Filth_EU

[ QUOTE ]
Do the power check if the target is near the ground when you click it, or does it just fire off and then check if the target is on the ground before it applies the hold?
By guess would be the later. (I have not tried Plant or earth control).

But I gess that if I was to make a PvP Dominator I would make it Ice/Psy. Ice for the -regain (would be nice on the BS/Regain scrapers) and Psy to hit throe most armour.

[/ QUOTE ]

It looks like it's bugged to me, I just tested in the arena, jumping up and down (even without CJ) results in immunity to Strangler Holds. Not just one but several stacked Holds... I'd like to do a bit more testing but it looks pretty bad so far, get ready for the bunny hopping horde.

[ QUOTE ]
it feels like there's an accuracy penalty

[/ QUOTE ]

Try it with Hero Stats as feelings are unreliable.

[ QUOTE ]
am being perfectly reasonable in asking how you know?!?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, you didn't, you asked what my source was, as if player experience counts for nothing which is a little irritating, but I'm not the Messiah, I'm just a very naughty boy...then again...only the true Messiah would deny his divinity.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Powerboosted buffs > normal buffs = CoH > CoV

[/ QUOTE ]

Dominators also get Power Boost, so I don't see how this is a CoH vs CoV thing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dominators don't get buffs though, as far as I know.

Powerboosted Fortitude, Recovery and Regen Aura, Adrenaline Boost, Accelerated Metabolism, Speedboost etc...

[/ QUOTE ]

Not exactly, except for Aid Self and and Def they have and boosting secondary effects. I can't see that Power Boost is better than Domination to make the statement CoH > CoV because of it.

It's just ignorance about Dominators...maybe that's a bit of a strong way of putting it, you could say Corruptors don't get Power Boost and are therefore out-buffed by controllers, which might be reasonable. If you look at the villain inherents they seem a bit more powerful than Hero inherent powers, with the exception of Scrappers - criticals are insanely powerful in PvP.

A straight comparison between Patron pools and Ancillary pools doesn't quite work because of the other things people have mentioned. I don't think there is that big of a problem. Would I like the choice to take an Ancillary powerset? well yes; would I give up Domination for Ancillary powers? not a chance!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
There isn't, Warcry, Coldfront and Hero Builder are wrong, wrong and wrongo. No -Acc in Granite.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't tell if you're joking, but since there's no smiley I'll asume you're not which leads me to the inevitable question;

What's your source?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm the [beep]-ing source.

Play it & test it - there's no -Acc in Granite Armour.

[ QUOTE ]
Powerboosted buffs > normal buffs = CoH > CoV

[/ QUOTE ]

Dominators also get Power Boost, so I don't see how this is a CoH vs CoV thing.

There's a fair bit built into Villain powers which give them an edge in PvP.

Domination - if you can build it up fast enough it makes Dominators very powerful, both in control and damage.
Poison - not available to heroes and extremely potent in PvP, you can check the numbers in the Prima PDF.
Placate - no hero equivalent, very powerful if someone knows how to play a Stalker.
MM in Bodyguard - I'm a complete novice at playing an MM, not especially fond of MMs and yet already had heroes complaining about this.

Do Villains know about their powers and play them all effectively in PvP? aha, that's another kettle of fish.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
No -Acc with Granite armour.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm fairly sure there is, as are Warcry and Coldfront, which being at work are the only sources I can look up at the moment.

[/ QUOTE ]

There isn't, Warcry, Coldfront and Hero Builder are wrong, wrong and wrongo. No -Acc in Granite.

[ QUOTE ]
They think I should put on a jesters costume and do a little dance?

[/ QUOTE ]

I can say in all sincerity, I would not object if you were to do that, Bob.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Oh yes, I know that. But it does stack with other Thug MM's pets. I've seen my pets with 14 or so stacked at any one time.


[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear, but yes, they do appear to stack with other MM's henches. I remember that someone took a piccie at the Gang's base (must be in the thread somewhere) and you could see the stacked icons. But I agree, there must be a catch, otherwise the numbers don't make sense...

[/ QUOTE ]

The icons "stack" but do you really think the Defence buff does? If it were the case then the BASE defence from just 2 MMs would be 54%. I've tried teaming with another Thugs MMs (I have a level30 Thug MM) and it certainly doesn't seem like the thugs are getting that level of defence.

