GavinRuneblade

Thank you!
Not sure why not though? AVs have higher chance to hit but at the cap they still miss most of the time. What is the % chance to get hit that makes it less attractive than another attack?

I mean somewhere there is a point where "on average after 10million attacks" AS will still be better than the other attack. If it's at 74 DPA and golden dragonfly is in the 50s I can't imagine AS is better at a 5% chance to be hit (cosftcap) and golden dragonfly is better at 7.5% chance to be hit.

But I;ve been wrong before (as recently as one post previously in this very thread in fact).

Actually I AM a fan of that.

#1 it keeps the fight fluid which feels more like a fight and less like grinding.

#2 the AI is dumb and mobs attack less often (a part of me humanizes them and thinks they are trying to decide to stay put and use a ranged attack or step forward and melee again--either way they don't attack at full speed)

#3 mobs tend to spread out if you stay put, if you move now and again, they clump up THEN try to spread out around you again after. If you keep moving they keep trying to clump up as their AI tries to path all of them to the same ideal melee spot, then they repath adjacent then adjacent to he one who's already there etc.

#4 I have way too many narrow cones and need to move to use them effectively anyhow hehe.

When an NPC rezzes if you had them targetted, you lose the target and cannot get it back for a moment. Pets and confused NPCs can target these rezzers. They can be hit with AoE attacks like the rains and fire sword circle. Some of them (most notably Siege in the final stage of the BAF) don't get their "toggles" up immediately and are quite a bit more vulnerable than you'd expect if you can hit them at this time. I've seen siege beaten down to below 50% before he could finish standing back up and before he was targettable. After he stood up we were only doing about 1% a second to him.

Gloom doesn't count as range. Gloom earned honorary SMASH cred due to it's awesomeness.

I'd say, going for low-hanging fruit and all, a variant of hell on earth might actually be viable. Shorter duration of the li'l guys but generate them all at once via the PBAoE. Swarm of a darklings that run around uncontrolled for 20 or 30 seconds with a a 4-8 minute recharge.

No way to perma, but up often enough that you save it for the important fights.

What's the dps on placate+golden dragonfly? Because that's the claim. There are, in each set, better choices than AS.

Hmm, depends on which IOs you use. If you're a 50 exemped to 25, you keep 73.3% of your bonus. That's a loss of 26.7%, much more than 3.

Now, let's look at the "small bonus" rule. For level 25 you're on the same scale as me at 21 and that is anything under a 20% bonus is immune to reduction, anything 20% or higher drops to 73.3%.

So on level 28 IOs, let's say Eradication as it has one of everything:
Single = 34.1% higher than 20 therefore 24.99% (9.11% lost)
Dual = 21.3% higher than 20 therefore 15.61% (5.69% lost)
Trip = 17.1 less than 20 safe
Quad = 14.9 less than 20 safe

Damage gets hit the worst, acc/recharge have no single, and end only shows up on the quad. Not too bad really. But you can pick up some points by using the 24 duals rather than the 28s and avoiding that reduction.

Ok, so lets look at the whole set:

Optimal slotting:
Damage = 34.1 red 24.99
Acc/Rech = 21.3 use 19.2 (from the level 24 instead)
Dam/Rech = same
Ac/Da/Re = 17.1 boost +++ gives 19.67%
Quad = 14.9 boost +++++ gives 18.63

All 28s unboosted @ level 50 vs 7 boosts exemped to 25 w ideal slotting
Damage = 87.4% vs 82.49%
Acc = 53.3% vs 57.5%
Rech = 74.6% vs 76.7%
End = 14.9% vs 18.63%

and you still have one slot for either the proc or frankenslotting,

If you drop the boosts but keep ideal slotting otherwise:
Dam 76.19
Acc = 51.2
Rech = 70.4
End = 14.9

So 8 boosts give you at level 25: 6.3% dam, 6.3% acc, 63% rech, and 3.73% end. If you use any more boosts than this you actually start lowering your numbers while exemped.

FYI if you can frankenslot a few pieces here and there, the magic numbers are:
Level 50 quads = 18.6% = less than 20
Level 43 triples = 19.9% = less than 20
Level 24 duals = 19.2% = less than 20

And for boosting, @exemp to 25 here's your cheat sheet:
Level 28 Triple +++ = 19.67%
Level 50 Quad + = 19.53 (++ is over 20)

level 24 dual + = 20.16 = too high
Level 23 dual + = 19.32
So I think the 19.2 from a 24 dual is your best bet, I can't imagine anyone wanting to spend money for 0.12% on one enhancement.

