, unless it's replacing the taunt aura (that'd be...interesting). A semi-placate power is a definite no (though most people don't even take Smoke Flash as Stalkers anyway), and with anything short of a soft cap, it'd otherwise be pretty squishy for a Tanker. More so than SR or Shields.

    Shields was given to us to fill the spot of a positional defence set that works great for Tankers, at least until the Devs have the time to rework SR and Nin--if they ever do. There are reasons why this is.

    SR and Nin are by no means out of the race, but Shields was designed the way it was for a reason.
  22. Quote:
    Originally Posted by The_Coming_Storm View Post
    Villain Power! That is all.
    Saying things are overrated is overrated.
  23. Failsight

    Inv or Shield?

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Heraclea View Post
    True; but on the other hand, the postponability of the Inv passives means that early Taunt is easier to work in.
    Also true. All goes to show that there are plenty of ways to look at this. Should definitely have at least one each!
  24. Failsight

    Inv or Shield?

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome View Post
    I'd agree with your assessment there; my BS/Shield scrapper is durable enough to main tank the ITF unassisted and a Shield tanker would be even better. One possible advantage is the ease of soft capping a shield tank; if you take Weave & Combat Jumping you're only 2% short of the soft cap; the Steadfast unique will finish out your defenses.

    One point in Invuln's favor is that it matures faster... a lowbie Shield tanker has a fairly tough time until the mid-20's or beyond; I know my SD/Fire tanker still feels very squishy at 23 while an Invuln, facing the foes you typically face in the low levels, feels pretty tanky at around level 12. Mature build to mature build however it's probably very close in durability.
    Mind you, there is the (relatively) small factor of Shields getting their taunt aura at lvl 8 (IIRC) compared to Inv getting theirs (and the majority of their defence) at lvl 18. Many people won't want to tank Tank until the 20s anyway, which is why I say it's a small thing, but it could also impact survivability quite a bit.

    That and resists are simply way more reliable in TO-DO range in general. Which means both Shields and Inv aren't very strong through those levels except for two facts: the majority of those enemies are dealing S/L damage, and Inv has Dull Pain. As def and exotic resists go? Both aren't high enough in general to save even a Tanker until SO range.
  25. Failsight

    Inv or Shield?

    In my experience, Shields soft-capped, with the option of OwtS is as survivable as Invul soft-capped with the option of Dull Pain (but without counting Unstoppable). Ultimately, the trade-off becomes one of the extra survivability of Unstoppable, which is highly situational but extremely potent, against the constant fluctuating damage bonuses of AAO and Shield Charge. In most cases, I'd take the latter. Soft-capping simply cuts down enough damage on its own that the underlying resistance and extra HP tend to be enough to hold things together no matter what.

    Ultimately, my preference is Shields, due to its offensive-minded nature, even though I still love my Inv Tanker. They're my two favourite Tanker primaries.