Grey Pilgrim
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Posts
3998 -
Joined
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Quote:Ele... this doesn't make sense. You get salvage drops from doing non-AE content (heck, you can for some AE missions as well), so what does it matter? You get stuff for playing, simple as that. No need to get annoyed at another part of the game you don't touch for that.Originally Posted by Elegost
the salvage from AE is still a crappy argument. What of those of us who don't actually enter that building? ever? Since other people do, and get salvage that way, now I'm practically forced to, or I'll otherwise have to slow-buy or high-bid all the salvage I need.
Pretty sure Ham is Godwin's Law. Not sure what that means, but it is Hammy-related, after all.Quote:Originally Posted by Kobolt_Thunder
So does this count for Godwin's law? -
That is way too much heart/love for a Victory thread. Begone!
Glad MG found it, though. I remember a friend had ones like that, and I never knew what they were from, either. -
Quote:Huh. Most times I've heard "Praetorian Guard" pronounced, it's been "preh-TOR-ean." But that doesn't sound right when you just go for "preh-TOR." *scratches head* Darn pronunciations drive me nuts sometimes. English can be goofy in that regard, especially with old or dead language additions.Originally Posted by Brillig
In theory, the correct pronunciation for the Latin is Pry-tor.
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Quote:Yes. Strength of Will hasn't been able to lower its recharge since before it went live.Originally Posted by macskull
Pretty sure that happened before I11's release (i.e. was changed during a beta before the power even made it to live).
And the Energize thing is being way discussed to death. The power was changed much more than the devs usually do for a power, because the set needed it. You can say it's a new power or was added to, but it was still changed more than powers usually are when they're tweaked. -
Quote:Nope. Devices pretty much calls for using powers before combat (Smoke Grenade, Trip Mine, Time Bomb, Gun Drone, Targeting Drone, and even Cal Trops all make more sense activated before combat), so those combos can work okay. My Archery/Devices Blaster works pretty well.Originally Posted by seebs
Hmm. So AR/devices or Archery/devices blaster would be problematic? I haven't had much for trouble with it, but I haven't levelled it far at all yet.
The main problem with Assault Rifle/Devices is that you miss out on Aim and Build-up, and it's nice to have at least one. People make it work, though. -
Quote:This week is insane enough already, why not have a silly Hamster picture to go with it?Originally Posted by Mental_Giant
You literally can't argue with that.
Bravo.
I'm not sure what is worse... that he linked to that, or that someone actually created that picture. Go, go Chewbacca on a squirrel fighting Nazis! Everyone hates Nazis! -
Quote:They do change things. HoB had that temporary defense increase added to it while using it, and I never thought they would go for something like that. Seriously. I was shocked as all heck when they did it. Decrease the animation time on something, surely, but add a temp defense buff when they don't have anything like that (and it really shouldn't need it)? Crazy! Not that I'm complaining, mind.Originally Posted by Quixotik
Yes, I know. They rarely change anything. HoB works ok if you are surrounded.
And as you noted, it's fine if you do it in the middle of a bunch of mobs. That's how most of the nova type powers work, and it works fine for that. -
I have enough characters that it doesn't matter all that much to me. If it's villainside, I have villains that can run it, and same for my heroes. Though I may put a couple in the middle for fun. It may be nice to have certain ATs on other sides of the fence, I'll admit (I'll probably run a few Corruptors since Defenders just annoy me, I'll finally give a Brute a try blueside, etc.).
Anyway, I hope it evens out fairly well no matter what you choose to do. Giving options is the best way to go with this. I'm just nervous that they may or may not go with this, even though the overall idea of Going Rogue seems to be giving us options. -
Well, I have to bow out this time around. I'll be around all through the rest of August at least, but my grandmother died on Friday, so I'll be gone this weekend for that stuff.
Good luck with the Hami run.
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Why? Supply is supply, so I'm not sure why it matters to you how people are getting it. There were idiots that were not using AE tickets to get salvage that they needed at first, but I think that has evened itself out (we don't have the supply issues for salvage anymore).
You can just see this as getting benefits for doing one thing or another. If you want a middle status, those guys can run any content in the game and get the regular merits that way. And as Ghost Falcon confirmed with another post, you can sideswitch, reaffirm your status as a "pure" villain or hero, and get these alignment merits.
The only thing I worry about I mentioned before. Having to choose these merits over one of the other many rewards in game. If that is the way it's set up, this isn't a bonus to my mind, just another added currency to keep track of, and annoying for that. -
I have an offensive build (you can see it in the guide in my sig) that is S/L defense. My defensive build has positional defense to Range/Melee/AOE/Psi. I think both are at roughly the same percentages (low 20s).