Also, if you have one or more open spots and you did NOT lock the league, you get a free bonus Astral Merit for having an open league.

The majority of tier 9 items are temp items. Like the signature summon etc. You can get an infinite supply of them. Then there are the VIP only items. those are currently just the celestial armor. The plan was for those to rotate every few months.

but that plan was based on getting tokens at the same time as you make your subscription payment, which is currently borked. Therefore they are deciding what to do about it.

So, if you don't like the temps, and you don't want celestial armor, hold onto your tokens and see what they come out with later.

Teleport needs a significantly increased range and significantly reduced endurance cost. The hover period needs to actually be hover, not motionlessness.

My understanding from all the top attack chains is that adding AS to the chain lowers DPS on every set but spines and electric. After placate it is not as bad. But you're still better off using a single big hitter (dark melee's MG for instance) faster than using AS. the activation time is too long compared to the damage is the explanation I've seen. But I dunno the math myself.

Seriously?

Wow. I guess I'll be joining Nihili on those LRSFs because, damn.

And maybe blueside hami raids will get going again. Cool! I still need some of the rarer HOs for several of my characters.

Hmm, can you post your build? My first guess is that you're possibly too low on accuracy or damage and thus needing to use too many attacks.

You will get powersink at 35 but really, you should be functional without it if you are setup right.

Also, on the IOs. If you're 30 and you can't afford IOs, then let me recommend the following easy steps:
1. sell all your DO and SO drops to the vendor of your choice
2. sell all common recipe drops to the vendor of your choice
3. sell all orange/yellow recipe drops that are not defense, resist, heal, or attack to the vendor of your choice
4. craft all yellow/orange recipes that ARE defense, resist, heal or attacks*
5. put the crafted IO on the market for a price of 800kinf (if no rare salvage needed) or 1.8m inf (if it needed a rare salvage)
6. sell all remaining salvage drops on the market for 1 inf
7. sell all tier 3 (aka large) inspirations on the market for 1 inf

Unless you power level you should be swimming in inf very shortly after following these steps. For crafting, don't spend more than 8k per common salvage, 30k per uncommon (possible exception being living tatoo and carnival mask run 100k from time to time), and never bid more than 1.2m for rare salvage.

* don't craft air burst or detonation. they are vendor trash.

Hey! We resemble that remark! =)

And more seriously, I agree with everything 100%. MM's do fine on damage. MM secondaries are equally powerful to corrupter secondaries. And as both a squishy and a melee fan, I can tell you, even on trials and hard taskforces, I always appreciate a good MM on the team. Whether we're steamrolling or barely getting by.

Completely awesome. This is right up there with the suggestion of telling farmers that rise of the pheonix still gives full exp after the rez.

Exactly, AS is a rarely used attack because it has some of the worst DPS numbers in any set. The more you use it the worse your overall damage. It's great for what it does, but it is not a filler, it is a finshing move, or an opener to drop one hard target.

The guides are outdated, but scrolling through the first few pages on most forums you'll find at least 8 or 9 different threads with more than 1 build made for the current issue. Don't search, browse the current threads.

We can't do that until you tell us best at what? Best mitigation in an attack? Best single-target damage? smoothest attack chain? Best on just SOs? Best with unlimited cash? Best for AE ambush farms? Best for soloing at +4x1? Best for soloing +0x8? Best what.

No one is or can write a 60-page novella on stalking. And no one can tell you how to play. You are the only one who knows waht you enjoy and all ATs support many different playstyles. Hell, I've seen ranged scrappers, people make melee blasters, etc. Give us something to work with, we can give you something back.

No, you still need to be specific. Answer these:

How do you play?
Teams vs Solo (what percentage of time in each)?
What is your budget?
iTrials/end game specific or enjoy the ride?
Will you exemplar a lot and if so to what level?
do you have specific areas of the game you focus on a lot?
do you prefer single hard targets or large groups?
what has most frustrated you about your other characters?
What have you enjoyed the most about your other characters?