On the other hand the defence buff from a "single pair" of Enforcers does seem to be substantially more than the standard Maneuvers power pool.

[ QUOTE ]
Assuming the def buff is 13.6%

8 Thug MM's = 16 Enforcers
16*13.6 = 217.6% Defence for the pets. Unslotted!

That's why I don't trust those numbers.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think base numbers are right, but I suspect the +Def is capped at some level (or in fact Def doesn't stack at all even if the icons do), otherwise the thugs would get Elude like defence with just two MMs, which certainly isn't the case.

[ QUOTE ]
In that case slogging my up through the hollows on my way to 20 is R.Elemnts better than R. Energy? Because after 20 I can take the protection I missed out on because haveing to take the fittness pool.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would get both Unyielding and Resist Elements - it's worth 3 slotting UY for resist.

[ QUOTE ]
-acc

[/ QUOTE ]

No -Acc with Granite armour.

I think all the zones are "broken" to some degree in that the game design works very poorly for most zones, including at the moment Recluse's Victory.

I've noticed recently, on Union at least, some zones degenerating into a "1v1" duelling area which is the nail in the coffin. There just isn't a compelling enough mechanism to get players involved in what is going on in the zone, in fact as far as Siren's goes, the opposite.

That said Siren's pretty much works out as the "best of the worst" for me as the level is reasonable and there are tangible rewards for fighting. It's a shame Warburg is so mixed as I prefer Heroes Vs Villains, it's also even worse for the "1v1" duelling nonsense.

Recluse's victory seems like it has some potential to be fun but has an "all or nothing" reward scheme, no missions to do, no temp powers except for the mini-bot which doesn't make it especially attractive. I can't see it being free of the Badgers any time soon aside from player organised events to fight in the zone.

All of which seems a shame to me since I've found PvP in general a lot of fun and much more challenging than PvE. I think Cryptic have in fact done a reasonable job of shoe-horning PvP into the game but personally I would prefer some real PvP mini-games to play inside the zone other than the free form fights that we have now which are fun enough but pretty shallow.

By "mini-games" I mean - king of the hill, capture the flag, territories, that kind of stuff. Difficult to make work in a drop-in PvP zone? maybe, but I think Crytpic could do better.

Edit: I'm being a bit thick, RV is what I would call 'territories' , so has the most potential from my point of view. Some more balancing mechanisms might be nice, like maybe Elite Boss level villain/hero NPCs *defending* a pillbox as well as the big guys attacking. Something like the Civic Squad zapping in to defend a pillbox. High level villain population or interest isn't there yet though.

[ QUOTE ]
just leg for the kills

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't understand that. Do you mean "just leg it"? that's what I mean by disengage, but that takes you out of the fight, which is the tradeoff.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Good question. I guess it's because my Stone/Fire is at 15, and atm I haven't got any other armours than Stone Skin and the passive one, so I rely on Rooted's regen (plus EE) to keep me alive. Plus, I absolutely hate knockback. I've actually gotten quite used to turning Rooted on and off quickly when it's necessary to move.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, I spent most of my time rooted at that lvl as well. You should have taken sprint and at least be working towards 3 slotting it. By the time you hit 22 and SO territory you can move at a respectable pace.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you meant Swift from the Fitness pool, since Sprint breaks Rooted.

I went without Teleport but I don't doubt that stone tanks with it do a better job, I'll almost certainly respec into it. PvP with a stone tank is effectively pointless without TP.

[ QUOTE ]
I can heal between the spines dot, the fire dots, you can basicly heal between the dots, if you're good and wit hthe right slotting.

[/ QUOTE ]

Those aren't really a big deal, it's the anchored debuffs or stuff like quicksand, caltrops, tar patch etc. where your only option is to disengage if you want to use Aid Self. This seems a reasonable way to balance how good a heal it is to me.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm positive it's better than Healing Flames.

[/ QUOTE ]

I feel a pool power heal sould not be better then a heal from your own powersets!

[/ QUOTE ]

It's good but it isn't better. There is also nothing to stop someone with Healing Flames (or whatever) taking Aid Self if they wanted to.

