Faultline_EU

I'd agree with you Hammerfall. I like my toons to be able to save the day when needed and my PB never felt quite powerfull enough in any area for that. On the other hand it is possibly my favourite toon as it is so different from everything else. Such a large selection of powers to choose from and so many ways to play. I like being able to shapeshift too - makes me feel epic when posing in Atlas.

The City of Data figures are all for level 50 and even level mobs. My figures assume every attack is 3 slotted for damage.

Basically I'd seen a lot of people saying that either Nova or Human form gave better damage and decided to see for myself as there was no real evidence either way. The above is the theoretical total damage based on my build (and I do have recred slotted in most human attacks and both Nova AoE) and one or two assumptions (such as how Build Up is used). Of course slightly different slotting will change the results but this was only supposed to be a basic comparison.

As you say, there are other factors like acc that will also come into play. Nova form may lag slightly in single target damage but it's To Hit bonus means it should miss less, especially against higher level foes as you point out.

Like I said tho, this is only a rough comparrison.

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Having played a granite tank myself, I found that because they are so strong (and overpowered IMO), there is little need for adaptation because the herd and kill tactic works so well, so naturally the barking of orders to team mates becomes almost subconscious. It's this aspect that made me get rid of my granite tank as once the novelty of being 'uber' goes away, your left with a boring, one- power- wonder.

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See, that's where you went wrong. It's a stone tank - not a granite tank. They have plenty of other (underpowered) armours that make them interesting to play. Well, for me anyway.

Personally I never herd. Strategically pull sometimes but never herd. TP to centre of spawn - jobs a good'un.

Sounds like you are making much more of an effort than a lot of tanks to hold aggro and if it works, fair play to you.

Guess I'm just a little used to seeing stone tanks taking on +6 mobs and after the 12th team death on a mish say how they can't help but feel "partly responsible". Yet they won't suggest taking an SK that's freely available and will be telling you how they got eight bars since the mish began in the next breath.

Every armour plus Tough in my case as well as using Fault and Tremor for damage mitigation.

My attitude goes back to the days of teaming with my good friend Dawnrazor on his blaster and hunting bosses in PI. I soon learnt that +5 mobs looked at me and then turned and mashed him even with taunt. After that I always took an SK to reduce the level difference when on teams and would rarely agree to tank higher than +4s even with GA.

It's been like that for ages and they don't seem to be in a hurry to sort it. Must consider it a perk for khelds.

Don't use GA, don't generally tank higher than +3s so don't need both.

Following on from another thread which went off on a slight tangent, I did a little rough and ready testing on which gives better damage for a PB - human or nova form. Rather than trying to find the most efficient attack chain I just went and hit a GM for as long as I could stay alive and then checked how many times I'd used each power. I thought this might give a slightly more realistic idea of damage done in an actual fight rather than theoretical damage. Plus I was too lazy to work out an attack chain.

After that I used the figures from City of Data to work out total damage over a given period of time. Keep in mind that this is for my build - ie running hasten and with redrec slotted in various powers. It's only supposed to provide a basic comparison. All damage figures are for a one minute period, 3 slotted with damage SOs with build up used (but only for the first volley with Nova). Human attacks were GE, GB, IS, RS and SF, all four Nova blasts used.

Single target, no build up
Human - 3890
Nova - 3735

Single Target, with build up
Human - 4390
Nova - 3874

Single target with build up and Cosmic balance from 3 team-mates

Human - 5575
Nova - 3874

As above but against 3 mobs
Human - 7115
Nova - 8307

With 8 mobs
Human - 10966
Nova - 19388

15 mobs
Human - 16357
Nova - 34903

15 mobs and you happen to team with 6 defenders and a tank
Human - 20922
Nova - 34903

As above but single target
Human - 7155
Nova - 3874

Enough figures I think. I believe they are correct but I don't claim to be as good as Dr Rock at this sort of thing.

It appears nova can hold it's own against a single target as long as there is no cosmic balance to help human form. Once spawn size reaches about three, Nova pulls ahead in total damage and keeps increasing it's lead the larger the spawns get. Photons would help both single and AoE damage for human form but are not reliable or up very often to factor in easily. The knockback on SF may actually lower the DPS slightly due to having to run around more chasing mobs. A human blapper using the two AoE blast may fair better in AoE damage but will probably have to drop (or not use) other attacks to make room in the chain, lowering total damage anyway.

Ok, I need some brekkie now.

My testing plan is more simple - find a level 46/47 warhulk and wail on it for a bit. Then I look at herostats.

