GenericHero_549

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SS and Stone's attacks have the same BI, rchg, and end cost if you drop Jab and Heavy mallet. Although Footstomp is stronger, as well as faster than Tremor.

SM is more bursty, due to animation time differences.

Flavor doesn't account for balance issues. If you want SS to maintain the flavor by keeping Rage unique, buff Stone's dmg (not by 80%, maybe 10-15%) as a base to overcome Smashing 'penalty'

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Uhhh, dropping Jab and Heavy Mallet, is stupid...

SupStr that doesn't take Jab, has to take Boxing instead. And ignoring Heavy Mallet is ignoring a LOT of damage.

Yes, Tremor is weaker than Footstomp. I do think Tremor needs a boost, but the rest of the Stonemelee set does NOT need a change just because SS gets Rage.

I played a SupStr/EnergyAura brute with my friends StoneMelee/EnergyAura brute. My friend didn't take Buildup, and I ran perma-Rage.

To be brutally honest, my friend was killing enemies faster than me. Even though I maintained a higher Fury level at all times than he could. Why? Because of the differences of him having that Heavy Mallet, and his Seismic hitting an enemy and finishing it while my Knockout Blow is still animating.

After making that SupStr Brute, I'll never again make another SupStr brute, the amount of damage they can pump out is too low even with Rage. I find my Firemelee brutes to have a significantly faster kill rate, and from that a higher survival rate. I definitely feel that SupStr is more for Tankers than it is for Brutes. A tanker has to hit to get use of their inherent, brutes don't. In fact, brutes want higher BI value attacks that animate quick, rather than low BI attacks with one high BI that takes forever to animate.

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I didn't mean you should actually not take them. I meant, Punch = Stone fist. Haymaker = Stone mallet, etc. The BIs are the same, not lower. SS is slower animation.

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for uniqueness?

ss's attacks do lower damage and are more of a dps-ish set, while stone is more of a burst damage set

rage kinda reminds me of followup for claws scraps, anyone know the numbers on it?

and rage's crash will get you killed a few times, some people slot it crazy because of that

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SS and Stone's attacks have the same BI, rchg, and end cost if you drop Jab and Heavy mallet. Although Footstomp is stronger, as well as faster than Tremor.

SM is more bursty, due to animation time differences.

Flavor doesn't account for balance issues. If you want SS to maintain the flavor by keeping Rage unique, buff Stone's dmg (not by 80%, maybe 10-15%) as a base to overcome Smashing 'penalty'

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Build Up is a Scale 2 To Hit Buff, or +20% for a Brute, and a scale 8 Damage Buff, or a +80% damage increase.

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Any comment on Build up vs Rage?

Since they are both confirmed as 80% dmg buff, 20% tohit, is there a reason SS gets Rage and a set like Stone gets build up? They are both dealing with the same Smashing only problem.

I'd hate to get Rage nerfed, but when build up was thought to be a 100% buff, and a higher to hit buff, it made some sense. Now it doesn't.

Gratz to me! Mr. Volcanic finally hit 50 today! Only 2 years in the making (I stalled at 48 for a loooong time).

Now I get to say /b Lvl 1 Warshade LFT!

After playing in RV for a few hours, I have one real complaint (outside the lag and difficulty keeping anyone in melee range). It seems there may be a LOS issue with the pill boxes.

At least 2 times I saw someone standing in the very center of the pillbox, in the small depression. I was unable to fire any powers on that person, even standing directly next to them. One of them was a Storm defender, and I was getting hit by them. That may have been from their thunderstorm power, however.

One time this occurred with turrets that spawned in the middle.

Please stay on topic of the set's issues. Post a new thread for build criticisms.

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However, LR gives you movement into a new spawn group, with dmg mitigation (knockdown), not to mention it's AOE.


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The movement is a gimmic. A good portion of the time, you'll be herding mobs into a pack before using it. I'd prefer the teleport portion be removed, drop the recharge to 20-30 sec like other Brute PBAoEs, and call it a day.

It still works thematically. You call down a lightning bolt, and boom. Mobs get smashed. Tele-SMASH is cooler, but not for a 3 min recharge.

With all the info finally out, my only reason to re-up my CoV account (a new Elc/Elc brute) goes out the window. Elec melee is ok for AoE dmg, but it needs something for single target as well and it has too many powers that underperform (Lightning Rod, CI's xp issues).

I've played a Fire tank that totally focused on AE dmg since I-2. It was great and fun, but having only a 5ish BI single target attack is horrendous for dealing with bosses. With the increase in EB's in CoV mission arcs (compared to then in CoH), this is a significant issue. Especially since the 5ish BI attack is an AE and pays a heavy cost in end/rchg for it.

Charged Induction looked great on paper. When its xp issues were brought to light, I just shrugged and said 'At least Lightning Rod will be cool.' But now, I say 'Why do I want to play this set?' I can get better AE and ST in Fire or better PvP ability in EM.

Although not directly on topic, /Elec is a bit weak, but I was willing to stay with it just for concept. Combined with the Elec/ issues, I'm just not looking forward to slogging through the lvls for the Elec/ powers that aren't worth it.

I don't know why I keep giving Cryptic second chances. I love this game, but the sets I have fun with keep getting crushed. Regen, Burn tank, perma-Unstoppable tank. Even though there are some legitimate overpowered claims (Burn, perma-US were a bit much, but the changes were too much), you can't deny they were fun.

First impressions:

Mayhem missions are a lot of fun.