For what it's worth, I notice the defensive build doing better against some of the exotic mobs at the end of the game. I soloed better against Carnies with the defensive build, interestingly enough. Some of their nasty debuffs don't have smash/lethal, I'm thinking. Their end drain on defeat also is energy or an aoe (can't recall off the top of my head). Other mobs, the S/L does nicely. -
*sighs* I only hope that you can earn them while doing the same content as other currency, and that it doesn't replace them. If it's for certain mobs or only certain content, that's not a good feature at all (I hate it with Vanguard merits). I don't care how good the rewards are, I'm not wanting to keep track of and earn a separate currency that much.
And if it's a "choose this merit or that" option for task forces, it's a terrible idea. It makes the game more annoying to keep track of, and smacks of a timesink philosophy.
I only hope it's not that bad. *sighs* -
Quote:I'm hoping they will rethink those changes. I understand wanting people to avoid talking about religion and politics, but limiting the rest just reduces what fun we can have on the forums, thereby reducing the drive to actually use the forums. The rest makes sense, but the other hurts the community.Originally Posted by Vivace
Yay for rep being gone, don't care that tags are gone, but not real happy about the CHVC changes.
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Quote:Just to add my two cents, he wasn't saying it was a panacea, either. Just a way to keep controlling aggro even when you drop, which most Tanker sets do not have.Originally Posted by Acemace
But I don't accept your premise that RotP is some sort of panacea to successful Tanking and team management.
For the earlier comment, well, it takes quite a bit to drop Grey Pilgrim in his tanking build, and even if you do manage it once, you don't manage it twice. He's not out for the count, you just gave him a chance to really put the screws to you.
Don't get me wrong, I know why RoTP can stick in your craw. It used to do that for me, until I realized that I could (and should) look at it in another way. Just my own opinion, of course.
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Quote:That's why I said all-ranged. With a few Defenders and Controllers backing up some Blasters, you can get it done. I know all Defender teams can have an even easier time of it depending on their makeup.Originally Posted by Oliin
You know, even though I've seen people who've said they've done it I'm still somewhat dubious about the concept of all-blaster TFs. Every time I think about it I just imagine lots of faceplants.
Now, add in something like one FF or other support character and it seems more doable to me. Actually, a TF with one FF, one kin and the rest blasters sounds absurdly fun to me come to think of it.
But like I said, it's not really worth worrying about. People can do most anything in this game with any combo. I merely bring up the point to show how silly the min/max talk can get.
My point exactly. If everything is the same, why have different ATs? Same thing for different powersets. MA is technically a weaker powerset for Scrappers, but you can still do good damage solo and teaming with it. You don't have to be the most powerful set to play the game well and have fun.Quote:Originally Posted by Leo_G
And no, Stalkers shouldn't be the 'kings of melee damage'. Merely competitive. You shouldn't have to pick a stealth assassin/ninja style if you want to do great melee damage.
And as people have continually pointed out to you, the only people doing that are those like you that pretend that they need to hold out for some other imaginary level of performance they've put in their head.Quote:Originally Posted by Test_Rat
Actually I play stalkers since I can't get Ninjitsu anywhere else.
And you can stick you fingers in your ears and imagine that teams just pick up anyone and run, but in reality stalkers very often are excluded from consideration because there is no compelling reason to take one over a scrapper, brute, tank.
Tank is a meat shield, Brutes and scrapper provide more or less better DPS than a stalker while providing most of the burst.
I have seen it time and again where a SF leader recruits and passes up Maxed out stalker builds to wait for a brute or scrapper.
It does happen, and it happens often.
I don't know anyone that excludes anyone like that on Victory or Champion, and I play with a lot of people. Thank goodness for that. I lead a team most nights I play, and I never worry about what team combination I have: they all have a way of working somehow. Not sure how given some of the supposed "truths" tossed around in this thread.
But if you want to continue saying that Stalkers are weak and should not be chosen, way to keep exacerbating the problem. That's a great plan. Ugh. -
Quote:Hey, that's great to hear!Originally Posted by AnElfCalledMack
I'd read your guide - it's one of the reasons I made a Fire/Fire in the first place - but I solo a fair bit, and I've passed up Taunt to this point. That'd probably be why I'm having aggro problems, wouldn't it?
It took a lot of effort to write up, so I'm glad it's helping people out.
Anyway, you can manage aggro without taunt, but it is harder (especially against an AV). Jumping in first and attacking as many people you can is what you need to do without Taunt (though you still want to do that without Taunt, heh). Taunt does have uses solo, too, so it's nice to have even then when you can fit it into your build.
It's a matter of perspective. With Rise of the Phoenix, a Fiery Aura Tanker has to be defeated twice to be truly defeated. So really, they have to be aiming for twice with you. People are used to looking at it the other way with their other characters and tanks, so that's part of the issue. Heh.Quote:Originally Posted by Jabbrwock
Because of the implication that they can kill you even once, which is once more than you should be aiming for.
