Grey Pilgrim
-
Posts
3998 -
Joined
-
Sounds kind of interesting, anyone interested in doing this? I as going to try for a LGTF tomorrow, too. Could practice up a bit for next week.
-
Quote:Wow... this would be why I don't make predictions. Wasn't expecting this at all!Originally Posted by Vivace
I can wait. Not like I haven't played DP already.
I really don't get this approach, though. I suppose pre-ordering gives beta access as well, but there are a lot more incentives to wait for the collectors than to pre-order the other. Though maybe they're wanting more boxes to be sold so there is more demand in stores for it? -
No, this is not a rant. But for some reason, the Complete Collection is not something you can pre-order. I'd rather wait and get the free time plus the extra goodies, to be honest. My Dual Pistols Blaster was going to run through the new stuff in Praetoria, too, so it's not that big of a deal that I can't try it out sooner.
It does seem rather odd, though. Unless they let you buy the Complete Collection's extras for really cheap it might work... wait, no. $10 more is a good deal just for the free game time, let alone some costume, etc. extras.
I guess the math of this really doesn't make sense to me. Unless you are like Viv and must have your Dual Pistols powerset NAO!, I don't know why you would preorder. Does it make sense to anyone else?
So I guess I'll but it when it releases in July... -
Okay, very good. Having to pack less oranges will help out, as I do have to go through a couple of purples every minute, unless I have some extra buffing from somewhere.
Ryxx, I was joking with you, though I did think you were joking a little about Fiery Aura, too. Heh. Anyway, tanking with Fiery Aura is good fun. Grey Pilgrim continues to be fun, even after all these years. -
Quote:How much are you hoarding? I usually have a couple of pieces of common salvage on hand for those times when they marketeers do drive prices up (on both sides of the good and evil fence). But if you are hoarding a LOT of stuff, that is contributing to the problem of supply redside. By all means, hang on to some stuff, but don't hoard it all.Originally Posted by Vega
What do you feel is right with it? This is really a curiosity question. I'm not looking for debate or to start fighting. I really want to know what it is that people feel is good about the red market.
For me, its nice that it is bare when I am trying to sell, but horrid when I am looking to buy. I'm cheap, and have a lot of toons that need stuff, so I hoarde enough that I have to visit the market rarely.
I will join you if someone suggests that supply isn't lower redside for things like recipes. But I think most people will agree with that, even the ebil marketeers. Salvage, on the other hand, is much cheaper. I love that part of redside... I don't have to pay through the nose to make recipes, and I can actually have lowbies afford to make their own accuracy enhancements, as Luck Charms don't cost you an arm and a leg (which is what it feels like at low levels blueside).
I'm not a marketeer, either. I don't like taking risks. I tend to save up my merits to buy an expensive recipe and either use it or sell it, rather than rolling... even though I know I could make more money rolling (though my knowledge of how bad my luck is suggests otherwise). Tokyo's "buy a LOTG +recharge and sell it for cash" thing worked for my Stalker. I had maybe 1/3 of the enhancements I needed on him before doing the same thing, and I was able to buy the rest in a space of a few weeks afterwards... and I have a good chunk of the money left over, too. -
Think they tackled red, then yellow (?), then green, then blue. But Ham can let me know if it was different: I was paying more attention to Recluse and my numbers than what the team was doing, other than occasionally looking at the tower's health and wishing it would go down faster, heh.
Hmmmm, I thought the resist inspirations were stronger than that. I guess I should only need one of those tier 3s at once, since Grey is at about 70% resist to Smash/Lethal before the insps... unless it's worth getting another 20% to that toxic attack for me. What do you think, Sarrate?
I do find it odd that you don't need heals. That run with coz way back when had an emp that had to heal me fairly often, but I had to use Healing Flames as well once or twice. Nothing like the bad luck of this past run, though.
From a discussion way back when, I was under the impression that having 75% defense to melee, AOE, and ranged was enough for Recluse's attacks. Does he have any that bypass those? I didn't think so, but I guess I should not assume that at this point.