There are lots of things which interrupt Aid Self, most of which are available to Defenders, Controllers, Corruptors, MMs and to a lesser extent anyone with DoT attacks such as poison or fire. Until you have used it in a mixed pvp environment it's difficult to appreciate the limitations.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm not so sure about the numbers in the Prima guide...13.6% seems very high. Stack that a few times and we're talking stupidly high levels of defence. (Especially bearing in mind that each MM has two enforcers in later levels. That's already 27.4%, just four MM's and we're already over 100% defence.

[/ QUOTE ]

The numbers are right, try hitting thugs in Bloody Bay with two upgraded Enforcers.

However - these leadership skills are special and specific to Enforcers and your gang - the defence from the Enforcers does not stack with other gangs nor does it benefit you or anyone else in the team.

[ QUOTE ]
I'm having issues with my hosting at the moment, as I mentioned on the hero thread - until that's sorted out, I can't get anything updated. Either way, I have a hero update ready once things are working again, and then I'll do this side of things.

[/ QUOTE ]

No pressure Cel
But maybe update the villains before the heroes when you get the chance.
When will it be updated btw?

I would 6 slot it when you can - 3 Resistance 3 Defence. I think the base resist is 50%, base defence 20% - both are worth 3 slots; slotting resist first is the way to go.

[ QUOTE ]
The energy resistance (fully slotted) is 23%, which is worse than a dominator with 1 slotted charged armour. It's nothing to be proud of, anyway. Psi only comes from defenders in PVP, it's a negligible threat.

[/ QUOTE ]

The base resistance for energy is 22.5%, slightly more than the patron armours - it's the same as the other resistances (except Psi). Resistance based Stalkers might do pretty well in PvP considering defence gets cut through fairly easily.

I think the Psi resistance is handy in PvE and infact Dominators have substantial Psi damage output as well though in general it wouldn't be something to worry about in PvP...if you're a villain that is...jeje

[ QUOTE ]
Again missing my point.
not wanting to labour a point which is becoming severly off topic.
My point Is Stealth is needed to be competetive in PVP. How anyone plays there stalker is not a point of debate.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not missing your point, I think you're wrong - Stealth isn't *needed* in Siren's Call, nor is it *needed* for stalkers to be competitive in PvP. It's useful depending on your style - if you can't fight outside of AS then you need it, if you can fight by using more than one attack then you might not need it.

Placate is a stalker's most important power not AS, if you don't realise this you'll do badly in PvP against most opponents, especially as level rises. Most stalkers haven't got the slightest idea about what their abilities actually are. Relying exclusively on AS and then complaining you can't use it 100% of the time is just a dead end. Think of it, where you actually have to learn to use more than one power...

I would stick with CJ & SJ unless you are convinced you don't need vertical movement.

You should be able to fit Aid Self into your build pre-level 30, I have with a MA/SR.

Any successful attack will interrupt a stalker's AS the problem is you won't be able to see a stalker with both Hide and Stealth, you can see one with Hide only if you have SR as a secondary and if you can see them, you can hit them, unless you get placated...

If you get placated just start moving - you may be able to see a stalker who has placated you but you can't target them and so can't attack them; keep moving, wait until you can target, then attack. If you get placated a stalker can still get a critical if they hit you with one of their standard attacks, the majority of stalker players have a poor understanding of their powers and won't even bother.

Brawl used to have a high chance of detoggling (it's now 5%), all detoggling for all powers has been reduced, it's not worth slotting brawl.

Carry BFs to defend against Fear, or team with someone who can buff you (like an empathy defender with Clear Mind). Fear isn't always that powerful - once you are feared, if you are attacked you should be able to move away or take another action like attack although your accuracy will be debuffed at least -20%.

[ QUOTE ]
waiting for someone else to do all the work then snatching it from them at the last instant.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is how it's designed. Same can be said about Bloody Bay, I've done this myself solo against a group attacking a firebase, in this case it was far riskier for me.

In Warburg if a group is waiting for a solo player to get a scientist I would guess they are spending more time waiting around than getting the scientist themselves, and if it's a group I can't see this is a good way to get codes; maybe it is for a solo stalker.

The RV pillboxes are a little different, I don't like the design of them overall though I sure they are deliberately designed to be 'open' and quite easily attacked if they aren't defended by a group of players. Tactically they are pretty weak and I think the process of taking them over could be made a little more involved.