That's true. The other rez powers in the game seem kind of meh to me after what Fiery Aura can do.Quote:Originally Posted by Warkupo
I usually dislike self-rez powers because they don't do much more that an inspiration couldn't have done. Why would you take a power that plans you die? Especially when you consider that if you died, and got up, the most you could really plan to do is die again or hope you can run far enough.
Rise of the Phoenix, and sometimes Soul Transfer are the exceptions as they don't just prop you back up to die again, the entirely change the tide of battle in your favor, and just after you die is usually when you'd like that too happen. With how little debt means these days they only continue to be more attractive choices. -
Quote:Seen teams do it and also seen plenty brag about it on the forums. I see it to no end in anti-Tanker and anti-melee threads too, where people laud how their team completed this and that task force without one. It can be done and is done. Which is great, in my opinion. The game allows a lot of team combinations to work.Originally Posted by Deus_Otiosus
And melee ATs have better defenses, resistances, Hit Points, Mez Protection.
You're not really making a point here, because no one ever suggests to not take Melees onto a team on any regular basis.
And if you're still worried about it, grab one melee person to take the alpha, and let the rest be all ranged. The buffs, debuffs, control, and damage will be more than the poor saps in melee can do, anyway.
Discussing it is missing the point, anyway. You can make any combo of ATs work in the game, so pretending that any AT is somehow below an arbitrary bar some players want to throw in there is silly. Which is why threads like this always mystify me: it's from certain players perceptions, rather than the reality of the game itself.
To you, clearly. It's hilarious how you repeat posting this no matter how much people quibble the point. Go ahead and have fun playing Scrappers and Brutes (because that's fine, we should all play what we want), but don't put your head in the sand and pretend that Stalkers aren't worth playing or inviting. Then you're moving beyond your own preferences and demanding other people follow those preferences.Quote:Originally Posted by Test_Rat
I think its generally agreed that rolling a combo on a stalker, That is available on Scrappers and Brutes is not a smart move after Going-Rogue.
Additionally, single target only primaries are also bad moves.
No thanks on that. -
A crit from a Blaster attack would be pretty high damage... I could see a slight damage boost but not that. Not that I would complain about a small chance to crit, though.
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Meh, I'll be playing lowbies and high levels when GR hits: I doubt I'll be the only one. As for when to buy, you might as well just do it now. Why wait a month when you're playing the character now? Put in some reasonable bids for now and see what you can find.
You can take a risk and wait on merit rolling until GR hits, but I'd say you might as well just do it now. No need to really wait unless you're hardcore into gaming the market. -
Quote:Well, it's good that you found a build where you don't feel you need it, but I don't think we're in "Beg to differ" territory. For accuracy alone, Targeting Drone can be nice if you don't want to waste slots on a Kismet or a lot of accuracy bonuses, and it's also nice if you aren't going to invest in IOs or before you invest in them (also if you exemp below your level). All of those things are valid reasons to like Targeting Drone, even if your direct build doesn't need it.Originally Posted by Miladys_Knight
I beg to differ. Below is my Arch/Dev. He has no purples slotted. His global accuracy bonus is +66% (2 SOs worth), each of his powers has between 45%and 66% accuracy slotting from the enhancement values in the chosen set(s). The Kismet adds a 6% to hit buff. All of the above does not include the bonus to accuracy inherent in the Archery primary nor does it take into account the hit buff provided by Aim which is up roughly 1/3 of the time.
On the exceedingly rare occasions that I am hit with enough acc debuffs to drop me below 95% (even vs +4s mind you) a single small yellow insp is enough to turn the tide back in my favor. (And this is of course assuming that the 59.1% to hit buff from Aim is not available because it is not yet recharged.)
On top of that, I find the perception bonus to be nice (I like not being annoyed by Arachnos when I face them), as is the resist to to-hit debuffs. They're not huge, to be sure, but they are nice. A power doesn't have to do everything a character needs to be useful, just help in rounding out that character, which Targeting Drone can certainly do.
Now, I wouldn't be averse to improving Targeting Drone some, as Devices as a set does need some help. Since the set doesn't have a Build up, I do think adding some consistent +damage to the power makes some sense (it also fits the theme of the power... you should do more damage if something is assisting your targeting). I'm not sure what a good balance point would be with build up so TD isn't overpowered, but even adding +5% to +10% damage would be a nice boost that I would take. If more would be balanced, all the better.