Quote:Originally Posted by _Ryxx_
I keep trying to read this thread but I can't get over GP's bravery for tanking LR on a fire tank.
Don't you go dissing my Fiery Aura! -
Well, you asked if it would do a lot of damage, to be fair. And the answer is it would be decent, but other combos would be stronger. As long as you are okay with how it will play, then you're all good.
-
Decent point, Talen. Who you team with usually does make a difference. I do like building as best I can for any situation that I run into, which is why I go without Burn myself. I know Hera plays with some good people and runs with PUGs, too (judging from the not so good Synapse TF we were on together once, heh), so not sure what the deciding factor would be there.
Your new build looks pretty good, Hera. Might be worth dropping the +recover Miracle in Health and going for a straight Numina heal. Fiery Aura probably will get more mileage out of regen than recovery, since Consume covers things pretty well. So the same for your epic picks, you would probably be okay without Physical Perfection, etc. But I know you do like having more of an endurance cushion than I do. I think I have Grey Pilgrim at about 2.2 end/sec net, and Consume fills in the gaps in sustained fights, or when someone end drains me.
Your current build doesn't have any accolades, either, so that may change your numbers a bit... I know you usually go for those. -
Hmmmm, probably. You would probably need to plan a little better with who you had buffing and debuffing, but I highly doubt it would be an issue as long as you planned well. For Master's runs, you have to have people that can control the damage well enough that the team can survive. The three TFs available for a Master's are different enough that you might want to change your makeup for each one a bit.
-
Whoever negative repped me for my previous post before this one and said this needs to please read up on the game and how it works. "fire/fire tanks aren't hp capped. Unless you build for s/l def, I highly doubt you were 'main' tank."
As that previous post clearly mentioned, you need inspirations to get your defense and resistance high enough while fighting Recluse to last. Depending on your base build, the type of inspirations you need will change up. For Grey Pilgrim, my Fire/Fire Tank, he has about 22% defense to melee, AOE, and Ranged, 70% resistance to Smash/Lethal, and about 50% to Energy and Dark. I purchase my inspirations accordingly so I can have about two tier 3 defense and resistance inspirations to get me to the levels you need against Recluse when the four towers are up.
Even then, a Tanker should have someone hang with them while fighting Recluse. He will hit you despite having insane levels of defense, and he may hit you enough that you need heals. When I have tanked Recluse, I have needed more than just Healing Flames, even with defense and resistance levels the number gurus of the game suggest for the STF.
I'm not talking out of my rear end with my Fiery Aura advice. I have read other people that know the numbers better than I do discuss the STF, and taken their advice. And then I saw how well it worked in game. I wouldn't advise people that Fiery Aura can main tank for all the encounters in game if I hadn't actually done it and if the numbers didn't work out.
That probably wasn't an issue for most, but it is worth bringing up here, given the contents of this thread, and since someone felt the need to neg rep and make that comment, which does not match up to how the game works. I would hate to have that person continue to have the misconceptions they clearly have about the game and Fiery Aura. -
...I think he meant in terms of a tank. I didn't see him claiming he'd outdamage a Blaster.
Fire Minded, I dunno, ice is usually lower on damage and higher on control throughout the ATs. I would think ice/ice/ice could be decent, but it wouldn't outdo something like shields/fire/pyre, either. Keep in mind that Ice Storm has a base recharge of 120 seconds, so that wouldn't be up every fight, either. -
I have GP at 2424 HP or so. That's from TF Commander and all the accolades that give you +HP, and a little bit from IO sets. I don't know if you can get Fiery Aura to the Tanker HP cap... that's what, 3100 HP or so (1300 more than base?)? You would have to focus on that bonus to exclusion of everything else to get close, and I doubt it would be worth what you are giving up, personally.
I do wish Healing Flames healing went up with your max HP... but its percentage heal is off of base health before bonuses (think Sarrate pointed that one out for me a couple months ago).
For number monitoring, I watch a lot. I have Grey's defense up to about 22% defense to melee, AOE, ranged, and psychic, so I monitor all of those, and his resist to smashing and energy (since my lethal resists are on par to the smashing ones, and energy to dark). I also monitor health as a percentage, hit bonus, etc. So I have plenty of numbers to watch. From what I recall, I was at 75% defense to all those defenses I monitor, and 80-90% resists to smash/energy (which would be the same for lethal/dark).