PPD are not. The durations/stackability of their debuffs need to be looked at. When one Ghost can floor my accuracy (i use 1 Acc SO and I was literally missing 4/5) with one flash bang (that lasts a very long time) he shouldn't be able to stack 4 of them. Ditto for Equalizers and glue arrows/web grenade. They prevent jumping away, you can't run, and your recharge is floored. Not to mention the acid mortar (although that didn't seem to matter much).

it's nice to have some variety and challenge, but if I got an equallizer and a ghost in the same group, it was a stalemate until I ran and let all the debuffs expire. I can't imagine how annoying that would be on a large team with several of each in each spawn.

I do like the ghost assasin strikes. That's interesting.

Citizens need to zone after they are attacked. The NPC villain you can bust out of jail spends too much time attacking them futilely. I got Mangler (looked like claws/SR) and he got stuck in a group of 5-8 that were running in front of a door for a good 4 min.

Consistent time extensions would be nice. I got time bumps for resisting arrest if I just ran past a patrol. Some objects gave bumps, others did not.

The contact's mission text states the mission has 20 minutes to complete. When I zoned in, I had 14:49 and counting.

I like that the objects explode suitably spectacularly, and they seem to have a neg resistance (or it could be the lvl gap) so they are easy to crush. However, I found it annoying that I got 'Target Blocked' when standing on top of the item I had targeted. I'd like to smash my Stone Mallet on the roof of some car/truck, but it can't be done. Kinda annoying.

I did Vicious, so the Hero was only a boss (Overcharge? Overload? Energy blaster/? he died fast).

Overall I like them, but I think PPD debuffs need to be toned down a bit.

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Please please please, we all know that Dunkelzahn is really going to win, this election has been rigged from the start. I just hope he rides around in an asassination proof pope mobile this time..... (Shadowrun anyone?)

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Everyone know Dunkie assasinated himself. It was all part of a much bigger plan. I mean reallym who has a will with that many gifts to specific random people who would be dead long before your natural demise, unless they planned to use it.

States will probably never bother to read this but...

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Ah - and as for the argument that mission XP "sucks." Yes, you do reap less XP/minute if you simply travel from your contact immediately to your mission door (which tends to be player behavior). However, if you fight some spawns on the way - and finish the mission with the new XP rewards - I think you'll find that missions are much, much more competitive XP wise.

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That works when you are lvl 5 going to missions in AP, Kings Row and Perez. That doesn't work when you are lvl 30 going to missions in Kings Row, Perez, Skyway, etc. My SG and I got 5 people together to do some missions. 26 Sk'd to 29, 2 x 29, 30, 31 (me). I went to my new contacts in Brickstown and got 3 missions. And the lvl 30 got 3 missions as well, but I don't know where his contacts are. Results? 4 missions in Skyway, 1 in Steel and one in Talos. How exactly are we supposed to street sweep on the way to the mission? Mobs 20 lvls lower don't give 'good' xp

IMO contacts should give missions for the zone they are in and nearby hazard zones. Yeah, I know travel is supposed to be a time sink, but come on. This would also save the lvl 10s from getting crushed by the lvl 40 ambush that got out run. (Sometimes I don't even know there is an ambush till I stop to chat for a bit. Mobs have no way to keep up with heroes with travelt powers)

Or, for a different take on it, missions for a mob groups should appear in a zone where that faction hangs out. The 3 missions in skyway we had. 2 Rikti and 1 Freaks. Why wouldn't the freaks just jump out and start owning the skulls and low lvl heroes?

On an unrelated, but similar note...
Last night on my 10 tank I was in the hollows and came upon a group of lvl 9 outcasts fighting a lvl 30 freak. Uhhh...wth? That sapwn is useless. Having mixed lvls is ok, but they need to be close together. 3-4 lvls max, not 20.

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For those of you who are fortunate enough to have your own personal office,
take a look at how the cubicle people live.

RESPECT MY HOUSE! ...

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I take it someone got caught surfing at work....

*quickly minimizes as someone walks by* dangthatwasclosegottapostbacktoworkcheckbacklater

If you are going to have 3 even con = 1 hero, you really need to rethink some powers. For example, my 31 DM/Reg scrapper likes Soul Drain. Sould drain works better with more people around. Hitting only 3 minions, the benefit is hardly noticable. Yes, you do 30% more dmg, but it still takes the same number of hits to drop a minion. You just have more overkill. Now hitting 8-10 or more, you can start 1 shotting stuff. THAT makes you feel super.

If 3 = 1 hero, I want to be able to one-shot them (w/ the main attacks) with a soul drain hitting all 3. I guess you would just call it build up and remove the uniquness of DM in that respect.

Also, lowering the mob size hurts AE focused powersets like Fire blaster and Spines. Their powers are not all that well designed to only fight 3 guys. This shows that you didn't plan to have 3-to-1 from the beginning, or these sets would not exist.

I really don't want to see this change. Fine, up villian difficulty. But let me feel super and fight 3 even lvls at lvl 10, 5-8 at 20, and 10+ at 30. Being mobbed by lots of minions is fun, IMO. Fighting 2-3 is not that fun, even if they are individually more challenging.

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You will die more often in groups than solo. Always.

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Not always true. I die more solo (though rarely) than in a group. Mostly because I'm a scrapper, and like to test my limits. In a group, it is rare to take on anything that is dangerous to me, or someone else is handling enough aggro to manage. This is especially true when there are overzealous defenders healing everything is sight, whether they need it or not.

However, this is probably more true for other ATs. Defenders and controllers probably. Solo, you know when to run and what you can handle. In a group, you don't want to run before the group, and you can't always count on the rest to pull aggro off you.

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- Clicking the "Mission Completed" message on the top display will transport you out of the mission. I think I was level 8 before I learned this lesson.

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Just an FYI...the tutorial door mission tells you this when you complete it.