Heck, you could add in a few damage bonuses to a few of the powers, like Cloaking Device and TD. That would be rather interesting, and make the set's powers more worthwhile for all to take. -
Quote:It's not too different from what I would say Energy Melee needs. If you want to have it be focused on ST damage, great. Then justify that with have it being the best at it. I would definitely agree with upping the range on the crit boost. It was a great idea for improving Stalkers to include that, so making it more easy to leverage (30 feet is not all that much when taking on just one spawn) would be a good idea.Originally Posted by docbuzzard
Yes, this is my point. The stalker has a neat trick, but the way the game works doesn't make enough use of it. Sure, ganking the sapper is handy, but you don't see that many sappers. While most factions have someone worthy of a quick gank, a mez will generally do the job just as well.
I don't think stalkers need any sort of huge boost to be fixed. I think they are quite close as is, to be honest. The big buffs a few issues back really put them back into the running pretty well. However, I still think that because they give up stuff in the way of AOEs and defense, they ought to gain something on offense.
I would suggest a couple minor tweaks:
60' range on the team crit buff.
100% build up instead of 80% build up.
I personally think that would be about enough to make it. Arguably a slightly better damage scalar might be a good idea (1.05 or 1.1 maybe).
Beyond that, you don't want to do too much since it would drastically change the feel of the AT, and I happen to like how they play now. -
Quote:Check my Four Rules for Tanking in my sig: that should help you get aggro and keep it. Though really, if another tank is around, it's fine if you're splitting the aggro. You just don't want it spreading to other people that aren't built to handle it as much.Originally Posted by AnElfCalledMack
As far as the off-tanking thing goes, I have Blazing Aura, Fiery Embrace and Build Up, but I still struggle to hold aggro on large teams, especially if there's another Tanker around. It might get better with Fireball, but I'm not all that sure. As such, I wind up off-tanking a lot, and that's where my experience with RotP has come from.
One thing I have taken up, though, is taking the alpha for tank sets without a self-heal. I can't hold up under the sustained damage, they can't always deal with the burst, but by trading off, we get a very efficient system. -
Quote:Nope, I had to let my account lapse for two weeks in there for financial reasons. *sighs* Of course, I had subscribed for 14 months with two of their other loyalty deals around that period, and I think I've had all of a 1-2 months off in the past two years. But let's not think I'm bitter about needing to be subscribed for an arbitrary three month period they set up to do this little give away thingy.Originally Posted by Mental_Giant
Soon you'll be one of us, GP... unless you didn't participate in the Loyalty Program. Then All Will Be Revealed, and we can have our discussions somewhere else.
Still think it was an asinine way to run it, but whatever. I'll see what they have to give us soon enough. -
Quote:It would be boring. You neglected to mention Tankers in your overview, but I would say that the melee ATs (including EATs) all bring something to the table and are pretty solid as a group. I rather wonder if Tankers should get something like the new Defender Vigilance for soloing, but the ATs overall are pretty good. I think it's really only powersets that need balancing at this point.Originally Posted by SBeaudway
If you gave Stalkers the same AOEs as Scrappers and Brutes wouldn't that just make the Stalker functionally better in nearly every circumstances with their guarenteed crits and higher crit percentages? I really don't see what Stalkers just can't be what they are. They solo great and team fine. If all three melee ATs were somehow balanced to be the same effectively, I think it'd just be more boring.
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*sighs* Well, all of this has already been covered in this thread. But we'll go back and forth some more, I guess.
If you really want to get down to numbers, all melee ATs are screwed. Ranged ATs have larger cones and more AOEs (along with potential buffs and debuffs to handle aggro), so who needs melee? Drop 'em.
The game doesn't work that way, though. Any combination of teams can work through the game however they please, which is great. People need to stop pretending that some gradation of performance above that content completion is needed to be "working." If you want to min/max your toon and go solo 4 AVs at once, that's great. The game allows you to do that. But you don't need to pretend that everyone else needs to be at that level of performance.
It isn't really different with this "AOE is teh uberz" line of reasoning. If ST-oriented and soloing, adjust your difficulty so your character is facing fewer targets, but make them more difficult. If your AOE-oriented the reverse makes sense.
If you're on a team, all damage is gravy. If you're clearing content at a good rate, how much above or below an arbitrary "damage to all mobs bar" you are does not matter. And that's what this all is, people imposing an arbitrary bar and saying this is how it must be.
On my toons with a lot of AOEs, I will love how I can cut through swaths of minions and lieutentants with ease, and be a little more annoyed that I don't do as much against bosses (and especially monsters, EBs, and AVs). The inverse for my ST-focused ATs.
Farming is kind of a different point. I have had more Purples drop for my ST-focused toons, ironically enough, even if the odds are supposedly better for vice versa (but only if you're soloing). And if you think the devs are going to remove some of the flavor in this game so everything does lots of AOE just for farming purposes... good luck with that one.
Stalkers are a fun AT, different from others, and can contribute to teams and solo play. They don't need any more than that: nor does any AT.