Not sure what I was at for toxic. Robusts are what, 33% resist to all? So probably 66% to toxic, plus whatever Healing Flames had going... I would think I had at least an application in there, as this "4 strikes of doom" episode happened after one of the towers had been engaged for a bit.
Probably doesn't matter too much at this point. I know where I need to be at for defense and resistance from what you have told me before, Sarrate, and I'll be sure to stock more Tier 3s than I had. And try for more support than a Rad's healing aura can provide, heh. -
Sarrate, I am trying to explain it as best I can from what I can remember. We had further fun after that point, because I had used up my tier 3 inspirations (I used Archmage during that period).
I think it was just the RNG hating me, because it would take a really outside chance to be hit as much as I was by Recluse. I recall 2-3 unlucky hits in a twenty second span on my other STF runs, but never a couple, followed shortly by 4 of them. I think I said earlier that I was still "stinging" from the encounter, and that was mostly because I do think the RNG just hated me during that run. Nothing else can really explain it, to my mind. I had a couple of Phenomenals to get me to the 75% range, and then a couple of Robusts to get me capped to energy as well, if I recall correctly.
As I said, I was doing just fine with Archmage up and using some defense inspirations, but of course we were down to the blue and green tower at that point (eventually just the blue). I also did better when I kept Recluse moving, so he was running more than hitting.
I did just fine the rest of the run with what we had... Mako had a nasty crit or two, but that was it. I think I'd like to run it with an Emp just because there is more cushion with heals, but also getting your defense upped. -
Quote:Wow, The Golden Howler has been out for about 5 weeks now, and he's still only three levels behind you!Originally Posted by Mental_Giant
Oh, I got another toon to 50 during this Isos run. Work has been particularly bad the last few months, which has caused some missed sessions and times when I needed to leave early (like last week).
Have fun tonight, all. Wish I could still join in. Beat up some thugs for me while I'm teaching. -
Quote:Except... you can do the things he was posting about, Lucky. My Fire/Fire is a bit of a nail biter with the +8 sized mobs at +4 (and I would probably avoid it with Malta), so I generally keep him lower, but it is possible, depending on how you have things built. Tanks are supposed to take alphas for a full 8 man team, so it's not improbable.Originally Posted by Lucky666
yep same person that can get perma hasten and AM at level 22 with just SOs lol.
I wouldn't take anything in this post serious.
Not sure what else he said to give you such a grudge, but that post was okay. -
I would agree with that assessment. That was what triggered my posts: the pessimism, and some of the comments on the powers.
If you don't mind posting your build, would you? My Fire/Fire Tank has main-tanked for pretty much all the content in CoX and been fine (think the only thing I haven't really touched with him for PvE is the Shadow Shard), so I do wonder if your issues were build related.
Do realize that the Statesman TF is going to be a challenge for any Tanker. The four patrons each present their own challenge (though Scorpion isn't really bad), and Recluse with the towers up is just... ouch. You pretty much want to be at 75% defense to all with the towers up, and capped resists. Even then, Recluse will hit you, and you will need to heal. In some regards, Fiery Aura could be in a better boat there than Stone, as its heal will be up so much more.
You just have to prepare well for it. Have a good makeup of Tier 3 inspirations to get to those defense and resist levels for good chunk of time, have a buffer to help you out with Ghost Widow's hold, and have someone help heal and buff you while you're keeping Recluse's attention.
My first STF run went great with an Empath hanging out with me. My latest run... wasn't as good. I just had a Rad healing me tiny amounts (thanks Hera, heh), and a Kin tossing me SB when they remembered to. That didn't go so well, and I had some bad luck there. We still completed fine, but we did have a fair amount of defeats in that last mission, partially from team makeup, partially from bad preparation on my part. -
Sorry I missed you, Viv. Went on one with coz and helped him get another 50, though.