Nin is positional (Aoe, Melee, Range), Energy is typed (smashing, lethal, energy, fire, cold, etc). Energy is quite nice now that it was buffed recently. But you'll want different sets. With nin and sr you would slot touch of death for the melee defense. Energy you slot kinetic combat for the higher smashing/lethal. Nin and EA have a self heal, but take more money to get to the top levels of performance. SR gets to max defense very easily and can do it on just SOs. But it has nothing to back that up, so when you get into something that deals auto damage (keyes trial, underground trial, Apex taskforce, hamidon, etc) SR needs Aid Self or teammates to survive. But it also is basically immune to defense debuffs. Just watch for enemy buffs, like those devouring earth quartzes.

And resist-based secondaries often end up more powerful than defense based ones, once you layer on defense via IOs. they just start weaker, and aren't as capable while on SOs. Take a look in the tanker forums on some of Dechs Kaison's posts about dark armor vs any of the defense sets. Stone and Invulnerable have their unmatched survivability not because of defense but because of the combination of defense plus resistance. It is currently impossible to build for resistance. But easy to build for defense. thus adding defense to a resist set can be a very powerful strategy. Adding resist to a defense set is not an option. You can add a little bit here and there. But nothing significant.

Survivability has three components: Def, Resist, heal. They have value in that order (defense is the strongest, then resist, and heals are exceedingly weak. as a side note, except for the keyes trial any team leader asking specifically for a healer is potentially not clear on just how powerful buffs are compared to healing). powers and IOs can give you defense easily. Powers can give you healing easily especially at incarnate level. Powers and IOs can give you only crappy levels of resist. To get all three for the optimal survivability, you have to start with resists. But not everyone cares about this. Yes, there are dark melee/inv scrappers who can survive 9+ AVs at once forever. Is that something you consider fun? I've solo'd an AV. It was boring and grindy as hell and I hope I never have to do it again. It's dang cool that it is possible, but not my idea of fun. I'd rather kill things faster.

So again, what is your goal? and what is your budget. the best solution and best way to survive will vary. Can't just say defence is better. Because if you do want to solo AVs I would recommend /dark over /nin or /sr. BECAUSE it has resists (and the best heal in the game hehe).

As Chyll said, they are mixed. earth is really he most melee oriented, but all can be primarily melee or primarily ranged or a mix, depending on power pick.

Well, thorns will always be rangey.

Err... I disagree. The ST Hold should be slotted mostly for damage and worked into an early attack chain. levelling up I put both my level 3 and level 5 slots into it. As soon as I hit level 7 I'm dropping pieces from volley fire and salvo into it. Later I move to one or two slots with hold bonuses, but still try to stay above 75% damage once I'm over level 25.

On my fire/fire I was running char-flares-aoeimmob-flares-char starting at level 6 (I think). And it was reliable damage with only short pauses. Now she runs char-blaze-fireblast-repeat (has lots of recharge to pull this off). Granted, flares is pretty crazy fast recharging and not all sets can do that.

My plant/ice I slotted more for recharge so she started with. strangler-icebolt-roots-strangler and now runs strangler-icebolt-iceblast-icebolt and has chance to hold slotted in icebolt.

This way you prevent attacks via the fast-cycling hold, and you do serious damage in a smooth attack chain. Sprinkle in the Aoe immob, and other better attacks (aoes specifically) as needed. But getting a workign chain is something that any set can pull off.

Your top three damage sets are: Fire, earth, psi. Stay away from thorns it is slow, heavily resisted, and low damage. The extra aoe does NOT make up for this. Great for theme, not great for power. /ice is very solid and I have enjoyed it. I already own the name sparksicle on both virtue and exalted so neener neener neener can't have that one. =)

Personally, I have really enjoyed elec/earth. Slot the early maul or the ranged spike for damage if you play on base setting, or go with the AoE whose name I forget if you play vs more enemies than base. But pick one power and slot it up ALOT. Better to have 1 that rocks than 3 that sort of do. Normally I recommend this be the single-target hold. But with /earth, they have other solid options that give both damage and mitigation.

If you go /fire you will have the best damage but no mitigation in /fire so have to be a bit more aggressive. Flares is very handy early on if you give it some recharge, just respec to get your slots back later on. I have the going rogue enhancements and flares with three damage/recharg/proc enhancers and 1 accuracy is absolutely brutal on low level enemies.

I have used /Psi through level 35, but really didn't like it. It deals great damage, rarely resisted. drain psyche is glorious. But I don't like the feel of the set. Not sure why. Anyway, I found with /psi all the best powers are melee or short cones, so get in close. this works well with elec because of the sapping aura in elec. So might be a good option for you.