Actually I was curious about the damage of Nova and Human and did a little testing this morning. Without cosmic balance, Nova can very nealy match human for single target damage (in my test 5650 dmg versus 5400 over a 60 seconds period). This was without photons (which are not really available enough to be part of regular attack chain) so adding them and cosmic balance shifts it firmly in favour of human. I suspect that as soon as you have three or more mobs in a spawn, Nova actualy outperforms human for total damage. I might repeat the experiment tonight and use all the info from herostats to find out for sure.

That's just your opinion. Telling other people not to even bother trying them based on that - especially as you took one to 50 yourself - is not very helpful to anyone.

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Login --> Defiant --> delete peacebringer --> create something thats more epic that the pathetic excuse for an "epic AT"

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Although we have been through this before I shall point you to the real definition of epic rather than your idea of what epic is.

Surpassing the usual or ordinary, particularly in scope or size:
Heroic and impressive in quality:

Seems to describe Khelds to me.

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I think in general Human form starts to outperform Nova form from the late 30s onwards.

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Depends what you mean.

Human form can do more single target damage, has the heals, shields, pulsar etc. Nova can do far more (consistent) total damage against large spawns however (if there is good aggro control) and has less end issues. Depends on the situation and enemy type which was why i went tri to have all options open to me.

Nice to see you back Flush. Don't have any toons in the level range but if I'm online, you find yourself short a member and have an exemp slot then give me a shout.

If you can light it. Which is about 50/50 for me at the moment (never lights when I want it to). On the plus side if it doesn't light my imps don't have a problem with it.

It was an open air map - would have just thrown them a few feet away and with their range, that wouldn't have helped.

I do like bonfire tho and was just thinking last night that it would be great if the invention system would allow me to modify the power to increase it's radius. To be able to block off whole streets....

Sorry for the threadjack.

Cos my imps go mental and run off around the map, bringing half of it back to me.

Plus I used it last night and the amount of damage it caused turned me into an aggro magnet - not for the group I targeted but for a second spawn of Nems that got aggroed and ignored everyone else to blow the snot out of me (even tho I was further away tan all my teamates). For those reasons I use it sparingly.

Maybe with your build and powerset choices it's hard to fit in and not worth taking. I personally don't use ice arrow and I only use EMP when I need it as the recharge is so long. I'm less likely to use oil slick because of the issues with imps and acid arrow could be argued to be of less use in some situations.

I was just pointing out that saying it's rubbish for all trollers based on your use is a little general.

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Really, trust me, Poison Gas Arrow on a contoller is rubbish. Whats the point of debuffing thier damage if they are mezzed? And if they are not mezzed what are you doing firing of Poison Gas Arrow when you should be firing of a mez?

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Why not fire it off? Flashfire is my fastest rechaging AoE mez and that's only up every minute or so. I'll use my single target hold but whilst I'm waiting I'll fire off whatever arrow is recharged. I use Poison Gas arrow because it's there.

Not saying it's brilliant but the 20% debuff can be handy for tanks and scrappers and the sleep can be good when there is no AoE damage going in.

You sure it's location based? My imps won't touch anyone that's taken damage from the slick, no matter where they are afterwards. It's like they have some sort of imp repellant on.

Yup, I have the same problem on my troller. On the plus side for me, at least if it doesn't light my imps don't go mad and run off.

Hover turns off Rooted or Granite but it is also fun to turn on Granite when above a group and canonball them.

I'll give the binds a try. I can probably manage without hover but it's just nice to have sometimes whilst you try to find a nice landing spot to tp to.

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This is what you have to weigh up. Are you responsible for your own aggro and survivability or do you want to always have to sponge off others, even when those others might not have much to give you?

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That's pretty much my view on things. I know what I can handle in terms of mob type/size/level and I don't look to the team to help me with that. Of course they usually will provide some sort of mitigation but that just means I can tank more/higher levels than I can on my own, which is a bonus. When I know I'm within my capabilities I'll often tell the empath not to worry about healing me unless in the red and to give Fort to someone who can use it more, like a blaster.

Back on topic, I've been thinking about respecing Weave in as it looks like you can just about cap psi defence when combining it with Minerals. My only problem is the only power I could drop is hover - everything else is used for tanking. Whilst not essential it is easier to not have to worry about falling out the sky when teleporting...

First page of the Guides section - Your Arrows and You.

Damage would have gone down a fair bit when using Granite however. And if you don't use granite then you get better defence with Ice. Tremor and Fault are also very good damage mitigation powers.