*sighs*
I hate to have to admit this, but Heraclea was on a Blaster and died during an ambush in that second mission. Way to put one in to Masque's favor, Hera! *shakes fist at Heraclea*
Aggro is weird on the ambushes throughout, too. They generally ignored my Blaster unless I attacked them first: they seemed focused on everyone. -
Sarrate, part of the problem is I didn't get a good enough buffer to help me out while fighting Recluse. Heraclea was there with a Rad/Rad, but that obviously wasn't enough... rad can't do to much. I'll probably just aim for getting an Emp after this, or at least someone that can get some shields on me besides a rad... as a rad and a kin weren't enough. I think shields would help, as Healing Flames was enough while I had my Archmage power running.
I had previously used Healing Flames and it was still recharging when I got the 4 hits of doom, and I don't think I was quite at full health then. Things were probably more loosey goosey than they should have been vs. Recluse, but we weren't in a Master's run anymore at that point. If we had been in a Master's I probably would have figured out some more things to do at that point (I didn't have all tier 3 inspirations, which helps).
And ugh, I don't think I'd want to fight all 4 patrons at once... too many variables there for my liking (I'm okay with two, though). GW or Scirocco on their own offer enough of those. I'm sure I'd be okay on a dream team with some of you, but I don't usually get that when I'm on a TF. -
Quote:Worst for what? Actual tanking? It's on par with other Tanker sets in that regard, and can tank just fine. Phrasing like this is at best unclear, and at worst, misleading.Originally Posted by ComradeCommunism
1) Fiery Aura is the worst Primary for Tanks.
Again, for what? Dual Blades is capable of being quite vicious in the AOE department, and my WP/DB Tanker soloed and teamed through a variety of content and AVs. I found it to be a little slower before level picking up the last three attacks in the set, but it's on par with other Tanker sets, if not better for some things, like AOE.Quote:2) Dual Blades might be one of the worst secondaries for Tanks.
I'm honestly debating your claims with a lot of this guide, as they don't really match the numbers or actual play experience I have had: and I have had plenty with both.
This is completely off the mark. I have tanked everything in game with my Fire/Fire, and changing up for DB makes Fiery Aura tougher than it normally is by using knockdowns and debuffing mob's to hit if needed. Your AOE damage will also be quite good, due to Blazing Aura and the AOEs in Dual Blades.Quote:When you combine them, did you think you were bad before? As a tank, you are terrible. The best shot you'll ever have is playing the combo as a more generalized melee fighter.
These two are part of why Consume is a good idea. You don't have to get locked into Physical Perfection, or wait until the 40s to have your endurance "easy." You save power picks as well, and unneeded slotting of procs that boost your endurance. I'd rather slot for higher recharge or damage than endurance.Quote:Grey Pilgrim-Consume is skippable in my mind for 4 reasons. 3) If you take Energy Mastery, Physical Perfection makes it unnecessary. 4) There are multiple procs that boost endurance.
Also, Consume is excellent for those times when you are hit with end drains, and it does happen plenty for Fiery Aura.
By humorous, I meant some of your advice, because some of it is flat out the opposite of what most Tank players would advise, and I thought perhaps you were being tongue in cheek. Guess I was wrong, but I did apologize in advance in my first post, just in case.Quote:And yeah, the guide was supposed to be humorous. Unfortunately the CoX boards are well known for killing your sense of humor, mostly due to jerks.
I did get the lightheartedness in the rest, which is just fine. I went for that in my Fire/Fire guide, and it's a good thing.
New Dawn was perhaps a little too blunt, but neither of us were being jerks. We were warning you of some shortcomings in your advice, not your tone (though your tone is getting worse the more you respond... do be willing to take criticism without taking it too personally). -
I'm trying to think if this is a little bit of a joke, too (sorry to the OP if this is not the case). Consume, potentially unskippable? Most characters in this game would love to have an endurance recovery power, and do not get it!
I also have to wonder what the OP has done with the Fighting Pool to think it does not add much to a Fiery Aura Tank. Tough is a nice add on, but layering defense on top of Fiery Aura's resists is extremely useful: even if there are a fair amount of defense debuffs in game. -
Thanks, I'm glad to see people like it! I would have hated to spend all that time on it for it to not be helpful, heh.
I'm debating if I should put in a couple of notes for Scrapper variations on Fire/Fire. I think a Brute would probably benefit from the same approach I put into my Tank version (though Cremate does make Fire/Fire more ST oriented), but Scrappers may be a little different. I just started working on a Fire/Fire Scrapper, so I'll see how that goes. -
Quote:Why are you responding to Whisper with that? His point was that the Champion MMO is nothing like pen and paper game.Originally Posted by Another_Fan
Remarkable in your ability to miss the point. Generalizing from a specific is usually completely incorrect reasoning.
Example
Statesman did a poor job with City of Heroes
Statesman did a poor job with Champions online
Therefor Star Trek online is crap.
Champions the Paper N Pencil games existence and playability refutes the idea that you can't balance a freeform superhero RPG.
Now once again really slowly, To say that freeform MMOs are a "BAD IDEA", because one person with not the greatest track record for making fun MMOs couldn't do it, is just off the wall.
I have not played the pen and paper game, but from descriptions in this thread (among others) suggest that the GM needs to moderate player power choices, etc., otherwise they get overpowered. MMOs are not going to pay to have a dev or a moderator watch each of our power decisions: they have to be designed as balanced from some kind of perspective that is consistent for a game engine and a player's perspective.
Perhaps an MMO developer will be able to develop some sort of free form development to a game. But I do not see it happening here, and I don't really want to see it happening here. Our AT system is robust, customizable, and allows for a lot of alts. Changing that system would remove a primary system a lot of people like this game. -
If you're doing a run tonight (Tuesday), Viv, I should be able to join in. Depends on when you start, of course, though I'll be able to be on a little later than usual.
For the MITF, I'm not saying it's easy (I just did it), but I guess I don't see where all these variables are that you're seeing. You can take it a little slower and make sure you're not biting off more than you can chew by pulling when needed. You can eliminate the ambush in the first mission by going up the back. For the second mission, I'm sorry, but the crystals are NOT an issue. You can get out of range of their explosion and still be plenty close to the group. I'm sure the next ITF I'm on will make me eat my words and have someone die from a crystal ambush, but I have yet to see it, even on the newb team I did the ITF with for the first time when it came out.
I can see the 3rd mission getting a little dicey via lag, though you can minimize that some by staying on the bridge. 4th mission, take your time, work your way up, and clear all the surrounding mobs to the stage. If you pull Rommy off the stage, he doesn't have any ambushes that come help him, either. Rommy with his friends can still be a pain, but not that much.
It is all perspective, but the random aggro of the Thorn room, the haphazard nature of aggro'ing the patrons, and the sheer annoyance of fighting Recluse while powered by his towers makes for a lot more difficulty, to my mind. Maybe I'm still stinging from getting hit 4 times in a row when I was at resistance cap (and 75% def to all) while fighting Recluse, but I do see that as worse. But no biggie, it's all opinion.
I was just rather surprised that some found the ITF harder. -
Well, you usually run these things on Friday night, but if you try for another night, Penny, I have a very strong MA/Regen Scrapper that wouldn't mind giving the MITF a go.
-
Quote:Je Saist was talking about the Champions MMO and how that is set up, though. I wouldn't outright nix anything CO did, because it sounds like they did some things right. But a freeform system is not one that worked well there. CoX's AT system actually works quite well, and there are different specialties and roles available from the different powersets. There is no real need to be freeform, given that.Originally Posted by Another_Fan
Thats just bad logic. Champions online is based off the Champions Paper and Pencil game which had a very good very good free form system. What you are doing is the equivalent of condemning all restaurants as a bad idea because there is one guy out there who can't make the concept work.
If anyone needs a reminder of why freeform balancing is tricky, look at Kheldians. They're supposed to be generalists that can do a good job in a variety of roles, making them difficult for the developers to balance: more so than other specialized ATs, I would say. Any buffs to Dwarf form has to be thought of in terms of how it affects the Kheldian AT, but also make sure that it doesn't get better than Tankers, etc.